Scifiwire Movie News (11/12/2004)

Singer talks Superman
Chronicles of Riddick 3 possible
New Philip K Dick Story to be adapted - Next
Rumors and Tidbits

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Singer talks Superman

Bryan Singer, who is directing the upcoming new Superman movie, told Los Angeles radio station KROQ that the movie will center more on a Superman "several years after he's arrived and done many heroic deeds," with only a vague history sketched out in flashbacks, according to a report on Zap2it.com. Production is scheduled to begin in February, with a summer 2006 release planned, the site reported.

Singer added that he settled on unknown actor Brandon Routh to play the Man of Steel to introduce an actor whose acting history wouldn't interfere with creating an indelible Superman image. Singer said he considered Tom Welling, who plays Clark Kent on The WB's Smallville, but said that the budget and the direction of the film weren't right to make what would seem like a Smallville feature. "Even though he's existing and carrying the torch through a certain point of the character's life," the new Superman will be a "separate entity," Singer said.
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Chronicles of Riddick 3 possible

David Twohy, director of The Chronicles of Riddick, told Now Playing Magazine that further installments of the proposed Riddick trilogy of films will depend in part on the performance of the upcoming Riddick director's-cut DVD, which hits stores next week. The first Chronicles of Riddick film didn't fare well at the box office in its premiere this year.

Sequels are "still a possibility, but many eyes are watching this DVD release very closely," Twohy told the new magazine. "Remember that we were saying all along that we knew where the story goes from this point forward, but we hopefully didn't have so much hubris to say that we were definitely making a trilogy out of this. What we were saying was, 'We know what the macro arc is, and if we were fortunate enough to be successful in this one, we knew where we would pick up in the next one.' We had it in our minds, and there are certain setups in The Chronicles of Riddick for future films, including the Shirah character [played by Kristin Lehman], who now appears in the [director's-cut DVD], a character who did not make it into the theatrical version at all."

If a sequel is made, Lehman's character, a Furyan who appears to Vin Diesel's Riddick in a vision, will play a more prominent role, Twohy said. The mythology of the Riddick universe will also be further fleshed out, Twohy said. "We would talk a lot about the Underverse, this being the sort of collision of heaven and hell for the Necromonger empire, and what that all is, and we'd venture across it," he said. "We know the Lord Marshal character [Colm Feore] gained some powers there by stepping in, having one foot in this land of the Necromonger dead. And he came back with this power of soul separation. So it's a very interesting place, and thought to be a physical place, and if we had the opportunity to continue the story we would surely like to go there." The Chronicles of Riddick: The Unrated Director's Cut will be available on Nov. 16 from Universal Studios Home Video.
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New Philip K Dick Story to be adapted - Next

Nicolas Cage will star in and Lee Tamahori will direct the SF action thriller Next, based on the short story "The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick, Variety reported. Cage will also produce the film for Revolution Studios. Gary Goldman, who adapted the Dick story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" into 1990's Total Recall, wrote the script for Next, the trade paper reported. Tamahori directed Die Another Day.

Cage will play a man who can see the future and change events before they happen. Eventually, he is forced to choose between saving the world and saving himself, the trade paper reported. Next is expected to start shooting next summer, the trade paper reported.

Cage will produce, along with his Saturn Films partner Norm Golightly. Goldman will be an executive producer, along with Jason Koornick, who holds the rights to Dick's short story.
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Rumors and Tidbits

Moviehole reported that Derek Jacobi (Gosford Park) has been cast as the main villain in Screen Gems' upcoming vampire sequel film Underworld 2, to be directed by Len Wiseman and coming to theaters on Nov. 23, 2005. Jacobi will reportedly play Marcus.

Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs told investors that the studio is considering moving its future animated movie releases to summer from the holidays after comparing Finding Nemo's success with that of Monsters, Inc., Variety reported.