Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 140 i SciFi Now

What a year it’s been. We’ve seen high-profile flops that may have killed movie universes, and low-budget films become pop culture phenomena. Wonder Woman slayed hoary old “wisdom” about female superhero movies, indie horror film Get Out is a serious Oscars contender and R-rated Stephen King adaptation IT broke records. It’s been a golden year for horror, but beyond that, it’s just been a great year for movies. Logan, Blade Runner: 2049, War For The Planet Of The Apes, Thor: Ragnarok… and that’s not even getting into the TV we’ve been blessed with. Twin Peaks’ return was landmark television. Star Trek: Discovery, American Gods, Legion and The Handmaid’s Tale delivered great debut seasons, and Doctor Who, Stranger Things, Inside No 9, Preacher and The Leftovers went from strength to strength.…

1 New look Thor isn’t the only Avenger that gets a new look; almost everyone has had a makeover. Vision even looks like a human now. 2 Hair they are Awesome facial hair bros Stephen Strange and Tony Stark finally meet at Strange’s rundown Sanctum Sanctorum. 3 Fight me Thanos makes an entrance. Ever since someone on Twitter said he looked like Joss Whedon we haven’t been able to un-see it, and Bruce Willis too... 4 Spidey senses If you thought Spider-Man’s suit was too technological in Homecoming, that’s nothing compared to his Infinity War glad rags. 5 The hench-woman Here’s a first look at Thanos’ Black Order fighter Proxima Midnight, wielding a spear that never misses as her weapon of choice. 6 Gear for the gauntlet Infinity Stones are…

ANOTHER WOLFCOP Well, what did you really expect? A film which is titled Another WolfCop obviously warranted some kind of pretty ridiculous and wacky but purely wonderful poster, and this is as good as it gets. Look at that font! We’re loving the throwback vibes of this poster. The detail is also astounding: from the fizzing can of Dale, to the masked hockey players and the car chase, right down to the tiny flaming donuts flying through the air (they look quite tasty actually) and that little pointing Kevin Smith nestled in there on the right-hand side too. We’re not really sure what the film itself is like but you get at least three extra minutes of viewing pleasure out of this poster alone. BLACK PANTHER If you need any…

What are you most looking forward to? Seeing the Avengers meet the Guardians and take on Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, bringing ten years’ worth of MCU spectacular together? Maybe you’re more excited to find out what the Star Wars universe has in store for us after The Last Jedi. Or perhaps you just want to figure out what’s going on with all those Joker films (Martin Scorsese?). We’ll soon see our first female Doctor as the stellar Jodie Whittaker steps into the TARDIS and brings a new showrunner with her. Production on the final season of Game Of Thrones is underway and spin-off plans are being hatched. Ex Machina’s Alex Garland has adapted one of the best SF novels of recent memory with Annihilation. We don’t have to wait…

IT IS 5 JULY 2017 AND CARDIFF IS BAKING. Outside the BBC’s Roath Lock Studios, just off Cardiff Bay, it’s 27 skin-blistering degrees. Inside, it’s not much cooler. Most of the Doctor Who crew here today have come to work in weather-conscious T-shirts and shorts, but sadly, that dress-down option isn’t open to Peter Capaldi and David Bradley who are both here in their respective Doctor attire. “I’m getting a bit hot,” Capaldi says to no-one in particular, as he marches up for his shot. “I think my hair’s going to ignite!” It’s an electrifyingly surreal sight, seeing the Twelfth Doctor standing shoulder to shoulder, frock coat to frock coat with the very first. Two Doctors at the end of their lives, not wanting to go. Of course, it’s not…

CO-DIRECTOR AND WRITER, Adrian Molina, explains that Pixar’s 11th film, Coco is partly about “the power of creativity” and that’s why at the age of 28 he decided to pick up a guitar and learn how to play. It gave him an affinity with the character of Miguel – the 12-year-old boy at the centre of the film who adores music but is forbidden to play it by his family. Molina elaborates further, saying: “I thought it was too late for me, but it really helped me with the film because we wanted to get a reality for [Miguel’s] performance. When you looked at Miguel playing the guitar he’s hitting all the right chords and the right notes. From a life perspective it was just a really great way to…

FRANK BANNISTER “Frankly I was a little put off at first by Mr Bannister’s rather slick attitude, and his swaggering sense of confidence actually made him seem a little like a con-man. That being said, there’s no question that there was definitely a supernatural presence in my house and it left when he drove away. He made it all look very easy. Maybe too easy… Still, he got results.” ED AND LORRAINE WARREN “As soon as the Warrens arrived, I felt like they genuinely cared about my family and that they would do whatever it took to get rid of the evil presence. I know this because they made it very clear to us that Lorraine might actually die if she had to face the supernatural one more time. Also,…

