The project is based on a novel by Kelley Armstrong, which Warner Bros. optioned on the basis of a treatment by Alexander Stuart, who will also write the script.

Jolie will play a woman who turns into a werewolf after she gets bitten and lives among a clandestine wolf pack in Canada. She finally decides to suppress her animalistic tendencies for a normal human life, becomes a journalist and falls in love. She is drawn back to her pack, though, when a rogue band of werewolves begins drafting criminals into its pack.

Tickets are still available for the event where Romero will discuss the films that have influenced him as a director and writer, his own approach to filmmaking and the effects of his decision to remain an independent filmmaker living in Pittsburgh.

Tickets for the George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film featuring George Romero are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with valid identification. They may be purchased in advance by mail or in person at the Academy during regular business hours beginning Oct. 1, or on the night of the lecture, if still available, when the doors open at 7 p.m. The Academy is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. For more information, call 310-247-3000, ext. 111.

House of 1000 Corpses in March?
Fango reports the official site for Houseof1000Corpses.com says Lions Gate now has the long-delayed Rob Zombie-directed feature hitting in March of 2003.

Phantasm's End Update
Academy Award-winning screenwriter Roger Avary (1994, best original screenplay, Pulp Fiction) has written Phantasm's End, an entry in the Phantasm franchise. Avary tells Sci Fi Wire that after winning the Oscar, he gave the film series' creator, Don Coscarelli, a call. "Rather than take all the big money jobs that were offered to me, I called him up and said, 'I just won the Academy Award. I would very much like to write a Phantasm film. It's one of my favorite movies. I'd like to write a sequel.' He was like, 'Great.' And so I wrote it for free. I love Don's work. I think Don is brilliant." Of the script, Avary says, "I wanted to answer the universal equation of Phantasm, but also keep it cryptic and ask more questions. Also, I've always wanted to go over to the other side. I'd been thinking about it since I first saw the film in high school and just wanted to make an exciting movie out of it." Phatasm's End will start production after Coscarelli makes a distribution deal for his latest movie, Bubba Hotep.

Paul Anderson Working On Resident Evil 2 Script
Variety reports (via Sci Fi) that Paul W.S. Anderson is at work writing the sequel to the hit videogame-inspired movie Resident Evil, which he will also produce. After writing, directing, and producing the first movie, Anderson has not decided if he will direct the sequel. Germany's Constantin Film will finance the movie in partnership with Samuel Hadida of France's Metropolitan Film. The sequel is set to begin production sometime in the first half of 2003.

We've also received some very cool behind-the-scenes footage from The Ring. The first clip is a piece on Urban Legends focusing on the myth behind The Ring and an interview with Gore Verbinsky. There's also interviews with Verbinsky and actress Naomi Watts.

Urban Legends [Win Media]
Urban Legends [RealPlayer]

Naomi Watts Interview [Win Media]
Naomi Watts Interview [RealPlayer]

Gore Verbinsky Interview [Win Media]
Gore Verbinsky Interview [RealPlayer]

Awesome Lincoln Center Film Society Horror Event
The Film Society of Lincoln Center had one helluva lineup for its SCARY MOVIES: 30 YEARS OF HORROR event Oct. 17 through Halloween. If you're in NYC, do not miss this...and please send us a train ticket so we won't have to thumb it up there.

Special opening weekend events feature screenings and discussions with legendary horror-makers John Carpernter, Larry Cohen, Stan Winston, Guillermo Del Toro and Sam Raimi.

The Film Society has rooted out 20 of the nastiest, hardest-to-find, and scariest movies in recent history, many of which are overlooked, forgotten, rarely seen, or known only to sick and devoted cultists like us. All are guaranteed to shake you up.

Join them for filmmaker discussions as well as screenings of The Thing, The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Cronos, Pumpkinhead, It's Alive, Horror Express, Deathdream, the Japanese Ring cycle and more.

This will take place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater in New York City. Info at 212-875-5600 or click here for more information and to buy tickets online.

The Dark Wraps Primary Shooting
Empty House Film is currently in the post-production stages of the short horror film, The Dark that was shot in southern Maine this past August.

Emmy Nominated Editor Peter Gvozdas has signed on to edit the project. A video teaser is available on the film's website: www.emptyhousefilm.com.

The film stars New England stage actress Molly W.B. Roberts as Sarah, a woman who is traveling with her friend David (Jake Beal) through the backwoods. The couple has fun until they discover the secrets of an abandoned, backwoods town, and the wrath of a deranged family.

"I’m really blown away by the performances, as well as how wonderful some of the images are. This was a dream project for me," Davis said. Davis called the film his homage to the films of the 1970s. Films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left and Straw Dogs were among the director’s favorites from that era.

