Table of contents for June 2017 in SFX

It’s nearly four years since Peter Capaldi was announced as the Twelfth Doctor. Even so, with just two series under his buttoned-up collar, it still feels like we barely know him – as enigmatic as the character should be. For my money he’s been great, particularly in his edgier first series. But as Capaldi embarks on his final year in the TARDIS, I’m hoping for stories to give him the chance to go down as one of the great Time Lords. We’ve been on set, and spoken with Capaldi, Mackie and Moffat to give you the only coverage from the TARDIS you need (p40). In another corner of the universe, there’s also the small matter of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2, the sequel to the Marvel movie that came…

HOW DID YOU PREP FOR THE SHOW? I read The Time Machine, The Island Of Dr Moreau and The Invisible Man. I had seen the movie as well. MALCOLM McDOWELL’S TAKE ON THE ROLE IS ONE OF HIS MOST FAMOUS. DID YOU BORROW FROM WHAT HE DID? Just knowing it’s from 1979, [the film] was a different type of genre. I could see what I liked that he did, and other things that wouldn’t translate, so I could get an essence of what he did. But we’re doing something quite different. TV and cinema has changed a lot since then, and it’s very grounded now. So I was trying to bring it down a little more without losing the theatrics. WHAT ASPECTS OF THE REAL WELLS DOES THE SERIES LEAN…

When the old system collapses, suggests one of fiction’s recurring narratives, things get bad. In the words of Cory Doctorow, “The normal narrative convention is that when the lights go out, it’s a small band of decent people posed against the slavering hordes of people who have just been waiting for the first sign of disorder to come and, y’know, eat their neighbours.” It’s a scenario Doctorow rejects in Walkaway, a novel about “the first days of the collapse of the old system”. The book was heavily influenced by Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built In Hell, which contrasts what we retrospectively think we know about disasters, that chaos ensues, with the reality of accounts that suggest those caught up in terrible events often behave very well. It follows characters who…

sci-fact! Pudi is voicing Donald Duck’s nephew Huey in the upcoming Duck Tales reboot. ORIGIN STORY “In the original [pilot], Teddy and Emily (Vanessa Hudgens) were best friends and worked as a team. In the new version, she comes into the world and shakes things up. We now see our jobs differently.” SUPER GENIUS “Teddy has these dreams for products he wants to design, maybe for Batman, that could be really great. But things haven’t always worked out for Teddy, which makes him question himself, and maybe not believe in himself as others do.” HUMBLE BEGINNINGS “We’ll meet his family and see that he’s dealing with really high family expectations. He comes from a family of high achievers. He has a lot to live up to.” ENTRY DRUG “When I…

s c i - f a ct ! Murphy’s Law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong – was coined by aerospace engineer Edward A Murphy Jr. Introduce us to your protagonist! By day, Rupert Wong pushes pencils for the Chinese Hells (or at least the version manifested in Malaysia). By night, he concocts culinary masterpieces for a dynasty of ravenous ghouls. What mythological elements does the book draw upon? I pulled out things from Chinese mythology, Malaysian animism, Greek legend, Slavic folklore, and some English urban legends. I was fascinated with how European folklore bleed together. There’s a Slavic god in the book that was once the Coolest Important Dude ever, but time broke him into personality traits. Little quirks, little bits of symbology that were then…

Date 29 April location Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London With sequels, prequels, comics and toys flooding the sci-fi market, it’s Christmas every day for Star Wars fans right now. But if you’re twiddling your thumbs until The Last Jedi, Foyles’ Charing Cross branch has the answer, with a Star Wars Reads Day on 29 April (ahead of Star Wars day on May the Fourth). The exact content of the day is still to be confirmed, but in the morning there’ll be Star Wars Make And Do, where kids can create their own Wookiee finger puppets (£3 for children, free for supervising adults). There’s also a workshop with JAKe, the Star Wars illustrator responsible for a series of Syfy shorts. Plus expect a few Stormtroopers to be making sure everything’s regulation.…

Bill Paxton, star of Aliens, Near Dark and many more classics, dies at 61, following heart surgery complications. Suicide Squad is an Oscar-winner! It picked up a prize for Best Hair And Make- Up. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and Arrival also nabbed up some technical awards. Sci-fi and fantasy is rather more “successful” at the Razzies, where Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was a big winner. The Wire’s Michael K Williams joins the Han Solo movie cast in an as-yet unrevealed role. Neil Gaiman is writing a sequel to Neverwhere, titled The Seven Sisters. Philip Pullman to follow up His Dark Materials with new trilogy The Book Of Dust. The first book’s due in October. Ant-Man And The Wasp starts shooting in early July in Atlanta. Kieron Gillen is…

Eva Green orbiting Tim Burton’s Dumbo… Ridley Scott says next Alien movie already written… Stephen Lang joining Mortal Engines… Dave Wilson directing comic book adap Bloodshot… Geraldine Chaplin joining Jurassic World 2… Jason Statham gigant-oshark movie Meg pushed to 10 August 2018… Meg PJ Byrne joining Rampage… Ice Cube voicing Miles Morales’s father in Sony’s animated Spider- Man… Kubo And The Two Strings’ Travis Knight to direct Transformers spinoff Bumblebee… Stranger Things’ David Harbour in the frame for Cable in Deadpool 2… Avatar sequels begin shooting in August… Vera Farmiga joining Godzilla: King Of The Monsters… Guillermo del Toro says Hellboy 3 officially dead… Gerard Butler producing an adap of Victoria Schwab’s YA novel A Darker Shade Of Magic… Matt Ross helming VR tale Tomorrow And Tomorrow for Tristar… Joe Carnahan writing X-Force… Yvonne Strahovski and Alfie Allen joining The Predator… Michelle Rodriguez signing for Alita: Battle Angel… Annabelle 2’s David F Sandberg directing Shazam……

