Lost, Housewives Win Emmys
BC's hit series Lost won the Emmy Award for best drama in ceremonies broadcast on CBS Sept. 18 from Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported. Felicity Huffman of ABC's Desperate Housewives and Patricia Arquette of NBC's Medium, meanwhile, became first-time Emmy winners as they received lead actress honors, the AP reported.
Lost also won the award for best directing for a drama series for series co-creator J.J. Abrams. Desperate Housewives won the comedy series directing award.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Serenity Cast Signed For Sequels
ost of the cast of the upcoming SF movie Serenity told SCI FI Wire that they have signed on for two more movies if the film version of Joss Whedon's canceled Fox TV series Firefly is a hit. They include Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres and Morena Baccarin. Star Nathan Fillion wouldn't say whether he's signed for more films, but writer/director Whedon said that the entire cast would likely return if a sequel is warranted.
As for his ideas for the sequel, Whedon said he was focused only on completing the first movie. "It's very sweet to mention the word sequel," Whedon said in a press conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. "Obviously that's the way my brain works. It continues to tell stories. ... So it's inevitable for me that I do that, and of course I love this universe. I love these people, and I would jump at the chance to do it again. But I couldn't think about that while I was making it, because, ultimately, you have to make [the first one]. ... It's a trilogy if you make two that are so good there's a third. ... Now that I've finished it, ... I think about it all the time. But it don't tell anybody that. Except just now."
Serenity picks up the story of the ragtag crew of a transport ship 400 years in the future as it tries to avoid a menacing central galactic government intent on capturing a fugitive aboard the ship. Whedon said it was a challenge adapting the TV show for the big screen.
"Well, ultimately, you know, that's certainly the hardest job I ever had," Whedon said. "It's a question of opening it up, and it's a question of closing it down. You know, opening it up in the sense of: We need a giant, epic story that is not the kind of thing these people usually get involved in in a TV series, which is more mundane. You need a reason for this to be a movie. ... The closing comes in making sure that it is accessible to everybody: that you explain everybody as much as you need to, that you explain the world as much as you need to, that you begin and you end, that you have an arc for the character, as well as a plot that has a question and then an answer."
Whedon added: "I've actually said once or twice that the difference between TV and movies is that TV shows are a question, and movies are an answer. And so in this we had to have a definitive statement about freedom and humanity and what we need and what we should be allowed to have as people, which is all our flaws. And then I answer that. I make a definitive statement. I put a period or, hopefully, an exclamation point on that, as opposed to just sort of pursuing the question for years, which is what a TV show would do." Serenity is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. The movie opens Sept. 30.
Treating Wonder Like Batman
oss Whedon, who is writing and will direct the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, told SCI FI Wire that he wants to give the venerable franchise the Batman Begins treatment, making sure fans get what they want: the costume, the bracelets, the lasso, maybe even the invisible jet.
"What's exciting is, like, Batman Begins basically really did a wonderful job explaining exactly why he was a bat and why he had everything on his costume that he did," Whedon said in an interview. "That's the joy of doing an origin story of Wonder Woman. Why does she wear the bracelets? Why does she use the lasso? Like, ... where does all that stuff come from? ... And I have answers for all of that, and it's really fun. So it's not a reinvention like, 'Oh, she's going to dress like Trinity [from The Matrix].'"
Whedon is in the process of writing the script for the movie, which has yet to be cast. "I want to see Wonder Woman as I know her and see her, [and] not ... [just her] star-spangled panties. But she wears the Wonder Woman outfit, and she has the bracelets and all the accoutrements. ... The lasso and, if I can make it work for the plot, the invisible plane. I have a take on it that I think is cool. It's just I'm structuring the plot, and I've got to find a place for it. But I think people want it, and I think I can do it without ... it being campy, believe it or not. And I respect those things. I, in fact, love them."
Extended Sin City DVD Coming
special "recut and extended" DVD version of Robert Rodriguez's comic-book movie Sin City will feature never-before-seen footage integrated directly into the feature, Dimension Home Video announced. This two-disc DVD will also feature hours of new bonus materials supervised directly by Rodriguez, as well as the complete first issue of Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novel. Sin City Recut and Extended will be available Dec. 13, with a suggested retail price of $39.99.
Pirates' Depp: No Richards Cameo?
ohnny Depp, star of the upcoming sequel film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, told SCI FI Wire that the much-hoped for cameo by Rolling Stones star Keith Richards may not happen after all. Richards was supposed to play the father of Depp's pirate character, Captain Jack Sparrow; Depp has famously said he modeled his Oscar-nominated performance as Sparrow in part on the legendary rocker.
Depp said in an interview that Richards has met with the filmmakers, but nothing has been shot. "No, it's sort of not totally official yet," Depp said at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he's attending the debut of director Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. "It might be. Everyone is trying. He's got a little tour to do," he added, referring to the Rolling Stones' current world tour.
Depp is in the middle of filming the second and third parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean series in the Bahamas. The sequels will be directed by Gore Verbinski, who helmed the first blockbuster installment, The Curse of the Black Pearl. The first sequel, Dead Man's Chest, is scheduled for 2006; the third movie doesn't have a name yet or a complete script.
Richards was quoted as saying he spent a great afternoon with Depp trying on costumes, but has turned them down for the moment. He added: "The idea of working for Disney gives me the shivers in the first place."
Pirates' Depp Hangs On To Sparrow
ohnny Depp told SCI FI Wire that he's already having separation anxiety about leaving behind his Pirates of the Caribbean character, Captain Jack Sparrow, as he wraps the second and third films in the series.
"It's weird, because sometimes separation is more emotional than others," Depp said at an intimate press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he was promoting Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. "I remember after [Edward] Scissorhands, and I really feel like a dunce having to say this, but it's the truth, ... I remember the last day of that movie, it had been 89 days or something, and I remember after we did the makeup, I looked into the mirror and thinking, 'Well, this is it. This is the last time I'll see you.' So it becomes very emotional."
Somehow, Depp said that he knew he'd play Captain Jack Sparrow again, even before he was nominated for a best-actor Oscar for the role in the first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. "What happens to me is that with every character, once you've clicked into that character and you really know the guy, you become very close with him, and you love him," Depp said. "You enjoy playing him. So it's always very, very difficult at the end. There is that week to 10 days before wrap where you can feel and hear the clock ticking, and then you go through sometimes a really nasty kind of depression afterwards. There's an odd separation anxiety, because you've just been this person for a pretty good length of time, and then they're suddenly gone. For me, with Captain Jack, I had a sneaking suspicion that I'd see him again."
