fulltimer56
05-07-2007, 11:08 PM
NEWS OF THE WEEK FOR MAY. 07, 2007
Angel Season-Six Comics Due?
Ain't It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32510) reported that Joss Whedon, whose Buffy the Vampire Slayer season-eight comic series has proven a best-seller, is now contemplating a "sixth-season" comic series based on Buffy spinoff Angel.
The site added that Whedon will not devote the same level of commitment that he's given the new Buffy series to the Angel one. He has designated comic-book veteran Brian Lynch to serve as the Angel "season-six show runner."
The third issue of the Buffy comic is hitting stores now.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Matrix, Battlestar Top EW List
Entertainment Weekly named The Matrix as number one on its list of the top 25 science fiction movies or TV shows of the past 25 years, followed closely by SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/). The issue hits newsstands on May 7.
Other titles on the list include 1982's Blade Runner, Fox's The X-Files and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Rounding out the top 10: Brazil, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Aliens and John Carpenter's remake of The Thing.
The magazine will feature covers with images of cast members from NBC's hit series Heroes, which ranked number 18. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM and SCI FI Channel.)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Jeopardy! Clues In SCI FI
The clue: SCI FI Channel. The correct answer: What's the latest category on the longstanding game show Jeopardy!, Alex?
The May 8 episode of the syndicated game show will feature "SCI FI Channel" as a "Double Jeopardy!" category, with clues about the network's programs, characters and prologues. The episode is part of the 2007 Jeopardy! College Championship.
Jeopardy! is produced by Sony Pictures Television and is distributed domestically and internationally by CBS Television Distribution, a unit of CBS Corp.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Yates Confirmed For Potter VI
David Yates, director of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he will return to the director's chair for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in the blockbuster franchise. Yates, the British director best known for the U.K. miniseries State of Play and The Girl in the Cafe, is currently completing Phoenix, based on J.K. Rowling's fifth Potter book, and had been rumored to be attached to Prince.
"I am doing Half-Blood Prince, and I'm doing it because I love the world, I love the characters," the BAFTA-winning director said in an interview. "I think I have more business with this world and these characters."
Yates was brought on to the franchise to helm Phoenix, which has political overtones and deals in part with a rebellion at Hogwarts led by Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint).
"I've made a kind of tonal shift with the fifth film, which I want to continue and develop into the sixth film," Yates said. "And I can see the fifth story evolving into the sixth story in a really interesting way. So I'm on a journey with this material and this world, and I'm keen to complete it."
Yates would become only the second director to helm more than one Potter film, after Chris Columbus, who directed the first two. Alfonso Cuarón directed the third, Prisoner of Azkaban, and Mike Newell the fourth, Goblet of Fire.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens on July 13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is in preproduction with an eye to a November 2008 release. The seventh and final book in Rowling's series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hits bookstores on July 21. —Ian Spelling
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3's Raimi Talks Venom
Spider-Man 3 writer/director Sam Raimi told SCI FI Wire that he thought about introducing the new villain Venom in this sequel and continuing the story in a possible fourth film, but ultimately decided the entire story should be told in one movie. "I thought it would be unfair to [the fans]," he said of breaking the storyline up. The consequence of that decision is that fans may have to wait a bit to see the full-fledged supervillain in all his glory in Spider-Man 3.
The Venom storyline is one of only three main stories in the third installment of the webslinger franchise. In it, Peter Parker becomes affected by an alien symbiote, which turns his suit black, before it is rejected and migrates to Peter's romantic and professional rival, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who then transforms into Venom.
"So the very nature of that story demands that you either do it [as] two [parts], if you want to spend more time with Venom, which I didn't think was fair to the audience, to the fans of Spider-Man," or that you do it all at once and introduce Venom fairly late, Raimi said in a news conference. "I thought about it, I really did. And I kept reading the fans' e-mails that [producer] Avi [Arad] would send me—'They'd better not just introduce him to tease us!' ... I felt that the fans didn't want that, from the thousands of e-mails that were sent me."
Raimi added: "Avi said, 'You're not giving me what I asked you.' ... He said, 'They want Venom. Just give them Venom already!' So I said 'OK.' But, obviously, through the very nature of it, he's only going to be in half an act or one act [at the end of the film]. I'll just make it as thorough and the best that I can [and] deliver Venom in the most complete way that I understand the fans might want him. That was my desire. I was led there." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4 in conventional theaters and in IMAX. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3's Maguire Changes It Up
Tobey Maguire, who stars in Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire that the sequel picks up the webslinger's story at a relatively good point in his life, then takes things to a dark place. "Peter Parker is dealing with his pride at the beginning of the film," Maguire said in an interview. "Things are going very well for him. The public perception of him is good, and he's feeling like a useful hero for the first time, I think. And so he starts to become a little self-involved and prideful, and it starts to affect his relationships and whatnot. And, also, the black suit comes into play, and that brings out his darker side, or the darker sides of himself, and things happen from there."
In Spider-Man 3, Parker faces trouble with his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), deals with revelations about the true killer of his beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and faces off with three villains. Maguire welcomed the chance to explore more of his character.
"It's great," Maguire said. "I encouraged it to go a little further in that direction. ... One of the things that's kept it interesting is that each of these films has stood out as its own movie. It's not just the same movie or the same scenes rehashed. There're very unique journeys for Peter Parker in each movie, so it's great. It keeps me interested." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Howard Hung Around For Spidey 3
Bryce Dallas Howard (http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Bryce_Dallas_Howard), who plays Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire she spent weeks hanging from a wire to shoot a scene in which her character dangles from the side of a skyscraper before being rescued by the webslinger, played by Tobey Maguire. "Yeah, weeks," Howard said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "Oh, that was so much fun to shoot."
Howard plays Stacy, one of two young women in the life of Maguire's Peter Parker. In the scene, Stacy's character is on the upper floor of a high-rise office building when a crane crashes through it, causing the floor to collapse and dump Stacy out the window. Almost.
"They built ... this three- or four-story structure inside of a soundstage, and they literally ... would just over and over and over again ... just collapse it," Howard said. "They would just collapse the building over and over again, and all of these desks and copy machines and everything would just fall down and smash on the ground. They'd sweep it up, and then they'd set it up again. ... They put a harness on me, so of course I was safe the entire time, but they really let me fall."
Howard said she really slid down the floor and out the window, hanging from a wire. "Oh, yeah," she said. "I mean, there was like no acting involved in that scene whatsoever. Literally." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3 Already Smashing Records
Spider-Man 3 opened May 1 in Asian markets and set records in every one of the eight Asian territories in which it debuted, Variety reported. The sequel opens in dozens of other territories in the next few days, culminating May 4 in its domestic launch in 4,253 theaters, the widest North American opening of all time.
On Tuesday, it premiered in more than a dozen key territories, including Japan, France, Germany, Italy and South Korea. Another eight go May 2, with 30 more on May 3, including China, Australia and Russia, and an additional 30 on May 4, including the United Kingdom and India.
For May 1, Sony estimated that the movie hit ¥415 million ($3.47 million) in Japan, beating Spider-Man 2's ¥410 million. The first Spidey took in ¥347 million in its first day in Japan in 2004.
In Korea, Spider-Man 3 beat one-day marks for its predecessors, taking in 3.2 billion won ($3.44 million). In Hong Kong, Spidey saw the biggest opening day of all time, with $HK7.5 million ($958,984), besting the previous record holder, Kung Fu Hustle.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3's Howard Defends Gwen
Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire that she tried to remain true to the character's good heart, despite her role in the sequel film as the "other woman" between Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). "The character of Gwen Stacy initially in the comic book was Peter Parker's first love," Howard said in an interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "She was around in the mid- to late '60s, early '70s, and therefore I really wanted to be true to this character. I didn't want to just come in in the third film as some kind of man-stealing, homewrecking tart, you know what I mean? This is Gwen Stacy."
Though Gwen Stacy was Parker's first love in the comics, writer/director Sam Raimi reversed the order in which he introduced Spider-Man's female companions. In the movies, Stacy is more of a friend to Parker than a romantic rival to Mary Jane. "I was glad that ... the way that the relationship was is that she was friends with Peter Parker, and there was a closeness there, and, unintentionally, she created some tension in their romance."
But Howard is enthusiastic about continuing the character in upcoming films. "I've been very vocal about the fact that I really want to be a part of the fourth film if there is one," she said. "I just ... love the experience. This is one of ... the best experiences of my life, truly." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Franco More Active In Spidey 3
James Franco, who reprises the role of Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire that he'll have a lot more action in the sequel film. For starters, Harry engages in an aerial dogfight with Peter Parker early in the movie, riding on a snowboard-like version of his father's Green Goblin glider.
"That was all green screen," Franco said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "We're flying through the city. ... And that process involves me putting on the suit, ... which takes about half an hour. The camera crew has to light for about an hour. And then the stunt team has to rehearse, and I have to get strapped into the wires, and they have to raise me up, and everyone gets coordinated. And the costumer has to make sure that the costume looks right. And the wind fans go, and we're ready to go, and then they say 'Action!' and I go like that [raises his arm as if to strike], and then 'Cut!' And that's it."
Because it took hours and sometimes days to shoot only a few seconds of the elaborate fight over Manhattan, it took months to shoot the entire sequence, Franco said. "It's not like I'd be exhausted after doing one of those shots," he said. "It's just, you go in every day, and it's this process, and it's draining just because of the length [of time]. ... It's a matter of staying motivated over a month and a half and keeping a continuity of performance over a month and a half." The entire scene lasts several minutes.
Franco added that he performed a more traditional fight scene later in the movie: an all-out brawl between Harry and Peter Parker's Spider-Man, played by Tobey Maguire. "Tobey and I went through the moves, and you have to know when somebody's throwing the punch and know when to fake the hit and that kind of thing," Franco said. "But even that took six weeks. ... I think on a different film, that scene could have taken a week to shoot, but they're very meticulous on Spider-Man." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Peters Updates [I]Superman Sequel
Superman Returns (http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Superman_Returns) producer Jon Peters told The Hollywood Reporter that director Bryan Singer is at work on the expected sequel, which he will make after completing the World War II-themed Valkyrie.
"Right now, Bryan Singer is working on the story, and, hopefully, that will be a script by the end of the year," Peters told the trade paper. "And, hopefully, we'll be in preproduction by, say, January or February of next year."
The sequel will pick up on the first film, which grossed $391 million worldwide, the trade paper reported. "The second movie allows us to go do things that people haven't seen before," Peters said.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Flash Uses Tin For Mongo
SCI FI Channel's upcoming original series Flash Gordon (http://www.scifi.com/flashgordon/) will make use of some pieces of the elaborate sets for SCI FI's miniseries Tin Man (http://www.scifi.com/tinman/), which is also filming in Vancouver, Canada, Mark Stern, SCI FI's executive vice president of original programming, told SCI FI Wire. Flash Gordon, a 21st-century update of the classic comic-strip serial, begins shooting on May 1 and premieres on Aug. 10.
