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babylon 5
No More Babylon 5 (On TV Anyway)
Cherish your DVDs of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. That direct-to-DVD release is the last you'll be seeing of Babylon 5 on the small screen, says creator J. Michael Straczynski. In a Usenet post today, JMS said flat out that he's not interested in doing any more low-budget B5 DVDs or TV-movies. But you'll notice he didn't say he's not interested in doing any more B5, period. More »
G'Kar Mask In Museum
G'Kar's Face Forever Frozen In Time, In An Alien Museum
Babylon 5's favorite angry alien exile is getting his place in history. G'Kar's face (or mask) will now hold a place of honor at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, NY. And the museum put a face-mold of the deceased actor who portrayed G'Kar, Andreas Katsulas, behind the G'Kar mask over so it looks really, chillingly real. In December 2006, Babylon 5 fan Amy Guskin discovered the G’Kar mask up for auction on eBay. She gathered all the fanatics she could and won the ebay auction with the help of fellow fans. [Museum of Moving Image]
Anne Heche Vs. Malcolm McDowell, With A Bio-Slave's Rights At Stake
The anthology series Masters Of Science Fiction is finally coming to DVD in the U.S. — a full year after ABC ran four out of the six episodes during the August lull. The four episodes include one brilliant standout: "Jerry Was A Man," based on a Robert Heinlein story about a genetically engineered chain-smoking slave who seeks his freedom, with the help of an heiress (Anne Heche channeling Paris Hilton). The other three televised episodes range from okay to awful, but I'm crossing my fingers for the unaired eps "Little Brother" (written by Walter Mosley) and "Watchbird" (written by Babylon 5's J. Michael Straczynski based on a story by Robert Sheckley). It hits stores on August 5. [TV Shows On DVD]
dystopian science fiction
Dystopian Science Fiction Can Save The World, According To You
If you want to save the world, you should study worst-case scenarios for the future, according to 20,000 science fiction fans. The Sci Fi Channel did an online poll, through its Visions For Tomorrow initiative, to find out the top "things to read, watch and do to save the world." And the winners were dark tales of a world gone to hell, including Blade Runner, 1984, Firefly, the new Battlestar Galactica and The Matrix. An exclusive first look at all the winners, below the fold. More »
morning spoilers
Yet Another Tacky Resurrection On Heroes?
Either Michael Bay isn't doing that great a job of keeping spoiler-loving fans away from the filming of Transformers 2 — or he's going to extreme lengths to stage fake shooting for the benefit of fans. Read our latest set reports (with pics) and decide for yourself. You can also decide for yourself whether two mega-spoilery Doctor Who photos are real. And also, it's up to you whether you believe two actors when they spill some wacky details about Heroes season three. But you have no choice but to believe our revelations about The Spirit, G.I. Joe, Wall-E and Babylon A.D., because they come with photographic proof. And you can verify our spoilers for The Middleman, by watching tonight's debut episode. As Reagan would say, it's all about "Trust but verify" in spoiler-land. More »
babylon a.d.
Vin Diesel Shows His Softer Side With His Reluctance To Kill An Annoying Blonde
Thoorop (Vin Diesel) shares some face time with Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) in the new American Babylon A.D. trailer. Will the budding romance interfere with their cross country dash, escaping from motorcycle assassins and people who wear their sunglasses at night? Click through for more big time spoiler questions and answers from the new trailer. More »
babylon a.d.
Aurora, the young woman that Vin Diesel has to shuttle from Russia to China, can walk in between bullets a rockets with her eyes closed, judging from this new French teaser trailer for Mathieu Kassovitz's futuristic thriller Babylon A.D.. Aurora (Melanie Thierry) is actually a host to an organism that a cult wants to take from her to bring there Messiah to life. The teaser also gives more of a glimpse of the bombed-out post-apocalyptic countryside from Kassovitz's film. [Allo Cine via Latino Review]
Vin Diesel Fights Tigers, Missiles and Crucifixes In New Babylon A.D. Trailer
Aurora, the young woman that Vin Diesel has to shuttle from Russia to China, can walk in between bullets a rockets with her eyes closed, judging from this new French teaser trailer for Mathieu Kassovitz's futuristic thriller Babylon A.D.. Aurora (Melanie Thierry) is actually a host to an organism that a cult wants to take from her to bring there Messiah to life. The teaser also gives more of a glimpse of the bombed-out post-apocalyptic countryside from Kassovitz's film. [Allo Cine via Latino Review]
mnp
Space Station Film Will Actually Be Filmed In Zero G
A new apocalyptic space film called MNP will use all the space technology that director Mathieu Kassovitz (Gothika) can get his hands on. For MNP, named for the space station where much of the movie takes place, Kassovitz will workclosely with actual space stations and aeronautical organizations to bring actual science to the movie. Kassovitz will also use zero-gravity simulator planes for some scenes. The movie will follow two US actors and eight other international actors aboard the space station. Filming begins in 2011. [Hollywood Reporter]
babylon 5
Here's an amazing image from the pre-history of 1990s political space opera Babylon 5, when the set for the space station's main corridor had first been built and the techs were testing out stage lighting in it. This just got posted by Mojo, a visual effects artist who works on Battlestar Galactica and used to work on B5. He says he has a lot more where these came from and will be posting them on his new blog.
More »
The Earliest Days of Babylon 5 in Pictures
Here's an amazing image from the pre-history of 1990s political space opera Babylon 5, when the set for the space station's main corridor had first been built and the techs were testing out stage lighting in it. This just got posted by Mojo, a visual effects artist who works on Battlestar Galactica and used to work on B5. He says he has a lot more where these came from and will be posting them on his new blog.
More »
babylon a.d.
