Tag Archive | "News"

From The Palantir! AVATAR Falls, TRON for Television, and the Universe Sucked Into a Black Hole?

Posted on 07 February 2010

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  • Well, it’s finally happened – Avatar didn’t come out atop the weekend box office. Dear John, the romantic comedy headlined by G.I. Joe’s Channing Tatum trounced the men (and women) in blue. It also performed a public service by beating the previous record for a Super Bowl weekend opening, knocking Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds off the record books.
  • Enjoy every day, because it may be your last. The Large Hadron Collider is online, and even though it hasn’t cranked up anywhere near full power, the current collisions are producing an “unexpectedly high number” of mesons. We don’t know what it means, but anything “unexpected” with a machine theoretically capable of creating a black hole is worrisome.
  • Emily Rose has been tapped as the lead for the new SyFy series Haven, based on the Stephen King book The Colorado Kid. The show revolves around an FBI agent coming to a small town to solve a murder, only to discover that the town residents have supernatural powers. So it’s Warehouse 13 with people instead of artifacts. How original.
  • Regency and Fox are rebooting another comic book hero. This time it’s Daredevil, because that came off so well the last time. It actually looks like it’s just a $100 million way of thumbing their nose at Disney, who gets the rights to the character back if Fox doesn’t use it for so many years.
  • The Secret of Kells is either a dull commentary on religion, or a fantasy action movie, depending on which trailer you watch. You can get flavors of Disney’s Kim Possible or Cartoon Network’s Samurai Jack. It’s got Oscar nominations though, so they must have done something right.

  • I’ve seen a lot of PC casemods, but none are quite as disturbing as this one from God of War, with Kratos holding your gaming GPU as well as a sword. Perfect for people with not enough anxiety in their lives.
  • Are we looking at Captain America, the Musical? It sounds that way. Since the superhero’s costume is basically an American flag, they’ve come up with a novel way to get him into that particularly garish garb (which didn’t look odd on the comics page, but might on movie screens): assign him to the USO to sing and dance. Not surprisingly, he can’t wait to get out of the costume.
  • Terry Pratchett, author of my beloved, cracked Discworld novels, is fighting Alzheimer’s Disease. As an offshoot of that health battle, he’s coming out in favor of euthanasia in an interview with the Guardian. It makes me sad to think about someone who has made me laugh this much is thinking about things this morbid, but I agree with his logic.
  • Do we package stories into genres like “science fiction” and “fantasy” based on rules the authors followed for world-building, or more as a blueprint for the reader on what the world should be composed of? Author Jo Walton thinks it’s the later. Think of it as boundaries for “suspension of disbelief.”
  • Considering that Avatar took 14 years to make, it’s not a surprise that there’s an entire backstory and history on Pandora itself. Io9.com has gathered all the information from the movie’s designers into five separate articles here.
  • Disney is reportedly so thrilled with themselves over Tron: Legacy, they’re already working on a sequel and a television series for Disney XD. There’s supposed to be a full 2:30 trailer appearing on March 5th, which means they plan to launch it with Alice In Wonderland.
  • The 37th Annual Annie Awards have announced their winners, and Pixar’s Up has won Best Feature. At this point, shouldn’t Pixar pull a Candace Bergen and remove themselves from the running?
  • In the “why didn’t someone think of this before?” category, Turbine Light is preparing to show their egg-beater style turbine that fits around light poles on highways and utilizes the wind off passing cars to power the lights.
  • The new Dune movie will be a new Dune movie, from scratch, with incoming director Pierre Morel coming up with a new script and plans to go 3-D on everything, but especially the sandworms. How can a movie that’s already been made once for theaters and once (very effectively) for television, and is based on a book be so hard to develop?
  • Author Neil Gaiman has confirmed that he wrote an episode of Doctor Who for Matt Smith’s doctor. The bad news is that it’s not for the season that’s currently filming, but the season after that. Considering how slowly Doctor Who produces seasons, we should see it about the time we make it back to the moon.
  • Hasbro has been steadily developing game properties like Battleship and Candyland into movies. They just announced that Battleship was being pushed back a year to allow time for the effects. Now they’re announcing that Taylor Lautner, Mr. Twilight Werewolf, is going to play Stretch Armstrong. I may mock everything remotely related to Twilight a lot, but this I can see, based solely on The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
  • Someone call Dick Cheney, because the heroes of Avatar are really just a bunch of treasonous war criminals. Or that’s what the New York Times says some think about the heroes of a lot of genre films.
  • It’s a good time to be a fantasy author, because sales are booming. And it’s all thanks to Twilight. Sales of genre stories are up 20% to the critical teen demographic. I’m all for kids reading, I just hope that Twilight is a gateway drug to better stories.
  • In an effort to beat as many dead horses as possible, screenwriters have been hired for Enchanted 2 as well as for The Lost Symbol, which is basically a The Da Vinci Code sequel (Angels & Demons is, of course, a sequel movie, but a prequel book).
  • Frank Miller has taken to Twitter to give us a new look at Sin City. Not content with just giving us 140 character story hints, he’s tweeting original artwork.

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Confirmed! MERLIN Season 2 Will Run on SyFy

Posted on 04 February 2010

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After much speculation, SyFy announced today that it has acquired the rights to both existing seasons of the U.K. show Merlin. Episodes will begin running in prime-time on Friday, April 2 at 10 PM.