Reusing the sets will allow Flash to create a rich look for the planet Mongo, Stern said. "There are some elements of the villain in Tin Man that are similarly dictatoresque in the villain Ming the Merciless on Mongo ," Stern said in an interview at an NBC press event in Pasadena, Calif., over the weekend. "The Wicked Witch in Tin Man definitely has this dictatorship thing going on. So her palace has this Albert Speer-like 1930s design, with Roman columns and fascinating big elaborate halls. So we could retool and repaint and change the glass, and it will be very distinguishably different."
Eric Johnson (Smallville) is set to play the lead role. He said the Flash Gordon set has a "retro-futurisitic feel" to it. "It's the same company making both shows, so whatever you can beg or borrow makes sense," he said. "We're shooting in Vancouver, same place, but this is a very different set. It's like if someone gave you the frame of a car, and you can easily put a new engine in it." —Mike Szymanski
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Johnson Ready In A Flash
Eric Johnson, star of SCI FI Channel's upcoming original series Flash Gordon (http://www.scifi.com/flashgordon/), told SCI FI Wire that his past work on The WB's Smallville prepared him for SF fandom. Johnson, who played football player Whitney Fordman on Smallville, takes on the title role in Flash Gordon, a 21st-century update of the classic comic-strip serial, which debuts Aug. 10.
"I got a taste of that rabid fan base when I was on Smallville, and it's always good to know about your character when it's centered on a big mythology like this," Johnson said in an interview at an NBC press preview of summer programs in Pasadena, Calif., over the weekend. "But ultimately the fans will always know more than the actors, always."
Johnson said that Flash fans and the Internet have helped him research his upcoming role. Johnson compared the early part of his new series with Smallville, because they both show the origins of a superhero.
"I didn't know much more than the name Flash Gordon, but the Internet helped me a lot, and people sent me links," Johnson said. "There was this Biography Channel bio on Flash Gordon that talked about the mythology and the writers and the actors. Then it was interesting just finding out what other people knew." Johnson's own grandmother was a reader of the original newspaper comic strip, which was created in 1934 by legendary comic-strip artist Alex Raymond and is still distributed internationally by King Features Syndicate. "If we could come even close to what the Buster Crabbe serials did with a new generation, that would be fantastic," Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Johnson said that he is training with martial-arts experts while getting fitted for costumes. Casting continues for the roles of Dr. Hans Zarkov and Dale Arden, Flash's love interest. "This is going to be a bit like [I]Indiana Jones, with lots of drama and humor and the girl, with great fight sequences, and it's not going to take itself too seriously, but not be campy," Johnson said. "This is an average guy who finds himself in an extraordinary circumstance and becomes a reluctant hero." SCI FI has ordered 22 episodes of Flash Gordon. —Mike Szymanski
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Favreau Talks Iron Man Suits
Iron Man director Jon Favreau wrote on his official blog (http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=34396892&groupID=102795074&adTopicID=12&Mytoken=ABD9F282-4CB0-461F-A64C26F3DFC7A9FF3831875) that the film will feature at least two kinds of armored suits. "Let me confirm a few things: The movie will contain both the gray suit and the gold and red," Favreau wrote. "The light you see in the photo on Robert's chest in the USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-04-26-iron-man_N.htm) article is the chest piece glowing through his shirt. He is in captivity and forging the mask of the Mark 1."
Favreau, who is currently shooting the movie, added that both suits have been built by Winston Studios "and are busily at work as we speak. We are exploring ideas for teaser trailers, though no date has been decided. We are planning to attend San Diego Comic-Con. [Jeff] Bridges is bald (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=10&id=3437&type=10) and plays Stane (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=40455&type=0). The movie is on schedule and could not be going better." Favreau added that the film recently shot in the mountains of Lone Pine, Calif., which doubled for Afghanistan, before moving to Edwards Air Force Base. Iron Man is eyeing a May 2008 release.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Tyler Is Ross In New Hulk
Liv Tyler will star opposite Edward Norton in Marvel Studios' The Incredible Hulk, signing on to play Betty Ross, the longtime love interest of Dr. Bruce Banner/the Hulk, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Louis Leterrier is directing the movie, which is being produced by Avi Arad, Gale Anne Hurd and Kevin Feige.
Ross, a classic Hulk character from the comic book's beginning in 1962, is Banner's fellow scientist and an ally in his quest to rid him of his lurking monster deep inside. The movie will unfold with Ross estranged from Banner (Norton), but with the pursuit of the Hulk heating up and Banner on the run trying to cure his condition, Ross finds herself swept back into his life.
Jennifer Connelly played the character in the 2003 movie Hulk, directed by Ang Lee.
Filming on the new Hulk is slated to begin in the summer in Toronto. Universal Pictures is distributing. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
Tyler is best known as Arwen from the Lord of the Rings films.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Lucas: [I]Indy 4 Wants Connery
George Lucas, who is producing the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones film, confirmed to the Reuters news service that the story will feature Sean Connery's character of Henry Jones, but that the Scottish actor had yet to sign on.
In a brief interview at the San Francisco International Film Society on May 3, Lucas said: "We have a script with him in it. If he doesn't do it, we'll do a quick rewrite."
Connery played Indy's dad in the third and last Indy film, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, even though Connery, at 76, is in reality only 12 years older than star Harrison Ford.
The San Francisco Film Society honored Star Wars creator Lucas with an award on May 3 to mark the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco International Film Festival, Reuters reported. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Doohan Treks To Space
The cremated remains of original Star Trek star James Doohan (Montgomery "Scotty" Scott) were finally blasted into space on a commercial rocket on April 28, the Associated Press reported.
Wende Doohan was one of the relatives who fired a rocket carrying a small amount of her husband's ashes, along with those of other people, including Apollo astronaut Gordon Cooper, at 8:56 a.m. local time from a New Mexico launch site. The suborbital flight plummeted back to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range.
Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85. The remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry were sent into space in 1997.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Warner Options Miller's Ronin
Another Frank Miller graphic novel—Ronin, about a disgraced samurai whose master was assassinated by a shape-shifting demon—has been optioned by Warner Brothers for a live-action movie, Variety reported. Warner was behind the recent hit based on Miller's 300. Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) will direct Ronin.
In the graphic novel, the story moves from 13th-century Japan to 21st-century New York, where the master's sword is unearthed and the ronin and the demon are brought to life to battle gangs of mutants and thugs to try to take possession of the mythical sword. The graphic novel was published by DC Comics.
Ronin will be shot in a fashion similar to that employed for 300, in which blue- and green-screen shooting was done on a Montreal soundstage to create an ancient Greek battleground.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Three Join Ruins Cast
Shawn Ashmore will star with Laura Ramsey and Jena Malone in The Ruins, a supernatural-tinged thriller film based on the best-selling Scott B. Smith novel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Red Hour Films' Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld are producing, along with Chris Bender.
The new cast members join Jonathan Tucker in the film, about a group of friends whose leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when they accompany a fellow tourist on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins. Smith wrote the screenplay.
Principal photography begins in late May in Queensland, Australia.
Ashmore is best known for his role as Bobby/Iceman in the X-Men movies.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Mistborn Mixes Heist With Magic
Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who is a current finalist for this year's John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, The Mistborn: The Final Empire, is one part fantasy novel, one part Ocean's Eleven and one part kung fu epic.
"A thousand years ago, a young peasant hero gathered a group of unlikely followers, went on a quest to find a place of magic, then did battle with the powers of darkness; he, however, lost," Sanderson said in an interview. "Now, a thousand years later, the world is dominated by the Lord Ruler, a dark god-emperor who controls the landscape with an oppressive fist. The landscape is burned and nearly lifeless. Ash falls from the sky, and mists cloud the entire land at night. The prophecies turned out to be false. The hero ended up failing."
A gang of thieves gets together and decides that if gods, prophecies and heroes had abandoned the world, it's time to try something new, Sanderson said. "They determine to overthrow the Lord Ruler, but to do it their way: by robbing him silly and bribing his armies away from him."
The Mistborn was partly inspired by Sanderson's fondness for the heist genre, he said. "I love a story about a gang of specialists, each with their own unique thing to add to the team," Sanderson said. "I wondered why I hadn't seen this in fantasy, where it seemed to fit so well. You could have a team with each person having a different magical power, then show how they use their different abilities to achieve an impossible-sounding goal."
The book is what's known as "hard fantasy": fantasy that focuses on making magic feel almost like science, Sanderson said. "Allomancy—the magic in this book—came from my studies into historical science and the pseudo-science that often gets mixed in with it," he said. "I wanted to develop a magic which would let each of my protagonists have a different power and which would interact with physics in interesting ways."
Sanderson spent nine years—during which he wrote 13 novels—trying to get published, he said. "Mistborn ... was the first book I ever wrote knowing that it would get published," Sanderson said. "This was a very different experience for me. The time for experimentation was over ... I wanted a novel that showed off what I could really accomplish, if I put my mind to it: an intricate, original magic system [and] a plot that twists and turns with a dozen well-foreshadowed surprises."
The Final Empire is the first installment in The Mistborn trilogy, and book two—The Well of Ascension—is coming out in August, Sanderson said. "Also of note is my kids' book, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, which is the start of a new series for younger readers," he said. "It's being released by Scholastic this October and is, well, a little bit silly. It's about a family of freedom fighters who secretly resist librarian control of the world." —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Four Studios Mull Jackson's Bones
Four studios are interested in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, a supernatural drama based on Alice Sebold's novel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jackson began circulating his script, written with his Lord of the Rings partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, on April 30, and, so far, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers, Sony and Universal are in the running, the trade paper reported.
The trade paper reported that the movie will carry an $80 million price tag. The book tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and killed and whose spirit keeps watch over her family and her killer.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Nova Wins Clarke Award
M. John Harrison's novel Nova Swing has been named the winner of this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, recognizing distinguished science fiction published in Great Britain. The announcement was made May 2 in London at Sci-Fi-London, the sixth annual international festival of science fiction and fantastic film.
The annual award, which is presented by the Serendip Foundation, is named for legendary SF author Arthur C. Clarke, who founded the award with the aim of promoting science fiction in Britain.
The other nominees were End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet, Hav by Jan Morris, Gradisil by Adam Roberts and Streaking by Brian Stableford. —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Dark Horse's Ark Gets Adapted
Dark Horse Comics' SF graphic novel The Ark is headed for the big screen, with Columbia Pictures pairing with Original Films' Neal Moritz, Variety reported.
The Ark mixes the story of Noah's ark with a UFO crash. It first appeared in the anthology series Dark Horse Presents, the comic book that also launched Frank Miller's Sin City.
Mark Verheiden, creator of the comic on which the film will be based, has been tapped to write the screenplay. Dark Horse's Mike Richardson will produce with Moritz.
Verheiden previously teamed with Richardson in the creation of the Dark Horse comic book Timecop and later adapted it into a film and TV series. He has written for TV shows such as SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/) and The CW's Smallville and has a story credit for The Mask, which Richardson also executive-produced.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Hartnett Comes With The Rain
Josh Hartnett will star in I Come With the Rain, a drama with a supernatural twist that will shoot in Hong Kong in June, Variety reported. Tran Anh Hung (The Scent of Green Papaya) will direct from a script he wrote.
