SFX - October 2014 UK

#252

welcome to sfx 252

contents “there’s endless possibilities for the villains”

56

9 Red Alert

If it’s sci-fi and it’s news, it’ll be here.

26 Development Hell

Things coming your way from the Hollywood dream factory of delights.

28 David Langford

Our literary columnist rediscovers an old pal…

30 Bonnie Burton

Bonnie’s loving angels – but they’re not loving her.

33 Post Apocalypse

Readers take the chance to sound off, including saying what children’s TV they’d like to see back.

38 Wishlist

What you guys would love to see in Godzilla 2.

40 Event Horizon

Want to know what happened when we finally made it to the Secret Cinema Back To The Future gig?

42 Blastermind QUIZ

We want information. So: try our Prisoner quiz!

48 doctor who

Twelfth Time Lord Peter Capaldi talks to SFX about taking on the biggest role in television.

52 NEW Tv shows cover feature!

Exciting previews of a whole raft of new stuff coming to a TV near you, including: Gotham, The Flash, The Walking Dead, Star Wars Rebels, Sleepy Hollow, Arrow, Atlantis and much more.

75 couch potato

This issue the Couch crew watch TV and movies featuring former Doctors in other roles.

78 ant-man

Looking ahead to the mini Marvel movie.

82 the maze runner “i love the notion of the little guy taking down the establishment”

60 “I thought: ‘how do you make the Maze real?’”

82

The latest YA series comes to the big screen.

86 brought to book

Chatting to SF author James Lovegrove.

88 robin of sherwood

We take a look back at the ’80s series that turned the Robin Hood legend into fully fledged fantasy.

92 Penny Dreadful

The latest from the horrid world of horror.

95 RATED

Yep, it’s the best reviews section in the universe!

124 View Screen

In-depth articles on genre TV, including this issue The Strain, Hemlock Grove and Under The Dome.

“sometimes i can’t get to sleep at night because i’m so excited” www.sfx.co.uk

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130 Total Recall

Nick Setchfield on something that made him shiver: his Monsters Of The Movies book. October 2014

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Find me on page 60.

welcome

Issue 252 • October 2014

The Inside Skinny

What your SFX chums are thinking about... Dave Bradley Editor-in-Chief

RAVES I got to meet Adam West in San Diego. Another tick in my I-Spy Book Of Childhood Heroes. Forget The Hobbit movies, I’m dead excited about the Shadows Of Mordor RPG! RANTS The press release and @StarWars say that’s a new X-Wing, so please calm down all those calling JJ’s ship a Z95 or somesuch.

Richard Edwards

deputy editor RAVES JJ’s Episode VII X-Wing reveal in the last Force For Change video made me even more excited about the movie than I was before. (And yes, I do know it’s just a prop spaceship.) RANTS San Diego Comic-Con is still like nowhere else on Earth, but I was underwhelmed about this year’s line-up. Maybe we’ve just been spoiled?

Nick Setchfield

Russell Lewin

Raves Still buzzing from Guardians Of The Galaxy. So many corners of the Marvel Universe I never dreamt I’d see on the big screen. Here’s hoping Doctor Strange goes full Ditko and busts the weird-o-meter. Ah, the simple happiness of seeing Harrison Ford up and walking again. In your face, Falcon door!

Raves Hugely looking forward to watching Capaldi’s first series as the Doctor. I predict good things. Rants You can’t have a movie called The Sinister Six and expect it to work. You need a superpowered hero protagonist up front to combat them. I predict bad things.

Features Editor

Ian Berriman Reviews Editor

RAVES Digging the “profound quote” posters inspired by films like Back To The Future online at www.middleboop.com. After reviewing The Changes (see page 108) I’m reading a lovely old Puffin paperback of Peter Dickinson’s, The Devil’s Children. It smells of childhood. Current DVD rewatch: The New Avengers. Better than I remembered!

Production Editor

Jordan Farley

staff writer

RAVES Adored Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. It’s that rarest of beasts – a superior sequel. Finally played Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. Must have had something in my eyes by the end because they wouldn’t stop watering. Rants Six episodes in and True Blood’s final season has been a consistent disappointment.

Jon Coates

Adrian Hill

RAVES I’m not much of a Shyamalan fan but Wayward Pines looks like a pretty cool show. Hopefully more a Life On Mars/Twin Peaks-esque crossover than a reworking of The Village! And speaking of Twin Peaks, the new Blu-ray boxset looks amazing. So many cool extras to trawl through and enjoy. Going to have to book a couple of months off.

RAVES San Diego Comic-Con was another great year, if not for major announcements, but for just how well the whole city embraces the event. The highlight for me was meeting Dolph Lundgren. Made me look like a ventriloquist’s puppet! (See page 25.) Can’t wait to have my Saturday evenings filled in once more by a certain Time Lord. Come on Capaldi, show us what you’re made of!

Art Editor

Ad Manager

Andrew Osmond

Tara Bennett

RAVES I’m very late to the party, but I recently started watching Felicia Day’s gamer web series The Guild. Character comedy is so hard to do well, and The Guild pulls it off with such aplomb. I’ve a dreadful suspicion that I’m Vork… RANTS Nothing’s convinced me that Terminator: Genisys can leap the franchise back over the shark.

Raves Having seen the gameplay of the upcoming Alien: Isolation game with the exclusive Ellen Ripley from Alien content, I’m excited. Rants Do we really need another Batman origin story via Gotham? I’m feeling origin-ed out when it comes to comic book mythology backstories on the big and small screen.

Writer

US Editor (East Coast)

Rosie Fletcher

Louisa Hall

Reviewer

Raves Massively excited about the next FrightFest. I’m lucky to have already seen The Babadook and it’s brilliant. Mister Babadook is terrifying. Rants Can everyone please shut up about Games Of Thrones? I haven’t seen it. I don’t care if it’s the best thing ever. Lost was the best thing ever and look where that ended up.

Work Experience

Raves Having watched Gravity on DVD again, I still can’t get over that first shot when the camera pans out, showing the incredible view of Earth. Breathtaking. Rants I hate those teasers at the end of Doctor Who – they show bits that ruin future episodes before I can turn the TV off. I hope that changes this year, I want to be surprised by the upcoming aliens!

Next issue on sale Wednesday 17 September 2014 Postal address: 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW • Editorial team email: [email protected] Customer services UK: 0844 848 28 52 • International contact: +44 (0)1604 251 045 Subs info: visit www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe or check out page 29 for the latest offer. www.sfx.co.uk

W

elcome to SFX! That picture above was snapped at the Instagram booth at Nerd HQ in San Diego when the SFX away team headed there for last month’s Comic-Con. It was another glorious week of geek fun and reminded me how great it is to hang out with like-minded people and what a jubilant atmosphere is generated when over 100,000 fans gather to celebrate what they love (p20). It was a muted year for films, though. Sure, DC revealed that first picture of Wonder Woman and Marvel confirmed there’d be a Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 in 2017. But the loudest hullaballoo came from the TV corner. Whether it was Adam West chatting about the 1960s Batman, Robert “Walking Dead” Kirkman trying something new with Outcast, Star Wars launching its new kids’ animation Rebels, or the return of shows like Agents Of SHIELD, the big halls were rocking to the sound of TV jangles. So as we approach this year’s autumn season, we’re going small-screen crazy, with our massive TV preview (p47). We’ve interviewed Peter Capaldi about Doctor Who and sneaked behind the scenes of the biggest US shows. When you’ve read what we’re looking forward to, why not drop us an email at [email protected] to share your views on the current state of genre TV?

Dave Bradley, Editor-in-Chief @SFXDaveB October 2014

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the future first edited by Richard Edwards

THE LEFTOVERS

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LIVING IN A BOX

Going underground to the cheeseflavoured world of The Boxtrolls.

17

THE BENZ

We get an audience with the former mayor of Defiance (and Buffy villain) Julie Benz.

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Comic-Con 2014 All the hottest news from this year’s San Diego geekfest.

www.sfx.co.uk

Those Left Behind Get ready for life after the rapture in Damon Lindelof’s new HBO show

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t’s no secret that

the premise of this thing,” Lindelof after the exhausting six-year run explains, speaking exclusively to Red of Lost, writer Damon Lindelof Alert. “Although it’s a novel with a creator was firmly out of the TV game. beginning, middle and an end, I felt interview He proved it by spending the last this was a world that was really three years on high-profile interesting to explore.” HBO agreed screenwriting gigs from Star Trek Into and together with Perrotta, Lindelof has Darkness to Prometheus until… he picked up adapted the book into a ten-episode first a copy of Tom Perrotta’s rapture-esque season starring Justin Theroux, Amy novel, The Leftovers, and then it was all over. Brenneman and Christopher Eccleston. The “reformed” Lindelof found his Both the book and the series revolve around what happens to the world three re-entry drug. “I was completely and totally, creatively years after a global rapture event where 2% exhilarated by Tom Perrotta’s writing and of the world’s population just disappears off

exclusive

October 2014

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sci-fact! Leftovers author Tom Perrotta also wrote Election, the novel that inspired the ace high school movie.

Departure Time

Major players in the post-rapture world

CHIEF CONCERNS

For the police chief and head 1 of a broken household, Lindelof says, “You need a guy who exudes a certain level of coolness, but when he’s not around other people you really see the weight of the world on his shoulders and an incredible vulnerability. I think the really exciting thing about Justin is that the majority of his acting work over the course of the last ten years has been comedic, but he’s a great dramatic actor back from Mulholland Drive and other things.”

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October 2014

JAMISON’S RISKY

Played by an American2 accented Christopher Eccleston, Lindelof says Matt Jamison represents the religious side of the show. “In the book, Matt is a guy who looks at the Departure as a way to divorce himself from religion. But as Chris and I talked about the character, we felt that another interesting way to go was for him to double-down because that’s what people do. Chris is an amazing actor and I’m looking forward to people’s responses to Matt.”

ENJOY THE SILENCE

The GRs are a silent cult of 3 people who only wear white and don’t speak. They tend to show up at public events unnerving everyone. Lindelof says crafting them “has been very, very hard. As a writer, there’s no getting around having characters in a scene where they don’t get to do the one thing we do for them, which is write their words for them. Essentially, there has to be a complete and total minimum of words. Poor Amy Brenneman is like, ‘When do I get to talk?’”

THE CABLE GUYS

Having spent years in the more conservative network TV arena, Lindelof says writing for HBO, the cable home of True Blood and Game Of Thrones, has been liberating. “It’s really nice to curse. There’s many times on the Island where you would want a character to say shit or drop an F-bomb, but we’re trying to not get too carried away [here]. There are opportunities to get down and dirty but I never want to get gratuitous. The show isn’t about graphic sex or violence necessarily.”

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red alert

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1 “It’s post-apocalyptic, except there are no zombies or mushroom clouds”

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www.sfx.co.uk

the face of the Earth. You don’t see the event except for a disappearance in the teaser ahead of the pilot episode, and Lindelof says that’s the point of why he was attracted to the story. “I really like its relationship with genre. It has this huge, big, supernatural premise but it’s all off camera. It’s the sci-fi or fantasy show without overt presentation of fantasy. I haven’t really seen that before and knew that would be very hard to do. I got turned on by the challenge of it.” In the series, Lindelof and Perrotta dig into the ways humanity has shifted around what is now known “the Departure”. “It’s a postapocalyptic story except when you look around there are no zombies, or crumbling buildings, or mushroom clouds. There’s a feeling like we’re in the end days, but are we in the end days? I thought that was interesting.” Mapleton Police Chief Kevin Garvey (Theroux) and his troubled family members reflect the different micro factions that have sprung up to process the terrifying event. Lindelof explains, “Various characters in the pilot are all chasing prophets to some degree. Certainly, [Kevin’s son] Tom is with this strange Wayne character [Paterson Joseph]. Kevin’s wife Laurie [Garvey] has joined this odd cult. And Kevin himself is beginning to see what may, or may not, be spiritual encounters.” And Kevin’s teen daughter Jill (Margaret Qualley) is trying to navigate the anger and nihilism that’s blanketed her peers. By getting deeply involved with the Garveys, Lindelof says the audience will get immersed in the world’s new reality. “We are going to do the family drama, or a small-town drama à la Picket Fences, except there’s a

looming sense that everybody is going crazy. You are dropped in the middle of it as an audience member. There was something so confusing to me about that in the book that I was really drawn to.” They’ve managed to transfer that sense of pervading dread and creepiness everywhere in the pilot episode, presenting a world that looks almost the same yet specifics are off just enough to give viewers an unsettled feeling. Lindelof says the success of that vibe “is due to Peter Berg [Friday Night Lights and Hancock] and his direction of it, and just understanding the inherent tension of this world. Kevin has a line in the pilot where he says, “In this town nobody is ready to feel better; they are ready to explode.” I think it’s really hard to articulate that idea. You either feel it, or you don’t feel. In the huge riot scene, you feel it in your bones, but it’s the scenes of kids partying, or a guy sitting in his car drinking a beer that is still pervasive.” Since The Leftovers is based on a single, finite book, Lindelof says he and Perrotta have spent a lot of time in the writers’ room charting an expanded story. “There are some things we are doing that are hewing closely to the book and things that are aberrating wildly from the book.” As to whether the series will culminate in another Departure event, Lindelof says, “Not knowing if it’s going to happen again is the show. In Tom’s book, it’s not a huge spoiler to say, it does not make any effort to explain this phenomena nor does it offer up a secondary phenomena. For me it’s more interesting to explore the idea of characters who want it to happen again, need it to happen again, or are questioning what it was in the first place. That is interesting enough at least for the first season of the show to generate some pretty cool stories.” The Leftovers is now airing on HBO in the US, and will air on Sky Atlantic in the UK in September. October 2014

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sci-fact! Boxtrolls producer and Laika CEO Travis Knight is the son of Nike founder Phil Knight.

Help, there’s a big man in a cap invading our world!

THE BOXTROLLS

Troll With It Five things you need to know about… The latest stopmotion animation from the makers of Coraline and Paranorman

IT HERALDS FROM WILTSHIRE

It may be an American movie, but The Boxtrolls – the latest from Coraline and Paranorman studio Laika – has its origins in Wiltshire, just down the road from SFX Towers. It’s the story of eponymous creatures who live under the town of Cheesebridge, a place author Alan Snow based on his home town of Trowbridge in source novel Here Be Monsters! – though back then he called it Ratbridge. “Cheesebridge is a fictional place right above where the Boxtrolls live,” Laika CEO Travis Knight tells Red Alert. “It looks nothing like our version of it. Our architecture is kind of a fusion of European and Asian.” “It’s like Miyazaki Europe,” adds director Anthony Stacchi.

nful, Patience-testing, paibut time-consuming… worth it in the end.

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SIR BEN KINGSLEY TOOK IT LYING DOWN

The Boxtrolls aren’t loved by the residents of Cheesebridge, who think the creatures steal both their dairy products and their kids. The child theft part is, of course, a lie, but it’s a belief pest catcher Archibald Snatcher uses to his advantage when he wants to increase his social standing in the town. After his memorable turn in Iron Man 3, Sir Ben Kingsley is back on bad-guy duties as Snatcher, and he played it rather easier than you might expect. “I lay flat, I had a seat that pushed me right back so that my voice could come from a very relaxed body,” he recalls. “I tried to make my voice as elastic as possible. I lengthened vowels beyond their normal length

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October 2014

in certain words. There are things that I can do in an animated film that, if I were in a naturalistic film, would not be acceptable.”

IT’D BE NOTHING WITHOUT 3D PRINTERS

While stopmotion is as old as cinema, Laika has brought the technique bang up to date by using 3D printers to create incredibly versatile puppets. “Coraline was the first time that we used 3D printing, it had never been used that way before,” explains Knight. “In the infancy of the technology it could only print in black-andwhite and shades of grey. On Paranorman we brought colour printing into the mix. For The Boxtrolls we wanted to bring a level of stylisation to the design, so you have these strange opposing colours all over the faces of the characters. When you see it all come to life it looks beautiful.”

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THESE GUYS LOVE STOPMOTION… 4

Computer animation may be the dominant medium of the time, but the Laika guys say stopmotion is in

their blood. “I think that the artist is inextricable from the art,” says Knight. “It would be like asking a great painter to become a great photographer, it’s two different things. We are craftspeople, we build these things by hand, and we make these films by hand, and that ultimately informs our perspective on how they ultimately come out.”

…THOUGH IT DOESN’T GET ANY EASIER

But for all the technical advances, it’s still just a case of moving each puppet just a tiny amount. Again. And again. And again... “The process is unspeedupable as far as I can tell!” laughs Stacchi. “For every way you can speed something up, it slows something else down,” Knight chips in. “Animating sucks, it’s the worst thing, but it’s also who we are and what we do. I really couldn’t imagine a different kind of life for me.”

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The Boxtrolls is released on Friday 12 September.

red alert afterlife #94

Paul McGillion

aerial assault

sf tv round up

Dr Carson Beckett in Stargate Atlantis

NEWBIES McGillion’s family moved to Canada when he was two years old. Cutting his acting teeth on guest-starring roles on Sliders, The X-Files, First Wave and The Commish, McGillion also showed up in a first season episode of Stargate SG-1 before starring as the fan favourite Dr Carson Beckett in spin-off series Stargate Atlantis. More recently, he’s appeared in 24, Supernatural, V, Sanctuary, Fringe and Once Upon A Time. He’ll also appear in Brad Bird’s upcoming top-secret movie Tomorrowland next year.

