Knight's Eckhart Of Two Minds

Aaron Eckhart, who plays Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, confirmed to SCI FI Wire the poorly held secret that his character will indeed morph into a well-known villain in the Batman Begins sequel. (Possible spoilers ahead!)

"Harvey Dent turns into Harvey Two-Face in this movie!" Eckhart said during a mid-morning visit to the Chicago set of the sequel in June 2007.

Eckhart is eager to take on the role of the villain, a virtuous man who is hideously scarred by acid and becomes one of Batman's (Christian Bale) most potent adversaries. The character was previously played by Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever.

"I saw [the Tommy Lee Jones performance] years ago," Eckhart said. "I've seen all the [previous] Batmans. [Director Chris Nolan] comes at this with such a different take on Batman, I didn't feel that I had to be true to any other actor playing this role. Of course, I read the comic books. And I think Harvey is portrayed very well in those comic books: his relationships with Lt. Gordon [Gary Oldman], with Batman, with Gotham City, those really helped me the most."

Eckhart praised the script, which Nolan wrote with his brother, Jonathan, and David S. Goyer. It gives all the characters "a lot of range," he said. "I feel like my character is fresh. I think he's new. I think he's important to Gotham City. Gotham City is going through a dark time."

Eckhart was shooting last June in an old Chicago post office, amid the churn of generators, behind the building that stood in for the Gotham Central Bank and the Gotham Police Department. The Dark Knight opens July 18. --Michael Marano Knight's Joker Is A Punk

Christopher Nolan, writer/director of the upcoming Batman sequel film The Dark Knight, told SCI FI Wire that he envisioned a punk rock pioneer as his inspiration for Heath Ledger's Joker character. Nolan--whose Dark Knight cast member Gary Oldman famously played Sex Pistols member Sid Vicious in a film biography--said he had in mind Vicious' band mate Johnny Rotten when conceiving of the new Joker.

"We very much took the view in looking at the character of the Joker that what's strong about him is this idea of anarchy," Nolan said in an interview in June 2007 during a break in filming on the sequel's Chicago set, a former post office that stood in for both Gotham National Bank and a Gotham police station.

In The Dark Knight, Gotham City police lieutenant Jim Gordon (Oldman), district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and Batman (Christian Bale) have organized crime on the run. But they soon find themselves dealing with a new threat: a rising criminal mastermind known as the Joker (Ledger), who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and edges the Dark Knight ever closer to the line separating hero and vigilante.

Nolan said that the Joker's commitment was key. "This commitment to anarchy," he said. "This commitment to chaos. So he's not just a bank robber or an ordinary criminal who is out for material gain. His chief motivation would be that of an anarchist."

Ledger, who died in January after completing his role as the Joker, had a hand in developing certain ideas about the character late in the writing phase, Nolan said. "I talked to Heath a lot about it, even [while] we were finishing the script, and we both agreed that that is the most threatening force, really, in a way, that society faces: ... pure anarchy of someone who wants to do harm purely for its own sake and for his own entertainment," he said. The Dark Knight opens July 18. --Michael MaranoFavreau Wary Of Iron Man 2 Date

A day after Iron Man star Terrence Howard told Military.com that he expected to be working on the sequel in March of 2009, director Jon Favreau posted a note to fans on his message board that the rumored release date of April 2010 "seems unrealistic."

"I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010," Favreau wrote. "Neither [star Robert Downey Jr.] nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is in light of the fact that we have no script, story or even writers hired yet."

Ideally, Favreau would like to follow the release pattern set by comic-book sequels such as The Dark Knight and X-Men 2, which would allow three years between installments.

"This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation," he wrote. "It is difficult because there are no Marvel '09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of [Iron Man 2] and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one."

Iron Man opened on May 2 and has earned an estimated $288.8 million at the box office as of June 8.DiCaprio To Play Atari Founder

Leonardo DiCaprio is attached produce and star in an upcoming biopic based on Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, Variety reported. Written by Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman, Atari centers on the life of Bushnell, one of the founding fathers of the video-game industry.

Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari in 1972 and were instrumental in bringing arcade games, home vidgame consoles and home computers to the masses. Among the company’s contributions were Pong and the Atari 2600.

Although Bushnell's life rights had long been pursued by various suitors, Hecker and Craig Sherman persuaded the gaming pioneer that they could do his unique story justice.Happening Has A Message

M. Night Shyamalam, writer-director of the upcoming paranoia thriller The Happening, told reporters that it was his intention to create a summer popcorn movie with a message.

Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo and Ashlyn Sanchez star in the film, which examines the chaos that ensues when an unexplained event compels people to commit suicide in often grisly ways. The four actors play Philadelphians trying to stay one step ahead of the deadly threat, which may be a terrorist attack, an act of nature or the result of an accident.

"One of the things that I said to everybody--the cast and crew--I said, 'This is a B movie,'" Shyamalan said in a press conference in New York on June 9. "Let's get ourselves straight here. This is just a great B movie. We're making the best B movie we can here. That's our job. We're making a B movie. If the themes of the movie have something that stick with you, great. Great. But we're not going to put that in front of the movie. We're going to have a lot of fun. It's a paranoia movie. We just need to pound away. That's our job.' I was really clear about that."

But Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) admitted that he can't ignore his inner urge to have his films comment on the world at large, have a point and offer a hopeful point of view. "One reporter, I think it was yesterday, was saying, 'How come you just don't go make a pure popcorn movie and then go make an art movie, because it seems like [that's what] you want to do?'" Shyamalan said. "The problem is that both are my instincts: to have one leg in each place, which sometimes pisses off one group, and then sometimes pisses off the other group."

Shyamalan added: "And my wife says, 'Just make one or the other.' I wish I could, but as it ends up, I do think about all these kinds of spiritual things, and I do love cheeseburgers, and I do [love] Seinfeld and I do love Coca-Cola and I do love Michael Jordan. It's just me. So if I took one side away, the side that really loves to read about philosophy and these kinds of things, if I just pretended that didn’t exist, it would be a lie. And if I pretended I wasn't jumping up and down watching the Celtics last night, that would be a lie as well. So it's that balancing act. I keep trying to be honest here." The Happening opens on June 13. --Ian SpellingHappening Stars Are Brainy

Mark Wahlberg and John Leguizamo, the stars of M. Night Shyamalan's SF thriller The Happening, told reporters that they were surprised to find themselves playing teachers, considering their real-life backgrounds. Co-star Zooey Deschanel, meanwhile, expressed shock when a reporter asked her about "dumbing down" to play Wahlberg's "ditzy" wife.

