VZSciFi Tittle Tattle!

LAST UPDATED: 8 August 2000

Dirt!
Our Hollywood insiders dish the buzz on the latest sci-fi projects!

22 June 2000: The Cell
One of our Hollywood insiders reports on a screening of The Cell with Jennifer Lopez. "It was a test screening, so the edits might be different by final release but it was a creepy feeling and even creepier looking film," they write. "The story is, a child counsellor (Jennifer Lopez) uses a machine to project herself into peoples' minds to work with comatose children.
"When a serial killer is caught he has a brain embolism and goes comatose, leaving one last victim with 48 hours to live. Since the killer is a vegetable, Lopez goes into his mind to find clues.
"This is a sick movie, and not for everyone for sure, but the sequences that take place in the killers mind are beautiful, creepy and disturbing all at the same time. Thankfully there is a good deal of time spent there because the rest of the movie is a bit limp. It's like Silence of the Lambs meets a Nine Inch Nails video and it's good to see something scary in a psychological sense instead of a freak with a knife. Worth checking out, just know what you're in for!"

21 June 2000: Dinos and more!
Jurassic Park 3 is gearing up for production! Eight stages are being utilised for the film at at Universal. This is mega huge, we don't know if Spielberg is directing, but it is happening. The dinos are back!!!
Sci Fi Channel's Invisible Man is getting some notice -- watch out for that one, though I still can't tell if its premise is a buy in from the UK show which starred Neil Morrisey
The animated adventure Titan AE grossed less than $10 million on its opening weekend in the US. "It was all right," says our man with the popcorn. "Beautiful to look at, but some gaps in narrative."

18 June 2000: Roswell Renewed!
Roswell, whose producers include Jonathan (Star Trek: the Next Generation) Frakes, has been renewed. There had been concern from fans that the show was for the chop after its first season, but our insiders let us know real quick it was to be back for a second.

26 May 2000: X-Men re-shoots!
The X-men movie, set for release in the US on 14 July, just finished another round of re-shoots in Los Angeles as of 26 May, and word from the set is that the budget has apparently ballooned -- with some sources quoting $150 million (that's 100 per cent over budget).
The re-shoots lasted for over a week and were quite arduous. They included the Doheny mansion in LA doubling as the X-Mansion and several days on Stage 14 on the Fox lot. The film is based on the X-Men comic books from Marvel Comics.
Despite the the re-shoots, issue 71 of Dreamwatch reported that Executive producer and writer Tom DeSanto was confident the film was on course for its planned premiere date. Work is still being done on the 400-plus special effects shots for the new movie. "We're under a time crunch, but we're on aschedule and in good shape," DeSanto is quoted, in a report revealing screenwriter Joss Whedon has slammed the upcoming movie. Whedon was enlisted to polich the screenplay for the summer spectacular but his work was abandoned.
Links: The Official X-Men Movie Site (Requires Flash and Netscape 4 or above)