Clarke, Galactica, SCI FI Win Hugos
usanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell won the Hugo Award for best novel in ceremonies at the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Glasgow, Scotland, on Aug. 7. The Incredibles won the award for best dramatic presentation, long form, and the special interaction committee award went to David Pringle.
SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, meanwhile, won the award for best dramatic presentation, short form, for its first-season premiere, "33." SCIFI.COM's SCI Fiction won for best Web site, and its editor, Ellen Datlow, won the award for best professional editor.
Named for legendary magazine editor Hugo Gernsback, the Hugo Awards are the leading fan-selected awards for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy and are awarded each year by the World Science Fiction Society at the World Science Fiction Convention. About 2,000 people attended the event. A full list of winners follows.
Best Novel: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Best Novella: "The Concrete Jungle" by Charles Stross
Best Novelette: "The Faery Handbag" by Kelly Link
Best Short Story: "Travels With My Cats" by Mike Resnick
Best Related Book: The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, eds.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: The Incredibles
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: "33," Battlestar Galactica
Best Professional Editor: Ellen Datlow
Best Professional Artist: Jim Burns
Best Semiprozine: Ansible
Best Fanzine: Plokta
Best Fan Writer: David Langford
Best Fan Artist: Sue Mason
Best Web Site: SCI Fiction, Ellen Datlow, ed.; Craig Engler, general manager
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Elizabeth Bear
Special Interaction Committee Award: David Pringle
Jackson Produces Kong Extras
eter Jackson, who is directing a remake of King Kong, will also produce bonus materials for the DVD debut of the 1933 original movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jackson is working on a new documentary, RKO Production 601: The Making of Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World, a two-hour, seven-part feature included in the two-disc King Kong set, which Warner Home Video will release on Nov. 22.
One part of the documentary focuses on the mysterious "spider pit" sequence deleted from the film before its theatrical premiere in New York and Los Angeles. "For years, there has always been speculation, does this footage exist?" George Feltenstein, the studio's senior vice president of classic catalog, told the trade paper. "So we have a piece that actually explains what it was, and we do a recreation of it. For fans of the film, that's a big, important thing."
King Kong, which has never before been available on DVD, will arrive in stores in two configurations: a two-disc special edition and a two-disc collector's edition, packaged in a collectible tin, with a 20-page reproduction of the original souvenir program, postcard reproductions of the original one-sheets and a mail-in offer for a reproduction of a vintage 27-by-41-inch movie poster, the trade paper reported.
Warner also will release a four-disc collector's set featuring the two-disc King Kong special edition, along with The Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young.
Jackson's King Kong hits theaters on Dec. 14 from Universal Pictures. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Alias Begins Production
BC's Alias began production in Los Angeles on its upcoming fifth season, the network announced on Aug. 3. The new season will pick up the cliffhanger of last year, which ended with a shocking revelation by Vaughn (Michael Vartan) to Sydney (Jennifer Garner) and a sudden car crash.
Here's how ABC describes the upcoming season: "After they both survive the crash, [Sydney] learns that the man she has known as Michael Vaughn is under investigation and suspected of being a double agent. She questions whether their business and personal relationship over the years had all been a lie. When Sydney discovers that she is pregnant with Vaughn's baby, she is determined to uncover the truth about him. Meanwhile, because of Jack's [Victor Garber] past betrayal by Irina [Lena Olin], he begins to worry that his daughter may suffer the same fate as he did. He will also have to deal with the fact that he will soon become a grandfather, while still learning how to be a dad. Sloane [Ron Rifkin] will have to do some soul-searching of his own, as he makes an unholy alliance in his desperate fight to find a cure for Nadia [Mia Maestro], who is still in a coma."
As previously announced, new regular cast members will include Rachel Nichols (The Inside) as Rachel Gibson and Élodie Bouchez as Renée Rienne.
Alias returns on Sept. 29 in its new 8 p.m. ET/PT Thursday timeslot.
Hurt Had Few Words For Key
ohn Hurt, who plays a mute invalid in the supernatural horror film The Skeleton Key, told SCI FI Wire that he appreciated the acting challenge presented by a nonspeaking role. "[Director Iain Softley] told me with considerable seriousness that it was a very important part, and it didn't have any words," Hurt said in an interview while promoting the film in New Orleans. "So I did then start thinking in terms of 'Well, this is a very nice idea.' I've always been looking for a part that doesn't have to speak. It's got Gena Rowlands. It's New Orleans. And it's just got all the makings of a very good film."
