Lawrence Kasdan a scriptwriter whose work includes Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, is reported to be writing a remake of Clash of the Titans for Warner Bros.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Kasdan will pen and update of the original 1981 movie for Warner Bros. In the original film which adapts an ancient Greek myth in which Zeus’s son Perseus must complete tasks set out by Zeus in order to save the Princess Andromeda. Tasks include battling a Kraken, capturing the winged horse Pegasus, and slaying the Medusa.

The original movie was made famous by the involvement of effects master Ray Harryhausen’s. The film was his last movie.

Reference for posting: http://www.cinemablend.com

A live-action adaptation of the 1960s cartoon Speed Racer is being made by matrix creators Larry and Andy Wachowski’s along with producer Joel Silver. According to The Hollywood Reporter it is being made for Warner Brothers Pictures.

The cartoon racer was created by Tatsuo Yoshida for Japanese audiences and later imported to the United States. In the big screen version Emile Hirsch plays a young race car driver named Speed with Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci and John Goodman starring as his family. The young speed drives a gadget-laden vehicle Mach 5 in his quest for glory.

The Wachowskis, who are writing and directing, are eyeing a summer shoot in Berlin with a summer 2008 release.

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire

This year’s Sci-Fi-London film festival will be sponsored by Sky Movies which has recently moved to genre based channels including Sci-Fi with its Sky Movies Sci-Fi and Horror channel.

Sci-Fi-London, which is currently in its sixth year, is the UK’s only film festival devoted to the genre. Filmmaker John Landis will open the festival and includes films, events, visiting speakers and this year, the first international cult film conference.

Ian Lewis, the new director of Sky Movies and Box Office, said: “Many of our customers love sci-fi and were the driving force behind the creation of Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror – a whole channel dedicated to the genre. We are extremely excited about what the channel has to offer and there is no better place to showcase this than at Sci-Fi-London. This year’s festival is shaping up to be the best yet.”

The channel will also be showcasing titles which are to appear on the new movie channel and other sci-fi shows on Sky One.

Reference for posting: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk

The first Jurassic Park was good. It was exciting and it offered something moviegoers had rarely seen before namely; dinosaurs that neither looked as though they were made out of plasticine or were merely a guy in a suit. The second one was even better as it not only had an island of dinosaurs it also had a T-Rex causing havoc in a city. The third one, however, was a bit of a let down. And so it may be good news to some that JP4 will not be directed by the director of JP3, Joe Johnston.

MTV.com reported that Jurassic Park III helmer Joe Johnston won’t be helming a proposed fourth installment of the franchise but the original’s co-star Laura Dern told the site that she will be in the next installment. “It is happening,” she told the site. “Rumor has it [my character] Ellie Sattler may be back in the woods, back on the island,” Dern announced, saying the movie will hit theaters in 2008. She added with a coy smile, “You know, there is a guy I know who told me he wants me to have something to do with it. [So] I have a date with a dinosaur again. My 5-year-old will be thrilled.”

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire

The SCI FI Channel has announced that is creating a new upcoming original series based on the science fiction comic series Flash Gordon created in 1934 by Alex Raymond. Eric Johnson best known for his role as Whitney Fordman on Smallville has landed the role of Flash Grodon.

The 22-hour series updates the comic-strip franchise and is slated for an August premiere. Johnson will play space-traveling adventurer Gordon, who is joined by companions Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov battling against the forces of the merciless dictator Ming.

Peter Hume wrote the first two episodes, which will be directed by Rick Rosenthal (Smallville). Production is to begin May 1 in Vancouver, Canada.

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire

With The Da Vinci Code raking in a huge $758 million worldwide box office earnings its unsurprising that Columbia Pictures are keen to get started on the film’s prequel Angels & Demons.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Da Vinci Code director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks are in final talks to return to film the movie based on another of Dan Brown’s best selling books. Columbia Pictures has set an early January start date and is eyeing a December 19, 2008 release

The film is being adapted by Akiva Goldsman from the novel in which Robert Langdon a Harvard professor tries to solve a murder and unravel a plot by an ancient group, the Illuminati, to blow up the Vatican during a papal conclave.

Reference for posting: http://www.comingsoon.net

The science fiction author Kurt Vonnegut, best known for such novels as Slaughterhouse -Five and Cat’s Cradle, died in New York on April 10 at the age of 84, The New York Times reported after suffering from brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago.

The author who was born in Indianapolis in 1922, also wrote plays, essays and short fiction and had a cult following especially among students.

His novels were well known for how they dealt with religion and race and often displayed sexual content, rough language and depictions of violence and many were best sellers.

Vonnegut’s last book was also a best seller, published in 2005, was a collection of biographical essays, A Man Without a Country.

Vonnegut is survived by his wife, photographer Jill Krementz; their daughter; and his six other children.

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire

So the Mummy 3 is definitely happening and Brendan Fraser is going to be in it but Rachel Weisz will not be (probably something to do with that Oscar she won). Its also going to feature Jet Li as a Chinese Mummy and the legendary terracotta army, all 6000 of them.

The Mummy 3 (a.k.a. Mummy: Curse of the Dragon) action will begin in the past, tracing the ancient Chinese origins of Jet Li’s character who could possibly be the first Emperor of Qin.

Also rumored to be involved in the film is Alex Pettyfer who was the young star of Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker. He may play the part of the son of main characters Rick and Evy O’Connell and seems to be something of a troublemaker (has been through nine schools in three years, plays poker and has gotten into trouble before with a headmaster’s daughter).

Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) is directing the flick from a script by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville).

Reference for posting: http://uk.movies.ign.com

Let me bring everyone back to reality and show you what humanity is capable of. In Sci Fi films brilliant scientists are building robots, meddling with alien DNA and designing laser guns but in the real world UK scientists are answering that most important of questions, “what makes the perfect bacon sandwich”.

I know what you’re thinking, “bacon sandwiches are good and all but I’ve wanted a robotic housemaid, a laser gun to ward off the local hooligans and the added mind powers that only alien DNA can give me for ages!”

But the triumphant scientists at Leeds University have given mankind something that they can use whenever they like. Every man should be able to get some bacon and bread where as getting a license to have a laser gun would be a lot harder.

The answer is simple: take two or three back bacon rashers, cook under a preheated grill for seven minutes at around 240°C and nestle between two slices of farmhouse bread around 1-2cm thick. Then eat.

Four Leeds University Department of Food Science experts spent 1,000 hours to work their way through 700 bacon sandwich variations trying out different breads, bacons, oils and anything else that could be possibly related to their cause.

Every bacon loving man out their should be thankful for their hard work.

Reference for posting: http://www.theregister.co.uk

It’s a rumour and only a rumor but Hollywood North Report have posted that the director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Scott Derrickson, is set to direct the remake of the 1951 classic Sci-Fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still.

The original film told the story of an alien and his robot that come to earth to convince mankind to become peaceful when they join the space faring community of other planets or face destruction.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is scheduled to shoot until next November in Vancouver, Canada, making it one of the longest theatrical shoots ever to film in the region, the site reported.

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire