Buffy Won't Spin Off In Fall
here will be no Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff series, at least not next fall, cast and crew of the UPN series told E! Online.
"Somewhere down the line," Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) told the site. "I reckon there will be a Buffy spinoff. There's no rush on my part, and I know the fans will wait."
The site also reported that Head and James Marsters (Spike) may make the transition to The WB's spinoff series Angel in the meantime. "I think maybe I will," Head said. "I talked to one of the writers about it and said it might be quite fun to bring me over there. It's such an open book, and that's what makes it so exciting."
"Yeah, I think I am," Marsters said. "Definitely, we don't know—but it is being talked about."
But other cast members were not sure. "I don't know, probably not," said Alyson Hannigan (Willow). "Right now I'm in talks for features and stuff, but nothing I can go into."
As for the upcoming Buffy series finale in May, the site said that it will deal with Angel (David Boreanaz) and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), as well as Spike. "I'm in the process of writing the script now," creator Joss Whedon told the site. "The show is about life, and the final statement on life is death. On this show, it's not even that. You want to pay homage to the fact that [Angel's] a big part of [Buffy's] heart, no matter what, without saying anything definite on what will happen for them in the future." Buffy airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Final Buffy Eps Slated
PN will wrap up Buffy the Vampire Slayer with five new episodes, starting April 15, featuring the return of former series regulars David Boreanaz (Angel) and Eliza Dushku (Faith) and guest star Nathan Fillion (Firefly).
Subsequent episodes will air April 29, May 6 and May 13, with the series finale on May 20.
This five-episode story arc will pit Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) against her most insidious and evil opponent ever, Caleb (Fillion), a depraved operative of the First. A final battle to the death will decide whether good or evil will prevail on Earth. Buffy airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Evil's Ash Rises Again
ruce Campbell—who voices Ash in the upcoming video game Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick—told SCI FI Wire that the game acts as a sequel to the Evil Dead films.
Campbell reprises his shotgun-toting, chainsaw-wielding character from director Sam Raimi's classic horror-film franchise.
"I'm happy to see Ash back again," Campbell said in an interview. "People don't realize this, but A Fistful of Boomstick is really Evil Dead, Part V. The games have the same characters, the same one-liners and the same scenario."
A Fistful of Boomstick will be released later this year by game publisher THQ Inc. for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms. "I just do the voice," Campbell said. "There's no motion capture or anything like that." But he added that the game remains faithful to the franchise.
"A Fistful of Boomstick is a way-cool game, and I'm not
just saying that," Campbell said. "They got complaints that the first game [Hail to the King] was pretty clunky or difficult or weird." Campbell added that his Serving Sara co-star Matthew Perry couldn't finish the previous game. "I said, 'Well, maybe you suck.' And he went into rehab the next day," Campbell joked. "But it's a pretty cool, improved game."
Campbell Screams In Brain
enre mainstay Bruce Campbell told SCI FI Wire that production will begin this summer on The Man With the Screaming Brain, an upcoming original SCI FI Channel film that he's writing, producing, directing and starring in.
It's part of a two-picture deal with SCI FI and Creative Light Entertainment, Campbell said.
The Man With the Screaming Brain centers on an uptown banker (Campbell) who suffers an injury to part of his brain, which is replaced with that of a Latino street hustler. "So what you've got is one guy with two brains, and they team up to form an unholy alliance and find the woman who killed them both and who is loose in the city," Campbell said in an interview. "So you've got this uptight, white Yuppie guy who's carjacking cars, and there's gunplay and pool playing and tequila involved. And that's all set amidst a mad scientist's quest."
Campbell said it's taken a while to get the project off the ground. "This time it came around through Creative Light, which is this group of young whiz-bangs in Beverly Hills who like putting modest-budgeted things together," he said. He added, "I'm going to go to Orlando [Fla.]
this summer to shoot it."
Fox Chases Battle
ox has optioned the movie rights to the SF comic-book series Battle Chasers, with Gil Netter attached to produce, Variety reported.
Stuart Hazeldine is negotiating to adapt the screenplay.
Created by Joe Madureira and published by DC Comics, Battle Chasers is set on a deadly alien world where humans battle for wealth and four very different super-powered warriors are forced to form an alliance to save their land from a corrupt king, the trade paper reported.
Singer Juggles X-Men
ryan Singer, director of the upcoming X-Men sequel, X2, told SCI FI Wire that he fell back on experience when figuring out how to juggle his huge cast of mutant superheroes.
"We had a very unique task in this movie," Singer said in an interview. "If not for having done The Usual Suspects and the first X-Men, I probably would not feel confident in servicing all the characters we've already established and all these new ones."
The sequel brings back the key X-Men and evil mutants from the first movie and introduces several new ones, in addition to a new villain and his henchmen. The trick, Singer said, is to build the movie around key characters. "It's not really an ensemble," he said. "There are key characters that have key relationships that are at the center of our story." The first X-Men focused on Magneto (Ian McKellen) and
Professor X (Patrick Stewart), as well as Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), he said. In the sequel, "it's juggled a little differently. But, again, there are central characters and central relationships."
Singer added, "It's hard to explain, but there's a certain finesse of accepting the fact that certain characters will be more prominent than others, but being truthful to all the characters and their relationships to the X-Men universe. It's become my obsession, to see how many characters I can actually pay off in a single movie." X2 opens nationwide May 2.
