SCI FI Wire was among a group of online journalists who got a glimpse at the massive sets built for Zack Snyder's upcoming Watchmen movie during production last November in Vancouver, Canada, and even the most casual fan of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' source graphic novel would have come away impressed with what Snyder calls his fetishistic attention to detail.
"Everything's got, like, fetish relevance," Snyder said in an impromptu interview during a break in filming on the movie on a cold fall night. "In this movie, there's so much stuff to photograph, whether it be a button or Gunga Diner container."
Watchmen is based on the graphic novel, set in an alternate-universe 1985 New York in which superheroes exist and Nixon is still president. Snyder's film has taken the graphic novel almost as holy writ, transforming even the smallest detail into reality on an outdoor set built in a parking lot of the Canadian Motion Picture Park.
The backlot, as it's called, holds the New York set. It's one long avenue crossed by two side streets. The intersections are Amsterdam Steet and 117th Avenue and W. 39th Street and Charlton Avenue.
On 117th Avenue, the crew is filming a scene from the title sequence, a storefront for "JK Television" repair. It's 1977, during the riots protesting the costumed adventurers.
Down one street are storefronts for bars, tattoo parlors, porn theaters and peep shows, brightly lit with neon signs. Amid the porn establishments is the storefront for Pioneer Publishing Inc., the home of the New Frontiersman tabloid newspaper.
On the other streets, visitors see stores and building facades from Gibbons and Moore's elaborate alternate-universe New York. "This entire set is an easter egg," Ain't It Cool's Drew McWeeny says.
The walls are plastered with posters familiar to readers of Watchmen: advertisements for the Pale Horse concert; the cover of the new Nova Express with a photo of an aged Richard Nixon and the headline "How Sick Is Dick?"; an ad for the Pink Triangle Live show benefiting Gay Women Against Rape; colorful posters for Mmeltdown candy and sleek '80s-style ads for Veidt Sport, along with fading campaign ads for Nixon ("Four More Years").
Then there are the storefronts and businesses from the graphic novel: There's the Utopia theater, with The Day the Earth Stood Still on the marquee (Fox's remake of Day was being shot nearby in Vancouver); the Treasure Island comic-book store; the Gunga Diner, the Indian-flavored eatery.
Snyder acknowledges that the level of detail will be lost on the casual viewer of the film in a movie theater, and he agrees with Moore's often-quoted statement that the book could never be adapted for film because the novel was meant to be lingered over, panel by panel, with the reader able to page back and forth. That is, Snyder agrees up to a point.
"Yeah, absolutely right," Snyder (300) said. "But I think it's interesting, because I think that now movies have become [different], and the way we watch movies [has changed]. ... When you see it in the theater, it's like the first time you read it. But the way that movies are sold and sort of consumed now, [with] DVD [and Blu-ray], ... we were just shooting that little shot from the title sequence down there in the alley, and there's a lot of s--t in there that, ... if you really take a second and look at it, ... we took a lot of stuff from Under the Hood and all the ... essays [in the graphic novel], if you will, ... and we tried to take them ... and stick them in the movie. Because I love them so much. And a lot of it exists like that: like stuff that [you can find] if you actually [go back]." Watchmen is now in post-production, with a March 6, 2009, release date. Snyder will preview Watchmen at Comic-Con International in San Diego this month. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Fate of Lost 'Six' Revealed
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, executive producers of ABC's SF series Lost, offered reporters big spoilers about the fate of the "Oceanic Six," the survivors of the ill-fated Flight 815 who made it off the island at the end of last season. (Spoilers ahead!)
Speaking in a news conference at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour on July 17, the producers said the six characters--Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim) and little Aaron--will all be compelled to return to the island in the upcoming fifth season, which kicks off in January 2009.
"Some of them have some quality time off the island, but they realize that the island is drawing them back, and it's important that they go back to the island," Cuse said. "You will see in season five these six will contemplate returning to the island."
Lindelof explained that it was a strategic decision to separate the Six from the rest of the 815 survivors back on the island. Sometimes, to keep an interest in a show, "you have to break characters up geographically and emotionally and keep them separated," Lindelof said. "But you have to be careful, because audiences tire of it, and the [characters in the] show they know and love are no longer interacting with each other, and hopefully we have not delayed the gratification too long."
At what point will all the characters get off the island? Cuse said mysteriously, "by the end." --Mike Szymanski
ABC Makes Up Lost Episodes
ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson told reporters that Lost will make up for the three episodes that didn't make it to air last season because of the writers' strike.
"They were supposed to do 17 this year, actually," McPherson said in a news conference at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 16. "They aired 14."
The upcoming fifth season will feature 17 episodes when it kicks off in January 2009. McPherson said that the show has 48 episodes left before the series ends in 2010.
"They're kind of still doing the story arcs and figuring that out," McPherson said, referring to Lost's producers. "But we will do the full 48 that we all set out when we said, 'Let's set an end of the show. How many episodes do you need to tell that story and where you're going?'"
McPherson was upstaged at last year's press tour when Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse saved some news for Comic-Con International in San Diego, which took place a week later.
This year, McPherson said that the producers will screen a promotional video at Comic-Con for the upcoming season of Lost, but added that it will also be made available immediately on ABC.com.
McPherson acknowledged that Lost suffered more from last year's writers' strike than other ABC shows. "Lost, unfortunately, was one of the shows that had to actually go down for a little bit and go off the air," he said. "We were hoping to be able to run it straight through." Instead, the decision was made to pull Lost down completely until early next year. --Mike Szymanski
Lost Rush Confused Audience
ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson admitted to SCI FI Wire that the rush to complete episodes of last season's Lost before a writers' strike may have led to audience confusion.
"There's no question there was a lot jammed in," McPherson said in an interview on July 16 at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. "One of the advantages of giving them an end date has been that they didn't have to fill some undetermined middle of the show."
Lost missed out on three episodes last season because of the strike. "People always say, 'Do they know where the show is going?'" McPherson said. "Absolutely. But if you have an undetermined middle, then it's like, 'What is that middle? Is it 100 episodes?'"
McPherson said that the plan to end the series in two more seasons helped the creators and writers fill in the middle sections of the show's mythology.
"They wanted to get to certain places at the end of this season," McPherson said. "Then, when the strike happened, they retrofitted a bit to get all that stuff in. They did actually push some storylines into next year and adjust, but there were certain things that they felt like they wanted to end this year, and even if it meant accelerating it a little bit and maybe making it a little bit abbreviated in ... the exposition of it, they wanted to get it done."
McPherson said that he is sad to see Lost go, but added that it's better to have a clear end in sight. "I really like being able to know when shows are going out," he said. "I think it's a big decision, as a Lost decision a couple years out, to know. ... Let's let them end it with dignity and integrity and, to me, compelling content, and we can market it as such." --Mike Szymanski
Transformers 2 Details Revealed
Roberto Orci, co-writer of Michael Bay's upcoming sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, told SCI FI Wire that the movie will feature more of the giant robots and more of a science fiction storyline.
"The humor will be similar, but the structure of the movie is a little bit more like many sequels, which is, the stakes are a little higher and the tone is a bit more sci-fi," Orci said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 14. "It's got a little more of a sci-fi element. ... The bad guys are little more coherent in terms of what their plan is and what they're attempting to do. So it feels like more of a sci-fi battle."
The sequel will also offer a better balance between humans and robots, added Orci, who was promoting his upcoming Fox SF series, Fringe. "Maybe there's less humans," he said. "The first movie was predicated on the structure of a mystery, at which point, at the midpoint, the Transformers are revealed. This movie is structured differently in that you now know there are Transformers in the world, and therefore you can get right to them. As a result, there's kind of more Transformers throughout the movie."
Orci, who co-wrote the first movie and the sequel with partner Alex Kurtzman, remained coy about what new Transformers audiences will see. Arcee, the female Autobot who transforms into a motorcycle, "was in an early draft of the first movie, and she may make an appearance," he said. "We'll see."
But expect to see Soundwave, the Decepticon who was cut out of the first film. "Yes," Orci said. "Soundwave's in it." It's unclear whether he will transform into a tape deck, as in previous incarnations, or into something else.
Orci also declined to comment on rumors that the film will spend a bit more time on the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron.
But Orci promised that fans won't be disappointed. "If you liked the first one, you'll like this one," he said. "But if you were a genuine fan of what Transformers was and felt a little bit left behind by the first one, I think this one's going to be more for you." Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is in production now with an eye to a June 26, 2009, release. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Dollhouse's Whedon OK With Fox
Joss Whedon, creator of Fox's upcoming midseason SF series Dollhouse, told SCI FI Wire that he's OK returning to the TV network that canceled his beloved Firefly after mishandling it.
"These are different people," Whedon said in an interview in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 14, part of the Television Critics Association summer press tour. "They didn't do to me what was done to Firefly."
Whedon's last experience with the network was with Firefly, which debuted in the fall of 2002. Fox aired the show's episodes out of Whedon's original order and pre-empted them for sporting events before canceling the series after airing 11 of the 14 produced segments.
But management at the network has changed since then, and former NBC executive Kevin Reilly is now president of entertainment. "Joss was a gift," Reilly told reporters earlier in the day. "The only reason Joss wasn't on my list is because I thought there was no way he was coming back."
But Whedon--who left TV to direct feature films (Serenity) and write comic books--came back to Fox with Dollhouse, a high-concept series starring Whedon's former Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Eliza Dushku.
"The understanding that I reached was with myself," Whedon explained about his change of heart. "That I had to be realistic about what the network expected of me and about what the chances for the show would be. Like, I fell in love with Firefly in a very blind and adolescent way. And I tried to meet the network halfway. But at the same time, you know, it was agony. Everything was agony for me. ... And now I come at it with a little distance. Not artistic distance. But just, you know, the grown-up attitude of, you go through certain steps. You do your best. You work with them. And you pick the people you're working with. You look for sanity and you look for intelligence. So far, I have found a great deal of both in the executives at Fox. If I had gone there and pitched to them, and they had not understood what I was telling them, I think I would have known."
Dollhouse is slated to debut in early 2009. Fox has ordered 13 episodes of the SF drama, about an organization whose members have different personalities implanted to go on secret missions, then have those personalities wiped clean. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Whedon: Dr. Horrible A Rush
Joss Whedon told SCI FI Wire that he created Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a loony Internet musical, in a "mad rush of joy and ridiculousness." The first of three parts debuts on the official Web site on July 15.
