Jewel Staite, who played Kaylee on the much-loved Fox SF series Firefly, told conventioneers in Australia that a Blu-ray special edition of the short-lived show is coming soon, according to a report on TV Guide online.
Speaking at the 2008 Supernova Pop Culture Expo in Melbourne, Staite (Stargate Atlantis) said: "I just heard that they're re-releasing Firefly, a special edition of Firefly, in a box set. They actually asked me if I was able to come down to L.A. and do a commentary in the spring. So I think that would be fun."
TV Guide reported that the release she mentioned is indeed on its way to North America and will actually be coming out on Blu-ray high-definition disc. No timetable has been given for the disc's release.
BloodRayne's Boll Defies Critics
Schlock movie director Uwe Boll, the filmmaker behind BloodRayne and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, defiantly defended himself in a video on MovieSet.com against an online petition seeking to stop him from making any more movies.
Boll promised he would stop making films if the petition scores a million signatures (as of April 9, more than 154,000 had signed). He also challenged his fans to post a petition urging him to continue making movies (1,180 signatures and counting).
In the video, Boll called himself a "genius" and slagged fellow filmmakers Michael Bay and Eli Roth. Fans may recall Boll once challenged his critics to a boxing match. Boll's next film, Postal, is due May 23.
(Thanks to JoBlo.com for pointing it out.)
Apes' Heston Is Dead
Charlton Heston--the Oscar winner best known to SF fans for starring in the original Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and The Omega Man--has died, the Associated Press reported. He was 84.
Heston died April 5 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., with his wife, Lydia, at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers told the AP. He declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.
Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
The actor, a Medal of Freedom winner who was also known for championing conservative causes, lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and successful films of the last century. Ben-Hur, in which he played the title role, won 11 Academy Awards. Heston's other hits included The Ten Commandments and Earthquake.
Planet of the Apes, released in 1968, marked his first science fiction role and was a huge hit. He had a cameo role in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of the film.
1971's The Omega Man was the second major feature-film version of Richard Matheson's post-apocalyptic novel I Am Legend; Heston played the role of Robert Neville, the last survivor of a viral epidemic that wiped out humanity.
Soylent Green, released in 1973, starred Heston as a homicide detective in a dystopian future New York ravaged by environmental disasters. It was notable for marking the final performance of Edward G. Robinson and for Heston's final line, "Soylent Green is people!", which became a catch phrase.
In his later years, Heston appeared in several smaller SF and genre movies.
Additional Lost Due This Year?
TV Guide Online columnist Michael Ausiello reported a rumor that ABC may order an additional hour of Lost this season, which would bring the total number of hours produced to 14.
Citing an anonymous source, Ausiello reported that the additional hour has not been sealed with the network.
As it stands, Lost is slated to return with the first of five new episodes on April 24 in its new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
The strike-truncated fourth season was slated to end with a season finale on May 22; it's unclear where an additional hour of the SF series would air.
Ledger's Knight Scene Intact?
Moviehole.net reported a rumor that Warner Brothers won't be cutting a scene from its upcoming Batman sequel The Dark Knight featuring the late Heath Ledger as the Joker.
Earlier, Cinema Blend reported its own rumor that viewers in test screenings reacted negatively to the scene, in which Ledger's Joker character pretends to be dead and is pictured in a body bag. Executives reportedly considered excising the scene altogether.
But Moviehole reported that the scene is intact. Citing an anonymous source, the site said that nothing of Ledger's performance will be cut from the movie, including the body-bag scene.
Ledger died Jan. 22 in New York from an accidental overdose of painkillers, anti-anxiety pills and sleeping pills.
The Dark Knight, which features one of Ledger's final film performances, opens on July 18.
Babylon AD Rumors Denied
Producers of Mathieu Kassovitz's upcoming SF epic movie Babylon AD denied rumors that the U.S. version of the movie would be cut to 90 minutes and that the European version would run two hours and 40 minutes.
In a posting on MySpace.com, the production company MNP Enterprise said: "The last days have been busy with news about the length and the rating of Babylon AD. I always find it amazing to see rumors grow from other rumors or misunderstanding. Therefore I think the time is good to give you some updates.
"Babylon AD has never had a 2h40min cut. This rumor came from a joke Mathieu did in front of some journalists last September. Apparently some of them didn't understand it. ... The approximate length of the film is 1h40min, and this is what has been delivered to our partner, FOX. So I can reassure you, FOX is not chopping up the film and cutting 70 [minutes], like I read on Rotten Tomatoes! :-)"
The blog post added that the film was always designed to be PG-13. "The truth is Fox, like any other studio, will have their final cut on their territories, and Mathieu Kassovitz has his on the European ones. So there will naturally be a few differences between the two versions."