Wolverine To Seek Revenge
Web site has opened with a preview of Activision's upcoming X2 Wolverine's Revenge video game, the company announced.
The game, linked to the upcoming X-Men sequel film, X2, is due April 15 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, GameBoy Advance and PC.
The game allows players to assume the role of Wolverine, who must find the antidote to a deadly virus that has been activated within his body. The X2 movie is due in theaters May 2.
Furlong Works Out For Crow
dward Furlong told SCI FI Wire that he is preparing for his role in The Crow: Wicked Prayer by adopting a physical regimen and studying birds.
"I'm on this special diet, I'm working out and I'm looking at crows all the time," Furlong said in an interview.
Though he's focusing on birdlike characteristics, Furlong said that his main goal is to be an action hero in the tradition of original Crow star Brandon Lee. "I really want to be dressed up in leather and go kick the hell out of people with rock music in the background," he said. "I think it would be cool."
Furlong added the film will shoot in Salt Lake City and that he has not signed on for more installments. "I think I'm going to be just attached to one, because he goes and gets his revenge, and then he goes back to death land." Furlong also said that he's confident his sequel will play in theaters, though the previous one, The Crow: Salvation, went straight to video. "I would hope so," he said.
Furlong Wings It With Crow
dward Furlong told MTV.com that he will put on white face paint to appear in a fourth Crow movie.
In The Crow: Wicked Prayer, directed by Lance Mungia, Furlong plays a man who returns from the dead after being murdered by a group of bikers.
"The story is, like, people taking peyote," Furlong told the site. "It's crazy." He added that the story is simple. "I come in. I kill the bad guys. I'm the Crow. ... It's going to be dope!"
There is currently no release date for The Crow: Wicked Prayer. The last installment, 2000's The Crow: Salvation, was released straight to video.
Paxton Flies To Thunderbirds
ill Paxton, who will portray patriarch Jeff Tracy in the live-action adaptation of Thunderbirds, told SCI FI Wire that the film will be more of an action movie than an homage to the 1960s marionette series.
"They've retooled it as a live-action action-adventure, with some comedy for the Harry Potter crowd," Paxton said in an interview. "Most of the story revolves around the youngest son of my character. He wants to be a Thunderbird."
Paxton said that he begins filming in one month and has already adopted some of Tracy's characteristics. "I'm already starting to evolve into him," he said. "The haircut's getting shorter. I don't know if I'm up for the big eyebrows."
Paxton added that his only worry is that critics will make puns comparing his acting to the marionette animation of the original series. "I think they're going to say they haven't seen a performance this wooden since the original," he joked. Thunderbirds also stars Ben Kingsley as the Hood and Anthony Edwards as Brains. Jonathan Frakes directs, with an anticipated July 2004 release.
Dunst No Plain Mary Jane
irsten Dunst—who reprises the role of Mary Jane Watson in the upcoming sequel film The Amazing Spider-Man—told SCI FI Wire that moviegoers should expect a very different character.
"She's going to be a much stronger woman and empowered by herself and her sexuality and her choices in life," Dunst said in an interview. "She's going to be a very strong woman."
Dunst added, "I felt that Mary Jane was a little insecure in the beginning and didn't know what she wanted. Now she's taking hold of her life and her decisions and not letting Peter [Tobey Maguire] dictate how their relationship should go."
Dunst said that the sequel deals with loneliness and picks up the first film's theme of responsibility and great power. She added that she met with director Sam Raimi and the screenwriters last year, before any script was written. "[They] asked where I saw my character going and what I wanted," she said. "And they gave it to me. That's really nice, to be able to change things and to really be creatively involved in where you want your character to go. ... I think it's going to be better than the first one, for sure."
The Amazing Spider-Man starts production on April 12, with an eye to a July 2, 2004, release.
Bellar Anchors Exorcist
lara Bellar, who co-stars in the upcoming prequel film Exorcist: The Beginning, told SCI FI Wire that her character helps Father Merrin deal with his crisis of faith.
"My character's name is Rachel, and she's a Jewish woman who is from Europe and who survived a concentration camp ... during the second World War," Bellar said in an interview on the film's Rome set. Rachel is "now in Kenya in a small village, ... working for the Red Cross, and she devoted her life to saving people's lives."
Bellar—the French actress best known to SF fans as the nanny "mecha" in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence—added that her character becomes an anchor for Merrin, played by Stellan Skarsgard. "She's a survivor," Bellar said. "She inspires others. She didn't lose her faith. ... And Stellan's character lost his faith. ... It's somewhere inside of him, deep down, but it's still there. And she helps him to find it."
Bellar said that she was only 11 when she first saw the original 1973 Exorcist. "I remember not sleeping ever after for a week," she said. "It was very disturbing." Production on Exorcist: The Beginning, which is directed by Paul Schrader, has wrapped, and the film is eyeing a July 18 release.
Finding Faith In Exorcist
tellan Skarsgard, who plays Father Lankester Merrin in the upcoming prequel film Exorcist: The Beginning, told SCI FI Wire that his character experiences a crisis of faith.
