The Box Of Delights
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire director Mike Newell is to helm a big screen adaptation of John Masefield’s children’s classic novel The Box Of Delights, reports Variety . The book, about a boy in the 1930s who is entrusted with a magical box that allows him to travel through time, was made into a fondly-remembered BBC serial starring former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton in 1984. If you don’t remember anything else about it, you'll remember the wolves running!
Battlestar And Smallville Stars For Riverworld
Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse star Tahmoh Penikett and Smallville’s Laura Vandervoort have been cast in the Sci Fi (when do we start calling them SyFy?) TV mini-series adaptation of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld, according to The Hollywood Reporter . Penikett will play war correspondent Matt Ellman, who is killed along with his fiancée (Vandervoort) but then wakes up in a mysterious world populated by everyone who has ever lived on Earth. Alan (Nightcrawler) Cumming is set to guest star as the Caretaker. Meanwhile, another Sci Fi mini-series, The Phantom, has also found a star to don the superhero’s purple tights: Desperate Housewives’ Ryan Carnes.
Posthumous Novels From Jurassic Park Writer
Publisher Harper Collins has announced that it is to publish two posthumous novels from Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, one of which is a yet-to-be-titled technological thriller which will no doubt become a movie at some point. The other is a historical thriller called Pirate Latitudes, which will be published first.
Don’t Panic
Mandalay Pictures has acquired theatrical rights to and will develop a big-screen version of Full Metal Panic a Japanese manga series that blends action, comedy and high school romance – all in a world where there are no adults. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Mr Everywhere, Zac Efron, is in talks to star.
SMAP Decision
Leonardo DiCaprio is considering casting Japan's SMAP boy band group as the main leads in the proposed live-action movie of the anime, Ninja Scroll according to The Anime News Network . Di Caprio, who production company will oversee the project, won't act in the film, and apparently he’s determined to "cast Japanese". The five members of SMAP — Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Goro Inagaki and Shingo Katori — have acted in several films based on manga and anime since the band's formation in 1988, but have not acted together in the same film since 1994's Shoot.
Big Finish Announces Lost Season Line Up
Big Finish has announced the full line-up of titles for it Doctor Who Lost Season, an audio recreation of the cancelled Colin Baker season on TV:
1: The Nightmare Fair
Out: November 2009
Written by Graham Williams, adapted by John Ainsworth
2: Mission to Magnus
Out: December 2009
Written by Philip Martin
3: Leviathan
Out: January 2010
Written by Brian Finch, adapted by Paul Finch
Producer’s Notes: “A bonus Lost Story, and one we’d not heard of before. After we first announced the series, Paul Finch – a novelist and scriptwriter – got in touch via DWM to tell us about his father’s script, which was commissioned and written for Season 22. You may remember Brian Finch’s name for The Tomorrow People (he wrote The Vanishing Earth) and a host of other TV dramas. Paul sent me the script, I read it, and commissioned an adaptation right away. “
4: The Hollows of Time
Out: February 2010
Written by Christopher H Bidmead
5: TBA
Out: March 2010
Producer’s Notes: “The one story we can’t quite announce yet, as we’re in the process of negotiating the delivery date on the script.”
6: Point of Entry
Out: April 2010
Written by Barbara Clegg and Marc Platt
7: Paradise 5
Out: May 2010
Written by PJ Hammond and Andy Lane
8: The Space Whale
Out: June 2010
Written by Pat Mills
