Tag Archives: British Board of Film Classification

Pixel Scroll 11/14/24 Pixel, Devourer of Scrolls

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(1) BEST OF NATURE FUTURES SF STORY NOW UP – OPEN ACCESS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just posted its third ‘Best of’ Nature short SF stories of the year. These are normally behind a pay wall, but SF² Concatenation has permission from Nature and the respective authors to re-post.

The latest story is “The Nana Inheritance” by Amanda Helms.

The deathbed of your beloved grandmother isn’t really the place where you should decide who inherits her brain, but that’s what we did…

SF² Concatenation will have one more – the final of the year – short story mid-December to hold you over the festive season. Mid-January will see its spring (northern hemisphere academic year) edition with a huge news page, articles, conreps and a stack of book reviews…

(2) BOARD OF THE DINGS. Repeat after me, the British Board of Film Classification knows best. Now spit. “British film censors re-classify Return of the Jedi” reports Irish news outlet RTE.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi has been reclassified from a U to a PG in the UK due to its violence and a scene which shows one of the film’s heroes Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) had given it a U rating upon release in 1983, but said “the detail and overall intensity” of violence in the film meant that it was changed to PG last year for violence and threat, despite this being “offset by humour and an emphasis on loyalty in adversity”.

A U rating means the film is suitable for audiences aged four and above and should be “family-friendly”, while a PG rated film contains some content that may not be suitable for children and parents or guardians are advised to be present while they are watching.

In its 2023 Annual Report, which saw the sci-fi film reclassified, the BBFC said of Star Wars Episode VI: “This sci-fi adventure sequel concerns rebel heroes who must rescue their friends before facing an intimidating enemy army.

“As well as laser gun fights, aerial dogfights, and fight scenes which include the occasional use of improvised weapons, a person falls to a presumed but unseen death, a villain tortures a character by repeated electrocution, and a hero severs a villain’s hand at the wrist in a scene featuring limited detail.

“A captor attempts to feed his prisoner to a monster, and there are other scenes of threat involving bombs, hostages and a hero being frozen alive.”…

… The BBFC said the sequences were “no longer within our standards at U” despite upholding the initial rating for video and theatrical releases in 1987 and 2008….

(3) YOU CAN CHECK IN ANY TIME YOU WANT. “Doctor Who’s Steven Moffat confirms Christmas special plot details – including ‘time-travelling hotel’” – Radio Times has them.

…Moffat has teased some further details about what’s to come in the new episode.

Speaking to BBC South East news, Moffat revealed: “I can tease something about the Christmas special. Imagine in the far, far future, imagine that a hotel chain got hold of the idea of time travel. What’s the first thing a hotel chain would do if they had time travel? They’d realise they had an opportunity to sell all the unsold nights in their own hotels in history.”…

(4) THE BOWERY’S UP AND HOGWARTS IS DOWN. “Two New York City bakers to compete on new Food Network show ‘Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking’” – a New York Times story (behind a paywall).  

A new competition baking show on Food Network is bringing the magic of Harry Potter to a grand scale.

“Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking” is a larger-than-life new baking show that fully immerses contestants in the Harry Potter universe. Hosted by James and Oliver Phelps (who play Fred and George Weasley in the movie franchise), the show blends legendary storytelling and fantastical edible creations all on the competition floor.

“It’s a baking competition, it starts off with 9 teams of two bakers who didn’t know each other before they got into the competition. These guys are professionals in what they do. They’re the best of the best in America,” said Oliver Phelps. “They’re going for the trophy of the Wizards of Baking Champions and each bake is based on a set from the actual studios in London, and they have to come up with some inspiration from that.”

“Wizards of Baking” pairs the competitors into teams of two and has them compete alongside each other throughout the duration of the competition. Each week, the bakers make grand, eye-catching creations based on different Harry Potter sets.

The show was shot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England, and to raise the stakes, contestants are given access to the actual film sets, including The Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Platform 9¾, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and The Burrow. The winners will be awarded the first-ever Wizards of Baking Cup and will have the opportunity to appear in a new Harry Potter cookbook….

(5) SAD, RABID PUPPY STUDIES. Jess Maginity reviews Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll for the LA Review of Books in “Whose Future Is It Anyway?”

…In his introduction, Carroll discusses the close proximity of science fiction to radical right-wing politics since the early 20th century. To some extent, popular culture was always a tool used by the Far Right. Theorists of the French New Right described intentional ideological influence on popular culture aimed at a distant political victory as “metapolitics.” As Andrew Breitbart summarizes, “Politics is downstream from culture.” Carroll describes this tactic, alluding to his focus on speculative genres, as “fascist worldmaking.” The ideology that structures fascist worldmaking is speculative whiteness: “For the alt-right,” Carroll says, “whiteness represents a matrix of possibilities more important than any actual accomplishments the white race may have already achieved.” There are five “myths” that constitute speculative whiteness: first, white people are uniquely good at speculating about the future and innovating in the present; second, nonwhite people are incapable of imagining the future and making long-term plans for the future; third, the true grandeur of whiteness will only be apparent in a high-tech fascist utopia; fourth, science fiction is a genre only white authors are truly able to produce; and fifth, speculative genres have the metapolitical potential of allowing a brainwashed white population to see their racial potential….

