1. SciFi novelist and Scanner columnist John Scalzi explains why the movie version of your favorite SciFi book will always stink. Note he didn't say anything about his favorites...

2. Speaking of adaptations, Nick Nadel pitches the unsung heroes of comic books sorely in need of Hollywood adaptation. It's only a matter of time, Nick. Only a matter of time.

3. Comic writer and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski tells The Scanner about the solid he did the Wachowski brothers for their upcoming film, Ninja Assassin.

4. I is for I, Robot in this week's ABC's of SciFi, and shockingly, it has nothing to do with Will Smith. For further details, see Number 1 above.

5. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, despite the carpings of archaeology nerds who claim such myths are ridiculous -- what else is new? -- climbs to the top of this week's SciFi Power Ranking.

SciFi Dept. Video: Kevin Maher takes a tip from John Carpenter's They Live as he plants subliminal messages in this week's video designed to convince you to elect him President in 2008.

• A new television spot for Edward Norton's upcoming stint as The Incredible Hulk is now online.

• Battle Royale of the Ages: Ewoks vs. Predator.

• Va-va-va-voom: The girls of Battlestar Galactica, in leather, on bikes.

• For the mere price of $7,900.00, you too can own your own officially licensed Cylon.

• Supposedly, a video of a real live alien will be shown today to "select journalists" and never be shown online. Such precautions pretty much guarantee that this is fake, but you already knew that: Aliens are not visiting earth.

Continue reading "Daily Scan: 05.30.08 - Ewoks vs. Predator; Cylons for Sale" »

• J.K. Rowling will be auctioning off an 800-word Harry Potter prequel for charity.

• The Telegraph has a sweet profile with William Shatner in which he candidly discusses his dead wife, who he found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool.

• Tobey Maguire is still Spider-Man, according to Sony, and they seem pretty emphatic about it.

• Anyone who reads my other blog will know this is precisely the sort of thing I grok: Weird Tales is kicking off 365 days of blasphemous horrors, images inspired by the Cthulhu mythos.

• Topless Robot looks at some truly appalling Star Wars rip-offs from the '70s.

• Is Laura Roslin the last Cylon?

• The latest issue of Servo Magazine profiles the R2 Astromech Builder's Club.

• Five Lost fans won the eBay auction for the Mystery Tales comic that appeared in the Lost episode "Cabin Fever," and they're posting the pages one by one on their blog. I doubt it means anything, but cool.

• Spock's new ride in Trek XI: a Vulcan time ship. Jeez, J.J. Don't you know time travel is part of what ruined Star Trek to begin with?

• Will Neil Gaiman write for Moffat in the next season of Doctor Who?

• Spider-Man 4 and 5 may have a new Peter Parker, if rumors are true, and the name at the top of the list is Almost Famous' Patrick Fugit.

• Ain't It Cool News has posted a great look at Watchmen's original Minutemen.

• SF Signal's latest Mind Meld asks: Which medium is driving science fiction?

• I'm not sure how successful a list of six forgotten scifi films of the '70s really is if I can easily identify four of them.

• Pin Boba Fett to your breast for charity. And not just any Boba... blue Holiday Special cartoon Boba!

• io9 posts about space pirates and makes sure not to forget good old Captain Harlock, god bless their souls.

• "Let me answer one question before anyone asks it, which is, 'Is there ever be a Back To The Future Part IV.... No." Good.

• Author Harry Harison rants and raves about how America is a "totalitarian regime" that "violates its own constitution." That's a fine opinion to have, but it seems a smidge ironic when you're making the complaint to Vladimir Putin's Russia.

• Terminator Salvation gets a production blog, with some sweet post-apocalypse concept art.

Lots of websites are devoted to scifi movies, scifi television and scifi books. But, if you want coverage of all that and more (scifi theater, scifi comics, scifi plays, etc.), then check out SciFiDimensions. Beyond the usual fare, the eight-year-old online science fiction magazine aims to investigate avenues of the genre overlooked by other publications. It also offers original fiction, including works by the website's editor and published author, John Snider. "My not-so-subtle message to scifi fans is to think outside the box," Snider says. "All too often, we get caught up in our own ruts. We get lazy, and we don't reward writers and moviemakers who put out something different, then complain about how derivative everything is."

Snider's very conscious of his decision to launch an online magazine, as opposed to a website, because "to me a website is just a static thing, something stale that may or may not even get updated," he notes. "I wanted to do on the Internet what magazines like the legendary OMNI did on paper -- offer a wide variety of material on a regular basis." SciFiDimensions, which averages about 90,000 page views a month, has new content nearly every week, with Snider writing at least half the new material and the rest coming from three or four contributors.

Continue reading "Site of the Week - SciFiDimensions" »

• The trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is now online, detailing Brad Pitt's birth as an 80-year-old man who ages backwards.

• Geeks of Doom interviews Bruce Campbell, the Chin himself.

• A special Watchmen tie-in DVD, the Tales of the Black Freighter, will be in stores within days of the film's theatrical release.

• The Phoenix Lander has landed safely on Mars and is now broadcasting live.

Continue reading "Daily Scan: 05.27.08 - The Science of Superman; Stephen Colbert for President of the Marvel Universe" »