Superman Suit Revealed
arner Brothers has released a new image of the Man of Steel, played by Brandon Routh, from director Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman Returns, which is currently shooting in Australia.
USA Today reported that the new super suit has a classic look, with slightly darker colors.
Singer told the newspaper via e-mail from Australia that he wanted to remain faithful to the previous incarnations of Superman, from the Max Fleischer cartoons of the 1940s to the black-and-white George Reeves TV show to the Christopher Reeve movies of the 1970s and '80s.
Singer decided to keep the cape, the blue body suit, the red tights and even the V-cut opening of Superman's boots. But Superman Returns makes a few subtle changes to the suit: The character's "S" insignia is slightly smaller and higher on his chest, and instead of being painted on, it's more of a three-dimensional plate. In addition, the insignia is added to Superman's belt buckle.
Is Charmed Near The End?
rad Kern, longtime executive producer of The WB's Charmed, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming season finale, "Something Wicca This Way Goes?" could also serve as the series finale—with a big surprise—should the show not get picked up for an eighth season. The finale builds on the events of "Death Becomes Them," the penultimate seventh-season episode, Kern said in an interview.
"The girls [Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan] have to figure out how to get the book back before Zankou [Oded Fehr] can use it to be able to tap into the power of the spiritual nexus and then become unstoppable," Kern said. "Over the course of the episode the girls have to wrestle with whether the fight [to protect innocents] has been worth it, whether they want to carry on or not, what they're willing to give up."
Kern added: "But they also realize that if they don't stop Zankou then all of the good they've done over the past seven years will have been for naught. That's just not acceptable, but the more they try to stop him, one by one he takes their powers. Halfway through the show they end the act by saying, 'I don't think we're going to get out of this one alive.' And that sets up a surprising ending that is so surprising and so top-secret that even in the episode outline that I've sent to the studio and the network, I've not included that scene. It will only be distributed on the day we shoot it. The idea is to not let spoilers spoil things for the loyal fans."
Still, Kern isn't giving up hope for another year of the show about the Halliwell sisters. "The network loves Charmed creatively and have been especially happy with it this season," he said. "But whether we come back or not still all boils down to ratings—which means it's up to the fans. If they all tune in and watch the last couple of episodes, I believe that'll raise our numbers enough to push us over the edge and force The WB to pick us up for an eighth season."
The WB will announce in May whether or not they'll pick up Charmed for another, presumably final, season. The season finale will probably air on May 22.
Tru Calling Dead Again
ox has again pulled the plug on Tru Calling, taking the supernatural series off the air after the April 21 episode, meaning that viewers who were trying to catch up with the canceled series' last six episodes will miss the final one, TV Guide Online reported. Fox had been airing all second-season episodes completed before Fox decided the first time that it wanted to kill the series, which stars Eliza Dushku as a young morgue attendant who can rewind time.
Fox was burning off the remaining Tru Calling episodes in the timeslot originally occupied by its ill-fated Point Pleasant. Next week, Fox will air The Simple Life: Interns instead of Tru Calling in the Thursday 9 p.m. ET/PT slot.
Fan Group Reached Trek Exec?
yFy Portal reported that none other than Paramount television chief David Stapf was the supposed high-level executive who spoke with a fan group about reviving Star Trek: Enterprise—but only because he happened to answer his own phone late one night. Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that Stapf listened politely to a pitch to move the show to Canada, as claimed by the fan group Trek United, but that no negotiations ever took place and that there never was a prospect of bringing back the show with fan money.
"[Stapf] was in his office after hours and made the mistake of picking up his own phone line," the source told the site. "If David Stapf hadn't picked up the phone, there never would've been any talks at all to speak of."
The inadvertent telephone conversation is reportedly the basis of claims made by the fund-raising group that it was in secret negotiations to bring Enterprise back for a fifth season. But Paramount has steadfastly denied there were ever any such talks. Trek United has said a shadowy figure named "Al Vinci" made the pitch on its behalf; Vinci has made various claims about being a Canadian-based producer and former child actor, none of which has been independently corroborated.
"The pitch that he is making has zero chance of success," the source told SyFy Portal. "The sets are torn down. They are being kept, but they are not being kept because of Trek United. ... Nobody anticipates in any way, shape or form that they will ever be used for Enterprise. If the main sets are ever used for filming again, it would be for like a video game or something like that. Everyone's moved on." The finale of Enterprise will air May 13 on UPN.
Trek United Pulls Plug
rganizers of Trek United, the fan fund-raising campaign to bring Star Trek: Enterprise back for a fifth season, abruptly pulled the plug on their effort amid mounting reports questioning the group's credibility. Tim Brazeal, the Tennessee-based fan in charge of Trek United, posted on the group's message board that the group's proposal to fund a fifth season of the canceled Enterprise was rejected by Paramount, which produces the show.
