Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 163 i SciFi Now

The fact that Kristen Stewart was starring in a sci-fi set in an ocean-floor facility where things go horrifically wrong had somehow escaped our notice until the trailer was released last month and we are very much here for it. Leaving aside the fact that we’re always on board for ‘something is going wrong in this facility’ movies, especially when they star Kristen Stewart, Underwater is directed by William Eubank, who gave us the underseen SF The Signal. It’s been a big year for polarising movies. Every year has one or two pure Marmite films, but 2019 feels like we’ve pretty much had one a month. Maybe it’s the terrifying times we live in, but they’re everywhere. Ari Aster’s Midsommar was either a folk horror modern classic or an overlong…

Good news everyone – we appear to have been plunged into a parallel dimension, but it’s one in which Ben Wheatley is directing a Tomb Raider film, so we don’t mind. It’s all been fairly quiet on the Tomb Raider front since the first film arrived to solid reviews in 2018, but now we have a release date for the sequel – 19 March 2021 – and Alicia Vikander is confirmed to return as Lara Croft. The big surprise, though, was the choice of the Kill List and High-Rise director to helm the movie. Wheatley proved with Free Fire that he can handle action, and we can also expect him to bring a black sense of humour and some scares to Lara’s adventures. His frequent collaborator Amy Jump was already…

Anyone who watched HBO’s brilliant Chernobyl TV series earlier this year can tell you just how powerful Hildur Guðnadóttir’s compositions can be, and she is an absolutely fascinating choice for a comic book movie. This a genre that is entirely dominated by large signature themes and sweeping orchestrals. However, Phillips tells us that he was looking for something just a little bit different to that for his own movie… “When I first spoke to her I was like, this is no joke, we’re going to have like an hour of score, which is a lot,” he remembers. “She read the script and she just started sending me music before we started shooting, which really never happens. “Usually you don’t really pay mind to the music until you are already into…

1985 George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic division creates the first all-CGI character for Young Sherlock Holmes. 1999 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace introduces the first main character (Jar Jar Binks) created using motion capture. 2002 Weta brings motion capture technology to new heights for Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers with real-time performance-capture that allows the MoCap actor to physically be on set. 2009 Thanks to Weta and new MoCap tech, James Cameron’s Avatar boasts 100% of the actors’ physical performances mapped to their digital counterparts. 2011 Weta advances MoCap technology yet again with The Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, capturing every emotional nuance of the photorealistic primates.…

BACK IN THE HOT SUMMER OF 2018, we found respite from the heat in an ancient and peaceful worship space, with sunlight filtering in through a hole in the stone roof. We were starting to feel quite Druidic about it all until we stepped outside on to a soundstage, and remembered that the rays of sunlight were just clever lighting. A few feet away lay the entrance to the lodgings of a Roman General, filled with swords, furs and a comfy-looking bed. In reality – and in the world of Britannia – the Druids and the Roman occupiers of Britain didn’t reside comfortably side-by-side, but here, where the show is filmed on an industrial estate in London, they’re a stone’s throw apart. In the show, however, things are “hotting up”,…

How would you describe Janet’s growth over the course of the series? There’s something very human-like about Janet for sure, that goes without saying, but I think there’s something specifically childlike about her, and I think of her growth as almost the way a teenager grows. She’s gone from a little kid to a teenager to an adult, and we’ve gotten to see such a change in her, which is a really hard thing to figure out as an actor. I never want to make Janet too robotic, and I certainly don’t want to make her too human. It’s like I’m making a decision for her every day! I’m like, where is she at now? But I have loved getting to do that. It’s a gift from the writers that…

Release 7 October Director Simon Kinberg Cast Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain Distributor 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Certificate 12A Format Since its debut in 2000, outings in the X-Men franchise have varied from brilliant (Logan, First Class) to abysmal (The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine). But they’ve rarely been boring, which makes it even more disappointing that Dark Phoenix – its last hurrah – is so dull. Adapting one of Marvel’s most memorable mutant storylines, Dark Phoenix sees Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey grapple with her past and morality after she absorbs the energy from a solar radiation storm and finds her abilities have been amplified. Bafflingly though, the film then relegates Jean to the sidelines as it bogs itself down with too many characters,…

