2.17.03
Toy Fair Horror Pics!
Figures.com hit Toy Fair and has posted an absolute freakin' ton of photos. One of the highlights we saw so far is this super cool Living Dead Dolls game coming out from Mezco down the road. Click here to see more than 40 photos of upcoming Living Dead Doll products.

Also, don't miss their gallery of photos from NECA, the company bringing us the Hellraiser figure line up! These look amazing. Click'm.

And the great figure photos just keep coming! They also took photos of newcomer Majestic Studio's Jeepers Creepers figure and another one from Return of the Fly. Click here to see 'em.

Really Scary Bitten Contest!
We've got 10 copies of Kelley Armstrong's very cool book Bitten. This is her first novel in the Women of the Otherworld series. Go sign up here for a chance at a free copy!

Sneak Peek Look at Underworld Pics
Creature Corner just got back from Toy Fair and got some great new pics from Underworld, thanks to Mezco who's making the toys for the film. Click here to see 'em.

2.14.03
Torres Guesting on Angel
THR reports (via SCI FI Wire) longtime genre TV staple Gina Torres (Firefly, Alias) will guest star in three upcoming episodes of The WB's Angel. Torres will reportedly play a "godlike" being who's been the guiding hand behind recent events on the show, the trade paper reported. Angel returns to The WB's schedule on March 5.

Buffy Actor Discusses Ep Details
Tom Lenk, who plays the nerdy Andrew in UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that the Feb. 25 episode, "Storyteller," will have his character shooting a video documentary of the Scooby Gang. "The writers call it a Lenk-tastic episode," Lenk said in an interview. "It's all about Andrew documenting everything that happens in the Buffy household. He talks to the camera and whatnot, sort of Blair Witch-style meets Waiting for Guffman."

The episode includes Lenk's first-person segments. "It's a normal Buffy [episode] intercut with lots of video footage," Lenk said. "So you see the footage of the actual documentary that I'm making, in addition to flashbacks and dream sequences." Lenk added that he's concerned that the audience may not be ready for him to star in an episode. "I am a little concerned that perhaps I'm not funny in large doses. We'll see. It will be the test."

Cronenberg Talks About Painkillers
Director David Cronenberg (eXistenZ, The Dead Zone) told SCI FI Wire that his next film, Painkillers, will find him once again tapping into the SF vein. "I've been saying that it's about performance artists in the future, but in the near future," Cronenberg said in an interview. "That's all I can really say, because I'm rewriting it, and it's sort of a deep rewrite. I haven't looked at it in a while, and now I'm coming back to it."

Cronenberg confirmed rumors that both Nicolas Cage and Ralph Fiennes (who appears in the director's upcoming Spider) are considering playing the lead character in Painkillers. "No one is attached," he said. "No one has made a deal. But yes, Nic Cage has read the first draft and liked it and said he was interested. And, yes, Ralph has read the same script and said he would be interested in doing it. So that's good. Maybe I should get them both in the movie. Now that would be interesting."

Downey Jr. Joining Cruz & Berry in Gothika Cast?
Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations to star opposite Halle Berry in Dark Castle Entertainment's supernatural thriller Gothika for director Mathieu Kassovitz, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Production begins in April, with Warner Bros. Pictures distributing domestically and Columbia Pictures taking on international territories.

Written by Sebastian Gutierrez, Gothika stars Berry as a criminal psychologist who awakens to find herself a patient in her own mental institution with no memory of the murder she has apparently committed. As she struggles to reclaim her sanity, she finds herself the pawn of a vengeful spirit. Penelope Cruz will play Chloe, a fellow inmate in the asylum. Downey will play a psychaitrist and colleague of Berry's character.

Dench & Feore Joining Chronicles of Riddick
According to THR, Judi Dench is in final negotiations to star opposite Vin Diesel in Universal Pictures' Chronicles of Riddick for writer-director David Twohy, Radar Pictures and One Race Prods. Production begins in Vancouver in April.

At the same time, Colm Feore (Stephen King's Storm of the Century) has come aboard to play the lead villain in the project, which is a sequel to the 2000 film Pitch Black, about an intergalactic prisoner named Riddick who has the ability to see in the dark.

