Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1933 mega-hit "King Kong" was a marvel of special effects. It employed stop-motion animation, outsize models, rear-projection, and novel composting methods to convince audiences that a giant ape was interacting with human co-stars. Compared to modern, ultra-slick CGI effects, the 1933 King Kong may not look as realistic, but the ape shimmers with life and personality beyond what many modern effects can accomplish. Kong is the most sympathetic character in the movie, as he was kidnapped from his home and exploited by would-be entertainment moguls. Using bi-planes to shoot Kong off the top of the Empire State Building wasn't a moment of triumph for a masterful humanity, but the tragic execution of an animal that doesn't understand what it was thrust into. Not bad for a film that's going to celebrate its 91st birthday in April of 2024.
Interpreting "King Kong" in 2024 is fraught. Cooper...
Interpreting "King Kong" in 2024 is fraught. Cooper...
- 2/17/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Throughout the month of October, Editor-in-Chief and resident Horror expert Ricky D, will be posting a list of his favorite Horror films of all time. The list will be posted in six parts. Click here to see every entry.
As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.
****
50: Thundercrack!
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
1975, USA
Thunderstruck! is by far the most obscure film you will find on this list. It is without a doubt one of the true landmarks of Underground cinema. With a screenplay by veteran underground film maker George Kuchar (story and characters by Mark Ellinger) and directed Curt McDowell (than student of Kuchar),
Thundercrack! is a work of a crazed genius.
As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.
****
50: Thundercrack!
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
1975, USA
Thunderstruck! is by far the most obscure film you will find on this list. It is without a doubt one of the true landmarks of Underground cinema. With a screenplay by veteran underground film maker George Kuchar (story and characters by Mark Ellinger) and directed Curt McDowell (than student of Kuchar),
Thundercrack! is a work of a crazed genius.
- 10/27/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Whether you measure your movies by box office, reviews, or popular appeal, Sony’s $125 million remake of the 1990 Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger interplanetary action fest Total Recall looks like a strike-out. The movie opened with a lethal softness; a $25.7 million first weekend meaning Recall won’t even come close to making back its budget during its domestic theatrical run. In fact, despite 22 years of ticket price increases, it’s doubtful the movie will even match the original’s $119.3 million haul.
And for those of you who think maybe the problem is Total Recall was outgunned opening while The Dark Knight Rises was still sucking up box office coin, entertain, at least for a moment if you will, the possibility the movie just plain sucks. According to Rotten Tomatoes’ canvas, almost 70% of reviewers – and over three-quarters of “top critics” – gave Total Recall a thumbs-down. Those who went to see the movie didn’t...
And for those of you who think maybe the problem is Total Recall was outgunned opening while The Dark Knight Rises was still sucking up box office coin, entertain, at least for a moment if you will, the possibility the movie just plain sucks. According to Rotten Tomatoes’ canvas, almost 70% of reviewers – and over three-quarters of “top critics” – gave Total Recall a thumbs-down. Those who went to see the movie didn’t...
- 8/15/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
A press release from Chicon 7:
Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), would like to remind members that the voting deadline for the 2012 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award is July 31, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. Pdt (Wednesday, August 1, 2012, at 2:59 a.m. Edt). The same deadline applies for access to the 2012 Hugo Voter Packet, which can currently be downloaded via the Chicon 7 website.
Hugo Award voting, and access to the Hugo Voter Packet, is open to all Adult, Young Adult and Supporting members of Chicon 7. Convention memberships can be purchased online via the Chicon 7 website at www.chicon.org/membership.php. Full Adult Attending memberships currently cost $215 (rising to $230 from August 1), Young Adult Attending memberships cost $100, and Supporting memberships cost $50.
Members can submit their Hugo Award ballots online via the Chicon 7 website at www.chicon.org/hugo-awards.php, or by postal mail. Postal ballots must be received before the voting deadline.
Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), would like to remind members that the voting deadline for the 2012 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award is July 31, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. Pdt (Wednesday, August 1, 2012, at 2:59 a.m. Edt). The same deadline applies for access to the 2012 Hugo Voter Packet, which can currently be downloaded via the Chicon 7 website.
Hugo Award voting, and access to the Hugo Voter Packet, is open to all Adult, Young Adult and Supporting members of Chicon 7. Convention memberships can be purchased online via the Chicon 7 website at www.chicon.org/membership.php. Full Adult Attending memberships currently cost $215 (rising to $230 from August 1), Young Adult Attending memberships cost $100, and Supporting memberships cost $50.
Members can submit their Hugo Award ballots online via the Chicon 7 website at www.chicon.org/hugo-awards.php, or by postal mail. Postal ballots must be received before the voting deadline.
- 7/22/2012
- by Ian Randal Strock
- Comicmix.com
The actor who played Luke Skywalker in the original "Star Wars" trilogy has some choice words for Mitt Romney. Speaking at this weekend's Comic-Con in San Diego, Mark Hamill said the Republican candidate for president "is not actually human."
Here's the full quote, courtesy of On the Red Carpet (via Newsbusters): "If you don't vote for Barack Obama, you're insane. 'Cause without him, I think the middle class will completely disappear. And you look at Romney and I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I think he's like The Thing -- he only imitates human behavior. He's not actually human himself ... So God bless him, I'm enjoying him running for office but -- I just came out as a lifelong Democrat." (Watch video of Hamill's comments above, starting about one minute in.)
The Thing is a character from a movie by the same name which is based on a novel by John W. Campbell.
Here's the full quote, courtesy of On the Red Carpet (via Newsbusters): "If you don't vote for Barack Obama, you're insane. 'Cause without him, I think the middle class will completely disappear. And you look at Romney and I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I think he's like The Thing -- he only imitates human behavior. He's not actually human himself ... So God bless him, I'm enjoying him running for office but -- I just came out as a lifelong Democrat." (Watch video of Hamill's comments above, starting about one minute in.)
The Thing is a character from a movie by the same name which is based on a novel by John W. Campbell.
- 7/17/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
June 25, 1982, was a good day for genre fans. Hell, that summer saw a spate of genre classics released, including "The Road Warrior," "Poltergeist," and "E.T." But June 25th in particular saw not only the release, as we discussed earlier today, of "Blade Runner," but also another legendary sci-fi picture, which like Ridley Scott's film, wasn't well-received at the time, and flopped at the box office, but went on to be enshrined in the geek hall of fame. No, it's not Barry Bostwyck vehicle "MegaForce," but John Carpenter's terrifying "The Thing," which despite the efforts of last year's poor retread/prequel, remains one of the greatest sci-fi/horrors ever made.
Technically a remake of Howard Hawks' well-loved 1951 "The Thing From Another World," which Carpenter pays tribute to in the opening moments, the new film took a very different approach, ramping up both the paranoia and the eye-popping physical effects,...
Technically a remake of Howard Hawks' well-loved 1951 "The Thing From Another World," which Carpenter pays tribute to in the opening moments, the new film took a very different approach, ramping up both the paranoia and the eye-popping physical effects,...