Teaser trailers for the SF movie, starring Vin Diesel, are in the works. "A French teaser should be released on the Web quite soon!" the blog reported.
X-Files DVDs Tied To Sequel
Fox Home Entertainment is releasing The X-Files: Revelations on July 8, a new DVD compilation of episodes of the hit TV series related to the theatrical release of the upcoming second X-Files movie on July 25.
The two-disc DVD collection features eight episodes selected by series creator Chris Carter, each of which includes an introduction by Carter and producer Frank Spotnitz saying why it was chosen and how it relates to the as-yet-untitled sequel film.
The DVD set will also feature the February WonderCon panel session with Carter and Spotnitz and stars David Duchovny (Fox Mulder) and Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully) in their first fan convention appearance together in several years.
The eight episodes, which were previously released as part of the show's various season box sets, are "Pilot," "Beyond the Sea," "The Host," "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," "Memento Mori," "The Post-Modern Prometheus," "Bad Blood" and "Milagro."
The DVD set also features the sequel's teaser trailer and a free Hollywood Movie Money ticket (valued at $8.50) for the sequel.
The X-Files: Revelations will carry a suggested retail price of $22.98.
MGM Believes In Bobism
MGM has bought Bobism, Ben Wexler's SF comedy spec script, about a shy collegian who discovers that life in 1,000 years will be based on his blog, Variety reported.
The project is set up with ContraFilm's Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson, along with Adam F. Goldberg. ContraFilm's Lisa Zambri will be involved in a producing capacity.
It's the first comedy put into development at MGM since Mary Parent took over as head of the worldwide motion picture group.
The spec sale is Wexler's first venture into features after a decade of TV writing. He's developing with Happy Madison for Fox, is prepping a TV version of Hitch with Overbrook for CBS and contributes to Comedy Central's Sit-N-Spin performance troupe.
Sony Engages In Battle
Sony's Columbia Pictures unit has acquired Battle: Los Angeles, a Chris Bertolini spec script about an alien invasion that starts in Santa Monica, Calif., and heads east toward Los Angeles, Variety reported.
Neal Moritz will produce through his Original Films banner. Original's Ori Marmur and Columbia's Sam Dickerman brought in the spec.
Bertolini's credits include The General's Daughter, and he's writing a pilot for Spike TV.
Kring Books Orpheus Trilogy
Crown Publishers has paid $3 million for an alternate-history book trilogy by Heroes creator Tim Kring, Variety reported.
Novelist Dale Peck will co-write The Flag of Orpheus, a thriller about the abuses of power and the moral obligation to resist it, with the TV writer, a newcomer to the book realm.
The first volume, dubbed Shift, is slated to debut in the fall of 2009 from the Random House imprint. The trilogy revolves around key turning points in the late 20th century, including the early 1960s drug culture.
Each installment will be launched with an alternate-reality game as part of the online marketing push.
Grimspace Navigates Galaxy
SF author Ann Aguirre told SCI FI Wire that her novel Grimspace started with its protagonist, Jax, who emerged fully formed, like Athena from Zeus's forehead. "I was tired of writing to trends, and I wrote for the joy of it; Grimspace resulted," Aguirre said in an interview.
Jax is a "jumper"--a space navigator of uncanny ability--but when one of her jumps ends with a shipwreck, she finds herself imprisoned and with no memory of the incident. "When March breaks into her cell, offering her a way out, she realizes she can rot away quietly or go out with a bang," Aguirre said.
The rogue crew she joins wants her help in busting up the status quo. "They want to found their own jump-training academy, but they need her help to do it," Aguirre said. "[Jax is] unusually long-lived for a jumper, and a clan matriarch on Lachion wants to know why. Thus begins a series of adventures that will reshape the universe, although not in the manner they intended."
"Grimspace" is Aguirre's version of subspace. "In trying to invent [faster-than-light travel], scientists stumbled across a different way to travel," Aguirre said. "Years before Jax was born, they picked up faint readings from beacons left behind by an ancient and extinct race, so they worked toward developing technology that would let them open a small wormhole and jump into grimspace. They didn't invent so much as reverse-engineer artifacts they found."
Ships are equipped with phase drives that let them access grimspace, a maelstrom of pure chaos and energy. Part of what makes Jax so valuable is that it takes a special gene to be able to navigate there. "As they learned from countless years of deadly trial and error," Aguirre said. "The first jumpers went mad, or the ships simply never came back."
