The Road

Tom Hanks’ Comfy Finch Suit Sounds Like the New Gold Standard

Finch director Miguel Sapochnik says that keeping Tom Hanks chill helped keep the production humming.

Movies Charles Pulliam-Moore Oct 21

John Hodgman explains the end of the world to you

John Hodgman is the world’s foremost expert on all things canny and uncanny, and everything in between. And today marks the release of Ragnarok, his one-hour comedy special about the apocalypse, via Netflix. To celebrate, we talked to him about the meaning of apocalyptic stories, and why he doesn’t love zombies. https://gizmodo.com/can-you-handle-john-hodgmans-gift-of-knowledge-no-you-5071474 Last year, Hodgman…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jun 20

Classic novels visualized according to their color content

Graphic designer Jaz Parkinson‘s Colour Signatures is an interesting way of visualizing books. She pulls out all of the references to color in a single novel or play, tallies them up, and graphs the color scheme for each book. Parkinson explains the ongoing series on her blog: These are my colour signatures, an ongoing collection…

io9 Lauren Davis May 4

21 Pictures that Sum Up the Whole History of Science Fiction

Science fiction is the genre of ideas — but it’s also given us some unforgettable pictures along the way. Every era in science fiction’s history has shown us a new vision of the strange and futuristic, and one image can spawn a million reflections in your mind’s eye. Here are 21 unforgettable pictures that showcase…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Nov 20

Inception + The Road = a truly awful Willow Smith video

We’re fascinated by the music video for Willow Smith’s song “21th Century Girl,” in which she is in a post-apocalpytic wasteland… until she and her friends find an entire buried city, which they lift out of the sand using chains. Conceptually, it seems to be borrowing from Christopher Nolan’s Inception in a big way, except…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Mar 8

Vintage ads from science fictional futures

Marvellous Hairy author Mark A. Rayner is holding a Photoshop contest to create vintage advertisements for futures that don’t exist yet. Here’s a small sampling of these retrofuturistic print pieces from both the current and past contests. Here are the rules for entry and winners from the previous vintage ad contest. Thanks for the heads…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Sep 19

A trip through the mists of Appalachia’s coal towns

Photographer Jim Lo Scalzo has captured the scorched earth beauty of America’s coal country. In the photo montage “Ghosts in the Hollow,” Scalzo navigates through fog, Centralia fumes, and old coal sluices. No wonder The Road was filmed out there. The song used in this piece is the 1933 toe-tapper “Sprinkle Coal Dust On My…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Sep 8

Transplanted cities and post-apocalyptic weirdness: a book description so strange, we had to ask the author about it

Someone builds a full-scale replica of Manhattan in Puget Sound. A mysterious organization plots to use humanity’s brightest minds to shape the future. And in the distant future, humanity rebuilds after the apocalypse. Ryan Boudinot’s next novel sounds trippily awesome. According to Publishers Marketplace, Boudinot, author of the novel Misconception and the story collection The…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders Aug 11

The Alternate Reality Wizard of Oz Is Perverse Fun

This concept art of a stranger, grittier Wizard of Oz depicts the Cowardly Lion as goth, the Emerald City as the setting for Left 4 Dead, and Dorothy as a smack addict. Poppies are a helluva drug. These quirky re-imaginings are from ConceptArt.org’s Character of the Week contest. You can see the rest of the…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Apr 13

Best And Worst SF/Fantasy Movies Of 2009

This was a year of extremes: huge CG-heavy spectacles and low-budget gems. Most of all, 2009 made us feel the boundaries of cinema were stretched… for good and ill. Here are the 10 best and 10 worst films of 2009. Best: 10. The Road One of the most significant SF-themed literary novels of the past…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders Dec 30

The Post-Apocalyptic Dance Sequence That The Road Somehow Left Out

When you’ve survived a post-apocalyptic world of cannibals and evil gangs, there’s nothing left to do but have a 1940s-style dance routine. For some reason, this sequence didn’t appear at the end of The Road, so we’re including it here. The awesome dance routine, of course, really comes from the very end of Radioactive Dreams,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Dec 15

Why The Road’s Baby Scene Was Cut, And Why Its First Trailer Sucked

One important cannibal scene in the post apocalyptic film The Road, based on Cormac McCarthy’s book, was cut. Here’s why, along with how director John Hillcoat feels about his movie being compared to, and marketed as, “disaster porn.” Earlier in our exclusive interview with director John Hillcoat, we discussed exactly what author Cormac McCarthy wanted…

