fulltimer56
10-31-2006, 05:05 AM
NEWS OF THE WEEK FOR OCT. 30, 2006
Medium Back, With Jane
NBC's Emmy-winning Medium returns at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Nov. 15 with a two-hour season premiere, "Four Dreams," which will feature guest star Thomas Jane, the real-life husband of star Patricia Arquette.
Jane will play Clay Bicks, an old lover of Allison's (Arquette), a danger-loving photographer who, in the moment after his own death, is delivered to Allison's door, unaware that he has died. Clay then takes up residence in the Dubois house, which does not sit well with Allison's husband, Joe (Jake Weber).
The season premiere will feature animation by Van Partible (Johnny Bravo), which makes up the dreams of Allison's daughter Bridgette (Maria Lark).
"Four Dreams" is written by creator and executive producer Glenn Gordon Caron and co-executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (formerly of Lost). Following the premiere, Medium movies into its new timeslot, Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Fox To Animate Fox
Fox Animation will adapt Roald Dahl's classic children's book Fantastic Mr. Fox into a film that will mix several forms of animation, primarily stop-motion, Variety reported.
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach adapted the book; Anderson will direct and produce with Scott Rudin.
The book tells the story of a fox who uses his wits and cunning to outfox three dimwitted farmers who tire of sharing their chickens.
The project was originally bought by Joe Roth and Revolution Studios in 2004. When Revolution folded, Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri moved in on the project.
Fox marks the director's first feature foray into animation. Anderson plans to make Fox in England.
In Sky, Mars And Venus Live
Best-selling author S.M. Stirling told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, The Sky People, posits an alternate history in which Mars and Venus are habitable planets. "We find out that they're inhabited, by human beings among other things," Stirling said in an interview. "The first hints that our sister planets have breathable atmospheres come in the 1920s and '30s, but there's no definitive proof until the 1950s, so things go pretty much as in the 'real' history until then. After that, things change! The space race subsumes the Cold War, as humanity focuses its efforts on reaching the nearer planets."
Stirling added: "By the 1980s, both the U.S./Commonwealth space service and the East Bloc have small outposts on Mars and Venus. The personnel are the picked cream of millions of applicants, but they're very few and have to learn their way around whole worlds. The Sky People takes place on Venus, whose highest civilization is a bronze-age city-state, most areas are paleolithic, and ... humans and other hominids coexist with dinosaurs and saber-tooths."
The story found its inspiration in the great pulp writers of SF, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, Stirling said. "They got a much more interesting solar system than we did: lost civilizations on a dying Mars, steamy jungles on Venus, ... [which is] much less boring than the baking, sulfuric-acid hell and barren iceball that reality handed us," he said. "So it occurred to me that it would be a lot of fun to do a living Mars and Venus and then hold everything else constant."
The protagonist of The Sky People is Marc Vitrac, a young man from Louisiana's Cajun country, Stirling said. "Like tens of millions of youngsters, he's space-struck by the pictures from the probes sent back in the 1960s showing primitive humans and a weird mix of saber-tooths and dinosaurs and whatnot on Venus and ancient ruined cities and civilizations on Mars," he said. "Unlike most, he makes the cut and in 1988 finds himself at Jamestown Base, the U.S./Commonwealth outpost on Venus, where he's a Ranger, someone who deals with the locals and guides expeditions into the howling (and snorting and bellowing and screeching) wilderness that makes up most of Venus."
Stirling had to do a great deal of research on both the planets and the possible methods of space travel from the 1950s on, he said. "The planets have been 'altered'—can't say by who or how!—but they're grossly similar to the ones we know; they have the same size and orbits," Stirling said. "Space travel in this timeline is done realistically: The technologies (NERVA-style nuclear rockets, solar sails, etc.) are ones that are possible without 'unobtanium' force fields. The big difference from our history is the incentives."
The Sky People will be followed by a sequel set on Mars, titled In the Halls of the Crimson Kings, Stirling said. "Swords, airships, half-ruined cities older than time," he said. "I'm having a blast!" —John Joseph Adams
Ultimate Alliance In Stores
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, a role-playing video game that brings together superheroes from the Marvel Comics universe, has shipped to retail outlets nationwide, Activision announced.
The game allows players to create their own dream teams from a roster of superheroes that includes Spider-Man, Wolverine, Blade and Captain America to embark on an epic quest that will ultimately determine the fate of Earth and the Marvel universe.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is available for the Xbox 360 with a suggested retail price of $59.99; for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC and PSP for $39.99; and for the GameBoy Advance for $29.99. PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii versions will be available in mid-November.
Serkis, Mirren, Others In Inkheart
Andy Serkis, Helen Mirren, Rafi Gavron and Sienna Guillory have joined the cast of New Line's upcoming family fantasy film Inkheart, based on the first book of Cornelia Funke's fantasy trilogy, Variety reported.
They join star Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent in the tale of a father who brings characters from books to life by reading stories aloud to his daughter.
Serkis (The Lord of the Rings) will play the villain, Capricorn. Mirren (The Queen) will portray book collector Elinor Loredan. Iain Softley is directing Inkheart from a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire. New Line recently signed Barry Mendel to produce, along with Funke. Diana Pokorny is executive-producing. Production begins next month in Italy and then shifts to London.
Dark Is Rising
David Cunningham (The Path to 9/11) has been tapped to direct The Dark Is Rising, a fantasy film based on Susan Cooper's book series, Variety reported. The film is being produced under the co-financing alliance between Walden Media (The Chronicles of Narnia) and 20th Century Fox reached in August.
The Dark Is Rising is part of Cooper's five-book series, focusing on a youth who discovers at age 11 that he's a Sign Seeker, the last of a group of immortals dedicated to fighting a growing presence of dark forces.