"He's struggling with it," Skarsgard said in an interview on the film's set in Rome. "And there are people who want to help him to get it back, like another young priest, played by Gabriel Mann, and a woman who has a past experience from a concentration camp, played by Clara Bellar."
Skarsgard plays Merrin during and shortly after World War II in the film, which is a prequel to 1973's original Exorcist. Merrin loses his faith in a wartime incident in his native Holland, then travels to Africa, where he works as an archaeologist. "He's full of guilt," Skarsgard said. "He can't really get out of that. But towards the end, of course, something happens, and he eventually puts on his cassock again and goes to fight the devil." Exorcist: The Beginning has wrapped production and is eyeing a July 18 release.
Jackson To Helm Kong Remake
ord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will helm a remake of the classic creature feature King Kong for Universal Pictures, the studio announced.
Jackson, who has long eyed a remake of the 1933 giant-ape movie, will begin work on Kong following the December release of the third Rings film, The Return of the King. As with Rings, Jackson will shoot on location in his native New Zealand.
Jackson will write the Kong screenplay with his partner, Fran Walsh, and Rings co-writer Philippa Boyens, the studio announced. Jackson and Walsh will produce the film under their WingNut Films banner. Universal Pictures will release King Kong worldwide in 2005.
Jackson, Walsh and Boyens will base their screenplay on the original story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, which became the RKO Radio Pictures film directed by Cooper and Ernest B. Schoesdack.
Jackson will employ current film technology and expand on the chapters of the tale that take place on Skull Island, the studio said.
Rings' two-time Oscar-winning effects house, Weta, Ltd., will handle the visual effects.
King Kong has already been remade, in 1976, in a version notable for marking the film debut of Jessica Lange. Universal Pictures is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
ABC Yanks Miracles
BC's supernatural series Miracles has been pulled from the network's schedule for the remainder of the season, Variety reported.
Miracles had trouble finding an audience from the beginning, and after six airings, it averaged a 2.5 rating/6 share among adults 18-49 and 6.5 million viewers overall, Nielsen reported to the trade paper.
Miracles starred Skeet Ulrich as a man who investigates unexplained phenomena. Cancellation was a foregone conclusion after the April 1 airing, when the show posted a dismal 1.8 rating in adults 18-49. Miracles came from Touchstone TV and Spyglass Entertainment. Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and David Greenwalt executive produced, the trade paper reported.
Stallone Rocks In Kids
obert Rodriguez, director of the upcoming sequel film Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, told SCI FI Wire that he cast Sylvester Stallone as the villain because of the actor's muscular persona.
In the third installment of the popular franchise, spy kids Carmen and Juni enter a video game created by an evil toy maker played by Stallone. "The video game the kids get stuck in is such an athletic sort of game that it made sense that he was the guy who made this game to take over your mind," Rodriguez said in an interview.
An added bonus for Stallone was the chance finally to make a film for his young children. "His kids love Spy Kids, and he really wanted to be in it, too," Rodriguez said. "And I called him about it. He said, 'I would love to do something my kids can see.'" Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over opens July 25.
Spy Kids 3 Gets Virtual
py Kids creator Robert Rodriguez told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming third film in the franchise started out life as a completely unrelated project.
The third installment in the popular children's series, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, puts heroes Carmen and Juni into the world of a video game.
Rodriguez originally conceived of the film as its own 3-D adventure in virtual reality. "And I thought, 'Well, heck. I'll make it a Spy Kids movie,'" he said in an interview.
With virtual sets simulating a video-game environment and 3-D technology developed by James Cameron, Rodriguez said he wants to distinguish the third and final Spy Kids film from its predecessors. "Each movie is a little different from the last," he said. "Give it a whole new identity, and it won't seem like just a rehash of one and two. It'll be like a whole different idea, and that's why I did it." Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over opens July 25.
Ruffalo Grows On 30
ark Ruffalo, who co-stars with Jennifer Garner in the upcoming fantasy film 13 Going on 30, told SCI FI Wire that his character has an unlikely romance with Garner's teen, who wakes up as a 30-year-old.
"You find out that she ended up being really mean to this kid who loved her [when she was 13]," Ruffalo said in an interview. At 30, "she wants to be friends with him, and he's like, 'Are you kidding me? You were horrible to me.'"
In part, the movie deals with starting all over again, Ruffalo said. And after playing an adulterous lover in XX/XY and a shady criminal in The Last Castle, Ruffalo embraced the chance to play the good guy. "I play a really nice guy," he said. "He's much sweeter, very stalwart and waits for her, very patient. He's more of the adult in this relationship." The film starts production in April.
Ruffalo Lights Up Sunshine
ark Ruffalo, who appears in the upcoming SF fantasy film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, told SCI FI Wire that he plays a lab technician who erases memories.
Jim Carrey stars as a man having memories of his ex-girlfriend wiped, but the lab technicians have a love story of their own, Ruffalo added.
"There's this whole other tertiary story going on, where the guy who's erasing Jim Carrey's memories is in love with another lab technician, and she's in love with our boss," Ruffalo said in an interview. "I play a lab technician who erases memories, and he's really kind of a nerdy, goofy guy who falls in love with this girl who doesn't love him back."
Oscar-nominated writer Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) wrote the script, and Ruffalo said the Kaufman tone shines through. "It's very Charlie Kaufman, but it's just really goofy and a little over the top. He's such a sap, this character." Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind opens in November.