A veteran of more than a hundred films, Hurt said that he had to rely on his body language to express the character's emotions, since he couldn't use his voice. "There are certain visual things that you can do, and you can help it," he said. "I don't know exactly what they are, but you can use your body. You can use a shape in order to be able to get some kind of understanding across when you're not being able to use all your equipment."
In a separate interview, Softley said that although the British-born Hurt has a widely recognized voice, he really wanted to showcase Hurt's nonverbal talents in the film. "If you're an actor of John's caliber, the challenge of playing the multidimensional aspect of Ben [is] being able to be skillful enough to communicate that with just your eyes," he said. "The eyes of course, are the most expressive tool in an actor's repertoire when it comes to film. I can't remember reading a review of an actor in any film ever saying what an amazing voice they have. I've read reviews where they've said the voice is over the top. The voice really is a significant tool for a theater actor, which John is. In terms of his film career, it's really his eyes. I think he's elevated the role, and obviously he saw the potential for that. ... He took it with both hands and kicked it out of the park." The Skeleton Key opens Aug. 12.
Romance Cut From Key
ain Softley, who directed the upcoming supernatural horror film The Skeleton Key, told SCI FI Wire that a romantic subplot involving stars Kate Hudson and Peter Sarsgaard was edited out of the film. "I was surprised by that, because that was one of the things I thought would be in the movie," Softley said in an interview while promoting the film in New Orleans. "I don't want to give away the ending. As far as this film has any romantic interest, it's the two of them. It seemed to be, on one level, that was a legitimate conclusion. The end of the film, the relationship between the two characters changes. It just seemed that was the wrong tone, or the wrong emotional moment to leave the audience with something so specific as a kiss. Certainly there was very strong audience reaction against it when we previewed it."
While Softley was disappointed that the relationship between the two young leads was cut, he was even more surprised by what didn't change. "It's not giving anything away to say that I was attracted to elements in the story that one would call very un-Hollywood," he said. "The thing that's interesting is, the actors were totally struck by that. They were thinking, 'We're not going to be able to keep it this way, are we?' The preview audiences were absolutely stunned that they were watching a Hollywood movie like this, and were absolutely convinced that those elements in the story were going to be changed. ... I was talking to Kate about it the other day, and we sort of had to pinch ourselves [and say], 'We got away with it.'" The Skeleton Key opens Aug. 12.
Hudson Unlocks Key Role
ate Hudson, who stars in the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key, told SCI FI Wire that she was attracted to the script because it was unlike anything she had done before. "It's a character-driven thriller that ends unexpectedly and boldly," she said in an interview. "And a Hollywood studio is going to actually make it? And I thought it was just so refreshing to me. Then, after the initial response to the script, I went, 'I have never done a thriller, and it will just be really fun for me to heave and pant and run and climb and break windows and scream every once in a while.' And also it lends itself to a lot of heavier work."
In Skeleton Key, Hudson plays a hospice worker who comes to live with an elderly woman (played by Gena Rowlands) and her ailing husband (John Hurt) in an old plantation home outside New Orleans. As she begins exploring the house with a skeleton key given to her by the lady of the house, she becomes curious about the one door in the attic the key won't open. What she finds there will make her question her beliefs about the power of magic and the supernatural.
Hudson, who has appeared primarily in romantic comedies up to this point, said that it was nice to be able to show a serious side in the film, one that is more like her own personality. "There are just some times you have to reach into places that are a little less familiar on a day-to-day basis in certain characters than others," she said. "For this character, it was actually quite accessible to play her. My fears were very accessible to tap into. [It was] very accessible to understand why somebody would move to a city because of music or because of a passion. And she's strong-minded and a little tough, and I feel like she's the kind of girl who's OK being alone, even though it might be a little lonely. She's OK with that, and I'm like that. So there's a lot of things that I really could relate to." The Skeleton Key opens Aug. 12.
Lucas Details TV Plans
tar Wars creator George Lucas told a conference that he will turn his attentions more to television projects, including two Star Wars-themed series, Variety reported. Lucas made the comments in a keynote talk at the annual Siggraph computer graphics conference and trade show. "My life's too short to become a film studio," he reportedly said.
Lucas added: "Lucasfilm is going more into television, but it's not a vision I'm running, either as executive producer or by laying out the groundwork."
The first series is a 3-D animated Clone Wars series that will be made at Lucas Animation's Singapore facility. He said he'll start scouring Asia for talent and try to build up 3-D animation there. In his proposed Star Wars live-action series, he said: "We're going do something that would normally cost [$20 million-$30 million] and try to do it for $1 million." Lucas said he'll shoot the series on a Sony digital camera system that anyone can buy at an electronics store.