Craig from Bridlington says: “I bought this Denys Fisher Tom Baker doll (which looks nothing like Gareth Hunt, whatever some people say!) from a secondhand shop in Hornsea in the late ’80s. I think he was about a fiver! Sadly, the little sonic screwdriver was missing when I bought it, but I’ve still got his hat, and the box – which is in pretty good nick. Any idea what he’s worth?” estimated value £40-100 KATHY TAYLOR OF VECTIS SAYS: Toy company Denys Fisher, in collaboration with US toymaker Mego, made a great line of Doctor Who toys in the 1970s. Denys Fisher was born in Leeds, originally using his skills as an engineer manufacturing military components prior to inventing the Spirograph drawing toy, then selling out to Mego in 1970.…

The problem with funny books – I mean, really funny, giggling-uncontrollablywhile- everyone-in-yourcrowded- train-carspeculates- about-whetherperhaps- someone-ought-to-call-theparamedics sorts of books – is that you can get so wrapped up in the pleasure of reading that you forget to take the story seriously. That would be a terrible mistake in this case, because Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is a seriously funny book. Any attempt to encapsulate the story is doomed to fail, but lets just say it’s about the arrival of an antichrist (who gets accidentally switched at birth with the wrong baby by a slightly clumsy satanic nun) and the coming battle between the forces of heaven and hell (well, except for the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley who’ve become rather good friends over the centuries and…

Different compa nions bring out different sides of the Doctor . What does Bill bring out in yo ur Doctor? We keep saying she’s new but in a way she’s a classic companion, because she doesn’t know anything at all about the Doctor or his existence or space and time or Daleks. He’s able to adopt an almost teaching role in showing her these delights that are available to him. But of course it spins out of control, as ever, because it’s the Doctor. He has to explain himself more, and explain the universe more, but in a way that’s more old fashioned, I think. Does the series feel new agai n? It’s new but in a way it’s old. It’s new in the sense that it’s all new to…

BEATLES MEMORABILIA One of the first things I collected was when I was in college. A girl was selling her Beatles memorabilia collection, and The Beatles had just broken up. Back in the day, all I cared about was the music. But once they’d broken up… First of all I was devastated. But all of these things that I laughed at – because I only got the records – the Beatles “Flip Your Wig” game and all these different things, they took on a whole new significance for me. She needed money for college. She had like 22 items, including the bobbing head dolls and both lunchboxes and the Soakies (they only made Ringo and Paul). I said, “How much do you think this is all worth? She said, “Well,…

In the first Guardians Peter matures and takes on a leadership role. Is all of that shot to hell with the arrival of his dad? In some ways, yes. But it was really important to me… I remember having that conversation with James. I said, “Listen. It’s important that we honour where these characters went and the journey that they went through in the beginning.” You’ll see when you see the movie. It’s not taking the first movie and just doing it over again in a different way, which sometimes happens with sequels. This is different. We definitely pick up where we left off, and the growth that they’ve had in the first movie remains. How have the Guardians changed? The result is a closer familial bond, meaning more familial…

While Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are responsible for bringing the current team together in 2008, the Guardians of the Galaxy also owe a huge debt to the work of Jim Starlin. In fact the whole Marvel cosmic universe is inspired by the superheroic space operas that he wrote and drew in the 1970s. Starlin also created Drax the Destroyer and Gamora, who made their respective bows in 1973’s Iron Man #55 and 1975’s Strange Tales #180, along with other prominent characters like Thanos and Adam Warlock. “Jim Starlin is one of my favourite creators, and his work on Warlock and Captain Marvel are benchmarks for me,” says Abnett. “It was a pleasure to use those characters and, I hope, honour that legacy.” Star-Lord’s first adventure – the work of…

ANANSI BOYS Anansi Boys is, essentially, a spin-off from American Gods; a comedy about the African spider god Mr Nancy and his two sons. There have been rumblings about a BBC adaptation but nothing has come of it so far (except on the radio). A shame, as it would no doubt be a fun and funny farce. SANDMAN An adaptation of the Sandman comics has been mooted for decades. Most recently it looked like it would be developed by Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer, but he quit after saying the material was unworkable as a film, and would better suit a TV series. Step on up, Bryan Fuller! THE GRAVEYARD BOOK Another case of development hell: Neil Gaiman’s story of a boy raised in a graveyard was originally mooted by Disney…

Time Machine the story behind the sf and fantasy of yesteryear 1992 M aybe you had to be there. Or at least be of a certain age. But those of us who first caught Candyman on VHS can probably still remember someone too afraid to spit out that name three times in a row while standing in front of a mirror. Nonetheless, such silliness only attests to the terrifyingly effective mythology behind Bernard Rose’s exceptional Clive Barker adaptation: repeat the word whilst staring at your reflection and suffer for your sins... An instant success, Candyman came along on the heels of multiple Oscar winner The Silence Of The Lambs (1991) and indicated, for many critics, that American fright fare was once again becoming serious, sophisticated and overtly political. Doubtlessly produced…

Director James Mangold and Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, have talked a lot about how Logan is a very different X-Men film. We’ve become used to filmmakers claiming that they’re doing something fresh with the superhero genre; Mangold himself couldn’t quite pull it off in The Wolverine. With Logan, however, he and his star have succeeded. This is definitely not the sort of film you might expect a studio to finance for one of its most popular characters. The result is a brutal, bloody and frankly brilliant examination of a troubled soul whose life is anchored by regret. In a near-future world where mutants have all but died out, we catch up with an exhausted, deteriorating Logan, whose healing abilities are failing him. He’s ageing, but still committed to finding somewhere…

The Transfiguration is a strange beast. A slowburn indie arthouse vampire flick that somehow made it into the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes, it’s a fanboy love letter to the history of the vampire movie, an out-and-out, deliberate rip-off/homage to Let The Right One In, but also a horror-in-hiding that rather refuses to embrace the genre it’s referencing. Eric Ruffin is Milo, an isolated, bullied, orphaned black teen living in Queens with his elder brother. Obsessed with vampire movies, he spends his time checking out old VHS copies of classics, watching gruesome animal videos online and sporadically turning feral himself, murdering and drinking the blood of random victims. He also begins a romance with a troubled girl in his apartment block. This is the directorial debut of Michael O’Shea,…

