Garner To Quit Alias?
he Insider Web site is reporting a rumor that Jennifer Garner may quit as the star of ABC's spy series Alias next season. Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that "Garner has made it clear that she probably won't be returning to the show next year for a sixth season."
Garner recently married boyfriend Ben Affleck and is pregnant with their child, a pregnancy that will be written into Alias' upcoming fifth-season storylines. The site reported that producers are betting on this season's new co-star, Rachel Nichols, to replace Garner eventually. Nichols will play a new spy being trained by Garner in the upcoming season.
Garner's representatives declined to comment on the rumor to The Insider, and a representative for the show told the site: "I haven't heard that, so I can't confirm that."
Batman Sequel Proceeds
atman Begins producer Charles Roven told SCI FI Wire that the cast is signed on for a sequel, the script is in the works, new cast members are being discussed and the only delay is an OK by director Christopher Nolan. "We all hope there is going to be another one," Roven said in an interview for the upcoming Terry Gilliam film The Brothers Grimm, which he also produced. "We're waiting for Chris Nolan to declare himself. We will do it after he does that."
Batman Begins star Christian Bale has signed on to reprise the role of the seething and dark Bruce Wayne/Batman, as have Michael Caine as the butler Alfred, Katie Holmes as the love interest Rachel Dawes and Gary Oldman as police detective Jim Gordon, Roven confirmed.
But Roven added that it's too early to talk about new cast members. He discounted rumors that The Daily Show's Steve Carrell is up for the role of the Joker. Roven is working with Carrell on the big-screen version of the TV spy comedy series Get Smart and said it's way too early to talk about new cast members for the as-yet-untitled next Batman film.
Roven said that it would be possible to proceed with another Batman movie without Nolan, but added that he would prefer Nolan to do another one.
"The point is that the studio owns the franchise, and they can do without any of us," Roven said. "But it was a spectacular experience with Chris [Nolan], and he kept everyone involved and was very collaborative. So we hope it will happen again with him."
Scarecrow Back In Batman?
illian Murphy, who played the villainous Scarecrow in Batman Begins, told SCI FI Wire he's hoping to return in an expected sequel, but added that there are no plans in place yet. "I'd love to do it again," Murphy said in an interview. "I would look at the script. [Batman Begins star] Christian [Bale] was my reason I wanted to do that film. I would love an opportunity to work with him again. And, of course, I'd love to work with [director] Chris Nolan again, too. But, no, I haven't been approached about it."
Batman Begins producer Charles Roven told SCI FI Wire that Murphy's contract with Warner Brothers include his return as Scarecrow if the next installment calls for him. Nothing is for sure until Nolan decides he is coming back, but actors Bale, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes and Gary Oldman are all already signed on.
Murphy, the Irish actor from 28 Days Later, played Dr. Jonathan Crane, who becomes the masked Scarecrow. "It would be cool, wouldn't it?" Murphy said about exploring the backstory to Crane. "He's one of the oldest villains from the comic books, so I read all of those."
Meanwhile, Murphy is making another film with 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle. Murphy next stars in the thriller Red-Eye, directed by Wes Craven.
Flash Not Speeding Ahead
harles Roven, who is producing a proposed movie based on the comic-book superhero The Flash, told SCI FI Wire that the film isn't on the fast track just yet. "The script isn't complete," Roven (Batman Begins) said in an interview. "We don't even have the basis of a story. So it's way too early to talk about casting."
David S. Goyer, who is writing the script and plans to direct the film, told SCI FI Wire earlier that he was still working on the screenplay and that he hoped to enlist his Blade: Trinity star Ryan Reynolds to take on the title role. Separately, Reynolds told SCI FI Wire that he would love to do the part.
For his part, Roven said that there's plenty of buzz around Reynolds' reteaming with Goyer, but added that it's too early to name Reynolds as The Flash. "Everyone knows that Ryan and David have a great relationship," Roven said. "It's too early right now, because David's doing The Invisible first later this year."
The Invisible is a DreamWorks movie based on a Swedish supernatural thriller, about a man who dies suddenly and goes to high school the next day, only to discover no one can see him. The film is expected to begin production in November.
"It would be great if we got to a finished [Flash] screenplay by the time he went off, but I doubt we will," Roven said.
Goyer is also helping run CBS' upcoming new SF TV series Threshold, which he is executive-producing and for which he directed the pilot.
Court Vindicates Da Vinci
est-selling author Dan Brown has won a court ruling against another writer who claimed Brown's best-selling The Da Vinci Code copied elements from two of his books, the Reuters news service reported.
Brown avoided $150 million in damages that author Lewis Perdue had sought in a legal ruling that also characterized his blockbuster book as an "intellectual" work, the news service reported.
Perdue had claimed The Da Vinci Code, which has 36 million copies in print worldwide, infringed the copyright of his novels Daughter of God and The Da Vinci Legacy.
But Judge George Daniels of U.S. District Court in New York made a detailed analysis of the plots of the books, and concluded that "a reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God. ... Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalized or otherwise unprotectable ideas." Copyright does not protect an idea, but only the expression of an idea, Reuters reported.
