Table of contents for March 2016 in SFX

COSTUME CONUNDRUM Wondering why there’s never been a comic book character with super-charged luck? Stan Lee has a theory: “As far as not using it in a comic book, the funny thing is all the superheroes have some sort of a costume. Nobody knows what kind of costume to give somebody whose power is luck! Nobody’s been able to figure that out, so we never made it in comics. As far as movies and TV, it’s just something nobody else thought of.” LUCKY STAN If Stan Lee had the power to control his own luck, what would he use it for? “Oh man, if I were younger and single I’d use it to be very successful with females, I’d use it to make as much money as I could, I’d…

Favourite SF/fantasy film The first that spring to mind are The Empire Strikes Back, The Terminator, The Two Towers, but crowbar to my head I’ll pick The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger as the Joker is one of my all-time favourite performances. The balance between humour, unpredictability and psychotic menace makes him captivating. Favourite SF/fantasy TV show Buffy/Angel. So imaginative. I think Joss Whedon is a genius. He created a whole universe of monsters and prophecies all against a backdrop of real relationships and great humour. He took risks too, deviating from the natural format of the show with “Hush” and “Once More With Feeling”. There was a short period where storylines would cross over between Buffy and Angel and I’d have to watch the box sets in a very specific…

CELEBRATING ICONIC SCI-FI STARS During his first UK appearance at MCM Birmingham Comic Con, Red Alert spoke to American actor Lee Majors from iconic ’70s sci-fi series The Six Million Dollar Man. The show ran for five seasons, three films and spawned spin-off series The Bionic Woman. Majors recently appeared in the romantic comedy Almosting It. Would you like to play the Six Million Dollar Man again? Not at my age. With my knees giving up, I would need some bionic replacements. What’s the strangest request you’ve ever had from a fan? I was doing a show in New York’s Time Square, and this couple came in with a hood from The Fall Guy truck and asked me to sign it. Would any of Steve’s skills or attributes have been…

GHOST GOALS “I never saw a ghost when I was a kid. I was more scared of girls. I’d have loved to have seen a ghost. It’s on my bucket list: ‘See a ghost.’ It’s right behind ‘See a UFO.’” MAGIC MAN “One time I invited a few of my friends over for a Ouija board experiment. I had rigged the whole room with little invisible wires that I would pull to make it seem like spirits were in the room. That was my deal. I was kind of a charlatan. I always wanted to make the other kids think that magic was real.” DANCING WITH THE DEVIL “[Tenacious D] has a fascination with 1980s heavy metal music where the devil was always front and centre. If you weren’t selling…

OUT 29 APRIL 2016 The Buzz NICK It’s bromageddon! I was worried about the potential pile-up of characters but this reassures me: a sharp, clear focus on the emotional heart of it all. I’m backing Team Cap of course. RICH I loved The Winter Soldier’s thriller edge, and Civil War looks like another entry from the grittier end of the MCU. Can’t wait to see how Cap fares against Iron Man and co. JORDAN Needn’t have worried its colossal cast would turn Civil War into The Avengers 2.5; for all its pulse-racing superhero standoffs this feels like a satisfying next step after The Winter Soldier. CATHERINE Let the battle of the Avengers commence! I have to say I’m with Iron Man – stop beating him up, Cap! This looks like…

HORROR-ONSEA 22-31 January Around 60 independent horror films are screening across two weekends at the fourth annual Southend horrorfest – expect a cheeky world premiere or two. www.horror-onsea.com SF BALL 22 5-7 February Jonathan Frakes and Julian Glover are off to the ball – the three-day SF Ball in Southampton. www.sfbevents.com/sfball LONDON ANIME & GAMING CON 5-7 February Expect the usual mix of anime, gaming, cosplay and music at the latest London anime and gaming convention. www.london animecon.com DIGI-CON 2 21 February Journey to Doncaster for a day of merch, celebrity guests (including Who, Star Wars and Red Dwarf ), movie vehicles and themed displays. www.digi-con.co.uk FILM AND COMIC CON CARDIFF 27-28 February Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott and a trio of Who stars – Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and…

Margaret Atwood writing Angel Catbird – a trio of graphic novels about a part-cat, part-owl, part-human superhero. RIP Big actor Robert Loggia and This Island Earth star Rex Reason. Lancaster University appoints UK’s first professor of graphic fiction and comic art. Titan continuing the adventures of Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor in a new comic series. Ex_Machina scoops best screenplay, best film and best director at the British Independent Film Awards. Stephen Baxter penning official War Of The Worlds sequel, The Massacre Of Mankind. John Malkovich and Robert Rodriguez have made 100 Years, a film that’s being bunged in a time capsule for a century. BBC Three moving online only from the end of February. Frank Miller keen to pen Dark Knight IV, without Brian Azzarello.…

There’s a whole universe to explore beyond this magazine 1 You can read our in-depth review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in this issue, but check out our review plus online at GamesRadar+ for loads more extras, including video reactions, fan pictures, opinion polls and more… http://bit.ly/sfxstarforce 2 If we’re honest, we were a little sceptical about the new Supergirl TV show, but there’s actually lots to like. Here’s 10 reasons why Kara Danvers and co defy our expectations… http://bit.ly/sfxgirl 3 A new year, a new TV schedule. Make sure you know all about the best TV shows on Netflix with our round-up. Time for a marathon? http://bit.ly/sfxnetflix 4 The Force Awakens may be out, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be tweaked. Here’s 20 things George Lucas changed…

