<![CDATA[io9: splice]]> http://tags.lifehacker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: splice]]> http://io9.com/tag/splice http://io9.com/tag/splice <![CDATA[Learn About Avatar's Mystical Forces, See Five Clips from Dollhouse and Tons of Sherlock Holmes Photos]]> Early Avatar reviews and James Cameron himself unlock Pandora's mystical secrets. Echo has an existential crisis in clips from tonight's Dollhouse, and Harry Potter has a Western moment. Plus, images from Sherlock Holmes, Splice, and Book of Eli


Avatar

The first (generally positive) reviews are utterly brimming with spoilers. The Hollywood Reporter lays out the basic plot most clearly, and includes some more details about the Na'vi. Apparently, one of the reasons that the Na'vi are so reluctant to relocate is that the unobtainium deposit sits beneath a holy tree that happens to be the center of Na'vi life. The tree holds tribal memories and ancestral wisdom, and apparently the Na'vi can access this as they possess an innate ability to tap into a Force-like ability that ripples through Pandora's plant life.

And from Empire's review, it sounds like the holy tree might not fare well, as there's "a human attack on a Na'vi landmark that recalls 9/11 in its devastating imagery."

We already know the humans set up schools to teach the Na'vi English, and Variety clarifies that they learned English from Grace.

James Cameron added more details about Pandora and what we'll find there. He himself designed the monstrous Thanator which features flexible bone shields and sensor quills. It also has a single nostril called an operculum, which is based on the flapper valve on top of a stingray's head. He also says that his goal with the animated characters was to cross the uncanny valley, and while he believes that some of the shots are an eight out of ten, there are some that go right up to eleven. He calls the Na'vi's central tree the Tree of Souls, and says it's the input-output station for the Pandora biological communications network — and where Neytiri's clan has lived for 10,000 years. There are apparently two scales of trees on Pandora, normal jungle canopy trees and gigantic Great Trees. Getting into human technology, the same magnetic fields that cause Pandora's mountains to float also mess with the instrumentation on the Samson gunship, forcing it into "Second World War-style combat mode." [Times Online]

Splice

We get more images from Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley's genetic experiment, including another peek at the transgenic fruit of their labor. [ShockTillYouDrop]


Sherlock Holmes

Can't wait to watch Robert Downey Jr. solve possibly occult crimes? Here's a cornucopia of stills to tide you over.


Book of Eli

A trio of character posters to keep you company at the end of the world. [CinemaBlend]


Dark Shadows

Shooting is scheduled to begin on the supernatural soap adaptation in October 2010, but producer Graham King says it's still waiting on a script. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy describes the final showdown between the forces of good and the forces of evil as akin to a Western shoot-out. [MTV]

Lost

Yet another filming report places Hurley and Alpert near a big tree in the middle of a jungle. Hurley was wearing his red shirt and Alpert was in dark clothing. Apparently, the crew said they did a lightning scene with pyrotechnics in the area and are planning to do a similar scene on the beach location. The camp had recently been rebuilt with green palms, and Ben, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Miles, and Ilana were all filming on the beach, sitting around a campfire. [DarkUFO]

True Blood

Rutina Wesley says that Sookie will be helping Tara deal with her grief and the fallout from last season, as well as the handsome vamp ready to sweep her off her feet. Alexanger Skarsgard adds that we'll get another Eric flashback; he won't say what era we'll see, but Eric and another person wil act as a tag team. [TV Guide]

Dollhouse

Five clips from tonight's episode show Echo contemplating whether she's really Caroline, a Dollhouse interrogation, and a tease of Alpha's return:

Fringe

Here's a neat detail from the alternate universe. An eagle-eyed viewer noticed that in Peter's childhood dream in the alternate universe, there's a poster celebrating the Challenger's 11th mission in June 1984. In our universe, the Challenger exploded during its tenth mission on January 28th, 1986. How advanced is the other universe's technology? Check out the photo evidence at the link. [Tallisen LJ]

Anna Torv doesn't know precisely how Peter will react to the news that he was kidnapped from the other universe, but like everyone else, she has her speculations:

"And I think its going to be heartbreaking… heartbreaking for Walter, but particularly for Peter too because this year seeing him take an active interest in his father and an active interest in the investigations and he's really taken it on. For that to explode, or implode, is going to be devastating," she explained. "But that's what you want isn't it?"

