Doctor Who

Digital Spy has a ton of teasers from "The Waters of Mars." The first line of the episode is, "Hello mum. Susie says hello!" which apparently holds great significance. The exact date the Doctor lands on Mars is November 21, 2059. Captain Adelaide Brooke is the head of Bowie Base One, the first human colony on Mars, and the Doctor recognizes her as the pioneer of humanity's colonization of space. He calls her, "The woman with starlight in her soul."

This episode will show a lot of behavior from the Doctor that we haven't seen before. For one thing, as soon as the Doctor arrives, he realizes he needs to leave. He tells the folks at the base, "Whatever has started here, I can't see it to the end. I can't." But before he has a chance to leave the water plague starts. We get some references to two stories from season four and the recent Easter special. There's also a flashback that hasn't been previously mentioned. There's also the quote: "It's taken me all these years to realise *** **** ** **** *** **** - and they **** **** **."

Additionally, an Ood makes an appearance (and it's significant that it's an appearance), and it's also significant that the human body is 60% water. And, at the end of the episode, the Doctor says something incredibly shocking, both in its content and in the way he says it. Apparently, the Doctor's odd behavior will tie into David Tennant's eventual departure. [Digital Spy]

True Blood

Want to see Lafayette's vamp blood-fueled sex dreams about Eric? Actor Nelsan Ellis says we might get a scene or two in the new season. [Den of Geek]

The Host 2

We get another piece of monstrous concept art from The Host sequel. We'll also be seeing a video game tie-in, a first person shooter featuring mutant humanoids with superhuman abilities. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Hobbit

Ian McKellan has read the script. He can't spill much about the content, but he does say that Guillermo del Toro's directing style is eerily similar to Peter Jackson's:

They were separated at birth. They're twins. They have the same attitude. Neither likes working in Hollywood. They're both fascinated by fantasy and violence on the screen, and gore, and things that frighten you. They like going into the psyche. They're both brilliant storytellers in very much the same way. And I think the script, because I have read it, plays very much to Guillermo's strengths, as I've seen them. I have seen his other movies, and people act very well in them. So I think it's all fine. And Peter will always be there.

[SCI FI Wire]

New Moon

We meet some more violent vampires in a featurette, introducing the Volturi. [via Cinema Blend]

Lost

Zuleikha Robinson, who plays Ilana, and Jeff Fahey, who plays Frank Lapidus, has been confirmed as series regulars for Season Six. [Lyly Ford]

While Boone is returning to Lost, he may not be getting quality time with his stepsister Shannon. Maggie Grace is the much-speculated-on holdout from the original cast, and hasn't signed on to return. Her rep says she's just filmed three movies back-to-back and just got back from filming last week. [E!]

The season's seventh episode will be called "Dr. Linus" and will naturally center around Ben. [Spoiler TV]

There is a new casting notice out for the eighth episode:

[SELENA] Any ethnicity, early 30s. A striking beauty who knows how to use it, mischievous, confident in tense situations. Ends up in bed with an attractive man, all by her own choosing. But after corporate negotiations, she finds the terms of the deal have changed and doesn't know who to trust to save her job...ONE DAY GUEST STAR

[Spoiler TV]

We already know that, despite being dead, Juliet will play an important role in the new season. Elizabeth Mitchell says that she's already shot some scenes with Sawyer and "It's one of those things where it appears to be one thing, and then it turns into something else." [LA Times]

The Lost crew was spotted at the Hawaii Medical Center East, which was playing the role of St. Sebastian Hospital in the timeline where Oceanic 815 lands safely. But the non-castaways are still running into one another as Jack was at the filming, along with Sayid and his girlfriend. Fans spotted another set of scenes filming at Papailoa Beach with Ben, Frank, Ilana, Miles, and Sun. In on scene, Frank was gathering wood and working in the sand, but in another he was carrying a gun. Then Ben was digging in the sand. Eventually, Ilana was holding Ben at gunpoint and marching him down the beach.