Wanderlust, the second Jax novel, is due out in September. "Two more are in the pipeline, and I have plot enough for at least six books," Aguirre said. "In addition, I have an urban fantasy series starting in '09. Blue Diablo stars a woman named Corine Solomon, who can read objects with a touch, but she pays a terrible price for her gift." --John Joseph Adams
Odysseus Rocked Bacic's Feet
Steve Bacic, who co-stars in the upcoming SCI FI Channel original movie Odysseus: Voyage to the Underworld, told SCI FI Wire that the shoot was, quite literally, a rocky affair.
In the film, the Greek hero Odysseus (Arnold Vosloo) is lured to an island that's ruled by a gorgeous goddess and inundated with bloodsucking creatures under her command.
Bacic--a veteran genre actor whose credits include Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica: Razor and Flash Gordon--plays Eurylochus, who is disagreeable and a coward in Greek mythology but is "courageous and honorable" as the "right-hand man" to Odysseus in Voyage to the Underworld.
"Ask anyone who did this film and walked in those damn sandals, and they'll say, 'Oh, my God, were my feet killing me,'" Bacic said in an interview. "I'm a fit person, and I do a lot of running and working out, but nothing can prepare you for small rocks getting wedged between the sole of your foot and the inside of the sandal. The terrain we were walking and running on was nothing but sand, gravel, small rocks, big rocks, twigs and branches."
One shot in particular, Bacic added, stood out. "[Director] Terry Ingram was doing this long shot of us walking in over the sands," he says. "It must have been at least 400 meters. At first it wasn't so bad because it was sand, [but] then you'd hit a rock and get it lodged in there real good. We did this over and over. It got to a point where we were just laughing about it, because we would take pleasure in each other's pain." Odysseus: Voyage to the Underworld premieres April 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SCI FI. --Ian Spelling
Hulk Game Features Film Cast
The upcoming video game based on The Incredible Hulk will feature the voices and likenesses of the film's major cast members, including Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson and William Hurt , Marvel and Sega announced.
The game--which is due in June, timed to the movie's release--is being developed by Edge of Reality and published by Sega for next-generation consoles and the PC.
Norton will voice the character of Bruce Banner; Tyler is Dr. Betty Ross; Roth voices Emil Blonsky; Nelson portrays Dr. Samuel Sterns; and Hurt plays Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross.
The Hulk video game is a third-person action title in which gamers can demolish anything in their path, including lampposts, passing cars and even buildings. The game also features key moments from the film, as well as additional storylines and characters from the Hulk universe.
The Incredible Hulk movie opens June 13.
Saving Grace Drops On DVD
Season one of TNT's supernatural cop drama Saving Grace arrives on DVD July 15, Fox Home Entertainment announced.
The DVD set includes all 13 episodes of the season on a four-disc set, with bonus features including behind-the-scenes featurettes, interviews with cast and crew, select episode commentary, an Everlast music video and more.
Saving Grace stars Oscar winner Holly Hunter as Grace Hanadarko, a jaded, emotionally complex and brilliant Oklahoma City police detective, who gets a last chance to reclaim her life with the help of Earl, a scruffy, tobacco-spitting last-chance angel.
The Saving Grace season-one DVD set will carry a suggested retail price of $49.98.
Goblin Turns Fantasy On Head
Fantasy author Jim Hines told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Goblin War, flips the traditional quest fantasy tale on its head, taking the point of view of the usual bad guys.
"We've read so many books about the so-called dark races going to war against humanity," Hines said in an interview. "With Goblin War, I wanted to get into the mind of your average goblin and see things from his perspective."
In the book, the "monstrous races" have united behind an orc named Billa the Bloody. "Which should be good news for Jig the goblin and the rest of his lair," Hines said. "Those humans act like they own the whole world, and it's about time someone taught them otherwise. Unfortunately, Jig soon learns the only thing with a shorter life expectancy than a goblin is a soldier in Billa's army."
All the protagonist, Jig, has ever wanted is to be left alone, in peace. "Whether it's humans and their stupid quests or the more powerful monsters looking to claim a bit more territory, goblins always end up on the sharp end of the sword," Hines said. "To the humans, Billa's army is a terrifying force of chaos and destruction, but to Jig, Billa represents hope and safety. I wanted to explore that contrast."
Hines feels for what Jig goes through. "The bullies I dealt with growing up aren't as nasty as Jig's, of course," he said. "In junior high, you might get stuffed into a locker (I did), but you're a lot less likely to get sent out on patrol to be killed by a wizard while the other guards drink and gamble. On the other hand, when I was in junior high, I didn't have the option of tricking the wizard into finishing off my tormenters, so it balances out."
