Del Toro Talks Hobbit

Director Guillermo del Toro told fans that there has been "a lot of movement" in talks to bring him on board to direct the Peter Jackson-produced two-part The Hobbit movie, but that nothing is firm yet.

Writing on the official bulletin board for del Toro's upcoming sequel film Hellboy II: The Golden Army, del Toro said: "Whew. Not yet. But there has been a lot of movement. And for the last few weeks there has been a lot of creative/cast/crew/visual talks and agreements, and we have witnessed great progress in areas that I cannot disclose or that have already leaked from other sources."

Del Toro added: "I am dying to share news, but I have to be patient and wait until the papers are done and my attachment is real. Nevertheless, a lot of progress in defining the films, their cast and crew. And, may I add, we are all happily in synch about all creative aspects so far and all willing and eager to move forth."

Del Toro also promised more news about Hellboy II in the next couple of weeks, as well as something at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July.Lost Spoilers Revealed

Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, executive producers of ABC's Lost, offered reporters major spoilers for the remainder of the fourth season, which resumes with new episodes on April 24.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters on April 17, they revealed that the conflict between Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) will reach a head in the season finale; that viewers will learn more about the fate of Claire (Emilie de Ravin); and that viewers will learn more about what happened to Rousseau (Mira Furlan) and Karl (Blake Bashoff), who were shot by an unknown assailant and left for dead in the last original episode to air, "Meet Kevin Johnson."

Also, Cuse promised that viewers will see the smoke monster again in the first new episode back. In upcoming episodes there will be more of the mysterious Jacob, and viewers will also finally learn more about the four-toed statue.

As for the two-part fourth-season finale, "There's No Place Like Home," the producers said there was no way they could squeeze in all the story they wanted to tell without expanding the final episode to two hours.

"We had an eight-hour story plan that got condensed down to five initially because of the strike," Lindelof said. "And in trying to cram all that story around the finale, the rubber hit the road. And we realized that it all felt very rushed and we were short-changing our emotional moments. You know, our character moments. So we read the 80-page first draft of hour two and looked at each other and said, 'There's no way we're going to be able to cut this down to a 55-page script. Why don't we expand it to 100 pages?'"

The final three hours will deal with the romantic triangle of Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Jack and Sawyer (Josh Holloway). "All we can say is Sawyer is not one of the Oceanic Six, and Jack and Kate are," Lindelof said. "Obviously there will be a huge focus in these final three hours of the show that comprise the finale in terms of how that series of events transpires and what ultimately happens to Sawyer, and it's all on the axis of the love triangle. We think that both fans of Sawyer and Kate--otherwise known as the 'Skaters,' from what I am told--and Jack and Kate--the 'Jaters'--will have a bounty of interesting romantic scenes."

As for that standoff between Jack and Locke? "I think Locke and Jack, to us right from the beginning, represented the two significant philosophical poles of the show," Cuse said. "Jack was the ultimate empiricist, and Locke was the person who believed his fate and destiny were all tied up in the magic and mystery of this island. And the conflict between those two guys is really the central conflict on our show. So that's a theme we continue to explore. And there's a big culmination of that that takes place in this season's finale."

Beyond that, the series will be "revisiting the emotional idea" behind the kiss that Jack and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) had early in the season, possibly in the May 1 episode, Lindelof said.

"There are definitely some very large and seismic events that will happen to our castaways between now and the end of the season," Cuse said. "And by the end of the season some people's fates will be clear, and others will not be so clear."

Lost returns with "The Shape of Things to Come," the first of five new episodes, on April 24 in a new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Part one of "There's No Place Like Home" will air on May 15. The two-hour second part will air on May 29 at 9 p.m.

(Because of the writers' strike, the fourth season was shortened by two hours, which will be bumped into the show's fifth or sixth season.) --Kathie HuddlestonNew Hero Rumors Posted

Moviehole.net reported rumors about a proposed film version of TV's The Greatest American Hero.

Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that producers are seeking an actor to play Ralph Hinkley, the teacher-turned-superhero originally played by William Katt in the 1980s TV series. (Owen Wilson is no longer attached, the site reported.)

The movie will also differ greatly from the series and will be more comedic, the site said. And Hinkley's superpowers will include the ability to burst into flame, a la the Human Torch.Potter's Rowling Testifies

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling testified before a packed New York courtroom on April 14 in her lawsuit to block publication of a Potter lexicon, telling a judge that the book amounts to a "wholesale theft" of nearly 20 years of her hard work, the Associated Press reported.

"We all know I've made enough money. That's absolutely not why I'm here," Rowling told the judge in U.S. District Court.

The British author sued Michigan-based RDR Books last year to stop publication of Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon, claiming copyright infringement. Vander Ark runs the popular Harry Potter Lexicon Web site, and RDR wants to publish a print version of the site and charge $24.95.

Rowling claims the book is nothing more than a rearrangement of her own material and told the judge it copied so much of her work that it amounted to plagiarism.

"I think it's atrocious. I think it's sloppy. I think there's very little research," Rowling testified. "This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work."

The non-jury trial will be decided by U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson Jr., who must determine whether the use of the material is legal because Vander Ark added his own interpretation, creativity and analysis. The testimony and arguments could last most of the week.X-Files's Duchovny Gets Back

David Duchovny, who reprises his most famous role in the upcoming The X-Files: I Want to Believe, told reporters that the sequel movie will return the franchise to its roots.

Speaking during a break in filming on the movie's set in Vancouver, Canada, last February, Duchovny said: "The themes are the same of what the show always was. The themes are about belief and faith and about the relationship between Mulder and Scully and how that's developed over the past four or five years the show's been off the air." (It's actually six.)

Duchovny again plays Fox Mulder, the former paranormal investigator and FBI agent, who is now a fugitive living on his own in a ramshackle house in the woods outside Washington, D.C. His former partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), has also moved on, "as if they've been living, you know, as we've all been living," Duchovny said. "They've not been stuck in time. I don't know if [series creator and director] Chris [Carter] mentioned that. But, you know, they've moved on in some fictional realm just as we all have. And yet their issues remain the same."

SCI FI Wire was among a group of reporters who observed filming on the sequel last winter, which offered a glimpse at a few sets (including Mulder's house) and a new look for Mulder, at least early in the movie.

Carter, a bit older but still the same former surfer, was dressed in a navy down vest and jeans and chatted informally with reporters in the craft services tent, where his black standard poodle watched intently as he munched on a cookie.

"This is more of a story we would have told in season three or four" of the series, Carter observed.

