Superman Heirs Win Legal Victory

The heirs of Jerome Siegel, one of the creators of Superman, won a legal victory last week against Warner Brothers when a federal court restored a stake in rights to the superhero franchise that were sold 71 years ago, Variety reported.

That victory--and potential legal action by the heirs of Siegel's co-creator, Joe Shuster, in five years, when they are eligible--could affect Warner's plans for further installments in the Superman film franchise, the trade paper reported.

The studio has at least two Superman projects in development: a follow-up to Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and Justice League. And it may end up paying tens of millions from the domestic haul of Superman Returns to Siegel's heirs under the ruling, which applies to domestic monies for Superman projects since 1999.

The studio declined to comment to Variety on the latest ruling, issuing only a statement saying that "substantial issues relating to the accounting of profits were ruled in our favor."Heroes Will Air In A Block

NBC's returning genre shows--Heroes, Chuck and Medium--will each air a full complement of original episodes next season, in contrast to this year's strike-truncated season, with Heroes and Chuck set to air without repeats through December.

The announcements came at the network's presentation to advertisers in New York on April 2.

"We not only have the biggest star of TV, we have movie stars on NBC," Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said during the presentation. "The talent on NBC are the breakout talent and the cultural, relevant, leading icons of all of television. It's a hallmark of what we do, and as you'll see, ... all of your favorites are coming back."

Heroes will return to the schedule on Sept. 15 with an hourlong clip show premiering at 8 p.m. ET/PT and a two-hour season premiere airing at 9 p.m., its regular timeslot.

Chuck, meanwhile, will debut in the fall in its regular Monday 8 p.m. timeslot. Rounding out a night of genre fare, newcomer My Own Worst Enemy--starring Christian Slater as a man with a Mr. Hyde-like alter ego--will air at 10 p.m.

Medium was one of several surprise renewals. It, along with Lipstick Jungle and Friday Night Lights, was considered on the bubble, as likely to be axed as to return. The Patricia Arquette series, about a psychic family woman who helps solve crimes, will return to the schedule in either late 2008 or early 2009 in a new timeslot.


"Medium is on Sunday nights at 9 right now, following [newcomer] Merlin into [the previously announced new series] Kings," Silverman said. "I don't know the exact day we premiere all of that. I think it's February 23, but I'm not sure."

(NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian SpellingHeroes Returns; Origins Dies

Heroes will return to NBC on Sept. 15 with an expanded third-season opener, but network executives confirmed that the proposed prequel spinoff, Heroes: Origins, is officially dead.

"We consciously chose to rest [Heroes] this spring so that [creator] Tim Kring and his team could get ahead of the creative and build up to a massive event--a three-hour Heroes night," Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said during the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on April 2. "On Monday, Sept. 15, we'll kick off with a Heroes clip show to try to bring back the audience and [then air] a massive two-hour Heroes film."

Silverman also explained why the heavily hyped, much-anticipated Heroes: Origins was scrapped. The show was originally conceived to help eliminate Heroes repeats, and directors and writers--including feature-film vets Kevin Smith, Eli Roth and Michael Dougherty--were already lined up before NBC dropped the idea.

"We were taxing our creative team to do too much around that," Silverman said. "We wanted 35 Heroes [episodes] and 12 Heroes: Origins, each of which was supposed to be a mini-movie and backdoor pilot. We reached far and challenged our people, and we decided it was better to focus on keeping the Heroes mothership as strong as possible."

Heroes will air Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian SpellingPanettiere, Long Voice Alpha

Heroes cheerleader Hayden Panettiere and Mac pitchman Justin Long will play the lead voices in Alpha and Omega, an animated film about two kidnapped wolves trying to rejoin their pack, Variety reported.

Other voices will include Christina Ricci, Danny Glover, Dennis Hopper and Larry Miller.

Anthony Bell (The Boondocks) and Ben Gluck (Brother Bear 2) are directing from a screenplay by Chris Denk, based on a story by Steve Moore (co-creator of Open Season).

Alpha marks the first team-up of Lionsgate and Crest Animation Productions.

Production is underway in Los Angeles, with a debut anticipated for 2010.NBC Unveils SF-Heavy Slate

NBC unveiled a 2008-'09 television schedule that's dominated by new and returning SF, fantasy and horror programming, including a series revival of Knight Rider and a new anthology series called Fear Itself, as well as the renewal of Medium, whose fate had been in question.

The announcements came at the network's "infront" (the new nickname for upfronts) presentation to advertisers in New York on April 2.

The shows and miniseries will be part of the network's ambitious 52-week program strategy and will premiere anytime between this May and summer 2009.

The new series include Kings, Fear Itself and Knight Rider, all of which had been expected to make the schedule, as well as the surprise entries My Own Worst Enemy and The Listener.

Waiting in the wings is Merlin. Also on the way is The Last Templar, a Da Vinci Code-esque miniseries.

Returning shows include Chuck and Heroes, which had previously been announced and which will premiere in September, and Medium, which was reportedly on the bubble but will return next winter for a fifth season.

Speaking of the NBC slate in his presentation, Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said, "There is a ton of noise out there. There is a cacophony of crap. Even the sports pages are filled with scandal. We need to break through and deliver eternal themes and heroic themes and entertaining themes and escapist themes. We're going to give you real heroes and superheroes, and we're going to engage you with our content in a dramatic, emotional way."

Debuting on May 29:

Fear Itself. The show, a horror anthology series from the makers of Masters of Horror, will feature such stars as John Billingsley and Shiri Appleby and showcase the talents of directors including Brad Anderson, Mary Harron, Ernest Dickerson, Ronny Yu, John Carpenter and Stuart Gordon.

Shows on the fall 2008-'09 schedule:

Chuck, airing Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Heroes, airing Mondays at 9 p.m.

My Own Worst Enemy, airing Mondays at 10 p.m. Christian Slater makes his television series debut as Henry Spivey, an efficiency expert and married father of two who learns that he has an alter ego named Edward Albright, an operative who speaks numerous languages and can kill with his teeth. The network is touting it as "Jekyll and Hyde meets Jason Bourne." Heroes veteran David Semel directed the pilot and will stay on as executive producer.

Knight Rider, airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. NBC scored a hit with a two-hour backdoor pilot movie that aired in February, and the series picks up where the movie left off. K.I.T.T., the supercar with a mind of its own, returns, as do stars Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Bruce Davison.

Shows debuting in winter 2009:

Merlin, airing Sundays at 8 p.m. A fantasy series set in Camelot but inspired by 21st-century storytelling, Merlin stars Colin Morgan (Doctor Who) as the title character and Bradley James as Arthur, and it explores the characters' lives before they became legends. Co-stars include Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Richard Wilson and Angel Coulby.

Kings, airing Sundays at 10. A modern-day spin on the King David tale, the show stars Christopher Egan as David and Ian McShane as the king. Michael Green (Heroes) penned the pilot and will executive-produce. I Am Legend helmer Francis Lawrence directed the pilot and will executive-produce the series as well.