Verhoeven Seeks Solace
aul Verhoeven (Hollow Man) is in talks to direct the supernatural thriller film Solace for New Line Cinema, Variety reported.
Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven) wrote the script, and Sean Bailey (The Core) is producing, the trade paper reported.
Solace centers on a psychic detective tracking a New York killer who leaves behind no clues.
Jedi Academy Due In Fall
ucasArts announced that it will release Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy for the PC and the Xbox gaming system in the fall.
The latest chapter in the video-game franchise comes from LucasArts and Activision, through its developer Raven Software.
Jedi Academy is the follow-up to Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, which was released in 2002. Jedi Academy features a new story and allows players the option of single-play or multiplayer modes. Players assume the role of apprentice in Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy, where they learn the power of the Force.
Columbia Preps Fantasy Films
olumbia Pictures is adapting two fantasy books by author Chris Van Allsburg for the big screen, Variety reported.
The studio just optioned The Sweetest Fig and hired Mark Andrus to adapt. The studio also hired Spider-Man writer David Koepp to adapt Zathura.
Fig is the tale of a fussy dentist who is paid with a pair of magic figs that can make dreams come true, the trade paper reported.
Zathura, which Columbia optioned before it was published last year, is similar to Jumanji in its tale of a board game that evokes a purple planet called Zathura, complete with meteors, robots and aliens.
Urban Rides To Riddick
arl Urban (Eomer in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) has joined Vin Diesel in the upcoming SF film The Chronicles of Riddick, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Thandie Newton (Mission: Impossible 2) is in talks to join the cast for writer-director David Twohy, the trade paper added.
Radar Pictures and One Race Productions are producing the film for Universal Pictures. Production begins June 9 in Vancouver, B.C., with Judi Dench and Colm Feore also starring, the trade paper reported.
Riddick continues the adventures of Diesel's character, who was first introduced in Twohy's 2000 film Pitch Black. The second installment finds Riddick, now a hunted man, in the middle of two opposing forces in a major crusade, the trade paper reported.
Feore plays Lord Marshal, a warrior priest who is the leader of a sect that is waging the 10th and perhaps final crusade 500 years in the future. Dench portrays Aereon, an ambassador from the Elemental race, an ethereal being who helps Riddick unearth his origins. Urban will play Vaako, a military commander under Lord Marshal. Newton would play Dame Vaako, the trade paper reported.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Rowling Wins Grotter Suit
arry Potter author J.K. Rowling won her court battle on April 3 to block the Dutch publication of a Russian novel about a girl wizard called Tanya Grotter after arguing it copied one of her best-sellers, the Reuters news service reported.
Rowling got an injunction from an Amsterdam court to stop publication of the first Western edition of The Magic Double Bass by Dmitry Yemets, which her lawyer said copied Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States), the news service reported.
Yemets, who has sold more than 500,000 books in Russia, had argued that his book was a parody of the Potter novels and that he trusted his readers to be able to tell the difference between Potter and Grotter. But the court rejected this argument, saying that the Russian book was an unauthorized adaptation of Philosopher's Stone and that its publication in the Netherlands would infringe Rowling's copyright, the news service reported.
Grotter publisher Byblos said it planned to fight the decision by taking the matter further in the Dutch courts in a bid to publish the Russian book in the Netherlands.
New Line Buys Time
ew Line Cinema has bought author Audrey Niffenegger's SF novel The Time Traveler's Wife for a film to be produced by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, Jennifer Aniston and Nick Wechsler, Variety reported.
The story centers on a man who has a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, appearing at different times in his life.
The author is a visual artist who teaches the art of book assemblage at Chicago's Columbia College Center for Book & Paper Arts. She wrote the novel, a loose modern retelling of The Odyssey, after being granted a fellowship last year, the trade paper reported.
Shankman Helming Enchanted
isney has tapped Adam Shankman (Bringing Down the House) to direct Enchanted, a live-action and animated fantasy film, Variety reported.
Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld will produce.
Scripted by Bill Kelly and rewritten by Rita Hsiao (Toy Story 2)and Todd Alcott (Antz), Enchanted begins as an animated tale about a peasant girl who meets and falls in love with a prince, but who is banished from the cartoon kingdom and lands in live-action New York, the trade paper reported.
New Galaxies Beta Begins
hase three of the beta testing began April 2 for the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies online role-playing game, Sony Online Entertainment announced.
Some 5,000 additional beta testers will be admitted to the game by April 4, and more will be added in the subsequent two weeks, the company said.
The goal is to reach 50,000 beta testers by early May. The game has no official release date yet.
WB Seeks Superhero
he WB has ordered six episodes of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, a tongue-in-cheek fantasy contest show from reality guru Bruce Nash and comic pioneer Stan Lee, for the 2003-'04 season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In the series, real people with homegrown ideas for original superheroes will face off in character before a panel of celebrity judges who have played onscreen superheroes.
Semifinalists will undergo a "superhero makeover," with a professional artistic gloss overseen by Spider-Man creator Lee, and will compete in various stunts and challenges that mimic comic books, the trade paper reported.
The winner will then be eligible to have his or her idea developed and expanded by Lee's team, possibly for a comic-book spinoff. The producers will conduct and film open auditions around the country in coming weeks, the trade paper reported.