“IT’S A VERY HIGH BAR ON THAT SHOW,” laughs director Colm McCarthy. “Hopefully people like it!” The director of The Girl With All The Gifts is part of Black Mirror Season Four’s formidable roster of filmmakers, along with David Slade (American Gods), Jodie Foster, Tim Van Patten (Game Of Thrones), John Hillcoat (The Road) and Toby Haynes (Doctor Who). “I was very conscious of who the other directors were just in terms of the fact that it was very formidable company to find yourself in,” he tells us. “It was little bit intimidating to come in as a director and have to stand your material next to those people.” It’s a very exciting selection, and it reflects the fact that Charlie Brooker’s creation is one the most thrilling, unpredictable and…

Details 15//104 mins //1978// / Released Out now Director Irvin Kershner Cast Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Rene Auberjonois Distributor Powerhouse Films The idea of Eyes Of Laura Mars as a film is a bewitching one. An American Giallo written by John Carpenter (at least, the first draft was), centred on a controversial photographer played by Faye Dunaway, in which the potential suspects are played by Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Rene Auberjonois and Raul Julia. The film never quite lives up to its potential, caught somewhere between embracing the darker, seedier side of the script or the Hitchcockian romance of it all, but it’s extremely watchable and undeniably fascinating for the fact of its very existence. Laura’s photographs depicting stylised and sexualised death and violence have given…

Details PG //308 mins //1961-1964// // Released Out now Director Various Cast Michael Craig, Joan Greenwood, Edward Judd, Martha Hyer, Lionel Jeffries, Todd Armstrong Distributor Powerhouse Films The second volume in Powerhouse Films’ Ray Harryhausen collection has arrived and it is , featuring of Mysterious Island, First Men In The Moon and Jason And The Argonauts as well as delightful bonus features. 1961’s Mysterious Island (based on Jules Verne’s novel) makes the viewer wait for Harryhausen’s Dynamation creations, as a group of Civil War soldiers (and a reporter) in a hot air balloon go off course and become stranded in a seemingly deserted tropical paradise. It’s not too long before the giant creatures show up, of which the crab is the undisputed triumph (made from actual crab). Cy Endfield’s film…

Details 18// 83 mins // 1976// // Released Out now Director Matt Cimber Cast Millie Perkins, Lonnie Chapman, Vanessa Brown Distributor Arrow Video Matt Cimber’s film, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, has its legacy secured thanks to its baffling inclusion on the Video Nasties list, but it continues to find new admirers and is still a beguiling, strange and affecting piece of work. The Diary Of Anne Frank star Millie Perkins plays Molly, a woman who works at the local bar, looks after her sisters’ two boys, and fantasises about murdering handsome men. Then those men start turning up dead… Cimber is helped by the presence of the great cinematographer Dean Cundey (Jurassic Park, Back To The Future) in establishing a dream-like atmosphere as Molly’s memories and fantasies…

INFO Released Out now Certifi cate 15 Creators David Benioff, D. B. Weiss Cast Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Nickolaj Coster-Waldau, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams Distributor Warner Home Video Format • Running Time 420 mins WHAT NEXT? Questions we still have for Season Eight What will happen when Jon Snow’s parentage is revealed? Will the North disown him? Will Daenerys view him as a threat? Are Tormund and Beric alive? The two characters were seen running for their lives as the Wall came down – did they make it? What will happen now the Wall is down? Will the Night King, his Ice Dragon and his army take down Winterfell Is Tyrion going to remain loyal to Daenerys? His loyalty was tested in Season Seven. Will he…

Details 15//880 mins //1978-1979// // Released Out now Creator Wilfred Greatorex Cast Edward Woodward, Robert Lang, Barbara Kellermann Distributor Simply Media Made in the late Seventies and advertised as ‘1984 plus six’, 1990 was a projection into the near future and posited the emergence of a totalitarian nanny state in Britain. Their predictions may have been off for actual 1990, but some are worryingly recognisable today. Edward Woodward stars as journalist Jim Kyle, attacking the regime both openly, through his articles for the last independent(ish) newspaper, and secretly, via his role in an underground network, helping people escape the country. Predictably, he’s tremendous. The first series is a brilliantly conceived study of what life might be like under such a regime. Through his job, Kyle is given access to the…