Movies Meredith Woerner Dec 2

12 Movie Adaptations That Did The Books Justice

Whether or not you loved The Road, most people seemed to feel it captured Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Sadly, most adaptations do violence to the original books, but not all. Here are 12 SF/fantasy adaptations that did right by the books. The Lost World (1925) There have been many movie adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Nov 30

Weirdest Movies Ever Released On Thanskgiving Weekend

You might think it’s odd that The Road and Ninja Assassin both came out just in time for Turkey Day. But those aren’t the only counter-intuitive movies that studios have put out for Thanksgiving — here’s a complete list. Sometimes, you just need an escape from the relentlessness of the Thanksgiving celebrations, and Hollywood has…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Nov 26

“The Road” Leads to a Sentimental Post-Apocalypse

The vast, dying landscapes in The Road are edged with flame, telling a story of the world unmade in stark images. While the design in this film is eloquent, its characters aren’t. What lurks beneath their silence? The Road, which opens today, is based on a bleak novel by Cormac McCarthy where a man and…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 25

How Viggo Survived Cannibals, Starvation And Life On The Road

How do you keep your humanity in the face of death, cannibals and destruction? This 11 minute feature from The Road goes deep with Viggo Mortensen, using clips, interviews and analysis. Plus listen to three tracks from Nick Cave‘s soundtrack. Careful — there are massive spoilers in the video. The Road is out November 25th.

io9 Meredith Woerner Nov 24

What Cormac McCarthy Insisted On Keeping In The Road Movie

Translating a book into film is hard, especially when it’s Cormac McCarthy‘s simply-worded but powerful novel The Road. Director John Hillcoat told us what McCarthy refused to let him leave out of the movie version. We sat down with Hillcoat and talked about the end of the world, and translating a film into a movie.…

Movies Meredith Woerner Nov 18

See What Life Was Like Before Viggo Hit “The Road”

A few new clips are out for Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road, giving you a glimpse into the lives of Viggo Mortensen’s family before the apocalypse… and a taste of how quickly Viggo responds when the end is near. The Road will be out November 25th.

Movies Meredith Woerner Nov 16

Why Great Horror is Heartbreaking

We’ve spent this week talking about horror in all its myriad forms: scary sex scenes, terrible monsters, and mental horrors. But some of the most haunting and terrifying horror stories aren’t merely terrifying; they’re also terribly sad. I have to confess, it’s very hard for me to watch horror movies. It’s not that I don’t…

io9 Lauren Davis Oct 31

“The Road” Is Lined With Dismal Sayings, Skulls On Sticks In New Trailer

Thanksgiving will see you giving thanks that you’re not living in the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road, judging from the ultra-bleak new trailer. Takeaway message: the world is dying, and pleasant dreams mean you’ve given up on living. The Road leads you to post-apocalyptic Hell on Nov. 25. [Yahoo! Movies]

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Oct 30

The Road

Tom Hanks’ Comfy Finch Suit Sounds Like the New Gold Standard

John Hodgman explains the end of the world to you

Classic novels visualized according to their color content

21 Pictures that Sum Up the Whole History of Science Fiction

Inception + The Road = a truly awful Willow Smith video

Vintage ads from science fictional futures

A trip through the mists of Appalachia’s coal towns

Transplanted cities and post-apocalyptic weirdness: a book description so strange, we had to ask the author about it

The Alternate Reality Wizard of Oz Is Perverse Fun

Best And Worst SF/Fantasy Movies Of 2009

The Post-Apocalyptic Dance Sequence That The Road Somehow Left Out

Why The Road’s Baby Scene Was Cut, And Why Its First Trailer Sucked

12 Movie Adaptations That Did The Books Justice

Weirdest Movies Ever Released On Thanskgiving Weekend

“The Road” Leads to a Sentimental Post-Apocalypse

How Viggo Survived Cannibals, Starvation And Life On The Road

What Cormac McCarthy Insisted On Keeping In The Road Movie

See What Life Was Like Before Viggo Hit “The Road”

Why Great Horror is Heartbreaking

“The Road” Is Lined With Dismal Sayings, Skulls On Sticks In New Trailer

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One of the Greatest ‘Star Wars’ Characters of All Time Is Getting the Action Figure She Deserves

Antarctic Expedition to ‘Danger Zone’ Accidentally Discovers Previously Uncharted Island

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‘The Punisher: One Last Kill’ Trailer Promises Many Kills, Actually

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