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Mysterious Light Spiral Appears Over Norway [Mystery Spiral]

Lauren Davis — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Is it an alien signal? An interdimensional portal? A supervillainous hypnosis ray? This mysterious spiral burst into the night sky over Northern Norway, leaving witnesses wondering just what caused it.

Witnesses throughout Northern Norway reported seeing a bright object spinning through the sky this morning, forming a brilliant spiral. According to air traffic reports, the phenomenon lasted for two minutes, too long to be an astronomical event, and it doesn't resemble any previously reported aurora.

So what caused the mysterious spiral? No one is sure, but the prevailing theory is fairly mundane. Several astronomers are speculating that an errant, spiraling rocket is responsible. Since no rockets were fired from the local Andøya Rocket Range this morning, the hypothetical rocket may have come from Russia.

Or, as one poster on Reddit suggests, it could just be the Sliders breaking into our universe:

[VG Nett (Translated) via Reddit]

Your First Look Inside Tron Legacy Reveals A Sexy Upgrade [Tron]

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:54:27 -0800

Check out the first ever image to come out of Tron Legacy — it's full of passionate unitard stare downs, punk wigs and disc weapons. Plus Flynn Jr. takes the wheel, in the new light-cycle poster.

Wow, Disney is riding that cyberpunk idea fast and hard. Just look at Olivia Wilde on the left. Interesting how the new light-up suits look so much less like something I could make in my basement and more like actual battle suits. Are those built in muscles and SKIN we see? This helmet-free new life of a program has undergone one sexy upgrade.

[Images via MSN]

Paranormal Activity Continues On Your iPhone [Exclusive]

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:22:01 -0800

Want to know what happened to Paranormal Activity's sweet couple after a terrible entity infested their house? Now you can. Apple is continuing the story in a comic-book iPhone application. And we've got the first set of stills. Spoilers ahead...

The comic is called Paranormal Activity: The Search For Katie, A Case Study by Dr. Johann Averys DMN. And if you remember the end of the film, Katie has vanished and Micah is... well, gone as well, sadly. Apple paired up with IDW to continue the story. The comic app picks up right after that, with the demon expert Dr. Averys finally showing up to their home, and searching for Katie, and some answers. It was written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by Mark Badger. Here are the first set of exclusive stills from the beginning.

We emailed Lobdell asking why he thought the story must go on, since the ending seemed so definite, we didn't think there could be a sequel even in a comic book series. To which he responded:

I have to disagree! Even before I left the movie theater my mind was racing though a hundred different questions! Where did Katie go? How long had she been in thrall to the demon? Why did he do what he did to Micah... or have Katie do it? What about the mysterious Dr. Johann Averys — often mentioned but never seen? Could the case he was working on in Europe have anything to do with the case in San Diego? What would the investigation into the murder be like? One part cop forensics, one part study in demonology? The demon seemed like it had much larger fish to fry to scaring young women... could it have followers? A lot of this is set up in the first installment of the online comic book, and I can't wait for the opportunity to further explore the world of Paranormal Activity.

The application is available now at itunes, For 99 cents.

We Know Where To Find Bigfoot Bones, Says Expert [Bigfoot]

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:53:59 -0800

One of the big questions about Bigfoot has always been: Well if this creature exists, why haven't we found any of its bones? Now monster expert Loren Coleman from Cryptomundo answers this question, and suggests where to start digging.

Coleman explains that most bones in forests are, of course, picked clean by predators. So that explains why we don't find dead Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) everywhere, as well as the carcasses of creatures like tigers and moose. Still, that begs the question: Where are the bones? Apparently, porcupines eat bones, as well as hoarding them:

One important behavior of some species of porcupines is that they hoard bones of other animals in or around their dens. Porcupines sometimes are found with bones in their living spaces. For example, the North African crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata) and the Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in areas deficient in phosphorous, will practice osteophagia, or gnawing on bones. These porcupines will often accumulate large piles of bones in their dens . . . In North America, studies of situations in which bones accumulate today and in the past often include porcupine caves. For an intriguing article on what Pleistocene mammal remains were found in one such gathering of bones, see "Bears and Man at Porcupine Cave, Western Uinta Mountains, Utah" by Timothy H. Heaton, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, in Current Research in the Pleistocene, vol. 5, pp. 71-73 (1988).

The odds are more highly in favor of Bigfoot bones and bodies never being found . . . But if they are ever found, Bigfoot teeth or old bones possibly might be discovered near or in porcupine habitation sites . . . We won't know unless we look, and reexamine past and future "unidentified" finds from porcupine caves, digs, and dens.

via Cryptomundo

Bigfoot photo by Douglas E. Egolf.

Morgan Freeman's Sure That Christopher Nolan's Down For One More Batman [Dark Knight]

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:40:00 -0800

Don't give up hope, Dark Knight fans: Morgan Freeman believes there will be another Batman movie, based on gut feelings. Celebrate with this Dark Knight plot-hole song, which asks why Fox was so anti-phone-tapping, but eager to build a tank?

Morgan Freeman sat down with MTV and told them that there is no way Chris Nolan would walk away from the Batman series. Saying, "I know-I just know-that Chris is working on number three," Morgan Freeman told MTV News. "He couldn't possibly not be."

So who does Freeman dream of as the next Nolan villain, Catwoman. So do we Morgan, so do we.

In other Dark Knight news check out this hilarious plot hole song that points out the few problems and questions many folks had with the beloved film.

Look Out! Famous Monsters Are Coming Back! [Famous Monsters]

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Famous Monsters Of Filmland, the classic magazine started by Forrest J. Ackerman, is getting a new lease on life, courtesy of IDW Publishing. Soon, the paparazzi will once again pursue Godzilla and Frankenstein in and out of limousines.

Famous Monsters pretty much ceased publication in 1983, apart from a brief attempt at a revival in 1993. But now it's coming back, full steam. This is fantastic news for anybody who loves classic monsters. Here are the details, according to a press release from IDW:

Famous Monsters of Filmland, the classic sci-fi/horror/fantasy-specific film magazine that captured the imaginations of so many for more than three decades, today announced its return to print. FM has partnered with IDW Publishing, responsible for hit comic book titles such as 30 Days of Night, Angel, Transformers, and Locke & Key, to bring this new incarnation of the magazine to life. The new Famous Monsters magazine will begin its run on a quarterly basis starting in summer 2010, and will be available in major book retailers, comic stores, and online at famousmonsters.com.

Originally launched in 1958, Famous Monsters of Filmland was one of the first magazines to take readers behind-the-scenes of some of the most popular movies of present and past. Pulling the curtain back on the filmmaking process, the magazine became a lightning rod for legions of young fans, sparking the minds and hearts of future storytellers such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Guillermo del Toro, Stephen King, and John Landis. Under the guidance of beloved editor-in-chief Forrest J Ackerman, credited with nurturing and even inspiring the careers of early contemporaries such as Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, and L. Ron Hubbard, the magazine brought monsters to life and made household names out of writers, directors, creature designers, FX artists, and monster makeup technicians.

Editorial duties for the magazine will be handled by Michael Heisler, a veteran of the comic book industry for over 20 years, with experience logged at Marvel Comics, WildStorm Productions and IDW itself. "FM was far and away my favorite magazine when I was a kid, and there has been nothing quite like it since," said Heisler. "Our goal is to update that magic for a modern audience, with coverage of current horror in all its forms, while continuing to pay tribute to the classic films that started it all. Personally, I'm thrilled to be taking this step down the road that Forry Ackerman and ‘Chilly Billy' Cardille put me on so many years ago."

