Theron Talks Aeon Flux
harlize Theron, who plays the title role in the SF movie Aeon Flux, told SCI FI Wire that she took the part—her first futuristic SF project—on the heels of her Oscar-winning performance in Monster to change things up.
"Odd is good, don't you think?" Theron said with a laugh in an interview during a break in filming on the Berlin set of Aeon Flux, which is based on the MTV animated series. Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) is directing.
"I think odd is good," Theron said. "I don't think actors, I mean, speaking for myself, I don't want to go and just keep doing the same thing, you know? I think that challenge is always good. I knew nothing really about the genre. And just in that, that was enough of a challenge for me to work with a filmmaker that I really wanted to work with and I thought was a really interesting choice for this genre. Those were all elements that were really important to me. So, you know, it's odd, but that's good, I think."
Theron, dressed in a black catsuit and with her normally blond hair dyed black in an asymmetrical bob, plays the top operative in a rebellion 400 years in the future against the scientist leaders of the walled city-state of Bregna. The film has been shooting in and around the German capital city, including the famed Babelsberg Studios. This week, SCI FI Wire visited the production on the soundstage where Fritz Lang shot his own SF movie, Metropolis.
"It's not a genre that I'm familiar with," Theron said. "So the element that really attracted me is the fact that at end of the day, it's bottom line a love story. It's a human story, and the struggles and the things that this so-called futuristic story takes place in had all the elements of human struggle that I'm really interested in, you know? I'm not interested in playing a robot. These are real people struggling with things that I think a lot of people can relate to."
Theron downplayed the effect of a neck injury she incurred in August while rehearsing a stunt for the physically demanding role of the futuristic warrior. Theron reportedly suffered a disc injury while doing a handspring, and the production shut down for several weeks while she flew back to the United States to recuperate. "I'm healed up completely, and I think in the long run, I think we all just kind of took it and used it to our advantage to come back even more prepared and really to make sure that there [were] no kinks anywhere," Theron said.
"It was a little frustrating," Theron added. "There's nothing worse than being in the middle of making a film, and then having to take six weeks off. For me, anyway, because you can't really take it off, you know? Your mind is still completely connected to it. And so that was a little hard. And then realizing that that was what I had to do. But in a way, [it was] very good, because I could utilize that time. Whereas, for three months prior to starting this film, I spent a lot of time on the physical aspect. And I really spent that six weeks really thinking about where this woman had to go in the story. So I just used it to my advantage." Aeon Flux also stars Marton Csokas.
Hanks To Crack Da Vinci Code
ony Pictures confirmed that Tom Hanks will star in the upcoming film adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code.
Hanks reteams with his Splash and Apollo 13 director Ron Howard on the adaptation, which is scripted by I, Robot screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. The Da Vinci Code is scheduled to begin shooting next summer in the United States and Europe, Sony announced.
Da Vinci Code producer John Calley said in a statement that Hanks is perfect for the role of Da Vinci's hero, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who races to solve a murder via clues hidden in the artwork
of Leonardo Da Vinci. "Tom Hanks is one of the biggest stars in the world today,"
Calley said. "He has all the intelligence, wry sophistication, Everyman charm and talent required to bring this role to life, and it's hard to imagine a more perfect fit for the character of Robert Langdon."
In his own statement, Howard said, "The potential that exists through this collaboration of material and talent is extraordinary," he said. "Having source material as rich and popular as Dan Brown's novel, a screenwriter with Akiva's talent and a star of the magnitude of Tom Hanks is an embarrassment of riches. We couldn't be more happy."
Da Vinci Casting Discussed
ohn Calley, producer of the upcoming film version of Dan Brown's best-selling The Da Vinci Code, told SCI FI Wire that he bonded easily with director Ron Howard and Howard's longtime producing partner, Brian Grazer.
"The way it works is I got a call form Ron Howard's agent asking if we would be interested in Ron directing, and of course we would,"
Calley said. "He and Brian are partners, and so we just worked it out."
Calley confirmed that Tom Hanks was in the running to play the lead character of Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist who races to solve a murder using clues hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci's art work. "That was
in Newsweek. Yeah, I think so," Calley said.