Gilliam Tells Real Grimm Stories
erry Gilliam, director of the upcoming supernatural fantasy film The Brothers Grimm, told SCI FI Wire that the real story about the fairy-tale-collecting brothers was a lot more mundane than his fictionalized movie. Jacob Ludwig and Wilhelm Grimm were born a year apart in 19th-century Germany and began to collect folk tales passed down orally from mothers to children. They hoped to record the stories and preserve a way of life that was disappearing among the German peasants.
By contrast, Gilliam's story places the brothers in a story of magical adventures, where the fantasies become reality. Among other things, Jacob (Heath Ledger) and Wilhelm (Matt Damon) find themselves being chased by Napoleonic French authorities who think the brothers are con men.
Grimms' stories have been sanitized in Disney animated films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and others. But Gilliam said in an interview that his research found that the brothers themselves cleaned up a few of the stories they collected so that they wouldn't be too shocking for the masses.
"The irony of it all was the Grimms started burglarizing their stories before anybody else," Gilliam said, pointing out that the tales seemed more earthy when written than when passed down orally. "Rapunzel was the first one they published, but it was much different in the first edition. When the witch climbs up the tower, and Rapunzel starts complaining that her clothes are getting too tight across the belly. So clearly, she's pregnant from the prince, who keeps climbing up there. And in later editions, they simplified that."
Gilliam said with a laugh that the real brothers Grimm were concerned about political correctness when putting stories like Hansel & Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood down in print. "The first edition was a very academic piece," he said. "It was, like, 500 stories, and nobody bought it. And then they cut it down to a hundred, and they went for a bourgeois, middle-class audience, and they achieved it. So they were there long before Disney got to work on them."
The Grimm brothers were destitute when they first published their stories in 1812, which also included classic stories such as Sleeping Beauty, The Frog King and Rumpelstiltskin. Their books became a hit and were translated into 160 languages. Wilhelm Grimm died in 1859, followed by his brother four years later.
Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm opens Aug. 26.
Cast Talks Grimm Realities
att Damon and Heath Ledger, who co-star as the title characters in the upcoming supernatural thriller film The Brothers Grimm, told SCI FI Wire that they both grew up with the Grimms' fairy tales, but were shocked and horrified to find out how bloody and gruesome some of the original versions of the stories actually are.
"Sure, yeah, as kids we both had them read to us," said Ledger, who plays Jacob Grimm opposite Damon's Wilhelm Grimm. The movie, directed by Terry Gilliam, is a fictional tale loosely based on the brothers who wrote the stories, casting them as medieval "ghostbusters" who end up finding real magical curses that become the fodder for fairy tales such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and others.
"I had a copy of the Grimms' fairy tales, so did Heath, and we were read them by our parents," Damon said in an interview. "But maybe it was just being a child, or maybe my mother didn't read all of them, but going back and reading them, yeah, they were very dark. I kind of always remembered the bullet points. I didn't quite remember some of the darker details."
One of the most surprising stories is Rapunzel's letting down her hair. "Depending on your different translations, there's a point in Rapunzel, ... after the guy keeps climbing up her hair, she starts to develop a bump on her stomach," Damon said. "It's because the guy's climbing up her hair, and they're having sex in the room, and she gets pregnant. They're kind of adult stories."
For his part, director Gilliam insisted that his dark movie is meant for kids and added that he was disappointed with its PG-13 rating. "I'm actually really angry this is a PG-13," Gilliam said in a separate interview. "This film is for kids as well as everybody else," Gilliam added, saying that he'd draw the line at 9 or 10 years old. "I'm really working hard to try to ... get parents and the older brothers and sisters [to] take their kids there. I hate the fact that kids are being protected from fairy tales."
Gilliam's own favorite fairy tale isn't from the Brothers Grimm. "My favorite fairy tale is the Hans Christian Andersen one. It's The Emperor's New Clothes," he said. "I mean, that story is always wonderful, you know, that the only one that can see that the Emperor is walking down the street naked is the kid, who's still innocent enough to cut through all the bulls--t that is surrounding the king and his courtiers. That's always been my story."
The Brothers Grimm also stars Monica Bellucci, Jonathan Pryce, Lena Headey and Peter Stormare and is scheduled for release on Aug. 26.
Grimm's Bellucci Hid Beauty
onica Bellucci, who plays a 500-year-old witch in director Terry Gilliam's upcoming The Brothers Grimm, told SCI FI Wire that it was a difficult job to hide her natural beauty to play the part. "It was hard to hide my beauty for this part," Bellucci teased in an interview. "It was very hard, because they had to use ... a lot of makeup, and then you realize what you do when you see the movie, because there is a lot post-production in this movie. So when I saw the film in the end, even though I knew the script, I was very surprised. I said, 'My God, he went really far.' It was challenging as a role, because of the dual costume: the young Queen and the old Queen."
The Italian-born Bellucci (the Matrix films) gave birth last year to a baby girl and said that she practiced changing her voice as she grew older in the film, a fictional story centering on the supernatural adventures of the fairy-tale authors Jacob (Heath Ledger) and Wilhelm Grimm (Matt Damon). "I had to play the double voices," Bellucci said. "Terry in the beginning thought maybe he would add in an old voice. But I said, 'Listen, I think it is important I should do it.' So we tried and worked very well, I think. It's beautiful now. It's still my voice, even when she is old. I liked playing evil."
