Changes Coming To Lost
amon Lindelof, co-creator and executive producer of ABC's Lost, told SCI FI Wire that the next season will offer some answers to the first year's mysteries, but will raise even more questions. "We're going to blow it up and change everything this year," he said in an interview at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I mean, I think that our attitude is not to do more of the same. They're going to go into the hatch, and what they find inside is going to change their state of being for quite some time. So we're going to continue to explore the characters as we always have. The show will be the same in the way that we tell the stories. But season two is really about exploring the island along the way, and we just hope that people think what they find is cool."
Maggie Grace, who plays Shannon on the show, said in a separate interview at the convention that the revelations about the hatch will come early in the second season. "We find out what's in the hatch very quickly," she said. "I can tell you that much. There's also more about Jack's marriage and why Shannon's so screwed up."
Grace added that she would like to see her character continue a romantic relationship with former Iraqi soldier Sayid, played by Naveen Andrews. "I certainly hope so," Grace said. "There was certainly kind of a great connection. My personal suspicion—and I actually haven't said this to the producers—I think that he was shot mainly so he could be shirtless for the first half of the season. So it's a great device to accomplish that."
Lindelof also gave some hints about the introduction of a new regular character, played by Michelle Rodriguez, who was first seen in the season finale. "From the finale we know she was on the plane with them," he said. "She was in the back of the plane. So I think you can read into it what you will, but it would be a fairly safe assumption to assume that she's survived the crash and has been having a very different 45 days than the rest of the people that we've been watching. So it'll be fairly interesting to hook up with her and see what's happened."
Will the presence of Rodriguez open the door for more previously undiscovered survivors on the island? "It's certainly possible," Lindelof says. "Absolutely. The tail section ripped off, though, and seemed pretty apocryphal. So I wouldn't count on as many survivors as we have on our side of the island." Lost returns for a second season in the fall.
Report: Potter VI Already Pirated
ess than 24 hours after the English edition of the latest Harry Potter book went on sale in China's capital on the weekend, the full text of the 672-page volume was available for free on the Internet as an unauthorized e-book, the Beijing News reported, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Shui Mu Tsing Hua bulletin board service posted the full text of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on July 17, according to the Chinese language daily.
Author J.K. Rowling has long warned readers against unauthorized electronic versions of her work.
Using a guest login, a check of the password-protected electronic bulletin board showed the pirated e-book was no longer available under a chat thread labeled Harry Potter, which repeatedly turned up an "error" message instead, the trade paper reported.
Over the weekend, Beijing bookstores sold some 5,000 legitimate hardbound copies of the book for 178 yuan ($21.51) each, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Potter Book Sales Help Films
avid Heyman, producer of the upcoming fourth Harry Potter movie, told SCI FI Wire that this weekend's expected record sales of J.K. Rowling's sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, can only help the film, which is still in post-production. "It's exciting," Heyman said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 17, where he was promoting his upcoming CBS TV series Threshold.
Heyman confessed that he's already read Half-Blood Prince, though it went on sale the day before. "The books are great," Heyman said. "Jo's done a brilliant job, and this book ... is a progression from the last. ... It's getting darker. It's getting edgier. And it's getting more mythic. ... The world, the story, ... is expanding. And I think it's really exciting."
The upcoming movie, based on Rowling's fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is aiming for a Nov. 18 release. "It's going very well," Heyman said. "We had a test screening last week, and the response seemed to be very positive. Some are saying it's the best yet. Hope they're right. But, you know, ... the film's coming out in November, so we're still in the middle of post, and we are ... rushing to the finish line. A lot of visual effects to finish and some editing tweaks."
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is expected to be the fastest-selling book in history, with British retailer Waterstone's forecasting that 10 million copies would have been snapped up worldwide during the first 24 hours of its sales, the Reuters news service reported.
Who's Tennant Is A Big Fan
ritish actor David Tennant, who takes over the role of Doctor Who in the British SF show's second season, told SCI FI Wire that the opportunity fulfills a childhood fantasy. At 34, Tennant is one of the youngest actors to take over the role of The Doctor in the series, which has been a staple on TV in Great Britian since 1963 and was revived last year after a 16-year hiatus.
"It's very exciting and fantastically daunting that you come to L.A. and everyone here knows about it as well, because there's a lot of attention," Tennant said at BBC America's fall press preview in Beverly Hills, Calif. "It's very scary right now, because I haven't started."
Tennant is the 10th actor to take over the role, following in the footsteps of Sylvester McCoy, Tom Baker, William Hartnell, Paul McGann and, most recently, Christopher Eccleston.
Eccleston wasn't very familiar with the Doctor Who craze when he took the role last year. But Tennant said that he was a big fan. "I grew up watching it, as everyone you know, as everyone in Britain did," he said. Tennant's real-life girlfriend, Sarah Parish, interjected: "He knew about it? He was obsessed!"
Tennant smirked and added: "I was a bit of a fan. So, yeah, I was very, very aware of it." Tennant is reportedly taking a pay cut because of budget-slashing on the show.
Tennant's involvement with another British TV show, Casanova, led him to Doctor Who. "I was working with Russell T. Davies, who is the main writer and kind of creative head of [Who]," Tennant said. "I did a show that he'd written, called Casanova, at the end of last year, so I knew him through that. And, I guess, unbeknownst to me, that was my audition. So it just came up after that, I guess, when they knew that Chris Eccleston was moving on. They just came to me and asked me to do it."
On the big screen, Tennant will soon be seen in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, playing Barty Crouch Jr.
Singer: Routh Is His Own Superman
ryan Singer, director of the upcoming Superman Returns, told SCI FI Wire that his star, newcomer Brandon Routh, brings a new interpretation to the iconic superhero, though he and Routh looked at previous versions of the Man of Steel. "We looked at some of the original Superman [films and TV shows] just to take a look at it together," Singer told a news conference at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "But by no means did I ever say, 'Act like Christopher Reeve.'"
Singer added: "It's weird with Brandon. One moment he's a dead ringer for Christopher Reeve. The next minute you see that he's ... he's completely different. So it kind of captures moments that you'll recall. He'll have moments where you'll recall the first film [Richard Donner's 1978 Superman] and then moments where he's his own Clark, [when] he's his own Superman."
Singer added that he saw a special quality in Routh's co-star, Kate Bosworth, who plays Lois Lane. "I saw the movie Beyond the Sea twice," he said, referring to the Bobby Darin biopic in which Bosworth plays Sandra Dee. " And, yeah, she was phenomenal, and I really liked her, and I brought her in to read with Brandon. And they had a chemistry. ... It was a combination of her work in Beyond the Sea and the chemistry she had in the room with Brandon and ... the general sense that I had in the meeting. ... I've had a good record with casting, and it's sort of in the meeting is when I fully make that decision."
Superman Returns will also feature cameo roles by actors who have had prominent parts in previous incarnations of Superman, notably Noel Neill, the actress who played Lois Lane in several Superman films and the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman, and Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen in the TV series alongside Neill and George Reeves as the Man of Steel.
"Jack Larson plays the bartender with Jimmy Olsen [Sam Huntington] in the scene, so it's great," Singer said. "They have a scene together. And it was ... fun to shoot that. It was a very long day. ... Jack came there, flew 15 hours to get [to Australia, where Superman Returns is shooting,] and then worked an 18-hour day. And ... he's not young, so he's got a lot of ... energy. I was really impressed." (The IMDB lists Larson's age as 72.) Superman Returns will open in June 2006.
Singer Relates To Superman
ryan Singer, director of the upcoming Superman Returns, told SCI FI Wire that he personally relates to the story of what he calls "the ultimate immigrant" to America. "I am adopted, and I am an American, and I'm an only child, and Superman was these three things," Singer said over the weekend in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego, where he presented a new trailer to a standing ovation.
"What interested me, he is the ultimate immigrant, and ... what makes him different, his special heritage, he carries it with pride," Singer said. He added: "He's very idealistic. Unlike Wolverine [in Singer's X-Men movies], who is very cynical, Superman is extremely idealistic, and that kind of represents a bit of what America is, and the pitfalls one experiences in their idealism. So I very much like the character. I find him very pleasant. I would like to think that there were people like Superman—or aliens like Superman—that existed. Plus, he can do anything."
Singer is directing the new Superman film, which stars Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Singer confirmed that his movie will make use of John Williams' theme music, from Richard Donner's 1978 Superman movie.
Superman Returns will also feature some brief footage of Marlon Brando as Jor-El, salvaged from Donner's production. But Singer demurred when asked if other Brando footage, including outtakes, might end up on an eventual Superman Returns DVD.