1. Haunted “Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, hands down. It’s so twisted and backwards. #BookClub” @EJCownley 2. The Books Of Blood “The Books Of Blood from Clive Barker. All of the tales so very different and set new standards for horror fiction. #BookClub” @ParsonsFiction 3. Stories Of Your Life “Stories Of Your Life And Other Stories by Ted Chiang, a collection of stories that are really thought provoking. #BookClub” @Cascararogue 4. Just So Stories “Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling - one of my earliest memories of storytime at school, back in . #BookClub” the long distant past @andyangel44 “HILL EMBRACES THE FORMAT TO GRAB THE READER BY THE THROAT” 5. 13 Views Of The Suicide Woods “13 Views Of The Suicide Woods @ BrackenMacLeod Milestone by @ KealanBurke. #BookClub” @SadieLouWho…

“Treated myself to Sandman Vol 1 Preludes & Nocturnes today, enjoying revisiting this brilliant series by @neilhimself #BookClub” @paul_bowler “Just fi nished The Lost Plot by @GenevieveCogman - Dragons, Fae, Interdimensional Librarians, 1920s Gangsters... really, what’s not to love about this series? #BookClub” @andyangel44 “I’m reading Sentinel by Jennifer L Armentrout. From what I read so far it is better than the last one. #BookClub” @JasminMaaz “The Gunslinger. My first Stephen King book. #BookClub” @Jbarnes532 “I’m reading Strange Weather by Joe Hill. Loving it so far. 4 short novels in one book. #Loaded is so good! Met the man himself and he was awesome! #BookClub” @GaryRenton2 “I’m reading Pretty Maids All In A Row. A Spike and Dru novel from the Buffyverse by #ChristopherGolden It’s fantastic! #BookClub” @farscape08 “The Daylight…

Details Author: Titan Books Publisher: Titan Books Price: £49.99 Released: Out now Ten years after the publication of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows and six years after the release of the final Potter fi lm, it’s slowly beginning to feel like we’ve seen all there is to see from the Boy Who Lived’s world. Sure, there are still at least four more Fantastic Beasts films on the way, but there’s a big difference between the new expanded Wizarding World created for the screen and the visual representations of the world we came to love from reading the novels. Books like The Art Of Harry Potter keep the magic alive. Hardback, A3 and more than 350 pages long, The Art Of Harry Potter is hardly a bedtime read (lifting it…

LOCKE AND KEY There’s a reason why people keep trying to adapt Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s comic series: it’s absolutely incredible. Scary, beguiling and beautiful, you simply won’t be able to put it down. HEART-SHAPED BOX Hill’s debut novel tells the story of a fading rock story with a penchant for eccentric online purchases who buys a haunted suit and promptly pays the price for it. NOS4R2 The author’s best novel to date is a rich and terrifying tale of a traumatsed woman and a monster whose car runs on human souls. This is crying out to be adapted into a film. 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS This short story collection features some of Hill’s finest work, with haunted cinemas, an inflatable boy and kidnapped children. ‘The Cape’, about what happens when…

Details Writers: Daniel Locke, David Blandy Artist: Daniel Locke Publisher: NoBrow Price: £14.99 Released: Out now Ambitious and awe-inspiring, this graphic novel by writer/artist Daniel Locke and co-writer David Blandy is a stunning space-rock epic of a book. From the dawn of the universe to an imagined distant future, Out Of Nothing charts the development of ideas and how they are communicated and adapted, positing that the human instinct to ‘observe, record and connect’ lies at the heart of all progress and invention. A nameless traveller, our blue-skinned avatar, takes us on a journey through time and space, dropping in on familiar figures (Albert Einstein, Johannes Gutenberg, Tim Berners-Lee) and unknown pioneers who represent the rise of oral traditions, figurative sculpture, and primitive written records. Locke’s art is cosmic and…

VICTORIA WINTERS Vicky might seem just a little bit clueless sometimes, but she has got a good heart and is fiercely loyal to her friends. Not seen her around for quite a while though… ELIZABETH COLLINS STODDARD She spends a lot of time skulking around the drawing room, but Elizabeth is far friendlier than she might at first appear. She’s got a few skeletons in her cupboard, mind… or maybe under the flagstones in the cellar. ROGER COLLINS Roger doesn’t really have any time for any nonsense, but he is always up for a good drink. He is incredibly charming but can also be pretty ruthless too. CAROLYN STODDARD A bit of a brat but with a heart of gold, all Carolyn wants are straight answers and a lasting relationship…

ROBOCOP 2 (1990) 1 The best of the bunch, this eccentric follow-up co-written by Frank Miller brought back Weller for the last time and pitched RoboCop against a gang of crooks featuring Tom Noonan and a child in a suit. ROBOCOP 3 (1993) 2 It’s hard to imagine much of Frank Miller and Fred Dekker’s script survives in this fairly dismal sequel, although the ninjas are probably Frank’s doing. Robert John Burke does a decent job of filling the suit. ROBOCOP: THE SERIES (1994) 3 This 1994 TV series starred Richard Eden as Alex Murphy and was aimed a younger audience. It wasn’t commissioned for a second season. ROBOCOP: THE ANIMATED SERIES (1988) 4 Produced directly after the first film, this Marvel Productions-produced show followed Murphy’s quest to reclaim his…