I fell in love with Jeanette Winterson by mistake. I picked up her first book Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit exactly 30 years ago, solely based on the striking Pandora Press cover art (by Sue Sluglett), and added it to a pile of other books I was buying thinking it’d be good to break out of my unleavened diet of genre novels. I took a punt, thinking that if I didn’t take to it in the first few pages, it would make a nice-looking present for a friend with a looming birthday. The fact I still have that edition and can flip it to find the name of the illustrator tells its own story. The Passion, which she wrote two years later, is in every sense of the word…

SFX’s high priestess of horror GHOST GIRL-FIGHT In a mashup of terrifying vs terrible, an April Fools’ viral is set to become reality with ’90s J-horror hair-off Sadako Vs Kayako. The movie, pitting the vengeful girl-ghosts of Ringu and The Grudge against each other, is set for a June 2016 release in Japan. It’ll be directed by Koji Shiraishi, who made 2009’s grim sex-pest-fest Grotesque, which is banned in the UK. All of which points to this being rubbish. But I can’t deny the teaser clip, with Kayako’s hand reaching over Sadako’s well gave me chills. I’m trying to neutralise my nerves by imagining little Toshio from The Grudge as a “Ring Girl” carrying the numbers of upcoming rounds while Sadako and Kayako mope in the corners in nighties and…

“Everything has been building towards this movie!” According to Rob Liefeld, who first introduced Deadpool to an unsuspecting audience in New Mutants #98, the Merc With A Mouth has always been “ridiculously popular”. Released at the height of the ’90s comic book boom, his subsequent appearance in X-Force #1 sold a staggering four million copies. Among the most cosplayed characters at comic conventions, he has since maintained his high profile through significant appearances in videogames like Marvel Vs Capcom and the Marvel Lego range, not to mention fanfavourite runs on his monthly comics by creators such as Joe Kelly, Ed McGuinness, Christopher Priest and Cullen Bunn. Now exactly 25 years later he’s set to explode onto the big screen in his first solo film. “This wasn’t planned but he debuted…

HOPESHIP Calling Captain Kildare! Conceived by Gene Roddenberry and writer Darlene Hartman during Star Trek’s second season, this spin-off would have followed a Starfleet hospital vessel, bringing a touch of ’60s medical drama to the final frontier. HARRY MUDD The popularity of Roger C Carmel’s two appearances as cosmic wideboy Harry Mudd almost persuaded NBC to give him his own series – “A space pirate, intergalactic con man kind of thing,” recalled Carmel. Shelved due to lack of development time. SPOCK After cancelling Star Trek in 1969 Paramount asked Roddenberry for a Spock-centric spin-off set on Vulcan. Roddenberry said no, claiming Spock only worked surrounded by humans. But just imagine that Pon Farr ratings spike every seventh year… PLANET OF THE TITANS The Right Stuff’s Philip Kaufman was all set…

Writer and producer Brannon Braga can chart his professional career alongside the evolution of the Star Trek franchise. From an intern on Star Trek: The Next Generation to co-writing two Trek films and then co-creating Star Trek: Enterprise, Braga was a protector of the Roddenberry flame for 15 years and navigated the highs and lows of that experience. Talking to SFX he reflects on Trek, then and now… Did you have any sense that Star Trek would dominate so much of your career as a writer? If anyone would have told me on the first day of my eight-week internship that 15 years later I would be the last guy there, turning the lights off, I would not have believed them. By the time I realised I was going to…

THE SFX AUTHOR INTERVIEW How do you write yourself back into a book when you’ve had to take time out to complete another project? This was a problem Brandon Sanderson hit when, after breaking off from Shadows Of Self to complete his work finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time sequence, he returned to a novel set in his own Mistborn universe. Sanderson had lost momentum. His solution was to start writing the sequel, Bands Of Mourning, “to get myself back in to the characters”. Things went well, so well that he kept going until he’d finished the book. He then went back to complete Mourning’s predecessor, Shadows Of Self. “This was feeling really good, [I thought] ‘I’m going to get ahead,’” Sanderson remembers. “Except [my publishers] got the books and,…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 98 minutes Director Michael Dougherty Cast Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman If you thought Gremlins had a twisted view of what makes a good Christmas, brace yourself for Krampus. Forged in the image of that Joe Dante classic, its assortment of festive fiends are a snowbound nightmare as young Max (Emjay Anthony) and his family battle the titular anti-Santa. What’s most surprising about Superman Returns/X-movies co-writer Michael Dougherty’s film is just how dark he pushes the wintry frights. Early scenes recall Home Alone as Max’s ma (Toni Collette) and pa (Adam Scott) wind up hosting half the family over the festive season. Squabbling kids and boozehappy aunts are the least of their problems, though, when Max inadvertently summons Krampus, a horned monstrosity…

THE AVENGERS: “THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT” In this 1966 ep Emma Peel inherits a house. Result! Except it’s actually a computerised trap – one whose op-art corridors, forever leading Emma to the same point, are designed to drive her crackers. DOCTOR WHO: “THE HORNS OF NIMON” Who’s riffed on the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur numerous times. In this 1979 story, a bull-headed alien parasite rules from a “power complex” whose walls keep shifting, because it’s essentially a giant positronic circuit. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE As part of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry must travel through this giant hedge maze, grown on Hogwarts’ Quidditch pitch. In the movie, it attacks competitors by contracting its walls to crush them, and wrapping its roots around them. LABYRINTH In…

RELEASED 18 JANUARY 1970 | TBC | Blu-ray/DVD (dual format) Director Paul Stanley Cast Vince Edwards, Richard Basehart, William Shatner, Lou Antonio A sort of 12 Angry Men meets The Twilight Zone, Sole Survivor is an above-average TV movie with some agreeably novel twists. Seventeen years after it went down during World War Two, an American bomber is discovered in the Libyan desert. The only surviving member of the crew, who’s now a general (Richard Basehart), travels to the area, where he’s quizzed by investigators (Vince Edwards and William Shatner) as to how it ended up there. Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know why this is in SFX, but watching on are the ghosts of the rest of the crew, who didn’t get out alive.…