Famous Monsters cover via Godzilla Cover Gallery. [Comic Hero News]

Beware the Goldfish Monster in Animated Short "The Passenger" [The Passenger]

Lauren Davis — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:30:00 -0800

Chris Jones spent eight years animating his moody and quirky short The Passenger, and now it's available online. It's a dark and stormy night, and a nervous chap rides a bus with only a spooky goldfish for company.

Jones created The Passenger entirely by himself, doing everything from the modeling to the editing to the musical composition solo. He completed the short in 2006, but just put it online and is offering high quality version on DVD.

[The Passenger via Neatorama]

Josh Brolin Is Itching To Put On His Final Black Suit For Men In Black 3 [Men In Black 3]

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Josh Brolin may be signing up to police alien "intergalactic keggers" on Earth, by joining up for the next installment in the Men In Black franchise. So who will he play, and more important, is Frank still alive?

The LA Times is claiming that actor Brolin readying for his next role as a man in black. But this new film may not take place in the here and now. In fact, this new MIB film may be a K origins story, as origins stories seem to be all the rage today.

His exact part is a matter of discussion, but in recent days there's been chatter in Hollywood development circles of a few possibilities: He could play a new single-monikered government agent, with Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K passing the baton to Brolin's character. Or he could play Agent K as a young man. Or something else entirely.

The film is set to start production next year based on the screenplay from Etan Cohen, with Barry Sonnenfeld in the director's chair yet again. We're certainly intrigued, but only if this means we'll get another terrible Will Smith movie-themed rap song to poke fun at.

The Scariest Map Ever - At Least for Americans [Maps]

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:30:00 -0800

More precisely, this map will be scary for people in the US. It's a time-lapse video of unemployment rates over two years - the darker the color, the higher the rates. Welcome to the jobless future.

[via LaToya Egwuekwe]

People In These Galaxies May Have Pointed Their Telescopes At The Big Bang [Space Porn]

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:00:00 -0800

The Hubble Space Telescope's newly installed Wide Field Camera 3 took the deepest image of the universe ever in infrared light. The reddest and faintest galaxies date from just 600 million years after the Big Bang.

Phil Plait over at the Bad Astronomy blog explains further:

They pointed Hubble at a fairly empty region of space, one where very few stars are seen. Then they unleashed the new Wide Field Camera 3 (called WFC3 for short) on it, taking images in infrared wavelengths just outside what the human eye can see… and they let it stare at that spot for a solid 48 hours.

The result? This picture, showing galaxies flippin' everywhere, some seen a mere 600 million years after the Big Bang itself. Because the Universe is expanding, distant galaxies appear to recede from us, and their light gets stretched out. This Doppler Effect - the same thing that makes the sound of a car engine drop in pitch when it passes you at high speed - changes the colors we see from these far-flung galaxies, so their ultraviolet light, for example, gets stretched into visible and even infrared wavelengths. What you are seeing here is actually more energetic light emitted by galaxies that's lost energy traveling across the expanding Universe, so by the time it gets here it's infrared.

So the colors are not "real" in this image; they've been translated into red, green, and blue so we can see them. The reddest objects in the image are most likely the farthest away, and may be as much as 13 billion light years away.

Thirteen billion. With a B.

Plait's deconstruction of this epic photo is worth reading in its entirety... once you're done staring and contemplating the vastness of a cosmos that barely notices the eyeblink of our existence. [Hubblesite via Bad Astronomy Blog]

A Giant Tentacle Monster Defeats An Oil Rig [Sea Monsters]

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:30:00 -0800

In this fantastic computer-animated short, a creature who looks like the spirit of oil embodied attacks an oil rig at sea. Called "Oceansize," it's the best sea monster story I've seen in a long time. [via Undead Backbrain]

The Collectible Glasses That Haunted Our Childhoods [Collectibles]

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:00:00 -0800

2009 will be remembered for one reason only: as the year that Burger King-themed "Kingons" attacked people's nipples to steal their Star Trek glasses. But those Trek glasses are puny, compared to the fast-food chain collectibles of yesteryear.

These Empire Strikes Backglasses are via Ultimate Coupons. These actually look quite nice, and the Darth Vader/Boba Fett one is sort of epic and widescreen.

For decades, fast-food chains have been putting out collectible glasses (which usually break at the slightest provocation) tying in with generations of Star Trek, Star Wars and other great series. Here are some of our favorites, which you'll be lucky to find on ebay nowadays.

Are John Malkovich And Anne Hathaway Both Flying Into Spidey 4? [Spider-Man 4]

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:30:00 -0800

The Spider-Man 4 rumors have our bullshit detectors tingling again, but this time it's not about Black Cat. Rumor has it John Malkovich is joining the cast as the leotard wearing, winged Vulture. And he's bringing a Vultress.

Movieline is reporting that if all negotiations go as planned, John Malkovich will be playing the bald and pissed off Vulture in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4. All right, fine, another bad guy in the mix. But wait they're not done yet. According to the site, Anne Hathaway is not in negotiations to be the Black Cat, as we'd previously heard. Instead it's much, much worse.

The 27-year-old actress is currently the top choice for Felicia Hardy, who'd been long-rumored as one of the new characters in this installment. (Other names bandied about for the role included Julia Stiles, Rachel McAdams, and Romola Garai.) However, unlike in the comic books, this Felicia Hardy doesn't transform into the Black Cat. Instead, Raimi's Felicia will become a brand-new superpowered figure called the Vulturess.

Well, I think it's safe to say "no thanks," to that idea. While we like the idea of getting Anne Hathaway in a comic book movie, turning the Felicia Hardy character into the Vulture's distaff counterpart is a sacrifice we're just not willing to take. But take solace in this fact, it's still merely a rumor at this point. And the rumors for this film have been spreading like untamed symbiotes.

A Slew of John Carter Characters, True Blood's Latest Lesbian Relationship, And Fringe Gets Its Mrs. Bishop [Morning Spoilers]

Lauren Davis — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:00:00 -0800

We've got buckets of big-screen spoilers this morning, with talk on Thor, John Carter, Deadpool, Green Lantern, and Avatar. We've got lesbian vampires, both in the movies and on True Blood. Plus, Lost, Fringe, and Better Off Ted news.

Thor

Stan Lee has been tweeting about his cameo:

Due to Thor, I must start rehearsing my thee's and thou's. So, if thou objecteth not, I wish thee well! 'Nuff saideth.

He could be yanking our chains, but perhaps Lee won't be walking amongst the modern mortals. [Twitter]

John Carter of Mars

We get a casting call for several human characters and one Martian:

Synopsis: A damaged civil war veteran finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars where his involvements with warring races of the dying planet force him to rediscover his humanity.

[STABLE BOY] 9 yrs old, Mestizo – a mixture of European and Native American or Mexican decent, no lines, 1 scene

[DIX] The storekeeper, 40's – 50's, built like a lumberjack/longshoreman, strong & husky, 5 lines, 1 scene

[1ST ROWDY] Late 20's – early 30's, rough and dirty, worn looking, 1 line, 1 scene

[2ND ROWDY] Late 20's – early 30's, rough and dirty, worn looking, 1 line, 1 scene

[CAVALRYMAN/SERGEANT] Early 30's, clean cut, 2 lines, 1 scene

[US STOCKADE PRISON GUARD] Mid 20's – early 30's, clean cut, 4 lines, 2 scenes

[APACHE LEADER] 40's - 60s, Native American, must speak Apache, wise and experienced with a weathered face. Multiple lines, 1 scene

[TWITCHY CORPORAL] 20's - 30s, a shifty bad guy, not to be trusted. 1 line, 1 scene.

