The Internet entrepreneur and author of the bestselling Little Brother discusses his latest novel, Makers, and what distinguishes his work from the cyberpunk of William Gibson.

Q: Where did you come up with the idea for Makers?

A: It's funny, I started off thinking I was writing a parable about the dot com collapse. I lived in San Francisco through the crash, and what I found interesting was that although a lot of stuff disappeared, there were a lot of people who hung in there and realized they didn't need much capital to do interesting stuff on the Web. They just kept making it, though nobody was paying them. And I found myself writing this book that was a parable about it. Then the economy collapsed [laughs], and I realized I had a story that was timely as well as historical.

Q: Was the timing a coincidence, or had you started to see the signs?

Continue reading "Makers Author Cory Doctorow Explains the SciFi Allure of Disney World" »

The German-born master of Earth disasters Roland Emmerich discusses his latest apocalyptic flick, explains how he channeled Arnold Schwarzenegger, and shares his opinion on how the world will really end.

Q: What inspired you to tell a modern Noah's Ark tale?

A: I was always fascinated by the fact that God doesn't like what he created and sends a big flood. Why does God have to do that? In a way it's like the oldest story we have, because every culture in this world has a Noah's Ark story. So we asked ourselves what a modern Noah's Ark story would look like. There are two or three questions you have to ask yourself: One is, "How can it be that water covers the Earth?" There's not enough water. So you have to create a seismic event that makes that conceivable. Second, you have to ask, "Who is Noah and who is God?" And we came to the conclusion that Noah would be like the governments of the world, and God is science.

Q: At what point did you know you'd want it centered around the Mayan calendar?

Continue reading "2012 Director Roland Emmerich Swears He's Done With Disaster Flicks (Sort Of)" »

The director of Donnie Darko returns with The Box, about a couple that's offered a chance to push a button that will kill a stranger for $1,000,000. He describes the movie's thematic relation to Darko and tells whether or not he would push the button.

Q: What made you want to adapt Richard Matheson's short story?

A: I was a kid when I first discovered this story. It was published in 1970, I think in Playboy.

Q: Which of course you were only reading for the articles.

A: [Laughs] Of course! No, I don't know if I saw it in Playboy or not. But it always kind of stuck with me, and I always thought it had this tantalizing premise that was inherently filled with so much suspense that I just had all these questions I wanted to have answered: I wanted to know who was Mr. Steward [Frank Langella]? More importantly, who does he work for? Who built the button unit? What is their motive, what are they trying to accomplish by approaching these married couples?

Q: The allure of the original story and Twilight Zone episode is that these questions weren't answered. How do you maintain it after answering them?

Continue reading "The Box Director Richard Kelly on His Obsession With Ominous Strangers" »

The BSG star goes double-duty directing The Plan, a movie depicting the series from the Cylon's point of view. He describes adding nudity to the franchise, explains how the movie answers lingering questions, and dishes on his role in Green Hornet.

Q: Was directing this Battlestar movie different than directing a normal episode of the series?

A: Oh yeah. This became probably one of the most ambitious pieces of work that's ever been done for Battlestar, because it became a situation of having to encompass in two hours a span that took two years to create in the front story. The hard part was trying to make one cohesive solid story. It could easily have become a clip show, and just the opposite has happened. It took me almost nine months of editing -- it became a real tour-de-force on the part of trying to structure the piece and getting it down to the nuances of the performance.

Q: Some fans complained that Battlestar Galactica didn't answer all the questions it posed. Will this movie rectify that?

Continue reading "Actor Edward James Olmos Explains How Battlestar Galactica Leads to Blade Runner" »

The director of Flushed Away discusses his new Japanese manga adaptation, shares his science fiction influences and relates Astro Boy's thematic relationship to Star Wars.

Q: What were some of the difficulties in introducing a Japanese manga character to American audiences?

A: It was interesting -- it's such a rich story, and I think its themes are universal. I think American audiences are very used to superheroes, so it's not an enormous stretch for them. The only difficulty was having it be such a beloved character and having to decide what to retain and what to get rid of.