THE MYRKA Waddling Doctor Who space-cow that – having not dried – left a trail of green paint on the scenery. Famously operated by the same guys who were also inside Rentaghost’s pantomime horse. THE SORSONS Let’s just say it: these Tomorrow People aliens look uncannily like giant, glistening penises. If a penis had a stunted claw sticking out of it. BRIAN THE SPIDER …well, that’s the nickname Blake’s 7 fans gave this web-weaving arachnid with a booty bigger than Kim Kardashian, whose species is never actually identified. RO-MAN Can’t afford a terrifying robot for your ’50s B-movie? Simply copy the director of Robot Monster and stick a space helmet on an old gorilla suit. Job done.…

Talk about wearing your influences on your sleeve. The cover of this no-budget splatterhorror splashes “The Japanese Evil Dead” across lurid art by Graham Humphreys, who did the poster for that 1981 classic. A body builder takes his journalist ex-girlfriend and a psychic to a house that formerly belonged to his father. Thirty years ago pop killed a crazed lover there. Her vengeful spirit possesses the psychic; a frenzy of madcap dismemberment follows, peaking with the hero swinging his barbells around as a weapon. At one point he even says, “Groovy!” Fans of both Sam Raimi’s splatstick masterpiece and Peter Jackson’s exuberantly tasteless early works will be tickled. They might be the only ones, though. This Son of Sam only just clocks in over the hour mark, and the make-up…

If you’re not already a bit creeped out by hospitals, you will be after watching this Lovecraftian creature feature. When Deputy Carter brings an injured stranger to a dilapidated old clinic, he sets off a chain of events involving cultists, tentacles, and something unspeakable in the basement. Directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski both have backgrounds in design and visual effects, and it shows. Gloopy monsters show up early and keep coming, while the gore effects are wince-inducingly painful to look at. Visual nods to classics of the genre (including The Thing, The Beyond and Hellraiser) show that Gillespie and Kostanski are also serious horror buffs. But it’s not all homage and fake blood; one unnecessary glimpse of Night Of The Living Dead on a hospital telly aside, the references…

The really big home entertainment news this month is the release of ROGUE ONE (10 April, Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/ download). Unfortunately the extras – basically 11 featurettes – were screened for the press too late to make our deadline. Curses! Rather than just tell you “the film’s terrific!” again we thought we’d wait until next issue so we can give a verdict on those. Note that this release has no commentary or deleted scenes, so you may well prefer to wait for the inevitable Special Edition further down the line. KILLJOYS SEASON TWO (17 April, Blu-ray/ DVD) finds our trio of motley mercenaries facing an increasingly dodgy political situation in the wild frontierland of space they call home, and it tests their loyalties to the limit. While the tone is slightly…

It’s been 48 years since we first made it to the Moon, and though NASA says it’s committed to taking humans to Mars, it still feels a long way off. The Wanderers envisions a near future where a private company, Prime Space, has stepped in and is planning a manned mission to the Red Planet – but there’s a 17-month simulation in the desert to get through first. Helen, Sergei and Yoshi are three of the most qualified people on the planet, selected to perfectly complement each other’s talents and temperaments. They’re going to spend the next year and a half in a simulated training mission, constantly monitored as they deal with isolation, broken gravity systems and all the mechanical problems Prime can predict for the real mission. Though The…

Deborah A Wolf’s debut is a triumph of world-building. The title couldn’t be more generic, but it belies a unique Middle Eastern setting and varied ethnic and gender roles. You’ll witness spider worshippers, underground desert cities and a matriarchal culture whose leaders bond with psychic sabre-toothed tigers. Complex politics and at least eight viewpoints, as well as a rich language and lore, bring to mind Dune or A Game Of Thrones. It’s very dense, but the story isn’t overwhelmed. Sulema is the newest recruit to the Ja’Akari, warrior women of the prides. Her prowess makes her the target of envy as much as respect… and then she learns of her connection to the neighbouring King of Atualon, whose magic keeps the Dragon at the heart of the world asleep. Meanwhile…

There’s a black market that trafficks in the remains of gryphons, faeries, and other arcane creatures. But some of the objects are fresh… She’d read about places like this. Safe-houses, crash pads, they were places where criminals came to hide away from the world. Acquiring property also allowed a criminal organization to launder and invest its ill-gotten gains. She reckoned this place must be worth two million. Moving quickly, she stalked back through the hallway to the other door. This must be the bathroom. Flinging the door open, the first things she saw were the packages in the dry bathtub. Wrapped in cloth, carefully tied, three of them were set carefully in the bottom, like presents ready to be handed out. Checking the rest of the bathroom, she found nothing…

graphic novel Possibly having anticipated the present state of American politics, 2000 AD are reprinting this gloomy, bitter tale of a lone American soldier, traversing a USA destroyed by nuclear war, desperately hoping to find survivors. It originally appeared in 1990 via Marvel’s Epic imprint. Writers Alan Grant and John Wagner had worked together on numerous strips for 2000 AD. However, at the time The Last American was published their relationship had grown fractious, and the only way they could finish it was to take two issues each and work separately. This does not do wonders for the book’s coherence – it’s a disjointed, meandering travelogue. But it’s a very good one, and it’s held together by the superb artwork of Mike McMahon. He’s a true original – you look…

RICHARD EDWARDS Editor RAVES Really excited about being on the jury for Sci-Fi- London’s 48 Hour Film Challenge this month – Rogue One’s Gareth Edwards is a past winner! #sfl48hr http://SFL.TO/challenge Intrigued to see where Philip Pullman goes next with His Dark Materials follow-up The Book Of Dust. IAN BERR IMAN re views ed itor RAVES Extremely excited to hear that there’s a complete box set of The Adventure Game coming out. Also delighted to see that a hardback edition of the Dracula Files strips from Scream! comic is coming from Rebellion. RANTS My Buffy rewatch hit season four. Riley is still really boring. JONATHAN COATES art ed itor RAVES Enjoyed watching 11.22.63. Only eight episodes so perfect for a weekend binge. Inspired me to rewatch another JFK conspiracy series,…