Hartnett will play a private detective who, haunted by a past encounter with a serial killer, heads for the Far East to search for a missing heir who has the power to heal with his touch. Tran Nu Yen Khe also stars.
Hartnett will soon appear in the David Slade-directed vampire movie 30 Days of Night.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Disunited Imagines Alternate America
Hugo Award-winning author Harry Turtledove—whose novel The Disunited States of America is a finalist for this year's Sidewise Award for works of alternate history—told SCI FI Wire that the book is set in the late 21st century in a world where the Constitution didn't replace the Articles of Confederation and the United States fell to pieces in the early 19th century. "This makes North America a patchwork quilt of things that call themselves states but are in fact independent countries," Turtledove said in an interview. "Beckie Royer, who lives in this world's California, is visiting relatives in western Virginia with her obnoxious grandmother when a war with neighboring Ohio breaks out. Justin Monroe is from [an organization called] Crosstime Traffic in our timeline, helping to keep an eye on that part of the country. Most of the plot involves their meeting and their trying to stay alive through the war."
The opening scene of the novel, in which Beckie helps run guns from Ohio into Virginia, is based on something that really happened to Turtledove's wife when she visited Yugoslavia at the age of 14, he said. "Her grandmother had kin over the border from Italy, where they were staying," Turtledove said. "A relative by marriage used the presence of two Americans to bemuse the border guards and run rifles into Yugoslavia. My wife was sitting in the back seat, with her feet on a blanket covering the guns. She was sweating bullets that the guards would search the car, at which point she'd be toast. They didn't, and the guns got run. Some years later, this fellow who drove them died by being run off the road in circumstances nobody's ever explained."
Turtledove said imagining the consequences of a continent shattered into pieces for almost 300 years before the time in which the story was set certainly made him do some thinking. "You [can't] tell everything that happened [differently], obviously," he said. "You mention a few things about the wars in which Virginia's fought, you talk about stamps and coins and memorial medals, and you let the readers use their imaginations."
Speaking of stamps and coins, in this alternate world the Crosstime Traffic people use a stamp-and-coin shop as their cover, Turtledove said. "I'm a very minor coin collector, while my daughter collects stamps," he said. "Trying to dream up issues that might have come from this changed history was a lot of fun."
Turtledove created the Crosstime Traffic series—of which Disunited is the fourth volume—to tap into the young adult market, he said. "I wanted to write a series to interest younger readers in some of the things I do, to entertain them and, with a little luck, to get them to think a bit about what was, what might have been and what may be," Turtledove said.
The next Crosstime Traffic book, The Gladiator, will be out in June, Turtledove said. "It's set in Italy, in a world where the U.S.S.R. won the Cold War," he said. —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Church Hops To American Dog
Thomas Haden Church told SCI FI Wire that he provides the voice of a rabbit named Buttons in the long-gestating Walt Disney animated feature American Dog. The Texas-based actor, who will next be seen in Spider-Man 3, added that the film has been evolving as he's worked on it.
"They hired me a couple of years ago, and [we] went through, God, at least a year and a half of them coming to Texas or me going to L.A., and we'd record a bunch of stuff," Church said in an interview while promoting Spider-Man 3. "Then in October or November they came to San Antonio, because they really wanted to get some more stuff recorded. The director [Chris Sanders, who also originated the story,] and producers and writers met me, and I could tell that something was going on, that something had shifted."
American Dog originated as the story of a canine TV star who finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert with a giant bunny and a testy cat. "We had a session, they went away," Church said. "I went to Pittsburgh to work, and then I didn't hear from anybody for quite a while. Then I talked to Clark, the producer, at the beginning of January and he told me that [Pixar boss John] Lasseter had replaced the director [with Chris Williams,] and they were just starting to completely rewrite the movie. So I used to play a one-eyed rabbit named Buttons. I'm not really sure what I'm playing anymore. I'm kind of kidding. I think the characters are going to remain intact, but the story is shifting. So I'm waiting, waiting for a script to arrive at my ranch." American Dog, which also features the voices of John Travolta, Woody Harrelson, Bernie Mac and Mario Cantone, is intended as a summer 2008 release.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Crichton's Andromeda Infects A&E
Michael Crichton's classic SF novel The Andromeda Strain will infect television in a new original miniseries for A&E, to be executive-produced by filmmaking brothers Tony and Ridley Scott, Variety reported. Director-cinematographer Mikael Solomon will direct from a script by Robert Schenkkan (The Quiet American), about an alien germ that comes to Earth and threatens to cause a deadly plague.
The miniseries is set to go into production this summer. David Zucker and Tom Thayer are also executive-producing.
Andromeda was initially billed as a four-hour event, but could run up to six hours.
Ridley Scott (director of Blade Runner) will be taking the lead on the project, which is based on Crichton's first book. It was previously adapted as a feature film (http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/The_Andromeda_Strain_%28Movie%29) directed by Robert Wise in 1971.
The Andromeda Strain miniseries was originally being developed by SCI FI Channel (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=30211).
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Harbingers Is Repairman Jack's 10th
Multiple-award-winning author F. Paul Wilson, whose novel Harbingers is a finalist for this year's Prometheus Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book is the 10th installment in the Repairman Jack series. "I never dreamed it would run this long, but the demand for more books keeps increasing rather than winding down," Wilson said in an interview. "As often happens in the novels, Jack is hired to fix some mundane situation that inevitably takes a left turn into Weirdville. A regular at the bar where he hangs asks him to put the word out on his teenage niece, who didn't show up at school today. This opens a Pandora's box that releases major tragedy for Jack—which sends him into a rage. And you don't want to be the focus of Jack's rage. A high body count in this one—maybe the highest of the series."
Repairman Jack first appeared in Wilson's The Tomb in 1984, he said. "He had series character written all over him, but I didn't want to get involved in a series, so I left him bleeding to death at the end," Wilson said. "I thought that would be that, but the novel never went out of print, and his following kept growing. So 14 years later I brought him back in Legacies and have been doing one a year ever since. He's a career criminal, an urban mercenary, a gut anarchist who lives below the radar: He's never had a Social Security number, never filed a 1040. He's the ghost in the machine who hires out to fix problems the machine can't or won't fix."
Harbingers arose from a confluence of inevitabilities, Wilson said. "I try to make each of the novels in the series stand alone, but I've been weaving longer threads through them—über-arcs, you might say," he said. "Some of those arcs had developed to a point where they needed resolution. ... They'd reached the limits of their tensile strength and needed some closure, some catharsis. I'm a big believer in catharsis. So I tied up a number of threads, which created some problems for the next book, Bloodline."
Harbingers is nominated for this year's Prometheus Award—given to works that exemplify libertarian ideals—but Wilson said he hasn't consciously used libertarian ideas in his work since the 1970s. "But it's my worldview, so it can't help but seep in," he said. "Plus I have a continuing character who's been called 'a libertarian's wet dream,' and so, because of his lifestyle, every book he's in involves the theme of the individual against the collective. ... Except for Jack's presence, [the book is] not terribly libertarian. But libertarians love the guy."
Next spring will see publication of the first Repairman Jack novel for the young-adult market, Wilson said. "It's called Secret Histories, and I'm psyched about it," he said. "It takes place in 1983, when Jack is 14, and I had a ball writing it." —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
PS3 F.E.A.R. Has New Content
The new PlayStation 3 version of F.E.A.R. will feature exclusive new content, Rob Loftus, the senior producer, told SCI FI Wire. "We've added a new game mode, called Instant Action, that puts the player in some of the signature firefights from F.E.A.R. and then scores their progress," Loftus said in an interview. "You can take that score and upload to online leader boards. We've also added new weapons and multiplayer maps. Rounding it all out is a new mission for each console that explains a little bit more of what happened in the original F.E.A.R. at points in the story."
F.E.A.R., which stands for First Encounter Assault and Recon, is a first-person shooter that mixes tight-quartered combat with elements of survival horror. It pits gamers against challenging AI opponents. The PS3 version of F.E.A.R. is the latest and last port the game will receive for now.
Even though this is the third version of the game, Loftus said that neither the PS3 version nor the earlier Xbox 360 port were ever approached as a "do-over" in any way.
"We were very happy with the original game and didn't look at releasing on the [PS3] as a chance to fix things," Loftus said. "It was more about releasing it to a wider audience and keeping the experience representative of the quality the original PC release had."
As for the differences in developing the title for the Xbox 360 and PS3, Loftus said: "They are definitely different machines that do things differently from one another. The challenge was harnessing the power of both systems and not sacrificing the quality on the other." —Casey Lynch
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Changes Due For Eureka Couple
Big changes are in store for Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) and her ex-husband, Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn), in the upcoming new season of SCI FI Channel's original series Eureka (http://www.scifi.com/eureka/)—including (spoiler ahead!) possibly a rekindled romance? Richardson-Whitfield and Quinn talked at a press preview in Pasadena, Calif., over the weekend about the upheaval in store for their characters on the show, which returns with new episodes on July 10.
"Last year we ... ended where Nathan's character was getting a little obsessed with the Artifact," Richardson-Whitfield said. "At the end, there was a huge explosion, and because of that he loses his job, and I take over as the head of Global Dynamics." As a result, Stark returns to his roots as a scientist, she added. "Which sort of draws us even closer, because I start seeing the man I fell in love with instead of the sort of power-hungry head of Global. ... What does that mean for Allison? When you become the head, ... am I going to turn into that [power-hungry type]? What happens to her when she has that much power and has to deal with that much responsibility?"
As for Stark, Quinn said: "It seemed a bit jarring right off the bat to suddenly lose my job, and not just lose my job, but then lose my job to my estranged wife and [lose] all my secrets. And what's fascinating is, what you would think is that would allow Allison and Jack Carter [Colin Ferguson] to become closer, and she and I would become estranged. The opposite happens. She and I, Allison and Stark, become even closer. We rekindle the relationship. I rekindle my relationship with her son, Kevin, who also becomes a very integral part of the show this season. ... Her new position puts a strain on Carter and Allison's relationship."
There's also upheaval in store for Carter when his ex-wife comes to town. But that's another story. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Jackson Seeks Studio For Bones
Peter Jackson's script adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones, which he co-wrote with partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, began making the rounds in Hollywood on April 30, with the Lord of the Rings filmmaker seeking a studio partner, Variety reported.
Jackson has said he plans to direct the movie version of Sebold's supernatural-tinged novel, about a 14-year-old girl who is raped and killed and whose spirit keeps watch over her family and her killer.
The only major studio omitted from Monday's action was New Line, whose chief, Robert Shaye, told SCI FI Wire (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=39462) that Jackson would never work with the studio again under his watch. As of early Monday evening, the bidding for Jackson's Bones had not yet begun in earnest.
Jackson, Boyens and Walsh previously collaborated on the Rings movies and King Kong.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Luke Ford Joins Mummy 3
Universal Pictures and director Rob Cohen have set Luke Ford to star in the third installment of The Mummy, in a move that potentially sets the franchise up for future films, Variety reported. The 26-year-old Australian actor was cast with the expectation that he will eventually carry the franchise.
