SAN FRANCISCO, 8:29 PM, SUN MAY 11 | 0 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@io9.com | SUBMIT A TIP | RSS
Posts Tagged “

wondercon

”
rant

What's Causing the "Earth Without Us" Craze in New Scifi Movies?

Following on the tail of the hit book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, and the documentary Life After People, Hollywood seems determined to make scifi movies that explore the same theme. Certainly we've had "Earth without most of us" flicks like I Am Legend, but two movies that were on proud display at WonderCon, Wall-E and Journey to the Center of the Earth were literally about an Earth that has no humans at all. In Wall-E all the humans have flown off in spaceships, left the garbage bots to clean up their messes, and have never returned. In Journey, the main characters discover an "Earth" that has never evolved human life. Why are we so obsessed by alternative Earths without humans right now? I've got four reasons why. More »

4:30 PM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Annalee Newitz
4,352 views, 41 comments

Latest by oldandintheway: @Jeff-Minor: Gee, let me guess who YOU are gonna vote for for president?? more »

science fiction politics

Wondercon Confronts The Rise Of The Police State

The biggest cheers at Wondercon weren't for killer robots, but for allegories about government conspiracies, endless wars and terrorism. Much of the weekend felt like a poli-sci seminar, except with nuclear holocausts and mutated alien bugs instead of textbooks. If you needed proof that the shadow of 9/11 keeps falling over our formerly escapist narratives, then you only needed to sit in on any one of the con's jam-packed panels. More »

2:30 PM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,837 views, 28 comments

anime

Sneak Peek at Cyborg War Romance 'Appleseed: Ex Machina'

We've already mentioned the John Woo-produced anime sequel Appleseed: Ex Machina and spoken with director Shinji Aramaki, but Warner Video was on hand at WonderCon, handing out a billion postcards to remind people that it comes out DVD on March 11th. They even had a screening of it on Saturday night during WonderCon, although it faced stiff competition from parties featuring costumed fans and tipsy publicity reps. If you missed that, then peek at the clip below and find out what the world of Appleseed is all about. More »

1:00 PM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Kevin Kelly
2,914 views, 21 comments

Latest by goldenthorn: I have nothing constructive in my comment because I am too busy salivating over this. more »

io9 master control program

io9 Party at WonderCon Was Full of Craziness

io9 and Last Gasp Press co-sponsored a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund on Saturday night at WonderCon, and it was smashing. A ton of comic book artists came and drew at a table while we got drunk, and then CBLDF auctioned the art off to raise money for the fight for free speech in the comic book world. Here's a "before" picture of your intrepid editors (l-r that's Charlie Jane, Annalee, Graeme, and Kevin). Some after photos below. More »

11:50 AM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,389 views, 32 comments

Latest by JahFurry: Aww criminy. Wish I coulda been there, looks like twas a doozie... more »

the new frontier

Justice League Movie Takes Us Back to the Origins of Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter

Justice League: The New Frontier comes out on DVD tomorrow, a straight-to-DVD release based on writer/artist Darwyn Cooke's series DC: The New Frontier. This is part of a trend of Warner and DC releasing original animated films on disc that might never have seen the light of day otherwise, beginning with last year's Superman: Doomsday. We got a sneak peek at The New Frontier at WonderCon, and we loved the setting in space. But the flick gets mired in the origin stories of Green Lantern and The Martian Manhunter. We've got a full report, with clips, below. More »

11:20 AM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Kevin Kelly
1,769 views, 9 comments

Latest by JohnnyZito: The bit about 'registering' is long standing DC lore meant to be some kinda metaphor for red scare shit in the 50's. I also think one of the reasons I enjoyed the book and movie so much is the recontextualized histories more »

buzz

Big SciFi Flicks This Year Will Make Good Look Evil

At WonderCon over the weekend, everybody was talking about a handful of spring/summer scifi flicks that all had one thing in common: the kind of moral ambiguity that would never fly in Superman. We saw an action-packed clip from Wanted, whose superheroes are assassins with a mission to control the world's destiny that sounds creepily like the tenets of Scientology. No fighters for truth and justice these — they're just using their powers to become godlike. Get ready for a giant moral gray area in other flicks coming your way, like Iron Man, the new X-Files flick, and Starship Troopers III. Get a quick look at all three below. More »

10:10 AM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Annalee Newitz
4,632 views, 13 comments

Latest by superbryant88: @_MARVKO_: holy crap that would be sweet more »

buzz

Comics Wrapup from WonderCon: DC Abandons Lesbians; Vertigo's Superheroes Are Reluctant

Now that the dust is settling on WonderCon Weekend it's time to look back and wonder, as we so often do, what just happened? Anywhere that you can see Elvis with a hustle of Leias has to be one of the most wonderful places in the world, despite the hype and inevitable disappointments. The headlines, the low points, and bits that we didn't tell you about at the time all await you after the jump. More »

8:40 AM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Graeme McMillan
3,025 views, 6 comments

douglas wolk

Hulk Smash Military Industrial Complex!

