Worlds Secrets Revealed
ilmmakers, including director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Cruise, revealed key details to SCI FI Wire about their upcoming SF epic movie War of the Worlds during filming on location in the Los Angeles suburb of Piru, Calif., on Feb. 10. Among the secrets revealed about the film, which is based on H.G. Wells' classic martian-invasion novel:
•The aliens are not martians.
•The aliens will appear in the massive mechanical tripods described in Wells' book, and not the boomerang-shaped flying saucers from George Pal's 1953 movie of the same name. The tripods will be largely computer-generated.
•Tom Cruise's character, Ray, is a dockworker and father, not a scientist or military leader, as in previous incarnations of Wells' story.
•Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, stars of Pal's movie, will have cameo appearances.
•Spielberg's film will hew closely to themes and events in Wells' novel, featuring such elements as the red weed and the black smoke, as well as a cellar sequence right out of the book.
SCI FI Wire was part of a group of outlets given an unprecedented glimpse at a Spielberg film in production. The tiny town of Piru, nestled in the green hills north of Los Angeles, was transformed into a rainy Hudson Valley, N.Y., town for three days, populated by 700 extras playing refugees fleeing the alien menace. Cruise, with Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin playing his children, attempts to drive a blue Plymouth van—the same vehicle they are seen commandeering in their Super Bowl TV spot and one of the few remaining operating cars—through a crowd of refugees, who begin to bang on the car and yell, threatening to pull the family out.
Speaking to reporters during a break in filming, Spielberg said that the movie holds special resonance in these unsettled times. "I gave the benevolent aliens a couple of shots [in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.]," Spielberg said. "And now I'm going to try my hand at the worst kind [laughs]: ... the kind that's just bent on ending civilization as we know it and beginning their own. If you read the original book, you know they terraform the planet. They reap and sow. ... And I think in the shadow of 9/11, there is a little relevance with how we are all so unsettled in our feelings about ... our collective futures. And that's why I think, when I reconsidered War of the Worlds, post-9/11, it began to make more sense to me, that it could be ... a tremendous emotional story, as well as a very entertaining one, and have some kind of current relevance."
For his part, Cruise said that he was eager to work with Spielberg after their first experience on Minority Report. "For me, The War of the Worlds was always a book that I really enjoyed," he said. "And I felt that the story could be relevant. ... All the elements are exciting. you know? [And,] obviously, [the chance] to work with my friend again. ... I'm playing a father, ... things that are very important to me in my life. It's the biggest, smallest movie that we've made." War of the Worlds is currently in production and will open June 29.
War Set Is Now On View
riginal movie sets from Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated War of the Worlds movie are now on view to visitors to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park as part of the park's Studio Tour, the park announced. The Studio Tour tram ride will traverse a key scene from War of the Worlds, based on H.G. Wells' martian-invasion story, depicting a small town devastated by an elaborately choreographed 747 jetliner crash. The town's facade is dramatically surrounded by wreckage and debris resulting from the martian attack, the company said.
Spielberg's War of the Worlds, which stars Tom Cruise, is a contemporary retelling of Wells' classic SF book. The film opens nationwide on June 29. The Universal Studios Hollywood theme park is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Fox Pushes Four To 8th
wentieth Century Fox has pushed back the release of Fantastic Four a week to July 8 to avoid a head-to-head clash with Paramount/DreamWorks' The War of the Worlds on the July 4 weekend, Variety reported. Steven Spielberg's movie version of the H.G. Wells classic SF novel, starring Tom Cruise, will still premiere on June 29, giving it a six-day opening run through Independence Day on the following Monday, the trade paper reported.
The new date pits Fantastic Four, based on the Marvel Comics series, against Sony's Bewitched and Universal's Skeleton Key. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Cruise Ices Iron Man
om Cruise told SCI FI Wire that he has pulled out of a proposed Iron Man movie. "It's not happening. Not with me," Cruise told reporters during a break in filming on the set of his current movie, War of the Worlds, in Piru, Calif. "They ... came to me at a certain point, and you know, when I do something, I want to do it right. And, you know, if I commit to something, it has to be done in a way that I know it's going to be something special. And that ... as it was lining up, it just didn't feel to me like it was going to work."
Cruise had been attached to the on-again, off-again film adaptation of the Marvel Comics series. But he said that he's no longer involved. "I need to be able to make decisions and make the film as great as it can be, and it just didn't go down that road that way," he said. He added: "I've never just made a movie to make a movie. I've always made them because I really was interested in the story. I wanted to make that kind of picture and see what it would take, and it was an adventure for me. For that, it just wasn't panning out. So far. You know, as of yet."