Ford will play Alex O'Connell, the grown-up son of Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell and Rachel Weisz's Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell from the first two Mummy films. (Freddie Boath played the character as a boy in The Mummy Returns.) Alex journeys into the forbidden tombs of China and into the Himalayas, where he and Fraser's character run into a new shape-shifting mummy, a former Chinese emperor who was cursed by a female wizard. (Weisz declined to return for the third Mummy.)
Jet Li plays the mummy. Michelle Yeoh plays the wizard. The script was written by Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough. Shooting will begin in Montreal on July 27 and then move to China. The film is eyeing a July 2008 release date. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Goss Joins Del Toro's Hellboy 2
Luke Goss is rejoining director Guillermo del Toro for Universal Pictures' Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie reunites the first movie's principals—Ron Perlman as Hellboy, Selma Blair as Liz Sherman and both David Hyde Pierce and Doug Jones as Abe Sapien—for a supernatural action-adventure that sees the world of myth rebelling against humanity, the trade paper reported.
Goss will play Prince Nuada, a ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below, defying his bloodline to awaken an unstoppable army of creatures. Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola wrote the script. Filming is scheduled to begin in June in Budapest for an Aug. 1, 2008, release.
Goss previously worked with del Toro on Blade II, in which he played the villainous vampire Nomak.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
300 Tops MTV Movie Nods
300 snagged five MTV Movie Awards nominations on April 30, while Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest followed with four, Variety reported. 300 got nominated for best movie and best fight, along with performance (Gerard Butler), breakthrough performance (Lena Headey) and villain (Rodrigo Santoro).
Pirates stars Johnny Depp and Keira Knightly both scored performance nods, while Bill Nighy's villain and a best movie nomination rounded out the Pirates nominations.
Sarah Silverman hosts when the Golden Popcorn trophies are handed out in a live broadcast June 3 at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Sitting On A Throne Of Lies
Fantasy author Joshua Palmatier—whose novel The Skewed Throne is a finalist for this year's Compton Crook Award for best first novel—told SCI FI Wire that the idea for the book came from one of his unsold novels. "My characters in that book were walking through this ancient museum, and so I needed to have all these cool artifacts in [there]," Palmatier said in an interview. "One of the characters walks up to a throne. [It's] a very, very warped throne, and the feet are skewed—the shortest leg appears to be on the part of the feet that's the highest, so its like an Escher painting: It's physically impossible. So they step closer, because they want to get a better look. When they do, they start hearing voices. And in the [original story] it freaks them out enough that they walk away. But the idea of this weird, skewed, warped throne and the additional idea of the voices stuck with me very, very strongly, so I ended up combining them [in The Skewed Throne]."
The protagonist, Varis, is trained to be an assassin and must defeat the insane throne, Palmatier said. "Essentially all the personalities of anyone who has touched the throne have been stored in it," he said. "In order to control it, you have to be able to control all of the personalities, but there's so many it's essentially insane."
Having been raised in the slums, Varis is basically a survivalist—she has learned the art of survival at any cost, Palmatier said. "She is an incredibly practical person; she gets what she needs to survive," he said. "She also has this moral code. And in the end these two [traits] end up conflicting with each other. In one respect she's very complex, because she doesn't want to hurt people, and yet in order to survive she has to become an assassin."
In the second book in the series, The Cracked Throne, Varis is in control of the throne, but since she was raised in a slum she has no idea how to run a city, Palmatier said. "But we are on the verge of winter and for the past summer and spring the food distribution has been totally disrupted in the city," he said. "They are looking at a bad winter with no food, so she is taking over at a pretty bad time. After that she has to figure out how to feed the city during this winter and also how to handle all this new power that she is not used to. About halfway through the book she starts getting these intimations that there is something else coming [that is] possibly going to destroy the city, and she ... realizes they've got a bigger problem: Some kind of invading force is coming, and they have no idea who it is." The third and final book in the series, The Vacant Throne, is due in January 2008. —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Aronofsky Drafting Noah Epic
The British Guardian (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2065823,00.html#article_continue) newspaper revealed that The Fountain director Darren Aronofsky's contemplated biblical epic (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=38907&type=0) film will be a version of the story of Noah and the flood. The newspaper reported that Aronofsky is several drafts into a screenplay about Noah.
When the writer-director was 13, he won a United Nations competition at his school in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn; it was for his first poem, a little effort about the end of the world as seen through Noah's eyes, the newspaper reported. "That story has interested me ever since," Aronofsky told the paper.
The script won't be a conventional biblical epic. "Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk," Aronofsky said. "It's there in the Bible. It was one of the first things he did when he reached land. There was some real survivor's guilt going on there. He's a dark, complicated character."
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Ratatouille Footage Going Up
Disney will unveil a nine-minute sequence from its upcoming Pixar animated film Ratatouille on May 1 at Disney.com. Disney will also launch a daylong television advertising campaign on that day, which will be highlighted by a 90-second commercial during American Idol.
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. PT on May 1, the video playlist on the homepage of Disney.com will be roadblocked to include only the nine-minute scene for a 24-hour period. The site will also feature a custom background skin, permanent homepage promotional units and character integration into the site's segment pages, as well as other content.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
U.K. To Split Grindhouse
The Weinstein Co. announced that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's double feature Grindhouse with be released as two separate movies in the United Kingdom, Variety reported.
The original plan was to screen Grindhouse as a double bill in the United Kingdom and Australia, with other territories getting Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror separately.
Momentum Pictures will release Death Proof in U.K. theaters on Sept. 21. A release date for Planet Terror, which will also go out via Momentum, has not yet been set.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Dragon's Lair Film In Works?
IGN.com (http://movies.ign.com/articles/784/784252p1.html) reported that the new Blu-ray release of the interactive movie/game Dragon's Lair features interviews with creators Don Bluth, Rick Dyer and Gary Goldman, during which the trio confirm that a Dragon's Lair feature film is still in the works.
"We've had a completed script for over three years now, and we've had some very positive meetings with the studios," Goldman said on the disc. "It shouldn't be done as a CG movie. It should be done as traditional animation, like the original game. But traditional animation is in a sort of limbo."
Goldman added that he's hopeful since Disney is restarting its traditional animation division, but said there's a logjam of computer-animated projects out there.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Wolf Bridges Human, Animal
Fantasy author Jane Lindskold—whose novel Wolf's Blood is the conclusion to her Firekeeper Saga—told SCI FI Wire that the series is about a woman who is the bridge between the animal and human worlds: human in shape, wolf in outlook. "In the six books of the series, [Firekeeper] learns to reject neither part of her heritage, but keeping conflicting impulses in balance is a continuous challenge, not only to her peace of mind, but to her life," Lindskold said in an interview.
Firekeeper's two primary companions are Blind Seer, her wolf companion, and Derian Carter, her first human friend, Lindskold said. "Both of these find that traveling with Firekeeper forces change, development and adaptation, because wherever Firekeeper goes, her very existence upsets preconceived notions," she said. "If one cannot adapt, one is quite likely going to find oneself at best left behind, and at worst dead."
At the end of the previous book in the series, Wolf Hunting, Firekeeper and her associates are tenuously in control of the Nexus Islands, Lindskold said. "And, more importantly, the system of transport gates those islands hold," she said. "However, those gates have become essential to the economy of the Old Country, and the rulers of the Old Country nations know only that the treaties they have with the Nexans have been broken without cause."
Lindskold could never tell an abstract war story, she said. "To me, the personalities of those who are in conflict are what makes such a tale interesting," Lindskold said. "That, to me, is the focus of Wolf's Blood. Firekeeper especially finds herself challenged because she alone can unite the varied factions if the Nexus Islands are to have a chance of holding—and she alone has a hope of finding a cure for querinalo, the plague that makes it impossible for the Nexans to request outside help or alliance."
Since Wolf's Blood concludes the series, Lindskold wanted to make certain that various threads that had run through the series were resolved, she said. "However, the only way to provide absolute closure in a series is either to kill everyone off or to provide a neat little epilogue," Lindskold said. "I wasn't willing to do either of these things, so I had a difficult balancing act to manage."
But Firekeeper and her friends have a new adventure ahead of them: A Marvel Comics/Dabel Brothers Productions graphic-novel adaptation is in the works, Lindskold said. "My contract gives me a certain degree of quality control, so no one needs to worry about the story or characters changing too much," she said. "However, I'm also coming on board as the scripter, and in this way I'll be able to slip in details that I simply couldn't put in to the novels."
Lindskold is also madly enthusiastic about her new Breaking the Wall series, forthcoming from Tor, she said. "The first book, 13 Orphans, is done and turned into my editor," Lindskold said. "Breaking the Wall merges both contemporary and imaginary world fantasy, [and] is heavily infused with Chinese myth and magic." —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
BRIEFLY NOTED
IESB.net (http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2434&Itemid=99) has posted what appears to be a pirate set video of the Iron Man movie, with someone in what looks like the actual armored suit.
The 33rd Seattle film festival will honor Anthony Hopkins with a lifetime achievement award May 30, followed by a screening of Slipstream, an SF movie that he wrote and directed, Variety reported; the festival runs May 24-June 17.
Ten new images from Vin Diesel's upcoming SF movie Babylon AD have gone live on the Web (http://vindieselgallery.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=290).
ShockTillYouDrop.com (http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=180) reported that a Hellraiser remake is still in the works and that creator Clive Barker still plans to write the screenplay.
Spider-Man 3 broke opening-day records in 10 regions across Asia and Europe on May 1, its first day of global release, easily outpacing the previous two films in the series internationally, Variety reported; the sequel made more than $29 million.
Transformers director Michael Bay posted on a message board (http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1701&start=0) on April 27 that "we had two screenings tonight, 850 people. Highest test scores in my career. Blew Armageddon away, which was a 92. Go figure." The movie opens July 4.
Entertainment Weekly has posted the first image (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20037509,00.html) of the robotic suit from Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie, starring Robert Downey Jr.
Kopelson Entertainment partners Arnold and Anne Kopelson have bought the screen rights to the upcoming Michael Scott fantasy novel Otherworld, about ancient demons unleashed by global warming, Variety reported.
Lost star Daniel Dae Kim and Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/) star Grace Park will host the 2007 AZN Asian Excellence Awards, presented by JCPenney, which will air on AZN Television on May 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Producer Mark Burnett and Touched by an Angel star Roma Downey were married April 28 at their home in Malibu, Calif., in a ceremony officiated by Downey's Angel co-star Della Reese, an ordained minister, the Associated Press reported.
The new full-length trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer has gone live and is linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=8&id=1543) page.
Germany's new Federal Film Fund has allocated its biggest grant yet: Warner's Speed Racer will receive 9 million euros ($12.3 million) toward its production in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, Variety reported; the film is set to start shooting in June at Babelsberg Studios outside Berlin.
The History Channel has given a green light to six specials and acquired a raft of digital programming that includes a slate of documentaries commissioned and overseen by George Lucas, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
David Goyer's The Invisible opened in second place at the April 27 box office, taking in about $7.6 million, the Associated Press reported; the other genre debut of the weekend, Next, starring Nicolas Cage, premiered in third place, with $7.2 million.
Angel Season-Six Comics Due?