Would you like to play Dr Carson Beckett again? Absolutely, if the opportunity came along. It would be a blast!

What’s the strangest request you’ve had from a fan? I once signed a blue, rubber surgical glove for a fan. He apparently got a lot of people to sign gloves, and I asked him what he did with them. He told me he filled them with contact cement and put them on his wall. I wrote, “Paul McGillion – Dr Carson Beckett – HELP ME.”

Have any of Carson’s skills or attributes have been useful in real life? I’m the worst doctor in the galaxy, but I think his sense of humour is something great to have.

What would Beckett be doing now? He’d probably be on a planet somewhere with a bunch of Swedish models!

do you think anything was unfinished about his story? I think there’s a multitude of different stories that could be told from his perspective, and with all the characters from Stargate Atlantis. I think there was a lot of room for growth for him on the show.

© Rick Kern/WireImage (1)

Did you get any souvenirs from the set? I have the Stargate. Just kidding, obviously. I have my costume, a couple of ear buds, and a few little knick-knacks.

Is there anything from the show you wish was real? Dude! How great would the Stargate be if it were real? To be able to pop through the Stargate to another galaxy would be amazing.

What would it say on the Dr Beckett’s gravestone? “Never gone.”

THE EVIL WITHIN

The goal was to make the game feel somewhere between Resident Evil 1 and 4.

Inner Demons

SuperTed returning to TV in 2016. Creator Mike Young is involved, and plans to bring back voice actors Melvyn Hayes and Derek Griffiths. Guardians Of The Galaxy animated show heading to Disney XD. Papa Midnite and the Newcastle crew to feature in the first season of Constantine. Hugo Strange and Harvey Dent to appear in Gotham.

Resident Evil creator returns to survival horror

MTV greenlights tenepisode Shannara series, based on Terry Brooks’ Shannara books.

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Syfy orders an adaptation of Lev Grossman’s The Magician to pilot.

n recent years mainstream

survival horror games – with their focus on making the player feel helpless – have all but died out, replaced with an emphasis on crowd-pleasing gunplay David Slade to direct PlayStation Network’s and player empowerment. All that changes in The Evil live-action Powers Within as the father of survival horror, Shinji Mikami, is adaptation. returning to the genre he pioneered. Allison Williams to play “I was conscious of making TEW a survival horror game Peter Pan, alongside and not an action-shooter game,” Mikami says. “I wanted Christopher Walken’s to revisit the roots of the genre.” Captain Hook, in NBC’s The Evil Within stars Sebastian Castellanos, a detective live musical production. who descends into a world of madness after attending a Episode eight of The bloody crime scene at a mental hospital. As Sebastian Flash and Arrow to searches for answers he’s dragged from morbid serial be a combined for a killer basements to nightmarish mansions loaded with two-hour crossover story. deadly traps, all while trying to survive an onslaught of Continued on p15. undead enemies. Mikami is keeping much of the game behind closed doors and with good reason – he knows to “I find that question pretty truly terrify you have to give offensive, frankly, when people start people what they don’t expect. speculating about my death and my “The unknown is what makes us health, so fuck you to those people” scared,” Mikami says. “Therefore George RR Martin lets his feelings be known you will be thrown into situations about those who suggest he won’t be around long you least expect. You will be enough to finish A Song Of Ice And Fire. experiencing this with Sebastian as he learns little by little, solving the mystery of why he’s there.” sci-fact! © REX (1)

B

orn in Paisley, Paul

Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood to star in a Westworld TV show for HBO.

Paul McGillion auditioned to play Scotty in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek, and had a small role as a Federation officer.

The Evil Within is available on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC from Friday 24 October. October 2014

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sci-fact!

GROUP ISOLATION Sigourney Weaver and most of the original cast of Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic Alien are reprising their roles for Alien: Isolation’s Nostromo Edition. The two bonus missions, available if you pre-order the game (or as post-launch DLC), will recreate key scenes from the film. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley will be playable alongside Tom Skerritt’s Dallas and Yaphet Kotto’s Parker, with each character providing a unique view of the events. Alien: Isolation is due out on 7 October.

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It’s 17 years since Weaver last played Ellen Ripley in Alien Resurrection. We feel old.

BRICK-A-BRAC READING Anyone who’s played the Lego Star Wars games, or has a Lego X-Wing on their mantelpiece, knows that Lego and Star Wars go together like Jedi and lightsabers. Sadly this minifig recreation of the Episode VII readthrough picture by Lego isn’t for sale (what we wouldn’t give for a Lego JJ) but it serves as a loving homage to an already iconic image. The attention to detail is superb, with returning cast members appearing in full costume, Andy Serkis holding the One Ring and, of course, R2 in a box.

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Like candy for your ocular nerve

ADVENTURE TIME AND SPACE This charming mash-up of Doctor Who and Adventure Time is the work of graphic artist Alex Dempsey. The series of illustrations, entitled Adventure Time And Space, features Doctors 9-12 and their companions in a style that wouldn’t look out of place in the land of Ooo. The Tenth Doctor is joined by Martha and Donna (who looks a little grumpy) and sports a nifty pair of red Converse. To see the full series head to owlhaus.tumblr.com.

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October 2014

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red alert Scott Derrickson in a holodeck.

aerial assault

sf tv round up

new author

Edward Cox

The Essex author’s debut is set in a world where magic is forbidden

SHOWRUNNING DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND

Demon Days

The original hand.

Doctor Strange director goes to Outer Limits

© rex (1)

N

o episode of the 1960s

Agents Of SHIELD showrunners hint the last few episodes of season two will be affected by The Avengers: Age Of Ultron as season one was by The Winter Soldier. Season two will also feature Barbara Morse, aka Mockingbird, who is yet to be cast. TNT renews Falling Skies for a fifth and final season, and The Last Ship for a second season. Ra’s Al Ghul to feature in Arrow season three. Dan Harmon says he will “do anything” to get Donald Glover back for Community season six. Fox UK to air episodes of The Walking Dead season five just 24 hours after the US.

Chris Carter in talks science fiction anthology series The Outer Limits with Fox US to reboot has influenced as many storytellers as Harlan The X-Files. Ellison’s “Soldier”, credited with inspiring James Teen Wolf renewed Cameron’s Terminator and its many film progeny. for a 20-episode fifth But another Ellison-scripted episode may soon be making season, which will air in its way to cinema screens – “Demon With A Glass Hand”, two parts. about a time-travelling amnesiac battling alien invaders BBC America renews for his memory. Scott Derrickson (director of Marvel’s Orphan Black for a upcoming Doctor Strange film) is the man tasked with third season. developing the adaptation by MGM. Michael Slovis, Mark “I loved The Twilight Zone when I was a kid, but The Mylod, Jeremy Podeswa, Outer Limits was more to my tastes,” Derrickson tells Red Miguel Sapochnik and Alert. “It was meatier, more cerebral, more scientifically David Nutter confirmed as directors on Game rigorous... MGM had the property and had talked to me Of Thrones season five. about it a long time ago. So I went back and watched the Continued on p18. entire series again. What was interesting about seeing ‘Demon’ again was how surprised I was it hadn’t been stolen from more. I realised why when I saw it – you can’t really steal from it unless you steal “You’ll be watching it the all of it. The story’s so intricately designed way you’ve always watched that it’s not like you can just take this one it – only now it’s legal” little element from it and have that much. Community creator Dan Harmon is What makes it work is the whole narrative looking forward to moving online. itself. The fact that ‘Soldier’ spawned such an impressive cinematic legacy, it’s interesting to me that what I think is the superior story – ‘Demon’ – hasn’t been sci-fact! done yet. There is something about the Harlan Ellison Scott Derrickson directed the Keanu Reeves-starring remake story where the narrative itself is the gem. It’s not just this of The Day The Earth Stood Still. cool little idea or concept. It’s just a great story.”

www.sfx.co.uk

What would you write as The Relic Guild’s cover blurb? At the heart of a mammoth labyrinth, in a giant city hidden behind walls a hundred feet high, young Clara knows that an age-old menace has returned to her home. Only the last of a secret band of magickers called the Relic Guild can help Clara save the lives of one million humans. Together they must find a way to contact the lost worlds that lay outside the boundary walls.

How did you go about building the world of the Labyrinth? A good starting point was knowing what was outside the city’s boundary walls. Because the Labyrinth’s glory days are long gone, and it has been abandoned, those that got left behind needed to be able to survive. I don’t want to ruin the plot by saying too much, but I arrived at a place where people are governed by rationing, scavenging, recycling. It had to be a dangerous sort of society, with a populace that knows it has already got everything that it will ever get.

The Relic Guild itself sounds like fantasy’s answer to the Avengers… I was inspired to create a band of magickers by my love of tabletop RPGs and superhero groups. I’ve always enjoyed how these kinds of fellowships find a balance in terms of the kinds of abilities that characters require in order to succeed. I also like that these groups are formed from individuals, and that the members don’t always get along. If there’s one thing that the Relic Guild has, it’s conflict.

Which SF/fantasy authors would you like to be compared to in a dream review? I’d have to go for writers who inspired me as a young man. David Gemmell, Neil Gaiman and Tad Williams. That’s not aiming too high, is it? The Relic Guild is published by Gollancz on Thursday 18 September. October 2014

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sci-fact! Aubrey Plaza was named after a song by ’70s band Bread.

release date

3 Oct 2014

Freeze Frame M eet Beth (Parks And Recreations’s Aubrey Plaza). She’s madly in love with…

 Zach (The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ’s Dane DeHann). Judging … by that scarf he’s possibly a Fourth Doctor fan.

Zach is heartbroken when Beth unexpectedly dies.

Until she comes back from the dead, that is.

B eth’s parents (John C Reilly and Molly Shannon) are happy to have her back, but not to see this in their living room.

Anna Kendrick plays Zach’s friend Erica.

Unfortunately Beth returns with a few anger issues…

…and hungers for human flesh…

…so Zach ties her to the oven.

I Heart Huckabees writer Jeff Baena makes his directorial debut with this horror comedy, which debuted at Sundance.

M atthew Gray Gubler plays Kyle, Zach’s brother. Notice the body on the road – one of Beth’s victims?

S he might be a zomboid, but with an oven tied to her back Beth isn’t much of a threat.

the buzz 16

This Month: We exhume the first trailer for zom-com Life After Beth

Russell

Dave

Ian

Rosie

Corey Richards (WORKIE)

I liked DeHaan in Spider-Man and Plaza in Safety Not Guaranteed, but I can’t say I like the look of this. Zombies tend to be a turn-off anyway, but zombie comedy...? Nah. Nice title, though.

It’s no cinch balancing horror and comedy, and masterpieces like Shaun Of The Dead are rare. Can a US teen romance measure up? Anything’s possible going by this trailer.

Wish-I’d-thought-ofthat concept, great cast (loved Dane DeHaan in Chronicle), best gag involving a cooker ever... This could be excellent, if they can nail the emotion as well as the laughs.

It’s basically a gender-reversed indie version of Warm Bodies. I’m happy to see a female zombie though – I can’t think of any others since the “sympathetic zombie” became a thing.

The trailer itself isn’t all that captivating. However, the hilarious Audrey Plaza from Parks And Recreation taking the undead lead should prove interesting. It’s a shame the zombie genre is falling flat.

October 2014

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red alert star turn

Julie Benz

The former mayor of Defiance shares her re-election plans with Red Alert... NEW BEGINNINGS

“At the end of last season, we saw everybody lost something that’s important to them. At the beginning of season two, it’s nine months later, and we see how everyone is dealing with what they lost. Those that were on the top are now on the bottom, and those that were on the bottom are now on top. We hit the reset button for season two, and everybody starts in a different place.”

SISTER ACT

“At the end of season one, [my character] Amanda lost her job, lost the election, her ex-husband died, and her sister disappeared. She’s struggling with all this loss. She’s become a bit of a drug addict. And she’s now keeping her sister [Kenya]’s business alive in the hope that she’ll return. She shoulders a lot of the guilt and the responsibility surrounding Kenya’s disappearance.”

If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em

“It hurts at her core that Defiance has been taken over by the Earth Republic, and she still has a sliver of hope that she can somehow get her town back; that having one hand on the steering wheel is better than not helping at all. So she does end up helping the Earth Republic, but ultimately she’s just trying to save the town. Defiance is like her child.”

GET BACK TO WHAT YOU KnOW

PUSHING YOUR LIMITS

“Like everyone else on the planet, I was obsessed with Star Wars as a kid. I read a lot of sci-fi as well. I enjoy working in the genre because the circumstances are so extreme, and it’s my job to bring them to life. It challenges you as an actor because your parameters are expanded. You have to create this whole world and make it believable.” Defiance’s second season airs on Syfy in the UK from 18 September. xxxmonth October 2014 20xx

© Christopher Polk/NBC/Getty (1)

“Rita on Dexter was probably one of the furthest removed characters from myself I’ve ever played. Darla on Angel was a 400-year-old vampire! Amanda definitely is the closest to me. She’s a very Type-A personality, very career-driven. I love her humanity. In season two you see her dark underbelly revealed, and you still root for her. You still want her to succeed.”

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aerial assault

sf tv round up

The Hive Construct

Hive Mind

Alexander Maskill’s awardwinning novel is out now

Episode VII gets added X-appeal

casting couch

I

True Blood’s Deborah Ann Woll to star as Karen Page, Matt Murdock’s longest-running love interest, in Netflix’s Daredevil series. Lucy Lawless, Nick Blood, Simon Kassiandes and Reed Diamond sign on for Agents Of SHIELD season two. JR Ramirez to play Wildcat in Arrow season three.

Syfy’s 12 Monkeys finds its Brad Pitt. Emily Hampshire will play a gender-swapped Jennifer Goines.

It’s been a year since student Alexander Maskill was named the latest winner of Terry Pratchett’s Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Once Upon A Time first novel prize, which bagged him a contract with adds Tyler Jacob Moore Pterry’s publisher Transworld. (as Frozen’s Prince Hans), “The whole project has been a part of my life for John Rhys-Davies (as Pabbie the King Troll) almost two years,” says Maskill, who was sitting his and Lost’s Elizabeth exams when he heard that he’d been shortlisted for Mitchell (as a villain with the prize. “It probably caused me to drop a grade ties to Anna and Elsa). in my degree – that said, I’ll take a 2:1 and a book American Horror over a first and no book!” Story: FREAK SHOW The Hive Construct is set in “New Cairo” amid a enlists Wes Bentley, Finn viral outbreak. But Maskill didn’t blow too many uni Wittrock and John Carroll hours writing its history: “I was more concerned with Lynch (as the new the present of New Cairo, making it feel like a season’s Big Bad). functional, lived-in city. My model was Baltimore Former Punisher as portrayed in The Wire more than anything.” Thomas Jane has nabbed the lead role, detective Maskill’s now preparing for life as a published Joe Miller, in Expanse. author, learning from the process of working with an editor. “What I submitted to the award was still largely a “Thinking about what film I want first draft,” he says. “Now I’m to try and do after Warcraft. May working on plans for a sequel. give Mute one more push before I And there’s another very different project I’m toying put it on the ‘Don Quixote’ shelf” with that has a working title Could Duncan Jones finally land his of The Funeral Diner – I can white whale after Warcraft? only describe it as Arrested Development by way of House Of Leaves, which sci-fact! Many fans speculated the new illustrates nothing so well as what a weird guy I am.” The Hive Construct is out on 25 September.

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October 2014

© REX (1)

Winner of the Terry Pratchett first novel competition.

Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller to guest star as Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold, on The Flash.

f there’s an equivalent of

petrolheads in that galaxy far, far away, they’ll all be rejoicing at this first sight of an Episode VII-era X-Wing. Revealed in a video for Disney/Lucasfilm/Unicef’s Force For Change charity initiative – the scheme that’s giving a very lucky fan the chance to visit the set of JJ Abrams’ movie – the new-look fighter boasts a new paint job, different engines and a shorter, curvier nose. The pilot’s togs are much as they were before, however – as is the briefly sighted mouse droid. It’s been confirmed that part of Episode VII will shoot in IMAX, and another actor has joined the movie. Brit Christina Chong, a veteran of Doctor Who, 24 and Line Of Duty, will play an as-yet undisclosed (aren’t they all?) role. As for the established cast, Harrison Ford has been sighted without crutches after his unfortunate encounter with a door, and a hirsute Mark Hamill had a chat with the BBC at the Guardians Of The Galaxy premiere. “I hear [Ford] is doing really well,” Luke Skywalker confirmed. “It’ll take more than that to stop Harrison Ford.” He also gave some clues about the movie without giving anything away. Titbits like: “I thought even if they did a third trilogy we wouldn’t be involved, because it’s really about the new generation of characters. We’re just there to lend our support and grow contractually obligated beards.” And: “The characters are so relatable. I think that’s always the most important thing, because no matter what kind of special effects you have, the audience has to identify with each of the characters. They’ve done a great job, JJ and Lawrence Kasdan, writing a script where you immediately understand who these people are and relate to them. I think that’s the most important thing.” Jedi may not crave adventure and excitement – but it looks like they’ll be getting it here.