For his part, Duchovny said that he was excited to return to the franchise. "I was very excited to do it, and then as the date approached nearer, I started to wonder if I needed to work more, to kind of get back into that," he said. The challenge, he added, "was how to bring what I've learned in the last four or five years into this box." The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25. --Patrick Lee, News EditorX-Files Secrets Hinted On Set

Now that the title of The X-Files: I Want to Believe has been released, it can be revealed that SCI FI Wire and a group of journalists visited the movie's set in Vancouver, Canada, in February and saw that the source of that title will appear in a key scene: when Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) reunites with her former FBI partner, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny).

Mulder has been living in a house in the woods outside Washington, D.C., since 2002, the year the Fox TV series ended. Six years will have elapsed since the end of the show and the film sequel, set to open in July.

Mulder "was a fugitive, as you know at the end of the series," co-writer/producer Frank Spotnitz said during a tour of the set. "So there was really very little continuity, but there is this."

He points to the office, now in the old house, a loving re-creation of Mulder's FBI basement space.

"And there's the poster," Spotnitz said: a flying saucer over the words "I want to believe."

Spotnitz added: "I don't actually know where the ... set department got this poster from, whether it was one of the original Vancouver or L.A. posters. But it is one of the originals."

The house actually sits in a soundstage built from a converted ice rink in an abandoned amusement park in this Canadian city (the house set doubles one in a nearby town that was used for exterior shots).

The house has an office with features that will seem very familiar to X-philes: A bulletin board crowded with news clippings and a drawing of the creature from "Post-Modern Prometheus," sunflower seeds in a bowl on the old wooden desk, pencils stuck in the ceiling, a photo of Samantha on the desk and a basketball. There's even a fishtank in another room.

The office is the location of a scene being shot this day, in which Scully, dressed in a long camel coat with her red hair grown long, shows up at Mulder's house. He's facing away from her, sitting at his desk, clipping something from a newspaper. He stands, turns to face her and walks as he speaks over to the wall, where the poster comes into frame.

Spotnitz and X-Files creator Chris Carter remain coy about the movie's storyline, saying only that it picks up the characters in real time and will stand on its own rather than pick up the show's arcane mythology.

"I'd say we're trying to scare the pants off of you, like a really good episode of X-Files," Carter says during a break in filming. "It's not a mythology episode, but it [deals with] the characters' lives, what they've been through, their relationship and the arc of the show." The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25. --Patrick Lee, News EditorX-Files Called I Want To Believe

The title of the second X-Files movie is official: The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

The subtitle is well known to fans of the venerable SF series: It's the motto on the poster hanging on the wall of FBI Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny).

Not only does it reflect the paranormal investigator's philosophy, it also appears in one of the sequel's few known lines of dialogue, part of a trailer unveiled at the William S. Paley Television Festival last month: "Let's just say I want to believe," Mulder responds in answer to the question "Do you believe in these kind of things?"

The title may also reflect a return to the show's stand-alone storylines and away from its mythology, something that writer/producer Chris Carter has promised.

The sequel's code name during production was The X-Files: Done One, meaning that the producers had already "done one" movie and were now doing another.

The sequel has wrapped and is in post-production with an eye to a July 25 debut. Piranha Will Eat In 3-D

French horror auteur Alexandre Aja, who is helming a remake of the camp 1978 horror film Piranha, told reporters that the movie will be made in 3-D and will push the limits of on-screen gore.

The prospect of directing the first R-rated live-action 3-D movie was "the only reason that we're making that movie," Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) told a group of journalists in an edit bay at Paramount Studios, where Aja is putting the finishing touches on his upcoming Fox supernatural thriller Mirrors. Aja added: "We are thinking, ... let's imagine, like, a real horror movie, a real R-rated movie, in 3-D. That would be the ultimate experience. That would be the ultimate immersion of the audience into the nightmare."

Aja, who first garnered attention among horrorphiles for his graphic French thriller Haute Tension (High Tension), is eager to push the boundaries of gore in Piranha, in which an earthquake releases a school of prehistoric piranha into a lake where a group of young people are celebrating spring break.

"There is ... a fun dimension in the real gore," Aja said. "I mean, we're going to explore that in Piranha. Piranha is super gore. It's like, we are ready to break all the records of blood used."

Aja plans to shoot Piranha at a real spring break destination, Lake Havasu in Arizona. The movie has a simple story, but can also be read as something of a green revenge tale, he added. "Basically, it's about fish killing and eating drunk, stupid college kids," he said with a laugh. "So it's really about that. Yes, it's fun. Yes, it's going to be about ... the revenge of the piranha. They messed up with the lake. They messed up with nature." He added that the movie will explore "what would be the ultimate scary thing that could happen to you. ... And that brings fun ideas of how to be really gory."

The film's fish will be created largely with computer imagery. Piranha is aiming for a July 2009 release. --Patrick Lee, News EditorMirrors Reflects On Horror

Alexandre Aja, who directed the upcoming supernatural horror film Mirrors, told reporters that the movie is not a remake of the 2003 South Korean movie Into the Mirror, but rather an original story that shares only that film's premise: What if your image in the mirror had a malevolent mind of its own and could do you harm?

"How many time a day [is] a man or woman ... watching himself or herself in the mirror?" Aja wondered in a group interview in an edit bay at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on April 17. He added: "We realize that we all have a different relation to the mirrors. ... People are upset about their reflection. People can't stand their reflection. ... When you look at yourself, sometimes you also look at yourself to check that you're still yourself, even if it's only in the mirror view."

Aja also screened some very spoilery footage from the movie, which is being released by 20th Century Fox, featuring star Kiefer Sutherland as a troubled ex-New York cop who takes a job as a security guard in the burned-out hulk of a cavernous department store in Manhattan (a former government building in Bucharest, Romania, doubled as the store). The footage featured some of Aja's trademark graphic violence (he gained fame with the French thriller Haute Tension and a remake of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes).

In a pre-title sequence, a frightened security guard runs through a subway station and ducks into an empty locker room with a huge mirror. When the man's reflection picks up a piece of glass and cuts his own throat, the man's throat opens up bloodily.

In another sequence, Sutherland seaches the empty department store for the source of a woman's screams. He enters a ruined dressing room and sees the screaming, burned and disfigured body of a woman in a mirror's reflection, though there is no body in the room itself.

In a third sequence, which takes place midway through the film, a woman lowers herself into a warm bath while her reflection remains in the bathroom mirror, watching her evilly. The reflection then commits a horrible act of graphic violence on herself, which manifests itself on the real woman.

"For me, ... what makes a great horror movie is when you have that thing inside you," Aja said. "You go to see the movie, and the movie reveals something that's going to follow you. ... We all have that fear of death, fear of the darkness, fear of the water."

Surprisingly, Aja said that the Motion Picture Association of America gave the film an R rating with no cuts, even with its graphic gore. "We're--in a very good way--surprised that they let us go with much more than we expected," Aja said.