“WHAT IF THERE’S A CUBICLE WORKER WHO FOUND HIS WAY INTO THE CAPTAIN’S CHAIR?”SETH MACFARLANE “A show of this type is something that’s been on my creative to-do list for a while,” says Seth MacFarlane of The Orville, his brand-new deep-space exploration series that’s just secured a second season. Set 400 years in the future, this Star Trek send-up takes its cues from a handful of space adventure classics but beneath the surface aims to be much more. “I was always a fan of episodic sci-fi,” says the multi-talented actor, director and one-man Family Guy cast, “not just Star Trek but shows like The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery and things like that. Other than Black Mirror right now there isn’t much out there that leans towards the anthology realm…

Welcome to Memory Bank, the corner of the magazine in which we kick off our shoes, stick the kettle on and have a leisurely flick through past issues of SciFiNow in our favourite and only armchair. This month we are heading back to Christmas of 2012 and perusing issue 75, which featured Stephen Amell as Arrow midway-through the series’ first season. It’s easy to forget but the show earned fame as being one of the first modern TV superhero stories that actually worked on a larger scale. Sure, Smallville had previously tried to cover that base, but honestly the two shows are in completely different leagues. “One of the things about Green Arrow is that his origin is basically a five-year origin story,” said executive producer Marc Guggenheim. “Superman doesn’t…

COMING SOON IT: CHAPTER 2 Writing and fan-casting are fully underway on the sequel to Andy Muschietti’s monster hit (come on, Jessica Chastain and Mark Duplass) but no one has been confirmed for the adult roles. We know that Bill Skarsgård will be back as Pennywise, that the kids will return to play a role in flashbacks, and that Muschietti plans on taking Mike on a darker path than the novel did. We’re also relieved that they’re not rushing into anything, as the release date is set for September 2019. CASTLE ROCK Our excitement about this JJ Abrams-produced series set in Stephen King’s favourite unfortunate small town is at fever pitch. As you’d expect, it’s all highly secretive but little clues have been dropped here and there. Shawshank prison will…

SO WHO ARE YOU PLAYING? I’m a First World War captain. I think I’m allowed to say that. DOES HE HAVE A NAME? The Captain. SO, HOW’S IT BEEN ACTING IN YOUR MATE’S FINAL STORY? It has been fantastic. Steven asked me several months ago for me to keep June and July free. He said: “I want you there when I go.” And here I am. It’s an amazing farewell gift of a part in a lovely, lovely story. DO YOU THINK THIS IS YOUR FAREWELL TO THE SHOW TOO? I’ve really no idea. It’s been an amazing journey. There always used to be a cliché about writers being ‘Who-ed out’, and it’s true. Certainly everyone benefits from a rest. I’m very excited about what the future may hold. Not…

With a stint on Doctor Who and two Guardians Of The Galaxy films to her name, it should come as no surprise that Karen Gillan’s parents are rather proud of their daughter. Her mum Marie, however, is especially pleased. She is a bona fide sci-fi fan who weaned her daughter on the Star Trek series. “My mum loves them all, including Voyager and Next Generation, so I grew up with that all around me,” beams Gillan. “With the way things have gone it is like my mum’s dreams have come true.” While promoting the first Guardians Of The Galaxy film in 2014, Gillan met Patrick Stewart at a convention. “And I made a video of him saying: ‘Hi, Marie,’ to my mum. She was well pleased.” And rightly so. Mum’s…

“WE HAVE A MONSTER OF THE WEEK,” grins Neil Cross as he sits across from us in a cavernous converted space in east London. We’ve hopped on the Overground to talk to the creator of Luther about his new series Hard Sun. Pitched as a blend of cop drama and sci-fi, we were wondering if the chilling horrors that were a trademark of his previous BBC show would be put to one side. This is not the case, as star Jim Sturgess attests: “I mean, there’s some stuff in the show, there’s moments where it’s particularly violent and you think: ‘God, that is really fucking violent,’” he tells us. “And then you read the newspaper and you go ‘Wow, it’s happening.’” Indeed, Hard Sun promises to be something rather intriguing,…