"Our final proposal was knocked down by Paramount," Brazeal posted on April 17. "We will not see a season five for Star Trek: Enterprise. All money as I stated earlier will be refunded starting Monday or Tuesday of this week. We will not allow people bashing our efforts on our own forums. Please keep in mind that our members are fans just like you are."
Late last week, the group had asserted that a self-described Canadian TV producer named "Al Vinci" was spearheading the group's proposal to Paramount to co-finance a new season of Enterprise with an unnamed group of investors and by moving production to Canada. The group declined to identify with whom Vinci had been negotiating at Paramount. For its part, Paramount has steadfastly denied that any talks were underway.
On Sunday, Brazeal abruptly announced the end of the campaign in a chat with fans expecting more news about the effort. "For the members that have supported us, thank you," he wrote. "We are all winners. We had the dream that we could make this happen. Trek United will continue to be here, and we will explore new ideas, but the fan donation part if it has made the point we intended it to."
News stories on several SF Web sites, including Sy Fy Portal, have called Brazeal's assertions and financial dealings into question. Brazeal has defended his actions as legal and aboveboard on Trek United 's message boards. SCI FI Wire could not reach Brazeal to comment on the announcement as of Sunday evening.
Bakula: Enterprise Film Is Dead
cott Bakula, star of UPN's canceled Star Trek: Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that plans for a movie based on the show were put on hold when the regime changed at Paramount and the network pulled the plug on the show earlier this year. Bakula said he's willing to reprise the character of Capt. Jonathan Archer in an Enterprise film. "It's something I would be interested in doing," Bakula said in an interview at the show's wrap party in Hollywood last week. "They haven't [asked], but the reality is that Paramount has been under such internal upheaval in the last year that right now there's really nobody that's there that is a fan of Star Trek."
Bakula said that recent turnover of several key Paramount executives has dampened enthusiasm for future Trek projects. "It's all turned over, so I don't know what's going to happen with Star Trek as a franchise," Bakula said. "Obviously it's been very important to that studio for a great number of years and brought a lot of revenue for them. But I'm not sure how they will re-address or kind of re-approach it as the dust settles. But we'll see."
The nearly 40-year-old Trek franchise will find itself next year without an original TV series or future movie on the calendar for the first time since 1987, owing in part to the disappointing box-office performance of the last film, Star Trek Nemesis, and the poor ratings of Enterprise, which winds up its four-year run in May.
But Bakula said that he thinks Enterprise could make a successful jump to the big screen. "I don't think there's any question about that," he said. "It's just, again, you've got to have interest from the studio, and that doesn't exist right now to my knowledge. It did before. You see, when we started, there was always the idea that we would be the next movie cast and movie ship. But all the people who were interested in that are gone." Enterprise airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
McKellen, Molina Join Da Vinci
an McKellen (X2) and Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2) will star in The Da Vinci Code, Ron Howard's upcoming film adaptation of the Dan Brown best-seller, Variety reported. Akiva Goldsman wrote the script, and Brian Grazer is producing with John Calley for Sony.
Molina will play zealous Bishop Arigarosa, who's keenly interested in the sleuthing activities of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and cryptographer Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou). McKellen will play Sir Teabing, a wealthy man who acts as a resource for Langdon even as he shows his own ambitions to uncover the Holy Grail. Jean Reno also stars, the trade paper reported.
The Da Vinci Code begins production in June for a May 19, 2006, release.
Four Stars Get Theme Songs
ach character in the upcoming Fantastic Four video game will have his or her own theme song performed by a top musical act, Zap2it reported. The songs are being recorded for Activision's Fantastic Four video game, which will be shipped this summer in conjunction with the release of the movie of the same name.
The rock band Taking Back Sunday's "Error Operator" will provide a backdrop for the team's stretchy leader, Mr. Fantastic. Punk femme group Go Betty Go performs "Everywhere" for the Invisible Woman. The Explosion will write and perform "I'm on Fire" for the Human Torch, while Jurassic 5 cranks out "Clobberin' Time" for the Thing, the site reported.
The big-screen version of Fantastic Four, starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon, hits theaters on July 8.
Lost Fans Help Kids Charity
ore than 100 fans of ABC's hit series Lost gathered at a charity fund-raising party in Hollywood, Calif., April 16 and raised $5,000 for the Children's Defense Fund of L.A., a favorite of series co-creator J.J. Abrams. Several members of the cast and crew also appeared at the "Destination L.A." fan party, including regular cast members Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) and Harold Perrineau Jr. (Michael), as well as supporting players Greg Grunberg, William Mapother, Andrea Gabriel, Zack Ward and John Terry. Also in attendance were series co-creator Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk.
Organizers auctioned off such items as cast-signed scripts and lunch with supervising producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach.
The Popgurls.com Web site has posted images and a report from the party.
