Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told fans that a spinoff project is still a possibility when asked about the raft of rumored spinoffs that never came to fruition after the show left the air nearly five years ago.
Asked about future Buffy TV or film projects, Whedon said, "My answer would be, like, there are so many stars that would have to align [for them to happen]. But, you know, there's a reason I worked with all of these people for so long. They're enormously talented. And clearly, from the comic, it's a story that I can't let go of. I think it would be really cool."
Whedon spoke as part of a panel at the William S. Paley Television Festival March 20 in Hollywood that reunited him with his Buffy cast members Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Charisma Carpenter, Seth Green and Amber Benson and fellow producers Marti Noxon and David Greenwalt.
Once the cult hit Buffy went off the air, reports circulated that Whedon was variously developing a spinoff series that would feature the vampire Spike (Marsters) or a British show that would feature the character of Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head). None came to pass.
Since then, Whedon and several of his writers and artists have picked up the story of Buffy Summers and her "Scooby Gang" in a series of comics for Dark Horse, characterized as "season eight" of the TV show. Whedon let loose a spoiler that Green's character, the werewolf Oz, would appear in a future issue of the comic.
TV Guide critic Matt Roush, who moderated the Paley reunion panel discussion, asked whether the comic--which has morphed and developed the Buffy mythology well beyond the show's season finale--would ultimately affect any Buffy spinoff TV shows or films.
"Hypothetically, if you could make things align, that would be fun," Whedon said, adding: "And it would be lovely to make it all tie in. But if I had to shoot down everything I'm doing in the comics because we were doing a project [and] I was filming with these actual people, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep."
Before the panel discussion, fans screened the musical episode "Once More With Feeling." Whedon later said that he had just wrapped production on another musical project. "I literally drove here from wrapping the shooting on a little independent short of my own called Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, my next musical, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. And it's going to come out somewhere, at some point, possibly on a computer. We haven't figure that out yet. And it's awesome." Noxon admitted that she also has a small part.
Could Buffy wind up in musical form on Broadway? "I would love to take a Buffy to Broadway," Whedon said. "It would not be this ['Once More With Feeling']. This is an episode of television. ... You would have to start from scratch. I've spent some time daydreaming about it, because I'm me."
Would any of his Buffy cast be on board? Most raised their hands--with the notable exception of Gellar, who smiled, shook her head and said, "I'm out." --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Paramount Adapting Dune Again
Peter Berg is attached to direct another big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic SF novel Dune for Paramount Pictures, Variety reported.
Kevin Misher, who spent the past year obtaining the book rights from the Herbert estate, will produce.
Herbert's 1965 novel is a sweeping, futuristic tale set on the remote desert planet Arrakis, which is the interstellar empire's sole source of the spice Melange, which causes immortality and facilitates space travel.
The beloved book, which is the first in a series of novels, also spawned David Lynch's 1984 film and SCI FI Channel's 2000 miniseries, starring William Hurt.
The Berg Dune is now seeking writers, with the producers looking for a faithful adaptation of the Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning book.
New Amsterdam's Richard Rubenstein, who produced SCI FI's Dune and its sequel, Children of Dune, is also producing alongside Sarah Aubrey of Film 44, Berg's production banner. John Harrison and Mike Messina executive-produce.
CBS Drops Bomb On Jericho
CBS has canceled Jericho, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Producers have been told the show is ending its run on the broadcast network, sources told the trade paper.
CBS will air the season finale on March 25 with an ending that helps give closure to fans.
After the first season concluded with an abrupt cut to black, fans famously inundated CBS with tens of thousands of pounds of peanuts to urge the network to continue the show. For the seven-episode second season, producers shot two endings: one that leaves viewers in suspense for a third round, another that is more conclusive.
The ending that will air Tuesday night doesn't entirely slam the door on the series, but it is different from the cliffhanger version, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. It also doesn't preclude the possibility of Jericho's finding a second life on cable, though the economics of the production will likely prevent a continuation of the show.
The most recent episodes of Jericho have averaged about a 1.9 rating among adults 18 to 49 on Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
Eick: Bionic Is Dead
David Eick, co-executive producer of NBC's SF series Bionic Woman, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that the network has indeed canceled the show, though the network has not yet officially said as much.
"I just felt that the process was so frustrating, and the conditions under which we were making that show never really came to fruition in such a way that I felt like we could make the show well," Eick said in an interview at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18. "The actress [Michelle Ryan] we found was wonderful. Some of the writing was good."
But, he added: "We just didn't ever bring it all together like we did with Battlestar. At a certain point, when it becomes that frustrating, I think you're better off to say, 'Let's try again another time,' and let it go."
Bionic Woman, a reboot of the 1970s series of the same name, debuted to strong ratings last fall, but its numbers dropped precipitously after that, and behind-the-scenes problems persisted. Cancellation was expected after the network failed to order additional episodes once the writers' strike ended. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling
Daisies 'Harder' In Year Two
Bryan Fuller, creator of ABC's fantasy series Pushing Daisies, promised fans that the show will have a "harder and a little more aggressive ... style of storytelling in the second season" in a panel at the William S. Paley Television Festival in Hollywood on March 15.
Fuller said that the show's writers returned a week ago, in the wake of the recently settled writers' strike, to begin coming up with ideas for the show's second season, which kicks off in September.
"We've come up with some really exciting things in just a week, and we're all sort of chomping at the bit, and I've started writing the first episode, and we've got the first five episodes approved by the network," Fuller told a sold-out audience at the Cinerama Dome theater.
Fuller also offered spoilers for the upcoming season. Among them: "Chuck [Anna Friel] will definitely find out who her real mother is, and it's going to be interesting to see how she reacts to that information and how the piemaker [Lee Pace] tries to control her trajectory and how that will complicate their relationship," Fuller said. "And it's some nice surprises."
Another storyline will pick up the thread of private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) and his search for his missing daughter.
And Fuller promised that he will try to bring back guest star Raúl Esparza, who played Alfredo Aldarisio, the love interest of Olive Snook (Kristen Chenoweth). "We love Raúl Esparza, and we love the romantic chemistry that he had with Kristen, so we have every intention of bringing him back, and we just need to write the scripts and make sure he's available," Fuller said.
Fuller added that producers plan to release a soundtrack CD, which will feature score music by James Dooley and songs by cast members Ellen Green and Chenoweth, who are also known for their performances in Broadway musicals.
Pushing Daisies resumes production in June. The first-season DVD is due in June in the United Kingdom and September in the United States. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Friel Gets Lost In Land
Anna Friel told fans that she plays a grown-up version of Holly in the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Land of the Lost, which she is shooting during her hiatus from ABC's Pushing Daisies.
"Obviously, the 31-year-old version," Friel said of her character at a panel for Pushing Daisies in Hollywood on March 15, part of the William S. Paley Television Festival. "Will Ferrell is [Rick] Marshall. And this great guy called Danny McBride is Will. And we all go to this mad world."
Friel said that the movie will be faithful to Sid and Marty Krofft's 1970s children's series, about a family that finds itself thrown back in time into a land of dinosaurs, cavemen and lizard-like Sleestaks. "They're trying to stick to the original series," the British-born Friel said, adding: "We didn't have it in England, so I wasn't accustomed to it. But since then Marty Krofft [who is a producer on the film] has given me every single DVD of it ever."
Friel, who plays Charlotte "Chuck" Charles on Pushing Daisies, added that she's been shooting the movie for about two weeks. "I'll finish on the 16th of June, and the next day come straight back to Daisies," she said.
