Purcell Reveals Doe's Secret
ominic Purcell, whose SF series John Doe will begin rerunning on SCI FI Channel Jan. 20, told SCI FI Wire that he knows the show's big secret. John Doe will air Fridays at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
"I think it's an amazing premise," Purcell said in an interview at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, where he was promoting his current Fox series, Prison Break. "I think it's a really cool premise."
In the series, Purcell plays a man who awakes naked on an island near Seattle, possessing all of the knowledge in the world except his own identity. He bears strange marks on his body and can only see in black and white. A group of nefarious strangers, meanwhile, is pursuing him for reasons that are not clear. They call themselves the Phoenix group.
But Purcell revealed the show's secret, which creators Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson never had a chance to unveil before Fox canceled it in 2003.
Ready? (Major spoilers ahead!)
"Apparently I was the messiah returned," Purcell said, confirming an earlier report in Entertainment Weekly. As for the Phoenix group? "They were working for the Vatican. ... The Catholics. They didn't want it to be revealed that the true Christ had returned."
Purcell's character had actually either died or come near death, when all knowledge is revealed, then returned with no memory of his past life.
The one secret Purcell didn't reveal: John Doe's real name. As for whether he'd like to have continued with the short-lived show, Purcell said: "I don't know. I'm pretty f--king happy with [Prison Break's] Lincoln right now."
WB Eager For Spike Film
avid Janollari, president of entertainment at The WB, told reporters that the network is eager to air a movie based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer character of Spike (James Marsters), if only creator Joss Whedon were available.
"We'd ... love to do a Spike movie with Joss Whedon," Janollari said in a news conference at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif.
But, Janollari added, "Joss Whedon is busy, fast becoming a kind of a big feature filmmaker. He's currently working on an adaptation of Wonder Woman for Warner Brothers. He's simply not available to us. But he knows, and you guys all know, the door is open any time that he wants to do that, for us to do that movie."
In the meantime, Marsters, who played the vampire character in both Buffy and its WB spinoff series, Angel, has a recurring role on The WB's Superman series Smallville.
Whedon has been tapped to write and direct a Wonder Woman movie and is also developing a supernatural movie, Goners. He last helmed the SF movie Serenity. But he has also said that he's interested in returning to the Buffyverse with a TV movie at some point.
For his part, Marsters has expressed interest if the film can come together before he's too old to play the supposedly ageless vampire.
Underworld 2 Squeezed Budget
en Wiseman, director of the upcoming vampire sequel film Underworld: Evolution, told SCI FI Wire he's shocked and confused when hears about the budgets of films essentially competing for the same box-office dollars as his relatively low-budget vampire pictures. King Kong, for example, cost a reported $207 million, while the upcoming Superman Returns is rumored to have a price tag between $250 million and $300 million. By comparison, the first Underworld movie cost about $22 million, and its sequel was produced on a budget of $48 million.
"It's kind of amazing and frustrating at the same time," Wiseman said in an interview. "I can understand where the money goes, because I understand how expensive things are. ... [But] I don't think movies need to be that expensive. But it's a strange thing for me, because I'm trying to make a movie that I know is promoted and presented as [being as] big as some of those other movies."
Wiseman, who is married to Underworld star Kate Beckinsale, added: "[People in the film business and in the media] all know about budgets, but the average audience doesn't really pay attention to budget. I would love to say, before they show Underworld, that there's a picture of me there on screen saying, 'Um, OK, so this movie is actually $48 million. Just so you know, that's the [cost of the] chase sequence in Matrix 2. Just the chase sequence that lasted 12 minutes. That's our budget for this entire film. Thank you. I hope you enjoy it.' So it's a weird place to be in when it's presented as big as those movies. But I think it's reaching a point where it's getting insane. We're going to reach a point where it's going to be so hard for the studios to make their money back. I guess they do. If they're putting the money out, they're getting it back." Underworld: Evolution opens nationwide Jan. 20.
Romijn Praises X3's Ratner
ebecca Romijn, who reprises the role of the blue mutant Mystique in the upcoming third X-Men film, told SCI FI Wire that director Brett Ratner had a completely different directing style from the franchise's previous director, Bryan Singer. "[They had] different energy levels," Romijn said in an interview at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., where she was promoting her new WB series, Pepper Dennis. "Bryan sort of quietly orchestrates how the scenes work, and Brett is very exuberant and over-the-top. A lot of energy."
X3 wrapped filming last month in Vancouver, Canada, and Romijn said that she hasn't yet seen any of the finished footage. But she added that she is looking forward to seeing how Ratner's vision will translate to the big screen. "These movies are so interesting, because when you read computer graphics and special effects or fight scenes on the page, you never have any idea what it's going to look like," she said. "So I'm going to be just as curious as everyone else to see the result."
Romijn said that her character, a shape-shifting mutant who serves the villainous Magneto (Ian McKellen), will have about the same amount of screen time and action scenes in the third film as she had in the first and second. "With the costume, there's only so much I can do in any of these movies," she said. "There are always 15 or 16 principal cast members, and so when you break it down, I never had that much to do. And I'd say I have about the same as I've always [had]." X3 is scheduled to open on May 26.
Superman Budget Soars?
he New York Post's Page Six gossip column reported rumors that Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman Returns has seen its budget soar past $250 million. The column bases its report on an "anonymous production source," which added that the final budget could approach $300 million.
An unnamed representative for Warner Brothers, which is releasing the movie, denied the report. "Your budget quote is absolutely absurd, and we have a five-year deal with Legendary," the consortium that is financing the film, the representative told the column.