The show was a producing partnership between the BBC and NBC, which ran the first season last summer to poor ratings. But this will be a U.S. premiere for Season 2, which has never been seen on American television.

The channel will rerun Season 1 first, with Season 2 following later.

Both the NBC network and SyFy are part of the NBC Universal entertainment group.

The BBC is currently filming a third season of the show, which will likely eventually run on SyFy as well.

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AVATAR, UP, and DISTRICT 9 Are Nominated for Best Picture: How Big a Deal is That?

Posted on 02 February 2010

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Would increasing the number of Best Picture Oscar nominations from five to ten also increase the number of genre films honored? The question has been answered with today’s news that an impressive three sci-fi or fantasy pictures, Avatar, Up, and (surprisingly but very deservedly) District 9, have been nominated.

How big a deal is this? In the 83-year history of the Oscars, here’s a list of all the science fiction or fantasy films that have ever been nominated for Best Picture:

  • The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) *
  • The Wizard of Oz (1939) *
  • Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) *
  • It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
  • King’s Solomon’s Mines (1950)
  • Mary Poppins (1964)
  • Doctor Dolittle (1967)
  • The Exorcist (1973)
  • Star Wars (1977)
  • Heaven Can Wait (1978)
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
  • E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
  • Beauty and the Beast (1991)
  • The Sixth Sense (1999)
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
  • Avatar (2010)
  • District 9 (2010)
  • Up (2010)

The only sci-fi or fantasy movie to win Best Picture is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

(A few other fantasy-esque historical films, like Gladiator, have also been nominated, but don’t quite quality as “fantasy.”)

Here’s the full list of this year’s nominations.

* These years the Academy had ten nominees for Best Picture, just like this year.

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From The Palantir! NBC Gets Super-Heroed. Plus, Get Harry Potter’s Wand!

Posted on 01 February 2010

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  • Robert Downey, Jr. is going to be too busy making Iron Man XXVII and Sherlock Homes 2, so Dreamworks had to find someone else to star in their Cowboys & Aliens. Daniel Craig will lead the cowboys and Native Americans in their alien Alamo, based on the Fred Van Lente graphic novel. Let’s hope they fare better than the soldiers at the actual Alamo.
  • Speaking of movies, there’s a new trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo. I can’t really tell if it’s a thriller, has a fantasy aspect, or people are just crazy. You tell me.

  • I’m old(er), so it occasionally shocks me to remember I carry as much processing power in my cell phone as we had in ten game consoles just a few years ago. The news that Square Enix was releasing Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II on the iPhone let me speechless.
  • Locus Online shares excerpts from an interview with science fiction and fantasy master John Crowley. He laments the end of the age of literature and wonders how you can make a living writing fiction.
  • Charles Stross writes a mix of science fiction and fantasy that I really enjoy. I’d love for him to go back and write another Bob Howard occult spy book. He’d settle for having his books back on sale at Amazon.com, because the online giant pulled every book by publisher Macmillan on Friday in a pricing dispute over ebooks (update: since resolved). This is a big deal for fantasy readers, because they own the Tor imprint, amongst others. He chronicles the dispute on his diary.
  • There’s a Dr. Who-based game show? Yes? No? Maybe? I’m not even going to try. Go read it yourself.
  • The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have announced that the 2010 Nebula Weekend, where the prestigious awards will be presented in sunny Cocoa Beach May 13-16. Other awards shows try and dazzle you in with movie stars and rock stars, but the Nebulas think even bigger than that: they timed it so you can see one of the last launches of the space shuttle, ever, on May 14.
  • Finally, you may have heard that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens this spring at Universal Studios Orlando. Details are leaking out, from photos of the castle to this featurette on Ollivander’s Wand Shop, which is an interactive experience.

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Magic with an Accent: BEING HUMAN Explodes, MERLIN Picks Up, and More!

Posted on 28 January 2010

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Today we debut a new column that looks at fantasy and genre projects from the other side of the pond!

Nearly the whole of the UK has spent the last month covered in a blanket of snow and ice, but at least everyone has had great television to keep then entertained.

The cast of Being Human cozies up together

The cast of Being Human cozies up

January saw the return of the BBC breakout hit, Being Human, a supernatural Three’s Company. Being Human, which is in turns funny and terrifying, follows the lives of three twenty-somethings, John Mitchell (Aidan Turner), George Sands (Russell Tovey), and Annie Sawyer (Lenora Crichlow). It just so happens that these housemates are a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost, respectively.

Being Human premiered with nearly a million and a half viewers, well up from the second season’s finale. Perhaps this could be attributed to our apparent never-ending fascination with vampires, but I think it’s more the intriguing storylines (a vampire who doesn’t want to drink blood?), the fantastic score, and a cast that is not only talented, but so gorgeous they’re gracing the current cover of Gay Times.

In fact, Being Human has been so wildly successful, American TV has decided to do what it does best: make a remake! SyFy has chosen husband and wife team Jeremy Carver (Supernatural) and Anna Fricke (Privileged) to repackage the show for American viewers. This, combined with the announcement that Fox is developing a U.S. version of Torchwood, makes us wonder: can an Americanized Doctor Who be far off?

We hope so. We hope it’s very, very far off indeed.