And below are photos from the Papailoa Beach filming. [Hawaii Blog]

Supernatural

There will be much lampooning of Grey's Anatomy in this week's "Changing Channels" episode. On the set of Seattle Mercy Hospital, Sam and Dean will run into Dr. Sexy, MD and the show's waifish lead Ellen Piccolo. The characters use the word "seriously" a lot and there will be some "seriously" melodramatic music. Plus, Dean will explain the "dead Denny" character (Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays dead Denny on Grey's, in addition to playing Sam and Dean's father) to an exasperated Sam, who will ask, "This show has ghosts? Why?!" [E!]

V

We seen some of these before, but here is the full set of marketing posters for V. [Spoiler TV]

Heroes

Now we know that Adrian Pasdar, who plays the deceased Nathan Petrelli, will be leaving the show, but how does he take his final bow? As Sylar, in a battle with Matt and Peter.

Yes, once again not really a death since Nathan was dead already, but it seems like there will finally be a battle between not only Sylar and Nathan and Sylar and Matt but Peter and Sylar (as Nathan). At the end of everything apparently Sylar takes over the body and that is the end of Nathan.

[The ODI]

There's a new promo for next week's episode, "Shadowboxing."

In the eleventh episode, aptly title "Thanksgiving," HRG hosts an unconventional Turkey Day dinner and the Petrellis receive a surprise guest. Meanwhile, Lydia searches for the truth. [Spoiler TV]

Fringe

We get a little more background on the Broyles-centric episode in a new featurette. A Russian cosmonaut brings something back from space that is turning people to ash. And it's all linked to an old case Broyles worked on. [via Spoiler TV]

We're going to learn more about the Observers in the upcoming episode "August." All of the observers are named after months, and the Observer we've come to know and hunt for is named "September." Walter is able to communicate with the Observers because of his experiences and the things they have done. John Noble, who plays Walter, believes the Observers were transporting a photo of Walter because he's their only contact, and the Observers aren't generally supposed to make contact with people. We'll also learn what the Observers' weakness is. And we're coming up on the Walter/William Bell meetup, and an upcoming episode will answer some of the questions from when Charlie died. Plus, Olivia will remember more about what William Bell said to her, especially about the supersoldier leader with the mark on his head. [Fancast]

We also get a couple of images of September from "August." [Spoiler TV]

Chuck

Yvonne Strahovski says that Sarah won't be happy about the new Intersect in Chuck's head. She always admired Chuck for his innocence and as Chuck becomes more of a superspy like her, she wants him to hold on to that more normal person that he once was. It's especially disheartening for her, since she was starting to feel that it was time for the two of them to run away and be normal. She also says we'll be seeing more action this season. [Chuck TV]

Stargate Universe

We're going clubbing in a clip from this week's episode, "Earth."

Smallville

There's some good buzz going for the two-part Justice League episode airing in January, and some folks are saying Michael Shanks as Hawkman could be Smallville's most entertaining DC Comics import. [Fancast]

FlashForward

Here is the UK promo for this week's episode, "The Gift." [Flashforward Blog]

And there's a fresh casting call for the fourteenth episode:

[AUDREY] 50s-60s, Caucasian. No-nonsense, pragmatic retired school administrator who cares very deeply about her family. Possesses a good sense of humor and has a grace about her. Thoughtful and measured in her actions, her manner is infused with an underlying warmth...GUEST STAR. WILL RECUR

[Spoiler TV]

Sanctuary

In this week's episode, "Pavor Nocturnus," Magnus wakes to find the Sanctuary mysteriously destroyed.

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder.

We reviewed Meyer's novel, The Host, when it came out a year or so ago. And we were pleasantly surprised: It's a cheesy beach read, to be sure, but it's also a genuinely thought-provoking, fairly original science fiction story that manages to ask some questions about what it means to be human. So we're cautiously optimistic about Niccol's adaptation, to be produced by the people behind The Road.

There aren't that many stories which start with the Earth already having been vanquished totally by alien invaders — I can think of a few, most notably William Barton's When Heaven Felll — and Meyer has a neat twist on this premise. The Earth has been peacefully overtaken by parasites that control human host bodies. They're more peaceful and mellow than we are, and Earth under their rule has become a placid, rational place — it's not unlike if the pod people from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers had won.