[YOUNG THARK WARRIOR] 20'S, tall (6' PLUS), athletic, experience working on stilts, MOTION PICTURE CAPTURE ROLE

[SpoilerTV-Movies]

Deadpool

Rumor has it that Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick will pen the Deadpool script. [Cinematical]

Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds wants to quell fears that he'll play the Green Lantern too close to Deadpool:

"I think there was some concern that I would make Green Lantern some kind of wise-cracking Wade Wilson-type, and that's not the case at all," he explained. "If that's what they wanted, why would I have screen-tested for the movie?"

[MTV]

Avatar

The final poster gives us more floating heads. [/Film]

Lesbian Vampire Killers

New images give us some busty bloodsuckers. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Wolfman

The werewolf movie has earned itself an R rating from the MPAA "for bloody horror, violence and gore." [ShockTillYouDrop]

True Blood

We'll be seeing more of vampire Pam next season. Kirstin Bauer is being upgraded to series regular, and Pam is getting a "meaty" storyline — and maybe a girlfriend. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Lost

Jin and Sun have been filming scenes set in the alternate reality at the Turtle Bay Hilton. In those scenes, we'll also see Keamy, Omar, and Russian Other Mikial. [DarkUFO]

Striptease workout entrepreneur Sheila Kelley will be in at least four episodes this season, but won't be playing corporate spy Kendall. As for whether her stripping skills will coming into play:

"Once you see what I'm doing on Lost, you'll get the humor in that. I guess you can say I'm bringing some of the skills onto Lost, but not as obviously as you might think."

She also says she (Kelley, not her character) is "obsessed" with Sayid, leading to speculation that she'll have some scenes with Naveen Andrews. [E!]

And a set spy grabbed a photo of the new submarine. Larger image at the link. [DarkUFO]

Fringe

Walter's wife and Peter's mother has been cast at last. Irish actress Orla Brady will play the smart and likable third member of the Bishop family. [EW]

Better Off Ted

Creator Victor Fresco says that we'll see some progress in Linda and Ted's relationship by the end of the season, and the relationship between Linda and Veronica will begin to thaw. The two women will have a few adventures together and will develop a grudging, but mutual, respect. Ted's wilder brother comes to town, played by Eddie McClintock. Ted's brother hasn't had a lot of luck with Jobs, so Ted gets him a job at Veridian Dynamics. But his brother screws up one too many times, so Ted lands him a job selling lab equipment. Phil and Lem end up being his best customers, buying all sorts of stuff they don't need, including a cadaver supply membership. Key line: "Every day we get a new dead body whether we're finished with the old one or not." The show also gets a new cast member in Merrin Dungey. She appears in three or four episodes, including one episode where Linda tries to comfort her and ends up accused of sexual harassment. But Veridian deals with its sexual harassment problem by having it reclassified as a disease so that no one can sue for it. [E!]

Heroes

This season's 19th episode is titled "Brave New World." [Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder.

Nic Cage Is One Wigged-Out Wizard, In The First Sorcerer's Apprentice Trailer [The Sorcerer's Apprentice]

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:45:19 -0800

Nic Cage channels his best Midlife-crisis Saruman, in the first ever trailer from Jerry Bruckheimer's The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Watch Cage spit Street Fighter Ryu balls, flip expensive cars and generally act insane.

The film comes out July 16th, 2010.

[via Apple]

It Makes Sense That Alien Foot Fetishes Would Be Different... But Still. Really? [Found Footage]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:30:00 -0800

Aliens come to Earth intent on wiping out the human race, but first they need to indulge in some really bizarre foot worship, in this utterly disturbing clip from 2003's Evil Alien Conquerors. Flossing? Really?

Does CGI Ruin Movies? [Rant]

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:30:00 -0800

Today's big budget movies have the technology to create worlds and characters unlike anything we've ever seen before... but is that really a good thing? What if CGI just distracts from all the important things about moviemaking?

Wired magazine's recent story about the making of Avatar contained the following passage:

Cameron is trying to show me something with a laser pointer. He queues up a scene towards the end of Avatar and freezes the frame on an image of a large crowd of Na'vi. He uses the pointer to draw attention to an ornate headdress composed of hundreds of tiny beads. The onscreen image is amazingly crisp, and the headdress appears utterly real. Each bead was designed by a digital artist, Cameron says, so it would look handmade. "Every leaf, every blade of grass in this world was created," he says, and his laser pointer streaks across the screen, alighting on so many things I can't follow its path.

When I read that, I thought to myself, that's everything that's wrong with CGI movies. I'm always torn when it comes to live action movies that rely so heavily on CGI'd surroundings and special effects: On the one hand, it's amazing what can be done with the technology, but on the other, it's depressing seeing what has been done with it, as well. CGI has become the atom bomb of movie special effects: Yes, we have the technology to "fix" everything, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we should use it.

In many ways, the argument against the overuse of CGI is like critic Douglas Wolk's complaint against autotune in modern pop music:

And now, the smallest errors are vanishing, too. The gift that modern digital technology has given pop music is the ability to fix every nagging inconsistency in a recording, note by note and beat by beat. If you hear a contemporary mainstream rock record, you're almost certainly hearing something that has been digitally nipped and tucked and buffed until it shines.

The little inconsistencies in musicians' performances aren't just glitches, though: They're exactly what we respond to as listeners — the part that feels like "style," or even like "rock." The exciting part of guitar-bass-drum-voice music is the alchemy of specific musicians playing with each other, and the way those musicians' idiosyncratic senses of timing and articulation and emphasis relate to each other. That's where the rhythmic force of rock 'n' roll comes from; that's also why a great band can replace one of its members with someone who's technically a more skillful musician, only to discover that their instrumental chemistry isn't there anymore.

Watching movies where CGI has created entire worlds like Pandora - or The Lord of The Rings' Middle Earth or anywhere in the three Star Wars prequels, for that matter - and what you're seeing may be technically impressive and the work of hundreds of artists up and down the moviemaking food chain, but none of it entirely convinces; there's a distance that we, as viewers, instinctively pick up on because what we're watching is so fake that it can't even convincingly fake verisimilitude. It doesn't matter how many how many hours or computer modeling programs have been spent to create "lifelike" scenery or surroundings, it will always lack the element of chaos, the potential for mistakes, that makes it something we can believe (and lose ourselves) in. Moviemakers today can try and distract us from that missing piece - with occasionally unintentional results; how many times do we watch something and think that it's impressive or "must have taken a lot of work," and not notice that we're being taken even further out of the story in order to do so - but there hasn't been any CGI-centric creation that has managed to replace it, yet.

More worryingly, CGI has given free rein to the worst, most-OCD elements of moviemakers' imaginations. Whereas, before, worldbuilding would have meant coming up with the strongest stories and performances in order to pull audiences in, now both of those seem to often take backseats to the spectacle of the spectacle itself (Think of this summer's Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, which didn't appear to make sense, or again, the Star Wars prequels, where Lucas as a director was clearly more in love with the technology responsible for the worlds he was building than the actors and dialogue he was populating them with). That James Cameron has created languages, flora and fauna and hundreds of elements for Avatar's Pandora that we may not even really see in the finished product is, at once, both an impressive and incredibly frustrating feat: Good for him for being so dedicated, but without a good story, it'll be the most expensive window dressing for a store that no-one wants to shop at.

