Dead Still Walks The Earth?
espite reports of its demise, Showtime's supernatural series Dead LIke Me may still have a little life left in it, according to a report by TV Guide Online's Michael Ausiello. MGM's television president, Hank Cohen, told Ausiello: "We are exploring every opportunity and option that we have available to us. It's a terrific show, and, contrary to what [Showtime president Robert Greenblatt] told Variety [on Dec. 21], our producers don't feel like we've even begun to explore all of the Reaper opportunities that we have."
Cohen added, "We have a very, very loyal fan base, and I'm going to do everything I can for these fans to make sure the show lives on. The irony of all this is that Dead Like Me is a metaphor for second chances, and we're hopefully going to find one."
Cohen told TV Guide that a final decision will be made within 45 days.
The Hollywood Reporter, citing anonymous sources, earlier reported that the show was being canceled after two seasons.
Potter VI Already Best-Seller
he latest installment in the Harry Potter series won't hit stores for more than six months, but it has already topped at least one bookseller's most-wanted list and is racking up thousands of advance orders, retailers told the Reuters news service.
Less than 24 hours after publishers announced a July 16 release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth volume in J.K. Rowling's series, it had shot to first place at online bookseller Amazon.co.uk's Hot 100 book list, Reuters reported.
The list, calculated from all orders placed by customers on the retailer's Internet site, put the latest chapter in the boy wizard fantasy series ahead of best-sellers such as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
Meanwhile, Jo Marino, a spokeswoman for Waterstones bookstore chain in London, said customers had started calling its stores to place orders for the book immediately after publishers announced the release date on Dec. 21, the wire service reported.
Potter VI Is Due July 16
arry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced Dec. 20 on her official Web site that she has completed the sixth Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. On Dec. 21, Rowling's publishers, Bloomsbury and Scholastic, announced that the book is set to be published on July 16, 2005, in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Half-Blood Prince picks up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as his evil foe Lord Voldemort's "power and followers are increasing day by day," Rowling's publishers told the Reuters news service.
"I know you all expected this to happen on Christmas Day, but I was sure that those of you who celebrate Christmas have better things to do on the day itself than fight your way into my study, whereas those of you who DON'T celebrate Christmas would definitely prefer not to wait until the 25th," Rowling wrote in a message posted on her Web site, the Associated Press reported.
Rowling added that she is pregnant with her third child, but still has had the time "needed to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction, and I am as happy as I have ever been with the end result. I only hope you feel it was worth the wait when you finally read it."
The new Potter book is expected to come out in 2005. The last volume, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, came out in the summer of 2003.
Kong Spoilers Revealed
he Kong is King.net Web site reported that Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong remake will feature a giant spider creature excised from the original King Kong movie in 1933. The site also reported that Andy Serkis' character, the ship's cook Lumpy, will be an early victim of the creature.
Serkis will also provide the movements for the title giant ape, performing in a motion-capture suit as he did to create Gollum in Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. The site reported that Serkis' suit will feature extended arms to give him a more "gorilla-like" appearance. Serkis will also have a microphone that goes through an audio processor to make him roar like a gorilla to give the other actors something to perform against, the site reported. King Kong is currently in production in New Zealand for a December 2005 release.
Spawn Creator Bankrupt
$15 million jury award against Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has pushed his comic-book business into bankruptcy court, the Associated Press reported. Todd McFarlane Productions Inc. of suburban Tempe, Ariz., filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on Dec. 17 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the wire service reported.
A jury in St. Louis awarded former NHL player Tony Twist $15 million after concluding that McFarlane and his company profited by using Twist's name without permission and that Twist's publicity rights were infringed, the AP reported.
McFarlane gave the name Antonio "Tony Twist" Twistelli to a New York mob boss character in his Spawn comic books in the early 1990s.
The U.S. Supreme Court in January rejected without comment an appeal by McFarlane arguing that his work was free speech, the AP reported.