Imaginary Mary sci-fact! Patrick Osborne won an Oscar for his 2014 Disney short Feast. Fourteen years ago, actress Jenna Elfman shared the screen with Bugs Bunny and pals in Joe Dante’s live-action/cartoon hybrid, Looney Tunes: Back In Action. Despite the old adage of never working with kids or animals (animated or not), Elfman’s back at it on the small screen playing Alice, a career-woman whose life is upended when she falls in love with a guy with three kids. Her anxiety about being a wife and stepmother spurs the return of her childhood imaginary friend, Mary (voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Rachel Dratch), who appears on the down-low to counsel Alice on her next big phase of adulting. As it turns out, Mary is a fully animated, CGI character designed…

sci-fact! The crew nicknamed the alien “Black Bart” as its mandibles resembled the 19th century outlaw’s ’tache. IT’S A BATSHIT CRAZY GENRE-BLENDER 1 What happens when you splice Night Of The Creeps with Rosemary’s Baby and Mean Girls? Well, you get Stage 13’s new streaming miniseries Snatchers, an eight-parter that puts the pain in pregnancy as highschooler Sara (Mary Nepi) starts spawning alien parasites after shacking up with her boyfriend. Turning to her nerdy ex-bestie Hayley (Gabrielle Elyse) for help, Sara staggers from one bloody scene to the next as their hometown devolves into a hotbed of horror. “When you have ‘teen pregnancy’ and ‘aliens’, there’s no limit to what you can do!” laughs Nepi. IT’S BEEN SIX YEARS IN THE MAKING 2 Before Stage 13 came onboard, writerdirectors (and real-life high-school…

In a tribute to George Orwell’s 1984, book publisher Unsung Stories is asking top SF authors – including Christopher Priest, Lavie Tidhar and Jeff Noon – to look ahead to 2084 for a new anthology. “We’ve asked authors to do what Orwell did in 1948: extrapolate our future from our present fears,” says editor George Sandison. “This isn’t a collection of Big Brother fan fiction. It’s about trying to understand where we’re going as a species.” “The appeal of 2084 is not what will be truly different in the future,” says author Aliya Whiteley, “but why we already fear it. Orwell’s novel gave us Big Brother and Room 101, but the truth is that we’ve always been scared of the future.” “2084’s a fun time to play with,” adds fellow contributor…

IN CONVERSATION! 3 April Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars trilogy) and Francis Spufford (Golden Hill) talk genre fiction with critic and author Adam Roberts at Waterstones Piccadilly. http://bit.ly/SFXkim SURVIVAL 7-9 April A new con at Heathrow’s Renaissance Hotel celebrates TV series The 100, with stars Henry Ian Cusick, Lindsey Morgan and Zach McGowan. www.seanharry.com/events/survival FILM & COMIC CON NEWCASTLE 20-21 May Sylvester McCoy, Clive Russell, Shane Rimmer and more attend the comic event at the Metro Radio Arena. filmandcomic connewcastle.com TELFORD FANZONE 20-21 May This year’s roll call at this genre TV con includes Chyler Leigh (Supergirl), Rahul Kohli (iZombie) and Adrianne Palicki (Agents Of SHIELD). www.wcmevents. co.uk HEROES & VILLAINS FAN FEST 27-28 May There aren’t just stars at this con (including Michael Rooker), there’s even a free zip line…

After the previous destruction of their traditional home Attilan, the Inhumans are now leaving the Earth behind. Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Jonboy Meyers, Royals sees the Marvel Universe’s most aloof superhumans heading out into space after the devastating events of Inhumans Vs X-Men. New directions are the order of the day, as IvX has done a lovely job of shaking things up,” says Ewing, who is sending the Inhumans on a mission to discover a long-hidden truth about their alien heritage. “Expect the usual big cosmic revelations, but with a lot more emotional drama! I was looking over the character arcs for all the cast, and was surprised by how many involved love stories, so maybe this could be the stealth relaunch of romance comics?” Headed up…

GET IN! I told you Get Out was going to be good! But let’s talk about what the critical and financial success of this movie means for the genre. This is the directorial debut of Jordan Peele, one half of sketch comedy pair Key and Peele, and it’s an extremely sharp, keenly observed and political horror comedy. Peele knows how to make us laugh, but that was obvious. That he has an excellent working knowledge of the horror genre might be more of a surprise – Get Out is smart and referential, note-perfect and genuinely frightening. And it’s about “neoracism” or “post-racism” – that kind of faux-liberal racism that’s perhaps more subtle and insidious than the old “rednecks with shotguns” trope. Jordan Peele has said he’s got four more “social…

What was it like the day yo u were announced, watchi ng yo ur Twitter followers go up? Oh yeah, that was mad. The day before I had like 435, and then the next day it was like 16.5K. My phone was like [vibrating noise]… I can’t even deal with that. When the battery died I was actually quite grateful. How wo uld yo u describe Bill? She’s just like a normal young woman. She’s very interested in the Doctor and the way his mind works. The way he sees the world is very fascinating for her and something that she’s never experienced before. She’s pretty normal but that’s the fantastic thing about her – she’ll allow people who haven’t ever watched Doctor Who to come into it with her.…

“ Please pretend I’m not in pyjamas at my parents’ house,” laughs Jessica Henwick, on the line to SFX, not in her pyjamas and most assuredly not at her parents’ house, no sir. The rising Brit star is back from New York, relishing some hard-won sofa time after slicing a mean katana as the lethal Colleen Wing in Iron Fist, Marvel’s latest collaboration with Netflix. It’s another fan-friendly franchise to follow her turns as Nymeria Sand in Game Of Thrones and crack X-Wing pilot Jess Pava in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A mainstay of the Marvel comic books, Colleen enters the orbit of billionaire martial arts master Danny Rand [Finn Jones] aka Iron Fist himself. “She has a lot of secrets,” says Henwick, who’ll reprise the role later this…

What can you tell us about Nebula and Gamora’s relationship in Guardians Vol 2? On an intellectual level, I loved the relationship between Gamora and Nebula in this movie. We were able to establish some kind of dysfunction in the first movie, but we didn’t know why. This Guardians instalment is really planting a solid villain in the Marvel movie universe in Thanos. You are gonna get to know how sinister he truly is because of what happened. Because of what he’s done to his daughters. Their fight scene was one of the highlights of the first Guardians. We hear they have a bigger one this time around. This time there was less hand-tohand combat. It was more like the way sisters would fight if they were in space and…

