‘She’ is a deadly date in Cyborg She

Haruka Ayase

By Adam Wing – 24FramesperSecond.net

Had someone told me this morning that later today I would be watching a new Japanese movie that sits somewhere between Pretty Woman and Terminator, I’d have politely asked them what it was they were smoking. But here it is folks, a rom-com sci-fi movie from the director of My Sassy Girl and Windstruck. Jae-young Kwak introduces us to a lonely young man who falls in love with an emotionless cyborg, Jiro (Keisuke Koide) is celebrating his birthday alone when he crosses paths with a mysterious young beauty and after spending the evening together the girl vanishes without a trace. Jiro’s life has been pretty dull up to this point, and he knows that whatever happens, he’ll never be able to shake that girl or the night they spent together.

Exactly one year later, he returns to the same restaurant and the girl reappears to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. But something is different this year, as Jiro discovers when an assassin forgets his table manners and starts shooting the place up. Jiro’s life is saved by the woman of his dreams, and it’s here that traumatised boyfriends of the world can unite, because the great thing about Cyborg She is that it takes its sci-fi just as seriously as it’s romance, which means Jae-young Kwak may have inadvertently created the perfect date movie. Action, romance, comedy and sci-fi, what’s not to love?

Amazon Specials!

America is to get its own version of Being Human

From SFX Magazine

America is to get its own version of cult BBC3 smash hit show Being Human. Syfy has ordered 13 episodes of the show about the house-sharing ghost, werewolf and vampire which will be made by RDF Media USA, currently best known for making US versions of reality shows like Secret Millionaire, How To Look Good Naked and Wife Swap. Now it seems Being Human is in for a culture swap.

The British series is produced by RDF subsidiary Touchpaper TV, and is currently filming its second series (though the cast has taken time out to record a Halloween message. A few years back, the BBC showed Syfy (or Sci Fi as it was back then) the script for the pilot of the British series, hoping to get the US network to come aboard as a co-funder, but the deal fell through.

“It turned out great as we can now do an American version,” reckons Syfy president Dave Howe. “We’ve always been keen on vampires and werewolves, and we loved the originality of Being Human, the fact that the fantastical creatures in it are very young, accessible and charming.”

Howe also stresses that Syfy will not “slavishly replicate the British version,” and sees it as a potential companion piece to Sanctuary, with which it shares similar subject matter.

Abrams Talks Star Trek 2, Will it Be 3-D?

Published by Jeff Leins – NewsInFilm.com

At a press event to promote the upcoming DVD release of Star Trek on November 17, director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci opened up about their developing plans for the sequel.

According to Collider, the big status update is they are still brainstorming the story idea for the science fiction follow-up, and haven’t decided on the basic plot. Kurtzman and Orci stressed the importance of a stand-alone installment and Abrams intends to make it for general audiences not just Trekkies (like the first). Though there may end up being references for the fans, and the writers haven’t decided on whether or not the foe will be the return of Khan.

“There’s Empire Strikes Back, Superman 2, Aliens, Terminator 2, Star Trek 2. What do all those movies have in common? Well, they’re amazing stories, all on their own,” Kurtzman said.

Orci stressed that the allegorical philosophy is just that, and the eventual plot won’t be a heavy-handed reference to Guantanamo Bay or any other “modern issues.”

Abrams was asked about possibly shooting the film in 3-D to which he replied, “I’m open to looking at it ’cause now I feel a little bit more comfortable. And, if I, in fact, direct the Star Trek sequel, 3-D could be really fun, so I’m open to it. What I’ve seen of Avatar makes me want to do it because it’s so crazy-cool looking.” The release, like the first, will probably end up on the IMAX screen, so I’d rather Abrams shoot using IMAX cameras than dive into stereoscopic 3-D, but we’ll see which direction Paramount wants to go with gimmicky film making.

As for non-Trek related movies, Abrams said they’re still formulating the story and script for Mission: Impossible 4 and Kurtzman/Orci are doing Western research for Cowboys & Aliens. “Fringe” writer Brad Kane is finishing the script for the View-Master adaptation (Kurtzman/Orci are producing) that’s based on an idea he came up with before they agreed to collaborate on a toy movie for Universal.

Amazon Specials!

King Of Fighters Movie goes sci-fi

From VideoGamesBlogger.com

The latest fighting game to be turned into a movie is The King of Fighters which is set for release sometime in 2010.

Other upcoming game movies based on fighting games include Tekken and the Street Fighter-based movie Street

Maggie Q

Fighter: The legend of Chun-Li (starring Kristen Kruek aka Lana Lane from Smallville as Chun-Li) and the already released Dead or Alive film.

