Lucas Leaves Star Wars Behind?
eorge Lucas, director of Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire that he has no problem walking away from the beloved film franchise he created nearly 30 years ago now that he has completed Episode III. The final prequel film completes the series with Anakin Skywalker's (Hayden Christensen) descent and transformation into Darth Vader. "I walked away from it before," writer-director-producer Lucas said during a group interview at his Skywalker Ranch compound in California. "For 15 years, I thought long and hard about coming back and doing the backstory."
Lucas added: "And the only reason I did it, ultimately, was because I was interested in the story and the fact that it would shift how you look at [Episodes] IV, V and VI. IV, V and VI [were] really meant to be a story about Darth Vader, and it is a story about Darth Vader. But Luke [Mark Hamill] and Leia [Carrie Fisher] became more central figures; not really central, but the impact is stronger. But I thought if I gave Darth Vader his due you would understand what a tragic story the whole thing is, and it would change the way you look at the movies. So that's why I did it." Episode III opens May 19.
Episode III's McDiarmid Kicks Butt
an McDiarmid, who reprises his role as the duplicitous Palpatine/Darth Sidious in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire that he enjoyed watching his character engage in lighsaber battles with such Jedi knights as Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and Yoda (voice of Frank Oz). "I was surprised how much butt, in fact, I do kick in this movie," McDiarmid said during a group interview. "I thought all the power was in the head and in the hands, so when I got not so much the script but the schedule, which said 'fight training' on a huge number of days, I thought: 'That will be falls,' because I'd read the script."
McDiarmid added: "But then it became clear to me that I had my own saber and Sam and I were going to lock—and not intellectually—and that Yoda was going to get a tough time, and that I was going to have to learn how to use this thing. And I did in a limited way. I have to say, completely frankly, unlike Ewan [McGregor] and Hayden [Christensen] and indeed Sam, I'm not an expert swordsman, nor did I become one as a result of learning stuff for Revenge of the Sith. But I did do all the sequences, and that's what George [Lucas] likes, because he needs the energy. He needs the eyes. He needs the intention."
McDiarmid said that he couldn't do everything himself. Palpatine/Sidious often moves at a furious pace, so writer-director Lucas turned to a stunt double, who handled much of the more complicated fighting. He was then digitally erased in post-production and replaced with images of McDiarmid's face. "His name is Michael Byrne, and he should get a large share of the credit for that," McDiarmid said, referring to his stunt double. "I learned a new skill, and I hope I can do it and that it will be convincing choreographically, if not in terms of speed and actual dynamic energy." Episode III opens on May 19.
Christensen: Vader Evoked Awe
ayden Christensen, who reprises his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire that appearing for the first time on set in the full Vader regalia was one of the high points of his entire Star Wars experience. "Everyone came out to bear witness," Christensen said during a group interview. "It was an event. It was an event for myself, for everyone working on the film, to finally see Darth."
Christensen donned the black armor and mask for the final scenes of the film, which chronicles Anakin Skywalker's final descent to the dark side.
"I went to set first, and they had a changing room on set, and I went in," Christensen said. "And it was a good 15 minutes to put on the whole costume layer by layer and having everything fit in. But then walking out on the set and having a huge crowd of people there and getting to watch their faces as they took in Darth Vader was very cool. It was really neat, because these are people you know and are friends with. Even with the awe and excitement, it was coupled with a certain glimmer of fear and a respect that needed to be paid. Lower the head." Episode III opens on May 19.
Lucas Proud Of F/X Legacy
eorge Lucas, mastermind of the Star Wars franchise, told SCI FI Wire that he's most proud of helping revolutionize big-screen special effects, in part through his F/X house Industrial Light & Magic. "Movies started as a special effect," the filmmaker said during a group interview at his Skywalker Ranch compound in California. "All the first movies, that's what they were interested in, the special-effects part of it, because that's what wowed the audience. It was like a magic act."
Lucas added: "And that's what the medium was originally, and then over the years studios came in, and they had big special-effects departments, and it was a big part of the way that they designed movies. And they could make movies with anything that they wanted. So they made big historical epics. They did fantasy movies. They could do all kinds of movies. There was nothing that they couldn't do in those days, the '30s and the '40s."
By the '50s, however, Hollywood began concentrating on epic dramas and psychological movies, followed by "street movies," Lucas said. By the '70s, he said: "You were kind of forced to do a very narrow kind of movie. You couldn't do big epics, historical pieces. You couldn't do space films and science fantasy and that kind of stuff. You get one movie a year maybe, and it would cost an enormous amount of money, and if you wanted to do a western they wouldn't let you do that anymore, because there were too many horses or whatever. And none of the studios had a special-effects department anymore. They were all gone. Disney had [a single] matte painter. Universal had Al Whitlock, who was a matte painter, and then there were a few matte painters in England. But basically the idea of a special-effects department didn't exist anymore. They would just do a few matte paintings if they had to fake things."
That changed when Lucas set out to make the original Star Wars adventure, now referred to as Episode IV: A New Hope. "By bringing back the special-effects world I brought back the ability to make all kinds of movies," Lucas said. "And not just space movies, but all kinds of movies, which didn't really exist before in the '70s." Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, which has 2,151 special-effects shots, opens on May 19.
SF&F; Series Staff Up?
roadcast networks are expected to announce their choices among the season's current pilot projects at next week's fall schedule unveilings in New York and are already hiring writers and staff for some prospective series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Among the SF&F; series currently seeking staffers, anonymous sources told the trade paper: ABC's Invasion, a spooky drama executive-produced by Shaun Cassidy and Thomas Schlamme; NBC's Fathom, about mysterious creatures of the deep sea, and The Book of Daniel, about an unconventional priest; and The WB's Supernatural, about two brothers who travel the country hunting for supernatural beings.
