Tourists Seek Middle-earth
ourists have been trying to book passage to destinations in Middle-earth, apparently not realizing it's the fictional setting of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Staff members at the Yahoo! Travel Web site told the newspaper that places featured in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films and Tolkien's books, such as Mordor and Rivendell, have become popular search terms on the site.
"Personally I'd never want to go to Mordor. The film's real location, New Zealand, on the other hand, is a truly magical place," Yahoo.co.uk travel producer Morgan Williams told the Herald.
Scenes of Mordor in Jackson's movies were filmed in New Zealand's Tongariro National Park, Kaitoke Regional Park stood in for Rivendell and the Southern Alps on the New Zealand's South Island doubled for the Misty Mountains.
Willow To Visit Angel
lyson Hannigan, who plays Willow on UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that her character will cross over onto The WB's spinoff series Angel in an upcoming episode.
"I'm doing Angel tomorrow," Hannigan said in an interview at the Jan. 22 premiere of Darkness Falls, starring Buffy regular Emma Caulfield. "I don't think I can actually say [what Willow is doing in L.A.], but a little crossover is happening." It'll mark Hannigan's first appearance on Angel since she became engaged to Angel regular Alexis Denisof over the 2002 holidays.
As for Buffy, Hannigan added that pop singer Ashanti will guest star in a future episode. "She did a guest appearance, and [there will be] just more chaos, hopefully," Hannigan said.
With Buffy possibly coming to an end this season, Hannigan said she was unsure if she would return after May's season finale. "It completely depends on [creator] Joss [Whedon] and his involvement, because if he walks away, then I'm going to beg him to take me with him. I think this is the last year. It feels like the last year." Would she do a spinoff show centered around Willow? "I don't know," she said.
DC Editor Talks Batman
ob Greenberger, an editor at DC Comics, told a Boston convention audience that a much-rumored script, Batman: The Frightening, is the most likely candidate for a new film in the superhero franchise, according to a report on the Comics2Film Web site.
The story reportedly involves a villain known as The Scarecrow.
Greenberger also told the crowd that Pi director Darren Aronofsky's script for a proposed Batman: Year One movie is "gone," the site reported. But Greenberger reportedly added that Batman: The Dark Knight author Frank Miller may still be working on either a Year One script or The Frightening.
Berry Up For Catwoman?
umors are circulating that Halle Berry may take the title role in the proposed Catwoman movie from Ashley Judd, who was originally envisioned for the part, according to Dark Horizons and various Web reports.
But the IGN FilmForce Web site disputed that rumor, citing an anonymous source as saying "Halle's not a lock. There's a list, and Judd is still the one holding the spot."
IGN previously reported that Catwoman is eyeing a late spring/early summer start
date and a 2004 release. The site added that scheduling issues could preclude Judd's participation.
Catwoman Prowling Anew?
he IGN FilmForce Web site reported a rumor that Ashley Judd's proposed Catwoman movie could begin shooting in the spring or early summer for a 2004 release.
French filmmaker Pitof will helm the film, with Judd playing the title character.
The site added that Owen Wilson is rumored to co-star, but whether or
not he remains interested in the project is uncertain. The film will reportedly tell the story of orphaned veterinary scientist Patience Price (Judd) and her vendetta against industrialist Simon Church.
Superman Helmer In Flux?
he Coming Attractions Web site reported rumors about who may direct the proposed fifth Superman movie should current helmer Brett Ratner leave.
The site added that industry scuttlebutt has it that Ratner is getting cold feet about directing the movie.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that the first replacement choice is Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor), who previously worked with Superman screenwriter J.J. Abrams on Armageddon.
Other candidates include Joseph Kahn (Torque), Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), Dominic Sena (Swordfish), Joseph McNally (Kangaroo Jack) and Tarsem (The Cell), the site reported.
Smallville CD Flacked
he Feb. 25 release of the soundtrack to The WB's Smallville series will be accompanied by an episode of the series in which the CD is featured as part of the storyline, Variety reported.
The Feb. 18 episode of the show will feature the band Steadman performing at a fund-raising event, where the CD is being sold, the trade paper reported.
The CD will also provide access to online bonuses, including the first issue of DC Comics' Smallville comic book, a 3-D interactive map of the town of Smallville and videos of live performances by bands VonRay and Remy Zero, the trade paper reported.