Release Out now Director Danishka Esterhazy Cast Dani Kind, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong, Romeo Carere, Maria Nash Distributor Warner Home Video Certificate 18 Format Beloved Hanna Barbera characters are given a bold new spin in Danishka Esterhazy’s self-aware blood-soaked throwback, in which a birthday trip to a live taping of The Banana Splits goes horribly wrong as the animatronic puppets turn homicidal. Can young Harley (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) and his family escape the carnage, and just how traumatised will he be if they do? There’s an impressive blend of good-natured humour and some pretty shocking violence here as Esterhazy has a lot of fun with the ridiculous nature of the premise and the practical gore effects. The characters are divided into loveable heroes and assholes who absolutely deserve a bloody death from early…

Release Out now Director Jörg Buttgereit Cast Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Monika M., Micha Brendel Distributor Arrow Video Certificate 18 Format To say that Nekromantik director Jörg Buttgereit’s movies are ‘an acquired taste’ is putting it very lightly indeed, but for those who enjoy his stylised blend of extreme gore, dark humour and self-consciousromanticism, Schramm is essential viewing. It’s the last of Buttgereit’s feature films to date; a short and experimental story of Lothar Schramm who is ‘The Lipstick Killer’ and who we meet as he’s dying on the floor of his apartment. Time soon begins to loop as we plunge into the killer’s psyche and he recalls his murders, his nightmares, and his obsession with the friendly prostitute next door for whom he acts as a driver. As ever,…

Release Out now Director Wes Craven Cast Robert Huston, Janus Blythe, Michael Berryman, John Laughlin Distributor Arrow Video Certificate 18 Format No master of horror was immune from the occasional career slump, and as the interviewees on Arrow Video’s disc politely point out, Wes Craven didn’t make The Hills Have Eyes Part Two for particularly artistic reasons. This disowned and unloved sequel came just after the failure of Swamp Thing and just before the filmmaker bounced back with A Nightmare On Elm Street, and there’s not an awful lot of enthusiasm to be found in the no-budget affair. Janus Blythe and Michael Berryman are still great as the returning Ruby (now Rachel) and the hulking Jupiter respectively, but it’s not a well-written or well-acted film and the fact that so…

Having wowed with his Wounded Kingdom trilogy, RJ Barker is setting out to sea with a new fantasy trilogy that combines all the best elements of sea-faring epics with fantasy world-building and kaiju. It follows Joron Twiner, the once captain, now first mate of a ship of convicts under the command of the fearsome Lucky Meas as they set out on the trail of a dragon that could end their war, one way or another… You mention Moby Dick in the afterword, have you always been drawn to these sea-faring epics? I read Moby Dick at quite an early age. Together with books like Treasure Island and then CS Forester’s Hornblower, and much later I discovered Patrick O’Brian and his Aubrey/Maturin books; which are beautiful and clever and funny, and…

Katherine Kerr “She writes brilliantly gritty low magic Celtic fantasy with a higher body count of main characters than Game Of Thrones. #BookClub” @ TimLeachWriter Tad Williams “… and The Dragonbone Chair. The storytelling is so rich and detailed you can clearly imagine are the characters #BookClub” @RobFone812 Brian Jacques “Martin the warrior was such a boss, I couldn’t put the book down. #BookClub” @HamSpanner Terrance Dicks “An apt question in this sad week. It was Mr Terrance Dicks. Gone but forever lives on! #BookClub” @Devilgoblins Terry Pratchett “…because...it’s@terryandrob. Need I say more? #BookClub” @182Andywilson Tell us what you’re reading on Twitter or Facebook…