Series debuting in summer 2009:

The Listener, airing Thursdays at 10 p.m. Toby Logan (Craig Olejinik of Thirteen Ghosts) is a 24-year-old paramedic and telepath who's always ignored his ability to hear people's thoughts ... until now. Having changed his mind, he uses his unique

gift to help others.

Miniseries debuting in 2009:

The Last Templar. In this four-hour miniseries, four horsemen dressed as knights crash the New York Metropolitan Museum during the opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures and swipe an arcane medieval decoder, thereby sending an archaeologist (Mira Sorvino) and an FBI agent (Scott Foley) on a wild chase for the secrets of the Knights Templar. Co-stars include Victor Garber and Omar Sharif.

(NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling

Knight Campaign Accelerates

The viral marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel The Dark Knight has kicked into high gear, with a host of new Web sites and a treasure hunt (described on Collider.com).

Among the new sites: The Gotham Times, the newspaper of Gotham City; The Maiden Avenue Report, a blog; the site for Dana Worthington, who is Harvey Dent's rival for the district attorney's job; and a site for the St. Swithuns Church, whose significance isn't clear.

Those who have signed up on various TDK Web sites have also been receiving recorded campaign messages from "Dent" (played in the film by Aaron Eckhart) and even paper copies of The Gotham Times. The Dark Knight opens July 18. --Patrick Lee, News Editor

Bionic Failure Informs Knight

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said that the network took the lessons it learned the hard way from its failed reboot Bionic Woman and applied them to the upcoming remake of Knight Rider.

Bionic Woman started off well, then sputtered out creatively and in the ratings, and it was not renewed for a second season. NBC conceded that the rush to get the show on air ultimately hurt it.

Moving forward with Knight Rider after the success of a backdoor pilot that aired in February, the network elected to take its time with the weekly version, a sequel to the original 1980s series that starred David Hasselhoff.

"We saw it with [Fox's] Terminator [The Sarah Connor Chronicles], and we saw it with Bionic Woman: big openings, big branded titles, draw open the tent, and the show didn't deliver on that $10 million pilot," Silverman said in response to a SCI FI Wire question during the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on April 2. "What we're doing with Knight Rider is we consciously delivered it on air [in February] so that we had nine months to make sure that series is great."

To wit, Silverman said, NBC recently tapped Gary Scott Thompson as the Knight Rider show runner. Thompson most recently was show runner on NBC's hit series Las Vegas, and he also knows from cars--having scripted The Fast and the Furious--and from SF, having penned the story for Hollow Man.

"We just brought on [Thompson] to be our partner on it creatively," Silverman said. "We're hiring a staff. We're hiring the cast. We're honing the writing crew. And we're ensuring that the show lives up to the audience's expectation. The audience turned on and tuned in to the two-hour movie premiere. Now we need to make sure they come in week in and week out, and for that we've got to take a rigorous approach."

Knight Rider will premiere in the fall. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling

NBC Borrowed For Fear

NBC executives said the network was stealing a page from the cable television playbook when it green-lighted its upcoming anthology series Fear Itself and chose to launch the horror series during the summer.

From the makers of Showtime's Masters of Horror, Fear Itself will consist of one-hour tales of terror and feature such stars as John Billingsley and Shiri Appleby. Among the directors already confirmed are Brad Anderson, Mary Harron, Ernest Dickerson, Ronny Yu and Stuart Gordon.

"What we did with Fear Itself was we saw an audience for scripted programming watching cable, and we weren't giving them any original scripted programming in the summer," Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said in response to a SCI FI Wire question during the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on April 2. "So, really, the decision was 'Hey, horror films work all summer. Why don't we go after that world and experiment with it during the summer? And let's go after scripted programming.'"

Silverman also cited a second practical business reason for NBC to move forward with Fear Itself and to air it on Thursday nights, beginning May 29. "[There was] the fact that the motion-picture studios were the biggest buyers of our Thursday-night real estate," Silverman said. "What better venue to advertise your horror film [opening] on Friday than Fear Itself on Thursday night? So that was very calculated and conscious by genre and by time period and by when we put it on seasonally."

(NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling

Trek's Pegg Signed On For More

Simon Pegg, who takes over the role of Scotty in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek movie, told SCI FI Wire that he's completed his role but is signed on for two more films if the first one hits.

"We did it. My work is done," Pegg said in an interview. "It was very cool."

Pegg declined to say much about the film, but acknowledged that he was awed to portray chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the role originated by James Doohan in the original Star Trek TV series and subsequent films.

"It was definitely intimidating just to be there and see it all," the British actor (Shaun of the Dead) said. "Of course, I'm such a fan."

Star Trek is slated to open May 8, 2009. --Mike Szymanski

Short Circuit Is Alive

Dimension Films has acquired remake rights to the 1986 SF comedy film Short Circuit, about Number 5, a military robot that develops a conscience and personality after being hit by lightning, Variety reported.

S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, who created the characters and wrote both Short Circuit films, have been hired to write the remake. David Foster and Ryan E. Heppe will produce with John Hyde.

The deal was made by Dimension co-chairman Bob Weinstein, who called Short Circuit a worthy addition to its family film slate.

Williams Joins Whedon's Dollhouse

Olivia Williams (X-Men: The Last Stand) has been added to the cast of Fox's highly anticipated Dollhouse, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, Variety reported.

Williams will play the beautiful but ruthless woman in charge of the venue where drones are programmed to perform various missions in the real world. Eliza Dushku stars as Echo, one of the "dolls" who starts to become self-aware.

Duval Works The Horror Genre

You don't know his name, but you may know his face, and James Duval told SCI FI Wire that he'll appear in four new horror films that are due to come out later this year.

Duval has appeared in both Independence Day and Donnie Darko; he spoke with SCI FI Wire at a private late-night party in Santa Monica, Calif., to celebrate Pathology, an upcoming horror movie in which he co-starred with Heroes cast member Milo Ventimiglia.

"That movie was pretty scary, and I think a few of the ones I'm in are going to be pretty scary, too," Duval said after the screening.

Next up is Evilution, which mixes zombies and aliens; Duval plays a scientist who brings aliens back to life. When the government steps in and tries to take over the project, things get mucked up.

Later, Duval stars in The Black Waters of Echo's Pond with Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), about a group of nine friends who vacation on a private island and find themselves in a fantasy game.

Lastly, Duval just completed Cornered!, about a card player who gets chased through a convenience store by a serial killer.

"I'm an actor," Duval said of the small films. "I do what comes along, and these were fun. I'm a big fan of the genre." --Mike Szymanski

Pike, Mitchell Join Surrogates

Rosamund Pike and Radha Mitchell have signed on to star opposite Bruce Willis in Disney's SF thriller The Surrogates, Variety reported.

Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) is directing the film from a Michael Ferris and John Brancato screenplay.