Representatives for ABC, NBC and The WB declined comment to The Hollywood Reporter. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Oz Tops For Wonder Woman
roducer Joel Silver told the Australian Associated Press that Australia tops his list among shooting locations for his upcoming Wonder Woman movie. "When I make Wonder Woman I'll probably do it in Australia," Silver (House of Wax) told the AAP, according to a report in The Age. "I love working in Australia. It makes great sense to me."
Silver shot all three Matrix films in Oz, as well as Ghost Ship and Wax.
Silver added that he has no start date or star yet for Wonder Woman, for which director Joss Whedon is completing the script. Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is also putting finishing touches on his upcoming SF film Serenity.
Schrader Kept Exorcist Faith
aul Schrader, the director of the upcoming Exorcist prequel film Dominion, told SCI FI Wire that he thought his version of the movie might be lost—until he sat through a screening of the movie that replaced it, Exorcist: The Beginning, directed by Renny Harlin. Schrader (Auto Focus) directed and finished his Exorcist prequel film in 2003 and handed it in to production company Morgan Creek, which scrapped it and ordered an entirely new version, shot by actionmeister Harlin. It was Harlin's version of the film that saw a theatrical release in 2004.
"My experience was really quite ironic in that I went down to Bethesda and saw it in the afternoon opening day with Bill Blatty [author of the original Exorcist book]," Schrader said in an interview. He added: "As the screening progressed, Bill became more and more agitated, because he had had his experience [of writing a sequel and having it scrapped], and it all came back to him, his still-festering resentment of how he was treated. So by the time the movie was over he was sort of steaming."
Not so Schrader. "I, on the other hand, was sitting next to him feeling better and better," he said. "Because I was looking at this film, and I was saying, 'You know, this is really bad. And you know, if it gets much worse, there may even be a market for my film.' By the time the movie was over I thought, 'You know, I bet you ... there's going to be an interest in what my film was.' I had fear that Renny's film would be OK, get good reviews, do good business, in which case my film would be dead forever. But because it was so exploitive, it did open the door to this conversation we're now having."
Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning was excoriated by critics and promptly tanked at the box office. Eventually, Morgan Creek took another look at Schrader's version, titled Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, and has decided to give it a limited release through Warner Brothers on May 20.
"I have taken to describing this as a case of buyer's remorse, because it's the only information that really makes sense to me," Schrader said, adding: "Because of the possible revenues from a DVD and because the Internet keeps fans' interest alive, in a situation where it would normally just drop off and fade away, it became more and more clear that there was money to be made. And I would never have presumed to appeal to the altruism or the artistic inclinations of Morgan Creek."
Welling: New Fog Is Edgier
om Welling, who stars in the upcoming horror remake The Fog, told SCI FI Wire that the new version is designed to appeal to a different audience from the original. "This is younger," he said in a press conference on the set in Vancouver, B.C. "It's quicker. It's a little bit edgier, I think. And I think that all of us together are going to bring that to the film. ... I think this film is taking its own direction."
Welling, best known for his role as Clark Kent on the WB series Smallville, pointed out the most obvious difference in the two films: the ages of the cast members. Welling and his co-stars—Selma Blair (Hellboy) and Maggie Grace (Lost)—play characters originated in the first film by more mature actors (Tom Atkins, Adrienne Barbeau and Jamie Lee Curtis, respectively). "This version of The Fog is updated," he said. "It's more modern. The other one was great, but obviously, as you can see us all sitting here, we've taken the ages of the original characters and divided them in two."
The fog itself, which will be both practical and computer-animated, has also been revamped for the new film. "You're on set, and this fog's coming at you, and it's creepy," Welling said. "We did a sequence where we're in the truck, and this cloud of fog is coming toward us, and literally the first time I saw this I was like, 'They've got some well-trained fog,' because this thing came around the house, came at us, and then all of a sudden I heard this thump and these three guys stood up with these lights on their chest and fog machines. They're inside the fog, so they can't see. So they're just taking their steps, and they ran right into the truck."
Welling ended the press conference on a light note, joking, "Don't let the title fool you, this movie's about the fog." The Fog, directed by Rupert Wainwright, is filming now for release on Oct. 14.
New Fog Has New Fog
upert Wainwright, director of the upcoming remake of John Carpenter's 1980 horror film The Fog, told SCI FI Wire that the fog in the new version will have several distinct personalities. "We have all these different versions of fog," Wainwright said in an interview on the film's Vancouver, B.C., set. "The angry fog is, there's [three] guys with pump foggers, ... and they have lights on like this, and they blast it, and they come running towards you. And the fog is so thick that it turns black, but the lights inside kind of illuminate it. And it literally looks like a cloud has come down. It's coming out and attacking you. So that's angry fog. Then we have sneaky fog. Sneaky fog is way off behind a bush or something, and it sort of comes tumbling down the hill. And it's dry ice mixed with steam."
As with the original Fog, the remake centers on the residents of a small town whose secrets come back to haunt them under the cover of a mysterious, supernatural fog. In addition to the two kinds of fog that will be created onscreen using both computer-animated and practical techniques, Wainwright also mentioned a third kind of fog that won't be seen. "[We have] lots of grumpy fog," he said. "Trust me. The grumpy fog is when it doesn't do anything, which is about 60 percent of the time."