Gearing up to fly away…

ship was a Z-95 Headhunter, but Lucasfilm has confirmed it is an X-Wing.

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No, honestly, it is Wonder Woman. They’re really not kidding.

California Dreaming Forty things we learned at

BATMAN AND SUPERMAN WILL HAVE ONE HELL OF A BARNEY...

There’s nearly two years to wait before Batman and Superman have their Dawn Of Justice. That wasn’t enough to keep Con fave Zack Snyder away from Hall H, and the director even brought some superfriends along to meet their public: a Man of Steel (Henry Cavill), a Caped Crusader (Ben Affleck) and a Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) – arguably the highest profile superhero team-up of the weekend, despite the later efforts of the Avengers. The director showed off the first footage from the movie, with Bats decked out in an armoured suit (much like the one from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns), apparently getting ready to duke it out with Supes.

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...AND WONDER WOMAN WILL LOOK LIKE THIS 2

Snyder also showed off this picture of Gal Gadot in costume. Needless to say, the internet talked.

THE THIRD HOBBIT MOVIE IS PETER JACKSON’S FAVOURITE

Enjoy this beard while you can.

Peter Jackson’s on the final straight of his six-movie jaunt in Middleearth, and he’s rather keen on the recently retitled third Hobbit movie, The Battle Of The Five Armies. “By the time we are done with this film, which is going to be the most emotional and tense of the three, I think it’s my favourite,” he said. “It’s got a nice thriller pace to it. When you get to the end of it, I think it’s going to feel like the right time to hand it over to The Fellowship Of The Ring. One day, long after all of this is all over, all that’s ever going to exist in the world is these movies as a six-film series. That’s how future generations are going to think of them.”

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Zack Snyder, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck assemble at Comic-Con.

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October 2014

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GAME OF THRONES IS OFF TO DORNE

emerging from a jungle, they revealed that Skull Island is heading our way on 4 November 2016. Attack The Block’s Joe Cornish is reportedly being lined up to direct.

The ever-expanding Game Of Thrones cast well, expanded. Prince Oberyn may be [SPOILER!] gone, but his homeland of Dorne will become a key location. Star Trek: DSN’s Alexander Siddig earns yet another genre spur as Oberyn’s big bro Doran, Toby Sebastian is Oberyn’s nephew Trystane, and Jessica Henwick, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers and Keisha Castle-Hughes play his illegitimate daughters Nymeria, Tyene and Obara Sand. Cersei’s daughter Myrcella, exiled in Dorne since season two, is recast as Nell Tiger Free. And the casting frenzy doesn’t stop there, as Jonathan Pryce (of Brazil and Bond villain fame) has signed up to play religious leader High Sparrow. Wrapping up the newbies, DeObia Oparei will play Areo Hotah, and Enzo Cilenti will play Yezzan.

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MOTHRA WILL RISE

Godzilla director Gareth Edwards showed up on video to confirm that he’ll be directing a sequel to his city-pounding spectacle just as soon as he’s wrapped on his standalone Star Wars movie. Classic ’Zilla foes Rodan, Mothra and Ghidorah are on Big Bad monster duties.

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CHRISTOPHER NOLAN WANTS TO TAKE US INTO SPACE

Thanks for everything, Julie Newmar, say Burt Ward, and Adam West.

robin didn’t have A STUNT DOUBLE

The classic ’60s Batman TV series was out in force in San Diego to promote its long-awaited DVD/ Blu-ray release. Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar slid down the batpoles to attend, and former Robin Ward revealed that he wasn’t afforded the same stunt double privileges as Caped Crusader West. “I was hanging about 14 feet above the tigers [in Catwoman’s first episode] and I asked the trainers how high can they jump. I was told ‘about 19 or 20 feet’.”

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Legendary Pictures, the outfit behind Godzilla, the Dark Knight movies and Pacific Rim, had a big presence in San Diego, and took the opportunity to announce their next big movie – and the emphasis is on big. Teased with footage of a big gorilla

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THE NEW MAD MAX IS A “REVISITING”

Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey are going Interstellar.

WARCRAFT IS AN ORIGIN STORY Images © getty (4)

KING KONG IS BACK

We’ve had reimaginings, reboots, regrets (Tim Burton’s Planet Of The Apes was arguably all three), but Mad Max creator George Miller is describing the fourth movie in his series in his own way. “It’s not a reboot, it’s not a sequel, the best description I have is a revisiting. It certainly goes back to the post apocalyptic world. It’s pretty well a 110-minute chase and during that chase you discover the characters, their relationships and the backstory, and because of that it’s closest to Mad Max 2. The world is very, very elemental, very spare, and therefore you can tell stories within it that are basically allegories, morality plays. The simplest way to describe them is Westerns on wheels.”

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Matthew McConaughey came to town to talk Interstellar – and brought director Christopher Nolan along for his Comic-Con debut. Anyone expecting major spoilers clearly doesn’t know Nolan, but he did talk about his inspiration for his trip into outer space: “I grew up in a time when to be an astronaut was the highest ambition. I really like the idea that we’re on the cusp of a brand new era of exploration. I’m very much hoping that the experience we’re putting together will take the audience on that ride.”

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Duncan Jones popped into Hall H to talk about his big budget Warcraft movie – and it turns out it’s going back to franchise’s beginnings. “There is an awful lot to draw on from Warcraft,” the son of Bowie said. “In this case I think it really merits an origin story. We want to show how the world of Azeroth falls into conflict between orcs and humans.”

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We love it that Sam Raimi always dresses smartly.

THE EVIL DEAD IS COMING TO TV

Surprise Hall H guest Sam Raimi revealed that he’s working on an Evil Dead TV spin-off with his bro, Ivan, and Ash himself – Bruce Campbell. Campbell has since said on Twitter that he’s planning to star.

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RAIMI’S ALSO LOOKING AFTER THE LAST OF US

Ace zombie videogame The Last Of Us is also heading to the big screen under Raimi’s watchful eye. The game’s writer, Neil Druckmann, is on board to script, and Raimi has had conversations with Game Of Thrones’ Maisie Williams to star.

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October 2014

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Robert Downey Jr: shy and retiring as ever.

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON HAS A REALLY BIG CAST 13

YELLOWJACKET IS ANTMAN’S BAD GUY

We already knew that Michael Douglas is original Ant-Man Hank Pym, and that Paul Rudd his protégé (and leading man) Scott Lang. The Hall H panel also confirmed that Evangeline Lilly will play Pym’s daughter, Hope, and that Corey Stoll will be Darren Cross, a business rival of Tony Stark who’ll become diminutive bad guy Yellowjacket. The movie’s new director Peyton Reed was in attendance, which perhaps explains the decision not to invite questions from the audience – we’re assuming many would have been awkward and Edgar Wright-shaped.

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October 2014

Avengers: Age Of Ultron (including new additions) didn’t feel all that. Maybe our expectations have been lifted to insane levels by Marvel’s usual gift for the theatrical, but without the Doctor Strange announcement that had been rumoured, there was a whiff of anticlimax to the close of movie proceedings.

OUTCAST IS THE WALKING DEAD FOR DEMONS

Outcast is Robert Kirkman’s new TV show and comic combo, and with it he plans to reinvent exorcism the way he did zombies in The Walking Dead. “When I started The Walking Dead the zombie genre was something I thought was ripe for a new take. And with Outcast I think I have the same thing,” he told assembled press. “I have a new angle on the exorcism story that’s never been done.”

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THERE’LL BE A GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2

Bear in mind that the announcement came before Rocket, Groot, Star-Lord and co bagged the biggest August opening of all time, so this was (slightly) bigger news then than it is now. But Hall H was first to learn that the sequel to Guardians Of The Galaxy will be released on 28 July 2017.

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MARVEL DOESN’T ALWAYS GET IT RIGHT

In 2010 they Assembled the Avengers cast for the first time. In 2013 they unleashed Loki on an unsuspecting Hall H, and flew all of the Guardians Of The Galaxy from London to San Diego. This year, however, greeting the casts of Ant-Man and

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Outcast: bangin’.

Images © getty (1)

Robert Downey Jr took to the stage throwing roses into the Hall H crowd, bringing the Avengers back to their spiritual home. He was joined by Samuel L Jackson, Paul Bettany, Aaron TaylorJohnson, James Spader, Cobie Smulders, Elizabeth Olsen, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and even Josh Brolin (the voice of Thanos greeted his public brandishing an Infinity Gauntlet). In fact, the only principal players who didn’t show up were Scarlett Johansson (pregnant), Joss Whedon ( just had knee surgery) and Don Cheadle (we haven’t seen his excuse note). There was, of course, also some footage. “You’re all not worthy,” says Ultron, crashing a party at the Avengers Tower. “How could you be worthy? You are all killers. You want to protect the world but you don’t want it to change. There’s only one path to peace… your extinction.” This is presumably how the age of the Tony Stark-built law enforcement ’bot begins.

Yes, but Where’s Wally?

red alert

OCULUS RIFT IS LOTS OF FUN

An Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is the perfect way to recreate a tornado, if you blast freezing cold air at the user. We discovered this courtesy of Warner Bros who were promoting Into The Storm, the disaster film starring The Hobbit’s Richard Armitage. We experienced the twister’s heart with Oculus Rift and a cubicle blasted by fans. The 4D experience was just a couple of minutes long but was one of the most thrilling experiences in San Diego.

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AGENT CARTER HAS TOP DIRECTING TALENT

Agent Carter is bringing Captain America’s directors from the big screen to the small. The First Avenger’s Joe Johnston, and The Winter Soldier’s Russo brothers will all direct the post-war series set against the origins of SHIELD. Since we know that HYDRA will eventually blow SHIELD wide open in the present day, won’t that undermine what Peggy Carter is trying to achieve in her own series? “No,” insists Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb, “because we’ll see at what point [HYDRA’s infiltration] happens. And it’s not the biggest problem she has.”

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M NIGHT SHYAMALAN IS BACK M Night Shyamalan is adapting all three Wayward Pines novels by Blake Crouch into one ten-episode series. And that means the big mystery of the first book will be revealed about half way through. It stars Matt Dillon as a secret serviceman who winds up, after a car crash, in a small town from which he seems unable to leave. Part The Prisoner, part Twin Peaks? “Every single thing in the entire story makes sense,” promises screenwriter Chad Hodge. “You’ll find out the truth about episode five – and then it keeps going, it’s not over, it’s about how you deal with that truth.”

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Don’t have nightmares, kids.

BATMAN DOESN’T JUST WEAR BLACK

What happens when you give a latex reproduction of the Bat suit to a bunch of artists and trendsetters, and invite them to decorate it as they like? The Cape/Cowl/Create exhibit is the answer. Featuring 20 versions of the iconic costume – based specifically on the model from Batman: Arkham Knight – the gallery was open every day at San Diego’s Hard Rock hotel. Contributors included Will Arnett, Sara Blake, VNM Yardley and Buff Monster, as well as Nathan Sawaya who built a Lego version patterned like the first Batman Detective Comics cover from 1939. Director Zack Snyder, bless him, simply replaced the cowl with a Rorschach outfit.

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THERE’S A NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA

Okay, this was announced just before Comic-Con, but the timing clearly wasn’t a coincidence. Marvel has confirmed that Steve Rogers is retiring after being sapped of his Super Serum powers. Sam “the Falcon” Wilson will take on Cap’s mantle in Rick Remender’s All-New Captain America.

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DANIEL RADCLIFFE ENJOYED HAVING HORNS

“Getting journalists to fight – I took pleasure in that scene…” Daniel Radcliffe presented a clip from the “tragic-comi-horror-dy” in which his Ig Perrish suggests that local reporters “beat the shit out of each other, and the winner gets an exclusive interview with me!” Next, he heads into a bar, discovering that his horns cause everyone to spill their darkest secrets, with the landlord acting on his impulse to torch the bar and collect the insurance payout.

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THIS WAS RADCLIFFE’S FIRST TIME 23

Despite being the face of eight Harry Potter movies, Radcliffe had somehow avoided making the trip to

Wayward Pines will also feature houses, don’t worry.

THOR’S BECOMING A WOMAN

Marvel’s also making big changes on sister title Thor, having announced that Jason Aaron is writing a new series in which Mjölnir will find a new owner – a female hero whose identity is, for now, under wraps. “This is not She-Thor,” said Aaron. “This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe.”

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San Diego until this year. Despite owning one of the most famous faces on the planet, however, he managed to wander the Con floor unrecognised thanks to a rather neat Spider-Man disguise.

Daniel Radcliffe! Should Andrew Garfield be worried? www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

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HELIX IS RELOCATING TO AN ISLAND

In its second season, Syfy’s Helix will move its team of scientists from their first-season arctic base to an island, where red herrings will add to the mystery. Showrunner Steven Maeda says he hopes year two will “take a smart audience, lead them down a path and then go, ‘Nope. It’s not that.’” “We’re doubling down on the crazy this year,” he says. “The show is a claustrophobic thriller. That’s what we’re trying to protect, moving into a new season. But also have fun with it and make it as crazy as we can.”

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MARVEL’S OFF TO A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

The Helix cast will get a bit more sun in season two.

Having delivered its own take on space opera with Guardians Of The Galaxy, Marvel announced its return to the Star Wars Universe with three titles set after A New Hope. Jason Aaron, John Cassaday and Laura Martin will take on the ongoing Star Wars, Kieron Gillen will write Darth Vader, and Mark Waid and Terry Dodson have signed up for the five-issue Princess Leia. They’re due in 2015, and will be part of official Star Wars canon.

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OUTLANDER IS THINKING ABOUT A SECOND SEASON

Ahead of its August launch, buzz was growing for Starz’s adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels, and showrunner Ronald D Moore was hopeful about a second season pick-up. “We’re already thinking about prepping and planning ahead how we would do certain things,” Moore explained. “In the second book we go to Paris and return to the 20th century and there’s Scotland again. We’re having conversations about how we’d realise some of those things.”

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If only the Falling Skies lot looked this happy on the show…

CAPTAIN KIRK WILL MEET DR ZAIUS

Images © getty (3)

Outlander can boast a man in a kilt, if nothing else.

FALLING SKIES IS BRINGING ITS WAR TO AN END 31

Just before the con, TNT announced that Falling Skies would get a fifth and final season to bring the tale of

You know that feeling when you enter a pub you know you shouldn’t have…

IDW and Boom! are hooking up for a Star Trek/Planet Of The Apes crossover. Kirk and co will have to join forces with Dr Zaius’s orangutans after they discovers the Klingons are backing a renegade gorilla faction. Frankly they had us with the “Primate Directive” tagline.

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COLIN FIRTH KNOWS HOW TO USE AN UMBRELLA

Director Matthew Vaughn dressed as Kick-Ass for a video introduction to his latest Mark Millar adaptation, Kingsman: The Secret Service. He was joined by Mark Hamill (dressed as Hit-Girl – seriously), who starred in the first clip as a kidnapped professor who’s almost rescued by Jack Davenport’s impossibly smooth agent. The second clip saw a slick Colin Firth taking out a pub’s worth of thugs with a gadget-packed umbrella and some electrifying choreography.

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October 2014

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red alert

ASCENSION IS inspired by REAL-LIFE (KINDA) Syfy miniseries Ascension is loosely based on a Kennedy administration Cold War scheme called Project Orion. In the show 600 people in 1963 are secretly sent into space via a starship. Fifty years into the 100-year experiment, their utopia is disrupted. “When we open up the show a murder takes place and it’s the first act of real violence so it starts to unravel our strength,” said star Brian Van Holt. “It puts a question in many of the crew members’ minds about our mission and what is really going on.”

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We’re putting money on the bull.

BOOK OF LIFE HAS TUNES 32

humanity’s fight against warring alien occupiers to a close. “What I wanted to bring to the show was a Cain and Abel struggle between these two brood mates of the Espheni, who were hateful to one another and deeply competitive,” said showrunner David Eick. “We don’t learn too much of the backstory except to know one regales in the failure of the other. Taking that idea in another step in season five has been tremendously fun.”

WINTER IS COMING TO ONCE UPON A TIME

Since the reveal in the season finale that Frozen characters were coming to Once Upon A Time, there’s been some concern in the fandom that Disney’s smash hit won’t fit in their fairytale world. “We love Frozen and we think it fits thematically so well,” said co-creator Eddy Kitsis. “Frankly, Elsa reminded us of Emma and Regina and Anna reminded us of Snow White. We really felt they would fit well in our universe.”

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UNDEAD UNICORNS

There are mounts in the third Dragon Age game. We were shown horses but promised other creatures including an undead unicorn (a zombie horse with a sword jutting from its head). You’ll need them to get around the vastly more open world than in previous games. Everything has been supersized: locations for sure – the demo took us to a revamped Redcliffe – but also dragons, with you able to target individual limbs now as part of your battle strategy.

CATELYN STARK IS BACK FROM THE DEAD

Orphan Black goes all ’80s movie poster on our ass.

