Sci-fi News

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Thought this might be of interest, also some news on Trek XI

Cameron's Avatar Is A Go

Fox has officially announced that James Cameron is set to direct Avatar, the epic SF movie that has been the subject of previous reports, with an April start date and new casting.

Cameron has cast Australian Sam Worthington in the lead role of Jake Sully after global screen tests. Zoe Saldana (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) will portray the local woman Jake gets involved with. Both actors have signed on for possible future installments as well, as Cameron and Fox see Avatar as a potential franchise. Other casting will be announced shortly.

Written by Cameron, who has been developing the story for over a decade, Avatar is the story of a wounded ex-marine who is unwillingly sent to settle and exploit a faraway planet. He gets caught up in a battle for survival by the planet's inhabitants.

"For me, as a lifelong fan of science fiction and action, Avatar is a dream project," Cameron said in a statement. "We're creating an entire world, a complete ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and a native people with a rich culture and language. The story is both epic and emotional. The two things that make this film even possible are pioneering advances in CG effects and performance capture, as well as my 22-year relationship with Fox, since only with great trust can you operate so close to the cutting edge. I plan to honor that relationship by bringing them a winner. And I have the team to do it, the best team of artists and technicians I've ever been privileged to work with. This one's going to be a grand adventure."

Avatar marks Cameron's first dramatic feature film since his Oscar-winning blockbuster Titanic in 1997, it was announced on Jan. 8 by Fox Filmed Entertainment chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman. Cameron will start principal photography on Avatar in April for a summer 2009 release.

Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment team has spent years researching an innovative mix of live-action cinematography and virtual photorealistic production techniques for Avatar, which will feature virtual characters filmed for 3-D release in a new digital 3-D format.

Peter Jackson's visual-effects house Weta Digital (The Lord of the Rings) will transform the environments and characters into 3-D imagery.

Shatner Leaks Trek XI Details

William Shatner revealed to SCI FI Wire that the upcoming 11th Star Trek movie will indeed, as rumored, deal with the early years of Capt. James T. Kirk and Spock—and that he will definitely appear in the movie if director J.J. Abrams can find a place to use him. Shatner, who originated the role of Kirk in the original Trek series and several subsequent films, said in an interview that he was invited to meet with Abrams (Mission: Impossible III), who is also co-writing the movie.

"I met with J.J., and they told me they would like me to be part of their film, but they have to write the role," Shatner said in an interview.

As for the many rumors concerning the sequel's story, Shatner said that Abrams will explore Kirk and Spock during their Starfleet Academy years. "Yes, we know the story is based on young Kirk," Shatner said. Up until now, everyone connected with the film has maintained strict silence about the storyline, though rumors have run rampant that they concern Kirk and Spock's first missions.

As for Shatner's place in that storyline? "They need to figure out how to put the dead captain in with the young captain," he said. "It's a very complex, technical problem of how to write the character in, and I'm not sure how they will solve it." It sounds as if Shatner may play an older version of Kirk.

Coincidentally, the Starfleet storyline is one Shatner is already working on for his latest Trek-based novels. "I'm writing with Gar and Judy Reeves-Stevens two books on the academy, with the young Kirk and the young Spock," Shatner revealed. "We've submitted the first book to the publishers, and I think it will be out in the beginning of 2008. It's got a working title of The Academy, but I don't think that will stick."

Meanwhile, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that a draft of the Trek XI script is done and will be trimmed sometime soon. The sequel will be targeted, "on the one hand, for people who love Star Trek, the fix that they will get will be really satisfying," Abrams told the magazine. "For people who've never seen it or know it vaguely, I think they will enjoy it equally, because the movie does not require you to know anything about Star Trek. I would actually prefer [that] people don't know the series, because I feel like they will come to it with an open mind." —Tara DiLullo Bennett

Potter V Has More Isaacs

Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter film franchise, told SCI FI Wire that he'll have a lot more to do in the upcoming fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, including (spoiler!) a wand-to-wand fight with Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). "I had virtually nothing to do in number four," Isaacs said in an interview at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., where he was promoting his upcoming BBC America miniseries The State Within. "In fact, when there's nothing to do like that, and they say, 'Do you want to come in for a couple of weeks?' you go, 'Well, I'm busy. Oh, God. All right.' Because the thought that somebody else might wear my wig is just too painful. But I have a little bit more to do in this."

Isaacs' character is the sinister father of Harry Potter's rival at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Draco Malfoy. In the fifth book, the elder Malfoy is revealed as a Death Eater, one of the followers of the evil Lord Voldemort.

Isaacs said that the fifth film will include a harrowing showdown between his character and Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. "I get to have a wand battle with Gary Oldman, possibly my favorite actor in the universe," Isaacs said. "We get to play around like two 10-year-olds. And with kind of unlimited sci-fi imagination. It's fun. We just go, 'Well, how about if I ... .' And anything you finish that sentence with, they go, 'Yeah, OK. You can do that.' So it was magnificent."

The character does not appear in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but Isaacs said he recently had an opportunity to meet author J.K. Rowling and appealed to her to include him in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due this year, possibly July. "I fell to my knees and begged," he joked. "It didn't do any good. I'm sure she doesn't need plot ideas from me. But I made my point. We'll see. Like everybody else, I'm holding my breath to July to see what's in there. I just want to bust out of prison, that's all. I don't want to stay in Azkaban most of my life." Order of the Phoenix opens July 13. —Cindy White


Flash Blasts Off Again

SCI FI Channel has green-lighted production on Flash Gordon, a series based on the popular comic-strip franchise, the channel announced Jan. 12 at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif.

Production on the 22 one-hour episodes begins in Canada early this year. The series, produced by Reunion Pictures, is slated to debut on SCI FI in July, with a broadcast syndication window to follow.