Ironically, Wainwright said the production has experienced a few days of being fogged in by the real thing when certain scenes called for bright, sunny days. "Every time we want fog it's a clear day," he said. "Every time we want [a] clear day, it's fogged. I said in the middle of prep, 'You understand that there will be some scenes where we can't shoot because there's fog.' And everyone's like, 'What?' And I said,' If there's daylight scenes where it's supposed to be sunny, and you're supposed to be able to see more than 20 feet ahead of you and it's fogged in, it'll be a weather day.' They're like, 'Sure, Rupert. It'll be a weather day.' And we've had probably a couple of those." The Fog is filming now for release on Oct. 14.
Blair Filled Out Fog Role
elma Blair, who stars in the upcoming horror remake The Fog, surprised journalists when she flung a false breast at director Rupert Wainwright during a press conference on the Vancouver, B.C., set. "That's the Adrienne Barbeau part of the role," Blair told SCI FI Wire, referring to the star of the original 1980 The Fog. "I'm just speaking out for flat-chested girls across America."
The well-endowed Barbeau played Stevie Wayne in the original John Carpenter film, a role that Blair reprises in the new version. While Blair will maintain some of the character's physical attributes, her story has been changed slightly. Rather than spending the majority of the film in the island's lighthouse, where she acts as a radio DJ, Stevie will make a daring escape and meet up with the other main characters, played by Tom Welling and Maggie Grace.
"When I saw the original, right before I went in to audition, she really was obviously very isolated," Blair said. "I really love having the energy of other people around me. That kind of gets me going, for better or for worse. But, you know, that's what I'm used to and I love. So I was really scared and intimidated just being in a room by myself. [But] I was very relieved. I wish we had more. I wish I had more scenes with these guys, but it's great."
Blair, who admitted that she isn't a fan of horror films, said in a stage whisper that it was the work of director Rupert Wainwright that initially attracted her to the project. (Wainwright was sitting at the end of the table.) "I really think Stigmata was gorgeous," she said. "I really thought it was a really stylish, beautiful film and quite spooky. What I saw of it. I didn't see the whole thing. And then I read the script of The Fog, and I actually thought there was a quiet, stylish element that was there. I'm afraid of horror movies. But I don't know. And Tom. I'm a fan of Tom's. And now Maggie. Wow, making friends [laughs]. What's wrong? Are these not the right answers?" The Fog is filming now for release on Oct. 14.
Carpenter Masters Horror
irector John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) told SCI FI Wire that he will helm the third episode of the new Showtime anthology series Masters of Horror. "Each of us has an hour to shoot in 10 days," Carpenter said on the set of the upcoming remake of his 1980 film The Fog. He added, with tongue in cheek: "The first director that they got was John Landis, who's now way over budget and way over schedule. So there may not be any more Masters of Horror. He may do them in. ... They've pushed me later in the schedule, because they're going to take all the money out of my show and put it into everyone else's."
Carpenter will film a script titled "Cigarette Burns," written by Drew McWeeney, better known as Moriarty of the Ain't It Cool News Web site. "I've never seen anything else like it," Carpenter said. "I'll be shooting in July at some point. As I say, the first director up was John Landis. Last night I had dinner with Dario Argento. He's the second one up. They're going to kick the crew's ass. [But] it'll be fun." Masters of Horror begins airing on Showtime later this year.
Li Was Unleashed
ouis Leterrier, director of the action film Unleashed, told SCI FI Wire that he unleashed legendary martial-arts choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (the Matrix trilogy) after bringing him on board to work with star Jet Li (The One). Li plays Danny, a man raised like a dog and trained to kill on command, who finds himself torn between his brutal owner (Bob Hoskins) and his new friend, a blind and wise piano tuner (Morgan Freeman). "I got more involved in the beginning and less at the end," Leterrier (The Transporter) said in an interview. "I know his style. I love his work, and we were lucky to have him right off Kill Bill."
Leterrier added: "Wo Ping's crew is about 10 people, and they are really Chinese. One guy has a shaved head and a long pointy white goatee, and he stares at you. You know they can kill you, and none of them speak English. I planned out scenes with Star Wars action figures, because I really wanted the fights to be really vicious, stripped-down street fighting. They don't sound like Indiana Jones fights, where you wait for people to hit you. The first thing we shot was the vicious fight in the opening sequence. I looked [at] and supervised and co-choreographed the fights. I wanted the tearing of the hair and the banging of the heads, which I [oversaw] for a bit. Then, afterwards, I let them do what they want and have fun. I was asked to walk away, because they pay him a lot." Unleashed got loose on May 13.
Li Unleashed Peaceful Moral
et Li, star of the action movie Unleashed, told SCI FI Wire the film features extreme brutality, but actually carries a message against violence. Li plays Danny, a man raised like a dog and trained to kill at the behest of his thuggish owner (Bob Hoskins). Danny escapes and is befriended by a blind piano tuner (Morgan Freeman) and his stepdaughter (Kerry Condon). "The character of Danny in the beginning is mentally only 8 years old, but physically he's so strong," Li said in an interview. "He doesn't understand life. So he hurts a lot of people."
Li added: "Morgan Freeman's character, with the music, brings him back, and he becomes a normal person. People are different than animals. Animals are selfish. They only eat and sleep and survive. People care about each other, though. They care about friendship, family, responsibility. That's why Danny wasn't normal. The first time, through the music, was when Danny felt family and friends and sweet love. So this is why I believe, even though the movie in the beginning is very violent, because animal fighting is just violent, [that] by the end of the movie the message I'm trying to say is that violence isn't the only solution."
The movie stands in contrast to some of Li's other films, in which he plays the hero who uses his martial arts prowess to come to the rescue. "Usually, the action film is about the tough guy who saves people, saves his neighbors," Li said. "He's tough. Violence against violence. But this movie says, even though you're physically very strong and you can hurt people, you don't understand life. He's saved by the music because of Morgan, who shows all the love, all the family, all the warm side of the human being. So he saved my life." Unleashed opened on May 13.
