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Feast 2
John Gulager Explains The Problem With Monster Peen
All hail the return of adorably quirky monster movie creator John Gulager, whose Feast was a Project Greenlight winner. He's teamed up with the original Feast writers to bring us Feast II: Sloppy Seconds. We sat down with Gulager and grilled him about all the monster barf, blood, and puss that leaks out of Feast 2, and found out the biggest set problem was the monster's jean sausage. Gulager told us how to keep those monster peens in place while filming in a mildly conservative town, plus an exclusive clip of the town's meth head. More »
space porn
NASA's Messenger spacecraft zoomed past Mercury yesterday, sending back a set of luminous images that look like they were taken by celebrated nature photographer Ansel Adams in space. Here you can see the bright pocks left by recent meteors crashing to the planet's surface, opening up complicated webs of cracks. Want to see those cracks close up?
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The Glowing, Shattered Face of Mercury
NASA's Messenger spacecraft zoomed past Mercury yesterday, sending back a set of luminous images that look like they were taken by celebrated nature photographer Ansel Adams in space. Here you can see the bright pocks left by recent meteors crashing to the planet's surface, opening up complicated webs of cracks. Want to see those cracks close up?
More »
Heroes Isn't Derivative, Claims Executive Producer
Whatever you do, don't suggest that Heroes is derivative to the show's executive producer Jeph Loeb. On the latest edition of comic book creator interview podcast WordBalloon, he shrugs off comparisons to Watchmen ("Oh, like nothing's ever ended with the end of the world ever") and The Fly ("Have you ever seen the Wolfman? Okay, well, he got transformated too! I don't understand"). "People like to see things where they want to see things. Why don't they just stop and just enjoy the show?" he said, continuing with "When you go outside and there's a flower, do you sit there and go 'Hey, that reminds me of Flowers for Algernon'? No, it's a flower, relax." Maybe he should go and talk to the other writers on the show who have said that The Fly "definitely" inspired the Suresh scenes. [WordBalloon]
Whatever you do, don't suggest that Heroes is derivative to the show's executive producer Jeph Loeb. On the latest edition of comic book creator interview podcast WordBalloon, he shrugs off comparisons to Watchmen ("Oh, like nothing's ever ended with the end of the world ever") and The Fly ("Have you ever seen the Wolfman? Okay, well, he got transformated too! I don't understand"). "People like to see things where they want to see things. Why don't they just stop and just enjoy the show?" he said, continuing with "When you go outside and there's a flower, do you sit there and go 'Hey, that reminds me of Flowers for Algernon'? No, it's a flower, relax." Maybe he should go and talk to the other writers on the show who have said that The Fly "definitely" inspired the Suresh scenes. [WordBalloon]
Afternoon reading
Ian Fleming in Space, Courtesy of Paul Cornell and Pyr Books
Want to read an awesome alternate history, space-colony spy story from Doctor Who scribe and comic book writer Paul Cornell? Pyr Books publisher Lou Anders posted a free preview of Cornell's story "Catherine Drewe" online last week — the tale serves as the opener to short story collection Fast Forward 2, which Anders calls "all original science fiction stories — no fantasy or slipstream." Cornell has a great introduction to the story's main character, whom he describes as somewhat similar to Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond. More »
Scifi halloween costume show
Show Us Your Best (or Most Humiliating) Scifi Halloween Costumes
It's Halloween month, and we've already regaled you with instructions on how to make some of the coolest scifi costumes around. Now it's your turn to show and tell us about your best — or worst, or most humiliating — scifi costume moments. We've created an io9 Flickr pool called io9 Scifi Halloween Costume Show where you can post pictures documenting your triumphs and shame. We'll pick the most intriguing ones and post them throughout the month of October as we count down to Halloween. Please stick to pictures of yourself, please! No submitting shots of your frenemies. All the io9 editors have pledged to post pictures of their own costumes, so get ready for Graeme in tights. [io9 Scifi Halloween Costume Show Flickr Pool]
Kick Ass
Kick Ass Set Pics Show Costumed Kiddies Ready To Kill
The Toronto filming is underway for director Matthew Vaughn’s Kick Ass comic-to-movie adaptation. No, Dave Lizewski didn't go bald for the role: That's a stunt man (we're assuming). We've got a few closer looks behind the scenes for you which show the Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Dave (Aaron Johnson) cruising in Mist's red ride. More »
No Heroics
Move Over Batman — Here's A Real Superhero Bad Boy
You know what today's superheroes need? They need to be more edgy and "bad"... as D-list superhero The Hotness explains in this awesome clip from the latest episode of British superhero sitcom No Heroics. Watching the Hotness try to explain that he's a good guy, but he's also a bad boy — but he's really good at being bad — or something — is refreshing after watching a whole hour of Dark Peter on last night's Heroes. In this episode, the Hotness has decided to try and boost his crappy image by going to a superheroic strip bar full of Wonder Womans. More »
twitter
Twitter Me This: Our Favorite Fake Twitter Feeds
Is fake-Twittering the new fan fiction? We think so! It’s pithy, witty, and boundless in possibilities. Lately it seems like these micro-compositions are omnipresent: Pretty much every Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Batman character has a feed. But we’ve come to learn that some imitations are more potent than others. We've got 10 fab fauxs you need in your life, in no particular order. More »
Chuck recap
This Week's Chuck Takes One Step Forward Then Two Back
Last night's Chuck seemed to have it all: A quiet new status quo for the series, new headquarters, Melinda Clarke camping it up as a Russian vamp and even some convincing character development. So why did it frustrate everyone by ending up back where it started? Spoilers await for those who followed Charlie's advice and have the show on TiVo. More »
Ratings roundup
Will Ahsoka Dance At Heroes And Chuck's Funerals?