Cunningham has already headed to Romania, where he'll prep the film for an early 2007 start and a Sept. 28, 2007, release, the trade paper reported.
More Classic Godzilla Due On DVD
Classic Media will release new DVD editions of Mothra vs. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again exclusively online (http://www.godzillaondvdstore.com/merchant2/), starting Nov. 7, well before the discs hit retail store shelves next spring.
Each title will include both the original Japanese and American versions of the films; special features will include audio commentaries, featurettes, poster slide shows and English subtitles for the Japanese versions.
Godzilla Raids Again is the 1955 sequel to the original Godzilla movie and was rushed to theaters six months after the release of the first film. Two new monsters emerged: the first similar to the original Godzilla, which was killed by the oxygen destroyer in the first film, and a second, spiny dinosaur called Anguirus. The massive battle begins on Iwato Island, tumbles into the ocean and resurfaces on Osaka, threatening to level the city under the monsters' rage.
Mothra vs. Godzilla was released in the United States in 1964 as Godzilla vs. The Thing and was the fourth installment in the Godzilla series. This sequel is considered by many fans as one of the best of the series. When a giant egg washes up on the shores of Tokyo after a typhoon, greedy businessmen seize the opportunity to exhibit the item at an amusement park for profit. The shobijin, fairies from Infant Island, come to plea for the egg's return to its rightful owner, Mothra, but the men refuse the request. Soon, Godzilla awakens and begins a trek across Tokyo, heading straight for Mothra's egg.
Night Dawning In IMAX
Night at the Museum, Fox's upcoming fantasy film starring Ben Stiller, will open in IMAX theaters at the same time it hits conventional theaters on Dec. 22, Greg Foster, chairman and president of filmed entertainment at IMAX Corp., told an audience of academics and businesspeople at the California Institute of Technology on Oct. 24.
Foster, the keynote speaker at the Caltech Executive Forum in Pasadena, Calif., said the film would be released in a 2-D IMAX version in the company's theaters. A formal announcement about the day-and-date IMAX release is due in a couple of days, he added.
The decision was made not to release a 3-D version of Museum in part because of a lack of time to convert the live-action movie, as was done with last summer's Superman Returns. Foster said that the company is eyeing a possible 3-D release of the upcoming fifth Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix, which opens next July, but that no deal was yet in place.
Foster added that it was possible Museum would also screen in some of IMAX's theaters in various museums around the country. At one preview screening of IMAX footage from Museum, Foster said he was actually high-fived by one curator, who said the movie played like a love letter to museums.
Night at the Museum stars Stiller as good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley, who accepts a job as a graveyard-shift security guard at a museum of natural history. During Larry's watch, extraordinary things begin to occur: Mayans, Roman gladiators and cowboys emerge from their diorama to wage epic battles; a Neanderthal burns down his own display; Attila the Hun pillages his neighboring exhibits; and a Tyrannosaurus rex rampages through the halls. Larry turns for advice to a wax figure of President Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who helps him harness the bedlam, stop a nefarious plot and save the museum. —Patrick Lee, News Editor
Exposure Voting Commences
Voting commenced this week in SCI FI Channel and Sundance Channel's Exposure film competition, an eight-week short-film derby to find the best short science fiction, horror and fantasy films. Each week viewers will choose the best film out of up to 10 entries, and the eight winning films will air in a one-hour SCI FI special presentation. After the specials runs, a final vote will determine one ultimate winner, who will be flown to New York to pitch a project to SCI FI executives.
Viewers can watch and vote on the films on either SCIFI.COM or the Sundance Channel Web site. Filmmakers can also find instructions on both sites detailing how to submit their shorts. Entries are being accepted now through Nov. 20. Online voting runs through Dec. 17.
Paramount Breaking Fracture
Paramount Vantage has snapped up worldwide rights to Alan McElroy's psychological thriller Fracture, with Mike Macari and Neal Edelstein (The Ring) set to produce, Variety reported. The project is out to a director.
The story revolves around a man whose wife and children disappear into an emergency room, seemingly never to return.
HD Halloween To Screen
Just in time for the holiday that inspired it, John Carpenter's seminal 1978 slasher movie Halloween is getting a digitally remastered, high-definition re-release, at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 and 31 in 150 movie houses in Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.
The movie will be preceded by a new, 20-minute featurette about the film, which introduced scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, including interviews with original cast members and a look at the movie's effect on pop culture.
Halloween inspired a spate of multi-sequel slasher films with its story of an escapee from a mental institution, Michael Myers, who goes on a murderous spree on Halloween night. Seven sequels followed. The eighth is on the way, to be written and directed by rocker Rob Zombie. Halloween 9 is slated for release on Oct. 19, 2007.
Panda, Penguins Go To TV
Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation are joining forces on a pair of potential weekly series based on DreamWorks features, including the upcoming Kung Fu Panda, Variety reported.
The other series is a spinoff of the 2005 hit Madagascar, centered on its popular penguin characters.
Panda, due in theaters in May 2008, revolves around a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant whose shape doesn't lend itself to kung fu fighting. The movie features the vocal talents of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane.
DreamWorks Animation will take a back seat on day-to-day development of the Nickelodeon projects. The cable network will take the reins on physical production out of Nick Studios.
Both projects are in the early stages of development. Tom Martin (The Simpsons) will pen the pilot script for Panda. Paul Rugg (Freakazoid!) is aboard to write the Madagascar offshoot, centered on penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private in a series of new adventures.