The special effects used in Brothers Grimm surprised Bellucci as much as any movie she's been in. "I shot some scenes, and then I would have no idea how it would come out," she said. "So sometimes it was so hard to do all this makeup and say, 'Oh, my God, how it's going to be?' And then when it's in the movie, and you see it, you know. 'No, this was important.' It was hard, but the transformations from Old Queen to Young Queen [are] so beautiful. I think they just did an incredible job. I think this is a masterpiece."
The Brothers Grimm, which also stars Jonathan Pryce, Lena Headey and Peter Stormare, opens Aug. 26.
Gilliam Still Tilts At Quixote
irector Terry Gilliam told SCI FI Wire that he may finally get to resurrect his dream movie, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, as his next project after more than a decade of difficulties. Freak storms, serious injuries and budget woes derailed Gilliam's Quixote in mid-production, troubles that were detailed in the documentary Lost in La Mancha. Gilliam said in an interview that, after some of the legal hassles are finally settled, he will finally go back to the project, which was written by Fisher King screenwriter Richard LaGravenese.
"It'll be the next one I do," Gilliam said. "I really do want to do it. The script is too good. What we did, again, it's like The Brothers Grimm [Gilliam's next film, which mixes fact with fiction]. We're not doing Don Quixote. It's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. So we take the bits I want out of Cervantes' work, rather than be caught in [the] terrible situation of doing something that exists. And so with Cervantes, we wrote something that incorporates Quixote into a story we're telling. And so I can write in a sense what I think Cervantes might have written if he was alive now, without the worry of whether he would or wouldn't. So trying to stay true to the heart of the piece without having to be pedantic about it."
Quixote starred Johnny Depp, as well as Gilliam and French character actor Jean Rochefort, who took ill just after filming began. The director hopes that the next time he sets off to do the film, he won't just be tilting at windmills.
"I've got to find a new Quixote," Gilliam said. He added: "I'm really sad that we didn't get the film finished, but at least it exists in Lost in La Mancha. At least for now."
Gilliam's next film, the children's fantasy Tideland, will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The Brothers Grimm opens nationwide Aug. 26.
Carell To Get Smart
harles Roven, who's producing a new movie version of the 1960s TV spy comedy Get Smart, told SCI FI Wire that Steve Carell will play a less-bumbling version of secret agent Maxwell Smart. Roven said that he signed The Daily Show's Carell to play the role originated by Don Adams in the TV show, which ran from 1965 to 1970 in its original incarnation.
"Steve will take the part of Maxwell Smart to a whole new level," Roven said in an interview. "He will not be as bumbling, and it will be in a contemporary setting."
Carell is making more inroads into big screen roles with parts in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Bewitched, Bruce Almighty and the upcoming film The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Get Smart was concocted by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and featured CONTROL Agents Smart and 99, played by Barbara Feldon. The film version won't be set in a specific period, but will address issues today, Roven said.
"We're getting the script together, and there will be some of the usual characters: a Chief, 99, CONTROL and KAOS," Roven said. "The script has to be there before we want to make it, but Steve will make it funny."
Steve Koren, who came up with the idea for Bruce Almighty, and Jon Zack, who's co-writing Shrek 3, are co-writing the Get Smart script, which has no director attached yet.
Wilson To Cut Hair In Mitty
ark Waters, who will direct a remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, told SCI FI Wire that his star, shaggy-haired Owen Wilson, will definitely have to get a haircut when he takes on the fanciful role in the movie, which begins shooting in September. Wilson (The Wedding Crashers) will team up with the Freaky Friday director, who just finished the Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy Just Like Heaven.
"We have joked that Owen has only ever had two haircuts: one for Bottle Rocket and one for Behind Enemy Lines, and he's going to have a haircut," Waters said in an interview.
The remake will expand the classic James Thurber short story, about a guy who lives in his fantasies. The script is still being polished by Richard LaGravanese, who was nominated for an Oscar for The Fisher King.
Waters said the film will not be a complete remake of the 1947 Danny Kaye film. "This will be taking him to different places and be very different from the original movie," Waters said. "It won't be full of fantasy sequences: We see that all the time. There are three fantasy sequences in every Scrubs. What we want to explore is what happens to the kind of person who has no grounding in reality when his reality mirrors his daydreams. It's a fantastic comedy adventure."
Mitty was something that Jim Carrey said he always wanted to do with Steven Spielberg directing, but Wilson eventually landed the role.
Ruffalo Punks Heaven Crew
ark Ruffalo, who stars in the upcoming fantasy comedy Just Like Heaven, told SCI FI Wire that he scared co-star Reese Witherspoon and others by jumping out a window after a bad take as a prank. "I was having a bad day, did a bad take, and just jumped," Ruffalo admitted in an interview. "If it strikes my fancy, I goof around a lot on set. It just keeps things loose and fun, especially when people start to get too serious and intense."
Ruffalo added: "I was kind of playing. I was leaving the set, and I just jumped out the window, and no one knew that there was like a catwalk outside that window. So we were about 15 feet off the ground, and at first half of the people were laughing, and then everyone was like, 'Oh, my God!' And it cracked them up, and then the day got fun after that. I poked my head up and everyone then started laughing."