Lost Scribe Finds Middleman
avier Grillo-Marxuach, a writer and supervising producer on ABC's hit series Lost, told SCI FI Wire that he has a new comic series, The Middleman from Viper Comics, which launches in July. The genre-based series focuses on the Middleman, a super-secret agent, and his assistant, Wendy, who together keep monsters, aliens and talking primates from attacking humanity and destroying our blissfully ignorant perception of the "normal world."
"It's really my valentine to youth disenfranchisement," Grillo-Marxuach said in an interview. "The script actually started as a pilot script for a TV series, a little bit misguidedly, because it's the form I'm used to working in. I just didn't really think it could work with a TV budget, because it needed to have monsters and things. It's got elements of shows that have been on the air, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it's really very specific with a quirky character voice, and I think it's really tailored to a comic-book audience. It tries to be very smart and has a wacky worldview, a thing comic-book audiences can really hook into."
Grillo-Marxuach has written for such SF TV series as SCI FI Channel's The Chronicle, USA Networks' The Dead Zone and UPN's defunct Jake 2.0. Describing the concept of The Middleman, Grillo-Marxuach said: "The Middleman works for an organization that is so mysterious that he doesn't know who he works for. He was hired by the previous Middleman and trained by him, and then when the previous Middleman dies, he then became the Middleman. He doesn't have an infrastructure. They have a phone that rings and that sends them on jobs, but they don't know who is sending them, and that's why he's the Middleman, because he doesn't know. It's supposed to poke a little fun at the super-secret organization. The first four issues are basically the pilot episode, and they tell the story of Wendy Watson, an artist working a series of meaningless temp jobs. She's a jaded twentysomething who is so blasé about life in general that the existence of monsters doesn't really bother her that much, which makes her the perfect [person] to become a member of the Middleman organization."
Cartoonist Les McClaine is the artist for the series, and he brings a retro style to the book. "It's a little bit old-timey, with that Tintin quality to it," Grillo-Marxuach said, referring to the 1940s French comic series. "The spirit of the book isn't slick; it's a straightforward style that I really liked. When I was looking for somebody to draw it, Les McClaine was the first guy that I picked. He did a book called Highway 13. When I was reading that, I thought this guy has a style that is similar to how I'd like it to look, and it became the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
The first episode of the four-issue series will launch at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July, including a completely inaccurate variant cover that will be a different style from the book and have lots of sex and violence on it, unlike what is inside. Grillo-Marxuach said with a laugh: "There will be sex, there will be violence, there will be sexy-violence!"
Hitchhiker Still British
artin Freeman, who stars as Arthur Dent in the upcoming big-screen version of the late Douglas Adams' very British SF-comedy book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't think the film will be too Americanized or too commercialized. That's despite the fact that it was written by an American, Karey Kirkpatrick, and was produced by an American studio, Disney's Touchstone Pictures.
"Given that I'm not the director, only so much of that is in my hands," Freeman (U.K. TV's The Office) said in an interview. "I certainly didn't want it to be ruined. I didn't want it to be over-Americanized or overly Hollywood-ized in a way that could jeopardize the integrity."
Freeman added: "But then again, without Hollywood and without American interest, backing, etc., this film wouldn't have been made. I didn't want it to lose too much of its Britishness, whatever the f--k that means, but I don't really care if it's British or American as long as it's still a good story, to be honest. More important is that it not lose its cult feeling, and I don't think it does. It's not the most mainstream material. But, not to sidestep that, I just sort of turned up. I don't mean that to sound like I don't care. I do. I care about everything I do, but it's just not in my hands. It's not in my control. I'm not in the editing process. I'm not in the casting process. I'm not in any of that. I'm just in the choosing process for myself or, most of the time, the turning-down process. The reason I didn't turn this down is I just liked the script and I trusted [director] Garth [Jennings] and [producer] Nick [Goldsmith] to do it justice, and I think they have." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opens nationwide on April 29.
Hitchhiker Keeps Trillian Smart
ooey Deschanel, who co-stars as Trillian in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of Douglas Adams' SF book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, told SCI FI Wire that the film introduces a romantic relationship between Trillian and Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), among other changes. But Deschanel (Elf) added that Trillian loses none of the intelligence that marked her as the smartest character in the saga, aside perhaps from Marvin the Paranoid Android (Warwick Davis and Alan Rickman).
"Keeping her intellect intact was one of my main goals for the character," Deschanel said in an interview. "That's the main thing you get from her in the book, and the character is not very well developed in the book. It's sort of a very in-the-background character, and when Douglas was adapting the book [into a screenplay that would ultimately be co-written by Karey Kirkpatrick], that was one of his goals, to make the character of Trillian a little bit more fleshed out."
