Sommaire pour March 2017 de SFX

RICHARD EDWARDS EDITOR RAVES → Belatedly saw Arrival and it was one of my fave films of 2016 – a Hollywood sci-fi movie that makes you think. → Our feature on The Expanse (p66) persuaded me to belatedly watch season one – and it’s ace. → I’m intrigued to see what Noah Hawley does with the X-Men universe in Legion. IAN BERRIMAN REVIEWS EDITOR RAVES → Had a great day on-set for Duncan Jones’s new film Mute, in Berlin. Really looking forward to it. → Delighted that the label Finders Keepers are releasing music from The Moomins. → Classic Who fans, fancy some belly laughs? Then point your browser at http://bit.ly/k9titles. RUSSELL LEWIN PRODUCTION EDITOR RAVES → Number of cinemas I visited for first time in 2016: 12. UK running…

What kind of a man is the colonel? → It’s one thing when you read it on the page, but I find that my views of who I’m playing change over the course of the shoot. He’s retired during the course of the film, but he’s still a functioning colonel who supposedly had some power, but obviously not enough to get his son back from wherever they’ve taken him. I’m still finding out about him. He’s a powerful military man – but not powerful enough. Is the film a mix between dystopian drama and sci-fi? → It’s definitely a drama but the society’s dystopian, so... I don’t know how brutal the film itself will turn out to be, but it’s a look at a brutal society. I imagine the film…

First SF/fantasy film you saw → On Thursday nights BBC Two used to run a sci-fi or monster movie. I think the one that really stuck with me was Alien. Especially the chestburster scene with John Hurt. That’s a shocking moment as a youth. Favourite SF/fantasy film → Everybody says Star Wars but it’s brilliant. It’s the whole reminiscing about when you discovered it and buying toys. Growing up, it was just everywhere. I used to get annuals for Christmas and they’d have all these weird and wonderful stories involving Princess Leia and Darth Vader meeting on planets and you’d go: “They’re enemies!” Because you never knew anything anything about politics back then. You didn’t realise there were Switzerlands in space. Favourite SF/fantasy comic → I used to be really…

SCI-FACT! Duffield previously played young Ghost in Pathfinder and Callan in Warcraft. A MAN OUT OF TIME “Holden Matthews closes his eyes when he’s 13 and wakes up at age 25. You see him find himself in a completely new world. His best friend, brother and family have changed so dramatically over a dozen years. When he goes to give his trust to them again they may, or may not, be the people he should be trusting.” THE PATH AHEAD “I think Beyond is about Holden finding exactly where he belongs and what that means. A big part of our show isn’t him just chasing his abilities and saving the world. He’s a normal kid and just wants his life back. He figures out where he can fit in with school and…

OUT 10 MAR 2017 SCI-FACT! Kong will go up against Godzilla in 2020 for super-smackdown, uh, Kong Vs Godzilla. “Bad Moon Rising” plays as a bored-looking Lieutenant Colonel Packard (Samuel L Jackson) is shown a slideshow of a South Pacific island. There’s also photojournalist Weaver (Brie Larson), who doubles as a peace activist. Looks like she’ll be this movie’s Ann Darrow. And in one seriously epic shot, he comes face-to-snout with Lieutenant Colonel Packard through a curtain of fire. Talk about badass. But who’s this? John C Reilly’s apparently chummy with the natives and knows a thing or two about Kong (“He’s king around here”). Yep, that’d be Skull Island. It looks scary as heck so, naturally, we’re going there with a team of explorers and soldiers. “Is that a…

THE MAGNIFICENT CORELLIAN! HAN SOLO Saddle up your Bantha, pilgrim. Seems the Han Solo movie will put a spurs-jangling spin on everyone’s favourite star-smuggler. “This moves closer to a heist or Western type feel,” reveals High Priestess of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy. The prequel tale will take its visual cues from the work of 19th century painter Frederic Remington, whose golden, romanticised illustrations did much to enshrine the myth of frontier life. “We talked about Remington and those primary colours that are used in his paintings defining the look and feel of the film,” says Kennedy. Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke is the latest addition to the cast, joining Donald Glover as a young Lando Calrissian and Alden Ehrenreich reminding you to never tell him the odds in the title…

HAPPY NEW FEAR! The horrors of 2016 are finally over – let’s think positive and look to the year ahead. Here are five films to look forward to in 2017: 1) The Bye Bye Man Okay, horrible title but this could be interesting. It’s based on a (supposedly) true story about an entity which possesses people, causing them to carry out killing sprees. Stacy Title, who made Cameron Diaz black comedy The Last Supper, is steering the ship. 2) Get Out Brill-looking Blumhouse race-issue horror satire directed by Jordan Peele, from TV comedy Key And Peele. Daniel Kaluuya plays an African-American bloke visiting his white girlfriend’s family, where he learns lots of black people have mysteriously disappeared. 3) Flatliners Reboot of an ’90s classic about med students who experiment with…

7 Planets destroyed on screen (Alderaan, five members of the Hosnian system, Starkiller Base) 3270-1 Approximate odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field 2187 Number of Leia’s cell in A New Hope and Finn’s Stormtrooper designation 1 Number of Imperial officers to appear in more than one film (Captain/Admiral Piett) 6 Bounty hunters briefed by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (4-LOM, Boba Fett, Bossk, Dengar, IG-88, Zuckuss) 2Non-Forcesensitive characters who ignite lightsabers (Han Solo, Finn) Amount of The Empire Strikes Back before Han Solo is frozen 75.8% Amount of Empire Strikes Back after Han Solo is frozen 24.2% 9 Uses of “I have a bad feeling about this” (Includes derivatives like “I got a bad feeling about this”) 6 Actors who’ve played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader Dave Prowse, James Earl Jones, Jake Lloyd,…

