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09-19-2006, 02:04 AM
Part 1 of 2
NEWS OF THE WEEK FOR SEP. 18, 2006
Pirates 2 Third Biggest Film Ever
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has become the third film to pass $1 billion at the worldwide box office, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time, the Reuters news service reported.
The Johnny Depp sequel had sold $1.003 billion worth of tickets as of Sept. 8, the Walt Disney Co. said in a statement. But it was unlikely to climb any higher up the rankings.
Titanic, released in 1997, holds the record, with $1.8 billion, followed by 2003's Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, with $1.1 billion.
Dead Man's Chest's predecessor, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, earned $656 million worldwide.
A third film, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, is shooting in Los Angeles, with plans for release next May.
Fountain Goes For Lo-Tech F/X
Director Darren Aronofsky told SCI FI Wire that the special effects used in his SF romance The Fountain avoided computer-generated images and many of the effects were shot in a Petri dish. "I was influenced by science fiction, and I know that in recent years you see this big [ships] and things in space—don't get me wrong, the big ships in Star Wars look great—but I wanted to do something that hasn't been done before," Aronofsky said in a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival. "We moved away from CGI and wanted to show simplicity and realism. The technology is endless. I wanted to reinvent space, how it looks. I wanted a whole new feeling, something minimalist with no CGI because I didn't want to get into that holographic, cheesy look."
With his wife and the film's co-star, Rachel Weisz, urging him on, he revealed one of his effects secrets. "Tell them about the Petri dish. Why keep it a secret?" she said.
Aronofsky responded: "Yeah, so everything in the film that's set in space, we photographed in a Petri dish."
"It's pretty cool," Weisz gushed.
The Fountain tells three parallel stories spanning 1,500 years, centering on a man's quest to save the woman he loves. One of the stories takes place 500 years in the future, with dazzling images of deep space.
Producer Eric Watson added: "At one point we were pretty stuck getting financed, and people were afraid [of big-budget effects], but we showed them this Petri-dish footage, and it really impressed them."
Aronofsky said that the special-effects team wanted to do something completely different. "We realized we could shape and manipulate the film's movement from darkness to light over three time periods, so it was almost white by the end," he said. "That all came out of the Petri dish." The Fountain opens nationwide on Nov. 22. —Mike Szymanski
Fountain Critics Don't Bother Helmer
Darren Aronofsky, director of the SF epic film The Fountain, shrugged off the negative reception his film has received at the Toronto International Film Festival, where some critics hissed and others walked out. That reaction followed a screening earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival in which critics actually booed the movie.
But Aronofsky, speaking in a news conference in Toronto, said that the forgets that critics may be more cynical than the public. An audience of regular folks didn't boo or hiss the movie at a public screening that Aronofsky attended on Sept. 12 with stars Hugh Jackman, Ellen Burstyn and Rachel Weisz, who is also Aronofsky's wife.
"I keep forgetting that the critics screenings are more divisive, and they are more cynical," Aronofsky said, speaking for the first time about the negative reaction. "My movies tend to divide the critics."
Aronofsky added that his 1998 SF thriller Pi was panned by The New York Times. "It was destroyed, and a critic at Variety said I should not be making films, but I should be in therapy after seeing Requiem [for a Dream]. Maybe I should be."
The Fountain tells three parallel stories that span 1,500 years and center on a man on a quest to save the woman he loves. During the public screening, Oscar winner Weisz had to take a few breaks. "Let's just say you have to have more breaks for breastfeeding," she explained. The Fountain opens nationwide on Nov. 22. —Mike Szymanski
Fountain Hissed In Toronto
They cheered at Comic-Con, they booed in Venice, and at the first press screenings of Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain in Toronto, a few dozen people walked out and some hissed. The Sept. 11 screenings in two theaters at the Toronto International Film Festival were completely packed. All 287 seats were taken, and about 50 other press and industry people waited to get in.
About a dozen critics in both theaters walked out an hour into the 96-minute SF epic, which stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Jackman plays men in three periods spanning 1,500 years, each trying to save the woman he loves. In one theater, the audience hissed after the final picturesque scene.
Another dozen or so critics walked out before the end of the screening. It's unclear whether those critics were reacting to the film's quality or simply had to leave the screening to get to their next appointments on time.
For one Canadian critic, though, the reason was clear. "Ugh, it's just incomprehensible," said the critic, who didn't want to be identified. "I don't know anyone who said they liked it."
The festival will have one more press screening later in the week, but the true test of the film's prospects will undoubtedly come when it screens for the public. The first public screening is scheduled for Sept. 12, and another screening is slated for the following Thursday, at which the director and some cast members will answer questions. The Fountain opens Nov. 22. —Mike Szymanski
Heroes Also Has Villains
Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of NBC's upcoming superhero drama Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that the show will have a season-long arc involving the hunt for a super-powered serial killer. "We are bringing in other people with super powers, and they are not necessarily heroes," Kring said in a conference-call interview on Sept. 14. "The show does introduce the concept of a major villain in the second episode, and that villain becomes a sort of a linchpin, [a] central character for most of the first season."
Greg Grunberg, who plays a Los Angeles cop with psychic abilities, also makes his debut in the second episode. His character becomes involved in the ongoing case through an FBI agent played by Clea DuVall. "He's recruited by this FBI [agent], the character that Clea plays," Grunberg said in the same interview. "They become this team, sort of like a Mulder and Scully of The X-Files. And what's great is that this side of the story—investigating the villain and trying to figure out who he is, what his motives are, why these people are being affected and what's going on—what's great is, the audience will have a lot of these questions, and my character is going to discover them and hopefully answer those questions and be the eyes of the audience."
