Really Scary Horror Movie News: Really Scary: Horror Movie News, Video Games, Comics, Books, Music, Art and TV: August 2004

Figures.com reports BtVS's Spike will receive four exclusive figures. Aside from their standard offering, Diamond Select Toys and Collectibles will be bringing collectors four additional exclusive action figures designed and produced by DST and sculpted by Gentle Giant Studios. Each Spike figure is scheduled for release January, 2005. The approximately 6" tall exclusives include:

AFX (www.shopafx.com) Exclusive: "Just Rewards" Spike -- Comes with a battle axe, a cross with an altar, a stake, a jacket, a bag of blood, and a railroad spike.

CineQuest (www.CineQuest.com) Exclusive: "Grave" Spike -- Comes with a blanket, a cross with an altar, poetry book, and a stake.

Time and Space Toys (store.yahoo.com/timespacetoys/) Exclusive: "Beneath You" Spike -- Comes with blue shirt, a Zippo lighter, a cross with an altar, a rat, a stake, and a shovel.

ToyFare (www.wizarduniverse.com) Exclusive: "Fool for Love" Spike -- Comes with a metal pipe, a Zippo lighter, a cross with an altar, a round bottle, and a square bottle.

Click here to get a look at them.

Marilyn Manson & David Duchovny Voice Area 51

Paramount Pictures has optioned the rights to the popular arcade game "Area 51" from Midway Games, with Christine Peters set to produce the action-thriller. The game is to be released in the home video game market in March in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox formats. Peters will collaborate with Midway to produce the film.

The game features the voice talent of David Duchovny as Specialist Ethan Cole of the Hazardous Materials Division, Powers Boothe as Major Bridges and singer Marilyn Manson as Edgar, the gray alien. Players will take the role of Cole, who has been sent to investigate a distress signal from Area 51, where a viral outbreak has just shut down the research facility, automatically locking all scientific and military personnel inside. [Source: The Hollywood Reporter]

Siren 2 Horror Video Game in Development

Geek.com reports Siren 2, the sequel to Sony's survival horror game that came out earlier this year, is already under development.

Siren 2 takes place on the abandoned island of Yami-jima, off the coast of the Japanese mainland. About three decades ago, all power to the island was severed and the islanders were never heard from again. The game opens present day, with the main characters arriving on the island at midnight just in time to hear a siren summoning up the island's undead inhabitants. This game will feature a second sort of enemy called the "yamabito," which are much stronger and intelligent than the original baddies of the game but have a weakness to light. Siren 2 hits Japan, and probably North America, sometime next year. Check out a trailer for the game at Sony's Japanese website (click the small English words "promotion video").

Ghost in the Shell 2 Canadian Premiere

Writer/director Mamoru Oshii's long-awaited sequel Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence will have its Canadian premiere this September in the Midnight Madness section of the 29th Toronto International Film Festival (http://www.bell.ca/filmfest).

Public screenings will take place Sept. 9 at 11:59 p.m. and Friday, Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. at the Ryerson Theatre.

Ghost in the Shell 2, which was the first anime film ever to compete for the Cannes International Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or, will be released in U.S. theaters on Sept. 17, 2004 by Go Fish Pictures, a division of DreamWorks Pictures. For more information, visit http://www.gofishpictures.com/GITS2/.

Anacondas Leading Box Office

So far this weekend, Sony Pictures Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid leads the box office, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

The movie is a follow-up to 1997's Anaconda, which debuted in the spring that year with a $16.6 million initial haul and went on to rack up a respectable $65 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices.

In Blood Orchid, a group of scientists heads into the jungle of Borneo in search of a fabled plant that is an elixir for eternal youth. Instead, they get a bunch of gigantic, poisonous snakes tailing them.

Adding to their troubles is that these fairly bright scientists have started on their venture during monsoon season, and on top of that, the anacondas are smack in the middle of their mating period.

Two Competing Releases of Fulci's Zombie

Reel.com reports rival indie studios Blue Underground and Media Blasters are releasing two different versions of the Lucio Fulci classic Zombie at the same time. Apparently, there's a legal squabble over who owns the rights.

