Cody Offers Jennifer Peek

Oscar-winning writer Diablo Cody (Juno) told SCI FI Wire that her follow-up feature, the horror film Jennifer's Body, has been "evolved" well beyond her original story, which she developed back "when I still had a day job."

"When I wrote it, I was playing," Cody said in an interview on the film's set in Vancouver, Canada, on May 13. "I had planned on it being a little gorier and maybe a little exploitative, a little more lurid."

Jennifer's Body stars Megan Fox (Transformers) in the title role, a high-school hottie who finds herself possessed by a hungry demon with an appetite for boys. The film is co-produced by Cody's Juno helmer Jason Reitman and is directed by Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux).

With only two shooting days left, SCI FI Wire was on set in Vancouver (standing in for the fictional town of Devil's Kettle, Minn.) to observe a bit of filming, in which a sexy rock band's leader (played by an emo-channeling, eyeliner-wearing Adam Brody) sets fire to the bar in which they're playing, inciting a panic. When asked if she was influenced by the infamous pyrotechnics incident involving the band Great White a few years back, Cody said no, but acknowledged that the phenomenon of crowd hysteria is terrifying. "What a horrifying thing," Cody said. "When you think about it--not that tragedy specifically, but the scenario where people are trapped and the impulse to escape is actually what winds up killing them."

Cody said that her collaborators helped elevate the story of Jennifer's Body beyond her expectations. "The thing is, there are such talented people involved, outside of myself, that I think it became more atmospheric," she said. "A little creepier and maybe even a little more highbrow, which is cool. Rosemary's Baby is one of my favorite movies--it's really the definition of this sort of art-house horror movie."

On the subject of Jennifer's Body being an R-rated horror movie with art-house aesthetics, Cody allowed that she originally wrote the film with teenage girls very much in mind. "I hope it has things that excite teenagers, to be honest," she said with a laugh. "I hope they're not bored!" Jennifer's Body is wrapping production this week with an eye to a 2009 release. --Staci Layne WilsonCloverfield Sequel Not Certain?

J.J. Abrams, co-producer of the hit monster film Cloverfield, said that a sequel may or may not happen and revealed that he's more inclined to do something with his Cloverfield partners, writer Drew Goddard and director Matt Reeves, other than a follow-up.

"We're talking about it," Abrams said of Cloverfield 2 during an interview at the Fox upfront presentation for advertisers in New York on May 15, where he was promoting his upcoming SF TV series Fringe. "But the truth is there's another idea that I'd rather do with the same people than do a sequel. It's a whole new thing."

Abrams added, "So my dream is to work with [Goddard and Reeves] again, but do something that's [new]. Having said that, Drew and Matt both, separately, have really good ideas for what [Cloverfield 2] could be. So I don't know. We'll see. I know the studio wants it." --Ian SpellingStoltz Joins Caprica Cast

Eric Stoltz (SCI FI Channel's Triangle) has signed on to star opposite Esai Morales in SCI FI's two-hour Battlestar Galactica prequel pilot Caprica, while Frances Fisher has been tapped for an eight-episode arc on Eureka, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Alessandra Toressani also has come aboard the NBC Universal Cable Studios-produced Caprica. Stoltz will play Daniel Graystone, a wealthy computer engineer who, after an emotionally crippling family tragedy, uses his technological wizardry to forever change the future of Caprica. Toressani plays Daniel's daughter, Zoe.

In Eureka, Fisher will play Samantha Thorne, aka "the Fixer," a corporate titan who is brought in to clean up Global Dynamics. Eureka kicks off its third season July 29.Nimoy Intimidated Trek's Abrams

J.J. Abrams, director of the recently wrapped Star Trek reboot movie, told SCI FI Wire that it felt illogical to him to give input to co-star Leonard Nimoy on how best to play Spock.

Nimoy, of course, reprises his legendary role as the older version of the Vulcan character in a pivotal supporting performance in Abrams' film, which revisits the original series' characters and universe.

"The intimidating thing was going up to him and saying, 'Here's one thing you should do ...,'" Abrams said on May 15 during an interview at the Fox upfront presentation for advertisers, where he was on hand to support his upcoming SF TV series Fringe. "It was sort of like, 'Who the hell am I to tell you what to do? You're Spock.'"

Nimoy, Abrams added, quickly allayed his fears. "The truth is he would literally grab me and say, 'No, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me.' When I say he was a sweetheart, ... working with him was like working with the greatest person you'd ever work with. He was just open and curious and hungry to do better. That ended up being a pure joy. I mean, I love the man. Love the man." Fringe will premiere on Aug. 26. Star Trek is set to beam into theaters on May 9, 2009. --Ian SpellingFox Unveils New SF Strategy

Fringe and Dollhouse, the two new genre shows that Fox will add to its schedule during the 2008-'09 season, will be the beneficiaries of an experimental strategy called "Remote-Free TV," the network announced during its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on May 15.

Fringe, the J.J. Abrams-produced series set to kick off with a two-hour premiere on Aug. 26, and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, which will debut in midseason, will both air with fewer commercials and fewer promotional spots for other Fox shows.

"It's a simple concept and potentially revolutionary," Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori said during the presentation. "We're going to have less commercials, less promotional time and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We're going to redefine the viewing experience."

Liguori added: "Some people might think this is a scary financial prospect. We really see it as an investment. We need to give viewers a new reason to come to broadcast TV.”

Additionally, Fox revealed that Fringe will be filmed in New York and announced that it will air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following House, in the fall. In early 2009, it will follow the juggernaut American Idol.

Also on the fall schedule is the returning SF series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which will air on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. When it premieres early next year, Dollhouse will take over the Terminator timeslot.

The network briefly mentioned Boldly Going Nowhere, an SF sitcom spoof that is in development by the team behind It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. No pilot has been filmed yet.

The network made no mention of Virtuality, an SF pilot that Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor (SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica) are developing. --Ian SpellingFD4 Has Two Bangs In 3-D

David R. Ellis, director of the upcoming 3-D sequel film Final Destination 4, told SCI FI Wire that the fourth installment in the popular franchise will kick off with a disaster at a racetrack and, unlike the previous films, will include a second major disaster: an explosion at a movie theater.

SCI FI Wire was among a group of journalists in New Orleans on May 13 to observe filming (possible spoilers ahead!), which included blowing up the theater, part of a chain reaction of disasters that will take place inside a shopping mall. Production took place in a warehouse converted into a soundstage, in which a movie theater had been built. Actors were made up to appear as if they had suffered grievous injuries from the explosion, which was being shot in several segments.

Ellis added that FD4 will also stand out because it's the first 3-D live-action movie shot on regular sets and not against green screens.

"The shoot is awesome," said Ellis, who also directed the second installment in the supernatural disaster series. "We're living the dream. We're making movies and getting paid for it and blowing people up and killing them, and it's all good."

FD4 begins with a crash during a stock-car race, which launches debris into the crowded stands. As in the previous films, the disaster takes place in the mind of the central character, whose premonition then saves the lives of his companions. But death doesn't leave them alone for long.

The 3-D element is new. "There are great directors, like [James] Cameron and all these guys out there, who are on the forefront of this technology," Ellis said. "And to be a part of that is awesome for me. This is a perfect genre for a 3-D movie."

Producer Craig Perry added: "Obviously there's a number of 3-D movies coming out next year. Many of them are the CG Disney animated films and concert films. This is a blissfully R-rated film."

