Premieres: September 26, 2002, on CBS
Starring:
Anthony LaPaglia (Jack Malone)
Enrique Murciano (Danny Taylor)
Poppy Montgomery (Samantha Spade)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Vivan Johnson)
Eric Close (Martin Fitzgerald)
Premise: The mission of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad is to search and, when needed, rescue by constructing a minute-by-minute timeline. The more this team learns about the missing person, the better its chances of figuring out the disappearance ? and whether foul play was involved.
They say: "I'm fascinated with the process, taking us inside a world that you and I know nothing about," says executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer. He struck ratings gold with this intensely detailed approach on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which gives Without a Trace a mighty lead-in. "It's human drama in very stressful situations. It's very dramatic when you lose a loved one. This is headline news every day now."
We say: An absorbing mystery series, and a perfect fit with CSI. Visually arresting, with stylized flashbacks and ghostly fade-outs creating portraits of the missing persons, Without a Trace is even more emotional in its urgency than CSI. This well-cast drama, with LaPaglia front and center, is the strongest competition NBC's ER has faced in years. Maybe ever.
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Eric Close: Still Without a Trace of Flab?
There's a lot of pressure that comes with being the strongest man on the planet. Just ask Eric Close, who played a souped-up government agent in the short-lived CBS cult fave Now and Again. "You're working 16-18 hour days, and then you've got to go to the gym all the time," he sighs to TV Guide Online. "And then on top of that, you're trying to learn your lines and have a family life. It was insane."
And although Now and Again lasted only one season -- CBS pulled the plug in May 2000 -- Close admits it took him a full year to recover from all those crunches and pull-ups and curls (oh my!). "It really takes a lot out of you," sighs the 35-year-old actor, confessing that his physique soon returned to less-than-Supermanly proportions. "I started looking and going, 'Man, where did that six-pack go?' You realize how much work it takes to be in phenomenal shape."
Luckily, Close's latest TV gig -- the CBS drama Without a Trace (premiering Sept. 26 at 10 pm/ET) -- won't require him to log so much overtime at the gym. Still, don't look for the onetime Santa Barbara hunk to be transplanted into John Goodman's body anytime soon. "I'm going to do mostly running and maybe a little lifting," says the happily married father of two, who plays an FBI agent searching for missing persons in Trace. "I might also work out with some of the guys in the FBI... to get a feel for their banter and what they do."
If early buzz is any indication, one thing Close won't have to find in the near future is a job. Next to CSI: Miami, Trace is considered CBS's most promising new fall entry. Of course, Close knows better than to buy into advance hype. "Now and Again tested really high and was really popular, and that went one season," he points out. "So, I think everybody's approaching [Trace] with a humble attitude.
"I really hope we have a long run," he concludes. "But at the same time, we're just going to show up and do the best we can." -- Michael Ausiello
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Without a Trace
Pilot Episode
60 min.
Debut: Anthony LaPaglia leads a strong ensemble cast in a drama about the FBI Missing Persons Unit in Manhattan produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation).
In the opener, the squad investigates the disappearance of a single woman who has been missing for 38 hours. The series' premise is delineated when team leader Jack Malone (LaPaglia) explains to new hire Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close) their method of investigation, which includes a victim time line. "We've got to work from the inside out," he says. "Once we find out who she is, odds are we'll find out where she is." It's an approach that actor Close appreciates: "Most crime dramas focus on the criminal. We focus on the victim." Samantha: Poppy Montgomery.
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LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG KILBORN, CBS
Tu 9/24: Damon Wayans, Poppy Montgomery
UPN to Broadcast an Exclusive Never-Before-Seen Trailer Of the Upcoming Feature Film 'Star Trek: Nemesis' On Wednesday, September 18
UPN will feature the world premiere of a special two-minute theatrical trailer that will include never-before-seen footage of the highly-anticipated feature film "Star Trek: Nemesis," on Wednesday, September 18, the night of the second season premiere of UPN's number-one drama series ENTERPRISE (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) and the series premiere of UPN's modern incarnation of THE TWILIGHT ZONE (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), hosted by Forest Whitaker.
In addition to seeing the exclusive "Star Trek: Nemesis" trailer, UPN viewers watching UPN's Wednesday night premieres will also learn how to enter to win a trip to Los Angeles to attend the star-studded premiere of "Star Trek: Nemesis," courtesy of StarTrek.net and Paramount Pictures.
