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INSIDE SCI-FI THIS WEEK:
FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2008
TOP SF&F NETWORK TV SHOWS
Ghost Whisperer 3.2
Fear Itself 3.2
Smallville 1.2
Supernatural 1.2
Reaper 0.9
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 6/9/08 - 6/15/08
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
Selma Blair is back in the role of firestarter Liz Sherman in HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY,
and a much stronger woman this time around. "In the first one, she was definitely a little,
you know, she had some hangups, she had some baggage," Blair said in recent interview to
promote the film. "Mostly under her eyes, apparently, looking back at that. But she was
sad, you know? She was really sad. ... Her powers led to a lot of destruction." This time
around, Sherman is a full-fledged member of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense,
though she has some relationship issues with Hellboy (Ron Perlman). "This one, she matured,
and she could use her power, and she was with Hellboy, and she was really a capable,
functioning woman," Blair said. "Now still a little bit brooding, but definitely,
definitely she was stronger. And it was strange to play it. I thought I knew Liz, and
I thought, 'Oh, this'll just be a cakewalk. I'll just go back, and I know Liz already.'
But it was strange playing her with a little more confidence. I kept wanting to go back
to the hesitant Liz that I knew." In HELLBOY II, the B.P.R.D. team faces off against a
nefarious elf prince (Luke Goss), who wants to unleash a global war against humanity for
control of the earth. Blair is the only recognizably human member of a team that includes
a red demon, an amphibious psychic fish guy (Doug Jones) and an ectoplasmic spirit in a
diving suit (played by John Alexander and James Dodd and voiced by Seth MacFarlane), all
played under layers of makeup, masks and costumes. "I didn't realize it until we were
halfway through with the movie, and I was like, 'Wait a minute: I'm the only face here!'"
Blair said. "It took me a while." Blair added that she noticed that she was the only
person without a mask only while they were shooting a climactic scene against green
screen. To make sure her eyeline would match the computer-generated effects added in
later, Blair asked where her co-stars were looking as they shot the scene. "And they
were both, 'Oh, doesn't matter, no one can see our eyes.' And I was like [mimes shock],
'Oh, my God, everyone can see my eyes! And it really matters where I'm looking, what I'm
doing! Oh, my God, I have a face! I have a face, you guys!' So, yeah, ... there was a
moment of terror, like, 'Oh, my God, I'm going to be the one that's going to crap all
over this movie. ... I'm going to be the mess.'" HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY opens
July 11.
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
According to Variety, the third installment of Disney and Walden Media's THE CHRONICLES
OF NARNIA franchise is moving its production to Mexico from New Zealand, where the
previous two installments shot. Production of the first two films--THE LION, THE WITCH
AND THE WARDROBE and PRINCE CASPIAN--was based in New Zealand largely because of government
tax incentives. Weta Digital and Weta Workshop, which created most of the films' effects
and props, also are based in that country. By contrast, the third movie, VOYAGE OF THE
DAWN TREADER, to be directed by Michael Apted, needs several large soundstages plus a
massive water tank: The title of the film refers to the ship that serves as a major
set piece. Because of that, production will move to Rosarito, Mexico, and set up shop
at Baja Studios, where TITANIC, DEEP BLUE SEA and MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF
THE WORLD were shot. Location shots in Australia will still be filmed as planned.
Production originally was slated to start in October, but will now likely begin in
January.
MUTANT CHRONICLES
Over at Actor Thomas Jane's
official website you'll find the trailer for his upcoming film, THE MUTANT
CHRONICLES. The film currently doesn't have a release date set and stars Jane
alongside Devon Aoki, Benno Furmann, Sean Pertwee, John Malkovich, Anna Walton,
Luis Miguel, Tom Wu and Steve Toussaint.
Plot: Earth's natural resources have been exhausted by mankind and battle rages between
the soldiers of four leading Corporations: the Capitol, Bauhaus, Mishima and Imperial.
Mitch Hunter and Nathan Rooker, battle hardened Capitol soldiers, fight a desperate
battle against a Bauhaus advance. When an errant shell destroys an ancient stone seal,
they find themselves facing a new enemy: hideous necrmutants, with boneblades that
grow from their arms. Mithc barely manages to escape. Nathan does not. The mutants
multiply by millions and they destroy all before them. The Corporations' leader,
Constantine, is about to abandon the planet and leave countless innocents to their
desperate fate, when he is approached by Brother Samuel, leader of the Brotherhood,
and ancient monastic order. Samuel is the keeper of the Chronicles, a book that prophesies
both the rise of the Mutants, and the 'Deliverer' that will destroy them. Samuel believes
he is that Deliverer destined to journey deep into the earth and destroy the source of
the mutant scourge. He manages to recruit Mitch, along with a handful of like-minded
soldiers: Steiner, honor bound Bauhaus officer; sword wielding Severian; street fighter
El Jesus; fearless beauty Duval; and stoic warrior Juba. THE MUTANT CHRONICLES
follows Mitch and Samuel's mission to venture into the very heart of the darkness
in an attempt to save the planet from marauding hordes of deathless mutants.
MOVIE TRAILERS
If you have a couple of minutes, jump over to
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=videoBC&bcpid=714034225 and watch some of the
movie trailers at Variety. There is QUANTUM OF SOLACE, EAGLE EYE, VALKYRIE, THE DAY THE
EARTH STOOD STILL, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and more. The remake of THE DAY THE
EARTH STOOD STILL is interesting -- with Keanu Reeves!
THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2008
TOP 10 SF&F DVD SALES
Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs
10,000 B.C.
Stargate Continuum
Heroes season two
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Stargate Atlantis season four
Iron Man (Blu-ray)
Cloverfield
10,000 B.C. (Blu-ray)
Batman Begins (Blu-ray)
Source: Amazon.com, top-selling genre DVDs, 6/27/08
STARGATE: ATLANTIS
There are a number of changes ahead for STARGATE ATLANTIS his season. Joseph
Mallozzi, executive producer said during a recent interview that it's unlikely
former series regular Torri Higginson would return as Dr. Elizabeth Weir in the
upcoming fifth season, though her storyline was left hanging. But Jill Wagner's
renegade leader Larrin may return in a future season. Higginson turned down a
script that brought back her character, Mallozzi said in an interview. (Fans
recall that Weir died and was resurrected as a human-form Replicator and leader of
the surviving Replicators in season four.) "To be honest, I think it's highly
unlikely" that Higginson will come back, Mallozzi said. "She did a couple of guest
spots last season and was excited about finishing up the Replicator storyline and
was very excited about coming back." Mallozzi added: "Initially, she was a little
reluctant, and perhaps she was thinking about her fans. She wanted to create closure
for her character, but we wanted to keep the character alive. ... We sent the script
for review, and ultimately she passed. We would have loved to have her come back ...
I think at this point she's moved beyond the show and is looking elsewhere, and we
wish her the best of luck. She did a terrific job, but we will not see her in season
five, and it was her choice, and we respect her decision." Wagner, meanwhile, will
be back. Indeed, producers had wanted to bring Wagner's Larrin back in season five,
but scheduling conflicts got in the way. "We wanted to bring Jill Wagner back, but
she was working on something else," Mallozzi said. "I talked to her, and she was
awesome in the past season, and we haven't killed her off. Even if we had, our track
record doesn't necessarily mean she's gone for good. There is in season six a potential
to bring her back. So, yeah, why not?" STARGATE: ATLANTIS' fifth season premieres
July 11at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Robert Picardo joins STARGATE ATLANTIS as a regular this season. He said he likes
that his character, the abrasive bureaucrat Richard Woolsey, isn't the obvious choice
to command the city. Woolsey takes over command from Col. Samantha Carter (former
regular cast member Amanda Tapping, who is leaving to star in SCI FI's upcoming SANCTUARY).
"[Woolsey] is an unexpected choice for this job, and that is what, I think, the viewers
will hopefully respond to the way I have," Picardo said. "I think that it was a bold
thing for the producers to pick a guy like this who doesn't seem to be necessarily
the first choice for a leader, but to have him try and make himself into one. And
that is the interesting and creative choice." Picardo said that he was surprised
when executive producer Joseph Mallozzi offered him the larger role on Atlantis.
For his part, Mallozzi said: "It was a hard decision for Amanda, and, you know, we
were sorry to see her go. It also presented to us a situation to bring Bob over. ...
So we called him and asked him, 'What would you think about coming over and becoming
a regular?' And we were fully prepared for him to say, 'Are you kidding?' I'm happy
to say that he was more than amenable." By the second show in the new season, Picardo's
character faces challenges that make him less "by the book." He also stumbles around,
unable to work the technology in the city, and even has trouble opening the doors.
"He's always defined himself as someone who knows the rulebook and evaluates others
to live by it," Picardo said. "By the end of [the second episode,] he has broken
protocol five times in his first crisis, and that puts him in a personal crisis at
the end of the show." Woolsey is a character who isn't used to wearing a uniform,
but Picardo added that he enjoyed his new costume. "I caught myself looking at [the]
mirror in my new togs," he admitted. "Woolsey has been wearing a business suit in
the last 35 years, and ... I think I look all right in it. It does have that jogging-
suit look, and I feel like I should break out in [a] run down the hallway. In a way
it looks like a leisure suit, like I escaped from a late '70s or early '80s movie."
SCARE TACTICS
When SCARE TACTICS returns this season, Tracy Morgan from 30 ROCK will be the host.
He said in a recent interview that he couldn't resist an offer to be the show's new
host because it gave him a chance to channel his inner Rod Serling. "Well, I'm a
fan of SCARE TACTICS, and I love the show," Morgan said. He added: "I'm a big ...
longtime fan of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. So this is my rendition of Rod Sterling. I got
to be Rod Sterling. So I'm just excited to do it, you know?" Previously hosted by
Shannen Doherty and Stephen Baldwin, SCARE TACTICS is a hidden-camera show in which
unsuspecting victims are placed into elaborately staged scary situations involving
movie-style special effects and makeup. Producer Scott Hallock, told reporters that
Morgan was an ideal addition to Scare Tactics. "We've always considered this a comedy
show," Hallock said. "Even though it's scary, it's really only scary for the one person
in the bit, and all the rest of us are in on the joke. So we're laughing. ... So to
have someone as funny as Tracy be the host, that brings the show to a whole new level
right there." The show also promises bigger and better stunts. Hollack sounded most
excited about a particular segment in the season premiere. "One of the favorite bits
in past seasons has been the Rat Monster bit, where our little 28-inch-tall actor
dressed as a half-man/half-rat and terrified a guy. He's back. Gabriel [Pimentel]
is back, this time as Satan's baby in the premiere episode. He pops out from underneath
the sheet, and this girl who was set up by her mom starts screaming her head off. And
it's phenomenal." SCARE TACTICS will kick off its seven-episode season on July 9 at
10 p.m. ET/PT.
THE DARK KNIGHT
Taking over a role from another actor is not an easy task. However, Maggie Gyllenhaal
takes over the role of crusading prosecutor Rachel Dawes in the Batman sequel THE DARK
KNIGHT wanting to respect Katie Holmes' previous incarnation of the character, but
ultimately knowing she had to make it her own. "First of all, I wanted to make sure
that I had her blessing, and when I was sure that I did--you know, I'm a fan of hers,"
Gyllenhaal (Sherry Baby) said. "I think she's a lovely actress, and I thought she did
a great job with the previous [film,] Batman [Begins]. ... I really like her work. But
I also felt like it wouldn't do anyone any good for me to kind of try to imitate what
she had done. I would have been horrible at that." Gyllenhaal's Dawes figures prominently
in the sequel, both as the oldest friend of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) and
the love interest of virtuous Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).