…Genres have no essential existence; people decide what they are. A categorical definition only makes sense when enough people agree with it. The science fiction community rejected the alt-right’s definition of speculative fiction. N. K. Jemisin, a primary target of reactionary fan hatred, won three consecutive Hugos for Best Novel with her Broken Earth trilogy. Chuck Tingle, who writes absurdist queer erotica, was mockingly nominated by the Rabid Puppies for several awards; he disavowed the nomination, tirelessly satirized the Puppies, and wrote Slammed in the Butt by My Hugo Award Nomination (2016) in response. He has since written two very successful queer horror novels, Camp Damascus (2023) and Bury Your Gays (2024). The Sad and Rabid Puppies dissolved after a few years of campaigning; they were primarily active from 2014 through 2016. The alt-right has also collapsed. After the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, the alt-right as a movement effectively ceased to exist. That doesn’t mean that they just disappeared—some were absorbed by older radical right movements, others were absorbed into the mainstream, and a few became mass murderers in the name of a white future.

Carroll reminds us that our future is contingent. Fascists have a vision for the future that excludes most of humanity, but fascists can be defeated. The future is for everyone—if we make it that way….

(6) WHEN NEW WORLDS WAS NEW. The Spectator’s “Book Club” has a 43-minute audio interview with “Michael Moorcock: celebrating 60 years of New Worlds”. Listen to it at the link.

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer, musician and editor Michael Moorcock, whose editorship of New Worlds magazine is widely credited with ushering in a ‘new wave’ of science fiction and developing the careers of writers like J G Ballard, Iain Sinclair, Pamela Zoline, Thomas M Disch and M John Harrison. With the release of a special edition of New Worlds, honouring the 60th anniversary of his editorship, Mike tells me about how he set out to marry the best of literary fiction with the best of the pulp tradition, how he fought off obscenity charges over Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron, about his friendship with Ballard and his enmity with Kingsley Amis – and why he’s determined never to lose his vulgarity.

(7) CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN CENTENARY. The Tolkien Society has released the schedule for its free online Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference, being held November 23-24.

This November marks 100 years since the birth of Christopher Tolkien and the Society will be holding a two-day online event in honour of his life and legacy. You can register to attend the online Conference below.

“We seek to honour and remember Christopher. Although we know the enormity of the world that Tolkien created, we only know that thanks to Christopher’s work. He spent almost 50 years after his father’s death to bring Tolkien’s legacy to us all. His hard work and diligence has shined a light on the corners of Middle-earth that would otherwise be unknown to us. We all owe him a tremendous debt, and I hope this event goes some way in recognising Christopher’s legacy as much as his father’s.” — Shaun Gunner, Chair of the Tolkien Society

I don’t know about your house, but a lot of the participants are household names in mine — Christopher Gilson, Brian Sibley, Christopher Gilson, Carl F. Hostetter, Douglas A. Anderson, Ted Nasmith, John D. Rateliff, Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, John Garth, Robin Anne Reid, Michael D. C. Drout, and Verlyn Flieger.

Where possible, talks from both days will be recorded and uploaded onto the Tolkien Society YouTube channel after the event. The event is free to attend. Register here: Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference.

(8) CLARION WEST CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN. Through December 4, Clarion West’s Fall Fundraiser at Indiegogo is encouraging donations with perks like these:

Would you like to join an RPG session with award-winning science fiction writer Annalee Newitz? Experience a Seattle escape room with horror and dark fantasy writer Evan J. Peterson? Benefit from a consultation with Susan Palwick or Ben Rosenbaum?

And there are many more at the link.

Donations help cover programs and events, including all of the following: 

  • Instructors: All of our programs are taught by paid professionals in the field of speculative fiction. Clarion West pays our instructors an estimated $55,000 per year
  • Sliding scale tuition and application fees, reduced rates, free classes, and access seats: classes and workshops, travel, and time away can be a barrier to attending our programs. To reduce some of these barriers, we are committed to providing scholarships covering full and partial tuition to our residential workshops; discounts to reduce the cost of online classes; free events and programs for our community; and free seats in online classes for PGM/BIPOC writers. Clarion West covers  an estimated $25,000 in fees for these programs. 
  • Reader honorariums: Clarion West pays a dedicated group of application readers an average of $5,000 each year to help manage the application process. 
  • ASL interpreters and live captioners: Clarion West spends approximately $270 per event or $2,700 for live captioning services for live events and $350 for ASL interpreters for live events. 
  • Clarion West pays $4,200 annually for class and on-demand platforms 
  • Six-Week Workshop venues, such as university dorms range between $45,000-$90,000 for in-person years like 2024

(9) TIM SULLIVAN (1948-2024). Author and filmmaker Timothy Sullivan died November 10 of congestive heart failure in hospice in Newport News, Virginia.

His first published story, “Tachyon Rag”, appeared in Unearth in 1977. His short story “Zeke”, published in Twilight Zone, was a 1982 Nebula nominee.

Although mainly known as a writer and actor, his contribution to one of fanhistory’s most bitter fan feuds should not be forgotten. He and Somtow Sucharitkul split from the Washington Science Fiction Association during the exceptionally bitter Dunegate feud of the Eighties, nominally provoked by the way passes were distributed to a local publicity screening of David Lynch’s movie. They formed the Washington Alternative SF Association, and published the fanzine Dune Gate to prosecute the feud.

Later, Sullivan was cast by Somtow (along with other friends) in the film The Laughing Dead, a credit mentioned in The Hollywood Reporter’s tribute “Tim Sullivan Dead: Sci-Fi Author, Actor and Screenwriter Was 76”.

…He also wrote and directed Vampyre Femmes (1999) and appeared in such straight-to-video releases as The Laughing Dead (1989), Eyes of the Werewolf (1999), The Mark of Dracula (2000), Hollywood Mortuary (2000) and Deadly Scavengers (2001), working often with writer-director Ron Ford.

Sullivan wrote at least seven sci-fi novels during his career, three of them based on Kenneth Johnson’s V NBC miniseries and series in the mid-1980s about an alien invasion of Earth….