"Dude. Why would I do anything else?" Whedon said in an interview in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 14, part of the Television Critics' Association's summer press tour.
The quickie project was a counterweight to Whedon's other major project, the upcoming Fox TV series Dollhouse, he said.
"Dollhouse is something that has taken an enormous amount of crafting, and we're still in the process of working out what the show is while we're about to film the second episode," Whedon said.
By contrast, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog just fell out of us in a mad rush of joy and ridiculousness. And they're two completely different kinds of art that lead to the same thing, which is me having a happy. And the one helps the other. The fact that I could throw out Dr. Horrible as quickly as we did--and we did our best; I'm not saying that we tossed it off like it didn't matter: We worked our asses off--but the ability to do something that fast gives you the sort of patience to do the fine-tuning and the crafting on the other thing that you need to do."
Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) wrote the musical series during last year's writers' strike. Co-writers for the Internet feature are Whedon's brothers, Zack and Jed, and Jed's fiancee, Maurissa Tancharoen. The story centers on a low-rent supervillain (Neil Patrick Harris), the hero who keeps beating him up (Nathan Fillion) and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to (Felicia Day).
Act two goes live on July 17 and act three on July 19. All three parts will remain on the site until midnight July 20. After that, the series will be made available for paid download in some format and will ultimately end up on DVD, with extras. Whedon promised more information at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July.
Whedon was OK if the small project ends up as something bigger. "If something turns into something bigger than you intended it to, and it's not your ass, you're doing fine," he said. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Mummy III's Fraser Missed Weisz
Brendan Fraser, who reprises his role as adventurer Rick O'Connell in the upcoming action film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, told reporters that he missed his former co-star Rachel Weisz, who did not return for the sequel.
"I felt Rachel's absence when I read the screenplay the first time, I will cop to that," Fraser said in a group interview this week in Beverly Hills, Calif. "We were partners. We were colleagues. We were friends, and I couldn't read the screenplay and not think about hearing her say it this way or that way. We had that chemistry."
The English-born Weisz played Rick's British love interest, Evelyn, in the first two Mummy films, but was replaced by American actress Maria Bello in the third. Fraser said that he didn't know why Weisz decided not to come back, but added that he respected her decision.
"I think she made the choice that was correct for her," Fraser said. "I quickly said to myself, 'A role is a role.' You step into it, and maybe, in certain cases, they're indelible. There's no replacing Indiana Jones, for instance. It's Harrison Ford, come on! And, in certain instances, you take another actress and put them in and let them play and see what they're going to do with it."
Fraser praised Bello and her ability to balance continuity in the character with making it her own.
"What Maria Bello brought to the role, through the casting process and the screen tests, was enthusiasm, sass and class," Fraser said. "She's sexy, and she's bad news with her Winchester rifle. She had a real good run at doing the dialect as best she could without acting an accent, which can so often happen, to varying degrees of success, when actors of other native-speaking tongues attempt to do that. She played the part, rather than let it play her. She made it her own."
For those audience members who may have trouble accepting the casting change, Fraser offered some advice: "Folks, it's a movie. Relax." The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens Aug. 1. --Cindy White
Fraser Eager To Do Mummy III
Brendan Fraser, who stars as adventurer Rick O'Connell in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, told reporters that he was eager to get back to the role after waiting seven years for the project to come to fruition following the first two movies.
"I was missing it," Fraser said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 15. "I've been waiting for the call from the studio since then. I love it. You get to do so much fun stuff as an actor. You get to go to great places. They strap you into harnesses and throw you around. You have to look like you really know how to take care of business and beat people up, when you're actually really a wimp. They're great, fun movies."
Ever since The Mummy Returns came out in 2001, Fraser's been fielding questions about whether he'd be doing a third installment. But it was the change in scenery from Egypt to China that really intrigued him, he said.
"Every kid or pinstripe executive in an elevator asks me, 'When's the next Mummy movie?'" Fraser said. "I'm like, 'I want to know the same thing! I'm sitting around by the phone, waiting.' And so I got the call and was like, 'China? How are we going to do that? Oh, all right.' Well, let's think about this. It's an archaeologically rich nation. It makes sense. They might not have had burial practices that were mummification, per se, but to animate or bring to life the terra cotta warriors of Xi'An is something that I haven't seen before."
Dragon Emperor picks up the story 13 years after the last adventure and finds husband and wife Rick and Evie O'Connell (Maria Bello) becoming bored with their lives now that their days of adventuring are behind them. But they find themselves thrown back into fighting the undead when their son, Alex (Luke Ford), unearths the cursed remains of a ruthless ancient emperor in China.
Frasier said that the film needed to depart from the previous films in order to keep the franchise fresh and appeal to a new generation of moviegoers.
"It's been seven years," Fraser said. "In broad strokes, you think, 'Well, it's been seven years. It's a new Mummy movie. There's practically a generation that's come of age since [those] films.' It's not compulsory to see the first two to have a good time watching the third one. We got a new director, Rob Cohen, who does things differently. It's in the same spirit of it, just bigger." The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens Aug. 1. --Cindy White
Tin, Battlestar Get Emmy Nods
SCI FI Channel's original miniseries Tin Man was nominated for nine Emmy Awards, including one for best miniseries, and Battlestar Galactica received six nominations, including outstanding writing for a drama series.
The announcement for the 60th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards was made July 17 in Los Angeles.
SCI FI's original series Tin Man also received eight nominations in technical categories, including outstanding single-camera picture editing for a miniseries or a movie; outstanding art direction for a miniseries or a movie; outstanding special visual effects for a miniseries, movie or a special; outstanding costumes for a miniseries, movie or a special; outstanding hairstyling for a miniseries or a movie; outstanding makeup for a miniseries or a movie (non-prosthetic); outstanding sound editing for a miniseries, movie or a special; and outstanding sound mixing for a miniseries or a movie. Tin Man is now SCI FI's most nominated original program for a single year.
Battlestar Galactica also got five nominations in technical categories, including outstanding cinematography for a one-hour series, outstanding single-camera picture editing for a drama series, outstanding sound mixing for a comedy or drama series (one-hour), outstanding special visual effects for a series and outstanding special class: short-format live-action entertainment programs (for Battlestar Galactica: Razor featurette number four).
Stargate Atlantis, which premiered its fifth season last week, was recognized with a nomination for special visual effects.
Among non-SCI FI Channel programs, A&E's The Andromeda Strain also got a nomination for best miniseries.
ABC's Lost was among the shows nominated for a best-drama-series Emmy Award; that show's Michael Emerson got a nod for best supporting actor.
Lee Pace of ABC's Pushing Daisies got a nod for best actor in a comedy series; his co-star, Kristin Chenoweth, received a nomination for best supporting actress in a comedy.
The nominations otherwise shut out SF&F programming in major categories.
The Emmy Awards will be presented in a ceremony Sept. 21, which will be broadcast on ABC.
Whedon Has Cabin Fever
Joss Whedon, who is producing the upcoming horror movie The Cabin in the Woods, was coy with SCI FI Wire about the film's top-secret plot, except to say "bad things might happen to teenagers during the film."
Whedon's former Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Drew Goddard, who penned this year's hit Cloverfield, is co-writing Cabin with Whedon and makes his directorial debut with it. MGM gave a green light to the film's production based on Whedon and Goddard's spec script.
"All I can say about Cabin in the Woods is that it's a movie, um, and that it's a horror movie, and that it's the kind of horror movie that you would expect from me and Drew Goddard if somebody put us in the same room," Whedon said slyly in an interview. "Which nobody ever should."
Whedon wouldn't answer if the film would feature any familiar creatures, such as vampires or werewolves. "I am not going to tell you what there is," he said. "I will tell you, it's not good."
Whedon is happy that the film has a go-ahead. "Well, we sold it, [and] we had a green light, which is a rare thing, but that was our condition," he said. "It wasn't [about the] big payday. It was the green light. So we're ready to go, and we should start filming within the next six months, hopefully. We need to do a lot of preproduction, and it's Drew's first movie, so we're making sure he gets the prep time ... as a director. ... And, quite frankly, [it's my first movie] as a producer, so we're giving ourselves the prep time to do it right. But, you know, you should be looking for it a lot sooner than usually happens after a sale."
Whedon plans to shoot the movie in and around Los Angeles, which will allow him to supervise his upcoming Fox SF TV series Dollhouse, which is gearing up to shoot 13 episodes. (That show debuts in early 2009.)
"[We] will be shooting parts of [Cabin] elsewhere, but most of it we'll be shooting in Los Angeles so that I can do double duty," Whedon said. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Nimoy 'Major' In New Trek
J.J. Abrams, who is directing the upcoming Star Trek reboot movie, told reporters that star Leonard Nimoy will be "a major presence" in the film, reprising his classic role of Mr. Spock.
"I mean, he's a major presence, I think, in any scene he's in. He's terrific," Abrams said in a group interview in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 14, part of the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. (Abrams was promoting his upcoming Fox SF series Fringe.)
Abrams has been tight-lipped about the storyline of Star Trek, except to acknowledge that it deals with the original series characters of Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. Nimoy and Heroes star Zachary Quinto both play Spock, presumably at different ages.
As for Nimoy, Abrams said: "It was really just a dream experience working with him. ... He's everything you'd want him to be. He's funny, and he's incredibly thoughtful and was surprisingly open to and receptive to direction."
Abrams praised Nimoy's family and added: "The other day, we were doing some ADR [additional dialogue] recording. He was there, and ... because we weren't shooting anymore, ... I was standing there, and I just, like, started. I just like looked at him as he was doing his thing. I was like, I wanted to burn it on my hand, because it was so great to get to work with that guy. He's just an amazing man and terrific in the movie." Star Trek is in post-production, with an eye to a May 8, 2009, release. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Abrams Talks Trek, Comic-Con
J.J. Abrams, director of the upcoming Star Trek reboot film, told SCI FI Wire that he's disappointed not to be bringing a preview to Comic-Con International this month, but added that the film will explore the relationships among the familiar characters while dispensing with the original series' kitsch.
"I feel like there's a certain thing that you can't really hold onto, which is, ... there's a kind of kitschy quality that must go if it's going to be something that you believe is real," Abrams said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 14.
"Our Star Trek is not parody," added Abrams, who was promoting his upcoming Fox SF series, Fringe. "And so the idea of maintaining character relationships, the dynamic between the characters, [was key]. I never saw how Kirk and Spock became so connected. And that's what this movie does. And it does it with the entire family of the Enterprise."