"Star Trek: Nemesis," the tenth film in the enduring and highly successful "Star Trek" franchise, arrives in theaters on December 13th. From Paramount Pictures, "Star Trek: Nemesis" stars Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Stuart Baird directed "Star Trek: Nemesis" from a screenplay written by John Logan from a story by John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner.
A prequel to the original "Star Trek" series, ENTERPRISE takes place during the early pioneering days of deep space exploration when interstellar travel is in its infancy and 100 years before Capt. James T. Kirk takes the helm of the famous starship. Set midway through the 22nd century, ENTERPRISE, led by the intrepid Capt. Jonathan Archer, explores the history of intergalactic upheaval that eventually leads to the formation of The United Federation of Planets.
ENTERPRISE stars Scott Bakula as Capt. Jonathan Archer, John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox, Jolene Blalock as the Vulcan Sub Commander T'Pol, Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed, Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather, Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato and Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Charles Tucker III. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga are the series creators and executive producers. ENTERPRISE is a Paramount Network Television production.
UPN's new version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, which features two self-contained stories per one-hour episode, will embrace the audience's fascination with the mystical and fantastical aspects of the human mind. Each story regularly presents known actors as ordinary people in beyond-extraordinary situations as they enter the sometimes frightening, often intriguing, but always suspenseful and surprising world of The Twilight Zone. It will not be a remake of the original series but will respect and expand upon the classic with a new vision for a new generation of viewers.
Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker ("Panic Room," "Good Morning Vietnam") will host THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Pen Densham, Mark Stern, John Watson and Ira Steven Behr are the executive producers. THE TWILIGHT ZONE is a production of New Line Television in association with Trilogy Entertainment Group.
Come to momma, poppa and the television set and everything will be all better.
Family life and bittersweet nostalgia are unmistakable themes in the 2002-03 fall TV lineup as broadcast networks try to strike a reassuring chord with audiences.
Among the 34 new series the six major networks are introducing, there are 16 family sitcoms and dramas occupying airtime previously devoted to comedies about cute, self-absorbed singles.
The rigid network focus on young adult viewers is, if not out, softened; programs designed to draw family audiences, once a TV staple, are again a key part of the mix.
The emphasis is a reaction to the terrorism of a year ago, say industry experts.
"A good portion of the schedule is made up of shows that can be traced back to the aftershock of 9-11," said Stacey Lynn Koerner, a television analyst for Initiative Media.
"Maybe they think the American public wants to go back in time," said analyst Roy Rothstein of Zenith Media Services Inc.
Old TV friends including Carol Burnett proved ratings stars when a flood of backward-looking specials aired during the 2001-02 season. And MTV's "The Osbournes" was a loud signal that multigenerational family shows could work. Network executives took the hints.
There are new versions afoot of the classic anthology series "The Twilight Zone" and the cheery sitcom "Family Affair," while Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" is the inspiration for a 1960s-era family drama.
The past is also the setting for two uncannily similar shows set in the 1980s, "That Was Then" and "Do Over," in which discontented men get the chance to relive their youth.
Other series emphasize official institutions that function effectively -- or at least employ people who do -- which Koerner suggests represents more Sept. 11 fallout.
There are seven new crime dramas with heroes ranging from FBI agents tracking missing persons ("Without a Trace") to hip undercover cops ("Fastlane") to a diligent IRS agent ("Push, Nevada"). Physicians, including HMO rebels, are the heroes of a pair of dueling hospital shows ("MDs" and "Presidio Med," competing Wednesday).
The spate of crime shows also was inspired by the popularity of the CBS forensics drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." A spinoff, "CSI: Miami," is regarded as one of the likeliest hits.
There are five new science fiction or fantasy shows to sample, including the "Batman"-derived tale "Birds of Prey," the space adventure "Firefly" and the dinosaur epic "Dinotopia."
And look for a few other trendlets. Miami and Los Angeles are popular locales and sibling rivalries are hot. The place to work is at a TV station -- the office setting for sitcoms "Good Morning Miami," "Less Than Perfect" and "Life with Bonnie."
Have the networks correctly judged the public's desire for a family stroll down memory lane?
Analyst Rothstein is skeptical. "I don't know that I want to go back in time," he said. "I think we want to forget the past and move on."
Whether he's right or wrong, a season is fleeting. Networks already are making deals for shows for 2003-04, including a police drama from producer Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue"). Its setting: the year 2069.