SAW Release Moved to Oct. 8

Ok, we have to wait just a teensy bit longer but for what looks like one of the best horror flicks we've seen in a while, it's a small price to pay. SAW's release has been officially pushed back from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8. Just hold on a little bit longer...

Ray Garton Signing at Borderlands Books!

Horror author Ray Garton is going to be at San Francisco's Borderlands Books signing Saturday, Sept. 11, at 3 p.m. Ray hasn't done a signing in about 17 years so definitely don't miss this fantastic opportunity to meet this horror writing legend, who also graciously provides Really Scary with our column Ray Garton's Bloodshot Eye Movie Reviews.

Also, check out Ray's new home on the web at Biting Dog Press. Click here.

Night Gallery on DVD

For the first time on DVD, Universal Pictures is releasing Night Gallery Season 1. Rod Serling hosts over 20 episodes of this classic series, featuring the original pilot movies and every episode from the complete first season of Night Gallery - approximately eight hours of Night Gallery.

The first season included stories adapted from legends such as H. P. Lovecraft and Conrad Aiken, performed by Diane Keaton, Joan Crawford and Roddy McDowall, and directed by Steven Spielberg. This photo is a preview of the cover image. The scheduled release date is Aug. 24.

Universal Launching Horror Channel?

The Hollywood Reporter ran a report speculating that NBC Universal is considering a new cable channel devoted to horror-themed programming. Citing anonymous sources, the trade reports the network would be the first in-house launch since NBC acquired Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which includes USA Network and SCI FI Channel.

NBC Universal now controls Universal Pictures' library of classic horror films and characters, including Dracula, Frankenstein's monster (which USA is reviving for a limited series this year) and the Wolfman. [Source: Sci Fi Wire]

Cruise Joins War of the Worlds

Tom Cruise has signed on to star in The War of the Worlds, a remake of the classic H.G. Wells science fiction novel. It will be directed by Steven Spielberg and will begin shooting in November.

Jaws by Bunnies in 30 Seconds

We can't seem to get enough of these - Angry Alien productions now brings you Jaws in 30 seconds as interpreted by bunnies. Click'm.

In other 30 Second Bunny film news, The Exorcist bunnies won a silver public prize for Best Short Film at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.

New Line & Raimi Talks: Ash, Freddy, Jason Flick

While this rumor's been out there for a while, two british publications (Empire and Guardian UK) have now reported that New Line is negotiating with Sam Raimi to bring Ash into the Freddy & Jason mix, with a Jason vs. Freddy vs. Ash flick. The word is that Raimi would not direct, but if the deal closes Bruce Campbell will play Ash.

While nothing's confirmed yet, looks like talks are taking place. Should the Ash proposal fall through, there are still plans to pit Freddy and Jason against each other again, and possibly bring yet another new character into the mix.

Blair Witch Cameraman Killed in Crash

Cinematographer Neal L. Fredericks, best known for his work on The Blair Witch Project, was killed Saturday while shooting the independent film Cross Bones in the Florida Keys. He was 35.

Fredericks was filming aerial shots for the movie from a single-engine Cessna 206 when the plane's engine sputtered twice at about 500 feet before going down in 50 feet of water, according to Cross Bones writer-director Daniel Zirilli. [Source: Reuters]

Preview of Saw at Horrorfind

We got the chance to check out the first 15 minutes or so of the upcoming Lion's Gate flick Saw, starring Cary Elwes, Danny Glover and Monica Potter. If the first 15 minutes are any indication, this movie is going to be incredible. Below's a little bit of what we were given a peek.

Cary Elwes (Dr. Gordon) wakes up to find himself chained to some pipes in a tiled, rundown room - maybe an old lab or something like that? Lots of flourescent light sort of giving the whole thing a sickly green cast. There's another man locked up in there as well, although he's on the other side of the room. He comes to as well and they both immediately spot a dead body on the floor, lots of blood. Then after a bit of what's going on here, they realize items have been placed in their pockets. They each have a microcassette. There's a player in the room but it's out of reach and over by the dead body. Elwes tells the other guy (who we find out is named Adam) to try and get the player since it's closer to him. The other guy finally puts something together with his shirt and tosses it over, retrieving the player.

