X-Files' Spotnitz Wants To Believe

Frank Spotnitz, who co-wrote the script to The X-Files: I Want to Believe, told a Los Angeles Film Festival audience that the sequel is an intellectual horror film.

"Mulder and Scully are so smart, it forces you to be as smart as you can possibly be to keep up with them," Spotnitz said earlier this month. "That's what's great about this audience is they are smart as well. Not to pander shamelessly, but it's true."

The upcoming sequel features a stand-alone story in which Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) embark on a manhunt with supernatural overtones. Spotnitz kept plot details vague, but he said the nature of Scully and Mulder set the tone for the film.

"It has to be an intellectual investigation just because of the nature of these two characters," Spotnitz said. "One is a believer, and one is a skeptic, so it's built into the concept. That's what I love about The X-Files. It works on two levels. It works as a popcorn entertainment with creepy, scary stuff, but then it's always got ideas. It has to. It can't help but have ideas. So there's something to think about after you leave if you so choose."

Scully and Mulder still have personal issues. Spotnitz screened one scene in which Scully tells Mulder that solving their case won't save his sister, a reference to an ongoing storyline from the Fox TV series on which the movie is based. Spotnitz insisted the film offers no resolution of ongoing themes, but said such allusions add a level to the one-off story.

"I think if you're a fan, there are going to be things like that scene there that have a lot of resonance to you, that make sense to a new audience but are going to be deeper for old fans," Spotnitz said.

Spotnitz added that the challenge for him and co-writer and director Chris Carter, who created The X-Files, was not to repeat themselves.

"It was hard to actually come up with a story that wasn't like anything we've done in 202 hours of the show and that was also going to be really cool and scary and all those other things," Spotnitz said. "Once we had that, the X-File part of it was easy." The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25. --Fred TopelIMAX Served Knight Well

Christopher Nolan, co-writer and director of The Dark Knight, told reporters that he chose to shoot many of the film's big action sequences in the large-screen IMAX format--then found that the format also adapted well for smaller scenes.

"The logistics and the creative [decisions] actually match up relatively well," Nolan said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "The first thing you think of is you're going to shoot your major action set pieces that way, and action tends to be light on dialogue, which is helpful, because the cameras are far too noisy to record dialogue with."

Nolan opted to use the unwieldy, noisy IMAX cameras to shoot six major action sequences, in part to intensify the cinema-going experience in a way that home theaters can't match.

But Nolan also discovered that the high-definition format was good for smaller shots as well. "What we found as we started getting more and more interested in [it is using] these cameras ... for smaller, quieter moments that weren't necessarily action-based," Nolan said. "And that became interesting photographically as well. So we just worked [the IMAX format] more and more into the movie, and because we knew that for the 35mm release we'd be extracting [a] 35mm [image] from the IMAX [print], we used the cameras as much as we felt like, and then in the [editing] were free to decide, 'Do we use the full IMAX frame for this, or do we keep it in the 35mm [aspect ratio]?'"

In the sequel to Nolan's 2005 reboot movie Batman Begins, Christian Bale's Batman joins newly elected crusading Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and detective Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to fight crime. Their job is complicated by the arrival of the Joker (Heath Ledger), a mysterious force of chaos.

IMAX came in handy in several scenes, some of which didn't make the final cut, Nolan said. "Like the ... cop funeral, where there are so many ... hundreds and hundreds of police--we shot all those grand shots ... actually ... in IMAX, but they don't appear in IMAX in the finished film, because, ... rhythmically, it didn't feel right," he said. "It was an edit-room decision at the end of the day."

Whether Nolan uses IMAX in future films depends on how the audience reacts to The Dark Knight, which opens July 18 in both IMAX and conventional theaters. "I have to see how audiences respond to it," Nolan said. "But based on these early screenings we've been doing and based on the way people are receiving the film, it seems to heighten the experience of the film for people. It seems to throw them into the action in very much the way I'd hoped. ... We've found a lot of ways to deal with the cumbersome nature of the post-production process and everything. We learned a lot. I think [that] anything you can do ... to elevate the theatrical experience of film helps keep film distinct from the home-theater experience, which is increasingly technically sophisticated." Nolan added that the IMAX version of the film may make it onto the eventual Blu-ray high-definition disc version of the movie. --Patrick Lee, News EditorWarner, DC Rethinking Film Strategy

A big shake-up could be in the works at Warner Brothers for its DC Comics film properties, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the course of the past couple of weeks, Warner Brothers Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov and Warner president Kevin McCormick have been meeting with DC Comics executives, as well as some of DC's top talents, like Jim Lee, to discuss a new direction for film adaptations.

Up until now, the comic properties had been undergoing a hodge-podge development process. With the recent success of Marvel Studios' Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk and that company's plan to develop its many characters linked strategically together, Warner has been forced to take a close second look at its sister company.

With The Dark Knight near its release date, a new agenda is being set, one that sees the DC characters emerge with a higher priority and developed with an overarching goal in mind.Knight's Bale Talks Wayne's Arc

Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight, told reporters that the character considers abandoning his alter ego as the Caped Crusader in the sequel to Batman Begins.

"Batman will always have this conflict within himself of his altruistic side versus his raging, violent ... demonic side," Bale said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "But added to it with this one is the notion that he wants out. He does not want to continue to be Batman. He is looking for somebody who can be, like he says, a hero with a face, which will make Batman obsolete."

In the sequel, Wayne pins his hopes for a better Gotham City on newly elected district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Wayne ultimately hopes to give up his nocturnal crime-fighting to be with his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

"Harvey Dent is clearly the potential heir to that, the elected official who can have integrity and stamp out the corruption and the crime," Bale said.

The trouble comes when a new force of chaos appears in Gotham: The villainous Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, forcing Wayne to continue putting on the black batsuit.

"Batman is finding it impossible to relinquish this creature, no matter how much it means that his own life is being sacrificed and that he's suffering because of that," Bale said. He added: "I think there's a mutual fascination between Batman and the Joker. ... Like the Joker says, 'You complete me.'"

Bale praised his co-star Ledger for his brave performance. "Heath clearly had created a character which I was absolutely happy to stand back and witness and see that, you know, this guy is going to completely steal the show, and in a fantastic way, in a deserved fashion," Bale said. "The Joker is a hypnotic character." The Dark Knight opens July 18. --Patrick Lee, News EditorKnight's Han Joins 2012

Singaporean actor Chin Han (The Dark Knight) will next star in Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic movie 2012, Variety reported.

Han joins an ensemble cast that includes John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Danny Glover.

The movie, co-written and to be produced and directed by Emmerich for Centropolis Entertainment and Columbia Studios, begins shooting in Vancouver in August. Knight's Bale Did Own Fights

Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Dark Knight, told reporters that it's really him standing on the top of a Chicago skyscraper for a particularly dangerous scene.

"I did enjoy no end the standing-on-the-edge-of-the-Sears-Tower shot," Bale said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week.

Bale added: "It's not really a stunt. It's more an experience. I had a cable [attached to me]--they weren't going to let me plummet 110 stories to the bottom. I could have fallen, but I just would have had a nasty bang against the [side of the building] and surprised some office worker down below and then get hauled back up."

Bale also performed his own fight sequences in a new lighter and more maneuverable batsuit. "All the fight sequences I do myself," Bale said. "I had to turn to my stunt double Buster [Reeves] and say, 'Sorry, buddy, that one's mine. I've got to be doing that one.' But I gave him slamming into concrete pillars at 30 miles an hour, falling five stories onto a car, that stuff. I was like, 'No, that's yours. You can take that one.' But the Sears Tower experience I had to take for myself."

The Dark Knight opens July 18. --Patrick Lee, News EditorKnight's Ledger Praised

The cast and filmmakers behind the Batman sequel The Dark Knight uniformly praised Heath Ledger's performance as the villainous Joker, which some are already suggesting may garner the late actor an Oscar nomination.

"I think he's looking down from heaven, as my fiancée said, he's looking down saying, 'They going to nominate me for an Oscar? You're kidding me!'" co-star Gary Oldman (Lt. Jim Gordon) said with affection.

Ledger, who died in January at the age of 28, gives an edgy performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

"Heath and I talked a lot about the abstractions of the character, of the underlying philosophy of the character and what he represents in the story and what that tone would need to be," co-writer and director Christopher Nolan said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "But then it was really up to him to go off and figure out how he was going to make something that he understood had to be iconic, somehow. But he also understood that it had to be human and recognizably human, because the threat we discussed, the threat of pure anarchy, of chaos, an individual ... whose only real pleasure, only real amusement, comes from tearing down the structures around him--that's a very human form of evil. So he has to be human as well as iconic. Heath put a lot of time and energy into figuring out a very complex way of achieving this."