Mirrors, which also stars Amy Smart and Paula Patton, opens Aug. 15. --Patrick Lee, News EditorMoore To Create Film Trilogy

Battlestar Galactica show runner Ronald D. Moore is making a major move to the big screen, signing with United Artists to create and write an SF movie trilogy, Variety reported.

UA's keeping details of the project under wraps.

Moore has written extensively for TV and film, with feature credits on the upcoming The Thing as well as previous credits on Mission: Impossible II, Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Generations.

Moore is the co-creator, writer and executive producer of SCI FI Channel's Battlestar, which airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.Cloverfield DVD Reveals Details

Michael Stahl-David, who starred in J.J. Abrams' monster movie Cloverfield, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming DVD release will give viewers a chance to catch some of the details they might have missed in the theatrical version.

"The momentum of it and the excitement of it will still be there," Stahl-David said in an interview. "But I also think it's a chance to enjoy some of the nuanced stuff and go back and see more of the world and the stuff that's hidden in it."

Stahl-David said that one of the things viewers can look out for this time is a brief clue in the background of the final scene in the movie, which flashes back to a date between his character, Rob, and his love interest, Beth, played by Odette Yustman.

While the two are on the Ferris wheel at Coney Island, an object can be seen falling from the sky into the ocean. Although this object may play a part in the mythology of the monster that later terrorizes Manhattan, many audience members missed it the first time around, including Stahl-David.

"They didn't even tell me about that," he said. "I didn't see it until the second time I saw [the movie], which was at the premiere. That's when I saw it. And I thought it was a glitch. I was like, 'What was that?' And I found out it was this whole thing that they'd planned."

Stahl-David also said that viewing the film on a television screen may lessen the feelings of motion sickness that affected some moviegoers in the theater. "I think there's a lot less of that, fortunately," he said. "I don't think it's going to be a problem on the DVD. I felt bad for those people who got sick. But it's totally different on a small screen."

Paramount has already green-lighted a sequel to the film based on its performance at the box office. What the story will be and whether it will feature any of the original cast members has yet to be decided.

"All I've heard is that they have some ideas that they're excited about, but they're in the early stages of it now," Stahl-David said. "But I would be very surprised if I did hear that they wanted me to do that, because they've got to find another way to come at it, I feel like. They want it to be as exciting as it was before. I think people have seen me running around enough." Cloverfield will be released on DVD April 22. --Cindy WhiteShrinking Grows On Ratner

Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) is in negotiations to direct Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment's remake of The Incredible Shrinking Man, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Brian Grazer is producing the project, which has Eddie Murphy attached to star.

An updated version of the best-selling novel and 1957 SF classic starring Grant Williams, Man is taking the comedic approach to the fantastical material, telling the story of a famous Las Vegas magician who is put under a spell that causes him to shrink. He must find a way to reverse the spell before he gets so small that he disappears.

Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay for the project, which had previously seen Pete Segal and Keenen Ivory Wayans in the director's chair. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Universal Blu-ray Slate Announced

Universal Studios Home Entertainment announced a new lineup of film and television properties arriving later this year on Blu-ray disc, including the second season of NBC's hit Heroes in August.

Heroes: Season Two drops on Aug. 26, Universal's first global Blu-ray release. Heroes Season One will drop on Blu-ray on the same day.

The Incredible Hulk will arrive on Blu-ray in time for the holidays, as will Wanted, the action-thriller from director Timur Bekmambetov; Hellboy II: The Golden Army, from director Guillermo del Toro; and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the newest installment in the hit franchise.

Blu-ray versions of the first two Mummy films, meanwhile, arrive in stores on July 22.

Also arriving in the summer are Blu-ray versions of Doomsday, End of Days and Land of the Dead, among others.

(Universal and NBC are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Magician Throws Tarot

SF and fantasy author Barth Anderson told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, The Magician and the Fool, deals with tarot, which has been in his life since the age of 12.

"I've thrown tarot for over 30 years," Anderson said in an interview. "Tarot history is a pet interest of mine, so the story is grounded in some of my own theories about how tarot generated, theories that I don't believe have been put forth anywhere else. It's also rooted in my own ideas about myth, ritual and the purpose that magic serves in human culture."

The Magician and the Fool follows two mysteries. "In one, Jeremiah Rosemont, a lapsed tarot historian, is on the verge of joining an ancient search for the oldest known tarot deck," Anderson said. "In the other, a Dumpster diver known only as Boy King has something that ancient malevolent forces want. The solution to each mystery lies in how the lives of these two sleuths intersect."

Anderson didn't want to cover old ground with the tarot material, so he added his own twist to the history behind it. "Placing tarot historically in Italy and Italy alone--not North Africa or Eastern Europe--with roots in the Roman Romulus-and-Remus myth, is [my invention]," he said. "I think I make a pretty good case for that, and if there's a tarot scholar who's made a similar connection, I've yet to come across it. Once the Romulus-and-Remus myth entered the picture, the rest of the story came into focus for me."

The magic in the book is ubiquitous and pervasive but largely unexplained. "I think that might bother many genre fantasy readers: Conventional wisdom demands that the fantasist explain how the magic works and what the rules are so that readers don't think that any old thing can happen," Anderson said. "But as a reader, I like being kept off-kilter: the surreal 'magic' of a David Lynch movie, for example. That seems more in line with how magic would feel: If you encountered it, you wouldn't know the rules. Even the adepts of The Magician and the Fool are mystified by their own selves and the magic they encounter." --John Joseph AdamsNBC U Nabs Dawson's Gemini

NBC Universal has signed a deal with Stan Rogow, Brent Friedman and Jeff Sagansky's Electric Farm Entertainment for the domestic rights to their upcoming Internet SF series Gemini Division, starring Rosario Dawson, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

NBC U also has acquired the rights to Electric Farm's next scripted online series, the zombie comedy Woke Up Dead.

Sony Pictures TV International has come aboard to co-produce and distribute the two series internationally on mobile, broadband and traditional TV.

Under the deal with NBC Universal Digital Studio, the 50 three-minute episodes of Gemini and Dead will run on various company Web sites, including NBC.com.

Gemini, eyed for a late-summer launch, stars Dawson as a New York cop who uncovers a global conspiracy involving the creation of simulated life forms that have assimilated into an unsuspecting population.

Dead centers on a USC student who wakes up underwater in the bathtub one morning and suspects that he might be dead. (NBC Universal also owns SCIFI.COM.)Abbess To Helm Universal's Code

Universal has tapped Shane Abbess to helm Source Code, an SF thriller that Mark Gordon's production company is producing for the studio, Variety reported.

The Australian director made Gabriel, his first movie, for less than $200,000. Screen Gems picked up the gothic SF thriller, which made $1.2 million in his native country.