Colin Morgan as Merlin

Colin Morgan as Merlin

We’ve also got some news on the BBC hit show Merlin. BBC has announced that the series has been renewed for a third season. We got our first (often ham-fisted) glimpses of the Arthur (Bradley James) and Guinevere (Angel Coulby) romance in season two, as well as a new, darker Morgana (Katie McGrath) whose magic is no longer quite so secret, so it’s presumable that season three will start to look a little more like something that won’t make Arthurian scholars turn in their graves. No word yet as to when season three will begin production.

American Merlin fans have something to look forward to as well. The show was actually a co-production with the NBC network, which ran the show last summer — to disastrous ratings, alas. There’s virtually no chance that NBC will bring the show back to prime-time, but it seems likely that season two will appear on one of its sister channels — most likely, SyFy, though at this point, both NBC and SyFy have declined to comment on their plans to TheTorchOnline.com.

In more solid news, the first season will finally be available in DVD in the US starting April 20th.

David Tennant also ended his four-year run as the Doctor in Doctor Who in January, closing out with a two episode arc, “The End of Time”.

The episodes saw not only the return of the Doctor’s nemesis, the Master (John Simm), but of a whole slew of Time Lords, every companion the tenth Doctor has traveled with, even Gallifrey itself. After publicity photos of Donna (Catherine Tate), the Doctor’s previous companion (who lost her memories after a Human-Time Lord meta-crisis) surfaced, there was hope that the Doctor could restore her fuzzled brain and that together again they would save the world.

No such luck, but at least she made off with a new husband and a sackful of money which is, I suppose, someone’s idea of a happy ending.

Well, that’s it for this week. Until next week, mischief managed!

Looking to buy the first season of Merlin on DVD (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

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From The Palantir! SUPERNATURAL Spins Off and Zelda Goes Into the Light

Posted on 27 January 2010

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  • I’ve always wanted to be like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys or Robinson Crusoe and live in a tree house. I was never quite as elaborate in my dreams as the Wilkinson Residence, but I’m not opposed to it.

  • Ursula K. Le Guin has declared war on the Authors Guild for agreeing to “settle” with Google after they and their Google Book Project illegally scanned millions of books. Le Guin has resigned from the organization in a very public way. Careful, or she’ll send the dragons to burn down Google’s Mountain View California campus.
  • George Lucas is working on a CGI feature film at Skywalker Ranch, and it’s a musical about fairies. Typing that made me a little ill. There’s no title for the piece but Kevin Munroe is directing, and his cred for animated films is TMNT (a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies)
  • Nightscape is billed as a thriller/horror movie about three high schoolers discovering they have paranormal powers, but none of that is on display in this quietly creepy trailer that just went up. How is it that little kids walking around quietly can give you the shivers so easily?

  • Zelda Rubenstein, the diminutive actress who played the psychic in Poltergeist has passed away at the age of 76. With more than 50 credits to her name, from voicing Atrocia Frankenstone on The Flintstone Comedy Hour, to guest spots on Caroline in the City, she was also a noted AIDS activist and little people advocate. Our condolences go out to her friends and family.

  • Supernatural is spawning a web spinoff called Ghostfacers, to premiere on TheWB.com in a run of ten three-minute webisodes. If Ghostfacers sound familiar, they appeared in season one and season three of Supernatural, largely for Dean to mock mercilessly.
  • On the face of it Spartacus: Blood and Sand appeared to anemic numbers on Friday night, but it was actually record-breaking for Starz as a network. Nobody seems to have any idea what a magic number is for the show to make money at this point, but hopefully CGI blood spatters aren’t expensive, otherwise they’re screwed.

    • Multiple outlets are linking Sam Worthington to a film called Dracula: Year Zero, about how Vlad the Impaler became Count Dracula. There’s a lot of swirl that this is going to get fast tracked for sometime in 2011.
    • I couldn’t begin to tell you who scores most movies. If it weren’t for the Family Guy spoofs, I’d have no idea who created the iconic Star Wars music. So when Howard Shore was mentioned as having been signed for Twilight: Eclipse, I shrugged. It didn’t ring a bell, but it should have since he scored The Lord of the Rings, and has an Oscar on his shelf. Yeah, I still won’t see it.
    • In Wisconsin prisons, Dungeons & Dragons is considered gang-related activity and is banned for the safety of other prisoners. No, this isn’t a clueless warden making a sweeping ruling about something he knows nothing about, although it started that way. After the prisoners sued, a judge agreed, evidently unaware that “orcs breaching the castle walls” did not mean a jailbreak was imminent.
    • Considering there doesn’t appear to be any hurry to pick a cast for The Hobbit, it’s not surprising that it looks like at least 2012 before Bilbo makes his way from the Shire to the silver screen. It’s a long walk barefoot to get to Hollywood.

    • When it comes to Dune-the book and Dune-the-movie, I liked both, but they remained disconnected in my mind. But we can finally know precisely how Frank Herbert felt about the film, thanks to these publicity interviews from 1983. It turns out, he liked it. He really, really liked it.
    • And to finish on a fun, trippy note, the new featurette for Alice In Wonderland, titled “Strange World” is out, and rather than focusing on a single character like last week’s Mad Hatter, we get to see the characters integrated into their wild surroundings.


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    2010 Fantasy Movie Preview!