[MTV]

Peter-Olivia shippers don't have an ally in Joshua Jackson:

"This is only my opinion, but I don't think that's the direction that the story is going in," Jackson said. "In my head, what you have between these three people is a family dynamic rather than a romantic dynamic. She would be a very tolerant woman if she were willing to start dating a man who lives with his father."

[Inside TV]

Smallville

Sometime before the Justice Society two-episode movie, Chloe will get a non-Watchtower job offer. In "Society," the first part of the movie, some Justice Society member will know who Watchtower really is before it's revealed to them, and there's a supervillain that we haven't learned about so far. [KryptonSite]

Chuck

By law, all science fiction television series must feature Mark Sheppard at some point, and Chuck is not exempt; Sheppard tweets that he's starting an arc this week. [via Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder and Charlie Jane Anders.

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5424008&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Splice Gallery]]>


]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5423930&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Space Tourists And Mutated Animals Fill Up Sundance]]> The competitive list and midnight screening for 2010's Sundance Festival has been released, and here are a few documentaries and science-fiction horror films we're keeping our eyes on. Remember, Moon came out of last years Sundance.

Space Tourists
Switzerland (Director: Christian Frei) - A humorous and laconic view of the way billionaires depart our planet earth to travel into outer space for fun. North American Premiere


Sundance 2010 Midnight Screenings

Splice

France, Canada (Director: Vincenzo Natali; Screenwriters: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, and Doug Taylor) – Clive and Elsa are young, brilliant, and ambitious. The new animal species they engineered has made them rebel superstars of the scientific world. In secret, they introduce human DNA into the experiment. Cast: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac, David Hewlett. North American Premiere. (Commenter Goldfarb worked on this film.)


The Violent Kind
USA (Directors and screenwriters: The Butcher Brothers) - A group of rowdy young bikers party it up at a secluded farmhouse when they're tormented by a mysterious force and things take a turn for the worse. Cast: Taylor Cole, Christina Prousalis, Tiffany Shepis, David Fine, Joseph McKelheer. World Premiere.

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
USA (Director and screenwriter: Tim Rutili) – A fortune teller lives and works in and old house crowded with ghosts. When a mysterious light appears in the woods, the ghosts realize they are trapped and begin to rebel. Cast: Angela Bettis. World Premiere

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers Trailer from Califone on Vimeo.


]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5418497&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Get Up Close And Personal With The Unholy Splice Baby]]> A few new stills have come out from Vincenzo Natali's Splice, showing you the scary results of mixing human and animal DNA. Plus the Splice baby may have something in common with alien sitcom star Alf.


Where is she off to with that cat? Is that dinner or her boyfriend? Who knows with the genetically mixed Splice baby? But we're still desperate to see this film. Check out Bloody Disgusting for a better look.

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5381215&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Meet The Half-Animal Mutant Baby Of Adrian Brody And Sarah Polley]]> Here's a fun game you can play at home: How many lab-safety regulations do Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley violate in this first clip from the gene-splicing movie Splice? And meet their baby human/animal hybrid, under un-controlled conditions. Spoilers below.


And here's a featurette with Brody, Polley and director Vincenzo Natali (Cube), plus executive producer Guillermo del Toro.

Splice is already playing in select theaters around the U.S., but hopefully it'll be coming to your town (and ours) sometime soon!

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5374935&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Discover Tony Stark's New Ride, and Fringe's Interdimensional War]]> Iron Man 2 gets a swanky new car, while Zombieland teaches us the importance of cardiovascular exercise. Fringe's alternate universe prepares for war, and we meet one of Dollhouse's high-ranking employees. Plus, Splice, Heroes, New Moon, Smallville, Superman/Batman, and FlashForward.


Zombieland

Three new spots elucidate additional rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse:




Iron Man 2

Not promo stills from the movies, but this car will apparently be featured in the new film, likely as Tony Stark's new ride:


[Spoiler TV]

Toy Story 3

Two-time James Bond Timothy Dalton will voice a thespian hedgehog toy named Mr. Pricklepants. [JoBlo]

Dollhouse

In the sixth episode, we will meet Howard Lipman, an intelligent higher up in the Dollhouse with a big sense of humor. He will probably be a recurring character. [Spoiler TV]

Splice

Brendon Connelly at /Film has seen a clip from the genetic engineering thriller. Says Connelly:

The scene we were treated to comes from an early moment in the story. Clive and Elsa, as played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, are a young couple who also work together trying to create new life forms from animal DNA. They won't use anything lifted from the human genome for ethical reasons, but everything else is fair game. At this moment, they've created something, their most advanced 'something' so far and it's incubating in the lab.

