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This weeks top choice for Horror/Spoof goes to Transylmania, college kids doing a semester in Romania with the wrong kind of night “life”. This comedy will probably only be in theaters for a short time, but it is also the only new genre live action I could see being released this week.

December looks to start off as a slow movie month, but Avatar comes along on the 18th, and xmas brings both The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Sherlock Holmes to the big screen.

We have two top domestic live action choices this week! The first is Terminator Salvation, and Warner Bros. is holding a online event on December 5th with the director. If you are interested in the history of this kind of event, read all the way to the bottom of this posting to see my latest rant on the topic.

The other big film is Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which I just missed seeing at the Smithsonian IMAX theater premier event (tickets were WAY tight). It is also being released as a two movie package if you didn’t get the first one already, Night at the Museum/Battle of the Smithsonian.

If there was a live-action speculative fiction TV show released this week, I managed to miss it. Someone will no doubt point it out to me about 15 minutes after I post this.

It is a DVD, and Fantasy, but it is a DVD Game, not a movie: Harry Potter DVD Game: Wizarding World also comes out on Tuesday.

There are several interesting Anime releases this week. For the classics, there is My-Otome Complete Collection: Anime Legends edition. The Anime Legends series are extremely popular programs re-released with an economical pricing structure. Out as a compilation for the first time this week is Chevalier D’Eon – The Complete Series, a beautifully crafted alternate history sequence, but definitely not a lighthearted story.

Hunter X Hunter Box Set, Volume 4 continues the push for Gon and his friends to track down power in the form of treasure, magical beasts, and so forth. The Gunslinger Girl OVA gives some more background on a few of the formerly human characters, and trust me when I say these are children you would NOT want to meet in a dark alley.

‘Rental Magica’ DVD Collection 1 is an assortment of strange magic users out to battle evil, and come from a variety of magical traditions. Most sites claim this was actually released last week, but since I missed the Anime section last week I though I should mention it now.

About the Warner Bros. Special Events. This is something they have started recently (there is another one coming up for the new Harry Potter DVD release), and seems to involve group watching of the DVD together with an internet connection to the meeting software that allows you to type in questions, which the director (or actors or anyone else they involve from the movie production team) can answer verbally.

If you have been in moderated celebrity events in Second Life this decade, Virtual Places Chat in the ’90s, or live Usenet (meaning IRC or Internet Relay Chat) in the 80’s, you have already experienced this. And yes, I know the Usenet example I cited was from the 90’s, it was just the one I had handy courtesy of a recent post on a different topic. I actually have transcripts from moderated IRC sessions with SciFi authors I asked questions of going back as far as 1984 from QNet (the Commodore version of AOL and Compuserve in those days), but I didn’t have a link to any of them to point to. Perhaps this reference work will help, should you need it.

The bandwidth, and therefore the resolution, has just gotten better each decade; text only in ’84 at 300 baud, downstream-only audio in the mid ’90s at 56K, entire 3D virtual worlds with 2-way audio chat and streaming video by the mid 2000’s with 2-way asynchronous broadband. From the description of what they are going to do and how they will be doing it, this application of the event environment appears to be something we had the technology to do by 1998 or so, except for the Hi-Def video. But since the Video is going to be played locally from a DVD player and not streamed over the Net, it does not in any way change the bandwidth requirements.

You can’t get much sillier than Gadgets you’ll need to Survive a Zombie Attack; thanks, Crave!

When I see a link from William Gibson on Twitter, I make a point of following it. He has found some of the most interesting things, most of which I was unaware of. This video is a case in point; A musical video clip by Yannick Puig Inspired by the sound track “I lived on the Moon”, of the Kwoon’s album “Tales and Dreams” (description from the creators YouTube page). Another great one is the Norism series of images.

And did I mention the Muppets do Rhapsody?

One of my favorite film festivals is Sci-Fi London, which will be coming around again from April 28th to May 3rd, 2010. If you build your own Science Fiction or Fantasy, be it live action or animated, they would like to see your film and consider including it in their festival. Submissions are now open at their web site; if you want to get an idea of the kinds of things they will accept, check their TV segment and watch some videos.

Likewise, on this side of the pond, the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival coming up February 5 – 15th, 2010, is also looking for submissions. In fact, they are almost done, but you still have time to get your film in (just) with the regular deadline on November 30, and the late deadline on December 15.

If you are in the US, happy Turkey Day to you! I thought this would be a good point to mention a few of the things that brought a smile to my face today (OK, technically yesterday, but also earlier today from my personal worldview).

