Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 134 i SciFi Now

Our genre has always needed voices. We need the giant, mind-blowing visions, we need the unpredictable, hard-to-market gambles, we need eye-popping worlds filled with spaceships, aliens and things that are frankly difficult to put into words, and we need those unfettered filmmakers and visionaries who can bring them to us. This summer’s blockbusters have been packed with sequels, remakes and expanded universe instalments, and while that’s certainly no bad thing, we need that beautiful jolt of something new, something unexpected. That’s why a new film by Luc Besson is always a cause for celebration. Yes, he’s one of the most prolific writers of not-so-guilty pleasure action movies but when he gets behind the camera for a science fiction film, we sit up and pay attention. Especially when it’s a project…

WONDER WOMAN If the beautifully striking image of Wonder Woman lifting a tank high above her head while drenched in glorious sunlight doesn’t make you want to stand on a table and denounce the patriarchy then we don’t know what will. DC has been churning out some truly amazing posters for Woman Woman throughout its publicity run, but we have to say we think this one is the best. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES We have no idea what’s going on here. Why is Paul McCartney in the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise? Why does it look like his face was pasted on using a Snapchat filter? Why does he seem to be cosplaying Captain Jack Sparrow? There’s so much to take in. OKJA We challenge…

Valerian & Laureline As spatio-temporal agents, these two have all the qualifications needed to stop the dark force threatening to tear the city of Alpha apart. They also have a delightful back and forth honed over decades of landmark comics, and they have some pretty spiffy outfits too. Recommended. Guardians Of The Galaxy Having reviewed their record, the self-named Guardians of the frickin’ galaxy have indeed saved the universe twice. They seem to be growing stronger as a unit with every mission, although we do have some concerns about their attitude. It’s great that they’re bonding but if we’re going to hire them, we could do with less sass and fewer dance breaks. And that raccoon will steal anything that isn’t nailed down. The Enterprise crew We’d love to bring…

On repeat collaborations “When you go through a season of a project, there’s a comfort level there. You’re able to experiment and it’s okay to make mistakes because you know what everybody is capable of. It’s nice because sometimes we go: ‘You know what? That maybe just doesn’t work so well. Let’s change it again.’ But with a comfort level like that, you can be very creative. Good things can come out of that.” On giving Warcraft its own sound “I definitely knew that I wanted it to be different to Game Of Thrones. It’s a completely different fantasy world. You also have to remember that it’s an existing franchise with existing game music, so I wanted to kind of give a nod to the existing music. It’s still totally…

Peter Parker (Spider-Man, 2002) – 16/17 Tobey Maguire – 28 Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man, 2002) – 16/17 Kirsten Dunst – 20 Harry Osborn (Spider-Man, 2002) – 16/17 James Franco – 24 Flash Thompson (Spider-Man, 2002) – 16/17 Joe Manganiello – 26 Peter Parker (The Amazing Spider-Man, 2012) – 16/17 Andrew Garfield – 29 Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man, 2012) – 16/17 Emma Stone – 24 Flash Thompson (The Amazing Spider-Man, 2012) – 16/17 Chris Zylka – 27 Peter Parker (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017) – 15 Tom Holland – 21 Michelle (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017) – 15 Zendaya – 20 Ned (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017) – 15 Jacob Batalon – 20 Flash Thompson (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017) – 15 Tony Revolori – 21…

“I WAS AFRAID THAT IT WOULD BE A TYPICAL HORROR SEQUEL. IT’S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT”DAVID F SANDBERG JUST PRIOR TO JOINING THE BILLION-DOLLAR DIRECTORS’ CLUB WITH FURIOUS 7, WRITER/ director/producer James Wan had cemented himself as a one-man horror factory. The Conjuring had earned $320 million worldwide from a $40 million budget and along with the rise of the Insidious franchise, he was becoming one of the most dependable and exciting names in modern horror. 2014's Annabelle, which he produced but which was directed by his Conjuring and Insidious cinematographer John Leonetti, was inspired by a haunted doll in the possession of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real-life psychic investigators portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in The Conjuring. It gives the whole Wan-a-verse a Marvel-style shared history feel, so…

Details 15 // 98 mins // 1970 // // Released Out now Director Dario Argento Cast Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi Distributor Arrow Video Dario Argento’s directorial debut, a gripping murder mystery that shows off several of the filmmaker’s interests, gets a handsome 4K restoration courtesy of Arrow Video. While his adaptation of Fredric Brown’s novel lacks the dazzlingly confusing twists of his giallo masterpiece Deep Red or the stunning atmosphere of his Three Mothers trilogy, themes like the unreliability of memory, buried clues and brutal violence are very much present and correct, as highlighted by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas’ excellent video essay included on the disc. The film follows Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), a disgruntled American writer in Rome who witnesses an attempted murder while walking past…

Details 15 // 105 mins // 2016 // • // Released 17 July Director Olivier Assayas Cast Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz Distributor Icon Home Entertainment Kristen Stewart continues to impress with a low-key but powerful turn in Olivier Assayas’ Paris-set ghost story. She plays Maureen, a personal shopper who doubles as a medium and who is desperate to contact the spirit of her recently deceased twin brother. However, finding the thing she wants more than anything will plunge her into more danger than she realises. As she travels back and forth finding the perfect clothes and accessories for her temperamental employer, she begins to receive text messages that seem to be from a spirit that she encountered in her brother’s old house. It doesn’t appear to be him,…

Details 15 // 104 mins // 2017 // • // Released Out now Director Jordan Peele Cast Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener Distributor Universal Pictures The ‘sunken place’ has forever entered the horror genre and contemporary pop culture as a deeply disturbing place to be with writer and director Jordan Peele using it to represent how it feels to be marginalised. It’s a place main character Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) enters when he visits his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) affluent, white family in upstate New York. With his debut solo feature, Peele has delivered an astute, funny and tightly scripted satire on what it feels like to be a black person living in modern America and it’s horrifying. Night Of The Living Dead, The Stepford Wives and…