“Currently reading the excellent Darkwood by@Scriblit. Wonderfully funny and a great take on many a fairy tale. #BookClub” Rhys180 “I am reading Recursion by Blake Crouch. It’s early days but I’m fully immersed and loving it already. He can’t really do any wrong in my opinion though so it’s not a surprise that it’s excellent. #BookClub” @GaryRenton2 “I finished Battle Mage by Peter Flannery yesterday & it was absolutely fantastic. #BookClub” @The_LizMarshall “Got some Junji Ito novels on 3 for 2 @TravellingManUK - nightmare fuel. #BookClub” @mrslaurenwayne “Good Omens (again), Serpentine by Laurel K Hamilton. #BookClub” @afperezb9 “Bloodchild by@AnnaSmithWrites. This volume brings the tale to an end and I’m loving it. Grimdark at it’s Grimmest and Darkest...and then some. #BookClub” @andyangel44 “Just finished Velocity Weapon by Megan E O’Keefe. Wonderful…

Release Out now Writer John Birmingham Publisher Del Rey Books Price £8.99 When Lucinda Hardy boards the Defiant as its new tactical officer, she’s not expecting to face an invasion from the Sturm, an old enemy with a long-standing grudge against the imperial forces in the rest of the galaxy. Neither are former war hero Frazer McLennan, Princess Alessia, Sephina L’Trel, or prisoner Booker. But the fate of the universe might just rest on their shoulders. It is easy to make comparisons to the influences on John Birmingham’s novel; one of the most obvious is Battlestar Galactica. To wear influences so openly can sometimes work more as a detriment to a new book as those comparisons might not be favourable. However, The Cruel Stars more than matches up. The main…

Born in 1943 and tragically passing away just 25 years later, Surrey-born Michael Reeves was not long in this world but nonetheless left behind a small body of work that provided ample evidence of a major talent. Emerging with a low budget horror film, The She Beast, in 1966, the director – who had already travelled to America and Rome in order to achieve some early breaks in the business – seemed little different to any other journeyman genre-hand. However, it was with his two follow-up ventures, The Sorcerers (1967), and the notorious Witchfinder General (1968), that Reeves established himself as a major talent, likely to move on to bigger budgeted, and more ambitious, productions. Unfortunately, a barbiturate overdose (Reeves was prescribed the medication for his depression, which he mixed…

TALES FROM THE CRYPT (AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE) (1972) An escaped homicidal maniac dressed as Santa comes knocking after a devious wife murders her husband on Christmas Eve in this suspenseful opening chapter to Amicus’ anthology shocker. Interestingly, Joan Collins recently reprised her part in homage to the classic in American Horror Story: Apocalypse. GREMLINS (1984) Joe Dante expertly took the cozy confides of a small town setting from Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, then let loose a batch of mischievous green-skinned monsters who are hell-bent on destroying the season to be jolly in this undisputed comic horror Christmas gem. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) ‘You’ve made it through Halloween, now try and survive Christmas’ went the sinister tagline for the highly controversial first (of five!)…

IN THE HISTORY of haunted houses, there are two that loom the largest. The first, and the most influential, is Shirley Jackson’s Hill House, that rambling mansion that was ‘born bad’. The second, and directly inspired by the first, is the Overlook Hotel. Stephen King’s Colorado getaway is memorable and terrifying in the book, and became an icon in Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining. The long, winding corridors, the elevator, Room 237… Although the former informed the latter, there is now an even more direct link between them: filmmaker Mike Flanagan. The writer-director who made his name with horror films Absentia, Oculus and the King adaptation Gerald’s Game had his biggest hit with his Netflix adaptation of The Haunting Of Hill House, and he followed that success by packing his…

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATION WHAT IS IT? It’s a sequel series to Filmation’s 1982 animated show He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe. He-Man, Orko, Cringer, Man-At-Arms and Teela will all be making appearances, going up against Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Beast Man and more. WHO’S INVOLVED? Kevin Smith of Mallrats, Clerks and Dogma fame announced that he would be serving as both an executive producer and a showrunner for the series at this year’s Power-Con. Powerhouse, the company behind Netflix’s Castlevania, will be providing the animation. WHEN CAN I WATCH IT? Netflix hasn’t announced a premiere date yet, but the project seems to be well underway. AWAY WHAT IS IT? It’s a sci-fi series loosely inspired by Chris Jones’ Esquire article of the same name, and follows American astronaut Emma…

