Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 144 i SciFi Now

There are several sure signs that the winter is over, including furious wasps and shirtless men in supermarkets, but the most trustworthy is Hollywood’s early start on the summer season. It may live on the small screen but there’s a real feel of a blockbuster movie to Westworld’s return. Each trailer has built the hype for the upcoming payback season to fever pitch levels, and the cast and creators share our excitement about following 2016’s incredible cliff-hanger in this issue’s cover feature. Speaking of excitement, it’s hard to think of anything as massive as Avengers: Infinity War, which will finally bring the Marvel heroes together and face-to-face with universe-ending titan Thanos. In the last few years we’ve seen the phrase ‘shared universe’ become a buzzword before becoming a bad joke,…

It’s never too late to start a new tradition, and ‘Galaxy – A Sci-Fi Celebration’ is doing just that. The convention will be Jersey’s first annual science fiction event, and up-and-coming independent events company Prestige! Events Jersey are making sure that it will be a good one. With a galaxy far, far away mania still running riot, the focus this year is the original Star Wars trilogy, with special guests from each film on the bill. Fans will be able to purchase a pass to meet the guests, including time for a photo and autograph, as well as access to Q&A sessions at the Jersey Opera House. There are also loads of other special appearances on the cards to keep the whole family happy: the Jersey Ghostbusters will be poised…

With the borderland butchery (and cutting-edge politics) of his 2007 feature debut Frontier(s) (2007), Xavier Gens was on the very crest of the ‘French Extreme’ new wave. His latest, Cold Skin, a creature feature set in the Antarctic Circle during the Great War, is a film of edges – between land and water, between human and beast, between wilderness and civilisation, between love and war – which comes with the troubling suggestion that these boundaries are being forever pushed and tested, making progress a mere illusion. SciFiNow caught up with Gens shortly after the European première of Cold Skin at the Glasgow FrightFest. You’re associated with the ‘new French extremity’ of the Noughties, is this a departure from that? I love all the movies attached to that and I think…

Andrew Niccol starts laughing when asked if he has a Facebook account and blurts out a simple: “No!” From watching his new sci-fi movie, Anon, starring Amanda Seyfried and Clive Owen it’s obvious he’s not a fan of social media and the impact it is having on society. The director of Gattaca, S1mone and In Time has long been looking at the way humans interact with new technology and his latest film is a meticulous interpretation of the modern world. There’s shades of Philip K Dick’s, short story, Adjustment Team in this tech-noir but Niccol explains he’s often inspired by current affairs more than any existing source material. “I’ve always wanted to make a film about privacy and I’m friendly with a guy who’s a big deal at Google. What…

Welcome to Memory Bank, the corner of the magazine in which we flick through old copies of SciFiNow and reminisce about times gone by. This month, we’re looking at issue 102, which featured a lovely Phil Noto illustration of Finn and Rey on the cover (there were no photos from Star Wars: The Force Awakens back then). We were still a year away from the film’s release, but we and the rest of the sci-fi loving community were losing our minds over the first trailer. Elsewhere, we went behind-the-scenes on what is now widely considered the Wachowskis’ craziest project, Jupiter Ascending. Even with the $175 million budget, it went down like a bad vindaloo. However, it’s ended up becoming a Marmite film, gathering itself a handful of enthusiastic fans. “It’s…

If someone points out a suspicious item, does it look like ‘nothing at all’ to you? Do you have a weird handshake that makes your fellow humans look at you strangely? Do certain words/phrases/musical refrains send you to sleep, or cause you to behave in strange ways? Do you bleed white goo? Can you pass a Voight-Kampff Test? Is ‘All Along The Watchtower’ stuck in your head?…

What can you tell us about the scene you’re working on today? There’s so much secrecy around here that I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say. I think I can say that I might be part of that scene. I’ve never been cattle-prodded before but I feel like someone will run from the other end of the room and jolt me with a bovine dose of electricity should I say anything that gets near to the details that matter. The writers have admitted that audiences will see Doctor Strange go goatee-to-goatee with Tony Stark in Avengers: Infinity War. What do you think of that new dynamic? It’s been a great working experience and I hope fans are looking forward to those two characters meeting and clashing – and maybe…

With cinematic technology developing at an alarming rate, it feels like we’re centuries away from the special effects on the original Lost In Space, which meant that the new series had the freedom to go wild when designing the character of the Robot. But how wild can you go with a robot as beloved as Robot? “There’s a lot of love to that original embodiment, and a lot of people who are fans of the original show are attracted to that,” says Zack Estrin. “One thing you want to do when you approach a property that people have an emotional connection to is make sure you’re acknowledging what was special about it. It was difficult to approach that design because the original one was right for that time. We had…

“I’M GLAD I DIDN’T KNOW THAT WHEN I TOOK IT ON!” laughs Tony Grisoni, who is now fully aware that the four-part The City And The City BBC series represents the first piece of weird fiction maestro China Miéville’s work to be brought to film or TV. It seems implausible that Grisoni could be intimated by adapting anyone’s work, given that he’s taken on authors as revered and eclectic as Hunter S Thompson (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas), Philip K Dick (Electric Dreams) and David Peace (Red Riding). But there’s something special about Miéville. “China plays with convention, plays with form, plays with expectation, and I think film or TV has to step up and be willing to reinvent themselves if they’re to take an adaptation of his on…

