The second trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is out:
When this was first announced, it was disclosed that it was set in the Alien universe, but it wasn’t clear whether the xenomorphs themselves would make an appearance. After this trailer, I feel pretty safe in saying that they will.
Howard Waldrop and I will review this when it comes out.
Over at Locus Online. I liked it more than Howard did…
Philip K. Dick died 30 years ago, on March 2, 1982.
Dick was already a major science fiction writer before he died, but since his death he has come to loom over popular culture in a way that other near contemporary SF writers of similar stature (say, Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. Delany, Harlan Ellison, and John Brunner) have not. Dick’s themes of paranoia and unreality continue to resonate in a world where almost every human action is permanently recorded, an where so many of us live lives half in a world of unreality (said a man typing in his blog).
Dick’s prose may often have been workman-like, but his vision and voice were unique, and his sheer productivity was staggering not only for its quality, but also it quantity. Between 1961 and 1966, Dick wrote:
That’s in order of composition. Some of those are minor works, and many were only published later or after his death, but five or six are considered classics. Had an otherwise unknown SF writer written just one Dr. Bloodmoney or Ubik, they would still be remembered today as the one-hit wonder of a minor classic. To think that Dick cranked them out in six years (and was just as productive writing short stories earlier in his career) is pretty mind-boggling.
I recently read Clans of the Alphane Moon on the way back from Stavanger, and I hope to have a review up in the not so distant future.
(Also, I have a few Dick firsts and paperback reprints available through Lame Excuse Books.)
Haven’t seen a lot of these, but the ones I have are all worth watching. Though I still think Sunset Boulevard is a bit of a stretch as Noir. It’s sui generis..
Howard and I will review Brave, Pixar’s animated film this year, for Locus Online.
Given that it’s Pixar, we fully expect it to fall somewhere between “really good” and “totally awesome.”
Assuming it comes to Austin sometime in 2012 (answer cloudy; ask again later), Howard Waldrop and I will be reviewing Iron Sky, AKA Attack of the Space Nazis. Here we have not one, not two, but three teaser trailers, arranged from oldest to newest.
I’m hoping Iron Sky (which seems to have been made with a great deal of crowd-source funding) will be good, silly fun, as well as an amusing poke at the whole Nazi saucer mythos.
Continuing this series of trailers on movies Howard Waldrop and I will be reviewing is The Avengers, which comes out May 4th. We liked the Iron Man movies, but weren’t particularly wild about Thor.
Second up for Howard Waldrop and I to review in 2012 is Pixar’s first live action film, John Carter (based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars) due out March 9.
The first trailer had me worried, because there were no four-armed green dudes. This trailer? Four-armed green dudes everywhere. Also, since Michael Chabon had a hand in the script, I’m really looking forward to it.
Just for the record, I should note that the John Carter of Mars in this film is not my U.S. congressman, John Carter of Round Rock.
Howard and I signed up to review a number of films for Locus Online this year, and I thought i would put up some trailers for them. First up on the list is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, due out February 17.
We’re review it because: A.) Someone has to, B.) We reviewed the first one, and C.) I’m hoping with Crank directors Neveldine/Taylor at the helm it will be good, stupid, over-the-top, sleazy exploitation fun.
The surviving members of Monty Python are reuniting for a science fiction film farce called Absolutely Anything.
I am so there.