|
|
| home | news | features | fiction | reviews | tv ratings | mail | ||
 |
||
|
24-30
OCTOBER
|
THIS
WEEK IN SCI-FI #11 This week on Girls Kick Ass: Jolie still mad with dad; Gellar: the next Dido?; Gellar reveals communication problems; Beckinsale: stretch marks, not boob job; Gellar tops Revolver; Alba reaches Sonic speed; Jolie: I have two wonderful lovers; Angelina Jolie snubs dad during junket; Gellar dumbed down; SMG on why she quit Buffy; McGowan sells home to O.C. star Preview - Charmed: Charmed Noir (Sunday 14 November, 8pm/7pm) Femme Fatale - While investigating a murder at Magic School, Paige and Agent Brody (Kerr Smith) are sucked into an unfinished novel written 20 years ago by two students. They suddenly find themselves in a 1930s film noir, where they are chased by gangsters in pursuit of the famed Burmese Falcon. With no way to escape, Paige and Brody must help Eddie Mullen (guest star Bug Hall), the missing young author of the novel, learn to be a hero so the story can end. Back at Magic School, Phoebe, Piper and Leo frantically try to rescue Paige and Brody by writing clues into the pages of the novel. Meanwhile, Phoebe tries to help Leo win Piper back, but Piper is still struggling with her feelings. Michael Grossman directed the episode written by Curtis Kheel. At last - Charmed on DVD After months of rumours, Paramount Home Entertainment has officially announced that the first season of Charmed is on its DVD schedule for next February. The TVShowsonDVD website suggests that Paramount plans to release a new season every three months - February, May, August, November and so on. There's no news on whether this will actually be the case, but the pattern is very similar to that of other TV on DVD releases from Paramount. The Dalek Invasion of Cardiff Today's Western Mail (2 November) reports that police were alerted yesterday after a shoot-out involving armed guards - and Daleks. Gunfire and explosions could be heard for miles around as the filming for the new series of Doctor Who went off with a bang. Police had a series of calls from passers-by who thought an armed robbery was going on in Cardiff city centre. But the noise was from the special effects on the set of the sci-fi series. A BBC spokesman confirmed that police had been told about the highly-explosive scenes that were being filmed in the Millennium Stadium. Shopper Mandy Britton, 33, said, "I parked my car next to the stadium and suddenly heard gunfire. "It was so loud and close-by that I felt myself duck for cover. "It gave me a real fright. I had no idea that Doctor Who was being filmed next door." Safety screens had to be put in front of the BBC cameras to avoid them being damaged by the gunfire and explosions. Specially-trained armoury experts were on hand to keep the risk to a minimum. A BBC insider said, "The battle scenes are very realistic and that means the use of hazardous explosives. "We informed South Wales Police so they were aware of our activities." Meanwhile, the Sun gave its readers a glimpse of the new-look gold coloured Daleks, bizarrely drawing a parallel between Davros' creations and Puff Daddy (or whatever his name is these days). The paper, still sticking to the line that it was "the Sun wot won" the battle for the Daleks' return, pointed out some differences between the old and new-style Daleks, including bigger "sensors" (or lights on the top of the dome to you and me) and a casing that is no longer made of cardboard (which it never was anyway). The Sun's feature included a photo of a BBC technician holding what appeared to be a remote control unit standing next to a Dalek, possibly indicating that the cases will no longer have a human operator inside them. (So it's the dole queue for long-time operator John Scott Martin then.) Sky One orders more Hex Sky One bosses have ordered a second run of supernatural teen drama Hex, which has become the channel's most successful homegrown drama. Nearly 900,000 viewers watched the first episode of the series, which was billed as "British Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The first season comes to an end on Sky One this Sunday. The success of the show, which peaked with 969,000 viewers and consistently won its slot against its multichannel rivals, is a boost for Sky One and Hex's production company, Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Productions. Sky Networks managing director, Dawn Airey, hopes flagship drama shows along the lines of Hex and US imports such as Nip/Tuck and 24 will take the channel upmarket and increase subscriber numbers. Ms Airey said Hex was the "most ambitious drama Sky One has ever commissioned." "Hex has had a huge impact with a dedicated and upmarket audience," said a Sky One spokesman. "It has really created a buzz and spawned numerous spinoff fansites and chatrooms on the internet." Shine and its co-producer, Sony Pictures, will begin work on a new 13-part run of the series in the spring. David Boreanaz returns to TV According to the Hollywood Reporter, former Angel star David Boreanaz is preparing for a return to the small screen. The actor will star in a new drama pilot for ABC, Warner Bros. Television and the Tennenbaum Company based on the life of an undercover cop posing as a hit man named Jack Ballantine. The network has ordered a pilot and could order the show to go to a series for a possible autumn 2005 broadcast. Patrick Kelly Smith (Don't Say A Word, A Perfect Murder) is writing the pilot's script. Why