“HAVE YOU EVER DANCED WITH THE DEVIL IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT?” Jack Nicholson famously asked, wide-eyed, in Tim Burton’s Batman.With his ear-to-ear smile and purple suede gloves, he was just one of many that would embody Gotham’s greatest villain on our screens, and next up to the bat we have indie-darling Joaquin Phoenix. The multiple award-winner has captivated audiences with his transformative performances; ranging from famed country singers to assassins-for-hire. In what could be a career-defining moment, Phoenix will become the Clown Prince of Crime inToddPhillips’ forthcoming Joker. Phillips approached Warner Bros with the idea of a low budget character study. Its R rating in the US already hints at a darker, more director-focussed effort, offering Phillips some creative freedom to avoid the studio spectaculars. After getting the go-ahead to…

FRANK DARABONT The show’s original developer and creator was responsible for the show’s tone, style, look, and initial cast. He might have only stuck around for one and a bit seasons, but without him the show may not have even got off the ground. GREG NICOTERO These days he’s The Walking Dead’s most prolific director, but at the start he was the special effects make-up designer who made the zombies possible when some were saying it couldn’t be done on a TV schedule. CASTING DIRECTORS “They don’t get enough credit,” executive producer Gale Anne Hurd says of the casting directors Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas, Lisa Mae Fincannon and more, adding that they help to maintain the show’s “‘no assholes’ policy”. ANDREW LINCOLN Lincoln led the show for eight and a…

CARDIO You’re going to be doing a lot of running as you flee the undead, so try to stay in shape. LIMBER UP See above. No one wants to cramp up. DOUBLE TAP We all know a zombie is never really dead, so use that extra bullet to make sure they’re down for the count permanently. ZIPLOC BAGS No one’s got time to waste trying to light a damp match. BEWARE OF BATHROOMS One of the film’s most memorable kills involved indie filmmaker Mike White getting a nasty surprise while taking a dump. SEATBELTS There’s going to be a lot of very fast driving and a lot of things jumping out at you, so make sure you buckle up. CHECK THE BACKSEAT Everyone knows zombies love to lurk right behind…

KWAIDAN (1965) This classic anthology horror clocks in at 182 minutes but it’s essential viewing for any lover of ghost stories. Masaki Kobyashi’s film is comprised of four adaptations of Japanese folk legends and it’s both devilishly creepy and absolutely gorgeous. Track it down. JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (2002) While there are a legion of sequels and spin-offs, Takashi Shimizu’s 2002 film is absolutely the best take on the story of the vengeful spirit Kayako, who relentlessly hunts anyone who steps foot into the house where she was murdered. Her rage is as terrifying as the jump scares. DARK WATER (2002) For our money, this is the greatest modern Japanese ghost story. A single mother and her daughter move into an apartment building and are trailed by the figure of a…

The Bodyguard Despite the first screenplay being written in 1976 (with Diana Ross attached to star), the cheesy romance didn’t hit theatres until 1992. Mad Max: Fury Road George Miller regained the franchise rights in 1995, got a budget in 2003, and planned to make the flick in 2007. Filming actually began in 2012, and the film came out in 2015. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote The comedy began in 1989, was filmed in 2000, got a documentary in 2002, and premiered in 2018. The Thief And The Cobbler Richard Williams began working on this animated fantasy around 1968. The theatrical cut was released in 1995, and Williams’ superior workprint was screened in 2013. The Other Side Of The Wind Orson Welles supposedly conceived of the idea in 1961,…

Theory: It’s a prison Source: Doctor Who Summary: In ‘The Pandorica Opens’ we learn that Stonehenge is a marker and entrance point for the location of The Pandorica, the most secure prison in the universe. As tempting as this is to believe, geological scans of the area would surely have revealed any such underground prisons. Theory: Pieces of Stonehenge can summon magical snakes and insects Source: Halloween III: Season Of The Witch Summary: This film posits that fragments of Stonehenge could be used to kill people, before allowing snakes and insects to swarm from their dead bodies. Unfortunately, chiselling off even small pieces of stone could undermine the structure, making this theory too risky to test. Theory: It is the centrepoint of Unicron’s six horns Source: Transformers: The Last Knight…