Friel added: "We're having fun. Lots of dinosaurs and color and magic and mystery. It's just like our show. ... Will Ferrell is everything that everyone says he is. He's a marvel of a man. ... I don't mind getting lost in that land for a few months."
Land of the Lost is slated for release in 2009. Pushing Daisies returns for a second season on ABC in December. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Whedon Readies Web Musical
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told fans on the Whedonesque Web site that he is producing a Web-based superhero musical called Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
"During the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet series, three episodes of approximately 10 minutes each," Whedon wrote. "Writing with me was my brother Jed; his fiancee, Maurissa; and my other brother, Zack. To my shock and surprise, we finished it. To my greater shock and surprise, we managed (with the help of many people I'll be praising at length soon) to drag it into preproduction (yes, just as Dollhouse [an SF pilot for Fox] was given a start date two months away and all my comics were due). And today, after a grueling week of writing everything ever while trying to be a producer, I got to start shooting. A musical."
Whedon didn't say much about the project, other than to allow: "It's the story of a low-rent supervillain, the hero who keeps beating him up and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to. And I'm having the time of my life."
The cast includes Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Whedon's Firefly/Serenity star Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer and Felicia Day as Penny.
Caprica Very Different From Battlestar
David Eick and Ronald D. Moore, executive producers of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that their upcoming prequel Caprica will be a markedly different series.
Eick compared it to the feature film American Beauty, while Moore referenced the TV soap opera Dallas.
"Caprica is a story that Ron Moore and I concocted with [co-executive producer] Remi Aubuchon, and we're casting as we speak," Moore said in an interview at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18. "I'm very excited about that. If Battlestar Galactica is Black Hawk Down, I would say that Caprica is American Beauty. Caprica is all about the inner lives of the people on a planet and how their personal relationships as well as their professional relationships inform what will become the creation of the Cylons."
Moore, a former Star Trek writer and producer, said that Caprica is not a show along the lines of any Trek spinoff series. "It's a different animal altogether," he said in a separate interview. "Unlike those shows, which are all riffs on the same notion of what Star Trek was, Caprica is really a completely different kind of genre. We're trying to do something different."
Instead of Galactica's action-adventure space-based war show, Caprica will tell a story that takes place before any of the wars happened. "This is really more of a sci-fi Dallas," Moore said. "It's a political story, a family story. It's about the creation of the Cylons, and it's about a company. It's planet-based. It's very character-oriented, very serialized and very much about the characters. It's a whole different genre, and that's what makes it exciting."
Production will begin this spring on a two-hour backdoor pilot. Moore said he will be "very involved" with the pilot, but stressed that it's too soon to say whether he'd remain on board if SCI FI Channel gave the green light for a weekly Caprica show.
"If it goes to series, it kind of depends when that happens and what I'm doing," he said. "We'll just wait and see." --Ian Spelling
Eick Adapts Children For TV
Bionic Woman executive producer David Eick told SCI FI Wire that he's working on a pilot script for a proposed TV series based on Children of Men, P.D. James' SF novel, which also inspired Alfonso Cuaron's 2006 film of the same name.
"It's really taking root more in the origins of the novels in that it will focus on the cultural movement in which young people become the society's utter focus," Eick (Battlestar Galactica) said in an interview at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18. "Much like our culture, whenever Lindsay Lohan does something [and] it becomes the headline of every news show, it's about how, when you don't have a responsibility to the next generation and you're free to do whatever you want, where do you draw the line?"
Eick added that Children of Men will question how society defines responsibility, freedom and a sense of values when it doesn't necessarily believe humans will survive as a species. "So it's a very compelling, I think, human question that science fiction has always explored extremely provocatively," he said. "It's not really a war show like the movie was. It's more an exploration of that issue."
Eick is writing Children of Men now, even as he closes out SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica and prepares for production on SCI FI's recently green-lighted prequel series Caprica. Eick's Bionic, meanwhile, has been canceled by NBC. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCI FI Channel and SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling
Johnson Pitches New V Movie
Kenneth Johnson, creator of the cult 1983 SF miniseries V, told SCI FI Wire that he hopes to develop a new movie based on his sequel novel V: The Second Generation.
The novel, from Tor Books, is a sequel to the miniseries, in which reptilian aliens took over Earth and a human resistance formed to fight their oppression. The Second Generation picks up the story 20 years later, after the Visitors have drained the Earth's oceans and subjugated its residents.
"A number of the major studios have approached me, very interested, about turning it into a movie," Johnson said in an interview. "We're exploring all of those possibilities. Certainly the fact that the second-generation novel is currently in bookstores has had an impact on people who are interested in V as a movie, because it not only indicates there's an audience for more V, ... it's [also] lovely to be able to place a hardcover novel on a desk of a studio executive. That has its own weight." Johnson offered no details about the movie talks.
Johnson said that he's aware of V's international audience and that he receives e-mails from fans from the Middle East, Russia, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Africa and elsewhere. "I have two 4-inch binders completely filled, and those are just the ones I've printed up," he said. "If I'd printed all I received I'd have about 10 such binders."
Johnson said that he's currently developing various other film projects, as well as a new novel. In the meantime, Johnson does regular book signings, some with original cast members. "I was particularly privileged to have Diane Cary, who created the role of Harmony in the original miniseries, to step back into the role once again," Johnson said. "It was a real treat for everybody."
Johnson added: "The feedback that I've gotten from fans has been extraordinarily positive. I must say that almost every [comment] I've gotten has wonderful things to say about the novel. And that's very, very rewarding. I'm pleased the book sales are going quite well. That's naturally what every author wants to hear." --Frank Garcia
Padalecki To Star In Friday Redo
Supernatural star Jared Padalecki is in final negotiations to star in the remake of Friday the 13th that Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes is producing for New Line and Paramount, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Marcus Nispel (Pathfinder) is directing from a script by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are producing.
Paramount released the original Friday in 1980, introducing horror icon Jason with a brief appearance. The remake will focus on the serial killer, who will wear his now-iconic hockey mask. Padalecki will play the lead, who investigates what happened up at Crystal Lake.
A release is planned for Friday, Feb. 13, 2009.
Bamber Feels The Pulse
Jamie Bamber, who stars in the upcoming horror sequel Pulse 2, told SCI FI Wire that the movie resembles Kramer vs. Kramer more than it does most genre fare.
The direct-to-DVD movie is a sequel to Pulse, the 2006 theatrical release that was in turn based on Kairo, a 2001 Japanese horror movie, about ghosts making their presence felt through computers and the Internet.
Bamber, who is best known as Apollo on SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica, stars in Pulse 2 as a divorced father struggling to protect his young daughter (Karley Scott Collins) from the vengeful spirit of her dead mother as ghosts overrun the living world.
"I play a guy who's just trying to hold onto his kid," Bamber said in an interview at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18. "It's sort of Kramer vs. Kramer in an apocalyptic situation. He's got a dysfunctional marriage, and it's more of an interpersonal story than it is a horror movie."
Bamber added that he shot the entire film, which was directed by Joel Soisson (The Prophecy: Forsaken), in front of green screens. "[That] was really weird," he said. "But it's not fanciful settings. It's all very concrete locations, but we shot it on green screen, which is a first, as far as I can think of, in filmmaking. There was no real reason to do everything on green screen, but we did. So I'll be intrigued to see it." Pulse 2 will be released next year. --Ian Spelling
Collins Rocks Monster
Chad Collins, star of the upcoming SCI FI original movie Rock Monster, told SCI FI Wire that the film puts a playful spin on the classic legend of the sword in the stone.