As for Comic-Con in San Diego, July 24-27, Abrams expressed disappointment at not bringing the movie to the largest pop-culture confab in the world. (It's the last Comic-Con before Trek's opening next May.)
Star Trek studio Paramount "said they're not going to take anything," Abrams said. "G.I. Joe's not going. Transformers 2's not going."
Abrams added that the film is not ready to be shown, though Paramount screened snippets of Iron Man to last year's convention, earning raves. "Our visual effects, unlike something like Iron Man, we have well over 1,000 visual-effects shots," Abrams said. "It's a huge thing. So I'm very disappointed, because the characters are so good, the actors are so good, that I would have been psyched just to show some of the stuff that's about the people. Because it's not really about the visual effects. But with so little done ... And this was a big kind of strategic decision on [Paramount's] part. so I was disappointed." Star Trek is slated to open May 8, 2009. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Wire Walks Knight Red Carpet
SCI FI Wire talked with the stars and filmmakers of The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, at the film's red-carpet world premiere in New York on July 14. The movie, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, opens July 18.
Spirit Trailer Now Live
A new trailer for Frank Miller's The Spirit has gone live on SCI FI Wire video. The film, based on Will Eisner's classic superhero comic book, opens on Christmas Day.
Knight Already Selling Out
The Dark Knight sold out hundreds of midnight showtimes on July 18 through online-ticketing services, as well as many of the unusually early showtimes scheduled for Friday morning, signaling the Batman Begins sequel's potentially huge box-office take in its opening weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Warner Brothers said there were about 3,000 midnight showtimes, and the studio set an industry record with its 4,366 theaters on board for Dark Knight through the weekend.
Fandango told the trade paper that it expected July 18 to be its biggest ticket-selling day ever.
The online ticketer said that 94 percent of its recent ticket sales were for The Dark Knight. Even 67 percent of those telling Fandango pollsters that they planned to see the Universal musical Mamma Mia!, which also opened July 18, eventually said they plan first to see The Dark Knight.
MovieTickets, meanwhile, reported that 87 percent of its Wednesday ticket sales were for the Batman movie.
ABC's Mars Alters The Big Secret
ABC's Americanized version of the British time-travel series Life on Mars will alter the show's mythology--and possibly the reason that the protagonist, a 21st-century police detective, finds himself suddenly thrust back into 1973. (Major spoilers ahead!)
The BBC's original series, which aired two years ago, revealed that the detective, Sam Tyler (John Simm), was actually in a coma, and his time-travel experience was all a dream.
"We talked to the creators of the BBC show and asked if we could change the mythology of Sam Tyler, and we got permission to do it," executive producer Josh Appelbaum said at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 16. "With this mythological element to it, it's not just a cop show, and if he was ultimately just in a coma or it was all a dream, it felt a bit unsatisfying. So we made it a deeper mystery."
The American version of the show takes place in New York, not Manchester, England, and stars Jason O'Mara as Tyler, an NYPD detective.
The creators know exactly what is going on, but they hope to keep audiences guessing. "By the second episode, he [Tyler] writes on a blackboard the 13 options of what could have happened to him," Appelbaum said. "He could be in a separate plane of reality, two worlds at the same time."
Will Tyler have to deal with the paradox of time-travel stories, in which he commits an act that can wreak havoc on his own future? "We're really trying to stay away from that," Appelbaum said. "It's not a time-travel show where he may change something that affects him in the future. ... They've done that in other movies, and assuming that he has traveled back in time, it may be, but our mythology is much deeper than that."
That being said, "there are a lot of similarities in what happened in 1973 and today," Appelbaum said. "There's an unpopular president. We're trying to get out of a war. There's a run on the gas prices, and we're going into some kind of a depression. It's tumultuous times."
Life on Mars debuts on Oct. 9 and will air on ABC Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. --Mike Szymanski
Malthe, Elliott Cast In Mirabilis
SCI FI Channel confirmed the casting of David James Elliott and Natassia Malthe in Mirabilis, a four-hour fantasy movie.
The film centers on a knight, John (Elliott of Lovesick), who wanders the land of Mirabilis, and Malthe (Elektra), another knight who is also John's love interest.
They and two other knights come together to save Mirabilis.
Sam Egan (Jeremiah) wrote the script. The movie will be produced by Reunion Pictures, with RHI Entertainment and Industry Entertainment attached.
X-Philes Invited To X-Files Party
Twentieth Century Fox will host a fan event at the July 23 world-premiere screening of The X-Files: I Want to Believe at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
The studio is inviting "X-Philes" to gather that day in specially built seating in front of the landmark theater, where they can observe the red-carpet arrivals and participate in a special conference with the film's stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, plus writer-producer-director Chris Carter and writer-producer Frank Spotnitz.
Situated on a stage in front of the theater, the four filmmakers will field questions from the fans, prior to fulfilling their more traditional duties with the press.
Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Special credentials will be distributed at 4 p.m. PT to the first 500 fans who arrive that day. The festivities will begin at 6 p.m.
X-Philes around the globe will also be able to take part in the gala live via a Web site from which they can direct questions in real time to the film's cast and filmmakers. Fans will also be able to meet more than 100 of the series' co-stars, guest stars and behind-the-scenes personnel who have committed to attending the premiere.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25 in theaters.
Daisies Still Quirky
ABC's Emmy-nominated fantasy series Pushing Daisies will keep its quirky tone when it returns for a second season on Oct. 1, ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson told reporters on July 16.
"We are not changing the tone of Pushing Daisies, no," McPherson promised in a news conference at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif.
"Our Wednesday night was, to us, an unbelievable success story, and it was cut short, so we're excited to get back with Daisies," McPherson added.
The show centers on a pie-maker (Emmy nominee Lee Pace) who can bring people back to life with a touch, and then kill them again with a second touch. It won critical praise and a loyal audience in its first, strike-truncated season.
"It's certainly frustrating when we have a show that we believe in creatively that gets an unbelievably dedicated core audience that would probably make it very, very successful if not phenomenally successful on a much smaller outlet, because [we] care about these shows, and we're passionate about the creative, and you like to see those shows live on," McPherson said. --Mike Szymanski
Lesbian Vampire Film Wraps
British comedy duo Matthew Horne and James Corden told SCI FI Wire that they just wrapped a comedy horror film in which they play two hapless lads who are duped into being sacrifices for Lesbian Vampire Killers.
While promoting their upcoming TV show Gavin & Stacey, the British team talked about the film, which also co-stars MyAnna Buring (Grindhouse), Paul McGann (Queen of the Damned), Ashley Mulheron and Lucy Gasken.
"Matt and I play these two guys who, for one reason or another, need to get away," Corden said in an interview this week at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. "So they go camping and hiking, and they end up in this fictional town in Britain and get chased by lesbian vampires, and we kill them."
"We kill them," Horne repeated.
"That's it: We kill them in a funny way," Corden said.
The film, directed by Phil Claydon (the 2002 horror movie Alone), is expected to be released later this year. --Mike Szymanski
E3: Lego Batman Game Delayed
SCI FI Wire confirmed that the release date for Lego Batman has been delayed until late September from the original Sept. 1. The title, from Warner Brothers Interactive, will be released simultaneously for the PlayStation 2 and 3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS.
All of the releases will feature similar gameplay. The primary difference is in the DS version, in which the cutscenes have been replaced with comic frames. All versions will feature the classic Danny Elfman Batman score.
During a demo session at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on July 17, SCI FI Wire had a chance to play the game on the Xbox 360 in both hero mode (as Batman and Robin) and villain mode (as the Joker).
Graphically, Lego Batman is a leap forward from the previous toy-based game titles Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Star Wars. Weather effects have been added to help enhance the dark look of Gotham City, and the hero characters have the ability to change outfits as the game progresses.
Like other Lego games, Lego Batman allows characters to smash objects and then reassemble them into various weaponry and vehicles. There are also separate levels on which users can pilot the Batmobile and other vehicles.
In the Xbox version, the game has nice touches, such as Two-Face's coin flip, the Joker's hand buzzer and Batman's Batarang.
Warner Brothers has not released a full list of villains yet, but players can expect the classic Batman characters to show up and, in most cases, be playable. Warner confirmed the game will feature more than 30 characters, including some of the franchise's more obscure characters to please the comic faithful. After completing the first level in hero mode, players can switch to villain mode and switch off through the rest of the game.
Lego Batman is also more than twice the length of Lego Indiana Jones, offering up to 20-30 hours of gameplay. --Jeff Otto
E3: New Tomb Raider Previewed
SCI FI Wire got a first look at the first next-generation Lara Croft adventure, Tomb Raider: Underworld from Eidos, on July 17 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
Underworld is the third Tomb Raider title developed by Crystal Dynamics for Eidos after Anniversary and Legend. It releases for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on Nov. 18.
Crystal Dynamics showed off a game demo that, despite being only a mid-alpha build finished nearly two months ago, was exceptionally detailed in its rendering, with a colorful 3-D world that looks to be the best-looking Tomb Raider title to date.
The scene shown takes place about 10 minutes into the game, where Lara Croft is aboard a boat. Wearing a skimpy wetsuit and dive gear in trendy black and yellow, she dives underwater and swims toward the game's first puzzle. Along the way, she shoots an attacking shark, a move the designers refer to as the "instant sushi maker."
Enemies are more detailed and complex. Jellyfish hazards might seem easy enough to destroy, but they also provide light for Lara's journey.
Lara has a new digital camera mode with which gamers can take photos of any environment and send them to friends over Xbox Live or the Playstation Network.
Tomb Raider's familiar score will surface on some levels of the game; others will feature only a combination of ambient sounds. Within the underwater cave in the demo, surround sounds of water drips and various underwater creatures fill the scene.
Another new ability for the agile Lara is standing and walking on horizontal poles. She also has a more advanced motorbike, which she get on and off as she pleases.
For those who might be worried that this is strictly an underwater Tomb Raider adventure, Crystal Dynamics promised that the water represents only a portion of the game's detailed and expansive environments. True to the series' origins, Tomb Raider: Underworld offers users a combination of clever puzzles, action-adventure and, of course, a hint of titillation. --Jeff Otto
Wizard's First Gets November Debut
Wizard's First Rule, a fantasy TV series based on Terry Goodkind's book series, debuts in syndication on the Nov. 1 weekend, Disney-ABC Domestic Television and ABC Studios announced.
The one-hour series, which is shot in New Zealand, comes from executive producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Joshua Donen, Ned Nalle and Kenneth Biller. It kicks off with a two-hour premiere event.
