Now this is some damn exciting news.
Primeval, the BBC series featuring rifts in time that allow both dinosaurs and futuristic monsters to invade modern-day England has been pretty stellar from day one. As the series progressed, we saw major changed to status quo including the deaths and betrayals of almost the entire main cast, and a change in the past that forever altered the present day. It’s been a well written show with a ton of great action and fun…of course, that is, until it got canceled at the end of season 3, which ended on a cliffhanger.
Of course, there was fan outcry about the beloved series ending, so BBC America teamed up to co-fund the series with BBC UK, ITV, and ProSieben to bring the series back for two seasons, premiering simultaneously on BBC UK and BBC America starting on January 1st! Check out the full press release after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
Tonight, I was able to attend TRON NIGHT 2010, a screening of 23 minutes from the upcoming Tron: Legacy (due out December 17th). Tickets were given out for free on www.tronnight2010.com, and went very quickly.
I can’t lie, I don’t remember much about the original Tron, save for some of the iconic imagery. Still, the trailers for the new film have blown me away, to the point that the new film is definitely one of my most anticipated films of 2010. So I’ve been psyched about TRON NIGHT for weeks now.
My wife and I got to the theater an hour early (yes, for 20 minutes worth of footage), and there was already a short line waiting. What surprised me is that, for as little as I remember the first film, more than half of the people in line were probably not even born when the original film was released.
After taking my cell phone back to the car (they weren’t allowed at all in the theater), we were given some posters, and wrist bands. Pounded with the incredible sound of IMAX 3D, the preview began…. Read the rest of this entry »
I am as tickled as I can be.
The media property that got me into SCI-FI was not Star Trek, nor was it Star Wars. No, my gateway to SF was none other than the Six Million Dollar Man. To this day when I hear series producer Harve Bennett’s narrative from the opening sequence – “Steve Austin, Astronaut… a man barely alive…” – I get chills of excitement!
I am a sucker for this show. Love it. Only problem is that there has never been a legitimate way to own the series. It has never been released legally in the States on VHS or DVD. Oh sure you can get Region 2 discs or plenty of Chinese pirate DVDs. You can even pick up the Spanish language version, El Hombre Nuclear (I guess they didn’t want to do the Peso conversion), but there’s not been an American release.
Until this November.
The complete series, digitally remastered even, will be available on November 23rd. It’ll be tricked out with 17 original featurettes, 6 audio commentaries, plus interviews with series stars Lee Majors and Richard Anderson (aka Oscar Goldman). Seven year-old me is doing cartwheels.
I squealed when I read the press release last night. The Wife has been mocking me on Facebook since.
The fact that I’m voicing the “bionic” sound FX as I move through the house at Bionic slo-mo doesn’t help either. But screw her. This shit’s awesome.
November 23rd, eh? I know what I’ll be doing over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.
On another note, I’m escorting The Wife to her work thing tonight. I asked her, “Which superhero shirt should I wear? I’d wear Superman, but maybe they won’t get the irony. More of a Captain America crowd? Or are they more urban… Black Bastard perhaps?”
I don’t know of a single movie watcher who doesn’t think that Christopher Nolan is a talented director. I, personally, think of Christopher Nolan as a more tech-savvy Michael Mann. I could imagine Nolan directing a film like Heat, were it to somehow involve some kind of sci-fi element. He’s one of my favorite modern directors, and listening to him talk about filmmaking (especially his distaste for 3D) makes me respect the guy even more.
That being said, he’s not perfect. I really kind of hate Insomnia, the movie he did after his big breakthrough Memento. I love The Prestige and, obviously, his Batman films, but I do find that he needs to inject a little more humor and brevity into his movies. There’s very little human warmth and lightness to brighten up the intense emotions. Like I said, I still enjoy the films, but it would be nice to have some comedic relief in them.