Ain't It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32510) reported that Joss Whedon, whose Buffy the Vampire Slayer season-eight comic series has proven a best-seller, is now contemplating a "sixth-season" comic series based on Buffy spinoff Angel.
The site added that Whedon will not devote the same level of commitment that he's given the new Buffy series to the Angel one. He has designated comic-book veteran Brian Lynch to serve as the Angel "season-six show runner."
The third issue of the Buffy comic is hitting stores now.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Matrix, Battlestar Top EW List
Entertainment Weekly named The Matrix as number one on its list of the top 25 science fiction movies or TV shows of the past 25 years, followed closely by SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/). The issue hits newsstands on May 7.
Other titles on the list include 1982's Blade Runner, Fox's The X-Files and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Rounding out the top 10: Brazil, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Aliens and John Carpenter's remake of The Thing.
The magazine will feature covers with images of cast members from NBC's hit series Heroes, which ranked number 18. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM and SCI FI Channel.)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Jeopardy! Clues In SCI FI
The clue: SCI FI Channel. The correct answer: What's the latest category on the longstanding game show Jeopardy!, Alex?
The May 8 episode of the syndicated game show will feature "SCI FI Channel" as a "Double Jeopardy!" category, with clues about the network's programs, characters and prologues. The episode is part of the 2007 Jeopardy! College Championship.
Jeopardy! is produced by Sony Pictures Television and is distributed domestically and internationally by CBS Television Distribution, a unit of CBS Corp.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Yates Confirmed For Potter VI
David Yates, director of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he will return to the director's chair for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in the blockbuster franchise. Yates, the British director best known for the U.K. miniseries State of Play and The Girl in the Cafe, is currently completing Phoenix, based on J.K. Rowling's fifth Potter book, and had been rumored to be attached to Prince.
"I am doing Half-Blood Prince, and I'm doing it because I love the world, I love the characters," the BAFTA-winning director said in an interview. "I think I have more business with this world and these characters."
Yates was brought on to the franchise to helm Phoenix, which has political overtones and deals in part with a rebellion at Hogwarts led by Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint).
"I've made a kind of tonal shift with the fifth film, which I want to continue and develop into the sixth film," Yates said. "And I can see the fifth story evolving into the sixth story in a really interesting way. So I'm on a journey with this material and this world, and I'm keen to complete it."
Yates would become only the second director to helm more than one Potter film, after Chris Columbus, who directed the first two. Alfonso Cuarón directed the third, Prisoner of Azkaban, and Mike Newell the fourth, Goblet of Fire.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens on July 13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is in preproduction with an eye to a November 2008 release. The seventh and final book in Rowling's series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hits bookstores on July 21. —Ian Spelling
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3's Raimi Talks Venom
Spider-Man 3 writer/director Sam Raimi told SCI FI Wire that he thought about introducing the new villain Venom in this sequel and continuing the story in a possible fourth film, but ultimately decided the entire story should be told in one movie. "I thought it would be unfair to [the fans]," he said of breaking the storyline up. The consequence of that decision is that fans may have to wait a bit to see the full-fledged supervillain in all his glory in Spider-Man 3.
The Venom storyline is one of only three main stories in the third installment of the webslinger franchise. In it, Peter Parker becomes affected by an alien symbiote, which turns his suit black, before it is rejected and migrates to Peter's romantic and professional rival, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who then transforms into Venom.
"So the very nature of that story demands that you either do it [as] two [parts], if you want to spend more time with Venom, which I didn't think was fair to the audience, to the fans of Spider-Man," or that you do it all at once and introduce Venom fairly late, Raimi said in a news conference. "I thought about it, I really did. And I kept reading the fans' e-mails that [producer] Avi [Arad] would send me—'They'd better not just introduce him to tease us!' ... I felt that the fans didn't want that, from the thousands of e-mails that were sent me."
Raimi added: "Avi said, 'You're not giving me what I asked you.' ... He said, 'They want Venom. Just give them Venom already!' So I said 'OK.' But, obviously, through the very nature of it, he's only going to be in half an act or one act [at the end of the film]. I'll just make it as thorough and the best that I can [and] deliver Venom in the most complete way that I understand the fans might want him. That was my desire. I was led there." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4 in conventional theaters and in IMAX. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3's Maguire Changes It Up
Tobey Maguire, who stars in Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire that the sequel picks up the webslinger's story at a relatively good point in his life, then takes things to a dark place. "Peter Parker is dealing with his pride at the beginning of the film," Maguire said in an interview. "Things are going very well for him. The public perception of him is good, and he's feeling like a useful hero for the first time, I think. And so he starts to become a little self-involved and prideful, and it starts to affect his relationships and whatnot. And, also, the black suit comes into play, and that brings out his darker side, or the darker sides of himself, and things happen from there."
In Spider-Man 3, Parker faces trouble with his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), deals with revelations about the true killer of his beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and faces off with three villains. Maguire welcomed the chance to explore more of his character.
"It's great," Maguire said. "I encouraged it to go a little further in that direction. ... One of the things that's kept it interesting is that each of these films has stood out as its own movie. It's not just the same movie or the same scenes rehashed. There're very unique journeys for Peter Parker in each movie, so it's great. It keeps me interested." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Howard Hung Around For Spidey 3
Bryce Dallas Howard (http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Bryce_Dallas_Howard), who plays Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire she spent weeks hanging from a wire to shoot a scene in which her character dangles from the side of a skyscraper before being rescued by the webslinger, played by Tobey Maguire. "Yeah, weeks," Howard said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "Oh, that was so much fun to shoot."
Howard plays Stacy, one of two young women in the life of Maguire's Peter Parker. In the scene, Stacy's character is on the upper floor of a high-rise office building when a crane crashes through it, causing the floor to collapse and dump Stacy out the window. Almost.
"They built ... this three- or four-story structure inside of a soundstage, and they literally ... would just over and over and over again ... just collapse it," Howard said. "They would just collapse the building over and over again, and all of these desks and copy machines and everything would just fall down and smash on the ground. They'd sweep it up, and then they'd set it up again. ... They put a harness on me, so of course I was safe the entire time, but they really let me fall."
Howard said she really slid down the floor and out the window, hanging from a wire. "Oh, yeah," she said. "I mean, there was like no acting involved in that scene whatsoever. Literally." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3 Already Smashing Records
Spider-Man 3 opened May 1 in Asian markets and set records in every one of the eight Asian territories in which it debuted, Variety reported. The sequel opens in dozens of other territories in the next few days, culminating May 4 in its domestic launch in 4,253 theaters, the widest North American opening of all time.
On Tuesday, it premiered in more than a dozen key territories, including Japan, France, Germany, Italy and South Korea. Another eight go May 2, with 30 more on May 3, including China, Australia and Russia, and an additional 30 on May 4, including the United Kingdom and India.
For May 1, Sony estimated that the movie hit ¥415 million ($3.47 million) in Japan, beating Spider-Man 2's ¥410 million. The first Spidey took in ¥347 million in its first day in Japan in 2004.
In Korea, Spider-Man 3 beat one-day marks for its predecessors, taking in 3.2 billion won ($3.44 million). In Hong Kong, Spidey saw the biggest opening day of all time, with $HK7.5 million ($958,984), besting the previous record holder, Kung Fu Hustle.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Spidey 3's Howard Defends Gwen
Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire that she tried to remain true to the character's good heart, despite her role in the sequel film as the "other woman" between Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). "The character of Gwen Stacy initially in the comic book was Peter Parker's first love," Howard said in an interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "She was around in the mid- to late '60s, early '70s, and therefore I really wanted to be true to this character. I didn't want to just come in in the third film as some kind of man-stealing, homewrecking tart, you know what I mean? This is Gwen Stacy."
Though Gwen Stacy was Parker's first love in the comics, writer/director Sam Raimi reversed the order in which he introduced Spider-Man's female companions. In the movies, Stacy is more of a friend to Parker than a romantic rival to Mary Jane. "I was glad that ... the way that the relationship was is that she was friends with Peter Parker, and there was a closeness there, and, unintentionally, she created some tension in their romance."
But Howard is enthusiastic about continuing the character in upcoming films. "I've been very vocal about the fact that I really want to be a part of the fourth film if there is one," she said. "I just ... love the experience. This is one of ... the best experiences of my life, truly." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Franco More Active In Spidey 3
James Franco, who reprises the role of Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire that he'll have a lot more action in the sequel film. For starters, Harry engages in an aerial dogfight with Peter Parker early in the movie, riding on a snowboard-like version of his father's Green Goblin glider.
"That was all green screen," Franco said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "We're flying through the city. ... And that process involves me putting on the suit, ... which takes about half an hour. The camera crew has to light for about an hour. And then the stunt team has to rehearse, and I have to get strapped into the wires, and they have to raise me up, and everyone gets coordinated. And the costumer has to make sure that the costume looks right. And the wind fans go, and we're ready to go, and then they say 'Action!' and I go like that [raises his arm as if to strike], and then 'Cut!' And that's it."
Because it took hours and sometimes days to shoot only a few seconds of the elaborate fight over Manhattan, it took months to shoot the entire sequence, Franco said. "It's not like I'd be exhausted after doing one of those shots," he said. "It's just, you go in every day, and it's this process, and it's draining just because of the length [of time]. ... It's a matter of staying motivated over a month and a half and keeping a continuity of performance over a month and a half." The entire scene lasts several minutes.
Franco added that he performed a more traditional fight scene later in the movie: an all-out brawl between Harry and Peter Parker's Spider-Man, played by Tobey Maguire. "Tobey and I went through the moves, and you have to know when somebody's throwing the punch and know when to fake the hit and that kind of thing," Franco said. "But even that took six weeks. ... I think on a different film, that scene could have taken a week to shoot, but they're very meticulous on Spider-Man." Spider-Man 3 opened May 4. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Peters Updates [I]Superman Sequel
Superman Returns (http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Superman_Returns) producer Jon Peters told The Hollywood Reporter that director Bryan Singer is at work on the expected sequel, which he will make after completing the World War II-themed Valkyrie.
"Right now, Bryan Singer is working on the story, and, hopefully, that will be a script by the end of the year," Peters told the trade paper. "And, hopefully, we'll be in preproduction by, say, January or February of next year."
The sequel will pick up on the first film, which grossed $391 million worldwide, the trade paper reported. "The second movie allows us to go do things that people haven't seen before," Peters said.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Flash Uses Tin For Mongo
SCI FI Channel's upcoming original series Flash Gordon (http://www.scifi.com/flashgordon/) will make use of some pieces of the elaborate sets for SCI FI's miniseries Tin Man (http://www.scifi.com/tinman/), which is also filming in Vancouver, Canada, Mark Stern, SCI FI's executive vice president of original programming, told SCI FI Wire. Flash Gordon, a 21st-century update of the classic comic-strip serial, begins shooting on May 1 and premieres on Aug. 10.