Details PG // 116 mins // 1921 // // Released 17 July Director Fritz Lang Cast Lil Dagover, Bernhard Goetzke, Walter Janssen Distributor Eureka Fritz Lang’s masterful fable (titled Destiny in the US) about love, loss and death gets a beautiful restoration from Eureka and Masters Of Cinema, bringing a silent classic to a new audience. The mind behind Metropolis gives us a haunting and affecting story in which seemingly unstoppable forces can perhaps be swayed, and the course of true love does not run smoothly. The story follows a young couple (Lil Dagover and Walter Janssen) who are travelling through the countryside when they pick up a sinister hitchhiker (Bernhard Goetzke). When they arrive at a provincial small town, the stranger goes to see the mayor and pays an…

Batman – The Animated Series We told you Lansdale’s output was varied. He wrote three episodes between 1992 and 1995, including the excellent ‘Perchance To Dream.’ Bubba Ho-Tep Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis starred as Elvis and Jack in Don Coscarelli’s pitch-perfect adaptation that got the mix of sharp, sweet and weird. Incident On And Off A Mountain Road Coscarelli returned to Lansdale’s shorts for his Masters Of Horror episode, a grimly effective chase story with Grimm’s Bree Turner in the lead. Cold In July Michael C Hall is mullet-ed and excellent as the anxious family man who kills a home invader and finds himself up to his neck in a grim local secret. Hap And Leonard Lansdale’s buddies are brought to life in the TV series starring James Purefoy…

“IT’S A NOVEL FULL OF IMAGINATIVE IDEAS AND THRIVING ON A GRIMDARK ATMOSPHERE” Details Author: Ed McDonald Publisher: Gollancz Price: £12.99 Released: 27 July Ryhalt Galharrow is tasked with retrieving a noblewoman, Ezabeth Tanza, from The Misery, an arid, blighted landscape left behind after a terrible war with immortals known as the Deep Kings. There has been a fragile sort of peace in which mercenaries keep lesser monsters back and the Deep Kings themselves are warded off by a weapon known as Nall’s Engine. When Galharrow and Ezabeth realise that the Deep Kings are once again on the move and it falls to them and their allies to try and get the failing Engine working before it’s too late. McDonald isn’t afraid to throw his readers straight into the middle…

Details Author: Dana Fredsti Publisher: Titan Books Price: £7.99 Released: Out now Proving yourself as a stuntperson is tricky enough in Hollywood but it’s particularly difficult when you’re the only human in a family of supernatural beings who make their living by exploiting how tough it is to hurt them. For Lee Striga, that’s all par for the course, given that Tinseltown is full of monsters, all working hard as actresses, costume designers etc… However, Lee is struggling to get back in the game after an accident nearly killed her. Luckily for her, a couple of job opportunities are on their way that could raise her profile. Unluckily for her, these opportunities will bring her into the orbit of a shadowy monster. Author Dana Fredsti gives the reader a likeable…

Details Author: Justina Robson Publisher: Gollancz Price: £16.99 Released: Out now Following on from her highly acclaimed The Glorious Angels, Justina Robson returns to plunge the reader in the incredibly rich and extremely detailed world of Harmony. Nico and Twostar grew up on the streets together after escaping their orphanages. Operating outside of the law and a blasphemous anomaly courtesy of their sexual orientation, it’s Nico and Twostar against the world. Unfortunately, this world has a great deal of interest in the pair as they start to climb their way up the criminal ladder, she as a tech genius, and he as a prizefighter. Just when things get really bad, an opportunity comes along that could give the duo their off-world escape: the switch. But this sought-after technological marvel comes…

Details Author: Tom Holt Publisher: Orbit Price: £8.99 Released: Out now Tom Holt’s latest fi nds the management of Earth and its afterlife in a transitional period. See, God’s decided that it’s time to step away, to go off and explore the universe, so he’s sold Earth and its spiritual realms to the Venturi brothers. The new owners are quick to make their presence known, which includes getting rid of the old system of good and evil. You don’t go to Hell anymore, but you do have to pay for every wrongdoing. As resentment mounts on Earth and in Hell (where Lucifer is forced to consider turning his kingdom into a resort), two unlikely saviours are on the way: God’s son Kevin, and an old fella with a beard who…

Details Writer: Junko Mizuno Artist: Junko Mizuno Publisher: Titan Comics Price: £19.99 Released: Out now More a quirky, kinky picture book than a graphic novel, Ravina The Witch is a return to comics for Japanese visual artist Junko Mizuno. Strikingly distinctive, Mizuno’s style - equally colourful, ornate and precious, steeped in melancholy with a hint of the erotic - may be more familiar nowadays from merchandise, gig posters and graphic-art prints, but Ravina fi ts in nicely with the manga revamps of Hansel & Gretel and Cinderella that first made her name. Ravina, a young girl raised by crows in a rubbish dump, is granted a magic wand by a dying woman and is soon thrust into society. Along the way, there are a few delicious, mildly subversive twists -…

“I DIDN’T WANT THE HULK TO BE GREEN! I SAID TO STAN LEE, ‘IS HE THE ENVIOUS HULK?’ HE SHOULD BE RED!”KENNETH JOHNSON Starting out as a writer-producer for The Six Million Dollar Man, Kenneth Johnson would become the creator of his own equally iconic shows, including spinoffThe Bionic Woman and later The Incredible Hulk, V and Alien Nation. Johnson also directed Short Circuit 2 and the 2007 DC Comics flick Steel. However, he didn’t originally warm to the idea of being known as ‘the sci-fi guy’. He reveals how his contribution to the genre has always been grounded in reality and primarily concerned with relatable human issues, and how this helped secure their popular appeal at the time – aspects distinctively lacking from contemporary revamp attempts… How did you…