Holmes bowed out of THE DARK KNIGHT, leaving the way open for Gyllenhaal. "I thought,
really, the thing I have to do is think of her as a new woman," Gyllenhaal said. "Of
course, there were things in the previous movie--plot points and narrative things that
were really important, I think, in our movie, so I paid attention to those and the way
she built that. ... Most importantly, I think that she says at the very end of the movie
to Bruce that she loves him, but that she can't be with him while he's Batman and that
she understands why he's Batman, but that she can't be with him. And that plays out,
of course, all the way through this movie. And Katie created all of that. So, of
course, she was a huge part of this. But not, I don't think, in a direct way for
me. ... I really had to think of her as a different woman when I played her."
THE DARK KNIGHT, which also stars the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, opens July 18.
HANCOCK
Variety reported that the Will Smith superhero movie HANCOCK got off to a strong
start, grossing $6.8 million from 3,680 theaters in early previews on the evening
of July 1; the film expanded on July 2 to 3,965 screens.
STAR TREK EXPERIENCE TO CLOSE
Trek.com reports that CBS and Cedar Fair have announced
that the Star Trek: The Experience themed attraction in the Las Vegas Hilton will
close on Sept. 1. The decade-old attraction--which includes two Trek-themed motion
simulator rides, Quark's bar and restaurant and a shopping arcade--has seen attendance
and revenues fall for years, TrekMovie reported. CBS held out the possibility that
The Experience might find new life in some other form, telling TrekMovie, "We're
extremely proud of the 10-year run Star Trek the Experience had in Las Vegas. We're
currently exploring several options to continue The Experience for the public to
enjoy for years to come."
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 2008
TOP SF&F SYNDICATED SHOWS
Star Trek 0.9
Dead Zone 0.8
Stargate SG-1 0.8
Stargate Atlantis 0.6
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 6/9/08 to 6/15/08
HIDING IN TIME
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers has picked up the rights to
the comic-book miniseries HIDING IN TIME, with writer Beau Thorne adapting the
SF books. Dan Lin is producing through his Lin Pictures production company.
The story is set in a not-too-distant future in which the Witness Protection Program
uses time travel to relocate high-value witnesses into the past for safekeeping.
When the program is compromised, a government scientist must travel back through
the greatest moments in history to help a master thief rescue his old crew from
the assassins sent back by their former employer. The comic, created by Christopher
Long and illustrated by Ryan Winn, was published by Image Shadowline.
FLY ME TO THE MOON
Producer Charlotte Huggins (JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH) has another film
coming out this summer: FLY ME TO THE MOON, a 3-D animated family/SF film about bugs
that stow away on the first moon mission. The plot centers on a trio of young insects--
voiced by Trevor Gagnon, David Gore and Philip Daniel Bolden--who stow away on the
historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969. "FLY ME TO THE MOON is great," Huggins, a veteran
producer of large-format and special-venue projects, said in an interview in New York
last week. "It's the first animated feature made for 3-D and released only in 3-D.
It's a great little G-rated movie, pure G, as G as any movie you'll ever see. Great
cast, with Tim Curry and Nicolette Sheridan and Christopher Lloyd and Kelly Ripa [as
well as Adrienne Barbeau, Robert Patrick and Ed Begley Jr.]." The movie also features
the voice of real-life astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon.
"Three little flies go to the moon with [Neil] Armstrong, [Michael] Collins and Aldrin,
and they help get the Apollo 11 spaceship back [home safely]," Huggins said. "It's
fun and has got a lot of good music." FLY ME TO THE MOON opens Aug. 8.
NEW DARK KNIGHT POSTER
A new Dark Knight poster has popped up online. With the premiere of the movie just a
few days away, tt's somewhat surprising to have a new poster but this latest addition
is more of a treat in connection to all the viral marketing from "The Joker" at WB's
many websites. The highly anticipated sequel stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger,
Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.
Christopher Nolan directed the sequel, based on a screenplay that he co-wrote with
brother Jonathan Nolan.
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Christopher Guest is taking it up to 11 for Fox's
sequel to NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM. The "Spinal Tap" star has joined the cast as Ivan
the Terrible for the comedy adventure, officially titled "Night at the Museum: Battle
of the Smithsonian." Also joining the cast are Jon Bernthal (Al Capone), Bill Hader
(Gen. George Armstrong Custer) and French actor Alain Chabat (Napoleon). The film,
directed by Shawn Levy, reunites lead Ben Stiller with castmates Robin Williams, Ricky
Gervais and Owen Wilson. Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, who penned both "Museum"
films, will make a cameo in the sequel, playing the Wright brothers. "Museum" was a
boxoffice success for Fox, grossing $574 million worldwide. With the Smithsonian as
the centerpiece, the studio and Levy kicked the current production up a notch by getting
the rare chance to film portions of the movie in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
The film is shooting in Vancouver, with a behind-the-scenes team that includes director
of photography John Schwartzman ("Pearl Harbor"), editors Don Zimmerman and Dean Zimmerman
("Rush Hour 3"), production designer Claude Pare ("The Aviator") and costume designer
Marlene Stewart ("Tropic Thunder").
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2008
STARGATE'S DON DAVIS IS DEAD
STARGATE lovers around the world will mourn the passing of Don S. Davis, who played
Maj. Gen. George Hammond on the series for seven seasons. According to
Gateworld.com, he died June 29 after suffering a heart attack. He was 65.
Citing Davis' wife, Ruby Fleming-Davis, the site reported that a family memorial
will take place in a few weeks during which Davis' ashes will be scattered in the
ocean; fans were asked to make memorial donations to the American Heart Association.
Davis left the regular cast of SG-1 in 2003 because of a medical condition that
restricted his workload, but he made several guest appearances on the show and its
spinoff, STARGATE ATLANTIS.
A native of Missouri, Davis had a 26-year career that included many roles on TV
series, notably Maj. Garland Briggs on TWIN PEAKS. He met SG-1 co-star Richard Dean
Anderson on the set of MAC GYVER, on which he worked as a stunt double for actor
Dana Elcar.
To see another side of Davis, go to
http://www.donsdavisart.com/ where you will see his marvelous art works.
Davis' final STARGATE appearance is in STARGATE: CONTINUUM, the upcoming straight-
to-DVD movie. He will also appear in the films VIPERS, WOODSHOP and FAR CRY.
In recent years, Davis has been a frequent convention guest and fans will remember
him as a kind and gentle Southern gentleman, full of wonderful stories from his
years on STARGATE. He will be missed.
TOP 10 BEST-SELLING SF&F BOOKS
Breaking Dawn (Twilight 4)
The Shack
Twilight
Eclipse (Twilight 3)
Brisingr (Inheritance 3)
New Moon (Twilight 2)
The Road
The Host
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Eclipse special edition
Source: Amazon.com, 6/27/08
BATMAN 3?
As we get ready to see the latest BATMAN film, THE DARK KNIGHT, there is already great
expectations for a sequel film. Christopher Nolan, the writer/director who continues
reinventing the Batman franchise with THE DARK KNIGHT, told reporters that he hasn't
begun to think about doing a third installment--though at least one of his cast members
thinks otherwise. During a group interview, Nolan added: "The film to me is not actually
finished until the audience sees it and tells me what it is, really. So it's too early
to say for all those kind of reasons. The other thing to be said on the subject is we
absolutely did not feel in taking on the idea of doing the second film that we could
in any way hamper ourselves or disadvantage ourselves by saving things for another
film. ... I think that's a mistake people have made in the past, thinking too much
of the future. I think you have to put all your eggs into one basket and make as great
a film as you can, and that's what we've tried to do."
But Gary Oldman, who plays police detective Jim Gordon, is pretty sure Nolan will sign
on for a third film. "Chris Nolan, ... he comes in, and then you'll say, 'Are you going
to do the sequel?'" Oldman said in a separate interview. "And he sits here and he goes,
'I don't know. I'm kind of tired. I'm going to go on holiday.' Which I think is code for
yes." THE DARK KNIGHT opens July 18.
NBC/SCI-FI LINE-UP AT SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON
NBC announced plans to bring cast and crew of its TV shows HEROES, KNIGHT RIDER, CHUCK,
KINGS and MY OWN WORST ENEMY to Comic-Con International in San Diego in July, and NBC's
sister cable network SCI FI Channel will be bringing BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, STARGATE ATLANTIS,
GHOST HUNTERS and EUREKA.
BATTLESTAR co-creator Ron Moore will also be bringing Universal Media Studios'
FOX pilot VIRTUALITY.
On the convention's exhibition floor, the NBC Universal booth will greet fans with
a HEROES, THE OFFICE and 30 ROCK theme. SCI FI's booth will host giveaways, and a
Eureka-branded ice cream truck will run a dedicated route distributing free ice
cream to promote the third season return of the popular dramedy on July 27.
Comic-Con runs July 23-27.
THE MUTANT CHRONICLES
HELLBOY's Ron Perlman stars in the independent apocalyptic SF movie THE MUTANT
CHRONICLES with PUNISHER star Thomas Jane. They will screen the movie this month
with an unusual approach: They will ask fans how the movie should be made better.
"We're trying to get [it] to the marketplace," Perlman said in a group interview
promoting HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY. "In fact, we're going to have a screening
of it at Comic-Con [in San Diego on July 26] and allow the fans to sort of have
their input as to what the movie does well and what it needs work on." Perlman
appears in the movie alongside his HELLBOY II co-star Anna Walton. "Severian is
the character that I play," Walton said in a separate interview. "And Ron plays
Samuel, and they come from a monastery where their sole purpose is to be ready for
an event, which happens in the film."
Perlman plays Brother Samuel, leader of a monastic cult that has foreseen the
takeover of a corporate-dominated Earth by mutants and which holds the key to
their defeat: the Chronicles.
"They take the Chronicles and try to save the world," Walton said. "And Severian
is his protege and protector, and her job is to protect him from any danger, really.
So it was a lot of fighting."
Walton and Perlman are part of an ensemble cast that also includes Jane, Devon
Aoki, Benno Furmann, Sean Pertwee, John Malkovich, Luis Miguel and Tom Wu. The
film is the major feature-film directorial debut of British filmmaker Simon Hunter
and was written by Phillip Eisner (Event Horizon). Perlman said that he and Jane
will host the Comic-Con screening. "We're soliciting input from everybody who's a
fan of movies," Perlman said. "It's being hosted by Thomas Jane and myself, the
two co-stars of the film. Because we love this guy Simon Hunter and we think the
movie is really really good. ... We're trying to build up a fan base for the movie
from the ground up."
JAMES BOND - QUANTUM OF SOLACE
There is a marvelous trailer over at
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/06/30/quantum-of-solace-teaser-trailer/ for the
latest James Bond thriller, QUANTUM OF SOLACE. While I still love Sean Connery
and Pierce Brosnan in the role, Daniel Craig is growing on me. November seems SO
far away.
GELLHORN: A TWENTIETH-CENTURY LIFE
X-FILES' Gillian Anderson is set to star in and produce a biopic about journalist
Martha Gellhorn, considered to be one of the greatest female war correspondents
of the 20th century, who covered conflicts from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam.
Her personal life was equally colorful, filled with love affairs and marriages,
including a marriage to Ernest Hemingway. According to Variety, Anderson's company,
Fiddlehead Prods., picked up GELLHORN: A TWENTIETH-CENTURY LIFE, a 2004 biography
by Caroline Moorehead. British playwright and screenwriter Sharman Macdonald is
penning the feature adaptation. No production date has been set.