Dream Mixes SF And Crime
John Scalzi, winner of the 2006 John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, told SCI FI Wire that the inspirations for his latest novel, The Android's Dream, are not in science fiction, but rather in crime fiction. "I've been a huge fan of the books of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard, because they're smart and funny and have a nicely cynical sensibility, and I thought I might try a book in that sort of vein, but in a science fiction context," Scalzi said in an interview.
When Scalzi initially pitched the book to his editor, he described it as "man solves interplanetary diplomatic crisis through the use of action scenes and snappy dialogue," he said. "The plot has the hero, a State Department official, trying to get his hands on an object desired and required by an alien government—in this case, a sheep of a particular rare breed. If he doesn't get the sheep, it's possible the Earth may go to war with the aliens. So naturally there are all sorts of complications, not the least of which is the identity of the sheep itself."
The protagonist is Harry Creek, a geek-turned-war hero who is working at a job he's overqualified for when he's tapped to save the world, Scalzi said. "To some extent he's a revision of the classic Campbellian-SF 'Competent Man,' in that he's certainly competent, but he's also not the sort of guy who would go out of his way to be a hero; he does heroic things, but given a choice he'd just rather be home," he said. "And it's pretty clear in the course of the book that, despite his competence, he's no superman; the poor guy gets banged up a whole lot during the course of the book."
The idea for the novel was that it was supposed to be the literary equivalent of a summer popcorn flick, Scalzi said. "You run a risk when you do that," he said. "SF readers tend to prize work that has a brain, for fairly obvious reasons—but being a geek myself I wasn't going to write anything that was going to insult my own intelligence. So the challenge was to write amusing escapist stuff that wouldn't make you feel like you had to shut down your frontal lobe to enjoy it."
Via his blog (http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004513.html), Scalzi recently auctioned off a bound-manuscript edition of his forthcoming novel The Last Colony, with the proceeds going to benefit the John M. Ford Book Endowment (http://www.friendsofmpl.org/Friends_member2005.html). "To encourage people to bid, I said that if the bidding reached certain levels, I would throw in more stuff," Scalzi said. "The top goody was a short story, which I said I would write if someone contributed $5,000. This caught the eye of Bill Schafer, the publisher of Subterranean Press. ... So he bid $5,000. As a result, the endowment gets a nice chunk of change to get going with, and I'll be writing a novelette called 'The Sagan Diary,' which Subterranean is publishing as a limited-edition hardcover. Everybody wins!" —John Joseph Adams
Barker To Pen Hellraiser Remake
Clive Barker said on his official Web site (http://www.clivebarker.info/intsrevel15.html) that The Weinstein Co. has asked him and he has agreed to write a remake of his 1987 horror film Hellraiser, but that he's not interested in directing it. "They're going to remake Hellraiser 1 with a lot more money, and they've invited me to write it—the invitation came from Bob Weinstein—which I am going to do, on the basis that if I don't do it, it will be done in some way that I probably won't like!" Barker wrote. "It's only that one that I really, really, really care about in terms of its remake value—and it'll be kind of fun to have the extra money to do the effects and all that cool stuff."
The first Hellraiser is the only one of the long-running horror franchise that Barker both wrote and directed. "So it puts me in the situation of writing both the beginning and the end of Pinhead at the same time—'In my end is my beginning.' I'm not in the middle, as it were," Barker wrote. "I'm leaving out his middle age. I'm just dealing with his beginning and his end."
Barker added: "I'm excited about it—actually it'll be kinda cool to revisit it once and see if there are things we can do to it which will make it significantly better. ... I wouldn't wish to direct—I only want to write and be a part of the producing team. I wouldn't want to revisit something that I did as a director, something that I did all those years ago: That would be too, in a way, painful—not painful, but weird, difficult, strange. ... I am very happy at the idea of having some more money for the cool stuff—I don't know how much more money, but it's got to be more than the $900,000 that we had the first time!"
Wyatt, Spock's Mom, Is Dead
Jane Wyatt, the television actress best known to SF fans for playing Spock's mother in the original Star Trek series, has died, the Associated Press reported. She was 96.
Wyatt died Oct. 20 in her sleep of natural causes at her home in Bel Air, Calif., her publicist, Meg McDonald, told the AP. She experienced health problems since suffering a stroke at 85, but her mind was sharp until her death, her son Christopher Ward told the wire service.
Wyatt played Amanda Grayson, the human mother of the starship Enterprise's half-Vulcan science officer, in the original series episode "Journey to Babel" and reprised the role in the 1986 movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
To the broader audience, Wyatt was best known as Robert Young's TV wife, Margaret Anderson, on the 1950s series Father Knows Best.
Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and '40s, notably as Ronald Colman's lover in 1937's fantasy film Lost Horizon.
Wyatt is survived by sons Christopher, of Piedmont, Calif., and Michael, of Los Angeles; three grandchildren, Nicholas, Andrew and Laura; and five great-grandchildren.
McAdams Mulls Time Traveler?
TMZ.com (http://www.tmz.com/2006/10/20/rachel-mcadams-lets-do-the-time-warp/) reported a rumor that Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers) is in negotiations to take the lead in a quickly coalescing feature film based on The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling 2003 SF novel. Brad Pitt is producing it via his Plan B Productions, as is Nick Wechsler.
The Time Traveler's Wife follows a Chicago librarian who finds himself involuntarily shot forward and yanked backward 10 years in time. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful heiress.
New Line is still meeting with directors, but it's come down to Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things) and German director Robert Schwentke (Flightplan), the site reported.
Island Suit Goes To Trial
A federal judge in New York has ordered a trial in a copyright-infringement lawsuit against DreamWorks and Warner Brothers, alleging that Michael Bay's 2005 SF action movie The Island was based on the 1979 independent movie Parts: The Clonus Horror, Variety reported.