Wizard's First Rule follows the travels of woodsman Richard Cypher (Craig Horner), who discovers his own magical powers. With the help of a mysterious woman, Kahlan (Bridget Regan), and a wise old wizard named Zedd, Richard must stop a ruthless tyrant from unleashing an ancient evil and enslaving the world.
Tor Launches SF&F Site
Patrick Nielsen Hayden--senior editor and manager of science fiction at Tor Books--told SCI FI Wire that he's adding "editorial director of Tor.com" to his resume with the July 20 launch of Tor's new SF/fantasy site. Tor.com will feature original fiction, a group blog, lightweight social networking features and an extensive art gallery.
The site can be summed up by its subtitle: "science fiction, fantasy, the universe and related subjects," Nielsen Hayden said in an interview. "It's essentially an attempt to do a central news and discussion site about science fiction and fantasy [and] ... about all the various subjects that people who are interested in science fiction and fantasy are interested in--and that's a pretty broad range."
It's a subcultural thing, Nielsen Hayden added. "On several occasions I have said--not entirely joking--to my own corporate masters that there will be times when you look at front page of the site, and you will see that it consists almost entirely of a half-dozen different bloggers having an extended and elaborate conversation about medieval siege engines, and that's fine," he said. "Because that's exactly the kind of geeky subject that tends to be of interest to people who are interested in science fiction and fantasy."
Tor's corporate site--where readers can find the publisher's book catalog--is located at Tor-Forge.com. Tor.com will not replace that site; instead, Nielsen Hayden likened Tor.com to a magazine published by Tor. It's like "Time Warner starting Entertainment Weekly," he said.
The site will launch with an original story by John Scalzi called "After the Coup," set in his popular Old Man's War universe. It will also feature "Down on the Farm," a new story by Charles Stross, set in the same milieu as his novels The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue.
"We have other stuff upcoming that's been already written, edited and delivered, from Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Bear, Steven Gould--with a story of his Jumper protagonist--Rudy Rucker and Terry Bisson," Nielsen Hayden said. "We are looking at roughly an average of 15,000 original words [of fiction] a month. Sometimes [we'll] have one 15,000-word story and sometimes [we'll] have three 5,000-word stories."
The fiction--which will all be accompanied by original artwork--will be posted on no set schedule, so readers will have to check back often for new content. "We don't want the entire world to go to the [site] only on Tuesday or something like that," Nielsen Hayden said. "So we will be deliberately randomizing a little. If a new story goes up, another new story may go up in two days or it may go up in 20 days." The site will also feature original short graphic novels, developed in conjunction with First Second Books.
All aspects of the site will have an open--but moderated--comments section, as well as lightweight, Facebook-like social-networking tools. "Registered users to the site will have various extras available to them, like the ability to start conversation threads independently of blog posts, stories, art, etc.," Nielsen Hayden said. "It will be interesting to see if people will make use of these tools and what they use them for."
In February, Tor started a marketing campaign in which it gave out one free e-book every week to readers who signed up for the company's e-mail newsletter. Each title was available only for a limited time. In the first week of Tor.com's launch, all of the books that were available via the e-mail newsletter will once again be available as free downloads from the site. --John Joseph Adams
Connor Has Love, War
The cast and crew of Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles told SCI FI Wire that the show introduces a new potential love interest, played by new regular Leven Rambin, for John Connor, played by Thomas Dekker--and that it will amp up the action.
"I think he's just desperate for some kind of outlet of ... normality," Dekker said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week. "She brings that, just being an ordinary girl, and it does create quite the rift between him and his mother [Lena Headey as Sarah] and everything. But it's an interesting bond."
Rambin, who was last seen on All My Children, said her character, "Riley, ... is, I'd say, just a normal high-school regular girl."
Series creator Josh Friedman said that adding Rambin's character helps open the show up. "We were kind of looking for some other different types of people to bring to the show," he told reporters in a news conference. "Maybe a little more real-life. I think sometimes ... sci-fi shows can get a little insular sometimes, and it's really nice to be able to see the characters interact with real people once in a while, as opposed to people who know the secrets or the robots."
As for the action, new series regular Brian Austin Green said the show will start with a bang. "This season's huge," Green said in a separate interview. "If you're a fan, you'll love this season. First episode forward, it's insane. ... The energy that the show had for, like, the last four episodes ... --it just started getting really big, and you could tell action-wise and storywise that the missions they were on were on a much grander scale, and ... it really moved more toward the feel of the films. So far we're on episode four, and every episode we've had has been that way."
Green returns as Derek Reese, John's uncle and a rebel from the future. "I'll tell you this," Green added. "I got to shoot a 45-pound sniper rifle with a 50-caliber round in it. It was pretty awesome. Big gun." Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles kicks off its second season on Sept. 8 and will air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
ABC's Mars Adapts For U.S.
The creators of ABC's upcoming time-shift series Life on Mars told reporters on July 16 that they have moved the series' location to New York and changed character traits to adapt the hit British series for an American audience.
The producers and two stars of the show spoke at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., about the show--one of only two new shows on the network this fall--in which 21st-century detective Sam Tyler finds himself inexplicably thrust back into the year 1973 after he's struck by a car. The original British show ran for 16 episodes and aired on the BBC in the United Kingdom two years ago.
"We were huge fans of the British show," executive producer Josh Appelbaum said in an interview. "There was the David Kelley version, and the biggest thing we did was move the show to New York. He had it in L.A. We are New Yorkers, and when you think of the early '70s cop genre, New York is perfect."
Kelley (Picket Fences) acquired the rights to the original U.K. series, but ultimately left the show and relinquished his rights after an initial pilot was shot--supposedly so that he could continue running Boston Legal.
Not so, said ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson. "There was some scuttlebutt about that. ... He made it very clear that David was going to make a deal to move off Life on Mars and just for a variety of reasons, and that he was really passionate about Boston Legal, and so were we."
In any case, executive producer Andre Nemec said that the new, revamped American Mars is not science fiction in the traditional sense. "We should be clear that it's not a time-travel show," he said, adding: "They won't be traveling between 1973 and today." Tyler, played by Jason O'Mara (Resident Evil: Extinction), will come up with a dozen theories to explain his strange predicament.
Some of the British characters will be restructured for an American storyline. So far, the cast includes O'Mara and Sopranos veteran Michael Imperioli, whose characters will remain relatively intact. But others, who still remain to be cast, will change.
"One character by necessity has to be changed: the female cop, Annie," Applebaum said. "In the BBC version, a female police officer in Manchester is one thing, but a woman in the New York Police Department in that time period requires a whole other character to endure the ferocity around her. She has to be more connected to the women's lib [liberation] movement, for one thing."
Life on Mars debuts Oct. 9 and will air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. --Mike Szymanski
Day: Dr. Horrible Part Of Trend
Felicia Day, who co-stars in Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, told SCI FI Wire that the Internet musical arrives just as the Web is gaining legitimacy as a launchpad for creative people.
"I think people are all trying to figure out how to transfer to the Internet, which is smart," Day said in an interview. "For things to be a hit, we're about a year or two off from being more and more prominent in Hollywood. The Internet [represents] a huge shift in how people watch things."
Dr. Horrible comes from Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who wrote the musical series during last year's writers' strike. Whedon's brothers, Zack and Jed, and Jed's fiancee, Maurissa Tancharoen, co-wrote the musical. The second of three parts debuts on the official Web site on July 17.
"It was written by Joss and his family over the strike, because they wanted to do something on the Internet and create something independently," Day said. "For Joss to do something on the Internet is pretty impressive."
Day is perhaps best known to Buffy fans as Vi from season seven. Dr. Horrible is "an interesting project that covers the gamut of emotions," she said. "It reaches all the emotional heights as far as laughter and sadness. I'm dazzled by how fantastic it is. The effects, the music and the color are just amazing."
The story centers on a low-rent supervillain (Neil Patrick Harris), the hero who keeps beating him up (Nathan Fillion) and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to (Day).
"I play Penny, and I get to be the love interest," Day said. "It's very exciting to be the love interest, just because in traditional Hollywood, I'm not the traditional love-interest girl. It's a privilege to be the one the guys are swooning over."
Act three of Dr. Horrible goes live on July 19. All three parts will remain on the site until midnight July 20. After that, the series will be made available for paid download in some format and will ultimately end up on DVD, with extras. Whedon promised more information at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July.
Day had nothing but high praise for her co-stars. "Neil is a Broadway guy. He's an unbelievable singer; chills went up and down my spine. Nathan isn't a trained singer but has a great voice and plays a character. He's fantastic."
No stranger to Internet productions herself, Day also stars in, writes and produces The Guild, a serialized Web comedy series about a group of gamers who meet in person for the first time. --Kurt Anthony Krug
Grudge 3's Smith Too Scared
Shawnee Smith, star of the direct-to-DVD horror sequel The Grudge 3, told SCI FI Wire that it's difficult for her to explain how the new film follows its predecessors--mainly because she was too terrified to watch them.
"I can't give you a lot of setup [about The Grudge 3] because I was too scared, literally, to watch The Grudge 1 or 2," Smith said in an interview while promoting the FEARnet.com horror series 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust. "When I read the [Grudge 3] script, my character was a doctor, a child psychologist, and my patient, this young boy [The Grudge 2's Jake, again played by Matthew Knight], he watched his whole family be murdered. I'm guessing that is what happened at the end of The Grudge 2."
The first two films, based on their Japanese originals, center on the curse of a vengeful spirit named Kayako, who inhabits a house in the suburbs of Tokyo. The first two films were directed by the franchise's creator, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu; The Grudge 3 is helmed by Toby Wilkins and moves the action to Chicago.
Smith said that she rented The Grudge 2 intent on understanding what happened and how it carried over to The Grudge 3. But she never quite got around to watching it.
"I rented it two times, and I just couldn't press play," Smith (the Saw films) said. "I didn't want the image in my head of the [Kayako] character. I didn't want the picture in my mind at all. When I read the script, I just needed to know about what my patient had been through. It wasn't important for my character to know everything else. I figured the scary Grudge monster would be put in in post [-production], and I was wrong. I got chased all around. It was awful." The Grudge 3 will be released on DVD early next year. --Ian Spelling
E3: Force Unleashed Demo'd
Buzz continues to build around LucasArts' upcoming video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and SCI FI Wire got a chance to play a demo version of the game July 16 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
The game is slated for a U.S. release on Sept. 17, a date that LucasArts confirmed. The title also drops in Asia on Sept. 17 and in Europe on Sept. 19. The game will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii and Nintendo DS.
