Movies

Who’s your Big Daddy? Concept art from that cancelled Bioshock movie

Remember the Bioshock movie that almost got made a few years back? Now at last, here’s your first glimpse of what it could have looked like, thanks to concept artist Tim Flattery. Universal was pretty serious about making a movie out of the amazing video game Bioshock, with Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) directing.…

10 Robot Deaths That Were More Moving Than Almost Any Human’s

When any beloved character dies, it’s heart-rending — but sometimes, the death of a beloved robot (or android) can be the saddest of all. Maybe because we bond so intensely with artificial beings, their deaths can feel like losing a best friend. Here are 10 robot deaths that are more devastating than almost any human’s.…

Most of Hollywood’s Silent Films Are Lost and Gone Forever

There may be a recent resurgence of interest in silent film (thanks in no small part to the success of The Artist), but anyone looking to get into the art form is in for a rude awakening. Of the nearly 11,000 movies made in the pre-talkie, golden age of silent film, 70 percent has been…

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is the next YA book-to-movie adaptation

With the success of The Hunger Games movies, it’s no wonder that studios are hot to greenlight the next big young adult series. And the newest book to fuel Hollywood’s YA fire is Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which just nabbed a director. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that director Michael Gracey (who we are…

Own Han Solo’s blaster! Up for auctionis a blaster prop used by Harrison Ford (and maybe also Mark Hamill) in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Based on a German C96 Mauser pistol, it’s a lightweight non-firing prop. Valued at just $200,000 to $300,000!

File sharing locker Hotfile has agreed to shut down, paying the MPAA $80 million in a settlement. It’s the final culmination of a lengthy battle that was set to go before a jury this week. [MPAA via GigaOM]

Who’s your favorite hero defined by his/her greatest setback?

Lots of heroes are known for their greatest triumphs. That time they saved the universe, or their amazing victory against overwhelming odds. But who’s your favorite hero who’s indelibly defined by his or her most punishing defeat? Please share a picture or clip of this valiant loser. And let us know the book, comic, TV…

12 Real Life Inventions That Science Fiction is Neglecting at its Peril

Science fiction has always commented on the present, and today’s present is very science-fictional. All around, we see inventions that could transform the world within a decade or two. So why don’t more science fiction writers speculate about them? Here are 12 real-life developments science fiction should be plundering. Update: This post isn’t saying that…

We finally get a look at Smaug’s whole body—on the side of an airplane

This is a bit of an odd debut for Smaug’s full body, but the whole dragon enchilada finally makes an appearance in the form of a wrap on an Air New Zealand plane. It’s not an ideal way to see the fearsome dragon’s complete body for the first time (we’ve seen plenty of glimpses in…

Frozen has smashed the record for the highest-grossing opening for a Disney movie, earning $66.7 million over three days and $93M over the entire five-day holiday. It’s also the biggest Thanksgiving debut, though Catching Fire now holds the overall Thanksgiving record, earning $74.5M for three days and $100.2M for the full five days.

Concept art from the Pippi Longstocking movie Hayao Miyazaki never made

In 1971, animators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata began preproduction on an adaptation of Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking books, but in the end, were unable to secure Lindgren’s permission. But we can still see Miyazaki’s watercolor concept art of the strongest girl in the world. The Miyazaki and Studio GHIBLI LiveJournal has more concept images…

The First In-Flight Movies Had a Live Orchestra

As crude as they may seem when compared to the home theater setups we enjoy in our living rooms, the in-flight entertainment options available on most flights have come a long way. Although, it’s hard not to feel a tinge of sadness that movies accompanied by live orchestras never caught on. Now that was flying…

First (fuzzy) look at Amazing Spider-Man’s Rhino and Green Goblin

I have no idea why Las Vegas’ Red Rock Casino had this Amazing Spider-Man 2 poster up, but these (fuzzy, awkwardly angled) photos contain our first looks at two of the seemingly millions of bad guys in the movie. It’s after the jump, in case you consider it a spoiler (or would prefer to wait…

​Sex ‘n Spas: The Future (And Not So Future) of In-Flight Entertainment

Careening through the air 30,000 feet above the ground in seats that get smaller every day are too cramped to recline can be a brutal experience. To help us cope, airlines have evolved sophisticated on-demand entertainment in the form of games, movies, internet, and the occasional backrub. Here’s a look at some of the ambitious…

The Greatest Fictional Versions of Alan Turing

Take a moment away from your computer screen, and give some props to Alan Turing, the code-breaking badass who helped make all this possible. Turing has captured our imagination several times, in books and movies. Here’s our potted history of the Father of Computer Science in pop culture. Sure, Turing hasn’t exactly scored the same…

Which dead movie project are you glad never happened?

Roland Emmerich’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is dead — at least as a movie. And thus, it joins the hundreds of movies that could have been. What’s the dead (or moribund) project that you’re especially glad never came out? https://gizmodo.com/100-wonderful-and-terrible-movies-that-never-existed-5932803 Please include a picture or clip (or book cover) for your chosen project. And…

In 1988, Kim Jong-Il gave a speech exhorting North Koreans to write SF

And that’s just one fascinating fact about North Korean science fiction contained in a brilliant overview, over at SinonK.com. Also: North Korean science fiction never features aliens — or, perhaps not surprisingly, dystopian settings. In fact, North Korean science fiction sounds as though it’s closer to “mundane” science fiction than most of what we produce…

How Catching Fire Fixed All the Worst Mistakes The Hunger Games Made

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire made all the money this weekend, raking in a record-topping $161.1 million. But that’s not all this YA sequel did for the movie franchise. Catching Fire actually goes about unchecking our long list of problems with the first Hunger Games film, resetting the franchise both for die-hard fans and people…

Here’s Why It’s So Hard to Find Good Movies

You know when you get in those funks where you feel like every movie is the same, or pointless, or badly written? You might just be watching a ton of junk on Netflix, but before you judge too harshly you should look at the pile of crap that readers have to whittle down to find…

I was a Hunger Games hater

Today’s comment of the day comes to you down the treacherous (and often unwalked!) path all the way from boredom to fandom. In a review of the second movie in the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire, commenter HighWiredSith shared the story of going from disinterest, to giving it a shot, to becoming a fan: https://gizmodo.com/hunger-games-catching-fire-is-a-captivating-tale-of-pr-1469527675…