Details 12A// 120 mins // 2016// • // Released Out now Directors Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi Cast Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, Hiromi Ogashira Distributor Manga Entertainment Toho cinema’s mightiest monster returns to his home studio with this surprisingly interiors-heavy reboot. When a monster appears off the coast of Japan and begins making its calamitous way to shore, the wheels of bureaucracy are set in motion as panicked ministers, a cautious prime minister, frustrated scientists and ‘an academic heretic’ try to figure out what the hell they are going to do. While they try to limit accountability and worry about their legacy, Gojira (as it’s referred to in a scientist’s journal) continues to evolve into an ever-more unstoppable force. The fact that the bulk of the running time is…

Details 15// 105 mins // 2017// • // Released 8 January Director Liam O’Donnell Cast Frank Grillo, Bojana Novakovic, Iko Uwais, Callan Mulvey Distributor Signature Entertainment Nobody was really crying out for a sequel to 2010’s dull but profitable alien invasion movie Skyline, but the premise of Liam O’Donnell’s sequel was pretty hard to resist. Ditching the near-single location of its predecessor, Beyond Skyline takes things up multiple notches by taking our heroes on board an alien craft before dropping them off in ‘Laos’ (actually Indonesia). The ever-dependable Frank Grillo is good value as the alcoholic badass cop looking for his abducted son, and there are some solid action sequences courtesy of The Raid star Iko Uwais (Yayan ‘Mad Dog’ Ruhian also has a small role). The dialogue is pretty…

Details 18//98 mins //1976// // Released Out now Director Brian De Palma Cast Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving Distributor Arrow Video Brian De Palma’s painstakingly gorgeous and hugely influential adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about female sexuality, bullying and oppressive sanctimonious religious beliefs is still as disturbingly relevant and affecting over 40 years after its release. Arrow Video’s 4K restoration on Bluray features excellent extras including a fascinating visual essay on the various film versions of Carrie by Jonathan Bygraves and a commentary from Lee Gambin and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. The sharp HD further highlights the sparkling hues of a glowing senior prom that turns into devastating carnage and the distinctive gothic, candle-lit ambience of the White household. Sissy Spacek’s award winning performance as the titular character is imbued with…

Details 18// 541 minutes // 2017// // Released Out now Creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk Cast Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Billie Lourd, Alison Pill, Adina Porter, Billy Eichner Distributor 20th Century Fox When Ryan Murphy announced that American Horror Story: Cult was set to revolve around the 2016 US election, viewers were skeptical. Donald Trump’s win wasn’t typical AHS material, so other themes would have to be weaved into the politics and things could potentially get messy. Surprisingly though, it starts strong as it follows Ally, her wife and their accustomisation to their new President. The former struggles most; the event reigniting suppressed fears such as a clown phobia. As she unravels, the show’s sense of mystery and dread builds so well, you’ll mistakenly assume AHS has found its niche…

Details 12// 164 minutes // 2017// • // Released Out now Creator Doug Naylor Cast Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn Distributor 2entertain Since its resurrection on Dave in 2009, Red Dwarf has steadily found its way back to the sci-fi based hilarity that made everyone fall in love with it in the first place. The six episodes of XII are all from the pen of Doug Naylor, who throws out a high concept sci-fi scenario for each instalment and uses it to explore our loveable gang of space losers, with two particular standouts. ‘Siliconia’ finds Kryten aboard a mechanoid leisure ship and the rest of the crew transformed into droids after years of forcing Kryten to do menial tasks on their behalf. The episode flies through several…

Author: Fonda Lee Publisher: Orbit Books Price: £13.99 Released: Out now Jade City tells the tale of the family Kauls’ No Peak clan, one of the two biggest clans in operation. Their island, Kekon, is a producer of jade, here a powerful mineral that grants wearers abilities that can be harnessed. But jade is not for everyone and when a new drug hits that market that allows nonsensitive people to start wielding jade, the delicate balance is thrown and No Peak head straight for a confrontation with their biggest clan rivals, the Mountain. hand man, and enforcer Hilo. The most captivating are those who exist on the fringe of this clan though; Shae, Lan and Hilo’s sister, is forced back home by circumstance but refuses to rejoin the family business…

Details Author: Mira Grant Publisher: Orbit Books Price: £8.99 Released: Out now s something quite wonderful about how much fun Mira Grant is having turning mermaids into killing machines. There is certainly more to Into The Drowning Deep than that, but genre fans can certainly be assured that they will get a kick out of what the author has done with these fairytale creatures. She’s also come up with a nifty starting point, as an Asylum-type B-movie studio sends a ship out to the Mariana trench to make a mockumentary only to discover that mermaids are real and deadly. That sly wittiness takes a backseat to dread and heart as a second expedition sets out to find out what really happened. The two leads are Tory Stewart, a marine biologist…