Superman's Routh Channels Reeve
randon Routh, who plays the Man of Steel in Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman Returns, told SCI FI Wire that his performance is influenced in part by the last actor to wear the red cape in movies: the late Christopher Reeve. "Obviously it's influenced by Chris' performance," Routh said in an interview during a break in filming in Sydney, Australia, last July. He added: "We're somewhat using that as a vague reference, so it has to follow somewhat that character a little bit. And beyond that, it's within the writing. It's within Clark's relationship to Superman and what he needs. It's 'What is Clark to Superman? What purpose does Clark serve for Kal-El and for Superman?' And that ranges depending on the situation, but he's always a bit of a spy. He's the guy that can find out information. ... He finds out information about himself through how Lois feels about Superman. He's always there. He's the fly on the wall."
Routh, who resembles Reeves from certain angles, steps into Reeves' red boots in the upcoming movie, which also stars Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor.
In performance, Routh seems to channel Reeves in part, especially when playing Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent. "I've seen and heard ... how Bryan describes Clark and Superman; sometimes it's the spitting image of Chris, and sometimes it's my own thing, and it's hard for me to judge that," Routh said. "So I do my own thing, and it's a character. Clark is also that kind of character that I've done before, whether it's in acting class or plays in high school or just myself, getting into those situations, being nervous about things. So it's all of that mixed together."
For Routh, Clark Kent is "the way Superman gets to relate to everyone, how Kal-El gets to relate to the public," he said. He added: "Clark is Superman. He gets to be humorous and fun, and I think sometimes that is not only a disguise, but it is fun for him. ... Clark isn't just completely made-up, I think. It's part of him, just as Clark is part of me and Superman is part of me. You can't be Clark without having it be a real part of you. So I think he enjoys that part of it as well." Superman Returns opens June 30.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times has posted a raft of new photos from Superman Returns on its Web site.
Welling Touts Smallville's 100th
om Welling, who stars as a young Clark Kent in The WB's Superman series Smallville, told reporters that the show's upcoming 100th episode will move Clark closer to his destiny than he's ever been before. "For us, it was a really exciting episode to shoot, because it's a turning point," Welling said in a news conference during the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 16. "I think from this episode on, this show is going to be very different from what it's been in the past. And I also think we're finally going to get to what I believe the audience wanted the show to be."
Welling said that the characters will be moving in new directions during the second half of the show's fifth season. "We're getting [to] a point in the series after five seasons, 100 episodes, where these characters are now saying, 'All right, look, we've been doing this for a couple of years now. Let's start moving forwards. Let's figure out why we're not getting along. Let's see if our relationship works,'" Welling said. "Or, in other cases, like Lex and Clark, 'You're not who I thought you were.'"
The upcoming 100th episode, titled "Reckoning," will also feature the death of one of the show's major characters. Welling was careful not to reveal the identity of the deceased, but did say that he would be sorry to see "that person" go. "I think it was bittersweet for that person themselves," he said. "Because I think they were looking forward to a little time off. But then, when the day came, that person was caught a few times on set just kind of looking around, going, 'Yeah, well, I guess this is it.'"
Although Welling and most of the other cast members were aware that one of the characters would be killed off, he said he had no idea who it would be until he read the script. "This show did a really good job, leading up to this episode, to not hint toward it at all," he said. "And when the death occurs in the 100th episode, it's a complete surprise to every single character. It's not something that Lex planned or that the audience may have known or have hints about in the future, like sometimes happens in episodic television. This is a complete surprise for everyone. And I literally didn't know who it was until I read the script."
Smallville returns with a new episode, "Lockdown," on Jan. 19 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. "Reckoning" will air the following Thursday.
Fox Open To More Futurama
eter Liguori, president, entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Co., told reporters he's leaving the door open to resurrecting the canceled SF animated series Futurama. Liguori, speaking in a news conference at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., referred to the network's decision last year to bring back Family Guy after the show became a hit on DVD.
"There's no doubt that the Family Guy model worked outstandingly," Liguori said. "It's great to be a network exec and have a decision made for you by the audience."
Liguori added: "In terms of Futurama, there haven't really been any active negotiations at this point. But I'd be an ostrich to just stick my head in the dirt and not realize what's going on with Futurama as well."
Variety reported earlier that initial talks were underway between the production company, 20th Century Fox TV, and producers of the show, about a 21st-century guy who is frozen and wakes up in the year 3000. The show has sold well on DVD.
Before Futurama comes back into being, 20th first must secure deals with the show's production team, as well as voice stars including Billy West (Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender), the trade paper reported. It's also unclear where Futurama would end up if it is revived.
Howard's Gwen In Spidey III
ryce Dallas Howard (Lady in the Water) is in negotiations to play Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy in Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sam Raimi is directing the movie, which is scheduled to roll this month.
Gwen is pivotal in Spider-Man lore as Peter's high-school crush, his first girlfriend and his first love. She ended up being kidnapped by the Green Goblin and died during a bridgetop battle in Amazing Spider-Man issue 121.
In the Spider-Man film franchise, Columbia put Mary Jane Watson, a later love interest of Peter's who was a model, in the Gwen role, casting Kirsten Dunst as the high-school crush. The movie featured the famous battle on the bridge with the Green Goblin, though a Hollywood ending was added, and the character survived.
Columbia is keeping a tight lid on the third movie's storyline, though it is known that Gwen is the third part of a love triangle and that the character does survive.
Tobey Maguire, Dunst and James Franco are reprising their roles, and Topher Grace and Thomas Haden Church have been cast as the villains.