He plays his tape first. A voice greets him by name and says something along the lines of "you've always been a watcher, a voyeur, never actually doing anything. If you don't do something today, then this will be the room you die in."

Then Elwes tells Adam to toss the recorder over and he says no, he doesn't want to break it and tells Elwes to send his tape over. Elwes tosses him the tape and Adam plays it. The voice also greets Elwes character by name and then says something like "as a doctor, you always tell people if they're going to die. Today you will actually be the reason someone dies. Today you will kill Adam. If you don't your wife and daughter will die (who he calls by name) and I will leave you in this room to rot. Everything you need is here, just figure it out. You have until 6 p.m."

That's a teeny bit of what we saw - looks really, really good. Definitely looking forward to this one. Click here to check out the official site and full trailer.

Michael Madsen Joins Bloodrayne

Just got a line from the Associate Producer of Bloodrayne who passed along Director Uwe Boll has announced Michael Madsen will complete the cast for Bloodrayne, joining Kristana Loken, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Rodriguez for the video game adaption.

Principal photography for the $20 million production starts today.

Kingsley Takes on Vampire Role in BloodRayne

AP reports (via Sci Fi Wire) Ben Kingsley will play the vampire Kagan, the evil ruler of an army of bloodsuckers, in an upcoming film adaptation of the video game BloodRayne. The movie will also star Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines). Set in 18th-century Romania, the film chronicles the adventures of a half-vampire, half-human who has the super strength of a monster but the emotions of a person, the wire service reported.

Loken will play the heroine, who must overthrow Kingsley's character -- who is also her father -- in order to save the world from the living dead. The $47 million movie is set to begin filming in Romania later this month, according to video-game publisher Majesco, which released the game. The BloodRayne video game debuted in 2002, and a sequel is set for release this October.

Hammer Icons Star in New Flicks

A new film cooperative, Hammer Glammer Films Ltd. brings together Hammer Film legends Ingrid Pitt (The Vampire Lovers, Countess Dracula), Veronica Carlson (Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Horror of Frankenstein), Caroline Munro (Dracula A.D. 1972, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter) and Steffanie Pitt (The Asylum, Death Wish).

They will be working on low budget horror films aimed at the DVD market with the first feature being a three part film titled Three for Hell. Carlson, Munro and Pitt will each star in a 30-minute tale described as follows:

Segment One: SOMEWHERE AFTER MIDNIGHT Starring: Ingrid and Steffanie Pitt - A battle between the old style, romantic Vampire, Ingrid, and the New Age Vampire, Steffanie.

Segment Two: MOONSTRUCK Starring: Veronica Carlson - All Alice wants to do is get home before dark but out on the moor...

Segment Three: ALTERED SHAPES Starring: Caroline Munro - Dr. Moreau's experiments on animals were a catastrophe. Now it's pay-back time.

For more info visit http://www.hammerglammerfilms.co.uk

Group Author Signing in Maryland

The Women of Persephone will talk about horror writing and conduct an autograph session at the Barnes & Noble in Annapolis, MD, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. The guests include Elizabeth Massie, Karen E. Taylor, Laura Anne Gilman, Barbara J. Ferrenz, Linda Addison, Lisa Manetti, Tina Jens, Viki Rollins and Liz Mandeville-Greeson.

The Gathering Gets Good Review

Variety has reviewed the brit chiller flick The Gathering, calling it "genuinely creepy despite being a bit too plodding and methodical...a thinking man's horror movie."

Christina Ricci stars in the film as an amnesiac American in England who ends up living with the family of an art scholar at work on a mysterious altarpiece. Still in a holding pattern for U.S. and U.K. release, British production had a modest release mid-July in France, where it drew some good notices.

Helmed by Brian Gilbert, whose specialty has tended toward accounts of real-life figures (Not Without My Daughter, Wilde) rather than genre fare.