"That all depends," he said. "I have no idea. It's definitely fascinating to look at sometimes. Like any movie, sometimes ... when you're filming you get the words right, sometimes you don't, and sometimes you talk about it and so ... I don't know what would be appropriate, what would be inappropriate, to put on a DVD. And that would also probably come down to the rights issue, the estate rights of Marlon Brando. We have the rights to ... use elements and aspects of him as Jor-El. But whether you can use ... —I don't even know if I'm violating any rights by telling you the Brando bloopers—but they're definitely fun. But when he's on, he's on. He's Jor-El. It's amazing." Superman Returns is still in production in Australia, with an eye to a June 2006 release.
Superman Trailer Debuts
ryan Singer, director of the upcoming Superman Returns movie, made a triumphant appearance at Comic-Con International on July 16 in San Diego, debuting a trailer for the film that garnered a standing ovation from many of the more than 6,000 fans in attendance.
Among the surprises in the trailer: the character of Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) appears to have a child with a character named Richard White, played by X-Men's James Marsden; the voice-over featured the voices of Marlon Brando as Jor-El and Susannah York as Lara, from Richard Donner's 1978 Superman film; and the score will incorporate John Williams' famous theme from Donner's film.
The trailer also showcased Singer's new look for Superman and his universe, one inspired in part by Max Fleischer's animated 1940s cartoons and the original DC Action Comics that spawned the superhero. Singer told the crowd that he shot the movie with a new digital camera that duplicates the look and feel of film, but allows him to create a look that recalls 1940s romantic movies.
The trailer was so well received that Singer asked it to be played twice, recalling a similar reaction to the first trailer for his X2 film at Comic-Con two years before.
The Superman Returns trailer features shots of the Kent farm in Smallville and a scene of Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) and Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) in a bar, with Jack Larson as the bartender (Larson played Jimmy Olsen in the original 1950s TV series, which starred George Reeves). The trailer also features images of a deco-flavored Metropolis and ends with Superman (Routh) zooming from space back to Earth. Superman Returns is still in production, with an eye to a June 30, 2006, release.
Triangle Explores Bermuda Theories
CI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries The Triangle incorporates many of the theories surrounding the mysterious disappearances of planes and ships in the Bermuda Triangle region, including time-travel wormholes, energy from the lost city of Atlantis and alien abduction, executive producer Dean Devlin told SCI FI Wire. When Devlin and fellow executive producer Bryan Singer first decided to do a story about the Bermuda Triangle, they learned all they could about the various theories and explanations and, rather than focus on one theory, they included every theory they could find.
"What we were hoping to do was to really try and explore every theory about the Bermuda Triangle and at some point lead the audience down that path until we came up with our own conclusions," Devlin told reporters in a satellite feed from London during the SCI FI Channel's fall press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "Our hope was to look at the alien ideas about it, about the methane gas, about time, about wormholes. All the different explanations that have been given we wanted to explore within the six hours."
SCI FI Channel research found that an estimated 8,000 people have reportedly disappeared without a trace in the past 200 years, including the famous incident in which five jet fighters and a rescue plane disappeared, often referred to as the Flight 19 incident.
Screenwriter and co-producer Rockne O'Bannon added: "There's so many extant theories. Methane gas is one. Pilot disorientation is another. So there's a certain answer that you can give for certain disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, but no single one of those answers applies to everything. So we started with that premise and said, 'OK let's throw into this mix a set of characters who aren't coming at this as dedicated Bermuda Triangle enthusiasts, but are people that are really coming to this with a very jaundiced eye."
O'Bannon said the real history of the Bermuda Triangle goes way back. "Part of the fun for Bryan, Dean and myself in putting the story together was to come up with the images and events in The Triangle. We obviously touch on some of the classic ones, because you really need to have Flight 19 touched upon in a Bermuda Triangle story. We actually hearken back to Christopher Columbus, because there's evidence that Christopher Columbus had a Bermuda Triangle experience in the Sargasso Sea just before finding land. We use those kind of iconic things that everyone would expect from a Bermuda Triangle story. But then the fun was for new theories." The new theories won't be revealed until The Triangle debuts in December.
Bell Rings Up The Triangle
atherine Bell, one of the stars of SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries The Triangle, told SCI FI Wire that she's attracted to roles in the science fiction genre, so it's not surprising to see her playing a deep-ocean research engineer in the miniseries. Bell, who is perhaps best known for her starring role as Lt. Col. "Mac" MacKenzie in the TV series JAG, has starred in such SF&F projects as The Time Shifters, Alien Nation: Body and Soul and Bruce Almighty. She's also had a role in the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
The Triangle also suits Bell in another significant way: She was studying to become a biomedical engineer or a doctor while going to the University of California, Los Angeles, before she fell into acting after a part-time modeling career took off, she said.
"I do like the genre," Bell said during interviews for the channel's fall press preview last week. "I mean, obviously, it depends on the project. [But] this is a fantastic script that I was drawn to immediately. It's science fiction. It's action. It's adventure and ... with a strong, intelligent woman."
In The Triangle, Bell is part of a team of skeptical experts who try to figure out why planes and ships are disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. The miniseries was developed by executive producers Bryan Singer and Dean Devlin and stars Eric Stoltz, Bruce Davison, Michael Rodgers, Lou Diamond Phillips and Sam Neill.
"Science fiction is exciting," Bell said. "It's mystery. It's 'what if?' And it's being able to be a child again for a few hours while you're watching it and putting yourself in it." The Triangle premieres in December.
SF Movies Paved Way For Triangle
ean Devlin, one of the executive producers of SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries The Triangle, told SCI FI Wire that interest in such shows has been fueled in part by the recent string of successful SF movies—including the X-Men films directed by Devlin's Triangle executive producing partner, Bryan Singer. "Television is catching up with what feature films are doing," Devlin told reporters via satellite hookup from London during SCI FI's fall press preview in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Co-producer Rockne S. O'Bannon, who also wrote the screenplay for The Triangle, based on Singer and Devlin's ideas, agreed. "Lost, Medium and Battlestar Galactica are really good drama," he said. "They're not just about the supernatural event themselves. It's about the characters. Taking Lost, for example. It's essentially people lost on an island. It's a survival story, and the supernatural element is then brought in on top of that, as opposed to what we've seen often in the past, which were shows very specifically about the supernatural event alone."
Singer is keeping one eye on the miniseries' production in South Africa while he's in the middle of directing the feature film Superman Returns in Australia, Devlin said. Singer and Devlin met at the Sundance Film Festival when Singer introduced The Usual Suspects to the world. "Bryan Singer and I wanted to work together for a long time," Devlin added.
Singer and Devlin are also putting their stamp on the special effects. Devlin said. "There are 800 digital effect shots [in The Triangle], but none of those effect shots would be meaningful if we didn't care about the people in those effect shots," Devlin added.
The Triangle, a six-hour miniseries, is being directed by Craig Baxley (Storm of the Century) and co-stars Eric Stoltz, Catherine Bell, Michael Rodgers, Bruce Davison, Lou Diamond Phillips and Sam Neill. It premieres in December.
Carter Open To Wonder Cameo
ynda Carter, who played Diana Prince/Wonder Woman in the 1970s television series Wonder Woman, told SCI FI Wire that she'd welcome the opportunity to appear in the big-screen version to be written and directed by Joss Whedon. "There is actually this thing on the Internet, like a sign-up campaign, that says, 'We want Lynda in Wonder Woman,'" Carter said in an interview while promoting her latest movie, the SF family comedy Sky High. "It's very cute, very sweet. I think it would be great. I'd love to do it."
Carter, who has said that she'd be interested in playing Diana's/Wonder Woman's mother in the Whedon feature, added: "I just hope that the concept is one that's really about the characters themselves. And I hope they cast [Diana/Wonder Woman] as someone who's got a real heart. If they can do the movie with a heart, no matter what they do, they'll be OK." Whedon is still writing his script for Wonder Woman, but has said he would start the process this fall, after launching Serenity, the movie based on his canceled SF TV series Firefly.
Carter played the superhero for three years on the hit TV show. She admitted that she has talked to Warner Brothers studio executives about how she might be a part of the new film. She hasn't talked to Whedon or producer Joel Silver, but added: "I have talked to some of the people at Warner Brothers, and I don't even know if they want to go there. They may be terrified of it. They may not want to have any nod, because of obvious comparisons, and fortunately, ... no matter what they do, there will always be a comparison."
Carter said that she's willing to do a cameo. "It would depend on the role. I don't think I would be interested in doing something gratuitous, just to do it, just to say, 'Oh there's Lynda Carter.' But if there was a role in which I could kind of tie up loose ends, that would be cool."
Carter A Wonder In Sky High
elevision Wonder Woman Lynda Carter told SCI FI Wire that she'd resisted all previous attempts to get her either to play or to parody the iconic character, but added that she couldn't resist when approached by makers of the SF family comedy Sky High. The film casts her as Principal Powers, who runs Sky High, a school for the children of superheroes. "I think it will really appeal to the kids that are my daughter's age, and she's 14," Carter said in an interview. "It's this idea, not unlike with Wonder Woman, where there's this secret person inside of you wanting to be discovered or wanting to go out and discover."
