Shaye Talks Jackson And Hobbit

Robert Shaye, the founder and co-chairman of New Line Cinema, told the New York Times over the weekend that he regretted losing Lord of the Rings helmer Peter Jackson as a friend, but does not regret blasting the director in comments earlier this year to SCI FI Wire.

Shaye told the newspaper that he made the statements "in a moment of emotion" but did not regret it. "I regret losing a friend," he said, as he showed a visitor a Gandalf sword that Jackson had sent him as a gift, before Jackson sued the studio in a dispute over accounting practices from the Rings films.

A representative for Jackson declined to comment to the Times.

Shaye also declined to say whether or not he would make The Hobbit with Jackson, though he made it clear earlier that New Line would no longer work with the director. "Some directors are impossible," he said. "Are there a few people I wouldn't work with? Yes, but I won't name names."

Shaye also declined to comment on reports that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi has been asked to direct The Hobbit. He said, however, that although there was no workable script yet for the film, he intended to release it in 2009.Tapping Joins Atlantis Cast

Stargate SG-1 star Amanda Tapping will join the cast of SCI FI Channel's spinoff series Stargate Atlantis in that show's upcoming fourth season, which commences in the fall, SCI FI announced. Tapping will reprise the role of Lt. Col. Samantha Carter in Atlantis; she played the character in the 10 seasons of SG-1, which goes off the air after completing the final 10 episodes of the current 10th season, starting in April.

Atlantis will resume production on the fourth season in Vancouver, Canada, starting next month. Tapping will appear in 14 of Atlantis's 20 episodes. The new season will introduce a powerful new race and new cast members and mark the loss of beloved friends.

Meanwhile, Jewel Staite (Firefly, Serenity) returns to Atlantis and will appear in eight episodes, reprising her role as Dr. Keller, a physician who joins the Atlantis expedition. Staite previously appeared on the series as Ellia, the Wraith child who was transformed into a human in the season-two episode "Instinct."

Season four of Stargate Atlantis will be executive-produced by Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. Mallozzi and Mullie will share the reins as the series' show runners.

The final episodes of Stargate SG-1 and the remainder of the third season of Stargate Atlantis will air starting April 13, leading into the series debut of Painkiller Jane.Writers Hired For JLA Film

Warner Brothers has hired writers Kiernan and Michele Mulroney to pen the script for its hoped-for Justice League of America movie, based on the DC Comics franchise, Variety reported. It's the first major action the studio has taken on the project, the trade paper reported.

The franchise features the superhero team of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, the Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter, among other heroes. The studio isn't saying which ones may be included in the film.

Development of the film is complicated by the fact that Warner has already revived its Batman and Superman film franchises, with Christian Bale's Batman Begins and the upcoming The Dark Knight and Brandon Routh's Superman Returns and its upcoming sequel. The studio is also developing a Wonder Woman film.

Filmmakers Chris Nolan (Batman Begins) and Bryan Singer (Superman Returns) are each on board to helm the next installments in the two respective franchises. The Dark Knight is eyeing a 2008 release, and the next Superman is slated for 2009.

The JLA has spawned several cartoon TV series, including the 1960s and '70s show Super Friends and the Cartoon Network series Justice League Unlimited, from Warner Brothers Animation.Heroes' H.R.G. Gets Backstory

Jack Coleman, who stars as the mysterious Horn-Rimmed Glasses—aka Mr. Bennet—on the hit NBC series Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that the internal implosion of his family will continue in the next episode, "Company Man," airing Feb. 26. "I think the toll is starting to wear on H.R.G., and he can no longer just roll with it and gloss it over," Coleman said in a conference call with journalists last week.

Coleman said that "Company Man" focuses on his character's backstory and will answer some of the questions fans have been pondering about Mr. Bennet and how he came to adopt Claire, the invulnerable cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere. "It reveals that he took the job and then came into custody of Claire," he said. "It will show you how that happened, and then the journey from how that changed everything and eventually brought everything to a crisis where he has to choose between them. The end of the episode is very emotional, and it stuck with me for a while. Of all the scenes that I have done—and there are many that have been fun and memorable—but the end of this one has really stuck with me."

In the last episode, "Unexpected," Claire finally erupted against her father after her mother fell ill as a result of being memory-wiped. That friction is pushing H.R.G., who has been secretly pursuing super-powered humans, to the brink, Coleman said. "I think that it's one of the things that brings the story to a crisis: the toll that it is taking on his family," he said.

Asked if he knows the upcoming fate of H.R.G.'s wife and son, Coleman said: "I really do not know the fate of Sandra, my wife, played by the wonderful Ashley Crow, and Lyle, played by Randall Bentley. I don't think they will completely disappear, though."

As to the future of Mr. Bennet as the season barrels towards a finale, Coleman only revealed that the anticipated showdown between his character and his archnemesis, Sylar (Zachary Quinto), will have to wait. "His antipathy toward Sylar is put on the back burner for a little while, because other things come up and supersede it," Coleman said. "Sylar is out on his own wreaking havoc away from the prying eyes of H.R.G. for a little while. H.R.G. has other things on his plate, which are demanding his full attention. And I can say I'm not exactly sure what H.R.G.'s approach to Sylar will be towards the end of the season and how it will all play out. But there's no question that that is a guy he would very much like to get his hands on, and it will keep him moving forward."