Based on a graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, the story is set in the near future, where humans live in isolation and interact vicariously through surrogate robots who are better-looking versions of themselves. Shooting is scheduled to start in April in Boston.

Mitchell's credits include Finding Neverland and Silent Hill. Pike appeared in Die Another Day and Doom.

Bullet Reworks Vampire Genre

Fantasy author Jennifer Rardin told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, Biting the Bullet, came about as a result of her desire to write about a vampire--one unlike any that has come before.

"Impossible, yeah? But my husband convinced me it was worth a try," Rardin said in an interview. "After all, he said, I'd never yet made the attempt. And I do love the vamps. So I came up with a killer--who was legit. A vampire assassin with a human assistant."

Things didn't go smoothly: Every time Rardin put pen to paper, Jaz Parks, the assistant, kept demanding to be heard. "About a hundred pages in, I realized I needed to tell the story from her point of view," Rardin said. "She just had such a memorable voice. Sarcastic, cynical, with a tendency to drop the 'F bomb,' but possessing a wry sense of humor and a healthy respect for the men and women in her life who she felt deserved it."

In Biting the Bullet, Jaz and her vampire boss, Vayl, must locate and terminate the Wizard, an enemy so elusive that myths have arisen among the natives that he's something more than human. "Well, you know how it is with locals and legends: both closer to truth than anyone's comfortable discussing," Rardin said. "Our heroes are joined by Jaz's brother, Dave, and his Special Ops unit, the badass soldiers who found the information pinpointing the Wizard's location in the first place. Their firepower will be key to the mission's success, especially since it's plagued from the start with attacks from soul-stealing reavers."

One of the things Rardin wanted to do with the series was restore some of the aspects of urban fantasy that she felt many of the books in the subgenre had eliminated: "A story in which romance is a minor (and far from graphic) feature [and] a plot that moves so quickly you can hardly take your eyes off the page for wondering what happens next," she said. "And characters who feel so real you could swear you've met someone just like them. Except for the fact that they can see in the dark and make the temperature drop so far so fast that frostbite is a genuine concern. Should I mention they can rip your lungs out your throat as well? But only if you pose a threat to national security." --John Joseph Adams

Ark Soundtrack Drops In April

FreeClyde Music announced a limited release of the soundtrack to Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the straight-to-DVD movie based on SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, featuring music by the show's longtime composer Joel Goldsmith. The CD drops on April 18, but can be pre-ordered online.

The CD features music recorded live with the Seattle Northwest Sinfonia and includes a 16-page full-color booklet with articles by Ark of Truth writer/director Robert C. Cooper, executive producer Brad Wright and Goldsmith. The CD will also feature original artwork by the FreeClyde team and photography from the film.

The first 100 pre-orders will be signed by the composer. The CD can be purchased at Goldsmith's official Web site.

Ruins Creeps Malone Out

Jena Malone, who co-stars in the upcoming SF horror movie The Ruins, told SCI FI Wire that she signed on because she was impressed with director Carter Smith's ability to creep her out.

"I had read the novel" on which the movie is based, Malone (Donnie Darko) said in an interview. "I was sent the script with a CD attached to it, and I popped it in, and I sat there completely mesmerized and completely creeped out in a way that I love movies to creep me out of my skin."

Malone plays one of four friends on vacation in Mexico who wind up trapped in the jungle on a mysterious pyramid, surrounded by Mayans who are out to kill them. Carter Smith based the film on the novel by Scott Smith (no relation), who also wrote the screenplay.

Co-star Laura Ramsey said the film plays like reality. "I just wanted it to be as real as it could [possibly be]," she said in an interview. "I just put myself in the circumstance, and I didn't want anything to be fake."

Malone added: "The amazing thing that Scott brought to what already existed in the novel was to create a beautiful cinematic fantasy in characters and richness and suspense." The Ruins opens April 4. --Staci Layne Wilson/Patrick Lee, News Editor

Ruins Isn't 'Torture Porn'

Shawn Ashmore, who stars in the upcoming SF horror movie The Ruins, told SCI FI Wire that the graphic tale couldn't be more different from so-called "torture porn" movies such as Turistas and the Hostel films, despite superficial similarities.

"The similarities are there to be drawn, but when you watch it, I think, the tone is much different," Ashmore said in an interview. "To me, there's a different tone, a different intensity, a different look."

Ashmore added that director Carter Smith sought to create something engaging and unpredictable. "Carter's take on the characters is unique, and even the creepiness and the buildup, as you're watching the film, you don't really know where it's going," Ashmore said. "A lot of those films in the genre you kind of have an idea where it's going. It's formulaic. And I think that The Ruins totally strays from that. When you think it's going one way, it goes somewhere completely different."

Based on the Scott Smith novel of the same name, The Ruins centers on a group of friends vacationing in Mexico who come across something horrific in the jungle. Ashmore (X-Men) plays a slacker named Eric. (Scott and Carter Smith are not related.)

"Because it's based on a book, it has a lot of characterizations that might not be there in other scripts and films in the genre," Ashmore said. "That's yet to be seen for other people. That's just my take."

Ashmore added that cinematographer Darius Khondji gave the movie a unique, retro look. "It's beautiful, yet raw," he said. "[Ashmore's co-star] Jonathan Tucker, when he first saw some of the film, said it looked like a '70s film." The Ruins opens April 4. --Ian Spelling

Ruins Doesn't Soft-Pedal Gore

The stars of the upcoming SF horror movie The Ruins told SCI FI Wire that the film doesn't soft-pedal the gruesomeness of Scott Smith's original novel, about four tourists in Mexico who stumble across something horrible in the jungle.

"I know, for me, the stuff that really sets me off [is] the gore factor," Shawn Ashmore said in an interview over the weekend in Los Angeles. "There are several scenes. The amputation, the cutting, the self-mutilation is really gory."

Even scarier were scenes that ratchet up the tension, Ashmore (X-Men) added. Take the scenes in which characters are lowered by a hand-cranked winch into a deep shaft in an ancient pyramid.

"I think on a more tension- [and] sort of creep-factor [level], ... whenever anybody gets on that winch to go down into the dig site, to me that is where a lot of the tension is built," said Ashmore, who plays a slacker named Eric. "You don't know exactly what is going to happen, but you know nothing good is going to come out of there [the hole]."

Jonathan Tucker plays the straight-arrow student Jeff, the de factor leader of the group of young people, who find themselves trapped atop a vine-encrusted pyramid, surrounded by murderous armed Mayans.

"I think what really differentiates the film [as] scary is, the worst things that happen are done by your best friend or your girlfriend, you know what I mean?" Tucker said. "It's not something out there doing these awful things to people, you know, that's so frightening. What's frightening is Jeff, who is cutting his girlfriend's best friend, and it's out of necessity. It's not like it's anybody's choice. It's not torture porn."

The Ruins, written by Scott Smith and directed by Carter Smith (no relation), opens April 4. --Staci Layne Wilson/Patrick Lee, News Editor

Ruins Scene Is A Cut Above

Shawn Ashmore, who co-stars in the upcoming SF horror movie The Ruins, told SCI FI Wire that the film's sure-to-be-talked-about amputation scene was shot in real time and doesn't look away.

