Alias Coming To An End
BC announced that its spy series Alias will end its five-season run in May 2006. The spy drama has seen its ratings fall since moving to Thursdays from Wednesdays this season. The pregnancy of star Jennifer Garner, meanwhile, has necessitated retooling the show, with new cast members, a new story arc and an upcoming mid-season hiatus while Garner has her baby.
Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said in a statement: "Alias is not going to wind down as it comes to an end; it's going to rev up, and we're going to make it the event it deserves to be."
From creator J.J. Abrams, Alias has earned seven Emmy Awards, and Garner won a Golden Globe for the role as superspy Sydney Bristow in 2002.
This season, Alias added new cast members Balthazar Getty as Thomas Grace, Rachel Nichols as Rachel Gibson and Élodie Bouchez as Renée Rienne. In addition to Garner, the Alias cast includes Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Carl Lumbly and Kevin Weisman.
Alias was created by J.J. Abrams, who executive-produces the series along with Ken Olin, Jeff Pinkner, Jesse Alexander and Jeffrey Bell.
CBS Cancels Threshold?
BS has pulled its SF drama Threshold from the schedule for at least the next few weeks, following a lackluster ratings performance in a new Tuesday timeslot, Zap2it reported. Sources told E! Online that the show has been canceled; a CBS spokesperson couldn't be reached by Zap2It to confirm that.
If it is canceled, Threshold would be the first of this season's alien-invasion stories to get the axe. ABC's Invasion and NBC's Surface have both been picked up for full seasons.
CBS had moved Threshold to Tuesdays from Fridays in an effort to boost its ratings. But the show, which aired an original episode on Nov. 22 after a couple of weeks' absence, actually saw its ratings drop.
An episode of Criminal Minds will take Threshold's place on Nov. 29.
Ellison Named Grand Master
rolific and irascible SF author Harlan Ellison has been named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and will be honored at the Nebula Award Weekend in Tempe, Ariz., May 4-7, 2006, the SFWA Web site reported. SF writer William F. Nolan will serve as the 2006 Author Emeritus.
Since his first sale, "Glowworm," to Infinity Science Fiction in 1956, Ellison has shaped and sometimes re-shaped modern science fiction, the SFWA said. As a writer and as an anthologist, his influence, though sometimes controversial, has been vast. Ellison won seven Hugo Awards; three Nebula Awards; many script-writing awards for his television work, which included episodes of the original Star Trek; an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America; and various World Fantasy Awards.
Always a champion for writers, Ellison led the legal fight against AOL with his "Kick Internet Piracy" campaign to hold Internet service providers responsible for pirate sites. He also helped to launch the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Nolan was born in 1928 in Kansas City, Mo., and sold his first fiction in 1954. His work has included a broad range of material, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, westerns and mysteries. He's authored more than 150 stories and 75 books, including 13 novels. Among the best-known of his novels is Logan's Run, co-authored with George Clayton Johnson, and later on his own Logan's World and Logan's Search. His work has earned praise from such writers as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury and Joe R. Landsdale.
SG-1 Adds Black As Regular
laudia Black (Farscape) joins the regular cast of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1 in its upcoming 10th season, and the principal cast members of both SG-1 and its spinoff series, Stargate Atlantis, have signed on to reprise their roles in the recently announced new seasons, the network said.
Black, who plays the recurring role of Vala in SG-1's current ninth season, becomes a regular, joining stars Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks and Beau Bridges, who will all return.
Meanwhile, Joe Flanigan, Torri Higginson, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell, Paul McGillion and Jason Momoa will all return to Stargate Atlantis.
Stargate SG-1 becomes the longest-running SF drama on U.S. television and will mark its 200th episode in the upcoming season.
SG-1 wraps up its ninth season with new episodes starting on Jan. 6, 2006, paired with the final new second-season episodes of Atlantis and new episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Lost Podcast Gives New Clues
BC will offer new podcasts to accompany its hit series Lost, with producers discussing new clues, offering behind-the-scenes glimpses and providing scene-by-scene commentary on recent episodes, the network announced.