Source Code is a time continuum story written by Ben Ripley. It once had Spider-Man 3's Topher Grace set to star.

(Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Warner Buys The Rapture

Warner Brothers has bought film rights to The Rapture, an upcoming SF novel by British author Liz Jensen, Variety reported.

The book, which will be published in the United States by Random House, centers on a peculiar young girl with the ability to predict natural disasters.

She teams with her psychologist and a physicist to stop an offshore drilling project off the coast of Florida that the girl is convinced will cause an apocalyptic earthquake.Thierot New Lead In Craven's 25/8

Jumper star Max Thierot will replace Henry Lee Hopper as the lead in Wes Craven's tentatively titled horror thriller 25/8 for Rogue Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

There were no creative differences between Craven and Dennis Hopper's son, who was set to make his screen debut as one of seven teens haunted by a killer who supposedly died when they were born. The 17-year-old actor contracted an illness common to fellow teens: mononucleosis, the trade paper reported.

Newcomers Nick Lashaway, John Magaro and Paulina Olszynski have also joined the cast, and Raul Esparza is in talks to play the film's serial killer. (Rogue is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Continuum July Release Confirmed

MGM confirmed a July 29 release date for the second of its upcoming Stargate SG-1 straight-to-DVD movies, Stargate: Continuum, which will also be released on Blu-ray disc.

In the action-adventure movie based on the long-running SCI FI Channel series, members of SG-1 find themselves returning to a world where their history has been dramatically altered.

Continuum brings back original SG-1 star Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O'Neill, along with series regulars Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Claudia Black, Beau Bridges and Michael Shanks.

Continuum was filmed partly in the Arctic and is the most ambitious Stargate production yet.

The disc will also feature commentary from producer/writer Brad Wright and director Martin Wood, as well as three making-of featurettes that explore how the U.S. military provided the production with a Navy nuclear submarine and F-15 fighter jets, what it was like shooting in the Arctic and how science and science fiction collide.

Stargate: Continuum will carry a suggested retail price of $26.98 (DVD) and $39.98 (Blu-ray).Exhibit Honors 007's Fleming

For Your Eyes Only, the first major exhibition devoted to British author and James Bond creator Ian Fleming, opens at London's Imperial War Museum on April 17 to mark the centenary of the writer's birth. The exhibit runs until March 1, 2009, the Reuters news service reported.

On display is Fleming's desk from his Jamaican home, Goldeneye, where he wrote his Bond books; a jacket he wore during a raid by British forces on a French port in 1942; several Bond manuscripts; and props from the blockbuster film franchise based on the books.Orphan Channels Inner Teen

SF author Robert Buettner told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Orphan's Journey, contains many things his inner teenager loves: Halo-style body armor, "gigundous" spaceships, dinosaur cavalry and sea monsters.

"But, like Lance Armstrong says about cycling, 'it's not about the bike,'" Buettner said in an interview. "Technology and world-building exist to glue together the essence of all effective fiction: what characters will do next and why."

In the novel--the third of Buettner's Jason Wander series--covert military adviser Jason Wander cowboys up once too often and gets exiled by the Army to babysit a mothballed, captured starship. "But Jason ends up marooned light-years from home, hip-deep in slave traders and locomotive-sized monsters," Buettner said. "To extricate himself, he has to lead a planetful of blood-feuding, pre-industrial nomads to victory over the scourge of the universe. Then things get worse."

Books one and two of the series show Jason as a teenage recruit going through the military meat grinder and back and into adulthood. "I, like many others, had been there and done that, so I drew on life experience," Buettner said. "This book draws Jason into the cruelty of theater-level command, of deciding not whether soldiers will die, but which thousands will die to save other thousands. Few living humans, and certainly not this one, could draw on life experience for that. So I read endlessly about generals like Eisenhower and Rommel and Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, especially in their own words. Readers will decide whether the result rings true."

The most meaningful research Buettner had to do was character-related, so that Jason would credibly respond to the requirements of command. "But to get Jason there in fresh and interesting ways that take the series to a new level required ground-effects snowboards, Earth-orbiting resorts, alien starships, non-Newtonian physics, pre-industrial cultures and weapons, dinosaurs and more," Buettner said. "But Jason's first-person viewpoint is so spare and ironic that it was like stuffing 10 quarts of science into a five-quart can."

Book four, Orphan's Alliance, will be published in November. "Right now, I'm navel-deep in writing book five, Orphan's Triumph, out in spring 2009," Buettner said. "Writing generation-spanning space opera through a single, first-person-viewpoint character is like painting the Death Star with a toothbrush. But it's the most fun an author can have with clothes on." --John Joseph AdamsStrong Bad Now A Game

Telltale Games announced that it will release Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People in June, based on the popular Homestar Runner cartoon. The game will be released as an episodic adventure downloadable for the PC and through WiiWare (Nintendo’s soon-to-launch downloadable game framework). A new episode will be available every month.

"Strong Bad is a great game character because he tends to speak his mind and do whatever he pleases," executive producer Brett Tosti told SCI FI Wire. "I mean, he's the self-proclaimed sexiest and most awesome guy around. This bold attitude often gets him into awkwardly hilarious situations, which we plan to exploit to the fullest."

Homestar Runner is the creation of Matt and Mike Chapman and features characters such as Homestar Runner and Marzipan. Strong Bad--the aggressive strong man in a wrestling mask with a wry sense of irony--is an e-mail-correspondent host and designer of games involving the dragon Trogdor the Burninator. But in the game, he becomes the lead character in an adventure set in the Homestar Runner universe.

Each episode will feature Homestar Runner-inspired plots in point-and-click-style adventures filled with minigames, Strong Bad e-mails and prank phone calls. Players get to play Strong Bad, helping Homestar when it is charged with indecency.

The Chapmans are working with Telltale Games on the title and will also provide the voices. Videlectrix, the developer that created the peasant-mashing game Trogdor! and the text adventure Peasant's Quest, is also working with Telltale.

Lead designer Mark Darin said that he is excited to be working on the game. "Working with the Chapmans is about as awesome as you'd expect, assuming you expect it to be a lot like getting together with your crazy college buddies, and the next thing you know, someone pulls out a puppet!" Darin said. "It's so easy to get pulled into the Homestar Runner universe that exists in their heads when they're around. I think that's why this game feels so much like the cartoons." --Kyle AckermanChan Talks Li In Forbidden

Jackie Chan, who co-stars for the first time with fellow martial-arts star Jet Li in The Forbidden Kingdom, told reporters that he had tried unsuccessfully to work with Li for the past two decades.

"We talked about it a long time," Chan said in a news conference in Los Angeles over the weekend.