America Online, meanwhile, will host an online listening party for the album and provide access to chapters in upcoming Smallville books. The WB, DC Comics and AOL are all owned by AOL Time Warner.
Ellis Talks Transmet Rumor
arren Ellis, co-creator of the Transmetropolitan comic series, clarified rumors about a possible film adaptation in comments to the Comics2Film Web site.
Cinescape Online quoted Patrick Stewart (X-Men) as saying he's attached to the project: "I'm sitting here looking at a collection of Transmetropolitan comic books as I speak to you."
But Ellis said that no such project is in development at the moment. "Patrick Stewart has apparently said, in a dozen places, that he still wants to make a Transmet film," Ellis told Comics2Film. "This does not mean one is in production, nor that anyone's actively working to develop it right now. I think Patrick is brilliant. I think he'd make an excellent Spider Jerusalem. Providing [Transmet co-creator Darick Robertson] was amenable, and I can't imagine he wouldn't be, we'd go and make a film with Patrick and Wendy Stewart in a second. But right now, nothing's happening. Patrick and I haven't spoken in a while. He did the last [Star] Trek film and X-Men 2 back-to-back, and I haven't caught up with Wendy in a little while now. When we do talk, we talk Transmet. There were overtures made to Darick and [me] by a director about a year ago, and I kept Patrick and Wendy updated whenever anything happened. It came to nothing, as you can tell. Hollywood's built on talk. It's no big deal. Before that, we all tried to set up Transmet as a Web animation with rich media around it, as a stepping stone to a movie, but the company involved tried to screw us all, and that was that."
Ellis added, "What Patrick is saying is that he still wants to make the film. He knows I'm right there with him. We see things the same way. Patrick publicly attaching himself to the project doesn't hurt. But right now, nothing's happening."
Cypher Exited The Matrix
oe Pantoliano told SCI FI Wire that money wasn't the reason he won't reprise the role of Cypher in the upcoming sequel films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
"I wanted to come back," Pantoliano said in an interview. "You ain't kidding. The Wachowskis put a restraining order on me. It was never a money issue," he added, joking about directors Andy and Larry Wachowski.
Pantoliano added, "They never wanted me. I called them up and said, 'Listen, I'm going to make it sound like I turned down $6 million, because you don't want to pay me.' And they said, 'Hold out for $10 million, Joe. You're worth much more than that.' I love those guys. They're my favorite, favorite people in the world. It's not like I've been sitting around for two years waiting for them to make the sequels. In fact, they actually asked me to do a cameo in [Reloaded and Revolutions], but we couldn't work it out [because of scheduling conflicts]."
Pantoliano said that he's still eager to see the finished sequels. "I'm still so excited to see Reloaded and Revolutions," he said. "I think that group is so bright that everything you see after that is an imitation of what they invented. And I know the Wachowskis well enough to know they're probably going to invent themselves again [with the Matrix sequels]."
Fishburne Reloaded Morpheus
aurence Fishburne, who reprises the role of Morpheus in the upcoming two Matrix sequels, told SCI FI Wire that the two movies won't be like other sequels.
"It's not like a regular sequel," Fishburne said in an interview. "These things are huge, and there's more characters [and] more people."
Fishburne added that he appreciated the chance to play an ambiguous character. "My overall experience was that it was wonderful," he said. "I'm eternally grateful to be a part of The Matrix. It's this huge juggernaut of a thing. It's the Star Wars of its time. I get to be Obi-Wan and f-cking Darth Vader all at the same time. When you meet Morpheus, I don't know about you, but when I saw Morpheus in the movie, I wasn't taking no f-cking red-pill, blue-pill sh-t. I wasn't drinking the water. I was like, 'DON'T TRUST HIM!' He's not all good; he's not all bad. He's not like the white knight or the black knight. He's a combination, and therefore he is a real being."
The first sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, opens May 15. The next film, The Matrix Revolutions, opens Nov. 7.
Clarke Short List Named
rganizers of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, honoring British science fiction, announced their short list for the 2003 awards, for works first published in 2002.
The annual award, created by and named for the legendary SF author, is supported by the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and the Science Museum. The winner will be announced at the Science Museum on May 17. The full short list follows.
