Nathan Fillion

Slither Slides Into January

Universal has set a Jan. 6, 2006, release date for its upcoming SF thriller film Slither, starring Nathan Fillion (Serenity) and marking the feature-film directorial debut of writer James Gunn (last year’s Dawn of the Dead remake). The film had originally been eyed for a Halloween 2005 release.

Slither also stars Michael Rooker, Elizabeth Banks and Gregg Henry in a story about an alien parasite that infects a resident of a small town in South Carolina, then threatens to spread to the rest of the population. It recently wrapped production in Vancouver, B.C.

Gunn also penned the Scooby-Doo films and worked on Troma’s Tromeo and Juliet.

Fillion is best known to SF fans as Capt. Mal Reynolds on Fox’s canceled Firefly series and will appear Sept. 30 in the movie based on the show, Serenity. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.