THE PRISONER
AMC announced that Jim Caviezel ("The Passion of The Christ") and Ian McKellen
("The Lord of the Rings," "X-Men") have signed on to star in the six-part mini-
series reinterpretation of the highly influential 1960's British cult classic,
THE PRISONER. AMC, ITV Productions and Granada International are co-producing the
project with a worldwide premiere slated for 2009. Caviezel will play the title
role of "Number Six," a part that was originally made famous when played by Patrick
McGoohan. Two-time Oscar nominee Ian McKellen will co-star playing the role of
"Number Two." While the original series, which debuted in 1967, was a riff on Cold
War politics, AMC's reinterpretation will reflect 21st Century concerns and anxieties,
such as liberty, security, and surveillance, yet also showcase the same key elements
of paranoia, tense action and socio-political commentary seen in McGoohan's enigmatic
original.
LIE TO ME
Variety reports that acclaimed movie actor Tim Roth is set to appear in LIE TO ME, a
Fox television series about a human lie detector. The drama is expected to debut
early next year; Fox has made a 13-episode commitment. Based on the work of a real-
life scientist who is able to read the human body and voice to determine if someone
is being truthful, LIE TO ME will be the first attempt at TV stardom for Roth, who
currently appears in THE INCREDIBLE HULK and received an Oscar nomination for 1995's
Rob Roy. A pilot is due to be shot in August.
MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008
TOP 10 SCI FI CHANNEL SHOWS
Ghost Hunters 1.8
Battlestar Galactica 1.4
ECW 1.1
Dawn of the Dead 1.0
Star Trek: The Next Generation 0.9
Doctor Who 0.9
The Stand part four 0.9
The Stand part one 0.9
Route 666 0.9
The Stand part two 0.8
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 6/9/08 to 6/15/08
TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS
In the upcoming TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS, Christian Bale plays a grown-up
John Connor. During a group interview promotion THE DARK KNIGHT, Bale said that he
hesitated to take a pivotal role in another major SF franchise after playing Bruce
Wayne/Batman in BATMAN BEGINS and the upcoming sequel, THE DARK KNIGHT. "My feeling
is that, you know, we have an opportunity and a responsibility" to such franchises,
Bale said. He added: "There's no point in making it if we don't achieve this: ...
Reinventing that mythology, and there's a great deal of potential for that, and that
is what I'm attempting to do. Anything less than that would be us failing." Bale plays
the iconic hero of the human revolution in TERMINATOR SALVATION, which attempts to reboot
the franchise in the first of three films set after the nuclear holocaust of Judgment Day.
TERMINATOR SALVATION, which is being directed by McG, is currently in production and is
slated to open on May 22, 2009.
Meanwhile the Hollywood Reporter writes that Helena Bonham Carter is in talks to
the project. Although roles in the new film have been kept under wraps, insiders
described the Bonham Carter role as small but pivotal. The addition of Bonham Carter --
who in addition to being nominated for an Oscar for 1998's THE WINGS OF THE DOVE is
a five-time Golden Globe nominee -- would bring a prestige element to the summer tentpole.
Principal photography started last month in New Mexico, with the hopes that most exteriors
will be shot before a potential SAG strike. Warners is scheduled to release the action
film in May.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Gary Oldman confirmed to reporters that he will be playing at least three characters
in Robert Zemeckis' upcoming motion-capture animated A CHRISTMAS CAROL, including Tiny
Tim. In a group interview promoting THE DARK KNIGHT, Oldman said, "I play Marley."
"I play Tiny Tim, and I play Bob Cratchit, so I play three [characters]." In the
animated film--which Zemeckis is directing with the same technology he used in last
year's BEOWULF--Oldman will play opposite Jim Carrey as Scrooge in the retelling of
Charles Dickens' classic Christmas ghost story. Oldman disputed reports that acting
in a motion-capture studio was like doing theater. "People that have never done theater
say it's like [that]," he said, adding, "It's nothing like theater." Rather, he said,
he performs his part in an empty room surrounded by "200 cameras, ... and you don't
wear a costume, and you have dots on your face, and Zemeckis will make the movie in
the computer later." Oldman will next be seen as police detective James Gordon in
THE DARK NIGHT, opening July 18.
GREEN HORNET - SETH ROGEN?
Seth Rogen confirmed that he and writing partner Evan Goldberg are putting the final
touches on a proposed Green Hornet movie and confirmed that he will play the title
character. "I will, yeah," Rogen said during an interview in Los Angeles promoting his
latest comedy THE PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. Rogen promised that the movie, based on '30s radio
serial and subsequent TV series, will be packed with action. But fans of Rogen's Judd
Apatow comedies, such as KNOCKED UP, may be in for a rude awakening if they expect
the same brand of lewd humor in THE GREEN HORNET. "We have not hit many situations
where you're like, you know, what would make this scene better? If Kato said c--ksucker?
That hasn't come up many times," Rogen joked. Still, many fans may be left scratching
their heads at the notion that the guys who did Superbad are making a Green Hornet movie.
Rogen offered this explanation: "To us, it was just this funny notion that, when you say
Green Hornet to someone, the first thing they say is, 'Hey, Bruce Lee played Kato in that
show.' We really wanted to make this hero sidekick movie. ... For years we'd really been
trying to write a movie that was kind of about a hero and his sidekick. When we heard
the Green Hornet movie was up for grabs, we thought that could be the perfect way to
do this story, because he is the only hero who's sidekick is more known than he is. We
thought it would be a good way to tell this relationship story and just do a big crazy
action movie." He expected less trouble getting the action and violence of Green Hornet
past the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board than he's had with Kevin
Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which was recently tagged with the dreaded NC-17.
"Luckily, the MPAA decided that violence is fine," Rogen said. "When you're doing an
action movie, you can really have as much violence as you want. I'd say, action-wise,
we've been able to do everything that we could have ever wanted."
SMOKE
Variety reports that LOST's Matthew Fox is in negotiations to star in Warner Bros.'
BILLY SMOKE, based on the Oni Press comic about a hit man seeking redemption.
Project's produced by Basil Iwanyk at Thunder Road and Eric Gitter at Closed on
Mondays Entertainment. Oni's Peter Sherwin will exec produce. Story centers on an
elite hit man who's nearly killed during a botched job and realizes that his only
way to find redemption is to rid the world of all assassins. The comicbook series,
written by B. Clay Moore and illustrated by Eric Kim, will be published by Oni Press
next year. Moore recently wrote the comic "Leading Man," set up at Universal. Oni's
other titles in development include DreamWorks' RETURN OF KING DOUB, which will star
and be produced by Ben Stiller, and Universal's SCOTT PILGRIM, to be directed by
Edgar Wright and star Michael Cera, with a fall start planned.
SMOKIN' BOX OFFICE
Here are the box office numbers for the weekend:
1) WALL-E $62.5 million
2) Wanted $51.1 million
3) Get Smart $20 million
4) Kung Fu Panda $11.7 million
5) The Incredible Hulk $9.2 million
6) The Love Guru $5.4 million
7) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull $5 million
8) The Happening $3.8 million
9) Sex and the City: The Movie $3.7 million
10) You Don't Mess with the Zohan $3.2 million
A lonely robot took the number one position on the box office chart this weekend.
WALL-E, featuring the voice talents of Siguorney Weaver, John Ratzenberger, and
Jeff Garlin, racked in a cash sum of $62.5 million. This opening bested both of
the last two Pixar outings. In 2006, the talking automobile adventure Cars hit
its opening day mark with $60.1 million, while last year's rodent infestation
tale Ratatouille pulled in a less than amazing $47 million. In second place this
week with $51.1 million was visionary director Timur Bekmambetov's American debut
WANTED. This tale of superhero assassins hit way above expectations, and has been
called "the funnest film of the summer" by at least every critic we know. An amazing
spectacle of action and adventure, you can expect WANTED to stick around the top of
the charts as word of mouth leaks out to those less willing to leave the house and
pay $18 dollars a ticket.
Only two smaller independent films opened this weekend in limited release. Catherine
Breillat's drama THE LAST MISTRESS, which stars Asia Argento, opened on two screens
with $35,200. This gave it the second highest per screen average with $17,600 for
each location. The film with the highest per screen average was last weekend's
bombshell KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL, which pulled in another amazing $106,000
playing on just five screens. It's per screen average hit at $21,200 per location.
TRUMBO, a biopic about blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, took in a healthy
$28,500 playing on a mere three screens. WALL-E and WANTED don't have long to
reign at the top, as Will Smith, king of Fourth of July weekend, hits this Tuesday
with HANCOCK.
KING LEAR
THE GUARDIAN reports that Naomi Watts has joined the new big-budget film adaptation
of Shakespearean tragedy KING LEAR. Reported earlier, Anthony Hopkins stars as the
titular character whose three daughters vie for control of his lands. Watts, Gwyneth
Paltrow and Keira Knightley will play the daughters. Director Joshua Michael Stern
helms the project scheduled to begin shooting in Britain or Ireland early next year.
SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2008
BATMAN - THE DARK KNIGHT
As the July 18 premiere date gets closer, more and more information is coming out about
the latest BATMAN project, THE DARK KNIGHT. In this week's Sunday supplement, Christian
Bale is featured and he talks about working on THE DARK KNIGHT and Heath Ledger. The film
has a tribute to the actor who died tragically shortly after the movie finished filming and
Bale hopes the movie will be a tribute to Ledger as an actor. The clips shown on various
networks have been fantastic and Ledger was an awesome Joker. Comcast is hosting a number
of clips; use this link to view them
http://www.comcast.net/thedarkknightmovie/. Even if you hadn't followed Batman in its
various iterations, this movie has Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Christian
Bale. How could it miss??? I can't wait to see this one.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Variety writes that WALL*E blasted off at the box office Friday, earning an estimated $23.1
million and giving Disney-Pixar its best opening day ever. Meanwhile, Universal’s actioner
WANTED based on the comic strip by Mark Millar loaded up a boffo $18.8 million in second at
3,175 theaters, giving Angelina Jolie her highest opening day ever for a live-action pic.
Jolie’s previous top live-action opening day belonged to 2001’s LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER
which made $18 million. The tale about a lonely robot who romantically pursues another
robot from outer space, WALL-E also took the record for the top G-rated opening day,
besting FINDING NEMO’s” $20.2 million in 2003. Playing at 3,992 theaters, WALL-E is
Pixar’s ninth animated release.
Last weekend’s number one film, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s GET SMART placed third
yesterday, taking in $6.6 million at 3,915 venues, a 50% decline from a week ago, for an
eight day cume of $63.9 million. In fourth, the Paramount-DreamWorks animation release
KUNG FU PANDA kicked up $3.5 million on 3,670, down 45%, raising its domestic cume in its
fourth Friday to $171.1 million. Universal and Marvel’s THE INCREDIBLE HULK took fifth
with $2.8 million from 3,349, down 58%, for a running cume of $109.1 million.
JMS INTERVIEW
Over at
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16965, JMS talks about his
latest projects, including THE CHANGELING and RISING STARS along with his comic book
efforts, THOR, SILVER SURFER and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. This is just part I, so we'll
have to wait for the rest of the interview coming next week.
E-MAIL NEWSLETTER
I hope you received the latest e-mail newsletter sent out yesterday. If not, please
send me your e-mail address and I can add you to the mailing, or click on the subscribe button
on the front page. You can read all the back issues at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thezocalo/.
