Stars Line Up For SF Masters

Lost's Terry O'Quinn is among the long list of actors—including Judy Davis, Sam Waterston and Anne Heche—who have signed on to star in episodes of ABC's upcoming SF anthology series Masters of Science Fiction, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Other stars who have signed on include Malcolm McDowell, James Cromwell, John Hurt, Sean Astin and Brian Dennehy. They will appear in installments of the six-episode series, which is based on short stories by some of SF's top writers, the trade paper reported. The hour-long show is set to air during the 2006-'07 season.

Other actors starring in episodes are Elisabeth Rohm, Clifton Collins Jr., Kimberly Elise and James Denton.

In addition, physicist-professor Stephen Hawking will introduce each episode of the show, which is filmed on location in Vancouver, B.C.Singer Signs ABC TV Deal

Superman Returns director Bryan Singer has has signed a deal with ABC to develop three scripts for the network, one of which is guaranteed to go to a pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Singer will develop the projects through his company, Bad Hat Harry Productions, and will executive-produce and direct the pilot.

This is the first formal television deal for Singer, who spearheaded the early development of SCI FI Channel's critically praised original series Battlestar Galactica, executive-produced the channel's miniseries The Triangle and directed and executive-produced the pilot for Fox's medical drama House.

What sets Singer's deal with ABC apart from other high-profile, three-for-one pacts is that it is not tied to a studio. This gives Singer the flexibility to develop with writers at any studio.Universal Raises Hellboy 2

Universal Pictures will fully finance and distribute Hellboy 2, the Guillermo del Toro-directed sequel to the 2004 Dark Horse Comic-spawned film, Variety reported.

The studio is picking up a project orphaned by Revolution Studios, which made the original and distributed it through its deal at Columbia Pictures. With Revolution out of business, the sequel became available, and Universal slotted it for summer 2008.

In a script by del Toro, Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, the humanoid creature born in the flames of hell who was deposited on Earth's doorstep as an infant and battles otherworldly evil for a covert government agency. Selma Blair returns as Liz Sherman, the horned hero's pyrokinetic love interest.

Lawrence Gordon, Mike Richardson, Lloyd Levin and Roth will produce, with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola as co-producer and Chris Kenney as executive producer. Production starts in April in Budapest and London.

Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.Heroes Rise To Challenges

Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of the upcoming NBC superhero series Heroes, told reporters that the show appears to resonate with the audience's hunger for stories about ordinary people who can rise to the world's challenges with extraordinary abilities. "There seems to be a zeitgeist that's tapped into," Kring said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif., last month. "When I first thought of this idea, I had no awareness that there were these things looming out there. I think there's a kind of cycle where people tap into these kinds of stories. It seems to be something that I was interested in as well. Looking at the world and what's happening in the world and the world that we live in—I think that the complications that we all sort of face in a world that seems to be out of balance and global warming and diminished resources and terrorism—there's a sort of a sense that people want a wish fulfillment, that somebody is going to rise up among us, just like you and just like me, and actually be able to do something about it. And so I was sort of trying to tap into that."

Heroes centers on a group of disparate people in different parts of the world who suddenly discover that they have superhuman powers. The ensemble cast includes Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Greg Grunberg, Hayden Panettiere, Milo Ventimiglia and Adrian Pasdar.

Kring took some of the show's cast to Comic-Con International in San Diego, where he said they received a hero's welcome. "I don't have a genre background," he said. "I was not familiar with comic books and all of that. So I approached this from what I kind of knew, and that was character. So each of these characters' abilities is actually kind of an extension of who they are and what their life is about. You take a single mother [Larter] who is trying to make ends meet, who literally finds that she can be in two places at the same time."

Kring also downplayed any comparisons to the similarly themed X-Men franchise. "I wouldn't lean too hard on this being a genre show," Kring said. "I think there are certainly genre elements, and we're not denying that or trying to run away from that. ... That being said, ... a large chunk of the writing staff and the upper writing staff are from various shows like Lost and Alias and [Smallville]. So I'm sort of surrounded by comic-book geeks, who seem to sort of steer me in directions when we're veering too close to things that have been done before or steering me away from things that shouldn't be done." Heroes begins Sept. 25 with a two-hour pilot movie and will air Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Mike SzymanskiNBC Commits To Heroes Viewers

NBC president Kevin Reilly told reporters that the network is committed to keeping viewers happy if they invest their time watching the new serialized series Heroes, about people in different parts of the world who suddenly discover they have super powers. The network has left viewers dangling in recent seasons by canceling serialized shows such as Heist and Surface before they completed their storylines.

"In the case of the fish show [Surface], there were a lot of people that did want it to continue, but that did have closure," Reilly said in defense of the network's actions during the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif., last month. "We did air a final episode. We did not yank that prematurely. And in the case of Heist, although I thought it was very promising, it didn't take, and we wrote personal letters to the two viewers that were watching. So they were covered," he added, with tongue in cheek.

Heroes will begin on Sept. 25 with a two-hour pilot movie. "We don't like pissing off the customers," Reilly said. "And, by the way, I get the e-mails, OK? I wake up in the morning and I get, 'Dear Moron.' We know that takes a toll, but the nature of television is when you're taking risks, you hope you take a risk. You may end up with Heist, or you may end up with Lost or My Name Is Earl. So I'd rather risk the upside. ... Any show that gets canceled has had people who are upset or people who are angry who have invested in it. That's just the nature of what we do."

Separately, NBC announced that it will offer a free download of Heroes on iTunes starting Sept. 1, as well as bonus content, trailers and behind-the-scenes footage. Heroes will air Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Mike SzymanskiHeroes Talk About Powers

Adrian Pasdar, one of the stars of NBC's upcoming superhero TV series Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that he and his co-stars envy their characters' super abilities. "Character development is paramount to the people involved in the making of the show, and flying? Who doesn't want to fly?" said Pasdar (House of Frankenstein), who plays a politician who learns to fly, in an interview at the recent Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif.

Pasdar's co-star Ali Larter (Final Destination) said that her character is mystified by what's happening to her. She plays a stripper and single mother who discovers that she can be in two places at the same time. "I'm not sure I'd always want that, but what I think is so interesting, too, and why I was attracted to playing this, is because we're trying to understand what's happening to us," she said. "We're trying to get our kids to school, and we're trying to deal with all these things that are happening in our life."

Milo Ventimiglia (Cursed) said it's not completely clear what power he has. "When I first read the script, it suggests that Peter is an empath," Ventimiglia said. "He physically feels people's true emotions, true potential in life. ... So you start to wonder, 'Well, what happens when Peter comes into contact with other people? Is he going to empathically be able to help them or even ultimately take on their powers or think he has those powers?' .... In addition to that, there's the fear and exhilaration, too, of understanding you can fly or you're unbreakable or you're hearing voices. How do you deal with that? Are you afraid? Are you completely elated about it? ... I'd be pretty freaked."