Clive decides that it should be terminated while Elsa disagrees. What follows is the unveiling of the creature, and a tense scene in a lab wherein the little critter tries to avoid termination.

[/Film]

Fringe

Executive producer Roberto Orci says in the eighth episode, we'll see many Observers and learn a lot about them and their role in the world. He also says that the fourth, eighth, and twelfth episodes will be important to the Observers and the show's larger continuity. [TV Guide]

These set photos come from a scene in which a police officer falls off a parking garage, with a stuntman playing the role of the ill-fated cop:


[CinemaSpy]

Orci talks a bit more about the coming season and Leonard Nimoy in the October issue of SciFi Magazine:


[Fringe Television]

This series is heavily featured in Entertainment Weekly's Fall TV preview issue, out now. Season two, episode five is filming in the grounds of a semi-defunct mental hospital, and it's about a guy who believes his boss is an evil ram-horned creature in disguise. This season, Olivia will get super-hearing. Astrid has a scene with a bottle of leeches and a blender.

And the over-arching weirdness in season two will come from the idea that an army from the alternate universe has declared war on our reality. The people from "over there" will be putting the final pieces of their invasion plan in place. To that end, the alternate universe will recruit a super-spy played by Thomas Kretschmann. [EW]

Heroes

The producers are looking to cast an East Indian girl, age 10-13, for the tenth episode. She will be a student in India, very engaged with her lesson. [Spoiler TV]

And here are several promo images from the first two episodes, many taken from the same scenes as yesterday's images:


[Heroes-France]

New Moon

Scans from the Australian magazine Film In feature interviews with the cast:


[Spoiler TV]

Eclipse

Set photos from the third Twilight balance Kristen Steart with equal parts Team Edward and Team Jacob:


[Spoiler TV]

Stargate SG-1

Amanda Tapping has said that production on an SG-1 movie could go into production later this year, once the first season of Stargate Universe wraps. If that's the case, Martin Wood would direct the movies. Tapping will appear in SGU's premiere. [Spoiler TV]

FlashForward

In the first few episodes, we'll only see snippets of characters' flashforwards, but they'll be fleshed out throughout the season. Joseph Fiennes' character, FBI agent Mark Beford will have a scene with daughter where he rolls and egg toward her and says in an English accent: "As Eggbert Eggbottom the Third, I would
like to egg-spress my desire for you to eat oatmeal this morning. Can I get a 'cluck-cluck?" and the egg shortly falls on the floor. John Cho's character Demetri Noh is about to get married when everyone has their flashforward and, since he doesn't have one, begins to wonder if he should break off the engagement. [EW]

Smallville

In the final moment of the season premiere, we'll find out how Lois is the key to Clark's journey. [EW]

And there's a new Season 9 promo:


[KryptonSite]

Superman/Batman:

Here's a new clip from this direct-to-DVD super-team movie, showcasing Metallo:

Vampire Diaries

The images come from the show's fourth episode, "Family Ties:"


[VampireDiaries Show]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown and Charlie Jane Anders.

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5357071&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Feige Talks Iron Man 2, Rodriguez Talks Predators, And Cameron Lets His Giant Gun Do The Talking]]> Today's spoilers include an Avatar set pic, an Iron Man 2 set report, and major Predators dirt. Michelle Rodriguez and Bridget Moynihan join Battle: L.A. Plus New Moon nudity, Gamer explosions, G.I. Joe nano-wackiness, and Splice dysfunctionality. And Fringe/Lost casting!


Iron Man 2:

IGN has the same set visit report Marvel.com had earlier, but with a couple extra details. Like Vanko aka Whiplash has daddy issues just like Tony Stark — his father was a famous scientist named Anton.) And it turns out that in addition to coming out as Iron Man, Tony Stark has been trying to revive the Stark Expo his dad started, and use it to promote new energy sources. And Tony's trying to control his own technology and only use it for public benefit.

When we catch up to him six months after the first movie, things are just starting to go to hell. Halfway through the sequel, Tony hits "rock bottom," which doesn't have anything to do with alcohol, but is more related to trying to do everything and losing control over it all. Tony's imperious, I-can-do-it-all-myself attitude will cause tension with Pepper and Rhodey.