Amazing Stories Goes On Hiatus
eff Berkwits, editor-in-chief of the reinvented Amazing Stories magazine, denied to SCI FI Wire Internet rumors that it has closed after starting back up in September, but admitted that the monthly magazine will take a break from publishing. "Amazing Stories has not been shut down," Berkwits said in an interview. "It is going on hiatus. The next issue that will be coming out will be number 608, which has a street date of Jan. 4. That one will be coming out as scheduled and as planned. Beyond that, things are somewhat up in the air."
Rumors are circulating on the Web that Paizo Publishing has ceased publication of Amazing Stories, which was first published in 1926 and was resurrected this year as a broad-based entertainment publication featuring a mix of fiction and reviews and previews of movies, TV, DVDs, books, comics and story-driven electronic games, as well as interviews with the creators of these stories. Paizo, which also publishes the special-interest gaming and entertainment magazines Dragon, Dungeon and Undefeated, appointed Berkwits, a journalist and SF writer, to the position of editor-in-chief at Amazing Stories in October; the upcoming January magazine is his first.
"Part of what's happened is that the magazine ... has been, ... and I don't know how else to say it, unexpectedly successful," Berkwits said. "And there have been some other opportunities that have come up that the publisher is exploring that would allow us to potentially expand and improve upon the magazine. So rather than move ahead at this point, the publisher has opted to go into what will hopefully be a very brief hiatus and move ahead from there." Berkwits said that the upcoming 82-page issue, with Jennifer Garner on the cover, would be the last for a while. Amazing Stories currently employs Berkwits and associate editor Vic Wertz as its only permanent staff, Berkwits said.
"There are ... plans for future issues sort of in the works," Berkwits said. "But we just had to take kind of a breather at this point. I would say by mid to late January, there should be a much better idea of where things are going and what is happening."
Berkwits was not aware of plans for Undefeated, a gaming magazine that is also rumored to be closing. Officials at Paizo did not return calls.
Flux Co-Star Praises Theron
arton Csokas, who co-stars with Charlize Theron in the upcoming SF movie Aeon Flux, told SCI FI Wire that the Oscar-winning actress brought a lot to the futuristic tale. "She's very precise," the New Zealand-born Csokas said in an interview during a break in filming on the movie's set in Berlin. "I think she should have been a lawyer. She ... sees things in the broad scope, and she has a wonderful access to her emotions. She can maintain a sense of trajectory or intentions while being very present within the scene. Sometimes people might lose themselves or give away technique and be weighted in one thing or another. [But] she's very much there, so you have the distinct and strong individual to work with."
In the movie, adapted from an MTV animated series, Csokas plays Trevor Goodchild, the scientist-ruler of the repressive city-state of Bregna 400 years in the future, and Theron plays Flux, the warrior leader of a rebellion. At some point, the two fight, Csokas said. "She is forcefully loving, yeah," he said, with tongue in cheek.
Csokas added that the entire cast and crew were worried when Theron injured her neck while rehearsing a stunt in August, forcing the production to shut down for several weeks. "We were all very concerned, of course, and no one was quite sure what exactly was the problem," Csokas said. "And we were very pleased to hear it was so mild. And she came back with as much vigor and vitality as she had before. ... I admire her very much. She's a very brave person." Theron reportedly made a full recovery while recuperating in the United States and returned to Germany in the fall to complete filming.
Csokas added, "I think we were all very empathetic toward Charlize's predicament, but I think a lot of people had been working very hard for a very long time, so it was a blessing in disguise. I think some of us kept working and other people had to take a holiday and replenish their drives and get back on track." Aeon Flux is currently in post-production, with an eye to a fall 2005 release.
Wiseman Up For Wolverine?
inescape Online reported a rumor that Underworld helmer Len Wiseman has been asked to direct Wolverine, a spinoff of the X-Men movies. David Benioff (Troy) has been asked to write the screenplay for the film, which will center on Hugh Jackman's character from the Marvel Comics films.
The site offered no further information on Wiseman's role, whether he was the only director approached or whether he's accepted the job. Wiseman is currently directing Underworld 2, the sequel to his 2003 vampires-vs.-werewolves movie, starring his wife, Kate Beckinsale.
