I am – Hercules!!

I was waiting for Moriarty last weekend outside the Pasadena cinema where AICN just held its advance screening of DreamWorks’ “The Ring.” A tall skinny smiley guy ambles up and asks, “Excuse me, are you Hercules?”

"Ngaa!" I panic, reaching for the man's hand. Unlike Harry, Moriarty, Quint and their ilk, Hercules doesn’t do set visits or in-person interviews. On those rare occasions I attend AICN events, those in the know know (or should know) not to identify me. My mind races: “How the fuck does this stranger know what Hercules looks like?”

I get even more rattled when the stranger identifies himself as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” writer Drew Z. Greenberg. (Greenberg joined the “Buffy” staff last season. He authored the teleplays for “Smashed,” “Older and Far Away” and “Entropy”).

Ngaa again! I've never spoken to a Mutant Enemy employee face-to-face before. Is he alone? Has the entire “Buffy” staff turned up to pummel and/or harangue Herc about two years of far-too-revealing spoilers?

No. He’s just stepping up to say, “Hi.” He says the Mutant Enemy staff is cognizant of the fact that we at Coaxial News, fearful of driving people away from “Buffy,” have taken to holding back key spoilers.

And though I am still thoroughly rattled, I find myself instinctively spending the next ten minutes harassing the man with questions about all things Mutant Enemy. Greenberg was skittish about confirming what we’ve already learned, but he did offer a few interesting new details:

* Greenberg indicated that all the villains of the previous “Buffy” seasons would appear in just one scene, and I think he was implying that it was going to be the last scene of the first episode. “If this scene comes together the way we think it will, it’s going to be amazing,” he said. “It sets up the entire season.”

* I mentioned that Mark Metcalf, who played season-one “big bad” The Master, said he would definitely be back later in the season. From what I inferred from Greenberg’s response, the door is open for all of the “bads” to keep returning as the seventh (and likely final) season wears on. It also sounded like we'd be seeing a lot more of Eliza Dushku.

* Greenberg said he hadn’t yet learned which of the season-seven “Buffy” episodes he was going to write, but did indicate that he would be scripting the fourth episode of “Firefly” to air. Greenberg says his installment of the new Fox sci-fi western would focus on Simon, the Serenity’s genius physician. (The Internet Movie Database indicates that Greenberg wrote the fifth episode, “Our Mrs. Reynolds,” which deals with frontier settlers rewarding the Serenity’s captain with a young “wife.” In fact, Greenberg says series creator Joss Whedon wrote “Our Mrs. Reynolds.” The confusion may stem from the fact that episode five was written before episode four.)

* The first episode of “Firefly” scheduled to air is “The Train Job,” co-written by Whedon and “Angel” stalwart Tim Minear. The installment deals with the crew of the Serenity undertaking a train robbery, but it was difficult to determine from the script pages we’ve seen what kind of train was getting robbed. Was it a space train moving between planets? Something straight out of “Butch & Sundance”? Greenberg reveals it’s a train that transverses a planet’s surface – but it floats. He also seemed pretty excited about the look of the vehicle.

In other “Buffy” news, Wendy’s The Spoiler Zone posted new details about season seven on Thursday. Some highlights:

* Halfrek will turn up in 7.1

* Spike will reveal that the demon in Africa didn’t trick him into anything. Spike journeyed to the Dark Continent to get himself a soul.

* Look for the angst-ridden Spike to torture himself in 7.2 by embracing a very large cross.

* Rebecca Rand Kirschner (“Tabula Rasa,” “Hells Bells”) is authoring 7.4, titled “Help.”

On Friday, The Spoiler Slayer posted material from a new possible font of spoilage. It’s an untested source but Tensai, the fellow who runs the site, has a good feeling about it. This untested source reveals:

* When Willow returns from England in 7.3, she’s somehow going to be invisible to all of her fellow Scoobies, save Spike and Anya.

* 7.3 will also feature several victims who were skinned alive much as Warren was, causing some to cast a suspicious eye toward young Ms. Rosenberg.

* 7.4 will deal with a Sunnydale High student who believes she will die in seven days. (Perhaps this is why Greenberg was dispatched to investigate "The Ring"?)

“Firefly” premieres on Fox Sept. 20.

Fresh “Buffy” returns to UPN Sept. 24.

I am – Hercules!!