fulltimer56
04-24-2007, 04:39 AM
NEWS OF THE WEEK FOR APR. 23, 2007
Raimi Interested In Hobbit
Spider-Man 3 helmer Sam Raimi confirmed to Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20035161,00.html) that he would be interested in directing The Hobbit, as rumored, but only if Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson approved. "Peter Jackson might be the best filmmaker on the planet right now," Raimi told the magazine. "But, um, I don't know what's going to happen next for me right now. First and foremost, those are Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye's [head of New Line Cinema] films. If Peter didn't want to do it, and Bob wanted me to do it—and they were both OK with me picking up the reins—that would be great. I love the book. It's maybe a more kid-friendly story than the others."
Raimi's name has been floated as a possible contender to helm The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien's prequel to The Lord of the Rings. In an exclusive interview (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=39462) with SCI FI Wire in January, Shaye ruled out Jackson's participation in the movie in part because Jackson has sued New Line in a contract dispute over Rings revenues.
If Raimi were to take on The Hobbit—the rights to which New Line/MGM only has for a limited amount of time—it could force Columbia to either push back its production schedule for a contemplated Spider-Man 4 or find a new director for the franchise.
For her part, Spider-Man co-star Dunst told the magazine that she hadn't heard any rumors about Raimi and The Hobbit and added that she can't imagine returning for a fourth installment without both her director and her co-star, Tobey Maguire, who has expressed ambivalence about coming back a fourth time.
Sony's president of production, Matt Tolmach, told the magazine that the studio is optimistic about retaining the team. "Listen, we're making Spider-Man 4," he said. "Our hope, dream and intention is to do it with Sam. But I don't have a crystal ball."
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Raimi To Produce Fantasy Film
Columbia Pictures has pre-emptively picked up a high-concept fantasy movie from writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift for Sam Raimi and Josh Donen to produce through their Buckaroo Entertainment banner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project, whose title is being kept under wraps, is described as an all-ages fantasy movie that centers on a cynical guy from New York who is forced to go to a land untouched by modern civilization to save a village and a princess from fiendish fairy-tale creatures.
Raimi directed Spider-Man 3, which is premiering around the world this week.
Shannon and Swift wrote Freddy vs. Jason for New Line and are finishing up the comic-book adaptation Power & Glory.
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Fox Races To Speed
Matthew Fox (ABC's Lost) is in final negotiations to play Racer X in Larry and Andy Wachowski's upcoming live-action Speed Racer movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie, based on the 1960s animated TV series, comes from Warner Brothers and producer Joel Silver.
Australian actor Kick Gurry, meanwhile, is in negotiations to play Sparky, Speed Racer's hippie mechanic.
Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman have already been cast in the film, which will shoot in the summer in Berlin. Speed centers on a young race-car driver, Speed (Hirsch), and his quest for glory in his gadget-laden Mach 5. Fox will play Speed's mysterious racing rival, an enigmatic soldier of fortune. Fox will fit Speed Racer in around the series' summer hiatus.
The Wachowskis are writing and directing, with the studio eyeing a summer 2008 debut.
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Lost Spoilers Revealed
TV Guide (http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Ausiello/default.aspx#01AA)'s "Ask Ausiello" column reported several spoilers about ABC's Lost as it heads toward the end of its third season in May. Among the spoilers: There will be at least five deaths during the month of May.
Meanwhile, executive producer Carlton Cuse told columnist Michael Ausiello that the show's two-hour season finale on May 22 will feature a showdown between Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn), "a showdown long anticipated and a showdown with an extremely significant outcome for the future of the castaways."
Meanwhile, the column reported that the May 2 episode won't employ the traditional flashback technique, but there will be flashbacks that just don't go back as far. Lost airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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Studios Stalk Tolkien's Hurin
More than 30 years after his death, J.R.R. Tolkien is about to publish a new book, The Children of Hurin, and Hollywood studios are already interested in acquiring film rights, the Reuters news service reported. The book went on sale April 17.
Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher, now in his 80s, constructed The Children of Hurin from his father's manuscripts and said he tried to do so "without any editorial invention." Tolkien is the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The story is set long before The Lord of the Rings in a part of Middle-earth that was drowned before Hobbits ever appeared, and tells the tragic tale of Turin and his sister, Nienor, who are cursed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord.
David Brawn, director at Tolkien publisher HarperCollins, told Reuters that the initial worldwide print run for the new book, featuring illustrations by Oscar winner Alan Lee, was 500,000 and added that Hollywood studios are eager to buy the film rights of the new book.
"We all want this first and foremost to enjoy life as a book," Brawn told Reuters. "No one's saying never to a film, the film rights are reserved by the estate. We want to see what reaction it gets and then let it run its course."
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[B]Potter V Gets 3-D Finale
IMAX Corp. and Warner Brothers announced that the final 20 minutes of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be digitally converted into 3-D in the version of the movie released in IMAX theaters on July 13. The fifth film in the franchise, based on J.K. Rowling's books, will also be released in conventional theaters on that date.
IMAX said that it will use its proprietary 2-D-to-3-D conversion technology to transform the end of the film into IMAX 3-D.
The previous installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, broke IMAX 2-D box-office records when it opened in November 2005, the company said.
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Maguire Praises Spidey Family
Spider-Man 3 star Tobey Maguire told SCI FI Wire that after working together on three films the cast and crew are a tight-knit family. The upcoming second sequel reunites Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) with Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), James Franco (Harry Osborn/the New Goblin) and director Sam Raimi. "It definitely is a family," Maguire said in an interview. "My relationship has really grown with all of them."
Maguire added: "I really respect and really appreciate the dynamics that we have as a little company, a little troupe or a little family. I love working with Kirsten and James and the whole cast that I have worked with before. And it's Sam who's the key. His vision as a filmmaker is incredible, and we definitely have a real shorthand. Plus, I have a lot of fun with him."
Several newcomers join the Spider-Man family in the third installment and made significant contributions, Maguire added. They include Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman and Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy. "They brought a lot to the table," Maguire said. "They bring everything that they bring, which is a ton of stuff. Topher has a real enthusiasm for the genre and comic books and for playing this character that he's playing. So he brought lots of excitement and energy to it. I think he did a great job. I think Venom will be really cool.
"Thomas and Sam got together early on, while the script was in process, and discussed the character and the development of Thomas' character, and I know that Thomas had a lot to do with that," Maguire added. "I think he did a fantastic job with Sandman. And Bryce is just terrific. She's lovely, and she's a great actress and is really intelligent. I really had a great time working with all of them."
For his part, Grace said that he initially thought Maguire had an awesome job. But after wearing Venom's makeup and costume and being hoisted on wires for flying and fight sequences, he came to realize just how tough Maguire has had it. Maguire laughed when asked if he set Grace straight. "Well, it's exciting going into them," Maguire said. "They are exciting to do. But there is day-to-day stuff where it's tough. He had it tougher than me in some ways because he had, I think, a four-hour process of getting ready in the mornings during sections of the movie. That can be tough, when you're sitting in makeup and doing all that kind of stuff for hours. That's the hard part, you know what I mean? The hard part is the tedium." Spider-Man 3 opens on May 4.
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Fishburne Voices Silver Surfer
Laurence Fishburne has been tapped to serve as the voice of the Silver Surfer in 20th Century Fox's upcoming sequel film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, laying to rest speculation that Doug Jones, who provides the character's movements, might voice him as well. The news is in the current The Hollywood Reporter.
Jones performed and provided movement references for the computer animation that will be used to render the Silver Surfer, a herald to a cosmic world-devouring being known as Galactus. Weta Digital oversaw visual effects for the movie.
The casting of Fishburne (The Matrix) recalls Jones' role in Hellboy, in which he played the character of Abe Sapien, whose voice was eventually provided by an unbilled David Hyde Pierce.
Fishburne commences voice work this week. Internet rumors had the actor voicing Galactus.
Surfer will hold its premiere June 12 in London. The movie opens June 15.
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Downey Talks Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr., who stars in Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie, told the British Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/03/30/bfsuper30.xml&page=2) newspaper that he sees the Marvel Comics superhero as just a regular guy. Downey plays Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and inventor who creates a high-tech suit of armor.
"He's a superhero who is just a man," Downey told the newspaper. "Not that I wouldn't play a guy who got bit by a spider or who has some freaky connection with bats, but I think this is a little more accessible," he added, referring to Spider-Man and Batman.
"I guess that when Stan Lee created the character back in the mid-1960s—to see if he could base a superhero on a hard-partying, womanizing billionaire who manufactures weapons—and still make him likable enough to sell comic books—he clearly won his bet," Downey added. "Tony Stark is someone who has the ability to be right at the forefront of science, and we are finding out more and more nowadays that science and mythology are becoming somewhat interchangeable. Some of the things that seemed really far-fetched aren't anymore." Iron Man is currently in production with an eye to a May 2008 release.
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Norton Goes Green In Hulk
Edward Norton (The Illusionist) has been set by Marvel Studios to play Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, a role formerly played by Eric Bana, Variety reported.
The Louis Leterrier-directed drama will be distributed by Universal Pictures, with an opening set for June 13, 2008. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
The Incredible Hulk will shoot this summer in Toronto.
The Incredible Hulk, following on Ang Lee's disappointing Hulk, aims to be less self-serious and more in line with the comic series and TV show. Leterrier directed the action-filled Transporter 2 and Unleashed.
The new movie begins with Banner on the run, trying to avoid capture long enough to cure the condition that turns him into a misunderstood green menace.
The script for The Incredible Hulk was written by Zak Penn, who had a hand in crafting two X-Men films, Fantastic Four and Elektra for Marvel.
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Lucas Gives Fanboys F/X Help
Chris Marquette, who co-stars in the upcoming Star Wars-themed comedy Fanboys, told SCI FI Wire that the movie has been delayed to add a cameo with Kevin Smith and sound effects from the Star Wars films, which were authorized by George Lucas himself after he saw an early cut and approved. The homage to Star Wars fans now has an Aug. 17 release date.
"They showed it to so many people involved in Star Wars that we've gone back several times with additional scenes," Marquette said in an interview while promoting his latest film, The Invisible. "Like, Kevin Smith had seen it, and [he] came in and was like, 'Oh, man. I love it.' So they let him write and direct one of his own scenes in it. So they added that in." Smith is a well-known fan of Star Wars, having included allusions to the franchise in his films for years.