In a spoiler for the scene, which comes midway through the film, Ashmore said that director Carter Smith went for realism. "Carter shot for four minutes as we broke his legs with a rock, cut it off with a hunting knife [and] cauterized it with a pan," Ashmore (X-Men) said in an interview. "Everything was captured."

The amputation of a character's legs is one of the more graphic scenes in the film, in which four friends vacation in Mexico and wind up in a jungle on a mysterious ruin, surrounded by Mayans who are out to kill them. As in the Scott Smith book of the same name on which the film is based, one gravely injured character must have his legs amputated by his pals if he's to have any chance of surviving. (Scott Smith is no relation to Carter Smith.)

"The prosthetics were so amazing," said Ashmore, who plays a slacker named Eric. "Joe [Anderson], who plays the kid whose legs are being cut off, was so amazing. Carter could set up a couple of cameras and just let them roll, and it looks like you're watching an operation. And that's how it appears in the film."

Despite the graphic nature of the horrific scene, Ashmore argued that the scene is neither gratuitous nor over the top. "It's not some slasher walking around killing somebody, and you're watching them get ripped in half or get cut in half," he said. "It's this realistic amputation scene. It's so gruesome, and yet you can't take your eyes off it." The Ruins opens April 4. --Ian Spelling

Warner Develops Hyperion Film

Producer Graham King has set up Dan Simmons' award-winning science fiction book series Hyperion Cantos at Warner Brothers, with Trevor Sands on board to adapt the first two books as one feature, according to The Hollywood Reporter. King is producing via his GK Films banner.

The first book, Hyperion, won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1990, while the second, The Fall of Hyperion, was nominated for a Nebula Award for best novel.

Hyperion deals with a space war, with most of the action taking place on a planet named Hyperion, known not only for its electricity-spewing trees but also for the Time Tombs, large artifacts that can move through time. The tombs are guarded by a monster called the Shrike, which impales people on metal trees.

King acquired the rights to the series several years ago, but its structure--inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales--and its multiple timelines made the task of adapting it into a feature unwieldy and challenging.

Hex Script Is Complete

Writing/directing partners Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor told SCI FI Wire that they have completed the script for Jonah Hex, a big-screen adaptation of the supernatural western comic franchise from DC.

Neveldine and Taylor said that they plan to begin filming the live-action film after they finish the sequel to their action film Crank. The pair spoke at a party recently in Santa Monica, Calif., for Pathology, the upcoming horror film they scripted, with star Milo Ventimiglia and director Marc Schoelemann; it opens April 18.

The co-writers also co-directed the first Crank, starring Jason Statham. They will co-direct Statham again in Crank 2: High Voltage. Later this year, they have Game coming out, also with Ventimiglia, about a futuristic online game that controls humans.

"When we move some of these projects off of our plates, we'll focus on Jonah, and I think fans will like it," Neveldine said. "They'll be surprised."

Added Taylor: "The script is done. We're happy with it."

Jonah Hex, created by John Albano, centers on an antihero with an attitude, a Confederate Civil War officer who was horribly disfigured. Tony DeZuniga illustrated the character, who also appeared in Batman comics as well as Justice League of America and Legion of Super-Heroes. --Mike Szymanski

Duchovny, Others Aid Ill Friend

The X-Files star David Duchovny, Stargate Atlantis cast members Paul McGillion and Jewel Staite and Battlestar Galactica stars Tahmoh Penikett and Kandyse McClure are among the actors auctioning off dinner dates to fund the cancer treatment of a fellow actor in Vancouver, Canada, the Vancouver Province newspaper reported.

The stars are auctioning off personal dinner dates and other items on eBay to benefit Babz Chula, a fixture in the Canadian city's movie, theater and music scenes, whose cancer has recently spread from her breast to her liver. Chula is seeking treatment in Austria that isn't covered by her health insurance, the newspaper reported.

Chula's friends, including Men in Trees co-stars Suleka Mathew and Nicholas Lea (formerly of The X-Files), came up with the online auction, which runs through April 12.

Also on sale: dinner dates with musician Matthew Good and X-Files creator Chris Carter, as well as TV and movie memorabilia.

The newly formed Babz Chula Lifeline for Artists Society also aims to help other artists in need and is planning other projects to raise money and awareness.

Nation DVD Due In April

The Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection DVD set comprises the five made-for-TV movies based on Rockne O'Bannon's SF TV show and drops on April 15 from Fox Home Entertainment.

The films, on three discs, pick up where the 1990s television series left off and consist of Alien Nation: Dark Horizon (1994), Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995), Alien Nation: Millennium (1996), Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996) and Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997).

They feature the characters of Los Angeles police detective Matt Sikes (Gary Graham) and his partner, George Francisco (Eric Pierpoint), an alien fugitive slave who, along with his brethren, struggles to assimilate into life on his adopted planet Earth.

The new collection also features bonus materials, including commentary for each film by director and co-creator Kenneth Johnson, featurettes, gag reels, storyboards and photo galleries. Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection will carry a suggested retail price of $49.98.

Iron's Downey Addresses His Past

Robert Downey Jr., who plays the title character in Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie, told SCI FI Wire that he's aware that his personal history resonates with that of his character, millionaire playboy Tony Stark, who has his own history of substance abuse.

The tabloid-fodder Oscar nominee--who is perhaps better known for his prison sentence (on drug- and alcohol-related charges) and rehab stints than for his critically acclaimed performances in such films as Chaplin and The Singing Detective--addressed the issue in a question from SCI FI Wire on the film's Playa Vista, Calif., set last June.

Downey, who successfully completed rehab in 2002 and by all accounts has been clean and sober since, is ready for the inevitable question.

"I think when someone has had a fundamental change, and they're not just trying to backpedal and make it seem like 'I'm going to rehab again, everything's fine,' whatever, ... my thing is, what else is attractive [to me about the role] is, yeah, Tony Stark, he's been known to go bonkers and be so irresponsible that he's, like, too hammered to put on his shoes," Downey says in his typical elliptical way. "And [when they approached me,] I was like, 'Really?' And they were like, 'Yeah, really.'"

Even so, Downey downplays the significance of his personal history to the casting and the character. "There's so much stuff in this movie as it is that we decided not to do, like, the Pirandello thing," he says, referring to the Italian dramatist and his play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, in which the lines between actors and their characters are blurred. "But I get it. In a way, that's why it's, like, ideally suited for me, and I'm ideally suited for it."

In a well-known 1979 Iron Man comic arc, "Demon in a Bottle," Stark struggles with alcoholism, a first for a major superhero character.

That particular aspect of Stark's character won't come up in the first Iron Man movie, but will be addressed in any sequels, director Favreau says. He acknowledges the similarities between Stark and Downey's own personal histories, but added that the casting allowed him to go to new places.