Freeman Blinded By Unleashed
organ Freeman, who co-stars in the action film Unleashed, told SCI FI Wire that it was his idea to make his character a blind man. The Oscar winner plays Sam, a blind and kindly piano tuner who befriends Danny (Jet Li), a slave who's been raised like a dog and fights at the command of his owner (Bob Hoskins). "The guy was so good," Freeman said in an interview. "It's hindsight, mind you, [but] I couldn't figure out what was wrong, and [I] needed to correct something."
Freeman added: "I kept thinking about what I needed, and it occurred to me that the guy needed to be blind. So I shared that with [writer-producer] Luc [Besson], and he contemplated it for, I don't know, two [or] three weeks [before agreeing to make the change]. ... He probably came to the same conclusion after having been asked [what making Sam blind added to the character] and having to come up with an answer. The guy is almost too good. ... You have to give him something unreal. Not unreal; blindness is very real. But it sort of adds a dimension to the character that makes you believe the rest of it. That's why I like it."
Though some people might be surprised to see an actor so accomplished as Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) playing opposite Li, who is better known for his martial-arts moves than his acting prowess, Freeman said that his co-star more than held his own in their dramatic scenes. "He's quite an accomplished actor," Freeman said. "He's been doing this for a numerous of years. My Bill Cosby line. He's been at this for a while, and if you talk to Jet he'll say he learned a lot from working with me, but I don't think that's quite right. I think that's an effort to satisfy the question. What actors do is respond, and we respond well to each other." Unleashed was unleashed on May 13.
Hewitt Helming Chuckle Bears
eter Hewitt (Garfield: The Movie) will direct the space-alien fantasy film Chuckle Bears for Nickelodeon Movies, with Paramount set to distribute, Variety reported.
Chuckle Bears, written by Hewitt and Phil Hughes, centers on aliens from another planet who take the form of brightly colored teddy bears and go on a mission to Earth to banish sadness from the human race, the trade paper reported.
Hewitt's also attached to direct Zoom's Academy for Sony and Revolution.
Barker Gets Demonik
live Barker is set to share his unique brand of horror with movie and video game audiences in the form of Demonik, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The feature film has John Woo and Barker attached as producers. Barker has the option to write, having begun a treatment that is being shopped to studios by Woo's Tiger Hill Entertainment, the trade paper reported.
The video game already is under way from Tiger Hill, game developer Terminal Reality and game publisher Majesco, with the goal of shipping next year for next-generation consoles, the trade paper reported.
In addition, there have been discussions about a graphic novel and limited-edition statue to coincide with the game launch, said Tiger Hill co-founder and producer Brad Foxhoven.
Barker is set to oversee the story, character designs and voice talent for the next-generation horror game as well as direct the in-game cinematics.
Saturns Really Kill Hays
obert Hays presented a trophy at last week's Saturn Awards, and now he tells SCI FI Wire that he will soon appear in an independent SF comedy movie as a murder victim killed with one of the gold statuettes. That dubious distinction takes place in the upcoming film Freezerburn, Hays said in an interview at the Saturns in Universal City, Calif., last week.
Hays, who is best known for his starring role in the Airplane! movies, said: "I get murdered by a Saturn Award in Freezerburn. I am the first person in history to get murdered with this award."
The planet-shaped gold-plated award figures prominently in the demise of Hays' character, Michael Reed the Talent, who's trying to hang on to his handsome leading-man status while trying to hide a dark secret, Hayes said. Freezerburn centers around a 20-year reunion of a popular TV show, which has such a cult following that the cast and crew members have lived off of fan conventions and selling their autographs since the show went off the air. One of the former cast members has become a spokeswoman for an offbeat alien-worshipping cult called Children of the Earth. When real aliens interrupt the reunion and scoop up Earthlings for their "Great Syndication," things really get strange.
Freezerburn also stars Dick Van Patten, David Faustino, Hal Linden and Rachel Hunter and is directed by Melissa Balin. The film is in post-production, with no release date set.
AnLab, Asimov Winners Named
nalog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov's Science Fiction announced their annual readers' choice awards, based on voting by each magazine's readers for the favorite works of the preceding year. A full list of winners follows.
Analog Readers Award (AnLab)
Short story: "Shed Skin" by Robert J. Sawyer
Novelette: "Short Line Loco" by Stephen L. Burns
Novella: "Layna's Mirror" by Rajnar Vajra
Fact: "Open Minds, Open Source" by Eric S. Raymond
Asimov's Readers Award
Short story: "Travels With My Cats" by Mike Resnick
Novelette: "The Garcia Narrows Bridge" by Allen Steele
Novella: "Liberation Day" by Allen Steele
Poem: "Heavy Weather" by Bruce Boston
Willard Bewitched By SF Films
unny guy Fred Willard told SCI FI Wire that his upcoming appearance in this summer's Bewitched movie is only one of several roles he'll play in future science fiction and fantasy movies. Willard said in an interview that he has finished a time-travel alien film called First Time Caller and a children's horror fantasy movie called Monster House. Those films may not come out until next year, he said.
"First Time Caller is a wonderful movie about a guy coming back from the future," Willard said about the indie project, directed by newcomer Paul Francis Sullivan and starring David Alan Basche (War of the Worlds) and Patrick Warburton (Men in Black II). First Time Caller also involves an FBI investigation of UFOs and some mistaken identity, Willard said.
"Then Monster House is done in the same way they did Polar Express, and it's about a haunted house that comes alive," Willard said. "It's really a fascinating process." Catherine O'Hara plays Willard's wife; she previously worked with the comic actor in Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman. In Monster House, the characters played by O'Hara and Willard leave their son in a haunted house on Halloween.