The two came close about 15 years ago with a contemporary police drama, Chan said. "It was very interesting," he said. "I'm the bad guy, and he's the cop. He follows me to Russia and all the way back to Beijing. There's some betrayal or something happens where even the police are looking for Jet Li."

But though the script featured a long trek across China and mixed humor and action, the project ultimately fell apart.

Now, as Li is in semi-retirement and Chan is doing fewer action films, the two find themselves billed together for the first time. And that led to some one-upmanship on the set.

"I just remember the first day we were on the set with [stunt coordinator Yuen] Woo-ping and showing the action sequence, Jet and me were going to take a look," Chan said. "I was standing there, I look, and I'm fast learning. I've been doing action for so many years. I look at him and say, 'Show me one more time.' He shows me one more time after that, and I say, 'OK, let's shoot without rehearsal.' I look at Jet, and he say, 'OK, let's shoot.' Then I suppose I just make fun of him: ... 'What? No rehearsal? OK, let's do it!'"

After the first take, director Rob Minkoff asked the seasoned martial artists--who were eager to show off who was faster--to slow down. "It was fun," Chan said. "Fighting with him is a very, very comfortable."

The Forbidden Kingdom also stars Michael Angarano, Collin Chou and Crystal Liu. It is scheduled to be released on April 18. --Mike SzymanskiKingdom's Angarano Learned Fast

The producer and director of The Forbidden Kingdom told reporters that the decision to cast 20-year-old Michael Angarano in the film depended on how quickly he picked up kung fu.

After all, Angarano (Sky High) was going to share scenes with martial-arts legends Jet Li and Jackie Chan. "He does a great job with the giant movie stars from the beginning," director Rob Minkoff said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week.

Minkoff said that he first noticed Angarano in the surfing movie The Lords of Dogtown, which co-starred the late Heath Ledger.

"After Rob saw that he was amazing in Lords of Dogtown, he got put into the search," producer Casey Silver said. "We met with him every stage of the game until we had seven actors. We sent these seven into martial-arts class, and four guys immediately washed out. Michael was in the last three."

Angarano had no previous martial-arts training. "We still were having a tough time [deciding], because each one was good and brought something different to the role," Silver said.

Each of the actors met with Chan personally in his trailer; he and Angarano hit it off immediately. "Michael had such a positive attitude," Chan said at the news conference. "It was really fun, and he did an amazing job."

Not all of the martial-arts moves went smoothly: During production, Angarano proudly sported a black eye and told everyone, "Jet Li gave me this black eye."

The Forbidden Kingdom also stars Collin Chou and Crystal Liu and opens April 18. --Mike SzymanskiChan Slams Olympic Protesters

Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, star of the upcoming The Forbidden Kingdom and an official Olympic Goodwill Ambassador, criticized people who are focusing on China's hosting of this year's summer games to protest the nation's policies, calling them "naughty boys."

"I'm [an] Olympic Ambassador," Chan said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "Olympic is Olympic and cannot mix with politics. Politics, for me, is love, peace, united. Everything is Olympic, no matter what country. I just don't know why every country, when they have [the] Olympics, a lot of people come out to oppose [them]."

Protesters have disrupted the Olympic torch relays in London and Paris and turned out in force in San Francisco to criticize China's policies with regard to Tibet and its human-rights record, among other things.

But Chan dismissed those protests. "I just want to say, please understand there are some naughty boys," he said. "They are [protesting] for no reason. They just want to show off on the TV."

Chan added that he wanted to avoid politics. "I said before, I go to make Chinese films and support Chinese Olympic and welcome everyone," he said in broken English. "I will be at the airport and shake hands, and I say, 'Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.'"

As an Olympic Goodwill Ambassador, the popular martial-arts star is promoting Olympic equestrian events and was pictured riding a horse in his hometown of Hong Kong.

The Forbidden Kingdom was filmed in mainland China. "It was a good location for me, because the last 10 years I haven't worked in China," Chan said. "I travel around, because when we make film we can travel to so many different locations." The Forbidden Kingdom opens April 18. --Mike SzymanskiKung Fu's Chan Slowing Down

Action star Jackie Chan told reporters that he's planning on doing fewer stunts and more voice-over work--like his recent role in the animated Kung Fu Panda--now that he's in his mid-50s.

Chan, who celebrated his 54th birthday on April 7, again plays a martial-arts master in the upcoming live-action The Forbidden Kingdom. But he admitted that he has been changing his style in the last few years.

"I just finished [a] movie called The Shinjuku Incident," Chan told a news conference in Los Angeles over the weekend. "It's just maybe 1 percent action. It's heavy, heavy drama."

Chan added: "I want a change. I want to be a real actor, not [an] action star. An action star's life is very short. I'm the myth. [The action star] Jackie Chan is a myth. I'm still surviving right now, but in 30 years, I'm the only one [left]. How long am I going to keep fighting? I have to change, change and change. I've been encouraged."

In The Forbidden Kingdom, Chan plays dual roles as Old Hop the pawnshop owner and as the Drunken Master, a role he first played several decades earlier. "I now realize that Drunken Master was 30 years ago," Chan said. "My master already passed away, so now I'm the master. It feels funny, really funny. What can you do?"

Chan was injured and endured bumps while making The Forbidden Kingdom. He said he wouldn't mind doing more voice-over work like his recent role as the Master Monkey in the upcoming animated Kung Fu Panda, which debuts June 6.

The Forbidden Kingdom also stars Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Collin Chou and Crystal Liu and is scheduled to be released nationwide on April 18. --Mike SzymanskiKingdom Mystifies Chan

Jackie Chan, the Hong Kong filmmaker who stars in the upcoming fantasy movie The Forbidden Kingdom, told reporters that he would never have made such a movie, even though it is based in Chinese mythology, and thinks that Americans are more interested in such subject matter than he.

The movie, directed by Robert Minkoff, is based on the legend of the Monkey King. "I would never make this kind of film," Chan told a news conference in Los Angeles over the weekend. "For me, those kinds of films are ridiculous. It doesn't make sense. It is American way, because they are for American audience, I think. The American audience is more interested in this kind of film, this kind of movie."

The story follows an American teen (Michael Angarano) who finds the lost fighting stick of the Monkey King at a Chinatown pawnshop. When the youth gets transported into an alternate universe, he meets up with the Monkey King (Jet Li), wise kung fu master Lu Yan (Chan) and the Silent Monk (also played by Li). The film was written by John Fusco (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron).

Chan confessed that he found the story confusing. "Why the drunken master messing with the Monkey King?" he wondered. "But, at the end, it's the children. The young boy, just like the writer, he loved American culture. This is a fantasy, just like a fairy tale. It's OK."