Perry said the horror movie will make good use of the technology. "I think that we'll be able to deliver a product that best exemplifies what 3-D is capable of giving the audience," he said. Final Destination 4 is currently in production with an eye to a 2009 release. --Resa NelsonAtlantis Will Have New Sets

SCI FI Wire got a peek at new sets for SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate Atlantis in Vancouver, Canada, and gleaned a few details of the ships that will appear in the show's upcoming fifth season.

On May 15, a group of reporters toured the main Atlantis sets, an "alien village" set where filming was underway and two new ship sets at Bridge Studios. One ship, still under construction, was described as a "Traveller ship." It was a small set, very dark and claustrophobic. The interior bulkheads were flat black and studded with all varieties of mechanical junk. Bundles of cable hung everywhere.

The set suggested a cramped, deteriorating ship that would be uncomfortable to fly, if not downright dangerous. This ship is a "swing" set meant to be used once in an upcoming episode and then broken down.

The second, however, was a standing set, meaning viewers can expect to see it repeatedly. This set appears to be a new model of Wraith Hive Ship, including a distinctly insectile throne for the Wraith Queen. It's considerably larger than the Traveller ship set and more elaborate than earlier Wraith ships.

Organic in design, like previous ships, the new vessel has walls that resemble pale membranes of flesh, hung on an ornate, bony framework and shot through with blood vessels. In a few places this membrane has been torn away, revealing interior structures that look like bundled muscle fibers. The entire set looks as if it should be dripping with slime. In particular, the skeletal framework appears to be speckled with some kind of yellowish substance. The set hints at an even nastier vision of the Wraith for the new season.

Stargate Atlantis' 20-episode season fifth season will include the series' benchmark 100th episode. --John SullivanClooney To Stare At Goats

George Clooney will star in Men Who Stare at Goats, an adaptation of British journalist Jon Ronson's book, about the U.S. Army's First Earth Battalion, a unit that was to use paranormal powers, Variety reported. The title refers to the notion that one can kill a goat by staring at it.

Clooney's Smoke House partner Grant Heslov will direct the film, which was written by Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People).

The project has been around for some time, but international buyers only just received the script this week as the Cannes Film Festival and market got started.Caspian Wanted Unknowns

Andrew Adamson, the director and co-writer of the upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, told SCI FI Wire that he intentionally cast actors who aren't household names.

"I made a very conscious choice in the last film, with casting Tilda [Swinton]," Adamson told reporters in New York earlier this month. "I didn't want 'such-and-such as the White Witch.' I think in terms of a fantasy realm, you are asking the audience to go one step further if you are asking them to believe that someone they've seen over and over again, to now believe them in a new role and believe they are in a new world."

The biggest role to cast in the sequel was that of Prince Caspian, which eventually went to the British-born, 26-year-old actor Ben Barnes.

"The net to find Caspian was cast around the world," Adamson said. "I wanted to make the Telmarines of Mediterranean descent, what with the whole thing about them coming from pirates. I started casting in Italy, Spain, France and Central America. Ben came as a surprise when Gail [Stevens] sent us his tape. He got the nuance in the script in one of the scenes he decided to audition with that I hadn't seen any of the other actors get. And by this time it was very late in the game, as I was already prepping in New Zealand. I arranged for him to fly to L.A., and I met him there. He's very charming, and he looked the part. He was a very accomplished young man who still looked like he was 16 years old, and I wanted someone who looked very different from William [Moseley, who plays Peter]."

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which is based on C.S. Lewis' book, opens May 16. --Tara BennettCaspian's Popplewell Got To Fight

Anna Popplewell, who reprises the role of older sister Susan Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, told SCI FI Wire that her character gets to be in the thick of the battle this time around, unlike the first movie.

"I wasn't involved in any of battle stuff last time around, so to be the only one on the battlefield in a skirt is interesting," Popplewell told reporters during a press day in New York earlier this month. "I made sure I did twice as much horse-riding training as the boys before I got to New Zealand, because I didn't want to get left behind. Of course, I pretended I had no training whatsoever, so I just looked like a seamless professional."

In the sequel, which is based on C.S. Lewis' book, Susan has matured into a less reserved and more passionate character who fights shoulder to shoulder with her siblings and the outcast Narnians to save their beloved world.

"Caspian wasn't necessarily easier or harder; it was just different," Popplewell said. "This one was bigger. When you're dealing with a Telmarine army and a Narnia army, suddenly there are 300 extras training in one area and a huge prosthetics tent in another, and you are catering for 1,000 people. Even having experience with the huge scale of the first movie, I was surprised by how big everything was."

As for reuniting with her castmates--Georgie Henley, William Moseley and Skandar Keynes--Popplewell said, "The four of us are very close. We spend a lot of time together, and when people send people on summer camps or bonding trips, they do things like high-rope climbs and extraordinary things. When you do extraordinary things with people, like fighting battles or simulating wars, you bond quickly. We stayed friends between the movies, so I don't see any reason it will stop now." (Spoilers ahead!)

At the end of Caspian (as in the book), Susan and Peter (Moseley) are told they will not be returning to Narnia. Popplewell said her final scene was in keeping with the more physical tone of the film.

"I was with Pete [Dinklage, who plays Trumpkin], falling off the edge of [Aslan's] Howl, doing a 15-foot drop, where Pete catches me," Popplewell said. "It was interesting and appropriately surreal to spend my last Narnian shoot day jumping off some sort of cliff." The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens May 16. --Tara BennettCaspian's Action Kid-Friendly

Andrew Adamson, director and co-writer of the upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, told SCI FI Wire that the sequel has more intense action than the first film, but that it remains a family-friendly film.

"I did want it to be intense and a relatively hard PG but still be accessible to smaller children," Adamson told reporters during a press day in New York earlier this month. "But I wanted it to have a reality and jeopardy to it so that the life-and-death situations feel real. It's always a hard thing, because I think different people have a different level of acceptance to how exposed they want their kids to be to intense action. I don't think it's violent, and I don't think there is anything graphic or gratuitous."

Prince Caspian is the sequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and places the Pevensie children back in Narnia, but a thousand years after their previous visit. The story involves war and a rebellion against a repressive king.

"The action is quite intense and tense at times," Adamson said. "I think the scene in the castle raid, where [Caspian, played by Ben Barnes, and Peter Pevensie, played by William Moseley,] are running out, and some others get left behind, you don't see a lot of carnage, but you know there are some being left to die. It has an emotional impact, and I wanted to achieve that."

A father of two daughters himself, Adamson said that he has become adept at gauging ways to make the cinematic violence easier for children to watch.

"The main thing is that you have to be careful about duration, like duration of the sound," Adamson said. "You don't want kids to feel beaten up at the end, rather be excited by the action but not feel their ears are blown out. Also not to carry [the violence] too long and have some breaks to get away from it. One of the things that was almost unintentional but worked very well is that in the middle of the climactic battle, we cut away to Lucy [Georgie Henley]. In some ways, cinematically, that's a nightmare, because you have all this action, and then you are in a scene with two people talking. But in retrospect, it was a huge relief to have a break from the battle."

Unlike the book by C.S. Lewis on which it is based, Prince Caspian inserts Susan Pevensie (Anna Popplewell) into the battle action to provide a strong role model to girls.

