Farscape Revived On SCIFI.COM

SCI FI Channel will revive its popular original show Farscape as a Web-based series of short films on SCIFI.COM's SCI FI Pulse broadband network, part of a slate of new original online programming.

SCI FI has ordered 10 webisodes of Farscape, to be produced by Brian Henson and Robert Halmi Jr. and produced by The Jim Henson Co., in association with RHI Entertainment.

The series will expand the Farscape universe, but the network had no announcements on casting or premiere dates.

Other new online series include SCI FI Tech, a companion to SCIFI.COM's SCI FI Tech blog, and Invent This!, which sets out to find the world's quirkiest inventions and get into the minds of the inventors behind each creation.Duchovny: X-Files 2 Script Is Done

David Duchovny, who played special agent Fox Mulder on the television series The X-Files and in the 1998 feature film, told reporters that he will be getting a finished script of a proposed second movie this week. Speaking in a news conference at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. on July 14, Duchovny said that The X-Files creator Chris Carter drafted the new script with longtime producing partner Frank Spotnitz. (Duchovny was promoting his new Showtime series Californication.)

"Chris has written it with Frank Spotnitz, and Chris will direct it," Duchovny said. "And [co-star Gillian Anderson is] on board, and I'm on board, and that's all I can tell you. I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing what he did."

Rumors of a second film have been circulating since the previous one came out. This time, Duchovny said that the long-anticipated sequel project is finally moving forward.

"Before, I would just say that because they told me," Duchovny said. "But now I've been talking to Chris and he's been giving me progress reports. He actually called yesterday and said next week we should have something."

Duchovny added that he's looking forward to bringing back Mulder because "he's cool." Filming for the proposed stand-alone film would begin in November, with an eye toward release in the summer of 2008, he said. —Cindy WhiteSunshine's Byrne Lost In Space

Rose Byrne, who plays an astronaut in Danny Boyle's upcoming Sunshine, told SCI FI Wire that it was a challenge pretending to be trapped on a claustrophobic spaceship deep in outer space.

The movie centers on a team of astronauts—including Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada and Chris Evans—on a doomsday mission to reignite the dying sun.

"The main challenge was the actual reality of what we were doing," Byrne said in an interview. "We were shooting on soundstages, but we were supposed to be in the middle of space, and there's a lot of tension going on in the story, and there are huge ideas that are debated."

Australian actress Byrne plays Cassie, the pilot of the ill-fated ship Icarus II. It was a physical role, she added. "We had to do quite a lot of stunt stuff, too, which was interesting for me, because I hadn't done too much of that before," she said.

After completing Sunshine, Byrne co-starred in 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to director Boyle's zombie movie 28 Days Later (Boyle produced, but did not direct, the sequel).

"Danny is endlessly enthusiastic, madly passionate, quite eccentric, and [Sunshine] was probably the best working experience I have had," Byrne said. "I adored working with him. He's wonderful. He was all over the script and the characters and really into the characters' stories, not just the special effects. These can be tough movies for an actor, but he's just so smart and inspiring. I'd work with him on every single thing he did if I were lucky enough to get that chance." Sunshine opens nationwide on July 20. —Ian SpellingBoyle Talks Sunshine On Video

Danny Boyle, director of the upcoming SF movie Sunshine, talks about the epic space adventure in an interview with SCI FI Wire. The video includes footage from the movie, as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses of its production. The movie opens July 20.007 Quits Prague Studio

The next James Bond movie will not be shot in Prague, where the last one was based, because of a lack of financial incentives in the Czech Republic, Variety reported.

The 007 production company, Eon, informed Prague's Barrandov Studios that it will not use the site for the next movie in the series, Barrandov head Vladimir Kuba told the trade paper.

The Marc Forster-helmed movie will start shooting in December at the United Kingdom's Pinewood Studios. Casino Royale shot mainly in Prague. Who Writer Addresses Rumors

Steven Moffat, who has written some of the most memorable episodes of the BBC's new Doctor Who, told SCI FI Wire that fans have no cause to worry that the rumored departure of executive producer Russell T. Davies at the end of the fourth season will mean the end of the franchise, but he did not deny the rumor.

"I know that there's tremendous anxiety among Doctor Who fans about the future of Doctor Who," Moffat said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting his upcoming BBC America series, Jekyll. "Here's an answer that people should listen to. No broadcaster lets go of a show like Doctor Who. They'd have to be out of their f--king minds."

The new iteration of Doctor Who premiered in 2005 and just completed its third season in the United Kingdom. Each season has seen a major casting change, and the fourth one will be no exception. Catherine Tate has been announced as the Doctor's new companion, reprising the role of Donna Noble from last year's Christmas special, The Runaway Bride.

Moffat pointed out that Doctor Who has managed to remain popular despite these changes and that the show is bigger than any one person.

"If Doctor Who demonstrates anything—any simple truth about television—it's that everyone is dispensable," he said. "Doctor Who is probably there forever. It will probably outlive everyone on [fan Web site] Outpost Gallifrey. That's probably the truth. I'm not saying that it will run continuously for 20 years. They might give it a rest for a while, but I wouldn't imagine Doctor Who would rest for very long now. But Doctor Who is completely safe. It's not in great danger. It's been the center of British culture since Kennedy was shot. I mean, it's not going away. Look, they turned it to s--t and took it off for 15 years, and that didn't kill it. I mean, what's going to kill it now? Success?"

When asked if he might be the one to take over should Davies leave the show, Moffat appeared slightly uncomfortable. "Next question," he answered after a long pause. "There's a lot of things to think about there." The third season of Doctor Who is currently running on SCI FI Channel Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy WhiteMarsters Gets Racy On Torchwood

John Barrowman, who plays Capt. Jack Harkness on the BBC's Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood, told SCI FI Wire that a salacious comment made by guest star James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) at a recent convention about his character was a completely accurate description.

"That's right," Barrowman said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 13. "'You're going to have to go finish yourself off at the end of it.' And he's absolutely right. And we filmed that three days ago, and it took 12 hours. I can't tell you what that was like."

Marsters is best known for playing Spike, the platinum-blond, British-born vampire with a weakness for a certain chosen one on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series, Angel.

Julie Gardner, executive-producer of Torchwood, said that Marsters will play an "omnisexual" character who has a past connection to Barrowman's Capt. Jack.

"We're kind of really embracing the omnisexual word, aren't we?" Gardner said in a separate interview. "They should all fancy each other. I mean, when they're as sexy as they are, you just want to believe anything's possible. There's a very big story for him in episode one. He and Jack have a very big shared history."

Marsters is now filming his episode in Cardiff, Wales, and has been enjoying the experience, by all accounts. "I heard from [Who executive producer] Russell T. Davies today, and James is having a blast," Gardner said. "He's loving it. He's really, really happy."

Torchwood will return for a second season in the United Kingdom on BBC Two in early 2008. The first season premieres in the United States on BBC America on Sept. 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy WhiteTorchwood Secrets To Be Revealed

John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack on the BBC Two's Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming second season will reveal more about his character's complicated backstory.

"Every day I come in, or every new script I get, I learn something new about my character, which keeps it fresh," Barrowman said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 13. "And it means that when I play things, I play them differently, because I know different things about him now."

The character of Captain Jack was introduced in a two-part episode of Doctor Who and went on to appear in the final five episodes of the first season. Later, he become the leader of a secret organization at the center of the spinoff show, Torchwood. How he got from one place and time to the other is a mystery that will gradually unfold over the course of Torchwood's second season.

"You don't know the exact date when Jack returned yet," Barrowman said. "We do know he was left on Satellite Five [at the end of season one of Doctor Who]. He was brought back to life. He then came back to Earth and arrived back in another time and had to live through it to get to the point where the Doctor came back. In [season] two of Torchwood, there's some of that revealed."

In his performance, Barrowman is also now bearing in mind an intriguing new piece of information about the character, which was slipped into the end of the recent third season of Doctor Who (currently airing on SCI FI Channel). He couldn't talk about the twist in specifics, but he did say that it came as a shock, not only to him, but also to co-star David Tennant, who plays the Doctor.

"It's always something that takes you by surprise, otherwise it wouldn't be fiction," Barrowman said. "And I love that. And that script, when it came out, David read it. We were filming at the time, and he came running to my trailer and he went, 'F--k me. Have you read this?' And I went, 'No.' And he went, 'Oh, my God. Hurry up.' I went, 'Shut up and get out of my trailer. I'm not reading it yet.' ... So then I read it, and on a lunch break I ran to his trailer and knocked on the door, and he went, 'Well?' And I went, 'F--k me!' But it's absolutely brilliant."

Season two of Torchwood will also further develop the character of Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman, who will be making a guest appearance in three episodes.

"It's a perfect progression for her character," Barrowman said. "Because she develops such a strong character by the end of [season] three. So if Jack needs help, who else is he going to call? Jack trusted her to save the world. So did the Doctor. So who are you going to call? Martha Jones."

The third season of Doctor Who is currently running on SCI FI Channel Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Torchwood's first season will begin airing on BBC America on Sept. 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy White Grey's Washington Guests On Bionic

Controversial former Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington will guest-star in an arc of five episodes on NBC's new SF drama series Bionic Woman, NBC announced on July 16 at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Washington will play a mysterious person who is brought into the scientific organization responsible for creating the bionics that give Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan) her superhuman abilities.

