Sci-Fi Storm

Make a lot of money on a movie, and everyone claims they came up with it. Make a bomb, and it’s all yours.

James Cameron is getting sued again over the profits from Avatar, and the most recent claimant according to TMZ is Bryant Moore, a science fiction writer, who alleges that Cameron stole ideas from two of his unproduced scripts, “Aquatica” and “Descendants: The Pollination”. According to TMZ, some of the similarities between his scripts and Avatar are “bioluminescent flora/plant life, unbreathable atmospheres, matriarch support of hero vs. heroine, spiritual connections to environment and reincarnation, appearance of mist in scene, sunlight to moonlight, crackling from gargantuan foliage, blue skin/green skin and battle scene on limbs/branches.”

Umm…wow. Mist in a scene? Really? Green skin was his idea? Hide the Orion slave girls…

All I can say is…YES. I’m going back to Middle-Earth.

In an interview with MTV (audio available here), director David Fincher talks about Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), along with some of his upcoming projects. Mentioned very briefly is the long-dormant Rendezvous With Rama (which we last mentioned in 2008, and it was pretty dead then), and it wasn’t a good mention. When asked if the interviewer should keep asking about it (around the 14:40 mark), he said, “You should drop that…it’s great, it’s just…a really hard, expensive movie…talk about having the bones have been picked clean by so many other stories.”

I know in some cases trailers are so eagerly anticipated that people go to movies they otherwise wouldn’t attend just to see them…but this is the first time that I’ve seen a studio or producer trying to build up heat for the trailer itself…the trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, comes out on Thursday on Apple’s iTunes Movie Trailers, but out today is a teaser – for the trailer. Here it is…although not a formal prequel of the Alien franchise, it’s definitely got that Alien vibe…

Apollo 18, from Anchor Bay Entertainment and Dimension Films and directory Gonzalo López-Gallego, comes out on [asin=B004EPYZXU]Blu-ray[/asin] and [asin=B004EPYZXK]DVD[/asin] on December 27th. Presented as a “found footage” film (similar to The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity), it documents the ultra-secret Apollo 18 mission to the Moon’s South Pole in 1974 – a mission so secret the astronauts don’t know what they are there for. It stars Warren Christie (Alphas), Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary) and Lloyd Owen (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Monarch of the Glen).
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Steven Moffat is still rather ticked about David Yates talking about a Doctor Who film that apparently ignores him and the current TV production. On the Richard Bacon Show on BBC Radio 5, when asked about the film, he said: “David was talking a little out of turn, there; a very, very brilliant director but no the film as described by him, of course we’re not going to do that. A film that contradicts the television series, it would be a heathen thing to do. I would be beheaded to do such a thing! It would be wonderful to do a Doctor Who film, but when and if we did – and hopefully we will be doing it – it will be very much an offshoot of the television series and we’ll be part of it, and it will star the television Doctor, of course – anything else would be heresy!”

The science fiction and fantasy genre seems to have taken a hit in the latest Golden Globe nominations. It don’t see anything in the Motion Picture awards at all aside from the animated features, which is very surprising given the major buzz about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Harry Potter could still see an Oscar nod as the field is larger there, but it could mean it is a longshot at winning.

On the TV side, however, there were a few genre hits, notably Game Of Thrones receiving nods for “Best Television Series – Drama” and a “Best Supporting Actor” for Peter Dinklage, while American Horror Story also received one for “Best Television Series – Drama” and “Best Supporting Actress” for Jessica Lange.

SF-friendly show The Big Bang Theory saw a single nod for Johnny Galecki for “Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical”.

The complete nomination list is available at Deadline.

The following is a press release:

Action film Director Art Camacho Set to Direct THE UNFORGIVEN Feature film.

Renowned Action film Director Art Camacho has just announced that he is currently in development/pre-production of his latest Sci-Fi Action Film “The Unforgiven”, a film about a Group of Undesirables on a Mission to Hell.
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Here is the first trailer for Men In Black 3 from Sony Pictures. Agents J and K (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) are back, and it appears that some history-changing time travel is involved…

The latest trailer for Peter Berg’s Battleship has probably shown that yet another Hasbro game-based franchise could possibly be good…I admit, I had my doubts…but take a look below and see. Also, check out the movie poster…Peter Berg (Hancock) produces and directs Battleship, the epic-scaled action-adventure that unfolds across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force. Inspired by Hasbro’s classic naval combat game and starring Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Asano Tadanobu, and Liam Neeson, Battleship hits theaters on May 18, 2012.
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