    Posted on 26 January 2010

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    2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year for fantasy fans. There are at least 15 films slated for release this year, and we’ve got a full preview!

    Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief
    Release date:     Feb. 12
    Based on the best-selling series by Rick Riordan, Lightning Thief tells the story of Percy Jackson, an American teenager afflicted with ADHD and dyslexia, who discovers on a school field trip that he is the son of Poseidon. (You know, the god of sea and earthquakes. The angriest of the Big Three.) Percy’s mission is to find Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt and prevent a civil war from breaking out among the gods — who, by the way, have moved Olympus from the mythical mountain to the mythical 600th floor of The Empire State Building. Percy also has to rescue his mother from the Underworld, and — presumably — wrestle with the tourists that swarm The Empire State building every Valentine’s Day.

    The Wolfman
    Release date: Feb. 12
    The Wolfman has a long, proud history of scarring the crap out of anyone willing to leave home on the night when the wolfbane blooms. The film has been remade five times since its 1924 debut, and each time it falls firmly in the “horror” category. In this incarnation, Oscar winners Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins team up as Lawrence Talbot and Sir John Talbot, a haunted father and son team searching for their missing brother/son. Lawrence finds himself falling in love with his brother’s fiance, and then falling under the spell of the full moon. We’re holding out hope for a special guest appearance by Michael J. Fox, surfing by the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor on top of a van.

    Alice in Wonderland
    Release date: Mar. 5
    In Tim Burton’s vividly re-imagined Alice in Wonderland, Alice falls down the rabbit hole at the age of 19. She doesn’t remember ever having been to Wonderland before, but you can bet your shrinking potion that Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen remembers her. Alice reunites with the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. (Played by Michael Sheen, Matt Lucas, Barbara Windsor, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry and Johnny Depp, respectively.) The teaser trailer promised stunning visuals and the second trailer actually hinted at an engaging plot. Disney will be offering the film in their patented Digital 3D, just in case you missed out on attending a rave when you were in college.

    Season of the Witch
    Release Date: Mar. 19
    Nicholas Cage plays a battle-worn and weary Crusader who returns to Europe for supplies, only to find himself recruited by a dying Cardinal. His mission is to escort a young woman to a remote abbey where she will stand trial for being a witch. Only this peasant is not your run of the mill Salem sorcerer; no, this witch is responsible for The Black Plague. Can Cage decode the map on the back of the Magna Carta in time to discover the secret message on the inside of King Arthur’s chalice in time to unlock the sacred chisel with which he must carve the answers to the world’s toughest Sudoku? And can he do it in time to save the entire continent from death? Oh, these are the Dark Ages indeed!

    Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
    Release date: Mar. 25
    As the star, screenwriter and producer of this sequel, Emma Thompson has made Nanny McPhee her pet project. The film’s official description reads “A group of children are evacuated from the city to a farm during wartime, where they encounter Nanny McPhee, the magic-wielding governess.” So, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe meets Mary Poppins. Unfortunately, Thompson was so preoccupied with the role, that she couldn’t find time to return as Professor Trelawney in the final installment of Harry Potter. It’s a hard pill to swallow considering that Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort himself) is headlining Thompson’s Big Bang.

    Clash of the Titans
    Release date: Mar. 26
    Another remake of a beloved fantasy classic, Clash of the Titans follows Perseus (born of a god, raised by a man) as he risks his life for the right to marry Princess Andromeda. He must battle Medusa and the Kraken monster as he follows his quest to forbidden worlds to defeat Hades (Ralph Fiennes) before the King of the Underworld can unseat Zeus (Liam Neeson). We don’t mind the remakes, as long as Clash of the Titans doesn’t fall victim to Hollywood’s latest fantasy craze: refusing to properly conclude a story, just in case the studio decides to fund a sequel. The only respectable exception would be the appearance of Kinopio Toad: “We’re sorry Perseus, but your Princess is in another castle.”

    The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    Release date: May 7
    Poor Peter and Susan Pevensie, kicked out of Narnia for learning to shave and discovering makeup. But Edward and Lucy, played by Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley (arguably the more talented of the four child stars who relaunched The Chronicles of Narnia) are back, and they’re bringing Prince Caspian with them. Unfortunately, they’re also bringing Narnia’s own Cousin Oliver, Eustace Clarence Scrubb. (We’re counting on Reepicheep to drown him out. Or just drown him.) Dawn Treader will follow the plot of C.S. Lewis’ original story: The younger Pevensies join forces with Caspian as he sails to the edge of the world, battling dufflepuds, slave traders, dragons, merfolk, and plenty of Christian symbolism along the way.

    Iron Man 2
    Release date:     May 7
    Robert Downey Jr’s celebrated Tony Stark is back in the second part of the Iron Man trilogy. This time, the whole world knows that the industrialist inventor is the man in the armored suit. The military, the American government and the media are all pushing him to share his technology with the world, but Stark knows enough about humanity to realize it’s a terrible idea. Don Cheadle will be taking over for Terrance Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes. And Gwyneth Paltrow will return as Pepper Potts. Unfortunately Pepper drives Stark to the brink of alcoholism when she gets a new boyfriend. Apparently even bazillionaires need a reminder that you shouldn’t operate heavy machinery while under the influence.