Ben Silverman, co-chairman, NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio, said in a press conference that the network had been in talks with Washington about coming on to the show before his departure from ABC's hit medical show Grey's Anatomy.

"I started talking to him before he was available," Silverman told reporters. "When he told me he was available, I was like, 'You are? Wait. I don't understand. What do you mean? You're a huge star on a star television show.' I didn't quite understand what had gone on there."

ABC chose not to renew Washington's contract on Grey's Anatomy following reports of behind-the-scenes clashes with his co-stars and controversial comments he made in the press concerning his alleged use of a homophobic slur on the set.

But Silverman said he isn't worried about alienating a segment of the audience by hiring Washington on the new series.

"The bottom line is, he's a wonderful actor," Silverman said. "And we think inside Bionic Woman, the character that's been created for him is really strong and one that he'll do a great job at. And that's what, I think, people will respond to. And we're excited to see come to fruition his portrayal of that character." Bionic Woman premieres Sept. 26 and will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Cindy WhiteBionic Woman Is Post-Feminist

David Eick, executive producer of NBC's new series Bionic Woman, told journalists that the feminist metaphor of the original 1970s series has been updated because it no longer applies to modern society.

"It's not about cashing in on the history of the title," Eick said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "I think what's interesting about the old show is that that came about at a time when there was a great deal of discussion in the popular culture about equal rights for women. And the [Equal Rights Amendment] movement was very much alive, equal pay for equal work, women's lib. ... And the statement was very simple: See, women can do what men do. And I don't think we're talking about that anymore. ... There are a lot of different discussions being had now. It's not so much 'Can a woman do what a man can do?' It's 'If the answer's yes, what does that mean? How do we feel about it?'"

In the new series, Michelle Ryan takes on Lindsay Wagner's original role as Jaime Sommers, a woman who undergoes surgery after a serious car accident and has several of her body parts replaced with bionic ones, which give her superhuman abilities. Unlike the previous incarnation, however, Ryan's version will have some difficulty adjusting to the upgrade. (Eick is also executive producer of SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica.)

"In this show, our character, our heroine, is faced with a choice about whether to embrace the thing that she's become that makes her super, that makes her other than human—makes her unique—or embrace the things that make her a human being, that make her a family girl, that make her a big sister," Eick said. "And it seemed like those allegories were very prevalent and very rich and resonant right now, like those allegories were in the old show. And so that's really the reason for the attempted remake and the title. It just felt timely."

Visually, the show will have a grittier, more realistic tone as well. Jaime will use her abilities in real time rather than slow motion, and they won't be accompanied by sound effects, a la the original series' well-known "nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh" effect.

"The aesthetic approach to the show is just a modern one," Eick said. "It's taking the tools that we now have as filmmakers and as storytellers—whether it's CG or advance compositing or motion capture. There are a lot of tools that you can use now to create the illusion of a super human being that, in those days, you didn't have. I suppose if the tone of the show was campy or retro or somehow satirical, it would make sense to do that. But it's really not. It's a drama first. We're really playing it pretty straight. And her unique abilities are intended to accentuate who she is and what she's going through emotionally, not just to give viewers eye candy." Bionic Woman premieres Sept. 26 and will air Wednesdays at 9 a.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteRyan Preps Hard For Bionic

Michelle Ryan, who stars as the title character in NBC's upcoming action-drama series Bionic Woman, told SCI FI Wire that she's been working hard to prepare herself for the iconic role. "It's a real privilege," Ryan said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "It really is. To be a young actress from England and to be given this opportunity, I just feel so lucky. And I'm doing so much preparation for it, like working with a dialect coach, an acting coach, trekking up mountains in Vancouver and doing krav maga work and working with a personal trailer. And I want to just throw myself into the script and give it my all."

Ryan plays Jaime Sommers, a young woman who is badly injured in a car accident and is taken to a top-secret government facility, where her body parts are replaced with bionics, giving her superhuman abilities.

So far, Ryan has only filmed the pilot episode of the series, but she's already had some tough scenes, including a climactic fight with co-star Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), who plays Sarah Corvis, a rogue bionic woman and a rival to Ryan's Sommers.

"I loved working with Katee," Ryan said. "She has so much energy, and she's just so brilliant. And when she's fighting, she's so strong. I'd fight with the stuntwoman, and then Katee would come 'round, and it would be like, 'Wow, she can really fight.' And it was great, because when you're sort of fighting, you don't make too much contact. You don't want to hurt anybody. And part of the fighting was that I had to hit her in the stomach, and [I said], 'I can't. I don't want to hurt you.' And she was like, 'Just hit me!' And I did, and it was interesting how she was bringing that out [of] me, as Sarah brings the fighter out of Jaime. So I think it's going to be an interesting partnership."

Ryan said that the writers haven't given her much information about where the story will go, but that some of her own ideas have already made it into the show. "They haven't given too much away, but we did go out the other evening, and I was telling them about this dream I had where this giant swan was attacking me," she said. "And I told the writers, and they were like, 'Oh, that's interesting. I wonder what that means.' And they've sort of come to the idea that it was about transformation. And this was when I was doing all my fighting, so I think that whenever you go out with the writers you have to be prepared that whatever you say will end up incorporated into the script. But I think they have some interesting ideas for where Jaime's going to go, and I think, ultimately, it's going to be about a strong, young woman and her journey of self-discovery and empowerment. And I felt like I identify with that, because I'm 23, and I'm learning about so many new things." Bionic Woman premieres Sept. 26 and will air Wednesdays at 9 a.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteHeroes' Oka Offers Spoilers

Masi Oka, who plays time-traveling hero Hiro Nakamura on NBC's Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that his character will remain in Japan for a while and will have a parallel story separate from the rest of the show when the second season kicks off in the fall.

"Season two is going to begin with two parallel timelines going on," Oka said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "One starting four months after the explosion and another—mainly Hiro's storyline—starting 400 years in the past. And we'll see how they kind of affect each other."

At the end of Heroes' first season, Oka's character found himself transported back in time to 16th-century Japan. According to Oka, Hiro will spend at least eight episodes there before returning to the present. There he will encounter some of the characters from the stories of his childhood, including the legendary samurai Takezo Kensei, who will be played by David Anders (Sark from ABC's Alias). The show is currently finishing the third episode of the upcoming season.

"There's a princess," Oka said. "Princess Iako, played by [Japanese pop star] Eriko Tamura, who's going to be in that world, as well as David Anders, who plays Takezo Kensei. That was Hiro's childhood hero that he's always heard about in these stories. But David Anders, last time we checked, he was Caucasian. So there's a mystery there."

Heroes returns for its second season on Sept. 24 and will air in its regular timeslot, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteHeroes' HRG Stays Dark

Jack Coleman, who plays Noah Bennet—also known as HRG (Horn-Rimmed Glasses)— in NBC's Emmy-nominated series Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that his character will still have a dark edge to him at the beginning of the second season.

"It makes it very clear, in the very first episode of this year, he's not defanged," Coleman said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "He's still a dangerous guy. I think it's clear that he would move heaven and earth for Claire, but you don't want to cross him. He is a dangerous guy. ... He's a big-picture guy. He's a guy with a plan, and certain things may have to be jettisoned in order to make that plan work."

Coleman revealed that in the second-season premiere, which picks up several months after the events of the season finale, his character has been reunited with his adopted daughter, Claire (Hayden Panettiere), and his wife (Ashley Crow) and son (Randall Bentley).

"The Bennet family has relocated," he said. "I can't tell you exactly where. And it's a new world. The secrets they keep from each other are new secrets. The old secrets have all been divulged. We're not retreading the old ground. But there's old ghosts. Old habits are about to rear their ugly head in a very dramatic way. .. The Bennets are together to start, but in a very difficult, awkward circumstance that they all have to try to deal with. And it gets pretty sticky pretty quickly."

Coleman also said that his character will continue to be one of the few on the show without any superpowers. "I love that I don't have any superpowers, for two reasons," he said. "First of all, less prosthetics and less time in a harness. At my age, there's only so much time in a harness you want to spend. But the other thing, I really like having a character that has to survive by his wits. I mean, every time you see Sylar and HRG face each other, I mean, Sylar flicks him around like he's a bug. So he's not a guy who's going to be able to handle the dangers of the world that he's in physically. He has to do it through his guile and carrying a really big gun."

Heroes returns for its second season on Sept. 24 and will air in its regular timeslot, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteHeroes Gets Eight Emmy Nods

NBC's hit superhero series Heroes took away eight nods and ABC's Lost nabbed six of the nominations for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, which were announced July 19 at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, Calif. SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica received four nominations.

Heroes got a nomination for outstanding drama series and outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for star Masi Oka, who plays Hiro Nakamura. The show, which starts its second season in the fall, also got a nod for outstanding directing for a drama series (David Semel for the episode "Genesis"), as well as other technical nominations.

Lost received two nods for outstanding supporting actor, for Terry O'Quinn, who plays John Locke, and for Michael Emerson, who plays Ben. The SF series' other nominations included one for outstanding writing for a drama series (Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof for the third-season finale, "Through the Looking Glass") and for outstanding directing for a drama series (Jack Bender for "Through the Looking Glass"), as well as technical nods.

Battlestar Galactica's nominations included outstanding writing for a drama series for executive producer Ronald D. Moore for the episodes "Occupation/Precipice" and for outstanding directing for a drama series (Felix Alcala for "Exodus, Part 2"), as well as technical nominations.