Deschanel added: "Keeping her intellect as strong as it was in the book and the radio series was important to me. It's played incredibly differently in the TV series. She's very funny, but she's a blonde. She's wearing a leotard. It's played a little bit more kind of ditzy. She's got tons of makeup. It was more like a Marilyn Monroe, but '80s [style], with crimped hair and stuff. But, it was important to me, because I think her attractiveness comes from her intellect. And you also see how different she is [from] Zaphod [Sam Rockwell]. Somehow he's attracted to her, and she's attracted to him [before the Trillian-Arthur sparks fly], but they're complete opposites." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opens nationwide on April 29.
Jennings Guides Hitchhiker In-Jokes
arth Jennings, director of the upcoming film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, told SCI FI Wire that fans of late author Douglas Adams' original book and other versions of the story should be on the lookout for in-jokes and homages. For example, Simon Jones, who played the main character, Arthur Dent, in the British television series, can be seen and heard briefly as a Magrathean announcer. "Simon Jones was just great as Arthur Dent, and we needed a face and voice for that sequence," Jennings said in an interview. "We actually shot it in 3-D, so if you wear red and green glasses, he actually jumps out. I haven't really told the studio that I did that. I thought it'd be more fun if we just did it. No one really knows. But I just couldn't resist doing it."
Jennings added: "The original Marvin robot that was used in the TV series, we managed to track down at the BBC studios. It was all in pieces, like this dismembered body. It was really grim. And they got him out and polished him up and made all his lights work and everything, and it was great. We put him on set in the queuing group, where Arthur [Martin Freeman] is queuing up to save Trillian [Zooey Deschanel]. He's just in there, volunteering up, and Arthur looks at him. He was quite an icon when I was growing up, that Marvin robot. He even had a record on the charts. He was a smash hit when you were a kid."
And there's more, Jennings said. Images of Douglas Adams are scattered throughout the movie. "He had cyberscanned his head for a computer game," Jennings said. "We had access to his data, so when we built the Temple of Deep Thought, which is this giant nose and nostrils, etc., it's actually Douglas' nose, perfectly rebuilt 30 feet [high]. Not that anyone is going to go, 'Hey, that's Douglas' nose,' but it just felt like quite a fun thing to do. And then one of the planets, as they're flying through the planet factory, is Douglas' whole head that just is this giant planet. It's quite lovely."
Jennings added: "At the end, the final improbability effect is Douglas' face. It disappears and says 'For Douglas.' His mom and family are in it. His mom is the old lady reading the newspapers who couldn't really care less as the Earth is being destroyed, and she's in it again at the end. Douglas' daughter and sister and everybody are around the table. There are tons of things crammed in there. Basically if we needed a prop or a name for something we just used the original material as a reference." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opens nationwide on April 29.
Snipes Sues Over Blade: Trinity
lade: Trinity star Wesley Snipes has sued New Line Cinema, writer-director David Goyer and executive producer Toby Emmerich in a wide-ranging federal lawsuit seeking more than $5 million in damages, Variety reported. In the suit, filed April 18 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Snipes alleges that, in violation of his contract, the director, screenplay and supporting cast of Blade: Trinity were forced on him. He also claims he's still owed a portion of his fee and that he was harassed and defamed because of his race, the trade paper reported. New Line declined to comment to Variety.
Goyer wrote all three Blade scripts. According to the complaint, however, Snipes had concerns about his directing the third film in the trilogy and was not informed until six weeks before filming began that Goyer would direct. Similarly, he was not given an opportunity to object to the "juvenile level of humor" in the screenplay and the change in focus from the Blade character to two sidekicks, played by Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel. Snipes claims the real purpose of Blade III was to set the stage for spinoffs featuring other cast members, the trade paper reported.
Snipes blames Goyer for the critical response to the film, citing reviews describing Goyer as a "disastrous choice" and calling the film a "bloody mess." Blade: Trinity, released last December, has grossed $52 million at the domestic box office. Snipes alleges that he is still owed over $3 million of his fee.
Blade DVD Has Variant End
avid Goyer, who wrote and directed Blade: Trinity, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming DVD will feature an ending that was written on-set, but never intended for the theatrical feature. "The ending for the extended edition of the film has a bleaker ending than the theatrical release," Goyer said in an interview. "The movie that was released has the ending that was scripted. At one point, we did tinker around with another ending, another ending that would be a test, and that's what we decided to release on the extended version. ... I think the audience will find it darker."
The extended version of the film, which features about 11 minutes of additional scenes, will be available on a special two-disc DVD set. The special-edition also includes a 90-minute making-of featurette, a gag reel and commentaries from the cast and crew. "I've got my director of photography, my editor [and] my production designer [doing commentaries]," Goyer said. "I've got [stars] Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel, and the commentaries are quite fun. They're definitely not the standard kind of dry commentary, which is also something that we had a tendency to do with the Blade movies. We really don't take ourselves too seriously while we're doing the commentaries."