Spielberg Eyes Indy IV Soon
teven Spielberg told SCI FI Wire that he still hopes to direct a fourth Indiana Jones movie in as soon as a year and a half—"maybe less"—and the director's longtime producer, Kathleen Kennedy, confirmed that Jeff Nathanson, who wrote the script for Spielberg's The Terminal, was the latest writer enlisted to write the long-delayed sequel. Speaking to reporters on the set of his current War of the Worlds in Piru, Calif., Spielberg said: "Sometimes, you are really intent on making a picture, like I was with Indy IV, ... in which case my producer [George Lucas] didn't like the script [by Frank Darabont] as much as I did, but ... my intention was to make Indy IV a year and a half ago, and it didn't work out. I'm hoping to make it a year and half from now. Maybe less."
In a separate interview, Kennedy, who is also producing War of the Worlds, added that Nathanson was currently writing a new script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie and was starting from scratch. "We're going to see a script in about a month," she added.
Penn Confirmed In Superman
onfirming a report on an Indian Web site, The Hollywood Reporter said that Kal Penn has joined the cast of Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman movie for Warner Brothers Pictures. Penn (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) will play Lex Luthor's right-hand man, a genius henchman named Stanford. Kevin Spacey is playing Luthor.
Penn joins a cast that includes Brandon Routh as Superman, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Hugh Laurie as Perry White, James Marsden as Richard White and Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen.
Enterprise Fans Buy L.A. Ad
ans of UPN's canceled Star Trek Enterprise announced that they will be purchasing a full-page advertisement in the Los Angeles Times to urge someone to pick up the show for a fifth season. The Enterprisefans.com Web site said that it had changed its original plan to buy a USA Today ad when contacted by a fan who works for the Times, who offered to arrange a special deal for one of the ads, which normally costs $35,000.
The ad will appear in the Feb. 21 edition of the paper in the "A" section, the site reported. The site has been raising funds to place a newspaper ad and added that any additional money will go toward relief for victims of the South Asia tsunami.
Rossdale Tuned Up For Constantine
avin Rossdale, former lead singer of the rock band Bush and co-star of the upcoming supernatural comic-book adaptation Constantine, told SCI FI Wire that he owes his first major film role to director Francis Lawrence, who cast him despite his lack of previous acting experience. "This was a leap of faith for Francis," Rossdale said in an interview. "I do figure that I was the least experienced person in any department on the entire set, in the entire film."
In the film, Rossdale plays Balthazar, the demonic emissary of Satan and the nemesis of the title character, played by Keanu Reeves. Rossdale said that he worked closely with Lawrence, as well as with executive producer Akiva Goldsman and screenwriter Kevin Brodbin, to make his character as charming as he is evil. "It was delicious, and it was sort of playful," he said. "When you're that evil, you don't need to be sinister, because you're that evil. Sinister is the people with pretense. ... It's about being suave. I'm trying to sell you something that you never should get. You should never buy it. And you're not going to do it if I'm just too laid-back and too casual. It has to be that confidence. I mean, maybe the devil is the most confident entity there is."
Rossdale, who is married to fellow musician-turned-actor Gwen Stefani, said that he enjoys taking unpredictable turns in his career and plans to continue making music while he pursues acting. "There's something about being surprising and moving across fields," he said. "I mean, people seem to be surprised that, [for] the first part, that I would even get in a film like this. And then, if I can fulfill the potential to some degree of Balthazar, that's also surprising. So I just like being challenged. I'm still challenged by music. I don't find any of it easy, per se. I find it challenging. And I'm quite aware of the scope. There's no ceiling for me. I know I can get better in everything. And I'm just turned on by the idea of being involved in something that's so aesthetically challenging and pleasing at the end of the day." Constantine opens Feb. 18.
Despereaux Writers Hired
riters Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi have been brought on board to pen the feature adaptation of the fantasy children's book The Tale of Despereaux for Universal Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sylvain Chomet is directing, while Gary Ross is producing through his Larger Than Life Productions, with partner Allison Thomas.
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread, by Kate DiCamillo, spent 38 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and has sold more than 1 million copies. It won the 2004 Newbery Medal for children's literature, the trade paper reported. Universal Pictures is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Housewives Wins SAG Awards
BC's hit series Desperate Housewives won Screen Actors Guild awards for its cast and for star Teri Hatcher in ceremonies Feb. 5 in Los Angeles, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hatcher won the award for comedy actress, and the cast won the award for ensemble comedy, awards that come on the heels of wins for the show and Hatcher at last month's Golden Globe Awards, the trade paper reported.
Jennifer Garner, star of ABC's hit Alias, won the award for drama actress.
NBC Green-Lights Daniel
BC has given a formal green light to its drama pilot Book of Daniel, with Aidan Quinn in the lead role, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Quinn will play an unconventional priest who is addicted to prescription drugs and converses with a modern-looking Jesus, the trade paper reported.