The seed for Tim Lebbon’s new novel, Relics, came from a short story he wrote for an American anthology, “in which someone was trying to sell an alleged relic from a dragon”. And so things might have rested, except “the real ‘that’s it!’ moment” hit and Lebbon realised he could expand the story by making the book as much thriller as horror story. “It wasn’t only the idea of the relics of mythological creatures being traded that interested me, but who would indulge in such a trade, similar to the criminal gangs behind ivory poaching and the like,” he says. The answer, of course, is people you wouldn’t especially want to meet down a dark alley, as the novel’s lead character, Angela, learns when she goes in search of her…

Kong: Skull Island begins with a sly bait-and-switch. As the studio idents play there’s the howl of engines and a fierce stammer of machine guns. You can’t help but imagine the original Kong in his most iconic moment: straddling the Empire State Building and clawing at a swarm of biplanes. The stop-motion monarch of Manhattan, shortly to be deposed. Often restaged but never bettered, the classic skyscraper showdown doesn’t just define 1933’s King Kong but the flickering spell cast by cinema itself (the 1976 remake relocated the climax to the World Trade Center; Peter Jackson recreated it with a digital sheen in 2005). Tellingly, it’s nowhere to be found in Hollywood’s latest revival of the first great movie monster. The planes and the gunfire? A dogfight over the South Pacific,…

The first time you meet your significant other’s parents is always awkward. But when Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) goes home with his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) for a family get-together, he’s got good reason to worry. See, Chris is black, while Rose is from the kind of well-to-do white family that never even sees a nonwhite person who doesn’t work for them. The racially-charged weirdness starts the moment the couple arrives: Rose’s dad (Bradley Whitford) falls over himself to express support for Obama and distant relatives coo at Chris’s biceps, while the hired help seem a little too happily subservient. Something is deeply wrong, beyond basic bigotry – without spoiling anything, let’s just say there’s a good reason we’re covering this film in SFX... Writer/director Jordan Peele might be best known…

Five more films to fill you in on which sadly didn’t screen before our deadline. On release by the time you read this: the POWER RANGERS movie, plus SF-horror LIFE, which unleashes Martian organisms on the International Space Station. On 31 March Scarlett Johansson gets her cyborg on in GHOST IN THE SHELL; meanwhile those cheerful blue critters are back in SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE. David Lynch’s eerie 2001 neo-noir MULHOLLAND DRIVE gets a reissue on 14 April. Finally, 21 April brings anime feature SWORD ART ONLINE to selected cinemas.…

Since Pixar pioneer John Lasseter became creative top dog at Disney Animation, the studio’s output has been impressively eclectic. Alongside traditional (-ish) fairytales like Tangled and Frozen, we’ve had the videogame mash-up of Wreck-It Ralph, the alt-Marvel universe of Big Hero 6, and the animal cop thriller of Zootropolis. Moana marks another gear change for the studio, as they set sail for the high seas of the South Pacific with a fun, aquatic take on the road movie. The film works because it takes the standard tropes of a Disney movie, and subverts them just enough to make them feel fresh. The eponymous Moana (newcomer Auli’i Cravalho) is an island chief’s teenage daughter, who teams up with egotistical demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) – in a hilariously antagonistic relationship that recalls…

Familiar faces from Crazyhead (star Cara Theobold) and Peep Show (Superhans!) blot their CVs in this witless British zomcom, in which three lads get caught up in an undead outbreak on the party island. The way characters approach every horror as an opportunity for TOP BANTZ comes across as psychopathic. The candypink lighting is bafflingly ubiquitous. And the script mistakes repeating “bitches” and “sluts” for humour. As bad as Lesbian Vampire Killers. Extras Short film; Making Of; red carpet interview…

Drama projects are turning up in the strangest places nowadays. In the wake of the History Channel’s success with Vikings, National Geographic are the latest to get in on the act with this ambitious fusion of fact and fiction, which portrays an attempt at colonising the Red Planet two decades in our future. Aiming to be rigorous and factual, the series depicts the many problems life on Mars would present, from inhospitable temperatures to dust storms that last for months. It also intercuts events in the 2030s with segments of pure documentary, in which present-day experts (including figures like Neil deGrasse Tyson and The Martian author Andy Weir) discuss the science and history behind the events depicted in the drama. This documentary strand is consistently excellent, with each episode exploring…

This debut novel from Gemma Fowler is set in a mining outpost on the Moon, where a substance named lumite has become the answer to all of Earth’s energy needs. When Aggie was a kid, lumite caused an explosion that turned her eyes violet, making her a global symbol of peace. Now a teenager, Aggie wears contacts to hide her eyes and lives incognito on the lunar surface, hanging out with her friend Seb and generally being a klutz – until she bumps into a handsome young terrorist who might change everything she knows… While the plot is largely by-the-numbers, the setting does make things more interesting – and Aggie’s fairly entertaining, despite being a standard YA-novel heroine (wracked with inadequacies despite having a Big Destiny, you know the drill).…

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case, the title alone tells you everything you need to know. It’s Cinderella, Jim, but not as you know it. Seventeen-year-old Elle lives with her mean stepmother and even meaner stepsisters, finding solace in writing a blog about the low-budget sci-fi TV show she used to watch with her dad. When a spin-off movie is announced, she’s unimpressed with the casting, but nonetheless enters a competition to try and win tickets to the premiere – plus a meet-and-greet with the movie’s star. Will she get to go to the (convention) ball? Despite the familiar plot, Ashley Poston wrings plenty of suspense from Elle’s plight. She also subverts the Cinderella story’s superficiality, giving the prince a personality and…

