Friday STAR WARS Pics

These opera patrons undergo last minute wardrobe and makeup checks before shooting thier entrance scene atop a blue staircase that will be replaced by a digital environment in the finished picture.


A worm's eye view of the enormous black cliffs of Mustafar, cut through with searing cataracts of plunging lava, envisioned in a dramatic painting by Erik Tiemens.


A hologram of Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) kneels and awaits instructions from his new Master after the assault on the Jedi Temple.


A close-up of Lobot's cyborg brace, including vintage electronics and a label that identifies him as "Landau's Aide."


Like the Jedi order itself, the very chambers of the Jedi Temple are sullied in times of war.


Terryl Whitlatch illustrates a Neimoidian bird that was originally going to appear in the negotiations conference room aboard the Trade Federation ship. The bird's death was to alert the Jedi of the impending dioxis gas attack.


A member of the Coruscant landing pad crew, seen in the Jedi Temple, Senate landing platform, and elsewhere on the capital world, tending to official government vessels.


Luke Skywalker gets a chilling look at his future, courtesy of this dummy head used in filming the Dagobahcave sequence.


The Empire's finest... coming at you.


ILM modelmaker Richard Miller adds finer detail to a miniature of a statue that stands inside the Jedi Temple.


A schematic illustration of the R2-D2 costume that Kenny Baker wore in Star Wars. The fairings that hold his legs (noted as "A" in the first drawing) completely disappear in the non-costume tripodal configuration. An annotation here suggests that we "may assume it retracts."


Yoda's escape pod used to transport him to his new marshy home on Dagobah.


An air whale, ridden by a Whatnot, both denizens of Bespin undergoing development by Ralph McQuarrie.


Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) awakes to find her bed empty as husband Anakin Skywalker paces her apartment to shake an unsettling vision.



Obi-Wan Kenobi finds the clone army very impressive, in this storyboard illustration by Ed Natividad.

BREAKING HARRY POTTER NEWS!

Luna Lovegood role has been cast

Evanna Lynch is playing Luna Lovegood
Fewer than three weeks after a huge open casting session for the part of Luna Lovegood, 14-year-old Evanna Lynch has been chosen for the role.

Luna Lovegood, known also as Loony, is a decidedly odd student who befriends Harry in the fifth Potter adventure.

Evanna, who's from near Drogheda in Ireland, was chosen from more than 15,000 other girls at an open casting.

She'll start filming her scenes at Leavesden Studios just outside London later this month.

And the OSCAR Nominees are.....!!!!

2006's Oscar Nominees
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

78th Annual Academy Awards Nominations
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE

Terrence Howard - HUSTLE & FLOW

Heath Ledger - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Joaquin Phoenix - WALK THE LINE

David Strathairn - GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

George Clooney - SYRIANA

Matt Dillon - CRASH

Paul Giamatti - CINDERELLA MAN

Jake Gyllenhaal - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

William Hurt - A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Judi Dench - MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS

Felicity Huffman - TRANSAMERICA

Keira Knightley - PRIDE & PREJUDICE

Charlize Theron - NORTH COUNTRY

Reese Witherspoon - WALK THE LINE

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams - JUNEBUG

Catherine Keener - CAPOTE

Frances McDormand - NORTH COUNTRY

Rachel Weisz - THE CONSTANT GARDENER

Michelle Williams - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE

TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE

WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

KING KONG

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

BATMAN BEGINS

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

THE NEW WORLD

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

WALK THE LINE

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

CAPOTE

CRASH

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MUNICH

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE

ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

MURDERBALL

STREET FIGHT

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

THE DEATH OF KEVIN CARTER: CASUALTY OF THE BANG BANG CLUB

GOD SLEEPS IN RWANDA

THE MUSHROOM CLUB

A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: THE GOLDEN AGE OF NORMAN CORWIN

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING

CINDERELLA MAN

THE CONSTANT GARDENER

CRASH

MUNICH

WALK THE LINE

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

DON'T TELL

JOYEUX NOèL

PARADISE NOW

SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE FINAL DAYS

TSOTSI

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE CINDERELLA MAN

STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH

EDITOR'S NOTE: ONE MEASELY NOMINATION FOR ROTS. POOR UNCLE GEORGE. BIG MEANIE ACADEMY!

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES

(ORIGINAL SCORE)

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

THE CONSTANT GARDENER

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

MUNICH

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES

(ORIGINAL SONG)

"In the Deep" - CRASH

"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" - HUSTLE & FLOW

"Travelin' Thru" - TRANSAMERICA

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

CAPOTE

CRASH

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MUNICH

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

BADGERED

THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION

THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO

9

ONE MAN BAND

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

AUSREISSER (THE RUNAWAY)

CASHBACK

THE LAST FARM

OUR TIME IS UP

SIX SHOOTER

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

KING KONG

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

WAR OF THE WORLDS

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

KING KONG

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

WALK THE LINE

WAR OF THE WORLDS

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

KING KONG

WAR OF THE WORLDS

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

CAPOTE

THE CONSTANT GARDENER

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

MUNICH

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

CRASH

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MATCH POINT

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

SYRIANA

EDITOR'S NOTE: I THINK THIS IS THE FIRST TIME EVER (IN MY OWN PERSONAL OSCAR HISTORY) THAT I HAVE SEEN ALL 5 BEST PIC NOMS BEFORE THE NOMINATIONS WERE ANNOUNCED. (ALL THAT OCD BEHAVIOR IN THE FALL PAID OFF!)

SO NOW I NEED TO SEE "MATCH POINT", "A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE", "NORTH COUNTRY", "HUSTLE AND FLOW", "MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS", AND "THE SQUID AND THE WHALE". (ALTHOUGH, I WILL LIKELY SKIP THAT LAST ONE...SINCE I'VE SUCCESSFULLY AVOIDED IT SO FAR).

I READ THAT "A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE" ISN'T OUT ON VIDEO TILL JUST BEFORE THE MARCH 5 AWARDS. WONDER WHEN "NORTH COUNTRY" AND "HUSTLE AND FLOW" ARE OUT. (DO ANY DWEEBPALS KNOW?)

AND I WONDER IF "MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS" IS EVER GOING TO COME TO OUR FAIR BURG?!

Oscars Prelude....the awards marathon begins

EDITOR'S NOTE: TOMORROW AM, THE NOMINATIONS ARE ANNOUNCED.

SO TODAY IS OUR LAST DAY OF INNOCENCE, WHERE ALL THINGS ARE STILL POSSIBLE.

YES, YOU TOO COULD BE AN OSCAR NOMINEE! (WHAT? YOU HAVEN'T MADE A MOVIE? PSHAW. DETAILS. DETAILS).

SAG winners recall early struggles, good fortune
"Capote" topliner Philip Seymour Hoffman, who now can add another best actor statue to his mantel, said he has experienced professional high points this awards season. But nothing compares to the feeling he experienced when, as a 24-year-old novice, he landed a part in "Scent of a Woman." "I don't think I've been more joyful since that moment," recalled the six-time SAG nominee and first-time winner ...

"I never thought I'd be an actor," Reese Witherspoon said after her lead actress win for "Walk the Line." "I never knew any actors. And it wasn't a serious profession where I was from." Even as recently as seven years ago, she said, her mom was asking, "Are you going to make another one of your little movies?" and wanting to know whether she was going to choose a profession when she finished college ... EDITOR'S NOTE: FUNNY...SHE DOESN'T LOOK JEWISH. (AND YET, SHE HAS A JEWISH MOTHER)!

Even as Rachel Weisz continues to rack up pre-Oscar accolades, including SAG's best supporting actress award, she insists that there is something missing. "It's beyond my comprehension (why co-star Ralph Fiennes has been overlooked on the awards-season circuit)," said the "Constant Gardener" star, who earned her first SAG win with her first nomination

'Syriana' now an original
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has reclassified Stephen Gaghan's screenplay for the film "Syriana" as an original rather than adapted screenplay.

Although the Academy confirmed the switch Wednesday, a spokeswoman said the decision was made in late December by AMPAS' writers branch executive committee. She said, however, that neither the filmmakers nor studio Warner Bros. Pictures was formally notified. Instead, she said the Academy's reminder list -- which listed "Syriana" as one of more than 100 original screenplays -- was mailed with Oscar ballots on Dec. 29, signifying the change.

"I'm in shock," said writer-director Gaghan, who received his ballot Tuesday and only realized the reclassification Wednesday evening. "A phone call would have been nice, or an e-mail or letter. I understand it's a gray area, but I'm saddened. Just let us know." EDITOR'S NOTE: WHY IS HE SADDENED? BECAUSE THE AUTHOR OF THE ORIGINAL PIECE THE SCREENPLAY WAS ADAPTED FROM NOW DOESN'T GET CREDIT?

December 4, 2005
Here's to Postwar America, We Never Really Knew Ye
By A. O. SCOTT
ONCE again, we find ourselves in the thick of the biopic and costume drama season, during which actors, directors and production designers stake their Oscar hopes on the detailed reconstruction of the past. Period movies are nothing new, of course - playing historical dress-up has been part of filmmaking since the beginning - but there seems to be, at present, a curious obsession with a single period.

The three high-profile movies about real people that opened this fall - George Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck," Bennett Miller's "Capote" and James Mangold's "Walk the Line" - take place mainly in the hard-to-define, decade-straddling era between Korea and Vietnam.

