Cult Inspired By Farscape Fans
riter/producer Rockne S. O'Bannon told SCI FI Wire that the idea for Cult, the TV pilot he's currently working on for The WB, was inspired by his experience as executive producer for the SCI FI Original series Farscape. "It's kind of based on my experiences with the Farscape fan community, obviously taken to an extreme," O'Bannon said in an interview. "One of the aspects of Cult is the subculture that grows up around a television series. It's kind of a show within a show. And it's totally based on that [experience], but an extreme extrapolation, because the Farscape fans are wonderful, benign people, and not all the fans of Cult are anywhere near as benign. They're actually quite nasty."
Cult, which is currently in preproduction for a potential debut in the fall of 2006, centers around two brothers, one of whom is involved in the fan community of a fictional television series called Cult. When he goes missing, his older brother begins unraveling the mystery behind his disappearance and discovers that it may have something to do with the fandom of the show.
"It has to do with a kind of Charles Manson-slash-Hannibal Lecter kind of cult figure," O'Bannon said of the fictional series around which Cult is based. "[The brother] would go on the Internet and deal not only with the official Cult network Web site and post to that, but there's a whole set of other Web sites related to the television series, some of which are very hard to get into. They're somehow related to this Charles Manson/Hannibal Lecter cult figure, who is fictional, but you kind of wonder whether he's fictional or not."
O'Bannon said he is looking forward to next year's Comic-Con International in San Diego, where he hopes to preview the show for its ideal intended audience. "It's so perfect for Comic-Con, I can't tell you," he said. "In the pilot there's a scene that takes place at Comic-Con. Our cast of the fictional television show Cult go to Comic-Con, and the actor who plays the Charles Manson/Hannibal Lecter guy, people in the front row fall to their knees in front of him. He's like in his 50s. He used to be in, like, Glen Larson TV shows back in the '80s. So to him it's like, 'Why are these people wearing T-shirts with my face on it, kneeling for me? I'm just an actor in a TV show.' But he plays this cult leader, and suddenly it's blurring the line between the screen and life. It's TV that reaches through the screen."
Clock Ticking For Spike Movie
ames Marsters—who played peroxided vampire Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series, Angel—told fans at the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear that he's been approached informally about reprising the character in a Spike TV movie, but that it must happen sooner than later if he's to be part of it. According to a report on the Dread Central Web site, Marsters said: "I am willing to put Spike to rest, but I would love to play him again. There are constant rumblings in the background that there would be a project that would have that happen. I have been approached on the periphery about it, kind of like, 'We're not really thinking of doing this, but if we did, would you be interested?'"
Marsters added that Buffy/Angel creator Joss Whedon approached him "when Angel was still filming and asked me if I'd be interested in a TV movie, and I said, 'Hell, yeah. But you have five years.' Because this character read as a 27-year-old. [When I first took the role], I was 35 then, but kind of looked 27. Now I'm 43 looking like a 35-year-old, but my character is not supposed to age one day. I think I could maybe match that first shot, but I think I maybe have about two more years [left]."
Alias' New Members Revealed
achel Nichols, whose butt-kicking agent, Rachel Gibson, will become the youngest member of the Alias team in the fall, will tread Sydney Bristow's path, executive producer Jeff Pinkner told TV Guide Online. "She joins the team early in the season, but they don't actively set out to recruit her," Pinkner told the site. "And if I were to tell you much more, it would give away the fun of meeting her character." But introducing Nichols (The Inside) will "show how you [create] a superagent like Sydney Bristow [Jennifer Garner]," Pinkner said. "She doesn't have the skills Sydney has, but she will need to acquire them over the course of the season."
Nichols is one of three new characters signing onto Alias. French actress Élodie Bouchez will play a cohort from Vaughn's shady past. "She and Vaughn share a history," Pinkner said. "And in our season finale we started to tease the audience with what that history is and what secrets Vaughn has been keeping from Sydney. We knew there would be another player in that story, and [Bouchez] plays that role."
Balthazar Getty joins the show as Thomas Grace, a rough APO agent.
The new season picks up immediately after the car crash of last season's finale. The question of Vaughn's true identity and what else he was going to tell Syd "will be answered in the first episode—or most of it will be," Pinkner said. "The consequences reveal a new enemy who is far more pervasive and dangerous and mysterious than any we have fought before."
Vartan Addresses Alias Rumor
ichael Vartan, co-star of ABC's spy series Alias, denied to Entertainment Tonight rumors that he has been written out of the show. The New York Post reported that Aug. 17 was Vartan's last day of shooting because he was killed off in the show. Asked if this was just a rumor, Vartan replied: "Yes indeed."
The persistent rumors that Vartan is getting the boot have prompted some fans to mount a campaign to keep him on the show, though no official word has come out about Vartan. At the end of last season, Vartan's character, Michael Vaughn, was about to reveal a deep secret to paramour Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) when another vehicle smashed into their car. (In real life, Vartan was romantically linked with Garner before her marriage to Ben Affleck.)