In the film, Wahlberg plays Elliot, a science teacher who's with his students in class when a lethal event strikes the Philadelphia area. People start inexplicably killing themselves, and those unaffected flee the city, hoping to outrun what could be a terrorist attack, an act of nature or possibly even an accident. Leguizamo plays Elliot's best friend and colleague, a math teacher named Julian, while Deschanel co-stars as Alma, a therapist with a secret she's reluctant to share with her husband.

"I was paranoid because I was some high-school dropout," Wahlberg said during a press conference in New York on June 9, during which he sat on a dais with Deschanel, Leguizamo and Shyamalan. "I wasn't a good student, and I had to portray a teacher who was actually really good at his job, and the kids loved him. I didn't tell Night that. I don't know if he knew too much about my past [as a tough kid in Boston]. But I definitely got a GED science book, and spent a lot of time walking around the Ben Franklin Institute, following kids around on their class field trips. In other films, I've spoken other languages, and it's one thing for me to be able to say the words, but I obviously need to feel confident enough to understand them, to convey them."

Leguizamo, meanwhile, considered it a departure for him to "play somebody, I guess, of ... a little upgraded kind of character, in that intellectual way," he said. "But I tutored calculus in college. The kids all failed, but ... I transferred to a different college after that."

Deschanel joked, "So they couldn't find you?"

Leguizamo smiled and said, "I also tutored Spanish. The kids all failed that, too. But there's only so far a teacher can take students. That's why I washed my hands of that. But I felt confident. I enjoyed it. Because math to me in college was sort of the only thing that I felt you could believe in, that was finite, that had answers, and it helped me through those years. And then I dropped out of college. I felt too confident."

As for Deschanel "dumbing down" to play the "ditzy" character Alma, the actress said, "'Dumbing down?' You thought I was ditzy? I was supposed to be a therapist with a Ph.D. That's doctor to you!" The Happening opens June 13. --Ian SpellingHappening Needed R Rating

M. Night Shyamalan, writer-director of the upcoming paranoid thriller The Happening, told reporters that there was no way around its R rating.

In the film, an unexplained event compels people to commit suicide in often grisly ways. Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo and Ashlyn Sanchez star as a quartet of Philadelphians trying to stay one step ahead of the deadly threat, which could be man-made, a force of nature or the result of an accident.

"I got an R on two other movies, on The Sixth Sense and The Village," Shyamalan said during a press conference in New York on June 9. "I got an R initially, for the intensity of certain scenes, and I needed to pull back a sound effect. We were right on the line, and I could always just pull back a sound effect and re-submit it, and they'd go, 'Oh, it's much better.' And all I did was take out some sound effects. It's always the impact; what you emotionally feel is different than what I actually showed."

But on The Happening, Shyamalan couldn't dodge the R. "The screenplay that I wrote, there was just no way to do it any other way," he said. "One of the movies I was thinking about was Pan's Labyrinth. I was thinking about that a lot when I made the decision, because I didn't want to make it as an agenda. You want to make an organic decision about: What does the material want to do? And when I thought about Pan's Labyrinth, which had visceral moments of violence juxtaposed against the softer kind of things that are going on against the canvas, it gave it authority and some teeth."

Shyamalan added that a PG-13 version of Guillermo del Toro's Pan would not have worked as well. "It wouldn't have stayed with me the way that movie has stayed with me," he said. "And so [on The Happening] it felt like the right balance of things. It was exciting, and it was disturbingly easy to shoot all those scenes. I had such a fun time." The Happening opens June 13. --Ian SpellingShyamalan Psyched For Airbender

Director M. Night Shyamalan told SCI FI Wire that he's excited to be helming The Last Airbender, a live-action fantasy-adventure movie based on Nickelodeon's animated SF/action/martial-arts series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

"It has martial arts and spirituality and the supernatural, and it has Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy--really, everything I talk about--all in one movie," Shyamalan said in an interview while promoting his latest writing and directing effort, The Happening.

"It has a mythology," Shyamalan added. "It's Shakespearean. It's all this incredible stuff, and it has a balance. All these movies are plays on magic, whether it's Lord of the Rings or The Matrix or Star Wars even, and each one of them relates to me in a different way, in its belief system."

Shyamalan recalled sensing "some kind of religion" in Star Wars when he saw the film for the first time at age 7. "I couldn't articulate it when I was in [a] station wagon between my parents; back then, you could sit in the front seat," he said, laughing. "I felt the same thing watching this show. I was like, 'This is the Eastern-philosophy Star Wars movie.' I started thinking about what it meant to me, if I could imbue it with the things that are important to me. And, lo and behold, here we are."

The Happening opens on June 13; The Last Airbender is now in preproduction with an eye toward a 2010 release. --Ian SpellingLeguizamo: Shyamalan's Back

John Leguizamo, who co-stars in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming paranoid thriller The Happening, told SCI FI Wire that he never sensed that writer-director Shyamalan was pressuring himself as he attempted to rebound from his most recent film, Lady in the Water, which was both a critical and a financial disappointment.

"I don't know him previous to that, so that's hard for me to answer," Leguizamo (Land of the Dead) said in an interview. "I felt like he was on a roll. I don't know; to what I know I felt like he was on his game. He really knew what he wanted, was really going for it, pushing the envelope wherever he could and trying to get as raw acting on camera as he could, which is what I love to do."

Mark Wahlberg stars in The Happening as Elliot Moore, a Philadelphia science teacher who's just one of millions of people caught up in an unprecedented event that strikes the East Coast and causes people to kill themselves. Unsure if the event is a terrorist attack, an accident or an act of nature, Moore goes on the run with his wife (Zooey Deschanel), his best friend (Leguizamo) and the friend's young daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez).

"I can say he's back in form," Leguizamo said. "Most directors write about their dreams. He writes his nightmares. I play a math teacher, best friend to Mark Wahlberg, and that's all I can tell you. I find [Shyamalan] a fascinating man. I find him in that realm of Spike Lee, Baz Luhrmann: auteurs, obsessive, demanding, incredibly collaborative, charmers. They're amazing. They're all incredibly articulate in their different ways."

Leguizamo also found Shyamalan incredibly generous. "He gives those raffles at the end of the week," Leguizamo said. "We sent one of the crew to Paris or Tahiti or something like that. He puts $500 in the $5 bin. He does all these great things. He takes the whole cast to dinner constantly, not like your perfunctory first-time meeting kind of dinner. He keeps doing it. He acts like he likes you." The Happening opens on June 13. --Ian SpellingSmart Stars Cracked Up

The stars of Get Smart confessed to cracking each other up during filming. "Oh, it takes editing to cut out all the times I'm laughing hysterically," star Steve Carell told a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "That's the long [and] short of it."

