Sci-Fi Storm

Here are episodes 3 and 4 of Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (as a double feature – one video) – Enjoy!
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The Thunder Child is very proud to announce that James H. (Jim) Burns has joined the writing staff of The Thunder Child. Jim was one of the first writers for Starlog magazine, way back in the 1970s, a contributing editor to Fantastic Films, and contributed articles to Cinefantastique, Starburst and Twilight Zone magazines.

And now he’s writing for us.

First up, a trilogy of articles on King Kong – the original. First he reminisces about him, his father, and the tradition – long before today’s satellite TV, of watching King Kong every Thanksgiving.

Part 2 is his reminisces of Chris Steinbrunner (author of The Films of Sherlock Holmes, Detectionary, and Cinema of the Fantastic).

And Part 3 is a special treat, entitled, Meanwhile, Back at the Empire State Building. I don’t want to give that away so check it out for yourself.

Start out at KIng Kong in the City.

With the buzz about Harry Potter likely to begin to die down after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 next month (at least after the subsequent Blu-ray/DVD release), and J.K. Rowling promising Daniel Radcliffe that no more stories about Harry would be published, what is the writer to do? Well, for the past week the new buzz has been around the word Pottermore, which was hinted at through a form of online scavenger hunt that led to the Pottermore web site, which promised more info today.

Well, the wait is over, and J.K. herself announced via video what it is about (which you can see below). The simple description on the web site says, “Pottermore is an exciting new website from J.K. Rowling that can be enjoyed alongside the Harry Potter books. You can explore the stories like never before and discover exclusive new writing from the author. It is FREE to join and use, and is designed to be safe for people of all ages.”

From her own description, it sounds like it is going to be a Harry Potter-themed social networking site, which will include ways to interact with the story itself by placing you in it, and will include things like the Sorting Hat and wand selections for each person, and even additional content. J.K. also says she will be participating as well. In addition, an exclusive Harry Potter store which will include digital audio books and ebooks will be attached.

Pottermore does not open publicly until October, but you can submit your email now (Ed: it doesn’t appear to be working at press time) and be notified when full registrations open sometime in July, and word is that a just a lucky few (if a million or so is a few…) might get early access and help the site before it publicly launches.
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The Thunder Child SF & Fantasy webzine has a new sponsor, the online role playing science fiction game, Reborn: The Invessi Chronicles.

The creator, Gary Allen, also gave us an interview, and you can read all about the game at thethunderchild.com/Games/Reborn.html
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It’s easier now than ever for independent filmmakers to write and film their movies or TV series, and then place them online. Such a new series is Haywire, a horror/sf series. Here’s the description: “Monroe, New York. A burst of light. Area-wide power outages and the complete failure of all electronic devices. All within line of sight of the burst are affected. Their thought processes scramble and become a never-ending loop. Accomplish what you were doing when you saw the light. Then do it again. And again. And if something gets in your way?”
Their episodes are uploaded at Youtube, as well as being available on their website, and you can also watch them at today’s blog entry at The Thunder Child’s blog, Daily Space:
dailyspace.blogspot.com/2011/01/watch-haywire-indie-sci-fihorror-series.html

Sanctuary started out as a web-based series of short episodes featuring some great talent that proved to be so popular Syfy picked it up as a regular series. Syfy thinks that could happen again – taking the independently produced steampunk web series Riese: Kingdom Falling, with 5 never-before-seen episodes comprising a second chapter and featuring it on their web site.

New episodes of Riese: Kingdom Falling appear on Tuesdays and Thursdays generally before noon ET, with 4 new episodes remaining. Each episode is less than 10 minutes, so you can get caught up pretty fast.
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Update: The first episode is already live!

A reminder: Riese: Kingdom Falling starts today at noon ET on Syfy.com. Riese the award-winning steampunk web series, about a dying kingdom where distrust and anxiety have clouded people’s minds, causing a regression into primitive ways of thinking. Rituals and mythology have resurged, and the darker side of mankind has begun to reveal itself. Riese, a wanderer, travels across the decaying land with her wolf, Fenrir. Marked as a heretic by religious group The Sect and the new Empress, Riese must evade their assassins and discover their true intentions for Eleysia.

Narrated by Amanda Tapping (Sanctuary), the series stars a cavalcade of talent from the world of popular speculative drama including Christine Chatelain (The Bone Collector); Sharon Taylor (Stargate Universe); Ben Cotton (Harper’s Island), Allison Mack (Smallville); Ryan Robbins (Caprica); Patrick Gilmore (Stargate Universe); Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica) and Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary).

New episodes will air on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Syfy.com will present the steampunk based digital series Riese: Kingdom Falling, a series of 10 seven to eight minute long episodes, narrated by Sanctuary‘s Amanda Tapping and featuring the voices of Christine Chatelain (The Bone Collector); Sharon Taylor (Stargate Universe); Ben Cotton (Harper’s Island), Allison Mack (Smallville); Ryan Robbins (Caprica); Patrick Gilmore (Stargate Universe); Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica) and Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary). Read on for the press release.
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From the prequels to the sequels, the Star Wars films have revealed to their audience the history and creation of Darth Vader. But what they were too ashamed to tell you is that Darth Vader does, indeed, have a brother. Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager follows the everyday struggles of Darth Vader’s less talented younger brother, Chad, as he rules the Empire…market. This hit comedy web series, by producers and directors Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan, has received over eighty million views and is now releasing exclusive content on Babelgum Comedy starting June 24 at www.babelgum.com/chadvader. Read more for the full press release. TheThunderChild sent this in as well…
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The SF series Pioneer One debuted recently. What is fairly unique about it is that the first episode was produced for only $6,000, raised entirely through micro-funding, and the videos are meant to be shared – through BitTorrent and other P2P services like Limewire. Further donations are also solicited to produce the rest of Season 1, which is planned for seven full episodes.