"I know C.S. Lewis didn't think women should fight, but I have a different view about how strong or assertive women should be," Adamson said. "That was something I discussed and said there was no way I was making a film that says that." The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens May 16. --Tara BennettCaspian's Barnes Worked Virtually

Ben Barnes, the star of the upcoming sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, told SCI FI Wire that it was a challenge to work on a project where so many of the sets and characters were all left to the actor's imagination.

"It was very hard, and I found that hard to get used to," Barnes told reporters during a press day in New York earlier this month.

Primarily a theater actor before Prince Caspian, Barnes said it was surprising to see how many things changed and evolved between the principle photography and the film that ended up on screen, like the swashbuckling animated mouse called Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard).

"Reepicheep's dialogue onscreen was nothing like what it was in the script," Barnes said. He added: "It was brilliant. Eddie Izzard is one of my heroes, so to have done scenes with him that he wasn't even there for was quite a treat. But for the scene where he jumps on me [on set], it was somebody reading from a script over there on a really long pole with a wire. You are talking to a wire with a little orange dot on the top!"

After watching the premiere screening of the film in New York on May 2, Barnes said that he was very happy with the final product.

"I was most pleased about the relationships between myself and Peter and Susan Pevensie," Barnes said. "I thought they were a lot more subtle than they felt when we were filming. They were a lot more born out of the situations that they found themselves in rather than just hating each other as characters. [Spoiler ahead!] Like with the kiss between us at the end, she looks away, and it's like she thinks, 'Why not?' It felt like something that a real 16-year-old girl might be thinking." The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens May 16. --Tara BennettBarnes: Caspian Is Lost Soul

Ben Barnes, who plays the heroic title character in the upcoming sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, told SCI FI Wire that he starts out as a bit of a tragic character because of his sad upbringing in the land of Telmarine.

"Caspian is an earnest character," Barnes told reporters during a press day in New York earlier this month. "He's a bit of a lost soul."

The film, based on C.S. Lewis' classic novel of the same name (spoilers ahead!), has the backstory that Caspian's parents died when he was young and he was subsequently raised by his villainous uncle Miraz. In the opening minutes of the film, Miraz seeks to murder his nephew in order to usurp the throne.

"Caspian hasn't been parented and has been brought up by someone who essentially doesn't care about him at all and is just waiting to have his own heir so he can get rid of him," the English-born Barnes said. "That's not a very loving environment to be brought up in. The closest thing he has is his professor, and that was probably only a couple of years."

Prince Caspian played a big part in the subsequent Lewis book, and the actor confirmed that he will return to the role in October to begin shooting the next movie installment, called The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

"He's an interesting character, and I'm excited to see how he develops," Barnes said. "But in the next film, he won't suddenly become this macho, musing, quipping king." The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens May 16. --Tara BennettCBS Slays Moonlight

CBS has decided not to renew the freshman vampire drama Moonlight for a second season, Variety reported. Despite confidence among the show's cast and crew and a core audience of dedicated fans, declining ratings and creative upheaval behind the scenes did not impress CBS. The show has had five different show runners during its first year, and budgetary issues have been a source of conflict between the studio and the network.

The final episode, "Sonata," finds lovesick vampire Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) joining with his fellow vampires when they are threatened with exposure. It airs Friday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.Moonlight Fans: Don't Write Me!

SCI FI Wire has been inundated with misdirected e-mails asking for the SCI FI Channel to pick up CBS' canceled vampire drama Moonlight.

SCI FI Wire is the daily news service of SCIFI.COM and has nothing to do with the programming or policies of SCI FI Channel.

All e-mails sent to scifiwire@scifi.com about Moonlight will be deleted. The SCI FI Wire e-mail address is for news tips or comments about SCI FI Wire stories.

If you wish to write SCI FI Channel, it's best to do so by snail mail: 21st floor, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112. Butterfly 3 Takes Wing

BenderSpink and FilmEngine announced that they will produce a third installment of the time-bending Butterfly Effect film franchise, which is slated to begin production Sept. 1 in Vancouver, Canada. Holly Brix (Mile Zero) wrote the screenplay, and casting is currently underway.

After Dark Films will also produce the film and will distribute it theatrically as part of its After Dark Horrorfest "8 Films to Die For" series.

In The Butterfly Effect 3, a young man discovers he has inherited the power to alter the past with his mind and attempts to solve the mystery of his high-school girlfriend's death using his newfound ability, only to unleash a vicious serial killer unwittingly.

The first movie, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart, came out in 2004 and was followed by a 2006 sequel.Japan Doesn't Surrender In 1945

Alternate-history author Robert Conroy, whose novel 1945 is a finalist for this year's Sidewise Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book is based on a real historical coup that very nearly happened toward the end of World War II.

"Immediately after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, [Japanese Emperor] Hirohito convinced the Japanese militarists to surrender, but there was a coup to prevent the surrender and commence a fight to the death," Conroy said in an interview. "The coup very nearly succeeded. In 1945 it does succeed."

The novel uses the actual plans developed by the United States to invade Japan that had been developed separately from the atomic-bomb program. "The invasion would have targeted the rugged island of Kyushu, which would have been defended by half a million Japanese," Conroy said. "The political ramifications are covered, as is life on the home front, where the population is getting very, very restless."

In real-life history, the coup came within a hair of succeeding. "The closeness of it intrigued me," Conroy said. "Japan could never have won the war, but the actions of the fanatics in charge would have caused the tragic bloodbath that occurs in 1945. The warlords didn't care. They preferred an honorable death. They hoped that enormous American casualties would result in a negotiated peace."

One of the primary characters in the book is Joe Nomura, a Japanese-American war vet who lost an arm fighting for the United States in Italy. "He is landed in Japan as an OSS agent and is able to describe events from the Japanese perspective as he is able to move about Japan," Conroy said. "He even gets involved with Hirohito. Curiously, and to my pleasant surprise, many readers find him the more fascinating of the two."

Conroy's next alternate history, 1942, is scheduled for publication in March of next year. "It's a different twist on Pearl Harbor and what might have happened if the Japanese had pressed the attack as planned," he said. "It would have been catastrophic for the U.S. and the people of Hawaii. 'What ifs' about Pearl Harbor are numerous, but Random House feels, as do I, that this perspective is unique." --John Joseph Adams JLA's Brody Back In A Flash?

Adam Brody, who was connected to George Miller's now-stalled Justice League movie, told reporters that he'd still like to play the character of the Flash should the movie go forward, but that he has no inside knowledge about when that might be.

"I am a huge George Miller fan, and I'm a huge comic fan, so I'd still hang in," Brody said in a group interview on the set of the horror movie Jennifer's Body in Vancouver, Canada, on May 13. "But maybe I won't be. I know Ryan Reynolds was attached to The Flash for a while, and then I got the part, and then I read on the Internet, 'Oh, he's no Ryan Reynolds! He's the only Flash.' So if I don't do it, hopefully in a year or so it'll go to somebody else, and he'll get s--t for not being me, and I was the only person that could ever have conceivably been the Flash."

Brody was one of several young Hollywood actors who were linked with Miller's superhero movie, which is now on hold.

