Edward James Olmos, who plays Adm. William Adama on SCI FI Channel's series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that it's not inconceivable that all of the characters will die by the end of the upcoming fourth and final season--and that would be OK with him.
Not that that is in any way a spoiler for the upcoming season. But Olmos said it would be fitting for a show that he called a "commentary on our times" and the "most worthwhile piece of television" he has ever done.
"Basically, if it's true to form, no one makes it," Olmos said in an interview at SCI FI's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this month.
Producers have been tight-lipped about their plans for the show's climax and dénouement, though it's believed that the fourth season will take up the sudden reappearance of Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and her revelation that she's been to Earth. Meanwhile, four people must deal with the sudden knowledge that they are Cylons.
If everyone were to die? "I think that people would be shocked, and they'd be hurt, and they would be totally, totally frustrated," Olmos said. "But I've got to tell you, that's a truth that people have to realize. We may do it to ourselves [in real life]. It all depends on us now and what choices we make." Battlestar Galactica will kick off its fourth season on April 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with the episode "He That Believeth in Me." --Ian Spelling
Battlestar's End Is In Sight
Ronald D. Moore, co-executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that knowing in advance that the show's upcoming fourth season would be its last greatly affected how the writing staff went about closing out the show.
"It informed everything," Moore said in an interview at the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this month. "We gathered with the writers before the season began and said, 'OK, this is the last year. We want to push to a resolution and let's talk about the end first.'"
In the fourth and final season, the crew of Galactica must contend with the sudden reappearance of Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and her revelation that she's been to Earth. Meanwhile, four people must deal with the sudden knowledge that they are Cylons.
"We talked about what the end of the series would be, and we've talked about the end of the series several times since," Moore said. "We keep refining it, changing some ideas about it, changing some of the parameters and just kind of continually finding it."
The recently ended writers' strike "stopped everything cold" after production had been completed on half of the final 20 episodes, Moore said. But it also provided an opportunity to assess the completed fourth-season episodes and take that into account as they prepared the final nine episodes, which will go into production in the coming weeks and air in 2009.
"It gave us a chance to step back and say, 'Well, some of those things that we were going to do, maybe that's not the best way to go. Let's go back and change it again. Let's re-break some of the story,'" Moore said. "It gave us all a chance to really step back, take a breath and say, 'OK, is this really the way we want to do the last 10 or not?' And we changed some of those things on the fly." Season four will premiere April 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with "He That Believeth In Me." --Ian Spelling
Battlestar's McDonnell Has Spoilers
Mary McDonnell, who plays President Laura Roslin on the SCI FI Channel original series Battlestar Galactica, offered SCI FI Wire a spoiler for the upcoming fourth and final season: that her character will have to deal with a recurrence of the cancer she thought was cured.
"I can only you tell that, as we all know, I have to struggle once again with the cancer," McDonnell said in an interview at the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this month. "That's a whole different level of struggle than we have seen so far. I [also] have to struggle with the ideas that one commits to as a leader and whether or not they have value. Those are kind of the broad strokes, and other than that I don't know yet."
Filming on the final season was interrupted by the recently settled writers' strike; production will resume shortly in Vancouver, Canada, on the remaining new episodes of the final season.
McDonnell said that she's eager to return to work. She said that she's sad that such a "real gift" of a job will soon end but "very excited" about completing the saga on the show's own terms.
"I find that the energy going into the last nine [episodes] and knowing that we're completing the telling of the story is a very unusual experience on television," McDonnell said. "You have the choice to go ahead and finish the story, and it's very specifically laid out to be bookended. So on that level I'm thrilled. I think it's a great idea." 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, "He That Believeth in Me," premiering the following week, April 4, at 10 p.m. --Ian Spelling
'Make A Cylon' Contest Launches
DVICE, SCIFI.COM and MAKE magazine have partnered to challenge Battlestar Galactica fans to build a better robot in the first-ever Make a Cylon contest.
The competition commences March 25 on SCIFI.COM. Battlestar stars Tricia Helfer and Grace Park, who play toasters in SCI FI Channel's original series, will determine whose machine is worthy to be called Cylon.
Entrants can use any materials--blinking lights for eyes, metal armor for a costume, actual toasters, etc.--to build a physical machine (no Photoshop images will be accepted). The new Cylons may be of the humanoid or robotic variety.
Winners will receive Battlestar-related prizes and possibly have their Cylon appear on SCI FI Channel. The contest will run through early June.
Battlestar's Moore Eager To Helm
Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore told SCI FI Wire that he's eager to direct the show's first post-writers'-strike episode in his debut behind the camera.
"I'm very excited," Moore said in an interview. "It should be a treat to work with the cast and crew in a different context. It's my first time out. I'll make plenty of mistakes, but I'll have a good support system to sort of save me from myself. And it'll be fun."
Moore laughed when asked if there's anywhere he could possibly place a camera that's not already been utilized by one of his predecessors. "I don't think so, and that's the kind of trap you try not to fall into, because then you start just trying to be clever and [try to] do something that no one else has done," he replied. "I think what's important to me on my first time out is to tell the story well, to really tell a good story, to really make it an interesting character piece and just have a piece of film at the end that I'm proud of."
Moore's episode will likely premiere in 2009. Battlestar Galactica will kick off its fourth and final season April 4 at 10 p.m. with "He That Believeth in Me." --Ian Spelling
Sackhoff Looks Beyond Battlestar
Katee Sackhoff, who plays Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that she's concerned about finding parts as challenging, formidable and powerful once the show ends after its upcoming fourth and final season.
"It's extremely difficult," Sackhoff said in an interview at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York last week. "It's a definite worry. People ask me if I'm worried about being pigeonholed in science fiction, and definitely not. That's not a fear of mine at all."
Sackhoff has had a few other roles during breaks from Battlestar, notably as the murderous Sarah Corvus in NBC's Bionic Woman (created by Battlestar executive producer David Eick) and as a doomed woman in the 2007 straight-to-DVD sequel film White Noise 2: The Light.
"What I'm worried about is finding strong, fun, exciting, inspirational characters, because Kara is," Sackhoff said. "With all of her flaws and drama, she's still an extremely strong woman first and foremost. And I think that's what I'm most worried about, is if I'm ever going to find that again."
But Sackhoff doubted that she'll play Starbuck again. "I do not think that we'll be back" in a film or subsequent series, she said. "I think there's something to be said for just ending. But then again, I don't think anyone thought Sex and the City would do a movie, and we're kind of following suit with them in ending how they ended."
Battlestar Galactica will kick off its fourth season with the episode "He That Believeth in Me," which premieres April 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. --Ian Spelling
Carter Offers X-Files Spoilers
Chris Carter, who co-wrote and directed the upcoming X-Files sequel film, offered fans a few tantalizing spoilers for the movie, while his writing partner, Frank Spotnitz, said it would remain true to the show's mythology even though it is a stand-alone story.
In a panel at the William S. Paley Television Festival in Hollywood on March 26, Carter told fans that they will learn bit about what happened to William, the baby of Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), who was given up for adoption in the show's ninth and final season. "It will not go unconsidered in the movie," Carter said.