Both Heroes and Battlestar got nods for outstanding visual effects, as did the pilot of SCI FI Channel's original series Eureka.

Among other SF&F TV shows, Patricia Arquette of NBC's Medium was nominated for outstanding actress in a drama series. She won the award in 2005. William H. Macy got a nod for outstanding actor in a limited series for "Umney's Last Case," an episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King.

All told, TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King nabbed five nominations, and the History Channel's Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed got three. The 59th Primetime Emmys will air on Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.Heroes' Larter Channels Nikita?

Ali Larter, who plays the dual-personality Jessica/Niki on NBC's hit Heroes, told SCI FI Wire to expect her character to channel another popular kick-ass female hero in the coming second season. "I've heard a little bit," Larter said about the upcoming arc for her character. "A little La Femme Nikita. ... I'm happy about most things they give me on the show."

Larter referred to the hit 1990s spy series starring Peta Wilson and the Luc Besson movie on which it was based, centering on a woman who is trained and deployed as a top-secret government assassin against her will. Larter spoke in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17.

Larter added: "We are shooting the third [episode] right now, and they're amazing. They're introducing new characters. ... You know, the writers on our show are so creative, and they're just ... unleashed. ... So it's great. People are going to be really into it."

At the end of the first season, Larter's character changed as her two sides—the empathetic Niki and the superstrong alter ego, Jessica—melded into a single person. "I really am enjoying [playing one character]," Larter said. "We went down a lot of different roads last year, and it was really creative for me, that I got to do those scenes where I was in jail, and some of the stuff with my son and playing Jessica, some of the stunt stuff. I mean, I feel like I actually jumped genres at times within the season last year."

Heroes returns for its second season on Sept. 24 and will air in its regular timeslot, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Patrick Lee, News EditorChuck Will Mine Pop Culture

Josh Schwartz, executive producer of NBC's upcoming series Chuck, told SCI FI Wire that, like his previous series, The O.C., the show will be infused with pop-culture references and will incorporate influences from some of his favorite films.

"I think you'll see cinematic references in terms of set pieces, and it'll be for the avid pop-culture aficionado out there to kind of find those influences," Schwartz said in an interview following a press conference at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "[This is an] opportunity to do a show where we can kind of be inspired by, 'Oh, remember in The Bourne Identity there was that cool car crash? How do we bring in the Nerd Herd-mobile?' and kind of be inspired by that and implement that into the show. So for us, it's like pop-culture-aficionado manna from heaven. Just a geek-fest."

Chuck stars Zachary Levi as an ordinary guy who works for the "Nerd Herd," a team of tech-support clerks at a big-box retail store inspired by Best Buy's Geek Squad. He becomes involved in the world of international espionage when a former college buddy e-mails him a computer program that downloads the entire national intelligence database directly into his brain.

If the concept sounds familiar, it's because it bears some resemblance to the short-lived series Jake 2.0, which launched on UPN in 2003. It starred Christopher Gorham as a computer-support technician who becomes infected with nanobots that give him superhuman abilities.

Schwartz said he was aware of the show, but didn't watch it until after the concept for Chuck was fully developed.

"I remember when it launched, because it launched the same time as The O.C.," he said. "And I never saw it, and then I saw the comparisons, and it was like, 'Oh, check it out.' ... That show may have been ahead of its time. And Silvio Horta, who created that show, has gone on to great success with Ugly Betty and is a really talented guy."

During the press conference, Schwartz made reference to films such as The Matrix, Spider-Man, Johnny Mnemonic and The Manchurian Candidate, but in the interview he said that it was important that the fantastic elements of the story be grounded in a realistic world.

"It's like a high-concept idea done in a low-concept way," Schwartz said. "And I think it's really through the prism of this guy and his quarter-life crisis and trying not to get fired from his job, and being in love with this new, beautiful woman that's landed in his life. So it's very character-driven. And there are missions of the week, but it's always going to come from a place of character, and how does this story move Chuck forward as a character? ... That's the line that we have to walk. And the good news is, he's got basically Sydney Bristow on one shoulder and Jack Bauer on the other, which takes you into some territory where as long as Chuck is still being Chuck, and he's protected by these two, it can allow for some more outrageous types of moments." Chuck premieres Sept. 24 and will air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteChuck Makes A Dork A Hero

Zachary Levi, star of the upcoming NBC series Chuck, told SCI FI Wire that the show celebrates nerd culture and will appeal to those who may be "cool-challenged," a label he willingly applies to himself.

"Dork is definitely the new cool," Levi said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "When I was in high school, I was, like, tucked away in a theater somewhere doing theater all the time. I wasn't like a jock. So I am Chuck in many, many ways."

In Chuck, Levi plays an ordinary tech-support clerk at a big-box retail store who becomes involved in the world of international espionage when a former college buddy e-mails him a computer program that downloads the entire national intelligence database directly into his brain. When the destination of the e-mail is discovered, the NSA and CIA each send an operative to protect the secrets Chuck possesses at all costs. Meanwhile, he must maintain the illusion of a normal life with his sister (Sarah Lancaster) and best friend (Joshua Gomez).

"I feel that the typical audience or the general audience that watches television can relate more to a Chuck than they can to a superhero, somebody that's really cool and really debonair and has all those powers," Levi said. "Chuck is just a schmuck. Chuck's a schmuck that can't get a date. I mean, that's really what it is. He's a great guy who really means well, and he cares about people, and he wants to fix people's computers to the best of his ability. But at the end of the day, he'll pee his pants if a gun gets pulled on him."

The character finds himself caught between two worlds, Levi added. "One is my home, regular life, and one is the espionage, spy life," he said. "And it's Josh and Sarah on the family life [side]. ... And then that balances perfectly with the contrast of Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strzechowski, who are two amazingly talented and good-looking NSA and CIA operatives that are constantly pulling me away from the comfort of my home life into this crazy world that I know nothing about, and I'm a fish out of water. So you get a lot of comedy in both."

There are also hints in the pilot of a budding romance between Chuck and his CIA minder, Sarah, who finds his dorky, unassuming nature charming. "What's interesting about Chuck and Sarah is that we're really almost kind of the same person," Levi said. "We're very different in the sense that obviously she's a spy and can kick anyone's butt and can wield guns and drive cars and all [that] stuff, like, super cool. And I'm the polar opposite of that. But when it comes to normal life and fitting in a normal life, she's a CIA operative. She doesn't know what that's about. She's been on missions since she was 21. So I teach her a lot, and in the process there's this really interesting dynamic. And I think that'll play out, and that's how our love connection may start." Chuck premieres Sept. 24 and will air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteHood To Helm Wolverine

Twentieth Century Fox has set Gavin Hood to direct Hugh Jackman in Wolverine, the X-Men spinoff film that was scripted by David Benioff, Variety reported.

The movie, which begins production in November for a 2008 release, will be produced by Lauren Shuler-Donner, Jackman and his Seed Productions partner John Palermo.

Hood is the South African director whose 2005 film Tsotsi won the foreign-film Oscar. He was among several hot young directors vying for Wolverine, and sources told the trade paper that Fox was swayed after viewing his latest film, Rendition, the politically charged New Line drama starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep and Peter Sarsgaard. It opens Oct. 19 and premieres at Toronto.

Using several resources, which include the Marvel Comics lore, along with the more recent Weapon X graphic novels by Frank Miller, Wolverine mixes action with an origin story about how Logan emerged from a barbaric experiment as an indestructible mutant with retractable razor-sharp claws.B5: Lost Tales Boasts Updated F/X

J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the upcoming DVD movie Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, told SCI FI Wire that he has benefited from advances in visual-effects technology since 1998, the year that saw the end of the Babylon 5 TV show on which the movie is based.

In The Lost Tales, Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner), president of the Interstellar Alliance, heads to an all-important meeting aboard Babylon 5, led by Cmdr. Lochley (Tracy Scoggins).

In the new film, computer animators rendered the visual effects at a higher resolution than was possible even for the final effects on the TV series, Straczynski said in an interview. "One of the effects we could never do with B5 was get too close to either the ships or to B5, because a polygon simply couldn't handle the load," he said. "But on this DVD, we really had some pane-scrapers [shots that got close to ships]. We get right in there. And the degree of resolution of detail is terrific."

When Babylon 5 finished production in 1998, all of the show's assets—wardrobe, props, computer-generated models, texture mattes, etc.—were turned over to Warner Brothers, and the disks containing the computer-graphic information were lost. That forced the new F/X team to start from scratch. And they turned to fans for help.

"The guys in the effects department said, 'My God, how can we get this thing done in time when we have to build everything from the scratch?'" Straczynski said. "I pointed out that a lot of fans out there over the years built their own models of our ships and the station and everything else. So they went out to all these different sites to find high-resolution models and wireframes and texture mattes and so on that they could then take and start building from. So it kind of closed the loop in the sense that Babylon 5 created these images and gave them to the fans, and now the fans have given them back to us. It's a nice bit of symmetry." Babylon 5: The Lost Tales arrives in stores on July 31. —Ian SpellingFlash Honors Old, New

Peter Hume, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's upcoming original series Flash Gordon, told SCI FI Wire that the series will hearken back to Alex Raymond's original comic strip, while updating the material for a contemporary audience. The show is currently completing the eighth of 22 episodes in Vancouver, Canada; the show premieres Aug. 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

"I went back, and I read all the source material, which is pretty great," Hume said in an interview at the SCI FI Channel summer press preview in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 15. "But it ... was done in '34, so ... there were conceits there that you couldn't get away with today. So it was a bit of a challenge."

