SF Quotes Make Top 100
he American Film Institute's list of the 100 best movie quotes, announced June 21 in a CBS special, included several memorable lines from popular SF&F; films. The list was chosen through ballots sent to 1,500 filmmakers, actors, critics and others in Hollywood, the Associated Press reported.
Most prominent among SF&F; films on the list was The Wizard of Oz, which contributed a total of three quotes, including the fourth-ranked "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." "There's no place like home" and "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too," made the list at number 23 and 99, respectively. Also making the top 10 at number eight was "May the Force be with you," from the Star Wars saga. "E.T. phone home," from Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, was number 15.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's character from the Terminator films had two quotes on the list: "I'll be back" (number 37) and "Hasta la vista, baby" (number 76). Charlton Heston also had choice quotes included from two of his most memorable roles. "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" from 1968's Planet of the Apes was ranked at 66, while "Soylent Green is people!" from the 1973 film Soylent Green made the list at number 77.
The newest quote in the top 100 was "My precious," spoken by Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, which was number 85. The oldest genre quotes both came from classic 1931 monster movies. "It's alive! It's alive!" from Frankenstein came in at 49, while the original Dracula made the list at 83 with "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make."
Super-spy James Bond had two entries on the list, both originally spoken by the first 007, Sean Connery: "Bond. James Bond" (number 22) from Dr. No and "A martini. Shaken, not stirred" (number 90) from Goldfinger. The most recent James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, hosted the AFI special.
Spielberg Talks War And Terror
teven Spielberg, director of a new adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, said that the movie doesn't try to comment directly on the current state of world affairs, particularly America's fear of terrorism, though he acknowledged that there's room for such an interpretation. "I just felt that this movie is a reflection," Spielberg said in a New York news conference June 22. "And there are all sorts of metaphors you can certainly divine from this story, and ... this movie, I was hoping, was more like a prism, that everybody could see in a facet ... of the prism what they choose to take from the experience of seeing War of the Worlds."
In Spielberg's War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise plays a New Jersey dockworker who must flee with his young daughter (Dakota Fanning) and teenage son (Justin Chatwin) as massive alien war machines begin attacking. Fanning has a line in which she asks Cruise, "Is it the terrorists?" There are also images of Cruise covered with ash, recalling victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York, and a scene of a bulletin board with photos of lost loved ones, similar to ones that appeared near New York's Ground Zero.
"I tried to make it as open for interpretation as possible without having anybody coming out with a huge political polemic in the second act of the movie," Spielberg said. "I think, you know, there are politics, certainly, underneath some of the scares and some of the adventure and some of the fear. But I really wanted to make it suggestive enough that everybody could have their own opinion. But I certainly gave you enough, I think, rope to hang me with."
For his part, co-screenwriter David Koepp echoed Spielberg's comments, and added that Wells' original book was similarly adaptable. "What's great about this story ... is that whenever it's moved from one time and place to another time and place, it immediately and naturally and without effort becomes about the politics of that day and the world situation of the day," Koepp (Jurassic Park) said. "You know, in the 1890s [when H.G. Wells wrote the book], it was about British imperialism [and] probably a little bit about ... the fear about the rise of Kaiser Wilhelm. In the late 1930s [when Orson Welles mounted a radio version], it became about American fear about growing fascism in Europe. In the 1950s [when George Pal produced a film version], it was the Commies are coming to get us. And now, to some people it'll be about American fear of terrorism. And to people elsewhere in the world who see the movie, it may be about fear of American invasion. And I think all that stuff happens just by itself."
Koepp said that Spielberg added some of the references himself. "The line where [Fanning] asks, 'Is it the terrorists?' I didn't have it in a first draft," he said. "Steven said, 'Wouldn't she think it's terrorists?' And I said, 'Yeah, but I didn't want to put it in because it seems like, eeehh.' And he said, 'Yeah, but she would, you know? She's 11. That's what she'd say.' So, I said, 'All right. Some guy's going to ask me about it at the junket, but all right.'"
As for the bulletin board, Koepp said: "We didn't say, with the board, for example, ... 'Hey, I remember after 9/11, there were all those pictures of people on the boards in the street. Let's put one of those in.' What we said is, 'Yeah, at the ferry place, there should be a lot of people looking for their loved ones.' And ... somebody said, I don't remember who: 'Ah, put a board with pictures.' ... It is in our vocabulary.
"I think that, if you're making a movie about war and destruction, you're going to make intentional or unintentional references to real situations," Koepp added. "And if you take the loss of life seriously, you're not going to censor those, you know? ... What I was most impressed with when I saw the finished movie three weeks ago was that you actually feel the loss of human life in a significant way. And in this kind of movie, you don't usually. You see a lot of extras who get washed away. And it's played for a different kind of entertainment. And I think this isn't played as much for entertainment as it is for catharsis. And think that's significant. When people die in this movie, it hurts, and it seems real. And that's Steven taking his material seriously instead of frivolously. And some people may be offended, but that's too bad." War of the Worlds opens June 29.