Underworld 2 Is Evolved
en Wiseman, who directed and co-wrote the vampires-versus-werewolves film Underworld in 2003, told SCI FI Wire that he only agreed to do the upcoming sequel on the condition that it bear as little resemblance to the original as possible. "The fact that I wasn't doing it all over again is what excited me," Wiseman said in an interview. "I sat down with the studio and said, 'Look, I'd love to do Underworld 2 if it's a completely different movie. And I want a whole different tapestry and environment.' And I had no interest whatsoever to just do the first movie over again with different effects and different settings and all that. And I was able to do that, and they were really behind me in going a lot of different directions than maybe they even felt comfortable with, but I wanted to make such a different type of film. That's what interested me."
One of the most noticeable differences will be in the designs of the creatures, and the werewolves in particular, which will appear in flashback sequences looking more wolf-like and feral than before. Wiseman, who made his directing debut on the first film, said he relished the chance to go back and do things better a second time. "It's great to actually revisit, because of course there's things that you discover that work better or things that didn't work [and] you want to improve on them," he said. "Right down to the creatures we had, some things that you'll notice, some things that you won't. Some of the things that you won't notice were a huge help for me just in terms of the technology involved."
Underworld: Evolution once again stars Scott Speedman and Kate Beckinsale (who met Wiseman on the first film and married him last year). In a separate interview, Beckinsale told SCI FI Wire that she worked with Wiseman to make her character—the vampire warrior Selene—more emotionally evolved as well. "Len and I both felt that she was very repressed in the first one and we wanted to open her up, to [be] just a tiny bit more human," she said. "I mean, it's not like gags and all that stuff, but just to have a little lightness, a little bit more fun with it this time. But in terms of her relationship with Michael [played by Speedman], that's kind of opened her up a bit as well." Underworld: Evolution opens Jan. 20, 2006.
Indy IV Rumors Reported
he fan-run The Indy Experience Web site has posted several rumored updates on the proposed fourth Indiana Jones film, including one that director Steven Spielberg has accepted writer Jeff Nathanson's script. Citing an anonymous source who "works close with Spielberg," the site reported other news:
•Spielberg is leaving his schedule open to do the film after he completes his upcoming movie about the Munich Olympics.
•Executive producer George Lucas and Nathanson are currently tweaking the script.
•The tweaked draft should be finished by the fall to be submitted for studio approval.
•Star Harrison Ford has agreed to the script as well.
The site added that Paramount is eyeing a Feb. 2, 2007, release date.
Kidman Mulls Invasion
icole Kidman is in final talks to star in Invasion, an SF thriller being directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel for Warner Brothers, with Joel Silver producing, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But contrary to early reports, the film is neither a reimagining nor a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though it started out that way. When writer David Kajganich turned in his take, the studio thought it had something fresh on its hands, the trade paper reported.
Invasion takes place after a mysterious epidemic alters the behavior of human beings and follows a Washington psychiatrist (Kidman) who discovers that its origins are extraterrestrial. She must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping the invasion, the trade paper reported.
Vertigo Entertainment's Doug Davison and Roy Lee will executive-produce, along with Susan Levin, Don Zepfel and Steve Richards. The movie is eyeing a late September shoot in Baltimore.
Lions Gate Meets Sylvester
ions Gate Films has acquired the rights to the award-winning children's book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by Shrek author and illustrator William Steig, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The book, which received the Randolph Caldecott Medal in 1970, revolves around a young donkey who finds a magic pebble and turns himself into a rock to escape a hungry lion, but then cannot reverse the spell. Like Shrek, the film will be entirely computer-animated.
Steig is the author and illustrator of more than 30 children's books, including the Caldecott winner The Amazing Bone and Newbery Honor Books Abel's Island and Doctor De Soto. The DreamWorks adaptation of Shrek won the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2002.
This is the second project in the works for Lions Gate Family Entertainment, which previously announced the animated film Foodfight, featuring the voices of Hilary and Haylie Duff as supermarket products who come to life after the store is closed.
Fox Cries Wolf
ox 2000 Pictures has hired screenwriter John Fusco (Hidalgo) to adapt the novel Wolf Brother, the first installment in the Chronicles of Darkness children's book series by British author Michelle Paver, Variety reported.
The book takes place 6,000 years ago in a wild, mystical land tormented by a demon-possessed bear. The hero of the story is a 12-year-old boy named Torak who, with his wolf-cub companion at his side, sets out to defeat the bear and return a set of lost artifacts to a sacred mountain. The second book in the series, Spirit Walker, will be released in the U.K. next month and is due in the U.S. next year.