Hume wanted to incorporate Raymond's key characters and races of aliens in the new version of Flash, which stars Eric Johnson as Flash and Gina Holden as Dale Arden. "You had to keep the spirit of the thing, but then update it," Hume said in an interview. "But I still want to do, like, Lion Men. I want to do Hawkmen. But how do you do Hawkmen and not make it ... stupid [and] silly?"

The solution was to make the planet Mongo more of a real, dystopian world, Hume said: "It's more of a Mad Max world that's broken down into tribes. It's sort of oppressed. It's an ecologically damaged planet, and Ming [John Ralston] controls the only source of good water and sort of sells it. And his city ... is almost like a modern-day Dubai. And outside of the city, there's a lot of, like, small tribes. And a lot of those tribes are inspired by the original Alex Raymond tribes. So you'll get to meet those characters."

As for the Hawkmen, who were depicted as winged humans in the comic strip and subsequent film incarnations of the franchise? "We have Hawkmen, but they're guys that ... follow the way of the hawk ... and are all about birds, and they do kind of fly, but they're not guys with wings sprouting out of their backs. ... The [Prince] Vultan character is a much more grounded leader of his people."

All the main characters are there: In addition to Flash and Dale, there's Dr. Hans Zarkov (Jody Racicot) and Ming and his daughter, Aura (Ann van Hooft).

"You do get to do the Flash Gordon core characters, but in a way that is not going to be campy," Hume said. "[It's] going to be grounded [in reality], because I want all those characters to be real and have real human problems that you can relate to, and I think we've achieved that. I hope we have." —Patrick Lee, News EditorFlash's Ming Wants Understanding

John Ralston, who plays the villainous dictator Ming on SCI FI Channel's upcoming series Flash Gordon, told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't necessarily see his character as completely evil. "You have to like your character," Ralston said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. on July 15." You can't have that other eye going, 'Oh, my God, what an evil person you are.' He just occupies this world, and that's the world that he knows, and those motivations are, for him, really rooted in a kind of logic that makes absolute sense."

This new version of Flash Gordon is an update of the 1934 comic strip, which has spawned movie serials and TV shows. The title character, played by Eric Johnson, finds a device that enables him to open a rift to the alien world of Mongo, where the rarest and most valuable commodity is clean water. Canadian actor Ralston (Showtime's Jeremiah) explained that Ming originally came to power on Mongo by leading his people through the drought and has gained control of the planet's primary clean water source.

"At one point, I thought that Mongo is like Earth that took this drastic left turn," he said. "It's like this parallel universe, and they just took this turn. There's references to the Great Sorrow that some of the tribes refer to. So obviously there's some sort of cataclysmic event that happened, and Ming rises to power through that. And has done a job of actually keeping these people alive and having water for crops and water to sustain themselves. So in that respect, he is truly the benevolent father. I mean, there's no getting around that."

The one thing that Ming cannot control, Ralston said, is his spoiled and willful daughter, Aura (Ann van Hooft). "I think the daughter's the one person that knocks him off every now and then," he said. "Which probably makes him more furious. And he does get so furious with her. She's a sort of fiery kind of teenager that just wants to explore, wants to get out there. And is sort of questioning and is intrigued with Flash Gordon and Earth, which riles him to no end. And here's this man that obviously doesn't know how to have this relationship that we think he should have, but does things he thinks will be good for her. But this girl's had too much of a good thing. She's too spoiled. I need to sort of clamp down on her. It sort of grounds him." Flash Gordon premieres on SCI FI Channel Aug. 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy WhiteSCI FI Development Slate Unveiled

SCI FI Channel announced a development slate of original programming at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 15, including exclusive "mini-sodes" tied to the upcoming Battlestar Galactica: Razor movie; an animated comedy from Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels, Seth Meyers and Michael Shoemaker; a miniseries to be executive-produced by Thomas Jane (The Punisher) and comic-book author Steve Niles (30 Days of Night); and a miniseries executive-produced by Farscape veterans Ben Browder and Andrew Prowse.

In advance of the two-hour movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor on Nov. 24, SCI FI will air an eight-week series of exclusive mini-sodes, between two and three minutes in length, beginning in October. The promotional shorts will provide a backdrop to events that will take place in the rest of the fourth season of Battlestar. Written by Michael Taylor and directed by Wayne Rose and Felix Alcala, the shorts will take place during the original Cylon War and center on a young William Adama (played by Nico Cortez), who discovers a dangerous Cylon weapon that will come to haunt him and his crew 40 years later. The mini-sodes will be available on SCIFI.COM after they debut on the network.

The new animated workplace comedy The Awesomes focuses on America's aging first superhero team as they try to get back into the limelight. Formed in the 1940s, the team has gone through a revolving roster of the world's top heroes, gradually losing popularity as other, cooler superhero teams come into favor. Saturday Night Live's Meyers, Shoemaker and Michaels will executive-produce.

From Jane and comic-book author Niles (30 Days of Night) comes a new untitled miniseries about a space-shuttle pilot who becomes trapped on a newly discovered planet. After teaching the locals to use weapons and defend themselves, he becomes the leader of the planet and must eventually choose between his native society and his adopted one when a group of humans arrive to rescue him 10 years later.

The new miniseries Going Homer centers on the father of a 12-year-old boy named Homer, who can see Greek and Roman deities walking among us. Fleeing from a custody battle, the two travel from Los Angeles to Ithaca, N.Y., and encounter a variety of gods who help and hinder them along the way.

The network also announced a pair of new series from award-winning filmmaker Francis Stokes. God, Inc. is based on a series of viral videos directed by Stokes, which tackle social issues as handled by the bored, petty and overworked pencil-pushers in the offices of heaven. Stokes is also developing a new scripted one-hour time-travel drama for SCI FI.

In the area of alternative development, SCI FI also announced four series in development: Run for Money, a reality competition based on a Japanese game show; Brain Trust, in which a team of real-life geniuses develop clever solutions to everyday problems; What Can't It Do?, which explores the claims and warnings of well-known products; and UFO Hunters, a reality series about a team of UFO investigators, from the creators of Ghost Hunters.Carell's Smart Will Be Different

Steve Carell, who stars as Agent Maxwell Smart in the upcoming feature adaptation of the 1960s television series Get Smart, told SCI FI Wire that the film will show how Max became an agent for the secret government agency known as CONTROL.

"The version that we're doing is more of an origin story, in terms of where this character of Maxwell Smart came from, how he came to be a field operative," Carell said in an interview on the set in Los Angeles last May. "And so we just thought that would be an interesting way into the story, as opposed to just picking him up on his journey."

In the film, certain circumstances lead to a diminished number of agents in the organization and a promotion for Max, who is merely an analyst working behind a desk when he is first introduced.

"Essentially he's a tech nerd," Carell explained. "He listens to chatter, and he can assimilate information, and he's very good at that. And he gets great reconnaissance done from the office. But his goal and dream has always been to become an agent. But he's never stepped up. But some things transpire that enable him to step into that position. He finally gets his chance, at sort of an advanced age."

Carell said that his take on the character will be slightly different from that of Don Adams, the original Maxwell Smart. "I'll tell you what I don't want to do," he said. "I don't want to do an impression of Don Adams. I don't want to channel him, but I want to do the character justice. ... I don't want the Maxwell Smart character to be perceived as sort of a bumbling idiot. He's not an Inspector Clouseau. He's proficient, and he can take care of himself. And he sort of gets the job done counterintuitively, but he gets the job done."

One thing that fans of the old series will recognize is the shoe phone that Max uses to communicate with CONTROL. Although the technology may seem outdated today, Carell said that the writers have come up with a plausible explanation for its presence in the film.

"They had a very, I thought, clever way of incorporating the shoe phone into the movie, in terms of why would that technology be in a modern-day movie, because people want to see that," Carell said. "And I frankly wanted to use it. But they were able to incorporate it seamlessly in terms of [why] this guy would use one." Get Smart opens June 20, 2008. —Cindy WhiteGreenwalt: Moonlight's No Angel

David Greenwalt, executive producer of CBS' upcoming series Moonlight, told reporters that at first even he thought the premise of a vampire private detective sounded similar to his earlier series Angel, but that, in fact, the two shows are very different animals.

"My agent said in May, 'You've got to read this Moonlight. It's fantastic,'" Greenwalt said in a news conference at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 18. "And I read a couple of pages, and discovered it was a vampire detective, and I said, 'Not only am I not going to read this, I'm going to sue them. This is my show.' But he kept talking to me, and eventually I did read it, and I did fall in love with it."

Alex O'Loughlin stars in Moonlight as Mick St. John, a 90-year-old vampire who was turned by his wife (Shannyn Sossamon) on their wedding night. Greenwalt said that the series will establish its own rules, which vary from previous vampire mythology. For instance, a vampire cannot be killed by a wooden stake or hurt by holy water, but can die by fire or beheading. Mick sleeps in a freezer instead of a coffin, but he does drink blood and avoid sunlight.