For his part, Vartan appreciates the fans' attention, premature though it may be. "On a personal level it's flattering to know there are people out there who actually care about the character I play," Vartan told E.T. reported Kevin Frazier. "But, come on, it's a TV show. ... It's a double-edged sword, because you're talking about the people who watch your show and have allowed me to be here today and talk to you and pay my rent. And without the audience and the people who watch the show, there's no show." Alias returns to ABC Sept. 29 in its new Thursday-night timeslot.
Is Alias' Vartan Gone?
V Guide Online reported that ABC has all but confirmed that Michael Vartan's Alias character of Michael Vaughn is being killed off, despite Vartan's denial of that to Entertainment Weekly. Rumors of Vartan's departure have circulated for weeks, most pointedly in the New York Post, which has reported rumors that, among other things, the name of Jennifer Garner's onetime beau can never be uttered on set, TV Guide reported.
An anonymous representative of Alias told the site: "[This] is so not true! Of course people say [his] name. He was loved very much on the set, and [cast mates] remember him fondly. All this misinformation is being put out by fans who are angry about what happened with [Vaughn]." Alias returns to ABC Sept. 29 in its new Thursday-night timeslot.
Katrina Affects SF&F Film Shoots
evastation wrought by hurrican Katrina in Louisiana has thrown into question plans to shoot several SF&F movies in and around New Orleans, Variety reported. Warner Brothers' The Reaping was shooting in Baton Rouge, La., and a Warner spokesman told the trade paper that the cast and crew had flown to Austin, Texas. The crew is expected to return to Baton Rouge soon, and they hope to resume shooting Tuesday after a scheduled Labor Day break. But with the crew still out of town, it was too early to determine if any sets had been damaged. The Reaping, starring Hilary Swank, began shooting Aug. 15 and was scheduled to wrap in late October.
The CBS TV movie Vampire Bats, meanwhile, had a week to go on its four-week shoot. Executive producer Frank von Zertner told the trade paper: "Basically what we have left to do can be done anywhere. Most of our exteriors are pretty much accomplished. As luck would have it, we were very lucky with weather."
Bruckheimer Films has already decided to push back Denzel Washington's Deja Vu, which had been slated to start Oct. 3 and shoot for at least three weeks. The company had six weeks of prep remaining when the hurricane hit. Once the all-clear comes from authorities, it will take two to three weeks to assess the damage to locations. Six more weeks of prep will be needed after that, the trade paper reported.
Post-Katrina Invasion Ads Pulled
iting sensitivity over the real-life disaster unfolding on the U.S. Gulf Coast, broadcaster ABC has pulled its promotions for Invasion, its upcoming SF series about a family coping with the aftermath of a fictional hurricane, the Reuters news service reported.
ABC executives decided that hurricane references in promotions for Invasion, which is set to premiere on Sept. 21, might be upsetting or offensive to viewers because of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, a network spokesman told Reuters on Sept. 1.
ABC added that delaying the launch of the show was still possible, but for now ABC plans to debut it as scheduled this month.
The series opens with a powerful hurricane that hits the town of Homestead, Fla., ushering in a series of unexplained phenomena that suggest the storm may have been a smokescreen for some type of alien invasion, the news service reported.
Homestead was the real-life community leveled in August 1992 by Hurricane Andrew, which before Katrina ranked as the most costly disaster in U.S. history.
New Trek Prequel Coming?
riter Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) told Dreamwatch magazine that he's turned in a draft for a proposed new Star Trek prequel movie to Paramount, according to a report on the TrekWeb site.
"I'm excited about this project, and I think the chances of it getting made are good," Jendresen told the magazine. "It all depends on what the studio thinks, and Paramount has been through significant changes lately. But the people who are making the decisions are pretty responsible folk with a fine body of work behind them. So we'll see. Right now, I'm optimistic."
Jendresen said the film is tentatively titled Star Trek: The Beginning, produced by Rick Berman, Kerry McCluggage and Jordan Kerner. Berman has said the film won't use any existing Trek characters and will be a prequel to the original series
Jendresen elaborates: "This would take place just a couple of years after the end of the events in Enterprise, but well before the original series, and it would look at the inciting incident that started everything. The story is big and epic, and it isn't as antiseptic as the television stories had to be."
Jendresen added that the movie won't be centered on a ship. "We're looking at a very small group of men and women, particularly focusing on one character," he said. "There are a couple of ships, including a principal ship, but this is not a traditional captain-and-crew-of-a-starship story in the least."
Trek Writer Launches SF Imprint
ohn Ordover—a former Star Trek: Deep Space Nine screenwriter and former executive editor of the Star Trek line of Pocket Books—told SCI FI Wire that he is launching a science fiction imprint of Phobos Books, called Phobos Impact. The imprint's first releases, scheduled for September, are Dragon America by multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner Mike Resnick and All Eve's Hallows by World Fantasy Award winner Dean Wesley Smith.
