stormtrooper 365

What do Stormtroopers do on their day off?

You’re done sweeping the Death Star, conquering rebels and chaining up that annoying woman yet again. Now what?

With a picture a day for a year, Stefan is showing us what Stormtroopers get up to on their days off. Everything from sandcastles, to Tetris and disco. It’s Stormtrooper 365!

“Getting rid of Swine Flu”

live long and prosper

On Friday we went to go see the new Star Trek. Summed up? Loved it loved it loved it! It's been three days and we're still discussing the characterisation vs the special effects vs the script... And that's even before I start to sound like the trekkie I'm not and go on and on about how true it is to the original, the updating of the tech, and little gags. All in all, a movie well worth watching.

The actors are fantastic in their portrayal of not James T Kirk for example, but William Shatner as James T Kirk - they remain true not just to the characters as written on paper, but the characters as they were portrayed, interpreted and immortalised by the original actors who brought them to life.
I won't say too much, as you HAVE to go see it, except to say that I can't WAIT for the next movie (cos you know there's going to be one...) and Spock was definitely my favourite.

"9"

I was surprised last night to find out Tim Burton has a new movie - that I knew nothing about! It's set for release on 9 September 09 - 9/9/09 - and is called... wait for it... 9.


Having spent today quickly finding out all I can about it (being the Tim Burton fan that I am), 9 looks to be a very dark (like you expected anything else?) new adventure in to animation for Burton. But very dark. The story centres around a group of sentient ragdolls made of burlap who live in an almost post-apocalyptic version of Earth. Or rather the post global warming world Al Gore has been warning us of. It's colourless, bleak and deserted... almost.
A ragtag little group of ragdolls, desperately wanting to survive see a potential leader in one of their own, and look to him for their survival. His name is 9.

The story is based on a short film of the same name by Shane Acker.

The trailer looks a little something like War of the Worlds - explosions, aliens, big spindly scary legs and whispered one-liners - but all done with animation. Even the bed music sounds like a big-budget action movie rather than an artsy animation. You decide:

a trilogy in two parts

This is my rant for a pseudo-Monday morning... why do book stores never stock all three parts for any given trilogy?? There's nothing more annoying than reading through 500 pages of part one, 600 pages of part two, only to find no one is stocking part three! Argh!

In this light, I decided to buy all three parts of a trilogy at once. Smart, no? That way, each book is ready and waiting as soon as I am. Brilliant! Problem is - no one stocks all three! How hard can it truly be when ordering your stock to make sure you have all of them? And what made it worse, as the dreary assistants looked at me with disdain for making them come out from behind their counters, was that they had four different trilogies from the same author, but never more than two of each! Argh!
Eventually, they found a hidden copy of the missing third, but with a different dust-jacket from a different publisher. Not to be picky, but why buy all three at once, only to have your set still look like you scrounged around town to find the only available copy? Bleugh.

Anyway. I must have seemed like a pedantic fantasy-sci-fi-nut to be buying three books at once AND to want them to match, but is that really such a big ask? I ask you...

csi goes trekkie

CBS own the rights to both the Star Trek and CSI franchises, so it was natural (to someone obviously) that the two should cross over at some point. Especially with JJ Abram's massive Trek movie set for launch later this year, AND the sequel of the as-yet-unreleased movie already OK'ed by studio bosses.

Airing next week in the US, CSI fans will be treated to a Star Trek-themed episode of CSI complete with silly costumes. According to SciFiWire.com, in the episode Hodges and Wendy "run into each other at a science fiction convention for one of their favorite classic television shows that is not Star Trek and end up investigating the murder of one of their beloved actors."

There is also reportedly a fantasy-sequences of Hodges imagining himself "the captain of a starship that's not the Enterprise—though it has the Enterprise's sound effects and background score".

This one is definitely JUST for the fans...

Read the full story (and see the bizarre hair and outifts) here.

Update: watch the dream sequence trailer here - it's hilarious! Courtesy of warrenhallett.

Not Terminated: Good News for Sarah Connor Fans

According to HollywoodReporter.com, Fox recently ordered the final nine episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ second season, giving it a full season order – despite its modest performance in the ratings…

With a less-than-expected ratings average in its Monday night slot, many might be surprised to see the full season pick-up of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But Fox’s season works a little different to other major US networks – their tide only begins to really rise with the introduction of American Idol to their schedule, so TV execs may be hoping that this second season will benefit from the growth brought on by the hugely popular singing show.