Coleman also said he's not certain of the producers' intentions with season two of Heroes. "I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen next season," he said. "I do think there are some relatively profound changes heading toward H.R.G., but I don't know that they are going to happen or what is going to happen into the next season. I think the mission will definitely change; the question is for how long and at what cost. It's certainly not going to be the same kind of bagging or tagging that we've seen H.R.G. do with Matt Parkman [Greg Grunberg] and some of the others. I think it will be a very different kind of mission." Heroes airs Mondays on NBC at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Tara DiLullo BennettFireworks Due For Heroes' H.R.G.

Jack Coleman, who stars as the mysterious Mr. Bennet (aka Horn-Rimmed Glasses) on the hit NBC series Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that fans can look forward to more emotional fireworks between his character and Bennet's perceptive and distrustful daughter, the invincible cheerleader Claire (Hayden Panettiere). "Any allegiance on this show is subject to change," Coleman teased in a conference call with journalists on Feb. 16. "Certainly, the relationship between H.R.G. and Claire has been very strained lately. In episode 17 ('Company Man,' airing Feb. 26), there is a crisis situation that brings it to a head and possibly a temporary resolution. But I suspect the relationship between Claire and H.R.G. is one of the core values, so to speak, of this show. As twisted as the relationship is, they've said so many lies to each other, but ultimately I think they do really love each other, and there is a tremendous bond there. It's one of the bedrocks they build story on, so I can't imagine they will be at each other's throats and trying to kill each other. I think it's much more of a domestic issue rather than a superhero issue."

In general, Coleman said he's pleasantly surprised at how long his character has survived and evolved over the course of the series. "It's interesting, because it's one of those things that gradually builds," Coleman said. "I don't think there was ever knowledge or intention that this was what was going to happen [to my character]. Episode 11 ('Fallout') was my first episode as a series regular, but I started to get the idea that it might happen a few episodes beforehand."

In the pilot, Mr. Bennet was introduced as a shadowy figure on the hunt for seemingly ordinary people who possess extraordinary powers. Since then, the character, dubbed H.R.G. for his trademark glasses, was revealed to be the adoptive father of Claire and an employee for a front company, Primatech Paper Company. "This character serves so many different stories and can be a catalyst," Coleman actor said of the importance of Mr. Bennet. "He can drive stories for people that are struggling to get hold of their abilities. You need an antagonist and someone to drive them to a crisis. It was that, and I think they liked [my] chemistry with Hayden, and it had a nice emotional resonance, which added to the creepiness of what H.R.G. was doing during his day job. So I think it made sense to keep him around a little while." Heroes airs Mondays on NBC at 9 p.m. ET/PT —Tara DiLullo BennettScorsese Attached To Hugo

Warner Brothers and Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group have acquired screen rights to the best-selling Brian Selznick children's fantasy novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret as a potential directing vehicle for Martin Scorsese, Variety reported.

The movie would reteam the creatives behind 2004's The Aviator: screenwriter John Logan, Scorsese and producer King. Logan will immediately begin writing the script.

Published last month by Scholastic, The Invention of Hugo Cabret concerns a 12-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station in 1930 and a mystery involving the boy, his late father and a robot.

Scorsese recently signed a lucrative first-look deal with Paramount. Under the terms of the pact, Par has the right to own half of any project Scorsese directs or produces elsewhere. Hugo Cabret joins several projects on Scorsese's to-do list.Transformers As Real As Possible

Ian Bryce, one of the producers of Michael Bay's upcoming Transformers movie, told SCI FI Wire that the director shot as much of the SF action live as possible. "I think that as much practical photography as you can get is the best," Bryce said in an interview on the film's Los Angeles set last August. "I think the audience is so sophisticated these days that they can tell what's [computer-generated], what's animatronic, what's not real. So we certainly like to capture as much original photography as we can, and then enhance it with the CG shots."

The production even built a number of full-scale versions of the title robots, the Autobots and the Decepticons, who have come to Earth to wage a final battle.

"We've got a few," Bryce said. "We've got a couple of robots that we built in full scale that are used very specifically for some shots. But, yeah, we like to get as much live action as we can."

The production also made use of less-than-full-scale robots. "We've got a little one, too, that's fantastic, that's actually very, very articulate, if you will, in terms of his range of motion, and he's puppeteered. He's great. I love that robot. I think he's awesome. We're going to sell a lot of toys."

Based on the 1980s TV, toy and comic-book franchise, Transformers will follow five separate storylines, which will all converge with a final battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, starting at Hoover Dam and ending in an American city that looks a lot like Los Angeles.