As for Star Wars creator Lucas, Marquette said that the post-production process was extended to incorporate new sound and special effects with the blessing of Lucas himself. (Principal photography was completed last year.) "George Lucas saw it and loved it and gave us all the sound effects for the original Star Wars movie," Marquette said. "So they went back in and put in all these sound effects and everything and some cool special effects. It's like everybody's that seen it that's sort of loved it has attached themselves in a way to make the movie better."
In Fanboys, Marquette plays one of four guys who drive cross-country to Lucas' Skywalker Ranch to fulfill a friend's dying wish to see an advance screening of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace. "It's cool," Marquette said. "It's like a wacky comedy that's got a really nice undertone of, like, friendship. It's like a road-trip movie. It's really nice, though. It was me, and they hired three other guys who are just insanely talented and really funny. So they just let us [have] sort of like a free-for-all improv, in a way." —Cindy White
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McCarthy's Road Wins Pulitzer
Cormac McCarthy received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on April 16 for his post-apocalyptic novel The Road, the Associated Press reported.
It was the first Pulitzer for McCarthy, widely praised as an heir to William Faulkner for such novels as All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian.
McCarthy, author of nine previous novels, has won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The Road is an often horrifying story of a father and son traveling through a devastated landscape. It placed high on numerous critics' lists for 2006 and last month received publishing's most lucrative honor: Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club and even persuaded the press-shy author to agree to a television interview. More than 1 million copies of The Road already are in print.
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Goyer Made Invisible Darker
David Goyer, who directed the upcoming supernatural teen thriller The Invisible, told SCI FI Wire that he wanted the film to have a darker ending than the original Swedish version on which it's based. "A lot of times when Hollywood makes, particularly European films, they'll soften them," Goyer said in an interview while promoting the film. "They'll make a traditional Hollywood ending. If anything, I think our ending is darker than the original. ... Without giving away too much to your readers, we did not go that route. And, frankly, it was one of the issues that I was most concerned about with the studio, whether or not they would back us with the ending that we did, which is not your traditional happy Hollywood ending. And fortunately they backed us."
The Invisible centers on a teenager (Justin Chatwin) who finds himself trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead and his connection with a troubled girl (Margarita Levieva) who is the only person who can sense his presence.
Goyer said he was attracted to the film because it spoke to young people without being condescending, a notion that has been confirmed in test screenings. "Usually when you think of movies that are aimed at young people, they're goofy comedies or they're ... slasher films," he said. "This is a teen melodrama. There are supernatural elements, but it is a classic melodrama. And nobody makes movies like that anymore. ... I've watched the film with enough audiences now, maybe half a dozen, and the response has been consistent enough that I sort of have an idea of how it's going to play out. When you talk to mostly younger people afterwards, they react to the fact that it didn't talk down to them, that it was serious, that it dealt with serious issues, that it wasn't just the typical Hollywood bulls--t. They really liked that."
Goyer added that teen audiences especially responded to the metaphor in the film and haven't been bothered by its darker themes. "Certainly, the whole movie operates as a metaphor for feeling disenfranchised," he said. "They completely got that. But they got that because they live that, and almost everybody feels that way. That's what was so interesting, is sometimes older people would have certain issues with the movie or they would wonder about this or that, but young people got it immediately. And obviously the movie is an allegory for growing up and not being understood." The Invisible opens April 27. —Cindy White
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Goyer Talks Max, Knight, Dragons
Writer/director/producer David Goyer told SCI FI Wire that neophyte writer Justin Marks, 22, will pen the screenplay for Super Max, Goyer's proposed Green Arrow movie centering on a maximum-security prison for supervillains. Marks got the job despite never having had a film produced before.
"My wife found Justin," Goyer said in an interview while promoting his next film, the teen supernatural thriller The Invisible. "She's the producer, and she just said, 'I read this kid's spec script. He's really talented. You should meet with him.' And I met with him, and I thought he was really talented. And we just said, 'Let's find something to do together.' ... I love finding new people out of nowhere. I love working with young talent, whether it be actors or writers." Super Max centers on the DC Comics hero Green Arrow, who is incarcerated in a special prison alongside a group of villains he previously captured.
Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins, is also working on a slate of other SF&F films, including the sequel The Dark Knight. Goyer would not confirm whether the film, which is being directed by Batman Begins helmer Christopher Nolan, would include the villain Two-Face, although Aaron Eckhart has been cast as his alter ego, Harvey Dent. "I want to respect Chris," Goyer said of the director. "Just like in Batman Begins, he doesn't want us to say anything. Anything. And I respect Chris. So that's it."
Goyer is also overseeing the script for Here, There Be Dragons, a film based on the fantasy novel by James A. Owen, in which authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams share a magical journey. Owen is adapting the book into a screenplay himself, but Goyer said that the author's other work may delay the project for a while. "It could take a long time," he said. "James Owen, the author, is writing a screenplay right now. He's adapting his own book. But the next book in that series comes out, I believe, in September. It's going to be the [second] of seven."
Finally, Goyer is doing some writing himself for a remake of David Cronenberg's 1981 SF-horror film Scanners. It may be one of two films he is deciding between for his next outing as a director. "I'm sorting it out," he said "It's one of two things." The Invisible opens April 27. —Cindy White
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SF Hall Of Fame Gala In June
The Science Fiction Museum set June 16 as the day it will induct its newest Hall of Fame honorees, in a ceremony at 8 p.m. PT in the museum's Sky Church. Award-winning SF author Neal Stephenson will host the evening's events.
As previously announced, the 2007 inductees for the Science Fiction Hall of Fame include artist Ed Emshwiller, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Blade Runner director Ridley Scott and author Gene Wolfe.
The same day, the museum will also open its "Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes From Film and Television" exhibition. The exhibition will run through Sept. 30 and will feature more than 30 costumes and related objects from SF films and television programs, including Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Batman.
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Besson Planning SF Trilogy
Luc Besson told Collider.com (http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/4123/tcid/1) that he would like to return to the SF genre, and is planning a trilogy in the vein of The Fifth Element, which he wrote and directed in 1997. "I got an idea, I think," Besson said while promoting his latest project, the romantic black-and-white fantasy film Angel-A. "I [have started] to have [an] ending which is good. Let's not blow the flame."
Besson said that the project is at least two or three years away. He didn't give many details on the story, other than the fact that it won't be a sequel to The Fifth Element. "I did The Fifth Element at probably the wrong moment," he told the site. "I was so frustrated to see that a year after that, the tools that we had to do special effects went from five to 50. For me it was a nightmare. ... So that frustrated me, and I really would love to do another sci-fi [film] where I can be much more free with the special effects."
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ABC Family Sticks With SF&F
Cable network ABC Family has renewed the SF teen series Kyle XY for a second season and plans to bring back the angelic drama Fallen as a four-hour miniseries, Variety reported.
Kyle XY, about a mysterious teen (Matt Dallas) with unusual abilities, will return on June 11 at 8 p.m. ET/PT for a run of 13 new episodes. It became the highest-rated original series on the network when it premiered last summer.
Fallen, which stars Paul Wesley as an 18-year-old who discovers he's a fallen angel, will air for three nights beginning Aug. 3 alongside the original two-hour film, which debuted last year.
The network has also acquired the rights to the basic cable premiere of the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles.
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Sidewise Nominees Named
The nominees for this year's Sidewise Awards (http://www.%20uchronia.%20net/sidewise/), given annually to works of alternate history, have been announced. The award, which is named in honor of Murray Leinster's 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time," will be presented during Nippon 2007, this year's Worldcon, in Yokohama, Japan, Aug. 30-Sept. 3.
Past winners include best-selling author Philip Roth and multiple-award-winning author Harry Turtledove. A complete list of this year's nominees follows.
Long Form:, 1862 by Robert Conroy; The Tourmaline by Paul Park; The Family Trade, The Hidden Family and The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross; The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove; Farthing by Jo Walton
Short Form: "The Pacific Mystery" by Stephen Baxter; "O, Pioneer" by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff; "Counterfactual" by Gardner Dozois; "History Lesson" by Chris Floyd; "Palestina" by Martin Gidron; "The Plurality of Worlds" by Brian Stableford; "The Meteor of the War" by Andrew Tisbert
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Lynch Looks At Surveillance
Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena) is set to direct the independent supernatural thriller Surveillance, starring Pell James, Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, Variety reported. Lynch co-wrote the script with Ken Harper and plans to begin filming later this month in Canada.
The film revolves around an FBI agent who goes to a small town where everyone lies and no one is safe. The cast also includes Ryan Simpkins, French Stewart and Cheri Oteri. Lynch's father, filmmaker David Lynch, will executive-produce the film and help finance it.
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Reed Ponders Parallel Earths
SF author Robert Reed, who has two stories on this year's Hugo Award ballot, told SCI FI Wire that in his story "A Billion Eves (http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0704/Abillioneves.shtml)" humanity has learned how to leap between alternate Earths.
"[They're] sister worlds whose evolution and life history split off from ours some 2 billion years in the past," Reed said in an interview. "The machines, dubbed 'rippers,' can drag off a good-sized building and all of its inhabitants. One industrious fellow steals a ripper from the local university, then drives up beside a sorority house and with the flip of a switch kidnaps over a hundred young women. Then he destroys the machine, marooning everyone on a livable but distinctly different world. This single criminal event sets the pattern for thousands of years: By choice or through coercion, grown men gather up tools and seed stocks and then take young women out to these empty Earths. Each new civilization has the same goal: to grow fast and build the next generation of rippers that will allow their descendants to march outwards, spreading the human species even farther across creation."
Reed worked on the story early in his career but never got past a few early scenes, he said. "In those first drafts, my youthful criminal took away the sorority house, and then I found myself stuck, wondering what would happen next," Reed said. "Twenty-five years later, while searching for a project to work on, the obvious possibility struck me: That first leap onto a new Earth wouldn't be half as interesting as what would happen with the 17th and 18th leaps."
Reed's other nominated story, "Eight Episodes (http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0704/8episodes.shtml)," concerns a computer-generated dramatic series that appears on an upstart Web channel, Reed said. "Only eight episodes are produced, and their initial impact is minimal," he said. "Weak ratings and scathing reviews doom the program in short order. But in later years, the growing body of fans notice a series of inspired details as well as little clues that the program was much more than it first seemed to be. Plus there's the question of the series' origins: No one can say for certain who created the 'Eight Episodes,' or even if its makers were human."