RELEASED 18 JANUARY 2015 | 12 | Blu-ray/DVD It’s the near-future, and an ill-defined catastrophe has wiped out much of the world’s population. The brightest and best are being kept in cryogenic suspension, and it’s the job of Norman Reedus and Djimon Hounsou to make sure the brains trust are kept safe. There’s a lot of babble in this chamber piece, and it looks pretty dreary. But the performances of Reedus and Hounsou compensate a little for the clunky dialogue and undercooked twists. Extras Making Of; characters featurette.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2015 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD Director Aleksander Bach Cast Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto, Ciarán Hinds There’s a sensible school of thought which says that instead of rebooting successful film series, it’s duff movies with potential Hollywood should be having another crack at. Hitman: Agent 47 disproves this idea – if anything, this redundant reboot is worse than the 2007 videogame adap. This time the dapper chromedomed assassin (Rupert Friend) teams up with Katia (Hannah Ware) – daughter of the scientist who created the Agent programme – to track down her father before some bad ’uns can build their own army of genetically superior killers. Zachary Quinto has a thankless role as 47’s hammy foil, John Smith. Don’t let the half-decent cast fool you: Agent 47…

RELEASED 7 JANUARY 640 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Megan e O’Keefe Publisher angry robot Too often genre novels are weighed down with detail, which makes Steal The Sky really refreshing. It’s set in a desert city, next to a volcano being mined for “selium”, a lighter-than-air substance, and there’s an empire looming in the background, but you’re never fed masses of information on society, customs or whatever. Megan O’Keefe has clearly put a lot of effort into worldbuilding, but she doesn’t feel the need to show it all off; everything you need to know, you learn through the characters. They, too, are kept to a minimum, the main ones being watch captain Ripka, who’s searching for rogue shapeshifter Pelkaia, who compels itinerant scallywags Tibs and Detan (the latter actually a…

RELEASED 19 JANUARY 576 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Tim Akers Publisher Titan Books It’s easy to be put off this epic fantasy. Game Of Thrones casts a long shadow, and anything featuring bluff, tough men of the North will immediately raise eyebrows. The Pagan Night’s placenames feel clumsy – Houndhallow, Greenhall, Cinderfell. However, the story is actually a pretty solid one. Yes, there’s an inevitable North-vs-South conflict as the south and the Celestial church seek to wipe out any lingering northern traces of the old faith they blame for summoning demons into the world, but Tim Akers doesn’t reduce it to a tale of two hemispheres and is capable of writing battle scenes that can hold your attention. If The Pagan Night has a flaw, it’s that it’s a little…

First Read AN EXTRACT FROM A NEW BOOK Childhood friends Patricia and Laurence were always outsiders. Laurence was a scientific genius, and Patricia was a witch – a discovery that tore their friendship apart. But now they are grown up, and they are about to be reunited… Other cities had gargoyles or statues watching over them. San Francisco had scare owls. They stood guard along the city’s rooftops, hunched over bright ornate designs that were washed out by waves of fog. These wooden creatures bore witness to every crime and act of charity on the streets without changing their somber expressions. Their original purpose of frightening pigeons had ended in failure, but they still managed to startle the occasional human. Mostly, they were a friendly presence in the night. This…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics Writer Rick Remender Artist Sean Gordon Murphy ISSUES 1-3 Three ongoing series from Image Comics wasn’t enough for writer Rick Remender, and now he’s teamed up with acclaimed artist Sean Gordon Murphy to add another to the list. Unfortunately, it seems that Remender might be spreading himself too thin, as crazed cyberpunk thriller Tokyo Ghost makes for a haphazard, uneven experience. In the twisted future LA of 2089, the population is addicted to technology, while gangsters enforce their law via constables like Debbie Decay and Led Dent. Teen lovers turned ruthless killers, Debbie and Led dream of escape to the technology-free garden nation of Tokyo, but their only chance is to accept a mission to destroy Tokyo’s protective EMP field… There are some fascinating…

SCRIPTEASE A TV season distilled UK Broadcast Sky 1, Thursdays US Broadcast CBS, Mondays Episodes Reviewed 1.01-1.06 KARA DANVERS (VO) I’m Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin. I have all his powers, but I don’t use them because I’m a PA for media mogul Cat Grant. I really want to help people, though... ALEX DANVERS Kara, you can’t. Even though you have superhuman strength and are impervious to pretty much anything, it’s too dangerous. CAT GRANT [Insert snarky comment here] A plane is on a crash course for a river. KARA I’ve had it with this. I’m going to save the day and reveal myself to the world. ALEX Naughty Kara! But you’re a hero! Maybe I should have told you, though, that I’m not really a doctor. I’m actually an agent…

RICHARD EDWARDS EDITOR RAVES Clara may just be my favourite new Who companion, so I’m sorry to see her leave the TARDIS – she’ll be a tough act to follow. RANTS I really wish Doomsday hadn’t been revealed in the Batman V Superman trailer. How cool would it have been if he’d been a surprise in the movie? IAN BERRIMAN HOME ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR RAVES Scratch what I said last issue – Jessica Jones was the best thing to come out in 2015. Thoughtful, chilling, utterly addictive. I’ve finally got a proper shelf to put all my old Doctor Who novelisations on! My house now feels like a home. RUSSELL LEWIN PRODUCTION EDITOR RAVES Upcoming book 70s Monster Movies – http://bit.ly/70smonsters – looks so much up my street I could have…