Cruise Not Worried About PR
om Cruise, star of Steven Spielberg's upcoming War of the Worlds movie, faced dozens of reporters in New York June 22 to promote the film, but shrugged off the inevitable questions about whether negative publicity about his love life or religion had affected the film's prospects. Was he worried about it? "No," Cruise told reporters with a laugh. "No. ... Listen, I really don't pay attention to it. It doesn't bother me, you know what I'm saying? There's really nothing to say, outside of I just don't pay attention to it. I do my work. I live my life. And ... it's never affected anything before. It doesn't matter, you know? What do I do? I make my movies. And I live my life in the best way that I feel that I can. And I can't control what people are going to say or do. They're going to say and do what they want, and the thing is, it's not ever going to change how I live my life. Thank you."
Cruise and Spielberg talked for more than a quarter hour before the first question came concerning Cruise's well-publicized engagement with Batman Begins actress Katie Holmes, which he deflected. But Spielberg couldn't resist making a joke: "That's great," he said, checking his watch. "Twenty minutes went by before that question was asked." This caused Cruise to burst out laughing: "That was impressive, I know!"
Cruise was less lighthearted when a reporter asked if the movie's aliens held any resonance for him as a Scientologist, suggesting that the controversial religion is based on an idea that aliens came to Earth eons ago. "That's not true," Cruise shot back with some irritation. "No. [Laughs] Whaaaat? What paper are you from? Is that a good paper? Really? I don't know how to ... It has no resonance whatsoever. There's absolutely no relation to that whatsoever. "
For the most part, though, Cruise, dressed in a short-sleeved black shirt and jeans, seemed relaxed, confident and in high spirits. When another reporter asked Spielberg if War of the Worlds was the fulfillment of his original plans to make E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial a dark movie, Cruise couldn't resist poking fun at Spielberg: "So you always planned to have E.T. phone home and ... bring some of the ... E.T.s gone gangsta," he said with a laugh. "That's what happened with that. ... He's a gangsta. E.T.'s come back to kick our butts." War of the Worlds, based on H.G. Wells' seminal SF novel, opens June 29.
War Doc Overcame Hurdles
od Pyle, director of the documentary H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds: 100 Years of Terror, told SCI FI Wire that it was not easy to put the author's life and his seminal work into perspective, in part because studios that own various versions of the work didn't cooperate.
"There were obstacles," Pyle said in an interview. "Paramount would not give us access to any of the footage of the 1953 movie [from George Pal], and the people in charge of the Orson Welles radio broadcast footage would not give us permission to use what they had."
But Pyle, who produced the documentary with partner Ken Kramer for their First Person Productions, said he made do with interviews with film and literature historians, illustrations, film stills and the cooperation of the H.G. Wells conservancy. They were able to piece together a solid look at Wells and the many interpretations of his classic work, just in time for yet another film version, from director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Cruise.
"What we've done is give a very good background into the early life of H.G. Wells," Pyle said. "We learn about his politics and the fact that he was very much a malcontent when it came to the dynamics of colonial society and Victorian attitudes. We also explore how his attitudes slipped into War of the Worlds, as well as The Time Machine and The Invisible Man."
The documentary centers on Wells' classic SF book, which inspired the 1953 movie, Welles' famous radio broadcast, a television series and even a musical. A companion disc, H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds: Mars: 100 Years of Discovery, explores the science of the Red Planet, from Mariner 4 to the present day, with input from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"War of the Worlds is a classic story whose themes still resonate with people," Pyle said. "What we've attempted to do is a serious look at Wells and his work." H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds: 100 Years of Terror is now available from Goldhil Home Entertainment.
War's Fanning Is A Natural
akota Fanning, the 11-year-old co-star of Steven Spielberg's upcoming War of the Worlds movie, has been acclaimed as one of the best child actors ever, but she told SCI FI Wire she has no acting coach and has never taken acting lessons.
"You just kind of do what you feel, and nobody really ever gives me advice," Fanning (Steven Spielberg Presents Taken) said in an interview in New York on June 22. "I just learn from them just by watching them."
In War of the Worlds, Fanning plays the daughter of Tom Cruise's dockworker, who flees with her and his teenage son (Justin Chatwin) from a massive alien attack. Fanning—whose character, Rachel, undergoes a wide range of emotions, from sullenness to terror to deep sadness—said that Spielberg would help set the stage for her, and she would figure it out on her own.
"Steven, when he was on the set, he just made everything feel so real that we were going through," Fanning said. "So, you know, my character, if she was going through something sad or something, then I would just kind of put myself in her position and just look at the things around me, and they were so scary in real life, so ... it was only natural for her to be scared or upset."
But Spielberg and Cruise expressed admiration for Fanning's abilities. "I think we all agree that Dakota Fanning has a gift," Spielberg said in a news conference later that day. "And she has an incredible, extraordinary gift that, thank goodness, she does not question, and she actually doesn't know how to answer questions about it. And that is also her gift: that she's unaware of how talented she is and how quickly she understands a situation in a sequence, how quickly she sizes it up, measures it against how she would really react in a real situation, and tells you the truth every time I say 'Action!' She just tells you the truth. It's extraordinary to see how consistent she is in her pure, unadulterated honesty."