But neither Witherspoon nor director Mark Waters thought Ruffalo's stunt was very funny, at least at first. "I was sitting there waiting to do this scene," Witherspoon said in a separate interview. "And they said 'Rolling!' And we started, and Mark said, 'I can't stand you, and I want you to get out.' And he jumped out the window! And we were on a second-story platform up in the air, and he had all the stuntmen put out mattresses and not tell us. And so, literally, we all screamed, 'Oh, my God!' Then he pops up and then jumps back in the window. It was so funny. He was always cracking up and doing something silly."
Cameras were rolling, so the scene may appear on an eventual DVD. Just Like Heaven also stars Donal Logue, Dina Waters, Jon Heder and Ben Shenkman and opens nationwide Sept. 16.
Heaven Stars Want To Believe
eese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo, who co-star in the upcoming supernatural romantic comedy Just Like Heaven, told SCI FI Wire that they each have had unusual psychic experiences.
"I've definitely had my share," Witherspoon said in a news conference. "I read a lot of books when I was about to start this movie about ghosts and people being haunted and that sort of thing. I was really close to my grandparents. There was a play in New York, there was an empty audience there, and I looked up in the middle of the play, and there was my grandfather sitting in the audience. He had just passed. I was sad that he was gone, but I really felt like from then on he was with me. I sense him, and I sense my grandmother. So I think that it's a sort of comforting thing to think that people are with you and not really a haunting."
In Just Like Heaven, Ruffalo plays a sad loner who finds himself sharing the same apartment with a nitpicking "spirit" played by Witherspoon, who isn't sure why she's suddenly able to walk through walls.
For his part, Ruffalo said that he was awakened by a powerful, frightening dream that told him he had a brain tumor. (It has since been removed, and the actor is recovered.) "I woke up sure that I had one, and sure enough, it turned out to be the case," Ruffalo said. "I don't know what to call it, but that's what happened to me."
Just Like Heaven, directed by Freaky Friday's Mark Waters, opens Sept. 16.
Playing Dead In Heaven
eese Witherspoon, star of the supernatural romantic comedy Just Like Heaven, told SCI FI Wire that the most difficult part about playing a ghost was not being able to touch anyone or anything. "We had a lot of rules on the movie," Witherspoon said in a news conference. "You weren't allowed to touch anything, and you couldn't even bump into people. It was funny, because when the other actors would come who weren't on the set every day, they would do all their lines looking right at me, and [director] Mark Waters would come over and tap them on the shoulder and go, 'You can't see her!' 'I know, but she's so loud!' So we all had these little different rules that I had to follow. It was a little different."
In Just Like Heaven, it's not clear whether Witherspoon's character is actually dead, but she finds herself sharing an apartment in San Francisco with Mark Ruffalo's character, who's a bit of a depressed loner. The romantic comedy has elements of tragedy in it, which first attracted Witherspoon to the role.
"I obviously read a lot of different romantic comedy scripts, but for me, this one was the one that had the message about how important it is to nurture yourself," Witherspoon said. "I think that women are sort of natural caretakers. They take care of everyone. They take care of their husbands, their kids and their dogs and don't spend a whole lot of time sitting back and taking time out. It had that sort of Wonderful Life quality, where you got to see her life for what it was. You go back and get that opportunity."
Witherspoon related a near-death experience she had in real life that she used for her role in this movie. "I almost drowned once when I was 4," she said. "I was at camp, and we were near a swimming pool, and I couldn't swim, and there was a time when I almost drowned. And I remember going under, thinking that no one was going to come get me out of this." Added Witherspoon, who has two children of her own: "That's why my children don't go to camp. They got me at the last second, and I had swallowed a lot of water. It was really serious. I don't even know if they told my mother. They were like, 'Oh, yeah, she's fine. She had fun.' [Laughs] I was at the bottom of the pool." Witherspoon said that she's not afraid to swim now, and her family has a pool with a lot of locks on the gate at home.
Witherspoon said Just Like Heaven is a different role for her. "It was very odd experience to be able to jump through someone's body or jump into someone's body," Witherspoon said. "That's different." Just Like Heaven opens Sept. 16.
Heaven Co-Star Is Dynamite
eslie Dixon, who co-wrote the script for the upcoming supernatural romantic comedy Just Like Heaven, told SCI FI Wire that she had Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder in mind when she created the role of a psychic who worked at a bookstore in San Francisco, but was surprised when Heder actually got cast. "I wrote in the script 'Think Napoleon Dynamite' when I wrote the part, and then on the set, I see that the part of Darryl was cast as the kid from Napoleon Dynamite," Dixon said in an interview.
Heder plays the friend of Mark Ruffalo's character, a sad loner who moves into an apartment only to find that it's inhabited by the spirit of a young woman (Reese Witherspoon). It's rare for screenwriters to have any influence on casting decisions, and Dixon said that she doesn't take credit for bringing Heder to the project.
But she added that she knew San Francisco well enough to suggest her old apartment for filming. The picturesque penthouse apartment on Mason and Green, with the great view of the bay and Coit Tower, is actually a place Dixon lived in for years before moving to Los Angeles, she said. "It looks a bit bigger in the movie, though," she said.