THE FOREST EXISTS 1 When the makers of The Forest heard about Japan’s Aokigahara Forest, aka the Suicide Forest, they felt it was an ideal setting for a horror film. “It was the location that attracted me,” director Jason Zada tells Red Alert. “It’s a magnet for sad people, and seems to act as a calling for the depressed and the suicidal. People walk 200 yards into the forest, and they get lost and can’t find their way out.” THE HORROR IS IN THE MADNESS 2 The concept for the film was developed by David S Goyer, who then turned his idea over to writer Nick Antosca. “The suggestion is that this forest can tease out the darkest parts of you,” says Antosca. “Obviously there’s despair and fear inside all…

If you’ve been feeling like supernatural TV has been rather dark of late, then get ready to lighten up with Lucifer. The eponymous series is based on Neil Gaiman’s character Lucifer Morningstar, from The Sandman and subsequent spin-off comics written by Mike Carey. For TV, the mythology is being executive produced by Joe Henderson, Jonathan Littman, and pilot director Len Wiseman. “There will be a lot of devilish behaviour,” Littman promises. “There will be mysteries, but it’s not a procedural. It’s a blend of comedy, genre and a bit of mystery.” Miranda’s Tom Ellis embodies Lucifer as the son of Satan who leaves the Underworld. “The overriding aspect is Lucifer’s rebellion against his father,” Littman explains. “He leaves Hell and his father wants him back but he’s like a 13-year-old,…

DATE 6 April - 4 September LOCATION The Vaults, Leake Street, London If you’re the kind of person who follows innocent requests to “say cheese” with “and die” in a hushed whisper, then Goosebumps Alive, an immersive theatrical adaptation of RL Stine’s best-selling horror series, is for you. We spoke to writer/director Tom Salamon about what to expect. Why is Goosebumps a good fit for the stage? There are so many interesting little stories and twists and turns that we thought it would be an exciting thing to try to tell all these vignettes on the stage, especially in an immersive setting where there’s lots of stuff to play with, and see and hold. The show is aimed at adults, is that purely for nostalgia’s sake? The approach we’re taking…

What is The Book Of Speculation about? It’s about Simon Watson, a research librarian who receives a mysterious book which unearths a family curse that’s been killing women in his family for centuries. He’s frantic to break the curse before his sister becomes its next victim. His efforts lead him to uncover the twisted history of a travelling circus in the 1790s, drowning mermaids, tarot, star-crossed lovers, and the secret lives his parents led. What are the big themes/ideas you tackle in the book? Inheritance, loss, obligation, and the different shapes love and family can take. I went broad with themes. They’re tied together through a love for books and the written word. It’s in no small way a book for bibliophiles. How long did it take you to write?…

ORIGINAL PIRATE MATERIAL STAR WARS: HAN SOLO So what’s the collective noun for 2,500 Han Solos? A smirk? A swagger? A Harrison? That’s the number of young hopefuls who have reportedly tested for the role of the Corellian space pirate in the upcoming prequel movie (yes, some casting decisions venture beyond simply typing the words Chris and Pratt…). Candidates to wear the bloodstripes include Age Of Ultron’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jurassic World’s Nick Robinson, Arrow’s Colton Haynes, Fury’s Logan Lerman, Harry Potter’s Tom Felton and Fantastic Four’s Miles Teller. We like to think the auditioning process involved gutting a Tauntaun, drawling “I know” in an epically nonchalant manner and, of course, shooting first. That’s SHOOTING FIRST. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan promises an unexpected take for this solo Solo. “Phil Lord and Chris…

Things in life which are no fun at all include returning from a convivial SF convention (Novacon in Nottingham, since you ask) and exhaustedly trying to catch up on writing deadlines – only for the computer to murmur “I’m sorry, I can’t do that” and, pausing only for a brief chorus of “Daisy, Daisy”, to die a horrible death. Of course I have lots of backups (he said unconvincingly), but the time it takes to get it all together on a new machine is... well, the great crash was a week ago and everything is still what in the technical jargon of computer geeks is termed higgledy-piggledy. Losing access to my vast email archive, even temporarily, is like being in one of these novels that start off with the famous…

WHERE WRITERS AND OPINIONS COLLIDE The world of science fiction today is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is, and the chances are the bits of SF I love the most right now are going to be things you’ve never even heard of. We’re creating and consuming more SF&F cultural material than ever before, and it only takes a quick flick through this magazine to know that our chances of ever keeping up are doomed to beautiful failure. How lucky we are! And yet there’s a growing problem in the midst of this abundance. For instance the recent debacle surrounding the hijacking of the Hugo Awards was caused by a small contingent of writers and their fans protesting that their particular favourite works…

On the spectrum of impossible things, the chance of The X-Files returning to TV with original stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson seemed about as likely as Cigarette Smoking Man packing in the Morleys. Well, Chris Carter’s era-defining conspiracy saga is back this month as a six-episode event series, reuniting former FBI agents Mulder and Scully for new adventures chasing the truth behind secret government cabals, alien abductions and a whole mess of other zeitgeisty weirdness. SFX speaks exclusively with Anderson and Duchovny about returning to the series that changed their lives… Did you want to have a say in where you imagined your character would be now? GA I’ve never been collaborative about the direction of Scully. Other characters I have played, definitely, but not Scully. I don’t know…