…He wrote dozens of short stories, including 1981’s “Zeke,” a tragedy about an extraterrestrial stranded on Earth that was nominated for a Nebula Award. His novels included 1988’s Destiny’s End, 1989’s The Parasite War, 1991’s The Martian Viking and The Dinosaur Trackers and 1992’s Lords of Creation….

…He also edited horror anthologies and handled book reviews for The Washington Post.

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

November 14, 1961 — Cat Rambo, 63.

By Paul Weimer: First and foremost Cat Rambo is a beacon of teaching in the science fiction community. Her Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers classes are a wealth of information and education in how to write science fiction and fantasy that stand up as educational, fun and practically useful. (Disclaimer: I co-taught a class in the Academy on maps in fantasy novels with Alex Acks.). The best teacher is to practice and read others work, but if you want some formal instruction short of going to a Clarion or the like (or don’t feel ready for that yet), Cat’s courses may be the solution you are looking for. She has a swath of excellent guest teachers to give ballast to her courses. 

Besides her pedagogical pursuits, I enjoy her fiction. There is a coziness to a lot of her fiction, particularly the You Sexy Thing and its sequels, which are my favorite of her work.  It’s not that they are entire creampuffs of novels, but there is a sense of fun, playfulness and comforting adventure…plus food, and cooking and misadventures, that make the book page-turners for me. Rambo does do a really good job in what a lot of authors don’t get to do or don’t want to do–recapping a series so that I can better remember what was going on. In reading the latest of the series, over a year since I read The Devil’s Gun, the recap Rambo gave helped click the neurons and have a rush of remembrance about what I was plunging into with Rumor Has It. 

Given that this is an open ended and every complexifying series, I appreciate this service for the reader. It makes the work of trying to remember things less taxing, and allows me as a reader to focus on the fun of the books, and how she is layering plot and character with each successive novel. Reading and talking with Cat as to how she handles character growth and development brings home to me that her teaching, her classes really are reflected in her own novels, and vice versa. 

Cat Rambo

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) THE OTHER HANNIBAL. Even if that’s the character who comes to mind when you see that name, he won’t be playing Hannibal Lecter. “Denzel Washington: ‘Black Panther 3’ Will Be One of His Last Movies” reports Variety.

Denzel Washington revealed in August that “there are very few films” left for him to make at this stage in his Oscar-winning career, but now he’s revealing that “Black Panther 3″ is one of them. Speaking to Australia’s “Today” while on the press tour for “Gladiator II,” Washington said that director Ryan Coogler is writing him a role in the third “Black Panther” film. It will be one of Washington’s final movies along with a new Steve McQueen project and a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

“For me it’s about the filmmakers. Especially at this point in my career, I am only interested in working with the best,” Washington said. “I don’t know how many more films I’m going to make. It’s probably not that many. I want to do things I haven’t done.”

“I played Othello at 22. I am about to play Othello at 70,” he continued, referring to the Shakespeare production co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal that opens on Broadway in February 2025. “After that, I am playing [Carthaginian general] Hannibal. After that, I’ve been talking to Steve McQueen about a film. After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next ‘Black Panther.’ After that, I’m going to do the film ‘Othello,’ After that, I’m going to do King Lear. After that, I’m going to retire.”

(13) UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED. The New York Times article “Take the ‘Death Stairs’ if You Dare” is paywalled, but the Facebook group “Death Stairs” is public and has lots of bizarre photos.

…No guardrails? Check. Carpeting that makes you lose your footing? Check. Steps of inconsistent depth and width? Check.

The more peril in the surrounding space, the better.

Do the stairs end in a dark basement? Excellent. Is the steep cement staircase guarded by rusting barbed wire on one side and open to a rushing dam on the other? Ideal….

Lane Sutterby, who lives in Kansas, had modest ambitions when he created the Death Stairs group in November 2020.

“I figured I’d have 10, 15 people join, maybe some of my close friends and a couple of random strangers,” he said….

…Some contributions to the Death Stairs Facebook page show how steep, rickety stairs are not the only risk. Distracting visual cues, inadequate hand rails and hard-to-see step edges are common….

(14) HOW CAN I GET THIS CAR OUT OF SECOND GEAR? [Item by Steven French.] Forget the jet packs, where’s my nuclear powered car?! “Visions of Nuclear-Powered Cars Captivated Cold War America, but the Technology Never Really Worked” in Smithsonian Magazine. Archival photos at the link.

In theory, nuclear-powered cars could run for thousands of miles without refueling, and some could even fly. But several problems remained. For one, nobody had developed a nuclear power plant small enough to fit into a car. For another, scientists calculated that an automobile with enough lead and other materials to shield the driver and passengers from radiation would weigh at least 50 tons, making it more than 25 times as heavy as the average vehicle. There was also the question of what to do with the nuclear waste.

These issues were never resolved, and the world quickly moved on. Still, the surviving prototypes offer a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been.

For one example, the Studebaker Astral.

(15) ROCKET TO THE MORGUE? Could it be dead, Jim? Futurism says “It Sounds Like NASA’s Moon Rocket Might Be Getting Canceled”.

NASA’s plagued Space Launch System rocket, which is being developed to deliver the first astronauts to the Moon in over half a century, is on thin ice.

According to Ars Technica senior space reporter Eric Berger’s insider sources, there’s an “at least 50-50” chance that the rocket “will be canceled.”

“Not Block 1B. Not Block 2,” he added, referring to the variant that was used during NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022 and a more powerful design with a much higher translunar injection payload capacity, respectively. “All of it.”

To be clear, as Berger himself points out, we’re still far “from anything being settled.” Nonetheless, the reporter’s sources have historically been highly reliable, suggesting the space agency may indeed be getting cold feet about continuing to pour billions of dollars into the non-reusable rocket.