Carter also revealed why the sequel still does not have a title. "I can't tell you [what it is]," Carter said in response to a question. "Because I don't know, really. I know what I want it to be, but Fox has ideas of their own. And I know what it should be."
Spotnitz said that the movie will pick up the story of Mulder and Scully six years after the events in the show's finale, which aired in 2002. "In the movie, we wanted it to work for nonfans as well as fans," Spotnitz said. "But we were determined for the fans to honor all the work that these guys did on the series and all the love that people had for the show over the years. And so I think you'll see that, while this is not a mythology movie, it's true to everything that's come before. It's true to Mulder and Scully, who they are, where they would be at this point in their lives and all of the experiences that they've had."
Neither Carter nor Spotnitz would offer many details about the sequel's storyline. But Carter admitted it derives some its story from the idea the duo had for a sequel movie to be shot immediately after the series ended.
"It's the story we wanted to do," Carter said, adding: "We went to the length of working out the story [in 2002]. And then there was this lawsuit that got in the way. And years went by. ... [Finally,] I got a call from my lawyers: 'The lawsuit's been resolved.' 'Great!' And then the phone is ringing. Fox is like, 'Let's make a movie!' 'Great!'"
That was last year. When Carter went to Spotnitz to find the index cards with the original sequel story idea, they had disappeared, Carter said. "And it was the best thing that could have happened," he said. "Because I think that the story that we came up with now, the movie we just did, is superior to the story that we had. And it made us work harder."
Carter said that the production wrapped principal photography on the sequel about 10 days ago in Vancouver, Canada. The movie opens July 25.
Carter also revealed that he has mulled a movie based on his other TV series, Millennium, which starred Lance Henriksen. "We've talked about that over the years," he said. "Lance would love to do it. I don't know if it would ever get done. It's a long shot. It would be fun. I have ideas about how to do it." --Patrick Lee, News Editor
X-Files Trailer Previewed
Chris Carter, who co-wrote and directed the upcoming X-Files sequel film, offered fans a glimpse at a rough cut of the trailer for the movie, which featured the new tagline "Believe Again."
Screened at the William S. Paley Television festival in Hollywood on March 26, the trailer featured a bit of dialogue between Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson):
Mulder: "Scully. I need you on this with me."
Scully: "I know. That's what scares me."
It featured quick cuts of footage of uniformed men searching a snowfield, led by a white-haired man played by Billy Connolly; someone dragging a body; Mulder in a car being hit by another vehicle; a glimpse of cast member Callum Keith Rennie; Scully hitting someone over the head with a blunt object; the discovery of a body buried in ice; and other images, some of which were also previewed at WonderCon in San Francisco last month.
The trailer ends with a voice-over bit of dialogue between Connolly's character and Mulder as viewers see an image of Mulder and Scully climbing out of a helicopter:
Connolly's voice: "Do you believe in these kind of things?"
Mulder's voice: "Let's just say I want to believe."
The finished trailer will debut in movie theaters along with Iron Man on May 2, a Fox spokesman told SCI FI Wire. The second, as-yet-untitled X-Files movie opens July 25. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Moore Has Trek Déjà Vu
Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore, who also worked on several Star Trek projects, told SCI FI Wire that he had a sense of déjà vu when he visited the set of J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek movie, which is currently in production.
Moore was invited to visit the set recently by Abrams. (Moore worked on The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager and the films Generations and First Contact.)
"Oh, that was amazing," Moore said about his visit in an interview. "It was really great for me. They were shooting on one of our old [Paramount] soundstages on the day that I was there. So to walk on one of our old stages and see a Federation starship again was a treat. There was a positive vibe in the cast and the crew. I really appreciated the visual look of it, and I was excited to see the uniforms and all that kind of really hardcore, Trekkie geek stuff came flying back to me."
Moore said he did not read the Star Trek script and thus doesn't know the direction in which Abrams is steering the franchise. But Moore praised the decision to bring in new blood following 18 years of Star Trek television shows and features overseen by Rick Berman and his team.
"I thought it was a very smart move to sort of clear the decks, wipe the slate clean and start over," Moore said. "I just think that Star Trek had gone on for so long and had developed such a complicated backstory and so much continuity that it really wasn't possible for any one writer or any one group of writers, really, to keep it all straight anymore."
The result, Moore said, was that viewers and moviegoers had to be so "inside Trek" to appreciate it anymore, which created a barrier for potential audiences. "And that meant there was a whole legion of people out there that weren't even going to make the effort because it was just too much work," Moore said. "This really gives it a chance to start over and bring everybody back to what made it so great to begin with."
Abrams' Trek, which aims to reboot the franchise, is due in theaters in May 2009. --Ian Spelling
McKellen Eager To Join Hobbit
Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf the wizard in the three Lord of the Rings movies, posted on his personal blog that he is interested in reprising the role in the Peter Jackson-produced Hobbit movies now in development.
"Yes, I will [do them], if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor," McKellen wrote on March 26.
Jackson is producing two Hobbit films, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book, and is expected to adapt the book with his Lord of the Rings partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.
"Encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh have told me they couldn't imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf," McKellen said. "Their confidence hasn't yet been confirmed by the director, Guillermo del Toro, but I am keeping my diary free for 2009!"
Del Toro is reportedly still in talks about directing The Hobbit.
Lost To Wrap Up In April
Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, co-executive producers of ABC's Lost, told SCI FI Wire that the current season's final batch of new episodes will unspool a story arc based on a plan devised in anticipation of the writers' strike.
"The last two weeks before the strike, we actually sat down and said, 'Here is what we want to tell for the rest of the season,'" Kitsis said in an interview. "We all sat down, and the entire staff came up with a battle plan in place."
When Lost returns in late April, it will wrap up the fourth season with five episodes, three fewer than planned before the strike took place. "We got to tell a little more story this season than we anticipated," Kitsis said. "It's really worked out well. We came back from the strike, and everyone is just really excited, and I have to say, creatively, every day has been a pleasure. Everything we're doing right now is exciting, and every script that is going out, you're jealous if you didn't write it."
As for the missing episodes? "I feel that the three missing episodes will be made up over the course of the next two seasons," Horowitz said. "Seasons four, five and six are meant to encompass 48 episodes."
Kitsis added: "I have a feeling it will mean more, like, two-hour shows as opposed to more episodes, but those are decisions above our pay grade."
Season four has so far been marked with a continuation of the "flash-forward" storytelling technique introduced in the finale of season three. "This just seemed like the most interesting way to tell the rest of the story of the show," Kitsis said. "When we realized that we were only going to do three more seasons, it enabled us to starting thinking a little more out of the box in how we want to tell the remaining story that was left. The flash-forwards are, I think, just a great way to keep the show energized and tell the story in an interesting way. It was a brilliant idea by [executive producer] Damon [Lindelof]."
Lost returns with new episodes on April 24 in its new Thursday timeslot at 10 p.m. ET/PT. --Kathie Huddleston
Two Fanboys To Come Home
The Weinstein Co., reacting to protests from Star Wars fans (see story below), announced on March 24 that it plans to release two versions of Fanboys on home video, with the company "exploring options for [the] theatrical release" of the much-delayed movie.