    Robin Hood
    Release date: May 14
    When Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood hits theaters, it will be the tenth time the story has been adapted for the big screen. This incarnation follows the more traditional version of the story: Robin of Loxley, Earl of Huntington, returns to London after fighting in the Crusades to find that his village has been plundered at the hands of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen). So, Robin forms a group of rough and tumble Merry Men to steal back their money and their land, and win the heart of Maid Marian (Cate Blanchett). Of course, the real question is whether or not the soundtrack can hope to compete with Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)” from 1991’s Prince of Thieves. We’re guessing probably not.

    Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
    Release date: May 28
    A movie based on a video game? Why not; it worked for Angelina Jolie! In Prince of Persia, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dastan, an Aladdin-like street-urchin in Medieval Persia. After showing unique valor in battle, the King adopts Dastan and sends him off to reclaim the Sands of Time (a gift from the gods that, um, controls the sands of time). Prince of Persia is the fourth Disney/Bruckheimer collaboration, and if the team’s other films (all three Pirates of the Caribbean) are any indication, it should enjoy plenty of mainstream success. And cross-promotion with Happy Meals. And Legos. And graphic novels. And, of course, another video game.

    Jonah Hex
    Release date: June 18
    D.C. is auctioning off its lesser-known heroes right and left these days. Jonah Hex is a caustic, curmudgeonly, former Confederate States Army soldier whose face is scarred almost beyond recognition. He’s got all of the swagger of Clint Eastwood, without any of the charm. Josh Brolin stars as Hex in the movie adaptation, along with John Malkovich as Quentin Turnbull (the bad guy), and Megan Fox as a trigger-happy prostitute. Er, trigger-happy with the guns. Actual guns. Revolvers. Turnbull’s plan is a Civil War do-over, and Hex has been hired as the bounty hunter who must shut him down. The plot sounds almost as plausible as Malkovich with a southern accent. We totally buy Megan Fox’s role, though.

    The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
    Release date:     June 30
    We haven’t really heard much about this movie. It’s apparently some kind of adaptation of a vampire romance novel. There may have been some movies before this one, but they must have flopped at the box office. From what we’ve heard, there’s a vampire with some wicked crazy hair, and a werewolf who refuses to wear a shirt, and a helpless girl who sits in her room listening to emo music and writing fan fiction about herself. We also heard something about sparkles and middle-aged women wearing t-shirts to support either the wicked hair or the abs. If any other information becomes available, we’ll let you know. This thing will probably go straight to DVD, though.

    The Last Airbender
    Release date:     July 2
    M. Night Shyamalan directing a Nickelodeon movie? Who’d have guessed it? (Us, actually. M. Night Shyamalan sees dollar signs.) The Last Airbender is a live-action adaptation of the super popular Nick cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The premise of the cartoon is that Earth, Fire, Water and Air can be controlled by “benders.”  Aang is the Avatar, and the last surviving member of Air Nomads. His purpose is to restore balance and overthrow the Fire Nation’s Admiral Zhao, but first he must learn to focus and bend all of the elements. Fortunately, the creators of the series left out the fifth element, Heart. That poor kid with the Heart ring on Captain Planet had the lamest superpower ever.

    The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
    Release date: July 16
    Nicholas Cage is back with more fantasy, this time in a live-action adaptation of the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” scene from Disney’s Fantasia. (You remember? Mickey and those crazy mops!) Cage plays Balthazar Blake, a master sorcerer who sets out to protect his city from an evil wizard. He recruits a young apprentice, Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel) to help him. After a crash-course in magic (and what could possibly go wrong when you put those two words together?), Stutler joins Blake’s quest in a Disney-esque battle of Good versus Evil. The film looks to be a lot less trippy than the actual “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Fantasia. So if you’re looking for a mind-bend, you’ll have to watch Burton’s Alice in Wonderland on DVD.

    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
    Release date: Nov 17
    If you thought Dumbledore’s death was tragic, wait until the first five minutes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry’s beloved and loyal companion, Hedwig, gets (spoiler alert) blasted out of the sky. As promised, Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t return for their seventh year at Hogwarts. Instead they must decode Dumbledore’s mission for them from beyond the grave while trying to find and destroy the fragments of Voldemort’s soul that he’s hidden in horcruxes around the country. The path toward victory is strewn with casualties and heartbreak. Even the unshakable trio will find themselves turning against one another. Director David Yates is sticking with the films until the final expelliarmus.

    Tron Legacy
    Release date    : Dec. 17
    Tron Legacy is the nerdgasmic sequel to Disney’s 1982 film. Jeff Bridges return as Kevin Flynn, and and Bruce Boxleitner will reprise his roles as Alan Bradley and Tron. Garrett Hedlund will take over as Kevin’s now-adult son, Sam, who gets sucked into the same world his father disappeared into 25 years earlier. (We knew he was alive!) The father/son team join forces and traverse the treacherous cyber terrain, which has become much more sophisticated since we last saw it.

    Obviously, a tie-in video game will be released in time for Christmas.

    What 2010 fantasy film are you most looking forward to?