“THERE WAS SOMETHING VERY, VERY SPECIAL ABOUT THE WAY BILL [SKARSGARD] LOOKED DURING HIS FIRST AUDITION. THERE WAS SOMETHING STRANGELY CHILDLIKE IN HIS FACE AND EYES –BUT ALSO VERY DARK AND DISTURBING.”ANDRES MUSCHIETTI “THERE’S A LINE ABOUT PENNYWISE/IT FROM STEPHEN KING’S NOVEL THAT REALLY STICKS WITH ME; IT’S WHEN BILL DENBROUGH SAYS, ‘MAYBE IT IS EATING KIDS BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT KIDS ARE TOLD THAT MONSTERS DO.’ IT IS REAL, AS LONG AS IT’S ALIVE IN THE IMAGINATION OF CHILDREN.”ANDRES MUSCHIETTI “BY THE TIME WE STARTED FILMING, I KNEW WE HAD THE PERFECT CAST FOR THE LOSERS. BUT TO GET THAT POINT WAS A VERY LONG PROCESS, WHERE WE SAW HUNDREDS OF ACTORS. IN SOME CASES WE KNOW ALMOST FROM THE START THAT AN ACTOR WAS PERFECT FOR A GIVEN ROLE,…

THE ARM Why, hello there, new Lynchian nightmare. We thought the box was the creepiest thing in the first two-parter until this showed up. MATTHEW LILLARD CRUSHING IT Our surprise at seeing how grown-up Matthew Lillard looks was quickly shoved aside by how incredible his performance was. WALLY BRANDO What on earth was going on here? Michael Cera doing a Brando impression was puzzling at first but quickly became an absolute delight. COFFEE At the time of writing, Mr Jackpots’ coffee fixation is only getting stronger and it’s been a good few episodes now. See also: his toilet breaks. DEPUTY BOBBY Bobby’s a cop?!? TROLLING The golden shovels that were introduced in the first two-parter of Twin Peaks, were the subject of much online discussion before Lynch gave us a…

THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE What is it? A prequel to Jim Henson’s cult film The Dark Crystal that will focus on three Gelfling that discover the horrifying secret behind Skeksis’ power. When’s it on? TBA Who’s involved? The Dark Crystal’s conceptual designer Brian Froud, executive producer and director Louis Leterrier, writers Jeffrey Addiss,Will Matthews and Javier Grillo Marxuach, and The Jim Henson Company’s CEO Lisa Henson. THE WITCHER What is it? A TV series based on the Witcher videogame series, and author Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher saga books. When’s it on? TBA Who’s involved? Sapkowski as a creative consultant and Tomasz Baginski as a director, but not The Witcher voice actor Doug Cockle.…

Welcome to Memory Bank, the corner of the magazine where we reach into the SciFiNow archives and take out whatever issue we happen to touch first. This month, we’re going all the way back to 2008 for issue 11. Our cover stars were Jack Shephard, Kate Austen and John Locke of Lost fame, as we discussed where Season Four was going. As it turns out, we still don’t know the answer due to the season falling on the same year as the writers’ strike. That was also around the same time that the show introduced flash-forwards, which often left us more confused than before. “When ABC/Disney allowed us to end the show with 48 more episodes, it was the time to start a new way of telling the story,” said…

LANA AND LILLY WACHOWSKI Say what you will about Jupiter Ascending, their 2015 space opera was unlike anything else. It was visually stunning, it was ambitious and yes, it was silly, but we believe that the Wachowskis’ voice is something that genre cinema and TV needs. Which is why we’re furious about Sense8’s cancellation. BONG JOON-HO The Snowpiercer director doesn’t always work in genre but when he does, it’s brilliant. From his stunning creature-feature The Host to his incredible new film Okja, he’s got such a distinct voice and sensibility, veering from hilarious to heartbreaking, and he always keeps it weird. Blank cheques to this man, please. TERRY GILLIAM Few filmmakers have had to endure as many cursed productions as Gilliam. Whether it’s studios losing confi dence (Brazil) or interfering…

0.21 “Enemies to the east, enemies to the west, enemies to the south, enemies to the north.” Cersei gives us a handy reminder that everyone is gunning for her… 0.31 We see Tyrion watching Daenerys’ dragons run riot over Westeros with trepidation. He understands Westeros better than most – will he recognise the true danger? 0.45 Daenerys is on Westerosi soil, and she’s set up base in Dragonstone, which was last seen in the hands of Stannis Baratheon. She’s got herself a pretty pimping throne too. 0.54 Sansa Stark is an interesting wildcard this season – will she turn against Jon, or stand with him and see that Littlefinger gets comeuppance he deserves? 0.58 Melisandre, exiled by Jon, seems to be hanging out at Dragonstone now, and is seen watching…

HOMEWORK, DECIDING WHICH ELECTIVES TO TAKE, MAKING A FOOL OF YOURSELF IN FRONT OF YOUR CRUSH… HE MIGHT have been recruited by half of the Avengers to help keep the peace in Captain America: Civil War, but Peter Parker has other things on his mind. Being a teenager in high school can be a drag at the best of times, but mix that in with all of the saving the world stuff and it becomes practically impossible. Spider-Man: Homecoming ought to change the MCU landscape a little. Not only does the film star an actor younger than those we’re used to from the Avengers films (Tom Holland turned 21 a month before the Homecoming's release date), it's also taken on board a director whose previous projects had consisted of TV,…

WE’RE ON FAMILIAR FOOTING WHEN THE GHOUL STARTS. OUR detective hero Chris (Tom Meeten) is called to a house in a London suburb, where his colleague Jim (Dan Skinner) walks him through a baffling crime scene. To get to the bottom of it, Chris goes undercover at the suspect’s psychotherapist. And that’s where things get slippery… As the film progresses and our perspective shifts, we’re sent into an unreliable world of mental illness, conspiracy and dark magic. THE PITCH The description of The Ghoul above doesn’t do justice to it, as we’re plunged into Chris’ unreliable worldview. “I wanted to do a thriller that was influenced by the things I grew up reading, so a mix of Philip K Dick and Alan Moore, some fantastical and science fiction-y kind of…

