Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
We’re not getting lavish Annie Leibowitz spreads for spinoff movies, but this month does bring Solo star Emilia Clarke as the subject of Vanity Fair’s latest cover story. She talks equal parts Star Wars and Game of Thrones
Making Star Wars is reporting that Episode VIII may be heading to Dubrovnik, Croatia for some location shooting. The city, which fronts the Adriatic Sea, has also been used as a filming location for HBO’s Game of Thrones, most notably as King’s Landing.
My idle speculation: A new planet, or perhaps a different part of Takodana, to check in on Maz?
Rumor: Miltos Yerolemou has joined the cast of Episode VII, the BBC reports. You may know him from Game of Thrones season 1, where he played swordsman Syrio Forel.
We’re all familiar with major awards shows not being big on geek content, and the Emmys have been no different… Unless HBO is involved, apparently. This year, Game of Thrones has nabbed not just one, nit just two, but three acting nods. One-time winner Peter Dinklage is up again with his third supporting actor nomination for playing Tyrion Lannister, and this time he’s joined by actresses Emilia Clarke (supporting) and Dame Diana Rigg (guest.)
Alas, not nominated was Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany, who’s been getting tons of buzz for her impressive work as a mind-boggling seven clones. Better luck next year?
American Horror Story: Asylum is up for miniseries, as well as a nice spread in the acting categories, with nods for Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, James Cromwell and Zachary Quinto. Of course, the big story this year? Netflix.
What’s on TV these days? This weekend has a full blast of stuff for genre fans, and Monday kicks off the new season of Warehouse 13
Let’s check out the sci-fi and fantasy forecast for the weekend and beyond…
Continue reading “TV time: Doctor Who, Orphan Black, and the return of Warehouse 13”
Continuing TV weekend, tonight sees the beginning of the third season of Game of Thrones, based on on the third book in the series, A Storm of Swords.
Debuted on Kimmel tonight; The first episode premieres on March 31st. (via)
Awards. The finalist list for the Nebulas was released yesterday, and I’ve read… Exactly one of the novels. (The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin. It was okay, but I found the sequel much more engaging. Still, not a bad book at all.) So, no idea who will win, and I won’t even guess at the rest. I am likewise ignorant on the Andre Norton nominees, but I do have two of them on my to-read shelf.
I’m not much one for short fiction, but if you are, the SF Signal link above has links to the lions share of novelette and short story nominees.
As for the Bradbury (Dramatic Presentation,) the selections are The Avengers, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Cabin in the Woods, The Hunger Games, John Carter (?!?) and Looper. Alrighty then.
Controversy. With the Ender’s Game adaptation on the horizon and author Orson Scott Card’s anti-gay views in the news news due to protest of his involvement in a Superman anthology, Summit has a bit of a marketing challenge on their hands.
Game of Thrones. The season two Blu-rays of the HBO series are out now – what lurks in the extras? And is a second Westeros series in the cards?
Adaptations. SyFy is aiming for Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle, while Heathers and Mean Girls alums are taking the reins of the Vampire Academy movie. One of these projects is doomed, and sadly it’s not the one about a vampire academy.
Oh hey, books! io9 lists the SF/F books you can’t afford to miss this month, and writer Charlie Jane Anders is really into Karen Lord’s maybe-ex-Star Trek-fanfic The Best of All Possible Worlds. If you’re thus intrigued, here’s 50 pages to read right now.
Oliver Queen fans, take note: The CW has picked up Arrow for a full season of 22 episodes. The show’s premiere was the network’s most-watched show in three years, and the best premiere since Vampire Diaries in 2009. The CW also picked up three more episodes of their Beauty and the Beast remake, which stars Smallville alum Kristin Kreuk.
Moving onto less basic broadcast news, Neil Gaiman confirmed on Tumblr that the new Doctor Who episode he wrote (announced at the Hugos, where he won for ‘The Doctor’s Wife,’) will be the 12th of the current season.
And finally, it’s hard to read a genre news site and not trip over news and pictures from Game of Thrones as they shoot S3, but if you’ve somehow managed to miss them, try Winter is Coming. As always, possible spoilers!
What genre shows have you been watching this year?
Awards. The Hugo Award winners were announced at Worldcon this past weekend. Taking Best Novel was Jo Walton’s Among Others, beating out George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons and works by China Miéville, James S. A. Corey and Mira Grant. (Walton also won the Nebula for the book.) Other writing prizes went to Kij Johnson, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu and more.
The dramatic presentation awards went to Game of Thrones S1 and Neil Gaiman for his Doctor Who episode ‘The Doctor’s Wife.’ (Gaiman took the opportunity to announce he’s writing another episode for the show.) Also noteworthy to us, SF Signal winning for Best Fanzine!
Tolkien. With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit adaption now being three films, the second has been retitled The Desolation of Smaug, with There and Back Again now being the third installment. I fully expect it to contain at least an hour of various slow-motion endings. But seriously, it looks like there was a lot of hints dropped at DragonCon.
A Song of Ice And Fire. A hilarious Storm of Swords ‘It Gets Better’ PSA. Yes, of course there are spoilers. Or, you can read what GRRM has revealed of the Targaryen conquest of Westeros from the upcoming The World of Ice and Fire.
Lists. io9 picks fall’s must-read SF/F books and explores the mermaid trend in YA.
Records. The Hunger Games series has outsold Harry Potter – at least on Amazon.
Also: Ray Bradbury’s FBI file / Lev Grossman interviews Terry Brooks / Ursula Le Guin’s Noble Prize odds / Dark Tower adaption not so dead after all?