•Kil'n People by David Brin
•Light by M. John Harrison
•The Scar by China Miéville
•Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
•The Separation by Christopher Priest
•The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Reeve Welcomes Smallville Gig
rstwhile Superman star Christopher Reeve spoke about his upcoming guest appearance on The WB's Smallville for the first time in a New York press conference, telling reporters that he welcomed the opportunity, according to a report on the Comicon Pulse Web site.
"It's a great break from lobbying and politics," Reeve said, referring to his work as an activist for spinal cord research. Reeve appeared with Smallville star Tom Welling, who flew from the show's Vancouver, B.C., set to New York to shoot his scene with Reeve, the site added.
When asked to compare his Superman with Welling's, Reeve replied, "Shhhh! He doesn't know he's Superman yet!" Welling told reporters that he was only 2 years old when Reeve's first Superman movie came out in 1978. As for whether Reeve's guest appearance—as a doctor who gives Clark important information about his origins—turns into a recurring role on the series, Reeve answered, "Let's see how this goes."
Reeve's episode will air on Feb. 25. Both Welling and Reeve are also shooting a public service announcement.
Caulfield Falls For Darkness
mma Caulfield, who makes her feature-film debut in the upcoming horror film Darkness Falls, told SCI FI Wire that she took the role solely for the chance to work with director Jonathan Liebesman.
"I really wanted to work with Jonathan," Caulfield said in an interview while promoting the film. "I had seen a short film that he had done, and even though there wasn't any script or anything at the time, ... I said, 'Wow, I'd go get the guy coffee.' Because I really wanted to work with him. It was just amazing. Visually arresting."
Caulfield, who is best known for her role as Anya on UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, added that after seeing the completed film, she is convinced that her instincts about the director were correct. "You can only get so far, but without someone at the helm who has a vision, you're really sort of treading unfriendly waters," she said. "And he's just really good, so that was at once a vindication and a little bit of a relief."
In the film, Caulfield plays the sister of a young boy who is being hunted by the malicious spirit of a woman once known as "The Tooth Fairy." Despite the horrific elements, Caulfield said she would classify the film as more of a psychological thriller. "I didn't see it as a horror film," she said. "I mean, old-school, maybe, horror. But not like a slasher horror film. It's definitely not a Friday the 13th or anything like that. You hear a lot. You think you see a lot, but you don't really see a lot, because it's so quickly cut and it's so dark." Darkness Falls opened Jan. 24.
Darkness Creature Featured
ason Mathews, who supervised the creature effects for the upcoming supernatural horror film Darkness Falls, told SCI FI Wire that he and his colleagues at Stan Winston Studios had complete creative control over the film's central monster.
"When they first met with us, they had a movie that they needed a creature for," Mathews said in a presentation while promoting the film. "They wanted something really scary. They weren't sure. They were kind of vague about it. And they got Stan's input, because he has about a gazillion years of experience doing this."
Winston—who has designed mechanical and makeup effects for Aliens, The Terminator and Jurassic Park—was involved in the creation of the film's twisted version of the Tooth Fairy from the very beginning, Mathews said. "He's there all the way," he said. "He was there in design. He came up with the concept [that] it should be the Matilda Dixon character, and she's burnt. It should be something that you look at, and it's disgusting, but then you kind of feel sorry for her, and you just don't want to look, but you kind of have to."
The final creature was a mechanical puppet molded in silicone and operated by six crew members. Mathews and his team shot the puppet against a green-screen backdrop and digitally composited her into previously filmed scenes, called plates. "You see an actor walking or ... jumping down stairs, and one of them gets yanked away," Mathews said. "That's the plate. You just see her going away, but there's nothing grabbing [her]. So we have to position the puppet in the frame that looks right, like she's actually grabbing [the actor], and she has to change direction with the actor. And it is very difficult when you have six puppeteers around that thing to try to do that."
Mathews admitted that it was challenging working on the film after principal photography had already been completed. But he added that there were certain advantages, too. "I kind of have to say I enjoyed it," he said. "It's a little easier now. To see a movie and say, 'Wow, you know what'd be neat? This would have been cool to do this.' And we got to do that. We got to see the movie and add what we think would be cool." Darkness Falls opened Jan. 24.
