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!
It looks like Warner and DC are gearing up to do a Flash live action movie. So far, only the writers and producers have been identified; see the Hollywood Reporter story for details on this and other comics-film news. The special effects modeling in Moon looked excellent, with reason: it was done by the effects guru who did Alien, as well as some Doctor Who and Red Dwarf.
This is a heartbreaker in IYA2009.
We lost Walter Cronkite tonight… or maybe last night, depending on which time zone you live in…
The trusted voice for America in the 60s and 70s, the voice of reason who looked liked everyone’s father, and later everyone’s Grandfather…
The man who narrated a Moon Landing for a nation and a generation, telling it so it all made sense to the man in the street… when the man in the street concentrated hard on the science of how to get his car working…
As a media person myself in those days, he was one of my Heroes, and I didn’t have many. Cronkite and Murrow were about it, with Huntley and Brinkley (the brightly feathered Peacock Team) as an amusement-valued backup when the big guys wern’t available. Perhaps even then I may have needed a life, but not as much as the world needed, and still needs, Cronkite or one of his disciples, or trainees, or ANYONE who knows how to do the same job in the modern-day info-storm!
The Universe agrees! Murrow and Cronkite are amongst a very rare breed; Obviously they both understand what is going on in the world… but more important, they can communicate those concepts to the rest of us, in real time, while the recorders/cameras are rolling.
I need to rewatch the Lunar landings now, and his reaction to them. He captured our hearts, our minds, and maybe just the edge of our souls…
And He will be missed!!!
The Chicago Tribune did an excellent interview with David Tennant about his winding up his tenure as the Doctor. Many insights, no spoilers, and a permissible number of hints and teases, including his response to the 11 Doctors Special rumor. BBC America just sent everyone who signed up for their notifications a reminder that they will be rolling out HD on July 20th, with a full week of quality programming. I love the way they have realized who their core audience is! They feature 8 shows to go HD on the page, and the first 4 are SF/F; Being Human, Doctor Who, Primeval, and Torchwood! It should be a killer week!
Speaking of killers, what if the Vampires were at risk of extinction because their food supply (that’s you and me for the Humans in the audience) had been hunted out? That is the premise for Daybreakers, and it may just have the first recognition that even Vamps have a geek side to their culture; the undead scientists who try to figure out a way to save the species, theirs and ours both. The Kate Bush soundtrack cover by Placaebo is just a bonus; enjoy the trailer…
J Michael Straczynski did the best SF TV series ever *, Babylon5. He has now taken on another epic story; he is bringing Lensman to the Big Screen. The brainchild of E.E. “Doc” Smith, Lensman is a huge and complex story, and it couldn’t be in better hands. Besides the many books, part of it has been done as an anime, and of course there are audio book versions available. If you didn’t already know, Lensman is the original Space Opera, inventing the sub-genre. Some claim it was also the very first science fiction series ever written, but with a first story publish date of January 1934, I think Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars** series beat it to print with the February 1912 story Under the Moons of Mars. Which everyone remembers is also being made into a movie now, right?
*: Possibly now eclipsed by the new Battlestar Galactica, but maybe not: I’m going to re-watch both before I decide. You should do the same.
**: Notice how I avoided the whole science-fiction-vs-fantasy category argument for both book series by pretending it didn’t exist. Which it doesn’t when comparing these two works, since both of them would end up on the same side of the argument as voiced by any given debater; which side they ended up on would depend on who was doing the debating.