Empty House Film is currently trying to raise funding to make “The Dark” into a full-length feature film. "The story would change a little, we don’t want to make the same film twice." Davis said. "Every member of the cast and crew is behind us, which is really nice, there was a lot of sacrifice on The Dark, which was amazing to see."

Theron Signs On for Serial Killer Pic
Actress Charlize Theron will play convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the upcoming film Monster, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Wuornos, who was executed in Florida on Oct. 9, was a prostitute who killed seven men in nine months starting in 1989, Wuornos said she resorted to prostitution after a dark childhood of sexual abuse and drugs and claimed she killed her victims in self defense.

Monster will be written and directed by first-timer Patty Jenkins, who says the movie will be a love story about a lesbian who falls in love with Wuornos. Though not a lesbian herself, Wuornos responded sympathetically and turned tricks to support them both, during which time she committed the murders. Jenkins says, "It's a character film centered around the relationship between the two women and is very much in the genre of Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands. It's a great American tragedy and the fact that this story is real is both interesting and devastating."

Two 1992 movies have already told Wuornos's story -- the TV movie Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story, starring Jean Smart as the serial killer, and the documentary, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. Monster is scheduled to begin shooting in January on location in Florida.

Director Stephen Norrington, who has just wrapped superhero drama The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has reteamed with "League" screenwriter James Robinson to develop the project.

Released in 1988, Akira was the brainchild of Katsuhiro Otomo, who directed the film and wrote the comic from which it stemmed. The remake will tell the story of a bike gang leader who must rescue his younger brother from his involvement in Akira, a secret government project. In the process, the biker must do battle with anti-government activists, greedy politicians and irresponsible scientists.

Robinson told Daily Variety that he came to the project after Norrington had been developing the idea with Warners execs Lionel Wigram and Dan Lin, but had yet to find a take they liked.

"I've been a fan of the anime for many years and understood which elements would have to be brought to a live-action translation of it," Robinson told Daily Variety. "I've tried to retain as many iconic elements of the anime as possible."

Gaiman Wins Spawn Suit
A federal jury ruled in favor of author Neil Gaiman in his suit against Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and his companies in which Gaiman argued that he created three central Spawn characters, Angela, Cogliostro and Medieval Spawn, Gaiman's spokesman told Sci Fi Wire.

The jury in Wisconsin ruled in Gaiman's favor in all nine of his claims against McFarlane, TMP International Inc., McFarlane Worldwide Inc. and Todd McFarlane Productions Inc., Gaiman's spokesman said in a release. Gaiman also prevailed on each of the counterclaims and affirmative defenses asserted against him, his spokesman announced.

Arbitrators must now decide how much money McFarlane owes Gaiman for co- creating the characters, the Associated Press reported. Gaiman has said that any money remaining from those he receives from the suit after his attorneys' fees are paid will be donated to comics-related charities, including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Gaiman is the author of American Gods and the Sandman comic book series.

"I make my movie 'House of the Dead' for the horror and video game fans around the world. In thousands of e-mails they showed me that they don't want Video Game Animation Scenes in the movie and so I changed now the movie! The fans can be happy now! In a DVD version maybe six months after the theatrical release I will show my Animation stuff additional."

Dave Grohl, Moby & The Hives Cameo for Horror Movie
Aversion reports the band Ash is in the middle of shooting a horror movie. The band's movie, Slasher is scheduled for a DVD release once it's completed. It reportedly features classic-style horror violence, though the draw -- outside of Ash members' hitherto unknown acting abilities -- is cameos by Dave Grohl, Moby, Coldplay and The Hives, among others.

A Dimension spokesperson ominiously said that "Craven was expected to remain involved" as the project moved forward, though a new star would be sought as Kirsten Dunst, whom Dimension wanted, is now in talks to join the next Jim Carrey film. A new start date is "up in the air."

Don't Look Up Remake Rights Sold
Anant Singh, president of the international film financing, production, and distribution company Distant Horizon tells The Hollywood Reporter that the company has purchased the remake rights to Japanese director Hideo Nakata's ghost story Don't Look Up. The movie tells the story of the spirit of a murdered actress who haunts a film set and drives the director and crew insane. Singh adds that he and his company are currently looking for a screenwriter to pen the English-language adapatation.

Hideo Nakata also directed the supernatural horror film The Ring, which has been remade in English by DreamWorks and is set for an Oct. 18 release.

Godzilla Stomps Again
According to an Associated Press feature, Japan's favorite giant radiation-breathing monster is returning for the 26th time to stomp more real estate and battle, for the third time, the menacing Mechagodzilla.