"There's a bit of [a] Home Alone element to it, but with haunting," Willard said. "And Monster House is a movie that should be released around Halloween this year. They're not going to get it out until next year, but who am I to say?"
This summer, Willard appears in Bewitched, loosely based on the 1960s TV show about a witch married to a mortal, starring Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell and Shirley MacLaine. "Nicole was lovely," Willard said.
Weaving In, Purefoy Out Of V
ugo Weaving has joined the Wachowski Brothers' and Joel Silver's production of V for Vendetta, starring opposite Natalie Portman, Variety reported. Weaving, who is best known as Agent Smith in the Wachowskis' Matrix films, will play the title vigilante character known as V in the movie, based on Alan Moore's SF graphic novel.
Weaving replaces James Purefoy, who left the production for undisclosed reasons, the trade paper reported. The movie's in production in Berlin, with a Nov. 4 release planned by Warner Brothers.
The cast includes Stephen Rea and Stephen Fry. V for Vendetta is directed by James McTeigue from a screenplay by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski.
Shrek 3 Plot Unveiled
effrey Katzenberg, executive producer of the Shrek films, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming third installment will focus on finding a new king of Far, Far Away, following the transformation of the last one into a toad. "When Shrek 3 opens, Shrek [voiced by Mike Myers] and Fiona [Cameron Diaz] are having to take on the duties of being the acting king and queen," Katzenberg said in an interview. "If you remember when we left them, the king [John Cleese] was quite literally croaking. They're not very comfortable in these roles as the king and queen of the kingdom of Far, Far Away, so the king says to them, 'If you can find the heir to the throne and bring him back so that the kingdom will be in good hands, then you can return to the swamp and live your lives,' which is what they want to do."
Katzenberg said that Shrek 3 will also include Puss in Boots, whom Antonio Banderas voiced in Shrek 2, as well as a new character, voiced by singer Justin Timberlake. "Shrek, Donkey and Puss go to the far side of the kingdom of Far, Far Away, which is far away, if you can imagine, where young Artie, ... the nephew of Queen Lillian, is about to graduate from school," Katzenberg said. "Artie turns out to be young King Arthur, and Shrek and Donkey and Puss have to convince this extremely rebellious young man, who's being voiced by Justin Timberlake, to come back and assume the throne."
Katzenberg added that Shrek 3 will feature many of the same kinds of references and literary in-jokes that made the first two films successful. "Along the way, Shrek invents the Round Table [and] chivalry; Donkey is the Lady in the Lake with the sword. You get it," he said. "Meanwhile, back at the kingdom of Far, Far Away, Prince Charming decides that it's time for a coup d'etat. The cat's away, he will play, and so Fiona organizes all of the princesses into the resistance movement, the underground, who are trying to hold things together until Shrek, Donkey, Puss and young King Arthur return." Shrek 3 is scheduled for release May 18, 2007.
Saw Guys Ready Silence
he two screenwriters who masterminded the creepy thriller Saw told SCI FI Wire that they're now preparing a ghost story called Silence for Universal Pictures. "We're now working on a creepy ghost story for Universal that involves a master ventriloquist," James Wan, who co-wrote 2004's Saw with Leigh Whannell, said in an interview. Wan is set to direct Silence, and Whannell will star in the new horror film, as he did in Saw with Danny Glover and Cary Elwes.
"Ventriloquist dummies are always pretty scary," added Whannell, who is also involved in writing Saw 2 with new director Darren Lynn Bousman. That sequel is about to begin filming in Toronto and promises "more traps and more carnage," Whannell said.
Wan and Whannell met in film school in Australia and said they have always enjoyed the horror genre. After making their 2000 film Stygian, they landed a deal with Lions Gate for Saw.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
DC Comics Unveils New Logo
C Comics unveiled a new company logo that will appear on comic books, graphic novels and, for the first time ever, on films and television series based on DC properties. The new DC logo will make its first appearance on a DC Comics cover May 25, when the company publishes DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy number one and will then appear on the entire DC line the following week, the company said.
An animated version of the new DC logo premieres June 15 with the release of Batman Begins, the highly anticipated Warner Brothers film based on the venerable DC franchise.
DC Comics has published for more than 70 years, and 2005 marks a new era for the Time Warner company, particularly in films. In addition to Batman Begins, upcoming theatrical releases include V for Vendetta, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, and Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer and starring Brandon Routh.
Kong Games Debuts At E3
bisoft and Universal Studios Consumer Products Group announced that the first preview of Peter Jackson's King Kong, the video game based on Universal Pictures' upcoming movie, will be unveiled at Ubisoft's booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Los Angeles. E3 runs May 18-20 and is open to the trade only.
Michel Ancel, creative director at Ubisoft, and his team at Ubisoft's Montpellier, France, studio are working with director Jackson and Wingnut Films to capture and create the King Kong movie dynamics in a video game, Ubisoft said.
The King Kong movie, a remake of the classic SF film, opens Dec. 14. Universal Pictures and Universal Studios Consumer Products Group are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Meg Finally Swims To Screen
fter spending years in development hell, Steve Alten's best-selling shark thriller Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror is finally headed for the big screen, TV Guide Online reported. New Line is fast-tracking the project, with Twister director Jan de Bont on tap to helm, with an eye to a July 4, 2006, release, the site reported.
Meg, often called "Jurassic Shark," deals with a Megalodon, or prehistoric giant shark. "Like in the novel, the Megalodon that will be used in the movie will be a ghostly albino, her lack of pigment reflecting her ancestors' existence in the depths of the Marianas Trench," author Alten told TV Guide Online. "She'll be pretty scarred up and gruesome, with some features that make her unique from her modern-day cousin, the great white. ... Most of all, she'll be big. Very big."