The series will be produced under an agreement between King Features Syndicate, which owns the rights to Flash Gordon, and Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. (The Legend of Earthsea).

The characters of Ming, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov will be brought back for a contemporary retelling of the comic-strip story created in 1934 by Alex Raymond. The strip is still distributed internationally by King Features Syndicate.

Idolon Mines Future Tech

SF author Mark Budz, whose novel Idolon was just named a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, told SCI FI Wire that the book deals with philm, electronic skin, quantum dots and programmable matter. And, no, we have no idea what any of that is either, but keep reading.

At its heart, the multifaceted story revolves around the death of a young woman. "The identity of the woman is unknown—as is the cause of her death," Budz said in an interview. "But because of the mysterious circumstances, and her apparent involvement in the black market 'philm' and electronic skin industry, the case is investigated as a murder. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that her death might be related to the smuggling of illegal 'philmware' and the development and distribution a dangerous new type of electronic skin."

The science-fictional aspect of the book grew out some material Budz read about artificial atoms, quantum dots and programmable matter, he said. "An artificial atom is a cloud of electrons—confined in what's known as a quantum dot—that behaves like a real atom," Budz said. "If you have a bulk material with lots of quantum dots embedded throughout it, you can change the properties of the material by adding or subtracting electrons from the artificial atoms. This programmable matter was the 'what-if' starting point for the electronic skin that forms the speculative/technological basis for the book. Electronic skin is a very thin membrane of programmable matter that gets applied to a person's biological skin. Once applied, it can display downloaded images and even textures."

The book also arose out of Budz's interest in mass-mediated culture and "signifiers," he said. "Signifiers are representations (objects, images, words) that signify a particular social status, economic level, religious affiliation, political leaning, etc.," Budz said. "People surround themselves with signifiers all the time in an attempt to tell other people who they are and identify themselves with a particular social class, culture, etc. by the way they dress, how they talk, what kind of car they drive or music they listen to. In a mass-mediated world, composed largely of information, these signifiers don't copy reality; they form their own reality. In this reality, or hyperreality, people exist only as the image they project. That's where the idea of people downloading and 'wearing' film, video and online images in order to be part of different shared, consensual communities came from."

Budz said that the most personal parts of the story were the religious aspects. "I was raised Catholic, and from a very early age I was indoctrinated, taught what to think and how to act," he said. "As a social or political force in the world, I think religious institutions are as harmful as they are beneficial or well-intentioned. The idea of someone surreptitiously working to impose a uniform hyperreality that's safe because it's homogenous and based on a particular set of like-minded religious values was my attempt to explore this issue and work through some of my feelings about it."

Budz's 2003 novel Clade was also a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. His fourth novel, Til Human Voices Wake Us, is forthcoming from Bantam. —John Joseph Adams

Shaye Previews New Line Slate

Robert Shaye, chief executive officer of New Line Cinema, offered SCI FI Wire a preview of the company's upcoming genre releases, which include the much-anticipated The Golden Compass, a fantasy thriller based on the first of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels. Chris Weitz directs a cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Dakota Blue Richards; it opens in December.

"The Golden Compass is going to be a terrific movie," Shaye said in an interview while promoting The Last Mimzy, an SF family drama he directed for his studio. "I really think it's exciting. I think Chris Weitz is an enormously talented guy. He's written a great script. He's a wonderful collaborator, and he's a guy I have a lot of respect for intellectually and creatively. I think Nicole Kidman has done a wonderful job. Daniel Craig has done an extraordinary job. The little girl, Dakota Blue, ... everybody has just been fantastic. And I have hopes that it will resonate to some degree. ... I think Lord of the Rings is very sui generis, but I have hopes that [Compass is] going to be a movie that the world will embrace."

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New News Up date

Indy IV Opens In May '08

The BoxOfficeMojo.com Web site reported that Paramount Pictures has set a May 22, 2008, release date for the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie, which the studio is now officially referring to as the "Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventures." The date maintains the Memorial Day weekend release strategy of the last two Indiana Jones movies, and it mirrors the last two Star Wars movies and The Matrix Reloaded with its Thursday launch, the site reported.

Also currently scheduled for Memorial Day weekend 2008 is Warner Brothers' Speed Racer. Two other event-style pictures have previously staked out May 2008 releases dates: Paramount's Iron Man (May 2) and Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (May 16).

Rowling Sad At Potter's End

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling said on her official Web site that she is both heartbroken and euphoric about wrapping up the franchise with the long-awaited seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book is due in bookstores on July 21.

"Even while I'm mourning, though, I feel an incredible sense of achievement," Rowling wrote. "I can hardly believe that I've finally written the ending I've been planning for so many years. I've never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric."

Rowling added: "While each of the previous Potter books has strong claims on my affections, Deathly Hallows is my favorite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."

The seventh Potter book is already a best-seller in presales on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble's Web site.

Potter VII A Best-Seller

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final volume in J.K. Rowling's best-selling series, doesn't come out until July, but it is already topping the sales charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, the Associated Press reported. A deluxe edition, priced at $65, is number two, outselling the You diet book, Sen. Barack Obama and an Oprah Winfrey-endorsed memoir by Sidney Poitier.

Rowling announced last week that Deathly Hallows would come out July 21. The previous six books have sold more than 325 million copies in 64 languages and broken countless sales records. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, published in 2005, had an announced first U.S. printing of 10.8 million copies and sold 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours.

Whedon Quits Wonder Woman

Joss Whedon, who had been developing a big-screen adaptation of DC Comics superhero Wonder Woman for Warner Brothers and Silver Pictures, parted ways with the studio and production company on the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly) announced the news on Feb. 2 on the Whedonesque.com fan Web site.