As technology has become more and more adept at literally translating someone's imagination into a finished product, so, it seems, has the focus of filmmaking become using that technology: Pushing it to create new things, replace reality as closely as possible and take out all of the confusion, disarray and accidents of the real world. But in doing so, actually imagining things seems to have become diminished, both in terms of the creators - because flights of fancy soon become weighed down by translating them into something that computers can understand and model in visually "believable" terms - and in terms of the audience, who now get imaginary worlds presented to them in as close to photo-realistic terms as possible, but missing any genuine life. What we're left with, then, are movies overpowered by themselves, making everything more "perfect," more sterile and more lifeless than what we've seen before, no matter what our eyes may tell us.

Of course, I'm writing this before seeing Avatar, so maybe I'm wrong; maybe Cameron has spent enough time on the story, perhaps all the actors involved do wonderful work, and all of the work that's gone into the CGI has created everything we've been promised: an immersive, believable new world unlike everything we've ever seen before. But everytime I think of Cameron boasting to the Wired journalist about the CGI-creation of blades of grass - because, obviously, real grass isn't good enough sometimes - I worry that it'll just be more of the same old empty razzle-dazzle.

What Is The Wachowskis' Secret Science Fiction Project — Guest-Starring Arianna Huffington? [Wachowskis]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:21:49 -0800

Did you know the Wachowskis were filming a new "futuristic" movie? Neither did we, until Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington tweeted a series of pictures from the set of the mystery film, which is about Iraq 90 years from now.

Huffington broke the news that there was a new Wachowski movie, and she was appearing in it, by tweeting a series of pictures showing "how I'll look in 90 years." Including the one above and this one:

And Huffington also tweeted that it's a "futuristic movie on Iraq." (Presumably looking back at the Iraq war, not just about the country in general.)

No further details were forthcoming, even on Huffington's own site. Speculation among film bloggers is that the Wachowskis are simply doing screen tests for their next project. Cinematical's Erik Davis points out, in an email to Slashfilm, that the Wachowskis did option David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas, parts of which take place in a post-apocalyptic future. In Cloud Atlas, a series of nested stories take us forward in time from the nineteenth century to the distant future. It's not clear right now if the Wachowskis are producing the film and reported director Tom Tykwer is still on board, or if the Wachowskis have taken over the directing reins.

Update: Chud insists, based on inside sources, that the Wachowskis aren't actually filming a new movie at all:

In fact, [Huffington]'s participating in tests for their next project. They're just shooting a couple of days this month, but it's all just test footage. As to what that next project is... well, I'm trying to find out. But in the meantime know that the Wachowskis are not shooting a secret movie... I should mention that these are likely camera tests. They're shooting on the RED.

Oh, and here's a picture of Huffington with Lana Wachowski and her parents:

[Slashfilm via Obsessed With Film]

Music Videos of the Multiverse Apocalypse and the History of the Planet of the Apes [MUSIC VIDEOS]

Lauren Davis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:50:42 -0800

Director Sugimoto Kousuke creates action-packed, animated music videos overloaded with colorful visuals and global disasters. His "The TV Show" goes from hypnotically zen to multiversal meltdown, while "Full Moon Party" chronicles the rise and fall of civilization starring monkey kind.

Sugimoto's "The TV Show" is a feast for the eyes from the get-go, but watch all the way through to see its multiple realities bleed into one another.

An earlier video, "Full Moon Party," replays human history with furrier primates in the starring roles:

[via Metafilter]

Top 10 Science Fiction Disappointments Of The Past Decade [Decade In Review]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:17:47 -0800

Disappointment sometimes seems the natural state of mind for science-fiction fans, but it's because we have so much hope. We raise our hopes again and again, only to suffer crushing disappointment. Here are the 10 worst letdowns of the 2000s.

Note: I'm not including the Star Wars prequels here, because the big letdown was The Phantom Menace in 1999. After that, the other two movies couldn't really be letdowns.

The Dark Knight Strikes Again. This was the moment we realized Frank Miller wasn't really Frank Miller any more. He agreed to do the long-awaited sequel to his most famous and groundbreaking graphic novels, the story that redefined Batman for a generation — and he turned in a bland caricature of his earlier brilliance. You can complain all you want about the assitude of All-Star Batman And Robin and The Spirit, but TDKSA was the start of the hackery. Worst moment: When the Joker turns out to be the much-abused Dick Grayson, and Bats kills him without a second thought.

Fox's Reign Of Terror. Firefly should have been one of the great success stories of the 2000s. It's hard to remember now how invincible Joss Whedon seemed going into Firefly — with two hit shows under his belt, he was the writer of several huge movies. And now he was bringing his patented mixture of rollicking adventure and twisted artiness to a space opera. Sure, Firefly's "Cowboys in Space" thing may have confused people at first, but the show really does sell itself, after just a few minutes' viewing, thanks to vivid characters. The failure of the TV show didn't just damage Joss Whedon's career — it damaged media SF as a whole, helping to push us towards canned remakes and reboots. And Firefly's demise was just the first of a trail of broken dreams and disappointments, culminating in the cancellation of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the burial of the promising Virtuality.

NASA and the space program. The decade did hold some great achievements for NASA, including the Mars rovers and some probes traveling outwards into the solar system. But it's hard not to feel a bit crushed by the fact that NASA is retiring its fleet of space shuttles without having a replacement lined up. We're going to have to hitch a ride with the Russians from here on out, and it feels a bit, well, disappointing. Especially with science-fiction promising us that this is our time to explore the solar system and beyond it, the stars themselves.

Ang Lee's Hulk. Before this movie came out, I would have sworn that Ang Lee never made a bad film. His track record included arthouse sensations like The Wedding Banquet, The Ice Storm and Sense And Sensibility, but also the brilliant actioner Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. He was also perhaps the most artsy director to take on a superhero icon to date (no offense, Tim Burton). There was every reason to believe Hulk would be both epic and heartfelt — but instead, we got gamma-irradiated poodles, daddy issues and a Hulk who sulked. We probably won't ever get a really great Hulk movie now, after two failures, which sucks. The Hulk deserves a proper outing, in which he fights monsters and marauders and crushes buildings. The Hulk needs to discover that he's not the worst monster in his world, and have larger-than-life adventures. Ang Lee just wasn't capable of giving that to us.

The Matrix sequels. This seems like a no-brainer in retrospect, but maybe you need cyber-Colonel Sanders to take you back and explain to you how much we were all looking forward to The Matrix 2 & 3. Ten years ago, The Matrix was the freshest thing to come out in ages, despite playing on ideas that books had explored for years. Its blend of fetish and noir and cyberpunk and Hong Kong action felt viciously original. And there were just so many ideas for the sequels to explore, so many mysteries about the machine world to uncover. And then... we just sort of descended into muddle. And long rave scenes. And blind Jesus. Walking out of The Matrix Reloaded, I remember someone turning to me and saying, "Well, that wasn't even the best powerpoint presentation I've sat through lately."

Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis. DC Comics' biggest "event" storylines of the mid-2000s seemed to be groping towards a more adult, more flawed view of their major superheroes, with some of comics' most talent writers on board. But they overshot, landing in angstville and bombarding us with retcons that rewrote the "Satellite era" of the Justice League. As if in an attempt to capture the cachet of Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke two decades earlier, these stories gave us female heroes being raped or abused, and turning into murderers. And Batman saying to Superman, "The last time you inspired anyone was when you died." The melodrama was thicker than the walls of Superman's Fortress of Solitude, and yet when it was all over, it was hard to understand what any of it had been about. The superheroes were closer to a bickering family (calling each other by their first names all the time) and the threats they faced seemed more existential and less external.

Superman Returns. There were a slew of other disappointing superhero movies in the past decade — but mostly you knew going into them that they were going to be ass. Who really thought Brett Ratner would make a good X-Men movie? Even Spider-Man 3 showed every sign of being ass-flavored long before it came out, despite Sam Raimi's involvement. But this film was Bryan Singer coming off two great X-Men films and The Usual Suspects, and he was doing the gutsy move of making it a sequel to the two Donner movies instead of going for the standard-issue reboot. Singer doing Donner — how could it be bad? Uh. Well, there's the part where he changed Clark Kent into Stalkerman. And then there's the Son Of Superman thing. But also, maybe, there's just the fact that the Donner movies were of a different era, and you can't bring that back.

Heroes seasons 2-4. Just imagine, for a moment, if this show had lived up to the promise of its first season. I know it's almost impossible to picture it, but just try. This mutant soap opera thrived on showing us the complications and craziness that come from secret super powers, against the backdrop of a sinister mutant-hunting conspiracy and a super-powered serial killer. But the show wrote checks it couldn't cash, including showing us Claire growing into her heroic destiny and Hiro becoming a future shaved-headed badass. Most of all, the show ducked out on its very title, opting to show us histrionics and family squabbles in place of actual heroism.

Watchmen. It was perhaps the greatest graphic novel of all time — almost certainly the greatest superhero comic of all time — lovingly recreated on screen by the ultimate OCD nerd. Every panel of the comic, recreated as concept art, then as storyboards, then as living, breathing people in costumes, surrounded by CG. Finally, a movie made by us for us. Except. The result, though lovely as anything, looked sort of lifeless once you took it out of the Smashing Pumpkins music-video trailers. The characters didn't quite live and breathe — especially Silk Spectre II, who needed to be the heart of the story. And the ending wasn't just missing a giant squid, or some other huge monstrosity to replace it — it was also lacking a certain coherence and urgency. Once people start talking about power signatures, it suddenly turns into an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Maybe Watchmen could never have lived up to the book, but it could have been more thrilling than this, with a different Silk Spectre and a more thunderous ending.

Battlestar Galactica's big finale. I know that opinions will differ on this one — but just consider. BSG's finale was one of the most hyped things of recent years. We read endless interviews in which Edward James Olmos, Ron Moore and various others told us that the final episode would shake us to our very cores, and make us weep and smear paint and throw up on ourselves. Meanwhile, Syfy ran promos over and over again that said that "All Will Be Revealed," and I don't remember an asterisk leading to a disclaimer explaining that "All" in this context actually meant a limited number of things, not including how Starbuck came back from the dead or what the hell was up with the Opera House. Even if you think this was the most brilliant conclusion in history, you have to admit BSG promised too much.

Syfy's Alice Was Saved By A Hatter [Alice]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:50:46 -0800

Alice In Wonderland remake. The miniseries has come and gone with mixed reviews, but we're curious to see what you thought. Spoilers below.

First off, the movie looked great. The 1960s inspiration was fantastic, and the all of the landscapes were extremely impressive for the seemingly small budget. I especially enjoyed the House of Cards Casino.

The modernized plot, in which the Red Queen was kidnapping humans and sucking them dry of their emotions for profit, was just gonzo enough, and had that dark twist that kept us present in a modern day wonderland.

I stand by my standing ovation for the hopelessly charming and impossible to forget Andrew Lee Potts' Hatter. He was the heart and soul of this film. Even when the plot dragged on and the pacing died down it was consistently Potts who helped the cast pick up the pace. Plus he's exceedingly easy on the eyes.

But here's the rub. The chemistry between Alice and Hatter is great, not amazing, but I believe it even when the plot fumbles around with the characters. At the same time, I'm not really sure why these two like each other, besides the fact that Potts is charming and saved Alice's life a few times. But it's hard to understand what's going on in the Hatter's head. First Hatter wants to sell her ring, then he wants to use it to get to the other side and start over, and finally he wants to use it to lead the resistance. Sure characters can change their minds, but this happens so quickly and jerkily, the feelings behind these exceedingly strong sentiments are lost in the shuffle.

The same goes for Hatter's growing emotions for Alice, in the first half he mutters under his breath that Jack is a lucky guy and that later acts jealous when he finds out that Jack is the Prince of Wonderland. But we still never really understand the motivations or reasons why he fancies her. And it started so well, with the half-pervy half-sweet line, "Can't I be nice to a girl in a very wet dress?" We never really knew what his intentions were, at any time. Still we knew he wanted to be with Alice, based on the puppy-dog eyes he kept giving her.

The rest of the star cameos came and went rather quickly. Tim Curry yelled a lot and was gone forever, Colm Meaney managed to eke out some strange remorse for loving his heartless Queen Kathy Bates for so long, so much so that he stayed behind and died in the collapse of the casino while the Queen didn't even bat an eye. Very odd. I would have hoped that this would make her care a bit, but no dice. Matt Frewer was a loveable old Knight, until he dug up a bunch of his old companions to act as scarecrows. This moment was totally lost on me and I didn't understand why these skeletons were intimidating at all, if they couldn't fight.

The Father and the Carpenter plot line also made only the tiniest bit of sense, and rang dangerously close to The Tenth Kingdom, especially when Alice was pleading with her mind-wiped Daddy to save her life, so I was fine when he was axed in the end.

The heart of the story is the love story between Hatter and Alice, and while I hated not really understanding why things were so dangerously slow in some places, I adored the little moments here and there, like when you piece it together in the end that Hatter must have jumped through the looking glass moments after Alice left. I'll watch it again, if only to try and wrap my head around a few of the editing and plot decisions, like making Mad March from Long Island. But all in all I had fun, developed a new crush and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. Horrible truth room CG background, flying flamingos and all.

But what did you think?

Interdimensional Portals Drawn With Nothing But Light [Concept Art]

Lauren Davis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:30:00 -0800

Jan Wöllert and Jörg Miedza are light graffiti artists, creating otherworldly photographs using various light sources. The eye-popping scenes they compose evoke wormholes, time-travel devices, and eerily lit portals to other worlds.

Wöllert and Miedza started Light Art Performance Photography, a studio that creates light paintings, meticulously moving multicolored lights during lengthy camera exposures. Light painters have been creating such photographs for years, drawing shapes, words, and abstract designs in the air. Wöllert and Miedza's works are particularly narrative, creating scenes like the ones below as well as light-fueled battles and colorful flying saucer invasions.

More images are available at the Daily Mail.

[via FFFFOUND!]

Best And Worst Geek Holiday Decor: From Santa Cthulhu To Fetus Baubles [Holiday]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:09:38 -0800

Want to give your home some nerd cred for the holidays? Good news: geek decorations are better than ever — but some terrible crap is also being marketed to nerds. We rounded up the best and worst geek holiday decorations.

Awesome Decorations To Bring The Nerd Cred

Awful Crap. Who Came Up With This? Coal For Everybody.