This year marks 120 years since HG Wells’s The War Of The Worlds was first serialised in Pearson’s Magazine. As visions of tripods marauding across south-east England have subsequently embedded themselves not just in the collective consciousness of SF fans but the wider world, it’s a story that sits deep in our shared culture. All of which means that, even though Wells left plenty of scope for the story to be continued, it would take a brave man indeed to write a sequel. Step forward Stephen Baxter, whose Massacre Of Mankind, authorised by the HG Wells Estate, imagines what happens when the Red Planet invaders return in an alternate-history 1920s. “You have the Martians landing in the jazz age,” says Baxter, with some satisfaction. “And I’ve got to say there’s…

The Force Awakens was the easy bit. If Disney is really going to make the most of its $4 billionplus investment in Star Wars, it needs to make blockbuster movies away from the safety blanket of Han, Leia, Luke and the old Skywalker family drama. So Rogue One – a “how we stole the plans to the Death Star” war movie focused on an entirely new group of characters – could well be the most important movie the post-George Lucasfilm ever makes. But if there was ever a question whether a Star Wars movie could work away from the main saga, Rogue One answers it emphatically. It’s an exhilarating companion piece to the original trilogy, simultaneously reverent to the source material while feeling like no Star Wars movie that’s come…

26 DECEMBER MONSTER TRUCKS A tentacular creature acts as the engine for a high school kid’s truck in this CGI/live-action blend. 1 JANUARY ASSASSIN’S CREED Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard star in this adaptation of the smash hit Ubisoft videogames, about a crack assassin in 15th century Spain. 13 JANUARY THE BYE BYE MAN College students take on a supernatural entity that causes killing sprees by possessing people in this horror thriller. UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS The sequel to 2012’s Underworld: Awakening sees Kate Beckinsale’s Selene trying to end the war between Lycans and Vampires. Sherlock’s Lara Pulver plays the villain. 25 JANUARY GHOST IN THE SHELL Ahead of the Scarlett Johansson-starring remake, the classic 1995 anime film gets a one-night-only reissue – head to http://gitsmovie. co.uk to find the nearest…

QUESTION 1 She played pottymouthed, pea soupvomiting possessee Regan in The Exorcist. But what’s her name, huh? Clue: the correct surname is Blair. QUESTION 2 In the Hellboy films, who played Big Red’s love interest Liz Sherman? Yes, it’s another Blair. QUESTION 3 George Orwell was a pen name. What was the Nineteen Eighty-Four author’s real name? Are you getting the hang of this yet? QUESTION 4 Name the controversial 2000 AD comic in which Tony Blair had a computer intelligence called Doctor Spin implanted in his brain. Clue: aim for something Blair-y. QUESTION 5 What was the nononsense pilot played by Moon Bloodgood in Terminator: Salvation called? Stumped? Don’t worry – absolutely no one remembers this, including Moon Bloodgood. ANSWERS 1 Linda Blair 2 Selma Blair 3 Eric Arthur…

BLU-RAY DEBUT The most compelling character in this classic ’80s vampire romp is Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). As a late-night TV horror host, he’s aged out of relevance, so when awkward teen Charley (William Ragsdale) begs him to confront his bloodsucking neighbour, he’s so flattered he almost agrees. Then Charley’s friends offer to pay him, and he’s so hard-up he doesn’t have any choice but to agree. He seems particularly poignant now, in this new 4k restoration, because we’re now further away from Fright Night’s original release than it was from Hammer Horror’s heyday. Both Vincent and the film are throwbacks twice over. But teenagers will always be awkward, vampires will always be cool, and the gooey special effects hold up surprisingly well in unforgiving high-def. Extras Bucketloads, including a…

There’s a decent SF idea at the heart of Worm: in a future where mankind has lost the ability to dream, people turn to genetically-engineered parasites with the power to generate vivid fantasies. But despite its stabs at verisimilitude – mock commercials, news reports – the film never sells its world, crippled by a meandering, improvised script and a giddying tonal lurch from whimsy to something nastier in the final act. Extras Commentary; deleted scenes; short film; trailers.…

SHUDDER Ring Vs Grudge started life as a joke, an April Fool’s Day trailer designed to give fans a chuckle. Evil knows they needed a laugh, with the most recent Ringu/Ju-On instalments (Sadako 3D 2, and Ju-On: The Final Curse) both being franchise nadirs. The reaction was so positive a real version was rushed into production, in an apparent attempt to prove the saying “things can always get worse”. Sadako Vs Kayako ostensibly takes the framework of a Ring movie (a cursed videotape causes a long-haired ghost-face killer to crawl out of your telly) and adds Grudge characters (frog-throated spooks really hate house-guests) to the story. Our idiotic heroes are studying the Ring curse and decide to watch the tape anyway, then hang out in the Grudge house in the…

Coraline and Paranorman studio Laika takes its state-of-theart version of stopmotion to ancient Japan in one of the best genre movies of 2016. The visuals are as slick as anything Pixar can do, but the tactile quality of the puppets gives the film an extra element of magic. In fact, the animation is so impressive that you spend half the film trying to work out how they did it – it would be distracting if the story wasn’t so captivating in its own right. As young Kubo embarks on a quest to recover a sacred suit of armour, his adventure is brimming with heart, taps into some sophisticated themes and mythology, and boasts wonderful supporting players. Kubo flopped at the cinema, but hopefully word of mouth can now turn it…

We would advise reading this book wrapped in blankets, preferably while sitting in front of a roaring fire. Katherine Arden’s debut is a fairytale set in medieval Russia (aka Rus’), and its depiction of life in a land where it’s basically winter for eight months of the year is so detailed and vivid you can practically feel the chill numbing your fingers. Growing up on her widowed father’s rural estate, far to the north of Moscow, Vasya drives everyone around her to distraction with her spirited refusal to do the sorts of things proper young ladies are supposed to do, like mend clothes and be obedient and generally not go haring off into the nearby haunted forest… This being a fairytale, she gets along badly with her stepmother (whose Christian…