The company will release the original version of the film and a recut version that reportedly eliminates a cancer storyline. The decision to alter director Kyle Neman's original cut, which was screened to fans at Star Wars conventions, drew plans for boycotts of Weinstein Co. films.
In response, the company released the following statement: "In recent weeks, Star Wars fans nationwide have built a multi-tiered grassroots effort to voice their strong support for one of the earlier versions of the film, including a campaign which generated over 300,000 e-mails in support for the film. Based on the tremendous feedback and interest from the fans, today's announcement will ensure both versions will be equally available within the marketplace."
Fanboys stars Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette and Kristen Bell in a story about a group of passionate Star Wars fans who drive cross-country in 1999 to raid George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch and watch Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace. In the original film, the friends were motivated by the illness of one of their number.
The Weinstein Co. said that its recut version "tested very well with audiences," but that it chose to release the earlier version because of the fan uprising.
The film is directed by Kyle Newman and produced by Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti, Evan Astrowsky and Matthew Perniciaro. The script was written by Kyle Newman, Adam Goldberg and Ernest Cline. Kevin Mann serves as executive producer.
Fanboys Rally For Fanboys
Star Wars fans are taking aim at the Weinstein Co. for what they fear are steps the independent distributor is taking to alter Fanboys, the upcoming movie that pays homage to Star Wars fans.
At sites such as Stop Darth Weinstein, organizers are urging fans to boycott Weinstein Co. films, such as the upcoming Superhero Movie, to persuade the company to release Fanboys uncut.
The protest is based on the perception that company honcho Harvey Weinstein wants to change the story of director Kyle Newman's Fanboys, in which a group of Star Wars fans in 1998 go on a road trip to break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch to steal an early print of Episode I so that their friend, who has been diagnosed with cancer, can see it, Wired reported.
Weinstein has reportedly hired Little Nicky helmer Steven Brill to eliminate the cancer storyline and punch up the comedy on the much-delayed movie, which stars Kristen Bell, Chris Marquette and Sam Huntington.
But fans, many of whom screened a rough cut of the movie last year at the Star Wars Celebration conventions in London and Los Angeles, want the movie released as is.
One has even produced an R-rated parody video, now playing on YouTube.com, that makes fun of Weinstein.
Fans are also asked to picket The Superhero Movie when it opens on March 28.
Foster's Son Spurred Nim Role
Jodie Foster, who co-stars in the upcoming family fantasy movie Nim's Island, told reporters that she knew she had to be in the movie when her oldest son read the children's book on which it based.
Foster also wanted to do a film that her two boys--Charles, 9, and Kit, 6--could watch without her having to explain too much. "It's funny, because the book really changed Charlie's life," Foster said. "My younger one doesn't quite read yet, but he's into it. He takes the books out, and he can say the first letter and stuff, and so he's on his way."
In the film adaptation of Wendy Orr's children's novel, Foster plays a reclusive author who is sought out by a young girl (Abigail Breslin) to try to help find her missing father (Gerard Butler).
Foster said the message for kids is to connect with nature. "You don't need video-game characters and laser tag in order for it to be interesting, but I think it's also a message of self-reliance and of making decisions that are strong decisions because they're what you know is right and believing in yourself," Foster said.
Foster said that her children are excited about seeing the movie. "They haven't seen it yet," Foster said. "I'm pretty excited about the premiere, because they've read the book, too. And the book had a big impact on my son: that he could read the book and then visualize me, and it was so exciting to him. It was like he discovered literature in a completely different way. I couldn't get him to come to dinner because he was too busy reading the book again. It was great."
Nim's Island opens nationwide April 4. --Mike Szymanski
Nim Stars Did Some Stunts
Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster, the stars of the upcoming fantasy film Nim's Island, enjoyed performing their own pratfalls and stunts. Foster told reporters in a news conference that she did many of her own stunts, including falling out of a rowboat and getting tangled on a treadmill.
"The rowboat is me," Foster said. "All the rowboat is me, coming down in the rowboat and all of that."
The biggest challenge for the two-time Oscar-winning actress and her 11-year-old co-star was an underwater fantasy sequence, which also included Gerard Butler as an action hero.
"I think the biggest challenge for all of us--Gerry, myself and Abigail, too--was the stuff we did in the tank," Foster said. "It was 3 in the morning, and it was Australia in the winter. And it was cold, and there was a lot of underwater stuff, lot of days of underwater stuff."
In the film adaptation of Wendy Orr's children's novel, Foster plays a reclusive author who is sought out by a young girl (Breslin) to try to help find her missing father (Butler).
The movie required action from all its principals. "I was supposed to be swimming underneath water and looking around, and there was a camera underneath there, so that was pretty scary," Breslin said. "There was a black tent that was over the water for one scene and a metal pole and these huge tires, so that got a little bit scary."
Breslin also did some rock climbing and even sat in a tall treehouse with Foster. "But some of that was in a studio with a green screen behind it," Breslin said.
Directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, Nim's Island opens on April 4. --Mike Szymanski
Foster Fought Hard For Nim
Jodie Foster, the Oscar winner who stars in the upcoming fantasy film Nim's Island, told reporters that she had to fight for the role in her first family movie since the original Freaky Friday in 1976.
"I just waited and waited and waited for that deal to fall out with the distributor that they had," Foster said in a news conference in Los Angeles earlier this month. "And the directors were always behind me, and that really helped."
In the film adaptation of Wendy Orr's children's novel, Foster plays her most slapstick role to date, as a reclusive author who creates an action hero named Alex Rover. It's a departure for Foster, who has made a mark in recent years in dark adult dramas and thrillers.
"I've been wanting to do a comedy for a long time, actually, and Maverick was such a great experience," Foster said, referring to the 1994 comedic western in which she co-starred with Mel Gibson. "I really enjoyed it, and lightness is a part of life, too. You're not all just darkness. But I couldn't find anything that was good enough."
Once Foster read the script, by the team of Joseph Kwong and Paula Mazur and the team of Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, she began lobbying for it. "They had a different arrangement with the studio at that time, and they were not keen on me at all," she recalled. "Understandably, because they know me for my dark dramas."
Husband-and-wife directing team Flackett and Levin said they wanted Foster for the role once she expressed interest. "When we heard that she had read the script and responded to the character, we were beside ourselves," Levin said. "Because for a director to work with someone of her caliber--and even to get the opportunity--was just so thrilling to us. She had not done comedy in a long time, and I think that there was a reticence, perhaps, on the studio level."
Flackett added: "If we could have cast Jodie at 12 as Nim, that would have been incredible casting. So, to us, the minute we found out that Jodie wanted to do it, it just made cosmic sense, and it made the movie bigger to us than it even had been. There was something about Jodie playing the part that was just intrinsically right."