"I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked," Whedon wrote. "Hey, not that complicated. Let me stress first that everybody at the studio and Silver Pictures were cool and professional. We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time. I don't think any of us expected it to this time, but it did. Everybody knows how long I was taking, what a struggle that script was, and though I felt good about what I was coming up with, it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk. I like to think it rolled around the rim a little bit, but others may have differing views."

Whedon came on board the project in March 2005 and was paid $2 million-$3 million to develop and write the adaptation, which Joel Silver is producing, the trade paper reported. He also was attached to direct.

Last week, Warner bought a Wonder Woman script from newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland that the two wrote on spec as a writing sample to win other assignments. Even though the studio said it was taking the spec off the market to protect itself against the possibility that any similarities between the scripts could be fodder for future legal action, it clearly liked certain elements in the new screenplay.

Whedon's take on the Amazonian princess set the tale in the present. In contrast, Jennison and Strickland's script is set during World War II, the era when the character was created. Sources told the trade paper that Silver and the studio are not interested in making a period picture.

Whedon is working on Goners, a thriller he is attached to direct for Universal Pictures, and will be writing Runaways, a comic series about super-powered teens, for Marvel Comics. He is also overseeing a new storyline of Buffy for Dark Horse Comics.

Bridges Steeled For Iron Man

Jeff Bridges has joined the cast of Iron Man, the first feature film to be produced independently by Marvel Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jon Favreau is directing the movie, which Paramount Pictures will distribute, the trade paper reported.

Robert Downey Jr. stars as armor-clad superhero Iron Man and his alter ego, billionaire industrialist Tony Stark. Bridges will portray a confidant and close business associate of Stark, a longtime employee at defense contractor Stark Industries, who plays a major role in shaping Stark's life.

Bridges' boarding marks the fourth Academy Award-recognized actor signed on for the Iron Man cast, which in addition to Oscar nominee Downey includes nominee Terrence Howard and Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow. Bridges, a four-time Oscar nominee, will be seen in A Dog Year and has a voice role in the upcoming animated film Surf's Up.

Filming on Iron Man is scheduled to begin in March in Los Angeles, with a planned release date of May 2, 2008.


New Barbarella In Works

Dino De Laurentiis confirmed to Variety that he is planning a remake of the classic campy 1960s space opera Barbarella, which Peter Weber (Hannibal Rising) will direct. De Laurentiis describes the new film as "female James Bond in outer space." The movie isn't green-lighted yet.

The original 1968 Barbarella, directed by Roger Vadim and based on a French comic book, made a star of a young Jane Fonda.

SF Writer Fontenay Is Dead

Newspaperman, science fiction writer, black belt and self-described "romantic who never really adapted to the routine of ordinary life" Charles L. Fontenay died in a Memphis hospital Feb. 3, the Nashville Tennessean reported. He was 89.

Fontenay spent more than four decades with the Tennessean on the rewrite desk and as an editor.

Among his published books are more than a dozen science fiction titles and the 1980 biography Estes Kefauver, about the Tennessee politician.

Fontenay's other credits include service with the Air Corps during World War II, during which he attended cryptographic school, toured the South Pacific and won an award for teaching his colleagues beginning Chinese.

Fontenay is survived by his son, Blake Fontenay, his daughter, Gretchen Fontenay, and two granddaughters.

The British Times Online reported that Ben Barnes has landed the title role in the upcoming fantasy sequel film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

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I've been sent some more news if your interested.
Card's Empire Heads For Film

Orson Scott Card's SF novel Empire is being adapted for the big screen by Oren Moverman as a large-scale drama for Warner Brothers and Silver Pictures, Variety reported. Joel Silver is producing.

Set in the near future, the novel centers on an America in chaos: The assassination of the president and vice president plunges America into civil war, and a team of special-forces operatives try to unravel the conspiracy and save the country. The book was published last year.

Warner is also developing Card's classic Ender's Game as a big-scale SF film by director Wolfgang Petersen.


Connery Not Doing Indy 4

Laying to rest months of rumors, Sean Connery said that he will not reprise the role of Henry Jones in the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie in a statement posted on the official Indiana Jones Web site.

"I get asked the question so often, I thought it best to make an announcement," the 76-year-old actor said. "I thought long and hard about it, and if anything could have pulled me out of retirement, it would have been an Indiana Jones film. I love working with [director] Steven [Spielberg] and [producer] George [Lucas], and it goes without saying that it is an honor to have Harrison [Ford] as my son. But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun."

Connery, who played Indy's dad in 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, retired from acting in 2005. He had this advice for Ford, who turns 65 in July and whom he referred to as "junior": "Demand that the critters be digital, the cliffs be low and for goodness sake keep that whip by your side at all times in case you need to escape from the stunt coordinator! This is a remarkable cast, and I can only say, 'Break a leg, everyone.' I'll see you on May 22, 2008, at the theater!"

Indiana Jones 4 will co-star Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone and John Hurt. It's in preproduction.

Eick Hires Battlestar Alumni

David Eick, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that he plans to continue working with many of the show's cast and crew on other projects.

"I'm trying to make use of the cast as much as I can," Eick said in an interview after it was announced that the show will end after the upcoming fourth season. "Because I have found in the last year that we, inadvertently in a lot of ways, have stumbled upon the greatest collection of actors I've ever been a part of."

Two of the show's actors have already been in a pair of pilots Eick is developing for next season. Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) has a guest-starring role in NBC's upcoming fall series Bionic Woman, and Tricia Helfer (Number Six) stars in Eick's Them, which wasn't picked up by Fox but still has a chance for a mid-season slot.

"Katee Sackhoff is someone who was in the pilot for Bionic Woman, and once Battlestar ends, and even when we go on our hiatus, if she's free, we may be able to use her," Eick said. "Tricia Helfer was in another pilot I did for Fox called Them, which may be flirting with a mid-season order, and it's sort of the same thing there. When she becomes available, she'd be the nerve center of that project."