Hayden Panettiere plays a cheerleader who can heal herself. "Of course I'd want that kind of power, but as out there as it sounds, I think it's realistic," she said. "My character also deals with a lot of just normal teenage angst. ... You know, trying to find their way, trying to find friends, trying to find the person that she wants to be. ... I think it's definitely how teenagers feel. ... If anyone knows anybody who has my power, please do let me know."

Creator Tim Kring said that the group of disparate heroes won't turn into a "Justice League," referring to the DC Comics superhero team. "They'll come together in small ways and in small pockets," he said. "And just like all shows when people come together, you'll have to find ways to break them apart, to keep the drama alive."

Greg Grunberg, who plays a cop who can read people's thoughts, asked Kring: "Are we going to get to wear tights?"

Kring teased: "There's a lot of Spandex in your future." Heroes debuts Sept. 25 with a two-hour movie and will air Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Mike SzymanskiIllusionist Enlists Magic's Jay

Neil Burger, director of the upcoming period supernatural drama The Illusionist, told SCI FI Wire that he hired real-life actor and magician Ricky Jay as a consultant after the magician stunned him during a personal demonstration of a close-up trick.

"You know who Ricky Jay is?" Burger said in an interview. "He was a consultant. He [played] the cameraman in Boogie Nights, and he's in David Mamet movies. He's a great magician. He's one of the foremost sleight-of-hand guys now, and he's a historian of magic. Years ago, before I wrote the script, he had a playing card, one playing card, like this, far away, and as I looked at it, it changed to a different card. It was so unnerving it was disturbing for me. It still rattles me to think about it, and it was probably very easy for him, but I was this close, and it became something different. I actually wanted the audience to feel like that in the movie."

Jay has performed in Magnolia, Heist and House of Games and as a recurring character on HBO's Deadwood. He has also acted as a magic advisor for the films Sneakers, Heartbreakers, The Escape Artist and Leap of Faith. Jay also designed the wheelchair illusion in Forrest Gump.

In The Illusionist, Edward Norton plays Eisenheim, a magician in turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna, who falls for a duchess, played by Jessica Biel, and is being watched closely by a police inspector, played by Paul Giamatti. Eisenheim's magic tricks are based on actual illusions performed on stage in those days, and Jay helped amp up the illusion.

"There are ways to do those tricks now much better with technology, and the tricks are all really done, but I sort of pushed the whole thing, like, 25 percent to make it that much more fantastical," Burger said. Among the tricks performed by Eisenheim: He talks to a spirit in a picture frame and makes an orange tree bloom and bear fruit in a few minutes. "They are based on a particular illusion, and ... Eisenheim was on the cutting edge of technology, or it may actually ... happen with his own [supernatural] power, and it wasn't a trick," Burger said. The Illusionist, which is based on a short story by Steven Millhauser, opens Aug. 18. —Mike SzymanskiBiel Related To Illusionist

Jessica Biel, who plays a 19th-century European aristocrat in the upcoming supernatural period film The Illusionist, told SCI FI Wire that she definitely relates to the young woman who falls for a man that no one else likes. "I identified with this character in many ways," Biel said in an interview. "I had an experience in my life where I fell in love with someone that my parents absolutely hated, every friend hated. And I didn't care. I rebelled against everything, and I was going to go to the end of the earth just to be with this person, and I was 16 years old, by the way. It was a radical and dumb idea, but it was a cool experience."

Biel said that she saw similarities between her experience and that of her character, Sophie, who finds herself caught between a magician, played by Edward Norton, and a prince, played by Rufus Sewell. "It was young love and my heart was breaking if I wasn't in the same room with him," Biel said. "I felt that I related to her in that respect where she was in love with someone, ... and she can't be with him because of why? Because of these restraints of society and family and time. They're putting all of that on her. And, being a woman, I loved the idea that to bring her to life would be bringing a modern woman into this time where she doesn't fit, but she is here, and what do you do with that? I guess that I sort of felt like that as a kid. I was like, 'I don't fit here!' So I did feel that I understood her rebellious kind of attitude."

Written and directed by Neil Burger, The Illusionist is based on a short story by Steven Millhauser and incorporates real-life magic tricks as well as supernatural visual effects. "Yes, I do believe in magic," Biel said. "I think that anything is possible. I do. ... You know what, there's magic all over the place. I can't get away from it." The Illusionist opens Aug. 18. —Mike SzymanskiBiel Creeped Out By Next

Jessical Biel, who co-stars with Nicolas Cage in the upcoming SF movie Next, told SCI FI Wire that Cage plays a man who really creeps out her character. "Nick plays this man who has precognitive abilities, and he can see two minutes into his own future and [that of] people around him," Biel said in an interview while promoting her supernatural period drama The Illusionist. "He gets involved with the FBI, who are after him. Julianne [Moore] plays one of the FBI agents. It's because there's a terrorist attack that will be occurring, and they don't have any other information. They want to use him as kind of a guinea pig to try to get his power, his ability, to mature so he can help them save L.A."

Biel's character is an innocent woman who gets caught up in the scheme. "I play this woman named Liz, who's a schoolteacher [and] who's just a normal person who gets wrapped up in this crazy world, because Nick keeps seeing the face of this person," Biel said. "Whenever he sees her, he can see further into the future. He doesn't understand who this woman is or why his powers are stronger when she's around. He knows he's going to meet her somewhere and [has] seen them [together] in a vision later in life. He thinks this is [the] woman that he's going to be with. And he knows he's going to meet her. He just doesn't know when. So he goes every day, and he finally meets her, and that's my character."

Next is based on legendary SF author Philip K. Dick's short story "The Golden Man" and is being directed by Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori.

Biel said that her character gets freaked out by Cage's character at first. "He's a weird guy," she said. "He says, 'I'm your destiny.' I'm, like, 'Excuse me?' She's kind of creeped out." Biel has heard her share of lines, but not that one yet. "If I get that, I'm going to have another view of what's going on," she said. Next will be released on Sept. 28, 2007. The Illusionist is slated for an Aug. 18 debut. —Mike SzymanskiSCI FI Gets Enterprise, Other Shows

SCI FI Channel has acquired the rights to multiple made-for-television movies and series from CBS Paramount Domestic Television, including Star Trek: Enterprise, the prequel series starring Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock, as well as the series Haunted, Jake 2.0 and last fall's short-lived Threshold. The deal also includes exclusive cable rights to the classic series The Twilight Zone, Tales From the Darkside, several Stephen King miniseries and made-for-TV movies including Primal Force and Trilogy of Terror II.