But Meyer adds another twist on top of that — which is really where The Host gets interesting. The alien parasites are "going native," and they're being influenced by their host bodies' desires and habits and ideas. It's not unlike the relationship between the Trills and their host bodies in Star Trek, except that the creatures in The Host are accustomed to taking over bodies that are more docile and easier to control, unlike our belligerent, adrenaline-and-hormone-ruled selves. The central love story in The Host is actually just our way into thinking about what it means for the alien invaders to go native — the invader known as Wanderer falls for the man her host body, Melanie, loves, and finds herself being subsumed into Melanie's identity rather than the other way around. She becomes a passenger in Melanie's body rather than the controller.

So... you have a story about a voyeur who lives inside a woman's body. You have a world where people are all controlled by creatures, but the boundary between controller and controlled is getting increasingly blurry. And you have a paranoid thriller about a seemingly perfect society that has cracks. It's not hard to imagine the man who brought us the panopticon nightmare of The Truman Show, the man-controlling-ideal-woman story of S1m0ne and the flawed-utopia of Gattaca making The Host into a great film. I'm actually eager to see what he does with it.

The only downside to a Niccol-directed The Host would be if it delays The Cross, the dystopian future movie he's already working on, which we ran some concept art from the other day. Here's hoping he finishes The Cross, and then creates a smarter, sharper version of Meyer's admittedly schlocky novel. It could be that rare movie adaptation that outshines the book. [Variety]

Twitch posted this image yesterday, of Hostie running through the streets outside Seoul. Looks like he'll be straying away from the water, at least for a little while, though the giant mutant carp originally emerged from toxin-laced water near Seoul. None of the original team who made The Host will be back for this sequel, sadly - even the special effects company The Orphanage who made such great effects in the first flick have been dumped for a local Korean CG house.

This doesn't mean The Host 2 will be bad, however: This CG shot looks great, and sometimes a new director can inject extra life into a monster flick (just look at what Guillermo Del Toro did with Blade II).

via Twitch

Kick-Ass

This one might be a spoiler for the comic book as well: John Romita Jr., who does the artwork for the Kick-Ass comic, contributed artwork for an animated sequence. Romita explains that, in the film, Nic Cage's character Big Daddy has drawn a comic book to commemorate his vigilante adventures. At one point in the film, Big Daddy is hauled off to prison and his partner discovers the comic, and when he opens it, the animation sequence begins, revealing the origin of Big Daddy. [MTV]

Also, Kick-Ass has finally gotten a release date. Expect it in theaters April 16th, 2010. [/Film]

Gamer

A new Gamer TV spot is heavy on the action:

[MTV]

IGN has a clip that reveals the socioeconomic woes in Gamer, and below are interviews with the cast:

Plus, a few more sexy images:

[IGN]

Supernatural

Executive producer Eric Kripke says that God Himself (or Herself) will enter the apocalyptic battle at some point late in the season, although he's mum on the how and the who's-going-to-play Him (or Her). Until then, it's going to be all-out Armageddon; it's 2014 and the Croation virus has spread across the world, Sarah Palin is president of the United States, and the hunters live in the woods, trying to protect the survivors. Castiel has now been cut off from heaven and as his powers start to fade, he becomes more and more in touch with his humanity — with sometimes funny, sometimes poignant results. As we mentioned before, Ellen, Jo, Rufus, and Chuck will all appear this season, and there's a chance we'll see Papa Winchester as well, but only if Jeffrey Dean Morgan is available. And the nature of Titus Welliver's role has been revealed: he'll be playing one of the muscle-car-driving Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. [TV Guide Magazine]

The Vampire's Assistant

We get a fresh poster with a fresh grave for the Cirque Du Freak movie:

[IGN]

The Blair Witch Sequel

Eduardo Sanchez, who directed the original Blair Witch film, says the sequel will probably be set rough 15 years after the characters in the original film disappeared. [IGN]

The Host 2

This monster movie prequel is an eco-horror take based on the 2003 Cheonggyecheon stream restoration, during which a highway was removed and the river stream left nearly dry. The movie will be set during the 2003 project and will feature multiple monsters, including the fellow below:

[ShockTillYouDrop]