Phobos Impact plans to "put the fun back in science fiction and fantasy," Ordover said in an interview. "Enough with the angst-ridden, self-consciously deep, overly meaningful works of 'literature' already. I got into science fiction and fantasy [books] because they were ... idealistic and upbeat. Our books range as far as the imagination, stretching from the outer reaches of the galaxy to retro-SF romance set in 1920 to an alternate universe where dragons roam North America. And that's just for starters."
Since its inception, Phobos Impact has planned to distinguish itself from other publishing houses. "We develop the initial concepts for the novels and approach a carefully selected author who is as enthusiastic about the project as we are, then polish the concept in tandem with the author," Ordover said. "We see ourselves as creators and creative collaborators, rather than just publishers."
Upcoming of Phobos Impact novels include Sword of Orion by multiple best-selling and Prism award winners Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; Blood and Roses by two-time Philip K. Dick Award nominee Ann Tonsor Zeddies; The Genesis Protocol by Dayton Ward, author of the critically acclaimed SF thriller The Last World War; LCSI: Luna City Special Investigations by fantasy novelist Steven Harper; and Phobos Rising by best-selling Star Trek novelist L.A. Graf.
And what does Ordover have to say to his readers? "They can count on us for fast, fun and fascinating books," he said.
Threshold Aware Of SF Rivals
he co-creators of CBS' upcoming SF thriller series Threshold told SCI FI Wire that they're aware of the tough competition among new similarly themed series this fall, including NBC's Surface and ABC's Invasion. Will Threshold get lost in the shuffle? "I think they're probably asking the same thing," executive producer Brannon Braga said in an interview at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
Braga (Star Trek: Enterprise) and David S. Goyer (Blade: Trinity) were frank about the trend toward genre TV in the wake of last season's hit show Lost. "There's [no] question that all ... of these shows probably won't survive," Goyer said in an interview. "But I remember when ER and Chicago Hope both debuted, everybody was all, 'Oh, they're not [going to make it]. But they both [did]. ER [lasted] longer, but they both lasted for a long time. Two of [the new SF series] might survive, or maybe only one of them will survive. But I do think it's interesting. I mean, I've seen [Invasion and Surface]. I don't know if you guys have, but they're all really different. So it's kind of funny. I mean, they're all nominally science fiction shows that are dealing with aliens, but Invasion's very much small town, kind of Bodysnatchers. Surface is like The Abyss, kind of. And then ours is this weird kind of X-files-y [show], but also Twin Peaks-y."
In Threshold, Carla Gugino stars as Molly Caffrey, the leader of a government "red team" of oddball experts who must deal with the sudden appearance of an alien threat that begins to affect them personally. In the upcoming two-hour pilot, Gugino has dreams about what appears to be an alien world after a close encounter with some UFO phenomenon.
"It's also one of the ways we're going to talk about [how] the aliens might even communicate or be communicating," Goyer said. "One of the things we're trying to do with the whole first season is ... Molly and her red team of the threshold people are scrambling to try and find out what's going on and may frequently be wrong about what's going on, because it's not like the aliens just come down and say, 'Well, we're going to be doing this. We're going to be doing this.' A lot of what we're trying to do is posit the aliens as genuinely alien, so that even struggling to communicate with them is really difficult. And because our show is going to be a slow rollout, it's going to be a while before there's even any really secondary communication with them."
Threshold, starring Brian Van Holt, Brent Spiner and Charles S. Dutton, premieres Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and will air Fridays.
Hyams Helms Threshold
eature-film director Peter Hyams (A Sound of Thunder) makes a rare venture into television by directing the second hour of the two-hour premiere episode of CBS' upcoming SF series Threshold, co-creator and executive producer David S. Goyer told SCI FI Wire. Goyer, a feature writer and director himself (Batman Begins, Blade: Trinity), said in an interview that he helmed the episode's first hour and planned to direct the second as well when he received the green light for his next movie, The Invisible.
"I had to immediately start preproduction on that, so I had to find a replacement really fast," Goyer said during a break in shooting on Threshold at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on Aug. 26. "And one of the things that we liked was that people had seen the first hour and thought it had more of a cinematic quality, so we thought we have to find a feature director to do the second hour. Who's available? I find out Peter Hyams was available, so I just called him and said, 'Can you help us out?' He said OK."
Threshold is Hyams' first TV job in 20 years, and his only other TV directing gig was an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories.
Threshold, starring Carla Gugino, Brian Van Holt, Brent Spiner and Charles S. Dutton, centers on a top-secret government team assigned to investigate the sudden appearance of an alien object over the ocean. Goyer co-created Threshold with former Star Trek: Enterprise executive producer Brannon Braga. Hyams is best known for directing such SF films as Outland, 2010, Timecop and the Thunder, based on a Ray Bradbury short story.
Goyer said he'd welcome Hyams' return to Threshold. "We would love for him to come back," Goyer said. "He did a great job. He's a really sweet guy, and he had a great experience as well. We would love for him to do more." Threshold premieres Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and will air Fridays.