For his part, Cruise said: "She's just lovely. You look at the sequence, the Beach Boys sequence [in which Cruise sings a Beach Boys song as a lullaby to Fanning]. You can hold her in two-shots and masters. She's just enormously talented and is so much fun to work with. ... I like surprises. We'd do that stuff. And Steven and I had so much fun. It was her birthday [on Feb. 23], and we had the pink balloons, and we had the Coldstone Ice Cream. You know, because you can have a laugh with her, too. ... You see it. You just see that very unique talent. ... And also, she's just really ... She's a terrific person. She has impeccable manners, too. She'd write thank-you letters. " War of the Worlds opens June 29.
Web Is Fanning's Favorite
akota Fanning told SCI FI Wire that she wanted to play Fern in the upcoming live-action/computer-animated movie of the classic children's story Charlotte's Web because it's one of her favorite books. "I love Charlotte's Web," Fanning, 11, said in an interview in New York while promoting her upcoming movie, War of the Worlds. "It's so sad and sweet at the same time." She added: "To some kids, it's like one of their first introductions to sad things, like when the spider dies. A lot of kids don't go through that, so they kind of learn about it through this [story]. I think it teaches a lot of children different lessons."
Charlotte's Web, based on E.B. White's beloved book, centers on Wilbur the Pig, who tries to escape landing on the dinner table with the help of his friend, a spider named Charlotte. A wide range of celebrites will voice barnyard animals in the movie, including Robert Redford, Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey, Fanning said.
And it marks quite a change from War of the Worlds, in which Fanning is a young girl fleeing an alien invasion with her father (Tom Cruise) and brother (Justin Chatwin). "Doing Charlotte's Web was really fun, and War of the Worlds was really fun, but they're completely different movies," she said. "You know, I don't really think about doing movies that I'm not in physical jeopardy. I just kind of think about movies that are great characters, and I always wanted to play Fern, so I was so excited and so honored to be in a classic like Charlotte's Web." Charlotte's Web opens in June 2006.
Aldiss Honored With OBE
ublishers are capitalizing on the release of Steven Spielberg's remake of War of the Worlds, which has sparked renewed interest in the original H.G. Wells novel published in 1898, as well as subsequent illustrated adaptations, USA Today reported.
Among the upcoming releases is a 50th-anniversary edition of the American Classics Illustrated comic book drawn by Lou Cameron, published by Jack Lake Productions. The book features hand-drawn panels which were scanned and retraced to replace originals lost since the comic was first published in 1955. The 1960 edition of Wells' novel is also getting a reprint, with illustrations by celebrated artist Edward Gorey, published by New York Review Books.
New works will also hit bookshelves, including a graphic novel written by Steven Stern and illustrated by Star Trek comics' Arne Starr. Set in post-9/11 New York, the adaptation depicts a Martian invasion thwarted by savvy New Yorkers. The upcoming film version, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, opens June 29.
Newell: Potter IV Is Condensed
arry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell told Update magazine, the official magazine of Comic-Con International, that the fourth book in J.K. Rowling's popular series had to be significantly cut down for the purposes of the film. "This is a very difficult matter, and is worked out in huge discussions between representatives of Warner Brothers, the scriptwriter, the producer, the director, and sometimes J.K. Rowling," Newell said in an interview with 14-year-old Harry Potter fan Brianne Cisneros. "It takes a long time, and while it's happening you constantly seesaw back and forth on certain things—Dobby should be in, Dobby should be out, Dobby should be in, Dobby should be out, and so forth. After a while, everybody gets a feel for what would work in a movie as opposed to what works in a novel."
Newell confirmed that the filmmakers had considered splitting the book into two films, but eventually decided that it was possible to eliminate enough extraneous material to tell the story in a single film. Among the missing elements, Newell said, were scenes with Harry's foster family, the Dursleys. "Because we were making one, not two films, and something had to be let go, we decided the Dursleys were one of those things," he said. "We were sad about it. What's good about it being one movie is that the Tri-Wizard Tournament and Voldemort's plot to get Harry become very taut and very exciting because a lot of the purely descriptive stuff in the novel must be let go. That means the main story becomes a very tight, exciting, fast-paced thriller. Of course, what you miss are the fascinating little details which, in some cases, there just isn't room for. So it's swings and roundabouts. What can I tell you?"
Warner Brothers will be promoting Goblet of Fire at the 2005 Comic-Con International convention in San Diego July 14 through 17. The same weekend will see the release of the sixth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which goes on sale July 16.
WB Sells Matrix Online To Sony
ess than three months after launching the massively multiplayer online game The Matrix Online, Warner Brothers Interactive has sold the property to EverQuest developer Sony Online Entertainment, the GameSpot Web site reported. Warner Brothers Interactive and Matrix creators Andy and Larry Wachowski will continue to have input on the game's content, although Sony will take over its day-to-day operation and development, the site said.
The announcement is only the latest development in the troubled history of the project, based on the popular Matrix films. In early 2004, French publisher Ubisoft broke off a co-publishing deal with Warner Brothers Interactive before current co-publisher Sega stepped in. Tepid reviews and disappointing sales— estimated at 43,000 units through April—contributed to the decision to sell the title, the site reported. Warner Brothers is believed to have spent close to $20 million on the game's production.
The deal also give Sony Online Entertainment the rights to produce a future massively multiplayer online game based on the DC Comics library, which is owned by Warner Brothers.