Howard, the daughter of director Ron Howard, stars in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming Lady in the Water and also headlined Shyamalan's The Village.
Shatner Sells Kidney Stone
tar Trek star William Shatner sold a kidney stone to an online casino for $25,000 to benefit charity, the Reuters news service reported.
Shatner, who played Capt. James T. Kirk, sold the stone to GoldenPalace.com, and proceeds of the sale will go to Habitat for Humanity.
Shatner told Reuters that it wasn't easy parting with a kidney stone, even if it had already left his body. He also said he would never sell unless he had visitation rights. "When I was contacted about selling my kidney stone to GoldenPalace.com for an original price of $15,000, I turned it down, knowing that my tunics from Star Trek have commanded more than $100,000," Shatner said, adding that he countered by offering to sell the ring-sized stone for $25,000.
By privately selling his kidney stone, Shatner gave up an offer to sell it at auction on television. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Shatner about his painful stone on November 14 and immediately called it "the ultimate Star Trek collectible" and offered to sell it on his show.
GoldenPalace.com plans to send the stone on tour with a collection of other unusual items.
Duchovny Green For Hulk 2?
arvel vice chairman Peter Cuneo told AOL's Motley Fool Radio Team that The X-Files' former star David Duchovny is under consideration to take over the title role in a straight-to-video sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk movie, according to a report on the ContactMusic.com Web site.
Duchovny would reportedly take over from Australian actor Eric Bana, who supposedly pulled out of the sequel project when he learned it would be releasd on DVD.
"Duchovny's name has been bought up several times," Cuneo reportedly said. "He's quite the fan, too."
Hulk, based on the Marvel Comics franchise, was a critical disappointment, but did well enough to warrant a sequel. "The Hulk did $250 million worldwide box office, which is a huge box office, and as you may recall, we had tremendous success with our toy line, which was a complete sell-out, over $100 million worldwide," Cuneo said.
X-Files's Carter Sues Fox
hris Carter, the creator of The X-Files, has sued 20th Century Fox Television for breach of contract, contractual interference and other claims over payments allegedly owed to him from the hit television series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Carter accuses the studio of reneging on terms of the deal because they were found to be "too favorable" to him, according to the lawsuit, filed in December in Los Angeles Superior Court. Carter brought the case through his production company, Ten Thirteen, and is seeking unspecified damages.
Goblet DVD Due March 7
arner Home Video announced that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will debut on DVD March 7 as a single-disc DVD and a two-disc special edition. The fourth movie in the Potter franchise, from director Mike Newell, will also be available as part of a special-edition four-pack and in UMD format for the PSP.
The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2-Disc Special Edition includes never-before-seen footage, conversations with the cast, interactive challenges, making-of featurettes and an exclusive look at the film from behind the scenes.
The single-disc DVD will carry a suggested retail price of $28.98; the special edition will be $30.97, and the Harry Potter Special Edition four-pack will be $73.92.
'Shambhala' Based On Art
F author Alex Irvine told SCI FI Wire that "Shambhala," his new story for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, came about after Irvine viewed a painting by artist Mark Evans. F&SF editor Gordon Van Gelder showed Evans' Painful Upgrade to Irvine, and it immediately sparked a story idea. "The first thing I thought, oddly, was, 'She wants her body back.' And much of the story was clear right then, maybe because all of the recent talk and speculation about the 'Singularity' had me wanting to work out what I thought about it," Irvine said in an interview. "So the opportunity to do that came along at the right time, and it's a very stark and provocative image."
In the early days of science fiction, the practice of commissioning stories based upon existing illustrations was fairly common, but these days it's very rare. "I imagine that from a certain perspective, writing a story from existing art might have a taint of hackery, but I thought it was an interesting challenge, and part of the reason I responded to the art was that I had a germ of a story floating around in my head that worked well with what I thought the artist was after," Irvine said. "In this sense, writing the story was a more collaborative effort than writing stories usually is, and that's a good thing sometimes. Where is it written that writing must always be hermetic and solitary?"
Though writing a story based upon an image is new to Irvine, he said that most of the time it didn't feel very different from writing a regular story. "A story always starts from some kind of motivating impulse, and that impulse—whatever it is—becomes a kind of formal constraint on the story," Irvine said. "In this case, the motivating impulse was existing art, but once I had it firmly in mind how I wanted the story to react to that art, the writing was just like writing any other story. Actually I was surprised that I didn't feel more constrained by the necessity of being faithful to the image; once I had my initial reaction in place, I just wrote the story."
Irvine's two most recent books were released in September: his World War II-era golem novel, The Narrows, and a novella, The Life of Riley. Forthcoming is a Batman novel for DC Comics called Inferno and a short-story collection, Pictures From an Expedition, from Night Shade Books. "Shambhala" will appear in the March issue of F&SF, which goes on sale Jan. 29.
DVD Speaks To Alien Mom
ichele Scarabelli, who played the alien mom Susan Francisco on the 1989 SF TV series Alien Nation, told SCI FI Wire that she'll be watching her favorite 15 minutes of the show on the newly released complete DVD set. "As an actor there're always scenes you'd like to re-do, little clippets where [you think], 'I could have done that in a different tone. I could have done that better,'" Scarabelli said in an interview. "There's a scene with my daughter, where ... she wants to participate in Halloween, and she's brought home this pumpkin, and she's explaining to me very excitedly about bobbing for apples and getting all dressed up and the whole idea of Halloween, which makes no sense to me, of course. The pumpkin is on the counter, and I say, 'What do we do now?' And she pulls a knife out and says, 'Cut its guts out!' And I am saying, 'Oh, my goodness, and they call themselves civilized?' I was horrified by this." Scarabelli liked the scene so much that she put it on her demo reel.