Up next for Hines, in January 2009, is The Stepsister Scheme--a mash-up of fairy-tale princesses with Charlie's Angels. "They're a little less satirical than the goblin books, but still a great deal of fun to write," Hines said. "Let's just say that my version of Sleeping Beauty can take out an armed man using only a spoon." --John Joseph Adams
Disney Unveils Slate Of 3-D Toons
The Walt Disney Studios unveiled an ambitious slate of 10 animated feature films from Disney and Pixar that will be released through 2012, all of which will be produced in 3-D. The announcement came at a New York press conference on April 8 hosted by Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, and John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.
The lineup includes six films from Pixar and four from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Another four in a series of direct-to-DVD films will consist of Disney Fairies from DisneyToon Studios.
All of the Disney and Pixar animated features will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D. In addition, new 3-D versions of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are set to debut in 2009 and 2010.
The 2008 releases include WALL•E, from writer/director Andrew Stanton (June 27); Bolt, from the directing team of Chris Williams and Byron Howard (Nov. 26); and the Disney DVD and Blu-ray release of Tinker Bell (Oct. 28).
The 2009 slate includes Up, Pixar's first 3-D release, from director Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson; The Princess and the Frog, from directors John Musker and Ron Clements (Christmas Day); and the Disney DVD and Blu-ray release of Tinker Bell North of Never Land (working title).
The year 2010 brings the 3-D Toy Story 3, directed by Lee Unkrich (summer); Rapunzel, directed by Glen Keane and Dean Wellins (Christmas Day); and the Disney DVD and Blu-ray release of Tinker Bell A Midsummer Storm (working title).
In 2011, Pixar will release newt, directed by Gary Rydstrom (summer); The Bear and the Bow, from Brenda Chapman (Christmas); and the DVD and Blu-ray release of Tinker Bell A Winter Story.
The year 2012 will see the release of Cars 2, directed by Brad Lewis, and King of the Elves, an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story, directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker (Christmas).
Jericho Seeks Home On Comcast
The New York Times reported that CBS Paramount Network Television has held talks with Comcast, the cable provider, about finding new life for Jericho, citing two people briefed on the talks who requested anonymity.
It's unclear what form a revived Jericho would take or where it would air.
The low-rated post-apocalyptic series ended its short second season in CBS last month without being picked up for a third season.
But executive producer Carol Barbee told SCI FI Wire last month that producers were holding talks with a number of unspecified parties, including cable-television networks, about picking the show up.
(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.)
Universal Launches Earth
Universal has picked up Earth vs. Moon, a pitch for an SF movie from writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, for Scott Stuber to produce, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The plot details are being kept under wraps for what is being described as an SF epic.
The acquisition marks the first for Stuber since the departure of partner Mary Parent, who last month became chairman of MGM's motion-picture group. Stuber is production on The Wolfman, which stars Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins and is being directed by Joe Johnston.
(Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
Lucas Sues Over Stormtroopers
George Lucas' Lucasfilm is suing a British prop designer in London over rights to the imperial stormtrooper costumes from the Star Wars films, which the prop designer has been marketing, the Associated Press reported.
Lucasfilm claims violation of copyright and trademarks by prop designer Andrew Ainsworth, who sculpted the Stormtrooper helmets for the first Star Wars movie in 1977. London-based Ainsworth sells replicas of the helmets and armor, which he says are made from the original molds, on his Web site.
Lucasfilm won a $20 million judgment against Ainsworth in a California court in 2006 and is seeking to have it enforced in Great Britain.
Ainsworth is countersuing, claiming the copyright rests with him; he is seeking a share of merchandising revenue from the six Star Wars films, which his lawyers estimate at $24 billion, the AP reported.
Lucasfilm and its lawyers claim the design of the stormtroopers was created by Lucas and his artistic team and was already in place by the time Ainsworth was hired to create the helmets.
Fanboys' Cline Sells Thundercade
Lakeshore Entertainment has picked up Thundercade, a video-game-themed comedy spec script from Fanboys co-writer Ernie Cline, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are fast-tracking the project and producing it along with Cline's manager, Dan Farah of Farah Films.
Thundercade follows a video-game junkie facing a midlife crisis who learns that a young punk had broken a record he set as a teen. He and two lifelong friends embark on a quest to reclaim his place in video game history and win the world's ultimate gaming championship, Thundercade.
A spotlight has been cast on Cline's Star Wars-themed Fanboys because of a public dispute with the Weinstein Co. and filmmakers over competing versions of the film and whether it will see a theatrical release. Supporters of Fanboys staged demonstrations at screenings of the Weinstein Co.'s Superhero Movie in March to protest the latest version.
Lost's Pinkner To Run Fringe
Lost executive producer Jeff Pinkner has been tapped to run Fringe, Fox's high-profile SF drama from J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile, Emmy winner Thomas Schlamme has come on board to direct and executive-produce Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas, Tom Wheeler's fantasy drama pilot for ABC, the trade paper reported.
