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10-19-2006, 11:09 PM
Part 1 of 2
NEWS OF THE WEEK FOR OCT. 16, 2006
MGM Talks Hobbit Film
TheOneRing.net (http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/8/1160269092) reported that MGM has confirmed that it has held initial talks with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson about helming a movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. MGM made the comments in a letter sent in response to a fan petition to New Line and MGM on Sept. 22 with more than 39,000 signatures arguing for a Jackson-helmed Hobbit.
The letter read in part: "We would like to give you the official statement from Rick Sands, [chief operating officer] of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. ... Peter Jackson's phenomenal success with The Lord of the Rings trilogy makes him the first and most ideal choice for directing The Hobbit. ... MGM would be thrilled to collaborate with the Academy Award-winning director on this MGM New Line Cinema production. And, I'm sure to the delight of the 50,000 filmgoers who have petitioned us in recent weeks, demanding we bring this film to fruition, we have had a few initial conversations about the project with Mr. Jackson's representatives."
For its part, New Line, the studio that produced the Rings films, has not responded yet to the petition.
Battlestar's Bamber Wants Viewers
Jamie Bamber, who stars as Lee "Apollo" Adama on the SCI FI original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/), told SCI FI Wire that he appreciates the show's success and the many accolades it's received to date, but added that he hopes the show will attract a wider audience this year as it kicks off its third season.
"It is a little weird, because we are a success," Bamber said in an interview. "For our network we are doing well. We're in the press. We were just on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Time magazine said we're the number-one show. The New York Times and The New Yorker have all done huge feature spreads. And, yes, they're all pretty emphatic about the quality of television that we're making. We've won a Peabody Award. Yet we're still not reaching an audience as broad or as diverse as I would like. Having said that, more and more and more I do get stopped, and the people who stop me tend to be the more influential people in life."
Battlestar Galactica returned on Oct. 6, picking up the cliffhanger ending of last season, when the human settlers of New Caprica found themselves under Cylon occupation. Executive-produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the series also stars Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park.
"It's interesting," Bamber said. "It's very interesting, but we're not going out to 70 million people like the original show did. I guess we're not a family show, particularly. We're very adult and quite cerebral. So I guess we've found our specific audience, and it happens to be the ones that write the reviews. That's always nice, but we'd love to break out and become more recognized in the mainstream. For me, awards don't mean a thing, but I know they're important currency in the business, in the markets and the networks. So, hopefully, we can get the Emmys to at least take us seriously." Battlestar Galactica airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Ian Spelling
Classic Galactica Comic Due
Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a writer and producer for ABC's Alias and Lost TV series, will write a new miniseries of comic books based on the classic 1970s Battlestar Galactica show, Dynamite Entertainment announced. The miniseries is being scheduled for an early 2007 release.
Grillo-Marxuach calls himself a big fan of the original Galactica universe. "One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting in a movie theater, watching Battlestar Galactica in Sensurround!" Grillo-Marxuach said in a statement. "With the renewed interest in all things Galactica, it truly is an honor to revisit the swashbuckling world of the original series and tell a big, heroic adventure that's both true to the character of the classic universe and so epic in scope it can only be presented in the comics medium, ... and that's no felgercarb!"
Grillo-Marxuach is an Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer whose credits include The Pretender, The Chronicle, Charmed, Jake 2.0, The Dead Zone, Dark Skies and seaQuest. He is also the writer of Marvel Comics' Annihilation: Super Skrull and creator of Viper Comics' The Middleman.
Galactica Rumors Squashed
SCI FI Channel and its parent network, NBC, put to rest fan rumors that SCI FI's original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/) will make the move to NBC. "There is no truth to this rumor," a SCI FI spokesperson told SCI FI Wire.
The rumor has appeared on fans sites such as the Battlestar Galactica Site (http://www.battlestargalacticasite.com/2006/10/bsg_to_nbc_can_it_survive.php#more) and been picked up by other entertainment news sites. "Word has begun to circulate that NBC's acquisition of Battlestar Galactica is in the 'waiting-for-the-ink-to-dry' phase at this moment, and an official announcement could be days away," the Battlestar Galactica Site said.
Battlestar Galactica returned for its third season on SCI FI on Oct. 6 and airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It was the number-one cable show in its timeslot for the night.
Eick Reimagining Bionic
David Eick, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/), will reinvent another 1970s SF show: The Bionic Woman, which he will executive-produce with film writer Laeta Kalogridis for SCI FI's parent TV network, NBC, Variety reported.
The original spinoff of The Six Million Dollar Man starred Lindsay Wagner as tennis-pro-turned-superwoman Jamie Sommers; it aired for two seasons on ABC before shifting to NBC in 1977 for its final year.
Eick told the trade paper that the new series will be "a complete reconceptualization of the title. We're using the title as a starting point, and that's all."
NBC Universal Television Studio will produce the new series, which has been given a script commitment by NBC.
Eick and fellow executive producer Ronald D. Moore turned SCI FI's Peabody Award-winning Battlestar into a series vastly different from its predecessor. Eick and Kalogridis are planning a similar "reimagination" of Bionic Woman: Instead of focusing on terrorism and militarism, the new Bionic will explore the role of professional women in contemporary society and how they juggle their various roles.
Kalogridis is working on a pair of projects with James Cameron, writing The Dive and co-writing Battle Angel with the helmer. On the TV front, Kalogridis created the WB series Birds of Prey.