Also, Tony's workshop included a German passport, newspaper articles, a map of Antarctica, and a diagram of Captain America's shield. And there were several boxes marked "Project Pegasus," which is an energy project in the Marvel Universe that often attracts supervillain involvement. [IGN]

Avatar:

Here's a new production photo showing James Cameron on the set of his space mega-movie, tinkering with one of his huge guns. A bigger version is in the new issue of Empire Magazine, and on Empire's site. And there's also a piece of concept art at Slashfilm, which looks a bit familiar to me but may actually be new. [Empire via Slashfilm]

Predators:

Robert Rodriguez confirms this movie takes place on an alien planet, and says he hopes Arnold Schwarzenegger could come back, at least for a cameo. And he says the movie's title has a double meaning:

the predators, are you talking about the creatures or are you talking about this group of humans that are actually going in there against them. Are they going to kill each other off if there were no predators?

[MTV]

G.I. Joe:

ComingSoon/SuperheroHype visited the set of this movie and observed the filming of the scene where Duke carries the Baroness to safety, though explosions, gunfire and jets of water shooting up into the damaged MARS base. And producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explains exactly what's the deal with those nanotech-enhanced Vipers:

One of the experimentations that they're doing in this movie is on this human experimentation and can they make you not have no fear, have no hesitation of orders, increased endurance and things like that. One of the things that The Doctor character in this movie is [doing is] he's experimenting on these Vipers and Neo Vipers too see how invulnerable you can make them.

And it sounds like Snake Eyes has a scene where he walks on his fingertips. [SuperheroHype]

Splice:

Stargate's David Hewlett says his character doesn't do much in this movie, but "he's definitely a thorn in our heroes' side." And he says the movie, which director Vincenzo Natali has described as "The Bonnie and Clyde of genetics," is going to push the boundaries of both science fiction and good taste. The sexy human-animal hybrid film is very dark, and so shocking it's almost a comedy, but not quite. "It almost mimics a dysfunctional family. It touches on religion, sex, aging, the quest to be the first."[Sci Fi Pi]

New Moon:

The movie whose main selling point seems to be large amounts of shirtlessness will have a nude scene. Actor Jamie Campbell-Bowers, who plays one of the Volturi, says they just added a scene where he, Michael Sheen and Christopher Heyerdahl sit around naked for a few minutes. [Access Hollywood]

Gamer:

Here are a few new stills from this deadly-video-game epic. W00t. More at the link. [Slice Of SciFi]

Battle: Los Angeles:

The exciting alien invasion movie, which substitutes Baton Rogue for the City of Angels, cast three more stars alongside Marine Sergeant Aaron Eckhart. Michelle Rodriguez will play Cpl. Adriana Santos, a member of a radio battalion. Michael Pena plays the father of a little boy the marines find along the way. And Bridget Moynihan plays a veterinarian. (And no, I don't know why you'd need a veterinarian when fighting alien invaders. Maybe they're cat people? One can but hope.) [Hollywood Reporter]

Lost:

It's official (if you believe unnamed sources, anyway) — Dominic Monaghan will be back. And he'll be in at least three episodes. [E! Online]

Fringe:

Yay! Here's our first glimpse of season two. Although it may be fake, since most of the clips are old. What do you think?

Also, a new season two poster (plus matching banner) includes a few clues. Like a leaf, a six-fingered handprint and a seahorse. Click on the link for more details about where these show up in the poster. [Fringe Bloggers]

And there's a new casting call. Episode 2x05 features Dr. Nayak, an East Indian or Middle Eastern doctor, who's sort of a Jekyll/Hyde character. He's dedicated his life to his work, but he's hiding a deep-seated addiction.[SpoilerTV]

Warehouse 13:

Leena, the lovely B&B owner, has some secrets of her own, and she turns up in four more episodes this season — including the finale, which she figures in prominently. [TV Guide]

And here are some pics from episode seven, "Implosion." Gun-totin' Artie! [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5326965&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[So When Does The Writers Strike Stop Ruining Movies?]]> Hollywood writers went on strike in 2007-2008, but we're only seeing the results now, in a crop of summer movies with half-baked scripts and abnormally dunderheaded writing. So when do we start seeing some movies that the strike didn't wreck?

The writers' strike has caused incalculable damage to genre television, including helping to kill great shows like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But it's also inflicted maximum damage on this summer's movies. We detailed all the ways the strike impacted movies like Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe a while back — it's probably no coincidence that the one movie whose script was in perfect shape before the strike hit, Star Trek, was also the only really watchable genre film in months.

(I think part of the reason I'm so over-the-moon about Trek is because I'm grading on a curve. Put it next to Iron Man and The Dark Knight, and it might not score quite so well. I was also thinking the other day that if The Incredible Hulk had come out in 2009, we might have appreciated it a bit more.)