Riders On The Storm Get a few pages into this first book in the new Tides Of War series, and you might dismiss it as a derivative concoction. A clichéd mash-up of David Gemmell and Game Of Thrones? You soon realise how unfair that is. Sure, it revels in genre staples. Spineless kings, ruthless slavers, axe-throwing clansmen and icy northern wastes are all present. And the prose tends towards the predictable: darkness swallows people whole as warriors’ hearts hammer in their chests. Blah. But the setting is creepier and the story cleverer than that first impression. James A Moore lends a delicious moral ambiguity to the characters. In his universe, regular human sacrifices keep the apocalypse at bay. When the grotesque He-Kisshi snatch Brogan McTyre’s entire family at once, he…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 342 pages | Hardback Editor Amanda Reyes Publisher Headpress This “TV movie compendium 1964-1999” is subtitled Growing Up With Gargoyles, Giant Turtles, Valerie Harper, The Cold War, Stephen King & Co-ed Call Girls. Phew! The first 77 pages feature erudite essays on subjects like Wes Craven’s small-screen horror films and World War III as portrayed in TV movies. Then there’s a huge section of reviews featuring the likes of The Night Stalker, Killdozer and Trilogy Of Terror (along with non-fantastical material). Well written, weighty and full of enthusiasm for its subject matter, this is a brilliant and valuable book for those interested in a much-tooneglected genre. A limited edition hardback is available now from www.headpress.com, with a paperback edition due in May.…

This month’s pick of the paperbacks is Alastair Reynolds/Stephen Baxter team-up THE MEDUSA CHRONICLES ( , 12 January, Gollancz), which continues the story of Howard Falcon, a cyborg explorer from Arthur C Clarke’s 1971 novella A Meeting With Medusa. When a machine achieves consciousness, it sets the scene for a conflict between humankind and an emergent machine civilisation. We said: “There’s sometimes a Clarke-ish dryness. Some of the characters seem underdeveloped too... Happily, such faults fall away when the duo’s own storytelling takes flight.” No-nonsense women are to the fore in Susan Dennard’s YA fantasy TRUTHWITCH ( , 12 January, Tor), which follows two young witches forced to flee their home after clashing with a powerful Guildmaster. One has the ability to discern truth from lies, a valuable skill which…

If words like “languid” and “haunting” and “ambiguous” make you roll your eyes, best pass onto the next review; Lisa Carey’s fifth novel is the very definition of slow burn, and all the better for it. In 1959, American midwife Brigid travels to Ireland, to the remote island home of her namesake saint (and her own migrant mother), in search of a fabled healing well. Instead she finds herself drawn to her lonely, angry neighbour, Emer, and Emer’s eccentric, vulnerable son, Niall. Is Emer’s fear that Niall is a changeling simply an expression of her own unhappiness, or does something dark and powerful lurk on the island? It’s a brave author who names their book after a Yeats poem. But Carey’s understated tale of complex women living complex lives is…

One big release we were unable to review this issue (due to an embargo) is CARVE THE MARK (17 January, HarperCollins Children’s Books), by Divergent’s Veronica Roth. A Star Wars-y SF fantasy, it’s set on a planet where “everyone develops a current-gift, a unique power meant to shape the future”. We’ll bring you our verdict in SFX 284, when we’ll hopefully also look at TALES FROM THE FORBIDDEN ZONE (24 January, Titan Books) a 16-story collection set in the world of the original Planet Of The Apes series. Meanwhile, THE DARK DAYS PACT (26 January, Walker Books) sees Alison Hoodman continuing her Lady Helen trilogy, in which a super-strong heroine battles demons in 1812 – picture Buffy discovering her Slayer strength in repressed Regency England. Our reviewer awarded book one,…

ISSUES 1-3 After last year’s Four Doctors team-up, you’d have thought Paul Cornell would have been happy using just one of the Time Lord’s incarnations when it came to this new series. But as the first issue cliffhanger reveals, opening story “The Heralds Of Destruction” also involves the Second Doctor, as an alien robot invasion of a Bedfordshire village turns out to be anything but routine. It’s set in the aftermath of “The Three Doctors”, and Cornell throws in many delightful references to classic and current continuity. There’s also a stunning twist at the end of the third issue which ensures that you re-evaluate all that has gone before. With shades of Cornell’s This Damned Band, the Third Doctor also takes a psychedelic trip into companion Jo Grant’s groovy unconscious,…

VIDEOGAME Announced in 2007, originally for PS3, this fantasy adventure can make you feel so many strong emotions: fear, joy, elation, sadness. But was it worth the wait? In many ways, it’s a throwback. This is purely a story-driven single-player, third-person action adventure experience. You play a young boy who meets Trico, a combination of bird and cat who’s injured, trapped, and as lost as you are. It’s like the fable of a lion with a thorn in its foot, spread out over nine hours, with a friendship that grows and matures. Mostly you’ll be clambering up scenery, solving puzzles, and riding Trico, but there are plenty of story beats. Trico’s design impresses. Whether shaking water off his body or preening himself, his appearance is a triumph. Good thing too,…

VIDEOGAME We’re introduced to Prince Noctis and his black-clad entourage as they struggle to push a convertible along the road. Previous Final Fantasy games have opened with Mako Reactor assaults or futuristic cities being attacked by a giant fish monster; this sequel begins with grunts of exertion, backed by a cover of “Stand By Me”. It might seem a strange choice, but it’s no coincidence Square Enix went for this song as Final Fantasy XV’s theme. While Noctis and pals aren’t children, there are parallels with the coming-of-age movie where four boys set out on a quest to find a dead body. FFXV also sees a trip away from home teach four boys about friendship, responsibility, loyalty, and sacrifice. There’s a doomsday plot too, but the main story thread’s difficult…

