(1) ROBOTS FLASH. At the Barnes & Noble blog they’re “Introducing the 12 Days of Robot Christmas” — 12 Days of Flash Fiction from Angry Robot Authors (plus eBook discounts). Posted so far —
- Dec. 3: Patrick Tomlinson (The Ark): “Black Friday”
- Dec. 4: Matt Hill (Graft—pre-order): “The New Tradition”
- Dec. 7: James A. Moore (The Blasted Lands): “Following the Shimmer”
- Dec. 8: Megan E O’Keefe (Steal the Sky—pre-order): “The Fight Before Christmas”
Still to come — Adam Rakunas (12/9), Marianne de Pierres (12/10), Peter McLean (12/11) , Carrie Patel (12/14), Ferrett Steinmetz (12/15), Peter Tieryas (12/16), Rod Duncan (12/17), and Matthew De Abaitua (12/18)
Matt Hill’s installment “The New Tradition” begins with a strong hook –
Every Christmas Eve since the biological attack, they let me visit Nan to see what was left of her.
(2) LANSDALE. Joe R. Lansdale will be honored with the 2015 Raymond Chandler Award at Courmayeur during the Noir in Festival to be held December 8-13.
With over forty novels and hundreds of stories to his credit, Lansdale is perhaps the most prolific and brilliant writer working in the noir genre today. With models such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mark Twain and Jack London, but also the science fiction of Ray Bradbury and Fredric Brown, as well as comic strips, B movies and “pulp” fiction, Lansdale´s novels are a blend of his jaded sense of humor, unbridled imagination and an unsparing description of reality in its most ruthless, violent and absurd incarnations. His books include The Drive-In and The Drive-In 2, Mucho Mojo, Two-Bear Mambo, Bad Chili, Rumble Tumble, Edge of Dark Water, Devil Red, The Bottoms (winner of an Edgar Award in 2001), Bubba Ho-Tep, and Hap & Leonard.
At Courmayeur, Lansdale will be presenting his latest novel, Honky Tonk Samurai (published in Italian by Einaudi): a new investigative romp featuring the popular characters Hap Collins and Leonard Pine.
The Raymond Chandler Award is a lifetime achievement award. Past winners include sf/f/h writer J.G. Ballard (1995), and Michael Connelly, Scott Turow and John le Carré,
(3) COMPANION ISSUES. James Whitbrook tells how he deals with post-traumatic television series stress in his confessional “The Exact Moment When Doctor Who Taught Me to Never Trust Television Again” at io9.
And being an idiot teen, it was shocking enough to basically make myself vow to never be hurt by television again. Oh, teen James. TV drama basically exists to hurt us on an emotional level, you silly fool. But it kickstarted a habit I still have to this day—if I’m invested in a television series, be it Doctor Who or anything else, I keep up with all the behind the scenes info I can. I go as far as to hunt out spoilers, just to see what’s happening or if people are leaving a show, so I can prepare myself. If I’m binge-watching a show and find myself liking a certain character, I absent-mindedly Google them on my phone to find out if they inevitably die or leave the series before it ends. It infuriates my friends and family, but it’s a force of habit for myself now.
(4) Alamo Drafthouse will host a movie-watching endurance contest in Austin — Star Wars : The Marathon Awakens.
Starting promptly at 4 AM, December 17th, the seven pre-selected fans will take their seats at Alamo’s South Lamar venue to view the first six STAR WARS films in sequential order. Following the close of the initial marathon they will then participate in an endless, round-the-clock screening of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS until one final fan is left to claim their mantle of inter-galactic super fan supremacy….
For a chance to be chosen as one of the seven lucky participants in STAR WARS: THE MARATHON AWAKENS, fans need to show the Alamo Drafthouse their Jedi devotion on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook using the #AlamoJedi hashtag. Tattoos, toy collections, cosplay, Hoth haiku — whatever he or she feels shows their ultimate dedication to STAR WARS should be posted to sway the votes of the Alamo’s Jedi Council.
Rules are a requirement for every budding Jedi and STAR WARS: THE MARATHON AWAKENS is no exception. Participants will be given breaks between movies to stretch their legs and channel their inner Force. Sleeping, illegal drugs and talking & texting during the movies (of course) will result in disqualification and a swift trip to the Sarlacc Pit. However, for those strong enough to persevere, intergalactic immortality awaits.
(5) EDELMAN REVISITS 1974. Scott Edelman’s first Worldcon was Discon II in 1974. He has posted scans of the event schedule.
So which of these programming items did I choose to attend?
Well, there was no way I was going to miss Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison hurling insults at each other across a crowded ballroom, or the screening of a rough cut of A Boy and His Dog, or Roger Zelazny’s Guest of Honor speech, or the Hugo banquet and ceremony. Or endless wandering through the dealers room, where I picked up several items I still own to this day.
Sadly, of many panels I remember little. A women in science fiction panel featuring Susan Wood, Katherine Kurtz, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro? A panel on the problems facing today’s (well, 1974’s) science fiction magazines, with Jim Baen, Ben Bova, Ed Ferman, and Ted White? How I wish there was audio or video of those for us to relive those presentations today!