The inspiration for "Eight Episodes" came from Reed's interest in Fermi's Paradox, he said. "The universe is far older than we are; if intelligent life [arose] elsewhere in our galaxy, it should have spread and prospered, reaching our doorstep long before we appeared on the scene—which leads to the question: 'So where the hell are they?'" Reed said.
"And it also stems from the quirky history of pop culture," Reed added. "A thousand TV series have come and gone, but only a few manage to live on today in any substantial fashion. ... With luck, the story's importance will only grow with time—not unlike the original 'Eight Episodes'—and in another 500 years, the reading world will see that I was on to something here." —John Joseph Adams
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Daleks Voted Scariest Who Villains
The Daleks have been voted the scariest villain in the Doctor Who universe in survey of 21,000 fans, the BBC reported. The news comes as the Doctor's old enemies are about to return in the third season of the latest incarnation of the long-running BBC series. The Daleks will feature in a two-part story set in 1930s New York, featuring David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as his new assistant, Martha Jones.
"Every time the Daleks return, we make them bigger and better than ever before, and this time, their plan is the most audacious Dalek scheme yet," said Russell T Davies, creator and executive producer of the series.
The Daleks were created by Terry Nation and first appeared on screen in 1963. Nick Briggs will once again provide the voice for the Daleks, whose familiar battle cry "exterminate!" has become an iconic part of the series.
A full list of the top 10 villains follows.
1. The Daleks
2. The Empty Child Zombies
3. The Beast
4. The Cybermen
5. The Clockwork Droids
6. The Ood
7. The Empress of Racnoss
8. The Werewolf
9. The Autons/Nestenes
10. Chloe's Dad
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Universal Remaking Colossus
Universal and Imagine Entertainment will remake the 1970 SF drama Colossus: The Forbin Project, about a computer that takes over the world, as a potential directing vehicle for Ron Howard, Variety reported. Brian Grazer will produce.
Jason Rothenberg has been set to write the screenplay for the remake, which will be called simply Colossus.
Based on a book by D.F. Jones, the original film was a forerunner of movies such as The Terminator, introducing the idea of a government-built computer that becomes sentient.
Rothenberg will use the original's premise as a springboard and will incorporate two subsequent Colossus novels written by Jones to create a broader story. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
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Rollback Explores Aging
Multiple-award-winning SF author Robert J. Sawyer, whose novel Rollback is the SCI FI Essentials pick for April, told SCI FI Wire that the book juxtaposes two ideas: the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and aging. "The book opens with an old woman—who, in true Andy Warhol fashion, had been famous for 15 minutes decades before—being reminded of that thing that had briefly caused her fame: 40 years previously, she had decoded the first-ever radio transmission received [from] aliens," Sawyer said in an interview. "At her 60th wedding anniversary party, word comes that another message has been received from the aliens—and it develops that it's not generally aimed at the people of Earth, but specifically at her, Sarah Halifax. And if she's going to keep up the dialog, even though she's very near the end of her natural life, she's going to have to find a way to live for decades—or centuries!—more."
As a man in his 40s, Sawyer has found that he and many of his friends are having to care for elderly parents, which inspired him to write about the subject, he said. "What I've seen from some of the people I know is a remarkable lack of empathy—a total failure to understand that older people aren't deliberately being crotchety or forgetful or sometimes socially inappropriate," Sawyer said. "Rollback grew out of wanting to really understand what it was like to have the better part of a century under your belt, to have great things you still wanted to accomplish, but facing a melancholy awareness that time is rapidly running out, to feel betrayed by a body and even a brain that is wearing out."
Science is always important in Sawyer's novels, and there are three sciences primarily featured in Rollback: rejuvenation, the search for alien intelligence and robotics, he said. "The rejuvenation [science] is fascinating: We really do have the full laundry list now of what causes aging and a very good recipe for how to reverse it," Sawyer said. "The [search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI,] stuff that interested me here the most was not the technology of communication, ... but the much-less-studied area of the sociology of post-contact Earth. ... decided to write a SETI story in which almost everything we've assumed about SETI is wrong: My aliens aren't interested in talking about science and math, but rather about morals and ethics; my aliens aren't vaguely trying to communicate with the whole planet, but rather with specific individuals here; my aliens aren't making their message easy to decode, but have actually encrypted it."
Sawyer added: "Finally, the robotics stuff came about from touring the robotics lab at Carnegie Mellon University and discovering that they're working on robot caregivers for the elderly and that the elderly are totally loving these robots, because asking a family member for help makes them feel like a burden, but having a robot to help is totally liberating—and the robot never loses patience or becomes angry." —John Joseph Adams
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[I]Captain America, Hulk, Thor Games Due
Marvel Entertainment and Sega announced that they will develop games inspired by Marvel's Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor franchises. The exclusive, multiyear global licensing agreement between Sega and Marvel gives Sega the rights to the properties for console, hand-held and PC video games based upon both the classic comic books and proposed feature-film adaptations.
The deal follows Marvel and Sega's announcement to create titles based on Iron Man, with both game and film slated to be released in May 2008.
Marvel is developing The Incredible Hulk, a movie that will hit theaters on June 13, 2008. A video game based on the movie will be released in the same time frame. Games based on Captain America and Thor will follow, though the timing of proposed feature-film projects is uncertain.
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Bana, McAdams Time Travel
New Line has set Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams to star in The Time Traveler's Wife, the Robert Schwentke-directed adaptation of the best-selling Audrey Niffenegger SF novel, Variety reported. Shooting's set to start in August.
McAdams has long flirted with the project, about a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder that causes him to time-travel when he is under duress. Though his disorder causes him to vanish for long periods, he tries to build a life with the woman he loves. She's a young heiress struggling with the arrangement.
Plan B's Brad Pitt, Nick Wechsler and Dede Gardner are producing. Jeremy Leven originally adapted the book, with Bruce Joel Rubin rewriting.
Because the book was a best-seller, the film has been a constant source of speculation since New Line acquired it in 2003.
McAdams last starred for New Line in Wedding Crashers. Bana starred in Ang Lee's Hulk.
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MGM Announces SF DVD Slate
MGM announced an ambitious development slate of new films for DVD, including science fiction titles aimed at young men and women, as well as two telemovies based on SCI FI Channel's Stargate SG-1 (http://www.scifi.com/stargate/): Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
The Ark of Truth began production on April 15, while Continuum, which will feature epic ice-camp scenes shot on location in the Arctic, will resume filming on May 15. The films will feature SG-1 stars Richard Dean Anderson, Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Claudia Black and Michael Shanks.
MGM has plans to release 12 or more projects per year, primarily based on popular film and television franchises with wide appeal to young-adult entertainment consumers. A list of SF&F MGM DVD titles under development follows.
•Audrey Rose, a remake of the 1977 supernatural suspense film, to be written by Andrea Meyer
•Pet, a horror-thriller written by Jeremy Slater
•Angelmaker, written by Alexander Vesha
•A new film based on Showtime's supernatural series Dead Like Me, written by Steven Godchaux and directed by Stephen Herek
•Species: The Awakening, the latest installment of the SF film franchise
•Wargames: The Dead Code, based on the 1983 movie WarGames
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Ghost Readies New Producer
CBS' Ghost Whisperer will bring on P.K. Simonds (Point Pleasant, Tarzan) as an executive producer if the show is picked up, as anticipated, for a third season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Simonds would join executive producers John Gray, Kim Moses and Ian Sander on the supernatural drama, which comes from ABC TV Studio and CBS Paramount Network TV.
Created by Gray, Ghost Whisperer stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as a young woman who can communicate with the spirits of the recently deceased.
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Columbus Struck By Lightning
Chris Columbus is lining up to direct and produce a film based on Rick Riordan's fantasy book The Lightning Thief, about a young boy who discovers that he's the descendant of a Greek god, Variety reported. Lightning Thief is the first book in Riordan's series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The book has sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States and was a New York Times best-seller.
Fox 2000 and Columbus' 1492 Pictures company will produce the project, which brings Columbus back to his root family/fantasy genre; his films include Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone, among others. Columbus' producing credits include Night at the Museum.
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AOL Hosts Shrek Game
AOL announced that it will launch an online interactive game based on the popular Shrek franchise on April 26, three weeks before Shrek the Third hits movie theaters. The game is co-produced by AOL, DreamWorks Animation and Mark Burnett Productions. (Hillshire Farm will be one of the sponsors of the game.)
Ye Olde Shrek the Third Royal Tournament (http://shrek.aol.com/) game poses a series of online challenges over a six-week period involving characters and settings from the movie. Each day, players will have the opportunity to solve new challenges and explore new areas; 25 individual games in all will be released over the course of the tournament. The game is one of several AOL unveiled in a press event in New York.
Each time a player engages with a game, he or she gets an additional entry into that game's prize pool. At the end of the tournament, a grand-prize winner will be named who will receive a family trip to Hollywood and other prizes. Shrek the Third, the newest installment in the hit animated franchise, opens May 18.
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Marvel Sweepstakes Offers Role
Marvel Entertainment announced a sweepstakes (http://www.marvel.com/be_in_a_marvel_movie?utm_source=prs&utm_medium=tl&utm_campaign=swp) in which the winning fan will get a walk-on role in an upcoming Marvel Studios movie. The sweepstakes runs until 11:59 p.m. ET Aug. 10. Fans can enter only once.
Marvel is currently developing films based on its lineup of comic-book superheroes, including The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.
Three first-prize winners will win a collected edition of Marvel comics. Fifteen second-prize winners will receive a 12-issue subscription to one of Marvel's hottest comic series.
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Glasshouse Throws Stones
Hugo Award-winning SF author Charles Stross, whose novel Glasshouse is a current finalist for both the Hugo and Prometheus awards, told SCI FI Wire that the book is about Robin, a man who wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing. "It doesn't take him long to discover that someone is trying to kill him," Stross said in an interview. "It's the 27th century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities and target historians. The civil war is over, and Robin has been demobilized, but someone wants him out of the picture because of something his earlier self knew."