Carell plays Maxwell Smart, a newly assigned field agent for the supersecret agency CONTROL. He stars opposite Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Alan Arkin as the Chief in the reboot of the classic 1960s spy-spoof TV series.

"I try specifically not to laugh when someone else is doing their thing, because if you laugh and ruin someone else's take, if someone's doing something inspired or incredibly funny, it's a gift, and to take that away by laughing and ruining it, that's a cardinal sin in my mind," Carell said. "But there are some times you just can't help yourself. The scene in the movie when Alan is trying to pronounce a name [in] the Cone of Silence sequence, ... the scene probably took five times longer than it should have because ... I couldn't control myself. And so I took that gift from Alan Arkin."

Arkin improvised some of the scene, in which he struggles to pronounce the name of an enemy agent, Krstic.

"That just killed me," Carell said.

Hathaway added: "That was really fun, because I would ... break all the time with Steve, and most of my scenes were with Steve, and so when he finally broke it was such sweet vindication for me."

For his part, Arkin said that a shot in which he laughed at Carell actually made it into the movie. "There's a shot where I'm laughing at you [Carell] in the movie," he said. "I was humiliated beyond my wildest hopes."

"You were laughing after [I said, 'That's a] sucker punch to the gonads,'" Carell recalled.

Director Peter Segal chimed in: "That was an ad lib from Steve. Because we would never have written something so crass." Get Smart opens June 20. --Patrick Lee, News EditorGet Smart Previewed On iTunes

Beginning June 10, Warner Brothers Pictures is offering a seven-minute sneak preview from the upcoming action comedy Get Smart, exclusively on the iTunes Store as a free download, the studio announced.

Fans can view this first-look footage with a special introduction by Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, who star in Get Smart as CONTROL secret agents Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. The film follows the two agents as they embark on a mission to thwart a plan for world domination by the evil crime syndicate KAOS.

Later in the month, iTunes will also offer an exclusive clip from the direct-to-DVD parallel content release, Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control, introduced by stars Masi Oka and Nate Torrence. The pair reprise their Get Smart roles as the tech duo behind CONTROL's arsenal of spy gadgets in their own feature-length adventure.

Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control will be available in its entirety on the iTunes Movie Store July 1, with the Get Smart feature following in fall 2008. Get Smart opens in theaters on June 20.Smart Kiss Wasn't Pretty

Anne Hathaway, who plays Agent 99 in the upcoming Get Smart spy-spoof movie, told reporters that sharing an onscreen kiss with co-star Steve Carell was "like the yummiest lollipop ... dipped in sunshine ... and just wrapped around ... in a masculine wrapper. That's the only way I can think to describe it."

Hathaway offered the tongue-in-cheek description to protestations from Carell during a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week, drawing laughter from reporters.

In Get Smart, the feature-film adaptation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry's 1960s satirical TV show, Hathaway plays superspy Agent 99 opposite Carell's fumbling Maxwell Smart, Agent 86. The two get close after battling the forces of KAOS.

But seriously? Hathaway admitted that she was actually ill when shooting the scene in which 99 and Smart canoodle.

"OK, you've got to hear this," the 25-year-old Devil Wears Prada star said. "That day, ... somehow there was a health scare last year, and certain contact solution, I won't say the name of it, but it was the one I use, gave you conjunctivitis. ... I had a sinus infection at the same time. So I had to go up to Steve, my eye is red, puffy and dripping green. I'm just, like, snotty, and I'm like [lowers voice seductively], 'Come here.' And the worst thing was, we didn't know that I had conjunctivitis at the time, and so I had to call our producer Alex Gartner that night and say, 'Yeah, you might want to call Steve and let him know I had pinkeye and my tears kind of got in my mouth, so ... he might want to worry about that.' So it was very glamorous, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Asked whether he contracted pinkeye himself, Carell chivalrously replied: "No, I didn't."

Get Smart, directed by Peter Segal, opens June 20. --Patrick Lee, News EditorKeeslar Caught In Middleman

Matt Keeslar, who stars as the title character in the upcoming ABC Family SF series The Middleman, told SCI FI Wire that the show is a blend of SF, comedy and procedural elements.

"It's a tongue-in-cheek, sci-fi, crime-solving procedural. How's that?" Keeslar said during an interview. "It's a cross between Men in Black and Get Smart, or The X-Files and Get Smart. It's about a young girl [Natalie Morales as Wendy Watson] who is inducted into a secret crime-fighting society that solves exotic problems infra-, extra- and juxta-terrestrial."

Keeslar, whose credits include Jekyll and Masters of Horror, describes the Middleman as a former Navy SEAL who now fights evil and takes his job very, very seriously. Wendy, meanwhile, recently graduated from art school and is working as a temp. The show was created and is executive-produced by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost, Medium), who based it on his own Viper Comics series.

"Wendy has a very wry sensibility about herself and the crime-fighting organization," Keeslar said. "The relationship between the Middleman and Wendy basically develops from him respecting Wendy as an apprentice to more of an older brother/younger sister [dynamic] to a crime-fighting duo. That's the arc of their relationship." ABC Family has ordered 13 episodes of The Middleman and will premiere the pilot on June 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. --Ian SpellingCaptain America Cameos In Hulk

Director Louis Leterrier told Collider.com that The Incredible Hulk will include a hidden reference to the big green guy's fellow Marvel Comics character Captain America.

"It's not like, 'Oh, it's Captain America and it changes everything,'" he told the site. "It's still a Hulk movie, but it's really Captain America, and it's there. You'll see. It's the real deal. You have to look for it."

He also revealed that he cut out a full 70 minutes of footage from the film, and that the deleted material will eventually appear on the eventual Blu-ray release.

"I want to put everything we shot [on Blu-ray]," Leterrier said. "I'm not the kind of guy that likes to keep the stuff for myself. I'm like, 'OK, you student filmmakers, here's what I did right and here's what I did wrong.' And in some of the stuff, in the 70 minutes, there's some great stuff and there's some really horrible stuff, but you'll see it all, you know?"

The Incredible Hulk opens June 13.Leterrier Welcomes Hulk Sequel

Louis Leterrier, director of the upcoming comic-book film Incredible Hulk, told ComingSoon.net that he would love to make a sequel should the opportunity arise.

"I'll do another Hulk movie any day of the week," Leterrier told the site in an interview at the world premiere of the film in Los Angeles. "I love it! I love the character. I love the TV show. I love that he's an anti-hero."

Leterrier also said that he would be interested in directing a film based on the Marvel Comics team The Avengers.

"I'll direct anything that Marvel puts out," he said. "I'm going to be camping out at the Marvel office to direct anything they want." The Incredible Hulk opens June 13.Peet Heads For 2012

Amanda Peet has landed the female lead in Roland Emmerich's epic disaster project 2012, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Peet is joining a strong ensemble cast that includes John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Oliver Platt.

