Lost Spoilers Confirmed
roducers of ABC's hit Lost confirmed spoilers for the show's upcoming season-ending episodes in a talk with fans attending a Museum of Television and Radio session in Hollywood, Calif., according to The Hollywood Reporter. One of the show's regular characters will die by the end of the season, and the season finale in May will start with a one-hour episode and conclude with a 90-minute installment. The final half-hour will air without commercials, the trade paper reported.
Series creator J.J. Abrams and his fellow executive producers Bryan Burk and Carlton Cuse appeared with nine cast members at the museum's William S. Paley Television Festival panel at the Directors Guild of America theater on March 12, the trade paper reported.
Lost's Sawyer Mulls Kate
osh Holloway, who plays the con man with a heart Sawyer on ABC's hit Lost, told SCI FI Wire that he's got his own ideas about the resolution of the romantic rivalry with Jack (Matthew Fox) for Kate (Evangeline Lilly). "I don't know how long he's going to pursue this Kate thing," Holloway said in an interview. "He's a con man, right? He tries the angles. One angle ain't working, he's going to try another angle. That ain't working, he's going to try another one. I'm waiting to see what angle he's going to try next, or when he's going ... to try the angle of getting another girl. I want to see that. I want to see if he says, 'You know what? You don't want any of this. Watch this!' I hope that's going to happen, but I don't know. I'd like to see him sitting in a chair, getting his beard shaved and his laundry washed and some other girl cooking his dinner. An open-for-business kind of thing, right? But that's my own hope. I don't know how that's going to work."
Holloway's Sawyer has broken through to fans, partly because of the increasing sexual tension with Lilly's Kate. But Holloway added that the show's producers keep him and the other cast members in the dark about upcoming plot developments.
"I don't know whose side he's going to end up on, or if he's just going to always remain an independent contractor, kind of, from situation to situation," Holloway said. "I don't know if he's going to develop relationships and lean more towards one way or another. I hope not. I hope he stays in the middle, honestly." Lost airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT; new episodes will resume with "Deus Ex Machina" on March 30.
Housewives, Lost Due On DVD
he first seasons of ABC's hit series Desperate Housewives and Lost will be released in complete box sets in September, Buena Vista Home Entertainment announced. Both DVD sets will feature complete season-one episodes and bonus materials.
The sets will be released just before the start of the hit shows' expected second seasons.
Tarantino Denies Friday Report
uentin Tarantino denied to Empire Online reports that he was considering directing a Friday the 13th film. "What's happening with Friday the 13th? Nothing at all! It's a complete lie," Tarantino told Empire Online. "I like Jason and everything, but I've no intention of directing a movie. New Line talked to me about it, but it was a complete fabrication, that article. I would love to do a horror film. I'm just saying it's not going to be Friday the 13th.."
Variety first reported the news last week that New Line had contacted the Kill Bill director about helming what would be the "ultimate" Jason Voorhees movie.
Blalock Disses Enterprise
olene Blalock, who plays T'Pol in UPN's canceled Star Trek: Enterprise, told the Toronto Star that she's not happy with the upcoming series finale, which airs in May. "I don't know where to begin with that one," she told the newspaper. "The final episode is ... appalling."
Blalock declined to elaborate, but otherwise had praise for this season's storylines, many of which hearken back to the original Star Trek series.
The fourth season "was a treat, a joy, to do," Blalock said. "It was an unexpected surprise to have the scripts that we did. And I am grateful and thankful for that. It was fun to come to work again."
Enterprise's fourth season was overseen by producer Manny Coto, an avowed fan of all things Trek. "It was certainly much better than spending another season doing what we had been doing," Blalock told the newspaper. "It said a lot about the potential of the show."
Enterprise has wrapped production in Los Angeles and the final episode, "These Are the Voyages," with guest stars Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT May 13.
Trek Vet Crosses Threshold
tar Trek veteran producer Brannon Braga has come on board as executive producer and show runner of Paramount's upcoming CBS SF pilot Threshold, Variety reported. With Star Trek: Enterprise wrapped, Braga will oversee the pilot, which examines the international fallout of an alien invasion. Braga joins Bragi Schut, David Goyer, David Heyman and Mark Rosen as executive producers, the trade paper reported.
Braga has also signed an extension to his contract keeping him at Paramount Network Television, which produced the various Star Trek incarnations, through 2007 should Threshold get picked up to series, the trade paper reported. If the project doesn't move forward, Braga's locked in until 2006.