While searching for a place to hide from his pursuers, Robin volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity called the Glasshouse, Stross said. " constructed to simulate a pre-accelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities, [so] it looks like the ideal hiding place for a post-human on the run," he said. "But in this escape-proof environment Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche."
Stross said that unlike most of his novels, which assemble themselves over time from various components, Glasshouse had a very specific genesis. "I was in the pub with a friend, ... and we were talking about the U.S. military's deployment of psychological warfare techniques against its own population in the context of the runup to the Iraq invasion," he said. "[That] led me by a hop and a skip to the Stanford prison study, and I suddenly had a mental short circuit: 'Hey, what if we set a rerun of the Stanford prison study in [John] Varley's "Eight Worlds" universe, and rather than assigning people to the prisoner/guard social role, we assign them to traditional gender roles?'"
Going beyond that was a thought experiment about libertarianism, Stross said. "What, I wondered, were the minimal constraints for government in a human-occupied society that might emerge after the events in [my novel] Accelerando?" he said. "One where mind uploading, personality editing and teleportation across interstellar distances are available? And I came up with two functions of government that can't easily be done away with in a post-human context: broadcasting a common time signal and authenticating identity (proving that you are who you say you are and not someone else). It follows from there that a critical attack on such a society would be to corrupt its ability to keep a common 'empire time' running or to corrupt the identity of its citizens."
Stross added: "There's some ambiguity about what's going on, and that's entirely deliberate. Robin thinks he's in the Glasshouse to root out war criminals. And the Glasshouse was originally designed to rehabilitate war criminals. But Robin may himself have committed ghastly acts during the civil war. People in this universe are effectively immortal: What do you do with the combatants after the war is over?" —John Joseph Adams
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Sonic DS Title Developing
Sega announced the development of Sonic Rush Adventure for the Nintendo DS hand-held gaming system. Sonic Rush Adventure will make use of both screens to navigate the high seas in search of pirate treasure and deliver Sonic's classic high-speed 2-D gameplay, the company said.
Developed by Sega Studios, Sonic Rush Adventure for the DS will be available in fall 2007.
Sonic Rush Adventure is the sequel to Sonic Rush and invites players to blast through seven action-packed levels that continue the gameplay experience of the original title.
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CBS Renewing Jericho?
SyFyPortal (http://www.syfyportal.com/news423527.html) reported a rumor that CBS will renew its post-apocalyptic drama Jericho for a full second season.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that CBS may also move the show to a new night next fall. Jericho currently airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m., where it has had to face off against Fox's ratings juggernaut American Idol. Last week, Jericho beat out the season finale of Til Death.
CBS has made no formal announcements about series pickups yet and isn't expected to until May.
Jericho stars Skeet Ulrich, Ashley Scott and Gerald McRaney and centers on a small Kansas town, whose residents are coping with the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the United States.
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Levy To Helm The Seems
Night at the Museum helmer Shawn Levy has been tapped to direct The Seems, a fantasy film based on John Hulme and Mike Wexler's upcoming books series, Variety reported. The authors will write the script for the 20th Century Fox movie, based on The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep, the first installment in a multibook series, which will be published by Bloomsbury USA in the fall.
The Seems is a parallel world where everything that humans take for granted is manufactured and designed. When a glitch occurs, a young boy is drafted to correct it and save the world, the trade paper reported.
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[I]Painkiller Mobile Content Due
SCI FI Channel announced a Painkiller Jane (http://www.scifi.com/painkiller/) SCI FI Mobile WAP site, with exclusive programming available via hand-held devices such as video-enabled mobile phones and BlackBerries, via Mobile.SCIFI.com (http://mobile.scifi.com/) free of charge.
At launch, Mobile.SCIFI.com will deliver Painkiller Jane content, including SCI FI's first-ever multistrip Flash animation digital comic book, developed by Painkiller Jane comic-book creator Jimmy Palmiotti. Following its initial debut on Mobile.SCIFI.com, the strip will appear on the show's official Web site (http://www.scifi.com/painkiller/). Palmiotti will also write a blog with insider access to the creative mind behind the franchise.
Other mobile content will include show clips, interviews, promos, downloadable ring tones and wallpaper. The site will be accessible via all hand-held device carriers and will also include games, blogs, live feed-driven menus, SMS alerts and text-to-friend features for real-time content sharing.
Painkiller Jane, starring Kristanna Loken, airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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Cox Not Blind To Blood Ties
Christina Cox, star of Lifetime's new vampire series Blood Ties, told SCI FI Wire that her character, Vicki Nelson, is losing her sight, which affects the course of the series and her involvement with the 450-year-old vampire, Henry Fitzroy. "She needs Henry to help her in the dark and obviously help her against the supernatural," Cox said in an interview. "Because, when it comes to that, she's not physically strong enough, and no one but Henry is. It's really hard to ask for help, because it's admitting that she has a problem."
Blood Ties focuses on the adventures of ex-cop-turned-private-investigator Nelson and the two men in her life, Fitzroy and Nelson's former partner, Mike Celluci. The series, which is based on the Tanya Huff best-selling novel series The Blood Books, stars Cox (The Chronicles of Riddick), Dylan Neal (JAG) as Mike and Kyle Schmid (Beautiful People) as Fitzroy.
"I think Vicki is a pragmatic person, and the evidence says, 'This is real,'" Cox said. "'You've stood there and watched this guy disappear into a pentagram. You've looked at Henry with his fangs and black eyes and, well, he drank your blood.' If she plays the disbelief, then I think that's just silly, and where does the show go from there? I think Vicki is just someone who dives in and goes, 'All right!'"
Cox said that she believes Nelson's impending blindness ties in with her cavalier attitude about her own life. Losing her job as a cop because of her failing vision also has a major effect on her character's mission in life, which is to help those who can't help themselves. "She's lost something pretty crucial to her," Cox said. "I don't think she's that impressed with herself at this point. She's not really like, 'Look! Oh, I can't break a nail.' She's like, 'Whatever.' And that's why Vicki can plunge headlong into things, because I don't know that she's so concerned with her own well-being." Blood Ties airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. —Kathie Huddleston
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Empire's Kasdan Pens Titans
Lawrence Kasdan has been tapped to write a remake of Clash of the Titans for Warner Brothers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Basil Iwanyk is producing via Thunder Road.
A remake of the 1981 cult classic, the story revolves around Zeus' son, Perseus, and his journey to save Princess Andromeda, capture Pegasus and slay Medusa. The original marked the final film on which Ray Harryhausen did special effects. Travis Beacham (Killing on Carnival Row) wrote a draft.
Titans is Kasdan's first fantasy-style project since 2003's Dreamcatcher, based on a Stephen King story. Kasdan previously wrote the screenplays for Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He has since tended to write, as well as direct and produce, more earthbound fare such as Grand Canyon.
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Bay Tackling Persia Next?
IESB.net (http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2301&Itemid=99) reported that Michael Bay, who is now completing a Transformers movie, will next take on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, based on the video game, for longtime producing partner Jerry Bruckheimer. Persia is eyeing a summer 2009 release date, the site reported.
Bay previously worked with Bruckheimer on such movies as Bad Boys I and II, The Rock, Pearl Harbor and Armageddon.
This movie is based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.
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Hopkins Biting Into Wolfman?
Anthony Hopkins told RottenTomatoes.com (http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/news/comments/?entryid=414526) that he is considering a role in The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro.
"There's also a chance I may play the Wolfman in London in a movie with Benicio Del Toro," Hopkins told the site. "My agent says it's a great script, but he hasn't sent it to me yet."
Hopkins indicated that this is purely a matter of studio negotiations and that he wants the role. "He said he just wants to make sure that the deal is all in, but I play the Wolfman's father in Paris. A wonderful part."
The film would be based on Universal Pictures' classic 1941 lycanthropy movie The Wolf Man. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
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Crook Award Nominees Named
Nominees have been announced for this year's Compton Crook Award, which is given to the best SF, fantasy or horror novel of the year by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. The winner will be announced at Balticon 41 May 25-28 in Baltimore.
The nominees are The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, Sojourn by Jana G. Oliver and The Skewed Throne by Joshua Palmatier.
The award is named after Towson State College professor of natural science Compton Crook, who wrote SF under the name Stephen Tall. Crook died in 1981, and the award was first presented in 1983. The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize. —John Joseph Adams
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BRIEFLY NOTED
The West End play Equus, which made headlines for featuring an occasionally nude Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), will close with the actor's departure in June, the BBC reported. Rumors of a replacement included Jamie Bell (King Kong), Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings) and Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives), but none surfaced. The announcement comes as a surprise, since the play has broken box-office records and received critical praise.
Marvel Studios is developing a Broadway musical based on Spider-Man, to be directed by Tony winner Julie Taymor, with U2's Bono and the Edge creating new music and lyrics for the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter; auditions are now taking place, and a reading is scheduled for the summer.
J.J. Abrams wrote fans at the recent "Grand Slam" SF convention in Burbank, Calif., to promise more news about the movie soon, according to a post on the TrekMovie.com (http://trekmovie.com/2007/04/14/jj-abrams-sends-a-message-to-the-fans/) Web site.
SF author Orson Scott Card told IGN.com (http://movies.ign.com/articles/781/781573p1.html) that a proposed big-screen version of his novel Ender's Game has been put on hold at Warner Brothers, allowing the filmmakers to shop it around to other studios or raise funding independently.
Ain't It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32327) reported a rumor that Michael Apted (Amazing Grace, Coal Miner's Daughter) would be the director of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, stepping in for previous Narnia helmer Andrew Adamson, who has bowed out of helming the proposed third film installment based on C.S. Lewis' fantasy books.
The soundtrack for Shrek the Third will hit stores on May 15, three days before the animated sequel opens, and will feature a duet between Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas, as well as songs by Fergie and eels, the Associated Press reported.
Legendary SF author Ray Bradbury won a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize board on April 16 for his "distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy."
DarkHorizons (http://www.darkhorizons.com/news07/070416c.php) reported that Jonathan Rhys-Davies, who played Sallah in previous Indiana Jones movies, won't appear in the upcoming fourth installment.
Pathfinder opened in sixth place in the April 13 weekend box-office race, taking in about $4.8 million, while Grindhouse plunged six places in its second weekend of release to 10th, with $4.2 million for the weekend and a 10-day total of just $19.7 million, the Associated Press reported.