2012 revolves around a global cataclysm and the heroic struggle of the survivors. Peet is playing Cusack's ex-wife, newly married to a wealthy man. Cusack plays a divorced father trying to become a writer while holding a job as a limo driver.

Emmerich wrote the script with Harald Kloser, who is producing with Mark Gordon and Larry Franco. Emmerich also is executive-producing with Michael Wimer and Ute Emmerich.

Barring an actors' strike, the movie will shoot in July. The release date is scheduled for July 10, 2009. Jericho Fans Buy TV Ads

Fans of the twice-canceled CBS series Jericho are continuing their campaign to bring the show back by sponsoring more than 200 local ad spots to air on cable TV stations in the Los Angeles area. The group, dubbed the "Jericho Rangers," have already purchased a print ad in Variety and rented a billboard in downtown Los Angeles to show their support for the series and help find it a new broadcast home.

The group paid for the advertising time through a fund-raising campaign which generated more than $6,000 in three weeks. The fan-created 30-second ad features a voice-over provided by actor Brad Beyer, who played Stanley Richmond on the show. It's scheduled to air for 10 days, beginning June 12th, during several popular cable shows, including Ghost Hunters on SCI FI Channel and Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. The ad will also be hosted at the group's official site, SaveJerichoAgain.com.

Jericho was canceled for the first time last year after just one season. CBS brought it back for seven more episodes in early 2008 in response to the efforts of fans, who mailed bags of nuts to CBS in support of the show. After the new episodes earned lackluster ratings, the network decided not to renew the show for fall.Train Will Promote Ember

Walden Media is renting and redecorating a pair of vintage train cars to promote its upcoming film City of Ember at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Calif., this July, Variety reported. The company will re-create the mythical city depicted in the film on a private two-car train that will transport 25 members of the media on a two-and-a-half-hour journey to the convention.

"We're all looking for ways to stand out, especially with this community,"Jeffrey Godsick, president of marketing at Fox Walden, told the trade paper. "Good buzz at Comic-Con can be huge for a movie."

The film, based on Jeanne Duprau's best-seller, is set in a glittering metropolis of lights that is on the verge of plunging into permanent darkness. The film is steeped in an elaborate mythology that the filmmakers feel is best conveyed in a three-dimensional setting. Walden hired professional set decorators to style a 1949 Pullman rail car, which will be full of props and costumes from the film.

"Design really matters on this movie," said director Gil Kenan, who will be on board the train to discuss the film, along with screenwriter Caroline Thompson and producer Gary Goetzman. "The look of this train was chosen very carefully, and it lines up aesthetically with the look of the film. It broadens the experience of the movie. It's about turning the world depicted in the film into something fully dimensional."

An additional rail car will be equipped to screen 15 minutes of exclusive footage from the film.

"We could certainly assemble a panel and present some footage, but then it will be one of 50 other films that they would see that day," Godsick said. "But that's really not the proper platform to immerse someone in the mythologies of City of Ember."Coffin Where Reality, Fantasy Mix

Stoker Award-winning horror author Gary A. Braunbeck told SCI FI Wire that the central concern of his latest novel, Coffin County, is something that is arguably the central concern of all his work: exploring the connections between violence, grief and suffering.

"[Also] how we as a species attempt to reconcile those things with the concept of a just and loving God who watches over a universe wherein even our most trivial day-to-day actions carry some sort of greater meaning," Braunbeck said in an interview. "I wanted to write a piece that was not so much about good versus evil, but an exploration of why one cannot exist without the other. "

Coffin County, which is an expansion of Braunbeck's novella "Haceldama," is about the investigation into a mass murder. "[The investigation] has several similarities to another mass murder that took place 200 years ago in the town's past--not the least of which is evidence that strongly suggests both murders were committed by the same person," Braunbeck said.

The setting of the novel--the fictional town of Cedar Hill, Ohio--is where about 90 percent of all Braunbeck's work has been set. "Cedar Hill is a border town, a nexus, a place where supernatural forces intersect and then interact with the everyday lives of the town's citizens," Braunbeck said. "As one character tries to describe it to an outsider: 'There are places in reality where the corners of the finite and the infinite aren't quite squared, and as a result there are cracks and unfinished corners where things can ... slip through, move between the layer-sheets of reality as easily as you or I can walk from one room in our house to the next.'"

Coffin County is the novel where these "cracks and unfinished corners" at last begin making themselves known to this branch of reality, Braunbeck said. "And the force behind the killings knows precisely where these unfinished corners are located," he said. "There are characters and elements from my three previous Cedar Hill novels that move in and out of Coffin County, starting from the first page, and continue to bleed in and out throughout the length of the novel, becoming something of a four-dimensional palimpsest." --John Joseph AdamsUniversal Takes Up Dragonology

Universal has acquired the film rights to the children's book series Dragonology, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Leonard Hartman will write and executive-produce the adaptation.

The books, by Dugald A. Steer, are based on the conceit that dragons actually exist, as revealed by the Victorian dragonologist Ernest Drake. An underlying theme is that dragons should be studied and revered in the same way as any rare species.

Hartman's fantasy-adventure script revolves around a group of dragonologists who go on a globe-trotting quest to keep a corrupt man from taking control of the world's dragons and using them to wipe out humanity.

The first book, written and published in the U.K. in 2003, has sold more than 2.8 million copies worldwide in 32 languages. Subsequent titles--from books on tracking and taming dragons to a code-writing kit--have brought the total sales for all Dragonology titles to 5.7 million, according to the publisher, Candlewick.

Templar recently signed a licensing agreement with video-game producer Codemasters, which will adapt Dragonology into games for Nintendo's Wii and DS platforms.

Hartman most recently wrote the script for Universal's Fury, which is in development, and the short film Gray Matter.L.A. Fest Debuts Hellboy II

Because of past successes with SF genre-related movies, the Los Angeles Film Festival is spotlighting debuts of two major genre-related summer films, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, at the festival, which runs from June 19 to 29.

The opening night debut is Wanted, based on Mark Millar's graphic novel, which is directed by Timur Bekmambetov of the Night Watch series.

"This year's festival displays a collection of vibrant and diverse films that maintain Film Independent's spirit, quality and originality," said Dawn Hudson, executive director of Film Independent, the year-round filmmaker organization that produces the festival. "The festival is a chance for the film industry and filmgoers to have direct access to each other ... [and build] an interest for diverse films in art houses and multiplexes alike."