Lightsaber Auctioned For $200K
lightsaber used by actor Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy sold for $200,600 to an anonymous bidder at an auction of Hollywood memorabilia in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 29, the Associated Press reported. The lightsaber used by David Prowse under the mask of Darth Vader fetched $118,000.
Other items that brought big bids included a leather jacket worn by Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which brought in $94,400, and a leather jacket worn by Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, which went for $41,300, the news service reported.
The Star Wars items came from the collection of Gary Kurtz, who worked closely with director George Lucas from 1973 to 1981. The producer put up 75 pieces from his private collection to raise money to open a public film archive.
Stross' Latest Online And In Stores
F author Charles Stross told SCI FI Wire that he's been offering his latest novel, Accelerando, as an online download since June, though it was only released as a book last month, and that he's eager to see which is more popular. "There's a paucity of data on the subject of how books spread and who reads them," Stross said in an interview. "I'd like to go some way towards remedying this."
Ace Books released Stross' novel on July 5. A former senior programmer, Stross wants to compare the data from his server logs with Amazon.com's sales figures. "It's going to be at least a year before I have the hard data," he said. He added that he may release his figures, "but it will have to be with the consent of my publishers."
Accelerando comprises nine connected short stories, which have been nominated for four Hugos, one Nebula, two Sturgeons, two British Science Fiction Awards and one Seiun. "It's a book I can only write once a decade," he said.
"Accelerando" is a musical instruction to play at increasing speed. It reflects Stross' own experience at a dot-com company in the late 1990s, he said. "If you like the book, I hope you'll buy a paper copy of it," Stross said.
Real Ads Pepper Anarchy
erri Perkins, a spokesperson at game publisher Funcom, told SCI FI Wire that its Anarchy Online massively multiplayer online game will feature paid video commercials, but that the ads won't affect gameplay. "The video commercials are in the background," Perkins said. "They don't interfere with gameplay, and they don't increase lag time."
Anarchy Online games have always contained advertising billboards within them. Initially, the billboards were only for fictional products. Beginning in March, the billboards became a mixture of real paid ads and fictional ones. Starting in July, players entering selected areas or zones of the games began to see 15-second video billboards for such products as Panasonic, Coca-Cola, the heavy metal band Motley Crue, the television series Lost and SCI FI Channel.
Perkins said that the ads will be placed logically within the context of the game. "If you're out in the middle of the woods or inside a cave, you're not going to see the ads," he said. "Where you're going to see them is where you would normally see them in real life: in the cities, in the subways and on the sides of large buildings. These ads will add to the realism of the games."
Perkins explains that free players will see both the fictional and the paid ads and that paying subscribers to the Anarchy Online series will only see the fictional ads, unless they decide to turn the real ads on.
Advertising in video games is not a completely new trend. "There have been ads in sports games and racing games for quite a while now," Perkins said. "The idea has been coming for quite a while. Our games have such a large audience of the demographic that corporate America wants to reach so they've tuned into this medium."
Will advertisers pressure game developers to change storylines to favor their products? Perkins admitted that is always a possibility. "You never know," he said. "Advertisers do want to see a way in which games can interact with their product. Like a character reaching into a soft drink machine and pulling their product out. We don't plan on doing things like that at this time. We don't want to interrupt the gameplay."
Storms' Crispin Creates New World
F writer Ann Crispin has spent much time writing stories for other franchises, including Star Wars, Witch World, Alien, V and Star Trek, but she tells SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, Storms of Destiny, marks her first foray into an original fantasy world. Storms of Destiny is the first book in Crispin's own Exiles of Boq'urain trilogy. Crispin said in an interview that she prefers her own creation.
Working in someone else's universe allows a writer to skip character descriptions, because readers already know how a character sounds and looks, but the writer must take care to keep the continuity of the universe going.
With one's own universe, "You must describe everything, because readers have no mental pictures of characters or settings," Crispin said. "It's much more demanding in some ways, but very freeing in others, since you are free to create whatever you wish. But make no mistake: Any act of creation that large is also fraught with headaches. Readers are very astute, and they'll catch you in the smallest continuity errors. You can kill off characters in your own universe, where a franchise universe won't allow this. Picture Lucasfilm's reaction if I'd turned in a book where Han Solo died!"