The King of Fighters flick will see the franchise getting a science fiction angle (something not found in the games, at least to my knowledge) as revealed in this quote from the MovieSet:

It also looks like the King of Fighters movie will introduce a new science fiction spin into the setting established in the games’ universe by following the surviving members of three legendary fighting clans who are continually whisked away to other dimensions by an evil power. As the fighters enter each new world they battle that universe’s native defenders, while the force that brought them seeks to find a way to invade and infect our world. Hmm, doesn’t seem very faithful to the games to me, eh.

Naturally the game is based on the long-running “The King of Fighters” franchise of fighting games by SNK Playmore. A series which is on it’s 12th core entry with The King of Fighters XII and has spawned a whopping 13 spin-off games. To put that into perspective, the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises are still in single digits (Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is the 8th MK game while Street Fighter is on it’s fourth CORE entry with Street Fighter IV, even though there’s been tons of spin-offs and re-releases).

The King of Fighters movie began filming in Vancouver, Canada on November 27th. It’s being directed by Gordon

Bernice Liu

Chan, a dynamic Hong-Kong-born director who is known for films like Fist of legend, Beast Cop and Jackie Chan’s 2003 flick The Medallion. The screenplay is by newcomer Rita Augustine.

As far as actors are concerned, The King of Fighters will star Maggie Q (Live Free and Die Hard), Sean Faris (Never Back Down), Will Yun Lee (Elektra), Francoise Yip (Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem), Monique Ganderton (Supernatural) and Ray Park, best known for his portrayal as Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Producing the movie will be Joseph Chou (Appleseed: Ex Machina), Tim Kwok (Wicked City) and Bobby Sheng. The picture is being jointly financed by Japanese production and rights management group Micott & Basara and Australian-U.S. sales agent Arclight/Easternlight.

 Cast
  Sean Faris … Kyo Kusanagi
  Will Yun Lee … Iori Yagami
  David Leitch … Terry Bogard
  Maggie Q … Mai Shiranui
  Ray Park … Rugal Bernstein
  Bernice Liu … Vice
  Monique Ganderton … Mature

Françoise Yip

Sam Hargrave … Ryo Sakazaki
  Françoise Yip … Chizuru

 Visual Effects Department
  Garman Herigstad … CG supervisor: Base-FX, Beijing
  Shandy Lashley … visual effects coordinator
  Ron Simonson … visual effects supervisor

 

Is Africa Ready for Science Fiction?

Nigerian Director Tchidi Chikere

by Nnedi Okorafor – ModernGhana.com

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had some interesting conversations with award-winning Nollywood director Tchidi Chikere about science fiction (Nollywood is Nigeria’s oh-so-popular film industry. The term “Nollywood” is a play on “Hollywood”, much the same way as India’s “Bollywood”).

Chikere has written, produced, and directed over 50 films. He also published a collection of rather chilling short stories titled Strangers in Paradise. The collection includes a novella called “Daughter of the Cave,” which is essentially a fantasy piece. Chikere sought me out after my novel, Zahrah the Windseeker, piqued his interest. Needless to say, I was delighted and honored to hear from him.

During one of our conversations, we discussed my own work and whether it could be translated to film, particularly African film. “Is Africa ready for science fiction?” he asked me. We debated this for a while. Naturally, I believed Africa was ready…ready enough, at least. Notwithstanding my own contentions, Chikere had other ideas.

“I don t think we’re ready in the primary sense of the word,” Chikere said. “We can hide it in other categories like magic realism, allegory, etc, but we’re not ready for pure science fiction.”

“Science fiction films from the West are failures here. Even Star Wars!” he said. “The themes aren’t taken seriously. Science fiction will come here when it is relevant to the people of Africa. Right now, Africans are bothered about issues of bad leadership, the food crisis in East Africa, refugees in the Congo, militants here in Nigeria. Africans are bothered about food, roads, electricity, water wars, famine, etc, not spacecrafts and spaceships. Only stories that explore these everyday realities are considered relevant to us for now.”

Is HBO the Next Destination for Science Fiction?

The World Inside, Robert Silverberg's novel

By Lauren Davis – io9.com

With some networks offering mixed signals about their futures with science fiction, we may increasingly rely on cable for compelling television about the future. Fortunately, HBO is stepping up, developing two new science fiction series with X-Files alum Frank Spotnitz.

According to Variety, HBO executives approached Spotnitz some time about the possibility of developing a medical thriller. Given that Spotnitz spent eight years writing for The X-Files, it’s not terribly surprising that he gave the idea a near-futuristic twist. Humanitas takes place in a future more medically advanced than our own, where doctors are able to manipulate genes and create viruses, resulting in a host of ethical dilemmas and general anxiety that a pandemic is imminent.