Aaron Eckhart, who plays newly elected Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent, performed a crucial scene with Ledger, in which the Joker visits Dent in the hospital and challenges him morally.

"That was a great day," Eckhart said. "I had a lot of fun. That was one of those days where I said afterwards, 'That's why I'm an actor.' Because I like to act, and I like to watch and participate in good acting. And Heath was ... turning up the screws on everybody. He was setting a new standard. So Heath and I had not rehearsed that scene, ... so I didn't know what was going to go on that day, I didn't know what to expect. I hadn't been around Heath too much up 'til that point, but I got a quick education that things were going to get crazy, and they did. Thankfully. Heath brought a lot of energy; he knew his character inside and out. He relished it."

Maggie Gyllenhaal, who takes over the role of prosecutor Rachel Dawes from Katie Holmes, also played a key scene opposite Ledger, in which the Joker grabs Rachel's face and threatens her with a knife.

"I know that he did something that was just remarkable in the movie, and even for the most experienced and talented actors is very rare, which is that he hit this stride where he was absolutely free," Gyllenhaal said.

Gyllenhaal added: "I hadn't acted with him or seen any of his work at all in the movie until I came to set that day to do that scene, and then I kind of got this sense of how he was working and what was happening. ... Even though the scene is very scary and full of tension and horrible in a lot of ways, I actually had such a blast shooting it with him, because anything I did, he would roll with me. And he threw all sorts of things at me. Plus, ... it just was one camera going around us in a circle. ... It was very exciting working with him."

The Dark Knight, which stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, opens July 18. --Patrick Lee, News EditorKnight's Eckhart Unravels Dent

Aaron Eckhart, who plays Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent in the upcoming The Dark Knight, told reporters that his character undergoes a major transformation when faced with the villainous Joker (the late Heath Ledger).

"The Joker really is the engine that is pushing everyone's buttons and pushing the ... action forward," Eckhart said in a group interview last week in Beverly Hills, Calif. "He's asking all the questions, and we, as the other characters, have to answer them." (Possible spoilers ahead.)

In director Christopher Nolan's sequel to his 2005 reboot Batman Begins, Dent is the newly elected crusading D.A. in a crime-ridden Gotham who works with the police, led by detective Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and vigilante hero Batman (Christian Bale) to contend with the Joker, a force of chaos.

The Joker is "asking Batman to betray his cardinal rule: He's asking people to choose between life and death," Eckhart said. "He's ... asking people to examine themselves, and that's why this movie works on so many levels."

The Joker eventually pushes Dent to make a fateful choice. "Harvey does have a huge transformation," Eckhart said: from the law-abiding prosecutor and last best hope of Gotham into something else.

"I was so happy when I read the script that Harvey Dent was in the movie, because we hadn't seen Harvey Dent before, and we really got to know what he was like as a person in everyday life, so that when he turns, ... we can empathize, at least, or know ... why he's feeling these things and doing what he's doing," Eckhart said. The Dark Knight opens July 18. --Patrick Lee, News EditorHellboy II's Perlman OK With Makeup

Ron Perlman, who reprises the title role in the fantasy sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, dismissed questions about his arduous makeup routine, in which layers of latex and paint are applied to transform him into the big red demon.

"I don't think the prosthetics or the makeup [matter]," Perlman said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "I mean, you know, ... every job comes with its own sort of substructure of problems and obstacles. ... In this case, there's a three-and-a-half to six-hour prep time in order to get ready to go on the stage and work. But ... once it was on--once we were on the set, ... aside from sometimes being hotter than everyone else was in August and warmer than everyone else was in November--it didn't alter anything. It was basically just the uniform, the look that made up the guy, you know?"

Perlman again plays the red creature, leader of a team from the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, as he battles an uprising of fantasy creatures led by a nefarious elf prince (Luke Goss).

Perlman--who is no stranger to makeup acting, having starred for years as a furry monster in TV's Beauty and Beast--compared his makeup and costume to those of his fellow actors.

"There always is [a costume]," Perlman said. "Even if it's, like, wearing nothing at all: That's still the costume. So, yeah, I don't think it really changed anything."

But Perlman admitted that when he has finally been transformed into Hellboy, he gets a certain something out of it. "I will tell you that when they finally zip up the last zipper and tie up the last shoelace, and I start walking to the set, it's like, ... what's that line in the Travolta Saturday Night Fever, in the second one?"

I'm going to strut now?

"Yeah," Perlman said with a smile. "There's a strut. There's a strut that I don't have in real life, you know? And that's all given to how evocative the whole costume and makeup is. I mean, I feel, I pretty much feel indomitable." Hellboy II opened July 11. --Patrick Lee, News EditorDel Toro Inspired Hellboy II

In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the troubled relationship between the title character and his firestarter girlfriend was drawn in part from writer-director Guillermo del Toro's own marriage of more than two decades.

"I write the characters from my [life], exactly things I do know and that are close to my heart," del Toro said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week.

In the sequel to 2005's Hellboy, the big red demon (Ron Perlman) is living with his paramour, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), but the two are going through a rough patch.

"Hellboy, for me, the two movies are semi-autobiographical," del Toro said, adding: "My wife recognizes a lot of the details. Including the moment when, you know, you get asked, 'Do you need everyone to love you? Aren't I enough?' ... It's never been verbalized, but you have those moments--when you're a filmmaker, when you're a storyteller--at some point in your life you have to say, 'OK, who matters in my life?' And then you have to make a decision. And I think Hellboy, the way he has evolved and the way he is an irresponsible knucklehead, but adorable, I get that: It's empathy for me. ... There's a great moment--which I have gone through--when he gets asked, 'Why are you with me?' And he goes [makes choking sound]. He can't speak. That's a male conversation, that's a male idea of conversation."

Perlman, who reprises the title role, said that the relationship between Hellboy and Liz rings true. "He's such a great husband," Perlman said. "He's so in tune with the dynamic of men and women interacting and all of the pitfalls."

Blair agreed. "I know that his relationship with [his wife,] Lorenza, is so special. It's such a beautiful, beautiful thing. I'm sure they also have come through many little arguments, so, yeah, I can only imagine. Yeah, they've had little quarrels. I think that there is a lot of Hellboy in Guillermo as well, so I can only imagine." Hellboy II opened July 11. --Patrick Lee, News EditorHellboy's Goss, Walton, Make Up

Luke Goss and Anna Walton, the British actors who play the elf twins Nuada and Nuala in the Hellboy II: The Golden Army, told reporters that they endured hours of tedious makeup to transform them into the white-skinned, long-haired fantasy creatures.

"[I got through] the first three or four hours ... using any technique of being peaceful," Goss (Blade II) said in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. He added: "It definitely is a challenge. That's a job in itself: just learning to [get] through that."

Goss' Prince Nuada is the warrior leader of a group of mythical creatures who want to wage war against humanity and against whom the agents of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense must fight, led by Hellboy (Ron Perlman). Nuada's empathetic twin sister, Princess Nuala, is conflicted about her brother's crusade.

To play the otherworldly beings, the actors had to undergo a makeup regimen that involved turning their skin white, putting on white wigs and wearing massive yellow contact lenses.

"They covered the whole eyeball," Walton said.

"Both lids," Goss added. "Both lids. And so there's a limit to how long you can have them in, like, three hours a day. Three hours, and then you have to have a 30- or 40-minute break."

Walton seemed alarmed at this news. "No one did that! Did you do that?"

Goss: "They didn't tell you this?"

Walton, throwing her hands up with a laugh: "Great! You could have shared that with me. I wasn't told to do that!"

Goss: "You know, because the oxygen can't reach your eyes."

Walton: "I found them fine, actually. It was only [a problem] when you got some dust in [your eye] or you got very, very tired."

Walton (Vampire Diary) said that her makeup "was just paint, and they had to draw [a scar line on my face] quite specifically, and, for continuity, it had to be exactly right, and [writer/director] Guillermo [del Toro] does not miss a trick," she said. "He will see instantly if it's in the wrong place. And so there were days when it was taking the scar off and [putting it] back on, and everyone was getting more and more nervous."