Depp said the new incarnation of his pirate role in the upcoming sequels will be a lot funnier than the first, and he said he wouldn't mind playing him again and again. The sequels are slated for a 2006 and 2007 release, though the script for the third one isn't even complete.
"It occurs to me that Jack Sparrow can be funny," Depp said. "So I'm going to try that this time. I'm just going to try and be funny. I don't know. The ideas of sequels and stuff like that was a very odd notion. I never quite understood the idea of doing that and stuff until you think as an actor that you've played a character for months and months and months. So I wanted to meet up with him again. I just wanted to be him again."
Depp added: "It's a very strange situation where you're as a grown man having separation anxiety with an imaginary character. It's worrisome, because you know it's not normal, but you can't stop yourself, because I just like the guy. He's a pal."
Depp Game For New Quixote
ohnny Depp told SCI FI Wire that director Terry Gilliam still asks him to do The Man Who Killed Don Quixote again, and Depp added that he'd love to do it, with qualifications. Now that the actor and director are both at the Toronto International Film Festival—promoting different movies—Depp said he expects it will be brought up more than once.
Gilliam was at the festival three years ago promoting the documentary about the demise of the film project, Lost in La Mancha, which chronicled the scuttling of the director's dream project in 2000 after a combination of bad weather, serious accidents and financial woes. Depp was part of the cast at the time.
"Oh, I'd love to" do Don Quixote again, Depp said at a press conference for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. "If there's any way to avoid the curse, that would be better. Every time that I see [Gilliam], he threatens this. In fact, I saw him last night. I'd love to do it again. I'd love to do the film if ... at all possible. I stress that part: if at all possible. Because it was going to be good. We all felt that. It was really sad. It was like the best of Terry Gilliam."
Gilliam didn't fare too well with the modest response to his recent The Brothers Grimm movie, and Tideland—which is premiering at the festival—isn't getting high praise either.
"Unfortunately there was that hideous curse on it," Depp said of Quixote. "I hope he can salvage it." He added: "I felt really good about my character. The good news is that if he wants to go back and do that, I already know the character, and so I have less homework to do."
Depp Gets Used To Success
ohnny Depp told SCI FI Wire that he never paid attention to the box-office performance of his films until his recent blockbuster hits Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
"I've learned to sort of condition myself to not have any expectations in terms of box office or result to that degree, because, as you all well know as well I do, that kind of thing escaped me for many, many years," Depp said at a small press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival. "So it's relatively a new experience to have more than a few people go and see my films. But it's very exciting."
The whole box-office game is foreign to him, Depp said in Toronto, where he is promoting his voice work in director Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. He said he called his agent recently to ask how Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was doing. "She said, 'Yeah. It looks like it's going to cross the $200 million mark domestically,'" he said. "I didn't know what that meant, and I said, 'Well, is that good?' She said, 'Yeah. It's very good. Don't worry.'" Charlie, which cost about $150 million to make, is continuing to make money.
As for Pirates, Depp earned an Oscar nomination for best actor, and the film became a treasure trove for Disney, making $305 million domestically after costing about $140 million to make.
Now, Depp is poised for another blockbuster in his first animated role and his fifth team-up with Tim Burton, who directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
"Every time that Tim wanted to cast me in his films [in the past], he had to fight like a bastard with the studio to be able to cast me," Depp said. "And he was telling me today that the funny thing was he sat down with the Warners people who came to see him in London and said, 'Let's talk about cast.' Tim said, 'Yeah, let's talk about cast.' And they went, 'What do you think of Johnny?' Tim said that he was like, 'Yeah, OK. Good.' So the fact that they brought it up was good. Astonishing. It surprised him." Corpse Bride opens Sept. 23.
Reeves Declines Constantine 2
eanu Reeves told SCI FI Wire that if there's going to be a sequel to his supernatural movie Constantine, they'll have to raise hell without him.
"Not with me," Reeves said flatly when asked about a sequel to the movie about reluctant demon-fighter John Constantine during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Reeves said that he liked the character and thought it was a well-rounded part, but that the film version of the Hellblazer series from DC/Vertigo comics wasn't enough of a moneymaker to warrant a sequel. The movie made $75 million domestically and more than double that overseas, but cost Warner Brothers about $100 million to make.
Is there any hope for Constantine 2? "No," Reeves said. "We didn't quite make it."
Two of Reeves' Constantine co-stars are in Toronto during the festival: Shia LaBeouf, who played his sidekick Chas, and Tilda Swinton, who played the angel Gabriel. Swinton is again co-starring with Reeves in the upcoming independent film Thumbsucker, in which Reeves plays a spiritualistic orthodontist.
Meanwhile, Reeves said that he is excited about two other genre projects he has coming up. "I did a movie with Richard Linklater called A Scanner Darkly, which is a Philip K. Dick adaptation," Reeves said. "I did a film called [Il] Mare with Alejandro Agresti, which is a romance with Sandra Bullock."
Il Mare is a love story that transcends time. It is scheduled for a February 2006 release. A Scanner Darkly, which takes place in futuristic Orange County, Calif., is scheduled for release later next year.
Invasion Strikes Close To Home
haun Cassidy, creator and executive producer of ABC's new SF series Invasion—which kicks off with a hurricane in Florida— told SCI FI Wire that he has a unique perspective on living through a hurricane, thanks to someone close to him. "There have been numerous disasters of late, and yet a lot of us are still here, and we don't know what the ramifications really are yet," Cassidy (American Gothic) said in an interview. "That's the universe our show is set in. ... And it's also personal for me. My wife is from Homestead, Fla. She went through Hurricane Andrew," the real-life 1992 storm that helped inspire Invasion, well before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas.
Cassidy said that his wife was a senior in high school at the time and had to live for months without electricity. He said her perception of what happens to a community when a hurricane hits has helped color his approach to Invasion.
Cassidy's description of the series sounds eerily similar to the real-life drama that is playing out on CNN in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Invasion is "a show about a family and community in recovery, post-hurricane, and a lot of people are traumatized by the initial event," Cassidy said. "It's really the aftermath that is the breeding ground for ongoing mysteries. Aberrant behavior in the population, changes in the population that initially are attributed to the trauma as a result of the hurricane."