Spotnitz’s second project with HBO is flung much farther into the future. He is looking to adapt The World Inside, Robert Silverberg’s novel about humanity in the year 2381. The human population has exploded thanks to a strictly enforced culture of free love and uncontrolled reproduction, and most of the world’s population lives inside vast, sprawling buildings and never go outside. It’s an apparently utopian society of unfettered sex, happiness drugs, and mutual reliance, where everyone lives in harmony. But it’s also a closely monitored and regulated society with no privacy or individuality, and deviation from the social norms can be punished by death. But a computer engineer in one city finds he has perverse thoughts of leaving the building and exploring the world outside.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that either show will get picked up, but it’s encouraging to see HBO, a channel whose recent speculative offerings have tended more toward modern fantasy, take an interest in shows with a scientific and futuristic bent.

New “Barbarella” in works

By Borys Kit – Hollywood Reporter

 ”Barbarella” is getting a new lease on life courtesy of producer Dino De Laurentiis.

The veteran Italian filmmaker, who turns 90 on Saturday, is developing a remake of his original 1968 sci-fi movie, which immortalized Jane Fonda as a sex symbol.

Australian filmmaker Robert Luketic (“The Ugly Truth”) is attached to direct from a screenplay to be written by Joe Gazzam.

Robert Rodriguez was previously involved with the project, when it was set up at Universal in May 2007, with an eye to making it a vehicle for his girlfriend Rose McGowan. But the studio and director reportedly could not agree on where to shoot. After the parting of ways, a new direction for “Barbarella” was sought.

“Barbarella” centers on a female mercenary who roams the universe of a distant future, undertaking missions that require fearlessness, ingenuity and sensuality. The character debuted in 1962 in a French graphic magazine written and illustrated by Jean-Claude Forest and was known for her sexual escapades. There also was a musical produced in 2004.

The new take on the iconic character will not be campy, though it will keep the sexuality; there will be seductions, but the focus will be on the adventure.

The project is not set up at any studio, though De Laurentiis and his wife Martha plan on shopping it when the script is in shape. Gazzam wrote a movie version of “21 Jump Street.”

Amazon Specials!

‘Dead Space’ movie in the works

Andrew Laughlin – DigitalSpy.com

Electronic Arts has revealed that it plans to bring survival horror series Dead Space to the big screen.

According to Variety, Eagle Eye director D.J. Caruso is to helm the science fiction movie, although a writer has yet to be attached.

Once the script is completed, EA intends to offer the property up for bidding from the major studios, potentially as early as this September.

The games developer will oversee the project with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey from production vehicle Temple Hill, which is also currently working on the Gears Of War film with Epic Games.

This marks the fifth EA title to be transferred into development as a movie, alongside Mass Effect, The Sims, Army Of Two and Dante’s Inferno, with the latter two already being snapped up by Universal Pictures.

Released in October last year, the first Dead Space game saw players take on the role of Isaac Clarke, who must struggle for survival on a deep-space mining ship that is overrun with alien creatures called Necromorphs.

The publisher is currently developing prequel Dead Space: Extraction for the Wii, while a third installment in the franchise is also rumored to be on the way.

The TCA Awards turn 25

Alan Sepinwall – The Star-Ledger

In the summer of 1985, the members of the Television Critics Association began handing out their own awards to their favorite TV shows. At the time, I’m told, there was a lot of debate over whether this would make the TCA too much a part of the industry it covers, and that first awards ceremony was a brisk 20 minutes, with Career Achievement winner Grant Tinker the only winner invited to attend.

Saturday night, the TCA held its 25th annual awards show. By now, it’s become standard practice for all the winners to have some representative there. And because only the winners are invited — and because the show, other than one disastrous experiment in the early ’90s, isn’t shown on television — it’s a low-key, tension-free affair that can celebrate work overlooked by traditional showbiz awards shows.

Yes, our best drama series winner “Mad Men” cleaned up at last year’s Emmys (and likely will this year, too), and the Emmys also beat us to the punch on actor Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad,” who was our winner for individual achievement in drama. But the TCA’s Program of the Year winner was “Battlestar Galactica,” which never got any kind of love from the science fiction-fearing members of the television Academy. And both the comedy series and comedy individual awards went to CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” — the latter, specifically, to the hilarious Jim Parsons as Sheldon, who was nominated for an Emmy this year but is probably a longshot.

Other winners included HBO’s “True Blood” for new program, HBO’s “The Alzheimer’s Project” for achievement in news and information, Nickelodeon’s “Yo Gabba Gabba” for children’s programming, HBO’s “Grey Gardens” as the best movie or mini-series, Betty White for career achievement, and “ER” for the Heritage Award, a sort of career achievement for series (which, in a quirk of the voting, has almost always gone to a landmark series immediately after its final season).