2001: SMALLVILLE Smallville gave us a teen angst show, in which Clark Kent’s love life was just as important as his superpowers. 2001: MUTANT X This show is remembered mostly for the number of lawsuits it spawned for being a pretty shameless X-Men rip-off…. 2006: HEROES At a time when comic book rights were tied up, the best superhero shows had nothing to do with comics at all. 2009: MISFITS Only the Brits could create superheroes this disgusting (and brilliant). The show was grounded in grubby social realism. 2012: ARROW ‘Arrowverse’ launched almost as soon as Smallville finished, freeing up DC characters to be used elsewhere. And, boy, did DC use them. 2013: AGENTS OF SHIELD Agents Of SHIELD was the first superhero show to directly spin-off from a movie…

Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson play two of the orphan girls who come to stay, discover a hidden chamber in Bea’s bedroom and a dolls’ house replica of the Mullins home and who become targets of the entity that might or might not be the Mullins' daughter. SciFiNow watches a few takes of Wilson coming down the main hallway, with stage lights simulating bright sunlight outside. She calls plaintively for Sister Charlotte, the girls’ carer from the convent, when Bateman rolls slowly out of a side room in her wheelchair and says in a quiet, menacing voice: “Everybody's gone into town... it’s just you... and me.” Creepy stuff! “We've gotten so used to working with kids,” Safran says of the preternaturally articulate and fearless young cast – when they sit…

Details TBC // 118 mins // Out now Director Bong Joon-ho Screenwriters Bong Joon-ho, Jon Ronson Cast An Seo Hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano Distributor Netfl ix A rescue mission to save a South Korean girl’s mutant pet pig sets off a bizarre chain of events in Bong Joon-ho’s latest high-octane family adventure that cannily satirizes the effects of global capitalism and places the meat industry on the chopping block. Jon Ronson co-wrote the furiously funny screenplay and though it sticks it to the man time and time again it still allows its characters to act with a reluctant hypocrisy. It’s careful not to preach to its audience, instead appealing to the innocent kid in all of us. Mija (a brilliant An Seo Hyun) has been caring for Okja for…

Details 15 // 110 mins // Out now Director Alex Kurtzman Screenwriters David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie, Dylan Kussman Cast Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, Jake Johnson Distributor Universal Leading the pack of Universal’s new Dark Universe (complete with Marvel-style logo) is Alex Kurtzman’s modern-day reboot of The Mummy, which finds itself caught between tones and failing to juggle the responsibilities of being a shared universe starter, a new take on a classic property and a big Tom Cruise action movie. Soldiers Nick Morton (Cruise) and Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) are making the most of their time in Iraq by stealing antiquities to sell on the black market. But when they accidentally unearth a mysterious Egyptian tomb, they unleash the mummified princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who’s got designs…

Details 18 // 141 mins // 2016 // • // Released 3 July Director Gore Verbinski Cast Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth Distributor 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment If the idea of injecting yourself with Botox makes you shudder, A Cure For Wellness is going to give you nightmares. The plot is, initially, quite simple: Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) is an ambitious junior exec at a financial company that’s been struggling since its CEO ran off to a Swiss wellness clinic. Lockhart’s sent to bring him home, but when he gets there, he meets the sinister Dr Volmer (Jason Isaacs) and things get weird. Director Gore Verbinski hasn’t made a horror movie since 2002’s remake of The Ring, but he hasn’t lost his touch. What starts out as a biting…

Details 18 // 88 mins // Out now // // Released Out now Director Sergio Martino Cast Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov, Susan Scott Distributor Shameless Screen Entertainment Tormented by terrible nightmares and followed by a relentless stalker, poor Jane Harrison (genre icon Edwige Fenech, The Strange Vice Of Mrs Wardh) is at the end of her rope and in need of help. While her partner Richard (George Hilton) sneers at the idea of therapy, Jane’s friendly new neighbour Mary (Marina Malfatti) has something rather different in mind… a cult. Sergio Martino’s nightmarish thriller is effective, slipping from giallo mystery to full-on horror with unnerving ease. Jane’s London flat becomes an uncertain refuge and allows for plenty of tense chase sequences as she is pursued time and time again…

Details 15 // 104mins // 2017 // • // Released 31 July Director Daniel Espinosa Cast Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada Distributor Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Released just before Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, this sci-fi horror from the writers of Deadpool somewhat unfairly vanished at the box-office and it’s more than deserving of a reappraisal. Sure, it’s riffing heavily on Scott’s original film, but its blend of (relatively) grounded science and shocks makes for solid entertainment. The team on board the International Space Station is thrilled when they bring a single celled alien organism from Mars on board, but it soon turns out to be a terrible idea when it grows at an exponential rate and turns aggressive. Can they survive it? Can they keep it from…

Details 15 // 86 mins // 2017 // // Released Out now Director André Øvredal Cast Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch, Ophelia Lovibond Distributor Lions Gate Home Entertainment Brian Cox’s distinctive voice works wonders in André (Trollhunter) Øvredal’s effectively creepy horror set in a basement mortuary. Cox is Tommy, a coroner, widower and dad to Austin (Emille Hirsch), who works alongside him in their family business. When an anonymous woman, the titular Jane Doe (Olwen Kelly), is wheeled in the local sheriff requires a quick turnaround. The pair work through the night and begin to discover a long history of violence enacted on women. Screenwriters Ian B. Goldberg and Richard Naing have come up with a neat idea to teach men a lesson in the terror that women have suffered over…