Larter Was Wary Of FD2
li Larter, who reprises the role of Clear Rivers in the upcoming sequel Final Destination 2, told SCI FI Wire that she originally had no intention of returning for a second film.
"I have to say that, number one, I didn't plan on coming back," Larter said in an interview while promoting the film. "When we shot the first one, we had no idea there was going to be a sequel at all. And with the first one being such a hit, and so many people really [loving] the movie, then I started hearing through the grapevine that another one may be happening. And then three years had passed since the first one, and I've grown on an emotional level and a work level, and I wasn't really sure if it was something that I wanted to do."
Larter was ultimately convinced, she said, by a strong script that remained true to the spirit of the original. "I felt like the script was really tight, and it was what the first one was about," she said. "This is for the fans of the first one. What they loved about that, they're getting 10 doses of in this one."
Like the original, Final Destination 2 centers around a teenager who has a premonition of a horrible crash and saves the lives of seven others who would have otherwise died. But the survivors learn there is no escaping death, and perish one by one in seemingly bizarre accidents. This time, the crash takes place on a crowded freeway, rather than an airplane, and the subsequent deaths are even more elaborate and outlandish. "I think it's definitely a little bit more tongue-in-cheek," Larter said. "I think that they understand the tone of the movie in this one. In the first one, it was just a fluke that it came together, so I think they kind of figured out the formula and brought it back." Final Destination 2 opens Jan. 31.
Dreamcatcher F/X Get Real
awrence Kasdan, director of the upcoming movie adaptation of Stephen King's SF novel Dreamcatcher, told SCI FI Wire that he wanted to ground the film's outlandish visual effects in reality.
"I said to [cinematographer John Seale], when we first started talking, 'You know, there's going to be a bunch of effects,'" he said in an interview. "'There's going to be physical effects. There's going to be digital effects. But I want us to treat them like it's all happening in the room.' And we're shooting it that way."
Kasdan added that he gave Seale the freedom to move the camera liberally. "We're never going to set it up, you know, in a special way, just because some digital effect is coming in here," he said. "I want to move the camera like crazy. We actually used two or three cameras for every single setup. And a lot of cameramen can't do that when there's no effects. But John loves the challenge of that. And so we shot it as you would as though the creatures were characters who we'd hired and were coming on stage. It gives you enormous freedom."
Dreamcatcher, about four friends whose backwoods hunting trip turns into a horrific encounter with aliens, has more than 400 visual-effects shots, something new to Kasdan. "I had done a lot of action on the westerns [Silverado and Wyatt Earp] that I'd directed," he said. "But what I'd never done was the effects. And there's a good bit of dealing with them while you're shooting the movie. But what really surprised me was, when the movie's done shooting, it's like you have the second movie to make. ... Right this week, we're still working out effects. And I started shooting a year ago. Where you'd normally be editing what you'd done in post, here, you're still creating the movie in post-production." Industrial Light & Magic is handling many of the visual effects.
Perhaps the most elaborate sequence comes at the end of the movie, Kasdan said. "Maybe the most complicated effects-wise is ... the military goes out to try to destroy this alien ship," he said. "And they use four Apache attack helicopters on this huge alien ship. That's a lot of effects." Dreamcatcher opens April 4.
Romance Blooms On Alias
.J. Abrams, executive producer of ABC's Alias, told TV Guide Online that the post-Super Bowl episode "Phase One" may take Sydney and Vaughn's relationship to a new level.
"If I had another scene of Jennifer [Garner] and Michael [Vartan] staring longingly at each other and not saying anything, I was going to lose my mind," Abrams told the site. "It was a relationship that we were not letting ourselves get that deep into, [and by moving it forward], it allows [Sydney] to experience as much joy and pleasure as heartache and stress and anxiety and fret."
Abrams added, "Unless you get her to that place, the relationship ends up existing forever in a somewhat sophomoric, juvenile place where we're not allowing it to deepen. I'm not saying that I wanted them to get together at the beginning of the first season—or even at the end of the first season—but I feel like we're at a place where they clearly have come together far enough that to not allow them to get together feels false. Like we're trying to create a Moonlighting situation, as if the show needs that."
