MEGACON: KEVIN SORBO

By Billie Rae Bates

ORLANDO -- Christos Gage's Paradox project was among a large slate of projects Kevin Sorbo listed off during his panel at MegaCon on Friday.

The movie, shot more than a year ago, is one of four projects the actor has with Syfy that have not been scheduled yet.

"They move very slowly at the Syfy channel," said the star of TV's Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. "Very slowly."

Sorbo talked about his Paradox character, a cop in a parallel world to Earth linked by a portal, who's not accustomed to bullets or killing. "It's kinda cool. It's got a very comic-book feel to it."

Another movie Sorbo did for Syfy is called Flesh Wounds, about a RoboCop type character that goes AWOL from the Army and starts killing people. A mercenary must go and take him out.

"So I don't know what they're doing with these things. I've shot them."

The other two Syfy projects he has coming up are series.

"I just sold a series to the Syfy channel called Legendary. It's based on an idea that I and a couple other guys, we stole from Galaxy Quest," he said to the audience's laughter. "I'm visited by a 21-year-old junior in college that grew up watching Hercules. He approaches me and lets me know that -- he's like this total geek, he knows everything about the stars and alignments and the gravitational forces, and all these things that only happen like every thousand years. The last time it happened, it froze all the Greek gods and creatures. Sort of like the Titans when they were put away. So he comes to tell me that it's reversed itself now, and all the Greek gods I fought and all the creatures are in fact real. I think he's insane."

Sorbo said he's helping write the first episode now, but he doesn't know when it's going to be shot.

He's also going to do a 13-episode mini-series called Cyclops, which should be shot sometime in September.

Other upcoming projects that Sorbo highlighted:

* An autobiography called True Strength, coming out on Oct. 15. "It's going to be a story that a lot of people didn't really get. I'm not going to give it away now. It's autobiographical, but it also has quite a few other things happening in it. It's something that happened during the Hercules years that the studio kept quiet. I am now talking about it. It's not going to hurt anybody. It's going to bring light to a subject that happened to me. It's interesting. I'll leave it at that."

* A Hercules movie. "I know that Universal is talking about a movie. A big feature film. I would hope that since Universal's doing it, and they own my Hercules series, that they'd bring me in. Let me play Zeus!" Sorbo said he's not interested in the title role. Even though he still works out, he doesn't want to again go through the workouts he once did for the show. "They'll get the next 28-, 30-year-old stud. I understand that," he said. "They're going to do it; I just don't know when they're going to do it. They've talked to me through my agent a number of times in the past six months. It's in the works. I think, why not? It'd be fun."

* Voiceover work for Disney. "I had a meeting with the head Disney guys just recently. They're going to bring me in to lay down some tracks. It's a good little gig to get into."

* A Western in which he plays an aging gunfighter. "He wants to get out of the business." The movie also stars Ann-Margret and Dwight Yoakam and is shooting in Calgary. "It's a cool part. A really nice part."

* The movie Julia X, which he said is the first movie he told his parents he wouldn't allow them to see. "I play a serial killer, and it's in 3D. There's only four real characters in the whole movie. It's pretty intense. We shot it in Shreveport, Louisiana, a little over a year ago. ... They said it's going to be (released) sometime this year. It's really kinda creepy. This guy, he's a Jekyl and Hyde type of guy."

* The movie Soul Surfer, based on the life of Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who was attacked by a tiger shark seven years ago. It releases on April 8 and also features Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid and Carrie Underwood in her first feature film. AnnaSophia Robb plays the lead character. Sorbo plays Bethany's best friend who was with her in the water at the time of the attack. He said he's doing some publicity for the film starting Monday.

* Another series, Me Too, which he had been pitching that just got picked up as a pilot by NBC. "I play a James Bond type of guy that's at my age that I'm at now. He gets up, and his back's a little more sore. They give him a new partner. This 24-year-old guy, and I'm supposed to break him in. They want me to train him to become like I was. I start noticing a lot of things about him that are similar to me. I find out that they stole my DNA, and they made him."

* A guest shot on CBS' The Big Bang Theory.

* The movie Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury, in which he plays a Vietnam vet who returns to the U.S. to embark on a frustrating job hunt. "It is completely politically incorrect. It's Archie Bunker. I play a guy, he's pretty much a racist."

* A cameo in FDR: American Badass!, in which he portrays Abraham Lincoln. Barry Bostwick plays FDR, who finds a secret stash of pot in his desk at the Oval Office. "It's a very funny six-minute scene that I did."

* The movie SoBe Real, shot in Miami last December.