Carter added: "I really think you feel that, especially in your early teens. There's that 'goddess' or 'god-within' feeling. So I think the story feeds on that. It's a beautiful movie, because you start off with the hero class. When these kids hit puberty, their superhero powers emerge. Some kids go to the hero class and, if they don't have very spectacular powers, they go to the sidekick class. It's hysterically funny. And I think that Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston, who play parents [of the central teen boy] in the movie, are wonderful."
Carter said that, considering the success of recent comic-book-based movies, the timing may be perfect for Sky High. "I don't know what it is, but there must be this collective consciousness," Carter said. "I don't think it's because people spy and see what's on anybody else's plates, but there are all these movies coming out now about superheroes. You've got Fantastic Four, Batman Begins and all these superhero things. I think it's great." Sky High opens July 29.
Sky's Preston Defends Cruise
ky High star Kelly Preston told SCI FI Wire that she doesn't believe her fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise (War of the Worlds) has given their controversial religion a bad name because of his recent rants against psychiatry and psychiatric medication.
"That's one viewpoint," Preston said about suggestions that Cruise's public debate with Brooke Shields over her treatment for post-partum depression has maligned Scientology. "But there's so many people being helped, and so many people who are thrilled for the help, and are interested in Scientology, so I don't think so. I love being a Scientologist. It's helped me in every single aspect of my life, really."
Cruise came under fire for comments about Shields' treatment, detailed in her book, Down Came the Rain, and for his claims on NBC's Today show that psychiatry is "junk science." Cruise was echoing Scientology's official position that psychiatry and other medical treatments for mental illness are evil. (For its part, the American Psychiatric Association, the main professional group, issued a statement in response to Cruise, saying: "While the APA respects the right of individuals to express their own points of view, science has proven that mental illnesses are real medical conditions that affect millions of Americans. It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need.")
Preston and her husband, John Travolta, are well-known Scientologists, and she has been an activist against the use of psychotropic drugs like Ritalin, prescribed to treat hyperactivity and attention-deficit disorder. "I've been speaking about the issue for the last seven years," she said. "I've been a child advocate for years on this and other issues and children's rights. So it's something very important to me, and the last couple of weeks, because there have been people speaking out, and because Tom has spoken out, the FDA has issued two or three different warnings, stating that these drugs, which have been prescribed for years, cause suicide, hallucinations, violence and psychosis."
(In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked manufacturers of all antidepressant drugs to include in their labeling a boxed warning and expanded warning statements that alert health care providers to an increased risk of suicidality [suicidal thinking and behavior] in children and adolescents being treated with these agents, and additional information about the results of pediatric studies.)
As for Scientology, Preston said: "It helps me in every facet of my life. It gives me things to help me with my children, to help me as a person spiritually, in living and being happy, in having what I want and doing what I want and just as a person."
Preston stars as a superhero parent with Kurt Russell in Sky High, which opens July 29.
Sky Kids Have Hero Issues
he young actors in the upcoming fantasy film Sky High told SCI FI Wire that they related to their characters' dilemma: being either a "superhero" or a "sidekick" in high school.
The Disney film centers on a school in the clouds, where teens are brought to develop their super-power skills and learn how to fight crime. The first day, the coach, played by Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead), sorts out the students as either "heroes" or "hero-support" (also known derogatorily as "sidekicks") as he assesses their super talents.
Michael Angarano, who portrays Will Stronghold, son to the most famous superheroes of the day—the Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston)—said he was always among the more privileged kids in his private boys' school, but he wasn't the best.
"I hung out with the jocks, and they all had a GPA of 4.0, and I guess I was the sidekick to the all-stars, because I had a 3.7," Angarano said with a smile.
Angarano's girlfriend in the film is portrayed by Danielle Panabaker, who has the power to control nature in the film. Although she has the clout to be labeled a hero, she chooses not to, and that's how she was in real life during school, she said. "I was definitely a sidekick in school. I had the nerdy friends," said Panabaker, who is getting a degree in English at the University of California, Los Angeles, and said that she may go to law school.
Two of the "heroes" of Sky High were a bit less defined in their own schools, but they said they very much identified with their characters. Steven Strait plays the moody rebel Warren Peace, who can shoot fire from his hands. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the school's prom coordinator, Gwen Grayson, who has the power to manipulate mechanical things.
"Warren is similar to the way I grew up," said Strait, a former model who landed this role in his first-ever audition. "He's not a hero. He's more of a drifter, and I drifted and never settled down with the heroes or the jocks or the chess club."
Winstead, who also stars in the upcoming Final Destination 3, said, "I bounced around. I was either the hero of the sidekicks or the sidekick to the heroes." Sky High opens July 29.
Weisz Steps Into Fountain
achel Weisz, who stars in Darren Aronofsky's upcoming epic SF film The Fountain, told SCI FI Wire that she plays two different characters, 1,500 years apart. "The main character, she's called Izzi, and she's in the present day," Weisz said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "She's basically someone who finds out she's got terminal cancer, and she's dying, so she's trying to come to terms with her death and with leaving her husband behind. [Then] in 15th-century Spain, [I play] Queen Isabella. And Isabel is Izzi in the present day and also Izzi in the future."
Weisz describes the film, which also stars Hugh Jackman (X-Men), as a love story housed inside a SF&F structure. It centers on the search for the fountain of youth over several millennia. Jackman also appears in three incarnations, a conquistador, a modern-day neuroscientist and a 26th-century astronaut.
"[Hugh's] such an incredible guy," Weisz said. "I had such a wonderful working relationship with him. I felt like I could completely trust him. He was my partner. He played my husband, and the whole story really relies on a kind of emotional truth between the two people, and I just felt very safe and connected, and he was a wonderful co-star."
Weisz said that The Fountain shares little in common with Aronofsky's previous feature films, Pi and Requiem for a Dream, but takes his imaginative style to another level. "[It's] completely different from his other films. There's nothing similar about it, other than that he directed it," she said. "When I saw the script, I'd never read anything like it before, really stayed in my mind, very, very unusual. And I saw from the artwork, and it was very unlike anything I've ever seen before." The Fountain opens this winter.
Aronofsky: The Fountain Is Intricate
arren Aronofsky, who directed the upcoming SF epic The Fountain, told SCI FI Wire that he wanted to create a highly detailed film that would hold up under multiple viewings. "I think this is a film that definitely will improve with viewings, because there's six years of homework in there," he said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "We worked really hard on a lot of stuff. So if you dig it, I recommend people see it a second time, because I think they'll dig it more the second time."
Aronofsky's "homework" consisted of research and elaborate conceptual designs encompassing the three vastly different segments of the film, which takes place in the years 1500, 2000 and 2500. Though each era is separated by 500 years, Aronofsky made an effort to link them all visually. "They're all deeply, deeply connected," he said. "In fact there's all these little hidden things that connect them all that hopefully people will start to connect from the three different time periods. [Like] the tree motif. There's also framings that are similar, and there's sort of blocking of how [the characters] move through the space is similar, and there's also certain shapes that are connecting. There's a lot of things that hopefully will add to the visual connection of the different time periods."
The Fountain stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in multiple roles spanning the three time periods. Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) intended the film to combine elements of romance and science fiction. "Ultimately the film's just about a man who is searching for the fountain of youth for himself and his wife," he said. "That's really what it's about. At the core it's a love story. It's just told with a lot of cool, fun stuff for all of us science-fiction fans."
Aronofsky said he tried to approach the film as an audience member, with a critical eye toward the integrity of the story. "We tried to answer every question," he said. "Because you know when you see a movie, and something doesn't make sense because it doesn't add up? That's what we really didn't want to tolerate. We wanted everything to make sense somehow. So we tried to connect it all." The Fountain opens in theaters this winter.
Pearce To Play Houdini
uy Pearce has signed to star in the Houdini drama Death Defying Acts, with Rachel Weisz in negotiations to co-star as the magician's mistress, Variety reported.
Based on true events during escape artist Harry Houdini's 1926 tour of Great Britain, the movie follows Houdini's passionate relationship with a woman he encounters in Scotland, the trade paper reported.
Gillian Armstrong will direct the movie, which was written by Tony Grisoni (Tideland) and Brian Ward (The Interpreter). It starts shooting early in 2006.
Beckinsale Fights For Underworld 2
ate Beckinsale, who returns in the role of vampire warrior Selene in the upcoming sequel film Underworld: Evolution, told SCI FI Wire that it was much easier for her to prepare for the film, having done the role before. "That really helped," she said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I mean, I was so unviolent the first time around. I really had to change a lot. And I did Van Helsing, which was part of my training, actually, for this film. So we still had a training period, but everybody was much more aware of what our strengths and weaknesses were."