The Xmenfilms.net Web site, meanwhile, reported that neither Wolverine nor a reported Magneto film will be completed before a third X-Men movie. Citing an anonymous source at 20th Century Fox, the site reported that finishing a third X-Men film is the studio's top priority. The third installment in the franchise came into question when X-Men director Bryan Singer dropped out to helm a new Superman Returns movie for Warner Brothers; Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon is rumored to be in line to write and direct the third X-Men.
The studio reportedly included Halle Berry's character, Storm, in the script for the third film, though Berry is not expected to reprise the role.
The studio is set on getting X-Men 3 out for a 2006 release, the site reported.
Enterprise Butts Klingon Heads
n upcoming episode of UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise will address the so-called Klingon issue head on: Why do original-series Klingons have smooth foreheads, while their counterparts in subsequent series and films have bumpy ones? The 15th episode of the current fourth season Enterprise, called "Affliction," is the first of two parts that will deal with the question, the official Star Trek Web site reported.
Mike Sussman wrote the episode, based on a story by executive producer Manny Coto. The second part is called "Divergence," written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. The episodes will air Feb. 18 and 25, the site reported.
In the episodes, the Enterprise heads back to Earth for the official launch of the Columbia NX-02, Starfleet's second warp ship, commanded by Erika Hernandez. Phlox is abducted by aliens and finds himself in the presence of Klingons who tell him the Empire is facing its gravest threat in centuries. Along the way, as Archer and company investigate and pursue, it's revealed that one of our main characters has a secret past, which comes into play, the site reported.
Shanks Welcomes Browder To SG-1
targate SG-1 star Michael Shanks told SCI FI Wire that he was pleased to hear that Farscape's Ben Browder would be joining the cast of the SCI FI Channel series when it kicks off its ninth season next year. "I'm a big fan of stirring the pot," Shanks said in an interview. "Not that we've become complacent, but I'm a big fan of introducing new elements."
Browder joins the cast as a new character, a seasoned lieutenant colonel who becomes the latest member of SG-1. "We've worked on the show for many years, and we've worked with the same three other actors," Shanks said, referring to co-stars Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Richard Dean Anderson. "If it's just those four people on the screen, yeah, we could have a great rapport, but when you introduce a new element you always have that inhale of breath. It's like, 'Ooh, what's this going to do?' That's what guest stars are for. You get complacent when you sit on your butt too long and you work with the same group of people. You get used to the dynamic, and you get spoiled and lazy. I think introducing a new element tests you, and it also shakes it up a little bit. And I think, without taking anything too much away, the introduction of a new person is going to up the stakes and sort of have everybody doing a tapdance to figure out where this is all going to fit."
SCI FI no doubt hopes that Browder's presence will both attract new viewers to the show and keep SG-1 fans—particularly those who've bemoaned the decreased presence of Anderson—in the fold.
But Shanks insisted that that end of the equation was not his concern. "Whether Ben brings a SF cachet to the table, ... I don't care," he said. "That's not my business to worry about whether or not he's going to bring in viewers. My job is to find out how we can work together and how it's going to be positive and what kinds of good stories we can tell. If his reputation in that regard is spot-on, that's all I care about, and it sounds like he's got a positive reputation."
The remaining new episodes of Stargate SG-1's eighth season kick off Jan. 21, 2005, in a new Friday 8 p.m. ET/PT timeslot, followed by the new episodes of Stargate Atlantis at 9 p.m. and the new original series Battlestar Galactica at 10 p.m. The ninth season of SG-1 will begin airing in the summer.
O'Neill Remains Part Of SG-1
obert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the character of Brig. Gen. Jack O'Neill will remain a part of the show in the upcoming ninth season, whether or not Richard Dean Anderson returns as a regular cast member. "His character is going to remain very much alive in the Stargate [SG-1] universe," Cooper said in an interview. "He ... is going to be integral in commanding what goes on at the SGC. As to the appearance of Richard Dean Anderson in the series, that's really still undetermined. We are very hopeful that Rick is going to agree to participate in a number of episodes, but I have no idea as to how many or when that will be resolved."
At press time, Anderson was still in talks about his status on the show.