Has it been fun watching Tahani’s development over the last four years? Yeah. I hated her to begin with I thought she was such a narg. I had to find a way to fall in love with her myself and help people fall in love with her, otherwise she’s so insufferable and such a vainglorious narcissist, and so it was really fun finding the humanity in her and bringing her out, finding a way that people can sympathise and kind of identify with her, which I think mostly happens through her family dynamic. What qualities have you admired in Tahani from the beginning? I like the fact that Tahani owns who she is, through and through. She’s fairly shameless, which I think is very funny. I think I’ve learned the…

Release 14 October Director Tate Taylor Cast Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, Luke Evans Distributor Universal Pictures UK Certificate 15 Format A group of teenagers looking for an irresponsible adult to buy them some alcohol get a whole lot more than they bargain for when a seemingly kindly middle-aged veterinary technician invites them to drink and party in the basement of her out-of-town home whenever they want. Things obviously get sinister very fast when the woman soon attempts to befriend the group outside of the basement as well. Octavia Spencer’s performance as Sue Ann (who is known simply as ‘Ma’ to the local group of kids) is captivating, as she creates a character that is somehow sometimes very sympathetic and sometimes very repulsive but always deeply entrancing. Similarly, Juliette…

Release 14 October Director Michael Dougherty Cast Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Charles Dance Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures Certificate 12A Format Godzilla kept monster madness to a minimum, delivering a human story about the effects of nuclear meltdowns. Kong: Skull Island abandoned that serious tone for something gorier and funnier. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters tries to do both, with not-so-positive results. Bafflingly for a story that hinges on humans being worth fighting for, it boasts an inordinate amount of thinly drawn characters you never really have time to get to know. Essentially though, it centres on Godzilla-hating Mark Russell (Chandler), who is brought in by the military and MUTOresearching organisation Monarch to save his kidnapped daughter and ex-wife Emma (Farmiga) from eco-terrorists. Eco-terrorists who, using…

Release Out now Showrunners Jeffrey Addis, Will Matthews Cast Nathalie Emmanuel, Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Isaacs, Simon Pegg, Mark Hamill Distributor Netflix Certificate PG Format Anyone wondering if Netflix’s TV prequel to the Jim Henson classic would take audiences to the same dark places will have had their fears, or nightmares, put to bed at this point. Dark, scary and hugely ambitious, The Age Of Resistance is a triumph that showcases a dazzling display of artistry. The puppet design, costumes and sets are so awe-inspiring that it’s a little distracting for the first couple of episodes as the story and characters fight for your attention. However, this isn’t a case of style over substance as the writing team, led by Jeffrey Addis, Will Matthews and genre vet Javier Grillo-Marxuach…

Release Out now Writer Nicola Mostyn Publisher Piatkus Price £8.99 If everyone suddenly decided love wasn’t real, and that expecting people to couple up for life was completely unrealistic, what would the world look like? According to charismatic author-slash-cult-leader R A Stone, it would be a better place, and his dedicated followers agree. One of them in particular, Frida, agrees so vehemently she has based her career as a divorce lawyer on convincing her clients that their love was only ever a delusion. But Stone isn’t what he appears, and actually, neither is Frida. Though the cover design and back copy only offer the merest of hints of what kind of story this is, The Love Delusion is really a contemporary take on ancient Greek mythology, complete with warring gods,…

Release Out now Writer RJ Barker Publisher Orbit Price £8.99 In his Wounded Kingdom trilogy, RJ Barker showed his grasp of character, wit, world-building and heart. While the first novel in his new series sees him pivot from the world of an assassin’s apprentice to the high seas on boats made from the bones of monsters, it is not missing any of the empathy or glee of his previous work. There’s the outcast hero, finding his place in the world, and there are big bloody creatures. Joron Twiner starts the novel with the double indignity of a hangover and being challenged to a duel for the captaincy of his ship, a fight which he knows he’s going to lose. After all, he’s been called out by the famed and fearsome…