According to Cassidy, the show's hurricane will lead to the quarantine of the small Florida town in the series "because of the stuff released from the hospital, and there are bodies missing. They don't know what the state of the water is. It serves to isolate a lot of these people, and there may be darker forces at work here. The sheriff seems to have another agenda beyond just protecting this community. He may want his community and the people to survive, but he may want certain things to survive more than others."
Cassidy said that he plans to keep his "suspense thriller" series as grounded in science fact as possible. "If at the end of the season it doesn't come off as science fiction at all, that would be fantastic," he said. After Hurricane Katrina, ABC initially pulled all on-air promotion of the show, a companion to ABC's hit SF series Lost. But the network plans to go forward with Invasion's premiere, as planned, on Sept. 21; the show will air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, immediately after Lost.
Medium Gets High-Concept
ené Echevarria, creator and executive producer of NBC's Medium, told SCI FI Wire there are some high-concept episodes "coming out of the box." "The challenge for me is that I'd like to see a little bit more continuing storylines," Echevarria said in an interview. "One thing we're aware of: The first season was very much about Allison figuring out how this thing works."
Now that Allison (Patricia Arquette) understands her powers better, she still has to try to strike a balance between work and her family, Echevarria said. And her husband, Joe (Jake Weber), will be "continuing to deal with the fact that he married a witch," he said with a laugh. "We just want to be true to the reality of that."
In last season's cliffhanger, Capt. Kenneth Push (Arliss Howard) put his life in jeopardy to try to stop a serial killer. As season two kicks off, look for the completion of that story. Howard has also been tapped to direct an episode later in the season.
According to Echevarria, this season Allison will dream that she's in a mental asylum, and there will also be a 3-D episode. There's also "a show where Allison wakes up, and it starts with a musical number. And Allison is singing 'I Will Survive,'" he said with a laugh. "She wakes up from sort of a fantasy dream, and the song's still playing in her head, and she can't make it go away. The song is literally stuck in her head. She's like, 'Joe, you don't ... ' He says, 'Yeah, I've had that happen.' She yells, 'You don't understand! I can't hear you!'"
And look for baby Marie to finally get her first scripted line of dialogue. Season two of Medium premieres Sept. 19 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Supernatural Is Route 666
ric Kripke, creator and executive producer of The WB's Supernatural, told SCI FI Wire he took some time off after working on The WB's failed Tarzan series, and it allowed him to follow up on a lifelong passion. "I've always wanted to do a show about urban legends and American folklore," Kripke said in an interview. "That's always been an obsession. We have this American mythology that is as uniquely American as jazz and baseball, and it's as intricate as any world culture, but it's just not as well-known."
Supernatural tells the tale of two brothers who are looking for their father through the dark corners of America. The series stars Jensen Ackles (Smallville) and Jared Padalecki (Gilmore Girls) as the monster-fighting brothers.
In trying to figure out the best engine to drive the story, Kripke came up with "a hundred different versions of people investigating urban legends and American folklore," he said. During discussions with Warner Brothers, he reluctantly mentioned the idea for Supernatural. "I said, 'I have one idea, but I don't even want to bring it up, because it's impossible from a production standpoint, and it's totally irresponsible of me,'" Kripke said. "And they said, 'What is it?' And I said, 'Well, it's to do this show as Route 66. The real way to get into every small town and hear every small town's ghost story or creature story is to put two guys in a cool car and drive them from small town to small town across America. But that's crazy, because there's no standing sets and no recurring cast.'"
But, Kripke said, "they loved it. Warner Brothers just sparked to it immediately. And I said, 'Before we move any further you need to put me on the phone with your head of production, and they need to promise me that I'll be able to do this show if we move forward.' Which they did, to their credit." Supernatural premiered Sept. 13 and will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Whisperer Believes In Ghosts
ennifer Love Hewitt, who stars in CBS' upcoming supernatural drama Ghost Whisperer, told SCI FI Wire that she's coming around to the idea that ghosts really exist. "I have to believe in them, because I have to sell it every Friday night," Hewitt said with a laugh in an interview at a CBS premiere party last week in Hollywood. "So I am definitely starting to believe in it more than [before]."
In Ghost Whisperer, Hewitt plays Melinda Gordon, a newlywed who finds herself communicating with the restless spirits of the recently departed. The series is based in part on the purported experiences of self-described psychic Jams Van Praagh, who is a co-executive producer, and Hewitt said that she's even attended one of Van Praagh's many "seances."
"I have," Hewitt said. " Yeah. It's pretty tremendous. It's an unbelievable experience. Everyone should go. "
Beyond ghosts, Hewitt said the new show deals with more immediate issues for the living. "I think our show allows you to grieve, and it shows a lot of ... people grieving in a lot of different situations," she said. "I think in every episode there will be something that someone will connect to or a loss that they will have felt before in their life. But more importantly I think the show is saying to people, 'Don't meet Melinda when you pass. Don't have unfinished business. Don't have someone that you didn't say "I love you" to. Don't have a son that you weren't close to, because it just ended up being too late.' ... Live life to the fullest and live it better for the sake of just being able to pass and go somewhere beautiful and never have the flux and the in-between. And that, I think, is a really good message." Ghost Whisperer debuts Sept. 23 and will air Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Ghost Whisperer Gets Real
ohn Gray, creator and executive producer of CBS' upcoming supernatural series Ghost Whisperer, told SCI FI Wire that the show is based on real events. Honest.
"To a large extent, yes," Gray said in an interview at a CBS premiere party in Hollywood last week. He said the show takes its inspiration in part from the purported experiences of self-described psychic James Van Praagh, who gets a co-executive producer credit. "There are people who James knows who claim to be able to do this kind of thing, communicate with what they call earthbound spirits," Gray said. "People who are stuck here because they have unfinished business with the living. And there are people who help them get that closure, help the living who need closure, and then they're able to cross over. That's sort of our premise."
Ghost Whisperer stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as newlywed Melinda Gordon, who discovers an ability to commune with troubled spirits still walking around after they die. She helps them achieve emotional closure and move on.