Meanwhile, Cooper said the ninth season would introduce new villains and take the show in a new direction. "While we say new direction, ... the concept of the series is very much pulled from the mythology of SG-1, and I think fans are going to be very excited about the direction we're going. ... One of the things we're going to be exploring in season nine is the origin of the Ancients and the Gatebuilders. And it's something I know fans have been sort of very curious about, and have sort of asked to see. And that is ... one of the things we're really going to be delving into: ... Who the Ancients really are, and where they came from, and we may even get a chance to go there."
The remaining new episodes of Stargate SG-1's eighth season kick off Jan. 21, 2005, in a new Friday 8 p.m. ET/PT timeslot, followed by the new episodes of Stargate Atlantis at 9 p.m. and the new original series Battlestar Galactica at 10 p.m. The ninth season of SG-1, featuring new cast member Ben Browder, will begin airing in the summer.
Browder's SG-1 Role Revealed
obert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that new regular cast member Ben Browder (Farscape) will play a new military member of the SG-1 team. "Ben is playing a military guy, a lieutenant colonel," Cooper said in an interview. "And I can't tell you his name yet. It hasn't been legally cleared yet, so it could still change."
Browder's character, who joins the show in the upcoming ninth season, has a past history with the Stargate program, Cooper said. "The audience just hasn't met him yet," he said. "He's actually played a key role in some major events that went on ... in the Stargate universe and was in fact very instrumental in helping SG-1 succeed in one of their more important missions. And as a result of that, he was given ... his choice posting. And he ultimately chooses to join SG-1. So when he first appears on the show, SG-1 will already know who he is. And we'll see some of those scenes and how he was basically woven into the tapestry of the show through flashbacks."
Cooper said that Stargate SG-1 will embark on a new direction in the upcoming ninth season. "One of the things we've always done with Stargate ... [is] to reinvent ourselves all the time, and ... bring in new villains and anything we needed to do to keep the show fresh," he said. "And yet we still, I think, stuck to the core concept and the core team that started out at the beginning. And so fans of the show will still feel as though things are very comfortable and familiar, you know? We're still going to see Daniel Jackson and Teal'c and Carter and our new colonel going through the Stargate to alien worlds and getting into adventures. But there's going to be some big new dangers as well. We [will wrap] up a lot of storylines in season eight. And I think that, hopefully, fans are going to be very satisfied by the conclusion of season eight, and feel like we've really paid off a lot of the stories we've been building up over the last couple of years. And we're looking at season nine to start fresh with some new stories and a new take on the Stargate universe." The remaining new episodes of Stargate SG-1's eighth season kick off Jan. 21, 2005, in a new Friday 8 p.m. ET/PT timeslot, followed by the new episodes of Stargate Atlantis at 9 p.m. and the new original series Battlestar Galactica at 10 p.m. The ninth season of SG-1 will begin airing in the summer.
Shanks Gets Swarmed
targate SG-1 star Michael Shanks told SCI FI Wire that he's just wrapped production on an upcoming SCI FI original picture entitled Swarmed. "It's not a bee [movie]," Shanks said in an interview. "No, it's a wasp movie."
Shanks plays a scientist in Swarmed. "It's one of those sort of campy little throwbacks to the '60s period of SF movies," he said. "It's kind of like The Swarm, where there's this cloud of genetically altered wasps, rather than bees, that descends on this small town in Indiana."
Shanks added, "It was a fun project to do. I always go into those things and hope the people involved actually get the fact that this isn't supposed to be life and death, and that the important task is to have as much fun as possible and to maybe give a wink now and then to the audience and let them know that we know that we're not putting men on the moon in this particular two hours of television." Swarmed, which co-stars Carol Alt and Ellen Dubin, will air sometime in 2005.
Phantom Sought Young Stars
oel Schumacher, director of the movie of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, told SCI FI Wire that he credits his crew with creating the film's rich look. "My job is to hire people far more talented than I am and give them a direction," Schumacher said in an interview. "If I say, 'For the masquerade ball, let's do it all black and white and gold and silver, and then we'll put [star] Emmy [Rossum] in pink and the Phantom in red,' that's an idea. But what they do with it is all them. That's just a concept."
