Size does matter to men, just as it does to giant sci-fi monsters. In that spirit, Charlie Anders over at io9 has exhaustively measured sci-fi's classic giant monsters and has come up with a winner.
Godzilla doesn't even come close. The winner is Kroll, a giant octopus that was Doctor Who's only encounter with an enormous monster. His head alone was over 250 meters high.
1. Despite the fact that a film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's seminal Ender's Game will forever remain in production limbo, the author this week green-lighted a video game version. The enemy's gate is down!
2. The final issue of Y: The Last Man hit stands just as rumors surface that director D.J. Caruso is planning on a trilogy of Y films starring Shia LaBoeuf. Casting of his sidekick Ampersand is still underway, however, as the Outbreak monkey is currently in rehab.
3. Just weeks after the premiere of Cloverfield, Paramount has already begun talks with director Matt Reeves to helm a sequel.
4. Can't get enough of an enormous sixties robot screaming "Danger, Will Robinson?" Got $24,500? Now you can have your very own Lost in Space B-9 replica. Dr. Smith sold separately.
5. John Cleese was cast as Dr. Bernhardt in the upcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. During the announcement, Cleese was quoted saying, "I'm not dead. I don't want to go on the cart."
SciFi Dept. Video: Kevin Maher laments the psychedelic SciFi sequel to 1969's Easy Rider that almost was. Suffice it to say it's titled Biker Heaven and it involves the resurrection of Billy and Wyatt via a Biker God on a gold Harley.
SciFi Talk Forum: With great power comes great responsibility? Maybe not. We want to hear what superpower you would choose for yourself, and what you would use it for. We're also discussing the art of remaking SciFi classics--what makes a remake work, and what makes it fail? Let us know, and enter for a chance to win a DVD of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Log on to the Talk forum now!
A few days ago, Weblogs' excellent movie blog Cinematical posted one of the first truly eyebrow arching essays in their history, "The Theatrical Inappropriateness of Cloverfield," by Christopher Campbell.
Campbell's argument is simple: Cloverfield, which is shot on a shaky home video camera, looks like a long YouTube video "delivered inappropriately to screens that are designed to present pictures with much more going on in them." As such, it should be watched on home video, or, ideally, on YouTube or an iPod.
If you check out the comment section of the original post, Cinematical's readership is united in one collective WTF. They are right: Campbell seems to entirely miss the point that a film about a 30-story-tall monster destroying skyscrapers is not best viewed on a 200x160 cell phone screen.
But I think Campbell raised an interesting point. There's a market for a post-9/11 sci-fi disaster film that's put together from a thousand camera phone snippets of footage: A Web 2.0 apocalypse film. Once you take a giant honking monster out of the equation, it's a sound, potentially brilliant idea. And it's not just about Cloverfield.
The Exhibitionist: Theatrical Inappropriateness of "Cloverfield" [Cinematical]
In 1979, anthropological study of Klingon culture was still at its nascent stages, which resulted in racially biased advertisements like this Star Trek themed McDonald's Happy Meal spot from 1979. Make no mistake: This is the sci-fi equivalent of the early 20th century's ooga-booga black face minstrel acts.
Nowadays, we understand that underneath the ridged forehead, the protruding lower jaw, and the breath stinking of blood wine, the average Klingon is a noble poet-warrior. Klingon racial leaders like Worf have shown us all that far from the inhuman extra-terrestrial savages they first appeared to be, the Klingon is as sensitive and proud as any Earthling.
But if this commercial is to be believed, things were different back in 1979. Klingon actors were still having difficulty breaking into Hollywood, and commercials like this were the result. If you wanted a Klingon for your ad, you didn't hire a real Klingon. You just stapled a raccoon's spinal column to a guy's forehead, slathered him in mocha paint, got him so drunk he started screaming gibberish--and then you started rolling the camera. Thank god we're more progressive now.
This Super Bowl Sunday the gang at Marvel Entertainment is betting that even if you don't care about the Giants and the Patriots, you'll tune into the game to see their new ad for Iron Man. Paramount Pictures is running the spot around 7:30 PM. Following that, the new trailer will be available on Marvel.com, Apple.com and, naturally, Ironmanmovie.com. Then get ready to be bombarded, because the spot will be showcased on ESPN and Yahoo Sports! Jon Faverau's Iron Man is in theaters on May 2nd.
If science fiction is to be believed, the void of space is filled with cosmic cephalopods, squiggling their way through meteor showers and squirting inky blasts of dark matter out of their bowels when threatened by UFOs. Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime series is filled with giant alien cephalopods, while H.P. Lovecraft's entire Cthulhu Mythos is based upon the idea that there's a Squid God Alien living at the end of the universe who really hates mankind. And so on. Squid sci-fi is a thriving sub-genre.
I'm a cephalophile myself. When I dream, I dream like Elton John meets The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. Which is why the brilliantly named Talking Squids in Outer Space site may very well be my favorite sci-fi site ever. The concept is simple but brilliant: Compile a complete 'Squidliography' of every science fiction work that features cosmic squids, annotate every work where a slimy tentacle snakes around the conical torso of a platinum blond space explorer. It's the summer reading list for the sci-fi cephalophile.
Talking Squids In Outer Space [Official Site] (via SF Signal)
• One of the interesting little tibits Zoe Saldana dropped about Star Trek XI is that Nichelle Nichols is wandering around, claiming to have named Uhura. Bull.
• H.G. Wells vs. Jack the Ripper... in song! Time After Time becomes a musical.
• In case the other night's episode of Lost still left you with an appetite to whet, io9 has everything you need to know about the Lost "mobisodes"... whatever the hell those are.
• Not so surprisingly, a new, full-length Trek XI trailer will be coming this summer.
The comic-book writer talks about Stan Lee, Nicolas Cage, and playing a homeless character in his new movie.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone who followed the race closely.
In Batman Returns, Tim Burton redefined the character of Catwoman. How well do you know the many incarnations of that feline femme fatale?