Collins, last seen in the SCI FI original movie Lake Placid 2, stars in Rock Monster as Jason, something of a slacker and perennial college student, who receives a letter explaining that he's due for an inheritance from a long-lost aunt. The news prompts him to put off real life just a little bit longer and embark on a trip to Europe that turns into the adventure of a lifetime.
"The story is just a real loose take on the sword in the stone," Collins said in an interview. "I joke in the movie that I've been going to school for seven years. And so I say, 'Hey, here's an adventure. Let's go backpacking in Europe and find this place.' I bring my best friend. We pick up a couple of expats on the way, and I get goaded into pulling this sword out of a stone, which unleashes an ancient evil wizard in the form of a rock monster."
From there, Rock Monster evolves into a battle of lineages, with Jason descended from the hero knight who put the wizard in the ground and trapped him, and his nemesis, the rock creature that descends from the evil wizard's family. "So havoc ensues, and this poor village is sort of caught in the middle," Collins said. "The big decision for me is do I split and save my own hide or do I take responsibility, step up to the plate, become a hero and right my wrong?'"
Collins said that the film doesn't take itself very seriously at all, something he credits to director and co-writer Declan O'Brien. "These movies don't have to be so serious and self-righteous," Collins says. "He pays a lot of [tribute] to the movies of the genre that came before this, and there are a lot of references and even camera shots that kind of pay homage to [to everything from Jaws to An American Werewolf in London]. It was fun, man. It was just really cool to go to work and know you didn't have to be so serious, that there was going to be a funny line thrown in on top of the action and the sci-fi stuff." Rock Monster premiered on March 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. --Ian Spelling
Hugo Nominees Announced
Nominees have been announced for this year's Hugo Awards. Winners will be announced at the 66th World Science Fiction Convention, Aug. 6-10, in Denver. A complete list of nominees follows.
Best Novel: The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, Brasyl by Ian McDonald, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, The Last Colony by John Scalzi, Halting State by Charles Stross
Best Novella: "Fountains of Age" by Nancy Kress, "Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard, "All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis, "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe
Best Novelette: "The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham, "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang, "Dark Integers" by Greg Egan, "Glory" by Greg Egan, "Finisterra" by David Moles
Best Short Story: "Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter, "Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear, "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod, "Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick, "A Small Room in Koboldtown" by Michael Swanwick
Best Related Book: The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Glyer; Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium by Barry Malzberg; Emshwiller: Infinity x Two by Luis Ortiz; Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher; The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Enchanted; The Golden Compass; Heroes, season one; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Stardust
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Battlestar Galactica: Razor; Dr. Who, "Blink"; Dr. Who, "Human Nature"/"Family of Blood"; Star Trek New Voyages, "World Enough and Time"; Torchwood, "Captain Jack Harkness"
Best Professional Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow, Stanley Schmidt, Jonathan Strahan, Gordon Van Gelder, Sheila Williams
Best Professional Editor, Long Form: Lou Anders, Ginjer Buchanan, David G. Hartwell, Beth Meacham, Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Best Professional Artist: Bob Eggleton, Phil Foglio, John Harris, Stephan Martiniere, John Picacio, Shaun Tan
Best Semiprozine: Ansible, Helix, Interzone, Locus, The New York Review of Science Fiction
Best Fanzine: Argentus, Challenger, Drink Tank, File 770, PLOKTA
Best Fan Writer: Chris Garcia, David Langford, Cheryl Morgan, John Scalzi, Steven H. Silver
Best Fan Artist: Brad Foster, Teddy Harvia, Sue Mason, Steve Stiles, Taral Wayne
The finalists for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were also announced. The nominees are Joe Abercrombie, Jon Armstrong, David Anthony Durham, David Louis Edelman, Mary Robinette Kowal and Scott Lynch.
The Hugo Award, also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award, is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society. The award was named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories, the first magazine devoted entirely to science fiction.
Heroes Reaches Midnight Hour
NCsoft confirmed that it plans to expand its massively multiplayer online game City of Heroes with new content dubbed "Midnight Hour," which enhances the storyline and adds new super-powers, characters and a trip back to ancient Rome.
Matt Miller, the game's senior lead designer, told SCI FI Wire that the new content focuses on the Midnight Squad, a secret organization of mystics, mages and academics, which holds the key to fighting an alien invasion. The squad sends high-level players back to the Roman era, Miller added. "This organization has always been in the lore of City of Heroes, but never realized in the game itself," he said.
The Midnight Squad provide a new mission arc for characters levels 10-20 and uses an Ouroboros crystal to send heroes levels 35-50 back in time to the Cimeroran Peninsula. There, players will defend a Roman-era city from a supernatural foe whose powers span the centuries. Opening up the Roman theme also gives players a chance to try out Roman-themed costume options for their characters.
New play options include playable characters for villains, several improvements to the user interface and a complete redesign of one of the classic areas in the game, the Hallows.
Players who prefer the City of Villains half of the game will be able to unlock two new epic archetypes, allowing them to create such characters as Wolf Spiders and Blood Widows, the powerful servants of Lord Recluse.
The tweaks to the user interface come in response to player demands. New power trays and a revised contact management window make it easier to play and faster to identify the next big event. Changes to the chat function let players easily drag items into the chat window, eliminating typing and making it easier to block unwanted traffic.
The update's launch will depend on the progress of current testing. "Issue 12 is shaping up to be a great issue, but that's just the start of things to come," Miller said, adding: "We couldn't be more excited about the journey ahead for City of Heroes." --Kyle Ackerman
Stars To Voice Iron Game
Sega and Marvel announced that a video game based on Marvel's upcoming Iron Man movie will feature the voices of the film's stars, including Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard and Shaun Toub.
The actors will reprise their on-screen roles of Tony Stark (Downey), Lt. Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Howard) and Yin-Sen (Toub). The Iron Man video game launches on the same day the movie opens, May 2.
Iron Man is a third-person action-shooter game that pits the title superhero against progressively more vicious enemies. Like the film, the game tells the story of Stark, the billionaire industrialist and inventor who redefines himself after escaping from captors in the Middle East.
The Iron Man game will be available for the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2 and 3, Nintendo DS, PSP and PC.
Shutter Stars Get Crash Course
The stars of the supernatural horror movie Shutter told SCI FI Wire that a car-crash scene frightened them more than scenes involving ghosts.
"It was hard to do the car accident just because I've never been in a car accident, and it was a very particular thing," Rachael Taylor (Transformers) said in an interview.
The scene occurs at the beginning of the film. Taylor plays a new bride, who, with her husband (Joshua Jackson), flips their car over while trying to avoid a ghostly girl standing in the road.
"Fortunately, Josh was with me, and he was really supportive," Taylor said. "He was like, 'When you have a car accident, you use every bit of strength you can to protect yourself from that steering wheel.' You don't actually know that if you haven't been in a car accident."
Jackson added that he was concerned that his and Taylor's reactions felt genuine. "When you're in an accident, you tense up in certain ways to protect yourself, and it's almost involuntary," he said. "Because it was a long accident scene, it was important that our reactions seem real."
The film centers on the young couple, who encounter ghostly images in photographs taken while they are honeymooning in Japan. Taylor said that she doesn't consider herself superstitious enough to believe in the film's "spirit photography," but that she does have superstitious habits, some of which could be dangerous when driving.