Is Biological Life the Source of Martian Methane? [Mars]

Lauren Davis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:02:05 -0800

Are signs of life on Mars floating in the atmosphere? Scientists have been searching for the source of methane on Mars, and their search has put them on the hunt for methane-producing microorganisms.

Scientists studying the Red Planet have developed a few possible explanations for the presence of methane in Mars' atmosphere. Methane on Mars is being constantly depleted by a chemical reaction triggered by sunlight, meaning that the methane is also replenished at a significant rate. One theory, that methane was being carried into the atmosphere by extramartian bodies such as meteorites, has been taken off the table thanks to a new study by researchers at Imperial College London. The study found that the volume of methane released by meteorites upon entering the atmosphere is far too low to supply Mars' current methane levels. Other studies have ruled out another possibility, that volcanic activity has been producing the methane.

This leaves two frontrunner solutions to Mars' methane mystery. One possibility is that the methane is produced as a byproduct of a chemical reaction between volcanic rock and water. The other is that microorganisms are living on the planet's surface and that their metabolic process produces methane.

It's far, far away from indicating life on Mars, but it does narrow down the hunt for the methane's source. A joint NASA/ESA mission is scheduled to head to Mars in 2018 to look for the source of the methane.

Life on Mars theory boosted by new methane study [PhysOrg]

A Victoria's Secret Ad By Michael Bay. Your Unmentionables Will Explode In 30 Seconds... [Michael Bay]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:40:00 -0800

Helicopters, flames, explosions, cars... and cheesecake. It can only be Michael Bay's unique view of women's sexuality. Michael Bay has done Victoria's Secret ads before, but this new one is the purest expression of his vision.

Here's the new ad:

And here are his previous contributions to the Victoria's Secret advertising ouevre:

Why Giving May Be The Geekiest Gift (To Yourself) Of All [Dr Horrible]

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:25:53 -0800

How would you like to own the original artwork to this page from Dark Horse's recent Dr. Horrible comic? Enough to violate your supervillain code, and give to charity? Click through to find out how it could be yours.

If you're looking for the perfect gift for the comic geek in your life, this lot in the Portland Mercury's online charity auction should fit the bill: Along with the original Joelle Jones page above, there's also a Dark Horse Comics lithograph signed by Joss Whedon, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and artist Travis Charest, a limited edition Umbrella Academy t-shirt (as well as both collections of the series to date), the complete set of Dark Horse's "One Shot Wonders" books (including Joss Whedon's Sugar Shock, Hellboy, The Goon and Star Wars, as well as a Zack Whedon-signed Dr. Horrible) and Goon-branded soda. Yes, we said Goon-branded soda. Be warned: You'll be bidding against us in this one. The auction closes on December 11th, and for the concerned, they'll ship nationwide if you don't happen to live in Portland.

Zombies Invade the Star Wars Movie Posters [Concept Art]

Lauren Davis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Zombies invaded the Star Wars universe with Death Troopers, but there are still plenty of places the galaxy far, far away for the zombie infection to spread. Even the trilogy and prequel movies posters aren't safe from the zombie outbreak.

In anticipation of Death Troopers, StarWars.com asked artists to create their own works of zombie Star Wars art. Artist Matt Busch took movie posters from the original trilogy and prequel films and remade them with zombie leads. All we need now are some Clone Wars zombies to make it complete.

Update: Bonnie Burton of the Official Star Wars Blog points out that Busch is just one of many, many Star Wars artists who created zombified posters. You can check out the entire Flickr set; be sure to scope the blood-spattered Zombie Cantina.

Star Wars Zombies [Coreplanets via Nerdcore]

The Evolutionary Cost of Being Extremely Sexy [Evolution]

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:52:31 -0800

It's a classic tale of how mediocrity is maintained. Evolutionary biologists in California have discovered that when males shower attractive females with attention, it actually undermines those females' fitness as mothers. That means fit females don't pass their genes on.

Today PLoS Biology published a study of fruitflies, a species where the male flies show a marked preference for mating with larger females because they are more fecund. The problem is that the males show such aggressive preferences that they basically badger the females constantly to mate. What this means is that the females are so harried that they have less time to search for food, which degrades their health. Also, among fruitflies, the mating process is itself damaging to the health of the females - fruitfly sperm is toxic.

As a result, the most-desired females become far less capable of generating healthy offspring. And the smaller, less fit females wind up bearing as many offspring as the fitter ones. In the end, the males' aggressive mating with the fittest females ends up preventing their species from evolving into a much fitter group.

Tristan A. F. Long, one of the authors of the study, said:

These larger females are disproportionately harassed and harmed, by males attempting to obtain matings. When these males are ‘choosy' with their courtship, there may be negative consequences to the species' ability to adaptively evolve.

What's interesting about this study is that it's one of the few to point out how male mate choice affects evolution of a species. Usually female mate choice is emphasized, except in species where females are dominant. Here we can see clearly that male mate choice is having a profound and not very salutary affect on the future of fruitfly fitness. The issue here is obviously not attractiveness, but instead the kind of fitness associated with being larger and more fecund. If larger, "attractive" females are harrassed into reproductive uselessness by the males, then any traits they possess that make them healthier (a trait for metabolic efficiency, for instance) won't be able to spread through the population as quickly as it might if males chose mates randomly.

via PLoS Biology

Giant Dinosaur Robot Puppet On The Loose [Crime]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:45:16 -0800

Dino theft! A five foot tall robotic dinosaur has been stolen from the Walking With Dinosaurs exhibit in Mexico. It's worth about $89,650. Meanwhile some kid South of the border is having the best birthday party ever. [BBC]

The Lovely Bones: Hitchcock Meets Dali In Purgatory [Movie Review]

John Shirley — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:20:00 -0800

The man who managed to film Lord Of The Rings has chosen to adapt introspective afterlife novel The Lovely Bones, and once again he's taken some liberties. But the result is a surprisingly seamless fusion of Hitchcock and Salvador Dali.

As with LOTR, Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's Bones is the sum of its aesthetic choices, times the auteur's vision. Jackson brings a vibrant surrealism and suspense to the adaptation, and it says a lot that he chose Brian Eno to do the music for it. Spoilers below.

The Lovely Bones is the story of young Susie Salmon, who's murdered by a serial killer, and who then observes the aftermath as a ghost. A girl in her early teens, Susie is compellingly played by the luminous Saoirse Ronan. She observes the grief of her family, and their floundering responses as the police consider every possible suspect but the right one; she experiences an afterlife that seems a strangely logical mix of its own rules and her internal world. (In places it's a little like a subtler version of What Dreams May Come, without the philosophy-and without a Cuba Gooding, Jr). She resists complete absorption into the next world, drawn back to psychically finger the residue of her own uncompleted life.

The novel's story is told by the murdered girl. In the book, Susie says: "My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my dad talked to him once about fertilizer." This voice, as voice-over, usually simple, sometimes penetrating, neatly interlaces and tightens the film's narration. The use of voiceover is famously a cinematic bugaboo, a chain holding many films back - it mars Kubrick's otherwise brilliant film noir, The Killing - but occasionally it can work, and here's the occasion. Saoirse Ronan's voiceover brings the first-person voice of the novel into the film, so that we feel haunted by her as we watch events unfold. Jackson uses the voiceover just enough, and in just the right places.