 It’s quite hard to put a definite label on Joe R Lansdale. He is probably best known as a crime writer, thanks to the brilliant and entirely addictive Hap & Leonard novels (and the rather excellent TV adaptation currently airing) about a pair of good-hearted ne’er-do-wells just trying to make a living in East Texas who just happen to find themselves in less than legal situations. He’s also often credited as being a hard-boiled fiction writer, as fans of Cold In July can attest. “YOU CAN’T PIN HIM DOWN AS A HORROR AUTHOR. THERE’S NO ONE SHOE THAT REALLY FITS” Perhaps more than anything, he’s a writer of a certain place, and that place is Texas. It’s a great thing when an author is so fully connected with a location…

“GRIMDARK HAS ALWAYS BEEN AROUND” If you say the word ‘Grimdark’ to most fantasy readers then they’ll either wrinkle their noses or give you an evil grin. It tends to be a subgenre that divides readers down a love/hate line, but a term without clear definition. It speaks of a wave of authors who rode in and shook the genre about: Mark Lawrence, Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Polansky, Scott Lynch and more. At best, what can be agreed on is that ‘Grimdark,’ is about following heroes who tend to fall a long way from the ‘Lawful Good D&D’ alignment that typically characterised the fantasy I read as a child and teenager. To many, Grimdark feels like a new thing, a trend of rejection and rebellion against classic adventure-hero-farmboychosen-one fantasy. Only, Grimdark…

1. Words Of Radiance “Words Of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. Probably the best epic fantasy since Tolkien and Jordan. #BookClub” @spacebob563 2. Age Of Swords “Age Of Swords (sequel to Age Of Myth) by Michael J Sullivan is amazing, the cast of characters is super great and there are lots of women. #BookClub” @adragoninspace 3. Blackwing “Blackwing by Ed McDonald - best thing I’ve read for ages. #BookClub” @PeteMC666 “IT’S AN ASSURED DEBUT” 4. The Traitor Baru Cormorant “The Traitor Baru Cormorant had a heady blend of queerness, resistance to colonialism, and excellent understated world building. Devoured it! #BookClub” @JeremyEBSLarge 5. Godblind “Godblind by Anna Stephens (@ AnnaSmithWrites) good storytelling that raises the Grimdark bar. Want book 2 NOW!!!” #BookClub @andyangel44…

“A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms by George RR Martin and Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. Both excellent. #bookclub” @dept42 “Just finishing up China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station. Great book, will never look at moths the same way again. #BookClub” @StoneMagnet84 “House Of Leaves, heard good things about this one. #BookClub” @IFLHorror “Reading Relics by @timlebbon Such a great interesting story. Highly recommended!! #BookClub” @farscape08 “Killer Budgies by Mike Harding. One of the funniest books I have read. Humanity threatened with extinction by killer... budgies!?! #BookClub” @safcinexile “Finished @ jennycolgan’s brilliant Spandex And The City and am now reading @ LalinePaull’s different but just as brilliant The Ice! #BookClub” @Cfpercy “Going back to @ RealShaunHutson to try out his book Death Day. Ancient evil of an…

Where does Virology find Shock Pao and the survivors of Escapology? Thanks to Shock’s minor oversight in timing the cover-up of their Escapology escapades in Slip, they’re hiding away on a paddy-rise (a farming high rise with paddy fields terraces) located in Shandong, the mountainous arse-end of Foon Gung. They’re also out hunting. They have the Grey Cartel on their tails and want to eliminate the threat, so they’re working in hit-teams across the Gung, camouflaged by VR skins. Was it important to show that a world with a lot of technological advances still has class disparity and out-dated attitudes? Absolutely. It’s a fallacy to assume that technology will create a level playing field – there will always be those who can’t afford it, the human cogs who make sure…

“I’M NOT BOTHERED BY SYMPATHY. I DO WANT YOU TO EMPATHISE” Last year, Laura Lam made the jump from YA to adult genre fiction with the gripping False Hearts, in which identical twins in a futuristic San Francisco are pulled into a plot involving murder, conspiracy, and a drug that allows the user to get rid of their violent impulses through cathartic dreaming. Now, Lam gives us Shattered Minds, which is set in the same universe and continues to explore where research into dreaming and memory could take us. Our heroine is Carina, a brain surgeon who has surrendered her life to her Zeal addiction, the drug that keeps her killer instincts at bay. But when an old colleague shows her what their boss Ros Franklin has been up to…

Details Writer: Manuele Fior Artist: Manuele Fior Publisher: Fantagraphics Price: £21.99 Released: Out now It took seven years for Italian artist Manuele Fior’s 5,000 KM Per Second to appear in English last year, and thankfully Fantagraphics haven’t kept us waiting as long for this. First published in Italy in 2013, it casts its eye to 2048, where there’s a charge in the air. After a period of unspecified social upheaval, a young political movement called the ‘New Convention’ is rewriting norms, while mysterious shapes appear in the sky, suggesting new, extra-terrestrial influences. Leaving the colour washes of 5,000 KM Per Second behind, Fior works with a monochromatic palette, conjuring up mysterious, sensual textures, mixing up sharp, architectural linework with deep shadows and, for the more fantastical sequences, ‘special effects’ by…

“I DIDN’T REALLY THINK THE BOOK WAS VERY GOOD!”JOE DANTE If ever a horror franchise should not have made it past part two it is The Howling. Whilst the original Joe Dante film, released in 1981, is a certified classic, every sequel that has come in its wake has been critically lambasted and, following The Howling II in 1985, been sunk directly to video (and later DVD). Amazingly though, the man-beast series has made it to eight titles in total – with rumours still abounding that, yes, one day someone, somewhere is going to get the unenviable job of trying to redo the initial Dante effort. This task, however, might also involve reconsidering the source material. Indeed, perhaps unbeknownst to many horror-hounds, The Howling actually began life as a scrappy…