DON’T GO UPSTAIRS Black Christmas – Bob Clark’s seasonal slasher is set in a sorority house just before the Christmas break, where the young women are receiving obscene phone calls. Can they trace the caller in time? GET OUT OF THE HOUSE When A Stranger Calls – A babysitter gets a phone call asking: “Have you checked the children?” She checks them, goes back downstairs… and gets the same call again. GET OUT! DON’T GO TO BED Inside – If you’re heavily pregnant and alone on Christmas Eve and a woman knocks on the window demanding to be let in, do not go to bed. Do not assume that she won’t make her way inside with a pair of scissors. DON’T PLAY WITH THEM Them – Predating The Strangers, this…

Details 15 // 85 mins // 20 April Director Johannes Roberts Screenwriters Bryan Bertino, Ben Ketai Cast Christina Hendricks, Bailee Madison, Martin Henderson, Lewis Pullman Distributor Vertigo Films The first Strangers film packed a hell of a punch on its release: lean, mean with murderers whose only motive was opportunity. The fact that it’s taken ten years for a sequel to materialise is surprising and possibly a cause for concern, given that it has to better the imitators and the brilliant genre-twisting of You’re Next. After a prologue that reminds us of the killers’ MO, The Strangers: Prey At Night introduces us to tonight’s victims, a fracturing family staying at an empty holiday trailer park while on their way to deposit rebellious daughter Kinsey (Bailee Madison) at boarding school. Disappointingly,…

Details PG // 106 mins // 4 May Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi Screenwriters Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Riko Sakaguchi Cast Ruby Barnhill, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Jim Broadbent, Kate Winslet Distributor Altitude The first thing that strikes you about this new anime is how much it looks like a Studio Ghibli film. The second is how beautifully painted the backgrounds are, picking out the flora and fauna in luscious detail. These are no coincidences – much of the creative team had worked at Ghibli for many years, and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi was responsible for Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. Like the aforementioned films, Mary And The Witch’s Flower – the debut feature from Studio Ponoc – is based on a British children’s book. It’s about a bored girl who follows a black cat…

Details 12A // 111 mins // Out now Director Steven S DeKnight Screenwriters Steven S DeKnight, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, TS Nowlin Cast John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Tian Jing, Rinko Kikuchi Distributor Universal It feels like accusing Pacific Rim: Uprising of missing that Guillermo del Toro magic is an obvious criticism but that doesn’t make it any less true. Because while this sequel gets the job done, pitting Jaegers against kaiju and offering a decent amount of heart and humour, it’s lacking that special something. Ten years have passed since the breach was closed and the kaiju were defeated. The Jaeger programme is still operational, but drone pilots from a private corporation threaten to replace the people inside the machines. When Jake Pentecost (Boyega),…

Details 15 // 108 mins // 2017 // // Released 30 April Director Xavier Gens Cast Ray Stevenson, David Oakes, Aura Garrido, Winslow M Iwaki Distributor Signature Entertainment When Friend (David Oakes) reports for duty on a remote island, he finds the island’s only other human inhabitant, gruff lighthouse keeper Gruner (Ray Stevenson), engaged in a battle with armies of aquatic humanoids (dubbed ‘Toads’) that swarm ashore at night. If this island harbours a missing link between man and monster, it also represents a boundary between land and water, civilisation and wilderness, all of which must be negotiated by its denizens. Gruner devotes every hour of darkness to exterminating these monsters. The one exception is a female creature whom Gruner keeps for a pet – and for another, more taboo…

Details 12// 119 mins // 2017// • // Released 30 April Director Jake Kasdan Cast Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas Distributor Sony Pictures Who could have anticipated that a sequel to Jumanji, made over 20 years after the original, could be such a success? We’re not just talking financially, although the film has been a huge box office hit. The biggest surprise about Welcome To The Jungle is just how funny, bighearted and entertaining it is. The idea of Jumanji as a video game may not have seemed inspired but it works wonderfully as four teens find themselves not only trapped in the perilous jungle but in adult avatars. So the nerd becomes Dwayne Johnson, the quarterback becomes Kevin Hart, the self-obsessed mean girl becomes…

Details Author: Edgar Cantero Publisher: Titan Books Price: £8.99 Released: Out now Anyone with a fondness for Scooby Doo and/or Enid Blyton’s Famous Five should get a kick out of Edgar Cantero’s affectionate homage to young detectives, which stirs Lovecraftian mythos into its look at what happens to those plucky kids after they grow up. In Meddling Kids, life hasn’t been kind to Andy, Kerri, Nate and Peter in the years since they revealed that the Sleepy Lake Monster was just a guy in a suit in search of the creepy mansion’s hidden treasure. Andy’s been in trouble with the law, Nate is in a mental institution, Kerri’s a budding alcoholic, and Peter took his own life. The only well-adjusted member of the group is Tim, the descendant of the…

Details Author: Stephen Lloyd Jones Publisher: Headline Books Price: £8.99 Released: 19 April After a murderous stranger breaks into her home, Mallory is forced to go on the run. But that’s nothing new. She’s spent most of her life on the run, being chased by a shadowy organisation that wants to wipe out her bloodline. Now she’s pregnant, they’re particularly keen to kill her – because her child could change the world. There’s a lot of mythology packed into this book, but author Stephen Lloyd Jones also spends a lot of his time on lavish descriptions of brutal violence. It’s there right from the very first sentence, as a blood-soaked Mallory sneaks away from the assassin she’s just killed, but some of the action sequences work better than others. Sometimes…