Grunberg added that some of the characters introduced as heroes may not necessarily remain virtuous throughout the series. "Don't assume that every one of these characters is good," Grunberg said. "That's something so interesting. As actors, [co-star Masi Oka] and I have had this conversation where we're thinking, 'Are we going to be good? Are we going to realize, "Wow, these powers: They're empowering me to such a way that I can use it for evil purposes?"' I mean, we have no idea whether we're going to go good, go bad. It's just so interesting to see what somebody would do given these abilities."
According to Kring, there has been a lot of discussion in the writers' room about the hero's journey, as outlined by mythology scholar Joseph Campbell. In particular, the show will explore the themes of temptation and the duality between good and evil. "It's one of the things that we're really fascinated with, ... this idea that all of these people have free will," Kring said. "They are just like any of us. If you find yourself in a time in your life when you are desperate or destitute, and you suddenly discover that you can walk through walls, well, then you may walk through the wall of a bank and rob it and steal money. If you are inclined to do good, and you have the ability to hear people's thoughts, then you will do good with that. And it really becomes about free will, which is also a part of the hero's journey. What do they do when they are suddenly tempted by darker forces?" Heroes premieres on Sept. 25 and will air Mondays at 9 p.m. PT/ET on NBC, with an encore later in the week on SCI FI Channel. NBC and SCI FI are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Cindy White
Lost Secrets Revealed Online
Fans of ABC's hit SF series Lost who played this summer's alternate-reality game The Lost Experience got a big payoff if they stuck with it: the secret to Hurley's numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42) and revelations about the Dharma Initiative and the Hanso Foundation. The answers, which were reported by TV Guide, http://www.tvguide.com/Magazine/Breaking-News/ can be found in a video detailing the elaborate backstory to the show, which has been posted in its entirety on YouTube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PPCCcXarkc&eurl=
The numbers represent the Valenzetti Equation, a mathematical formula having to do with the timetable for humanity's extinction. The show's sinister Dharma Initiative was an effort by the mysterious Hanso Foundation to ward off that inevitability. When Dharma failed, Hanso's nefarious acting leader, Thomas Mittelwerk, set in motion a plan to release a virus that would kill 30 percent of the world's population.
Details of the game's various threads can be found on the Lost Experience blog. http://www.thelostexperience.com/2006/09/glyphs_and_codes.php#more
SCIFI.COM's Resistance Scores Big
The first two webisodes of Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ SCIFI.COM's 10-part, five-week online prequel series, broke traffic records for SCI FI Pulse, the site's broadband channel. The first two installments generated 1.2 million streams in one week, achieving in seven days more than half the total number of streams SCI FI Pulse delivered in the previous month.
"The phenomenal success of The Resistance proves that there is a definite audience for webisodes that can have an impact on TV viewing," Craig Engler, senior vice president of SCIFI.COM and SCI FI Magazine, said in a statement. "Response on our online message boards indicates that not only are our existing fans excited about season three of Battlestar Galactica, the webisodes are creating new fans. People who have never watched the show before are very excited to become new viewers."
New two- to three-minute installments of The Resistance will debut every Tuesday and Thursday at noon ET, leading up to the Oct. 6 season premiere of Battlestar Galactica on SCI FI Channel.
The webisodes are from the creative team behind the show and chronicle the days following the events of the second-season finale. Life on New Caprica held the promise of protection from the Cylons, as well as breathable air and solid land. But Cylons discovered the planet, and humanity has been forced to live under Cylon occupation. As Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) organize an insurgency, the Cylons campaign for peaceful co-existence, while eliminating anyone resisting. As life among the Cylons becomes unbearable, two former members of Galactica's fleet—lifelong friends Jammer (Dominic Zaprogna) and Duck (Christian Tessier)—must decide whether resistance or compliance is in the best interest of humanity. The storyline of the online prequel will lead viewers seamlessly into the third-season on-air premiere.
Battlestar's Park Has Answers
Grace Park, who plays Sharon "Boomer" Valerii on SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ will answer viewer questions in a video interview that will go live on SCIFI.COM on Sept. 18.
Park will discuss the show, the challenges and benefits of playing multiple characters and the possibility of a Battlestar Galactica http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Battlestar_Galactica hockey team.
Park answered questions that were previously submitted by visitors to SCIFI.COM. The video will go live at 7:30 p.m. ET on SCIFI.COM's SCI FI Pulse broadband network.
In the meantime, much of the rest of the Battlestar Galactica cast is appearing in the 10-part Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, a series of webisodes that act as a prequel to the show's upcoming third season, which begins Oct. 6 in its regular timeslot, Fridays at 9 p.m.
Airport Almost Thwarts Rowling
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said that she won an argument with airport security officials in New York to carry the manuscript of the final Potter book as carryon baggage on her flight back to London, the Associated Press reported. Had security agents not relented, she said on her Web site http://www.jkrowling.com/ on Sept. 13, she might not have flown. "I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't—sailed home probably," she wrote.
Rowling was in New York to take part in a book reading for charity on Aug. 1 with fellow writers Stephen King and John Irving. Security was drastically tightened after Aug. 10 when British police said they had intercepted a plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners.
"The heightened security restrictions on the airlines made the journey back from New York interesting, as I refused to be parted from the manuscript of book seven," Rowling wrote. "A large part of it is handwritten, and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the U.S." Eventually, she added, "They let me take it on, thankfully, bound up in elastic bands."
Rowling said she was still considering two possible titles for the last of the boy wizard's adventures. "I was quite happy with one of them until the other one struck me while I was taking a shower in New York," she wrote. "They would both be appropriate, so I think I'll have to wait until I'm further into the book to decide which one works best."
Shatner Disavows Abrams Contact?
Original Star Trek star William Shatner reportedly told http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=37907 convention-goers in Chicago that he had spoken with J.J. Abrams, the co-writer and director of a proposed 11th Star Trek movie, about possible involvement in the movie. Or did he?