The studios had asked that the case be dismissed, but U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled there were several issues best reserved for a jury, such as the degree of similarity between the two films, the trade paper reported.
The lawsuit was brought by Clonus producer-director Robert S. Fiveson and Clonus Associates.
When The Island was released, several reviewers referred to Clonus, which revolved around a secret colony of clones who are raised for spare organs. One of the clones escapes into Southern California to expose the facility.
The Island also revolved around a colony of clones raised to provide spare parts for humans, with two of the clones escaping into a futuristic Los Angeles in an attempt to expose the colony and shut the facility down.
When the lawsuit was filed, DreamWorks issued a statement saying The Island was independently created and did not infringe on anyone's copyrights.
DreamWorks and Warners declined comment on the judge's ruling.
Smallville Gets HD Release
Warner Home Video will release the fifth season of The CW's Smallville series in high definition in the HD DVD format on Nov. 28 as part of the studio's Superman DVD campaign, Variety reported. The five-disc set will contain unaired scenes, commentaries and HD-exclusive features, such as a Behind the Story featurette. The HD DVD set will carry a suggested retail price of $79.98, $20 more than the standard DVD set.
Warner is also releasing HD versions of Superman Returns, Superman: The Movie and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut for a few dollars more than the standard DVD versions. The Donner cut has been highly anticipated by the comic-book crowd ever since the helmer was forced off the film almost 30 years ago; Richard Lester completed the 1980 theatrical-release version.
Warner also is releasing a 14-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition on standard DVD for $100 on Nov. 28.
BRIEFLY NOTED
Arthur Hill, a character actor best known to SF fans for roles in such films as The Andromeda Strain, Something Wicked This Way Comes and One Magic Christmas, died Oct. 22 in a Pacific Palisades, Calif., care facility after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, according to The Hollywood Reporter; he was 84.
Prep work continues on Microsoft's proposed Halo movie at producer Peter Jackson's Weta Studios in New Zealand; the Alex Garland script has already been rewritten by Ender's Game screenwriter D.B. Weiss and will get another rewrite by A History of Violence's Josh Olson, sources told Variety.
Cinemax will air all six of the Star Wars films in order during a "Cinemax Star Wars Weekend Marathon," starting at midnight Nov. 10, and will broadcast all of the films for the first time in high-definition versions.
Walden Media and director Mark Waters are developing an adventure film about a 14-year-old who discovers that he is a descendant of the great illusionist Harry Houdini, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
IESB.net (http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_d4j_ezine&task=read&page=1&category=featured&article=581&Itemid=27) reported a rumor that Superman Returns director Bryan Singer has finalized a deal with Warner Brothers for a sequel, which will have a smaller budget, feature more action and introduce a classic villain from the DC Comics universe.
Focus' genre label Rogue has made a two-picture deal with hot horror writer Scott Milam (Saw II); the first up is an untitled carnival project described as an intense horror film involving sideshow freaks and other carnival horrors, Variety reported.
ComingSoon.net reported that a new trailer for Spider-Man 3 will debut with Casino Royale on Nov. 17 and a second trailer will premiere with Ghost Rider on Feb. 16, 2007.
Legendary Pictures has acquired an untitled supernatural thriller script from writers Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka, Variety reported; Ehren Kruger and Daniel Bobker will produce, along with Legendary.
Warner Brothers has posted a promotion for its upcoming supernatural film The Reaping in which users can send friends a "plague" (http://www.aplagueonyou.com/) to infiltrate their computer screens with frogs, lice, locusts, boils, thunder and hail or blood, in keeping with the film's themes of the biblical plagues; The Reaping opens March 30, 2007.
Nelson de la Rosa, the 2-foot-4-inch character actor whose role in The Island of Dr. Moreau inspired the Austin Powers character Mini-Me, has died at the age of 38 of unknown causes in a Providence, R.I., hospital, Zap2it.com (http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-nelsondelarosaobit,0,3323201.story?coll=zap-news-headlines) reported.
Mission: Impossible III star Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will marry in Italy on Nov. 18, Cruise's representative, Arnold Robinson, told the Associated Press, confirming a report that first appeared in Us Weekly magazine.
Ain't It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30469) reported that Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (The People vs. Larry Flynt) will be adapting Stephen King's Cell for the big screen.
Jack Coleman, who plays the mysterious Mr. Bennet on NBC's hit SF drama Heroes, has been made a series regular and joins the series full-time in its 11th episode, Variety reported.
Tom Cruise has been talking to helmer Spike Lee about possibly starring in Selling Time, a Fox drama about a man who sells back chunks of time in his life for a chance to relive and change the worst day of his life, one of three films Cruise is contemplating as his next project, Variety reported.
Namibia has not received a U.S. extradition order for Blade star Wesley Snipes, who faces $12 million tax fraud charges in the United States, but is shooting a movie in the African country, the Reuters news service reported; Namibia has no extradition treaty with the United States.
Phyllis Kirk, who played the raven-haired beauty stalked by Vincent Price in the 1950s horror film House of Wax, died Oct. 19 of a post-cerebral aneurysm at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., the Associated Press reported; she was 79.
The supernatural drama The Prestige took the top slot at the Oct. 20 weekend box office, making about $14.8 million over the three-day period, the Reuters news service reported.
TrekMovie.com (http://trekmovie.com/2006/10/19/trek-xi-update-abrams-already-auditioning-actors-on-track-to-start-shooting-in-spring/) reported rumors that J.J. Abrams' proposed Star Trek XI movie will get a green light and will be one of Paramount’s tentpole films for the summer of 2008; a first draft of the script is due shortly, and the Abrams team is already seeing actors for the major parts, though none are identified.
