Back in February we reported that Justion Monjo was working on a screen play for a Farscape feature film, well this weekend at Wondercon, series creator Rockne O’Bannon confirmed that a movie was in active development, joking “Yeah, yeah it’s the worst kept secret…We’re far from production, but yeah, the first step is Justin [Monjo] working on a script for us. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
O’Bannon also went on to praise Brian Henson and his contribution to keeping the project alive describing him as “…like a dog with a bone,” O’Bannon said. “He would not give up on it.”
The best couples are not afraid to point a gun at each other
A plot description first came to light via Tor.com – Set to follow the awesome comics written by our favorite Keith R.A. DeCandido, the film would follow John and Aeryn’s son, D’Argo (or Little D, as we will always refer to him). Because their baby was exhibiting a set of interesting powers that made him a magnet for galactic villains, we find that John and Aeryn hide their son on Earth to grow up. Now the kid is 19 and ready to go into space with his parents.
Though still in early stages the confirmation that it is a in active production is very exciting for the fans of that strange and delightful breath of fresh air that was Farscape. Since it was cancelled 10 years ago there has been very little yo compete with the space opera that demonstrated such devotion to creating a variety of alien life, unafraid to push the boat out with the use of extraordinary sfx make-up, prosthetics and puppetry – seriously how many hours did that likes of Chiana, D’Argo and Zhaan spend in make-up? It was an adventure that was committed to strong female characters, weird and wonderful story arc’s mixed in with a little comedy, intense drama and pow, pow action; let us not forget those frelling awesome long leather coats and big guns.
It is a genre that is very much missing from TV these days and I can think of very little that compares to the majesty of Farscape. And though we have no confirmation as to how many cycles it will be before we have the finished product we shall endeavour to keep you up to date with production news.
Always eager to spread a little love to the cultured masses, this time last week I set off for London to attend the ever illustrious Olivier Awards 2014. I’ve been trying to get a theatre column on Geek Pride up off the ground for months now, and what better way to kick it off, than by recognising some of the finest talent the UK arts scene has to offer.
Brought to us by the lovely people over at Mastercard, the Olivier Awards returned for yet another dazzling year, to venerate and commend the finest contributions across drama, musical theatre, production, dance and opera, right in the cultural hub of London; the Royal Opera House. It’s the sort of place you kind of really need to experience at least once, because there’s just something so fundamentally enamouring about it. (One for the bucket list, I think!) and I’m not just saying that because I got to walk the red carpet.
I actually really don’t like that part. My partner in crime came along with me, and she adored it. Thrived in the glare of paparazzi camera, while I was ready to just hoik up my dress in one hand and run inside. I think it’s one of the few things nobody gives enough credit to celebrities for, because it’s absolutely terrifying out there! So naturally, my hat goes off to all of the beautifully prim and proper chaps and ladies that did survive the onslaught of interviews, fans and blinding camera work.
The Book of Mormon nabbed this year’s Best Musical.
Still, my blinding terror aside, it did put me in a particularly good position to require the free champagne on offer at the welcome reception! These theatre goers definitely know their stuff when it comes to helping to set the tone and make people relax, although I’m fairly certain at this point any form of stiff drink would’ve been greatly appreciated! Having arrived early, it gave me a good 45 minutes to breathe, mingle and regain some semblance of composure before we headed into the theatre to find our seats and get ready for the ceremony.
Now, I hadn’t actually anticipated this at all, but we actually had little goodie bags on the seats, complete with chocolate, tissues and water, to get us through the three hour ceremony! I thought this was both highly useful and adorable, so my utmost thanks go to the sponsors for providing us with such a handy gift (that means I’m looking at you Hildon Mineral Water, Divine Chocolate, & American Airlines.) Excitement aside from having been presented with chocolate, down went the lights and on went the ceremony!
Presented this year by Steven Mangan and Gemma Arterton, it was a really enjoyable experience from start to finish, full of jokes, heartwarming speeches and performances from a plethora of West End talent, including a few highly memorable numbers from the current cast of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Book of Mormon, a showstopping performance by American legend Bernadette Peters, alongside an appearance from ABBA stars Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus.