Braga has been with Paramount since 1991, starting out as a writer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and moving on to executive produce Star Trek: Voyager and co-create and executive produce Enterprise.
Jackson: Hobbit A Ways Off
scar-winning Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson told the Australian Associated Press that it will be at least three years before he shoots the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. Jackson is currently shooting King Kong. Asked how long it would be before he tackles The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien's first book set in Middle-earth, Jackson said: "Three or four years would be accurate, I would say."
The rights to The Hobbit are split between MGM and New Line Cinema, the AAP reported. Jackson said that he was keen to return to Middle-earth, but that MGM's sale to Sony made the project's future unclear. "I think there is probably a will and a desire to try and get it made," he said. "But I think it's going to be a lot of lawyers sitting in a room trying to thrash out a deal before it will ever happen."
Rings Musical Planned
roducers are planning on adapting The Lord of the Rings as a musical, slated to open March 2006 in Toronto and come to London six months later, the Reuters news service reported. Producers have promised to go back to the original books by J.R.R. Tolkien and not try to reproduce Peter Jackson's movie trilogy, which earned $3 billion worldwide and garnered a string of Oscars, the news service reported.
"We are ultimately dependent on 50 actors and musicians to tell the story, rather than technology," producer Kevin Wallace said as he announced details of the 27 million Canadian dollar ($16.6 million U.S.) musical. "We are going to have to break new ground. It is a hybrid of text, music, spectacle and physical theater."
The music is being written by A.R. Rahman, the Bollywood film composer who scored a hit in London with the stage musical Bombay Dreams. He is working in conjunction with the Finnish group Varttina. The musical's British director is Matthew Warchus, best known for staging the worldwide stage hit Art. Wallace is producing the show with flamboyant Canadian theatrical impresarios David and "Honest" Ed Mirvish, the wire service reported.
Whedon Signs For Wonder Woman
uffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon has signed on to write and direct the movie version of Wonder Woman, Warner Brothers announced. Producer Joel Silver first confirmed that he was in talks with Whedon to helm the Warner Brothers feature film in an interview with SCI FI Wire last month.
"There's no one better than Joss to adapt the legendary Wonder Woman comic-book character created in the 1940s into a dynamic feature film for 21st century audiences," Silver said in a statement. "Wonder Woman was the first great female superhero to emerge from comic books and later inspire millions of fans in her television incarnation, but unlike her counterparts Batman and Superman, this groundbreaking heroine has yet to be reinvented for the feature film arena."
In his own statement, Whedon said: "Wonder Woman is the most iconic female heroine of our time, but in a way, no one has met her yet. What I love most about icons is finding out what's behind them, exploring the price of their power. When Joel and I began discussing the character, I realized there is a woman behind the legend who is very fascinating, very uncompromising and, in her own way, almost vulnerable. She's someone who doesn't belong in this world, and since everyone I know feels that way about themselves, the character clicked for me."
Silver and Leonard Goldberg will produce the live-action feature, based on the DC Comics character created by William Moulton Marston. No start date has been set.
Whedon created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran for seven seasons on The WB and UPN, and co-created the WB spinoff series Angel, which finished its five-season run last year. He also wrote the screenplay for Toy Story.
Whedon is currently completing Serenity, a movie he wrote and directed based on his canceled Fox TV series Firefly, about a ragtag crew of civil war survivors 500 years in the future. Serenity opens Sept. 30; it is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Posey Flies To Superman
arker Posey (Blade: Trinity) has joined the cast of Bryan Singer's Superman Returns movie, playing Lex Luthor's villainous henchwoman Kitty Koslowski, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Parker 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. Kevin Spacey is playing Lex Luthor, and Kal Penn will portray Stanford, Luthor's right-hand man, the trade paper reported.
Jon Peters, Singer and Gilbert Adler are producing. Chris Lee is executive producing and Stephen Jones is co-producing.
X-Men 3 Rumors Reported
in't It Cool News reported several rumors about the upcoming third X-Men movie, including the addition of three new mutants. The three new X-Men will be the blue-haired Beast, the Cajun Gambit and the winged mutant Angel, the site reported.
The site added that Angel will be female, unlike the character in the Marvel Comics series.
Beast will "serve the same role in these films that Morpheus did in The Matrix," the site reported.