Phantom translates Webber's hit stage musical to the big screen, with the same story of Christine (Rossum), an ingenue in a 19th-century Parisian opera house, who finds herself caught between the love of a childhood suitor (Patrick Wilson) and a mysterious benefactor, the Phantom (Gerard Butler). Schumacher said that he wanted to make sure that the characters and story were as believable as possible in the context of the film's opulent universe.
"This is a young, tragic love story, and it has to have great sets and great music and great costumes and all of the sword fights and horses and carriages, but that's potatoes," Schumacher said. "I said to Andrew, 'I'll do the movie if Christine can be very young,' because if you do the research, the ballet girls are very young. But also I wanted her to be innocent so that her relationship with Patrick Wilson would be the awakening of romantic love for the first time, and the relationship with Gerard Butler's character, the Phantom, is [a] more dark, obsessional, awakening of sexual, destructive love. The good kind."
Schumacher added that he was less concerned with casting known actors for the lead roles than finding the right people to act and sing in the film. "I said, 'If there are famous people in this movie, that's fine, Andrew, but I don't want to be saddled with anybody,'" Schumacher said. "It wasn't who I wanted. It was how can I make this story work for you? I said, 'She must be young. The guys must be young. And if they are famous, fine. If they are unknown, fine.' And he said, 'You can have anyone you want, but they have to be able to do their own singing.' That was the deal. We shook hands, and that's how it happened." Phantom of the Opera opened in theaters Dec. 22.
Phantom Star Jumped Right In
mmy Rossum, star of the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, told SCI FI Wire that director Joel Schumacher hurried the actress through the audition process before hiring her. "He'd been casting for the six months that I'd been working on The Day After Tomorrow," Rossum said in an interview. "He sent me the script, and I kind of got this interpretation of her vision of the character. I walked into a room on a Wednesday, talked to him, and he said, 'Can you screen test on Saturday?' And I thought, 'Wow, this is happening really quickly.'"
Rossum said that Schumacher asked her to audition in full costume. "I flew to New York where the screen test was and wasn't expecting anything overly elaborate," Rossum said. "I walked in, and it was a set, and there were two hours of hair and makeup with hair extensions and a costume and a full 50-person crew with a sweeping camera and Joel in the corner yelling 'Action!' It was really quite surreal for me, and I just remember thinking, 'I'm never going to get this part, but I'll just do the best job that I can do. I'll walk out and hopefully be able to be proud of what I did. Then they sent the footage to Andrew Lloyd Webber, who agreed to see me. I sang for him, and then I got it."
Rossum plays ingenue Christine at a 19th-century Paris opera house, who is caught in a romantic triangle between the opera's patron and her own mysterious mentor, who haunts the opera's shadows. Rossum said that Schumacher gave her enormous freedom to find the character. "He very much understands that every actor has a very different method, and once we had totally agreed upon a vision for the character he basically said, 'OK, go out and find her,'" Rossum said. "[He] said that to all of us, so we really developed the characters kind of on our own. I think that's a liberty that's really fun for an actor to go out and do things for yourself to develop memories and experiences that are like the character. For me it was just kind of delving into the psyche of the character and totally understanding her and then just throwing myself down an emotional rabbit hole." The Phantom of the Opera opened in theaters Dec. 22.
Film Phantom Worth The Wait
oel Schumacher, director of the movie of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, told SCI FI Wire that he is happy he waited to make the adaptation until later in his career. "When [Andrew Lloyd Webber] first asked me to do it, which was amazing, I'd only made four movies," Schumacher said in an interview. "I'd done 18 by the time I went back to do it, so hopefully I've learned something. And also, I think we were also more removed from the success of the show than we would have been if we made it in 1990. That would have been looming over us a lot more."
In the film, the shadowy Phantom (Gerard Butler) picks a young ingenue named Christine (Emmy Rossum) to be the new star in the 19th-century Opera Populaire in Paris. Schumacher said he made several changes to the hit stage musical to smooth the transition to the screen, most notably delaying a climactic disaster.
