Author: Robert Greenberger

Producer John Davis spoke openly about how he’d make a film out of the interactive video game The Sims. At a roundtable interview for his latest film, The Express, Davis expounded on hi splans and forthcoming slate of films.

“First of all,” Davis told the press, as reported at Collider, “The Sims, 65 million units have been sold, the most successful video game ever. Right? Ever.

“And Tom Rothman, the Chairman of Fox said to me, ‘How are you going to take this incredible piece of IP and make it into a movie?’ Right? Because most games aren’t movies, so this is the way I did it: The Sims, as you know, you can control your imaginary world, right? And our movie, a young man, a 16 year old kid of a 14 year old kid and his friend get their hands on this thing called the Sims Infinity Pack, right, which kind of this very strange video game store which was there just for that moment, and seemingly wasn’t all that. But what they realize is that they can scan their world in, because this is the most life like, real Sims game ever. And as they are playing this they are all of a sudden realizing is what they are playing on the game is having an effect on the real world. So in effect, through the game, they are able to control their world. It’s wish fulfillment, and obviously it turns against them.

“And definitely there will be somebody coming out of the game into the real world, like Weird Science did.”

In other news, Davis said there are no plans for a third Aliens vs. Predator film but he thinks the Predator is a great monster and would love to make another solo film with Arnold Schwarzenegger once the California governor is out of office.

Davis also confirmed Zak Penn continues on the new version of Jason and the Argonauts and is hoping to land a Big Name director. “I think that a realistic version of Jason, where you basically deal with a guy who’s a doubter in a world were everybody believes, still, in the gods and the gods influencing our world, and starts to become a believer, but very slowly because he can’t explain all this stuff. And it’s at the time were we were going from the idea of many gods to one, so there’s a lot of historical cool things there. You know, Jason was based on a great Greek myth, right, but it’s that great story of . . . You know, all those Greek tragedies have the greatest of human foibles, the greatest of human downfalls embodied in them, and I think this has that. And so it’s a more realistic version of all that.”
 

Clear Blue Water, the syndicated comic strip from Karen Montague-Reyes will switch from newspaper syndication via Universal Press Syndicate to a web-only model as of September 28.

The strip began in 2004 and features the semi-autobiographical adventures of Eve Merriweather-Torres and her husband, Manny.  The chatty strip has covered every top usually shunned by most strips – sex, religion, and politics. The family of seven includes their son Seth who is autistic which has been the subject of numerous strips

The strip never caught on and Montague-Reyes told Editor & Publisher, the switch "was not my decision, but there is something to be said for having a difficult and inevitable decision made for you."

Clear Blue Water will migrate at month’s end to the still-being-built www.KarenMontagueReyes.com site is currently under construction. "I love cartooning — and my strip, for me, was never about the money. Hopefully, my fans will stay tuned."

The season premier for Heroes is Monday and NBC promises their website will feature more micro-sites.  These specialized areas are promised to delve into secrets revealed on air, plus more graphic novel material, more cast commentaries and more webisodes beginning in December. In October, a special heroes vs. villains social network launches.

Meantime, the paperback edition of Saving Charlie, the sole Heroes tie-in novel, is also now on sale. DC’s second collection of Heroes webcomics will be out November 19 and collects all the comic material based on the second season.  Creators for the 272-page collection include Joe Kelly, Steven T. Seagle, Duncan Rouleau, Christopher Zatta, Mark Sable, Mark Warshaw, Christine Boylan, Chuck Kim, Harrison Wilcox, Pierluigi Cothran, Jim Martin, Timm Keppler, DJ Doyle, Staz Johnson, Michael Gaydos, Tom Grummett, Ryan Odagawa, Jason Badower, Travis Kotzebue, Marcus To with a cover from Gene Ha.

Hoping to generate good will for the remake of Knight Rider, NBC is offering the ability to investigate the back stories of some of their favorite characters, play an all-new KITT game and interact in Attack KITT and the KITT cave.

The peacock network has also freshened the Office website as the Dunder Mifflin Infinity social network will feature new branches, new tasks and new prizes. Additional new features include Meredith’s blog, Angela and Andy’s wedding planning microsite, a Serenity by Jan microsite and a second installment of webisodes slated for November debut.
 

Russell T. Davies, who is handing the Doctor Who series over to Stephen Moffat, has suggested that whenever David Tennant is done being the Doctor, the role should go to Russell Tovey.

The 26-year-old Tovey was seen in the most recent Christmas special as the young crewman, Midshipman Frame, left to pilot the sinking starship Titanic. He has also been on stage and screen in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys.

The creator, who leaves the show next year as lead writer and executive producer, said he thought Tovey was "going to be huge" and is "amazing".

In excerpts leaked throughout England for the forthcoming book Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale, Davis also floated the idea of JK Rowling appearing in a Christmas special and the author would work some sort of Doctor cameo into a Harry Potter novel.  Tennant objected, feeling it was crossing a line.

"David doesn’t like the JK idea, he thinks it sounds like a spoof, so we’ve paused slightly, wondering whether to win him round or just abandon something that he’s not going to be happy with," Davies said in an e-mail excerpted in the book.

Comic book fan Charlie Meyerson, currently a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, helped assemble a photo gallery of infamously recalled comic books.  We direct your attention to their website.

Not every title included here was recalled nor is this list in any way complete.  But in the wake of last week’s recall and reprinting of Action Comics #869, All-Star Batman & Robin #10, and DC: Decisions #1, it was a good time to go tripping down memory lane.

Eoin Colfer, best known for the Artemis Fowl series, has been tapped to write new novels set in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Adams’ widow, Jane Belson, personally selected the author.

According to a profile at the BBC, Colfer said the opportunity was akin to "being offered the superpower of your choice".

Penguin International will make the announcement in London today including the news that the new book will be titled And Another Thing… to be published in October 2009.  Colfler joins a growing list of authors brought on to write works in another author’s world, a practice that has seen very mixed results from John Gardner’s underwhelming James Bond pastiches to Alexander Ripley’s hated sequel to Gone with the Wind.

Years ago, Adams said, "I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book…I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note.

"Five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better kind of number."

There are already 16 million copies of the five books in print in addition to television, radio, and film adaptations.