With Peter Capaldi recently announcing that he’s stepping down from the show, fandom is once again asking: is it time for a female Doctor? So it’s pretty good timing for the release of this book – subtitled Dimensions Of Gender In The New Doctor Who Universe – which covers this and many other issues across New (not Classic) Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Working its way through issues of gender in the characters, production and fandoms of the shows, Lorna Jowett examines such points as the differing representations of femininity by female characters, the way modern male companions (Mickey, Rory, Danny) have tended to be defined more by their relationships to women than in their own right, and, of course, the much-criticised issue of recent series’ lack of…

Harry Potter’s Jason Isaacs joins Star Trek: Discovery as Captain Lorca. The show’s launch has been pushed back (again) – late summer/early autumn is likely. Game Of Thrones’ sevenepisode seventh season will kick off on 17 July in the UK. Jim Broadbent says he’s playing “an archmaester, I’m an old professor character”. The casting directors on the untitled X-Men TV show have been busy: Gotham’s Jamie Chung will play Blink, while True Blood’s Stephen Moyer and Joss Whedon regular Amy Acker will play Reed and Kate Stewart, who discover their kids have mutant abilities. The new Inhumans show has landed Ken Leung as Karnak, Serinda Swan as Medusa, Anson Mount as Black Bolt and Misfits/ Game Of Thrones vet Iwan Rheon as Maximus. The Walking Dead’s US ratings dip to lowest levels since season…

sci-fact! A new, Ryan Reynolds-starring Deadpool short, No Good Dead, is now available online: http://bit.ly/SFXpool. “You know I’m dead excited!” admits the Merc With the Mouth’s creator, Rob Liefeld, when Red Alert asks him about Deadpool 2. With Daredevil’s Drew Goddard joining Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on scripting duties, John Wick’s David Leitch will helm the much-anticipated sequel after the departure of previous director Tim Miller. “I love Tim, but he has left the production, so getting David Leitch was a great call in his absence,” says Liefeld. “I’m thrilled about the way the film is going to re-energise the Deadpool franchise.” Liefeld recently suggested online that Russell Crowe should be considered for time-travelling mutant Cable, a role that Pierce Brosnan has also been linked with, while Atlanta’s Zazie…

125 IAN WHYTE Wun Wun in Game Of Thrones As one of the last giants in Westeros, Wun Wun was always a reassuring presence given his gargantuan size and ability to rip apart White Walkers. Loyally standing by Jon Snow’s side following the mutiny at Castle Black, Wun Wun died honourably after assisting the defeat of Ramsay Bolton’s army at Winterfell. We chat to the 7’1” actor who embodied him. Would you like to play the role again? No. There wouldn’t be any point. He was a great character because he had a noble purpose. Even if he’d survived, he probably would have wandered off into the sunset without batting an eyelid... a solitary nomad once more. What’s the strangest request you’ve had from a fan? I am occasionally asked…

sci-fact! Expect Killmonger to have support from another Black Panther classic character, Man-Ape, played by Winston Duke. WHEN HE REINS, HE PAWS “Let them try.” Last time we saw T’Challa, the newly crowned king of Wakanda was offering the Winter Soldier a safe sanctuary in his home nation and calling out anyone stupid enough to mess with his technologicallyawesome African kingdom. Under the direction of Creed director Ryan Coogler, Chadwick Boseman’s first solo outing as Marvel’s Black Panther will no doubt see him having to live up to the punchy promise he made in the Civil War sting. WAKANDAN WELCOME It’s good to be the king of Wakanda. You get a cool house, a badass outfit and a troupe of bodyguards. Unfortunately T’Challa will also have to get to grips…

Date 26-28 May location ExCeL Centre, London Celebrating its 15th year this May, MCM London Comic Con returns to the city’s Victoria Dock for a weekend packed with sci-fi and fantasy superstars, exhibits, cosplay enthusiasts and a vast array of stalls to keep your shelves stocked with the very best genre goodies (and your bank balances weeping). “May’s event looks like it’s going to be our biggest yet,” says MCM Central CEO Bryan Cooney. “Since ‘London Expo’ first opened its doors at the then-new ExCeL centre back in 2002, we’ve seen geek culture move into the mainstream, with genre movies ruling the big screen, series such as Game Of Thrones and The Walking Dead taking over TV, and the games industry turning into an unstoppable juggernaut.” Last year, more than…

Mystery trip! THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE Ah, the dear old Bermuda Triangle, one of the essential staples of 1970s paranormal weirdness alongside Bigfoot, suburban exorcisms and Dave Hill from Slade’s haircut. Bizarre natural phenomenon? Gateway to Atlantis? The work of space aliens? Or just an excuse to make endless documentaries with creepy-ass music? We still don’t know but the infamous, planeand- ship-swallowing patch of the Atlantic is now inspiring a new movie from Skydance Productions, the people behind the Mission: Impossible and Star Trek films. The script’s by Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time’s Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard and lined up to direct is the mighty Sam Raimi, making his first film since 2013’s Oz The Great And Powerful. There are now three competing Bermuda Triangle projects on the go…

Nick Setchfield, Features editor Yes, Doctor Who’s back – did the subtle visual clues on our cover give it away? – and to mark the Time Lord’s return to our screens we asked what you wanted to see from the show’s future. It’s an exciting time, after all, as we say hi to new companion Pearl Mackie, wave adios to Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat, and prepare to welcome a new Doctor and showrunner in 2018. Blimey, it’s enough to give you fourthdimensional whiplash… Write to us, any time, using the trusty contact points on the next page.…

“IF A WRITER DOESN’T HAVE ANY VIEWS, ONE MUST WONDER IF THEY HAVE A PULSE ” There’s a maxim often erroneously ascribed to the Chinese philosopher and teacher Confucius. The thing is, no one really knows who came up with the phrase. A blessing seasoned with irony or a flat out curse, it has been heard or used by most in passing: “May you live in interesting times.” Are we living in interesting times? Are you kidding? Frankly, each morning I struggle with whether I should absorb the psychic barrage of dismal news or up my milligrams before my first cup of coffee. Some weeks – jeez, some hours – are worse than others. Uploaded carnage on-demand, the wholesale obliteration of fact, emoji strings bip-bopping along behind the smartphonerecorded atrocities.…