SCI-FACT! Josh Holloway has revealed that season two of Colony will be even darker than the first. Like your sci-fi with a dose of real-world allegory? Well, look no further than smart sci-fi drama Colony, which returns for its second season this month. Set in a near-future Los Angeles that’s been occupied by extraterrestrials, the show’s new season will, according co-creators Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Ryan Condal, dive deeper into what happens to humanity confined to blocs under military occupation. It’ll be, in a word, even more epic. “This season has 150 per cent more sci-fi stuff than we did last year,” Condal tells Red Alert. “Now, I qualify that by saying for me a lot of sci-fi is about ideas versus seeing interstellar battles. But there has been a…

SCI-FACT! Incarnate co-stars Games Of Thrones’s Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) and Gotham’s Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz). THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS’ EXORCISM MOVIE 1 With the original Exorcist now a weekly TV series, there’s no denying the big-screen genre it spawned could stand to shed a trope or two. That’s something filmmaker Brad Peyton sought to address in his latest thriller. “This is not a faith-based exorcism movie,” the director tells Red Alert. “In this world, priests oftentimes fail at exorcisms. So when they fail, they’ll go find an Incarnate. Those people are the badasses that you bring in when you really need to get rid of a demon.” SCI-FI SUPERCEDES FANTASY 2 In crafting the film, Peyton called on his favourite genre for inspiration. “My favourite horror movie is probably Alien, and…

SCI-FACT! The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun and Flight Of The Conchords’ Rhys Darby both supply voices for Voltron. Describe the world of Gilded Cage… It’s set in a contemporary Britain ruled by a magically gifted aristocracy, the Equals. All unskilled people must perform a decade of service, either in grim slavetowns or on one of the glittering Equal estates. Who are your protagonists? Abi is 18 and the classic big sister; smart and resourceful, but a little too confident in her own abilities. She must navigate a grand estate, while her laid-back brother Luke, who’s 17, is forced to grow up fast when separated from his family and sent to a slavetown. What was the initial inspiration? There’s a wall along the A31 that’s one of the longest in Britain.…

Firefly star Ron Glass sadly passed away on 25 November aged 71. Emperor Snoke could be portrayed by a puppet in Star Wars: Episode VIII according to new rumours. The Mummy will reboot the Universal Cinematic Universe – Dracula Untold is not being considered “canon”. Can’t think why. DC TV universe supremo Greg Berlanti will helm a remake of Little Shop Of Horrors. Ryan Reynolds has revealed he wants “Deadpool and Wolverine in a movie together”. He’ll have to drag Hugh Jackman out of retirement post-Logan to make that happen. Richard E Grant’s role in Logan has been revealed as Dr Zander Rice, who works for the Weapon X facility. New Mutants could begin filming in May with director Josh Boone at the helm. King Arthur has been pushed to…

THIS MONTH’S COMMUNICATIONS MONITOR RUSSELL LEWIN, PRODUCTION EDITOR Presidents come and go, evil dictators croak and the Italian banking system stumbles from crisis to crisis, but you guys thankfully keep writing into us about the subjects that really matter, like the latest JK Rowling moneymaker and a plea for the name of that TV series you halfremember from the ’90s. No seriously, we mean it! The arts are vital to keep us going in a difficult life. Empathy is spread, lessons are learned. So send us your thoughts to our regular contact points and you’re making a valuable contribution to world sanity. #FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM FILMTHEBLANKS, Twitter Muffled mumblings and how to hear them. An unlikeable wet lettuce chases Pokémon and fights a cloud of CGI.…

“I HAVE THE STRANGE FEELING THAT I KNOW MARS, THAT I’VE LIVED THERE” Over the last 40 years, I’ve spent a fair amount of time on Mars – first with my short story, “A Martian Ricorso”, published in Analog in February 1976; next with Moving Mars published in 1993, and finally with a return to Mars for the War Dogs trilogy. Throughout these visits, I’ve loved keeping up with the very hard work being done by engineers and scientists, exploring Mars remotely, trying to understand its character and riddle its mysteries. My first visit began before the launch of the Viking 1 and 2 orbiter/lander combinations. Thereafter, I was constantly tracking the science and thinking my own thoughts about the first puzzling and then disappointing soil tests conducted by those…

The chronology of a phenomenon. Forever will it dominate your destiny! 1977 8 MARCH First issue of Marvel’s Star Wars adaptation released (see p60) 1 MAY First public screening of Star Wars in San Francisco 25 MAY Star Wars opens in 32 cinemas in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco 28 NOVEMBER George Lucas completes story treatment for The Empire Strikes Back 27 DECEMBER Star Wars premieres in the UK 1978 1 FEB Star Wars Weekly launches in the UK 1 MARCH Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye released, the first novel in the Expanded Universe MARCH First wave of 3¾” Kenner action figures go on sale, priced at 99p in the UK 3 APRIL Star Wars bags seven Oscars. It’s also nominated for Best Picture and Director 21 JULY Star Wars gets its…

A judo-robed figure stands primed for combat, one hand a balled fist, the other clutching a blade of blood-red light. He’s flanked by three other figures: one blasts a ray gun, another man – hooded, white-bearded – holds his own bright, electric sword. Behind them is a woman, her hair styled like a Victorian governess, her lips pouting, doll-like, her eyes closed in what could almost be rapture. Looming above them all is a disembodied green head, partway between a tribal mask and a carburettor, its eyes lit by the blaze of galactic war. As starships wheel around this bizarre tableau, a question is posed in the familiar booming voice of comic book hyperbole: “Enter: Luke Skywalker! Will he SAVE the galaxy – or DESTROY it?” It’s a question that…

What is Holden’s mindset going into this season? He’s driven by guilt and by his feelings of responsibility for what has happened. As he progresses further into this story, the protomolecule almost becomes Holden’s whale. He has this Captain Ahab narrative going on. He starts to descend into this myopic madness because he just needs to fix things. He needs to feel like he’s in control. How are Holden and Miller bouncing off each other? You have this jaded cop and this naive, idealistic kid. As events transpire, they start to grow closer to each other. Miller starts to finally find things to believe in. Holden has to let go of his beliefs because he’s being confronted with the reality of what’s going on. The more responsibility he takes on,…