"When we cast Robert--when he was approved and we got him to be in the movie and Marvel gave it the OK--it completely freed me," Favreau said. "Because I knew I was halfway there to having a movie that I could be proud of. ... I can't think of anybody better than him. He brings a reality, a humor, a panache, ... a life of experience. ... There's a lot of Tony Stark in him, and that's so much better than trying to teach somebody to pretend that they are funny or pretend that they are smart or pretend that they are talented." Iron Man opens May 2. (Read more from the set of Iron Man in the next issue of SCI FI Magazine.) --Patrick Lee, News Editor

Disney Teams With Lee On Films

Walt Disney Pictures and Stan Lee have set up a trio of film projects that will be executive-produced by Lee and Gill Champion via their POW! Entertainment company, Variety reported. The projects are all based on stories by Lee.

Nick Ratchet will be directed by Richard LaGravenese (P.S. I Love You) from a screenplay he is writing. Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are in talks to produce.

Blaze is being penned by Gary Goldman (Next).

Tigress is being written by newcomer Zoe Green. State Street Pictures' Robert Teitel and George Tillman will produce. (The film is not the same as a previously announced project titled Tigress that Lee is developing with Michelle Rodriguez attached to star. That project is based on a Conan the Barbarian villainess.)

The studio is keeping plot details for all three projects under wraps.

Sanctuary To Begin Shooting

Production begins this month on SCI FI Channel's new original series Sanctuary, which will shoot in Vancouver, Canada, in the manner of the feature films 300 and Sin City, the channel announced.

Sanctuary is the first television series to feature live-action actors shot almost entirely against virtual backgrounds, which will be added in post-production. Actors will be filmed on green-screen stages.

The 13-episode season of the one-hour drama is slated to debut in the fall.

Based on the Web series of the same name, Sanctuary stars Amanda Tapping (Stargate Atlantis) as Dr. Helen Magnus, a seemingly immortal woman who tracks mysterious creatures, harbors the benign ones and protects the world from the dangerous ones. She is joined in her quest by her daughter, Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), quirky tech whiz Henry and new recruit Will (Robin Dunne), a brilliant young psychiatrist/profiler with a knack for finding the strange and unusual.

Series creator Damian Kindler (Stargate SG-1) and producer/director Martin Wood (Atlantis) are executive producers and show runners. Sam Egan (Masters of Science Fiction) and Tapping also serve as executive producers.

Sony Revamping Kingdom

Sony Pictures TV is turning to British writer Tony Jordan (Life on Mars) to rethink its drama pilot Kingdom, which was originally ordered by CBS, who ultimately passed on it, Variety reported.

The fantasy drama, written by Chad Hodge, was set to be directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (ABC's Pushing Daisies).

Sony didn't abandon the project after CBS pulled out. Instead, the studio decided to go international.

Set in the age of knights and castles, Kingdom revolves around four young men, one of whom discovers he's heir to the throne. That changes the dynamic among the four, including the reluctant new king.

Sonnenfeld remains attached as executive producer/director, while Hodge also remains as an executive producer.

Gruffudd Takes Lead In Be's

Fantastic Four's Ioan Gruffudd has been tapped as the male lead opposite Amy Smart in The Meant to Be's, CBS' supernatural pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Meant to Be's, from CBS Paramount Television, is a romantic drama about a dead woman (Smart) sent back to Earth to help people improve their lives. Gruffudd, who played Mr. Fantastic in the two FF movies, will play her tour guide and mentor.

Moonlight Fans Draw Blood

Fans of CBS' Moonlight are teaming with the Red Cross in a campaign to save the vampire drama by mounting a nationwide blood drive, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Fans are rallying in an online protest at YouChoose.net and claim that more than 3,000 fans have pledged to donate a pint, the trade paper reported.

Moonlight star Alex O'Loughlin has been so moved by fans' efforts that sources close to the series told the paper that he is becoming a spokesman for the Red Cross. The spokesmanship position will be announced this week.

But Moonlight isn't in any imminent danger of cancellation. Although modestly rated, the show is considered very likely to receive a pickup for the fall. Moonlight still has four original episodes set to air when it returns April 25, so there's plenty of time for CBS to mull its fate.

The fan intensity could be wearying for CBS. The network just finished extinguishing a yearlong fan uprising about its other ratings-challenged cult drama, Jericho, which the network canceled last month.

Second Futurama DVD In June

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the second of four new Futurama movies, The Beast With a Billion Backs, on DVD June 24.

The company described the movie this way: In their latest extraterrestrial exploit, Bender, Fry, Leela and the crew encounter a repulsive, planet-sized creature with billions of probing tentacles and find themselves involved in a disturbing--yet sensuous--interplanetary love story.

The movie will feature guest voice performances from David Cross, Brittany Murphy, Dan Castellaneta and physicist Stephen Hawking.

Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs also features bonus materials, including commentary from Matt Groening and David X. Cohen and cast members Billy West, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche, as well as director Peter Avanzino and producers Claudia Katz, Lee Supercinski and Michael Rowe. Other extras include a 30-minute "Lost Futurama Adventure" and behind-the-scenes featurettes "Meet Yivo!" (with David Cross) and "A Brief History of Deathball," as well as a sneak peek at the next Futurama movie, Bender's Game. The disc also contains storyboard animatics, deleted scenes and bloopers. Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs will carry a suggested retail price of $29.98.

Emissaries Is Future Mystery

SF author Adam-Troy Castro told SCI FI Wire that his new novel Emissaries From the Dead is a far-future murder mystery, which has always been a particularly challenging form to write.

"The clues to the crime need to be accessible while still tied to the worldbuilding around them," Castro said in an interview. "You can't say in the last 20 pages that there's an alien race you never heard about that committed the crime with a cosmic gringely-blatzer that you never heard about; advances in crime-scene technology also need to be accounted for or, as in this case, rendered irrelevant via limited access so the detective can't just wave her own gringley-blatzer over the dead body and say, 'Aha! It's Col. Plum's heat signature!' The ratiocinating mystery, typified by the works of Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen, was already becoming antique by the time Dashiell Hammett showed up; it's about 20 times harder to justify in a future where folks blithely zip off to distant solar systems. But that's the fun."

The novel is set aboard an alien space habitat called One One One. "The habitable region is an upper growth dangling from the thick central hub, and the slightest misstep can send the unwary plummeting to their deaths far below," Castro said. "When two human beings are killed, the powerful intelligences who own the place seem implicated. For political reasons, my investigator, Andrea Cort, has been ordered to shift the blame to a human suspect, but that's not how she operates. She's after the truth."

Andrea Cort first appeared in the novella "Unseen Demons." "The Andrea Cort stories are segments of 'The AIsource Infection,' a future history that includes the major award nominees 'Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl's,' 'The Funeral March of the Marionettes' and 'The Tangled Strings of the Marionettes,'" Castro said. "Fans of those tales will find some clues to the larger mystery in Andrea's more focused investigations. However, each of the Andrea Cort mysteries will be self-contained, complete [with] solution."

