Tag Archives: Scifi

Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ looking for new film home.

The rights holders to Frank Herbert’s Dune are on the look out now for a new partner to help make a new film a reality:

Paramount has turned loose the giant worm, and everything else that was part of the seminal Frank Herbert science fiction novel series Dune. The studio’s four-year attempt to make a movie out of the franchise has fallen by the wayside. “Paramount’s option has expired and we couldn’t reach an agreement,” said Richard P. Rubinstein, who controls the rights on behalf of the author’s estate and ABC.

via Paramount Ends 4-Year Attempt To Turn Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ Into Film Franchise – Deadline.com.

I would enjoy to see a modern take on Dune, since David Lynch’s version in the 1980’s was a bit of a weird take on it and the mini series the SCIFI channel now SYFY did in 2000, was well done but you can tell it was done on a some what of a limited TV budget.  So it would be nice to see a big budget version of Dune be made, the question will be can any one really make a single 2-3 hour movie out of the complex book.  It would be interesting to see them try, in the link above, it says Rubinstein was happy with the latest script.

Another possible interesting option is to see a channel like HBO, Showtime or Starz make a full fledge TV show out of the book.  If HBO did it and gave the type of budget and care they are doing for Game of Thrones, I would be confident in how it might turn out.

I do hope a new version comes along here soon, since I have always enjoyed the world of Dune once I started reading the books years ago and would enjoy a new take on it.

3 returning TV shows I am excited for

Stargate Universe, Syfy Tuesday, premieres September 28th, at 8pm central

Universe had a decent first season, setting up the characters and trying to find its footing in season one as all shows tend to do. Universe is certainly a bit more of a darker show than the previous two Stargate shows, SG-1 & Atlantis, much more conflict between the characters. I would say that so far is the biggest change from the previous two entries in the franchise. I do not mean to imply it is a bad thing, it certainly is not, just a bit of a change from what has come before. The first season ended with a cliffhanger so will be interesting to see how that is resolved.

Below is a trailer for season 2.

Big Bang Theory, CBS, premieres Thursday, September 23rd at 7pm central

This is a comedy that really broke out into a huge hit this last season. The show is very well written and has great actors in it that bring the comedy to life so well. It was great to see Jim Parsons win best actor in a comedy at the Emmy’s this year, since he does an excellent job as Sheldon on the show. With four of the five main characters being geeks/scientists there is so much potential for comedy in their interacting and interacting with non geeks/scientists that it has found the characters in some highly amusing and some times outlandish scenarios.

The video below from a TV Guide shoot just shows the great interaction between the three big characters on the show.

Fringe, FOX Thursdays, premieres September 23rd, 8pm central

I did not watch the first season of Fringe, but started watching during second season and then soon after got caught up on season 1 on DVD. The show is a great mixture of scifi/fantasy, a bit of horror, and procedural shows. Besides some of the procedural parts in most episodes in the case of the week, I love that the show has an over arching mythology. I do enjoy a show that mixes in an ongoing story/mythology, always have loved those types of shows. Fringe has quickly become one of my favorite shows since I started watching it last September.

The trailer below gives a brief glimpse into season 3.

Short Review: The intriguing “Inception”

I have been meaning to do this review ever since I saw Inception on opening weekend, while it is a bit late here is my review finally.

I did a post earlier this month wonder if Inception would be a hit & it certainly seems like it is.  I went to see the movie Inception on opening weekend, like many other people did it seems by how much it made at the box office.  Inception made $62.8 million over the opening weekend, which is pretty good opening for a non franchise film. For the second weekend it made  $42.7 million.  I will try to keep this short review relatively spoiler free for people who have not seen the movie yet.

Inception is a nice mixture of action set pieces and interesting questions and ideas about dreams and what if  questions on dreams.  For me how the movie handled the dreams and stealing information/ideas and planting them very well, in a way that made me understand it and not real difficult to follow.  I had heard from news items about the movie that it might be a bit difficult to follow or understand in parts, but for me it really was not too hard in the end, and I understood what I needed to get the important points from the film.

Being that most of the movie takes part in some dream or another, director Christopher Nolan was able to create a few great action set pieces to satisfy the adrenaline in people.  The one I enjoyed the most was the fight sequence with in a dream maybe a bit past mid way through the movie. What the dream allowed them to do is to create the conditions for a fight sequence that you normally don’t see nor was it a traditional fight and pull it off well.  The characters in the movie are not all greatly drawn out, but this movie is not really about the characters to me more about the ideas that are presented in it, topped off with the bits of action that are strewn throughout the movie.

I would certainly recommend going to see the movie it was highly enjoyable and gives you a little something to think about.