When asked if he'd consider playing a different superhero in the proposed adaptation of the DC Comics franchise, Brody laughed. ""F--k Ant Man, man," he said. "As for other heroes? There are a lot. I'm trying to think more in terms of graphic novels off the beaten path. They're making a lot of them. But as I kid, I mean aside from The Flash, which I like, who's always been a dream, would be to be Spider-Man. I always associated the most with Peter Parker. The rest are all [cool]. I mean, I could never be Batman, obviously. So they're making a lot of awesome graphic-novel movies that maybe I could be in, but the only one that from a kid that I've always been jealous of is Spider-Man."

Brody is currently wrapping Jennifer's Body, which is slated to open in 2009. --Staci Layne WilsonContinuum Expands SG-1

Brad Wright, writer and executive producer of Stargate: Continuum, told SCI FI Wire that making a Stargate feature film is very different from making series episodes. "We've done so many two-parters, you'd think it would be easy to just make it longer," said Wright, who spoke to SCI FI Wire following a press screening of the direct-to-DVD film in Vancouver, B.C., on May 14.

But a feature, Wright explained, has a very different structure.

"It's much more fun in some ways to do a movie, because the story can evolve the way it's supposed to. It doesn't have to owe anything to the episode before or the episode after. That was the fun part, to actually write a movie and not just a long episode."

Wright took that opportunity to have some fun and ran with it. Stargate: Continuum features the return of beloved series actors such as Richard Dean Anderson and Don S. Davis, as well as fan-favorite villain Ba'al, played by Cliff Simon. Fans of Claudia Black's Vala will see a whole new side of her character as well.

But perhaps the biggest difference is the chance to take a deeper look into the personalities of the main characters, made possible by the more luxurious running time. Even amid all the action, one of the film's highlights is a sequence in which Mitchell (Ben Browder), Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Jackson (Michael Shanks) return to an Earth where the entire Stargate project never happened.

In this timeline, Jackson's still a lone crank writing about pyramids, Carter was an astronaut who died in a shuttle accident and Mitchell never existed at all. The current government doesn't want to hear about restoring the timeline, as they're quite happy with the one they've got. And so the remaining members of SG-1 are retired and must struggle to adjust to new lives in a world that isn't their own.

The film includes a scene in which Carter goes shopping and Mitchell returns to a farm he visited as a boy. Wright said he couldn't have gotten away with such character drama in an SG-1 episode.

"[There] are things that I could type in an episode of television, but would be the first things to go once I got in the concept meeting because I just wouldn't have the schedule for it," he said. "That's time-eating material. You have to move a whole unit to a location and shoot what is ultimately three seconds or five seconds of film."

With more time and more resources to work with, Wright and the producers and cast of Stargate: Continuum have taken their world and characters in new directions. They've also pushed the envelope for what the Stargate franchise can do as MGM considers whether to do more movies or create a third series. Stargate: Continuum launches on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 29. --John SullivanFox OKs Fringe, Dollhouse

J.J. Abrams' supernatural series Fringe has received a plum timeslot on Fox's 2008-'09 schedule, the network revealed at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on May 15. Fringe, one of just two new shows on the new schedule, will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m., behind the hit medical drama House. The two-hour series premiere of Fringe is scheduled for Aug. 26.

The network also confirmed that the highly anticipated Joss Whedon creation Dollhouse will be held until midseason. It will air Mondays at 8 p.m., leading into another Fox hit, 24.

As expected, the supernatural drama New Amsterdam, which premiered this year in midseason, did not make the schedule.CBS Favors Fantasy, Supernatural

CBS on May 14 unveiled a 2008-'09 programming slate that featured a heavy dose of new and returning supernatural and fantasy series--including the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Eleventh Hour and The Mentalist--but put a stake in its on-the-bubble vampire series Moonlight. The announcements came during CBS' upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.

The new shows include the highly touted drama The Ex List, which is based on an Israeli series and stars Elizabeth Reaser as a woman who's told by a tarot card reader that she must soon marry a man--a man she's already met. As a result, she reconnects with her exes in a search for her destined Mr. Right.

The other new shows include Eleventh Hour, an adaptation of a British TV series of the same name, which starred Patrick Stewart. Rufus Sewell stars as a brilliant biophysicist and government investigator delving into cases involving scientific anomalies.

The Mentalist stars Simon Baker as a man who uses his innate powers of deduction to assist the police.

Among the network's returning shows is Ghost Whisperer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Explaining the cancellation of Moonlight to reporters, CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler confirmed that the network's experience with Jericho, which lost viewers after it was renewed for a second season, affected the decision regarding Moonlight. "We had a very passionate fan base, and that's a good thing," Tassler said. "We just had to make a lot of tough calls." Tassler also stated that Moonlight would not resurface on sister network The CW.

Ghost Whisperer and The Ex List will air back to back on Friday nights in the fall, aimed at a similar audience of advertiser-desirable women. "Women drive network television," Tassler said. "Women watch our procedurals and comedies, and we wanted to build on that. We've added more female faces to the network." --Ian SpellingDel Toro Hosts Hobbit Chat

Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro are inviting fans to a live Internet chat about the upcoming The Hobbit, which Jackson is producing and del Toro is directing. During the chat, billed as "An Unexpected Party," Jackson and del Toro will answer questions from participants and listen to comments about the two proposed films.

Based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkein, The Hobbit is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings and centers on the adventures of hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Del Toro has signed on to direct two separate installments.

The chat is being hosted by Weta, the special effects house currently working on The Hobbit. Fans can register for the "Unexpected Party" at the company's official Web site.Goosebumps Coming To Film

Columbia Pictures has acquired the rights from Scholastic Media to bring R.L. Stine's young-adult Goosebumps series to the big screen for the first time, Variety reported. The Goosebumps books have sold 300 million copies, second only to Scholastic's Harry Potter series.

Scholastic's Deborah Forte is producing alongside Neal Moritz via his Sony-based Original Film banner. Sony and Scholastic see the property as a potential franchise.

The studio is fast-tracking the project and is focusing on finding a writer. Moritz said they likely will cast unknown child actors and then pepper the film with well-known thesps in supporting roles, much as Warner did with the Harry Potter franchise.

First published in 1992, the original Goosebumps series comprises more than 50 books and has been published in 32 languages. Stine's Goosebumps HorrorLand books--a new 12-book series that features characters from the original series such as Slappy the Dummy, the Haunted Mask and the Mummy--hit shelves last month. In the fall, Scholastic Interactive will launch a Goosebumps video game.

The series also spawned a live-action TV show that aired on the Fox Kids Network in the 1990s. Episodes of that series returned to the small screen last year on Cartoon Network.Dante Directing Out Of Hell

Veteran director Joe Dante will helm the independent horror film Bat Out of Hell for Parallel Zide and VooDoo Prods, Variety reported. Shooting is expected to begin later this year.

Bat Out of Hell, written by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan, centers on a red-eye flight from L.A. to New York during which hijackers confront the monstrous cargo.

Dante's credits include Piranha, both Gremlins films, Small Soldiers and the Masters of Horror TV series. McWeeny has also worked on Masters of Horror, spent 12 years at online site Ain't It Cool News and has teamed with Swan on Dread, Mortal Kombat: Devastation and a remake of Race With the Devil.

Zide, producer of the American Pie and Final Destination franchises, is partnering with Parallel Media in a $70 million production financing deal covering eight films.Panda's Black Draws Cannes Crowd

DreamWorks Animation celebrated the worldwide premiere of its martial-arts comedy Kung Fu Panda at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14 with a photo op featuring star Jack Black and 40 costumed performers dressed as his panda character in the film. Black arrived via water taxi at the Carlton Hotel pier, where he posed for pictures with the group of giant pandas.