"I have this kooky little thing, whenever I see a crow, I go like this and break a circle with my finger because it's bad luck when traveling," she said, demonstrating the hand movement. "I learned it from my mother."
Shutter, a remake of a Thai movie, opened on March 21. --Mike Szymanski
Li Joins Chan In Kingdom
John Fusco, who wrote the upcoming martial-arts fantasy film The Forbidden Kingdom, told SCI FI Wire that Jet Li joined the project to work with fellow martial artist Jackie Chan for the first time. He also wanted to play the Monkey King, a fabled character from Chinese mythology.
"Both Jet Li and Jackie Chan said they always wanted to work together, and they were always looking for the right project, and when each of them read the script, they liked it," Fusco said in an interview at Wizard World in Los Angeles last weekend.
The Forbidden Kingdom is based on the myth of the Monkey King, who is imprisoned by the evil Jade War Lord (Collin Chou). An American teenager (Michael Angarano) finds himself transported into the alternate universe of the Monkey King, where he meets a kung fu master, Lu Yan (Chan), and the Silent Monk (also played by Li) and sets out to free the king.
Fusco (Thunderheart) said he updated the Chinese legends with the help of by Li. "Jet Li did not want to do martial-arts films anymore, and he became a true collaborator," Fusco said. "I tried to Westernize the story as much as I could, and then Jet Li joined in and took it upon himself to work on it some more. I traveled to Hong Kong to see him and work with him on it."
Fusco added: "Jet Li responded in a positive way, and it was his childhood dream to play the Monkey King. He is a really deep guy, a devout Buddhist, and his charitable foundation does a lot of great things. He found out that if he takes himself out of movies it would hurt a lot of people. He didn't want to hurt a lot of people."
The Forbidden Kingdom is directed by Robert Minkoff and also stars Crystal Liu and Li Bing Bing. Lionsgate is releasing the film on April 18. --Mike Szymanski
JLA's Miller Urges Oz Rebates
Australian director George Miller has mounted a public campaign to pressure the Oz government and its screen-finance officials to change their minds and let him tap the new rebate for Justice League Mortal, which would give his production company a 40 percent refund on qualifying below-the-line costs, Variety reported.
The director of Happy Feet is threatening to move production of the Warner Brothers superhero blockbuster to New Zealand or Canada if the Film Finance Corp. Australia, which issues provisional certificates, does not award one to the project.
A provisional certificate would guarantee eligibility for the rebate so long as the project then adhered to its production plan.
The Oz industry is split about whether the rebate should fund all films made by Australian filmmakers in Oz or only those that tell Australian stories and genuinely originated there.
Justice League was developed by Warner Brothers.
McDonough Fights In Street
Neal McDonough (SCI FI Channel's Tin Man) has joined the ensemble cast of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the film adaptation of the popular Japanese video game being produced by Hyde Park Film Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
McDonough (Minority Report) will play the powerful and elusive villain Bison, the sworn enemy of the film's heroine Chun-Li (Smallville's Kristin Kreuk).
Andrzej Bartkowiak directs a script penned by Justin Marks. The cast includes Moon Bloodgood, Michael Clarke Duncan, Chris Klein and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas.
Filming began this week in Bangkok, Thailand, and will include locations in Hong Kong and Vancouver.
Red Is SF Autobiography
SF author Matthew De Abaitua, whose novel The Red Men is a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book is an autobiography done as science fiction.
"It's informed by my experiences in the dot-com boom, when there were lots of businessmen running around trying to make money out of a technology they did not understand," De Abaitua said in an interview. "As the novel develops, it becomes a battle between the corporate imagination--which invents to sell--and the wild and unbounded imagination that is compelled to invent the bizarre and glorious, neither of which necessarily have any economic value. Anyone who takes their creativity to market like it's a prize pig will face that battle."
The book tells the story of Monad, a company that has acquired technology that seems impossibly advanced for our age. "But like iPods and Google, that technology quickly becomes perceived as mundane," De Abaitua said. "One offshoot of this impossible technology are the Red Men: simulations of people rich enough to keep up the subscription on a virtual self."
De Abaitua had to do a lot of research into neuroscience: namely, on how to simulate consciousness. "There is considerable doubt that mankind could ever unpack the brain in that way," he said. "So the simulations are stories that an artificial intelligence tells about you. Stories so accurate that they initially appear to be a perfect representation. It's only over time, as the story unfolds, that the differences become horribly apparent."
Frank J. Tipler's Physics of Immortality inspired De Abaitua, who said that reading it was the first time he encountered the idea of human consciousness being copied into a supercomputer. "At the same time, I was working for The Idler, an anti-work magazine," he said. "Putting these two influences together, I felt that no matter what amazing inventions mankind came up with, we would find banal uses for [them] that boiled down to making work more unbearable as new technologies merely transferred the burden of productivity to the individual. The Red Men are our economic selves, our working selves. And that's why they are so ruthless and dangerous." --John Joseph Adams
Caprica Gets Green Light
SCI FI Channel has given a green light for production to begin on Caprica, a two-hour backdoor pilot and Battlestar Galactica prequel from executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. Production is slated to begin in Vancouver, Canada, this spring.
Set 50 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families--the Greystones and the Adamas --as they grow, compete and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies. Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe to toe.
"I'm thrilled with the chance to expand on the Galactica world and get deeper into the origins of the story we've been telling," Moore said in a statement. "It's also great to have a chance at doing a completely different kind of science fiction series, one that's even more character-oriented and doesn't rely on pyrotechnics to carry the story."
In his own statement, Eick said: "While Caprica will have its own personality, it will carry on Battlestar's commitment to pushing the boundaries of the genre, and we're thrilled that SCI FI has seen fit to giving us another opportunity to tell character-driven stories in challenging ways."
The fourth season of Battlestar Galactica kicks off on March 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back half-hour specials, with the first new episode premiering the following week, April 4, at 10 p.m.
Fusco Completes Scott's Wolf
Writer John Fusco told SCI FI Wire that he has completed a draft of the film adaptation of the popular young-adult novel Wolf Brother for producer Ridley Scott.
"Ridley is not intending to direct it," Fusco said in an interview at Wizard World in Los Angeles over the weekend. "He is producing, but we are waiting for a director, who is doing another movie, and then it will get started into production. Of course, the writers' strike slowed this project a bit, but it is still continuing."
The movie is based on the book by Michelle Paver, part of her Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, which also includes Soul Eater, Outcast and Spirit Walker. The series follows a boy named Torak in the Stone Age, 6,000 years ago. The final parts of the six-book series, Oathbreaker and Ghost Hunter, are expected to be released in 2008 and '09. This is the first film adaptation; 20th Century Fox bought the rights.
"It was a challenge to do the book justice, and after [Paver] read the draft of the script that I just completed, she sent me the most beautiful letter and said it is everything that she had been hoping for," Fusco (The Forbidden Kingdom) said. He added: "It will be live action, but no actors are connected yet, and there will be lots of special effects."
The reclusive author is often difficult to reach, and her official Web site says that she goes online only sporadically. Fusco previously wrote the Oscar-nominated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. --Mike Szymanski
Yelchin Is T4's Reese?
Anton Yelchin is in negotiations to star as post-apocalyptic warrior Kyle Reese in director McG's Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
With production scheduled to start in early May, Paul Haggis also has been in talks about coming on board to work on the sequel's script, the trade paper reported.
Yelchin will play a teen version of Reese, the man who fathered world savior John Connor in the original Terminator film and who was played by Michael Biehn.