Calley added that Howard will ultimately base his casting decision on which actor is right for the role. "I think that it depends on how he's rendered," Calley said. "We don't need a big gross star, because I don't think
The Da Vinci Code has to be supported by a big actor's name. It has to be well done,
which is the critical thing. And it's my belief that if Ron thinks [Hanks] is the
one to do it, then he should do it that way. I don't think he's deliberately trying
to overcast the part just so he can get a celebrity's name on the title."
Calley Dishes Da Vinci
ohn Calley, producer of the upcoming film version of Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code, told SCI FI Wire that Akiva Goldsman successfully adapted the novel, despite its complex story.
"It's been done by Akiva Goldsman, and it's quite wonderful," Calley said in an interview. "It's very hard to describe it, but somehow he's able to compress it. All the salient stuff is there, but it's not as long."
The Da Vinci Code tells the story of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon as he races across Europe to decipher a series of clues hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci's artwork and solve a murder. Calley said that Goldsman's script stays faithful to the original book. "It's as the book is," he said. "There's not a significant difference. I mean there's not a huge amount of action: no jets crashing or anything like that."
Calley added that shooting of the film—to be directed by Ron Howard and likely to star Tom Hanks as Langdon—is scheduled to start as early as next summer. Calley said the movie will shoot in the actual locations mentioned in the book. "We're thinking June, so that means July," Calley said. "Certainly we'll shoot the exteriors [at the Louvre museum in Paris], but we might want to build the interior aspects of the Louvre, because we'll need walls to come out to be able to shoot."
Raimi Talks Spidey 2 DVD
am Raimi told SCI FI Wire that for all the extras on the Spider-Man 2 DVD he's most satisfied with the high-quality transfer.
"This is the first film that I'm aware of that went to 4K, the digital medium that holds a tremendous amount of information from the original negative," Raimi said in an interview. "So I think we're going to see a clearer film, clearer reproduction and crisper imagery than maybe the audience has had the opportunity to see before from a motion picture transfer."
Raimi, who produced and directed Spider-Man 2 and helped oversee the DVD's development, added, "You get more of the negative images, more of the color and a truer representation of the lighting, and the actual photography will be captured for the home viewer this time. I think now many films will probably be transferred in 4K. Usually they're transferred in 2K for the digital intermediate, but this is the first one in 4K. So I think if you have a high-quality transfer it should be quite a crisp and clear experience for the audience."
The filmmaker also said that he's ambivalent about the DVD phenomenon, at least so far as providing behind-the-scenes documentaries that reveal the secrets of realizing special effects. In fact, Raimi acknowledged, it wasn't easy for him to look back and provide the audio commentary heard on the DVD. "I never really want to," he said. "They always say to me at the studios, 'Well, look, there'd be a lot of people who really liked the movie who will be really disappointed when they buy the DVD if it isn't there.' So I do it. I want to please the audience, basically. So I do it. But I'm not crazy about it." The two-disc special edition Spider-Man 2 is available now.
Spidey 2, Azkaban Big On DVD
pider-Man 2 sold more than 6 million DVDs and videos combined on November 30, its first day in stores, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which cited industry sources.
That figure set no sales records, but the trade paper noted that it bodes well for holiday sales of the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment title.
Meanwhile, another sequel, Warner Home Entertainment's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was last week's top-selling DVD and VHS, and was also the country's second-best rental title, according to the VideoScan and Video Store magazine charts. Top rental honors went to a non-genre title from one of the world's most popular genre filmmakers, as Steven Spielberg's airport-bound comedy-drama The Terminal flew past the $12 million mark in its first five days.
Raimi Writing Spidey 3
am Raimi told SCI FI Wire that he and his brother Ivan are still in the earliest stages of writing Spider-Man 3.
"We've finished a 50-page document and now I'm working with my storyboard artist to work out some of the visuals," Raimi said in an interview while promoting the DVD release of Spider-Man 2. "And I'm about to start working with Alvin Sargent [who received the "Screenplay by" credit on Spider-Man 2] on the first draft of the screenplay."