Stargate Universe

In episode 17, "Lost," we will see a young Ronald Greer and his father Reginald in flashbacks. Reginald was once a proud military man, but his service in the Gulf War left him with severe PTSD, and he suffers from both mental and physical illness. He is quiet and frightening, and he mistreats Ronald because he believes that he is preparing him for the cruelties of life. Ronald's mother Angela is, by contrast, strong and loving, and she stays with Reginald because she blames the war for his behavior and believes she is the only person who will care for him. Angela's love also helps Ronald grow into a strong and intense young man, one who single-handedly rescues both of his parents from a burning house. [Spoiler TV]

Fringe

The birthday Walter and company will be celebrating in the season premiere is Peter's. [Fringe Television]

Paul

Seth Rogen just finished filming for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Paul, where he plays an alien who befriends two scifi geeks. He wore a motion capture during filming, so even he doesn't know what his alien avatar will look like on screen. [MTV]

FlashForward

Here's the first appearance of Dominic Monaghan's character, Simon:

[Lyly Ford]

Defying Gravity

New promo images come from the eighth episode, "Love, Honor, Obey:"

[Spoiler TV]

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

The latest round of images feature Lex Luthor, who, as President of the United States, declares Superman and Batman enemies of the state and recruits other superheroes to hunt them down. When that fails, Luthor and his classic mecha suit get in on the action:

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown and Charlie Jane Anders.

In the film, a man's blow-up sex doll comes to life one day (as Bae Doo-na, the Korean actress, whom genre film fans will recognize from The Host and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.) She steps out, discovers the world, gets a job, and starts dating a video store clerk. (No doubt one who has rented Mannequin a few too many times.) Sounds kinky, but in the hands of Kore-eda (After Life, Nobody Knows), frequently a poet of memory and loss, the premise becomes an opportunity for a haunting meditation on innocence and love. Or so say those who saw it at the Cannes Film Festival, and so it appears from the trailer below (h/t to Twitch, Nippon Cinema).

That honor goes to Meyer's surprisingly decent alien-invasion romance The Host (read our review here), which clocked in at fourteenth. Although that does depend on how you count Watchmen, which soared all the way to number nine on the strength of anticipation for Zack Snyder's big screen adaptation after being only the sixtieth best-selling book of 2008.

The list, which tracks the best-selling books for the first three months of 2009, says sales of Meyer's five novels accounted for 16% of all books sold. That sounds even more impressive when you realize Meyer was responsible for one out of every seven books sold in the last three months. I think here is where I'm supposed to say whatever gets young people reading is a good thing - but I'm not entirely sure I believe it.

This continues the trend from 2008, where the four Twilight books swept the top of the annual list. That's something not even the Harry Potter books were able to do, although Meyer has a long way to go before she matches J.K. Rowling; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and its 44 million copies sold outstrips all the Twilight books combined. Even when you consider the 400 million Potter books include three more novels and a bunch of tie-ins, it still doesn't change the fact Rowling has Meyer beat by a factor of about five to one. (I'd also mention this decade's other historically massive best-seller, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and its 57 million copies, but I'm trying to stay positive about this whole literacy thing.)

Looking over USA Today's 2008 list, the only other even vaguely science fictional titles beyond Meyer's books are Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse book Dead Until Dark, Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox, and Watchmen. Much as I love it, when Watchmen is the de facto standard bearer for best-selling science-fiction novels, it's safe to say that all of science fiction combined is no match for the Twilight juggernaut, and it's not even remotely close.

So what science fiction books are among the top-selling books of all time? There are really only two choices. As far as individual books are concerned, Frank Herbert's Dune is probably number one, with 12 million copies sold since its publication in 1965. As for science fiction series, that honor most likely goes to Isaac Asimov's original Foundation trilogy, which has sold a total of 20 million copies in its almost six decades in print. Well, at least there's some justice in the publishing world.

The Host fan art from Zuly89 on Fanpop.

[USA Today via SFScope]

Bong contributed one of three segments, along with Michel Gondry and Leos Carax, to an anthology film called Tokyo!, opening in limited release this Friday. But he's also hard at work on a crime film called Mother, and then he hopes to put out Transperceneige by 2011 or 2012.

Talking to Collider, he said the movie version of the snow post-apocalyptic comic would feature a multilingual cast and international co-production, but ultimately would still be a Korean movie. And he added that it's a dystopian vision regarding the future of humanity.