According to Greenwalt, the biggest change is the modern tone and setting of the show. "It's a vampire [in] 2007," he said. "It's a new ball game. You know, it's certainly a genre show, but ... there are no other demons. There's no other monsters. You know, it's not that supernatural of a world. It's a sleek, modern world, Los Angeles. And literally, the vampire makeup is different, the mythology is different, and it's a world where they really live among us. And there's not that many of them. And the show has all my favorite things. It's got that deep heart and big love, and [it's] funny, which I am attracted to."

Another big difference is the influence of producer Joel Silver (The Matrix), who has been very involved in guiding the development of the show from the original presentation submitted to the network.

"We didn't have Joel Silver making sure that everything was done excellently and right [with Angel]," Greenwalt said. "And, you know, the other shows I did went into the past, and you'd find yourself in time immemorial and [dealing with] ancient curses and things. And there was a good deal of brooding. And this is more an ironic take on what it means to be immortal. ... It's sort of hinted that the only thing worse than being mortal might be to be immortal, particularly if an immortal loved a mortal. The whole look and feel of the show is different. There is a really neat, wry voice-over from Mick St. John, played wonderfully by Alex." Moonlight will debut on Sept. 28 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy WhiteCBS Cops To Jericho Mistakes

Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, admitted to reporters that the network may have contributed to Jericho's ratings decline by taking it off the air for a months-long hiatus in the middle of its first season. "In hindsight, maybe it wasn't good for the show," Tassler said in a news conference at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 18. "I think it may have had an impact, which is why we reconsidered and are putting the show on in midseason. We said, 'Look, maybe that did have an impact.'"

Jericho, about the survivors of a nuclear attack who struggle to survive in a small Kansas town, saw its ratings plumment after the hiatus, leading CBS at first to cancel the show. After a fan campaign of letters, e-mails and the shipment of tons of peanuts to the network, CBS announced it would bring the show back at midseason for a limited run of seven episodes.

Tassler said that she knew Jericho had struck a chord when she heard from strangers, including a clerk at a camera store and even her physician, who gave her a bag of peanuts during a checkup.

Tassler threw the show's future back at the fans. "We've really said to the fans, who have been incredibly loyal and incredibly devoted, 'You have got to be our "Jericho Rangers." You've got to recruit more viewers,'" she said. "And, so far, it looks like that's what we're going to do." Jericho returns midseason next year. Jericho Will Burn Through Story

Carol Barbee, executive producer of CBS' post-apocalyptic drama Jericho, told journalists that the writers had to condense a 22-episode arc down to seven episodes when the show was brought back from cancellation.

"The story we pitched to them for season two was going to take place in three different locations—Jericho, this new Cheyenne government, and coming from New York, which survived," Barbee said in a press conference at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 19. "When we got the short order, we said, 'OK. We'll focus on Jericho.' So we're telling that story, and, yes, we're still burning through more story than we would normally, because it would have been a 22-episode arc, and now it's seven, but I think that's going to be very satisfying to the fans, because it's going to go like that."

Although CBS canceled Jericho in May, the network reversed the decision after fans organized an e-mail campaign and sent tons of peanuts to executives in protest. Jericho will now return at the beginning of next year with seven new episodes.

"What you see now in one episode, ideally, would have taken two or three to develop, and that's just the nature of how we're going to have to work for a little bit," star Skeet Ulrich said in a separate interview. "So it's going to be interesting. But the script [for the first episode] still, in itself, stands on its own, and it's really compelling. And as the arcs were laid out to me, the seventh will blow away the 22nd in terms of cliffhangers."

Barbee said that the second-season premiere will pay off the cliffhangers set up at the end of the season-one finale, including the imminent clash between the town of Jericho and its neighbor, New Bern (spoilers ahead!).

"We [left] them with the new government from Cheyenne, Wyo., coming in to stop the battle between New Bern and Jericho," Barbee said. "And when we start season two, that Cheyenne government is here, and they're helping us rebuild. There are revenge killings going on between Jericho and New Bern. There's still problems there. They're sort of like warring tribes a little bit, but there's this occupying force that's trying to bring stability to the area. And then that becomes the new [question]. Are these guys good or are these guys bad?"

Any similarities between the storyline and real-life events in Iraq are entirely intentional, Barbee said. "What does it feel like to be the people who are having to be held apart and be sort of occupied?" she said. "This is their government, it's not this foreign occupation, but it's somebody coming in and saying, 'Hold on,' and, 'I'm going to tell you what to do for a little while until you can calm down and we can make this work.'" —Cindy WhiteRogen To Write, Star In Hornet?

The Los Angeles Times reported the rumor that Knocked Up star Seth Rogen is in final negotiations to write and star in a feature-film version of The Green Hornet for Columbia Pictures. The newspaper cited anonymous sources for its report.

The studio announced in March that it had optioned the rights to the superhero franchise, which follows the adventures of Brit Reid, wealthy publisher of The Daily Sentinel by day and masked crimefighter by night. Reid is accompanied by Kato, a chauffeur-bodyguard-personal assistant who transforms into a masked sidekick with a knack for martial arts.

Neal H. Moritz is developing the project with Rogen via the producer's Original Film company. Moritz has been chasing the rights for years, having been a big fan of the '60s television series. He declined to comment on Rogen's involvement to the newspaper.

Sony is said to be eyeing a 2009 release.

Rogen is just the newest player in a large and varied cast of characters who have tried to bring Green Hornet to the big screen. A Green Hornet film was previously announced at Universal, with Ron Underwood directing. Three years ago, Miramax entered a deal with Kevin Smith to adapt and direct a Green Hornet film.Sheep Looks At Racism

Australian SF/fantasy author Ben Peek told SCI FI Wire that his book Black Sheep is a dystopian novel set in an alternate reality in which the world has been segregated into three mass races: African, Asian and Caucasian.

"It's the racist utopia, or at least what I imagine is the racist utopia," Peek said in an interview. "I've never understood the urge to hate someone because of the color of their skin or their sexuality."

The book tells the story of a Japanese man, Isao, who moves to Sydney with his family, Peek said. "[When] Isao arrives in Sydney, he is accused of being multicultural—of essentially not being Australian—and is sentenced to the punishment of assimilation, where his memories and skin color are stripped away and he is left with white skin and a number for a name," he said.

Racism is a big problem in Australia, Peek said. "Every election, our current prime minister and his conservative party pull out the race card to get votes," he said. "There's a long history for that here—and, I suppose, in the whole world. A lot of people seem to hate people who think different and look different to them. So, in part, the book was my decision to start exploring that, to start poking around at racism and race politics."

Peek said he's always been interested in race, but writing the book got him interested in representation—and, especially, in the representation of the white figure, he said. "I'm a mean-looking white guy from the western suburbs of Sydney, and the thing that always got me about novels and TV and pretty much everything was how little whiteness was paid attention to," Peek said.

Oftentimes, if an author has a black person in a story, when that character walks into a room, the author tells you that they're black; on the other hand, when a white person walks into the same room, nine times out of 10, their whiteness isn't even mentioned, Peek said. "I became interested in exploring why there was no weight for whiteness and how you could signify it and how you could give it weight: how you could make people have an awareness of their racial weight in today's society," he said.

Peek enjoyed the challenge of writing a dystopian novel about racism that didn't spend 80,000 words saying "racism is stupid, racism is stupid, racism is stupid," he said. "[That] was certainly an attractive little concept, but novels aren't just about ripping in on stupidity—it's about exploring you concepts, challenging people, challenging yourself," Peek said. "The world is never black and white."

Peek's first book was his experimental autobiography, Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, which was published by Wheatland Press last year. His next project is a magic-realist mosaic novel set in present-day Sydney. —John Joseph AdamsMoonlight Retooled To Be Cooler

Joel Silver, executive producer of CBS' upcoming vampire detective series Moonlight, told SCI FI Wire that he helped retool the original presentation to make the show more contemporary and hip.

"It really was just a presentation," Silver said in an interview following a press conference at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 18. "It wasn't really a show yet. And we had to create the show, and now we have, and it's pretty, pretty strong. ... There was a script, but it was never approved as a pilot. They wanted a presentation. So it was a smaller project. And now that it's completed, and now that we've got a script, it's very different than what we started with."

Only the show's star, Alex O'Loughlin (The Invisible), and the original concept of a vampire private detective who falls in love with a mortal woman have remained from the original script. New characters and cast members have been added to the show, including Jason Dohring (The CW's Veronica Mars) as a 400-year-old vampire who has become rich by playing in the financial market; Sophia Myles (Underworld: Evolution) as an online journalist who takes an interest in O'Loughlin's Mick St. John; and Shannyn Sossamon as Mick's ex-wife, who turned him into a vampire on their wedding night.

"When we saw the show, we realized we wanted to make it younger and cooler and hipper," Silver said. "We put together a great cast. I mean, Shannyn was in [Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang], Jason, of course, was with me in Veronica, and Alex had a small part in Whiteout. I just think we're going to have a great time, and we're going to put great people in the show."

Silver has been very hands-on with the project so far, but he plans to step back once it's up and running. "I'm as [involved] as I can be," he said. "I mean, I'm busy. But I have a great group with me, and I have a great team. And I'm looking forward to staying on top of it and trying to do a great job. ... I'm a big genre fan. I love genre products. So it's a chance to do something special, do a genre thing on television." Moonlight will debut on Sept. 28 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy WhiteSilver: No Helmer For Logan Yet

Joel Silver, whose production company Silver Pictures is developing a remake of the 1976 science-fiction cult classic Logan's Run, told SCI FI Wire that no new director has come on board since Bryan Singer (Superman Returns) dropped out.