Newly posted video of an earlier convention http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2006/09/shatner_and_nimoy_on_star_trek_xi.html/ shows Shatner telling co-star Leonard Nimoy that he told his representatives not to give out his phone number to Abrams' people because "I presume you want to talk about Star Trek, and I'm not ready to talk about Star Trek."
Meanwhile, a post from Shatner on the actor's official Web site http://www.williamshatner.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-25741.phtml suggests that the reports were either erroneous or that Shatner now disavows making the comments.
"There are lots of underground rumblings about Star Trek," Shatner posted cryptically on the site's message boards. "Some of it is burbling, some of it is barely noticeable. I know nothing except that where's there's rumblings, there's gas, and in this case, the gas is coming from J.J. Abrams, and none of it seems to be directed in my direction. If any gas comes my way, I will post it immediately, and you all will know. Until then, hold your breath, because this gas is odiferous. My Best, Bill."
Ferrell Embraces Fiction Oddity
Will Ferrell, who stars in Stranger Than Fiction, told SCI FI Wire that he likes the psychic aspect of his new role, in which his ordinary character discovers that his life is being narrated by an unseen voice in his own mind, played by Emma Thompson.
"There's something about her accent," Ferrell said in a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie screened. "At least it wasn't Rhea Perlman." The film also co-stars Queen Latifah, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman.
Directed by Marc Forster, the film stars Ferrell as an uptight IRS tax investigator named Harold Crick who finds out that he's a fictional character being created by a nutty novelist (Thompson). He also finds out she's about to kill him off. To play the offbeat role, Ferrell performed with an earpiece that channeled Thompson's narration only to him.
"It was fun. It was fun to use this voice in my head that I could literally hear and play off of it and not imagine it," Ferrell said. "It's a lot of physical work, still, but there's something going on inside, too."
Ferrell added: "I like doing all kinds of things, all kinds of movies, and I enjoy the kind of odd aspect to it. This guy isn't just out of his mind. He's got something beyond his control that's haunting him. I like that." Stranger Than Fiction opens Nov. 10. —Mike Szymanski
Thompson, Hoffman Not Stranger
Emma Thompson, the British actress who co-stars in the upcoming fantastical movie Stranger Than Fiction, told SCI FI Wire that she kept trying to persuade co-star Dustin Hoffman to refrain from being so open to the public while filming in Chicago. "We would work out our scenes while walking on the streets of Chicago, like our characters do, and Dustin wouldn't try to disguise himself in the least, so we couldn't go out more than a couple of feet before someone would come up to him and talk about some of his work and be over-enthusiastic and then invite us out to dinner," Thompson said in an interview at the Toronto Film Festival over the weekend.
Thompson co-stars in the bizarre comic fantasy with Hoffman, Will Ferrell and Queen Latifah and plays a chain-smoking novelist whose story appears to have taken over the life of a man played by Ferrell. Hoffman plays an eccentric literature professor who tries to figure out what is happening.
"Emma and I needed to go out onto the streets and walk around together and then come back with what we came up with for our characters," Hoffman explained. "It was important to do that." But he declined to wear a hat, as Thompson suggested.
"I told him I would get him a hat, because if he just wore a hat, then he wouldn't be so out there as Dustin Hoffman," Thompson said.
Hoffman protested: "Anyone with a nose like mine knows that they don't want to wear a hat," he said. "It's just your nose that you would see." Stranger Than Fiction is set for a Nov. 10 release. —Mike Szymanski
Ferrell Plays it Straight
A rather sober funny guy, Will Ferrell told SCI FI Wire that his role in Stranger Than Fiction is stranger than and more different from any role he's ever done before. The Saturday Night Live comic, who broke out big in movies with Elf, said that he is usually accustomed to a lot of ad-libbing, but that wasn't allowed in his new film. "This is funny and touching and completely different, thematically different, than anything I've ever done before," Ferrell told reporters at the Toronto Film Festival over the weekend. "I usually memorize my lines. That doesn't mean I ever say them, but this time, I had to say the lines as written."
Stranger Than Fiction, directed by Marc Forster, stars Ferrell as the real-life counterpart to a fictional character of the same name being penned by a novelist played by Emma Thompson. It turns out her writing is directly affecting his life, and a literary expert, played by Dustin Hoffman, investigates. Ferrell's character is a humorless IRS investigator who barely cracks a smile. The movie is set to open Nov. 10. —Mike Szymanski
MGM Mulls Terminator 4, Hobbit Films
MGM will get back into the "tentpole" movie-making business, starting with such high-profile projects as a fourth Terminator movie and one or two installments of The Hobbit, which the studio hopes will be directed by Peter Jackson, Variety reported.
Over the next few years, MGM is planning to release half a dozen films, some in the $150 million to $200 million-plus range, the trade paper reported. The studio has already announced a Pink Panther sequel and the upcoming 22nd James Bond movie, which is due out in November 2008.
The proposed films are all franchises to which MGM owns the rights through its 4,000-title library. The goal is to release two or three tentpoles a year, all of which will be made with financial partners, including Wall Street money or other studios, the trade paper reported.
Speleers Saved Eragon Film
Ed Speleers, the 18-year-old actor who plays the lead in the upcoming magical fantasy film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he was surprised to learn that production almost shut down because the filmmakers hadn't found a proper lead. "I heard about that well into the production, and I'm glad I didn't hear about it right away," Speleers said at a private lunch during the Toronto Film Festival. "It certainly would have added a lot more pressure."
The large-scale film project will bring Christopher Paolini's fanciful novel to the big screen, but it was almost scrapped, a 20th Century Fox spokesperson confirmed, because the filmmakers couldn't find the right guy to play the teenage lead. Paolini wrote the book when he was 16 and has a triology of books planned. The story is about a farm boy who finds a blue stone that turns out to be a dragon's egg, and he becomes a magical hero.
