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Star Wars: The Force Awakens demolishing records
by Doc on Dec.18, 2015, under Movies
No spoilers! No spoilers!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opened in “previews” nationwide yesterday evening, has already destroyed the Thursday preview records with $57 million, is looking at somewhere between $130-$150 million for an opening day mark (which includes Thursday), and could top a quarter of a billion dollars by the end of the weekend!
I got to be one of those record setters last night, and just wanted to say (NO SPOILERS! Even though I want to talk to people about it!) that the movie was awesome – it puts all three prequels to shame. Visually stunning – location shooting just seemed more real than any of the prior movies. Cheers rang out when each of the classic characters arrived. It also felt like it had more humor than any of the past movies – in a really really good way. Some nitpicky things too…but I’ll leave those for later.
Update 12/21: It’s official – Star Wars: The Force Awakens now has the biggest opening weekend ever, both domestically and globally. The reportedly final numbers, after a late boost from the domestic box office, are $247.97 million domestically, and about $529 million globally. That’s half a billion dollars folks – in a weekend. And it is still expected to do brisk business with upcoming releases this weekend not expected to compete for #1, and lots of people still waiting to see it and others watching it multiple times. I’ll be seeing it again on New Years weekend, but this time in Laser IMAX3D…
Quickie review: The Magicians
by Doc on Dec.15, 2015, under Television
Syfy has moved up the premiere episode of The Magicians to tomorrow (Wednesday, December 16th) with a special commercial-free preview airing…so I finally managed to squeeze some time to watch the screener they sent me – along with my acceptance letter to Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy’s graduate program…so I wanted to give a brief spoiler-free review to know what to expect.
It likely can’t be helped that this is thought of as “Hogwarts for grown-ups”. But make no mistake – this isn’t Harry Potter’s wizarding world we’re talking about, although there may be similarities. This show – based on the [asin=0525427341]series of books by Lev Grossman[/asin] – takes itself seriously. And the show is definitely aimed at a more adult audience, although probably on the younger end of the demographic.
The Magicians centers on Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant grad student chosen to attend Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York university specializing in magic. He and his 20-something friends soon discover that the magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real – and poses grave danger to humanity.
The series stars Jason Ralph (Aquarius) as Quentin Coldwater, Stella Maeve (Chicago PD) as Julia, Olivia Taylor Dudley (The Vatican Tapes) as Alice, Hale Appleman (Teeth) as Eliot, Arjun Gupta (Nurse Jackie) as Penny and Summer Bishil (Lucky 7) as Margo.
Each of the characters has an interesting skill in magic – but they all have issues as well. Some were considered losers in the outside world. Crazies. Loners. They had no idea what they were themselves. At Brakebills, they find others like them. But that does not make them safe. Quentin gets messages from who he thought was a fictional character in a book – and the message is that everyone at Brakebills could die – at the hands of one called The Beast. Who is he, and what does he want with Quentin? I suspect we’ll find out more when the series returns in January.
TNT renews The Librarians
by Doc on Dec.15, 2015, under Television
TNT announced some renewals today (Murder In The First and Major Crimes), and some cancelations (Legends, Agent X, Public Morals). Among the renewals is one of our favorites, The Librarians, which will get a 15-episode 3rd season. The show has been averaging 5.5 million viewers across all available platforms.
Javier Grillo-Marxuach tapped to pen Xena reboot script
by Doc on Dec.15, 2015, under Television
Lost and Helix writer and producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach has been named to write the script for a proposed NBC reboot of wildly popular syndicated series Xena: Warrior Princess.
NBC is hoping the popularity of the original will translate not only to a U.S. network broadcast but the global audience, being produced by NBC International Television Studios under the watchful eyes of original producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi for Tapert’s Renaissance Pictures. The original show, one of the most successful syndicated shows of all time and ran from 1995-2001, was produced in New Zealand.
The show followed the travels of the titular character (played by Lucy Lawless) and her friend Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor) through adventures in Ancient Greece, but they weren’t afraid to anachronistically travel to other periods for more adventures.
Lawless is not currently connected with the show. And while it is doubtful she’d return to star, she is married to Rob Tapert, so we might see some cameo appearances…
HotShot Trailer: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them announcement trailer
by Doc on Dec.15, 2015, under Movies
It’s time to go back to the wizarding world…in theaters November 2016!