Details Author: Stephen Donaldson Publisher: Gollancz Price: £18.99 Released: Out now Belleger has been at war with Amika for as long as anyone can remember. Both countries have a cadre of sorcerers at their disposal who wield the six decimates (different forms of power), but Amika discovers a seventh and uses it to devastating effect. With his sorcerers stripped of their magic and unable to manufacture Belleger’s weapons as a result, heir to the throne Prince Bifalt sets out on a quest to seize the seventh decimate for his country. The opening of Seventh Decimate shows promise with its clash of powerful magics and Belleger’s more mundane weaponry. Stephen Donaldson’s prologue throws the reader straight into the middle of a battle and it sets off at a breakneck pace. Unfortunately,…

Details Writer: Jeff Lemire Artists: Dean Ormston, David Publisher: Dark Horse Price: $19.99 Released: 20 December Following on from the promising first volume Secret Origins, Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s Eisner award-winning superhero epic keeps the momentum going in this rewarding second arc. These are the continuing adventures of Spiral City’s stranded superheroes Abraham Slam, Colonel Weird, Barbalien, Golden Gail and Madame Dragonfly, who are trapped in a mysterious rural town after a cataclysmic battle with the galactic (Galactus-alike) big-bad, Anti-God. In a surprising move, Lemire pumps the brakes a little on the series’ main narrative, favouring instead to dig one layer deeper into the existing character drama, repeating the success of the first arc, which revelled in mild comic-book satire while exploring each member of the book’s ensemble’s backstory,…

“When my father died there was a big feeling that The Muppets was done,” admits director, Muppeteer and son of Jim, Brian Henson. “Clearly that’s what the industry thought.” The early Nineties were a difficult time for Brian, Kermit and the rest of the Muppets. Having been unexpectedly left leaderless in 1990, Brian, then just 27 years old, was faced with the daunting task of steering the Jim Henson Company forward with barely enough time to grieve. For the first time since audiences met this ragtag group of frogs and dogs, chickens and whatevers, their future was suddenly very uncertain. “The very day that Jim died, Brian asked if the performers could come by Jim’s apartment because the press had been asking all day whether The Muppets would go on,”…

”DEAD OR ALIVE, YOU’RE COMING WITH ME!” ROBOCOP “I’D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR!” BIXBY SNYDER “CAN YOU FLY, BOBBY?” CLARENCE BODDICKER “COME QUIETLY OR THERE WILL BE…TROUBLE.” ROBOCOP “THEY’LL FIX YOU. THEY FIX EVERYTHING.” ROBOCOP “EXCUSE ME. I HAVE TO GO. SOMEWHERE THERE IS A CRIME HAPPENING.” ROBOCOP “I’M CASHING YOU OUT, BOB.” DICK JONES “NO BETTER WAY TO STEAL MONEY THAN FREE ENTERPRISE.” EMIL “NUKEM. GET THEM BEFORE THEY GET YOU. ANOTHER QUALITY HOME GAME FROM BUTLER BROTHERS.” COMMERCIAL VOICE OVER “HE DOESN’T HAVE A NAME. HE’S GOT A PROGRAM. HE’S PRODUCT. IS THAT CLEAR?’ BOB MORTON “WELL, HE SIGNED A RELEASE FORM WHEN HE JOINED THE FORCE. HE’S LEGALLY DEAD. WE CAN DO PRETTY MUCH WHAT WE WANT TO HIM.” JOHNSON “I WANT A RECOUNT! AND NO…

THE QUIZ 1.In which fictional town is Scream set? 2. What name does Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character Casey Cooper commonly go by? 3. Which real life serial killer inspired the events of Scream? 4. Who plays Jill Roberts in Scream 4? 5. What was Maureen Prescott’s actress pseudonym? THE QUIZ 2 6. What is the title of the fictional film within a film that features in Scream 2 and is based on the murders that took place in Scream? 7. What subject does Randy Meeks study at Windsor College? 8.Who is the killer in Scream 3? 9. What are the names of the Woodsboro police deputies that are assigned to guard Jill and Sydney in Scream 4? 10. Who drops a television on Stu Macher’s head, electrocuting him? QUIZ THE…

Gene Roddenberry’s iconic Star Trek first introduced us to intergalactic exploration but where did we boldly go next? GALAXY QUEST (1999) Sigourney Weaver, Tim Allen and the late, great Alan Rickman star in this ahead-of-its-time parody that sees a washed up group of thespians recruited by a bullied alien race who believe the actors are the on-screen heroes they portrayed in campy cult show Galaxy Quest. Ace space spoof. FUTURAMA (2002) The creative team behind beloved but troubled animation Futurama reunited the original crew of the USS Enterprise for one last adventure in the season four episode ‘Where No Fan Has Gone Before’. Now if they can only find a way of bringing their own show back to life… FAMILY GUY (2009) No surprise here. Superfan Seth MacFarlane brought the…

