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!
After watching the Smashing Pumpkins Steampunk song yesterday, I had to track down the original 1902 French movie that inspired the video segment. Based on the 1865 story From The Earth To The Moon by Jules Verne, it was cutting-edge film making, with never-before seen special effects and production values. You can download the book to read on your computer or portable device, or read it online. You can also listen to the story online or download it for your portable media player (or burn it to CD) thanks to the good folks at Librivox. They remade the movie in 1958, but the original is the best. You can download your own copy for your permanent collection or just watch it online at Archive.Org.
When those in the US finish filing their taxes, here is an event to help you relax; Beer Wars. The movie will be showing at a few hundred theaters across the country, another of the Fathom Events series. Besides the documentary itself, there will be a live panel discussion by some of the leaders of the craft brewing scene. A little later in the month the same group will be running Death Note: Change the World, the third live action installment to the franchise. The presentation will be on the 29th of April for those who prefer original-audio subtitled, and the 30th for people who prefer an English dubbed soundtrack. These live action films join the Manga and Anime collections to give you more choices on how to enjoy the series. If you are not already familier with the story, you can watch the anime online at Joost for free to bring you up to speed before the event.
This is the new Trek trailer… enjoy!
Back in November, the National Academies announced the formation of a new group to promote the use of accurate science in science fiction productions, focusing primarily on Movies and TV. The Science and Entertainment Exchange came out of the starting gate strong, with Watchmen leading the pack. A serious voice for both the acting community and the sciences, Dustin Hoffman helps make that connection now, working to get the science in science fiction right. This is not the first time this kind of thing has been done; Mike Brotherton has been the primary force behind Launchpad, a NASA funded free crash course in Astronomy and Astrophysics for science fiction authors for some years now. This years guest teachers include amateur astronomer and author Joe Haldeman, and Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy fame.