TRUE LOVE WON’T RUN SMOOTH IN ORPHAN BLACK

In a cruel tease for Game Of Thrones fans wanting to see Lady Stoneheart, Cat Stark actress Michelle Fairley is being resurrected as one of the “returned” in Resurrection. “She will play Jacob’s grandmother and Henry’s mother for the whole season,” revealed executive producer Michelle Fazekas. “She’s the mother-in-law from hell, literally. When the returned come back they tend to have secrets. Her secrets have to do with the family business and what that secret entails uncovers a big part about the returned phenomenon itself.”

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There’s nothing quite as strong as a fan’s desire to watch two attractive characters hook up. So could Orphan Black’s Paul (Dylan Bruce) and Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) still be an item in the wake of his hooking up with her evil sister Rachel? “If you like a couple,” said Bruce, “you would always try to drive a wedge between them. The introduction of the Cal character really did that; and Paul harbours some guilt over what happened to Beth so he sees redemption in Sarah and he always has. So you never know. But not with Eyepatch Rachel! I don’t think he wants none of that any more!”

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NOT EVERY YEAR CAN BE VINTAGE

Much like Glastonbury, Comic-Con is so popular that you have to book your tickets well in advance, with no idea who or what is going to be on the bill. So while this year was rammed with more geeky stuff than you could shake a very nerdy stick at, there was a sense that many of the biggest movies, the real headline makers, had stayed away this time around. The likes of Star Wars: Episode VII, Jurassic World, Tomorrowland and Terminator Genisys were conspicuous by their absence.

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THE 100 PICKS UP WHERE IT LEFT OFF

Before showing a teaser of The 100’s season two premiere, showrunner Jason Rothenberg revealed that, “The season is about these people coming together and emotional reunions. We’ll understand Mount Weather, who the Reapers are and how they got like that. We’ll understand the Grounders way more than we do, mainly through Lincoln and Octavia who take us into that world pretty intensely.”

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Ade’s small stature is no laughing matter.

DOLPH LUNDGREN IS VERY, VERY BIG Smallz+Raskind/Warner Bros./Getty (3)

The Guillermo del Toro-produced Book Of Life presented a standalone clip that showed off the animated film’s USP – giving well-known songs a Mexican twist. So lead character Manolo (Diego Luna) stood in the middle of a bullfighting arena, serenading Maria (Zoe Saldana) with a rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” (albeit with a slight mariachi vibe).

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Either that, or our ad manager Ade is very, very far away.

The Greatest Photograph Ever Taken. Ever.

October 2014

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development hell Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped-for future A tangled web?

illustration by paul cemmick

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3

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Is the webslinger on a losing streak? In the comics they called it Peter Parker luck but in Hollywood they call it box office and there’s no denying that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 saw the rebooted franchise continue to fall short of the blockbusting heights of the Sam Raimi years. Sony may be Spidey-sensing it’s time to regroup and rethink: the studio has just declared that it’s pushing The Amazing Spider-Man 3 from 10 June 2016 to an undisclosed date in the summer of 2018. October 2014

Screenwriter Roberto Orci is also officially off the project (well, he does have an Enterprise to fly…). Sony is, however, still very much committed to The Sinister Six – set to mash together major Spidervillains in one almighty foegasm, this spin-off has just locked an 11 November 2016 release date.

From Roma With Love!

BOND 24

Will 007 be taking his gelato shaken not stirred? New intell suggests that the superspy is bound for Rome in his next adventure – astonishingly the first time MI6’s favourite blunt

instrument will have visited the Eternal City on the big screen, though Ian Fleming placed him there in the short story “Risico”. Lazio Film Commission president Luciano Sovena reveals that he recently met with the Bondmakers to discuss potential location filming and let slip that a spectacular car chase in Via Quattro Fontane provides a key sequence in the screenplay. Watch yourself, Luciano – people have taken bullets in the head for lesser indiscretions. Other potential locations for Bond 24 are tipped to include Morocco and Austria, conjuring the oddly boggling

possibility of Daniel Craig on skis. Skyfall’s Alexander Witt returns to head up the second unit.

Trip advisor!

DOCTOR STRANGE

Hey, kids, care to expand your minds? We got some good stuff here. The best. Pure. Real pure. On the street they call it Strange. You’ll soon find out why. Let Marvel main man Kevin Feige fill you in: “We love the idea of playing with alternative dimensions,” he tells those cats at Collider. “Strange, in the crazy acid trip way, travelling through other dimensions and realms, is something we think Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

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also burning

SHAZAM

Oh, he’s a terrible tease, that Dwayne Johnson. The former Rock recently confirmed to Total Film that he’s in the frame to play a DC Comics icon on the big screen. He just won’t say who. He could always be an out-of-the-box choice for Lana Lang, of course, but given that he cryptically added “Just say the word. That’s all I’m going to say” our fine minds conclude that the geologically inclined thesp is alluding to Captain Marvel, the white-caped hero who uses the magic word “Shazam!” to transform from little kid to ubermensch. Either that or he’s playing Black Adam, Captain Marvel’s pointy eared arch nemesis, who also wields those two mighty syllables. We can probably rule out obscure Swamp Thing character The Word, can’t we? “It is going to happen,” he tells Today. “We still have to find the right writer. We’re having two, three takes right now.”

is very, very cool. Playing with the perceptions of reality.” Heavy, Kev. Tell the kids more. “I just watched the Neil Degrasse Tyson Cosmos series, which is amazing and which may as well be an acid trip. It’s mind-bending and it’s all based in physics and quantum mechanics and we’re going to play a lot with the notion of that as an explanation of how the sorcerers do what they do.” Sounds like a trip, huh, kids? So come on. Do some Strange. He’s a qualified doctor, right? It’s cool.

Of curse you can!

THE MUMMY

The entrance to the tomb creaks a little further open with the announcement that Alex Kurtzman has signed to direct Universal’s latest invocation of the Mummy franchise. You’ll know him as co-screenwriter of Transformers and the JJ Star Treks but he’s earned helming credits on Alias and New Day. Summoning the immortal Imhotep to the modern day, The Mummy is an opening salvo in Universal’s new box office ambitions. Sensing the possibility of some Marvel-style success, the studio is scheming to create a shared monsterverse from their portfolio of classic horror icons, connecting every great screen fiend from Dracula to the Creature From The Black Lagoon. Of course the last time they tried this we ended up with Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein… Best brace yourselves for Dumb And Dumber: Mummy And Mummier.

From chimpan-A to chimpan-Z!

PLANET OF THE APES 3

Turns out you can’t hurry evolution, not even in Hollywood. Director Matt Reeves reveals that he’s in no rush to accelerate the timeline of the rebooted Apes www.sfx.co.uk

franchise, for all that longtime monkey junkies may be yearning to return to the world of the original film. He tells Cinema Blend, “People have asked me, ‘Isn’t it boring, because you know how it’s going to end?’ And I say that’s the best part about it. This world is nothing like that world. How do we get from here to there? Instead of being a story about ‘what’ it becomes a story about how and why, which is all about character. And if this is Caesar’s story, and the story of the mythic character that he becomes, then as we know in the Apes timeline, Caesars begat other Caesars, and it’s a generational story. This is an epic journey toward the trajectory of that story.” So just be patient, lovers of orangutans in beige jerkins.

Lost in Austin!

THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN

Steve Austin. Astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can reboot him. We have the technology… Yes, Universal still aims to revive the slumbering bionic icon, played on television by squinty beefcake Lee Majors. This inflation-adjusted big screen adap has been stalling for over 15 years now, with everyone from Chris Rock to Leonardo DiCaprio to Jim Carrey in the frame to play the crippled-astronaut-turnedcyborg-secret-agent. Now comes word that Mark Wahlberg is top pick for some slo-mo derring-do, building on his newfound action king status after the success of Transformers: Age Of Migraine. Either that or someone’s a Funky Bunch fan. If Wahlberg does land the gig he’ll reunite with Lone Survivor helmer Peter Berg, who’s attached to produce – and potentially direct – this upgrade of the ’70s TV classic.

Eva Green in the frame for Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children at Twentieth Century Fox… Paul Feig frontrunner to direct Ghostbusters 3, rebooting with allfemale team... Will Ferrell planning a big-screen take on Manimal… Edgar Wright directing adaptation of YA novel Grasshopper Jungle… Darren Aronofsky considering lunar Fargostyle tale Moonfall… Mark Romanek helming Shining prequel Overlook Hotel… Soska Sisters directing comic book adap Painkiller Jane… Quentin Tarantino mulling SF project… Matt Reeves following Planet Of The Apes 3 with The Invisible Woman… F Javier Gutierrez tapped to direct The Ring 3… Michael and Peter Spierig helming period horror Winchester for Hammer, inspired by California’s Winchester Mystery House… Kevin Smith planning Canadian horror Moose Jaws (“Jaws, with a moose”)… Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio negotiating to write Justice League… Tommy Lee Jones joining Kevin Costner and Gary Oldman in neuroscience thriller Criminal… Steven Spielberg’s take on Roald Dahl’s The BFG targeting a 22 July 2016 release… Albert Torres writing Universal’s adap of Locke & Key… Idris Elba orbiting Knights Of The Roundtable: King Arthur, the first in a proposed six-film retelling of the Camelot saga… Akiva GolDsman writing Space Invaders (pew! Pew!), and many, many more…

next month # 253

On sale WEDNESDAY 17 September

DRACULA UNTOLD

The prince of darkness is back for blood!

ARROW

The inside word on the archer’s third season!

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

International Rescue returns to TV!

PLUS: Star Trek 3! Kingsman: The Secret Service! Daniel Radcliffe! The Last Starfighter! Life After Beth! All contents subject to change. It’s almost as if some otherworldly force is playing a cosmic game of Mousetrap. Go to www.sfx.co.uk for an existential crisis. © rex (1)

With one magic word…

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October 2014

27

opinion

Thogomized! David Langford says hello to an old friend

Illustration by andy watt

I

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t’s been some time since Thog the Mighty, barbarian hero and connoisseur of barbarous prose, paid a state visit to this page. While he was away, others got in on the act and donned the Mantle of Thog, an almost unbelievably smelly garment from the middens of antiquity. Famous author Adam Roberts, for example, recently survived a heroic read-through of Stephen R Donaldson’s five 1990s Gap space operas, and found rich pickings which he dutifully submitted to Thog. It’s a tale of high melodrama and great steaming lumps of emotion: “Without warning, a tingle ran down Holt’s nearly strong spine and tightened around his scrotum.” “...he was smiling like a corpse with an orgasm.” “Angus Thermopyle laughed – a sound like the pulping of flesh.” “With his mouth full of ash and fatality, he recognised that before long he was going to go mad.” “His hands thrashed like dying fish at the end of his arms.” (All from A Dark And Hungry God Arises.) Overwrought similes, mystifying metaphors: “Wheeling like a blow, he raged.” “Angus’ heart clenched in a grimace which didn’t show on his face.” “His aura yowled of furies that didn’t show on his face.” “Davies looked like his chest was congested with shouts.” “The air had grown viscid with mortality.” “Nick let out a clenched laugh.” “His beard moved like a blade whenever he spoke or turned his head.” (Chaos And Order.) In the final volume, people become very excitable indeed: “Indignation and confusion appeared to flush through Chief Mandich in waves, staining his skin with splotches like the marks of an infection.” “Her voice ached like Morn’s arm.” “Min’s jaws clenched and loosened as if she were chewing iron.” “Smoke seeped out of her hair as if the mind under it had been burned to the ground.” “His voice sounded as bleak as hard vacuum.” “Standing rigid, as if he October 2014

SF writer David Langford has had a column in SFX since issue one. David has received 29 Hugo Awards throughout his career. His celebrated SF newsletter can be found at http://news.ansible.co.uk. He is a principal editor of the SF Encyclopedia at http:// www.sf-encyclopedia.com.

There’s altogether too much Thog identity theft

were remembering a crucifixion, he shouted.” “The sound of knives filled Hyland’s voice.” “Blaine wore her sexuality like an accusation.” “In response he brandished his beard at her like a club.” (This Day All Gods Die.) There are other magical phrases (“Anodyne Systems, the sole licensed manufacturer of SODCMOS.”)... but I should say more about Thog himself, who presides over the tortured-prose department of the SF newsletter Ansible. Officially he’s a creation of my pal John Grant, whose The Book Of The Magnakai has the only authentic painting of Thog as its cover art. But Thog gets around. Back in the 1950s, US humorist James Thurber reported that his cranky radio would often say “thog, thog, thog” before

dying altogether. Can this be coincidence? Gary Larson’s cartoon cavemen in The Far Side are often called Thog, though also more famously Thag, a name now immortalised in paleontology – try googling for “thagomizer”. A 9½-foot shaggy blue monster named Thog was introduced in a 1970 Muppets Christmas special: this Thog made several comebacks and was once seen hugging Mia Farrow. There’s altogether too much Thog identity theft going on. Knowing Thog’s fondness for eyeball antics, a friend of Ansible sent a link to the Nyanglish “English example search” website’s coverage of a forgotten crime-fiction hero’s eyes: nyanglish.com/jimmie-dale-s-eyes. Try it! Naturally I wondered what nyanglish.com/ thog might reveal, and was boggled by the range of unlikely contexts in which the scourge of the writing classes appears. I don’t want to know the source of the sentence “Thog wears a leprechaun costume, while he packs a giant wooden alpaca with potato salad”. There are things with which even Thog was not meant to meddle. David Langford warns the faint-hearted to avoid Thog.org and its “I Feel Unlucky” random selection button. Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

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29

opinion

Not So Angelic Bonnie Burton wonders where the good angels are

Illustration by maria colino

A

30

ngels have a long biblical history of comforting humans and acting as God’s messengers. Guardian angels supposedly protect us from harm that crosses our paths daily. However, you wonder if they would rather shove us in front of cars and push us off rooftops, thanks to their depictions in popular culture. Lately I’ve noticed that angels are being portrayed in TV shows, movies, videogames, comics and books as anything but caring creatures. No longer do we have the benevolent and compassionate characters that graced us in the likes of Highway To Heaven and Touched By An Angel. Instead of angels that come to the aid of us lost humans so that we find our way back to redemption, we have the likes of Tilda Swinton as an insane angel Gabriel in Constantine (2005), demanding that humans suffer in order to earn the love of God. In Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere the Angel Islington is an evil menace. The angel Castiel in Supernatural tries to remain neutral among the humans but helps the Winchester Brothers so often other angels resent him. Even the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who send shivers down our spines from the mere idea of “death by blinking”. So why have angels in popular culture transformed from happy-to-help angels of classics like It’s A Wonderful Life into bitter, violent agents of destruction we see portrayed in film and TV? Perhaps sci-fi, horror and fantasy have little use for religion and those who inhabit it? The everyday evil that lurks behind every corner and within us is fairly horrific to think about, so stick a pair of wings on our fears and suddenly it becomes entertainment. It’s not that hard to contemplate considering we’ve been letting lost angels entertain us since Milton. But that still doesn’t quite explain the sudden desire for us to accept angels as creepy jerks. October 2014

Our columnist Bonnie Burton, a San Franciscobased author, has written a number of books including her latest – The Star Wars Craft Book. Bonnie appears on the massive “Geek & Sundry” and “Stan Lee’s World Of Heroes” YouTube channels. More of her writing can be found at Grrl.com.

Why have angels transformed into violent agents of destruction?

To be honest, the descriptions of angels in the Christian Bible don’t exactly make them sound approachable. The Bible describes the seraphim as having six wings covering their bodies. Then there are other angels that are reported as having bodies that are constructed of multiple wheels covered in flaming eyes, with limbs of bronze. When we think of angels now, we don’t immediately think these curious agents of God always have our backs. Then again, God did banish an entire legion of angels rather quickly for not bowing down to Adam after he was created, or so we’re told. If I were an angel, I’d have a chip on my shoulder where wings used to be too. And what happens once angels fall off the corporate ladder? In popular culture, they end up

mixing in with us unwashed masses. Many of them mate with humans and create children known as Nephilim. Or worse, they get management positions in Hell. The Prophecy film series (1995-2005) has angels killing pesky humans who keep trying to undermine their power. And the never-ending angel battles in Supernatural make you wonder if God’s old beardy face should be printed up on “LOST DEITY” flyers and posted around the neighbourhood. Perhaps that’s the biggest question of them all. When God’s away, is this how the angels play? Are angels just a bunch of juvenile delinquents who bully anyone beneath them when the ultimate authority figure isn’t around to smite and banish them? If pop culture has anything to say about it, we’re not going to see those helpful Jeeves-like angels around to keep us out of trouble. And if I were you, I wouldn’t stand too close to those commuter train tracks. Guardian angels with grudges might give you a slight nudge towards a painful retirement. Bonnie ponders that if Nietzsche was right and God is indeed dead, then does that mean we’re stuck with a bunch of moody angels from Abaddon to Zaphkiel? Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

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HOT TOPIC

WHICH KIDS’ SHOWS WOULD YOU BRING BACK?

Kirk and Spock start their hunt for the giant moth… star letter

THIS MONTH’S LETTERS COMPILED BY

Russell Lewin, Production Editor We’ve got a fantastic selection of letters from you this month, so without further ado, let’s get cracking! Oh bum. I’ve got to fill this box out first haven’t I? This is as bad as IMDb! Okay then… get ready for Star Trek, Doctor Who, kids’ TV, Leatherface and more. That okay now?