Sony Pictures TV has come aboard as a co-production partner with NBC Universal TV Studio on the pilot, which previously had been given a cast-contingent order, the trade paper reported. NBC and NBC Universal TV Studio are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
The WB, meanwhile, has ordered a one-hour mermaid pilot from Charmed show runner Brad Kern and veteran producer Aaron Spelling, the trade paper reported. The untitled mermaid drama, from Spelling TV, centers on a mermaid who tries life on land in Miami. The project's writer, Kern, is executive producing with Spelling and E. Duke Vincent, the trade paper reported.
Mendes Rides With Ghost
va Mendes will appear opposite Nicolas Cage in the upcoming Ghost Rider, a film adaptation of the Marvel comic book of the same name, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cage will play the title character, a former motorcycle stuntman who agrees to let his body become host to a vengeful spirit, becoming a bike-riding demon in the process, the trade paper reported.
Mendes will play his love interest. Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil) is directing. Shane Salerno wrote the original draft of the Columbia project.
Time Surprises Author
udrey Niffenegger, the lone American SF author nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that it still amazes her to have strangers come up to her and discuss Henry and Clare, the two main characters from her nominated best-seller The Time Traveler's Wife. She said in an interview that she expected "librarians and aging punks like myself" to be the only ones who would read and appreciate the book. Instead, "I am always slightly surprised when people I don't know talk about Henry and Clare. It still feels as though they have read my mind. Then I remember, 'Oh, yeah, the book got published.' The magnitude of the thing is hard to take in. I keep expecting it to subside, but it seems to just swell."
In The Time Travler's Wife, Niffenegger's first book, Henry is a librarian given to occasional uncontrollable bounces through time. Clare is an art student, and the two deal with Henry's condition. The story is part science fiction, part character study, part love story. Niffenegger said that she considers the couple to be like friends she doesn't see much anymore, especially considering that she is working on a new novel and is focusing on those characters.
Niffenegger grew up in Evanston, Ill., and actively read Clarke, who she said was just about the only SF author she was required to read. "When I was in high school, I used to belong to the Science Fiction Club, which was mainly for people who were too odd to belong to any of the more standard clubs," she said. "We thought Arthur C. Clarke was excellent."
The Clarke Award is annually given to the best SF novel published in Great Britain during the previous year. The winner will be announced in London on May 11. Winners receive an inscribed plaque in the form of a bookend and £2,005 ($3,800).
New Dead Aims Higher
am Raimi, who will oversee a remake of his first Evil Dead movie, told SCI FI Wire that he wants to reach an audience the first version never found. "We made the first Evil Dead, like, 25 years ago, and we feel like it's so long ago that it's time to bring it to a new crowd," Raimi said in an interview. "If we can find the right director with a great vision, we know that the script can be improved, and we know that the characters can be improved. The dialogue, the directing, can be improved."
Raimi said that he wants the proposed remake to enjoy the distribution and promotion his original never received. "Very few people saw the movie on the big screen," Raimi said. "So we'd love to see Evil Dead on the big screen. We only made about 200 prints, and it didn't even hit all the cities. It just played in some cities, so it's never really had a big theatrical experience."
The cult favorite Evil Dead movies were Raimi's first big breaks and the ones that put him on Hollywood's radar. But Raimi said that he wants to hand a new filmmaker the reins this time around and let him or her rework the material. "I wouldn't really want to put my paws all over it," Raimi said. "I'd want a new, young, hungry director who had a really dramatic vision to make a brand new picture of it. We think it's a fun, scary campfire story, and if we find the right director and the right script, and he had the right take on it, we think it would be a great picture to produce."
Raimi Mulls Evil Dead 4
am Raimi, writer and director of the Evil Dead films, told SCI FI Wire that he eventually wants to helm a fourth movie in the franchise if one comes to pass. "I would want to direct Evil Dead 4 if we get around to making Evil Dead 4," Raimi said in an interview. "That particular one I want to tell. It's not that I don't want someone else to tell it, but it's a story that I wrote, and I'm halfway into it, and I feel like ... I'd rather finish it."
The Evil Dead films center on Ash (Bruce Campbell), a dim-witted city slicker who finds himself enmeshed in a battle with demonic creatures. The first low-budget Evil Dead became a cult hit in 1981 and put Raimi on the Hollywood radar, long before he gained widespread fame for his hits, including the Spider-Man films.
It's clear Raimi still has a warm spot in his heart for the Evil Dead movies. He said that he would like as many people from the first films as possible to return for the fourth installment. "Definitely [producer] Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell and myself," Raimi said. "I'd love [makeup artist] Tom Sullivan to be involved. It would be crazy to make that without him. I'd love to get as many of them that would be in it as possible."