In Transperceneige, wars and glaciers have rendered the planet almost uninhabitable, and one last train carries the last survivors of the human race. The society on board the train is a microcosm of humanity, with social and class divisions still persisting in cramped quarters.

In an earlier interview with Yonhap News Service, Bong elaborated:

The story will be in a tone similar to Noah's Ark (from the Bible)... This train has enraptured me. I believe everyone has a fantasy about trains giving off chugs and puffs, and landscapes viewed from the window... What you can see from the window in this story, however, is only the world icebound, with minus 80 degrees outside. Survivors live in the train, but they can't stay in harmony even at a time of adversity... Each partition of the train represents a class. In the last partition of the train, people live wretched lives. The closer to the front they are, the more luxurious life gets... Le Transperceneige is going to be much more spectacular with all the trains and frozen scenery. But the spectacle is not what I really want to show. The mood and sentiment you can feel inside the train, the desperateness. The exterior should be only groundwork to show all that.

The Host brought amazing freshness to the monster-movie genre, and it sounds like Transperceneige could do the same for overexposed post-apocalyptic storylines.

We were starting to wonder if Outlander would ever open in U.S. theaters, after it had showings around Europe last year but nothing was scheduled in the U.S. But the delay in getting the film released here was just the tail-end of a long struggle by co-writers McCain (who directed it) and Blackman (who produced it.)

Outlander tells the story of an alien (Jim Caviezel) who crashes on Earth, near a Viking town. And with him comes the Moorwen, a deadly monster that threatens to kill everyone in its path — if Caviezel's character can't enlist the Vikings to help him. Also starring in the film are Sophia (Doctor Who) Myles, John Hurt and Ron "Hellboy" Perlman.

Their mission to create a viking-alien adventure story began years ago — they had both read Beowulf in high school and loved it, unlike most of their peers. So they wanted to make a Beowulf-esque saga. Early drafts of the script actually named the hero Beowulf and the monster Grendel. But their Hollywood agent, "in true Hollywood style," told them nobody wanted a Beowulf movie.

Since then, of course, there's been Michael Crichton's Beowulf clone The 13th Warrior, the Robert Zemeckis Beowulf, and an Icelandic version, among others. But by that time, McCain and Blackman had already revamped their script to make the Beowulf references less overt.

They wanted to have an alien and his monster foe crashland in Viking times, because it removed the whole issue of historical accuracy from their "historical epic." Whether or not you can believe there was a monster named Grendel, anybody can tell that a crashed spaceship is made up.

Over time, the studio execs pressured Blackman and McCain to change some of the more authentic Viking names. And in every development meeting, Blackman and McCain had to explain that their Vikings would not have horned helmets, they wouldn't be goofy, and this wasn't going to be something out of Asterix.

The story McCain and Blackman ended up with clearly borrowed from Lord Of The Rings — another epic that nobody was considering filming, back then. And since LOTR lifted heavily from Beowulf, "we cribbed from a cribber. We stole from the best, who was already stealing," says McCain. "We knew what we were doing. For better or worse, whether anybody likes the movie or not, we knew what we were stealing from."

They also did tons of research into Viking culture — an earlier draft of the script spent way more time going into local Viking politics, including blood feuds and a battle over the throne. "There was a deeper tapestry." Blackman and Howard amassed a four-inch thick notebook with a D-ring binder, full of notes on belt buckles, tattoos, sword hilts, buildings and hairpins. They visited the Viking ship museum in Norway and took copious notes. In the end, of course, they had to decide which details to represent faithfully and which to sacrifice for the sake of a good story.

"It's a monster movie," says Blackman. "You're not there to recreate history, you're there to create a world that's fun to enter into and live in."

Their dedication extends to including some of the Viking warfare and politicking — plus a fight with a bear — before Caviezel's character even shows up. That way, you feel as though it's a real world, which was already having a life before the story begins.

The duo had a stroke of luck, when they managed to get Ninth Ray studios, a group of artists formerly from Pixar and ILM, to work on art and designs for the movie. (Including some of the concept art featured with this interview.) Ninth Ray had just done a first pass on a John Carter Of Mars movie, and had time to work on Outlander. So by the time the film actually had a budget, it already had detailed designs for every prop and building. (See more of that stuff here.)