The psychic bookstores in San Francisco also helped Dixon with her version of the script, which was co-written by Ronald Bass. Just Like Heaven opens Sept. 16.
SG-1 Game Hits Snag
ustrian publisher JoWood has terminated its contract with Perception, the Australian studio that was developing Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, a video game based on SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, the GameSpot Web site reported. As per the contract, all rights to the game, as well as the developed source code, have transferred to JoWood's possession. Namco was originally slated to release the action game to the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC in North America this fall, the site reported.
In the announcement, JoWood CEO Albert Seidl attributed the move to the game's quality: JoWood did not believe that Perception could produce a game that would both satisfy fans of the series and arrive on time, the site reported.
Executive producer Michael Paeck told the site that the future of the Stargate SG-1 game is largely up in the air and that the company has to determine if it is economically viable to finish production before trying to find another developer. Interestingly, Paeck also said that one of the options in front of the publisher is to move development of the game to next-gen consoles.
Roth Wins Sidewise Award
hilip Roth's The Plot Against America has won the best long-form award of the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History, given to the best alternate-history fiction. The awards, named from Murray Leinster's 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time," were presented at Interaction, the World Science Fiction Convention, in Glasgow, Scotland, on Aug. 5.
Warren Ellis' graphic novel "The Ministry of Space" won the best short-form Sidewise award.
Wallace Secrets Revealed
reamWorks unveiled the first 15 minutes of its upcoming feature-length stop-motion animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit to reporters on Aug. 5, though the movie is still being completed.
In the movie, the cheese-loving Wallace and his silent but smart dog Gromit battle garden-attacking rabbits as well as an evil were-rabbit who comes out when the moon is full.
Terry Press, a marketing executive for DreamWorks, said the film is being completed by Aardman Animations, the same team that created the hit Chicken Run, and that they are working full-time to finish the film. "There are 30 sets with 30 animators each working for a week for three seconds of footage," Press said. The plasticine (not clay) models are about one-eighth scale, and a few of the models were on display at the DreamWorks studios in Glendale, Calif.
DreamWorks chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said he was amazed as he watched director Nick Park and his crew of 250 people work on the movie with "the most painstaking craftsmanship and precision. I've been such a fan of these shorts over the years. Nick Park and his team have such amazing creativity."
Park won two Academy Awards for best animated short for his Wallace & Gromit films. The Wrong Trousers in 1993 and A Close Shave in 1996 won Oscars, and A Grand Day Out was nominated in 1991.
The new movie centers on the duo's efforts to save a neighborhood from ravaging rabbits with a pest-control company called Anti-Pesto. With the Giant Vegetable Competition looming the next week, neighbors are protecting their giant pumpkin, and Gromit has his prized super-sized cucumber. They are awakened by a funny Rube Goldberg contraption that is triggered by a garden gnome that gets them out of bed, fixes them coffee and gets them on their way to the pending emergency.
The head of the competition, Lady Tottington (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter), calls the team over to suck the rabbits off her estate. But they accidentally suck in her fiance, Lord Victor Quartermaine (voiced by Ralph Fiennes), and get him stuck in their pest vacuuming contraption.
"We're just in the last part of getting the movie finished," Katzenberg said. "We are very proud of it, and hope you enjoy it." The G-rated movie will be supported by a video game being released by Atari around the same time as the film's Oct. 6 release.
DreamWorks Pins Hopes On Toons
reamWorks chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg previewed the studio's upcoming animation lineup on Aug. 5, and SCI FI Wire was there. Katzenberg admitted that the week was a tough one, given reports that NBC Universal was going to buy DreamWorks, which could spell an end to his dream of starting a new major studio. But Katzenberg kept his focus on the slate of new animated films: "I've been such a fan of art and animation, and I'm very excited about these movies," he told reporters.
On Oct. 7, the studio will release Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Over the Hedge is planned for May 19, 2006, followed by the British-based animated film Flushed Away on Nov. 3, 2006. In 2007, DreamWorks brings out Shrek 3.
DreamWorks earlier announced that McDonald's would help promote its movies in the future, starting with the third Shrek movie. In a clip of the upcoming Over the Hedge, a golden arch was clearly visible in the background.
Terry Press, a marketing executive for DreamWorks, kicked off the sneak previews by announcing that the studio's successful animated film Madagascar has earned $425 million worldwide. Press added that she hopes for similar success with the new slate of animated features. No one mentioned the disappointing box office numbers for the studio's live-action SF action movie The Island. But when Press was asked about the budget of some of the animated projects, she said: "It's not a lot compared to The Island. It's really cheap."
NBC Universal owns SCIFI.COM.
PC Advent Rising Now Here
ajesco Entertainment Company announced that it has shipped the PC version of Advent Rising to retail stores nationwide. Developed by GlyphX Games, Advent Rising thrusts players into an intergalactic adventure with a storyline created in collaboration with SF author Orson Scott Card.
Advent Rising centers on a galactic myth that a powerful, ancient race called Humans will one day unite the universe, while a race called the Seekers travel throughout the galaxy in a desperate attempt to eradicate any Human society.
Already available for the Xbox, Advent Rising is now ready for the PC at a suggested retail price of $29.99.
