Indy Trailer Now Live

The new teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has gone live and is linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

The trailer also aired on ABC's Good Morning America and will be screened in theaters starting on Valentine's Day.

Meanwhile, Variety reported that USA Network has acquired the rights to the sequel and the three previous installments, which would give the cable network the first run of the first three Indy movies in May as a marathon promotional vehicle for the new film. (USA Network is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull--starring Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf and Cate Blanchett--opens May 22. Jackson Fought In The Spirit

Samuel L. Jackson, who co-stars in Frank Miller's upcoming big-screen version of Will Eisner's classic superhero comic The Spirit, said that he had very real fight scenes opposite star Gabriel Macht, even though they performed against green screens.

"Gabriel and I fight all the time," Jackson told reporters. "I fight with the Spirit. We had choreographed fights. We did them, and there's no imagination. The big green is just for what the setting is, what the city looks like, for the mudflats where we're at, and not for things that are coming at you."

Jackson plays the supervillain The Octopus opposite Macht's hero, Denny Colt/The Spirit. "And I had some pretty big guns," Jackson said with a laugh. "Nice big guns."

Miller is shooting The Spirit using some of the same techniques he and co-director Robert Rodriguez employed in Sin City: real actors against computer-generated environments.

"Acting in the big green room is like being a kid in your room by yourself, and you just imagine all this stuff jumping out at you, and you fight it until you get tired," Jackson said.

Jackson's biggest experience with such filming came in the Star Wars films, in which he played Jedi knight Mace Windu. "You turn your own music on," he said. "It's 'Dun-dun-duh, dun-dun-duh,' and you just go for it. The more stuff you can do, the more stuff they have to draw around you."

The Spirit also stars Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Jaime King and Paz Vega. It opens in early 2009. --Ian SpellingNBC Picks Up Chuck, Heroes

NBC has renewed its freshman SF spy drama Chuck and its hit series Heroes for the 2008-'09 season, the network announced on Feb. 13.

The two shows and NBC's Life will have major relaunch campaigns next year now that the writers' strike has ended.

Meanwhile, NBC will continue to air new episodes of Medium on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT as it gears up for new episodes of several sitcoms and dramas in April.Trek Moved To '09

Paramount on Feb. 13 pushed its highly anticipated Star Trek movie to May 8, 2009, from an original Christmas 2008 release, to take advantage of the summer box-office season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Star Trek is moving to summer because its has so much box-office potential," Paramount spokesman Michael Vollman told the trade paper. "It does not need any script tweaks. They're two-thirds of the way through shooting, and we would have delivered a great movie at Christmas."

Trek is one of several films the studio has shuffled to new dates now that the writers' strike has ended. Trek's shift is reportedly unrelated to script or cast considerations.

Replacing Trek on Paramount's holiday 2008 schedule is the Brad Pitt-Cate Blanchett fantasy film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which moves to Dec. 19 from Nov. 26.

Case 39, meanwhile, moves to April 10, 2009, from Aug. 22 of this year. And Nowhereland, an Eddie Murphy fantasy comedy previously set for Sept. 26, now will bow June 12, 2009.Lost To Move Again?

TV Guide reported that ABC's post-strike schedule may move Lost to another new timeslot: Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, right after Grey's Anatomy, beginning in late April.

The magazine added, based on anonymous sources, that ABC is strongly considering keeping the lineup intact in the fall and beyond.

Lost is currently airing the eight episodes that were completed before the writers' strike began last fall. Now that the strike is ended, five new episodes are expected to be produced. They will air in the spring.

Lost currently airs Thursdays at 9 p.m.Battlestar Back With A Bang

SCI FI Channel's Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original series Battlestar Galactica kicks off its fourth and final season on March 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back half-hour specials, with the first new episode premiering the following week, April 4, 10 p.m.

Beginning at 10 on March 28, Battlestar Galactica: Revisited will serve up the essential information on the series' past three seasons, providing the uninitiated with an introduction to the characters, relationships and backstory. Executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick serve as guides and hosts.

Battlestar Galactica: The Phenomenon follows at 10:30 and is a celebrity-studded celebration of the show's effect on pop culture. Interviewees include Seth Green, country music star Brad Paisley and Talk Soup's Joel McHale talking about why Battlestar Galactica is one of the best shows on television.

In the season-four premiere, the last remnants of humanity continue their search for a new home as the thin line that separates them from the rapidly evolving Cylons is redrawn.

Galactica's crew is rocked by Starbuck's (Katee Sackhoff) sudden and mysterious return from the dead, bringing claims that she has been to Earth and can lead them there. Meanwhile, four members of the fleet are still reeling from the revelation that they are Cylons.

Battlestar Galactica will air Fridays at 10 p.m.ABC Family Gets Spotnitz's Samurai

ABC Family has picked up Samurai Girl, a six-hour miniseries from executive producer Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), Variety reported.

The cable network will air Samurai Girl as a three-part programming event over the course of a weekend this August.

Samurai Girl is based on the young-adult novels about a Japanese teen who discovers that her adopted father is really the head of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. She winds up training as a samurai to combat her father's empire.

The project will start shooting this spring in Vancouver, Canada. Jamie Chung (Dragonball) stars as Heaven; the cast also includes Brendan Fehr, Saige Thompson, Kyle Labine, Anthony Brandon Wong, Steven Brand and Kenneth Choi.