Enterprise, which ran for four seasons, 2001-'05, on UPN, will premiere in early fall on SCI FI Channel. The Twilight Zone will continue its exclusive run on the channel. Tales From the Darkside, the syndicated horror series, will premiere later this year.

Three acclaimed miniseries, including two from Stephen King, will also premiere exclusively this fall. Invaders also stars Bakula, playing a man who discovers an alien conspiracy and attempts to foil the plot by warning the Earth of imminent danger. The Langoliers, originally one of four short stories in the King novel Four Past Midnight, stars Dean Stockwell and Patricia Wettig as passengers on a cross-country flight who awake to find that they and a small group of others are the only people left on Earth. The Stand, starring Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald, takes place in a world decimated by a man-made plague.

The deal also includes five made-for-television movies: Inferno, Primal Force, Lost in the Bermuda Triangle, Sightings: Heartland Ghost and Trilogy of Terror II.

The other series in the deal include Wolf Lake, Kindred: The Embraced, Special Unit 2, Level 9 and All Souls.Trek Items On View In U.K.

Star Trek memorabilia spanning four decades—including Vulcan jewelry and Starfleet minidresses—went on display this week in London in preparation for the first official auction of studio items from the SF phenomenon, the Associated Press reported.

The collection of more than 1,000 items is being sold CBS Paramount Television to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Star Trek TV episode, Helen Bailey, head of entertainment collections at Christie's auction house, told the AP. The show ran from 1966 to 1969, but spawned five spinoff series and 10 films.

Weapons and models of the starship Enterprise from the original series to the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis remain on display at Christie's in central London until Aug. 8 before going to four U.S. cities en route to Christie's in New York for the three-day sale, beginning Oct. 5.Allen Talks Galaxy Sequel

Tim Allen told SCI FI Wire that he would love to do a sequel to his SF spoof film Galaxy Quest and that his upcoming film, Zoom, contains a bit of the humor that made the 1999 comedy such a success.

"Yeah, [Zoom] was all about that, but it was a real tough sell because Galaxy Quest was real delicate, the parody and the reality of it," Allen said. "I'm saying that out of respect for Sony, because it was tough to tell them that this is what it was all about because there was that underlying thing. I'm still being conservative, but 85 percent of the Galaxy Quest-ish look at superheroes is still in this. They still want to skew it so that kids don't understand, but they've left a lot of the adult references in it."

Galaxy Quest, a loving sendup of Star Trek fandom, starred Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub and Alan Rickman as the aging cast of a long-canceled space TV show who find themselves caught up in an actual galactic conflict. Allen said a sequel was presented to DreamWorks, but that he knows nothing more.

"You'd have to ask DreamWorks," Allen said. "There is one there. To this day, I don't understand what that's about. But that's all studio stuff. I really have to stay out of that stuff."

Zoom co-stars Courteney Cox, Chevy Chase, Rip Torn and Spencer Breslin in a film about a group of super-powered teens who come together in a special school under the tutelage of a washed-up superhero (Allen) and must subsequently save the world. It opens nationwide Aug. 11. —Mike SzymanskiPulse Was Hands-On For Bell

Kristen Bell, who stars in the upcoming supernatural horror film Pulse, told SCI FI Wire that a key scene, in which her character is attacked by thousands of supernatural creatures, was shot with only a few very real stunt performers. In the scene, Bell's character, Mattie, is borne aloft on a sea of arms and hands, which grab her and pull her down.

In reality, Bell said, she was standing against a green screen that had slots cut into it. But "all the hands that are actually touching me are real, which was sort of [weird]," Bell said in an interview. "There was a lot of hand choreography involved." On cue, performers behind the screen reached through the slots around Bell and grabbed her, pulling her against the screen.

"They were really respectful about it, because it's very ... I get claustrophobic easily in general, so I was a little bit nervous about doing it," Bell said. "But it was up against a green screen, and they slit holes for everybody's hands, and there were 12 guys back there, and they did the choreography of, like, where they'd [grab me]. And then everybody sanitized their hands and ... the camera was like dead on, and I started to scream, and they grabbed and pulled me back. And I also pulled back myself, too, but it was really, ... yeah, it was totally freaky."

Bell plays a college student who finds that friends are disappearing after exposure to electronic devices that seem to channel supernatural creatures. Based on the Japanese horror film Kairo, Pulse opens Aug. 11. —Patrick Lee, News EditorBell Takes Pulse Of U.S. Fans

Kristin Bell—who stars in Pulse, the American remake of the Japanese supernatural horror film Kairo—told SCI FI Wire that the U.S. version makes changes to appeal to American audiences. "I didn't see Kairo until I'd already booked Pulse, but when I saw it, I loved it," Bell (TV's Veronica Mars) said in an interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., over the weekend. "I thought it was really smart. I thought it was really eerie, and I think that in Americanizing it, they chose to condense a lot of the characters, because Americans look at that kind of a film, and they look at it as more of a series of vignettes, because there's so many more characters. And I think Americans are used to following the story of one person a little easier. ... And it's not that they simplified the storyline by any means. They just made less characters. They condensed it."

Like Kairo, Pulse tells the story of a group of young people who discover that their electronic devices are somehow involved in the mass disappearance and suicide of their friends. But where Kairo left a lot unexplained, Pulse reveals backstory to the phenomena.

"It's the difference between filmmaking in Japan and filmmaking in America," Bell said. "A lot of the horror movies are so great over there, but they're also what Americans would consider a little bit more on the independent film side, because they take a few more risks, and they do things a little differently. I think that when going commercial with a movie, obviously a smart business move for Dimension [was] to say, 'What are Americans used to seeing? What's not going to set them outside their comfort zone too much, but still make a great film?'" Pulse opens Aug. 25. —Patrick Lee, News EditorGrudge 2 Intrigued Dewan

Jenna Dewan, who co-stars in the upcoming horror sequel The Grudge 2, told SCI FI Wire that making the film in Japan was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. "I went to Tokyo," the actress said in an interview while promoting her current project, the dance drama Step Up. "It was so much fun. It was kind of a crazier character than I'd ever played. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences to go to Tokyo and work with a director [Takashi Shimizu] that didn't speak any English, and then, on top of it, to work on something that has such a following behind it. The Japanese people loved the original film, Ju-On. They're just really big into it, and as an actress I was doing things I'd never gotten to do before. So it was just intriguing on all levels, and I had to do it."

The Grudge 2, the sequel to 2004's The Grudge, stars Amber Tamblyn as Aubrey, younger sister of Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), the central figure in the first film, which was directed by Shimizu based on Ju-On, which he'd directed as well. This time around, Aubrey and a group of seemingly unrelated people are afflicted with the Grudge, a supernatural curse that locks its victims in an unescapable rage before moving on to someone else.