Over the weekend at WonderCon, author Douglas Wolk (Reading Comics) gave a talk about the not-so-secret allegorical tales that lurk beneath the BAM! POW! of your typical superhero comic book. I caught Wolk on the con floor and asked him to explain the political subtext of Greg Pak's recent World War Hulk series. In this video, he explains how it's all about blowback from 9/11, and why Iron Man represents the military industrial complex. More »

7:40 AM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Annalee Newitz
783 views, Comment

sarah connor chronicles

"Terminator" Producer Wanted To Bring Back Kyle Reese From The Dead

Thomas Dekker, who plays the future rebel leader John Connor on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, has been working out so he can kick some more ass in the show's second season (if any.) John has been somewhat kittenish up till now, because the producers want to give him an arc on his way to future hero-dom, and because it's hard to write a show with "three alphas," including John's mom and Summer Glau's Terminator, said Executive Producer Josh Friedman. More Sarah Connor secrets after the jump. More »

6:00 PM on Sun Feb 24 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
6,034 views, 19 comments

Latest by Darkweave: @njudahchronicles: Preach it brother! more »

jericho

Jericho Predicted The Blackwater Scandals

This week's episode of post-apocalyptic drama Jericho pits our hero Jake Green against Ravenwood, the government security contractor he used to work for. When the producers were originally coming up with ideas for a TV show about the collapse of governing institutions after nuclear attacks, they did a lot of research into contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater operating in the chaos of post-invasion Iraq, producer Carol Barbee revealed at Wondercon. Jericho's portrayal of unaccountable contractors presaged the Blackwater scandals, which hadn't yet come out. More about the politics of Jericho, after the jump. More »

4:38 PM on Sun Feb 24 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,936 views, 7 comments

Latest by MyEasyTV: And technically that horrible movie "The Siege" predicated that Muslims would be harassed in the future. more »

wildstorm

Wildstorm Relives Past Glories, Other People's Characters

DC's once proud Wildstorm imprint showed signs of hurting at their Sunday panel at WonderCon. First sign was the sparse attendance for the panel, with less than 50 people in a hall meant to hold roughly eight times that number, with the second being that everyone involved, from pros to fans, would rather talk about crossovers with the mainstream DC Universe or old books that never got finished. More »

2:23 PM on Sun Feb 24 2008
By Graeme McMillan
1,404 views, 4 comments

x-files

Gillian Anderson Reveals Kinky Plot of X-Files 3 Movie

Here's a gem we grabbed at the X-Files movie panel at WonderCon yesterday, thanks to intrepid videographer Roger Chang. A fan asks the panel if there are any stories they wish they'd had a chance to explore in X-Files. After David Duchovny hems and haws about how the new movie is sort of exploring Picture of Dorian Gray, Gillian Anderson lets this one drop: "I always thought Mulder should have explored autoerotic asphyxiation. That'll be XF3." Watch as Duchovny and show creator Chris Carter try to bring the conversation back on track.

12:46 PM on Sun Feb 24 2008
By Annalee Newitz
4,902 views, 26 comments

Latest by greybon: Hmm. I missed all that about Clyde Bruckman. I thought he just died with a bag over his head. I thought the autoerotic asphyxiation bit was always for Mulder. There was nothing erotic about Bruckman's death. Hmm…I always thought the more »

jon favreau

Jon Favreau: Iron Man's Look Borrowed from Top Gun and Battlestar Galactica

Yesterday we spoke to Jon Favreau, director of the upcoming Iron Man movie. In the panel before our chat, he showed an extended version of the jet boots scene from the Superbowl commercial for Iron Man, basically to prove that the whole movie isn't cut in that hyperfast MTV style that the trailers show. We see Tony working intimately on the jetboots, soldering wires, getting assistance from a voice-activated lab robot, and then running a test flight... which sends him spiraling into the wall. See what Favreau told us about the highly-anticipated superhero flick, below. More »