Cardinal Blasts Da Vinci Code
top Catholic cardinal has blasted The Da Vinci Code as a "gross and absurd" distortion of history and said Catholic bookstores should take the best-seller off their shelves because it is full of "cheap lies," the Reuters news service reported.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in an interview with the Milan newspaper Il Giornale, became the highest-ranking Italian churchman to speak out against the book, an international blockbuster that has sold millions of copies, Reuters reported.
"[It] aims to discredit the church and its history through gross and absurd manipulations," said Bertone, the archbishop of the northern Italian city of Genoa and a close friend of Pope John Paul. "This seems like a throwback to the old anti-clerical pamphlets of the 1800s."
The central claim of the book, written by American Dan Brown, is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children. The Bible says Jesus never married, was crucified and rose from the dead, the wire service reported.
A central storyline of the book is that the Holy Grail is not the cup Christ is said to have used at the Last Supper, but rather the bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Bertone calls this idea "a perversion," Reuters reported.
The Da Vinci Code is being adapted into a film that will star Tom Hanks.
Lucas: Star Wars Due In 3-D
eorge Lucas told ShoWest that he is planning to remaster all of the Star Wars films for rerelease in 3-D as a way to promote the technology, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Appearing as part of a panel of high-profile directors promoting 3-D and digital cinema at ShoWest, Lucas said he hadn't yet committed to a precise schedule, but hoped to have the first film ready for the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars movie in 2007 and that he would then rerelease one Star Wars film per year in 3-D, the trade paper reported.
Lucas was joined by James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, Robert Rodriguez and Randal Kleiser. Peter Jackson joined the group via a pretaped 3-D segment. They all implored theater owners to invest in digital projectors, which would allow theaters to show their upcoming movies in 3-D.
Cameron is in preproduction on the 3-D film Battle Angel, planned for a 2007 release. Zemeckis has two 3-D features in production, and Rodriguez is readying The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D for release in the summer, the trade paper reported.
Gaiman Auctions Name Rights
antasy author Neil Gaiman is auctioned the chance to name a cruise ship in his upcoming novel Anansi Boys to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The unusual eBay auction ended March 18.
The winner of the auction will have their name or a name of their choosing given to a cruise ship in the book and will receive a signed first edition of Anansi Boys when it is published in the fall. At press time the bidding had exceeded $3,000.
"I've got to name a currently unnamed cruise ship in Anansi Boys," Gaiman said in a statement. "I have no idea what to call it, and, a couple of days ago, realized that my utter lack of inspiration could do good things for the CBLDF. If you wish, you can bid to have the ship named after you, your loved one, your dog or even your favorite word."
All proceeds from this auction will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a not-for-profit organization that specializes in the defense of First-Amendment-related cases on behalf of comics authors and retailers.
U.K. Writer To Pen New Pan
ritish author Geraldine McCaughrean prevailed over 100 writers from around the world to land the job of writing the authorized sequel to J.M. Barrie's fantasy classic Peter Pan, the Reuters news service reported. "I am delighted beyond words," McCaughrean told the wire service after being picked by a London children's hospital that owns the rights to Barrie's tale of Tinkerbell, Wendy, Captain Hook and the boy who never grew up. "It is an astonishing, daunting privilege to be let loose in Neverland, armed with nothing but a pen," she said.
The Great Ormond Street hospital in London launched the search for a sequel last year to mark the centenary of the classic and to keep much-needed funds flowing when the copyright runs out in Europe in 2007 and in the United States in 2023.
The judges, flooded with entries from South America, Australia, the United States and Europe, opted for a homegrown author to extend the life of Barrie's immortal characters, Reuters reported.
McCaughrean, author of over 130 books and plays and the only writer ever to capture the Whitbread Children's Book Award three times, won with her sample chapter and synopsis of a follow-up tale called Captain Pan. One of the judges, Barrie's great-great-nephew, David, told Reuters about the competition: "Captain Pan had a real fight on his hands, but won through in the end. I think J.M. Barrie would have liked his style. If I'm wrong he'll be back to haunt us."
Swank Mulls The Reaping
wo-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank is in final talks to star in Dark Castle Entertainment's latest horror entry, The Reaping, for Warner Brothers Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dark Castle is Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis' production company. The two will produce, along with Susan Levin and Herb Gaines, the trade paper reported.
The Reaping is a supernatural tale centering on a myth debunker (Swank) who travels to a small, religious town in Texas to investigate occurrences that appear to be the 10 biblical plagues, the trade paper reported.