"I'm completely sworn to secrecy," Dewan said about the sequel, choosing her words carefully. "I've signed so many confidentiality agreements, so I can't say too much. But I can say it's definitely scarier than the first one, definitely more intricate, and there are way more characters. My character, in a nutshell, is the queen-bee popular girl at high school who befriends the new girl in town. And I go through a transition. It's definitely good. I think people will like it. It scared me reading it."

Horror fans may remember that Dewan starred in the 2005 film Tamara, in which she played the title character, an ugly-duckling high-school student who comes back from the dead as an ax-wielding sexpot who kills those who tormented her. "Yeah, [the Grudge 2 character] is definitely the opposite of my Tamara character, but in a different way," Dewan said. "It's fun playing two different sides of a character. It's fun for me and kind of a challenge. So I got to revisit that for a minute. I don't start off mousy and turn into some hot character. It's more the opposite. I start out as the hot girl and turn into some other type of possessed teenager." The Grudge 2 opens nationwide on Oct. 13. —Ian SpellingAnt DVD To Feature Cut Scenes

John A. Davis, director and writer of the animated film The Ant Bully, told SCI FI Wire that he had to cut several scenes from the film for the theatrical release, but that they will be available on the DVD due in the fall. "We had a couple scenes that we had to unfortunately cut that were really great and really funny, but you have to sacrifice things for pacing," Davis said in a group interview at the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Based on the picture book by John Nickle, The Ant Bully tells the story of a little boy who is magically shrunk to ant size and forced to make amends to the colony that he tortured. Davis said the DVD has a street date of November and will be loaded with special features. "It will have a bunch of extras and making-of stuff," he said. "Some of them will be deleted scenes, and there is one in particular that I really, really loved and hung onto for a long time, and, finally, I took it out of the film for pacing. It's the backstory of Zoc, Nick Cage's character, and it shows that he came from another colony that had been wiped out by this exterminator [voiced by Paul Giamatti]. So you find out why he hates humans so much. It was executed so well, and it was so touching, but I had to take it out." The Ant Bully is now in theaters. —Tara DiLulloHanks Pushed For Ant

John A. Davis, director and writer of the animated film The Ant Bully, told SCI FI Wire that producer Tom Hanks was the actual impetus for the film getting made. "It's actually based on the book The Ant Bully by John Nickle," Davis said in a group interview at the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego. "It's a picture book, but the whole idea of the story was there. Tom Hanks had read this book to his son Truman and thought it could make a cool movie. Tom saw my first film, Jimmy Neutron, and thought that I would be good to get involved, so he sent the book to see if I had a take on it. I thought about it for a few days, and I called him back to tell him what I would do if I turned it into a movie, and that got the whole thing moving."

The Ant Bully centers on a little boy named Lucas Nickle (Zach Tyler), who is obsessed with flooding his backyard ant hills with his water pistol. He is magically shrunk down to insect size and then sentenced to hard labor by the ant colony on the receiving end of his torture.

This represents the third computer-animated film centering on insects, after Dreamwork's Antz and Pixar's A Bug's Life. Asked if the similarities in subject matter were a concern in distinguishing their film from previous films, Davis said: "They are ants, and there are going to be certain similarities that are hard to avoid. They are very different from what we saw in A Bug's Life, but they were six-legged in Antz, and ours are six-legged. Side by side there are a lot if differences, because when you look at Antz, they had noses and little human teeth and human hands, and the way they move are very different. On the surface, though, I can see where certain things may remind [the viewer], but we felt they were different enough when you see them in action in the film."

The Ant Bully features an impressive voice cast, including Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage and Paul Giamatti. Davis said attaching the A-list actors to the picture actually came very easily. "I had my list of favorites, and Playtone, Tom's company, they had a list, and then Warners had a list. We then compared lists and made the 'uber list' of our dream team, and it just so happened that we got everybody. It certainly helped that Tom was attached to the project to help get the script to them. Julia was the first that came on, and then Nick followed, and then it was Meryl Streep. It was kind of nutty! They were all great, and it was fun to be able to work with Lily Tomlin and Bruce Campbell." The Ant Bully is in theaters now. —Tara DiLulloCox Daughter No Cow Fan

Courteney Cox told SCI FI Wire that her 2-year-old daughter, Coco, isn't old enough yet to see her upcoming PG movie Zoom, and her daughter had nightmares after hearing Mommy's voice as a cow in Barnyard: The Original Party Animals. Now that she and actor husband David Arquette have a child, Cox said she does consider doing more roles that she knows her child will enjoy. "It just occasionally pops up," Cox said at a news conference for Zoom with her co-star, Tim Allen. "I just thought that this would be nice. I'm not just saying this because he's here, but I'm such a huge fan of his [Tim Allen]. Galaxy Quest is one of my all-time favorite films. So I thought that it would just be fun to play opposite Tim in something that Coco would be able to see one day."

Cox said that she is a mom who is concerned about what her child watches. "It will be a little while before she's able to see this movie [Zoom], just because there's a lot going on," she said. "It's a little scary, and she wouldn't understand it just yet, but it'll be nice one day to see a movie with mom in it." Zoom centers on a group of super-powered kids who must save the world under the tutelage of a has-been superhero (Allen).

Cox also voices a cow named Daisy in the animated PG-rated Barnyard and thought that would be safe for Coco. "I did take her to Barnyard, the premiere, and the coyotes in Barnyard were a little intense, and she woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning going, 'Movie! Movie!' I was like, 'It's all right. Think about swimming and circle time. Let's go back to bed.' So that might've been a mistake."

Barnyard, which also features the voices of Danny Glover, Sam Elliott, Andie MacDowell and Kevin James, opened Aug. 4. Zoom, which also stars Chevy Chase, Rip Torn and Spencer Breslin, opens Aug. 11. —Mike SzymanskiWoman Born In Africa

SF&F author Steven Barnes told SCI FI Wire that he traveled to Africa to research his latest novel, Great Sky Woman, which is set in East Africa 30,000 years ago. "When I initially agreed to create a series of novels set in prehistoric Africa, I told [my editor,] Betsy [Mitchell,] that I couldn't even think of doing it without traveling to the land itself," Barnes said in an interview. "I needed to smell the air, taste the soil, feel the hidden currents of the wind. So in 2003 my daughter Nicki and I flew to Tanzania for two weeks' research on the Serengeti. It was, beyond a doubt, the best two weeks of my life. It felt as if I was traveling home—not as a black man, but as a human being. There was something about the land that called to me on a level I'd never experienced. We met the Masai and Chagga people and even some of the Koisan. We climbed on Kilimanjaro, had hyenas and zebras walking through our camp and got charged by an elephant."