Raimi is also producing a big-budget remake of the original film, for which he is seeking a new director. But he said he's not worried the remake will harm the prospects of making another sequel. "I think a new director could bring things to them that I couldn't, and I think that [I] would be really excited to see that happen," Raimi said. "I don't feel pictures, even if they are remakes, [are] ever going to take away from the original. The original of any movie is what it is, and if the remake is good, it's good, too. So I don't feel protective in that way about the movies that I've made, just the stories that I'm involved with and want to finish telling."
Still, Raimi said he doesn't know when he will return to the Evil Dead series as a director. "I'd like to one day," he said. "I can't promise that I will, but that is something I'd really like to do, and I'd like to pursue that. My brother [Ivan Raimi, a physician and Sam's frequent behind-the-scenes collaborator] and I have written down some ideas, but I think that's what we'll do. When the time comes, when we're done with the Spider-Man films, we'll sit down and write the script."
Stars Join SG-1, Atlantis
CI FI Channel announced that Beau Bridges, Lou Gossett Jr. and The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi will join the casts of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis as the two shows gear up production for their new seasons.
Bridges will join SG-1 as Gen. Hank Landry, the new head of Stargate Command, when Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) is promoted to oversee Homeworld Security. Bridges will have a regular role on SG-1 and will also appear in a few episodes of Atlantis.
Oscar winner Gossett joins the cast of SG-1 in a recurring role as a Jaffa leader who vies with Teal'c (Christopher Judge) for political control of the new Jaffa nation.
Pileggi, best known to SF fans for his recurring X-Files role as assistant FBI director Walter Skinner, takes on a recurring role in Atlantis as a hard-nosed colonel who butts heads with Dr. Weir (Torri Higginson) and Maj. Sheppard (Joe Flanigan).
Production on both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis is set to begin in March for summer premieres on SCI FI.
Lost Fans To Party For Charity
ans of the hit ABC series Lost are hosting "Destination: L.A.," a charity fund-raiser to celebrate the show and honor co-creator and executive producer J.J. Abrams in Hollywood, Calif., part of a weekend of activities taking place April 15-17. Tickets are now available.
The three-day event will take place at the Renaissance Hotel and will culminate in a fund-raiser on April 16 that will benefit Abrams' favorite charity, the Children's Defense Fund of California. Cast and crew of the series have been invited to attend the charity event.
The fund-rasier will feature a silent auction of items donated and signed by members of the Lost cast and crew. "Destination: L.A." is being co-produced by E.M.A. and FanGeek.
Fans Please Coyote Author
anadian author Minister Faust, whose SF novel The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad is nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book has been received more favorably than the author imagined. "While 95 percent of the reviews have been extremely positive, I'm more touched by letters from readers, which consistently discuss not the book's humor, but the book's exploration of relationships, especially of friendship," Faust said in an interview.
Faust's book follows Hamza and Yehat, the Coyote Kings of the title, on an adventure with Sherem, a mysterious woman Hamza has fallen for, to recover a mysterious relic that affects the future of all living things.
Faust says the novel's title is influenced by Dick himself. "I love lengthy, bizarre titles, [and] Philip K. Dick is my favorite SF writer," he said. "I first learned his name when I was 12, reading an article about the making of Blade Runner. The article exposed me to some of the major issues of Dick's lifelong investigation: ecological decay, truth versus the lie and empathy versus sociopathy. I later read 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' and was deeply impressed by a book far more complex and far more intelligent than the visually and musically spectacular but shallow film."
Faust, whose real name is Malcolm Azania, courted controversy in the 1990s when he posted an entry on Usenet in the 1990s that said, in part, Jewish people were part of white privilege, which Faust called "Whitesupremacy," which is close to the racist "white supremacy." (Faust is black.) According to Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, this post was referenced on Canadian newspaper columnist Colby Cosh's blog on June 7, starting a debate about Faust's possible anti-Semitism. Faust apologized on his Web site, and the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith accepted. But media coverage continued for several days.
Dick Award administrator Gordon Van Gelder told SCI FI Wire that Faust's past had no bearing on the Dick judges. "The nomination of The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust was based on the fact that this year's judges thought it was one of the best science fiction novels published originally in paperback format in the U.S. last year. Period," Van Gelder said.
The Dick award, named for the prolific SF author, is presented annually to distinguished science fiction published originally in paperback in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. First prize and any special citations will be announced on March 25 at Norwescon 28 in Seattle.
Zelazny's First In Print Again
books, Inc., is reissuing Roger Zelazny's first novel, This Immortal, 38 years after it was first published, ibooks president Byron Preiss told SCI FI Wire. The company scooped up the rights when they became available and has issued most of the Zelazny catalogue in trade paperback and mass market. "I prefer to let Roger's work speak for itself," Preiss said in an interview. "His sales and appeal have endured long after his regrettably early passing."