- 6/25/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Once again, those few benighted souls relying on Antick Musings for their skiffy-world news have been poorly served, but here’s the most recent clutch of awards given out in our realms:
Robert A. Heinlein Award
This is both a fairly new award — barely a decade old — and one given for a body of work, rather than a specific piece of fiction, which means it has gone to pretty much exactly who we all would have predicted it would, in pretty much the same order. The award is given, officially, for “outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space” — Nasa propaganda, essentially.
This year’s winner is Stanley Schmidt, long-time editor of Analog, and, in best Heinlein fashion, the award itself is a whopping great medallion that Schmidt will be expected to wear as much as he can — or, at least, the...
Robert A. Heinlein Award
This is both a fairly new award — barely a decade old — and one given for a body of work, rather than a specific piece of fiction, which means it has gone to pretty much exactly who we all would have predicted it would, in pretty much the same order. The award is given, officially, for “outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space” — Nasa propaganda, essentially.
This year’s winner is Stanley Schmidt, long-time editor of Analog, and, in best Heinlein fashion, the award itself is a whopping great medallion that Schmidt will be expected to wear as much as he can — or, at least, the...
- 6/8/2012
- by Andrew Wheeler
- Comicmix.com
The lingering memory of my year of blogging for the Sfbc — which ended five years ago, so I really should be over it by this point — still compels me to post SFnal awards, even when I do so far too late to benefit anyone. What can I say? I’m a flawed person.
Anyway, here’s some recent awards that you probably already know about:
2011 Aurealis Awards
The Australian national awards for Sf and other imaginative literature were given out three weeks ago (I know, I know!), and the full list has been available since then.
Here’s the novel-length awards, just because:
Young Adult Novel: Only Ever Always, by Penni Russon Fantasy Novel: Ember and Ash, by Pamela Freeman Science Fiction Novel: The Courier’s New Bicycle, by Kim Westwood
(via Sf Signal)
Analog and Asimov’s Reader’s Awards
The same weekend as the Nebulas (suddenly suspicious — did I blog about the Nebulas?...
Anyway, here’s some recent awards that you probably already know about:
2011 Aurealis Awards
The Australian national awards for Sf and other imaginative literature were given out three weeks ago (I know, I know!), and the full list has been available since then.
Here’s the novel-length awards, just because:
Young Adult Novel: Only Ever Always, by Penni Russon Fantasy Novel: Ember and Ash, by Pamela Freeman Science Fiction Novel: The Courier’s New Bicycle, by Kim Westwood
(via Sf Signal)
Analog and Asimov’s Reader’s Awards
The same weekend as the Nebulas (suddenly suspicious — did I blog about the Nebulas?...
- 6/4/2012
- by Andrew Wheeler
- Comicmix.com
1982. The best year for sci-fi and fantasy movies? The year that home video gave second life to films that otherwise would have flopped? Join the celebration here...
2012 marks the 30th anniversary of 1982, a year widely considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, years ever for science fiction and fantasy movies.
Going by original Us release dates, there are indeed few years in cinema history that can boast the release of so many classic, cult, influential, popular and, in some cases, all of the above, Science Fiction and Fantasy movies.
1982 is certainly a year that the Sf/fantasy genre really came into its own, both in terms of its own cinematic aesthetic and as a viable source of commercial success. In the wake of hit Sf/fantasy films like Star Wars and Alien, the genre was finally breaking free of its previous status as predominantly schlocky low budget B-movies and kiddie fare.
2012 marks the 30th anniversary of 1982, a year widely considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, years ever for science fiction and fantasy movies.
Going by original Us release dates, there are indeed few years in cinema history that can boast the release of so many classic, cult, influential, popular and, in some cases, all of the above, Science Fiction and Fantasy movies.
1982 is certainly a year that the Sf/fantasy genre really came into its own, both in terms of its own cinematic aesthetic and as a viable source of commercial success. In the wake of hit Sf/fantasy films like Star Wars and Alien, the genre was finally breaking free of its previous status as predominantly schlocky low budget B-movies and kiddie fare.
- 4/16/2012
- Den of Geek
By Todd Garbarini
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
My love of horror films didn’t start until I was twelve, but as a child in 1974 I recall seeing scenes from a film that featured a white poodle and a monster with eerie, red eyes. I didn’t know the name of it until my grandmother bought a VHS copy of Horror Express in September 1985 from K-mart for the then unheard of amount of eleven dollars. I immediately recognized the images and was delighted to finally know the film that had unnerved me years earlier.
Horror Express takes place at the turn of the 20th Century. Sir Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee), a British anthropologist, discovers frozen fossils during an archeological dig and takes them aboard the Tran-Siberian Express en route to England. Accompanying him are his colleague Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) and his assistant Mrs. Jones (Alice Reinheart). Almost immediately,...
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
My love of horror films didn’t start until I was twelve, but as a child in 1974 I recall seeing scenes from a film that featured a white poodle and a monster with eerie, red eyes. I didn’t know the name of it until my grandmother bought a VHS copy of Horror Express in September 1985 from K-mart for the then unheard of amount of eleven dollars. I immediately recognized the images and was delighted to finally know the film that had unnerved me years earlier.
Horror Express takes place at the turn of the 20th Century. Sir Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee), a British anthropologist, discovers frozen fossils during an archeological dig and takes them aboard the Tran-Siberian Express en route to England. Accompanying him are his colleague Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) and his assistant Mrs. Jones (Alice Reinheart). Almost immediately,...
- 11/26/2011
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
31 – Rosemary’s Baby
Directed by Roman Polanski
USA, 1968
Roman Polanski’s brilliant horror-thriller was nominated for two Oscars, winning Best Supporting Actress for Ruth Gordon. The director’s first American film, adapted from Ira Levin’s horror bestseller, is a spellbinding and twisted tale of Satanism and pregnancy. Supremely mounted, the film benefits from it’s strong atmosphere, apartment setting, eerie childlike score and polished production values by cinematographer William Fraker. The cast is brilliant, with Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as the young couple playing opposite Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, the elderly neighbors. There is ominous tension in the film from first frame to last – the climax makes for one of the greatest endings of all time. Rarely has a film displayed such an uncompromising portrait of betrayal as this one. Career or marriage – which would you choose?
30 – Eraserhead
Directed by David Lynch
USA, 1977
Filmed intermittently over the course of a five-year period,...
Directed by Roman Polanski
USA, 1968
Roman Polanski’s brilliant horror-thriller was nominated for two Oscars, winning Best Supporting Actress for Ruth Gordon. The director’s first American film, adapted from Ira Levin’s horror bestseller, is a spellbinding and twisted tale of Satanism and pregnancy. Supremely mounted, the film benefits from it’s strong atmosphere, apartment setting, eerie childlike score and polished production values by cinematographer William Fraker. The cast is brilliant, with Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as the young couple playing opposite Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, the elderly neighbors. There is ominous tension in the film from first frame to last – the climax makes for one of the greatest endings of all time. Rarely has a film displayed such an uncompromising portrait of betrayal as this one. Career or marriage – which would you choose?
30 – Eraserhead
Directed by David Lynch
USA, 1977
Filmed intermittently over the course of a five-year period,...
- 10/29/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Directed by: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Written by: Eric Heisserer, Ronald D. Moore, John W. Campbell
Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Eric Christian Olsen
Bad things often follow a funny joke.