Heroes Coming Together
Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of NBC's hit series Heroes (http://www.scifi.com/heroes/), told SCI FI Wire that audiences can expect the show's superpowered characters to start joining forces and working as a team in upcoming episodes. "As their destiny starts to sort of become intermingled with one another, yes, they have to form this sort of alliance with one another," Kring said in a conference call with journalists on Oct. 11. "And then, in a sense, join with each other in order to figure out what's going on. Every character has sort of a tiny piece of the puzzle. So the puzzle gets put together by the characters coming together."
Rather than continuing to focus on the individual storylines of the large cast of characters, Kring said that Heroes will gradually integrate the threads into a single overarching story. "If you sort of look at it as kind of a funnel, it starts wide and starts to narrow," he said. "As these characters start to cross paths, you no longer have to tell eight stories. You can tell four stories or three stories. So there is a natural progression that's allowing us to tell less and less scattered stories."
Kring confirmed that the heroes will find a common enemy in the mysterious serial killer known as Sylar, who Kring called the "major villain" of the first season. Though the identity of Sylar hasn't been revealed, he may be someone that viewers have already met. "We're going to leave some of the answers to that vague, because I really want the audience to be surprised when we do introduce the character." Kring said. "I know there is speculation that the character is somebody that is among the characters already, and I'm comfortable with that speculation. And I kind of don't want to give it away." Heroes airs Mondays at 9 p.m. PT/ET. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Cindy White
Heroes' Larter Secret Revealed
Ali Larter, one of the stars of NBC's new hit series Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that the details of her character's mysterious double life will be revealed in upcoming episodes. "Where we're leading to is that there's going to be a duality within my personality," Larter said in a conference call with journalists on Oct. 11. "So there's one side that has to conform to society's rules and laws, and the shadow side that can actually live out the dark fantasies that are repressed within all of us."
On the show, Larter plays single mother Niki Sanders, whose mirror reflection seems to have a life of her own. Heroes creator and executive producer Tim Kring, who also participated in the call, added that viewers can draw a parallel to the character of Niki and other famous dual personalities. "I would say that it's a very safe thing to sort of assume that it's a Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde or Hulk kind of personality," Kring said. "But we are leaving the door very open for new surprises."
Kring said that Niki's power was intentionally kept vague in the first few episodes because the writers wanted the audience to discover it along with the character. But there will be more explanation as the series continues. "It is intended to be confusing at the beginning, because we are following it through her point of view, as though you had woken up with this very curious thing happening to you," he said. "Niki's character is the one character that is discovering this in the most confusing way. So we are asking the audience to sort of buy into that conceit that it's going to be a road to discovery. And in the next couple of episodes, it becomes clearer and clearer. And after six episodes it should be very clear what's happening."
Larter also revealed that her character's story will lighten up in future episodes, and she may even be getting a love interest. "I'm in a bit of fear and distress right now, but if you hold on for just one more episode, we're going to get a little romance," she said. "You get a little bit of cheekiness in it. And, actually, what's amazing about this writing is that it really pushes me and makes me kind of find, actually, all different tones within our show. So you're getting there. That's just the first couple episodes. It definitely opens up to a whole new world." Heroes airs on NBC Mondays at 9 p.m. PT/ET. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Cindy White
SG-1 DVD Films Get OK'd
SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1 (http://www.scifi.com/stargate/) will wrap up its 10-year run this spring, but that's not the end of the saga. Executive producer Brad Wright told TV Guide that MGM has granted a green light, and enough money, to produce two movies, most likely for DVD.
The first film will tie up most of the finale's loose threads. "It's the climax of the Ori storyline," Wright said, and will be written and directed by executive producer Robert Cooper. The second film, written by Wright, will involve time travel, and both projects should debut in the fall of 2007.
Though no deals are signed, SG-1's stars are said to be "very eager" to continue, Wright added. "They're not big-budget [films] by any definition, but for us it's pretty good," he said. "As we've proven over the years, just give us little more money and we can make pretty good television or DVDs."
Eragon Star Saved The Film
Ed Speleers, the young star of the upcoming fantasy film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he won the title role just as production was about to shut down because the filmmakers had had little success casting the all-important part of the hero, a fledgling dragonrider. The 18-year-old English actor was attending a private British boarding school when his drama teacher suggested that he send in an audition tape for the role in the movie, which is based on Christopher Paolini's best-seller.
"I didn't really tell my friends that I was going out for the part," Speleers said in an interview. "I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but I got some encouragement [from his drama teacher], and it all happened rather fast."
Little did Speleers know that his was the last of 100,000 photos and tapes that filmmakers reviewed during an arduous casting process. But when director Stefen Fangmeier saw Speleers, he said he knew the young actor was the right person for the role, the young actor's first movie job. And so was 20th Century Fox chairman Tom Rothman, who gave the OK after viewing Speleers' audition.
"At first we were looking at older actors for the role, but it was written for a 16-, 17-year-old, and he was the one," Fangmeier said. "We all saw that sparkle in him. You just know he could do it and be a movie star."
Once he won the role, Speleers played Eragon, a young man who finds a blue stone and ends up riding a telepathic dragon. Speleers traveled from London to Vancouver, Hungary and Slovakia to shoot the movie. "It was a great opportunity," he said. "I would have been a fool not to do it, but I knew there was some burden of responsibility that came with the part."
Now, Speleers says that he thinks he's well equipped to handle fame. "I feel comfortable about it," he said. "I am ready for it. I made it this far." Eragon co-stars Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle and John Malkovich. The film is scheduled to open Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Eragon Star Did Own Stunts
Ed Speleers, who stars in the fantasy-novel-turned-film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he performed as many of his own stunts as the filmmakers would allow. The 18-year-old English actor hung from wires, rode horses and fought with heavy swords in the movie, which brings Christopher Paolini's 2003 best-seller to the silver screen.