"A guy named James Cox, who did Wonderland, is going to direct it," Silver told SCI FI Wire at WonderCon. "We're putting that one together now, and that will probably start shooting sometime in May."
The Reaping is based on a spec script by Brian Rousso, which has been rewritten by Chad and Carey Hayes (House of Wax).
Act Of War Ships
tari announced that it has shipped Act of War: Direct Action, a near-future, techno-thriller video game for the PC, featuring a story by New York Times best-selling author Dale Brown. Act of War: Direct Action is real-time strategy game of suspense, international intrigue and geopolitical military conflict, the company said.
Players control a newly formed anti-terror military unit known as the Talon Task Force, recruit combat units, develop technologies, manage finite resources and deploy their forces against a cunning and ruthless terror network worldwide.
Eugen Systems developed the game, with a storyline and game universe created in cooperation with Brown, an expert on the U.S. military, global conflict and future military technology. Act of War: Direct Action carries a suggested retail price $49.99.
Silverberg Slows Down
rolific SF author Robert Silverberg told SCI FI Wire that he will slow down now that he has reached the age of 70, with 98 novels, 44 collections, inclusion in 109 anthologies, five Nebulas, four Hugos and the Grand Master Award for a career that began in 1954. Silverberg said in an interview that he will not be writing anything for six months. "I have no present plans for writing more novels, but I do expect to go on writing shorter works, and, for all I know, I'll write another novel someday, too," he said. "On the other hand, I don't plan to take up some other profession at this late stage in my life. For the time being, I'm just taking it easy."
Several of Silverberg's works will be re-issued by Pyr Books, starting with 1986's Star of Gypsies, which follows Yakoub the Gypsy King as he comes out of exile to try and lead his people home. Lou Anders, Pyr's executive director, told SCI FI Wire that this is the perfect title to re-issue. "I don't know if you are aware, but Brian Stableford noted in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction that Yakoub 'waiting in self-imposed exile for his one-time followers to realize how badly they need him, might be reckoned an ironic self-portrait,'" Anders said. "Whether Bob agrees with that or not, I don't know, but given the timing of his recent retirement and his Grand Master award, a book about another crowned 'king' executing a similar 'retirement' seemed perfect timing."
Silverberg's response: "I was just trying to tell a story about a remarkable character set against the most inventive background I could devise. I wasn't trying to comment on anything particular, and I have no idea what its themes are, let alone whether they're relevant today. … I'm just stepping back from an active career and waiting to see what happens next. As usual, I'll be the last to know. Everybody else seems to be able to figure out when I'm about to resume writing a lot faster than I do."
Anders said that he worked with Silverberg in 2000 to republish some titles at Bookface.com, which no longer exists. When he became executive director at Pyr, he thought he could work with Silverberg again. "I do hope that, like both his earlier retirement and that of his protagonist Yakoub's abdication, ... Bob won't stay away too long," Anders said. "I'm happy about his announcement elsewhere that he's interested in writing to the standards of what interests him rather than the market. But it will be a sad day indeed if the quotes ever come off and retires for real and ever."
SF Grand Master Norton Dies
cience fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton, who wrote the popular Witch World series, has died, the Associated Press reported. She was 93.
Her death was announced by friend Jean Rabe, who said Norton died March 17 of congestive heart failure at her home in Murfreesboro, a Nashville suburb, the AP reported.
Norton requested before her death that she not have a funeral service, but instead asked to be cremated along with a copy of her first and last novels.
Born Alice Mary Norton on Feb. 17, 1912, in Cleveland, she wrote more than 130 books in many genres during her career of nearly 70 years. She used a pen name, which she made her legal name in 1934, because she expected to be writing mostly for young boys and thought a male name would help sales.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America recently created the Andre Norton Award for young adult novels, and the first award will be presented in 2006, the AP reported.
Norton's Witch World series, which details life on an imaginary planet reachable only through hidden gateways, included more than 30 novels.
Norton was the first woman to be recognized as a Grand Master by the SFWA. Her last complete novel, Three Hands for Scorpio, is set to be released in April.
Ring Helmer Eyes The Eye
he Ring Two director Hideo Nakata has signed on to helm The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong supernatural horror film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Tom Cruise's C/W Productions is developing the movie for Paramount Pictures.