The movie will mix SF with the signature action of Bay (The Island), Bryce said. "Mike [is] one of the greatest action directors ever," he said. "He's going to have some of that, you'll see, in the ending sequences. Once we get into the third act, there's some great ground and air-based action, both with military and not with military. And we've got a big road sequence we're going to do next week, so I think he'll blend in some of his traditional and expected action into the story." Transformers opens July 4. —Patrick Lee, News EditorMurphy Talks Transformers

Don Murphy, one of the producers of Michael Bay's upcoming Transformers movie, told SCI FI Wire that the film will deal with several elements of the comic, TV and toy franchise, but not any single storyline. "There's so many things that make it Transformers, but there's no ... one classic story, like [Spider-Man's] death of Gwen Stacy or something like that," Murphy said in an interview on the film's Los Angeles set last August. "I think it proved a little bit tricky. ... The real balance was that ... if you just wanted robots smashing robots, then that's [computer animation] or that's 2-D [animation]. And what we were always trying to do was a live-action movie. ... So you kind of have a nice balance now between the robots and the human interactions. And the first movie, as I'm sure you already know, is about the arrival of the Autobots and the Decepticons to Earth."

Transformers will offer background about the origin of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. The plot will be set in motion when 18-year-old Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers his grandfather's pair of century-old glasses, improbably laser-etched with a map and information about the location of a key artifact, the "Energon" cube, which he then tries to sell on eBay. The movie will follow five separate storylines, which will all converge with a final battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, starting at Hoover Dam and ending in an American city that looks a lot like Los Angeles.

Murphy said that the movie will make use of generation-one Transformers. "Everything that the original writer, John Rogers, had grown up on," Murphy said. "When [additional screenwriters] Roberto [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] came on to do their subsequent drafts, it was all the first season, because that was what I think had been earmarked as the traditional thing, ... as this is what kids grew up on and everything." Transformers is eyeing a July 4 release. —Patrick Lee, News EditorIndy Gets A Son In Indy IV?

Ain't It Cool News reported a rumor that Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) is being cast as the adult son of Indiana Jones in the upcoming fourth installment of the adventure franchise.

The site based its rumor on "reliable" anonymous sources. The rumor has turned up elsewhere on the Internet as well.

David Koepp drafted the latest script for Indy IV, whose storyline has been kept tightly under wraps. Steven Spielberg is reportedly aiming to shoot the film later this year for a 2008 release.Avatar Stakes Out 2009 Date

Avatar, James Cameron's upcoming SF epic movie, is eyeing a Memorial Day 2009 release date, the ComingSoon.net Web site reported.

Avatar is the futuristic story of a wounded ex-marine who is unwillingly sent to settle and exploit a faraway planet. He gets caught up in a battle for survival by the planet's inhabitants.

As previously reported, the film will reunite Cameron with his Aliens star Sigourney Weaver, and the cast will include Australian Sam Worthington, in the lead role of Jake Sully, and Zoe Saldana (Pirates of the Caribbean). Cameron sees Avatar as a potential franchise. Miller: Sin 2 Is Ready To Go

Frank Miller, who wrote and co-directed Sin City based on his popular graphic novels, told SCI FI Wire that Sin City 2 is a go and that he hopes to be in Texas to shoot the film by late spring. Miller and Robert Rodriguez will again share directing duties on the sequel.

"The script is largely done, and now we're in that limbo zone where we're casting and making script adjustments as we go," Miller said in an interview while promoting 300, which he executive-produced and which is also based on one of his graphic novels.

Miller added that the sequel will be based on A Dame to Kill for, the second Sin City tale and a prequel to The Hard Goodbye, which was the basis of one of the first film's storylines. The sequel will also deal with "a couple of old stories and one brand-new one," Miller said. "The old ones are a couple of 'Blue Eyes' stories, and there's an 'Old Town Girls' story, and the new one features Nancy Callahan [played by Jessica Alba] in a very different, very scary role. I'm hoping we'll start in late spring. It gets pretty hot in Austin, so there might be a summer's interruption there, but both Robert and I really want to be shooting this thing as soon as possible." —Ian SpellingLove Bites In Blood Ties

Peter Mohan, executive producer of Lifetime's upcoming new vampire series Blood Ties, told SCI FI Wire that the show will explore the romantic triangle developed in Tanya Huff's five-book series, The Blood Books. That triangle involves former cop-turned-private investigator Vicki Nelson; her ex-partner, Mike Celluci; and the 450-year-old vampire, Henry Fitzroy, who just happens to be a romance writer and the illegitimate son of Henry VIII.

"Both men see how strong the competition is," Mohan said in an interview. "Mike sees that this is a guy who's never going to get old, never going to not be beautiful and is stronger than he is and faster than he is. On the other end, Henry realizes that Mike is a good-looking guy who is a human. He's someone Vicki could have a family with and grow old with and have that kind of a real relationship. And for Vicki with Henry, however attractive he is, she doesn't, in some ways, see him as a person to really give herself over to, because he's this unnatural creature in a way. And there's going to be a different woman in his bed every night [laughs]."

Blood Ties starts when Vicki runs into Henry during one of her investigations and discovers not only do vampires exist, but that other supernatural forces are also real. The Lifetime series stars Christina Cox (The Chronicles of Riddick) as Vicki, Dylan Neal (JAG) as Mike and Kyle Schmid (Beautiful People) as the vampire Henry. Notable guest stars include Lisa Ray, Danny Trejo and Julian Sands as a vampire hunter. Lifetime has committed to air 13 episodes of the 22 in production, with the option to pick up more if the series does well.