The upcoming season's new series, network by network (all times Eastern):
CBS:
Someone's missing and FBI experts headed by Anthony LaPaglia ("Murder One") are on the case in "Without a Trace," debuting 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26. Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Eric Close co-star.
UPN
The network is entering the Twilight Zone and summoning ghosts in a bid to expand its young-adult audience. Two new dramas -- and a new comedy -- will fit into UPN's pattern of mostly black sitcoms on Monday, sci-fi at midweek, Thursday wrestling and movies on Fridays.
"The Twilight Zone," a revamped version of the Rod Serling series, debuts 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, with Jason Alexander among the first guest stars. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is the host.
The Shows to Know: Without a Trace
Couch-potato sleuths take note: Whodunit's have been replaced by, "Where'd they go?" shows. This season, it's the mystery of the missing extras, as several new series follow the trails of missing people. But only CBS's Without a Trace has high-concept creator Jerry Bruckheimer on the case.
Bruckheimer's newest detective drama revolves around the FBI's Missing Persons Squad. Like the oddball crew of science geeks assembled on CSI, this is a thinking man's crime-solving squad that uses smarts and not strong-arm tactics to solve cases. And despite recent real-life headlines, it's not just about people who've been abducted--victims are as likely to have committed suicide or run away.
Anthony LaPaglia stars as senior agent Jack Malone, a dedicated gumshoe. Like CSI's socially inept Grissom, Malone's at a loss when he's not hard at work. His special task force includes Samantha Spade (fellow Aussie expat Poppy Montgomery), Vivian Johnson (British film actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste sans accent), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano) and Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close).
The agents race against the clock to find their victims before the 48-hour mark, when they're as good as gone. Like overly concerned parents who want to know exactly where you've been, the squad painstakingly reconstructs a minute-by-minute timeline of the day of disappearance. Television has taught viewers how to intubate and how to read perps their Miranda rights. The latest bit of boob-tube wisdom imparted is this: To learn where the victim is, learn who the victim is.
In the pilot episode, American Embassy's Arija Bareikis guest stars as a missing woman. During the investigation, a number of suspects surface, including her drug-dealing doorman, an office lover and an ex-boyfriend. Everyone's got skeletons, but when strung together, this series of bad relationships would make even Mother Teresa look like a floozy. The entire episode will leave you wondering if it's a case of foul play or a girl who just wanted to have fun.
Why It Works: Jerry Bruckheimer made forensic scientists sexy with his hit series CSI. He's about to do the same for missing-persons investigators.
Why You'll Love It: Rockin' theme music from Linkin Park, grainy flashbacks that give you a glimpse of the missing person's last-known moves and a ticking-clock sense of urgency keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
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These Stars Got Canned but Bounced Right Back
Rejected: Poppy Montgomery played cool-as-a-cucumber coroner Ellie Sparks in the small-town murder mystery Glory Days. The end of this campy WB drama came more quickly than death to an uncredited extra.
Rehired: Montgomery moved up the ranks without skipping a beat. She plays an FBI agent on the CBS series Without a Trace. Only now she's responsible for finding missing people before they wind up in the morgue. Based on the preseason buzz for this Jerry Bruckheimer production, don't expect it to disappear.
NEW YORK TIMES tees off on STAR TREK: NEMESIS
By: CHRISTOPHER ALLAN SMITH
By: News Editor
Source: New York Times, via TrekWeb
While STAR TREK: NEMESIS has been receiving a good deal of positive buzz in recent months from those who've seen early versions and read the script, the film has now received its first bit of negative word.
Writing in the NEW YORK TIMES, Stuart Klawans has teed off on the film and the STAR TREK franchise in general. And for many fans, his words may ring a little too true.
"Once again, the history of the future repeats itself," Klawans wrote in Sundays NYT. "Go back in the series from the 24th century to the 23rd, substitute Klingons for Romulans and James T. Kirk for Jean-Luc Picard, and you will discern the outlines of STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY [in NEMESIS]. This duplication is not simply a matter of one generation following another onto the bridge of the Enterprise. As true fans can tell you, NEMESIS will seem new and yet vaguely familiar: the 10th film in a series that has five plots."
He also shot off these points about the creative... malaise maybe?... the film series has been in from time to time:
"A megalomaniac tries to seize the power of life itself (STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN; STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER; STAR TREK VII: GENERATIONS; STAR TREK IX: INSURRECTION).