Eick added that he'll look for ways to use Battlestar's directors as well. "As they become available, we'll be looking for opportunities to use them on other things," he said.

Eick added that Battlestar has been a good training ground for talent, and he's not about to let that knowledge and experience go to waste. "It's just been a great growth and evolution creatively for everybody to come out the end of this show and feel like 'Wow, we've got directors and actors and writers and all sorts of great, talented people that we'll always stay in touch with and always work with.' Because once you find those people, you don't let them go," he said. —Cindy White

Battlestar's Moore Talks Finale

Ron Moore, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica, said that he and fellow executive producer David Eick are planning to send the series off on a note of finality at the end of the coming fourth season. "The plan is to end the show," Moore said in a conference call on June 1. "The plan is to bring us to a definitive conclusion. There's no plans or thoughts in our heads, really, of then doing a follow-up feature or any series or anything beyond that."

Moore and Eick announced on May 31 that they would wrap the acclaimed series at the end of the upcoming fourth season and elaborated on their decision in a call with journalists a day later.

Moore said that he and the writers have been thinking about how they wanted to end the series since the middle of the second season and began talking seriously about the conclusion toward the end of the third.

"Those ideas about where we were headed and what it all meant started to really sort of coalesce over the course of the third season," Moore said. "And in between seasons four and three is when we started talking in earnest about 'OK, if we do end it next year, what would it really be?' And it just felt like, yeah, this is the right time to do it. ... We're really sort of taking our cues from the story itself, and it just feels like the story has moved forward aggressively."

Moore said that he's proud that the show has been unafraid to take risks. "And it's been unafraid to move strongly forward instead of trying to sort of tread water," he said. "And it just feels like the momentum of the series is moving towards a conclusion."

Moore and Eick have not yet begun writing the script for the finale, but they have had some discussions about how they will wrap up the story. One thing that has been talked about is leaving some of the relationships open to interpretation.

"The intention is to certainly concentrate on the characters and their relationships and sort of bring them all to an end point," Moore said. "I don't know if we'll resolve every single thing about every relationship, and I think there's value in leaving some things open to the imagination and having some things that are sort of tantalizingly unresolved. But the intention is to move towards what is the final chapter." In November, a special two-hour Battlestar episode, "Razor," will air. The fourth season kicks off in early 2008. —Cindy White

Potter First Edition Auctioned

A first edition of J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter novel is expected to fetch between $10,000 and $20,000 when it goes up for auction in London later this month, the Associated Press reported.

Bonhams auction house said that the hardback edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (sold in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) will go on sale June 26.

Between 500 and 1,000 copies were printed in the novel's first run, the auction house said. It said publishers typically only produce a small number of copies of new books before quickly rolling out thousands more copies if a title proves successful.

The Philosopher's Stone was first published in 1997, kicking off the hit franchise. The seventh and last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, goes on sale July 21.

Narnia 3 Gets Release Date

ComingSoon.net reported that Walt Disney Pictures has set a May 1, 2009, release date for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the proposed third film in the hit franchise. The second film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, is already in production, with an eye to a May 16, 2008, release. The films are based on C.S. Lewis' beloved Narnia books.

The site also reported that Disney has set a July 10, 2009, release date for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie based on the hit video game.

At Universal, meanwhile, Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race remake has gotten a Sept. 26, 2008, release date, the site reported. Produced by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, the futuristic thriller stars Jason Statham. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

Ray Talks Westworld Remake

Writer/director Billy Ray told SCI FI Wire that he's currently writing the script for a new version of the SF film Westworld for Warner Brothers, but added that he may not direct it. "There is no director attached," Ray (Shattered Glass) said in an e-mail interview to promote the DVD of his film Breach. "I would resist the idea of directing it myself, not that they've offered it to me, because I don't want the pressure of that kind of a budget sitting on my shoulders."

Michael Crichton wrote and directed the original film, which was released in 1973 and starred Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin and James Brolin. The futuristic drama cast Benjamin and Brolin as visitors to an amusement park where visitors can play out entertainment fantasies with the help of virtual reality and robots. The trouble starts when the robots begin to fight back.

"I love the basic idea of the movie, which is that our amusements can kill us," Ray said. "I also think the movie provides a great platform for exploring how sometimes machines can behave like humans while humans can sometimes behave like machines."

Ray said he'd love to speak with Crichton at some point. "My understanding is that he was offered the chance to do the first draft of this remake a few years ago, and his response was, 'I already remade that movie; the remake was called Jurassic Park,'" Ray said. "In many ways, he was right." —Ian Spelling


Warner Acquires Shannara Rights

Warner Brothers has acquired screen rights to The Shannara, the best-selling fantasy book series by Terry Brooks, Variety reported.

Brooks is the second-biggest-selling living fantasy book writer, after Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

Warner has franchise hopes for Brooks' 14-book series, which is set 1,000 years in the future in a world populated by elves, trolls, gnomes and dwarves in a post-apocalyptic Earth.

The Shannara family is a half-elf, half-man clan with magical abilities and warrior skills who must save the world. The Shannara has never been optioned for film treatment because the author has avoided it until now. Warner intends to develop The Elfstones of Shannara, the second book in the series, as the first film.

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Some more news

Potter Publisher Finds New Boy

The London publisher who first signed up Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is banking on a new franchise, about a boy archaeologist, the Reuters news service reported.

Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams were signed by Chicken House publisher Barry Cunningham after he tracked down an early version of their book, Tunnels, which was self-published.

The two unknown authors have since amassed advances of more than £500,000 (about $987,000) and prepublication rights in 15 languages, Reuters reported.