Finally, A Dystopia Grim Enough For Vin Diesel
Here's the first teaser trailer for August's Babylon A.D., the troubled Vin Diesel future dystopia movie based on a French graphic novel. It looks as pretty as you'd expect from director Matthieu Kassovitz (Gothika), and the scenes of Russia and China sliding into chaos look alarmingly lifelike. Plus, Vin Diesel is still mostly bald and charmingly thuggish, and we finally get to see Michelle Yeoh. I'm still cautiously optimistic. Click through for a gallery of new stills. More »
watchmen
Help Build Ozymandias' Empire, In Watchmen
You can help to flesh out the dark alternate 1985 in next year's Watchmen movie, by becoming the ad agency for psychotic ex-superhero Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias. Director Zack Snyder says he realized there were a lot of TV screens in the background during the film, which needed to be filled with images. So he's launching a contest for you to create your own ads for Veidt Enterprises' products, including perfumes, shoes and air travel. (He provides logos and animated product images, plus a couple of sample ads like the one above.) But Watchmen isn't the first dark scifi movie to have a contest for user-generated video. More »
160-Minute European Cut of Babylon A.D. "Never Existed" Say Filmmakers
Much hue and cry has been raised over the rumor that Vin Diesel future-world flick Babylon A.D. would have a 160-minute European version, but only a 90-minute U.S. version. Now the producers have taken the time to quash this rumor in the most believable way possible, by posting on MySpace. Here's what they said: "Babylon AD has never had a 2h40min cut. This rumor came from a joke Mathieu [Kassovitz] did in front of some journalists last September. Apparently some of them didn't understand it. ... The approximate length of the film is 1h40min, and this is what has been delivered to our partner, FOX. So I can reassure you, FOX is not chopping up the film and cutting 70 [minutes], like I read on Rotten Tomatoes! :-)" Yup, sounds true. Especially with that smiley icon at the end. [SciFi Wire]
Much hue and cry has been raised over the rumor that Vin Diesel future-world flick Babylon A.D. would have a 160-minute European version, but only a 90-minute U.S. version. Now the producers have taken the time to quash this rumor in the most believable way possible, by posting on MySpace. Here's what they said: "Babylon AD has never had a 2h40min cut. This rumor came from a joke Mathieu [Kassovitz] did in front of some journalists last September. Apparently some of them didn't understand it. ... The approximate length of the film is 1h40min, and this is what has been delivered to our partner, FOX. So I can reassure you, FOX is not chopping up the film and cutting 70 [minutes], like I read on Rotten Tomatoes! :-)" Yup, sounds true. Especially with that smiley icon at the end. [SciFi Wire]
babylon a.d.
They Tore Down Babylon!
We reported a while back that U.S. audiences will see a drastically shorter cut of Babylon A.D. than Europeans this August — but apparently it's worse than we'd feared. The dystopian action movie, directed by Matthieu Kassovitz (Gothika) and starring Vin Diesel, will run roughly 160 minutes in most of Europe. But the U.S. and British cut will only be a quick-and-dirty 90 minutes, or slightly more than half as long. What's worse, the 90-minute version just got the British equivalent of a PG-13 rating in England, which means all of Kassovitz's trademark violence is gone. More »
poll
Which Scifi Franchises Should Go Head-To-Head Next?
It's sad but true: we'll probably never see another Aliens vs. Predator movie, now that AVP2 failed to set last Christmas on fire. But that doesn't mean Hollywood can't revive some other moribund franchises by forcing them to fight each other. Which classic but struggling universes would you like to see mashed together into an uncomfortable — but thrilling — clash of titans? Click through to vote. More »
poll
What'll Be The Most Surprising Hit Movie Of The Summer?
Out of a dozen or so scifi movies coming out this summer, only four of them are absolutely bulletproof, according to you, our readers. Ten of this summer's science fiction films are in danger of falling into obscure-cult-classic territory — or worse. But there's also an excellent chance that at least one underdog will become a smash hit that nobody could have predicted. Which movie do you think will be the most surprising hit of the summer? More »
power generators
It takes a lot of energy to zip around the stars standing akimbo in your rolled-down boots. So the best battlecruisers and starships have really powerful energy sources. But what's the most powerful spaceship or station, in terms of energy output? This isn't just an idle question, because we'll need to know which fictional technology to aim for, when we finally conquer interstellar space. Click through for our ranking of the least and most powerful spacecraft. (Hint: It's not the Death Star!)
More »
Who Has The Biggest Power Generator In Space?
It takes a lot of energy to zip around the stars standing akimbo in your rolled-down boots. So the best battlecruisers and starships have really powerful energy sources. But what's the most powerful spaceship or station, in terms of energy output? This isn't just an idle question, because we'll need to know which fictional technology to aim for, when we finally conquer interstellar space. Click through for our ranking of the least and most powerful spacecraft. (Hint: It's not the Death Star!)
More »
DC Comics' Biggest, Newest Hire
Opening the DC Universe panel with an announcement that's been rumored since the announcement earlier this week that J. Michael Straczynski was no longer under exclusive contract to Marvel Comics, Dan DiDio introduced Straczynski as the newest hire for DC. With details of their relationship still being worked out, no projects were officially announced (Although DiDio said that he had an "open door" in terms of characters), JMS did admit that he was talking to people at Warners about a possible Babylon 5 series.
Opening the DC Universe panel with an announcement that's been rumored since the announcement earlier this week that J. Michael Straczynski was no longer under exclusive contract to Marvel Comics, Dan DiDio introduced Straczynski as the newest hire for DC. With details of their relationship still being worked out, no projects were officially announced (Although DiDio said that he had an "open door" in terms of characters), JMS did admit that he was talking to people at Warners about a possible Babylon 5 series.