Christian Bale will play John Connor in the time-traveling third sequel to the 1984 SF action film, produced by the Halcyon Co. and set for a Warner Brothers release in the summer of 2009.
Reese, one of the children who survived a machine-driven nuclear holocaust, befriends Marcus (Sam Worthington), an early edition of the Terminator cyborg played in previous films by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The film picks up with Connor (Bale), now in his 30s, fighting desperately to save a decimated civilization against machines that have taken control.
Yelchin will next be seen as Pavel Chekov in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek for Paramount.
Kung Fu Love Inspired Kingdom
Writer John Fusco told SCI FI Wire that his love for kung fu and his desire to teach it to his 12-year-old son helped him create the script for the martial-arts fantasy film The Forbidden Kingdom.
"I started in Korean styles of kung fu when I was 12 and then northern Shaolin and then Praying Mantis," Fusco said in an interview. "Then my son started getting interested in martial arts, doing tae kwon do, and I wanted him to get into the legends and mythology of the martial arts, too. I tried to get him to read Journey to the West or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, two classic Chinese novels, but he never did, so I just started telling him stories at night and put the stories together."
Fusco eventually told a producer about the stories he spun for his son. "And he said, 'You're writing a screenplay about this, aren't you?'" Fusco recalled. "And I said I wasn't thinking about it, and he said, 'No, you're writing the screenplay about this.' And that's how it came about."
The Forbidden Kingdom brings together Jet Li and Jackie Chan in a story set in ancient China, centering on an American teenager (Michael Angarano) who finds himself transported back in time and joining forces with the warriors to free the imprisoned Monkey King.
Fusco used his knowledge of the five classical animal styles of martial arts in the script, and the film's martial-arts adviser Yuen Woo-ping adapted them. "Woo-ping told me he wanted to use the supernatural style, so they are elevated and can fly," Fusco said. "That's what Collin's [Chou] character does. Then there's the straight-up street fighting, and sometimes they intersect."
The film is directed by Robert Minkoff (The Lion King), and Lionsgate will release the movie on April 18. --Mike Szymanski
SCI FI Unveils Reality Slate
SCI FI Channel announced an ambitious slate of upcoming alternative/reality programming, including a new version of its hidden-camera show Scare Tactics, featuring new host Tracy Morgan (30 Rock).
The network will also premiere extended special installments of Mind Control With Derren Brown.
The network also gave the green light to two new pilots, Estate of Panic and Brain Trust, and ordered up an investigative special called Mystery of the Crystal Skulls.
The new season of Scare Tactics is slated to return this year. It originally premiered on SCI FI in April 2003 and ran for two seasons. Show creators Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey also serve as executive producers under their Hallock & Healey Entertainment banner.
This fall, Mind Control With Derren Brown returns for an all-new second season that will kick off with a special event. Season two will consist of six one-hour episodes in which Brown demonstrates his skills of mental persuasion. Andrew O'Connor and Anthony Owen serve as executive producers for Objective Productions.
Estate of Panic comes from the producers of NBC's Fear Factor and is described as a physically and psychologically challenging competition. In the pilot, millions of dollars are hidden in a massive estate, and seven strangers are invited to find the money. During the hour, contestants will be challenged in different areas of the house to overcome the terrors that await them. Estate of Panic is executive-produced by Endemol USA.
Brain Trust starts with a band of geniuses known as the Trust, who are enlisted by everyday people to help find new solutions to everyday problems. The Trust uses its members' creative and intellectual prowess to strategize and solve the problem, and the solutions are then put to the test. Brain Trust is executive-produced by Dan Taberski for Idiot Box Productions. Production is set to begin in Los Angeles later this month.
NBC News anchor Lester Holt hosts Mystery of the Crystal Skulls, which premieres May 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The investigative special looks at the mythology about and search for the legendary crystal skulls: 13 quartz sculptures discovered amid ruins of Mayan and Aztec societies. Legends say that the skulls may unleash untold energy should they be brought together. The special, timed to the release of the feature film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is produced by NBC's Peacock Productions, in association with SCI FI.
SCI FI will exclusively air all three previous Indiana Jones movies on May 18, leading into the premiere of Mystery of the Crystal Skulls.
Medium's Huston In Forefront
Moira Kirland, co-executive producer of NBC's hit Medium, told SCI FI Wire that guest star Anjelica Huston's story comes to a head in a two-part episode that begins on March 24.
"We've been implying the whole time that Cynthia Keener [Oscar winner Huston] is interested in Allison [Patricia Arquette] for a reason," Kirland said in an interview. "And what happens is Allison starts to have dreams about Cynthia Keener's daughter, who we learn disappeared 10 years ago."
Huston's hard-edged character was introduced at the beginning of the season, offering Allison a way to make ends meet after both she and her husband, Joe, lost their jobs. In the two-part episode "Wicked Game," Cynthia's story comes into focus, Kirland said. "She believes in Allison, and yet she seems to be interested in her for reasons other than the obvious," she said. "'You give me clues, and I'll give you money.' She's developing this relationship with her, and we will come to find out that a lot of Cynthia's attitude, the cold demeanor that she puts on, has to do with the fact that her daughter disappeared and that she doesn't know what happened. She's sort of had to steel herself in the world in order to get through that."
The episode also offers some direction for the unemployed Joe, played by series regular Jake Weber. He "gets an idea for an improvement on solar cells," Kirland said. "He has an inspiration of an invention." That invention will lead Joe on a new path, and in the last half of the season he'll be looking to find venture capital.
"Wicked Game," part one, premieres March 24 at 10 p.m. ET/PT; part two airs March 31. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Kathie Huddleston
SCI FI Announces Scripted Pilots
SCI FI Channel unveiled a slate of original scripted series pilots, including True Believer, developed in partnership with actress and comic-book fan Rosario Dawson, and The Stranded, the first release under the newly formed joint venture SCI FI/Virgin Comics.
True Believer is a two-hour backdoor pilot based on an original concept from Dawson, David Atchinson (Dawson's co-author on the Image Comics series Occult Crimes Task Force), Matthew Spradlin and Tom Feister. The contemporary dramedy centers on a 20-something comic-book nerd who hires a washed-up real-life superhero to be his crime-fighting sidekick and to teach him the ropes.
Dawson will serve as executive producer, with Atchinson and Spradlin aboard to write. Feister will consult on the project.
The Stranded is a two-hour pilot based on the SCI FI/Virgin Comics title by Mike Carey, which was released in January. In it, five seemingly everyday people must face a terrifying question: What if your entire life--your childhood, your family, your memories--was a lie? For the stranded--Sisera, Endo, Drum, Tamree and Cullen--that's true. Each of them is from another world called Standfire, and the past is returning to try to kill them.
Other pilots given the green light include Deputized, a two-hour pilot written by Joe Gazzam. The dramedy centers on an average guy who suddenly finds himself possessing special abilities after being accidentally fitted with an alien exoskeleton that cannot be removed. He is enlisted to serve on an intergalactic police force.
Alice is a six-hour miniseries from writer/director Nick Willing and executive producers Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. (Tin Man). The miniseries is a modern-day retelling of the classic story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
SCIFI.COM Plans Major Expansion
SCIFI.COM is expanding with new stand-alone gaming and tech sites, original and exclusive scripted entertainment, a game center and a new social-game experience. The year 2007 was a record-breaking one for SCIFI.COM, which averaged 3 million unique visitors per month. SCIFI.COM recently launched DVICE.COM and continues next with a gaming site.