Zelazny died June 14, 1995, of kidney failure associated with cancer at the age of 58. Preiss said an agreement with Zelazny's longtime agent, Kirby McCauley, also helped ibooks publish This Immortal. Originally released by Ace in 1966, This Immortal follows Conrad Nomikos as he escorts Cort Mishtigo of the Vegans, an alien race that has conquered Earth, around the ancient ruins of the planet. Zelazny attempted to comment on how to care for the Earth and who should handle the responsibility.
This Immortal first appeared in 1965 as a 50,000-word piece in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction entitled "... And Call Me Conrad." The next year, it won Zelazny the first of his six Hugo awards, tying with Frank Herbert's Dune. For the novelization, Zelazny expanded the work by 8,000 words. In 1976, This Immortal won a Seiun Award for best novel translated into Japanese. Rich Horton, in his review of the book for The Sci Fi Site, wrote "It's good to have this book in print again."
Zelazny is probably best known for the Amber world he created in 10 books between 1970 and 1991. According to Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, Amber is one of two true worlds, along with the Courts of Chaos. All other worlds, including the Earth, are "shadows" of the tension between Amber and the Courts of Chaos.
Putting The Man In Boogeyman
tephen Kay, director of this weekend's hit film Boogeyman, told SCI FI Wire that he looked at the supernatural horror film more as a character study. "This is the first horror movie I've ever directed, so I look at this going, 'It's a character movie,'" Kay said in an interview. "I think there are guys who can do the other stuff, guys who are brilliant at it. I'm a fan of the form and began to be a little bit of a student of the form, but there are guys who know how to do this, and they are not me."
In Boogeyman, Barry Watson plays a young man returning home to face a dark force from his past. Kay said that certain scenes provided opportunities for conventional scares, but that he preferred the scenes that explored the characters' inner life. "Every now and then Mom's lying in the coffin," he said. "It's not scripted that her hand comes out, but I'm going, 'Oh, come on, we've got to do it.' Those moments, we'll go cheap and just make the jump, but for the most part, 99 percent of the time, I'm going, 'What's Tim's relationship to the world that Tim is in?' So I was just going, 'Let's make it a character piece and try to build some jumps into it.'"
Kay added that he helped design the ending of the movie to combine the character-study and creature-feature elements. "When I came on to the movie, there was always this sort of [feeling] that when we get to 'this' point, we didn't know what happened at the end," Kay said. referring to a key point late in the movie. "So that was the constant discussion. And for me what was interesting is if it's a movie about a guy who was sort of paralyzed by fear. To me, the fun of making the movie was that you should be looking going, 'This dude might be crazy.' So you had to hold back on that, and for me it became the boogeyman basically taking him through his 'greatest hits.' Going, 'Are you scared yet? Because you're next.' That was the cool thing for me." Boogeyman was the number-one film at the box office this past weekend and is now playing.
Fuller Turns Screw-On Head
ryan Fuller told SCI FI Wire that after some fits and starts he's moving ahead with his upcoming animated alternative series Amazing Screw-On Head, based on the Mike Mignola comic book, which is set to air on SCI FI Channel next year. "The Mignola comic book is brilliant absurdism," Fuller said in an interview. "We took [the] concept of the comic book—which is a robot head that screws into a variety of robot bodies and fights crime with President Lincoln in the late 1800s—and decided to tell the 'real' story of the history that we read in books, like what would be between the pages of the history books."
Fuller, who discussed Amazing Screw-On Head while promoting the DVD release of his acclaimed but short-lived Fox TV series Wonderfalls, added: "That gives you the opportunity to tell these outlandish stories that are grounded in historical fact. For instance, President Harrison died of pneumonia after 30 days in office. But you discover it wasn't pneumonia, and it wasn't fluid in his lungs, but some sort of agent that he was using to get everlasting life because he wanted to be the president of the United States forever. But what it did was turn him into a frog-man, and now he lives at the bottom of the Mississippi, and he's about to launch an attack on the Capitol. So it's those kinds of stories. We also tell the real story behind the Homestead Act, what motivated the Homestead Act. So each episode is about taking a piece of history and telling a crazy story that happened behind it."
PC Sith Lords Ships
ucasArts announced that Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords for the PC arrived in stores on Feb. 10, the GameSpot Web site reported. The game was previously released on the Xbox on Dec. 6. The Sith Lords is a sequel developed by Obsidian, the studio behind Neverwinter Nights 2, the site reported.
The Sith Lords takes place five years after the original title and focuses on one fledgling Jedi's choice between the light and the dark sides of the Force. Players' characters awake with no knowledge of their past. The PC version features more enhanced graphics than the Xbox version.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.
Doom 3 Goes Back To Start
ed Willits, lead designer for Activision's highly anticipated Doom 3 video game for the Xbox, told SCI FI Wire that much of the sequel's horrifying war on Mars will be new, but will also feel familiar to those who cut their game teeth on the first two Doom installments in the early 1990s. Doom 3 hits the streets in April.