THE THREE DOCTORS Sadly, William Hartnell was too ill to make it into the studio for this tenth anniversary story, so is only seen on a computer screen in prerecorded film inserts. Still, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee are enjoyably sparky in this very first multi-Doctor story. THE FIVE DOCTORS This 20th anniversary knees-up saw appearances from Doctors 2, 3 and 5 with a recast 1 (lookalike actor Richard Hurndall). Doctor 4 – Tom Baker – refused to appear but turns up in some untransmitted footage from the 1979 story, ‘Shada’. THE TWO DOCTORS A non-anniversary team-up, this episode has Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor some sharing screen time with Colin Baker’s Sixth. Except they don’t really meet that much in it, which seems like a giant wasted opportunity to us.…

My first conscious memory I believe is lying on my nan’s fake fur coat while my mum and my nan and my sisters talked, with my chin cupped in my hands screaming and running as giant spiders crawled up Sarah Jane’s back! I believe that’s my first memory, and for an embarrassing number of years in fact, I used to lie in bed half hoping, half dreading, that I was going to hear the grinding of the TARDIS appearing outside. Because what do you do? And what I love about Doctor Who, it’s a lifelong love of mine, is how adeptly and how ably it is able to reconcile terror and exhilaration. I remember that my mother and stepfather, they’d go very quiet and say [whispers] “The Exorcist”. They wouldn’t…

Details 15 // 129 mins // 5 January Director Kornél Mundruczó Screenwriter Kornél Mundruczó, Kata Wéber Cast Merab Ninidze, Zsombor Jéger, György Cserhalmi, Mónika Balsai, Majd Asmi, Zsombor Barna Distributor Curzon Artificial Eye Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó made a bold breakthrough on the arthouse circuit with 2014’s White God, which concerned a mistreated dog leading a canine uprising. With Jupiter’s Moon, he’s back with another high-concept story and back in social allegory mode. A young migrant fleeing his home in Syria, Aryan (Zsombor Jéger) is separated from his father while sneaking into Hungary by boat. A trigger-happy border patrolman shoots him down, but the young man rises from the dead: blood from his wounds starts to levitate, and soon his whole body does too, allowing him to soar out of…

Details 12// 95 mins // 2017// • // Released Out now Director Nikolaj Arcel Cast Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Kathryn Winnick Distributor Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Stephen King’s cult sci-fi western saga has finally made it to the big screen after years of anticipation, but now that it has actually happened it hardly seems worth the hassle. There’s nothing major wrong with it as such; it’s just the result of an accumulation of little things. The idea of a Dark Tower adaptation has always been riddled with potential pitfalls, what with the books being so unique, and in this case it sadly misses. Flecks of humour and intelligent action sequences attempt to keep some sort of pace going, but the further the story unfolds the more the excitement…

Details TBC // 109 mins // 2017// • // Released 26 December Director Juan Carlos Medina Cast Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth, Eddie Marsan Distributor Lions Gate Home Entertainment It’s hard to resist the over-the-top theatricality of this atmospheric penny dreadful set in the murky back alleys of Victorian London. When a series of brutal murders take place, the blame is placed upon the nefarious Limehouse golem with screenwriter Jane Goldman adapting Peter Ackroyd’s 1994 novel by taking a vicious and darkly funny swipe at misogynistic attitudes. Olivia Cooke is outstanding as Lizzie Cree who is under suspicion after her husband is murdered. The viewer is taken through her life story as she climbs the career ladder as an aspiring actress in Dan Leno’s troupe. Douglas Booth turns in…

Details 15// 130 mins // 1991// // Released Out now Director James Cameron Cast Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong Distributor StudioCanal Terminator 2 still stands alongside the original (though does not better it) and this remastered version looks crisp as hell. This is particularly evident in the closeups – you can see every pore on sweaty Sarah Connor and smug Dr Silberman. This is the original cinema cut, losing the fun but inessential padding which was added in to the special edition. T2 works better without it: as a succession of ever-greater action set pieces interspersed with effective scenes of humour and terror, it is already close to perfection. The special effects still impress today, a testament both to the SFX team and to Cameron’s direction. He uses digital…

Details PG //650 mins //2014// • // Released Out now Creator Hiroyuki Kawasaki Cast Teresa Gallagher, Rufus Hound, Morwenna Banks, Adrian Edmondson Distributor Studiocanal The idea of a snapping up a Studio Ghibli-produced TV series should certainly feel like a no-brainer, but it’s worth approaching this co-production, based on Astrid Lindgren’s book and directed by Goro Miyazaki, with caution. It’s certainly sweet-hearted, with moments of real beauty and emotional sincerity, but it’s also got a beyond-leisurely pace and the computer animation is a little jarring at first. Still, with that warning out of the way, there’s plenty to like about Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter. The titular character is born during a terrible storm in the first episode, the first child of volcanically emotional robber Mattis and his deeply practical wife…