Speleers didn't have any film experience, having only performed in school plays. But when director Stefen Fangmeier saw the blond Brit with blue eyes he thought he was perfect for the part. "I wasn't aware of the difficulty, and it certainly would have put a lot of pressure on me, but I am used to dealing with a lot of pressure," Speleers said. "I just didn't think about it."
Speleers found out that he'd won the role while at school. His father called him, and he was so excited that he ran down the halls screaming in only his boxer shorts. "I was telling everybody, 'I got the part! I got the part!' And then I realized that I had kept the audition a big secret so no one really knew what I was talking about anyway," Speleer said with a laugh.
Eragon also stars Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle. It is scheduled to open Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Mr. Peabody Heads For Film
DreamWorks Animation is developing a computer-animated film based on Mr. Peabody & Sherman, the classic animated TV shorts about a time-traveling dog and his boy, Variety reported. Rob Minkoff (The Haunted Mansion) will direct the film, based on the shorts that were introduced in 1959 as part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Minkoff developed the pitch for the film with longtime producing partner Jason Clark; the duo will oversee development. Andrew Kurtzman will write the screenplay with Clark and Minkoff.
Bullwinkle Studios' Tiffany Ward, daughter of the original cartoon's late producer Jay Ward, and Classic Media's Eric Ellenbogen will executive-produce. No release date is set.
Enchantment Is Fragile Magic
Multiple award-winning author Graham Joyce, whose book The Limits of Enchantment is currently a World Fantasy Award finalist for best novel, told SCI FI Wire that it deals with witchcraft, but that he never uses that term because he's interested in the fragility of magic. "It's about two women living on the margins of society," Joyce said in an interview. "They are both respected and feared by the community. When their way of life is threatened, they have to defend themselves. Where I live in the English Midlands there are still today pagan festivals at Eastertime, and the idea for the novel came from the annual 'Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking' festival that takes place in Leicestershire."
Joyce said that the two primary characters are Mammy, an unlicensed midwife, and Fern, her adopted daughter/apprentice. "Mammy is ... also an illegal abortionist," he said. "The story takes place in 1966, just before the change in England that allowed abortions to be performed legally. Consequently Mammy lives on the margins of the community. The women go to her in times of need. Her skills have come down to her via an oral tradition that mixes herbcraft, commonsense midwifery and a dangerous knowledge of the names of the fathers. Fern sees the world changing around her: Technology is unfolding, manned satellites circle the Earth, and social values are changing. When Mammy dies, her protection dies with her, and Fern has to choose a path between the new ways and the old."
The story is sympathetic to the witches, Joyce said. "I consulted with a local witch to be accurate about hedgerow medicine and wild plants," he said. "Then, bizarrely, some odd things about her life appeared in the fiction—things we hadn't even discussed remotely. I have no idea how this happened."
During the course of his research, Joyce discovered some interesting facts about witchcraft, but couldn't fit them into the novel. For instance, he said, "over a hundred years ago the vicar in the Leicestershire village where this story is set—the pagan festival is authentic—tried to stop the festival. The villagers rioted, daubed the church and forced him into reinstating the festival. ... I wanted to use it, but I couldn't work it into the story."
Two British feminist authors—Angela Carter and Fay Weldon—were inspirations for the novel, Joyce said. "[Carter] built a bridge between the magical genres and the literary gothic traditions," he said. "She had no fear of triggering magic in her novels—didn't seem to care what anyone would think about the mix. She was a kind of alchemist. Fay Weldon did similar things, but with a lighter touch—in fact she was interested in the lightness of magic, how it could come out of very ordinary situations and disappear very quickly. There's a shadow running off Fay Weldon's writing." —John Joseph Adams
Anita Blake Becomes A Comic
Comic-book studio Dabel Brothers Productions has joined forces with Marvel Comics to adapt the best-selling Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter book series and other fantasy, SF and horror titles into comics and graphic novels.
The first project under the agreement is an adaptation of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter in Guilty Pleasures, which comes out in October. The series will feature the artwork of Brett Booth (Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four) and tell a story of fantasy, romance and horror centering on an alternate reality where the U.S. government has declared the undead as legal beings. While attempting to coexist with humans, the vampires, zombies and werewolves still wreak havoc at times, and that's when Blake steps in.
In the coming months, Marvel and the Dabel Brothers will adapt George R.R. Martin's Hedge Knight series, Orson Scott Card's Red Prophet and Raymond E. Feist's Magician: Apprentice.
Marvel has signed on as the exclusive publisher for Dabel Brothers Productions, obtaining the marketing, print and distribution rights. The Dabel Brothers will continue to operate as an independent entity working with science fiction, fantasy and horror authors on story development.
Mostow Dives Into Sub-Mariner
Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) has signed on to rewrite and direct the proposed film version of Marvel Comics' Sub-Mariner for Universal Pictures, Variety reported.
Mostow has cleared his schedule to make Sub-Mariner his next movie. The property, created by cartoonist Bill Everett in April 1939, centers on a young man who discovers he's actually a descendant from the long-lost kingdom of Atlantis. He turns out to be the key man in a brewing war between the underwater world and our own.
Kevin Misher is producing through his Misher Films, along with Marvel Studios. David Self wrote an earlier draft of the screenplay.
Sub-Mariner previously looked as if it would go with Chris Columbus at the helm. His involvement was announced in late 2004, but that package fell apart.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Marvel Mulls Avengers Film
Marvel Entertainment intends to release a live-action film version of The Avengers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie based on the superhero franchise is one of several projects that Marvel has in the works.
Zak Penn, the writer behind the last two X-Men movies, is slated to write the screenplay.
Marvel executives spoke briefly about their Avengers plan on Sept. 13 during a presentation to Wall Street analysts at the Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment Conference in Pasadena, Calif., the trade paper reported.
The Avengers began as a team consisting of the superheroes Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Hulk. Later, Captain America and a host of others joined. Executives didn't say exactly which of Marvel's superheroes would be depicted in the Avengers movie.