Medium Back, With Jane
NBC's Emmy-winning Medium returns at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Nov. 15 with a two-hour season premiere, "Four Dreams," which will feature guest star Thomas Jane, the real-life husband of star Patricia Arquette.
Jane will play Clay Bicks, an old lover of Allison's (Arquette), a danger-loving photographer who, in the moment after his own death, is delivered to Allison's door, unaware that he has died. Clay then takes up residence in the Dubois house, which does not sit well with Allison's husband, Joe (Jake Weber).
The season premiere will feature animation by Van Partible (Johnny Bravo), which makes up the dreams of Allison's daughter Bridgette (Maria Lark).
"Four Dreams" is written by creator and executive producer Glenn Gordon Caron and co-executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (formerly of Lost). Following the premiere, Medium movies into its new timeslot, Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Fox To Animate Fox
Fox Animation will adapt Roald Dahl's classic children's book Fantastic Mr. Fox into a film that will mix several forms of animation, primarily stop-motion, Variety reported.
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach adapted the book; Anderson will direct and produce with Scott Rudin.
The book tells the story of a fox who uses his wits and cunning to outfox three dimwitted farmers who tire of sharing their chickens.
The project was originally bought by Joe Roth and Revolution Studios in 2004. When Revolution folded, Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri moved in on the project.
Fox marks the director's first feature foray into animation. Anderson plans to make Fox in England.
In Sky, Mars And Venus Live
Best-selling author S.M. Stirling told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, The Sky People, posits an alternate history in which Mars and Venus are habitable planets. "We find out that they're inhabited, by human beings among other things," Stirling said in an interview. "The first hints that our sister planets have breathable atmospheres come in the 1920s and '30s, but there's no definitive proof until the 1950s, so things go pretty much as in the 'real' history until then. After that, things change! The space race subsumes the Cold War, as humanity focuses its efforts on reaching the nearer planets."
Stirling added: "By the 1980s, both the U.S./Commonwealth space service and the East Bloc have small outposts on Mars and Venus. The personnel are the picked cream of millions of applicants, but they're very few and have to learn their way around whole worlds. The Sky People takes place on Venus, whose highest civilization is a bronze-age city-state, most areas are paleolithic, and ... humans and other hominids coexist with dinosaurs and saber-tooths."
The story found its inspiration in the great pulp writers of SF, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, Stirling said. "They got a much more interesting solar system than we did: lost civilizations on a dying Mars, steamy jungles on Venus, ... [which is] much less boring than the baking, sulfuric-acid hell and barren iceball that reality handed us," he said. "So it occurred to me that it would be a lot of fun to do a living Mars and Venus and then hold everything else constant."
The protagonist of The Sky People is Marc Vitrac, a young man from Louisiana's Cajun country, Stirling said. "Like tens of millions of youngsters, he's space-struck by the pictures from the probes sent back in the 1960s showing primitive humans and a weird mix of saber-tooths and dinosaurs and whatnot on Venus and ancient ruined cities and civilizations on Mars," he said. "Unlike most, he makes the cut and in 1988 finds himself at Jamestown Base, the U.S./Commonwealth outpost on Venus, where he's a Ranger, someone who deals with the locals and guides expeditions into the howling (and snorting and bellowing and screeching) wilderness that makes up most of Venus."
Stirling had to do a great deal of research on both the planets and the possible methods of space travel from the 1950s on, he said. "The planets have been 'altered'—can't say by who or how!—but they're grossly similar to the ones we know; they have the same size and orbits," Stirling said. "Space travel in this timeline is done realistically: The technologies (NERVA-style nuclear rockets, solar sails, etc.) are ones that are possible without 'unobtanium' force fields. The big difference from our history is the incentives."
The Sky People will be followed by a sequel set on Mars, titled In the Halls of the Crimson Kings, Stirling said. "Swords, airships, half-ruined cities older than time," he said. "I'm having a blast!" —John Joseph Adams
Ultimate Alliance In Stores
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, a role-playing video game that brings together superheroes from the Marvel Comics universe, has shipped to retail outlets nationwide, Activision announced.
The game allows players to create their own dream teams from a roster of superheroes that includes Spider-Man, Wolverine, Blade and Captain America to embark on an epic quest that will ultimately determine the fate of Earth and the Marvel universe.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is available for the Xbox 360 with a suggested retail price of $59.99; for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC and PSP for $39.99; and for the GameBoy Advance for $29.99. PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii versions will be available in mid-November.
Serkis, Mirren, Others In Inkheart
Andy Serkis, Helen Mirren, Rafi Gavron and Sienna Guillory have joined the cast of New Line's upcoming family fantasy film Inkheart, based on the first book of Cornelia Funke's fantasy trilogy, Variety reported.
They join star Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent in the tale of a father who brings characters from books to life by reading stories aloud to his daughter.
Serkis (The Lord of the Rings) will play the villain, Capricorn. Mirren (The Queen) will portray book collector Elinor Loredan. Iain Softley is directing Inkheart from a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire. New Line recently signed Barry Mendel to produce, along with Funke. Diana Pokorny is executive-producing. Production begins next month in Italy and then shifts to London.
Dark Is Rising
David Cunningham (The Path to 9/11) has been tapped to direct The Dark Is Rising, a fantasy film based on Susan Cooper's book series, Variety reported. The film is being produced under the co-financing alliance between Walden Media (The Chronicles of Narnia) and 20th Century Fox reached in August.
The Dark Is Rising is part of Cooper's five-book series, focusing on a youth who discovers at age 11 that he's a Sign Seeker, the last of a group of immortals dedicated to fighting a growing presence of dark forces.