The SLS has already seen its fair share of budget overruns and many years of delays. In a 2022 interview, former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver told Futurism that the project is simply “not sustainable.”

The rocket platform has become a political football, going well past $6 billion over budget and over half a decade behind schedule….

(16) NOT THE VIDEO OF THE DAY. “Disgusting, isn’t it? John Lewis’s shocking Christmas advert is actually about … shopping” – the Guardian sounds mighty peeved. Hopefully, they’re kidding.

Well, this is an outrage. There are just some things you shouldn’t mess with. Roast dinners. The national anthem. The John Lewis Christmas advert.

You see, the John Lewis Christmas advert has long operated on a perfect formula. Every November we are treated to a sumptuous mini-movie, the components of which have long since lapsed into tradition. It must be festive. It must have a slowed down piano ballad cover version of a nostalgic pop song. It must also be unfathomably sad, either because it’s about an old man dying of loneliness on the moon (2015) or a Christmas tree being banished to the garden because it’s a bit too excitable (2023).

But most importantly – most importantly of all – it must not be about John Lewis. The whole point of a John Lewis Christmas advert is that, if people watch it out of context and are subsequently asked what it is advertising, they should ideally reply ‘palliative care’ or ‘some sort of childhood trauma charity’. The point of a John Lewis Christmas advert is that a foreigner should be able to watch it all the way through and still have no idea what John Lewis is or why his kink is making people from Surrey cry.

But forget that this year. Because this year, John Lewis has thrown all that in the bin. This year, John Lewis has committed the unforgivable sin of literally setting its Christmas advert inside an actual branch of John Lewis. This is quite frankly unforgivable….

I kind of like it….

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cora Buhlert, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Shao Ping.]

Pixel Scroll 8/13/24 The Fifth-Million Pixel Fan

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(1) INDUSTRY TAKE ON WORLDCON. Publishers Weekly gave it thumbs up: “In Glasgow, Worldcon Worked to Put Controversy Behind It”.

In a spirited five-day celebration, held August 8–12 at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow, Scotland, crowds converged from all over the globe for the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention, known as Worldcon. Show organizers said that more than 8,000 membership badges were purchased in total, with over 7,200 issued at the venue and upwards of 600 in attendance online.

On the convention floor and across a wealth of a wealth of panels, book signings, and creative showcases, the mood was buoyant, with old hands and first-timers alike connecting in bars, at events, and simply in passing. And the organization’s promise to “[consider] access, inclusion, and diversity as integral to Glasgow 2024,” found the perfect venue in the Scottish city, which was welcoming, accessible, and spacious.

…From an industry perspective, there was a scarcity of American publishers at this year’s Worldcon. Still, everyone in attendance seemed more focused on celebrating the current boom in the genre around the world.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be a SFF publisher,” said Bethan Morgan, editorial director of Gollancz. Eleanor Teasdale, publisher at Angry Robot Books and Datura Books, remarked, “It’s been a joyous festival of genre, with so many international attendees too.”

This excitement was shared by Amanda Rutter, commissioning editor at Solaris Books. “I haven’t been to [a Worldcon] that felt so productive and positive since before the pandemic,” she said, adding, “The Glasgow team made it the most inclusive convention I have been to by far, given their commitment to accessibility needs and striving to ensure that every single participant felt as though they were represented.”

“The con felt very well organized,” said George Sandison, managing editor at Titan Books. “Like all effective project management, it looked like it was very simple to do and probably required Herculean efforts by numerous highly competent people!” Francesca T. Barbini, founder of Luna Press Publishing, agreed, praising the organizers for “being lots of help when we arrived. Overall, it’s been an amazing experience.”

The main takeaway from the event seemed to be about the importance of in-person connection to both the publishing industry and the greater SFF community. Cath Trechman, editor at large at Titan Books, noted, “I can say I found this year’s Worldcon to be a great place to meet authors and agents and chat about the current trends and the idiosyncrasies of publishing, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of genre fans and book lovers.”…

(2) GLASGOW 2024 BUSINESS MEETING VIDEOS. At the link is the YouTube playlist for the 2024 WSFS Business Meeting videos recorded by Lisa Hayes. Kevin Standlee finally found a workaround to overcome the bandwidth problem at his Glasgow hotel.

(3) REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY. [Item by Olav Rokne.] Intended as a happy, silly coda to this year’s Hugo season, Amanda and I present “How to Lose a Hugo,” which after four go-arounds we’re starting to have some experience at. (Though we can think of some folks who have lost far more often than we have.) “How To Lose A Hugo” at the Hugo Book Club Blog.

… When it comes to the Hugo Awards, it’s worth remembering that they are a community award that masquerades as a literary institution. These awards are nominated and voted on by a self-selected group that loosely organizes itself around a series of conventions. That means that how well someone is known and how they are seen within the community will inevitably affect whether or not their work is recognized by the community.

Social media is awash with accounts run by authors who rarely post anything other than promotional content aimed at selling their own books. It’s also worth letting people know who you are, what books you enjoy, and what your general vibe is.

Engaging with the community isn’t just about telling people how good you think your book or art is, it’s about listening and talking about the things that are important to them. Talk about politics, talk about art, talk about architecture, talk about music, and be authentic….

(4) BRISBANE 2028 WORLDCON BID MAY CHANGE DATE. To July?

(5) ROWLING, MUSK, LISTED IN CYBERBULLYING COMPLAINT. “J.K. Rowling, Elon Musk Named in Imane Khelif’s Cyberbullying Lawsuit” – Variety has details.