Tunnels features a boy archaeologist, merciless villains, a lost world and an extraordinary journey to the center of the earth.

The authors originally met at university but went on to follow very different careers, one as an investment banker, the other as an artist.

They got together when Gordon was made redundant from his job in corporate finance. He then sold his house to self-publish a limited-run edition of Tunnels.

Cunningham heard of their success and signed the pair up for a series of fantasy tales seen through the eyes of 14-year-old Will Burrows and set in a hidden world deep below London.

Cunningham worked with British publisher Bloomsbury in the mid-1990s when he signed Rowling


Captain America Is Marvel's Next

Kevin Feige, president of production for Marvel Studios and producer of the upcoming Iron Man movie, revealed that the company's next independently financed project will be a version of Captain America, which would mix a period story with a modern-day one.

"We'll have to play with Captain America as being a patriotic propaganda machine on one hand but also being a very human Steve Rogers, ... [an] interesting, fascinating hero in his own right," Feige told reporters on the set of Iron Man, which is in production in Playa Vista, Calif.

Is the script they're developing a period piece? "Right now what we're developing would be about half and half," Feige said.

Feige said that Captain America will aim for a PG-13 rating, like Iron Man. The comic studio has brought on writer David Self (Road to Perdition) to draft a screenplay. A director will be announced soon, Feige said. Production is expected to begin in a year.

Marvel, meanwhile, is gearing up production on The Incredible Hulk, which stars Edward Norton and is expected to commence principal photography on or around July 9, about the same time that Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., wraps.

Marvel is also moving ahead on other productions, Feige said. Among them: Sub-Mariner, on which Jonathan Mostow is doing a rewrite of Self's script; Punisher 2, for which the studio would like to announce a director and actor soon; Thor, for which Mark Protosevich (The Cell) is drafting a script; and Wolverine, which will again star Hugh Jackman and will be released before the other X-Men spinoff, Magneto, which David S. Goyer will direct. —Patrick Lee, News Editor

Four's Gruffudd Stretches In Sequel

Ioan Gruffudd, who reprises his role as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, told SCI FI Wire that he got to stretch a little in the sequel, driving the Fantasticar and cutting a rug at a bachelor party.

Gruffudd's superhero scientist prepares to marry Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) and helps battle an alien threat called the Silver Surfer. In the meantime, he gets to pilot the aptly named flying Fantasticar and dances up a storm.

"I am the man that invented the Fantasticar," Gruffudd said in an interview at the London Eye observation wheel in the British capital over the weekend. "I'm very proud of that, I can tell you. It's a very sleek and sexy-looking machine. It's sort of a hybrid between the landspeeder and, I don't know, the Ferrari car. And it can fly. It's absolutely gorgeous."

As for the dance sequence, it comes early in the movie, when the usually uptight Richards finally agrees to let Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Chris Evans) throw him a bachelor party. After reluctantly hitting the dance floor, Richards puts on quite on a show.

"[That's] something I had a lot of fun shooting, because I was on stage, dancing with all these gorgeous girls and pretending that I'm spinning my body and elongating my arms, although it was slightly tedious at times, because it's such a repetitive process," Gruffudd said. "But when you see it all put together on the big screen it's a really fun, comedic moment in the film." Rise of the Silver Surfer opened June 15. —Ian Spelling

Third Stargate Show Developing?

Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he's developing a third series with the working title Stargate Universe, but remained mum on details. (The project has not yet been picked up by any network, including SCI FI Channel.)

"It's being developed," Cooper said in an interview on the Vancouver, Canada, set of the two series. "Not a lot to say at the moment, other than it's ... not the characters from SG-1 or Atlantis. It's a completely third entity. The third series is born of the mythology that's been established."

SG-1 will draw to a close after 10 seasons with the episode titled "Unending," airing June 22. Atlantis is currently finishing up its third season and will return with a fourth season later this year.

Cooper added that the proposed third series will take place in the present day. "One thing that we think contributes to the success of [all of] the series and the concept behind the series is that it takes place in the here and now. ... It's about us and our age of people dealing with fantastic things, like Stargates and wormholes and aliens. And then there's an identifiable quality to the people in the show. It's not like an antiseptic version of humanity sometime 500 years in the future. [SG-1's] Jack O'Neill [Richard Dean Anderson] was a guy who everybody could relate to, and his reactions to the more fantastic elements of the series were the reactions the average Joe on the street might have."

SG-1 and Atlantis executive producer Paul Mullie added: "It's all top secret."

Either that, added fellow executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, or "it just hasn't been written yet. I'm not sure which." —Melissa J. Perenson

Firefly's Staite Joins Atlantis

Producers of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate Atlantis told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming fourth season will add former Firefly cast member Jewel Staite to the cast as a new doctor. Staite, who also appeared in the Firefly feature film, Serenity, as well as the short-lived fantasy series Wonderfalls, will play Dr. Jennifer Keller. She joins Stargate SG-1 cast member Amanda Tapping, who also joins Atlantis' cast, reprising her role of Col. Samantha Carter.

Staite is "fabulous," executive producer Robert C. Cooper said in an interview on the show's Vancouver, Canada, set over the weekend. Other cast members hinted that Keller may develop a romantic relationship with one of the other characters and will become friends with Carter.

As for Carter's joining the Atlantis team, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi said the transition won't go smoothly. For one thing, Carter and Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) have a history, as fans of SG-1 know well. "There will be a little friction off the get-go," Mallozzi said. "But they're both adults [about it]." McKay's unrequited lust for Carter will be addressed, Mallozzi promised. "That gets touched on very early on."

"The difference between Carter and [Dr.] Weir [Torri Higginson] is that Carter is in the military," Cooper added. "In fact, when she joins them she's a full-bird colonel, and she's a superior to [Lt. Col. John] Sheppard [played by Joe Flanigan], so there's really not much he can say or do; she's his superior officer."