In the third installment, now live, creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse offer clues and discuss the upcoming episode "Collision," which airs Nov. 23 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The producers also look at last week's episode, "The Other 48 Days," which revealed the backstory of the new group of Flight 815 survivors. New cast regular Cynthia Watros (Libby) also talks about her experiences moving to Hawaii and joining the cast.
A Thanksgiving podcast will go live on Nov. 24, featuring supervising producers/writers Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Leonard Dick, with commentary for "Collision."
The Nov. 28 podcast will be the last of the calendar year, with Lindelof and Cuse discussing the writing process on the show and the upcoming episode "What Kate Did."
Goblet Of Fire Burns Hot
arry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth movie in the hit franchise, sold an estimated $101.4 million worth of tickets in its first three days of release across North America, making it the fourth-largest opening ever, the Reuters news service reported.
The opening tally for Goblet far exceeded those of the first three Potter films, Warner Brothers said. To date, the best performer was the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which kicked off with $93.7 million in June 2004, the wire service reported.
Goblet of Fire's opening exceeded Warner's expectations of a debut in the $90 million range. The results were boosted by glowing reviews, as well as a strong turnout from older audiences for the PG-13 movie, the first in the franchise to carry that rating.
The record for a three-day opening is held by Spider-Man, which bowed with $115 million in 2002. Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith began with $108.4 million earlier this year, just ahead of Shrek 2, with $108 million in 2004.
Meanwhile, Chicken Little, which held the top spot last week, slipped to number three, with $14.8 million, the Associated Press reported. Zathura: A Space Adventure rounded out the top five with $5.1 million for the weekend.
Lost Video Diaries Deal Sealed
he Walt Disney Co. has sealed a deal with Verizon for a series of short Lost episodes for mobile devices, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The deal announcement fills in the details of a plan reported last week.
The Lost Video Diaries, a series of 22 two-minute episodes focusing on less-prominent survivors of the ill-fated Oceanic Flight 815, will premiere exclusively on the Verizon Wireless V Cast broadband service in January, the trade paper reported.
The episodes will be produced under the supervision of Lost co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and series executive producer Carlton Cuse. Lost writers Dawn Kelly and Matt Ragghianti are penning the two-minute installments.
At least six of the mini-Lost episodes also will be included as extras on the Lost season-two DVD box set next year. Verizon plans to program the episodes on a once-a-week basis just as the series airs in prime time.
Verizon charges a $15 monthly fee for subscriptions to its V Cast service, which debuted in February. V Cast has offered some premium content that requires an additional fee for viewing, but it has not yet been determined whether an additional fee will be levied on Lost Video Diaries.
3-D IMAX Polar Express Back
arner Brothers will re-release the IMAX 3-D version of its computer-animated holiday fantasy movie The Polar Express on Nov. 23. The Polar Express: An IMAX 3-D Experience was the first full-length feature film ever converted into the widescreen 3-D format when it debuted last holiday season.
The Polar Express re-release will play on a total of 83 screens and will share some screens with the IMAX version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Meanwhile, IMAX Corp. and Warner announced that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The IMAX Experience broke every record in its debut at 66 North American IMAX theaters, posting an estimated $2.93 million in grosses, the biggest three-day opening ever.
Kong Game Due Tuesday
bisoft will release Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie on Nov. 22, three weeks before the Universal Pictures movie opens and the same day Microsoft releases its new Xbox 360, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jackson, who directs the remake of the classic 1933 SF movie King Kong, and his WETA special-effects house in New Zealand had a hand in the game's creation. Stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody and Colin Hanks and other cast members provided voices and likenesses for the game, the trade paper reported.
Ubisoft also hired Philippa Boyens, co-writer of the film, to co-write the game's script and supervise and direct the voice-acting sessions with the cast. The actors provided dialogue in soundstages from New Zealand, while they were filming, as well as in Los Angeles.
The first 1 million copies of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox King Kong games will come packaged with a free ticket to the movie.
In the game the player will assume the role of Jack Driscoll in the beginning of the game, but as the story progresses, players will be able to control Kong from a third-person perspective.
The new King Kong movie opens Dec. 14. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Children Begins Production
roduction began last week on Children of Men, the SF thriller movie based on P.D. James' best-selling novel, and will continue through January in the United Kingdom, Universal Pictures and Strike Entertainment announced.
Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) will direct the movie, which stars Clive Owen (Sin City), Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Charlie Hunnam and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Cuaron adapted James' book with Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata.
Children of Men envisages a world one generation from now that has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. The world's youngest citizen has just died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Set against a backdrop of London torn apart by violence and warring nationalistic sects, Children of Men follows an unlikely champion of Earth's survival: Theo (Owen), a disillusioned ex-activist turned bureaucrat, who is forced to face his own demons and protect the planet's last remaining hope.
Children of Men will be released in North America on Sept. 29, 2006. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Prestige Cast Rounds Out
ugh Jackman and Christian Bale will star in and rock star David Bowie is in talks to play inventor Nikola Tesla in The Prestige, a supernatural thriller from Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The cast also includes Bale's Batman Begins co-star Michael Caine in a tale of rival magicians in early 20th-century London. The Tesla character is based on the real-life Serbian-American who discovered the rotating magnetic field, the trade paper reported.
The script, on which Nolan is working is based on Christopher Priest's 1996 novel and was adapted by Nolan's brother, Jonathan, who also wrote the short story on which Nolan's breakout movie, Memento, was based.
The movie is scheduled to shoot in January with a budget in the $40 million range. Disney will distribute the film domestically and Warner Brothers internationally.
Bell Joins Threshold Cast
rannon Braga, co-creator and executive producer of CBS' SF drama Threshold, said that Catherine Bell will soon join the show's cast in a recurring role. Bell, who will also star in SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries The Triangle, will play a genetic engineer who joins the Red Team of Molley Caffrey (Carla Gugino), which is trying to stop an alien threat. Bell is perhaps best known for playing Lt. Col. Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie on CBS' long-running series JAG.
Braga, speaking in a conference call with the press on Nov. 17, added that another recurring character will also join the cast: the heretofore unseen fiancee of engineer Lucas Pegg (Rob Benedict). "She's going to become a recurring character," Braga said. "[She's] cool and pretty. She's actually a research physician at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, [Md.,] ... and Lucas is going to go through a very traumatic experience where, having watched that alien videotape in the pilot, he starts to unravel. ... And she's going to come into the story. ... They can't tell her what's going on, and she's not allowed to see her [future] husband. And she's going to become a source of conflict for Molly."
Threshold returns after a couple of weeks' absence on Nov. 22 in a new 10 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday timeslot. To catch up viewers who are new to the show, Braga said, "we cut together a really cool trailer, ... like a minute-long ... 'saga sell,' ... to bring people in and get them familiar with the show immediately. [It's] almost like a music-video-type montage saying 'Here's Threshold.' ... That will actually premiere Tuesday night right before the episode begins."
Braga said future episodes will contain a few surprises and offered some spoilers. Gunneson (William Mapother), the alien infectee from the pilot episode, will come back "in a very, very unexpected way when he appears in Molly's nightmare," Braga said.
The Nov. 29 episode, "The Crossing," will deal with an attempted prison break by the alien infectees jailed at Threshold headquarters.
Threshold fans can catch up with the show on CBS.com, which is streaming past episodes.
Yeoh Talks Sunshine And Boyle
ichelle Yeoh told SCI FI Wire that she's currently playing an astronaut in Sunshine under director Danny Boyle and considers the SF movie a typically atypical choice for the director. "That's where Danny Boyle is amazing," Yeoh said in an interview while promoting her latest film, Memoirs of a Geisha. "If you look at his films you don't know what to expect from him."
Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) co-stars in Sunshine with Rose Byrne, Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans in a futuristic story about a team of astronauts sent on a mission to re-ignite the dying sun. Yeoh said that Boyle brings something new to the SF material, much as he did with his zombie movie, 28 Days Later. "There are so many zombie movies out there," she said. "So why did he make it different? Because he had an edge. So [Sunshine] is, yes, eight astronauts going up to save the world. We've heard that so many times before. [But] you have to see it. It's got an edge. I loved that the first week of filming he said to me, 'You know this is not a family movie, right?' [I said,] 'Danny, I know your films. It's OK.'" (Alex Garland, who wrote 28 Days Later, also wrote Sunshine.)
Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia, said that Sunshine is a marked change for her as well, given that she'd just done the Japanese period drama Memoirs of a Geisha. "Last year I was the geisha," she said. "Four hours of makeup and every day walking around like a supermodel. This movie I'm the astronaut: 50 years ahead in time, 15 minutes in the hair and makeup. I'm like, 'Wait a minute. What about my eyebrow[s]?' 'No, you're a real character. You're an astronaut. You're a physicist. You're a scientist. Go back to your lab.' It's fantastic." Sunshine will be released in 2006.
Fan Trek Film Finnishes First
spoof of Star Trek has become Finland's most-viewed movie, relying on free distribution over the Internet to reach more than 3 million viewers in less than two months, the Reuters news service reported.
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is a full-length feature in Finnish with English subtitles that pits The Next Generation-like ships against Babylon 5-like ships in a space battle for domination of the galaxy. It was made by a group of students and other amateur filmmakers with a bare-bones budget and a few home computers to create elaborate special effects.
According to the Finnish Internet hosting firm Magentasites Oy, which is helping to distribute Star Wreck, 2.92 million copies have been downloaded from the film's Web site since Oct. 1, and an estimated 600,000 copies have gone out through various mirror sites, the wire service reported.
Lifetime Pays Large For Medium
ifetime has agreed to pay a record $1.35 million per episode for rights to reruns of Paramount TV's Medium, which currently airs new episodes on NBC, Variety reported.
The total dollar figure could theoretically rise to $300 million if NBC keeps renewing Medium through the 2014-'15 season; the number of episodes is capped at 10 years, which would yield about 220 hours, the trade paper reported.
Key to Lifetime's interest in Medium is the content, the trade paper reported. The character played by Patricia Arquette, who won a 2005 Emmy, has depth and complexity both as a mother and as someone who works in a proactive job that's sometimes very dangerous, and the supernatural elements add appeal.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Grier Gave Director A Thrill
riter/director Ryan McKinney told SCI FI Wire that he was thrilled to cast Pam Grier (Ghosts of Mars) in his as-yet-unnamed supernatural horror film during an exclusive visit to the movie's set in Placerville, Calif. Grier plays a psychic who can see spirits that guide a "spirit board" in the independent movie from Green Flash Pictures.
McKinney said in an interview that he loved Grier's early films, such as 1971's The Big Doll House and Women in Cages. "Pam Grier is such a legend," McKinney said during a break in filming on location in the town near Sacramento, Calif. "I have a funny story about the first time I met her. I said I was so happy to get a chance to meet [her], and she hugged and grabbed my butt and said, 'I want to see how happy you are.'"
Grier is part of a cast that includes Lou Diamond Phillips, Megan Ward, Victor Browne and Jacoby Shaddix, the lead singer of the band Papa Roach, who is making his feature-film debut. "I have a very cool scene with Pam Grier, and that was the greatest thing for me," Shaddix said in a separate interview. "Pam Grier is a psychic who has visions, and I happen to be one of them."
Shaddix plays an artist who is killed by his wife after she plays with a spirit board and unleashes spirits. The film is based on a real-life mystery that made the people of El Cerrito, Calif., go a bit wacky in the early 20th century. In March 1920, the headline in the local paper of that Northern California town read: "Whole Town Ouija Mad." Seven people were arrested after police said they went insane as a result.
The movie has just wrapped filming and is aiming for a 2006 release.
Narnia Kids Find Meaning
nna Popplewell and William Moseley—the young stars of the big-screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis' beloved The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—told SCI FI Wire that the adventure is about an epic battle, but much more. In the story, Susan (Popplewell), Peter (Moseley), Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes) find a magical doorway through a wardrobe that takes them from World War II-era London to the world of Narnia, a land they're apparently destined to rule.
So what's the movie about? "Good over evil," Moseley, 18, said in an interview as he tried to distill Narnia down to its essence.
Popplewell, 16, had another take. "I've been asked this question recently, and I've managed to sum it up with: You've got to change yourself before you change the world." (Popplewell's previous credits include The Little Vampire and, with Harry Potter's Rupert Grint, the British comedy Thunderpants.) "All of the kids go on these individual journeys and have to go through these personal reforms before they can actually save Narnia and before they are able to unite as a family and deal with all the stuff they have to deal with," she added.