Hudson Unlocks Skeleton Key
ate Hudson, star of the upcoming supernatural film The Skeleton Key, told SCI FI Wire that she unlocked the action-heroine part of her by performing most of her own stunts. "I've never had so many bruises in my life," Hudson said in an interview. "[I do] stuff like fights, climbing a broken trellis, breaking windows, that kind of stuff. Fight stuff, throwing things."
In The Skeleton Key, Hudson plays Caroline, a hospice worker, who observes strange events after taking a job as caregiver to an ailing Louisiana man (John Hurt). Hudson (Almost Famous) said that the role was significantly different from her previous characters, because of the combined physical and emotional challenges. "Every movie I do, every character I've ever played, it's always different," she said. "This movie, I never have to smile. It's really nice. And that's been fun. And I've gotten to do a lot of stunts in this movie, which have been really fun for me. That's been my favorite part so far, all the stunts I've gotten to do. I haven't used a stunt double. It's been really fun.”
Hudson said that the location shooting in Louisiana left her especially tender, but ultimately the film is designed to build to more than just a physical climax between her character and otherworldly forces. "When we were shooting in New Orleans, and I was doing all this outside stuff, all my legs, my entire shins and stuff are all banged up," she said. "[But] this is not a screaming movie. This is not a 'Watch Kate scream' movie. It's a spinning movie. It's the spin. It's the sounds. It's a sound movie. It's a jump-out-of-bed movie." The Skeleton Key opens Aug. 12.
Stiller Stranded In Madagascar
en Stiller, who voices the lead character in the upcoming animated family film Madagascar, told SCI FI Wire that the extended and isolated recording sessions made it a challenge to find a voice for his character, a lion named Alex. "It's this weird process, because it does go on for a long time," Stiller said in an interview. "In the beginning it felt sort of like trial and error. You're alone in this studio with a microphone, and nothing exists yet except in pictures."
In the film, Alex is the de facto leader of a group of New York zoo animals who are mistakenly shipped back to the wild after breaking out for a night on the town. Stiller said that he marveled at the evolving process of recording, because it allowed him to see the character develop over the four-year process of making the finished film. "Six months or a year into the process you start to see scenes coming back, and it really helps, because you get to see your character," Stiller said. "That was one of the things I liked about the movie; the characters are really unique, and they're not just sort of based on the voices. They really have their own character. Like Chris [Rock's] character [a zebra named Marty]. When I watch Marty, I don't think of Chris. I think of Marty. I think it's fun to sort of see it start to come together and go back and redo stuff, because you see more of what the actual characters are."
Stiller said that working as a voice actor made him realize how many physical reactions he incorporates into his live-action performances. "I realized how much I do with my hands," he said. "I was [waving my arms] next to the microphone, and I realized that the microphone wasn't picking up any of this. But the animators did. They would videotape you when you were in your sessions so they can see that stuff." Madagascar opens May 27.
Warner Moves Into Dionaea House
arner Brothers has pre-emptively picked up the spec script The Dionaea House by Eric Heisserer for David Heyman to produce via his Heyday Films banner, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The story follows a married man who has grown apart from his old friends. When one of them commits a double-murder suicide, the men feel compelled to investigate, eventually stumbling upon an evil force that perpetuates itself through tract housing, the trade paper reported.
Heisserer created a Web site last fall to build the mythology of the project. The site, which ended up getting millions of hits, was filled with fictional correspondence between the man and a friend who has since disappeared, the trade paper reported.
Advent Cuts The Mustard
onald Mustard—who co-developed the upcoming video game Advent Rising with his brother, Geremy Mustard—told SCI FI Wire that the Majesco title has its roots in classic science fiction. "Over the years we grew up reading classic science fiction pulps," Donald said in an interview. "We definitely grew up in the Star Wars generation. We wanted to do something that was in the flavor of classic science fiction and something that told a story about the power of humanity."
Donald and Geremy developed Advent Rising for GlyphX Games. It centers on a universe of intelligent alien races who have as a common mythology that a legendary race, called Humans, will somebody appear to them. The myth becomes reality when an alien fleet discovers a planet inhabited by humans. Some of the aliens see the humans as true gods. But one race, the Seekers, sees them as an enemy that must be destroyed at any cost.
The Mustard brothers' storyline has been fleshed out by famed science fiction writer Orson Scott Card. "We definitely felt we had the shell of a pretty good concept, but we wanted to create a universal story that was compelling," Donald said. "We knew Orson Scott Card was a master of character development. We kept saying it would be great if we could find a writer like Card. Finally we decided to just go to him. We figured that was impossible. But it happened, and he was able to give the game depth, purpose and complexity."
Advent Rising is equal parts science fiction and action and is built on an Unreal Warfare engine. That offers refined play dynamics amid a continuously evolving series of sequences and events. The game offers players the opportunity to develop super powers, wield an arsenal of weapons and, with the aid of Flik Targeting, allow for acrobatic movement and precise targeting of enemies through the switching between weapons and powers.
"The first part of the game plays very much like a shooter," Donald said. "But as you go through the game, the player evolves into a superhero. By the end of the game, you are the weapon. You're punching guys, and they're flying a hundred feet backwards into a wall. You're throwing guys off ledges. We wanted a game that, by the end, you could be shooting one guy in the head with a pistol while doing a slow-motion back flip, grabbing a guy's head and snapping his neck. From a game-play standpoint, we've been able to achieve something unique. We've created a combat system and a gameplay system that will allow for true combat freedom."
Advent Rising, the first in a trilogy of games, will be available on May 31 for Xbox and in June for PC.