Inception was released this past Friday with many critics already calling it the best film of the year. The commercial promises a big, stunning blockbuster full of action like we’ve never seen before. Does it live up to the high standards that Nolan has set with his previous movies? Or does a movie about robbing people’s minds while dreaming put its audience to sleep. Full review after the jump.
Last Thursday, the second season finale of the television show Fringe, “Over There, Part 2,” aired, a rare extended adventure into the alternate universe that Fringe has only briefly given us glimpses of until this point.
Fringe is one of those rare shows where the mythology episodes seem to outshine the “monster of the week” ones. I find myself typically preferring just the opposite – shows like X-Files, Supernatural, and others seemed to always shine in the one-shots, rather than the ongoing mythology episodes. Fringe? Just the opposite – one-off episodes felt like X-Files ripoffs, and the mythology episodes were the strongest of the bunch.
Check out my thoughts on season two of Fringe, and it’s recently aired season finale, after the jump.
It’s a bit of a departure from our usual Funnybook fare this week.
Season 1.0 0f Caprica having wrapped, Aron, Paul and Wayne share their thoughts on the show. They first establish what they thought of how the show’s predecessor, Battlestar Galactica, ended, chat a bit about the merits of BSG’s The Plan, and then plow headlong into SyFy’s Caprica chewing over what we’ve seen in the first eight episodes and predict what season 1.5 will bring.
WARNING: We spoil the hell out of Caprica’s first eight episodes.
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2Fast, 2Furyan
Yeah, apparently that’s the name of the upcoming third film in the Chronicles of Riddick saga. Coming Attractions has an early review of the script for the film, and it’s definitely paired down from the last film.
Some spoiler points – don’t read if you don’t want to know anything:
- Riddick begins Dead Man Stalking as Lord Marshal.
- He doesn’t stay that way long.
- Vaako’s back. Not for long. I’d be surprised if they got Karl Urban back, honestly.
- Riddick makes orders to go to Furya, but a Necro Commander puts them down on another planet and betrays Riddick. Riddick survives but is stranded on the planet.
- The original plan after Chronicles was to go to the Underverse, but that’s clearly no longer the case. I don’t think the Underverse is even mentioned.
- This draft is dated 10/18/09 and features probably the worst title ever — The Chronicles of Riddick: Dead Man Stalking. Thank God it’s just gonna be ‘Riddick.’
- Here’s the thrust of the plot: Riddick is stranded on a planet. He finds an empty merc base and sends up a beacon, identifying himself. Two merc teams land to go after him. The whole thing is Riddick vs. the mercs, with Riddick’s goal of stealing one of their ships to get off-world. And of course, monsters come into play.
Check out a much more detailed script review at Coming Attractions!
Now most other places are announcing this news with a “worst f*cking news ever” tagline. But, looking at his IMDB page, I see only one film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson that I can say I didn’t enjoy (Soldier). But I loved the hell out of Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Death Race, and especially Event Horizon.
So why all the Paul Anderson hate? I think he’d be a great director to tackle the adventures of Buck Rogers, a wartime pilot who gets sucked into the 25th Century and goes on all kinds of cool adventures.
I love the idea of Buck Rogers, but I can honestly say I’ve never followed any iteration of the character (whether it be the old TV show, comics, or anything) with any regularity. Any fans of Buck out there? How do you take this news?
In the meantime, take a gander at the new Buck Rogers online series being produced by Cawley Entertainment, which looks to stay in the spirit of the original series.
John Carpenter’s The Thing has built a cult following since its release in 1982. The film is a horror classic, hitting all the right notes with its manipulation of paranoia, isolation, and the sense of the unknown. It’s natural that a studio would want to come along and steal some of that glory once again. Rather than remaking The Thing once again, the studio has opted for a prequel that hits many of the same notes as the first film…but delves further into the mythos of the creature. Is the early script draft by Eric Heisserer a resounding love letter to John Carpenter or just another insult to a horror classic (I’m looking at you Rob Zombie)? Find out inside.
Warning: SPOILER HEAVY!