A group of Norwegian scientists stumble upon the frozen remains of an alien spacecraft buried deep in the ice of the Antarctic. A team is rushed together, including paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dr. Sander Halversen (Ulrich Thomsen), Adam Goodman (Eric Christian Olsen). The rest consist of other Norwegians, along with a couple of Americans, and all together they manage to find one of the frozen occupants of the alien ship and cut it out of the ice. Not realizing what they have - the title of the film makes it pretty obvious to us - they haul it back to base, ogle it for awhile, and then get down to getting drunk...
Written by: Eric Heisserer, Ronald D. Moore, John W. Campbell
Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Eric Christian Olsen
Bad things often follow a funny joke.
A group of Norwegian scientists stumble upon the frozen remains of an alien spacecraft buried deep in the ice of the Antarctic. A team is rushed together, including paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dr. Sander Halversen (Ulrich Thomsen), Adam Goodman (Eric Christian Olsen). The rest consist of other Norwegians, along with a couple of Americans, and all together they manage to find one of the frozen occupants of the alien ship and cut it out of the ice. Not realizing what they have - the title of the film makes it pretty obvious to us - they haul it back to base, ogle it for awhile, and then get down to getting drunk...
- 10/15/2011
- by Tristan Sinns
- Planet Fury
Now that you've seen it, what did you think? The Thing has a long history. Its origins are in John W. Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?"; there's a 1951 adaptation; and there's John Carpenter's beloved cult classic 1982 version. In theaters today is Matthijs van Heijningen's prequel to Carpenter's film, also titled The Thing, telling the story of the Norwegian camp that first discovers a creature from another world in the ice. So how is it? Is it a worthy follow-up to Carpenter's classic? How are the effects? What about the characters and performances? Once you've seen it, leave a comment and tell us your thoughts on The Thing! To fuel the fire, while there are some good moments in this new The Thing, overall I was honestly let down. It felt like it was missing a lot, some pieces that would've made it feel a lot more complete.
- 10/14/2011
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Cheap imitations should all be burned in an icy wasteland. Even expensive looking but soulless knockoffs should feel the flames wrapping around them deep in the Arctic circle. That's precisely what the new version of The Thing is, a flashy retread that looks and feels like a film we've seen before, but it's not. Something is missing. Actually a lot is missing in the movement from John Carpenter's 1982 film - itself an adaptation of John W. Campbell Jr's short story "Who Goes There?" which was adapted once before in 1951 - to this one, a prequel in essence, but one with a new car smell of a big budget remake. What is absent here is swept under a blanket of slick CGI in hopes that the audience, more specifically fans of Carpenter's film, won't notice. Sadly, The Thing 2011, your tentacles and body teeth are showing. The film begins with ...
- 10/14/2011
- by Jeremy Kirk
- firstshowing.net
Full disclosure: John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my favorite movies of all time. I also have a great deal of respect for "Who Goes There?," the original story by John W. Campbell, Jr., and believe that The Thing From Another World, directed by Christian Nyby and/or Howard Hawks, is well-made and a good deal of fun. Each stands on its own, each reflects a strong creative vision, and each is a product of its time. Nonetheless, I was fully prepared to follow the new version of The Thing, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., as it charted its own distinctive course. The film's biggest problem, it turns out, is not that it fails to reach the heights established by its predecessors -- it...
- 10/14/2011
- Screen Anarchy
It began in 1938 with a John W. Campbell novella entitled "Who Goes There?" In 1951 that story was adapted by Howard Hawks into a movie called The Thing from Another World. In 1982 John Carpenter and Bill Lancaster delivered a rendition called, simply enough, The Thing. That film died a miserable death at the box office (mostly because of a different sort of alien film, one called E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial) and the critics were none too kind to the flick either. But the early '80s were the golden era of the video cassette (in addition to heavy rotation play on HBO), and so John Carpenter's The Thing has gone on to become one of the most widely-adored horror films of the past fifty years. Often just...
- 10/13/2011
- FEARnet
Horror thrives in isolation. In the case of the new science-fiction thriller The Thing, that principle applies heavily to the Antarctic setting, where inclement weather cuts off a tiny science station from potential rescuers, darkness and bitter cold make even closely huddled buildings seem forbiddingly far apart, and circumstances set everyone in the area against each other. But the same principle also applies to the film as an artifact. It would work much better if it could be isolated from its predecessors: John W. Campbell, Jr.’s 1938 novella “Who Goes There?”, the 1951 film adaptation The Thing From Another ...
- 10/13/2011
- avclub.com
"I'm the Thing....from another world, baby."
Jon and Al Kaplan, the singing and songwriting brothers who brought The Silence of the Lambs to the Off-Broadway stage in the form of Silence! The Musical, have struck gold once again.
The brothers have been blitzing the Internet in recent months with a series of viral video musical adaptations, taking on Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night (released to coincide with the release of the 3D remakes of both). And with the prequel to the 1982 version of The Thing due in theaters this weekend the Kaplan brothers have gone back to the John Carpenter-directed classic take on John W. Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?" and worked their musical magic. You can watch the video below after the jump. [...]...
Jon and Al Kaplan, the singing and songwriting brothers who brought The Silence of the Lambs to the Off-Broadway stage in the form of Silence! The Musical, have struck gold once again.
The brothers have been blitzing the Internet in recent months with a series of viral video musical adaptations, taking on Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night (released to coincide with the release of the 3D remakes of both). And with the prequel to the 1982 version of The Thing due in theaters this weekend the Kaplan brothers have gone back to the John Carpenter-directed classic take on John W. Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?" and worked their musical magic. You can watch the video below after the jump. [...]...
- 10/11/2011
- by BAADASSSSS!
- Geeks of Doom
1. Halloween III: Season of the Witch: Jamie Lee Curtis is the voice of the operator that talks to Dr. Dan Challis when he tries to make a call out of Santa Mira.
2. Aliens: In the extended director’s cut, the image of Ripley’s daughter is Elizabeth Inglis, Sigourney Weaver’s mother.
3. The Thing: Both John Carpenter’s version and The Thing From Another World (1951) are based off of the short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr.
4. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare Peter Jackson had originally written a screenplay for this film, but it was rejected by the studio.
5. Event Horizon: The first cut of the film contained longer “Visions of Hell” scenes and much more gore than what made it into the theatrical cut. Additional footage was removed after test screenings and to receive an R-rating.
6. Two Thousand Maniacs: The story...
2. Aliens: In the extended director’s cut, the image of Ripley’s daughter is Elizabeth Inglis, Sigourney Weaver’s mother.
3. The Thing: Both John Carpenter’s version and The Thing From Another World (1951) are based off of the short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr.
4. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare Peter Jackson had originally written a screenplay for this film, but it was rejected by the studio.
5. Event Horizon: The first cut of the film contained longer “Visions of Hell” scenes and much more gore than what made it into the theatrical cut. Additional footage was removed after test screenings and to receive an R-rating.