The film will continue to explore the relationship between Selene and Michael (Scott Speedman), a hybrid werewolf-vampire, while the war between the two species continues underground. "We've got a lot more fighting this time," Beckinsale said. "It's easier to just fire a few guns than it is [to] actually choreograph this huge, great big fight sequence. But this time we had a bit more money. We have got a lot more fistfighting and running about and all that."
But Beckinsale, who married director Len Wiseman after meeting him on the first film, said that it wasn't the action sequences that were the most difficult for her in the film. "The sex scene was quite hard, actually," she said. "Doing a love scene was hard with my husband there. I had a little trouble." Underworld: Evolution opens Jan. 20, 2006.
Silver Talks Moore And V
oel Silver, producer of the upcoming feature film based on Alan Moore's V for Vendetta graphic novel, sidestepped a question from SCI FI Wire about Moore's public comments against the producer after a Warner Brothers press release incorrectly implied that Moore had endorsed the movie. "He doesn't really want to be involved in this process, so he won't be involved," Silver said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend.
Earlier this year, a press release, quoting Silver, initially suggested that Moore had approved the script, by Larry and Andy Wachowski (the Matrix films). But when Moore publicly disavowed the film, the comments were corrected. Subsequently, Moore (Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) cut his ties with DC Comics, which like Warner is owned by AOL Time Warner; asked that his fee be given to his V partner, artist David Lloyd; and requested that his name be removed from all publicity for the movie.
For his part, Silver defended the movie version of Moore's graphic novel, set in a dystopic future Great Britain. "I know it's a faithful transition between the graphic novel that Alan and David [Lloyd] created and the script that the [Wachowski] boys wrote," Silver said. "And I had met Alan years ago, when we had lunch one day with Alan and [Moore's Watchmen co-creator] Dave Gibbons years ago, when we acquired these projects. But, you know, since that time, a lot has happened with other Alan Moore projects, and he just doesn't want to be involved in these projects. But David liked the script."
Indeed, Lloyd sat beside Silver during a news conference to promote V for Vendetta at Comic-Con and offered his own endorsement of the movie.
"He liked how it was kind of faithful to the material, and I'm happy to have him with us to talk to you about the material," Silver said. V for Vendetta, starring Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving, opens in November.
V's Portman Talks Violence
atalie Portman, who stars in the upcoming film version of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta graphic novel, said the movie made her think about why people might turn to violence to achieve political ends. "I think it's made me think a lot about how we all sort of have our thresholds for what ... we would allow to justify violence," Portman said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I think most people in a room would say that they would commit violence to save their child, but then if you extend that to a leader of a country and say he feels like all the people in a country are children and he will commit violence on their behalf to protect them, it just changes. And you realize, you can understand that everyone has their own sort of limit for what would cause them to become violent."
V for Vendetta, which is set in an alternative future in which Great Britain has a fascist government, centers on a violent vigilante named "V" (Hugo Weaving) and the young woman (Portman) who gets caught up in his campaign to undermine the government.
"I think the main thing I learned from it was the way that we all define and judge and categorize violence is very much from our own perspective," Portman (Star Wars: Episode III) said. "It has to do with whether we agree with the person's reason or not, and it changed my opinion about violence. But ... I think overall that it's pretty bad to cause harm to other human beings. ... You realize just all violence is illegitimate. It's just sort of all violence is illegitimate, but you can't really be non-violent in a violent world. Or else you become extinct." V for Vendetta opens Nov. 4.
Logan's Eyes Berlin Shoot
roducer Joel Silver told SCI FI Wire that he is considering shooting his proposed remake of Logan's Run in Berlin as soon as director Bryan Singer finishes up his Superman movie. "Bryan is finishing Superman in Australia," Silver said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I don't know how much he loved that experience. You know, I have no problem, I'll shoot in Australia forever; I love shooting there. But he's got to be there now through September, so it's a very big shoot. We were talking about ... shooting Logan's Run in Berlin, because there's incredible locations. It could be wonderful there." Silver is currently producing V for Vendetta, which partly shot in Berlin.
Singer and other writers are currently finishing up the screenplay for Logan's Run, a remake of the 1976 movie and George Clayton Johnson and William F. Nolan's SF novel, about a society in which young people are killed before they have a chance to grow old. "It's supposed to follow right after [Singer] finishes [Superman], so that's our intention with that," Silver said.
Island's Buscemi Back With Bay
teve Buscemi, who co-stars in the upcoming Michael Bay-directed SF film The Island, told SCI FI Wire that Bay is more adept at handling actors since they last collaborated on a movie, 1998's Armageddon. "I think that Michael is getting better at working with actors and articulating what he needs," Buscemi said in an interview. "This time was shorter. I was on it for two weeks. Armageddon I was on for months. So I sort of just got the encapsulated version of working with Michael."
Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson star in The Island as clones on the run. Buscemi plays McCord, a human who works at the top-secret facility, and he ultimately helps McGregor and Johansson's characters escape.
Buscemi's scenes are among the quieter, talkier and funnier scenes in a film otherwise packed with frenetic action sequences. "I think we had a much more intimate relationship on this, as far as the acting, because in Armageddon it was mostly about these group scenes and a lot of the action," Buscemi said.
In addition to Bay, Buscemi has previously worked with both McGregor (Big Fish) and Johansson (Ghost World). In The Island, "my character had the job of all the exposition," he said. "How do you do that in an interesting way and not to make it just seem like you're the guy filling in the blanks for the audience? So I liked that aspect of it, that challenge." The Island opens July 22.
Kong Previewed At Comic-Con
ack Black, Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts, the core cast of Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong remake, appeared at Comic-Con International on July 16 in San Diego and screened previously unseen footage of a climactic effects sequence to an enthusiastic audience. Director Peter Jackson opened the panel with a videotaped message talking about how the original 1933 King Kong film influenced his career. Jackson then teased the crowd about wanting to see some footage from his film, then introduced an exclusive clip to a raucous crowd of more than 6,000 fans.
The six-minute footage featured an intense jungle battle between Kong and two Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs. The dinosaurs viciously attack Kong while trying to get at Ann Darrow (Watts), who is captured in his grip, when all of them tumble over a cliff into a network of vines strung in a deep chasm. The exciting scene was a mixture of green-screen live footage, animatic composites and actual completed visual-effects and live-action shots.
After the footage, the actors were welcomed onstage to huge applause. Brody, who plays Jack Driscoll, told the crowd: "I can assure you, this is a real labor of love for all of us. To get a chance to play a role of this nature, I thank Peter for his enthusiasm and attention to detail. It was really a remarkable experience."
About getting cast, Black offered: "This has more dramatic elements than my previous roles. I didn't pursue this role. [Producers and writers] Peter, Philippa [Boyens] and Fran [Walsh] called me in for a meeting, and I was doing mental backflips at the idea. I had more fun making this movie than any other."
As for stepping into the legendary shoes of original actress Fay Wray, actress Watts revealed: "It was daunting! It's an iconic part in an iconic film. I was truly nervous." King Kong is still in post-production, to be released worldwide on Dec. 14. King Kong is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Aeon's Theron Leaps Into SF
harlize Theron, star of the upcoming SF movie Aeon Flux, told SCI FI Wire that she took the unorthodox role of a futuristic rebel leader in the wake of her Oscar win for Monster for a simple reason. "I just get bored," Theron said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend. "I get bored easily. I had a great time working on Monster, and it was a creatively exhilarating experience, and it couldn't have gone any better. I just—and this is not because I won the award—it's just always been the case in my career."
Aeon Flux is based on the animated MTV series of the same name and is set 400 years in the future, when humanity has been devastated by a biological disaster and the survivors live in a walled city. Theron plays the title character, an athletic warrior in black. Though Theron has performed in a wide variety of films—from caper films such as The Italian Job to historical romances such as The Legend of Bagger Vance—she had never assayed hard-core science fiction.
"To give yourself to a film takes a lot of time, and ... it has to be something that challenges you as an artist," Theron said. "Otherwise you're just floating through eight months of your life not doing something that you feel challenged by or driven by or passionate about. This was something that scared the living s--t out of me, because it's a genre that I've never really touched upon. It's a world that I've never really experienced, and physically it was something that I've never really done. And it went back to my roots. I was trained as a ballerina for 12 years, and I was dying, I think, in some sense to tell a story physically, and I thought this was a great way to do it. And so I was scared by it, and I felt really challenged by it." Aeon Flux opens Dec. 2.
Theron: Flux Injury Was Serious
harlize Theron, star of the upcoming SF movie Aeon Flux, revealed to SCI FI Wire that her neck injury during production was more serious than initially reported, resulting in nerve damage. "I was hospitalized for five days in Berlin, and then came back here and saw some doctors, and I had some nerve damage," Theron said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend. "I was numb on the right side of my body. And I think we all realized that it was a pretty serious injury. Especially when I had come back here and done some tests and saw some doctors."