Spotnitz, Bob Levy and Leslie Morgenstein executive-produced the pilot, which was penned by Luke McMullen. Pick SCI FI Wire's Best SF Films

The American Film Institute has come up with a list of 50 SF films that it deems among the best ever; it will pick 10 as the best SF movies of all time for a TV special that will air on CBS in June.

But readers of SCI FI Wire don't have to wait until then to come up with their own list of the best SF movies of all time.

Pick from the list below of your top 10 and send it to SCI FI Wire before March 1 with "Top 10" in the subject line. Editors will post SCI FI Wire's Readers' Choice list of the top 10 that week.

If your favorite movie isn't in the list below, feel free to add it to your choice and SCI FI Wire will run a separate list of the top 10 most underappreciated SF movies of all time.

The AFI defines "science fiction" as a genre that marries a scientific or technological premise with imaginative speculation. It has selected the following 50 movies as contenders for the best, in alphabetical order (in the case of movies that have been made more than once, we've designated by date which version the AFI has selected):

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Alien, Altered States, The Andromeda Strain, Back to the Future, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Blade Runner, Children of Men, A Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cocoon, Contact, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Destination Moon, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Escape From New York, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fantastic Voyage, The Fly (1986), Forbidden Planet, Frankenstein (1931), The Incredible Shrinking Man, Independence Day, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Invisible Man (1933), It Came From Outer Space, Jurassic Park, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Matrix, Men in Black, Minority Report, Planet of the Apes (1968), Repo Man, RoboCop, Rollerball (1975), Silent Running, Soylent Green, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Wars: Episode IV--A New Hope, Starman, The Stepford Wives (1975), Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Them!, The Thing From Another World, The Time Machine (1960), Total Recall, Tron, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The War of the Worlds (1953), Westworld. --Patrick Lee, News EditorClone Wars Debuts In Summer

The official Star Wars Web site announced that a feature-film version of the computer-animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars will debut in 2008, followed by a television series in the fall.

Lucasfilm Animation will produce the projects in a partnership with Warner Brothers Pictures and Turner Broadcasting System.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars will open in North American theaters on Aug. 15. International release dates will be announced soon.

"I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell," executive producer George Lucas said in a statement. "I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward."

The new television series premieres on Cartoon Network, followed by airings on TNT.

The Clone Wars TV series' half-hour episodes will have a new look and feel, combining the scope of the Star Wars saga with state-of-the-art computer-generated animation, the studio said.

The show will bring back the classic characters of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padme Amidala and introduce new characters, including Anakin's padawan learner, Ahsoka.

Lucasfilm Animation, working with its new studio in Singapore, has produced more than 30 episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and production continues.

The first in a planned series of special Web-only documentaries chronicling the development of Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuts on the official Web site.Tolkien Trust Sues New Line

The charitable trust of Lord of the Rings creator J.R.R. Tolkien sued New Line Cinema on Jan. 11 for allegedly cheating it out of at least $150 million from the blockbuster movie trilogy based on the late British author's fantasy sagas, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The London-based Tolkien Trust said in its complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, that under a 1969 contract with the studio that held the original rights to the work, the trust and other plaintiffs were entitled to 7.5 percent of gross receipts, "less certain expenses," from the films and related products. According to the suit, worldwide grosses from the trilogy have reached nearly $6 billion.

The studio declined to comment to the newspaper.

Peter Jackson, who directed the series, settled his own lawsuit against New Line in December, clearing the way for him to co-executive-produce films based on The Hobbit. The Tolkien trust seeks to terminate New Line's rights, which would bring The Hobbit to a halt.Warner Sued Over Watchmen

Twentieth Century Fox has sued Warner Brothers over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on the graphic novel Watchmen, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Fox claimed it holds the exclusive copyrights and contract rights to Watchmen.

Production on Warner's film based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' seminal graphic novel is well under way under director Zack Snyder. The cast includes Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino and Malin Akerman.

It is the studio's policy to not comment on pending litigation, the trade paper reported.

Fox seeks to enjoin Warners from going forward with the project. Fox claims that between 1986 and 1990, it acquired all movie rights to the 12-issue DC Comics series and screenplays by Charles McKeown and Sam Hamm. In 1991, Fox assigned some rights via a quitclaim to Largo International with the understanding that the studio held exclusive rights to distribute the first motion picture based on Watchmen, according to the lawsuit.

When Largo dismantled, the rights were transferred to producer Lawrence Gordon. Under a "turnaround agreement" between Fox and Gordon, the producer agreed to pay a buy-out price to Fox if he entered into any agreement with another studio or third party to develop or produce Watchmen, among other things.

The project apparently bounced around to Universal and Paramount before returning to Warner. Now Fox claims that neither Gordon nor Warner has paid the buy-out price or advised the studio of any other conditions required under the agreement, including procedures necessary to acquire the rights to Watchmen from Fox. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.Dead Was Fun But Hard

Geoge A. Romero told SCI FI Wire that his latest zombie film, Diary of the Dead, pokes fun at the mainstream media, comments on the Internet blogging phenomenon and also sends up horror movie cliches.

But it wasn't all fun and games. Diary of the Dead is shot from the point of view of a group of student filmmakers who set out to document the takeover of the earth by the walking dead. Its style is similar to that of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield in that it makes use of subjective first-person hand-held camera shooting.