On the entertainment side, the site will debut online original series, webisodes tied to SCI FI Channel's hit shows, a new casual game center and more streaming video.
The blog-style game site will launch in mid-April and will be a hub for reports on all things relevant to the gamer lifestyle. The site will feature multiple daily posts from a roster of knowledgeable contributors, game players and reviewers covering the best and newest games, reports and industry news, as well as spotlights on game players and their strategies.
The new SCI FI Game Center will be a destination for SF-themed casual games, starting with classic titles such as Asteroids and continuing to grow with new gaming experiences that feature elements of their favorite SCI FI shows. The Game Center launches in mid-April.
In the programming arena, SCIFI.COM will offer fans of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica a nine-hour jump on the fourth-season premiere with a live stream of the full episode on April 4 at noon ET. The episode, titled "He That Believeth in Me," deals with the thin line that separates humanity from the rapidly evolving Cylons as Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) returns from the dead with claims that she has found planet Earth.
Meanwhile, new Battlestar Galactica webisodes will debut on SCIFI.COM to mark the show's return. SCIFI.COM and Universal Media Studios will produce 10 two-to-three-minute serialized webisode chapters that complement and enhance the action broadcast on SCI FI.
SCIFI.COM will also launch a social-gaming experience for Battlestar fans, who will be asked to choose a side: Cylon or human. After designating identities for themselves, individuals will engage the enemy and attempt to accrue points for their respective teams through online games and challenges. There will be a battle each week, with one of the teams being declared the victor.
SCIFI.COM will also debut an original Web series called Starcrossed, a satirical show about an SF TV series, from Stargate Atlantis star David Hewlett. Jane Loughman and John G. Lenic (Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis) serve as executive producers, and Universal Media Studios is the production entity. The series will debut in the fourth quarter of this year.
Finally, SCIFI.COM will host a new SCI FI Rewind video player, where viewers can watch full-length episodes of SCI FI original series in high-quality video streaming using the latest technology.
Ghost International Returns
SCI FI Channel announced that Ghost Hunters International will return this summer with seven new episodes as part of its first season.
The show debuted in January as the highest-rated reality telecast in SCI FI's history.
A spinoff of SCI FI's hit Ghost Hunters series, Ghost Hunters International features a squad of real-life "ghostbusters": ordinary people who investigate and attempt to debunk claims of otherworldly activity.
Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International are produced in association with Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Films and Television. Piligian and Thomas Thayer, along with Rob Katz and Alan David, serve as executive producers.
SF Legend Clarke Dies In Sri Lanka
Arthur C. Clarke--the visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future--died March 18 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, the Associated Press reported. He was 90.
Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva told the AP.
Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving, which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space.
Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.
He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.
Kings Reimagines Mars, Venus
SF author S.M. Stirling told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, was inspired by his feeling that classic pulp writers had an unfair advantage: namely, that they could imagine a much more interesting solar system than the one we actually have.
"An alternate history allows for something more like their vision of Mars and Venus, but done with modern technique and sensibility," Stirling said in an interview.
The novel is set on Mars, but it's not the arid dustball that we know it to be in real life. "In [the book's] timeline, we discover in the course of the 20th century that Mars (and Venus) are living worlds, with strangely humanoid inhabitants--[which is] confirmed by Soviet and American space probes in the early 1960s," Stirling said. "The Mars of Crimson Kings is a dying but still habitable world, with the wreck of an ancient civilization that once ruled the entire planet under the Tollamune dynasty, when Earthlings were still cracking flints and fighting off cave bears."
Although it supports life, the book's terraformed Mars isn't quite the same as Earth; in particular, it has no fossil fuels and no fissionables. One of the questions Stirling asked himself was: "How would a very old and very advanced civilization that had had to specialize in biotechnology look?" he said. "That was an interesting part of doing the world-building, and it enabled me to have talking (and singing) clocks and customs inspection machines that taste you."
Stirling said writing the book as if Mars and Venus were the planets pulp writers imagined them to be was a chance to play in a really fun sandbox. "[But] I did have to do a lot of research on both our Mars and the means it might become the one I'm showing, of course, but that was also enjoyable," he said. "It was surprisingly easy to fit in an altered history in which the mistaken theories of our history's planetologists and astronomers were actually true. We really didn't learn the truth about Mars until the 1950s."
Up next for Stirling is the latest in his Change series, The Scourge of God, which is scheduled for publication in September. --John Joseph Adams
Angel Comic Expands, Spins Off
IDW Publishing announced that it will expand its hit comic series Angel: After the Fall with special interim issues, a new spinoff miniseries and new artists.
The series, which picks up the story of the TV series Angel from the end of the fifth season, has sold out several first printings of its five issues so far.
Issues six, seven and eight will begin a special three-part stories-within-the-story adventure, "First Night," IDW said.
Issue six looks at Spike (featuring art by David Messina), Connor (art by Stephen Mooney) and Lorne (art by industry legend John Byrne). All the stories in the issues will feature a framing sequence starring Betta George (the breakout star of the Spike: Asylum miniseries), illustrated by Tim Kane.
Spike will get his own miniseries in July, Spike: After the Fall, written and illustrated by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru. The four-part series begins in July and picks up Spike from the end of "First Night" and explores his changing relationship with Illyria.
Chou Stars In Wachowski Ninja Film
Matrix cast member Collin Chou told SCI FI Wire that he will be one of four leads in a new fantasy ninja film from Matrix creators Larry and Andy Wachowski, who will produce but not direct. Variety has reported that the film will be called Ninja Assassin, a title Chou couldn't confirm.
"I don't think I'm supposed to talk about it, but I am working with the Wachowski brothers next month, and I look forward to working with them again on a major movie," Chou said in an interview at the Wizard World convention in Los Angeles over the weekend. "It will be in Berlin." As for the film's title, Chou said: "I don't know if that's the final name yet." Chou played Seraph in the Wachowskis' Matrix films.
Chou also confirmed a longstanding rumor that he is playing a role that Jet Li turned down. "I have to say that I'm constantly grateful to Jet Li, and I thank him all the time, but that is personal," Chou joked. (Chou co-stars with Li and Jackie Chan in the upcoming fantasy martial-arts film The Forbidden Kingdom.)
Chou said that the Wachowskis' ninja movie starts production in late April or early May. "And this is a part that is built around me," he said. "They have wanted to have me in a larger part, and I was waiting and waiting for a long time for it to happen. I am one of four of the main characters in this movie. It is a great honor to be on board."
Korean pop star Rain, whose real name is Jung Ji-hoon, is also part of the project and one of the four main characters. Rain, who is in the upcoming Speed Racer film, was also in last year's Korean film I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK.
Variety earlier reported that the film will be produced by Matrix producer Joel Silver and most likely will be directed by James McTeigue, who also helmed the Wachowski-produced V for Vendetta.
Lionsgate's Forbidden Kingdom opens April 18. --Mike Szymanski
Samurai Update In Works
Screenwriter John Fusco told SCI FI Wire that he now feels ready to adapt and update the 1954 Akira Kurosawa classic The Seven Samurai after turning down the project several times.
Fusco, who has a lifelong interest in Asian legends, said the idea of updating Kurosawa's masterpiece was daunting when it was first proposed to him by producer Harvey Weinstein.
"Harvey offered me the project a couple of times, and I didn't think it was a good idea for obvious reasons. It's hallowed ground," Fusco said in an interview at Wizard World in Los Angeles over the weekend. Fusco also wrote Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and The Forbidden Kingdom.