Castro (who is a regular contributor to SCIFI.COM's Science Fiction Weekly) has finished and turned in the second Andrea Cort novel, tentatively titled The Third Claw of God. "Later in the year I hope to get the go-ahead to work on Andrea Cort III," he said. "The lady's gotten under my skin." --John Joseph Adams

Medium's Future Unsure

Patricia Arquette, who stars as psychic Allison DuBois on NBC's hit series Medium, told SCI FI Wire that she's been extremely pleased with the show's current season, its fourth, but isn't sure if it will return for a fifth year. (NBC will unveil its fall lineup on April 2.)

"Well, how do I feel like it's going?" Arquette said, paraphrasing a question asked of her during a conference call last week with journalists. "I feel like we've really had a lot of good luck with having Anjelica Huston come in and having Rosanna [Arquette] come in, and now Kelly Preston is going to come in. … So we've been really lucky in that way, having a lot of great guest stars, and that's been really exciting."

But Arquette added that it's hard for her to assess how a season is going while she's in the midst of it. "Usually, I watch the whole season at the end," she said. "I don't actually watch it every week, because we're usually working when it's on. And then the idea of, you know, making my children watch [and] wait around while I'm watching myself is too strange of an idea for me."

The current season featured Huston as a troubled investigator who comes to Allison's aid while she and her husband, Joe (Jake Weber), are struggling with unemployment and the revelation last season that Allison was working as a psychic for the Phoenix district attorney.

Will the show come back for a fifth year? "I don't know if there'll be a next season," Arquette said. "I know we do have very devoted fans and that we're grateful for that. ... I don't know what'll happen, you know?"

But Arquette said she's willing to return if the show is picked up. "Yeah, I would like to come back," she said.

Medium airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling

Eleventh Taps Show Runners

In an indication that CBS' SF pilot Eleventh Hour is headed to series, Sleeper Cell creators Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff have been tapped as executive producers/show runners for the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Hour is based on the British limited SF series and stars Rufus Sewell as a special science adviser to the government who, with his feisty female bodyguard Rachel (Marley Shelton) in tow, saves people from the worst abuses of science.

CSI visual mastermind Danny Cannon is directing the pilot from a script by feature writer Mick Davis.

On the potential series, Voris and Reiff will serve as executive producers alongside Davis, Cannon, Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman and a Granada executive.

Smallville Season Gears Up

Brian Peterson, executive producer of The CW's Smallville, told SCI FI Wire that the writers already are gearing up for the show's upcoming eighth season, thanks to an early pickup announcement.

"We're always hopeful, and we always plan every year for a season finale, but it's really great when we get to tell one more year of Clark's story," Peterson said in an interview.

"It's very early, and we really have to work in partnership with the studio, because right now we haven't presented anything to them," Peterson added with a laugh.

As for the current season, five new episodes will begin airing, starting on April 17, with the focus clearly on Lex's fall to the dark side, starting in the episode "Descent."

"The rest of this season is, for the most part, about Lex finding what he's always been looking for," Peterson said. "'Veritas' [the last original episode to air] launched the next five episodes, which are all about Lex finding what he's been searching for."

Smallville's season was interrupted by the recently settled writers' strike. "Veritas" was originally designed as an extended season finale. But it aired as an hourlong episode, with several scenes unfinished. Those scenes will now form the basis of the season's final episodes, Peterson said. "I think it's going to be nice to actually see each piece of that story, rather than have it all hit in one episode," he said.

The finale will also set up the new season. "There's so much still to play," Peterson said. "People keep asking us all the time, 'When are you bringing in this character?' 'When are you doing this?' 'When are you doing that?' And we're like, 'We'll get there.' There're a lot of characters to service. So next year we have some real fun and clear ideas about what we're doing." Smallville airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. --Kathie Huddleston

Kapur To Helm Larklight

Shekhar Kapur has signed on to develop and direct Larklight, a period fantasy Di Novi Pictures is producing for Warner Brothers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Kapur, who most recently directed and wrote Elizabeth: The Golden Age, is working with writer Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) to adapt Philip Reeve's novel.

The 2006 book, set in a Victorian-era alternate universe in which mankind has been exploring the solar system since the time of Isaac Newton, revolves around a brother and sister who team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.

Pitt May Star In Lost City

Paramount Pictures has pre-emptively bought Lost City of Z, a David Grann manuscript about the search for a lost city in the Amazon, with Brad Pitt to produce the feature adaptation through his Plan B company as a potential starring vehicle, Variety reported.

Grann's forthcoming nonfiction book concerns British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, who was attempting to find the so-called City of Z when he and his party disappeared in 1925. Over the next 70 years, scores of explorers tried and failed to retrace Fawcett's path, including a 1996 expedition of Brazilian adventurers. Pitt would play Fawcett.

Doubleday is scheduled to publish Lost City of Z, an expansion of Grann's September 2005 article in the New Yorker, in February.

When Pitt expressed interest in starring in as well as producing Lost City of Z, Paramount moved quickly to buy it.

Ashes Picked Up By BBC

Digital Spy reported that BBC One's time-travel series Ashes to Ashes has been picked up for a second season.

Though not as popular as predecessor Life on Mars, Ashes has achieved a strong average audience of 6.5 million viewers in the United Kingdom, the Web site reported. The final episode of season one aired last week.

Where Mars dealt with the predicament of a modern Manchester police detective suddenly thrust back in time to the 1970s, Ashes places a contemporary woman (Keeley Hawes) back in the '80s.

Simon Crawford-Collins, Ashes' executive producer and head of drama at the Kudos production company, told the site, "The '80s have had a real revival over the past few months. Ashes to Ashes seems to have captured the imagination of the nation. I'm sure viewers will be desperate to know who's back in the second [season], but for now they'll just have to tune into the last episode of [season] one to find out."

Filming will begin in the summer for the show to return next year.

Reaser Is Mythological

Elizabeth Reaser (Grey's Anatomy) is set to play the leading role of Annabel on CBS' supernatural-tinged pilot Mythological X, Variety reported.

The pilot revolves around a woman who discovers via a psychic that she has already dated and dumped the man she was supposed to marry.

Twentieth Century Fox TV is behind Mythological X, which is executive-produced by Diane Ruggiero and Jonathan Levin; Timothy Busfield is directing.

Shark Swims In Deep Water

SF author Steven Hall, whose novel The Raw Shark Texts is a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book began as a sort of game.

"I began to notice how phrases that deal with language and thought often have some sort of 'water' element in them: stream of consciousness, flow of conversation, depths of the unconscious," Hall said in an interview. "I started to think: What kinds of animals would swim in these kinds of flows?"

The answer is the Ludovician, "a conceptual shark, which swims in the flows of human interaction and cause and effect," Hall said.