Crispin said she created Boq'urain in much the same fashion as her StarBridge universe, which was a seven-book series often co-written with another author, published between 1989-'98. She writes extensively about the world's geography, culture, language and history, most of which never appears in the book and is used only for her reference. Once that's completed, the real enjoyment begins for Crispin. "The most fun I have writing is when I have a world or a universe all established, and then I can just spin tales in it," she said. "That's the lure of the series or the trilogy. You can spin tales in your own universe or world, without having to continually re-create the background and setting."
It also helps Crispin that her husband is a mapmaker and drew a map of Boq'urain, which is available on her Web site. "Once you have a map, it can give you a lot of hints regarding the plotting of a story," Crispin said. "For example, if you have mountains on the route the characters are taking, you might want to put them in jeopardy in the mountains; with bandits, say, who hide out in the mountain passes to waylay travelers. Or avalanches."
Storms of Destiny follows a disgraced warrior, a disillusioned priestess, a fiery revolutionary, a mysterious non-human healer and an enslaved prince as they race to stop an invading army, only to discover the danger is infinitely greater than they thought. It is scheduled for release on Aug. 2.
Japanese Fantasy XII Release Due
quare Enix announced that Final Fantasy XII will ship to retailers in Japan on March 16, 2006, for the PlayStation 2. The long-awaited role-playing game will then appear in North America later in 2006, the publisher said.
The latest installment in the 18-year-old franchise will feature groundbreaking real-time graphics that push the envelope of the PlayStation2 capabilities, as well as advanced pre-rendered movies.
Lara Croft To Return
ill Gardner, the new chief executive officer of game publisher Eidos, plans to resurrect the company's premier franchise this year, with Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite its original popularity, Lara Croft was almost fatally damaged by 2003's Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, a critical and commercial disaster that shipped a month before Paramount Pictures' Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life opened, the trade paper reported. In the ensuing fallout, Eidos closed Core Design, which had created all previous Tomb Raider games, and entrusted the franchise to Crystal Dynamics.
The trade paper also reported that a future Tomb Raider movie hasn't been ruled out.
Foster Sees Method In SF Madness
F author Alan Dean Foster told SCI FI Wire that there's a method to the madness with which he appears to throw together random letters to form alien names. In Foster's recently released novel The Light-Years Beneath My Feet (the middle book in the Taken trilogy), Foster has created "Vilenjji" starships; a "khirach-tel" soufflé; "Sque," the ferociously intelligent "K'eremu"; the poetic "Tuuqualian" named "Braouk"; and General "Saluu-hir-lek," to name a few.
"The important thing when creating alien names is that they be consistent," Foster said in an interview. "You can't have one alien named Cha'toul and another named Jeff. Also, the names should be, in some fashion, reflective of the alien society. For example, each name breaks down neatly into four syllables, and each syllable stands for something (surname, clan name, family name, etc.). The names of human characters should be memorable without being jejune, [so] no Bill Smith, for instance. Unless the storyline dictates specifically otherwise, they should also reflect Earth's actual population. The future, for example, is not likely to be populated exclusively by folks from Topeka. We can expect Hu Wang, Kobayashi, M'bsalu, etc., to be traveling the universe as well as [Marcus Walker]."
Walker is Light-Years' protagonist, a former commodities broker from Chicago. He and George the talking dog have been kidnapped and are to be sold as pets. But they outwit their alien captors, only to find themselves stranded a trillion miles from Earth. Not knowing in the slightest where he is and how to get home, Marcus kills time by becoming a chef, an occupation that might lead him home.
Foster said that he writes to entertain, adding: "I am always conscious that writing affects those who read. So I occasionally will slip in how I feel about life, ecology, education, science and numerous other subjects. Readers seem to enjoy this. The cardinal sin is not to preach. Readers hate being preached at. It's better to show than to shout."
The concluding book in the trilogy, The Candle of Distant Earth, will come out next year. Before that, Foster has the next Flinx & Pip book, Running From the Deity, which is due in October.
Jackson Headlines Afrosamurai
amuel L. Jackson is attached to star in and co-produce a live-action film to be adapted from the Japanese comic franchise Afrosamurai, created by Takashi Okazaki, Variety reported.
The movie is a joint production of Japanese animation studio GDH K.K. Gonzo, Fuji TV and Mosaic Media in Los Angeles, the trade paper reported. Jackson (Star Wars: Episode III) is already signed to lend his voice to an Afrosamurai TV series, set to premiere on Spike TV next year.
Afrosamurai is the story of a warrior in feudal Japan who roams the country trying to avenge the death of his father, whom he saw murdered. His nemesis is a three-armed gunman, the trade paper reported.