First appearing in in 1985’s New Mutants #25, Legion was introduced by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz during their groundbreaking run on the junior X-book. Described by Claremont as “an amalgam personality”, he is the long lost son of Charles Xavier and Holocaust survivor Gabrielle Haller. “David is a reflection of the personalities that are caught within him,” explains Claremont. “When David was a child, his stepfather was slain by a Palestinian terrorist and that catalysed his mutant abilities. In rage and fear, he essentially absorbed the young man attacking him into his own body. From then on, there were two people living inside his head, but over time they come to realise that they are not enemies.” However, Legion didn’t come into his own until he became the focus…

Your version of Ghost Rider isn’t just a flaming skull of vengeance. What makes him different? The Ghost Rider is traditionally this lone wolf, vigilante character who does his own thing. While that’s still true when Robbie Reyes transforms, he maintains this duty that he has towards his brother, Gabe, which is excellent. How would you characterise Robbie? Robbie is a very serious guy; the strong silent type. He doesn’t say any more than he has to. He’s a righteous dude in his heart. What do you admire about Robbie as a character? That he just wants to care for his brother. He’s been thrust into this position from a very early age. He’s been taking care of him since age 13. This beautiful, orphan quality that he has is…

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE In exploring man’s potential for both good and evil, Victorian author Robert Louis Stevenson put a hero and villain in the same body and paved the way for countless creators to follow. TWO-FACE Like Jekyll and Hyde, the most famous split personality in comic books (Harvey Dent, Batman’s friend turned enemy) embodies humanity’s dual nature; and takes things further by examining the tragic role played by chance. GOLLUM The biggest war fought in JRR Tolkien’s epic The Lord Of The Rings trilogy isn’t waged between armies, but rather inside the tortured mind of Sméagol, a Hobbit corrupted by his precious, the One Ring. NORMAN BATES The most famous serial killer in pop culture is the protagonist/antagonist of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, a living testament to the…

Mark Frost is worried. Not about the new season of Twin Peaks, you understand. He describes returning to the show he co-created in 1990 with Emperor of Weird David Lynch as “a really special experience – we had so much fun making it and it was so great to reunite with the old cast and crew, and to revisit some of the locations.” No, Mark Frost is worried about Donald Trump and the path the world appears to be taking right now. “We seem to live in a world of competing sets of facts,” he sighs when SFX catches up with him, a few days after that fateful election. “There was a moment – I think it was during the Republican Convention – when Newt Gingrich was being interviewed by…

Dr Evazan cameos to tell Jyn, “You just watch yourself,” pre-empting what he says to Luke Skywalker in the Mos Eisley Cantina. (He must have got off Jedha pretty sharpish to avoid the Death Star blast...) The Kyber crystals used to power the Death Star also fuel lightsabers. The Whills, of which Chirrut and Baze are guardians on Jedha, were referenced as far back as George Lucas’s early treatments for the original movie. We’d be surprised if the lava planet where Krennic meets Vader isn’t Mustafar, site of Anakin’s duel with Obi-Wan. In the expanded universe, both Vader and the Emperor use the planet for Dark Side meditation – and the interrogation of Jedi. Red Leader (Garven Dreis) and Gold Leader (Jon Vander) are digitally recreated from A New Hope.…

This low-budget sci-fi horror starts well enough. Noomi Rapace plays a single mother to an unhappy boy who, after being spied on, is abducted by a mysterious organisation and taken to a subterranean facility to be interrogated. Why? Who by? And in the end, who cares? Rapace’s plunge into a dimly-lit netherworld soon feels dismal and tiresome; it then goes a bit Saw, followed by doses of obvious CGI. The odd idea intrigues but overall this is no fun for anyone. Extras None.…

Fifteen years on, Richard Kelly’s coming of age/time travel head-fuck-athon feels as relevant as when it first befuddled audiences. Its on-trend ’80s nostalgia, implied superheroics and pop-heavy soundtrack are all right at home in 2017. Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a troubled teen who, after dodging a falling jet engine, finds himself haunted by an ominous figure in a bunny suit who promises that the world will end in 28 days if he doesn’t do... something. But while the film’s plot is cloaked in mystery, it’s far more concerned with the lives of its characters. It’s also a masterpiece – a modern indie classic that’s finally getting the home release it deserves, with a scrubbed up 4K restoration on both versions of the film. Both versions? Yes, there’s a director’s cut…

The joy that is YONDERLAND SERIES THREE (out now, DVD) sees Debbie facing a house move that will sever her ties to the fantastical realm – just as it’s taken over by Stephen Fry’s Cuddly Dick (despite the name, he’s a right bastard). You’d think all this puppet-filled silliness would get old after three years, but nope, this fantasy comedy show is as witty, inventive and downright delightful as ever. Baffling decision of the month: Network’s one to give a ’70s telefantasy favourite its HD debut in single volumes. RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED) VOLUME ONE (9 January, Blu-ray) features the first four episodes, leaving 22 to go. Guys! We’re short on shelf space! Sadly this ITC series’ great premise – a PI investigates with the help of his ghostly partner…

Horror writer Adam Nevill has been referred to as “Britain’s answer to Stephen King” and his latest chiller does nothing to belie that. Though this isn’t entirely a positive. Reclusive novelist Seb is happy in his isolated property in Devon – fastidious, a neat freak, he’s contented in his middle class idyll. But a ghost from Seb’s past is about to insinuate himself in his life – a former housemate and radical thinker, now destructive alcoholic, who’s allied himself with a dark society who claim to be mastering the art of astral projection. It’s a novel of two halves, the first focused on the grumpy author’s disgust with his uninvited house guest (the descriptions of old friend Ewan are alive with stink and rot and judgement) and the second an…