"A senior officer of the Enterprise comes back from the dead (STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK; STAR TREK VII: GENERATIONS), or a fate worse than death (STAR TREK VIII: FIRST CONTACT).
"The crew of the Enterprise goes back to an earlier century on Earth, to make sure that history happens as it should (STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME; STAR TREK VIII: FIRST CONTACT).
"A spacecraft threatens to destroy Earth, and we're to blame, either because our technology is more advanced than our ethics (STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE) or because we've trashed other species (STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME)."
Wrapping up, Klawnas said, "Poverty of narrative invention has nothing to do with predicting the success or failure of any STAR TREK film. THE WRATH OF KHAN has more incident than the others put together and is by common consent the best of the lot. But THE VOYAGE HOME also ranks high, despite a story that can be fully retold in the listing in TV Guide. Like the original television series, which put expansive ideals into rudimentary settings, THE VOYAGE HOME charmed audiences by blending self-aware goofiness with outer-space liberalism."
Ouch.
"Without a Trace" (Sept. 26):
No one could have foreseen (or wanted) the perfect timing for this drama.
But even had the last few months not been dominated by news of kidnappings, "Without a Trace" would be a good bet to generate viewer interest: No mystery is more compelling than a person unaccountably gone.
Besides, it's a twist on cop drama heretofore largely untapped ("Missing Persons," an ABC series set in Chicago, premiered in 1993 and vanished soon after).
"Without a Trace" focuses on the FBI's Missing Persons Squad in New York, headed by Senior Agent Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia).
On the pilot, a beautiful, successful young media executive goes missing.
"You gotta work from the inside out," Malone says. "Once we found out WHO she is, odds are we'll find out WHERE she is."
But after 48 hours, he adds, odds are it's a lost cause.
The hours click by as Malone and his team of four agents fan out. Clues are gathered. Alternate scenarios (and suspects) are proposed. And along the way, the missing young woman appears in flashback sometimes overlapping with the agents in the same scene.
All in all, "Without a Trace" is a slick package, albeit misnamed: Of course there are traces. Watching the agents find them is what makes the show fun.
Broadcast Blues: Will the Last Network to Actually Try Please Turn Off the Light?
DAVID KRONKE
c.2002 Los Angeles Daily News
"Any popular pastime is soon replaced by another of the same sort, so that the competition we are contemplating should be between similar kinds of empty amusement or consoling kitsch in one corner, and the pot of paint lately flung in the public's face in the other ... and this contest is no contest; it is a mismatch of monumental proportions: the balance continues to favor whatever is compliant, cheap, and easy."
- William H. Gass, "The Test of Time"
Trust me: The above quotation will be the closest this fall season comes to academic discourse. Let's just say there are compelling reasons that the working title of an MTV News story about the fall TV season was "Where Crap Comes From."
I wanted to like the new season; honest, I did. Granted, I wrote nasty things about it in May, just after the networks had announced their fall schedules. The news shows looked essentially wanting, and derivative, and boring, I wrote, and the networks - who are, after all, facing terrible challenges from cable and the burgeoning technology - should be trying a lot harder. But I watched all the pilots the networks submitted for my approval - or, more often, disapproval - in late June and early July, and my suspicions were confirmed.
And then came TV Press Tour, the semi-annual Chinese water torture of journalism, and I spoke to other critics whose opinions are respected by not just me, but the industry. I was hoping for someone to point out some glimmers of aesthetic hope that I, in my barreling through pilot after pilot, had been too sloppy or witless to see, but these folks essentially told me the same thing: Yep, it's ugly out there. The networks need to be significantly more worried than they appear.
Then I spoke to people dotted around the industry - friends on the periphery, solid citizens on the front lines - and they assured me that the networks are, indeed, not just whistling past the graveyard. One friend reported that in his experiences with networks, he has observed what could he dubbed "perpetual crisis management."
So, the networks realize they're in trouble; it's just that acknowledging it would be considered bad form.
Particularly, it seems, if acknowledging it would mean coming up with some really killer, great new shows that force viewers to pay attention. Instead, the networks this fall have assembled perhaps the most listless, take-it-or-leave-it collection of new programs in memory. And yes, I realize that it's ital de rigueur end around this time of year to lament how lame the networks' new shows are, but this year, hang the critics - the season should come with a warning from the surgeon general.
