Episode III Sets New Records
tar Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith grossed $158.5 million in its first four days of release domestically and $303 million in 115 territories, a worldwide opening record, Variety reported.
Opening in 3,661 theaters with a massive 9,000-plus print count domestically, Episode III had the largest four-day opening ever, outpacing 2003's The Matrix Reloaded, which rang up $134.3 in its four-day opening span, the trade paper reported.
From Friday to Sunday, Episode III took in $108.5 million, a shade below the record $114.8 million Spider-Man took in from Friday through Sunday of its opening weekend.
Episode III, which opened on May 19, a Thursday, also made more than any other film in its first two days ($83.8 million), its first three days ($124.7 million) and four days ($158.5 million), the trade paper reported.
Meanwhile, unauthorized DVDs of Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith went on sale on the streets of Beijing only days after the film premiered in China May 19, the Reuters news service reported. By May 22, pirated discs were available everywhere, Reuters reported.
In Malaysia, authorities seized illegal copies of the film on May 20, the day after the film's release worldwide.
Police and domestic trade ministry officials found the DVDs unguarded in a warehouse near the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, Reuters reported. The latest haul, described as the biggest in Malaysia this year, was worth 5 million ringgit ($1.32 million).
Episode III's Jackson Digs SF
amuel L. Jackson, who reprises his role as Jedi Master Mace Windu in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire he campaigned for a role in the space saga out of a lifelong appreciation of SF. "I love science fiction," Jackson said during a group interview. "I read science fiction. I read comic books all the time, which is what got me interested in [Star Wars]. It was like a comic-book world on screen that no one had ever done."
Jackson added: "All of a sudden all these things that you used to read in the Superman comics—where you're on different planets and people have tentacles and they're wearing boots and they have capes and stuff—you look at the nightclub scene in [the original] Star Wars, and there they all are. It's kind of like, 'Oh, my God. I want to be in this. How can I be in this particular place?' I've been in it in my mind all my life, and all of a sudden there it is. So it's a very cool thing to be a part of."
Jackson said that of the many films he's acted in over the years, none will likely make as much of a mark on culture or the movie industry as the six Star Wars films. "Years and years and years from now Star Wars will be the one particular thing that will always be studied, discussed, analyzed, broken down, whatever," said Jackson, who previously played Windu in Episode I—The Phantom Menace and Episode II—Attack of the Clones. "And it's looked at as a pivotal changing point in Hollywood [in terms of] how they marketed films and all of the things that [creator] George [Lucas] did to make this the popular thing that it is, things that they didn't do before. No one sold action figures. No one marketed T-shirts, and no one sold parts of their films to be put on cereal boxes or whatever. Then all of a sudden that's what people do now. There are tie-ins with Nextel and other s--t." Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith comes out May 19.
No Political Subtext To Episode III?
eorge Lucas, director of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival that he never intended the movie to comment on the current political situation in the real world. Appearing at the European premiere of Episode III, Lucas said that he never thought about the Middle East, George W. Bush or voter fraud when writing the script for the final prequel in the epic space saga.
"When I wrote it [the] Iraq [war] didn't exist," Lucas said. "We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that point. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate. This really came out of the Vietnam era."
In the prequels, which culminate in Episode III, Lucas said he wanted to explore how a democracy turns into a dictatorship: how it gets "given" away. Back in the mid-1970s, when he first conceived of the Star Wars saga, Lucas said that he "went back into history and began to study a great deal about things like ancient Rome, such as why did the Senate, after killing Caesar, turn around [and] give the government to his nephew? Why did France, after they got rid of the King, turn around and give it to Napoleon? You sort of see these recurring themes, where a democracy turns itself over to a dictator. It always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues and threats from the outside and needing more control and a democratic body not being able to function properly because everybody is squabbling and there is corruption. This is seen as you go through history, but I didn't think it was going to get this close. I hope this doesn't come true in America. Maybe the film will awaken people to how dangerous a democracy can be when it's subverted."
Lucas added that Episodes I, II and III explore how a good person can be transformed into a bad person. "Most bad people think they are good people, and they are doing it for the right reasons," Lucas said. "The other core element of the film is condensing things down to very simple levels. And in this particular case, greed and self-centeredness being the root of a personality that will become so self-absorbed that it will hurt and corrupt everyone around them." Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith opens May 19.
In Cannes, Lucas was honored with the Trophy of the Festival de Cannes at a ceremony held aboard the Queen Mary 2.
Lucas Answers Star Wars Critics
eorge Lucas told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't really mind if older Star Wars fans don't like the three prequel films he directed. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, where he attended the premiere of Star Wars: Episode III—The Revenge of the Sith, Lucas said he really views the prequels as one big movie and hopes that is how they will be remembered.
"I really don't pay too much attention how people like one chapter or another chapter," Lucas said with a shrug. "We have discovered in the last few years, and it becomes more apparent all the time, that we have two fan bases. One is over 25, and one is under 25. The over-25 fan base is loyal to the first three films."
Lucas added that he thinks that the reason so much has been made about audiences not liking Episodes I and II is because the fans who are over 25 are "actually in their 30s and 40s now. They are in control of the media. They are in control of the Web. So mostly what you're hearing from are people over 25 years old. The films that those people don't like, which is the first two [Episodes I and II], actually, are very fanatically adored by the under-25-years-old [fans]. And if you get on the Web, and you listen to these conversations, they are always at each other's throats. The devotion for each group is equal. I never even paid much attention to it until about a year ago. I am curious to see what happens in about 10 years, when that other group starts to get their voice."