Gray added that he feels the show speaks to widespread anxieties in a post-9/11, post-Katrina time. "I really believe that's true," he said. "I think particularly in a post-9/11 world, people seem to be more interested in the idea that there's something else out there, that there's hope. That there's more ... than meets the eye. So, yeah, I definitely think that there is this appetite for it. And you can see it in all the supernatural shows that are coming on the air and all the supernatural movies that are big hits in their opening weekends." Ghost Whisperer premieres Sept. 23 and will air Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Whisperer's Tyler Doesn't Believe
isha Tyler, who co-stars with Jennifer Love Hewitt in CBS' upcoming supernatural series Ghost Whisperer, confessed to SCI FI Wire that she's a skeptic about ghosts, much like her character, Andrea Moreno. "I'm kind of like a ... curious skeptic," Tyler (Lost, 24) said in an interview at a CBS premiere party at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. "I mean, I definitely think of myself as having a skeptic's mind. I'm very science-driven. I'm like kind of a sci-fi fanatic, and if you love sci-fi, then I think you also believe in the fantastic; you believe in kind of the unimagined and extreme possibilities. Absolutely."
Tyler's character is the best friend of Hewitt's, a psychic named Melinda Gordon. The show is based in part on the experiences of self-described psychic James Van Praagh, who is a co-executive producer. Tyler said that Van Praagh has invited cast members to sessions where he attempts to contact the departed.
"James Van Praagh had a lot of like, they're not called séances," Tyler said. " I don't know what they're called. He's done a lot of things where he contacts peoples' loved ones and stuff, and I purposely avoid them every time. I don't want to go, because I don't want my mind changed. I like where I'm at right now. I like being a skeptic. Everybody goes in there, and they're all like pissy and like 'Whatever.' And then they walk out, and they're like, 'Oh, Grandma Flora!' Exactly. So I want to stay over here. I'm going to stay a curmudgeon, I think." Ghost Whisperer premieres Sept. 23 and will air Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Braga: Threshold Won't Hold Back
rannon Braga, co-creator and executive producer of CBS' SF suspense thriller, Threshold, told SCI FI Wire that the show will not be shy in explaining up front what its aliens are doing. "It's bioforming," Braga (Star Trek: Enterprise) said in an interview. "They're sending out this bizarre technological signal that mutates our DNA, [turning us] into them. There are no aliens. They're turning us into them."
In Threshold, Carla Gugino stars as Dr. Molly Caffrey, the woman who wrote Operation: Threshold, a contingency plan that outlines what to do in case of an alien threat. When a cargo freighter discovers an extraterrestrial craft, Threshold is put into motion, and Caffrey must pull together a "red team" to investigate.
Braga, who created the series with executive producers David S. Goyer and David Heyman, said he liked the idea of having a female protagonist. "I liked the concept that she wrote this contingency plan about what if an alien intelligence came to Earth and it was hostile," he said. "This plan was purely theoretical, and one day the government calls her and says it's really happening. So that her 'What if?' scenario becomes a 'What now?' scenario. And she really has to start planning this s--t, because it's really happening."
Threshold is premiering amid a glut of new SF shows on the fall television schedule. But Braga believes that NBC's Surface and ABC's Invasion are very different shows. Threshold deals with a group of people who work for the government who are trying to stop the aliens. "In a funny way, a lot of shows deal with government conspiracy, and there are the people in the shadows who you don't quite know what they're up to," Braga said. "We are the conspiracy. We're leading the conspiracy. And they are going to do some shady things. The Threshold protocols are going to occasionally call for some gray areas to be explored."
Threshold debuted with a two-hour premiere on Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Threshold's Dinklage Jumps To TV
eter Dinklage, who gained critical acclaim in the 2003 independent film The Station Agent, told SCI FI Wire that it wasn't hard to commit to a television series when he signed on to play an irascible mathematician in CBS' SF show Threshold. "Yeah, I mean, it's the writing," Dinklage said in an interview at a CBS premiere party in Hollywood last week. "Great writing. And the guys behind it who created it, I have real respect for, and I knew they weren't going to turn out anything sub-par."
Threshold—from executive producers David S. Goyer, Brannon Braga and David Heyman—centers on a government "red team" assigned to deal with what appears to be a hostile alien invasion. Dinklage (Elf) joins the show in his first regular TV role, playing Arthur Ramsey, a brilliant but troubled linguist and mathematician who is also a womanizer with a drinking problem. The cast also includes Carla Gugino, Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner, Brian Van Holt and Rob Benedict.
"David Goyer has a brilliant mind, and Brannon Braga," Dinklage said. "And I heard some of the actors attached to it already, and so I agreed to do it. Yeah, I didn't have to think too hard about it."
As Ramsey, Dinklage has to mouth a lot of tongue-twisting mathematical dialogue, as well as speak several different languages. "Yeah," he said. "This isn't make-believe. ... Hopefully I'm becoming smarter just reading these scripts and saying them out loud. My brain is expanding. But no, it's fun to say it. Hey, learn new things." Was there a particular bit of dialogue he had trouble with? "Korean is tough," he said. "That's been the toughest so far." Threshold premiered Sept. 16 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Threshold's Gugino Returns To TV
arla Gugino, who stars in CBS' SF series Threshold, told SCI FI Wire that she wasn't looking to get back into series television after the failure of her previous critically acclaimed show, Karen Sisco, but was attracted by Threshold's scope.
"It was a very specific decision, because I really wasn't looking to do another series," Gugino said in an interview at a CBS premiere party at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. "It was the idea of how ambitious this is. And when I read the script, I was like 'Wow! They are creating an entirely new world.'"
In Threshold, from co-creators David S. Goyer, Brannon Braga and David Heyman, Gugino plays Dr. Molly Caffrey, a "contingency analyst" who is called in to head a "red team" assigned to deal with the sudden appearance of an alien threat over the ocean. In the course of the team's first encounter, Caffrey is exposed to something that gives her odd dreams.
"I love the notion of the dream, and the fact that the dreams are some form of communication," Gugino said. "So not only as a character does it allow me to reveal parts of my character that Molly couldn't ever reveal to the people she works with, ... it's just much funner as an actor, but it also lets us do creatively so many cool, surreal things in the show. And you know, I'm a big fan of David Heyman and David Goyer and Brannon Braga and all the people involved, and an amazing group of actors. And so for me it's all about just committing to the things that I believe in and doing the best thing, make the best show we can."
Threshold also stars Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner and Peter Dinklage. It premiered Sept. 16 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Don't Call Surface Sci-Fi
ay R. Ferguson, who co-stars in NBC's new SF series Surface, told SCI FI Wire that the show has fantastic elements, but that he doesn't think of it as true science fiction. "To me, sci-fi is Star Trek or Star Wars," Ferguson said in an interview. "This is almost like something that could be real. You think of a new species popping up in the ocean, and if you saw that in the headlines of today's paper, you wouldn't be that shocked. It's very, very likely, in fact, that there are several species and several animals that we have yet to see that are in the deep depths of the ocean."