(6) TRAILER FORECAST. ScreenRant has learned the Star Trek Beyond trailer will premiere with Star Wars 7.
THR is reporting that Star Trek Beyond‘s first trailer will be attached to The Force Awakens in theaters – though, of course, it’s far from the only 2016 tentpole that is expected to hitch a ride aboard the Star Wars train. Indeed, both the recently-unveiled Captain America: Civil War teaser trailer and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s third theatrical preview are both likely candidates to be shown before The Force Awakens. Furthermore, it’s been reported in the past that the first X-Men: Apocalypse trailer will make its debut on the big screen with co-writer/director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars feature, as might also be true for another 20th Century Fox project – Roland Emmerich’s alien invasion sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence.
(7) SCULL ANALYZES TOLKIEN BIOS. Christina Scull assays the field in “Tolkien Biographies Continued, Part One” on Too Many Books and Never Enough.
Christina writes: In the Reader’s Guide volume of our J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide Wayne and I devoted nearly seven pages to a review of biographies of Tolkien which had appeared to date (2006). Carpenter’s of course was, and remains, the standard life, and the source upon which most subsequent biographers of Tolkien have relied to a great extent. The major exceptions, in terms of new research, are John Garth in Tolkien and the Great War and ourselves in the Companion and Guide, but a few others have made notable contributions to the literature. Diana Pavlac Glyer in The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (2007) has a worthwhile discussion of the importance of the Inklings to Tolkien. Andrew H. Morton has produced two studies (the first in association with John Hayes) centred on Tolkien’s Aunt Jane Neave: Tolkien’s Gedling 1914: The Birth of a Legend (2008) and Tolkien’s Bag End: Threshold to Adventure (2009). Phil Mathison has filled in some details about Tolkien’s life during the First World War in Tolkien in East Yorkshire 1917–1918 (2012). And Arne Zettersten in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Double Worlds and Creative Process: Language and Life by Arne Zettersten (2011, previously published in Swedish in 2008) recalls his meetings and conversations with Tolkien in the latter’s final years (although Zettersten refers to correspondence, no quotations are given) and usefully discusses Tolkien’s academic work on the ‘AB language’.
(8) A ROAD NOT TAKEN. The actor’s daughter told the Guardian that “Toshiro Mifune turned down Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader Roles” when George Lucas was casting the original Star Wars movie.
The star of Rashomon and Seven Samurai was approached by George Lucas to appear in his 1977 sci-fi adventure, but the two couldn’t strike a deal, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“I heard from my father that he was offered the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he was concerned about how the film would look and that it would cheapen the image of samurai, on which George Lucas had based a lot of the character and fighting style,” said Mika.
The plot of Star Wars was loosely based on The Hidden Fortress, a 1958 film that Mifune starred in for director and frequent collaborator Akira Kurosawa.
“At the time, sci-fi movies still looked quite cheap as the effects were not advanced and he had a lot of samurai pride,” Mika said. “So then, there was talk about him taking the Darth Vader role as his face would be covered, but in the end he turned that down too.”
Other actors who turned down roles in the film include Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Burt Reynolds, Robert De Niro and James Caan.
(9) BRACKETT SMACK. Christopher M. Chupik volunteers his previously unsuspected ability to identify deserving feminist icons in “To Tower Against The Sky”.
Despite being an inspiration to such writers as Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock and E. C. Tubb, Brackett seems to have fallen into a curious limbo. Feminists like to invoke her name in lists of female SF authors, but there seems to be a curious reluctance to speak of the woman or her work. A female writer who held her own in a male-dominated field long before the women’s liberation movement would seem to be the kind of role model modern feminists would want to celebrate, right?
Wrong. Nowadays, she’s mostly known for having written the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back, very little of which made it to the screen. And this is often portrayed as the crowning achievement of her career….
And here, I suspect, we come to the real reason the feminists have marginalized Brackett: she was a conservative.
I had to dig a bit to confirm this. I had a suspicion based on her work that her opinions were not quite in tune with modern leftist orthodoxy. Brackett, along with her husband Edmond Hamilton, were signatories to the pro-Vietnam War petition that appeared in the June 1968 issue of Galaxy. Combine that with her disinterest in feminism, and it becomes very clear why Brackett has been allowed to drift towards obscurity
(10) THEY TOLD DISNEY NO THANKS. The Hollywood Reporter says “Plans for Unfinished Disney Park in St. Louis Up for Auction” — by Profiles in History, on Thursday.
In the 1960s, Disney drew up plans for an indoor theme park in downtown St. Louis before giving up in a dispute over money and turning attention to Florida.
Imagine packing up the kids and heading for that dream vacation to a Disney theme park … in St. Louis.
It almost happened a half-century ago when Disney drew up plans for an indoor theme park in downtown St. Louis before giving up in a dispute over money and turning its attention to Florida. St. Louis’ loss was the Orlando area’s gain: Walt Disney World became one of the world’s top tourist attractions.
