LATEST NEWS!!

SHORTS PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT

14 short films have been selected to screen this year. Featuring some of the finest emerging young directors form the US and the world.

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SLICE OF SCI-FI INTERVIEW

The fine folks at SLICE OF SCI-FI interviewed our fearless leader as he shamelessly plugged SF36.

Take a listen to the PODCAST

SF36 FILM LINE-UP

We're booking films as you read.
To find out which films have been added
to the Fest and the 'Thon, go to sf36 & the THON, under the "Table of Contents".

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Every day we post
a new trailer, poster, fact or something
from the world of sci-fi or horror!

WIZARD OF OZ PREQUEL
Good News! We know Robert Downey Jr will star in the prequel of WIZARD OF OZ called OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL. It's pre-Dorothy & Toto, but here's the really good news. Sam Raimi has been asked to direct. It looks like he'll accept. How do you like them apples? We'll keep you posted

HOBBIT BUMMER
OH NO! One of the more exciting film projects suffered a loss. Guillermo del Toro has ankled from directing THE HOBBIT. His work on the script continues, but the uncertainty of MGM & the mounting pressure from other projects forced the decision. His statements make it sound like he was really bummed.

IN MEMORIAM!
David E. Durston, a writer and director best known for the 1970 cult horror classic "I Drink Your Blood," died May 6 in his West Hollywood home of complications from pneumonia. The film not only warped more than a few minds, but it was seminal, as they now say, in "re-imagining" the vampire genre. He was 88.

BACK FROM THE DREDD!After years of negotiating, JUDGE DREDD will render a new screen verdict.The film starts shooting in South Africa later this year and Sylvester Stallone is not attached to it (thank God). The good news is the producers also produced 28 DAYS LATER, the creative director was behind DISTRICT 9, & people behind the film are calling it a "high-octane slay ride".

BLOODY VAMPIRES!Next installment of teen throb vampire series TWILIGHT will be based on Meyer's book BREAKING DOWN. It'll be 2 films showing in 2011 and 2012. The big problem is minor actors (and minor talents) Kellan Lutz & Ashley Greene are asking for more $$$. The studio has offered 10x what they made in the first film, but it ain't enough. Prediction: the minor actors will be unemployed. BTW I interviewed Lutz. He's a dim pretty boy.

APES OF THE WORLD, REVOLT!
"Get your damn stinkin' paws off that date, you damned dirty ape!" The much anticipated (?) pre-quel to PLANET OF THE APES has a date with destiny. It's June 24, 2011. That's when RISE OF THE APES hits the screen scene. Peter Jackson's WETA will be doing the CGI apes. Plot has a human scientist working on an Alzheimer's cure with Ceasar an increasingly brainier ape who goes rebellious against the humans.

A DARKER CRYSTAL The folks at Jim Henson Co have announced they'll be making a sequel to THE DARK CRYSTAL called POWER OF THE DARK CRYSTAL. The plot has a young girl made of fire seeking to re-ignite the dying sun with a shard from the crystal. No word if any laid off FRAGGLE ROCK stars will be hired.

EXPECTED DELIVERYNot to be confused by X-MEN: PARCEL POST, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS will hit your quattuordecplex on June 3, 2011. Hmmm, you gotta wonder if the beleaguered US Postal Service has paid for some product placement? They can certainly use it.

BLESS ME, FATHERPaul Bettany is starring in "PRIEST". No, it is not a remake or re-imagining of the 1994 Linus Roache film of the same name. Nope, this one is a 3D action thriller where Roache, Maggie Q & Cam Gigandet, track down renegade vampires (hmm, aren't vampires by their nature renegades?) Opening in 01.11, it's based on the gr...aphic novel. BTW: when the Roache version of PRIEST played, I was picketed. Business picked up.

OK, M Night Shyamalan has been a bit of a disappointment of late, but check out this latest trailer for THE LAST AIRBENDER. July could be a very good sci-fi month especially when you add in Christopher Nolan's INCEPTION.

ET - HUMAN NOOKIE?Who says high school extracurricular activities doesn't pay off? One of TV's GLEE stars, Dianna Agron has nabbed one of the hottest roles bouncing around tinsel town. She'll become the love interest in I AM NUMBER FOUR. A sci-fi tale of an on the lam alien hiding out in an American High School. Hmmm, that would explain certain things in my old school, but the question of ET-human sex is wide open.