As most of the Star Wars faithful probably already know, The Force Unleashed is an entirely original adventure that takes place between the feature films Episode III and IV. Darth Vader has taken on a new secret apprentice, Starkiller.
LucasArts showed SCI FI Wire a cutscene from the game revealing the origin of Starkiller. (Spoilers ahead!) During one of Vader's missions, he kills a man only to be stripped of his lightsaber by the man's young son. When Vader's troops attempt to kill the boy, Vader kills them all, realizing that the boy possesses powers of the Force.
At the game's start, users play as Darth Vader. Once Starkiller is ready, they take control of the young apprentice. Starkiller is voiced by Stan Witwer (Battlestar Galactica).
Visually, the game looks exceptional, especially on the PS3. As Starkiller, players can rely on a lightsaber to defeat enemies or use the Force to take control of objects or even other people and creatures. In the demonstration, a representative from LucasArts showed Starkiller battling a room full of stormtroopers. Using the Force, he lifts the unsuspecting white soldiers high into the air and flings them at other troopers. There are eight different Force powers and 20 different combination moves.
During a boss-battle demo, Starkiller faced off against a familiar foe from Return of the Jedi, a Rancor monster. Once the apprentice defeats the beast, the real boss battle starts. It turns out that the Rancor was only her pet.
One of the more original aspects of Force Unleashed is the use of a process called Digital Molecular Matter (DMM). In most games, objects bend or break in the same manner every time. But the new DMM process allowed LucasArts to create objects that can be changed or destroyed in a more realistic, unpredictable manner.
The game features John Williams' classic Star Wars score throughout. LucasArts has also added more than one hour of completely new Star Wars music.
SCI FI Wire got a chance to play the game on a few different systems. The PS3 version looked the best, while the Wii version was the most fun to play. Using the Wii controller and the nunchuck accessory, a player has a more personal feel as he or she is able to move his or her arms to deploy the Force or wield a lightsaber. --Jeff Otto
E3: Silent Hill Due For PS3, Xbox
The popular survival horror franchise Silent Hill is returning for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the fall, Konami announced July 16 in a media briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, where a new trailer and further details were unveiled.
Silent Hill: Homecoming's protagonist is Alex Shepherd, a war veteran who returns from duty to discover that his father and younger brother have gone missing. As fans of the franchise might expect, Alex's search eventually leads him to Silent Hill. His companion on the search is Ellie, a childhood classmate.
Designer Jason Allen presented a reel of in-game footage from the fifth level. "One of the most apparent differences in Silent Hill: Homecoming is the change from a fixed camera to a free-look system," Allen said. "[Alex] is fully able to look around the room and explore its full details." Allen also showed off a quick inventory system with which items can be switched out or used on the fly so as not to disrupt the flow of gameplay.
"We're introducing a different feature that we believe adds an element of realism to the game," Allen added. "We've got a dialogue tree system. You'll notice in the background the characters are still moving, but it gives the player an element of choice in terms of the questions they want to ask: Whether they want to know a little bit more about the character or want to know more about the world they are in, the choice is there. Some of these you will uncover in the game. ... The replayability is a staple of the Silent Hill series, and we made sure we gave the player the option to do that. We want them to play through this a number of times, because there are rewards for doing so." --Jeff Otto
E3: New Castlevania Revealed
Konami producer Koji Igarashi revealed further details about the company's two upcoming Castlevania game titles July 16 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is an exclusive for Nintendo DS that will release in the fall. An action-packed trailer was shown with the three playable characters, Shanoa, Albus and Barlowe.
"This will be the third Castlevania title on the Nintendo DS, so I hope you enjoy it," Igarashi said through an interpreter.
Castlevania Judgment will also be hitting stores in the fall as an exclusive for the Nintendo Wii.
"As I'm sure you already know, this is a very different type of gameplay from the traditional Castlevania games," Igarashi said. "You might think it's a fighting game, but I like to consider it a 3-D versus action game. After seeing some gameplay, you might agree with me."
The gameplay takes advantage of the Wii's unique controls to create an entirely new Castlevania user experience. Using the Wii remote and the "nunchuck" controller allows players to use Simon Belmont's whip and translate their own arm motions to unleash an attack on a foe.
Characters from the entire Castlevania series will show up in Judgment. Igarashi explained how this is possible: "As many of you know, the Castelvania timeline covers thousands of years. There is a character that is trying to destroy that timeline, and due to magical forces, a variety of characters from different periods are brought together to battle."
So far, the known playable characters include Simon Belmont, Alucard, Maria Renard and, of course, Dracula.
Igarashi added that the remaining 10 characters will be announced shortly. --Jeff Otto
E3: Sega Previews SF&F Titles
Sega previewed several upcoming video-game titles--including Bayonetta and MadWorld--for SCI FI Wire on July 16 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
Bayonetta--due for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009--puts players in control of the title heroine, a witch with magical powers in a skintight black vinyl catsuit: a sort of Wiccan take on Lara Croft.
Bayonetta has guns on her hips and at her ankles, but her most powerful weapon is her long, black mane of hair. "My favorite part of the game [is the] special hair attack that she has," Wyman Jung from PlatinumGames said in an interview. "Her hair goes through a portal and comes out as a big dragon and launches an attack on the enemy. Depending on which kind of enemy and boss you're facing, you'll see different kinds of hair attacks."
Also from PlatinumGames is the very cool-looking MadWorld. "[It's a] black-and-white, graphic-novel-style action game exclusively for Wii, slated for March 2009," Mitsue Nakagaki said in a separate interview.
Players control Jack, the game's hero, as he competes on a bloody TV show called Death Watch. "It's a game of survival," Nakagaki said. "You either win by battling your enemies and killing them, or you lose by getting killed. There are two main ways of killing your enemies: One is to use the environment, and you can also pick up weapons."
In the demo PlatinumGames showed SCI FI Wire, Jack picks up a street sign and uses it to bludgeon an enemy on the forehead.
"You knew this was going to happen," the game's sarcastic narrator says. "You should have seen the SIGNS!"
Finally, SEGA showed off the real-time-strategy title Stormrise, from Obsidian Entertainment, which has been in development for three and a half years. It's currently slated for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2009.
Stormrise's project director, Ken Turner, gave SCI FI Wire a briefing on the game's backstory: "It's Earth 70 years from now, where we need to do something to deal with the whole climate-change thing," Turner said. "It's something very technological, and it all goes wrong. Out of that cataclysm comes two races. The Echelon ... are the tech guys. They hibernate and avoid all the carnage. The Sai ... evolve from the strongest [and] end up developing some special abilities. They do actually kind of rebuild the society after the Echelon awake from hibernation. The whole world is starting to tear itself apart again in another cataclysm, so they've descended into civil war, and that's where we start the game."
Stormrise will feature an eight-player multiplayer mode, with players squaring off in four-on-four battles. New players can jump into the action at any moment. Players can also mix sides in multiplayer, and there are co-op split-screen and two-player co-op online modes. --Jeff Otto
E3: Atari Unveils Two New RPGs
Atari, one of the longest-lasting companies in the gaming industry, demonstrated two new role-playing games to SCI FI Wire at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles July 16.
Atari showed off an enhanced version of The Witcher, PC Gamer's 2007 "RPG Game of the Year," which releases in September for PC.
Based on the Polish folktale by Andrzej Sapkowski, the game lets users again control a "witcher" named Geralt. Many elements of the game have been cleaned up by the game's developer, CD Projekt. More than 9,000 lines of dialogue were re-recorded, and the lip-syncing of the characters has been cleaned up to give the game a more cinematic feel.
The character models have been redone in terms of colors, clothing style and A.I. For those users looking to get the full foreign-film experience of the story's Polish origins, the language can be changed to the original Polish soundtrack with English subtitles.
The enhanced edition comes with the game's soundtrack, as well as the "Genie Adventure Editor," which allows players to edit their own quests.
The next RPG is a remake of the classic 1990 PC title King's Bounty. The new version, titled King's Bounty: The Legend, releases in September for the PC. Atari said that an Xbox 360 version may be in development as well.
Atari describes King's Bounty as an "adventure RPG meets real-time strategy." Users take control of the king and lead him through various battles and quests. Characters can get married and have children, both of which will enhance the character's vital statistics and leadership abilities.
The game offers approximately 25 hours of gameplay for users following the linear storyline. If a gamer chooses to explore any or all of the many separate quests, the gameplay increases to 50-60 hours. --Jeff Otto
Raffle Benefits KGB Reading Series
Award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and Senses Five Press publisher Matthew Kressel announced that they're holding an online raffle to raise money to support the KGB Fantastic Fiction reading series in New York, for which they serve as co-hosts.
The series, which was started in the late 1990s by writer Terry Bisson and editor Alice K. Turner, usually highlights two authors--one an up-and-comer, the other a more established name--reading a short story or a selection from a larger work.
Authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, Kelly Link, Stewart O'Nan and Naomi Novik have read for the series, among many others. It's held at the KGB Bar in Manhattan on the third Wednesday of every month.
The raffle will run from July 14-28 and will offer prizes donated by popular artists and writers. They include signed copies of books by popular authors such as Holly Black, a "story in a bottle" written by award-winning author Michael Swanwick, "tuckerization" (having your name appear in a story), an original pen-and-ink drawing by Gahan Wilson and short-story critiques by genre luminaries.
The raffle tickets cost a dollar each and can be purchased on the series' Web site. The site also hosts a list of the prizes. --John Joseph Adams
Genius Helped By Real Genius
Young-adult SF author Catherine Jinks told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, Genius Squad, was a challenge to write because her protagonist is a math and computer genius, while she herself is not.
Luckily, she had a little help from her friends. "At my brother's 40th birthday party I ran into one of his old school friends, who teaches computer security and cryptography at the University of New South Wales," Jinks said in an interview. "He's not only a maths whiz and a computer genius, he's also enormously creative. So I was able to call him whenever I needed technical input."
Genius Squad is about 15-year-old super-hacker Cadel Piggott, who's the son of a criminal mastermind. "Now that his father is in prison awaiting trial, Cadel has been placed in foster care and is having a pretty hard time of it: He doesn't even have access to his own computer anymore," Jinks said. "So when he receives a surreptitious invitation to join a group of like-minded techno-geeks who have been hired to bring down a corrupt organization, he jumps at the chance--even though he has some misgivings about the whole setup."
