Following up on the story we had yesterday about the mysterious trailer before “Transfomers”…
J.J. Abrams, who is producing the mysterious movie code-named Cloverfield, wrote Ain’t It Cool News to deny that he had anything to do with the various Web sites popping up that appear to be viral marketing. The only official Web site is called 1-18-08, a reference to the film’s release date and the only identifying information contained in the teaser trailer now playing with Transformers and online.
“Regarding the online stuff you posted: yeah, we’re doing some fun stuff on the Web,” Abrams wrote. “But, obviously, if the movie doesn’t kick some massive ASS, who gives a rat’s about what’s online? So, as you can imagine, we’re focusing mostly on THAT. For what it’s worth, the only site of ours that people have even FOUND is the 1-18-08.com site. The others (like the Ethan Haas sites) have nothing to do with us.”
Of course, Abrams has taken part in previous online campaigns for which he has disavowed knowledge, such as the so-called Lost Experience of last summer, an alternate reality game that ultimately offered backstory on the ABC SF series.
Source: SCI FI
The end is in sight for “Battlestar Galactica.” As we’ve reported all summer, the hit series will call it quits after the upcoming fourth season.
But there seems to be some debate on-line as to who decided it was time for the show to end its run–was it executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick or was it SCI FI?
According to the president of the network, Bonnie Hammer, it was a creative decision by Moore and Eick that led to the decision to end the show after the upcoming season.
“There’s been some stuff online where they’re saying that it was really the network decision to go in this direction and that it’s been coded by a certain level of appropriate politics by Ron and David, and that’s not really the case,” Hammer said in a press conference during SCI FI Channel’s digital press tour in Vancouver, Canada. “These are people who are passionate about what they do, and they didn’t want to be in a position where they were writing beyond where they believed they had true stories and true character arcs where they could take it without diminishing the quality of the writing and the quality of the show, and that really is rare. And this is definitely a decision that they believe in wholeheartedly, as opposed to something that was fed to them for any other reasons, from ratings or finance or anything else.”
At the same press conference, SCI FI Channel’s executive vice president Mark Stern echoed the assertion that Moore and Eick were not influenced by any outside sources. “Anyone who knows Ron and David knows they are anything but network lapdogs,” he said. “We only wish that they would do what we ask them to do, but that’s never going to happen.”
As for the future of the franchise once the fourth and final season comes to a close, Stern said that it remains unclear and that everyone involved in the production is more concerned about the present and giving the show a proper sendoff. “We are as sad as everybody else is to see season four coming,” he said. “As for what follows, Caprica, the prequel, is out there. We haven’t really decided what we’re going to do with that yet. And there’s always the theme-park ride.”
“Galactica” is currently filming the fourth and final season, which will air sometime in early 2008 on SciFi.
The more I hear about the upcoming “Flash Gordon” series, the more intrigued I get….
SCI FI Channel’s upcoming reimagined version of Flash Gordon will stay away from the politically incorrect stereotypes that informed the 1930s version, Mark Stern, executive vice-president of SCI FI Channel, told reporters last week. Instead, the new series will make the villains more relevant to the present day.
“I think the first thing you do is you completely stay away from any of the race issues,” Stern said at a press conference on the set in Vancouver, Canada. “Ming was consciously not an Asian dictator in that really kind of cliché, ridiculous way. We really wanted to go with someone who was actually very charming [and] blonde and stay away from what you would think of as this kind of [bald], thin, one-dimensional dictator.”
Flash Gordon is based on the King Features Syndicate comic strip, which has been adapted over the years as a film serial, TV show and feature films. The original villain, “Ming the Merciless,” appeared to be a broad stereotype of the Chinese character of Fu Manchu and Asian despots in general.
The new incarnation of Ming will drop the “Merciless” appellation from his name. He will be played by Canadian actor John Ralston, best known for his role as a dad on the Disney Channel series Life With Derek . Stern said that the character will be a more savvy villain, one that modern audiences can recognize.
“Having said that, it’s not like now our villains are Arabs,” Stern added. “It’s really about finding the metaphor, because that’s what science fiction is about. It’s really not about being literal with it. It’s about finding what the allegory is and how to find something that feels like it’s dealing with things that we’re grappling with today, but not literally. So we basically just ignored all that stuff and really moved into a different direction with it.”
Flash Gordon is currently filming its first season of 22 episodes and will premiere on SCI FI Channel in August.
Source: SCI FI
We’ve all known since the closing moments of “Batman Begins” that the Joker would be the villain for the sequel “The Dark Knight.”
But now news is coming out that the Joker may not be the only one of the Dark Knight’s gallery of rogues to show up on-screen in next year’s sequel.
We recently reported that “Dead Zone” star Anthony Michael Hall was flown in for a couple of days of filming. However, Hall and just about everyone else associated with the film were tight-lipped on which character Hall was playing.
Now, we might have an answer for you.
According to a report at Rotten Tomatoes, Hall’s role in the upcoming film will be that of Edward Nigma. Or as most Batman fans know him, The Riddler. It hasn’t been confirmed that Hall played this role nor is it confirmed that the Riddler will appear on-screen in the upcoming film. We’ll keep our eyes and ears opened for confirmation of this.
One piece of confirmed casting we do know is that Aaron Eckheart is playing District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Dent, as many of you know, becomes the villainous Two-Face in the Batman mythology. Rotten Tomatoes is reporting that this transformation could come as early as “The Dark Knight.” There are reports that the make-up for Two-Face will be needed on the set. Again, this is unconfirmed, but if it’s true, it could be an interesting twist to the upcoming sequel.
The final bit of Bat-info we have today concerns Maggie Glyenhaal’s taking over the role of Rachel Dawes (who was played by Katie Holmes in the last movie). Glyenhaal has been “hands on” in shaping the character on set and has had a lot of input in how the character will develop on-screen in this film. Most fans agree that Rachel was one of the few weak links from “Batman Begins” and if they can make her character better and more integral to the plot (as seems to be the case here), this could spell great things for “The Dark Knight.”
“The Dark Knight” opens in theaters next summer.