Scarabelli co-starred with Eric Pierpoint and Gary Graham on the show, from Farscape producer Rockne O'Bannon, who also wrote the 1988 feature film on which the show is based. Pierpoint played an alien police detective partnered with Graham's human detective in the show, about a group of alien refugees who try to assimilate into American society.
Scarabelli recalled the show fondly, though it ran for only one season on Fox. "There are little bits that were hilarious, and when you were doing them, there was an innocence and a wonder and an excitement of a new culture and learning new things," she said. "It was lovely to be a part of it."
The only commentary on the newly-released DVD is from writer/director/producer Ken Johnson, who developed the characters created by O'Bannon.
Scarabelli said that she remains in close contact with the cast and crew of the show. "I just saw Ken recently at a birthday party we had for Eric [Pierpoint, who played her alien husband, George]," she said. "Eric and I had a wonderful chemistry as a couple, as Susan and George. I remember the makeup being tough. We had it on almost every day. There was a lot of pressure on Eric, and by the end of the season, he was on his last nerve. But he was always good-natured, and there was never a feeling on the set of too much tension by anyone."
Howard Gets Wet In Water
ryce Dallas Howard, who stars in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming fantasy film Lady in the Water, told SCI FI Wire that she reteams with the director of The Village to play the title character, called a "narf."
"It's about a superintendent [at an apartment complex], played by Paul Giamatti, who discovers a narf, which is [a] made-up [name for the creature]," Howard said in an interview while promoting her latest film, the drama Manderlay. "But she's basically a water nymph. He discovers her in his swimming pool, and then she's in great danger, you discover, and he has to join together with all of the tenants of the building to bring her back to her world. Where they had before all been strangers, they now come together in order to do this thing of great importance."
Howard said that she welcomed the opportunity to reunite with Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), both on a personal and professional level. "While I was making The Village he was two things for me," said Howard, who is also the daughter of director Ron Howard. "He was this angel that, in a way, descended from the heavens and discovered me, and he was also this brilliant director. Near the end of the movie we started realizing we could be friends, that we had a lot in common. Then, after the film, we stayed in great communication. By the time Lady in the Water started, we were very close, and he simultaneously, just as an artist, knew what my limitations were, knew where he could push me further and knew what my bag of tricks was and so what to not call upon. So working on [Lady in the Water] was a great experience, because I felt very safe, because I was with my friend and also very challenged because I was with someone who knew my instrument well."
Lady in the Water also stars Bob Balaban, Mary Beth Hurt, Bill Irwin, Freddy Rodriguez and Jeffrey Wright. Warner Brothers will release the film on July 21.
Museum Begins Its NY Night
hawn Levy, who is a week away from beginning production on the Ben Stiller fantasy film Night at the Museum, told SCI FI Wire that he's looking forward to shooting inside New York's famous Museum of Natural History. "We're going to shoot several days with Ben and several other cast members in New York," Levy said in an interview. "And then we built the interior of a museum in Vancouver. ... This movie is a love letter to museums and museum culture. So they've been really, really open and accessible."
In the film, Stiller plays a bumbling security guard who accidentally lets loose an ancient curse that brings the museum's exhibits to life. Levy said that the creatures will be created using state-of-the-art visual effects. "There's a lot of CG work," Levy said. "It's one of these big monster event movies with a lot of visual effects. So I'm learning a whole new language, but it's been a great challenge."
Carla Gugino (Threshold) also recently signed on to the film as a possible love interest for Stiller's character. "Yes, we've just added Carla Gugino to the cast," Levy said. "Carla plays the docent of the museum who becomes first a friend and then later possibly more to Ben." A Night at the Museum is scheduled to open on Dec. 22.
Supernatural Will Give Answers
ensen Ackles, who co-stars in The WB's Supernatural, told SCI FI Wire that the second half of the first season will offer some answers to the show's underlying mystery. "That's going to start building towards the surface in the back nine [episodes]," Ackles said in an interview at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif. "Everything's going to kind of come close to the surface, and things are going to start coming together more. We actually get to interact with our father in the episode that we're filming now, which is a huge step for us. Now, where that takes us we're not quite sure, but it's definitely a big step in the right direction, I think."
Ackles stars as Dean Winchester in the series, alongside Jared Padalecki as his brother, Sam, and the two travel around the country in search of their father while battling against supernatural forces. The first half of the season established the mythology behind the Winchester family. According to Ackles, upcoming episodes will fill in some of the history that has been hinted at so far.
"[I] think it can be very much a faux pas to drag it out season over season over season," Ackles said. "I think that these things need to be resolved and things need to surface, at least within a season, and I think [creator and executive producer] Eric Kripke's on the same page. I think he's against that whole dragging audiences ... across many, many seasons of storylines. So I definitely know that he's on the same page about resolving things and moving on to bigger and more interesting problems."
Supernatural airs on The WB Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Scarabelli Relates To Alien
ichele Scarabelli, who played the alien mom Susan Francisco on the 1989 SF TV series Alien Nation, told SCI FI Wire that the series reminded her of growing in her own immigrant family. And she said that the SF fans she meets internationally at conventions every year help her realize how many people identified with the show, which aired for one season in 1989. "When we first came out, throughout the year we had tons of fan mail from different ethnic people, and they thought we were talking about them," Scarabelli said in an interview. "Of course we didn't do it about any one group; we were an amalgamation. We were the last of the boat people, as it were. It was like any kind of immigrant experience."