6. Two Thousand Maniacs: The story...
- 10/2/2011
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
If you’ve ever wandered through the Sci-Fi aisle at your local bookstore, you’re probably familiar with the work of Chris Foss, even if you don’t know it. His artwork has been featured on so many classic and modern Sci-Fi novel covers that his aesthetic is nigh impossible to separate from the genre’s imagery. Isaac Asimoc, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Rick Raphael, Michael Moorcock, John W. Campbell, Jack Vance, Edmund Cooper, and other Sci-Fi authors all have books bearing Foss’s artwork. Unless Foss is ambidextrous, it’s fair to say he singlehandedly altered the public notion of how Sci-Fi looked on the page. For fans of his work or Sci-Fi art in general, Titan Books has recently released Hardware: The Definitive Sf Works of Chris Foss. Oh, complete (and tangentially convenient) afterthought, Foss was also the visual design consultant on a little movie called Alien.
- 9/28/2011
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
See a cool spot called Terror Tram from The Thing, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jiel Edgerton. Matthijs Van Heijningen-directed Thing is a prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter film ofd the same title. Eric Heisserer penned the script, based on the short story by John W. Campbell "Who Goes There?" Eric Newman and Marc Abraham produced sci-fi horror opens October 14th via Universal Pictures. Eric Christian Olsen, Ulrich Tomsen and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje complete the main cast. Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman.
- 9/22/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
MTV has released an exclusive new clip from the upcoming The Thing. You can check it out below this article.
The clip runs less than a minute, but it does feature a few quick (and ineffective) jump scares that culminates with the titular alien beast breaking free from its icy tomb.
The theatrical release of the much-maligned prequel/sequel/remake/whatever of The Thing, John Carpenter's 1982 classic of otherworldly horror, is little more than a month from release but Universal Pictures hasn't done much so far to market the new film outside of the release a teaser poster and a trailer. Upon their release both received a lukewarm reception from science fiction and horror fans and an even worse reception from longtime fans of the John Carpenter film, which itself was both an updated remake of the Howard Hawks-produced 1951 sci-fi shocker The Thing from Another World and a...
The clip runs less than a minute, but it does feature a few quick (and ineffective) jump scares that culminates with the titular alien beast breaking free from its icy tomb.
The theatrical release of the much-maligned prequel/sequel/remake/whatever of The Thing, John Carpenter's 1982 classic of otherworldly horror, is little more than a month from release but Universal Pictures hasn't done much so far to market the new film outside of the release a teaser poster and a trailer. Upon their release both received a lukewarm reception from science fiction and horror fans and an even worse reception from longtime fans of the John Carpenter film, which itself was both an updated remake of the Howard Hawks-produced 1951 sci-fi shocker The Thing from Another World and a...
- 9/8/2011
- by BAADASSSSS!
- Geeks of Doom
Ridley Scott is finally returning to science fiction with the Alien prequel-thing Prometheus. That alone is almost enough to erase the vinegar-spag after-taste of A Good Year from our collective memories. That Scott will be returning to the world of his iconic Blade Runner is even better news. We’ve examined the possibilities in great depth already, but what about the Philip K. Dick book which inspired it? That’s where I come in.
Let’s discuss the great sci-fi writer with that hilarious last name for a minute. Philip Kindred Dick and his twin sister Jane were born six weeks premature in Chicago. Dick’s sister died six weeks later. The loss of his twin affected him profoundly – indeed, the motif of a “phantom twin” shows up often in his fiction. His family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and Dick attended Berkeley High School with fellow future...
Let’s discuss the great sci-fi writer with that hilarious last name for a minute. Philip Kindred Dick and his twin sister Jane were born six weeks premature in Chicago. Dick’s sister died six weeks later. The loss of his twin affected him profoundly – indeed, the motif of a “phantom twin” shows up often in his fiction. His family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and Dick attended Berkeley High School with fellow future...
- 9/5/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Image via Wikipedia
Update 8/21: So much for hotel wi-fi, which also limited our Harvey Awards coverage.
A recording of the full Hugo Awards Ceremony is still up at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16783348 Two caveats: there’s a commercial ad that you have to watch before the actual recording, and the ceremony starts some 35 minutes or so into the stream.
There were 2100 valid voting ballots were counted, 2086 electronic and 14 by postal mail.
Best Novel (1813 ballots)
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Best Novella (1467 ballots)
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean) – Read Online
Best Novelette (1469 ballots)
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010) – Read Online
Best Short Story (1597 ballots)
“For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010) – Read Online
Best Related Work (1220 ballots)
Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It,...
Update 8/21: So much for hotel wi-fi, which also limited our Harvey Awards coverage.
A recording of the full Hugo Awards Ceremony is still up at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16783348 Two caveats: there’s a commercial ad that you have to watch before the actual recording, and the ceremony starts some 35 minutes or so into the stream.
There were 2100 valid voting ballots were counted, 2086 electronic and 14 by postal mail.
Best Novel (1813 ballots)
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Best Novella (1467 ballots)
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean) – Read Online
Best Novelette (1469 ballots)
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010) – Read Online
Best Short Story (1597 ballots)
“For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010) – Read Online
Best Related Work (1220 ballots)
Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It,...
- 8/21/2011
- by Glenn Hauman
- Comicmix.com
By Paul Malmont
The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown, my new novel, is what I like to call faction -- a hybrid of fact and fiction. A fact: Thanks to editor John W. Campbell, golden age science fiction writers Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and L. Sprague de Camp were hired by the Navy to work on military research at the Philadelphia Naval Yard during World War II. A fact: L. Ron Hubbard was a pulp science fiction writer, a friend of Heinlein’s, and was court martialed for, well, basically incompetency during the war -- yet he always claimed he was off on super-secret missions in the Pacific. A fact: Nikola Tesla built a strange communication tower at Wardenclyffe, Long Island. A fact: a legend has grown up since the 1960s that experiments in Philadelphia may have led to a ship being transported from the harbor, to Virginia, and back again.
The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown, my new novel, is what I like to call faction -- a hybrid of fact and fiction. A fact: Thanks to editor John W. Campbell, golden age science fiction writers Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and L. Sprague de Camp were hired by the Navy to work on military research at the Philadelphia Naval Yard during World War II. A fact: L. Ron Hubbard was a pulp science fiction writer, a friend of Heinlein’s, and was court martialed for, well, basically incompetency during the war -- yet he always claimed he was off on super-secret missions in the Pacific. A fact: Nikola Tesla built a strange communication tower at Wardenclyffe, Long Island. A fact: a legend has grown up since the 1960s that experiments in Philadelphia may have led to a ship being transported from the harbor, to Virginia, and back again.
- 8/12/2011
- by The Geeks of Doom
- Geeks of Doom
It's here. The long awaited first real glimpse of moving images from the forthcoming The Thing redux/prequel.Director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (say That ten times fast) puts his proverbial 'nards up on the chopping block with this romp through the Carpenter-realized version of the classic John W. Campbell short story Who Goes There?Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim and the the up-coming hot genre property Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom), The Thing tells the tale of the Nordic expedition that initially finds the alien craft buried in the ice, and unwittingly releases the amorphous cosmic terror upon the unsuspecting Earth.Judging from the trailer, Heijningen Jr. seems to indeed be heavily referencing the look of the classic Carpenter version. What do...
- 7/14/2011
- Screen Anarchy
Universal has just debuted the first trailer for The Thing as well as sent over the six new images you can view in the slideshow above or in our gallery right here along with one additional image and the poster for the flick.