FCC Clears Buffy of Indecency

Reuters reports Buffy the Vampire Slayer passed the indecency test at the FCC on Monday as the agency rejected complaints against the popular TV shows filed by two conservative-leaning interest groups.

The complaints filed by the Parent Television Council and Americans for Decency were dismissed in a 5-0 vote because the commission found the shows didn't violate its indecency regulations. Both shows were aired in primetime.

The PTC, one of the more active groups on the indecency front run by L. Brent Bozell, complained to the commission about an episode of Buffy that aired April 22, 2003, on WDCA, a UPN affiliate in Washington. In the episode, the characters Spike and Buffy fight before having sex, according to the order.

"The commission noted that there was no nudity and there was no evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon or was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience," the commission said in a release.

Thank the heavens and hells that we have groups like Americans for Decency looking out for us morons that shouldn't be allowed to choose what we watch on television. Cheeerist.

Wes Craven Catches the Red Eye

Wes Craven has signed on to direct the airline thriller Red Eye. The DreamWorks film centers on a woman held captive by a fellow passenger who threatens to kill her father unless she helps him arrange the assassination of a wealthy businessman.

Craven recently finished shooting Cursed, starring Christina Ricci and Shannon Elizabeth, which is scheduled to come out in October via Dimension Films. [Source: The Hollywood Reporter]

ROTLD 4: Necropolis Shooting in Chernobyl

You might have thought that Chernobyl was off-limits, closed to the outside world behind a rigidly patrolled exclusion zone since reactor No. 4 went into catastrophic meltdown April 26, 1986, spewing radiation to the four winds.

That's not completely the case though. The reactor's deadly core was buried in a concrete and steel sarcophagus, but the adjoining reactors carried on producing electricity until they were finally decommissioned a couple of years ago.

A rotating staff of some 6,000 specialists and technicians still work at Chernobyl's scientific center. Hundreds of journalists, diplomats and tourists have been there in the past six years since the place was opened up to paying visitors, once safe areas away from the isolated and still highly radioactive "hot" zones were identified.

Some 40 documentaries have been shot within the vast controlled zone that rings Chernobyl and the nearby town of Pripyat.

Now, for the first time, a Hollywood feature film -- the zombie movie Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis -- has gained access to the infamous site.

Ukrainian-born producer Anatoly Fradis is proud -- despite the obstacles and the cost. "Up to a couple of days before we began shooting, it was touch-and-go whether they would let us in, and I had to pay more than I had budgeted to secure the permission," Fradis said.

He's anxious to get started on two days of shooting on-location with director Ellory Elkayem and special effects zombie expert John Vulich of Optic Nerve Studios.

Most of "Necropolis" -- the fourth in a five-part series shooting back-to-back -- is shooting at the Bucharest, Romania studios where Cold Mountain was made.

The zombie-free Chernobyl scenes are for the opening, in which a rogue ex-CIA agent is seen stealing the world's last five canisters of Trioxyn gas, the lifeblood of the living dead.

"Chernobyl is very spooky and serves our purpose -- we are shooting in all these abandoned towns and villages, with rusting equipment lying around everywhere," Fradis says. [Source: Reuters]

Simon & Schuster to Sue Disney & Shyamalan?

Simon & Schuster Inc. is reviewing its legal options against The Walt Disney Co. and writer-director M. Night Shyamalan over what the author of a children's book says are similarities between its plot and the film The Village, a spokeswoman for the publisher said on Monday.

Reports have circulated that its plot and surprise ending parallel Margaret Peterson Haddix's first book Running Out of Time, published in 1995.

Haddix told Reuters that she heard about the similarities last week when fans -- and then journalists -- began calling and e-mailing her and her publisher to ask if she had sold the book to Shyamalan. She said she has never spoken to The Sixth Sense director or to Disney.

"It's certainly an interesting situation," Haddix said. "I'm just examining what my options are."

In a statement, Disney and Shyamalan's Blinding Edge Pictures said they "believe these claims to be meritless."

Shyamalan has battled a copyright lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania screenwriter who claimed the plot from the 2002 film Signs mirrored his unproduced script Lord of the Barrens.