NEWS OF THE WEEK FOR SEP. 18, 2006
Pirates 2 Third Biggest Film Ever
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has become the third film to pass $1 billion at the worldwide box office, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time, the Reuters news service reported.
The Johnny Depp sequel had sold $1.003 billion worth of tickets as of Sept. 8, the Walt Disney Co. said in a statement. But it was unlikely to climb any higher up the rankings.
Titanic, released in 1997, holds the record, with $1.8 billion, followed by 2003's Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, with $1.1 billion.
Dead Man's Chest's predecessor, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, earned $656 million worldwide.
A third film, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, is shooting in Los Angeles, with plans for release next May.
Fountain Goes For Lo-Tech F/X
Director Darren Aronofsky told SCI FI Wire that the special effects used in his SF romance The Fountain avoided computer-generated images and many of the effects were shot in a Petri dish. "I was influenced by science fiction, and I know that in recent years you see this big [ships] and things in space—don't get me wrong, the big ships in Star Wars look great—but I wanted to do something that hasn't been done before," Aronofsky said in a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival. "We moved away from CGI and wanted to show simplicity and realism. The technology is endless. I wanted to reinvent space, how it looks. I wanted a whole new feeling, something minimalist with no CGI because I didn't want to get into that holographic, cheesy look."
With his wife and the film's co-star, Rachel Weisz, urging him on, he revealed one of his effects secrets. "Tell them about the Petri dish. Why keep it a secret?" she said.
Aronofsky responded: "Yeah, so everything in the film that's set in space, we photographed in a Petri dish."
"It's pretty cool," Weisz gushed.
The Fountain tells three parallel stories spanning 1,500 years, centering on a man's quest to save the woman he loves. One of the stories takes place 500 years in the future, with dazzling images of deep space.
Producer Eric Watson added: "At one point we were pretty stuck getting financed, and people were afraid [of big-budget effects], but we showed them this Petri-dish footage, and it really impressed them."
Aronofsky said that the special-effects team wanted to do something completely different. "We realized we could shape and manipulate the film's movement from darkness to light over three time periods, so it was almost white by the end," he said. "That all came out of the Petri dish." The Fountain opens nationwide on Nov. 22. —Mike Szymanski
Fountain Critics Don't Bother Helmer
Darren Aronofsky, director of the SF epic film The Fountain, shrugged off the negative reception his film has received at the Toronto International Film Festival, where some critics hissed and others walked out. That reaction followed a screening earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival in which critics actually booed the movie.
But Aronofsky, speaking in a news conference in Toronto, said that the forgets that critics may be more cynical than the public. An audience of regular folks didn't boo or hiss the movie at a public screening that Aronofsky attended on Sept. 12 with stars Hugh Jackman, Ellen Burstyn and Rachel Weisz, who is also Aronofsky's wife.
"I keep forgetting that the critics screenings are more divisive, and they are more cynical," Aronofsky said, speaking for the first time about the negative reaction. "My movies tend to divide the critics."
Aronofsky added that his 1998 SF thriller Pi was panned by The New York Times. "It was destroyed, and a critic at Variety said I should not be making films, but I should be in therapy after seeing Requiem [for a Dream]. Maybe I should be."
The Fountain tells three parallel stories that span 1,500 years and center on a man on a quest to save the woman he loves. During the public screening, Oscar winner Weisz had to take a few breaks. "Let's just say you have to have more breaks for breastfeeding," she explained. The Fountain opens nationwide on Nov. 22. —Mike Szymanski
Fountain Hissed In Toronto
They cheered at Comic-Con, they booed in Venice, and at the first press screenings of Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain in Toronto, a few dozen people walked out and some hissed. The Sept. 11 screenings in two theaters at the Toronto International Film Festival were completely packed. All 287 seats were taken, and about 50 other press and industry people waited to get in.
About a dozen critics in both theaters walked out an hour into the 96-minute SF epic, which stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Jackman plays men in three periods spanning 1,500 years, each trying to save the woman he loves. In one theater, the audience hissed after the final picturesque scene.
Another dozen or so critics walked out before the end of the screening. It's unclear whether those critics were reacting to the film's quality or simply had to leave the screening to get to their next appointments on time.
For one Canadian critic, though, the reason was clear. "Ugh, it's just incomprehensible," said the critic, who didn't want to be identified. "I don't know anyone who said they liked it."
The festival will have one more press screening later in the week, but the true test of the film's prospects will undoubtedly come when it screens for the public. The first public screening is scheduled for Sept. 12, and another screening is slated for the following Thursday, at which the director and some cast members will answer questions. The Fountain opens Nov. 22. —Mike Szymanski
Heroes Also Has Villains
Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of NBC's upcoming superhero drama Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that the show will have a season-long arc involving the hunt for a super-powered serial killer. "We are bringing in other people with super powers, and they are not necessarily heroes," Kring said in a conference-call interview on Sept. 14. "The show does introduce the concept of a major villain in the second episode, and that villain becomes a sort of a linchpin, [a] central character for most of the first season."
Greg Grunberg, who plays a Los Angeles cop with psychic abilities, also makes his debut in the second episode. His character becomes involved in the ongoing case through an FBI agent played by Clea DuVall. "He's recruited by this FBI [agent], the character that Clea plays," Grunberg said in the same interview. "They become this team, sort of like a Mulder and Scully of The X-Files. And what's great is that this side of the story—investigating the villain and trying to figure out who he is, what his motives are, why these people are being affected and what's going on—what's great is, the audience will have a lot of these questions, and my character is going to discover them and hopefully answer those questions and be the eyes of the audience."