Hellboy II: The Golden Army opened July 11. --Patrick Lee, News EditorFringe To Screen At Comic-Con

Warner Brothers Television will screen the pilot of its upcoming Fox SF TV series Fringe at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 24.

Two screenings--at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.--will unveil the first episode of the show, from producers J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind the upcoming Star Trek movie, Comic-Con announced.

When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport, and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. When the search nearly kills her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley), a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). But the only way to question him requires pulling in his estranged son, Peter (Josh Jackson).

Fringe premieres Sept. 9 and will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.Fringe Predicted To Hit

A new report predicts that Fox's J.J. Abrams SF series Fringe and CBS' Jerry Bruckheimer SF procedural drama Eleventh Hour will be the highest-rated new shows, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The results are in an annual television report by Horizon Media that includes speculative estimates of how every broadcast show will fare in the fall.

The analysis contained some expected claims, such as those that established hits such as NBC's Heroes will continue to rule their time periods.

But there also were some surprises. In general, the report was skeptical about how new shows in general would stack up against competitors; not one new show is expected to win its time period in the adults 18-49 demographic.

Horizon also predicted that ABC's upcoming U.S. reboot of the British time-travel drama Life on Mars will be the third-highest-rated new show. CBS' Ghost Whisperer is expected to win its time period.Prisoner Details Hinted

AMC's general manager Charlie Collier told SCI FI Wire that the cable network's upcoming reboot of the classic 1960s British SF series The Prisoner will have some familiar elements.

"I don't really think of it being sci-fi, but it has the elements of the Village and the gadgetry," Collier said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour on July 9 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Collier wouldn't reveal much more about how the show is being updated, but he offered one big spoiler: The giant white ball, Rover, will be part of the new show.

Rover was a big part of the TV series; it will be part of it. We can't talk about it extensively now--it will get me in trouble," Collier said.

The Prisoner, AMC's second original miniseries, combines espionage, thriller and science fiction and will star Jim Caviezel as Number Six, a part originated by Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan served as the creator, producer, writer and director of the 1960s series. Lord of the Rings star Ian McKellen will play Number Two, Six's boss and the man who apparently controls the mysterious Village in which he is trapped.

"We got Jesus and Gandalf!" Collier said. "What better cast could we get for those two characters than Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel? It will be a limited series, that's how we could get those guys. But it is extensive; it is six hours."

Caviezel played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ and was in genre films such as The Final Cut, The Count of Monte Cristo, Frequency and the upcoming Outlander. McKellen was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the wizard Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and was Magneto in the X-Men movies.

Collier promised that the two actors would talk about the miniseries during a future TV press tour. The Prisoner isn't on AMC's schedule until 2009. --Mike SzymanskiAMC Wants To Adapt Classic SF

Charlie Collier, general manager of the cable network AMC, told SCI FI Wire that he is actively looking to mine classic genre TV shows and SF movies for miniseries, movies and remakes that would appeal to viewers in their 40s or 50s, a la AMC's upcoming Prisoner miniseries.

"There's a wealth of old TV shows and sci-fi movies to look back at and see if we can take them and update them and reintroduce them to the public," Collier said in an interview after he introduced his cable TV channel's lineup at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 9.

AMC's Web site suggests the network's direction: Its upcoming programming includes the scariest clown movies ever, tied to Heath Ledger's much-anticipated Joker in the upcoming The Dark Knight, and the site includes a "SCIFI Scanner" section with a discussion of SF movies airing on the channel, such as Species, Timecop, The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Lost World.

"We are having a ton of fun looking into the acquisitions of past science fiction, both movies and television," Collier said. --Mike SzymanskiTrue Blood Has Own Mythology

Alan Ball, creator of HBO's new vampire drama True Blood, told SCI FI Wire that he didn't know too much about vampire movies or lore, so he created his own mythology.

"In our world, a lot of the myths about vampires were created by vampires themselves over history so that they could pass, because if you could convince everyone that you couldn't be seen in a mirror or that you would freak out if somebody shoved a crucifix in your face then you could prove you weren't a vampire pretty easily," Ball said in interviews at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 10.

Ball (Six Feet Under) said that he had never read an Anne Rice book and added: "I personally have never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel. I'm not really a big vampire fan. This was really my first." But he is a big fan of Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 film Near Dark, with Lance Henriksen.

As for CBS' canceled vampire show Moonlight, Ball said, "I think it's pretty lame when you let your vampire go out in the day just because you don't want to shoot at night."

True Blood is based on the Southern Vampire series of books by Charlaine Harris. The show is set in Louisiana and centers on a parallel world of vampires, who have learned to co-exist with humans by drinking synthetic blood.

In his series, vampire teeth are important. "We went to great pains to sort of depict a certain kind of physiology for the fangs, where they actually are retracted like rattlesnake fangs and then they click forward," Ball said. "I wanted to approach the supernatural not as being something that exists outside of nature, but something that is more deeply rooted in nature."

Killing a vampire on True Blood is different, too. Ball said, "There are differences in what happens to vampires being staked. I wanted to avoid the instantaneous incineration or the instantaneous turning into dust. ... It's probably different than what we've seen before."

Vampires do burn in True Blood. "What happens to vampires when they burn in a fire ... is different than what we've seen before, but for the most part I didn't want to focus too much on visual effects or special effects," Ball said. "I wanted it to be a show about characters and to really explore what it means to be 170 years old and what it means to fall in love with somebody who [finds it] satisfying being fed upon, you know, not being able to see this person except at night, having the entire town think, 'What? Are you crazy?'"

The 12-episode first season of True Blood debuts on HBO on Sept. 7. --Mike SzymanskiGervais Finishing Up Truth

Actor and writer Ricky Gervais told SCI FI Wire that he is now in the process of editing his fantastical film This Side of the Truth, which marks his feature-film directorial debut. Gervais is co-directing the project with co-writer Matthew Robinson.

"I'm deep in the process of editing now," Gervais said in an interview July 10 at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting his upcoming HBO special.

In the film, "I play the man who [can lie,]" Gervais said. "It's a world in America, and the human race had never had the gene for lying, and I'm the first person who can lie. It was either me or Jim Carrey."

Even in something like the science fiction genre, Gervais said he likes being grounded in reality.

"Realism is so exciting to me: Then you can do comedy-plus, and that's what is always exciting," Gervais said.

Gervais' HBO Comedy Special debuts in the fall; it follows his sold-out British concert tour "Fame." --Mike SzymanskiFavreau Signed For Iron Man 2?

Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Web site reported that Marvel Studios and Iron Man director Jon Favreau have reached a deal for him to helm the sequel, due out in 2010. The site cited an anonymous source for the news.

The site added that star Robert Downey Jr. was obligated by his contract to appear in the sequel.

No official announcement has been made about the deal.Aldrin Slams SF's Effect On Space

Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. told SCI FI Wire that fantastic space science fiction shows and movies are, in part, responsible for the lack of interest in real-life space exploration among young people.

"I blame the fantastic and unbelievable shows about space flight and rocket ships that are on today," Aldrin said in an interview during an ice cream party held by the National Geographic Channel at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week. "All the shows where they beam people around and things like that have made young people think that that is what the space program should be doing. It's not realistic."

The second man on the moon praised real-world films such as Apollo 13. "And Tom Hanks' series From the Earth to the Moon," Aldrin added. "They were fascinating, because it was reality history, and reality fiction can be good if you stick to reality. But, if you start dealing with fantasy and beaming people up and down and traveling seven times the speed of light, you are doing damage. You're not helping. You have young people who have got expectations that are far unrealistic, and you can't possibly live up to the expectations you have created in young people. Why do they get bored with the space program? That's why."

Aldrin is hosting a show on the National Geographic Channel called Unseen Moon, which uses a high-definition camera on a satellite to explore the same area where he walked during the Apollo 11 flight to the moon in 1969. --Mike SzymanskiGemini Deals With 'Simulants'

Brent Friedman of Electric Farm Entertainment told SCI FI Wire that Electric Farm's new online series Gemini Division is set "two minutes in the future" in a world where biotechnology is starting to get out of control.

Starring Rosario Dawson, Gemini Division consists of 50 three- to four-minute episodes that will begin streaming on NBC.com and SCIFI.COM in August.

Dawson plays New York vice cop Anna Diaz, who witnesses the brutal murder of her fiance, Nick (Justin Hartley), only to discover he wasn't a human being at all but an artificial life form called a "simulant." She soon crosses paths with the title Gemini Division, a secret government organization tracking a group of simulants who have gone rogue and are hiding among the human population.