Asked if he plans to make three more Star Wars films, Lucas repeated his longstanding answer: Don't count on it. "The other sequels were [the speculation of ] sort of an overanxious press," he said. "The original intention was to make one movie. It turned into three. That was really the end of it. It wasn't until about 10 years later that it even occurred to me of doing the backstory. This is the tragedy of Darth Vader. It starts when he is 9 years old, and it ends when he dies. There really isn't any more to the story."
Star Wars Fan Films Hit Cannes
he force is strong with Star Wars fan filmmakers: a dozen films created by fans will screen at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, the day Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith opens in theaters, Elisa Greene of AtomFilms told SCI FI Wire. The fan films, which will screen out of competition, either have won or were finalists for awards given by the Star Wars Fan Film Association and are being presented in collaboration with Lucasfilm, AtomFilms and Talantis, a French distributor.
"This is the year of the conclusion of the Star Wars saga, and we want to celebrate that," Greene, a spokeswoman for AtomFilms, said in an interview. "As selections in the world's most prestigious film competition, Star Wars fan films are finally reaching a wider audience."
The fan films are very short, from two to five minutes long, and range in tone from the sweet longing of Christmas Tauntauns to the satire of Pink Five. ("I'm getting the worst case of helmet hair.") The films will also appear online.
Greene said that each of the Star Wars fan films has been viewed more than 10 million times. Trey Stokes, writer/director of Pink Five, said that he won't attend the film festival because he is currently making a sequel, The Return of Pink Five. "I won the 'George Lucas Selects' award of 2003," he said. "It isn't as lucrative as a Palme d'Or, but it's personally more satisfying."
Episode III F/X Crew Outdoes Itself
ob Coleman, animation director on Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire that the visual-effects crew at Industrial Light & Magic try to outdo the competition, as well as outdo their own past work. "It's a pretty small industry," Coleman said in a group interview. "I know guys at Weta. I know guys at Sony and Disney and Pixar."
ILM is responsible for most of Episode III's 2,200 spectacular F/X shots, including the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) on the volcanic planet of Mustafar.
"There's always the wanting-to-impress-your-friends aspect of it and also [the aspect of wanting] to outdo what you've done before, because we never want to keep doing the same thing," Coleman said. "With Lord of the Rings and [its director,] Peter Jackson, we knew that their third movie [Return of the King] was going to take place at a volcano, and we also knew that ours was going to, too. So there was a concern amongst the designers—I remember, early on—about making ours very different. I remember us huddled around the computers watching their trailers come out, analyzing them frame by frame and going, 'OK, there's the volcano. It looks like it's a single, and it's very tall. Ours is not going to look like that.' There was a concerted effort to say, 'We're not copying what they're doing. We're doing something different.'" Episode III is now playing.
Sin City Sequel Details Hinted
obert Rodriguez told the Reuters news service that he and co-director Frank Miller are planning a sequel to their hit Sin City, based on Miller's ultraviolent graphic novel series of the same name. "We've been talking about it [a sequel] since day one," Rodriguez told Reuters at the Cannes Film Festival, where Sin City is screening in competition.
The next film will be based on Miller's Dame to Kill For, one of the Sin City titles that was not included in the original movie. Rodriguez added that he wants to keep the cast if possible, which included Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen and Jessica Alba. "We'd always thought Dame to Kill For was the story [for the sequel]," Rodriguez said. "It has all the characters. Mickey's in it. Clive is in it. So it would be great to bring everybody back."
Sin City has earned more than $72 million at the U.S. box office.
CBS Cancels Joan
BS canceled Joan of Arcadia after a second season in which the previously hit series found itself struggling in the ratings, the Associated Press reported. But the network added two new supernatural dramas to its Friday-night schedule: Jennifer Love Hewitt's Ghost Whisperer at 8 p.m. ET/PT, about a young wife who talks to dead people, and Threshold at 9 p.m., about a team of experts called in when the Navy discovers aliens have landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
CBS made its announcements May 18 at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York, the AP reported.
Lost, Alias To Move
BC will move its hit SF series Lost to 9 p.m. ET/PT Wednesdays from its current 8 p.m. and move Alias to 8 p.m. Thursdays, Variety reported.
The new SF series Invasion will follow Lost on Wednesdays in the 10 p.m. timeslot, the trade paper reported.
On Thursdays, Alias return in September or early October, despite speculation the show might be pushed back to midseason due to star Jennifer Garner's reported (but as-yet-unannounced) pregnancy, the trade paper reported. It's expected ABC will have enough episodes of Alias in the can to get through the fall with original episodes; it's possible the series could then take a two-month break in the winter to make room for one of the network's many backup dramas. (Alias premiered in midseason this year in order to air a string of original episodes uninterrupted by reruns.)
At 9 p.m. Thursday, ABC has slotted The Night Stalker, a spooky hour from The X-Files former executive producer Frank Spotnitz.