Carnivale Pulls Up Stakes
BO confirmed that it is canceling Carnivale, its Depression-era supernatural drama, after two seasons, Variety reported. HBO had produced a total of 24 episodes in the show's run.
HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss said the network had "decided not to renew Carnivale" because the series had come to a natural end, the trade paper reported.
Nick Stahl and Clancy Brown starred in Carnivale, which was created by Daniel Knauf. Howard Klein and Knauf executive-produced the series.
Levant Lands On Planet Terry
rian Levant will direct New Line Cinema's upcoming SF family film Planet Terry, about a science fiction enthusiast who finds out that he is actually an alien who has been placed on Earth as part of an intergalactic witness protection program, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Neal Moritz is producing via his Original Film banner.
Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio wrote the screenplay, which is based on an unpublished comic book by Rob Liefeld. Liefeld and Brooklyn Weaver also are producing, the trade paper reported.
True Believer Rights Bought
cott Steindorff's Stone Village has acquired screen rights to Nicholas Sparks' best-selling supernatural novel True Believer and its follow-up novel At First Sight, Variety reported.
Sparks wrote The Notebook, A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle. True Believer concerns a writer for Scientific American who debunks myths and frauds. He heads to a small town in North Carolina, falls in love with the granddaughter of the town psychic and tries to reconcile his cynical side with a desire to believe, the trade paper reported.
MTV Digs Dirt Squirrel
avid Arquette and Courteney Cox are producing a quirky live-action/animated pilot for MTV tentatively titled Dirt Squirrel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project, which is the first partnership between MTV and Arquette and Cox's Coquette Productions, features a mix of animated and live-action animal and human characters against an animated background.
The pilot, which already has been shot, stars Arquette as crime-fighting superhero Dirt Squirrel, who takes on neighborhood villains with his own martial-arts style while spewing snappy one-liners, the trade paper reported.
Arquette performs in a costume with prosthetics. Dirt Squirrel also gets help from a crime-fighting squadron known as the League of Super Nuts, which includes two teens: skateboarder Merlin Ipswich (Jeff Braine) and "rebel grrrl" Jeanie Ipswich (Brittany Finamore). The pilot also features Cox, Paul Reubens and Lukas Haas as a trio of villains.
Van Dien Fell for Fallen
asper Van Dien, who stars in the SCI FI Channel original film The Fallen Ones, told SCI FI Wire that he was attracted to the role by the biblical and mythological allusions in the script. "I thought it was intelligently written for a 42-foot-tall mummy movie," Van Dien said in an interview. "[Writer/director Kevin VanHook] put in enough stuff to make it make sense. Instead of having absurd reasons why there's a 42-foot-tall mummy, he put all the references in the Bible to it."
In The Fallen Ones, Van Dien plays an archaeologist who unearths a giant mummy in the desert. As members of his team start disappearing, he discovers that there's more to the giant than meets the eye. Van Dien said he appreciated the thought that VanHook put into the film, which he had been developing for four years prior to the start of the production. "It had the feel of The Mummy and Raiders of the Lost Ark," Van Dien said. "It's interesting to watch Kevin as the director, writer and editor of this film, to see where he was getting things from. ... I had no idea it would be as much fun as it was, but he was such a creative man. [He] was very open to listening to the actors, and he also had answers, because he's really thought everything out. ... When you came up to him and asked him a question, he was really prepared to give you an answer of why that would work or consider why it would work. And it was just awesome." The Fallen Ones premiered May 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SCI FI.
Cronenberg Back With Painkillers
avid Cronenberg, who is in Cannes with his film A History of Violence, will next direct Painkillers, a futuristic thriller that reteams him with producer Robert Lantos, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The producer and director on May 13 confirmed the project, which has been in development for several years, the trade paper reported.
Based on Cronenberg's first original screenplay in eight years, Painkillers is budgeted at $35 million and is being readied for release in late 2006. Andras Hamori (Fateless) will produce with Lantos.
Painkillers explores a society where mankind has taken a wrong turn, embracing perversions and practices that were once considered unacceptable. In the film, surgery, which is performed in public and on camera, is the new sex, and pain, which has been all but eliminated, is the new forbidden pleasure. The plotline focuses on a police detective who is sent undercover to save humanity, the trade paper reported.
Lion's Gate Walks With Skinwalkers
ions Gate Films has acquired the werewolf film Skinwalkers for the world outside Germany, Variety reported. Lions Gate will release the movie wide in North America next year and handle international sales. Production is slated to begin this fall, the trade paper reported.
Skinwalkers is Lions Gate's first collaboration with Constantin Film, which produced the Resident Evil franchise. It's the tale of a 12-year-old boy at the center of a battle between two warring groups of werewolves: one sworn to protect him, the other trying to kill him, the trade paper reported.
Jim Isaac (Jason X), an F/X supervisor on David Cronenberg's eXistenZ, will direct. James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan and James Roday wrote the script.
Niven Remembers Heinlein
F author Larrry Niven, the co-recipient of the 2005 Robert A. Heinlein Award, told SCI FI Wire that he first met Heinlein at the Nebula Awards and froze, just like any other fan upon meeting his idol. But Niven later found himself working alongside Heinlein in November 1980 on the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy to the President. "Robert only appeared at one session," Niven said in an interview. "I wasn't paying much attention to what he was doing. I had my own assignments, and I was working my ass off. He was a strong voice at the main sessions. I was present when he and Arthur Clarke got in an argument, and I may have smoothed it over a bit afterward. As for interactions with the Heinleins during the rest of my life, those were invariably pleasant, and I could wish we'd done more of that. He stayed at our house in Tarzana [a section of Los Angeles] when we visited JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] during one of the Voyager flybys."