Threshold's Braga Back In Saddle
rannon Braga, co-creator and executive producer of CBS' upcoming SF series Threshold, told SCI FI Wire that he finds it a bit odd to be back on the Paramount Studios lot, where the show films, not far from the stages where he worked on various incarnations of Star Trek for the last 17 years. Most recently, Braga ran Star Trek: Enterprise, which ended its four-season run this past spring.
On Threshold, "it's mainly new people I'm working with," Braga said in an interview. "But it's a little weird to see the Star Trek stages occupied by Tom Cruise and Mission: Impossible 3. But, ... you know, [it] feels like it's home still. It's comfortable here."
Braga co-created Threshold with David S. Goyer and David Heyman. The show centers on a crack government team, led by Carla Gugino's Molly Caffrey, who are called together to deal with the sudden appearance of an alien threat. The show shoots on three soundstages at Paramount in Los Angeles, the same studio where Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise shot. Last week, SCI FI Wire visited Threshold's stages and talked with Braga while he edited an episode.
Braga admitted that he's surprised to find himself back so soon after Enterprise ended. "I didn't think I'd be working on a show this soon," he said. "I was hoping to take a break. But here I am." Threshold, which also stars Brian Van Holt, The Next Generation's Brent Spiner and Charles S. Dutton, premieres Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and will air Fridays.
Gugino Is On The Rise
arla Gugino told SCI FI Wire that she's recently completed production on Rise, a supernatural film written and directed by Gothika scribe Sebastian Gutierrez. "Rise is a very dark thriller," Gugino said in an interview. "It stars Lucy Liu, Michael Chiklis and James D'Arcy."
Gugino, who also starred in the Gutierrez-directed Judas Kiss, added: "Lucy's character is a reporter for the L.A. Weekly, and she does a story on this blood cult. It's a hard movie to describe. But basically Lucy gets in too deep, and there's more there than meets the eye. She gets killed, and she ends up on a revenge mission to basically kill everyone who has done her wrong. I play one of the people in this cult."
Gugino (star of CBS' upcoming SF series Threshold) said the movie avoids association with a particular genre. "It's a vampire movie, but the word 'vampire' is never mentioned," she said. "There are no crosses. All the things you expect are not the case with this. It's a darker version of that. But my character, Eve, is part of the bringing down of Lucy's character and also part of saving her. I know that all sounds very vague, but it kind of is in that regard. Ultimately she's a tragic character, and it was really amazing to play. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make the dates work out between that and Threshold, and we were able to, which I'm very happy about." Rise will rise in 2006. Threshold, which also stars Brian Van Holt, Brent Spiner and Charles S. Dutton, premieres Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and will air Fridays.
Supernatural Will Debut Long
he WB is announcing that the upcoming premiere episode of Supernatural will run about seven minutes long, the Zap2It Web site reported. The network is giving viewers a couple of weeks' notice to set their recording devices to capture the entire opening installment of the show, which stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as brothers who hit the road in search of strange phenomena. The debut episode of Supernatural will air at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Sept. 13 and will end at 10:07 p.m.
The Supernatural pilot runs just over 46 minutes, and that's without opening or closing credits, the site reported.
Midnight Mixes Vamps With West
ary Lambert has signed on to helm the vampire western High Midnight for Treasure Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The story, by first-time writer Denis Faye, centers on a broken-down sheriff who is forced to team up with an obsessed Victorian vampire hunter in order to stop an evil, undead force from consuming a frontier town in 1892 New Mexico, the trade paper reported.
Mark Heidelberger at Treasure has been developing the project for several years and will produce. Erik A. Baron is executive-producing, and ThinkFilm will be handling all North American distribution. The budget will be about $5 million.
Sommers Enters Museum
tephen Sommers has signed on to direct the family fantasy film Night at the Museum for 20th Century Fox, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Museum, which is loosely based on Milan Trenc's children's book The Night at the Museum, centers on a goodhearted but bumbling security guard at the Museum of Natural History who accidentally trips an ancient curse that causes the animals and insects on display to come to life, wreaking havoc.
Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan will produce the film through their 1492 Pictures. Sommers (The Mummy) and partner Bob Ducsay also are producing through their Sommers Co. The script was penned by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, with revisions by Scott Frank.
Spielberg Explores New Worlds
ollowing the success of Paramount and DreamWorks' War of the Worlds, Paramount has awarded another SF movie to Steven Spielberg: the remake of When Worlds Collide, Variety reported.
Spielberg steps into the producer role left vacant by The Mummy's Stephen Sommers, who opted to direct and produce Fox's A Night at the Museum instead. Sommers had come on to Collide as director, writer and producer earlier this year, the trade paper reported.
No decision's been made yet on whether Spielberg will direct Collide.
The original When Worlds Collide was directed by Rudolph Mate and released in 1951 and served as inspiration for the 1998 films Deep Impact and Armageddon. Spielberg was an executive producer on Deep Impact, which Mimi Leder directed.