Scarabelli played a member of a family from a group of super-intelligent aliens whose slave ship crashes in the Mojave Desert and who must subsequently learn how to assimilate into American society. Despite good reviews, Fox canceled the series after a year. Now the complete series has been released on DVD.
Scarabelli said that she still goes to conventions and may attend one in Italy later this year. "Fans have been very good to me," she said. "I still get mail about it. A lot of people all over the world identify with it. My background is as Italian and French and Canadian. I learned French because my grandmother was from France, and my mother, who was Irish-Scottish, wanted me to learn French, and it was about keeping our culture within our family experience."
Scarabelli added about her own life experience: "I did feel a bit of alienation, and I did bring that into my character. I never looked as different as the Franciscos, but I know of what I spoke. I went to school when I was kid, and I was in a French school, and I was the only English-speaking 5-year-old. That sense of alienation carried with me always. I was raised in Montreal, which is French and English cultures, and you're not quite one of the majority."
Scarabelli said that she still gets recognized and appreciates the devotion of the show's ardent fans. "One woman put together a dictionary of the Tenctonese language," she said. "That's not something you'd find on a regular show. Of course, half the time we were making stuff up, and here we were now, we had to stick to it. They would go back and say, 'You said it this way on this show, so you have to put the click here and this inflection there.' It was a lot of fun. The language was created by [director/writer] Ken Johnson's daughter. When I spoke the Tenctonese, it sounded a bit European, because of my language background, and they would joke that I was speaking 'High Tenctonese.' It was derived from the clicks of the African language of the bushmen."
Di Filippo Revives The Creature
cience fiction novelist Paul Di Filippo told SCI FI Wire that he swore he would never write Star Trek, Star Wars or any other kind of franchise fiction, but things changed when he agreed to pen the novel The Creature From the Black Lagoon: Time's Black Lagoon. DH Press will publish the title in May as part of its series based on classic Universal Pictures movie monsters.
"Obviously, I changed my mind," Di Filippo said in an interview. "For one thing, this is such a camp, classic icon. It kind of appealed to me. It wasn't a brand new property, so there was no bible or guidelines imposed on me. I had complete creative freedom. I was told I could take the story in any direction I wanted and go anywhere with it. That was the clincher for me."
Time's Black Lagoon takes place in the year 2015 and centers on a marine biologist who has become obsessed with the Creature, which has not been seen since the events depicted in the third of the 1950s films some 60 years earlier. A friend with a time machine offers the hero a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go back to prehistoric times and to see the creature in all his glory.
"It's a prequel and a sequel all rolled into one," Di Filippo said. "We go back to the roots of the Creature and learn its origins, but the framing of the story is in 2015. And like any story where time travel is involved, you can expect that things will spiral out of control."
Di Filippo was originally given what he perceived as "a generous six months" to write the book. "And that seemed fine," Di Filippo said. "But Universal was looking over my shoulder to the extent that I did a very detailed outline that had to be approved. Well, they took so long to approve the outline that by the time I got the go-ahead from everybody, I had three months to write the book."
The author is proud to say that he finished the novel in 80 days, 10 days short of the deadline. "That's a lot faster than I've ever written a book before," he said. "There was a certain exhiliration in the process, and I did have moments where I panicked. But overall, I think the book was written pretty darn well."
Universal Pictures is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Rusch Wins Spanish SF Prize
F author Kristine Kathryn Rusch told SCI FI Wire that she was "shocked, stunned, and thrilled" to receive the news that her novella "Diving Into the Wreck" was awarded the Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficción (Spain's UPC Science Fiction Award). The Premio UPC is a literary prize sponsored by Spain's Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, which awards the winner 6,000 euros (about $7,244), the largest cash prize in the SF field. The juried contest is for novella-length works of science fiction written in Catalan, Spanish, English or French. Past English-language winners include Jack McDevitt, Mike Resnick and Robert J. Sawyer, who has won it three times.
Rusch said that she had been wanting to write a story like "Diving Into the Wreck" for years. "I got inspired from [Robert] Kurson's book Shadow Divers," she said. "My husband, Dean Wesley Smith (who was once a professional scuba diver), called people who deep-sea dove for treasure 'crazy.' And if you knew my husband's history of exploits as a young man, you'd understand that when Dean calls people crazy, they truly must be. At that moment, the idea of deep-diving in space combined with an idea I'd been doodling with for a long time, about the way that science and technology get lost, and how what seems obvious to one generation is a mystery to the next. And slowly, I built the story from that." "Diving Into the Wreck" appeared in the December 2005 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.
Rusch writes romance novels under the pseudonym Kristine Grayson and mysteries as Kris Nelscott, but science fiction/fantasy is her true love, she said. "As a writer, the genres allow me the freedom to talk about now in ways that no one might notice except myself," she said. "Plus [they] allow me to use my history background in creating new worlds without having to adhere to [the] accuracy of historical details. As a reader, I love SF and [fantasy] adventure stories. Most other genres can't do the adventure story the way that [speculative fiction] can. I simply adore that part of the genre. Although, I must admit, there isn't much in the ... genres that I don't like."
In October, Roc will publish Paloma: A Retrieval Artist Novel. "The Retrieval Artist novels are SF novels modeled on mystery novels," Rusch said. "In other words, they stand alone, but you can read them in order and get more out of them. I'm having a great deal of fun with [them]." Rusch also has more stories forthcoming from Asimov's, and she hopes to write more SF as the year progresses. "Of course, that's always my hope," she said.