ABC, WB To Order SF Series
BC is expected to pick up the SF dramas Invasion, a spooky thriller about strange goings-on in a Florida town after a hurricane, and The Night Stalker, a remake of the supernatural-themed 1970s series about a reporter who hunts down stories about unexplained phenomena, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The network will announce its schedule to advertisers this week.
The WB, meanwhile, is expected to order up Supernatural, about two brothers who travel the country looking for otherworldly beings, the trade paper reported.
SCI FI Announces New Season
ew episodes of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica premiere on July 15 as SCI FI Fridays return.
Stargate SG-1 returns for a ninth season with new cast members Ben Browder (Farscape), Emmy winner Beau Bridges, Oscar winner Lou Gossett Jr. and former The X-Files star Mitch Pileggi. Bridges will also appear in several episodes of Stargate Atlantis. Gossett and Browder's Farscape co-star Claudia Black join the cast of SG-1 in recurring roles, and former Baywatch star Jason Momoa joins the cast of Stargate Atlantis.
Battlestar Galactica comes back for a second season, with the entire ensemble cast returning: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. Also resuming their roles are executive producer and writer Ronald D. Moore and executive producer David Eick.
On July 27, SCI FI unveils a new SCI FI Wednesday block, starting at 8 p.m. ET with the new reality series Master Blasters. Does your hobby require an FAA launch window? The new show pits crews of amateur rocket scientists against SCI FI's Master Blasters, a team headed by father-and-son rocket men Dan and Terry Stroud. The Master Blasters team and their opposition are challenged to a space race of a different kind: design, build and launch some very bizarre things into the stratosphere.
At 9 p.m. Ghost Hunters is back for a second season. At 10 p.m., the computer-animated Tripping the Rift returns for year two, with the addition of Carmen Electra in the role of the sexy, brilliant love slave Six. Reprising their roles in the second season are Stephen Root, Maurice LaMarche, Gayle Garfinkle, Rick Jones and John Melendez.
Serenity Comic Bridges Gap
oss Whedon—creator of TV's SF series Firefly and its upcoming movie, Serenity—told SCI FI Wire that he has penned a prequel comic series, based in part on an animated project that never got off the ground. The three-issue Dark Horse Serenity miniseries hits comic shops on July 6.
"We had talked about doing an animated Serenity prequel, because Universal was into that," Whedon said in an interview. "Brett Matthews [Whedon's comic co-writer] and I worked on a story, and then Universal decided not to go ahead with the project. We thought, 'Well, we have exactly the story we want to tell, and it's almost like a prequel to the Serenity movie.' And so we said, 'Comics might be the place to tell this story.'"
The Serenity comics tell the story of a heist gone wrong and old enemies out for revenge. Along the way Capt. Malcolm Reynolds (played in the film by Nathan Fillion) finds himself the target of a conspiracy between government and mercenary forces, and Reynolds' ragtag crew must try to unite behind their compromised leader. The comics will feature art by Will Conrad and Laura Martin. Each issue will also feature three different covers by such top artists as John Cassaday, J.G. Jones, Bryan Hitch, Joe Quesada, Josh Middleton and Jo Chen.
Whedon said that it was a challenge to bring the Firefly/Serenity universe to the printed page. "You want everybody who has never seen the show to be able to enter this universe and get these characters," Whedon said. "But the big challenge was to find a compelling reason to put this between covers. We wanted to tell an adventure about these people that doesn't just say, 'They did this, and then they shot at these guys.' We needed a story that would let you know something about these characters that you might not already know."
Whedon added that there might be a future for Serenity comics, whether or not the upcoming movie does well. "It all depends," Whedon said. "The comic is kind of a bridge between the TV show and the movie. For the truly faithful, this comic will take them from one place to the other. Hopefully it will be fun for those who never got into the TV show and don't know much about the movie. If the film does well, then there might be interest in more comics. If the movie doesn't do so well, and the comic is a big hit, that might be the place where the Serenity story will be told from now on." The big-screen Serenity, which Whedon wrote and directed, hits theaters on Sept. 30. Universal Pictures, which is releasing Serenity, is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
New Four Footage Coming
arvel film chief Avi Arad told SCI FI Wire that a full trailer for the upcoming Fantastic Four film will debut in theaters on May 19, attached to prints of Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith. "Everybody will be blown away," Arad said in an interview.
Arad added that fans shouldn't judge the movie based on earlier teaser trailers. "We couldn't release much, you know?" he said. "The thing you first start is CGI, and the thing you finish last is CGI. So we had to cut promos and stuff in a way that … we didn't put our first foot forward yet. All what I can tell you, mark my words, is going to be the feel-good movie of the summer."
Fantastic Four, based on the long-running Marvel comic series, stars Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. "It's going to be huge," Arad said, adding: "It's the beginning of a franchise like X-Men. It's a very different thing. It's going to be very funny. And touching. And we are very high on it."
As for Marvel's other delayed adaptation of Iron Man, Arad said: "A couple of weeks and you're hear everything. … In two weeks it will all be clear to the world what we are doing." Fantastic Four opens July 8.
Grammer Is Beast In X-Men 3
arvel entertainment chief Avi Arad told SCI FI Wire that Kelsey Grammer will plays Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy/Beast in the upcoming third X-Men film and also confirmed earlier reports that Vinnie Jones has signed to play the villainous Juggernaut. Grammer, best known to audiences as TV's Frasier Crane, will play the blue-furred biochemist, whose strength and agility are matched by his genius intellect. Beast will play a prominent role in the third X-Men film, whose story is being kept under wraps.