So how about the movies coming this fall and winter, and even into next year? Did the strike hurt them as well? I did some digging, and here's what I found out about the crop of upcoming Hollywood movies:

District 9. (August 14) Not really a Hollywood movie, this Peter Jackson-produced alien imprisonment saga was filmed in South Africa and produced by QED Films. And reading between the lines of this Variety story from November 2007, it sounds as though director Neill Blomkamp and his partner Terri Tatchell had already written the script before the film was greenlit.

Pandorum. (September 4) This Dennis Quaid-Ben Foster space-horror film was greenlit in May 2008, a few months after the strike ended, and written by newcomer Travis Milloy. Which means it was a spec script, and unless it required major rewrites, it should be fine. The film only started shooting in August 2008, which means there should have been time to make rewrites, if any were needed.

Gamer. (September 4) This Gerard Butler-starring epic about prisoners who are forced to become video-game avatars for rich kids was actually filmed during the writer's strike, so its script was long since done. It's been on ice for quite some time — rumor has it test screenings in October 2008 produced almost entirely negative responses. The movie's gone through several titles, including Game and Citizen Game. So it may not be great... but that won't be the writers' strike's fault.

Splice. (September 18, limited release). Vincenzo Natali's genetic manipulation film stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as researchers who mess with the human genome... and get burned. And there was a script in November 2007, when the writer's strike started. Or at least, producer Guillermo del Toro was able to say in a statement:

Vincenzo is taking Splice to really edgy places. The moment I cringed while reading the script, I knew I wanted to help him realize his vision.

And a still from the movie came out in February 2008, while the strike was still going on. (The movie's complex visual effects have required a long time to complete.)

The Surrogates. (September 25). This one's a bit unclear. Disney bought the rights to the robot-avatar graphic novel back in March 2007. They hired the writers of Terminators 3 and 4, Michael Ferris and John Brancato, to write the screenplay. The following November, Bruce Willis signed up to star, and T3 director Jonathan Mostow was announced as director. The film was supposed to start filming in February, but the rest of the cast wasn't announced until the following April, a few months after the strike ended. So it's entirely possible the script needed some rewrites. And got them. So it may be fine. Except that it's from the writers and director of Terminator 3.

Zombieland. (October 9) This zombie buddy comedy didn't even snag star Woody Harrelson until late August 2008, a good six months after the strike ended. And co-star Jesse Eisenberg was "in talks" to appear in the film in October 2008. So I'm guessing there was plenty of time to get a script together at some point.

The Road. (October 16) This bleak Cormac McCarthy adaptation was filmed in Western Pennsylvania early in 2008, and has been on ice for a year — it was originally supposed to open in 2008. Now all we have to worry about is that producer Harvey Weinstein forced some unwise edits on the film in the interim.

The Wolfman. (November 6) This is another one that's been sitting on ice for ages — Benicio Del Toro signed up for the lead role in March 2006 (!) and there was a script review in August 2006. (If anything, looking at this crop of movies, I'm starting to wonder why so many were delayed for so long.) Del Toro got a costar, Emily Blunt, in January 2008, and it looks like the film was filmed soon after.

2012. (Nov. 13) We covered this in our rundown of the writer's strike and summer movies — because it was originally supposed to come out this summer. (Yes, another delayed film.) But the strike didn't actually impact this film much at all, because the script was bought right after the strike ended.

Avatar. (December 18) James Cameron has been working on this film since before you were born. And yes, I don't care how old you are, it's still true. In any case, chances are he's had plenty of opportunities to tinker with the script. Here he is, talking it up in 2006.

The Book Of Eli. (January 15). The Hughes Brothers (From Hell) signed up to direct this post-apocalyptic bibliophile samurai pic back in May 2007, and they were trying to rush it into production in the fall of 2007 "before a possible strike." Obviously, this didn't work out — the film's star, Denzel Washington, wasn't even announced until September 2008, and filming didn't happen until earlier this year. So count this as another film that was delayed — maybe due to the strike.

And I think from there on out, you're looking at movies that were greenlit after the strike, so you're probably all good. Looking at the crop of movies coming up this fall and winter, the main thing that's jumping out at me is that a lot of them were delayed for various reasons — probably not all to do with the strike. There are a lot of movies coming out from August to January, which were originally supposed to come out much earlier, but they were kept in the freezer. Make of that what you will.

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5285179&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Splice's Animal-Human Hybrid Has Scary-Weird Feet]]> Feast your eyes on some new Splice stills, and see what happens when Adrien Brody and Guillermo del Toro play God.