Raimi noted that he's still toying around with different possibilities for a chief villain or villains to duke it out with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a.k.a. Spider-Man, in the second sequel. "I actually haven't figured it out just yet," he said. "I'm trying to determine Peter Parker's journey as a human being, what it is that he'll be learning on this next adventure, as a kid growing up, what life lessons [he'll experience]. Once I know what that is, I'm going to try to develop obstacles in his path, like any dramatic writer would do. And out of those conflicts will come the drama. Either he'll be able to overcome these conflicts or he won't. But once I know his journey, and therefore the conflicts that are in his path, I'll choose that villain that best represents those conflicts. That's the way in which I've been approaching this, and I'm still not quite there in determining the villain." Spider-Man 2 arrives Nov. 30 on DVD, while Spider-Man 3 is set for release on May 4, 2007.
Ryan Signs With Marvel
opular penciller Michael Ryan has signed an exclusive three-year deal with Marvel Comics, Marvel announced.
"I'm pretty excited," Ryan said in a statement issued by Marvel. "It's great knowing the only place I want to work wants me working only for them."
As an artist, Ryan has worked on Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Mystique and Iron Man. He's currently collaborating with Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir on New X-Men: Academy X.
Blade Star Gets Hammered
yan Reynolds, who plays vampire hunter Hannibal King in the upcoming sequel Blade: Trinity, told SCI FI Wire that he slaved to get in shape for the role, only to find himself pummeled in a fight scene by professional wrestler Triple H (Paul Michael Levesque).
"I'm 10 pounds lighter [now] than I was in the movie, but you know, we put on a little over 20 pounds for the role specifically," Reynolds said in an interview. "[Director] David [Goyer] asked me when I first met him, he said, 'Can you do that?' So I said, 'Absolutely!' So full of s--t, I had no idea if I could do that."
To achieve King's lean, muscular look, Reynolds (Van Wilder) said that he went on a strict regimen of diet and exercise, including weight-lifting. "Uh, yeah, more weights than I could ever dream of," he said. "I could hear the clink of barbells in my head still. It was intense. We'd do two hours of weight-lifting a day, then an hour of fight training, and then you'd go shoot for 15 hours. The shooting was a workout, you know? You're getting tossed around like a midget with Triple H, you know, it looked like midget-tossing. ... I thought I was big. That guy ... ."
In a climactic fight, Reynolds' King fights a vampire played by Triple H in a small room. Reynolds said it was really him being hammered, and not a stunt double. "I mean this with some humility, but we'd gotten in such shape that they couldn't find stunt men who looked like us, Jessie [co-star Jessica Biel] or I, so we just did them. And that little space is so small that ... you're going to know it's a stunt man if you get somebody else."
So what was it like being pounded on by Triple H? "I recommend it for everyone," Reynolds said, with tongue in cheek. "It's fantastic. Very character-building, for one. It's very painful, for another. These guys [pro wrestlers] don't know subtlety in the physical sense, so when he picks you up and throws you, he picks you up and throws you. And the floor was cement, because I had to slide every time he threw me, and we'd established that early on in another sequence we'd shot in there. So there was no way to put a rubber floor down, as much as we tried. We begged them to. We put one down, it just didn't look right. I'd bounce off the ground. So we'd go back to the cement floor. So it was hell. We shot it, I think, in four or five days, just that one sequence, and kept going at it. Two grown men wrestling around." Blade: Trinity, which also stars Wesley Snipes, opens Dec. 8.
Goyer Downplays Blade Strife
avid Goyer, writer and director of the upcoming sequel film Blade: Trinity, downplayed reports of on-set strife or that star Wesley Snipes was unhappy with the marketing of the movie.
Snipes reportedly wrote a letter following the film's completion saying that he was not happy with the way the movie was being advertised.
"You know, there was definitely some drama on the set, I won't deny it," Goyer said in an interview. "[But] it was similar to the drama on the other two movies, and the only difference is a little more of that leaked out."
In the third installment of the vampire franchise, Snipes reprises the role of the Daywalker who hunts bloodsuckers. This time, he shares the screen with Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds. Goyer said that Snipes liked to remain in character during the shoot. "There has always been a certain amount of drama on the movies, and, you know, ... when you direct a Blade film it's not like Fried Green Tomatoes," he said. "It's definitely a full-contact sport, and ... when you are shooting a film like that, there are a lot of personalities involved and a lot of egos involved, and definitely sometimes you go head-to-head. And the only difference in this film is that I was doing it, as opposed to [Stephen] Norrington [who directed the first Blade movie] or Guillermo [del Toro, who directed Blade II]. But at the end of the day, Wesley's always been happy with the final product." Blade: Trinity opens Dec. 8.