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    From The Palantir! A DR. HORRIBLE Cliff-Hanger, DRAGON AGE Forgets to “Save,” and Prince Caspian Fesses Up

    Posted on 20 January 2010

    Tags: , , , ,

    • Will there be a Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog 2? Joss Whedon says yes, but if so, he better get on it quick, or Neil Patrick Harris says he won’t be able to fit it in for another year.
    • What the hell ever happened to that Dragon Age Origins expansion pack, Return to Ostagar, that was supposed to be out earlier this month? Still not released. They didn’t take into account “changes across all the game’s platforms,” which as good an excuse as any, but only the xBox version was scheduled for release in January anyway.
    • The dailies for the pilot of the would-be HBO series A Game of Thrones (based on George R. R. Martin’s amazing books) supposedly look fantastic, and the show will almost certainly be greenlit. But this quote from HBO Programming Chief Michael Lombardo is worrisome to me and indicates a deep-seated misunderstanding of fantasy: “The fantasy is so incidental, it has a very adult tone,” Lombardo said. “You forget it’s fantasy while you’re watching it, and that’s what I love about it.”
    • It’s unusual for the star of a franchise to admit, mid-franchise, that one of the movies didn’t really work, but, refreshingly, that seems to be what Narnia’s Ben Barnes is saying about Prince Caspian (and I could. not. agree. more.): “There’s more joy and fun in [The Voyage of the Dawn Treader],” he says. “It’s a better story than Prince Caspian, which maybe took itself a bit too seriously.”

    • Speaking of Narnia, lampposts from the movies have been recycled, and are now actually in use in a development in downtown Los Angeles. Alas, it doesn’t look to me like they’re using the lamppost.
    • The latest rumor: Tobey Maguire as Bilbo. Wait, wasn’t this one already shot down? Sure enough, everyone who knows anything denies it. But I confess, I’m now thoroughly confused (and starting to really not care).
    • In anticipation of the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at  Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, they’re raising their prices! Meanwhile, they’re also hiring. Wanna be a wizard? Okay, so the auditions for actors are already over, but they are hiring cashiers and greeters. Here are the latest pictures from the park.
    • What’s more cynical than grinding a tired superhero franchise into the ground? Stopping mid-series and immediately “rebooting” it with another origin story, low budget-style: “The plan for the movie is to be in the $80 million range and feature a cast of relative unknowns. … And the story will be pared down to center on a high school kid who is dealing with the knowledge that his uncle died even though the teen had the power to stop it.” Still, it’s being directed by the guy who did (500) Days of Summer, which was a wonderful movie.
    • Inspired by Avatar, George Lucas wants make Star Wars 3-D. How about he use that inspiration to make something that doesn’t suck? CollegeHumor.com has a pretty funny response (and wow, they got that up quick!):

    • Mel Gibson will definitely not be in the Mad Max reboot. I know this shouldn’t surprise me (given “the incident”), but it kinda does.
    • Tim Burton may tell the story of Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty), which sounds good on paper, but what is this but a slightly different take on Wicked?
    • How very, very depressing. Publishers, specifically Bloomsbury are putting pictures of white girls on books about black characters.

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

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    Fox to Air U.S. Version of TORCHWOOD?

    Posted on 19 January 2010

    Tags: , ,

    The big news of the day is that Fox is developing an “American” version of the U.K. hit Torchwood, a Doctor Who spin-off about a clandestine group of operatives who investigate alien activity. The group is led by Captain Jack Harkness, a bisexual time-traveler and all-around rogue from the 51st century.

    Unlike other Americanized versions of U.K. shows, Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the show will be developed by the team responsible for the U.K. show, with creator Russell T. Davies writing the script and, most likely, John Barrowman once again playing Jack Harkness. Other actors from the U.K. show maybe also be involved, although the project will reportedly have more of a “global” theme, less specific to the U.K.

    But many questions remain: will the U.S. version include the show’s frank same-sex sexual themes that have been extraordinarily popular in the U.K.? Given that both Davies and Barrowman are both openly gay, it’s hard to imagine their involvement without that aspect. Then again, there are few U.S. shows with leading gay or bisexual characters, and there has never been a U.S. genre show with an openly gay leading character — although last year’s ill-fated Virtuality, the pilot of which also ran on Fox, did include supporting gay characters.

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    A Tale of Two TV Shows: CHUCK Soars While HEROES Implodes

    Posted on 18 January 2010

    Tags: , , ,

    After an arduous renewal campaign that saw fans rushing to Subway for five-dollar foot-longs and Tweeting until their fingers bled, the third season of Chuck premiered last Sunday night. It settled into its regular slot on Monday, followed by Heroes at its new time.

    NBC’s decision to pair Heroes with Chuck seems like a smart move: they each need to pull their weight in ratings if they want to stick around for another season; and since they are the network’s only fantasy-esque offerings, the audience should be equally invested in both — right?

    Well, not exactly.

    Apparently, the Save Chuck (#savechuck) campaign did more than bring the show back for a third season. Sunday night’s two-hour premiere pulled in staggering ratings for the sci-fantasy/romantic dramedy. (That description has been one of the Chuck’s biggest hang-ups. How do you market something that can’t be pegged in a specific genre?) And Monday night it fared even better.

    According to TVbytheNumbers.com, Chuck “scored the show’s highest regular-slot results in 18-49 and total viewers since the special 3-D telecast on February 2, 2009, the night after the Super Bowl.” Additionally, it was up 18 percent in 18-49 ratings and 14 percent in total viewers.

    But Nerd Herd solidarity didn’t spill over to 9:00. Fox’s special airing of Fringe eviscerated Heroes, drawing in over seven million viewers, while Heroes barely clung to four million. It was the worst-rated Heroes telecast ever.