"Oh, man, I just had a ball doing this," Romero said in an interview. "However, everyone says, 'Hey, it must be so free and easy to just turn the camera on and shoot,' and that's not the case. It required, in a way, a lot more discipline than anything I have ever done."

Romero cited as an example one eight-page shot that involved all of the central characters. "They walk into the heroine's house," the director said. "They walk through the living room, through the dining room into the garage, around the car, back around the car, back into the kitchen. ... The choreography was unbelievable. The stunt guys had to duck under the lens. This guy with the light had to duck under the lens when the camera went past him."

Setting up such scenes involved a lot of planning, Romero said. "That shot, it was the only shot we did that day," he said. "We spent six hours setting it up, lighting it, figuring out how to be able to shoot it, and then the rest of the day was just pulling it off and shooting it." Diary of the Dead opens Feb. 15. --Ian SpellingNo Heroes In Jumper At First

Jamie Bell, co-star of the upcoming SF-action film Jumper, told SCI FI Wire that the film puts a very different, reverse Spider-Man spin on the comic-book concept of ordinary humans gaining superhuman powers.

In the film, Bell (King Kong) and Hayden Christensen (Awake) play "Jumpers," humans with the ability to teleport anywhere, anytime.

"David [Christensen] realizes that he has this power, and he reacts differently than Peter Parker," Bell said in an interview. "Peter Parker gets bitten by a spider, and he immediately goes, 'I've got to save people.' David goes, 'I can teleport places. I've got to rob banks immediately. I have to have sex with a lot of women immediately. I have to get a big apartment in New York immediately.' That's a complete reversal of Peter Parker."

Jumper is based on Steven Gould's novel and its prequel, not on a comic book. But the film works a variation on Spider-Man's central theme: with great power comes great responsibility.

"David goes on a whole journey to get to that idea of, 'Oh, I have to be responsible for my actions,'" Bell said. "'Now I understand.' I think the idea of this movie is that with great power comes great consequence, rather than with great power comes great responsibility."

Jumper, which also stars Samuel L. Jackson and Rachel Bilson, opens nationwide on Feb. 14. --Ian SpellingJackson Talks Jumper

Samuel L. Jackson, who co-stars in the upcoming SF adventure film Jumper, told SCI FI Wire that director Doug Liman changed his character's backstory and motivation during production. (Spoilers ahead!)

Jackson plays Roland, a "Paladin" whose secret organization hunts down and kills "Jumpers," people with the ability to teleport. Roland is seen early on stabbing one Jumper to death, and his latest target is David (Hayden Christensen).

"I didn't want a lot" of motivation, Jackson said in an interview, saying that it changed anyway. "There were other explanations when we were shooting, or there were things that were shot or things that were in the script that were different from what is left, I guess. I don't know what's left because I haven't seen it in a while."

At one point in the original story, Jackson's character is seen talking to his son about the history of the Paladins. "I'm leaving home, and his birthday is coming up, and he wants to know if I'll be back for his birthday," Jackson explained. "I tell him, 'I have to go out and do this job. Your great-great-grandfather did it. Your grandmother did it. I'm doing it, and hopefully one day you'll do it. These people are very dangerous, and I have to go out and do this thing.' I guess that's not there [in the final cut]."

When informed that the scene didn't make the movie, Jackson laughed. He acknowledged that Liman added in a measure of motivation during "enhancement" shots. "All of a sudden Doug is saying, 'Oh, yeah, there's this thing. You're the only guy to have the power,'" Jackson said. "I thought, 'Oh, so now I'm a religious zealot?' 'Oh, yeah.' But that's Doug. One day you're in this place, and the next day you're in this other place, and you've kind of got to flow with it."

Jackson added that another scene was added to show the Paladin's true character. (Spoilers ahead!) "So it's not something I had to play with the whole time we were shooting," he said. "This was something I only had to play with in that one particular shot, when I got to kill that kid, because they kept saying, 'Well, we need to show Roland doing what Roland does.' Because people know he's a bad guy, but they don't know how bad he is, in terms of being a guy who hates Jumpers. So that shot was added later, me killing this kid hanging in this tree." Jumper opens on Feb. 14. --Ian SpellingJumper's Jackson Sees Franchise

Samuel L. Jackson told SCI FI Wire that he signed on to the upcoming SF adventure film Jumper because he saw it evolving into a franchise.

Jackson co-stars as Roland, a "Paladin" agent seeking to destroy all "Jumpers," humans who can teleport to any location of their choosing.

"That [possibility of a franchise] is always an enticement," Jackson said in an interview. "I [also] like the genre. I love science fiction."

It wouldn't be Jackson's first franchise: He appeared in the Star Wars prequel films with his Jumper co-star Hayden Christensen.

In Jumper, Roland's mission is to eliminate David Rice, a Jumper played by Christensen. "I think the concept [of Jumper] is great," Jackson said. "I'm sure most kids or most people sitting there [watching Jumper] wish they could do that very same thing."

Jumper is based on the books by Steven Gould. "We've all been stuck in an airport or had our flight delayed and wished we could just be there or been in a car driving, driving and going, 'Damn, I wish I could get there,'" Jackson said. "So it'd be great to be able to just beam down somewhere. It's a great thing to do, a great superpower to have. It's better than invisibility and all that other stuff." Jumper, which also stars Jamie Bell and Rachel Bilson, opens Feb. 14. --Ian SpellingToys Speed To Fair

The upcoming New York Toy Fair is expected to highlight toys based on the upcoming SF&F movies Speed Racer, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Incredible Hulk and others, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Other film properties expected to make a solid showing at Toy Fair, opening Feb. 17 in Manhattan, are Kung Fu Panda, Iron Man, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and WALL*E.

