This weekend we finally get to hit the theater for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the next generation story of the Harry Potter series, and yes, that does mean its by J. K. Rowling. If you need more information than that, you are obviously just visiting this planet, and didn’t do your research before you arrived. We also get Officer Downe this weekend based on the graphic novel of the same name, unless the production company comes to its senses and opts for a different release date.
The film worth checking out this Friday is Arrival, told from the viewpoint of the linguist who is recruited by the military to assist in translating the aliens communications. I will be in the theater for this one! As far as I know this may be the first ever Ted Chiang story to be turned into a movie, in this case the short story: “Story of Your Life”. Ted has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, four Locus awards, and a boatload of other top honors in the Sci-Fi universe. The story had a very small scope, if what I have seen of the trailer is any indication Hollywood may have grabbed that ball and run with it in directions the author never intended, but I am still looking forward to seeing what his first outing on the silver screen may have brought about.
And remember, next Monday the 14th is the Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks presentation in theaters across the US! The lost episode when Hartnel regenerated into Troughton; sadly only the audio survived, so they animated the video.
Think Ground Hog Day meets American Pie and you will be somewhere in the ball park. Yet another variation of living the same day over and over again until you get it right, the time travel story Premature looks like it just might end up being silly fun. While the movie was built in 2014, it has been bouncing around on the indi circuit for a few years and is just now making its way into the public realm.
Life opens Memorial Day (yes, that means next year), here is their first trailer to get you in the mood. A number of quality stars showed up to be part of this one, and the premise is right on target.
Doctor Strange is the movie of choice for me this weekend, taking the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a direction they have never gone before. It is a perfect choice for the week that includes Halloween, and it would be an even better choice if Quantum Physicists were honored as completely in the same week. It is not the only option this time around, since we also have Trolls for the more family oriented audience.
A classic lost story of Doctor Who will be available in select movie theaters for one night only. On Monday, November 14th, Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks will be on the big screen thanks to BBC Worldwide. This was the 1966 story with the very first regeneration, when William Hartnell’s Doctor was killed off, and regenerated into Patrick Troughton’s version of the character. No one had any idea if it would work or if they would lose the audience, but with 20/20 hindsight it is obvious it worked very well indeed. The original broadcast now only exists as a handful of 15 second film clips totaling maybe 3 minutes or so, and a number of semi-complete audio recordings. So they compiled, cleaned up, and merged the best of the audio into the full soundtrack, and had a team of animators create the visuals to go with it. I have never heard this particular story, and while I could just buy the DVD and watch it at home (it becomes available in November as well) I feel the need to be in a large auditorium with a bunch of other serious Whovians and experience it for the first time it has been shown in public in 50 years.