These continue to be brutal times for our television heroes — Last night's episodes of Heroes and Chuck both lost a million viewers from the previous week's installments. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles saw a slight uptick, from 5.3 million viewers to 5.6 million, but still came in fourth for its timeslot. What's the good news? Last Friday, Sanctuary and Star Wars: Clone Wars both bowed to impressive ratings — for cable TV, anyway. More »
Exclusive
Post-apocalyptic ice age flick Wynter Dark, about how a reversal of Earth's magnetic polarity destroys the climate, stole my heart when I discovered it would contain wars involving polar bears — and not the wussy Golden Compass kind. In newly-released concept art (above) you can see how the tech-challenged future world has had to resort to carrier pigeons for communication, which is fantastic. Wynter Dark Creative Director Pete Ford talked to io9 about the warring kingdoms of our future, and indulged my many bear-centric inquiries.
More »
In Wynter Dark, New Yorkers Resort To Polar Bear Weaponry
Post-apocalyptic ice age flick Wynter Dark, about how a reversal of Earth's magnetic polarity destroys the climate, stole my heart when I discovered it would contain wars involving polar bears — and not the wussy Golden Compass kind. In newly-released concept art (above) you can see how the tech-challenged future world has had to resort to carrier pigeons for communication, which is fantastic. Wynter Dark Creative Director Pete Ford talked to io9 about the warring kingdoms of our future, and indulged my many bear-centric inquiries.
More »
triviagasm
Could You Live in a World Without Women?
With the Y: The Last Man film coming in 2010, we’ll soon get a big-screen treatment of Brian K. Vaughan’s world without men. All-female societies are not uncommon in science fiction, from culturally advanced utopias to post-apocalyptic sex comedies. Far less common are societies where men live, either by choice or circumstance, with few or no women. How do these societies come about? How do they perpetuate themselves without the opposite sex? And what happens to men when the women disappear from their lives? More »
Tomorrow news
Early Edition Gets Disasterous Makeover In Tomorrow News
Journalistic integrity is preparing to take another knock with the announcement that Korean movie producer Mirovision is planning to adapt 1980s comic Tomorrow News into a movie. With a plot that includes strange radio transmissions and advance warning of upcoming disasters, it's like Heroes meets White Noise - or perhaps just a big-budget downbeat version of mid-90s TV show Early Edition. More »
Ultraforce
The Only Thing More Mega than MegaForce is UltraForce!
If you haven't yet unburned from your mind the image of a blow-dried Barry Bostwick laughing heartily while flying his motorcycle against the bad guys in 80s cheesefest MegaForce, then we've got at least an hour of diversion for you. About five years ago, Matt Gourley and Jeremy Carter made a DIY web series called UltraForce, which took the MegaForce thing to its ultimate, CHiPS-in-the-future extreme. Two well-coiffed motorcycle guys are chasing down "the Alchemist," who is converting the world's water to gold! Yes, it's exactly the kind of plot you'd find in a real-life TV show (maybe even Heroes, especially if it involved time travel). The goofiness is extreme, the outfits more extreme, and the dialog is priceless. Check out all three episodes of UltraForce for free online. [UltraForce via Channel 101] Thanks, Jeff Crocker! More »
watchmen
Watchmen Movie Was Almost About The War On Terror
Last night, it was finally New York's turn to see the 25 minutes of Watchmen and get a chance to hear from director Zack Snyder and Watchmen's artist, Dave Gibbons, about the heavy undertaking that is bringing the classic graphic novel to life on the big screen. But more importantly, Snyder shared with us a bombshell — Hollywood wanted to change the graphic novel's alternate 1985 to the George W. Bush era, and turn Watchmen into a movie about the War on Terror. After a quick viewing of a few clips Snyder shared even more "almost" moments where the studio wanted to meddle, easter eggs and what he couldn't live without. Details (and spoilers) ahead. More »
Did You Survive Terminator Boot Camp?
I thought last night's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was the best episode of the season when I watched it over the weekend. Now that it's aired, you can weigh in for yourselves. What did you think?
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book deal