Arad added that casting will be announced in a matter of days for two new mutant characters: the winged Angel and Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, who can phase through solid matter. Both roles will be played by North American actors, Arad said in an interview. Variety reported that Maggie Grace (ABC's Lost) was in talks to play Kitty Pryde.
Arad said that director Matthew Vaughn and the filmmakers were seeking to avoid a British actor to play Beast when Grammer read for the part. "We've been looking around for actors that are American," he said. "We didn't want to resort to ... if someone is intelligent, [he] has to sound like a Brit. ... [Grammer] has this delivery and the voice. You close your eyes, and you hear Hank McCoy. And there is this innate intelligence, the warmth, the strength there. He read—here is this big star—and he just knocked it out of the park. And the rule in our movies is, you go with the actor. It's not about lookalikes. ... It's about someone who brings a special tone, a special feeling, to the character."
As for Jones' role, Arad said: "Juggernaut is an interesting guy. He's like, once he's in motion, he cannot be stopped, like a bullet. And he [has] an interesting affiliation: He's actually Xavier's [Professor X, played by Patrick Stewart,] half-brother. And, again, I cannot obviously get into the plot, but he's going to be [a] very interesting villain."
About the other new characters, Arad said: "Angel is a very emotional thing. We're very close. We'll have someone in the next few days. He'll have a big role in the movie. And Kitty Pryde has a big role."
Arad said the X-Men 3 is gearing up to begin shooting in Vancouver, B.C., in July, with an eye to a release on Memorial Day 2006. The film will bring back the main cast from the previous two films, including Halle Berry, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, Arad said. "Everybody's coming back," he said, adding: "And Matthew Vaughn [Layer Cake] brings a lot of fresh air to the table. Very, very smart filmmaker. He's working on the script with the screenwriters, with Zak [Penn] and Simon [Kinberg], and all of us are very involved in it. This is, I'm telling you, ... huge. ... It's better than one and two combined. That's a big statement. ... The main concept, the theme of the movie, it's just scary, brilliant and thought-provoking."
Charmed: More Story To Tell
he cast members of The WB's Charmed, which was just renewed for an eighth season, told TV Guide Online that they feel there's more story to tell. "I think there's more things for the characters to do," Holly Marie Combs (Piper Halliwell) told the site. "There's so much we haven't done yet! I could be dead wrong, and I have been before. But personally, I'm not done yet! [Laughs]. I'm pretty sure that this ending [wouldn't] satisfy our hard-core fans."
Alyssa Milano (Phoebe Halliwell) added about the upcoming season finale, which airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT on May 22: "None of it's wrapped up. I think at the end of a series, the most important thing is to take care of what the fans want to see. They've dedicated so much time and energy to find us, no matter what night we are on, and have followed us for seven years. I think the fans would like Phoebe to settle down and find a love like she experienced with Cole, but obviously not with a demon."
The WB announced that it renewed Charmed in its current Sunday night timeslot and will add former rock star Mark McGrath to the cast for a large part of the season. The WB made the announcement as part of its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York City on May 17.
Charmed Will Charm Again
he WB announced that it has renewed its witch series Charmed for an eighth season, with Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan returning as the bewitching Halliwell sisters and Mark McGrath joining the cast for a large part of the season. The WB made the announcement as part of its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York City on May 17. The announcement caps weeks of uncertainty about whether the long-running series would come back.
"The decision to renew Charmed in many ways was a no-brainer, because we looked at its performance this season, and it has held its own incredibly against strict competition, especially with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," WB Entertainment president David Janollari told SCI FI Wire during a press conference following the announcement. "The performance is terrific, and we said, 'Why try to launch something new there when we know we're getting the numbers and our core audience in that time period?'"
McGrath, Janollari added, will be "a regular for at least most of the season, and we'll see how that goes." It's unclear what role will be played by McGrath, lead singer for the rock group Sugar Ray and current co-host of the entertainment news program Extra. "That [role] is being created right now," Janollari said. "But I am guessing it will be a romantic interest." The WB added that Charmed will retain its current timeslot, Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Smallville Flies To Thursdays
he WB will move Smallville to a new night, Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and will add the SF series Supernatural to its fall lineup on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. As previously reported, the frog network has also renewed Charmed for an eighth season. The WB made the announcements as part of its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York City on May 17.
In its new timeslot, Smallville will go head to head with ABC's Alias, which also moves to Thursdays at 8 in the fall.
The new series, Supernatural, will star Jared Padalecki (House of Wax) and Jensen Ackles (Smallville, Dark Angel) as brothers seeking out evil in dark alleys and small towns all across America. It launches in a timeslot that has proven to be good luck for the network.
"Nine o'clock Tuesday for The WB has been by far the most prolific timeslot for launching new hits such as Dawson's Creek, Felicity, Angel, Smallville and One Tree Hill," WB Entertainment president David Janollari said from the stage at Madison Square Garden. "From the minute [co-executive producers] Eric Kripke [Boogeyman] and McG [Charlie's Angels] pitched us Supernatural, we thought it could be our next breakout hit. When David Nutter [Smallville, Dark Angel], the preeminent director in this genre, came on board to direct and executive produce, we knew we had something special."