"I had some scary moments, some really scary moments, but I did feel safe through it all," Speleers said in an interview. "I wanted to do as much as they would let me do in all those months in Eastern Europe, and every day I thought to myself, 'Wow, can I do it?' and 'Wow, this is huge!'"
Speleers plays the title role, a young farm boy who discovers what turns out to be a dragon's egg in the woods and finds himself caught up as one of the last dragonriders in a war to overthrow a tyrannous king.
Speleers suffered only one slightly embarrassing injury: chafing from the leather trousers he wore while riding. "The most uncomfortable was probably the armor, but that's to be expected," he added. "You get used to it."
Speleers wasn't allowed to do most of the big jumps the film required. But he did most of his own sword fighting, with the help of a good coach. "It was sword fighting with a bit of a samurai style, and there was a lot of concentration required for that," he said.
Speleers, who lives in the English countryside outside London, already knew how to ride horses and said he worked on a farm for a while to earn some extra money. "I wasn't afraid of horses," he said. "I am very comfortable around them. My back is in agony after a bit of riding."
To prepare for the physical role of Eragon, Speleers spent three weeks prior to shooting training for the fighting and riding scenes. Among other things, he learned how to prop up his heavy sword. "Those swords get very heavy when you're fighting someone, and trying raise it high through a long fight can get painful," Speleers said. Eragon opens Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Shakespeare Readied Eragon Star
Ed Speleers, the 18-year-old English actor who plays the title role in the upcoming fantasy film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that his lead parts in school plays helped prepare him to take on his first role in a movie. They included the title roles in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Richard III at his private British boarding school, Eastbourne College in East Sussex.
"I had the lead roles in those plays, and they were pretty intense. They were tough," Speleers said in an interview. "People in the U.S. say that it's a pretty big deal to take a role like that, but it's really a very English thing to do. We always do Shakespeare, and those are definitely the big ones."
Speleers took what he learned in his school plays and so impressed director Stefen Fangmeier that he beat out 180,000 others to win the coveted role of the young dragonrider in the movie based on Christopher Paolini's best-selling novel. Eragon is Speleers' first film-acting job and also marks the feature-directorial debut of Fangmeier, who built his career as a movie visual-effects supervisor.
"I really enjoyed Hamlet, and it's nice to play someone who's really crazy with Richard III," Speleers said. "Of course, they both are a little crazy, aren't they? They are crazy in different ways. Hamlet is a sad guy. I enjoyed doing them, really. And did they help me [with Eragon]? Yes. ... They also helped with the professionalism of the work. Of course, at such a young age, I have not had the experiences that these characters have, and certain things I could not understand and certainly couldn't do, because I don't have the emotional memories to understand it. But Hamlet, especially, helped me get to some emotional moments, and I used it when doing some scenes in Eragon."
Speleers began acting at the tender age of 12, when he played Puck in a school production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Because of the filming of Eragon, Speleers said that he has had to delay taking his English school exams. But he added that he does plan to go back to school.
Eragon, a 20th Century Fox film, also stars Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle. It is scheduled to open Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Howard Joins Iron Man
Terrence Howard is set to join Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, the superhero movie to be directed by Jon Favreau, Variety reported. Paramount Pictures will release the film on May 2, 2008.
Howard will play Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes, the confidante of Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark, played by Downey. Rhodes, a high-ranking military officer and aviator, steers the team that develops the robotic suit that allows the sickly Stark to fly around and battle bad guys.
In the Marvel Comics series on which the film is based, Rhodes' character gets his own armored suit and evolves into an occasionally antagonistic character called War Machine. That development seems likely to be saved for the sequel, though, as Iron Man will battle the villainous Mandarin when shooting begins in February in Los Angeles, the trade paper reported.
Eragon Brings Newbies Together
Ed Speleers, the newcomer star of the upcoming film version of the best-selling Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he was a big fan of director Stefen Fangmeier's work even before he knew the director's name. Eragon, based on the book by Christopher Paolini, marks visual-effects specialist Fangmeier's directorial debut, which is also the 18-year-old Speleers' movie debut.
"We were both new at this," Speleers said in an interview. "We both knew that we needed to depend and help each other, and we worked together amazingly," Speleers said in an interview. "I got really lucky. He's the best director."
Little did Speleers know when he was sneaking to watch a video of Terminator 2: Judgment Day when he was 5 years old that the film's visual effects were done by the man who would eventually direct him in his first film. Speleers is also a fan of Galaxy Quest, Twister and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, all of which Fangmeier worked on as visual-effects supervisor when he was part of Industrial Light & Magic.
"I really liked The Perfect Storm and The Bourne Identity, too," Speleers said. "I was a big fan of both of those, and it was great to know that Stefen worked on those movies. He really knew how to help me out when I needed it, from the middle of the forest in Slovakia to Budapest to Vancouver and everywhere we shot. He was there for me the whole time."
In a separate interview, Fangmeier said that he almost canceled the production because the filmmakers couldn't find the right actor to play the youth who finds a blue stone that turns out to be a dragon's egg. The director said he saw a sparkle in the audition tape of Speleers, who was attending a private boarding school in London. "I saw he could be a movie star. He was a natural," Fangmeier said. Speleers stars along with veteran actors Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle in Eragon, which opens Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Gilliam Hopes For Good Omens
Director Terry Gilliam told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't yet have a project lined up to follow his latest film, Tideland, but that he's still hoping to direct a big-screen version of the fantasy novel Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. "I've been working on it for quite a while, but it's a big budget," Gilliam said in an interview. "I was doing this before The Brothers Grimm, before Tideland, but it needs A-list stars to work—to get the money is what I mean—and none of the A-list stars are right for the part. That's what's frustrating."