Land Before Time Hits TV
niversal Studios Home Entertainment has begun production on 26 episodes of an animated Land Before Time TV series, based on the hit franchise that has sold more than 60 million units on DVD and video, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series of direct-to-video sequels to 1988's The Land Before Time, directed by Don Bluth and executive-produced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, has sparked the development of the new series, which is slated to debut on the Cartoon Network in the first half of 2007, the trade paper reported. After the series airs, episodes will be released on DVD.
The Land Before Time TV series will feature many of the same characters that appeared in the theatrical movie and its 10 direct-to-video sequels, including such lovable animated dinosaurs as Littlefoot, Cera and Petrie. New characters also will be introduced. The series will be created using a combination of 2-D and 3-D backgrounds, the trade paper reported.
Universal is also preparing a 12th Land Before Time feature film, entitled The Land Before Time: Day of the Flyers, which will be released in 2007.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
It's Scooby-Don't For Now
harles Roven, who produced the two Scooby-Doo movies, told SCI FI Wire not to expect another live-action Scooby movie anytime soon, although the detective dog and his hip compadres remain a viable film franchise.
Scooby-Doo earned more than $150 million at the box office in 2002, and its sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, brought in $84 million in the summer of 2004. Roven said that he does expect to do another Scooby movie for Warner Brothers, but it's not clear if the cast would remain the same.
"Scooby-Doo is an icon, just like Batman is an icon," said Roven, who also produced Batman Begins for Warner this summer. "We will do another at some point, I'm sure, but nothing is in the works. We have had good successful releases, but for the moment we need to give it a break."
Roven said that when the franchise does return to the big screen it most certainly won't be with the real-life couple Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr., who played Daphne and Freddie in the first two films. Neither actor expressed great enthusiasm about continuing to do their roles, he said. But Matthew Lillard previously told SCI FI Wire that he'd be delighted to reprise the role of Shaggy, with or without his real-life actor pals.
"The parts of Shaggy, Daphne, Freddie and Velma [played by Linda Cardellini] are all iconic and not really personality-driven, so it doesn't really matter who plays those roles," Roven said. "But it is true that Matthew nailed it."
Tucker In Talks For Compass
ew Line Cinema announced that it is in negotiations with British director Anand Tucker (Shopgirl, Hilary and Jackie) to helm The Golden Compass, the feature-film adaptation of the first installment of author Philip Pullman's popular His Dark Materials trilogy. Tucker would replace Chris Weitz, who dropped out of the project last year, citing the technical challenges of making the epic film.
Based on the best-selling Pullman novels, the His Dark Materials trilogy comprises The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. It revolves around a young girl who travels to the far north to save her best friend and encounters shape-shifting creatures, witches and a variety of otherworldly characters in parallel universes.
After meeting with more than 50 interested filmmakers, New Line executives chose Tucker for the high-profile project thanks in large part to a comprehensive presentation the director had put together on spec. The presentation included conceptual art, visual-effects demos and a 20-page director's manifesto, the studio said. Tucker also had extensive meetings with Pullman, as well as with Weitz, who remains the film's writer. Tucker and Weitz will now work together to further develop the film's screenplay, the studio said.
Tucker's latest film, Shopgirl, stars Steve Martin and Claire Danes and is scheduled for an Oct. 21 release.
Shatner Plays Possum In Hedge
im Johnson, director of DreamWorks' upcoming animated movie Over the Hedge, told SCI FI Wire that William Shatner will spoof his Star Trek character of Capt. James T. Kirk by voicing Ozzie the Possum. "Ozzie has to show that when a possum is threatened, you pretend you are dead," Johnson said in an interview at a preview of DreamWorks' upcoming slate of animated movies last week. "He explains to his daughter [voiced by singer Avril Lavigne] how you have to die, and of course, 'You die! DIE! DIE!' in the only way William Shatner can say it."
Ozzie the Possum will seem to subtly channel the over-the-top dramatic delivery of Capt. Kirk in the animated feature, which is being prepared for release in the theaters next spring, Johnson said. (He co-directed Antz and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.) Over the Hedge is based on the popular newspaper comic strip featuring talking woodland animals.
Garry Shandling voices Verne the turtle, and Bruce Willis voices the wisecracking raccoon R.J. (He replaces Jim Carrey, who dropped out of the project.)
Over the Hedge is envisioned as a prequel to the comic strip, where the two main characters are already best friends. In the movie, Verne is initially suspicious of R.J. and doesn't particularly like him. They meet when Verne and the other woodland creatures discover that a huge hedge sprang up at the outskirts of their forest during their hibernation, and a suburban neighborhood was built nearby. R.J. explains to the other critters that the humans are friendly, and they offer their food to the animals in giant silver serving dishes that they leave outside. When Verne heads into suburbia to see if it's all true, he gets used as a puck by kids playing street hockey.
The movie also features The Daily Show's Steve Carell as the voice of Sammy the Squirrel and The West Wing's Allison Janney as the voice of Gladys, the human head of the homeowners' association.
Best in Show's Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy voice porcupine parents to three little ones who all have Fargo-esque accents and attitudes. Wanda Sykes plays Stella the Skunk, and Nick Nolte voices Vincent the Bear.