Grunberg added that some of the characters introduced as heroes may not necessarily remain virtuous throughout the series. "Don't assume that every one of these characters is good," Grunberg said. "That's something so interesting. As actors, [co-star Masi Oka] and I have had this conversation where we're thinking, 'Are we going to be good? Are we going to realize, "Wow, these powers: They're empowering me to such a way that I can use it for evil purposes?"' I mean, we have no idea whether we're going to go good, go bad. It's just so interesting to see what somebody would do given these abilities."
According to Kring, there has been a lot of discussion in the writers' room about the hero's journey, as outlined by mythology scholar Joseph Campbell. In particular, the show will explore the themes of temptation and the duality between good and evil. "It's one of the things that we're really fascinated with, ... this idea that all of these people have free will," Kring said. "They are just like any of us. If you find yourself in a time in your life when you are desperate or destitute, and you suddenly discover that you can walk through walls, well, then you may walk through the wall of a bank and rob it and steal money. If you are inclined to do good, and you have the ability to hear people's thoughts, then you will do good with that. And it really becomes about free will, which is also a part of the hero's journey. What do they do when they are suddenly tempted by darker forces?" Heroes premieres on Sept. 25 and will air Mondays at 9 p.m. PT/ET on NBC, with an encore later in the week on SCI FI Channel. NBC and SCI FI are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Cindy White
Lost Secrets Revealed Online
Fans of ABC's hit SF series Lost who played this summer's alternate-reality game The Lost Experience got a big payoff if they stuck with it: the secret to Hurley's numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42) and revelations about the Dharma Initiative and the Hanso Foundation. The answers, which were reported by TV Guide, http://www.tvguide.com/Magazine/Breaking-News/ can be found in a video detailing the elaborate backstory to the show, which has been posted in its entirety on YouTube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PPCCcXarkc&eurl=
The numbers represent the Valenzetti Equation, a mathematical formula having to do with the timetable for humanity's extinction. The show's sinister Dharma Initiative was an effort by the mysterious Hanso Foundation to ward off that inevitability. When Dharma failed, Hanso's nefarious acting leader, Thomas Mittelwerk, set in motion a plan to release a virus that would kill 30 percent of the world's population.
Details of the game's various threads can be found on the Lost Experience blog. http://www.thelostexperience.com/2006/09/glyphs_and_codes.php#more
SCIFI.COM's Resistance Scores Big
The first two webisodes of Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ SCIFI.COM's 10-part, five-week online prequel series, broke traffic records for SCI FI Pulse, the site's broadband channel. The first two installments generated 1.2 million streams in one week, achieving in seven days more than half the total number of streams SCI FI Pulse delivered in the previous month.
"The phenomenal success of The Resistance proves that there is a definite audience for webisodes that can have an impact on TV viewing," Craig Engler, senior vice president of SCIFI.COM and SCI FI Magazine, said in a statement. "Response on our online message boards indicates that not only are our existing fans excited about season three of Battlestar Galactica, the webisodes are creating new fans. People who have never watched the show before are very excited to become new viewers."
New two- to three-minute installments of The Resistance will debut every Tuesday and Thursday at noon ET, leading up to the Oct. 6 season premiere of Battlestar Galactica on SCI FI Channel.
The webisodes are from the creative team behind the show and chronicle the days following the events of the second-season finale. Life on New Caprica held the promise of protection from the Cylons, as well as breathable air and solid land. But Cylons discovered the planet, and humanity has been forced to live under Cylon occupation. As Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) organize an insurgency, the Cylons campaign for peaceful co-existence, while eliminating anyone resisting. As life among the Cylons becomes unbearable, two former members of Galactica's fleet—lifelong friends Jammer (Dominic Zaprogna) and Duck (Christian Tessier)—must decide whether resistance or compliance is in the best interest of humanity. The storyline of the online prequel will lead viewers seamlessly into the third-season on-air premiere.
Battlestar's Park Has Answers
Grace Park, who plays Sharon "Boomer" Valerii on SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ will answer viewer questions in a video interview that will go live on SCIFI.COM on Sept. 18.
Park will discuss the show, the challenges and benefits of playing multiple characters and the possibility of a Battlestar Galactica http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Battlestar_Galactica hockey team.
Park answered questions that were previously submitted by visitors to SCIFI.COM. The video will go live at 7:30 p.m. ET on SCIFI.COM's SCI FI Pulse broadband network.
In the meantime, much of the rest of the Battlestar Galactica cast is appearing in the 10-part Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, a series of webisodes that act as a prequel to the show's upcoming third season, which begins Oct. 6 in its regular timeslot, Fridays at 9 p.m.
Airport Almost Thwarts Rowling
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said that she won an argument with airport security officials in New York to carry the manuscript of the final Potter book as carryon baggage on her flight back to London, the Associated Press reported. Had security agents not relented, she said on her Web site http://www.jkrowling.com/ on Sept. 13, she might not have flown. "I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't—sailed home probably," she wrote.
Rowling was in New York to take part in a book reading for charity on Aug. 1 with fellow writers Stephen King and John Irving. Security was drastically tightened after Aug. 10 when British police said they had intercepted a plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners.
"The heightened security restrictions on the airlines made the journey back from New York interesting, as I refused to be parted from the manuscript of book seven," Rowling wrote. "A large part of it is handwritten, and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the U.S." Eventually, she added, "They let me take it on, thankfully, bound up in elastic bands."
Rowling said she was still considering two possible titles for the last of the boy wizard's adventures. "I was quite happy with one of them until the other one struck me while I was taking a shower in New York," she wrote. "They would both be appropriate, so I think I'll have to wait until I'm further into the book to decide which one works best."
Shatner Disavows Abrams Contact?
Original Star Trek star William Shatner reportedly told http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=37907 convention-goers in Chicago that he had spoken with J.J. Abrams, the co-writer and director of a proposed 11th Star Trek movie, about possible involvement in the movie. Or did he?