"The storyline for Doom 3 is basically a retelling of Doom 1," Willits said in an interview. "The marine is assigned to the security detatchment of the UAC [Union Aerospace Corp.] working on Mars. There's the good guys and the bad guys. But we've evolved the story from that '93 version. We've added ancient civilizations and bizarre architecture. In this one you go to hell. There is much more twists, turns and atmosphere than in the original PC version of the game."
Willits added that that the goal with Doom 3 was to make it as similar to the PC experience as possible. To that end, the video card on the Xbox supports all the features of Doom 3. The processor, which was admittedly slow in its heyday, has been readjusted for much faster gameplay. One subtle difference between the Xbox and PC formats is that, with 64 elements of megamemory, the Xbox has less bite than the PC, but the gameplay length will actually remain the same.
The big difference in the current model is the inclusion of a "co-op mode," literally, the director's cut of the game, Willits said. It "condenses the game down to the highlights that work the best," he said. The co-op mode will work over Xbox Live and System Link and will take in such alternative adventures as Free For All, Team Death Match and Last Man Standing. Doom 3 also features widescreen support and Dolby digital sound for a movie-theater-like experience. A Doom 3 special edition will also contain Doom 1 and Doom 2 so that players can jump back in time to do battle.
It has been nearly 10 years since the release of Doom 2. Willits explained the delay by saying, "We all saw the potential for the new technology to really create a creepy, scary world that could bring to light the potential of what the Doom games could really be."
Commentaries Lift The Mask
awrence Guterman, director of the upcoming fantasy sequel film Son of the Mask, starring Jamie Kennedy, admitted to SCI FI Wire that he needed some help with the commentary for the eventual DVD version of the film.
"Originally the commentary was just going to be me, but I felt like it would be too dry, so I got Jamie involved, and Lance Khazei, the writer," Guterman said in an interview. "It's actually pretty animated and fun and it's pretty informative, and Jamie's very funny on it."
In the sequel to 1994's The Mask, Kennedy plays a struggling animator who gets his wife pregnant while wearing the supernatural mask. Kennedy said in a separate interview that he enjoyed adding his own opinion to the DVD.
"Commentaries to me—the best is if they're honest and entertaining—so I only do behind-the-scenes stories of what was going on in that moment: Who's doing what, who's fighting with who," Kennedy said. "That's what I think people like. And then Larry would like, he would just talk about, 'Well, in this shot I used a split-diopta,' and the whole time I'm just making fun of him going, 'Who cares about that, Larry? Let's talk about what the craft service lady was doing.' The whole DVD is us arguing."
The proposed DVD will include two featurettes: one on special effects and the other on the trials and tribulations of working with dogs and babies. "There's a documentary there," Kennedy said. "You think Lost in La Mancha was good? You should see behind-the-scenes of this movie."
Many of the scenes Guterman had to cut out of the film for length found a new home on the DVD. "There’s a great interaction between Jamie Kennedy and Kal Penn—Jorge, his buddy—when they're sitting at the cafeteria table. It's really funny. Sort of an improv thing that they came up with, back-and-forth comedy banter that's very funny,” Guterman said.
Added Kennedy: "We do this whole thing where he's crazy and talks about Jack and Jill, and he goes, 'What did Jack and Jill do, what did they do? They went up a hill.' And another thing, I played a character, a Jamaican lady, that's 400 pounds, and Alan [Cumming] comes to get stuff. ... That was all cut out." Son of the Mask opens in theaters Feb. 18.
Paramount Digs Into Treasure
aramount has bought the movie rights to A Treasure's Trove, Michael Stadther's best-selling children's book that has caused a sensation over the clues in the book that lead to a dozen gold tokens hidden in public places in the U.S., redeemable for jewels worth a total of $1 million, Variety reported. Tom Cruise's Cruise/Wagner production company will develop the film.
Stadther self-published Trove in November and hid the tokens himself. (No one has yet found a token.) Stadther's book, whose full title is A Treasure's Trove: A Fairy Tale About Real Treasure for Parents and Children of All Ages, revolves around 12 forest creatures who employ a woodcarver, his half-elf wife and their winged pet to save their friends who disappear after being crystallized by falling dust, the trade paper reported.
Nearly all of the 140,000 copies of the first two printings of Trove and its companion, 100 Puzzles, Clues, Maps, Tantalizing Tales and Stories of Real Treasure, have been sold. A third printing of 250,000 copies will hit stores on Feb. 21, the trade paper reported.
Weaver Voices N'Ever After
igourney Weaver told SCI FI Wire that she was excited to voice a different kind of character in the upcoming animated feature Happily N'Ever After, a comedy-fantasy inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. "I did that a long time ago," the star of the Alien film series and The Village said in an interview while promoting her latest film, the independent drama Imaginary Heroes. "I had a great part in that, if it's what I remember. I've been offered a lot of mean parts in cartoon movies, because ... I don't know why. So I was waiting for a funny part to come along."