The film is being described as a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name, which itself was based on John W. Campbell, Jr.'s short story and the 1951 film produced by Howard Hawks of a shape-shifting alien that terrorizes a team of scientists in Antarctica. This prequel story takes place at an Antarctica research site where an alien spacecraft is found. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen and Trond Espen Seim and is directed by first time feature helmer Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
You can check out the trailer directly below as well as a more in-depth synopsis.
The film is being described as a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name, which itself was based on John W. Campbell, Jr.'s short story and the 1951 film produced by Howard Hawks of a shape-shifting alien that terrorizes a team of scientists in Antarctica. This prequel story takes place at an Antarctica research site where an alien spacecraft is found. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen and Trond Espen Seim and is directed by first time feature helmer Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
You can check out the trailer directly below as well as a more in-depth synopsis.
- 7/14/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Gargantuan blue glassy obelisks, or chronoliths, are materializing in the middle of roads, major cities, and countries around the world. They come from the future, dispersing the air, the space, the water molecules in the air, like spears or splinters violating the laws of physics. They are the starkly impressive memorials to conquests that will occur a scant 20-23 years later, conquests that a mysterious person or being called Kuin will make. They are sent back in time to show us that there the conquests of the various countries of the world is inevitable, that there is no sense in resisting, because resistance is futile. The only logical and sensible thing to do is to jump on the Kuin bandwagon while you still can, and accept him as your god-like ruler before the fact. The invulnerable chronoliths are symbols of Kuin’s strength and power. Fighting or resisting Kuin is...
- 5/24/2011
- by Professor Crazy
- Boomtron
The Hugo Award nominees for 2011 have been announced, which means that come August 20th, 15 amazingly talented people will be awarded the highest form of recognition (and greatest award trophy of all time!) that the science fiction/fantasy community can bestow. Check ‘em out below.
Best Novel
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Best Novella
“The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2010)
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
“The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow)
“The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines, Science Fiction Book Club)
Best Novelette...
Best Novel
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Best Novella
“The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2010)
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
“The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow)
“The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines, Science Fiction Book Club)
Best Novelette...
- 4/25/2011
- by Brandon Johnston
- ScifiMafia
Ryan looks back at the work of author Hp Lovecraft, the writer behind Guillermo del Toro’s forthcoming At The Mountains Of Madness…
In his own lifetime, Howard Philips Lovecraft was a virtual unknown. His stories appeared in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, alongside contemporary genre writers such as Robert E Howard and August Derleth, and wouldn’t be published in book form until long after Lovecraft’s death.
It was only after Hp Lovecraft's passing in 1937 that his work began to be reassessed, and even then his distinctive, verbose prose was scorned by the literary establishment. The critic, Edmund Wilson, infamously dismissed the author's tales as "bad taste and bad art" in 1945.
Gradually, however, Lovecraft's reputation grew, and he's now rightly recognised as one of the 20th century's most important American authors. In 2005, a collection of Lovecraft's stories was collected together for The Library Of America,...
In his own lifetime, Howard Philips Lovecraft was a virtual unknown. His stories appeared in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, alongside contemporary genre writers such as Robert E Howard and August Derleth, and wouldn’t be published in book form until long after Lovecraft’s death.
It was only after Hp Lovecraft's passing in 1937 that his work began to be reassessed, and even then his distinctive, verbose prose was scorned by the literary establishment. The critic, Edmund Wilson, infamously dismissed the author's tales as "bad taste and bad art" in 1945.
Gradually, however, Lovecraft's reputation grew, and he's now rightly recognised as one of the 20th century's most important American authors. In 2005, a collection of Lovecraft's stories was collected together for The Library Of America,...
- 2/8/2011
- Den of Geek
With At The Mountains Of Madness, author Hp Lovecraft could finally get the adaptation he deserves. Here are our hopes and fears for the forthcoming movie…
If there's one horror author whose work deserves a decent mainstream cinema adaptation, it's that 30s master of tentacle-filled fear, Hp Lovecraft. Something of a specialist in short fiction, At The Mountains Of Madness was one of Lovecraft's longest and most highly regarded works.
Published in three consecutive issues of Astounding Stories in 1936, Mountains is a finely wrought masterpiece of icy fear, and sees Lovecraft's distinctive, florid prose at its most potent. Set among the freezing wastes of Antarctica, the story is told from the perspective of geologist Dyer, a professor from the mythical Miskatonic University, whose quest for knowledge brings him into contact with terrifying beings older than humanity itself.
Mountains' perfectly realised atmosphere could be due, at least in part, to Lovecraft's physical intolerance to cold.
If there's one horror author whose work deserves a decent mainstream cinema adaptation, it's that 30s master of tentacle-filled fear, Hp Lovecraft. Something of a specialist in short fiction, At The Mountains Of Madness was one of Lovecraft's longest and most highly regarded works.
Published in three consecutive issues of Astounding Stories in 1936, Mountains is a finely wrought masterpiece of icy fear, and sees Lovecraft's distinctive, florid prose at its most potent. Set among the freezing wastes of Antarctica, the story is told from the perspective of geologist Dyer, a professor from the mythical Miskatonic University, whose quest for knowledge brings him into contact with terrifying beings older than humanity itself.
Mountains' perfectly realised atmosphere could be due, at least in part, to Lovecraft's physical intolerance to cold.
- 1/10/2011
- Den of Geek
Christmas has a hell of a PR agent. A good PR maximises the audience for their client, always looking for lateral markets beyond the core appeal of the product. So if Christmas is fundamentally about giving, goodwill and forgiveness, there's no harm - from a PR's point of view - if it can also be made to be about sex, death and loneliness too. We seem to have had our traditional - and always sad - fusillade of pre-Christmas celebrity deaths this year, and if we're lucky, the period between now and new year will bring no new and nasty surprises in that line.
In the meantime our TV screens have filled up customarily with ads for perfume and booze which remind us that Christmas is also a Pagan-style locus for celebrations of the carnal and sensory. And with campaigns targeted at those who have no invite to the celebrations...
In the meantime our TV screens have filled up customarily with ads for perfume and booze which remind us that Christmas is also a Pagan-style locus for celebrations of the carnal and sensory. And with campaigns targeted at those who have no invite to the celebrations...
- 12/23/2010
- Shadowlocked
Never Again is an attempt to voice the collective revulsion of writers in the weird fiction genre against political attitudes that stifle compassion and deny our collective human inheritance.
The imagination is crucial to an understanding both of human diversity and of common ground. Weird fiction is often stigmatised as a reactionary and ignorant genre - we know better. The anthology is published by Gray Friar Press and edited by Allyson Bird and Joel Lane. The Sophie Lancaster Foundation is one of the three organisations which will benefit from the proceeds of Never Again. It is just over three years since the brutal slaying of Sophie Lancaster, a girl who was murdered for simply being different. I hope that people will pre order the anthology so we here at FanGirlTastic can help, too. Other organisations which will benefit from this anthology are Amnesty International and Pen (Pen is an international...