Newly posted video of an earlier convention http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2006/09/shatner_and_nimoy_on_star_trek_xi.html/ shows Shatner telling co-star Leonard Nimoy that he told his representatives not to give out his phone number to Abrams' people because "I presume you want to talk about Star Trek, and I'm not ready to talk about Star Trek."
Meanwhile, a post from Shatner on the actor's official Web site http://www.williamshatner.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-25741.phtml suggests that the reports were either erroneous or that Shatner now disavows making the comments.
"There are lots of underground rumblings about Star Trek," Shatner posted cryptically on the site's message boards. "Some of it is burbling, some of it is barely noticeable. I know nothing except that where's there's rumblings, there's gas, and in this case, the gas is coming from J.J. Abrams, and none of it seems to be directed in my direction. If any gas comes my way, I will post it immediately, and you all will know. Until then, hold your breath, because this gas is odiferous. My Best, Bill."
Ferrell Embraces Fiction Oddity
Will Ferrell, who stars in Stranger Than Fiction, told SCI FI Wire that he likes the psychic aspect of his new role, in which his ordinary character discovers that his life is being narrated by an unseen voice in his own mind, played by Emma Thompson.
"There's something about her accent," Ferrell said in a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie screened. "At least it wasn't Rhea Perlman." The film also co-stars Queen Latifah, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman.
Directed by Marc Forster, the film stars Ferrell as an uptight IRS tax investigator named Harold Crick who finds out that he's a fictional character being created by a nutty novelist (Thompson). He also finds out she's about to kill him off. To play the offbeat role, Ferrell performed with an earpiece that channeled Thompson's narration only to him.
"It was fun. It was fun to use this voice in my head that I could literally hear and play off of it and not imagine it," Ferrell said. "It's a lot of physical work, still, but there's something going on inside, too."
Ferrell added: "I like doing all kinds of things, all kinds of movies, and I enjoy the kind of odd aspect to it. This guy isn't just out of his mind. He's got something beyond his control that's haunting him. I like that." Stranger Than Fiction opens Nov. 10. —Mike Szymanski
Thompson, Hoffman Not Stranger
Emma Thompson, the British actress who co-stars in the upcoming fantastical movie Stranger Than Fiction, told SCI FI Wire that she kept trying to persuade co-star Dustin Hoffman to refrain from being so open to the public while filming in Chicago. "We would work out our scenes while walking on the streets of Chicago, like our characters do, and Dustin wouldn't try to disguise himself in the least, so we couldn't go out more than a couple of feet before someone would come up to him and talk about some of his work and be over-enthusiastic and then invite us out to dinner," Thompson said in an interview at the Toronto Film Festival over the weekend.
Thompson co-stars in the bizarre comic fantasy with Hoffman, Will Ferrell and Queen Latifah and plays a chain-smoking novelist whose story appears to have taken over the life of a man played by Ferrell. Hoffman plays an eccentric literature professor who tries to figure out what is happening.
"Emma and I needed to go out onto the streets and walk around together and then come back with what we came up with for our characters," Hoffman explained. "It was important to do that." But he declined to wear a hat, as Thompson suggested.
"I told him I would get him a hat, because if he just wore a hat, then he wouldn't be so out there as Dustin Hoffman," Thompson said.
Hoffman protested: "Anyone with a nose like mine knows that they don't want to wear a hat," he said. "It's just your nose that you would see." Stranger Than Fiction is set for a Nov. 10 release. —Mike Szymanski
Ferrell Plays it Straight
A rather sober funny guy, Will Ferrell told SCI FI Wire that his role in Stranger Than Fiction is stranger than and more different from any role he's ever done before. The Saturday Night Live comic, who broke out big in movies with Elf, said that he is usually accustomed to a lot of ad-libbing, but that wasn't allowed in his new film. "This is funny and touching and completely different, thematically different, than anything I've ever done before," Ferrell told reporters at the Toronto Film Festival over the weekend. "I usually memorize my lines. That doesn't mean I ever say them, but this time, I had to say the lines as written."
Stranger Than Fiction, directed by Marc Forster, stars Ferrell as the real-life counterpart to a fictional character of the same name being penned by a novelist played by Emma Thompson. It turns out her writing is directly affecting his life, and a literary expert, played by Dustin Hoffman, investigates. Ferrell's character is a humorless IRS investigator who barely cracks a smile. The movie is set to open Nov. 10. —Mike Szymanski
MGM Mulls Terminator 4, Hobbit Films
MGM will get back into the "tentpole" movie-making business, starting with such high-profile projects as a fourth Terminator movie and one or two installments of The Hobbit, which the studio hopes will be directed by Peter Jackson, Variety reported.
Over the next few years, MGM is planning to release half a dozen films, some in the $150 million to $200 million-plus range, the trade paper reported. The studio has already announced a Pink Panther sequel and the upcoming 22nd James Bond movie, which is due out in November 2008.
The proposed films are all franchises to which MGM owns the rights through its 4,000-title library. The goal is to release two or three tentpoles a year, all of which will be made with financial partners, including Wall Street money or other studios, the trade paper reported.
Speleers Saved Eragon Film
Ed Speleers, the 18-year-old actor who plays the lead in the upcoming magical fantasy film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he was surprised to learn that production almost shut down because the filmmakers hadn't found a proper lead. "I heard about that well into the production, and I'm glad I didn't hear about it right away," Speleers said at a private lunch during the Toronto Film Festival. "It certainly would have added a lot more pressure."
The large-scale film project will bring Christopher Paolini's fanciful novel to the big screen, but it was almost scrapped, a 20th Century Fox spokesperson confirmed, because the filmmakers couldn't find the right guy to play the teenage lead. Paolini wrote the book when he was 16 and has a triology of books planned. The story is about a farm boy who finds a blue stone that turns out to be a dragon's egg, and he becomes a magical hero.