Barnes said that there are still Africans living lives similar to those lived in the Upper Paleolithic era. "So I could research the !Kung and the San peoples and learn a great deal," he said. "But always, always, my thought was to make the tale a simple one, to conceal the magnitude of the research and anthropological speculation from my readers so that they could just enjoy the adventure."

Great Sky Woman is set during a time in which humans first evidenced higher thinking: "roughly speaking, the birthdate of abstract thought, if measured by cave paintings in France and South Africa," Barnes said. "It tells of two very special people, the first fully modern human beings. One is T'Cori (which means 'nameless'), a brilliant, intuitive medicine woman of the Ibandi people, who live in the shadow of Kilimanjaro. The other is Frog Hopping, whose capacity for abstraction and logical thought places him in a class of his own. Together, they face the greatest threat their people have ever known and are the first human beings to climb Kili, with the intention of communing with their ancient gods."

Great Sky Woman was incredibly personal to Barnes, he said. "When I was a boy, my initial motivation to write was the absence of any SF or fantasy material that featured people who looked like me," he said. "Everything—and I mean everything—was what I refer to as 'white people and their imaginary friends.' And not much has changed in 40 years. So I had an opportunity to create something that no one had ever done, reminding myself constantly that I had to reach down deep, past race and culture, to the core realities of human existence to tell a tale that could appeal to anyone with an open heart and questing mind—but most importantly to that little boy inside me, who looked out at the world and saw no literary mirrors at all." —John Joseph AdamsTaylor Keeps A New Secret

Lili Taylor, who stars in the upcoming supernatural horror film The Secret, told SCI FI Wire that the film offers a Japanese-style take on death and the afterlife. Taylor (HBO's Six Feet Under) recently wrapped production on the film, which also stars David Duchovny and Olivia Thirlby and was directed by Vincent Perez, based on the Keigo Higashino novel Himitsu and the 1999 Japanese-language film it inspired.

"That was really cool," Taylor said in an interview while promoting her latest film, Factotum. "That one is adapted from this Japanese book, and it's got a real Japanese tone in that it's about death and the afterlife and ghosts. But then there's this really kind of quiet, strange, otherworldly tone to it. Basically, my daughter [Thirlby] and I get into a car accident. We're both on death's door. She is about to die, and I reach my hand out to her, and in that moment my spirit goes into her body. But it's done realistically, as if there's a 36-year-old woman inside a 15-year-old's body. My husband [Duchovny] is there. It's dealt with honestly, and so it's very strange. Everyone keeps going on with this absolutely bizarre, unimaginable reality."

Asked if her plot synopsis means she's not in the film very long, Taylor, whose genre credits include an episode of Duchovny's series The X-Files, replied: "I'm in it, and then it's like the essence of me is in it. I reappear throughout. I really liked the director, Vincent Perez. He's just fantastic. I just loved the material a lot, and I liked Vincent." The Secret will be revealed in 2006. —Ian SpellingBonham Carter Joins Phoenix

Helena Bonham Carter has joined the cast of the upcoming fifth Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix, and will play Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius Black's cousin and a Death Eater, who is one of Lord Voldemort's followers, Warner Brothers announced.

The studio also announced that composer Nicholas Hooper will create the film's score, reuniting him with director David Yates, for whom he has scored multiple film and television projects.

Bonham Carter joins a cast of returning Harry Potter veterans, including the young leads Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, as well as Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, David Thewlis, Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths, David Bradley, Robert Hardy and Mark Williams.

As Bellatrix Lestrange, Bonham Carter is only one of several newcomers to the Harry Potter film franchise. Order of the Phoenix, based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling book, also stars Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, George Harris as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks, Kathryn Hunter as Mrs. Figg and 14-year-old newcomer Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood.Avatar's Cameron Hires Weta

New Zealand-based visual-effects house Weta Digital (King Kong) has been hired by director James Cameron to create effects for his proposed SF epic movie Avatar, Variety reported.

Avatar has not been given a green light by Fox, but the movie is casting, and producer Jon Landau told Daily Variety that it is in "very active preproduction."

Avatar is an epic SF love story centered on a paraplegic war veteran who is taken to another planet.Fox Raising The Undead

The Fox TV network has picked up a pair of drama projects that touch upon stories of the undead, Variety reported. Amy After Dark, from writer John Scott Shepherd and director Todd Holland, focuses on a young New York attorney who discovers she's a vampire. The other, an untitled drama from Allan Loeb and Christian Taylor, revolves around a police detective who is secretly centuries old. Both are script deals with penalties attached.

Shepherd, who is writing Amy, created and executive-produced ABC's short-lived drama The Days. Holland, who executive-produced and directed Fox's Wonderfalls, won an Emmy for his work on Malcolm in the Middle.

Taylor's credits include ABC's supernatural drama Miracles.Covenant Book Is A Prequel

Tone Rodriguez—artist for the upcoming graphic novel The Covenant, which is a prequel tie-in project for the upcoming Renny Harlin-directed film—told SCI FI Wire that the book was a unique, independent project that was loosely inspired by the movie. "I never talked to [Harlin]," the artist said in an interview at the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I drew the comic book, and I don't get credit as one of the creators of the book. I really just worked on a book that was already set to be a movie."

The Covenant was commissioned by Screen Gems to serve as a prequel to the upcoming film, starring newcomers Steven Strait, Sebastian Stan, Chace Crawford and Toby Hemingway. The screenplay centers on four boys who come from a long line of warlocks in the Ipswich Colony of Massachusetts. The book explores how the boys initially came together at summer camp and developed their powers together. Rodriguez was paired with writer Aron Eli Coleite (Crossing Jordan) to bring the book to life.

Rodriguez explained that because the graphic novel is different from the film, he had some room to be creative with the design of the young warlocks. "The book didn't have a look," the artist said. "The movie wasn't in production, so there wasn't a 'look' for the characters. None of the other characters, aside from the main characters, appear in the movie, so there wasn't a worry that 'Oh, well, this guy needs to look [like this actor],'" he added. "So we were looking for some kids that had a little bit of a teen, young male, the Gap, Calvin-Klein kind of look. It's funny, because up until that point that's not the stuff I did. I did tough, weird, freaky detective work."

Rodriguez added that his greatest challenge was making the main monster of the book extraordinary. "Once I started working on it, the biggest problem was designing the warlock, the Ipswich Warlock," he said. "The problem I had with it was that they already had all these designs worked out, and they wanted him to have these horns in his head. We see stuff like that a lot, in my opinion, but they wanted it. So that was the only thing I really had to worry about, and I just played with it and found a look that I was happy with." The Covenant graphic novel is available now at comic-book retailers, and the movie hits theaters on Sept. 8. —Tara DiLulloBond 22 Gets May 2 Date

Producers of the James Bond films have staked out May 2, 2008, as the release date for the upcoming 22nd 007 adventure, which will again star Casino Royale's Daniel Craig.