In the sequel, Riddick, now a hunted man, finds himself in the middle of two opposing forces in a major crusade. Feore will play Lord Marshal, a warrior priest who is the leader of a sect that is waging the 10th and perhaps final crusade 500 years in the future. Dench will play Aereon, an ambassador from the Elemental race. She is an ethereal being who helps Riddick unearth his origins.

"Both Judi and Colm are formidable talents, both classically trained, and I look forward to bringing these two bright stars into our dark, new universe," Twohy said.

Ring Director Nakata Selects English Language Film Debut
Variety reports Japanese director Hideo Nakata will make his English-language feature debut with the MGM supernatural thriller True Believers. Nakata directed The Ring and a sequel that inspired the Gore Verbinski-directed DreamWorks film that is in the process of being sequelized.

True Believers is an adaptation of the Doug Richardson novel about the intersecting paths of a senator with White House aspirations, a woman who wants to have a child and a death row inmate who thinks he is a messiah who must carry on his bloodline. Richardson wrote the script. The project is set up at Bruce Willis' Cheyenne Enterprises.

"We flew Hideo in, and just in one meeting he came up with fresh ideas which helped the script," said Willis' partner, Arnold Rifkin. "He showed the same intuition and intelligence for suggestive fright that we saw in 'The Ring' and 'Chaos.' We are glad to be first to utilize that gift in a studio film."

Nakata's Chaos was optioned by Universal for a drama that will be directed by Sexy Beast helmer Jonathan Glazer, with Benicio del Toro attached to star. His Dark Water was optioned by Bill Mechanic's Disney-based Pandemonium.

Animated Snake Plissken Project Details
A Coming Attractions source, reportedly working on the Snake Plissken animated project, passed along some info.

First announced in the summer of 2002, the anime movie is one of three new projects featuring John Carpenter's post-apocalytic character first seen in Escape From New York. Hurricane Comics will release the first issue of John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles this spring, the start of an ongoing comic book series chronicling the adventures of Snake the day after the conclusion of Escape From New York. Also in development is a video game. Star Kurt Russell has agreed to lend his voice to both the anime movie and the video game.

The anime will be directed by Mamoru Oshii and created by Production IG, the creators of the internationally known anime film Ghost in the Shell.

Corona was also told one rumor that may (or may not) come to pass: John Carpenter may be lending his voice to one of the anime's main characters.

Director Tapped for Raimi-Produced Boogeyman
According to The Hollywood Reporter (via Zen) Ghost House Pictures have tapped Mendhi Norowzian to direct the horror film Boogeyman. The film will focus on a man who returns home to face a troubled and haunted past. All of his trauma was centered in his bedroom and he now must face an "entity," which may or may not be real. Norowzian will work from a script by Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White. Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing, while Steve Hein and Gary Bryman are executive producing.

2.13.03
Ton of Animatrix DVD News
Thanks to Frank, our numero uno source, we got a boatload of news on the Animatrix DVD release set for this summer -- the list of all the anime superstar directors attached to it, the techno groups on the soundtrack, which stars voices will be on it, what extras will be on the DVD and a ton more. Check it out here.

Letter from May Composer
We got some great feedback from Jaye Barnes-Luckett, the composer and soundtrack supervisor for the indie horror flick May. [Recently reviewed by Ray Garton. Click here for review.] His letter gives us some very cool insight into the making of the flick.

Hiya, Ray:

I recently read your review of MAY, and I wanted to thank you for your kind words about the movie and the music, as well. I thought you brought up a good observation, when you talked about how you wished you could have seen more about what made May bizarre in the first place. We originally did have more to that effect, but I think our fairly conservative producers (it's a wonder why they picked up Lucky's script in the first place, but I'm glad they did) weren't really having any of that. I didn't see all of that footage either, so maybe it just didn't work as well when they shot it. I dunno. The first draft or two of the script, had an entire childhood sequence, where we actually go to see the making of May's "psyche" I guess you could call it. That stuff was shot. There was also more of when May was older, in the original drafts (she was originally in college) and had some interaction with her mom who was quite scary... Anyway, I thought it was pretty sharp of you to realize that was missing, because it was something we did have in there originally. Well, again, thanks for the good words.

Take care.
- Jaye