Last year, the festival closed off the Westwood area of Los Angeles and had all the theaters show Transformers to 4,000 guests; the closing-night film was Danny Boyle's Sunshine. This year, tribute screenings and anniversary screenings will also include Planet of the Apes (1968), Peter Pan (1953) and The Lost Boys (1987) and will feature many question/answer sessions with SF genre filmmakers.

"I am proud of the festival's ongoing growth within the community and pleased that we continue to attract world-class filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and Timur Bekmambetov," said festival director Rich Raddon.

Bekmambetov's Wanted will kick off the festival on June 19 with stars James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Common and Angelina Jolie. McAvoy stars as Wesley Gibson, an unremarkable young man who meets a mysterious woman named Fox (Jolie) and is recruited into the secret Fraternity.

Hellboy II, written and directed by del Toro, will close the festival on June 28. It stars Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor and John Hurt. Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Brendan Fraser and screens as part of the Family Day screenings and events on June 29.

Other genre-related premieres include Cinematic Titanic, a combination of comedy and B movies, by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 team; Terminus, about a strange dancing creature; I Love Sarah Jane, about a post-apocalyptic suburb, bullies and zombies; Let the Right One In, about a prepubescent vampire; and others.

The festival will also include animated films such as Magnetic Movie, La Saint Festin, I Have Seen the Future, Half-Life, John and Karen, Fear(s) of Darkness, Dog and Chonto.

Chats will be offered with del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy); Antonio Banderas (Spy Kids, 13th Warrior); cinematographer Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labyrinth, Cronos, Hellboy); Ivan Reitman (Evolution, Ghostbusters) and his son, Jason (Juno); and director Edgar Wright (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead). They will all be hosted by South Park's Matt Stone.

Tickets and additional information can be found online. --Mike SzymanskiCraig Injured On Solace

Daniel Craig, star of the upcoming James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, suffered a hand injury requiring medical attention while shooting the film this week, a Columbia Pictures spokesman told the Reuters news service.

The spokesman, Steve Elzer, said he was unable to confirm news accounts in Britain that Craig had sliced off a fingertip in the accident, which reportedly occurred while he was filming an action sequence at London's Pinewood Studios.

"There was a minor incident on the set, and Daniel injured his hand, and in any situation like that it's usual procedure to seek medical attention," Elzer told the news service. "He did. He was back on the set within a matter of hours, and production wasn't delayed."

The accident marked the latest in a string of mishaps during production of the 22nd installment of the James Bond film franchise. Last week, Craig was reported to have suffered a laceration to his face that required eight stitches. The film's producers also said in April that a stuntman was hospitalized with serious injuries suffered in an accident behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo sports car in northern Italy. Days before, British media reported that another car to be used in the production, an Aston Martin DBS, skidded off the road into a lake, but the driver escaped with minor injuries.Black Leaves Man-Witch

Jack Black has dropped out of the supernatural comedy Man-Witch at Warner Brothers, Variety reported. The studio confirmed that Black will not star in the film, which centers on a man who discovers he's got witch-like abilities and ends up teaching little girl witches-in-training.

An insider told the trade paper that the conflict arose between the studio and Black's Endeavor agent, Sharon Sheinwold. Other sources attributed the parting of ways to bad blood between director Todd Phillips and Endeavor--which Sheinwold recently joined after an ugly breakup with UTA.

Man-Witch had a tentative January start date before Black disengaged, and is moving forward on schedule, according to Warner Brothers.Sturgeon Finalists Announced

Finalists have been announced for this year's Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, which is given annually for the best science-fiction short story, novelette or novella of the year.

The winner of the award, which is named in honor of the legendary SF author, will be announced at the 2008 Campbell Conference, July 10-13 in Lawrence, Kan.

The finalists are "The Forest" by Laird Barron, "Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear, "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang, "The Dreaming Wind" by Jeffrey Ford, "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler, "The Tomb Wife" by Gwyneth Jones, "The Last American" by John Kessel, "The Master Miller's Tale" by Ian R. MacLeod, "Finisterra" by David Moles, "Baby Doll" by Johanna Sinisalo and "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe.

The nomination of an additional story--"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" by Kij Johnson--was declined by the author, as she is a juror for the award. Campbell Finalists Named

Finalists have been announced for this year's John W. Campbell Memorial Award, given annually for the best science-fiction novel of the year.

The winner of the award, which is named in honor of the legendary SF editor, will be announced at the 2008 Campbell Conference, July 10-13 in Lawrence, Kan.

The finalists are HARM by Brian Aldiss, The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan, The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson, Mainspring by Jay Lake, The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod, Brasyl by Ian McDonald, Time's Child by Rebecca Ore, Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, Zig Zag by Jose Carlos Somoza, The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper, Deadstock by Jeffrey Thomas and Axis by Robert Charles Wilson.Edge Explores Superstition

SF author Melinda Snodgrass told SCI FI Wire that she came up with the idea for her latest novel, The Edge of Reason, on New Year's Eve 1999.

"It struck me that we were about to embark on a new century, and I still didn't have my air-car or my base on the moon," Snodgrass said in an interview. "Instead I lived in a culture that seemed to put more credence in guardian angels, Tarot cards, psychic healers, etc., than it did in math, chemistry, medicine, etc. I started wondering why, and that's when I conceived of this idea."

The Edge of Reason is a contemporary occult thriller that explores the battle between science and rationality and superstition, magic and religion. "In the Edge universe, every dark myth and every god you can name is, in fact, a creature from alternate universes that are drawn to our world because of human intelligence and creativity," Snodgrass said. "These creatures feed on emotions--dark emotions being more powerful and easier to engender than joy--and so they have encouraged us in our worst tendencies for eons."

The protagonist, Richard Oort, is a young police officer in Albuquerque, N.M. "[He] is recruited by a mysterious Promethean figure who has been fighting these creatures for hundreds of thousands of years," Snodgrass said. "Richard is recruited because he is a genetic rarity--a human without a touch of magic--and this enables him to wield a weapon that can kill these creatures."

Richard is a man with deep insecurities and issues with a remote and demanding father. "He is also a man who has a deep religious faith that crumbles when he's faced with the truth about God," Snodgrass said. "During the course of the book he learns to trust his own strength and carries the fight directly to the humans who are attempting to open gates between the multiverses and bring these creatures fully into our world." --John Joseph AdamsReport Offers Future Visions

SCI FI Channel and Monitor's Global Business Network have released "Dare to Dream: Visions for Tomorrow," a report commissioned by the channel as part of its public-affairs initiative utilizing the power of science fiction to shape a positive future. The report features social commentary from SCI FI's Visions for Tomorrow advisory board, a diverse group of distinguished and influential thought leaders from the science, arts, policy and business communities.