St. Louis can only lament what might have been….
On Thursday, one of the few remnants of the park goes on the auction block — 13 pages of 1963 blueprints spelling out plans for “Walt Disney’s Riverfront Square” in St. Louis. The Calabasas, Calif.-based company Profiles in History is offering up the blueprints as part of its “Animation and Disneyana” auction
(11) CANDIDATES FOR MST3K. Now that Mystery Science Theater 3000 has successfully crowdfunded a string of new episodes, the crew will have to pick some bad flicks to abuse. CNET’s Danny Gallagher helpfully names “7 movie turkeys the new MST3K needs to tackle”.
Any movie buff knows there are still plenty of bad movies out there that deserve to get the MST3K treatment. Here are seven of those stinkers.
- “Yor, the Hunter from the Future”
…The people who made this dud don’t seem sure what genre they want it to be. “Yor” starts as a prehistoric adventure movie, but it morphs into science fiction when UFOs and technological warfare are shoved into the plot. They should have called this one, “Yor, the Warrior from…Squirrel!”
(12) A POLITICAL COMMENT. Apparently having a nose isn’t enough to recommend him — J.K. Rowling tweeted Tuesday that Donald Trump is worse than Lord Voldemort.
How horrible. Voldemort was nowhere near as bad. https://t.co/hFO0XmOpPH
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 8, 2015
Rowling’s tweet came after Trump called for preventing all Muslims from entering the United States.
(13) FOUNDING A CON. Lou J. Berger and Quincy J. Allen’s We Are ALL Science Fiction theme will be embodied by a convention bearing the same name, to be held November 4-6, 2016 in Ocean Shores, WA.
Put on by an all-fan, all-volunteer, non-profit group made up of fans with decades of experience in con running and attending (from all over the globe), our first annual convention will feature award-winning authors Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Jody Lynn Nye, and many others, including Hugo nominee Jennifer Brozek, Anna Korra’ti, Raven Oak, with other guests such as Scott Hungerford (Games), Marvel comic artist (and fine artist) Jeffrey Veregge, Musical guest Dara Korra’ti of Crime & the Forces of Evil, Tor editor Beth Meacham, and actor Drew Hobson (Voice of Marcus, State of Decay). We hope to be an international fan destination as we add more speakers and guests in the coming months!
An Indiegogo appeal to pay the expenses has raised $25 of its $9,000 goal in the first 23 hours.
(14) THE FOUNDERS’ CODE. The We Are ALL Science Fiction Code of Conduct announced by Lou J. Berger and Quincy J. Allen is:
#WeAreALLSF is open to all comers, no exceptions, no exclusions, and in this place we treat everyone with respect, even if we disagree with them.
There is one rule: If you don’t have something nice to say, then say it someplace else. Lou and I will be rather draconian in removing those who can’t follow such a simple rule.
That is our one code of conduct.
(15) THE PAST THROUGH PHOTOSHOP. artworkofarmies’ collection “Images may not be historically accurate” improves WWII-era photos by adding science fictional references.
(16) RETRO MOVES FORWARD. Von Dimpleheimer, our correspondent from 1940, has made progress with his due diligence for Volume 5 of Retro-Hugo eligible stories.
I went back and double and triple checked all the previous stories and the ones that would be in Volume Five and I found another mistake. In 1950, Nelson Bond made a fix-up novel of the Lancelot Biggs stories and did renew the copyright of that book in 1977. I removed “Lancelot Biggs Cooks a Pirate” from Volume One and uploaded the new version. I actually knew about the book and remember checking for a renewal, but just missed it somehow.
I cut the Lancelot Biggs stories from Volume Five and I am sure the remaining stories are public domain, but I’ll quintuple check them before I send you the links later this week.
On the plus side, all this checking led me to the fact that “Russell Storm” was actually Robert Moore Williams and I now have two more of his stories for future volumes.
(16) FAVORITE 2015 FANTASY. Stephanie Bugis’ list of “Favorite Fantasy Novels from 2015” leads off with a book by Aliette de Bodard.
- The House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard. Rich, immersive, gorgeous dark fantasy with fallen angels and Vietnamese Immortals, set in a magically post-apocalyptic version of twentieth-century Paris. I read the whole thing on my overnight plane ride back from America to the UK this summer and was so absorbed, I didn’t even mind the lost sleep! You can read my full Goodreads review here.
(17) STOCK THE SHELVES. Melissa Gilbert’s post “Read Like a Writer” at Magical Words takes inspiration from several Stephen King quotes.