No details have been released about the movie, but The Hollywood Reporter previously said that U.K.-based helmer Roger Michell was in negotiations to direct the follow-up to Casino Royale, which opens Nov. 17.

Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Sony Pictures Entertainment, made the release announcement, which made no mention of Michell. The story for the latest James Bond film, produced by the franchise holders, EON Productions, has yet to be announced.

"As we wrap production on Casino Royale we couldn't be more excited about the direction the franchise is heading with Daniel Craig. Daniel has taken the origins of Ian Fleming's James Bond portraying, with emotional complexity, a darker and edgier 007," Wilson and Broccoli said in a joint statement.Bond Girl Green In Compass

Eva Green (Casino Royale) will star as the queen of witches in The Golden Compass, New Line's first installment of a potential film trilogy based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books, Variety reported.

Green, who just wrapped Casino Royale with Daniel Craig, has signed a deal for one film, with an option for two more if the studio completes the trilogy.

Green will play Serafina Pekula, the witch who guides Lyra Belacqua (to be played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards) on her journey to a parallel universe. Nicole Kidman was just set to play the villain Mrs. Coulter.

Chris Weitz is directing his adaptation of the novel; filming begins Sept. 4 at Shepperton Studios in London. New Line has set a Nov. 16, 2007, release date for the film, which is produced by Deborah Forte and Bill Carraro.Corman Cooks Up Super Gator

Legendary B-movie producer and writer Roger Corman told SCI FI Wire that he has several films in production and isn't retiring, despite more than 50 years of churning out a prolific number of horror and monster flicks, and just finished an upcoming SCI FI Channel original picture. "I just finished a film called Super Gator," Corman said in an interview promoting his latest projects at Comic-Con International in San Diego last week. "It has a strange origin. Going all the way back, just before Jurassic Park, I brought out a picture called Carnosaur, which was a somewhat similar story, but it was from a novel actually written before Jurassic Park. What happened was that we went up through Carnosaur 4: Raptor. It pretty much works that you make the first film, and your profit is highest, and at the last one, the profit is equal to the expense to make it. So by Carnosaur 4: Raptor, I said we had a great run, ... and we will never make Carnosaur 5. About two years ago, I saw an article in the L.A. Times about scientists finding the fossil of a prehistoric crocodile twice as big as today's crocodile, and I thought, 'We're back in business!'"

The movie became Dinocroc, which ran on SCI FI Channel and earned big ratings. "I was talking to them there and said, 'I assume that you want another similar picture?'" Corman recalled. "They said yes. So I said, 'OK, we will make Dinocroc 2.' And they said they find that when they call something 2, they don't get the ratings. So they make pictures that are similar, but not the same. So I said, 'Did I say Dinocroc 2? I meant Super Gator.'"

Super Gator stars Brad Johnson (Flight of the Intruder) and Kelly McGillis (Top Gun). No air date has been set yet. —Tara DiLulloDarkness Falls On Obsidian

New York Times best-selling fantasy author Mercedes Lackey told SCI FI Wire that her new novel, When Darkness Falls (written in collaboration with James Mallory), concludes her Obsidian trilogy, an epic high fantasy for which she had the first idea 20 years ago. "I knew I didn't have the skill to do it then, so I let it sit on the back burner," Lackey said in an interview. "It is both a coming-of-age series for not one, but several characters, and incorporates all the epic good-versus-evil themes."

In the final volume, readers can expect "climactic battles, sacrifice, death, redemption and rebirth," Lackey said. "Also, snarky unicorns and sarcastic dragons."

The main idea for the series came to Lackey when she was watching Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring, she said. "This is very primal stuff we're talking about: ancient ways in conflict with modern ones, things out of the deep past coming back and so forth," she said. "I had most of the plot already in mind 20 years or so ago, but I knew then I just couldn't pull it off without it sounding like 'Yet Another Tolkien Ripoff.' I still wasn't sanguine about doing it until my agent hooked me up with James [Mallory], who has all that wonderful ability with language and mythos that I lack. The two of us combined make a pretty powerful team with exactly the right skills for epic fantasy."

Lackey said that one of the challenges of writing the Obsidian series was coming up with a magic system that hadn't been done before. "I really loved the idea of the Wild Magic, where you don't necessarily get what you ask for, but rather what is good for you—or, at least, for the greater good," she said. "I hate magic that comes without cost, and the whole idea of Wild Magic, where you must pay for what you get, was very attractive to me."

Lackey said that she will miss writing the series now that it's over, but added that she and her co-author are already at work on a sequel trilogy called Phoenyx Unchained. "[It's] set very far in the future, when all of [the Obsidian trilogy] is mere legend," she said.

Lackey's forthcoming projects include Aerie, the fourth and final entry in The Dragon Jousters series, and Fortune's Fool, the third in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series. "I am [also] working on the inevitable Arthurian [fantasy]—I think every fantasy author is somehow obligated to try one—from the point of view of Guinevere," she said. Lackey added that she is also working on "an Elemental Masters book based on Puss in Boots. And Rosemary Edghill and I are working on a new [young-adult] series we are tentatively calling Arcanum 101, which is for Tor Books." —John Joseph AdamsAuthors: Don't Kill Harry!

Best-selling authors John Irving and Stephen King both made a plea to Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling not to kill the boy wizard in the final book of the series, but Rowling made no promises, the Reuters news service reported.

"My fingers are crossed for Harry," Irving said at a joint news conference before a charity reading by the three writers at New York's Radio City Music Hall on Aug. 1.

Added horrormeister King: "I don't want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls," a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's efforts to kill off the character of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Rowling, who is working on the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series, has said that two characters will die, but won't say who. She said that she's well into the last book. "I feel quite liberated," she said. "I can resolve the story now, and it's fun in a way it wasn't before, because finally I've reached my resolution, and I think some people will loathe it, and some people will love it, but that's how it should be. We're working toward the end I always planned, but a couple of characters I expected to survive have died, and one character got a reprieve."Dead Daughters Comes To U.S.

Gold Circle Films has optioned the English-language remake rights to the Russian supernatural horror movie Dead Daughters, with Jared Rivet on board to adapt, Variety reported.

Directed by Pavel Ruminov, the original film centered on three girls who are murdered by their mother. To seek vengeance for their untimely deaths, their ghosts randomly pick people to watch. If that person does something wrong or acts out of line, the girls hold a merciless trial.Batman Sequel Is Dark Knight

Warner Brothers announced that its upcoming sequel to 2005's hit Batman Begins will be called The Dark Knight and will feature Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Christopher Nolan is set to direct from a script by Jonathan Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer, who both wrote the screenplay for the previous film. Christian Bale, who played Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Begins, will again play the Caped Crusader. Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan will produce.