We know early on - as in the novel - that Susie Salmon will be murdered, because she tells us so. But somehow Jackson makes us afraid for her anyway, though her doom is a kind of fait accompli from the first. Jackson stretches out the suspense about who does it for awhile, but by the end of the first act you know it's "Mr. Harvey." The psychopathic Mr Harvey, a predator who can be just charming enough to be well camouflaged, is played with creepy brilliance by Stanley Tucci - you absolutely know that this character is a guy from your neighborhood who's very fussy about his flowers, very punctual, lives alone. You accept that he builds dollhouses - perhaps miniature houses is a better description - as a hobby. And somehow his little quirks quite logically dovetail with the fact that he likes to rape, murder, and dismember young girls. We infer we shouldn't trust people who are too neat, wound too tight, and too charming. Good advice. The scenes where Mr. Harvey stalks Susie, and entraps her in the little pre-adolescent play-chamber he builds, like a dollhouse, under the cornfield - a resonantly symbolic setting - are quite frightening. One knows what will happen, and it doesn't help. Jackson's skills at suspense and the elucidation of fear – the bringing of background fear cracklingly into the foreground, at precisely the right moment - are powerfully in evidence.

The afterlife of The Lovely Bones has its various facets, like the Bible's "many mansions"; there is a kind of dark afterlife bardo feel to part of it, but there's also the freedom of living one's dreams, in a light-hearted way, as a fourteen year old girl. Never forget, when Jackson shows you her afterlife, that it's her afterlife. It's the afterlife of a girl in her early teens. In one segment that might strike some as a bit airyfairy, there is a Little Prince style planet; there are butterflies and teen-fantasy outfits. She even sees herself fleetingly on the cover of a teen magazine. But this isn't your afterlife. It's the afterlife of a girl who had teen heartthrob photos on her bedroom wall. That sequence is not overlong, and it makes sense. And it's just a portion of her life-after-death - other parts are almost Mordor-like; are certainly fraught with symbol and infused with a living presence, so that we're never surprised when it responds to psychological impulses from Susie or the mortal world. The scenes in the Next World are often spectacular - and yet they meld potently with the drama of the mortal world.

Susie's relationship with her father, likably played by Mark Wahlberg, is more powerful than her relationship with her mother - Rachel Weisz—whom we know largely from her grief. Her father is obsessed with finding her killer, and is thoroughly unsuited for it - eventually, spiritually guided by Susie in an understated way, he intuits the killer's identity. When he tries to do something about it, his fury bears bitter fruit, in keeping with the film's theme of acceptance over hatred.

It may be that the second act, at times, doesn't quite cohere, doesn't always lead immaculately into the third. Occasionally it seems episodic. But the film's imagery and characters exert a pull that draws us relentlessly along, and the third act plays out compellingly.

Susie's sister is the one who finds the evidence the blind, flailing adults overlook while Susan Sarandon, as the alcoholic, bohemian grandmother — holds the family together. Chainsmoking, endearingly incompetent , the character is wonderful, completely convincing, and sometimes quite funny. Sarandon may get a best-supporting-actress nomination for this - she simply becomes this woman.

Susie's murder has been with us from the first, in a way, but chronologically it comes right after she meets a stunningly Byronic young immigrant from Britain (reminiscent of the young man the girls love from the Twilight pictures), who might have been her soul-mate... had she not been murdered; had her life, with all its drama and joy, its highs and troughs not been brutally, maddeningly, senselessly and oh-so-pointlessly interrupted. This is one of the film's most poignant throughlines, and provides some of its emotional resolution, in time. Just in time - to rescue an ending that some might find a little unsatisfying.

The film strays in some places from Sebold's narrative, but the end belongs to the novel, a resolution as much emotional as plot-driven. It's a denouement written by an artist, not by a Hollywood screenwriter. There must have been some Suits feeling angst over that ending, when the studio distributors saw it. (I notice they aren't spending a lot of money promoting The Lovely Bones.) Not that it's a bad ending - it's just deep. And they don't like deep. Will they recognize the cunning symbolism of the faces in the dollhouse windows? The little ships suddenly taking shape in the bottles?

I found the ending to be just frustrating enough — about as frustrating as our world is. And it is another example of choices defining an adaptation. Some fans of the book may carp about certain freedoms Jackson took, but most will hopefully see that in this very creative, authoritative film Peter Jackson preserves the characters, the theme, the dread, the delight found in the novel - and has added just enough of his own.

John Shirley's newest novels are Black Glass: The Lost Cyberpunk Novel, and Bleak History

What Abrams Did (Long) Before Star Trek... [Morning Reading]

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:00:00 -0800

...And before Fringe, Lost and Alias, for that matter. The always-wonderful ScriptShadow blog has made Abrams' unproduced 1994 sci-fi movie script Shelter online, for a peek at the awkward early days of the new Main Man. [ScriptShadow]

Hold On To Your Butts: Insanely Detailed Maps From Jurassic Park [Jurassic Park]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

We're overwhelmed by the power of these Jurassic Park maps. Look closely at the amazing detail built into each island map. But that's not all: fans also found the Jurassic Park brochure and concept art for the San Diego park.

The maps were pointed out by iwatchstuff, who found them at the Jurassic Park uber fan site Jurassic Park Legacy. There Terry Davis, Bernard Kyer, and Jeff Venancio reconstructed these amazing maps of the island based on concept art, facts and plot details. You can literally follow the story on the map. Click on the pictures for a closer look.

Want To Read Some Cutting-Edge Hard Science Fiction? Check Out MedGadget's Contest Winners [Writing]

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:30:00 -0800

Medical technology site MedGadget just hosted its third annual short story writing contest, and you can read the top three winners online. The winner, "Heartless" by Evan Perriello, takes place in a future where doctors have given up on trying to cure heart disease, and have settled for a more radical preventive approach — who needs a heart anyway? The only question is... how young is too young to lose your heart? The first runner up, "Mars Rescue" by James H. Dawdy, takes you through emergency medicine on the Red Planet. Both stories are entertaining and thought-provoking, if slightly HAITE-y. All in all, though, they're smart and make you ponder the kinds of situations doctors of the future will have to grapple with. [MedGadget]

Killers, Cardassians And Christmas In This Week's Comics [Comics We Crave]

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:00:00 -0800

From magical realism to those forced to kill in order to survive, it's as if comics this week have taken on the very properties of the holiday season. There's even a Holiday Special, just for the traditionalists!

It's a strange mix of new releases this week, as the industry seems to be slowing down for the holidays and yet still managing to release a few must-reads (including a strong contender for book of the year), but we'll get to them later.

Instead, let's start with the TV and movie tie-ins of the week: Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five collects the mini-series that told a possible backstory for everyone's favorite Cylons, and it's better than you might expect. Meanwhile, Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Cardassians fulfills a similar role for Deep Space Nine's ridge-headed badguys. It's clearly backstory week, because Marvel's Ender's Game: War of Gifts special issue also fills in some blanks. Thankfully, DC's Dante's Inferno video game tie-in is much more straight-forward in just adapting the game... that adapts the classic story. Boxes within boxes!

Over in the superhero school of thought, DC have their annual Holiday Special to warm the cockles of your heart, after which you'll be ready for the triple-X-Men-threat of Genext United (The future children of the X-Men unite!), X-Men/Spider-Man (The X-Men and Spider-Man team up during different parts of their history!) and Nation X (The X-Men have their own island! And... stuff... happens on it?). If all of that sounds too much, we'll direct you to the much-anticipated-by-us Spider-Man And Secret Wars, a new series that retells the classic story with far fewer dated references.