Bloody Disgusting got a load of disturbing stills from the eerie science flick Splice, where a group of scientists get all splice-happy and combine human and animal DNA to form Dren (seen below) who then who grows from a baby to a full scale gross lady. Also, surprise — David Hewlett is in this film, lets hope they get together.




Vincenzo Natali's film, produced by Del Toro, comes out around September. Check out all the other stills over at Bloody Disgusting.

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5161074&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[You Can't Rush A Sexy Half-Human Killer]]> We're dying to see Splice, the new movie where Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley splice together human and animal DNA, creating (wait for it) a monster. But we'll just have to hang in there a bit longer.

The film's post-production is taking ages, with producer Guillermo Del Toro supervising edits. And the CG effects of the bloodthirsty human-animal hybrid (Delphine Chanéac) are taking forever. Producer Don Murphy expects the film to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival next September. [ShocktillyouDrop]

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5106629&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Hottie Russian Invites Werewolves To Interstellar Space Party, Undead Exes And Creepy Splice Baby Pics]]> This week, take a closer look at Russian scifi epic Inhabited Island to see the bad boy side to the curly headed hero in the new trailer were we finally able to get - Looks like he's not afraid to smear some blood all over those baby blues and kick some werewolf butt. Plus, we've got a closer look at the blood sucking creatures from Guillermo del Toro's Splice and two shorts worth pointing and shouting about.

Inhabited Island
The new Inhabited Island trailer is out, shedding some light as to what sort of alien creatures our hottie hero will encounter on the foreign planet. It's the year 2157, and a pretty-boy space pilot wrecks his ship on Saraksh Planet. Now it looks like he's going to have to fight werewolves and other beasties.

Splice
New pictures from Guillermo del Toro's Splice have arrived over at Shock Til' You Drop. This lovely bald baby is Dren who was conjured up by the mad scientists played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. Dren is an unethical combination of both human and animal DNA.

Antibody
This weekend saw the New York Horror Film Fest, which debuted a few new indie shorties including a 20 minute short film called Antibody. This short focuses on patients being kept in a crappy prison for being infected with something that sounds like a zombie infestation. The main character is locked up in a prison with a wheezy next door cellmate and a penchant for vomiting. The audience experiences the whole zombie outbreak from inside the cell of one poor victim. You can watch the entire short movie here.

Burying The Ex
And finally, another zombie flick screened this weekend was Alan Trezza's Burying The Ex. Which has the adorable John Francis Daley from Freaks And Geeks and Bones, as Zak the boy who can't seem to get over his ex girlfriend, especially when she rises from the dead. I'm all aboard for scifi horror comedies as long as the continue to use stellar actors like Daley, and keep it short and funny. There is no need for any more Eva Longoria "back from the dead" romcoms.

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5089840&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Hard Scifi Flick "Splice" Actually Based on Internet-Rumor Science]]> Turns out that the hard science underpinning Splice, a forthcoming flick about genetic engineering directed by Vincenzo "Cube" Natali, is actually not so hard. In a recent interview, the director claims his inspiration to do a genetic chimera movie was seeing a now-famous image of a mouse with a human ear grafted onto its back. "It was such a crazy, shocking weird image that I was inspired to write a story about genetic splicing," he said. Unfortunately, what he saw wasn't genetic splicing at all.

Peggy from Biology in Science Fiction writes:

The experiment that Natali is remembering is probably the work of Joseph and Charles Vacanti of the Tissue Engineering & Organ Fabrication Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. Back in 1997 their photo of a mouse with a human ear-shaped growth on its back made a splash in the popular media. It's no wonder that it caught Natali's attention.

He apparently didn't pay much attention to the story attached with the picture, though, because the experiment had absolutely nothing to do with genetic engineering. What the Vacantis and colleagues actually did was form a biodegradable polymer into the shape of a human ear, seed it with cow cartilage cells (bovine chondrocytes), and implant it under the skin of the experimental mice1. They found that new cartilage formed in the shape of the implant. And it turns out their methodology had immediate real-world applications. They used similar techniques to grow a "shield" in the chest of boy who was born with no cartilage or bone between his skin and heart. They also were able to grow a replacement thumb tip using a scaffold made of coral. It's very cool tissue engineering technology.

It isn't that surprising that Natali thinks that genetic engineering was involved. He may have seen the full page ad in the New York Times placed by the anti-biotechnology group the Turning Point Project, which (according to Wikipedia) showed the picture of the ear-bearing mouse with the description "This is an actual photo of a genetically engineered mouse with a human ear on its back." The image also made the email chain letter rounds with similarly misleading information.

