The trailer for Immortals gives a taste of what this ancient Greek fantasy adventure will be like, of a time when Micky Rourke was out to kill all humanity and the gods.
For those who missed seeing this tribute video when it aired during the season 6 Doctor Who premiere this past Saturday. This loving tribute to Lis is the official BBC presentation.
A few groups have posted their award nominees this week. Obviously the one everyone is paying attention to is the Hugo Awards, and you can find the complete list of the nominees at the Renovation SF site. As always, the choices are between some amazing works, but my favorite bits are the ones I don’t recognize, since that means brand new wonders to read, watch, and discover. I have a few favorites I am cheering for (like Cryoburn, Chicks Dig Time Lords, and Girl Genius), but in most categories which work I prefer changes depending on my mood; they are just that close!
The Parsec Awards Nominees for 2011 are broken into a number of categories, but they all have one thing in common; they are audio based speculative fiction that was released in the course of the year as a free, feed driven Podcast. Categories this time around include Best Speculative Fiction Story in Short Form, Novella Form, and Long Form formats, Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama in Short Form and Long Form subcategories, and several categories that are news about speculative fiction Podcasting. While a number of my favorites are missing from the nominations lists, everything that is there includes links to the Podcasts so you can listen to them yourself, always a good thing.
From Japan comes word that the 2011 Seiun Award nominees have been announced. For those not already aware, the Seiun Awards are Japan’s equivalent of the Hugo’s, and most of each year’s media nominees (TV, Movies, and Manga) become available in the US within a year or so, although novels and short stories often take longer because of the more complex translation job involved. The English Nominees list has been posted by the good folks at Anime News Network. The ones I am looking forward to seeing are the 2010 version of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time live action (this is the third time this story has been turned into a live action movie, and that is not counting the Anime movie or either the live action or animated TV shows), and The Tatami Galaxy animated TV series.
No one is admitting anything as of this writing, but it looks like a wonderfully done Fan made trailer for TRON 3. While I wouldn’t mind not having to wait 30 years for the next release in the franchise, I suspect this isn’t it. It would be nice, though.
Update: The video has been removed, but for a few brief days it was a wonderfully creative Fan built tribute to the series. Every time a conclusion like this is reached, I visualize a behind-the-scenes battle between the Marketing Department (who understand how well the free publicity and good will generated by the fan support something like this will bring them will increase their bottom line) and the Legal Department (who only seem to understand they are not justifying their paycheck if they are not taking legal action against someone) going on. A word to the wise for upper management; don’t you want to support the team improving your bottom line, rather than their own income?
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is based on the popular Italian comic book series and stars Brandon Routh, who seems to be specializing in these kind of things (Superman Returns, Scott Pilgrim). Dylan is a supernatural detective fighting monsters in the swamps of Louisiana, and yes, they switched the local from London to New Orleans when they made the film transition. This is another project from Platinum Studios, who are also involved with Cowboys and Aliens, due out in July. There is word that Thor will be showing up in a very few theaters, in advance of it’s wide area release next week. And one more worth noting, also in limited release; The Speed of Thought is the story of a telepath who has been raised in a NSA foster home.
It is a sad week when the optimal DVD live action movie release is a choice between Mongolian Death Worm or Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula (although the latter did win a bunch of Film Festival awards). I think I’ll pass this week, but there are some Anime goodies.
Usually I avoid reality shows like the plague, since they offend me, but this is closer to a documentary series. So I thought I should at least mention Stan Lee’s Superhumans: Season One, which has been running on the History channel.
For Anime, Eden of the East: King of Eden tops the list for me this week. A feature film length presentation continuing the story begun with last years TV series, Eden of the East. The tale moves back to the USA, and the other Selecao are becoming more active trying to eliminate Takizawa and create their own version of a more perfect Japan.
Another Anime title of note is the Girl Who Leapt Through Space, about an A.I. Leopard who comes out of hyperspace to seek repair. Akiha helps out, a soon joins forces with Itsuki of the police to battle the brain colony Nerval, who wants to enslave all humanity. And a new entry in the long running Naruto franchise, Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 6 also hits the shelves this week.
I almost never mention single volumes here, considering anything less than a box set to not be a cost effective way to collect series programming, but K-ON! Volume 1 finally brings the rock anime to the US, and even if it isn’t genre, this one is worth a look see.
Of lesser note, Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl: Vocal Collection is a bit of a mystical gender bender now re-released under the Vocal Collection flag. For those who haven’t seen my previous posts on Vocal Collections, they are not as you might suspect radio plays bringing new stories to the series. Rather they are exactly the same Anime series previously released Subbed (Subtitled), now available Dubbed with an English soundtrack. I haven’t quite made my mind up as to what I think about these, since on the one hand it seems like a ploy to get you to by the same TV series twice, once in each spoken language. But on the other hand, when they do release the Dubbed version, it is generally for around $15 to $20 dollars for an entire season of episodes, making it very attractively priced while simultaneously more accessible to a wider audience.