Jinks always intended to write a sequel to Evil Genius. "At the end of that book, I left my protagonist, Cadel, dangling in a kind of limbo: He didn't have a family or a home or a nationality," she said. "I knew that I would have to resolve the story by giving him a proper place in the world--and I also liked the idea of reversing the Evil Genius scenario. In Evil Genius, Cadel was attending the Axis Institute, a university of evil populated by criminal types who were pretending to be decent people. In Genius Squad, he joins a group of fairly harmless geeks who are trying to disguise themselves as troubled teens and hard cases (without much success)."
Jinks was so grateful to her computer/math-whiz friend for his help that she'll be writing him into the third and final installment of the series, The Genius Wars. "I'm going to have him actually teaching Cadel," she said. "I think Richard deserves a mention after all his input, and I don't know of anyone else in Australia who could actually teach Cadel anything!" --John Joseph Adams
Babylon A.D. Tailored To Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh, who stars with Vin Diesel in the upcoming futuristic thriller Babylon A.D., told journalists that the role she plays was originally written for a very different type of actress.
"It's based on a book by [Maurice Georges] Dantec, Babylon Babies, but this is really [director Mathieu Kassovitz's] interpretation of this book," Yeoh said in a group interview while promoting The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
In the French novel, Yeoh's character is a "60-year-old, short, dumpy, French nun," the Hong Kong actress said. "And I look at [Kassovitz], and I go, 'Very interesting,'" Yeoh recalled. "I look in the mirror and go, 'When did I become short and dumpy and French?' So you have to see the movie to see that I'm not."
The film, from the French director of Gothika, follows a mercenary (Diesel) and a nun (Yeoh) charged with protecting a genetically altered young woman (Melanie Thierry) who may be carrying the next messiah. Yeoh said that her agent, who also represents Kassovitz, suggested her for the role of Sister Rebecca, because she provided a strong contrast to Diesel.
"[Mathieu] knew that the Vin Diesel and Melanie role needed a third character to bond them, to put that link together," Yeoh said. "And so he thought, 'Who would protect a young girl like this? Who would be [the] opposite [of] a Vin Diesel, the big giant? It should be like a small, feisty French nun ... someone who could stand up against Vin physically and mentally, like that.' So that was when the idea came to Mathieu, and he started working on that, and lo and behold, I was in the film with him."
Compared to the experience of filming the third Mummy movie, under the direction of Rob Cohen, Yeoh said that the Babylon A.D. shoot was much less structured and sometimes difficult.
"We had a rough shoot," Yeoh said. "I think with Mathieu, it was very clear what he wanted. And so he brought in people who were very strong. And that was the only way his characters evolved. He worked very similar to Asian directors, different from Rob. Rob is Asian in the sense that he can do 30 shots a day. But he was very, very clear in what he wanted to do. With Mathieu, he would get onto the set and try and round it up from us. It's good, in a sense, because things happen. It's bad when it's such a big production, and there's a certain discipline that needs to be in place. So it was up and down. But it was very interesting at the end of the day." Babylon A.D. opens Aug. 29. --Cindy White
Fox: Transformers 2 Is Crazier
Megan Fox, who reprises the role of Mikaela Banes in Michael Bay's upcoming sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, told SCI FI Wire that the movie is crazier than the first one in terms of action "by like a hundred."
"I'm doing good," Fox said in an interview in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 14. "I've had like four injuries so far. So I'm accumulating the injuries and just going on with it. It's fun. It's what it is. It's a Michael Bay movie."
Part of that is being tossed around in the same yellow Camaro as in the first film, Fox said. "There's a different Bumblebee, the yellow one that you see in the movie, that we drive," she said, adding: "I don't drive it, but it drives at like 120 miles an hour, and we're in it with no seat belts or harnesses or anything. It's, if we die, we die, all in the name of Transformers."
The sequel picks up the story of Mikaela and Sam Witwicky (again played by Shia LaBeouf) two years after they met. "It's sort of like a jump," Fox said. "It's two years from when you last saw us, obviously, because it's matching with when the movie comes out. We're college age, and our relationship ... we just get together in the last one. And so you miss all of that new relationship. There's no love scenes, no big hookup in the end. That's all, sort of, in the past. Because we've been together for years now. So we're just together, hanging out, doing what we got to do to ... That's all I can say!"
Fox allowed that Mikaela has remained in Los Angeles while Sam has gone off to college in the east.
"We're shooting in L.A. for the next few weeks," Fox said. "We were in Philadelphia and New Jersey on the East Coast. We're only now in our fifth week of filming, so we're here for a few weeks. ... I'm not in college. Shia's character's in college. I'm back home."
But do they eventually wind up in the same place? "Yeah, we do," she said with a smile.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is slated for release on June 26, 2009. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Dollhouse Mirrors Dushku's Life
Eliza Dushku, who is the star and an executive producer of Fox's upcoming SF series Dollhouse, told reporters that the show in part reflects her own experiences as a young actress in an industry in which everyone wants her to be someone else.
"When I moved out to L.A., I was 17," Dushku said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 14. She added: "We were talking about sort of my experience and what it's like to sort of be a young woman in this business and that feeling, ... that universal theme, of ... you wake up every day and you feel like everyone wants you to be a different person. And you're trying to, like, figure [it] out. It's like this identity crisis."
In Dollhouse--which was created by Dushku's longtime mentor, Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon--Dushku plays a woman named Echo who literally has her personality wiped clean and implanted with new ones by a mysterious organization, which then hires her out for secret missions. At the end of each mission, she is wiped clean again--but not before her own personality begins to emerge.
The story was inspired by Dushku's own life, starting as a teen actress in such films as True Lies and such TV series as Whedon's own Buffy and Angel and, later, Fox's Tru Calling.
"Eliza is someone who's, you know, spent her whole career trying to take control of her career," Whedon said in a separate interview. "Which is something I admire enormously."
Dushku, who has a production deal with the Fox, came to Whedon for advice when trying to develop her own series. While having lunch with Dushku, Whedon immediately sparked to the idea of a woman with multiple temporary personalities and wound up developing the series with her, though he had no intention of returning to series television.
"Joss really gets women," Dushku said. "There's a woman somewhere deep inside of him. ... And so that's sort of what we just started talking about: the challenge of that and what we face, what I face, in our culture today. And, with that, ... he went to the bathroom, and when he came back, he said, 'The show will be called Dollhouse.' And I was like, 'OK. I'm in.' And so here we are." Dollhouse, which begins production on its first 13 episodes this month, is slated to premiere at midseason in early 2009 on Fox. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Universal Eyeing Magic Kingdom
Producer Bob Ducsay told reporters that he is actively developing a feature film based on Terry Brooks' best-selling fantasy novel Magic Kingdom for Sale for Universal.
"I would say there's nothing that we have in development that we are more interested in making than Magic Kingdom," Ducsay said in a group interview on July 15 in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. "It's a fantastic story, fantastic material. We actually think that we have a very strong screenplay, also. And we're trying very hard to get the movie made. I mean, it's complicated to get any movie made."
Stephen Sommers, who directed the first two Mummy films and served as a producer on the third, is attached to direct and co-produce Magic Kingdom.
Ducsay said that the book's complex premise is difficult to explain, but attempted to provide a simple description of the plot.
"Basically, it's about a man whose life has fallen apart because of the death of his wife who is met with an opportunity to buy what turns out to be a literal magic kingdom," Ducsay said. "And when he enters this magic kingdom with his family, he discovers that the magic kingdom was not what it was sold to be and in fact was in complete and total disarray. And over the course of the picture, he mends the magic kingdom and his family."
One obstacle to getting the movie made is its cost, Ducsay said. "Magic Kingdom is a very expensive movie," he said. "Lots of digital work. ... But the bottom line is, the studio actually likes the movie a great deal. So it's not like it's a complete uphill battle. It's just hard to get movies made."
The project is currently set up at Universal Studios. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Cindy White
Connor's Cyborg Tries Personality
Garret Dillahunt, who joins the regular cast of Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in its second season, told SCI FI Wire that's he's trying to invest his killer cyborg from the future with a little personality. But just a little.
"What I was trying to do was, ... maybe his programming's a little off? You know what I mean? Like he tries to make jokes," Dillahunt (The 4400) said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 14. "He's like the weird guy at the party, and he doesn't know he's weird. I don't know if anyone's getting that, but you can't help but want to try and make it a little unique and your own."
Dillahunt plays Cromartie, the T-888 cyborg sent from the future to kill the teenage John Connor (Thomas Dekker) and his mother, Sarah Connor (Lena Headey), as they hide out in 21st-century Los Angeles, protected by their own cyborg, Cameron (Summer Glau).
Dillahunt sees his robot as related to Arnold Schwarzenegger's original Terminator from the feature films and Robert Patrick's liquid-metal T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
"It's such an iconic character, in a way," Dillahunt said. "Arnold put an indelible stamp on it, and Robert Patrick, too. ... I can't equal that. I have to make my own equal. A different way. So that's the way I'm going. Just unhesitating. I'm kind of modeling him more on Jason Bourne" from the Bourne movies.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns for its second season on Sept. 8 and will air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Theroux To Pen Iron Man 2
Justin Theroux will write the sequel to Iron Man, and Marvel is close to a deal to bring back director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. for the sequel it hopes to release in April 2010, Variety reported.
Theroux, an actor and writer best known for roles in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and HBO's Six Feet Under, most recently wrote the DreamWorks comedy Tropic Thunder, which Paramount will distribute next month.
Marvel Studios didn't confirm any deals around the project, saying it doesn't comment on rumors, the trade paper reported.
Grace To Dig Deeper
Nancy Miller, executive producer of TNT's hit series Saving Grace, told SCI FI Wire that viewers should not come to the series with a preconceived notion about how Grace will deal with the priest who molested her as a child. In the first-season cliffhanger, Grace (Holly Hunter) had a gun pointed at his head.
"You're going to find out what happened when we faded to black," Miller said in an interview. "Whether or not she kills Father Murphy [Rene Auberjonois]."
The series--about a brilliant and fiery Oklahoma City police detective who discovers she has a "Last Chance Angel" named Earl who wants to save her soul--will continue to delve into difficult material in its second season, Miller said. Fifteen episodes have been ordered, with plans to air them in two mini-seasons.
"The season is about forgiveness," Miller said. "Mary Francis, Grace's sister, was killed in the [Oklahoma City] bombing, and Grace feels some responsibility for that. She needs to forgive herself for that, and that is sort of what our second season, thematically, is about."