In Running Out of Time and The Village, adults in a bucolic 19th century town keep the same secret from their children, and a plucky tomboy journeys through dangerous woods to get medicine.

Haddix said she optioned the book twice -- once to Viacom Inc.-owned Nickelodeon, which allowed the option to expire in May 2003 without making a film.

She saw The Village last week but declined to discuss her opinion of the film. "Let's just say that I saw the same similarities that other people have pointed out," she said.

Lawyers for Simon & Schuster also were reviewing their legal options, spokeswoman Tracy van Straaten said.

"This is a children's book...that sold more than half a million copies and won prizes, so it's not an obscure book for us," van Straaten said. The book was nominated for an Edgar Award, the nation's top prize for mystery stories. [Source: Reuters]

Preview of Not Normal: Tales of the Untoward

Joey Comeau (part of the hilarious A Softer World web site) and Kyle Cummings have posted a great little comic preview of Not Normal: Tales of the Untoward. We think you'll like it. Click'm.

Global Frequency Details

Comics Continuum reports John Rogers, executive producer of The WB's upcoming series Global Frequency (based on the Warren Ellis comic series), told fans that the series will be a midseason replacement for the network. Speaking at last month's Comic-Con International in San Diego, Rogers said the pilot episode will shoot this month in Vancouver, B.C., and that four episodes have been financed out of a planned 13.

The series stars Michelle Forbes (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Miranda Zero, Aimee Garcia as Aleph, Josh Hopkins as Sean Ronin, and Jenni Baird as Dr. Kate Finch.

"We've basically introduced a sort of Mulder and Scully that appear on every episode: Sean and Kate," Rogers said. "They actually go out and are our investigatory and sci-fi girl team. Aleph's always running the ops. Miranda bombs in when we needs to do cool spy stuff. And also, by keeping the cast split up, we can really develop the global feel. The idea that Miranda's in one place and the experts are in another. Also, we will be very heavily hitting the idea that you could be on the Global Frequency. Every episode, we're going to grab somebody."

Ellis has played a role in the series and is headed for a set visit this week. "Warren's level of involvement is that he approves all of the stories," Rogers said. "He approved the stories and the script on the pilot, and Warren will be writing at least one this season."

Production Delays Pushes Back Ring 2

Sci Fi Wire reports a spokesman from DreamWorks confirmed that The Ring 2, starring Naomi Watts and Simon Baker, has been pushed back to spring 2005 from its original November release date because of production delays. The sequel to 2002's hit The Ring, based on the Japanese Ringu movies, ran into problems when the studio and first-time director Noam Murro parted ways in March over "creative differences."

Murro was replaced by the director of the original Ringu films, Hideo Nakata, but subsequent delays have caused scheduling conflicts with leading lady Watts, who is supposed to start filming King Kong for Peter Jackson in New Zealand this month.

New Screenwriter on Criminal Macabre

According to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Bragi Schut has been hired by MGM as the new screenwriter on the feature version of Steve Niles' Criminal Macabre graphic novel. Niles wrote the first draft for the project, based on his tales of Cal McDonald, a hard-bitten detective who confronts cases involving monsters and the supernatural.

Fay Wray Dead at 96

Fay Wray, who won everlasting fame as the damsel held atop the Empire State Building by the giant ape in the 1933 film classic King Kong, has died, a close friend said Monday. She was 96.

Wray died Sunday at her Manhattan apartment, said Rick McKay, a friend and director of the last film she appeared in. There was no official cause of death.

"She just kind of drifted off quietly as if she was going to sleep," said McKay, director of the documentary Broadway: The Golden Age. "She just kind of gave out."

During a career that started in 1923, Wray appeared with such stars as Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy, but she was destined to be linked with the rampaging Kong in movie fans' minds.

"I used to resent King Kong, " she remarked in a 1963 interview. "But now I don't fight it anymore. I realize that it is a classic, and I am pleased to be associated with it. Why, only recently an entire issue of a French magazine was devoted to discussing the picture from its artistic, moral and even religious aspects." [Source: CNN]

Alien vs. Predator Gets PG-13

This one comes straight out of the 'really, they're not kidding' file. Ok, let's see -- Alien is rated R, Alien 2 is rated R, Alien 3 and even the incredibly bad Alien 4: Resurrection are rated R. Predator and Predator II? Yep, rated R.