If Defender did have anything new to bring to the post-apocalyptic table, it ate most of it before it rang the doorbell, leaving a few crumbs and the screwed-up packaging. Oh, and some ridiculously long extended metaphors. Set in a world left ravaged after voices told people to kill themselves, there are trace elements of a good idea here, but they’re never developed. Instead we get a massively padded, glacially slow road movie of post apocalyptic clichés, with the voices remaining an irritatingly vague, largely unexplored concept. A Mad Max analogue called Pilgrim (who has a Voice, but is so taciturn he may as well not have) hooks up with a plucky teenager, Lacey, and another woman called Alex, who has no discernible character at all. Together they try (and…

It’s said that the archetypal story is to get a hero to climb a tree, then spend the middle act throwing rocks at him. This novel focuses on the “throwing rocks” bit. Its luckless hero starts out as a mildly discontented IT whiz; then he plunges into the Twilight Zone, moving from ghastly scenarios to even ghastlier scenarios with such horrid reliability that his story reads like extreme black comedy. After enjoying Amsterdam with his hedonistic pals, puddle-shallow Newman Ripley is bundled on a plane for a mystery tour, destination unknown. Soon, things get extremely weird – we shouldn’t spoil too much, but the action revolves around a city and its “inhuman” people, providing endless puzzles for Newman and the reader. Darren Dash is better known as teen horror author…

ISSUES 1-3 They’re three of the best-known superheroes in the world, so it’s no surprise that DC have once again brought Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman together for an ongoing series. Part of the DC Rebirth line, Trinity aims to give us a new, character-centric perspective on the trio, while also exploring how they represent different (and sometimes contrasting) aspects of the superhero archetype. The basic set-up is that a visit to Smallville aimed at restoring the bond between the three heroes results in them being taken on a mysterious tour of strangely altered versions of their past. They’re soon forced to question their reality, but it becomes clear that there could be deadly consequences if they don’t escape – especially since the villainous Poison Ivy is the one responsible…

→ Animated comedy series Final Space – produced by Conan O’Brien and following an astronaut named Gary – will debut in 2018. → Netflix has renewed Luke Cage for a second season. → Westworld won’t return for a second season until 2018. → The Inhumans TV series will be exec produced by Iron Fist’s Scott Buck. → Leftovers season three will air in April 2017. → Sense8 will return for a second season on Netflix on 5 May 2017. → Doug Jones (Hellboy) has joined Star Trek: Discovery as an alien. Meanwhile, Michelle Yeoh will play Starfleet Captain Georgiou. → Anne Rice is planning a Vampire Lestat TV series now that she has the rights to the character back. → Parker Posey has joined the cast of the Lost In…

→ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency has been renewed for a second season of sleuthing. Josh Friedman’s TV adaptation of Snowpiercer has been snapped up by TNT network in the US. No UK channel has been confirmed yet. → iZombie season three will air in the US from 4 April 2017, and should arrive on Netflix UK shortly after that. → Sean Astin has signed on to season two of Stranger Things. → DC’s Powerless will air on NBC in the US from 2 February. → John Barrowman has been meeting with the BBC – could he be discussing a new series of Torchwood? → Peter Capaldi has revealed that he’s been told it’s his choice if he wants to return for series 11 of Doctor Who. → Game Of…

“One of the touchstones for us was the Amblin movies of the ’80s,” Marc Guggenheim, co-writer and producer of new Netflix show Trollhunters, explains. “The first thing that jumped out is how much agency the kids have. Often they are operating without parental supervision and they can handle danger and adventure.” Danger and adventure are certainly in no short supply. Created by the brilliant Guillermo del Toro and adapted from his own children’s book, Trollhunters is an imaginative animated series telling the story of Jim (voiced by Anton Yelchin), who is chosen to become the first human Trollhunter, protecting a secret society of good trolls from their evil enemies. Of all the many creatures that inhabit this rich, new world, Guggenheim points to Blinky – Jim’s troll mentor voiced by…

In the rejection letter for his first query, Tad Williams read the same thing querying novelists are currently told: “We don’t do animal books.” In a twist rarely seen, a major publisher acquired Tailchaser’s Song in response to his second query, and DAW is no doubt pleased to remain the bestselling fantasy writer’s primary publisher. Whether you’re judging by the blurbs (Andre Norton! Tanith Lee! Cat Fancy magazine!), the sales, or the computer-animated movie that will be released in 2018, there’s a very good reason why this animal book became a success despite breaking the number one rule in publishing. In the 1980s, YA wasn’t a genre, much less a force of nature. Young readers faced a challenge in finding books that bridged the gap from childish chapter books to…

• Strip-to-screen adaps are nothing new. In 1937 anviljawed crime-buster Dick Tracy starred in a cliffhanging Republic serial, battling the Lame One and his diabolical sound disintegrator. • Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first full-length animated movie and the highest-grossing sound pic of its day. Eighty years on, the House of Mouse owns the Lucasverse… • A year on from his screen debut, Flash Gordon still reigned as the number one SF hero, facing the Tusk-Men and Beast-Men of Mongo in Alex Raymond’s newspaper strips, a key influence on George Lucas. • Superman was still a year away, Batman two, so the Shadow and other pulp mag heroes ruled the newsstands. Orson Welles played him in a radio serial, a year before unleashing Martian firepower over the…

YADDLE APPEARED IN THE PHANTOM MENACE Thought Yoda was the only one of his kind? Another of his (still unnamed) species actually makes an appearance in The Phantom Menace as a member of the Jedi Council. At 450 years old, she’s a mere youngling compared to Yoda, and leaves the council shortly after the Battle of Naboo. We’d love to see her team up with Yoda and explore their homeworld. ZAM WESELL APPEARED IN ATTACK OF THE CLONES She’s the bounty hunter who kick-starts Episode II with an attempt on Padme’s life, prompting a madcap chase across Coruscant. But most importantly, she’s a shapeshifter, something that makes her a unique proposition in the Star Wars universe (another of her Clawdite species appeared in The Clone Wars). Star Wars loves its…