Here's how bad it's getting: Over the summer, ABC took to airing repeats of the USA Network's hit dramedy Monk, starring Tony Shalhoub as a quirky San Francisco detective suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (and it actually got decent ratings opposite Fox's reality sensation ``American Idol''). ``Monk,'' which was initially developed for but rejected by ABC, is easily better than any of the new shows that will actually be debuting on the network this fall.
ABC has also entered into a deal with HBO to develop programming for the broadcaster, which seems both a throwing-up-their-hands admission of defeat and a critical tactical mistake: HBO doesn't need to develop hits (which, of course, it has) but simply smart, high-profile shows that convince a moderate number of viewers to keep subscribing to the service. ABC would have canceled HBO's ``The Sopranos'' or ``Six Feet Under'' long before those shows became the sensations they are today. Want proof? Two seasons back, ABC canceled an acclaimed series set in a mental hospital, ``Wonderland,'' after two airings.
At any rate, even if network executives aren't showing it, their schedules are betraying signs of flop sweat everywhere you look. You see it, most obviously, in the number of new cop shows - most following the procedural element popularized by both ``Law & Order'' and its spinoffs and ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.'' That most prognosticators picked ``CSI: Miami'' as the only sure new series on the fall schedule underscores that, but other shows - CBS' Without a Trace and ``Robbery Homicide Division,'' NBC's ``Boomtown'' and ABC's midseason retread of ``Dragnet'' - fall under that umbrella, as well.
Curiously enough, ``Robbery Homicide Division'' cribs from ``Law & Order'' and ``CSI,'' but comes from Michael Mann, who created ``Miami Vice,'' which is being re-created from whole cloth by the makers of Fox's Fastlane.
Maybe the best, most heartfelt new series of the season - the WB's ``Everwood'' - is an admitted (by its creator Greg Berlanti) amalgam of previous WB series, from ``Dawson's Creek'' to ``Smallville'' to ``Gilmore Girls'' and even ``7th Heaven.'' That it's able to take all these disparate influences and create something that's simultaneously sweet, involving and funny speaks well of the art of borrowing. But while you can get dizzy trying to assign all the various influences old shows have on the new programs, you're hard-pressed to point to debuting series that are original and may influence TV in the future.
ABC Entertainment president Susan Lyne - no doubt mouthing corporate wisdom coming from further up the Disney food chain - suggested in July that viewers don't want smart, innovative television. We're happy with just any old thing with sparkly lights that makes noise in the background while we're switching off our brains.
But that doesn't explain why HBO is doing so sensationally right now (or, for that matter, ABC's pact with HBO), or, of course, all the truly great shows that became appointment television and made an impact on pop culture. There's a reason certain shows are remembered and others quickly forgotten, and if ABC is content to merely broadcast video wallpaper, then they're merely hastening that day when the networks will be considered irrelevant.
'Hulk' gets softer side under Lee's direction
HOLLYWOOD -- "We just finished shooting a month ago," says Gale Anne Hurd. "It was a real joy."
"We've got a lot to go," Hurd says, "in terms of animating The Hulk digitally at ILM."
Australian star of Black hawk Down Eric Bana will play arrogant scientist Bruce Banner, whose accident with cell-altering machine turns him into The Hulk. Directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), the Marvel Comics adaptation stars Australian Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down) as arrogant scientist Bruce Banner. After a catastrophic accident with a cell-altering machine, Banner periodically loses control of his emotions and transforms into a huge, green manifestation of his inner demons -- The Hulk.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Hulk first appeared in comic form in 1962 and was later adapted into a TV series called The Incredible Hulk in the late 1970s, starring Bill Bixby as Banner (called "David" in the series) and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as The Hulk.
"We've updated it for the new millennium," Hurd says, "but we've kept very true to the comic books, rather than to the television show."
"I certainly hope we'll satisfy everyone. The most important thing is we've got a terrific director who is passionate about giving The Hulk and Bruce Banner a lot of emotional depth. With all these movies, you've got to care about the characters. We're getting spoiled with visual effects, so I don't think you can just show a lot of terrific visual effects and have people satisfied."
"That's why we're so thrilled that we've got an indie sensibility that Ang Lee brings, a character-oriented sensibility. At the same time, the action -- and this comes from Avi Arad, the head of Marvel -- is the biggest action that he's seen from any of his comic-book movies. So we certainly think we'll deliver on that count as well."
Asked about Lee's contribution, Hurd says, "That's what will really surprise people, the depth of humanity. The great thing about the Hulk character to begin with is it's got a Jekyll-and-Hyde nature. It's not about a guy putting on a costume and having superpowers and saving the world. It's a deeply conflicted character."
