In this Issue

Garner talks Elektra
Hints offered for Star Wars: Episode III
Garfield to be a real cat (kinda)
MTV movie award winners

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Garner talks Elektra

Jennifer Garner told Access Hollywood that a film is planned to begin next summer based on her Daredevil character, Elektra, according to a report on Dark Horizons. "We still need to read the first draft of the script, and if it isn't great, then none of us wants to do it," Garner told the show. "I am hoping that it will be done. I had a really great time playing that role."
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Hints offered for Star Wars: Episode III

Iain McCaig, who returns as a concept artist on George Lucas' upcoming prequel film Star Wars: Episode III, offered the official Homing Beacon newsletter hints about how Anakin Skywalker makes his ultimate transition to the dark side of the Force. McCaig based his hints on early script pages for the last prequel in the saga, which traces Anakin's eventual transformation into Darth Vader.

"In Episode I, when we saw Jake Lloyd, we wondered, 'Where's the dark side? Why isn't this kid creepy?'" McCaig told the newsletter. "And then, in Episode II, Hayden Christensen came across as a justifiably angry teenager more than a kid who crosses over to the true dark side. ... So I kept waiting for the dark side to take hold."

McCaig added, "In this film, you realize, it's more about Anakin making the wrong choices. He's given a glorious moment by George—I'm so happy with part of the script—where he truly has to make a choice. In the end, I think that's a smarter way to go than a slow transformation. It's more tragic this way."

McCaig added that Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) finds herself having to conceal her marriage and pregnancies. As in earlier prequels, McCaig will help develop her costumes. "What are we wearing this year in Star Wars?" he asked. "In Episode I, she was the queen, and she was wearing disguises. I once said she should be able to slip out of the back of the costume, and you'd never know she was gone. Ironically, in this one, she's back to wearing disguises. As well as now hiding this marriage to a Jedi, which is not allowed, she has to hide the fact that she's going to have babies. All of the costumes had to disguise these facts." Episode III will begin production this summer for release in 2005.
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Garfield to be a real cat (kinda)

John Davis, producer of the upcoming live-action/computer-animated Garfield movie, told SCI FI Wire that the CGI Garfield will look like a real feline. "Garfield is going to look like Garfield would if he was a real, live animal," Davis said in an interview. "The goal there is to make you believe that we found a cat that did all those things, even though it was all created in a computer. A tremendous amount of research and development has gone into making that cat look absolutely real."

But Garfield will still retain the distinct features of the traditionally animated and comic-strip characters, Davis added. "He has features like his ears and his eyes, and he's kind of a fat cat," Davis said. "He's bigger than any cat you've seen. You've got those big paws. You'll look at him and go, 'He's Garfield. That's Garfield.'"

Davis added that he is confident that his computer-animated cat will improve upon Scooby-Doo's computer-generated dog. "I thought Scooby kind of looked a little corny," he said. "We've gone to the next generation of technology." Garfield is slated for a June 4, 2004, release.
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MTV movie award winners

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won the MTV Movie Award for best movie and was one of several genre movies honored in ceremonies at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on May 31, according to the Associated Press. The awards ceremony, based on a poll of MTV and MTV2 viewers, will be broadcast June 5 on MTV.

Spider-Man co-star Kirsten Dunst won the award for best female star. Mike Myers won for best comedic actor for the title role in Austin Powers in Goldmember. Jennifer Garner's butt-kicking role as Elektra in Daredevil took the award for best breakthrough actress. Twelve-year-old Daveigh Chase won as best villain for playing the evil little girl in The Ring.

Gollum (Andy Serkis) from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won for best virtual performance and for best on-screen team for his performance alongside human co-stars Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Sean Astin (Sam).

Yoda's light-saber duel with Christopher Lee in Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones won the award for best fight scene. The rain-drenched upside-down smooch between Spider-Man Tobey Maguire and Dunst won for kiss, the news service reported.
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