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Will Smith is rumoured to have signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to star in two "Independence Day" sequels says IESB.Net:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/16760/will-smith-to-do-two-id4-sequels

Watching a glut of kids DVDs and TV with my near 5-year old, I have learned that:

No matter how may train crashes there are or the devastation caused, 'luckily no one was hurt'.

Incompetent, bumbling postmen are unsackable, despite losing/finding/breaking/fixing your daily mail and involving the entire village.

Thanks to a certain little explorer girl, my son knows more Spanish than he does English, and only last week kept jumping in front of an automatic door shouting 'Abrir!'

If you were a stoner, 'Waybuloo' would be awesome ...

First a 'serious' Flash Gordon remake and now this - my inner child is screaming:

Paul W.S. Anderson ("Event Horizon," "Resident Evil") has signed on to direct a new 3D adaptation of sci-fi hero "Buck Rogers" reports Deadline New York.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/16726/anderson-helms-buck-rogers-remake

America's public school curriculum may be in for a Texas-sized overhaul, if the Lone Star state's influential recommendations for changes to social studies, economics and history textbooks are fully ratified later this spring. Last Friday, in a 10-to-5 vote split right down party lines, the Texas State Board of Education approved some controversial right-leaning alterations to what most students in the state—and by extension, in much of the rest of the country—will be studying as received historical and social-scientific wisdom. After a public comment period, the board will vote on final recommendations in May.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100315/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1253_3

The 'revised standards' they wish to introduce are mind-boggling.

""Cloverfield" scribe Drew Goddard has been hired to adapt Daniel H. Wilson's upcoming novel "Robopocalypse" about the human race's attempt to survive an apocalyptic robot uprising. The project is apparently a serious contender to be Steven Spielberg's next directorial effort..."

http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/when-will-it-be-showtime-for-steven/

"Nina Jacobson is developing the sci-fi thriller "The Dominion", which centers on a human who is chosen to command the army's first-ever platoon of robotic soldiers .."

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=64107#

No mention of 2000AD in the article, however 

http://www.pajiba.com/trade_news/sam-worthington-signs-on-to-dan-dare-pilot-of-the-future.php

"... but what we have here is a clip showing a young Buck Rogers (BOBBY RICE), who is working on his parents (played by Gil Gerard and Erin Grey) to let him go to France to join the Air Corp during World War I."

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44187

No, not the Ferengi from DS9, but a truly awful/wonderful short lived sci-fi TV show from the late 1970's.

Watch and weep:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pqLjOg0hwo

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44146

Honest:

http://www.babelgum.com/browser.php#play/SEARCH_SIMILAR,clipID:4023990,includeClip:true,order:MOST_RELEVANT/6,4022797

Reading the JD Restricted Files, a lot of the old strips have various characters uttering 'My God!' etc.

Without getting into a religious debate (Grud forbid) when was God replaced with Grud, and why ..? 

An American physicist is calling for Hollywood producers to tone down the fanciful science in movies - and restrict themselves to just one scientific flaw per film. But which are the worst offenders when it comes to bad science films?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8530405.stm

[NEVER]

No matter what they do with this it'll NEVER be as good as the 1980 film:

Director Breck Eisner promises that his upcoming new Flash Gordon movie won't be a remake of the campy 1980 version or even the Buster Crabbe serials from the 1930s—and he promises it will be in 3-D.

"It's a movie that is in no way a remake or a re-imagining or a reboot of the '80s version or the serial version," Eisner told SCI FI Wire. "No Queen [music]. It is not camp in any way. We're going back to the original Alex Raymond [comic strip] scripts and imagining if he were living today, what would those strips be like?"

Eisner is moving forward on his new movie version of the classic sci-fi story. "Flash Gordon is a movie I've been pursuing for years, and I finally was able to orchestrate it going to Sony from Hearst," Eisner said while promoting his new sci-fi horror movie, The Crazies.

Eisner added: "We hired writers a year ago. I've been breaking story with them since I wrapped post on [The Crazies]. We've got an awesome, very long-form outline that they're now executing a script off of, which I should have in two months or so to the studio." It's unclear as of yet whether Flash Gordon will be Eisner's next movie.

Eisner is a longtime Flash Gordon fan with a strong vision of how Gordon should be brought into modern times.

Gordon will also enter the third dimension this time out: "It will definitely be in 3-D, unless they come out with 4-D before then," Eisner says with a laugh. The director adds that he is even testing a new binaural German 3-D sound system that could be employed for the film. "It's supposed to push 3-D to the next level," he says.

Cost is the primary obstacle the space hero will have to overcome. "It's a very expensive movie," admits Eisner. "Do they have and do they want to spend the kind of money it's going to take to pull this thing off?"

For now, Eisner is simply intent on developing the best filmic version of Flash Gordon possible. "It's one that I will be passionate enough about forever and will hope to be able to make," says Eisner. "It's action, it's adventure, it's intense, it's dynamic. It's a strong central character who goes on a dynamic journey. It should be a really amazing movie if we can get it made."