The book starts off with the protagonist, Eric Sanderson, waking up with no idea who or where he is. "He finds a note instructing him to contact a Dr. Randle, who can explain everything and will be able to help," Hall said. "Randle tells Eric that he has a mental condition, a sort of recurring amnesia, caused by the emotional trauma of his girlfriend's death. She also tells him that in the past he has left letters to himself, and if he finds anything like that, under no circumstances should he read them. Eric does come across a letter, and, without thinking, he reads it. The letter immediately tells him not to trust anything the doctor might have told him [because] his memory hasn't been lost; it's been eaten."

The science of The Raw Shark Texts is very much about looking at things in a different way. "Eric has quite a few tricks and gadgets, but their logic, and the items themselves, have [a] very homemade, ramshackle feel," Hall said. "This is a world where pockets stuffed full of other people's post can hide your identity from conceptual predators, and explosives loaded with old typewriter keys and printing blocks become 'letter bombs,' which can scramble the flows of cause and effect and degrees of separation. It's a twisted sort of logic that very much matches the state of Eric's mind."

Excerpts from the book, as well as a "video-book clip" of the novel featuring Academy Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton, are available on Hall's Web site. --John Joseph Adams

Supernatural Looks To Year Four

Sera Gamble, producer of The CW's Supernatural, told SCI FI Wire that the writers are brimming with story possibilities for the show's upcoming fourth season, which The CW recently announced.

"[Series creator and executive producer] Eric [Kripke] has some really strong ideas for how to expand the mythology next season," Gamble said in an interview. "We've been pitching ideas to each other that have [gotten] everybody really excited. ... First, we got deeply philosophical, and then we went back to 'Hey, how can we chop a bunch of people's heads off with these ideas?'"

Gamble added that the early pickup by The CW means that the writers can set things up as the third season winds down. "We're especially excited that we heard about the pickup early enough that we can start working on what we're going to be doing at the beginning of next season now, so we can thread some things in," she said.

The current third season, which was interrupted by the recently settled writers' strike, concentrated on the battle by Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) against the demon army unleashed at the end of the previous year. Meanwhile, the season is building to a resolution of Dean's dilemma: He struck a deal with a demon to trade his soul for Sam's life. He has only a year to live.

Kripke told Gamble that he has "an idea for a good turn that the mythology could take [in the middle of next season] that's related to the demon mythology that we've been building and that we concentrated on in season three," Gamble said.

The producers are thinking in terms of a five-year arc for the series, Gamble added. "There are aspects of the mythology that have always been plotted out," she said. "There's approximately a five-year plan that's been in place since the show began."

But, Gamble added, the details of the fourth season are being honed now. "Additionally, we have a list of several monsters that we've been dying to do for a long time that we're going to get a chance to do now," she said. "I call it the beer-and-popcorn episodes. They're really like meat and potatoes. Like, sit down, watch scary things, blood spatter hits the camera, and people scream and clutch each other in fear. And that's the end of your hour," she added with a laugh.

The third season will resume with new episodes, starting April 24, building to the season finale, written by Kripke, in which Dean must face the deal he struck with a demon to save Sam's life. The strike-shortened season has caused the writers to abbreviate some of the planned stories, but Dean's fate will remain front and center as the season comes to a close, Gamble said, offering a few spoilers.

"The season finale takes place on the very last day before his card gets pulled by the demon," Gamble said. "It's a fight to the finish. Several of the players that we've been watching deal with this over the course of the season will be in the episode. We said we weren't going to make it easy for them, and we've made it pretty difficult, bordering upon impossible."

Will Dean survive and elude hell's clutches? "For all you know, [in the fourth season] it's going to be Sam with a flashlight in haunted houses with a special cell phone that calls hell," Gamble said with tongue in cheek. "Everyone has a theory. Everyone will find out soon enough. They just have to wait a few more months."

Supernatural airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. --Kathie Huddleston

Rosanna Kills On Medium

Rosanna Arquette, who plays a murderous older woman in an upcoming episode of her sister Patricia's NBC series Medium, told SCI FI Wire that killing a man on screen made her queasy.

"It was challenging," Rosanna Arquette said during a conference call with journalists last week on which she was joined by Patricia. "There was this one moment where I had to strangle this man, and I found myself getting really nauseous. Like, every time I would do [a take], I kind of felt sick to my stomach, and I said, 'This feeling ... comes because that is wrong.' It's amazing, the people who actually really do these things, how they can get to that place."

In the episode titled "Lady Killer," Rosanna Arquette's homicidal actions appear in the dreams of psychic Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette). Eventually, the two women meet face to face during interrogation sequences.

Patricia Arquette said that she and Rosanna have previously appeared together in Rosanna's documentary Searching for Debra Winger. But "Lady Killer" marked the first time they'd worked together in a fictional piece. And her sister's performance as the murderous "cougar" impressed her, she added.

"I thought, you know, because I know my sister so well, that it's a testament to what a great actress she is," Patricia Arquette said. "I mean, physically, she is a very beautiful woman, but she's a very natural woman in real life. So ... I knew she would look gorgeous, and she looks gorgeous. But to see her as this sort of carnivorous mercenary, kind of dangerous person, ... [it was] so different for me to see her [as] that."

"Lady Killer" premieres April 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling

Ghost's Ned Grows Up

John Gray, creator and executive producer of CBS' Ghost Whisperer, told SCI FI Wire that producers cast Christoph Sanders as young Ned, a role originally played by Tyler Patrick Jones, because they needed the character to be a bit older.

"We were developing new story ideas where we thought, 'Wouldn't it be good if we had a slightly older Ned,'" Gray said in an interview. "It was difficult, because the kid that played Ned, we love him. He is such a good actor. Did great, great work for us. It was sad, but we can't accelerate his growth [laughs]. So we thought we'd take a leap up and be able to get a little more of a romantic thing, perhaps, with him."

Ned (played by Jones) was introduced during the second season as the son of Delia (Camryn Manheim). This season, the character had been absent from the series until Sanders played Ned in the January episode "Slam."

"We'll probably have a couple more episodes that feature Ned" before the third season ends, Gray added. Ned will be featured when the series returns with new episodes on April 4 in "Home But Not Alone."

In the story, Ned's girlfriend believes she's being haunted by her father, and Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is drawn in to help.

As for the rest of the season, Gray said: "I think our biggest thing with this season was to really delve deeply into Melinda's background, revealing stuff about her father, secrets that her mother had and just a lot of personal mythology for Melinda. We've tried to really get into the whole myth of people who are ghost whisperers and revealing the fact that there are others in the world, but also trying to deal with what is Grandview. We've put forth a theory that Grandview is a special place and that people who can see ghosts tend to be drawn there."

Gray believes the writers have been successful in making this season very personal to Melinda. "We moved away from where we were going in the first couple of seasons, which was more of a global mythology that didn't really inform or reflect back on her and who she is," he said, adding: "I think people will be surprised and really like a lot what we're going to do in that area having to do with Melinda's father and just the whole connection there is with the underground."