Phantom Raoul Cast
ndrew Lloyd Webber and director Joel Schumacher have set Patrick Wilson in the role of Raoul in Phantom of the Opera, the screen adaptation of Lloyd Webber's musical, Variety reported.
The casting comes as Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group preps the film for an October start.
Wilson will play the boyfriend of the young singer who becomes the obsession of the phantom, the trade paper reported. Producers are still seeking an actor to play the title role, which was originated onstage by Michael Crawford; Antonio Banderas, Hugh Jackman and Nicolas Cage have all been mentioned.
Rumored contenders for the lead female role of Christine include Dawson's Creek star Katie Holmes and Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries), the trade paper reported. Lloyd Webber is producing the film from a script that he wrote with Schumacher.
Kondo Wins Asimov Award
uthor Yoji Kondo, who publishes under the pseudonym Eric Kotani, won the 2003 Isaac Asimov Memorial Award, presented by the New York Science Fiction Society (Lunarians Inc.) at Lunacon on March 21, Locus Online reported.
The award honors those who have contributed significantly to increasing the public's knowledge and understanding of science, organizers said.
Past recipients of the award include Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, Arthur C. Clarke, Fred Pohl, Ben Bova and others, the site reported.
Southeastern Nominations Sought
he nominating process for the second annual Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement Award began April 1, organizers announced.
The award is designed to honor achievement in science fiction, fantasy or horror by individuals born or living in the southeastern United States.
The SESFA is administered under the auspices of the online science fiction magazine scifidimensions. Fans from all over the world choose the award annually.
Pirates Game Setting Sail
isney Interactive and game developer Bethesda Softworks (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind) will publish a role-playing title based on the upcoming Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Variety reported.
The video game will be developed for the PC, the Xbox and the PlayStation 2.
Players will make their way through the world of 17th-century buccaneers as either law-abiding merchant seamen or lawless pirates, hiring crew, finding treasure and sailing ships, the trade paper reported.
The Disney movie, based on the long-running ride at Disneyland, is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom. Gore Verbinski (The Ring) is directing.
Disney Interactive also will have titles based on the upcoming Disney/Pixar Finding Nemo animated feature, debuting May 5, as part of its three-picture deal with publisher THQ, the trade paper reported.
Cameron's Mars On Hold
irector James Cameron told SCI FI Wire that he has put plans on hold for a fictionalized film about a manned expedition to Mars until NASA gears up space exploration again in the wake of the Columbia shuttle accident.
But the director added that the movie is still in his plans. "I only need to make that film sometime before we actually go [to Mars]," Cameron said in an interview.
Cameron plans to make a realistic film about the first manned mission to Mars, without fantasy elements, as an inspiration. "It's not a wild flight-of-fantasy type science-fiction film," he said. "It's more like a directly iterative science fiction film that says, 'This is how we are going to really go and really do the most adventuresome thing the human race can conceive of doing.' This isn't about light sabers and flying faster than the speed of light and meeting cool three-eyed aliens from another galaxy. This is stuff we can do. We just have to decide to do it."
Hudson Bones Up On Skeleton
ate Hudson is in preliminary talks to star in Universal Pictures' supernatural horror film Skeleton Key for director Iain Softley (K-Pax), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Hudson would play a caretaker who works with an elderly couple in their mysterious New Orleans home, the trade paper reported.
Universal picked up the project as a spec script in the fall from screenwriter Ehren Kruger (The Ring), with Softley already attached, the trade paper reported. Daniel Bobker is producing the project.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Sony Readies Meatballs Toon
ony Pictures Animation has optioned Judi Barrett's children's book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and is in talks with Wayne Rice (Dude, Where's My Car?) to adapt the screenplay for a computer-animated film, Variety reported.
Published in 1982 by Simon & Schuster, Cloudy is a fantasy story about a tiny town, Chewandswallow, where the weather comes in at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Rain can be soup or juice, snow is mashed potatoes, and the wind blows in hamburger storms. However, when the weather takes a turn for the worse, the town finds itself besieged by food and must figure out what to do, the trade paper reported.
Cloudy was illustrated by Ron Barrett and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers and by Aladdin Paperbacks, both imprints of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
Scooby Two Ready To Roll
arner Brothers announced an April 14 production start for the sequel to last year's hit film Scooby-Doo.
Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini all return for the sequel, which is eyeing a March 26, 2004, release date.
Raja Gosnell again directs, from a screenplay by James Gunn. Charles Roven and Richard Suckle are producing.
In the sequel, Scooby and the gang confront an anonymous masked villain who is plotting to take over the city of Coolsville by wreaking mayhem with a monster machine that creates Mystery Inc.'s classic foes, such as The Creeper, Captain Cutler and the 10,000-Volt Ghost, the studio announced.
Bale Tunes Up Machinist
hristian Bale (Reign of Fire) will star in The Machinist, a ghostly suspense movie to be directed by Brad Anderson (Session 9), Variety reported.
Julio Fernandez will produce for the Spanish production company Filmax, the trade paper reported.
Bale will play a machinist haunted by a ghostly figure he sees in a factory. The movie will begin shooting May 19 in Barcelona, Spain.
Aurealis Winners Named
inners of the Australian Aurealis Awards were announced at a ceremony held in Melbourne on March 28, the Locus Online Web site reported.
