Movies

Charles Darwin Mourns for His Slain Monkey in “The Fall”

It’s 1915, and an injured stuntman passes time in the hospital by telling steampunky superhero stories to a little girl with a broken arm. The heroes of his stories include Charles Darwin (in search of elusive butterfly), as well as an ex-slave and an explosives expert. As Tarsem Singh’s new film The Fall weaves in…

Movies Annalee Newitz May 16

Speed Racer Could Have Been Star Wars, Says John Scalzi

In an interesting column over at AMC, scifi writer and film critic John Scalzi explains why Speed Racer is doomed not so much because of its content, but because of the changing economics of film distribution. He points out that when Star Wars went into wide release in 1977, it garnered the equivalent (adjusted for…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 15

How Superhero Movies Made Comic Books Cooler (If Not Better)

Click to viewEverybody talks about how superheroes have come to dominate movies in recent years. These days, summer is spandex season, and it’s only going to get more superpowered in the next few years. But the success of movies like Spider-Man 2, Iron Man and Batman Begins has had a huge effect on comic book…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders May 15

Official Indiana Jones Fedora Available Now For Nerds Everywhere

The reason that the official Indiana Jones Fedora is available on Think Geek is that only geeks think that they can pull off wearing a fedora in the year 2008. The only fedora you (us) nerds should stick to is Red Hat’s version, leaving Indiana Jones’ to the still handsome but greying Harrison Ford. If…

Movies Jason Chen May 14

Why Kevin Conroy Is The One True Voice Of Batman

For 17 years Kevin Conroy has leant his intimidating, gravely voice to the animated Batman. In fact, many would argue the Conroy is the Father of the Batman whisper. Many actors have tried and failed to re-create this raspy overtone (George Clooney went with smarmy and look how well that went). Now Conroy’s voice is…

Movies Meredith Woerner May 14

Is Speed Racer Just Too Gay?

Why are audiences swooning over Iron Man’s shiny suit but not over Speed Racer’s sleek car? I mean, what the hell is going on when people have already spent nearly $200 million on watching lameass Iron Man get revenge in Afghanistan, but only about $20 million watching the awesome Speed zoom with sparkly CGI pizzazz…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 14

More Terrifying Than Space is Space Madness

Welcome back to Horrorhead, a biweekly column where we explore the intersection of scifi and horror. If there’s one thing more terrible than having a zombie eat the tongue out of your head by breaking your jaw, it’s imagining that zombies are eating you when they aren’t. That’s why one of the best veins to…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 14

David Cronenberg May Direct Ultra-Violent Time-Travel Remake

David Cronenberg (The Fly, Crash) is in talks to direct the American remake of the Sundance scifi crime movie Timecrimes, according to original director Nacho Vigalondo. Which would be amazing news for Timecrimes as Cronenberg could bring a lot grit and darkness to the American version, as long as it’s not as bewildering as eXistenZ.…

io9 Meredith Woerner May 14

Goth Schoolgirl Falls For Killer Robot, In Killdroid

A high school girl and an android bent on murder come together in the epicmovie Killdroid: A Mechanical Love Affair. The goth girl finds an abandoned cyborg, part of a secret military operation, and brings it back to life. So of course, the two become lovers. More spoilery details and school girl pictures after the…

Movies Meredith Woerner May 13

Scifi Movie Locations in the Real World

With movies like Speed Racer and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow creating entire scifi landscapes from CGI, it’s easy to forget that some of the most futuristic settings for scifi movies are borrowed from the real world. Today Oobject has a terrific collection of photographs of the architectural marvels (and subtle background buildings)…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 13

Dude, the Drugs on This Planet Are Like . . . Whoa

We’ve got to do something about this whole “phantom planet thing,” or so says a general in the marvelously-titled The Phantom Planet. Made in 1961, immortalized by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a cheesy band, the flick is filled with drugged-out scenes on a distant planetoid. This is a true classic of proto-psychedelic scifi. After…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 12

Wall-E Movie is Jonathan Ive’s Latest Design Job

CNNMoney/Fortune has a story out saying that Eve, the female character to stand opposite Wall-E in the movie of the same name, was designed in part by Apple lead designer Jonathan Ive. The robot design is kinda cool, in that it reminds me of the most recent incarnation of Marvin the Paranoid Android, but the…

Tech News Adrian Covert May 12

Pick The Worst Scifi Movie Sequel Of All Time

Now that we’re already discussing Iron Man 3, and filming may soon start on the Superman Returns sequel, it’s a good time to look at science fiction’s wreckage-strewn history of bad and weird sequels. From the crazy dancing in The Matrix: Reloaded to the crazy dancing in Spider-Man 3, few genres have created as many…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 12

HD Content Confirmed For Amazon Unbox!