Cunningham has already headed to Romania, where he'll prep the film for an early 2007 start and a Sept. 28, 2007, release, the trade paper reported.
More Classic Godzilla Due On DVD
Classic Media will release new DVD editions of Mothra vs. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again exclusively online (http://www.godzillaondvdstore.com/merchant2/), starting Nov. 7, well before the discs hit retail store shelves next spring.
Each title will include both the original Japanese and American versions of the films; special features will include audio commentaries, featurettes, poster slide shows and English subtitles for the Japanese versions.
Godzilla Raids Again is the 1955 sequel to the original Godzilla movie and was rushed to theaters six months after the release of the first film. Two new monsters emerged: the first similar to the original Godzilla, which was killed by the oxygen destroyer in the first film, and a second, spiny dinosaur called Anguirus. The massive battle begins on Iwato Island, tumbles into the ocean and resurfaces on Osaka, threatening to level the city under the monsters' rage.
Mothra vs. Godzilla was released in the United States in 1964 as Godzilla vs. The Thing and was the fourth installment in the Godzilla series. This sequel is considered by many fans as one of the best of the series. When a giant egg washes up on the shores of Tokyo after a typhoon, greedy businessmen seize the opportunity to exhibit the item at an amusement park for profit. The shobijin, fairies from Infant Island, come to plea for the egg's return to its rightful owner, Mothra, but the men refuse the request. Soon, Godzilla awakens and begins a trek across Tokyo, heading straight for Mothra's egg.
Night Dawning In IMAX
Night at the Museum, Fox's upcoming fantasy film starring Ben Stiller, will open in IMAX theaters at the same time it hits conventional theaters on Dec. 22, Greg Foster, chairman and president of filmed entertainment at IMAX Corp., told an audience of academics and businesspeople at the California Institute of Technology on Oct. 24.
Foster, the keynote speaker at the Caltech Executive Forum in Pasadena, Calif., said the film would be released in a 2-D IMAX version in the company's theaters. A formal announcement about the day-and-date IMAX release is due in a couple of days, he added.
The decision was made not to release a 3-D version of Museum in part because of a lack of time to convert the live-action movie, as was done with last summer's Superman Returns. Foster said that the company is eyeing a possible 3-D release of the upcoming fifth Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix, which opens next July, but that no deal was yet in place.
Foster added that it was possible Museum would also screen in some of IMAX's theaters in various museums around the country. At one preview screening of IMAX footage from Museum, Foster said he was actually high-fived by one curator, who said the movie played like a love letter to museums.
Night at the Museum stars Stiller as good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley, who accepts a job as a graveyard-shift security guard at a museum of natural history. During Larry's watch, extraordinary things begin to occur: Mayans, Roman gladiators and cowboys emerge from their diorama to wage epic battles; a Neanderthal burns down his own display; Attila the Hun pillages his neighboring exhibits; and a Tyrannosaurus rex rampages through the halls. Larry turns for advice to a wax figure of President Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who helps him harness the bedlam, stop a nefarious plot and save the museum. —Patrick Lee, News Editor
Exposure Voting Commences
Voting commenced this week in SCI FI Channel and Sundance Channel's Exposure film competition, an eight-week short-film derby to find the best short science fiction, horror and fantasy films. Each week viewers will choose the best film out of up to 10 entries, and the eight winning films will air in a one-hour SCI FI special presentation. After the specials runs, a final vote will determine one ultimate winner, who will be flown to New York to pitch a project to SCI FI executives.
Viewers can watch and vote on the films on either SCIFI.COM or the Sundance Channel Web site. Filmmakers can also find instructions on both sites detailing how to submit their shorts. Entries are being accepted now through Nov. 20. Online voting runs through Dec. 17.
Paramount Breaking Fracture
Paramount Vantage has snapped up worldwide rights to Alan McElroy's psychological thriller Fracture, with Mike Macari and Neal Edelstein (The Ring) set to produce, Variety reported. The project is out to a director.
The story revolves around a man whose wife and children disappear into an emergency room, seemingly never to return.
HD Halloween To Screen
Just in time for the holiday that inspired it, John Carpenter's seminal 1978 slasher movie Halloween is getting a digitally remastered, high-definition re-release, at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 and 31 in 150 movie houses in Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.
The movie will be preceded by a new, 20-minute featurette about the film, which introduced scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, including interviews with original cast members and a look at the movie's effect on pop culture.
Halloween inspired a spate of multi-sequel slasher films with its story of an escapee from a mental institution, Michael Myers, who goes on a murderous spree on Halloween night. Seven sequels followed. The eighth is on the way, to be written and directed by rocker Rob Zombie. Halloween 9 is slated for release on Oct. 19, 2007.
Panda, Penguins Go To TV
Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation are joining forces on a pair of potential weekly series based on DreamWorks features, including the upcoming Kung Fu Panda, Variety reported.
The other series is a spinoff of the 2005 hit Madagascar, centered on its popular penguin characters.
Panda, due in theaters in May 2008, revolves around a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant whose shape doesn't lend itself to kung fu fighting. The movie features the vocal talents of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane.
DreamWorks Animation will take a back seat on day-to-day development of the Nickelodeon projects. The cable network will take the reins on physical production out of Nick Studios.
Both projects are in the early stages of development. Tom Martin (The Simpsons) will pen the pilot script for Panda. Paul Rugg (Freakazoid!) is aboard to write the Madagascar offshoot, centered on penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private in a series of new adventures.