Mohan promised to stay true to Huff's series, including the tough but beautiful lead character. "Vicki works out a lot of issues through humor, and she won't show fear," he said. "She'll throw in a funny line or a smartass line even in the face of a demon. It's all based on this core trinity of characters and their messed-up relationships and throwing some cool monsters into this mix every week."

As for the "cool monsters," Mohan said: "We're not showing monsters the way they've always been shown. Often we're seeing the human side of monsters, or at least breaking the cliches a little bit and having some fun with it. There's no end to different kinds of creatures out there. When the central guy is a vampire, one of the core questions of the show becomes 'Who's really the monster?'" Blood Ties premieres March 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Kathie HuddlestonArea 52 Rights Acquired

Benderspink has acquired film rights to Area 52, the SF comic book by Brian Haberlin, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The story follows a group of misfit soldiers stationed at a remote military base in Antarctica who learn that they are guarding a storage facility in which top-secret, otherworldly technologies and weapons are kept and analyzed. A murderous alien, hatched from something believed to be an artifact, stalks the soldiers, who must team to defeat it.

Chris Bender and J.C. Spink will produce with Quattro partner Jim Strader. Haberlin will executive-produce.Gradisil Colonizes Earth Orbit

SF author Adam Roberts, whose novel Gradisil was named a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book is a multi-generational story about revenge and nation-building. "The 'nation-building' part is about colonizing Earth orbit, creating a ragtag country called 'the Uplands' out of private settlers and space enthusiasts: people given access to near-Earth orbit by new and relatively cheap technologies," Roberts said in an interview. "The 'revenge' part traces an Oresteia-style family involvement, with murder and retaliation through its grisly twists and turns."

Roberts said that Gradisil came about as a result of his working his way through the different iterations of SF. "You know the kind of thing: time-travel story, planetary romance, alternate history, cyberpunk, first-contact story, etc., etc.," he said. "So my last novel [The Snow] was an end-of-the-world story, inflected via my rather peculiar perspective on J.G. Ballard. Previous novels have done Jack Vance-[like] interstellar excess, Ursula Le Guin planetary grimness and so on. When I set down to write Gradisil, I wanted to write something hard SF, something near-ish future, something Robert Heinlein or Stephen Baxter-like. As with all my novels, I think it's fair to say that something weird and dislocating happens to these great authors when I force them into the woodchipper of my own imagination, but there's something tech-SF-y and war-story about this particular novel."

In particular, Roberts wanted to write about the colonization of space as something that will happen as previous human colonization projects have happened, he said. "Which is to say, bottom-up, not top-down: huddled masses yearning to [breathe] free, not government-sponsored elites riding in official spacecraft," Roberts said. "To do that I needed a technology for getting into orbit that, unlike chemical rocketry, was within the reach of at least a percentage of ordinary people. So I invented 'electromagnetohydrodynamics,' or, more accurately, I appropriated it from its proper place in physics. With a little alteration it turns out it's possible to fly ordinary planes into space, using the purchase of the Earth's electromagnetic field."

Roberts added, with tongue in cheek: "Now some people may tell you that this is unlikely physics. It's even been called 'complete rubbish.' Don't be put off by these naysayers. This technology is the wave of the future, I tell you. In 50 years' time, everybody will be swooshing up into space using it."

All of Roberts' novels are desperately personal, he said. "I'm a middle-class Englishman, and public confessional display is a very off-putting and scary thing for me, so this personal element is always focused through the Iceland Spar of a symbolizing imagination," he said. "So Gradisil is a novel ... about precariousness, about how poorly balanced we are at the top of our various trees and how easily we fall out, and that's been my life." —John Joseph AdamsRoswell Celebrates UFO's 60th

The town of Roswell, N.M., celebrates the 60th anniversary of its most famous event—the supposed crash-landing of a UFO in 1947—with the Amazing Roswell UFO Festival, July 5-8, city officials said.

Roswell is inviting UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike to join the four-day event, which will feature guest speakers, authors, live entertainment, family-friendly activities and possibly an alien abduction. The City of Roswell is coordinating the annual festival., which it expects to attract more than 50,000 visitors.

In early July 1947, something crashed on a ranch 30 miles north of Roswell. The Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a statement claiming to have recovered a crashed “flying disk," and an article ran on the front page of the Roswell Daily Record. The next day, the RAAF changed its statement to say that the object was a weather balloon, not a flying disk, but the revised statement sparked immediate controversy and gave birth to the still-ongoing debate over what really took place in the so-called Roswell incident.Harden, Jones Join The Mist

Marcia Gay Harden and Toby Jones have joined the cast of The Mist, director Frank Darabont's movie based on the Stephen King novella, Variety reported. Production has begun on the Dimension Films adaptation.

The story revolves around a group of people who hole up in a supermarket after a deadly mist covers a town and unleashes a swarm of murderous critters.

Thomas Jane, Andre Braugher and Amin Joseph were previously cast. Darabont, who previously adapted and directed the King tales The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, wrote the script. Castle Rock's Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer produce with Darabont.One Grindhouse Or Two?