"Bryan's not going to be doing it," Silver said in an interview following a press conference about his current television project, the vampire series Moonlight, at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 19. "I'm working on it now and hopefully it will come about."

As for his other genre projects, Silver said that the film adaptation of Masters of the Universe also remains in the early stages of development. "Same thing. We're working on that now too," he said, adding: "I'm in the middle of six movies now, so I have my hands full."

Silver's live-action film adaptation of the Japanese anime series Speed Racer is currently shooting in Germany under the direction of the Wachowski brothers (the Matrix films), with Emile Hirsch (Lords of Dogtown) in the title role. According to Silver, the production so far looks "fantastic."

"It's a phenomenal thing," Silver said. "It's just incredible. ... My son is 5 years old, and I brought him to the set in Germany three weeks ago, and he was out of his mind, because he loves the show, and he gets to see Speed, Trixie, Mom and Pops and Sparky and Chim-Chim. I mean, it's just wild." —Cindy WhiteJourneyman Has Time To Clarify

Kevin Falls, executive producer of NBC's upcoming time-travel series Journeyman, told SCI FI Wire that the pilot episode will be reshot to clarify the time-jumping storyline.

"It's time travel, so there's always a challenge to tell coherent stories," Falls said in a press conference during the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "We're actually going to do a couple of reshoots that will clarify [the plot] so that people can track it. With the exception of my mom and dad, I thought most people could follow it. But ... certainly, clarity's a big priority for us, and I think we're going to clear some things up in the pilot."

Journeyman stars Kevin McKidd (HBO's Rome) as Dan Vasser, a newspaper reporter who finds himself inexplicably thrown back into different time periods within his own lifetime. He can't control when or where he goes, but he seems to have a mission to change the future by affecting the lives of strangers in the past.

Falls explained that the first episode in particular is dense because of the many plot points that had to be established, but the story will start to open up more as the series progresses.

"I think one of the things, in defense of this, is that there's so much to establish in this pilot and get going," Falls said. "It's been such a pleasure now having the script for episode one, which really lays down and clarifies the universe that we're living in going forward. And I felt that way on every show I've done. I mean, you juggle all these balls in the pilot so that you can cross that start mark when you go to series."

Still, McKidd said in an interview after the panel that even he gets confused sometimes when he reads the scripts: "I've got to go to Kevin all the time and go, 'Can you just explain it?' And then when he does, it makes perfect sense."

McKidd added that the complexity is also what makes it interesting for him as an actor. "You have to wear different hats," he said. "And be young Dan and traveling Dan and be Dan incognito. But that, again, is the challenge of this part. It's not a standard procedural show, where the plot goes in one direction, and that's it. So ... it gives me as an actor a lot more interest. You see sometimes actors switching off when they're in long-running TV shows. I don't think with this show that's going to happen." Journeyman premieres Sept. 24 and will air Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteJourneyman's McKidd Jumps Time

Kevin McKidd, who stars in NBC's time-travel drama Journeyman, told SCI FI Wire that his character will be caught up in a love triangle that spans two different time periods.

"It's kind of a mystery drama about this guy's love and his passion and where he's going with his life," McKidd said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 17. "And there's forks in the road. It's like that movie Sliding Doors, in a way. It's got elements of that about what choice do you make? What if you get a choice to go back and change things you had in your life?"

McKidd, best known for his role as Lucius Vorenus on the HBO series Rome, plays Dan Vasser, a newspaper reporter who finds himself inexplicably transported back into the past to change people's lives for the better. While in the past, he is reunited with his long-lost fiancée (Moon Bloodgood), who has since perished in a plane crash, and must reconcile his feelings for her with the love he has for his wife (Gretchen Egolf) and son (Charles Henry Wyson) in the present day.

"He's really on a fence between these two women, these two lives," McKidd explained. "And he has a kid, he has a responsibility to his kid, and he's a good guy. So what are you going to do? He's going to be true to his wife and his child, and he's not going to betray them. But he has feelings, and he's human."

Having played Vorenus for two seasons on Rome, McKidd said that he was grateful for the chance to lighten up in this role. "There's going to be more fun in this," he said. "That's another reason I was attracted to this role. They were keen to get me in some cop drama, stuff like that, again playing that badass kind of furrowed-brow kind of character, and I was like, 'I kind of want to try and break out of that box a little bit and try and expand the tonalities of what I can bring to the table.' You know what I mean? Because I love Vorenus. That character, I think, was so beautifully written. But there were times when it was just like, 'Gee, I wish this guy would lighten up a little. Just a little bit.'"

In the pilot, Dan is surprised by his first time-travel experience, but McKidd said that as the series goes on, he will get more used to the idea and even begin to have fun with it.

"There's going to be a lot of irreverence in the show in that ... this guy is traveling back to the '90s with his own knowledge of what happens in the future," he said. "There's a lot of fun aspects that he can get into. And also he needs mobile phones. He starts to build up a coping mechanism. He has to have cell phones and cell chargers for each time period that he's going to so he can communicate and stuff like that. And [he has to] get credit cards, get the currency. In the newsroom, he starts to have almost like a batcave, which is his place that he keeps all his stuff for different year periods. He has to always have kind of something with him. He has a kind of, not a utility belt, but a utility jacket." Journeyman premieres Sept. 24 and will air Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy WhiteFox Pulls Films From Comic-Con

Twentieth Century Fox pulled out of Comic-Con International on July 18, a week before the San Diego convention, and has canceled its star- and filmmaker-studded panels, saying clips from its slate of effects-heavy films just aren't ready, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The studio previously announced plans to promote its movies during a panel on July 27 in the main hall.

Fox movies pulled from the schedule are Jumper, directed by Doug Liman and starring Hayden Christensen; directors Colin and Greg Strause's update to the popular Aliens vs. Predator franchise; the Vin Diesel action film Babylon A.D.; and Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant, based on the wildly popular video game of the same name.

The last-minute cancellation is something of an upset as the major Hollywood film studios and their requisite genre divisions have increasingly made the annual trek to Comic-Con to launch and tease eagerly anticipated films and franchises, the newspaper reported.

The studio had also planned to tease Fox-Walden's The Dark Is Rising and City of Ember.

Comic-Con runs from July 25-29 in San Diego.Terminator 4 Spawns Lawsuit

The holders of the rights to Terminator 4 have sued MGM, claiming the studio is interfering with their right to negotiate for the distribution of the planned fourth installment of the highly successful series, Variety reported.

Halcyon Co. and its principals, Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson, acquired the rights in May, including sequel rights to Terminator 2 and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and a script by T3 writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris, with plans to launch a big-budget sequel.

According to the complaint filed in L.A. Superior Court on July 18, MGM claimed it had acquired an exclusive 30-day negotiation window for T4 in the 1990s Orion Pictures bankruptcy. T Asset, the plaintiff and Halcyon's subsidiary, did not concede MGM's rights but began negotiations in May over distribution. T Asset claims MGM's exclusive window is now over, despite MGM's claims in the media that it has the right to distribute T4. The suit seeks a declaration and injunctive relief.Potter VII Gets Sold, Leaked

Copies of the final Harry Potter book have already been shipped to customers by one U.S. online retailer, U.S. publisher Scholastic said on July 18, and purported copies of the novel have flooded the Internet, the Reuters news service reported.

Meanwhile, Potter author J.K. Rowling herself asked for fans on her official Web site to be patient and avoid spoilers. "As launch night looms, let's all, please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the Web and in the press on the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'd like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day."

Scholastic Corp. said it was taking legal action against book distributor Levy Home Entertainment and DeepDiscount.com for breaching an embargo preventing the seventh Harry Potter book from being sold in America before 12:01 a.m. on July 21. The publisher said Levy delivered the books to the online retailer.

People started receiving copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on July 17, but the number of copies shipped only made up "around one one-hundredth of one percent" of the 12 million copies due to go on sale, Scholastic told the news service.

Photographs have also been posted on the Internet of what is claimed to be each page of the book, but Scholastic would not comment on whether they were real. Links to the pictures quickly flooded Web sites around the world.Coyote Compiles Trickster Tales

Multiple-award-winning editor Ellen Datlow told SCI FI Wire that her latest anthology, The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, is the third in her "mythic fiction" series, which she co-edits with Terri Windling.

"The theme is the Trickster, a character familiar across the world in different guises who is a liar, a thief, a clown, a troublesome meddler and a force of chaos and destruction," Datlow said in an interview. "Yet he's also a creative force and cultural hero, so there are two sides to his nature."

The Trickster figure is an old love of Windling's; she first encountered him as a student of mythology back in college, she said. "I loved his tales, yet I have to admit that I didn't quite get him back then," Windling said. "Sometimes Trickster was good, sometimes he was bad, and I couldn't quite get a handle on him—until I finally understood that ambivalence and paradox were his meat and drink."

Some of the tricksters in the book are traditional ones—such as Anansi, the spider from Africa, the fox woman from Japan and the coyotes of Native American lore—while others are new tricksters imagined by the writers, such as a cat that plays tricks on those who "cat-napped" it and a wind that transforms the people in a town, Datlow said.

One of the stories is about what happens when cats and dogs can suddenly speak, Datlow said. "Instead of this event bringing pets and their masters closer, it drives a wedge between them," she said. "To comfort each other, the dogs tell stories, and in these stories they create a whole new history for themselves. On one level the story is a devastating indictment of humans, but on another it illuminates the very purpose of storytelling and is about the birth of myth."