Dream Mixes SF And Crime
John Scalzi, winner of the 2006 John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, told SCI FI Wire that the inspirations for his latest novel, The Android's Dream, are not in science fiction, but rather in crime fiction. "I've been a huge fan of the books of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard, because they're smart and funny and have a nicely cynical sensibility, and I thought I might try a book in that sort of vein, but in a science fiction context," Scalzi said in an interview.
When Scalzi initially pitched the book to his editor, he described it as "man solves interplanetary diplomatic crisis through the use of action scenes and snappy dialogue," he said. "The plot has the hero, a State Department official, trying to get his hands on an object desired and required by an alien government—in this case, a sheep of a particular rare breed. If he doesn't get the sheep, it's possible the Earth may go to war with the aliens. So naturally there are all sorts of complications, not the least of which is the identity of the sheep itself."
The protagonist is Harry Creek, a geek-turned-war hero who is working at a job he's overqualified for when he's tapped to save the world, Scalzi said. "To some extent he's a revision of the classic Campbellian-SF 'Competent Man,' in that he's certainly competent, but he's also not the sort of guy who would go out of his way to be a hero; he does heroic things, but given a choice he'd just rather be home," he said. "And it's pretty clear in the course of the book that, despite his competence, he's no superman; the poor guy gets banged up a whole lot during the course of the book."
The idea for the novel was that it was supposed to be the literary equivalent of a summer popcorn flick, Scalzi said. "You run a risk when you do that," he said. "SF readers tend to prize work that has a brain, for fairly obvious reasons—but being a geek myself I wasn't going to write anything that was going to insult my own intelligence. So the challenge was to write amusing escapist stuff that wouldn't make you feel like you had to shut down your frontal lobe to enjoy it."
Via his blog (http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004513.html), Scalzi recently auctioned off a bound-manuscript edition of his forthcoming novel The Last Colony, with the proceeds going to benefit the John M. Ford Book Endowment (http://www.friendsofmpl.org/Friends_member2005.html). "To encourage people to bid, I said that if the bidding reached certain levels, I would throw in more stuff," Scalzi said. "The top goody was a short story, which I said I would write if someone contributed $5,000. This caught the eye of Bill Schafer, the publisher of Subterranean Press. ... So he bid $5,000. As a result, the endowment gets a nice chunk of change to get going with, and I'll be writing a novelette called 'The Sagan Diary,' which Subterranean is publishing as a limited-edition hardcover. Everybody wins!" —John Joseph Adams
Barker To Pen Hellraiser Remake
Clive Barker said on his official Web site (http://www.clivebarker.info/intsrevel15.html) that The Weinstein Co. has asked him and he has agreed to write a remake of his 1987 horror film Hellraiser, but that he's not interested in directing it. "They're going to remake Hellraiser 1 with a lot more money, and they've invited me to write it—the invitation came from Bob Weinstein—which I am going to do, on the basis that if I don't do it, it will be done in some way that I probably won't like!" Barker wrote. "It's only that one that I really, really, really care about in terms of its remake value—and it'll be kind of fun to have the extra money to do the effects and all that cool stuff."
The first Hellraiser is the only one of the long-running horror franchise that Barker both wrote and directed. "So it puts me in the situation of writing both the beginning and the end of Pinhead at the same time—'In my end is my beginning.' I'm not in the middle, as it were," Barker wrote. "I'm leaving out his middle age. I'm just dealing with his beginning and his end."
Barker added: "I'm excited about it—actually it'll be kinda cool to revisit it once and see if there are things we can do to it which will make it significantly better. ... I wouldn't wish to direct—I only want to write and be a part of the producing team. I wouldn't want to revisit something that I did as a director, something that I did all those years ago: That would be too, in a way, painful—not painful, but weird, difficult, strange. ... I am very happy at the idea of having some more money for the cool stuff—I don't know how much more money, but it's got to be more than the $900,000 that we had the first time!"
Wyatt, Spock's Mom, Is Dead
Jane Wyatt, the television actress best known to SF fans for playing Spock's mother in the original Star Trek series, has died, the Associated Press reported. She was 96.
Wyatt died Oct. 20 in her sleep of natural causes at her home in Bel Air, Calif., her publicist, Meg McDonald, told the AP. She experienced health problems since suffering a stroke at 85, but her mind was sharp until her death, her son Christopher Ward told the wire service.
Wyatt played Amanda Grayson, the human mother of the starship Enterprise's half-Vulcan science officer, in the original series episode "Journey to Babel" and reprised the role in the 1986 movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
To the broader audience, Wyatt was best known as Robert Young's TV wife, Margaret Anderson, on the 1950s series Father Knows Best.
Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and '40s, notably as Ronald Colman's lover in 1937's fantasy film Lost Horizon.
Wyatt is survived by sons Christopher, of Piedmont, Calif., and Michael, of Los Angeles; three grandchildren, Nicholas, Andrew and Laura; and five great-grandchildren.
McAdams Mulls Time Traveler?
TMZ.com (http://www.tmz.com/2006/10/20/rachel-mcadams-lets-do-the-time-warp/) reported a rumor that Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers) is in negotiations to take the lead in a quickly coalescing feature film based on The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling 2003 SF novel. Brad Pitt is producing it via his Plan B Productions, as is Nick Wechsler.
The Time Traveler's Wife follows a Chicago librarian who finds himself involuntarily shot forward and yanked backward 10 years in time. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful heiress.
New Line is still meeting with directors, but it's come down to Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things) and German director Robert Schwentke (Flightplan), the site reported.
Island Suit Goes To Trial
A federal judge in New York has ordered a trial in a copyright-infringement lawsuit against DreamWorks and Warner Brothers, alleging that Michael Bay's 2005 SF action movie The Island was based on the 1979 independent movie Parts: The Clonus Horror, Variety reported.