"In the show, the chandelier [crash] ends the first act, which is in the middle of the show," Schumacher said. "I said to Andrew, if we crash the chandelier in the middle of the movie and burn down the theater, I don't know what I'll do. Are they singing in tents after that? In all fairness, it was his suggestion that maybe we needed to move the chandelier, and I thought that was a really good idea."
Schumacher also said he wanted to create a backstory for the Phantom and several of the characters, whom he considered underdeveloped in the stage version. "I also thought it was very important to tell the Phantom's backstory and everybody's backstory: How they got there, what Miranda Richardson's [Madame Giry] character's relationship is with the Phantom," he said. "You know, all of those questions that don't seem to pop up in the musical. [For] movie audiences, I think it's important to know a lot of the history of these characters and how they got there. I thought it was also important to expand Patrick Wilson's [Raoul] part, because in the show it's very minor, very peripheral. [We wanted] to make him a real person. And because Patrick's such a stunt stud, he did all his own stunts. He rides the horse bareback. He does the jumps. He did all of the sword fighting himself, and he jumps out of the second-story balcony when it's on fire. Andrew calls him the Annoyingly Perfect Patrick Wilson." Phantom of the Opera opened in theaters Dec. 22.
Fishburne Back For Matrix Online
aurence Fishburne, who played Morpheus in the Matrix trilogy of films, told SCI FI Wire that he reprises his role in The Matrix Online, Monolith and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment's upcoming massively multiplayer online game.
"I did some voice work for them," Fishburne said in an interview while promoting his latest film, the upcoming remake of Assault on Precinct 13. "It was very cool, very cool."
Fishburne said he believes that the upcoming game, which is based on Larry and Andy Wachowski's movies, keeps the Matrix phenomenon alive and thriving. "It's beyond anybody's real imaginings," he said. "I don't know that anybody can really imagine themselves being a part of something like this, that has this kind of longevity and this kind of life, that's generated this kind of interest from gamers and movie fans and academics and disciples of kung fu. This thing reaches across all kinds of lines. It's pretty amazing."
Fishburne added that his participation in The Matrix Online is more for the Wachowski brothers and the Matrix fan base than it is for himself. "I'm not a gamer," he said. "I used to play them when my children were very young." The Matrix Online, which is designed to let tens of thousands of people jack into the Matrix universe, will be released in spring 2005.
NBC Goes Deep With Fathom
BC has given the green light to the SF-tinged pilot Fathom, an action-adventure drama from writers-directors Josh and Jonas Pate, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The pilot, from NBC Universal Television, is described as being in the vein of James Cameron's The Abyss and revolves around mysterious creatures deep in the ocean, the trade paper reported.
The twin Pate brothers wrote the pilot script and are set to direct and executive produce the pilot, the trade paper reported.
The brothers started off in features with The Grave and Deceiver and most recently served as co-executive producers of Dick Wolf's short-lived ABC series L.A. Dragnet. NBC and NBC Universal Television are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Mission: Impossible III Delayed
carlett Johansson, star of J.J. Abrams' upcoming Mission: Impossible III film, told ContactMusic.com that filming has been delayed until September while the script is being rewritten. Cameras were set to start rolling on the movie in 2004, but star Tom Cruise is off shooting Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds and script alterations have pushed back the start date, the site reported.
In the meantime, Johansson is undergoing intensive weapons training. "I'm doing weapons training for it!" she told the site. "Just pulling the trigger is easy enough, but when you're loading your magazine, and you have a machine gun and a handgun and a shotgun, and you're trying to figure out how to use them all ... . I'm being trained by someone who was in the special forces, so I get to know interesting stuff, like how they train the Iraqi army." Johansson will soon be seen in the SF thriller film The Island.
SF 'Schlockmeister' Buchanan Dies
arry Buchanan, a film director who went from making inspirational films for Oral Roberts to turning out a spate of lurid B movies including Zontar, the Thing From Venus and Mars Needs Women, died on Dec. 2 in Tucson, Ariz., where he lived, The New York Times reported. He was 81.
The cause was complications of a collapsed lung, his wife, Jane, told the newspaper.