Good Omens is a satirical book that deals with the appearance of the son of Satan heralding the End Times and the efforts of an angel and a demon to thwart them to preserve their comfortable positions on Earth.
"It's an angel and devil and the Antichrist and the Apocalypse," Gilliam (Brazil) said. "It's a comedy. Neil and Terry wrote it together years ago, and we've adapted it, and it's really good. It's fantastic. Here's my beef with Hollywood. Before The Brothers Grimm, we went out to Hollywood to get [Good Omens] made. We had raised $45 million from the rest of the world, and we needed $15 [million] out of Hollywood. I had two actors, Johnny Depp and Robin Williams. I couldn't get $15 million out of Hollywood with those two people. They said, 'Johnny, nah, he does those European art movies, Chocolat, The Man Who Cried, Robin. His career is finished.' And now there's Pirates of the Caribbean. The world turns just like that. I'm waiting to see the [new] Barry Levinson film [Man of the Year] with Robin. I'm told it's really sharp. I hope it works, because Robin's brilliant; he's just made some bad choices, that's all. ... I can't stand that place [Hollywood] because of that. I need their money, though." —Ian Spelling
Flushed's Serkis Aped A Rat
Andy Serkis, who played the giant gorilla in King Kong, told SCI FI Wire he had a hard time switching between Kong and his first fully animated role as a rat in the upcoming Flushed Away, which he filmed at the same time. Serkis voiced the role of Spike the rat while finishing up King Kong. "It was quite odd when we were doing King Kong and then doing a bit of Spike as well, because it was strange going from a 25-foot gorilla to a 6-inch mouse," Serkis said in an interview at a recent preview of the film in Los Angeles.
Flushed Away is the story of Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman), an upper-crust "society mouse," who lives the life of a beloved pet in a posh Kensington flat in London. When a sewer rat named Sid (Shane Richie) shows up, Roddy winds up being flushed down the toilet into the bustling sewer world of Ratropolis, where he meets Rita (Kate Winslet), an enterprising scavenger. Serkis' Spike and his pal, Whitey (Bill Nighy), are henchmen to the villainous Toad (Ian McKellen).
"This is actually the first time I've ever done a voice for an animation," Serkis said. "People seem to think that I've done [it] and so on, but I haven't. This is actually the very, very first time. But they did show us in those sessions clay mockups of the characters. That was really, really useful in as far as getting to grips with what he was like. It was a part of the concept that they were showing me as well, and what was apparent right off was that he was kind of nasal-y and had these really sharp protruding teeth and quite tense in the jaw. So that coupled with the script, and obviously you're playing a sort of neurotic rat who wants to be bigger than he really is."
Serkis didn't have time to stop and study rats because at the time he was studying the great apes. "I was actually ... studying gorillas, and this is the challenge of the job, really," he said. "When you do an animation, you do literally three or four hours on your first day, and then you don't see the character again for six months, seven months, while the animators work on it, and then you come back and you do another session for three hours, and then again like that. So it was a very new way of working for me. I mean, luckily, in the very first session I got the chance to work with Bill Nighy. So we worked out characters and our voices kind of in counterpoint, really. I mean, obviously, he's also going to be a slower kind of character. So we were able to sort of pitch our characters to each other." Flushed Away, which comes from Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit), is slated for release on Nov. 3. —Mike Szymanski
Jericho Gets Full Season
CBS has given a full-season order to Jericho, its hit post-apocalyptic drama, the network announced. The show, about the aftermath of a nuclear attack, has averaged 11.3 million viewers and a 3.4 rating among adults aged 18-49, boosting CBS' performance on Wednesday nights.
Jericho stars Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Ashley Scott, Pamela Reed, Kenneth Mitchell, Lennie James, Sprague Graden, Michael Gaston, Erik Knudsen, Brad Beyer and Shoshannah Stern. Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Chbosky and Carol Barbee are executive producers for CBS Paramount Network Television. The show airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Raimi Eyes CW Horrors
Director/producer Sam Raimi is developing a hybrid horror/reality series House of Horrors for The CW network, Variety reported. Raimi and his longtime producing partner Rob Tapert are executive-producing. CW executives told the trade paper that the show could be on the air as early as next summer once it gets a green light.
Gunnar Witterberg (Treasure Hunters) came up with the idea and will serve as co-executive producer; William Hamm is also onboard as co-executive producer.
In Horrors, competitors will try to stay "alive" in a mysterious house in which they must face their darkest fears. One by one, players are "killed off" via elaborately staged "deaths" that will mix elements of the reality and horror genres.
In addition to the Spider-Man franchise, Raimi's credits in the horror/thriller genre include The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness and The Gift. Raimi also produced The Grudge 2, which opened Oct. 13.
LaPaglia Develops Damnation
Anthony LaPaglia, star of CBS' Without a Trace, is also developing TV shows at CBS and Fox via his new Last Straw Productions company, including a supernatural series called Damnation, Variety reported. LaPaglia is partners with producer and former NBC executive J.J. Jamieson.
Damnation is set up at the Fox network and is a half hour about a recently deceased young man who believes he's wrongly been sent to hell. He makes a deal with the devil and ends up working to recruit souls to the underworld.
Canadian playwright Morris Panych is writing the script. Timothy Busfield (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), who brought the project to Last Straw, will executive-produce and is attached to direct.
Medium Returns Wednesdays
NBC will bring back its Emmy-winning hit supernatural drama Medium in a new timeslot, the 10 p.m. Wednesday slot vacated by the new, low-rated serial Kidnapped, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Medium, starring Patricia Arquette, will take over the slot by mid-November, the trade paper reported; NBC declined to comment on the report to the trade paper. (Kidnapped will move to Saturdays.)