Moseley concurred. "I think it's about change, again, but it's also about love," he said. "I know that's a weird, weird thing, and I don't want to make it sound cliché, because it's not a clichéd film. But it's down to respect for others and respect for yourself, and the choices you make affect you. For me, personally, I felt that it was a moral battle: all about morality and [how] the path you choose defines who you'll be." The Chronicles of Narnia opens on Dec. 9.
Science Trumps Lore In Secrets
autical researcher David Bright, whose efforts to find an infamous missing plane in the Bermuda Triangle are chronicled in the upcoming SCI FI Channel investigative news special The Bermuda Triangle: Startling New Secrets, told SCI FI Wire that he did not go into the project with any preconceived notions about what he would or would not find. "Absolutely not," Bright said in an interview. "I think the beauty of what we were doing is because we all had varying backgrounds on the project. They all came into play. What we did is before we even went out we did a bit of what we call 'What if?' scenarios. So in order to get to that point, what we really needed to do was to essentially do an awful lot of research."
The special documents Bright's expedition—which included a team of more than 20 scientists and technological experts—as they searched for the truth behind the Bermuda Triangle's most famous incidents. In 1945, a squadron of bombers called Flight 19 was lost during a training mission off the coast of Florida. The rescue plane sent to find them a few hours later also disappeared. None of the planes has ever been found.
Based on all the scientific data currently available, Bright and his team used a methodical approach to finding the missing search plane. "We built in a scenario, or a search pattern, that was predicated on currents and tides and weather and taking also into account the fact that there could be certain scenarios where the ship exploded in midair and pieces would come down," Bright said. "Or the ship exploded as it hit the water after it came down. Or the fact that it may have hit the water and parts of it could have essentially blown up, but yet the remainder part of it could have gone on a little further with the tides. ... We came up with all these different scenarios and then developed search pattens based upon all of the different scenarios."
Bright would not reveal what his team uncovered during their seven days at sea, but he did say that he came away from the project satisfied. "What we were doing scientifically, especially with the game plan, was very strategically aligned with what we expected to see," he said. "And it actually worked out quite well for us. So, although I can't tell you what we found, I can tell you we were very excited about the science that we did out there, and that none of us would have done anything differently."
The Bermuda Triangle: Startling New Secrets airs Nov. 27 at 9 p.m. PT/ET. The special, from NBC News Productions, is hosted by NBC/MSNBC news anchor Lester Holt.
The special is a companion piece to the SCI FI original miniseries The Triangle, which premieres Dec. 5 at 9 p.m. PT/ET.
Triangle Specials Debut On Demand
BC Universal Cable will premiere two special supplements to SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries The Triangle available free on on-demand and broadband outlets on Nov. 23, prior to their network premieres.
The Bermuda Triangle: Startling New Secrets and SCI FI Inside: The Triangle will premiere on-demand and broadband four days prior to their network premieres on Nov. 27. Participating affiliates include Time Warner Cable and Adelphia, as well as Insight Communications, Patriot Media and Verizon, who will receive the content via TVN Entertainment Corp., and other midsize operators, such as Armstrong and Buckeye.
The six-hour, three-night miniseries The Triangle premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Dec. 5.
NBC Universal Cable, like SCI FI Channel, is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
No Ouija In Ouija Movie
riter/director Ryan McKinney told SCI FI Wire that his upcoming supernatural horror movie is based on a real incident, in which residents of a Northern California town took their obsession with the then-new Ouija board too far in 1920. But don't use the term "Ouija board" to refer to the movie, McKinney said in an interview on the film's set in Placerville, Calif. That's because filmmakers couldn't come up with the money to buy the rights to use the trademark, which is held by game maker Parker Brothers.
As a result, all references to "Ouija" have been taken out of the movie, which was originally titled Ouija Board. At this point, the movie, which stars Pam Grier, Megan Ward and Victor Browne, doesn't have a title, though some people involved with the film think the movie may take its name from the production company, Dark Portal.
The film, from Green Flash Pictures, is based on the people of El Cerrito, Calif., and their experiences with the so-called "spirit board," which some believe allows players to communicate with spirits. In March of 1920, the local newspaper carried this headline: "Whole Town Ouija Mad." Seven people were arrested after police said they went insane in what was called "Ouijamania," including a 15-year-old girl who stripped naked and ran outside after playing with the spirit board, McKinney said. The town eventually banned Ouija boards.