Speleers didn't have any film experience, having only performed in school plays. But when director Stefen Fangmeier saw the blond Brit with blue eyes he thought he was perfect for the part. "I wasn't aware of the difficulty, and it certainly would have put a lot of pressure on me, but I am used to dealing with a lot of pressure," Speleers said. "I just didn't think about it."
Speleers found out that he'd won the role while at school. His father called him, and he was so excited that he ran down the halls screaming in only his boxer shorts. "I was telling everybody, 'I got the part! I got the part!' And then I realized that I had kept the audition a big secret so no one really knew what I was talking about anyway," Speleer said with a laugh.
Eragon also stars Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle. It is scheduled to open Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Mr. Peabody Heads For Film
DreamWorks Animation is developing a computer-animated film based on Mr. Peabody & Sherman, the classic animated TV shorts about a time-traveling dog and his boy, Variety reported. Rob Minkoff (The Haunted Mansion) will direct the film, based on the shorts that were introduced in 1959 as part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Minkoff developed the pitch for the film with longtime producing partner Jason Clark; the duo will oversee development. Andrew Kurtzman will write the screenplay with Clark and Minkoff.
Bullwinkle Studios' Tiffany Ward, daughter of the original cartoon's late producer Jay Ward, and Classic Media's Eric Ellenbogen will executive-produce. No release date is set.
Enchantment Is Fragile Magic
Multiple award-winning author Graham Joyce, whose book The Limits of Enchantment is currently a World Fantasy Award finalist for best novel, told SCI FI Wire that it deals with witchcraft, but that he never uses that term because he's interested in the fragility of magic. "It's about two women living on the margins of society," Joyce said in an interview. "They are both respected and feared by the community. When their way of life is threatened, they have to defend themselves. Where I live in the English Midlands there are still today pagan festivals at Eastertime, and the idea for the novel came from the annual 'Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking' festival that takes place in Leicestershire."
Joyce said that the two primary characters are Mammy, an unlicensed midwife, and Fern, her adopted daughter/apprentice. "Mammy is ... also an illegal abortionist," he said. "The story takes place in 1966, just before the change in England that allowed abortions to be performed legally. Consequently Mammy lives on the margins of the community. The women go to her in times of need. Her skills have come down to her via an oral tradition that mixes herbcraft, commonsense midwifery and a dangerous knowledge of the names of the fathers. Fern sees the world changing around her: Technology is unfolding, manned satellites circle the Earth, and social values are changing. When Mammy dies, her protection dies with her, and Fern has to choose a path between the new ways and the old."
The story is sympathetic to the witches, Joyce said. "I consulted with a local witch to be accurate about hedgerow medicine and wild plants," he said. "Then, bizarrely, some odd things about her life appeared in the fiction—things we hadn't even discussed remotely. I have no idea how this happened."
During the course of his research, Joyce discovered some interesting facts about witchcraft, but couldn't fit them into the novel. For instance, he said, "over a hundred years ago the vicar in the Leicestershire village where this story is set—the pagan festival is authentic—tried to stop the festival. The villagers rioted, daubed the church and forced him into reinstating the festival. ... I wanted to use it, but I couldn't work it into the story."
Two British feminist authors—Angela Carter and Fay Weldon—were inspirations for the novel, Joyce said. "[Carter] built a bridge between the magical genres and the literary gothic traditions," he said. "She had no fear of triggering magic in her novels—didn't seem to care what anyone would think about the mix. She was a kind of alchemist. Fay Weldon did similar things, but with a lighter touch—in fact she was interested in the lightness of magic, how it could come out of very ordinary situations and disappear very quickly. There's a shadow running off Fay Weldon's writing." —John Joseph Adams
Anita Blake Becomes A Comic
Comic-book studio Dabel Brothers Productions has joined forces with Marvel Comics to adapt the best-selling Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter book series and other fantasy, SF and horror titles into comics and graphic novels.
The first project under the agreement is an adaptation of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter in Guilty Pleasures, which comes out in October. The series will feature the artwork of Brett Booth (Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four) and tell a story of fantasy, romance and horror centering on an alternate reality where the U.S. government has declared the undead as legal beings. While attempting to coexist with humans, the vampires, zombies and werewolves still wreak havoc at times, and that's when Blake steps in.
In the coming months, Marvel and the Dabel Brothers will adapt George R.R. Martin's Hedge Knight series, Orson Scott Card's Red Prophet and Raymond E. Feist's Magician: Apprentice.
Marvel has signed on as the exclusive publisher for Dabel Brothers Productions, obtaining the marketing, print and distribution rights. The Dabel Brothers will continue to operate as an independent entity working with science fiction, fantasy and horror authors on story development.
Mostow Dives Into Sub-Mariner
Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) has signed on to rewrite and direct the proposed film version of Marvel Comics' Sub-Mariner for Universal Pictures, Variety reported.
Mostow has cleared his schedule to make Sub-Mariner his next movie. The property, created by cartoonist Bill Everett in April 1939, centers on a young man who discovers he's actually a descendant from the long-lost kingdom of Atlantis. He turns out to be the key man in a brewing war between the underwater world and our own.
Kevin Misher is producing through his Misher Films, along with Marvel Studios. David Self wrote an earlier draft of the screenplay.
Sub-Mariner previously looked as if it would go with Chris Columbus at the helm. His involvement was announced in late 2004, but that package fell apart.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Marvel Mulls Avengers Film
Marvel Entertainment intends to release a live-action film version of The Avengers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie based on the superhero franchise is one of several projects that Marvel has in the works.
Zak Penn, the writer behind the last two X-Men movies, is slated to write the screenplay.
Marvel executives spoke briefly about their Avengers plan on Sept. 13 during a presentation to Wall Street analysts at the Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment Conference in Pasadena, Calif., the trade paper reported.
The Avengers began as a team consisting of the superheroes Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Hulk. Later, Captain America and a host of others joined. Executives didn't say exactly which of Marvel's superheroes would be depicted in the Avengers movie.