The creepily sock-faced Cybermen Mk 1 arrived in 1966’s “The Tenth Planet”, the last William Hartnell adventure. The lamp-headed, logic-ruled menace were the creation of Gerry Davis and scientist Dr Kit Pedler, inspired by the rise of so-called spare-part surgery that substituted prostheses for human limbs. “We conceived the idea of someone with so many mechanical replacements that he didn’t know whether he was a human or a machine,” said Pedler. The Cybermen came from Earth’s long-lost twin, Mondas, knocked out of solar orbit millions of years before. Their home planet was destroyed at the end of the story, forcing them to relocate to Telos. They’re cyborgs, not robots. “Our brains are just like yours except that certain weaknesses have been removed,” they declare. “You call them emotions, do you…

ROMANA “The Ribos Operation” (1978) Usually – though not always (see also Dodo, Adric) – the Doctor chooses who travels with him. But snooty Time Lady Romana is foisted upon him by the White Guardian (a sort of personification of universal order) to assist in his quest for the Key to Time. Tom Baker looked about as happy with the situation as the Doctor was… TURLO UGH “Mawdryn Undead” (1983) Seemingly a human schoolboy but actually an exile from the planet Trion, Turlough joined the TARDIS crew as an assassin – recruited by the evil Black Guardian, on a promise of being returned home. Thankfully the cowardly custard never quite had the gumption to brain the Doctor with a rock. MEL “ The Trial Of A Time Lord” (1986) The…

What kind of creature are you? That’s the probing question for fans visiting the Star Wars Identities exhibition at London’s O2. As well as gazing in wonderment at props, costumes and concept art, you’re going to discover your Star Wars alter ego based on responses at the 10 interactive “stations”. By the time you reach the gift shop, you could be following Anakin Skywalker towards the dark side of the Force. SFX has a hankering to go droid, but Identities is all about species. So the first task is to choose from an alien line-up that looks like a rough night at the Mos Eisley Cantina. There’s Rodian, Wookiee, Bith – oh, and human (been there, done that). After much deliberation, SFX scans our wristband on the Zabrak. The next…

Shadow in the book is notoriously quiet and passive. How did you find translating that to screen? When I first started, I was very attached to Shadow from the book. But in the book he’s very stoic and it’s a lot of internal monologue which isn’t going to entertain a TV audience. So they wanted to add layers. They wanted Shadow to be more outgoing, outspoken, they wanted him to ask questions, to have more charisma about him. How did you found working with Ian McShane? Oh my goodness. I’ve idolised him since I was a kid. I used to watch Lovejoy with my mum. All I’m doing is learning from him, and I can’t help not feeling blessed about that. I’m gonna state it right now: he’s going to…

How tricky is it to make a big and frightening Kong yet while keeping him sympathetic? It was a delicate balance. Kong at first is a berserker creature. Then it’s a case of slowly pulling back the curtain to understand why he’s misunderstood, and that maybe he was just protecting his home. How does it feel to be making your mark on a historic franchise? Tom and I would joke around and look at each other when we were behind or when one of us felt like we were compromising and say, “It’s only forever.” Like, “Better make this good because it’s not like this is an Etch A Sketch and it can get washed away!” How did you approach distinguishing this film from past Kongs? A big part of it…

While researching his role as “magizoologist” Newt Scamander, Eddie Redmayne met with real-life zoologists, experts and trackers so he could learn to adopt the stances they use when stalking animals – it’s all in the way you hold your feet, apparently. This dedication is clear to see in his performance in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, but there’s something else Redmayne should have been focusing on: his diction. You don’t have to be hard of hearing to find Newt difficult to decipher. Hell, even with the sound turned up, he’s such a mumbly nightmare the film might as well be a BBC drama... It’s a damn shame, because while we understand that Newt is supposed to be shy, it’s tough enough to understand words like “Erumpent”, “Occamy” and…

Though it comes from the same writer/director, this companion piece to recent Korean zombie horror Train To Busan is quite different to its predecessor – and not just because it’s told via animation, not live-action (albeit animation so clearly based on live-action reference that – budget aside – you sometimes wonder why they bothered…). There are certainly similarities, mind – like a certain political perspective. Busan took jabs at heartless salarymen; Seoul Station unfolds among the capital’s homeless, repeatedly showing how they’re treated with naked contempt – as almost sub-human. As the outbreak escalates there are moments of high tension. And once again a family relationship is key, as a father searches the streets for his wayward daughter. But among all the sudden-death shocks, Busan had moments of uplift. With…

iplayer exclusive In an old standup routine, Simon Amstell wished he was in a vegan future looking back on today. Now he’s used that idea as the basis for this docudrama (full title: Carnage: Swallowing The Past), which views the days when using animals for meat, milk or eggs was socially acceptable. from the perspective of 2067. Amstell provides snarky commentary for a history of how – thanks partly to new tech that conveys animals’ thoughts – Britain moved towards a compassionate utopia. The tactics are familiar from shows like Brass Eye: parodic sketches, reframed news footage and witless vox pops. It’s tricky keeping an audience engaged when your gags are interspersed with cows being shot in the head, but Amstell gets the balance about right, smuggling in points about…

Cult director Jean Rollin sets his usual sexy-vampire surrealism aside for this Nazi-zombie hackwork, in which German soldiers rise from a watery grave to munch on nubile skinny-dippers. The Hulk-green zombie make-ups are applied about as well as Trump’s tan, and the ’50s setting looks like, well, 1981. Weirdest of all, we’re encouraged to sympathise with the zombies – one of whom has a tender reunion with his daughter. Gloriously risible. Extras “Alternative clothed scenes”. Boooo!…

Blu-Ray debut Follow the bloodline of Rosemary’s Baby and you’ll find an entire brood of knock-offs with a legitimate claim for child support. The Mephisto Waltz has its father’s eyes, for sure. Like Roman Polanski’s classic it’s a study in paranoia, set among a gilded social set dabbling in black magic. This is a world of diabolism and dinner parties, where Lucifer’s the object of worship du jour. Future Bond villain Curt Jurgens is glacially menacing as Duncan Ely, a virtuoso pianist with a sideline in satanism. An infernal scheme to cheat his own encroaching death ensnares a young couple: a frustratingly bland Alan Alda and a thankfully brilliant Jacqueline Bisset, whose passionate, strong-willed performance as a woman buffeted by mounting horror gives the movie its motor. It’s kitschier than…