"They're intrigued by her because she's the first [human] they're aware of that actually had a relationship with one of them," Friedman said. "And so there's kind of an unholy alliance made where she decides to join them to get answers to what the hell is going on."

Friedman explained that the simulants were the product of a lengthy research program that was eventually appropriated by the military. The military then made other modifications to turn them into artificial soldiers. They became "a stopgap to get them out of the Iraq crisis," Friedman said. "But one platoon of them went AWOL. They spread out all over the planet, and, unbeknownst to the general public, who has no idea that this experiment ever took place, they have assimilated with us and are in the process of staging a large terror plot. Or so we're led to believe."

One of the military modifications was a device called an experience core, installed in the simulants' brains, which records everything the simulant experiences. The idea was to download periodically all of the data to get a "complete, full, three-dimensional composite of Iraq," Friedman. But now that the simulants have gone rogue, the Gemini Division wants very badly to recover their cores intact in order to learn what they've been up to.

Anna also goes in search of Nick's core, hoping to learn once and for all whether their relationship was real or whether, as her superiors keep insisting, Nick was simply manipulating her. "The holy grail of her quest is to find his core and see what was inside his mind," Friedman said. "What he was thinking and feeling and seeing vis-a-vis her?"

Gemini Division is set to begin its online run daily beginning Aug. 18. --John SullivanChina Seeks Mummy III Cuts

China's censors want certain changes in the cut of Universal Pictures' The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor before they give it the green light for release in that country, Variety reported.

The State Administration for Radio, Film and Television told Daily Variety that the mainland release of the film is pending. No further details were given.

The organization's statements are unusual given that part of the movie was filmed in China.

A spokesman for Universal told the trade paper, "Universal does not anticipate any obstacles to clearing the film for China and looks forward to releasing The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor in the country where it was set and shot."

No Chinese release date has been set for the the $145 million movie, which is one of the biggest co-productions on record. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Heroes' Postal Goes Live

NBC.com announced that Going Postal, a Web series tied to its hit SF show Heroes, will go live on July 14 at 3 p.m. ET.

In Going Postal, users will get an early glimpse of a new character with special powers and watch his destiny begin to unfold. The fast-paced, twist-filled series of short "webisodes" sets fans on a path that leads to the third-season premiere of Heroes on NBC this fall.

The first webisode, "A Nifty Trick," centers on Echo DeMille, an everyday mailman, who discovers a startling ability that quickly makes him a target.

In the second webisode, "The Houseguest," posting on July 21, Echo races home to protect his girlfriend Gina and finds deadly uses for his new ability.

In the third webisode of this installment, "Let's Talk," which posts on July 28, Echo sends Gina off to safety while he confronts his enemies, but the tables turn with an unexpected twist.

The first series of webisodes includes integrated sponsors Nissan and Sprint. (NBC and NBC.com are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)Fans Stoke Primeval

Adrian Hodges and Tim Haines, co-creators of BBC America's upcoming time-travel series Primeval, told SCI FI Wire that fans get involved in many aspects of the show, even to the point of creating creatures.

"We are delighted to have an extremely strong fan base since the show started [in the United Kingdom two seasons ago], and we want to continue a good relationship with them," Hodges said. "They have come up with names for some of the creatures and even figured out their origins even as we are trying to figure things out ourselves."

As an example, unofficial and official fan sites have dubbed the place where the time anomaly has occurred as "the Primeverse," even though the scientists in the show have never called it that.

As the third season kicks off in the United Kingdom in January, fans are becoming even more involved, Haines said. "They are becoming more active, and we are giving them more opportunities to become more involved," Haines said. "There is going to be a parallel drama that is going to occur online as the show evolves."

Haines recently picked out a creature for the show that was chosen from among more than 5,000 entries in a "Create a Creature" competition. Primeval centers on the people who fight monsters from the past and the future that have slipped through a time rip, and the show's writers are always seeking new creatures for their menagerie.

"This kid, Carim [Nahaboo, of Essex, England], came up with a fantastic creature, and we will be using it," Haines said. The 16-year-old came up with a carnivorous insect-like creature that will do battle with other monsters in the eighth episode of the third season. The parallel story and the progress of the new creature can be charted at the show's official fan site.

Primeval stars Douglas Henshall, Lucy Brown and James Murray and kicks off in the United States on BBC America on Aug. 9. --Mike SzymanskiYoung Still Working In SF Films

Actress Sean Young told SCI FI Wire that she will appear in two supernatural thriller films coming out later this year, but added that she often gets offered schlock that compares poorly with her past roles in such films as Blade Runner and Dune.

Young will star in Parasomnia, with Jeffrey Combs (The 4400) and Timothy Bottoms, as a woman who sleeps her life away and lives in a fantasy world, Young said in an interview after a news conference at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., where she is promoting her new CMT reality series Gone Country 2.

Young will also appear in Haunted Echoes, a ghost story co-starring Barbara Bain and M. Emmet Walsh.

As for her CMT show, in which she competes to become a country crooner, Young said that trying to become a country singer was like its own fantasy science fiction adventure. Young sang in a prison and worked opposite John Rich, Lorenzo Lamas, Irene Cara and Chris Kirkpatrick. "I was really uncomfortable working in front of a live audience, and especially a live audience that committed crimes," she said. "It was kind of scary, but by the end I got really comfortable."

The controversial actress said that she doesn't think she is getting offered parts that she deserves, but added that she continues looking. "I think it was a lot of years of feeling social anxiety about some stuff I went through in my career that I always felt was sort of unfair," she said. "But my social anxiety has kind of turned into social hostility." --Mike SzymanskiIron Hunt Is Urban SF Fantasy

Best-selling author Marjorie M. Liu told SCI FI Wire that most of her novels have been published as romances with paranormal elements, but her latest novel, The Iron Hunt, is very much a fantasy novel, with a dash of science fiction thrown in.

"There are some romantic elements--the heroine, Maxine, is in a relationship--but it's not the focus, and there's no love triangle," Liu said in an interview.

Maxine Kiss is the last of the demon hunters. "[She's] a multidimensional prison warden who wears sentient demonic tattoos that render her invulnerable by day, but that peel off her body at night to form her own personal army--helping her protect mankind against other demons: dangerous beings who are locked behind a veil that has stood for 10,000 years but that is finally weakening," Liu said. "When a powerful creature breaks loose, Maxine is forced to confront not only this new threat, but also the secrets her mother left behind, which could destroy Maxine--or help her save the world."

The character came from Liu's head fully formed when she was writing a novella for the anthology Wild Thing. "Her circumstances, the demons, the tattoos--all of it--were just there, though the voice of her character evolved from the first draft to the last," she said.

The rest of the novel--the secrets of the world around Maxine, which she uncovers during the course of The Iron Hunt--was very much influenced by C.S. Lewis, Hans Christian Andersen, Jorge Luis Borges and Liu's fascination with quantum physics. "Yes, quantum physics," she said. "Trust me, I don't pretend to be anything but a hobby reader in that area, but this book--though an urban fantasy--also carries some elements of science fiction that I could not resist."

In addition to The Iron Hunt, this summer will also see the release of Liu's eighth Dirk & Steele novel, The Wild Road, and she will also be relaunching the first six issues of NYX for Marvel Comics--which is part of the X-Men universe and deals with mutant teens living homeless on the streets of New York. --John Joseph AdamsPrimeval Is No Who Clone

The creators of Primeval, the British time-travel series coming to BBC America, told SCI FI Wire that they are trying to shake off any comparisons to the wildly popular Doctor Who.

"It's the one question I've been getting asked about the most: people comparing the show to that Doctor," Douglas Henshall, who stars as an evolutionary zoologist who deals with creatures from the past and the future, said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week.

Henshall has instead been comparing the show to The A-Team. "I was mainly trying to avoid the comparison of the show we don't want to mention, and so I picked something very different, and our show is more of an ensemble like that show was," he said.

Primeval centers on a team of scientists who battle creatures that have come through unexplained anomalies that are ripping holes in the fabric of time. The show has aired for two seasons in the United Kingdom and debuts in the United States in August. Primeval already has a large following in Australia, South Korea and Germany.

Of course, comparisons with that other British SF series are inevitable: Primeval counts among its writing staff Paul Cornell, who wrote for the new Doctor Who TV series and authored more than a dozen novels about the Doctor and his companion, Bernice Summerfield.