As for the season's storylines? "In terms of the stories, because we're not doing 40 episodes a week—we're doing 20 episodes—we can concentrate more on the individual characters," Mallozzi said. "Each of the characters will have a story in the front half. We'll be developing a lot more of the overall arcs. We'll be exploring a bit more of the Replicators and what makes them tick; we'll be finding out a little bit more about the Wraith as well. That should be interesting." —Melissa J. Perenson

Atlantis' Dr. Beckett May Return?

Fans of Stargate Atlantis who saw the June 1 episode "Sunday" (spoilers ahead!) witnessed the unexpected demise of Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion), a death that many fans had been anticipating for weeks beforehand with dismay. But producers told SCI FI Wire that fans may not have seen the last of the popular Scottish physician.

"Essentially we write into the [stories] what we think works well," executive producer Robert C. Cooper said in an interview on the show's set in Vancouver, Canada, over the weekend. "On the other hand, we know what the fans enjoy, and we want to keep the fans happy. For example, we killed off [Beckett] at the end of season three. The fans were very vocal about his departure, and we understood that he meant a lot to them. We're working on a storyline that may see him return temporarily. If it works out creatively—if what the fans like creatively and what we like creatively syncs up—that's great."

Beckett's death shook up the show's cast as well as the fans. "It's kind of like life: You get blindsided by these things," co-star David Hewlett (Rodney McKay) said in a separate interview. "It changes your day-to-day routine. That's happened both as actors and as the characters as well. Not having Paul around. ... Paul and I, we made each other's lives misery: We would tease each other the whole time, and we had great fun on set and off set. To not have him around feels like a huge loss. But that's life. Things change, and people move on." —Melissa J. Perenson

Heroes DVD Debuts In August

The extras-packed season-one DVD set of NBC's Heroes will hit stores on Aug. 28, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Digital Platforms announced.

The seven-disc DVD set includes five featurettes, more than 50 deleted scenes and a 73-minute cut of the original series premiere by creator Tim Kring, which was never aired on television. The DVD carries a suggested retail price of $59.98. The season will also be available on HD DVD.

NBC, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Digital Platforms are all owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.


Marvel Mulls Avengers Movie

Marvel Studios has begun the process of bringing the elite superhero team the Avengers to the big screen, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Zak Penn, who wrote the screenplay for Marvel's upcoming The Incredible Hulk, is slated to pen the live-action adaptation, which would be titled The Avengers.

Warner Brothers Pictures is developing its superhero superteam movie, Justice League of America, with Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney having submitted a draft adapting the DC Comics series.

While Penn has not begun his screenplay, those who have read the Mulroneys' draft give it a thumbs-up, and a search for directors is about to begin.

One challenge facing the writers is which heroes to include in their scripts. While the roster for the Avengers has changed since its inception in 1963, growing to include the likes of Spider-Man and X-Men hero Wolverine, the classic iteration of the team consisted of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the diminutive Ant-Man and Wasp. Other members have been the Hulk, the bow-and-arrow-wielding Hawkeye and the probability-altering gypsy Scarlet Witch.

Many of these heroes are getting their own starring portrayals in other movies, with Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk scheduled for a summer start. Ant-Man is being developed by Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz). Marvel wants to wait until all those films have entered the market before unleashing The Avengers.

SG-1 Ends, Begins On DVD

Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the franchise's saga ends and begins anew in the upcoming direct-to-DVD movies Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.

The Ark of Truth will wrap up the arc begun in the show's ninth season, which introduced the Ori and their crusade to conquer the galaxy, Cooper said in an interview on SG-1's set in Vancouver, Canada, last week. SG-1 wraps up its 10th and last season on SCI FI on June 22, and some of the story arcs will remain open-ended.

"The idea for the first movie [The Ark of Truth] was going to be [the] cliffhanger ending to season 10 and the start of an arc that would have lasted most of season 11, if season 11 had been picked up," Cooper said. "But that didn't happen, and we revised that concept and turned it into the story for the first movie."

The second movie, Continuum, will be a stand-alone story conceived by Cooper's fellow executive producer Brad Wright. Wright, who co-created SG-1, leveraged the show's ties with the military for Continuum.

"In some respects, Brad's idea evolved out of the fact that the Navy had come to us and said, 'If you ever want to shoot in the Arctic, we'd love to take you up there,'" Cooper said. "'We have a couple of nuclear submarines you could shoot on.' So Brad said, 'Wow, I'm just going to write a movie around that.' We were the first production ever to shoot that far north. It was a pretty cool experience for everyone that went." Cooper paused, then added: "A very cold experience."

Stargate SG-1's warm relationship with the U.S. military began in season one, when the producers needed permission to use stock shots of the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, which is the home of Stargate Command in the show's fictional universe. Eventually, the military vetted scripts for accuracy, and two chiefs of staff had cameo roles as themselves. "As things progressed, we started to say, 'Hey, send us up a C-130 or a couple of F-18s,'" Cooper said. "There are two F-15s that are parked out at Vancouver airport now that we're shooting in [for Continuum]."

Fans mourning the loss of SG-1 after this season can take comfort that the franchise will live on in other ways. "SG-1 ran for 10 successful seasons," Cooper said. "We've ended that run on SCI FI, and now we're continuing the story with those characters. Our DVD packages sell so well that, if the movies sell as well as the series sells, it's going to be a tremendous success. And MGM [which produces the series] will eagerly want more." —Melissa J. Perenson

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Yelchin Is Trek's Chekov

Anton Yelchin (Alpha Dog) is in negotiations to play Pavel Chekov, the Russian-born navigator of the USS Enterprise in J.J. Abrams' upcoming 11th installment in the Star Trek film franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Russian-born Yelchin will join Zachary Quinto (Heroes) and Leonard Nimoy, who will both play the role of Mr. Spock in the film. Casting is under way in New York and London for Kirk, Bones, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty, the film's villain and the Federation captain. Abrams, who will helm the untitled film, is expected to sign bigger-name actors for the latter two parts.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the storyline is believed to chronicle the early days of the Enterprise crew during their time at Starfleet Academy.

