Scifiwire Movie News (12/09/2003)

Xmen 3 Talks Begin
Farscape miniseries production to begin soon
Harry Potter IV details leaked

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Xmen 3 Talks Begin

Director Bryan Singer has begun negotiations to helm a third X-Men movie for 20th Century Fox, Variety reported. Singer also signed a deal to develop projects he'll direct and produce for the studio.

Fox production president Hutch Parker told the trade paper that the effort to mount another film in the hugely popular X-Men series is in its early stages.

Mounting a second X-Men sequel will be a more pricey undertaking than the last effort. The cast members made deals for the original film and an option for one sequel. The studio will have to broker new deals for returning cast members, the trade paper reported.
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Farscape miniseries production to begin soon

SCI FI Wire has learned that production will begin Dec. 15 in Australia on a new four-hour Farscape miniseries, with stars Ben Browder, Claudia Black and others reprising their roles. A source close to the production told the Wire that series creators Rockne O'Bannon and David Kemper are readying a script for the miniseries, which as yet has no air date and no TV distribution deal. The SCI FI Channel, which originally aired four seasons of Farscape, had no comment on the report. A spokesperson for Jim Henson Co., which produced the series, also had no comment.

The proposed miniseries will probably wrap up the events of the show, which ended with a cliffhanger. The source added, "I believe it will certainly air on television. At this point, it's in the early stages of finding that home."
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Harry Potter IV details leaked

Mike Newell, who will direct the fourth Harry Potter film, told SCI FI Wire that he has spoken with Alfonso Cuarón, director of the upcoming third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, to make sure his film picks up where Cuarón's leaves off. Production of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will begin in late April or early May, with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione) reprising their roles. "They're all actually the age they are in the story," Newell said in an interview.

"What Alfonso has done very remarkably is he's developed the films from a sunny vision of childhood into something that is much darker and blacker," Newell said. "And he's done that without taking away any of the romance of the thing. But he has transformed it into adolescence, and I must go on from what he's done. [I] can't go back."

Newell added that he is currently in preproduction, dealing with creature design. "I am currently working with dragons," he said.
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