Details Author: Sean Grigsby Publisher: Angry Robot Price: £6.99 Released: Out now Every so often, a book arrives with a truly winning concept; Smoke Eaters’ firefighters versus dragons is one such idea. Cole Brannigan lives in a future version of America where dragons have returned and decimated the population. Brannigan is a firefighter just a week short of retirement when he discovers he can withstand dragon smoke and is drafted into the elite force, the Smoke Eaters. During his training, he discovers a conspiracy that has ramifications throughout their city. As action plots go, Smoke Eaters is entertaining, speeding through set-pieces without pausing for breath. Sean Grigsby’s vivid imagination when it comes to various species of dragon means it is always clear how much of a threat they represent. Whenever…

“LOVECRAFT IS SUCH A DEFINED SUBGENRE...IT’S LIKE PLAYING WITH SOMEBODY ELSE’S TOYS” Everyone knows that the terrifying thing behind the haunted fairground is a guy in a suit, and that the noise in the haunted lighthouse is actually just a human smuggler, not a terrifying spirit. But what if that wasn’t the case? What if a group of young amateur investigators stumbled upon something so terrifying it scarred them so badly they were still failing to deal with adults? In Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids, a Scooby gang comes together to return to the site of their greatest triumph to confront the Lovecraftian evil that never left… Were you a fan of things like Scooby Doo and Famous Five growing up? Enid Blyton’s books were still fairly popular in Spain in…

“First may I say it is very important to me to credit Museum Of Modern Art, The Film Foundation, The George Lucas Family Foundation and The Celeste Bartos Foundation for their amazing help in making this dream come true. “We needed a place to store our now historic film elements for life and not many facilities do that. We were directed to the Museum Of Modern Art by an associate of ours, Chad Hunter. Chad had been suggesting we get the elements into proper temperature and humidity conditions for some time. He sent an email to Katie Trainor at MOMA and within an hour we had an answer that MOMA was in fact interested in preserving Night’s fi lm elements forever. “We set up an appointment to have our printing…

Return To Oz This sequel sends Dorothy to electrotherapy and then to a nightmare version of Oz. Watch out for the Wheelers, they’ll haunt you for life. The Witches While the movie doesn’t quite live up to Roald Dahl’s novel, Anjelica Huston is splendidly horrid and the prologue is truly upsetting. Coraline Your Other Mother seems nice but haven’t you wondered why everyone on this side of the door has buttons where their eyes should be? Labyrinth As adults, we can all enjoy David Bowie strutting around and it’s not as upsetting as The Dark Crystal. Still, Labyrinth is still a damn scary film. The Neverending Story Perhaps not as frightening, but it has one of the most upsetting scenes ever as Artax gets stuck in the Swamps Of Sadness,…

Film RUNNING TIME: 104 minutes RELEASE DATE: 3 June 1988 DIRECTOR: Penny Marshall WRITERS: Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg CAST: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard, Jared Rushton, David Moscow About After he’s told he’s too short for a carnival ride, 12-year-old Josh Baskin puts a coin into an antique fortunetelling Zoltar machine and wishes he was big. The next morning, Josh climbs down from his bunkbed and looks into the bathroom mirror to find that he’s somehow transformed into a 30-year-old man. When his mother sees him and freaks out, thinking her grown son is actually her son’s kidnapper, Josh runs away to New York City and attempts to start a new life as an adult, getting his own apartment and dream job at a top brand toy…

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT 1 Daffy Duck and Donald Duck try for a friendly duet, but it’s obviously not long before it turns into a piano duel and insults start to get spat out all over the place. Those guys... STOKER 2 India and Uncle Charlie’s piano duet is both incredibly haunting and also weirdly (and incestuously) sensual. Furthermore, the piece they play in the scene was composed by Philip Glass for the film. CRIMSON PEAK 3 Clearly, Mia Wasikowska loves a good piano piece. Edith wakes up to find Lucille playing a beautiful rendition of the lullaby she used to sing to her brother Thomas. CORPSE BRIDE 4 Victor and Emily’s duet is downbeat and mournful, matching the tone of Tim Burton’s underrated film. However, it also comes with…

BEWARE THE MONSTERS 1. How long does it take a Graboid to reach its full size? 2. What is the name given to the winged third and final stage of the Graboid’s life cycle? 3. How do Shriekers reproduce? 4. What is the name of the main Graboid that features in the original Tremors film? 5. What is the name of the albino Graboid from the later Tremors series? ON LOCATION 6. In which city is Petromaya Oil Field located? 7. What was Perfection, Nevada called in the Old West times? 8. Where did Rhonda LeBeck attend university? 9. Which country does Burt Gummer head to in Tremors 5: Bloodlines to hunt Graboids? 10. Perfection is 38 miles from which neighbouring town? WHO’S WHO 11. What is Miss October, 1974’s…