Abrams added that the episode changes things for Sydney professionally as well. "Sydney ... confronts the new boss of SD-6 and, in doing so, ends up learning of a potential vulnerability within this evil agency," Abrams said. "This vulnerability, she believes, can bring this evil organization to its knees. So it's about her leading the charge with the CIA to destroy this enemy. In a way, this episode sort of breaks the dam and lets us do the stories that I, as a writer, have personally been dying to do, but have been unable to, given the structure of the premise and the paradigm of the show. This lets us go places that we've wanted to go for quite a while." Alias aired the episode "Phase One" after the Super Bowl on Jan. 26.
SF Trailers Get Super
ew trailers for several big upcoming genre movies debuted during the broadcast of Super Bowl XXXVII on Jan. 26, Variety reported.
As previously reported, Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off the campaign for his Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines with a taped segment, followed by the premiere of the trailer for the sequel, which opens July 2.
Meanwhile, a new 60-second teaser aired for the sequel films The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions, revealing new shots of major action sequences, the trade paper reported. After the Super Bowl, Warner Brothers will stop promoting the sequels together and will push each movie individually, the trade paper reported. Reloaded opens in May; Revolutions in November.
Universal unveiled a new 30-second spot for The Hulk that will showcase the titular character rampaging through San Francisco, revealing the creature for the first time, the trade paper reported. The Hulk is slated for a June release. Universal will also promote its upcoming Jim Carrey fantasy comedy Bruce Almighty, which opens on Memorial Day weekend.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Disney Rides Horse
isney has acquired film rights to Piers Anthony's fantasy novel On a Pale Horse, with Jamie Foxx set to star and produce, along with Top Cow Productions, Variety reported.
Paul Guay (Liar Liar) will adapt the novel for the screen.
Horse is the first in a series of seven fantasy novels by Anthony, best known for the fantasy novel Xanth. In the film version, Foxx would play an insurance agent so distraught with his life that he plans a suicide. When the Grim Reaper makes a premature appearance to claim his body, the man gets spooked and fatally shoots the angel of death. He is then drafted into becoming his replacement, the trade paper reported.
Episode III Ramping Up
tar Wars production designer Gavin Bocquet told the official Web site that he met with Episode III director George Lucas one last time this month at Skywalker Ranch in Northern California before heading off to Australia to begin set construction for the prequel.
"We're in a good position now," Bocquet said. "But if we're in the same spot in six or seven weeks, we might be a little bit nervous. We're all pretty relaxed about it at the moment."
Producer Rick McCallum and supervising art director Peter Russell are already at Fox Studios in Sydney preparating the movie. "There's a local crew, but it's pretty minimal," Bocquet said. "We've probably got about two or three weeks of just prep, but then we would hope to be pretty much semi-full-on come February. We're about six months, really, until we plan to start shooting."
Without a final script in hand, the production team has learned to adapt to Lucas' quick-paced style. "We try to be in a position where we can really move when called upon and be ready to go quickly," he said.
Earth Update Coming
arth & Beyond, the popular online space role-playing game, begins a new storyline this week that will alter the galaxy, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Game publisher Westwood announced that this month's update will include the start of an epic plot that will feature 15 new missions.
The upcoming events will see warriors building a massive defense shield, tradesmen building a long-range stargate and explorers seeking out more than 50 encoded data fragments, the site reported. The new missions will also include three level-50 promotion missions, and there will be some special content for Valentine's Day.
Ring Video Has Extra
he upcoming video release of the supernatural thriller film The Ring will feature a new, original short film by director Gore Verbinski that builds on the film's mythology, DreamWorks announced.
Both the VHS and DVD versions will include the 15-minute experimental short film, which the studio promises will reveal "more electrifying secrets that bring viewers closer to understanding the mystery of The Ring."
The videos will hit store shelves on March 4.
SF Pilots OK'd By UPN
PN has ordered two SF-themed pilots, the Zap2it Web site reported.
One is Weapon X, about a government agent who gains superpowers after having computer chips implanted in his body. Silvio Horta (the SCI FI Channel's original series The Chronicle) wrote the pilot and will executive produce with Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo.