Space: 1999: orange alert!

We know that in these days of wall-to-wall entertainment on your TV, laptop and phone, it can be difficult to sit down and pen a good old fashioned letter (or even send a good old fashioned email). That’s why we’re super grateful when you do – and you do – so we reward you with a prize. The writer of this month’s Star Letter will receive a brace of books from our pals at the Black Library – Blood Of Asaheim, the latest Space Wolves novel, by Chris Wraight, and Priests Of Mars, the first book in the Mechanicus Trilogy, by Graham McNeill. Aces!

Images © ITV/rex (1), cbs/getty (1)

Write in and win!

Defenders Of The Earth. Man, that was a cool cartoon. Maybe ditch the kids and just keep the original heroes. Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Mandrake, that Lothar guy. They could throw in some more characters and have an Avengers-like team going on. texmex1 Either Robin Of Sherwood or Jim Henson’s The Storyteller. Both were fantastic. As far as ’80s cartoons go then the most awesome of the lot has to be Ulysses 31. Ian Ponsford The Storyteller would only work for me if they got John Hurt back. Bobcat Jackanory. Nothing was more delightful than hearing a good story told by a well-known actor. I am sure for many it was one of the things that made them want to read books. Stumpy What would a reboot of Space: 1999 be called? Marcelvandriel I’m sticking with Ivor The Engine. Give it a half-hour slot, some CGI,

CITY’s LIMITS

I read the article on “The City On The Edge Of Forever” (Time Machine in #250) and I have to say I disagree with the great Mr Ellison. I’ve just read the first part of the new comic and thought the final version was still superior to the original treatment. Drug dealers in Star Fleet indeed! Mr Ellison seemed to disregard the “bible” of the show – for instance, would the death penalty still exist? Even Khan, who murdered millions, was given a second chance in exile. I know I should wait to see how the comic pans out, but already I feel the rewrites served the story better, and gave us a tale that resonates with an emotion we all understand, mourning the loss of great love. Maybe Harlan would be better off admitting that he created the gem of a great story, but others polished it and made it shine. All those awards and votes suggest they got something right. Bob Pierce, Liverpool Collaboration is often what makes the best TV and movies great, and this episode seems to be an example of lots of talented people working at the top of their game. Interesting, too, to see how a classic TV episode started life.

and fully delve into the Welsh mythology (the dragon was nice, but we can do more) and have a Big Bad in the form of Dr Beeching always threatening to send Ivor to the Barry Yard. It could rock. Crypticmirror Chorlton And The Wheelies or Jamie And The Magic Torch. Basically any Cosgrove Hall

programmes as they were all pretty trippy – let’s inspire/mess up kids’ imaginations. hornetxt There was a mid ’70s series called Sky that might be worth a revamp. I’d add Children Of The

34 ask the sfxperts 35 videolink 36 soapbox 38 wishlist 40 event horizon www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

33

sfxperts PHANTOM LIMB

I saw a cartoon years ago. It had a bad guy who was a man’s head and a bit of his torso which was attached to a full robot body. It was set in a slightly dystopian future. Sam Gibson, email

Rich Says:

You’re thinking of Phantom 2040, a futuristic take on the Phantom, the comic book hero who summoned the strength of ten tigers in Defenders Of The Earth and was played by Billy Zane in a mediocre ’90s movie. The cyborg character in question is Hubert Graft, the head of security for Maximum, the evil corporation that has its designs on world domination. He’s a former environmentalist who blames the Phantom for the loss of his body below the torso. He was voiced by Ron Perlman in the first season.

I REGRESS

Does anyone know the name of a film where a man turns into a Neanderthal? The only bit I can remember is someone in a cage in a sort of laboratory and, crucially, the final shot of the Neanderthal walking away into a sunset and turning back to look at the camera. It’s a British film, late ’60s to early ’70s and in colour. Steve Hyett, email

Russell Says:

I’m pretty sure this is The Final Programme (1973), which I actually reviewed in SFX #241 when it was recently released on DVD (I gave it

If you can’t remember it, we can! Your sci-fi problems solved…

just two stars). It is indeed British and directed by Robert Fuest (the Dr Phibes films) and stars Jon Finch, from Hitchcock’s Frenzy. The scene you remember is the final result of the scientists’ plan to create the perfect human being (ironic, y’see). I felt the problem with the film was that it doesn’t make the viewer give half a damn about what’s going on. But now, Steve, you can watch it again and see if you agree!

WAR GAMES

Many years ago I remember seeing a feature-length pilot episode of something on Sky Movies. Set in the future, an old human empire had fallen, apart from a small hidden group. They raised a man to be their hero, he promptly buggered off with an advanced ship and became a warlord. Any ideas? Matthew Coates, email

Guest SFXpert Nic Moore says:

This is The Warlord: Battle For The Galaxy, the 1998 Joe Dante pilot film which stared John Corbett as Justin Thorpe, a thief who seeks the aid of Warlord Xian when his little sister Nova disappears. Xian refuses and Thorpe forms an alliance with General Lars Sorenson, played by Rod Taylor. The series was to be John Corbett’s big return after Northern Exposure but Paramount and CBS passed. VHS copies of the two-hour pilot occasionally come up on Amazon.

A man in Children Of The Stones. Shurely shome mishtake? Stones as well, but I’m not sure I want anyone tampering with my memories of that... CrystalWitch Timeslip could do with a reboot. Never mind the monsters of Doctor Who, that programme gave me the most vivid nightmares. Pummeluffpapa None. I would reboot or remake absolutely none of them. I would repeat the original episodes. There are so many freeview channels, and most classic series still work as they have universal themes. RomseyKeith I’d love to see reboots of those ’60s shows shown on Sunday mornings on Channel 4 in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Land Of The Giants, Lost In Space or The Time Tunnel could easily be updated and with the quality of production values in TV these days could look amazing. Colossalpikachu The Tripods. Maybe they would make it to the third series. Chronon The Adventure Game. Moira Stewart’s participation a must. Me Thanks to all who contributed to this great chinwag. Personally I’d love to see a modern Threads. (That was for kids, right?)

CROSSING THE DOCTOR

Reading the Doctor Who/Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover graphic novel recently got me thinking what a pity it will never be a TV episode. But if all the legal technicalities got sorted out between various TV stations and networks could sci-fi crossovers happen between shows? Doctor Who meets Continuum or Falling Skies or even Arrow for example? The beauty of Doctor Who is that it could probably crossover onto just about any show. Robert Graham, Lincoln That is indeed one of its beauties, and I for one would love to see a Doctor Who-News At Ten crossover.

GALLIFREY’S FINEST

After reading your Greatest 250 Science Fiction Moments, I’m sending in my own favourite moments, from Doctor Who. “The Daleks”: Barbara threatened by a Dalek. “The Eleventh Hour”: The Doctor sees a grown up Amy Pond in that police outfit. Comic story Prisoners Of Time: Adam Mitchell dies with the

Images © ITV/rex (1), kobal (1)

ask the

The final shot of The Final Programme. Sorry, spoiler-phobes.

Send us questions at [email protected]. Want to be a guest SFXpert? Head to www.sfx.co.uk/SFXperts to see a list of unanswered questions.

34

October 2014

Maybe the Twelfth Doctor will be greeted by a woman dressed as a firefighter. Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

letters

D-DAY DUNCE

Re: Dave Bradley’s Edge Of Tomorrow review [SFX 249]. Give the people who lost their lives on 6 June 1944 a little more respect and remember that it was 70 years ago and not 60 years ago. Robert Beavis, Hatherleigh Thanks to everybody who spotted this. It’s a lack of maths skills not respect on Dave’s part. The sums were done correctly in time for our review to hit www.sfx.co.uk.

WHO TREK

So, in Doctor Who Series 8 they’re going to be heading “into darkness” eh? Does this mean that we can expect gratuitous shots of Clara in her underwear and the TARDIS blowing up every episode? Okay, JJ’s not helming this one so I think we’re safe, but mocking aside, would it kill them to have a light-hearted trailer? The Llama God, Facing His Final Doom (AGAIN) in the Dark Lands Beyond the Wall Think that trailer was dark? Check out Andrew Angel’s picture over there.

HITSVILLE UK

Could someone please lend Russell Lewin a copy of Alexander Walker’s excellent Icons In The Fire? It might give him a better idea of what factors really “nearly destroyed commercial British cinema in the 1980s” (SFX 250, p116). Spoilers: a few dour and tiny budgeted flicks on the scale of Memoirs Of A Survivor turn out to be minor culprits compared to say, the massive commercial hubris (and subsequent commercial wipeout) of the British majors. It’s ironic that the review cites Raiders Of The Lost Ark in the same breath, because that’s all that the powers behind British cinema seemed to want in the 1980s, for the UK to be a kind of Airstrip One for Hollywood. This isn’t just an academic point. You only have to look at the recent hoopla over Britain snaring the Star Wars sequels (with all their lovely Disney wonga), while the organisations that helped wean British cinema off life-support from the mid-1990s onwards have been shut down or stripped of funding, to see that history is repeating itself. And, sadly, it’s not as farce. Emily Redstone, email Thanks for this Emily, but may I disagree? I think that the surest way to destroy native cinema is to make dull, parochial films that people don’t want

“Will we see the TARDIS blowing up every week?”

this month in sci-fi history

SFX 188 November 2009

BLADE RUNNER vS TIME LORD

I heard Capaldi’s Doctor was going to be a touch darker and less of a clown, but this?! Andrew Angel, email You don’t mess with the guy who was Malcolm Tucker in a previous incarnation.

5 years ago © sky news

Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors and a devastated Rose Tyler by his side. “Flesh And Stone”: Amy tries to seduce a shocked Doctor. Come on, am I the only one who thinks Karen Gillan wasn’t acting? “Time-Flight”: The Master’s shock appearance. Gary Watson, Cramlington Cheers Gary, and sorry we had to edit your letter down. Some canny choices there. Well, apart from “Time-Flight”.

to see – like Memoirs Of A Survivor. And I’d contend that Brit cinema is in decent shape with a bright future, and not just because of the fantastic news that Star Wars is being shot here. An example: at the end of the ’90s there were three UK horror films made each year. Now it’s very nearly ten times that amount.

We look forward to the first series of Misfits, Joss Whedon talks Dollhouse and we remember Yellow Submarine.

SFX 123 November 2004

10 years ago

Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds is announced, we preview Batman Begins and Resident Evil: Apocalypse flops.

NAFF OFF, LEATHERFACE! Some of the film/TV scenes voted into your 250 Greatest Moments in Sci-fi and Fantasy seemed to come from outside the genres. Bonds, Batman and Avengers are, I suppose, silly enough to be fantasies, Gravity was fiction about

SFX 57 November 1999

15 years ago

We explore The Blair Witch Project, talk Buffy with Sarah Michelle Gellar and look back at Star Trek’s history.

videolink The best of YouTube and beyond 1

Jedi Musical

http://bit.ly/JediMusical A whole New Hope… Jeffrey Gee Chin and George Shaw have created a delightful Disney musical parody of Star Wars. It features vocals from Luke, Leia and more as they sing their way through Episode IV.

www.sfx.co.uk

2

Game Of Turrets

http://bit.ly/GameOfTurrets How do Portal’s turrets express their love of Game Of Thrones? Through a beautiful, melodic harmony it seems. YouTuber Harry101UK is responsible for bringing them together. Bravo.

3

Lord Inquisitor

http://bit.ly/LordInquisitor Take a glimpse at the movie Warhammer 40K deserves with this 4K trailer rendered in real-time using CryEngine. The Lord Inquisitor is a fanmade Warhammer short film due soon.

4

Guardian Wars

http://bit.ly/GuardianWars YouTuber The Unusual Suspect has managed to mash-up Star Wars and the brilliant Guardians Of The Galaxy trailer to great effect. R2-D2 becomes a “Hooked On A Feeling” jukebox…

5

Artistic Link

http://bit.ly/ChalkLink Chalk artist Chris Carlson has brought Zelda’s Link to life with this amazing 3D stopmotion animation. Watch as Link has an amicable adventure that riffs on A Link Between Worlds’ wall-merging power.

October 2014

35

sfx writers’ personal rants

Freelance writer Jayne Nelson stands up for the passions of fangirls

F

or the 250th issue of SFX, you voted for your 250 greatest moments in scifi and fantasy. Note: you voted for them. In your thousands. Which is why it was disappointing when some people complained about the results: they were, after all, merely a reflection of SFX readers’ current passions and loves. And it was also depressing to note how many men – not all, of course, but enough – seemed ready to complain that the moment that reached number one appealed largely to female viewers. “Whoever voted that arnt [sic] sci fi fans,” said one reader on Facebook. “Yup the fangirls have ruined it.” Well, you can stick that sentiment up your bottom. The poll was won by a scene from Doctor Who (a sci-fi show) in which the Doctor (an alien) and Rose (a human whisked off around the galaxy by said alien) had an emotional moment before they were torn apart (by different universes). Not sci-fi? Really? That scene was also the culmination of a story that gripped a huge chunk of UK audiences on primetime telly for years; that’s no small feat. Science fiction and fantasy are about people as well as spaceships. Good sci-fi makes

you care about the people more than the spaceships, which is what Doctor Who did so well in that sequence. But more to the point, there’s that grumbling about block voting from fangirls. So what if there was? If you don’t like it that some fans get together and organise themselves, why not do the same with the next poll? Nothing’s stopping you. Fans – girls and boys – love their shows, films and characters so much that they’ll whip themselves into a frenzy to make them win a

“Please, guys, stop suggesting there’s a wrong sort of fan” poll. Why is that kind of passion something to be sneered at? I wouldn’t dare to suggest that women love and understand SF and fantasy more than men do. That’s flat-out sexist. Debate is good but please, guys, stop suggesting that there’s a right or wrong sort of fan. You might not agree with the placing of some moments in that poll, but belittling those who voted for them is nothing more than bullying.

scientists striving to be plausible, but The Wicker Man – out-there as it was – really falls into the not-really-fantasy horror category, as does The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, based as it was around actual killings. Bryn Hughes, Wrexham Ah, the age-old debate about what should be in SFX or not! We like to welcome as much fantastical stuff into our big friendly tent as we can – but you might have a point about Chain Saw Massacre.

WHO LETTER ABOUT TOO MUCH WHO

I’m not as avid a science fiction fan as my boyfriend is, but I do find myself reading his SFX on a regular basis. I was quite shocked and annoyed to see the readers had voted the Doctor and Rose’s farewell the number one greatest moment! What?  I feel that your magazine is very biased when it comes to all things Doctor Who – at times I think you should rename it. Sharon Jepson, Stockport Yeah, but it is rather popular… By way of example: it’s not on air as I write this but we’ve still had a ton of Who-related letters in this month’s postbag.

THX SECURITY

Was lucky enough to be at Disneyland for the Star Wars Weekend. Not ashamed to admit that I had a geekgasm when I rented out a locker and was given the key. Stephen Banbury, Ayr Were there droid police officers on patrol too?

Disneyland: fun from the off.

Rose Tyler, we… oh, she knows.

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October 2014

wahf

we also heard from Paul Currion – a winner in our zombie short story competition whose name we previously didn’t have. Well done for “The Small Print”; Ron Smith (got a kick out of seeing Rocket Raccoon on the Ed Zone page of SFX 249); Neil (has become a Godzilla worshipper after seeing the latest film); pummeluffpapa (“Reboot UFO but keep the original theme music”); flowerbedgril (“I have fond memories of Jayce And the Wheeled Warriors and The Demon Headmaster”); Zombellic (wants Ulysses 31 or The Tick rebooted); ultimatenullifier (Space: 2999 would be his reboot title); Bryn Hughes (again, with thoughts on “The City On The Edge Of Forever”); Adam Claxton (doing us a scroll for Episode VII – Whispers Of The Sith); Steve Keene-Elliott (ticking Dave B off for revealing the winner of the 250 Greatest Moments poll in his intro letter); Adrian O’Dowd (a bit peeved that it’s not possible to get newsstand covers if you’re a subscriber – we’ll try to look into that); Dave Barsby (ribbing us for cutting out the middle of his letters); Chris Morgan (sending us a really rather good cartoon of all the Doctors); Justin Moseley (gobsmacked that the moment in Battle Of The Planets where Zoltar is revealed to be possibly a woman didn’t make the 250 list!); Simon Bostock (enjoyed being reminded of all the great moments in SF); Trevor Messiah (would like to see Joe 90 resurrected – with contact lenses rather than glasses); Rik Laan (thought Maleficient was magnificent – hey, Jayne Nelson used that exact phrase in our review!); Mike Garner (giving us the verdicts on new TV pilots); Keith Tudor (doesn’t want to take one peak at the Doctor Who scripts that have leaked online – couldn’t agree more, Keith); and many, many more…

Share your thoughts with the sci-fi world! Write in and you’ll win some books if we feature you in the star letter slot. Email us at [email protected] or you can try Post Apocalypse, SFX, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA if you’re not taken with technology. Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

Wishlist

Godzilla Andy Serkis

Illustrating what you want to see in new SF films and TV. This month: Toho’s first son returns in Godzilla 2

Godzilla 2 your top 5 requests

More Godzilla 1

For the title creature, Godzilla was “conspicuous by his absence for most of the [first] movie,” says Chris Warwick, which is why Crypticmirror calls for “none of this wait until the movie is nearly over to show him. Put the big G front and centre and leave the humans on the sidelines”.