Release 19 September Writer Stephen Baxter Publisher Gollancz Price £20 In an alternate version of our universe, Reid Malenfant, a recurring character in Stephen Baxter’s work, wakes up in the year 2570. He’s an astronaut out of his time, finding a world destroyed by climate change and remade by the diminished human population. However, something called the Destroyer is on the horizon and it appears that Reid’s deceased wife might know something about it. There are plenty of verbose descriptions in the novel, but Baxter never loses you as a reader if you’re not scientifically-minded. Likewise, his world-building of an alternate universe in which Neil Armstrong died on the moon feels like an organic creation rather than jarring. The references to other pop cultural science fiction seem to be a…

After the success of Witchfinder General, it was only inevitable that audiences would be spoiled for choice with sound-alike and even lookalike copycat productions. Fast out of the box was Mark Of The Devil (1970), a West German sickie helmed by British director Michael Armstrong that was banned in the UK for decades (and narrowly escaped becoming an official ‘video nasty’). Whilst not as effective as Witchfinder General, it is far gorier – offering buckets of blood and some sublime set-pieces, such as the infamous sequence where a bound woman has her tongue pulled out! Unsurprisingly given the first film’s success, the lesser-seen and inferior Mark Of The Devil Part II (Adrian Koven, 1973) was made soon after. Meanwhile, in Spain, Jess Franco was clearly impressed byWitchfinderGeneral– because his The…

“The studio wanted a date movie,” laughs Director Chris Walas, recalling his route into 1989’s twisted creature feature The Fly II. As the follow up to David Cronenberg’s gene-splicing masterpiece turns 30, it may come as a surprise to discover this grisly and considerably darker sequel was ever considered suitable Netflix and chill material. Having transformed Jeff Goldblum into the slimy BrundleFly on Cronenberg’s 1986 feature, the make-up skills of special effects maestro Walas were so stomach-churning they won him, and the film, Academy gold. Such success all but guaranteed a sequel and when Cronenberg passed on the opportunity to direct, Walas’ dreams of helming his own feature became a reality. “As soon as The Fly started making real money, talks began,” Walas tells us. “I thought David really opened…

Predating John Carpenter’s original Halloween by four years, Bob Clark’s 1974 seminal slasher Black Christmas, with its prowling unseen perpetrator’s point-of-view camera moves and creepy predominantly housebound premise, arguably set the standard for the horror subgenre. Of course, it’s loosely based on the old urban legend of ‘the babysitter and the man upstairs’, concerning a sitter who receives disturbing phone calls from a stalker who insists that she “check the children”, only for it to later emerge that the calls are actually coming from inside the house. Clark’s imaginative take on the story centres chilling events around a busy sorority house during the festive season, where a group of girls along with their boozy house mother become the prey of a disturbed prowler who places regular obscene phone calls. Veteran…

16-20 BELLE People often criticise the way you live your life, but having the knowledge of an entire library inside your head is yet to let you down. You don’t really have much, but what you do have is priceless. 11-15 HERCULES Though your levels of brawn easily outweigh your brains, you still have a whole lot of heart to spare. If you trust in your friends and mentors and continue doing what is right, you will go the distance. 6-10 SEBASTIAN You like to think that you’re in charge of any given situation, but most of the time you don’t really have a clue what’s going on. Just keep pretending you know what’s best and maybe one day you will. 0-5 ALADDIN Everyone loves you, but there’s no hiding…