Underdog Flying To Theaters
alt Disney Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment are developing a live-action feature based on the classic Saturday-morning television cartoon series Underdog, Variety reported. The studio is eyeing a November start for preproduction, with filming to commence in Canada in January.
The original animated series, created by Buck Biggers and Chet Stover, ran from 1964 to 1973. It centered around a mild-mannered beagle named Shoeshine Boy (voiced by Wally Cox) who transformed into the caped canine crusader Underdog and often uttered the line "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!"
In the feature adaptation, written by Joe Piscatella and Craig A. Williams, a little pooch named Shoeshine gets super powers after a lab accident and is adopted by a 12-year-old boy who discovers his secret. Other characters from the cartoon—including mad scientist Simon Barsinister and Underdog's love interest, Sweet Polly Purebred—may also appear in the film. Producers are planning to use an actual dog for the main character, with computer-generated enhancements, the trade paper reported.
Fishburne, Hoffman Join M:I-3
aurence Fishburne (The Matrix) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Almost Famous) are close to signing on to the Tom Cruise vehicle Mission: Impossible 3, which is set to start shooting July 18 in Italy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Fishburne will play Cruise's mentor, while Hoffman will play the villain. Alias creator J.J. Abrams will direct the film, which also stars Michelle Monaghan, Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell.
The sequel film has been in development for some time, enduring schedule delays, cast changes and the departure of original director Joe Carnahan just before it was set to begin shooting last year. It was finally given the green light this month, with a scheduled release date of May 5, 2006, the trade paper reported.
Kong Trailer Due On NBC Nets
he trailer for Universal Pictures' upcoming remake of King Kong, starring Adrien Brody, will have a world premiere simultaneously on all nine of NBC's broadcast and cable television networks, from 8:59-9:02 p.m. ET on June 27. NBC and Universal are both owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
The two-minute, 30-second trailer will appear on at the same time on NBC, SCI FI Channel, USA Network, Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, Mun2 and Universal HD, the company announced. The trailer will be offered in high definition on NBC and Universal HD.
Other components of the cross-promotional campaign include providing NBC's and Telemundo's owned-and-operated and affiliated stations with the full teaser trailer, along with exclusive behind-the-scenes material to run soon after the world broadcast premiere. The teaser trailer will also air on the June 28 edition of Access Hollywood.
The teaser trailer for King Kong will make its on-screen debut in movie theaters worldwide on June 29. The trailer will also debut online on June 27, and the official Web site will go live. King Kong, from director Peter Jackson, opens Dec. 14.
Dead Speaks To The Living
eorge A. Romero, director of the zombie sequel film Land of the Dead, told SCI FI Wire that the movie can be seen as a metaphor for the political and economic climate, which he believes seems to favor the wealthy, in the same way his three previous Dead films can be read as commenting on their times. "It's different than in [1978's] Dawn of the Dead," Romero said in an interview. "In Dawn of the Dead it's about the stuff and consumerism, and if you've got a pair of Nikes, you know? This is much more, again, modeled after this administration. It's all executive. Now the stuff is Mont Blancs [pens] and Audemars Piguet [a brand of expensive watch], I don't know. So now it's all fancy stuff for people who can afford it, and the administration is dealing in big, big bucks and doling out little bits to people. As [Dennis Hopper's character] says, 'Keep them off the streets.' And the ... service personnel are relegated to a very different lifestyle. So it just seemed natural [to do this one], because that's what this is really about, right? I mean, it's Halliburton. So it's a different era, where you have money."
Simon Baker stars in Land of the Dead as Riley, a mercenary who procures supplies for the human survivors in the last remaining city, a walled-in metropolis surrounded by a wasteland occupied by the walking dead. Baker, similarly, thinks the movie can be read as a metaphor. "I think if you asked all of us that question, we'd all probably have pretty different answers, and you guys likewise," Baker said in a separate interview. "For me, a lot of the movie ... was the idea of having and making decisions on your own and not being told [what to believe] or believing the propaganda. I mean, you've got to understand, the time we were shooting this, the U.S. presidential election was taking place [in the fall of 2004]. In fact, I can tell you the night, the scene we were shooting when it was happening, you know, the actual countdown. And we were shooting on nights and I'd go back to the hotel and turn the telly on just to sort of chill out, and there'd just be CNN, and it'd be all the propaganda. And it was just so hard for anyone to have their own idea or their own opinion without being influenced by the publicity machines of each of the parties, you know? The spin or someone's opinion on CNN. And then who they were owned by or affiliated with, and it was like, 'Hang on a second!' How can one person [decide]? The whole thing is not targeted for the individual to make up their own mind. Everyone's being influenced by a different thing. So that was like a major thing for me, because my character tends to want to go against the grain and say, 'No, this is my [opinion], or this is what I think. Or I'm trying to work out what I think, I don't buy into this, I don't subscribe to that way of thinking. I want to sort of look at it more like this.' And that's what it was more about for me." Land of the Dead opened June 24.
Leguizamo Does Horror
ohn Leguizamo, who plays Cholo in George A. Romero's upcoming zombie sequel Land of the Dead, told SCI FI Wire that the film marked his first straight-up horror movie (not counting Spawn). "It's an apocalyptic world," Leguizamo said in an interview. "It's part action movie, it's part political satire."