But don't expect any crossovers with Doctor Who. "No, absolutely not will we have a Doctor Who character pop in on Primeval," producer/writer Tim Haines insisted. "They have very different worlds and realities. Anything can happen on Doctor Who."

The world of Primeval is more reality-based, said co-creator Adrian Hodges. But he admitted that he was tempted to sneak in a few Doctor references or inside jokes. "Every time I was tempted to even put in a vague Who reference, I stopped myself," Hodges said. "The worlds are very different. ... At one point, we considered a sly Doctor reference when someone got angry at another character and threw a box set of Doctor Who at them, but we thought not."

Hodges is working with former Doctor Who co-star Freema Agyeman on another British SF show, Survivors. But don't expect her on Primeval. "No, not even Martha Jones will make an appearance on Primeval," he said. --Mike SzymanskiTactics' Morgan Does Movies

Tracy Morgan--who debuts as the new host of SCI FI Channel's Scare Tactics this week--told reporters that he's also just completed work on the animated film G-Force and the alternate-universe comedy movie Deep in the Valley. In G-Force, Morgan voices a hamster named Blaster.

"They're awesome movies," Morgan said in a recent conference call with reporters. "G-Force is a Jerry Bruckheimer project that I've been working on for about the last year. And it's going to be great. I can't wait until it comes out. ... It's an animated movie, and I play the voice of a hamster. ... They're like a task force, and they go undercover, covert undercover gerbils."

Morgan is part of a cast that includes Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz and Steve Buscemi.

In Deep in the Valley, Morgan portrays what he describes as a "futuristic club owner." Written and directed by Christian Forte (Albino Alligator), the film co-stars Chris Pratt (Wanted), Brendan Hines, Scott Caan and Denise Richards.

"Deep in the Valley is going to be a cult classic," Morgan said. "It's a really, really adult movie. It's funny. It's along the lines of Totally Awesome and all those things. I haven't seen it yet, but the part that I did was really funny. It had a couple porn stars in it. It was really funny. It gives me a chance to get away from PG for a little while.

"It's hard to explain the character that I play," Morgan added. "It's like a futuristic club owner. He's a really funny guy. Fu Manchu mustache and everything. Picture me with a Fu Manchu mustache." Deep in the Valley opens later this year, and G-Force is scheduled for release on July 24, 2009. --Ian SpellingTV Land Conjures More Myths

TV Land president Larry Jones told SCI FI Wire said that the cable network has picked up new episodes of the popular Myths and Legends series for next season.

"We are scheduling seven brand-new shows of Myths and Legends, and it is one of the most popular shows we have," Jones said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 9. "The show does involve a lot of science fiction and debunks a lot of urban legends." Myths and Legends has dealt with ghost legends, fright films, secret agents and more.

TV Land is also seeking TV shows from the past that an older audience will enjoy.

"We have just acquired and are showing Third Rock From the Sun, and we're going to show the movie Apollo 13 this summer," Jones said. TVLand.com is also streaming shows online. --Mike SzymanskiTime Mulls Fantasy's Future

SF&F author Sean McMullen told SCI FI Wire that the latest novel in his Moonworlds series, The Time Engine, attempts to answer the question: What would the future of a fantasy world be like?

"Would magic have just faded away?" McMullen said in an interview. "If it had not faded, would a magical military-industrial complex develop? Would their future have political correctness, a rampant lawsuit industry and inedible fast food?"

The Time Engine ties together the three previous Moonworlds books and reveals who was behind the catastrophes in the earlier books. "Magical machines of immense power have recently been causing great damage and loss of life on the world of Verral, and in The Time Engine we see the underlying cause removed," McMullen said.

The series is based on a problem of our own world, McMullen said. "Truly vast amounts of energy, whether in the form of hijacked aircraft or truckloads of explosive, are now within the reach of many ordinary but dangerous people," he said. "Not coping at the office? Why not flatten a city block as a cry for help or to just get the frustration off your chest? I have used a fantasy world and magical engines to show the consequences of this sort of thing, but our world is doing its best to go down the same path. I use a lot of comedy to get people to read these rather alarming warnings, but when my writing makes people laugh, I hope they are laughing nervously."

The magic in the book is "engineer's magic," as opposed to the enchantment magic of fairy tales, McMullen said. "Verral is meant to be an allegory of our own world and times, so the magic had to be highly predictable and rule-based," he said. "The Moonworld Verral orbits a gas-giant planet with a very strong magnetic field supporting quite sizable radiation belts, and I postulate that life has evolved to look like ours, yet it can control a lot of the ambient energy that the planet is bathed in. This is manifested as the 'magical' effects: sorcerers shaping beings of pure energy, flinging fireballs and generating wings of etheric mesh. Other than that, the world is built as a fairly pragmatic version of our own Middle Ages, ... which were way more interesting and exciting than most people realize." --John Joseph AdamsSurvivors Gears Up For More

British writer and producer Adrian Hodges told SCI FI Wire on July 8 that a remake of the 1970s post-apocalyptic TV series Survivors will be ready to broadcast this fall on the United Kingdom's BBC One and that more episodes are going into production. The show could eventually find its way to the United States on BBC America, he added.

Hodges--who was in Beverly Hills, Calif., to promote the U.S. debut of the time-travel series Primeval on BBC America--said that he is very happy with the remake of the show, which originally debuted in 1975 and is based on the SF novel by Terry Nation.

"We completed the pilot, and it's ready to premiere, and we're well into shooting the second block," Hodges, who is the executive producer and writer of both projects, said at the Television Critics Association press tour.

Survivors tells the story of a group of humans who survive a virus that has wiped out most of the world's population. Julie Graham, Max Beesley and Nikki Amuka-Bird are among the ensemble cast, as is Freema Agyeman, who plays Martha Jones on Doctor Who and Torchwood. "[She] is very much involved in the show, too," Hodges said.

The original Survivors aired for three seasons. Hodges said that he hopes that the latest incarnation goes even longer. "It confronts our deepest fears when everything else is stripped away," he said. "Do you fall apart or fight or retreat?"

Primeval, which has aired two seasons in Great Britain, is coming to BBC America in August.

"I can't say much more because I will be shot from both sides for anything I say," Hodges said, referring to the Primeval and Survivors teams. --Mike SzymanskiCohen Talks Mummy And Daddy

Rob Cohen, director of the upcoming The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, told SCI FI Wire that the third installment in the franchise will focus as much on the familial relationships among the characters as it will on special effects and action sequences.

"This is a real family story," Cohen said in an interview at a post-production house in Santa Monica, Calif., where he is finishing the film. "Basically, one of the things I shifted when I got aboard this was I wanted to do a story that was about a conflict between a father who loves his son but has lost touch with who he is, and a son who has made a mark now for himself but has a father who will not recognize it, who cannot see him as anything other than an 8-year-old boy who gets in trouble. And how the battle between the father and the son, the tension, actually leads to the father growing up."

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor takes place 13 years after the events in the second film, The Mummy Returns. Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford), the son of Rick and Evelyn O'Connell (Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello), is now 21 years old and has grown up to become an explorer in his own right. When he inadvertently brings a ruthless Chinese emperor back to life in Shanghai, he brings in his parents to help deal with the situation. But even Rick and Evie have changed since we last saw them.

"This is 13 years later," Cohen said. "As we all know from our relationships, whether they're marriages or not, they change. And in a sense, the people who you met at one point, 13 years later [are] not going to be the same couple. If they're still together, they're going to have evolved, either grown apart or less affectionate or whatever. But the odds that they would be the same people to each other are very long."

Cohen--whose previous films include The Fast and the Furious, xXx and Stealth--said that he learned a lesson on the latter film about priorities when it came to storytelling.

"Stealth was a real lesson for me, because I had had two $600 million hits in a row in contiguous summers," he said. "And then I got caught up with the idea of doing a movie at Mach 3, and you could see I got real tunnel vision about it. And I kept thinking, 'As long as I can make you feel these G-forces, this movie will be great.' And then, one day, when I got to the end of the process and it didn't work, I went, 'You know what? I didn't have enough story.' ... And I vowed that I would never, never, never make another movie where the characters weren't the dominant part of the film. And you'll see. I know you may not be able to imagine it, but this is a really good family story. And when Brendan and Luke Ford make their rapprochement, I would be surprised if you did not have genuine emotion." The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens Aug. 1. --Cindy WhiteMGM OKs Whedon's Cabin

MGM, under the direction of worldwide motion picture group chairman Mary Parent, gave a green light to a spec script from SF mavericks Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard called The Cabin in the Woods, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Goddard (Cloverfield) will make the film his directorial debut; Goddard's Buffy the Vampire Slayer mentor Whedon will produce.