Words by Nick Setchfield /// Photography by Sarah Dunn As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle told us, “To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman”. Lara Pulver’s 2012 turn as high-end kinkster Irene Adler in Sherlock gave her a career boost as sharp as the crack of a riding crop, earning her instant internet worship and setting fire to the twitching net curtains of the Daily Mail. Now she’s the villain in Underworld: Blood Wars, a key player in the centuries-old grudge-match between the vampires and the Lycans. It’s a role that called for her to back-flip in leather and heels, wield a mean Spanish rapier and knock back a goblet of blood. “I think it was diluted grape juice!” she tells SFX. “We only did two or three takes because…

What will viewers learn about Amos in season two? You are going to learn about Amos’s past and his point of view. When the circumstances challenge his family and relationships, Amos is forced to be in a situation where he can’t lean on anybody else. He has to start making his own choices and decisions. He keeps making some pretty bad choices, so it’s dealing with the fallout of those and what it means. What else can audiences expect to see this year? What I’m most excited about is that you are going to have a strong understanding of what the protomolecule is. Also, Miller and I have a confrontation because I killed his partner in the first season. Amos comes across as the loose cannon. How does he feel…

Do you think May might have wanted the Director job? May wants to be out in the field more. As a Director, she would be doing that less and doing more administrative stuff. She’s not a suit. What does Coulson’s demotion mean for her? I think what’s so great about him not being Director is that it will give us an opportunity to be out in the field more, and be on more missions again like we did in season one and season two. With the MCU Sokovia Accords in the mix, how does that impact SHIELD? We’re trying to figure out what our real missions are at this point, whether it’s to tackle the Inhumans, or bring them into the fold. It’s also establishing what SHIELD is to the…

What led you to sign on for Split? I’m not really strategic. I never try to engineer my career. All I do is read the script; and if I like it and feel like it’s going to be a challenge or it’s going to be exciting or it’s going to push an audience around and be a slightly strange experience for the audience I’ll respond to it. I like it when something is strange, and is a little bit challenging for the audience as well as the actor. This was definitely a challenge for me… “Alright, I’m not really playing one person. I’m playing nine people. So I just have to do my job nine times.” Were you a Shyamalan fan? I’m a fan of lots of Night’s work. Unbreakable…

So, what did happen to Coop when he returned from the Black Lodge? And precisely how is Annie? The former question will be answered, of course, in the TV show. Kyle MacLachlan was the first person announced as having been cast in the new series, and it’s impossible to imagine Twin Peaks without Agent Cooper. Whether he’s good or bad – or some combination of the two – is the big question. But what of Annie Blackburn, first introduced in season two and last seen looking seriously worse for wear after Windom Earle dragged her to the Black Lodge? Actress Heather Graham is absent from the new season’s sprawling cast list and the character doesn’t appear in the book. Will we ever find out what became of her? “All of…

In 1999, unknown filmmakers Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick’s The Blair Witch Project exploded onto screens. A massive, unexpected critical and financial success, it became a milestone in horror filmmaking, and one of the first examples of viral marketing. In 2016, a sequel came out of nowhere after Lionsgate revealed, via a San Diego Comic-Con screening, that slated horror The Woods was a stealth follow-up. Then it hit cinemas, made hardly any money, and all talk of an expanded universe went quiet. So what went wrong? And can the home ent release help the movie find its way out of the woods? Decades after the events of the original, documentarian Heather Donahue’s little brother James is now fully grown and obsessed with the mystery of what happened to his sister.…

Colony must be the oddest alien invasion show ever made, for one very simple reason: there are no aliens. Well, practically… Set a year after their arrival, it’s located in a near-future Los Angeles surrounded by 30-foothigh walls, administered on their behalf by a human Transitional Authority. Caught trying to escape the Bloc to search for his missing son, former FBI agent Will Bowman (Lost’s Josh Holloway And His Lovely Hair) is blackmailed into using his skills to hunt down members of the resistance. Nine of these 10 episodes pass without so much as a glimpse of the alien “Raps”, or even an explanation of their nickname – the nearest we get to them are the deadly drones which buzz around the city. Initially, this seems like lunacy. Then you…

Shot in Hungary, this dystopian drama imagines a run-down totalitarian state whose citizens live in rural austerity (it feels like a very small world, despite the giant statues dotted around). A young boy and his mother (Agyness Deyn) try to cope after the boy’s father is arrested for treason. Despite the intended pathos, the feeling is more of tedium; the vague story just doesn’t go anywhere, despite good turns from Jonathan Pryce and Fiona Shaw as the boy’s grandparents. Extras Two featurettes.…

An American remake of an anime/manga, this Z-grade ’90s dreck sees a youth finding alien armour and fighting mutants. The alien suits are good, and there are a few decent effects towards the end, but the script and characters are Troma-level braindead. Still, if you can endure the protracted Power Rangers-style brawls, then you might enjoy the awfulness – especially with a moustached Mark Hamill in a prominent “goodie” support role. Extras A short interview with producer Brian Yuzna; gallery; trailer.…

SHUDDER If The Witch’s Black Phillip had tried to lure Witching & Bitching’s spellcasters out into the woods, they’d’ve lopped off his horns and eaten him for dinner. Álex de la Iglesia’s latest Spanishlanguage horror-comedy sees a gang of pawn shop robbers run into a demented coven on the eve of a sacred ritual, and all kinds of witchy mayhem ensues. De la Iglesia isn’t a director known for his restraint, and he definitely doesn’t hold back here. From the opening robbery (in which a man dressed as an off-brand Spongebob is graphically gunned down) to the eye-popping finale (where a giant deity fights flying witches), there’s barely a frame of this movie that doesn’t have something incredible in it. It does get a little exhausting towards the end, especially…

