Stop raping my childhood you bastards!

Some (and by that I mean one or two only) are films that I think could do with being remade, but the vast majority of the films that follow I simply cannot understand why they would need remaking.

I do understand some of the motivations for Hollywood to remake films – lapsing of copyright on the originating materials being chief among them – but is it really expecting too much from the leading producer of western cinematic product to give us some originality?
If the films fail at the box office at least they would have tried, rather than having a lacklustre attempt at regaining the fever (or otherwise) that greeted the original.
Anyway, on with the list, and in no particular order …

Sci-Fi Films of 2011 – What I Want to See

I haven’t ever really done this before, so why not give it a go now?
Well, why not indeed, so here’s a list of science fiction (or at least sci-fi tinged) films I’d like to see this year.
There may be more that crop up along the way, but for the moment these are the ones right now that I’m keen to view.

My Films of 2010

My annual tradition of posting all the films I’ve seen in the past 12 months rolls around once again.

I initially planned to systematically work my way through the BFI’s top 100 films, but after an abortive start to that I quickly realised that there were other films I’d much rather be watching, so I concentrated on those instead.

Highlights of the year included Transsiberian, Stalker, Kick-Ass and Sunshine Cleaning.
Lowlights were The Human Centipede , Paranormal Activity and Avatar.
Special mention this year goes to TRON : Legacy for possibly bridging the longest gap between original film and sequel in Hollywood history – I also enjoyed it very much, and Jackie Chan, for making so many enjoyable films.

I’d kinda also like to thank Film4 for showing the first ten Star Trek films back-to-back over the course of two nights.
That was a fun couple of evenings spent on Twiter whilst watching the films.

I seem to say this every year, but I’d like to see more science fiction films in 2011 than I did in 2010, though once again personal circumstances conspire against me in my quest to watch more films at the cinema, but we’ll see how that goes as the year moves along.

Follow the link below to get to the film listings for 2010.
Happy New Year to everyone everywhere.

Film 2010

Has anyone seen this?
I had the misfortune to see last nights show and it was truly awful.
The host hardly said anything, it was all down to some other person in the rather one-sided conversation to come up with the ‘insights’ and when the host did get a turn to speak the most interesting thing to come out of her mouth was “I agree”.
I mean, WTF?!?
There was hardly any commentary to camera and what there was was just introducing a taped interview.
I’ve been a fan of this show since I was young. Barry Norman an Jonathan Ross presented the show really well, but after last nights performance I could happily never watch it again.
What a shame.
(8+(

The Guardian’s top 25 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Films

For the past week or so the Guardian has been running a series of film lists, running down the top 25 in specific genres.
The science fiction and fantasy top 25 was posted today, and I have issues with it.

Depp as Who?

Okay, so you may have heard the rumour that Johnny Depp is to play Doctor Who in a new American feature film.
No? Oh, well here’s the link.

I’m very unsure about this.
There’s obviously scope to do things right, and if done right it could certainly add longevity to the character. Remember that The Doctor only gets 12 regenerations, so there’s only two more incarnations left to come – this is assuming they tie in any possible film with the canon of the the TV show.

There’s nothing to say that the TV show hasn’t shown us all the Doctor’s versions and we are currently on the final one in TV land. Depp’s Doctor could be the version where we finally get to see the time war in all it’s big-screen glory.

It’s nice to speculate, but at the moment this is all just based on a rumour. It’s likely a rumour set in motion by someone at a big Hollywood studio just to gauge the reception a likely film may get. Johnny Depp may just be a name that’s thrown out there as he’s a popular actor of the day.
Who knows?

(8+)

Spoon

If you’ve seen the film District 9 you may be familiar with Sharlto Copley who played Wikus in that film (he’s also playing ‘Mad’ Murdock in the upcoming A-Team film).
Well, apparently before he took up acting in films he was directing films.
A long gestating project of his is a film called Spoon. According to IMDB, Spoon is “A thriller with supernatural overtones about a man with a medical condition that causes him to black out during moments of extreme stress and leads him to make a remarkable discovery about himself.”.

Starring Darren Boyd (The Green Wing & Magicians) as the titular character Darren Spoon it also features Rutger Hauer as his father Victor Spoon.

Linked below is a short teaser trailer to announce the project.
The main feeling I get from this is a Videodrome sort of film, possibly with a bit of Scanners thrown in.
There’s really not much to go on but it looks like an interesting project. The official ‘site for the film SpoonTheMovie.com is sparse of material at the moment but I guess it’s only a matter of time before something is done with it (at least I hope so).

Looking around the ‘net for any more information relating to this project I happened across a very detailed blog concerning the whole production process of the film. I haven’t read nearly all of the entries yet (there’s a lot of ’em) but what I have read has been very insightful.
Take a look for yourself over at indefilmlive.blogspot.com and see what you think.

Anyway, the teaser for the film is here, you’ll need to scroll a little down the page to get to it.

Super 8

The first teaser trailer has gone online for this Steven Spielberg produced, J.J. Abrams directed film.
Much like the way he handled the secrecy for his Star Trek reboot, Abrams is treating the specifics about this film very secretively, only releasing material for it as part of a viral marketing campaign not too dissimilar to the way in which the marketing for Cloverfield was handled (Abrams was producer on Cloverfield).

Super 8 trailer
(other ‘sites/hosts are available)

There’s rumours (aren’t there always?!?) that this is actually a prequel to Cloverfield, though this early in the marketing campaign I’d be a little surprised if that nugget turned out to be true.
The film itself isn’t scheduled to be released until 2011, so there’s loads of time to debate/argue about what it will or will not be.

TRON Legacy

So I’ve known about this for some time, but with the release date being so far off I haven’t really felt the need to post about it.
That being said, more and more news appears to be hitting the ‘net about it and so I thought it was time to mention it myself.
I’ve tried to stay away from specific plot/story spoilers, but I haven’t really been able to miss the images that have been doing the rounds.
I know that Jeff Bridges is in it, as well as Bruce Boxleitner, both of whom reprise their roles from the original film.
If the film turns out as well as the images below promise then it’ll be excellent.

I’ve made my feelings known regarding 3D cinema recently and I am a little disheartened to hear that TRON will be a 3D release but hopefully it’ll be being filmed that way and not have to go through some sort of 3D-ification (like Alice in Wonderland did) which should help with its realisation.

Anyway, images after the jump.

Pumzi

Pumzi, allegedly Kenya’s first science fiction film, imagines a dystopian future 35 years after water wars have torn the world apart. East African survivors of the ecological devastation remain locked away in contained communities, but a young woman in possession of a germinating seed struggles against the governing council to bring the plant to Earth’s ruined surface.
I’d love to see this in the cinema but there’s fat chance of that ever happening.