HotShot trailer: Star Trek Beyond first trailer
by Doc on Dec.14, 2015, under Movies
After the international trailer leaked online for Star Trek Beyond, Paramount released the full trailer early!
No ship, no crew…
WAIT! No SHIP?!?
See it on July 22nd, 2016.
HotShot Trailer: X-Men: Apocalypse
by Doc on Dec.11, 2015, under Movies
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
X-Men: Apocalypse is in theaters May 27th, 2016
Robinson’s Red Mars heads straight to series at Spike
by Doc on Dec.08, 2015, under Books, Television
Spike has given a straight-to-series 10 episode order for Red Mars, with plans for it to debut in January 2017, and production starting next summer.
Red Mars is based on the trilogy of novels by Kim Stanley Robinson – [asin=B000QCS914]Red Mars[/asin], [asin=B000QCS91E]Green Mars[/asin] and [asin=B00165EXI8]Blue Mars[/asin] – which details the colonization and terraforming of Mars with very hard science behind it, with a story spanning a couple centuries. The series (at least to start) will follow the first colonists as they deal with the harsh conditions and isolation from Earth.
J. Michael Straczynski (Sense8, Babylon 5), who was tapped to pen the pilot earlier this year, will write, executive produce and be showrunner. Game of Thrones‘s Vince Gerardis will also executive produce, along with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross for Skydance Productions. JMS’s Studio JMS will also produce with Skydance TV. Robinson will consult for the series.
Syfy’s Childhood’s End: What Price Utopia?
by Doc on Dec.02, 2015, under Television
What would you be willing to give up for world peace? No hunger? No disease? Would it be your humanity?
Those the kinds of questions addressed in Syfy’s upcoming event series, Childhood’s End, based on one of the best SF novels by Arthur C. Clarke.
Long thought to be impossible to adapt to a video medium, the adaptation for Syfy under the pen of Matthew Graham (Life on Mars) does an admirable job. Fans of the book will of course miss items left out – a novel that spans decades and delves into the the lives of many characters needs to be trimmed in some way – the story keeps to the core theme, and the characters needed to advance the story.
They story opens in the present day, when the sudden arrival of massive alien ships – along with the requisite “cloud front” (I wish they’d get away from this visual effects meme, but it was still done well), but rather than being the front of a hostile invasion the aliens – called the “Overlords” led by the unseen Karellen, the Supervisor of Earth – announce that they will help Humanity by eliminating war, violence, sickness, etc., bringing about a golden age of Humanity. But it isn’t until much later, after Karellen reveals himself, that the price of this golden age might be more than what Humanity would have been willing to pay.
Although taking place mostly on Earth, the visuals were spectacular, and I might not have even seen the final version of them. The Overload ships weren’t the prototypical massive saucer shapes, but rather showed actual design. Overall one of the best efforts I’ve seen from Syfy programming.
Story-wise, the show can be plodding in parts, especially in the middle of the three episodes where it needs to set up for the final night where the story really pays off, while the first night has to juggle a lot of things with so many things to explain, which results in some abbreviated interaction when the Overlords arrive almost to a “We are here, everything will be cool” brevity.
The choice of the Overlords to speak through Ricky Stormgren, who in this adaptation is a farmer rather than the United Nations Secretary General, was an interesting change which for some reason reminded me of the 1977 movie Oh God! where God (George Burns) decides that a grocery store manager (John Denver) will speak for him. But I think Mike Vogel does well with the role…and for whom the definition of “saved” may be disputed…
I think in general fans of the book will be pleased with the adaptation. Purists might still whine about the omissions, but putting too much in can actually have a detrimental effect. And those who haven’t read the book might find plenty of surprises along the way. It’s been so long since I’ve read the book, I was pleasantly reminded of the twists.
Childhood’s End airs over three nights starting on December 14th on Syfy.
Paramount sets David DiGilio to script The Stars My Destination
by Doc on Dec.02, 2015, under Movies
Paramount won the rights earlier this year to what is considered one of the best science fiction novels, [asin=1876963468]The Stars My Destination[/asin] by Alfred Bester, and now has gotten development under way by giving the pen to David DiGilio (Warrior).
DiGilio had also been tied to Disney’s Tron: Legacy sequel at one point, until that project got shelved earlier this year.
The novel (better known in the UK as “Tiger! Tiger!”) deals with a lot of science fiction elements as it tells the story of Gulliver “Gully” 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 manages to repair 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.