Intrigued by the story, McKinney teamed up with the Sacramento-area Green Flash, whose principals include Tony Chopelas and the husband-and-wife team of David and Eve Justice. They wrote a script based on the real incidents. "I looked into some of the stories of what happened, what was reported, and then took it a level further to see what happened to the people who participated in it," McKinney said.
In the movie, a couple with a baby on the way moves into a house and finds a spirit board in the attic. Against her husband's better judgment, the young wife uses it, and all hell breaks loose. A dark portal opens to the world of spirits who once lived in the house. The movie also stars Lou Diamond Phillips, Jacoby Shaddix, Ellen Albertini-Dow and Christopher Holly. A local state assemblyman and former state senator, Tim Leslie, makes a cameo appearance as a police officer who helps investigate the phenomenon.
The as-yet-unnamed movie recently wrapped production and is eyeing a 2006 release.
Carbon Author Tries Fantasy
ichard K. Morgan, author of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel Altered Carbon, told SCI FI Wire that he just signed a five-book deal with Del Rey, which will include a sword-and-sorcery trilogy.
"There's no major agenda behind these books," Morgan said in an interview. "I just fancied having a crack at old-school sword and sorcery, using some of the technique and tone I've been deploying in my Kovacs novels. ... I'd been talking a good fight about fantasy noir for a while now, about the idea of ripping apart the Tolkienesque decor to focus on the ugly cracks and stains behind, and it just finally seemed time to put my pen where my mouth is."
Morgan insisted, however, that he's not trying to reinvent the wheel. "This isn't some kind of cutting edge I'm trying to claim," he said. "There are plenty of very fine fantasy writers breaking new ground out there (Jeff VanderMeer, Steph Swainston, China Mieville, Kelly Link and Margo Lanagan, to name but a few of the best) and plenty of others who have already profaned the Tolkienesque template with more robust contemporary attitudes ([such as] Glen Cook's Black Company books). This is not a whole new sub-genre platform or radical departure from anything. It's just me taking the fantasy genre for a spin, seeing what I can do with it."
The other two books in the deal are unspecified science fiction novels. But first Morgan said that he has to finish work on his latest SF novel, Black Man. "This is a vacation from my Takeshi Kovacs series and an attempt to do something a little different while still working with the tools and templates of future noir," Morgan said. "The book posits a future about a century from now in which poorly supervised genetic experimentation has left the human race with a series of major legal and ethical headaches, and a massive colony effort on Mars has turned into a political race between reconstituted power blocs. The U.S. has fractured apart along lines which will seem eerily familiar to students of the current political [quagmire], and China has risen to economic and political parity with the West."
Morgan added: "It's proving a lot more complicated to write than the Kovacs books or Market Forces. But hopefully it'll be worth it. You've got to keep pushing your boundaries, after all; otherwise you just get stale."
Briefly Noted
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New images from King Kong have gone up on SCI FI Wire's Photo Gallery page, and the new teaser trailer for Happy Feet is linked through the Trailers page.
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High-definition and regular teaser trailers have gone live for M. Night Shyamalan's next movie, Lady in the Water.
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Warner Brothers reported a final worldwide weekend gross of $187.8 million for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, including $102.3 million from North America, Variety reported.
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TV Guide Online reported a rumor that Smallville cast member James Marsters is taking a few weeks off to shoot the straight-to-DVD horror film Shadow Puppets with former Star Trek: Enterprise star Jolene Blalock.
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The BBC has posted a special Doctor Who mini-episode to benefit the U.K. charity Children In Need, created by series producer Russell T. Davies and starring Billie Piper and the new Doctor, David Tennant.
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The official Superman Returns fan Web site, BlueTights.net, has posted an account of director Bryan Singer's talk at the inaugural Christopher Reeve Lecture Series presentation at the Princeton Public Library in New Jersey on Nov. 18, in which he offered spoilers, details and anecdotes about the making of the film.
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Sony Pictures said that it has authored and encoded the first full-length movie, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, in the high-def Blu-ray Disc format, Variety reported.
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