"Nolte asked us with his gravelly voice, 'What makes you think I can play a bear?'" Johnson said. "And Bruce [Willis] is fantastic as this raccoon who was practically raised by humans and is kind of a Harold Hill, Music Man huckster."
To accommodate their comic cast, Johnson and co-director Karey Kirkpatrick threw in many more gags and funny lines than the animators originally planned, especially with the latest addition to the cast, Sideways' Thomas Haden Church as the Verminator, who gets called in by Gladys to get the animals out of the neighborhood.
"Each character gets their moment in the sun with R.J., until the Verminator gets called in, and he is a threat to them all," Johnson said. Over the Hedge is expected out on May 19, 2006.
Jackman Gets Flushed Away
avid Bowers, co-director of DreamWorks' upcoming animated Flushed Away, told SCI FI Wire that the movie stars Hugh Jackman as the voice of Roddy, a pampered rat in a London penthouse. "The wretched humans are gone, and a rat named Roddy has the house to himself," Bowers said in an interview at a preview of DreamWorks' upcoming animated film slate last week. "He makes himself at home, going on the Internet, ordering food in and using the two pet hamsters as his servants." Ultimately, Roddy finds himself ousted from his luxury digs and forced to fend for himself in the sewers of London.
In Flushed Away, Jackman is reunited with his X-Men co-star Ian McKellen, who voices Roddy's chief nemesis. The Lord of the Rings' Andy Serkis (Gollum), meanwhile, gives voice to a rat named Spike, and others in the cast include British comic Shane Richie, Simon Callow, Bill Nighy, Jean Reno and Kate Winslet.
Roddy ends up being flushed out of his house while using the toilet as a Jacuzzi. Flushed Away tells his story as he tries to get back home.
As a major plot device, the British soccer team figures prominently, as did the Red Sox in the recent baseball movie Fever Pitch. Flushed Away is scheduled for release on Nov. 3, 2006.
Suit: Island Cloned Clonus
roducers of the 1979 independent SF movie Parts: The Clonus Horror filed suit in federal court on Aug. 8 in New York alleging that Warner Brothers/DreamWorks' The Island was based on their film, Variety reported. In addition to a request for unspecified damages and part of the proceeds from Michael Bay's SF movie The Island, the suit asks the court to order the studios to withdraw it from theaters and block further release, the trade paper reported.
Since The Island was released on July 22, several reviewers have noted the similarities between the two films. Premiere magazine wrote: "The first hour of The Island plays like a much more expensive, albeit scene-for-scene, remake." The New York Daily News and Memphis' Commercial-Appeal, as well as plenty of online critics, agreed, the trade paper reported.
Clonus, produced by Myrl A. Schreibman and Robert S. Fiveson, who also helmed, tells the story of a secret colony of clones who are told they will one day go to a utopian place called "America." They're actually being raised in case their human counterparts need spare organs. One of the clones escapes into Southern California and is chased as he tries to expose the facility.
In The Island, the clones are similarly raised as a source of spare parts for humans, and two clones escape into the real world, a futuristic Los Angeles, and try to shut down the cloning facility.
DreamWorks said in a statement: "The Island was independently created and does not infringe anyone's copyrights."
Made for $120 million, The Island has done poor business at the box office, grossing just $55 million worldwide to date, the trade paper reported.
Stars In Talks For New Omen
iev Schreiber and Julia Stiles are in negotiations to reprise the roles played by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in Fox's remake of the 1976 horror classic The Omen, Variety reported.
Deals for the duo would clear the way for an October production start on the thriller, the trade paper reported.
Richard Donner directed the original. The remake has Fox-based John Moore (Flight of the Phoenix) directing, from a script by Dan McDermott (Selling Time).
In an amusing marketing twist that's likely to snare a few headlines, Fox has already slated the Omen remake for release on June 6, 2006, or 6/6/06.
Man Dies After Game Marathon
28-year-old South Korean man died of exhaustion in an Internet cafe after playing computer games nonstop for 50 hours, the Reuters news service reported.
Lee, a resident in the southern city of Taegu who was identified only by his last name, collapsed Aug. 5 while he played the battle simulation game Starcraft, the news service reported. Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play online games, leaving over the course of three days only to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed.
Lee was quickly moved to a hospital, but died after a few hours, due to what doctors are presuming was a heart attack, police told Reuters. Lee had been fired from his job last month because he kept missing work to play computer games.
New Line Orders Genbot
ew Line has signed Herbie: Fully Loaded helmer Angela Robinson to co-write and direct Genbot, an SF action comedy she pitched with co-writer Alex Kondracke, Variety reported.
Genbot deals with a young woman who finds herself embroiled in a secret government operation that turns her into a cyborg, the trade paper reported.
Robinson will produce via her Pink Thunder production company, along with partners Larry Kennar and Lisa Stewart.
Universal Buys Dream House
niversal Pictures has made a preemptive deal for Dream House, a supernatural thriller spec script by David Loucka, Variety reported. Ehren Kruger (writer of The Ring) and Daniel Bobker will produce under their Bobker/Kruger banner, which just signed a term deal at the studio.
In Dream House, a man moves his family into what appears to be the ideal residence in the country, but ominous things are going on there, the trade paper reported.