Biel Kicks Butt In Blade
essica Biel, who plays the vampire-hunting Abigail in the upcoming Blade: Trinity, told SCI FI Wire that she did many of her own fight scenes, including a climactic one involving several attackers.
"The fight scene ... took, I think, ... two days to shoot, because we shot it in one long master, basically," she said. "And it was 13 guys, and it was one after another after another after another. ... It worked much better for me to keep doing it in one big whole ... sequence than to chop it up, because ... you lose your momentum coming from one person to the next."
To prepare, Biel (formerly of The WB's 7th Heaven) trained heavily with stunt people. "I was also working with the best stunt people ever," she said. "I mean, they sold everything. ... If I gave kind of a crappy punch, they still sold it like I knocked them out. So it was really half our stunt people's fault that it looked so great. ... It was 14, 15 hours one day of just fighting all day long, and after the day, I was just wiped, every muscle. So I almost threw out my back. I mean, you get to a point where you're like, 'Holy crap, I don't know if I'm going to survive it.' But it was awesome. It was so much fun."
In Blade: Trinity, the third installment in the Marvel Comics-inspired franchise, Biel plays the daughter of Kris Kristofferson's Whistler character and a member of a young team of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers, who work alongside Blade (Wesley Snipes). Biel appears lean and muscular in the film. "I was in the gym six days a week, a couple of hours a day," she said. "And then [an] hour of fight training, an hour of archery, and a super-strict diet through the whole movie. ... Heavy weight lifting. For bulk. To bulk up in the beginning, and then once I got to a certain size, it was more of a maintaining [thing], and lots of cardio to lean as much as you can down. That's why I had, like, those striations, like, ripped down my muscles, because we worked to build and then maintain and then leaned it out as much as we could." Blade: Trinity opens Dec. 8.
Portman: Episode III Goes Dark
atalie Portman, who reprises the role of Padm é Amidala in the upcoming prequel Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire that the final film in George Lucas' SF saga is even darker than previous installments.
"As far as the filming, yes, it's darker," Portman said in an interview. "It was really intense. We worked really hard. Hayden [Christensen] and Ewan [McGregor] were both amazing, and Ian McDiarmid. We all worked hard, and hopefully we'll see a good movie when it comes out."
Episode III, the last of three Star Wars prequel films, chronicles the eventual transformation of Anakin Skywalker (Christensen) into Darth Vader. Portman again plays Anakin's secret wife and the mother of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia; McGregor plays his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Portman said that she felt a little sad that Episode III marks the end of her Star Wars experience. "It was a big chunk of my life," she said. "It was 10 years from the time I started to the time the next film comes out. So, as with all phase changes in life, it's both sad, because you're not going to go back and see the same people, and then exciting as to what is ahead." Episode III opens May 19, 2005.
Columbus Dives Into Sub-Mariner
hris Columbus will direct and produce a film featuring the Marvel Comics aquatic superhero Sub-Mariner for Universal Pictures, Variety reported.
Marvel Studios chairman and chief executive Avi Arad and former Universal production president-turned-producer Kevin Misher are producing, along with Columbus and his 1492 Productions, the trade paper reported. Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter movies. David Self (Road to Perdition) wrote the script and is executive producing the film.
Sub-Mariner is based on Marvel's first superhero, Prince Namor, a half-amphibian man from the kingdom of Atlantis. A troubled rebel with a fierce temper, he has both helped the human race and fought against it when humankind polluted his underwater kingdom, the trade paper reported.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Fox Eyes Darkside
ox is developing the SF series Darkside, a Lost-like thriller in the works from helmer Michael Dinner, Variety reported.
From Roundtable Entertainment and writers Brandon Beckner and Scott Sampila, Darkside will follow a group of astronauts who trace an SOS signal to the dark side of the moon and who discover a mysterious compound there, the trade paper reported.
Roundtable's Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo are executive producing with Dinner (North Shore), who's attached to helm the pilot via his Rooney McP production company, the trade paper reported.
Fox has given a script commitment to Darkside.