Marvel’s latest has finally made it to UK TV, granted several months late, and it could be the breath of fresh air we’ve felt like there was a real sympatico of empowering young people and speaking to them directly, which I think we both responded to.” The Runaways include nerd Alex (Rhenzy Feliz), gothic Wiccan Nico (Lyrica Okano), alien-in-disguise Karolina (Virginia Gardener), riot grrrl Gert (Ariela Barer), jock/ engineer Chase (Gregg Sulkin) and happy-go-lucky but tough-as-nails Molly (Allegra Acosta). With the group including several people of colour, LGBTQ representation and a 3:1 female to male ratio, the show ought to be a nice break from the often straight, white male-dominated Marvel film universe. “Growing up, I didn’t feel like I had someone who personified that our race is as smart…

SKYPE GHOSTS! The brilliant and horrible Unfriended unveiled its surprise sequel at SXSW, and Unfriended: Dark Web is said to be just as inventive and cruel as its predecessor. We can’t wait to see what’s in store…. MURDER CLOWNS! Rob Zombie is working on a sequel to his acclaimed brutal horror The Devil’s Rejects, titled 3 From Hell. Original stars Sheri Moon, Sid Haig and Bill Mosely are joined by genre legends Austin Stoker and Dee Wallace. HAUNTED RPGS! Beyond The Gates, which followed two brothers who play an old VHS board game with deadly results, is getting a part two, although writer-director Jackson Stewart will be working on final girl horror The Day After Halloween first. SLASHERS! James Wan may be busy with Aquaman, but it’s been announced that…

THE GRUDGE Director Nicolas Pesce has put together a fine trio of leads for the latest reboot of the Japanese horror: Andrea Riseborough (Black Mirror), John Cho (Star Trek) and Demian Bichir (Alien: Covenant). TERMINATOR While the script for the new Terminator is getting a polish, director Tim Miller is assembling his cast. Joining Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton is Black Mirror’s Mackenzie Davis. GOOD OMENS We’re still a year away from Good Omens but there’s some good news from the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett adaptation, as Nick Offerman has signed on to play the US ambassador. DAN GILROY’S UNTITLED HORROR The yet-untitled Netflix horror has a great cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Daveed Diggs, Tom Sturridge, Toni Collette and John Malkovich. We’re in. SABRINA Just when we think…

Shogun World has been confirmed, but a viral ‘Delos’ website has revealed that there are six parks in total, so there are four that we still know nothing about. The viral website shows a distorted image of lush, unspoilt green scenery in one park – could that be Shogun World, or something else? ROMANWORLD, MEDIEVALWORLD AND FUTUREWORLD The first two appeared in the original 1973 film, and the latter was in its 1976 sequel. But the introduction of Shogun World has already indicated that HBO doesn’t necessarily plan to just repeat what’s been done before. EGYPTIANWORLD OR NOIRWORLD? Evan Rachel Wood tells us that the cast, like the fans, are speculating about what the other parks could be. “An Egyptian world would be really cool,” she says, “because of all…

Don’t fall asleep A Nightmare On Elm Street If Nancy doesn’t wake up screaming she won’t wake up at all, and if you let yourself drift off you’re going to be painted all over the ceiling by a jumper-wearing dream demon with a grudge. Beware the moon An American Werewolf In London David and Jack are given very clear instructions by the pub locals. Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. Beware the moon. They do none of these things… which leaves Jack shredded and David lycanthropic. Say his name five times Candyman Or don’t. While this rule tells you how to summon Candyman and to ensure that you meet a grisly end courtesy of his hook, you could just not look into a mirror and say his…

JOHN ROBINSON (TOBY STEPHENS) Originally played by: Guy Williams As a military man working in special ops, John’s duty kept him away from the rest of the Robinsons for a good while, causing tension between him and his wife and kids. Now an expedition commander, he leads his family on their journey to Alpha Centauri while attempting to reconnect. MAUREEN ROBINSON (MOLLY PARKER) Originally played by: June Lockhart Balancing her work as a brilliant aerospace engineer and the mother to three children on her own while her husband was absent wasn’t easy for Maureen, but she got through it. Wanting a better life for her kids, she eagerly embarks on the colonisation mission on board the spaceship Jupiter 2. JUDY ROBINSON (TAYLOR RUSSELL) Originally played by: Marta Kristen A lot…

UN LUN DUN The quick hook: Two girls follow an umbrella into the titular mad mirror version of London filled with creatures and sentient objects. But Un Lun Dun is facing the impending doom of the Smog. The facts: Un Lun Dun could be a wonderful animated film, but it could absolutely work in live-action if someone took a chance on it. The right director could do amazing things with this playground. Chances: 4/5 PERDIDO STREET STATION The quick hook: The labyrinthine city of New Crobuzon is menaced by monstrous mind-eating slake-moths unleashed by a disgraced scientist trying to help a birdman regain his ability to fly. The facts: A huge budget would be needed to bring Bas-lag and its various species of inhabitants to life. It would be amazing…

Details 18 // 108 mins // 11 May Director Coralie Fargeat Screenwriter Coralie Fargeat Cast Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchède Distributor Vertigo Releasing The rape-revenge film has always been controversial: seeing a woman murder her attackers might be cathartic, but their death hardly ends her trauma. With greater awareness around sexual violence, the genre might be even more of a minefield today. In her debut feature Revenge, French director Coralie Fargeat deftly navigates it by embracing its more unrealistic aspects and flipping its problematic elements on their head. The film follows Jen (Matilda Lutz), a young, modern-day Lolita who joins her rich, married boyfriend Richard (Kevin Janssens) at his isolated desert villa. When his hunting friends Stan (Vincent Colombe) and Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède) join the couple, Jen…