TiVo has officially confirmed that Amazon Unbox will get HD content in the near future, but execs at the company say a few kinks need to be ironed out first. The current version of Unbox can’t process HD content, and availability is limited by bandwidth constraints—something cable companies are in the process of solving. If…

Commerce Elaine Chow May 10

The Dangers of Electricity Addiction

I am totally in love with indie flick Socket, a kind of body horror/scifi tale of people who get addicted to electricity and mod their bodies to suck up current better. Apparently when you get struck with lightning (at least in this movie) you are left with a hunger for more. Unfortunately, the most pure…

Movies Annalee Newitz May 9

Watch Netflix Downloads On Your Xbox 360

By installing the vmcNetflix plug-in to a Vista Premium Media Center computer, you can watch streamed Netflix content on an Xbox 360. It’s buggy, but it’s a lot better than watching Netflix on a laptop screen. (Providing you have Netflix, an Xbox 360 and a Vista Media Center.) Maybe Netflix should open up streaming to…

Tech News Brian Lam May 9

Whose Crotch Weapon is the Biggest, Hardest, and Strongest?

Crotch weapons are the stuff of life in science fiction: You simply can’t have a great fight without snapping a giant gun between your legs once in a while, or using your crotch as a finishing weapon in a ninja battle. The question is, which crotch weapon is the best? Which fires the most flaming…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 9

Finally, A Video Game Movie For Smart People

Dystopian-future video game Bioshock will soon be a movie from Universal Studios, directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean). Finally, a video game movie that has a chance at holding the audience’s attention. According to Variety, this is the biggest video game-to-movie-deal since the abortive Halo film. At least we’ll get to see the…

io9 Meredith Woerner May 9

Speed Racer is Rewardingly Weird, State-of-the-Art CGI Slapstick

The hype about Speed Racer has been fairly negative, and I can only guess that’s because people still have a bad taste in their mouths from The Matrix Revolutions, the most recent film directed by Speed Racer helmers the Wachowskis. In addition, I think there’s been a lot of skepticism about whether the director pair…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 8

Look What’s On Tony Stark’s Workbench In Iron Man

Click to viewWe already knew Iron Man was full of little “easter eggs” and clues about the future of the Marvel movies. And now it looks as though one more hidden clue has turned up. Just look at this screengrab from the movie’s trailer, and then compare it with a picture of the same scene…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 8

Charles Darwin Mourns for His Slain Monkey in “The Fall”

Speed Racer Could Have Been Star Wars, Says John Scalzi

How Superhero Movies Made Comic Books Cooler (If Not Better)

Official Indiana Jones Fedora Available Now For Nerds Everywhere

Why Kevin Conroy Is The One True Voice Of Batman

Is Speed Racer Just Too Gay?

More Terrifying Than Space is Space Madness

David Cronenberg May Direct Ultra-Violent Time-Travel Remake

Goth Schoolgirl Falls For Killer Robot, In Killdroid

Scifi Movie Locations in the Real World

Dude, the Drugs on This Planet Are Like . . . Whoa

Wall-E Movie is Jonathan Ive’s Latest Design Job

Pick The Worst Scifi Movie Sequel Of All Time

HD Content Confirmed For Amazon Unbox!

The Dangers of Electricity Addiction

Watch Netflix Downloads On Your Xbox 360

Whose Crotch Weapon is the Biggest, Hardest, and Strongest?

Finally, A Video Game Movie For Smart People

Speed Racer is Rewardingly Weird, State-of-the-Art CGI Slapstick

Look What’s On Tony Stark’s Workbench In Iron Man

The OpenAI Foundation’s New Alzheimer’s Effort Helps Demystify ‘AI Will Cure All Diseases’

The Nazis’ Most Notoriously Complex Cryptographic Machine Is Now Available Online

‘Good Omens’ Season 3 Is Still Just One Episode, Despite Being Called That

Steam Gaming Has Arrived on Apple Vision Pro, and It’s Unexpectedly Glorious

RFK Jr. Will Take on Joe Rogan for Podcaster Supremacy

The Spymaster’s Guide to the Secret Agencies of ‘Star Trek’

Uber Is Testing Driverless Volkswagen ID. Buzz Vans in Los Angeles

Cast Adrift, Meta Employees Have No Idea Who the ‘Token Legend’ Is Anymore

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

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