One of the great parts of the film is that when Caviezel's alien visitor shows up, the Vikings pretty much understand him right away. They get the idea of his ship having crashed, and the fact that he's hunting a monster. McCain argues that the Vikings would have been pretty cosmopolitan — they had raped and pillaged so many other cultures, and traded with so many as well, that they had an idea of what other cultures were like. Vikings reached as far as Constantinople and Africa. Plus they had a rich mythic life, including valkyries as well as dragons.

On the other hand, Blackman says, if E.T. had visited the Vikings, "they would have eaten him."

In coming up with the Moorwen, the alien monster Caviezel and the Vikings fight, Blackman and McCain were mindful that only a few classic alien monsters had beocme icons, like Giger's alien and the Predator. So they came up with the idea of making the creature bioluminescent — something they think will also turn up in James Cameron's Avatar later this year. And they focused on giving the creature a rich backstory. But then they were lucky enough to have input from Patrick Tatopoulos, who worked on Dark City, I Am Legend and several other big films.

They wanted the creature to look like it could fit into the more natural world of the Vikings, as opposed to Giger's alien, which looked more mechanical and could only look at home in a world of conduits. "We had to thread a needle where it looks like an alien, but it could actually have a presence in the Viking world," and the Vikings could mistake it for a dragon.

The Moorwen also got some backstory, as we learned that humans had destroyed the Moorwen's homeworld. The Moorwen becomes more of a sympathetic character — right before everyone goes back to trying to kill it. Blackman and McCain said they wanted to add some depth to the storyline, and make Caviezel's space traveler less of a clear-cut good guy. In an earlier draft of the screenplay, the monster actually talks towards the end, so you realize it's not just a mindless beast. You have to feel for the Moorwen a bit, just like you feel sorry for King Kong.

"We may still have to kill it, but it's not entirely a good thing," says Blackman.

They also wanted to include a bit of a political message about invading other people's homelands and stirring up trouble — even though when they first wrote the script, Bill Clinton was still president, they felt it was a timeless theme about the "cycle of violence" perpetuating itself.

So is Outlander an action movie? A horror movie? A monster movie? An adventure film? I asked, and it turned out Blackman and McCain have been arguing this exact same point for years, partly in the process of figuring out how to market their baby. "We had a lot of deep arguments, ten years ago," says McCain. Blackman is very clear in his own mind that it's an adventure film, but McCain sees it as more of a monster movie with adventure elements.

But their biggest genre influence, originally, in coming up with the story, was all of the Chinese movies of the 1980s and early 1990s. "All those Chinese action movies, where they'll throw in everything," says Blackman. "I mean, there's gods and there's demons and there's kung fu fighting, and when we thought about that, we decided, 'what'll be fun?'... There was a certain amount of influence there, in terms of saying, 'Okay, we'll have some mythology, we'll have some scifi. Why not?'" But unlike some of those Chinese films, they think they found a narrative thread that ties it all together.

They're still sad that the film was kept out of the U.S. for so long, and didn't get a wider release. This weekend, it's opening in a bunch of cities around the country, but not L.A. or New York. The film did really well in Spain, "a country which isn't known for loving its Viking films," where it made $3 million on 200 screens. If it had opened wide in the U.S., and gotten a similar per-screen average, it could have made $30 million. It's not impossible that its U.S. run could get bigger if the film does well in its first weekend. (So tell your friends!) At this point, though, they mostly hope it gets a new life on DVD.

Meanwhile, the duo also have another movie opening this weekend — they rewrote the script for Underworld III: The Rise Of The Lycans. They were involved with a Conan reimagining that's still looking for a director. They have a World War II film, based on a true story, in development. And they're talking about a host of other genre projects. Let's hope their next movie doesn't take another 18 years to come out.

One of the main characteristics of Clovie was his dangly leg action, with those giant freaky backwards joints propelling him everywhere. Star Trek monster, known familiarly as Trekmon, has bizarre legs that appear to have joints over its head. Trekmon's mouth is also remarkably similar to Clovie's. It has both the vertical shape and spike-shaped teeth that made Clovie's chompers so dorky-dangerous.

Not only do we find legular and mouthular similarities between the two kaiju, but they also share a pallor. Both have hairless skin that looks sort of pale and pinkish. I think Trekmon is pretty much Clovie's galactic relative. Of course, when Trekmon opens its mega-mouth, it looks a bit more like Hostie from The Host.