Buffy pin-up Tony is still single Few actors can boast a more devoted female following than suave heart-throb Tony Head. His chiselled good looks and the endless resources of charm he has showcased in the legendary Gold Blend ads and hit US series Buffy the Vampire Slayer have turned him into a sex symbol on both sides of the Atlantic. And now the roles of the smooth Prime Minister in Little Britain and an endearing Jack the Lad in Monarch of the Glen are raising his profile even higher. Yet, strange as it seems, there is one woman who finds Tony utterly resistible - his own partner. "Yes, Sarah refuses to marry me," he admits with a groan. "We've been together 21 years. She is one of those people who is immediately attractive and has extraordinary energy." "We have two wonderful daughters and we're a real team... But whenever I've mentioned getting married she says 'Fuck off!' and starts barfing!" Far from it being a major problem, Tony gives the impression that he wouldn't swap his life with Sarah for anything. Yet he remains hopeful that he'll eventually lead her up the aisle. "Well, we might have to because of this inheritance tax business," he explains craftily. "Because if I died without being married, she'd have to pay the inheritance tax on my estate." Sarah runs a specialist animal training centre near the home in Bath that they share with their daughters, Emily, 15, and 13-year-old Daisy. Likened to "horse whispering", her Tellington Touch equine awareness method is a form of animal massage. "The centre is doing unbelievably well and there's a huge waiting list," says Tony. "Sarah's amazing at it. For instance, she can tell how a dog behaves just by looking at its posture. It's quite a skill." Sarah and Tony clearly give each other the kind of support that is rare in many marriages - let alone showbiz unions. The really testing time for them both began in 1997, after Tony's previously solid career had stalled. Prior to that, it had been relatively smooth sailing. The young Anthony Head had initially flirted with becoming a full-time musician before taking up acting and starring on the West End stage. Later, he followed his elder brother, singer Murray, into the lead role in Chess and worked on various TV shows. He then bagged the starring part in the Gold Blend ads, in which he and Sharon Maughan flirted over the coffee granules between 1987 and 1993. While it turned Tony into a household name, the role also proved a big turn-off for British TV drama producers. "The ads meant I was offered fantastic roles in the theatre," he recalls. "But as for TV dramas, my agent was told: 'Look, we don't want viewers reaching for their coffee jars.'" So typecast and desperate, fortysomething Tony eventually decided to pack his bags and go to America. "Most actors want to do the States - it's where they make the movies we've all grown up with." While Tony did the round of auditions and meetings, and got used to being told of his near-misses, Sarah and the kids were back in Britain. "She had her life here and the girls were at school," he explains. "It wouldn't have been fair to uproot them." But there were many times he needed Sarah's support. Finally, at his wits' end, he took her advice and signed up for acting classes... but on the very same day, he landed the role of Rupert Giles on Buffy. He thought the idea of a vampire-slaying teenager struggling with the forces of darkness and puberty was the most original thing he'd seen. After a shaky start Tony's instincts proved correct. The show ran for seven seasons and now the cast, including Sarah Michelle Gellar and American Pie's Alyson Hannigan, are world famous. But success meant five years of being in LA while his family were based in Britain. He ran up a massive phone bill, flew home when he could and somehow made it work. "I found out that anything less than six days off in a row meant going back to the family was like an intrusion to them and worse than not going back at all," he says. "There were a few times when I wondered whether it was getting too difficult but the kids always said no, because the show is 'way too cool.'" "The money really didn't mean anything," he insists. "What was great was when the show came over to England and it became cool here, too. "Daisy and Emily were also part of the set, which was like a huge family. Every summer holiday they'd visit. And Sarah Michelle and Alyson were like big sisters to them. It was wonderful. "But the family thing and being away was extremely painful." Now based full-time in Britain again, Tony is enjoying family life and is thrilled that both his girls are considering acting careers. So far, Daisy has appeared in two BBC kids' dramas and Emily has won awards at drama festivals. It obviously runs in the family. Tony's mother, Helen Shingler, was a 1950s British movie starlet, while his father, Seafield Head, made documentaries. Tony