G-Force Takes Shape
erry Bruckheimer will produce G-Force, a live-action/computer-animated fantasy family feature film for Disney, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
G-Force, which centers on a group of intelligent animal commandos, marks the directorial debut of visual-effects supervisor Hoyt Yeatman, who has worked on a number of Bruckheimer's films, including Armageddon, the trade paper reported.
G-Force follows a group of animals who work for a government agency trying to prevent an evil billionaire from taking over the world, the trade paper reported.
Yeatman's credits as a visual-effects supervisor include Mighty Joe Young and Mission to Mars, and he won an Oscar for his work on James Cameron's The Abyss, the trade paper reported.
Chameleon Turns To Screen
riter-director Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions) will adapt the Piers Anthony fantasy novel Spell for Chameleon for Warner Brothers and director Wolfgang Petersen, Variety reported.
The film centers on a young man who lives in a country where everyone possesses magical powers, and who faces exile if he can't figure out what his own powers might be, the trade paper reported.
Spell for Chameleon is the first of Anthony's 30-book Xanth Development series.
Butler Previews Beowulf
erard Butler told SCI FI Wire that he has high hopes for his upcoming film, the medieval adventure Beowulf & Grendel.
"I think it's going to be like nothing you've ever really seen before," the Scottish actor said in an interview while promoting his latest film, The Phantom of the Opera. "This movie has probably the most un-formulaic script I've ever read, especially coming from America, and that's what grabbed me about it."
Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson and based on the epic poem Beowulf & Grendel, the film follows the saga of the Norse warrior Beowulf (Butler) as he leads the charge against Grendel (Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson), a massive and deadly troll. "From the first word, from the first description of the characters I realized that I was reading something very different," Butler said. "I had to read it twice before I really got it, but when I got it I could see just what a powerful thing this could be as a film. And I got to be so closely involved in it. I got to sit down with the director and we talked about his visions of Bergman and Kurasawa, and we talked about going widescreen on the Icelandic landscape."
Butler added, "It's this Viking story which is based on a fable, but in actual fact we've gone back and said, 'Just imagine that there was a troll,' and we're saying, 'Imagine this troll isn't really a monster, but just another form of human.' He's like a Neanderthal man, more like a primate. So, there's just really good meat on the bones. And Beowulf is a hero. It's like the original hero story, but with a twist." Beowulf & Grendel will be released in 2005.
Shaye: Maniacs Shoot Haunted
in Shaye, who co-stars with Robert Englund in the upcoming horror film 2001 Maniacs, told SCI FI Wire that the real Civil War structures used as sets were haunted.
"We were at an outdoor museum in Georgia, where they have gathered together these buildings, a schoolhouse, a courthouse and an incredible mansion that was used as the home for my character, Granny Boone, who I don't think was in the original [Herschell Gordon Lewis film Two Thousand Maniacs,]" Shaye (There's Something about Mary) said in an interview. "The setting was extraordinary, but it was infested with ghosts. I'm not kidding."
Shaye added, "Walking around there by yourself was really an experience. I can't even really tell you why. Whether you believe in that or you don't believe in that, it was loaded with ghosts, just loaded. The place was just a loaded gun there, with its history. One of the most amazing things that happened was we wanted to use the Confederate reenactors, because they do a lot of movie extra work for productions in Georgia. They were all excited to do it, but then someone sent them the script, which I don't even think they asked to see. And after they saw the script they wrote this scathing letter back to the first assistant director saying, 'This is pornographic. This is disgusting. We would have nothing to do with your project and we wish the curse of the South on you.'"
The next day, Shaye explained, the assistant director tripped down the steps of a trailer, hit his head and endured a seizure that lasted nearly 20 minutes. He was sent to the emergency room and ended up not coming back. "There was a series of stuff that started happening," Shaye said. "[Director] Tim Sullivan got stung in the neck by a hornet and was down for a day. We had an actress who passed out and had to be taken to the emergency room. I'm telling you, if you didn't believe in ghosts you do now and if you believed in ghosts you understood why you do. I was fine. And you know what was weird? Somehow I felt safe, and I don't know why. I'm Jewish and from Detroit. But I did not feel at all threatened." 2001 Maniacs is in post-production and its makers are currently seeking a distribution deal.