Details PG // 109 mins // Out now Director Ava DuVernay Screenwriters Jennifer Lee, Jeff Stockwell Cast Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon Distributor Disney The warrior at the centre of Ava DuVernay’s updated adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 award winning, science fiction novel is a young biracial woman who finds power in herself even as darkness and evil spreads across the universe. It’s a refreshing change to the usual hero seen in classic fantasy films and DuVernay layers her film with new meaning with its main character’s personal struggle with her appearance. Since the disappearance of her father (Chris Pine), Meg (Storm Reid) has lost her way, her grades have slipped, and she retaliates against bullying with reactionary outbursts. Thankfully, her precocious, adopted brother, Charles Wallace (Deric…

Details 15//115 mins //2018// // Released Out now Director Alex Garland Cast Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac Distributor Netflix Annihilation, adapted by Alex Garland from Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, has no interest in puzzles that are easily solved. Everything about the film becomes hazier the more you try to focus. Time is unreliable, geography even more so, and the characters become just as uncertain. After being MIA for a year, Kane (Oscar Isaac) returns home to his wife Lena (Natalie Portman) and promptly goes into some kind of violent cardiac arrest. They’re both spirited away to a government facility named Area X, where Lena is told about The Shimmer, a localised but expanding environmental disaster zone that is penetrable but remains inexplicable. As…

Details 15// 90 mins // 2017// // Released 23 April Director Adam MacDonald Cast Nicole Muñoz, Laurie Holden, Chloe Rose, Eric Osborne Distributor Signature Entertainment “I wish you were dead!” Leah Reyes (Nicole Muñoz) shouts – like the blazing teenager that she is – but her words recede in the unheeding forest which she has entered alone. The focus of Leah’s rage is her mother (Laurie Holden) who, still in emotional freefall from the recent death of her husband, has drifted into alcoholism, and constantly lashes out at her daughter. After an unkind exchange of words, Leah amateurishly enacts a ritual from one of her books, summoning the wicked spirit Pyewacket to punish her mother with death. If you are fed up with studio-produced horror films that insist on having…

Details TBC // 52 minutes // 1961// // Released Out now Creator Guy Verney Cast Ian Hendry, Patrick Macnee Distributor StudioCanal Located in 2016 after being presumed missing since it was first broadcast in 1961, ‘Tunnel Of Fear’ is an episode from the first season of The Avengers; one of only three full episodes known to exist. Official secrets are disappearing via a Southend fairground, and John Steed (Patrick Macnee) is on the case. An improbable confluence of events brings in his unofficial partner Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry), and together they must work to prove a man’s innocence. Early Avengers can be pretty gritty stuff, with only flashes of the sort of levity which would light up later seasons. Fortunately, ‘Tunnel Of Fear’ has a fair few indications of…

Details Author: Sam J Miller Publisher: Orbit Price: £12.99 Released: Out now Masaaraq, the mysterious woman at the centre of Sam J Miller’s debut novel Blackfish City, knows how to make an entrance. She arrives at the floating city of Qaanaaq with a caged polar bear in tow and an orca whale swimming alongside her. It’s fair to say that Miller himself also knows how to make a splash; he’s created a vivid dystopian metropolis that feels distressingly real and wonderfully fantastical. Masaaraq’s arrival gets the whole city buzzing, but Miller gives us four point of view characters who will each be profoundly affected by her. There’s Ankit, who works for an ineffectual politician and is beginning to wonder what good, if any, she’s actually doing for her boss’ constituents.…

“The Handmaid’s Tale (for the first time), damn good book. #BookClub” @write_act “I’m reading Divergent for the teenager perspective. #BookClub” @EleonoraMignoli “How To Stop Time by Matt Haig. Quite good but not a classic, 3 stars. #BookClub” @Ysleliss “Just finished Paper Palace. Only 4 stars for me. Next I’m reading Web Of Lies by Jennifer Estep. I’m one chapter in so far but loving it already. #BookClub” @JasminMaaz “Ancillary Sword after my reread of Ancillary Justice this weekend! So so good, I’d follow Breq anywhere. #BookClub” @adragoninspace “Just started The Fog by James Herbert, been ages since I’ve read it. Such a dark and eerie story, a real page turner as well. One of Herbert’s best books. #BookClub” @paul_bowler “Working my way through Levi Black’s urban fantasy Lovecraft mash-up Red…

Details Author: Leo Carew Publisher: Wildfire Price: £16.99 Released: 5 April Leo Carew’s novel The Wolf follows a struggle for power in a fantasy-infused land that sticks fairly close to European geography, packed with bloody battles and plenty of Machiavellian scheming. Familiar stuff, yes, but Carew delivers strong characters and a well-rendered world, and he’s not afraid to stick the knife in. The novel begins with a battle between the fearsome Anakim and the invading Sutherners which results in a catastrophic defeat for the home team. When his father falls in the fray, young Roper is technically the ruler of the Black Kingdom but he soon realises that military leader Uvoren is already stealing power from under him. Can he find a way to make alliances, claim what’s his and…