On Fringe, Pinkner will serve as executive producer/show runner. The project centers on an FBI agent (Anna Torv), who teams with a guy (Joshua Jackson) and his scientist father (John Noble) to confront the spread of unexplained phenomena.
Pinkner also produced on Abrams' Alias for ABC.
Atlas centers on a young girl who finds a magical atlas that reveals a secret world. Schlamme will executive-produce the pilot with Wheeler.
Matter Deals With A Lot
SF author Iain M. Banks told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Matter, is about families, as well as trust, honor, cowardice and bravery, not to mention politics, power, religion and the "many worlds" theory and its implications.
"I also wanted some sort of big, artificial and strange super-planetary habitat," Banks said in an interview. "As it turns out, I ended up with two: One's kind of a throwaway, and the other is Sursamen, the shellworld where a lot of the multilevel action takes place."
Matter is part of Banks' popular Culture series, which takes place in a parallel universe in which humanity has evolved into a post-scarcity, post-human society. The novel tells the story of two brothers and their sister, the surviving children of a king on a backwater planet of unusual design.
"Their father is murdered; one brother has to run, and the other, left behind, doesn't know how his father was killed and is the next target," Banks said. "The brother on the run is heading out of the planet to try and find his sister, who happens to be an agent for the Culture's Special Circumstances section and hence potentially quite useful when it comes to righting wrongs and wreaking vengeance. Meanwhile, a vast waterfall is rapidly uncovering an eons-buried alien city."
Banks said that, of all the ideas in the book, the shellworld concept was the most fun to work with. "Working out the spacings of the levels and the supporting towers inside the world itself and then deciding how all the other bits and pieces fitted together--including the history and original purpose of the shellworlds--was almost more rewarding than actually writing it all up subsequently," he said. "The rest is mostly standard Culture furniture, apart from the other Big World of Unusual Design, which makes a brief appearance. Then a lot of cool [Special Circumstances] weaponry got to shine in the last hundred pages of the main text. There's an appendix after that in case anybody needs to check up on any terminology." --John Joseph Adams
Goldsmith Talks Stargate DVD Scores
Joel Goldsmith, the long-standing composer for SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that he used different approaches to creating the scores for the two feature-length Stargate movies arriving on DVD.
Stargate: The Ark of Truth, now in stores, used some of the themes Goldsmith set up in the series for the Ori and the Replicators, while the upcoming Stargate: Continuum allowed him to be more expansive in his approach.
"First of all, I could use a symphony orchestra rather than electronics that simulate an orchestra," said Goldsmith, who worked on SG-1 starting with the pilot in 1997. "And because the Ark movie wrapped up some of the stories so well, I reached for a few of the familiar themes from the Ori and Replicators and then created different situations and new themes for Teal'c. Of course, everything was more cinematic."
The Ark of Truth wraps up the Ori storyline from SG-1's 10th and final season. A companion CD release of music from Ark was recorded live with the Seattle Northwest Sinfonia; it includes a 16-page color booklet with articles about the music by Goldsmith, executive producer Brad Wright and writer/director Robert C. Cooper. (It's available here.)
Cooper actually wrote about the music in the script for Ark and was involved in the music composition as well, Goldsmith said. "He would explain the emotion and the subtext that he wanted or needed in the scene," he said. There were times that a lot of information was given out in certain sections of Ark and the music was needed afterward to slow down the pace, the composer added. "With a movie we could slow it all down so the viewer wouldn't go on overload," he said. "We could give them time to digest it, like when Teal'c makes the journey in the mountains."
Continuum, which arrives on DVD in July, is more of a stand-alone film, Goldsmith said. "It is a great, old-fashioned SG-1 film," he said. "It is more retro-Stargate, and, without giving away too much, it's going back to some more things from the past."
Meanwhile, Goldsmith continues working on the spinoff series Stargate Atlantis. "This will be a fantastic season," he said. "People will be really happy with it. They did a great job." --Mike Szymanski
Aronofsky Develops AMC's Riverview
Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain) is turning to television, developing Riverview Towers, a supernatural thriller series, with AMC, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Riverview Towers revolves around a family who move into an apartment building with paranormal activity.
The script is being written by John J. McLaughlin, who wrote Aronofsky's upcoming film Black Swan, a psychological thriller set in the world of ballet.
Aronofsky is executive-producing through his production company, Protozoa. Also serving as executive producers are Eric Watson, Aronofsky's partner in Protozoa, and Jed Weintrob.
Monster helmer Patty Jenkins is in talks to direct should the project get picked up to pilot, though there is no deal yet, the trade paper reported.