Parent is also pushing forward MGM's remake of the 1980s apocalyptic movie Red Dawn, and the studio has hired screenwriter Carl Ellsworth to recraft the story. Dan Bradley, a second unit director and stunt coordinator on The Bourne Ultimatum, Spider-Man 3 and the forthcoming Quantum of Solace, will move into the director's chair.

The original Red Dawn was the Cold War brainchild of writer-director John Milius, who devised a World War III invasion of America by the Soviets and Cubans.

Parent, former vice chairman of Universal Pictures, previously worked with Whedon on Serenity, the SF movie based on his failed Fox TV series Firefly. Parent is also the producer on Goners, a secret Whedon script that Universal bought in 2005. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)HDNet To Air More SF&F

HDNet network president Mark Cuban told reporters that the network is looking to program more science fiction and fantasy independent films on the network and to encourage a generation of people who haven't seen classic blockbusters on the big screen to return to theaters.

"It's a shame that there are people who haven't seen 2001: [A Space Odyssey] on the big screen, and we want to change that with what we're doing," said Cuban at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 8.

After the press presentation, Cuban told SCI FI Wire that he wants to program character-driven, well-acted movies and acknowledged that "sometimes it's really hard to find a good movie like that in the [science fiction, fantasy and horror] genres."

HDNet controls the independent film company Magnolia Pictures, as well as the Landmark Theatres chain. Cuban said that he believes that a movie can be seen on the screen at home and in the theater at the same time.

"To think that an audience won't go out to a theater because a film was on TV is wrong thinking. It's idiotic and moronic, and we've proven that wrong," Cuban insisted. "Going to the movies is an experience that people still want to do--families want to get out of the house--but it's a shame when I can't see a movie because it's only played at a multiplex for a week, and it's gone until it's out on DVD."

Among HDNet's planned SF movie offerings are Splinter, about a monster that twists prey into shapes that help it spread its virus; the horror film Let Them In; and Special, starring Michael Rappaport as a guy who believes he has the powers of a superhero. "We are always on the lookout for movies like that, but we know there are blockbuster science fiction movies and then there are smart sci-fi and indie [SF], and usually smart and indie sci-fi intersect, and that's what we're looking for."

This summer, HDNet will feature a Steven Spielberg tribute week, with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and Monday SF nights with films such as Starman, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, King Arthur, Stigmata, Superman III, Ghostbusters 2, Wolf and The Mothman Prophecies. The network also features Torchwood and Dead Like Me. --Mike SzymanskiWarner Rides On Elfquest

Warner Brothers and Rawson Thurber are developing Elfquest, a fantasy movie based on the cult comic by Wendy and Richard Pini, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) will write, direct and produce the feature, whose format is undetermined.

The original comic, which the Pinis initially self-published starting in 1978, follows a tribe of elves known as the Wolfriders in their attempts to survive and link with other dispersed elves on an Earth-like planet with two moons while on the lookout for tribes of humans and trolls, both of which act as allies and enemies.

The series--which at certain points in its history was published by both Marvel and DC Comics--attracted a more mature audience as it went along, with scenes of battles and sexuality that were intense for that time.Ramsey: Ruins Was Hell

Laura Ramsey--whose SF horror film The Ruins is now on DVD--told SCI FI Wire that making the film was the toughest experience of her life.

Ramsey, Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and Joe Anderson star in the movie, about a group of young tourists in Mexico who disturb a remote Mayan ruin and find themselves picked off one by one. Ramsey played the tough but doomed Stacy.

"I think it's a great film for the genre and the idea based on the book," Ramsey said in an interview, referring to The Ruins by Scott B. Smith, who also wrote the film's screenplay. "I thought it was really, really good, I have to say. I'm very proud of it."

Ramsey, who previously appeared in the horror films Venom and The Covenant, said shooting the movie was "probably the hardest thing I've done, just physically and emotionally hard for me. It was amazing being able to shoot in Australia and be able to do good work, to actually have a character that has a start and a finish, but it was really hard. It was very brutal. We were working 16 hours a day, six days a week, and a lot of it you have to be so on-edge all the time. You can't just be yourself. You always have to be in a state of mind of like, 'I'm gonna die,' which is not fun."

Stacy (major spoilers ahead!) dies a particularly gruesome death in The Ruins. Shooting those scenes required Ramsey to arrive on set hours in advance to be fitted with prosthetics.

"If we were shooting at 6, I had to be in the prosthetics trailer at 3 in the morning, which only helped, because I was extra emotional and extra tired," Ramsey said. "And then they had these tubes coming out of the prosthetics. So once I'm on set they hook it all up, and the blood's coming out, I can't move. I literally had to stay there, even while they're setting up the cameras. Usually you can go and have your time to sit and hang out. I just had to stand there, filled with blood that stuck and peeled on your skin. It was definitely an experience."

The Ruins is available on DVD in an unrated edition from Dreamworks Home Entertainment. The DVD includes commentary from director Carter Smith (no relation to Scott), three deleted scenes and an alternate ending. --Ian SpellingMultiReal Has Cake, Eats It

SF author David Louis Edelman told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, MultiReal, is about characters who reach a major crossroads in their lives and have to make difficult decisions--and what would happen if they had access to a technology that let them choose both alternatives at once.

"How do you make a choice between two alternatives that both have pros and cons--and both have serious potential consequences? How do you take responsibility for the choices that you've made?" Edelman said in an interview. "I was thinking of the personal choices I've made in my own life as I wrote this book, and I hope readers will be thinking of their own personal choices as they read it, too."

MultiReal is the second volume in Edelman's Jump 225 trilogy. It follows Infoquake, which has been described as "the love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge" by Barnes & Noble. "It's the continuing story of a far-future, post-apocalyptic world where software barons compete to write programs that run the human body," Edelman said. "In Infoquake, our hero, Natch, managed to connive his way into co-owning this mysterious new technology called MultiReal. Now, in the sequel, this all-powerful government agency called the Defense and Wellness Council decides that MultiReal is too dangerous to be left to an unscrupulous businessman, so they come after him with both barrels."

When writing MultiReal, Edelman challenged himself to stay away from conventional action scenes. "With Infoquake, I tried to bring out the drama and excitement in ordinary day-to-day business interactions like sales meetings and fund-raising pitches," he said. "The climax of the novel took place at a product demo. MultiReal does contain one big action set piece--a chaotic dart-gun battle between three different factions in the middle of a crowded auditorium--but for the most part, the action and dramatic tension [take] place in governmental hearings, press conferences and product-development meetings. Trying to find ways to keep the reader on the edge of his seat while reading about a governmental hearing was incredibly challenging."

Edelman is currently working on Geosynchron, the third and final book in the Jump 225 trilogy, which he promises will "blow your frickin' minds." --John Joseph AdamsMummy III Moves To China

Rob Cohen, director of the upcoming action sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, told SCI FI Wire that changing the setting from 1930s Egypt, where the first two films took place, to 1940s China offered a chance to do something completely new with the franchise.

"I really in my heart believe that if we'd done another one that was based in Egypt, it would have been a failure, because there's just nothing new to do," Cohen said in an interview at a post-production house last month in Santa Monica, Calif., where he is finishing the film. "You've had Anubis, and you've had Karnak, the pyramids. It's done. And between [Stargate director] Roland Emmerich and Stephen Sommers [director of the first two Mummy films], they've done as much to poor Egypt as anybody can do. So you want to go someplace [else]. And China is just this virgin territory in a sense, because most films about China have been very historical."

In the film, the now 21-year-old Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) calls on his parents, Rick and Evie (played by Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello), for help when he unearths an ancient, ruthless Chinese emperor and inadvertently brings him back to life.

The mummy in this case is loosely based on a real historical figure, Shi Huangdi (or Shi Huang Di), the first emperor of China. An accomplished but brutal leader, he's known for building the original Great Wall of China and was famously buried in a tomb guarded by an army of terra-cotta warriors (which figure prominently in the film).

Before the start of shooting on location in China, Cohen did his own research into the country's rich history and mythology for inspiration.