"Finally, we met and explored the idea of setting it in a more contemporary setting among contractors like the Blackwater guys," Fusco added. "Suddenly, it felt very relevant and real."
The original movie tells the story of 16th-century Japanese warriors who come together to save a village from bandits. It was previously adapted as a Western, 1960's The Magnificent Seven.
Setting the story in the milieu of an international private paramilitary company "is something that the general public knows about and can understand," Fusco said.
Fusco added: "I didn't want to do it unless it could be remade like Magnificent Seven, which was great and translated beautifully with the Old West gunfighters," Fusco said. "I did a lot of research on these [paramilitary] guys and the way they are, and they lend themselves to an updated version of this story."
Like many projects in Hollywood, the proposed film was delayed by the recently settled writers' strike. "It is moving forward," Fusco said. --Mike Szymanski
Pixar Mulling Live-Action Mars?
The Disney insider news site JimHillMedia reported a rumor that Pixar's first foray into live-action filmmaking may be a film based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series.
Citing anonymous sources, the site reported that WALL•E director Andrew Stanton told the staff at Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. in October of last year that Disney/Pixar is gearing up to do a trilogy of films based on the books.
Mark Andrews has reportedly completed a first pass on a screenplay for the first film in the series, to which both Pixar and Disney executives have responded enthusiastically. Both companies are reportedly eager to put the project in the development pipeline soon, with an eye to a 2012 release, if not earlier.
CW Green-Lights Raimi's 13
The CW announced that it has given the green light to producer Sam Raimi's 13 (working title), an eight-episode series combining the horror genre with a reality-show format, which debuts in the summer.
The show's executive producers are Jay Bienstock (Survivor) and Ghost House Pictures' Raimi (the Spider-Man films) and Raimi's longtime producing partner, Robert Tapert. Ghost House's Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane will produce.
The show takes contestants on a journey with horror-movie-like challenges and games designed to frighten them along the way.
13 is produced by Magic Molehill Productions, in association with Jay Bienstock Productions and Ghost House Pictures.
Medium Star's Sister Guests
Rosanna Arquette--older sister of the star of NBC's Medium, Patricia Arquette--will guest-star in the April 7 episode, "Lady Killer," playing a "beautiful, single 'cougar'" who stalks young men, the network announced.
The elder Arquette will play "a dangerous femme fatale" who is being tracked down by Allison (Patricia Arquette) and Scanlon (David Cubitt) following the savage murders of two young men. Meanwhile, as the campaign for district attorney revs up, Allison gets a feeling that someone close to Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) is plotting against him.
Rosanna is not the first member of the famous performing family to share the Medium spotlight with Patricia: younger brother David Arquette directed an episode of the hit supernatural drama last season.
Medium airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
Brasyl Posits Alternate Histories
Multiple-award-winning SF author Ian McDonald, whose novel Brasyl is a finalist for this year's British Science Fiction Association Award, told SCI FI Wire that he wanted to do another book set in a non-Western country as a filter for Western SF notions. His previous novel, River of Gods, was set in India.
"I didn't want anything as obvious as China or Indonesia--they're overserved anyway," McDonald said in an interview. "I was looking for somewhere off the U.S./U.K. radar, and an inner voice one morning in the shower whispered the word 'Brazil,' which is a very beautiful word, laden with exoticism and possibility. I knew next to nothing about Brazil, which is itself a stimulating challenge."
In the novel, McDonald tells three stories set in three histories of Brazil. "The reality-shifting, many-worlds approach seemed to rather suit a country that has always prided itself as 'the nation of the future,'" McDonald said. "It's just that that future seems to be constantly changing, constantly elusive."
McDonald added that it's not clear that the three histories deal with the same nation. "Are they necessarily all the same Brazil?" he said. "For even though one is set in 2032, another in 2006 (or so it seems) and one in 1732, they are all tied together by the wilder implications of quantum theory and quantum computing. Ultimately, it's about what it means to be quantum. And there's the Brazilian dance/martial art of capoeira, what [Americans] call soccer, floating basilicas on the Amazon and sword-fighting Jesuits. And knives that cut down to the quantum level."
Brasyl also explores the wilder shores of quantum theory, McDonald said. "It's one of the most accurate scientific theories we have produced: Its power of prediction is awesome. But for it to be true means everything we assume about physical reality is untrue," he said.
There are three main interpretations of quantum theory, McDonald said. "[There's] the Copenhagen, the Everett Many Worlds and the Bohm Carrier-Wave theory, [and] all of them have profoundly disturbing implications for our place in the universe," he said. "I took the Many Worlds theory, but my writing twist was to take it not as an alternate history, which is how different this alternate world is from ours, but how similar." --John Joseph Adams
Kong, Jurassic Items Auctioned
A poster for the original King Kong, one of only three known to exist, and a hydraulic Velociraptor from The Lost World: Jurassic Park II are among the rare movie items to be auctioned through Profiles in History on March 27 and 28, the company announced.
Other items up for sale include the screen-used Spinosaur head and neck from Jurassic Park III, Michael Keaton's Batman costume from Batman Returns and Charles Middleton's Ming the Merciless cape from 1936's Flash Gordon. About 1,100 items will be auctioned off.
Warner Acquires Cyclops Rights
Warner Brothers has acquired film rights to the Alexis Nolent SF graphic novel Cyclops and will develop it as a feature vehicle for helmer James Mangold, Variety reported. Cathy Konrad will produce with Alexandra Milchan.
Set in the near future, the story concerns mercenary forces whose soldiers wear Cyclops-like cameras in their helmets and broadcast in real time to both central command and living rooms. One mercenary chosen to lead an elite squad begins to realize he isn't fighting for freedom and justice as much as for commerce.
The adaptation of a graphic novel by French graphic artist Nolent is the second for Milchan, who also is producing The Killer at Paramount for David Fincher to direct.
Forbidden Star Had To Learn Fast
John Fusco, who wrote the screenplay for the upcoming fantasy movie The Forbidden Kingdom, told SCI FI Wire that legendary martial-arts expert Yuen Woo-ping took 20-year-old novice Michael Angarano (Sky High) under his wing to train him to look like a believable warrior.
"Michael is believable as that annoying kid from South Boston, because you believe he would be picked on, and he had zero martial-arts training," Fusco said in an interview at Wizard World in Los Angeles. "But he was young, athletic and a little reckless, and Woo-ping took him under his wing and transformed him."
Angarano plays a kung-fu-obsessed American teenager who finds himself transported back to ancient China, where he joins a crew of warriors, including legendary martial-arts stars Jet Li and Jackie Chan, on a quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King.
In an interview given before he screened footage from the movie to Wizard World, Fusco said: "Michael was very good with martial arts. And when I gave Woo-ping the script, it would say something like 'The Silent Monk enters with a Phoenix punch with Praying Mantis style and goes into an elbow break and spins into a reverse leg sweep.' And Woo-ping told me that this is the point he usually gets in the script that says, 'And now they fight.'"
Woo-ping, who is also the executive producer of the film, put Angarano in training for eight hours a day to learn the Monkey King Staff form. "Michael told me he was in such pain, but no one spoke English, and he couldn't tell anyone," Fusco said. "And finally Woo-ping said, 'Where do you hurt?' and then [he] said, 'That is far from your heart, so don't worry about it.'"