“I DIDN’T WANT TO GIVE TOO MUCH AWAY BECAUSE ONCE YOU SAY WHERE THEY COME FROM, YOU’RE COMMITTED”PETER J HAMMOND Back in the Seventies, ITV, our third channel, had a reputation for vulgar populism that was even worse than it has today. ITV was the go-to place for inyer-face cop shows, boorish sitcoms, and sequined variety knees-ups. It wasn’t the channel you’d have expected to find anything as conceptually ambitious and strange as Sapphire And Steel. That Sapphire And Steel is remembered so vividly now is testament to its blazing originality. Whether it’s the ghostly sight of a World War One soldier walking the platform of a disused railway station or the besuited landlord with no face or the sight of our heroes looking out into space from a floating…

1 GABRIEL (THE PROPHECY) 1 Gregory Widen’s underrated horror, The Prophecy, fi nds Christopher Walken’s character, Gabriel (who is a fantastically evil angel), ready and willing to tear a little girl apart to end the world. 2 O’REILLY AND JACKSON (A LIFE LESS ORDINARY) This angelic duo in A Life Less Ordinary are determined to bring Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz’s characters together in Danny Boyle’s brilliantly energetic romantic fantasy. 3 MR JORDAN (HEAVEN CAN WAIT) Warren Beatty and Elaine May decided to cast James Mason in Heaven Can Wait as the angel who is trying to give Beatty a second shot at life in whatever body works out best for him. 4 GABRIEL (CONSTANTINE) This rather misunderstood Hellblazer movie boasts a wonderful turn from Tilda Swinton as the dapper…

THE QUIZ HAS LANDED 1. What species of alien is Zoidberg? 2. Fry was a pizza delivery boy for which pizza establishment? 3. Whose parents live in the sewers of New New York City? 4. What is Zapp Brannigan’s ranking in the Democratic Order of Planets? 5. What was the name of Fry’s pet dog from before he was cryogenically frozen? KILL ALL HUMANS 6. Where was Bender built? 7. What is the name that is given to Professor Farnsworth’s clone? 8. What percentage of MomCorp does Mom own? 9. Which planet is Kif Kroker from? 10. What video game was Fry playing on the day he was frozen? MEANWHILE! 11. What does Fry’s older brother, Yancy, name his son? 12. Which sorority was Amy a member of at Mars…

THE OVERLOOK HOTEL Mark Romanek was announced as the director for this prequel to The Shining back in 2014, and writer James Vanderbilt was hyping it a year later, but it’s been a long while since we’ve heard anything… FIRESTARTER Earlier this year Jason Blum announced that he would be producing a new take on the story of a telekinetic young girl and that Akiva Goldsman would direct. There’s been no casting news yet. PET SEMATARY Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has been attached to this for a long time but there’s been no news since rumblings of castings last year. Maybe the success of It will be the ancient burial ground this remake needs. CREEPSHOW This one looks like it’s deader than Nathan Grantham. If it couldn’t get going during the…

1 Signing up for American Gods… When Ian McShane was offered the role of Mr Wednesday in American Gods, the British actor hadn’t read Neil Gaiman’s iconic novel – but he was immediately sent a copy. “It’s such a great story,” McShane enthuses. “What’s great about the book is the fact that it is the perfect blueprint for a TV series because the scope is enormous. I think we only cover 120 pages in this first series [NB: there are 465 pages in the book]. There are stand-alone stories in the book and there are so many fantastic characters that are still to come. Apparently, the show’s gone down very well and people like it, which is terrific.” 2 Finding the tone… Did you know that American Gods went through…

1 JOSH BOONE IS DIRECTING And Boone is collaborating with Knate Gwaltney on the script, too. It’ll be interesting to see what the former delivers, seeing as his only directing credits consist of Stuck In Love and The Fault In Our Stars – which are both decidedly quite un-X-Men-like – and the upcoming Stephen King adaptations The Stand and Lisey’s Story. 2 IT IS FILLED WITH YOUNG GENRE STARS So far, it has Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) as Magik, Maisie Williams (Game Of Thrones) as Wolfsbane, Henry Zaga (Teen Wolf) as Sunspot, Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) as Cannonball and Blu Hunt (The Originals) as Mirage. The not-as-young-but-still-awesome Rosario Dawson is also rumoured to be playing Dr Cecilia Reyes. 3 IT’S A HORROR The New Mutants changed the game earlier this…

One of our true icons was lost on 9 June, as Adam West peacefully passed away in his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family. The actor is reported to have lost a short battle with leukaemia and died at the age of 88. West will always be remembered for his incredible work in the title role in the ABC show Batman, which ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1968. The show was a sensation and has since been rediscovered by generation after generation, rightly revered as a playful, witty and incredibly inventive take on the DC Comics character that has an unshakeable place in pop culture history. West’s trademark smooth voice and ability to deliver those lines with an uncanny combination of sincerity and sly wit have…

THOUGH HE’S ONLY DIRECTED THREE SCI-FI FILMS (THE FIFTH ELEMENT, LUCY AND Valerian), Luc Besson delights in the genre, and is able to create fantastical environments and memorable characters. We delve into his worlds to see what makes them so special… BESSON'S AESTHETIC In creating future worlds, Besson likes to look back. The Fifth Element and Valerian contain nods to classics such as Robocop and Tron (the helmets worn by police/military); Dallas’ apartment looks like it’s from The Enterprise; and future New York City and the city of Alpha share Blade Runner roots, with choked avenues, neon lights, billboards and scaffolding. Interviewed in Cannes, where The Fifth Element opened the festival’s 50th edition, Bruce Willis said: “One of the interesting things Luc was able to do was to create a…

KRAVEN THE HUNTER Alter ego: Sergei Kravinoff First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (August 1964) Occupation: Professional hunter, adventurer and mercenary Abilities: Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility and reflexes; enhanced senses; can withstand great impact forces Bio: The son of a Russian aristocrat, Kravinoff became Kraven the Hunter after taking a herbal potion that ended up enhancing his physical powers. Soon his greatest hunt became chasing Spider-Man. HOBGOBLIN Alter ego: Roderick Kingsley (plus others) First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (March 1983) Occupation: Fashion designer Abilities: Superhuman strength, stamina, durability, agility and reflexes; regenerative healing factor Bio: After becoming obsessed with Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, and discovering his hideout locations, Kingsley set out to become his own supervillain, which was pretty bad news for Spider-Man. ALISTAIR SMYTHE Alter…