Hulk Featurette Goes Live
Universal Pictures and Marvel Studios have posted a new behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the upcoming comic-book movie The Incredible Hulk, which has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
In the new film, based on the Marvel series, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is living in the shadows, cut off from the life he knew and the woman he loves, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). Banner struggles to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis, Gen. Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), and the military machinery that seeks to capture him and brutally exploit his power.
As all three grapple with the secrets that led to the Hulk's creation, they are confronted with a monstrous new adversary known as the Abomination (Tim Roth), whose destructive strength exceeds even the Hulk's own. The Incredible Hulk opens June 13. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
Bowman Helms ABC's Castle
Rob Bowman (The X-Files) has signed to direct the ABC supernatural pilot Castle, Variety reported.
Castle centers on a horror novelist who consults for the NYPD. Andrew Marlowe wrote the pilot and will executive-produce with Armyan Bernstein and Laurie Zaks.
Bowman has worked on a number of ABC series in recent years, including Day Break and Night Stalker. He directed dozens of X-Files episodes and the 1998 feature film.
New Lost Episode Teased
ABC released information about "The Shape of Things to Come," the next original episode of its SF series Lost, which returns later this month in a new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
In the episode, Locke (Terry O'Quinn) sees his camp come under attack, while Jack (Matthew Fox) tries to discover the identity of a body that has washed ashore, ABC said.
The new episode--the first of five that will wrap up the strike-truncated fourth season--will feature guest stars Ken Leung as Miles, Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte, Sam Anderson as Bernard, Tania Raymonde as Alex, Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Marc Vann as doctor, Kevin Durand as Keamy, Yetide Badaki as desk clerk, Kaveh Kardan as merchant, Faran Tahir as Ishmael Bakir and Sean Douglas Hoban as Doug.
"The Shape of Things to Come" debuts on April 24.
Cannavale Is ABC's Cupid
Bobby Cannavale (Third Watch) will play the title role in ABC's comedy pilot Cupid, a remake of Rob Thomas' 1990s TV series, which starred Jeremy Piven, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Cannavale will play the charming and manic Trevor Hale, who thinks he is the Roman god of love, Cupid, banished to Earth until he can match 100 couples. Piven played the role on the original series.
Cannavale, an Emmy winner for his recurring role as Vince D'Angelo on Will & Grace, starred in the NBC drama pilot "M.O.N.Y." last season.
In other pilot casting news, Alexandra Breckenridge and Adam Rothenberg have been added to the CBS drama Mythological Ex, about a woman (Elizabeth Reaser) who learns from a psychic that she already has dated the man she's supposed to marry, then decides to revisit all her past relationships, the trade paper reported.
Rothenberg will play the woman's friend and neighbor. Breckenridge will play his girlfriend. The show also features guest stars Mark Deklin and Eric Balfour.
Simmons Edits House Of Horrors
IDW Publishing--in conjunction with Simmons Comic Group--announced that it will soon release an anthology of illustrated horror stories called Gene Simmons House of Horrors, edited by the co-founder of the legendary rock group KISS.
Simmons serves as editor and host for the anthology, which collects the first three issues of the quarterly series. The book contains stories by a range of authors, including Chris Ryall, Tom Waltz, Dwight MacPherson, Sean Taylor, Nick Simmons (Gene Simmons' son) and Leah Moore (daughter of comic writer Alan Moore) and her husband, John Reppion. It also includes an introduction to the series by the elder Simmons.
The book's cover is by Matt Busch, and the volume features the work of artists such as Andy Kuhn, Jeff Zornow, Steph Stamb, Esteve Polls, Grant Bond, Jon Alderink and others.
The series was inspired by Simmons' love for shows such as The Twilight Zone and magazines such as Amazing Stories and Analog. "I loved the anthology horror/sci-fi canvas and wanted to re-introduce the format into comic books," Simmons said in a statement to the press. "[Gene Simmons House of Horrors] is a chance to showcase the best in professional talent and to introduce new talent as well. Each story will be written and drawn independently, with wraparound commentaries by myself."
FEARnet To Air Fear Reruns
FEARnet, the video-on-demand and online programming service, will air reruns of the upcoming horror anthology series Fear Itself once they've debuted on NBC.
FEARnet will run the show's 13 episodes starting on Labor Day; the series debuts on NBC on May 29.
FEARnet will also feature exclusive online and on-demand content related to the series, including special clips and shot-by-shot analyses of key scenes by the series' directors.
Fear Itself will consist of one-hour films from directors such as John Landis, Darren Bousman, Ronny Yu, Brad Anderson, Breck Eisner, Mary Harron, Stuart Gordon and Ernest Dickerson.
