Sci-Fi Storm

Paramount is seeking rights to produce a movie based on Alfred Bester’s novel [asin=1876963468]The Stars My Destination[/asin], for Mary Parent (Pacific Rim) to produce.

Widely considered one of the best novels in science fiction (in the U.K. it is better known as Tiger! Tiger!), it tells the story of Gulliver Foyle, a man who is marooned is space for six months as the sole survivor of a merchant spaceship and becomes consumed with rage when a passing ship ignores his signals. He repairs the ship but is then captured and tatooed with a tiger mask on his face. He later escapes and has the tatoos removed – but it is only partially successful, with the scars appearing when he becomes enraged. He then embarks on a quest for revenge for those who left him to die.

Like many of the top novels in the genre, it may be a longshot for it to ever get to the screen (and like them there have been many failed attempts), but we can dream…

A new Administration is taking office before January 2017! Syfy and The Asylum today announced that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (Shark Tank) will play the President of the United States with political commentator/author Ann Coulter joining him as Vice President in the eagerly anticipated original movie Sharknado 3.

Previously announced cameos in the latest installment of the global pop culture sensation will include Bo Derek as May, the mother of April (Tara Reid); Jerry Springer, appearing as Mr. White, a manic tourist; *NSYNC singer Chris Kirkpatrick as a pool lifeguard, and Chris Jericho, who will portray Bruce the roller coaster ride operator.

Also joining the cast of Sharknado 3 will be Ryan Newman, who will play April and Fin’s (Ian Ziering) daughter Claudia Sheperd, with Jack Griffo portraying Claudia’s friend, Billy.

Featuring stars Ian Ziering, Tara Reid and Cassie Scerbo (Nova), Sharknado 3 will premiere on Syfy in July, causing mass destruction in Washington, D.C., before roaring down the Eastern Seaboard and into Florida.

Anthony C. Ferrante will once again direct, based on an original screenplay by Thunder Levin.

Sharknado 3 is a production of The Asylum.

When it aired last July 30, Sharknado 2: The Second One became Syfy’s most-watched original movie ever.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) today announced that the 2015 recipient of the 31st Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is none other than one of our favorite authors, Larry Niven!

The multiple Hugo and Nebula winning author is best known for his [asin=0345333926]Ringworld[/asin] novels that helped define the megastructure genre, but he was also a prolific writer of short stories set within multiple universes, and teamed up well with other authors, notably Jerry Pournelle, with whom he shared several Hugo and Nebula nominated novels.

SFWA President Steven Gould said, “One of the great honors of being SFWA president is the announcing the latest Grandmaster recipient. One of the drawbacks is only getting to name one at a time when we have several worthy candidates. I take great pleasure in naming Larry Niven as this year’s Damon Knight Memorial Grandmaster. As Lev Grossman said in Time Magazine about Niven’s work, “It’s a bravura demonstration of technology and psychology both playing off and feeding back into each other. This feedback loop — so fundamental to great science fiction’s power — is at the heart of Niven’s work: we create tools, and our tools shape the world, but they also shape us, in unintended and unexpected ways.”

“I’ve always wanted one of these. It does definitely mean I’ve gotten old,” said Niven. “I’ve been publishing fiction for more than fifty years now. I’m convinced I picked the right career.”

Niven joins 30 other Grand Masters, with names as prestigious as Bradbury, Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov and more.

Bravo, Master.