The studios had asked that the case be dismissed, but U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled there were several issues best reserved for a jury, such as the degree of similarity between the two films, the trade paper reported.
The lawsuit was brought by Clonus producer-director Robert S. Fiveson and Clonus Associates.
When The Island was released, several reviewers referred to Clonus, which revolved around a secret colony of clones who are raised for spare organs. One of the clones escapes into Southern California to expose the facility.
The Island also revolved around a colony of clones raised to provide spare parts for humans, with two of the clones escaping into a futuristic Los Angeles in an attempt to expose the colony and shut the facility down.
When the lawsuit was filed, DreamWorks issued a statement saying The Island was independently created and did not infringe on anyone's copyrights.
DreamWorks and Warners declined comment on the judge's ruling.
Smallville Gets HD Release
Warner Home Video will release the fifth season of The CW's Smallville series in high definition in the HD DVD format on Nov. 28 as part of the studio's Superman DVD campaign, Variety reported. The five-disc set will contain unaired scenes, commentaries and HD-exclusive features, such as a Behind the Story featurette. The HD DVD set will carry a suggested retail price of $79.98, $20 more than the standard DVD set.
Warner is also releasing HD versions of Superman Returns, Superman: The Movie and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut for a few dollars more than the standard DVD versions. The Donner cut has been highly anticipated by the comic-book crowd ever since the helmer was forced off the film almost 30 years ago; Richard Lester completed the 1980 theatrical-release version.
Warner also is releasing a 14-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition on standard DVD for $100 on Nov. 28.
BRIEFLY NOTED
Arthur Hill, a character actor best known to SF fans for roles in such films as The Andromeda Strain, Something Wicked This Way Comes and One Magic Christmas, died Oct. 22 in a Pacific Palisades, Calif., care facility after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, according to The Hollywood Reporter; he was 84.
Prep work continues on Microsoft's proposed Halo movie at producer Peter Jackson's Weta Studios in New Zealand; the Alex Garland script has already been rewritten by Ender's Game screenwriter D.B. Weiss and will get another rewrite by A History of Violence's Josh Olson, sources told Variety.
Cinemax will air all six of the Star Wars films in order during a "Cinemax Star Wars Weekend Marathon," starting at midnight Nov. 10, and will broadcast all of the films for the first time in high-definition versions.
Walden Media and director Mark Waters are developing an adventure film about a 14-year-old who discovers that he is a descendant of the great illusionist Harry Houdini, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
IESB.net (http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_d4j_ezine&task=read&page=1&category=featured&article=581&Itemid=27) reported a rumor that Superman Returns director Bryan Singer has finalized a deal with Warner Brothers for a sequel, which will have a smaller budget, feature more action and introduce a classic villain from the DC Comics universe.
Focus' genre label Rogue has made a two-picture deal with hot horror writer Scott Milam (Saw II); the first up is an untitled carnival project described as an intense horror film involving sideshow freaks and other carnival horrors, Variety reported.
ComingSoon.net reported that a new trailer for Spider-Man 3 will debut with Casino Royale on Nov. 17 and a second trailer will premiere with Ghost Rider on Feb. 16, 2007.
Legendary Pictures has acquired an untitled supernatural thriller script from writers Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka, Variety reported; Ehren Kruger and Daniel Bobker will produce, along with Legendary.
Warner Brothers has posted a promotion for its upcoming supernatural film The Reaping in which users can send friends a "plague" (http://www.aplagueonyou.com/) to infiltrate their computer screens with frogs, lice, locusts, boils, thunder and hail or blood, in keeping with the film's themes of the biblical plagues; The Reaping opens March 30, 2007.
Nelson de la Rosa, the 2-foot-4-inch character actor whose role in The Island of Dr. Moreau inspired the Austin Powers character Mini-Me, has died at the age of 38 of unknown causes in a Providence, R.I., hospital, Zap2it.com (http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-nelsondelarosaobit,0,3323201.story?coll=zap-news-headlines) reported.
Mission: Impossible III star Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will marry in Italy on Nov. 18, Cruise's representative, Arnold Robinson, told the Associated Press, confirming a report that first appeared in Us Weekly magazine.
Ain't It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30469) reported that Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (The People vs. Larry Flynt) will be adapting Stephen King's Cell for the big screen.
Jack Coleman, who plays the mysterious Mr. Bennet on NBC's hit SF drama Heroes, has been made a series regular and joins the series full-time in its 11th episode, Variety reported.
Tom Cruise has been talking to helmer Spike Lee about possibly starring in Selling Time, a Fox drama about a man who sells back chunks of time in his life for a chance to relive and change the worst day of his life, one of three films Cruise is contemplating as his next project, Variety reported.
Namibia has not received a U.S. extradition order for Blade star Wesley Snipes, who faces $12 million tax fraud charges in the United States, but is shooting a movie in the African country, the Reuters news service reported; Namibia has no extradition treaty with the United States.
Phyllis Kirk, who played the raven-haired beauty stalked by Vincent Price in the 1950s horror film House of Wax, died Oct. 19 of a post-cerebral aneurysm at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., the Associated Press reported; she was 79.
The supernatural drama The Prestige took the top slot at the Oct. 20 weekend box office, making about $14.8 million over the three-day period, the Reuters news service reported.
TrekMovie.com (http://trekmovie.com/2006/10/19/trek-xi-update-abrams-already-auditioning-actors-on-track-to-start-shooting-in-spring/) reported rumors that J.J. Abrams' proposed Star Trek XI movie will get a green light and will be one of Paramount’s tentpole films for the summer of 2008; a first draft of the script is due shortly, and the Abrams team is already seeing actors for the major parts, though none are identified.