Now, if you were a movie company, say oh, I don't know, perhaps a movie company like Fox and you were releasing the surefire blockbuster Alien vs. Predator, over which fans of the two series have been clamoring after for years, what would be the best course of action? Welp, they said fuckall to the fans and the best course of action since Fango says Fox will be releasing a PG-13 rated Alien vs. Predator. Nice move chuckleheads.

Garris Talks Masters of Horror Cable Antho

Fangoria reports Mick Garris has created and will produce a new one-hour anthology cable series called Masters of Horror. Green lighted for 13 episodes, Garris revealed that the initial directoral lineup will include such genre greats as John Carpenter, George Romero, Guillermo del Toro, Frank Darabont, Tobe Hooper, John Landis, Joe Dante and Garris himself, as well as several others yet to be named.

"The shows will be presented uncut and without commercial interruption," Garris said. "The series is fully funded by a major cable network, foreign interest and a DVD company everyone will know. I can’t mention those names just yet."

Production on Masters of Horror will begin in February 2005, after Garris wraps his three-hour Desperation telemovie for ABC.

Masters of Horror sprang from a series of informal dinners that Garris has been hosting at restaurants in the LA area for the last few years. Other participants at these shindigs who may be corralled for the new anthology program include Eli Roth, Larry Cohen, Stuart Gordon, Don Coscarelli, David Cronenberg and Lucky McKee.

Fiennes Joins Harry Potter as Voldemort

The makers of the next Harry Potter movie have settled on an expert to do evil as Lord Voldemort. Ralph Fiennes, who's done worse -- much worse -- as a sociopathic Nazi in Schindler's List and a serial killer in Red Dragon, will make life hell for the titular wizard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Warner Bros. announced Wednesday.

The film, the fourth of the spell-casting franchise, is due in theaters in November 2005.

Open Water Gets Limited Release This Week

About.com reports the independent film Open Water will get a limited release in a handful of US cities Aug. 6. The film tells the story of two scuba divers trapped cold and alone in shark-infested waters after they are abandoned by a tour boat. It is set to open wide Aug. 20. Click here for a photo and production notes from the film.

Death Becomes You Performing Live Online

The band Death Becomes You will be interviewed and perform live Aug. 5 on The Daily Noise Internet Radio Program. The show will be broadcast at 12:15 pm (ET), Check your timezone to listen. www.dailynoise.com

Kealan Patrick Burke Offers Free E-Novel

Author and editor Kealan Patrick Burke (Quietly Now) is offering his new novel, Master of the Moors, serialized via e-mail for free. It will begin Sept. 14. Just drop an e-mail to MasteroftheMoors@yahoo.com and you'll not only receive the free novel but you'll also be entered into a competition to win some prizes at the end of the novel's run. Below's a wee taste...

MASTER OF THE MOORS
by KEALAN PATRICK BURKE

He walked with a stooped gait, hair disheveled and his movements slow and labored, like the reanimated corpse of one of the clansmen we'd read were buried here. To see his shadow in the fog you wouldn't have thought him threatening. But Neil and I knew better. We knew what he'd done, what he could do when the fancy took him. So when he emerged from the fog and the gray tendrils swept away from everything but his eyes, we were not at all surprised to see that he was smiling. Still smiling, even as more shadows fashioned themselves from the fog and a legion of red eyes floated like embers in the gloom around him. A chorus of low guttural growling sundered the veil between us. It sounded like someone cutting wet wood with a rusted saw.

"Jane," Neil whispered, and grabbed my wrist. I could feel him trembling.

"Jane," echoed the master of the moors, with a grin. "Have you come for the hunt?"

Sixteen-year-old Jane Mansfield and her blind brother Neil have lived on the edge of the Ballygrannock moors for as long as they can remember. Raised by their father after the death of their mother, they have learned to rely on imagination, and each other, to while away the solemn days in the quiet village.