"I did a lot, of course, because I wanted to become as expert as I could on the Qin period," he said. "Even though the Chinese government doesn't want us to identify it in the film--we never call it Qin--that's the only emperor who built a tomb of terra-cotta warriors for himself. So [I had] the idea of knowing everything I could know about him, the period, the major ideas of the time."

Cohen went on to say that moving the story to China open ups possibilities not only for this film, but also for possible future installments as well.

"It positively allowed me to reinvent it, because now you're weaned off the idea that The Mummy is about Egypt," he said. "Now, anyplace in the world, and there are many, that have in the culture a quest for life after death becomes fair game for a Mummy adventure."

Despite the change of scenery, Cohen did promise that there will be a few references to the first two Mummy films in the third installment.

"I condensed the other two movies into two fun bits," he said. "One, Evie has novelized The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. And she's a writer now, but has nothing new to say because she hasn't had another adventure. And [her brother] Jonathan [played once again by John Hannah] owns a nightclub in Shanghai called Imhotep's, which is kind of a kitschy Egyptian nightclub. ... But this is not a movie that ever talks about Egypt or what happened or anything."

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens Aug. 1. --Cindy White Astro Voice Talent Is Tops

David Bowers, who is directing the upcoming animated feature Astro Boy, told SCI FI Wire that the appeal of the original manga and comic-book series helped attract big-name actors such as Nicolas Cage to the project.

"A guy like Nicolas Cage, he's a big comic-book fan anyway, as everybody knows, but he does like Astro Boy," Bowers said in an interview at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 5. "He's a big fan of Astro Boy. He brings such a lot to the role."

In the new film, Cage provides the voice of Dr. Tenma, a scientist who loses his son and creates a robot, Astro Boy (voiced by Freddie Highmore), to replace him. In the original 1950s manga and subsequent 1960s anime TV series, Astro Boy is rejected by his creator and left to fend for himself in the world. Bowers said that his version will be a bit lighter in tone and more forgiving of Dr. Tenma's actions.

"We have a slightly more sympathetic look at Dr. Tenma in this movie," he said. "[Cage has] given a wonderful performance. I think your heart breaks for him. At the same time, there's a lot of comedy in the manga as well. We have Nathan Lane as HamEgg and Bill Nighy playing Dr. Elefun, and he's terrific in it. And we have a lot of new characters as well. We have a lot of very fun robots. I think there's a lot of comedy in the movie. But, again, it's a very emotional story."

Bowers, a former animator who made his directorial debut in 2006 with the computer-animated feature Flushed Away, said that he was able to get his first choice when casting the film's main roles thanks to a strong script.

"I always want to get the best actors for the roles that I can get," Bowers said. "And I've been very fortunate on Astro Boy that everyone we've approached has agreed. They're all a little dubious at first. They all want to read the script. And they read the script, and they're really keen. They love it, and they want to come on board. So it's very encouraging."

It's also important, Bowers added, that the actors feel free to diverge from the script in their performances.

"I try to be a little free with the script and sort of encourage the actors to bring as much to the role as they can," Bowers said. "So when you have people like Nick and Bill Nighy and Freddie, they come with so much experience and talent, you don't want to hem them in. So my instinct is just to let them go and offer suggestions and push it as far as I can and then try bringing it back. It's interesting. We have time to play around with it a little as well." Astro Boy is set for release in the fall of 2009. --Cindy White C&C: Red Alert 3 Adds Robots!

Chris Corry, executive producer of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, told SCI FI Wire that the real-time SF strategy video game is adding a Japanese campaign that will add robotic battle mechs and transforming vehicles. The Japanese faction, dubbed Empire of the Rising Sun, is the latest addition to the game, set in an alternate-universe Soviet Union in which World War II never ended.

"The Japanese faction definitely is the most technologically focused of the bunch," Corry said in an interview. "They do have a lot of cool transforming units and a lot of things that you would expect from a Japanese side that has all those cool pop-culture references, like ninjas and samurais. Certainly mechs are a big part of it. So they're a pretty effective side."

Previous Red Alert games focused on the Allies versus the Soviets. The third faction and their new weapons may involve a learning curve for players who are used to the familiar Soviets and Allies.

"They also have some mechanics associated with them that are perhaps a little bit more advanced, so it takes a bit more time to spin up on that," Corry said. "It's a little different compared to Allies."

While the new Empire technology recalls similar tech in the Robotech and Transformers franchises, it still operates in the realistic world of Command & Conquer.

"I wouldn't maybe go quite so far as to say they're full-on super-sci-fi, but they are certainly the most sci-fi of the three factions," Corry said.

Corry added that the new installment has other SF elements. "The kind of fictional conceit that puts the events of Red Alert 3 into motion is a time-travel event," he said. "The game opens with the Soviet leadership going back in time and killing Einstein, who is most responsible for their enemies'--the Allies'--successes." Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is in development for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. --Fred Topeldead Explores Post-Apocalypse

Young-adult SF author Susan Beth Pfeffer told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, the dead & the gone, further explores the post-apocalyptic world Pfeffer first wrote about in Life as We Knew It. In the books, an asteroid has knocked the moon a little closer to Earth, causing tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, which in turn cause permanent power outages, famine and epidemics.

"I had so much fun writing Life as We Knew It that I decided to explore that situation a second time, only with a completely different set of characters in a completely different environment," Pfeffer said in an interview. "The dead & the gone is set at the same time as Life as We Knew It, and what happens to the world in one happens to the world in the other. But since the characters are very different, their families are very different, and their homes are very different, the challenges they face are very different as well.

The dead & the gone follows 17-year-old Alex Morales, who in the aftermath of the catastrophe doesn't know if his parents are alive or dead. "Alex finds himself responsible for the very survival of his sisters, as New York City moves closer to its own death," Pfeffer said.

Since the book takes place in New York, Pfeffer had to figure out just how the city would respond to a catastrophe that was particularly devastating to coastal areas. "I decided that you can't just dump New York City," she said. "Even if you know the city ultimately is going to vanish like Atlantis, you have to get the paintings and the rare books and the documents and the movers and shakers out of there and establish places of safety for them."

Pfeffer also imagined that in a post-catastrophe New York (or any other large urban area), there would be a thriving black market. "I decided how and why food would come into NYC and what items would have value when trading for a can of spinach," she said. "I really loved having that kind of power. At one point early on, Alex is watching a scientist on TV being interviewed about what might happen next. Since I didn't know how the scientist should respond, I had the electricity go off. Life should be so easy!" --John Joseph AdamsSF Author, Poet Thomas M. Disch Is Dead

Multiple-award-winning SF author Thomas M. Disch died in his New York apartment on July 4 of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, Ben Downing, Disch's co-literary executor, confirmed to SCI FI Wire. Disch was 68.

Disch's best-known work includes the science fiction novels The Genocides, Camp Concentration and 334, as well as the novella "The Brave Little Toaster," which was made into an animated film in 1987.

Other notable work includes several horror novels--including The M.D. and The Businessman--as well as his Hugo Award-winning nonfiction look at the field of SF/fantasy, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made of. Much of his work fit into the "New Wave" movement of SF, which put a strong emphasis on experimentation and literary craftsmanship.

Tachyon Publications recently published a new novel, The Word of God, earlier this year and plans to publish a new story collection, The Wall of America, in October.

In addition to being a novelist and short-story writer, Disch was an accomplished poet (writing as Tom Disch) whose work appeared in a diverse range of publications, from the SF magazine Amazing Stories to the literary journal The Paris Review. Disch was also well known as a critic: His theater and book reviews have appeared in publications such as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly.

Editor Ellen Datlow said that Disch had been very depressed for the last several years and that he took the 2005 death of his partner, writer/editor Charles Naylor, especially hard.

Disch, whose full name was Thomas Michael Disch, was born on Feb. 2, 1940, in Des Moines, Iowa, but grew up in Minneapolis then moved to New York after graduating high school. Before settling into his career as a writer, Disch held down a number of jobs, from steel draftsman to bookstore clerk, including a brief stint in the Army. He would go on to attend New York University, where his passion for writing was ignited.

He is survived by brothers Jeffrey, Greg and Gary and sister Nancy. --John Joseph AdamsCohen Reveals Mummy Secrets

SCI FI Wire was among the few outlets invited to visit a post-production house in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 24, where director Rob Cohen was putting the finishing touches on the upcoming sequel film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. (Spoilers ahead!)