Chan, who appears in the film with fellow martial artist Li for the first time, added that the success of his American movies still mystifies him. "It's just like Rush Hour," he said. "I see it, and I say, 'My career is finished. ... This is ridiculous. Why do people like this kind of thing?' Then Rush Hour 2 [came], and so now whenever [an] American director or writer comes to present a script, if nobody is against it, then I just do it for [the] American audience."

The Forbidden Kingdom also stars Collin Chou and Crystal Liu and is scheduled to be released nationwide on April 18. --Mike SzymanskiDreamWorks Options Atlantis

DreamWorks has optioned the rights to Platinum Studios' comic book Atlantis Rising for a live-action feature adaptation to be produced by Star Trek co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Platinum chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg also will produce.

Created by Rosenberg, Atlantis is a five-part miniseries first published by Platinum Studios Comics in November. The fifth and final installment in the series, written by Scott O. Brown and drawn by Tim Irwin and Andy Elder, is due on comic-book shelves in late April.

In Atlantis, seismic disturbances at sea force world militaries to investigate the deepest part of the world's ocean, where an underground civilization emerges to wage war with planet Earth.

Atlantis marks the second property that DreamWorks has optioned from Platinum. DreamWorks, along with Universal, optioned the rights to Cowboys and Aliens last year and is currently developing the SF western adventure with Kurtzman and Orci and Imagine Entertainment.

Kurtzman and Orci are currently working on Transformers 2 and have teamed up with Star Trek director J.J. Abrams to executive-produce Fox's two-hour SF drama pilot Fringe. Airbender Gets 2010 Date

Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies will release M. Night Shyamalan's live-action big-screen adaptation of the popular animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender on July 2, 2010, Variety reported.

The studio has dropped Avatar from the title of the action-adventure movie so as to avoid confusion with James Cameron's 3-D epic Avatar, which 20th Century Fox opens Dec. 18, 2009.

Airbender is the first movie to claim that date.

The creators of the Nick TV series were heavily influenced by Japanese anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The storyline revolves around a young hero who has the ability to manipulate the elements and stop a ruthless nation from destroying three other nations.

Shyamalan, who will direct from a script he penned, said Miyazaki is one of the greatest storytellers in the world. Goldsmith Scores Stone's War

Film composer Joel Goldsmith told SCI FI Wire that he just finished scoring Stone's War, a zombie war film from a Finnish director, about an enemy that seems to rise from the dead.

Stone's War, directed and written by Marko Makilaakso, centers on a platoon of American and Finnish soldiers who keep killing the same Nazi-like soldiers.

"It's a great horror war film with a very different approach and an exciting twist, and I got inspired by listening to some of the old World War II films and music," Goldsmith said.

To come up with the music for the movie, Goldsmith said that he studied the soundtrack of Call of Duty 3, the video game, as well as scores by his famous composer father, Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), who died in 2004.

"I always go back and get inspired or listen to the music of some of my father's films so I can understand the era," Joel Goldsmith said. "You try to come up with the vibe and feel that the director is trying to portray."

The younger Goldsmith has previously written music for Stargate: The Ark of Truth and the upcoming Stargate: Continuum, which comes out this summer. --Mike SzymanskiWarbirds Blends War, SF

Brian Krause, who stars in the upcoming SCI FI original movie Warbirds, told SCI FI Wire that the film is set during World War II and blends action and SF.

Krause (Charmed) stars as an Air Force colonel being ferried on a secret mission across the Pacific when a pterdodactyl attack forces his bomber and its all-female crew to land on a remote island.

"On that island, we run into the Japanese, who have been terrorized by a prehistoric reptile, pterodactyls who have kind of taken over the island," Krause said in an interview. "We need to get off the ground and escape from the pterodactyls so that I can finish my mission. The woman I'm playing opposite, Jamie Mann, is part of the flying force. She has a whole issue about us taking off and risking losing the lives of her crew."

Krause's U.S. officer also has a Japanese counterpart, played by Japanese-American actor Tohoru Masamune. "And so we kind of have to work together--the Japanese, the Americans, the women--and find a middle ground to be able to save our lives and get off the island, all the while fighting the pterodactyls," he said.

Krause admitted that the cast and crew never left the United States, though Warbirds is set in the South Pacific. "We were out in Baton Rouge, La., in middle of summer, at night, out in the bush," Krause said. "We were sweating out in the bush at 3 in the morning. I hadn't been there since Katrina, and it was nice to be able to put some money back into the economy." Warbirds premieres April 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. --Ian SpellingLee's Legion Of 5 To Launch

The Vancouver, Canada-based animation company Rainmaker Entertainment is partnering with Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment Inc. and Brighton Partners to launch Lee's latest superhero creation, Legion of 5, as a series of animated feature films, Variety reported.

The movies will be supported by print and electronic comics, games, merchandising and online and mobile releases.

Details of Legion of 5 are being kept under wraps. Spider-Man co-creator Lee will receive the inaugural New York Comics Legend Award at New York Comic Con this weekend.Leomax Produces Grace

Leomax Entertainment is producing the psychological horror film Grace, starring Jordan Ladd (Grindhouse), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

First-time feature director Paul Solet adapted the film from his short film of the same name, which follows a woman who discovers her "unborn" child has come back to life.

Leomax will distribute domestically via its genre label Indigomotion with Anchor Bay Entertainment.Carhullan Wins Tiptree

Sarah Hall's novel The Carhullan Army has been named the recipient of this year's James Tiptree Jr. Award, given to works of science fiction or fantasy that explore or expand gender roles.

The award is named for the multiple award-winning SF/fantasy writer James Tiptree Jr., whose real name was Alice B. Sheldon and whose true gender remained a secret for nearly 10 years of her writing career.

In addition to the winner, a list of honorable mentions--which includes a mix of short fiction, novels, comics and anthologies--was also named: "Dangerous Space" by Kelley Eskridge; Water Logic by Laurie Marks; Empress of Mijak and The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller; The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu; Interfictions, edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss; Glasshouse by Charles Stross; The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper; Y: The Last Man, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Pia Guerra; and Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce.

The award will be presented at the 32nd annual Wiscon, May 23-26, in Madison, Wis.Galaxy Lighter Than Spindrift

Award-winning SF author Allen Steele told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Galaxy Blues, picks up where his previous novel, Spindrift, left off but is much lighter in tone.

"It turned out to be a release not to have take things quite so seriously for a change," Steele said in an interview.

By the end of Spindrift, humans had not only just met an extraterrestrial race, but had also discovered that there were many, many others out there in the galaxy. "[I wondered] how would we get along with the neighbors, or, more importantly, how would they get along with us," Steele said.