The world hasn’t quite ended in Blackfish City, it’s just been forced to adjust. After massive climate change and bloody conflicts, humanity has moved onto the water, and Sam J Miller’s debut novel plunges us into Qaanaaq, a floating metropolis where class divisions are alive and well. When a mysterious woman arrives who seems to be psychically linked to her orca and polar bear companions, a seemingly disparate group of people – disillusioned politician’s assistant Ankit, mentally unstable fighter Kaev, ambitious non-binary delivery person Soq and morose, terminally ill rich kid Fill – find their lives beginning to intertwine with hers… What came first, the city or the orca? The orca! Killer whales are amazing, and after I used them in my story Last Gods, I knew I had to…

“THEY’RE COMING TO GET YOU, BARBRA…” Six little words, a joke made to tease a tightly wound young woman and a line that has echoed through generations of audiences. Indeed, there may be no other horror film that has had the impact of Night Of The Living Dead. George A Romero’s debut opened the door for generations of independent filmmakers, it shocked the world with its graphic depictions of gore and violence, it created the zombie as we now know it and wrote the playbook for a sub-genre, and the fact that the lead character was African-American, and what happened to that lead character, was a cultural landmark which prompted decades of analysis. But as genre fans know, Romero was nothing if not self-effacing. You’d never catch him patting himself…

DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) Ten years after Night’s release, Romero was drawn back to the world he’d created by the idea of setting the film in a shopping mall. The result was a brutal social satire in glorious colour that arguably surpasses its predecessor. DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) The original trilogy concluded with the incredibly bleak Day, which finds humanity struggling to survive in the face of the apocalypse. A small group lives in a bunker under military control, but the dead never give up. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985) John A Russo took things in a different direction in his novel, first published in 1978. Originally to be adapted by Tobe Hooper, the story was brought to the big screen by Dan O’Bannon who turned into…

16-20 RHONDA LABECK It’s a wonder how anything gets done without you. With a level head, plenty of scientific knowledge and a curiosity even a cat would envy, you’re determined to get to the bottom of any challenge, including quizzes. 11-15 BURT GUMMER As a survivalist, your goal is to survive, which is why you take everything so seriously. But you will be laughing when it hits the fan and you’re the only one who’s prepared to take on the threat. 6-10 VALENTINE MCKEE Although you’re not the sharpest, you don’t hesitate to throw yourself into potentially life-threatening situations. As a self-titled handyman, you possess an array of skills, but not all of them come in useful when times get tough. 0-5 MELVIN PLUGG It takes someone unique to transform…

A NEW SERIES OF FILMS Disney announced in February that Game Of Thrones duo David Benioff and DB Weiss would be working on not one but a whole new series of Star Wars films that will be separate from the Skywalker saga. AT LEAST ONE TV SERIES Shortly after Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that there were several Star Wars TV shows in development, it was announced that Iron Man and The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau was working on a live-action series for Disney’s new streaming platform. THE RIAN JOHNSON TRILOGY While Johnson may have told us that he’s “just starting to figure out” his upcoming Star Wars trilogy, it must have been a damn fine pitch. As fans of The Last Jedi we can’t wait to see what…

Warner Bros is finally poised to open up the DC film universe further than the Justice League: a film adaptation of The New Gods was added to the slate earlier this year. As if that wasn’t enough reason to get excited, A Wrinkle In Time and Selma director Ava DuVernay is helming it. The film is set to be its own thing, not connected at all to the DC Extended Universe, which means DuVernay and writer Kario Salem will have the freedom to craft their own world from scratch. For those unfamiliar with The New Gods, they are the race of beings that feature in Jack Kirby’s comic book series of the same name. They are natives of the twin planets of New Genesis, an idyllic paradise ruled by the…

1 Back to Hogwarts After thinking we’d said farewell to Hogwarts for good, that first shot of the castle brought up some intense feelings in a lot of fans. 2 Plot holes Those feelings were quickly quashed by the fact that you can’t apparate inside the castle grounds. Who are these jokers?! 3 J’adore After his adventure in New York City, magizoologist Newt Scamander is heading to Paris to gather more research for his textbook. 4 Got a light? As the inventor of the Deluminator, this has got to be Dumbledore. Perhaps the film will reveal the origins of some of his other inventions. 5 Chief warlock There he is! Our first proper look at Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore comes with a mischievous smirk. The corduroy jacket is a…

GHOST STORIES We at SciFiNow simply can’t wait for Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s film adaptation of their incredibly successful and downright spooky stage play, Ghost Stories. Fitting in nicely with the film and play’s creepy themes is this collection of weird character posters for Ghost Stories, which is both horrifying and marvellous all at the same time. We’re not entirely sure what’s going on in this poster but it’s odd and we can’t stop looking at it… and we like that. That hot pink title font finishes it off beautifully too. Just when we thought we couldn’t get more excited for Ghost Stories, this collection of posters has made us more eager to enter an unseen world of terror. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY The Brazilian character posters for…

How did William go from being a powerless lackey to being the hugely successful Man In Black? And what happened to Logan? Will Maeve find her daughter? And is she in Westworld, or one of the other parks? Will we actually get to see inside Shogun World? Did Bernard murder Elsie, or is she still alive? Maeve’s break-out was orchestrated by Ford, so was Felix an AI plant to make sure he helps Maeve escape? What was Charlotte Hale up to? She was trying to smuggle data out of the park, but what data? And to what end? Where is the park? Some speculate it’s on an island, others think it could be the moon. What host was being built in Ford’s hidden lab? Could he have been building a…