Goyer, who wrote the two previous Blade films for directors Stephen Norrington and Guillermo del Toro respectively, said that he had the eventual DVD release in mind throughout the making of the film. "It was kind of inevitable that we, in this case, discussed the two-disc DVD set while we were making the movie," he said. "So we were conscious of including a lot of material. I had people filming all the time, and at various points throughout the production process I would say, 'Oh, that would be good for the DVD.' Or 'That wouldn't work for the movie, but let's print that and keep that anyway.' And I would call the producers and say, 'What about a feature like this?'" Blade: Trinity will be released on DVD April 26.
Advance Episode III Tix Sell Fast
dvance sales of tickets for Star Wars: Episode Three—Revenge of the Sith are almost sold out at the Arclight cineplex in Hollywood, Calif., the Associated Press reported. Tickets for the 12:01 a.m. May 19 showing of George Lucas' latest installment of the Star Wars series have already sold out for all four screenings at the Arclight.
Tickets for the last Star Wars prequel went on sale April 15 at many theaters across the country and at online providers like Fandango.com, which represents about 70 percent of the country's movie houses that have remote ticket sales, the AP reported.
Separately, Reuters reported that the prequel's theme music will be released as a single, the first time music from the long-running epic has been released in that format. SonyBMG will release "Battle of the Heroes" on May 23, composed by Oscar winner John Williams, depicting the struggle between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Portman Enters Emporium
atalie Portman is set to star in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, a fantasy film to be directed by Zach Helm for Mandate, Variety reported. Richard Gladstein and Jim Garavante are producing the film, written by Helm.
Portman will play the manager of a toy store that seems to come alive when infused with the spirit of its eccentric owner, the trade paper reported. When his health begins to fail, he wants to turn the store over to her, but her depression has turned the once-vibrant store to a gray pallor.
Portman will make the film after she wraps Goya's Ghosts, in which she co-stars with Javier Bardem for director Milos Forman. The Oscar-nominated actress will next appear in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith and is shooting the Alan Moore graphic-novel film adaptation V for Vendetta.
X-Men 3's Juggernaut Cast?
he British tabloid The Sun reported a rumor that tough-guy actor Vinnie Jones is set to play the villainous Juggernaut in the upcoming third X-Men movie. Jones will wear a 56-pound latex suit to create the look of his muscular character; Juggernaut is 7 feet tall and weighs 910 pounds, the newspaper reported.
Jones would join a cast that includes Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman. Filming starts later this year.
Vaughn Talks X-Men 3
atthew Vaughn, the British director who will helm the third X-Men movie, told ComingSoon.net that he'll make a more complicated film than previous director Bryan Singer. "I think Singer probably treats it in a more simplistic manner then I'm going to," Vaughn (Layer Cake) told the site. "It's going to expand on things. There's three or four scenes I know people will just be shocked and close to tears."
Vaughn added that he's not concerned about the pressure to follow in Singer's footsteps. "I'm all for fans being wary of me; they've got the right to be," he said. "I'm just going to make the film as good as I can, and hopefully, they'll like it. I know that there's going to be elements I'm going to be bringing to it that will worry the fans in the sense that I want to make a movie that stands up in 20, 30 years' time, basically. The film I'm doing is more in the tone of [the Clint Eastwood western] Unforgiven."
Vaughn confirmed rumors that he wants his longtime friend Vinnie Jones to appear in X-Men 3, likely as the villainous Juggernaut, but added that he hasn't signed anything yet. "What's interesting about Juggernaut is that he's the brother of Professor X [Patrick Stewart], and that's why I thought it would be interesting having an English thug opposite Patrick Stewart," Vaughn said.
As for the expectation that X-Men 3 will pick up the Dark Phoenix storyline, Vaughn said that he thought "bits of it are great, but other bits are a mess."
No Todd in Final 3
len Morgan—who with partner James Wong is returning to the Final Destination franchise by writing and producing the upcoming third installment—told SCI FI Wire that the sequel will feature an all—new cast and that Tony Todd won't appear. "You know, I think Tony's a great actor," Morgan said, referring to the actor who played a creepy mortician in the previous two installments. "I like that character a great deal. [But] I kind of felt that even in both films, it kind of brought the movie to a stop. And I don't know what to do with that character, other than to make it ... that he's Death or some kind of goofy thing like that."
Todd played a mortician who explains the rules of the franchise to the young stars "and to give you a little clue, that guy at the edge of the dark forest kind of thing," Morgan said in an interview during a break in filming in Vancouver, B.C., last week. "And you know, I think that people kind of get what the ... series is, and I don't really know if he's needed."
The new cast includes Ryan Merriman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, both of whom appeared in The Ring Two. The cast also includes Kris Lemche, Alexz Johnson and Texas Battle. But FD3 won't feature either A.J. Cook—whose character, Kimberly, survived the last Final Destination film—or Ali Larter—whose character, Clear, died.