The episodes will also feature such actors as Brandon Routh, Shiri Appleby, Elisabeth Moss, Cynthia Watros, Eric Roberts, John Billingsley, Russell Hornsby, Pablo Schreiber, Stephen Lee, Stephen R. Hart, Jack Noseworthy and Larry Gilliard Jr.
Fear Itself will air on NBC Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
Nim Boosted To Second Place
Final box-office figures for the April 4 weekend moved Nim's Island up to second place from an earlier estimated third, surpassing Leatherheads, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Nim's final tally, reported on April 7, was $13.2 million for the three-day period, the trade paper reported.
The PG-rated kids' book adaptation, starring Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin and Gerard Butler, outperformed pre-release expectations while attracting an audience dominated by mother-and-daughter duos.
Courageous Latest In War Series
SF author John G. Hemry told SCI FI Wire that his new novel, The Lost Fleet: Courageous, is the latest in an SF war series that wonders whether a long retreat through space would be feasible. (Hemry wrote the novel under his long-standing pseudonym, Jack Campbell.)
"The classic long-retreat scenario is the March of the Ten Thousand by Xenophon," Hemry said in an interview. "So I spent a long time thinking about how to realistically render that in a future war spanning many star systems."
The series also plays on the common legend that an ancient hero is not dead, but is sleeping and will someday return when needed. "King Arthur being one prominent example," Hemry said. "Since ancient heroes would doubtless be shocked to learn about the legends which grew around them, I wondered what would happen if a future hero had to confront the legends and somehow try to live up to them because of all the people counting upon him."
As the story developed, Hemry also added his thoughts about the corrosive effects of a century of war. "My hero is stunned by some of the things accepted as a result of that and has to remind his people of the principles which once distinguished them from their enemies," he said.
In Courageous, the Alliance fleet has been trapped deep inside enemy territory as a result of a desperate and failed attack aimed at ending the century-long war with the Syndicate Worlds. "After the death of its admiral, the Alliance fleet is led by Capt. John Geary, ... [who is] facing the challenges of trying to out-guess and outfight the Syndic forces trying to trap the Alliance fleet while that fleet's supply situation keeps getting worse, maintain control of those officers who resist his command of the fleet and [attempt] to learn more about an alien race whose existence seems ever more certain and who may have been intervening in the war between human powers," Hemry said. "On top of all that, he's trying to retain his moral center in a future which has sacrificed many principles in the name of necessity."
The next book in the series, The Lost Fleet: Valiant, is due out in June. --John Joseph Adams
Disney Channel Gets Timmy
Disney Channel programmers from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region have joined forces to acquire global rights to the stop-motion-animated children's series Timmy from Aardman Animations, the channel announced.
Timmy is scheduled to premiere in 2009 on Playhouse Disney channels and programming blocks around the world.
Timmy marks the first foray into television for preschoolers by the British-based Aardman (Wallace & Gromit). Timmy features the company's signature stop-motion-animation style.
The short-form series centers on a 3-year-old sheep named Timmy, a character based on sketches by Aardman's Nick Park.
WALL-E Previewed
Andrew Stanton, writer/director of Disney/Pixar's upcoming animated SF movie WALL•E, told reporters that the movie was based on a simple question: "What if mankind left Earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?"
"It's just such a lonely scenario," Stanton (Finding Nemo) told journalists, who screened about 35 minutes of the film at Pixar's Emeryville, Calif., headquarters in February.
SCI FI Wire previewed the film, which begins, incongruously, with the jaunty strains of the song "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from the 1969 musical film Hello Dolly: "Out there/There's a world outside of Yonkers ..."
The camera swoops down from outer space, over a smog-shrouded city, between immense buildings. Which turn out not to be buildings, but tottering towers of garbage lining abandoned, wind-blown streets through which motors a tiny machine. It's WALL•E, short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class. A careworn, cube-shaped machine with tiny treads for feet and oversized binoculars for eyes, WALL•E goes about his day as he has for seven centuries: compacting trash into tidy cubes, collecting the odd bit of flotsam for his collection of oddities and trying not to run over his cockroach companion, oblivious to the decaying city around him as he listens to the ancient music that plays from his memory banks. "... Put on your Sunday clothes, there's lots of world out there ..."
In the background, we get a hint about the backstory of this wasted world, from which a consumerist, overindulged human race eventually fled to the stars, leaving machines to clean up their mess. That includes video billboards featuring Fred Willard as the chief executive of the Buy n Large corporation, a super-retailing conglomerate whose vestiges litter the world of the future. (The video of Willard was shot as live action.)
Undaunted, WALL•E has carved out a comfortable life. But he longs for something more: Watching an ancient video of Hello Dolly, in which an impossibly beautiful man and woman touch hands, WALL•E clasps his own fingers together and sighs.