Strange Weather, a collection of four short novels (clocking in at about 100-150 pages each), contains one of Joe Hill’s most brutally powerful stories to date but it also finds the author at his most gleefully absurd. It feels like he’s given himself permission to try things out, which makes for a real treat. In that respect, it’s not too surprising that the opener, ‘Snapshot, 1988’, was the first one written as it’s the story that feels most immediately Joe Hill-esque, using a predatory supernatural figure to shade in childhood trauma. The story follows Michael Figlione, an overweight and lonely teenager living in Silicon Valley who finds himself caring for his dementia- nanny. s convinced that she’s being followed by a man who wants to take her picture, and before…

Details Author: Anne Rice Christopher Rice Publisher: Anchor Books Price: £13.99 Released: Out now 28 years after the publication of The Mummy, Or Ramses The Damned, Anne Rice has returned to her ‘to be continued’ with her son (and best-selling author) Christopher in this elegant, enjoyable tale which has a similar feel, the same charm and some of the same issues as her recent revival of Lestat. To start with, the first section has to relay a lot of backstory for newcomers while getting the wheels of this story in motion. It also has some of the same preoccupations, with beautiful, wealthy immortal figures enjoying everything that life has to offer while faced with the choice of dispatching an ancient foe or living without the one person who understands them.…

Details Author: M John Harrison Publisher: Comma Press Price: £9.99 Released: Out now If you’ve never read any of genre legend M John Harrison’s work, this may be a good place to start. From the opening ‘Lost And Found’ to ‘I’ve Left You My Kettle And Some Money’, which closes the book, there is a tremendous and unnerving sense of being utterly in the author’s hands. You’re never on steady footing. Everything is uncertain, seemingly on the verge of becoming untethered and drifting off into space. He’s an explorer of the liminal spaces and his portrait of modern Britain is full of weariness and a longing to escape but without the confidence to take that first step. In some cases, the attempt is comfort enough, as seen in ‘The Walls’.…

Details Writer: Matthew Rosenberg Artist: Tyler Boss Publisher: Black Mask Studios Price: $14.99 Released: Out now Part Amblin-era nostalgia, part crime-flick cool, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank is a series with swagger from Matthew Rosenberg (We Can Never Go Home; Rocket Raccoon; Kingpin) and Tyler Boss (We Can Never Go Home). A recurring motif, the head of each chapter sees our protagonists – not-yet-teens Paige, Berger, Walter and Stretch – losing themselves in realms of the imagination, creating or enacting fantastical narratives through the mediums of arcade games, Dungeons & Dragons and action figures. It’s a cute way to foreground some very on-trend Eighties-kid pop culture references, but it’s key to our characters’ specific, stubborn age – that time when the fanciful mind can override common sense. After all,…

 In 1966, television producer Dan Curtis dreamt of a young woman on a train. From this simple beginning, a legend was born. Writer Art Wallace developed Curtis’s vague idea into a 91-page series bible entitled Shadows On The Wall. This bible became a gothic soap opera, wherein slightly oddball orphan Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) came to work in the town of Collinsport, for the charming yet unsettling Collins family, at the big old house of Collinwood, high atop Widows Hill. This was Dark Shadows. “I REMEMBER JOAN BENNETT SAYING ‘OH MY AND GOD, GHOSTS GOBLINS ?’”KATHRYN LEIGH SCOTT Hollywood star Joan Bennett got top billing as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the loving but somewhat distant matriarch of the family. Her rather caddish brother Roger was played by Louis Edmonds, her daughter…

Scrooge (1931) Arguably the definitive early adaptation, 1931’s Scrooge stars Alastair Sim as the eponymous anti-hero in a performance that offers a rare slice of compassion to the miserable miser’s tale. Scrooged (1988) Bill Murray’s Proton Pack was nowhere to be seen in Richard Donner’s retelling of Dickens’ ghost story, which reimagined Scrooge as a hard-nosed TV exec. Scarily good. Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988) Nestled amongst countless telly iterations, Blackadder’s Christmas Carol emerges as perhaps the most innovative. Told in reverse, not even three ghosts can prevent Blackadder from becoming the bastard he was destined to become. A Christmas Carol (2009) Robert Zemeckis used motion capture to bring this iconic fable to modern audiences, with living cartoon Jim Carrey not only playing Scrooge but each of the ghosts that visits…