Revealing little about the plot, executive producer Shogo Tomiyama says the movie's final battle will return to a theme of the Godzilla movies of the 1960s and 1970s, in which the monster rescued humanity from its own modernization-at-all-costs mentality.

Modernization does not seem to mean much to Godzilla himself, though. With the single exception of the 1998 big-budget American-made Godzilla flop, which used state-of-the-art special effects to give the monster life, the giant lizard has always been portrayed by a guy zipped up in a rubber suit. While Tri-Star's 1998 Godzilla had a budget of $100 million, Toho Studios' new entry in the series is runninig a mere $8.3 million, and in keeping with tradition, the 172-foot-tall monster will be played by an actor in a 110-pound rubber suit with a small tube through which to breathe in the monster's neck.

"Godzilla has always been the enemy of science and technology," says Waseda University professor Dr. Toshio Takahashi, author of several books about the giant reptile's cultural status. "It adapts to changes in society, and it's a reminder about what could happen if we throw away the past to pursue the future."

X-Men 2 Update
New Line's X-Men 2 is currently in production. Rather than being a sequel in the true sense of the word, Patrick Stewart, who plays Professor Xavier, tells Sci Fi Wire that the movie will be the mutant superheroes' first complete adventure.

"I wouldn't say it's a new exploration," Stewart said. "In many respects, I always looked on the first X-Men film as being like a very expensive extended trailer. We were introducing people to who the X-Men were, to what their world was like, who their enemies were and what their conflicts were going to be like.

"X-Men 2 is really extending those themes and notions that were just sketched in in the first film, and we're extending them much more deeply. So, there's my continuing conflict with Magneto (Ian McKellan) and with a new enemy, a very, very dangerous individual (General Stryker) played by Brian Cox. And, of course, Xavier is attempting to hold the X-Men together and trying to change humankind's perception of what mutants are, which finally climaxes in the movie with a very strong scene in the Oval Office between Professor Xavier and the president of the United States (Cotter Smith)."

X-Men 2 is set for release May 2, 2003.

Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sept. 26 through Nov. 2, 2002
Sacred Fools Theatre
660 N. Heliotrope, Los Angeles
(just south of Melrose, between the 101 and Vermont)
tickets: $15
RSVP: (310) 281-8337
or guarantee tickets online at http://www.sacredfools.org

An L.A. Weekly PICK OF THE WEEK! "Wicked... ingenious... Though Jessie Marion and Ruth Silveira’s expertly directed show lays on the camp, it gets deadly serious in parts, juggling the humor, horror and drama especially well at the bloody climax."

This comedy/horror show, with book & lyrics Doug Johnson and score by John Aschenbrenner, is co-produced with Chauncey Deville Enterprises, Ltd., a troupe with a 100+ year history, known for their vaudeville antics and biting wit. Mr. DeVille personally emcees the show.

Also - looking for a party the weekend before Halloween? On Saturday, Oct. 26, Sacred Fools will present Crime Scream, the annual Halloween edition of "Crime Scene." Tickets for this special show (which also functions as a fundraiser for Sacred Fools) are $15, and include a Horrorific Halloween Costume Party afterward.

More info and ticket information at: http://www.sacredfools.org/crimescene/

Here's the latest details:

Rights include all six Hellraiser movies (the sixth is now in development).

Figures will be 7" in scale - in other words they will blend in nicely with your McFarlane Tortured Souls collection. The original Cenobite gang are certainly on the platter: Pinhead, Butterball, the Chatterer, and female. And with all six flicks under their belt, NECA has over 20 Cenobite characters to choose from.

A high end Lament Configuration (the cube) Prop Replica is being worked on.

Resin Busts are being worked on.

Here's an example of NECA's figure work. This is a 12" Crow figure they recently did. They've also a great looking Vincent Price figure as well.

We're drooling and it's getting in the keyboard. Crap, we can't afford a new keyboard, we're gonna have to save all our pennies for these babies!

Anchor Bay December Releases
DVD File reports Anchor Bay will release another batch of cult favorites Dec. 3. From the Hammer Collection comes Hell is a City, featuring the team-up of horror vets Donald Pleasance (Halloween) and Billie Whitelaw (The Omen). Presented in anamorphic widescreen and English mono, extras include audio commentary by director Val Guest and journalist Ted Newsom, an alternate ending, talent bios and the trailer.

Also coming from Anchor Bay are the cult faves The Criminal, Handgun, Slayground, and Sean Connery in Frightened City. Each features an anamorphic widescreen transfer, mono tracks, poster reproductions and trailers.

Universal & Marvel Making Sub-Mariner Movie
Comics2Film reports Marvel Studios announced a finalized agreement with Universal Pictures for a Sub-Mariner movie.