Thanks, Avery "Master Kaiju Wrangler" Guerra!

This scene is from early in the film, when toxic dumping off the Korean coast has led to the sudden appearance of this giant, fishy . . . thing. One of our heroes, who sells junk food and trinkets by the water, is the first to see it. As he fights the monster, aided by a weird American guy, his moves are simultaneously action and slapstick (he grabs a wacky "no horns" sign to whap it). Same goes for the monster itself, who fumbles and bumbles around on the silliest feet you've ever seen. And then opens its double-jaw to chew people up.

The whole movie has this scary-slapsticky air, with our protagonists acting like heroic goofballs. This interesting tone, the perfect blend of sharp satire and monstery goodness, is what puts The Host a cut above the rest. [The Host via IMDB]

Verbinski made a name for himself with The Ring, a smart, scary take on the Japanese horror flick (and novel) called Ringu, about a videocassette haunted by the vengeful spirit of a murdered girl. There are no giant monsters in The Ring, but the ghost was visually terrifying - as were the flickering images on that deadly tape. Can Verbinski do it? Maybe, if he enlists the help of San Francisco special effects house The Orphanage, the same group that brought Hostie to magnificent life in The Host.

A more interesting question to me is whether we're going to see more of these localized reboots and sequels of popular franchises. Could be a good source of revenue for Warners if they were to let Chinese studios do their own versions of Dark Knight and the sequels to it. Plus who doesn't want to see Batman in Hong Kong - but done right?

Universal Remaking the Host [via Dread Central] Thanks, Avery "Friend of Kaiju" Guerra!

Said McMahon:

This is an idea I hashed out in conversation with my marketing person. We really went through a whole brainstorm: What are some creative interesting ways we can approach doing this video [for “The Resolution”] as an experiment of some sort?

The record company, meanwhile, likely sensed an awesome side-effect of said experiment: thousands of potential pubescent lady-fans. Adds McMahon: “Stephanie’s interpretation was a relationship metaphor kind of thing.” Eureka!

The gist of her creation, shot in Ventura, California: McMahon plays the piano on the back of a vintage pick-up truck; then he’s walking out of a beach house with the tide rising and rising until he gives up and goes for a swim…and meets up with a mermaid. Explained McMahon:

Our goal with the video is ‘Let’s not go literal.’ I’d rather just make a music video than try to make some crazy statement, you know. We’re still in the editing process.

The song touches on McMahon’s much-publicized battle with leukemia, or as he puts it, “Running from dealing with something and reconciling [with it].” (He’s since beaten the affliction.) Meyer fans may be a bit disappointed, though:

There are no vampires in it! It’s cinematic and has dark qualities to it. The most whimsical element in it is our mermaid. That was handled in a Tim Burton-esque kind of way.

So how does an inexperienced director shoot a video? McMahon said:

Stephanie had been in the process of editing her movie when we hooked up. [On set] she had ideas of where to place things and how the visual should play out. Signing off on shots. This was kind of an effort with her and a director of photography named Noble Jones [3 Doors Down, Sevendust, Sloan].… I took a lot of my direction from Noble in the sense that it was a more of positioning and placement.

And in case you were wondering: He’s currently on page 200 of Twilight right now. But does he like it? “I tend to appreciate things that can be digested by the masses.”

Mannequin’s second album, The Glass Passenger, drops Sept. 30.

There will be a Chinese sequel to the movie which is completely separate from the Korean one, and the filmmakers are calling it a "localized" version. The already-announced Korean The Host 2 seems to be stalling out, but attempts to open up the Chinese market to the franchise are zooming — despite the politically-critical nature of the original film.

According to the president of Korean production house Chungeorahm, Choi Yong-bae:

Chinese film markets are driven by blockbusters with themes of epic drama and martial arts. It's time to provide more varied types of commercial films... When 'The Host' topped the Chinese box office in March last year, I was reassured that a sequel for Chinese audience would be possible.

The movie will be half-funded by Chungeorahm, and half by Chinese production house Stone Man Films; with production aimed at a 2009 start date, expect a release date sometime in 2010. Though the Chinese sequel has a director and cast, the Korean sequel remains in purgatory. No director or cast announcements have been made. At this rate, the Chinese sequel may become the sequel to The Host.