Nim's Island, which also stars Abigail Breslin and Gerard Butler, opens on April 4. --Mike Szymanski
Nim's Foster Kissed With A Seal
Jodie Foster, who co-stars in the upcoming family fantasy film Nim's Island, told SCI FI Wire that her character was kissed with a seal; that is, she got to mack on an actual sea mammal during the film's production.
"Oh, that was a real seal," Foster said with a laugh in a news conference earlier this month in Los Angeles. (Actually, it was a sea lion.)
Sea World marine park provided the 400-pound creatures for the film, which Foster said were easy to work with. "The sea lions were the best actors in the movie," the two-time Academy-Award-winning actress said. "They were just amazing. They did everything they were supposed to do. It was just incredible. I mean, not only did he kiss me on the lips, but he'll hold the kiss until somebody says 'OK.'"
The sea lions also did their own stunts, Foster said. "They can get them to turn three-quarters and then turn another three-quarters," she said. "They can get them to do all this stuff: to knock on the ground and on the tables. It's just amazing what these animals can do."
Foster's 11-year-old co-star Abigail Breslin also trained with the sea lions. "It was really, really fun," she said, adding: "I had to do training with the animals, and I had to do training for the stunts." She liked the sea lions best "because they come up to you and they give kisses and do all that stuff."
Foster laughed when reminded of W.C. Fields' advice to never work with children or animals in Hollywood. "I love it," the former child star said. "I've made a lot of movies with children and animals, and I love working with them more, I think, because there's a simpler process. If they don't want to throw the spaghetti again, they just don't throw the spaghetti. And there's no bribery, there's no guilt-tripping that's ever going to make them throw the spaghetti again. Once they've decided, it's just not going to happen. And there's a nice simplicity to that."
Nim's Island, which also stars Gerard Butler, is based on Wendy Orr's children's novels and was directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin. It opens April 4. --Mike Szymanski
Nim Cut Fantasy Characters
The directors of the upcoming fantasy film Nim's Island told reporters that some of the fantasy elements seen in early trailers were cut from the final film but will appear on the DVD.
"There are scenes that were cut, and they'll all be out in the DVD," co-director Mark Levin said in a news conference in Los Angeles earlier this month. Those include scenes between Nim, the young girl at the center of the movie, played by Abigail Breslin, and some imaginary friends (the film is based on the popular children's book by Wendy Orr).
"Nim had some imaginary friends that lived in her imagination, [including] Huck Finn and Alice in Wonderland from the books, who kind of brought to life the idea of a girl who lived on an island and what her imagination must be like," said Levin, who co-directed the film with his wife, Jennifer Flackett. "But when we made the movie and then we shot them and saw them in the context of the movie, we realized that the girl alone, and her aloneness, made her situation much more poignant, and it just drove the story better."
The story centers on Nim, who lives on an island with her father (Gerard Butler). When dad disappears, Nim seeks the help of a reclusive author (played by Jodie Foster), who created one of Nim's favorite action heroes.
Flackett added: "It's always sad when you leave characters on the floor. Jodie had an assistant and, in this same kind of way, you just realize these characters were meant to be by themselves. And so they all fell away, and you're amazed because you killed yourself to shoot those scenes! Now they're not in the movie anymore."
Flackett said the movie still feels fantastical. "There's a magical realism that, I think, kind of permeates the movie, and there is this idea of a world that is slightly better than real," she said. "And that has a little bit to do with the storybook quality and the wish fulfillment of the movie."
An early trailer depicts one of the imaginary characters who didn't make the final cut. "Long John Silver [is] in an early trailer, actually," Levin said. "Her friends, who were Huck and Alice and Long John Silver from Treasure Island, were the embodiment of her fears. So in a couple of scenes, he'd show up in a story and shout at her, or there would be a scene where he'd come in the woods, and she'd try to fight him off."
Flackett added: "We were most sad to lose the sword fights!"
Nim's Island opens nationwide on April 4. --Mike Szymanski
Cerra Flies To Dark Swarm
Erica Cerra, who plays Deputy Jo Lupo on SCI FI Channel's original series Eureka, told SCI FI Wire that she'll co-star in the upcoming SF film Dark Swarm.
Dark Swarm follows a group of people who've survived an attack on Earth by carnivorous alien creatures and who prepare to make one last stand against them.
"It's all CGI," Cerra said in an interview. "It's supposed to be really cool. It's an all-green-screen sort of film. I don't know how much of it I can give away. But the basic setup is that there is something sort of taking over the Earth. ... Initially, they're under the impression it's a swarm, but then they start to kind of unravel what exactly it is."
Cerra is joined in the cast by popular genre actors Christopher Judge (Stargate SG-1) and Ed Wasser (Babylon 5). Tim Pyle (Decaying Orbit) has co-written and will direct. Pyle will also handle the visual effects, as he's done on such productions as Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and the SCI FI original miniseries Children of Dune.
Asked if she's a hero or a victim in the film, Cerra laughed and replied: "Both."
Dark Swarm goes into production this summer with an eye toward a 2009 release. --Ian Spelling
Gibson, Quaid Fill Out Legion
Tyrese Gibson, Dennis Quaid, Jon Tenney, Charles S. Dutton, Lucas Black, Kate Walsh, Adrianne Palicki, Kevin Durand and Willa Holland will join Paul Bettany in Legion, Screen Gems' apocalyptic thriller film, Variety reported.
The movie marks the feature-directing debut of Scott Stewart; shooting is about to get under way in New Mexico.
Written by Stewart and Peter Schink, the thriller casts Bettany as the archangel Michael, the only one standing between mankind and an apocalypse, after God loses faith in humanity. Man's lone hope rests with a group of strangers who must deliver a baby they realize is Christ in his second coming.
The deals for Quaid, Gibson and Tenney are being finalized, and the rest of the cast is set.
DreamWorks Looks To Hereafter
DreamWorks has acquired Hereafter, a supernatural spec thriller script by Peter Morgan (The Queen), Variety reported.
Kathleen Kennedy will produce through Kennedy/Marshall.
The movie, which Morgan wrote before he got an Oscar nomination for The Queen, is in the vein of The Sixth Sense, the trade paper reported.
Floods Inspired Carhullan
SF author Sarah Hall, whose novel The Carhullan Army is a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, told SCI FI Wire that one of the vital engines for the book was the appalling 2005 winter flooding in Cumbria, England.
"I was living in Carlisle at the time, and the whole city was knocked out, so there was a real sense that civilization had been pulled out from underneath you," Hall said in an interview. "The opening section of the novel is based on my experience trying to get out of the city after the storm. I'm a writer who is very interested in the landscape and the impact we have upon it, particularly industrial and ecological, so current and predicted environmental issues are interesting to me."
Other topical concerns influenced the story as well: fanaticism, energy security, projected oil supplies, imports and the decline of the British farming industries, as well as the "new" feminism. "Patterns between these issues began to form in my mind," Hall said. "And everything rolled together around the storyline."
The Carhullan Army is set in a dystopian near future in the North of England. "Climate change has begun to take effect, with extensive flooding and food shortages," Hall said. "Citizens of the U.K. have been moved into centers of urban management, and the economy has collapsed. A new hard-line government has taken power and is attempting to implement a recovery process, which includes a travel ban, population control, energy caps and work placements."