The film is set to open the 61st annual Cannes Film Festival on May 15, with a red-carpet event at the famous Palais des Festivals. Also expected to attend the premiere are co-stars Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie and Lucy Liu, as well as directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, producer Melissa Cobb and DreamWorks Animation's Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The Kung Fu Panda appearances and activities will also be broadcast in real time to fans around the globe, thanks to satellite hookups beaming the "Pandamonium" worldwide. The film opens nationwide in the U.S. on June 6, 2008. Heavens Looks Up And Out

SF author David J. Williams told SCI FI Wire that the core of his novel The Mirrored Heavens is an attempt to extrapolate across the next century two trends that are currently in their infancy.

They are "the weaponization of space, as well as cyberspace, and, to add to that a geopolitical development, namely the rise of a new Eastern superpower capable of threatening the United States on a global scale and challenging it in the heavens as well," Williams said in an interview.

The book revolves around the largest terrorist attack to occur in space: the destruction of the Phoenix Space Elevator. "In the aftermath of the blast, the mysterious insurgent group Autumn Rain issues no demands, but threatens the world's two superpowers with annihilation--even as those two superpowers suspect each other of backing the new player," Williams said. "As the world moves to the brink of war, a small team of agents search the Earth-Moon system for the bases in which the Rain are preparing a second, even greater strike."

The agents work in pairs, Williams said: "'Razors' hack the wires and 'mechs' work the street," he said. "Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe work for U.S. Counter Intelligence Command (CICom). She's the razor and he's the mech: They were lovers when they were in their late teens, though they discover fairly early in the book that their memories of that time may just be implants placed there by their spymasters for reasons of their own."

As a reader, Williams has always loved books in which there are no easy answers. So in The Mirrored Heavens, there's a lot of ambiguity, he said. "Different characters have access to different information as the book unfolds," he said. "Some of them have flawed information, and the reader in some ways is the only person able to piece together the big picture."

Williams' formal academic training is in history, so he wanted to build a world that had a believable historical background. "In fact, the first thing I did back when I started was to draw up pages upon pages of timelines, weapons systems, documents and glossaries," he said. "There were [originally] about 20 appendices in [the book]. ... Most of it's now up on the Web site." --John Joseph AdamsBeast To Appear in Magneto?

Latino Review recently visited the creature shop where designers are working on Hellboy II: The Golden Army and reported that there was a picture on display depicting a young Beast in the upcoming X-Men spinoff film Magneto.

The report stated that the figure in the picture had a tail, leading readers to suspect that it might have been Nightcrawler and not the Beast (both characters have blue fur), but a representative from the creature shop is on record identifying the character as the Beast and confirming that he will be in Magneto.Hancock Reshoots In NYC

Will Smith was spotted in Manhattan's Times Square filming additional scenes for the upcoming superhero film Hancock, which is scheduled to open in less than two months, according to TheBadandUgly.com.

The site also reported a rumor that the film has been submitted to the MPAA twice, and has received an R rating each time. The producers would prefer a rating of PG-13 in order to appeal to the widest audience possible over the July 4th weekend, when Hancock is due for release, but due to scenes depicting adult content and under-age drinking, it may need to be heavily edited in order to achieve that rating.Corman Doc In The Works

A documentary feature based on the life of B-movie director Roger Corman is in the works from director Alex Stapleton, Variety reported.

King of the B's: The Independent Life of Roger Corman will examine the impact of Corman, who directed more than 50 films and produced more than 300 over five decades. It will also highlight Corman's impact on the industry through creating films like Little Shop of Horrors and mentoring auteurs such as Martin Scorsese. Another aspect will be to show how films like Alexandre Aja's upcoming remake Piranha 3-D continue his legacy.

Stapleton, who produced Spike TV and Canal Plus' documentary Just for Kicks will make his feature directorial debut with King. Stick 'N Stone Productions will finance the project. Clone Wars Coming To Disneyworld

Lucasfilm has released the official schedule for the upcoming Star Wars Weekends event at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Fla., which includes a sneak peek at the upcoming animated feature Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

This year's event takes place at the theme park every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from June 6 through June 29. Among the features offered to fans will be "Behind the Force – Experience The Clone Wars," an exploration of the creation of this groundbreaking Star Wars feature film. Fans will get a chance to meet a representative of Lucasfilm and, at the culmination of the presentation, see an exclusive clip of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Star Wars Weekends will also feature celebrities from the classic, live-action movies, who will be on hand each weekend for photos, autograph sessions and motorcades. All four weekends, Star Wars actor Warwick Davis (Wicket) will serve as celebrity emcee and host of the event. Among the other scheduled celebrities and special guests at this year’s Star Wars Weekends are Dave Filoni, director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Matthew Wood, who provided voices for the movie and the upcoming television series debuting this fall.

A weekend-by-weekend lineup of celebrities scheduled to appear includes (subject to change):

June 6-8: Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) and Daniel Logan (young Boba Fett)
June 13-15: Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and David Prowse (Darth Vader)
June 20-22: Amy Allen (Aayla Secura) and Matthew Wood (General Grievous and voice artist in The Clone Wars)
June 27-29: Dave Filoni

Other activities include the "Padawan Mind Challenge," allowing kids under 12 to test their wits before the Jedi Council; "Legends of the Force," a motorcade featuring favorite Star Wars celebrities; and "Jedi Training Academy," where young Jedi wannabes can learn lightsaber battle techniques and test their newfound skills against Darth Vader or Darth Maul. In addition, Lucasfilm and Disney’s Hollywood Studios will offer a host of surprises throughout the four weekends.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars opens in theaters Aug. 15.CBS Films Acquires The Eternals

CBS Films has pre-emptively bought a pitch for a supernatural-themed script titled The Eternals, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film will reunite the Never Back Down team of writer Chris Hauty, director Jeff Wadlow and producer Craig Baumgarten.

Plot details of Hauty's pitch are being kept under wraps, but it is described as a romantic supernatural thriller set on a college campus. Hauty is working on the script, which is expected to be ready in time to be Wadlow's next project.

Wadlow, whose credits also include the teen thriller Cry Wolf, is attached to helm the political satire Hail to the Thief for Focus Features and The Tomb for Summit.

Hauty, a former playwright, has several screenplays in development, including Beautiful Killer, starring Jessica Alba.'Always' Has Cult Following

SF/fantasy author Karen Joy Fowler, whose story "Always" won this year's Nebula Award for best short story, told SCI FI Wire that the story involves an immortality cult and was inspired by two different real-life cults.

"There was a short-lived (ha!) cult of immortals in Oroville, Calif., in about the 1930s," Fowler said in an interview. "The cult leader was a man they called Brother Isaiah. He charged a significant fee to join (you wouldn't expect immortality to come cheap) and died himself of a heart attack soon after gathering his flock." (The story was originally published in Asimov's.)

The other cult lasted much longer and was located, as Fowler's imaginary one is, in California's Santa Cruz Mountains. "This second cult was known as Holy City, run by a man named William Riker," Fowler said. "I was researching Holy City for my novel Wit's End and had lots of colorful details left over. William Riker was a white supremacist who claimed to have invented Hawaiian Punch and whose pamphlets were often illustrated by Basil Wolverton of Mad magazine fame. Holy City also appears to have been less about religion and more about money. For a long time it was primarily a roadside arcade with peep shows, a telescope, a petting zoo and a radio station."