With this order, Terminator is the first 13-episode show from last year’s difficult TV season to receive a definite second season order. Many shows were left floundering after the writer’s strike left them without direction and creative – thus leaving them out of sight and out of mind too long for a TV show’s first year of life. Some have survived, most haven’t; and Sarah Connor is one of the lucky ones.

Other recent pick-ups include Mad Men for a third season, and the quirky courtroom drama, Eli Stone and Sons of Anarchy (premiering on M-Net in November) both for a second season. The popular series about life in the fast lane in Hollywood, Entourage has also been renewed for a sixth season.

Wonders of the Warehouse

Described as part X Files and part Raiders of the Lost Ark, Warehouse 13 is looking to be the ‘funnest’ sci fi coming to our screens this new TV season.

According to HollywoodReporter.com, the Sci Fi network recently ordered a 2-hour pilot of Warehouse 13, the latest project from the creator of Farscape and the executive producers of Battlestar Galactica. Described as part X Files, part Raiders of the Lost Ark and part Moonlighting, Warehouse 13 is an eagerly anticipated dramedy – with sci fi, intrigue, drama, comedy and a little bit of sexual tension all thrown into the mix.

After saving the President’s life, two FBI agents – your typical pairing of a ‘rule-bender’ and a ‘by-the-book ‘– are given a highly classified assignment in the innocuous sounding Warehouse 13. But Warehouse 13 is actually a secret storage facility where the US government has been storing all its paranormal, supernatural and extra terrestrial discoveries and artifacts over the centuries.
Now the duo is touring the country trying to retrieve a number of relics that have gone missing from the Warehouse, while keeping their ears to the ground for any rumblings of new artifacts that may require investigating.

Should the pilot result in a TV series order, it sounds like a recipe for a great character series with a lot of the supernatural built in, as opposed to the other way around. A Fox-Maddie-Indie-Buffy caper if you will!

To Infinity, and Beyond...

After Stargate SG1 was cancelled in 2006 and Stargate Atlantis given its final order for just five seasons, fans of the popular franchise will be thrilled to learn that the story goes on...

Recently, the US-based Sci Fi network gave an order for a full season of Stargate: Universe – the third in the series of the Stargate franchise. The story will be set on the ship originally sent out by the Ancients in a bid to pepper the galaxies with the Stargates – a mission that was never complete. When a band of explorers from Earth come across the unmanned ship, they board it without knowing they cannot use it to return home – for the Destiny has a mission to complete. And it will do so, even with its unwitting crew aboard.

A recent trend on the Sci Fi network, the show will debut as a two-hour movie in 2009 before it begins airing as a regular series not long after – but these episodes are still in development phase.

According to executive producer and writer, Robert C. Cooper, Stargate: Universe "maintains the spirit of Stargate, but opens up a whole new 'universe'." What is different though, is that ‘Universe will not be treated as a spin-off of the previous two Stargates, but will be developed as an entirely new entity. As ‘Atlantis producer, Joseph Mallozzi, stated, ‘Universe aims to "delight veteran fans, but also appeal to newcomers who may not necessarily know the difference between an Alteran and an Asuran". All we can say is thank goodness for that!

For those of us who have missed the previous success of SG1 and Atlantis, it’s nice to know our limited knowledge of Lanteans, Ori and Wraith won’t be a hindrance to enjoying this new series.

Watch Executive producer Brad Wright speak about the “state of the universe”

Fringe Benefits

He’s had audiences around the world “Lost” for years, and now JJ Abrams is back - for “Fringe” benefits…

The creator of hit TV series Alias and Lost is back with a brand new project. Described as a cross between the The X Files, The Twilight Zone and Dark Angel, Abrams threatens to keep audiences glued to their screens yet again – and who can say for how long this time.

His latest creation, Fringe, stars Dawson’s Creek’s Joshua Jackson as the son of a research scientist played by John Noble. Father and son have been estranged since Noble’s character, Dr Bishop, was sent to prison on manslaughter charges after a lab accident 17 years ago.

They’re brought together again by an FBI agent on a mysterious case following “the Pattern” – a series of bizarre experiments happening around the world. She needs to discover their source, and only Dr Bishop can help her – his specialty just happens to be “fringe” science (the study of what most believe to be impossible in the natural world).

Fringe was recently given a full-season order, making its first season 22 episodes long.

Can Abrams weave his hypnotic spell once again?