Charlotte's Web has become the biggest live-action family film to be released on DVD since The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in April 2006, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Raimi Interested In Hobbit
Spider-Man 3 helmer Sam Raimi confirmed to Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20035161,00.html) that he would be interested in directing The Hobbit, as rumored, but only if Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson approved. "Peter Jackson might be the best filmmaker on the planet right now," Raimi told the magazine. "But, um, I don't know what's going to happen next for me right now. First and foremost, those are Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye's [head of New Line Cinema] films. If Peter didn't want to do it, and Bob wanted me to do it—and they were both OK with me picking up the reins—that would be great. I love the book. It's maybe a more kid-friendly story than the others."
Raimi's name has been floated as a possible contender to helm The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien's prequel to The Lord of the Rings. In an exclusive interview (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=39462) with SCI FI Wire in January, Shaye ruled out Jackson's participation in the movie in part because Jackson has sued New Line in a contract dispute over Rings revenues.
If Raimi were to take on The Hobbit—the rights to which New Line/MGM only has for a limited amount of time—it could force Columbia to either push back its production schedule for a contemplated Spider-Man 4 or find a new director for the franchise.
For her part, Spider-Man co-star Dunst told the magazine that she hadn't heard any rumors about Raimi and The Hobbit and added that she can't imagine returning for a fourth installment without both her director and her co-star, Tobey Maguire, who has expressed ambivalence about coming back a fourth time.
Sony's president of production, Matt Tolmach, told the magazine that the studio is optimistic about retaining the team. "Listen, we're making Spider-Man 4," he said. "Our hope, dream and intention is to do it with Sam. But I don't have a crystal ball."
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Raimi To Produce Fantasy Film
Columbia Pictures has pre-emptively picked up a high-concept fantasy movie from writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift for Sam Raimi and Josh Donen to produce through their Buckaroo Entertainment banner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project, whose title is being kept under wraps, is described as an all-ages fantasy movie that centers on a cynical guy from New York who is forced to go to a land untouched by modern civilization to save a village and a princess from fiendish fairy-tale creatures.
Raimi directed Spider-Man 3, which is premiering around the world this week.
Shannon and Swift wrote Freddy vs. Jason for New Line and are finishing up the comic-book adaptation Power & Glory.
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Fox Races To Speed
Matthew Fox (ABC's Lost) is in final negotiations to play Racer X in Larry and Andy Wachowski's upcoming live-action Speed Racer movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie, based on the 1960s animated TV series, comes from Warner Brothers and producer Joel Silver.
Australian actor Kick Gurry, meanwhile, is in negotiations to play Sparky, Speed Racer's hippie mechanic.
Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman have already been cast in the film, which will shoot in the summer in Berlin. Speed centers on a young race-car driver, Speed (Hirsch), and his quest for glory in his gadget-laden Mach 5. Fox will play Speed's mysterious racing rival, an enigmatic soldier of fortune. Fox will fit Speed Racer in around the series' summer hiatus.
The Wachowskis are writing and directing, with the studio eyeing a summer 2008 debut.
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Lost Spoilers Revealed
TV Guide (http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Ausiello/default.aspx#01AA)'s "Ask Ausiello" column reported several spoilers about ABC's Lost as it heads toward the end of its third season in May. Among the spoilers: There will be at least five deaths during the month of May.
Meanwhile, executive producer Carlton Cuse told columnist Michael Ausiello that the show's two-hour season finale on May 22 will feature a showdown between Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn), "a showdown long anticipated and a showdown with an extremely significant outcome for the future of the castaways."
Meanwhile, the column reported that the May 2 episode won't employ the traditional flashback technique, but there will be flashbacks that just don't go back as far. Lost airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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Studios Stalk Tolkien's Hurin
More than 30 years after his death, J.R.R. Tolkien is about to publish a new book, The Children of Hurin, and Hollywood studios are already interested in acquiring film rights, the Reuters news service reported. The book went on sale April 17.
Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher, now in his 80s, constructed The Children of Hurin from his father's manuscripts and said he tried to do so "without any editorial invention." Tolkien is the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The story is set long before The Lord of the Rings in a part of Middle-earth that was drowned before Hobbits ever appeared, and tells the tragic tale of Turin and his sister, Nienor, who are cursed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord.
David Brawn, director at Tolkien publisher HarperCollins, told Reuters that the initial worldwide print run for the new book, featuring illustrations by Oscar winner Alan Lee, was 500,000 and added that Hollywood studios are eager to buy the film rights of the new book.
"We all want this first and foremost to enjoy life as a book," Brawn told Reuters. "No one's saying never to a film, the film rights are reserved by the estate. We want to see what reaction it gets and then let it run its course."
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[B]Potter V Gets 3-D Finale
IMAX Corp. and Warner Brothers announced that the final 20 minutes of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be digitally converted into 3-D in the version of the movie released in IMAX theaters on July 13. The fifth film in the franchise, based on J.K. Rowling's books, will also be released in conventional theaters on that date.
IMAX said that it will use its proprietary 2-D-to-3-D conversion technology to transform the end of the film into IMAX 3-D.
The previous installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, broke IMAX 2-D box-office records when it opened in November 2005, the company said.
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Maguire Praises Spidey Family
Spider-Man 3 star Tobey Maguire told SCI FI Wire that after working together on three films the cast and crew are a tight-knit family. The upcoming second sequel reunites Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) with Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), James Franco (Harry Osborn/the New Goblin) and director Sam Raimi. "It definitely is a family," Maguire said in an interview. "My relationship has really grown with all of them."
Maguire added: "I really respect and really appreciate the dynamics that we have as a little company, a little troupe or a little family. I love working with Kirsten and James and the whole cast that I have worked with before. And it's Sam who's the key. His vision as a filmmaker is incredible, and we definitely have a real shorthand. Plus, I have a lot of fun with him."
Several newcomers join the Spider-Man family in the third installment and made significant contributions, Maguire added. They include Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman and Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy. "They brought a lot to the table," Maguire said. "They bring everything that they bring, which is a ton of stuff. Topher has a real enthusiasm for the genre and comic books and for playing this character that he's playing. So he brought lots of excitement and energy to it. I think he did a great job. I think Venom will be really cool.
"Thomas and Sam got together early on, while the script was in process, and discussed the character and the development of Thomas' character, and I know that Thomas had a lot to do with that," Maguire added. "I think he did a fantastic job with Sandman. And Bryce is just terrific. She's lovely, and she's a great actress and is really intelligent. I really had a great time working with all of them."
For his part, Grace said that he initially thought Maguire had an awesome job. But after wearing Venom's makeup and costume and being hoisted on wires for flying and fight sequences, he came to realize just how tough Maguire has had it. Maguire laughed when asked if he set Grace straight. "Well, it's exciting going into them," Maguire said. "They are exciting to do. But there is day-to-day stuff where it's tough. He had it tougher than me in some ways because he had, I think, a four-hour process of getting ready in the mornings during sections of the movie. That can be tough, when you're sitting in makeup and doing all that kind of stuff for hours. That's the hard part, you know what I mean? The hard part is the tedium." Spider-Man 3 opens on May 4.
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Fishburne Voices Silver Surfer
Laurence Fishburne has been tapped to serve as the voice of the Silver Surfer in 20th Century Fox's upcoming sequel film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, laying to rest speculation that Doug Jones, who provides the character's movements, might voice him as well. The news is in the current The Hollywood Reporter.
Jones performed and provided movement references for the computer animation that will be used to render the Silver Surfer, a herald to a cosmic world-devouring being known as Galactus. Weta Digital oversaw visual effects for the movie.
The casting of Fishburne (The Matrix) recalls Jones' role in Hellboy, in which he played the character of Abe Sapien, whose voice was eventually provided by an unbilled David Hyde Pierce.
Fishburne commences voice work this week. Internet rumors had the actor voicing Galactus.
Surfer will hold its premiere June 12 in London. The movie opens June 15.
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Downey Talks Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr., who stars in Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie, told the British Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/03/30/bfsuper30.xml&page=2) newspaper that he sees the Marvel Comics superhero as just a regular guy. Downey plays Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and inventor who creates a high-tech suit of armor.
"He's a superhero who is just a man," Downey told the newspaper. "Not that I wouldn't play a guy who got bit by a spider or who has some freaky connection with bats, but I think this is a little more accessible," he added, referring to Spider-Man and Batman.
"I guess that when Stan Lee created the character back in the mid-1960s—to see if he could base a superhero on a hard-partying, womanizing billionaire who manufactures weapons—and still make him likable enough to sell comic books—he clearly won his bet," Downey added. "Tony Stark is someone who has the ability to be right at the forefront of science, and we are finding out more and more nowadays that science and mythology are becoming somewhat interchangeable. Some of the things that seemed really far-fetched aren't anymore." Iron Man is currently in production with an eye to a May 2008 release.
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Norton Goes Green In Hulk
Edward Norton (The Illusionist) has been set by Marvel Studios to play Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, a role formerly played by Eric Bana, Variety reported.
The Louis Leterrier-directed drama will be distributed by Universal Pictures, with an opening set for June 13, 2008. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
The Incredible Hulk will shoot this summer in Toronto.
The Incredible Hulk, following on Ang Lee's disappointing Hulk, aims to be less self-serious and more in line with the comic series and TV show. Leterrier directed the action-filled Transporter 2 and Unleashed.
The new movie begins with Banner on the run, trying to avoid capture long enough to cure the condition that turns him into a misunderstood green menace.
The script for The Incredible Hulk was written by Zak Penn, who had a hand in crafting two X-Men films, Fantastic Four and Elektra for Marvel.
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Lucas Gives Fanboys F/X Help
Chris Marquette, who co-stars in the upcoming Star Wars-themed comedy Fanboys, told SCI FI Wire that the movie has been delayed to add a cameo with Kevin Smith and sound effects from the Star Wars films, which were authorized by George Lucas himself after he saw an early cut and approved. The homage to Star Wars fans now has an Aug. 17 release date.
"They showed it to so many people involved in Star Wars that we've gone back several times with additional scenes," Marquette said in an interview while promoting his latest film, The Invisible. "Like, Kevin Smith had seen it, and [he] came in and was like, 'Oh, man. I love it.' So they let him write and direct one of his own scenes in it. So they added that in." Smith is a well-known fan of Star Wars, having included allusions to the franchise in his films for years.