    It’s no secret that program slotting at NBC is volatile right now. Nothing is safe — unless you’re a Law and Order. The network is fast-tracking a dozen freshman programs to fill the 10 p.m. Leno Dead Zone. And after the already-infamous late night debacle, they can’t afford to hang on to flailing programs.

    What does that mean for NBC’s only fantasy-esque shows?

    Well, both Heroes and Chuck are on pretty steep trajectories. Unfortunately, they’re heading in opposite directions.

    Chuck went from the bubble, to a 13-episode mid-season renewal, to a 19-episode pickup. And now it’s pulling better ratings than ever.

    Heroes, on the other hand, cannot seem to hold its footing. They’ve pulled out all the publicity stops this season, including a faux-lesbian storyline for cheerleader Claire. (And we all know “kiss the lesbian” is the new “jump the shark.”)

    Tonight, Chuck and Heroes go up against CBS’ always well-rated sitcom night and a special two-hour 24 event on Fox. It will be interesting to see if Chuck can hold onto his momentum in the face of Jack Bauer.

    As for Heroes, well, at least it’s beating out reruns of Gossip Girl.

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    New JURASSIC PARK Movie Trilogy in the Works?

    Posted on 17 January 2010

    Tags: , , ,

    Buried in an interview with The Wolfman director Joe Johnston at Boxoffice Magazine is some information about a possible second trilogy for the Jurassic Park franchise.

    Johnston directed Jurassic Park III, and mentioned in November that he was working on Jurassic Park IV. Now he adds some additional information:

    You said that there was no way to get people back on the island for a fourth time and have it make sense, but that 2001 was the last installment and we’re due.

    Well, there is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen. It breaks away from the first three—it’s essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It’s going to be done in a completely different way. That’s pretty much all I can tell you.

    A second trilogy?

    If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy.

    That’s big. So not to lock you in, but there’s a possibility there might be a total of six films?

    Well, you never know. If they keep working—and if audiences keep going to them—there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don’t want to make sequel after sequel just because there’s a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories. You don’t want to just sell hamburger.

    Read the full interview.

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    Interview: On SPARTACUS, Lucy Lawless Cuts Loose (Even as She Tones it Down)

    Posted on 14 January 2010

    Tags: , , , , , ,

    Lucy Lawless is not Xena.

    On some level, we all know this; I interview actors all the time, so I definitely know they’re not the parts they play.

    But when I interviewed Lucy at the Television Critics Association conference in Pasadena last July, I honestly wasn’t prepared for just how much she isn’t Xena.

    Xena is somber, down-to-earth, and practical, haunted by her famous “dark” past; Lucy is cheeky, irreverent, and impish, always looking for an opportunity to cut it up.

    But they have things in common as well: they’re both fiercely intelligent and very kind-hearted. And of course, they’re both statuesque and stunningly beautiful. At 41, Lucy looks sensational.

    With Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a high-profile CGI-intensive retelling of the story of the ancient Roman slave that debuts next Friday on Starz, Lucy is showing the world yet another example of her considerable acting abilities.

    She not the “star” of the show, but rather, a major supporting player. Lucretia, the wife of the owner of the training camp where Spartacus trains as a slave, is also very different from Xena: she’s flighty and superficial, at least at first, but also cunning and scheming. And as Lucy herself noted in our interview, she’s not particularly powerful, at least not at the beginning of the series.

    Oh, and Lucretia is also often naked. The show includes some of the most graphic sex and violence ever to be seen in series television. One of the most-talked about scenes of the first few episodes will surely be the one where Lucretia and her husband have a conversation while both are being sexually serviced by slaves.

    Does it ruin my professional credibility to say that it was a thrill to meet Lucy in person? Even better, despite my sky-high expectations, she did not disappoint:

    TheTorchOnline: How is Lucretia different from Xena?

    Lucy Lawless: The part is challenging for me, because I tend to go in a comedic direction. Just naturally, I want to make everything just [crazy noise]. I just want to party all the time.

    [But] there’s really no room for that in this show. It has to be very minimal and very naturalistic to sell this world, to be really super believable, because in the show all the people take for granted things that today are very taboo.

    TTO: Are you worried that your fans will be expecting Xena?

    LL: No. I have a loyal bunch, and they’ve seen me do many, many things: some good, and some bad. I think they see me as Lucy and not as Xena. They’re not confused.

    TTO: Unlike Xena, you don’t have a lot of action scenes.

    LL: No. Woo!

    TTO: So that’s a good thing?

    LL: Fabulous!

    TTO: Does that mean you don’t have to go to the gym as much?

    LL: I do have to go to the gym! I have to be naked on screen. I’m terrified. I hate it. But if it’s right to fulfill a scene, and it’s what a character would do, you gotta go there, because that part, I’m an artist. No matter what my pathetic middle-class morals, I want to be truthful more than I want to protect myself.

    TTO: I read you said that one of the things that attracted you to the role, and the show in general, was that it had complicated female characters, in a distant past when they didn’t have an opportunity to have overt power. What do you think about the female characters in the show?

    LL: Well, women could still be major players [in Ancient Rome]. They could own land and that sort of thing. They couldn’t get a job in the Senate, but as with all politics, the people who exert the greatest influence are not always the people in the seat.