Mr. Clooney's movie, the most concentrated of the three, flashes back from 1958 to 1954, a pivotal moment in the career of its subject, Edward R. Murrow. Mr. Miller's begins in 1959, with a murder in rural Kansas, and ends in 1966, with the publication of "In Cold Blood," Truman Capote's book about the crime. "Walk the Line," the most conventionally biographical of the three, charts the rise of Johnny Cash, dwelling for most of its running time on the span of his career between 1955, when Sam Phillips signed him up at Sun Records, and 1968, when he married June Carter and performed his famous concert at Folsom Prison.

This might seem like more of a coincidence if last year's biopics - "Ray," "Kinsey," "Beyond the Sea" - had not also concerned American celebrities of the postwar era, and if a passel of other recent period pictures, from "Mona Lisa Smile" and "Far From Heaven" to "What Lies Beneath" and "Brokeback Mountain," did not mine the same historical ground. Everywhere you look, it seems, you see women in A-line skirts and men in narrow-lapelled sack suits, smoking unfiltered cigarettes and drinking highballs, talking on black rotary-dial phones and traveling the country in wood-paneled buses, accompanied by a soundtrack of appropriate pop, country and R & B tunes. And some of the era's cachet surely resides in the deep reservoir of visual and aural styles it offers. In a way that subsequent decades are not, the late 50's and early 60's seem permanently cool.

But that perception is itself most likely the product of a particular generational perspective. The years in question coincide with the formative years of the baby boomers, a cohort whose endless self-discovery has dominated American popular culture for as long as some of us can remember.

Perhaps more relevant, for Americans born in the 1960's - including Mr. Clooney, Mr. Mangold, Mr. Miller and this critic - the Eisenhower and Kennedy years lie just over the horizon of living memory, and therefore are likely to exert a particular fascination. Characters like Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Edward R. Murrow and Truman Capote are at once tantalizingly close and intriguingly remote. We may recognize their names, faces and voices, but still wonder where they came from and who they really were.

Watching these movies, with their painstaking detail and their trompe l'oeil leading performances, we may also wonder how we got from there to here, a line of inquiry that the pictures frustrate by means of their elaborate visual fidelity. The difference between a period film and a historical film, in other words, is that while a historical film implies a continuity with the present, the period film, far more common in Hollywood, seals the past in a celluloid vitrine, establishing a safe distance between then and now. EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS IS A VERY INTERESTING AND WELL-ARTICULATED DISTINCTION. OF COURSE, MOST FILM DOES PRESENTATION BETTER THAN ANALYSIS, SO THIS STANDS TO REASON.

And the period in question, eventful and tumultuous though it may have been, also represents a zone of safety - if not of comfort, exactly, then at least of clarity. The notion of the Eisenhower years as a time of dullness and conformity - a dubious revisionist legacy of the 1960's in any case - has been replaced by a series of images and stories that emphasize both ferment and stability. When these movies deal with political and social issues, it is almost always with the optimism of hindsight.

The prejudice and repression that figure in "Brokeback Mountain," "Kinsey" and "Far From Heaven" will eventually be overcome, the major evidence for this progress being the existence of the movies themselves. The specter of McCarthy, whose scowling visage haunts "Good Night, and Good Luck," will be expunged, as will the racism that casts its shadow over "Ray."EDITOR'S NOTE: I THINK THIS IS VERY MUCH A SIMPLIFICATION. I DON'T THINK MOST OF THESE MOVIES ARE IMPLYING THAT THE PAST IS PAST AND THE PROBLEMS ARE FIXED. THE MESSAGE I GOT MOST ESPECIALLY FROM "GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK" WAS IN FACT JUST THE OPPOSITE....THAT WE ARE IN A SIMILAR TROUGH PERIOD OF REPRESSION AND FEAR-IMPOSED CONFORMITY. (THE FILM SEEMS TO HOLD OUT A LITTLE BIT OF HOPE IN THAT THE ERA DEPICTED SURVIVED THOSE DARK TIMES, SO MAYBE SO CAN WE?)

It is interesting that all of these movies, while gesturing toward various manifestations of social change, evade or stop short of the upheaval and rebellion now commonly thought of as characterizing the 60's. That story may be at once too thoroughly assimilated into the cultural memory and, at the same time, still too contentious to engage the imaginations of today's filmmakers.

The ideological and culture fractures of the present, moreover, feed a nostalgic longing for images of consensus. It is not just that Ray Charles and Johnny Cash, mavericks in their own day, have become objects of universal admiration, but also that the stories of their ascension to stardom are, implicitly, stories about the public that has such people in common.

The greatest nostalgia these films express is for the culture that produced characters like Charles and Cash, Murrow and Capote - all of them creations of a celebrity-driven mass media at an early phase of its dominance, and all of them distinguished, at least in retrospect, with a kind of self-invented, all-American authenticity that seems to have vanished from the cultural scene. That authenticity may not have been visible at the time, but if movies can't synthesize authenticity, what good are they? EDITOR'S NOTE: OOO...CYNICISM IS SUCH A NAUGHTY THING! Remember when television news was a bastion of integrity? When nonfiction pieces in glossy magazines changed the way people thought about journalism and literature? When the music charts were dominated by innovators who gave traditional American forms a modern, personal spin?

Neither do I. That's the point. EDITOR'S NOTE: AND WAS IT EVER REALLY THUS? EVER REALLY THAT SIMPLE? PROBABLY NOT.

Oscar Historian Awaits Nominations Morning
By SANDY COHEN, AP Entertainment Writer
Weathered plastic crates crammed with papers, books and binders cover the floor. Cardboard boxes compete for space atop four large filing cabinets lining one of the walls. Piles of manila envelopes and official-looking brown folders fill every visible bit of desk space, except for a tiny area around the computer mouse.

This is ground zero for the Oscars' most important and detailed research: finding film factoids for the worldwide media to use in the endless stream of stories leading up to the March 5 Academy Awards show.

At 9 p.m. Monday, academy Historian Patrick E. Stockstill and his team will be locked inside the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' headquarters — their phones and e-mail capability shut off — and presented with the names of this year's Oscar nominees. By 5:38 a.m. Tuesday (when the nominations are announced on TV), they will have transformed Stockstill's mess of papers, plus 1,860 file drawers filled with Oscar history, into a tidy collection of facts and figures for film fans to chew on.

It's a task Stockstill first dreamed of doing when he was 14 years old.

That's when he started keeping track of Oscar stats. He'd watch the Academy Awards and scribble the names of nominees and winners on 3-by-5 cards.

When he'd amassed more than 10,000 cards, young Patrick decided to become Oscar's librarian.

"I heard that the academy had a library and said, 'I'm going to go work there,'" the 56-year-old says, his smile hidden behind a full white beard. "It's the one job in the world that I wanted to get." EDITOR'S NOTE: WHAT A NIFTY GIG!

He got busy earning degrees in film and library science, and was named Academy Historian in 1983.

Now, after decades of immersion in movie stats, his mind works like an infinite database.

"Nobody even dares play Trivial Pursuit with me now," he says, smirking.
___
Oh, but we'll try.

So, Patrick, how many films are eligible for the Oscars this year?
"Three hundred eleven," he says instantly. "It's the most in a long time. I had to put it in my statistics book."
___
Stockstill and his staff could potentially be asked to provide facts on any of those 311 films on nominations morning. And that takes a lot of research. They spend all year mired in movieana. There is no slow time. With every Academy Awards show, statistics change and databases need updating.

They start with the Academy's list of eligible entries, then the brainstorming begins. But it's not an entirely blind quest.

"We also have ears. We have eyes. We read newspapers. We hear people talking," Stockstill says. "There are various other organizations already giving out awards. We keep an eye on stuff like that."

Working with fellow librarians Lucia Schultz and Libby Wertin, Stockstill compiles a collection of historical facts about each of the nominees, to be presented to the press — and the world — on nominations morning.

It's the most pressure-filled night of the year, he says.

"We don't know what our nominations are going to be, so we have to consider as many things as possible."
___
Anyone happen to know which actor has won the most awards?
"Katharine Hepburn has the most wins with four," Stockstill says.

"But Meryl Streep has the most nominations," Schultz adds. "She has 13."

"Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson are tied at 12 nominations each," Wertin says. "Jack Nicholson has three awards. So in terms of someone tying Katharine Hepburn's record of four statuettes, we're looking at Jack." EDITOR'S NOTE: HERE'S HOPING HE RETIRES. (NICHOLSON UNSEATING HEPBURN SEEMS VERY VERY WRONG).

Ah, The Three Musketriviasts.

"If you really want to stump us," Wertin says, "just ask a basic question, like who won lead actor last year."
___
Once the nominations are announced, the team begins phase two of its Oscar research, because every nominee is a potential winner during the big show.

Schultz collects biographies and credits for each of the nominees, plus the spelling of any name a winner is likely to mention during an acceptance speech.

"Hilary Swank thanks her makeup artist (Tania McComas)," Schultz says, noting that Swank is in the two-trophy club.

Since 1990, Schultz has worked in the press room during the Oscar broadcast, answering last-minute questions from reporters and feeding details to workers updating the Oscar.com Web site.
___
OK, Patrick, what was the longest Oscar broadcast?
"Four hours and 24, 25 minutes," he responds in a nanosecond. "Laura Ziskin was the producer." (The year: 2002.)
___
Since 2003, the Academy also has offered a searchable database online for anyone curious about movie history. The Margaret Herrick Library, where Stockstill's cluttered office is located, is also open to regular folks, who are free to peruse tomes as diverse as "Aviation in the Cinema" and "Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: A Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film."

Reference librarians will research questions that aren't easily answered in the library or online, such as a recent inquiry about a snake that escaped during an Oscar show.

Wertin discovered that a performing reptile (name: Saapa), destined to participate in a production number, slithered off during rehearsals (in 1993).

"He wasn't found for six months," she says. "The understudy snake (Aladdin) actually had to go into the production." EDITOR'S NOTE: "42ND STREET". BUT WITH SNAKES.
___
Betcha don't know this one, Patrick. Wait, let's not bet: What was the shortest screen time that led to an acting Oscar?
"Four and a half minutes," he says in less than four and a half seconds. "Supporting actress Beatrice Straight for 'Network.'"

Never mind that the film came out in 1976.
___
So how does he remember all this stuff?

It helps that he spends most of his time in a place he characterizes as "the finest specialized film library in the world."

But, as Wertin points out, the best information isn't necessarily found in the files.

"One of our biggest resources at the library," she says, "are the people who work here."

And, by the way: Last year's best-actor winner was Jamie Foxx. And we didn't even have to ask.
___
On the Net:
http://www.oscars.org


EDITOR'S NOTE: FROM DWEEBPAL BOSTONLAURA ----
In pictures: Making the Oscars


The statuettes handed out at the Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are among the world's most recognisable trophies.


The statues are cast in pewter alloy britannium before being treated with copper, nickel, silver and 24k gold. It can take up to a day to make each one at RS Owens studio in Chicago




The entire collection of new trophies was stolen in 2000 en route to Los Angeles. Most were later recovered but RS Owens managed to rush through a replacement batch in time.


Instead of having a quality control checker, each member of the production team is able to reject a piece if they think it is not up to standard.


The company also repairs any statues that get damaged. This is usually down to people trying to clean it with harsh chemicals, rubbing through the lacquer into the gold.


Between 50 and 60 statuettes are made each year, although it is not known until the ceremony how many will be handed out because there may be multiple winners in a category.


The company also engraves the name plates for the statues. Because the winners are not known until the event these are created after and attached by the Academy.


The exact reason why the trophies are called Oscars is not clear. It is thought an Academy member remarked in the 1930s that it looked like her Uncle Oscar.


The completed statuettes are now on display in New York's Times Square until 1 February. They will then be transported to Los Angeles ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony.

Catching up...Monday Star Wars

EDITOR'S NOTE: A MISHMASH OF STAR WARS'Y STUFF.

FIRST UP, A COUPLE OF CHANCES TO VOTE FOR ROTS IN TOTALLY POINTLESS COMPETITIONS. (BUT AT LEAST IT'S SOME PLACE WHERE YOUR VOTE COUNTS...NOT LIKE NATIONAL AMERICAN POLITICS, EH?)

Moviefone Moviegoer Nominees
With EP3 nominated as best picture, Hayden as both best actor and vilest villain, Ian also as the vilest villain and Ewan as biggest Badass, there's a lot to vote for in our favorite franchise.

Cast your votes here.

http://movies.aol.com/moviefone_moviegoer_movie_awards/2006?ncid=AOLMOV00150000000003

Vote For Best Adventure Or Science Fiction Film Of The Year
Mat from Paris, France writes in:

There's an interesting website that asks users to vote for the best adventure / sci-fi film of the year 2005.

The nominees are: Batman Begins, King Kong, Man to Man, Sky Captain andthe World of Tomorrow, Star Wars: episode III -Revenge of the Sith and War of the Worlds

Let's help out by voting for star wars!

Click here to cast your vote!

http://www.julesverneaventures.com/jva/bestfilm/index.php?lang=en

EDITOR'S NOTE: AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...HAN SOLO IN CARBONITE. IN LEGOS!

From dweebpal chewy andy:
3 pics..han solo in lego
http://nathanbrickartist.com/largegallery.html


'Faith' flowers in April
(Fiennes drama set for Booth Theater)
Broadway's got faith in April.
The Gate Theater production of Brian Friel's "Faith Healer," starring Ralph Fiennes, has set April 18 as the start date for a 15-week run at the Booth Theater. Opening night is May 4.

Production, helmed by Jonathan Kent, co-stars Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid. Fiennes plays the title healer, with Jones, who left her Tony-winning role in "Doubt" Jan. 8, as his lover and McDiarmid as his manager.

Fiennes won a Tony for his last appearance on Broadway, a 1995 production of "Hamlet" staged by Kent.

Kent previously directed McDiarmid in a 2001 production of "Faith" at the Almeida Theater, which the pair used to run.

For the new production, Jonathan Fensom provides sets and costumes, with lights by Mark Henderson.

Production, with Ingrid Craigie in the role that will be played by Jones, begins a run at the Gate in Dublin Feb. 2.

Empire's new clothes link 'Sith' to original 'Star Wars'
Designer Biggar appreciates technology's impact on costuming
By ELLEN WOLFF

A long time ago, the "Star Wars" galaxy was a far simpler place.

With "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," costume designer Trisha Biggar faced the unique task of bridging George Lucas' three prequels to the landmark 1977 film -- a transition that came down to the moment Anakin Skywalker becomes black-helmeted Darth Vader.

Biggar remembers the filming of Vader's sleek black costume and iconic mask. "Even for the crew it was a big moment," she says. "The set was swarming with people who'd sneaked inside."
Whereas Vader's original helmet had to be hand-sculpted and was therefore never perfectly symmetrical, Biggar's team used computers to design -- and modify -- the version that appears in "Sith."

"Everybody thinks Darth hasn't changed over the years, but distinct variations have been made to the costume," she says. "I wanted Darth to have a newly 'machined' look because this is the first time Anakin is embodied in this costume."

Having worked on all three prequels, Biggar appreciates technology's impact on costuming. The textures of her fabrics became especially evident when Lucas shot them in hi-def.

She also faced the challenges of creating costumes that ILM could approximate for CG characters. "We'd provide fabric, and ILM would gamely replicate things like fringing. But then they got so good at cloth simulation they didn't need references!" EDITOR'S NOTE: KINDA SCARY, ACTUALLY. SO, DO THE ACTORS SHOW UP NAKED, AND THE CG FOLKS DRESS THEM LIKE COMPUTERIZED PAPER DOLLS?

In another nod to the original trilogy, "Sith" features a cameo by one of the series' most popular alien races. "We'd never been to the Wookie planet before," says Biggar, who designed their armor and bandoliers. "I sourced various synthetic fur samples, and we designed a color palette for the Wookies." EDITOR'S NOTE: I'M THINKING MOST WOOKIES ARE AUTUMNS.

Throughout "Sith," Biggar took pains to presage Luke Skywalker's and Princess Leia's comparatively modest fashions from "Episode IV." "We tried to visually link the costumes, using similar types of fabrics and leg wraps," she says. "We even had Leia's 'doughnut' hairdo on Padme when she tells Anakin she's pregnant. It was great fun to add details that 'Star Wars' fans would notice!"

EDITOR'S NOTE: AND NOW....STAR WARS SHOPPING!

Break the Jedi Code this Valentine's Day
Give that Jedi (or Sith Lord) in your life a special card thanks to Paper Magic Group's latest assortment of Star Wars Valentines.

The Paper Magic Group has produced a set of 32 cards with 8 different designs featuring Episode III imagery and fun messages.



Sample messages include Darth Vader's promise "You have my allegiance," Yoda's heartfelt "My trusted ally, you are," and R2-D2's flirty beeping "You can fly with me anytime."



Also included in the card set is a 15" x 19" poster of Darth Vader and a sheet of removable tattoos featuring clone troopers, General Grievous, Darth Vader and more! EDITOR'S NOTE: YOU HAD ME AT 'REMOVABLE TATTOOS'.



With this set available from The Paper Magic Group (on participating store shelves now), you should have enough Star Wars-themed messages for fellow Padawans, a few Jedi Masters, and your favorite misunderstood Sith Lord. EDITOR'S NOTE: 'MISUNDERSTOOD SITH LORD'. I'M THINKING ODDBOB. WHY? WHY ASK WHY?

Kit Fisto
Sideshow Collectibles is taking pre-orders for their Kit Fisto STAR WARS 12-inch figure.




The figure includes:
Fully articulated male body EDITOR'S NOTE: BE STILL MY HEART..... with 30+ points of articulation Detailed Kit Fisto portrait Authentic costume including: Undershirt Tabbard Tunic Pants Jedi Robe Boots

Accessories including: Detailed belt w/ opening pouches and lightsaber clip Jedi Food Capsules Jedi Holoprojector Jedi Communicator Lightsaber hilt Lightsaber hilt w/ ignited blade Unique Kit Fisto hands 12-Inch Figure

The figure will ship in the second quarter of 2006 and comes with a price tag of $54.99. EDITOR'S NOTE: FULLY ARTICULATED MALE BODIES AIN'T CHEAP, HUH?!

The Empire Strikes Back 25th Anniversary Print



25 years ago, fans eagerly awaited the release of the first Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, hoping it would live up to its predecessor in terms of imagination and scope. To the delight of fans and critics alike, Empire not only served up the Star Wars universe in richer, deeper tones, but also introduced audiences to some of the saga's most memorable attributes.

Characters such as Yoda, Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine, and Lando Calrissian would debut in Empire, as would settings like Cloud City and the Dagobah swamps, vehicles including AT-ATs, Super Star Destroyers, and Slave I, and signature themes such as the "Imperial March", "Yoda's Theme", and "Han Solo and the Princess".

