sigourney weaver

Sci-fi royalty Sigourney Weaver has singed to play the vampire queen in Amy Heckerling's horror-comedy Vamps.

The flick stars Clueless vet Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter as a pair of hard-partying NYC vampire chicks whose lives are complicated by, you guessed it, true love.

Weaver will take on the role of the ladies' sire, Ciccerus, a bloodthirsty creature of the night.

Heckerling hasn't directed a hit since Clueless permeated the culture back in the mid-'90s. I doubt Vamps will be able to repeat the success of that film or ... er ... eclipse the current mega-popular fang-toothed movie franchise, but it sounds like a fun romp and a decent comeback vehicle for Silverstone.

I was already interested in Vamps after I heard Ritter (who had memorable recurring roles on Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls) had joined the cast. I can't wait to see this thing now that Ripley has signed on.

[via: The Hollywood Reporter]

It's been nearly unavoidable. Even if the movie doesn't live up to the hype, Jennifer's Body has burned a new image into our subconscious: the murderous Megan Fox in a bloody white blouse, eager for more boys to kill. In the sci-fi realm, it's much more common to encounter men who murder than their homicidal female counterparts. When women kill on screen, it tends to be downplayed.

Thus, we have Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix, who identifies more strongly as a great action fighter and/or great and cool intellectual, rather than a murderous vixen. Likewise with Famke Janssen in X-Men: The Last Stand, who only wants to kill when she is transformed into the Dark Phoenix, and even then her homicidal inclinations seem less important than the outfit she's wearing. In honor of the intentionally wanton murderers, here's a list of my top ten killer sci-fi chicks.

1. Mathilda May as Space Girl in Lifeforce
If you call her nothing more than a space vampire, you've only hinted at her power. First is her power to distract, which is a given when you're talking about a beautiful woman who has a great body and is always naked. Next, though, is her power to desiccate, sucking more than blood from everyone she meets, or, at least, everyone she manages to grab hold of to give them the shock of their lives. And she refuses to stop! Unlike normal vampires, who just want a pint or two of blood before heading back to their coffins, Space Girl wants nothing less than everything -- which is why she's the #1 killer sci-fi chick in my book.

Our pals over at Marketsaw managed to get their hands on some scans from the latest issue of Empire Magazine, which features a whole spread on James Cameron's Avatar -- including new images of Sam Worthington's Avatar, Zoe Saldana's Na'vi character and our first look at Sigourney Weaver's Avatar (see above). Weaver plays Dr. Grace Augustine, who's responsible for mentoring Jake Sully (Worthington) while on the trip to Pandora. It's her job to make sure everyone that goes to Pandora is able to return back to earth safely. Hmm, I wonder if she'll be successful ...



Also featured in the Empire story is another closer look at Zoe Saldana's character Neytiri, who is a female Na'vi alien and a princess on Pandora. Her and Jake fall in love, get down with their blue selves and help protect the planet from invading humans.

Check out more images over at Marketsaw. Avatar hits theaters on December 18.

What would it take for you to get up, leave your house, spend a few dollars ... all to enjoy a film that you already own on DVD? Put another way, would you fly halfway across the country to see a brand-new 35mm print of your all-time favorite movie? Well I did last weekend! As it stands I only need the flimiest of excuses to visit Austin, Texas, but last week I had a chance to see a friend's film in front of a packed, horror-hungry crowd (it was The Collector, and I dug it) -- followed only a few days later by an Alamo Drafthouse sold-out screning of (wait for it) Ridley Scott's A L I E N. The near-flawless* sci-fi horror film that still resides at #1 on my lifetime list.

So I sat down with a bunch of great friends (and a huge batch of wonderfully well-behaved audience members) to see a film I've gone over ... about 25 times. So what new stuff did I see? First off, I was struck by how much the audience loved Yaphet Kotto as the ever-griping space mechanic known as Parker. He's the only real source of light humor in the film, and virtually all of his dialog was met by appreciative chuckles from the audience. Especially when he keeps warning Dallas and Ash to "freeze it, freeze the damn thing! Why don't they freeze it?"

I expected this seasoned movie crowd to hoot and holler through the little alien's dinner table debut, but nope ... a theater packed with hardcore A L I E N fans and they all sat stock-still, either frozen by the scene's impact (yet again) or choosing to remain dead silent out of respect for their co-viewers. (THIS is why you watch old movies at the Alamo, people.) I did notice a few unexpected giggles when nasty old Ash flips his lid, but I suppose that's inevitable for such a strange and shocking scene. But things got serious again in a hurry.

Meanwhile, out in the New Mexican desert ... Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are busy working on their new film, Paul, directed by Greg Mattola (Superbad). In Paul, both Brits make their way across the pond to star as two geeky, sci-fi fanboys who travel to Area 51 and actually run into a real-life alien while there. Seth Rogen stars as the voice of Paul, the alien, who will be a mix of CGI and motion-capture. But that's not all -- this flick has a pretty outstanding cast, including Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, Sigourney Weaver, Jane Lynch, Jeffrey Tambor and more. Pegg and Frost wrote the film, which is due out in 2010.

The most fascinating aspect of this little behind-the-scenes video (watch it after the jump) is getting a look at just how skinny Seth Rogen is. He's been training for some time to play the Green Hornet, and holy crap I barely recognize the cat. Nevertheless, Paul is already at the top of my most anticipated in 2010, and, well, just go watch the video after the jump to see what I mean ...

Here's one of the great things about Sigourney Weaver: She's probably cool with me using an old pic from Aliens with this post instead of one from her new project, the Lifetime movie Prayers for Bobby.

I spoke with Weaver for TV Squad recently about the Emmy buzz for her performance in Prayers for Bobby and her future TV projects. She also talked about some of her iconic film roles. I asked the three-time Oscar nominee if she'd ever consider revisiting some of those roles, like Ellen Ripley from Aliens and Ghostbuster's Dana Barrett. I found her answers to be quite surprising. Here's what she had to say:

When it comes to iconic sci-fi heroines, I believe there are only two rules: 1) Kick ass and 2) Look good while you're kicking ass. Since these ladies will no doubt be up against the strange and the freaky, we're looking for a gal who's no-nonsense and ready to go to blows at a moments notice. Total Sci-Fi has taken on the task of counting down the 25 most important science fiction and fantasy heroines of all time, and in the number one spot is Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection.

Calling her "one of the most iconic characters in cinema history," the site adds that she brings "an appealing combination of toughness, self-reliance, vulnerability and sexiness" to a character that desperately needs all of that (well, except maybe the sexiness) if she's going to survive amongst those wicked, slimy beings from another planet. Somewhat surprisingly, there are three TV heroines in the top five -- including Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica) and
Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files), with Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton, Terminator) rounding out the top five. All five of these women just barely edged out Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher, Star Wars), who placed a disappointing sixth.

Discuss: Is Sigourney Weaver really the most iconic sci-fi woman of all time? Or is someone like, say, Princess Leia just a tad more important and popular?