The 8 1/2 Foot Tall 2010 Shooter Family Geek Christmas Tree
I’m sure just about everyone reading this article has some sort of a holiday tradition. Our family has several and usually includes the boys in the family going to see whatever SciFi blockbuster is out. This year our plans are to see Tron Legacy together. One of our other long lasting traditions involve each member of the family receiving a Hallmark Christmas Tree Ornament in our stockings. My mother, Mom Shooter, has been responsible for assembling this gift each year for the past 20 or 30 years. Everyone has one or two series that they follow from year to year. My father, Dad Shooter, has received the Classic American Car series every year since 1991. The girls usually end up with a Disney series ornament. I have received the All American Trucks series off and on since 2000, but each and every year Mom Shooter makes sure I receive some sort of a SciFi Hallmark Christmas Tree ornament. In fact, our family have received so many Hallmark ornaments that we’ve had to add a second full-sized tree in our home to handle all of our favorite ornaments. For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you’ve already seen our “geek” tree, but for those of you who didn’t get the chance, here’s a little tour of the vehicle and ship ornaments on our tree.
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It’s true that Sean is GWC’s resident dragon expert and fantasy fiend — but as we begin our three-week Dragon Arc for the ‘cast, I’ve been remembering my childhood introduction to dragons and my own take on this diverse mythical species. I’ve included a few of my favorites here to illustrate why dragons have always been, in my view, friendly and enchanting rather than the terrible, destructive kind often portrayed in film.
1. Falkor, The Neverending Story (1984)
Other than Pete’s Dragon (1977), which my mom took me to see when it played in a local second-run theater in the early eighties, Falkor was the first dragon that I decided was badass on my own. The Neverending Story captured my imagination with its fascinating, and kind of scary, story, and perhaps the best ending possible in any fantasy movie. The main character basically gets infinite magic wishes from a beautiful princess, and then rides on Falkor’s back to show up the school bullies who used to throw him in the dumpster.
While most GWC denizens are sci-fi/fantasy geeks, there’s a healthy number of us that have fallen in love with the musical TV show Glee. Something about awkward high school misfits belting their hearts out in the face of overwhelming unpopularity speaks to anyone who’s ever sat at the wrong lunch table. But if you’re still not convinced to trade your phasers for a high F, let me introduce you to a musical that might help get you in the right mood.
Years before he peeled his face off in The Last Starfighter, Robert Preston charmed and connived his way through my favorite musical, The Music Man.
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Wassup all — it’s the Operator!
It’s award season! That special time of year when LA folks start name-dropping and talking incessantly about who’s who of the what’s what in movies (okay, that’s year round). ANYway, the Producers Guild of America has chosen their nominees for Best Picture. Usually, this list includes one, maybe two I have seen, the rest…not so much.
This is different, however. Three of the nominees for Best Picture are films that some of us may have heard about, if not actually seen.
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
My introduction to Simon Pegg was via Shaun of the Dead, which I first watched around Halloween last year for our ’08 GWC special. And, of course, I saw him in Trek 11 (or one, depending on how you’re counting.) But my first real Simon Pegg experience came over the last week or so as Audra and I made our way through his 1999 series Spaced. Pegg co-wrote space with his co-star Jessica Stevenson, and it’s awesome — a real tribute to the geek lifestyle (and what it’s like to have a family of friends).
I’ve got Hot Fuzz on my Netflix list and can’t wait to check it out, too. But I noticed that Pegg and his ex-flat-mate/eternal-TV-sidekick Nick Frost co-wrote a movie that’s apparently pushing through production right now. It’s called Paul, and it’s the story of two sci-fi geeks who detour their post Comic-Con road trip through Area 51 “where they come across an alien named Paul.”
The sci-fi film/television production community is surprisingly close knit. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and it would be difficult to come up with two movies or shows that couldn’t be connected “six degrees of separation”-style. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that a lot of sci-fi contains nods to other works in the genre. One of my favorite things to do when rewatching sci-fi is to keep my eyes peeled for robots/ships/props/etc. from other TV shows or movies to make cameo appearances. And believe it or not, it’s actually pretty common. Allow me to be your guide as we take a look at sci-fi past and present to explore some of the coolest — and some of the most well hidden – of these appearances.
Push didn’t promote itself well. Released almost a year to the day after the similarly-themed and poorly-received Jumper and featuring a synopsis that sounds like a repeat episode of Heroes — or worse, X-Men Lite — the movie doesn’t first present itself as something you have to see. So most people didn’t, including me. Fortunately, I just caught some friends watching it, and now that I’ve checked it out, I’ll happily do the heavy lifting for the movie’s marketers and explain why it’s worth watching.
You know it’s gonna be a good day when you find out the truly awesome Michael Hogan is joining Dollhouse along with Jamie Bamber and Tahmoh Penikett. (Now, if they can just get Tory and Sharon… my diabolical plan will be complete… Mwah-hahahahah).
But on to that which is the trailerness…
No, not the Tennessee football team! A remake of the 1981 adventure-fantasy classic Clash of the Titans is underway! Director Louis Leterrier plans to bring the eternal trials of gods and men back to the big screen. In truth, you probably recall much more about the original’s special effects than the acting, but that’s for another blog.
Eric Bana’s latest movie The Time Traveler’s Wife is sci-fi romance — a genre we haven’t seen often since the days of Han and Leia or George and Lorraine. Bana’s Henry DeTamble is a handsome librarian who travels through time; Rachel McAdams is Clare Abshire, the artist who falls in love with him.
Interesting trivia: according to IMDB, Bana shaved his head for his role as Nero in Star Trek just after finishing filming for The Time Traveler’s Wife. However, TTTW required some reshoots and they had to push back the release date almost a year while Bana’s hair grew back. Hello, people? Get a wig! No one’s going to be looking at Bana’s head anyway… because he apparently spends a good amount of the new movie in the nude. (The Terminator franchise firmly established that nudity in muscular men is necessary for time travel.)
If you’re a Firefly fan — or have always wanted to be one — your Sundays just got very shiny! Joss Whedon’s beloved Sci-Fi series is about to land in GWC’s Community Frak Parties forum thread. And those well-versed in the ‘verse know what that means: time to hold on tight!
Starting Sunday, August 9th, at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific, GWCers can log in, link up, and chat in the Firefly Frak Party thread as we begin a weekly watch of the 2002 hit series Firefly.
It turns out Purefold isn’t the only sci-fi project coming down the pipe for famed director/producer Ridley Scott. Late last night, Variety confirmed that the original Alien helmer will direct the upcoming Alien prequel. If we didn’t know better, we’d think this had been timed to perfectly coincide with our crüe’s Alien arc!
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