The Empire Strikes Back was a clear indication that the Star Wars saga was classic storytelling at its best, and was here to stay.

To commemorate Empire's silver anniversary, prolific Star Wars artist Matt Busch has composed a striking lithograph showcasing the sinister agents of the sequel trilogy's darkest chapter, paired with the original period Empire logo.

Vader and Palpatine dominate a rogue's gallery of Imperial officers, bounty hunters, stormtroopers and snowtroopers, all set against the cool blue tones of Cloud City and Hoth.

Available exclusively at StarWarsShop, each Empire anniversary lithograph will be signed by the artist and numbered from an edition size of just 750.

Celebrate one of the saga's most beloved chapters with this striking limited edition print by one of Star Wars' most gifted illustrators.

Our Price: $45.00
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=104466;category_id=334

EDITOR'S NOTE: AND THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE.....

Playskool Mr Potato Head R2D2Tater

EDITOR'S NOTE: TOO TOO TOO TOO CUTE!

Here are some detailed pictures of the upcoming R2-D2 version of Mr. Potato Head.



Be sure to check out all the extras which includes a mini holo "spud leia"! EDITOR'S NOTE: THE MINI SPUD LEIA IS KINDA PUSHING THIS INTO THE MUST-BUY CATEGORY, DON'T YOU THINK?!




This item is currently available for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk and is scheduled to start shipping April 20th, 2006. Look for a similar listing soon on Amazon.com in the U.S.

Catching up....OddsNEnds

EDITOR'S NOTE: THE STUFF THAT JUST DOESN'T SEEM TO GO ANYWHERE ELSE....

FIRST UP, A SMALL SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE?
A&E Shoots For New Program Franchise: Rock, Paper, Scissors
PROVING JUST HOW FAR CABLE can narrowcast in an increasingly niche television world, A&E Wednesday said it would build its next big programming franchise around the childhood game of rock, paper, scissors. EDITOR'S NOTE: NO, I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP. HONEST.

Planning a tongue-in-cheek approach, of course, A&E also announced that a decidedly un-childhood marketer, Anheuser-Busch, would sponsor a grassroots marketing effort built around the USA Rock Paper Scissors League's national tournament to crown the country's best RPS player. EDITOR'S NOTE: THERE'S A LEAGUE! (AND BEER SEEMS THE PERFECT AD TIE-IN, HUH?)

The USA Rock Paper Scissors League--newly formed as a marketing vehicle--is holding a series of competitions in bars nationwide, giving A&E and Bud Light an opportunity to reach young adults through on-site exposure. The regional battles start this month.

Then, later this spring, cable network A&E will air the national finals from Las Vegas in a one-hour special. Bud Light will receive significant exposure within the broadcast, with A&E selling the ad time. Some 250 finalists will compete with a $50,000 prize at stake.

Rock Paper Scissors is often used among youngsters as a good-natured way to settle a dispute. Participants surreptitiously make hand motions signifying whether they choose a rock, paper or scissors. In a one-on-one battle, rock beats scissors, paper beats rock and scissors tops paper.

The USARPS is the brainchild of promoters Matti Leshem and Andrew Golder. Leshem, a branded entertainment executive involved in the WB show Pepsi "Play for a Billion," got the idea of turning the backyard game into a marketing opportunity when he saw it being played competitively in Canada. EDITOR'S NOTE: I'M THINKING THE 'BRAINSTORMING' SESSION INVOLVED DRINKS?

New SUPER DVDs in the Works

The Superman Homepage has reported Time Warner is working on new DVDs of the five SUPERMAN films released between 1978 and 1987.

Ilya Salkind, who co-produced the first three SUPERMAN films, SUPERGIRL, and the SUPERBOY television series, confirmed that he is indeed working with Michael Thau, the Producer and Restoration Supervisor on the 2001 Special Edition of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, and others who've been retained by Time Warner to produce new versions of the original Superman films (and Supergirl) for DVD release in conjunction with marketing plans for 2006's SUPERMAN RETURNS.

"[T]he five DVDs are coming out," Salkind said in a recent telephone interview. Along with his late father, Alexander, and childhood friend, Pierre Spengler, Salkind produced the original SUPERMAN films (all except 1987's SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE produced by the Canon Group in a one-shot film deal they had with the Salkinds).

Two NARNIAs for DVD

Walt Disney will release two versions of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE on DVD on April 4th.

Both the single-disc version ($19.99) and a two-disc edition ($29.99) will include two commentaries with director Andrew Adamson, one in which he's accompanied by other filmmakers and the other, by children. Both versions will also come with pop-up windows throughout the film with facts on the movie and NARNIA author C.S. Lewis. EDITOR'S NOTE: OOO. THAT'S A COOL IDEA!

The double-disc NARNIA also will come with a booklet, concept art, storytelling diaries of the filmmakers, a "making of" featurette, an interactive map of Narnia and other extras.

DVD Interview : Summer Glau and Sean Maher
With the anticipated release of "Serenity" on DVD next week in Australia (Feb 8, for those that are counting down the days), Moviehole thought it right to catch up with two of the films stars, Summer Glau and Sean Maher, to talk shop - and, well, sequel.

Q: What is so unique about this material that it deserves to be on the big screen?
SM: I think it’s the characters. Just this world that Joss created, people seem to be captivated by it. From the very beginning people who saw the show loved it, this sort of bubbling small group was always there from the very beginning, they were the driving force that inspired us and kept us going, because we knew that there were people out there that really liked it. Then the show is cancelled and the DVD sales went through the roof, so it’s apparent that still people were catching on to it and loved it, so there should have been another venue to tell the story again. And Joss, I think, was sort of a miracle worker in a sense that he kept it alive and fought so hard for this. It’s really his baby.

Q: What kind of training did you go through?
SG: I met my stunt coordinator, Chad Stahelski, months before we started and he watched me move, he taught me some different steps and stuff, and he saw that I was a ballet dancer. He created a kind of hybrid technique for me that was a more “balletic” way of doing martial arts. He said that it was a combination of wuchu, kung-fu and kick boxing. And it was very different from dancing (laughs). I worked hard, we all worked hard.

Q: Did you keep the workout going after the movie?
SG: You know, they offered to let me keep coming to the class and I said no (laughs).

Q: Did you get injuries other than bruises?
SG: Oh, yeah. I have a big scar on knee from one stunt going wrong, and I pulled every muscle in my body - dancers are very strong but it’s a completely different kind of muscle memory. Martial arts is kind of like a snake: it snaps and then it comes back in. Dancing is always up, always lifting and it’s very fluid. I can hold my leg out for a long time as a dancer, but in martial arts you have to get your leg up that high but you have to get it down in one second. So I kept pulling hamstrings, I was limping home, I’d do ice baths where I just had to carry ice bags home and lie in a bathtub because I pulled everything. My body really changed a lot. And I was a vegetarian and I ate meat by the end of the movie. I was eating steaks (laughs).

Q: Was there any improvising or was Joss not allowing it?
SM: No, we pretty much...maybe we finish his words and if it’s rolling and if he likes what goes on afterwards we’d do it.
SG: I’m not that brave. I always do just what Joss says.

Q: Do you have siblings?
SG: I have two sisters.
SM: I have a sister and a brother.

Q: Does that feeling just instinctually kick in when you have to play close siblings on screen?
SM: It does, you obviously draw from your own life. You find similarities between yourself and the character, and they bleed into the way you portray the character.

Q: You have tremendous patience for your sister?
SM: (laughs) Yeah.
SG: Poor guy.

Q: What kind of message do you want the fans to pick up from "Serenity"?
SG: One thing that we keep talking about is believing - whatever you believe, you have to believe it with your whole heart. That’s one theme that keeps running through. And love. Taking care of the people around you, taking care of the people you love, it’s simple. There are many layers and everybody that comes to see it feels something different when they walk away. SM: What I love about the world of Firefly, the world of Serenity, is it’s 500 years in the future but there’s this big ‘what if?’, like, what if we used up the resources of Earth and here we are, people are trying to survive, trying to get by, trying to just eat and get a job. There are these dynamics between these wonderful characters and I think the movie…yes, it’s this huge spectacular, great ride and when you really think about it, for me it instilled this faith in humanity that like yes, 500 years in the future we have this Alliance trying to do this horrible thing to this girl and trying to just change people, and at the end of the day it’s like “OK, let’s just have faith.” There is innate goodness and people will prevail as human beings and there’s just wonderful sense of humanity to it. No matter how far in the future you go, hopefully people are people in how they work and function together. We are trying to rebuild and figure things out, and make adjustments.

Q: Does being a ballet dancer benefit you in acting?
SG: The thing about River that I like, is that she doesn’t have a lot of lines. Especially in the series she had to show what she was thinking just by the way she moved or by how her face was moving. I think that has helped me a lot as an actor. I still have hard time sometimes, expressing my anger with words, I’m better at moving and being in a room and showing how I feel that way. It’s a thing that I had to work on because I was very shy as a kid. I think that’s why I love dancing, because I felt that people were watching me but I didn’t have to connect with them. They were out there and I could feel that they were watching me but I didn’t have to look at them. Now with acting it’s very therapeutic for me, having to actually say and communicate.