There were a few injuries during production of the movie. "Jackie Chan was hurt pretty badly [during the shoot], but he is very tough," Fusco said. "He kept on going. And Michael had a stick fight with Jet Li and wasn't fast enough, and [Li] gave him a black eye, and he was so proud, telling everyone, 'Jet Li gave me this.'"
Collin Chou also stars in the movie. "I was lucky I didn't get injured," Chou said. "Woo-ping is relentless. He is like my father and friend, and I have worked with him a long time in the Matrix movies. I heard him at one point tell Michael, 'If Keanu Reeves can do this then you can do it, too.'" The Forbidden Kingdom, directed by Robert Minkoff (The Lion King), is scheduled to be released nationwide on April 18 by Lionsgate. --Mike Szymanski
Raimi's Wizard Gets Green Light
Sam Raimi's syndicated original fantasy TV series Wizard's First Rule is set to debut in all of the top 50 markets in the United States, Variety reported.
The ABC/Disney show, based on the Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind, has received a green light for 22 episodes and will begin production in May.
The weekly hourlong series follows Richard Cypher, a young man who makes his living leading people through dangerous forests, as he investigates the murder of his father and finds himself opposing Darken Rahl, the son of an evil wizard.
Goodkind's popular novels, first published in the mid-'90s, span 11 volumes so far. Wizard's First Rule will be shot in high-definition video.
MGM Reviving RoboCop, Outer Limits
MGM announced that it was developing new feature-film installments in the RoboCop and Outer Limits franchises in a news release announcing the appointment of Mary Parent as chairperson of the worldwide motion picture group, a new position.
"MGM is planning an exciting fall and winter release schedule," the news release, dated March 13, said. "In partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM will bring new installments of two of its tentpole franchises--the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace and Steve Martin in Pink Panther 2. MGM will also release United Artists' international thriller Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise, on Oct. 3. With the appointment of Parent, MGM will enter its new phase of evolution by focusing on its major movie franchises highlighted by James Bond and Pink Panther sequels, The Hobbit, Thomas Crown Affair 2, The Outer Limits, RoboCop, Death Wish and Fame, among others."
The release offered no further details on its development slate.
Parent, the former vice chairman of worldwide production for Universal Pictures, oversaw the development of such genre movies as Serenity. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
FX Gets Iron Man, Hulk Rights
Marvel Studios has presold the cable rights to Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk to FX, along with three more superhero movies still to be determined, Variety reported.
The deal is a vote of confidence for the newly independent studio's upcoming slate, which has yet to hit theaters.
Paramount will distribute Iron Man, which opens May 2. Universal will distribute Incredible Hulk on June 13.
Horton Hears A Hit
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! topped the March 14 weekend box office with $45.1 million, the best opening so far this year, the Associated Press reported.
The animated family fantasy is the latest film from Blue Sky Studios, the company behind the Ice Age movies.
The previous weekend's top movie, the Warner Brothers historical fantasy 10,000 B.C., slipped to second place with $16.4 million, raising its 10-day total to $61.2 million.
The weekend's other new wide release, Rogue Pictures' horror thriller Doomsday, premiered in seventh place, with $4.7 million.
Horton Hears a Who surpassed the $40.1 million opening in January for Cloverfield, which was the previous top film of the year.
Entire Fits In A Pocket
SF author Kay Kenyon told SCI FI Wire that her current series, The Entire and the Rose--of which her latest novel, A World Too Near, is a part--came from a bizarre idea for a setting that popped into her head.
"What if there was a universe that tunneled through our own?" Kenyon said in an interview. "What if it had no stars and planets, and you could walk from one end to the other, if there was time? That's too absurd, I thought. But I couldn't shake it."
So Kenyon asked herself: Where does the light come from? "Well, there's an exotic river of fire that commands the sky; it waxes and wanes to create day and night," she said. "Storm walls hold up the edges of the universe. It was getting curiouser and curiouser. Give up now, I told myself."
Instead, she quickly outlined four books that would round out a heroic story arc. "This setting (of the pocket universe called the Entire) has been the focus of a gratifying swell of critical praise," Kenyon said. "I'm kind of floored by people's reaction to this place. One reader said, 'You want to be there so bad it hurts.'"
A World Too Near is about a man who's trying very hard to be good but has made some bad mistakes, things that people hate him for. "This man is Titus Quinn, former starship pilot, and, against his will, former prince of a demon city," Kenyon said. "[It's also] about Titus coming back to a place of demons and wonders--a pocket universe called the Entire--to redeem himself and save a lost daughter. The redemption involves a kind of labor of Hercules, the sort of mythic thing you can never really expect to pull off. He has to bring down a 100,000-year-old castle belonging to the masters of the universe."
The first book in the series is now out in paperback, and book three will be out in February next year. Kenyon is currently writing the fourth volume. --John Joseph Adams
BRIEFLY NOTED
The official Web site for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has been updated with a behind-the-scenes video featurette of star Shia LaBeouf training with a sword, riding a motorcycle with co-star Harrison Ford and learning how to handle a switchblade.
The official Web site for Iron Man has been updated with new content; the movie opens May 2.
Legendary science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke will be buried March 22 in his adopted country of Sri Lanka in a secular funeral according to his wishes, a spokesman told the Associated Press.
Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. have been tapped to receive life career award honors at the Saturn Awards, Variety reported; the Halmis produced SCI FI Channel's original miniseries Tin Man and Earthsea, and their upcoming projects include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Son of the Dragon and The Last Templar.
Ricky Gervais posted on his official blog that John Hodgman, Tina Fey, Christopher Guest and Jeffrey Tambor have joined the cast of his alternate-universe comedy movie This Side of the Truth, joining the previously announced Louis CK, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Garner and Gervais.
EW.com has posted the first image of Benicio Del Toro as the title character in Universal's upcoming remake of The Wolf Man.
Sony Pictures Releasing will open its upcoming 22nd James Bond movie Quantum of Solace in the United Kingdom on Oct. 31, a week before its North American debut on Nov. 7.
Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures have signed Kevin Lima (Enchanted) to direct Spook's Apprentice, an adaptation of Joseph Delaney's children's book, about a 13-year-old boy who learns about wizardry from a forbidding old spook, Variety reported.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australia is about to lose the George Miller-directed Justice League Mortal since it was refused the federal government's new film-production rebate, ComingSoon.net reported.
When a second trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premieres online this week, it will come with a widget to allow it to be posted to blogs and social networks, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ain't It Cool News has posted images from the production of J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek at California State University, Northridge, in Southern California on a set that looks suspiciously like Starfleet Academy.
George Lucas spoke with ComingSoon.net about the upcoming Clone Wars animated film and TV series, among other things.
Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel and Christopher Mintz-Plasse will voice How to Train Your Dragon for DreamWorks Animation, Variety reported; the movie is set in a mythical world and centers on a scrawny teenage Viking who must capture and subdue a wild dragon.
Batman Begins drops on Blu-ray high-definition disc on July 8, 10 days before the July 18 theatrical release of the sequel, The Dark Knight; the film is already a hit on DVD and HD DVD.
The Mach 5, the supercharged race car from the Wachowski brothers' upcoming Speed Racer movie, will go on display at the 2008 New York International Auto Show, March 19-20, at the city's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
Frank Miller, who is directing the film version of Will Eisner's classic comic series The Spirit, has updated his production blog with details about the movie's filming.
Turbine Inc. and Codemasters Online announced volume two of The Lord of the Rings Online, the first retail expansion of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is expected to release later this fall.