BIRDS OF PREY: 2002 Like most Batman TV shows, this show focused on a Gotham without Batman, with Oracle, Huntress and Dinah Lance handling the city in his absence. The show played fast and loose with its Batman characters – perhaps too fast and loose, as it only lasted 13 episodes. BLADE: THE SERIES: 2006 The show was apparently a continuation of the film series, despite not starring Wesley Snipes. It had a writing team headed up by David S Goyer (who wrote the film series) and DC writer Geoff Johns, but still only lasted one season. WONDER WOMAN: 2011 When a Wonder Woman pilot went into development, it got more attention than most shows. But that attention didn’t do it any good, and it never made it beyond the…

Details 12A // 129 mins // Out now Directors Joachim Ronning, Espen Sandberg Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson Cast Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario, Geoffrey Rush Distributor Disney Bizarrely retitled in the UK from its far cannier moniker Dead Men Tell No Tales, Salazar’s Revenge, the fi fth instalment in the rumbustious Disney franchise (but first to be shot on Australian soil) proves there is some life left in the old seafaring series. It all kicks off with a prologue featuring the familiar (if mangled) face from adventures past, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), who is raised from the sea by estranged son Henry (Brenton Thwaites). Henry pledges to release his father from his underwater curse by embarking on a quest to locate the all-powerful Poseidon’s Trident. However, this is…

Details 12 // 124 mins // 2017 // • // Released 31 July Director Dean Israelite Cast Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, Becky G, Elizabeth Banks Distributor Lions Gate Home Entertainment Power Rangers is taking it slow. Throughout the film’s marketing stages, the cast and crew kept likening it to films like The Breakfast Club, and they weren’t kidding. Action takes a backseat in this reimagining as we focus in on a group of diverse but regular kids getting to know each other, learning to trust each other, and getting to grips with a new responsibility that has accidentally been thrust upon them. It’s often hardly an action film, but that’s not a bad thing. In a world filled with superhero blockbusters full of non-stop explosions and…

Details 18 // 78 mins // 2015 // Shudder // Released Out now Director Mitch Jenkins Cast Darrell D’Silva, Siobhan Hewlett, Andrew Buckley, Khandie Kisses Distributor Shudder Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins’ short film anthology comes to Shudder, and the Northampton-set trio of linked stories finds the comics legend delivering a blackly comic look at the end of a man’s life. Beginning with Act Of Faith, in which a woman’s erotic fantasy takes a dark turn, it then follows middle-aged, sharp-suited Jimmy (Darrell D’Silva) as he arrives at a gloomy but oddly welcoming bar-cum-cabaret where everyone seems to be expecting him and the catchphrase “I think we’re losing him!” is a constant refrain. Jenkins creates an oppressive atmosphere filled with oddball characters, most notably a sharp-tongued clown (well-played by Andrew…

Details 12 // 103mins // 2017 // • // Released Out now Director Yimou Zhang Cast Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe, Pedro Pascal, Tian Jing Distributor Universal Pictures Surprisingly, The Great Wall is a lot less serious than the trailers led us to believe. It is a good job too; if you were to take out the jokes and Matt Damon’s devil-may-care Irish accent, the film could quickly descend into ‘unwatchable’ territory. The cast – made up of Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal as loveable rogues William Garin and Pero Tovar, Zhang Hanyu as General Shao of the Nameless Order, Jing Tian as Shao’s badass right-hand soldier Commander Lin Mae of the Crane Troop, and Willem Dafoe as a guy who does a lot of standing around – is frequently charming…

Details PG // 129mins // 2017 // • // Released 17 July Director Bill Condon Cast Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Kevin Kline Distributor Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment It might feel premature to say this is peak live-action remake Disney, but this is peak live-action remake Disney. From the first few frames of Beauty And The Beast, which include a shot of the Beast’s magnificent castle acting as a stand-in for that of Cinderella which appears at the start of all Disney films, it’s clear that the studio has gone in with all guns blazing. Since the original animation is considered by many to be up there with The Lion King and The Little Mermaid as one of Disney’s best, director Bill Condon and the team…

Author: Joe R Lansdale Published: 1982-2007 (collection 2010) Publisher: Tachyon Publications Synopsis: Take your seats for some of the darkest, weirdest, most compelling, most gruesome, and most affecting tales you’ll ever read. Allow master storyteller, Joe R Lansdale, to spin you some incredible yarns: Elvis and JFK fighting off a mummy in an old folks’ home, Godzilla trying to get through rehab and failing, a bounty hunter trying to get his target through the zombie apocalypse and the Cadillac desert only to find Jesusland, and a woman must draw on the lessons of her survivalist husband if she wants to escape a gruesome killer in the woods. And that’s only the beginning……

An elite company of mercenaries, The Black Company are hunting down a monster for an employer whose days are numbered. With their half-crazy wizards in tow, the Company are soon recruited by the (undeniably evil) Lady and her empire to fight against rebels, who you can’t help but feel are right to oppose her. The book follows Croaker, annalist and surgeon, through a series of deadly campaigns culminating in an epic confrontation. This book is a classic of the genre, and a must-read for all fantasy fans.…

“SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF THE FIRST LOST BOY, HENRY’S PETER IS KIND OF TERRIFYING” Details Author: Christina Henry Publisher: Titan Books Price: £7.99 Released: Out now You know the story of Peter Pan, right? He’s a magical little boy who never grows old. He lives in Neverland, has fairies for friends, and leads a tribe of parentless kids who have endless adventures. If you’re massively attached to that mischievous but ultimately sweet version of the character, you’ll want to steer clear of Christina Henry’s latest fairy tale retelling. Her Peter is a very different creature. Seen through the eyes of the first Lost Boy, Jamie, Henry’s Peter is kind of terrifying. Yes, he’s a child, but he’s an 11-year-old who’s never been told no, never made to do anything…