The imagination is crucial to an understanding both of human diversity and of common ground. Weird fiction is often stigmatised as a reactionary and ignorant genre - we know better. The anthology is published by Gray Friar Press and edited by Allyson Bird and Joel Lane. The Sophie Lancaster Foundation is one of the three organisations which will benefit from the proceeds of Never Again. It is just over three years since the brutal slaying of Sophie Lancaster, a girl who was murdered for simply being different. I hope that people will pre order the anthology so we here at FanGirlTastic can help, too. Other organisations which will benefit from this anthology are Amnesty International and Pen (Pen is an international...
- 11/25/2010
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
Put flying cars, tablet-computers or laser-guns in a sci-fi movie and you can be fairly sure technology will catch up with (or even overtake) your film one of these days. But sometimes movies predict aspects of the future without any intention...
The Stepford Wives (1975) - Female 'androidiny'
Since Bryan Forbes' horror/thriller came out in 1975, the fictitious town of Stepford, Connecticut, has entered the language as a reference both to creepy and generic communities, and - more critically - regarding women who eschew decades of feminist struggle in their sublimation of self-image and individuality to the wishes of men.
When independent-minded photographer Katharine Ross moves to a sleepy community with her husband, she is initially amazed at the subservience of the Stepford wives to their husbands' wishes, appalled to see beautiful and talented women showing inordinate appreciation and servility to spouses that treat them as mere objects and with little respect.
The Stepford Wives (1975) - Female 'androidiny'
Since Bryan Forbes' horror/thriller came out in 1975, the fictitious town of Stepford, Connecticut, has entered the language as a reference both to creepy and generic communities, and - more critically - regarding women who eschew decades of feminist struggle in their sublimation of self-image and individuality to the wishes of men.
When independent-minded photographer Katharine Ross moves to a sleepy community with her husband, she is initially amazed at the subservience of the Stepford wives to their husbands' wishes, appalled to see beautiful and talented women showing inordinate appreciation and servility to spouses that treat them as mere objects and with little respect.
- 11/17/2010
- Shadowlocked
John Carpenter's 1982 version of The Thing is among the top ten horror films of all time for many a genre fan; now, we have the leaked trailer for the brand new 2011 adaptation embedded below!
The trailer you're about to watch is, frankly, an extremely bad camcorder recording. Whoever is holding the camera seems to have an itchy bottom, as they just can't seem to sit still. At one point during the trailer, they inexplicably begin to film the ceiling for about five seconds. Given its quality, this is less of an early trailer viewing and more of an early trailer "glimpse".
That all said, I couldn't help but watch it more than once. John Carpenter's 1982 film (which was the second film to be based on the story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. and so was arguably itself a remake) was a profoundly good horror film,...
The trailer you're about to watch is, frankly, an extremely bad camcorder recording. Whoever is holding the camera seems to have an itchy bottom, as they just can't seem to sit still. At one point during the trailer, they inexplicably begin to film the ceiling for about five seconds. Given its quality, this is less of an early trailer viewing and more of an early trailer "glimpse".
That all said, I couldn't help but watch it more than once. John Carpenter's 1982 film (which was the second film to be based on the story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. and so was arguably itself a remake) was a profoundly good horror film,...
- 10/12/2010
- by Tristan Sinns
- Planet Fury
Filed under: Features, Horror, Sci-Fi, Cinematical
The art of adaptation is just that; an art. Adapting a short story, a novel, or even a novella takes a finely honed sense of what worked in the adapted material, of what drew readers and, presumably, a movie studio to purchase the film rights, and what works on the big or small screen. Of the three, the novel is generally the most difficult to adapt, the short story second hardest (because so many details and backstory have to be created from scratch), and that makes the novella, with its limited page count and linear story, usually minus subplots, perfect or near-perfect for the big - or small - screen jump.
John W. Campbell's 1938 science-fiction/horror novella, 'Who Goes There?,' has been adapted twice for the big screen, first, loosely, as 'The Thing from Another World,' produced and ghost-directed by Howard Hawks ('Rio Bravo,...
The art of adaptation is just that; an art. Adapting a short story, a novel, or even a novella takes a finely honed sense of what worked in the adapted material, of what drew readers and, presumably, a movie studio to purchase the film rights, and what works on the big or small screen. Of the three, the novel is generally the most difficult to adapt, the short story second hardest (because so many details and backstory have to be created from scratch), and that makes the novella, with its limited page count and linear story, usually minus subplots, perfect or near-perfect for the big - or small - screen jump.
John W. Campbell's 1938 science-fiction/horror novella, 'Who Goes There?,' has been adapted twice for the big screen, first, loosely, as 'The Thing from Another World,' produced and ghost-directed by Howard Hawks ('Rio Bravo,...
- 9/17/2010
- by Mel Valentin
- Moviefone
Filed under: Features, Horror, Sci-Fi, Cinematical
The art of adaptation is just that; an art. Adapting a short story, a novel, or even a novella takes a finely honed sense of what worked in the adapted material, of what drew readers and, presumably, a movie studio to purchase the film rights, and what works on the big or small screen. Of the three, the novel is generally the most difficult to adapt, the short story second hardest (because so many details and backstory have to be created from scratch), and that makes the novella, with its limited page count and linear story, usually minus subplots, perfect or near-perfect for the big - or small - screen jump.
John W. Campbell's 1938 science-fiction/horror novella, 'Who Goes There?,' has been adapted twice for the big screen, first, loosely, as 'The Thing from Another World,' produced and ghost-directed by Howard Hawks ('Rio Bravo,...
The art of adaptation is just that; an art. Adapting a short story, a novel, or even a novella takes a finely honed sense of what worked in the adapted material, of what drew readers and, presumably, a movie studio to purchase the film rights, and what works on the big or small screen. Of the three, the novel is generally the most difficult to adapt, the short story second hardest (because so many details and backstory have to be created from scratch), and that makes the novella, with its limited page count and linear story, usually minus subplots, perfect or near-perfect for the big - or small - screen jump.
John W. Campbell's 1938 science-fiction/horror novella, 'Who Goes There?,' has been adapted twice for the big screen, first, loosely, as 'The Thing from Another World,' produced and ghost-directed by Howard Hawks ('Rio Bravo,...
- 9/17/2010
- by Mel Valentin
- Cinematical
Kudos and congratulations are in order for the winners of this year's Hugo Awards. Named for "Amazing Stories" founder, Hugo Gernsback, the Hugos were awarded at this year's WorldCon (Aussiecon 4, in Melbourne, Australia) to celebrate fine contributions for the year's top science fiction or fantasy works. So, without further adieu, let us present this year's winners, and offer our congratulations!
Best Novel: Tie: The City & The City , China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK); The Windup Girl , Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)Best Novella: “Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless ; Ace, Orbit)Best Novelette: “The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2 ; Eos)Best Short Story: “Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh (Asimov's 1/09)Best Related Book: This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and The Heirs of the Storm Sc: Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours...
Best Novel: Tie: The City & The City , China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK); The Windup Girl , Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)Best Novella: “Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless ; Ace, Orbit)Best Novelette: “The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2 ; Eos)Best Short Story: “Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh (Asimov's 1/09)Best Related Book: This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and The Heirs of the Storm Sc: Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours...
- 9/6/2010
- by Marc Alan Fishman
- Comicmix.com
[Our thanks to Dejan Ognjanovic for the following, which he has graciously sent to us after originally posting it on his blog here.]