Korea/China take on 'Host' sequel [Variety]

I'm a huge sucker for novels that take place after an alien invasion of Earth has already succeeded. (Actually, the only other novel along those lines I can think of is the criminally neglected When Heaven Fell by William Barton.) In Meyer's novel, a race of parasites/symbionts has succeeded in taking over almost every human on Earth. (They're sort of like the Trill from Star Trek, or the parasites from the recent Nicole Kidman vehicle Invasion. Just like the Body Snatchers, The Host's "souls" took over via subterfuge, until they were unstoppable.

And in line with some other mind-controlling parasite stories, the "souls" are much more peaceful than humans. They abhor violence and are incapable of lying. After the souls take over, murder and rape become unknown and child molesters line up to turn themselves in. (In a hilarious sequence towards the end of the book, we learn the souls' television programs are completely dull, and even The Brady Bunch turned out to be too violent for them to watch.)

What makes the "souls" (and yes, the names are among the cheese-markers in Meyer's novel) so interesting is that they don't always take over their host bodies completely. Older hosts, who are aware of the alien invaders, can resist even after the parasites are implanted. The novel's main character, Wanderer, gets implanted into the body of one of the few human resistance fighters, Melanie. And then Wanderer and Melanie have to struggle for control over Melanie's body, before becoming uneasy friends.

And even when the "souls" manage to eradicate all trace of the consciousness of their bodies' original owners, they still cling to old habits. The newly "ensouled" bodies live in the same houses as before, stay married to the same people (also occupied by "souls") and often keep the same jobs. It's like that Roald Dahl story about the birds that switch places with the people, living in the people's houses and carrying on their routines while the people watch, helpless, from the trees.

One of my problems with The Host was the fact that it made the transition from "struggling for control" to "uneasy friends" way, way too quickly. Wanderer soon becomes obsessed with Melanie's boyfriend and kid brother, both of whom are still parasite-free and hiding out in some caves with a group of resisters. Wanderer relives Melanie's memories and falls in love with Jared, the man Melanie loves. Instead of accessing Melanie's mind to help the "souls" track down the human resisters, Wanderer starts identifying with them.

As I said, Meyer rushes over Wanderer's change of heart, because Meyer is much, much more interested in what happens when Wanderer/Melanie manages to join the human resistance fighters. (Where Wanderer is in constant danger of being killed, and does get roughed up pretty horribly a few times.)

Will Jared, the man both Wanderer and Melanie love, ever accept the parasite in the body of his girlfriend? Is it really Melanie's body, and not either of her warring consciousnesses, that really responds to Jared, because of pheromones and chemical attractions? When Jared finally does show affection to Melanie's body, will Melanie be able to get over her jealousy of Wanderer receiving some of that attention?

Yes, as the book-jacket copy puts it, this is the first ever love triangle involving only two bodies. And weirdly, a trashy romance turns out to be the perfect vehicle for exploring issues of bodies and identity. Do we exist beyond our physical selves? Are our desires just our bodies? How can Wanderer convince the suspicious humans that she still has Melanie's consciousness alive within her? Is it fair for Wanderer to have sex using Melanie's body, while Melanie watches powerlessly? (Melanie only rarely manages to control her own body after Wanderer takes over.)

The book's silly romance subpot winds up politicizing Wanderer, turning her into a race traitor who helps the humans to rescue others from the parasites' mental occupation. We're told, over and over, that what makes humans special is that we have such strong emotions, as compared with the mostly bland-sounding dolphins, bats and cacti that the parasites have occupied before. It's hinted that raw emotion may eventually save the human race from being erased forever (maybe in the inevitable sequel.)

Without giving away The Host's ending, I will mention that it's a bit disappointing. A threat that's been looming since the start of the book gets resolved way too easily, so that Meyer can get back to the romance that actually interests her. And then Wanderer faces a dilemma whose solution is obvious, but which nobody discovers for a few dozen pages. But even if raw plot isn't exactly Meyer's strong suit, the novel's soapy storyline will have you arguing with your friends about the mind/body dichotomy and colonial occupations for days.

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