Speaking during a press conference following the announcement of The WB's slate, Janollari said: "I think, obviously, the most important move we've made and the boldest move is moving Smallville to Thursday night. We feel it truly puts us in business on Thursday night in a bigger way than we've been in a long time, with the combination of Everwood [which will follow Smallville at 9 p.m.]. These are two long-term, [long]-running shows on our network that continue to perform. They have incredibly loyal audiences that we are certain will follow them everywhere."
Grace Caught In Spidey's Web
opher Grace is joining the cast of Sony's Spider-Man 3, alongside returning stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco, Variety reported. Thomas Haden Church has also been cast as an as-yet-unnamed villain. Spider-Man 3 is slated to open May 4, 2007, with production beginning early next year.
Grace (That '70s Show) will also play a Spidey nemesis, though his character is being kept under tight wraps. Spider-Man 3 will be the first movie in the Marvel franchise in which the webslinger will face not one but two enemies, the trade paper reported.
Spider-Man 3 is written by Alvin Sargent, who also penned the second entry, and again directed by Sam Raimi.
SESFA Nominees Named
he online magazine scifidimensions announced the nominees for the 2005 Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement Award, or SESFA. The SESFA, now in its fourth year, honors accomplishment in science fiction, fantasy or horror by individuals born or living in the southern United States. The SESFA is a fan-based award selected by participants who pay a small membership fee and is administered under the auspices of scifidimensions. The winners will be announced no later than July 5. A list of nominees follows.
Best Novel of 2004: Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford, Camouflage by Joe Haldeman, Coyote Rising by Allen Steele, Viator by Lucius Shepard
Best Short Fiction of 2004: "Alabama" by Kalamu ya Salaam, "Christus Destitutus" by Bud Webster, "Faces" by Joe Haldeman, "My Life Is Good" by Scott Edelman
Lifetime Achievement in SF/F/H: Gregory Benford, Nelson Bond, Ben Bova, Orson Scott Card, William S. Gibson
Lackey Cranks 'Em Out This Year
F author Mercedes Lackey told SCI FI Wire that collaboration is the reason she has been so prolific: By the time 2005 ends, Lackey will have had nine titles released through four publishers. Some are paperback issues; some are collaborations; others are solo books. "Working in collaboration is much easier than working alone, because there are two [or more] minds on the subject, which keeps you from getting stuck," Lackey said in an interview. "If something is not working, the other partner can generally bail things out easily."
According to Lackey's Web site, This Scepter'd Isle (paperback, with Roberta Gellis) and Burning Water (solo) came out in January; Ill Met by Moonlight (with Gellis) and Alta (solo paperback) came out in March; Mad Mauldlin (paperback, with Rosemary Edghill), Music to My Sorrow (with Edghill) and Children of the Night (solo re-issue hardbound) were published May 1. Also scheduled this year are Sanctuary (the sequel to Alta) and This Rough Magic (paperback). Since 1987, Lackey has had 100 titles published, although some of those are paperback issues of titles previously published as hardbound books.
"I write seven days a week, 365 days a year, barring catastrophic illness or injury," Lackey said. "It is a bit difficult to write when unconscious or sedated, though I am sure there are people who will think I have done just that. I am working on the next DAW Elemental Masters book, The Wizard of London, the Luna book One Good Knight, the third Obsidian Mountain book, The Fall of Night, and several essays and short stories."
Most of Lackey’s books are of the urban fantasy genre; that is, the sort that takes the real world as we know it and inserts magic and magical creatures such as dragons and wizards into it. She has never been compared to Robert Silverberg, another prolific author, "but then I seldom read reviews, so I wouldn't know."
Sony Sucks Up The Historian
ony Pictures Entertainment has bought the film rights to the vampire tale The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova's upcoming first novel, Variety reported. Red Wagon partners Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher will produce.
The novel, to be published on June 14, centers on a young woman who searches Europe for her missing father, who took on the challenge of locating the grave of Vlad the Impaler, the bloodthirsty feudal lord who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. Along the way, she comes across a slew of bloodsuckers who try to stop her, the trade paper reported.
Del Toro, Cuaron Join Forces
exican directors Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) and Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) are teaming up with long time collaborators/producers Frida Torresblanco and Bertha Navarro to form a production company whose first film will be del Toro's dark fairy tale Pan's Labyrinth, Variety reported. The company aims to foster Spanish- and English-language films in Spain. Pan's Labyrinth is slated to start shooting in Madrid and northern Spain in July, the trade paper reported.
Wild Bunch has signed on to handle worldwide sales of the movie, which is budgeted at $14.5 million. Spain's private TV network Telecinco has put up most of the money. The cast includes Spanish actors Maribel Verdu, Sergi Lopez, Ariadna Gil and Alex Angulo, the trade paper reported.
Dark Crystal Sequel Announced
he Jim Henson Co. announced that it will produce a feature-film sequel to its 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal, with the working title The Power of the Dark Crystal. The original movie was directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, with conceptual designer Brian Froud, and has remained a fan favorite with consistently strong worldwide home video and DVD sales, the company said.
The company's co-chief executives, Brian Henson and Lisa Henson, made the announcement. Odyssey Entertainment will represent the worldwide sales and distribution of the film, beginning immediately at the Cannes Film Festival.