The first one is that J. Michael Straczynski, the guy who created Babylon 5 on a room full of networked Amiga’s, is now putting together a new movie version of the 1956 classic Forbidden Planet! The original version was nominated for a number of academy awards, had an all-electronic soundtrack, and introduced Robby the Robot to the world. JMS says there will be more action in the new version than the original, but the core story (Shakespeare’s The Tempest plot, star sailors vying for the attention of the Girl while Dad looses it) will be retained, meaning a lot of the character development with the dialog required to support it will still be in there. Considering how incredibly well action and intellect were balanced in Babylon 5, I suspect he will do the original proud (official B5 site here).

Along with 1951’s two blockbusters, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and When Worlds Collide (still waiting for the remake by Spielberg on that one), Forbidden Planet changed the perceptions of the viewing public about science fiction, and made the general population realize for the first time that there was serious human drama and cutting social commentary to be had in these stories. JMS was the first TV/Movie producer to use the internet (starting in 1991, before the Web existed and when very few non-geeks knew there was an internet) to connect with the fans, and encourage them to contribute to the creation process. Tracing the history of the evolution of ideas is WAY above my pay grade or competency level, but there seems to be a certain symmetry there.

Like JMS, James Cameron has also been a serious pioneer of both computer technology and visually based storytelling. Which makes it appropriate that for his latest movie, Avatar, he came out with an App masquerading as a trailer. While lots of folks go on about how he is changing the technology of film making, we know that he is just making popular how some of the technology is applied. That doesn’t change the fact that I am more excited about Avatar hitting the big screen than any other movie in December; powerful story telling needs no technological crutch, and indeed brings techno-changes in on its coat tails. You can download and install the Interactive Avatar Preview, or go to the YouTube Channel to watch the non-interactive HD version on line.

Lots of people look forward to holiday weekends because of the extra time you get, and fans are no different than anyone else in that respect. Give a fan an extra day or two, and they will look for a way to celebrate; one of the better celebrations is a good Con, and there are a lot of them this weekend. In fact it looks like this may be the final major weekend of the 2009 convention season, since December looks noticeably more quiet.

In Keokuk, Iowa we have KeoKon, a general readercon, with fan films, filk, Anime, and all the usual guests, costume ball, dealers rooms, etc. This one runs Friday and Saturday only.

ChambanaCon 39 takes place in Springfield, IL, and refers to itself as a RelaxCon. GoH this year is Eric Flint, and again all the usual ReaderCon events. This particular Con does seem to be heavily into Filk, with what looks to be a Con-long Filking room (Con long being Friday through Sunday).

OryCon 31 happens in Portland, OR, with Writer GoH Patricia Briggs, editor GoH Lou Anders, and several others. This ReaderCon has a lot going on.

LosCon 36 has the tag line BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!, and that seems to sum this event up. Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes are the writer GoH’s, themes include Dress Like A Pirate Day on Saturday, there is a Steampunk Science Competition… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You will have to visit the site to see what all is happening at this one.

Steampunk also features in to DarkoverCon in Baltimore, MD. The tracks at this Con are so rich they have built four of them into the web site, and you will find the Steampunk Events in the Alternate Track. Again this is a ReaderCon, built by fans for fans. The Video schedule has some rare gems, including the 2008 remake of The Survivors, based on the 1970’s classic BBC series. They will be showing all 6 hours of season one (yes, they are making a season 2); the original was created by Terry Nation, inventor of the Daleks. Another classic film offering is Mistress of Atlantis/Siren of Atlantis/L’Atlantide (1932); the queen is the Maria of “Metropolis,” Brigette Helm. And there are so many more, and still more tracks.

SorcererCon is somewhere between a ReaderCon and a MediaCon, and takes place in San Jose, California. Their baseline statement is to complex for me to re-quote here, but trust me, this is an event you will want to be a part of if you possibly can.

TardisCon in Chicago (or if you want to be nit-picky, Lombard, IL) looks to lead the pack for this weekends MediaCons. They have a truly impressive collection of talent here, centered around the 8th Doctor TV-Movie, with Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook (Dr. Grace Holloway), and Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee) all taking part. Other media guests include Naoko Mori (Toshiko of Torchwood) and Nicholas Briggs, amongst still others.

Another Fan-run MediaCon this weekend is Star Base Indy located in Indianapolis, which has been running since 1988. It started life as a Trek con (witness Garrett Wang, William Morgan Sheppard, and Deborah Downey as the primary guests), but is now expanding itself to a wider fanbase.