Then, their father falls ill, and everything changes.

As if tuned to their father's sickness, a fog rolls in. Villagers begin to vanish. Lithe fleeting shadows are glimpsed lurking in the mist, and a laughing man walks the moors.

A man who has come back to settle an old score.

A man local legend calls the Master of the Moors.

Hercules Miniseries in the Making

Sean Astin, who played hobbit Sam Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings films, is stepping into another project steeped in myth. Astin, along with Leelee Sobieski and Timothy Dalton, will star in NBC's four-hour miniseries Hercules, according to The Hollywood Reporter. British actor Paul Telfer will play the title role, and Angie Harmon is also in negotiations to join the cast.

The miniseries, tentatively scheduled for May 2005, begins filming in late August in New Zealand. Veteran director Roger Young (Murder in Mississippi) will helm the Hallmark Entertainment project. Charles Pogue (The Fly) wrote the script, which focuses on the mythological hero's 12 labors, which he undertakes as penance for killing his and his brother's sons.

Sobieski (Joy Ride) will play Hercules' wife, Deianeira. Astin will play Linus, his music teacher, while former 007 Dalton will portray Amphitryon, the hero's stepfather. Harmon (Law & Order) is in talks to play Hercules' mother, Alcmene.

Batman Begins Movie Trailer Online

The teaser trailer and a handful of photos for the next Batman flick are now online. Check out Christian Bale as the newest wearer of the bat utility belt. Click'm.

Ringu Director Remaking The Entity

Variety reports (via Fango) that Fox Searchlight is developing a remake of the 1983 horror film The Entity, originally starring Barbara Hershey.

Hideo Nakata (Ringu) has been tapped to direct. David DiGilio will write the new adaptation of Frank De Felitta's novel about a woman who is repeatedly sexually assaulted by an invisible, malevolent spirit, and seeks help from a team of parapsychologists. The new film will be budgeted at "under $15 million."

More Amityville Horror Remake Casting

Variety reports Rachel Nichols, star of Fox midseason drama The Inside, has signed to co-star in MGM and Dimension Films' remake of The Amityville Horror.

Musicvid and commercials helmer Andrew Douglas is making his feature-helming bow on the redo of the 1979 pic. Nichols, as the babysitter of the haunted couple's three kids, joins previously announced cast members Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George. Project will begin lensing in Chicago and parts of Wisconsin this month.

Doom 3 Release & Details

The long-awaited Doom 3 descends tonight, and its arrival, along with a few other top games this fall, is expected to juice up the gaming industry. Best Buy stores in Plano, Texas; Richfield, Minn.; New York; Los Angeles; Sterling, Va.; and White Marsh, Md., are hosting exclusive midnight sales events Monday night, and other retailers follow throughout the week.

Initial shipments ($54.99; rated mature, for ages 17 and older) of the PC game could approach 1 million; total sales of at least 4 million are expected. That's way beyond sales for a typical PC game but short of all-time best seller The Sims (more than 8 million). A version for the Microsoft Xbox is due later this year.

It took nearly four years for the second follow-up to the 1993 first-person shooting classic to reach stores. "Doom 3 is a sure-fire hit," says analyst David Cole of research firm DFC Intelligence.

That's good news for a slumping industry; PC game sales last year dropped to $1.2 billion from $1.4 billion in 2001 and 2002. Computer makers and graphics card companies also stand to benefit as gamers trade up or upgrade systems so the game looks better.

The new game is reportedly more realistic and intense. Says id Software technical director John Carmack: "We can rely on more subtle levels of light and create moods, film director-style." [Source: USA Today]

The Village Tops Box Office

M. Night Shyamalan landed another No. 1 box office opening with The Village's $50.8 million weekend. The Village bumped off the previous weekend's top movie, The Bourne Supremacy, which slipped to No. 2 with $23.4 million, bringing its 10-day total to $98 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Denzel Washington's remake The Manchurian Candidate opened at No. 3 with $20.2 million. The update of the 1962 assassination thriller co-stars Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber.

Four Exclusive Spike Action Figures