"He's afraid of his inner rage. He's not at peace with it. It's not, 'Wow, look at me. Look how powerful and strong I am.' It's, 'Oh my God, have I hurt anybody?'"
Co-starring as scientific genius Betty Ross is Jennifer Connelly, the current Vanity Fair cover subject and a recent Academy Award winner for best supporting actress for her role opposite Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind (where, coincidentally, he was also playing a genius). According to Hurd, Connelly was cast for The Hulk before striking Oscar gold.
"Oh, yes," Hurd says, "and we got Ang Lee before Crouching Tiger came out as well."
Rounding out the cast are Nick Nolte as Bruce Banner's father, David (a nod to the TV series, says Hurd), and Sam Elliott as Gen. Thunderbolt Ross, the commander of a top-secret research facility.
"This guy just gets better with age," Hurd says of Elliott. "That voice, he's so sexy. I swear, he makes gray hair the sexiest thing you've ever seen."
Also for fans of the TV show, Ferrigno makes a cameo appearance as a head of security. "And by the way," Hurd says, "(Ferrigno's) one of the sweetest human beings I've ever met. He would stand around for hours and sign autographs for fans and really, really care. It was wonderful, having him on the set."
Asked whether she thinks this take on The Hulk will satisfy hard-core comic-book fans, Hurd says, "It's so funny when people say, 'Are you being true to the comic books?' The comic book differ so greatly among themselves that there is no one Hulk.
"In some early Hulks it was very werewolf-vampirish, because rather than anger and rage turning Bruce Banner into The Hulk, he turned into The Hulk at night, which is something people have forgotten."
"There have been intelligent Hulks, who could speak perfectly. Then, of course, there were Hulks who could say, 'Puny human,' and only a few choice other words. It depends on who wrote the book at the time."
"So it's funny, because when you say 'satisfy the fans,' it's 'Satisfy which fans of which writer?'"
Hurd is currently executive producer of the new syndicated action series Adventure, Inc., which stars Terminator and Abyss star Michael Biehn, but her movie career has not slowed down. Her next comic-book project is an adaptation of Marvel Comics' The Punisher, about a well-armed combat veteran who takes on crime.
"That will start shooting next year," Hurd says. "It's a harder action one. We are just going to start the casting process in the next two weeks, so no news yet."
The writer/director on the project is Hurd's husband, Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon, Die Hard With a Vengeance).
Asked if Hensleigh will follow his producer's instructions, Hurd laughs. "I can guarantee we'll have a consensus."
Digging for Something
After taking it pretty lightly in the last two weeks, I'm guaranteeing 3 columns next week. I haven't done that in a while, but I'll surely have plenty of material to write about. Is is just me or is September is a poor month for cinema? Except those lucky souls in Toronto that is. Here's my short review of the script to Holes.
My Script Review of Holes
Harry Potter has sparked a frenzy in the children book's community. Everyone has been buying kids' properties left and right with hopes of landing the next big thing. Phoenix Pictures bought the rights to Louis Sachar's novel Holes. Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) was then tapped to direct the adaptation, written by Sachar himself and co-writer Brent Hanley. This project is still looking for a North American distributor. Hopefully it will find one soon.
Stanley Yelnats (Shia La Beouf) is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather and has since followed generation of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys detention center, Camp Green Lake, for stealing a pair of shoes from Hoops superstar Clive 'Sweet Feet' Livingston (Rick Fox). The nefarious warden of the Camp (Sigourney Weaver) makes the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake but there are an awful lot of holes. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize that there is more than character improvement going on at the camp. The boys are digging holes because the Warden is looking for something
I liked this script. It's not the most spectacular I've ever read but it is good. It slowly moves in and once you're hooked you definitely want to know how this story ends. I omitted something important about the story in my synopsis. There are a lot of flashbacks in the screenplay. Most of them deal with Kissin' Kate Barlow (Patricia Arquette). At one point, I became more interested in her story than in Stanley's quest for redemption. How her story and the main storyline tie together is eventful and intriguing. It left me wanting more Kissin' Kate. That could be the script's only real flaw.
WARDEN
You know why you're digging holes? Because it's good for you. It teaches you a lesson.