"With the masterful job currently being done on The Hulk, Universal Pictures has proven to us that it has the vision and creativity to bring our super heroes to the big screen in grand fashion," said Avi Arad, CEO, Marvel Studios. "Sub-Mariner will be an epic underwater tale of majestic fantasy."

Development of the feature film based on Sub-Mariner is underway. According to the press release the movie will follow the adventures of Prince Namor, a half-man/half-amphibian creature from Atlantis. A troubled rebel with a short temper, he has helped the human race and fought against it when humankind polluted his underwater kingdom with waste.

As previously announced, David Self, the critically acclaimed screenwriter of Road To Perdition -- a graphic novel interpretation in its own right -- is bringing Marvel's amphibious hero to the screen.

Westworld Remake Rumors
We don't know how accurate this one is but since we love the original and figure this one (as described) will probably be a travesty to all we hold dear, we figured you'd want to know about it.

Hotdog magazine (via AICN) reports rumblings are beginning to emerge about the forthcoming remake of Westworld, which Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly using as a vehicle to unite him with his Planet Hollywood mates, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone.

After Sly bites the dust early on, effectively reducing him to cameo status, Bruce has to run like hell from the robot gunslinger in black, and although he may have flesh falling off him to reveal his metal skeleton, any sense of Terminator deja vu is purely coincidental. New areas covered by the pursuit include Aquaworld, Lunarworld and Jurassic World, and in an early draft of the script, the actual holiday center is located on the Moon.

Tarantino's Kill Bill Getting Game
Corona reports Black Label Games, a games studio owned by Vivendi Universal Publishing, has announced that it has signed an agreement to license the interactive rights to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill film. Black Label will begin designing at least one video game based on the film, with Quentin Tarantino serving as a creative consultant on its development. Tarantino will also be providing exclusive footage during the shooting of Kill Bill to be used for the game's development. The ETA for the game is the second quarter of 2004 when Kill Bill will be arriving on home video.

DVD Specs Out for XXX
Dark Horizons reports that while the full specs for the XXX DVD aren't out until next week, the early list has been leaked by Video Store Magazine. Along with an audio commentary with director Rob Cohen, there's a documentary "A Filmmaker's Diary," four making-of featurettes ("Diesel Powered," "The GTO is Back," "Designing the World of XXX," and "Building Speed: The Vehicles of XXX"), deleted scenes, storyboard comparisons, multi-angle scene deconstructions, visual effects demos, a music video (Gavin Rossdale "Adrenaline"), and DVD-ROM material.

Darabont Completes Script from McCammon Novel
Robert McCammon's official site (via DH) says Frank Darabont (director of The Green Mile) has completed his screenplay based on McCammon's 1990 novel Mine. Although they add that it's much too early to say if a film version will actually be made.

Really Scary Resident Evil Contest Over!
Our latest contest with copies of the Resident Evil Gamecube video game, Ghosts of Mars DVDs and Resident Evil soundtracks is all over. We'll be pulling names from our newsletter list so if you're one of our winners, you'll be hearing from our lawyers...*ahem* we mean, you'll be hearing from us soon! Watch that inbox!

Really Scary Lunchbox & Stickers
We added a very cool Really Scary Lunchbox and coupla stickers to the store. Check out the latest items here.

Author Signings in NJ
Author John R. Platt just dropped us a line about a couple of signings this month. Definitely stop by and see him if you're in the necks of these woods:

Hey Scary folks,

In the hope that some of your readers might like a little humor with their Halloween scares, I wanted to let you know about a few book signings I have coming up for my book DIE LAUGHING, a collection of humorous horror stories now available from Medium Rare Books (http://www.mediumrarebooks.com)

Tuesday, Oct. 15 - 7:30 p.m.
Book signing & reading
Borders Books
530 W. Mount Pleasant Ave.
Livingston, NJ 07039
973-535-9001

Saturday, Oct. 26 - 2 p.m.
Book Signing & Reading
Borders Books
235 Interstate Shopping Center
Ramsey, NJ 07446
201-760-1967

I will also be the guest speaker at the Nov. 9 meeting of the Garden State Horror Writers in Manalapan, NJ, on the topic of mixing genres in fiction writing.

My thanks,
John R. Platt

Different Reports on Argento's Next Movie
Darkdreams.org reports (via Gorezone) they've had two conflicting reports regarding a new Dario Argento film. In a recent interview with Argento, he said the film (not titled NEL BUIO) will start shooting January 2003 in Rome and star Stefania Rocca and Mathieu Kassovitz. They play cops who are following a mysterious killer who uses the internet to operate. But Dark Dreams goes on to say they've a source who says the film is cancelled because Asia Argento isn't starring.