HOLLYWOOD'S NEWEST ACTION HEROThe smart boys in Hollywood have dug up a new action hero to grace the screens in the upcoming future. He's smart. He's a nerd. He's an artist. He's an inventor. He paints beautiful women and he's dead, so none of those nasty rights issues. Ladies & gentlemen, we give you LEONARDO DA VINCI, action hero. Yep. It's in the works. Gets me thinking, what other historical figures has Hollywood missed the boat on?

FEE! FIE! FO! FUM!Bryan Singer, he of "The Usual Suspects", has teamed up with script writer Christopher McQuarrie, again. This time they are tackling "Jack the Giant Killer", the Welsh tale of a man who kills 4 giants & wins the hand of King Arthur's daughter. It has been made 4 times previously, last time in '62.

Holy Live Tour! BATMAN LIVE is in the early stages of development. It will be a national tour done by the folks who did the popular & award winning DINOSAURS. It will play arenas, not stage. It won't feature music, but the Caped One facing a whole series of bad guys. The show is aimed at families & kids.

Uh-Oh! Things aren't looking good the Seth Rogen starring GREEN HORNET. The studio making the film, Sony, has lost faith in the film based. Based on early reports, the film isn't so good, so the studio is moving the film's release from prime time, 12/22, to a dumping ground time, 2nd week of January.

Today's Thought: "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony." —Dennis the Peasant, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Hayley Atwell has been selected to play CAPTAIN AMERICA'S love interest. Marvel claims that Keira Knightley & Emily Blunt were in the mix, most likely in their minds, but the better news is Hugo Weaving is still in play to play the Red Skull. You know with a name like that, he's going to be the bad guy. The film shoots in England this summer

It's a post-CHIPMUNK world! The success of the live action/animation Alvin & the Chipmunks movies means the folks over at Paramount are eager to reboot one of their oldest franchises. Yep, MIGHTY MOUSE, saving female rodents from hunger felines, is getting dusted off for the big screen. And to get us all in the mood here is a link to Jim Carrey channeling Andy Kauffman channeling Might Mouse.

Remember Olivia Thirlby from JUNO? The comely young actress has a new gig. She'll has nabbed the lead to a sci-fi action film THE DARKEST HOUR. Emile Hirsch also stars. The $40 million thriller centers around kids struggling to survive post alien invasion. Think 28 DAYS, but in Russia.

FRIGHT NIGHT, one of our favorite vampire films was made in 1985, which makes it old enough and cult-y enough to become a remake. Which is what's happening. Will this be a re-imaging or a remake?

END OF AN ERA
Meinhardt Raabe has died at the age of 94. For those who know, he was the coroner in THE WIZARD OF OZ. He proclaimed the Wicked Witch of the East was "really most sincerely dead".

Huh? STAR WARS, the sitcom? You betcha. A sitcom based on STAR WARS will be produced by Jennifer Hill of BACKYARDIGANS fame. The animation will be coming from the same folks who gave us ROBOT CHICKEN.

Whenever a genre or film franchise goes from fresh to "been there, done that" it gets ripe for irony and satire. Looks like the folks at Lucas Film are beating everyone else to the punch. May the farce be with you.

BTW be sure to see our RSS feed with the latest news for the world of sci-fi film. Eh, it's over there in the right hand column.

Check out the new VIDEO CLIPS section. Find out why HAL sings "Daisy" & one of the best bad films from the 80s.

HAL Sings DAISY
Why did 2001's HAL sing 'Daisy"?
Check this video out to see why.
Brought to our attention by Chris Phoenix.

WHAT HORROR MOVIES TAUGHT US
13 macabre lessons that
if we have truly learned them,
we will not succumb to
a death worse than fate.

BOSTON SCI-FI EXPANDS!

SF35 - The 35th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival is expanding to 10 days. Starting Feb 5 and running through the 15th, the venerable genre fest will highlight a new feature or shorts program every night culminating in the traditional non-stop 24 hour marathon starting noon on Feb 14.