The Haunting Of Bly Manor EXPECTED RELEASE 2020 ROLES DANI: Female, 20-30 years old, Caucasian. A governess who takes care of two unusual children. The Haunting Of Hill House experience is necessary, which we admit greatly limits the pickings. PETER: Male, 30-40 years old, Caucasian. A charming fellow. Experience as above. MILES: Male, under ten years old, Caucasian. A child who is both charming and weirdly creepy. FLORA: Female, under ten years old, Caucasian. Also charming but creepy. ENSEMBLE: Any gender, any age, any ethnicity. We’ll round out the cast with whoever’s left. CONTACT casting@netflix.com REPLIES Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Benjamin Ainsworth, Amelie Smith, Henry Thomas, Catherine Parker, T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, Amelia Eve, Kate Siegel Candyman EXPECTED RELEASE 12 June 2020 ROLES UNNAMED MAN: Male, 40-50 years old, Black.…

MS MARVEL The first of the new shows to be announced at D23 Expo, Ms Marvel might be the newest of the characters to be getting their own show, but she’s also potentially the most high-profile. A Pakistani-American teenage girl, Kamala Khan, gains the power to change her size, shape and relative strength at will (or ‘embiggening’, as she likes to call it) and names herself in honour of her idol, Captain Marvel. Her solo series centres around her family and her school friends, as she balances her conservative parents’ wishes with her own desire to fight crime. Done right, a Ms Marvel show would be funny, lively and full of heart. CREATED IN: 2014 CREATED BY: G Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, with character design by Jamie McKelvie (the…

BEST FILM JOKER Joker really knows how to put a poster together, having already won the title of ‘Best Poster’ in our coveted ‘Best of the Billboards’ Awards back in issue 158. The film’s second gong is awarded for showing a side to Gotham’s clown prince of crime that we haven’t see before. Other posters in this set of three include one that gives a hi-res look at half of Joaquin Phoenix’s pensive painted clown face and another where he’s doing a happy little dance in the sunlight. RUNNER UP FROZEN 2 Frozen 2 is another two-time Best of the Billboards award recipient. The textures and minimalism keep us guessing. MOST STYLISH ONWARD This new poster for animated fantasy adventure Onward, takes advantage of the fact that we’re all obsessed…

25 APRIL 1940 First appearance in Batman #1. FEBRUARY 1952 ‘The Joker’s Millions’ story in Detective Comics #180 cements the character as a lighthearted comedy villain. SEPTEMBER 1973 The character begins to get much darker in stories like ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ in Batman #251 and ‘The Laughing Fish’. DECEMBER 1988 The ‘A Death In The Family’ storyline begins, in which Joker murders Batman’s new Robin, Jason Todd. NOVEMBER 1992 Mark Hamill debuts as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. He’d continue to voice Joker in a variety of shows, movies and videogames. AUGUST 2009 The Batman: Arkham Asylum videogame is released with Hamill starring as Joker. Troy Baker would take over the role for Arkham: Origins. AUGUST 2016 Jared Leto stars as a tattooed Joker in David Ayer’s…

1938 Cartoon Charles Addams’ first Addams Family cartoon debuts in The New Yorker. It continues in the form of 150 one-panel cartoons that crop up in the magazine every now and then until Addams’ death in 1988. 1964 Live-action sitcom created by David Levy and Donald Saltzman, premieres on ABC. It stars Carolyn Jones, John Astin, Jackie Coogan, Lisa Loring, Ken Weatherwax, Ted Cassidy and Blossom Rock. It ends in 1966. 1972 ABC produces a pilot for a musical variety show written by Jack Riley and Liz Torres, titled. It recasts every role from the 1964 sitcom. The pilot airs in 1973 and 1974, but does not receive a full series. 1972 In the episode ‘Scooby-Doo Meets The Addams Family’ of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, sitcom stars John Astin, Carolyn…

What qualities do you admire in Jason? Other than the fact that Jason is just a goof, there’s an innocence about him. Regardless of whether or not he makes the right decisions, Jason is the heart of the group. He might not necessarily be guided by the smartest brain but he does have the biggest heart. He has such a huge amount of empathy for others, and is also I feel like the loyal one. If you ask him to do anything he’ll always be down. How has Jason grown over the course of the series? He’s definitely had his own significant arc… As the seasons have progressed, you see how less selfish he becomes because of these relationships with Eleanor, with Chidi, with Tahani, and Michael, and especially with…