As for Earl (Leon Rippy), the angel will take a little bit of a different tack with Grace this season, Miller said. "Earl delights in the way Grace sees life," she said. "How hungry she is for the good, the bad, everything. She just eats up life. And that passion she has for life, Earl is going to learn more about that and is going to be delighted in her passion. ... Maybe not in her actions all the time [laughs], but certainly her passion for what she does."
According to Miller, Grace's friends, family and co-workers will also have their share of challenges this season. "There will be a time when Grace and Ham [Kenneth Johnson] are no longer partners, and Grace will be partnered with a woman for a couple of episodes. The people surrounding Grace are going to go through a lot of troubles. I don't want to tell you what happens, but Ham is going to go through some devastating times. Butch [Bailey Chase] is going to go through some interesting times. We're going to find out more about Perry [Lorraine Toussaint]. Last year Rhetta [Laura San Giacomo] was, like, the best friend in the whole history of the world," Miller added with a laugh. "And this year we're going to see Grace be there for her friends as they go through some trying times. Rhetta is still going to be there for Grace, but there are some other people in Grace's life who will need her desperately this season."
The first part of season two will premiere July 14. The second half will air later this year or early next year. Saving Grace airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. --Kathie Huddleston
E3: Prince Aims For Next Gen
After some developmental delays, Prince of Persia is finally coming to next-generation gaming consoles in 2008, with a holiday release envisioned for PlayStation 3, Xbox and PC versions, Ubisoft executives confirmed July 15 at a media briefing in downtown Los Angeles, part of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
A trailer and gameplay demo showcased the game's gorgeous painting-like graphics, which the designers at Ubisoft have come to refer to as "illustrative."
Prince of Persia's producer, Ben Mattes, said that the new versions offer "all-new adventure with an all-new prince."
This time around, the prince won't be adventuring solo: He's joined by a princess name Elika, who will aid in his missions. "She's always on your tail," Mattes said. "She is there to make you, the player, feel cool. She is there to support the prince. The prince is already a pretty powerful action hero, but with Elika, he's able to go that much further. She saves him if he dies; she helps point the way through the world to make sure he doesn't get lost. ... She helps him go further, go faster."
The combat in Prince of Persia is duel-based: The prince and Elika square off in battle against an enemy. Mattes and lead combat designer Thomas Delbuguet played through a scene in which the Prince and Elika battle a boss known as the Hunter.
"You've weakened him, but he's not dead," Elika tells the prince after their first encounter with the Hunter.
"Of course not. That would be too simple," the prince responds sarcastically.
Prince of Persia is no longer a linear experience. "Depending on the path that you take, the gameplay is going to evolve differently, and the story is going to evolve differently," Mattes said. "So no two players are going to have exactly the same gameplay experience."
For expert gamers, Prince of Persia will offer added value in its repeatability. After finishing the game once, players will get the chance to repeat the game and make different choices, thereby creating a whole new experience the second time around. --Jeff Otto
E3: EA Offers Up New SF&F Titles
Electronics Arts, long known for its sports titles, offered up a wide range of new SF&F games and announced a major new partnership at a July 14 press conference at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles, part of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
One of the most innovative titles was the first-person action-adventure game Mirror's Edge. Set in a conformist dystopia, the game puts users in control of Faith, a "runner" tasked with various action-oriented missions: swinging from ledges, hurdling across rooftops and sliding under obstacles. Although Faith can pick up a gun, there is a bonus for finishing the game without firing a bullet. The game releases in late 2008.
For those who prefer a little more blood in their action games, EA Redwood Shores presented Dead Space, a third-person shooter that features a new hero, Isaac Clarke. Executive producer Glen Schofield confirmed that the new title will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on Oct. 21.
Schofield demonstrated the game's "Strategic Dismemberment" mode, in which players take aim at enemies piece by piece until they have disabled (and disassembled) a foe. In perhaps the coolest scene, a snake-like tentacle beast grabs hold of Isaac and drags him through a series of rooms. From the ground, Isaac takes aim at the beast and fires in a desperate attempt to escape the monster's grasp.
Gabe Newell of Valve, meanwhile, confirmed a Nov. 4 release date for Left 4 Dead. "What we're trying to do is give you and your friends the experience of living out a horror movie," Newell told the audience. "You generate what happens in the world." Successful players will be given more challenging missions, while gamers who take a beating will be given easier encounters. "It gives you a different play experience every time," Newell said.
EA's final announcement was a new partnership with id software, the company that created the first-person-shooter genre with Wolfenstein 3-D and cemented its hold on the genre with the Doom and Quake series. Id founder and lead programmer John Carmack offered a short trailer for the company's new game, Rage. He promised to show more later this month at QuakeCon 2008 in Dallas. --Jeff Otto
E3: DC Universe Unveiled
Jim Lee--DC Universe Online's creative director and the renowned artist on such comics as Batman: Hush and Superman: For Tomorrow--introduced the new massively multiplayer online game at Sony's media briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on July 15.
Affter a one-armed push-up in honor of Jack Palance's similar performance at the 2001 Oscars, a slightly winded Lee enthusiastically pitched DC Universe Online.
"Imagine being able to create your own superhero or supervillain," Lee said. "[You can] enter the DC Universe to fight alongside or against the world's most powerful characters. Imagine how cool it would be to help Batman take on the Joker. Imagine being a villain and helping all the inmates at Arkham Asylum escape to attack the Batcave. This is certainly a project that would make my 12-year-old brain explode with excitement."
Lee finished off with a trailer showing such classic DC characters as Superman, the Flash and Wonder Woman interacting in-game within the expansive world of DC Online Universe. Players can fully explore classic locales such as Metropolis and Gotham City. The shots were heavy on action, with characters involved in individual duels and even teaming up to defeat larger foes. The clip ended with a classic shot of the Joker, grinning ear-to-ear and cackling maniacally. No release date was announced for the game, which is slated for the PlayStation 3 and PC. --Jeff Otto
E3: Resistance Due For PSP
Sony announced a spring 2009 release date for Resistance: Retribution for the PSP at a media briefing at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium on July 15, part of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Details were scant, but the publisher screened a short clip of the game. Although the graphics weren't quite on a par with the upcoming Resistance 2 for PlayStation 3, Retribution's graphics looked impressive on PSP's diminutive screen.
Insomniac Games' chief executive officer Ted Price was on hand to preview Resistance 2 for PS3.
"Resistance 2 is the story of a country under siege," Price said. "[It's] a [country] that's been broken by a superior foe, a country whose fate rests in the hands of a lone army lieutenant who may have more in common with the enemy than those he's pledged to defend."
Price added: "Resistance 2 is much more than a single-player campaign. [It] breaks new ground with its eight-player online co-op, 60-player online competitive multiplayer modes and forward-thinking community features. In fact, the word we most often use to describe Resistance at Insomniac is scale."
Taking note of the competitive marketplace for first-person shooters, Price insisted that Insomaniac's latest is up to the task. Resistance 2 is expected in late 2008, although a specific date was not confirmed. --Jeff Otto
E3: Fallout 3, Fable 2 Previewed
Updated information on two popular Xbox franchises--Fallout 3 and Fable 2--were unveiled at Microsoft Media's news briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on July 14.
Bethesda screened a satiric trailer for Fallout 3, which aped the nuclear-holocaust propaganda films of the '50s. The trailer is available on Xbox Live.
A demo of the game showcased the game's graphic violence, which can be exploited in either first or third person. Gamers can choose from a variety of weaponry, including a nuclear-bomb catapult.
The game will feature more than 100 hours of gameplay and exclusive Xbox 360 downloadable content. A fall release was confirmed, but no official release date was offered.
Shifting gears, Lionhead Studios confirmed an October release for Fable 2, its upcoming role-playing game.
A short Fable 2 demo showed the game's extreme user customization. Users can create their own characters from childhood. They can choose either a boy or a girl, a character who will then grow and change during gameplay, depending on the gamer's choices. A character can get married, have children, even get a dog to assist in adventures.
The vast, colorful worlds of Fable 2 are set 500 years after the era of the first game. --Jeff Otto
Discovery's Unknown Mines Myths
Discovery Channel's new series Into the Unknown With Josh Bernstein talks about the lives of Roman gladiators, looks at the future exploration of Mars and mines evidence of biblical stories.
The new series "promises to be a thrill ride filled with adventure and mystery, ancient riddles and modern-day quests," Discovery Channel executive John Ford told reporters at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour.
Genre movies helped set the series' agenda, Ford added. "I think that, certainly, Russell Crowe and Kirk Douglas have created an iconic image of what the potential--not just the myth--of what a gladiator is, but how real is it? So that's a good launching point," host Bernstein said.
The show's executive producer Beth Dietrich added that the show will deal with "really cutting-edge science right now, where he's working with the Mars lander. ... He was just out at [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.]. ... And we found a tribe that has a process of mummificaton that's never been documented before on camera."
Not that the show will come up with answers. While looking for evidence to support the myth of the biblical flood, Dietrich said: "We didn't find that smoking gun."
Bernstein added, "When you get into biblical stories, anything pre-Davidic is challenging. I mean, before King David and King Solomon in the Bible, it's questionable. ... Was there really a man named Noah? What kind of animals would have been on the ark? ... There's a way to pursue that that's satisfying."
Into the Unknown With Josh Bernstein premieres on Aug. 18 --Mike Szymanski
Brother Is Hopeful Dystopia
SF author Cory Doctorow told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Little Brother, echoes George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four, but added that he doesn't think of his book as dystopian.
"A dystopian novel, I think, is a novel characterized by hopelessness, and that's not this book at all," Doctorow said in an interview. "This is a book about having hope about changing the system. ... By default, most systems are broken--either in big ways or small ways--and the idea that they can't be fixed is a pretty depressing one."
Little Brother is about hacker kids in San Francisco who discover that terrorist attacks are over when they are over, but the police response to terrorist attacks never ends. "[The hacker kids] decide they don't want to allow terrorism to be an excuse to take away their civil rights," Doctorow said. "[They] create an encrypted alternative to the Internet, which has been completely riddled with wiretaps by the NSA, then replace it with what they call the Xnet, which is a network of hacked Xboxes that they use to communicate in perfect privacy. Then they take control of the debate ... and get involved [in] electoral politics, because you don't make lasting change unless you get involved in electoral politics."