Weaver added, "Frieda is Cinderella's stepmother. She gets power, and she undoes all the laws of physics that govern happy endings. All hell breaks loose, and she has a great time. Finally, she's no longer just the stepmother. She's in control. It's a very charming movie, very romantic. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar play the romantic leads, and I think George Carlin is in it as well, because you never get to meet these people. You just go to the studio and do your work. But I really enjoyed working on it." Happily N'Ever After will be released later this year.
Saturn Nominations Announced
arry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban led the nominations, with nine, for the 2005 31st annual Saturn Awards, announced Feb. 9 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The third Potter film got nods for best picture (fantasy), best director (Alfonso Cuaron) and best writer (Steve Kloves), and star Daniel Radcliffe received a nomination for best performance by a younger actor.
Among TV nominees SCI FI Channel shows netted 11 nominations, more than any other network. ABC's hit Lost led individual series with five nods, including best network television series. The SCI FI Channel original series Stargate SG-1 got four nominations: best cable television series, best actor on television (Richard Dean Anderson), best supporting actor on television (Michael Shanks) and best supporting actress on television (Amanda Tapping). TNT's The Librarian: Quest for the Spear and The WB's Smallville also netted four nominations.
SCI FI's original miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars got three nods: one for best television presentation, one for best actor on television (Ben Browder) and one for best actress on television (Claudia Black).
Stargate Atlantis got two nods, one for best cable TV series and one for star Torri Higginson for best supporing actress on television.
SCI FI Channel's original miniseries 5ive Days to Midnight and Legend of Earthsea each got a nod for best television presentation.
SCI FI's sister network, USA, got nominations for best cable series for its The Dead Zone and The 4400.
Among film nominees, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and Spider-Man 2 received seven nominations each. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Van Helsing each received five nominations.
The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror films was founded in 1972 by Donald A. Reed to recognize the high achievements of genre filmmaking, television and home entertainment. This year's Saturn Awards will be presented in ceremonies May 3 in Universal City, Calif.
A complete list of nominees can be found at the academy's official Web site.
SCI FI Renews Galactica
CI FI Channel has ordered a second season of its hit series Battlestar Galactica, which has aired five episodes of its first season of 13 episodes. Details of the renewal—including which cast members will return, how many episodes will be produced and when the second season will commence—were still being worked out at press time.
Battlestar Galactica has been a ratings winner for SCI FI since its Jan. 14 premiere. The latest episode, Feb. 4's "You Can't Go Home Again," scored the show's best ratings yet, with 3.2 million viewers.
For the show's second season, creator and executive producer Ronald D. Moore previously told SCI FI Wire that he has already been working on as many as six new scripts to resolve the multiple cliffhangers that will end season one. Moore added that he wants to delve deeper into the show's religious themes and open up the Cylon world a bit more in the coming season. Moore continues to post his thoughts on a personal blog on SCIFI.COM. Battlestar Galactica airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, part of the channel's SCI FI Fridays lineup.
Champions Sequel Ships
ony Online Entertainment announced that Champions: Return to Arms, the sequel to the action role-playing game Champions of Norrath, has shipped to North American retail stores. Champions: Return to Arms is available exclusively for the PlayStation 2 and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.
The sequel features two new races; more character customization options; thousands of items, weapons and spells; detailed 3-D environments; the ability to import characters from the original game; a whole new storyline; an innovative medal system that unlocks secret gameplay modes; competitive play for both online and offline modes; and more, the company said. Champions: Return to Arms comes from Snowblind Studios.
Long Rides With Ghost
att Long (The WB's Jack & Bobby) is in talks to play a younger version of the title character played by Nicolas Cage in Columbia Pictures' Ghost Rider, an adaptation of the Marvel Comics title, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie stars Cage as a former motorcycle stuntman named Johnny Blaze who agrees to let his body become host to a vengeful spirit. Eva Mendes will play Cage's love interest.
Long would play a young Johnny, who makes the deal with the devil. Also starring are Wes Bentley and Sam Elliott.
Mark Steven Johnson is directing and wrote the latest draft of the script. Shane Salerno wrote the original draft, the trade paper reported.
Giamatti Conjures Up Illusionist
aul Giamatti (Sideways) will star opposite Edward Norton in the supernatural movie The Illusionist for Bull's Eye Entertainment, Variety reported. Giamatti's finalizing his deal to join the movie, which will reunite him with his Sideways producer, Michael London. The movie is set to begin production April 1 in Prague.
The Illusionist tells the story of a magician in turn-of-the-century Vienna who falls in love with a woman who becomes engaged to a prince. He then uses his powers to win her back and undermine the stability of the royal house of Vienna. Neil Burger is directing, the trade paper reported.
