There are two types of anachronisms in fantasy: intentional and accidental. The former -- when a modern item is introduced for comic effect, as when the audience sings "We Will Rock You" at a joust in A Knight's Tale -- often amuse me. The latter type amuse me in a much different way, because many of them could have been solved by having an intern check dates. There's fantasy, then there's just plain forgetfulness. Today we'll look at the eight biggest offenders.

8. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
When Indiana Jones is flying around the world, the lines on the screen show the world as it appears in 1981 when the movie was released -- not the 1930s when it was set. Really? It would have killed someone to take a period atlas and check? I mean, it's not like we don't know that borders got moved around back then. This minor snafu with the movie's travel plot device earns it the eight spot.

7. The Green Mile (1991)
Set in Louisiana in 1935, The Green Mile shows a series of executions in an Electric Chair. It's dramatic and horrifying, and also five years too early. In 1935, convicts were executed by hanging. On the other hand, prisoner Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter) has the November 1937 issue of Weird Tales, so maybe 1935 isn't a firm date.

Continue reading "Mary Robinette Kowal - The Eight Worst Anachronisms in Fantasy" »

The Fourth Kind's title refers to UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek's "close encounter" scale, leading from observation to physical evidence to contact and finally to abduction. Of course, the title is also an obvious shout-out to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Here you can already see the sort of galling one-upmanship that is The Fourth Kind's m.o.: You thought Spielberg's alien visitation classic was really something? Wait 'til you see this.

That bit of chutzpah and foolishness is impressive enough, but The Fourth Kind's central gimmick is the real doozy: Apparently enamored of the success of various recent found-footage horror movies -- The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Quarantine -- director Olatunde Osunsanmi decided to do them one better. He would tell his creepy little story of supernatural goings-on in the tiny town of Nome, Alaska not in a simple faux-documentary style, but as a combination of fake documentary and fake reenactment. You know how sometimes, on cable, desperate news magazine shows will use staged scenes with actors to fill gaps in actual footage? Osunsanmi decided to recreate that.

Continue reading "The Fourth Kind Review - But What If the Third Time's the Charm?" »

• Roland Emmerich is already talking a televised sequel to his apocalyptic film, 2012, pretty much giving away the ending for everyone in the process.

• A new Japanese trailer for James Cameron's Avatar shows even more alien fauna.

• Geek celebrity Wil Wheaton -- that's right, Star Trek's Wesley Crusher himself -- has a voice cameo in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.

• The next Doctor Who special, Waters of Mars, will be airing in the U.S. later this year. If you're curious what to expect, check out the three minute sneak peek. I'm going to miss David Tennant.

• Doctor Horrible co-writer Zack Whedon spills on the eponymous mad scientist's secret origin in his new Dark Horse comic series.

Continue reading "Daily Scan for 11.06.09 - Emmerich Talks 2012 TV Series, Wheaton Cameos Star Trek" »

Last week I was noting the uphill climb scifi will have in winning the "Best Picture" Academy Award, but it's worth also noting that while it's hard for scifi to nab that prize, Oscar-winning directors don't have any problems directing science fiction. Last year's Best Director, Danny Boyle, made 28 Days Later, a science fictional look at zombies, while Ang Lee (who won the 2005 statue) tried his hand at Hulk. Peter Jackson has Bad Taste in his background, and Steven Soderbergh attempted a remake of Solaris. Other Oscar winners who directed scifi include James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis and of course, Steven Spielberg.

That said, there are a number of interesting and influential directors who have yet to direct in the genre. Which naturally made me think of a column. Below you'll find my list of the ten directors I really think should make a scifi movie. In no particular order:

Martin Scorsese
He's the ultimate gritty urban portraitist, which makes him an unconventional choice, but also remember that Scorsese has some surprising works in his canon: The Last Temptation of Christ, The Age of Innocence and Kundun all suggest he's not afraid to stretch out and surprise viewers and critics. I literally cannot imagine what a Scorsese scifi would be like, which is the best possible reason for him to try one.

Clint Eastwood
Eastwood came tantalizingly close to scifi with 2000's Space Cowboys (I disqualify it because the science of the movie is contemporary, not futuristic), so it's not a huge leap to having him in the genre. Eastwood would likely prize character struggle over technology and make a scifi flick grownups could love.