Hall, whose previous books were historical fiction, said writing The Carhullan Army is probably the most fun (as well as the most frightening) time that she's had as a writer. "This book gave me the opportunity to really imagine and create--I don't mean imagine things that are totally out of bounds, either," she said. "The satisfaction was in tweaking and twisting reality, knocking the world a little out of kilter, so that its new incarnation would still seem feasible, but there would be a dark bifurcation to it." --John Joseph Adams
Maguire To Produce Afterburn
Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire is attached to produce Afterburn, an SF movie based on the Red 4 comic book by Paul Ens and Scott Chitwood, Variety reported. Neal Moritz's Original Films is producing.
Relativity is in talks to board the post-apocalyptic project, whose story begins one year after a solar flare burns half of Earth. Treasure hunters go back to the scorched portion of the planet to retrieve valuable artifacts.
Maguire's company is also producing an adaptation of the Japanese anime series Robotech for Warner Brothers, along with Tokyo Suckerpunch for Sony.
Sanctuary's Tapping Also Producer
Amanda Tapping, star and executive producer of the upcoming SCI FI Channel series Sanctuary, told SCI FI Wire that she's an exceptionally hands-on producer.
"I am so hands-on that I wish I was just an actress again," Tapping said in an interview at the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this month. "I have been in charge of making sure that budgets get pulled together, getting our financing together, approving cast, everything. I'm way hands-on. I need to back off and just focus on the character for a while."
Based on the Web-based high-definition series of the same name, Sanctuary stars Stargate SG-1 veteran Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus, a 157-year-old doctor and scientist on a mission to find, help and protect every manner of living creature on Earth. Tapping said the transition to producer from actor was a natural progression for her.
"After spending 11 years with the Stargate franchise, it made sense that I push myself a little bit further," Tapping said. "Even though the character was so totally different, I just felt like there was other stuff that I wanted to see. I wanted to see what happened behind the scenes a bit more. And now I have seen it. And it's hell!" Sanctuary will premiere later this year. --Ian Spelling
Schwimmer Back In Madagascar 2
David Schwimmer told SCI FI Wire that he'll be back in action as the voice of Melman the giraffe in the upcoming animated sequel film Madagascar: The Crate Escape.
"It's pretty good," Schwimmer said in an interview while promoting his upcoming directorial debut, Run Fatboy Run. "[Melman] gets to kind of confess his love for Gloria [Jada Pinkett Smith]. Ironically, he becomes a doctor, and he's the one who's always ailing. They're on a new island, and he finds himself becoming the local doctor for all these people. It's really fun."
In the sequel to the 2005 hit Madagascar, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo and Melman make their way to the African plains, where they encounter hunters, romantic rivals and other members of their respective species.
Schwimmer said that he never actually sat and exchanged dialogue with co-stars Pinkett Smith, Stiller or Rock, as is the norm when voicing animated features.
"Not once in the first one or in this one have I worked with the other actors," Schwimmer said. "It's kind of weird. I'm really amazed by the process. When I do see the result, I'm like, 'Oh, my God, how did they make this work?' It's just really good sound editing and, I guess, each of us really giving them 10 different options when we're in the recording booth. That gives them options when they do edit everything together." Madagascar: The Crate Escape opens nationwide on Nov. 7. --Ian Spelling
Dougherty Helming Robots
Superman Returns co-writer Michael Dougherty has teamed with Walt Disney Pictures and Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers on Calling All Robots, an animated SF adventure the writer plans to direct, Variety reported. Dougherty will use the same type of performance-capture technology Zemeckis deployed in his animated Beowulf.
Dougherty will write the movie with Breehn Burns and Simeon Wilkins, who will serve as artists and visual designers on the project. The trio conceived the idea together.
Details of the project are being kept under wraps, but the story is described as a throwback to old Godzilla movies, Dougherty told the trade paper.
ImageMovers' Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey will produce.
Dougherty recently helmed Trick 'r Treat, a Halloween-themed horror movie that Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures were going to release last October but bumped to this year in order to move the film away from an onslaught of slashers at the multiplex. No release date has yet been set for the film.
Weird Is Something New
Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, editors of the new anthology The New Weird, told SCI FI Wire that the book attempts to define the "New Weird" literary movement.
"It's the first comprehensive definition for New Weird, and as such requires a few years of being 'tested,' so to speak, before it becomes officially accepted," Ann said in an interview.
In the introduction to the book, the VanderMeers describe the New Weird as "a type of urban, secondary-world fiction that subverts the romanticized ideas about place found in traditional fantasy, largely by choosing realistic, complex real-world models as the jumping-off point for creation of settings that may combine elements of both science fiction and fantasy."
It is the culmination of two distinct influences, Ann said: the New Wave--as exemplified by M. John Harrison, Michael Moorcock, J.G. Ballard, etc.--and the unique brand of transgressive horror ushered in by Clive Barker's Books of Blood.
"The difference between transgressive horror like Barker's and your classic 'weird' tale is that Barker wasn't that interested in the scare or the sense of unease or some 'nameless horror,'" Ann said. "He was more interested in what came after--and the nature of monsters."
The VanderMeers hadn't planned on editing such an anthology until they were approached by Tachyon Publications with the idea. "We'd just come back from a five-week tour of Europe, through seven countries, where in most it was quite apparent that New Weird was alive and well and being taken quite seriously as an art form," Jeff said. "Ann and I went back and forth on whether we should do it, given how negatively I'd reacted to the term back in 2003. Sometimes the best position from which to enter into a dialogue about a subject is from one of skepticism. The fact is, though, when we looked at the weird work coming out in the early part of this century, we realized it had clear antecedents, that it was different from what had come before, and once we really did our research and ignored the personalities, we saw there was [the potential for] a very exciting project."
The anthology's just-launched MySpace page has a video trailer, sample stories, podcasts, interviews and other bonus material. --John Joseph Adams
Sanctuary Is All New
Amanda Tapping, star and executive producer of SCI FI Channel's upcoming new series Sanctuary, told SCI FI Wire that the show will differ significantly from the Web series on which it is based.
SCI FI Channel announced in late January that it had ordered 13 episodes of Sanctuary, which was created by Damian Kindler and co-written by Martin Wood, both of whom, like Tapping, are veterans of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
Tapping will reprise her role as Dr. Helen Magnus, an apparently immortal doctor and scientist who seeks to locate, aid and protect supernatural creatures. To adapt the high-definition digital Web series for television, SCI FI has ordered up a new pilot.
"The fact is it's already evolving," Tapping said in an interview at the channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this month. "Our pilot that we're now going to start shooting is very different from what you've seen on the Web. But [Magnus] is still this crazy character. She's 157 years old, and she's very eccentric and very sexy and very unapologetic. I love it."
Tapping, who will continue to guest-star on Atlantis as Col. Samantha Carter, said that the transition to television opens up all sorts of possibilities for Sanctuary.