J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have both been named in a criminal complaint filed to French authorities over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” against Algerian boxer and newly crowned Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Nabil Boudi, the Paris-based attorney of Khelif, confirmed to Variety that both figures were mentioned in the body of the complaint, posted to the anti-online hatred center of the Paris public prosecutor’s office on Friday.

The lawsuit was filed against X, which under French law means that it was filed against unknown persons. That “ensure[s] that the ‘prosecution has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people,” including those who may have written hateful messages under pseudonyms, said Boudi. The complaint nevertheless mentions famously controversial figures….

(6) TWO GREATS AGREE.

(7) DISCREET HORROR. [Item by Steven French.] Signs of the times: Nightmare on Elm Street gets downgraded from ‘18’ to ‘15’ while Paint Your Wagon is reclassified a ‘12’ from a PG for the ‘sex references’. “A Nightmare on Elm Street rating change defended by BBFC” reports the Guardian.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has defended its decision to change the certificate of horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street from an 18 to a 15, saying that its audience research showed “strong support for older content to be reclassified in line with modern standards”.

The classic 1980s horror, featuring the malevolent, razor-gloved Freddy Krueger who stalks and murders teenagers in their dreams, was given an 18 certificate on its first UK release in 1985, a designation confirmed on a subsequent cinema release in 2013 and a series of home entertainment releases. However, after a new application from its studio Warner Bros, the certificate was changed to a 15 on 1 August, ahead of a home entertainment reissue in September….

…The spokesperson added: “In the case of A Nightmare on Elm Street, although the film features various bloody moments, it is relatively discreet in terms of gore and stronger injury detail. The kills often leave more to the imagination than visceral detail, and largely occur within a fantasy context. Compared to more recent precedents for violence and horror [classified] at 18 – such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Imaculate or Saw X – the film is now containable at 15 and we reclassified it accordingly.”…

(8) ABOUT THAT BLACK HOLE. This looks irresistible. Omni Loop – Official Trailer. In theaters September 20.

OMNI LOOP follows Zoya Lowe (Parker), a quantum physicist who finds herself in a time loop, with a black hole growing in her chest and only a week to live. But what the doctors and her family don’t know is that she has already lived this week before; so many times, in fact, that she doesn’t even know how long it’s been. Until one day Zoya meets a gifted student named Paula (Edebiri). Together they team up to save her life – and to unlock the mysteries of time travel.

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born August 13, 1953 — The War of The Worlds film (1953)

It’s 1953, it’s New York City, it’s August, a hot summer night, a perfect evening for an alien invasion to begin, and so we have The War of The Worlds premiere there. Based off, of course the H.G. Wells novel of the same name, it was produced for the screen by George Pal. 

The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon. This is part of his legal name, Alfred Edgar Barre Lyndon, and it is obviously taken from the title character of Thackeray’s novel. This and Conquest of Space were his only SF screenplays.

It was directed by Brian Haskin, just one of many films where he teamed with George Pal, another one being Conquest of Space which our screenwriter here also was on.

It starred Gene Barry who six years later would be Bat Masterson, and Anne Richards, who would be in the Dragnet film that led to the series as Officer Grace Downey. (She does not reprise the character in the series.) Bless her, she’s still with us at age ninety-five. Barry passed on five years ago. 

Paramount rather pointedly said there’d be a romantic subplot in which our scientist have a love interest, hence the casting of Richards here.

The story itself is moved to Southern California in to my surprise, it was set in, emphasis was, an actual real place. Linda Rose was formerly in San Diego County, but is now in Riverside County. It’s a ghost town as it was a failed development scheme from the 1880s, one of many from that time. Fascinating as Spock would say.

The special effects were, shall I say, inordinately expensive. Paramount budgeted two million and wouldn’t budge, not a dollar over that amount would be further given, so stock footage of World War Two battles had to do for the global Mars invasion.  Even so the film just broke even — two million in production costs, two million in box office receipts in an era when studios generally own the cinemas. 

What did critics think of it? The best summation I think come from Variety at the time: “War of the Worlds is a socko science-fiction feature, as fearsome as a film as was the Orson Welles 1938 radio interpretation of the H.G. Wells novel.” It was at the time, after all, only fourteen years since the latter broadcast. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) LATEST AND GREATEST. Lisa Tuttle, in “The best recent science fiction and fantasy – reviews roundup” for the Guardian, covers Extremophile by Ian Green; Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan; Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey; and Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts.

(12) TAKE A WHIFF. [Item by Steven French.] I love the smell of Minecraft in the morning! “Want to smell like the Ender Dragon? We test the Lush Minecraft range” in the Guardian.

Last spring, one of my favourite brand tie-ins of 2023 saw high-street cosmetics chain Lush team up with Nintendo to create a range of products based around Super Mario. It was a riot of brightly coloured shower gels and super-sweet fragrances, including a divine Princess Peach body spray that I’m still using because screw gender-based perfume norms.

Now, Lush has released a new video game range celebrating 15 years of Minecraft. There are 12 items in the collection, including easily the most literal bath bomb Lush has ever made – a TNT block – as well as Grass and Lava blocks, a Creeper head shower bomb and a Diamond Pickaxe bubble bar, which is genuinely quite hefty despite its diminutive size.

The collection is apparently the result of a year-long collaboration with the game’s developer Mojang, and it’s been a popular project for the company’s employees. Lush concepts creative director Melody Morton is a regular player – and she’s not the only one. “We have many Minecraft players within the business, so there was lots of reference and resource to pull on when it came to products, creative and messaging,” says Kalem Brinkworth, the creative lead on the Lush collaborations team….

(13) BONESTELL ON THE BLOCK. Christie’s will run its “Over the Horizon: Art of the Future from the Paul G. Allen Collection” online auction from August 23-September 12.