The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis magazine, to recognize the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers. A list of winners follows.
SF Novel
•Transcension by Damien Broderick
SF Short Story
•"Walk to the Full Moon" by Sean McMullen
Fantasy Novel
•The Storm Weaver and the Sand by Sean Williams
Fantasy Short Story
•No award
Horror Novel
•The White Body of Evening by A.L. McCann
Horror Short Story
•"Oracle" by Kim Westwood
Young Adult Novel
•The Hand of Glory by Sophie Masson
Young Adult Short Story
•No award
Children's Long Fiction
•In the Garden of Empress Cassia by Gabrielle Wang
Children's Short Fiction
•"Tashi and the Haunted House" by Anna Fienberg and Kim Gamble
The Peter McNamara Convenors' Award
•Robbie Matthews, for his important contribution to local genre publishing both with the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
World Horror Con Coming
ore than 400 authors, publishers, artists and fans of the horror genre will converge on Kansas City, Mo., for the 13th annual World Horror Convention, April 17-20, organizers announced.
The convention is sponsored by the World Horror Society and the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society.
Guests will include authors Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Graham Masterton and Laurell K. Hamilton; artist Nick Smith; publisher Don D'Auria; and special guest of honor Forrest J. Ackerman, longtime editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. Yarbro is the recipient of the 2003 World Horror Convention Grand Master Award. Tickets are available in advance or at the door.
Tremors Shakes Up SCI FI
he March 28 premiere of Tremors: The Series earned a combined 1.8 rating in the Nielsens, including a 1.6 for the first episode, "Feeding Frenzy," at 9 p.m. and a 2.0 for the second episode, "Ghost Dance," at 10 p.m.
According to the network, "Ghost Dance" scored the best rating for any episode of any series on SCI FI this quarter and the best performance for any program in the Friday, 10 p.m., timeslot in the channel's history.
The rating earned by "Ghost Dance" also represented a 67 percent increase above the time period average for the year. The repeats of Tremors also fared well, with "Feeding Frenzy" scoring a 1.3 at 11 p.m., followed by "Ghost Dance" with a 0.92 at midnight.
According to SCI FI, the four airings of Tremors drew an aggregate audience of 7,166,000 viewers.
SCI FI Gets Real
he SCI FI Channel unveiled a new slate of "alternative reality" programs that deal with psychic investigation, science-fact documentaries and a candid look at life on Mars.
The reality series are all in development. A full list follows.
•Mad Mad House. This show puts contestants into Alt Manor, a house inhabited by a vampire, a witch, a voodoo priest, a yoga master and a psychic, where the contestants must compete in a series of increasingly bizarre challenges to claim a grand prize. Arthur Smith and Kent Weed, from A. Smith & Company, produce the series, which will be distributed by USA Cable Entertainment, a unit of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which also owns SCI FI and SCIFI.COM.
•Life on Mars. This weekly one-hour reality drama focuses on two colonies of a dozen people each who must struggle to survive in a simulated version of the planet Mars. USA Cable Entertainment will distribute this series, which is produced by Wall To Wall.
•Lab Rats. This consumer reporting show puts outrageous claims and miracle promises to the test via a crew of "lab rats." Hallock & Healey Entertainment produce, and Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey (Scare Tactics) executive produce.
•SCI FI Declassified. A series of original two-hour documentary specials, in the spirit of The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence, will launch with four groundbreaking investigations that uncover new and explosive evidence using the forensic tools of modern science.
•Psychic Investigators. From the producers of The FBI Files and The New Detectives comes an investigative series that follows real-life criminal investigations in which a psychic conducts surveillance on a suspect or provides the key to solving a crime. New Dominion Pictures produces.
•The Illusionist Special. Just in time for Halloween, this show features a master illusionist and is taped at Universal's Orlando theme park.
6 Days, Thing Due On SCI FI
he SCI FI Channel announced two new major original miniseries projects in development for 2004: a four-hour remake of the The Thing and a six-night event.
The six-hour 6 Days 'til Sunday unfolds over six consecutive nights and tells the story of J.T. Neumeyer, who stumbles upon a mysterious briefcase foretelling his own gruesome murder in six days.
David Kirschner (Frailty, Earth: Final Conflict and The Flintstones) executive produces 6 Days, which is being produced by Lions Gate Films (USA's The Dead Zone).
The Thing re-envisions John Carpenter's 1982 feature film and its predecessor, 1951's The Thing From Another World, which is based in turn on John W. Campbell Jr.'s classic SF short story "Who Goes There?" The story centers on a team of American scientists who discover a bloodthirsty alien life form in the frozen expanse of Antarctica. Swift, stealthy and cunning, this shapeshifting monster assumes the appearance of its victims with the aim of earning the scientists' trust and decimating the group from the inside.
Gary L. Goldman (Minority Report, Total Recall) wrote the miniseries, which will be distributed by USA Cable Entertainment, a unit of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which also owns SCI FI and SCIFI.COM.
Other previously announced SCI FI projects currently in development include Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, A Tale of Two Cities, MYST, The Forever War and miniseries based on Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy and her literary classic Left Hand of Darkness.
SCI FI also begins production on April 1 on the four-hour miniseries Battlestar Galactica, a re-imagining of the classic 1980s TV series. The project stars Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, among others, and is slated to premiere in December.