"It gives us a good home base," Tapping said. "SCI FI is the perfect fit for this show and for me, because I have worked with the network for so long. It made so much sense to stay with this network. They understand the genre. They understand the fans. And now they understand multimedia platforms in terms of utilizing social networking, which is what our company is all about. So it's a perfect fit." Sanctuary will premiere later this year. --Ian Spelling
Smallville's Luthor Begins 'Descent'
Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) will go bad once and for all when The CW's Smallville returns with new episodes later this month, executive producer Brian Peterson and co-executive producer Kelly Souders told SCI FI Wire.
"I would say if you are going to watch one episode of Smallville, you need to watch 'Descent,'" the April 17 episode, Peterson said in an interview. "It is pivotal. It is up there with Clark [Tom Welling] opening the Fortress of Solitude. It's right up there."
Souders added: "Lex has had a lot of challenges in his life, and he's sort of gone and sat on that fence all these years. This is the episode he leaps off of it."
"Descent" deals with Luthor's decline into "his own personal hell," Peterson said. "There is a major turn that happens in his life that drives him into pure darkness. ... It's Lex's real descent into the villain he becomes. I think that is what fans have been waiting for. It's what I've been waiting for," Peterson added with a laugh.
Before that, look for James Marsters to return in the role of Brainiac in the March 27 episode, "Veritas," which was written by Peterson and Souders. In the episode, Kara (Laura Vandervoort) decides to teach Clark to fly to help him battle Brainiac.
Peterson and Souders are thrilled with how this season is shaping up.
"It's all because of the fans," Peterson said. "That's what's great. They have been so loyal. We have plenty more in store for them that they will be excited about." Smallville airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT. --Kathie Huddleston
Eureka Will Uncover Surprises
Colin Ferguson, who stars as Sheriff Jack Carter on the SCI FI Channel original series Eureka, told SCI FI Wire that fans are in for some major surprises when the show returns for its third season.
"Going back to season one, I loved season one," Ferguson said in an interview. "Season one was scary, because we didn't know if it was going to work. Part of it was funny, and part of it was dramatic, and we were making it, really, in this sort of void. So when it hit, it was great. And then season two we just tried to build on it. I think, for season three, what we're going to try to do is to really broaden things out."
Eureka centers on the quirky characters in a top-secret town where the government has placed its scientific geniuses. Next season, "there are some characters that are leaving," Ferguson said. "There are some others that are coming in. So it's going to be really sort of tumultuous, and, at the same time, we'll continue with a lot of the arcs that we did for my character, anyway. We'll continue with my daughter [Jordan Hinson as Zoe Carter] and grow in that direction."
Asked what else he hopes to learn about Carter during the new season, Ferguson replied that he's interested in exploring the character's personal and professional past. "I want to know about his history," Ferguson said. "I want know, what was he like as a marshal in L.A.? What was that like? I'd like to see some of that life, not every episode, but come back in and see a little bit of that." Eureka returns later this year or early next. --Ian Spelling
Jericho Seeks A New Home
Carol Barbee, executive producer of CBS' canceled post-apocalyptic series Jericho, told SCI FI Wire that talks are ongoing to find the show another home, perhaps on a cable network.
"I can't really say [much] about specifics, and, ... partially, it's because I'm not the one having those conversations," Barbee said in an interview on March 24, the eve of the show's final episode. "[CBS] Paramount [Television, which produces the show,] has been pursing it, and our agents have been into that, so, you know, I am pushing those people and coming up with ideas to have those people pursue."
Barbee wouldn't offer details about any talks. "There were several ideas that have been floated, and there was some interest, but we'll have to see," she said. "It wasn't something that could be sewn up before we were going to air the finale. ... It would have been better had we been able to announce one with the other, but it just didn't happen that fast."
Barbee said that she and the show's cast and crew got official word of the show's cancellation at the end of last week, in time to choose one of two endings for the season finale: A cliffhanger or a series ender. "We were told that they were having a meeting on Thursday, ... internally at CBS, to decide which of the endings to show for this Tuesday night's finale, and then we were given the heads up after that meeting that they were going to show the alternate [ending, with the series finale], which obviously to us meant that we were going to finish our run on CBS," Barbee said. Barbee asked CBS to delay its formal announcement for 24 hours so she could inform the cast and crew; the news broke on Friday.
If Jericho is not picked up for another season by a TV network, Barbee said that she could envision it living on in some other form. "There's definitely an Internet series to be had, and we always talked about a graphic novel, and ... a movie," Barbee said. "I mean, there are lots of things that I could easily see as a way to continue the story."
But time may be running out. Jericho wrapped its second season of episodes back in November, just as the writers' strike was beginning. Since then, the cast and crew have been freed to pursue other projects, and the show's sets and backlot have been dismantled and either destroyed or put into storage. Barbee herself has moved on to another series, Swingtown, created by Jericho alumnus Mike Kelley, about the lives of couples experimenting with sexual and social mores in a 1970s Chicago suburb, which will air on CBS this summer and is shooting on the same stages once occupied by Jericho.
Looking back on Jericho, Barbee was pleased that it attracted a core of die-hard fans who were responsible for getting CBS to resurrect the show for a second season. "We appreciated the second life that we had, and we feel like we've made the most of it, and we will just be forever indebted to the fans for taking us on this amazing ride," she said. "I think it will always be a highlight in our careers, that we got to be a part of that." Jericho's finale, "Patriots and Tyrants," airs March 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
(Fans wishing to write SCI FI Channel about picking Jericho up should NOT use the scifiwire@scifi.com e-mail address, but rather should send snail mail here: SCI FI Channel, 21st Floor, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112.) --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Spider Spins Tale Of Science
SF author Mike Brotherton told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Spider Star, was inspired by the writings of astrophysicist David Eichler. "[He] was trying to explain pulsar planets with a combination of a black widow pulsar system with dark matter collapsing into a secondary star," Brotherton said. "After the black widow pulsar ablates away, its companion, the dark matter planet, remains. That gives you a gravity well and a lot of interesting story opportunities."
Brotherton decided to build an alien space station in that gravitational potential and play with the world-building and the many situations that presented. "Then I needed a reason for people to visit this space station, one better than 'because it's there,'" he said.
The novel takes place 500 years in the future, on the colony world of Argo in the Pollux star system. "[On Argo,] a doomsday weapon left over from an extinct alien civilization is accidentally triggered," Brotherton said. "Their sun becomes unstable, lashing out at the moons and planet in unpredictable and completely destructive ways. The origins of the doomsday weapon lie not with the extinct Argonauts, but with an alien world known as the Spider Star that was once thought only to be a fairy tale."
Brotherton considers himself a writer of "hard science fiction": He won't use any science in his work that is a violation of known physics. "Stellar evolution is fundamental to the story, from the black widow pulsar to Pollux, which is an evolved giant star, with these points setting relevant time scales," he said. "The stellar evolution of Pollux and the response of the Argonauts also sets the technology at the heart of the doomsday lashings."
Dark matter is fundamental to the story, both thematically and physically. "It comes up in the primary stellar drive used, the Bully, which pushes around a form of dark matter termed the WIMP," Brotherton said. "Dark matter is the bulk of the Spider Star and lets me implement in physical terms some classic physics problems involving gravity that aren't practical with the Earth."