“BY THE END, SPOONBENDERS IS A FULL-BLOWN PAGE-TURNER” Details Author: Daryl Gregory Publisher: riverrun Price: £14.99 Released: Out now The Amazing Telemachus Family were a famous magical act of the Seventies, but it all came crashing down after a disastrous live television appearance. Twenty years on, they’re relying on dead-end jobs and a gangster’s money to stay afloat, monitored by government agents, and living in too-close quarters. It’s a fragile sort of peace and it’s not long before something arrives to shatter it. At first, the amount of characters, plotlines, and flashbacks can feel overwhelming, with gangsters and family members seemingly all over the place. Slowly however, Daryl Gregory pulls everything together and starts to draw you further into the plight of the Telemachus family. By the end, Spoonbenders is…

“THERE WILL BE COMPARISONS TO DEXTER BUT LAM CREATES HER OWN DAMAGED HEROINE” Details Author: Laura Lam Publisher: Macmillan Price: £12.99 Released: Out now Laura Lam returns to the world she created in SF thriller False Hearts, and gives us a new lead character and a new story to deliver a smart, highly-readable cyberpunk thriller. Former brain surgeon Carina has given up on her old life. She’s left her job at tech giant Sudice and has become fully addicted to Zeal, the drug that allows the user to control their own lucid dreams. In the Zealscape, she’s free to pursue her own violent urges without worrying about her killer instinct threatening anyone in the real world. But one day her brutal reverie is interrupted by her old colleague with information…

Details Writer: Jillian Tamaki Artist: Jillian Tamaki Publisher: Drawn And Quarterly Price: £15 Released: Out now Whether she’s working with her cousin Mariko or crafting solo works, Canadian cartoonist Jillian Tamaki is fast becoming one of the most accomplished and respected graphic storytellers of her generation. And Boundless, this new collection of shorter works, confirms this reputation. Many of these stories have appeared in print before, in indie publications like Frontier and NoBrow, or on the online journal Hazlitt, but they comfortably sit beside each other, sharing themes and motifs that add up to a cohesive, ambitious statement. Skim and This One Summer, Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s two star-making, award-winning graphic novels, were both bittersweet coming-of-age stories about teenage girls; in Boundless, the characters tend to be a little older,…

Details Writer: Babs Tarr, Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart Artist: Babs Tarr, Cameron Stewart Publisher: Image Price: £8.99 Released: Out now Babs Tarr, Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, the creative team behind the popular 2014 revamp of Batgirl, return with this creator-owned series that acts as something of a female-fronted spiritual sequel - albeit one set within a futuristic, amped-up world of motorcycle racing. Like Barbara Gordon, Motor Crush protagonist Domino Swift lives a double life: World Grand Prix contender by day; illegal street race legend by night. The Crush of the title is an illegal ‘accelerant drug’ that boosts bikes beyond their limits - a habit that pushes Domino further and further into the shady, yet colourful, criminal underbelly of Nova Honda. The energy that Tarr, Fletcher and Stewart cram…

According to Joe Dante, the plan with The Howling was to change the genre: “The only werewolf pictures at that time had been The Boy Who Cried Werewolf and The Beast Must Die,” mentions the director. “And they were, I don’t think, particularly good and the werewolf movie was sort of campy to people. They always had villagers and torches – it was gothic and it just seemed irrelevant to young people in the Eighties.” As such, with The Howling and An American Werewolf In London bringing things up to date, and registering at the box office, the genre seemed likely to survive. Alas, the opposite is true, werewolves have all but faded from the popular conscience. The Underworld franchise, beginning in 2003, and later the Twilight series, from 2008…

THE RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN (1980) It feels a little unfair to have a list of werewolf films without mentioning Spain’s late Paul Naschy, who kept the figure alive throughout the Sixties and Seventies and well into the Eighties as well. This, his ninth stint as a guilt-ridden Latin lycanthrope, is far too genteel for the era but it still serves up the colour and (mild) carnage that the actor and director became famed for. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981) The granddaddy of modern werewolf movies, this John Landis-directed masterpiece has a strong sense of humour and some eerily effective horror moments. Add to this a now-legendary soundtrack, great turns from Jenny Agutter and Griffin Dunne, and some sizzling Rick Baker effects and its reputation is, clearly, well-deserved. THE…

1 Ace Of Wands Though produced between 1970 and 1972, there can be few series as quintessentially Sixties as this hippy kids series about a sleuth magician named Tarot, played by Michael Mackenzie. Kate Beckinsale’s mum, Judy Loe, plays his assistant. 2 Raven A pre-Quadrophenia Phil Daniels headlined this supernatural curio, as a teenage delinquent who gets caught up with an archaeological dig that has uncovered the hideout of King Arthur. 3 Children Of The Stones This six-part HTV serial starred Blake’s 7’s Gareth Thomas as an astrophysicist who arrives in a sleepy village to study the stone circle that surrounds it, only to discover they hold an ancient power. 4 Sky There are shades of The Man Who Fell To Earth is this six-parter by Doctor Who scribes Bob…

”It is long and some may say pretentious but it is a unique contemplation of mortal life and how special it can be.” @ParsonsFiction “It’s one my favourites. Simply divine.” @SarahWMMOW “Wonderful fi lm. I love Peter Falk playing a version of himself.” @spocksgoat “It’s one of my top 10 favourite movies. Possibly one of the top 5 (I was in Berlin recently visiting locations).” @RenZelen “Soooo achingly beautiful. All the feels.” @sherbsville “Profoundly moving, languidly paced – grownup cinema.” @Jeff_Jinx “Worth watching. But overrated IMO.” @AJWSmith “I saw this many years ago and it remains one of my favourite foreign fi lms.” @TheContestadore…