Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers - io9 Comments

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Smeagol92055 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:18:51 PDT

@hardcle:

Finally! I was wondering when someone would bring up Early Edition!

Smeagol92055

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Larry Bird Flu — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:23:40 PDT

The newspapers in Children of Men that paper the safe house are pretty good too. IMDB has a good list of the headlines.

Larry Bird Flu

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Lampbane — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:50:41 PST

You forgot the newspapers on Babylon 5! IIRC, weren't those custom-made for you on the spot?

Lampbane

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Plague — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:56:14 PST

That prop site is killing me.
WANT. WANT NOW.

Plague

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

engtech — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:13:18 PST

Avoid watching Ultraviolet by any means necessary. Ugh.

engtech

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Ravac — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:59:03 PST

@mumblingmynah: Wells was chasing an acquaintance who happened to be Jack the Ripper, played by David Warner.

Ravac

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:39:29 PST

@mcox567: Thanks for the tip!

Charlie Jane Anders

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:39:18 PST

@the memorexe: There was logic in Ultraviolet??

Charlie Jane Anders

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

c0dek — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:33:42 PST

propcircle is another great prop site, with a ton of quality SciFi stuff, espcially from Serenity/Firefly by some folks who have gone on to do work for Qmx...

c0dek

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

mumblingmynah — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:09:09 PST

@F_Gwynplaine_MacIntyre: Thanks for all that fun info! Sounds like a crappy movie, though. Wouldn't H.G. Wells have better things to do?

mumblingmynah

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

hardcle — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:46:30 PST

Actually, Gary got the Chicago Sun-Times on Early Edition. I liked that show.

hardcle

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:35:23 PST

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

F_Gwynplaine_MacIntyre — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:23:22 PST

In "Total Recall", there was a quick shot of a newspaper vending machine selling "MARS TODAY". Looks just like USA TODAY except the logo is red (geddit?).

There's also the 1940s movie "It Happened Tomorrow" and the Twilight Zone episode "Printer's Devil", both featuring precognitive newspapers.

H.G. Wells's SF tale "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper" takes place on 10 November 1931. Brownlow accidentally receives a copy of the Evening Standard (a real London newspaper) for 10 November 1971, 40 years in the future. In 1971, on the actual date in Wells's story, the real Evening Standard reprinted his story, then made a comparison of the actual news in that day's paper versus the futuristic news Wells had predicted in 1971.

Here's another time-glitch featuring newspapers and H.G. Wells. The movie "Time After Time" was released in late summer 1979. In that movie, H.G. Wells time-travels to California in November 1979 and visits Mary Steenburgen. (So far, so good.) To prove he's a time-traveller, he takes her into her time machine, brings her ONE day into the future, then tells her to check the date on the nearest newspaper (expecting it to be one day later than when they stepped into the time machine). Wells tells her (and us) what the date will be on the newspaper. Steenburgen picks up the newspaper, but instead of looking at the date she notices the headline ... which reports that she was murdered the previous day.

What makes this scene an error was something the film-makers couldn't have anticipated. In real life, in early November 1979, Iranian terrorists invaded the U.S. embassy in Teheran and took all the Americans hostage. On the date that H.G. Wells cites in his dialogue, the front page of every newspaper in the U.S.A. would have carried headlines about the hostages in Iran ... not some local murder.

F_Gwynplaine_MacIntyre

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

gwilson — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:01:44 PST

@SoulCarnival: I'm glad I'm not the only one who caught that...

gwilson

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

mechno — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:33:33 PST

I think that the UV Newspaper reads "Vamprism Epidemic". I completely agree with Heathermylove; Ultraviolet was visually and conceptually very appealing, but somehow was sucky. (haw haw, I made a vampire funny!)

mechno

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

The HZA — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:57:10 PST

Ultraviolet: terrible movie but nice to look at!

The HZA

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:41:25 PST

@SoulCarnival: No vampire would be caught undead reading that paper--

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

the memorexe — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:22:00 PST

I missed the newspaper in ultraviolet--but how does that fit into the overall logic of that universe? If I remember correctly, they had smart stuff like disposable phones--so it stands to reason that newspapers would have more of a digital interface--especially with the whole fear of tactility in the film.
That newspaper is the residue of the "Clark Kent" era uberness...

the memorexe

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

SoulCarnival — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:19:03 PST

That's "Vamprism Epidemic!!!"
You gotta learn to read right.

SoulCarnival

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:41:20 PST

This is all mere speculation

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Liz Henry — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:39:01 PST

I love that font in the first newspaper! Quick... someone find it online or re-create it.

Liz Henry

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:34:54 PST

is mumblinmynnah invisible ? come on, what the hellisthus? Am I hired yet?

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

92BuickLeSabre — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:31:26 PST

@mumblingmynah: "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper"

Written in the 1930's, the paper was from the 1970's.

92BuickLeSabre

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

mumblingmynah — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:28:16 PST

There's a great H.G. Wells story in which a character somehow receives a newspaper from a hundred years or so in the future. Unforunately, his cleaning lady throws it out before he realizes its significance. I can't remember the name of the story, but I remember that it, too, had weird typefaces and paper and high-tech printing.

mumblingmynah

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

followthattank — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:03:11 PST

I regularly read the newspaper... in which many articles decry the decline of newspapers and the print media. Of the examples in the post, Minority Report's is the most plausible; but by then most people would probably get their news from their cell phone.

followthattank

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Cheap Shot — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:25:01 PST

@moncapitaine: good point.

Cheap Shot

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

moncapitaine — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:24:24 PST

yeah, you know what e-paper will lead to: Pop-up ads when I'm trying read the metro section. Ok, not really..while trying to do the crossword. Ok, the jumble. Ok, while reading the comics.

moncapitaine

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

Cheap Shot — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:00:32 PST

I just want to say this site is one of the best new Blogs from the Denton stable EVER. Keep it up and don't get lazy like those folks over at Idolator.

Cheap Shot

Read All About It In Weird Future Newspapers

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:41:09 PST

Intelligent Vampire....

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy