November 2004 Archives

TheStar.com - Cameron plans sci fi film

"It's going to be a combination of live action and (computer graphics) but done photo-realistically. There will be CG characters and live-action characters."

He says that like it's revolutionary. Or perhaps he was just talking down to the reporter? After all wasn't T2 the first use of a photorealistic CGI character? (I still remember the wow factor when I saw that terminator morph.)

I went to see The Incredibles last week but totally forgot to blog about it. So I'm doing it now.

Short review I loved it. It felt more James Bond than SF.

Long review (some spoilers)

LightSaber remote control will complete you - Engadget

It includes a built-in library of command codes for cable, TV, and VCRs as well as satellite. Every key press generates an eventually-annoying sound effect, including the kwwssshhh arming sound during the first button push.

Fights for the remote could get interesting.

HAMILL SLAMS NEW STAR WARS MOVIES

"To me, they are just too serious. So orderly and almost religious. Like The Ten Commandments,"

Moan, moan, moan. The ones I did were better. Everything is ruined. Blah blah.

v3.03

My copy of Interzone 195 has arrived and it's looking splendid despite the dog getting to it first (his teeth only penetrated a few pages!).

So far I've read the non fiction:

• An editorial from Jetse and Andy. It's nice to hear the voice of the editors especially as they are so committed to doing a great job.
• Ansible by David Langford, informative and witty as usual (plus a large picture of Neil Gaiman, perhaps that's to try and get any ladies skimming it on the shelves to buy it?).
• Anime-Ted by Andrew Osmond, a review of some recent manga films. I found this interesting as the last manga film I watched was probably Akira. The column brought me up to date and added some films to my To-Watch list.
• Lots of book reviews (8 pages), including full pages for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and The Algebraist.
• A great interview with Ken MacLeod. If you haven't read his Fall Revolution quartet you really should (The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal, The Cassini Division and The Sky Road).
• Mutant Popcorn (film reviews) by Nick Lowe. Funny as ever.

I'm looking forward settling down quietly and reading the fiction.

BBC Radio4 has a good site for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the (next) new series is due May 2005.

On Tuesday night BBC 1 showed the second and concluding part of Space Odyssey.

In this episode the crew visited Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto and a comet, before heading home. The "this is a real documentary" feel was enveloping, dragging you in to learn some science even if you didn't want to. Probably the most engaging aspect of this series however was the narrative. It was a story about a crew on a mission, we met the characters, we shared their triumphs and failures, we watched one of them die. I know that most modern science documentaries seem to have some sort of story telling angle ("The story of our Solar System!") but Space Odyssey pulled it off resoundingly. It was great Science Fiction, prime time on BBC 1, who'd have though it?

Always intelligent, The Mumpsimus gives a brilliant account of teaching American Gods in a school.

I loved American Gods, a wonderful book.

School reading scheme books are often very dull, so why not just read proper books? Personally I think that kids should be stretched, I was reading Lord Of The Rings when I was 9 years old or so and it never harmed me did it?

Another series signed for SG-1 and Atlantis. [Via Slashdot]

Sounds promising, Nicolas Cage will star in and Lee Tamahori will direct the SF action thriller Next, based on the short story "The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick. I haven't read it but I love PKD.

Cory has a new short story up on Salon, plus it's Creative Commons licensed.

"On the Net: Afraid of the Darknet " by James Patrick Kelly, includes some lovely examples of "where do you draw the line?".

I love Charlie Stross's weblog. The insights that he provides into the real life of a writer are fascinating. His latest post tells of the joys of copy editing.

Bet you never even thought about how hard your favourite science fiction author slaved over that novel you did you?

Last night was the first programme in the BBC's Space Odyssey series. It's an interesting concept, the format along the lines of Walking with Dinosaurs. The show follows the voyage of a crew around the solar system. Its style is that of a serious documentary, as though the events have happened, even though the content is mere extrapolation and speculation (in other words SF). I enjoyed it and there's a whole site devoted to it.

Q: So you sat around the pub wondering what you would do if zombies attacked you?
SIMON: Kind of. Every person should have their escape route planned.

Ansible 208, November 2004

The video game teaser trailer for Revenge of the Sith is online too. Teaser trailer heaven.

The teaser trailer is online for mere mortals: Star Wars Episode III Teaser Trailer

I know, I know....but I love it. Downloaded the trailer and watched it a few(!) times. It's great. My favourite bit...

"Lord Vader?" "Yes Master?" "Riiiiiiise."

Read some other reactions.

Reading the Slashdot thread on the Revenge of the Sith teaser trailer it sounds like there are BitTorrent torrents going up and down all over the interweb. Yoyo torrent a-go-go. Pretty crazy. Lucasfilm must be paying some people to trawl the web looking for sites sharing the trailer so that they can send them polite requests to take the content down. Surely that's a losing battle? Or perhaps it's all part of the marketing? If it's perceived as hard to get then perhaps more people will want to get it? Dunno.

By the way if you haven't seen it....it's AWESOME!

I was just accidently watching gmtv when I saw a trailer for a new film called Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith. It looks quite exciting, with spaceships and light swords. I think it might be a hit.

As only the interweb could provide, TheForce.Net has a frame by frame description of the trailer.

A nice long interview with Neal Stephenson in The Guardian

I finally got around to watching Shaun of the Dead yesterday. I liked it a lot. It made me laugh, it made me sad, it made me jump (once) and it made me drive slowly home in the dark in case I hit a zombie.

What I really love about it is that it is so English. I wonder if the humour will translate to America? If you really want to know what life is like in English suburbs for late twenty somethings, it's like this (minus the zombies). The cups of tea, the pub every night, the crap job, the playstation, the relationship going nowhere. Brilliant.

If you haven't heard of Simon Pegg or Edgar Wright you should check out their other work: one of the best sitcoms ever Spaced, and the wonderful first series of sketch show Big Train (the second series is rubbish). Also worth watching is Black Books which stars Dylan Moran who is David in Shaun of the Dead.

In fact whilst I'm on the subject the cast reads like a who's who of current British comedy, even if some of them are just cameos....Lucy Davies, Dylan Morgan, Martin Freeman, Matt Lucas, Tamsin Grieg....

It's a trailer for the teaser trailer, ep3.mov. It's all getting a bit recursive...

The final part of the hyper detailed Star Wars DVD examination from DVDAnswers, Return Of The Jedi [Via Slashdot]

So who's going to mail me a Hyperspace username and password so that I can see the teaser trailer tomorrow?!

ScreenSaver Awards listings "Space the final battle ground. The Ultimate science fiction conflict is coming to a galaxy on your computer. It's the Federation against the Empire. and every other kind of spaceship to punch through hyperspace."

Oh dear.

The New York Times > Opinion > A Work of Halloween Fiction: Antickes and Frets¹ [Via Neil Gaiman]

Bold As Love, Gwyneth Jones' blog continues to be wonderfully poetic. I love it.