still shudders at the memory of being coached for auditions by his mother. "It's hard to do these things in front of a parent and so I try to remember that with my girls," he says. "Actually, both Daisy and Emily are really good. Eventually, I'd love them to go to drama school." When he's not making up for lost time with his daughters, Tony has been juggling an increasingly hectic work schedule. He starred in two series of the sex comedy Manchild, playing an impotent lothario and has a recurring role on Little Britain that has given him yet more fans. And then he was brought in to provide some old-fashioned caddishness to Monarch of the Glen. "My character, Chester, is a playboy, who's these to stir things up between Clive Owen's character, Paul, and Simone Lahbib's character, Isobel. "It's a fun role because Chester is so confident and just goes steaming in to get what he wants. It's great to be up here," he adds. "The cast are great and the location is beautiful..." But he has one reservation. "It's a long way from home to get back for a day, should you suddenly have the time off. These days, I'm really sensitive about working away from home for long periods. "But so far, I'm really enjoying it." Serenity jumps from TV Joss Whedon told Sci Fi Wire that it's been a challenge adapting Firefly for the big screen. "It's incredibly hard, you know, building a story that doesn't repeat or contradict what we've already done, that satisfies the fans, and yet is really made for people who have never seen the show," Whedon said in an interview on the film's set at Universal Studios in Los Angeles last August. "[It's] incredibly tricky. There's pitfalls everywhere." Serenity, set 500 years in the future, picks up the story of the intrepid crew of the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity. Fox cancelled Firefly in the middle of its first season, but fan enthusiasm for the show and its subsequent DVD release persuaded Universal Pictures to green-light a movie adaptation. "It's the hardest story I've ever had to structure," Whedon said. But, he added, "once I get writing these people, it's the easiest thing in the world, because I know them so well. The other thing is, a TV show is built around slow development of character. A movie ... is built around momentum. They're very different things. So ... you have to let some things drop, and you have to speed some thigns up, and you have to sort of know which ones are which." Serenity also marks Whedon's feature-film directorial debut. Whedon has been critical in the past about how his movie scripts for such films as Alien: Resurrection and the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie have been realised. "After Alien: Resurrection I said the next person who ruins one of my scripts is going to be me," he said, with tongue in cheek. "And I think I'm doing a fine job. Actually, I think that the director on occasion could use a little more imagination and the writer could have shut up occasionally. We fight, but we're still getting along better than I usually do." Seriously, Whedon said, "It's been great. ... Unlike TV, I have the time to really explore what it is I'm doing and to go back and reassess every day. But the piece is so fluid, because it's a domino effect. Every time you shoot a scene, it affects 50 other scenes. It's not like you have eight days and you know exactly what you need, and you're out and you go on to the next one. It's constantly shifting. Hopefully not so much that it doesn't know where it's going." Serenity, which is in post-production, opens in the US on 22 April 2005. Serenity gets darker Nathan Fillion - told Sci Wire that his character will be a little darker in the upcoming movie Serenity than he was allowed to be in the Firefly TV show. "I think he's still on that same vein," Fillion said in an interview last August. "I think if anything, I think he's a little darker than he was before. I think he's a little more empty than he was before. He, too, has had the rug pulled out from under him a couple of times since we've known him in the series. And I also think that, because we're in a film, another difference versus television is we can be allowed to be darker. ... We don't have a ... TV producer saying, 'Make him more likeable and funny.'" Fillion plays Mal Reynolds, captain of a small transport ship 500 years in the future, leading a ragtag crew of survivors from a galactic civil war. The film will feature the series' creepy cannibalistic renegades, the Reavers, and also give Reynolds a love interest, Fillion said. As for making the film, he added, "It's a little different. We had eight days to put on a one-hour show. Now we've got the better part of three months to put out a two-hour show. So the timing is a little different. But certainly I can tell that the quality is also extremely different." As for his acting style, Fillion said, "I haven't made any drastic changes or anything. I have noticed that my nose is a lot bigger on screen. It's like, there are times when if you could put your arms up, that's about how wide my nostrils are. I've always known I have big nostrils, but now I could park a Buick in them." back to the top |
|