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2008
JMS INTERVIEW
Over at
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16965, JMS talks about his
latest projects, including THE CHANGELING and RISING STARS along with his comic book
efforts, THOR, SILVER SURFER and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. This is just part I, so we'll
have to wait for the rest next week.
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
As Doug Jones reprises his role as Abe Sapien in the HELLBOY sequel film HELLBOY II:
THE GOLDEN ARMY, he says that the project represents a major professional milestone
for him: He not only voices Abe for the first time, he also plays other costumed creatures.
"I've been acting for 22 years, and I have never been this nervous, excited, jittery
about a film opening ever, and I think it's because I have a lot riding on this one,"
Jones said at the Saturn Awards. "The role of Abe Sapien has been expanded and grown
so much in this that [writer-director] Guillermo [del Toro] made him into a leading
romantic male for this film. So it's like, that's a lot. And also, with the other two
characters that I have in the film--the Angel of Death and the Chamberlain--it was like
I did triple duty on this movie." Jones appeared in the first film as Sapien, Hellboy's
merman-like comrade in arms and fellow agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and
Defense (or B.P.R.D.), but his voice was dubbed over by David Hyde Pierce in the final
cut. This time, he provided the voice for that character, as well as the other two he plays.
One of the most exciting aspects of the film for Jones was the fact that Sapien will have
a romantic storyline with an elfin princess named Nuala, played by Anna Walton. "I get
a love interest," Jones said. "Aww. I've never had a love on camera like that. And she's
beautiful. Anna Walton played the princess, Nuala. And she's divine. And she's Cate Blanchett
good. You know what I'm saying? She's a really wonderful actress. And I get to carry a
weapon, and I fight bad guys. I've got buddy-buddy brother time with Hellboy [Ron Perlman].
I've got brother-sister time with Liz Sherman, played by Selma [Blair]. So it is a lot
going on." Jones added that he got to play some funny scenes as well. As for his future
plans, Jones couldn't confirm with certainty that he will be involved in del Toro's upcoming
project, a pair of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT. But he did say that it was
very likely. "I will quote Guillermo del Toro, and that is, nothing official to report
yet, exactly, on what role that is, or what he might have for me," Jones said. "But he
said, 'If I direct a hemorrhoid commercial, Doug Jones will be in it.' So I think that's
a wink-wink, nudge-nudge that there's something for me in THE HOBBIT, but I don't know
yet." HELLBOY II opens July 11. For trailers and prologue,go to
http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/hellboy2thegoldenarmy/. For more
information on the movie, go to
http://www.hellboymovie.com/main.html.
SEQUEL FOR CLOVERFIELD ON HOLD
CLOVERFIELD director Matt Reeves said during the recent Saturn Awards that plans for
a sequel film have been put on hold until the filmmakers can come up with an idea as
interesting as the original. "The thing that we sort of promised ourselves is we only
wanted to do another one if we could come up with something that felt as fresh to us
to make as that one did," Reeves said. He added: "We're still kind of toying with what
it's going to be and whether or not we're going to find something that will be as exciting
for us to make and, hopefully, for an audience to watch. So we'll see. It's really in
the baby, baby stages. And right now it's definitely on hold until we come up with what
that would be." Press reports have suggested a prequel that would go into the backstory
of the creature that attacks New York in the original or a parallel story set on the same
night with different characters. Reeves said that both of those ideas have been under
discussion. "We did talk about that, and I think that we would find some way, if we
did it," he said. "Some of the ideas we've come up with reference this idea and reference
the film, so that there is a sense that it's related to this film. But it would be
different. I would need [it] to be really different." Meanwhile, Reeves has been
talking about other potential ideas with producer J.J. Abrams and writer Drew Goddard
that aren't necessarily related to CLOVERFIELD. "We have a couple ideas," Reeves said.
"We have a couple pretty exciting ideas, but it's in the very, very early stages of
that. And whether or not that will develop into something that we want to do is really
unclear at this point. But as long as J.J. and Drew and I come up with something that
seems worth doing, then I think we'll do it."
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
According to Brendan Fraser, star of the latest version of Jules Verne's classic,
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, the 3-D film is both a groundbreaking technical
accomplishment and a vast improvement over the 1959 big-screen version, which starred
James Mason and Pat Boone. Fraser plays scientist Trevor Anderson, who is joined on
an inadvertent trek to a world within the world by his young nephew (Josh Hutcherson)
and an Icelandic guide (Anita Briem). As they desperately try to find a way out, they
must contend with flying piranha, translucent birds, rampaging dinosaurs, flesh-eating
plants and fast-rising temperatures. "We were able to make the world's first live-action,
feature-length, digital, narrative-driven 3-D picture based on a classic piece of literature
written by the godfather of science fiction well over 100 years ago," Fraser said.
"And for that, it's a fleur-de-lis in the cap of filmmaking, because this film is
like none other ever created. Yes, it's in 3-D. I don't go to movies all the time,
but I recall that 3-D was something that showed up at the end of the movie with Michael
Caine and a shark went [motions as if it's coming at him]. That was Jaws, and I was like,
'That's it?'" (Fraser actually meant Jaws 3-D, with Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr.;
Caine starred in Jaws: The Revenge). Three-dimensional imagery actually dates back to
the time of Verne, Fraser said. "Whether he knew it or not, this guy was pretty
innovative," he said. "I'd like to think he's somewhere, hopefully not spinning in
his grave, since Pat Boone showed up with a ukulele and a goose and James Mason in
Journey to the Center of the Earth." The new JOURNEY opens nationwide on July 11.
JEFF GOLDBLUM
JURASIK PARK's Jeff Goldblum has joined LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT," replacing
Chris Noth, who is leaving the crime drama after three seasons. Goldblum will
split starring duties with co-lead Vincent D'Onofrio the way D'Onofrio did with Noth.
"Jeff's presence will add a new dimension to an already successful show," series
chief Dick Wolf said. LAW & ORDER: CI migrated from NBC to USA last year and was
recently renewed by the cable network for an 16-episode eighth season. The Wolf
Films/NBCU Cable Studio series gets a second window on NBC. Goldblum is coming off
a starring turn on the stage opposite Kevin Spacey in the London production of David
Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow." Goldblum will be seen next on the big screen in "Adam
Resurrected."
CLASH OF THE TITANS
Variety reports that Warner Bros. has set Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk) to
direct their remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS, with script by Lawrence Kasdan. In
CLASH OF THE TITANS, Perseus, the son of Zeus, must overcome a series of obstacles
to save his beloved Princess Andromeda, including cutting off the serpent-tressed
head of Medusa, who can turn a man to stone with a single glance. The original 1981
CLASH OF THE TITANS starred Harry Hamlin as Perseus and Laurence Olivier as Zeus but
is best remembered for Ray Harryhausen's visual effects that brought to life Medusa,
the Kraken and other creatures. No production date has been set.
WAR OF THE GODS
The Hollywood Reporter writes that producers Mark Canton and Gianni Nunnari (300)
will produce WAR OF THE GODS, and have attached Tarsem Singh, much known as a music-
video and commercial director, to direct. Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, the brothers
who penned the script for Universal's 50 Cent vehicle LIVE BET, penned the WAR OF THE
GODS spec. The script concerns the battles waged by Theseus, a warrior from Greek
mythology. That moves it into a somewhat different historical time than 300 -- which
concerned the battles of King Leonidas against the Persians -- but ensures a similar
vibe and young-male demo. Production on WAR OF THE GODS could start as soon as early
2009.
FRIDAY, June 27, 2008
CBS PREMIERES ANNOUNCED
CBS announced that its upcoming new supernatural drama THE MENTALIST will debut
on Sept. 23 and will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, GHOST WHISPERER returns Oct. 3
in its 8 p.m. Friday timeslot and ELEVENTH HOUR premieres Oct. 9 and will air
Thursdays at 10 p.m.
WALL*E
When Disney/Pixar's latest SF animated movie WALL*E opens today, SF fans may feel
a sense of deja vu when they hear the computer voice. It's ALIEN star Sigourney
Weaver, who famously fought her own evil computer in that seminal SF movie.
"We're all fans of science fiction movies, including ALIEN and its sequels," said
WALL*E's sound-effects guru Ben Burttt, designer of the robot voices, in a news
conference last week. Burtt actually worked on the first ALIEN movie and made
sounds for that film's nefarious computer, Mother. "So I have a little connection
there," Burtt said. It was WALL*E co-writer/director Andrew Stanton's idea to
recruit Weaver to do the computer voice of the starship Axiom. Stanton describes
himself as "a sci-fi geek." "Her voice was recorded straightforward in the studio,
but during the mix of the film it was put in a big echo chamber, so it comes from
everywhere, so it's this omnipotent voice," Burtt said. "You never actually see the
source of it. ... The idea is having it be omnipotent and all powerful, I suppose."
The movie, set 800 years in the future, centers on WALL*E, a little trash-compacting
robot, who is the last thing on an abandoned, garbage-covered Earth. Humanity fled
the ravaged planet centuries earlier on the Axiom, a luxury cruise starship. When
a sleek probe robot arrives on Earth to search for signs of life, WALL*E falls head
over treads in love and finds himself caught up in an adventure that affects the fate
of both robots and humans.
ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL
The Hollywood Reporter writes that writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (WANTED)
have drafted a script for Sony and producer Neal Moritz and his Original Film titled
ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL. The film is set in a world where the animals control
the planet and humans are the minority. Creatures takes place in North America,
where people are living in forts and the animals are running free.
RED SONJA
USA Today reports that GRINDHOUSE director Robert Rodriguez will produce a new
film adaptation of RED SONJA, starring his real-life girlfriend, Rose McGowan.
McGowan would play the flame-haired comic-book warrior in a movie slated to open
in 2010. The film will be an origin story, to be directed by longtime Rodriguez
associate Douglas Aarniokoski, and will take its cues from the comic books, as
well as works by pulp novelist Robert E. Howard, father of the original Sonja
(then spelled Sonya) and Conan the Barbarian (also undergoing a movie revival).
JAMES BOND - QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Columbia Pictures has announced they’ll be releasing the first ever trailer for
Bond’s next adventure QUANTUM OF SOLACE, this coming Monday. The trailer will hit
the internet on AOL here in America and on MSN everywhere else, during a very brief,
two-hour window Monday June 30th at 9:00 am, after which it’ll be sent out to
independent sites for sharing.
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2008
TOP 10 SF&F DVD SALES
Iron Man (Blu-ray)
Stargate Continuum
Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs
Blade Runner collector's edition (Blu-ray)
Stargate Atlantis season four
Jericho season two
Jumper
Cloverfield
Transformers (Blu-ray)
Men in Black (Blu-ray)
Source: Amazon.com, top-selling genre DVDs, 6/20/08
HEROES - SEASON THREE
During an interview at the Saturn Awards, HEROES creator and executive producer, Tim
Kring said that the upcoming third season will take the show and its characters in
entirely new directions--including deep into the backstory. "One of the things that
this volume is going to do that, I think, is really going to be fun for the audience
is that there were very initial sort of primal questions that the show asked," Kring
said. "Who am I? What's happening to me? How am I connected? Where are these powers
coming from? All of those questions get reframed and turned on their head in a very
interesting way in this volume." As with the previous two seasons, the third will
be divided up into volumes. The first is titled "Villains" and will focus on the
nature of good and evil, Kring said. "You're going to see a lot of bad guys in this
one," Kring said. "The idea, also, is we're playing off the idea of our characters
as heroes or villains. So it's really the duality of good and evil. ... We're playing
off of this duality of good and evil. All of our characters were given these powers
and possess these powers, and at some point it becomes sort of free will and human
nature as to what you're going to do with that. And all of us are given the choice
to make decisions that lead us down very dark paths or towards heroic ends. And so,
literally, every one of our characters gets faced with that dilemma." Kring also
said that the popular villain Sylar (Zachary Quinto) will continue to be an integral
part of the show in the third season. Quinto had originally been written out of the
last half of the second season due to his shooting schedule on the upcoming Star
Trek film. But because of the writers' strike, that part of the story was pushed
into the third season, and Sylar was written back in. "Well, we have no plans of
saying goodbye to Sylar right now," Kring assured fans. "I mean, that was yet another
silver lining for the strike, was Zach Quinto's availability to us in the third volume.