"We wanted to ... sort of do it over again with somebody new," said James Wong, who is again directing the film. Wong added: "Because you have the first two movies, you can just sort of skip over a lot of the exposition about what is going on, because now the character can say, 'I read this on the Internet. This happened.' And that's it. That's all you have to deal with it, and then you get on with your own story." Final Destination 3 is now filming with an eye to a 2006 release date.
Final 3 Star Sees Death Nearby
yan Merriman, the young actor who stars in the upcoming sequel Final Destination 3, told SCI FI Wire that the film made him think about the possibility of death all around. "I was actually bench pressing the other day, working out, and my hands were kind of sweating, and I was like, 'S--t, man, if this fell on my head, I would die really quick,'" Merriman (The Ring Two) said in an interview during a break in filming in Vancouver, B.C., last week. "And there was nobody else in there, so I just kind of racked it [and] went to the isometric machine. But other than that, no, I don't, like, walk around and, like, step over grates or anything. Even though, by the end of the movie, I will."
As in the previous two installments, Final Destination 3 centers on a group of young people who manage to escape a horrific accident due to a premonition, then spend the rest of the film trying to anticipate and avoid death's plan. "I play Kevin," Merriman said. "It's my girlfriend and my best friend both ... [who] initially crash in the beginning. So we [he and co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead] kind of both end up getting in this wild ride together. Because of that, and also because of the fact that she has this vision that brings us together. We solve it."
The story appealed to Merriman in part because it's not the typical teen horror movie, he added. "It's not some demon from the dead of the night or some guy with a chainsaw," he said. "It's, like, realistic things that can actually happen. Like you hear about those weird things like a truck's driving with telephone poles and one thing gets loose and it bounces and decapitates somebody [as in Final Destination 2]. You think on the news, 'How the hell did that happen?' And that's why it's cool. Even when I was reading the script, this happens, this triggers this, you just keep reading. I think that's what the audience is going to do. They're just going to be like, 'What's happening next? How is this happening?' And then when it does happen, like, 'Oh, s--t, man!' It's just cool."
Merriman added: "But it's also counterbalanced by good scenes. ... It's not just a thriller-action-teen whatever. It flows. There's some really good dramatic stuff. It's just really well-rounded, I think, personally. I don't think it's just about death and death's plan. It's got a reality to it, you know what I mean? Like if this were to really happen." Final Destination 3 is currently shooting, with an eye to a 2006 release.
PlayOnline Under Attack
quare Enix said that its PlayOnline service has been under a distributed denial of service attack since April 9, the GameSpot Web site reported. On April 15, the attacks caused all servers for Final Fantasy XI to shut down for about three hours. While Square Enix is currently investigating the source of the attacks and attempting to mitigate damages, servers are still being adversely affected at regular intervals, the site reported.
"Our technicians are taking every measure possible to prevent further attacks," a Square Enix representative said on its Web site. "However, attack methods have varied, which has meant a more time-consuming review of our network protection. Currently, we are unable to determine the precise source of attack. However, with the cooperation of ISP companies, our investigation continues to make progress."
Square Enix is also bringing the law in to help figure out the source of the attacks, the site reported. "Law enforcement authorities in Japan, the United States and Europe have been contacted for support. Our technicians will continue to employ the most effective measures available to counteract the attacks. As well, we are working with local and international authorities to take legal action against those obstructing the PlayOnline service."
PlayOnline is currently used to support Final Fantasy XI in North America and Europe. In Japan, Square Enix hosts Front Mission Online, Fantasy Earth and the Japanese version of EverQuest II on the PlayOnline servers. The company has not revealed whether these other games have been affected by the attacks, GameSpot reported.
Nighy Reveals Pirates Role
ill Nighy told Empire Online that he will play a villain, Davy Jones, in the upcoming second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies. "I am a very, very, very, very bad man, and I am there to make people suffer in all new ways, in ways that you won't have seen before," Nighy told the site while promoting his next film, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. "I have a boat, and I have a crew, and they are really evil buggers."
Nighy added: "I'm so computer-generated that you might have trouble spotting me. You'll know it's me, but you might have to check the credits afterwards. But they're cracking stories. They're great stories. If you liked the first one, you'll love this."
Nighy added that he has a small role in the upcoming Underworld: Evolution sequel, reprising the vampire noble Viktor in a flashback.
Aarrh! Pirates Games Ahoy!
isney announced the development of new video game titles based on its upcoming sequel film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in the summer of 2006. Disney's Buena Vista Games unit will release games for the PSP and Nintendo DS in conjunction with the movie's launch.
British game developer Eurocom will create future games for the upcoming next-generation consoles based on the hit movie franchise, the company said.
In the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest video games, players will be able to take on the roles of Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann as they explore and brawl across land and sea on a quest for the legendary Dead Man's Chest. The games will feature moments from the movie and new adventures and locations inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean universe. The hand-held titles are being developed by Seattle-based Amaze Entertainment and Griptonite Games, Disney said.
The film, a sequel to the hit film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, is due for release in July 2006.