I have no problem with people basing science fiction on bizarre and non-existent science. But if that's the case, then don't make a big deal about how the movie is based on real, hard science. Don't give us the "it could really happen" gloss that I've seen in a lot of Splice promo which throws around scientific terms like "chimera" to describe the monster. C'mon. This is just another mad science monster with no scientific basis at all. Just tell us a good story and leave it at that.

Splice: Rock and Roll Geneticists and the Horror of Genetic Engineering [Biology in Science Fiction]

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=382976&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[See Tony Stark's House, Wolverine's New Claws, And Adrien Brody's Mutant Girl]]> It's mostly television spoilers this morning — we have tons more details about upcoming Lost episodes, including dozens of new stills. And there are three clips from tonight's Smallville episode, plus a partial leaked script for the season finale. But we also have a ton of new details about Splice, the genetic experimentation movie starring Adrien Brody. And there are new puzzle pieces for X-Files 2, Iron Man, Wolverine and Doctor Who. A full spoiler alert is in effect.


X-Files: I Want To Believe:

Mulder has been living for the past six years in a house on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. at the start of X-Files: I Want To Believe. The house includes an office that's a loving recreation of Mulder's FBI basement space, including a poster with the words "I Want To Believe" on it. The office also includes some other touches from the TV show: a bowl of sunflower seeds, a board with newspaper clippings, a drawing of the creature from "Post-Modern Prometheus," pencils stuck in the ceiling, a photo of Samantha, and a basketball. Another room has a fishtank in it. There's a scene where Scully shows up at the house in a long camel coat, while Mulder is clipping something from a newspaper. He turns to face her, and that poster comes into focus in the frame. [Sci Fi Wire]

Splice:

Splice, the genetic experiment movie starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, includes a very "lax" laboratory that looks as though the couple is doing DNA experiments in a slapdash manner, very much under the radar. Their "child," Dren, ages rapidly but her room in a nearby farmhouse still looks like a child's room, including a teddy bear. Delphine Chanéac, who plays Dren, had to shave her head and also wear weird clothes that allow the VFX crew to superimpose effects on her body, especially her legs below the knees. Dren develops into a deadly winged half-human creature. (And here's an early design of what Dren is supposed to look like. You can see more photos here, but some of them are NSFW.) [Bloody Disgusting]splice.jpg

Iron Man:

There's a new featurette showing Iron Man director Jon Favreau on the set, which reveals that Tony Stark has a very nice house. [IESB]

Wolverine:

A high-res version has appeared of a Wolverine promo pic that you may have seen before. It confirms that, yes, his claws do keep getting longer and longer. [IESB again]wolverine_new_tn.jpg

Doctor Who:

DocOodDonna.jpgHere's a photo from this Saturday's Doctor Who, which also includes the following dialog:
The Doctor: You've been shot.
Ood: The circle...
Donna: No, don't try to move -
Ood: The circle...must be broken.
The Doctor: What Circle? What d'you mean? Delta Fifty, what circle? [Spoiler TV]

Lost:

The upcoming Lost episode focusing on Locke (airing May 1 or May 8) will include a return appearance by Nestor Carbonell, as we'd previously speculated. Also, we'll see Ben in "a few different places" over the next few episodes, and Ben will seem like less of a bad guy compared to the violent and dangerous characters we'll be meeting in upcoming episodes. The final batch of episodes will move backwards, forwards and "sideways" in time. [Spoilers Lost]

Also, celeb gossip sites caught Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer, in Los Angeles. Apparently he's doing some filming there, and it's not for a flashback. [Lyly Ford]

And here are some stills from episode 10, "Something Nice Back Home." Jack is injured, and meanwhile it looks like Sawyer and Locke may have a bit of a falling out. [Doc Arzt]

Smallville:

Some details about the Smallville season finale, "Arctic," have leaked out. Unfortunately, they're only in Spanish (that I've seen.) Here's what I've been able to glean: Clark is freaking out at the farm, when Kara comes crashing to Earth, with no memory of the past few weeks. She has no clue how to find Brainiac, but keeps urging Clark to go to the Fortress and seek Jor-El's help. Clark says he's tried that, but Kara keeps insisting that they should go to the Fortress, with a weird urgency.