I mean, that was a huge thing for us to be able to have him back. As you guys know,
he would have disappeared for a large chunk of the second half of season two. And
so, for us, it was a big, big deal." The third-season premiere of HEROES is scheduled
to air on Sept. 22.
JERICHO MOVIE????
Brad Beyer and Ashley Scott (Stanley Richmond and Emily Sullivan on JERICHO) said during
a recent interview at the Saturn Awards that they have been hearing rumors of a possible
feature-film version of the show and would be interested in doing it if the opportunity
presented itself. "We got here and caught wind of a possible movie idea, which we thought
was really good," Scott said. "I think Brad had heard about it online the other day, and
I just heard tonight, and I thought that would be really wonderful, wouldn't it? Kind of
put a closing on it." JERICHO was canceled after the end of its first season in 2007,
but returned for seven additional episodes earlier this year after a fan campaign convinced
CBS to bring the show back. It was canceled again after the episodes aired to mediocre ratings.
Beyer said that he would like to see the film cover the escalating civil war between the
remaining survivors of a nuclear attack in the U.S. "We kind of feel like it needs some
closure, because it still feels kind of weird," Beyer said. "I mean, we didn't get to a
whole second season. ... I think you can do a lot more with it. I think there's a lot
of different ways you can go with the story." Fans of the show are currently campaigning
for another network to pick the show up. Both actors said that they would gladly come
back, whether it be for a feature film or a new incarnation of the series. "I think
we're all very passionate about the show." said Scott. "We have been from the moment
I read the script, the first script, the pilot. I think we're all very passionate about
it. We're so thankful that our fans have been so incredible. It's been such a blessing
to know that we're thought of that way. I think, at least speaking for myself, I know
I'd be back." Beyer added: "Yeah. I think everybody that I keep in contact with would
definitely jump on board with it. ... We're all pretty much open to it. It was such a
great, positive experience, why wouldn't we want to do it again?"
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
With HELLBOY II getting ready to open on July 11, writer/director Guillermo del Toro,
thinks the second film is even better than the original. "It's tenfold better, in my
view," del Toro at the Saturn Awards. "It's crazier, bigger, freer, and certainly
creatively it was much more fun to make. As an exercise in production it was as
creative as the first one, because the first one was [$66 million], this is [$85
million]. But the scope we wanted was like that of a movie of [$200 million] or more."
But del Toro cautioned that his love for the film is not necessarily an indication of
its potential success. "I felt this way with some of the movies I've done--not all
of them--where you know that you love the movie before it comes out, and you can
shout it to the wind regardless, because no one can predict either the immediate
future or the long future of a movie," del Toro said. "But I can say safely that,
regardless, I love the movie. It happened to me with PAN's LABYRINTH. It happened
to me, and that was successful. It happened to me with DEVIL'S BACKBONE, which came
out and was barely noticed except by the critics. But went on to become a movie that
people know about and discover on DVD." The positive response to the Oscar-winning
Spanish-language fantasy film PAN's LABYRINTH has brought del Toro fame among audiences
who weren't familiar with his work before. He said that he believes Hellboy II will
appeal to those audiences as well as to his longtime fans, because it blends elements
of his artistic projects with those of his more commercial ones. "It's been great,
because I think that PAN's did that," del Toro said. "PAN's became that movie that
put me in a different view. Before, I would say that I love DEVIL's BACKBONE as much,
but, as I said, it was sort of an invisible movie for most of the people. And most
people knew me for the more commercial movies. ... People tend to distinguish. They
say it's a Hollywood movie, or they like the Spanish-language movies more. I think
this one kind of fuses both things into one. It has the same spirit and freedom that
I have in the Spanish movies, but with a much bigger scope."
WEDNESDAY, June 25, 2008
TOP 10 SF&F SYNDICATED SHOWS:
Stargate SG-1 0.9
Star Trek 0.9
Dead Zone 0.6
Stargate Atlantis 0.6
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 6/2/08 to 6/8/08
X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
The official Web site for The X-Files: I Want to Believe
has been updated, with new video and other features; the sequel film opens July 25.
Looks like another movie to put on your list for the summer!
SATURN AWARDS
SciFi.com reports that LOST was a big winner at
the Saturn Awards on June 24, earning four awards, including best network television
series, best actor (Matthew Fox), best supporting actor (Michael Emerson) and best
supporting actress (Elizabeth Mitchell). Among nominated movies, ENCHANTED won three
awards, including best picture (fantasy) and best actress (Amy Adams). SWEENEY TODD,
RATATOUILLE and 300 each received two awards.
The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films presented the 34th Annual
Saturn Awards in a ceremony in Universal City, Calif., hosted by Jeffrey Ross.
Guillermo del Toro, director of the upcoming HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, accepted
the George Pal Memorial Award, while producers Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr.
received the Life Career Award. Director Matt Reeves was recognized with the Filmmakers
Showcase Award for directing CLOVERFIELD.
A complete list of the winners follows. Look for your favorites to see how they
did:
Best Science Fiction Film: Cloverfield
Best Fantasy Film: Enchanted
Best Horror Film: Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: 300
Best Actor: Will Smith (I Am Legend)
Best Actress: Amy Adams (Enchanted)
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
Best Supporting Actress: Marcia Gay Harden (The Mist)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Freddie Highmore (August Rush)
Best Direction: Zack Snyder (300)
Best Writing: Brad Bird (Ratatouille)
Best Costume: Collen Atwood (Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
Best Makeup: Ve Neill, Martin Samuel (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End)
Best Special Effects: Scott Ferrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, John Frazier (Transformers)
Best Animated Film: Ratatouille
Best International Film: Eastern Promises
Best Network Television Series: Lost
Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Dexter
Best Presentation on Television: Family Guy: Blue Harvest
Best Actor on Television: Matthew Fox
Best Actress on Television: Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer)
Best Supporting Actor on Television: Michael Emerson (Lost)
Best Supporting Actress on Television: Summer Glau (Terminator: Sarah Connor
Chronicles), Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost)
Best DVD Release: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Best DVD Special Edition Release: Blade Runner five-disc ultimate edition
Best DVD Classic Film Release: The Monster Squad
Best DVD Collection: Mario Bava Box Sets 1 & 2
Best Television Series Release on DVD: Heroes
Best Retro Television Series Release on DVD: Twin Peaks
THE STORYTELLER
Icelandic actress Anita Briem (JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH) is about to start
work on THE STORYTELLER, a fantasy film in which she'll play opposite Wes Bentley
(Ghost Rider). "Wes is the writer to my illustrator, and we create children's books
together," Briem said. "My character suffers from an extreme case of agoraphobia,
so the friends and family of Wes Bentley's character start to believe that I am a
figment of his imagination. So, you know, that is kind of magical in a different
way [from Journey] and a different genre altogether, too." THE STORYTELLER will
also feature American Idol's Katharine McPhee as Bentley's assistant. Robert A.
Masciantonio wrote and directed the film. His credits include the 1999 vampire film
COLD HEARTS. Production is slated to begin later this summer in Philadelphia, with
an eye toward a March 2009 release.
39 CLUES
According to Variety, DreamWorks has acquired screen rights to THE 39 CLUES, a
multiplatform fantasy adventure series to be launched in the fall by Scholastic
Media. Steven Spielberg is eyeing the project as a directing vehicle. Spielberg is
expected to set a screenwriter in the next few weeks. THE 39 CLUES, which launches
Sept. 9, is envisioned as a 10-book series to be released over two years. It's
described as a multimedia adventure that will include a set of collectible cards
and an online game that will serve as a portal as young readers try to solve a
mystery for a grand prize of $10,000. The contest will run for two years.
The focus of THE 39 CLUES is the most powerful family in the world, the Cahills,
who count Napoleon and Houdini among their relatives. Readers will be challenged
to discover the source of the family's powers, revealed through 39 clubs that are
hidden around the world and scattered throughout history.
INSERAPABLE
The Hollywood Reporter writes that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's Tricia Helfer has been
tapped to co-star on Fox's SF drama pilot INSEPARABLE. INSEPARABLE, from ABC Studios
and writer/executive producer Shaun Cassidy, is a modern-day Jekyll and Hyde tale
about Justin/Clyde (Lloyd Owen), a partially paralyzed forensic psychiatrist with
a split personality whose alter ego is a charismatic criminal. Helfer will play
Mason Wicks, a psychiatrist who evaluates suspects for the police department. The
casting stems from the talent holding deal Helfer signed with Fox in April. Also
cast in the pilot is Morgan Turner as Justin's daughter Emily. Helfer appears in
the final season of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
THE GHOST
MTV reports that Pierce Brosnan and Nicolas Cage will star in director Roman Polanski's
political thriller THE GHOST. The film, based on Robert Harris' novel of the same name,
centers on a ghostwriter who is hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime
minister. He uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy. Brosnan would play the
prime minister, Adam Lang, and Cage the ghostwriter. Most of the story takes place in
an oceanfront house during the middle of winter. Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde will
produce the film, slated to begin shooting in Europe next fall.
TUESDAY, June 24, 2008
TOP 10 BEST SELLING SF&F BOOKS
Breaking Dawn (Twilight 4)
Twilight
The Shack
Eclipse (Twilight 3)
New Moon (Twilight 2)
Brisingr (Inheritance 3)
The Host
Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson 4)
Source: Amazon.com, 6/20/08
AVENGER AND MARVEL STUDIOS
According to a story in
USA TODAY, Marvel Studios has its proposed lineup of superheroes for a proposed Avengers
movie. IRON MAN director Jon Favreau told the newspaper that the team's lineup has changed
throughout the years, "but the ones Marvel is talking about now are Captain America, Hulk,
Thor, Ant-Man and Iron Man. I would love to see that." Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios'
president of production, confirmed to the paper that he's working toward the day when
"heroes can cross into each other's adventures and occasionally team up if there's a
foe too great for any one of them to handle." Feiger and screenwriter Zak Penn (X2
and The Incredible Hulk) are uniting to get Avengers in theaters by summer 2011.
PARAMOUNT STUDIOS - A GOOD YEAR
Reuters reports that Paramount Pictures said it had topped $1 billion in tickets
sales at U.S. and Canadian box offices, boosted by the hit films IRON MAN and
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, becoming the first studio to
pass that milestone this year.
WANTED - THE MOVIE/NOT THE COMIC
In a recent interview promoting the upcoming WANTED SF action movie, the Russian director,
Timur Bekmambetov, told reporters that he stuck with the film's source comic only for
the first part of the movie. The film is based on Mark Millar and J.G. Jones' comic-
book series, about a meek office worker who is recruited into a secret organization
of costumed supervillains and finds pleasure in the amoral destruction of those around him.