Continue reading "John Scalzi - Ten Directors Who Really Need to Make a SciFi Movie" »

• If you have the time or patience to rearrange the whole 330,000 word novel by 5,000 word chunks, all of Stephen King's Under the Dome can now be read online.

• Daniel Wilson's How To Survive A Robot Uprising is coming to the big screen. That ought to be a fun apocalyptic picture.

• SciFi Wire posts the ten greatest scifi Obama "Hope" poster mash-ups. They're probably a year late, but who cares? It's still a lot of fun.

• David S. Goyer says that Ghost Rider 2 will not be a reboot, but instead a sequel set eight years after the original.

• SF Signal hosts another Mind Meld: Scifi books that ought to be taught in school. Ender's Game ought to make that list a dozen times over.

Continue reading "Daily Scan for 11.05.09 - Goyer Talks Ghost Rider 2, Robot Uprising Gets Movie" »

If you watched V and They Live in the '80s, you know that aliens are masters of mind control. Which is why you also know that even if the new V's Anna isn't Diana, it's just a matter of time before she gives some Earthling an "attitude adjustment" -- perhaps in the form of a subliminal television message. What you might not know is that lately, humans have developed some mind control methods of their own.

Gero Miesenböck and his colleagues at the University of Oxford were able to manipulate fruit flies by exploiting their fear of pain, even if the pain was only in their minds. By stimulating specific brain cells with a flash of laser light, the researchers gave the flies fake memories of a painful experience and, says Miesenböck, "These memories cause a lasting modification of the flies' behavior." Perhaps the laser light showed the flies images of a formaldehyde face -- that was enough to give Nada the creeps.

Continue reading "Humans Harness the Power of They Live With Their Own Mind Control" »

• The Life Aquatic director Wes Anderson wants to do a scifi film physically shot in outer space. Good luck with that.

• The latest Star Trek deleted scene has been released, in which Kirk shows a callous disregard for both alien identity and sexuality.

• Nathan Patrelli from Heroes will be killed off this season. Presumably, the languishing show will be next.

• Now that the rights to the Terminator franchise is up for grabs, Joss Whedon wants a crack at it. His idea? Terminator... of the Rings!

• Speaking of our fanboy favorite Joss, Nathan Fillon says that Dr. Horrible 2 already has a title, with several songs already written.

Continue reading "Daily Scan for 11.04.09 - Whedon Wants Terminator, Anderson Wants Space" »

In this column we've learned a lot about the tremendous impact video games have had on Hollywood, but what about the gamers themselves? You see, we gamers know what we're actually like, but filmmakers are still a little unclear about how to portray our ilk. When they sit down at their typewriters, we usually come off as either more charming and interesting than we are in reality, or we're condescendingly insulted. Need proof? Here are the most egregious offenders in science fiction.

The Movie: Stay Alive (2006)
The Gamers: Incredibly hot and stupid
With a cast made up of startlingly good-looking actors like Sophia Bush, Milo Ventimiglia, and Samaire Armstrong, much of this sub-par movie feels like a feature-length Nintendo Wii commercial -- admittedly, one that's full of decapitations and slit throats. The characters in Stay Alive are indicative of everything gamers simultaneously loathe and envy; we Cheetos-eating, over-or-underweight lot wish to be the type of people who could swap spittle with Sophia Bush, but we also never want to be the kind of brainless morons who get killed because we weren't smart enough to stop playing a video game that decapitates its players. Decisions, decisions.

Continue reading "Don't Play Me Like That! The Worst Depictions of Gamers in SciFi" »

• Hot off her stint as a post-apocalyptic babe in The Road, Charlize Theron will play a post-apocalyptic babe in Mad Max 4: Fury Road.

• By Odin's beard! Anthony Hopkins will play the king of Asgard in Kenneth Branaugh's Thor. Is there any famous English actor not yet signed for this movie?

• Roland Emmerich discusses his reasons for destroying every monument in the world for the forthcoming disaster flick, 2012, with one exception: The Kaaba in the holy city of Mecca.

• According to original V show-runner Kenneth Johnson, the series originally wasn't going to be about aliens at all: It was to be about neo-fascism in a scifi setting.

Continue reading "Daily Scan for 11.03.09 - Hopkins Sires Thor, Theron Seduces Mad Max" »