Excitement will also center on toys based on the just-announced new Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated movie and TV series and on toy lines based on the upcoming Star Trek movie.Biel, Cast Voicing Planet 51

Jessica Biel will join Dwayne Johnson, Justin Long and Seann William Scott as the lead voices in Planet 51, New Line Cinema's first 3-D animated feature film, Variety reported. The studio has set a July 24, 2009, release date for the film.

Johnson (Get Smart) will voice astronaut Chuck Baker. Thinking he's the first to set foot on the surface of Planet 51, he finds it is inhabited by green people who live in an innocent world right out of the 1950s, complete with the paranoia that they will be overrun by alien invaders.

Joe Stillman (Shrek and Shrek 2) penned the script, and the film is produced by Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios. Jorge Blanco (co-creator of the video-game series Commandos) is directing, and Javier Abad and Marcos Martinez will co-direct. The film will be completed by March 2009.Landis Helming Ghoulishly

John Landis will direct Ghoulishly Yours, William M. Gaines, a biographical movie based on the life of the publisher of EC Comics and Mad magazine, Variety reported.

Landis will develop the project with Joel Eisenberg, who's also penning the screenplay.

The film is centered on an anti-establishment group of artists and writers, led by a reluctant Gaines and cohort Al Feldstein, as they produce their comic books. At the peak of his success, Gaines became a First Amendment figurehead due to his unapologetic testimony before a Senate subcommittee investigating juvenile delinquency.George Enters The Triangle

Australian actress Melissa George (30 Days of Night) is in final negotiations to star in the supernatural thriller Triangle for director Christopher Smith (Severance), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.

George will play a woman with a mental disorder who relives the harrowing experience through each of her three personalities.

The movie is set to begin shooting in April in Australia. George also appears in the HBO series In Treatment. Romero Reveals Dream Projects

George A. Romero, who returns to his zombie roots with the upcoming horror film Diary of the Dead, told SCI FI Wire that another sequel in his popular franchise is a very real possibility. The legendary filmmaker revealed that he hopes to one day make a zombie comedy and also has two "dream" projects that he doubts will ever come to pass.

"I have this balls-out comedy zombie thing I have wanted to do for three years," Romero said in an interview. "It's basically the coyote and the roadrunner. It's one human and one zombie. You can do a lot of damage to a zombie and it still lives. So I just had this idea that I'd love to do that [as] almost a cartoon. That's the one that's closest to my heart, but I don't know if anyone's ever going to get it enough to say, 'OK, we'll finance that.'"

As for the dream projects, Romero's choices may surprise fans of the zombie auteur. "The movie I have always wanted to make for some obscure, unknown reason--probably because as a kid I grew up with [Johnny] Weissmuller--is Tarzan of the Apes," Romero said."I'd love to do two things, actually. I'd love to do Tarzan of the Apes the way [Edgar Rice] Burroughs wrote the original book, and I'd love to do [Bram] Stoker's Dracula."

Romero said that, to his way of thinking, the two classic genre books have never been faithfully adapted to the cinema, though they have been the source of many movies over the decades. "[Dracula has] never been accurate to the novel," Romero argued. "Those are the two things I'd love to do. I got close on Dracula. No one is ever even going to talk to me about Tarzan. They're really from my youth. They're childhood dreams. They're not going to happen, but I can dream." Diary of the Dead opens on Feb. 15. --Ian SpellingSignal Isn't A Rip-Off

Anessa Ramsey, star of the upcoming SF/horror film The Signal, told SCI FI Wire that there is no escaping comparisons to such other genre projects as the 2006 Stephen King novel Cell and the 2001 J-horror film Kairo, which inspired the 2006 American remake, Pulse.

A low-budget independent feature that created a buzz at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, The Signal unfolds on New Year's Eve in the city of Terminus, where a mysterious signal coming through cell phones, radios and televisions transforms much of the population into paranoid, crazed killers. Early reviews from critics and horror fans have described the film as everything from boldly original to a blatant rip-off.

"We were in post-production before Cell hit shelves," Ramsey said in an interview. "A friend of mine in New Jersey went out to the bookstore and bought Cell as soon as she started reading reviews that compared The Signal to Cell. She read it and told me how different it was."

Ramsey said that similar stories are to be expected given the times. "Given the technological age that we're in, how can you not have horror films based on your contraptions ruining you or your life or giving a skewed perspective of what's happening around you?" she said.

Ramsey added that there are far worse things to be compared to than Pulse or Cell. "[Kairo] is very successful," she said. "Stephen King is a very successful author. I think it was Jacob Gentry, one of our directors, who said, 'If we're thinking along the same lines as Stephen King, we must be doing something right.'" The Signal opens in limited release on Feb. 22. --Ian SpellingWorthington Tops Terminator 4

Sam Worthington will star in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, based on a recommendation from franchise creator James Cameron, who just helmed the Australian actor in Avatar, Variety reported.

McG is helming Terminator Salvation, whose plot twists and turns are being kept under tight wraps. Worthington will reportedly play the role of Marcus, a central figure in a three-picture arc that begins after Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust. A group of survivors led by John Connor (Christian Bale) struggles to keep the machines from finishing the job.