I am going to start with the first quotation: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
I cannot express how much truth there is to these statements. Writing is hard work, contrary to the romanticized ideal of a guy with a beret sitting in a Parisian coffee shop daydreaming about the next bestseller. Being a writer is sitting at the keyboard and pushing keys in rapid succession trying to convey into words the sometimes jumbled picture that is floating around in your brain. It’s living off Snickers bars for a while because you have a deadline and no time to cook actual food. It’s reading in the bathroom instead of Facebooking because you need to finish that next chapter. It’s lugging a book or forty with you in your suitcase when you go on vacation so that you don’t run out of things to read. It’s typing with your thumbs on your smartphone while waiting for the elevator or while commuting on the train so you can get your thousand words in that day. It’s talking to people when you get stuck. It’s staring at the blank page in abject fear that no ideas will come. Writing isn’t easy. Okay, maybe it is. Let me rephrase. GOOD writing isn’t easy. But some things (like reading) can help to make it pleasurable.
(18) ONE’S THE LIMIT. Madeleine E. Robins advocates limiting a character’s advantages over others in “A Rule of One” at Book View Café.
I have this theory. Or maybe it’s just an idea. It’s about the advantages you give your characters. And how many advantages you can give them without distracting from the story or making them unbearable.
Advantages? Beauty is one, and very common; but there’s also intelligence, skill, charm, grace, wit, fortune, discernment, athletic ability, good birth, kind parents, a person who encourages them to follow their dreams, etc. All of these things are wonderful. But most people don’t get to have them all. And if you write a character who does get them all, it’s sort of cheating.
This is particularly important in writing historical fiction, or fantasy set in an historically inspired context (it works for SF too, but to keep things simple I’m limiting my scope). It is easy, and tempting, to create a character who is ahead of her/his time: “You fools, feudalism is doomed! Let us storm the castle and demand the birth of democracy!” A reader may want to sympathize with a character who partakes of our sensibilities more than he does of those of his time, but some writers leave out any clue as to where that vision came from.
(19) RED MARS. According to io9, a live-action adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars is coming to Spike TV.
J. Michael Straczinski and Game of Throne’s Vince Gerardis are executive producing, and believe it or not, Spike TV has ordered it “straight-to-series” without a pilot.
(20) SELDES OBIT. Editor and literary agent Timothy Seldes died December 5 reports Newsday. He was 88.
Raised in New York City and a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, Seldes grew up around words, ideas and the performing arts. He was the brother of Tony-winning actress Marian Seldes, son of the drama critic and author Gilbert Seldes and nephew of the pioneering press critic George Seldes. He spent much of his editing career at the Doubleday house, where he rose to managing editor and authors included [Richard] Wright and Isaac Asimov.
(21) TWITTER. Your tweetage may vary. Ann Leckie’s certainly does, as she explains in “Me and Twitter”.
Now, I do look at my mentions, and not infrequently reply to those in some way. I do enjoy doing that. But every now and then, someone will turn up in my mentions in some way that’s very clearly designed to get my attention in a particular way–the tweeter wants me to notice their book, or asks explicitly that I follow them back (and they’re not someone I already know). I’m going to be honest, this irritates me. No offense, right? They’re obviously using Twitter as a promotional tool, where I’m using it to hang with people. This is mostly fine with me, in the abstract, I’ve got no problem with publicity or promotion. In the concrete and specific, I’d suggest that approaching promotion on Twitter as largely a question of amassing a lot of followers who you can then tweet to about your book is, perhaps, not as effective as you imagine it might be. I’ll also suggest that, if you want to engage the interest of someone with a lot of twitter followers, whose retweets or conversations with you might bring you the visibility you’re after, you might want to do your research about who that person is and why they have those followers, and not try to engage them with generic questions, let alone passive-aggressive tweets meant to guilt or provoke that person into replying or following back. But, you know, it’s your call, your life, your Twitter feed. And I’m totally okay with using the block and mute buttons whenever it seems convenient. (That would be the way the “react badly” mentioned in the tweets above usually manifests itself.)
(22) DRAWING TO A PAIR OF VONNEGUTS. Ginger Strand’s biography The Brothers Vonnegut is receiving mixed reviews, though all the critics say it’s interesting.
Katy Waldman on Slate finds some of connections discovered by the author “immensely satisfying.”
The Brothers Vonnegut, with its perfect-storm-of-concepts subtitle “Science and Fiction in the House of Magic,” focuses on Bernard and Kurt Vonnegut during the late ’40s and ’50s, when both were involved in the glittering ascent of General Electric during the postwar prosperity boom. Bernard, an MIT graduate and model elder son, researches at the company’s prestigious science lab. Kurt, having survived the Western Front (where he saw the firebombing of Dresden firsthand), takes a job as a PR flack, issuing zingy press releases about GE’s latest innovations.
Ben Jackson at the Guardian concludes:
[Kurt] didn’t hold out much hope for us: in Fates Worse than Death he wrote: “My guess is that … we really will blow up everything by and by”. No doubt Strand is right to locate the origin of many of his concerns in his time at GE, and there is certainly a lot to be said for her interesting book, but Kurt Vonnegut had more on his mind than the weather.
Jeff Milo at Paste Magazine is the most enthusiastic:
The benefits of The Brothers Vonnegut are threefold, starting with Strand’s insights into the professional and domestic lives of these two brothers, both equally strong-willed in their works despite their fields being worlds apart. Strand also draws attention to the vital support these brothers received from their wives, Lois Bowler with Bernard and Jane Marie Cox (Kurt’s first wife). More than that, though, these women are able to substantially enter into the narrative’s insightful spotlight, rather than being merely supportive backdrops for the brothers.