As for Star Wars creator Lucas, Marquette said that the post-production process was extended to incorporate new sound and special effects with the blessing of Lucas himself. (Principal photography was completed last year.) "George Lucas saw it and loved it and gave us all the sound effects for the original Star Wars movie," Marquette said. "So they went back in and put in all these sound effects and everything and some cool special effects. It's like everybody's that seen it that's sort of loved it has attached themselves in a way to make the movie better."
In Fanboys, Marquette plays one of four guys who drive cross-country to Lucas' Skywalker Ranch to fulfill a friend's dying wish to see an advance screening of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace. "It's cool," Marquette said. "It's like a wacky comedy that's got a really nice undertone of, like, friendship. It's like a road-trip movie. It's really nice, though. It was me, and they hired three other guys who are just insanely talented and really funny. So they just let us [have] sort of like a free-for-all improv, in a way." —Cindy White
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McCarthy's Road Wins Pulitzer
Cormac McCarthy received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on April 16 for his post-apocalyptic novel The Road, the Associated Press reported.
It was the first Pulitzer for McCarthy, widely praised as an heir to William Faulkner for such novels as All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian.
McCarthy, author of nine previous novels, has won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The Road is an often horrifying story of a father and son traveling through a devastated landscape. It placed high on numerous critics' lists for 2006 and last month received publishing's most lucrative honor: Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club and even persuaded the press-shy author to agree to a television interview. More than 1 million copies of The Road already are in print.
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Goyer Made Invisible Darker
David Goyer, who directed the upcoming supernatural teen thriller The Invisible, told SCI FI Wire that he wanted the film to have a darker ending than the original Swedish version on which it's based. "A lot of times when Hollywood makes, particularly European films, they'll soften them," Goyer said in an interview while promoting the film. "They'll make a traditional Hollywood ending. If anything, I think our ending is darker than the original. ... Without giving away too much to your readers, we did not go that route. And, frankly, it was one of the issues that I was most concerned about with the studio, whether or not they would back us with the ending that we did, which is not your traditional happy Hollywood ending. And fortunately they backed us."
The Invisible centers on a teenager (Justin Chatwin) who finds himself trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead and his connection with a troubled girl (Margarita Levieva) who is the only person who can sense his presence.
Goyer said he was attracted to the film because it spoke to young people without being condescending, a notion that has been confirmed in test screenings. "Usually when you think of movies that are aimed at young people, they're goofy comedies or they're ... slasher films," he said. "This is a teen melodrama. There are supernatural elements, but it is a classic melodrama. And nobody makes movies like that anymore. ... I've watched the film with enough audiences now, maybe half a dozen, and the response has been consistent enough that I sort of have an idea of how it's going to play out. When you talk to mostly younger people afterwards, they react to the fact that it didn't talk down to them, that it was serious, that it dealt with serious issues, that it wasn't just the typical Hollywood bulls--t. They really liked that."
Goyer added that teen audiences especially responded to the metaphor in the film and haven't been bothered by its darker themes. "Certainly, the whole movie operates as a metaphor for feeling disenfranchised," he said. "They completely got that. But they got that because they live that, and almost everybody feels that way. That's what was so interesting, is sometimes older people would have certain issues with the movie or they would wonder about this or that, but young people got it immediately. And obviously the movie is an allegory for growing up and not being understood." The Invisible opens April 27. —Cindy White
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Goyer Talks Max, Knight, Dragons
Writer/director/producer David Goyer told SCI FI Wire that neophyte writer Justin Marks, 22, will pen the screenplay for Super Max, Goyer's proposed Green Arrow movie centering on a maximum-security prison for supervillains. Marks got the job despite never having had a film produced before.
"My wife found Justin," Goyer said in an interview while promoting his next film, the teen supernatural thriller The Invisible. "She's the producer, and she just said, 'I read this kid's spec script. He's really talented. You should meet with him.' And I met with him, and I thought he was really talented. And we just said, 'Let's find something to do together.' ... I love finding new people out of nowhere. I love working with young talent, whether it be actors or writers." Super Max centers on the DC Comics hero Green Arrow, who is incarcerated in a special prison alongside a group of villains he previously captured.
Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins, is also working on a slate of other SF&F films, including the sequel The Dark Knight. Goyer would not confirm whether the film, which is being directed by Batman Begins helmer Christopher Nolan, would include the villain Two-Face, although Aaron Eckhart has been cast as his alter ego, Harvey Dent. "I want to respect Chris," Goyer said of the director. "Just like in Batman Begins, he doesn't want us to say anything. Anything. And I respect Chris. So that's it."
Goyer is also overseeing the script for Here, There Be Dragons, a film based on the fantasy novel by James A. Owen, in which authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams share a magical journey. Owen is adapting the book into a screenplay himself, but Goyer said that the author's other work may delay the project for a while. "It could take a long time," he said. "James Owen, the author, is writing a screenplay right now. He's adapting his own book. But the next book in that series comes out, I believe, in September. It's going to be the [second] of seven."
Finally, Goyer is doing some writing himself for a remake of David Cronenberg's 1981 SF-horror film Scanners. It may be one of two films he is deciding between for his next outing as a director. "I'm sorting it out," he said "It's one of two things." The Invisible opens April 27. —Cindy White
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SF Hall Of Fame Gala In June
The Science Fiction Museum set June 16 as the day it will induct its newest Hall of Fame honorees, in a ceremony at 8 p.m. PT in the museum's Sky Church. Award-winning SF author Neal Stephenson will host the evening's events.
As previously announced, the 2007 inductees for the Science Fiction Hall of Fame include artist Ed Emshwiller, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Blade Runner director Ridley Scott and author Gene Wolfe.
The same day, the museum will also open its "Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes From Film and Television" exhibition. The exhibition will run through Sept. 30 and will feature more than 30 costumes and related objects from SF films and television programs, including Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Batman.
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Besson Planning SF Trilogy
Luc Besson told Collider.com (http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/4123/tcid/1) that he would like to return to the SF genre, and is planning a trilogy in the vein of The Fifth Element, which he wrote and directed in 1997. "I got an idea, I think," Besson said while promoting his latest project, the romantic black-and-white fantasy film Angel-A. "I [have started] to have [an] ending which is good. Let's not blow the flame."
Besson said that the project is at least two or three years away. He didn't give many details on the story, other than the fact that it won't be a sequel to The Fifth Element. "I did The Fifth Element at probably the wrong moment," he told the site. "I was so frustrated to see that a year after that, the tools that we had to do special effects went from five to 50. For me it was a nightmare. ... So that frustrated me, and I really would love to do another sci-fi [film] where I can be much more free with the special effects."
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ABC Family Sticks With SF&F
Cable network ABC Family has renewed the SF teen series Kyle XY for a second season and plans to bring back the angelic drama Fallen as a four-hour miniseries, Variety reported.
Kyle XY, about a mysterious teen (Matt Dallas) with unusual abilities, will return on June 11 at 8 p.m. ET/PT for a run of 13 new episodes. It became the highest-rated original series on the network when it premiered last summer.
Fallen, which stars Paul Wesley as an 18-year-old who discovers he's a fallen angel, will air for three nights beginning Aug. 3 alongside the original two-hour film, which debuted last year.
The network has also acquired the rights to the basic cable premiere of the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles.
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Sidewise Nominees Named
The nominees for this year's Sidewise Awards (http://www.%20uchronia.%20net/sidewise/), given annually to works of alternate history, have been announced. The award, which is named in honor of Murray Leinster's 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time," will be presented during Nippon 2007, this year's Worldcon, in Yokohama, Japan, Aug. 30-Sept. 3.
Past winners include best-selling author Philip Roth and multiple-award-winning author Harry Turtledove. A complete list of this year's nominees follows.
Long Form:, 1862 by Robert Conroy; The Tourmaline by Paul Park; The Family Trade, The Hidden Family and The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross; The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove; Farthing by Jo Walton
Short Form: "The Pacific Mystery" by Stephen Baxter; "O, Pioneer" by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff; "Counterfactual" by Gardner Dozois; "History Lesson" by Chris Floyd; "Palestina" by Martin Gidron; "The Plurality of Worlds" by Brian Stableford; "The Meteor of the War" by Andrew Tisbert
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Lynch Looks At Surveillance
Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena) is set to direct the independent supernatural thriller Surveillance, starring Pell James, Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, Variety reported. Lynch co-wrote the script with Ken Harper and plans to begin filming later this month in Canada.
The film revolves around an FBI agent who goes to a small town where everyone lies and no one is safe. The cast also includes Ryan Simpkins, French Stewart and Cheri Oteri. Lynch's father, filmmaker David Lynch, will executive-produce the film and help finance it.
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Reed Ponders Parallel Earths
SF author Robert Reed, who has two stories on this year's Hugo Award ballot, told SCI FI Wire that in his story "A Billion Eves (http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0704/Abillioneves.shtml)" humanity has learned how to leap between alternate Earths.
"[They're] sister worlds whose evolution and life history split off from ours some 2 billion years in the past," Reed said in an interview. "The machines, dubbed 'rippers,' can drag off a good-sized building and all of its inhabitants. One industrious fellow steals a ripper from the local university, then drives up beside a sorority house and with the flip of a switch kidnaps over a hundred young women. Then he destroys the machine, marooning everyone on a livable but distinctly different world. This single criminal event sets the pattern for thousands of years: By choice or through coercion, grown men gather up tools and seed stocks and then take young women out to these empty Earths. Each new civilization has the same goal: to grow fast and build the next generation of rippers that will allow their descendants to march outwards, spreading the human species even farther across creation."
Reed worked on the story early in his career but never got past a few early scenes, he said. "In those first drafts, my youthful criminal took away the sorority house, and then I found myself stuck, wondering what would happen next," Reed said. "Twenty-five years later, while searching for a project to work on, the obvious possibility struck me: That first leap onto a new Earth wouldn't be half as interesting as what would happen with the 17th and 18th leaps."
Reed's other nominated story, "Eight Episodes (http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0704/8episodes.shtml)," concerns a computer-generated dramatic series that appears on an upstart Web channel, Reed said. "Only eight episodes are produced, and their initial impact is minimal," he said. "Weak ratings and scathing reviews doom the program in short order. But in later years, the growing body of fans notice a series of inspired details as well as little clues that the program was much more than it first seemed to be. Plus there's the question of the series' origins: No one can say for certain who created the 'Eight Episodes,' or even if its makers were human."