The people from “Mad Men” (star Jon Hamm made a rare public appearance with his hair slicked back like Don Draper, explaining sheepishly that sometimes it’s easier to get it under control that way) are used to the love affair from the critics by now. But what’s often interesting at the TCA Awards — and what was a running theme at this year’s show — is seeing how tightly performers and producers hold on to bad reviews from the past, and how grateful (or, at least, relieved) they are to be getting praise from the critics instead.

At the 2006 TCA Awards, “The Office” star Steve Carell got big laughs by reading excerpts from a particularly vicious review of his performance in the short-lived Tim Curry sitcom “Over the Top,” which climaxed with this passage:

“I have stood in a freezer full of dead people at the morgue. I have seen a man’s scalp pulled back over his nose. I’ve even seen 35 minutes of Ellen DeGeneres’s ‘Mr. Wrong.’ But I can now honestly say that until Steve Carell’s turn in the premiere of ‘Over the Top,’ I have never known true horror.”

That speech was shown again in a clip reel at this year’s awards, as was one by “My Name Is Earl” creator Greg Garcia, where he said of his previous show, the critically-loathed “Yes Dear,” that if you don’t have the critics on your side, the best you can hope for is to run for six seasons and go into syndication.

This year’s host, E!’s Chelsea Handler, spent part of her monologue rehashing a brutal review she got for “Chelsea Lately,” and when it was Betty White’s turn to accept her award, she admitted that she still had a copy of a nasty review from her very first sitcom, 1952′s “Life with Elizabeth.”

“But I don’t look at it anymore,” she added.                                                                           

“Big Bang Theory” co-creator Chuck Lorre — who opened his speech by saying he wanted to speak from the heart, “But my heart was killed 20 years ago on ‘Roseanne’” — has had an publicly contentious relationship with the critics over his other CBS hit, “Two and a Half Men.” But he seemed genuinely touched by the critics being on his side for once, using words I can’t repeat in this column (but that Lorre can probably use on “Two and a Half Men”) to say he would be forever in our debt.

Davies, Tennant on Vacating “Doctor Who”

The longest running science fiction series in television history, “Doctor Who,” is a beloved pop culture icon in its native U.K.   Among U.S. viewers, however, coming out as a Whovian used to be a bit risky. Self-identified geeks once considered the classic series to be a little too geeky even for them.

BBC America, Russell T. Davies and David Tennant changed all that  over the past few years  — Tennant, especially. For three seasons the gregarious actor portrayed The Doctor with a combination of goofiness and gravitas, making him charismatic, sexy and at times even sinister. We believed it when centuries-old Doctor’s companions fell for him because, after all,  we had too. Tennant and Davies’ recent Comic-Con appearance drove the fans into a frenzy.

That’s why the news that Tennant’s run on “Doctor Who” would be coming to an end made our hearts ache a little.  The journey for his incarnation of  The Doctor is already in the process of ending. “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead” had its BBC America premiere last Sunday. The next special, “The Waters of Mars,” arrives in the fall and enlists a new companion named Adelaide (Lindsay Duncan, familiar to “Rome” fans as Servilia of the Junii).  Tennant’s final special arrives at what would otherwise be the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas. Davies confirmed that it’s called “The End of Time,” and it will be at least an hour and a half, maybe more, with commercials.

The decision to leave wasn’t easy for Tennant but, as he explained to critics on Wednesday,  “I like the fact that I stand a chance of leaving an audience and myself wanting more rather than people asking when I’ve leaving.”

For the record, Davies announced he’d be handing the reins off to Steven Moffat in May 2008, before Tennant decided it was time for him to go — he hit us with that news last October.

The actor described the feeling of abandoning the role that brought him such love and acclaim in both the U.K. and the states as both very exciting, and very sad.  “It’s thrilling to be handing over the show in such good health, actually…we’ve all come on this journey together, and it feels like we’re coming to the end of something very special.”

As do we.

***Warning: Slight spoilers lie ahead.***               

Davies explains the arc for Tennant’s final four specials in a note on BBC America’s site:  “The mysterious Ood have told him that his song is ending soon; something deadly is waiting on Mars; Donna’s grandfather, Wilf, is experiencing strange visions; and a powerful psychic warns the Doctor that “He will knock four times…”  The end is coming.  But will the Doctor, and the human race, survive?”

Understandably, this Doctor isn’t ready for his number to be up. “I think this Doctor likes being this Doctor,” Tennant explained. “And I think he’s raging against the dying of the light…He knows the sands of time are running out. He’s been told. And the bell is tolling for him, and he doesn’t want to go quietly.”

Up next for Tennant is a television version of “Hamlet.”  He’s also in the midst of shooting a film called “St. Trinians 2.”

The next Doctor, 26-year-old Matt Smith, is a relative newcomer and the youngest of all the actors to play the last Time Lord. Karen Gillan was recently unveiled as his new companion.  The first of their adventures will premiere in spring 2010.

Source(s) – IMDB