(23) RAMPAGE ON RECORD. Jim Mowatt’s run to Save the Rhino made the Cambridge News.
(24) PLUTO ON CAMERA. NASA has released a video composed of the sharpest views of Pluto obtained by its New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July.
[Thanks to Von Dimpleheimer, Alan Baumler, David K.M. Klaus, JJ, Andrew Porter, Hampus Eckerman, Cat Eldridge, Rob Thornton, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
readheadedfemme:
What I meant is that The Omega Man has also been shown under the name “I Am Legend”. I put you on the Will Smith one for now
For the record, my Omega Man vote is not a vote for the Will Smith movie I Am Legend. It’s a vote for The Omega Man.
Jim Henley:
It is registered as that. MY favourite is the one called “The Last Man on Earth” with Vincent Price. 😉
Addition: assume I’ve written Blade Runner (1982) 500 times.
Seconding Jim Henley for Time After Time (1979).
Fifthing from Hampus’s list:
Back To The Future (1985)
Clockwork Orange (1971)
Close Encounter of the First Kind (1977)
Escape From New York (1981)
ET (1982)
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Godzilla (1954)
Guardians of The Galaxy (2014)
Independence Day (1996)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Mad Max: Road Warrior (1981)
Matrix (1999)
Men in Black (1997)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Starman (1984)
Star Wars (1977)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Fly (1986)
The Iron Giant (1999)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
The Terminator (1984)
Adding my vote for:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Looper (2012)
Catching Fire (2013)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Sleeper (1973)
THX 1138 (1971)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Blob (1958)
The Fly (1958)
King Kong (1933)
Time After Time (1979)
Iron Man (2008)
Also, I can’t remember seeing a listing for one of my favorite movies:
Frankenstein (1931)
eta: Oops, forgot one: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
I’d also like to cast a vote against grouping movies as a series. I think the Terminator movies, for instance, would be dragged down by 3 and 4.
Other movies that have been mentioned that I need to vote for as well:
Bladerunner
The Matrix
The Prestige
Waterworld
@Hampus
What I meant is that The Omega Man has also been shown under the name “I Am Legend”. I put you on the Will Smith one for now
Yes, that’s the one I meant. Thank you.
From the list
20000 Leagues Under the Sea
Blade Runner
Brazil
ET
Galaxy Quest
Godzila
Metropolis
Moon
Planet of the Apes
Road Warrior
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Solent Green
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Thing
Young Frankenstein
Add to that
Them
MST3K the Movie
Ghostbusters
Time After Time
Bride of Frankenstein
Quatermass and the Pit
Dr Strangelove
Frankenstein: the True Story
Forbidden Planet
And the best SF movie ever to star Alec Guinness – The Man in the White Suit
I haven’t bothered to check whether all of these are in previous lists or not.
Frau im Mond (1929)
Just Imagine (1930) — early SF musical comedy
Things to Come (1936)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Time Machine (1960)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Logan’s Run (1976)
Star Wars (1977)
Blade Runner (1982)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Gattaca (1997)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
Summer Wars (2009)
Just checking — this is *science* *fiction* movies, right? No fantasy or horror?
Rule #1 was
I think this allows science fictional horror, including mad scientists who create monsters, transplant brains, etc, but not fantastic horror, or purely realistic psychological horror.
And as far into science fantasy as psionics and the Force.
But I’m not running this.
Right. I’ve left off some of my favorite fantasy movies (such as “The Raven” and “The Dark Crystal” and “Spirited Away”).
I hope these qualify.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Akira (1988)
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alphaville (1965)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Back To The Future (1985)
Blade Runner (1982)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Dark City (1998)
Dark Star (1974)
Day of the Triffids (1962)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Enemy Mine (1985)
Escape From New York (1981)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
The Fly (1958) (NOT 1986!)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Frankenstein (1931)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Ghost In The Shell (1995)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Gojira (1954)
Guardians of The Galaxy (2014)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
King Kong (1933)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Men in Black (1997)
Metropolis (1927)
Minority Report (2002)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
The Raven (1963)
Robocop (1987)
Sleeper (1973)
Solaris (1972)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977)
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Superman (1978)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1992)
The Thing From Another World (1951)
Things to Come (1936)
Time After Time (1979)
The Time Machine (1960)
Total Recall (1990)
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Tron (1982)
WALL-E (2008)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
When Worlds Collide (1951)
Westworld (1973)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Oh bother, I didn’t strike off “The Raven” after all, and a few others, and I’m on a machine that won’t let me edit posts.
Please do not count:
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
The Raven (1963)
I am throwing my support behind these.
Summer Wars (2009)
Dark City (1998)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
The Fifth Element (1997)
And adding this one just because I love giant mecha and cheese.