Grindhouse, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's faux double-feature SF&F movie, may be released as two separate movies in some parts of the globe, where the concept of a "double feature" is unknown, Variety reported. The United States and a few other English-speaking territories, meanwhile, will see it as one singular experience: two short films separated by fake movie trailers for coming attractions.

Grindhouse was envisioned as a salute to the double- or triple-bills of the 1950s and '60s.

But most non-English-speaking territories have little tradition of a grindhouse double bill. When split, the two films will be titled Grindhouse: Planet Terror (Rodriguez's film) and Grindhouse: Death Proof (Tarantino's). With the split, some additional footage could be added to each one. The general plan is that the two films will be released three to five months apart, but there's no decision yet on which will be first. Producers are also weighing the logistics of the faux trailers: which will be attached to which movie.Streaking Is Just His Luck

SF/fantasy author Brian Stableford, whose novel Streaking was named a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book grew out of his longtime fascination with the phenomenon of "psychological probability." "[That's what you call it when] the human mind seems predisposed to follow certain risk-taking policies that are at odds with the actual calculus of probability—which include, of course, belief in 'luck,'" Stableford said in an interview. "I wanted to explore the consequences of the hypothesis that luck really might favor some individuals at the expense of others, in terms of what that might imply about the nature of the universe in which we live and in terms of the psychological effects such knowledge might have [on] its beneficiaries."

The protagonist, Canny Kilcannon, is heir to a family tradition of good luck that stretches back at least six centuries, Stableford said. "Over the generations his male forebears have accumulated a considerable burden of superstitions regarding the rituals and policies that supposedly must be followed if the lucky streak is to be maintained," he said. "When his father dies, the skeptical Canny must decide whether to follow the dictates of those superstitions in order to renew the streak on his own behalf. His decision is complicated by attempts made by East European gangsters to kidnap, rob and blackmail him, by his meeting with an exotic supermodel who is heir to a similar streak—communicated, in her case, through the female line—and by murder of the husband of one of his childhood friends."

The village of Cockayne—the most important setting in the story—is based on the idea and ideals of Stableford's birthplace, Saltaire, he said. "[Saltaire is] a 'model village' built in the 19th century by the philanthropic Shipley mill owner Titus Salt to house his workers," he said. "Salt's Mill is now an arts center dedicated to the work of local-boy-made-good David Hockney, and Saltaire is a spruced-up tourist attraction, but when I was a child the mill was still a mill, and the ex-village was just a part of Shipley where ordinary people lived—my maternal grandfather, in whose attic I was born, was the carpenter-joiner responsible for its routine repair work."

After writing Streaking, Stableford spent a year compiling a monumental reference book, Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia (Routledge 2006), he said. "More recently, I produced a lighthearted theatrical fantasy set in Paris in the 1890s, The New Faust at the Tragicomique, which will be out shortly from Black Coat Press—for whom I also translate a good deal of early French crime fiction and fantasy," Stableford said. "Immanion Press, which is owned and operated by Storm Constantine—who very kindly provided an introduction for Streaking—recently issued a collection of my short stories, Sheena and Other Gothic Tales." —John Joseph AdamsWizard Names New Editor

Wizard Entertainment announced the appointment of Scott Gramling as the new editor-in-chief of the company. Gramling will take the helm effective immediately, overseeing all content for the company, including the four publications—Wizard, InQuest Gamer, ToyFare and Anime Insider—as well as Wizarduniverse.com and the Wizard World Tour, which kicks off March 16 in Los Angeles.

Gramling's primary goal will be to continue building on the success of Wizard, with eyes on growing the readership across all media and seeking to gain more of a market share in the pop-culture category.

Gramling returns after a 12-year absence to Wizard, where he began as an associate editor. Since 2000 he served as sections editor, deputy editor and editor-in-chief at FHM, where he was also a frequent contributor to the magazine. He conducted interviews with celebrities including Anna Kournikova, Shaquille O'Neal and Ozzy Osbourne. Previously, he was the associate editor of Sports Illustrated for Kids' book division.Wilson Fell For Mimzy

Rainn Wilson, who co-stars in the upcoming SF film The Last Mimzy, told SCI FI Wire he was attracted to the project in part because the story simply touched him. Based on the Lewis Padgett short story Mimsy Were the Borogoves, The Last Mimzy spins the story of a young brother and sister (Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Lynn Wryn) who develop amazing mental and physical powers soon after finding a strange box loaded with alien artifacts—including a talking rabbit doll named Mimzy—that they initially mistake for toys.

"Like great science fiction, it just shows us what's possible," Wilson (NBC's The Office) said in an interview. "I was really profoundly moved when I first read the script. I actually teared up, and that doesn't really happen, because I'm such a manly man. But I was really moved by this allegory at the center, that these toys that are sent from the future are sent to, in a way, save mankind from itself. And the innocence of children saves us. Having just had a kid—he's 2 1/2 right now, my son, Walter—it just really resonated with me."