Sources told the trade paper that McG spoke on the phone recently with Cameron, who was in New Zealand working on Avatar. It was during that chat that he recommended Worthington, who in Avatar plays a paraplegic war veteran from Earth who's brought to another planet inhabited by a race of humanoids at odds with Earth's inhabitants.Dead Not Blair Redux

Diary of the Dead writer/director George A. Romero acknowledged to SCI FI Wire that some longtime Dead fans were not pleased initially when word spread that Romero planned to shoot the latest installment in his zombie oeuvre in the manner of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield.

Diary of the Dead follows student filmmakers who, after the dead start walking the Earth and terrorizing the living, drop their mummy movie and document--by filming and blogging--the horrors occurring around them.

"I think they thought maybe it was going to be Blair Witch," Romero said about the fans in an interview. "Maybe they thought it was going to be a bad idea. Maybe it is. I thought we were the first guys. I didn't think Blair Witch was really the same kind of thing at all. Everyone still brings up Blair Witch because of the subjective camera stuff and all that."

Romero added that he was shooting his film before Cloverfield and Redacted, both of which make heavy use of subjective first-person hand-held camera shooting.

"All of a sudden, I think, it's that the whole world has become a camera," Romero said. "And maybe it's that reality TV has become reality movies."

Fortunately, Romero said, the doubters are starting to come around. "I'm not sure exactly why people were disappointed to hear what we were doing, but I'm happy that, at least now, since the film has been shown to some audiences, everyone's saying, 'Oh, I get it now,'" Romero said. "It's still quite theatrical. There's a story there. And it ain't Blair Witch. Anyway, we thought we were going to be the first guys doing it, and now about all I can say is I'm part of a trend." Diary of the Dead opens on Feb. 15. --Ian SpellingBay Has Transformers 2 Story

RottenTomatoes reported that Transformers helmer Michael Bay has already finished writing the story for an expected sequel, even though the writers' strike doesn't end formally until Feb. 13.

"I've been writing Transformers 2," Bay told the site. "We've got our characters all designed. I always write all my scripts, my movies, anyway, so at least I've got something to give the writers. It's like a template. We have a really good outline, so I worked on that."

Bay made no apology for pushing the rules of the writers' guild. "We had to, because I want to make my date," Bay reportedly said. "I'm not going to let the strike take me down."

Bay has all sorts of new characters in store for the sequel. "When you do your first movie, you break the back of it," he said. "Now we can have a lot more fun. We can actually make the depth of these characters more fun and a lot more interesting characters. To see actually what you can achieve visually, you never know. When you go into a movie, you never know visually. I think I've got a lot of fun, interesting, funny characters."

Transformers 2 is scheduled for a June 2009 release.Bettany Takes Wing In Legion

Paul Bettany is set to star in the supernatural thriller film Legion, a Screen Gems film that marks the feature directorial debut of Scott Stewart, Variety reported. Stewart wrote the script with Peter Schink.

The story follows what happens when God loses faith in humanity and sends his legion of angels to wipe out the human race for a second time. Mankind's only hope lies in a group of misfits holed up in a diner in the desert who are aided by the archangel Michael (Bettany).

Stewart is a co-founder of the visual-effects house the Orphanage, but Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper told the trade paper that his rewrite showed an affinity for character over spectacle. Production begins in New Mexico in March.North Examines New Ice Age

Dave DiGilio, creator and writer of the new comic-book series North Wind, told SCI FI Wire that the series is a post-apocalyptic SF adventure set 200 years into the next ice age.

"Back in 2000, my family had a series of debates at the holiday dinner table about the then relatively new concept of global warming," DiGilio said in an interview. "At some point during these conversations, the North Atlantic ocean current came up. This massive current can be the trigger for massive and sudden climate change. ... I started thinking about scenarios in which a new ice age rapidly enveloped our planet and started thinking about how people would really react. Where would they go? And how could we sustain our current way of life?"

In the series, Los Angeles has been buried beneath a thousand feet of ice, and the story follows a young boy whose coastal village is destroyed by a warlord searching for a long-lost oil refinery by the sea. "Fifteen years later, the boy returns to Los Angeles to seek revenge against the tyrant who destroyed his way of life," DiGilio said. "But ultimately, North Wind is a story about consequence: about how each of our actions creates a series of events that will eventually come back to haunt us, ... even if we don't foresee their outcome right away."

DiGilio did a lot of research for both the academic and artistic sides of the book. "On an academic level, I spent time reading multiple papers and reports on climate change, including 'An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security' by Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall--pretty scary stuff," he said. "On the artistic side, I spent a lot of time watching old westerns. It struck me that the classic western was the best story paradigm for a comic that takes place in a desolate wasteland of white. Movies like One-Eyed Jacks, Hombre and Shane all played a part in the development of the book."

North Wind is a limited-run series, currently scheduled to run for five 22-page issues. The series was launched simultaneously in print and digitally in a partnership with MySpace. com. Issues one and two of North Wind can be downloaded for free on MySpace. --John Joseph AdamsSpiderwick Is True To Source

Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, co-authors of the Spiderwick Chronicles book series, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming film adaptation remains true to the spirit of the books.

"I do think that they really captured the spirit," Black said in an interview. "They really got the family dynamics. They really got the character dynamics. When Jared comes on screen, and he hits the front of the car with a stick, it just gave me chills. I was like, 'That's Jared. That's my boy.'"

