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Q: As I understand it, the real-life Spartacus only lived a short time after leading his famous Roman slave rebellion. Assuming Spartacus leads the rebellion next season, doesn’t that mean the show can only be three seasons long, at most? — Mark, Milwaukee, WI
A: Not surprisingly, not much is known about Spartacus in his pre-gladiator days, but the rebellion he led took place in 73 B.C., and Spartacus died in 71 B.C.
Robert Tapert (left) and Steven DeKnight
Or did he? Contrary to the famous ending of the Stanley Kubrick movie, Spartacus’ body was never found — an historical truth that the producers of the new Starz TV show Spartacus: Blood and Sand could certainly exploit.
In any event, there’s no reason why a “season” of the show has to correspond to a year of real time.
What do the producers themselves say?
“Anyone who knows the history of Spartacus obviously knows where this has to go,” Spartacus creator Steven DeKnight tells the Oracle. “There’s been a lot of talk based on [co-creator] Rob [Tapert's] work with Xena and Hercules — everybody says, ‘Well, Rob doesn’t care about history.’ But that’s absolutely not true. Rob does care about history, and we are following the broad strokes of the Spartacus story. We can’t be slaves to every detail — we bend history, we try never to break it.”
So how long will the show go?
“I have a five-to-seven year plan,” DeKnight says. “Definitely enough for five — it could go longer, depending on Starz and the viewership. Definitely at least five planned out. There’s so many great moments in Spartacus’ story, in history, that I’ve never fully seen explored.”
Q: I know we’re supposed to be in an “animation renaissance,” but I think I’m done with animated movies for a while. I tried to sit through the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs recently, but found absolutely unwatchable — a hyper-frenetic mess on one hand (for kids, I guess) with a bunch of stupid, but ironic quips (for the adults, supposedly). And it got good reviews! Obviously, Up was night-and-day better, but even that struck me as muddled in the middle and just generally over-rated. What do you think? — Madge, Baton Rouge, LA
A: We’ve written before about the animated movie renaissance, but the Oracle has come to reluctantly agree with you.
Disney started the renaissance with The Little Mermaid in 1989, but soon their films started to blur together: a story about a plucky, but ostracized outsider must learn to “own” his or her difference into order to end up saving the kingdom, village, or savanna — all set to truly memorable showtunes.
Two studios inherited Disney’s artistic mantle, furthering the renaissance: Pixar, which had a break-out hit with Toy Story, and Dreamworks, which had its first big success with Shrek.
But just like Disney’s films became derivative of themselves, most animated movies currently seem to follow either the Pixar/Toy StoryShrek formula or the Dreamworks/Shrek one.
The vast majority (like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) take the now-insufferable Shrek route: a gimmicky central story with hyper, ironic pop-culture-spouting hipster main characters, usually voiced by celebrities — a shtick modeled after Robin Williams‘ hammy, but memorable turn as the genie in Disney’s Aladdin.
This formula got old three Ice Age sequels ago. Sitting through Jim Carrey in Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who, the Oracle contemplated killing himself.
By contrast, Pixar (which is now owned by Disney) tells much more timeless stories: usually complicated morality tales involving sad or ethically compromised main characters. Examples include Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E, and Ratatouille.
In the Oracle’s opinion, the Pixar model is a thousand times better than the Dreamworks’ one.
But I agree with you that Up, while beautifully drawn and acted, was ultimately muddled and overrated.
Q: There was this TV show around ten years ago about this guy who had the newspaper delivered to him (by a cat) a day early. He’d spend the episode trying to prevent the bad things in the newspaper from happening. Do you know the name of that show? — ScreamingMonkez, Birmingham,
A: You’re thinking of Early Edition, about a Chicago man who received a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times a day early. The show, which stared Friday Night Lights‘ Kyle Chandler and Fisher Stevens, originally ran on CBS from September 1996 to May 2000. ABC Family later ran reruns.
Incidentally, Stevens won an Oscar last night for a documentary he produced, The Cove. Yes, that’s why that guy looked so familiar!
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Q: With the success of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and all its eye-popping nudity, I can’t help but wonder if someone — Starz! — hasn’t thought to do the same thing with Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel books. — J.M., Philadelphia, PA
Q: A Fountain of Youth? Really? Was the explorer Ponce de Leon touched or what? — Michael, San Francisco, CA
Q: Tell me something new — anything! — about David Boreanaz! Needless to say, I’m a fan. — Molly, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Q: I finally had Turkish Delight. I wasn’t delighted. Thoughts? — Larry, Lakewood, CO
Q: What ever happened to Andre the Giant, who played Fezzik in The Princess Bride? — Tom, Shoreline, WA
In fact, I consider it a cheat when a book or movie has a “prophecy” that, through “courage” or mere stubbornness on the part of the hero, doesn’t ever come true. I think it’s one of the (many) flaws in The Return of the Jedi: Darth Vadar, the Emperor, and even Yoda spend half the movie confidently talking about how that’s it, it’s over, Luke’s going to give into the Dark Side of the Force — only to have it turn out that, nope, that was just the Emperor’s wishful thinking!
Q: So have you heard of this phenomenon of 
Q: The movie currently has a start date of March 15th for a 2011 release. As for the cast, the lead has apparently been narrowed down to 
But he is misremembering. In the DVD commentary, Peter Jackson calls the scene a “visual trick,” pointing out that, “Very briefly, Christopher Lee’s eyes are actually glued onto Ian McKellen’s face…You also hear Christopher Lee’s voice — it’s blended in with Ian’s. We did want people, at least the uninitiated, to think that this possibly was Saruman.”
A: The Oracle would strongly agree with The Lord of the Rings and Earthsea, but would also enthusiastically add A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Marin, the first Kushiel trilogy by Jaqueline Carey, and (yes) The Chronicles of Narnia and The First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (but not the third trilogy, which is almost unreadable).
Q: Another question: what is fantasy? For me, it’s not just supernatural. Magic has to be part of that reality. For example, The Dragonriders of Pern series isn’t strictly “fantasy” to me — the planet has spaceflight. Though the dragons can traverse space and even time, my memory is that this ability is never framed as magical, and no other magic seems to exist. — Robert
Q: I remember a few years ago, It’s a Wonderful Life was shown constantly on television, but this year it wasn’t. What gives? I thought the movie was now part of the public domain. Did everyone get sick of it? — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada
Q: With Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton’s terrible posthumous novel, currently stinking up bookstores and bookshelves everywhere, I think it must be asked: was Crichton always a hack and we just never noticed before? — Eartha, The Earth
A: The Oracle agrees with you that Star Trek was mostly all over the place when it comes to transporter technology. That said, one answer to your question can be found in the question itself: the first two episodes you cite are all about the complications, ethical and otherwise, that come from having the transporter create “doubles.” So it stands to reason that, just as with human cloning, this might not be research the Federation would pursue (or even allow).
You’re right that the question of Xena’s “royalty” was originally unclear — although there’s considerable (and compelling) debate about whether the warrior Atreus is 
A: Actually, they didn’t invent Irene Adler. She’s taken from the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes short story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and she is, in fact, the only women to have bested Holmes (and one of only four people total to have done so!).