Chekov was played by Walter Koenig on the original Star Trek TV series, and he is a key member of the Enterprise crew.

The film is scheduled to open on Dec. 25, 2008.

Abrams Wooing Cruise For Trek?

IGN Movies reported that J.J. Abrams, who is directing the next Star Trek film, would like to bring on his Mission: Impossible III star Tom Cruise for a cameo appearance as Capt. Christopher Pike, according to a "trusted source."

Pike was once the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise and Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) commanding officer prior to Capt. Kirk (William Shatner), which would fit with the reported flashback storyline in the upcoming film. The character was played by Jeffrey Hunter in the original 1966 Star Trek TV pilot, "The Cage," which was later edited into the two-part episode, "The Menagerie."

There have been previous reports of Cruise's involvement in the project, which were denied by his spokesman, Arnold Robinson, last fall. At the time, it was thought that Cruise's public falling-out with Paramount head Sumner Redstone, who controls the rights to the Trek franchise, would prevent him from working with the studio again in the near future. But tensions between the two have cooled off lately, and, according to IGN's source, the cameo role would be seen as a favor to Abrams and not to Paramount.

Battlestar's Moore Signs Deal

Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore has signed a two-year deal with Universal Media Studios, Variety reported.

Under the deal, Moore will continue on Battlestar, which will wrap its run on SCI FI Channel next year. Moore will simultaneously begin developing projects for the studio, with a fall 2008 series a possibility, the trade paper reported. Getting a Moore-created series on SCI FI's sister broadcast network NBC is a top priority.

Moore's feature work will also include the sequel to I, Robot for 20th Century Fox and an update of The Thing for Universal Studios. (SCI FI, NBC, Universal Media Studios and Universal Pictures are all owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

McGillion Talks Atlantis Return

Paul McGillion, who will be returning to Stargate Atlantis in the role of Dr. Carson Beckett for a two-episode arc during the upcoming fourth season, told SCI FI Wire that it feels great to be back on the show after nearly a year away.

"Honestly, it feels like coming home," McGillion said in an interview on the phone from the set in Vancouver, Canada. "And everyone's been so terrific to me. The crew gave me a little round of applause when I came back on the set. And that was really sweet. That felt really nice. And everyone's been really gracious towards me, and it's just been really nice. I love the character, and the chance to reprise Beckett is my pleasure."

McGillion's character perished in an explosion near the end of the third season, causing an outcry among fans, who began a Save Carson Beckett campaign in an attempt to bring him back. McGillion said he's been encouraged by the all fan support, but was still somewhat surprised when he got the call to come back.

"When the fellas told me that they were going to be making some changes with the cast and stuff, they said, 'No one ever dies in sci-fi,'" McGillion said. "I was kind of surprised, but having heard a lot of the fan reaction and stuff, I think it was a big thing when my character died, and I think that has a lot to do with the writing they gave the character and the opportunity to play such a fun character and a well-loved character. A lot of people have called him the heart of Atlantis. And I think the fans really stood behind that and rallied behind the character a lot. So I was flattered and obviously thrilled to come back."

The details of the episodes are being kept under wraps, but McGillion assured fans that they would be satisfied with his role in the story. "They gave me a really great storyline," he said. "I think the fans will appreciate it. Beckett has a lot to do in the storyline that they've given the character. So I'm really happy with it. I think it's a really great way to bring Beckett back. Without going into any details, because I really can't, he's heavily, heavily based in the episodes. They'll see a lot of Beckett."

The future of the character beyond the two episodes remains unclear, but McGillion is open to the possibility of coming back on a more permanent basis. "We'll see what happens," he said." I don't know what their plans are for the character or where I'm going to be, but it's always a pleasure to come back and work on the show, that's for sure. So I'm not ruling anything out."

In addition to McGillion's return, Atlantis viewers can also look forward to guest appearances by Torri Higginson (Dr. Elizabeth Weir) and Stargate SG-1's Christopher Judge (Teal'c) in the upcoming fourth season. Stargate: Atlantis will return on Sept. 28 in a new timeslot on Fridays at 10 p.m. PT/ET. —Cindy White

Heroes Has New Villains

Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of NBC's hit series Heroes, told journalists that the upcoming second season will introduce a few new bad guys. "There's a couple new villains," Kring said in a conference call on Aug. 2. "We're doing 11 episodes in a row that start on Sept. 24. And somewhere in that run of episodes we're going to introduce a very scary villain."

The main villain of the first season was Sylar, played by Zachary Quinto, a soft-spoken psychopath who could absorb the powers of others with special abilities by slashing open their brains. The show also featured Malcolm McDowell in an adversarial role as Linderman, an eccentric businessman with ambitions for world domination.

Kring said that season two's villians will make last year's look tame. Those who paid attention to the season finale already have a hint about one of them, he said.

"At the end of last season we gave in the season finale a premonition of someone who is a very scary villain out there, who has invaded the dreams and nightmares of this character on our show named Molly Walker, who can locate people just by thinking about them," Kring said. "[We] teased the idea that there was another villain out there. And the audience can expect to see him somewhere in the first run of episodes."

The show returns for its second season on Sept. 24 and will air in the same timeslot, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Cindy White

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Hasselhoff Mulls New Knight

Original Knight Rider star David Hasselhoff is in talks to appear in NBC's update movie, reprising his role as Michael Knight, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Meanwhile, Deanna Russo (The Young & the Restless) has landed the female lead in the movie, a backdoor pilot, opposite fellow soap star Justin Bruening.