"At a time when many issues such as education, technology and climate change are top of mind, the great thinkers on SCI FI's Visions for Tomorrow advisory board are offering a vision on how we can impact the future through our 'Dare to Dream: Visions for Tomorrow' report," said SCI FI Channel president Dave Howe.

With contributors ranging from futurist Peter Schwartz and biotechnology pioneer Craig Venter to astronaut Mae Jamieson and new urbanist Peter Calthorpe, the report responds to the challenges and resulting pessimism facing the world today. It presents ideas on a range of interconnected issues: climate change and the environment, science and technology, new economic and development models, geopolitics, culture, education and leadership.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote a foreward to the report in which he stated: "Science fiction can powerfully shape the future by inspiring hope, warning of missteps and stretching the boundaries of possibility and imagination."

The "Dare to Dream" report concludes by bringing to life the collective vision of the advisory board members with three novel and positive scenarios for the future, developed by Peter Schwartz, GBN chairman and co-founder, and chair of SCI FI's Visions for Tomorrow advisory board. More information about "Dare to Dream: Visions for Tomorrow" may be found on the campaign's Web site.Cupid Attracts Paulson

Sarah Paulson (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) has been cast as the female lead in ABC's one-hour pilot Cupid, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The ABC Studios-produced pilot is an updated version of Rob Thomas' 1998 comedy for ABC. It centers on the manic Trevor Hale (Bobby Cannavale), who thinks he is the Roman god of love, Cupid.

Paulson will play Dr. Claire Allen, a psychiatrist specializing in affairs of the heart. Paula Marshall played the role in the original, opposite Jeremy Piven.Rogen Takes On Apocalypse

Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel will star in the action comedy Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse for Mandate Pictures, Variety reported. The film is based on a comedy short from Superbad scribes Rogen and Evan Goldberg, which in turn was based on a story by Goldberg and Jason Stone. Rogen and Goldberg will write and produce the feature.

Several production companies vied for the rights to the comedy, which revolves around two guys dealing with the apocalypse. Last summer, the project caused a stir in the blogosphere when a trailer for the short appeared on YouTube.

Mandate president Nathan Kahane will executive-produce the film, alongside Stone and Baruchel. Mandate is aiming to begin production in 2009.Capra Coming To Heroes

Francis Capra (Veronica Mars) is joining the NBC hit Heroes this fall in a recurring role, TV Guide reported. Capra will play Jesse, a mysterious character who turns out to be evil. The character's villainous storyline will find him crossing paths with Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), the site reported.

Capra's appearance may reunite him with fellow Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell, who is rumored to be reprising her previous Heroes role as electric girl Elle Bishop in the upcoming third season.Kennedy Joins Ghost Whisperer

Jamie Kennedy has joined the cast of the CBS drama Ghost Whisperer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Kennedy will play a graduate student in psychology at the local university who forms a bond with Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt).

Kennedy will, in effect, replace the departing Jay Mohr, who had been a regular on Ghost for the past two seasons in the role of psychology professor Rick Payne. Mohr is expected to appear on the first couple of episodes before his character goes on sabbatical.Kéthani Is Small Epic

SF author Eric Brown told SCI FI Wire that he wanted his latest novel, Kéthani, to be an antidote to all the high-concept, galaxy-spanning action-adventure hard SF currently being published.

"I wanted to show the effect of [an] alien [invasion] in microcosm," Brown said in an interview. "I could have set ... the novel all around the world, but I wanted to be very specific in showing only the area of West Yorkshire, where I lived at the time, and explicating the dynamic of the group of friends. ... I wanted to show that SF can be vast by showing the very small."

The novel is a "fix-up": that is, a group of related short stories that, when edited together, form a novel. "[The first story was] about a man who worked for the aliens as a ferryman, taking the dead of Earth to an Onward Station, and how this affected his relationship with his wife," Brown said. "It was meant as a one-off ... [but] I liked the idea of examining one single thing--immortality--and how it might affect life on Earth, and wanted to write more in the same setting."

Brown wrote the individual stories over a period of about 12 years. "Only after the fourth story did I realize that the idea was big enough for about 10 episodes, and I wrote about one story a year after that," Brown said. "Later I wrote pieces that fitted between the episodes to show the passage of time and to give context, as the novel follows the group of friends from a year after the arrival of the Kéthani to about 20 years after their arrival."

Kéthani is the most benign alien-invasion story ever written, Brown said. "One day, all around the world, thousands of vast towering structures--Onward Stations--appear, followed by a communiqué from the aliens: We will grant every individual on Earth immortality, with no strings attached," he said. "When resurrected, you can return to your old life on Earth, or, if you want, become an ambassador to the Kéthani, traveling the universe and bringing word of the Kéthani to other alien races. The novel is about a small group of friends in a West Yorkshire village and how the alien arrival affects their lives." --John Joseph AdamsSony Smurfs Up Feature Rights

Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation have obtained the film rights to the Smurfs cartoon franchise from Lafig Belgium, Variety reported. Jordan Kerner (Charlotte's Web) is producing the film, which will combine elements of live action and animation. David Stem and David Weiss, who wrote the second and third installments in the Shrek franchise, are in negotiations to write the screenplay.

Kerner secured film rights to the Smurfs property in 2002 and had been developing a 3-D CGI feature at Paramount/Nickelodeon, which has an option to co-finance the new incarnation and distribute it internationally.

Best known in the United States from the long-running Hanna-Barbera cartoon, the Smurfs were created in 1958 by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, known throughout the world as Peyo. The Smurfs, originally called "Les Schtroumpfs" in French, were created for a Belgian series of comic books, first as minor characters. The villagers, known for their blue skin and small stature, spawned a line of statuettes, games, toys, theme parks and a hit TV series, which ran as part of NBC's Saturday-morning lineup from 1981-90.

Kerner said the genesis of the current project began during a holiday conversation with Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman-CEO Michael Lynton, who grew up with "Les Schtroumpfs" in the Netherlands. He has been working closely on the project with Lafig CEO Hendrik Coysman and Veronique Culliford, the daughter of Peyo.

Smurfs marks Sony Pictures Animation's first hybrid film and is the first project to go into development since Hannah Minghella was named president of production for the division in April. Sony digital production president Bob Osher said the studio plans to rely on Sony Pictures Animation for the film's character animation, and Imageworks--which was recently taken off the sale block--for its visual effects.

"The Smurfs are one of the best-known franchises and among the most beloved collection of characters in the world," Columbia co-president Doug Belgrad said. "We're very excited to introduce a new generation to Papa Smurf, Smurfette and the other smurftastic Smurfs in all of their 'three-apple-tall' glory."