Jonathan Frakes has served the Star Trek franchise for 28 of its 50 years, playing Commander William T Riker on four different series and directing no less than 24 episodes as well as big-screen entries Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection. Despite his busy schedule as a TV director, Frakes tells SFX that the 24th century is never far from his life and heart. You’ve been part of the Star Trek franchise for half its existence. Is that strange to process? The longevity blows my mind. I was naive to how much of a cultural icon Star Trek was in the world. I wasn’t a Trekkie when I started on this project. I was blessed to join this family now celebrating its 50th anniversary. What did your cast…

As co-founder of Bad Robot Productions with JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk helped to creatively shepherd an array of hits from Alias and Lost to Cloverfield and the rebooted Star Trek movie franchise. The series was never on his childhood radar, Burk admits, but he tells SFX that the last seven years have been all about discovering his inner Trekkie… Why did you return to the classic crew for the recent movies? I can tell you from our initial conversation with Bob [Orci], Alex [Kurtzman], Damon [Lindelof ], JJ and I, the first sentence out of everyone’s mouth was, “We’re going to blow up Vulcan so everyone knows we’re not f-ing around.” However, Leonard [Nimoy] or Bill [Shatner], or both, are going to be in the film because Gene is no…

FACE TO FACE WITH THE BIGGEST STARS Some days playing a clever, ravishing super spy can get to you, as actress Hayley Atwell can attest. On a crisp autumn evening on the Universal Studios backlot where the second season of Agent Carter is in its late days of production, Atwell has been engaging in derring-do all day and frankly, it’s made her punchy. Currently crammed into a gorgeous 1938 Packard Super 8 next to longtime friend James D’Arcy (who plays Howard Stark’s butler Jarvis), the pair fill time between takes teasing each other in cockney voices, pulling faces and pretend-leaning into perilous turns in the road with shouted warnings of “Big corner!” Diva behaviour is nowhere to be seen, but Atwell’s natural goofiness is on full display. And she promises…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 98 minutes Director Shinji Higuchi Cast Haruma Miura, Kiko Mizuhara, Kanata Hongo Whether you know the source material or not, Attack On Titan Part One is a weird viewing experience. It’s based on an epic Japanese actionhorror saga, set in a future world where humans are preyed on by grotesque grinning giants – the Titans. The story has an avid fanfollowing as a manga and anime; this is the first of a two-part live-action version for cinemas. Warning to fans: this is an alternate-universe retelling, with massive changes to both story and characters. It’s a goofy bad movie, but one that’s sporadically enjoyable and exciting. The effects are artificial but pleasingly inventive, not unlike old British TV SF. There are some design triumphs, like a…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 1970 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD Director Roger Corman Cast Bob Corff, Elaine Giftos, Bud Cort, Talia Shire In the late ’60s, fortysomething B-movie king Roger Corman switched from Edgar Allan Poe adaptations to counter-culture movies – even going so far, in preparation for LSD flick The Trip, as to drop acid himself. Watching this post-apocalyptic black comedy, you may wonder if it hadn’t worn off. Set after the accidental release of a chemical weapon kills everyone over 25, it follows some hip young longhairs as they travel across the country, encountering fascistic American footballers, a country club run by Hells Angels, and a biker version of Poe. The script was rewritten during shooting, and the results are freewheeling to the point of aimlessness. There are numerous moments…

RELEASED 11 JANUARY 2014 | 15 | DVD Just in case horror movies haven’t already put you off ever going on a camping trip… In this Dutch horror, two families head off into the woods, pitch their tents on the banks of a lake, do some petty bickering… and get murdered. There’s an established template for this kind of thing, and The Pool doesn’t really break any new ground, but it’s worth watching for its unusual threat - there aren’t many films about evil lakes - and queasy, nightmarish atmosphere. Extras Just the trailer.…

RELEASED 7 JANUARY 400 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Peter Mclean Publisher angry robot What connects Raymond Chandler, Guy Ritchie, Harry Potter and Buffy The Vampire Slayer? “Not much” is probably the answer. Until now. At first glance, Don Drake, the eponymous antihero of Peter McLean’s punchy debut novel, appears to be your classic hardboiled, whisky-soaked gumshoe. But he’s not a detective at all: he’s an occultist hitman who uses the dark arts to rub out his victims, and instead of the boulevards and speakeasies of LA, his beat is the mean streets of South London. Harnessing the power of the Burned Man – a tiny, sewermouthed cockney fetish who summons ferocious demons while effin’ and jeffin’ like a miniature Danny Dyer – to pay off a gambling debt, Drake finds…

RELEASED 14 JANUARY 576 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Dean Koontz Publisher HarperCollins When you’ve written dozens of books over four decades, you can be forgiven the occasional clunker. Inside this much too long novel by veteran Dean Koontz is a decent enough short book, about a young woman – not the titular Ashley Bell, but a young Californian author called Bibi Blair. At the outset, she’s told she’s dying from a terrible cancer. Then she miraculously recovers and the story becomes a chase, with Bibi pursued by shadowy homicidal enemies. There are a great many elements – childhood traumas, fortune tellers, a stray dog and neo-Nazi Men in Black – that seem unlikely to add up to anything. In the end, there’s quite a good solution, but it doesn’t justify…