The story is set in the period just before World War II and is the tale of a young girl who, following the lead of her boyfriend, joins a cult--located in a city called Always--that promises immortality to its members. "The story is in first person, so we know a great deal of what the protagonist thinks and sees and less about who she is or when she came from," Fowler said. "She is a young girl when she first arrives in Always, appears to be fleeing a difficult home situation and is rather passive and easily led. Mostly, she just seems very ordinary. But by the time she tells the story of the cult, she is the only one left. My original title was 'The Last of the Immortals.'"

The aforementioned Wit's End was published last month by Putnam, and Fowler is currently at work on a new novel. --John Joseph AdamsABC Orders Life On Mars

ABC has given a series order to the time-travel drama Life on Mars, the network confirmed during its upfront presentation for advertisers on May 13.

An American adaptation of the popular BBC SF series of the same name, Life on Mars will be executive-produced by David E. Kelley, who owns the rights to the show. It will star Irish actor Jason O'Mara (Resident Evil: Extinction) as a modern-day cop who is transported back to the 1970s.

Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, who previously oversaw the not-renewed ABC drama October Road, will join Kelley as executive producers. (It's been previously reported that Kelley will not be actively involved in running the show.)

ABC had previously announced that its genre series Pushing Daisies and Lost would return for the 2008-'09 season, and the network revealed during the upfronts that it had also picked up the on-the-bubble series Eli Stone, about a lawyer who experiences quirky visions.

Life on Mars will premiere in the fall and has landed the coveted Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT timeslot, with Grey's Anatomy as its lead-in. --Ian SpellingHolt Kept Open Mind In Skulls

NBC newsman Lester Holt, who hosts the upcoming SCI FI Channel investigative special Mystery of the Crystal Skulls, told reporters that it opened his eyes to the possible power of the title artifacts, the inspiration for the upcoming feature film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

"When I was approached with this documentary, ... just vaguely I knew about it, and I did some reading," Holt said during a May 12 conference call. "After I read it, I became intrigued enough. I said, 'You know, this sounds like something that would be fun to do.' And it was."

Some people believe the skulls, which are carved from quartz crystal, to be ancient Mayan doom prophecies or relics from the Lost City of Atlantis. Others believe that they contain the knowledge of an advanced civilization from outer space. In the special, Holt retraces the path of Frederick Mitchell-Hedges, a British adventurer-explorer, whose daughter, Anna, found the first crystal skull in the ruined Maya city of Lubaantun in modern-day Belize; Mitchell-Hedges was among the inspirations for Indiana Jones. Holt also joins Bill Homann, caretaker of the Mitchell-Hedges skull and a modern-day adventurer, on a journey through the jungles of Belize and the waters of Honduras in search of a missing skull.

Holt said that his "skepticism meter was clicking the whole way," from the moment he delved into the project. "That's what a journalist does, and there was no way I was going to even work on this unless I made sure we were going to explore all these different avenues and all the evidence that would point to this possibly being a fraud," he said. "And we did that."

Holt added: "In fact, Bill Homann, who has [the Mitchell-Hedges skull] now, I tried to shake him. I asked him a lot of pointed questions. And I came away at least with the conclusion that he's a true believer. He lived with Anna Mitchell-Hedges, knows the skull, has heard her story, has asked her many of the same questions that I asked him. And he's this true believer."

What does Holt think now? "I still don't know is the answer," he said. "You know, I also approach journalism from the standpoint that there's a lot of things we don't know and may never know, and our obligation is to ask the right questions and explore all the potential avenues. And I came away thinking this is a pretty interesting mystery. ... At the end of the day, you kind of walk away, and, as I often like to do with stories, assuming we can't get to the bottom, ... let viewers decide: Put enough information out there that they can at least in their own mind decide or perhaps explore further for the answers." Mystery of the Crystal Skulls airs May 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It caps off SCI FI's "Indiana Jones Weekend," which includes back-to-back-to-back airings on May 17 of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. --Ian SpellingKelly Won't Helm Darko 2

Richard Kelly, who wrote and directed the cult SF film Donnie Darko, wrote on his personal blog that he has received inquiries about a proposed sequel, but is not involved in any way.

"To set the record straight, here's a few facts I'd like to share with you all," Kelly wrote. "I haven't read this script. I have absolutely no involvement with this production, nor will I ever be involved."

Kelly went on to say that he and his production partner, Sean McKittrick, do not have control over the rights to the original film, and therefore would not make any money from a sequel.

He also added that he has been having an "amazing time" editing his upcoming horror film, The Box, and that a well-known band will be providing the score. It was later announced on music news site PitchforkMedia.com that the band is Arcade Fire.CBS Picks Up SF&F Pilots

CBS has given series orders to three pilots with supernatural themes for the 2008 fall television season, Variety reported. The most talked-about drama property is 20th Century Fox TV's The Ex List, based on an Israeli series about a woman who is warned by a tarot card reader that she needs to get married soon to a man who she's already known in her life. Diane Ruggiero (Veronica Mars) penned the pilot, which stars Elizabeth Reaser (Grey's Anatomy).

The network's schedule will include another British TV adaptation, the thriller Eleventh Hour, about a government investigator probing cases involving scientific anomalies. Rufus Sewell stars in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced series for Warner Brothers TV. British writer Mick Davis handled the U.S. adaptation.

Also from Warner Brothers TV is The Mentalist, from writer Bruno Heller. It stars Simon Baker (Land of the Dead) as a man who uses his innate powers of deduction to aid police.No Snow For Fear's Eisner

Director Breck Eisner told SCI FI Wire that his episode for NBC's upcoming horror anthology series Fear Itself was originally titled "Red Snow," but that it had to be changed to "The Sacrifice" because it didn't snow in Canada when they were shooting.

Eisner is one of 13 directors to helm installments of the series, which kicks off June 5. "Assuming that in Edmonton there would be a ton of snow was a false assumption," Eisner said in an interview at a press preview in Pasadena, Calif., earlier this month.

Oddly enough, other installments of the series were plagued with snow, which caused delays. "Everybody else had snow," Eisner said. "These guys [the producers] were so tired of hearing me say, 'Please, let it snow! Please, let it snow!' It snowed before I got there and after I left."

Fortunately, "The Sacrifice" turned out to be a better title for the episode, Eisner said. "And Grant Rosenberg, who is another producer and writer on it, came up with the title," he added. "And so that's the thing about television."

"The Sacrifice" stars Jeffrey Pierce (Charmed) and Rachel Miner (Medium) and involves blood-sucking vampires. "It's a very pop-ish episode," Eisner said. "It's about guys with guns and beautiful women and vampires and women trying to feed these guys to the vampires, and it's a great, fun episode. Basically it's about these guys whose car breaks down, and they show up at this very strange, fort-type structure. They don't know what they're doing there. One by one they slowly start to disappear, and we learn that there is a creature there picking them off one by one, with the aid of the women."