My personal favourites from the long line of winners included The Book of Mormon which took home the Best New Musical award, and Zrinka Cvitešić’s victory as Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Once at the Phoenix theatre. It also wouldn’t be a proper roundup of my favourites if I didn’t give Rory Kinnear a shoutout for his Best Actor win in Othello, having beaten out stiff competition from Tom Hiddleston, Jude Law and Henry Goodman!
I honestly couldn’t have predicted some of the wins, but I do have to say every single winner and nominee deserved their name in lights, for being some of the most inspirational, talented and humble people I have ever had the luxury of sharing a room with. It really did open my eyes to a grander scale of what the modern theatre has to offer, and I think that’s important to help make sure this art form continues to grow and thrive in much the same way the film industry does.
Zrinka Cvitešić took home Best Actress in a Musical.
The ceremony was over before I knew it, and while I did feel a little saddened by this, the after party soon took the edge off! While the statue wielding winners went out into the world to enjoy a proper after party and celebrate their success, I was more taken with watching the dancing upstairs in the amphitheatre bar and eyeing up the pick n’ mix, that I really would not have ever expected at such a posh soiree. Kudos, awards organisers, your taste is impeccable!
Partying away until the early hours, with our free gifted programmes in hand, off we eloped back to the hotel for some much needed rest, only to discover there was a second after party there too, complete with cocktails and canapés. And like any true trooper of the arts, we had to go and partake in that too (which was rather nice, because Bernadette Peters and Ruth Wilson were in attendance, and both of them are quite frankly my idols, so hopefully some of the talent will have rubbed off by being in such close proximity!)
But that was it, as the clock rolled around to three, reality set in, and the prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards were over for yet another year. I really do have to say it’s one of the most entertaining nights I’ve had in a very long time, and I definitely look forward to seeing what the UK theatre can offer us between now and next year!
For more information on the awards, and for the complete list of winners, check out the Olivier Awards website here.
In India and UNICEF who have made an appeal online for the other half of the population to use a toilet for their fecal matter. Usually this wouldn’t make the news except for the fact they have made the appeal by making a large brown poo anthropomorphic. The video seen below has a rather catchy techno-bollywood style to it and begins with a poor man being chased down the street by ‘Mr Poo’. This is actually quite a serious campaign on behalf of UNICEF and is supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund but one has to wonder if this light-hearted music video will actually reach the approximately 320 million people who aren’t using a toilet.
Since Autumn of last year Hamster derrieres went vogue in Japan, this was to mark the publication of the photo book ‘Hamuketsu’ or ‘Hamster Butts’. A facebook page launched around the same day which allowed people to upload pictures of their own pets backsides. Strangely enough there is another book being readied for publication on April 17th.
After CAT products played Jenga with 8 ton blocks, playing mildly over-sized Jenga drunk in a downstairs bar seems kind of pointless. Watch below what happens when CAT pits 5 of their machines against each other.
Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is a renowned scientist working on building the first true Artificial Intelligence or A.I. He is aided in his work by his partner Evelyn (Rebecca Hall). Max (Paul Bettany) is also a scientist that whilst working on his own projects, he is good friends with the Casters. After attending a conference Will is shot and fatally poisoned as part of a strike by a radical anti-technology group and the trio come up with the idea of transferring Will’s consciousness onto an advanced computer system designed by him.
Transcendence is the directorial debut of Wally Pfister the director of photography on several of Christopher Nolan’s films and it’s a shame the film is so underwhelming, as Pfister is clearly talented.
This film has numerous flaws, its main one being that it’s so utterly fundamentally predictable. It starts off well, as Bettany’s Max narrates over his exploration of a world where technology for the most part is now obsolete, smartphones lay scattered about the streets and computer keyboards are used as doorstops. It’s an interesting start and then the narrative flashes back 5 years.
Whilst the trailer may make Transcendence seem like a man versus technology gone a amok action affair, it’s actually a very slow burning juxtaposition of a love story with a modern-day dystopian epic, and fails to pull off either very well.
