Starting this week, Marvel has its own in-house news/promotion show, THWIP! The Big Marvel Show. They will put out new episodes every Wednesday both on their web site and on YouTube. The first episode runs about 15 minutes, I don’t know if that is going to be the standard or if it will fluctuate depending on the material available each week. This could be fun, or it could get really old fast; there is no way to know based on a sample set of 1 how it will work out, but we will find out. Thanks to THR for the heads up on this one.
A year before he became the 2nd Doctor, Patrick Troughton did a BBC Radio production of George Orwell’s 1984. He wasn’t the first actor to give voice to Winston Smith, because that was David Niven in 1949, within a year of the books original publication. He was the first actor to ever play Robin Hood on TV in 1953, and I can’t help but wish at least one complete episode of that show still exists in some format so I could watch it. Video Curios posted his 1984 online a few years ago, and Open Culture posted the heads up, so here you go; enjoy.
The award winning SF Signal posted its final entry on May 5th, one day after Star Wars Day. For the past almost 13 years I have hit the site at least once a week, always finding lots of interesting and exciting science fiction and fantasy articles and links there. If I went for no other reason, I always checked out their regular postings on free science fiction you could read, hear, or watch on line. They have even won some Hugo awards for Best Fanzine and Best Podcast, and I have had them in my Blog Roll for over a decade. But John DeNardo made the announcement last week that they were shutting down new entries because they could no longer devote the amount of time such a site required. It will remain online until at least June so you can still access the 100 Gig of sci-fi interviews and articles, and they are looking into some hosting options that will allow it to stay online at least as a static site. I wish them well on their next endeavors, and am sorry to see them go.
The UK film The Lobster has been touring the film festival circuit, picking up 14 awards so far, and is now getting a limited theatrical release. Single people are locked into a hotel and given 45 days to form a romantic relationship; those that don’t manage to do that are converted into animals and released in the woods. While it sounds interesting, I missed seeing Captain America: Civil War this weekend because I was sick, I will have to do that film before I see anything else.
The must-have title for this week is Deadpool, absolutely the funniest Marvel film made to date. It is also R rated, so it is no surprise it wasn’t made by Disney, but the folks over at 20th Century Fox. With a sequel already in the works, we might see Deadpool 2 as early as January 2018. Synchronicity is a twisted little time travel story everyone should see; if you missed it in the theaters, now is your chance to catch up with it. Lego Scooby: Haunted Hollywood also deserves a mention.
Killjoys: Season 1 is very much a cross between Firefly and Blade Runner, and one of my 3 favorite shows currently running on Syfy. I am happy to report Season 2 will be along on July 1st. Beauty and the Beast (2012): Season 3 is out just in time to be binged before the next season kicks off on June 2nd. While I am not a horror fan, I should include Scream: The Tv Series Season 1 on this list.
For a change their are fewer Anime titles than the other categories, with Fruit of Grisaia being a school for bad apples as the only actual entry this time. It isn’t exactly genre, but it is strange enough to come close.
On Star Wars Day (May the 4th Be With You) JJ Abrams sang along with Lin-Manuel Miranda, doing the Cantina Music from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, called Jabba Flow. If you would like to hear the entire song, hit the Star Wars web site, or if you would like it in your permanent collection you can get it from iTunes.