Theron hurt herself last August, when production of the movie was gearing up. "It was around the 10th or the ninth day of shooting, so it was pretty early on," she said. "We still had a whole film to do. ... I did a gymnastics back handspring, about 18 of them, back to back, and I just slipped and landed on my neck with my body straight up, so with all my weight onto my neck, and I herniated the disk between my third and fourth vertebrae, and it had slipped and was really loose, and it was close to my spinal cord."
Theron returned to the United States for therapy and eventually recovered enough to return to the movie and complete the physically demanding role. The Oscar-winning actress, who was trained as a ballerina, added: "I don't really like the drama of it, but I realize that I was pretty lucky. So we just all decided that ... it was important for me to take the time to heal properly in order to go back and not veer away from the physical aspect [of the role]. To come back stronger and ready to do all of that. ... I came back six weeks later, and with the first two weeks we didn't go straight into stunts, and just slowly, slowly got myself [back]. I was doing five hours a day of physiotherapy and went back with a physiotherapist and kept working with her as well, and we did more than we had planned to do. That was very important to me. This is a very physical character." Aeon Flux, based on the MTV animated series, opens Dec. 2.
Csokas Forges New Flux Role
arton Csokas, the New Zealand actor who co-stars with Charlize Theron in the upcoming SF movie Aeon Flux, told SCI FI Wire that his character is quite different from the one in the MTV animated series of the same name, on which the film is based. "Well, my recollection of Aeon Flux when I saw it—and I never looked at it since then and that was some years ago—I purposely didn't look at it for the film. ... I loved the series, and I didn't understand or comprehend why that would want to be recreated."
Csokas (King Arthur) plays Trevor Goodchild, the scientist-leader of a walled city of human survivors in the distant future. Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) directed the movie, which stars Theron as a warrior who rebels against Goodchild and the leaders of the city of Bregna.
In the animated series, Goodchild's character is sketchy, but he appears with white hair and behaves with a certain sexual deviancy that is only hinted at. In the film, those elements have changed.
"I had a meeting with Karyn Kusama, who alleviated a lot of those concerns [about the animated series], because her attempt and accordingly mine ... was to take some of the themes and plant them in a more human sort of world. ... So that charmed me. And as for Trevor Goodchild, it wasn't in the screenplay—there are hints of what he was, and I was happy with that. ... The sexual deviance, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss that, but we have hints of it, but in a more psychological way and in a more human way, arguably." Aeon Flux opens Dec. 2.
Neeson Voicing Narnia's Aslan
ndrew Adamson, director of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, announced at Comic-Con International in San Diego that Liam Neeson (Batman Begins) will provide the voice for the regal lion Aslan in the film. "Actually, we were intending to tell you who the voice of Aslan is tonight," Adamson said, appearing via satellite from London. "Some of you have suspiciously guessed, but it is in fact Liam Neeson. We've already recorded with him, and he's fantastic."
The role of Aslan, a deposed king who seeks to free Narnia from the reign of the evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton), was the last to be filled because of the character's complex nature. "Aslan's really tricky," said executive producer Perry Moore in an interview before the panel. "He has to be this all-powerful being who can be a terrifying, brutal warrior, but can also be the warmest, most pure-hearted inspiration figure who can make you want to be the best you can be. That's a tall order to fill for an actor with just the voice."
Neeson will replace Brian Cox (X2), who was originally announced as the voice of Aslan. Moore said that after a few tests, the director and producers decided that Cox didn't fit their vision for the role. "He was phenomenal," Moore said. "We decided to go a different way with it, but he's an incredible actor. ... The voice of Liam and Aslan are amazingly matched together. Once you see it together in the film you'll see why they went that way." The Chronicles of Narnia opens Dec. 9.
Paramount Develops Smurfs
aramount has acquired film rights to the vintage cartoon characters The Smurfs and is setting up development of a 3-D computer-animated movie with producer Jordan Kerner and Nickelodeon Movies, Variety reported.
Producers have conceived the project as a trilogy and are aiming to release the first film in 2008 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Smurfs, the trade paper reported.
Par has tapped Herb Ratner (Mr. Lucky) to write the script.
The Smurfs originated in 1958 as a Belgian comic strip from Peyo (Pierre) Culliford. NBC launched The Smurfs in 1981, spawning 256 episodes and multiple Emmy awards, the trade paper reported.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
SCI FI Friday Bows Score High
he July 15 "SCI FI Fridays" season premieres of the SCI FI Channel original series Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis led the network to the top ratings of the night on basic cable among adults 18-49 and 25-54, the channel announced.
The second-season premiere of Galactica was the number-one program on television, including broadcast and cable, among men aged 25-54 and 18-49.
Stargate SG-1 kicked off its record ninth original season with a 2.1 household rating (2.6 million viewers). That was 5 percent higher in household ratings than its January premiere, 6 percent higher among adults aged 25-54 and 8 percent higher among adults aged 18-49.
Stargate Atlantis launched into its sophomore season with a 2.2 rating (2.8 million viewers), a 6 percent ratings increase over January, a 6 percent increase among adults, an 8 percent bump among adults aged 25-54 and an 11 percent hike among adults aged 18-49.
Battlestar Galactica began its second season with its highest-rated episode to date, a 2.6 household rating (3.1 million viewers).
Campbell Screams About Brain
ruce Campbell—who wrote, directed and stars in the upcoming SCI FI Channel original movie Man With the Screaming Brain—told SCI FI Wire that he's thrilled the film is receiving a theatrical release in advance of its September debut on the network. "It is SCI FI Channel's first movie ever to be in a theater," Campbell said in an interview. "So I'm very OK with it. We were wailing and gnashing, but we got it into theaters."
For 16 years, Man With the Screaming Brain was a dream project for Campbell, star of the Evil Dead pictures and a regular in the films of his friend, director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man). In Brain, Campbell plays William, a snooty American industrialist, who has part of his brain replaced by that of Yegor (Vladimir Kolev), an Eastern European taxi driver.
Campbell said that the version of Brain that will air on SCI FI in the fall is very close to the one currently playing in theaters. "SCI FI doesn't like swearing and stuff like that, and we've got swearing," Campbell said. "Some of the holes we put in there for commercials are gone, and now it plays through like a feature. It was always designed as a feature film. It was designed with a three-act structure. So basically SCI FI is getting a TV version of that. The plan was always to treat it as a feature, but we knew it was being done for the SCI FI Channel. And so there's not any gore or blood missing. We actually held back on that. Really, at the end of the day, the movie is PG-13. There are no beheadings or s--t like that."
Right now, Campbell is going theater to theater, city by city, with Brain, essentially taking it with him as he criss-crosses the country on a promotional tour for his latest book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. "We're actually doing book signings at the theaters," Campbell said. "The coolest thing about Screaming Brain is that it's given me a chance to see these great old revival houses and art houses. That's where it's been playing, which really makes me happy. So far as releasing it wider, they're playing it by ear."
Campbell added: "This was all a grand experiment. The bottom line is this was meant to promote the showing on SCI FI and also the DVD, which comes out in October. Some theaters have done well enough that they're bringing it back and doing midnight screenings in the weeks following my going through town. So we're just going to see how it goes. There are no plans. We're just staying loosey-goosey with it."
Kelly Teases Southland Tales
ichard Kelly, writer and director of the upcoming film Southland Tales, told SCI FI Wire that his difficulty in explaining the plot of the film has led to erroneous reports of what the film is about. "There's been a lot of inaccurate information put out there," Kelly said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "You're so close to something, you're so deep, you lose objectivity sometimes. I've lost all objectivity, so if I even try to describe the plot right now I wouldn't do it justice. ... When you're directing your own screenplay, sometimes there's a shorthand, and you forget that you need to explain it to everyone. Otherwise they're [confused]."
Kelly, best known for writing and directing the offbeat supernatural drama Donnie Darko, did eventually divulge some general details about the film, which stars Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Seann Willam Scott (The Dukes of Hazzard), Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (The Scorpion King) and Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). "It's set in the year 2008 over Fourth of July weekend," Kelly said. "There's a T.S. Eliot poem called The Hollow Men, where at the end of the poem, the last three lines are, 'This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but ... a whimper.' A movie starring The Rock can't end the world with a whimper. It needs to end with a bang. So that's what the movie's about."
After years of preparation, Southland Tales is just four weeks away from shooting. Kelly said that one of the reasons the film took so long to go into production is because of the unusual sensibilities of his writing, which make his work difficult to categorize. "It's stuff that doesn't fit the parameters of what the studios are looking to do," he said. "So it took a long time to push this through the system. If this one doesn't make money I'll just have to go and sell out and do something more commercial, because this has just been a bitch to get off the ground."
