If you live in the New York City area, boogie on down to the Scifi Screening Room this Wednesday night for the classic dystopian musical, The Apple.

It's Xanadu meets George Orwell in this flamboyant Adam and Eve story set in the nightmarish future of 1994 (as imagined in 1980.) Expect to see Catherine Mary Stewart mutate into a drug-fueled glam pop superstar (Hubba-hubba). If you like Phantom of the Paradise, but wished it had been made in Berlin by one-half of Golan-Globus, this is the movie for you!

The show will be hosted by The SciFi Department's Kevin Maher and Raven Snook, providing trivia, prizes, drinking games, free glitter and a sing-a-long.

Continue reading "SciFi Screening Room Presents The Apple" »

As part of this year's New York Comic Con, author and historian Eddy Friedfeld showcased a collection of footage that showed just how far the superhero genre has come.

While other superheroes were touched upon, a large focus of the panel was on Superman, the granddaddy of them all. Friedfeld unspooled footage from the still breathtaking Fleischer Brothers cartoons to the less visually stunning, though certainly exciting, Kirk Alyn film serials of the 1940s. Friedfeld noted that due to the small budget, and because kids didn't really care, the live action Superman would suddenly change into an animated character upon taking to the sky. Other highlights: The brief scene of Christopher Reeve stopping a burglar in the Richard Donnor film reminded the audience of the sly wit the actor brought to the role; a clip of George Reeves' costumed cameo on I Love Lucy, where he is oddly referred to as "Superman" the entire time.

Continue reading "Superman Overpowers Fellow Superheroes at New York Comic Con" »

New York Comic-Con starts today here in the city, where most of your faithful Sci-Fi Scanner writers are based. So it stands to reason that you'll be getting a ton of coverage. What you won't be getting, and perhaps wouldn't know if you've never attended a Comic-Con (New York, or otherwise), is how many people will be dressed up as Star Wars characters.

There have always been Star Wars comic book adaptations. And now, we're in the middle of a Star Wars comic renaissance: With no new movies being made, and Lucasfilm essentially in a licensing frenzy, Dark Horse Comics has been releasing titles set in all corners of the Star Wars continuity. So in and of itself, Star Wars having a presence at a Comic-Con is not objectionable.

What is a problem is the amount of Star Wars dress up at Comic-Con.

Continue reading "Expect Star Wars Cosplayers to Overrun Comic-Con" »

If you live in the New York area, check out the latest installment of The Sci Fi Screening Room. Last time we hosted an evening of all things Incredible Hulk. This Tuesday it's KISS Night as Kevin Maher (host of The Sci Fi Department) and Rob Gorden (host of Spike TV's Geek Ray Vision) present Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.

The made-for-TV movie was produced at the height of KISS-mania (1978). It follows Star Child, Cat Man, Space Ace and The Demon as they use their super powers (!?) to battle their robot clones and save Magic Mountain Amusement Park from a bitter former employee. The film co-stars Anthony Zerbe (the ghoul leader in The Omega Man) and features appearances by Brion James (Kowalski from Blade Runner) and Don Steel (the DJ from Death Race 2000).

Continue reading "KISS NIGHT Is Gonna Rock 'n' Roll All Night" »

Everyone knew the day would come when the robot armies would converge on Washington, D.C. I assumed it would happen after the field of robotics had accidentally stumbled upon a firmware upgrade for sentience, at the trail end of an era of violence that would have washed the streets of this proud nation in blood. The Robot Revolution has to kick off sometime.

As it turns out, robots have converged on Washington far earlier than I anticipated. As part of the Kennedy Center's "Robotopia Rising" exhibit, hundreds of adorable, non-murderous robots are on display doing the most innocuous of robotic activites, such as dancing, walking up stairs, playing the trumpet, and having monotone yet provocative cyberchat exchanges with Japanese salarymen.

The excellent And I Am Not Lying blog has a detailed write-up: "As astounded as I was during the Asimo demo, I couldn't help but think "this is how it starts. Now they're cute and helpful, and we all kinda want one. Later ... who knows." It was like being in the boardroom of OCP 2 minutes before the ED209 freaks out, or in the first 30 minutes of the first "V" movie. Right now, robots are fairly delicate and any robot uprising could be quelled with a Super-Soaker and a Louisville slugger."