Over the Horizon: Art of the Future from the Paul G. Allen Collection is devoted to how the future, especially interplanetary travel, was imagined by artists and other thinkers during the 20th century. These include Chesley Bonestell, Robert McCall, R.C. Swanson, George Gibbs, and Fred Freeman, among many others. The artworks in this auction, along with their publication in popular magazines, inspired a generation of explorers, scientists, and aerospace engineers. 

Paul Allen was among the most significant collectors of works by Chesley Bonestell, widely acknowledged as the “father of space art.” Bonestell’s Saturn as Seen from Titan, first published in 1949, has been called by the Smithsonian “the painting that launched a thousand careers.” A version of that painting, circa 1952, is available in the sale, along with several works published as illustrations for the famous “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” series of articles, published in Collier’s Magazine in the early 1950s. 

(14) MET AT READERCON. The Nerd Count Podcast, hosted by Mercurio D. Rivera and Matthew Kressel, brings episode 4 “Live From Readercon”.

In our fourth episode, we come you you LIVE from Readercon, the “conference on imaginative literature,” held this past July in Quincy, Massachusetts. We had the pleasure of interviewing the following guests: Jeffrey Ford, A.T. Greenblatt, A.C. Wise, Scott H. Andrews, Mike Allen, A.T. Sayre, Julie C. Day, C.S.E. Cooney, William Alexander, John Wiswell, Rob Cameron, and Sophia Babai. We talk about Readercons past, what makes Readercon a truly special convention — particularly its welcoming and friendly vibe — and we talk with each guest about their recent and upcoming creative works. This was a blast to record, and we had so much fun talking to all these diverse and talented folks!

(15) SPLISH, SPLASH. “Mars water: Liquid water reservoirs found under Martian crust” reports BBC.

Scientists have discovered a reservoir of liquid water on Mars – deep in the rocky outer crust of the planet.

The findings come from a new analysis of data from Nasa’s Mars Insight Lander, which touched down on the planet back in 2018.

The lander carried a seismometer, which recorded four years’ of vibrations – Mars quakes – from deep inside the Red Planet.

Analysing those quakes – and exactly how the planet moves – revealed “seismic signals” of liquid water.

While there is water frozen at the Martian poles and evidence of vapour in the atmosphere, this is the first time liquid water has been found on the planet.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Insight’s scientific mission ended in December 2022, after the lander sat quietly listening to “the pulse of Mars” for four years.

In that time, the probe recorded more than 1,319 quakes….

(16) LEGOS BY THE THOUSANDS. Bell of Lost Souls is thrilled that “Huge LEGO Star Trek ‘Deep Space Nine’ Model Has Over 75,000 Pieces”.

…Adrian Drake built the famous space station from the frame up using more than 75,000 pieces. It’s 6 feet tall and eight feet in diameter and is heavy enough that it needs some extra supports. The whole build took over two years.

It’s a truly impressive and gigantic build. Drake displayed it at Brickworld Chicago, where he gave a tour to Beyond the Brick. Check out how he built the LEGO Deep Space Nine and all of the cool details….

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Olav Rokne, N., Kevin Standlee, Anne Marble, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

Pixel Scroll 3/2/24 Yeets of Eden

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(1) HUGO NOMINATIONS CLOSE IN ONE WEEK. Nicholas Whyte, Glasgow 2024 Hugo Administrator and WSFS Division Head reminds members that they have until March 9 to submit nominations for this year’s Hugo Awards. Full information at “Hugo Awards – Nomination Ballot”.

They also are offering Chinese translation for the 2024 Hugo Award nomination process as a courtesy to the Chinese-speaking 2023 Chengdu WSFS members who have nomination rights for the 2024 Hugo Awards.

(2) HWA: MARUYAMA Q&A. The Horror Writers Association continues “Women in Horror Month 2024” in “An Interview with Kate Maruyama”.

Kate Maruyama. Photo by Rachael Warecki.

Do you make a conscious effort to include female characters and themes in your writing and if so, what do you want to portray?

I write all characters, but I am always trying to get inside women characters in a complex way that blows out the walls of archetypes. The old woman who is complex and funny and real (and swears! All the older women I admire swear), the ingenue aged woman who is brilliant, unpredictable, problem solving, and forward moving, the mother whose entire existence is not mothering, but is a whole person who happens to have kids, the little girl who is smart and weird and does not give a crap about boys.

What has writing horror taught you about the world and yourself?

We all have darkness in us, and if we can get inside it and open up our fears and where they come from, it can help people manage their very real lives.

(3) CHUCK TINGLE ON CAMP DAMASCUS CATEGORY. The Horror Writers Association moved Chuck Tingle’s novel Camp Damascus out of the YA category into the main Novel category. One of the responses earned this callout. (Whoever’s blog this is, I see there also were other comments supportive of Tingle’s book.)

(4) IWÁJÚ. Eddie Louise calls Iwájú on Disney+ — “Amazing science fiction for kids with deep cultural and societal commentary.” See trailer at the link.

“Iwájú” is an original animated series set in a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria. The exciting coming-of-age story follows Tola, a young girl from the wealthy island, and her best friend, Kole, a self-taught tech expert, as they discover the secrets and dangers hidden in their different worlds. Kugali filmmakers—including director Olufikayo Ziki Adeola, production designer Hamid Ibrahim and cultural consultant Toluwalakin Olowofoyeku—take viewers on a unique journey into the world of “Iwájú,” bursting with unique visual elements and technological advancements inspired by the spirit of Lagos. The series is produced by Disney Animation’s Christina Chen with a screenplay by Adeola and Halima Hudson. “Iwájú” features the voices of Simisola Gbadamosi, Dayo Okeniyi, Femi Branch, Siji Soetan and Weruche Opia.