Working in Texas with budgets that often measured in the mere tens of thousands of dollars, Buchanan anticipated by many years today's flourishing independent film scene, The Times reported. His nearly 30 pictures, many of which went directly to TV, spanned genres from horror and science fiction (Curse of the Swamp Creature, 1966) to biopics (Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn, 1989) and conspiracy-theory films (The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, 1964).
In 1996 he wrote a memoir, It Came From Hunger! Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister, the newspaper reported.
In addition to his wife of 52 years, Buchanan is survived by a daughter, Dee Myshrall of Mokelumne Hill, Calif.; and three sons, Barry, of Ventura, Calif.; Jeff, of Malibu; and Randy, of North Hollywood.
Yiddish Offers Alternate History
ovelist Michael Chabon (The Wonder Boys) told Locus Magazine that he will take on alternate history in the upcoming The Yiddish Policeman's Union. The book asks what would have happened if the United States had taken in Jewish refugees during World War II and allowed them to set up their own state.
It's an idea that apparently caught the imagination of at least one other writer, Chabon told the magazine. "I'm not alone in the kinds of things I do, and sometimes that bothers me!" he said. "I was very dismayed when I was about halfway through Summerland and this book American Gods by Neil Gaiman came in the mail, with his version of this country's mythology. I put it aside. The same thing happened previously when I was writing Kavalier & Clay and was sent Tom DeHaven's Derby Dugan's Depression Follies. The idea was so similar to mine, I just had to banish it from the house!"
His new work is set in an alternate-historical timeline where there's no Israel, and in World War II the United States allowed Jewish refugees to settle in the Alaskan Territories. "So they started this Yiddish-speaking territory," Chabon said. "And Philip Roth decides he has to write a novel with an alternate-history Jewish World War II timeline!" The Yiddish Policeman's Union is due next fall.
Constantine Game In Works
ideo game publisher THQ will distribute a Constantine game in February, in conjunction with the Warner Brothers film of the same name, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The company will also ship a game based on Marvel Comics' The Punisher on Jan. 17.
The third-person-perspective Constantine game will follow the movie script, which is based on DC Comics/Vertigo's Hellblazer graphic novels, but will add new enemies and challenges exclusive to the game, the trade paper reported.
Players will step into the shoes of a virtual Keanu Reeves, who along with cast members Tilda Swinton, Gavin Rossdale and Max Baker provided their likenesses, but not voices, for the game. The Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based company will release the title in North America on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms, the trade paper reported. The film of Constantine, about a doomed supernatural detective trapped between Earth, heaven and hell, opens Feb. 11.
Blade Co-Star Arrested
lade: Trinity co-star Natasha Lyonne was arrested at her New York City home on Dec. 17 after bursting into her neighbor's apartment and terrorizing their small dog. According to media reports, the 25-year-old actress burst in at 11 p.m., yelling and tearing a mirror from the wall before grabbing and threatening the dog.
Other tenants at the building called police, who arrested Lyonne.
It's not Lyonne's first run-in with the law. In 2002, the actress was fined $729 and banned from driving for six months after pleading guilty to driving under the influence.
Sith Lords Now In Stores
LucasArts announced that Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is now available for Xbox. The sequel to 2003's Game of the Year, The Sith Lords picks up five years after the events of the original Knights of the Old Republic video game and features an all-new storyline, new characters, classes, locations and force powers, the company said.
The Sith Lords also improves the core game and technology engine with environment effects, such as rain and lightning, as well as larger, more immersive levels. There are more than 60 new feats and force powers in The Sith Lords and newly balanced weapons and items.
Johansson Takes To The Island
carlett Johansson told SCI FI Wire that she has a tough time trying to describe The Island, an SF film that's in production now with Michael Bay (Armageddon) directing."It's a science fiction film, I guess, and it's also very romantic," she said in an interview. "And it's also an action film."
Johansson (Eight Legged Freaks) added, "Ewan McGregor and I play commissioned clones living in a 'Ray Bradbury' sterile environment, and we are completely unaware of what our purpose is. We escape, and we're chased through downtown L.A. It's a huge story. There are so many different places that we go [storywise], and it's kind of crazy, because we're essentially playing these children, really. We're very wide-eyed, and it's like playing a 4-year-old child in some ways."