Middle-earth II Mixes Books, Films
lectronic Arts is expanding its Lord of the Rings video-game franchise beyond the scope of Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning film trilogy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The company said that The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, a sequel to the best-selling PC game, will become available for Xbox 360 in the summer.
Battle II is the first game to blend the literary source material with the actors, music and sets from Jackson's films. This was made possible by licensing deal last year that gave EA the literary rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's original books through an agreement with rights holder Saul Zaentz.
Hugo Weaving reprises his role as Elrond, the Elven leader, from the New Line Cinema films. Weaving also serves as narrator of the game, and his likeness is featured.
Supernatural Gets The Girl
ensen Ackles, who co-stars with Jared Padalecki in The WB's scary series Supernatural, told SCI FI Wire that the show will be adding a new recurring female character in the second half of the first season. "The character of Meg, played by Nicki Aycox, she's going to be coming back and doing some stuff," Ackles said in an interview at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif. "That's going to be a really interesting multiple storyline, a nice little arc there. ... We're planting some nice seeds for some good arcs."
In the recent episode "Scarecrow," Aycox (Jeepers Creepers II, Over There) first made an appearance as a hitchhiker who makes a connection with Padalecki's Sam Winchester. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Meg is more than meets the eye.
In a separate interview, Padalecki said that "Scarecrow" is one of his favorite episodes of the series so far, and he's looking forward to Meg's return. "She's a new recurring character, " Padalecki said. "She's back and trying to cause more trouble." Supernatural airs on The WB Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Johnson Ranges To Magma
my Jo Johnson told SCI FI Wire that she co-stars opposite 24's Xander Berkeley in the upcoming SCI FI original movie Magma: Volcanic Disaster. "I shot it a year ago, and it's about volcanoes erupting all over the world, and this professor, this teacher, played by Xander, tries to save the world," Johnson said in an interview. "I play a college student who really, really wants to go on an expedition he's going on, and she begs him, and he finally lets her go."
Johnson (Felicity) added: "When they're on this expedition a volcano erupts, and then the end of the world starts to come. And they save it! It was lots of running around, and there was a fake volcano chamber in the studio. We were running around with painters' outfits that were just painted silver. I'm sure it looks good, but it felt a little funny at the time. I hear that the effects in the movies for the SCI FI Channel are pretty good, but I have not seen it yet."
Magma: Volcanic Disaster is far from Johnson's first genre foray. Her credits include the TV fantasy movie Suzie Q, the features Interstate 60 and Infested and an episode of the series Night Visions. She's probably best known to SF&F fans for her role as Kimberly Hart, aka the Pink Power Ranger, in the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers television show and films.
"It was really funny," Johnson said. "I went to Boston [last] weekend to spend a weekend with a friend, and we stayed at the Park Plaza Hotel. We get there, and all of sudden we look around, and we're going, 'What is going on here?' And it was a SF convention. A few people noticed me. I was like, 'I should set up a table and ... sell some autographs!' No, I'm just kidding." Magma: Volcanic Disaster premieres Jan. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Niven Tipples With Draco Stories
F author Larry Niven told SCI FI Wire that he has complied 30 years' worth of Draco Tavern short-short stories into one collection, The Draco Tavern, about a bar where aliens of all sorts saddle up, buy drinks and tell stories. Niven said that the concept predates the cantina from the original Star Wars: Niven grew up reading Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp's Tales From Gavagan's Bar (1953) and Arthur C. Clarke's Tales From the White Hart (1957) and decided to create his own bar.
The Draco Taven allows Niven "a background to speculate wildly on any philosophical topic that is universal enough to interest nonhuman minds: God, immortality, fate, sex, diet, cannibalism, time," Niven said.
The Draco Tavern is a bar in Siberia, near Mt. Forel. It is owned and operated by Rick Schumann, with money he earned from developing something a lobster-like alien race called the Chirpsithra told him. At the tavern, aliens come to drink and tell stories; humans come to drink, see the aliens, hear their stories and sometimes do business with them.
The 26 stories in the collection include a few that have never been published. One is "Losing Mars," in which a group of aliens who call Mars and its moons home arrive at the tavern only to find that humans have mostly forgotten about their neighboring planet.
Also included are "The Subject Is Closed," in which a priest visits the tavern and goes one-on-one with a Chirpsithra on the subject of God and life after death; "Table Manners: A Folk Tale," in which Rick Schumann is invited to hunt with five folk aliens; "Wisdom of Demons," which discusses the question of wisdom vs. knowledge; and "The Ones That Stayed Home," Niven's response to 9/11.
In reviewing the book, Publishers Weekly said: "These stories are best taken a few at a time, to savor their inventiveness without noticing the undeveloped characters or that, even for bar stories, there's sometimes too much chatter and not enough action." Niven agreed, saying bar stories tend to be short on action, although he blew up his bar in one story, as did Spider Robinson in his Callahan's Place collection.
Madsen In For Shue In 23
ew Line has tapped Virginia Madsen (Sideways) to star opposite Jim Carrey in the fantastical thriller The Number 23 for director Joel Schumacher, Variety reported.
Madsen will replace Elisabeth Shue in the movie, which is due to begin shooting on Jan. 23. Danny Huston and Rhona Mitra also star. Fernley Phillips wrote the script.
Carrey will portray a man who becomes obsessed with a book that seems to be about his life but ends with a murder, with the number 23 woven through the plot.
Ghouly Boys Optioned
andate Pictures has optioned the film rights to the comic-book series The Ghouly Boys, with Benderspink attached to produce, Variety reported.