The sequel is based on an original screenplay by Annette Duffy and David Odell, who wrote the first film. It is set many years after the events of the first movie. The Power of the Dark Crystal sees Jen and Kira as king and queen and guardians of the crystal, who fight to save their kingdom when the crystal is once again split. Incorporating a hybrid of live-action animatronic characters and computer animation, the production is expected to commence in the fall. Lisa Henson and Kristine Belson will produce, with Brian Henson, Ralph Kamp and Louise Goodsill serving as executive producers.
NBC Goes Deep With Fathom
BC announced that Fathom, an action-adventure drama with a genre twist, has made the cut and will air as part of the network's 2005-2006 fall television slate. The show follows what happens when a new, beautiful and seemingly benign form of sea life begins to appear in oceans all over the planet, from the Gulf of Mexico to Monterey, Calif., to the South Antarctic Sea. NBC made the announcement as part of its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on May 16.
Created by Josh and Jonas Pate of GvsE renown, Fathom stars Lake Bell (Boston Legal), Jay R. Ferguson (Judging Amy), Rade Serbedzija (Batman Begins) and Carter Jenkins (Unfabulous). NBC will launch Fathom in the fall, running the show at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Mondays and using it as the lead-in to Las Vegas and Medium. NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Beatles Inspired Here, There
he Beatles are not usually associated with SF, but author Chris Roberson, a 2005 nominee for the John W. Campbell best new writer award, told SCI FI Wire that the Fab Four inspired his novel Here, There & Everywhere, which was released April 5. Every chapter is named after a Beatles song, and the prelude offers a "what if" scenario in which Pete Best wasn't replaced in the early years and died in 1980 instead of John Lennon.
"I was weaned on the Beatles," Roberson said in an interview. "From the day I purchased a used LP of Abbey Road at a garage sale when I was nine or 10, I was hooked. I've sadly never met any of the Beatles. When I was a teenager and first trying my hand at writing fiction, my method was to put the White Album on the turntable and let it play as background music as I wrote. With Here, There & Everywhere, though, the 'what if' scenario came first, and the idea of using the song titles as chapter headings came long after."
Roberson's novel centers on Roxanne Bonaventure, a woman who at an early age is granted the power to travel anywhere in space and time by means of a device called Sofia. Roberson wrote the chapters as little snapshots of her life, linked by diary entries. In her adventures, she travels to, among other places, Victorian England, the end of time and the birth of the Beatles.
"The Beatles chapter, naturally, would have a Beatles title, and became 'Day Tripper,' Roberson said. "Then I wrote the 19th century [Sherlock Holmes] mystery about H.G. Wells' Time Traveller, so I just had to title it 'Nowhere Man.' And then the chapter about traveling to the end of the universe was, naturally, 'Across the Universe,' and so on, until eventually I realized I'd accidentally written a novel in which every chapter could be titled with a Beatles song."
Roberson said the book is not just an ode to one of his favorite bands. "This book is a love song to the time-travel subgenre of science fiction," he said. "I've put into it every kind of time-travel story I can think of, and included nods and homages to the kinds of time-travel stories I grew up reading. There's references to Doctor Who, H.G. Wells, even The Legion of Super-Heroes. But I also wanted to analyze what the time-travel subgenre was about, and that's where all the internal, emotional aspects of the story come from. It's a romp, but it also is about something, and hopefully works at both levels."
The John W. Campbell Award is given to the best new science fiction or fantasy writer whose first work of science fiction or fantasy appearing in a professional publication was published in the previous two years. Roberson's body of work includes 12 published short stories and novels in addition to Here, There & Everywhere and earned him the nomination from the World Science Fiction Convention. The winner will be announced during the convention, which takes place Aug. 4-8 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Tekken Heads For Big Screen
teven Paul's Crystal Sky has teamed with Sony's Screen Gems to adapt the video game Tekken for the big screen, with plans to put the film into production in late fall with a budget of $50 million, Variety reported. Crystal Sky picked up the project, which was in turnaround at Dimension Films. (Crystal Sky also regained control of the Marvel Comics title Werewolf by Night, which Paul will produce with Marvel film chief Avi Arad.)
Tekken is based on the video game licensed from manufacturer Namco, centering on two childhood friends who enter a worldwide martial-arts tournament and uncover a secret concerning the mysterious Tekken Corp.
Longtime Tekken player Charles Stone (Mr. 3000) will direct. He's rewriting a script by Michael Colleary and Mike Werb (Face/Off).
Delpy To Helm Bathory
than Hawke and Julie Delpy are in final negotiations to star in the supernatural-tinged Bathory, which Delpy will also helm in her feature-film directorial debut from her own script, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bauer Martinez will finance, produce and distribute the movie, based on the legendary Elizabeth Bathory, who inspired many a vampire myth with sadistic rituals that included bathing in the blood of virgins, the trade paper reported.
007 To Shoot In Prague Next Year?
he next James Bond movie, Casino Royale, will begin production likely in summer 2006 in Prague, Variety reported. The defection to eastern Europe from 007's longtime home at Pinewood Studios near London has sent shock waves through the U.K. film industry, still reeling from Paramount's decision to pull Watchmen from Pinewood, the trade paper reported.