Ghost Whisperer will air six new episodes to finish out its third season. CBS has already announced that the series has been renewed for a fourth season. Ghost Whisperer airs on Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT. --Kathie Huddleston

McShane Joins Kings Cast

Ian McShane (Deadwood) has been cast in NBC's Kings, a modern-day take on the King David tale, Variety reported. Christopher Egan will play David.

Michael Green (Heroes) wrote the pilot for Kings and is executive-producing. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

Simon Baker, meanwhile, will play the title character in The Mentalist, playing a character who uses his keen sense of observation to solve crimes.

Joining Baker in the cast are Owain Yeoman (The Nine), Amanda Righetti (The OC), Shaun Toub (The Kite Runner) and Tim Kang (Third Watch).

In other pilot news, ABC has given a green light to Atlas, a mashup of the Harry Potter books and Pan's Labyrinth, about a girl who discovers a secret world beneath the human world.

Tom Wheeler wrote the pilot and will serve as executive producer.

Hopper Son In Craven's 25/8

Henry Lee Hopper, Denzel Whitaker, Shareeka Epps and Emily Meade are prepping to star in Wes Craven's tentatively titled horror thriller 25/8 for Rogue Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Hopper, the son of Dennis Hopper, will play the lead role of Bug, one of seven teens haunted by a serial killer who supposedly died when they were born 15 years earlier. The film takes place over the course of a day as the mystery unfolds as to who (or what) is stalking the small-town high schoolers.

Epps (Half Nelson), Whitaker (The Great Debaters) and Meade (the upcoming Assassination of a High School President), who are all expected to be part of the cast, are teens with several projects under their belts.

But 25/8 marks Hopper's professional acting debut. Craven is casting relative unknowns to avoid giving viewers any preconceptions as to who will die onscreen.

Hopper landed the lead after meeting Craven at a party for his godfather, Julian Schnabel. The pair bonded while discussing art, including the abstract expressionist paintings the teen made in his Venice, Calif., home studio. Craven said he fit the role of the initially naive, innocent Bug, who is changed by strange events, and Craven invited Hopper to audition.

CW Seeks Contestants For 13

Casting directors will seek contestants, starting on March 31 around the country, for 13 (working title), an eight-episode series on The CW that will combine the horror genre with a reality show, scheduled to premiere this summer.

The show seeks men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 who are energetic, competitive and full of personality to contend for a grand prize of $66,666.

Casting calls will take place March 31 and April 3, from 10 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT, in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami and Dallas. Contestants must e-mail for an appointment.

Contestants may also apply online. Deadline for online entries is April 16.

Egan Takes Kings Crown

NBC has cast Australian actor Christopher Egan (Eragon) in the lead role in Kings, its upcoming contemporary take on the biblical story of King David, Zap2it reported.

Kings was created by Heroes writer-producer Michael Green. David (Egan) is a young man who gains entree to a royal court when he saves the life of the king's son. Green has also worked on Everwood and Jack & Bobby.

(NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

Missing Tops Stoker Awards

Winners have been announced for this year's Bram Stoker Awards, which recognize superior achievement in horror writing. The award, named for the author of the seminal horror work Dracula, is presented annually by the Horror Writers Association.

Winners were announced over the weekend at the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City. A complete list of winners follows.

Novel: The Missing by Sarah Langan

First Novel: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Long Fiction: "Afterward, There Will Be a Hallway" by Gary Braunbeck

Short Fiction: "The Gentle Brush of Wings" by David Niall Wilson

Anthology: Five Strokes to Midnight, Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble, eds.

Collection: (tie) Proverbs for Monsters by Michael A. Arnzen and 5 Stories by Peter Straub

Nonfiction: The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre by Jonathan Maberry and David F. Kramer

Poetry: (tie) Being Full of Light, Insubstantial by Linda Addison and Vectors: A Week in the Death of a Planet by Charlee Jacob and Marge Simon --John Joseph Adams

BRIEFLY NOTED

The full trailer for Hellboy II: The Golden Army has gone live and is linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page; the movie opens July 11.

Executive producers Darren Swimmer, Todd Slavkin, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson will take over running The CW's Smallville next season after the departure of show creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, Variety reported.

George Lucas stopped by the Cartoon Network upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on April 3 to tout Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a half-hour computer-animated series that debuts Aug. 15 and will run for 30 episodes on Friday nights, Variety reported.

IESB.net has posted what it said is a list of the Decepticons under consideration for Michael Bay's Transformers 2, as well as a breakdown of supporting characters.

Smallville creators and executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar announced in an open letter that they will not stay on for the eighth season of the show on The CW, according to a report on ComingSoon.net.

Disney has picked up Self-Guided, a spec from writer Jared Stern, about a man who magically goes back to high school as a guidance counselor to give advice to his younger self, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Alvin and the Chipmunks on April 1 became the fastest-selling DVD of the year, selling more than 2.6 million discs in its first day in stores, Variety reported.

Weta and Disney Consumer Products have created a new line of statues and miniatures based on Disney's upcoming sequel film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, including Prince Caspian, the irrepressible warrior mouse Reepicheep and a Satyr, as well as a one-fifth scale minibust of the Minotaur and a collection of one-quarter scale miniature helmets.

Speed Racer, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, will screen as the closing-night film of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival on May 3, attended by several members of the cast.

Benderspink is adapting Last Blood, based on Bobby Crosby's comic book, about a band of vampires protecting the last human survivors of a zombie apocalypse, Variety reported; Last Blood was co-created by siblings Bobby Crosby and Chris Crosby, but Bobby wrote the comic book alone.

Latino Review reported a rumor--which it insisted was not an April Fools prank--that Stuart Beattie has written a spec screenplay called Halo: Fall of Reach, based on a novel of the same name by Eric Nylund, as a way to jumpstart the moribund film adaptation of the Microsoft video-game franchise.

V for Vendetta arrives on Blu-ray disc on May 20, Warner Home Video announced; the new disc will feature extras including the In-Movie Experience, commentaries, documentaries and deleted scenes.

Paramount Home Entertainment will release producer J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield on DVD on April 22; the disc includes special features such as commentary by director Matt Reeves, alternate endings, a "making-of" featurette and more.

Country star Trace Adkins will make a ghostly appearance opposite Kelsey Grammer in David Zucker's independent Christmas comedy American Carol, according to The Hollywood Reporter; Jon Voight, Leslie Nielsen and Dennis Hopper have cameos in the takeoff on Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale.

Senator Entertainment has acquired distribution rights in North America, Germany and Spain to the SF thriller Splice from writer-director Vincenzo Natali, Variety reported; the film, which stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, revolves around two scientists who undertake illegal genetic experiments and create a new species fusing human and animal DNA.

A viral Web site has gone live to promote The Ruins, the upcoming SF horror movie, which opens April 4.

A new HD TV spot has gone live for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

Sega of America posted a new Web site for The Incredible Hulk, its upcoming third-person action video game, which debuts in June in connection with the upcoming feature film of the same name, which opens June 13.