Cave's Hauser Laments Cuts
ole Hauser, star of The Cave, told SCI FI Wire that some of the film's best character moments were cut out of the current theatrical release, but could find their way onto an eventual DVD. "There'll be a director's cut for sure, and then all of the things that I'm talking about it will be on there," Hauser said in an interview. Among his favorite cut moments: a dramatic scene involving his character and his diving team, played by Piper Perabo, Morris Chestnut and Eddie Cibrian, during a dive in the Yucatan.
"There are things that I think they could have done in the film that would've made it more of a transition and less kind of on the nose, but those are just my feelings," Hauser said. "When you're so involved in a film, and you see things get cut out, you're just like, 'Why? You're missing the story and the beats and character development.' But I have no control over that."
Hauser (Pitch Black) added: "I think that in the days of science fiction genres sometimes people forget to just let it breathe. Being in your face all of the time and all of this stuff and just cutting and cutting and cutting doesn't make for a great film sometimes. Story makes for a great time. Period. I don't care if it's a comedy. I don't care if it's a drama. I don't care if it's sci fi. I don't give a s--t what it is. Story starts and ends everything."
In The Cave, Hauser plays the leader of a team of cave divers who are assigned to a rescue mission in a deep cavern in Romania and get trapped down below with a demon-like creature. The Cave is now playing.
Warcraft Breaks Player Records
lizzard Entertainment announced that World of Warcraft, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has reached more than 1 million paying customers in North America. This brings the total population for Blizzard's critically acclaimed game, the largest MMORPG in the world, to more than four million paying customers, the company said.
"It's very rewarding to see so many new and returning players logging in to play World of Warcraft daily," Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, said in a statement. "With the continued support of our retail partners, World of Warcraft has reached more than 1 million paying customers in North America well before its one-year anniversary in November. We would like to express our appreciation to both the players and our retail and license partners for helping us make World of Warcraft one of the most popular online games in the world."
Rings Suit Settled For $168 M
aul Zaentz, the producer who purchased the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1976, has received $168 million in royalties from the three movies based on the books in settlement of his lawsuit against New Line Cinema, Variety reported. Settlement of the $20 million suit was reached earlier this month; details were not revealed by either party, the trade paper reported. The settlement came down to the wire; a jury trial had been set for July 19, but companies entered negotiations that led to the deal shortly before it began.
The deal marks an end to one of the two multimillion-dollar suits filed over the blockbuster film trilogy. Earlier this year, director Peter Jackson and producing partner Fran Walsh sued New Line, alleging they were shortchanged payments related to home-video, merchandise and video games.
Zaentz, 84, did little with the Rings rights for 20 years, except for a failed 1978 animated version directed by Ralph Bakshi, until 1997, when he made a deal with Miramax, with which he was working on The English Patient. After Miramax and Jackson couldn't agree on a vision for the films, New Line scooped them up in 1998, agreeing to make three movies rather than one. The trilogy ultimately grossed $2.9 billion worldwide.
In his lawsuit, Zaentz claimed that New Line cheated him out of nearly $20 million by calculating royalties based on the net grosses it received from foreign distributors. The producer claimed he was entitled to royalties based on foreign distributors' gross receipts, an assertion the studio disputed. The difference was $198 million, of which Zaentz claimed he was entitled to 10 percent, along with $700,000 in compensatory damages.
Faris Joins Super Ex
nna Faris and Eddie Izzard have signed on to join Uma Thurman and Owen Wilson in Ivan Reitman's comedy superhero movie Super Ex for Regency Enterprises, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The comedy centers on a man (Wilson) who learns that his girlfriend (Thurman) is a superhero and breaks up with her when she becomes too controlling and neurotic. She then uses her powers to torment and embarrass him, the trade paper reported.
Faris (the Scary Movie franchise) will play Hannah, the love interest of Wilson's character. Izzard will play Professor Bedlam, the story's villain. Gavin Polone is producing through his Pariah banner. Don Payne (The Simpsons) is writing the screenplay.
Million Dollar Haggis Tackles 007
cademy Award-nominated writer Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby) has been hired to do a rewrite of Casino Royale, Sony and MGM's upcoming 21st installment in the James Bond film franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Producer siblings Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson have brought back Martin Campbell (GoldenEye) to direct his second Bond film. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who cut their teeth on Bond films The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, wrote the previous draft. The search for a new Bond to replace Pierce Brosnan is under way, the trade paper reported.
The movie's script is based on the 1953 Ian Fleming novel, which is the first, darkest and most violent of the Bond books. It introduced not only Bond, but also the evil organization SMERSH, as well as model Bond villain Le Chiffre (French for "the number"). One of the book's set pieces is a baccarat duel between Bond and Le Chiffre. The book was first adapted as a movie in the 1967 spy spoof starring Peter Sellers, David Niven, Orson Welles and George Raft, although the comedy is not considered part of the Bond canon.
Agent Finds New Audience
F author John Scalzi told SCI FI Wire that he took an unconventional path to getting his novel, Agent to the Stars, in front of the public. Scalzi said he finished the 1997 novel in three months of weekends. Two years later, he put it on his Web site and asked people to pay him a dollar if they liked it. "And they did," Scalzi said in an interview. "Between 1999 and 2004, when I made it freeware, readers sent in $4,000. Most sent more than the suggested $1. One guy sent in $200, which prompted me to ask him if his finger slipped when he typed in the amount on PayPal (it hadn't)."