Warcraft Shatters Records
lizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft game broke first-day sales records in North America, making it the most successful PC game launch in history.
According to the company, the subscription-based MMORPG game, in which players assume the roles of legendary heroes, sold through to more than 240,000 customers on Nov. 23.
"We were all extremely pleased with the success of World of Warcraft on its first day of launch," Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment, said in a statement. "Once we saw the numbers for the first day, we knew that we had to immediately increase capacity to accommodate the huge numbers of players joining our game. We're glad so many people are enjoying World of Warcraft, and we are dedicated to supporting a fun and smooth game experience for everyone."
Wainwright To Direct Fog
upert Wainwright has inked a deal to direct Revolution Studios' upcoming remake of the horror film The Fog, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A Brit, Wainwright previously directed Stigmata, The Sadness of Sex and the television series Wolf Lake, among other shows and features.
John Carpenter, who directed the original version of The Fog, in which long-dead mariners rise from a watery grave to terrorize a Northern California town, will produce the remake along with Debra Hill and David Foster. Cooper Layne (The Core) will adapt the earlier film's script, which Carpenter and Hill wrote in tandem.
Saw Headed To DVD
aw, the low-budget horror film that has so far grossed $50-plus million, will be released on DVD and VHS on Feb. 15, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The trade paper added that Lions Gate Entertainment intends to back the release with a $10 million marketing push.
"The response we've received from retailers for the Saw DVD has been broad and dramatic," Lions Gate president Steve Beeks told The Hollywood Reporter. "Not only have the major DVD retailers committed to very aggressive orders for Saw, but the rental-retailers are committing to big numbers as well."
Directed by James Wan, the film starred Cary Elwes and co-screenwriter Leigh Whannell as men pitted against each other by a sadistic killer, while Danny Glover played a cop on the killer's trail. The DVD will include commentaries, a Fear Factory music video, making-of featurettes and trailers.
Spacey Considers Luthor Role
evin Spacey confirmed to SCI FI Wire reports that he's seriously considering playing Lex Luthor to Brandon Routh's Superman in director Bryan Singer's upcoming film, Superman Returns.
"They want me to do it," Spacey (K-PAX) said in an interview. "It's all a matter of scheduling."
Spacey explained that two motivating factors were driving his interest in the project. First, it would be an opportunity to reunite with Singer, who directed his Oscar-winning performance in The Usual Suspects. Second, it would be a sound business decision. "Working with Bryan Singer again, hands-down, [is the main reason]," the actor said. "And also, let's face it, I'm not someone who's done those kind of movies. But I have done big studio films, and [of] the big studio films I've done I've tried to do the interesting ones and the ones I could live with myself in the morning about. But those movies actually provide me the ability to do a movie like Beyond the Sea [the upcoming Bobby Darrin biopic that he wrote, directed and stars in] or to go to the Old Vic and [serve as the artistic director of the venerable British theater].
"There's kind of a trade-off," he continued. "You get paid more money when you do those kind of movies. I do more independent movies and I certainly produce more independent movies than big studio films. I want to be in the game, and being in the game allows me to do the other stuff that I want to do. So I'll always try to balance that. Superman is a big franchise; there's no doubt about it." Superman Returns is in preproduction now, with an eye toward a 2006 release.
Ghost Hunters Renewed
CI FI Channel announced that it has ordered 13 additional episodes of its hit series Ghost Hunters.
The announcement was made by Mark Stern, executive vice president, original programming for SCI FI.
Ghost Hunters, which premiered in October, follows the exploits of Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, plumbers by day and real-life ghostbusters by night. In the six weeks since the show's debut, Ghost Hunters has averaged a 1.2 HH rating and 1,412,000 total viewers. According to SCI FI, that represents a 33 percent increase in HH ratings and a 37 percent increase in total viewers versus the time period average in the same weeks in 2003. Ghost Hunters, which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m., will go back into production in early 2005.
EA Ships Exigo
lectronic Arts announced that it has shipped Armies of Exigo for the PC.
Armies of Exigo is a fantasy real-time strategy game that EA claims breaks the boundaries of the battlefield with campaigns simultaneously happening below the surface and above ground.