Niven said that the Heinlein Award is nice because it was Heinlein's work that made him want to read. Later, as a writer, he wanted to write like Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers). "A page out of one of his novels has been the beginning for many full novels by other writers," Niven said. "Heinlein is probably the field's most copied writer."
Niven shares the award with his friend and fellow writer, Jerry Pournelle. The two have collaborated on several projects, including The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Lucifer's Hammer (1977) and Footfall (1985), the latter two reaching the top two slots on the New York Times best-seller list. They also co-wrote Fallen Angels with 2003 Heinlein Award winner Michael Flynn, which won the Prometheus Award for best novel of 1992 and the Seiun Award for best foreign novel in 1998. Niven is best known for writing the Known Space future history, including Ringworld, which won him the 1970 Hugo and Nebula awards.
The Heinlein Award is given annually for outstanding published work in SF or technical writings inspiring the human exploration into space. Niven will receive the award Sept. 4 in Seattle. "What the Heinlein Award means is spelled out specifically: It means Jerry and I made some strides toward pulling the human race into space," Niven said. "We know this: We [humans] were there. We can only hope that it was or will be enough."
Weinsteins Pick Up Outlander
ob and Harvey Weinstein's Weinstein Co. is adding the epic SF creature feature Outlander to its distribution slate, Variety reported. Karl Urban (Doom) is in talks to star in the film, an adventure about a man from another galaxy who crash-lands on Earth at the time of the Vikings, bringing with him an alien predator, the trade paper reported.
Ascendant Pictures and VIP Medienfonds are co-producing the project, which is in preproduction. Howard McCain is helming from his own screenplay, which he co-penned with Dirk Blackman.
The alien creature in the film, called Moorwen, is being created by production designer Patrick Tatopoulos, whose credits include such special-effects extravaganzas as I, Robot and Godzilla.
Madagascar Challenged Stars
effrey Katzenberg, producer of DreamWorks' upcoming computer-animated film Madagascar, told SCI FI Wire that the movie's voice actors worked largely without assistance or aid from their fellow cast members. "I actually think this is the hardest acting job in the world," Katzenberg said in an interview. "It is why we are lucky on a movie like this to have the best actors in the world to do it, because it is difficult and it is challenging, because so much of it has to come from within themselves as actors."
Madagascar features the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith and David Schwimmer, who play four zoo animals who escape their cages for a night on the town in New York and find themselves accidentally deported to the wilds of Africa. Katzenberg said that the cast members were isolated during the voice-recording process and enlisted to provide countless interpretations of a single line to achieve the right effect in the final film. "There aren't props," he said. "There aren't other actors. There aren't situations for them to get into character. They really do it and internalize it and put so much of themselves in it, and it's a very challenging thing for them to do because of the nature of the process of how these films are made. They are made, and then they're remade and they're remade and remade, and it's a four-year process."
Katzenberg said that the actors returned on multiple occasions during that time to provide additional line readings and new improvisations. "Most of the actors here have been working on this film for three years or more," Katzenberg said. "They literally don't have the ability of knowing the whole to know how to exactly gauge their acting within a given scene, and they are completely reliant on our directors to do that. There's a level of trust that's unique. Then a point comes where ... what they contributed in these last four or five months of the film is as much as everything they contributed in those three years before that, because when they were actually able to get in and see the whole, each of them has gone back in and said, 'Oh, now I know what I can do in this scene, and I can give you something more or better or more heartfelt.'" Madagascar opens May 27.
Briefly Noted
-
Two new images from the upcoming sequel film Underworld Evolution have gone up in SCI FI Wire's Photo Gallery.
-
The new international trailer for Batman Begins has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
-
DreamWorks will collaborate with British-based Aardman Studio (Wallace and Gromit) on an animated feature called Crood Awakening, an off-kilter riff on the culture clash among cavemen, for release in 2007, Variety reported.
-
Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein's new venture, the fledgling Weinstein Co., secured North American rights to Stormbreaker, about a 14-year-old superspy, in Cannes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
-
Monty Python's Spamalot, the hit musical based on the work of the offbeat British comedy group, led Tony Award hopefuls with 14 nominations for Broadway's top honor, the Reuters news service reported.
-
The Chinese broadcaster CRI reported that Mission: Impossible 3 will shoot partly in China in July and that star Tom Cruise will drive a motorcycle loaded with guns on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai.
-
Time magazine reported that Star Wars star Natalie Portman allowed her head to be shaved onscreen for a prison scene in her upcoming SF film V for Vendetta, which is currently shooting in Berlin.
-
ABC and producer Robert Halmi Sr. have lined up an international cast led by Dougray Scott, Omar Sharif, Naveen Andrews, Mia Maestro and Linus Roache for The Ten Commandments, a big-budget four-hour miniseries that retells the classic biblical tale of Moses, which is set to air next season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
-
George A. Romero's Land of the Dead has been selected as the closing-night film for the CineVegas Film Festival, June 18 in Las Vegas.
-
The teaser poster is revealed on SCI FI Wire's Photo Gallery page for the upcoming fourth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which opens Nov. 18. The new teaser trailer can be seen on SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
-
Universal has acquired screen rights to the Outcast series of young adult fantasy novels by Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski, about a place where everyone except a young boy named Timothy possesses some magical power, Variety reported.
-
E! News reported a rumor that Alias star Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck are expecting their first child, with Garner due in November, in the middle of next season, according to anonymous sources.
-
The official Web site for Paramount's upcoming Aeon Flux movie has been updated with a new introduction, new downloads and a new "Timeline" section, with the history of the city of Bregna.
Back to the top.