Wilson, whose genre credits include Galaxy Quest and My Super Ex-Girlfriend, co-stars in The Last Mimzy as Larry, a science teacher who forms a bond with the children as they embark on their incredible journey. "Another thing I like about The Last Mimzy is that spirituality and science fiction are woven throughout it, which is a rare thing, but I think that great science fiction has kind of a mystical element to it," he says. "When you look at Blade Runner, it's kind of like the nature of the soul and of being and who's alive and why. What is it to be human? The Last Mimzy has that as well. I think that Larry is the connection between the kids and that science fiction world. As a science teacher himself, he has an understanding of science, but he also has these spiritual, mystical visions." The Last Mimzy opens March 23. —Ian SpellingAlready Dead To Be Film

Phoenix Pictures and Mike De Luca Productions will team for a feature adaptation of the Charlie Huston vampire novel Already Dead, Variety reported. Scott Rosenberg will write the script.

De Luca will produce with Phoenix's David Thwaites and Brad Fischer. Alissa Phillips will co-produce.

Huston's novel is the first of a five-book series that the producers are eyeing as a potential franchise, the trade paper reported.

The series revolves around a vampire who happens to be a private detective hired by a Gotham socialite to track down her runaway daughter. The city's vampires are afflicted with a virus that requires them to drink blood, and they run through the city in clans. A new virus that turns victims into carnivorous zombies threatens to upset the balance between humans and vampires.

Huston's second novel in the series, No Dominion, was just published.End Is Near For Grimwood

SF author Jon Courtenay Grimwood, whose novel End of the World Blues was named a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book began with an image of a teenage girl stuffing a suitcase filled with $15 million into the locker of a Tokyo subway station. "The next image was a castle crawling up a mountain to escape from the heat of the plains," Grimwood said in an interview. "And the third was of a rope world, a series of rotting space stations hung above the Earth at the end of time. After that, all I had to do was actually write the book."

The novel follows ex-sniper Kit Nouveau, who has been running for his entire life, Grimwood said. "From his father, from the death of his American mother, from his first girlfriend and the responsibilities she wanted him to take," he said. "From the army and his time in Iraq, from his training as a sniper and the kills that replay themselves at night. ... It takes meeting someone who's fled a lot further, from the ends of time to modern-day Tokyo, to make Kit stop running and turn to face his past at the point it threatens to overwhelm him."

Kit is half-American and half-English and is living with a Japanese artist and sleeping with the wife of a Yakuza boss, Grimwood said. "Not good news," he said. "One night, drunk and late home, he runs into a street kid, who saves his life and introduces herself as Lady Neku, a refugee from the end of the world. As Kit's life in Tokyo unravels and his past as a deserter from the Iraqi war threatens to catch up with him, Kit's visited by the mother of his first girlfriend. Mary is missing, and her mother wants Kit to find her. And Mary's mother has some good reasons why he should do exactly what he's told."

Grimwood added: "The back history is now, [with] much of the action taking place 20 years in the future, and the rest happens in a castle at the end of time. There are gangsters, fights, biker bars, stand-offs with the Japanese police, an insane family of aristocrats and a violent storm. ... "

Grimwood said he wanted to make sure his "end of the world" was realistic, which meant studying possible or likely end-time scenarios for our planet. "And Tokyo demands concentration," he said. "At least it does if you want to get it down on paper accurately. I ended up making three trips. For me, it's as close as you can get to visiting another world without getting in a rocket or time machine. Sitting in a bar, listening to karaoke on the 40-somethingth floor of a tower block, looking out at a distant cliff of neon, I knew this was where Kit ended up. I knew it was the right place for Lady Neku's exile. And I knew I'd been looking for Tokyo my entire life." —John Joseph AdamsSuperman Leads Saturn Nods

Superman Returns led the list of nominees for the 33rd annual Saturn Awards, with 10 nominations, including best fantasy film, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films announced on Feb. 20. X-Men: The Last Stand and Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth followed, with six nominations each.

Other nominated films included Casino Royale, Mission: Impossible III, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Stranger Than Fiction, which each received five nods.

In the television categories, ABC's Lost led the nominees, with six nominations. NBC's new hit series Heroes garnered five, and SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica earned four nominations.

A special recognition award will be presented to the imaginative children's book Alien Xmas, written by Stephen Chiodo and Jim Strain.

This year marks the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films' 35th anniversary. The non-profit organization was founded in 1972 by film historian Donald A. Reed.

Saturn winners will be announced in ceremonies on May 10 in Universal City, Calif. Heroes cast member Greg Grunberg and comedian Jeffrey Ross will host the awards show. A partial list of nominees follows; the full list can be found at the official Web site on Feb. 20.