Release 21 October Director David Yarovesky Cast Elizabeth Banks, Jackson A. Dunn Distributor Sony Pictures Releasing Certificate 15 Format Pushing its premise (what if Superman hadn’t been so righteous?) to its gory and cynical limits, Brightburn sees pre-teen Brandon Breyer (Dunn) wreak havoc in his town when he discovers that he’s indestructible, can fly and can shoot lasers out of his eyes. But the ballsy violence grows tiresome as it becomes clear it’s the only thing the film really cares about. Without exploring why Brandon would suddenly turn evil after he learns that he’s not like everybody else, the film lacks depth. The characters are clichés too, as Brandon’s mother Tori (Banks) desperately denies that there’s anything wrong with her creepy son, while father Kyle questions her sanity. Brightburn may…

Release Out now Writer Joe Abercrombie Publisher Gollancz Price £18.99 Few authors have quite so much fun exploring the futility of war while revelling in the violent bloodshed as Joe Abercrombie, and the first instalment of his return to the world of the First Law shows that his wit and observation are as keen as ever. A Little Hatred features some returning characters but for the most part this is a good jumping on point for newcomers, as the world is poised on the brink of a new age even as princes and soldiers glorify the exploits of the heroes of old. The novel is mainly split between two locations. On the borders of Angland, two men are desperate to prove themselves on the battlefield: Leo dan Brock, dying to…

Release 8 October Writer Clay McLeod Chapman Publisher Quirk Books Price £9.99 There are some stories that simply demand to be told. It’s almost harder to name a horror movie that hasn’t been remade at some point than to think of one that actually has. But some stories just don’t lose their resonance, no matter how many times they are repeated, retold, and remade. In The Remaking, the enduring story that gets told and retold numerous times is about the Little Witch Girl Of Pilot’s Creek. The rather grim account of how poor Ella Louise Ford and her daughter Jessica were burned alive by superstitious townspeople becomes, at first, a cautionary tale that is told to little children by their parents, and then it becomes an urban legend whispered by…

Release 15 October Writer Lois Murphy Publisher Titan Books Price £7.99 In a small town, a mist descends – an unnatural mist, filled with horrors that seek to devour anyone that ventures out after dark. Think you may have already read this? There are definitely similarities to Stephen King’s The Mist but there are also plenty of differences. For starters, there are no children involved, and the story takes months to fully unfold – but the biggest difference is that it’s set in deepest, darkest Australia, in a town that gets quietly taken off the map after the mist arrives. Unlike King’s mist, too, this one only appears after dark, which lures some townsfolk to stay in their homes and drawing their curtains to keep out the night. Their precautions…

Release Out now Writer Tamsyn Muir Publisher Tor Price £21.51 Today was supposed to be a good day for Gideon Nav. Today was supposed to be the day that she escaped from the oppressive Ninth House, a clean getaway that no one was supposed to know about. But that escape, like so many others before it, failed, and instead the angry young woman is given a different opportunity to leave the House behind: by fighting for it. “A GLORIOUSLY DARK AND WONDERFULLY WEIRD BLEND OF SF AND HORROR, AND A SPIKY JOY” The Emperor has just requested that each House send their heir and a cavalier (a fancy word for bodyguard) to Canaan House to face trials and potential become his new Lyctors. It’s an incredible honour and an amazing…

Tony Tenser’s Tigon Films (or to give the company its official name, Tigon British Film Productions) were short-lived but hugely influential – with an impressive production slate that lasted from 1967 until 1973. Acknowledging Tigon’s market presence, FAB Press released the must-have hardback book Beasts In The Cellar: The Exploitation Film Career Of Tony Tenser by John Hamilton in 2005. Tenser himself passed away in 2007, aged 87, but had an important role in producing or distributing a number of classics. Prior to the formation of Tigon, this included, most notably, Polanski’s Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-Sac (1966) – which supplied the capital to support Reeves’ The Sorcerers(1967) and Witchfinder General (1968) and also saw the production of Michael Armstrong’s The Haunted House Of Horror (1969). Other horror hits for the…