Brotherton is working on a new novel, as well as a couple of science-related SF projects. He's running Launch Pad, a NASA-funded workshop for writers who want to learn science and astronomy, and is editing an anthology funded by the National Science Foundation called Diamonds in the Sky. --John Joseph Adams
Preston To Guest On Medium
Kelly Preston will guest-star in NBC's supernatural drama Medium for a four-episode arc, beginning April 14 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, the network announced.
Starting with an episode entitled "Partners in Crime," Preston will play Meghan Doyle, an attractive venture capitalist who likes what she sees when Joe Dubois (Jake Weber) makes a presentation on his new solar-power-based invention to her investment firm. Her decision to fund the project and become business partners with Joe ultimately creates tension in Joe's marriage to Allison (Patricia Arquette).
Medium airs Mondays at 10. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
Morton Has Hopes For Eureka
Joe Morton, who co-stars as Henry Deacon on SCI FI Channel's original series Eureka, told SCI FI Wire that he hopes the upcoming third season will find Henry involved in stories with a political and environmental bent.
"Henry is, you know, the go-to guy for all things impossible," Morton said in an interview at the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York last week. Morton added that he'd like to see Henry "get involved in something political. Last year, I sort of ended up being carted off to prison. So I think there's a change again for him this year in terms of coming out of prison and where he is and getting over Kim and sort of starting a new life."
Production will begin shortly on the new season of Eureka, which was recently picked up for a new season. The new season will pick up the story of the residents of the small town with big secrets.
"I think, probably, it would be nice if politics was a thing, if the world economy was a thing, if he could find a way to use science to help people to make a better living, have a better life, etc., etc., and got involved in the world globally," Morton added.
New episodes of Eureka will premiere either later this year or in 2009. --Ian Spelling
Jackman Goes Nowhere In Comics
Hugh Jackman and Eli Stone co-creator Marc Guggenheim are teaming with Virgin Comics to create Nowhere Man, an original SF comic-book series that is designed to be transferred to the big screen as a Jackman vehicle, Variety reported.
The story was being kept under wraps, but Jackman's Seed Productions partner John Palermo said it features a protagonist reminiscent of the one Will Smith played in I Am Legend. The concept is a futuristic world where mankind has traded privacy for safety, a premise that sprouted with Seed, Virgin chief executive officer Sharad Devarajan and chief creative officer Gotham Chopra.
Guggenheim has also written installments of Amazing Spider-Man and Wolverine for Marvel Comics. Jackman is in Australia, starring for 20th Century Fox in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the spinoff movie that will hit theaters in May 2009.
Nowhere Man will be published under the Virgin Voices line, which also includes Voodoo Child, which Nicolas Cage hatched with son Weston Cage.
King And Son To Collaborate
Best-selling authors Stephen King and Joe Hill--who are father and son--are due to collaborate on a novella called "Throttle," which will appear in a forthcoming anthology honoring I Am Legend author Richard Matheson. It is the first collaboration for the father-son duo.
The anthology, called He Is Legend, is a tribute to Matheson and is being assembled with his cooperation. The collection will comprise new tales set in the fictional universes Matheson created.
The King/Hill collaboration, "Throttle," is set in the same world as Matheson's story "Duel," which was famously adapted into a television film by Steven Spielberg.
Other contributors include Matheson's son, Richard Christian Matheson, as well as F. Paul Wilson, Joe Lansdale, Whitley Strieber, William F. Nolan, Gary Braunbeck, Thomas Monteleone, John Shirley and Ed Gorman, among others. It will also feature an introduction by Ramsey Campbell.
He Is Legend will also include Matheson's original full-length screenplay Conjure Wife (based on the novel by Fritz Leiber), which was written in collaboration with the late Charles Beaumont. It was filmed as Night of the Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn!).
The anthology is being edited by Christopher Conlon and will be published by Gauntlet Press in February 2009. It will be published as a 750-copy numbered limited edition, which will be signed by all of the contributors (except for Matheson), and as a 52-copy lettered edition, which will be signed by all, including Matheson. More information, including instructions for pre-ordering, is available at Gauntlet Press' Web site. --John Joseph Adams
Bell Rings Up Castmates In Rome
Jon Heder and Dax Shepard have been set to star with Kristen Bell in When in Rome, a fantasy romantic comedy that David Diamond and David Weissman wrote and will direct for Disney, Variety reported.
Bell (Veronica Mars) plays Beth, a successful but hopelessly single New York real-estate agent. When her younger sister impulsively marries in Rome, Beth flies out for the wedding and, after picking up coins from a reputed "fountain of love," finds an overabundance of suitors waiting for her back home.
Heder plays a street magician who uses his talents to try to get the girl. Shepard plays a self-absorbed suitor who falls under the spell and chases the girl.
Shooting begins shortly in New York and Rome.
Jones Bites Into The Bleeding
Vinnie Jones, Michael Matthias, Michael Madsen, DMX and Armand Assante are set to star in The Bleeding, a vampire action film from Indifferent Entertainment, Variety reported.
Charles Picerni will direct from Lance Lane's script; shooting begins next month in North Carolina.
The story centers on an ex-Army Ranger, searching for the killer of his parents, who discovers a family of vampires in a former chemical weapons factory turned nightclub.
Also cast in the film are William McNamara, Pittsburgh Slim, Rachelle Leah and Kat Von D.
Smart Leads Meant To Be's
Amy Smart (Smith) has been cast as the female lead in Meant to Be's, a pilot for CBS from Medium creator Glenn Gordon Caron, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Smart will star as a rich, young gallery owner who elopes one winter night in New York, only to fall victim to an unexpected act of violence en route to her honeymoon. After dying, she finds herself in someplace other than heaven or hell and is charged with helping people on Earth do those things that were "meant to be." CBS Paramount Network TV is producing the project.
Johnson Does New Hulk DVDs
Kenneth Johnson, who created and produced the classic The Incredible Hulk TV series, told SCI FI Wire that he dug back into his archives to provide informed commentary on the show for the upcoming season-three and four DVD set that comes out in June. Johnson provides audio commentary on the two-hour season-four premiere, "Prometheus," which he directed and which centers on Bill Bixby's David Banner/the Hulk as he is chased by the military.
"I hate commentaries where the subject just does jokes or meanders or states the obvious, which the audience can already see," Johnson said in an interview. "I always prepare very carefully and thoroughly before I sit down to do a commentary."
Johnson, who also created the SF miniseries V, said that he dug out his original Hulk director's script, old call sheets and location data. "I screen the film for myself to see how it plays, get a sense of what info I should place where and let the film stimulate memories," he said. "I have all of that mass of info organized in a notebook on a music stand in the studio so I can be sure to get it all correct during the recording."
The preparation usually stimulates memories of previously forgotten trivia.
Two box sets will be released on June 3 to tie in with the upcoming Incredible Hulk feature film, starring Edward Norton, on June 13. The sets contain nine discs, which include special features, interviews and audio commentary.