Galactica Will Encounter Pegasus
avid Eick, co-creator and executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, offered SCI FI Wire a few more details about the introduction of the Battlestar Pegasus, a returning element from the original series, which co-creator Ronald D. Moore revealed in a panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "This really came out of a conversation Ron and I had early on about the episodes we had seen of the original show and what felt like they might be well served by a fresh interpretation," Eick said in an interview. He added: "The storyline that we thought was interesting was the Battlestar Pegasus. And so, naturally, we put a pretty unexpected and, I think, pretty subversive spin on it. But it's definitely going to be a fixture for a while." The Pegasus appears beginning in the 10th episode of the second season.
The arrival of the Pegasus will launch a complex story arc inspired by current events, Eick said. "It stands to reason that in a show that's all about how we're all trying to survive this horrific attack by this inhuman enemy, that the thing that we're really exploring is not that threat from without, but how it turns itself inward and how it becomes insidious and internal, and how it begins to break us down from inside ourselves," he said. "And what better way to take that idea to the next level than to introduce another human being who, on the face of it, is going to help us defeat the Cylons, defeat that third outside enemy, once and for all, but in reality serves to only remind us once again that the biggest enemy is really us?"
Eick also hinted that the Pegasus will be involved in a multi-episode arc, though its crew may not be around as long. "It's not going to go away as quickly as people might think," he said. "That's not to say that the folks involved in bringing the Pegasus to us are going to remain indefinitely. But for sure it's going to be a fixture for some time." Battlestar Galactica airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
It's A Dog's World In Haint
F writer Joy Ward told SCI FI Wire that she has a longstanding attachment to dogs—so much so she named her first novel Haint, after a Weimaraner she once owned. She currently owns three Weimaraners. "Dogs are honest and straightforward," Ward said in an interview. "They are also great teachers in how to love unselfishly. If you listen, dogs will teach you about nature and how to interact with other humans. I may be in charge, but that doesn't mean I can't learn from the dogs in my life."
Haint is subtitled "A Tale of Extraterrestrial Intervention and Love Across Time and Space" and is about the relationship of the species, told from the dog's perspective, when an alien spaceship lands on Earth seeking dogs instead of humans. "Dogs were the first non-human species that decided to join humans in a shared destiny," Ward said. "However it happened, dogs and humans joined up somewhere deep in our history as a species, and they have remained part of the human scene ever since. Dogs willingly seek us out and want to be with us. And it's not just for the food or the homes. They seem to want to be with us, even when we starve and abuse them. Something in them drives them to be with humans and helps them get past the abuse to some extent."
Several questions are explored in Haint: How can the human race become more interdependent? How can dogs help humans survive and not take themselves too seriously? And how can humans understand the nature of evil and better question their assumptions of themselves and their places in the world?
"I guess, to some extent, I'm commenting on today's world by talking about the future, because the future in Haint is a direct result of how we're living today," Ward said. "In much of the developed world, we have gotten to the point that we have forgotten the value of the 'pack.' We have enough money or enough stuff or enough whatever that we think we are not dependent on those around us. We think we'll take care of ourselves and our families. The problem is that we as a species just can't survive like that, because we have pushed nature to the tipping point. The glaciers are melting. The frogs are mutating, and skin cancer is rising. All the signs are there that the generations after us are in for a nasty time of it. Haint is a snapshot of what waits.
"But Haint is also a postcard of hope," Ward added. "By listening to and learning from dogs, the most unselfish species, humans find a way to get past their own failings and band together to survive. Through canine and canine-type love and selflessness, humans have hope. Although there are a number of themes that run through Haint, perhaps this is the strongest. If we can get past our 'monkey minds,' as Haint calls them in the book, maybe we can learn how to survive."
Moore Sees Omen 666
ohn Moore (Flight of the Phoenix) will direct The Omen 666, a remake of the 1976 horror classic about the arrival of the Antichrist in the home of an unsuspecting family, Variety reported. Moore will helm the movie, to be written by Dan McDermott, for 20th Century Fox, the trade paper reported.
The movie will contemporize the tale and has been put on a fast track, as the studio has set a tentative Oct. 3 start date.
Richard Donner directed the original Omen, which starred Gregory Peck as an ambassador whose dark secret comes back to haunt him when the hellish prodigal son begins to hit his evil stride.
Trek's Doohan Dies At 85
ames Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the original Star Trek and subsequent films, died early July 20 at his Redmond, Wash., home, the Associated Press reported. He was 85.
Doohan died at 5:30 a.m., with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens told the wire service. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.
Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, B.C. Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.
"The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later, the AP reported. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.'"
When Star Trek ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Scotty. But Star Trek continued in syndicated TV both in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years, Doohan attended 40 fan gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges. He eventually reprised the role in six Star Trek movies.
In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line "Beam me up, Scotty."
"I'm not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."
Whisperer Isn't Medium 2.0
ennifer Love Hewitt, who stars as a newlywed psychic in CBS' upcoming supernatural series Ghost Whisperer, told SCI FI Wire that she's not worried about inevitable comparisons with NBC's similarly themed Medium because she feels the two shows stand apart. "I'm not very concerned with them, because all we have is a pilot," Hewitt (Party of Five) said in an interview at CBS' fall press preview in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 19. "And I think that when you really start to see the shape of this series, it is very different. I think it's different for lots of reasons. Here are the comparisons: We're both female. We're both married. And we both happen to be able to ... deal with the dead and the afterlife."
In the series, which is "inspired" by the work of avowed mediums James Van Praagh and Mary Ann Winkowski, Hewitt plays Melinda Gordon, a young wife who finds herself communing with the spirits of the departed. Though it superficially resembles Medium—which stars the Emmy-nominated Patricia Arquette as Allison Dubois, based on the real-life psychic of the same name—Hewitt said that the shows have distinct differences.
"The difference is, she sees them only them in dreams," Hewitt said. "I deal with them up close and personal. They're in my living room. I cry over their stories. I'm their last, best friend on Earth. And I have a new marriage, not an established marriage, and I don't solve crimes for them. I solve crimes of their heart, which is completely different. And I think that that will show itself."
Hewitt admitted that she's a fan of Medium, which returns for a second season on NBC in the fall. "But you know what? It's an honor to be talked about in the same sentence when you're a new show with a hit show," Hewitt said. "She's great on that show. I love that show. I watch that show. ... I'm glad we're not on the same night, because it would be very tough for me to decide which one to watch. ... I think this show will kind of speak for itself once people get to know better what it's about. It's hard after only one episode, I really think that." Medium airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT; Ghost Whisperer will air Fridays at 8 p.m.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Grace Focused On Fog
aggie Grace, star of the upcoming remake of John Carpenter's The Fog, told SCI FI Wire that her character is based on the role originated by Jamie Lee Curtis, but will have significant changes in the new film. "This Elizabeth in our version is certainly much more connected to the town," Grace said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "[She's] invested in everything that's happening. So I thought that was a really great direction to take."
In Carpenter's 1980 version, Curtis played a woman hitchhiking through the town of Antonio Bay just as it becomes enveloped in a mysterious, deadly fog. Grace, best known for her role on ABC's hit drama Lost, will play a former resident of the town, who returns for personal reasons after a long absence.
Despite the differences in her character, Grace made an effort to consult with Carpenter, who is an executive producer on the remake. "It was really lovely to meet with him and talk with him about everything surrounding the first one," she said. "I think we all felt there was a really beautiful [energy], just with Mr. Carpenter's involvement. He was very much a presence on the set, especially in the beginning. It was really lovely to have his support. He gave us, obviously, just a wonderful template that's kind of an indie horror filmmaker's ideal forever. And he did the original with, like, two fog machines and a million dollars."
In the same interview, director Rupert Wainwright explained that Grace's character will become a central focus in the new film. "The original story is really an ensemble drama; it's about everybody in that town," he said. "And they kind of all have equal weight. Apart from Adrienne Barbeau's role [portrayed by Selma Blair in the remake], but then she's all on her own as well. She doesn't really connect with anybody apart from her son. And so this story is more focused on three people, and specifically two. And to be really honest, the first story of the whole thing is really about Maggie's character, and about how she transforms in rather unexpected ways."
Another change is the character's relationship with Nick Castle, played by Tom Atkins in the original and Tom Welling in the new version. "Their relationship is more complex than the hitchhiker [story]," Wainwright said. "They're old boyfriend [and] girlfriend. She left town without letting him know. She moved to New York, and he's freaked out about that, and he's been kind of pining for her. And he's really upset. And then when he sees her again she's come back without telling him. So he's kind of freaked out that she disappeared without telling him, [and] she came back without telling him." Grace added: "There's vast pent-up sexual tension." The Fog opens Oct. 14.
