Lauren Davis, Author at Gizmodo

What supervillain scheme would you like to see in real life?

While some supervillains are out to kill half the world and enslave the other half, many so-called evil masterminds have come up with plots that are more amusing than nefarious—and a few might even benefit humanity. Whose scheme would you like to see play out in the real world? So your work and tell us…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 15 '14

A rebel disguised as a woman teams up with a princess to kill the king

Princess Lavender has spent most of her life cloistered away from society and away from men—until she learned that one of her maids was a man in disguise. In fact, he’s a rebel intent on murdering her father, the king, and Lavender finds herself determined to help him succeed. Jamie Jennings’ webcomic Lavender Legend begins…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis Jan 15 '14

Stephen Fry narrates soulful animated insect fairytale Cicada Princess

The mating ritual of the cicada takes on a sweeping, romantic tone in the lyrical animated film Cicada Princess. Stephen Fry’s voice helps bring to life the grand ball where all cicadas go looking for love. Mauricio Baiocchi directed the short and the incredible score was composed by Jesse Solomon Clark. You can watch a…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 15 '14

What would Disney’s cartoon characters look like as real people?

Once Upon a Time has cast real actors as characters from their princess movies, but one artist has tried to translate the cartoon characters directly into real life in a series of digital manipulations. Can you guess who is who? Karen Graw used features from real people (you may recognize some celebrity features in there)…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 15 '14

On Almost Human, what Facebook knows about you can kill you

Last night’s Almost Human was light on the android-cyborg banter, but heavy on the evils of consumer identity tracking software. When a technologically enhanced bullet can find and kill any specific individual, that application that matches you with the right designer optical implants seems a little less friendly. This is a rather odd episode to…

Television Lauren Davis Jan 14 '14

How is Google involved in James Frey’s YA book and movie deal?

James Frey, the writer notorious for his not-quite-factual memoir A Million Little Pieces, just landed a $2 million deal with Fox for the movie rights to his upcoming young adult novel, Endgame. But how is Google involved in this Hunger Games-esque project? Deadline reports that Fox nabbed the Endgame film rights for somewhere in the…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 14 '14

Legend of Korra mittens let your hands battle for spiritual balance

You can enact your own Legend of Korra spiritual puppet show with these mittens, modeled after Raava, the spirit of peace and light, and Vaatu, the spirit of chaos and darkness. Just have an arm wrestling match to decide who will emerge victorious during Harmonic Convergence. Kate of critknits came up with these Avatar-inspired mittens,…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 13 '14

Peter Capaldi rides a horse in his pajamas on the set of Doctor Who

We still don’t know what Peter Capaldi will be wearing for his regular Twelfth Doctor duds, but in this video from the set, he’s been spotted wearing white pajamas while on horseback. Doctor Who TV has a couple of photographs from the set where you can actually see Capaldi in his costume, but they also…

Television Lauren Davis Jan 13 '14

This creepy claymation ballet is like a Silly Symphony from Hell

The short film Eager begins as a slow dance of undead wraiths, but it eventually takes us to a claymation garden that seems pulled from a particularly nightmarish version of Alice in Wonderland, where the pansies have skull faces and the snap dragons are out to eat everyone else. NSFW for claymation breasts and phalluses.…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 13 '14

Robots shaped like African animals join the fight against poachers

In a future Serengeti, illegal poaching continues to deplete the wildlife population, but conservationists have extraordinary new tools to protect endangered animals: robots that take the forms of those animals to blend in with the wildlife and capture poachers. Artist Robert Chew’s Big Five series of illustrations imagine a network of wildlife rangers and the…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 13 '14

Hand-drawn sketches of Mars and Jupiter animated as rotating globes

Amateur astronomer Frédéric Burgeot prefers to draw what he sees through his telescope rather than photographing the cosmos. A digital animator turned his lovely illustrations into 3D globes, capturing Burgeot’s view of the planets at specific points in time. Pascal Chauvet synthesized Burgeot’s images to create these animations, giving us globes that reflect the appearance…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 13 '14

TV This Week: A major death at ISIS will change Archer forever

Big changes are afoot for the ISIS crew when Archer returns tonight for its fifth season. Steamy werewolf soap Bitten premieres as lycanthropes threaten to overrun our television sets. Plus, Sleepy Hollow, Supernatural, and Arrow are all back from their winter vacations. Get the details below! Tonight Adventure Time (7 PM, Cartoon Network) It’s the…

Television Lauren Davis Jan 13 '14

A boy opens a door to his girlfriend’s mind and gets lost inside

There’s an almost storybook feel to the animation in Marine Duchet’s short film Cyclope, but it quickly turns trippy as its protagonist descends into his girlfriend’s mind. But by the time he discovers the horrors that accompany her surreal delights, he’s found that he is lost within the landscape of her imagination. Cyclope was conceived…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 10 '14

Leonardo sails to the New World in new Da Vinci’s Demons trailer

Because Da Vinci’s Demons apparently hasn’t pushed its ahistorical fantasy far enough, our can’t-fail Renaissance man Leonardo Da Vinci heads to the Americas in the trailer for Season Two, years before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic. I can see why David S. Goyer chose to break the series out of its Florence and Leonardo vs.…