Most of the tricksters of world myth are male, with only a few exceptions—such as female fox tricksters of Asia (who are generally evil creatures) and the occasional tale of a female coyote, Windling said. "We're pleased to say that in The Coyote Road, [however], we have a number of good female Trickster tales," she said. "Some of these female Tricksters are based on traditional mythic characters, and some are entirely new inventions, although still rooted in the classic Trickster archetype."

Datlow and Windling were initially concerned that the tricksters theme might not be wide enough, Windling said. "As it turned out, we needn't have fretted," she said. "When story submissions started coming in it was clear that each writer was finding his or her own individual way of creating Trickster narratives."

Datlow has several other editorial projects forthcoming: her guest-edited issue of Subterranean Magazine, her horror anthology, Inferno, and the 20th installment of The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror (co-edited with Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant). Windling, meanwhile, is working on a young adult novel and continues her work on the Journal of Mythic Arts, a quarterly webzine devoted to myth and folklore, which recently published a whole issue devoted to the Trickster figure. —John Joseph AdamsLeguizamo Cast In Happening

John Leguizamo has been cast in the 20th Century Fox thriller The Happening, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Variety reported.

The movie stars Mark Wahlberg as a man who takes his family on the run when a natural disaster threatens to end the world. Leguizamo plays his best friend.

Shooting starts next month in Philadelphia. Fox has scheduled a worldwide release date of June 13, 2008, a Friday.Cloverfield Sites Clarified

Ain't It Cool News has confirmed that the various "Ethan Haas" Web sites are unrelated to J.J. Abrams' upcoming top-secret monster movie, code-named Cloverfield.

Rather, they are connected with an upcoming game called Alpha Omega by Mindstorm Labs, the site reported.

Meanwhile, another mysterious Web site, ostensibly for a Japanese drink called Slusho, has appeared, with possible clues to the film, Advertising Age reported.

The "Slusho" name appears on a T-shirt in the Cloverfield trailer, which screened with prints of Transformers. Whether it's a fluke or germane is anyone's guess, the trade publication reported. E3 Scares Up Horror-Game Sequels

A variety of supernatural-themed horror video games scared up interest at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, including Clive Barker's Jericho, as well as sequels to spook-'n'-shoot faves Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Condemned.

Developer Codemasters showed a nearly finished build of Clive Barker's Jericho, from the mind of the horror auteur (Hellraiser). The developer demonstrated a level set during the time of the Crusades and previewed the special abilities possessed by members of the Jericho Squad. Players assume the identities of squad members, who battle many demonic enemies.

SEGA showed an in-depth demo of Condemned 2: Bloodshot, which included a walk-through of the first level of the single-player campaign and a glimpse at a multiplayer mode that Condemned 2 producer Constantine Hantzopoulos called "Hobo Fight Club." Like the first game, the sequel takes a horrific turn early in the game for returning protagonist Ethan Thomas, who must fight his way through tar-covered undead baddies and thugs with an assortment of weapons. These include a Forensics Kit, which Thomas uses to solve puzzles and find clues.

Microsoft premiered a new trailer for Resident Evil 5, which revealed that the game will revolve around "not-zombie" zombie villagers, similar to the deranged European villagers in RE 4.

Konami, meanwhile, unveiled a shocking trailer for Silent Hill 5, which will be the first title in the franchise designed for the next-gen systems PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In the fifth installment of the franchise, players take on the role of Alex Shepherd, a veteran returning from a tour of duty only to find that the one thing in life he cares about most, his brother Joshua, has gone missing.

Among other titles, Dementium: The Ward is a gory new property unveiled by Gamecock, which is coming to the Nintendo DS hand-held system. It's a survival/horror title for the small-screen system that has heretofore been known for kid-friendly Pokemon games. —Casey LynchWar To End All Wars

SF author Kathleen Ann Goonan told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, In War Times, is about World War II soldier Sam Dance, who is given plans to a mysterious device that supposedly has the power to end war. "Sam, with his close friend 'Wink' Winkelmeyer, spend the war trying to build the device," Goonan said in an interview. "Stationed in England and then in Germany, their attempts meet setbacks, and they really don't know exactly what it will do, although they have many theories."

Sam is an exceptionally intelligent volunteer with bad eyesight who nevertheless is finally able to join the armed services via a recruiting station run by used-car dealers in Indiana, Goonan said. "He loves jazz and is able to equate its intellectual and spatial qualities, especially those of bebop, to the problem [of the device]," she said. "Sam's brother, Keenan, is killed at Pearl Harbor, and Sam vows to try and create [the] device, which [supposedly has] the power to end war."

The plans for the device were given to Sam by Dr. Eliani Hadntz, a scientist at the forefront of European physics, who was brought to the United States to work on the atomic bomb, Goonan said. "She has worked with all the luminaries of physics now in the U.S., including Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn, both of whom confirmed the physics making fission possible," she said. "She tells Sam that an atomic bomb is in production, and that her alternative is better."

Postwar, when Sam and Wink can only see one another at Army reunions, they realize that the device has worked, Goonan said. "But what it does, exactly, and how it affects the world, history and Sam's family, ... draws personal responsibility and morality in the larger scheme of things heartbreakingly together," she said.

In War Times is a very distanced family history, Goonan said. "Sam Dance is not my father, though his experiences are based on my father's," she said. "Bette is not my mother, but my mother did fly small planes for the Civil Air Patrol. I am not Jill, but I was caught up in the student protests of the late '60s and early '70s. We did not live in Washington D.C., but in the Virginia suburbs, but I often dream of living downtown, on streets with huge trees, in a vital, important city, while I worked and went to school there."

The book is built upon the stories Goonan's father told about his days in England, France and Germany, she said. "Like Sam, he was in ordnance, the 610th," Goonan said. "The 'device' came from one of those stories. ... I'd always wanted to gather my dad's war stories, and a few of them are in the book verbatim." —Cindy WhiteU.K. Chain Backs Down On Potter

British supermarket chain Asda apologized to the publisher of the Harry Potter books, which accused the chain earlier of "blatant profiteering" for charging 17.99 pounds ($36) for the last novel in the series, the Reuters news service reported.

Asda, the British unit of Wal-Mart Stores, also agreed to pay financial arrears to Bloomsbury, a spokeswoman for the chain told the news service.

In return, Bloomsbury will supply Asda with 500,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the eagerly awaited final chapter of the series, which many expect to become the fastest-selling book in history.

The publisher had threatened to cancel Asda's order for the book, which goes on sale July 21.Jekyll's Hyde Is Modern

James Nesbitt, who plays the dual role of the seemingly normal Dr. Tom Jackman and his vicious alter ego in the BBC America series Jekyll, told SCI FI Wire that his transformation into Hyde was inspired by series creator Steven Moffat's subtle, modern take on the classic story.

"One of his takes on it was that this modern Hyde was seductive and cool and, dare I say, sexy, which is why they had to do a bit of a difference," he said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 13. "The changes are subtle because, I think, we wanted people—not only characters, but our audience—to go, 'What is the change there? What's different? What is it?'"

The series is a contemporary story based loosely on Robert Louis Stevenson's novella "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Nesbitt plays both the mild-mannered Jackman and his cunning alter ego, whom he comes to call Hyde. Nesbitt wore a different wig for each character and donned black contact lenses and prosthetic appliances on his nose and chin when playing Hyde. Other than that, the differences between the characters came in his performance.

"You have to do very small things to make often quite a big difference," Nesbitt said. "If Jackman's mood was about depression and pain and loss, I think naturally your physicality will reflect that. Whereas Hyde was just this nascent, newborn animal: He doesn't give a damn about anything. So you actually were more erect, as I say. ... In a way, it was a better approach than having you go behind the sofa and come up with kind of a hair arm. It was much more to do with ... projection. Things like a slight angling of the chin, and there was a bit of work on the nose."

Nesbitt said that he doesn't necessarily see Hyde as a monster, as he's been depicted in other versions of the story. "It was about tapping into childhood, in a sense: that thing we all have as children, that ability and that desire and that natural instinct to sort of show off," he said. "We lose that. And it was a question of tapping back into that. And then, that was great. It was exhilarating and fun and by far the easier of the characters, ultimately."

Nesbitt added that he was somewhat reluctant to leave the character behind him when shooting was finished. "The depressing thing is not only to hand in the wigs at the end of the day, it was handing in your nose and chin," he said. Jekyll premieres on BBC America on Aug. 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy WhiteE3 Highlights SF Shooter Games

There was no shortage of new SF-themed shooter games on display at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles last week, including Halo 3, Killzone 2 and Timeshift.

Only 11 weeks before Halo 3's release, Microsoft showed off footage from the single-player campaign of the much-hyped game. In a behind-closed-doors demo, developer Bungie Studios showed off part of Sierra 117, the first level of the game, where Master Chief (the lead protagonist of the Halo series) and the Arbiter (a playable character introduced in Halo 2) worked their way through a slew of enemies in a lush jungle setting.

Meanwhile, Sony Computer Entertainment unveiled the highly anticipated sequel Killzone 2, about which little has been heard since it was announced at 2005's E3. Sony premiered a trailer of in-game footage that highlighted Sev, a grizzled Special Forces ISA veteran who must capture the Helghast leader, Emperor Visari, and stop the Helghast war campaign.