"They've also recorded interviews with Bob Steinhauer, Karen Harris and Jill Sherman-Donner, who were producers for me on the show," Johnson saud. Writer/producer Reuben Leder, who was involved as a writer/producer, also participated in the retrospective feature. "They give additional insights and perspectives into the work we did on The Incredible Hulk when it was on the air for five years."
The Incredible Hulk aired on CBS 1979-'82. Bixby starred with Lou Ferrigno. The Incredible Hulk season-three and -four DVD sets will carry a suggested retail price of $39.98 each. --Frank Garcia
Moria Expands Rings Online
Turbine announced that it plans in the fall to release The Mines of Moria, a retail expansion for its massively multiplayer online game The Lord of the Rings Online. Moria will increase the play options and areas in the game, which is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy of books.
Jeffrey Steefel, the game's executive producer, told SCI FI Wire that the expansion will add new classes, raise the level cap, add the ability to create legendary items and enhance the ability to delve into the deeps of the title Mines of Moria. All of this content launches what Turbine considers to be volume two of the game's saga, paving the way for the next six issues of expanded content for the game.
"It's been an amazing first year for The Lord of the Rings Online," Steefel said in an interview. "And it's so exciting to be able to bring players into one of the most iconic fantasy locations ever created. Moria is the perfect passage for players into volume two of The Lord of the Rings Online and promises to be unlike anything they have ever experienced."
Moria, the dwarven city of Khazad-dûm that lies beneath the Misty Mountains, is host to seemingly endless tunnels, goblins galore and enough dungeon-like areas to keep a dwarf sharpening his ax for many hours. Beyond dungeon crawling, players will be able to explore the city of Khazad-dûm itself and even get involved in releasing the monstrous Balrog named Durin's Bane, the very Balrog that battled Gandalf as the Fellowship of the Ring struggled to escape the mines.
The Mines of Moria will increase the level cap to 60, allowing players to further improve their characters. New class options will also be available, which will let players start their adventures anew as Wardens and Rune-keepers.
Fans will be able to pursue an expanded crafting system that will allow them to craft more powerful items, including legendary items such as Bilbo's sword, Sting, which can grow more powerful alongside developing characters. --Kyle Ackerman
Brasyl Wins BSFA Prize
Ian McDonald's Brasyl took home the prize for best novel at the British Science Fiction Association Awards, which were presented at Eastercon 2008 over the weekend in London.
Other winners include "Lighting Out" by Ken MacLeod (for short fiction) and "Cracked World" by Andy Bigwood (for artwork).
Brian Aldiss was presented with the BSFA 50th Anniversary Award (for the best novel of 1958) for his novel Non-Stop. --John Joseph Adams
Nova Swing Wins PKD
M. John Harrison's SF novel Nova Swing has been named the winner of this year's Philip K. Dick Award, recognizing distinguished science fiction originally published in paperback in the United States. The announcement came at Norwescon 31 in Seattle over the weekend. A special citation went to From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust.
The award is named for the prolific SF writer whose works inspired such films as Blade Runner and Total Recall. The annual award is presented with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust and is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society.
This year's other finalists were Grey by Jon Armstrong, Undertow by Elizabeth Bear, Gradisil by Adam Roberts, Ally by Karen Traviss and Astropolis: Saturn Returns by Sean Williams. --John Joseph Adams
Prometheus Finalists Announced
Finalists have been announced for this year's Prometheus Award, which recognizes novels that explore the value of personal freedom, human rights and other libertarian ideals. It is presented annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society.
The winner will be announced at the 66th annual World Science Fiction Convention, Aug. 6-10, in Denver. A complete list of nominees follows.
The nominees are: Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell; The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod; Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner; The Gladiator by Harry Turtledove; and Ha'penny by Jo Walton.
The finalists for the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction were also announced. They are A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; "As Easy as A.B.C." by Rudyard Kipling; That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis; The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien; and The Once and Future King by T.H. White. --John Joseph Adams
BRIEFLY NOTED
Columbia Pictures has posted a viral Web site, Hancock Was Here, tied to its upcoming Will Smith superhero movie Hancock, which opens July 2.
TLA Releasing has acquired North American rights to the acclaimed South Korean horror hit Epitaph, the directorial debut of the Jung brothers, about a haunted hospital in World War II, Variety reported.
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Special drops on a bonus-feature-filled DVD from Warner Home Video and Adult Swim on July 22.
Heroes star Stephen Tobolowsky is reportedly in negotiations to play Batman's butler, Alfred, in Justice League Mortal, ContactMusic.com reported.
Battlestar Galactica co-star Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Fran Kranz, Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj have joined the cast of Joss Whedon's SF series Dollhouse for Fox, joining star Eliza Dushku, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, alone among the new series launched midseason, scored well, the highest-rated of the lot, with an average of 10.8 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter; it is likely to return next fall. New Amsterdam has averaged 10.1 million viewers.
Jessica Lucas, Lorna Raver and David Paymer have joined the cast of Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell for Ghost House Pictures and domestic distributor Universal, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
New Regency has bought Tom Wheeler's fantasy-adventure pitch Cutlass Islands and set up the project with Alex Gartner at Mosaic Media and Shawn Levy's 21 Laps, Variety reported; the pitch centers on a pair of shipwrecked brothers uncovering the mystery of the Cutlass Islands, a lost world of mythological and magical species.
DreamWorks has made a pre-emptive acquisition of Imaginary Friends, a fantasy-adventure spec script by Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz, Variety reported.
IDW Publishing will debut Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer, a graphic novel timed to the release of the Wachowski brothers' upcoming Speed Racer movie, in April; the movie opens May 9.
The 1966 camp classic Batman: The Movie drops on Blu-ray disc in a special edition on July 1, Fox Home Entertainment announced; starring Adam West and Burt Ward, the movie is based on the hit TV series.
Summit is developing Countdown, an SF action movie based on a classic Richard Matheson Twilight Zone episode, with Michael Brandt to direct, according to The Hollywood Reporter; the film revolves around a group of astronauts who land on a planet only to find a crashed spaceship and corpses that eerily resemble their own.
Yahoo! Movies has posted the first trailer for Meet Dave (formerly Starship Dave), an SF comedy in which Eddie Murphy plays a starship shaped like, uh, Eddie Murphy; the movie opens July 11.
Winners for the 2008 Ditmar Awards (the Australian equivalent of the Hugo Awards) were announced this weekend at Swancon 2008, the Australian national SF convention.
MTV.com has posted an interview with Keanu Reeves, talking about his upcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, particularly its environmental message.
Starz Media and Electronic Arts will produce Dead Space, an animated feature film tied to EA's SF horror video game, which launches this fall, Variety reported; the movie will act as a prequel to the game, picking up where a comic being published by Image Comics leaves off.
Shock Till You Drop reported that Cloverfield actress Jessica Lucas has joined the cast of Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell.
Visionary science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was buried March 22 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, where the nation paused for an international "titan" it had adopted as its own, the Reuters news service reported; Clarke died March 18.