Robot Jox (1989)
Bladerunner (Director’s Cut) (1982)
Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eight Dimension (1984)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
ET (1982)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Moon (2009)
Starman (1984)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Wars (1977) (In honor of my wife, who thinks The Empire Strikes Back is the better film, but Star Wars the more important one.)
THX 1138 (1971)
Wargames (1983)
Oh, and:
Cold Comfort Farm (1995)
2001 a Space Odyssey (1968)
Hmm, may I please add:
2010
I’ll add my own support to these that weren’t on my list:
The Running Man
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Catching Fire
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Tremors
Frankenstein
Dr. Strangelove
I will fifth the nomination for
Time After Time (1979)
Also
The Omega Man (and I definitely do not mean I Am Legend)
and
FLASH! AUUUAAAUUHHH! HE’LL SAVE EVERY ONE OF US!
Dr. Strangelove
Sure, why not. I’ll add a vote for that, too.
Wow, I had not heard of Coherence, but after reading about it, I definitely want to see it now.
@JJ
That does sound interesting.
I hadn’t listed “Cold Comfort Farm” because I haven’t seen it. I’ve heard good things about it and plan to see it soon. This is not adding it to my list.
Gah !??
I am on a phone as usual so going off the top of my head without release dates here are a few
Dune – David Lynch
Dune – Sony pictures documentary on the unfilmed version
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Dark Crystal
Armageddon
Independence Day
Invasion of the Body Snatchers – Donald Sutherland
12 Monkeys
28 Days After
Zero Theorm
Blade Runner
5th Element
Children of Men
V for Vendetta
Alien
Aliens
Total Recall
Minority Report
Terminator
Terminator 2
Robocop (original)
War Games
Journey to Center of the Earth (older version)
Jurassic Park
ET
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Wrath of Khan
Ghostbusters
Eternal Sunshine of the Spottless Mind
Iron Man
Guardians of the Galaxy
Summer Wars
Arika
Ghost in the Shell
Pi
Brazil
Time Bandits
There are a whole bunch that I think are good but have not had the time to see so skipping listing them. The above is by no means a complete list but just what I could put down in a few minutes
Nominations:
2001
Akira
Alien
Aliens
Blade Runner
Macross: Do You Remember Love
Ghost in the Shell
Paprika
The Fly (Conenberg remake)
The Matrix
Star Wars
The Empire Srikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Star Trek (2009 remake)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Robocop (original)
Pi
Cube
Terminator
Terminator 2
Iron Man
Children of Men
Serenity
The Thing (remake)
The War of the Worlds (original)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (all three, really)
This Island Earth
The Day the Earth Stood Still (original)
possibly more if I remember them!
Okay I’m sure I’ve missed stuff but the internet keeps dying so I’m going to put these in while it’s working!
Akira (1988)
Alien (1979)
Banlieue 13/District 13 (2004) (kinda edge case sf I guess?)
Battle Royale (2000)
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Bladerunner (1982)
Brazil (1985)
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Cowboy Bebop (1998)
District 9 (2009)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Edward Scissorhands (?)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Gattaca (1997)
Ghostbusters
Ghost In The Shell (1997)
Godzilla (1954)
Hancock (even though it falls to pieces about halfway through)
Iron Man (2008)
Moon (2009)
Pacific Rim (2013)
Paprika (2006)
Pitch Black (2000)
Predator (1987)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Star Trek (2009) (the sequel was a travesty but this one? I loved it)
Star Trek: First Contact (?)
Star Wars (1977)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Superman (1978)
The Fifth Element (1997)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) (which is great by the way, if you haven’t seen it)
The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Hmm, let’s see. How about:
Akira[1]
Alien
Aliens
Blade Runner
Brazil
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (Accept no substitutes!)
District 9
Dr. Strangelove
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Forbidden Planet
Galaxy Quest
Guardians of the Galaxy
Iron Man
Mad Max: The Road Warrior (since the new one is disqualified)
Men In Black
Moon
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
Repo Man (borderline SF, but it technically qualifies)
A Scanner Darkly[2]
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (I forget the number)
Star Wars (1977)[3]
Terminator 2 (by a hair over 1)
The 10th Victim[4]
They Live[5]
Twelve Monkeys
V for Vendetta
WALL-E
Young Frankenstein
Note that when I alphabetize, I ignore “The” and “A” like you’re supposed to! That makes my list the best one so far, and it should count more than those other, inferior lists. Or maybe not. 😀
[1] Best SF movie from Japan not created by Miyazaki, IMO.
[2] In many respects, the best movie adaptation of Dick; a very pleasant surprise.
[3] I went back and forth on which SW movie to pick, and finally gave up and went with the original.
[4] Seriously underrated movie. I love Sheckley, and he had his hands all over this. If you haven’t seen it, you really should. Even if it is pretty dated now.
[5] Honestly, a complete mess of a movie, but it’s just got *so many* great parts–even if they don’t fit together very well–that I couldn’t leave it off.
I’m adding my support to the following movies, too.