An Eon spokesperson in London was tight-lipped about the move to Barrandov Studios in Prague, telling the trade paper: "We haven't confirmed any of our locations for Casino Royale." Barrandov Studios did not wish to comment on the reports, the trade paper reported.
CBS OKs Goyer's Threshold
BS is giving a series green light to the SF drama Threshold, depicting how the government responds to an alien threat, Variety reported. Blade: Trinity director David S. Goyer and Harry Potter producer David Heyman are among the producers on the hourlong drama, which also includes former Star Trek: Enterprise co-creator Brannon Braga.
CBS is also ordering The Ghost Whisperer, an hour inspired by self-described psychic James Van Praagh, in which Jennifer Love Hewitt plays a young newlywed who talks to the dead. CBS will announce its schedule to advertisers in New York this week.
Shanks Fans Auction For Charity
ans of Stargate SG-1 star Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson) are sponsoring an online auction of collectibles and autographed memorabilia to benefit charity. The auction is sponsored by the Michael Shanks Online Web site to benefit one of Shanks' favorite charities, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
The auction will close in about two weeks. About 40 items will be auctioned, with all proceeds donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Sony Unveils PS3
ony Corp. unveiled three versions of its new PlayStation 3 video-game console on May 16, the Reuters news service reported. The new machine, set for release in the spring of 2006, is about the same size as the current PlayStation 2, but has a more rounded look. Besides black, the PS3 will be available in silver and white.
Sony officials said the PS3's new processor technology, called Cell, will offer high performance for movie-like realism in games, high-definition movies and other features, the wire service reported.
Prices or a specific lineup of games that will be available were not provided, though Sony showed off numerous demonstrations of games in development.
The PS3 will use the Blu-ray disc format, capable of holding 50 gigabytes of information, which is about six times the capacity of existing DVDs, as well as slots for memory cards, a detachable hard drive and Bluetooth wireless for up to seven wireless controllers, the trade paper reported. The PS3 also will be able to run the thousands of games available for the older PS2 and PS1.
Williams Raises The Resurrected
ustralian SF author Sean Williams, whose novel The Resurrected Man was published for the first time in the United States in April, told SCI FI Wire his book takes the commonly used matter transporter and places it front and center in the story. "As in Star Trek and other shows, it's pretty much there to move the cast around and create the odd moment of tension by some arbitrarily contrived mishap," Williams said in an interview.
"I've always been fascinated by the ramifications of this sort of black box, from manufacturing to murder," Williams added. "My first short story, way back in 1990, was a ghost story exploring the idea further. ... The more I thought about it, the more ideas arose, so doing something at novel length seemed a natural progression. That really gave me room to push the ideas to their very limit—right out to issues of what it means to be alive, and how humanity will cope with life extension and potential immortality. The Resurrected Man is different to other novels of this ilk, also, because it's at heart a crime novel. I grew up reading my mother's Agatha Christie mysteries, so this is a partial tribute to that kind of storytelling."
The Resurrected Man was first published in 1998. In it, private detective Jonah McEwan must try to prove his innocence from accusations of murdering his former colleague and lover, despite having been in a coma for the last three years. The book was a critical and commercial success, winning Williams the Ditmar Award (the Australian equivalent of the Hugo) and a nomination for the Aurealis Award, which recognizes outstanding Australian contributions to SF, fantasy and horror. Locus Magazine called the novel "compulsively readable," and another review said it is "slightly reminiscent" of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which Williams finds amusing because he feels more influenced by Doctor Who and SF author Alan Dean Foster.
The Resurrected Man is Williams' first solo novel to be published in the United States. He previously collaborated with Shane Dix on several novels in the Star Wars franchise, three of which reached the top 12 on the New York Times best-seller List.
James To Hunt Monsters
ony Pictures Entertainment has set Kevin James to star in the fantasy film Monster Hunter, a big-scale live-action family adventure being written by Robert L. Baird and Daniel Gerson (Monsters, Inc.), Variety reported. Overbrook Entertainment partners Will Smith and James Lassiter will produce the movie, which is an outgrowth of the relationship they and the studio developed with James when he starred alongside Smith in the Overbrook-produced Columbia Pictures hit Hitch, the trade paper reported.
The film will be the first big star vehicle for James when he completes his eighth and final season of the hit CBS sitcom King of Queens.
James will play a child psychologist who can actually see the monsters that torment kids from closets and under beds. He uses that skill to vanquish the beasts until he meets a particularly nasty one, the trade paper reported.
New Indiana Jones Game Due
ucasArts announced a new Indiana Jones video game to be released for next-generation consoles in 2007. The company also announced its intention to enter the hand-held gaming market, with a Sony PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront II set to join the previously unveiled versions for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC this fall. Also coming to the PC platform are immersive online adventures Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience on May 24 and Star Wars Empire at War next spring.
The new as-yet-untitled Indiana Jones game will be created internally by LucasArts, with an interactive story that the company promises will feature the most realistic effects yet.
Wonder Set In Modern Day
oss Whedon, writer and director of the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, told Now Playing magazine that the film will be set in the modern world. The original story "goes back to World War II," Whedon told the magazine. But, he added, "this will be in the modern day, but Wonder Woman herself will never be in the modern day."
Who will play the part of Princess Diana? Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) said that he hasn't even begun to think about that as he finishes up his upcoming SF movie, Serenity, on which he's making his feature-film directorial debut.
