NEW - Warner Bros. Develops ELFQUEST
Warner Brothers and Rawson Thurber are developing Elfquest, a fantasy movie based on the cult comic by Wendy and Richard Pini, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) will write, direct and produce the feature, whose format is undetermined. The original comic, which the Pinis initially self-published starting in 1978, follows a tribe of elves known as the Wolfriders in their attempts to survive and link with other dispersed elves on an Earth-like planet with two moons while on the lookout for tribes of humans and trolls, both of which acted as allies and enemies. The series--which at certain points in its history was published by both Marvel and DC Comics--attracted a more mature audience as it went along, with scenes of battles and sexuality that were intense for that time.
Atlantis' Higginson Bows Out
Joseph Mallozzi, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate Atlantis, told SCI FI Wire that it's unlikely former series regular Torri Higginson will return as Dr. Elizabeth Weir in the upcoming fifth season, though her storyline was left hanging. But Jill Wagner's renegade leader Larrin may return in a future season. Higginson turned down a script that brought back her character, Mallozzi said in an interview. (Fans recall that Weir died and was resurrected as a human-form Replicator and leader of the surviving Replicators in season four.) "To be honest, I think it's highly unlikely" that Higginson will come back, Mallozzi said. "She did a couple of guest spots last season and was excited about finishing up the Replicator storyline and was very excited about coming back." Mallozzi added: "Initially, she was a little reluctant, and perhaps she was thinking about her fans. She wanted to create closure for her character, but we wanted to keep the character alive. ... We sent the script for review, and ultimately she passed. We would have loved to have her come back ... I think at this point she's moved beyond the show and is looking elsewhere, and we wish her the best of luck. She did a terrific job, but we will not see her in season five, and it was her choice, and we respect her decision." Wagner, meanwhile, will be back. Indeed, producers had wanted to bring Wagner's Larrin back in season five, but scheduling conflicts got in the way. "We wanted to bring Jill Wagner back, but she was working on something else," Mallozzi said. "I talked to her, and she was awesome in the past season, and we haven't killed her off. Even if we had, our track record doesn't necessarily mean she's gone for good. There is in season six a potential to bring her back. So, yeah, why not?" Stargate: Atlantis' fifth season premieres July 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Picardo Not The Obvious Choice
Robert Picardo, who joins the regular cast of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate Atlantis, told reporters that he likes that his character, the abrasive bureaucrat Richard Woolsey, isn't the obvious choice to command the city. Woolsey takes over command from Col. Samantha Carter (former regular cast member Amanda Tapping, who is leaving to star in SCI FI's upcoming Sanctuary). "[Woolsey] is an unexpected choice for this job, and that is what, I think, the viewers will hopefully respond to the way I have," Picardo said in a conference call. "I think that it was a bold thing for the producers to pick a guy like this who doesn't seem to be necessarily the first choice for a leader, but to have him try and make himself into one. And that is the interesting and creative choice."
Picardo said that he was surprised when executive producer Joseph Mallozzi offered him the larger role on Atlantis. For his part, Mallozzi said: "It was a hard decision for Amanda, and, you know, we were sorry to see her go. It also presented to us a situation to bring Bob over. ... So we called him and asked him, 'What would you think about coming over and becoming a regular?' And we were fully prepared for him to say, 'Are you kidding?' I'm happy to say that he was more than amenable." By the second show in the new season, Picardo's character faces challenges that make him less "by the book." He also stumbles around, unable to work the technology in the city, and even has trouble opening the doors. "He's always defined himself as someone who knows the rule book and evaluates others to live by it," Picardo said. "By the end of [the second episode,] he has broken protocol five times in his first crisis, and that puts him in a personal crisis at the end of the show." Woolsey is a character who isn't used to wearing a uniform, but Picardo added that he enjoyed his new costume. "I caught myself looking at [the] mirror in my new togs," he admitted. "Woolsey has been wearing a business suit in the last 35 years, and ... I think I look all right in it. It does have that jogging-suit look, and I feel like I should break out in [a] run down the hallway. In a way it looks like a leisure suit, like I escaped from a late '70s or early '80s movie." The fifth season of Atlantis kicks off July 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Star Trek: The Experience To Shut Down
CBS and Cedar Fair announced that the Star Trek: The Experience themed attraction in the Las Vegas Hilton will close on Sept. 1, confirming news first reported on TrekMovie.com. The decade-old attraction--which includes two Trek-themed motion simulator rides, Quark's bar and restaurant and a shopping arcade--has seen attendance and revenues fall for years, TrekMovie reported. CBS held out the possibility that The Experience might find new life in some other form, telling TrekMovie, "We're extremely proud of the 10-year run Star Trek: The Experience had in Las Vegas. We're currently exploring several options to continue The Experience for the public to enjoy for years to come."
Futurama Film Has Moster Love
David X. Cohen, writer and co-executive producer of Futurama, told SCI FI Wire that the new DVD movie, The Beast With a Billion Backs, is a monster movie/love story involving the gang. Beast With a Billion Backs is the second of four feature-length Futurama DVDs, following Bender's Big Score and preceding the upcoming Bender's Game and Into the Wild Green Yonder. It reunites Bender (John DiMaggio), Fry (Billy West) and Leela (Katey Sagal). "We have worked very hard, actually, to make them all pretty different from each other," Cohen said in an interview. "We definitely wanted to mix it up so that people did not claim that we were repeating ourselves. The first one was a big time-travel epic. The second one, I would say, at its heart, is a monster movie that's been twisted together with this bizarre intergalactic love story, to put it lightly. I could use a lot filthier language to describe it." Beast features the voices of Brittany Murphy, The Simpsons' Dan Castellaneta, David Cross and physicist Stephen Hawking, who previously lent his voice to "Anthology of Interest," an episode that ran in 2000, during the show's second season as a weekly series. "I'd like to think he [returned for an encore] because Futurama, while being ridiculous, is kind of a pro-science show," Cohen said. "A lot of the writers have scientific backgrounds, and, while we're making jokes about it, we try not to belittle it, and I always like it when science is the hero, ultimately, rather than the villain who's destroying things. So I'd like to think that he knew that or had heard about that from other people, that we were trying to popularize science in the public eye. One thing I will tell you is it's clear that he really enjoys the process." Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs is now available from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
FOX's Virtuality Gets A Commander
"New Amsterdam" star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is staying at Fox as the star of the network's two-hour sci-fi pilot "Virtuality." "Virtuality," from UMS and BermanBraun, is set aboard Earth's first starship, which is equipped with advanced virtual reality modules. Coster-Waldau will play mission commander Frank Pike (a tribute to Capt. Christopher from Trek?), a born leader. Ron Moore and Michael Taylor penned the backdoor pilot, which is being directed by Peter Berg. Coster-Waldau played the title character, immortal New York homicide detective John Amsterdam, on Fox's midseason series "New Amsterdam."