Galaxy Blues follows a young man, Jules Truffaut, as he unwittingly becomes a key player in the events following first contact between humankind and an advanced alien race. "I prefer to have main characters who are ordinary individuals rather than superheroes, and Jules Truffaut is no exception," Steele said. "Although he says, in the very first line of the novel, that he's responsible for the redemption of the human race, he's really something of an antihero: a space academy washout, a bit cocky and too sure of himself, someone who needs to be taken down a peg or two. When he screws up, he does so in a big way, and so it falls upon him to make amends for his mistakes."

In Spindrift, Steele introduced Kasimasta the Annihilator, a rogue black hole that's traveling through our neck of the galaxy. "Kasimasta plays a larger role in Galaxy Blues, so I spent a lot of time researching these things," Steele said. "Absolutely fascinating. I may write about them again."

When Steele finished writing Galaxy Blues--which is set in the same milieu as his popular Coyote books--he found that it posed new questions that begged to be answered. "So I'm returning to Coyote for a planned duology: Coyote Horizon, which I'm close to finishing, and Coyote Destiny, which will bring the entire series to a close," Steele said. "Or at least I think it will. I have a tendency to change my mind about these things." --John Joseph AdamsGhost Will Live In 3-D

DreamWorks has acquired rights to the Japanese manga Ghost in the Shell and plans to adapt the futuristic police thriller as a 3-D live-action feature film, Variety reported.

The story follows the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.

Created by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three video games. The second anime film, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, was released in the United States by DreamWorks in 2004.

Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul of Seaside Entertainment are attached to produce and brought the project to the studio. Jamie Moss has been tapped to write the adaptation.ABC Confirms More Lost

ABC confirmed that it has ordered an additional hour of Lost and that the SF hit's two-hour season-four finale will air May 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

ABC's announcement on April 14 confirmed a rumor first reported by TV Guide columnist Michael Ausiello. The additional hour brings to 14 the number of hours in Lost's strike-truncated fourth season.

ABC noted that Lost will be pre-empted on May 22 due to a special two-hour Grey's Anatomy season finale.

Lost returns with the first of five new episodes on April 24 in its new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m.Moore Headlines Bunraku

Demi Moore will star alongside Woody Harrelson in Bunraku, a fantastical independent movie from Snoot Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Written and directed by Guy Moshe, Bunraku follows a man (Josh Hartnett) on a revenge quest who finds himself in an even bigger fight than he bargained for.

The film is set in an original universe, a la Sin City, and draws from a mixed bag of genres, including puppets, origami, comic books, video games and German expressionism.

Moore plays the enslaved concubine of a warlord who is forced to marry her captor. Harrelson plays a bartender.

Snoot's Keith Calder and Jessica Wu, Nava Levin of Picturesque Films and Ram Bergman are producing, with shooting scheduled to take place in Europe.Compton Nominees Named

Nominees have been announced for this year's Compton Crook Award, which is given to the best SF, fantasy or horror debut novel of the year by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. The winner will be announced at Balticon 42, May 23-26, in Baltimore.

The nominees are The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie; The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald; The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss; Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin; and One Jump Ahead by Mark L. Van Name.

The award is named after Towson State College professor of natural science Compton Crook, who wrote SF under the name Stephen Tall. Crook died in 1981, and the award was first presented in 1983. The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize. --John Joseph AdamsBone Is Powered By The Dead

SF and fantasy author John Meaney told SCI FI Wire that his latest book, Bone Song, was inspired by a conversation he had about the way some places hold a cold, haunted atmosphere.

"I was gripped, as I spoke, by youthful memories of visiting mass graves in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg)," Meaney said in an interview. "They're a relic of World War II, in which each plot, labeled only by the year of death, contains the bones of a thousand people."

But the book is not entirely grim, Meaney said. "I love the mystery genre and the dark humor that cops use to face hard situations. ... That's something which threads its way through Bone Song," Meaney said. "This book was the most fun to write of all my novels. There was no research involved, because I made the whole thing up! Isn't that great? But without visiting New York so much, I could never have dreamed Tristopolis into being."

Tristopolis is a city beneath an always-indigo sky, where purple taxis drive beneath stone towers, crouching gargoyles sometimes take flight, and elevators are raised by imprisoned wraiths. "Necroflux reactors, powered by the bones of the dead, provide warmth and light," Meaney said. "But the bones contain fragmented memories, etched during life, replayed in chaotic torment. Like every other inhabitant, Detective Lieutenant Donal Riordan prefers not to think about what happens after death."

Donal's assignment is to protect a diva who is about to perform in Tristopolis. "Her life is at risk, because certain collectors know that artistes' bones contain exquisite memories, addictive trance states, and why would they wait for natural death when they have dark mages to help them?" Meaney said. "Conspiracy hides inside the establishment, and Donal joins a task force whose commander is a beautiful, ice-cold zombie, fighting corruption that reaches beyond Tristopolis into other lands of this strange, alternate Earth."

The sequel, Dark Blood, is already out in the United Kingdom and is due soon in the United States, where it might be called Black Blood instead. --John Joseph AdamsLaBeouf Enters Dark Fields

Shia LaBeouf (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) has signed on to star in Universal's SF techno-thriller Dark Fields, Variety reported.

Neil Burger (The Illusionist) will direct the movie, which is based on Alan Glynn's 2002 novel The Dark Fields.

The story centers on a young man who comes into possession of the ultimate smart pill and the events that ensue.

Leslie Dixon (Hairspray) adapted the screenplay and will produce. Dixon acquired the material and wrote the script for less than her usual quote in exchange for having more control over the project.

(Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Fox OKs Moore's Virtuality

Fox has given the green light to Virtuality, a two-hour backdoor SF pilot from the mastermind behind SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The project, from Universal Media Studios and producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun, is set aboard the starship Phaeton on a 10-year journey to explore a distant solar system. To help the 12 crew members endure the long trip and keep their minds occupied, NASA has equipped the ship with advanced virtual-reality modules, allowing them to assume adventurous identities and go to any place they want. The plan works until a mysterious bug is found in the system, the trade paper reported.

Virtuality is a brainchild of Braun, who shaped the idea with Berman, his producing partner at BermanBraun.

The two approached several writers, including Moore, who sparked to the premise and quickly developed it into what became the concept for Virtuality. He brought with him Battlestar writer-producer Michael Taylor. The two penned the script and are executive-producing the project with Berman and Braun.

Under BermanBraun's first-look deal with NBC Universal, Virtuality was pitched to UMS and NBC. UMS, which also produces Battlestar, quickly came on board. After NBC passed on the project, considered to be too science fiction for the network, it was taken to Fox.

The project, slated to begin production in July, reunites Berman with Fox, where she served as entertainment president from 2001-'05.

