Sci-Fi

Neat size comparison video compares the size of spaceships from different movies

Whip ‘em out. Which science fiction movie has the biggest spaceship or station or cube thing or star planet? MetaBallStudios made this CGI video detailing the ships across movies like Star Wars and Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey and even included video games like Mass Effect and real life like the ISS to see…

Disney Was Somehow Shocked that Michael Jackson Grabbed His Crotch in Captain EO

Captain EO has been a Disney park staple since 1986, the height of Michael Jackson’s post-Thriller fame—but the Francis Ford Coppola-directed, George Lucas-produced short will shut down December 6 to make way for new attractions. A new oral history sheds light on all the making-of drama. It’s definitely worth taking the time to read the…

This Intense Short Film About Virtual Reality Is Already in the Works as a Feature

“Virtual reality, to me, is the only reality.” So begins Uncanny Valley, a short from Argentina’s Federico Heller that’s on the fast track to becoming a feature, thanks to the efforts of Independence Day: Resurgence writer Carter Blanchard. Watch the film below and see why it’s generated so much excitement. Here’s the official synopsis: In…

John Carpenter Has Developed Four New Horror and Science Fiction TV Shows

Adjust your eye patches and put on your sunglasses, John Carpenter fans, for this great bit of news that shook loose from horror podcast Killer POV: the famed genre director (Halloween, The Thing, They Live, Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China) is making a serious foray into television. Reported by both Blastr…

This Video Shows Why Joss Whedon’s Serenity Was A Unique, Genre-Bending Film

Digging Deeper is a new video channel that goes in depth on a film topic. In their latest video, they profile Joss Whedon’s Serenity, examining how it uses a whole bunch of genres to really succeed as a film. This is an impressive video – they look at the history of westerns and science fiction…

Microsoft’s Free Anthology Includes Some Of Today’s Best SF Authors

Earlier this week, Microsoft released a short anthology titled Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft, enlisting some of the best science fiction writers to contribute stories inspired by visits to the company’s research labs. The anthology includes fiction from Elizabeth Bear, Greg Bear, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Jack McDevitt, Seanan McGuire…

Netflix Is Bringing Lost In Space Back For Your Binging Pleasure

Netflix might as well be known as the Island of Lost TV Shows. The latest show to be resurrected from the dead is 1965’s Lost In Space, which comes to Netflix after a “competitive situation, with multiple bidders”. Lost In Space originally aired in 1965 and ran for three seasons on CBS, and follows the…

Midnight Special Just Vaulted to the Top of Our Must-See List for 2016

Last week, we saw the poster and some images for Midnight Special, an upcoming thriller from director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) that takes inspiration from Spielberg’s scifi classics, including E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Now we’ve got a trailer that makes us even more excited for the movie. https://gizmodo.com/midnight-special-could-be-the-steven-spielberg-influenc-1742443580 The film’s title…

Watch This Amazing Animation That Imagines Famous Scientists as Superheroes

Imagine if you could assemble the brains of famous scientists like Einstein, Darwin and Tesla into a band of time-traveling superheroes led by Winston Churchill. Well, now you don’t have to imagine, because the animated series Super Science Friends depicts exactly that. The first in a series of the Kickstarter-funded science adventure series has just…

Nominations For the 2016 Nebula Awards Are Now Open

If you’re a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, you can now present your nominations for the 2016 Nebula Awards. The nomination period runs through February 15th, 2016. All works published between January 1st, 2015 and December 31st 2015 are eligible, in the following categories: Short Story: less than 7,500 words;…

As dystopias have proliferated throughout science fiction, more optimistic authors such as Kim Stanley Robinson have tackled a brighter future for humanity. The New Republic has a fascinating article on the subject that’s well worth reading.

Orbit Books Will Publish An Astonishing 90 Books A Year Starting In 2016

Who says that science fiction publishing is dead? Not Orbit Books. The Hachette company announced yesterday that they were expanding their SF/F line by 50% next year to publish a whopping 90 books starting in 2016. Tim Holman, Orbit Publisher and Hachette Book Group SVP, said: “There is a huge and diverse audience for SF…

6 Ways to Make SciFi and Fantasy Weapons More Believable

Ever read a fantasy book or watched a science fiction movie and struggled to suspend your disbelief due to the total lack of reality in some make believe weapons? Here’s advice for people writing this stuff on how to get guns and lasers and bow and wands right. When it comes to real-world weapons in…

Predator 2 Is the Most Enjoyable Predator Movie, Period

Predator 2, which takes place in the urban jungle of Los Angeles, is loud, sweaty, and exuberantly violent—and all of its main characters are macho blowhards. It does not have Schwarzenegger, but it does have one-liners galore, Bill Paxton, and Gary Busey. It is magic. Spoilers only if you haven’t seen Predator 2. Why haven’t…

This Novel Will Change How You See the California Drought

Claire Vaye Watkins envisions a drought-ravaged world in Gold Fame Citrus

A scifi story with an Amish hero? Sure, why not? Author and “off-gridder” Michael Bunker’s Pennsylvania has just been tapped for feature-film development. It’s about an Amish man whose dreams of helping colonize the planet of “New Pennsylvania” are complicated by a rebel uprising.

97% Is A Short Romance Film For The Smartphone Age

In Ben Brand’s film 97%, Bert gets an alert on his mobile phone: someone with a 97% match on a dating app is within meters. He just needs to find her. What results is comedic, and a little heartbreaking. It’s a really interesting short film that’s feels like it’s in the William Gibson / Person…

Kickstart This: Spanish Women Of Wonder Anthology

Here’s a really cool-sounding anthology: Spanish Women of Wonder, which came together last year with ten short stories by Spanish women. Now, editors Cristina Jurado and Leticia Lara want to translate the project into English. Translated SF is getting bigger: more and more foreign (to the US) stories are being brought over and translated into…

Write Us Some Six-Word Science Fiction Stories!

Tell me a story, io9! Something with disaffected robots, time-traveling text messages, search engines that have had enough of your questions, rainy seasons that never seem to come, or whatever else is on your mind—and make it exactly six words long. Will you hit the Craigslist ads of our space colonization future, like commenter Belabras…

We’re Living In A New Golden Age Of Space Movies 

Just a few years ago, we were wondering where all the movies about outer space had gone. And now, we don’t have to wonder any more, because we’ve been getting a crop of fantastic new movies about astronauts, spaceships, and the joy of exploration. There have been at least a couple of previous golden ages…