Tag: narnia

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Other worlds: New attempt at Dune movie collapses

New Dune adaption dead. The latest attempt to film Frank Herbert’s Dune has officially thrown in the towel as Paramount’s rights lapsed. The novel has been filmed twice before – By David Lynch in 1984 and the Sci-Fi Channel in 2000. Neither version could quite capture the classic sci-fi novel… Is it simply not a book that translates well to screen, or has the right team just not attempted it yet? I’m sure we’ll see it adapted again either way.

That said, I must admit I am quite fond of Sci-Fi’s 2003 attempt at the second and third books in the series, Children of Dune. And it only has a little to do with James McAvoy spending half the thing running around with no shirt on.

The Hunger Games. They have their Katniss, but what about the rest of the cast? Television Without Pity, of all places, has a nice set of suggestions for casting everyone else. With the exception of Christopher Lee (he’s played that role a million times over) I wholeheartedly applaud their selections. Major props for a non-sexy Haymitch!

Chronicles of Narnia. Walden is skipping right over The Silver Chair to make prequel The Magician’s Nephew the next film in the series. Yay for having an actual reason to bring back their best character Tilda Swinton this time.

Inheritance Cycle. Knopf has released the cover for the final book in Christopher Paolini’s Star Wars meets Pern in Middle-earth series. It’s always nice to see John Jude Palencar getting work, I guess.

Lists. Topless Robot’s has 14 great but lesser-known sci-fi novels for lil’ nerds. I find it quite distressing that Paula Danzinger’s This Place Has No Atmosphere is considered a lesser known sci-fi novel. Danzinger is a YA goddess, people. RESPECT.

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Other worlds: On the awesomeness of Katniss Everdeen

The Hunger Games. Meghan Lewit has praise for Katniss Everdeen in The Atlantic, calling her “the most important female character in recent pop culture history.” I can’t really disagree there.

Meanwhile, it’s being reported that Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) is the front-runner for the part of Katniss in the upcoming movie adaption. She’s 20 and blonde, but at least she can act, I guess. Hollywood, sigh.

Stephen King. A new installment in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, The Wind Through the Keyhole, will be published next year. It looks to be a gap-filler, not a continuation. Meanwhile, in November, he time-travels to the Kennedy assignation.

The Kingkiller Chronicle. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the genre as a whole, you probably know that Patrick Rothfuss is one of the hottest things in fantasy. His second book, The Wise Man’s Fear, just came out. I can’t even begin to catch up with the overwhelming hype and I wasn’t all that impressed with his first anyway, but there’s a nice interview with him on Amazon’s Omnivoracious.

YA mafia. The latest controversy sweeping YA is massive, but it prompted John Scalzi to snark, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that. Also noteworthy: Cleolinda on how reviews are not for authors.

Sunday reader. Mari Ness finished up her look back at the Narnia books on Tor.com a few weeks back. (She also did a massive series on the Oz books if you’re all Lewised out.)

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Movie news: The internet still loves to mock Twilight

Vampires shop at the Gap... in 1901?Baby, why you gotta be so sparkly? There’s actual, serious talk about splitting the fourth Twilight book into two movies. After all, Harry Potter is doing it, and just think of all that squeeful allowance cash beckoning. At this rate, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part I: The Pillowing will be out next Christmas. All signs point to beige, and a possible endorsement deal with the old-timey Gap.

On a more positive Twilight note (Not so! I lie!) there’s Cleolinda’s New Moon in Fifteen Minutes. And for proof that Bella Swan follows a well-worn path, five terrible male role models in guy-centric blockbusters. You’ll never guess who takes the first spot. (Okay, you totally will.) Though alas, Edward is still rather creepy, what with fufilling all those signs of an abusive relationship… By any chance does Breaking Dawn end with him getting pan-fried in lava? That I’d watch.

Moving on… First images from Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Oh baby. (Please don’t suck, movie.)

It is RDJ, after all. The first official poster for Iron Man 2 has arrived, and it looks kind of familiar…. Oh my god. Entertainment Weekly has kindly provided a primer on War Machine for the soon-to-be eager slash fangirls.

Speaking of… A (rather boring) first look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Naturally. Harlan Ellison wants in on Abrams’ Star Trek sequel; The Hobbit script is still a work in progress.

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Drive-by movie news: Is it the end for Narnia? Thundercats ho! NPH’s Indy; Twilight

BBC's Dawn TreaderDisney gives Narnia the boot. Well, it’s official – Disney has decided not to adapt the third Narnia book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for “budgetary and logistical reasons.” (Prince Caspian wasn’t exactly a flop, but it didn’t take in nearly as much as Lion.) That’s not to say all is lost – Walden Media is shopping around for a new partner.

Really do hope that Dawn Treader gets made – I can take or leave the rest of the series, but it’s my favorite. In the meantime, you can find the old BBC productions pretty cheap on DVD. The production values may not be as good, but I thought they were pretty neat as a kid!

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Science Fiction’s best-dressed

Leia\'s hoppin\' space boots

I’m sensing a theme today! Tricia Narwani over at Suvudu counts down the Best Fashion in Science Fiction and Fantasy, including Leia in ANH. I’m clearly a bad Star Wars fan because I never noticed her white boots, but they are pretty bitching in that ultra-70’s-space-chic Alderaani way. (Major props to Narwani for not going for the slave outfit: It does have truly awful shoes.)

Also name-dropped: Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter and the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I won’t lie to you: Her chain-mail battle dress in that movie? Most kickass.

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Saturday @ NYCC ’08: And all the rest

So it seems that Seth Green had the biggest Star Wars news today… But Cinematical has pictures from the New York Comic Con, including one from Steve’s panel and several out-and-about troopers. Keep an eye on the nycc and newyorkcomiccon tags on Flickr for more shots.

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Movie News: Narnia, DBZ, remakes, Shia, X-Files

IMAGE: Narnia

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Movie News: Razzies, Cloverfield, Jumper

IMAGE: Razzies!2007 must have been good for sci-fi, because the only genre films to get Razzie nods were known crudfests Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage, Worst Actor,) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Jessica Alba, Worst Actress, Worst Screen Couple with three of her co-stars, including Hayden Christiansen for Awake and F4’s Ioan Gruffudd.) and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (Worst Prequel or Sequel, Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie.) And let’s not forget poor Orlando Bloom (Worst Supporting Actor) in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Cinematical has the full list.

Those looking for something with less pointing and mocking can check out the 9th Annual Golden Tomato Awards, where Harry Potter and Stardust lead the best-reviewed sci-fi films of 2007.