Leguizamo plays a member of a band of mercenaries who procure supplies for the last survivors of a zombie holocaust, living in a walled city amid a wasteland of the walking dead. It's the fourth in Romero's series of living dead films, which started with 1968's Night of the Living Dead.
"I've never done a horror movie in my life," Leguizamo said. "This was the first, and it's hard. It's just as hard as doing a comedy. I mean, it's a lot of work to make things real and natural, you know what I mean? That's what’s tricky: To make it all believable, you work extra hard, and I think the difference between this movie and all of the other horror movies is he's always got a sense of humor about it. I think I really responded to the script. I thought the characters were really well defined. I'd never seen them that well defined in a horror movie before. I mean, my character had a whole character arc. I had, you know, ulterior motives, very Iago in a way, but that really appealed to me. [The] political commentary, social commentary in it, I thought it was pretty deep, kind of operatic in a way, and that's ... what appealed to me in the script." Land of the Dead opened June 24.
Latifah, De Matteo On Ice 2
ueen Latifah (Taxi) and Drea de Matteo (Joey, The Sopranos) will voice roles in the upcoming computer-animated sequel Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, according to an interview with John Leguizamo (Land of the Dead) on the Latino Review Web site.
Leguizamo will return in the role of Sid the sloth, alongside Ray Romano as a mammoth named Manfred. "I'm not allowed to divulge a lot, but I do sing in it," Leguizamo told the site. "Drea de Matteo plays my girlfriend in it, and Queen Latifah plays Ray Romano's girlfriend. ... She's a mammoth and Drea is a sloth."
Leguizamo said that the film will be tested September for a March 31st opening. "[It's] craziness," he said. "I think it's going to be funnier than the first one, believe it or not."
Fog's Blair: Helmer Is Honest
elma Blair, star of the upcoming horror remake The Fog, told SCI FI Wire that she liked director John Carpenter's honesty about why he's producing the remake: for the money. "I appreciate it," Blair said in an interview. "You can sense bulls--t. ... You hear that all day. So you just appreciate someone that you know their agenda, so then you just realize it doesn't involve you. You go do your own work. You're not trying to please anyone."
Blair said that Carpenter is one of the horror genre's founding fathers and that he deserves to make some money off of his trailblazing efforts over the past three decades. "I think John Carpenter is a miracle of a guy," she said. "He was a huge influence on horror, slasher, everything in these generations. He united with [producing partner] Debra Hill, gave women a voice, pioneered women heroines for modern-day horror. So he has definitely earned the privilege and the luxury of saying he's doing something, one, for the money, and two, that the first one wasn't his favorite."
Blair added that Carpenter was very forthcoming about his willingness to sell the rights for the upcoming remake. "It's like he said: [It's] for the money," she said. "If someone's going to go out of their way to tell you it's for the money, then it probably is. I like when people are honest. I get in trouble myself when I'm honest, so I like it when someone else looks like a jerk." The Fog opens on Oct. 14.
Blair: Hellboy 2 Starting 2007
elma Blair, co-star of the upcoming sequel to Hellboy, told SCI FI Wire that production on the film has been tentatively scheduled to begin at the beginning of 2007. "I just did The Fog with Revolution, and I was trying to pick their brains for when Hellboy will go," Blair said in an interview. "Apparently [director] Guillermo [del Toro]'s supposed to hand in a script any minute. I know there will probably be a long preproduction, so we'll probably start maybe January 2007."
In the original Hellboy, Blair played Liz Sherman, Hellboy's companion and sometime girlfriend, who possesses the power to start fires with her mind. Blair said she hopes her character will be stronger in the sequel. "I hope that Liz and Hellboy will be more of a team, or at least Liz will be really strong," she said. "The first one was kind of a girl recovering and learning to grow up."
Blair acknowledged that Hellboy 2 will have to focus on Ron Perlman's title character. But she said that she looks forward to tapping into her inner superhero. "The movie's a much larger thing than just me playing Liz Sherman, but from my point of view, if you're going to get to play a superhero, come on! Let's bring it on! Let's play a superhero now!" she said. "You know, that was kind of her ... evolution."
Anchor Bay Puts Hits On PSP
ome-entertainment publisher Anchor Bay is releasing six of its most popular genre films for the PlayStation Portable hand-held device, the GameSpot Web site announced. The new releases will include Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead, Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, John Carpenter's Halloween and the anime features Blood: The Last Vampire, Ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell.
Anchor Bay is the latest in the growing list of companies releasing films on Sony's proprietary Universal Media Disc format, designed to be watched on the PSP. All six films will be released on August 23 for the suggested retail price of $19.98.
Zoom Sparks Legal Battle
arvel Enterprises and 20th Century Fox have filed suit against Sony Pictures Entertainment and Revolution Studios for copyright infringement and unfair competition, claiming the upcoming superhero comedy Zoom uses key elements from the X-Men franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The screenplay for Zoom, starring Tim Allen, includes a school for teenage superheroes which doubles as a training facility and a sinister government agency, signature elements of the X-Men universe.