Reusing the sets will allow Flash to create a rich look for the planet Mongo, Stern said. "There are some elements of the villain in Tin Man that are similarly dictatoresque in the villain Ming the Merciless on Mongo ," Stern said in an interview at an NBC press event in Pasadena, Calif., over the weekend. "The Wicked Witch in Tin Man definitely has this dictatorship thing going on. So her palace has this Albert Speer-like 1930s design, with Roman columns and fascinating big elaborate halls. So we could retool and repaint and change the glass, and it will be very distinguishably different."
Eric Johnson (Smallville) is set to play the lead role. He said the Flash Gordon set has a "retro-futurisitic feel" to it. "It's the same company making both shows, so whatever you can beg or borrow makes sense," he said. "We're shooting in Vancouver, same place, but this is a very different set. It's like if someone gave you the frame of a car, and you can easily put a new engine in it." —Mike Szymanski
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Johnson Ready In A Flash
Eric Johnson, star of SCI FI Channel's upcoming original series Flash Gordon (http://www.scifi.com/flashgordon/), told SCI FI Wire that his past work on The WB's Smallville prepared him for SF fandom. Johnson, who played football player Whitney Fordman on Smallville, takes on the title role in Flash Gordon, a 21st-century update of the classic comic-strip serial, which debuts Aug. 10.
"I got a taste of that rabid fan base when I was on Smallville, and it's always good to know about your character when it's centered on a big mythology like this," Johnson said in an interview at an NBC press preview of summer programs in Pasadena, Calif., over the weekend. "But ultimately the fans will always know more than the actors, always."
Johnson said that Flash fans and the Internet have helped him research his upcoming role. Johnson compared the early part of his new series with Smallville, because they both show the origins of a superhero.
"I didn't know much more than the name Flash Gordon, but the Internet helped me a lot, and people sent me links," Johnson said. "There was this Biography Channel bio on Flash Gordon that talked about the mythology and the writers and the actors. Then it was interesting just finding out what other people knew." Johnson's own grandmother was a reader of the original newspaper comic strip, which was created in 1934 by legendary comic-strip artist Alex Raymond and is still distributed internationally by King Features Syndicate. "If we could come even close to what the Buster Crabbe serials did with a new generation, that would be fantastic," Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Johnson said that he is training with martial-arts experts while getting fitted for costumes. Casting continues for the roles of Dr. Hans Zarkov and Dale Arden, Flash's love interest. "This is going to be a bit like [I]Indiana Jones, with lots of drama and humor and the girl, with great fight sequences, and it's not going to take itself too seriously, but not be campy," Johnson said. "This is an average guy who finds himself in an extraordinary circumstance and becomes a reluctant hero." SCI FI has ordered 22 episodes of Flash Gordon. —Mike Szymanski
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Favreau Talks Iron Man Suits
Iron Man director Jon Favreau wrote on his official blog (http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=34396892&groupID=102795074&adTopicID=12&Mytoken=ABD9F282-4CB0-461F-A64C26F3DFC7A9FF3831875) that the film will feature at least two kinds of armored suits. "Let me confirm a few things: The movie will contain both the gray suit and the gold and red," Favreau wrote. "The light you see in the photo on Robert's chest in the USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-04-26-iron-man_N.htm) article is the chest piece glowing through his shirt. He is in captivity and forging the mask of the Mark 1."
Favreau, who is currently shooting the movie, added that both suits have been built by Winston Studios "and are busily at work as we speak. We are exploring ideas for teaser trailers, though no date has been decided. We are planning to attend San Diego Comic-Con. [Jeff] Bridges is bald (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=10&id=3437&type=10) and plays Stane (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=40455&type=0). The movie is on schedule and could not be going better." Favreau added that the film recently shot in the mountains of Lone Pine, Calif., which doubled for Afghanistan, before moving to Edwards Air Force Base. Iron Man is eyeing a May 2008 release.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Tyler Is Ross In New Hulk
Liv Tyler will star opposite Edward Norton in Marvel Studios' The Incredible Hulk, signing on to play Betty Ross, the longtime love interest of Dr. Bruce Banner/the Hulk, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Louis Leterrier is directing the movie, which is being produced by Avi Arad, Gale Anne Hurd and Kevin Feige.
Ross, a classic Hulk character from the comic book's beginning in 1962, is Banner's fellow scientist and an ally in his quest to rid him of his lurking monster deep inside. The movie will unfold with Ross estranged from Banner (Norton), but with the pursuit of the Hulk heating up and Banner on the run trying to cure his condition, Ross finds herself swept back into his life.
Jennifer Connelly played the character in the 2003 movie Hulk, directed by Ang Lee.
Filming on the new Hulk is slated to begin in the summer in Toronto. Universal Pictures is distributing. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)
Tyler is best known as Arwen from the Lord of the Rings films.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Lucas: [I]Indy 4 Wants Connery
George Lucas, who is producing the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones film, confirmed to the Reuters news service that the story will feature Sean Connery's character of Henry Jones, but that the Scottish actor had yet to sign on.
In a brief interview at the San Francisco International Film Society on May 3, Lucas said: "We have a script with him in it. If he doesn't do it, we'll do a quick rewrite."
Connery played Indy's dad in the third and last Indy film, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, even though Connery, at 76, is in reality only 12 years older than star Harrison Ford.
The San Francisco Film Society honored Star Wars creator Lucas with an award on May 3 to mark the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco International Film Festival, Reuters reported. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Doohan Treks To Space
The cremated remains of original Star Trek star James Doohan (Montgomery "Scotty" Scott) were finally blasted into space on a commercial rocket on April 28, the Associated Press reported.
Wende Doohan was one of the relatives who fired a rocket carrying a small amount of her husband's ashes, along with those of other people, including Apollo astronaut Gordon Cooper, at 8:56 a.m. local time from a New Mexico launch site. The suborbital flight plummeted back to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range.
Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85. The remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry were sent into space in 1997.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Warner Options Miller's Ronin
Another Frank Miller graphic novel—Ronin, about a disgraced samurai whose master was assassinated by a shape-shifting demon—has been optioned by Warner Brothers for a live-action movie, Variety reported. Warner was behind the recent hit based on Miller's 300. Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) will direct Ronin.
In the graphic novel, the story moves from 13th-century Japan to 21st-century New York, where the master's sword is unearthed and the ronin and the demon are brought to life to battle gangs of mutants and thugs to try to take possession of the mythical sword. The graphic novel was published by DC Comics.
Ronin will be shot in a fashion similar to that employed for 300, in which blue- and green-screen shooting was done on a Montreal soundstage to create an ancient Greek battleground.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Three Join Ruins Cast
Shawn Ashmore will star with Laura Ramsey and Jena Malone in The Ruins, a supernatural-tinged thriller film based on the best-selling Scott B. Smith novel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Red Hour Films' Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld are producing, along with Chris Bender.
The new cast members join Jonathan Tucker in the film, about a group of friends whose leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when they accompany a fellow tourist on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins. Smith wrote the screenplay.
Principal photography begins in late May in Queensland, Australia.
Ashmore is best known for his role as Bobby/Iceman in the X-Men movies.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Mistborn Mixes Heist With Magic
Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who is a current finalist for this year's John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, The Mistborn: The Final Empire, is one part fantasy novel, one part Ocean's Eleven and one part kung fu epic.
"A thousand years ago, a young peasant hero gathered a group of unlikely followers, went on a quest to find a place of magic, then did battle with the powers of darkness; he, however, lost," Sanderson said in an interview. "Now, a thousand years later, the world is dominated by the Lord Ruler, a dark god-emperor who controls the landscape with an oppressive fist. The landscape is burned and nearly lifeless. Ash falls from the sky, and mists cloud the entire land at night. The prophecies turned out to be false. The hero ended up failing."
A gang of thieves gets together and decides that if gods, prophecies and heroes had abandoned the world, it's time to try something new, Sanderson said. "They determine to overthrow the Lord Ruler, but to do it their way: by robbing him silly and bribing his armies away from him."
The Mistborn was partly inspired by Sanderson's fondness for the heist genre, he said. "I love a story about a gang of specialists, each with their own unique thing to add to the team," Sanderson said. "I wondered why I hadn't seen this in fantasy, where it seemed to fit so well. You could have a team with each person having a different magical power, then show how they use their different abilities to achieve an impossible-sounding goal."
The book is what's known as "hard fantasy": fantasy that focuses on making magic feel almost like science, Sanderson said. "Allomancy—the magic in this book—came from my studies into historical science and the pseudo-science that often gets mixed in with it," he said. "I wanted to develop a magic which would let each of my protagonists have a different power and which would interact with physics in interesting ways."
Sanderson spent nine years—during which he wrote 13 novels—trying to get published, he said. "Mistborn ... was the first book I ever wrote knowing that it would get published," Sanderson said. "This was a very different experience for me. The time for experimentation was over ... I wanted a novel that showed off what I could really accomplish, if I put my mind to it: an intricate, original magic system [and] a plot that twists and turns with a dozen well-foreshadowed surprises."
The Final Empire is the first installment in The Mistborn trilogy, and book two—The Well of Ascension—is coming out in August, Sanderson said. "Also of note is my kids' book, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, which is the start of a new series for younger readers," he said. "It's being released by Scholastic this October and is, well, a little bit silly. It's about a family of freedom fighters who secretly resist librarian control of the world." —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Four Studios Mull Jackson's Bones
Four studios are interested in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, a supernatural drama based on Alice Sebold's novel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jackson began circulating his script, written with his Lord of the Rings partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, on April 30, and, so far, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers, Sony and Universal are in the running, the trade paper reported.
The trade paper reported that the movie will carry an $80 million price tag. The book tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and killed and whose spirit keeps watch over her family and her killer.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Nova Wins Clarke Award
M. John Harrison's novel Nova Swing has been named the winner of this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, recognizing distinguished science fiction published in Great Britain. The announcement was made May 2 in London at Sci-Fi-London, the sixth annual international festival of science fiction and fantastic film.
The annual award, which is presented by the Serendip Foundation, is named for legendary SF author Arthur C. Clarke, who founded the award with the aim of promoting science fiction in Britain.
The other nominees were End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet, Hav by Jan Morris, Gradisil by Adam Roberts and Streaking by Brian Stableford. —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Dark Horse's Ark Gets Adapted
Dark Horse Comics' SF graphic novel The Ark is headed for the big screen, with Columbia Pictures pairing with Original Films' Neal Moritz, Variety reported.
The Ark mixes the story of Noah's ark with a UFO crash. It first appeared in the anthology series Dark Horse Presents, the comic book that also launched Frank Miller's Sin City.
Mark Verheiden, creator of the comic on which the film will be based, has been tapped to write the screenplay. Dark Horse's Mike Richardson will produce with Moritz.
Verheiden previously teamed with Richardson in the creation of the Dark Horse comic book Timecop and later adapted it into a film and TV series. He has written for TV shows such as SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/) and The CW's Smallville and has a story credit for The Mask, which Richardson also executive-produced.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Hartnett Comes With The Rain
Josh Hartnett will star in I Come With the Rain, a drama with a supernatural twist that will shoot in Hong Kong in June, Variety reported. Tran Anh Hung (The Scent of Green Papaya) will direct from a script he wrote.
Hartnett will play a private detective who, haunted by a past encounter with a serial killer, heads for the Far East to search for a missing heir who has the power to heal with his touch. Tran Nu Yen Khe also stars.