Bride of Frankenstein
Day of the Triffids
Dr. Strangelove
Frankenstein – (1931)
King Kong (1933) *
The Man in the White Suit
When World’s Collide (1951)
* IIRC this was nominated in fantasy, but I still think it’s SF.
I did that as well but didn’t wish to make an issue of it. 😉
I forgot to include:
Them! (1954)
I didn’t because I was working off the original list and I didn’t feel like moving things. Honestly when it got to adding stuff you’re lucky I didn’t throw them in at random… *fuzzybrained today*
I want to add these:
Appleseed Ex Machina (2004) (Best use of John Woo’s dove fixation ever.)
He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword (1985) (Best He-Man film!)
The Secret of NIMH (1982)
Space Jam (1996) (shush, I watched this a million times as a kidlet, it’s awesome)
I did throw the additions in at random.
I’d forgotten both Bride of Frankenstein and The Secret of NIMH, both of which I love and wish to vote for.
Why am I not surprised to see lots of nominations I’ve never seen?. Still, there are plenty I have, and so I go for:
12 Monkeys
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Alien (1979)
Barbarella (1968)
Blade Runner (1982)
Brazil (1985)
The City of Lost Children (1995)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Dark Star (1974)
District 9 (2009)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Dune (1984)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Escape From New York (1981)
Fantastic Planet (1973)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Guardians of The Galaxy (2014)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
Metropolis (1927)
Moon (2009)
The Prestige
Solaris (1972)
Stalker (1979)
Strange Days (1995)
The Thing (1982)
Things to Come (1936)
This Island Earth
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Truman Show (1998)
Time After Time (1979)
Time Bandits
Up
Young Frankenstein (1974)
To which I must add, without much hope of seeing them make the cut:-
Quest for Fire (1981)
Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea (Czechoslovakia, 1977)
And I must try to see Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. With a title like that, it must be destined to become a firm Filer favourite.
Peter J
Do you like Daft Punk? Intesella 5555 is an SF anime rock opera using the music of their Discovery album.
I think we’re about half a day away from nominations closing for the Science Fiction Movie Bracket, so it would probably be wise to get your picks in soonish, especially if your favourite is a little bit more obscure. (Also, I don’t think I saw Xopher, so someone who knows them might want to give them a poke – they’ve expressed disappointment at missing brackets before now.)
@Lis Carey
Oh, that sucks – I hope they manage to fix it promptly on Tuesday, and that you find sufficient distractions in the mean time.
Oh damn it, wrong thread and the edit button isn’t appearing. /fail
Nthing noms for:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure (1989)
Brazil (1985)
Dark City (1998)
Delicatessen (1991)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Gattaca (1997)
Guardians of The Galaxy (2014)
Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)wipes away tearMars Attacks! (1996)
Matrix (1999)
Men in Black (1997)
Pitch Black (2000)
Repo Man (1984)
Serenity (2005)
Star Wars (1977)
Strange Days (1995)
The City of Lost Children (1995)
The Fifth Element (1997)
The Iron Giant (1999)
Wargames (1983)
Reiterating the addition of:
Moon
@Meredith —
Thanks!
Back to the Future
Brazil
Brother from Another Planet
Dr. Strangelove
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Forbidden Planet
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Memento
Wall-E
Young Frankenstein
Typo: The Hidden is 1987, not 1997.
WHISTLEBLOW
Voting closing down in one hour.
And nomination round is over! I’ll get back later with a consolidated list.
CONSOLIDATED LIST OF SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES:
These are the list of movies that will compete in the bracket. All of them had three or more nominations (including mine).
2001 (1968)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Akira (1988)
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alphaville (1965)
Avatar (2009)
Back To The Future (1985)
Barbarella (1968)
Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure (1989)
Bladerunner (1982)
Brazil (1985)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Children of Men (2006)
Clockwork Orange (1971)
Close Encounter of the First Kind (1977)
Cocoon (1985)
Cube (1997)
Dark City (1998)
Delicatessen (1991)
District 9 (2009)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Dune (1984)
Escape From New York (1981)
ET (1982)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Flash Gordon (1980)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Frankenstein (1931)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Gattaca (1997)
Ghost In The Shell (1997)
Ghostbusters (2016)
Godzilla (1954)
Guardians of The Galaxy (2014)
Independence Day (1996)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Iron Man (2008)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Jurassic Park (1993)
King Kong (1933)
Logan’s Run (1976)
Mad Max: Road Warrior (1981)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Matrix (1999)
Men in Black (1997)
Metropolis (1927)
Minority Report (2002)
Moon (2009)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Paprika (2006)
Pitch Black (2000)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Quartermass and the Pit (1967)
Repo Man (1984)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Robocop (1987)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Serenity (2005)
Slaughterhouse V (1972)
Sleeper (1974)
Solaris (1972)
Solaris (2002)
Soylent Green (1973)
Stalker (1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Star Wars (1977)
Starman (1984)
Start Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Strange Days (1995)
Summer Wars (2009)
Terminator 2 – Judgement Day (1991)
The Abyss (1983)
The City of Lost Children (1995)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Fifth Element (1997)
The Fly (1958)
The Fly (1986)
The Hidden (1987)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
The Iron Giant (1999)
The Man In The White Suit (1951)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
The Prestige (2006)
The Running Man (1987)
The Terminator (1984)
The Thing (1982)
The Truman Show (1998)
The War of The Worlds (1953)
Them! (1954)
They Live (1988)
Things to Come (1936)
THX-1138 (1971)
Time After Time (1979)
Time Bandits (1981)
Total Recall (1990)
Tremors (1990)
Tron (1982)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
V for Vendetta (2005)
WALL-E (2008)
Wargames (1983)
Westworld (1973)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Movies with too few nominations:
These movies had two or fewer nominations. If someone see that they missed a movie among these that they wanted to nominate, they have a short time to do so. Or just talk about a more unknown or misunderstood movie they think more people should have seen.