NEWS OF THE WEEK FOR OCT. 16, 2006
MGM Talks Hobbit Film
TheOneRing.net (http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/8/1160269092) reported that MGM has confirmed that it has held initial talks with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson about helming a movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. MGM made the comments in a letter sent in response to a fan petition to New Line and MGM on Sept. 22 with more than 39,000 signatures arguing for a Jackson-helmed Hobbit.
The letter read in part: "We would like to give you the official statement from Rick Sands, [chief operating officer] of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. ... Peter Jackson's phenomenal success with The Lord of the Rings trilogy makes him the first and most ideal choice for directing The Hobbit. ... MGM would be thrilled to collaborate with the Academy Award-winning director on this MGM New Line Cinema production. And, I'm sure to the delight of the 50,000 filmgoers who have petitioned us in recent weeks, demanding we bring this film to fruition, we have had a few initial conversations about the project with Mr. Jackson's representatives."
For its part, New Line, the studio that produced the Rings films, has not responded yet to the petition.
Battlestar's Bamber Wants Viewers
Jamie Bamber, who stars as Lee "Apollo" Adama on the SCI FI original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/), told SCI FI Wire that he appreciates the show's success and the many accolades it's received to date, but added that he hopes the show will attract a wider audience this year as it kicks off its third season.
"It is a little weird, because we are a success," Bamber said in an interview. "For our network we are doing well. We're in the press. We were just on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Time magazine said we're the number-one show. The New York Times and The New Yorker have all done huge feature spreads. And, yes, they're all pretty emphatic about the quality of television that we're making. We've won a Peabody Award. Yet we're still not reaching an audience as broad or as diverse as I would like. Having said that, more and more and more I do get stopped, and the people who stop me tend to be the more influential people in life."
Battlestar Galactica returned on Oct. 6, picking up the cliffhanger ending of last season, when the human settlers of New Caprica found themselves under Cylon occupation. Executive-produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the series also stars Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park.
"It's interesting," Bamber said. "It's very interesting, but we're not going out to 70 million people like the original show did. I guess we're not a family show, particularly. We're very adult and quite cerebral. So I guess we've found our specific audience, and it happens to be the ones that write the reviews. That's always nice, but we'd love to break out and become more recognized in the mainstream. For me, awards don't mean a thing, but I know they're important currency in the business, in the markets and the networks. So, hopefully, we can get the Emmys to at least take us seriously." Battlestar Galactica airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Ian Spelling
Classic Galactica Comic Due
Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a writer and producer for ABC's Alias and Lost TV series, will write a new miniseries of comic books based on the classic 1970s Battlestar Galactica show, Dynamite Entertainment announced. The miniseries is being scheduled for an early 2007 release.
Grillo-Marxuach calls himself a big fan of the original Galactica universe. "One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting in a movie theater, watching Battlestar Galactica in Sensurround!" Grillo-Marxuach said in a statement. "With the renewed interest in all things Galactica, it truly is an honor to revisit the swashbuckling world of the original series and tell a big, heroic adventure that's both true to the character of the classic universe and so epic in scope it can only be presented in the comics medium, ... and that's no felgercarb!"
Grillo-Marxuach is an Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer whose credits include The Pretender, The Chronicle, Charmed, Jake 2.0, The Dead Zone, Dark Skies and seaQuest. He is also the writer of Marvel Comics' Annihilation: Super Skrull and creator of Viper Comics' The Middleman.
Galactica Rumors Squashed
SCI FI Channel and its parent network, NBC, put to rest fan rumors that SCI FI's original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/) will make the move to NBC. "There is no truth to this rumor," a SCI FI spokesperson told SCI FI Wire.
The rumor has appeared on fans sites such as the Battlestar Galactica Site (http://www.battlestargalacticasite.com/2006/10/bsg_to_nbc_can_it_survive.php#more) and been picked up by other entertainment news sites. "Word has begun to circulate that NBC's acquisition of Battlestar Galactica is in the 'waiting-for-the-ink-to-dry' phase at this moment, and an official announcement could be days away," the Battlestar Galactica Site said.
Battlestar Galactica returned for its third season on SCI FI on Oct. 6 and airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It was the number-one cable show in its timeslot for the night.
Eick Reimagining Bionic
David Eick, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/), will reinvent another 1970s SF show: The Bionic Woman, which he will executive-produce with film writer Laeta Kalogridis for SCI FI's parent TV network, NBC, Variety reported.
The original spinoff of The Six Million Dollar Man starred Lindsay Wagner as tennis-pro-turned-superwoman Jamie Sommers; it aired for two seasons on ABC before shifting to NBC in 1977 for its final year.
Eick told the trade paper that the new series will be "a complete reconceptualization of the title. We're using the title as a starting point, and that's all."
NBC Universal Television Studio will produce the new series, which has been given a script commitment by NBC.
Eick and fellow executive producer Ronald D. Moore turned SCI FI's Peabody Award-winning Battlestar into a series vastly different from its predecessor. Eick and Kalogridis are planning a similar "reimagination" of Bionic Woman: Instead of focusing on terrorism and militarism, the new Bionic will explore the role of professional women in contemporary society and how they juggle their various roles.
Kalogridis is working on a pair of projects with James Cameron, writing The Dive and co-writing Battle Angel with the helmer. On the TV front, Kalogridis created the WB series Birds of Prey.
Heroes Coming Together
Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of NBC's hit series Heroes (http://www.scifi.com/heroes/), told SCI FI Wire that audiences can expect the show's superpowered characters to start joining forces and working as a team in upcoming episodes. "As their destiny starts to sort of become intermingled with one another, yes, they have to form this sort of alliance with one another," Kring said in a conference call with journalists on Oct. 11. "And then, in a sense, join with each other in order to figure out what's going on. Every character has sort of a tiny piece of the puzzle. So the puzzle gets put together by the characters coming together."