SCI FI Unveils Action Films
he SCI FI Channel announced a new slate of upcoming action-oriented original movies that are set to premiere in 2003-'04.
The films will air during the Channel's Saturday action-movie slot.
Since introducing Saturday action movies in 2002, the Channel has averaged a household rating of 1.4 for the original films. SCI FI is currently slated to air 22 originals in 2003 and will premiere approximately two per month. Previously announced projects include Man with the Screaming Brain and Earwigs (both starring Bruce Campbell), Epoch II, Graveland and Puppetmaster vs. Demonic Toys. All will premiere in 2003-'04. A list of the upcoming films follows.
•Dragon Storm. Maxwell Caulfield, John Rhys-Davies and Angel Borris star in this film, about alien dragons who arrive on medieval Earth in a meteor and threaten humankind, forcing two enemy kingdoms to join forces and fight off the alien dragon threat. The film recently completed production in Sofia, Bulgaria, from UFO Films.
•Idaho Creature Incident. John Savage and Michelle Goh star in a movie about a government experiment using an alien creature as a weapon. When the trial fails, the creature is locked inside a government facility and must be destroyed before it can escape. The film recently completed production in Sofia, Bulgaria, with Nu Image.
•Ghost Monkey. A freelance photographer and an American investigator join forces to stop a man-eating monkeylike creature that goes on a killing spree throughout the streets of India. Filming begins in the spring with Promark Entertainment.
•Snakehead Terror. In a small town in Maryland, a school of freakishly large man-eating snakehead fish overrun a lake and take to the land. It's up to the local sheriff to reel in the creatures before they can go on a massive feeding frenzy. Filming begins in Vancouver, B.C., in the spring with Cinetel.
•Phantom Force. A spinoff of the Interceptor Force movies, this film follows a force of elite government soldiers assigned to protect the human race from supernatural threats. Filming begins in Bulgaria in May with UFO Films.
•Interceptor Force III. In the not-too-distant future, a team of specially trained government soldiers protects Earth from hostile alien encounters. Produced by UFO Films.
•Gargoyle. The evil wizard Calabos wants to take over the world with an army of living gargoyles, and only Marcus, a magician who possesses an enchanted ring, can stop him. Produced by Chesler Perlmutter.
SCI FI Announces Series Slate
he SCI FI Channel announced a hefty development slate for the 2004-'05 season that includes a spinoff of the hit series Stargate SG-1, as well as several projects from top writers and producers.
A full list of projects follows:
•Dead Lawyers. DreamWorks Television (Steven Spielberg Presents Taken) produces this one-hour series, about hotshot defense attorney Jimmy Quinn, who is run over by a bus and finds himself in a law firm composed of unscrupulous lawyers who must return from the dead to redeem themselves by defending everyone they screwed when they were alive—pro bono! The Zanuck Company and DreamWorks Television executive produce. Christopher Murphey and Andy Lieberman came up with the story, with a script by Murphey. The series will be distributed by USA Cable Entertainment, a unit of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which also owns SCI FI and SCIFI.COM.
•The Divide. This mystery series centers on a bogus radio psychic who discovers that his abilities are real when he is visited by the ghost of his twin sister. With the aid of a coroner, the team solves crimes. Lions Gate produces, with Stan Brooks executive producing from a script by Frank Military and Dean White.
•Legion. Whoopi Goldberg, Stephen Garrett and Jane Featherstone executive produce this series, about a young man who sells his soul to the devil to save his daughter's life and finds out that he must leave his family and wander the world with the ability to recognize other demonically possessed souls. Produced by Kudos Film & Television, Ltd., Whoop, Inc., and Tom Leonardis, the series is written by Tony Jordan and distributed by USACE.
•Stargate: Atlantis. This series centers on a new team in the Stargate SG-1 universe. A secret base left by the originators of the Stargate is found in the most unlikely of places: on Earth, buried within the ruins of the legendary civilization of Atlantis. A new team travels to a distant universe, where they find a primitive human civilization threatened by a sinister new enemy. MGM Television produces.
•Painkiller Jane. Based on the Event Comics series, this superhero series focus on a young marine officer, Jane Browning, who is exposed to a biochemical weapon that changes her genetically, endowing her with incredible self-healing powers. She becomes an ultra-covert agent fighting crime while struggling to remain free from those who would now use her gifts for sinister purposes. John Harrison (Frank Herbert's Dune) and Don Opper wrote the script. Harrison, Opper and Greg Gold executive produce, and Harrison directs.
•Clive Barker's The Evil One. Barker (Hellraiser) is the creative force behind this new thriller series, told from the perspective of an evil demon, in which the forces of good and evil do battle each week. Produced by Seraphim, Inc., Barker executive produces. USACE distributes.
•Total Eclipse. This series centers on Jeremy Cross, a new teacher at Greylock College, who discovers that the school is a nexus of the supernatural, where the faculty's IQ increases annually, intelligent wolves roam the forests and research deals with time travel, ESP and anything else on the edge of science. Steve Aspis writes and executive produces.