In the game, knights, beasts, elves and creatures of the night fight for survival. Surrounded at all times by lethal enemies, armies can move forward underground, burrowing to surface in order to attack. Players can participate in a three-part single-player campaign and protect the Exigo universe or go online for massive multiplayer battles of up to a dozen people, each out to conquer the underworld and surface. Armies of Exigo is rated "T" and carries a suggested retail price of $39.99.
Cassavetes Forging Iron
ick Cassavetes (The Notebook) is in talks to direct the film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Cassavetes will also polish the script originally written by David Hayter (X-Men, X2) and writing team Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Spider-Man 2, Smallville).
The comic book, which made its debut in the 1960s, revolves around billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, who fights villains with the help of a specially designed armored suit. The film version will reflect modern technological, political and societal trends, the trade paper reported.
Avi Arad, head of Marvel Studios and executive producer of the film, said that he had no reservations about hiring a director without experience on a big-budget film. "We have a good track record of getting directors that get the material," Arad said. "[Iron Man] is a huge movie, with big action and incredible technology, but without understanding and loving Tony Stark, then all the money in the world isn't going to get you where you want to go. It all starts with the emotional mix."
Godzilla Invades Hollywood
apanese film legend Godzilla was honored Nov. 29 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Associated Press reported.
Producer Shogo Tomiyama appeared on behalf of the famous giant creature at the ceremony outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where the new star is located. "I'm here representing Godzilla," Tomiyama said. "Unfortunately, he cannot speak English. We're very excited he is being honored in America."
The ceremony was organized to coincide with the premiere of the latest (and allegedly last) Godzilla feature, Godzilla: Final Wars. The film concludes a 50-year series which began in 1954 with the release of Gojira in Japan. The fire-breathing monster created by an off-shore nuclear test made his Hollywood debut two years later in a dubbed, re-edited version starring Raymond Burr.
McGee Headed For Oz
merican McGee, creator of the offbeat video game Oz, has been hired by producer Jerry Bruckheimer to write the script for the film adaptation of his game, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bruckheimer has the option for a trilogy of films based on the property, a prequel to the classic L. Frank Baum book The Wizard of Oz, the trade paper reported. "What Jerry Bruckheimer was able to do with Pirates of the Caribbean was simply brilliant," McGee said. "And since Oz is similar in tone to that film franchise, I'd like to follow that model."
The story centers on a young boy named Arthur who is called upon to save the troubled Land of Oz, a considerably darker place than the one known to fans of the book and the classic MGM film. McGee, a first-time screenwriter, is set to write the script for the first Oz film and an outline for its two sequels. He previously collaborated with writer Camden Joy on an illustrated 500-page novelization of the game. McGee's other current projects include the PC game American McGee's Scrapland, which will also be available for Xbox early next year, and the original script The Forgotten Faery Tale.
Classic Fantasy Title Ships
intendo announced that it has shipped Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls for the GameBoy Advance.
The title includes the first two role-playing games in Square Enix's popular Final Fantasy series, originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 1990s.
This is the second time the games have been repackaged and re-released. They were previously improved for the Sony PlayStation in 2003, and sold together as Final Fantasy Origins. The improvements—including enhanced graphics and sound, new environments and better save capabilities—have been incorporated into the new GameBoy Advance editions. The updated Final Fantasy II also includes a bonus adventure that follows characters into the afterlife. Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls carries a suggested retail price of $34.99.
War To Shoot In Virginia
teven Spielberg has chosen Virginia's Shenandoah Valley as an additional filming location for his Martian-invasion epic War of the Worlds, the Associated Press reported.
Jean Clark, tourism director for the Rockbridge County area, told the news service she does not know exactly when or where the movie will be shot but only that "they're shooting something," the AP reported.
The upcoming H.G. Wells adaptation starring Tom Cruise began filming Nov. 7 in New Jersey and upstate New York. It is scheduled for release on June 29, 2005.
Lemony Has Duck Cameo
scene in the upcoming fantasy film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events will feature the white duck best known as the talking mascot for AFLAC Insurance in the company's television commercials, the Associated Press reported.
The duck will be launched off a boat in the film, but will not speak. Director Brad Silberling sought out the spokes-duck for comic relief, the AP reported.