King Ghidorah… 2

Another beast for Godzilla to duff up is a must, and King Ghidorah was your mostrequested. Jonathan Sisson, CarbonToe, Knappos and Jacob Crisp all call for the three-headed God of the Sky to make an appearance, but David Stephens has an important caveat: “King Ghidorah, but without that whole wobbly neck thing going on.”

…And Even More Monsters! 3

Why stop there? We like Jeff Szpirglas’ suggestion, “Godzilla vs the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man” but Teresa Clarke has some more realistic ideas: “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla vs Mothra vs Rodan in a four or five-way battle.”

Better Human Characters 4

Clearer Action 5

Gareth Edwards’ decision to tease the fighting for the bulk of the first film wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, which is why you’d like to see more alpha predator action. “No more cutting away to see someone watching it on TV,” says Basileus, while Belle Tain-Summer adds, “Don’t keep cutting away from the monsters when they are fighting.”

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October 2014

Zombie Joe Brody Bryan Cranston

Illustration by Paul Garner

One thing everyone agrees on: most of Godzilla’s humanoids sucked. As runalong puts it, “I need some characters I care about rather than monster fodder.” Jonathan Mock hits on the perfect lead. “Ken Watanabe. He has the potential to be the moral conscience of the trilogy.”

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wishlist

ARE YOU LISTENING?

King Ghidorah Toby Kebbell

Hear us Hollywood, our readers have some big opinions Have a Godzooky-type little beast fly past and immediately be munched on by a better beast. hornetxt An engaging main human character. Perhaps Ken Watanabe’s character could see more screen time? Ian J Bailey Full-on Pacific-Rim-style wrestling moves performed by storeys-tall monsters and more heroics from the big guy. texmex1 Love to see more of Godzilla’s backstory. Spike_at_ya A film as remotely exciting as it was supposed to be. Daniel Southwould  Why even ask: Godzilla against Cthulhu! Randolf Carter  I’d love to see how the world reacts to his existence, resulting in more of the weird science you see in kaiju movies, like those maser cannons or a monster created through experimentation. Ed Boff  Gus Fring [Breaking Bad] cutting Mothra’s throat with a box cutter. Padraig Bell  I want to see him stomp a Starbucks full of hipsters. Joni Boba Deadpool Two Scottish kids discover they can summon Godzilla with their thistle whistles. DickyCrisps A whole bunch of evil Godzillas. Ian Willis I’d like to see more action, more Godzilla and a fewer humans! Russell Garland  At least one character (besides Godzilla) I give a kaiju’s crap about. Zola the Gorgon Matthew Broderick! Alan Neil Bryan Cranston’s character back from the dead. Zombie Joe Brody. Chris Mitchell Behind-the-sofa terror please. Plus witty dialogue and male eye candy. Annie Worrall  More Godzilla! And a film that actually resembles the trailers. MIXTER I want it to have Dredd in it, to be called Dredd 2, there to be no lizard in it. David Bailie  No sequel. This first one was utterly appalling. Alexisms

Vivienne Graham Sally Hawkins

Scooby-Doo and Predator 4 Dr Ishiro Serizawa Ken Watanabe

It’s almost time to let us know what you want to see when those meddling kids return and Shane Black reboots Predator. Send in your ideas about our current Wishlist by visiting bit.ly/SFXwishlist

www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

39

Event Horizon Con Report

Secret Cinema

Because meeting up is every fan’s right cluded emorabiliardins. Take-away m ca and post newspapers

31 July-31 August, London Jordan Farley takes a trip to Hill Valley for a very special Back To The Future screening

It was hard to tell the actors from the punters.

Almost as many people as there were at the Olympics!

S

ince its inception in

2007, Secret Cinema has hosted almost 20 classic film screenings in top-secret locations, complete with theatrical elements designed to heighten immersion and offer something your multiplex can’t. The latest was its most ambitious production yet – an elaborate recreation of Back To The Future’s Hill Valley (c1955) in support of a screening unlike any other. Only it proved too ambitious. Undisclosed “difficult issues” forced Secret Cinema to cancel the first four shows, with little over an hour’s notice on opening night. It was a disastrous start that won’t be soon forgotten if the tidal wave of complaints on Secret Cinema’s Twitter and Facebook pages are anything to go by. When the show finally premiered on 31 July, however, it was an evening well worth waiting for. In the shadow of the Olympic Stadium Secret Cinema constructed a dazzling, spacious replica of Hill Valley. Every

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October 2014

guest was assigned a new identity. I was Michael Young, a student. On arrival I was ushered aboard a yellow bus and driven to Hill Valley High School, where I was greeted by a typically grumpy Mr Strickland. Inside the Enchantment Under The Sea dance rocked to some familiar tunes. Outside the streets were filled with familiar storefronts, from the Texaco gas station to Lou’s Diner, all populated with performers who never broke character and made simply walking around a pleasure. You could get a (real) ’50s haircut, play pinball in Gaynor’s hideaway bar, watch Cattle Queen Of Montana in its entirety in the local cinema, send a letter to a resident of Hill Valley, visit Doc Brown’s house and try on his mindreading headgear, shop for a state-of-the-art CRT television, take an English Lit quiz, hitch a ride in a Cadillac and much more. After several hours spent wandering around this ersatz Hill Valley it was easy to forget that the main event was still to come. The film itself was projected on the front of the

Just watch out for nearby manure trucks…

“When the show finally premiered it was well worth waiting for” Hill Valley’s famous courthouse, complete with clock stuck at 10:04pm. During the film, actors occasionally appeared to recreate the action on screen, supported by impressive practical effects and enthusiastic audience participation. The Blu-ray will feel so lifeless in future. There were problems, of course. Some sets were a little underwhelming, queues were everywhere, refreshments and souvenirs were expensive and the toilets were best avoided. But catastrophic start aside, Secret Cinema’s latest endeavour was a Back To The Future fan’s dream event. http://www.secretcinema.org Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

conventions

Glasgow Comic Con

5–6 July 2014, Venues across Glasgow Comics and awards and sunshine, oh my! Stacey Whittle reports

B

ack for its fourth year,

Glasgow Comic Con is fast becoming a show to be reckoned with. This year the event attracted big American names such as Gail Simone, Howard Chaykin and Erik Larsen along with the independent press and the biggest and brightest Britain has to offer, from Peter Milligan and John Wagner to Emma Vieceli and Hannah Berry. Whatever your comic preferences there was someone or something there for you. The programme held an interesting mix of panels, interviews and exclusives as well as workshops for adults and children and the now mandatory cosplay competition. The hub of the weekend was The Centre for Contemporary Arts which, although hot, had a big, open and light space, perfect for artists to sketch and shoppers to browse. The facilities were exceptional and everything was well organised and ran smoothly, which helped to generate the laid back and chilled atmosphere that seemed to affect everyone from guests and exhibitors to the punters and crew. The convention also played host to the SICBA (Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance) Awards, where Colin Bell and Neil Slorance cleaned up with their delicious all-ages comic Dungeon Fun. The comic and the convention are highly recommended. For more information head to www.gccon.wordpress.com.

Don’t Miss It!

BristolCon

25 October 2014, Doubletree Hotel, Bristol Corey John Richards looks at homegrown con fun in the heart of the south west

G

et your convention clogs on and head to

Bristol this October. For one day a year the BristolCon comes to town, set up by the BristolCon Foundation; the charitable group created to support and promote speculative fiction writing, art and related activities in the south west. BristolCon is one of the UK’s fastest growing conventions, featuring three confirmed guests of honour thus far: Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Emma Newman and Julian Quaye. There are also many more guests attending who’ll be hosting panels (for which you can suggest topics to discuss on the site), talks and signings throughout the day. There aren’t just guests on offer either; there will be an art show with an expanded programme of art events, plus an array of merchandise and displays. As well as this, the con will be hosting a pub quiz and other evening entertainment. Membership rates for Bristol Con are £25 prebooking or £30 on the door. The full programme isn’t available yet, but be sure to keep an eye out for more information by visiting www.bristolcon.org.

www.sfx.co.uk

28 Days Later

Never get bored with this list of SF happenings

20 August–16 September

Staying In

Mondays – The 100 fight for survival on E4 at 9pm, Resurrection is on Watch at 9pm, The Witches Of East End return for season two on Lifetime at 10pm, the second season of Being Human US continues on Watch and True Blood’s final season is on Fox, both at 10pm. Tuesdays – Falling Skies’s fourth season continues at 9pm on Fox. Thursdays – Halle Berry is in Extant on Amazon Prime at 9pm.

Saturdays – Doctor Who is back for the 12-episode eighth series. Times may (and probably will) vary. And don’t miss Syfy’s Star Trek weekend from 23–25 August.

W  atch out for – Under The Dome season two on Channel 5 in August and The Leftovers on Sky Atlantic in September.

Going Out

2  1–25 August – Film 4’s horror festival Frightfest is returning to London, showcasing films like Dead Snow 2: Red Vs Dead. www.frightfest.co.uk 2  3–24 August – Glasgow’s biggest comic con, Collectormania boasts panels, autographs and more. www.collectormaniaglasgow.co.uk

 0 August – Glastonbury Fantasy Convention brings you the best of 3 medieval fantasy fiction. 5–7 September – The British Fantasy Society’s annual convention held in York returns. www.fantasycon2014.org

6  –7 September – MCM Scotland Comic Con fuses retro games, comics and geekdom. www.mcmcomiccon.com/scotland

7 September – Head to Norwich for Nor-Con V (www.nor-con.co.uk) plus there’s Fighting Fantasy Fest in Ealing (www.fightingfantasy.com)!

At The Pictures

2  2 August – A police officer and a priest combat demonic possessions in Deliver Us From Evil, Scar-Jo gets superpowers in Lucy and Sin City sequel A Dame to Kill For hits the screens. 2  9 August – Two archaeologists hunt for a lost treasure through the Paris catacombs in horror As Above, So Below.

1 2 September – An orphan raised by cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from exterminators in The Boxtrolls (left).

October 2014

All dates are liable to change.

con report

41

12

Which is the only episode that names Rover?

13

Which episode was originally titled “Face Unknown”?

14

What do the following have in common: Pacifists, Activists, Old Folk, Nutrition, Health, Govern?

15

Who says “Shall I give him a stare?”

16

What 1985 film has Patrick McGoohan interacting with dinosaurs?

17

What does Number Six do after reading “You have just been poisoned” in the bottom of his pint glass in “The Girl Who Was Death”?

18

Which episode was originally shown third, but is actually episode six, eight or nine, depending on which source you believe?

Blastermind

Think you know your classic ’60s series The Prisoner? Then try this lot. And don’t worry: there are no questions on that awful remake! Aside from Patrick McGoohan himself, which actor had most appearances in the show?

2

THIS MONTH’S QUIZMASTER Images © ITV, richard gardner / rex features (2)

Russell Lewin, Production Editor

What film did final episode “Fall Out” lose out to for the 1969 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation?

3

To the nearest minute, how long was the opening title sequence?

4

get the SFX QUIZ APP

bit.ly/ SFXGameUK for more SCI-FI TRIVIA

In “The Chimes Of Big Ben” Number Six is asked by the Colonel why he resigned. What are the five words that follow “I resigned because…” in his reply?

5

How many female Number Twos are there in the series?

how did you do? What iconography are you?

42

October 2014

0-5 Stripey jumpers

6

Which is the only episode to have a prologue before the opening credits?

7

Who is the only actor whose name is in a white box on the credits in two instances?

8

Which regular Prisoner actor died the same year the show finished its run on UK TV?

9

Which British punk band recorded a song entitled “The Prisoner”?

10

Who designed Portmerion, where The Prisoner was filmed?

11

Which Beatles song is heard in “Fall Out”?

6-10 Number Two’s dome

11-15 Human chess

Who is this, and what is her connection with The Prisoner?

19

Number Six the same 20 Was character as John Drake? ANSWERS 1 Angelo Muscat as the Butler 2 2001: A Space Odyssey 3 Three minutes 4 “…for a very long time…” 5 Three – Rachel Herbert in “Free For All”, Georgina Cookson in “Many Happy Returns”, Mary Morris in “Dance Of The Dead” (we’re not counting the female Number Two seen very briefly in “It’s Your Funeral”) 6 “Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling” 7 Alexis Kanner in “Living In Harmony” and “Fall Out” 8 Peter Swanwick (the Supervisor) 9 The Clash 10 Sir Clough William-Ellis 11 “All You Need Is Love” 12 “The Schizoid Man” 13 “Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling” 14 They’re signs in front of the hooded delegates in “Fall Out” 15 Number Two (Leo McKern) in “Fall Out” 16 Baby: Secret Of The Lost Legend 17 Immediately orders a succession of shorts to make himself vomit 18 “A, B & C” 19 It’s actress Fenella Fielding, and she was the uncredited loudspeaker announcer on seven episodes 20 Who knows? Give yourself a point!

1

16-19 Penny Farthing

20 Rover

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the world of sfx

The World Of SFX

Don’t stop here: there’s always more for you to read…

sfx special editions You’ve seen these premium quality guides that go deeper into your fandom? On sale now, until mid-September, is The Ultimate Guide To Horror, a 164-page giant that features the very best of old and new horror from the world of movies and TV. Dare you gaze upon The Walking Dead, Eli Roth’s new shocker The Green Inferno or a preview of the epic gore carnival that is FrightFest? Plus we have THE lowdown on the Alien franchise! And if you head to www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk you can still pick up some of our earlier specials, including X-Men. http://www.sfx.co.uk/tag/sfx-special-edition/

issue 252 | OCTOBER 2014 Future Publishing Ltd: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Email: [email protected] Web: www.sfx.co.uk

Editorial Editor-In-Chief: Dave Bradley, [email protected] Art Editor: Jonathan Coates, [email protected] Deputy Art Editor: Catherine Kirkpatrick, [email protected] Deputy Editor: Richard Edwards, [email protected] Features Editor: Nick Setchfield, [email protected] Production Editor: Russell Lewin, [email protected] Reviews Editor: Ian Berriman, [email protected] Staff Writer: Jordan Farley, [email protected] US Editor (East Coast): Tara Bennett, [email protected] US Editor (West Coast): Joseph McCabe, [email protected]

Contributors Sam Ashurst, Saxon Bullock, Bonnie Burton, Paul Cemmick, Nicola Clarke, Paul F Cockburn, Maria Colino, Sarah Dobbs, Rhian Drinkwater, Rosie Fletcher, Paul Garner, Guy Haley, Stephen Jewell, Stephen Kelly, David Langford, Miriam McDonald, Jayne Nelson, Steve O’Brien, Andrew Osmond, Oliver Pfeiffer, Jeffrey Renaud, Eddie Robson, Will Salmon, Neil Smith, Alex Thomas, Damien Walter, Andy Watt, VS Wells, James White, Stacey Whittle, Jonathan Wright Cover photography: The Flash: Frank Ockenfels 3/The CW Doctor Who: © 2014 BBC, Boxtrolls: © 2104 Focus Features, Star Wars Rebels: © 2014 Disney/ABC, Gotham: © 2014 Fox, The Walking Dead © 2013 AMC Photography: James Looker, Jesse Wild Thanks to: Iyesha Warner

Advertising Advertising Manager: Adrian Hill, 01225 442244, [email protected] Sales Director: Nick Weatherall, [email protected] Digital Ad Manager: Andrew Church, [email protected]

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Circulation and licenSing Trade Marketing Manager: Juliette Winyard, [email protected] International Export Manager: Michael Peacock, [email protected] Licensing And Syndication Director: Regina Erak, [email protected] Head of Circulation: James Whitaker, [email protected] If you would like to purchase the images featured in this publication, please visit www.futuremediastore.com or email [email protected]

production Production Controller: Keely Miller, [email protected] Paper Controller: Lorraine Rees, [email protected] Ad Production Coordinator: Gemma O’Riordan, gemma.o’[email protected]

the senior partners

comic HEROES

Creative Director: Bob Abbott Editorial Director: Jim Douglas Head of Content & Marketing for Music, Film and Games: Declan Gough

With Guardians Of The Galaxy here, Comic Heroes heads into space! In this final issue we explore the spectacular history of Marvel Cosmic and run down the top 25 sci-fi heroes. Bringing things back down to Earth, we interview Emmanuel Guibert on his illustrated true-life war stories and look back at Pat Mills’ acclaimed Charley’s War. We’ve also exclusive interviews with Dave Gibbons, Jock and Jörg Tittel, and present the complete prologue of Bryan Talbot’s latest Grandville epic. Grab a copy from WHSmith or www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk now!

subscribe to SFX Phone our UK hotline on: 0844 848 2852 Phone our international hotline on: +44 (0)1604 251 045 Next ISSUE ON SALE: Wednesday 17 September Magazine printed in the UK by William Gibbons on behalf of Future Distributed in the UK by Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT Tel: 020 7429 4000 Overseas distribution by Future Publishing Ltd, Bath Tel: +44 (0)1225 442244 Brought to you by: Cornish beaches, World Cup withdrawal symptoms, ten-hour plane journeys, queues for Hall H, Oculus Rift, Budweiser and burgers, Wolfenstein: The New Order, a giant Dolph Lundgren, Reese’s cups, many hours playing the Destiny beta, a slice of cherry pie, a cup of coffee and the new Twin Peaks Blu-ray, spicy rice from Wok To Walk, Small World (the boardgame), a burlesque night that wasn’t as sexy as it sounds, a weekend of music from 2002, Pieminister, a seagull alarm clock, a tent in a thunderstorm, Huddersfield

Print: 23,355 Digital: 2,480 The ABC combined print, and digital circulation for Jan-Dec 2013 is

25,835 A member of the Audited Bureau Of Circulations

DIGITAL MAGAZINES SFX, SFX Special Editions and our bookazines are now available on most major digital platforms: Newsstand for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, Zinio, Google Play and Barnes & Noble Nook! Prices are the same across all digital providers, only the free trial periods are different. On Apple Newsstand it’s possible to get two free issues of SFX when you sign up, and iPad editions often come with additional video links including an intro from the editor. Check it out on your iPad or iPhone from within our SFX container app. You can download 1995’s SFX issue one as well! Visit http://bit.ly/ SFXDeviceLinks for some subscription links.