Q: I was thankful your Astro Boy wears a shirt most of the time.

Continue reading "Astro Boy Director David Bowers on the Challenge of Animating Spiky Hair" »

On the 30th anniversary of the first publication of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes And Another Thing..., the sixth book of the series penned by Artemis Fowl novelist Eoin (pronounced Owen) Colfer. Colfer discusses his reluctance to take on the project and his hopes for the future of Hitchhiker's.

Q: What made you decide you wanted to pick up where Douglas Adams left off?

A: The project was not something I went looking for. Douglas Adams' agent presented it to me as a way to bring the Hitchhiker back to the forefront of scifi, so that seemed like a good, honest project to be a part of. Also I was insanely flattered to be asked.

Q: Adams has said he was disappointed with how bleak the fifth book was. How focused were you on making this more upbeat?

Continue reading "Novelist Eoin Colfer on Resurrecting Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" »

The star of The Rookie and G.I. Joe discusses his scifi/horror Pandorum, describes how sense memory helps disorient him and explains what a redneck has to do with the apocalypse.

Q: What made you want to star in Pandorum?

A: It's a really good story -- unique and original, and Payton is a great character. So that was it. My taste runs to all different kinds of films, so when I choose a movie, usually the question I ask is, "Is this a movie I want to see?" And yeah, this was one.

Q: This is the second time you've played a spaceman, the first being Gordon Cooper in The Right Stuff. How did it compare?

Continue reading "Actor Dennis Quaid Describes a Possible Pandorum Trilogy" »

The novelist discusses the ABC adaptation of his 1999 book -- about a worldwide event that allows everyone a glimpse into their future -- and explains the network's reluctance to compare it with Lost.

Q: FlashForward was originally optioned as a movie. Now it's a television series. Do you have a preference either way?

A: To be perfectly blunt, if we last longer than one season I'll make more money off of a TV series than I would off of a film. So I think a TV series is a marvelous idea. Also, the comparison is often made to Lost. Well, here's the difference: Lost has 40 people on one island affected by the event. We've got 7 billion people on five continents. So of course we've got a bigger canvas and more stories to tell.

Q: Why was only one of your characters, Lloyd Simcoe, incorporated into the series?

Continue reading "FlashForward Author Robert J. Sawyer on How George Lucas Pre-Empted His SciFi Series" »

Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow returns to cyborgs with the Bruce Willis thriller about citizens who live their lives vicariously through robot avatars. Mostow discusses the implications of his movie and the movie's similarities to the recently-released Gamer.

Q: This is your first feature film since 2003's Terminator 3. Why the long gap between projects?

A: It's hard for me to go to work on a film as a director unless I'm doing something I find very interesting. You really have to have an idea that can sustain you through two years of non-stop work -- there are some people who love directing itself so much that it's not as important they love the material. For me, I really have to be into the idea. When Surrogates came along, I recognized it as something I could spend two years thinking about.

Q: What about Surrogates attracted you to it?

Continue reading "Director Jonathan Mostow Explains the Difference Between Surrogates and Terminator" »

Animator and filmmaker Shane Acker makes his feature debut in the Tim Burton-produced "stitchpunk" movie 9, based on his own award-winning short. Acker describes building a world for humans -- and destroying it for his creatures.

Q: How did this movie evolve from your short?

A: I spent four and a half years making the short, and it was intended to be a director's reel piece to lead me into other projects. So the idea of going back into this world made me a little apprehensive. My way in was just imagining who these other little creatures were -- you see two of the creatures in the short, but now we get to see all nine of them. And it kind of explains where they came from. But you know, story is hard -- and we were always chasing the clock the whole time. I wish we had more time, because we could have invested more in the characters and really developed them more.

Q: You did animation for the third Lord of the Rings movie. What did you learn from that experience that you were able to bring to 9?

Continue reading "9 Director Shane Acker on Playing Mouse Trap With Puppets" »