Q: When the DVD sales of "Firefly" went through the roof did it give you hope or was it just a consolation prize?
SM: For us it was a reassurance that everybody was out, it was inspiring to us. To executives and people in suits it was like “oh, look at that. There are people, this could be successful”. I think it was a great tool for people who hadn’t had the chance to see the show. There were fans of the box set and they passed it around, and it spread sort of word of mouth in that regard.

Q: What’s happening next with you, are you hoping for a sequel?
SM: Sort of.

Q: Do you collect DVDs and what are your favorite ones?
SM: I have a very small collection. Streetcar Named Desire was my first DVD gift which I like.
SG: I don’t collect them, no. Most of my favourite movies haven’t come out on DVD yet, I like all the old stuff. My favorite is Camelot, the musical (laughs) with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave. I have the old box set.

Backstory: Movie manners - an endangered species
By Peter Rainer Film critic of The Christian Science Monitor
LOS ANGELES - There was a time, I think it was back in the Paleozoic era, when it was possible to go to a movie theater and hear more noise coming from the screen than from the audience. It was possible, once upon a time, to be lulled by the gentle snoring of one's seatmate. Today that same seat filler is likely to be bleating into a cell phone, or text-messaging a friend, who is probably also in a movie theater.

Before I spin out this tale of woe, however, let me quickly insert a faint ray of hope: A recent Los Angeles Times report says that the National Association of Theater Owners, faced with an alarming slide in attendance, is looking into ways to jam cellphone signals, "eliminating the chance that dramatic silences will be interrupted by a 'My Humps' ring tone."

The movie-going experience, especially for those of us who are middle-aged enough to note the difference, has changed catastrophically in the past decade. People have brought their home-viewing habits into the theaters. Actually, it's worse than that: Watching a movie at a multiplex is often a lot yappier and more aggravating than watching one at home, unless of course you live in a kennel.

I happen to be one of those people who don't like a whole lot of hubhub, least of all inside a movie theater. Because I'm a professional film critic and attend hundreds of screenings a year, this presents a distinct problem for me. Many of my screenings are for critics only, so you would think I have a comparatively easy time of it. The press, as we all know, is so well behaved.

Think again.

For example, there is one group (whose identity I won't divulge except to say that it dispenses Golden Globes every year) that's notorious for smuggling hot and spicy entrees into screening rooms (often poorly ventilated) while pursuing a line of nonstop chatter in heavily accented English. Then there are all those critics who pull out their lighted pens at the drop of an insight.
But that's old-school behavior. New school is bringing your laptop into the theater and typing your insights as you go along. If enough of these typists are in the theater, the collective sound is like a squadron of rats clacking across a linoleum floor. EDITOR'S NOTE: MAYBE HE SHOULD STOP GOING TO CRITICS SCREENINGS. FOR THOSE OF US GOING TO THE MOVIES OUT IN THE 'REAL' WORLD, (AND WE SEE A LOT OF MOVIES OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEAR...ESP. FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN'T PAID TO GO TO THEM) WHILE THERE ARE OCCASIONAL RUDE INTERRUPTIONS, IT SOUNDS LIKE OUR MOVIE-GOING EXPERIENCES ARE A LOT LESS DISRUPTIVE THAN WHAT THIS FELLOW IS DESCRIBING.

AND BY THE BY, WHEN I WAS A CRITIC, I JUST WROTE NOTES ON A PAD WITHOUT A PEN LIGHT. IT'S LIKE GOING TO THE BATHROOM....IF YOU'LL EXCUSE THE ANALOGY; YOU DON'T REALLY NEED TO SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING DOWN THERE, TO TAKE NOTES.

Critics also enjoy impressing other critics by venting aloud for all to hear. One famous critic used to belt out an anguished sigh whenever she found a film too drippy; another regularly rocks the room with a laugh pitched somewhere between a croak and a whinny. At film festivals like Toronto and Cannes, the one-upmanship often takes the form of instant mini-dissertations, as in "That tracking shot is so Tarkovskian!"

But at least all this obnoxiousness can be linked, however tenuously, to a love for movies. Worse is when the movie agents and buyers invade the screenings and, within minutes of sitting down, whip out their Blackberries to make a deal. They don't call it the movie business for nothing.

All things being equal - and they rarely are - I like to see movies with real people, as opposed to critics or Hollywood types.

The atmosphere in the room is less rarified and the responses more honest. The bad news is, the atmosphere is also rowdier. And unlike at home, where you can tell your children or spouse or friends to can it and still stand a reasonably good chance of surviving, the multiplex is a cauldron of strangers who do not take kindly to instruction. Note what happens the next time you see one of those trailers telling everybody to please not talk during the movie. Everyone starts talking. EDITOR'S NOTE: WHERE IS THIS GUY ATTENDING MOVIES? DOESN'T SOUND LIKE HE'S GOING TO A METROPLEX IN THE BEST OF NEIGHBORHOODS.

I used to have a prepared comment for the babblers who always seem to sit directly behind me. You know, the kind of people who feel duty-bound to provide a running commentary on the action to their partner, as in "Look, he's opening a door." I would turn around and ever so politely say, "Would you mind speaking a little louder? I can't hear you over the soundtrack?"

But this proved to be too Zen for most people, some of whom actually did speak louder.

So now I do things differently. Rather than provoke confrontations, I simply scope out several empty alternate seats before I take my own. If the going gets rough, I switch. This doesn't work if the theater is packed, in which case you better hope that seated near you is one of those guardian angels with no compunction about shushing down the opposition.

But even when the talkers are compelled to quit it - not, I might add, by the ushers, since there aren't any - they find other ways to make their presence felt. People who are annoying in one way are usually annoying in many ways. Quieted down, these same patrons become foot jigglers or high-decibel whisperers. They rifle through their seemingly bottomless handbags for - what exactly? It always escapes me. Candy, swathed in the noisiest foil, is unwrapped. Popcorn is consumed kernel by kernel.

And of course, the quieted-down rarely stay quiet for very long. First-date couples are the worst - the guy is always trying to impress the girl with a patter of hogwash and she is too polite or intimidated to stop it. Generally speaking, the younger the viewer the more likely he or she is to jabber, but there are numerous exceptions to this rule. Age has no dominion over manners.

Just look at the cellphone noise-pollution epidemic. If you ask someone to keep quiet nowadays, you're likely to get back a look of genuine astonishment. People who are plugged into their own hum don't recognize your right to silence. What they recognize is their right not to be silent. It's democracy in action all right.

Not to put too fine a sociological point on it, the epidemic of bad manners in the movies is part of a much larger ill gripping the land. EDITOR'S NOTE: OK, I'M OLD ENOUGH AND ENOUGH OF A CURMUDGEON TO AGREE WITH HIM ON THIS ONE.

What it all comes down to is this: There are few private zones in public spaces anymore.

Restaurant reviews in many of the big city newspapers now rate the decibel level right along with the food and the service.

Maybe film critics should do the same thing for movie theaters. Not this critic, though. I've heard enough.

Movie dont's
* Showing up late and asking people to move.
* Talking during the movie or the previews.
* Leaving cellphones or beeping watches on.
* Kicking the seat in front of you.
* Putting your feet up on a seat, occupied or not.
* Hogging the armrest.
* Eating loudly or making noise with your straw.
* Leaving trash on the floor or cupholder.
* Bringing infants or young children (who have trouble staying quiet) to anything but children's movies.
EDITOR'S NOTE: MY PARENTS HAD A NO-TALKING-EXCEPT-DURING-COMMERCIALS RULE WHEN WE WATCHED TV AT HOME. IT WAS GOOD TRAINING FOR GOING OUT TO THE MOVIES. WHEN I GOT TO COLLEGE AND DISCOVERED HOUSE-MATES WHO TALKED ALL THROUGH SHOWS, THE PHENOMENON OF TALKING DURING FILMS WASN'T SO MYSTERIOUS ANY MORE. MY PARENTS SHOULD RUN A MANNERS BOOT-CAMP, I GUESS.

Catching up....Monday Movies

Howard Gets Caught in SPIDER-MAN Love Triangle

Columbia Pictures is in talks with Bryce Dallas Howard to play Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy in SPIDER-MAN 3.

She joins a cast that already includes Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace and Thomas Haden Church.

The character of Gwen is pivotal in Spider-Man lore as Peter's high school crush, his first girlfriend and his first love. She ended up being kidnapped by the Green Goblin and died during a bridgetop battle in "Amazing Spider-Man" issue 121.

The character will be part of a love triangle and she does survive in the story the studio is reporting. EDITOR'S NOTE: COMING BETWEEN SPIDEY AND MJ?! NOOO!

V Will Open in Imax Too

Imax Corp. has announced it will screen V FOR VENDETTA on March 17th in Imax, the day it opens nation wide at traditional cinemas, on its giant screens.

Imax will digitally remaster the movie for the special release format. EDITOR'S NOTE: NATALIE PORTMAN...REALLY REALLY BIIIIIIG. (ALTHOUGH, AS PETITE AS SHE IS, IT WILL PROBABLY JUST MAKE HER LOOK NORMAL SIZE).

Deschanel Takes BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA

Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media have signed Zooey Deschanel for BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA.

She joins a cast that already includes Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb.

Hutcherson and Robb play two classmates who, because of their outsider status, create the world of Terabithia, an imaginary kingdom filled with giants and trolls and all manner of magical beings. Deschanel will be the kids' teacher, whom they admire.

Gabor Csupo will direct from a script by Jeff Stockwell.

Rothman on X-Men 3 and beyond
Is the next “X-Men” the end for our mutant ensemble? Not at all, tells Fox Studio Head Tom Rothman, to IESB.

“You'll see more of the X-Men world. You know, we're developing a Wolverine movie right now, [and] we're developing a Magneto picture.

Rothman also confirmed the new title for “X-Men 3” as being “X-Men : The Last Stand”, and added that it’s “the conclusion of this trilogy. These three movies work as a trilogy. These characters in this relationship, it's the culmination of that saga. It's the culmination and the resolution of those relationships laid out in the first two movies. That doesn't mean never, I would ever say never again, but I will say that this brings that saga to an end. It's quite the way the last Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, brought that trilogy to a conclusion in terms of those characters, that's what this movie does. It goes all the way back to the first one and rounds off and completes that three-part story”.

Rothman also confirmed plans for an “Alien Vs.Predator 2”, which he says “They just got the script in [of]...we are making that movie, it's gonna be kick ass”. EDITOR'S NOTE: UH HUH.....

Warner remaking Gaslight
Proving that no old classic is safe these days, Warner has announced they’re remaking the 1944 classic “Gaslight”.

Joe Wright (“Pride and Prejduice”) will direct the redo, which will again tell of a woman whose suitor has designs on her money, and after luring her to a house of horrors, he methodically tries to convince her she is insane. Abi Morgan will write.

Producer Paula Weinstein said both Wright and Morgan were eager to transplant the drama from their native Great Britain.

"(Joe) wanted to explore what goes on here (in America) with the money and the drive for it," Weinstein said. "Abi is a great writer of character, and we wanted someone who'd bring a fresh take to the California setting. They will go back to the original play as a source as well." EDITOR'S NOTE: DO CALIFORNIANS HAVE ENOUGH CHARACTER TO NEED A WRITER THAT SPECIALIZES IN THAT? (NICE THAT THEY MIGHT ACTUALLY READ THE PLAY. EVEN IF IT'S JUST TO SAY THEY DID?)

Gollum joins The Prestige
Andy Serkis looks set to be escaping from confines of the monkey suit and the I-mac.
The “King Kong” and “Lord of the Rings” fave has snagged a role in Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige”, playing an assistant to a character played by David Bowie.

The film stars Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival magicians who battle each other for trade secrets. The impressive support cast includes the likes of the aforesaid Bowie, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and Piper Perabo. EDITOR'S NOTE: QUITE A CAST!

Ormond reporting on Che
Julia Ormond is returning to the comfort of the big-time vehicles.

The “Legends of the Fall” beauty will co-star alongside Benicio Del Toro in “Che”, Steven Soderbergh’s biopic on the Latin American Political revolutionary.

Ormond will give life to a female reporter in the film, currently shooting in the Big Apple.

The film also stars Javier Bardem, Ryan Gosling, Franka Potente, Benjamin Bratt and Alex Manette. EDITOR'S NOTE: ANOTHER GROOVY CAST!

24 Movie at the end of the current season?
According to Australia’s TV Week, that much-talked-about feature film version of “24” might be in theatre projectors sooner – rather than later.

The plan is to start work immediately on the film, and have it in theatres shortly after this season’s – season 5 – finale. A sixth season of the TV series would follow the film. That ol’ workdog, Kiefer Sutherland, is apparently locked and loaded and ready to go.

In other words, they’re taking a cue from “The X-Files”, who released a feature film version of the series (“X-Files : Fight the Future”) between seasons. EDITOR'S NOTE: NOW THEY JUST NEED TO MAKE IT AS GOOD AS THAT XFILES MOVIE. A HIGH BAR WAS SET. (AND I NEED TO GET CAUGHT UP ON "24", AND SOMEONE NEEDS TO MAKE ANOTHER "XFILES" FILM)!

At the recent semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour, Sutherland said he believes the market is ready for the film version. “I think there's always a way to actually deal with an idea of 24 as a film that would completely be separate from 24 the television show. And by that I mean the characters could be different. They could be completely unrelated, and I think that that would still be effective”. EDITOR'S NOTE: OH. SO MAYBE IT'S "24" BUT NOT ANY OF THE PEOPLE FROM THE TV SHOW? INTERSTING...

Susco on Forge and Anvil films
Warner recently optioned Greg Bear’s “Forge of God” and “Anvil of Stars” novels, with Stephen Susco (The Grudge) attached to work on them at one stage.

I was over at Susco’s forum and noticed he’s offered an update on how those films are progressing.

“I originally pitched the books in 1999 -- I had a chance to work closely with Greg Bear, he's one hell of a guy. In fact, a few of the ideas I integrated into the ANVIL OF STARS section prompted him to tell me I'd given him some thoughts about where a sequel could go ---- man, that was one of the highlights of my career! Don't know the status of that, if he's working on a third book or anything...

“But anyway: the project got set up as a trilogy at Warner Brothers with another writer attached, and I was pretty heartbroken about that. But then many years later, they brought me back into the fold. I re-shaped the project from a trilogy to what I always originally felt it should be -- one three-hour film combining FORGE and ANVIL. I think we ended up with a pretty rockin' script at the end of the day -- -- and now the ball is in WB's court. They have a few other big sci-fi projects (ENDER'S GAME, LOGAN'S RUN, etc.), so there are surely some major internal machinations going on over there”, says Susco.

For the uninitiated, “The Forge of God” tells of two different groups of aliens that arrive on Earth concurrently. “Anvil” is the sequel, which sees a group of group of human children volunteer to board a Ship of the Law created by the alien race that saved humanity. EDITOR'S NOTE: "THE FORGE OF GOD" IS A VERY GOOD READ. "ANVIL" DRAGS QUITE A BIT. SO COMBINING THEM IS A GOOD IDEA...CUTTING OUT THE FLABBY STUFF THAT SLOWED THEM (MOSTLY "ANVIL) DOWN.

Two of Bear’s other books, “Darwin’s Radiio” and “Darwin’s Children”, about a disgraced paleontologist and a genetic engineer both come across evidence of cover-ups in which the government is clearly up to no good, have also been optioned. Michael DeLuca and Howard Braunstein will be bringing those to the screen. EDITOR'S NOTE: AS ALWAYS WITH GOOD SCIFI, IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE IF THE DEPTH OF BEAR'S IDEAS TRANSLATES TO THE SCREEN. (OR IF THE MOVIES JUST END UP ABOUT THE ACTION ELEMENTS, WHICH ARE ONLY A SMALL PART OF BEAR'S WORK).

It's a case of Deja Vu for Iceman
It mightn’t have made as much bank as some of us had hoped, but “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” seems to have done some good for Val Kilmer’s career.

Mapother’s one-time soon-to-be wingman turned B-video superstar is re-entering the big leagues to play an FBI agent in the Denzel Washington-starring “Déjà vu”. The film, co-starring Jim Caviezel, Adam Goldberg and Paula Patton, reunites Kilmer with his “Top Gun” director and producer, Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer.

In the film, Kilmer and Washington play FBI agents who get the opportunity to step back in time to stop a terrorist from blowing up a ferry. It’s set for a shoot in New Orleans next month.

Then, Kilmer stars opposite Meryl Streep – bon voyage Christian Slater, by the sounds – in “Dark Matter”, about a Chinese University student who reacts violently to being told that he’s got no chance of winning the Nobel Prize.

Williams to Play Roosevelt
20th Century Fox has signed Robin Williams to play Theodore Roosevelt in NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM. He joins a cast which includes Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Kim Raver, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs.

In the film, a night watchman, played by Stiller, at a museum of natural history discovers that its many exhibits awaken at night under the spell of a pharaoh's tablet. The exhibit of President Roosevelt, who founded the American Museum of Natural History in New York, is one of those that comes to life.

Marshall keen on Armstrong biopic
Uber-producer, and sometime director, Frank Marshall (“Arachnophobia”) tells IF magazine that he’s hoping to direct the new Lance Armstrong biopic.

Matt Damon is circling “The Lance Armstrong Story”, in which he’d play the lead-peddler, a six time Tour de France champion who overcome testicular cancer to win six the race each consecutive time.

Marshall is producing “The Bourne Ultimatum”, starring Damon, so they’ll probably do the handshake thing then

Bello, Butler join Brosnan for 'Butterfly'
Maria Bello and Gerard Butler have signed on to star opposite Pierce Brosnan in the indie thriller "Butterfly on a Wheel." Directed by Mike Barker ("Best Laid Plans"), the film is produced by Irish Dreamtime, Infinity Features and Icon Prods.

The story revolves around a happily married couple (Bello and Butler) living in the suburbs whose life unravels when their 5-year-old daughter is kidnapped. Brosnan will play the kidnapper. William Morrissey penned the screenplay. Filming is set to begin in March in Vancouver. EDITOR'S NOTE: WOW. BROSNAN HAS REALLY GONE TO THE DARK SIDE SINCE ENDING HIS BOND RUN, HUH? LOOKS LIKE HE'S HAVING A GOOD TIME INDULGING HIS DARKER IMPULSES. (YOU GO, REMINGTON!)

McG back in directing game at Warners
After a three-year absence, McG EDITOR'S NOTE: HOLD THE PICKLE, HOLD THE LETTUCE....TEE HEE..... is returning to the feature film directing chair to direct Matthew McConaughey in the untitled Marshall College football project for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Thunder Road's Basil Iwanyk is producing along with McG and his Wonderland Sound & Vision shingle.

