• Hey, a movie based on Mistborn is in the works! And author Brandon Sanderson is actually optimistic that it might get made.

• The Vatican has come out strongly against Avatar, because it presents “nature-worship.” Sadly, I think this (a) completely misses the point of the movie, and (b) is just more of their usual “man is the center of the universe” nonsense. Expect them to denounce The Force soon too.

• Everyone else is posting it, so I might as well: Star Wars burlesque — and Leia in the metal bikini is the least of it! The whole photo gallery here.

• Yes, I’m deliberately ignoring the whole Spider-Man fiasco. Everyone here knows what I think about sequels and “reboots,” especially in the superhero genre (cynical and unbelievably tired). You know what? There’s no Constitutional amendment that says that there must always be a “current” franchise for all these characters! Every time you retell one of these stories for the 30,000th time, that means there’s one more newer, fresher story that won’t get told. (Well, hey, I guess I didn’t ignore it after all.)

• It’s not fantasy-specific, but an interesting short piece on how all authors repeat themselves, but some outright recycle (*cough* John Irving *cough*).

• As I read this, it sounds like Buena Vista will release a soundtrack for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and another CD, Almost Alice, with the movie’s theme song and a bunch of other songs by familiar artists “inspired” by the characters in the movie (although the music doesn’t actually exist in the movie). This is either brilliant or cynical, depending on your point-of-view.

• Speaking of unnecessary sequels, Ivan Reitman will direct Ghostbusters 3. More bad news? The screenplay is by the writers of the painfully unfunny Year One.

• This interview with J.J. Abrams about Fringe, about how they’re still trying to decide the series’ overall story arc (and if, like Lost, it should have a definite “ending”), seems to be missing one crucial point: ratings have been lousy all season, and it may not be their choice when the show ends.

• Do you think D&D 4.0 is bland and homogeneous — that they tried to turn it into World of Warcraft? One blogger has a solution.

• I honestly thought this was a joke, but I guess it’s not: Christopher “Saruman” Lee (seen in the From the Palantir logo, above!) is releasing a “symphonic metal” album. Shades of Leonard Nimoy singing The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins?

• It’s official: Clash of the Titans won’t be 3-D. The glasses make my ears hurt anyway.

• The incredible shrinking sci-fi project! First, it was a series, then it was a mini-series, now it’s a two-hour movie! Poor Day One. If it does well, it could still be a series, but let’s face it: this (along with poor ratings for Heroes, Fringe, Flash Forward, and other shows) does not bode well for sci-fi on network TV.

• Are The Chronicles of Narnia being de-Christianed? The right-wing news outlet The Washington Times thinks so. But given how outrageously biased everything I read in that newspaper is — think Fox “News” without even Shepherd Smith — I am skeptical of anything they say.

• Follow us on Twitter.

Looking to buy any of the projects mentioned in this article (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: Settle an argument: in The Two Towers movie when Gandalf the White appears to Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas in Fangorn Forest, he is at first mistaken for Saruman — and, in fact, he looks and sounds a lot like Christopher Lee, the actor who portrays the other white wizard. But Ian McKellen has said that that’s entirely his voice and his face. Can that be true? — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada

A: McKellen definitely maintains that it’s his voice and face — he still says that it’s “All my own work in Fangorn” on his website.

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.”

Co-screenwriter writer Philippa Boyers confirms this version of events: “They both tried to sound like each other” in the looping, she says, but “Christopher Lee could imitate Ian McKellen more than Ian could imitate Chris Lee.”

Q: I’m curious what you and your readers think are the top fantasy book series. Motivation is selfish, too — I want to know what to read. I’m also interested it what people specifically don’t like, and why — e.g., the Narnia series is too religious, and the anthropomorphic animals don’t work for me.  Also not liking Stephen Donaldson. With that, I’ll list mine: The Lord of the Rings, A Wizard of Earthsea, and Harry Potter. — Robert

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).

Among kids’ books (of which I’m a fan), I’d also add almost anything by Roald Dahl, but especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (although not the terrible sequel, Charlie and Great Glass Elevator). The Oracle also loved Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story and Momo, The Chronicles of Pyrdain by Lloyd Alexander, Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy, the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, and Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn books.

Harry Potter? Truthfully, the Oracle enjoyed them, but found most of the books badly in need of editing, and many of plot-lines forced, especially the conclusion. The Oracle also always thought the following books or series were over-rated, in order from least to most over-praised: A Wrinkle in Time, Inkheart, The Sword of Truth, The Wheel of Time, The Sword of Shannara, and Twilight. (Full disclosure: The Oracle doesn’t read all the books in series he doesn’t like, so perhaps these books improved over time.)

But the Oracle is far more interested in hearing what readers think!

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

A: With something as complicated as literature, descriptive genres are, of course, mostly arbitrary, and made that much more so by all the writers who are defiantly (and wonderfully) blurring the boundaries. Labels are just labels, after all.

Here at TheTorchOnline.com, we define “fantasy” broadly. In general, if it involves magic, we cover it, but we’d throw in the dragons of Pern too, even without magic, just because they’re mythical creatures. We also cover some paranormal and “otherworld”-themed projects, as well as some projects involving history-based adventure and/or palace intrigue. Most superheroes also fall under our rubric.

As I said, it’s all pretty arbitrary, and “speculative fiction” is rapidly becoming a catch-all term — although it also includes hard science fiction, outright horror and slasher, and other genres that we almost never focus on here.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said about hard-core pornography that it was hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.”

I think the same is true of fantasy. But like hard-core pornography, what’s “fantasy” for me may not be that for someone else. Viva la difference!

Q: In 1976, I read a vast number of science fiction anthologies, and read a story about an outpost planet that only ever had one human inhabitant, but they kept going mad with the loneliness. The story was about the latest man, who was promised a solution from earth. Eventually the ship arrived, but it appeared to disappear.  The closing line of the story was the “sound of a seagull”. Any idea who wrote this, and where it could still be obtained? — Errol

A: Sadly, this is beyond even the All-Knowing, Fantasy-Question-Answering Oracle’s near-omniscience. But perhaps a reader can help us both out.

Looking to buy something mentioned in this column (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Follow us on Twitter.