If you like horror in any shape or form, then you must've read one of the greatest, scariest and most intelligent Sf-horror novels of the 20th century - At The Mountains Of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft.
And, if you like horror movies, then you probably know that Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) is set to direct a solid-budget version of At The Mountains Of Madness with James Cameron producing. The recent announcement that the long-gestating project will be financed by Cameron's Avatar money was largely considered good news. With dozens of announced Del Toro projects in various stages, this development made it seem like this particular film is going to happen, after all. And reasonably soon, too.
Well, I managed to lay my tentacles on the screenplay for At The Mountains Of Madness, written by Guillermo Del Toro and Matthew Robbins, and here's what I thought of it.
Briefly: it...
If you like horror in any shape or form, then you must've read one of the greatest, scariest and most intelligent Sf-horror novels of the 20th century - At The Mountains Of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft.
And, if you like horror movies, then you probably know that Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) is set to direct a solid-budget version of At The Mountains Of Madness with James Cameron producing. The recent announcement that the long-gestating project will be financed by Cameron's Avatar money was largely considered good news. With dozens of announced Del Toro projects in various stages, this development made it seem like this particular film is going to happen, after all. And reasonably soon, too.
Well, I managed to lay my tentacles on the screenplay for At The Mountains Of Madness, written by Guillermo Del Toro and Matthew Robbins, and here's what I thought of it.
Briefly: it...
- 8/30/2010
- Screen Anarchy
John W. Campbell, Jr.'s 1938 seminal science-fiction/horror novella, Who Goes There?, has been adapted twice for the big screen, once, loosely, in 1951 as The Thing from Another World and the second time more faithfully in 1982 as The Thing (a.k.a. John Carpenter's The Thing). While the second adaptation relied heavily on state-of-the-art practical effects, heavy on the body horror, blood, and gore (along with claustrophobia and paranoia, of course), producer and ghost-director Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo, Red River, The Big Sleep, His Girl Friday) structured The Thing from Another World as a moody, atmospheric horror film, relying primarily on suspense, tension, and audience imagination to create a memorable theatrical experience.
Set at a research station in the Arctic (as opposed to Antarctica in Campbell's novella and Carpenter's 1982 adaptation), The Thing from Another World centers on the first encounter between humanity and an alien from outer space. We...
Set at a research station in the Arctic (as opposed to Antarctica in Campbell's novella and Carpenter's 1982 adaptation), The Thing from Another World centers on the first encounter between humanity and an alien from outer space. We...
- 8/18/2010
- by Mel Valentin
- Cinematical
Nocturnal Emissions by Jeffrey Thomas
Supernatural “Black Dogs,” UFOs, a vampire shark, parasite-infested children, and a foul-mouthed marionette from another dimension.
These are just some of the dark delights to be found in the forthcoming collection set for release by Dark Regions Press in September, 2010. Nocturnal Emissions, from Jeffrey Thomas – the fertile imagination behind the Punktown and Letters From Hades series, and finalist for the Bram Stoker and John W. Campbell awards. Thomas demonstrates the wide range of his ability in these short stories, novellas and poems, which include:
Godhead Dying Downwards, Thomas’ acclaimed novella, in which a 19th Century priest seeks to solve ghostly mysteries in the British countryside.
The Night Swimmers, in which two brothers investigate UFO sightings in a New England forest.
The Possessed, a “New Weird” style science fiction/horror novella in which three explorers utilize a strange method of traveling to a far world.
Nocturnal Emissions,...
Supernatural “Black Dogs,” UFOs, a vampire shark, parasite-infested children, and a foul-mouthed marionette from another dimension.
These are just some of the dark delights to be found in the forthcoming collection set for release by Dark Regions Press in September, 2010. Nocturnal Emissions, from Jeffrey Thomas – the fertile imagination behind the Punktown and Letters From Hades series, and finalist for the Bram Stoker and John W. Campbell awards. Thomas demonstrates the wide range of his ability in these short stories, novellas and poems, which include:
Godhead Dying Downwards, Thomas’ acclaimed novella, in which a 19th Century priest seeks to solve ghostly mysteries in the British countryside.
The Night Swimmers, in which two brothers investigate UFO sightings in a New England forest.
The Possessed, a “New Weird” style science fiction/horror novella in which three explorers utilize a strange method of traveling to a far world.
Nocturnal Emissions,...
- 8/9/2010
- by Peter Schwotzer
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
1982 was a vintage year for classic films of a geek persuasion and here’s our run-down of the ten very best to prove it...
While every year sees the release of excellent genre movies, it's remarkable, looking back, just how many genuinely brilliant action, science fiction and fantasy movies appeared in 1982. Here's our run-down of the very best movies released that year...
10. Rocky III
After the Oscar-winning 1976 original, Sylvester Stallone's underdog boxing movies descended rapidly into self-parody, but like the Rambo movies, they remained enormously entertaining, particularly if enjoyed with a few beers and a takeaway.
Having finally defeated arch rival Apollo Creed in the previous movie, Sly's underdog boxer Rocky finds himself out of condition and increasingly complacent following a string of push-over victories.
When the singularly aggressive Clubber Lang (Mr. T, whose "I pity the fool" line became his character B.A. Baracus' catchphrase in The A-Team...
While every year sees the release of excellent genre movies, it's remarkable, looking back, just how many genuinely brilliant action, science fiction and fantasy movies appeared in 1982. Here's our run-down of the very best movies released that year...
10. Rocky III
After the Oscar-winning 1976 original, Sylvester Stallone's underdog boxing movies descended rapidly into self-parody, but like the Rambo movies, they remained enormously entertaining, particularly if enjoyed with a few beers and a takeaway.
Having finally defeated arch rival Apollo Creed in the previous movie, Sly's underdog boxer Rocky finds himself out of condition and increasingly complacent following a string of push-over victories.
When the singularly aggressive Clubber Lang (Mr. T, whose "I pity the fool" line became his character B.A. Baracus' catchphrase in The A-Team...
- 7/13/2010
- Den of Geek
Just a few weeks shy of the 29th anniversary of the release of John Carpenter's masterful reinvention of The Thing (From Another World), Universal will give it another go with a prequel on April 29, 2011. Forgoing more spot-on titles such as The Thing Begins or Landing of The Thing, the film will just be known as The Thing so as to not confuse it with Carpenter's film, The Thing.
This Thing, though, is likely to cause more pause amongst movie fans than most remakes these days. The 1982 film, which owed more to John W. Campbell Jr.'s short story than Howard Hawks' 1951 version, was not only blasted by critics at the time but was also the victim of being a dark, violent Johnny-come-lately in a sci-fi/horror-rich summer. Opening on June 25, the same day as another little film called Blade Runner that would suffer the same fate, The Thing...
This Thing, though, is likely to cause more pause amongst movie fans than most remakes these days. The 1982 film, which owed more to John W. Campbell Jr.'s short story than Howard Hawks' 1951 version, was not only blasted by critics at the time but was also the victim of being a dark, violent Johnny-come-lately in a sci-fi/horror-rich summer. Opening on June 25, the same day as another little film called Blade Runner that would suffer the same fate, The Thing...