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Here comes some fun stuff © Future Publishing Limited 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. The registered office of Future Publishing Limited is at Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW. All information contained in this magazine is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this magazine. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant Future a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all editions of the magazine, including licensed editions worldwide and in any physical or digital format throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage.

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“It was as dull as dishwasher”

October 2014

43

Images courtesy xxx xxx

the mighty tv preview

www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

47

the mighty tv preview

RETURNING show! DOCTOR WHO SEASON: 8 UK BROADCAST: BBC One from 23 August US BROADCAST: BBC America from 23 August

I

“

’m seeing bits of the

building that I haven’t seen before,” says Peter Capaldi, in a soft Scots purr. “I’m usually kept in the studio on the other side. I don’t know my way around here at all!” SFX is at Roath Lock, BBC Wales’ drama kingdom in Cardiff Bay. Today we’ve toured the TARDIS set (recently refurbished with shelves of antique books and blackboards scrawled with physics-melting equations), spotted scrubs-clad extras from Casualty smoking in the sun and almost wandered into shot on undying Welsh soap opera Pobol y Cwm. Truly this is the nexus of all realities. Now we are in a characterless conference room, ready for the main event – an encounter with the new Doctor. Or, next best, Peter Capaldi. As lean as fuse wire, he’s dressed in a white T-shirt with a faded Japanese print and burly, gleaming boots, just like his Doctor’s. The face is lined, the hair a grey thatch, but you can still glimpse the post-punker he used to be, the twentysomething fixture of Glasgow’s early ’80s alternative scene. There’s certainly no trace of Malcolm Tucker. One thing’s certain. This lifelong Doctor Who fan is relishing the chance to grow an extra heart. How are you finding the whole experience of finally being the Doctor? Extraordinary. I can’t believe that I’m so lucky. Sometimes I can’t get to sleep at night because I’m excited about what I’m going to do! I always feel slightly guilty that I’m allowed so much fun at this point in my life. It’s very challenging – there’s a lot of it to do, but it’s the best gig in the world.

“there’s a lot of it to do, but it’s the best gig in the world” 48

October 2014

star interview!

THE GLORIOUS TWELFTH

As Peter Capaldi steps into the Doctor’s boots, Nick Setchfield finds out what to expect from the new man

Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

doctor who “It’s fine, we can hide behind the menus, no one will notice us.”

“Would you like to ring my bell?”

www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

49

the mighty tv preview

“It was WATCHING WHO THAT TAUGHT ME TO BE AN ACTOR” You famously had a letter about Doctor Who printed in the Radio Times when you were 15. Do you still feel like that fanboy inside? Well, that was a long time ago and there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then! I think I probably do, yeah. My love for the show is very sincere. It’s a very unusual story to have happen, that somebody who’s been so into it would end up playing this role. Such an amazing, unlikely event that I never considered it happening myself. So yeah, there are things I get excited about that only a fanboy could get excited about. It’s nice to know that you have the kernel of it inside you. The nice thing is that they don’t have to talk to me very much about any backstory or anything! I know where I am, most of the time! How geeky were you? Oh, totally geeky. Anorak, specs, the lot. Did you have a collection? I had a huge collection of wonderful stuff. As happens, I think, when you reach the age of about 17 or 18, you move on, you go out into the world and discover sex and drugs and rock and roll. I’m ashamed to say that I had a kind of bonfire of the vanities, where I destroyed all of my collection. It wasn’t specifically just Doctor Who stuff. I was quite a major geek with regard to the telly generally, so I had a huge collection of autographs and pictures and stills, but mostly old Doctor Who. And I just threw them all away, because I thought “I’m past this now. I’m into New Wave music and I’m out there and I’m drinking lager and having curries and going to art school! I’m not part of that any more.” So that was silly, wasn’t it? You’re taking over a character that’s been played by so many other actors. How do you make it fresh? You don’t do it in contrast to other people. You don’t look at other people and say, “Oh, they did that, so I can’t do that”. You just bring yourself to it. It’s a big secret but that’s all that actors do, really – they just turn up and be themselves, and then pretend that

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October 2014

New Doctor, same companion. they’ve added bits on! You just bring as much of yourself as possible to it. I often think, when I’m doing it, that even if I never played Doctor Who I probably was playing Doctor Who to some extent in some of my other work. Because that’s probably what formed me as an actor, rather than going to the Royal Shakespeare Company or watching Chekhov or something. It was watching Doctor Who that in some ways taught me to be an actor. I hope that it’s all there inside me and comes out. But no, I never think, “Oh, Matt did that, or David did that.” If you stumble across anything that is an echo… sometimes there are conscious echoes of other Doctors written in, and I love those. And sometimes there are subconscious echoes. But I’ve always loved that about the show anyway. If Matt gives somebody a jelly baby it’s very exciting! It’s two bits of Doctor Who coming together.

Every Doctor Who fan has an idea of how they’d play the Doctor, given the chance. How different is your performance now to the Peter Capaldi Doctor you always had in your head? Well, I never really had that Doctor in my head. I wasn’t an actor, I was a kid, so you’re being William Hartnell, you’re being Patrick Troughton, you’re being Jon Pertwee, you’re being Tom Baker… That’s who you’re being. You’re not being your version of Doctor Who. So I never had a version. And also the script says one thing, and my instincts may say another thing, but at the end of the day it’s a new Doctor Who, and it’s not just my creation. The major creative force here is Steven, who’s brilliant, and has such fantastic ideas about Doctor Who and about the Doctor. My job is to hopefully effectively portray the Doctor he’s written and also bring my Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

doctor who seeing it unfold in the newspapers, seeing all the names coming up and going “Hmm, interesting… might be quite good!” I thought I wasn’t in that race at all. Did you think you were too old to be considered? Yeah, I thought they were always going to keep going in that direction. And also I’d been in the show and I’d been in Torchwood. I sort of thought that was my Doctor Who time. And I was very grateful for that, so I didn’t want to be greedy and seek any more! But my agent phoned and said, “How would you feel about being the new Doctor Who?” And I literally just started laughing, because the idea was so wonderful to me, joyful. In fact the whole thing was a joyful sort of experience. But then they wanted to see me and see how I would work with them. And also I wanted to know what they were going to do with the show, because there’s no point in saying “I’ll come and be Doctor Who” if it can become something you don’t want it to be. So that was important, that we were all on the same page. And then they all had to go and discuss it with the BBC. And then yes, my agent phoned… I was dressed as Cardinal Richelieu and I had my phone off, because we were shooting at the time. I kept looking at my phone and I had nine missed messages from my agent. Finally she got through and said “Hello, Doctor!” And I couldn’t tell anyone. I was on the set. So I had to be very still and go off into a corner, dressed as Cardinal Richelieu, and start screaming.

“Just bring me more silver kitchenware. Come on, be quick about it.” view of the Doctor to the fore. It’s a sort of organic process, because the more we do the more we see what works and what doesn’t. Rather than saying, “Doctor Who is this”, if you throw stuff out there you recognise what is and isn’t Doctor Who. Sometimes he sort of appears, and you grab that, and you say “That is Doctor Who‑ish” – and other things are not. You just don’t have time to sit and make a checklist of what you think it should or shouldn’t be. But sometimes things feel right and sometimes they don’t. But are there characteristics that define your take on the Doctor? I don’t know. It’s quite mysterious. And I don’t mean that in a coy way. The actual process of creating him is mysterious. He has many hidden things, which we just glimpse occasionally, which are not revealed in full. www.sfx.co.uk

And I don’t know what those are! I see only the tip of the iceberg. Is there any reference to the character you played in “The Fires Of Pompeii”? Oh, that’s very mysterious. That question is raised as to why I have the same face as someone I may have met before. Or I have a similar face – it’s older! What was it like when your agent phoned and said “Hello Doctor?” Well, it was slightly more long-winded than that. I was in Prague doing The Musketeers, and a few of the directors had recently done Doctor Who, so I gleaned there was a certain amount of gossip about the possibility of Matt going. To be honest I didn’t really take any great interest in it other than as a fanboy… And then I read that Matt was leaving. I was

What was your first day like on the Doctor Who set? The regeneration day was very strange and wonderful. Matt, who I love, was just wonderful, and I knew that it was a very emotional time for him. The whole place was charged with a kind of emotion. They worked it out very well, I think. I was kept away from the set until the very last moment, so I wasn’t around to see Matt’s final scene – and I didn’t want to, because I knew he’d be fabulous. “Oh, follow that!” And I’m sure he didn’t want to see his successor literally standing in the wings, with the same costume on. I also had to move in very fast, because it’s a professional set. There’s only a certain amount of hours in the day and you’ve got to do the regeneration, and you’ve got to deliver it by 7 o’clock, so you just have to throw yourself completely into it and do it. But Matt was very sweet. I didn’t step onto the set until he was ready and he gave me a big hug, and gave me his watch that he wears as the Doctor, and ceremonially handed the TARDIS over to me. Did he give you any advice? He and David have both been great. They’ve both given me a lot of advice. It’s a very small club. Peter Davison’s been very nice as well. I met Matt in the street, just when he became the Doctor, and I thought he was great, so I told him so. And he always remembered that, which was sweet. So I obviously got my good karma for that! October 2014

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creator interviewS!

EARLY KNIGHT Welcome to Wayne’s world…

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October 2014

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gotham

new show! gotham SEASON: 1 US BROADCAST: Fox from 22 September UK BROADCAST: TBC

L to R: Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle; Ben McKenzie as Jim Gordon; Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock; David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne; and Erin Richards as Barbara Kean.

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© Smallz+Raskind/Warner Bros./Getty (1), Christopher Polk/FOX/Getty (2)

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he Dark Knight may

be on a big-screen hiatus until 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, but in the meantime fans can meet the young Bruce Wayne and his immortal rogues’ gallery in Gotham. Pitched as an urban-flavoured origin tale for the Batman legend, the series is set to explore the city that made the hero. As created by executive producers Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, Gotham puts newbie Detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and rumpled Detective Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) at the centre of the story with a freshly orphaned Master Wayne (David Mazouz) mourning in the periphery. It’s an inspired angle to recasting the Batman origin story but it’s one that didn’t come to Heller until he got some unexpected inspiration. “Initially, I was reluctant to do a superhero series, not because I don’t like them but I don’t know how to do people with superpowers because as soon as a superhero walks on-screen then the human beings are diminished,” Heller tells SFX. “Then when they walk out of frame, you are waiting for the superhero to come back. So it was that logistical problem I was looking at. It was my 12-year-old son who suggested Commissioner Gordon as a DC character who doesn’t have superpowers and it got me thinking. The nut of the idea was ‘What if Gordon was the cop who originally investigated the Wayne murders?’ It would give you a starting point and allow you to tell that saga from a much earlier point without ever having to get into a cape and cowl or superpowers situation. It soon became clear it gave us the chance to do the origin stories of all of these characters in a great way.” Going back also allows the creators a creative freedom that isn’t slavishly beholden to any of the previous screen or comic book versions. Executive producer Danny Cannon explains that their approach is two-fold. “The world needs to be relatable and credible in order for the drama to work but at the same time it’s a dream state. It’s kind of my fantasy of what the city would be. The fun of it was when I first visited New York, I had in my mind that it’s The French Connection, it’s Dog Day Afternoon, it’s The Warriors. I held onto that romanticism and that dream state for what we wanted [the city] to be as that’s a beautiful hotbed for drama.” Cannon says that Gotham is also a fullfledged character in the series, not just a

Robin Taylor will play Oswald Cobblepot, future Penguin. One of Gotham’s better looking crime bosses.

backdrop. “We are spending a lot of time in the city trying to make it as real as we can. We are going down the alleyways and in the back doorways and up the stairwells in places that nobody has gone before. The people who we are finding there are sometimes villains we are creating and other times they are the very early origins of somebody you may know from the comic book and that’s a beautiful thing.” The central engine of the series is the clash between new Gotham PD partners: the nonjaded Jim Gordon and the slightly corrupted Harvey Bullock. Ben McKenzie says Gordon is “the last good man in a city that is falling apart. The reference is 1970s New York where nothing is really quite working and everyone is on the take. The judges, politicians and cops are corrupt so there are all these villains around, or potential villains. Jim is a rookie when we meet him. He’s a war vet so he has a real sense of moral authority. Harvey does not. Harvey knows how the city works, greases some palms and how to shake down some folks if he needs to. They both have a grudging respect for each other but at the same time they will often be at serious odds.” Logue adds that the series feels like Chinatown. “Jim Gordon is really idealistic but is partnering up with a guy who has been beat down, but maybe he has a bit of goodness deep down in him. Jim has to bring that out.” October 2014

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Just another night out in Gotham. Heller says another important ongoing story will be Gordon’s relationship with young Bruce Wayne, set to have a bigger presence in the series than originally planned. “Bruce changed when we got David Mazouz in the role because he is hands down the best young actor I have ever worked with,” Heller enthuses. “He has a profound understanding of human emotion and a focus and concentration that allows him to play adult themes. The danger is when you have a kid in a lead role then it’s a kid show and you have to write it to kids. But David can play very complex, difficult, dysfunctional and sometimes scary stuff. Gordon is the moral centre of the show but Bruce Wayne will play a much larger part in the show than we initially thought.” As to the kinds of stories audiences can expect, Heller says “The framework of the show is the week-to-week work of the detectives in Gotham. There will be a procedural essence while telling many serialised stories that carry on through the arc of the whole show.” What the actual balance of that will look like, Cannon says, is still very much a work in progress. “There has been slight pressure, but not much as Warner Bros and Fox have been fantastic allowing us to push the boundaries a little bit and make a more adult-themed show, but we haven’t found the [narrative] balance yet. It feels more like a slow-burning, massive saga and that comes first. The

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“gordon is the moral centre of the show” procedural elements come because [Gordon] is a police detective and that’s going to happen. But it’s happening organically and it’s not being forced upon us.” And when it comes to the catalogue of DC characters that will populate the city, Heller says they already have a stable of familiars on deck like Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee), Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Taylor) and Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova). But audiences should look forward to original creations, or slightly tweaked histories. “I’ve worked very closely with Geoff Johns who runs DC creative. He has encyclopedic knowledge and he will tell me when we’re stepping over boundaries or doing stuff that couldn’t possibly happen.”

Never turn your back on a Penguin. And when it comes to the villains, Heller says fans shouldn’t expect a weekly exploration of Arkham Asylum’s future residents. “It won’t be a famous villain every week because it gets to be too much. There are some villains that can, and do, precede Batman. There are others who don’t and we will play with that. Generally speaking we won’t go to the full, theatrical, spandex costume aspect of the villains because we are portraying a world that is leading to that. For example, Joker didn’t think of his shtick all by himself. There must have been someone before. The same with Batman, in that there must have been vigilantes before, so we will play with that.” Tara Bennett Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

the mighty tv preview

Grant Gustin Catching up with the guy who’s stepped into the running shoes of the Flash

Words by joseph mccabe

G

Where are you right now in the production? I just read the third episode. Robbie Amell’s Firestorm is coming up in this next episode. Emily [Bett Rikards from Arrow] will appear in episode four. From what I understand we’re gonna go on a date. But a date as in we both have a lot going on in each of our lives. I don’t know where it’s going. I think we’re mostly gonna be there as friends to help each other. But there’s a lot of time for romance, so we’ll see.

The Flash explores more of the positive side of being a superhero than we’re used to seeing on TV. Yeah, it is lighter, but it doesn’t feel campy at all. This is kind of like Thor and Iron Man. The humour is there. It’s grounded in reality enough that as an actor you can ground yourself. There are a lot of great relationships in this world that’s not reality but not supernatural.

Should she remain his best friend for the time being, rather than become his girlfriend? I don’t know. It’s bubbling over. It’s been building for years for Barry. Eventually he’s just gonna tell her how he feels, I would imagine. Because this is a big change, and when big changes happen people tend to be more honest than usual. So I think she’ll find out sooner rather than later. It would be kind of cool for it to become romantic. But it won’t work out, because he’s a superhero and that’s how it goes [laughs].