Eisner decided to go to space instead of the murky lagoons: He had originally been attached to a remake of the 1950s monster movie The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Eisner's The Crazies hits screens on Feb. 26.

Drat.

Dear Customer, Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.

We regret to inform you that the following items have been delayed as we are still awaiting stock from our suppliers :  Alan Grant John Wagner "Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 0 (2000ad Judge Dredd)"

Estimated arrival date: March 04 2010 - March 09 2010. One of Amazon's aims is to provide a convenient and efficient service; in this case, we have fallen short. Please accept our sincere apologies.

Doesn't that sound like ...?

Besson Producing Orbital Prison Break Thriller

By Garth Franklin Friday February 12th 2010 05:30AM
 
Acclaimed short filmmakers Stephen St. Leger and James Mather ("Prey Alone") are attached to direct the 3D sci-fi actioneer "Section 8" for EuropaCorp reports Variety.

The $30+ million English-language project follows events when five hundred of the world's most dangerous prisoners unexpectedly awaken from a kind of suspended animation. The twist? Their 'prison' is in orbit 50 miles above the Earth.

The Irish filmmaking duo will produce along with Luc Besson. Shooting kicks off around April/May.

As both a Celtic Frost & Giger fan I was excited to read this:



TRIPTYKON - Eparistera Daimones Artwork Revealed

Eparistera Daimones, the forthcoming debut album by TRIPTYKON, the group founded by former HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Warrior, is not only musically a leviathan. Remarkably, the album will also feature the epic artwork by renowned Swiss artist H.R. Giger and New York-based surrealist Vincent Castiglia.

In an exceptionally rare gesture, HR Giger has granted Triptykon the use of his dramatic painting Vlad Tepes (work no. 412, 200 x 140 cm, acrylic on paper on wood, 1978). It is the artist's first authorized appearance on an album cover in 17 years, and the second time he collaborates with Warrior (following Celtic Frost's To Mega Therion album in 1985).

Vincent Castiglia contributes Triptykon, a specially created portrait of the members of the group, painted in the artist's own blood (86 x 86 cm, blood/iron oxide on archival paper, 2009). As Castiglia aptly put it, the amalgamation of works by HR Giger, Vincent Castiglia, and Triptykon on Eparistera Daimones forms a creative triptych in itself.

HR Giger - "I am very proud to work with Triptykon. My art hasn't appeared on an album cover for quite some time, and I feel honored to have been approached by Tom about such a collaboration for Triptykon's very first release."

Vincent Castiglia - "It's been a tremendous honor to work with both Triptykon and HR Giger on the forthcoming release of, Eparistera Daimones. It was a project of enormous depth for me, conceptually as well as visually. I think the resonance between Triptykon's music, Giger's art, and my work is extremely powerful, and it coalesces in quite an amazing, and singular way."

Tom Gabriel Warrior - "We feel deeply privileged to be able to adorn our very first album with the work of two artists we respect enormously. To us, their astonishing contributions convey significant symbolism both with respect to our personal frame of mind as well as for this particular album and its history.

It is an immense pleasure to be able to work with HR Giger again. He was one of our most significant mentors during the days of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost, and he is an extraordinary human being and an artist without equal.

Vincent Castiglia has become a close friend in recent years, and we both sensed that the time had come to create something truly unique together. I am infinitely grateful that he has lent us his incredible talent, not least because I know he incorporates as much passion, darkness, and pain into his work as I do, too."

Eparistera Daimones will also feature detailed credits, full lyrics and extensive liner notes to all songs and will be released via Century Media Records under exclusive license from Prowling Death Records Ltd. on March 22nd, 2010 (Europe) and March 23rd, 2010 (North America).

Two songs from Eparistera Daimones can already be heard at the band's official MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/triptykonofficial

Eparistera Daimones will feature the following nine songs, at a playing time of around 70 minutes:

'Goetia'
'Abyss Within My Soul'
'In Shrouds Decayed'
'Shrine'
'A Thousand Lies'
'Descendant'
'Myopic Empire'
'My Pain'
'The Prolonging'

Hilarious, sword 'n sorcery adult cartoon site. Latest entry is below:

http://oglaf.com/ulric.html

Just finished watching the Only Fools & Horses prequel. Really enjoyable. Freddy the Frog really did look like Rodney Trotter ...

Did a big clear out of the spare bedroom/study/storage area yesterday. Here's where I keep my ever-growing collection of 'stuff'. It gives you a fair idea of the mountain of books and comics I've accumulated over the years.

Oh, and the Tom of Finland book (for those who know) is the wife's!

[THRILL POWER OVERLOAD]

Reading THRILL POWER OVERLOAD it was interesting to see the numerous failed attempts at resurrecting Dan Dare in the pages of 2000AD. I enjoyed reading the strip as a kid, and was always fascinated by The Mekon.

Reason for this thread is this; where Dan Dare seems to be a product of the 1950's (even the recent CGI TV series was very 'tally-ho') what of The Mekon? Was he an under-used villian, condemned to children's prime time, never reaching his full potential?

I have yet to read to Garth Ennis' version for Virgin comics - has he changed much ..?