Production is set to begin in 2006, with a U.S. release targeted for 2007. The television series, from Gonzo and Fuji TV, will premiere in Japan after airing on Spike. Mosaic Media's Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing the feature film, along with GDH K.K. president Shinichiro Ishikawa and Fuji TV motion picture department head Chihiro Kameyama.
New Highlander To Shoot
ighlander: The Source, envisioned as the first of three new films in the popular supernatural franchise, will shoot in Lithuania starting in October, according to an announcement by Davis-Panzer Productions, Sequence Films and Grosvenor Park. Brett Leonard (Lawnmower Man) will direct, with Adrian Paul playing the immortal Scottish swordsman Duncan MacLeod.
The Source will tell the story of the Immortals as they quest to locate the Holy Grail of their world. The entire series of films will chronicle the origins of the Immortals, the announcement said.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for a storyteller of this genre to take part in the mythology of 20 years," Leonard said in a statement. "Highlander is an amazing ongoing story that I can bring my visual style to. Everything I have done has led me to this kind of mythical fantasy."
Davis-Panzer Productions is also preparing an anime Highlander feature film, in partnership with Imagi and Madhouse of Japan, as well as a video game, in conjunction with SCI Games Ltd. of London. Lions Gate Films will distribute The Source in North America.
SG-1's Anderson OKs Charity Sale
targate SG-1 star Richard Dean Anderson has agreed to autograph photos of himself to be sold by Legends Memorabilia to benefit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in its efforts to stop the slaughter of Canadian seals.
The "Signed and Sealed" charity autograph project will feature a selection of photos of Anderson taken with baby seals on the ice floes this past March. Anderson has signed each photo, with the proceeds going to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Sony Settles Fake Ads Suit
ony Pictures Entertainment must pay $1.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the studio of citing a fake movie critic in ads for several films, including Hollow Man and The Animal, the Associated Press reported.
Moviegoers who saw those films or Vertical Limit, A Knight's Tale or The Patriot during their original theatrical runs must file a claim to be eligible for a $5-per-ticket reimbursement, lawyer Norman Blumenthal told the AP. He represented a group of filmgoers who sued Sony Pictures in 2001. Any funds remaining after claims are satisfied would go to charity.
Sony Pictures declined comment. The studio did not admit any liability under terms of the settlement.
After the dispute came to light, the studio temporarily suspended two executives and vowed to monitor its publicity and advertising more closely, the AP reported.
The lawsuit, originally filed by two California moviegoers, claimed the ads fooled the plaintiffs into seeing A Knight's Tale. In one ad for the action-comedy, a critic identified as "David Manning of The Ridgefield Press" was quoted calling star Heath Ledger "this year's hottest new star!" In an ad for The Animal, Manning was quoted declaring, "The producing team of 'Big Daddy' has delivered another winner!" At the time, The Ridgefield Press, a small weekly newspaper in Connecticut, did not have a movie critic named David Manning, the lawsuit said.
Ant Bully Game Deal Set
idway Games and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment announced a deal for Midway to publish games for console, handheld and PC platforms based on the upcoming computer-animated movie The Ant Bully.
From director John A. Davis (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) and producers Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and John A. Davis, The Ant Bully is a 3-D digital movie featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Alan Cumming, Zach Tyler Eisen, Paul Giamatti, Myles Jeffrey, Regina King, Cheri Oteri, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Jake Szymanski and Lily Tomlin. The Ant Bully is scheduled for a 2006 release.
Worldwired Completes "Jenny"
F author Elizabeth Bear told SCI FI Wire that her latest three books, including the upcoming Worldwired, could be considered a trilogy—but she's not so sure. Worldwired and its two predecessor novels, Hammered and Scardown, center on Jenny Casey, a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. "It's one plot arc split up over three books, at 330,000 words—far too long to publish as one volume—rather than three separate stories," Bear said in an interview.
For the time being, Bear refers to her novels as "The Jenny books," after her protagonist. In Scardown, which was released in July, the year is 2062, and Casey, now 50, has been sent to find new worlds, because Earth can only sustain life for another 100 years.
Bear said that she doesn't like to write novels that comment on today's world, because she finds that by the time her novel is published, it's out of date. So she simply tries to tell stories.
"Books are for telling stories," Bear said. "Good stories are about something, of course, but first and foremost they're about the characters and their problems and should be readable for themselves, ages after the meta-references have fallen by the wayside. There's a ton of political humor in Shakespeare, after all, but the plays still work when all that satire goes over the audience's head."
