Written by J.K. Rowling, because everyone needs to revisit the world of Harry Potter, comes Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In theaters November 2016.
The Magicians is a new show coming to Syfy on January 25th, and if the show is half as good as the books, it will be on my DVR every week. They have a sneak peek on the website that looks like the first few minutes of the first episode, also looking good. It is based on Lev Grossman’s trilogy of the same name, a set of books praised by a lot of people, including Cory Doctorow, William Gibson, and George R. R. Martin. Let’s face it, any time three of your favorite authors tell you somebody else wrote important books you need to read, you pay attention.
The revolutionary 1953 Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood’s End will be hitting the small screen as a 3 episode miniseries. The first episode airs beginning on December 14th on Syfy, just before the premier of The Expanse, or you can stream it now from their web site. The peaceful alien invasion of Earth is followed by decades of apparent utopia under their rule, but most people fail to notice their goal is to change humanity forever.
Movies has American Ultra, a wonderfully twisted little spy thriller comedy that everyone should watch at least once. I don’t know anything about Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow beyond the fact that it is a family friendly fantasy film made for TV and aired on the Lifetime network. But as someone who likes all things Muppet, I am looking forward to checking it out. And since I missed seeing the Shaun the Sheep Movie in the theater I am also anticipating that one.
Anime has Durarara!! x 2, and the second season is every bit as strange and wonderful as the first. Dragonar Academy: The Complete Series is obviously about a school where you learn to command Dragons, but our hot tempered protagonist ends up being paired with a dragon who will do whatever it takes to be the one in command. DRAMAtical Murder is about a sleepy town who’s main passion is an online environment where people battle to the virtual death. Z/X Ignition: Complete Series takes place on an Earth where portals to other worlds have opened up, and the aliens who come storming out of those ports are fighting each other for survival. Being caught in the middle isn’t doing the Earth much good, so it must join the combat.
A rare classic story is being re-released this week: Night on the Galactic Railroad was a fantasy novel written by Kenji Miyazawa around 1927 and was turned into an anime in 1985. It mostly takes place on a steam locomotive that travels between the stars, so may be one of the earliest examples of Steampunk, at least that I am aware of. We also get two more entries in the S.A.V.E. format with EUREKA SEVEN Ao: The Complete Series and Good Luck Girl! – The Complete Series, both worth picking up at their newly reduced price.
Neil Gaiman’s excellent book American Gods is headed for TV, with screenwriter Bryan Fuller of Pushing Daisies fame heavily involved. The book won the Hugo Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Locus Award, and the Nebula Award, which is quite a range of recognition for a single novel; I can’t wait to see what they do with the show. It is scheduled to air on Starz in 2017, and while I haven’t found a trailer yet I did find a rather interesting interview with Bryan about both it and the new Amazing Stories show over at Crave. And word is that Neil Gaiman will write some of the episodes for the new series, which puts me solidly on board with the project.
The only real choice this week is the conclusion to its series: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. Hopefully this will live up to the story Suzanne Collins created when she wrote the books. Everyone has seen the trailer by now, so instead I am including a wonderful fan tribute parody theme song.