As well as being predictable it’s also incredibly overwrought and over long with it’s 120 minute running time seeming more like 150. Jack Paglen’s script has no room for subtlety either, as numerous points are made repeatedly and bluntly, just in case anyone in the audience missed them the first time.
Depp, who for half the running time is an avatar on a screen, seems to mumble his way through the proceedings and Morgan Freeman, as a kind, wise friend with ties to government, pretty much does what he’s done in several of his recent films. It’s left to Hall to do all the emotional lifting, which she does well, although it does become a case of waiting for the other shoe to drop, whilst Bettany’s Max generally bumbles about, and Kate Mara and Cillian Murphy are completely wasted in ancillary roles.
There’s also an inherent irony in Bettany going up against a rogue A.I since he’s best known for being the voice of Jarvis in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and set to play The Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Whenever things seem like they are going to finally drive into a more action oriented scene, it’s quickly choked down for more plodding melodrama.
There are some memorable images, like a vast bank of solar panels dominating a stretch of desert and some water droplets and sunflowers, which take on far more meaning at the end. There’s the occasional philosophical musing, like how much humanity are you willing to sacrifice to stop a threat to humanity, and the maimed going on a pilgrimage to be healed in a blatant Jesus metaphor, but they’re buried in the quagmire.
The story itself really brings to mind X-Men’s Magneto and Asteriod M, where he just wants to be left alone, but others seeing him as a threat launch an attack and start a costly war, which was a far better take on the much repeated mantra that people fear that which is different.
For those of you who aren’t aware, FX is proudly introducing to it’s TV masses another show about Vampires. Ordinarily eyes should roll at the thought of yet another vampire program clogging up the already saturated marketplace. To name just a few of them, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Being Human, Buffy, Angel, Blade & Moonlight. Some have failed and some have been wildly successful. Below is what FX have to say about their new show.
‘A thriller that tells the story of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team in New York City. He and his team are called upon to investigate a mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the strain spreads, Eph, his team, and an assembly of everyday New Yorkers, wage war for the fate of humanity itself.‘ – FX
Here is hoping that Del Toro’s take of the vampire genre is a rousing success, simply because it’s something that seems a lot more dark and intense than other shows like it. He created the series as a book first with the help of Chuck Hogan. However he always envisioned the story-line as a TV series first, he just couldn’t find a buyer. It’s a bio-terror thriller set in the U.S of a virus that either kills those who are exposed to it, or it turns them into vampires.
It’s at this point where the new teaser trailer would be shown, sadly however for us Brits we have to wait longer for it as it doesn’t seem to be available here yet. This conclusion comes from trawling youtube and the following sites: ‘Comingsoon.net‘, ‘io9.com‘, ‘screenrant.com‘ However those in America can see the new trailer at the above sites, it sounds positively grotesque, creepy and intriguing all at the same time. The teaser features a little worm-like parasite which carries and transmits the vampire virus slithering onto an eyeball, whose fully dilated pupil reflects the ongoing eclipse.
For those of you however that are only just hearing about this potentially wonderful new show and have yet to see anything about it, here is a snippet which is available.
Read through the comments on any downloadable game and you’ll see one phrase come up over and over, bugs. With almost universal internet access, developers can easily update games to correct mistakes, oversights or outright screw ups in their software through a downloadable update or patch.
This has opened up huge potential for developers to add content or update software following it’s release, but it can also be argued that it’s made developers sloppy. Cutting corners to hit deadlines and release dates at the expense of quality, and what do we see as a result? Bugs.
So it’s refreshing when a developer takes the road less travelled and chooses quality over market expectation and delays a release specifically because they don’t want to sacrifice that quality.
Aiden wears a mask and has a gun. His hobbies include waxing car bonnets with his arse.
Such is the cause of delay with the much anticipated Ubisoft title, Watch Dogs. David Polfeldt, Managing Director of Massive Entertainment, the developers behind the also highly anticipated massively multi-player shooter The Division, revealed in an interview with The Examiner that this commitment to quality and it’s resultant delay for Watch Dogs release is a bold but reassuring move.