Worldwired is due in December. After that, Bear delves into a series she calls The Promethean Age. The first book, Blood & Iron, is due out next July. The sequel, Whiskey & Water, is set for 2007.
Appleby Talks Roswell DVDs
hiri Appleby, who starred as Liz Parker in TV's Roswell, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming third-season DVD release includes a featurette of her in Japan promoting the last DVD box set. "There is a little featurette of when I went to Tokyo to promote the second-season DVD," Appleby said in an interview. "It's a little bit of a Lost in Translation, you know, [of] me in Tokyo with Roswell fans."
The third and final season of Roswell, which hits stores on Aug. 9, wraps up the teen alien series, which ran on The WB and UPN from 1999-2002. In that final year on UPN, the show underwent major changes, Appleby said.
"When we went over to the UPN in the third season, the writers, I think, had a liberty to try a lot," Appleby said. "The writers had the opportunity to sort of shake the show up. ... The season starts off with Liz and Max [Jason Behr] rebelling, holding up a liquor store. Just doing things that you would have never assumed the first season that they would have done. You know, having Isabel [Katherine Heigl] get married. ... They just really went for things, the twists and turns, I would say, in the third season."
Appleby said that she still remans friendly with some of her castmates, including Colin Hanks (Alex) and Majandra Delfino (Maria). Since Roswell, Appleby has appeared in films (Swimfan), TV films (ABC Family's Pizza My Heart) and SCI FI Channel's original movie Darklight.
But Appleby doubted that Roswell will ever be resurrected. "People ask about it all the time, but I've never heard anything real or concrete that we'd be actually making a movie," she said. "I mean, I think it sounds like a really great idea, but I don't know if there's any plans in the works."
PS2 Resident 4 Due Soon
apcom set an Oct. 25 release date for the PlayStation 2 version of Resident Evil 4, the GameSpot Web site reported. The company had previously said the latest installment in the zombie game franchise would appear in late 2005. The game, which is currently available only for the GameCube, will carry a suggested retail price of $39.99.
A limited-edition version of the PlayStation 2 game is also planned, although specifics like box art, final price, bonus features and a definite release date have not been finalized just yet, the site reported.
World Fantasy Nominees Named
inalists for the World Fantasy Awards have been announced. The winners will be named at the World Fantasy Convention 2005 in Madison, Wisc., Nov. 3-6. A full list of nominees follows.
Novel: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, The Runes of the Earth by Stephen R. Donaldson, Iron Council by China Miéville, Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart, The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe
Novella: "Tainaron: Mail From Another City" by Leena Krohn, "Soho Golem" by Kim Newman, "The Growlimb" by Michael Shea, "My Death" by Lisa Tuttle, "Golden City Far" by Gene Wolfe
Short Fiction: "The Wings of Meister Wilhelm" by Theodora Goss, "Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan, "The Faery Handbag" by Kelly Link, "Reports of Certain Events in London" by China Miéville, "Northwest Passage" by Barbara Roden
Anthology: The Faery Reel: Tales From the Twilight Realm, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds.; Polyphony 4, Deborah Layne and Jay Lake, eds.; Acquainted With the Night, Barbara and Christopher Roden, eds.; Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, Sheree R. Thomas, ed.; The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age, Harry Turtledove and Noreen Doyle, eds.
Collection: Songs of Leaving by Peter Crowther, Heat of Fusion and Other Stories by John M. Ford, Stable Strategies and Others by Eileen Gunn, Black Juice by Margo Lanagan, Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories by Joe R. Lansdale, Breathmoss and Other Exhalations by Ian R. MacLeod, Trujillo by Lucius Shepard
Artist: Caniglia, Kinuko Y. Craft, John Jude Palencar, John Picacio, Charles Vess
Special Award, Professional: Gavin Grant and Kelly Link (for Small Beer Press), S.T. Joshi (for scholarship), Sharyn November (for editing), Gordon Van Gelder (for F&SF), Terri Windling (for editing)
Special Award, Non-Professional: Ariel (for thealienonline.net), Matt Cheney (for mumpsimus.blogspot.com), Robert Morgan (for Sarob Press), Barbara and Christopher Roden (for All Hallows magazine), Michael Walsh (for Old Earth Books)
Nick Nabs Drift House
ickelodeon Movies has acquired the film rights to Dale Peck's upcoming fantasy novel Drift House, about the time-traveling adventures of three siblings, Variety reported.
Drift House will be published in September by Bloomsbury as its lead title for the season and the first book in a planned trilogy, the trade paper reported.