Created, written and illustrated by the artist known as Christopher, The Ghouly Boys was first published in 2004 by Slave Labor Graphics Publishing. The comics are based on four sweet, young monsters—a wolf boy, a kid zombie, a young sea monster and a third-generation bogeyman—who have a hard time fitting in with the "normal" human kids. When they find each other, they set out, accompanied by their loyal, flight-challenged pet bat, on an adventure of their own.
Todd Sneaks Into Destination 3
ames Wong, co-writer and director of the upcoming supernatural horror sequel Final Destination 3, told SCI FI Wire that he managed to find a unique role in the latest installment for Tony Todd, the veteran character actor who played a sinister morgue attendant in the first two films. But Todd's character won't return in the third installment, in which death comes after the survivors of a horrific roller-coaster accident.
"The ride, the coaster, in the movie, is called 'Devil's Flight,' and there's this huge devil that sits at the entrance to the ride," Wong said in an interview. "At amusement parks they always have that creepy voice that lures you into the rides. And Tony Todd will be the voice of the devil."
In Final Destination 3, a group of high school students, including Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Kevin (Ryan Merriman), are about to ride a monstrous roller coaster when Wendy has a premonition of a horrible accident that will kill them all. They escape, only to find themselves stalked by an unseen force that wants them all dead. No other characters from the first two films appear in this third installment.
Wong said that, unlike the recent spate of horror movies that have been rated PG-13 in order to reach the widest possible audience, Final Destination 3 will be released with an R rating. "This is a definite R," Wong said. "I think the difference between this movie and PG-13 will be very apparent after the first death. But the one thing I want to add to that is that the deaths are terrifying and intense, but there's also a very high degree of entertainment to the movie. It's not a dark and grim movie, even though there are these really scary and graphic deaths. I think that's also maybe the difference between Final Destination 3 and maybe the Saw movies." Final Destination 3 rumbles into theaters on Feb. 10.
Miike's Horror Tale Axed
howtime's innovative Masters of Horror series has shown viewers a baby-killing witch, a horny child-murdering she-beast and even a man-eating lesbian bug woman, but apparently there are things even this edgy show won't touch. According to a report in The New York Times, the cable network has decided not to air "Imprint," directed by renegade Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, as scheduled on Jan. 27. That episode will be replaced by "Haeckel's Tale," an adaptation of a short story by Clive Barker directed by John McNaughton. All references to "Imprint" were removed from the Showtime Web site, though a trailer for the episode remains on MastersOfHorror.net, the site sponsored by the series's production company, IDT Entertainment, the newspaper reported.
Why? The newspaper reported that "Imprint" may go too far, even for a series that purports to give its classic horror filmmakers creative carte blanche. "I think it's amazing, but it's even hard for me to watch," series creator Mick Garris told The Times. "It's definitely the most disturbing film I've ever seen." It will now be released directly to the DVD market through IDT's home-video subsidiary, Anchor Bay Entertainment, along with the rest of the episodes in the series. No date has been announced.
"Imprint" reportedly tells the story of an American journalist in mid-19th-century Japan who discovers a mysterious island zoned exclusively for dimly lighted brothels. There he finds a hideously deformed, nameless woman who tells terrible stories, which are visualized in disturbing images. They include her collaboration in her mother's work as an abortionist.
Garris said that "Imprint" was not the sort of film that could be trimmed to make it more acceptable. "It is what it is," he said. Masters of Horror airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Disney To Buy Pixar?
alt Disney Co. is in serious discussions to buy Pixar Animation Studios, producer of hit films such as The Incredibles, after months in which the two animation giants have been exploring ways to continue their lucrative partnership, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In the deal under discussion, Disney would pay a nominal premium to Pixar's current market value of $6.7 billion in a stock transaction that would make Pixar chairman and chief executive officer Steve Jobs the largest individual shareholder in Disney, people familiar with the situation told the newspaper.
People familiar with the situation cautioned the Journal that the talks are at a sensitive stage and that the outcome isn't certain, noting that other options are possible.
Disney and Pixar have been partners for more than a dozen years under an arrangement in which Disney has distributed and co-financed popular and profitable Pixar movies such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Two years ago, however, Jobs abruptly said he would end the relationship when it expires later this year and seek a new distribution partner, amid acrimony with then-Disney chief executive officer Michael Eisner.
Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger, who took over last October, has made it a priority to get the companies' relationship back on track. Talks have gained momentum in recent months and a resolution could come soon.
Cagebird Challenges Readers
F author Karin Lowachee, whose novel Cagebird has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, told SCI FI Wire that she writes to challenge the readers, and in Cagebird, that means seeing familiar characters through eyes different from her previous books, Warchild (2002) and Burndive (2003). "I chose to write these books with different first-person viewpoints, because I wanted to show the different facets and angles in this story and in a way expose the limitations of our own viewpoints when it comes to issues of war and peace, who gets exploited, damaged or affected the most, and in what ways—and how we judge these things," Lowachee said in an interview. "I think for the issues I wanted to discuss, they were best told from very tight points of view, but with the addition of seeing up close the conflicting opinions across the span of the series. It challenges the reader's preconceived notions. I also was very interested in the psychological impact of war and exploitation on children, and I didn't want to cheat and make any part of the issues pat or too easy. These characters are damaged, and I challenge the reader to understand them in their faults. I try not to sugarcoat any of it, and you get it all in your face, because you are in the heads of three very different people."