Kruger wrote and Bobker produced the Kate Hudson supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key, which Universal released on Aug. 12. Kruger also wrote Terry Gilliam's upcoming The Brothers Grimm, which Bobker also produced.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Westworld Now A Go?
helved when Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California, Warner Brothers-based producer Jerry Weintraub's remake of Westworld is now a go, with director Tarsem (The Cell) set to helm, Variety reported. Schwarzenegger's representatives insisted to the trade paper that he's not involved with the project at this point. But it's certainly not a given that he won't be in Westworld should he decide not to seek re-election in next year's election or should he lose the race. His current terms ends in January 2007.
The governor was attached to star in Westworld and to produce with Weintraub before swearing off his acting career in 2003 to turn to politics.
There is no screenplay or writer yet attached to the Westworld remake. In early 2003, when Schwarzenegger was still attached, writers Michael Ferris and John Brancato had been set to pen the remake.
Cave's Headey Wasn't Scared
ena Headey, who will appear in the upcoming SF movie The Cave, told SCI FI Wire that she had a tough time playing scared while running from the film's monsters. "It was rather ridiculous," Headey (The Brothers Grimm) said in an interview. "There was this man dressed up as this monster, with a big stick on his head, and he was running after us, and we were supposed to be scared. I was not scared at all."
In The Cave, Headey plays a member of a deep-cave diving team sent to Romania to investigate the disappearance of a group of spelunkers. Though the movie is designed as a horror-thriller, Headey admitted that she was really trying to suppress giggles when she was supposed to be playing frightened.
"I'm not good at screaming," Headey said. "When I was supposed to do that, I had to just howl, and at times I just thought it wasn't going to work. You may be able to catch me about to giggle. It was all rather goofy."
But Headey added that the shoot, which included weeks of underwater filming in a set that looked like a massive underground cavern, was grueling. "I was in the water in Romania for three months, and the first few days it was exciting, but the excitement wore away pretty fast," the actress said. "Doing that for a long time can really f--k with your sanity."
The Cave opens Aug. 26, the same day as Headey's other upcoming movie, The Brothers Grimm. It was directed by The Matrix's second-unit director Bruce Hunt and also stars Cole Hauser, Morris Chestnut and Piper Perabo. "Piper and I play lovers in another movie coming up called Click," Headey added.
Tideland Deals With Childhood
irector Terry Gilliam told SCI FI Wire that his next movie, Tideland, deals with the resilience of children in the face of grief and loss. "It's about what happens when you put a kid with an imagination in difficult circumstances," Gilliam (The Brothers Grimm) said in an interview. "It's really about [the] resilience of childhood, and I'm so bored about hearing about these little children that are so victimized and are so weak. Children are the toughest creatures on the planet, and they're being protected. It's partly one reason why I tried to keep Grimm as close to the original tales as possible."
In Tideland, starring Jennifer Tilly, Janet McTeer and Jeff Bridges, a girl loses her mother to a heroin overdose, then begins to communicate via her Barbie-doll heads. She befriends a neighborhood woman who wears a beekeeper's veil and delves into her own fantasy world. Gilliam said the girl is played by Jodelle Ferland, and he enthusiastically introduced the young actress last year at the Toronto International Film Festival just before he began shooting. "She is a phenomenal little 9 1/2-year-old girl that plays the lead, and she's in every scene," Gilliam said.
Briefly Noted
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Bill Murray is in negotiations to reprise his role as the voice of Garfield in Fox's sequel Garfield 2, while Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt have signed on to return, though Hewitt's role will be greatly reduced because she is filming the upcoming CBS series Ghost Whisperer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Freddy Rodriguez, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury and Mary Beth Hurt have been cast in M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, joining stars Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard, Variety reported.
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Charles Ross, a 31-year-old actor from Canada who's seen Star Wars 400 times, has mounted a one-man show in New York that recounts the story of the first trilogy of films in under an hour, the Reuters news service reported.
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Fox 2000 has cast Sienna Guillory as Arya, the warrior heroine of its movie version of Christopher Paolini's Eragon fantasy series, joining a cast that includes newcomer Ed Speleers and Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Disney and Spyglass Entertainment are in negotiations with helmer Frederik Du Chau to direct the live-action, big-screen version of TV's animated Underdog, which will feature a computer-generated title character, Variety reported.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, now in post-production and due to hit theaters Nov. 18, has been slapped with a PG-13 rating, a first for the blockbuster franchise, due to "sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images," TV Guide Online reported.
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Dana Reeve, 44, the widow of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, announced on Aug. 9 that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, is undergoing treatment and is optimistic about her progress, the Reuters news service reported.
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Ralph Fiennes talked with ComingSoon.net about his upcoming role as the evil Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which opens in November.
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CBS announced that it will air Category 7: The End of the World, a four-hour miniseries to be broadcast on Nov. 6 and Nov. 13, starring Randy Quaid and Gina Gershon and dealing with the ultimate superstorm that wreaks havoc worldwide.
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The new trailer for the upcoming supernatural romantic comedy Just Like Heaven has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
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Roselyn Sanchez (Rush Hour 2) is returning to her native Puerto Rico to star in Yellow, which she also co-wrote and is producing, about a woman who is haunted by the death of her father, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Sturla Gunnarsson's movie Beowulf & Grendel, starring Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgard and Sarah Polley and based on the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
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