When describing the show, Ferguson feels the term "speculative fiction" is more appropriate than science fiction. "To me, even as a sci-fi fan, speculative fiction sounds so much more interesting," he said. "That gets me more excited, because to me, I think the so-called sci-fi movies that I have enjoyed so much have been the ones that have really made me wonder, 'Wow, that could actually happen.' Those are the ones that I love the most. So for this sci-fi fan, speculative fiction sounds much more exciting."
In Surface, Ferguson plays an expert diver who believes his brother's death was caused by a mysterious sea creature. His storyline makes up one-third of the series, which also stars Lake Bell and Carter Jenkins. "I suppose that while you have Lake's character, that's the brain, and Carter's character, who's kind of the heart, my character is kind of the muscle," Ferguson said. "Everyone in the story is affected in a different way, driven by their own set of circumstances. And my set of circumstances are grown out of, or birthed out of, a hatred and a kind of need for truth and closure from the result of my brother being taken. And that is certainly what drives me to find out what's going on and what, if any, truth there is to be found."
Surface premieres Sept. 19 and will air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Surface Is Family-Friendly
arter Jenkins, who co-stars in the new NBC SF series Surface, told SCI FI Wire that his character will form a bond with one of the show's sea creatures after he finds a mysterious egg in the first episode. "The egg hatches, and it becomes this new pet," Jenkins said in an interview. "Actually, during the second episode I name it. His name's Nim. Short for Nimrod."
The 14-year-old Jenkins said that his scenes with the young creature, which will be digitally animated, have been the most challenging so far, because he's had nothing to play against. "It was really interesting having scenes with the creature, my pet," he said. "I'm just talking to nothing, really. And then they add it in later. It's pretty interesting. And it's kind of hard, but it's fun."
One of the most appealing aspects for Jenkins was the similarity in his storyline to one of his favorite films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. "What attracted me to this is [my character has] a connection with this thing," he said. "My character's sort of alienated from his family, but he has a connection with this pet. It was an awesome script, and it was just really cool and something I would want to watch in real life. ... It's interesting, because it's suspenseful and thrilling, but at the same time it's a family drama." Surface premieres Sept. 19 and will air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Trek's Robert Wise Dies
obert Wise, the seven-time Oscar-winning director best known to SF fans for helming the first Star Trek movie, died of heart failure Sept. 14 at age 91, the Associated Press reported.
Wise directed Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. The first of what was to become a durable movie franchise for Paramount brought together the cast of the original Trek series on the big screen for the first time since the show's cancellation 10 years earlier.
Before that, Wise directed one of the classic SF movies of all time: The Day the Earth Stood Still, a Golden-Globe-winning 1951 cautionary tale starring Michael Rennie as an alien visitor who warns the Earth against the perils of nuclear war.
Wise had hits in a variety of genres and worked with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane. He gained his greatest acclaim and four Oscars with the big-budget productions of West Side Story and The Sound of Music, two of the most popular musicals of all time, the AP reported.
In all, Wise directed 39 films, ranging from drama (I Want to Live!) to war stories (Run Silent Run Deep) to westerns (Tribute to a Bad Man). He also was nominated for an Oscar for editing Citizen Kane.
Wise died after falling ill and being rushed to the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center.
Scrolls Based On Indian Legend
ox Searchlight has bought the pitch Scrolls for Indian-born filmmaker Kiran Ramchandran to write and direct, inspired by an ancient Indian legend, Variety reported.
The film follows a soul's journey through three lifetimes. Ramchandran originally developed the idea with Gotham Chopra, son of Deepak Chopra, the trade paper reported. Hadeel Reda will produce.
No Sex, Please, In Godslayer
F author Jacqueline Carey told SCI FI Wire that she normally writes about "sex, adventure and intrigue" in books such as her Kushiel's Legacy trilogy, but that her latest release, Godslayer, has none of the prose for which she is known. This has caused her to lose some readers and gain others, Carey said in an interview.
"I knew there would be some readers disappointed that Banewreaker and Godslayer are a major departure in tone and content, and [I] tried to make it clear in interviews and on my Web site," Carey said. "By the same token, it's gained new readers who didn't care for the dense intrigue or overt sexuality of the trilogy. Change is always a risk, but it's important to remain creatively vital, too."
Godslayer is the second book in the Sundering duology and evokes direct comparisons to The Lord of the Rings in that its characters could have come from J.R.R. Tolkien's mind. Carey said this is intentional. "I wanted to write a good-versus-evil epic fantasy in the classic mold, complete with a Dark Lord, an all-knowing wizardly mentor and a struggling, unlikely hero," she said. "Except I wanted to write it as a tragedy from a point of view sympathetic to the losing side, featuring antiheroes bringing about their own inevitable downfall. What I envisioned is a sort of post-modern Paradise Lost, using the familiar tropes of epic fantasy. All the parallels are deliberate."
Unfortunately for Carey, some reviewers blasted her for a lack of originality. She said those reviewers missed the point. "As an author, it's my job to figure out how much of that is my fault for not making my intentions clear and successful in the writing and how much might be due to misplaced expectations or misleading packaging," she said. "Of course, you can drive yourself crazy, too! It's a fine line."
Next up for Carey: She will return to her old stomping grounds with another Kushiel trilogy. The first book, Kushiel's Scion, is scheduled for a June 2006 release.
Game Is F.E.A.R. Itself
ivendi Universal Games spokesman Marcus Beer told SCI FI Wire that there is a lot of graphic horror and violence in the upcoming SF first-person shooter game F.E.A.R., but that the game goes a lot deeper than just shooting and killing. F.E.A.R., developed in conjunction with Monolith Productions and Sierra Entertainment, will be released for the PC on Oct. 18.
"Admittedly the violence is a bit graphic, but the overall tone of the game is psychological horror," Beer said in an interview. "The best way to describe it is The Ring meets The Grudge meets The Matrix. The game is heavily into paranormal, psychological elements. The main antagonist is a little girl who can control a player's awareness. She can make a player see things that are not actually there."
F.E.A.R., for First Encounter Assault Recon, centers on a paramilitary force that infiltrates a secret aerospace compound to deal with invaders. "The characters you go up against are super soldiers who are controlled by a telepathic commander," Beer said. "The game is done in a full-blown cinematic style that puts the players right in the middle of their own action movie."