The inspiration for "Eight Episodes" came from Reed's interest in Fermi's Paradox, he said. "The universe is far older than we are; if intelligent life [arose] elsewhere in our galaxy, it should have spread and prospered, reaching our doorstep long before we appeared on the scene—which leads to the question: 'So where the hell are they?'" Reed said.
"And it also stems from the quirky history of pop culture," Reed added. "A thousand TV series have come and gone, but only a few manage to live on today in any substantial fashion. ... With luck, the story's importance will only grow with time—not unlike the original 'Eight Episodes'—and in another 500 years, the reading world will see that I was on to something here." —John Joseph Adams
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Daleks Voted Scariest Who Villains
The Daleks have been voted the scariest villain in the Doctor Who universe in survey of 21,000 fans, the BBC reported. The news comes as the Doctor's old enemies are about to return in the third season of the latest incarnation of the long-running BBC series. The Daleks will feature in a two-part story set in 1930s New York, featuring David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as his new assistant, Martha Jones.
"Every time the Daleks return, we make them bigger and better than ever before, and this time, their plan is the most audacious Dalek scheme yet," said Russell T Davies, creator and executive producer of the series.
The Daleks were created by Terry Nation and first appeared on screen in 1963. Nick Briggs will once again provide the voice for the Daleks, whose familiar battle cry "exterminate!" has become an iconic part of the series.
A full list of the top 10 villains follows.
1. The Daleks
2. The Empty Child Zombies
3. The Beast
4. The Cybermen
5. The Clockwork Droids
6. The Ood
7. The Empress of Racnoss
8. The Werewolf
9. The Autons/Nestenes
10. Chloe's Dad
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Universal Remaking Colossus
Universal and Imagine Entertainment will remake the 1970 SF drama Colossus: The Forbin Project, about a computer that takes over the world, as a potential directing vehicle for Ron Howard, Variety reported. Brian Grazer will produce.
Jason Rothenberg has been set to write the screenplay for the remake, which will be called simply Colossus.
Based on a book by D.F. Jones, the original film was a forerunner of movies such as The Terminator, introducing the idea of a government-built computer that becomes sentient.
Rothenberg will use the original's premise as a springboard and will incorporate two subsequent Colossus novels written by Jones to create a broader story. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
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Rollback Explores Aging
Multiple-award-winning SF author Robert J. Sawyer, whose novel Rollback is the SCI FI Essentials pick for April, told SCI FI Wire that the book juxtaposes two ideas: the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and aging. "The book opens with an old woman—who, in true Andy Warhol fashion, had been famous for 15 minutes decades before—being reminded of that thing that had briefly caused her fame: 40 years previously, she had decoded the first-ever radio transmission received [from] aliens," Sawyer said in an interview. "At her 60th wedding anniversary party, word comes that another message has been received from the aliens—and it develops that it's not generally aimed at the people of Earth, but specifically at her, Sarah Halifax. And if she's going to keep up the dialog, even though she's very near the end of her natural life, she's going to have to find a way to live for decades—or centuries!—more."
As a man in his 40s, Sawyer has found that he and many of his friends are having to care for elderly parents, which inspired him to write about the subject, he said. "What I've seen from some of the people I know is a remarkable lack of empathy—a total failure to understand that older people aren't deliberately being crotchety or forgetful or sometimes socially inappropriate," Sawyer said. "Rollback grew out of wanting to really understand what it was like to have the better part of a century under your belt, to have great things you still wanted to accomplish, but facing a melancholy awareness that time is rapidly running out, to feel betrayed by a body and even a brain that is wearing out."
Science is always important in Sawyer's novels, and there are three sciences primarily featured in Rollback: rejuvenation, the search for alien intelligence and robotics, he said. "The rejuvenation [science] is fascinating: We really do have the full laundry list now of what causes aging and a very good recipe for how to reverse it," Sawyer said. "The [search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI,] stuff that interested me here the most was not the technology of communication, ... but the much-less-studied area of the sociology of post-contact Earth. ... decided to write a SETI story in which almost everything we've assumed about SETI is wrong: My aliens aren't interested in talking about science and math, but rather about morals and ethics; my aliens aren't vaguely trying to communicate with the whole planet, but rather with specific individuals here; my aliens aren't making their message easy to decode, but have actually encrypted it."
Sawyer added: "Finally, the robotics stuff came about from touring the robotics lab at Carnegie Mellon University and discovering that they're working on robot caregivers for the elderly and that the elderly are totally loving these robots, because asking a family member for help makes them feel like a burden, but having a robot to help is totally liberating—and the robot never loses patience or becomes angry." —John Joseph Adams
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[I]Captain America, Hulk, Thor Games Due
Marvel Entertainment and Sega announced that they will develop games inspired by Marvel's Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor franchises. The exclusive, multiyear global licensing agreement between Sega and Marvel gives Sega the rights to the properties for console, hand-held and PC video games based upon both the classic comic books and proposed feature-film adaptations.
The deal follows Marvel and Sega's announcement to create titles based on Iron Man, with both game and film slated to be released in May 2008.
Marvel is developing The Incredible Hulk, a movie that will hit theaters on June 13, 2008. A video game based on the movie will be released in the same time frame. Games based on Captain America and Thor will follow, though the timing of proposed feature-film projects is uncertain.
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Bana, McAdams Time Travel
New Line has set Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams to star in The Time Traveler's Wife, the Robert Schwentke-directed adaptation of the best-selling Audrey Niffenegger SF novel, Variety reported. Shooting's set to start in August.
McAdams has long flirted with the project, about a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder that causes him to time-travel when he is under duress. Though his disorder causes him to vanish for long periods, he tries to build a life with the woman he loves. She's a young heiress struggling with the arrangement.
Plan B's Brad Pitt, Nick Wechsler and Dede Gardner are producing. Jeremy Leven originally adapted the book, with Bruce Joel Rubin rewriting.
Because the book was a best-seller, the film has been a constant source of speculation since New Line acquired it in 2003.
McAdams last starred for New Line in Wedding Crashers. Bana starred in Ang Lee's Hulk.
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MGM Announces SF DVD Slate
MGM announced an ambitious development slate of new films for DVD, including science fiction titles aimed at young men and women, as well as two telemovies based on SCI FI Channel's Stargate SG-1 (http://www.scifi.com/stargate/): Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
The Ark of Truth began production on April 15, while Continuum, which will feature epic ice-camp scenes shot on location in the Arctic, will resume filming on May 15. The films will feature SG-1 stars Richard Dean Anderson, Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Claudia Black and Michael Shanks.
MGM has plans to release 12 or more projects per year, primarily based on popular film and television franchises with wide appeal to young-adult entertainment consumers. A list of SF&F MGM DVD titles under development follows.
•Audrey Rose, a remake of the 1977 supernatural suspense film, to be written by Andrea Meyer
•Pet, a horror-thriller written by Jeremy Slater
•Angelmaker, written by Alexander Vesha
•A new film based on Showtime's supernatural series Dead Like Me, written by Steven Godchaux and directed by Stephen Herek
•Species: The Awakening, the latest installment of the SF film franchise
•Wargames: The Dead Code, based on the 1983 movie WarGames
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Ghost Readies New Producer
CBS' Ghost Whisperer will bring on P.K. Simonds (Point Pleasant, Tarzan) as an executive producer if the show is picked up, as anticipated, for a third season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Simonds would join executive producers John Gray, Kim Moses and Ian Sander on the supernatural drama, which comes from ABC TV Studio and CBS Paramount Network TV.
Created by Gray, Ghost Whisperer stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as a young woman who can communicate with the spirits of the recently deceased.
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Columbus Struck By Lightning
Chris Columbus is lining up to direct and produce a film based on Rick Riordan's fantasy book The Lightning Thief, about a young boy who discovers that he's the descendant of a Greek god, Variety reported. Lightning Thief is the first book in Riordan's series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The book has sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States and was a New York Times best-seller.
Fox 2000 and Columbus' 1492 Pictures company will produce the project, which brings Columbus back to his root family/fantasy genre; his films include Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone, among others. Columbus' producing credits include Night at the Museum.
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AOL Hosts Shrek Game
AOL announced that it will launch an online interactive game based on the popular Shrek franchise on April 26, three weeks before Shrek the Third hits movie theaters. The game is co-produced by AOL, DreamWorks Animation and Mark Burnett Productions. (Hillshire Farm will be one of the sponsors of the game.)
Ye Olde Shrek the Third Royal Tournament (http://shrek.aol.com/) game poses a series of online challenges over a six-week period involving characters and settings from the movie. Each day, players will have the opportunity to solve new challenges and explore new areas; 25 individual games in all will be released over the course of the tournament. The game is one of several AOL unveiled in a press event in New York.
Each time a player engages with a game, he or she gets an additional entry into that game's prize pool. At the end of the tournament, a grand-prize winner will be named who will receive a family trip to Hollywood and other prizes. Shrek the Third, the newest installment in the hit animated franchise, opens May 18.
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Marvel Sweepstakes Offers Role
Marvel Entertainment announced a sweepstakes (http://www.marvel.com/be_in_a_marvel_movie?utm_source=prs&utm_medium=tl&utm_campaign=swp) in which the winning fan will get a walk-on role in an upcoming Marvel Studios movie. The sweepstakes runs until 11:59 p.m. ET Aug. 10. Fans can enter only once.
Marvel is currently developing films based on its lineup of comic-book superheroes, including The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.
Three first-prize winners will win a collected edition of Marvel comics. Fifteen second-prize winners will receive a 12-issue subscription to one of Marvel's hottest comic series.
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Glasshouse Throws Stones
Hugo Award-winning SF author Charles Stross, whose novel Glasshouse is a current finalist for both the Hugo and Prometheus awards, told SCI FI Wire that the book is about Robin, a man who wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing. "It doesn't take him long to discover that someone is trying to kill him," Stross said in an interview. "It's the 27th century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities and target historians. The civil war is over, and Robin has been demobilized, but someone wants him out of the picture because of something his earlier self knew."
While searching for a place to hide from his pursuers, Robin volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity called the Glasshouse, Stross said. " constructed to simulate a pre-accelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities, [so] it looks like the ideal hiding place for a post-human on the run," he said. "But in this escape-proof environment Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche."