Rather than continuing to focus on the individual storylines of the large cast of characters, Kring said that Heroes will gradually integrate the threads into a single overarching story. "If you sort of look at it as kind of a funnel, it starts wide and starts to narrow," he said. "As these characters start to cross paths, you no longer have to tell eight stories. You can tell four stories or three stories. So there is a natural progression that's allowing us to tell less and less scattered stories."
Kring confirmed that the heroes will find a common enemy in the mysterious serial killer known as Sylar, who Kring called the "major villain" of the first season. Though the identity of Sylar hasn't been revealed, he may be someone that viewers have already met. "We're going to leave some of the answers to that vague, because I really want the audience to be surprised when we do introduce the character." Kring said. "I know there is speculation that the character is somebody that is among the characters already, and I'm comfortable with that speculation. And I kind of don't want to give it away." Heroes airs Mondays at 9 p.m. PT/ET. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Cindy White
Heroes' Larter Secret Revealed
Ali Larter, one of the stars of NBC's new hit series Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that the details of her character's mysterious double life will be revealed in upcoming episodes. "Where we're leading to is that there's going to be a duality within my personality," Larter said in a conference call with journalists on Oct. 11. "So there's one side that has to conform to society's rules and laws, and the shadow side that can actually live out the dark fantasies that are repressed within all of us."
On the show, Larter plays single mother Niki Sanders, whose mirror reflection seems to have a life of her own. Heroes creator and executive producer Tim Kring, who also participated in the call, added that viewers can draw a parallel to the character of Niki and other famous dual personalities. "I would say that it's a very safe thing to sort of assume that it's a Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde or Hulk kind of personality," Kring said. "But we are leaving the door very open for new surprises."
Kring said that Niki's power was intentionally kept vague in the first few episodes because the writers wanted the audience to discover it along with the character. But there will be more explanation as the series continues. "It is intended to be confusing at the beginning, because we are following it through her point of view, as though you had woken up with this very curious thing happening to you," he said. "Niki's character is the one character that is discovering this in the most confusing way. So we are asking the audience to sort of buy into that conceit that it's going to be a road to discovery. And in the next couple of episodes, it becomes clearer and clearer. And after six episodes it should be very clear what's happening."
Larter also revealed that her character's story will lighten up in future episodes, and she may even be getting a love interest. "I'm in a bit of fear and distress right now, but if you hold on for just one more episode, we're going to get a little romance," she said. "You get a little bit of cheekiness in it. And, actually, what's amazing about this writing is that it really pushes me and makes me kind of find, actually, all different tones within our show. So you're getting there. That's just the first couple episodes. It definitely opens up to a whole new world." Heroes airs on NBC Mondays at 9 p.m. PT/ET. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. —Cindy White
SG-1 DVD Films Get OK'd
SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1 (http://www.scifi.com/stargate/) will wrap up its 10-year run this spring, but that's not the end of the saga. Executive producer Brad Wright told TV Guide that MGM has granted a green light, and enough money, to produce two movies, most likely for DVD.
The first film will tie up most of the finale's loose threads. "It's the climax of the Ori storyline," Wright said, and will be written and directed by executive producer Robert Cooper. The second film, written by Wright, will involve time travel, and both projects should debut in the fall of 2007.
Though no deals are signed, SG-1's stars are said to be "very eager" to continue, Wright added. "They're not big-budget [films] by any definition, but for us it's pretty good," he said. "As we've proven over the years, just give us little more money and we can make pretty good television or DVDs."
Eragon Star Saved The Film
Ed Speleers, the young star of the upcoming fantasy film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he won the title role just as production was about to shut down because the filmmakers had had little success casting the all-important part of the hero, a fledgling dragonrider. The 18-year-old English actor was attending a private British boarding school when his drama teacher suggested that he send in an audition tape for the role in the movie, which is based on Christopher Paolini's best-seller.
"I didn't really tell my friends that I was going out for the part," Speleers said in an interview. "I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but I got some encouragement [from his drama teacher], and it all happened rather fast."
Little did Speleers know that his was the last of 100,000 photos and tapes that filmmakers reviewed during an arduous casting process. But when director Stefen Fangmeier saw Speleers, he said he knew the young actor was the right person for the role, the young actor's first movie job. And so was 20th Century Fox chairman Tom Rothman, who gave the OK after viewing Speleers' audition.
"At first we were looking at older actors for the role, but it was written for a 16-, 17-year-old, and he was the one," Fangmeier said. "We all saw that sparkle in him. You just know he could do it and be a movie star."
Once he won the role, Speleers played Eragon, a young man who finds a blue stone and ends up riding a telepathic dragon. Speleers traveled from London to Vancouver, Hungary and Slovakia to shoot the movie. "It was a great opportunity," he said. "I would have been a fool not to do it, but I knew there was some burden of responsibility that came with the part."
Now, Speleers says that he thinks he's well equipped to handle fame. "I feel comfortable about it," he said. "I am ready for it. I made it this far." Eragon co-stars Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle and John Malkovich. The film is scheduled to open Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Eragon Star Did Own Stunts
Ed Speleers, who stars in the fantasy-novel-turned-film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he performed as many of his own stunts as the filmmakers would allow. The 18-year-old English actor hung from wires, rode horses and fought with heavy swords in the movie, which brings Christopher Paolini's 2003 best-seller to the silver screen.
"I had some scary moments, some really scary moments, but I did feel safe through it all," Speleers said in an interview. "I wanted to do as much as they would let me do in all those months in Eastern Europe, and every day I thought to myself, 'Wow, can I do it?' and 'Wow, this is huge!'"