Welcome the Cute Plastic Overlords: 'Robotopia Rising' at the Kennedy Center [And I Am Not Lying]

When a famous director or actor dies, there's a clear sense of loss. Less so when a cinematographer, or lighting expert, or set designer, or wardrobe designer kicks off. But for sci-fi fans, the loss of John Alvin, who passed away last Wednesday, will be palpable. You've probably never heard his name, but chances are you have some of his art hanging in your house or adorning a T-shirt or lunchbox. You've definitely seen his work: Alvin was one of the most iconic poster designers in Hollywood history.

The stretched forefingers above a gloaming earth from the E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial poster was by Alvin, as were the iconic posters for Gremlins, Blade Runner and The Goonies.

If you're looking for more of Alvins' work, his fan site has a complete image gallery. For more info, check Cinematical's poignant tribute to one of the unsung Hollywood heroes of sci-fi.

Remembering Movie Poster Artist John Alvin [Cinematical]

Here at The Scanner we're big fans of Kaiju Big Battel, the live wrestling show that combines Japanese Monster Mayhem with American sportsmanship. In case you missed it, watch our video visit to the November show.

Their new event, themed "New York Blackout," takes place this Saturday night at New York City's Webster Hall. I'm curious to see how the Kaiju team hosts a post-Cloverfield show. The gimmick this time around is that each of the wrestling matches will introduce a mystery black box that contains a surprise, which could be anything from a mystery weapon to a prize for the audience.

At the last show, long-time-loser Call-Me-Kevin was the underdog in the main event. He shocked audiences (and himself) by becoming the Kaiju Champion. This time he'll defend his title against The Grudyin -- a mutant, feral gorilla-monster (see photo.) Good luck, Call-Me-Kevin!

For tickets and further info, visit the official Kaiju website.

When I was a boy, my father told me that the key to appreciating classical music was to make a story of it while I listened to it. Being of a dorky, pocket-protector disposition, it's no surprise that Beethoven, for me, was all about teleporters, go-go skirts, amorphous alien blobs, and Borg Cubes.

In the last few decades, sci-fi and classical music have been converging -- thanks to declining "traditional" symphony concert attendances. Pops orchestras have been springing up all over the place, endlessly performing the Star Wars theme for pleb audiences.

Now Star Trek is also going the pops route. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is launching an event called Star Trek: The Music, co-hosted by John de Lancie (Q himself) and Robert Picardo (the doctor) and featuring Jerry Goldsmith's opening theme for Star Trek: Voyager, the Klingon battle theme, and the opening music from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Orchestra boldly goes in search of new patrons [The Star] (via SF Signal)

Big news for Buffy fans -- the Paley Center for Media (formerly The Museum of Television and Radio) is hosting a Buffy The Vampire Slayer reunion in Los Angeles. The event will bring together series-creator Joss Whedon, along with his ensemble cast including Nicholas Brendon (Xander), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Seth Green (Oz), Amber Benson (Tara), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), and James Marsters (Spike). As per usual, Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) is nowhere to be seen. I can understand that Anthony Head (Giles) isn't going, but come on Buffy! Too busy working on Southland Tales 2?

On the bright side, everyone's favorite bad girl Eliza Dushku (Faith) will be in attendance. Hopefully she'll give us more details on Dollhouse, the new Joss Whedon series she's slated to star in.

For those of you in the Los Angeles area (or those of you looking for an excuse for a road trip) the Buffy reunion will take place on Thursday, March 20th at the Cinerama Dome.

Get ticket info here.

From small, brightly colored bricks, LEGO enthusiasts build the edgiest monsters. To immortalize these genius creations -- usually built on the rumpus room floor, then scattered to oblivion -- the online LEGO community throws contests, like the recent Black Fantasy LEGO.

The goal is simple: create a biomechanical creature or machine with trace amounts of neon-orange. It seems like a limited palette and theme, but it's more than that: The goal is to create an armada of H.G. Wells-style Martian tripods and slithering, squid-like Matrix robots.

LEGO Black Fantasy Contest [Classic Space]