Gone are the costumes and the supervillains and he turns to the character, Wesley
Gibson (James McAvoy), into a reluctant assassin, recruited into a secret Fraternity
of super-assassins. "I think for the film audience, for cinema audience, it's quite
important to know why your hero's killing people," Bekmambetov said. "Not killing just
for fun. If not, you will lose your hero right away. It's enough for 20 minutes ... I
can do exactly like it is in the comic book. But if I want to create the journey and
to create the arc of the character, I need an idea why my character wants to be different,
you know what I mean?" About all that is left of the comic is the film's first act,
which depicts Wesley's humiliating and soul-destroying existence before he is mentored
by the lethal Fox (Angelina Jolie) and the enigmatic Sloan (Morgan Freeman). "If you
want to keep audience holding for longer, you need an idea, and the idea of the
Fraternity killing people to keep the balance of the world, ... [the] audience will
believe for two hours," Bekmambetov said in explaining the changes. Bekmambetov, a
Kazakhstan-born filmmaker, gained fame for his visually arresting Russian-language
films NIGHT WATCH and DAY WATCH. WANTED is being released by Universal Pictures and
opens June 27.
LALOLA
Variety reports that Fox has ordered a pilot from writer Kevin Falls (NBC's Journeyman)
based on Argentina's telenovela hit LALOLA, about a womanizer who is transformed into
a woman. Hyped in Argentina as the next UGLY BETTY, the show puts its hero/heroine
in a position to endure the same kind of abuse he used to dole out. The show takes
place at a sports management firm and will also be set in the world of entertainment
and fashion. Falls will write the adaptation and executive-produce; Jamie Tarses is
also on board as an executive producer. The U.S. version doesn't yet have a firm
title; it's unclear whether LALOLA will be used.
VIRTUALITY
The Hollwyood Reporter writes that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, star of Fox's canceled
NEW AMSTERDAM, has signed on to Fox's two-hour SF pilot VIRTUALITY. VIRTUALITY,
from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA executive producer Ronald D. Moore, is set aboard Earth's
first starship, which is equipped with advanced virtual-reality modules. Coster-Waldau
will play mission commander Frank Pike, a born leader. Moore and Michael Taylor wrote
the backdoor pilot, which is being directed by Peter Berg (director of the upcoming
superhero satire HANCOCK).
HERO OF COLOR CITY
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Christina Ricci will voice the lead role of
the timid crayon Yellow in Exodus Film Group's animated CG feature THE HERO OF COLOR
CITY. Ricci, who voiced the role of Gwendy Doll in the 1998 fantasy SMALL SOLDIERS,
plays one of several crayons whose colorful world is threatened by an evil tyrant.
She is the first member of the cast to be announced for the film, which is now in
preproduction. Exodus also announced upcoming lines of merchandise, art supplies
and educational products based on the film. Upper Deck will manufacture trading
cards and Kidthing will create interactive games, digital books and activities
available on its free downloadable player at Kidthing.com.
SONS OF ANARCHY
FX on Tuesday picked up SONS OF ANARCHY to series for a September launch. The cable
network handed out a 13-episode order to the drama from THE SHIELD writer/executive
producer Kurt Sutter, FX Prods. and Fox 21, which is set in the world of motorcycle clubs.
The news comes days after HBO began production on the pilot for its own biker-themed
drama, "1%." SONS, which Sutter is exec producing with father and son Art and John
Linson, explores a notorious outlaw motorcycle club's efforts to protect their town
of Charming, Calif., from drug dealers and local corporate developers. It centers
on Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), whose love for the brotherhood comes into direct
conflict with his growing apprehension regarding the club's lawlessness. Katey Sagal,
who is married to Sutter, stars as his force-of-nature mother. The other central role,
that of Jax's stepfather, who is the club's president, will be recast. It was played
in the pilot by Scott Glenn.
DISNEY ON-LINE
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Disney will stream full-length movies on its
Web site for the first time as part of its "Wonderful World of Disney" series on
ABC, running now through August. FINDING NEMO is available at
www.Disney.com/WWoD through Friday after the film aired Saturday on Disney-owned
ABC. MONSTERS, INC., HAUNTED MANSION, CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, PRINCESS
DIARIES 2, FREAKY FRIDAY and PETER PAN also will be available on the site this summer.
A Disney spokesman said the decision to stream movies for free marks an "evolution" in
the company's online strategy. Fox, Universal, Lionsgate and MGM have all previously
placed titles on Hulu, the NBC Uni/News Corp.-owned JV, while Disney has gone the pay
route and kept its films, for the most part, on iTunes. Disney Channel does, though,
stream episodes of its shows online for free. The spokesman said that the "advertising
strategy has not been finalized" for the films. NEMO currently employs a pre-roll and
the others will, most likely, have the same, but this approach could change and a
"presented by" option is also being considered. The movies will be on Disney.com
from Monday-Friday after the film airs on ABC on the preceding Saturday night as part
of the "Wonderful World of Disney" presentation. PETER PAN will be the last movie to
stream, ending its run Aug. 8. Disney.com also will stream the Disney Channel original
movie CAMP ROCK on June 23 at www.Disney.com/CampRock for a 24-hour window following
its TV premiere June 20 and subsequent airings on ABC on June 21 and ABC Family on June 22.
GREEN HORNET TEASE
Sony Pictures has released their first official logo for the upcoming hero adaptation.
Perhaps, an official website is coming soon? The character, previously played by Bruce
Lee, is now being overseen by Seth Rogen and his partner Evan Goldberg as screenwriters.
Previous reports have Rogen wanting martial arts star Stephen Chow in the role of Kato
but that hasn't been confirmed yet.
Plot Summary:
THE GREEN HORNET made his debut on January 31, 1936 on WXYZ Detroit, the creation
of the station's George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, who also created the Lone Ranger.
The series, which ran until 1952 on the Mutual and NBC Blue networks, followed the
adventures of Britt Reid, a bored playboy whose life is changed when he inherits his
father's crusading newspaper, The Daily Sentinel. He saves the life of Kato, a Japanese
man with incredible technical and martial-arts skills, who becomes Britt's closest ally
-- and transforms Britt's car into the supercharged Black Beauty, which gives them an
edge as they search for evidence to expose the city's underworld in the newspaper. When
Britt and Kato witness a brutal mob hit, Britt invents his secret identity -- taking his
name from his powerful car's defective horn. A skilled fighter and expert marksman, the
Green Hornet uses two special, non-lethal guns to subdue criminals: one fires a potent
knock-out gas while the other produces the "Hornet's Sting" -- an electric shock.
THE GREEN HORNET will hit theaters June 25, 2010.
MONDAY, June 23, 2008
TOP 10 SCI FI CHANNEL SHOWS
Ghost Hunters 1.7
Rise: Blood Hunter 1.5
Battlestar Galactica 1.3
ECW 1.1
Doctor Who 1.0
Hybrid 1.0
Resident Evil 1.0
Cursed 0.9
Dog Soldiers 0.8
Bride of Chucky 0.8
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 6/2/08 to 6/8/08
THE DARK KNIGHT
During a recent interview promoting the release of the latest DVD: THE DEAD ZONE:
THE FINAL SEASON, Anthony Michael Hall, who plays TV newscaster Mike Engle, anchor
of GOTHAM TONIGHT, in the upcoming THE DARK KNIGHT, said that it was a "wonderful
opportunity" and that he got a kick out of the rumors that spread across the Internet
suggesting that he was actually playing the Riddler. "It was a great role and a
wonderful opportunity to work with people I admire and look up to, like Gary Oldman
[Jim Gordon]," Hall said. "I had a great experience working with Christian [Bale]
and Heath [Ledger]. You know, Christian is really a contemporary of mine. We're about
the same age, and he started as a young boy, too, so I have a great respect for his
career." Hall added that he had a chance to work with the late Ledger. "I had a
great experience working with Heath," Hall said. "I really saw him to be a nice guy
and actually very [grounded]. I didn't really see ... I was very surprised by his
unfortunate death." Hall denied rumors that he played the villainous Riddler. The
rumors began when he and Oldman were filming an Engel-Gordon scene on location in
Chicago last summer. "This is really funny, because I heard about the whole 'Is
he playing the Riddler?' thing from my mother," Hall said. "[But] between takes I
walked out into the street. We were shooting in the lobby of a high-rise building
in Chicago, and I walked out into the middle of the street to admire this absolutely
beautiful gray Lamborghini that was actually Christian's in the film. It looked like
it was my car, and it looked like I was dressed to match it [because he was wearing
a gray suit], and what happened was there were a lot of extras there [who] I think
were going online and selling stories and circulating photos." Hall added: "So the
next you know, people thought I was playing the Riddler, that I had a cooler role
than I actually did. It was actually my mother who called me the next day, on a day
off, and said, 'There's all this stuff online and these pictures of you standing
next to a Lamborghini.' So it was actually very inadvertent. But I was very happy
to hear that there was talk online, I guess with Batman fans suggesting that maybe
I was playing the Riddler. I wish I was, you know? I wish I was Batman, to be honest
with you, but I think Christian has it locked up." THE DARK KNIGHT opens July 18.
SUPERNATURAL
Variety reports that SUPERNATURAL creator/executive producer Eric Kripke has signed
a two-year exclusive deal with Warner Brothers TV. Under terms of the pact, Kripke
will continue to executive-produce and run The CW's Thursday staple SUPERNATURAL,
which enters its fourth season this fall. Kripke also will start to develop projects
under the deal. There's no word if one of the new titles might be a SUPERNATURAL
spinoff; Kripke has said in the past that he's interested in doing a prequel of
sorts that takes place in the Old West and centers on the show's mythology. Kripke's
at work crafting the show's fourth season, following up on the season-three cliffhanger
that sent Dean (Jensen Ackles) to hell.
BLANK SLATE
According to reports in Variety, TNT has commissioned Dean Devlin to produce BLANK
SLATE, an 80-minute original SF crime-thriller that Devlin will edit into 20 short
episodes for prime-time play in September. Acura has signed as sponsor of what TNT
calls a "microseries." Lisa Brenner will star as an amnesiac who becomes part of
an experimental FBI program dedicated to solving murders by implanting memories of
the recently deceased into the living, the trade paper reported. Eric Stoltz and
Clancy Brown also star. John Harrison (SCI FI Channel's original miniseries Dune)
will write and direct BLANK SLATE. TNT will schedule BLANK SLATE starting on two
consecutive Tuesdays and Wednesdays, beginning Sept. 8, across five back-to-back
episodes of LAW & ORDER over each of the four days (8 p.m. to 1 a.m.). One short
BLANK SLATE episode will play, in sequence, within each of the L&O hours. TNT will
also promote the show's availability on TNT.tv, where the microseries will become
a series of webisodes.
SMALLVILLE
With SMALLVILLE in its upcoming eighth season, Sam Witwer (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA)
and Cassidy Freeman will join the cast, which kicks off in the fall. (Spoilers ahead!)
Witwer will play Davis Bloome, a charismatic Metropolis paramedic, who is forced to
confront a burgeoning darkness inside of him that just might be a harbinger of doom.