The movie is based on an event that occurred in the 1970s, when members of the West Virginia-based Marshall College football team -- along with most of its coaching staff, sports commentators and many of its local boosters -- were killed in a plane crash. Struggling through the loss, a determined coach named Jack Lengyel (McConaughey) and a small group of surviving players try to rebuild the team. The screenplay is by Jamie Linden, based on a story by Cory Helms & Jamie Linden.

Bond back in Martin

Reuters is reporting James Bond will once again drive an Aston Martin. His car in CASINO ROYALE will be the Aston Martin DBS. EDITOR'S NOTE: PURTY!

Daniel Craig visited the Aston Martin headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, last week to check out his new ride.

The carmaker stated, "It is great news that Bond will drive an Aston Martin again and we have built him something special to enable him to do his job in style."

Catching up....Monday TV

EDITOR'S NOTE: LEST WE REST ON OUR LAURELS AND JUST ENJOY THE CURRENT TV SLATE, WE MUST STAY ALERT, FOR TV PILOT SEASON IS AGAIN UPON US.
CBS Goes for ULTRA, WAY
CBS has given a greenlight to JOAN OF ARCADIA's creator Barbara Hall for a pilot based on the comicbook ULTRA.

The story revolves around a female superhero EDITOR'S NOTE: YAY! A GRRLLL ACTION HERO! who must contend with saving the world while pursuing a life as a single girl in the city. In the comicbook, which parodies celebrity magazines, Ultra's alter ego, Pearl Penalosa, is a semi-icon who graces billboards advertising popular products.

Barbara Hall, David Engel and David Alpert will executive produce.

CBS has also ordered the supernatural pilot THE WAY from writer Adam Kulakow. Michael De Luca and Adam Kulakow will executive produce.

The show will center on a New England family that copes with the death of the powerful clan's matriarch by using witchcraft to hurt their rivals and build a successful business empire. EDITOR'S NOTE: WONDER IF THIS IS BASED ON ANY FAMILY EMPIRE WE KNOW? (CAUSE IT COULD EXPLAIN A LOT....)

[Updated: Please pardon the typo. Changed "her" to "the" in reference to Ultra. Yes, the script/pilot is based on the comicbook written by Jonathan & Joshua Luna, with art by Jonathan Luna.]

Chandler lights up 'Friday'
Kyle Chandler has been tapped to play the lead in NBC's drama pilot "Friday Night Lights," based on the 2004 movie, while America Ferrera has been cast in the title role of ABC's comedy "Ugly Betty," based on the popular Colombian telenovela.

Additionally, Matthew Lillard has signed on as the star of Fox's one-hour pilot "13 Graves," which feature director Dominic Sena has come on board to direct, and Jay Harrington has been cast in CBS' comedy pilot "Sex, Power, Love & Politics."

On the pilot-pickup side, ABC has given a six-episode commitment to Touchstone Television for a comedy from "According to Jim" executive producer Howard J. Morris about four friends from high school who reunite unexpectedly when each hits a crossroad in their lives.

Pilot keeps Rifkin with ABC
Ron Rifkin has been tapped to co-star in ABC's drama pilot "Brothers & Sisters," while Chi McBride has been cast in another ABC drama pilot, the untitled Hank Steinberg project (formerly "Nine Lives").

In other pilot casting news, 14-year-old Keir Gilchrist has landed a co-starring role on Fox's comedy pilot "Becoming Glen."

On the cable side, Ryan McPartlin (WB Network's "Living With Fran"), Joanna Canton (Fox's "That '70s Show"), Brian Howe (Fox's "A Minute With Stan Hooper") and Dhirendra round out the cast of USA Network's one-hour pilot "Underfunded."

"Brothers & Sisters," from Touchstone TV, is a family soap revolving around adult siblings. Rifkin will play the siblings' uncle.

'Brokeback' duo at ABC for 'Sheriff'
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, riding high on the awards season range with their script for "Brokeback Mountain," have set up an ensemble drama TV project at ABC and Touchstone TV.

Tentatively titled "Sheriff Luke," the project centers on a sheriff -- a widower and Gulf War veteran with two teenage children -- in a small Midwestern town beset by such urban ills as illegal immigration and illicit drug use and dealing.

The project was originally brought to the network and studio more than a year ago by Francie Calfo, ABC's executive vp development and current programming. But because of pre-existing commitments, including the upcoming CBS miniseries "Comanche Moon," McMurtry and Ossana have not had the time to pen the script, which is now slated to be developed for the 2007 pilot crop.

Ritter joins eye's 'Class'; 4 for T'stone
Jason Ritter has been tapped to star in "The Class," CBS' new comedy series from David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik.

Meanwhile, on the heels of the ABC/Touchstone TV hot trio of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" each winning a Golden Globe on Monday, the network has given the green light to another trio of Touchstone TV-produced hourlong hopefuls, the pilots "Sixty Minute Man," "Day Break" and "Brothers & Sisters."

Additionally, ABC has given the go-ahead to "Our Thirties," a comedy pilot from writer/executive producer Dave Walpert and Touchstone TV. "The Class," from Warner Bros. TV, begins with a party thrown by 27-year-old Ethan (Ritter) for his girlfriend, whom he met in third grade. Ethan invites six other people who were in the class with them, all of whom have since lost touch with one another. The party then becomes the springboard for following how the lives of the reunited characters continue to intersect.

Mr & Mrs Smith, The TV Show?
Though it’s doubtful the Jolie-Pitt’s will be involved in any capacity whatsoever, Contact Music has announced they’ll be bringing their big-screen characters of “Mr & Mrs Smith” to the smaller refines of Television.

Director Doug Liman and writer Simon Kinberg are re-teaming to develop a series spin-off of the 2005 action hit which bought Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together on-screen and off.

So who is going to play the new Mr and Mrs gun-tote?

"We're going to do a nationwide talent search and find basically the next Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie”, says Liman. EDITOR'S NOTE: OOOO, OOO! PICK ME, PICK ME! SNICKER. (AND I'M SURE BUDDING STARS ARE JUST STANDING ON A CORNER WAITING FOR THIS FORTUNATE TURN OF EVENTS. MAYBE THERE'S A GUY AND A GIRL, AND THEY'RE STANDING THERE DATING BEHIND THE GUY'S WIFE. OOOH...BAD QOTD, BAD BAD).

NBC Plans Post-Olympics 'Heist,'
Other Changes To Steal Prime-Time Momentum
PASADENA, CALIF.--NBC HAS A LOT to prove, given its last-place standing and in March, after its Winter Olympics coverage, it will make major programming changes.

During a presentation on Sunday at the Television Critics Association tour here, NBC announced a big move, switching its long-running dominant Wednesday 10 p.m. show "Law & Order" back an hour to 9 p.m. to make room for an "Oceans 11"-type of light-drama thief series, "Heist," from Doug Liman, director of "Swingers" and "The Bourne Identity" theatrical releases. EDITOR'S NOTE: ALL TIMES EST, NATCH. AND THIS IS JUST PEACHY. SO NOW WEDNESDAY...ALREADY RUNNING AND EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES....IS GOING TO BE A 6-CAR PILE-UP AT 8PM (CST). GUESS WE'LL HAVE TO START CO-ORDINATING TAPING AGAIN. (LIKE THE OLD DAYS, BEFORE DVR).

But NBC didn't leave its long-time "Law & Order" executive producer wanting. It is giving Dick Wolf another show on Fridays (without the usual "Law & Order" brand name). "Convictions" is a multiple story-line show about young lawyers, which will play on Friday at 10 p.m. Running right before it will be "Las Vegas," which moved from Monday night.

Critics groaned with disappointment upon hearing of the move to Friday. Typically, many networks send shows to Friday as a place to fade away. But Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, doesn't look at it this way--he sees opportunity. "Sure, shows win on Friday--but they win by default," he said. "The networks put in leftovers on Friday and don't market them."

Other major changes to start in March include a home for its decently rated game show, "Deal or No Deal," hosted by Howie Mandel, at 8 p.m.--which will be followed at 9 p.m. by "The Apprentice." The Mark Burnett-produced reality show has already moved off of the network's premiere Thursday night spot in favor of NBC's growing comedies, "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office."

NBC's major decision of the year--moving "Earl" and "The Office" onto its long-time heralded Thursday lineup some weeks ago--has given the network a 31 percent ratings boost, said Reilly. "All this stuff gives us a will to live," he noted. EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL AS LONG AS YOU ARE HAPPY. DON'T MIND US...THE VIEWERS. (OR SHOULD I SAY, FORMER VIEWERS, WHEN WE CAN'T FIND OUR SHOWS.).

Also in March, "The Office" is taking a strange mid-season break because its star Steve Carell is scheduled to shoot a movie for NBC sister division Universal Pictures. This was scheduled long before NBC put "The Office" in on Thursday night. A new sitcom, "Teachers," takes the place of "The Office."

As expected, two of NBC's long-time high-profile shows--which have seen better days--will have their series finales in May: "Will & Grace" will end on May 18; and "The West Wing" will stop on May 14.

In regard to networks' recent iTunes deals, and other new on-demand deals, Reilly said one of the key battlegrounds will be with the unions. "It's going to be a big issue--no question," he said. "These are uncharted waters. It will certainly be a priority for us." But while iTunes-like deals are making major headlines, there's no doubt about what is still most important, said Reilly. "The network is still the premiere platform." EDITOR'S NOTE: CAUSE WE HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE THE OTHER STUFF PAY YET?