"[Casting] is the last thing on my mind, and I'm happy to say it's the last thing on Warner Brothers' and [producer] Joel [Silver's] mind, too," Whedon said. "We're like, 'Let's write the part! Then we'll have a better idea of who's good for it.' And we've talked about whether it should be someone famous or an unknown. Ultimately there are advantages to both, so nobody's thinking about that. ... Except everybody."
As for the story, Whedon said: "She doesn't have a villain as recognizable as [a Lex Luthor]. In fact, she doesn't have a lot of things as recognizable as a lot of the other heroes have. But that's not a problem, simply because she's basically based on Greek mythology, which opens up a world of interesting possibilities. She's very different from anybody who might have been bitten by a spider or had his parents killed in an alley."
Surprisingly, Whedon admitted that he hasn't begun writing Wonder Woman yet. "There hasn't even actually been a whole deal signed and everything [for Wonder Woman]. I'm working on it in the way that I always work on everything, which is that I think about it while I'm doing other things. But right now we're in the final stages of wrapping up Serenity, and that's where my focus is. The reason I was able to take the Wonder Woman gig was that they don't have a release date and they don't have a schedule, and that means I have time to sit back and get it right. It will happen, but it's not like 'Bang! You're 10 weeks under the gun.' The starting gun has not fired, but I always jump the gun anyway. When you have a product that rich you can't help but think of ideas for it, the same way I think of ideas for the Serenity sequel that may never happen. We don't turn it off." Serenity opens Sept. 30.
McKenzie Previews The 4400
acqueline McKenzie, who co-stars as Diana Skouris on USA Network's SF series The 4400, told SCI FI Wire that the show's upcoming second season picks up six months after the events of the first-season finale. The series follows Department of Homeland Security agents Skouris and Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch of Steven Spielberg Presents Taken) as they investigate the 4,400 people who were abducted and suddenly return, some with mysterious mutant abilities, after having been away for periods ranging from weeks to decades.
"In terms of the character and where I stand, she's very devoted to her work, and there are a lot of questions that need answering," McKenzie (Deep Blue Sea) said in an interview. "Everybody is just at the start of this huge process of trying to unravel what's going on with the 4,400, where they've been and why they're back and what they're trying to do with us in the present. And we're trying to work out what messages they're sending us."
The 4400 debuted last July on USA Network and was both a critical and ratings success, prompting the network to commission 13 additional hours for season two. McKenzie said that she was not too surprised that the show caught on. "When I read it, I thought it was a very exciting piece," she said. "The concept was really, really different, and then when I worked on it and saw what [pilot episode director] Yves Simoneau was doing with the material, how he was shooting it, I thought it was wonderful. And then when I saw the cut of it I just thought it was brilliant. I thought it was very original, and I said, 'This should be a hit.' And it was. So I wasn't so much surprised as I was really pleased." The 4400 will begin its second season on June 5 with a two-hour premiere, "Wake-Up Call." USA Network is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Prey To Be Downloadable
ame xStream announced that the upcoming SF shooter video game Prey will be directly downloadable through its streaming content-delivery service, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Game xStream lets players download a game in its entirety before activating it on the game's official release date. Game xStream will also let users stream the game and start playing it before it's actually finished downloading to their hard drives, the site reported.
Prey is the first 3-D Realms title to be distributed through Game xStream. The boxed version, which lands on store shelves in 2006, is being published by 2K Games.
Prey mixes Native American mythology, alien abductions and an array of biomechanical weaponry, the site reported.
Briefly Noted
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Luc Besson is directing Mia Farrow and Finding Neverland star Freddie Highmore in the 3-D live action English-language kids' feature Arthur, about a little boy who turns to the help of the pixie-like Minimoys to help save his grandfather's house, Variety reported.
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Only hours after it officially opened in theaters, Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith had found its way onto illegal file-sharing networks on the Internet in the form of at least two pirated digital files, the Reuters news service reported.
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New trailers for Stealth, Fantastic Four and War of the Worlds have been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
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Jason Connery will star in the independent SF film Night Skies, playing the sole survivor of a group of six campers who have what seems to be an alien encounter in Arizona; the film also stars A.J. Cook, Ashley Peldon, George Stulz, Joe Sikora and Gwendolyn Yeo, Zap2it reported.
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Frank Gorshin, the impressionist best known for his Emmy-nominated role as the Riddler on the Batman TV series, died May 17 at the age of 72, the Associated Press reported.
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Frank Miller has already begun writing the script for Sin City 2, which he will again co-direct with Robert Rodriguez, Screen Daily reported.
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The new teaser trailer for The Da Vinci Code has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
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Herbie: Fully Loaded star Lindsay Lohan confirmed to Access Hollywood that she's in talks to appear in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Mission: Impossible 3; Scarlett Johansson, meanwhile, confirmed at Cannes that she had to drop out because of scheduling issues.
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TrekToday reported that Lifetime Television has ordered a pilot for Scarlett, a new series developed by former Star Trek: The Next Generation writers Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Hans Beimler, about an Anne Rice-like gothic horror writer who moves into an old mansion in New Orleans and finds her fictional characters coming to life, or so she thinks.
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Two new images from the upcoming sequel film Underworld Evolution have gone up in SCI FI Wire's Photo Gallery, and the new trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.
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