Liotta Joins Dungeon Siege
ay Liotta, Will Sanderson, Brian J. White and Eva Padberg have joined the cast of director Uwe Boll's upcoming video-game sword-and-sorcery movie Dungeon Siege, producer Shawn Williamson of Brightlight Pictures announced.
Based on the popular video game of the same name, Dungeon Siege follows the hard life of lowly Farmer on a mission to save his wife and child. An unspeakably evil army, led by Gallian (Liotta), rampages across the land, destroying everything in its path, with the aim of conquering the Castle Ehb and vanquishing the King himself.
As previously announced, Jason Statham (The Italian Job) will play Farmer, Leelee Sobieski is Muriella, and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) plays Norick.
Dungeon Siege is based on Gas Powered Games' popular game. Boll directs from a screenplay by Doug Taylor, David S. Freeman and Glenn Benest.
Winstead On A Roll In FD 3
ary Elizabeth Winstead, who stars in the upcoming sequel film Final Destination 3, told SCI FI Wire that the opening of the movie is a literal roller-coaster ride. Winstead, who has previously starred as the younger version of Sissy Spacek's character in The Ring Two, plays a high-school senior who has a premonition that all of her friends die in a roller-coaster disaster.
"I'm the one who has the premonition that all my friends are going to die," Winstead said. "But I don't die in it."
Winstead, who was also in Monster Island and Wolf Lake, said that this latest installment in the creepy supernatural franchise also stars Ryan Merriman (Ring Two), Patrick Gallagher (Severed) and Jessica Amlee (They).
As in the previous Final Destination movies, Winstead must help her friends cheat death once they escape the initial disaster, though some meet an inevitable and nasty end.
"This one involves a roller coaster, and it gets very gruesome and terrifying," Winstead said. "It was insane to film. They came up with a really great way for a horrific roller-coaster accident." Filming took place in Vancouver, B.C., and FD 3 is due in theaters in 2006.
The third Final Destination brings back director James Wong, who helmed the first movie, and is written by Wong, Jeffrey Reddick and Glen Morgan. "They're bringing back the same crew who did the first one, so it will be more like that one, I think," Winstead said.
Meanwhile, audiences can catch Winstead as the charming prom chairperson with a dark side in Sky High, coming out July 29.
Gugino Saw Reality In Threshold
arla Gugino, who stars in CBS' upcoming SF thriller series Threshold, told SCI FI Wire that she relates to the show's central allegory, in which the aftermath of an alien invasion represents the changes in our world after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. "I think that, to me, we're in a place now where it sort of feels a bit like anything is possible," Gugino said in an interview at CBS' fall press preview in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 20. "The thing that was really fascinating to me, much more so than any of [the SF aspects], was the idea of, within a very short period of time, we are living in a different world. You go to sleep one night, you wake up the next morning and everything has changed. ... For me, this show should be very representative of what's going on in our world. Of course, there are these supernatural, very entertaining aspects of it, but there's also the underlying humanity of all of us being in a place that's very unsure and unstable, and a world where we're all sort of trying to figure out what's important."
Gugino plays an expert in worst-case scenarios who is called upon to oversee one of her contingency plans when it becomes apparent that hostile aliens have made contact with humans. Although she consulted with real-life crisis experts before filming the show's pilot, she soon realized that there wasn't much preparation needed for the role. "I've spoken to some people who work in think tanks, which is just a fascinating profession for me," she said. "Needless to say, in terms of the subject matter, what I found great about what the characters have run into is that there is no rule book for it. And I like very much the nightmare aspects of it, because it allows us a lot creatively, but it also sort of lets me as a character, you can see a lot of her fears, you can see a lot of the darker side that she can't actually express in her daily life. So a lot of that is just more visceral and what it's like to be a human being."
Gugino, whose last television outing was the title role the short-lived ABC series Karen Sisco in 2003, said she wasn't looking for another series, but she changed her mind after reading the script. "When I read the script I thought this is good enough to meet with them, and when I met with them I laid out everything for myself which would be important with this," she said. "I wouldn't have necessarily gravitated towards this. ... It was really important to me that this character is very complex, and to do this genre, that was really important to me. So I have been assured with great passion that that is the case, and I think it will be. ... I like that she is a woman who has a very unusual profession and is a bit of a loner, and yet there should be sexuality, there should be confusion, there should be complexity, there should be all these things in this. So, therefore, it was an interesting adventure for me to take." Threshold will air in the fall on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
CBS: Lost Not An Influence
ina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, shrugged off the influence of ABC's hit series Lost in CBS' decision to air two new SF&F shows in the fall, Threshold and Ghost Whisperer, in comments to television critics in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 19. "We don't literally go out to the community and say, 'Because that particular show is successful on another network, please bring us that,'" Tassler said at CBS' fall press preview.
But, Tassler added, "I think there's probably the appetite [for such shows]. But, ... as I've said before, every year in development, we've had some version of those kinds of shows represented. This year in particular, those two scripts happen to come in as strong as they did, and we had terrific pilots. So I think clearly there is something in the Zeitgeist, but for us, it was based on producing the best pilot scripts that we had. "
(Threshold co-creator David S. Goyer, in comments to SCI FI Wire at Comic-Con International, said that he had been developing Threshold long before Lost hit the air, but admitted that its success may have been a factor in CBS' decision to order the series.)
Threshold is a science fiction series dealing with an alien invasion. Ghost Whisperer centers on a young wife (Jennifer Love Hewitt) who can see and talk with spirits of the dead. They are only two of several SF&F shows due in the fall, including NBC's Surface, Fox's Night Stalker and ABC's Invasion.
Tassler said that the current crop of SF&F shows will rise and fall based on viewership. "We like to call it 'scheduling Darwinism,' survival of the fittest," she said. "I think with Threshold—and I've been fortunate to read the first couple of scripts, see some of the early dailies—they're really embarking on a very exciting challenge." Ghost Whisperer will air Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed at 9 p.m. by Threshold, starting in the fall.
Ghost A Smooth Ride For Mendez
va Mendez, who stars opposite Nicolas Cage in the upcoming Marvel Comics adaptation Ghost Rider, told SCI FI Wire that her character doesn't have any big action scenes, and she was OK with that. "I'm the chick in this movie, and I like that. I own that," Mendez said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I don't kick ass. But I'm the girl, I'm his woman, and there's something kind of romantic about that."
In the film, Mendez plays Roxanne Simpson, the childhood sweetheart of Cage's Johnny Blaze. When Johnny makes a clandestine deal with the devil as a young man, he feels he must leave her for her own good. The two meet up again when Roxanne, now a newspaper reporter, comes to interview him about an upcoming motorcycle stunt.
Although Roxanne appeared in the original 1970s run of the comic book, she was significantly different from the character in the film. "I thought she was a very hot, voluptuous blonde that was a little victimy for my taste," Mendez said of her character's comic-book counterpart. "She cried a lot. And certainly what I wanted to thank [director Mark Steven Johnson] for is taking a chance and thinking outside the box, because obviously I'm not blond, and I don't look like the original comic-book Roxanne."
Mendez added: "She's darker, a little more dark. And she's stronger. She's really crazy in love with this man and willing to stand behind him and beside him through thick and thin, but still having a life of her own, being an independent woman, being a career woman. She has this inner strength. [She's] not being a victim."
Mendez said that her experience on the film has opened her up to the possibility of doing more comic-book adaptations. "I'd just have to kick ass in the next one," she said. "And wear some kind of suit. Or have a cape. Oh, I'd love to have a cape." Ghost Rider is scheduled for release on Aug. 4, 2006.
Blade TV Series Coming
atman Begins screenwriter David S. Goyer told SCI FI Wire that he's producing an hourlong television series based on his Blade movies for Spike TV, to begin airing next June. "We're doing a Blade TV show," Goyer said in an interview at CBS' fall press preview in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting his upcoming SF series Threshold. "I'm co-writing the pilot with [comic writer] Geoff Johns, and it's going to be Spike's first dramatic show, and it's going to air next June."
Goyer said that the network has ordered 13 episodes of the new series, which will center on the vampire-killing hero of the Blade films, which Goyer also wrote (he directed the last one, Blade: Trinity). "It'll be Blade, but it's different than the movies, that's all I can say," Goyer said, adding that a new actor will be hired to portray the iconic character, who was played by Wesley Snipes in the movies.
Goyer's a busy man. In addition to being an executive producer on CBS' upcoming alien-invasion series Threshold, he's writing a screenplay for a movie adaptation of DC Comics' classic superhero franchise The Flash. "I'm writing it as we speak," he said. "I'm the co-show runner [on Threshold], so I go back and forth. I was there for about three hours today, then I was working on The Flash, [then] we had a little Batman meeting. I multitask."
The meeting was to discuss the expected sequel to Batman Begins, which Goyer wrote for director Christopher Nolan. As for the sequel, he said simply: "We had a meeting. That's all I can say."