Meanwhile, Lex has Jimmy firmly under his thumb thanks to the deal Jimmy made to protect Chloe. And there are some scenes with Edward Teague where they talk about the death of Virgil Swann, and how to use the device Lex found in Zurich. And then Lex tracks down some weird power sources in the North Pole, using government sources.

Clark goes to warn Lois not to underestimate what Lex is capable of. Lois says it's cute when Clark acts all concerned about her. Then Lois stumbles upon Jimmy's bloody body in the street. Jimmy says Lex has Chloe. And indeed, Lex has Chloe tied up in a vat of Kryptonite, connected to a computer via electrodes on her head. Lex is performing some kind of experiment on Chloe, having to do with tissue regeneration (I think.) [Smallville-Krypton]

Meanwhile, some clips from tonight's Smallville have turned up online, and they pretty much confirm what you already thought: Lex kills his dad. And then argues a lot with his inner child. If I may interject a personal opinion, the "Lex kills his dad" part seemed sort of promising. But then you add the "Lex argues with his inner child part, and I'm suddenly less thrilled. Here they are. [The TV Addict]

Even more spoilers for tonight's episode, from someone who's seen it: if Lex gets both of the Veritas keys, Clark will have to "do his bidding" and Lex will have complete control over Clark. Lex tells Clark, "I did try, Clark. In fact, when I first met you, you inspired me." Lex forbids anyone from going to Lionel's funeral, but Clark goes anyway. [Tasabian]

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=380772&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[The One Enemy Indiana Jones Never Expected To Face]]> Today's morning spoiler round-up has some new photos and hints from the Indiana Jones movie — including the creatures that could be making his life difficult this time around. We also have new pics and a new synopsis from Splice, Adrien Brody's gene-hacking thriller. There's a (blurry) trailer for the direct-to-DVD Stargate: Continuum movie. All this, plus new hints for Battlestar and Lost, and new Smallville photos. Everything below the jump is a massive evil spoiler, if that's okay with you.


Splice:

Entertainment Weekly has two new images from the genetic experiment movie Splice, starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. (It's not called Splicers, as we'd previously heard.) And here's a new synopsis:

Two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.
You'll never look at bath time the same way again. [Ramas Screen]splice1.jpgsplice2.jpg

Indiana Jones

The soundtrack for Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull has gone up for pre-order on Amazon, and while it's not much of a spoiler to say the music will be blustery and John Williamsish, the track listing does give away some clues as to the story's flow of events:

1. Raiders March
2. Call of the Crystal
3. The Adventures of Mutt
4. Irina's Theme
5. The Snake Pit
6. The Spell of the Skull
7. A Whirl Through Academe
8. The Journey to Akator
9. "Return"
10. The Jungle Chase
11. Orellana's Cradle
12. Grave Robbers
13. Hidden Treasure and the City of Gold
14. Secret Doors and Scorpions
15. Oxley's Dilemma
16. Ants!
17. Temple Ruins and the Secret Revealed
18. The Departure
19. Finale
I love the fact that there's a track called "Ants!" Except that it should be all caps. And here are a couple of new pictures of Shia LaBoeuf as "Mutt." Do you miss Short Round yet? [Slashfilm]indy4shia-0409-2.thumbnail.jpgindy4shia-409.jpg

Lost:

The 10th and 11th. episodes of the current Lost season will be called "Cabin Fever" and "There's No Place Like Home." (And the season finale may be a two-hour special.) [Spoilers Lost]

In case you missed it, Charles Widmore will be in the next Lost episode, "The Shape Of Things To Come." [Pop Matters]

Ricky Memphis appears in an upcoming Lost episode playing a character named Emilio, and he had some scenes with Matthew Fox and Lance Reddick. (That means Jack may be spending some time with Abaddon.) And Emilio may be back in some future episodes as well. [Doc Arzt]

Battlestar Galactica:

Here are some rumored episode titles for the second half of BSG season four: 4x14: "The Disquiet That Follows My Soul," 4x15: "The Oath," 4x16: "Blood on the Scales," and 4x17: "No Exit". [Galactica Sitrep]

Stargate:

The trailer for the direct-to-DVD movie Stargate: Continuum showed at a convention in Vancouver, and an intrepid fan put a recording of it on YouTube. (Warning: extreme cameraphone wobbliness.) Here it is, just in case it gets pulled down there. [SGAngeL_204]

Smallville:

We still don't know for sure who dies in the April 17 Smallville episode, "Descent." But we have a pretty good idea who has a crappy time in the following episode, "Sleeper," judging from these new photos. [TV Addict]

]]>
http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=378135&view=rss&microfeed=true