Sony will launch a licensing effort around the classic Smurfs characters at this year's Licensing Show, beginning today in New York.Egoyan Sets Up Seven Wonders

Atom Egoyan is set to write and direct Seven Wonders, about a love triangle that blends reality and fantasy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The project centers on a woman named Pandora who, after her own relationship goes south, becomes consumed by a relationship between a female commercials director and the director's boyfriend, even following the director as she shoots commercials at the Seven Wonders of the World. The two women meet online, leading to ambiguity over whether some of the interactions might be taking place only in Pandora's imagination.

"It's an intimate story that I think can be harnessed on a larger canvas," Egoyan told the trade paper. "The Seven Wonders are an escape from our lives, places where we can believe in something larger."

Egoyan said he's piqued by modern technology because of the idea "that it's so easy to be in contact [that] relationships can get complicated and confused."

The director will produce Wonders through his Toronto-based shingle Ego Film Arts. Ha'Penny's U.K. Appeases Nazis

SF and fantasy author Jo Walton, whose novel Ha'Penny is a finalist for this year's Sidewise Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book is an alternate history in which a group of people try to blow up Hitler and the British prime minister during a performance of Hamlet in London in 1949.

The divergence point between the book's alternate universe and our own is May 1941, when the Nazi Rudolf Hess flew to Britain to try to strike a peace deal between Great Britain and Germany, Walton said in an interview. "The U.S. wasn't yet in the war (they didn't declare war until after Pearl Harbor in December), and there was no real way for Britain to win," she said. "In reality, Churchill refused to listen and imprisoned Hess, but in the universe of the books that peace deal was made."

The book is set in the same milieu as Walton's earlier novel, Farthing, and the story will continue in a third volume, Half a Crown, which is due out in September. "Farthing and Ha'Penny take place in 1949, eight years after [the peace accord], when the Third Reich controls the whole of continental Europe and is still slugging it out against Stalin in the east," Walton said. "Half a Crown takes place in 1960, when the Soviets have been defeated and there's a peace conference going on to arrange the new world order."

Walton had to do a lot of research for Ha'Penny, which started off as "post-research" for Farthing, she said. "I had to find out a lot about theater in the period and a lot more about the 1930s," Walton said. "I was lucky enough to be given some theater programs from the '40s, which were really atmospheric. There's also a British writer called Anne de Courcy who has written a number of biographies and social histories about precisely the people and social class that became my Farthing set, and I read her books extensively."

Up next for Walton, after Half a Crown, is a new fantasy novel, Lifelode. --John Joseph AdamsProducers Update Rosemary, Others

Producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form updated reporters on the status of several upcoming supernatural horror films, including The Horsemen, The Unborn and a remake of Rosemary's Baby.

"What happened on Horsemen is we made the movie, and then we had to do a couple of days of reshoots, and then, unfortunately, [star] Dennis Quaid had this horrible thing happen with his kids," Fuller said in a group interview on the set of his upcoming reboot of Friday the 13th in Austin, Texas, on June 6. "And so that put us way behind on that. So we literally just finished that movie a couple of weeks ago, and we're going out to distributors on that now. That is a very challenging movie, simply because the subject matter is so dark. But it's a really good movie. It's just really dark. So we're figuring out that as we speak."

The Horsemen stars Quaid as Aidan Breslin, a detective emotionally distanced from his two young sons following the untimely death of his wife, who discovers a link between himself and a series of murders based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

With regard to The Unborn, directed by Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer and starring Gary Oldman, the film is finished and comes out around Halloween, Form said.

"That was a fantastic experience, that movie," Fuller said, adding: "Working with Gary Oldman was amazing, [as was] David Goyer, ... who was so prepared. It sounds like bulls--t, but we were really impressed with that. That whole production was a great experience for us."

The Unborn centers on a young woman fighting what she believes to be demonic possession.

As for Rosemary's Baby--a remake of Roman Polanski's 1968 psychological thriller, about a young woman (Mia Farrow) who discovers she's carrying the devil's child--Fuller defended the effort against critics who say they are setting out to desecrate a classic. Fuller and Form, working with Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company, have been behind several recent reboots of classic horror franchises, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror and the upcoming Friday the 13th.

"I want to address that," Fuller said. "Because if we don't do Rosemary's Baby, somebody else [will]. They're not going to pass on it. And, like I said, being horror fans like we are, we would want to take the opportunity and take a shot at it, rather than read about someone else doing it. So all the s--t we get for doing these things--it really just comes out of being huge fans and wanting to take a shot, you know?"

Fuller added that they have not come up with a story for the reboot of Rosemary. "There are two or three competing writers who we are talking to," he said. "If you would say that Rosemary's Baby is a ... supernatural story, ... one of our takes is supernatural. And then there's another that's not supernatural, that kind of takes that story and roots it in reality. And that's a decision we are going to have to make as soon as we wrap [Friday the 13th] and go back to L.A. and start sitting down with Paramount: ... What kind of story do they want us to tell for them, and what's the smartest way to tell that story? So I don't know if it's going to be supernatural. It might, it might not be, and it might be called Rosemary's Baby and it might not be, but at least ... Paramount was gracious enough to give us the jumping-off point of taking a classic film and seeing what we can do with it."

Form and Fuller are also mulling remakes of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and New Line's A Nightmare on Elm Street. --Patrick Lee, News EditorNew 13th Reboots Franchise

Producers of the upcoming Friday the 13th--a reboot of the slasher franchise that takes the story back to the beginning--want to make clear that the film isn't a sequel and isn't strictly a remake of the first movie, like their recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot. Rather, the movie will incorporate elements of the first three Friday the 13th movies and will include a couple versions of the machete-wielding serial killer Jason Voorhees, who has come to embody the franchise.

"This one's hard, because on Chainsaw, it kind of was a reboot of the original, and on this one, ... everyone in this room knows that [Jason] didn't put the hockey mask on until the third movie," producer Andrew Form told a group of reporters visiting the film's Austin, Texas, set on June 6. "I would say most of the audience that will come see this movie doesn't know that. ... Most people think that Jason Voorhees was in the first one. ... The younger audience, they think he's in the first one, they think he's wearing a hockey mask, and that's kind of how this franchise started. They don't realize that Pamela [Voorhees, Jason's mother,] was basically the whole first one, [and] he didn't show up until the very end of the movie."

In the original 1980 Friday the 13th, the killer stalking the sexually active teens at Camp Crystal Lake was revealed to be Pamela (Betsy Palmer). Jason appears at the very end of the film, a decomposing corpse miraculously reanimated from the bottom of Crystal Lake.