Genre Editor Joins HNR
ichael Hinman, founder and news coordinator of SyFy Portal, has joined the Hollywood North Report as genre editor, Hinman told SCI FI Wire.
Hollywood North Report, based in Vancouver, B.C., covers television and movie productions in Canada, especially Toronto and Vancouver, the third largest production center in the world after Los Angeles and New York.
Hinman will continue to provide coverage for SyFy Portal, an independent science-fiction/fantasy/comic news Web site with an average of 40,000 readers each day. Hinman lives in Orlando, Fla.
Joan Gets Devilish
oan of Arcadia has introduced a new character with satanic tendencies, executive producer Stephen Nathan told TV Guide Online. "[Ryan Hunter, played by Wentworth Miller,] is like a fallen angel," Nathan told the site. "He feels more powerful than God. We decided to introduce the idea at the end of this season to show what we will do if—and hopefully when—we come back next fall."
Hunter, a 30-year-old multimillionaire who can talk with God, just like beleaguered high school student Joan (Amber Tamblyn), will taunt her by desecrating a church and buying an interest in the newspaper where her brother Kevin (Jason Ritter) works, the site reported.
CBS won't announce its fall lineup until May 18. The season finale of Joan of Arcadia aired April 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
Petrie Scares Up Wilson
aniel Petrie Jr., president of the Writers Guild of America West, will direct the independent supernatural film Wilson, Variety reported. Petrie will also produce the film with Vancouver-based Rampage Entertainment, the trade paper reported.
Shooting is slated to begin early this summer on the movie, a domestic supernatural thriller in the vein of Poltergeist and The Others, the trade paper reported.
Petrie and his producing partner Rick Dugdale will produce with Rampage. Alex Greenfield penned the script based on an original idea by his longtime collaborator Mike Eitelman, who will co-produce.
Peet Signs On To Martian
manda Peet has signed on to star opposite John Cusack in New Line Cinema's The Martian Child, based on a short story from SF author David Gerrold, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Joan Cusack also is joining the cast.
Menno Meyjes is directing Martian from a script by Jonathan Tolins and Seth Bass, described as an unusual father-son relationship, and a cross between Parenthood and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the trade paper reported.
Bravo Celebrates Super Heroes
ravo will air a three-part special, Ultimate Super Heroes, Ultimate Super Villains, Ultimate Super Vixens, on three consecutive nights starting May 26 at 10 p.m. ET. Narrated by Adam West, who played Batman in the hit TV series, Ultimate Super Heroes celebrates the heroes, villains and vixens who have created powerful impressions on fans throughout the years.
The special features more than 50 experts, including comic-book creators, filmmakers and producers and actors who brought these characters to life, as well as a top-20 countdown in each category. Lou Ferrigno will discuss The Hulk's relatable human side, and Mark Hamill will talk about his total commitment to creating the fantasy that surrounded Star Wars.
Ultimate Super Heroes will look at characters from comic books, movies, television and video games, based on their longevity, iconic pop-culture status and their overall "cool factor," Bravo said.
Bravo is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Sony To Launch Game Exchange
ony plans to launch an online marketplace where fans of its multiplayer games can buy and sell virtual artifacts, a practice it previously discouraged, C|net's News.com site reported. The Station Exchange site, announced Wednesday by Sony Online Entertainment, apparently comes in response to the growing underground market for such items.
Planned for launch in late June, the site will first offer subscribers to Sony's EverQuest II the option to buy, sell or trade the right to use specific characters, items and online funds they've earned playing the game.
Until now, Sony has been among the most aggressive game makers in restricting sales of such articles, even insisting that all material related to its EverQuest series belongs to the company. But gamers are interested in selling or buying items for a number of reasons, the site reported.
The company said it is creating Station Exchange to discourage underground trading of game articles and to protect its customers from fraud. As the trade of game-related items has increased, so have the reported number of incidents of people being ripped off in misleading or illegitimate transactions, Sony said.
Fry Leaks V Casting
teven Fry told Empire Online that he is being joined by fellow British thespians John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith and Sinead Cusack in the Wachowski brothers' upcoming V for Vendetta, based on Alan Moore's dystopic graphic novel. James Purefoy, Natalie Portman and Stephen Rea round out the cast.
Fry described his character. "I'm playing the character of Gordon Deitrich, who's a chat show host who questions the authority of the people who run Britain in this post-viral facist state, as it were," he told the site. He added: "I just got back from Berlin today, in fact. I've been filming there all the time, and I'm going back on Sunday."
The Wachowski brothers are producing the film, with James McTeigue, the first assistant director on the Wachowskis' Matrix films, making his feature-film directing debut. V for Vendetta is currently shooting in Berlin with an eye to a November release.
Click Cast Fills Out
ate Beckinsale and David Hasselhoff are in talks to star with Adam Sandler in the fantasy comedy Click for Columbia and Revolution Studios, Variety reported. Production will begin in mid-June.