- 6/16/2010
- by Erik Childress
- Cinematical
Ryan looks back over the long career of John Carpenter, and picks out the best, worst and most underappreciated movies in his back catalogue…
Following the recent news that, after a nine year hiatus, John Carpenter is returning to directing with Fangland, we thought it was a good time to pick out ten of his greatest, very worst and unjustly forgotten movies...
The Best
Assault On Precinct Thirteen (1976)
Carpenter's low budget siege movie mixed elements of the Western genre and elements of George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead to create a film of steadily building suspense. An almost unbearably slow build up gives way to a spectacularly violent finale, as a beleaguered collection of cops and criminals struggle to defend a police precinct under attack from an army of faceless gangsters.
Made infamous for its ice cream truck shooting, a scene which establishes the vicious nature of the...
Following the recent news that, after a nine year hiatus, John Carpenter is returning to directing with Fangland, we thought it was a good time to pick out ten of his greatest, very worst and unjustly forgotten movies...
The Best
Assault On Precinct Thirteen (1976)
Carpenter's low budget siege movie mixed elements of the Western genre and elements of George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead to create a film of steadily building suspense. An almost unbearably slow build up gives way to a spectacularly violent finale, as a beleaguered collection of cops and criminals struggle to defend a police precinct under attack from an army of faceless gangsters.
Made infamous for its ice cream truck shooting, a scene which establishes the vicious nature of the...
- 6/8/2010
- Den of Geek
If you love movies at all (and if you don't why are you reading Cinematical in the first place?) then you probably have a strong opinion on remakes. Survey says most people don't dig remakes and it's easy to understand why -- what's the point in recreating something that already works perfectly well in the first place? I still worry, however, that a lot of people have knee-jerk reactions to these projects -- automatically assuming they're awful just because the dreaded "R" word is involved. It hasn't always been this way, as there have been some great remakes over the years. Case in point: John Carpenter's The Thing.
An updating of Christian Nyby's The Thing from Another World, Carpenter's version takes the source material (John W. Campbell's Who Goes There?) and updates it in a way that makes it both a retelling and a unique viewing experience. The...
An updating of Christian Nyby's The Thing from Another World, Carpenter's version takes the source material (John W. Campbell's Who Goes There?) and updates it in a way that makes it both a retelling and a unique viewing experience. The...
- 5/11/2010
- by Alison Nastasi
- Cinematical
It’s been 28 years since John Carpenter stood on the refrigerated Los Angeles set and gave directions on The Thing, his remake of the 1951 black and white sci-fi red scare classic film. When Carpenter made his version of The Thing, he had several great people contributing to what I and many horror fans consider one of the greatest monster movies of cinema: great source material in the form of John W. Campbell’s short story “Who Goes There?”; comic book giants like Mike Ploog and Bernie Wrightson contributing the conceptual artwork of the creature design; a minimal but infinitely moody atmospheric score by Ennio Morricone; a talented group of actors making up the doomed men of U.S. Outpost 31; and finally what I consider the most important element of the film, the sheer genius of a then 21-year-old make-up effects artist by the name of Rick Bottin. For anyone that...
- 4/27/2010
- by Patrick Sauriol
- Corona's Coming Attractions
Now there’s a title. You can’t just pull a title out of a lower orifice like that one, no no, it’s takes years of practice citizen. Roland Emmerich, famously fond of epically demonstrated opposing physical forces juxtaposed with people running around screaming, arms akimbo, is planning on soon producing and directing the quite cerebral saga told in Issac Asimov’s Foundation series of books. I did read them, or some of them, in the long ago time when I had an attention span, but I must admit to hitting up the great Wiki for any kind of relevant synopsis; The Deal: The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology (analogous to mathematical physics) devised by Asimov and his editor John W. Campbell. Using the law of mass action, it can predict the future,...
- 2/12/2010
- by endymi0n
- SciFiCool.com
Despite its meager box-office take, John Carpenter's The Thing began to develop a strong cult following after its release on home video. The popularity of the movie eventually spawned a novelization, several comic book miniseries, and a video game "sequel." With a pop culture presence spanning nearly 30 years, it's no wonder that Universal Pictures finally decided to bring the property back to the big screen.
Universal first announced the news that a new The Thing movie was in development in January of last year, with Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. directing from a script by Ronald D. Moore. It was later revealed by Moore that his draft of The Thing was "not a remake" of Carpenter's movie, but a "companion piece" that takes place before the events in the 1982 movie. The prequel will focus on the Norwegian expedition team that first finds the buried spaceship in Antarctica and unwittingly unleashes the...
Universal first announced the news that a new The Thing movie was in development in January of last year, with Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. directing from a script by Ronald D. Moore. It was later revealed by Moore that his draft of The Thing was "not a remake" of Carpenter's movie, but a "companion piece" that takes place before the events in the 1982 movie. The prequel will focus on the Norwegian expedition team that first finds the buried spaceship in Antarctica and unwittingly unleashes the...
- 2/9/2010
- by BrentJS Sprecher
- Reelzchannel.com
Heat Vision is the first with the casting for The Thing, an equally titled prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 cult-classic based on John W. Campbell, Jr.'s short story and the 1951 film produced by Howard Hawks of a shape-shifting alien that terrorizes a team of scientists in Antarctica. That film starred Kurt Russell and is an absolute must watch for any fan of horror or sci-fi.
This latest interpretation will tell the story of the scientists that initially found the being with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Death Proof) starring as a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When the unknown alien is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Joel Edgerton) to stop the rampage.
The film is already set for a March 15 start date in...
This latest interpretation will tell the story of the scientists that initially found the being with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Death Proof) starring as a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When the unknown alien is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Joel Edgerton) to stop the rampage.
The film is already set for a March 15 start date in...
- 2/8/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Producer Dana Offenbach and former Wall Street investment banker and venture capitalist Mark W. Campbell said Thursday that they are partnering to form the indie production company CinemaStreet, which will focus on pictures with low to mid-range budgets.
CinemaStreet, which said it will fund its slate from various sources, has several projects in development:
-- "The Pale Horseman," a supernatural thriller based on the graphic novel of the same name, which would mark the directorial debut of Kevin Grevioux, who has "story by" and "characters by" credits on the "Underworld" movies. Grevioux also wrote the screenplay for the film, which Shane Walker is co-producing and Wme is packaging.
-- "Original Provisionals," a drama about inner-city youth sent to an exclusive summer camp in the '70s,' written by Christopher Scott Cherot.
-- "The Untitled Shelly Waxman Story," based on the true story of the Assistant U.S. Attorney who...
CinemaStreet, which said it will fund its slate from various sources, has several projects in development:
-- "The Pale Horseman," a supernatural thriller based on the graphic novel of the same name, which would mark the directorial debut of Kevin Grevioux, who has "story by" and "characters by" credits on the "Underworld" movies. Grevioux also wrote the screenplay for the film, which Shane Walker is co-producing and Wme is packaging.
-- "Original Provisionals," a drama about inner-city youth sent to an exclusive summer camp in the '70s,' written by Christopher Scott Cherot.
-- "The Untitled Shelly Waxman Story," based on the true story of the Assistant U.S. Attorney who...
- 2/5/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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