Hartnett will soon appear in the David Slade-directed vampire movie 30 Days of Night.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Disunited Imagines Alternate America
Hugo Award-winning author Harry Turtledove—whose novel The Disunited States of America is a finalist for this year's Sidewise Award for works of alternate history—told SCI FI Wire that the book is set in the late 21st century in a world where the Constitution didn't replace the Articles of Confederation and the United States fell to pieces in the early 19th century. "This makes North America a patchwork quilt of things that call themselves states but are in fact independent countries," Turtledove said in an interview. "Beckie Royer, who lives in this world's California, is visiting relatives in western Virginia with her obnoxious grandmother when a war with neighboring Ohio breaks out. Justin Monroe is from [an organization called] Crosstime Traffic in our timeline, helping to keep an eye on that part of the country. Most of the plot involves their meeting and their trying to stay alive through the war."
The opening scene of the novel, in which Beckie helps run guns from Ohio into Virginia, is based on something that really happened to Turtledove's wife when she visited Yugoslavia at the age of 14, he said. "Her grandmother had kin over the border from Italy, where they were staying," Turtledove said. "A relative by marriage used the presence of two Americans to bemuse the border guards and run rifles into Yugoslavia. My wife was sitting in the back seat, with her feet on a blanket covering the guns. She was sweating bullets that the guards would search the car, at which point she'd be toast. They didn't, and the guns got run. Some years later, this fellow who drove them died by being run off the road in circumstances nobody's ever explained."
Turtledove said imagining the consequences of a continent shattered into pieces for almost 300 years before the time in which the story was set certainly made him do some thinking. "You [can't] tell everything that happened [differently], obviously," he said. "You mention a few things about the wars in which Virginia's fought, you talk about stamps and coins and memorial medals, and you let the readers use their imaginations."
Speaking of stamps and coins, in this alternate world the Crosstime Traffic people use a stamp-and-coin shop as their cover, Turtledove said. "I'm a very minor coin collector, while my daughter collects stamps," he said. "Trying to dream up issues that might have come from this changed history was a lot of fun."
Turtledove created the Crosstime Traffic series—of which Disunited is the fourth volume—to tap into the young adult market, he said. "I wanted to write a series to interest younger readers in some of the things I do, to entertain them and, with a little luck, to get them to think a bit about what was, what might have been and what may be," Turtledove said.
The next Crosstime Traffic book, The Gladiator, will be out in June, Turtledove said. "It's set in Italy, in a world where the U.S.S.R. won the Cold War," he said. —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Church Hops To American Dog
Thomas Haden Church told SCI FI Wire that he provides the voice of a rabbit named Buttons in the long-gestating Walt Disney animated feature American Dog. The Texas-based actor, who will next be seen in Spider-Man 3, added that the film has been evolving as he's worked on it.
"They hired me a couple of years ago, and [we] went through, God, at least a year and a half of them coming to Texas or me going to L.A., and we'd record a bunch of stuff," Church said in an interview while promoting Spider-Man 3. "Then in October or November they came to San Antonio, because they really wanted to get some more stuff recorded. The director [Chris Sanders, who also originated the story,] and producers and writers met me, and I could tell that something was going on, that something had shifted."
American Dog originated as the story of a canine TV star who finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert with a giant bunny and a testy cat. "We had a session, they went away," Church said. "I went to Pittsburgh to work, and then I didn't hear from anybody for quite a while. Then I talked to Clark, the producer, at the beginning of January and he told me that [Pixar boss John] Lasseter had replaced the director [with Chris Williams,] and they were just starting to completely rewrite the movie. So I used to play a one-eyed rabbit named Buttons. I'm not really sure what I'm playing anymore. I'm kind of kidding. I think the characters are going to remain intact, but the story is shifting. So I'm waiting, waiting for a script to arrive at my ranch." American Dog, which also features the voices of John Travolta, Woody Harrelson, Bernie Mac and Mario Cantone, is intended as a summer 2008 release.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Crichton's Andromeda Infects A&E
Michael Crichton's classic SF novel The Andromeda Strain will infect television in a new original miniseries for A&E, to be executive-produced by filmmaking brothers Tony and Ridley Scott, Variety reported. Director-cinematographer Mikael Solomon will direct from a script by Robert Schenkkan (The Quiet American), about an alien germ that comes to Earth and threatens to cause a deadly plague.
The miniseries is set to go into production this summer. David Zucker and Tom Thayer are also executive-producing.
Andromeda was initially billed as a four-hour event, but could run up to six hours.
Ridley Scott (director of Blade Runner) will be taking the lead on the project, which is based on Crichton's first book. It was previously adapted as a feature film (http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/The_Andromeda_Strain_%28Movie%29) directed by Robert Wise in 1971.
The Andromeda Strain miniseries was originally being developed by SCI FI Channel (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=30211).
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Harbingers Is Repairman Jack's 10th
Multiple-award-winning author F. Paul Wilson, whose novel Harbingers is a finalist for this year's Prometheus Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book is the 10th installment in the Repairman Jack series. "I never dreamed it would run this long, but the demand for more books keeps increasing rather than winding down," Wilson said in an interview. "As often happens in the novels, Jack is hired to fix some mundane situation that inevitably takes a left turn into Weirdville. A regular at the bar where he hangs asks him to put the word out on his teenage niece, who didn't show up at school today. This opens a Pandora's box that releases major tragedy for Jack—which sends him into a rage. And you don't want to be the focus of Jack's rage. A high body count in this one—maybe the highest of the series."
Repairman Jack first appeared in Wilson's The Tomb in 1984, he said. "He had series character written all over him, but I didn't want to get involved in a series, so I left him bleeding to death at the end," Wilson said. "I thought that would be that, but the novel never went out of print, and his following kept growing. So 14 years later I brought him back in Legacies and have been doing one a year ever since. He's a career criminal, an urban mercenary, a gut anarchist who lives below the radar: He's never had a Social Security number, never filed a 1040. He's the ghost in the machine who hires out to fix problems the machine can't or won't fix."
Harbingers arose from a confluence of inevitabilities, Wilson said. "I try to make each of the novels in the series stand alone, but I've been weaving longer threads through them—über-arcs, you might say," he said. "Some of those arcs had developed to a point where they needed resolution. ... They'd reached the limits of their tensile strength and needed some closure, some catharsis. I'm a big believer in catharsis. So I tied up a number of threads, which created some problems for the next book, Bloodline."
Harbingers is nominated for this year's Prometheus Award—given to works that exemplify libertarian ideals—but Wilson said he hasn't consciously used libertarian ideas in his work since the 1970s. "But it's my worldview, so it can't help but seep in," he said. "Plus I have a continuing character who's been called 'a libertarian's wet dream,' and so, because of his lifestyle, every book he's in involves the theme of the individual against the collective. ... Except for Jack's presence, [the book is] not terribly libertarian. But libertarians love the guy."
Next spring will see publication of the first Repairman Jack novel for the young-adult market, Wilson said. "It's called Secret Histories, and I'm psyched about it," he said. "It takes place in 1983, when Jack is 14, and I had a ball writing it." —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
PS3 F.E.A.R. Has New Content
The new PlayStation 3 version of F.E.A.R. will feature exclusive new content, Rob Loftus, the senior producer, told SCI FI Wire. "We've added a new game mode, called Instant Action, that puts the player in some of the signature firefights from F.E.A.R. and then scores their progress," Loftus said in an interview. "You can take that score and upload to online leader boards. We've also added new weapons and multiplayer maps. Rounding it all out is a new mission for each console that explains a little bit more of what happened in the original F.E.A.R. at points in the story."
F.E.A.R., which stands for First Encounter Assault and Recon, is a first-person shooter that mixes tight-quartered combat with elements of survival horror. It pits gamers against challenging AI opponents. The PS3 version of F.E.A.R. is the latest and last port the game will receive for now.
Even though this is the third version of the game, Loftus said that neither the PS3 version nor the earlier Xbox 360 port were ever approached as a "do-over" in any way.
"We were very happy with the original game and didn't look at releasing on the [PS3] as a chance to fix things," Loftus said. "It was more about releasing it to a wider audience and keeping the experience representative of the quality the original PC release had."
As for the differences in developing the title for the Xbox 360 and PS3, Loftus said: "They are definitely different machines that do things differently from one another. The challenge was harnessing the power of both systems and not sacrificing the quality on the other." —Casey Lynch
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Changes Due For Eureka Couple
Big changes are in store for Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) and her ex-husband, Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn), in the upcoming new season of SCI FI Channel's original series Eureka (http://www.scifi.com/eureka/)—including (spoiler ahead!) possibly a rekindled romance? Richardson-Whitfield and Quinn talked at a press preview in Pasadena, Calif., over the weekend about the upheaval in store for their characters on the show, which returns with new episodes on July 10.
"Last year we ... ended where Nathan's character was getting a little obsessed with the Artifact," Richardson-Whitfield said. "At the end, there was a huge explosion, and because of that he loses his job, and I take over as the head of Global Dynamics." As a result, Stark returns to his roots as a scientist, she added. "Which sort of draws us even closer, because I start seeing the man I fell in love with instead of the sort of power-hungry head of Global. ... What does that mean for Allison? When you become the head, ... am I going to turn into that [power-hungry type]? What happens to her when she has that much power and has to deal with that much responsibility?"
As for Stark, Quinn said: "It seemed a bit jarring right off the bat to suddenly lose my job, and not just lose my job, but then lose my job to my estranged wife and [lose] all my secrets. And what's fascinating is, what you would think is that would allow Allison and Jack Carter [Colin Ferguson] to become closer, and she and I would become estranged. The opposite happens. She and I, Allison and Stark, become even closer. We rekindle the relationship. I rekindle my relationship with her son, Kevin, who also becomes a very integral part of the show this season. ... Her new position puts a strain on Carter and Allison's relationship."
There's also upheaval in store for Carter when his ex-wife comes to town. But that's another story. —Patrick Lee, News Editor (scifiwire@scifi.com)
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Jackson Seeks Studio For Bones
Peter Jackson's script adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones, which he co-wrote with partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, began making the rounds in Hollywood on April 30, with the Lord of the Rings filmmaker seeking a studio partner, Variety reported.
Jackson has said he plans to direct the movie version of Sebold's supernatural-tinged novel, about a 14-year-old girl who is raped and killed and whose spirit keeps watch over her family and her killer.
The only major studio omitted from Monday's action was New Line, whose chief, Robert Shaye, told SCI FI Wire (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=39462) that Jackson would never work with the studio again under his watch. As of early Monday evening, the bidding for Jackson's Bones had not yet begun in earnest.
Jackson, Boyens and Walsh previously collaborated on the Rings movies and King Kong.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Luke Ford Joins Mummy 3
Universal Pictures and director Rob Cohen have set Luke Ford to star in the third installment of The Mummy, in a move that potentially sets the franchise up for future films, Variety reported. The 26-year-old Australian actor was cast with the expectation that he will eventually carry the franchise.