For its part, Sierra previewed Timeshift, a game originally slated for release last year that got sent back to the drawing board. Gone are the old story and the high-profile vocal performances by Dennis Quaid and Michael Ironside. The multiplayer mode and graphics have been completely overhauled. The game still revolves around a character who can slow, stop or rewind time with the use of a special suit.

EA showed off its PC alien shooter Crysis, which features photorealistic graphics that use state-of-the-art DirectX 10 technology. Valve demonstrated a playable level of its Half Life 2: Episode 2, which is also included in the Orange Box, a set comprising the original Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episodes 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

Irrational and 2K showed off BioShock, which won a number of awards last year at E3. The preview featured a peek at two levels of the moody shooter/role-playing game, which is set in the underwater city of Rapture.

Ubisoft had a playable level of Haze on hand, which was just announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. The game makes use of an element called Nectar, which boosts players' speed, targeting and vision. —Casey LynchHeaven Describes History's End

Sturgeon Award-winning SF/fantasy author Kage Baker, whose novel The Sons of Heaven concludes her Company series and is July's SCI FI Essential book, told SCI FI Wire that the book describes the final downfall of Dr. Zeus Inc., on July 9, 2355, when recorded history ends. "There are at least seven different factions who might win on that day," Baker said in an interview. "Most of them jockey for power, while others are less concerned with victory."

The idea for the Company series came to Baker while on an eight-hour bus trip, which afforded her the time to stare out the window and daydream, she said. "A story about time travelers began to evolve," Baker said. "The idea is that there [once] existed a Victorian-era cabal of scientists working toward a sort of benign world domination through technology. ... At the beginning of the 24th century, this group re-formed as Dr. Zeus Inc., when they made the twin breakthroughs of discovering the secrets of time travel and immortality."

This concluding volume has been 10 years in the making, Baker said. "Originally I had a fairly limited storyline, but as time went on, the characters took off in unexpected directions, and the plot thickened, as they say," she said. "It did seem to me that a fabulously wealthy Company able to create superintelligent immortals who could time-travel might find more than one group joining the final game of musical chairs for supreme power at the end of history."

The two principal protagonists are cyborgs: the Botanist Mendoza and her father-in-immortality, the Facilitator Joseph, Baker said. "[Mendoza] watched her mortal lover die in 1555 and never got over it, and blames Joseph; Joseph is the ultimate Company man, a slimy little manipulator until he discovers he has principles after all and is forced to go rogue," she said. "Both of them, using different methods, bring about the Company's downfall."

Since the series' action takes place all over the world and across recorded history, the research has been endless, Baker said. "I have talked a small-town librarian into letting me look in a shoebox in the library's broom closet, where a certain doctorate thesis draft from 1938 was being stored," she said. "I have pored over Sanborn Fire Insurance maps in the San Francisco Main Library's collection to get an idea what the city looked like before the great quake and fire of 1906. I have [also] had to learn the street layouts for Amsterdam, London, Brasov, Edinburgh, Port Royal and other cities."

Baker said that although the resolution reached in The Sons of Heaven is absolute and final, with the whole of history as a backdrop, she can't swear there won't be other individual stand-alone Company stories. Baker's next novel is The House of the Stag, which, though not a sequel, is set in the same world as her novel The Anvil of the World. —John Joseph AdamsLeto, Polley Star In SF Nobody

Jared Leto and Sarah Polley are set to star in Mr. Nobody, an SF romantic drama from writer-director Jaco Van Dormael, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Nobody is inspired by the "butterfly effect," the chaos-theory notion that the beat of a butterfly's wings can cause a storm thousands of miles away.

Set in the not-so-distant future, the story follows Nemo Nobody (Leto), who, at 120 years old, is the last mortal surrounded by happy immortals as he relives his real and imaginary years of marriage.

The film marks the English-language feature-directing debut for Belgian helmer Dormael, who has been trying to get Nobody to the screen for the past six years.

The production, due to start next week, has a budget in the $40 million-$50 million range and will shoot in Brussels, Montreal and Berlin.Ashes Flashes Back To '80s

Julie Gardner, executive producer of the upcoming BBC spinoff of the hit time-travel series Life on Mars, told SCI FI Wire that Ashes to Ashes will display the fashions of the 1980s in all their Day-Glo glory. "It's kind of Miami Vice in London," Gardner said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. "It's all those things you remember, all those terrible fashion faux pas from the '80s. So it's big puff-ball skirts and bright colors and lipstick and big hair. ... We're gong to do all of that. And, hopefully, the occasional speedboat on the Thames or something."

Ashes to Ashes stars Keeley Hawes (MI-5) as deputy inspector Alex Drake, a modern-day police officer who finds herself in a predicament similar to that of Sam Tyler (John Simm) in Life on Mars. But instead of traveling back to the year 1973, Alex arrives in 1981. There she'll encounter unreconstructed detective chief inspector Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) and the rest of his team of officers.

Gardner said that there are hints in the final episode of Life on Mars that will explain how Alex happens to encounter the same characters. "There is a clue there about how you can sustain a format," she said. "Because there are some back-references to Life on Mars, but essentially Ashes to Ashes stands alone. And what's great for us is the central continuation. It's Gene Hunt, the character, and he's brought some of his team with him."

Although the central premises of the two shows are similar, the writers have been careful to differentiate Ashes to Ashes from its predecessor.

"Matthew Graham and the team, they've just come up with a fantastic way of how that central character, played by Keeley, a character called Alex, gets back into this world," Gardner said. "Looking at a different period, a different decade, looking at the '80s, immediately gives them a lot of new story, and there are huge twists and turns for what happens to Alex. And I'm really not going to reveal them. There's going to be lots of layers. In the same way that Sam had his own journey, lots of kind of layered backstories. Lots of questions about the world and quite what is happening."

The actors will gather next week in London for the first time to read through the first script in the series, which was written by creator and executive producer Matthew Graham. Ashes to Ashes will air in the United Kingdom next year. —Cindy WhiteIndy 4 Moves To Hawaii

The fourth installment of Indiana Jones has moved production to the Big Island of Hawaii, where it is completing three weeks of shooting, the Associated Press reported.

Harrison Ford, 65, is back in the fedora and leather jacket, even doing many of his own stunts, producers told the AP.

"He's doing them, he just has a few more ice packs and a few more massages," co-executive producer Kathleen Kennedy said.

"And a lot of Celebrex," producer Frank Marshall added.

The movie earlier spent a week each in New Mexico and Connecticut. The lush areas surrounding Hilo are filling in as a South American rain forest.

Lucas and director Steven Spielberg have not released the title of the film, scheduled for release May 22, 2008.

The film's biggest action sequences are being filmed in Hawaii. Marshall compared one scene to the thrilling, white-knuckled truck chase in the desert in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Hawaii will be featured in about 20 percent of the film. About half will be from sets in Los Angeles. BRIEFLY NOTED

Fox 2000 and Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free company have acquired screen rights to the vampire trilogy by Jordan Ainsley, which begins with The Passage, Variety reported.

Dana Davis (The Nine) has joined NBC's Heroes as a regular, playing a new hot young hero, Variety reported.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, star of CBS' returning Ghost Whisperer, will reunite with one of her Party of Five writers, P.K. Simonds, who will take over as show runner of Ghost and will create a new mythology for the supernatural series, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler told reporters on July 18.

The New York Times published a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows two days before its official release, saying that it had purchased a copy legally; author J.K. Rowling, meanwhile, decried the early review, saying, "I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children," according to the Reuters news service.

The Chicago Fox news affiliate has posted video from the production of The Dark Knight, the Batman sequel currently filming in the Windy City.

Former 007 Pierce Brosnan has been tapped as the narrator of the popular children's TV and DVD series Thomas & Friends, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

CBS announced that its vampire detective series Moonlight will debut on Sept. 28 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, right after the third season of its returning hit Ghost Whisperer at 8 p.m.

Jason Smilovic, executive producer of NBC's Bionic Woman, responded to the hiring of controversial actor Isaiah Washington on July 17 by telling reporters: "We are not here to make judgments. ... Rather than excommunicate someone, we felt that it was better to give him a second chance."

DreamWorks Animation announced that it will release Monsters vs. Aliens on May 15, 2009, one week earlier than previously announced; the movie reinvents the classic '50s monster movie and will be produced with stereoscopic 3-D technology. The move takes the film out of competition with James Cameron's 3-D Avatar, which opens a week later.

Lucy Hale has joined the regular cast of NBC's upcoming SF drama Bionic Woman, playing the younger sister of Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan); Hale replaces Mae Whitman, who played the role in the pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

NBC has signed a series deal with illusionist Criss Angel and self-styled famed mentalist Uri Geller to develop Phenomenon (working title), a live competition series in which both men will conduct a search for the next great mentalist.

NBC announced that it will air its new SF comedy-drama Chuck Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by the second season of Heroes at 9 and the time-travel drama Journeyman at 10, creating an SF&F-themed lineup, starting Sept. 24.

Shoreline Entertainment has optioned the film rights to the adult independent comic book The Living Corpse, created by Ken Haeser and Buz Hasson, about a zombie who has vague memories of his past life, Variety reported.

X-Men star Rebecca Romijn, 34, and Sliders star Jerry O'Connell, 33, have married in a small ceremony at their home in Los Angeles on July 14, the Associated Press reported.