Zoom hasn't begun filming yet, but Sony's decision to release the film on May 12, two weeks before the third X-Men film is due to come out, led Marvel and Fox to take legal action. The lawsuit, seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages, makes the release date a key part of the complaint, the trade paper reported.
Gellar Takes On McGee's Alice
arah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Grudge) has signed on to play the title role in the feature adaptation of the Electronic Arts video game American McGee's Alice, a dark take on the world of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
American McGee's Alice, from the acclaimed designer of the Quake and Doom game series, is a continuation of Carroll's story, in which Alice has grown up to become a disturbed young woman. She returns to Wonderland after he parents die in a fire, only to find that it's become a twisted, threatening place, far different from the colorful realm she remembers from her childhood. Marcus Nispel, who recently directed the remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, is attached to direct for Universal Pictures.
Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.com.
Stolen Doctor Who Dalek Found
stolen Dalek robot from the British SF series Doctor Who was recovered on Glastonbury Tor in England a week after disappearing from the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where it was being stored for a Doctor Who exhibition, the BBC reported.
Shortly after the disappearance, the thieves left a plunger arm from the robot on the doorstep of the tourist site, along with a ransom note demanding further instructions from "the Doctor." Cave owner Gerry Cottle made appeals for information and eventually received a phone call from the thieves, who revealed the robot's location, claiming it had become "too hot" to handle. The Dalek was recovered on the Tor and taken away on a stretcher. According to the BBC, Cottle has denied that the theft was a publicity stunt.
Herbie Racing Game Ships
uena Vista Games announced that its racing game, Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded, inspired by the feature film starring Lindsay Lohan, is now available at retail stores for the Game Boy Advance system. The game gives players the chance to ride and race in Herbie, a classic Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of his own.
Developed by Climax Group, the first video game based on Disney's Herbie franchise features 3-D racing action in which players control the title character in a series of races against AI-controlled opponents. A real-time mood meter keeps track of Herbie's personality in reaction to the player's results. The game also features a story mode and movie-based assets. Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded, rated "E" for everyone, carries a suggested retail price of $29.99.
Blair Gets Wet In Fog
elma Blair, star of the upcoming horror remake The Fog, told SCI FI Wire that the part required her to be submerged for several hours at a time underwater, tapping into a primal fear. "In The Fog, I had to do a lot of underwater work one day, for 14 hours, and I thought I would be terrified," Blair said in an interview. "I just immediately took to it and love scuba diving now, and it's something that I do. The things you get to learn on a movie is such a perk!"
In the remake of John Carpenter's classic supernatural film, Blair plays Stevie Wayne, a radio DJ who discovers that her seaside hometown has been overrun by a murderous fog. She said that the water stunt initially tapped into one of her most personal fears. "Working underwater is actually a huge fear of mine," she said. "I'm terrified of the water. But, again, with a controlled environment, I'll do anything on a set. I have no fear."
Blair said that the assistance of cast and crew members assuaged her concerns. "There's people taking care of you on a film," she said. "You get to be risky, but then there's someone that's going to try and do their best to make sure you don't get an embolism. There's people there, so I feel such a trust on a film, you know, if it's a good, safe one."
Even though Blair successfully fulfilled the demands of the role, she said that playing characters on screen seldom helps her overcome personal fears. "I really don't feel like myself when I'm playing a character, so it doesn't really help me with my fears," she said. "But it does enlighten me and helps me tell people stories, ... even seemingly as innocuous as the story might be. I'm definitely learning something, even if the movie seems, you know, turdy." The Fog opens Oct. 14.
Connelly Digs Dark Director
ennifer Connelly, who stars in the upcoming supernatural thriller film Dark Water, told SCI FI Wire that she signed on in large part to collaborate with director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries). In Dark Water, an Americanized version of Hideo Nakata's Japanese hit of the same name, Connelly plays a mother who, along with her young daughter, is terrorized in their apartment by a vengeful spirit.
"[Salles is] a really elegant director, in my estimation," the Oscar winner said in an interview. "I think he's a huge talent. He knows so much about film, but he feels like an amateur in the best sense, in the sense of 'This is what I love, and I'm always learning.' He's not jaded by knowledge. He still feels so passionate about what he's doing. He's delicate, but he's not precious in his directing. He's not sentimental. He has a really delicate touch, I think. I trusted him so much. I thought I would, having watched his films before, but in the rehearsal process and then in the first week of filming, I knew I was right."
Connelly added: "We'd do a scene and then look at the monitor together. I'd look at takes and get his feedback. He'd say, 'Oh, I like the second half of take two' or 'We need to work on this.' And I felt he had really good judgment. I came to feel really safe with him and to really respect his ideas, and it felt like such a privilege to feel that safe with someone and to have the luxury of that much time with him to develop that kind of a relationship. I felt like I'd try anything that he suggested, basically, because I knew that I was in really good hands." Dark Water oozes into theaters on July 8.
Hulk Game Has Star Voices
on Perlman, Neal McDonough and Richard Moll will lend their voices to the upcoming third-person action game, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, the GameSpot Web site reported. The game is set for release this August on the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube systems.
Perlman (Hellboy) will play Hulk's rival, Emil Blonsky, as well as the Abomination. Perlman has previously lent his voice to several video games, including Halo 2, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and Fallout. McDonough (Minority Report), who provided the voice for Bruce Banner in the 1990s animated television series, will once again portray the Hulk's mild-mannered alter ego. Moll, best known for playing the Bull on the 1980s sitcom Night Court, will voice the evil Devil Hulk.
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is being developed by Radical Entertainment for Vivendi Universal Interactive. The game, rated "T" for teen, will have a suggested retail price of $49.99.
Black's Valiant Rides To Film
TV Films has picked up the movie rights to Holly Black's recent fantasy novel Valiant, about an underground community of mythical entities living in New York, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Chuck Roven (Batman Begins) and Alex Gartner (The Upside of Anger) are producing through their Mosaic Media Group along with MTV Films.
Black is known for her popular fantasy books for children and young adults, which explore fairy tales and myths from a youthful perspective. Her best-selling series The Spiderwick Chronicles, a collaboration with artist Tony DiTerlizzi, was also optioned by Paramount Pictures in 2002.
Robot Dick To Appear At Con
n interactive android embodiment of SF author Philip K. Dick will be demonstrated at Wired magazine's upcoming NextFest in Chicago June 25-27, organizers announced. The robot, based on the late author of the works which inspired the films Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall and the upcoming A Scanner Darkly, was created as a joint collaboration between Hanson Robotics, the FedEx Institute of Technology's Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Automation and Robotics Research Institute.
The designers worked closely with Paul Williams, a close friend and former literary executor of the author, to create a lifelike robotic portrait that will be a powerful memorial to Dick and his work, which often featured themes of artificial intelligence and robots with human characteristics.
Programmed to portray Dick in both form and intellect, the robot will be featured in a booth designed as a 1970s apartment where the public can enter and interact with it. It is designed to automatically generate dialogue specifically tailored to the current conversation. Through cameras in its eyes, the robot will be able to track faces, perceive facial expressions, and recognize specific people in the crowd.
Detailed information about the PKD project and the upcoming installation is available on Hanson Robotics' Web site.
New Moon Rises At Wizard
harles Band, the legendary producer-director of low-budget straight-to-video fantasy and horror films, told SCI FI Wire that he hopes the latest incarnation of his filmmaking empire, Wizard Entertainment, will bring back the values of the early days of his previous company, Full Moon. "Early Full Moon movies were all ideas I dreamed up, directed or had one or two other very wonderful directors make," Band said in an interview. "The first 20 movies we made were all real good. But then we sort of drifted away from that." Band, who directed more than 260 movies during the run of Full Moon and his previous company, Empire, has as part of his agenda with Wizard Entertainment that he will produce and direct every one of the companies' movies for at least the first year. And much as with the Full Moon films, all will be budgeted in the $200,000-$400,000 range, with shooting schedules of 12 days and under.
"I'm making basically the same kind of movies I always have," said Band, whose most popular films include the Trancers, Demonic Toys and Puppemaster series. "They all have creatures or characters," he said. "I don't do slasher movies. My pictures are generally not scary, although they're sometimes gross. They're usually more fantasy and fun than anything else. I try to make the movies that I enjoy watching." The first Wizard Entertainment movie, Decadent Evil, will come to DVD in July.
October brings Doll Graveyard to the shelves. Band said that he already has three other films in the can and that there will be an as-yet-untitled release for December. To fill out the first slate of films, Wizard will also release the long-dormant director's cut of the cult favorite The Intruder and the compilation collections When Puppets and Dolls Attack and Monsters Gone Wild. Band, who said that he would like to have at least six films out in the next 12 months, promised that the quantity-over-quality reputation that tainted Full Moon, especially in the final years, will not apply to Wizard Entertainment.
"In a perfect world, I'd like to get a movie out every month," Band said. "But you're definitely going to see quality over quantity. These movies will all be done the right way."
Lions Gate On The Descent
ions Gate Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Neil Marshall's horror film The Descent, about six young women on a caving adventure who are trapped underground and find themselves hunted by a race of humanoid predators, Variety reported. The movie is Marshall's follow-up to his debut, Dog Soldiers, the trade paper reported.
The cast includes Shauna Macdonald, Nora-Jane Noone, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid and Saskia Mulder.
Warcraft Expansion Due?
n a posting on the official World of Warcraft message board, a producer confirmed the development of a new expansion pack for the hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game, according to a report on the GameSpot Web site.
Shane Dabiri, lead producer of the World of Warcraft development team, said: "Some have asked about an expansion and what it might hold. I wanted to let players know that it is in the works, and we'll release details as soon as we can." Dabiri gave no further details.
Dabiri did describe upcoming free updates. "In our next major update, we will be releasing Blackwing Lair, a 40-person raid dungeon, where you will be able to battle against the epic dragon Nefarian and his minions," he said. "We are also working on a 20-person dungeon called Zul'Gurub and the mysterious lands of Ahn'Qiraj in Silithus. Outside of dungeons, we want to continue adding new world events, such as a carnival that will take place in Mulgore and Elwynn forest."