EDITOR'S NOTE: AND SPEAKING OF OUR BUDDY DICK WOLF......
'Law & Order' Creator Gets Fresh
· A new series from Dick Wolf about young D.A.s stars a bunch of hotties, much to NBC's liking.

By Meg James, Times Staff Writer

Dick Wolf, television's king of the procedural cop drama, built his empire on a string of grumpy old men. EDITOR'S NOTE: GRUMPY OLD MEN PAIRED WITH SKINNY YOUNG WOMEN, YES?

So when his newest series debuts in March, fans of the character actors who gave Wolf's "Law & Order" franchise gravitas — Jerry Orbach, Fred Thompson and Sam Waterston — will be in for a shock.

"Conviction," a sudsy look at the lives of seven New York assistant district attorneys, features a passel of beautiful people as its main characters, just one of whom is over 40. And that poor guy is killed off before the end of the pilot. EDITOR'S NOTE: NO DOUBT SUICIDE FROM HAVING TO LISTEN TO A BUNCH OF SELF-INVOLVED PRETTY-YOUNG-THINGS WHINING. (YES, I'M OLD AND BITTER. AND I'M GOOD AT IT).

Asked last week whether "Conviction" is trading furrowed brows for fresh faces in a play for younger viewers, Wolf was characteristically frank.

"Unabashedly," said the 59-year-old hit maker. "That's who the advertisers want to reach. That's who the networks want to watch their shows. And it's not a mystery that people like watching people who are like themselves."EDITOR'S NOTE: WHICH IS WHY I'LL BE ROOTING FOR THE KILLERS. (UMM...THAT MIGHT HAVE COME OUT WRONG?)

Wolf's wooing of the youth market, which he will officially unveil today in Pasadena at the semiannual gathering of the Television Critics Assn., couldn't come at a better time for NBC, the network he has made his home for more than two decades.

Last season, NBC plummeted from first place to fourth in prime time among 18- to 49-year-old viewers. Just as alarming to executives there was that their audience was rapidly turning gray. Two seasons ago, the median age of NBC's prime-time audience was just under 46 years old. This season, NBC's audience has "aged up" to 49 years.

"We're trying to turn a page right now," said Kevin Reilly, NBC's entertainment president. "We're trying to rebuild our schedule by introducing new shows that have distinct points of view. And the fact that Dick Wolf is on board with us says that he's turning a page too."EDITOR'S NOTE: BY 'DISTINCT POINTS OF VIEW' I GUESS THEY MEAN JUVENILE AND VAPID?

Wolf wasn't always "on board." Last year, NBC executives gave the quick hook to Wolf's fourth installment of his profitable franchise, "Law & Order: Trial by Jury." Wolf, whose shows have been the bedrock of NBC's prime-time schedule and made the company hundreds of millions of dollars, was furious.

Then, NBC delivered to Wolf what to him was the ultimate slap: It replaced his ripped-from-the-headlines show with "Inconceivable," a hormone-charged drama about a fertility clinic that survived on the air just two weeks.

NBC's reasons for canceling "Trial by Jury" were twofold, said executives involved in the decision. The network was trying to send a signal to advertisers and Hollywood's creative community that NBC was more than the "Law & Order" network. Plus, the median age of the audience for "Trial by Jury" was nearly 54. EDITOR'S NOTE: OOOO..ALMOST DEAD.

But Wolf fumed that NBC seemed to have predetermined that the show would skew older when it placed it in the 10 p.m. Friday slot, when nearly half of the broadcast networks' audience is older than 50.

So when it came time to tear down the elaborate "Trial by Jury" sets, which had cost $2 million to build, Wolf refused.

And that, it turned out, would prove to be a masterful strategic move that eventually helped get "Conviction" greenlighted.

NBC isn't the only network sensitive about the age of its audience. Last May, CBS canceled its oldest-skewing shows: "60 Minutes 2," "JAG," "Judging Amy" and even "Joan of Arcadia." CBS was attempting to dial down the median age of its prime-time audience, which is 51.7.

In comparison, ABC's audience comes in at 46.3 and Fox Broadcasting is the youngest of the Big Four networks at 41.8. EDITOR'S NOTE: I BET THEY FIND OUT THAT THE AGGREGATE FOX AUDIENCE ALSO HAS THE LOWEST IQ.

But NBC was in a particular pickle. "Our [median] age has climbed dramatically because we have older shows on our schedule," Reilly said. "Shows tend to get older audiences when they stay on the air longer."

For example, viewers who were in their mid-30s in 1990, when Wolf's first "Law & Order" launched, now are over 50. EDITOR'S NOTE: POOR OLD THINGS. THAT'S ASSUMING THEY ARE EVEN STILL ALIVE, RIGHT? The median age of that Wednesday night show's audience is 52.1. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," the Sunday installment, is even older: 53.2. Only the Tuesday night show, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," has a median within the desired demographic and just by a whisker: 49.

"Dramas have always skewed older," Wolf said. "You have to have a certain number of miles on the odometer to have the desire to sit down and watch something that requires some thinking."EDITOR'S NOTE: OR YOU JUST CAN'T GET UP OFF THE COUCH. (I MEAN, IF YOU WERE STUPID WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER, YOU'RE NOT SUDDENLY GOING TO GET SMART WHEN YOU'RE OLDER. YOU JUST CAN'T REACH THE REMOTE AS EASILY)

So when Wolf agreed to stock the "Conviction" cast with nothing but hotties, he got a warm reception. Gone was the "Law & Order" signature in the title. Gone was the familiar percussive theme song. And most important, Wolf deviated sharply from his tried-and-true formula: building each episode around solving a single crime.

"Conviction" will have multiple story lines and delve deeply into the fears, foibles and sex lives of its young professionals. EDITOR'S NOTE: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ And yes, it will be shot on those $2-million "Trial by Jury" sets that Wolf stubbornly refused to destroy.

"I knew I'd never get to build another set like that," Wolf said.

Reilly acknowledged that within NBC's Burbank office, "saving the sets" became "kind of this interesting inspiration. We had wanted to do a show about D.A.s — that concept was in the ether. And about the same time, Dick started talking about doing a show about young D.A.s."

Although NBC didn't greenlight "Conviction," which costs the company about $2.4 million an episode, just to save the sets, nobody minded that the recycling saved the network money and time.

"We were able to fast-track the show because we didn't have to spend time building sets," Reilly said. "We had the need and the opportunity to make it work."EDITOR'S NOTE: SO IF I OFFER TO FILM A SHOW IN MY DINING ROOM, DOES THAT GET IT TO THE HEAD OF THE LINE?

Last week, NBC executives debated where in its lineup to place Wolf's new show. They don't have a lot of options.

NBC doesn't want to schedule it on Tuesdays opposite Fox's younger-skewing doctor drama, "House," or "American Idol," which returned last week to 35 million viewers, the show's biggest audience ever for a season premiere. Nor does NBC want to put "Conviction" in another suicide slot — Wednesdays at 9 p.m. — in which it would compete against ABC's juggernaut "Lost."

That leaves 10 p.m. Friday, the slot previously occupied by "Trial by Jury."And that, say analysts and advertisers, won't go far in helping attract people under 35.

The show's success "depends on where on the schedule NBC puts it," said Jason Maltby, president of national TV for ad-buying firm Mindshare. "And putting it on Friday night isn't going to help."

Shari Anne Brill, programming director for another ad-buying firm, Carat USA, agreed: "It's tough to launch a show at Friday at 10 when younger viewers aren't around."

Reilly defended the Friday night slot, saying "Law & Order: SVU" and John Wells' "Third Watch" prospered in that hour.

Although Wolf grouses about the advertising industry's obsession with the 18-to-49 demographic, he has to admit that he's excited by the freshness of "Conviction." Instead of the police "procedural," his stock in trade, Wolf is calling the new show a "character-cedural."EDITOR'S NOTE: THAT SPINNING SOUND YOU HEAR IS DANIEL WEBSTER, TURNING VERY VERY RAPIDLY IN HIS COFFIN. He scoffs at any suggestion that he might be selling out to the youth-obsessed industry, noting that the average age of an actual New York assistant attorney is 28.

"The show reflects reality. If you walk into any courthouse around the country, you will see young people," he said. "What are people going to say, that I'm selling out to reality?"

And what a reality it is. In the first episode, a tousled assistant district attorney, played by 27-year-old Eric Balfour, accidentally leaves his badge in the bed of a character a colleague later describes as a "skinny chick with an octopus tattoo." Det. Lennie Briscoe, the iconic "Law & Order" character played by the late Orbach, never had problems like that. EDITOR'S NOTE: OOOO,EEEK. THERE'S AN IMAGE TO LEAVE US WITH....JERRY ORBACH GETTIN IT ON WITH A TATTOO'D LADY. URP.

Which is just the way Wolf wants it. On his trademark shows, he said, the main characters have always been portrayed as confident veterans whose personal angst rarely figures into the plot."You don't see Jesse Martin or one of Sam [Waterston's] assistants throwing up in the bathroom," he said. But with "Conviction," you will. EDITOR'S NOTE: GOSH, THERE'S A GREAT MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR THE SHOW, HUH? YOUNG HOTTIES THROWING UP. (FRANKLY, IF I HAVE TO WATCH BODILY FUNCTIONS, I'D RATHER WATCH JESSE MARTIN'S. OR EVEN SAM WATERSTON'S). "It's great to see the legal system through the eyes of a newcomer," Wolf said. Come March, he'll find out whether TV viewers agree.