Black wrote the text of the books, while DiTerlizzi drew the illustrations. They share authorial credit because of their close collaboration on the story, which follows the Grace family as they move into a new home and discover that there are mythical creatures living all around them. DiTerlizzi and Black also received executive-producer credits on the film and were consulted every step of the way.

"I think we made it clear that we [made] the books; we [weren't] going to tell [the producers] how to make a movie," DiTerlizzi said in the same interview. "That mindset--and it probably stems from us having such a collaborative give-and-take relationship--I think that allowed us to be able to swim amongst a highly collaborative project."

Black added: "We actually did get to see all the scripts and give our feedback and give our thoughts, and they listened to us. And when they agreed with us, hopefully we were in some ways useful."

Both DiTerlizzi and Black were especially pleased with the film's production designer, James Bissell, whose previous work includes 300 and Good Night, and Good Luck. They said that his designs incorporated the important themes of the book in creative and subtle ways.

"James Bissel is amazing," DiTerlizzi said. "I gave him everything that I looked at and used as reference, both for the sets and for the creatures. And then he was seeing stuff that you almost don't even think about it. [In] Spiderwick, one of the thematic elements is kind of man rubbing up against nature, if you take the stance that the fairies are kind of spirits of ... nature or what have you. So Jim was like, 'Oh, I've got oak-leaf motifs in the house.' The newel posts on the staircases all have acorns and stuff. So he was able to integrate it in ways that you just can't [illustrate]."

The Spiderwick Chronicles stars Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte and the voices of Seth Rogen and Martin Short. It opens Feb. 14. --Cindy WhiteCoens To Helm Yiddish For Sony

Sony's Columbia Pictures has acquired screen rights to Michael Chabon's alternate-universe novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union and set Oscar nominees Joel and Ethan Coen to direct, Variety reported.

The Coens--whose film No Country for Old Men is nominated for eight Oscars--will also adapt the book and produce the movie with their Old Men partner Scott Rudin.

The book is set in an alternate-history America in which Jewish settlers are to be displaced by the government's plans to turn their town of Sitka, Alaska, over to Alaskan natives. Against this backdrop is a noir-style murder mystery in which a rogue cop investigates the killing of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy who might be the messiah.As Strike Ends, Now What?

TV Guide columnist Michael Ausiello has predicted that Smallville, Supernatural and Lost may gear up for new episodes this season now that the writers' strike is all but settled. The outlook for other SF&F shows is mixed, and all predictions are tentative.

The CW's Smallville still has four episodes left to air that were completed before the strike began three months ago and may shoot an additional three to five episodes once the strike ends, Ausiello reported.

Similarly, The CW's Supernatural still has two pre-strike episodes left to air and could shoot another three to five new ones.

ABC's Lost, meanwhile, still has six original episodes left to air and could shoot an additional six this season.

Among other SF&F series, the outlook is hazier. NBC's Medium still has six episodes left to air, but is unlikely to shoot additional segments before next fall. CBS' Jericho will begin airing its full seven-episode second season this week, with no new episodes expected this season.

Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has five episodes left, with its future still in question. Similarly, The CW's Reaper has three unaired episodes left, with an uncertain future.

Other shows that have already used up their new episodes are unlikely to shoot new segments until fall. They include CBS' Moonlight, NBC's Chuck and ABC's Pushing Daisies, which just received a second-season pickup.

It's unclear when production may resume for NBC's hit Heroes and CBS' hit Ghost Whisperer.

But it's virtually certain that NBC's Bionic Woman and Journeyman won't be coming back, either this season or in the fall, Ausiello said. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Trek Hires Real Scientist

Space.com reported that Star Trek director J.J. Abrams has hired a real-life planetary scientist to help bring the movie's space images to life.

Abrams invited Carolyn Porco--the leader of the imaging science team on NASA'S Cassini mission to Saturn--to work on Trek as a consultant on planetary science and imagery, the site reported.

"This is a fabulous opportunity to bring to a wider audience the discoveries we've made at Saturn and the spectacular sights we have seen there," Porco told the site. "And what better way to do that than to make use of those discoveries in the crafting of imagery for one of the most popular movie franchises of all time?"

Abrams attended the 2007 TED conference in Monterey, Calif., where Porco spoke of the recent findings from the Cassini mission.

Porco directs the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., where Cassini images are processed for release to the public. Porco previously acted as a consultant on the movie Contact.

Star Trek is slated for release on Christmas Day.Victory Wraps Vatta Series

Nebula Award-winning SF author Elizabeth Moon told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, Victory Conditions, is the end of her Vatta's War series but not necessarily the end of stories set in that universe.

It's possible she might write new stories including characters from the Vatta's War books but set during a different time in their lives. "Any of several ... could make an interesting book," Moon said in an interview.

The Vatta's War books are militaristic space-opera adventure novels about a young woman named Ky Vatta, who is the youngest child in a wealthy, powerful merchant family.

"She is the one child who does not want to go into the business," Moon said. "She wants to do something more exciting. ... So she talks the family into letting her attend her planet's space-military academy, convinced that this is her ticket to adventure. Like most children of privilege, she has no idea just how privileged she's been, until suddenly she's out on her own with no backup."