Best Science Fiction Film: Children of Men, Déjà vu, The Fountain, The Prestige, V for Vendetta, X-Men: The Last Stand

Best Fantasy Film: Charlotte's Web, Eragon, Night at the Museum, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Stranger Than Fiction, Superman Returns

Best Horror Film: The Descent, Final Destination 3, Hostel, Saw III, Slither, Snakes on a Plane

Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: Casino Royale, The Departed, Flyboys, Mission: Impossible III, Notes on a Scandal, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Best Animated Film: Cars, Flushed Away, Happy Feet, Monster House, Over the Hedge, A Scanner Darkly

Best International Film: Apocalypto, The Curse of the Golden Flower, Fearless, The Host, Letters From Iwo Jima, Pan's Labyrinth

Best Network Television Series: Heroes, Jericho, Lost, Smallville, 24, Veronica Mars

Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Battlestar Galactica, The Closer, Dexter, Doctor Who, Eureka, Kyle XY, Stargate SG-1Cage Cameos In Grindhouse

Nicolas Cage told SCI FI Wire he camps it up in a cameo appearance as Fu Manchu in a faux movie trailer that is part of Grindhouse, the homage to exploitation movies directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Cage is one of many high-profile actors who will appear in the movie, which is actually two genre films connected by a string of fake trailers directed by the likes of Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright and Eli Roth.

Cage appears in Zombie's trailer, for a movie called Werewolf Women of the SS, alongside Zombie's real-life wife, Sheri Moon, as well as Udo Kier and Sybil Danning.

"My friend, Rob Zombie—I know him only socially—[asked me to do it]," Cage said. "I like him. He's a nice man. We have good memories together over the years, and he asked if I would do this part of Fu Manchu, and I said 'Sure.'"

It didn't take the Oscar-winning actor long to do the role of the stereotypical evil Chinese genius, Cage said. "It's one day and two lines," he said. "It was just completely ridiculous. I haven't seen it."

Grindhouse consists of the SF movie "Planet Terror," directed by Rodriguez, and the slasher film "Death Proof," directed by Tarantino. It opens April 6.

"I'm not in any of the movies," Cage said. "I'm two seconds there [in one of the trailers], that's it." —Mike SzymanskiHutcherson Wowed By Journey

Young actor Josh Hutcherson told SCI FI Wire that he hesitated at first to join the remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth, but when they explained the 3-D technology, he jumped into the project.

"When they first asked me to be in this 3-D movie, I thought maybe it wasn't a good move for me right now," said Hutcherson, 14, who appears with AnnaSophia Robb in The Bridge to Terabithia. "But then I talked to the director about the technology and realized that it's not a 3-D kiddie movie; it's an action adventure 3-D adult thing."

Hutcherson (Zathura) co-stars in Journey 3-D with Brendan Fraser (the Mummy movies), Anita Briem and Garth Gilker.

Hutcherson has already finished filming the adaptation of the Jules Verne SF classic, which was directed by Eric Brevig, who was visual-effects supervisor for The Day After Tomorrow and Men in Black.

"Two weeks after I finished Terabithia I went to Montreal to film Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Fraser, and that's coming out 8/08/08," Hutcherson said. "It's the most action-packed movie I've ever done."

Hutcherson said that he was amazed by the 3-D technology and the camerawork developed by Terminator director James Cameron. "It's two cameras on one, and they use a one-way mirror, double lenses and fiber-optic cables," he said. "It's confusing. When I found out that was a serious hard-hitting action adventure and that the cameras were developed by James Cameron, I was into it." —Mike SzymanskiLittle To Helm Kelley's Mars

David E. Kelley has tapped helmer Dwight Little to direct his adaptation of the BBC's time-travel cop drama Life on Mars for ABC, Variety reported.

Kelley wrote and is executive-producing the ABC drama pilot, which revolves around a cop who finds himself transported back to the 1970s. Twentieth Century Fox Television is producing, in association with David E. Kelley Productions.Stoker Nominees Named

Nominees have been announced for this year's Bram Stoker Awards, which recognize superior achievement in horror writing. The award, named for the author of the seminal horror work Dracula, is presented annually by the Horror Writers Association. Winners will be announced March 31 at the World Horror Convention in Toronto. A complete list of nominees follows.

Novel: Headstone City by Tom Piccirilli, Lisey's Story by Stephen King, Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry, Pressure by Jeff Strand, Prodigal Blues by Gary A. Braunbeck

First Novel: Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry, The Keeper by Sarah Langan, Bloodstone by Nate Kenyon, The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff

Long Fiction: "Dark Harvest" by Norman Partridge, "Hallucigenia" by Laird Barron, "Mama's Boy" by Fran Friel, "Bloodstained Oz" by Christopher Golden and James A. Moore, "Clubland Heroes" by Kim Newman

Short Fiction: "Tested" by Lisa Morton, "Balance" by Gene O'Neill, "Feeding the Dead Inside" by Yvonne Navarro, "FYI" by Mort Castle, "31/10" by Stephen Volk

Anthology: Aegri Somnia: The Apex Featured Writer Anthology edited by Jason Sizemore and Gill Ainsworth, Mondo Zombie edited by John Skipp, Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe Lansdale, Alone on the Darkside edited by John Pelan

Collection: Destinations Unknown by Gary Braunbeck, American Morons by Glen Hirshberg, The Commandments by Angeline Hawkes, The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford, Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear by Terry Dowling

Nonfiction: Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die by Michael Largo, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Vision of Hell on Earth by Kim Paffenroth, Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished by Rocky Wood, Cinema Macabre edited by Mark Morris