(UMS, NBC and SCI FI are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Snyder To Helm Guardians Toon

Zack Snyder (the upcoming Watchmen) is set to direct Guardians of Ga'Hoole, an animated feature film based on the series of children's books by Kathryn Lasky, Variety reported.

Village Roadshow is making the film, and Warner Brothers will distribute.

The movie is set in the Forest of Tyto, where Barn Owls live in peace until their kingdom is threatened by an evil that could destroy their home.

The script was written by John Orloff (A Mighty Heart) and John Collee (Master and Commander).

The intention is to make the film in Sydney through Animal Logic, which worked with Village Roadshow and Warner on Happy Feet. The film is on a fast track and is likely to be ready by 2009 or 2010.

It is the first animated film for Snyder, who helmed the stylized hit 300.X-Files Vet Runs Raimi's Wizard

Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert have tapped The X-Files veteran John Shiban to executive-produce their upcoming syndicated fantasy series Wizard's First Rule, Variety reported.

Shiban, who is with The CW's Supernatural, will help translate Terry Goodkind's series of books into a weekly TV series. The project is set in a fantasy world of magic and wizards and focuses on the Seeker, a man who is destined to save the world, but not before battling a whole bunch of bad guys. The show begins shooting next month for a fall debut.Cloverfield Has Many Versions

Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams-produced monster movie, drops on DVD on April 22 in several special editions, depending on which retailer sells it.

At Suncoast and FYE stores, the movie will appear in limited-edition steel-book collectible packaging.

The Best Buy version will include a bonus disc entitled "TJ Miller's Video Diary," containing almost 30 minutes of exclusive behind-the-scenes footage with "Hud," one of the film's characters.

Kmart and Sears customers will get a free Cloverfield ringtone.

Those who buy the disc at Target will get a deluxe edition, with a "Rob's Goin' to Japan Party Mix" music CD.Men Scribe Commits Timecrimes

United Artists has recruited Timothy J. Sexton to write Timecrimes, the adaptation of Nacho Vigalondo's Spanish-language SF film Los Cronocrimenes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Steven Zaillian and Agnes Metre are producing the feature, a noirish thriller about a man who travels back in time half an hour to prevent a serious crime.

UA picked up the remake rights back in January, when the original film--for which Magnolia holds the U.S. distribution rights--played the Sundance Film Festival.

Sexton previously worked on the SF movie Children of Men, which was nominated for an Academy Award. DeVito To Woo Rome's Bell

Danny DeVito will woo Kristen Bell in Disney's fantasy romantic comedy When in Rome, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Mark Steven Johnson is directing Rome, which centers on a love-starved New York curator (Bell) who steals magical coins from a famous Roman fountain but soon finds herself in a bizarre situation when she is pursued back to New York by a band of aggressive suitors, the very people whose coins she took. DeVito will play one of the suitors.

DeVito joins a supporting cast that already includes Will Arnett, Josh Duhamel, Jon Heder, Anjelica Huston and Dax Shepard. The studio shoots this month in New York.BRIEFLY NOTED

Marvel Comics has signed a deal to turn one of its superheroes, the Black Panther, into a prime-time animated series for BET, starting early next year, Variety reported.

Battlestar Galactica executive producer David Eick is expanding his role in the NBC universe, signing a two-year overall deal with the studio, Variety reported.

Hazel Court--an English actress who co-starred with the likes of Boris Karloff and Vincent Price in popular horror movies of the 1950s and '60s such as The Raven, The Curse of Frankenstein and Devil Girl From Mars--has died, the Associated Press reported; she was 82.

High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale is in talks with United Artists to star in a remake of the 1989 movie Teen Witch, in which she would play Louise Miller, the unpopular girl who discovers that she's a descendant of witches, Variety reported.

Harry Lennix (The Matrix Revolutions) has joined the cast of Joss Whedon's Fox pilot Dollhouse, playing an ex-cop who serves as a guard/bodyguard for Echo (Eliza Dushku), Variety reported.

Entertainment Weekly published a story about the creative differences over the creation of The Incredible Hulk between Marvel and star Edward Norton.

A new sneak peek at the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer and a behind-the-scenes featurette about the upcoming Incredible Hulk have gone live and are linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

Ollie Johnston, the last of Walt Disney's original team of animators, known as the Nine Old Men, has died at the age of 95 in Sequim, Wash., the Reuters news service reported; Johnston worked for Disney for 43 years, drawing characters for animated Mickey Mouse short films before contributing to such classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Peter Pan and The Jungle Book.

The Writers Guild of America West's Animation Writers Caucus has awarded its animation writing award for lifetime achievement to writer-director Brad Bird (The Incredibles), who will be honored at the WGA West's Honorary Awards Luncheon on April 23 in Los Angeles, Variety reported.

SyFyPortal reported a story about the remake of Troll, which features a character named Harry Potter Jr. No, not that Harry Potter.

A&E has posted a new Web site and trailer with behind-the-scenes footage for its upcoming SF miniseries The Andromeda Strain, which premieres Memorial Day weekend.

Time Warner is cutting 450 jobs at New Line, the studio that created A Nightmare on Elm Street and achieved its greatest success with the Lord of the Rings films, Variety reported; New Line will keep 40-50 employees as it is folded into Warner Brothers.

Grindhouse star Rose McGowan told MTV.com that she's still in line to play the title character in Robert Rodriguez's proposed Barbarella remake and that the movie is heavily into preproduction: "Half of the sets have been built. The costumes are done."

Boston.com reported that Gisele Bundchen is being considered for the female lead in a proposed fourth Austin Powers film and has been given the script; her agent will reportedly meet soon with star Mike Myers and director Jay Roach.

io9 has posted a bootleg teaser trailer, from a Polish source, for George Lucas' upcoming computer-animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

A new two-minute clip featuring Robert Downey Jr. in Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie has been posted to YouTube.

Sean Astin, Giovanni Ribisi, Ron Perlman and Anjelica Huston are heading into the computer-animated Spirit of the Forest, an eco-fairy tale for Fantastic Films International and Dygra Films, according to The Hollywood Reporter; Astin and Ribisi play two gopher friends whose home is threatened when an evil businesswoman (Huston) plans to tear down their forest to build a highway.

DreamWorks has tapped screenwriter David DiGilio to adapt the Oni Press graphic novel The Damned, by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, about a Los Angeles detective who discovers that a new gang with ties to the supernatural has infiltrated the city, Variety reported.

Fox Animation has optioned the mummy-themed young-adult book The Anubis Tapestry: Between Twilights by Bruce Zick and plans a loose adaptation of the novel, which kicks off when a mummy's curse condemns Dr. George Henry's spirit to the Egyptian underworld, Variety reported.

A new Web site has gone live for the Wachowski brothers' upcoming Speed Racer movie, featuring the new two-minute international trailer.