The big technological advance in F.E.A.R. is the re-imagining of the game's "graphics-psychic engine," which recreates the action-movie experience. Another element that elevates the game above the level of just another shooter game is a lighting system that can instantly change the environment of the game.
"[It's] a smart game," Beer said. "The enemy talks to each other. They try to outflank you, and they hunt in packs. Mysterious voice mails offer clues, and we're never really sure of anybody's background. There is also a lot of John Woo-style action, with characters diving left and right. This is a really great way to tell a story."
F.E.A.R. will be released in a "director's edition" DVD format that will include exclusive content, including a Making of F.E.A.R. documentary, a developer's roundtable commentary video, live-action "declassified" interviews with Alma, and an exclusive F.E.A.R. machinima episode from Rooster Teeth Productions.
Heinlein Lifetime Awards Given
F authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle were each presented with lifetime achievement Heinlein Awards by The Heinlein Society for outstanding published work in hard science fiction or technical writings inspiring the human exploration of space, organizers announced. The awards were presented Sept. 4 in Seattle by SF writers Gregory Bear and Michael Flynn and Prof. C. Herbert Gilliland of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.
The awards were part of the society's annual black-tie banquet at this year's Eighth North America Science Fiction Convention.
Pern Copyright Suit In Limbo
ay A. Katz, a lawyer representing SF writer Anne McCaffrey, told SCI FI Wire that the author of the Dragonriders of Pern series was sued by a leatherworks seller named Steve Austin in a dispute over copyright, but that the case is now in limbo.
"Mr. Austin sought [a declaratory judgment of] libel in the courts of Michigan after serving McCaffrey with a summons and complaint at Dragon-Con in Atlanta," Katz said in response to e-mail questions. "But the case was dismissed because of a lack of personal jurisdiction by the judge, because she was not served in the state of Michigan."
In an interview, Austin said: "There is currently no legal action in the works. But I do have the option of refilling the lawsuit in Atlanta, and if they start screwing with me again, I guess I'll have to do it."
The case revolves around Austin's alleged copyright infringement of designs taken from The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, a collection of artwork based on McCaffrey's best-selling Pern novels. Austin is charged with illegally creating leather items derived from the artwork and selling them over the Internet.
Katz said that in March 1995, Austin wrote to McCaffrey in an attempt to acquire the rights to create items based on The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern. "He was referred to Bill Fawcett, the copyright owner of the book art," Katz said. "At the time, there was no indication that Mr. Austin was going to sell his goods over the Internet in a commercial, rather than a limited fan-convention, environment."
Not surprisingly, Austin sees things differently. "I had conversations with Bill Fawcett, and it was agreed that I would have the license to use the artwork that was in the book to create leather goods based on the designs from the book," Austin told SCI FI Wire. "The only limitation was that I would be limited to one hundred pieces of each item, but that I would be able to change the design slightly and be able to do more editions of one hundred pieces. There was never a limitation on how I could sell these items. They knew at the time of the deal that I was selling on the Internet and that, while I do sell at conventions, the majority of the items would be sold through the Internet."
Austin admitted to having nothing in writing regarding the deal. "I sent a letter to Bill Fawcett confirming the conversation we had on the phone," Austin said. "It was at his suggestion that I send him a check for $1 just to formalize the deal, which I did. I never got anything back in writing from him. But he signed and cashed the check, which, according to attorneys I talked to, absolutely constitutes a contract."
Katz said that in 2001, "Ms. McCaffrey discovered through a company that had acquired the merchandising rights to Pern that Mr. Austin was selling Pern merchandise. She asked Austin to cease and desist. He refused, claiming he had obtained a license from Mr. Fawcett."
But Austin said that in 2001 he was contacted by Alec Johnson, McCaffrey's business manager at the time. "At the time he was in the process of trying to negotiate movie and merchandising deals for the Pern books," Austin said. "The merchandising companies had to have exclusive rights, but they chose not to include me or my deal with Fawcett in their disclosure. When the merchandising company found out about me, they went back to Alec, who, in turn, contacted me and said I had no right to do what I was doing and that, if I didn't stop, they were going to hit me with a six-figure lawsuit. I had an e-mail correspondence with Alec and explained the deal between Bill Fawcett and myself. His response was, 'I don't care.'"
Katz said that Austin is definitely in the wrong. "Mr. Austin is infringing on Ms. McCaffrey's intellectual property rights in her Pern novels by using elements from the novels depicted in the artwork published in The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern."
Austin, who continues to sell Pern-inspired items on the Internet and at fan conventions, feels differently. "I'm not treading on the intellectual property of Anne McCaffrey, because Bill Fawcett made a deal with me, and I've lived up to my end of it," he said. "If they had wanted to be nice about it, they could have bought all my existing stock, given me an honorable mention on the Pern Web site, and it all could have been done with."
LaBeouf Wants Life For Death
oung actor Shia LaBeouf (Constantine) told SCI FI Wire that he's working with graphic novel writer Neil Gaiman to bring his Death stories to life on the big screen.
"Me and Neil Gaiman are working on Death right now," LaBeouf said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival. "We're trying to turn that into a film. Neil is the guy who wrote Sandman. And Death was one of his graphic novels that we're trying to make." LaBeouf and Gaiman have brought the project to New Line Cinema and are awaiting a green light.
Meanwhile, LaBeouf said that the critical drubbing he and co-star Keanu Reeves got over Constantine may prevent a sequel. "I don't know," said LaBeouf, who played Chas, the sidekick to Reeve's Constantine. "It's a money thing. It didn't make enough money ... domestically for them to [do it]. It's an expensive movie. They had to make a lot of money back to get their money back."
LaBeouf said that he picks his movies carefully and enjoys SF movies, such as I, Robot, in which he co-starred with Will Smith.
Tucker Ready To Get Dark
irector Anand Tucker told SCI FI Wire that he's ready to begin the first of a trilogy of movies based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, but that casting is a ways off.
"I'm so happy to finally get that project started," Tucker said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he is promoting his upcoming romantic drama, Shopgirl. "I was at the bottom of a very long list of people when they finally came to me with the job in February, and I'm delighted."
Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) said that he has genre roots after doing a BAFTA-winning documentary on Anne Rice called A Vampire's Life. Tucker is in line to direct His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, based on Pullman's first book.
His Dark Materials follows 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua as she journeys with a demon to the frozen wastelands of the north as they try to save children from evil Gobblers who are using them for sinister experiments. She ends up rescuing her father from talking polar bears along the way.