Cohen was working on the sound mixing for an action scene set at the Shanghai Museum, where Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell faces off against the newly awakened Dragon Emperor.

The scene also featured glimpses of Maria Bello, who takes over the role of Evelyn "Evie" O'Connell--played by Rachel Weisz in the first two Mummy films--as well as Luke Ford as their son, Alex; John Hannah as Evie's brother, Jonathan; and a computer-generated version of Jet Li as the emperor. At this point in the film--reel three of seven--Rick and Evie have joined their son in China after he has accidentally brought the ruthless emperor back to life.

"Alex, now 21, has discovered the tomb of the Dragon Emperor out in the middle of central China," Cohen said. "He brought the sarcophagus and this chariot and everything they found back to Shanghai, to the Shanghai Museum. ... The idea is, [the emperor] spends the middle act of the movie as a living terra-cotta warrior, and he cannot get out of the clay. If he tries to get out of the clay, it burns him and reseals him all over again. So he ... has to get to Shangri La to immerse himself in the pool of eternal life to finally get immortality and to release himself from the curse."

As the emperor makes his escape from the museum in a clay chariot, he decapitates a minor villain, played by English actor David Calder, with a burning hand. Rick and Evie try to stop the emperor with guns, but he bursts out of the museum and into the Shanghai street. Outside the gates, Rick commandeers a truck (filled with fireworks, naturally), announcing to the driver, "There's a mummy on the loose!"

The film and sound editors played the scene several times for the director, isolating sounds such as gunshots, music, dialogue and the rumble of the chariot. Cohen, whose previous work includes The Fast and the Furious and xXx, said that this is just one of the many complicated sequences in the film.

"The important thing for me in movies is not so much what you watch, but how you feel it, that you actually get a physical sensation when you watch a film of mine," Cohen said. "We're peeling away the layers of the onion, all these different tracks, to bring things down, so we don't lose the excitement. ... They don't get more complicated. Until the next scene in The Mummy."

Besides finalizing the sound mix, Cohen said that he has about 140 of the film's 1,000 effects shots to finish before it is complete. He expects the final version of the film to be completed within the next couple of weeks. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is set to open on Aug. 1. --Cindy WhiteNew Astro Won't Stray Far

David Bowers, who is currently directing the upcoming animated feature Astro Boy, told SCI FI Wire that it will not veer far from the story told in the original manga and the later animated TV series.

"The characters are all there," Bowers said in an interview at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 5. "It is the original characters, but we have new characters, and Astro's basic journey is the same. He starts off in a slightly different environment. Astro's living in this floating city. But that's where the differences end, really. I must say, I just wanted to get to the emotional core of the movie and have people have a few laughs along the way and hopefully make them cry a couple of times. Then I'll be happy."

The new film features the voice of Freddie Highmore (The Spiderwick Chronicles) as the title character, a robot built by a scientist to replace his deceased son. When the scientist, voiced by Nicolas Cage, rejects him, he sets off on his own to find his place in the world.

Astro Boy, originally created by Japanese artist Osama Tezuka, first appeared in a manga series in the early 1950s. It became a popular animated television series in the 1960s and was later revived in the 1980s and, most recently, in 2003. Until now, however, the iconic character has never appeared in a theatrical film.

Bowers said that the timelessness of the story, combined with advances in animation technology, have made this the perfect time to bring the character back once again.

"I think the fact that the story has survived five decades ... I'm not going to start comparing it to Shakespeare--but good stories tend to last for a reason," Bowers said. "It's a simple, dramatic story that's as relevant now as it was then. Astro Boy in the 1950s, if you look at the original manga, it looks a little bit old-fashioned and a little bit quaint in its way. But it's worth remembering that at the time it came out and was a big success it was absolutely cutting-edge and futuristic and amazing-looking. And that's what our Astro Boy is going to be. We're going to be sort of reintroducing Astro Boy, but it's a very, very modern movie. But this universal theme that I think is timeless is still running through it." Astro Boy is set for release in the fall of 2009. --Cindy White Picardo Voices Quantum Quest

Robert Picardo told SCI FI Wire that he has not yet seen the completed version of the animated feature Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey, but that he is honored to be a lead voice in the film along with John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

"I had not yet seen the full animation," said Picardo, who voices the character of Milton in the animated SF adventure. "I've seen drawings and stuff, and I have recorded my part, and I'm proud to be in something that's not only a great, I think, educational tool for kids but ... stands alone as an entertainment as well and with an A list of voice talents like Samuel Jackson and, gosh, I can't even remember."

Christian Slater, James Earl Jones, Lacey Chabert, Anne Archer, Michael York and Casey Kasem (as himself) are also part of the notable voice cast.

"It's really a good list, and I play one of the principals," Picardo (Stargate Atlantis) said. "I play the, you know, the sort of crusty old resistance leader, I guess you'd describe him. So I think it's a really good project."

Quantum Quest is co-directed by Harry "Doc" Kloor, who wrote for Picardo's previous TV series Star Trek: Voyager, and Dan St. Pierre, who worked as an artistic layout supervisor for Disney classics such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. The semi-educational project shows an atomic world and the constant battle between forces of the Core and the Void. It involves protons, photons, antimatter and the big bang theory.

"It'll teach kids something about quantum physics while they're watching a really cool IMAX animated film," Picardo said. Quantum is scheduled for release in December 2009. --Mike SzymanskiSpaced Invades U.S.

BBC Video announced a four-city tour to promote the DVD release of Spaced: The Complete Series, the British SF-tinged comedy TV series, which becomes available for the first time in North America on July 22.

Creator-stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson), along with director Edgar Wright, will travel to New York, Los Angeles, Comic-Con International in San Diego and Austin, Texas, for special screenings, a marathon, panel sessions and signings for fanboys and fangirls.

The weeklong tour kicks off in New York on July 21 and stops in Los Angeles, Comic-Con and Austin's famed Alamo Drafthouse. The final stop on the tour is The Late Show With David Letterman, on which Pegg will be a guest, on July 28.BRIEFLY NOTED

Ain't It Cool News reports that the long-delayed Fanboys has been given back to director Kyle Newman to edit as originally intended, and that the film may be sneaked at Comic-Con International in San Diego later this month.

Game publisher Brash Entertainment has announced a deal to develop a game based on Universal Pictures' upcoming animated holiday release The Tale of Despereaux, which is itself based on a popular children's book by Kate DiCamillo, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ntare Mwine has been added to the cast of NBC's Heroes, playing an African who is artistic and close to many of the original heroes, according to The Hollywood Reporter; his special abilities will be developed throughout his nine-episode arc.

Participant Media has set up the eco-horror movie The Colony, based on a pitch by Stacy Title and Jonathan Penner, Variety reported.

E! Online reported that some movie theaters will add unusual 6 a.m. opening-day showings of The Dark Knight to meet demand created by sold-out midnight and 3 a.m. screenings on July 18.

The U.S. premiere of Lucasfilm's upcoming animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie will take place Aug. 10 at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre--the same place Star Wars: Episode V--The Empire Strikes Back debuted 28 years ago--as a benefit for the American Cinematheque.

Sony has picked up the U.S. distribution rights to the animated SF family film Planet 51 and has scheduled it for a Nov. 20, 2009, release through its TriStar Pictures label, according to The Hollywood Reporter; the movie is about an Earth astronaut (Dwayne Johnson) who is stranded on an alien planet.

ComingSoon.net reported that The Dark Knight will screen with the first trailers for Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, Watchmen and Body of Lies when it opens July 18.

Producer Charlotte Huggins has teamed with Hollywood-based studio Super 78 to produce Flight of the Dragon, a live-action fantasy film that will be made in 4K resolution for release in IMAX and other giant-screen venues, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Great Britain's Channel 4 is airing a 65-second spot that painstakingly re-creates the set of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, complete with lookalikes of the crew and cast members, to promote a week of Kubrick films.

A fourth video blog from the making of Zack Snyder's upcoming Watchmen movie has gone live.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told MTV.com that his proposed fantasy film Goners is back-burnered in lieu of Cabin in the Woods, a horror film he's developing with his former Buffy writer Drew Goddard (Cloverfield).

A new teaser trailer has gone live for the upcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Keanu Reeves and opening Dec. 12, which has been linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

Larry Harmon, who turned the character of Bozo the Clown into a show-business staple for more than a half-century, died last week of congestive heart failure, the Associated Press reported; he was 83.