UPN has also ordered Newton, from writer Craig Silverstein (The Dead Zone) and producer Joel Silver (The Matrix), the site reported. That pilot tells the story of a family that moves to a new town, which also happens to be the testing site for an array of high-tech gadgetry.
Fox Orders Paranormal Pilots
oung women with special powers are at the heart of two drama pilots just ordered by Fox, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The first, an untitled project from 20th Century Fox Television and Original Television and executive producer/writer Jon Feldman and executive producer/director Rob Cohen, concerns a recent college graduate who discovers that she's able to save lives by changing the course of events, the trade paper reported. Cohen will direct the pilot.
The second pilot, from 20th and Regency Television and executive producer/director Todd Holland and executive producer/writer Bryan Fuller, is an untitled drama about a twentysomething woman who helps people using her power to communicate with animals, the trade paper reported. Holland will direct the pilot.
Tholians Return To Trek
rannon Braga, co-creator of UPN's Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire to expect the return of the alien Tholians, who first appeared in the original Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web" in 1968.
"Yeah, the Tholians will make an appearance," he said in an interview. "We have another installment of the Temporal Cold War coming up, and the Tholians make a kind of a surprising appearance in that show. We hint that they might be involved somehow as another faction in the Temporal Cold War. So they're not just a species that we meet. They may play a bigger role."
Braga added that another upcoming Enterprise episode will bring back the popular Andorians, who have already appeared in several episodes. Jeffrey Combs returns as Shran, and longtime Trek guest star Suzie Plakson (best remembered as the doomed Klingon K'Ehleyr in The Next Generation) appears as an Andorian female, the first encountered by Starfleet personnel.
New Pixar Movie In Works
ixar Animation Studios is developing an as-yet-unnamed computer-animated movie for 2006, about a mouse in an upscale restaurant, Variety reported.
Longtime partner Disney may or may not distribute the film, the trade paper reported. Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg will write the screenplay.
Pixar's current co-production deal with Disney ends in 2005, after the release of Finding Nemo this summer, The Incredibles in 2004 and Cars the year after, the trade paper reported. Under terms of the deal, Pixar cannot release an animated film, except with Disney, until 12 months after delivering a fifth picture, which would mean November 2006.
Metroid Heads For Film
ide/Perry Entertainment has acquired the movie rights to the Metroid video-game franchise, Variety reported.
Producers Warren Zide and Craig Perry (Final Destination) are going out to writers and directors to adapt the franchise, to which no talent is attached as yet, the trade paper reported.
Metroid is set in a once-peaceful galaxy, whose prosperity has been shattered by the discovery of a new airborne life form, the Metroid, which is able to engulf other living beings, feed on their energy and multiply in great numbers, the trade paper reported. The latest version of the video game for the Nintendo GameCube, Metroid Prime, was recognized by GameSpot and GameSpy as 2002's game of the year.
Activision Gets DreamWorks Games
reamWorks signed a deal with Activision to give it exclusive rights to publish video games based on the studio's three upcoming computer-animated feature films, Sharkslayer, Madagascar and Over the Hedge, the companies announced.
Activision got rights to develop and publish games for the console, hand-held and PC platforms.
The first title under the agreement will be Sharkslayer, which is slated for a fall 2004 theatrical release, about the undersea underworld. The second title, Madagascar, deals with four Central Park Zoo animals who are shipped back to Africa and must come to terms with the wild. Over the Hedge is based on Michael Fry and T Lewis' comic strip, about a mischievous con-artist raccoon and his timid turtle friend.
Ella Enchants Mistry
imi Mistry, one of the stars of the upcoming children's fantasy film Ella Enchanted, told SCI FI Wire that he plays a talking book in the movie, which is based on Gail Carson Levine's book of the same name.
"My motivation for playing a book is that I've not always been a book," Mistry said in an interview. "Minnie Driver is my girlfriend in it, and she turned me into a book years ago. She's a bad fairy. She turned me into a book, so my motivation is to get out of there."
Mistry, a British actor of Indian descent, added that the film presented him with a chance to avoid a stereotyped role. "Ella Enchanted is great, because it's a big splashy kids' film with lots of special effects, and I'm playing a talking book. You can't get less Indian than a talking book, and an American talking book, so it was great. I play an American part, and it was really fun. I just go around going, 'Hey, what's going on? My name's Benny the Book.'"
Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes and Eric Idle star in Ella Enchanted, which Miramax will release in August.
Film Not Dead Yet
lec Newman, star of the independent horror movie Long Time Dead, told SCI FI Wire the film has opened in Great Britain, but is still seeking a U.S. distributor.
"The last time I talked to [the producer], he said that there was a plan to release the film in some form, theatrically, in the States," Newman said in an interview. "It did great in the U.K."
Newman—who will reprise the role of Paul Atreides in the SCI FI Channel's upcoming miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune on March 16—added: "Nobody ever pretended that Long Time Dead was Dostoevsky, let me put it that way. It is a horror movie. In some senses it is very formulaic. But I think it stuffed Iris in its opening week. All the kids went to see it. It's a Friday-night film. You sit with your popcorn and soda. And it performed in exactly that fashion."
Newman added that stateside audiences may appreciate it. "It's in the tradition of American films like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer and what have you, but being set in Britain, it has a very different feel. With the exception of Lukas Haas, everybody was from England or, in my case, Scotland. So we tried to really hold onto that and ground it in the London scene. And I think we pulled that off. That's what distinguishes it from all the other slasher teen movies before it."
Lions Hot On Cooler
ions Gate Films paid $1.5 million for North American rights to The Cooler, a comedy with supernatural overtones, Variety reported.
William H. Macy stars in the Wayne Kramer movie as a casino employee whose presence can turn hot players into losers—until he falls in love, the trade paper reported.
Kramer wrote the screenplay with Frank Hannah.
Briefly Noted
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Disabled Superman movie star Christopher Reeve said that human trials were under way into therapeutic cloning that could help repair spinal injuries, like the one that paralyzed him from the neck down, the Reuters news service reported. New York-based Reeve, speaking at a spinal-injury forum in Sydney, Australia, said that some scientists have shifted from testing animals, such as mice, to people.
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Firm Films has set up the supernatural pitch Ashland at Touchstone Pictures, with writer-director Brad Silberling (City of Angels) attached to helm, Variety reported. Details of the film are under wraps, though it is loosely described as a faith-based supernatural thriller with police procedural elements.
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Lord of the Rings co-star Sean Astin (Sam) moves behind the camera to direct the Feb. 5 installment of The WB's Angel, titled "Soulless," TV Guide Online reported.
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The manager for Nicholas Brendon (Xander on UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer) released a statement denying recent rumors that Xander would move over to The WB's spinoff series Angel, according to Dark Horizons. "Nick will absolutely not be going over to Angel. The possibility has never been entertained, nor would Nick be interested if it had been mentioned."
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The Superman: Last Son of Krypton fan Web site quoted representatives of Superman screenwriter J.J. Abrams as saying that the movie may be delayed as studio Warner Brothers tries to lower the budget.
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The Pennsylva newspaper The Cosmopolite-Herald reported that former Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Marc Blucas is one of several young actors in talks to play a role in Mission: Impossible 3, according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site. Blucas may play a younger relative of Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise's character.
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Christian Slater will guest star on ABC's Alias on Feb. 9, playing a scientist kidnapped by SD-6 head Sloane (Ron Rifkin) and ordered to piece together mysterious artifacts left behind by 15th-century scientist and apparent visionary Milo Rambaldi, Zap2it reported.
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Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, is among the nominees for the 55th annual Directors Guild of America award, Variety reported.
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The DVD of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will hit stores on April 18, with 19 deleted scenes, trailers, a "making-of" featurette and more, the Dark Horizons Web site reported.
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Haxan Films' Dan Myrick told the Moviehole Web site that Artisan Films may order a Blair Witch prequel film, but that the project is on hold for now.
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Director David Cronenberg (eXistenZ and The Fly) has been appointed to the Order of Canada, one of 106 actors, activists, business and community leaders and others announced by Canada's Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson over the weekend, the Zap2it Web site reported.
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Fox has ordered a TV pilot for Stephen Bochco's futuristic NYPD 2069, while ABC has ordered a pilot for Century City, a legal drama set 50 years in the future.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers earned $12.9 million domestically over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. birthday holiday weekend, pushing past $300 million domestically and $400 million globally after only 34 days of release, Variety reported.
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