Elsewhere, Image have a new Tank Girl special, Tank Girl: Nuggets to offer up festivities for kangaroo lovers. There's also Pilot Season: Murderer, a one-shot that you — yes, you — could help make into an ongoing series about a man who is compelled to kill in order to keep living.

But as topical as that may sound, it doesn't come anywhere close to being book of the week. No, that honor belongs entirely to the first issue of Daytripper, a new series by Brazilian brothers Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon that is as beautifully written as it is illustrated (Visually, it's easily one of the best things you'll have seen this year); admittedly, it's not the most io9-friendly story — it's very grounded in real life, at least in the first issue — but, having seen the first two issues in preview, it's definitely something we'd recommend as one of the best things we've read in a long time.

As ever, the complete Diamond Distributors shipping list will tell you everything that's hitting stores tomorrow, and the Comic Shop Locator will tell you where to find said stores. We just hope that, by the time you get there, you'll be more in the mood for magical realism than killing people.

Does Iron Man 2 = Spider-Man 3? [Iron Man 2]

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:30:00 -0800

Instead of being excited about another Iron Man movie, should we be concerned that it's going to be another over-stuffed, disorganized mess like Spider-Man 3? One British journalist thinks so, worryingly enough.

The Guardian's Stuart Heritage thinks that what we already know about the second Iron Man movie sounds worryingly familiar:

This time Iron Man 2 will have to balance Robert Downey Jr with Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke and Don Cheadle and Samuel L Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow, and a shedload of exploding robots. Plus, there's a good chance that Tony Stark's also going to be an alcoholic in this one. And that's where the worry starts to seep in.

A tangled love story? Too many villains? A hero struggling with his demons? Unless I'm mistaken, that sounds just like Spider-Man 3 – a superhero movie legendary in its bloated naffness.

We'll admit it; we're concerned about Iron Man 2 as well, but that's got more to do with Whiplash's costume than any story-related reason. After all, if Favreau and Downey Jr. could make the first movie as fun as it was despite not having a finished script, making two bad guys, two Iron Men and an alcoholic subplot work should be a piece of cake. But do we put too much faith in their talents? Let us know in the comments whether you're worried that IM2 may be too full for its own good.

Why I'm starting to worry about Iron Man 2 [Guardian.co.uk]

New Avatar Clip Takes Us Under The Floating Na'vi City [Avatar]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:00:00 -0800

Did you know there were other characters in James Cameron's Avatar besides blue people and Sigourney Weaver? People like Michelle Rodriguez and geeky Joel Moore? See them now, before Cameron undoubtedly kills them off. Plus Sigourney narrates "Planet Earth" Pandora.

Talk Monkey to Me: Monkey Language Contains Simple Sentences [Mad Science]

Lauren Davis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:40:00 -0800

While other primates have exhibited simple vocabularies, it has long been believed that syntax, the construction of sentences, was unique to humans. But a recent study suggests that at least one species of monkey communicates in vocalized sentences.

A research team led by Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St. Andrews has been studying the calls of the Campbell's monkey, a primate found in the Ivory Coast. The team looked at how the calls of adult male monkeys vary in response to various stimuli. Campbell's monkeys have six different types of individual calls, each of which has a distinct meaning. What's surprising, however, is that these monkeys actually string together multiple types of calls to create communications with entirely new meanings. Zuberbühler and his team claim this is a form of syntax, suggesting that Campbell's monkeys have developed a sort of sentence structure. Other primates, such as chimpanzees, have shown an understanding of language, able to connect words and symbols with specific meanings, but haven't been able to combine those words into sentences.

The team has identified the meanings of the individual calls, as well as how they can be combined to form completely different communications:

The "boom-boom" call invites other monkeys to come toward the male making the sound. Two booms can be combined with a series of "krak-oos," with a meaning entirely different to that of either of its components. "Boom boom krak-oo krak-oo krak-oo" is the monkey's version of "Timber!" - it warns of falling trees.

Combining the "boom-booms" and "krak-oos" with a third sound, "hok-oo," warns monkeys of the presence of other monkey groups. It appears that initially, the monkeys developed the calls to warn each other of specific predators, such as leopards and eagles, but their anti-predator vocabulary has evolved into something much more sophisticated.

Boom! Hok! A Monkey Language Is Deciphered [NY Times]

Is Tom Waits A Hobbit? And Who Is This New Hobbit Lady? [The Hobbit]

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:20:00 -0800

There's a flood of Hobbit news: Peter Jackson sounds determined to release his Tolkien adaptation in 2011, in spite of all the delay rumors. There may be a new female character, and Bilbo Baggins may be an unknown.

In an interview with Collider, Peter Jackson crushed the rumors about a 2012 release, and confirmed that the plan still is 2011 in December, which is soon, really soon. Methinks he may be singing a different tune come July.

Meanwhile, who's going to play Bilbo? IGN asked Jackson about the many actors that have been rumored to be in line [Daniel Radcliffe, Martin Freeman, James McAvoy and David Tennant]. Are any of them actually in the running? Jackson wouldn't rule any anyone out, because some of the names mentioned were not under consideration, and he didn't want fans to figure it out based on the process of elimination. Plus, he's still looking for an unknown that may be able to fill the role of Bilbo. (And presumably, handle his accelerated filming schedule, without any conflicts.)

Next, ultimate Tolkien site The One Ring, has the news that there's casting calls going out for — gasp — a woman to appear in this film. And since they probably wouldn't be casting bit parts and extras at this point, the fans speculate that maybe there's a she-dwarf in the mix. Or maybe it's the voice for something. And there are a lot of somethings lurking about in the woods and hills in this book. So your guess is as good as ours.

And finally, AICN Downunder is reporting, on top of their Brian Cox dwarf rumors, that Tom Waits may be joining the film as well. Both are still unconfirmed, and no one is sure what Waits would be cast as, so the whole thing is mere talk at this point. Still the man was amazing in Dracula and Dr. Parnassus, so nether he nor Cox would be a tough sell.

Vlad Is Your New Twilight [Vlad]

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:00:00 -0800

Move over, Robert Pattinson, Brad Pitt wants your vampire crown. Twilight studio Summit is going back to the classics, with its new vampire project, focusing on Vlad the Impaler's little-seen days as a young vampire.

Pitt's Plan B company will be producing Vlad, which focuses on the early life of the inspiration behind the Dracula myth. Written by Queer As Folk and Sons of Anarchy actor Charlie Hunnam, music video director Anthony Mandler is in talks to direct the project and head up a rewrite in order to bring it closer to the studio's vision of "a visually edgy and radical period movie" similar to 300. We can hardly wait... Oh, okay, we can.

Summit working on 'Dracula' remake [Heat Vision/The Hollywood Reporter]

Santa Claus is the Ultimate Cryptozoological Nightmare [Rare Exports]

Lauren Davis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Children the world over look forward to their annual visit from Father Christmas, but what if the secret behind Santa Claus was actually something sinister? In the film Rare Exports, we will learn Santa Claus' terrifying cryptozoological origins.

Rare Exports Inc., a short Finnish film, explains the startling origins behind the legions of mall Santas found across the globe.

Note: Video contains Santa nudity and is thus NSFW.

And its sequel offers instructions for the safe care and handling of your Father Christmas.

And now the notion of Santa as cryptid is getting a feature length treatment. It looks like next December, we'll be seeing a full-length Rare Exports, but the teaser shows something scrawnier and meaner than jolly old Saint Nick. Is this the sinister stuff Father Christmases are made of, or Santa's vicious companion Krampus?

[via Twitch]