EVERY NOW AND THEN A HORROR MOVIE COMES ALONG THAT REALLY SCARES PEOPLE. WE MEAN REALLY, TRULY TERRIFIES THEM, THE KIND OF FEAR THAT LINGERS FOR DAYS. BACK IN 2008, BRYAN BERTINO’S LEAN, MEAN HOME INVASION FILM STUNNED AUDIENCES AS THREE MASKED STRANGERS TERRORISED A COUPLE FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT THEY WERE AT HOME. “I remember being in the cinema and watching the trailer for it on the front of some other movie,” Johannes Roberts tells us. “There’s the infamous shot where she’s having a cigarette and the man comes up behind her, stares at her and goes away, and it’s the only time I’ve been in a cinema and heard an audience gasp at a trailer. It was amazing.” A sequel has been in development since the original’s…

Details 12A // 118 mins // Out now Director Roar Uthaug Screenwriters Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Alastair Siddons Cast Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu Distributor Warner Bros You’d be forgiven for having low expectations for Tomb Raider, given that the previous Angelina Jolie-starring films were trashy at best, and that video game adaptations never seem to work. But prepare to be surprised, because the Tomb Raider reboot is actually good. We first meet Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft as a bike courier in London, refusing to claim her massive inheritance as it would mean having her missing father (Dominic West) declared as legally dead. But after learning about her dad’s secret sideline in tomb raiding, she heads off to find out what really happened to him. There’s not much in…

Details 15 // 97 mins // 13 March Director Lennart Ruff Screenwriters Max Hurwitz, Arash Amel Cast Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling, Tom Wilkinson, Agyness Deyn Distributor Signature Entertainment There will come a point during The Titan when it will suddenly occur to you just how unusual the filmmakers’ approach is. It may come quite early on, when Tom Wilkinson starts talking about supermen, it may come roughly halfway through, when the team of scientists start making Sam Worthington’s eyes more like a cat’s, or it may not come until the prosthetics-heavy finale. But at a certain point, it will dawn on you how odd it is to see this kind of premise treated with such clinical seriousness. The Titan begins with the world facing extinction from catastrophic weather events, and…

Details 12A // 106 mins // Out now Director Anders Walter Screenwriter Joe Kelly Cast Madison Wolfe, Zoe Saldana, Imogen Poots, Sydney Wade Distributor RLJE Films When schoolgirl Barbara Thorson (Madison Wolfe) has trouble dealing with family problems and other aspects of reality, she escapes into the woods to find, hunt and kill the giants that lurk there and threaten to destroy her small coastal town and its unsuspecting residents. Based on Joe Kelly’s graphic novel of the same name, I Kill Giants paints a sensitive portrait of a struggling youth and combines it with the magic and adventure of epic fantasy. It’s just a shame that the film was released so soon after A Monster Calls, which tells a similar story but does so better. Kelly may have got…

Details 18 // 82 mins // 2017 // // Released 9 April Director Damien Leone Cast David Howard Thornton, Jenna Kannell, Catherine Corcoran, Katie Maguire Distributor Signature Entertainment Nightmarish murder clowns are back in vogue thanks to Pennywise’s big screen resurrection but writer-director Damien Leone’s been working on the misadventures of Art the Clown in various forms since 2011, including horror anthology All Hallows Eve. His continued fascination with the character is understandable: he’s certainly a striking figure, and there’s a powerful lack of complexity to him. The same is true of Terrifier, which pretty much does exactly what you expect of it for the entirety of its running time. Art (David Howard Thornton) runs into two young women heading home on Halloween and decides to terrorise them. It gets…

Details 12//191 mins //1979// // Released Out now Director King Hu Cast Shih Chun, Hsu Feng, Sylvia Chang, Hui Lou Chen, Rainbow Hsu Distributor Eureka Entertainment Director King Hu is perhaps best known for his wuxia epics: Dragon Inn (1969) and A Touch Of Zen (1971), which are among the most acclaimed martial arts films ever made. Following the previous release of those two titles under the banner of their Masters Of Cinema label, Eureka Entertainment is now bringing one of Hu’s other films to Blu-ray and DVD in a lavish dual format edition. Heavily cut upon release (down to an under two-hour version) the film has now been fully restored in 4K to its original 191-minute runtime by the Taiwan Film Institute. But while the less well-known Legend Of…

Details 15//95 mins // 2017 // // Released 14 May Director David Freyne Cast Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Stuart Graham Distributor Arrow Films Where most zombie films take place at the beginning or in the middle of an undead outbreak, David Freyne’s feature debut takes place in the aftermath. For, as its very title implies, The Cured concerns the challenges presented by attempts to reintegrate into a raw, ravaged community those who have recovered from their deadly rampage through it. In other words, this film is not so much post-apocalyptic as post-post-apocalyptic. This film’s equivalent of the zombifying ‘rage virus’, a rapidly transmissible disease which reduces its victims to a furious, cannibalistic pack mentality, is known as the ‘Maze Virus’, a name evocative of the Maze Prison in…