•Suture Girl. Developed from the Gretchen Culver character in the Spawn comic-book series, this series centers on a former advertising executive who was murdered by a serial killer and finds herself stitched back to life and imbued with special powers by a mysterious gypsy woman. Suture becomes a voice for the oppressed and a court of last resort as she fights evil with the help of a handsome crusading lawyer. Alan McElroy (Spawn) wrote this backdoor pilot, which will be executive produced by Fireworks Entertainment and Edmonds Entertainment's Tracey E. Edmonds, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and Sheila Ducksworth. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane will also serve as a producer.
SCI FI Sets Ratings Record
he SCI FI Channel ended the first quarter of 2003 with a record 1.0 rating (1.19 households) in prime time, a 33 percent jump in ratings and a 39 percent increase in households over last year.
According to SCI FI, the ratings built on momentum from Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, which helped the Channel set a similar record in the fourth quarter of 2003. SCI FI also said it has achieved year-over-year ratings growth for 11 consecutive months, better than any other television network. Other ratings highlights:
•The Channel's 1.0 prime-time average rating in the first quarter represented the best year-to-year increase in household ratings among all non-news networks.
•Total viewership in the quarter was up 36 percent, compared with the first quarter of 2002.
•SCI FI's household prime-time ratings have grown for four consecutive quarters year-over-year.
•SCI FI's first-quarter prime-time ratings rank in the top 10 among all non-news cable networks. The Channel's ratings in all key demographics also rank in the top 10: households, total viewers, persons 18-49, persons 25-54, men 18-49, men 25-54, women 18-49 and women 25-54.
•In March, SCI FI earned a 1.1 household rating (1.31 million), making it the second-best month in the history of the network, trailing only December 2000, which featured the miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune.
•SCI FI placed in the top 10 of all non-news cable networks in ratings and delivery of all key demographics in March.
•Also in March, within key demographics, SCI FI ranked in the top five for ratings among all non-news networks for persons 25-54, persons 18-49, Men 25-54 and Men 18-49.
•SCI FI saw five consecutive months with a household rating of 1.0 or better, breaking its previous record of two consecutive months.
•March maked the ninth straight month in which SCI FI has averaged more than 1 million viewers in prime time.
•On the strength of SCI FI's original productions Frank Herbert's Children of Dune and Riverworld, the Channel scored its best first-quarter week ever, with a 1.34 household rating during March 17-23.
•Children of Dune earned a 2.4 average rating, becoming the third highest-rated original program event in SCI FI history, behind Taken and Frank Herbert's Dune. The six-hour miniseries drew an aggregate average audience of 18.2 million viewers.
•The two-hour original film Riverworld averaged a 2.2 rating, exceeding the time period average by 86 percent and becoming the most-watched original movie SCI FI has ever aired on a Saturday night (2.74 million viewers).
•Tremors: The Series bowed to a 1.8 average household rating (1.43 million) for its two-episode prime-time premiere on March 28. (See accompanying story.)
Briefly Noted
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Lord of the Rings star Liv Tyler married her longtime musician boyfriend, Royston Langdon, in a private ceremony in the Caribbean, Tyler's publicist told the Reuters news service. Tyler, 25, and Langdon wed on March 25 and will hold a small reception for friends and family in New York next month.
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Disney unveiled a two-minute trailer for its upcoming fantasy film The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl at 8:15 p.m. ET/PT April 6 in a simultaneous broadcasts on all of its television networks, including ESPN, ESPNews, ESPN 2, ESPN Classic, Soapnet, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women, A&E, the History Channel, E!, Disney Channel, ABC Family and ABC, Variety reported.
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The Matrix Reloaded will be screened out of competition on May 15 at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Variety reported. The second Matrix film will open on 3,000 screens in North America on the same day.
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Thomas Jane (Dreamcatcher) has won the title role in the film adaptation of Marvel Comics' The Punisher, according to a report on Ain't It Cool News.
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Chinese actor Leslie Cheung, who appeared in the supernatural film A Chinese Ghost Story and other movies, died of an apparent suicide on April 1, the Zap2it Web site reported. Cheung, 46, reportedly died after falling from the 24th floor of Hong Kong's landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel after leaving a suicide note.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star James Marsters confirmed to the Dark Horizons Web site that producers may add him to the cast of The WB's spinoff series Angel once Buffy ends its run in May.
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Superhero Hype reported that Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnson is looking at adapting J. Michael Straczynski's comic series Midnight Nation as his next project. The comic follows two people who journey through an underworld to retrieve a lost soul.
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Alias star Jennifer Garner and her actor husband Scott Foley have "mutually decided to separate," a representative confirmed to TV Guide Online. The duo met on Felicity in 1998 and wed in October 2000.
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The Captain Howdy Web site has posted images of advertising for the upcoming Exorcist: The Beginning prequel film, which opens July 18.
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The word "muggle"—a person with no magic powers, from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of novels—has been accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary, according to a report in The Times of London.
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Comic-book retailers and publishers will host a second Free Comic Book Day on May 3, to promote comic readership.
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Kathy Bates will play Queen Victoria in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in 80 Days, which stars Jackie Chan and Jim Broadbent, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The Music From the Movies Web site reported that composer Mychael Danna has been removed from The Hulk film and that Danny Elfman (Batman) has been brought on to score the film.
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A song list has gone live on the official Matrix Reloaded Web site, featuring tunes that will appear on the soundtrack to the upcoming sequel film, which hits theaters on May 15.
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