Agent is a humorous story about a talent agent who comes to represent an alien who wants to be friends with earthlings, except he's green, ugly and smelly. The novel follows the agent as he plays the Hollywood game to get his new client work, Scalzi said in an interview. Scalzi drew from his experience as a film critic and industry commentator for newspapers and magazines. He has a book on SF films coming out later this year.
Fast forward to January of this year. Scalzi's novel Old Man's War was published to critical acclaim. "Subterranean Press publisher Bill Schafer contacted me and asked if I would be interested in doing a hardcover edition of [Agent]," Scalzi said. "I told him I would do it if I could still keep the text online. He said 'Sure,' and here we are."
The catch is that the hardcover version of Agent comes only in a limited edition of 1,500 copies, each signed by Scalzi. Most were sold before the book's July release, and only a couple of hundred remain, Scalzi said.
"I'm not opposed to doing a larger run of Agent at some point, but I wouldn't want to undermine the value of the limited edition for those folks who got that edition. And I'd still want to have the text available on my site," Scalzi added. "If a publisher is open to a low-key, mass-market paperback version at some point, I would be willing to listen. At this point, however, I'm perfectly content with the versions that exist."
Mazes Poses A Warning
F author Karl Schroeder, whose book Lady of Mazes has been selected as August's SCI FI/Tor Books Essential novel, told SCI FI Wire that he wrote the book as a warning. "One important message of this book is that our ways of doing politics are about to change," Schroeder said in an interview. "We've written and filmed SF that explores space travel, robotics, genetics and all the fantastic impacts they may have on society. But the stuff coming down the pipe now—cognitive science, emergent systems, augmented reality—will change how we relate to one another. I wanted to say, 'Brace yourselves. Here come the political technologies.'"
Lady of Mazes follows the brilliant but troubled Livia Kodaly, who must assume a leadership role when her world is invaded by godlike beings ("ancestors") who preach an ideology that conflicts with the way things have always been on her world, Teven Coronal, a ringworld holding numerous civilizations known as "manifolds." Each overlaps one another, but appears visible only to its inhabitants. Until the ancestors came along, that is.
Schroeder said his novel is "hard SF," meaning it sticks closely to the "hard" laws of physics and chemistry, as opposed to space opera, cyberpunk, alternative history and time-travel stories, which deal with the impossibly fantastic. "If you find yourself reading a hard SF story, then you know that, however fantastical it might seem, everything you're reading could actually happen," Schroeder said.
Schroeder added that he expects these things to happen. "I wrote Lady because I saw new trends and technologies about to emerge here in the real world," he said. "And when they emerge, they'll be earthshaking in their effects. Books like Lady of Mazes are designed to help us brace ourselves for such changes."
Next up for Schroeder: He's writing Sun of Suns, installments of which will be accessible in Analog magazine starting in November. "Sun of Suns is what I call 'Newtonian space opera,' and it has wooden ships, pirates, swordfights and boarding parties—but in a world without gravity," he said.
Crudup Joins Impossible 3
illy Crudup has been set for a lead role in Mission: Impossible 3, which J.J. Abrams began directing in July for a May 2, 2006, release, Variety reported.
Crudup will assume the role after completing a part in the Robert De Niro-directed The Good Shepherd.
Crudup previously worked with MI3 producers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner on Robert Towne's Without Limits.
MI3 stars Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Keri Russell.
Carrey, Stiller Are Used Guys
im Carrey is in early talks to team with Ben Stiller and play obsolete pleasure clones in Used Guys, an SF comedy to be directed by Jay Roach for Fox, Variety reported. The movie is slated to shoot next spring.
Stiller and Roach, who most recently worked together on Meet the Fockers, have been plotting this picture for several years, the trade paper reported. The sudden emergence of Carrey as Stiller's co-star has propelled the film toward the start line.
It's the first comedy project Carrey has sparked to in a while. He has been shooting Fun With Dick and Jane for holiday release and turned down a Bruce Almighty sequel that has now been turned into a Steve Carell vehicle.
Scripted by David Guion and Michael Handelman from an original script by Mickey Birnbaum, the futuristic Used Guys is set in a world where women run the Earth. Men became extinct because they ingested an enhancement drink that proved fatal. Carrey and Stiller will play clones rendered obsolete by superior models whose enhancements include better listening and lovemaking skills. The scorned clones make a run for it, bent on regaining their dignity by searching for a male nirvana known as Mantopia, the trade paper reported.
Heroes Adds New Powers, Zone
ack Emmert, creator and lead designer of the massively multiplayer online game City of Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that the new archery and sonic power sets in the upcoming fifth update of the game were at the top of a long list of superhero abilities he'd wanted to see in the game. "Those are two of the ones that in my mind had to go in," Emmert said in an interview. "I kind of have a list of powers, going back years, of things that just have to go in, and we just go down that list. ... The archer is a trope. Sonic powers are a trope. And without those powers, the game feels like it's missing a part of superherodom."