Cagebird is told from the perspective of Yuri Kirov, a 22-year-old pirate who has a different opinion of Ryan Azercon, the hero in Burndive. "I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of someone who is not immediately sympathetic, someone that others view as 'bad,'" Lowachee said. "Like child soldiers the world over who are often brutally drafted by warlords and set to commit atrocities, I wanted to examine the impact of that and ask in some way: How do you judge someone like that? Do we judge? What do we do with them, and for them; or do we just write them off, as it's so easy to do and label them criminals?'"
Lowachee acknowledged that writing a trilogy with different narrators is not the norm, but she likes it because it makes her focus on character. "But it's difficult," she said. "You do a bit of method writing this way. You have to be willing to set aside your own ego and let the character breathe in their faults, which doesn't always make them likable (even as antagonists). And it's scary to think you might scare off a reader because the character is a little too real. But I don't write because I want to be comfortable."
The Philip K. Dick Award is named for the prolific SF writer and recognizes distinguished science fiction published originally in paperback form in the United States. First prize and any special citations will be announced April 14 at Norwescon 29 in Seattle.
More Melusine Books Coming
antasy author Sarah Monette told SCI FI Wire that she recently signed a new two-book deal with Ace, which will include the books The Mirador and Summerdown, the third and fourth books in the series that began with her first novel, Melusine.
Melusine is a secondary-world fantasy depicting the adventures of a wizard, Felix Harrowgate, and a cat burglar, Mildmay the Fox. "There is a series of escalating catastrophes, and [Felix and Mildmay] find themselves dependent on each other," Monette said in an interview. "The thematic underpinning of all these books is Felix and Mildmay's relationship and how they deal with each other. And how sometimes they fail spectacularly to deal with each other."
The Virtu is the second half of the story begun in Melusine, Monette added. "Plotwise, Melusine and The Virtu together tell a story that follows a fairly traditional fantasy arc. The Mirador and Summerdown are about the aftermath: what happens after 'happily ever after.'"
One of Monette's goals with Melusine and its sequels was to pick apart the common tropes of secondary-world fantasy. "There are thieves and assassins in Melusine (the city), but they are not Robin Hoods; most of them are highly unpleasant people, and the rest are scared and struggling," Monette said. "[I also try] to world-build with North America rather than with Europe. That's why there are alligators in the swamps to the south of Melusine, rather than crocodiles, and why there are buffalo in the Grasslands."
Monette says that The Mirador, the fortress-cum-palace that is the heart of the city of Melusine, probably owes something to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. She added that the character of Felix is an attempt to deconstruct the Byronic hero and point out the ways in which Byronic characteristics are self-destructive rather than romantic.
Up next for Monette is "A Gift of Wings," a novella set in the world of Melusine, which will appear in The Queen in Winter, a romantic fantasy anthology coming out in February. The second book in the Melusine sequence, The Virtu, will be out in July. The final two books, The Mirador and Summerdown, are tentatively scheduled for 2007 and 2008. Monette also has two books co-authored with Elizabeth Bear that are making the editorial rounds. One is a young-adult historical mystery featuring Christopher Marlowe as its protagonist; the other is "a serious rethinking of the tropes of companion animal fantasy."
X3: Reunion Patch Available
nlight Interactive announced that that a patch for its X3: Reunion PC video game is now available for download. The patch will improve the game's performance in key areas of game balance and adds new and revamped features.
The version 1.3 patch also improves the overall look, quality and feel of the game, the publisher said. Destroyed stations now leave behind wreckage, missiles have a new look, a new ship has been added, and several missing ships have now been activated.
Briefly Noted
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Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim, who play husband and wife on ABC's hit SF series Lost, took the top TV acting honors at the 2006 Asian Excellence Awards, to be broadcast Jan. 29 on AZN Television, TV Guide Online reported.
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Writer-producer George Lucas told MTV.com that writing continues on a proposed fourth Indiana Jones movie and adds: "Hopefully this year we will have a start date, and we will have a script that we all love, and hopefully it will come out next year."
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Mexican commercial directors Jorge and Javier Aguilera will direct the live-action adaptation of the Japanese SF anime Kite for producers Rob Cohen and Anant Singh, Variety reported.
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Blizzard Entertainment announced that World of Warcraft, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has surpassed the 1-million customer milestone in Europe, more than quadrupling the previously estimated size of the entire European MMORPG market since its launch in February 2005.
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24 star Kim Raver will join Ben Stiller and Carla Gugino in the comedy fantasy movie Night at the Museum, which is set to begin shooting next month, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The Weinstein Co. and Kanbar Entertainment are teaming on a sequel to their current computer-animated film Hoodwinked, to be titled Hood vs. Evil, Variety reported.
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Final box-office figures showed that the computer-animated film Hoodwinked actually came in second place for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, with about $16.9 million in ticket sales.
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JoBlo.com has posted a rumor, based on an anonymous source and casting information, that James Cameron's mysterious Project 880 will actually be his long-gestating SF movie Avatar, which will begin shooting in the spring in Mexico.
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British car maker Aston Martin announced that Daniel Craig, who will play James Bond in the next 007 film, Casino Royale, visited the Aston Martin headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, to view the luxury auto he will drive in the film, a new model called the Aston Martin DBS.
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Oscar winner Hans Zimmer will compose the score to Ron Howard's film adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, Columbia Pictures announced.
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ABC's hit SF series Lost, now in its second season, won the television drama award at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 16.
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In the latest spate of casting rumors, the British tabloid newspapers have anointed 26-year-old Australian actress Rose Byrne to play the next Bond girl, Vesper Lynd, in the upcoming Casino Royale, which introduces Daniel Craig as 007, according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site.
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