"It's basically a story about a little girl who's looking for her family," Tucker said. Each of the movies could cost New Line between $80 million and $90 million.
American Pie co-writer Chris Weitz is penning the script. "I loved that project for 10 years, and I tried to option the book when it first came out," Tucker said. "So I've been passionate about it forever." Tucker added that he was very specific about how he wanted to adapt the story of magic and witches for the big screen. "I went to New Line," he said. "I lobbied and pitched and met everyone. I told them what I felt what the movie should be. To their credit, they decided they would want to go with that." He sighed and added: "I hope I don't let them down."
Mitchell's End Is In Sight
F author Syne Mitchell told SCI FI Wire that she wrote the recently released End in Fire because readers aren't scared enough. "I grew up in the '70s, when people were trying to solve the problems of potential nuclear war and the impending energy crisis," Mitchell said in an interview. "But after the fall of the Soviet empire, people kind of forgot the whole nuclear threat, despite new countries developing nuclear weaponry. And we went along for several years with cheap oil. But oil is going to run out. We still haven't solved the problem of not making any more dinosaurs."
End in Fire begins with the detonation of a nuclear bomb, set off by a country fighting over oil rights. In a phenomenon known as the Argus Effect, Mitchell said, "after a high-altitude nuclear burst, electrons get trapped in the Earth's magnetic field, and they create an interference that lasts for two to three years." And as low-Earth orbit becomes too dangerous to live in, her protagonists aboard a space station must quickly find a way to safety.
With the birth of her son, Kai, Mitchell said that her writing has shifted in focus. "It made me care more about the future and making sure it's a decent, survivable one," she said. Parenthood has made her a better writer, she added. "It showed me different sides of people's lives that I've never thought about before."
In Mitchell's worlds, quick-witted characters deal with the challenges of technology. And three of her four books take place in the near future: The worlds she envisions are only one step removed from the here and now. "The far future is hard to write realistically," she said. "Vernor Vinge talks about the Singularity, this point in the future when the world will change, and modern-day people won't be able to predict it. The more research I do into emergent technologies, the more I think he may be right."
Mitchell, who won the Compton Crook Award in 2001 for her first book, Murphy's Gambit, is currently at work on The Last Mortal Man. "It's about a world in which nano-engineered biology—artificial biology that's built by nanotech—has become the underpinnings of the world's technology," she said. Not only does nanobiology cure such ills as poverty and hunger, it also helps people convert their bodies into a state of immortality. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong. "The only person who can save [the planet] is one of the few remaining organic humans that this threat does not effect," she said. Mitchell envisions a series based on this universe.
So what does this science fiction writer do when she is not building worlds? Besides working as an advisor on the board of Seattle's Science Fiction Museum, "I spin, weave and knit, and I raise two sheep, Moosa and Lola," she said. "They're very cool and friendly sheep."
Pratchett's Johnny Heads To BBC
F writer Terry Pratchett's best-seller Johnny and the Bomb is being turned into a children's drama for the U.K.'s BBC One in 2006, the BBC News Web site reported. The three-part adaptation, from CBBC, will star Zoe Wanamaker, Frank Finlay and Keith Barron.
Johnny and the Bomb, the third title in Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell trilogy, is being filmed by Ballykissangel director Dermot Boyd, the site reported.
The story follows the adventures of a mysterious bag lady who holds the key to time-traveling.
The story has been adapted for television by Peter Tabern. The drama is being produced for the BBC by Childsplay Television and is being filmed in South Wales.
Lawrence Takes On Legend
arner Brothers has set Francis Lawrence (Constantine) to direct I Am Legend, fast-tracking the long-gestating adaptation of the Richard Matheson SF novel, Variety reported. David Heyman, Akiva Goldsman, Neal Moritz and Erwin Stoff are producing. Mark Protosevich wrote the script.
Lawrence takes on one of the more ambitious films in Warner's repertoire, the trade paper reported. Legend is a big SF project that has been at the studio for nearly a decade. At one time, it had Ridley Scott and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached, and another incarnation had Michael Bay and Will Smith set.
Set in Los Angeles after a biological war, the film centers on the sole healthy survivor, a man who finds himself in a battle against nocturnal mutants. The script will undergo a rewrite under the supervision of Lawrence and the producers, who eye a 2006 start date.
Matheson's post-apocalyptic tale has been filmed twice before. Vincent Price starred in 1964's The Last Man on Earth, and Charlton Heston toplined The Omega Man.
LaBeouf Finds Inner Penguin
hia LaBeouf (Constantine) told SCI FI Wire that one of his greatest challenges as an actor right now is trying to figure out how to speak "penguin" for an upcoming animated feature Surf's Up. "It's the first animation ever done documentary-style," LaBeouf said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he is promoting his movie The Greatest Game Ever Played. "It's like a mockumentary about how ... penguins started surfing, and how they started the sport."
LaBeouf plays a penguin named Cody Maverick, and the cast includes James Woods, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Jane Krakowski, Brian Benben and Jeff Bridges as the penguin guru known as "The Geek." "I was sitting with Jeff Bridges for like an hour trying to figure out how to voice a penguin," LaBeouf said with a laugh. "Like, what do you say? Do you say 'Hey man!' Or would you say 'Hey peng?' Like, to be with Jeff Bridges, first of all, is a trip. Sitting with Jeff Bridges talking about how to be a penguin, it's like insane."
LaBeouf said that he's watched Madagascar for inspiration, but the biggest help is the hit documentary March of the Penguins. "Yeah, I liked Madagascar, but March is more of a help, because this is the first animation done like documentary-style. It's also the first animation where everything's pretty much ad-libbed. All the dialogue's ad-libbed. It's groundbreaking. It's pretty cool."
LaBeouf said that the animators sat around watching the actors, then went back to the drawing boards after each recording session to re-draw the cartoon. The process is expected to take two years.
"All these animators are in there, and they go like [gasps], because it's like a new thing," LaBeouf said. "It's never been done like that before."
Endeavour Award Finalists Named
he finalists for 2005 Endeavour Award, honoring distinguished science fiction or fantasy books by a writer from the Pacific Northwest, have been announced. The winner will be announced in November at OryCon and will receive a $1,000 cash prize. The Endeavour Award has been sponsored for seven years by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), the organization that sponsors OryCon and other Oregon conventions. The list of finalists follows.