(Fans are speculating that Bloome will be the show's version of Doomsday, the invincible
villain who caused Superman's death in the DC comics.) Freeman will play Tess Mercer,
Lex Luthor's handpicked successor who harbors her own brand of ruthlessness. Michael
Rosenbaum, who played Luthor in the show's previous seven seasons, won't be returning
as a series regular. Witwer played Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
Freeman previously appeared in the feature film FINISHING THE GAME: THE SEARCH FOR A NEW
BRUCE LEE. SMALLVILLE will air Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Weekend Box Office totals:
1) Get Smart $39.1 million
2) Kung Fu Panda $21.7 million
3) The Incredible Hulk $21.5 million
4) The Love Guru $14 million
5) The Happening $10 million
6) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull $8.4 million
7) You Don't Mess with the Zohan $7.2 million
8) Sex and the City: The Movie $6.4 million
9) Iron Man $4 million
10) The Strangers $1.9 million
GET SMART soared past studio expectations this weekend, earning $39.1 million
dollars for that first place spot. Some experts claim that the last minute push
of advertising featuring Dwayne Johnson pulled in a much needed older, multi-cultural
demographic. If the film continues to stay strong in the next few weeks, we may be
seeing the start of a brand new (yet very old) franchise. The fight for second place
found THE INCREDIBLE HULK and KUNG FU PANDA battling it out.
WEDNESDAY, June 18, 2008
TOP 10 SF&F SYNDICATED SHOWS
Stargate SG-1 0.9
Star Trek 0.9
Dead Zone 0.7
Stargate Atlantis 0.6
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 5/26/08 to 6/01/08
THE DEAD ZONE
In an interview associated with the release of THE DEAD ZONE: THE FINAL SEASON, Anthony
Michael Hall, who played psychic Johnny Smith on the series said that he looks back fondly
on the show and feels that the last season did a good job of closing it out. The series
ended a bit abruptly because production wrapped on the final season before producers
knew that the show wouldn't return for a seventh season. "The last couple of seasons,
we just had to address the finales as if they might be the last, but in my gut I felt
the [sixth-season] finale would be the last," Hall said. "In terms of how the season
went, I had a great time," Hall added. "We'd moved to Montreal, so suddenly it was an
all-French-speaking crew, but I have to say they worked just as hard as the crew in
Vancouver did for [the first] five years, and I thought they brought this sort of
European sensibility. I thought the production values were solid." Storywise, Hall
added, he was happy as well, with a few reservations. During the last season, storylines
focused less on Walt (Chris Bruno) and Bruce (John L. Adams) and more on Johnny's
interactions with former love Sarah (Nicole deBoer) and his longtime nemesis, Greg
Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery). "One of the decisions, and it was a network decision,
[but] they wanted to get back to the original elements, the family issues, the stuff
with Johnny and Sarah," Hall said. "We wanted to tie up the stuff with Stillson, so
he was a factor. That led to sort of diminishing the other characters a little bit,
Walt and ... Bruce. So it was difficult, because we were all a team for five years,
and then suddenly the network decided to make some changes because they wanted to get
back to the sort of nuts and bolts of the early season stuff. Overall, I felt good
about it. It's always the challenge for the actor to make it come alive." THE DEAD ZONE
concluded with an hour entitled "Denouement." "I thought the episode was good," Hall
said. "If it was going to be the last season, that episode spoke to all those character
and story issues. In that regard I felt good about it. I'm grateful. Six seasons is
amazing. We did 80 episodes, which is like doing 40 movies about one story. It was
a great experience."
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR
During a recent interview, director Rob Cohen, talked about Universal's upcoming
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR. Being able to put a new Asian twist to the
franchise was the only reason he signed up to do a sequel. "I haven't done a sequel
to my own movies," Cohen said. "I'm not going to lightly undertake a sequel to someone
else's story, no matter how much I like the work before. But this story took place
entirely in China, and my love of Chinese culture and my study of it, ... I had been
waiting for a film to make on the subject." THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR
takes place in 1946 China, with franchise hero Brendan Fraser returning as adventurer
Rick O'Connell, joined by newbies Maria Bello (replacing actress Rachel Weisz as Evelyn)
and Luke Ford (as a grown-up Alex O'Connell). The family faces off against their latest
mummy threat: Emperor Han (played by Jet Li). "It is a movie of mine, as you will see
from the first frame," Cohen said about his influences on the franchise. "China is a
whole different campground. The whole approach is different. The sets are bigger, and
they are less digital. There are creatures in it for the first time--like a three-
headed monster, Yeti, the temple guardian dogs--and Jet Li is a shapeshifter, so he
comes in many forms." Cohen said that he insisted that the production actually shoot
in China last year, which added to the authenticity of the story. "The mythology is
that this emperor was covered in clay and is baked alive, so he is caught as an undead,"
Cohen said. "Of course, the Jet character is under the clay, which is a CG creation.
Then there are the terra-cotta warriors, and then there are the foundation warriors,
who were the workers that built the Great Wall. They were buried underneath and come
out to fight Jet Li's forces. It's a battle of good and evil in the third act!" THE
MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR opens Aug. 1.
MYSTERY ON FIFTH AVENUE
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Paramount has purchased New York Times article
MYSTERY ON FIFTH AVENUE for J.J. Abrams to produce into a feature through his Bad
Robot shingle. Writers Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky have been hired to adapt
it into a film, with Marc Evans overseeing for the studio. The story describes
an Upper East Side luxury apartment on Fifth Avenue that the occupants had
redesigned to include hidden compartments, messages, puzzles, poems, codes and
games for their four preteen kids. The parents, Steven Klinsky and Maureen Sherry,
are Wall Street financial experts and purchased the 4,200-square-foot, 1920s co-op
with views of Central Park in 2003 for $8.5 million. Soon after, they hired young
architectural designer Eric Clough, who devised an elaborately clever "scavenger
hunt" built into the apartment that involved dozens of historical figures, a fictional
book and a soundtrack. (Many of the secrets were included without the parents' knowledge,
either.)
TIME TRAVELER
Variety writes that Spike Lee will co-write and direct a feature film based on
Ronald Mallett's memoir TIME TRAVELER for his Forty Acres & A Mule Filmworks
company. Mallett, who wrote the book with Bruce Henderson, recounts the life of
one of the nation's first African-Americans to earn a Ph.D in theoretical physics.
The book charts his rise from poverty to a distinguished academic and scientific
career, and it lays out the technical specs for what Mallett envisions as a workable
time machine. Developing a time machine became an obsession for Mallett from the
age of 10 after his father's death. His goal was to travel back in time to save
his father. Lee was previously attached to the similarly-themed Fox drama "Selling
Time" about a man who sells a part of his life expectancy for the chance to go back
and relive the worst day of his life.
TUESDAY, June 17, 2008
TOP 10 BEST-SELLING SF&F BOOKS
Breaking Dawn (Twilight 4)
The Shack
Twilight
Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set
Eclipse (Twilight 3)
Brisingr (Inheritance 3)
The Host
New Moon (Twilight 2)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Odd Hours
Source: Amazon.com, 6/13/08
TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS
While out promoting his latest project, WANTED, rapper-turned-actor Common said that
he's about to begin shooting his role in McG's TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS
in Albuquerque, N.M. "I play Barnes, who's part of the resistance," Common said.
"I'm a freedom fighter alongside John Connor [Christian Bale]. And I'm just about
to start filming it soon, like. Like, I've been out there for a second, and then
I came back, but I'm about to film some more." Common plays a member of Connor's
resistance movement in Terminator Salvation, which is set after the nuclear holocaust
of JUDGMENT DAY; Connor's people are fighting the machines of Skynet. Common confessed
ignorance about reported spoilers about the film's supposed end. "I haven't read the
spoilers," Common said. "I actually don't know ... the end of the movie, to be honest.
They been keeping everything, like, really hush and closed. So anybody that even say
they got the end, I almost don't know ... if the writer has revealed the end yet, you
know?" TERMINATOR SALVATION, which also stars Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington, is
currently in production with an eye to a May 22, 2009, release.
STAN WINSTON DEAD
The Associated Press reports that Hollywood special-effects maestro Stan Winston--
whose company was best known for creating creatures for the TERMINATOR films, JURASSIC
PARK and this year's IRON MAN--died June 15 after a long fight against cancer. He was 62.
The Oscar-winning visual effects artist died at his home surrounded by family after
a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan
Winston Studio. Winston won visual effects Oscars for 1986's Aliens, 1992's Terminator 2:
Judgment Day and 1993's Jurassic Park. Winston is survived by his wife, Karen; a son,
daughter, brother and four grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg, who worked with Winston on several films, said in a statement:
"Stan was a fearless and courageous artist/inventor, and for many projects, I rode
his cutting edge from teddy bears to aliens to dinosaurs. My world would not have
been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he
said to me, 'Nothing is impossible.' "
TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Leven Rambin is in talks to come on board Fox's
TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. Rambin (All My Children) will play the teenage
Becky, a potential love interest for John Connor (Thomas Dekker).
ER ADDITIONS
NBC announced some new cast members for ER. Shiri Appleby, Julian Morris, Emily
Rose and Victor Rasuk will recur as new interns at County General Hospital on the
medical drama, from Warner Bros. TV. Appleby and Morris will play siblings Daria
and Andrew Wade. Daria is a smart and eager to learn, while Andrew uses his looks,
smarts and charm to get ahead. Rose will play Tracy Martin, an ambitious intern
who likes to control things, which often doesn't go over well with her superiors.
Rasuk was cast as Ryan Sanchez, a native New Yorker who's a tad nervous and is often
found on his cell phone, fielding questions from his wife. "The new group of young
characters -- played by four charming and singular actors -- adds a burst of fresh
energy and a bunch of different personalities for us to play off of as we enter our
15th and final season," executive producer David Zabel said. "So while we will be
reconnecting with the history of 'ER,' as well as telling the ongoing stories of
our current regulars, we also will track the development of these new young doctors."
OTHER SERIES ADDITIONS
Paul Campbell has joined NBC's KNIGHT RIDER and Sophina Brown has been added to CBS'
"Numbers." On "Numbers," Brown ("Shark") will play Nikki Donat, an ex-LAPD officer
and full-blown adrenaline junkie who joins the Los Angeles FBI team as a junior agent.
Brown, whose role is recurring with the potential of becoming regular, is expected to
fill the void left by the departure of Diane Farr.
On KNIGHT RIDER, Campbell ("Battlestar Galactica") will play the head research tech
at Knight Industries.
SAM RAIMI SHOW RUNNER NAMED
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Kenneth Biller has joined Sam Raimi's upcoming
syndicated series WIZARD'S FIRST RULE as showrunner. The scripted series, an hourlong
weekly from Disney-ABC Domestic Television and ABC Studios, is based on Terry Goodkind's
book "Wizard's First Rule" and the fantasy series "The Sword of Truth." In addition,
Mike Sussman is in negotiations to come aboard "Wizard's" as a supervising producer.
Biller and Sussman previously worked together on UPN's 1995-2001 series "Star Trek:
Voyager," with Biller ultimately serving as showrunner and Sussman as a writer.
WIZARD'S stars Craig Horner as woodsman Richard Cypher, who transforms into a magical
leader and joins with a mysterious woman named Kahlan (Bridget Regan) to stop a
bloodthirsty, sinister tyrant. The series has been cleared in more than 95% of the
country for its fall launch. Twenty-two episodes will be produced for the 2008-09 season.
ASTRO BOY
Summit Entertainment and Imagi Studios have entered into a global alliance whereby
Summit will distribute Imagi's upcoming CG-animated motion picture ASTRO BOY worldwide
except for Imagi's reserved territories of Japan, Hong Kong and China. The announcement
was made jointly by Rob Friedman, Co-Chairman and CEO of Summit Entertainment and
Douglas Glen, CEO of Imagi Studios.
Glen said, "'Astro Boy' has been one of the world's best-known and most loved
superheroes for more than fifty years. We are pleased to partner with Summit to
deliver 'Astro Boy''s first CGI feature film to worldwide audiences on a grand
scale. Imagi and Summit are a great fit, with high energy, entrepreneurial cultures
and a vision of building movie-driven global brands."