A perennial fixture of festive TV schedules not only in its homeland but also Germany, Switzerland and Norway, this fairytale adventure may demolish any preconceptions you had about Czech cinema. Filmed partly in East Germany, its story unfolds in stunning snowy vistas, to a swoonsome harpsichord and woodwind score. Based on a different version of the classic tale to that which inspired most adaptations, it has no fairy godmother or pumpkin transformed into a coach. Instead, Cinders cracks open three magical hazelnuts to provide her costume changes – and even this fantastical element is downplayed. This Cinders is far less passive than usual – a spirited girl, in tune with nature. Yes, she ends up hitched to the Prince, but initially she’s more interested in riding her horse – and…

Imagine a country where the “Ministry Of Health” had pursued eugenics to such a degree that nearly all women were born docile and submissive to men. Now also imagine that in that world alcohol and other drugs had been completely – and effectively – banned. And, in a bid for a high unobtainable elsewhere, people had turned to chili peppers; burning their mouths, stimulating their senses and leaving them in eternal pursuit of an ever hotter variety. Yes, this all just got a bit absurd, but not in a bad way – the parallels between the breeding of both humans and plants in pursuit of perfection are plain but not over-laboured. Protagonist Vanna appears to be a meek, dutiful “femiwoman”, but in a quirk of genetics she actually possesses the…

ROSEBLOOD Teen supernatural romances rarely set the quality bar very high, but this one’s so low it’s limboing under it. Set in an American music school, RoseBlood, in an opera house in France, it’s the classic tale of weird girl meets equally odd, but handsome boy and together they overcome the usual mean girls and snotty teachers to find Twoo Wuv. In this case the boy in question is the adopted son of the Phantom of the Opera, and the girl has inherited the voice of the Phantom’s lost love. It’s hard to know what to criticise first. The basic idea isn’t revolutionary, but it could have been turned into something interesting. However, the France in the novel bears little resemblance to the actual country (there’s more than one reference…

Let’s deal with the romance first, because that’s really what this book is about. It’s your usual tale: man meets woman, they fight constantly, but they are fated to be together, so there’ll be lots of euphemisms for feeling horny and some eventual knobbing. Abduction is not a good starting point for a relationship, but the romance genre is a funny one where pretty much everything – kidnapping, physical violence, refusal to listen to what the other person wants – constitutes deep and abiding love. Don’t try it at home. However, we’re here for the fantasy. An awful lot of fantasy romances fall back on thinly-disguised historical settings. Amanda Bouchet doesn’t do that, though her land divided into three kingdoms seems a fairly limited setting. Likewise the manoeuvrings for the…

This YA debut follows a young woman, Ruby, who is a Fireblood – a magic user with an affinity for fire. Unfortunately she lives in Frostblood territory, where Firebloods are persecuted and killed. So of course Ruby goes and practises her magic in the woods near her hut, causing all sorts of tragedy and setting her on a path for revenge against the feared Frost King. The biggest problem with Frostblood is its protagonist, who’s an incredibly difficult character to love (and this is meant to be a love story). She’s impetuous, selfish and needlessly rude to her allies – all in all, an unpleasant character to read about. If you can’t enjoy the main character what’s there to root for? Sure, the bad guys must be defeated, but without…

ISSUES 1-3 It’s not often that an editor receives a cover credit, but with her reputation preceding her, it’s no surprise that Karen Berger (formerly Executive Editor of Vertigo) receives third billing on her first project for Image. Given her experience, it’s regrettable that Berger hasn’t ironed out the flaws in Sara Kenney’s otherwise promising comics debut. Strikingly illustrated by John Watkiss, it’s set in a dystopian London devastated by an “antibiotics apocalypse”, with medicines strictly rationed. With issue three listing 15 “key scientific consultants”, the documentarian has clearly painstakingly researched her harrowingly plausible scenario, but that doesn’t always make for smooth reading, as the narrative is overloaded with exposition. The first issue opens with a terrorist attack on City Hall before flashing back to past events, and it would…

The tripods walk again GRAPHIC NOVEL What happened after the Martians were defeated in The War Of The Worlds? One of the more interesting potential answers can be found in Scarlet Traces, a comic series by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli that’s been running intermittently since 2002. This first collected volume starts with a brisk adaptation of The War Of The Worlds itself (first published in 2006), which channels HG Wells’s visionary ideas and imagery into 65 pages. It’s a vivid, well-crafted interpretation that also acts as a fantastic prologue, as the action then shifts forward to 10 years after the Martian defeat. Set in a version of Britain that’s utilised the invaders’ technology to make itself an unstoppable global power, this first story arc of Scarlet Traces is a lurid mystery…

Neil Gaiman’s tale of a falling star, a wandering teenager and a village just on the edge of the land of Faerie has been an award-winning novel and an award-winning film, and both mediums brought their own blend of magic and marvel to the story. Now it’s a radio show, and once again manages to fit its form brilliantly. This “romance within the realms of Faerie” takes a classic tale of a young man’s quest and fills it full of Gaiman-esque humour and twists, from a fallen star that turns out to be a living woman with a mind very much her own to the rapidly decreasing band of brothers looking to inherit their father’s throne. With material this good, the challenge was always going to be living up to…

AUDIO DRAMA Big Finish’s run of adaptations of old Doctor Who novels continues with two adventures featuring lesser-known spin-off companions Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej, starting with their debut story Original Sin . First published in the New Adventures series in 1995, it’s a pulpy, galaxyspanning thriller that sees the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Bernice Summerfield (Lisa Bowerman) getting involved in a mystery involving a missing spacecraft, and soon being hunted for murder by intergalactic cops Forrester (Yasmin Bannerman) and Cwej (Travis Oliver). The story delivers strong performances, colourful sci-fi concepts and an enjoyable sense of scale that’s closer to traditional space opera. Unfortunately, there are also a number of clichés on display, alongside some clunky moralising; the continuitydependent big twist is a bit of a let-down; and both Roz…