1984
2010
28 Days After
A Trip To The Moon
Airplane II: The Sequel
An America Werewolf in London
Appleseed: Ex Machina
Armageddon
Attack of the Block
Banlieue 12/District 13
Battle Royale
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Capricorn One
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Cloud Atlas
Cloverfield
Coherence
Cold Comfort Farm
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Contact
Cowboy Bebop
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Cube
Dark Crystal
Dark Star
Day of the Triffids
Deathrace 2000
Donnie Darko
Dune – Documentary
Eden Log (2007)
Edge of Tomorrow
Edward Scissorhands
Enemy Mine
Equilibrium
Escaflowne
Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha
Event Horizon
eXistenZ (1999)
Fahrenheit 451
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Flatland The Film (2007)
Flesh Gordon
Frankenstein: the true story
Frau im Mold
Gravity
Hancock
Hell Comes to Frogtown
He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of The Sword
Her
I am Legend
Idiocracy
Impostor
Inception
Innerspace
Interstella 5555
Jin-Rô – The Wolf Brigade
Just Imagine
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Life of Brian
Liquid Sky
Looper
Macross: Do You Remember Love
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
Max Max
Memento
Millenium Acress
Monster vs Aliens
Moonraker
Mr. Nobody (2009)
MST3K the Movie
Next
Nineteen-Eighty-Four
On The Beach
Pacific Rim
Patlabor 2
Pi
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Predator
Predestination
Primer
Quest for Fire
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)
Robotjox
Rollerball
Sexmission (Seksmisja)
Shaun of the Dead
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Space Jam
Spider-Man 2
Spy Hard
Star Trek
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Stargate
Stepford Wives
Sunshine
Super 8
Superman
Testament (TV Movie)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
The 10th Victim
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
The Andromeda Strain
The Blob
The Book of Eli
The Boys from Brazil
The Brother From Another Planet
The Day After (TV Movie)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Haunted Place
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
The Hunger Games
The Illustrated Man
The Invisible Man
The Island Earth
The Last Man on Earth
The Man with Two Brains
The Mysterious Island
The Omega Man
The Quiet Earth
The Road
The Secret of NIMH
The Thing From Another World
The Time Machine
The Time Travelers Wife
The Zero Theorem
Timecrimes
Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea
Treasure Planet
Under The Skin
Underworld
Up!
Upstream Color
Van Helsing
Waterworld
When Worlds Collide
Videodrome
Wings of Honneamise
Myself, I will do a bit of propaganda for the following movie:
The Quiet Earth (1985)
A man wakes up one morning and finds out that he is the last man on earth. Everyone else has disappeared, He stumbles around aimlessly, trying to find meaning in a life where no one else is around. The Movie is from New Zealand and I have no idea how much it has been shown outside of the country.
It is a very nice movie as the protagonist is a kind of ordinary middle aged man. He is confused, lonely, desperate and starting to get a bit mad after a while. One of my favourites. If you find it anywhere, watch it!
Filer FAIL on:
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
The Omega Man
Nthing:
Captain America the Winter Soldier
I did not realize things needed multiple nominations. I would like to add
Enemy Mine
MST3K the Movie
On the Beach
Shaun of the Dead
Superman
The Invisible Man
When Worlds Collide
Jim Henley: Filer FAIL on: Beneath the Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man
I totally agree. I was very small when I first saw these movies, but they had a huge, lasting impact on me (along with Planet of the Apes, especially the ending).
But look at the bright side: at least I Am Legend didn’t make the cut, either. 😉
I’ll throw after the fact noms to:
28 Days Later
Battle Royale
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Contact
Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha (AKA Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance)
Idiocracy
Predator
Shaun of the Dead
Stepford Wives
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
The Blob
The Time Machine
Videodrome
Wings of Honneamise
Seconding Quiet Earth. I was just thinking ‘what was the name of that awesome Kiwi SF movie I saw in the 80s’ when Hampus posted.
What? No love for Buckaroo Banzai?
So much so it’s not on EITHER of Hampus’s lists. ?
Come on, people. It’s the BEST movie!
ULTRAGOTHA — I’m not sure about your point — the list of movies with fewer than three nominations included The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)