Johansson described The Island as a project of tremendous scope. "It is a big, big production that both DreamWorks and Warner Brothers have joined together to do," she said. "Going into it and knowing it was a Michael Bay film, that adds a whole other level of hugeness to it. ... It is a huge production. I'm terrible at telling anybody what the film is about, because it's a lot to take in, to just summarize. If I tell you the whole thing, what it's really about, it'll take me like 45 minutes. But I've never done anything like it before."
Johansson added, "With a film like this, you go into it and oftentimes you have so many questions. 'I don't understand why this is. ... How do they figure out how to clone this adult? How do we get out?' There are a lot of 'what-ifs.' ... But this script happened to be so incredibly solid. And I'm working with Ewan, who is just absolutely delicious and a wonderful, wonderful co-star. Working with Michael, I've never met a more focused director in my entire life. The man walks around with a lens in his pocket all the time. You'll be talking to him, and all of a sudden he'll be looking at you through a lens. You're like, 'What?' And he'll say, 'Move the camera here.' He's always thinking and in filmmaking mode." The Island, which also stars Michael Clarke Duncan, Sean Bean and Steve Buscemi, will be released on July 22, 2005.
Whedon To Helm Wonder?
V Guide Online confirmed a rumor that Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon is on the verge of signing on to write and direct Warner Brothers' long-gestating Wonder Woman feature film. The almost-done deal comes just two months after Whedon announced that he was getting out of the TV business to focus on making movies, beginning with the upcoming Serenity, based on his Fox TV series Firefly, the site reported.
Other rumors say that former Buffy co-stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter are among the contenders to inherit Lynda Carter's red-and-blue satin tights.
Oscar F/X Short List Named
he shortlist for the 2004 visual-effects Academy Award is down to seven films, including Spider-Man 2, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Day After Tomorrow, I, Robot, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and The Aviator, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The seven bake-off contenders were culled from an intermediary list of 18 films drawn from an initial qualifying list of 250 films, the trade paper reported.
Fifteen-minute clip reels from each of the seven films will be screened for the visual-effects award nominating committee Jan. 19. The members will then nominate three films for Oscar consideration. The finalists will be announced, along with nominations in 23 other categories, Jan. 25. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2004 will be presented on Feb. 27.
Briefly Noted
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That '70s Show star Topher Grace denied at a press conference that he's been approached to play Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen in Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman Returns movie, and added that The O.C. star Mischa Barton also denied to him rumors that she's up for the part of Lois Lane, Zap2it reported.
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Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is negotiating with Geoffrey Rush to star in a third Pirates of the Caribbean movie and added that talk of Keith Richards' playing Johnny Depp's father is premature, MTV.com reported.
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Plans are afoot to launch an animated TV series in the United States based on the long-running Latin American comic strip Condorito, or "Little Condor," Variety reported.
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Spider-Man 2 will be the first major feature film presented in Sony's new "4K" digital projection system at an invitation-only screening in Hollywood, Calif., on Jan. 13, 2005.
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Playbill On-Line reported that the hit Broadway musical Wicked, with a whopping $14 million capitalization, will recoup its entire initial investment by the end of the year.
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Blade: Trinity star Wesley Snipes sued New York City on Dec. 20, claiming that it has no jurisdiction to demand he take a DNA test as part of a paternity suit, the Associated Press reported.
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The Caucus of Television Producers, Writers and Directors will give its Diversity Award on Jan. 13 to Battlestar Galactica star Edward James Olmos for his career achievements and advocacy work on behalf of Hispanics, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Nominations have been announced for the Aurealis Awards for Australian speculative fiction published in 2004.
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Universal will release a special collector's-edition DVD of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Jan. 4, about the time members of the motion picture academy will be voting on the Oscars, Variety reported.
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Adam Busch, who played the evil geek Warren in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, will appear in at least three episodes of Fox's upcoming Point Pleasant, a supernatural drama created by former Buffy executive producer Marti Noxon, Zap2It reported.
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