Beckinsale (Van Helsing) would play the female lead opposite Sandler. Hasselhoff (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) would play Sandler's boss.
Frank Coraci (Sandler's The Waterboy) is directing the film, about a workaholic architect who finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices, the trade paper reported.
Mark O'Keefe and Steven Wayne Koren (Bruce Almighty) wrote the script, with revisions by Tim Herlihy.
Rock Joins Southland Tales
wayne "The Rock" Johnson will star opposite Seann William Scott and Sarah Michelle Gellar in the science-fiction thriller Southland Tales for writer-director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), Variety reported. The Cherry Road Films production is slated to begin Aug. 1 in Los Angeles.
Southland Tales is set in Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as the city stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Johnson will star as an amnesiac action star whose life intertwines with an adult film star developing her own reality television project and a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy, the trade paper reported.
Cherry Road has green-lighted the picture with co-financing from Universal Pictures International, Inferno Distribution and Wild Bunch, the trade paper reported. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Sean McKittrick will produce under the Darko Entertainment banner he co-founded with Kelly. Cherry Road principals Bo Hyde and Kendall Morgan will produce, the trade paper reported.
Southland Tales also will be presented as a nine-part interactive experience, with the prequel saga to be published as six separate 100-page graphic novels written by Kelly. These will be released over a six-month period early next year leading up to the film's release, with the feature film covering the story's final three chapters, the trade paper reported.
Guild Wars Ready To Ship
renaNet today announced that Guild Wars, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is ready to ship and will be available nationwide on April 28 for the PC, the GameSpot Web site reported. This is the first game from NCsoft subsidiary ArenaNet, which comprises several ex-employees from Warcraft developer Blizzard, the site reported.
Guild Wars emphasizes strategy and features campaign-style quests that can be attempted with non-player characters or other human-controlled characters. Guild Wars also features an extensive player-versus-player portion, where teams of characters battle for prestige, the site reported.
Guild Wars will come in two formats: the $49.99 standard edition and the $79.99 collector's edition, which includes an exclusive weapon, the game's soundtrack, a Logitech headset and three months of Teamspeak and a book featuring art from the game.
Briefly Noted
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Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith producer Rick McCallum announced at the "Star Wars Celebration III" convention in Indianapolis that the third and final prequel was finished on April 20, the ComingSoon.net Web site reported.
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The second installment of NBC's supernatural limited series Revelations delivered 11.5 million viewers, down 13 percent from last week's premiere, but still impressive for the network, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
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A&E has green-lighted a two-hour documentary that will examine the relationship between filmmaking titans George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, TV Guide Online reported.
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Daredevil star Ben Affleck asked Elektra/Alias' Jennifer Garner to marry him over the weekend during a lavish 33rd birthday party for her, sealing the deal with a 4.5-carat diamond ring from Harry Winston valued at $500,000, according to People magazine.
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Platinum Studios announced the acquisition of exclusive film and TV rights to French company Hexagon Comics' universe of 500 comic-book characters and titles, including Strangers, Wampus and Kabur.
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The Leaky Cauldron reported that the full theatrical trailer for the fourth Harry Potter film, The Goblet of Fire, will hit theaters May 13, though parts of it will air on ABC on May 7 during a broadcast of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
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TV Guide Online reported that Terry O'Quinn, who plays Locke on ABC's hit Lost, will return to the companion series Alias, presumably reprising the character of FBI assistant director Kendall in a guest shot.
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The WB will air an eight-minute preview of Warner Brothers' upcoming comic-book movie Batman Begins during the May 18 episode of Smallviille, a 90-minute extended segment that begins at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith will screen out of competition at this year's Cannes film festival, the Reuters news service reported.
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Disney has launched an official Web site for its upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe film, which opens Dec. 9.
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House of Wax star Chad Michael Murray married his One Tree Hill co-star Sophia Bush April 16 in a seaside ceremony at the Casa del Mar Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., the Associated Press reported.
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Eleven fans of the Mad Max SF film series, armed with fake machine guns, were arrested in San Antonio after they surrounded a tanker truck while making their way to a movie marathon in a theatrical convoy, the Associated Press reported.
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The BBC reported that British actor David Tennant (U.K. TV's Casanova) will star in the upcoming second season of its Doctor Who series, taking over from Christopher Eccleston, who left at the end of season one.
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Dark Horizons reported that Hugh Jackman may be talking with his onetime X-Men director Bryan Singer about appearing in Singer's currently shooting Superman Returns, possibly in a flashback sequence as Jonathan Kent.
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The BlackFilm Web site reported that Nick Nolte, Catherine O'Hara, William Shatner, Steve Carell, Eugene Levy, Wanda Sykes and Avril Lavigne have joined the voice cast of the DreamWorks animated comedy Over the Hedge.
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