There was no single real-world incident that prompted Doctorow to write the novel--it was more like a slow-burn process, he said. "It was one thing after another," Doctorow said. "I found out that I was going to be a father, for one thing, and it seemed to me that my daughter was going to be born into a world where she would be more controlled and more surveilled than any other generation before her."
One of the things Doctorow wanted to do in the book was write a story that didn't treat technology as an allegory, but rather treated it in a realistic way. "In science fiction--and especially in techno-thrillers--we tend to have a lot of stories where we treat technology in this really cavalier and very metaphorical way," he said, adding: "It seems to me that technology is actually awesome. You don't have to make stuff up to make technology great."
Little Brother is available from Tor Books or as a free download from Doctorow's Web site. --John Joseph Adams
Fringe Not X-Files Clone
J.J. Abrams and his producing partners told reporters that their upcoming Fox SF drama Fringe had many influences, not just Fox's most familiar hit SF series, The X-Files.
"We sat in a room and just kind of listed off our [favorite] shows," executive producer Roberto Orci said in a news conference at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 14. "And, for me, I always wanted to do ... 'Geniuses solve problems.' And [executive producer] Alex [Kurtzman] was a huge fan of Twin Peaks."
Fringe centers on FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), who--along with brilliant, erratic scientist Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his estranged son, Peter (Joshua Jackson)--investigates strange phenomena and abuses of science.
Abrams was a fan of the films of Canadian director David Cronenberg and the 1980 SF movie Altered States--the pilot includes a scene in which a main character floats in an isolation tank, and the show co-stars Altered States star Blair Brown.
"It wasn't, like, 'OK, let's do The X-Files again," Abrams (Lost) said. "It was 'What kind of show is ... something we would tune in to see?' And I thought I would get slammed sort of doing the David Cronenberg, Altered States stuff, because ... that was always something I was obsessed with when I was growing up."
Abrams also cited The Twilight Zone, Night Stalker and, yes, The X-Files, as well as the books and films of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook, such as Coma: "that weird place where medicine and science meets real life."
Abrams added that the series will share some of the mythology-making and season-long story arcs of his previous shows, Alias and Lost, but with a change: It won't require slavish devotion to figure out. "Lost has ... garnered a certain reputation for being a very complicated show and one you have to watch every episode," Abrams said. "Fringe is, in many ways, an experiment for us, which is, we believe it is possible to do a show that does have an overall story and endgame, ... but also a show that you don't have to watch episodes one, two and three to tune in to episode four." Fringe premieres Sept. 9 and will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Sarah Connor's Dekker Gets Tough
Thomas Dekker, who plays young John Connor in Fox's returning SF drama Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, told SCI FI Wire that his character gets a little more cold-blooded in the second season.
"[Series creator] Josh [Friedman] and I had, from the get-go, we kind of had this arc together in mind," Dekker said in an interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 14 at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. "And I said I was very happy with last season, that people were disappointed by the fact he was kind of whiny and immature and didn't have the fighter in him. Because we wanted to bring it in later. And I think we'd intended to bring him in near the end of [the] first season, but then ... the writers' strike killed it."
In the TV series, based on the Terminator film franchise, Dekker's John Connor, of course, is the future leader of the human resistance against the machines of Skynet, which are responsible for nuking the Earth and nearly eradicating the human race.
To get there, Connor naturally has to get tougher this year and distance himself a bit from his mother, Sarah, played by Lena Headey. "It's actually better to kind of introduce the new season and the new John," Dekker said. "We're all different. And in a weird way, Sarah and John are splitting more and more this season, yet he's becoming more and more like his mother, in the warrior sense." Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns for a second season on Sept. 8 and will air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. --Patrick Lee, News Editor
Ball Downplays Blood Metaphor
Writer-director Alan Ball, who is openly gay, told reporters that he didn't push the obvious gay metaphors in his upcoming HBO vampire series True Blood.
The show includes quips about vampires "coming out of the coffin" and asking for equal rights after being long suppressed and misunderstood; those elements were all in the Southern Vampire Mysteries books by Charlaine Harris, on which the show is based.
"I really don't look at the vampires as a metaphor for gays in a very specific way," Ball said last week at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. "I mean, for me, part of the joy of this whole series is that it's about vampires, and so we don't have to be that serious about it. However, they totally work as a metaphor for gays, for people of color, in previous times in America, for anybody who is misunderstood and feared and hated for being different."
Ball admitted, "I think because of the cultural climate that we exist in today, it seems like, 'Oh, well, they are a metaphor for gays because gay marriage and gay rights and that kind of thing.' But I think it's a bigger metaphor, and at the same time, it's also not a metaphor at all. It's vampires."
Ball previously created Six Feet Under for HBO. "A theme that seems to crop up for me a lot is the perils of intimacy," he said. "In this world of the supernatural, it's the dangers and terror of intimacy, because in the case of Sookie [Anna Paquin] and Bill [Stephen Moyer], intimacy involves feeding, and he's so much stronger than her. And in Sookie's world [she's a psychic], it's terrifying to have to hear everybody's innermost thoughts. So I would assume that was one."
The vampire series--which also stars Lois Smith, Ryan Kwanten, William Sanderson and Sam Trammell--debuts on HBO on Sept. 7. --Mike Szymanski
Cartoon Net Amps Up Saturdays
Robert Sorcher, chief content officer of the Cartoon Network, told SCI FI Wire that the cable network will turn Saturdays into a fantasy-adventure day.
In addition to the new series Star Wars: Clone Wars, the network will also feature a new animated incarnation of Batman in the fall.
"Clone Wars will anchor an evening programming block that will also include Batman: The Brave and the Bold from Warner Brothers, as well as the returning series Ben 10," Sorcher said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "It will be a good night for sci-fi programs."
Ben 10 is about a 10-year-old who finds the Omnitrix, a high-tech gadget that looks like a watch and changes him into 10 aliens with different abilities.
Star Wars: Clone Wars supervising director David Filoni said that young audiences aren't tired of the Star Wars saga, and the animated series is a new way of presenting the known characters. "Every time I go to Toys R Us," Filoni said, "there are kids picking up lightsabers and imagining themselves in that galaxy far, far away, and as long as it inspires them, I'm happy to make more."
The new Saturday night programming is not yet scheduled, but Sorcher said it will debut sometime after the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie hits theaters on Aug. 15. --Mike Szymanski
E3: Fantasy XIII Due On Xbox, PS3
The upcoming 13th installment in the epic Final Fantasy role-playing-game franchise will release for the Xbox 360 at the same time it debuts for PlayStation 3, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada said in a surprise announcement at Microsoft's media briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on July 14. No firm release date was announced.
The announcement followed a briefing on Enix's upcoming titles. "I do have one more big announcement to share," Wada said. "Take a look at this movie." A gorgeous new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII followed.
Wada also offered release info for a few more titles from Square Enix: Infinite Discovery, Sept. 2, 2009, in North America; Star Ocean: The Last Hope, spring 2009; and The Last Remnant, Nov. 20, 2009, worldwide. --Jeff Otto
E3: Gears 2 Demo'd
Epic Games designer Cliff Bleszinski showed off a new trailer for Gears of War 2, with narration from the game's hero, Marcus Phoenix, during Microsoft's media presentation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on July 14.
"I have a rendezvous with death," Phoenix intones. "And I to my pledge and word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous."
Bleszinski followed with a brief demo of the game's co-op mode. A slight glitch reset the demo a few seconds in, resulting in a few snickers from the crowd, but they were quickly silenced by a high-octane demonstration of the game's intense, nonstop action.
After the demo, Bleszinki unveiled a new online mode called Horde. "It's a five-player cooperative mode in which up to five players can take on wave after wave of increasingly difficult Locusts," Bleszinski told the crowd.
As expected, Bleszinski confirmed the Nov. 7 release date, which will be exclusive to the Xbox 360. --Jeff Otto
E3: RE 5 Heads For Xbox
The Resident Evil video-games series is coming to the Xbox 360 for the first time, Microsoft announced July 14 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. An appropriately creepy Friday the 13th, 2009, release date was announced for Resident Evil 5 in North America and Europe. The latest entry in the popular horror-survival franchise will hit Japan a day earlier, on March 12th, 2009.
The most notable announcement for Resident Evil fans was a new online co-op mode through Xbox Live, which will enable gamers to join friends and assist hero Marcus Redfield as he journeys through Africa to defeat the latest threats from the Umbrella Corp.
Producer Jun Takeuchi, wearing a black hoodie with the familiar red-and-white umbrella logo across the front, unveiled the first playable demo for the game, showcasing the crisp visuals and offering a first look at the new co-op mode. In the demo, Redfield came under intense attack from a vicious contingent of the undead. An unnamed female counterpart joined through the co-op mode and helped Redfield out of a perilous situation.
To finish off the announcement, Takeuchi showed a brief glimpse of everyone's favorite frightening chainsaw-wielding foe from Resident Evil 4 and confirmed that he will indeed be returning to wreak havoc on Resident Evil 5's heroes. --Jeff Otto
Mercy Wraps Kushiel Series
Best-selling fantasy author Jacqueline Carey told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, Kushiel's Mercy, is the sixth volume in the Kushiel's Legacy series, which concludes the adventures of the ill-starred prince Imriel de la Courcel.
"When I set out to write the Kushiel's Legacy series, I wanted to write epic fantasy novels that were lush with intrigue, religion, romance and sex," Carey said in an interview. "Some elements had an obvious genesis, like the central setting, which was inspired by a trip to Provence. Others came from anywhere and everywhere: a love of history and a lifelong fascination with mythology, the swashbuckling fun of Alexandre Dumas' novels, a very vivid dream."
In Kushiel's Mercy, Imriel, having avenged the death of his wife, returns home to find Terre d'Ange torn apart by his love affair with the Queen's heir, Sidonie. "When the lovers declare their desire to wed, the Queen decrees that she will give her blessing under one condition: Imriel must find his mother, the infamous Melisande, and bring her home to be executed for treason," Carey said. "However, a gathering threat looms on the horizon in the ambitions of a ruthless Carthaginian general, and unfolding events take an unexpected turn that changes the very nature of Imriel's quest."
Carey said that while she can't directly relate to her characters--she's never been a prince with a tortured past and a star-crossed love--she is telling stories about people she wishes existed. "Too often in fantasy, tragic events take place and are swiftly forgotten with no lingering psychological ramifications as the plot moves onward," Carey said. "Conversely, one can run the risk of wallowing in angst if one dwells too long. Over the c