Like King Kong? Like Tarzan? Then you’ll love The Mighty Peking Man! No, hang on. You probably won’t. Quite the dumbest movie, this cut-price Shaw Brothers Studio nonsense (also known as Goliathon), sees explorers discovering a big hairy beast in the Himalayas and bringing it back to Hong Kong. But said beast has a female pal, lovely Samantha (Evelyne Kraft), a Tarzan/Sheena type whose left breast is permanently on the verge of popping out of her leather bikini, and she’s mildly bothered (but only mildly) about him being taken away. Guess whether or not the film ends with beastie atop a tall building while being shot at... Where to start on the defects? How about backprojection that is the worst, or the most obvious man in an ape costume ever,…

Putting an event from the very end of the tale in the prologue is a brave move, but it’s a good thing that Laini Taylor chose to do so here, as the strange account of a blue girl falling from the sky hooks you in a way that the next 100 pages or so do not. This is the story of foundling Lazlo Strange, who becomes a librarian in love with stories about a lost city, and the first part of the book reads very much like the folk tales he loves – which is to say, you feel like you’re reading a fairytale full of archetypes rather than a novel populated with characters. As Lazlo comes closer to seeing and understanding the city from his books, he begins to…

An orphan walks into the deep, dark woods and meets “the funny men”: Toto, the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion. Elsewhere, a balloon saves a widow’s life, while a self-proclaimed spiritualist conjures flames whenever he rubs his fingers together. Don’t be fooled, though. This is no light-hearted fantasy adventure. Xan Brooks’s debut novel is deadly serious stuff: set in post-Great War London, it’s a catalogue of the scars that the fighting inflicted on the country. And while there’s a hint of magic in the air, it’s not the kind that’s going to save anyone from the harshness of reality. Brooks’s prose is frequently beautiful, his descriptions of small towns and country piles so convincing he might be writing a nightmarish travel guide. And his characters – from…

Subtitled The Art Of John Higgins, this is a celebration of the work of the man who coloured Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen – and loads more. Appropriately, Gibbons shows up to deliver a gushing foreword about his friend and collaborator. Higgins delivers a lengthy commentary on his career, covering everything from how he started to his opinions on the industry. The prose is slightly unpolished, but that actually lends authenticity to Higgins’s recollections of his experiences. It’s the comic book art and numerous book and magazine covers that really stand out – they’re beautifully presented. For budding artists, there’s plenty of technical information about the craft at the back.…

Fans of The Walking Dead may appreciate SOUTH ( , out now, Corvus). The work of “Frank Owen” (actually a two-writer team), it’s set in an alternate America split in two by the Civil War, where a recent resumption of hostilities resulted in biological attacks by the North. We follow two redneck brothers on the run from a militia in the decaying South. We said: “Though some of the plot turns are predictable, there’s a constant, creeping sense of menace, plus enough fresh ideas to give the book its own identity.” If you like your SF to operate on a grand scale, check out Andrew Bannister’s CREATION MACHINE ( , out now, Bantam). Set inside an artificially constructed miniature galaxy apparently designed by unknown alien intelligences, it follows an ex-soldier…

Followers of Twitter account @ScarredForLife2 will require no explanation of this smartly named brand’s remit: the child-traumatising dark side of ’70s and ’80s pop culture. This first of two planned volumes focuses on the ’70s, looking at not only spooky TV shows such as Children Of The Stones, but pants-browning movies (The Medusa Touch), public information films (Lonely Water), books (Attack Of The Crabs) and comics (Action), as well as horror-themed boardgames (Ghost Castle) and foods (Dracula lollies), plus the paranormal (Bigfoot!). The style is informal – expect phrases like “all goes tits up” and “put the shits up me” – and there’s a liberal sprinkling of personal reminiscence: running home from school to catch a TV show; playing Top Trumps in the playground. It’s all rather charming – and…

Sadly an embargo prevented us reviewing STAR WARS: THRAWN (6 April, Century). Timothy Zhan’s book chronicles the blue-skinned master of military strategy’s rise, and sees him tested by an uprising. Brian McClellan has a new flintlock fantasy series set in the same world as his Powder Mage trilogy, kicking off with SINS OF EMPIRE (out now, Orbit). In the amusingly named nation of Fatrasta (too much goat curry?), a haven for criminals and rebels, “An ancient power as old as time is rising.” Naomi Novik, Joe Abercrombie and NK Jemisin are among the authors represented in BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR: VOLUME 11 (6 April, Rebellion). Jonathan Strahan’s latest annual round-up features 28 stories in all. Ian McDonald returns to a lunar colony ruled by corporate dynasties…

issues 1-4 Monsters Unleashed’s opening image is a pencil, drawing a simple picture. This focus on art feels deliberate, because if this title is going to be remembered for anything, it’ll be the way it looks. It’s a comic-book artist’s dream, populated by basically every single Marvel character battling giant monsters (named “Leviathons”) – and, boy, do the inkers on this book rise to the occasion. With basically zero build-up, we’re thrown face-first into the action, as the Leviathons invade every major city on Earth (along with a couple of made-up ones), with each area’s local heroes being pulled into battle. That means the Avengers, the X-Men, the Guardians of the Galaxy and more all make extended cameos, facing impossible odds – odds that shorten with each new creature. Sure,…

issues 1-4 Marvel’s hiring of acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates to write their latest Black Panther title has paid off in style, resulting in a successful relaunch that’s big enough to warrant a spin-off. World Of Wakanda is planned as a monthly exploration of Black Panther’s extensive mythology, and a rotating team of writers and artists will be using each story arc to highlight a different aspect of life in the fictional African nation. First up is feminist writer Roxane Gay with a story of the Dora Milaje, female warriors and bodyguards to Wakandan king T’Challa, who have to evolve into different roles when disaster strikes their country. It’s also a love story between two Dora Milaje members, but while these first four issues have a compelling tone and a diverse…