The movie marks several Pixar firsts: its first foray into science fiction, its first film featuring live action mixed with animation, its first feature-length film with minimal dialogue (not counting Pixar's many short films, including the first one, Luxo Jr., about a playful, hopping desk lamp, which is the source of Pixar's animated logo).
WALL•E opens June 27. (Read more about WALL•E in the upcoming issue of SCI FI Magazine.) --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Ackles To Lead Valentine
Jensen Ackles (The CW's Supernatural) is in final talks to play a lead in Lionsgate's My Bloody Valentine 3-D, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Eye director Patrick Lussier will helm the remake of the 1981 slasher film, in which Ackles plays Tom, a handsome, principled man who returns to his home in Harmony, Mo., 10 years after 22 people were murdered on Valentine's night. Back in Montana, Tom finds he still is smitten with his first love, Sarah (Jaime King), and is now a murder suspect. Zane Smith wrote the screenplay.
Jack Murray, John Dunning and Andre Link will executive-produce. Executive producers for Lionsgate are Mike Paseornek and John Sacchi.
Production begins May 12. A Jan. 23, 2009, release is planned.
Davis Acquires North Wind
Davis Entertainment has acquired the film rights to Boom Studios' SF comic-book series North Wind, bringing writer David DiGilio aboard to adapt the five comics for the screen, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The story takes place in a futuristic Los Angeles, years after global warming has created a new ice age. Most survivors live under the ice and are ruled by a dictator who exiles some citizens to the harsh environment outdoors. His cruel actions cause one of the exiles to lead a revolution.
John Davis will produce the live-action feature alongside Boom co-founders Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie via their Boom Entertainment banner. DiGilio will executive-produce.
The film will be one of many SF movies for Davis Entertainment, whose projects include I, Robot; Alien vs. Predator; and Eragon.
BRIEFLY NOTED
ComingSoon.net has posted three new images from the upcoming as-yet-untitled X-Files sequel film, which opens July 25.
Variety has posted an interview with director James Cameron talking about his new 3-D process and the upcoming SF epic movie Avatar.
Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball's new vampire drama, True Blood, starring Anna Paquin, should premiere on HBO in the fall rather than the summer as a result of last fall's writers' strike, Mediaweek and TV.com reported.
USA Today published a preview of Will Smith's upcoming superhero satire movie Hancock, which opens in July.
The New York Times has published a story handicapping the prospects for Marvel's The Incredible Hulk, which opens June 13.
The official Indiana Jones Web site has been updated with "adventures," beginning with Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Lexi Alexander, director of the upcoming Punisher: War Zone, updated her official blog with news that the comic-book movie has gotten a new release date: Dec. 5.
Latino Review reported a rumor that Jake Gyllenhaal may be in line for the title role in Prince of Persia, a film based on the video-game franchise.
Daniel Radcliffe, the 18-year-old star of the Harry Potter movies, will make his Broadway debut on Sept. 5, playing the disturbed stable boy in a revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus, the play that earned him rave reviews in London--and in which he appears naked, the Associated Press reported.
Berlin-based Razor Film and Film4 will produce Hungarian helmer Benedek Fliegauf's first English-language film, the futuristic drama Womb, Variety reported; the film is a story about the efforts to overcome death by genetic manipulation and will be shot in Berlin and on the North Sea coast.
Battlestar Galactica co-star Tricia Helfer has signed a talent-holding deal with Fox Broadcasting, according to The Hollywood Reporter; under the one-year pact, the actress will star in a series project for the network, probably a drama.
Bobby Coleman will play a boy who befriends a robot on the run from malevolent corporate interests in Robosapien: Rebooted, which has begun filming in New Orleans, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Battlestar Galactica's April 4 season-four debut on SCI FI Channel was the number-one cable program in prime time among adults aged 25-54 and drew a total audience of more than 2.1 million viewers, SCI FI announced.
SuperheroHype! has posted a new behind-the-scenes video of the making of Zack Snyder's Watchmen, based on the seminal graphic novel of the same name.
New Web sites have gone live for The Spirit, Frank Miller's upcoming adaptation of the classic Will Eisner comic, and Space Chimps, Fox's upcoming animated comedy film.
Bharat Nalluri is set to helm ABC's comedy pilot Cupid, an updated version of Rob Thomas' 1990s series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The gay network here! has signed a development deal with Elizabeth Keener for an as-yet-untitled new hourlong drama series, described as a cross between The Silence of the Lambs and Twin Peaks, about a lesbian FBI agent (Keener) sent on an extended undercover assignment in a mysterious small town, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