Endeavour Award finalists: Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia McKillip, The Child Goddess by Louise Marley, Paradise Passed by Jerry Oltion, The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander, Two Trains Running by Lucius Shepard
Short Playing Clause 3 Heavy
alt Disney Pictures is in final negotiations with Martin Short to play the villain in The Santa Clause 3, Variety reported. Short will play Jack Frost, who tries to take over Christmas from Santa Claus, the trade paper reported.
Tim Allen returns as Santa, aka Scott Calvin, who struggles to keep his new family happy while battling Frost. Michael Lembeck, who directed the second Santa Clause film, returns to helm the third installment.
Shooting starts Nov. 14 for a holiday 2006 release.
Madagascar Sequels Green-Lighted
reamWorks Animation has given the green light to a theatrical sequel and a direct-to-video sequel to its hit computer-animated film Madagascar, Variety reported. Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith, along with co-directors Eric Darnell and Tim McGrath, have already been signed for a theatrical sequel targeted for release in late 2008, the trade paper reported.
Supporting player Andy Richter is aboard as well, and the studio confirmed it is working on deals with other voice actors including David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen and Cedric the Entertainer.
The computer animation company also is working on a direct-to-video title featuring the film's popular penguin supporting players that would come out in 2009. It will be studio's second direct-to-video film after its Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots, which has been pushed back from 2007 to 2008.
Madagascar has made nearly $200 million in domestic box office and more than $300 million overseas since its May release.
Cronenberg To Tend Fields?
eteran genre director David Cronenberg told SCI FI Wire that his next movie may be a big-screen adaptation of the Martin Amis supernatural-tinged novel London Fields. In the story, a super-sexy psychic senses that she's soon to be killed by one of two men she's recently met in a London pub and sets about making her premonition a reality.
"It's a possibility," Cronenberg said in an interview while promoting his latest film, A History of Violence. "I actually don't know. The deal has not been made yet. It would be an independently financed film, which means it will take some time to put the financing together."
Cronenberg, the Canadian director of Scanners and The Fly, added: "It's brilliant writing. Amis is a fantastic writer, and [London Fields] is a very interesting meditation on suicide and murder and [a] whole bunch of other things. It's pretty good. ... I wouldn't say it's supernatural, but there are a bunch of fantasies involved. It's all interesting, complex, difficult stuff to play with, and it's a real challenge for a filmmaker, as any complex, brilliant novel would be."
EverQuest Darkhollow Now Here
ony Online Entertainment announced the release of EverQuest Depths of Darkhollow, the 10th expansion pack for the hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game for the PC. EverQuest Depths of Darkhollow is available at retail and for digital download from Sony Online Entertainment at a suggested retail price of $29.99.
Depths of Darkhollow will take players to raw, bleak caverns, where they will face the most formidable monsters yet. The pack also features new lands, a bold new storyline and fierce new creatures, including Sporali, Clockwork Gnomes and werewolves.
For the first time ever, players will get the ability to play as a monster and experience EverQuest lore through the eyes of another character, while doing battle against ancient foes. Players will also be able to use Spirit Shrouds to assume the form of a lower-level creature and join newbie friends in battle.
Runes Author Muscles Onward
tephen R. Donaldson's most recent book, The Runes of the Earth, has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award, but the author told SCI FI Wire that he is actually more proud of his martial-arts awards than his literary ones.
"The results of literary awards [are] so subjective, they can be determined by the digestion of the judges on a particular day," Donaldson said in an interview. "My progress in the martial arts is tangible, and I can, if I have to, demonstrate it to other people. In that sense, it's much more verifiable."
Donaldson, a third-degree black belt in Shotokan karate, credits his recent success to martial arts. "It has improved my focus, my ability to center and discipline myself." He added: "I've had the ideas in my head since 1980, but writing the second Chronicles persuaded me that I wasn't a good enough writer to write the last Chronicles: an extraordinarily complex and difficult story. Twenty years [later], now, finally, I am."
Donaldson returns to his best-selling series of books, centering on the antihero Thomas Covenant, in what he calls his last series. "However," Donaldson said, "I'm not simply announcing that I don't intend to write more Covenant books. The word 'last' is also relevant to the themes in the story." In this first book, Dr. Linden Avery finds herself back in the Land, the world of wild magic, which has radically changed since her last visit.
Donaldson is currently at work on the next book in the series, Fatal Revenant. The two words are a bit of a riddle: "fatal" means causing death, and "revenant" means one that returns from the dead. Donaldson chose his title carefully. "Both words are critical," he said. "Each has a double meaning, depending upon where you are in the story. "
The book should be finished next year. "I write slowly," Donaldson said. He also said he reads slowly. "I can't read a book without studying it. If I read a book a month, I'm flying." The Runes of the Earth was recently released in paperback.
Briefly Noted
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Animator Chris Wedge told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that he is considering a sequel to this year's Robots and is currently co-producing a sequel to his previous hit, Ice Age, which will be released next year.
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The new full-length trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
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Supernatural debuted on The WB Sept. 13 and held on to 90 percent of the more than 6 million viewers who tuned in to the Gilmore Girls' season premiere in the preceding hour, TV Guide Online reported.
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Walden Media has acquired Tortoise and Hippo, a pitch for a combination live-action and computer-animated film to be written by Shrek co-writer Roger S.H. Schulman, Variety reported.
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The Brothers Grimm star Matt Damon is engaged to his girlfriend, Luciana Barroso, Us Weekly reported.
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Fox will release its third collection of 16 episodes of The X-Files in a new DVD collection titled The X-Files Mythology: Colonization, encompassing the alien colonization story thread and including episode commentaries and part three of Chris Carter's documentary Threads of the Mythology, on Sept. 27.
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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the feature-length documentary Ringers: Lord of the Fans on DVD on Nov. 22, directed by Carlene Cordova and narrated by Dominic Monaghan.
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To coincide with the Sept. 13 DVD release of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a new Web site has gone live with a one-day promotion in which visitors will get a password to download film-related content.
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Moviehole has posted an interview with animator Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit), who talked about his idea for a sequel to his hit Chicken Run.
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Electronic Arts has posted a new Web site for its upcoming video game From Russia With Love, based on the classic James Bond movie.
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Dominic Sena is in final negotiations to direct Season of the Witch for Columbia Pictures, about a group of knights in 14th-century France who must transport a woman accused of witchcraft to a mountain abbey, where the monks attempt to understand and destroy her powers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Chinese actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li will be among the celebrities on hand at this week's opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
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Gary Oldman has joined the cast of the upcoming SF movie The Children of Men, reuniting with his Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuarón, MTV.com reported.
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