Tag: scifi

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Philip K Dick and The Blade Runner

I remember Blade Runner when it was launch. I was in Tokyo and at the same was E.T.

Like everybody’s memory of Blade Runner, the film was basically pummeled by E.T. (the other science fiction film at the time). Although I would not watch the film until about 4 years later, I did know that a lot was expected of it.

It had Harrison Ford (hot from Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark). Also starring were Daryl Hannah and Rutger Hauer. The film was directed by Ridley Scott (hot from the ground breaking sci-fi horror Alien, and soon to make many other films and even the Apple Computer 1984 advert). It was launched at a time when sci-fi was cool.

Sadly, due to a variety of reasons the film bombed – only to be resurrected and become one of, if not THE, landmark sci-fi film of all time. The film will soon be relaunched as the “Final Cut” – ie the preferred cut as intended by Ridley Scott.

The film also followed (or paved) a similar fate for the author (Philip K Dick) on whose book (“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”) the film was based. Philip K Dick died before the film launch… but his digital age / cyber punk books became material for many other sci-fi films such as Total Recall, Paycheck, Minority Report, Next and a few others.

Now his children are getting more involved in the future films of Philip K Dick in order to ensure the quality of his work to be properly brought to life on the silver screen.

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Spider-man 3

Whilst I am at the movies…. here’s a short teaser from Spider-man 3.

The first two films were both excellent (the second slightly better)… and I expect the third to be equally as good. The appearance of the black alien / venom makes it exciting.

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Frank Miller’s 300

Anybody who reads batman and daredevil graphic novels will know the name Frank Miller. It has been a while however since Miller penned anything related to either of the DC or Marvel superhero stories.

He has produced some landmark graphic novels such as –

These were all fantastic stories and gained a lot of critical acclaim and together with the likes of Alan Moore’s The Watchmen, raised the level of comics / graphic novels in popular culture. I would strongly suggest getting your hands on these books. Daredevil has always been my personal favourite.

Miller subsequently penned and wrote a number of other once off hero books as well as other stories including “300“. 300 is now being made into a film which is due for opening in the US on 9 March 2007. The trailer can be found at Apple’s website. It looks interesting.

From Wikipedia:

300 is a graphic novel, written and illustrated by Frank Miller with painted colors by Lynn Varley. It depicts the Battle of Thermopylae and the events leading up to it from the perspective of Leonidas, king of Sparta. The comic was particularly inspired by the 1962 film, The 300 Spartans, a movie that Miller watched as a young boy.

Every page of the comic was illustrated as a double-page spread. When the series was gathered into hardcover form, the individual pages were twice as wide as a normal comic. Miller’s art style for this project was similar to his Sin City work, although the addition of color is an obvious difference.

300 was initially published as a monthly five issue comic book series by Dark Horse Comics, the first issue published in May 1998. the issues were titled Honor, Duty, Glory, Combat and Victory. The work was collected as a hardcover graphic novel in 1999.

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Time to move to space?

I didn’t realise that there was such a thing as a space conference. Found this on a Wired article in my RSS feed.

The recently held Space 2006 Conference in San Jose, California was a bit about selling a life (living?) in space. But the problem with living in space is gravity.. if not for anything, it is going to be a big problem keeping your food down.

It is likely that the Moon (one sixth earth’s gravity) and Mars (three eighths) are unlikely space real estate destinations.

For Al Globus, senior research associate for human factors research and technology at NASA Ames Research Center, the most salient issue is one that most people take for granted on Earth: gravity. In low gravity, muscles atrophy and bones loose calcium and become brittle. If people start having children in an off-Earth settlement, those children — being adapted to the moon’s one-sixth gravity or Mars’ three-eighths gravity — may not be able to function on Earth, Globus argues.

“If you are a genius, you can never go to Harvard or Princeton,” Globus says. “If you are a great violinist, you will never be able to play the concert halls of Earth.”

Bad news huh? A bunch of brittle people. Yet in science fiction many portray martians as fearsome creatures. Chopsticks I say!

That’s a deal breaker, in Globus’ opinion. The space researcher instead argues that rotating space stations that can produce near-Earth gravity would be the best bet for long-term human inhabitants. These stations could produce more energy because certain orbits could bring them more sunshine than is possible if they were land-based. And the stations would be hours away, rather than three days for the moon or, at best, six months for Mars. The proximity to Earth makes tourism a possibility and makes resupplying the stations a snap.

So what about a space station? Sounds like a cool idea. But I will not be booking my space trip anytime soon.

But why would people want to stay in space in the first place?

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Is Bryan Singer the best superhero director?

The new “Superman Returns” film is currently garnering positive reviews. What is interesting is that the film is directed by former X-Men & X2 director Bryan Singer. You will note that Rotten Tomatoes have given him a similar high score for the first two X-Men films (the third X-Men film was not directed by him and wasn’t favoured by the critics). Singer also made quite an impact in “The Usual Suspects“. He seems to understand the myth & mystery of larger than life characters. Perhaps the other director that can do good superhero films is Sam Raimi (Spider-man 1 & 2, Darkman).

One of the things cited to work well is Singer’s cinematography which manages to bring out the exhilaration & emotion of the superhero.

So far looking good for Singer and Superman. May I suggest that Singer does Daredevil?

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