Speleers plays the title role, a young farm boy who discovers what turns out to be a dragon's egg in the woods and finds himself caught up as one of the last dragonriders in a war to overthrow a tyrannous king.
Speleers suffered only one slightly embarrassing injury: chafing from the leather trousers he wore while riding. "The most uncomfortable was probably the armor, but that's to be expected," he added. "You get used to it."
Speleers wasn't allowed to do most of the big jumps the film required. But he did most of his own sword fighting, with the help of a good coach. "It was sword fighting with a bit of a samurai style, and there was a lot of concentration required for that," he said.
Speleers, who lives in the English countryside outside London, already knew how to ride horses and said he worked on a farm for a while to earn some extra money. "I wasn't afraid of horses," he said. "I am very comfortable around them. My back is in agony after a bit of riding."
To prepare for the physical role of Eragon, Speleers spent three weeks prior to shooting training for the fighting and riding scenes. Among other things, he learned how to prop up his heavy sword. "Those swords get very heavy when you're fighting someone, and trying raise it high through a long fight can get painful," Speleers said. Eragon opens Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Shakespeare Readied Eragon Star
Ed Speleers, the 18-year-old English actor who plays the title role in the upcoming fantasy film Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that his lead parts in school plays helped prepare him to take on his first role in a movie. They included the title roles in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Richard III at his private British boarding school, Eastbourne College in East Sussex.
"I had the lead roles in those plays, and they were pretty intense. They were tough," Speleers said in an interview. "People in the U.S. say that it's a pretty big deal to take a role like that, but it's really a very English thing to do. We always do Shakespeare, and those are definitely the big ones."
Speleers took what he learned in his school plays and so impressed director Stefen Fangmeier that he beat out 180,000 others to win the coveted role of the young dragonrider in the movie based on Christopher Paolini's best-selling novel. Eragon is Speleers' first film-acting job and also marks the feature-directorial debut of Fangmeier, who built his career as a movie visual-effects supervisor.
"I really enjoyed Hamlet, and it's nice to play someone who's really crazy with Richard III," Speleers said. "Of course, they both are a little crazy, aren't they? They are crazy in different ways. Hamlet is a sad guy. I enjoyed doing them, really. And did they help me [with Eragon]? Yes. ... They also helped with the professionalism of the work. Of course, at such a young age, I have not had the experiences that these characters have, and certain things I could not understand and certainly couldn't do, because I don't have the emotional memories to understand it. But Hamlet, especially, helped me get to some emotional moments, and I used it when doing some scenes in Eragon."
Speleers began acting at the tender age of 12, when he played Puck in a school production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Because of the filming of Eragon, Speleers said that he has had to delay taking his English school exams. But he added that he does plan to go back to school.
Eragon, a 20th Century Fox film, also stars Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle. It is scheduled to open Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Howard Joins Iron Man
Terrence Howard is set to join Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, the superhero movie to be directed by Jon Favreau, Variety reported. Paramount Pictures will release the film on May 2, 2008.
Howard will play Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes, the confidante of Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark, played by Downey. Rhodes, a high-ranking military officer and aviator, steers the team that develops the robotic suit that allows the sickly Stark to fly around and battle bad guys.
In the Marvel Comics series on which the film is based, Rhodes' character gets his own armored suit and evolves into an occasionally antagonistic character called War Machine. That development seems likely to be saved for the sequel, though, as Iron Man will battle the villainous Mandarin when shooting begins in February in Los Angeles, the trade paper reported.
Eragon Brings Newbies Together
Ed Speleers, the newcomer star of the upcoming film version of the best-selling Eragon, told SCI FI Wire that he was a big fan of director Stefen Fangmeier's work even before he knew the director's name. Eragon, based on the book by Christopher Paolini, marks visual-effects specialist Fangmeier's directorial debut, which is also the 18-year-old Speleers' movie debut.
"We were both new at this," Speleers said in an interview. "We both knew that we needed to depend and help each other, and we worked together amazingly," Speleers said in an interview. "I got really lucky. He's the best director."
Little did Speleers know when he was sneaking to watch a video of Terminator 2: Judgment Day when he was 5 years old that the film's visual effects were done by the man who would eventually direct him in his first film. Speleers is also a fan of Galaxy Quest, Twister and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, all of which Fangmeier worked on as visual-effects supervisor when he was part of Industrial Light & Magic.
"I really liked The Perfect Storm and The Bourne Identity, too," Speleers said. "I was a big fan of both of those, and it was great to know that Stefen worked on those movies. He really knew how to help me out when I needed it, from the middle of the forest in Slovakia to Budapest to Vancouver and everywhere we shot. He was there for me the whole time."
In a separate interview, Fangmeier said that he almost canceled the production because the filmmakers couldn't find the right actor to play the youth who finds a blue stone that turns out to be a dragon's egg. The director said he saw a sparkle in the audition tape of Speleers, who was attending a private boarding school in London. "I saw he could be a movie star. He was a natural," Fangmeier said. Speleers stars along with veteran actors Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle in Eragon, which opens Dec. 15. —Mike Szymanski
Gilliam Hopes For Good Omens
Director Terry Gilliam told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't yet have a project lined up to follow his latest film, Tideland, but that he's still hoping to direct a big-screen version of the fantasy novel Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. "I've been working on it for quite a while, but it's a big budget," Gilliam said in an interview. "I was doing this before The Brothers Grimm, before Tideland, but it needs A-list stars to work—to get the money is what I mean—and none of the A-list stars are right for the part. That's what's frustrating."