RELEASED 7 JANUARY 368 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Keith Lee Morris Publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson It sounds like an urban legend. There’s this family – the Addisons. They’re driving across America but are caught out in a snowstorm. They decide to shelter in a small town, the ominously-named Good Night (it may as well have “You’ll never leave” on the welcome sign), where they check into a motel. Bad move – they’re immediately separated and find themselves trapped in its limbo-like corridors. The blurb references David Lynch, but Travelers Rest is more Wayward Pines than Twin Peaks. There’s precious little cherry pie and charm here, just a lingering sense of foreboding. The Shining is a clear influence, not least because of its young protagonist, Dewey, who is quick to pick…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Marvel Writers Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen Artists Mike Deodato, Salvador Larocca ISSUES 1-3 Marvel’s line of Star Wars comics have gone out of their way to genuinely feel like Star Wars, aiming to capture the same blend of characterisation, myth and fast-paced, high-stakes action. Now, we’ve got the first big-scale crossover between the two core ongoing titles (Star Wars by Jason Aaron, and Darth Vader by Kieron Gillen) and the result is a gloriously enjoyable pulp adventure. When Vader’s search for Luke Skywalker accidentally brings him up against the Rebellion, the Sith Lord’s TIE Fighter is shot down, stranding him on a distant planet far from the Empire’s assistance. The Rebels use this as a chance to try and kill Vader once and for all –…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 58 minutes Publisher Big Finish AUDIO CD/DOWNLOAD Whether you think condensing Ray Bradbury’s story of Mars colonisation from 28 connected short stories into an hour-long drama is a brave or stupid venture, you have to assume it’s doomed to failure. Yet this 2014 Radio Four adaptation is a surprisingly effective attempt. Boasting an impressive cast (including Derek Jacobi and Hayley Atwell), pacy direction and phenomenally atmospheric sound design, it’s certainly a polished production. Wisely, it ejects many of the short stories and concentrates on those that best embody the novel’s themes of racial prejudice, the devastation of war and the triumph of the human spirit. Bradbury’s very American views on colonisation feel slightly odd with British accents but the script makes the issues feel relevant today. You…

UK Broadcast Channel 5 (from February) US Broadcast Fox The characters who make TV great The first season of Gotham didn’t go down quite as well as the showrunners hoped, with viewers complaining about all sorts of things – from Jada Pinkett Smith’s hammy performance as Fish Mooney to the fact that young Batman wasn’t quite as interesting a character as we thought he’d be. If there was one thing everybody agreed on, however, it was that Gotham’s proto-Penguin was brilliant. Seemingly from nowhere, Robin Lord Taylor stepped into Oswald Cobblepot’s probably ill-fitting shoes and, somehow, became the Penguin. From his humble beginnings working for Fish to his new role, circa season two, as Gotham’s biggest crime lord, Oswald’s rise has been staggering – like the waiter in the House Of…

NEWBIES Kevin Bacon returning as Valentine McKee in a Tremors TV reboot. Found! Netflix resurrecting classic sci-fi series Lost In Space. Neil Marshall is rumoured to direct. Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars heading to Spike TV. Babylon 5’s J Michael Straczynski will write. Samurai Jack is back! New episodes coming to Toonami from creator Genndy Tartakovsky. Luther creator Neil Cross penning pre-apocalyptic crime series Hard Sun for BBC One. Marvel’s Iron Fist enlists Dexter veteran Scott Buck as showrunner. Horror anthology series Channel Zero, from Max Landis, gets a two-season order at Syfy. HIM coming from ITV – a three-part domestic drama about a teenage boy with supernatural powers. AMC adapting Joe Hill’s NOS4R2 for TV.…

The Corinthian (Sandman comics) Another Sandman character to explore could be the charismatic nightmare Corinthian, who is very much a fan of the phrase “an eye for an eye” – ie he has mouths where his eyes should be, and uses them to eat other people’s eyes. Hey, we didn’t say it would be a heroic spin-off… Mr Wednesday (American Gods) In American Gods, loveable rogue Mr Wednesday – a wise-cracking, womanising conman – is revealed to be an incarnation of Norse god Odin. We feel we’re definitely owed some sort of on-the-road prequel. Crowley & Aziraphale (Good Omens) Good Omens, co-written with Terry Pratchett, gave us the angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley. Given that one was the guardian of Eden while the other tempted Eve onto a path of…

“Everybody is putting the story first, which is a really unique thing in Hollywood.” After publishing it as an Image series in 2008, Joe Kelly is now adapting I Kill Giants for the big screen. The Deadpool scribe always envisaged his story for the cinema, having originally penned it as a speculative film script. “The screenplay has existed for almost as long as the comic,” says Kelly, who has enjoyed almost unprecedented creative freedom. “I’ve been one hundred per cent involved, and everybody knows that there is no movie without me.” Described as “a story about children, but for everybody,” the film is set to star Zoe Saldana as school psychologist Mrs Mollé and Madison Wolfe as her young patient, who retreats into an imaginary world where she believes she…

DATE 27-28 February LOCATION Meadowbank Sports Centre, Edinburgh We all know that science fiction fans have hearts bigger than the stomach of planeteater Unicron, but the team behind brand new Edinburghbased convention Capital Sci-fi Con have hearts bigger than most – they’re harnessing the power of sci-fi to raise money for Rachel House children’s hospice. For a first-time con the guest line-up isn’t half bad: Dave Prowse, Virginia Hey, Predator actor Ian Whyte, White Walker Ross Mullan, Viz co-founder Simon Donald, Clone Wars artist Tanya Roberts and many more. There’ll also be guest talks and photo shoots, a Star Wars art exhibition, a cosplay comp, movie cars on show and plenty of merch to buy. Tickets are available now or on the door, but pre-buying gets you early entry. There…

SHOWRUNNING Supergirl lands a full, 20-episode first season at CBS. Bounty hunter series Killjoys coming to Syfy UK later this month. Ash Vs Evil Dead now airing in the UK via Virgin’s on demand service. Star Wars Rebels renewed for a third season. Peter Jackson posts a humorous, Peter Capaldistarring video that strongly suggests he will helm an upcoming episode of Doctor Who. Wayward Pines renewed for a second season. CASTING CALL Tom Amandes to play Calculator in an upcoming episode of Arrow, guest-starring Roy Harper. Luke Cage casts Sonia Braga as Claire Temple’s mum, Soledad. Patton Oswalt and Felicia Day to star in new episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Italia Ricci to play DC villainess Silver Banshee in a recurring role on Supergirl.…