Slated for worldwide theatrical release in 2009, "Astro Boy" will feature the
voices of Academy Award®-winning actor Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane,
Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy with Freddie Highmore in the title role. David Bowers is
directing ASTRO BOY from a screenplay written by Timothy Harris, with Maryann Garger
producing. ASTRO BOY was created by the "god of manga", Japan's Osamu Tezuka, in the
early 1950s. The iconic character has since found wide popularity around the world as
the hero of three acclaimed animated television series spanning the past four decades,
besides being one of the top licensed properties for merchandising. Set in futuristic
Metro City, Imagi Studios' Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers
created by a brilliant scientist to replace the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill
the grieving father's expectations, our hero embarks on a journey in search of acceptance,
experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before he returns to save
Metro City and reconcile with the man who had rejected him.
JERICHO - SECOND ON DVD
Fans of science fiction drama should be happy as JERICHO season two as well as the
complete series is out this week.
Plot summary:
After a nuclear disaster caused by several terrorist attacks that destroyed 23
American cites, residents of a small Kansas town must come to terms with a new
and very different reality as they wonder if they are the only ones left alive.
MONDAY, June 16, 2008
TOP 10 SCI FI CHANNEL SHOWS
Ghost Hunters 1.9
Heatstroke 1.5
Battlestar Galactica 1.3
Infected 1.1
Star Trek: First Contact 1.0
Doctor Who 1.0
ECW 1.0
Alone in the Dark 1.0
The Arrival 1.0
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 1.0
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 5/26/08 to 6/01/08
LOST TALES
BABYLON 5 FANS in Canada -- THE LOST TALES is airing on Super Channel 2 over the next
couple of weeks (June 19-July 4). Check out
http://www.superchannel.ca/movies/view/863/ for specific times.
ROBOTECH
The Hollywood Reporter writes that veteran screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan has been
hired to write ROBOTECH, Warner Brothers' feature-film adaptation of the anime
classic. Akiva Goldsman and Chuck Roven are boarding the project as producers,
joining Tobey Maguire and Drew Crevello. ROBOTECH was a 1980s cartoon series from
Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoko Productions. It was re-edited and re-dialogued to
combine three Japanese anime series to give the producers enough episodes to air
as a daily syndicated series. A sprawling SF epic, ROBOTECH takes place at a time
when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft
that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to
fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion centers on
a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship's energy
source known as "protoculture," and the planet's hope for survival ends up in the
hands of two young pilots. ROBOTECH extends Kasdan's return to the fantasy genre
that began last year when he was tapped to pen the CLASH OF THE TITANS remake for
Warner and THUNDER ROAD. Kasdan wrote the screenplays for RETURN OF THE JEDI, THE
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RAIDER OF THE LOST ARK before writing THE BIG CHILL and
GRAND CANYON.
CAPTAIN COOK'S EXTRAORDINARY ATLAS
Janel Moloney and Patrick Breen have been tapped to co-star in ABC's fantasy pilot
CAPTAIN COOK'S EXTRAORDINARY ATLAS, with 13-year-old Jodelle Ferland landing the
lead in the WBTV-produced project. According to the Hollywood Reporter, ATLAS
centers on Gwen (Ferland), an adventurous young girl who finds a magical atlas
that reveals a secret world underneath ours.
COWBOYS AND ALIENS
According to the Hollywood Reporter, IRON MAN's Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations
to star in DreamWorks/Universal's COWBOYS & ALIENS, a mix of the SF and western genres,
which could serve as a potential 2010 tentpole. The deal would be Downey's first
since propelling Marvel Studios' IRON MAN to worldwide box office of $500 million-plus.
Imagine Entertainment partners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are producing. Platinum
Studios chairman and chief executive Scott Mitchell Rosenberg also will produce,
along with DreamWorks mainstays Steven Spielberg, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
Ervin Rustemagic and Rich Marincic will co-produce. COWBOYS & ALIENS derives from
a graphic novel written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley from an original idea by
Rosenberg. The story centers on an Old West battle between the Apache and western
settlers, including a former Union Army gunslinger named Zeke Jackson (Downey),
which is interrupted by a spaceship crashing into the prairie near Silver City, Ariz.
The story draws a parallel between the American imperialist drive to conquer the
"savage" Indians with its advanced technology and the aliens' assault on Earthlings,
who must join together to survive the invaders' attack.
CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL
Variety reports that AMC is developing CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL, a drama about a
mysterious magician, as part of its new slate of drama projects. CARTER BEATS THE
DEVIL, written by Wesley Strick (Mission: Impossible 2), is based on the fanciful
novel about 1920s magician Charles Carter and his role in the death of President
Warren Harding. AMC has already been developing several projects and plans to
pick up two pilots by fall; CARTER and a second drama won't be ready in time to
be considered but will be part of AMC's 2009 pilot plans. Originally developed
as a feature film--with Tom Cruise rumored to be attached--CARTER eventually made
its way to the small screen under executive producers John Baldecchi and Rich
Silverman (The Mexican). CARTER is based on the book by Glen David Gold, who's
serving as a consultant.
STRAYS
THE INCREDIBLE HULK'S director Louis Leterrier already has a new thriller on the
horizon just three days after his comic adaptation hit theaters. Summit Entertainment
is leading production for the eco-thriller STRAYS and Leterrier will direct, based
on a screenplay by Michael Ross. Film 360 and Summit's Erik Feig, Geoff Shaevitz,
and Gillian Bohrer are producing.
Plot Concept:
The story is about a group of young consultants on a business trip to Russia that
mysteriously wake up in an abandoned and radioactive city and fight to survive the
deadly obstacles in between them and safety.
SCIENCE FAIR
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Disney has acquired screenwriter John Sullivan's
fantasy family adventure spec SCIENCE FAIR. The story went for $275,000 against
$575,000 and the overall story echoes of NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, according to the
trade. His idea for the story came with his manager Jake Wagner last year during
a late-night Hollywood brainstorming/drinking session. Energy Entertainment is
partnering with Broken Road Prods.' Todd Garner and Sean Robins, who helped develop
the script. "I grew up on stuff like 'Explorers' and 'Goonies' and 'Weird Science,' "
said Sullivan, whose mother teaches sixth grade. "I really wanted to explore something
that was more family-friendly and something that I would actually like to go see myself
if I was 12-16. There's a lot of wish fulfillment in that. Movies like this are just
fun to write."
Plot Concept:
The story centers on a science fair where all of the kids' projects -- think
papier-mache volcanos and fungus -- come to life.
SUNDAY, June 15, 2008
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Variety reports that THE HULK has a fantastic opening day, despite it being Friday the 13th.
The film from Marvel and Universal starring Edward Norton grossed an estimated $21 million
from 3,505 theaters to place #1 for the day domestically. The surprise headline was
20th Century Fox's THE HAPPENING from filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. The picture grossed
an estimated $13 milion from 2,987 runs, exceeding expectations and coming in #2 for the
day. KUNG FU PANDA will cross the $100 million mark over the weekend, expected to gross
about $10 million in its second week out.
AMELIA
According to Variety, Christopher Eccleston will share the cockpit with Hilary Swank in
AMELIA, the Mira Nair-directed Amelia Earhart biopic for Avalon Pictures and Fox Searchlight.
Eccleston, who jumped from HEROES to play the villain role in Paramount's G.I. Joe, will
play Earhart's navigator, Fred Noonan. Noonan flew with Earhart when her plane disappeared
over the Pacific during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. Eccleston joins
Richard Gere, Ewan MacGregor and Virgina Madsen in the cast.
SATURDAY, June 14, 2008
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
The Chicago Tribune reports that the remaining episodes of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA will
be expanded. The series airs its mid-fourth season finale tonight and many have been
left wondering when the final ten episodes would air. Now it seemse that the final
episode of the series could clock in at three hours, two of which will be added on
bringing the episode count to twelve. Reports of further TV movies have been solidified
with at least one pretty much set to be made this year. Finally comes word from E! Online
that the final episodes, no matter what the length, will be going to air in the first
quarter of 2009.
DEAD AIR
A new trailer for DEAD AIR is not available at
http://www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=12567. This movie stars Patty Tallman.
It is a zombie movie directed by Corbin Bernsen (LA Law). You can see a behind-the-
scenes clip over at
http://www.reelzchannel.com/video/33472/dead-air-set-visit.
FRINGE
Fox has posted an interview on
YouTube in which J.J. Abrams talks about his upcoming TV series, FRINGE. It gives
you a glimpse of the new show -- and an insight into the characters and how it was
created. USA Today reported that DC Comics will offer a prequel comic to FRINGE.
The comic is due for release on Aug. 27.
JON VOIGHT JOINS 24
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jon Voight has signed on for the upcoming seventh
season of "24." In his first series role in 40 years, Voight will play Jack Bauer's
(Kiefer Sutherland) uber-nemesis who is pulling the strings behind next season's
terrorist threat. The character will be introduced during "24's" two-hour Season 7
prequel and will be featured heavily in the latter half of the season. The prequel,
now shooting on location in South Africa, is slated to air Nov. 23, with Season 7 of
the Imagine TV/20th TV-produced series kicking off in January. The tapping of Voight
marks the first A-list villain casting on "24" since Season 1 when Dennis Hopper
appeared in the final episodes as Serbian nationalist Victor Drazen. Voight did
several TV guest spots early in his career -- including a three-episode stint on
"Gunsmoke" between 1966-69 -- until his movie career exploded with "Midnight Cowboy"
in 1969. A four-time Academy Award nominee, Voight won the best actor Oscar for
1978's "Coming Home." He recently reprised his role as Nicolas Cage's father in
"National Treasure: Book of Secrets."
THE THAW
From the Hollywood Reporter: Aaron Ashmore ("Smallville," "Veronica Mars") will
star in the indie feature THE THAW, opposite Martha MacIsaac and Val Kilmer.
Anagram Pictures is producing the thriller about an Arctic research team attacked
by a killer parasite released by melting polar ice caps. Ashmore will play a college
student in the besieged crew. THE THAW is written by Michael Lewis and Mark A. Lewis.
The latter also will direct. Shooting begins in Vancouver on Monday.
LAPD
ER's John Wells is all smiles. NBC eagerly picked up a cop-related drama put pilot
from the "ER" chief of staff. Tentatively titled "LAPD," hour-long project will
center on police in Los Angeles (as you probably surmised by the title). Ann
Biderman - whose credits include "NYPD Blue" -- is set to write the project,
while Chris Chulack ("ER") will direct. Wells, Biderman and Chulack are set as
exec producers on "LAPD," which will come from Warner Bros. TV and John Wells Prods.
Wells' ER is set to go into it's 15th and final season. Biderman's credits also
include "High Crimes," "Smilla's Sense of Snow" and the upcoming "Public Enemies."
FRIDAY, June 13, 2008
TOP 10 SF&F NETWORK TV SHOWS
Ghost Whisperer 3.8
Lost 3.6
Reaper 1.6
Smallville 1.5
Supernatural 1.2
Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 5/19/08 - 5/25/08
THE MIDDLEMAN
Matt Keeslar, star of the upcoming ABC Family SF series THE MIDDLEMAN, said in a recent
interview 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 asked. "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 comic-book 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.
2012
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Amanda Peet has landed the female lead in Roland
Emmerich's epic disaster project 2012. 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 STILL TRYING
JERICHO fans 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," has 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 fundraising campaign which generated more than $6,000 in the past three
weeks. The fan-created 30-second ad features a voiceover 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 Deadlie | |