Poetry: Shades Fantastic by Bruce Boston, Valentine: Short Love Poems by Corrine de Winter, The Troublesome Amputee by John Edward Lawson, Songs of a Sorceress by Bobbi Sinha-Morey —John Joseph AdamsHeart Mixes History, SF

SF writer Lydia Millet, whose novel Oh Pure and Radiant Heart was named a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book features a simple conceit: It's kind of a celebrity transplant through time. "Three of the best-known of the Manhattan Project physicists—Robert Oppenheimer and Leo Szilard and Enrico Fermi—show up in modern-day Santa Fe [N.M.] from 1945, carried there at the moment the first mushroom cloud rises into the sky at the Trinity site," Millet said in an interview. "They're discovered by a librarian named Ann, who believes in them and becomes a kind of acolyte, leading hundreds and then thousands of fans around the country in the scientists' wake as they become cult figures."

Millet said that Oppenheimer's, Szilard's and Fermi's encounters with the 21st-century American culture their bomb helped create are sometimes wrenching, sometimes metaphysical, other times deadpan or slapstick. "Oppenheimer is moody and thoughtful, given to philosophizing; Szilard is like a rat terrier with a bone he can't stop worrying; and Fermi just gets depressed," she said.

Two purely fictional characters—Ann and Ben, a married couple living in Santa Fe—take in the physicists when they have nowhere else to go, Millet said. "Ann eagerly, because the scientists are her protégés, and Ben only under protest," she said. "They've led a quiet life until the dead geniuses show up—one's a reference librarian and the other's a gardener—and their marriage suffers from the intrusion."

Millet visited several nuclear sites for research, from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Los Alamos and the Nevada test site, she said. "I also amassed a sizable collection of books on nuclear history and all existing biographies of the physicists, of course," Millet said. "They were fascinating people, all three of them. In my travels Hiroshima was the hardest to assimilate—impossible, truthfully—and the Nevada test site, out of use since the '60s but primed to make a comeback if pro-nuclear hawks in government get their way and underground bomb testing resumes, was the most quintessential. The guide on our tour bus, a crusty old-timer with a giant belt buckle who talked about each and every last nuclear test like it was his own precious darling, needed no fictionalizing whatsoever for his appearance in my story."

Millet tends to resist the ideology of novel-writing that believes all fiction should be about some aspect of the writer's personal experience or self, she said. "I'm more interested in the social angle, the existential angle," Millet said. "Not that the self isn't always firmly situated in the middle of our worldview, no matter how abstract we want to be; but one reason I like sci-fi is that it understands that ideas of otherness, visions of the strange, are more exciting than the familiar details of selfhood and self-examination that wallpaper our days." —John Joseph AdamsGhost Races To Top

Ghost Rider raced into the top slot at the weekend box office, with the biggest-ever Presidents' Day weekend debut, taking in about $51.5 million over the weekend's four days, Variety reported.

Extended four-day weekend numbers for the top 10 films spiked to $165.5 million, up from $105.9 million a year ago, and the period was the biggest Presidents' Day weekend ever, the trade paper reported.

The fantasy film Bridge to Terabithia took second place, with $29 million over four days.

Ghost Rider helped pull Hollywood out of its box-office doldrums, with overall revenues rising for the first time in six weekends. Ghost Rider was the best opening weekend ever for Cage and extended Hollywood's winning streak with comic-book adaptations, the Associated Press reported.BRIEFLY NOTED

George Clooney is in negotiations and Cate Blanchett is in talks to voice the lead characters in Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, a stop-motion film based on Roald Dahl's classic children's story, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Battlestar Galactica's Jamie Bamber (Apollo) will guest-star on the Feb. 23 episode of CBS' Ghost Whisperer, in which Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) investigates a corpse that has gone missing from the local morgue.

Disney's animated Peter Pan arrives as a two-disc platinum edition on DVD March 6.

Sierra Boggess has won the title role in The Little Mermaid, the upcoming Broadway musical based on the Disney animated film, which will have an out-of-town tryout in Denver this summer, the Associated Press reported.

Four titles from the SEGA Genesis game library—Sword of Vermilion, Vectorman, Sonic Spinball and Beyond Oasis—will soon be available for download on the Wii Shop Channel, the company announced.

New images of the vehicles in Michael Bay's Transformers movie have been uploaded onto SCI FI Wire's Photo Gallery page.

The Loop's Bret Harrison will star in The CW's supernatural pilot Reaper, a Kevin Smith-directed drama about a guy who becomes a bounty hunter for the devil, Zap2it.com reported.

A new trailer has gone live for Resident Evil: Extinction, and it's linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

Reed Diamond (Judging Amy) has signed on to co-star with Kevin McKidd in NBC's time-travel pilot Journeyman, Zap2it.com reported.

Mark Millar, creator of the Wanted superhero comic series, talks about Russian director Timur Bekmambetov's upcoming film adaptation on his official Web site.

Emmanuel Lubezki took home top feature film honors for Children of Men at the 21st annual American Society of Cinematographers' Outstanding Achievement Awards on Feb. 18 in Los Angeles, Variety reported.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian began principal photography on location in Auckland, New Zealand, on Feb. 12, with New Zealand native Andrew Adamson directing.