Idris Elba the new frontrunner to play the Gunslinger in The Dark Tower… Ethan Hawke and John Goodman joining Luc Besson’s Valerian… Independence Day: Resurgence screenwriter Carter Blanchard tackling Uncanny Valley… Lionsgate still planning Hunger Games prequels… Creed helmer Ryan Coogler in the frame for Marvel’s Black Panther… The Weinstein Company adapting Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist… David Bruckner no longer directing the Friday The 13th reboot… Fred Dekker says Predator sequel screenplay is done… Warner reportedly considering a Teen Titans movie… Fantastic Four 2 dropped from Twentieth Century Fox’s 2017 schedule… Vin Diesel developing fourth Riddick movie alongside TV spinoff… Paramount brainstorming a Micronauts movie with Akiva Goldsman… Brad Pitt producing YA adap Illuminae… Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway and Black Hawk Down’s Ken Nolan orbiting Transformers…

When most kids first saw Doctor Who they wanted to hop in the first blue police box they could find and spin off to another galaxy. Kids my age dreamt of travelling with Han in the Millennium Falcon, or working alongside boffins on the USS Enterprise. As much as I love all these sci-fi franchises, the last thing I’d ever want to do is travel in outer space for real. Stars are pretty to stare at and make up fun-sounding constellation names for. But I don’t have an urge to wear a cool astronaut suit and launch myself into a galaxy far, far away. Sure, I’m eager to meet aliens from distant planets… when they come here to Earth. I don’t need to search them out. The idea of not…

For four years, DC comic book fans have been treated to the truest live-action superhero adaptations ever to grace television screens. Starting with Arrow, focused on the Emerald Archer of Star City, and continuing with The Flash, chronicling the adventures of Central City’s Scarlet Speedster, the DC TV Universe has transported audiences through time, across alternate universes, and even introduced them to telepathic gorillas. But it’s now upped the stakes still further, giving us a weekly series devoted to an entire team of costumed characters. Meet the Legends of Tomorrow. “I wrote a line the other day for Ray Palmer,” says Arrow and now Legends executive producer Marc Guggenheim, referring to Legends’ resident CEO turned adventurer, best known as the Atom (embodied by Brandon Routh). “I’m not sure if it…

Mention Star Trek and chances are that despite 50 years of storytelling, with a deep roster of beloved characters spanning five live-action series and 12 (to date) movies, the character that immediately springs to mind is William Shatner’s Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Handsome and intense with a rakish charm, Kirk has always embodied the bravery and exploratory spirit at the heart of creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future. Sure, Kirk could be a skirt-chaser and more than a little impulsive, but there was a wisdom and gravitas to the character that endures. Plus, he cut an impressive silhouette, even in yellow velour. In the half-century since Star Trek began William Shatner has headlined five television series, written original science fiction novels, made documentary films and penned and performed a…

Robert Picardo’s place in Star Trek history is assured. His turn as the Doctor – alias Emergency Medical Hologram Mark 1 – in Star Trek: Voyager made him a fan favourite. He went on to reprise the role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and on the big screen in Star Trek: First Contact. Now he’s sharing his memories of the final frontier... Can you remember stepping on set for the first time? I remember stepping foot on the sets and thinking how cool the sets looked and how they had a tremendous reality to them. You make all the jokes about the rickety sci-fi sets, where the door closes and the walls shake. But Voyager was built like a tank. That was impressive. Is there a prop or costume…

The man engaging thrusters on the 50th anniversary Star Trek adventure is Justin Lin, best known for helming the billion dollar, car-shredding mayhem of the Fast & Furious franchise. “Invariably there’s going to be a different vibe when you remove someone as gregarious and outgoing and talented as JJ [Abrams],” says star Zachary Quinto. “But Justin has come in with this really interesting and confident energy that’s a little bit more reserved and a little bit quieter, but also very powerful and really sure-handed.” While JJ Abrams freely confessed his heart belonged to the Force, Lin is a lifelong Trekkie. “All my friends were Star Wars kids but I didn’t go to the movies so I was the Star Trek kid.” Accepting the director’s chair was, he says, “a very…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2015 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/download Director Mark Neveldine Cast Olivia Dudley, Michael Peña, Dougray Scott, Kathleen Robertson, Alison Lohman The Exorcist casts a long shadow. Whatever your beliefs, Friedkin’s masterpiece made the whole possession shebang seem plausible. Unfortunately, it’s rendered virtually all such movies since rather redundant. The Vatican Tapes isn’t going to change that. A montage of security footage sets out the film’s stall. Possessions are on the rise and the Catholic Church is monitoring the situation. After a car crash, sweet young Angela (Olivia Dudley) begins to act strangely, and paranormal events seem to follow in her wake. It’s soon clear that Angela’s not the woman she used to be... Crank co-director Mark Neveldine tries to spice things up with flashy editing, but can’t disguise…