Also on Emmert's wish list are shields and mastery of magnetism, which may find their way into future issues. "Archery is more common than shields, so it goes first," he said. "Sonic mastery is more common than magnetism, so that goes first. It's all prioritized in my mind of what's important. What are the key things we have to have? Now, we'll get to magnetism, and we'll get to stuff like swimming underwater and all that jazz. We'll get to it."
Issue five, titled Forest of Dread, also includes a new zone called Croatoa, whose setting and inhabitants are based on Anglo-Saxon mythology. "Croatoa is kind of inspired from a spooky New England town feel, reminiscent of writers like H.P. Lovecraft, but mixed in with some ancient English myth," Emmert said. "Croatoa [is] derived from the word Croatoan, which was carved into a tree when the Roanoke colony vanished centuries ago. And so that kind of just started us along this lane. I in particular like mystical, magical things, as opposed to technology. So that's the reason why I went this way."
Other additions to the game include a new debt system more favorable to lower-level characters, as well as new badges and new types of missions. There are many more changes Emmert has in mind that will have to wait until the next expansion. "There are a lot of things that factor into that [decision]," he said. "What impact does it have on the player base? How difficult is it to do? How much effort does it take? And I have to kind of weigh out all those factors. We try to get low-hanging fruit, the things that have the most impact and the least manpower. That's our goal." Forest of Dread is set to go live by the end of the week.
Worms 4 Slithers To Fall
ajesco Entertainment Co. announced the fall release of Worms 4: Mayhem for the Xbox and PC. Developed by Team 17, the newest strategy game from the popular Worms series will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.99.
Worms 4: Mayhem promises new, innovative worm-versus-worm warfare. Players can create a fully customizable team of up to six worms in numerous environments and modes, including multiplayer battles for up to four players. The game also includes a new weapons factory, allowing players to blow up their opponents in explosive new ways.
Midway To Publish Earth 2160
idway Games announced that it has secured the U.S. and Canadian publishing rights for Earth 2160, the highly anticipated sequel to the top-selling and critically acclaimed Earth series of real-time strategy titles. The game is scheduled to be published in the United States and Canada this November for the PC.
Developed by Reality Pump Studios, Earth 2160 sees conflict arise as the remnants of the Eurasian Dynasty, Lunar Corporation and United Civilized States terraform Mars following Earth's destruction. As the civilizations independently rebuild, a group of imprisoned alien renegades is awakened from suspended animation. The groups must either battle it out or band together as they try to survive the new alien threat, the company said.
Earth 2160 will make use of the latest pixel and vertex shaders, giving the game a look and feel that is well ahead of other RTS titles running on more traditional graphics engines, the company said.
In addition to standard RTS features such as resource acquisition, base building and destruction of enemy bases, Earth 2160 also allows players to play adventure-style missions. Modular construction allows players to customize buildings and units, creating virtually limitless ways for players to wage war. Virtual agents are available to assist the player in specific tasks on the battlefield or to act as managers dealing with construction, resources or research, letting the player concentrate on other aspects of the game for an experience tailored to the individual gamer's style.
Zathura Kicks Off Fantastic Fest
irector Jon Favreau's SF fantasy film Zathura will debut at the inaugural Fantastic Fest, a new international genre film festival devoted to SF, horror, fantasy and animated films, Oct. 6-9 in Austin, Texas, organizers announced. The festival will also feature the U.S. premiere of Mark Mylod's The Big White and Henry Selick's animated short Moongirl, as well as the U.S. premieres of Paul Fox's The Dark Hours and Christopher Smith's Creep. Greg McLean's Wolf Creek will have its regional premiere at the festival.
Fantastic Fest was conceived by co-chairs Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and Tim McCanlies (The Iron Giant) and is presented by the Alamo Drafthouse South, under the direction of Tim League. The programming team also includes Ain't It Cool News' Harry Knowles, Matt Dentler (the SXSW Film Festival) and Kier-La Janisse (Cinemuerte Film Festival). Fantastic Fest is sponsored by Milkshake Media, Ain't It Cool News and Jackson Walker.
Gorski Bonkers For Brain
amara Gorski told SCI FI Wire that she had a blast filming the upcoming SCI FI original movie Man with the Screaming Brain and added that co-writer-producer-director-star Bruce Campbell has crafted a unique horror-action-comedy hybrid. "I had a really, really amazing time," Gorski said in an interview. "The further along we went in the shooting, the more I saw the layers being uncovered."
In Brain, Campbell plays William, a snooty American industrialist, who has part of his brain replaced by that of Yegor (Vladimir Kolev), an Eastern European taxi driver, after they're both killed by Tatoya (Gorski), a mysterious Gypsy woman. Once they're merged by a mad scientist (Stacy Keach), William and Yegor seek revenge against Tatoya. Ted Raimi co-stars as Keach's hip-hop-loving assistant.