12:18 PM on Sun Feb 24 2008
By Kevin Kelly
2,925 views, 6 comments

Latest by Jonn: "They haven't yet figured out how Iron Man will sound when he's wearing the suit. Jon was literally leaving WonderCon to spend a few weeks at Skywalker Ranch to work on the sound mix, and to try and work out more »

wondercon

Vertigo Re-Enters The House of Mystery

What do you do when you're kidnapped and imprisoned in a mystical building that has itself been kidnapped by forces unknown? Well, if you're the cast of upcoming DC/Vertigo series House of Mystery, you open a bar. Talking about the book at Wondercon's Vertigo panel, co-writer Bill Willingham (the other writer is Matt Sturges, his co-writer on Jack of Fables) gave us the lowdown. More »

7:00 PM on Sat Feb 23 2008
By Graeme McMillan
783 views, 7 comments

wondercon

When Will Swamp Thing Come Back?

Just who owns Swamp Thing? After being asked about the chances of a revival of everyone's favorite muck monster at today's Vertigo panel, DC's VP of Sales told the following story:
Every now and again, there's a battle between [DC Universe] and Vertigo about who gets to publish the character. DCU guys go up to the Vertigo offices with the issue of Batman where Swamp Thing appears and say "Clearly this is a Batman character!" and suddenly there are pitchforks and they're forced back to the elevators.
Trying to offer a more serious answer, editor Bob Schreck said that it was one of his favorite comics, but after about three failed attempts to bring back the character, he's realized that "maybe you shouldn't go home again."

6:45 PM on Sat Feb 23 2008
By Graeme McMillan
787 views, 5 comments

Latest by edosan: @drift_marlo: "Swampie should stay out of mainstream DC titles in the same way that Gaiman's Sandman should." Agreed. It's a whole different world. The story has been told, so work on telling new ones -- some stories are fine just the more »

battlestar galactica

Battlestar Galactica's Richard Hatch Talks About Zarek's Political Career

Yesterday we dropped in on the Battlestar Galactica panel with Richard Hatch, who starred in the original show, and plays shady insurrectionary and politico Zarek on the new show. io9's Kevin Kelly asked Hatch what he thought Zarek would be doing if he were involved in politics on Earth during this election season. Would he be more of a behind-the-scenes Karl Rove type or would he be in the race? This is Hatch's strange, rambling answer.

6:44 PM on Sat Feb 23 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,485 views, 5 comments

Latest by Joey B: I once sat next to Richard Hatch and Richard Herd at a Con while I was with Nimoy showing his photography. Hatch got a ton of questions like this about the new BG. Most of his answers were like this... more »

starship troopers 3

Starship Troopers III Actually Based On Heinlein Novel This Time

The writer of Robocop and the original Starship Troopers is bringing his bizarro brand of political satire to Starship Troopers III, his directorial debut. We'd been lukewarm about yet another direct-to-DVD sequel of Paul Verhoeven's classic actioner, but the clips and Q&A with Ed Neumeier, plus stars Jolene Blalock and Casper Van Dien, went a long way toward changing our minds. Details and pics after the jump. More »

6:40 PM on Sat Feb 23 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
26,727 views, 40 comments

x-files

Chris Carter Says 9/11 Killed X-Files, But America is Ready for It Again

We just got treated to a very brief clip from the new X-Files movie trailer, featuring a group of mysterious FBI types marching across the icy antarctic snows, with Billy Connolly as a mad grayhair in the lead, crying out, "We've found it!" Cut to lightning fast clips of a body being dragged over ice, Scully looking hotter than hell, Mulder looking not so bad himself, and lots of zoomy blurred stuff. No shots of Xzibit, though Chris Carter did confirm for the millionth time that he would be in the film along with Amanda Peet as a federal agent. No word about that giant werewolf we keep hearing about. But director Chris Carter, writer Frank Spotnitz, and stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny were in attendance. Here's what they had to say about X-Files and 9/11, as well as what it's been like to return to the story after all these years. More »

6:24 PM on Sat Feb 23 2008
By Annalee Newitz
4,642 views, 31 comments

Latest by familiartread: i usually feel uncomfortable at audience q&a sessions, but the x-files panel was surprisingly not lame! i particularly enjoyed the krycek question (and david's subsequent "hand motion"), the running "bad blood" gag, and the david & gillian banter. more »