(5) LIKE SAND THROUGH AN HOURGLASS. Maya St. Clair finds what time has done to the first Dune movie – not that a lot of time needed to have passed before the results were known: “Make Sci-Fi Cringe Again (Duneposting 1)”.

The other night, a friend and I went to an anniversary screening of David Lynch’s 1984 Dune. Its manmade horrors were consumed in the way God intended: on a towering screen, with a printout of the infamous Dune Terminology sheet balanced in my lap, as I inhaled a bucket of curly fries agleam with twice their weight in grease. Visually, Dune is an orgy of delights: a dense mannerist universe filled with gilt and wires and inbred animals/people. The voiceovers are camp, the editing ridiculous, the hairdos lofty and aggressive (Aquanet — like spice — must flow). Around the midpoint of the movie — when Sting steps out of a sauna in a codpiece —most people had come to the unspoken understanding that it was okay to laugh instead of sitting in respectful, cinephilic silence. The Harkonnen milking machine (i.e. a rat just duct-taped to a cat) brought down the house….

(6) DUNE PT. 2. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Front Row on B Beeb Ceeb’s Radio 4 (a.k.a. the Home Service) first third sees a review of Dune Part II.

Now, while I concur (others may disagree) that for all its spectacle Part I was a little ponderous (go in with a medium or large real coffee Americana) it was faithful to the novel and the SFX far better than the Lynch offering… This last is, of course unfair, the Lynch offering came out four decades ago… Yes, just a decade short of half a century and so you’d expect as big an improvement in cinematography as there was between 1984 and films made towards the end of the war (that’s WWII in case you were wondering how old I was).

So, how did the Front Row review go?  Well, the first thing that surprised me was that one of the reviewers hates epic ‘sci-fi’.  Yes, for some in the arts, SF remains a ghetto genre.  (Or perhaps we at SF² Concatenation should swop our book review panel of ardent SF readers to those that loathe genre literature. Perhaps File 770 should be edited by someone outside of fandom? Perhaps Boris Johnson  should become Prime Minister…)

Be thrilled.  Be amazed.  The truth is out there….

You can listen to the first third of the programme here: “Front Row, Dune 2”.

(7) ABOUT THOSE LENSMEN. Steve J. Wright may not be treading new ground in “How the Other Half Lives”, but fascism, John W. Campbell Jr., and the Golden Age have been thoroughly plowed under by the time he’s done.

This is spilling out of a discussion over on File 770 (item 4 on the scroll), which in turn derived partly from Charles Stross’s “We’re Sorry we Created the Torment Nexus”. It also ties in, of course, to the ongoing “was John W. Campbell a fascist?” non-debate (because people who say no are not changing their minds, ever.)

“Fascist”, of course, is one of those terms linguisticians call “snarl words”, where the negative connotations have pretty much obscured the original usage…

…But were Golden Age SF writers in general, and John W. Campbell Jr. in particular, happy with elitism? Oh, you bet they were. The Gernsbackian ideal, as exemplified in Gernsback’s own ridiculous novel Ralph 124C41+, was a homogeneous, rationally-planned society in which government, if it existed at all, was strictly subordinated to the scientific elite – in the eponymous Ralph’s case, the “plus men”, entitled to that + sign on their names, whose unfettered experimentation led to an endless round of fresh discoveries and scientific benefits for the general populace. And you can’t throw a brick in Campbell-era SF without hitting an omni-competent super-science hero with world-transforming insights and the steely determination to push aside bureaucratic meddling and Get Things Done. Campbell himself regarded Astounding as not just a science fiction magazine, but a proving ground for the ideas that would shape the world of tomorrow. And he had plenty of sympathy from SF fans, who were happy to believe that their time would come, and they would be in the vanguard of the new elite. Granted, not many fans took it as far as the rather alarming Claude Degler, but if you said “fans are slans” at any fannish gathering of the times, you would see more than one head nodding in approval….

(8) REFERENCE DIRECTOR! Meanwhile, in Russia: “Alexei Navalny Was Buried to the Terminator 2 Theme Song”  — New York Magazine has the story.

…Navalny got in one last laugh at his funeral on Friday. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, the tune playing in the background wasn’t some funeral dirge, but the theme from his favorite movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It was the refrain that plays during the movie’s famous final scene, as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s soulful killer cyborg gives a thumbs-up while he is lowered into a vat of molten steel, sacrificing himself to save the future….

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born March 2, 1966 — Ann Leckie, 58. So let’s start with Lis Carey talking about her favorite work by our writer this Scroll, Ann Leckie:

Ann Leckie wins Hugo in 2014. Photo by Henry Harel.

Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy, starting with Ancillary Justice in 2013, gives us a culture where biological sex is ignored, and only female pronouns are used. Breq, our protagonist throughout the trilogy, is the only survivor of a ship destroyed by treachery, and she’s the ship’s artificial intelligence, occupying an ancillary body, i.e., a body whose own personality has been erased and replaced with one more useful to the empire, and presenting herself as an officer. 

In her quest for revenge, she becomes more and more fully human, and more and more aware of what’s wrong with the empire she serves. We see glimpses of a galaxy beyond the Radch Empire, some of them fascinating.

We’re certainly not given the impression that the Radch are the good guys. In subsequent books and stories, we get looks at the Radch from the outside, and at the other human cultures trying to survive in a galaxy where the Radch are the major human power. It’s a wonderfully complex and layered universe, and it’s well worth exploring.

Ancillary Justice swept the awards field in 2014: a Hugo at Loncon 3, a British Fantasy Award, the Clarke a Kitschie, and a Nebula. The sequel, Ancillary Sword was nominated at Sasquan and won a BSFA Award; the final book in the trilogy, Ancillary Mercy, was a Hugo finalist at MidAmeriCon II. Her next book set in that universe, Provenance, novel garnered a Hugo nomination at Worldcon 76. 

