I have a hard time imagining how they could do this justice, unless it was shown on an HBO-equivalent premium channel where running a hard-R program was a good thing. The are looking at making Barbarella as a TV Show according to that article from /Film. Both of the recent attempts to resurrect and re-imagine the original film for the big screen crashed and burned before they began filming. I have no real confidence that the TV version will be created either, but perhaps it might make it to the screen this time. The original report came from Deadline, and the closest anyone has ever come to creating a remake was 2001’s CQ, a very nicely layered film within a film which succeeded on many levels and which I recommend for everyone’s permanent collection.
This is the man who invented the Florescent Light off the top of his head, and then came up with a system for delivering electrical power to it without using wires, 4 years before Tommy Edison started trying to make his employees figure out how to make an incandescent light bulb. This is the man who invented AC power, the electric motor, and audio speakers, all of which he patented. He invented a bunch of other stuff he patented (Marconie’s “invention” of radio relied on 17 of Tesla’s patents to make it work), but he also invented some stuff the patent office couldn’t figure out how to process, like broadcast energy, wireless charging of batteries, Ball Lightning, Radar, and oh, yeah, that earthquake machine he almost sank Long Island with (he had to move to Colorado and build another lab to avoid going to jail for that one). Yet another great site in a long list of web pages honoring the genius of Nikola Tesla is Oatmeal Comics: Tesla. I recommend you read it and begin to learn what a true geek he was. Another site worth checking into is The Man Who Electrified The World, as is The New Prometheus. Each of those sites has their own perspective on the man and his works, but what I find interesting is the things they are forced to agree on by the historical record. I personally only ever had 5 heroes in my life, and Nikola pretty much tops the list, with Albert Einstein coming in a very close second.
The third trailer in the build up to the July 20th release of The Dark Knight Rises, the movie that will conclude the trilogy.
Not long ago I mentioned the Robert A. Heinlein Radio Archives, and a bit before that it was the Ray Bradbury Radio Archive, both part of the new Radio Archives section of the Sci-Fi London web site. They have expanded their collection yet again, this time with classic radio plays from Issac Asimov and Frederik Pohl. The Asimov stories include Pebble In The Sky and Nightfall, the Pohl include Tunnel Under The World and The Map Makers. You can listen to them online, download them for your permanent collection, or if you have an Ubuntu One account you can have them delivered there to enjoy through the cloud. You should also be aware that Sci-Fi London 11, the new incarnation of their annual film festival, runs from March 1st through the 7th. Wish I could be there for it.
No movies to speak of this week, beyond Robotropolis, which is a remake of Westworld without the budget.
In TV, the 1980s spinoff series from the movie of the same name, Starman: Season 1 stared Robert Hays as the alien, come back to Earth to visit his kid. I still love the movie, the TV show was not as impressive but still might be worth watching again, if only to see if it got better with perspective. Ernie Kovacs: The ABC Specials also comes out this week, and that period of his career holds some of his most creative work. If you got the huge Ernie Kovacs DVD collection that came out last year like I did, you already have these. If you were waiting for something resembling a best-of, this would be it.
We do have a treat in Western Animation: Shaun the Sheep: Shear Madness. The folks at Aardman have a new movie coming out in the next few weeks as well, Pirates, Band of Misfits that also looks to be pretty funny. The other western animation this time around is Young Justice: Season 1, Volumes 1-3, which is still funny, but more action oriented.
In Anime, Someday’s Dreamers – Complete Collection looks to be the humorous choice, being the story of a magical girl who can’t spell very well, and who moves to Tokyo for some advanced training. Winning the ward for most redundant title this week is Legend of the Legendary Heroes, with both Part 1 and Part 2 coming out at the same time. This one is a much more serious story of war and power.
Re-released in a more cost effective package, Tsubasa, RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – OVAs Collection S.A.V.E. edition completely changes the way you view that set of universes, as the two OVA series tells you what lay underneath the tale you thought you understood.
The John Carter movie the other week was world class and amazing, but it was not Disney’s first attempt to convert ERB’s Mars stories to video. Back in 1957 Disney animator Ward Kimball built this very short but very fun little sequence. Thanks to io9 for the heads up on that one, who had it from Progress City.