The insurer has also signed a $5 million promotional deal with Paramount Pictures, which includes tie-in advertisements that begin airing on television later this month. The film, based on the first three books in the Lemony Snicket children's series, stars Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep and Jude Law. It opens in theaters Dec. 17.
Identity Wins UPC Award
obert J. Sawyer's Identity Theft has won the 2004 Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya's award for best unpublished science-fiction novella written in Catalan, Spanish, English, or French.
This is the third time Sawyer has won the contest.
The winners were selected by a jury of Spanish science-fiction writers, critics, editors and academics. A list of additional winners follows.
Special Mention (tie)
• Siccus by Miguel Luis Hoyuelos
• Las Lunas Invisibles by Manuel Santos Varela
Honorable Mention
• El Estruendo del Silencio by Bernardo Fernandez Brigada
• Otro Camino by Sergio Gaut vel Hartman
• La Cinta de Moebius by Ignacio Sanz Valls
• La Chute du Haut Ferlin by Alain le Bussy
Best Work By UPC Community Member
• El Ocio de los Sanos by Santiago Egidi Arteaga
Honorable UPC Mention
• Los Asesinos del Cielo by Ferran Canal Bienzobas
• Dante en Inopia by J. Carlis Aguado Chao
Son Of Mask Family-Friendly
amie Kennedy, star of the upcoming fantasy sequel Son of the Mask, told SCI FI Wire that his follow-up to the 1994 Jim Carrey movie differs significantly.
"It's very different, actually," Kennedy said in an interview. "The first one was about a down-on-his-luck guy who really wants to meet a girl and ends up putting on the Mask and having the time of his life. This one is about a guy whose wife is pressuring him to have a baby, and he doesn't want to have one, and then he finds the Mask. By putting it on, he seduces her and ends up getting her pregnant."
Kennedy, who plays an aspiring cartoonist and novice father, said that the Mask's powers transfer from one generation to the next during the course of the film, creating numerous problems. "When they have a baby, it's born with the powers of the Mask," he said. "He has to not only be a dad, but be a dad to a superbaby. The baby is doing all of these things that no one believes a baby can do. So it's about a guy slowly going crazy." Kennedy said that the family dog also discovers the Mask's powers, much as a dog did in the original film. "The baby's got a thing with the dog, who discovers the Mask and puts it on," Kennedy said. "The baby and the dog have a thing, because the dog is jealous that the baby is getting more attention than it."
Kennedy added that the film is tamer than the Carrey installment. "The first one has some dark edges to it," he said. "[Son of the Mask is] more of a family movie. Anybody that has a kid will think of the thing you have when you have a new kid. This is like Three Men and a Crazy Baby." Son of the Mask opens Feb. 18, 2005.
Briefly Noted
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John Varley's Red Thunder won this year's Endeavour Award, given to an SF&F book written by a Pacific Northwest author, Locus Online reported. The winner was announced Nov. 5 at OryCon.
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An L.A. judge has ordered Passion of the Christ aficionado Zack Sinclair, 34, to stand trial for stalking director Mel Gibson, TV Guide Online reported. Sinclair, a homeless man who's currently in jail, allegedly sent Gibson "alarming, harassing and annoying" letters insisting that they pray together.
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Sony has posted new trailers (low and high) for its upcoming fantasy film Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV series, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell and opening July 8, 2005.
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The first look at artwork for the upcoming Disney live-action release The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been posted at the Dark Horizons Web site.
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Shah Rukh Khan, one of Bollywood's biggest stars, will voice the lead role of Mr. Incredible for the Hindi-language release of the Pixar-animated superhero film The Incredibles, the Reuters news service reported. It will be the first Hollywood voice-over by a major Indian star.
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The Ain't It Cool news Web site reported a rumor that Bungie Software, publishers of the popular Halo video-game series, are in talks with director Ridley Scott and Ronald Shusett to adapt the game and its recently released sequel into a feature film.
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The Dec. 5 issue of Newsweek features an interview with director Peter Jackson on the set of his upcoming remake King Kong. The article also includes concept sketches from the film.
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Screenwriter Joe Stillman (Shrek, Shrek 2) has been hired to adapt the upcoming children's book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief into a film for Fox, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The book, about a modern-day boy who discovers he's the son of the Greek god Poseidon, is due next year.
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