Translation State, though also part of the Imperial Radch, is a pretty a stand-alone story. Yes, I liked it a lot. So let’s have Lis set the scene for you again…

It’s set in that universe, on the edge of human space, in a space station where the human polities including the Radch, and several alien polities, attempt to maintain calm and peaceful relations with the Presger, whom no one has ever seen, but who could destroy everyone if they got annoyed.

This is the book where we really get acquainted with the Presger translators, who appear to have been created from humans, but really aren’t, anymore.

It is, I would say, primarily a missing person case more than a murder mystery but it is both. It is a fascinating story. 

She’s also written an excellent fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, which I’ve been listening to of late. Adjoa Andoh narrates the audio version. She’s been on Doctor Who numerous times, mostly playing the mother of Martha Jones. She does a stellar performance here. 

Leckie has published a baker’s dozen short stories, two set in the Imperial Radch universe. I’ve not read any of them. Who has?

I look forward to seeing what she writes next. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

  • Reality Check shows a fan pedant in (unwelcome!) action.
  • Close to Home has the most grotesque Pinocchio joke I’ve ever seen.
  • Tom Gauld mixes higher math with lower cuisine.

(11) GOOD OMENS VISUALS. Colleen Doran’s Funny Business is back with “Good Omens Peeks” – artwork at the link.

… I don’t know if, you know, getting cancer, going blind, smashing my face in, and generally having a really awful 2023 hasn’t been some weird sort of super-motivation, but I’m working very steady, and I actually think the art has gotten more solid as I go along.

I’m also very far behind schedule, but since the book was so far ahead to start, even though it’s going to be late, it won’t be horribly late. I set some pages aside and was unable to work on them for months, and that distance helped me work through some problems, too.

Anyhow, here’s some of my art in progress. And thanks for all the votes in the ComicScene awards for Good Omens as #1 crowdfund campaign of 2023….

(12) AFTER MIDNIGHT. Bitter Karella is back with the members of The Midnight Society, who are being a trial to Ursula K. Le Guin. Thread starts here.

(13) WAY AFTER MIDNIGHT. In “Seeing ‘Dune 2’ in 70mm Imax at 3:15 a.m. Was an Unforgettable Experience”, Variety’s Ethan Shanfeldfiles a snarky report about the ambiance.

…About 45 minutes into the movie, I thought for sure I was toast. Those gorgeous desert sand dunes reminded me of pillows, and I questioned what life choices I made that led me here, to seat H35. But then I saw a guy nod off two rows ahead of me, and I thought about how annoying it would be to have to see this movie again just to catch the parts I missed. I’m not weak like him, I thought, inhaling my Diet Coke. And, to even my own surprise, I powered through, savoring Paul Atreides’ larger-than-life odyssey all the way until the credits rolled at 6:18 a.m.

On the escalator down, I caught up with the three friends from New Jersey. “What are your plans this morning?” I asked, and they told me they were going to walk west to watch the sunrise over the Hudson. I didn’t have the heart (read: brain cells) to tell them the sun rises in the east.

(14) JUSTWATCH. Here are JustWatch’s charts of the most-viewed streaming movies and TV series of February 2024.

(15) SQUEAK IN DELIGHT. [Item by Bill Higgins.] Good news for all who love helium, Minneapolis in 73, and airships! Let us lift our high-pitched voices in song! “’A dream. It’s perfect’: Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America” on CBS Minnesota.

Scientists and researchers are celebrating what they call a “dream” discovery after an exploratory drill confirmed a high concentration of helium buried deep in Minnesota’s Iron Range.

Thomas Abraham-James, CEO of Pulsar Helium, said the confirmed presence of helium could be one of the most significant such finds in the world.

“There was a lot of screaming, a lot of hugging and high fives. It’s nice to know the efforts all worked out and we pulled it off,” Abraham-James said….

…According to Abraham-James, the helium concentration was measured at 12.4%, which is higher than forecasted and roughly 30 times the industry standard for commercial helium.

(16) 2021 FLASHBACK: STRICTER RATINGS FOR THESE SFF MOVIES. The British Board of Film Classification ratings change to Mary Poppins (see Pixel Scroll 2/26/24 item #9) was just the latest to affect sff films as shown in this 2021 BBC News article: “Rocky and Flash Gordon given tighter age rating”. In 2021 the extended edition of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring has also been moved up to a 12A for its “moderate fantasy violence and threat.”Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was moved from Universal to PG.

…Of the 93 complaints the board received last year, 27 were about 1980 space opera film Flash Gordon.

The movie’s 40th anniversary re-release was reclassified up to 12A partly due to the inclusion of “discriminatory stereotypes”.

The BBFC did not say what the stereotypes were. However Flash Gordon’s main villain, Ming the Merciless, was of East Asian appearance but played by Swedish-French actor Max von Sydow….

(17) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Back in the day at school — seems like half a century ago (hang on, it was) — there were a bunch of us whose aim in chemistry was to get the contents of one’s boiling tube to mark the ceiling… We were the back bench bucket chemists! Those were the days. Very much in that spirit, physics Matt O’Dowd asks “What Happens If We Nuke Space?” Come on, Bruce Willis has done it?

EMPs aren’t science fiction. Real militaries are experimenting on real EMP generators, and as Starfish Prime showed us, space nukes can send powerful EMPs to the surface. So what exactly is an EMP, and how dangerous are they?  

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Kathy Sullivan, Daniel Dern, Lis Carey, Eddie Louise, JJ, Bill Higgins, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peace Is My Middle Name.]