Eisner is also working on feature-film remakes of George Romero's The Crazies and The Creature From the Black Lagoon later this year. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Mike SzymanskiWeinsteins Reviving Fraggle Rock

The Weinstein Co. will adapt the Jim Henson series Fraggle Rock into a live-action musical feature, Variety reported. Cory Edwards (Hoodwinked!) will direct the film and write the screenplay. The Jim Henson Co. will produce and The Weinstein Co. will distribute.

Just like the series, the film will be populated by a mix of human characters and Fraggle Rock muppets. It will take the core characters Gogo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans who they think are aliens. The show premiered on HBO in 1983, ran five seasons and was broadcast in more than 80 countries. It posted strong sales recently when the first three seasons were released on DVD.

Weinstein Co. co-chair Harvey Weinstein, who has been steering his company more aggressively into the family film arena, made the marriage with Lisa Henson, who runs the Jim Henson Co. with her co-CEO brother, Brian Henson. Ahmet Zappa will be an executive producer with Brian Inerfeld.

The deal furthers the relationship between The Weinstein Co. and the creative team behind the animated feature Hoodwinked!. Edwards is reteaming with Hoodwinked! co-writer Tony Leech on the animated alien adventure Escape From Planet Earth, which will mark Leech's directing debut.

Edwards is separately developing a live-action feature adaptation of Cedar Fair's Halloween Haunt franchise, designed to be shot in 3-D by Kerner Optical and produced by Davis Entertainment, Dave Phillips and Tracey Edmonds. That film is looking for a backer.CW Bringing Back Reaper

The CW network has given a 13-episode midseason renewal to its comedic hourlong series Reaper, Variety reported. The story centers on a slacker guy (Bret Harrison) who's forced to work for the devil (Ray Wise), thanks to a Faustian bargain made years ago by his parents. The freshman series from ABC Studios has a cadre of loyal fans but has otherwise struggled in the ratings.

The renewal decision went down to the wire, coming hours before the CW's 2008-09 upfront presentation in New York on May 13, the trade paper reported.Stone Inspired By Hawking

Jeanette Winterson told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, The Stone Gods, was inspired by the idea put forth by Stephen Hawking that man must colonize space if he is to have a viable future.

"This depressed me, because we could fix our lives here if we had the will and the energy," Winterson said in an interview. "There is no need to leave this place trashed and rush out to trash somewhere else. [That is] what will happen unless we can change ourselves, which means changing the way we understand ourselves."

The book is divided into four parts. Part one, "Planet Blue," begins on Orbus, a world exactly like Earth, except far advanced into the future. "Orbus has huge population and environmental problems, which seem to be solved by the discovery of a new planet perfect for human life," Winterson said. "A mission is sent out to destroy the dinosaurs. On the mission are Billie Crusoe, a disaffected scientist turned social worker, and Spike, a robo-sapiens, a new kind of created intelligent life. Spike and Billie begin a love affair, the mission to destroy the dinosaurs takes an unexpected twist, and Planet Blue turns out to be our own Earth 65 million years ago."

Part two takes place in the 17th century. "A young seaman called Billy is marooned on Easter Island, where the inhabitants of this perfect and abundant place have destroyed their ecosystem through the stupid and futile pursuit of using up all their resources to build towering stone figures, which they then worship," Winterson said. "Billy arrives as the last tree on the island is being chopped down."

The rest of the book deals with a near-future Earth after a contained but devastating war. "A global corporation called MORE has filled the vacuum left by corrupt and useless politicians, unable to stop war or stabilize the world, and now MORE is both global employer and decision-maker," Winterson said. "Controversially, MORE is designing a robo-sapiens, a supposedly objective intelligence that will guide humanity to a better future. A woman called Billie is part of the robot design team [and is] caught in a terrorist attack. As an unwilling exile in Wreck City, where the bandits live, Billie must face her own future, which strangely and satisfyingly takes us right back into the past, where the book began." --John Joseph AdamsFonda Joins SCI FI's Revolution

Peter Fonda has joined the cast of SCI FI Channel's upcoming two-hour pilot Revolution, about a planet colonized by humans, Mark Stern, executive vice president of original programming, told SCI FI Wire.

Oscar nominee Fonda plays the patriarch grandfather of the Hart family, which has taken over "New America," a planet 50 light-years from Earth. The pilot also stars Billy Campbell, David Smith, Steve Sandvoss, Brooklyn Sudano and Rowena King.

"Peter is going to be playing the role of Lawrence Fortis, who is the patriarch grandfather of the clan," Stern said at a press day in Pasadena, Calif., earlier this month.

Revolution is created and written by Ed Redlich (Shark, Without a Trace) and John Bellucci (Jack and Bobby, Without a Trace), who will both serve as executive producers, along with executive producer Simon West (Lara Croft, Tomb Raider) and co-executive producer Jib Polhemus for Simon West Productions. The pilot is from CBS Paramount Network Television.

New America is a colony settled by the "United State of America" on a planet resembling our own. The pilot centers on the Hart family, one of the founding families of New America.

Fonda was nominated twice for an Academy Award and played Mephistopheles in Ghost Rider, Pipeline in Escape From L.A. and Chuck Browning in Futureworld. On TV, he was in Supernova and A Thief of Time. Fonda next appears in Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D this summer. --Mike SzymanskiIs Love Coming To Eureka?

Sheriff Jack Carter will find a love interest on SCI FI Channel's original series Eureka in the upcoming third season--and so will his automated house, S.A.R.A.H., producers told SCI FI Wire. (Possible spoilers ahead!)

Executive producer Charlie Craig confirmed that Carter (Colin Ferguson) will finally explore a romantic relationship. "Sheriff Carter will have a love life this year, yes," Craig said at NBC's All-American Summer Press Day in Pasadena, Calif., earlier this month.

Ferguson, who also attended the press conference along with co-creator Jaime Paglia, expressed surprise. "Yeah, oh?" he said. "On screen? Am I?"

"It's also a concern of ours," Craig said.

"Yeah, I've been pitching the girlfriend idea for about three years," Ferguson said.

Meanwhile, there's also romance in store for Carter's Self-Actuated Residential Automated Habitat (S.A.R.A.H.). "S.A.R.A.H., the smart house, well, she's grown and evolving," Paglia said. "She didn't want to be literally a housewife anymore. She wants to know what it's like to have a job and go out and date."

How could a house date? If her personality were downloaded into an avatar. "She would know what it would feel like to be able to interact and go on a date, something that she's been sort of searching for," Paglia said.

What about Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston), who has regular crushes? "We haven't given him [a girlfriend] yet," Craig said.

Paglia added: "We haven't managed to find the right one. The crushes will certainly continue." The new season of Eureka premieres July 29. --Mike SzymanskiFox Orders Fringe To Series

The Fox broadcasting network gave a series order for J.J. Abrams' SF drama Fringe for the fall, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Fox's other marquee new SF series, Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, which has a seven-episode order, is expected to launch midseason, the trade paper reported.

As expected, Fox canceled the midseason supernatural series New Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, Fox set Peter Berg to direct and executive-produce Virtuality, a two-hour SF pilot from Universal Media Studios and BermanBraun. Moss Is Terrorized In Fear

Elisabeth Moss, who appears in an episode of NBC's upcoming horror anthology series Fear Itself, told SCI FI Wire she had to learn how to hold a gun and do some stunts for the role.

Moss stars in "Eater," one of 13 stories in the series, directed by cult horror helmer Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator). "I play Danni Bannerman, who is a tough sort of tomboy goth girl, and she's also a rookie cop at this police station," Moss said. "And it's kind of the classic story of the girl and the serial killer, kind of meeting her match or not."