The plot of Victory Conditions is the climax of the entire series, Moon said. "Ky Vatta gets a fleet, and ... stuff happens," she said. "Lots of stuff. In a sense, for several of the main characters, the plot rings variations on 'If you get what you ask for, can you handle it?'"

The Vatta's War books examine the interrelation of individuals, family and society--a subject Moon has long been fascinated with. "How does a family cope with the different one? How does the different one cope with the family? And how does society deal with the results of those interactions?" she said. "Societies treat families as families treat individuals, placing expectations on both the families and on their members according to categories they label: 'at risk,' 'upstanding,' "working class,' 'white collar,' 'Ivy League' [and] the like. Real people swim (or sink) in these choppy cross-currents, and their innate characteristics interact with all of them to make interesting people, and interesting people make stories."

Next up for Moon is a return to fantasy and to Paksenarrion's world, the setting of several of Moon's novels. "So far we have political, economic, religious and racial conflicts, plus all the personal issues," Moon said. "It's fun to be back with horses and swords and forests." --John Joseph AdamsSpiderwick Appeals To All

Freddie Highmore, the young British actor who stars in the family fantasy film The Spiderwick Chronicles, told SCI FI Wire that the story is set in America but has universal appeal.

"I guess we're not too different," Highmore said in an interview, referring to Americans and Brits. "Apart from the accents and stuff that I had to work on for the film, you know, I didn't have to go and live in America for ages to realize how to play the character. I think it's more important about their personality rather than where they come from in the world."

In the film, Highmore plays a dual role as identical twins Jared and Simon Grace. When the Grace family moves to the country after a bitter divorce, it is Jared who first discovers the existence of a brownie in their new home. His discovery leads to the revelation that the woods surrounding the house are filled with mythical creatures.

Highmore previously learned to speak in an American accent for the film August Rush, which was released last year. He said that he still had to practice continuously on the set of The Spiderwick Chronicles to make it sound natural.

"I try and talk in it as much as possible, so it becomes second nature," he said. "You know it's important. You don't want to have to worry about real intrusive R's and the vowel sounds. You want to just concentrate on the emotions and the important side of the character."

Highmore also prepared for the role by reading the original Spiderwick Chronicles book series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, on which the film is based. He said that reading the books helped him understand their appeal, not only across international boundaries, but also across different age groups as well.

"The fact that they've got sort of the wish that there could be another world in the back garden, another unseen world that hasn't been discovered yet, I think everyone in fact [relates] to that," he said. "I think it would be great if there were an alien or another world was found on Mars. Everyone would get really excited. It would be really big news, and that's what it taps into in the film."

The Spiderwick Chronicles also stars Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte and the voices of Seth Rogen and Martin Short. It opens Feb. 14. --Cindy WhitePage Tops Raimi's Hell

Ellen Page (Juno) is set to star in Drag Me to Hell, a horror film that Sam Raimi will direct as his next film, Variety reported.

Universal Pictures has acquired domestic and some international rights to the film, which begins shooting March 17 in Los Angeles.

The film is described as a morality tale about the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse. The movie marks a genre return for Raimi after directing a trio of Spider-Man films, the trade paper reported.

Raimi and his brother, Ivan, wrote the script. Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures partner Rob Tapert will produce with Grant Curtis and Josh Donen. Mandate's Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake will executive-produce. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Bell Finds Rome Fantasy

Kristen Bell will star in the fantasy-tinged romantic comedy When in Rome, a film that Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider) will direct from his own script for Disney, Variety reported.

Gary Foster, Andrew Panay and Rikki Bestall will produce, and shooting begins March 31 in New York and Rome.

Bell (NBC's Heroes) will play a successful real estate agent in New York who can't find a lasting relationship. When her younger sister impulsively marries in Rome, she flies out for the wedding and, after picking up coins from a reputed "fountain of love," finds an overabundance of suitors waiting for her back home.

Bell will soon be seen in the upcoming Star Wars-themed Fanboys for the Weinstein Co.Transformers Wins F/X Prizes

Transformers and Industrial Light & Magic were the big winners at the sixth annual Visual Effects Society awards Feb. 10 in Hollywood, Variety reported.

The giant-robot blockbuster from Paramount and helmer Michael Bay took four awards, more than any other project in any medium.

Transformers took the top movie prize, outstanding visual effects in a visual-effects-driven motion picture, as well as best single visual effect of the year for its desert highway sequence.

ILM's big night did not end there, however, as George Lucas' San Francisco-based F/X factory took home two additional awards for Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

The runner-up to Transformers for most wins was Pixar's Ratatouille, with three awards: supporting visual effects in a motion picture, outstanding animated character in a motion picture (for Colette) and effects in an animated picture.

The only other feature to receive an award was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the sole entry in the special-effects category.

On the TV side, the VES presented an award for best made-for-TV movie to Battlestar Galactica: Razor.Ratatouille Sweeps Annies

Ratatouille won 10 Annie Awards, which recognize achievements in feature-film and television animation, in ceremonies on Feb. 1 in Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.

Disney/Pixar's computer-animated fantasy won the award for best feature production, beating out Bee Movie, Surf's Up, Persepolis and The Simpsons Movie.

Ratatouille went into the ceremony at UCLA's Royce Hall with a leading 13 nominations.

Among its other awards were best writing and directing, for Brad Bird; best voice acting, for Ian Holm; and best character animation, music, storyboarding, production design and animated video game.

Bird and two writing partners are also up for an Oscar for best original screenplay.

The Annie Awards are presented by the International Animated Film Society.

