Tag Archives | Science Fiction

I see that H. P. Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness (about which I’ve blogged previously) is being made into a movie.

Mountains is one of Lovecraft’s best stories, telling of a scientific expedition’s discovery of the ruins of a not-quite-dead extraterrestrial civilisation beneath the ice of Antarctica. (Did this movie play a role in inspiring the 1951 movie Thing From Another World? I’ve always wondered. Officially that movie was based on John Campbell’s short story “Who Goes There?” but then it’s that story I’m wondering about.)

The new film is being written and directed by Guillermo del Toro (of Pan’s Labyrinth), so that’s a promising sign.

Addendum:

Well, speak of the devil: here’s an interview with del Toro in which he discusses Mountains (among other projects).

Has anyone besides me noticed that Mark Buckingham’s artwork on the Fables comic book series is getting to look more and more like a perfect cross between Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood? Click here to see what I mean.

So I discover (via surfing accident) that a movie adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pirates of Venus is in the works (perhaps as an attempt to cash in on the recent cinematic success of things piratical). Why didn’t I know about this? (And why didn’t Wally Conger know about it?)

The Venus books were my first introduction to Burroughs – before Barsoom, before Pellucidar, before Tarzan; so I’d really like this to be good. This looks to be a much lower-budget project than the projected John Carter of Mars movie, the synopsis doesn’t sound very faithful to the books, and I can’t say the concept art especially grabs me (Frazetta’s boots are a job to fill – and sorry, but the shrieking teenager in this pic just isn’t the imperious Princess Duare); but we’ll see.

Click here for some Golden Compass news, and here to see the first five minutes. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the movie this weekend! My initial reactions to the clip:

1. I’m not crazy about the opening narration – it reminds me a bit too much of Dune. I’d rather see this information conveyed indirectly (the way they manage to let us know, later in the clip, about Lyra’s orphan status and the taboo on touching another person’s dæmon) – especially since the narration doesn’t really explain the things it mentions anyway. (Is the audience really going to know, e.g., what the heck “dust” is from that opening?)

2. I like the way Lyra is presented; as I’ve mentioned before, I’d been afraid she’d be softened and made too sweet, but she seems to have kept her edge – though her just-kidding smile toward the end of the clip worrisomely undermines her earlier toughness. We’ll see.

3. The character I do worry that they’re going to over-sweeten is Asriel. Just because he’s the adversary of the villain doesn’t mean he’s a good guy, exactly; I don’t think he should look as avuncular as he does in the clip. We all know from Casino Royale that Daniel Craig can do chilly and ruthless; let him do it!

If you’re collecting the Fourth World Omnibus, you may have noticed that the latest entry (vol. 3 of 4) lists one comic (Mister Miracle #10) in the table of contents that isn’t included in the volume.

Fear not, nothing is missing from your book – the mistake is just in the table of contents. Or so I infer from the fact that all the ads for vol. 4 mention Mister Miracle #10 as being in it, plus the afterword of vol. 3 itself says that vol. 4 will begin with Mister Miracle #10.

P. S. – In the pic at right, why does Darkseid’s shadow have eyes?