The Eye centers on a blind woman who receives a cornea transplant and who begins seeing ghosts and premonitions. The Eye is an adaptation of the hit Hong Kong horror franchise by Peter Chan; a third one is in the works.
The Ring Two is Nakata's first English-language film. He directed the first two Japanese Ringu movies, as well as the Japanese version of Dark Water. The Ring Two opened March 18.
Writers Hired For Transformers
lex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have been tapped to write the DreamWorks/Paramount live-action adaptation of The Transformers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Steven Spielberg is executive-producing the film, based on the 1980s Hasbro toy line, the trade paper reported.
The toy line revolved around two groups of robots, one led by Optimus Prime, who believes in tolerance and the sanctity of life, and the other by Megatron, who espouses survival of the fittest and the extermination of biological life. Tom DeSanto wrote the screen story. Angry Films chief Don Murphy and DeSanto are producing, along with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the trade paper reported.
NBC Sneaks Revelations In NY
BC announced that it will screen a special preview of its upcoming supernatural series Revelations to an audience in New York on March 15 as part of a marketing campaign to promote the new show. The exclusive preview will take place at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan at 8 p.m. ET, hosted by MSNBC anchorman Lester Holt, and will targeting mainly a college-student audience. The New York screening will be broadcast live via satellite to theaters in nine other cities across the country: Seattle; Washington; Philadelphia; Baton Rouge, La; Berkeley, Calif.; San Diego; Knoxville, Tenn.; Atlanta; and Columbus, Ohio.
The closed-circuit sneak preview pilot screening will also include a question-and-answer session with Revelations cast members Bill Pullman, Natascha McElhone and Michael Massee; executive producer Gavin Polone; and writer and executive producer David Seltzer.
Revelations premieres April 13 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Pullman Shares Revelations
ill Pullman (The Grudge) told SCI FI Wire that he had no interest in signing on for a weekly television series, but ultimately couldn't resist the lead role in NBC's upcoming supernatural limited series Revelations. Pullman stars as astrophysicist Dr. Richard Massey, who reluctantly partners with a nun, Sister Josepha Montifiore (Natascha McElhone), in a last-ditch effort to forestall the End of Days.
"When this came up I had already turned down a couple of other [TV] opportunities," Pullman said in an interview. "I'd really not been inviting television, and then I was in Japan doing The Grudge when they sent me the Revelations script."
Pullman added, "They tried to tell me it was 'high-quality television'—they have a term—but everyone likes to think of their show as elevated in some way. I said, 'I've heard that [stuff] before.' But then I read the script. What really got me was the relationship between Massey and Sister Jo. It felt so different not to have to be coy, that our contentiousness came out of respect for each other and not out of the 'I want to bed you' instincts. But I think that's what really works."
Pullman also praised his co-star, McElhone, the English-born actress best known to genre audiences for her performance in Steven Soderbergh's remake of Solaris. "I really, really enjoy Natascha very much inside this role," Pullman said. "There's something interesting about her being English and the way she comes at things. She's very intelligent. So I think our conversations on the show have a different level of relationship than you see in other male-female stories, even in film. So there was more text there, more interesting scenes, and there's been more time to develop it." Revelations debuts April 13. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Point Fate Not Pleasant?
arti Noxon, executive producer of Fox's struggling supernatural series Point Pleasant, told SCI FI Wire that she and the writing staff are crafting a season finale that will provide a sense of closure in part because she doubts the show will get picked up for a second season. The finale will leave some threads dangling, but will also wrap things up for fans who tuned in to all 13 episodes. "I'm pretty much counting on not coming back," Noxon said in an interview. "Our numbers make [Fox's quickly canceled series] North Shore look like a hit. That sucks, but I've gotten past the pain."
Point Pleasant stars Elisabeth Harnois as Christina Nickson, the teenage daughter of the devil and a mortal woman, whose presence in the town of Point Pleasant, N.J., kicks off the ultimate battle between the forces of good and evil.
"The only thing that kills me is that I feel like the show got a lot better as we found what worked and what didn't work," Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) said. "You go through this process and see results, and you're already dead, which is hard. And we are plotting the finale so that it will be satisfying if we get canceled. But it's also a big fat cliffhanger so we can continue the second season in my backyard sock puppet theater." Point Pleasant airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Echo Bridge Gets Bailey's
cho Bridge Entertainment has entered a pact to distribute Bailey's Billion$, a fantasy movie about a talking dog who inherits a fortune, Variety reported.