Star Date Honors Trekkies
creenwriter Paul Hernandez told SCI FI Wire that he's preparing for his feature-film directorial debut: Star Date, about guys who throw a Star Trek viewing party in order to find like-minded girls, leading to the first Trek conventions. It's based on a true story.
In an interview, Hernandez described the opening scene as if making a pitch to a studio executive: "Picture this: In the opening scene it's 1972, and a couple is necking in this car, and this guy is very visibly a nerd, and you wonder what she's doing with him. Then, he notices the time, and he says he has to run home because there's a rerun of a Star Trek episode that he has missed, and he never saw it. Well, she breaks up with him."
Hernandez said that the guy then talks to his friends about finding girls who also like watching Star Trek, and they expect about 10 people. "The reality is that they end up getting about 10,000 people involved, and it's the invention of pop culture and results in the first convention," Hernandez said.
The Paramount movie will incorporate some original footage of the conventions three decades ago, showing a young William Shatner as Capt. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. He's hoping they may be involved somehow in Star Date, too.
"I did go to a few of the conventions myself as an 11-year-old kid," Hernandez said. "In 1981 I went to the Shamrock Hotel, but I didn't get dressed up, because I thought that's just too much. [I] saw trailers for Tron and Time Bandits and then [Star Trek II:] The Wrath of Khan, and the next day we became Trekkie fans."
Hernandez wrote the upcoming movie Sky High with Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley; it opens July 29. Hernandez's first screenplay, Instant Karma, is in production, starring Pierce Brosnan and the voices of Dom DeLuise, Burt Reynolds and Eartha Kitt in a film about a safecracker who is reincarnated as a series of animals.
Zone's Female Psychic Returns
ennifer Finnigan told SCI FI Wire that she will reprise the role of psychic Alex Sinclair in an upcoming "very special" Christmas episode of USA Network's hit SF series The Dead Zone. Finnigan's character was introduced in this season's third episode, "Double Vision," in which she had a few romantic sparks with Anthony Michael Hall's Johnny Smith.
"I did another episode recently," Finnegan said in an interview at CBS' fall press preview, where she was promoting her upcoming dramatic series Close to Home. "I did a very special Dead Zone Christmas. I was just there a couple of weeks ago. They wanted me to ... do more, and ... they said, 'Whenever you have a window of time to come and do a little stint with us, we'd love it.' And so I said, 'Absolutely.' I love them. And I had a blast with Michael Hall. And the character's so much fun."
Finnigan added: "It's a sweet episode. ... It's kind of a chase episode. We're trying to figure out who did it. The fun thing is that Michael Hall's character and my character really work together, because we're both psychics in different ways."
Finnigan said that producers were eager to find a character who could generate some romance with Hall's Smith, and Finnigan's Sinclair seemed to fit the bill. "They called me and said, 'We can't find our girl, and we keep thinking of you. Would you come do it?' And I said, 'You bet I will.'"
It's unclear whether Finnigan's schedule will allow further appearances, as she's the star of a new CBS show that gears up production soon. But she said she'd welcome the chance to do more: "You know what, I might want a bit of levity between this show [Close to Home]." Finnigan's next Dead Zone appearance will air in December. USA Network is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Foxx Follows Oscar With Stealth
amie Foxx, who stars in the upcoming SF action film Stealth, told SCI FI Wire that he didn't choose to follow up his Oscar-winning performance in last year's Ray with this summer action movie: That's just the way things turned out. Foxx actually shot Stealth before either Ray or his other acclaimed role of 2004, the beleaguered taxi driver in Collateral.
"Actually, this other movie I did in Mexico, it was straight to video, [a] little home movie I made," was supposed to be next, Foxx joked at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "Just kidding. No, ... movies come out of sequence. When I went to do this movie, Ray ... was, like, we just hoped we [got] funding for it. And Collateral, it was, like, just finished. So this is a good movie to come in to [next], though. It's a great movie. ... It's just fun, and ... that's what movies is about. Coming and just having a good time."
Though Foxx has made a name for himself in dramatic roles, he said he was able to bring some of his trademark comedy to his Stealth character, a fighter pilot and member of a team of aces who are dispatched to stop a rogue artificial-intelligence-powered robot plane. "What you think?" he said when asked if he was able to bring humor to the role. "Come on, man, you don't know me? Yeah, I mean, ... like I said, it's the director [Rob Cohen] again. When you start to put a film together [and ask,] who you want to be in the film, I'm sure he said, 'Jamie Foxx. Maybe we can squeeze a laugh out of [him].' So, yeah, that's all in there." Stealth, which also stars Jessica Biel and Josh Lucas, opens July 29.
Stealth Mixes CG And Real F/X
ob Cohen, director of the upcoming SF action movie Stealth, told SCI FI Wire that he chose not to use computer-generated effects to realize the film's many explosions, saving them instead for the flight sequences. Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx star in Stealth as Navy fighter pilots who must come to the rescue when "EDI," a plane with artificial intelligence, goes haywire, disregards orders and threatens to cause nuclear armageddon.
"Not me, baby," Cohen (Dragonheart) said in an interview when asked about computer-generated flames. "I use dynamite. That's all real. There are no CG explosions. I did all of those in-camera."
Cohen added: "CG fire has a randomness to it. Looking at chaos theory, there's a randomness in the chaos theory that goes to the nature of an explosion, that the minute you apply geometric-vector ... computer moves on it, it becomes too regular and almost too perfect and, therefore, does not look real. So it was, to me, much more satisfying to do it for real."
For emphasis, Cohen referred to a major Stealth sequence that takes place in a hangar. "You have 10 or 12 stunt guys and the five or six cars, and it all blows up," Cohen said. "That was done in-camera. That was 14 cameras, one take. It's just more effective. That kind of physics and reality is just much more satisfying when it doesn't look like a dainty little gas fire."
Cohen was quick to add, however, that Stealth is not without computer F/X shots. In fact, there are 800 of them in the film, and they're in there, he insisted, to serve a purpose. "I want you to not observe flight," the director said. "I want you to fly. I want to give you, the audience, an experience of flying at this kind of speed, so that you could feel the physics at play, so that you could almost feel the G-forces as you sit in a theater. I want you to feel the thrill of having this enormous power plant behind your seat, hurtling you through the screen and breaking down the fourth wall."
Cohen added: "And we did that by using the visual-effects techniques that would be impossible to replicate by truly being in the air. The camera has to take you into so many intimate and dangerous places at Mach 3, and there'd be no way to do that practically. There's just no way in the real world, but in the X,Y,Z axis world of the computer, in that CG world, I could get places and put the camera in places that would be new and fresh and be emotional, as opposed to just observational." Stealth jets into theaters on July 29.
Briefly Noted
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Imax has sealed a deal for an Imax 3-D release of the upcoming computer-animated film The Ant Bully on Aug. 4, 2006, the same day the fantasy movie is released in conventional theaters, Variety reported.
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The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, in partnership with the Seattle International Film Festival Group, announced the launch of the first-annual Science Fiction Short Film Festival, which will begin accepting short film submissions through Nov. 1.
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In memory of James Doohan, the original Star Trek star who died on July 20, NASA's Opportunity rover team gave a set of small loose rocks on the Meridiani plains on Mars the name "Scotty."
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Jim Aparo, the comic artist who drew Batman and dozens of other DC Comics heroes from the 1960s to the '90s, died July 19 of complications from a recent illness, the family announced. He was 72.
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To celebrate the life of James Doohan, who died July 20, Spike TV will preempt its normal Friday prime-time lineup to present a two-hour block of Star Trek episodes featuring Doohan as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott.
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Two exclusive new images have been posted for the upcoming supernatural horror film The Fog in SCI FI Wire's Photo Gallery section.
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Dynamic Forces announced a deal with Universal Studios Consumer Product Group to produce comics based on the SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, tentatively scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter and to be written by Greg Pak.
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The French Canadian Web site Tribute TV has posted the teaser trailer for The Fog, the remake of John Carpenter's horror movie, which debuted at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
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Ben Foster has joined the cast of Brett Ratner's X-Men 3, playing the mutant Archangel (occasionally known as the Avenging Angel, Angel II and Dark Angel), Variety reported.
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Steve Buscemi, John Cleese and Jay Leno have joined the voice cast of Exodus Film Group's computer-animated short film Igor: Unholy Frijoles, the prequel to Igor, an animated comedy revolving around mad scientists and monsters, which is due out in 2007, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible 3 is set to shoot for up to a month in Shanghai in November, and the film's climactic final scenes will apparently be shot in the cultural capital of China, Variety reported.
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The Weinstein Co. has signed a deal with Warner Brothers to distribute the first all-computer-animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, set for release in early 2007, Variety reported.
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