Other Annie Awards presented Friday included best animated effects, Deborah Carlson, Surf's Up; best animated television production, Creature Comforts America, Aardman Animation; best animated television production for children, El Tigre, Nickelodeon; and best directing in an animated TV production, to Seth Green for Robot Chicken Star Wars. 4400 Seeds Are In The Mail

A sunflower seed company says it has shipped nearly 6,000 bags of its salty snacks to USA Network to try to save the canceled SF series The 4400, the Associated Press reported.

Fans of The 4400 asked the North Dakota company Giants Snacks to help with the campaign after the cable network dumped the show in December. Many of the sales of Giants Sunflower Seeds are international orders, which the company does not normally accept.

The campaign, modeled after one by fans who sent peanuts to keep the CBS show Jericho alive, has the support of 4400 actor Jeffrey Combs, whose character, Dr. Kevin Burkhoff, was the inspiration for the sunflower campaign.

USA Network spokeswoman Kristin Schulman told the AP that its New York offices had received about 30 pounds of seeds by Jan. 30, before Giants sent its first shipment. The company has since shipped about 650 pounds of seeds, with orders from about 30 states and a dozen countries. The network told the AP that it would be "very difficult logistically to bring the show back."

(USA Network is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Zenga To Helm Helsing Spoof

Bo Zenga is making his directorial debut on the horror spoof Stan Helsing for Scott Steindorff's Stone Village Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jere Hausfater's Essential Entertainment has signed on to handle worldwide sales on the new film.

Written by Zenga, the film takes place on Halloween night, when the reluctant hero and video-store clerk Stan Helsing has to save a town from the six biggest monsters in cinema history. Principal photography starts in April.

Zenga has a strong track record in the spoof genre. His credits include serving as a producer on Scary Movie.Discs Returns To Tron

Disney Interactive Studios announced Discs of Tron, a new arcade game inspired by the groundbreaking 1982 SF movie Tron, which will drop on Feb. 13 for Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360.

In Discs of Tron, players face off in a three-dimensional arena against the film's villain, Sark, as they throw discs to try to knock him off a platform or "derezz" him with a disc.

The game includes both a classic mode and an enhanced mode, which features high-definition graphics of the cityscape from the world of Tron and upgraded audio. Discs of Tron also features several multiplayer modes.

Discs of Tron comes from Disney Interactive Studios and was developed by Backbone.Gaylactic Winners Announced

Winners of the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Award--which recognizes distinguished works of science fiction, fantasy and horror that explore gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered themes and issues--have been announced.

Three short stories were named winners in the short fiction category: "In the Quake Zone" by David Gerrold, "Instinct" by Joy Parks and "The Language of Moths" by Christopher Barzak.

In the category of miscellaneous other work, three winners were named: The Future Is Queer, an anthology edited by Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel; the television series Torchwood, created by Russell T. Davies; and the film V for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue.

The Gaylactic Spectrum Award was created in 1998 by The Gaylactic Network, an organization devoted to gay and lesbian fandom. It is currently sponsored by the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Foundation.

The award is also presented to novel-length works. The 2007 winner--Vellum by Hal Duncan--was announced in October. --John Joseph AdamsBRIEFLY NOTED

Magnolia Pictures' Magnet Releasing has picked up North American rights to the comedy Special, starring Michael Rapaport as a man who becomes convinced he's a superhero, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

CBS announced the renewal of its supernatural series Ghost Whisperer for a new season, beginning in the fall.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem drops on DVD and Blu-ray disc on April 15 from Fox Home Entertainment; the "Extreme Unrated Special Edition" adds more than 10 minutes of never-before-seen footage back into the movie and features five behind-the-scenes featurettes, design galleries, director's commentary, special-effects and creature creator commentary and more.

The second-season premiere of CBS' post-apocalyptic drama Jericho aired with ratings about even with its season average from its first year, according to The Hollywood Reporter; the show averaged 7.1 million viewers and a 2.5 rating/7 share in the adults 18-49 demographic.

USA Today has posted a report about and new image from the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, now shooting.

CBS announced that it will be airing six new episodes of Ghost Whisperer on April 4 and four new episodes of Moonlight on April 11.

Screenwriter Benedict Fitzgerald has sued Mel Gibson and his production company, claiming he was misled by the actor-director into accepting a small payment for writing The Passion of the Christ and was refused extra money when the film became a blockbuster, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ti West will helm The House of the Devil, a horror movie about a babysitting job gone horribly awry, which begins shooting in Connecticut next month, Variety reported.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep debuts in a two-disc special-edition DVD and on Blu-ray disc on April 8, featuring both full-frame and widescreen versions of the film, plus deleted scenes, six featurettes and other bonus materials.

ABC Entertainment announced that it was picking up nine of its most popular shows, including Lost and Pushing Daisies, for the fall season; the announcement comes with the expected end of the three-month-old writers' strike likely this week.

Roy Scheider, a two-time Oscar nominee best known to genre fans for starring in Steven Spielberg's '90s TV series SeaQuest DSV and 1975's Jaws, died Feb. 10 at age 75, the Associated Press reported; he died of complications from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells.

Fan forums have gone live on the official Web site for J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek film reboot.

Highlander: The Source, a new chapter in the popular SF franchise, makes its DVD debut on Feb. 26; the movie stars Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, and the DVD includes behind-the-scenes featurettes.