Yes, it is time once again for Sci-Fi London, that truly amazing film festival held at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus and many nearby locations. This is the eighth year for the festival, and it is bigger and better than ever, starting Wednesday the 29th and running through Monday the 4th. It has become the event where the Arthur C Clarke Award is handed out, as well as the Sci-Fi London Awards. For those who want to build their own, they have created the SFL Lab where scientists, comic artists, leading genre writers and filmmakers will present a full program of classes, including things like Filmaking for small screens. For the more gonzo build-your-own types they held the 48 Hour Film Challenge a few weeks ago (so they could show the results at the SFL festival). They handed out titles, dialog, and props to 71 teams on Saturday, and on Monday 55 of those teams returned with finished films. They will be doing many World and UK Premiers, including the films The Hunt for Gollum, Eyeborgs, Eraser Children, The Clone Returns Home, and one of my personal favorites, Cyborg She. They will be screening X-Men Origins: Wolverine before it opens in UK theaters. And so much more; wish I could get the time off from work to be there, but at least I can watch Sci-Fi London TV!
In April of last year I commented on Dante 01, a French film that looked pretty interesting. If it made it to the movie theaters it snuck right past me. It is now out on DVD, available from Amazon or Blockbusters. The folks at SciFi Cool posted a trailer and a lot of stills, and it still looks interesting. Also at SciFi Cool, a very tasty video from Transformers 2 that was run at Showest. IGN posted a great trailer for Moon, a movie in the tradition of Silent Running and 2001, where the characters and concepts mean far more than the special effects (although those are there as well). Finally, Ron Perlman had a Chat with BloodyD about his upcoming venture as Bubba Nosferatu. There really are some quality science fiction films on the way!
If Ashton hits 1 Meg viewers at UStream, and beats CNN for numbers, he is going to buy 10,000 anti-malaria mosquito nets and distribute them where they are needed. Support this effort! If you login live, you can also hear a great rant about how the media will evolve (or already has), and you too can build your own chunk of the future with it! And he made it, the celebration is starting now. Which means we all made it; we are all creating the future for which this is just an example. You don’t have to be famous to pull this off; you just have to have an idea you want to spread, an attitude you need to get out there, and/or the desire to create something of your own.
As a person who actually still owns a Commodore 64 I had to share this one. In the fight between Billy Gates and Steve Jobs, I vote for Linus Torvalds every time. And then there is Amanda Palmer, buddy of Neil Gaiman and driving force behind Dresden Dolls; if you don’t already know her music, here is an intro with her song Coin Operated Boy. They have started her 10-part interview at Apex, and if you need a better understanding of who she is, check the next video in this group (but only if you are not easily offended, or perhaps work in and understand the media industry). And then one last music track, just because it is one of the most amazing video/audio edits I have seen lately. Enjoy…
It looks like there will be Science Fiction at Sundance this year, not one but three films. The news is a little late, since the festival itself started on the 15th, and the story was posted nine hours ago; but the films themselves look very worth checking out. Moon is told from the perspective of the single human (and his robot, voiced by Kevin Spacey) on the Lunar base. Cold Souls sounds to have something of the sensibility of Being John Malkovich meets Kiln People, with Paul Giamatti playing himself and loosing his soul to Russian smugglers, but not in the way you would expect. Finally, The Clone Returns Home rounds out this trio with a story about memory and family and all that comes with it. I am going to have to watch for these on IFC’s Video On Demand, since they probably won’t play to every theater in the country.
If you don’t know about this movie, brace yourself; Franklyn is releasing in the UK next month, it better be out in the US soon!