    TTO: And that’s what’s going on here?

    LL: It’s what’s going on everywhere.

    TTO: Good point. You said she sees herself as the power behind the throne?

    LL: I think she will come to see herself as that. It doesn’t start off like that. I didn’t want people to go, “Oh, there’s Xena in a different frock.” I didn’t want her to powerful, yet. She’s confident of her role, but I did not want her to come out of the starting block with the audience knowing what kind of animal she was. That would be an insult.

    [But] she becomes more Machiavellian as things go against her and her husband. She thinks she’s right all the time. She’s forced to do these terrible things. She knows they’re not okay, but she doesn’t have any choice. If someone does something to upset the family business, her husband and the gladiator thing, then somebody has to die for it. She’s going to enable and cover and carry it off. She really shores up her husband no matter what. She’s survival of the fittest. And she loves her husband. The fact that they’re so damn dysfunctional is just adds a twist to the drama.

    TTO: You told me earlier that you thought modern audiences might perceive her as a villain. That says to me that you’ve really gotten into the heart and head of the character — that you yourself don’t necessarily see her as a “villain,” you’re seeing the character from her point-of-view. How did you get to that place in her head?

    LL: When you see all the terrible things, when people get unceremoniously killed in front of her, she doesn’t say, “He was slaughtered, he was murdered.” It’s just like, “Oh.” So that makes you think, “What motivates my character?” She has this relationship with death and bloodshed, but it’s really just like a complete disconnection, that zero empathy thing. She only empathizes with people on or above her station in life. And that’s very interesting to us who are taught to give a damn.

    I guess there are a lot of people out there like that still. I’m not sure anything has changed here.

    TTO: Is it hard to shake Lucretia when you’re done filming? Can you just walk away from the set or does it mentally affect you?

    LL: No, but the sex things I do sometimes find it hard to shake off. There’s nothing like a sex scene to put you off sex. [laughs]

    TTO: Is it better on the show that it’s both men and women who are naked?

    LL: Yeah. It’s definitely better. If it was just women then I probably wouldn’t be interested in taking it. The fact is, that is truthful. If you’re sitting out there, I think it’s cool to be able to watch the show and fully explore that world at that time.

    TTO: Whose idea was it to make it this explicit?

    LL: The initial impulse came from [creators] Rob [Tapert] and Sam [Raimi] and Josh [Donen], who desired to make something that went so far. And then you have to find someone to fulfill it like [showrunner] Steven DeKnight, and then stars jump on board and say, “Yes, we have the cohones to make that.” Throw a lot of money at it. So many stations couldn’t, because that’s not their belief. They haven’t got the mandate to do that, they haven’t go the taste for it.

    These guys are really very ballsy, and I hope it really puts their future on the map. I’m really so proud of this, so proud of every day’s work.

    TTO: How long are the days on the set?

    LL: Standard. Fourteen. Well, twelve on the set, maybe longer to get your hair done and stuff. Big hair show. Amazing design show for that.

    TTO: At what point did you make the decision, “Okay I’m going to work with your husband Rob [who also created Xena] again. I’m going to commit to it.”

    LL: I wanted to do it. And people in Hollywood were like, “Why? Why are you doing that? Spartacus sounds like Xena again. It’s like you’re going backwards.” And I was like, “I don’t know. It’s really good. Really good.” And they’re like, “Yeah. Okay.” They couldn’t know what I know about my husband.

    TTO: So you have a lot of trust and faith.

    LL: Yes, and I saw who was signed, I knew who was getting on board. The hardest thing now, because everything else is just top-notch, is the effects coming on time and being as good as the rest of the show, because that’s really important. We’ve got the right knowledge and the right technicians, but we’ve got seven or eight hundred effects shot per episode. It’s really painstaking, but we’ve got to get these episodes on the air quick.

    TTO: I know you’ve spent the last ten years talking about Xena, but I run a site devoted to fantasy, and I confess, I’m astounded by the online fan base. They’re so enthusiastic, as opposed to a show like Hercules, that I don’t think made that leap. What was it about that Xena that has made it make that leap into iconic status?

    LL: I think that friendship [between Xena and Gabrielle] is really pivotal. I think it centers on the friendship. That’s the curse of society. We’ve gotten a bit dispersed and a bit disconnected. We don’t live in small communities anymore. We don’t know our neighbors. Every man has to be a little hero just to get by. I think that touched on a yearning for connection and love, and for the everyday hero.

    TTO: Did you have a sense when you were doing it that it would have the life that it’s had?

    LL: I think I was so naïve I thought every show became a hit. [laughs]

    But it’s gone beyond that now, Xena fans banded together and do “Feel the Love” Week. It’s the second week in October, October 8th. They go out and do something in their communities. They used to send stuff to my charity, and I got uncomfortable with that, so I said, “Look, do something, whatever it is, go out in your own communities and enrich that.” And they take that and practice it.

    A doctor in Brazil performed, for a week, free palate surgery, to somebody put up a rail for the lady next door who was in a wheelchair, to I painted somebody’s nursery. Stuff that’s a force for good, and I think that’s really humbling. They’ve taken something which for me was just a great gig and mucking around in leather for six years, and made it something that has spiritual payoffs in their own communities.

    Spartacus: Blood and Sand airs January 22nd at 10 PM on the Starz premium cable network.

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