Dean Cain, Laurie Holden, Tim Curry and Jennifer Tilly star in the movie, directed by David Devine. Jon Lovitz provides the voice of the dog.
Report: Passion Spurs Attacks
el Gibson's The Passion of the Christ spurred an upsurge last year in Canadian anti-Semitic attacks, the League for Human Rights of B'nai B'rith told The Hollywood Reporter. In its 2004 audit of anti-Semitic attacks in Canada, the group reported that media coverage of Gibson's film and its alleged depiction of Jews as the "Christ killer" led to a spike in attacks against the Canadian Jewish community.
"Whereas only nine incidents in 2003 had religious connotations to the story of Jesus' death, there were 32 such incidents in 2004, nine of them in February when the movie opened and a further 15 in the three months following its release," the B'nai B'rith study reported.
In a statement, B'nai B'rith Canada vice president Frank Dimant said incidents of anti-Semitism last year reached an all-time high and were becoming more violent, the trade paper reported.
The B'nai B'rith audit cited instances last year in which a Montreal caller to a Jewish organization exclaimed, "We don't need Mel Gibson's film to hate you!" A synagogue in Thornhill, Ontario, was defaced with crosses, and a minister on a local Toronto TV channel alleged there was a "Jewish plot for world control."
Gaylactic Nominations Sought
ominations for the 2005 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards will remain open through March 31, organizers announced. Nominations can be made online or by mail: Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, P.O. Box 73602, Washington, D.C. 20056-3602.
The 2005 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards will honor works in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres originally released in English in North America in 2004 for significant positive gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender content and quality genre content and writing. Nominations are sought for best novel, best short fiction and best other work.
The 2005 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards will be presented during the July 4 weekend at Gaylaxicon in Boston.
Pirates Due For PSP
irates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is one of five films that the home video arm of the Walt Disney Co. will release for Sony's new PlayStation Portable handheld video-game and media device, the Reuters news service reported. Buena Vista Home Entertainment said it will also release National Treasure, Reign of Fire, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Hero for the device this spring. More titles will be announced during the year, the company said.
The PSP plays UMD, or Universal Media Discs, which hold about three times the capacity of a regular CD. The discs were developed specifically for Sony's PSP, to be released in North America on March 24.
Kapur Helms Willis' Solace
hekhar Kapur has signed to direct Bruce Willis in Solace, about a doctor with psychic abilities enlisted by police to track down a serial killer with psychic abilities as well, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
New Line Cinema is developing Solace, written by Ted Griffin and Sean Bailey. Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce through their Contrafilm label, along with Matthias Emcke, the trade paper reported.
Kapur directed Elizabeth, which earned him a Golden Globe best director nomination and a David Lean Award for direction at the BAFTAs.
Van Sant Eyes Time Traveler
us Van Sant is in talks to direct the movie version of the best-selling The Time Traveler's Wife for New Line Cinema, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The studio acquired Traveler in 2003 for Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Grey and Nick Wechsler to produce. New Line told the trade paper that Grey, who took over the reins of Paramount Studios on March 1, remains attached as a producer.
Audrey Niffenegger, a professor of book arts in Chicago, wrote the book, which is a loose SF retelling of The Odyssey. The story centers on a man with a time-traveling gene that allows him to appear to his true love at different points in her life. Jeremy Leven adapted the book for the screen.
Coraci May Click
irector Frank Coraci (The Waterboy) is in talks to replace Juan Jose Campanella on the fantasy film Click for Columbia and Revolution Studios, Variety reported. The movie has a mid-June start date.
Click centers on a workaholic architect who finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices, the trade paper reported.
Mark O'Keefe and Steven Wayne Koren (Bruce Almighty) wrote the script, with revisions by Tim Herlihy. Adam Sandler's Happy Madison production company and Neal Moritz's Original Film jointly produce.
Matrix Online Designer Speaks
om Ragaini, lead designer for the upcoming Matrix Online game, told SCI FI Wire that he had the idea for the game as early as summer 2001. "I had written the proposal for a game that would become The Matrix Online," Ragaini said in an interview. "And the Wachowski brothers [creators of the Matrix movies] received the proposal. It turns out that they had come up with a similar idea on their own and the synchronicity was immediately apparent."
Ragaini said that, from the beginning, The Matrix Online was going to be something different from a typical video game: the massively multiplayer online role-playing game would allow players to gain a sense of ownership in the Matrix universe. "Telling a story with that element in mind required us to rethink the way the narrative was communicated," Ragaini said. "Instead of a path, the story had to be collaboratively pieced together from thousands of different players' experiences. Facts could easily contradict what another player had learned. Negotiating these discrepancies and discerning fact from propaganda and misinformation is the theme of The Matrix Online."
The Matrix Online allows players to put themselves into the next phase of the Matrix story through martial arts, high-tech detective work and hacking into the simulated reality of the Matrix. Episodic updates keep the story moving and allow players to participate as either hero, villain or profiteer. As with the movies, choice will be an overriding factor in how The Matrix Online plays out.
Despite the mixed critical response to the Matrix movies and the seeming flood of Matrix-related media, Ragaini is confident that there is still much interest in the Matrix universe. "We've seen an incredible amount of interest and participation in the beta test for the game," he said. "Fans are expressing themselves in the game and using it to create their own movies, comic books and music videos. Regardless of the press' reception of the later movies, the Matrix still resonates with a lot of people."
The Matrix Online debuts March 22 from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, Sega and Monolith Productions.
Briefly Noted
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The new teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg's upcoming War of the Worlds is now linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers section.
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Selma Blair (Hellboy) has joined Smallville's Tom Welling and Lost's Maggie Grace in the Revolution Studios remake of John Carpenter's classic horror film The Fog, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The GetDesperate fan site quoted Desperate Housewives cast member James Denton (Mike Delfino) saying that the cast will be recalled from summer hiatus early as ABC wants to do more episodes than originally planned.
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Blizzard Entertainment announced that World of Warcraft, its massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has surpassed 1.5 million subscribers.
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The Latino Review Web site has posted images from the Australia set of Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, apparently depicting the crash of Kal-El's Kryptonian spaceship on the Kent farm near Smallville.
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Alias star Jennifer Garner will direct an episode during May sweeps, TV Guide Online reported.
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The DVD and video of The Incredibles sold 5 million units in North America on its first day of release and appears on its way to being the best-selling DVD and video of 2005, Pixar and Buena Vista Home Entertainment announced.
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MGM has launched a new Web site for its upcoming supernatural remake The Amityville Horror, which opens April 15.
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The second teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds hit the Web at one minute after midnight on March 18. Look for a link in SCI FI Wire's Trailers section.
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Bryan Singer, director of the upcoming Superman Returns movie, will post a series of video diaries from Australia, a la King Kong helmer Peter Jackson, on the BlueTights.net Web site.
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Ain't It Cool News reported that producer Joel Silver may make an announcement concerning his proposed Wonder Woman film in two days, possibly announcing the hiring of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to write and direct.
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Fox will release a complete DVD set of The Lone Gunmen on March 29 in a three-disc box set that will include all 13 of the short-lived show's episodes, plus "Jump the Shark," a season-nine The X-Files episode that concludes the Gunmen plotline.
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The Who's Roger Daltrey has joined the cast of The WB's untitled mermaid drama pilot from Spelling TV, about a mermaid (Nathalie Kelley) who tries life on land in Miami, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The Business of Animation blog posted a report that tyro animation director Bradley Raymond has been chosen to helm a proposed third Toy Story movie, the first that Disney will produce without Pixar.
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Fans of Star Trek: Enterprise should not send e-mails to SCI FI Wire at the e-mail link in the left column requesting that SCI FI Channel pick up the show. SCI FI Wire is the daily news service of SCIFI.COM and has nothing to do with programming decisions at the network; e-mails asking the SCI FI Channel to renew Enterprise are just deleted.
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The new trailer for Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith is now linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers section.
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Ain't It Cool News reported a rumor that Matthew Vaughn, director of Layer Cake, will helm Fox's third X-Men movie, from a script by Zak Penn.
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Hot off his Oscar win for the visual effects in Spider-Man 2, John Dykstra is signing on to Columbia Pictures' Hot Wheels as visual-effects designer for director McG, rather than re-up for Spider-Man 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Animation house Vinton Studios has made a deal for the film rights to The Wall and the Wing, a children's fantasy book to be published in 2006, with Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) attached to direct the project as a computer-animated movie, Variety reported.
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Elizabeth Rohm (Angel) and Charles Mesure (Boogeyman) will play the title roles of Briar and Graves in the drama pilot, about a hard-living priest (Mesure) who partners with a doctor (Rohm) to investigate unexplained religious phenomena.
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