"He came in late for that one shot," Form said. "And then the second one, of course, he wore the sack. And the third one, finally, you have that great moment when he comes out in the hockey mask. And I think, like you said, we tried to take elements from all three of those movies to create one reboot of Friday the 13th. And I think we take the elements where you will see Jason put the hockey mask on for the first time, how and why. And you'll see him actually do it, not just come out with it on."

Form's producing partner Brad Fuller added: "It's not presented as an origin story in the least. That's not our goal here, to show how he put the mask on. The goal is to put a group of kids in Crystal Lake, bring him back to Crystal Lake, and have them meet Jason Voorhees, and along the way you kind of get a sense of the history, but that's not what the story is." (Spoilers ahead!)

Much of Jason's backstory will be told in flashbacks and will include moments with a young Jason, as well as with Pamela (played by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Nana Visitor). The producers are also taking a Batman Begins approach to the mythology and will explain for the first time why the movie is called Friday the 13th, why Jason is a serial killer, where he's been, why he puts on a sack and then a hockey mask, why a machete, how he gets around Camp Crystal Lake, etc.

During a visit to the set, reporters watched the filmmakers (who included director Marcus Nispel of Pathfinder) shoot scenes in which Jason (Derek Mears) chases the film's protagonists, Clay (Supernatural's Jared Padalecki) and Whitney (Amanda Righetti), through an abandoned school bus at Camp Crystal Lake. The scene includes shots in which Jason smashes Clay's face through a bus window and others in which he grapples with Whitney as she tries to crawl away.

Friday the 13th, which wraps production on Friday the 13th of June, is set to open on Friday the 13th of February in 2009. --Patrick Lee, News EditorPadalecki Talks Supernatural

Jared Padalecki, one of the stars of The CW's Supernatural, told reporters that he will begin shooting the upcoming fourth season in July, assuming that there's no actors' strike.

"As of right now--yeah, I guess the strike is a huge issue," Padalecki said in a group interview on the set of his film Friday the 13th in Austin, Texas, on June 6. "But as of right now, we're supposed to start the first week of July, because they want to have it airing with Smallville, and Smallville starts shooting really early, so they want us to start shooting really early also so they can air new episodes of each together."

Padalecki added that he hasn't seen any scripts for the new season yet, nor has he spoken with series creator Eric Kripke. "The only person I've really talked to is [co-star] Jensen [Ackles]," who is spending his spring hiatus shooting his own horror movie, My Bloody Valentine 3-D, in Pittsburgh. "He and I have just been keeping in touch, you know? But I haven't seen scripts or read scripts or heard any ideas. So I'm completely [in the dark]."

As for Ackles' future on the show (spoilers ahead!), his character, Dean Winchester, was last seen in the season finale writhing in hell after dying as foretold. That has alarmed fans who worry that Ackles won't return.

"I'm assuming [that's] clearly not [the case]," Padalecki said. "I think his plan is to be in Vancouver when I'm in Vancouver. I pray to God [he is], because [if not,] then that would mean that I, all day, every day, [will have] no one to [share the show with]. I'll bear the burden [on my own]. But, no, I'm sure Jensen is going to be a huge part of the show, as he always has been. Same as always. Just in hell [laughs]." Supernatural returns in the fall in its regular Thursday 9 p.m. ET/PT timeslot. --Patrick Lee, News EditorChristensen Up For Jumper 2

Hayden Christensen, star of the recent SF-action film Jumper, told the Toronto Sun that he will probably sign on for a sequel.

"We're talking about it," Christensen told the newspaper. "I know that they're having those conversations, I hear about them."

When asked whether he would be interested in returning for the sequel, he replied: "Oh yeah, and I think I probably will."

The first film was a loose adaptation of Steven Gould's book about a young man who discovers he has the power of teleportation. Director Doug Liman originally conceived of a trilogy of films based on the book, Christensen said.

"It was set up to become that--a trilogy--if it did well," he said. "And I think they're happy with how it did so they want to make another one. But I don't think they're rushing to get into production."

Jumper will be released on DVD and Blu-ray June 10. Mythopoeic Finalists Named

Finalists have been announced for this year's Mythopoeic Awards, which celebrate books of fantasy that best exemplify the spirit of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. Winners will be announced at Mythcon 39, Aug. 15-18 in New Britain, Conn. A list of finalists follows.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature: In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss; The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson; Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay; The Orphan's Tales by Catherynne M. Valente (consisting of In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice); Chronicles of Chaos by John C. Wright (consisting of Orphans of Chaos, Fugitives of Chaos and Titans of Chaos)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature: Tithe, Valiant and Ironside by Holly Black; Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy; the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (consisting of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows); Dusssie by Nancy Springer; The New Policeman by Kate ThompsonWeinsteins Bringing Time To Life

The Weinstein Company has acquired the screen rights to Allison Winn Scotch's novel Time of My Life, Variety reported. The novel, which Random House will publish in October, focuses on a 30-something housewife who gets a chance to go back in time to eliminate lingering doubts about what might have happened had she not settled down.

Meryl Poster will produce the film through her Superb Entertainment banner. She previously worked with Harvey Weinstein as the president of production at Miramax, where she oversaw such films as Emma, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat and Cold Mountain. Poster has a first-look deal at NBC Universal (which also owns SCIFI.com), but when the studio passed on the book in 2005, she offered it to the Weinstein Company.

"This is a realistic fairy tale that speaks to women today," Poster told the trade paper. She found the novel in manuscript form in October.BRIEFLY NOTED

Fox has posted an interview on YouTube in which J.J. Abrams talks about his upcoming TV series, Fringe.

Warner Brothers has acquired an untitled pitch about two brothers who go to visit their grandfather in New York and meet a man who shows them a mystical realm in Central Park, Variety reported. Bryan Schulz and Neil Uliano will write the script.

Screenwriter Rita Hsiao (Mulan) is rewriting the big-screen adaptation of I Dream of Jeannie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Five other writers have contributed drafts for the project already.

An 800-word mini-prequel to the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling, was sold on June 10 at auction for $49,323.

Paramount Home Entertainment will release the all-new animated adventure Transformers Animated: Transform & Roll Out on DVD June 17. Based on the hit Cartoon Network series Transformers Animated, the upcoming release will also feature two bonus animated shorts.

ComingSoon.net cited an interview with Terrence Howard at Military.com in which he revealed that he will begin filming Iron Man 2 in March of 2009.

Dan Mazeau is the latest screenwriter to be hired to work on an untitled Jake Gyllenhaal action film about lunar colonization. Director Doug Liman wrote the original screenplay with John Hamburg, and it was later revamped by Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden.

CHUD.com confirmed fan speculation that Michael Bay's upcoming sequel Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen will draw on the mythology of the Transformers comics and the origin of a Lucifer-type character known as the Fallen.