RELEASED 18 JANUARY 2015 | 15 | DVD Like John Carpenter’s 1976 classic, it’s set in a police station that’s being shut down, but Last Shift is less Assault On Precinct 13 and more Bombardment Of Jump Scares. Juliana Harkavy is solid as the rookie cop manning the desk as supernatural weirdness ensues, and the final twist is just one of several decent surprises. But after the backstory’s teased out – Manson family types hung themselves in a cell – it’s mostly just one freaky thing after another, with diminishing returns. Extras None.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2014 | 15 | DVD The Asylum is famous for its mockbusters – unashamed cash-in Z-movies riffing off current hits, so the title of this one is mystifying until you know it’s been renamed from Age Of Tomorrow. Oddly, though, this isn’t an Edge Of Tomorrow rip-off. It’s a terrible Armageddon rip-off that turns into a terrible Battle: Los Angeles rip-off. Dire on every level, it’s not even so bad it’s funny. It’s as crappy and cynical as fake made-in-the-Philippines action figures. Extras Gag reel, behind-thescenes (six minutes).…

RELEASED 18 JANUARY 2015 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD Creators Kevin Murphy, Rockne S O’Bannon, Michael Taylor Cast Grant Bowler, Stephanie Leonidas, Jamie Murray, Julie Benz “My Name Is Datak Tarr And I Have Come to Kill You.” How’s that for a catchy episode title, eh? It also, not coincidentally, happens to be one of the best episodes in Defiance’s run, and one of the reasons why the final season of this Syfy show proved it was worth sticking with all along. That said, things do take a long while to really get going this year, even though several characters are almost instantly given the axe – perhaps for budgetary reasons, although you barely notice they’re gone later, so that tells you a lot. Thankfully the season picks up once a…

RELEASED 14 JANUARY 416 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Susan Dennard Publisher Tor Safiya and Iseult are “threadsisters” – bound to each other through love, friendship and magic. Iseult is a threadwitch, who sees the ties that bind us all. She’s also Nomatsi, reviled by both her tribe and the rest of society. Safi has a rarer type of magic – she’s a truthwitch, not that she flaunts the fact. If she did, she’d never be safe, and a safe, normal life is all Safi and Iseult really want. Well, when they aren’t busy partaking in criminal activities... Truthwitch starts midhighway robbery and the action doesn’t stop there. It’s a wild ride that takes you from the metropolitan city of Venaza to the high seas, in a well-built fantasy world of…

RELEASED 21 JANUARY 486 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Alison Goodman Publisher Walker Books “He must think her a trollop,” heroine Lady Helen Wrexhall wonders ruefully at one point in this book, after an encounter with the brooding Lord Carlston. Said encounter saw her a) suddenly discovering she has super-strength, b) sending the unfortunate Lord flying across the room, and c ) standing a tiny bit too close to the gentleman than is prudent for Regency London society. And therein lies a huge part of the charm of The Dark Days Club: picture Buffy discovering her Slayer strength while surrounded by so many social conventions and taboos that she couldn’t even flash a hint of ankle while skewering a vampire, let alone be unchaperoned in a room with another man. (Lud…

RELEASED 14 JANUARY 247 pages | Hardback Author Maria Turtschaninoff Publisher Pushkin Children’s Books Maria Turtschaninoff might be an unknown name to most English-speaking readers, but in Finland and Sweden she’s won multiple awards. Maresi is the first in her new trilogy and also the first of her books to be translated into English. Maresi lives at the Red Abbey, an idyllic island convent where men are forbidden and girls and women are protected and educated, building an idealised life of work, study and worship. Some girls come seeking learning, some escaping prejudice, and some are running for their lives. One of these is Jai, who’s fleeing her cruel, controlling father – but he’s not going to let her go lightly. In a genre where so many works focus on…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics Writer Brian K Vaughan Artist Cliff Chiang ISSUES 1-3 Having one of the biggest recent successes in comics gives you freedom to experiment – and Saga mastermind Brian K Vaughan is taking full advantage of that fact with his new projects. Recent mecha miniseries We Stand On Guard was a definite tonal swerve from Saga’s kooky craziness, but his latest ongoing series represents a gentler change, bolting colourful sci-fi onto a more grounded emotional world. Paper Girls follows four 12-year-old girls who are delivering newspapers in a quiet middle-American town when they encounter a mysterious artefact. They then discover that almost everybody in town has vanished, the sky has changed, and strange creatures now prowl the streets. The first three issues are well-crafted and…

RELEASED 14 JANUARY Publisher Rebellion Writer Gordon Rennie Artists Leigh Gallagher, Patrick Goddard GRAPHIC NOVEL Opening with the main character being resurrected after being crucified alongside the rest of Spartacus’s rebel army, Aquila brings an intriguing Christian angle to the usually pagandominated fantasy genre. Set around 69AD, it takes place at that crucial juncture when the old deities were on the verge of giving way to “the Carpenter God”. Though loosely inspired by the old Tornado/2000 AD stalwart Blackhawk, Aquila owes as much to Sláine. Transformed into a supernatural killing machine by malevolent entity Ammit the Devourer, the Nubian warrior is a sometimes frustratingly unknowable blank slate. He also lacks Sláine’s anarchic sense of humour. This collection charts Aquila’s journey from besieged Londinium to the Roman capital itself, taking in…

GROOT AND ROCKET MUGS Funko has branched out into kitchenware! These Guardians mugs feature stylised fizzogs of everyone’s favourite sentient tree/ass-kicking raccoon. They’re not dishwasher safe, though, so you’ll have to pull your marigolds on. FOAM BAT’LETH This four-foot-long replica of the iconic Klingon weapon is rendered in safe, soft foam. No good for stabbing an impudent insubordinate then, but perfect for cosplay… or just working off a bit of IT-related stress at the end of the day. ALIEN DIECASTS This Space Jockey is just one of four diecasts being released by NECA, to kick off their Cinemachines range. They’re also bringing out the derelict ship from Alien, plus a dropship and an Armoured Personnel Carrier from Aliens.…