"There's some flat-out comedy," Gorski (SCI FI's Anonymous Rex) said. "Ted Raimi and I always said we were in two completely different movies. They were in a comedy, and I was in a horror-action film. There's stuff there for all kinds of audiences. It'll appeal to the SF people. It's a horror film, but not in a classical sense. It's not blood-and-gore horror, but it's conceptually horrific. And it was not easy taking direction from Bruce with that pate on, that surgical pate, as it got more and more infected. He'd come up to me with this weird Three Stooges hair sticking out of his head. So I was appreciative and excited to find out what we were doing next and, at the same time, completely grossed out." Man with the Screaming Brain premieres Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
A Woman Sets A Brother's Price
F author Wen Spencer told SCI FI Wire that she wrote her newest novel, A Brother's Price, in response to a series of stories featuring worlds inhabited only by women that she read in the last decade. Spencer objected to the notion often presented that an all-woman's world is destroyed if a man appears, and that these societies rarely had advanced technologically beyond sword and plow, "as if women couldn't grasp science on their own, or if technology is as evil as men," she said in an interview.
"I disliked that, without men, women would be completely pacifist, totally ignoring the fact that external pressures would create stressors," Spencer said. "In an agricultural society, drought, insects, crop failure, etc., can put an entire region into jeopardy. The implication was that when faced with life-or-death situations, women would peacefully decide who would live or die and then accept it. I read one too many books like this and snapped. Flinging the latest one across the room, I cried, 'This isn't how a world like this would be!' and sat down to write A Brother's Price."
The book takes place on an alternate Earth (Spencer says the city is modeled after St. Louis, with a little bit of Niagara Falls) where the population is 90 percent female. The protagonist, Jerin Whistler, is coming of age, which means he will be sold by his sisters to marry all the women in a family. His mothers are respected landed gentry, his grandfather a kidnapped prince, and his grandmothers soldiers blackballed for treason, trained by thieves, re-enlisted as spies and knighted for acts of valor. Jerin wants to marry well, and his sisters want a husband bought by his brother's price.
Spencer said the book also speaks to the mindset that women are good and men are evil. She counters that the two genders are simply different; neither is better or worse than the other. "There's a lot of conflict in the world that's put down as 'This person is evil,' and what's overlooked is that there is some kind of economic pressure causing an imbalance that's triggered the conflict," Spencer said. "Leaders of ruthless actions come into power, not when everyone is fat and content with their life, but when starvation is at the door. But I'm not one to preach. I like telling a good story and hoping that people have come to see how I look at life through my story."
Briefly Noted
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A Warner Brothers spokesperson told SCI FI Wire that the supernatural film The Reaping, which halted production in Baton Rouge, La., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, will resume shooting next week, possibly as soon as Sept. 6, and will wrap at the end of the month or in early October.
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Peter Facinelli may co-star with Christian Slater in Hollow Man 2, the sequel to the 2000 SF movie, according to a rumor on the Moviehole.net Web site.
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A new Web site has gone live for The Fog, a remake of John Carpenter's classic horror movie, which opens Oct. 14.
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A new Web site has gone live for the upcoming SF movie Serenity, based on Joss Whedon's failed Fox TV series Firefly, which opens Sept. 30.
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Three "viral" Web sites—Post Mortem, Bonymail and Grave Misunderstanding—have gone live for Warner Brothers' upcoming stop-motion animated movie Corpse Bride, which opens Sept. 23.
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Jesse Metcalfe, who plays the hunky gardener on ABC's hit Desperate Housewives, may see his role end by the third episode of the show's upcoming second season, the tabloid Star reported.
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SCI FI Channel's original movie Pterodactyl achieved the network's best-ever household ratings (2.6) and was the number-one prime-time, non-sports program on basic cable in its Aug. 27 premiere, the network announced.
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A placeholder Web site has gone up for Paramount's upcoming Mission: Impossible III movie.
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Jessica Alba denied to the New York Daily News that she will star in a movie version of the 1960s TV series I Dream of Jeannie, saying instead that she's signed on to The Wake, with Sigourney Weaver and Hayden Christensen.
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Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler and Jill Ritchie have signed on to join Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Seann William Scott in Richard Kelly's independent SF movie Southland Tales, according to The Holywood Reporter.
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Production has commenced on M. Night Shyamalan's next film, Lady in the Water, a fantasy movie about a building manager who rescues a mysterious young woman and discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story, Warner Brothers announced.
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Warner Brothers has posted a new Web site for Corpse Bride, Tim Burton's upcoming stop-motion-animated fantasy film, which opens Sept. 23.
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James Roday (Miss Match) and Dule Hill (The West Wing) are set to star in the USA Network pilot Psyche, about a fake psychic detective, Variety reported.
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Gothika star Robert Downey Jr. married his girlfriend, Susan Levin, a producer he met on the film's set, on Aug. 27, People magazine reported.
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OceanicFlight815.com, ABC's official Lost Web site, has been updated with a new teaser clip from the hit series' upcoming second season and other features.
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