“It’s like going to Graceland if you’re an Elvis fan,” said Drew Morse, a creative writing professor who made the pilgrimage to Riverside from Ohio last summer to study rare poetry by “Fahrenheit 451″ author Ray Bradbury.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut in Theaters October 5
July 27, 2007
The one that started it all. Sir Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, is one of the most important science-fiction movies of the 20th Century — the film with immeasurable influence on society for its futuristic depiction of a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world, a film perhaps more powerful and relevant today than when it was made. The film, in fact, has appeared on more ‘Top Five’ sci-fi lists than any other film.
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, director Ridley Scott (Alien, Hannibal and a three-time Oscar® nominee, Best Director, for Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Black Hawk Down) has gone back into post production to create the long-awaited definitive new version, which Warner Home Video will unveil on DVD December 18th in the U.S. Blade Runner: The Final Cut, spectacularly restored and remastered from original elements and scanned at 4K resolution, will contain never-before-seen added/extended scenes, added lines, new and improved special effects, director and filmmaker commentary, an all-new 5.1 Dolby® Digital audio track and more.
A showcase theatrical run is also being planned for New York and Los Angeles October 5.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut will be included in three stunning DVD editions: a Two-Disc Special Edition (at $20.97 SRP), a Four-Disc Collector’s Edition ($34.99 SRP) and the Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition ($78.92 SRP) in Collectible “Deckard Briefcase” packaging.
Simultaneous HD DVD and Blu-Ray versions (each $TBD) of the “Deckard Briefcase” will also be released in numbered, limited quantities. HD DVD and Blu-Ray 5-Disc Digi Packs with collectible slipcase (each $TBD) will include all of the UCE content.
Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, Joanna Cassidy, Sean Young and Daryl Hannah are among some 80 stars, filmmakers and others who participate in the extensive bonus features. Among the bonus material highlights is Dangerous Days - a brand new, three-and-a-half-hour documentary by award-winning DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika, with an extensive look into every aspect of the film: its literary genesis, its challenging production and its controversial legacy.
Additionally, two of the collections (4- & 5-Disc) will include an entire disc with hours of enhanced content containing featurettes and galleries devoted to over 45 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes recently discovered in deep storage and approved by Ridley Scott, visual effects as well as background on author Philip K. Dick, script development, abandoned sequences, conceptual design, overall impact of the film and how it lead to the birth of cyberpunk. Trailers, TV spots and promotional featurettes will also be included.
At last, "Sunshine" starts July 20th
July 18, 2007
See it.
Finally, director of “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later” Danny Boyle’s new film “Sunshine“opens in the U.S. Friday, July 30th. It first premiered worldwide the same weekend as “300” in March. Critically well-received, audiences generally overlooked this cross between “2001: A Space Odyssey,” ” Alien” and “Fitzcarraldo .” It’s set 50 years in the future: the sun is near death, and so is everything on Earth; a crew of eight men and women (including actors Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh ) attempt to deliver a device to the sun that will reinvigorate it, but they find their sanity waning as they get further and further from their own planet.
UC library boasts world’s largest sci-fi collection
July 18, 2007
A new breed of scholar is flocking to UC Riverside for otherworldly research, says LA Times’ Sara Lin.
UC Berkeley has the world’s premiere collection on Mark Twain — and Yale an unmatched trove of rare medieval manuscripts. But for research on Capt. Kirk, Frankenstein or Harry Potter, nothing tops the 110,000-volume Eaton collection at UC Riverside, the world’s largest library of science fiction, fantasy and horror books.
Sci-fi embraced by cultural shift
July 14, 2007
Writes Amy Biancolli in the Houston Chronicle:
“It’s everywhere now. Everybody has some exposure to it — it’s much more respectable than it used to be,” says David Wellington, a sci-fi/horror author (”Monster Island,” “Thirteen Bullets”) and aficionado who recalls the bad old days of fandom. “Back in the ’80s, when I was a huge science-fiction fan, it was very marginalized. And we always complained about that: ‘Why can’t other people understand why we like this stuff so much?’”
Wellington is one of several devotees who, given the chance to vent, expresses enthusiasm as well as skepticism at the current state of the genre. Many view the landscape ahead with caution, fearing a post-apocalyptic vista mottled by computer-giddy graphics and the blunt force of mainstream taste. Some see it fragmenting. Others see it thriving.
But fans reach consensus — sort of — on a few key issues. One is that fantasy novels, once joined at the hip with science fiction, have enjoyed huge success since venturing into their own sizable niche. A second is that the film and publishing industries should take more artistic risks. A third: “Blade Runner” rocks. Fourth: so do “Pan’s Labryinth” and “Children of Men.”
A fifth point, expressed with varying degrees of disappointment and annoyance, is that advances in digital technology have made for gob-stopping eye candy that doesn’t always satisfy the mind or the heart. From a visual standpoint, “there’s no better time in the history of films for science fiction,” says Dave Dorman, an in-demand sci-fi/fantasy painter based in Florida best known for his Star Wars renderings. “On the other hand, I think the writing of science-fiction films is not up to what it was back in, say, the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.”
Craig Elliott, an animator for Disney (”Treasure Planet”) and DreamWorks (the upcoming “The Princess and the Frog”), puts it even more succinctly: “There’s too much bling on the screen.”
In publishing, contemporary science fiction has splintered into a zillion little subsets, running from alternate history and space opera to hardcore, urban fantasy, movie and TV tie-ins, cyberpunk and the boundary-stretching “New Weird.”
Call it what you will, but great science fiction can be cosmic or minimalist, outward-looking or inward. It expands or contracts, pushing humanity into the farthest reaches of space or reducing it to cinders. [READ]
July 14, 2007
AP via Yahoo! Singapore News - Jul 12 7:50 PM
A court ruled Friday that a Chinese science fiction writer did not have enough evidence to prove that 20th Century Fox stole his ideas when making the 2004 movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” state media reported.
Sci-Fi Author William Gibson Touts Latest Novel in Cyberspace
Wired News - Jul 11 1:13 PM
Wired News - Jul 11 1:13 PM
Science fiction author William Gibson (who coined the term “cyberspace”) promotes his latest novel Spook Country in Second Life . Stay tuned for Gibson SL activities, from film screening to an avatar competition.
The Masters of Science Fiction are Coming
Coming Soon - Jul 05 9:37 PM
Just when TV viewers may have had their fill of summer escapist fare, ABC brings to the air a series of four original films as current as today’s headlines, but with all the wonder and imagination of the best sci-fi literature, with the 10 p.m. Aug. 4 debut of “Masters of Science Fiction,” Starz Media’s John W. Hyde and Industry Entertainment’s Keith Addis jointly announced today.
Avid reader publishes first sci-fi book
Louisville Courier-Journal - Jul 13 3:07 AM
The climactic Harry Potter book comes out next week. Patrie Davis awaits it as do legions of others. Odd as that alone may seem, Davis, of Jeffersonville, takes it one leap further. She writes just as devotedly.
Sci-fi film ‘not good teaching resource’
AAP via Yahoo!7 News - Jul 12 9:49 PM
Hollywood films featuring genetic mutations, bioweapons and mad scientists generally do little to educate Australians about biotechnology, a study has found.
Fans out in force at Europe’s Star Wars convention
TODAYonline - Jul 13 9:56 PM
Star Wars science fiction film fans look at scale models at the Star Wars Celebration Europe event in London. Fans were out in force for the giant European Star Wars convention celebrating 30 years since the epic film saga all began, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