"I'm excited to continue the story we started with Batman Begins," Christopher Nolan said in a statement. "Our challenge in casting the Joker was to find an actor who is not just extraordinarily talented, but fearless. Watching Heath Ledger's interpretation of this iconic character taking on Christian Bale's Batman is going to be incredible." Production is set to begin on The Dark Knight in early 2007.

The Dark Knight appears to be an allusion to Frank Miller's groundbreaking 1986 graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which redefined the character with a darkly psychological take and paved the way for subsequent comic and film interpretations of him, including Tim Burton's gothic Batman film in 1989.Jericho's Scott Is Small Town

Ashley Scott, who plays Emily Sullivan in CBS' upcoming post-apocalyptic drama Jericho, told SCI FI Wire that she relates to her character's small-town roots. "My dad's from Smackover, Ark.," Scott (Birds of Prey), a Louisiana native, said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour last month. "I said Smackover, yeah. Joe Sherman Scott from Smackover, Ark. Well, I spent my summers in Alpine, Texas, and it doesn't get any smaller than that. I mean, there's, like, one stop sign. So I spent enough time there, I get it. It's not hard for me to grasp."

Jericho is about a small town in Kansas that finds itself cut off from the outside world after residents see a mushroom cloud on the distant horizon. Scott plays high-school teacher Emily Sullivan, who has some kind of past with star Skeet Ulrich's Jake Green, who returns to town after a mysterious absence.

"She and Skeet, I think, had some sort of loving relationship growing up," Scott said. "I visualize it kind of like my first love, and he with me, but I don't know anything, to be honest with you. I don't know what they're going to do. I just hope that she stays around, you know? I think she's a good character. I'd like to see how her character develops and how she's going to handle the change. The second episode, there's a really big thing that happens to her that's really shocking and strong and powerful that shakes it up."

Scott, who was last seen in the movie Into the Blue, returns to TV though her previous series, The WB's Birds of Prey, failed to last a single season. Jericho premieres in the fall and will air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. —Patrick Lee, News EditorLost's Abrams More Involved

Damon Lindelof, executive producer of ABC's hit SF series Lost, told SCI FI Wire that his co-creator, J.J. Abrams, is back and involved with the show after taking most of last season off to direct Mission: Impossible III. "J.J.'s been pretty involved coming out of the gate," Lindelof said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego last week. "Obviously he was still doing publicity for Mission as we started on breaking out the sort of season-long arcs, but he and I are writing the season premiere together, and he has plans to direct the seventh episode of the show, which would ... be the sort of season premiere for the second block of episodes."

As of last month, Abrams was on vacation in Maine, but he will return soon to help put together the third season of Lost, which will air in two uninterrupted blocks of episodes: six in the fall and the balance starting in the winter.

"[He] is sort of very ... much in the loop of everything that ... [executive producer] Carlton [Cuse] and I and the other writers are doing in the room," Lindelof said. "And, as I said, we're writing the premiere together, sending scenes back and forth and all that, and that's been fun."

As for season three, Lindelof said: "The rule of thumb that you'll start to see establish itself is that the show is still about our people. It's still about our guys, and ... we don't want to start handing off the show to strangers until the show is ready for that. So we're going to be very much with Kate [Evangeline Lilly], Jack [Matthew Fox] and Sawyer [Josh Holloway], and they're having their experience sort of out of the gate. ... Point of view is a big part of Lost. We tried to do the same thing with the tail section people, which is you didn't really learn their story until 'The Other 48 Days,' which was seven episodes in [the second season]. Otherwise, they were just ... people interacting with Sawyer and Michael [Harold Perrineau] and Jin [Daniel Dae Kim]. So the others have a much more involved history than just having crash-landed on the other side of the island for a couple years. So we're going to [take] baby steps, [which,] I think, is the way to go." Lost returns Oct. 4 and will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

—Patrick Lee, News EditorFountain Moves To November

Warner Brothers has moved the release date of Darren Aronofsky's upcoming SF romantic epic film The Fountain to Nov. 22, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, from its original Oct. 13 date, Variety reported. The move pits The Fountain against Buena Vista's Thanksgiving release, the Tony Scott-directed Deja Vu, which also has a time-travel theme.

Starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, The Fountain jumps from the 15th century to the 25th century in its story of a man who struggles to save the woman he loves.

Deja Vu is the story of an ATF agent who travels back in time to save a woman from being murdered, falling in love with her during the process.

The Fountain is slated to play the 63rd Venice Film Festival in early September.Margulies Enters The Lost Room

Julianna Margulies has been cast as the lead actress in SCI FI Channel's upcoming limited series The Lost Room opposite Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), the network announced. Roger Bart (Desperate Housewives) and Elle Fanning also star in the series, which is slated to premiere in December.

Margulies (The Sopranos) will play Jennifer, a mysterious woman who contacts Detective Joe Miller (Krause), claiming her brother was killed for a seemingly innocuous motel room key, one that actually has the power to unlock a door into a room full of ordinary objects possessing unimaginable power. When Miller comes into possession of the key, Jennifer tries to warn him of the inherent danger of the Lost Room and the objects within. But when Miller's own daughter (Fanning) vanishes into the room, he must form an uneasy alliance with Jennifer, who opens his eyes to a world of secret cabals that will stop at nothing to secure the key.

Production has begun in Albuquerque, N.M., with Richard Hatem (Supernatural) executive-producing. The Lost Room is created and written by co-executive producers Christopher Leone, Laura Harkcom and Paul Workman. Lionsgate produced the series. Corman Talks New Death Race

Legendary B-movie producer and writer Roger Corman told SCI FI Wire that he is involved with the much-anticipated remake of his classic 1970s cult film Death Race 2000. "I'm working with them a little bit, ... but not much," Corman said in an interview while promoting his latest projects at the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego. The original film starred David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone as drivers in a futuristic game in which motorists kill unsuspecting pedestrians for points.

The new film, Death Race 3000, is being written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil). Corman detailed his involvement. "Technically, according to the contract, I am executive producer," he said. "They send me each script; I have discussion and send my notes, but I don't spend that much time on it, because I don't believe I will have that much influence."

Reflecting on the popularity of the original, Corman said: "I like Death Race 2000 very much. It won a poll as the greatest B movie ever made. I think what made it work was the idea of killing the old lady and getting 10 points. And, also, we were talking really about the manipulation of society and the bloodlust that was in it. I thought if you go back to gladiatorial games—if you look at wrestling and these various things that are brutal—the audience loves it. You go to car races, and everybody wants to see the crashes. So it was partially that which led to Death Race 2000." Death Race 3000 is on target for a 2008 release in theaters. —Tara DiLulloABC Keeps Kyle XY

ABC has quietly opted to continue airing the ABC Family drama Kyle XY, about a mysterious teen, beyond its original four-episode commitment, Variety reported. Monday's episode on ABC Family was the sixth of 10.