Burger also adapted the screenplay from Steven Millhauser's short story, "Eisenheim the Illusionist."
Giamatti also voices a character in 20th Century Fox's upcoming computer-animated Robots.
Vendetta Gets German Funds
he Wachowski brothers' SF movie V for Vendetta has been awarded €635,000 ($818,000) in production support by the German film funding body Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Variety reported. The brothers (The Matrix) adapted the script from Alan Moore's graphic novel of the same name and will produce with Joel Silver for Warner Brothers.
The Wachowskis' longtime first assistant director, James McTeigue, will make his helming debut on the film, which will star Natalie Portman and will be shot at Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, outside Berlin.
V for Vendetta is set in an alternate reality in which Germany won World War II and Great Britain is under fascist rule.
MGM Tries To Save Dead
howtime canceled its supernatural series Dead Like Me, but producer MGM TV has pitched SCI FI Channel, TNT and A&E, among other basic-cable networks, to resurrect the series for another season, Variety reported. MGM produced 29 episodes during its two seasons on Showtime, the trade paper reported.
An MGM spokeswoman declined to comment, but 29 hourlong episodes for Showtime (including the 75-minute pilot) are too small a number to make the reruns of any series salable in basic cable or TV syndication, the trade paper reported.
No one has picked up the show yet, and time is running out because the options on stars Mandy Patinkin and Ellen Muth are close to expiring. Executive producer John Masius is gung ho about going forward with more episodes, as are Bryan Fuller, the show's creator, and Clancy Collins, the creative executive assigned by MGM, the trade paper reported.
Paul Sponsors Tsunami Aid
drian Paul, star of the Highlander TV series, is backing "Immortal Aid," an auction fund-raiser to benefit the tsunami-devastated Thai Island of Koh Phi Phi, where Paul's brother, Andrew, lives. The resort island, which was also used in the film The Beach, was where Andrew operated an adventure travel business for more than 11 years, and residents need assistance to rebuild schools, homes and businesses, Paul's representatives said.
"I wasn't surprised to hear my brother say that he wasn't going to leave, but instead help rebuild the island's infrastructure," Paul said in a statement. "It was a massive job, and I was determined to help him any way I could."
In collaboration with Davis-Anderson Merchandising Corp., Davis-Panzer Productions and Highlander WorldWide, Paul is sponsoring a series of auctions of original Highlander film and TV series costumes, props and set pieces, including Duncan MacLeod's leather trench coat; a rare rubber katana and villains' costumes; Paul's personal possessions, including the La Carrera Pan America race helmet; candid set pictures autographed by cast, members, as well as individually framed photos; and collectibles. Every item and cash donation will include a thank you certificate signed by Highlander creators and producers Peter S. Davis or Bill Panzer or Paul himself.
The first phase of the auction will take place starting Feb. 14 and continue through Feb. 18 through the Highlander WorldWide official fan club.
Briefly Noted
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Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) revealed to the official Star Wars Web site that his character will have the last word in the upcoming final prequel film Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, and in the same set on which he had the first line in Episode IV—A New Hope.
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Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has had informal talks with ABC about giving his monster hit a sister soap, but added that it'll be a while before he has the time or energy to mount a sequel, TV Guide Online reported.
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Steven Spielberg told SCI FI Wire that he's intent on producing a Transformers film: "It's happening," he said in an interview, adding, "We'll announce the director in three weeks."
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Mel Gibson has trimmed five to six minutes of violent scenes from his The Passion of the Christ for an edit called The Passion Recut, which will go out on 500-750 screens by Newmarket Films beginning March 11, Variety reported.
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Warner has posted a new Web site for its upcoming SF movie The Jacket, starring Adrien Brody, which opens March 4.
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Dread Central has debunked a rumor that Val Kilmer and Adrien Brody were considering starring in the Dracula-themed film The Last Voyage of the Demeter, but added that special-effects maven Patrick Tatopoulos will direct.
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Bloody Disgusting, citing an E News! report, said that a sequel to this weekend's hit Boogeyman is already in the works.
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The MiceAge.com Web site has posted images that it says are sets from Steven Spielberg's upcoming War of the Worlds film, which have been built at Universal Studios in Southern California.
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Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner's NBC-based Hazy Mills Productions has optioned the comic strip Pooch Cafe, about a saloon frequented by dogs, to be developed as a half-hour animated comedy series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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X2 star Famke Janssen told the Australian Today TV show that she'll be shooting the third X-Men movie, and that the "Dark Phoenix" storyline involving her character, Jean Grey, will figure prominently.
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Rediff.com reported that Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) will play the Man of Steel's best friend in Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman movie, according to director Mira Nair, who is working with Penn in the film Namesake.
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J.T. Petty is writing and directing the SF western movie The Burrowers for Lions Gate Films, with Blue Star producing, Variety reported.
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