“It’s tremendously important for us as a developer studio, to know that the owner and the publisher are ready to take that hit, and [the Watch Dogs delay] was a massive hit. I think their shares fell 25% on the day it was announced it was being delayed. It takes so much courage to live through that day and still think that was a good decision. So for us in the development [side of things], that’s an important message that ultimately the management will back up the goals that we have, which is the game has to be great.”
With the games industry becoming increasingly competitive, it’s rare for a publisher to risk the financial backlash of announcing a delay to preserve one title, for them to protect one by impacting a title as hot as Watch Dogs is almost unheard of. The attention being afforded to these games points to truly quality releases, which just excites our appetites even further.
“Definitely when we go to the internal milestones, we’re constantly being pushed for more innovation, thinking further, what could you do that surprises even ourselves? What are we not doing that we could do? Have you studied the competition? So there’s never a discussion about ‘just get it done guys, hurry up, we have a deadline, and it doesn’t matter if it’s really perfect, just get it done.”
So it looks like it’s going to be a while before we see The Division and Watch Dogs eagerly slotted into our consoles. Lets hope that Ubisofts bold sacrifice is worth it.
When HBOs Game of Thrones isn’t busy killing off it’s cast at a record breaking rate, it’s breaking records of another kind, downloads.
HBO have come under heavy criticism for the restricted release of the series which has collectively racked up millions of file sharing downloads every week throughout it’s 10 episode series cycles. Their decision to make their online streaming service only available to existing HBO customers is often pointed to as a cause behind the popular series being illegally downloaded as frequently as it is.
With spoilers exploding over the Twitterverse in real time as the US version airs and anything between hours and days passing before the international audience can see the same episode it’s a common complaint that the twists (read: murder of yet another cast member) in the plot are already widely known by the time those air dates\times come around.
But that gap is closing, Sky Atlantic in the UK managed to air the season premier mere hours after it’s US release. Even so, episode 2 of season 4 racked up a record breaking 193,000 people sharing a single file with over 1.5 million downloading the file over the first 24 hours. That torrent file, was uploaded and available just 30 minutes after the episode aired in 1080 HD.
HBO have sighted several reasons for the delay in international distribution, including dubbing and re-editing. Now this would be reasonable if they were running a series like Star Trek where weekly episodes were shot back to back across a 6 month period with the next episode being written while the current one was being shot. But they don’t. Game of Thrones has a painful year between seasons and it’s hard to believe that they are still putting the final touches on 42 weeks after the last series ended. Even if they are, one would assume that if they wanted to combat the piracy surrounding the show, that such dubbing and editing would take place prior to the first episode airing to enable a global release.
One episode in season 3 boasted an impressive 4.3 million downloads, that’s more viewers than some soap operas get and it’s collecting no revenue whatsoever. With Game of Thrones costing $6 million per episode, that’s revenue that HBO could really do with collecting. But unless their distribution network changes, it doesn’t like they’re going to be taking control back from the pirates any time soon.
With technology continuing to advance and file sharing piracy not showing any signs of slowing, despite government and corporate action to defend against copyright theft, simultaneous global release seems like the only reasonable course of action.
Netflix is leading the way in this with their own series being released in full across their own distribution network. House of Cards for example has broken the standard rules for TV distribution with astounding success. The model of letting viewers watch what they want when they want for a reasonable monthly charge is a resounding success for their internet distribution platform, it’s also resulted in far lower piracy rates for titles released on Netflix and it’s competitors than traditionally broadcast shows on cable or terrestrial networks.
As Game of Thrones’ popularity shows no signs of slowing, we can expect those torrent figures to keep ramping up. The question is, when will HBO and other distributors learn that the world is changing, and for the traditional week to week, locally distributed television broadcast model, winter is certainly coming.
Kieron Gillen’s Uber has been going for almost a year now and, as the writer points out in his afterword in this special, there’s been lots of generals and leaders stood around maps planning the latest move in the on-going war effort. The implications of these for the boots on the ground have been the main thrust of the story and the other main factor is of course the actions of the Uber’s themselves. Whilst the story has been propulsive as it shifts from one aspect of the conflict to the other, there’s been little in the way of real character work and the few instances there have been characters that haven’t lasted too long, a side effect of the brutal nature of the setting, there is a war on after all.