1. The Chrysalids “The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. We read it at school and it’s stuck with me ever since. #BookClub” @andyangel44 2. The Obernewtyn Chronicles “It’s so different to anything else I’ve read in dystopia and yet it is still so fresh and relevant today. #BookClub” @dreamerdreamson 3. This Perfect Day “This Perfect Day by Ira Levin, read it a few times and it has always stuck with me. #BookClub” @Cascararogue 4. The Road “The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Brilliantly written; not one extra word, not a word out of place. So disturbing. #BookClub” @calgarynanda “YOU’LL BE DRAWN INTO BLACKFISH CITY IN NO TIME AT ALL” 5. Snow Crash “Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, the language, mixture of VR and real. Good characters. #BookClub” @tall_n_moody…

Details Author: Heather Child Publisher: Orbit Books Price: £14.99 Released: 26 April How much the near-future world of Everything About You will appeal to you depends on how creeped out you are by the likes of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. If you find the current generation of virtual assistants indispensable, then the idea of an upgraded version that can do your grocery shopping as well as providing a sympathetic ear for you to vent your frustrations to might sound amazing. If, however, you already find chatty computers a bit uncanny, you’ll find it all as terrifying as Child’s protagonist, Freya, does. Though everyone around her relies heavily on tech to ease their passage through life, Freya prefers to stick to the real world. Then a beta version of a…

Details Author: Tristan Palmgren Publisher: Angry Robot Price: £6.99 Released: Out now The Black Death is rampaging through Europe and monk, Nicoluccio, soon finds himself the only survivor from his monastery. He ventures out into the world, but it brings him to the brink of death. Habidah is a visitor from another planet, sent to observe the Black Death in the hopes that she and her colleagues will find a key to preventing a plague that is tearing through their empire. When she saves Nicoluccio (an act of intervention forbidden by her role) they are drawn into a conspiracy. The themes of imperialism and interventionism have long been a sci-fi staple and provide the backdrop to the novel without it becoming too didactic. Habidah’s role is particularly interesting and Nicoluccio’s…

Details Writer: Charles Soule Artist: Various Publisher: Marvel Comics Price:£14.99 Released: Out now It is hard to develop any sort of relationship with a Marvel series at the moment. Before you know it, your new favourite comic is facing cancellation, retitling, renumbering or a reboot. Such is the case with Astonishing X-Men, here barely an arc into its ‘ongoing’ run under the guidance of writer Charles Soule (She-Hulk; Daredevil; Darth Vader) and a rotating lineup of artists, before its future is cast into doubt by the looming, line-wide ‘Fresh Start’ campaign Marvel have planned. As it is, Astonishing X-Men is off to a patchy, but promising start. It was never going to hit the highs of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s stellar 2004 run on the book, but Charles Soule…

When did you last watch the film? I recently watched the new Criterion Blu-ray which is, by leaps and bounds, the most gorgeous home release of NOTLD ever produced. My favourite part of the Criterion release is the dailies. Seeing my dad and Duane repeatedly fight over the gun validated my memory of having watched them do that scene in person. There’s a quick glimpse of me sitting on the side-lines behind Duane, watching the action. It happened so long ago that I’d begun to think I’d imagined viewing their various takes, but the camera caught me there, and now I know that my memory was accurate. How does it feel looking back on the film now? It feels like it was another lifetime. In a sense, it actually was.…

There’s a look that people get when you mention the words “The Dark Crystal”. It’s usually followed by them telling you that Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s 1982 classic scared the life out of them as children, whether it was the “Trial by stone!” or the poor little Podling having his life essence drained out of him. It was a film that understood that children don’t need to be talked down to, that they can handle challenging material even if it leaves them hiding behind the sofa. “Well, yes, what’s interesting is when we were making the film it never really occurred to us that it was for children!” laughs Brian Froud, the artist behind the world of the film and many of the creatures. “We made the film that…

La Brea Tar Pits, 5801 Wilshire Boulevard A naturally occurring phenomena, the La Brea Tar Pits were formed roughly 40,000 years ago when glutinous crude oil deposits rose to the Earth’s surface. Miracle Mile is bookended by symbolic sequences at the tar pits that reflect the inescapable circle of life. A family-friendly destination for visitors, complete with its own dedicated museum, the tar pits are a registered Natural National Landmark. The Pan-Pacific Auditorium, 7600 Beverly Boulevard Designed by LA architects Wurderman & Becket, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was recognised as a classic example of Streamline Moderne architecture. The sequence filmed there is poignant as it’s the last time the auditorium was seen on the big screen. The by-then closed auditorium was destroyed by fire in 1989, with the space left now…

“ICE CREAM, VANILLA SODA ON POP TOP , !” JOSH & BILLY “I’M YOUR BEST FRIEND. WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT, HUH? AND I’M THREE MONTHS OLDER THAN YOU ARE, ASSHOLE!” BILLY “DO YOU MEAN SLEEP OVER?” JOSH “IT’S NOT A SPORT IF YOU DON’T SWEAT.” PAUL “LOOK, IF YOU TOUCH ONE HAIR ON HIS HEAD, I SWEAR I WILL SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE MAKING SURE YOU SUFFER.” MRS BASKIN “IT’S A GLOW-IN-THE-DARK COMPASS RING. SO YOU DON’T GET LOST.” JOSH “A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY SEVEN DOLLARS?!” JOSH “GIVE ME THE GODDAMN BALL!” PAUL “THREE DIMES, A HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS AND 87 ONES.” JOSH “I WISH I WERE BIG.” JOSH “SO YOU GOT A JOB WHERE YOU PLAY WITH ALL THESE TOYS? AND THEY’RE GONNA PAY YOU FOR…