ABC has been running Kyle Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, between episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos and 20/20, drawing an average 4.6 million total viewers (a 1.4 rating in adults aged 18-49) to the timeslot, finishing first or second most weeks in the demographic, the trade paper reported.

That tally is lower than that of Kyle's lead-in and lead-out, but the added exposure on ABC arguably continues to drive viewership and interest to the Monday play on sister network ABC Family.

ABC Family premiered Kyle on June 26 to 2.6 million viewers, the biggest audience for an original series in network history, and the show has since averaged 2 million overall viewers on the cable network. The season finale runs Aug. 28 on ABC Family and Sept. 1 on ABC.Descent Keeps Creatures Real

Neil Marshall, who directed the SF horror film The Descent, told SCI FI Wire he didn't reveal the film's scary underground creatures to his all-female cast until they were on set in order to get a genuine fear reaction. "I wasn't sure what their reactions would be, whether they would really come across as frightening, so I waited until we were filming before I even showed it to them," Marshall said in an interview.

In The Descent, a group of adventure-loving friends goes spelunking in an unexplored cave and runs afoul of a race of blind, meat-eating humanoid creatures. Marshall said that he went caving with his stars to prepare them for their parts. And he kept the look of the creatures a surprise until the last moment.

"It was a great moment for them," Marshall said. "It saved up some of the angst for them. The guys were hidden in a corner in the dark. When [the actresses] saw the creatures and screamed, that was the first time they saw them, and those reactions are real. They went running. They were repulsed, and they were screaming. Then they all started laughing."

The Descent opened Aug. 4 in the United States. —Mike SzymanskiKidman Aligned With Compass

Nicole Kidman will star in New Line's The Golden Compass, portraying the villainous and glamorous Mrs. Coulter in the movie based on the first part of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Variety reported.

Shooting on the $150 million production is set for September at London's Shepperton Studios, the trade paper reported.

Chris Weitz is directing from his own script. British newcomer Dakota Blue Richards has already been cast for the lead role of Lyra Belacqua, who travels to a parallel universe to battle the forces of evil and rescue her best friend.

Scholastic Media's Deborah Forte is producing with Bill Carraro. New Line has staked out a release date of Nov. 16, 2007.Raimi Options Sword Series

Spider-Man franchise director Sam Raimi and his producing partner Joshua Donen have optioned the film rights to Terry Goodkind's best-selling Sword of Truth adventure series, published by Tor Books, the ComingSoon.net Web site reported.

In a meeting at the author's home, the renowned director and producer conceived of a groundbreaking miniseries, and within two hours Goodkind was sold on the concept, and negotiations commenced. Ten months later the deal was finally concluded.

All of Goodkind's novels have been international best-sellers. Translated into 20 foreign languages, there are more than 10 million copies in print. The Sword of Truth series began with Wizard's First Rule in 1994. The 10th novel in the series, Phantom, is on sale now. The 11th and final volume is under contract and will be published in 2008.

Raimi and Donen hope to begin production of the opening miniseries, Wizard's First Rule, within the next year, to be followed by ensuing volumes of the epic novels. The development process will begin while Raimi completes Spider-Man 3.Benighted Headed For Film

Warner Brothers and Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group have acquired the Kit Whitfield werewolf novel Benighted, Variety reported. King will produce the big-screen adaptation with Andrew Adamson, who'll develop it as a potential directing vehicle.

Adamson sparked to a book with core themes of racism and alienation wrapped in a drama with vast visual-effects possibilities. Originally published in the United Kingdom under the title Bareback, Benighted is an alternate-reality story in which 90 percent of the population is werewolf. Everyone else must keep the peace during the full moon. Random House, which published in the United Kingdom, will also publish the book in the United States.

After starting with the Shrek franchise, Adamson moved to live action with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and is prepping the sequel Prince Caspian for Walden Media and Disney.BRIEFLY NOTED

Agnieszka Vosloo has signed with the new production outfit Constellation Entertainment to write and direct After.Life, a movie about a young woman in a transitional state between life and death who fights to avoid being buried alive, and the funeral director who holds her fate in his hands, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

USA Today reported that Disney/Pixar's animated movie Cars will drive onto DVD on Nov. 7, with extra features including an all-new short film, Mater and the Ghostlight, a behind-the-scenes feature, the Oscar-nominated short One Man Band and a sneak peek at next summer's Ratatouille.

Harvey Fierstein (Independence Day) has joined the cast of NBC's The Year Without a Santa Claus, a special starring John Goodman, which will air during the 2006 holiday season.

CBS announced that its post-apocalyptic drama Jericho will premiere on Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Pulse, the supernatural horror film starring Kristen Bell, has changed its release date yet again: back to Aug. 11 from Aug. 25.

Wesley Snipes' former talent agency is seeking back commissions on Blade: Trinity and other of the actor's films in a suit filed July 31 in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Prophets of Science Fiction, a film that looks at the predictions of pioneering SF authors Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, premiered on the Science Channel on Aug. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT in the United States.

The Screamfest LA Horror Film Festival is calling for entries for its sixth annual festival and screenplay competition until Aug. 15; the festival takes place Oct. 13–22 at the Grauman's Chinese Theater complex in Hollywood, Calif.

Fangoria reported that the upcoming sequel film Alien vs. Predator: Survival of the Fittest will begin shooting in Vancouver, B.C., on Sept. 23.

Sony has given the green light to Hotel Transylvania, an animated family comedy, about a group of classic monsters (Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula and the Wolf Man) who are hiding out in a hotel on the outskirts of Transylvania now that 21st-century technology has seemingly made them irrelevant, Variety reported.

ComingSoon.net has posted an image of a brunette Sarah Michelle Gellar as she appears in the upcoming supernatural thriller film The Return, which opens Nov. 17.

MelissaGeorge.co.uk reported that George, the former Alias star, has been cast as deputy sheriff Stella Olemaun in 30 Days of Night, a vampire film based on Steve Niles' graphic novel, opposite Josh Hartnett.

Fire ripped through the famous "007" stage at Britain's Pinewood Studios—where the latest James Bond movie, Casino Royale, had recently finished filming—destroying equipment and damaging the building, but no one was believed to be hurt, the Reuters news service reported.

Hollywood's Master Storytellers joins Michael J. Fox in a charity screening of Back to the Future, parts one and two, at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatres Complex on Aug. 2 to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation and its quest to find a cure for Parkinson's disease.