The story revolves around a girl and her two younger brothers, who are sent to live with their uncle in Canada in a house that resembles a ship perched at the edge of the sea. The siblings discover in the house a mural that seems to predict the future, a dumbwaiter that enables one of the brothers to travel into the future and a parrot historian who's also a translator.
Drift House is Peck's first novel written for children. His previous novels include Now It's Time to Say Goodbye, The Law of Enclosures, Martin and John and What We Lost.
Warner Winds Up The Terminus
arner Brothers has bought the SF movie pitch The Terminus from writer Eric Singer and set it up with Basil Iwanyk's Thunder Road Films, Variety reported.
The political thriller, set 50 years in the future, concerns a disillusioned war correspondent who finds he can no longer be objective after covering one insurgency after another. Iwanyk and Singer will produce.
Endymion Spring Rights Grabbed
arner Brothers has acquired the soon-to-be published young-adult fantasy manuscript Endymion Spring for Alysia Cotter and her new production banner, Bueller Films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Endymion is set in present-day Oxford and in 1450s Germany, at the dawn of printing. A young printer's apprentice discovers a mysterious chest with clasps that look like snakes' heads, with fangs that are rumored to be poisoned. When he touches it, the fangs pierce his fingers, drawing blood, and the chest opens. It contains a secret that will endure for more than 500 years, until one lonely boy accidentally discovers it, beginning a quest for knowledge and power that puts him and humanity in grave danger, the trade paper reported.
The book, by Matthew Skelton, is due to be published next year by Penguin in the United Kingdom and by Delacourt in the United States. The first-time author is an Oxford graduate with a Ph.D. in English literature.
Strange Screenplay Nearly Done
usanna Clarke, author of the best-selling Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, told SCI FI Wire that Christopher Hampton's screenplay adaptation is nearly finished. New Line Cinema hired Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) to adapt Clarke's novel. "He's a marvelous choice [of adaptor]," she said in an interview. "He understands witty dialogue."
Clarke's appreciation for wit shows in her choice to set Strange in 1806 England. "I wanted to write a fantasy book, and although I've read the classics—C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin—I hadn't read a lot of later fantasy. My characters were initially going to be 18th-century magicians, but they kind of crept forward and settled in the early 19th century. Jane Austen's idioms and language lured me forward, and the Napoleonic war became the showcase for the characters' abilities."
Strange centers on two English sorcerers who try to revive the use of magic against the backdrop of Napoleon's wars in Europe. Clarke has high hopes for a film version of the book, which has not been given a green light for production. "A film and a book are two different animals," she said. "The book was under my control, mine to mold, and film is a collaborative piece of work. But there are many things that can go wonderfully right with film."
Because of a health setback, Clarke is on hiatus from her next novel, set in the same universe as Strange. But as a Hugo Award nominee for best novel, she plans to make an appearance at the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, U.K., this weekend. "I'm looking forward to that ceremony, because a lot of my friends will be there," she said.
Does she think Strange, her first novel, will win? "No," she said. "I should be amazed if I do. But it's really nice to be nominated for something and not have to make the winner's speech."
Briefly Noted
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Ashton Kutcher (The Butterfly Effect), 27, and Lindsay Lohan (Herbie: Fully Loaded), 19, took first and second place on Teen People's list of power-wielding young Hollywood stars.
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ComingSoon.net, citing the Hungarian Web site Moziplussz.hu, reported that British actor Robert Carlyle will play the villain Durza in Fox's Eragon movie, based on Christopher Paolini's best-selling fantasy novel, which started shooting Aug. 1 in Hungary.
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CBS aims to get out in front of the SF brigade in the fall with a two-hour premiere of the new drama Threshold, from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT on Sept. 16, the Friday before the season officially starts on Sept. 19, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Greg Grunberg (Agent Weiss) told TV Guide Online that he will be leaving ABC's Alias this fall after four seasons.
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James Bond will drive a Fiat Panda economy car in his next film, Casino Royale, the Italian ANSA news agency reported.
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Maggie Q has joined the cast of Paramount's Mission: Impossible 3, Dark Horizons reported.
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Reggie Lee (The Fast and the Furious) has landed a supporting lead in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean 3, ComingSoon.net reported.
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Elodie Bouchez is joining the cast of ABC's spy drama Alias as a regular, playing Zoe Rienne, an internationally wanted criminal who, unbeknownst to Sydney (Jennifer Garner), has been secretly working with Vaughn (Michael Vartan) for several years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The new full trailer for Serenity, based on the SF TV series Firefly, has gone live. Find the link on SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
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