Good Omens is a satirical book that deals with the appearance of the son of Satan heralding the End Times and the efforts of an angel and a demon to thwart them to preserve their comfortable positions on Earth.
"It's an angel and devil and the Antichrist and the Apocalypse," Gilliam (Brazil) said. "It's a comedy. Neil and Terry wrote it together years ago, and we've adapted it, and it's really good. It's fantastic. Here's my beef with Hollywood. Before The Brothers Grimm, we went out to Hollywood to get [Good Omens] made. We had raised $45 million from the rest of the world, and we needed $15 [million] out of Hollywood. I had two actors, Johnny Depp and Robin Williams. I couldn't get $15 million out of Hollywood with those two people. They said, 'Johnny, nah, he does those European art movies, Chocolat, The Man Who Cried, Robin. His career is finished.' And now there's Pirates of the Caribbean. The world turns just like that. I'm waiting to see the [new] Barry Levinson film [Man of the Year] with Robin. I'm told it's really sharp. I hope it works, because Robin's brilliant; he's just made some bad choices, that's all. ... I can't stand that place [Hollywood] because of that. I need their money, though." —Ian Spelling
Flushed's Serkis Aped A Rat
Andy Serkis, who played the giant gorilla in King Kong, told SCI FI Wire he had a hard time switching between Kong and his first fully animated role as a rat in the upcoming Flushed Away, which he filmed at the same time. Serkis voiced the role of Spike the rat while finishing up King Kong. "It was quite odd when we were doing King Kong and then doing a bit of Spike as well, because it was strange going from a 25-foot gorilla to a 6-inch mouse," Serkis said in an interview at a recent preview of the film in Los Angeles.
Flushed Away is the story of Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman), an upper-crust "society mouse," who lives the life of a beloved pet in a posh Kensington flat in London. When a sewer rat named Sid (Shane Richie) shows up, Roddy winds up being flushed down the toilet into the bustling sewer world of Ratropolis, where he meets Rita (Kate Winslet), an enterprising scavenger. Serkis' Spike and his pal, Whitey (Bill Nighy), are henchmen to the villainous Toad (Ian McKellen).
"This is actually the first time I've ever done a voice for an animation," Serkis said. "People seem to think that I've done [it] and so on, but I haven't. This is actually the very, very first time. But they did show us in those sessions clay mockups of the characters. That was really, really useful in as far as getting to grips with what he was like. It was a part of the concept that they were showing me as well, and what was apparent right off was that he was kind of nasal-y and had these really sharp protruding teeth and quite tense in the jaw. So that coupled with the script, and obviously you're playing a sort of neurotic rat who wants to be bigger than he really is."
Serkis didn't have time to stop and study rats because at the time he was studying the great apes. "I was actually ... studying gorillas, and this is the challenge of the job, really," he said. "When you do an animation, you do literally three or four hours on your first day, and then you don't see the character again for six months, seven months, while the animators work on it, and then you come back and you do another session for three hours, and then again like that. So it was a very new way of working for me. I mean, luckily, in the very first session I got the chance to work with Bill Nighy. So we worked out characters and our voices kind of in counterpoint, really. I mean, obviously, he's also going to be a slower kind of character. So we were able to sort of pitch our characters to each other." Flushed Away, which comes from Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit), is slated for release on Nov. 3. —Mike Szymanski
Jericho Gets Full Season
CBS has given a full-season order to Jericho, its hit post-apocalyptic drama, the network announced. The show, about the aftermath of a nuclear attack, has averaged 11.3 million viewers and a 3.4 rating among adults aged 18-49, boosting CBS' performance on Wednesday nights.
Jericho stars Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Ashley Scott, Pamela Reed, Kenneth Mitchell, Lennie James, Sprague Graden, Michael Gaston, Erik Knudsen, Brad Beyer and Shoshannah Stern. Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Chbosky and Carol Barbee are executive producers for CBS Paramount Network Television. The show airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Raimi Eyes CW Horrors
Director/producer Sam Raimi is developing a hybrid horror/reality series House of Horrors for The CW network, Variety reported. Raimi and his longtime producing partner Rob Tapert are executive-producing. CW executives told the trade paper that the show could be on the air as early as next summer once it gets a green light.
Gunnar Witterberg (Treasure Hunters) came up with the idea and will serve as co-executive producer; William Hamm is also onboard as co-executive producer.
In Horrors, competitors will try to stay "alive" in a mysterious house in which they must face their darkest fears. One by one, players are "killed off" via elaborately staged "deaths" that will mix elements of the reality and horror genres.
In addition to the Spider-Man franchise, Raimi's credits in the horror/thriller genre include The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness and The Gift. Raimi also produced The Grudge 2, which opened Oct. 13.
LaPaglia Develops Damnation
Anthony LaPaglia, star of CBS' Without a Trace, is also developing TV shows at CBS and Fox via his new Last Straw Productions company, including a supernatural series called Damnation, Variety reported. LaPaglia is partners with producer and former NBC executive J.J. Jamieson.
Damnation is set up at the Fox network and is a half hour about a recently deceased young man who believes he's wrongly been sent to hell. He makes a deal with the devil and ends up working to recruit souls to the underworld.
Canadian playwright Morris Panych is writing the script. Timothy Busfield (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), who brought the project to Last Straw, will executive-produce and is attached to direct.
Medium Returns Wednesdays
NBC will bring back its Emmy-winning hit supernatural drama Medium in a new timeslot, the 10 p.m. Wednesday slot vacated by the new, low-rated serial Kidnapped, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Medium, starring Patricia Arquette, will take over the slot by mid-November, the trade paper reported; NBC declined to comment on the report to the trade paper. (Kidnapped will move to Saturdays.)