Ford will play Alex O'Connell, the grown-up son of Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell and Rachel Weisz's Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell from the first two Mummy films. (Freddie Boath played the character as a boy in The Mummy Returns.) Alex journeys into the forbidden tombs of China and into the Himalayas, where he and Fraser's character run into a new shape-shifting mummy, a former Chinese emperor who was cursed by a female wizard. (Weisz declined to return for the third Mummy.)
Jet Li plays the mummy. Michelle Yeoh plays the wizard. The script was written by Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough. Shooting will begin in Montreal on July 27 and then move to China. The film is eyeing a July 2008 release date. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Goss Joins Del Toro's Hellboy 2
Luke Goss is rejoining director Guillermo del Toro for Universal Pictures' Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie reunites the first movie's principals—Ron Perlman as Hellboy, Selma Blair as Liz Sherman and both David Hyde Pierce and Doug Jones as Abe Sapien—for a supernatural action-adventure that sees the world of myth rebelling against humanity, the trade paper reported.
Goss will play Prince Nuada, a ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below, defying his bloodline to awaken an unstoppable army of creatures. Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola wrote the script. Filming is scheduled to begin in June in Budapest for an Aug. 1, 2008, release.
Goss previously worked with del Toro on Blade II, in which he played the villainous vampire Nomak.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
300 Tops MTV Movie Nods
300 snagged five MTV Movie Awards nominations on April 30, while Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest followed with four, Variety reported. 300 got nominated for best movie and best fight, along with performance (Gerard Butler), breakthrough performance (Lena Headey) and villain (Rodrigo Santoro).
Pirates stars Johnny Depp and Keira Knightly both scored performance nods, while Bill Nighy's villain and a best movie nomination rounded out the Pirates nominations.
Sarah Silverman hosts when the Golden Popcorn trophies are handed out in a live broadcast June 3 at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Sitting On A Throne Of Lies
Fantasy author Joshua Palmatier—whose novel The Skewed Throne is a finalist for this year's Compton Crook Award for best first novel—told SCI FI Wire that the idea for the book came from one of his unsold novels. "My characters in that book were walking through this ancient museum, and so I needed to have all these cool artifacts in [there]," Palmatier said in an interview. "One of the characters walks up to a throne. [It's] a very, very warped throne, and the feet are skewed—the shortest leg appears to be on the part of the feet that's the highest, so its like an Escher painting: It's physically impossible. So they step closer, because they want to get a better look. When they do, they start hearing voices. And in the [original story] it freaks them out enough that they walk away. But the idea of this weird, skewed, warped throne and the additional idea of the voices stuck with me very, very strongly, so I ended up combining them [in The Skewed Throne]."
The protagonist, Varis, is trained to be an assassin and must defeat the insane throne, Palmatier said. "Essentially all the personalities of anyone who has touched the throne have been stored in it," he said. "In order to control it, you have to be able to control all of the personalities, but there's so many it's essentially insane."
Having been raised in the slums, Varis is basically a survivalist—she has learned the art of survival at any cost, Palmatier said. "She is an incredibly practical person; she gets what she needs to survive," he said. "She also has this moral code. And in the end these two [traits] end up conflicting with each other. In one respect she's very complex, because she doesn't want to hurt people, and yet in order to survive she has to become an assassin."
In the second book in the series, The Cracked Throne, Varis is in control of the throne, but since she was raised in a slum she has no idea how to run a city, Palmatier said. "But we are on the verge of winter and for the past summer and spring the food distribution has been totally disrupted in the city," he said. "They are looking at a bad winter with no food, so she is taking over at a pretty bad time. After that she has to figure out how to feed the city during this winter and also how to handle all this new power that she is not used to. About halfway through the book she starts getting these intimations that there is something else coming [that is] possibly going to destroy the city, and she ... realizes they've got a bigger problem: Some kind of invading force is coming, and they have no idea who it is." The third and final book in the series, The Vacant Throne, is due in January 2008. —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Aronofsky Drafting Noah Epic
The British Guardian (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2065823,00.html#article_continue) newspaper revealed that The Fountain director Darren Aronofsky's contemplated biblical epic (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=38907&type=0) film will be a version of the story of Noah and the flood. The newspaper reported that Aronofsky is several drafts into a screenplay about Noah.
When the writer-director was 13, he won a United Nations competition at his school in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn; it was for his first poem, a little effort about the end of the world as seen through Noah's eyes, the newspaper reported. "That story has interested me ever since," Aronofsky told the paper.
The script won't be a conventional biblical epic. "Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk," Aronofsky said. "It's there in the Bible. It was one of the first things he did when he reached land. There was some real survivor's guilt going on there. He's a dark, complicated character."
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Ratatouille Footage Going Up
Disney will unveil a nine-minute sequence from its upcoming Pixar animated film Ratatouille on May 1 at Disney.com. Disney will also launch a daylong television advertising campaign on that day, which will be highlighted by a 90-second commercial during American Idol.
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. PT on May 1, the video playlist on the homepage of Disney.com will be roadblocked to include only the nine-minute scene for a 24-hour period. The site will also feature a custom background skin, permanent homepage promotional units and character integration into the site's segment pages, as well as other content.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
U.K. To Split Grindhouse
The Weinstein Co. announced that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's double feature Grindhouse with be released as two separate movies in the United Kingdom, Variety reported.
The original plan was to screen Grindhouse as a double bill in the United Kingdom and Australia, with other territories getting Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror separately.
Momentum Pictures will release Death Proof in U.K. theaters on Sept. 21. A release date for Planet Terror, which will also go out via Momentum, has not yet been set.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Dragon's Lair Film In Works?
IGN.com (http://movies.ign.com/articles/784/784252p1.html) reported that the new Blu-ray release of the interactive movie/game Dragon's Lair features interviews with creators Don Bluth, Rick Dyer and Gary Goldman, during which the trio confirm that a Dragon's Lair feature film is still in the works.
"We've had a completed script for over three years now, and we've had some very positive meetings with the studios," Goldman said on the disc. "It shouldn't be done as a CG movie. It should be done as traditional animation, like the original game. But traditional animation is in a sort of limbo."
Goldman added that he's hopeful since Disney is restarting its traditional animation division, but said there's a logjam of computer-animated projects out there.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
Wolf Bridges Human, Animal
Fantasy author Jane Lindskold—whose novel Wolf's Blood is the conclusion to her Firekeeper Saga—told SCI FI Wire that the series is about a woman who is the bridge between the animal and human worlds: human in shape, wolf in outlook. "In the six books of the series, [Firekeeper] learns to reject neither part of her heritage, but keeping conflicting impulses in balance is a continuous challenge, not only to her peace of mind, but to her life," Lindskold said in an interview.
Firekeeper's two primary companions are Blind Seer, her wolf companion, and Derian Carter, her first human friend, Lindskold said. "Both of these find that traveling with Firekeeper forces change, development and adaptation, because wherever Firekeeper goes, her very existence upsets preconceived notions," she said. "If one cannot adapt, one is quite likely going to find oneself at best left behind, and at worst dead."
At the end of the previous book in the series, Wolf Hunting, Firekeeper and her associates are tenuously in control of the Nexus Islands, Lindskold said. "And, more importantly, the system of transport gates those islands hold," she said. "However, those gates have become essential to the economy of the Old Country, and the rulers of the Old Country nations know only that the treaties they have with the Nexans have been broken without cause."
Lindskold could never tell an abstract war story, she said. "To me, the personalities of those who are in conflict are what makes such a tale interesting," Lindskold said. "That, to me, is the focus of Wolf's Blood. Firekeeper especially finds herself challenged because she alone can unite the varied factions if the Nexus Islands are to have a chance of holding—and she alone has a hope of finding a cure for querinalo, the plague that makes it impossible for the Nexans to request outside help or alliance."
Since Wolf's Blood concludes the series, Lindskold wanted to make certain that various threads that had run through the series were resolved, she said. "However, the only way to provide absolute closure in a series is either to kill everyone off or to provide a neat little epilogue," Lindskold said. "I wasn't willing to do either of these things, so I had a difficult balancing act to manage."
But Firekeeper and her friends have a new adventure ahead of them: A Marvel Comics/Dabel Brothers Productions graphic-novel adaptation is in the works, Lindskold said. "My contract gives me a certain degree of quality control, so no one needs to worry about the story or characters changing too much," she said. "However, I'm also coming on board as the scripter, and in this way I'll be able to slip in details that I simply couldn't put in to the novels."
Lindskold is also madly enthusiastic about her new Breaking the Wall series, forthcoming from Tor, she said. "The first book, 13 Orphans, is done and turned into my editor," Lindskold said. "Breaking the Wall merges both contemporary and imaginary world fantasy, [and] is heavily infused with Chinese myth and magic." —John Joseph Adams
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/images/ui/page_divider.gif
BRIEFLY NOTED
IESB.net (http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2434&Itemid=99) has posted what appears to be a pirate set video of the Iron Man movie, with someone in what looks like the actual armored suit.
The 33rd Seattle film festival will honor Anthony Hopkins with a lifetime achievement award May 30, followed by a screening of Slipstream, an SF movie that he wrote and directed, Variety reported; the festival runs May 24-June 17.
Ten new images from Vin Diesel's upcoming SF movie Babylon AD have gone live on the Web (http://vindieselgallery.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=290).
ShockTillYouDrop.com (http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=180) reported that a Hellraiser remake is still in the works and that creator Clive Barker still plans to write the screenplay.
Spider-Man 3 broke opening-day records in 10 regions across Asia and Europe on May 1, its first day of global release, easily outpacing the previous two films in the series internationally, Variety reported; the sequel made more than $29 million.
Transformers director Michael Bay posted on a message board (http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1701&start=0) on April 27 that "we had two screenings tonight, 850 people. Highest test scores in my career. Blew Armageddon away, which was a 92. Go figure." The movie opens July 4.
Entertainment Weekly has posted the first image (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20037509,00.html) of the robotic suit from Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie, starring Robert Downey Jr.
Kopelson Entertainment partners Arnold and Anne Kopelson have bought the screen rights to the upcoming Michael Scott fantasy novel Otherworld, about ancient demons unleashed by global warming, Variety reported.
Lost star Daniel Dae Kim and Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/) star Grace Park will host the 2007 AZN Asian Excellence Awards, presented by JCPenney, which will air on AZN Television on May 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Producer Mark Burnett and Touched by an Angel star Roma Downey were married April 28 at their home in Malibu, Calif., in a ceremony officiated by Downey's Angel co-star Della Reese, an ordained minister, the Associated Press reported.
The new full-length trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer has gone live and is linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=8&id=1543) page.
Germany's new Federal Film Fund has allocated its biggest grant yet: Warner's Speed Racer will receive 9 million euros ($12.3 million) toward its production in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, Variety reported; the film is set to start shooting in June at Babelsberg Studios outside Berlin.
The History Channel has given a green light to six specials and acquired a raft of digital programming that includes a slate of documentaries commissioned and overseen by George Lucas, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
David Goyer's The Invisible opened in second place at the April 27 box office, taking in about $7.6 million, the Associated Press reported; the other genre debut of the weekend, Next, starring Nicolas Cage, premiered in third place, with $7.2 million.