The Battleships Siegmund, Siegfried and Sieglinde have so far been seen merely as walking, breathing weapons of mass destruction. There’s been little shown of why they do what they do or who they were before their transformation, this special for the first time gives the antagonists a chance to tell their own stories, or part of them, to an unseen enquirer in the manner of answering one simple question “Do you remember the first time you killed?”.
This is dangerous ground from a story and character point, there’s an old adage about less is more and demystifying the chief antagonists could rob them of their power. It should go without saying that these tales, one for each of the Battleships, were never going to be easy reading. The world of Uber is a brutal,disturbing and horrifying one and the three characters here are the figure heads in this brutal and harsh world.
Gillen doesn’t shy away from the darkness of the these characters stories and it’s a credit to his talent as a writer that there’s nothing as prosaic as seeing parents killed or anything else generally associated with villain origins in comics, and the Battleships are supervillains in the context of Uber’s story.
Without having already established this title is a serious one, it could have come across as incredibly crass and offensive, and some will undoubtedly argue that it still is especially in the case of Siegfried, which is one of the most outright disturbing and offensive things to feature so far.
Regular artist Canaan White doesn’t feature here with art being handled instead by Gabriel Andrade for two tales and Daniel Gete for the third and the pair both handle things well.
Siegmund’s tale “The Battle Of Spree Forest” has him stoically telling his story whilst sat atop a burnt out smouldering tank casually smoking a cigarette, it’s an effective image, contrasting the more traditional war machine with the German’s new war machine. His story is the first time that it’s revealed that the German citizen’s are just as terrified of the Battleships as everyone else and also he makes a point about the difference between the stories told about the events he describes, with notorious propaganda chief Goebbels getting a mention, and the actual reality.
Sieglinde’s tale “The Bitter Cup” paints her as more sympathetic than her fellow Battleships as her story of bitter betrayal plays out, and it’s shown that she was a normal woman once with a loving husband who went off to fight in the war and things went horribly, horribly wrong as she discovers her new found power via a blood test in a Dresden hospital for the wounded.
Whilst all three of the Battleships are the stuff of nightmares , it’s Siegfried’s “Toy Soldiers” that really paints a disturbing picture as it’s revealed that he was just as sociopathic as a youngster thanks to an over bearing mother, it’s a story that features not only full blown hate crime but also one of the most powerful images of them all in a double spread reveal handled masterfully by Andrade.
We already had a feature on my favourite Baron – Baron von Munchausen, so this week I will be looking at fan art of Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, the incredibly popular living statue star of Miyazaki’s “Whisper of the Heart” and “The Cat Returns”. The Baron is a statue that can come to life, and runs The Cat Bureau. Dapper and charming, he is a fan favourite and has a huge amount of fan art and cosplay dedicated to him, so it will be a difficult one to choose favourites!
First we have this image from Anya Kholodova. I love the detailed background, and the interesting take on the Baron’s face, avoiding just copying the Miyazaki look.
Next up, this gorgeous pencil portrait from ElaRaczyk. While still loose and sketchy in the clothing, the face, eyes and fur are just brilliant, again moving away from the movie depiction, but still really showing character and expression.
Next, this image from Mellanie Chafe. There’s no mistaking who this is! The expression on his face is just perfect and I love the background painting, the skilful shading and the textures on his clothes.
Baron is looking very mysterious in this image from Phil Dragash. I love the atmosphere in this picture, showing the Baron’s serious side. Also, great foreshortening and anatomy in this pose.
Finally, something a little different, this image from EarthKnight. I love this style, no lineart and vector-y shading. Everything in this is very precise and carefully chosen, subtle but very deliberate. It’s great to see fan art of characters done in unusual styles.
If you have any suggestions for a characters you would like to see featured here please comment below, or send us a message!
When it comes to marriage proposals geeks have the opportunity to make them tailored and unique and that is just what happens here. In their own words these gamers “…did a little hex and sprite editing to a custom Fix-It Felix machine to create a special moment for these two awesome people!”
This lovely moment was captured by the folks over a Guys, Games and Beer and if you don’t say awwww then you have no heart.
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