Babylon A.D. Develops
wentieth Century Fox and Canal Plus have reached a deal to co-finance Babylon A.D., a big-budget futuristic thriller to be written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz (Gothika) and inspired by Maurice Dantec's novel Babylon Babies, Variety reported. Babylon is set in the near future and concerns genetic manipulation. In the book, a mercenary charged with delivering a young woman from Russia to Canada learns that she has been manipulated by a synthetic virus and that what lies inside her could doom the human race, the trade paper reported.
Babylon A.D. will be produced by Alain Goldman's Legende Films and Kassovitz's MNP Enterprise, with Gary Ungar executive-producing. Canal Plus will distribute in Europe, while Fox gets domestic and overseas territories outside Europe.
New Bujold Could Start Series
F author Lois McMaster Bujold told SCI FI Wire that her upcoming book, The Sharing Knife, could be the first volume in a new series. Bujold is now writing the book when she's not on the road promoting her current release, The Hallowed Hunt, the latest title in her series set in the universe of Chalion.
The Sharing Knife will be a stand-alone story, but could be the first in a new series when it's completed in the fall, Bujold said in an interview. "It's a fantasy that's not based on any history," she said. "I wanted to write something that's all my own. By my standards it's a double-length book, told with dual viewpoints."
Out-of-series books are rare for Bujold. She has written 14 books in her popular Miles Vorkosigan series, starting with her first novel, Shards of Honor. But Bujold's novels have one advantage over most other series: Each book is self-contained. As a reader of science fiction and fantasy herself, Bujold said that she wrote all of her books to stand alone. "I know people find series books in random order, and it's always frustrating to have volume two in your hand and not volume one. Even though my books are connected in various ways to others, it's safe to pick up and read them individually. Each is a complete story."
Along with three Nebula Awards, Bujold has won four Hugos for best novel, more than any other living author and tied only with the late Robert A. Heinlein. Does she want to break the tie? "It's an artificial goal," she said. "Most awards are. They really have very little to do with writing. Further, they're not something a writer controls, because reading is so subjective. They're more like gifts than prizes."
The Hallowed Hunt takes place in her universe of Chalion; readers can find sample chapters here. The previous book in the series, Paladin of Souls, won last year's Nebula Award for best novel.
Undead Makers Eye Vampires
he twin Aussie brothers who teamed up for their version of the zombie movie Undead told SCI FI Wire they are now trying to get well-known U.S. actors to star in their next genre film: Daybreakers, about vampires.
Scheduled for shooting in 2006, Daybreakers is the next project for Peter and Michael Spierig, who said they have completed their second draft for Lions Gate Films. They hope to attract a few big names for the film, which they will shoot in their home country of Australia and expect to get some interest because they call it a "serious drama" and insist it's a different take on the vampire story.
"It's not another vampire story, like Underworld or Blade," Peter Spierig said in an interview. "It's serious drama." The pair is on tour in Los Angeles and New York to promote Undead, which opens July 1.
"Not surprisingly, [Daybreakers is] about two brothers who take two different paths," Michael Spierig said. "One wants to be a vampire and live forever and thinks being a vampire is one of the greatest things. And the other brother thinks that as a vampire you lose your humanity, and he wants to become a human being again."
Peter added: "We're doing a slight polish on the script, and then we'll cast."
Daybreakers takes place about 10 or 15 years in the future, when vampires have taken over and moved back into their homes and go about their daily lives, Michael said. "They are very suburban vampires."
Peter said: "There are fewer human beings, and the blood supply is thinning out. The only way to survive is to become human again, and then become the hunted."
Michael said they are changing a few of the vampire conventions. Vampires will be able to do things that legends may have restricted them from doing in past movies. "There's no hiding of the vampires," Michael said. "They're basically open, and they have become ... very common in the everyday world. The humans are basically hiding, and [the vampires] are thinking about 'What are we going to do when our blood supply is gone [and] there are not many humans left?' That is the dilemma." Daybreakers is eyeing a 2007 release.
Briefly Noted
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Action director and stunt choreographer Tony Ching (House of Flying Daggers) will helm the action sequences for director Uwe Boll's Dungeon Siege, a film based on the video game by Gas Powered Games, producers announced.
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An 8-year-old elementary-school student from Southern California was sent home after reciting a Star Trek-inspired version of the Pledge of Allegiance in his classroom, according to a post on his mother's blog.
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Cascadia Con 2005 will host a comic-book creation event called Spawns of Insomnia, in which 24 artists will create 24 comics in 24 hours. The convention takes place Sept. 1-5 in Seattle.
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Batman Begins set a record for the biggest five-day opening on IMAX screens, with estimated domestic grosses of $3.1 million, as well as the highest-grossing opening day for a simultaneous IMAX release, with ticket sales of approximately $754,000, the IMAX Corporation announced.
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X2 star Alan Cumming announced on his official Web site that 20th Century Fox has not picked up his option to reprise his role as Nightcrawler in the upcoming sequel film X-Men 3.
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Four men were arrested for squirting War of the Worlds star Tom Cruise in the face with a water pistol disguised as a microphone on the red carpet before the film's London premiere, the Associated Press reported. The stunt was part of a new British comedy show in which celebrities are the targets of practical jokes.
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Stargate SG-1 star Richard Dean Anderson told his official Web site that he has just completed a voice role on an upcoming episode of Fox's The Simpsons.
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