H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2007
The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2007 will be held October 5-7 at the historic Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon. It will include eight feature films, 13 special guests, discussion panels, world and regional premieres, There will also be Lovecraftian vendors, multiple door prizes, and more than 20 short films.
Tickets are $12 per day per person on Friday, $15 per day per person on Saturday, $15 per day per person on Sunday. Advance tickets can be purchased at http://www.hplfilmfestival.com.
According to the organizers:
The 14th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival shall prove to be our most exciting festival yet. This year we have some great films lined up along with thought provoking discussion panels and compelling live events."
Revolution SF: Geek Movies Not On DVD
Revolution SF has apparently run out of things to watch, because they're crawling back through the annals of time looking for classic geek movies that should be -- but aren't -- available on DVD.
The series is divided into two parts, A through K and L through Z and features cinematic suggestions from a variety of staff members, writers, critics and other geeks who love movies.
Here you fill find The Blind Swordsman's Pilgrimage, The Wizard of Speed and Time, Twilight Zone: The Movie and, umm, The Star Wars Holiday Special. Hey, they didn't say it was a list of great movies, just ones that geeks will enjoy (or enjoy hating).
Drivl.com: Movie Coding Myths
Drivl gives a rundown of how coding works in the real world, as opposed to how Hollywood thinks coding works. Gems include "Code does not move", "Code is not three dimensional", "Code does not make blip noises as it appears on the screen" and "Most code is not inherently cross platform" (which means that Apple laptops shouldn't be used to take out alien motherships, and Dells shouldn't be able to connect to myriad Gou'ald and Ancient devices.
Universal Plans The Thing Remake
Universal is planning a remake of John Carpenter's classic sf horror film The Thing. It will be written by Ronald Moore of Battlestar Galactica fame but no director has been announced. Other reports I've read suggest this may be more of a prequel than a straight-forward remake, in which case my opinion change. I can stomach a prequel, particularly one focusing on the Norwegians finding the downed spaceship and exploring it, but a straight-up remake/reimagining/rewhatever simply isn't needed.
Red vs. Blue: Planning to Fail
Do you have a plan for when the zombies rise up and devour civilization? Huh punk, do you? Red vs. Blue offers their tips on saving your sorry ass from the zombie menace in "Planning to Fail", one of their funniest PSAs in a very long time.
EW: A Star Wars Virgin
No, not that kind of virgin. The kind that hasn't seen Star Wars. Entertainment Weekly found one in Michael Morrison, had him watch all six movies as they're aired consecutively on Cinemax, and then write-up his thoughts on the films.
The most notable question to arise from this is ... what is the correct order to watch the films in? Cinemax argues for sequentially, but as Morrison notes, watching them that way ruins all the surprises. Original trilogy preferences aside, I think for that reason the best order to watch the films in is the way they were originally released because you preserve the fun and the mystery of that is Star Wars.
CNN: CBS Picks Up Jericho for a Full Season
Jericho, the series about the inhabitants of a Kansas town surviving a nuclear war, has been picked up for a full season by CBS. I find this astounding since I've never seen it, no one I know has ever seen it, and it's generated absolutely no buzz in my various science fiction orbits.
So who's watching this thing? I've got to figure that it's gaining traction with mainstream America, which really makes me curious as to what the show's about. We've been talking about what it'll take for science fiction to regain its popular attraction ...
Heroes Gets Full Season
SCI FI Wire is reporting that Heroes has been picked up for a full season by NBC. Apparently it's doing well with the 18-49 adult demographic, and managed to snag 13.5 million viewers. That's not enough to put it in the top 20 for any given week's viewing, but it's enough to keep the struggling NBC happy.
Serenity/Firefly is Mostly Dead
The net is abuzz with Joss Whedon's proclamation that there will be no Serenity sequel. Except ... that's not quite what he said. He said there's no movie in the works, and that in follow-up comments said it was unlikely unless a studio asked for it ... but that's a bit different from saying we'll never see Serenity again.
Personally, I've accepted this. Serenity was a good capstone for the series, and while there are still unanswered questions I'd love to see answered (what was the deal with Book anyway? And those blue-handed assassins?) I can live with the fact that I've got 13 episodes and one movie to remember the series by.
CNN: Lucas Readies 'Clone Wars' for TV
CNN/AP is reporting that an animated television series based during the "Clone Wars" time period of the Star Wars universe could be on the air as early as next year. It quotes George Lucas, who says that it would follow Anakin and Obi-Wan's adventures, as was the case with the earlier Clone Wars microseries on Cartoon Network.