The new Knight Rider is a sequel to the 1980s series that centers on Mike Tracer (Bruening), Michael Knight's son, who never knew his dad.

Burned by his love for childhood best friend and one-time girlfriend Sarah Kamen (Russo), Mike is wasting away in Las Vegas when Sarah reappears and is willing to pay off Mike's gambling debt in exchange for help.

Sarah is the brilliant, estranged daughter of Charles Kamen, inventor of the K.I.T.T. car, who works as an assistant professor in the engineering department at Stanford. When she receives word from the talking car that her father is missing, she and K.I.T.T. set out to find and recruit Mike.

(NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

Trek's Sarek Is Cast

Ben Cross has been cast as Sarek, the Vulcan father of Spock, in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek feature film, StarTrek.com reported.

He will be paired with Winona Ryder, portraying Spock's human mother, Amanda Grayson. (Variety had earlier incorrectly reported that Ryder would play a Vulcan.) The young Spock will be played by Zachary Quinto.

Sarek was first played by Mark Lenard in the original series and subsequent movies.

The film, currently in production under the direction of J.J. Abrams, is scheduled for release on Christmas Day 2008.


Holden Open To X-Files Return

Laurie Holden, who played the mysterious Marita Covarrubias on The X-Files, told SCI FI Wire that she'd welcome the opportunity to reprise her role in the upcoming sequel film.

"I knew it was coming, because I ran into David [Duchovny] recently, and he said that it was going ahead," Holden said of The X-Files 2 while promoting her movie The Mist. "So I was excited to hear that. I hope we're all back, but you never know with these things."

For several seasons on the Fox TV show, Holden played the blond informant to Duchovny's FBI agent Fox Mulder.

Since the show ended in 2002, Holden hasn't been in touch with series creator Chris Carter, who is set to direct The X-Files 2. (It's slated to begin production in Vancouver, Canada, next month.)

"I have not," Holden said. "People get busy, and they move on. But good for him [that he's going to direct the film]." If Carter should call, Holden said that she's ready to return to the fold. "I would love to," she said. "Maybe he'll read about it in one of your articles and be like, 'Oh, yeah, let's put her in the movie.'"

Covarrubias was last glimpsed in the series finale, "The Truth," when she arrived in court to testify on Mulder's behalf. —Ian Spelling


Twohy: More Riddick Possible

David Twohy, the director of The Chronicles of Riddick, posted on his official Web site that another movie featuring Vin Diesel's iconic character is still possible.

"We're talking about it," Twohy posted. "The DVD numbers were really good. We know that, and some potential financiers know that. But if another movie surfaces, it probably won't be a Universal movie and probably will be an independent movie. Which means we'll have to make it for substantially less than the last installment. But that's OK. Pitch Black was $22 million all in. Maybe it's time to go back to our roots as we go on to The UnderVerse."

(Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)



Sawyer Links SF To Robotics

SF author Robert J. Sawyer praised the journal Science for recognizing that the nascent field of robot ethics has its roots in science fiction. Sawyer contributed an editorial on the topic for the Nov. 16 edition of the top scientific journal.

"I think it's wonderful that the leading scientific journal recognizes that the real-life field of robotics has its roots in science fiction and that its editors turned to an SF writer to set the stage for their in-depth treatment of the topic," Sawyer said in a statement to the press.

A robotic caregiver features prominently in Sawyer's latest novel, Rollback. "All of us who write about—or build!—robots today stand on the shoulders of Isaac Asimov and Jack Williamson, and I was proud to get to make that point so prominently."

In the editorial, Sawyer extolled the visionary writings of Asimov and Williamson and pointed to Asimov's famous "Three Laws of Robotics" as the foundation of what scientists today think of as robotic ethics.

Sawyer also singled out stories such as Williamson's "With Folded Hands" and Lester del Rey's "Helen O'Loy" as other important classic science fiction stories that have informed the way scientists now think about robots.

The editorial can be read (after free registration) in its entirely on Science's Web site. —John Joseph Adams

Willis Toplines Surrogates

Bruce Willis will star in The Surrogates, an SF thriller movie that Jonathan Mostow will direct for Disney. The studio is eyeing a February production start in Boston; Mostow helmed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Michael Ferris and John Brancato scripted The Surrogates, based on a graphic novel from Top Shelf Comix. They collaborated with Mostow on T3 and also wrote Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, the Halcyon-financed sequel that McG will direct at Warner Brothers.

The Surrogates is set in the near future, where humans live in isolation and interact vicariously through surrogate robots who are better-looking versions of themselves. Willis plays a cop who, through his surrogate, investigates the murders of others' surrogates. The cop is forced to venture from his own home for the first time in years and unravel a conspiracy.

BRIEFLY NOTED

New Line Cinema has asked a New York federal judge to stop a documentary whose home-video release is timed to coincide with the theatrical release of the studio's fantasy film The Golden Compass, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

John Singleton will direct the SF thriller movie Executive Order: Six, about the residents of a small, snowbound town who band together to fight an alien unleashed by a plane crash, Variety reported.

SCI FI Channel will air a public service announcement from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) following the Nov. 24 premiere of Battlestar Galactica: Razor; the PSA, "Be an Ally & a Friend," will feature Battlestar cast member Jamie Bamber.

Paramount/DreamWorks has slated a March 13, 2009, release date for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones.

The new trailer for J.J. Abrams' upcoming monster movie, now officially titled Cloverfield, has gone live and is linked through SCI FI Wire's Trailers page.

FoxNews.com reported a rumor that French actor/director Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) will play the villain in the upcoming 22nd James Bond movie; the site also reported that Leona Lewis will sing the Bond theme song.