The warden is a mysterious character in the first act but gradually emerges in the story. It's a strong part for Sigourney Weaver. She steals the show in every one of her appearance. Her search for... the treasure of Kissin Kate Barlow is the soul of this tale. I'm curious to see how Weaver plays it.
Another very interesting character is Mr. Sir, The Warden's second-in-command. The talented Jon Voight has that villainous role. The duo of Mr. Sir/The Warden is very reminiscent of Madame Medusa and Mr Snoops in Disney's The Rescuers. Actually, Holes reminds me an awful lot of The Rescuers, which is a good thing because I loved that animated movie. The other kids were well-written. They weren't no-name characters. Each have distinct personalities and you could tell them apart. It was a nice touch from the writers.
In the end, the writers have done a really good job. Now it's up to Davis and his cast to see if they can built on this and make it GREAT
Goldsmith makes it three in a row with STAR TREK: NEMESIS
By: CHRISTOPHER ALLAN SMITH
By: News Editor
Source: TrekWeb
Word has it Jerry Goldsmith, who started composing for the STAR TREK series in the late 1970s with the first big screen adventure for the franchise (that would be STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE), has announced he's completed work on his fifth TREK film.
The film, this December's STAR TREK: NEMESIS (obviously), is the third in a row for him, as he scored both STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT and STAR TREK: INSURRECTION. This is the first time a composer has done more than two TREK films in a row.
He also reports post-production is steaming along nicely under the direction of TREK newbie Stuart Baird (who worked with Goldsmith on EXECUTIVE DECISION). Word also has it from Paramount's marketing department this will be the last adventure for the NEXT GENERATION crew (as you may have seen from the trailer's tagline) but most involved have said if it's financially successful, they expect to be back for another go around.
Densham Previews Zone
Pen Densham, one of the executive producers of UPN's upcoming Twilight Zone anthology series, gave SCI FI Wire a few hints about the first season's episodes. "I'm doing a story, for instance, about a man ... who dreams up a dream girl and makes love to her, and then wakes up in the morning, and she walks out of the bathroom. ... [In another story,] the character of Death [played by Jason Alexander] decides he no longer wants to take life, and it depresses him. He actually tries to end his own life, and ends up in the E.R. with a doctor who's trying to figure out if he's really Death, or if he's just this crazy guy, and all the consequences of that." Still another story focuses on a family with a rebellious daughter, who move into a mysterious gated community where all of the teenage children seem to have embraced conformity.
Like the original Twilight Zone, the updated series will deal with stories that "are very close to parable, very close to folk tales, very close to [Edgar Allan] Poe, very close to studies of human nature and psychology," Densham said in an interview. "A lot of the great [classic] Twilight Zones ... were just good science fiction. We're also able to work in the field of the noir ghost story or the story about the supernatural. And so this is a broader fabric, and I think a much more provocative and exciting storytelling medium."
Densham (The Outer Limits) and executive producer Ira Steven Behr (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) have assembled a staff of new writers to come up with hour-long episodes that will feature two self-contained half-hour stories, each introduced by actor/director Forest Whitaker. "We're starting with a very simple mandate," Behr said in an interview. "We want to take what was created by Rod Serling and try and continue in the style and quality that he initiated, but for this day and age and sensibility. None of us thinks we're Rod. We think that we collectively may be able to have learned what he started, and see it as a kind of background, if you will. ... We're approaching it very, very respectfully and saying,'OK, can we challenge ourselves to create stories that people will treasure in 30 or 40 years' time in the same way?'"
But the producers acknowledge that the world of today's Twilight Zone is vastly different from the late 1950s of the original series. "When you think where Rod was at, the entire world has been through, in my opinion, the biggest revolution in mankind's history," Densham said. "We now have the Internet. ... We've now got AIDS. We have been through the sexual revolution and out the other side and going back through it again. Men have walked on the moon. Everybody has a portable computer, cell phones. ... It's extraordinary compared to where Rod was at, and yet his world was extraordinary at that time, too. So we're hoping that we bring sensibilities to people who are experiencing all those things and grip them with stories that need to be told now." UPN will debut the new Twilight Zone in its regular 9 p.m. Wednesday timeslot on Sept. 18, following the second-season premiere of Enterprise.
Vote on Pen Densham's new Twilight Zone
Forest Whitaker steps in for Rod Serling in UPN's new Twilight Zone update. Do you think it has a ghost of a chance?
Current Results:
Yes! Dee, dee, dee, dee.
34%
No! Old Zone is best.
30%
Only if it serves man.
35%