Word from SciFi Scoop is that the live-action movie Blood, The Last Vampire will be out on DVD in the US on October 20th. Considering how few theaters had the movie, this is great news for all the Anime fans who missed seeing it on the big screen. On the small screen (although nowhere near as small as it was a decade or so ago), two Tales of Television this week. Scott at Wired reminds us all why we need to fight Friday night Death Slot programing decisions and save some quality SciFi, while io9 talks about the Television that Ate Our Brains and shaped our lives. I loved District 9, which for me worked seamlessly on all levels. That may be why I had forgotten how riveting the music was; it was integrated to the experience, but sounds just as intense standing on its own.
Geek Tyrant (or perhaps Geekty Rant) has posted a list of 5 Films that changed the way people look at Sci-Fi Movies. Starting with Metropolis, lobby posters and film clips are included. Over at Bookstove there is another list of the top 10 Science Fiction authors of all time. As with all such lists, both of these are subjective decisions, but it is fun to see what others think and comment on your own inclusions for the list. If you are at all into art, be sure to check out Mari Kasurinen’s My Little Pony collection. She has done some amazing work; I particularly like My Little Stormtrooper, Han Solo, and Boba Fet from the Star Wars universe, as well as the Trek, Batman, and Cthulhu entries. And a little Nerdcore…
Paste Magazine has a very insightful article about the four movies that saved SciFi this summer; District 9, Moon, Cold Souls, and , of course, Star Trek. In the real world (a place I sometimes visit), a few new twists in the development of the Web are mentioned by MIT’s Technology Review. First, using White Space for Wi-Fi was proposed this week at SIGCOMM 2009. In the old analog TV days, the White Space was the empty spaces in the video datastream where things like closed captioning could be inserted. These days it means the gaps between existing digital Radio and TV transmission spectrum allocations. While this process has been going on for a while, with Google, the FCC, and many others fighting over the bandwidth, the SIGCOMM presentation makes it a global push. Even more interesting, it looks like we are several steps closer to building a quantum internet, and the quantum computers to run on it.
Or so the story at the Huffington Post would have you believe. The front part of the story gave me a grin, but the link to the rest of it doesn’t actually give you the rest of the story. And a new entry has been posted to the Sci-Fi Songs Podcast collection you should check out.
The first Avatar trailer is now online over at the Apple trailers section. It looks good, but not the kind of paradigm changing upgrade to movie-making he has been claiming. But then again, even the HD version of the trailer is not IMAX 3D, so if you want to see if he can really pull that off, be at one of the Avatar Day free showings for 15 minutes of the film at IMAX theaters all over the world. Since that is tomorrow, the 21st, you had best sign up for your tickets tonight if there are any left at your local IMAX.
I just heard that they are remaking another SF film, this time around the classic Outland, which starred Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, and Frances Sternhagen, and got a killer review in the 1981 NY Times the day it hit the big screen. The original film had just enough sex and violence to catch the attention of the high school date crowd and make them care about the characters and real human drama that had the adult members of the audience already riveted on the screen. The remake could go either way; throw out the drama for straight mindless shoot-em-up, and grab those adrenalin and testosterone driven date-night dollars on one hand. On the other, they might develop the Space Frontier concept the original held to, with all the life-or-death concerns, struggles, and decisions people are prone to when in large groups in dangerous environments like space. But I have to wonder, was Hollywood paying attention this past weekend, when District 9 beat out everyone else at the box office? An original movie with unknown actors and director, telling a story that was brand new and deeply compelling! Or if that wasn’t spacey enough for you, how about Duncan Jones Moon from earlier this year and off this planet, built on an even tinier budget? District 9 and Moon are both the Outland equivalents for this year; telling a tale never known before, that makes you uncomfortable, makes you aware, and finally makes you care to the point where you choose sides. There aren’t many movies that can do that, and almost none of them are remakes. More Originals, Please!