Stross said that unlike most of his novels, which assemble themselves over time from various components, Glasshouse had a very specific genesis. "I was in the pub with a friend, ... and we were talking about the U.S. military's deployment of psychological warfare techniques against its own population in the context of the runup to the Iraq invasion," he said. "[That] led me by a hop and a skip to the Stanford prison study, and I suddenly had a mental short circuit: 'Hey, what if we set a rerun of the Stanford prison study in [John] Varley's "Eight Worlds" universe, and rather than assigning people to the prisoner/guard social role, we assign them to traditional gender roles?'"
Going beyond that was a thought experiment about libertarianism, Stross said. "What, I wondered, were the minimal constraints for government in a human-occupied society that might emerge after the events in [my novel] Accelerando?" he said. "One where mind uploading, personality editing and teleportation across interstellar distances are available? And I came up with two functions of government that can't easily be done away with in a post-human context: broadcasting a common time signal and authenticating identity (proving that you are who you say you are and not someone else). It follows from there that a critical attack on such a society would be to corrupt its ability to keep a common 'empire time' running or to corrupt the identity of its citizens."
Stross added: "There's some ambiguity about what's going on, and that's entirely deliberate. Robin thinks he's in the Glasshouse to root out war criminals. And the Glasshouse was originally designed to rehabilitate war criminals. But Robin may himself have committed ghastly acts during the civil war. People in this universe are effectively immortal: What do you do with the combatants after the war is over?" —John Joseph Adams
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Sonic DS Title Developing
Sega announced the development of Sonic Rush Adventure for the Nintendo DS hand-held gaming system. Sonic Rush Adventure will make use of both screens to navigate the high seas in search of pirate treasure and deliver Sonic's classic high-speed 2-D gameplay, the company said.
Developed by Sega Studios, Sonic Rush Adventure for the DS will be available in fall 2007.
Sonic Rush Adventure is the sequel to Sonic Rush and invites players to blast through seven action-packed levels that continue the gameplay experience of the original title.
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CBS Renewing Jericho?
SyFyPortal (http://www.syfyportal.com/news423527.html) reported a rumor that CBS will renew its post-apocalyptic drama Jericho for a full second season.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that CBS may also move the show to a new night next fall. Jericho currently airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m., where it has had to face off against Fox's ratings juggernaut American Idol. Last week, Jericho beat out the season finale of Til Death.
CBS has made no formal announcements about series pickups yet and isn't expected to until May.
Jericho stars Skeet Ulrich, Ashley Scott and Gerald McRaney and centers on a small Kansas town, whose residents are coping with the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the United States.
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Levy To Helm The Seems
Night at the Museum helmer Shawn Levy has been tapped to direct The Seems, a fantasy film based on John Hulme and Mike Wexler's upcoming books series, Variety reported. The authors will write the script for the 20th Century Fox movie, based on The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep, the first installment in a multibook series, which will be published by Bloomsbury USA in the fall.
The Seems is a parallel world where everything that humans take for granted is manufactured and designed. When a glitch occurs, a young boy is drafted to correct it and save the world, the trade paper reported.
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[I]Painkiller Mobile Content Due
SCI FI Channel announced a Painkiller Jane (http://www.scifi.com/painkiller/) SCI FI Mobile WAP site, with exclusive programming available via hand-held devices such as video-enabled mobile phones and BlackBerries, via Mobile.SCIFI.com (http://mobile.scifi.com/) free of charge.
At launch, Mobile.SCIFI.com will deliver Painkiller Jane content, including SCI FI's first-ever multistrip Flash animation digital comic book, developed by Painkiller Jane comic-book creator Jimmy Palmiotti. Following its initial debut on Mobile.SCIFI.com, the strip will appear on the show's official Web site (http://www.scifi.com/painkiller/). Palmiotti will also write a blog with insider access to the creative mind behind the franchise.
Other mobile content will include show clips, interviews, promos, downloadable ring tones and wallpaper. The site will be accessible via all hand-held device carriers and will also include games, blogs, live feed-driven menus, SMS alerts and text-to-friend features for real-time content sharing.
Painkiller Jane, starring Kristanna Loken, airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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Cox Not Blind To Blood Ties
Christina Cox, star of Lifetime's new vampire series Blood Ties, told SCI FI Wire that her character, Vicki Nelson, is losing her sight, which affects the course of the series and her involvement with the 450-year-old vampire, Henry Fitzroy. "She needs Henry to help her in the dark and obviously help her against the supernatural," Cox said in an interview. "Because, when it comes to that, she's not physically strong enough, and no one but Henry is. It's really hard to ask for help, because it's admitting that she has a problem."
Blood Ties focuses on the adventures of ex-cop-turned-private-investigator Nelson and the two men in her life, Fitzroy and Nelson's former partner, Mike Celluci. The series, which is based on the Tanya Huff best-selling novel series The Blood Books, stars Cox (The Chronicles of Riddick), Dylan Neal (JAG) as Mike and Kyle Schmid (Beautiful People) as Fitzroy.
"I think Vicki is a pragmatic person, and the evidence says, 'This is real,'" Cox said. "'You've stood there and watched this guy disappear into a pentagram. You've looked at Henry with his fangs and black eyes and, well, he drank your blood.' If she plays the disbelief, then I think that's just silly, and where does the show go from there? I think Vicki is just someone who dives in and goes, 'All right!'"
Cox said that she believes Nelson's impending blindness ties in with her cavalier attitude about her own life. Losing her job as a cop because of her failing vision also has a major effect on her character's mission in life, which is to help those who can't help themselves. "She's lost something pretty crucial to her," Cox said. "I don't think she's that impressed with herself at this point. She's not really like, 'Look! Oh, I can't break a nail.' She's like, 'Whatever.' And that's why Vicki can plunge headlong into things, because I don't know that she's so concerned with her own well-being." Blood Ties airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. —Kathie Huddleston
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Empire's Kasdan Pens Titans
Lawrence Kasdan has been tapped to write a remake of Clash of the Titans for Warner Brothers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Basil Iwanyk is producing via Thunder Road.
A remake of the 1981 cult classic, the story revolves around Zeus' son, Perseus, and his journey to save Princess Andromeda, capture Pegasus and slay Medusa. The original marked the final film on which Ray Harryhausen did special effects. Travis Beacham (Killing on Carnival Row) wrote a draft.
Titans is Kasdan's first fantasy-style project since 2003's Dreamcatcher, based on a Stephen King story. Kasdan previously wrote the screenplays for Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He has since tended to write, as well as direct and produce, more earthbound fare such as Grand Canyon.
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Bay Tackling Persia Next?
IESB.net (http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2301&Itemid=99) reported that Michael Bay, who is now completing a Transformers movie, will next take on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, based on the video game, for longtime producing partner Jerry Bruckheimer. Persia is eyeing a summer 2009 release date, the site reported.
Bay previously worked with Bruckheimer on such movies as Bad Boys I and II, The Rock, Pearl Harbor and Armageddon.
This movie is based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.
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Hopkins Biting Into Wolfman?
Anthony Hopkins told RottenTomatoes.com (http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/news/comments/?entryid=414526) that he is considering a role in The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro.
"There's also a chance I may play the Wolfman in London in a movie with Benicio Del Toro," Hopkins told the site. "My agent says it's a great script, but he hasn't sent it to me yet."
Hopkins indicated that this is purely a matter of studio negotiations and that he wants the role. "He said he just wants to make sure that the deal is all in, but I play the Wolfman's father in Paris. A wonderful part."
The film would be based on Universal Pictures' classic 1941 lycanthropy movie The Wolf Man. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
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Crook Award Nominees Named
Nominees have been announced for this year's Compton Crook Award, which is given to the best SF, fantasy or horror novel of the year by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. The winner will be announced at Balticon 41 May 25-28 in Baltimore.
The nominees are The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, Sojourn by Jana G. Oliver and The Skewed Throne by Joshua Palmatier.
The award is named after Towson State College professor of natural science Compton Crook, who wrote SF under the name Stephen Tall. Crook died in 1981, and the award was first presented in 1983. The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize. —John Joseph Adams
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BRIEFLY NOTED
The West End play Equus, which made headlines for featuring an occasionally nude Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), will close with the actor's departure in June, the BBC reported. Rumors of a replacement included Jamie Bell (King Kong), Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings) and Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives), but none surfaced. The announcement comes as a surprise, since the play has broken box-office records and received critical praise.
Marvel Studios is developing a Broadway musical based on Spider-Man, to be directed by Tony winner Julie Taymor, with U2's Bono and the Edge creating new music and lyrics for the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter; auditions are now taking place, and a reading is scheduled for the summer.
J.J. Abrams wrote fans at the recent "Grand Slam" SF convention in Burbank, Calif., to promise more news about the movie soon, according to a post on the TrekMovie.com (http://trekmovie.com/2007/04/14/jj-abrams-sends-a-message-to-the-fans/) Web site.
SF author Orson Scott Card told IGN.com (http://movies.ign.com/articles/781/781573p1.html) that a proposed big-screen version of his novel Ender's Game has been put on hold at Warner Brothers, allowing the filmmakers to shop it around to other studios or raise funding independently.
Ain't It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32327) reported a rumor that Michael Apted (Amazing Grace, Coal Miner's Daughter) would be the director of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, stepping in for previous Narnia helmer Andrew Adamson, who has bowed out of helming the proposed third film installment based on C.S. Lewis' fantasy books.
The soundtrack for Shrek the Third will hit stores on May 15, three days before the animated sequel opens, and will feature a duet between Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas, as well as songs by Fergie and eels, the Associated Press reported.
Legendary SF author Ray Bradbury won a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize board on April 16 for his "distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy."
DarkHorizons (http://www.darkhorizons.com/news07/070416c.php) reported that Jonathan Rhys-Davies, who played Sallah in previous Indiana Jones movies, won't appear in the upcoming fourth installment.
Pathfinder opened in sixth place in the April 13 weekend box-office race, taking in about $4.8 million, while Grindhouse plunged six places in its second weekend of release to 10th, with $4.2 million for the weekend and a 10-day total of just $19.7 million, the Associated Press reported.
Charlotte's Web has become the biggest live-action family film to be released on DVD since The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in April 2006, according to The Hollywood Reporter.