The title of the story refers to the serial killer, Moss added. "[It's] sort of self-explanatory," she said. "He comes to stay in the precinct on his way to a ... high-security facility, and, of course, there's a blizzard outside, and, you know, chaos ensues."

Moss' character is also a fan of horror stories. "It was great, because she sort of is a huge horror fan and is very into that, reads all the magazines, does the whole thing, and she kind of becomes a part of her own story, which is not as fun as reading about it in a magazine or watching a movie," Moss said.

"Eater" also stars Stephen R. Hart (Resident Evil: Apocalypse), who's known for playing scary creatures in other films in part because he's 7 feet 2 inches tall. "This man is huge, and he's got this, like, incredibly interesting face and this black hair, long hair," Moss said. "I'm 5 foot 3, and every single other actor is tall or big or both, so everybody is constantly towering over her in the whole thing. And he's like Stuart in the sense that he's actually really, really sweet, a really nice guy, really smart and has this incredible sort of low voice. The way he looks ... is the opposite of how ... nice he is."

Moss, who has appeared on ABC's Invasion and NBC's Medium, knew of Gordon's past work, which also includes the H.P. Lovecraft adaptations From Beyond and Dagon.

"[Gordon is] a big teddy bear and so sweet," Moss said. "And we had a lot of fun, actually. He kind of became a buddy of mine while we were shooting, because it was basically a lot of just me. And if there are other people, they're either trying to kill me or not being helpful. So Stuart was kind of my only ally, although he was, like, responsible for putting me in these situations. But he was great. He's awesome."

Fear Itself, featuring stand-alone stories helmed by notable horror directors, begins June 5. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Mike SzymanskiABC Close To Mars OK

ABC is zeroing in on a series pickup of David E. Kelley's time-travel drama pilot Life on Mars, starring Jason O'Mara, with October Road creators Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg coming in as executive producers and ABC Studios as a co-producer with 20th Century TV, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The deal still needs the blessing of Kelley, who owns the rights to the property, an American version of the BBC series about a 21st-century cop transported to the 1970s.

Mars is been rumored for the plum post-Grey's Anatomy timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m.Weber Is Horror Dad In She

Jake Weber, who plays a father on NBC's Medium, told SCI FI Wire that he's completed production on She Lived, a supernatural thriller movie in which he also plays a concerned dad.

Weber plays the father of a teenager (Music and Lyrics' Haley Bennett) who is recovering from being stabbed by her own mother and who must contend with dark forces that want her dead.

"She has these strange sort of Jacob's Ladder-like flashbacks, and you don't know if she is crazy or if she's becoming unhinged or if she's really seeing these visions," Weber said in response to a SCI FI Wire question on a conference call with reporters on May 8. "And it's kind of a dark psychological thriller in the sort of Jacob's Ladder [mold]. I hope it's as good as Jacob's Ladder, because I love that movie."

Weber is perhaps best known to audiences as long-suffering Joe DuBois, the engineer husband of psychic Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette), on NBC's supernatural series Medium. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

She Lived also features Chace Crawford (The Covenant), AnnaLynne McCord (Day of the Dead), Marin Hinkle (Frequency) and Josh Stewart (Jekyll). The independent feature will be released later this year. --Ian SpellingMedium's Preston Open To Return

Kelly Preston, whose guest role on NBC's Medium wraps up in the season finale on May 12, told SCI FI Wire that she's willing to return next season no matter the ultimate fate of her scheming character.

For the last several weeks, Preston has been playing Meghan Doyle, an attractive venture capitalist who's taken both a personal and professional interest in Joe DuBois (Jake Weber), husband of the psychic investigator Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette). (Possible spoilers ahead!)

Will Doyle return? "Well, they've joked about it," Preston said, responding to a question from SCI FI Wire during a May 8 conference call on which she was joined by Weber. "You'll see. My character gets wound up pretty succinctly, but as with a lot of the characters, they can also come back even if, ultimately, she does die some horrific death. I could also come back and potentially do something."

Weber interjected, saying, "But the door is certainly open for you coming back next year. You don't fall [off] a cliff or anything."

Preston responded: "I don't fall off a cliff, but I do do something that's pretty wicked." The season finale, "Drowned World," airs May 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian SpellingWitchblade Movie Developing

Platinum Studios, Top Cow Productions and Arclight Films will team on a live-action feature adaptation of Witchblade, based on the Top Cow comic-book franchise, Variety reported.

The comic book introduced the Witchblade mythology, which centers on an ornate jewel-encrusted gauntlet that gives extraordinary powers to the wearer, a specially chosen female from each generation.

The comic-book franchise has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide since debuting in 1995. It spawned a 2000 telefilm that turned into a weekly series that ran for two seasons on TNT, starring Yancy Butler.

Witchblade has been published in more than 21 languages and 55 countries. The most recent incarnation was an anime TV show in Japan by Gonzo Digimation in 2006.

The companies are already eyeing a location shoot in Australia.BRIEFLY NOTED

The Hollywood Reporter has posted video clips from J.J. Abrams' upcoming Fox SF series Fringe and Joss Whedon's upcoming Dollhouse.

A new trailer for the upcoming sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has gone live and is linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page; the movie opens Aug. 1.

A new Web site and trailer have gone live for the upcoming fantasy movie City of Ember, which opens in October.

A new trailer has gone live for Joss Whedon's upcoming SF series Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku; the series is slated to debut on Fox in January.

TV Guide's Michael Ausiello, citing anonymous sources, reported that Smallville star Allison Mack will indeed return for the show's upcoming eighth season; Mack, who has played Chloe since the show's inception, will reportedly appear in all episodes produced next season.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment has announced that the sixth and final season of the USA Network series The Dead Zone will be released on DVD June 3rd.

A new, full-length trailer has gone live for the upcoming Marvel Comics film The Incredible Hulk and has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

Director Michael Bay confirmed on his message board that Australian actress Isabel Lucas will play the role of Alice in the action sequel Transformers 2.

MGM Home Entertainment has announced the release of the 25th anniversary edition of WarGames on DVD, featuring newly produced audio commentaries and featurettes. MGM is also releasing a direct-to-DVD sequel, WarGames: The Dead Code. Both titles will be available July 29.

The first season of the classic 1960s SF television series The Invaders comes to DVD for the first time on May 27th from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The opening weekend box-office totals for the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer were adjusted downward on May 12, knocking the film into third place, with a revised total of $18.6 million, 8 percent below the studio's initial report of $20.2 million.

Canadian rock group Arcade Fire will provide the score for Richard Kelly's upcoming horror movie The Box, according to music news site Pitchforkmedia.com.

A new trailer has gone live for the upcoming sequel film The X-Files: I Want to Believe and has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

MGM is developing Hot Tub Time Machine, a comedy project from screenwriter Josh Heald, about a group of guys who, after a night of vodka and Red Bulls in a hot tub, travel back in time and set out to rediscover their "mojo," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

CBS is close to picking up the supernatural series Eleventh Hour and The Mentalist as soon as May 12, with Mythological Ex also considered likely, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Viral videos featuring Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have gone live on YouTube.com; they speak about each other in character as a promotion for the upcoming The X-Files: I Want to Believe, which opens July 25.