charliejane

Spider-Man Musical Will Be Circus Of Pain

Singing and dancing worked out so well in Spider-Man 3 that somebody felt we needed a more concentrated dose. The Spider-Man musical hits Broadway in late 2008 or early 2009. Director Julie Taymor wants to use Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood, stars of her critically panned Beatles romp Across The Universe. You won’t go…

Torchwood Is Like Mad Men, Only With Sex Monsters

Raunchy Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood is a guilty pleasure, featuring glam-rock cyborgs, small-town mass murder and giant monsters from outside of time. The good news is you won’t have to watch any Doctor Who to understand what’s going on. Torchwood is edgy, saucy fare that belongs on premium cable. Sort of like Mad Men with…

You can draw a direct line of descent from Rudyard Kipling to Robert Heinlein, and from Heinlein to today’s military science fiction authors. Too bad none of Kipling’s acolytes deal with the realities of war as well as he did, argues Jeet Heer. [Sans Everything]

Waterworld’s Aquatic Dystopia Is A Design Breakthrough

Waterworld may have drowned at the box office, but this shot of Kevin Costnersailing into the 1,021 ton floating city shows how breathtakingly original and stark its postapocalyptic vision was. Critics mocked Waterworld’s massive $175 million budget, but the truth is, you can see every penny on screen. The makers of Waterworld didn’t just show…

Office Robot Will Kneel At Your Command

This cute robot isn’t a toy, it’s an office worker. The EMIEW 2 is supposed to serve as a guide for visitors, or run errands. During a demonstration for reporters, someone asked where Mr. Nakamura was. The robot responded, “I will take you there. Follow me,” in a “boylike” voice. The ultra-light robot can roll…

Apocalyptic Weather Hits LA, Movie Producers Take Credit

The producers of The Mist claimed credit for a "dense foggy mist" that swamped Los Angeles on Monday evening. The fog shut down one of two arrival runways at LAX, forcing the cancellation of a dozen flights. Police blamed one traffic fatality on the freak weather. So it may not have been the best plan…

The Fastest Solar Car In The World

This is the Nuna4, which won the World Solar Challenge in Australia — the fourth time in a row the University of Delft has won the race. The Nuna4 weighs less than 190 kg (without driver), and its lightweight construction means it can get up to an average speed of 90.87 km/hour. Image by Erik…

Four Theories About Creatures from High-Gravity Worlds

Don’t support crappy science fiction where every planet has the same gravity as Earth. Astronomers say the planets most likely to support life are ten times the size of Earth. When we finally meet aliens, they’ll envy the spring in our step. Movies and other media are squandering the awesome story potential of creatures from…

Time Travel Soap Journeyman Is the Best SF Show On TV

The past is a freaky monster zoo on Journeyman. Last week, we went to a swinger “key party” and hung out with psycho hippies in the 1970s. This week, it’s a disturbing rave in the 1990s, where Dan meets his fellow time-traveler Livia — only to find she hasn’t met him yet and is being…

Monster movie Cloverfield is a huge (and annoying) mystery. But maybe it’s just a remake of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms? Adam Polselli has compelling evidence that Cloverfield may update the Beast’s 1950s atom-bomb scare to a global warming scare. Yay for monster relevance! [Adam Polselli] http://io9.com/scifi/cloverfield/twelve-new-cloverfield-images-test-the-limits-of-teaser-campaigns-323931.php

Signs Teaches What To Wear In Case Of Alien Attack

The best defense against a chameleon from beyond the stars is a tin-foil hat. At least that’s what Macaulay Culkin’s autistic brother thinks, so Joaquin Phoenix and Abigail Breslin decide to go along with it in Signs. Culkin’s encyclopedic knowledge of alien invasion tactics is unsettling and eerie. So it’s a let-down when the monster…

Who’s The Final Cylon?

Forget Admiral Adama or President Roslin. Chances are the final Cylon will be the last person you expect. Which stalwart BSG character will turn out to be a sleeper Cylon? Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Mutant Pussy Bites The Hand That Pets It

An innocent Christian girl discovers her vagina has teeth of its own. On its gleaming white surface, Teeth looks like another gross-out horror comedy. Judging from the just-released trailer, it’s definitely over the top. But critics are already praising its exploration of female sexual empowerment through mutation. When Teeth premiered at Sundance, Cinematical wrote: At…

A new campaign wants to rename 42nd Ave. in Portland, OR to Douglas Adams Blvd in honor of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author. The group’s site claims that renaming the street will show Portland’s commitment to the arts and the environment. Insert your own joke here about how this would be a “mostly…

A Kryptonian City Refracts The Blood Red Sunlight

It’s sunset on Krypton. The towers of Krypton grew organically, like crystals, but then humans carved and polished them afterwards. That’s the theory that concept artist Jason Dunn brought to a Krypton flashback in a recent episode of Smallville. This mix of the organic and the hand-crafted informed Dunn’s sketches and matte painting for the…

Battlestar Could Be Knocked Out By Contract Tangles

Will Battlestar Galactica ever film its final episodes? Maybe not, says Ron Moore. Blame complicated contract wrangling: the studio wants to keep the show’s actors on contract without paying them, under the “force majeure” clauses of their contracts. But because the show managed to film the required minimum of 13 episodes before halting production, their…

Green Ooze Controls Woman’s Mind

From “Can algae save the world?” an exhibit at the Science Museum in London running until April 2008. Scientists are hoping the entire planet will use algae as biofuels in the future. More menacing algae after the jump. Images by Kirsty Wigglesworth for AP.

Veronica Mars could totally crush Elle from Heroes, says Kristen Bell, who plays both characters. Also, Elle and Claire are going to have a really awesome relationship soon. Lesbian electrocution is the best kind. Kristen Bell image by INF Goff. [E!Online, Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

The Moon Is Our Personal Art Project

Photos like this one prove that you don’t need a fancy telescope to take incredible moon pictures that vividly reveal lunar geography. ComputerHotline took this much-admired picture using a Nikon Coolpix P5000 in afocal behind binoculars (12*40), without a color filter. Images by ComputerHotline.

Battlestar Galactica Rocks Our Saturday Night

Battlestar Galactica finally returns to TV for just one night. This Saturday, the Sci-Fi Channel airs the long-awaited Battlestar Galactica: Razor airs at 9:00 PM. We’ll have our own reviews, plus detailed coverage, later in the week. For now, suffice to say that it feels like what it is: the show time-traveling back to its…