Trailers Lauren Davis Jan 10 '14

This alphabet models each letter on a particular architect’s designs

If you know your ABCs but are a bit shakier on your knowledge of modern architecture, Federico Babina’s Archibet City could help you learn you architects. Babina pays tribute to 26 architects by rendering his letters of the alphabet in the style of their famous designs. Babina sells posters of his letters—as well as the…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 10 '14

Speculative timeline looks quadrillions of years into our future

Tomorrow may be impossible to predict, but the folks at BBC Future try peering 1,000, a million, and even 100 quintillion years into Earth’s future to predict the changes to our world and our small corner of the universe. The sources are listed at the bottom of the timeline, and naturally some of the predictions…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 10 '14

55 fan filmmakers have made an insane shot-for-shot remake of RoboCop

Before José Padilha’s RoboCop remake hits theaters next month, a group of fan filmmakers are releasing their own tribute to the original film—a shot-for-shot remake created by 55 different fans in 55 different styles. Check out the trailer. Our RoboCop Remake looks very much in the vein of Star Wars: Uncut, a crowdsourced film in…

Trailers Lauren Davis Jan 10 '14

Lifelike Naga doll looks ready to carry Korra to Republic City

Korra’s trusty polar bear dog looks ready to bound across the tundra or through the streets of one of The Legend of Korra’s industrial cities thanks to this posable furry sculpture by Worms and Bones. The monster doll makers sculpted this as a one-of-kind item, which they are currently offering though silent auction, with 25%…

Television Lauren Davis Jan 9 '14

Concept Art Writing Prompt: A Village Sheltered by a Dragon’s Corpse

Each week, we invite you to participate in the Concept Art Writing Prompt by writing a story based on a fantastical image. In this week’s writing prompt, we take you to a small village with a large and unusual landmark. This painting is by Chris Ostrowski and it’s titled “Dragon’s Village,” via r/ImaginaryVillages. See if…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 9 '14

Berkeley Breathed’s concept art for a Grinch movie with Jack Nicholson

In an alternate universe, the feature-length adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! isn’t a live-action film starring Jim Carrey but a CG animated film, with Jack Nicholson voicing the Grinch and designs by Bloom County cartoonist Berkeley Breathed. As you can read in the text accompanying the images below, this concept was…

Movies Lauren Davis Jan 9 '14

Lauren Davis

What supervillain scheme would you like to see in real life?

A rebel disguised as a woman teams up with a princess to kill the king

Stephen Fry narrates soulful animated insect fairytale Cicada Princess

What would Disney’s cartoon characters look like as real people?

On Almost Human, what Facebook knows about you can kill you

How is Google involved in James Frey’s YA book and movie deal?

Legend of Korra mittens let your hands battle for spiritual balance

Peter Capaldi rides a horse in his pajamas on the set of Doctor Who

This creepy claymation ballet is like a Silly Symphony from Hell

Robots shaped like African animals join the fight against poachers

Hand-drawn sketches of Mars and Jupiter animated as rotating globes

TV This Week: A major death at ISIS will change Archer forever

A boy opens a door to his girlfriend’s mind and gets lost inside

Leonardo sails to the New World in new Da Vinci’s Demons trailer

This alphabet models each letter on a particular architect’s designs

Speculative timeline looks quadrillions of years into our future

55 fan filmmakers have made an insane shot-for-shot remake of RoboCop

Lifelike Naga doll looks ready to carry Korra to Republic City

Concept Art Writing Prompt: A Village Sheltered by a Dragon’s Corpse

Berkeley Breathed’s concept art for a Grinch movie with Jack Nicholson

The Scandal Over a Supposedly AI-Written, Award-Winning Short Story Is Troubling. Or Just Mean?

Live Updates From Google I/O 2026 🔴

Anker Solix E10 Review: No Power? No Problem

Nvidia Wants to Decouple Its Reputation From Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft

It Feels Like Google Is Downplaying Smart Glasses With a Screen in Them

SpaceX Officially Files IPO and Plans to Be Traded as ‘SPCX’

AMD’s Next Big Chip Hopes To Beat Nvidia’s CPUs While They’re in the Crib

The Immersive ’86 Eighty-Six’ Audiobook Goes Harder Than the Anime Ever Did

SwitchBot’s Newest Smart Lock Has More Biometrics Than You Can Shake a Stick at

‘The Testaments’ Star on Her Character’s Brutal Choice

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker Review: Sonos Can Start Sweating Now

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar Review: A Boisterous Stab at Dominating Home Theater

Dell’s XPS 16 (2026) Is Almost Everything I Could Have Asked for… Almost

Smart Glasses With Subscriptions Are As Bad as They Sound

iBuyPower’s Trace X Gaming PC Is the Fishbowl You Want to Swim In

Govee Ceiling Light Ultra Review: AI Art Ain’t It

JBL Live 780NC Review: Solid Wireless Headphones You Can Live Without

Acer’s Swift 16 AI (2026) Gets a Lot Right, But I Can’t Get Past the Trackpad

Samsung Galaxy A57 5G Review: Not Worth It at Full Price

Logitech G G512 X Review: The Tasting Menu of a Pro Gaming Keyboard