Were you a superhero fan prior to getting this role? I was a big fan of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. I’ve got a Superman tattoo on my arm. I didn’t read comics growing up, just because I was busy with theatre. But I started reading everything I could when I got the part. There’s kind of too much out there to read, as far as the Flash goes. Because I don’t know all of the mythology. Sometimes when [producer] Andrew [Kreisberg] is talking to me I’m like, “I’ve lost you, dude” [laughs]. Did any comic stories prove especially useful to you? The whole New 52 series is what I’m reading. I love the way it looks. It’s the closest to the origin story that we’re doing, and [producer] Geoff Johns helped launch it. It’s kind of the world that our show is in. October 2014

portrait by George Pimentel

rant Gustin was introduced to genre fans when he debuted as Central City police scientist Barry Allen on TV’s Arrow last year. But his star should rise as fast as a certain Scarlet Speedster runs when he headlines Warner Brothers’ spinoff show The Flash this autumn. Cast in the title character’s original Silver Age mould of a lean track star – as opposed to the fondly remembered but weirdly muscle-bound incarnation of the 1990 television series – Gustin possesses a winning smile and humour that distinguishes his character from the tortured live-action DC Universe heroes of recent years, harking back to a time when such champions were unafraid to work in the sunlight. When SFX catches up with the thoughtful, articulate actor in Los Angeles, we’re startled to learn Gustin’s only 24 years old. But we’re content with the knowledge that his youth will only help give The Flash an appropriately long run.

Occupation: Actor Born: 14 January 1990 From: Norfolk, Virginia Greatest Hits: West Side Story, Glee, 90210, Arrow, The Flash, Affluenza Random Fact: Gustin admits “I used to pretend I was Superman and [Grease’s] Danny Zuko. I’m still doing the same thing.”

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Would you prefer Iris, Barry’s love interest, to learn his secret? I kind of want her to know sooner rather than later. Barry just really wants to tell her, and it’s killing him in the second episode. Because she’s always been pretty much his only friend. He’s got his STAR Labs family now, but they only know him as this guy who has these powers. Nobody knows him like Joe and Iris know him. He really wants to tell Iris because she could understand on a level that nobody else could.

Next to Batman, the Flash has the best rogues’ gallery in the DC Universe... Yeah, and we could potentially have some of Batman’s rogues’ gallery, like Arrow’s had. There’s endless possibilities for the villains. In the third episode, we’ve already got a villain who’s iconic. The most satisfying element of the show’s pilot is that the Flash, despite his powers, uses his wits to defeat the villain. That’s the only reason that he’s as useful as he is, because he’s so smart. Just being fast doesn’t really do much for you. You gotta have some wit, which Barry has plenty of. Even in these next few episodes, he really doesn’t know how to use his powers and he’s gotta make up for it by using his brain to get himself out of some sticky situations. The Flash starts on The CW in the US on 7 October. Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

THE FLASH

© George Pimentel/getty (1)

“in the third episode we’ve got a villain who’s iconic”

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October 2014

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the mighty tv preview Do they know something we don’t know?

No, you just can’t wear a cap like that. Even if you Norman Reedus. Sorry. ’re

creatorS interview!

they will survive The gang’s back together but survival is harder than ever… 58

October 2014

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the walking dead

RETURNING show! the walking dead SEASON: 5 US BROADCAST: AMC from 12 October UK BROADCAST: FOX from 13 October

© MJ Kim/Getty Images (3)

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he Walking Dead’s

season four finale was a break with tradition. While previous years have tied up loose ends in a neat, slightly decomposing bow (usually following the death of a major character or two), “A” closed on a bona fide cliffhanger, with Rick, Carl, Daryl, Michonne and chums locked in a storage container apparently bound for Terminus. “That’s just the way the writing worked out,” says Robert Kirkman, creator of the original Walking Dead comic book and executive producer on the show. “We’re telling a big story and we thought it would be a good time to end a season with a little bit more punch. We’ve definitely ended seasons with a bit more closure than we’ve done here, but I’m a huge fan of cliffhangers – if you’ve read the comic book series almost every single issue ends with a cliffhanger, so if it were up to me every episode would end with a cliffhanger!” Aside from Beth (still being held captive in some unknown location), and Carole, Tyreese and baby Judith (off wandering elsewhere), season five kicks off with the lead group of survivors in one place for the first time since the Governor’s assault on the prison they used to call home set them on separate paths. “We’re blessed with an amazing cast and a huge cast, and it’s sometimes challenging to service all those stories in the same episode,” explains executive producer Dave Alpert. “So to really make sure that we get into the detail that we’d like, we had to have them branch out. But at the same time it’s a singular journey, this is the group that we’re following, so we do like storytelling that comes back together at key moments so you can see how people have changed while they haven’t been together.”

He’s got his eye on you. Yes, you.

“to write someone out is a hard, awful thing” Of course, the survivors’ lives aren’t getting any easier, and Rick Grimes has had to visit darker places than most – he even had to bite out a man’s throat to save his son at the end of season four. How do you come back from that? “I think one of the keys to the success of the show and why people have really connected to it is people always say, ‘What would I do in this circumstance? How would I have reacted in that place?’” says Alpert. “I feel that presenting horrible choices that our characters have to

decide between to survive is fantastic not just as a storytelling tool but it also puts our audience in that place as well – there’s a knife to my throat, my son is being held down on the ground, potentially being assaulted, what am I going to do? I think that’s ultimately what the show’s really all about.” As Rick and his fellow survivors continue their journey, the world they live in is evolving. As time passes, the remains of society break down still further, the Walker population increases, and the dead decay that little bit more. It’s all part of a grand plan. “We do quite a lot of work figuring out how things would work, what the population is in the region, how more humans die off, more Walkers are created, and what different things can occur based on that rise in population,” explains Kirkman. “Those kind of things are worked out behind the scenes, and they eventually find their way into scripts – things like the herd that we’ve introduced, that concept of zombies walking around in unison not really knowing where they’re going but staying together. There’ll be more of that as we get further and further into the apocalypse.” And in a show with one of the most rapid turnovers of actors on TV, new characters will definitely be introduced this year to replace those unfortunates nominated for the chop. “Characters are dying off all the time, so you’re going to have to bring new characters into the show or you’re going to run out of cast,” says Kirkman. “There’s going to be a lot of characters introduced in season five.” Does this make it any easier to tell an actor their services are no longer required? “They’re people that you’ve spent a long time with, you’ve worked really hard with, you’ve watched them for hours on TV,” says Alpert. “To write someone out of the show is a hard, awful thing, but at the same time it’s part of what keeps the show going, and I think it’s something that’s come to be expected on the show. It’s always surprising to each original actor, because they always think they’re going to be the exception, but you know going in that it’s a possibility on this show.” Richard Edwards

Andrew Lincoln practises his angsty look. www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

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creator interview!

Rebel Alliance: The Early Years.

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October 2014

rebels with a cause The battle to take down the Empire starts here…

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star wars rebels

new show! star wars rebels SEASON: 1 US BROADCAST: Disney XD, October UK BROADCAST: Disney XD, Autumn

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here’s still over a

year to go until Episode VII blasts its way into cinemas, but luckily we don’t have to wait quite that long for a new fix of Star Wars action. Star Wars Rebels is the first screen trip to that galaxy far, far away since Disney got its hands on Lucasfilm, and it’s venturing into one of the most exciting undiscovered countries of the Star Wars universe – the mostly unexplored time period between Anakin Skywalker going bad and Luke Skywalker’s decision to turn his back on a career as a moisture farmer. “We knew we wanted it to be in that untold chapter between, essentially, The Clone Wars and A New Hope,” says Simon Kinberg, the X-Men: Days Of Future Past writer who’s now an executive producer on Rebels. “It’s one of the great bits that hasn’t been explored yet and it’s an opportunity to tell a story that takes place in worlds from the original films. I think for all of us the notion of doing an animated show that could touch on the tone, some of the characters and certainly the imagery of the original films was really, really compelling. We loved this idea of the origin of the Rebel Alliance – to start it with the most fledgling ragtag group of individuals, to start really intimate and small, and to know that it is going to expand out into something as massive as what we see in the original trilogy was just really neat.” Rebels is set five years before Episode IV. The Empire has had 15 years to stamp its authority on the galaxy, and – thanks to Order 66 – the Jedi are all but wiped out. Not everybody is prepared to accept Emperor Palpatine’s new galactic order, however, and the crew of the Ghost (a small, Millennium Falcon-ish ship) is taking the fight to the Imperial authorities, scoring small victories where they can. It’s a Firefly-ish crew of humans, aliens and droids you wouldn’t normally put in a room together. There’s Hera, the Twi’lek pilot/owner of the ship; Zeb, the crew’s Lasat muscle; Sabine, a Mandalorian warrior; astromech droid C1-10P (aka Chopper); and their leader, a Jedi named Kanan who somehow escaped the purge at the end of Revenge Of The Sith. Kanan also takes a young thief named Ezra under his wing, after sensing how strong the Force is with him. This isn’t the glamorous wing of the Rebel Alliance, who mingle with the likes of Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar and make complex decisions about blowing up armoured battle stations. They’re the grassroots of the organization, the footsoldiers crucial to sowing the seeds of dissent against the Empire – they’re currently small players on the scene, and that’s the whole point of the show.

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Real stormtroopers! With real stormtrooper helmets!

They aim to misbehave.

“we loved this idea of the origin of the rebel alliance” “Part of what I loved about the original movies is the underdog stories,” Kinberg explains. “I just love the notion of the little guy eventually taking down the big establishment, and that to me as a storyteller is a cool place to start. It gives you so much room for growth, because you are seeing not just the arc for individual characters, but the arc of this whole movement.” Constantly on their tail are some familiarlooking stormtroopers (so much cooler than prequel-style clones), Sith-like Imperial agent the Inquisitor (his lightsaber can do things we

haven’t seen before), and his chief lackey Agent Kallus. They live in an intriguing time because every character we know from the original Star Wars universe – Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Lobot – is out there somewhere, trying to make their way in the galaxy. “Timeline-wise everyone is in play,” confirms Kinberg. “We’ve already revealed Obi-Wan and R2 and C-3PO [will appear], and you’ll see that we bring some of the other original characters into the show, hopefully in organic ways where it doesn’t feel like a stunt. Each time the crew of the Ghost meet one of the original characters, it’s expanding their world a little bit. This is really the story of these five people on this ship and their adventures, almost as a family. The people they meet along the way challenge, expand and evolve the family, and so different characters from the original films will trigger different things for them, whether they be good or bad.” This isn’t the first time the Star Wars universe has been realised with computer animation, of course. The Clone Wars spent five-and-a-bit years successfully filling in the gaps between Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, and supervising director Dave Filoni is back at the helm on Rebels. Kinberg says Filoni was a key part of the decision to base the show’s spaceship and hardware designs on Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept designs for A New Hope. October 2014

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Get ready for some new moves with a lightsaber. “I think that came from Dave as much as anybody,” he recalls. “The idea was to make it feel fresh and unique, yet loyal to the original movies, mining some stuff that was the inspiration for the original films, but didn’t end up in the original films. There was a sense almost of going back to the source source material that was just a unique idea. “Ralph McQuarrie’s art has a very tactile, warm, non-computer generated look,” Kinberg continues, “and the feeling was that when you get away from that it’s starting to get away from the original movies.” Aside from the aesthetics, there are plenty of subtle nods for fans of the original trilogy. Chopper looks like the original McQuarrie R2D2, for example, Zeb is inspired by his design for Chewbacca, and there’s also a protocol droid that has the Metropolis-like stylings McQuarrie initially intended for C-3PO. The Empire seem to use British accents as a default, the music and sound effects are very familiar, and there’s even a couple of Wilhelm screams thrown in for good measure. “It’s filled with Easter eggs,” Kinberg admits. “Setting the final battle of the pilot on Kessel is something where my kids are not going to understand the reference at all – it’s just going to be a random planet and a bunch of mines – but for my generation and even semihardcore Star Wars fans, they’ll recognise that name from somewhere. They may go back to the original movie or they’ll Google it to try to

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“the idea was to make it feel fresh and unique” figure out how they know it. The show is filled with little moments, words, sometimes worlds, that touch on the original films.” If they do ever get stuck, the writing team can always fall back on the expertise of the newly formed Lucasfilm Story Group, the team charged with the seemingly impossible task of rationalising the vast Star Wars canon. “They’re all really involved in the show,” says Kinberg. “She’s not credited as such, but I’d say Kiri Hart, who runs the group, really is one of the co-creators of the show. Dave Filoni’s an encyclopedia and also an emotional barometer. He knows what feels Star Wars – it’s not just the actual stats and data, there’s just something about the feel where he can

say ‘That’s not Star Wars’. And there’s a guy called Pablo Hidalgo who’s a Star Wars expert who worked with George [Lucas] for a decade, I think, maybe more, and he is better than Wookieepedia and Google.” The structure of the show is different to the story arcs that made up The Clone Wars. The episodes are standalones, but the character arcs are longer, sustained over entire seasons. Kinberg says Clone Wars fans should also spot a change in approach. “Rebels is quite different tonally from The Clone Wars, I think it’s more aspirational and a brighter show, more like the original movies, where The Clone Wars is a little bit more like the prequels. It’s a more intimate show, I think, and a more character-driven show.” And just because it airs on a kids channel doesn’t mean it won’t appeal to grown-ups. “The original movies struck that balance,” says Kinberg. “I think the reason they were so resonant is because people could go with their parents – when those movies came out my parents were as into them, my dad certainly was as into them as I was, so it was a crossgenerational experience. I think with this show the intention certainly is that because of the network it is aimed at a younger audience but that my generation, the parents of those kids, will get as excited as their kids are about the show, and certainly will get more excited than they are about anything else their kids are watching on TV.” Richard Edwards Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

the mighty tv preview

SPY HARDER creator AND STAR interviews!

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Is there life after HYDRA? Marvel’s troubled espionage division is about to find out…

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agents of shield/grimm

RETURNING show! agents of shield SEASON: 2 US BROADCAST: ABC from 23 September UK BROADCAST: Channel 4 TBC

© Maarten de Boer/TV Guide/Contour by Getty (1), Charley Gallay/NBC//Getty (1)

A

fter a rocky first

season, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD found its groove when it synched with the big-screen reveals of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. SHIELD was exposed in the movie as having been infiltrated by the nefarious HYDRA and had to be dismantled by Nick Fury. On the small screen that meant Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team were left adrift – a plot development that allowed the show to finally find its focus. For season two, executive producer Jeph Loeb tells SFX that the series “is going to pick up exactly where we left off from last season, in the sense that now Director Coulson has been given a directive which is rebuild SHIELD and do it right.” And Clark Gregg, Coulson himself, tells us that task won’t be easy because “Everyone in the world seems to want to arrest Phil Coulson. SHIELD is on the run. Now we have to rebuild it and make it better and not so riddled with evil traitors. We have very few resources. Everything we do is about finding out who’s HYDRA, and who’s not, amongst our friends. To rebuild SHIELD, we’re going to need some old friends to prove themselves and some new friends. We’re going to have to do it in a way that feels very brass knuckles, old world spying.” If it sounds like a reboot, co-showrunner Jeff Bell doesn’t disagree. “Everything got blown apart which provides us with an opportunity. It allows us to tell stories where we are the underdog. It allows us to tell stories the way SHIELD originally was conceived, which was sort of like Men In Black and not officially out there. It’s much more of a spy show. But we’re going to answer some of the questions left at season’s end like ‘Who else is HYDRA? What happened to Ward? And [what was the meaning of ] Coulson writing on the wall and making drawings?” As for that enigmatic moment that ended the first season, Gregg jokes, “I hope the graffiti he was doing doesn’t mean it’s going to be like the end of The Sopranos where it all

“i would hope there will be other villains” just goes dark.” The truth of how Coulson’s past and fate will play out is a tightly guarded secret for now, but the actor admits he’s happy to return to capitalise on the momentum earned at the end of the first season. “I had so much fun, especially in the back half of season one, with the crossover with Captain America and Nick Fury showing up in my hour of need and handing me my beautiful Destroyer gun and letting me blow away a bunch of super soldiers. The fact that this guy has become a character people know, who is in the comics, who has been in the movies and has a TV show blows me away on a daily basis.” Asked what he’s most excited to play out this season, Gregg says, “I like that he’s got the people from his first team last year. Skye is an important character to him. May is someone who he’s worked out his demons with and can trust. Now they’ve got to rebuild SHIELD from the ground up and that means making some new agents, and I would assume, finding out some new HYDRA supervillains.” Bell raises his eyebrow at that tease, but he confirms that the show’s heroes will face an expanded roster of antagonists. “Although HYDRA has a very cool logo, I would hope there will be other villains as well, and a plan,” Bell offers. And given how the Winter Soldier storyline infused the show with so much energy and purpose, the executive producers naturally smile when asked whether the Avengers sequel might deliver a similar shot in the arm. “1 May [2015] is the Avengers: Age of Ultron opening date which will be about two or three weeks before we end the season,” says Bell. “Wouldn’t it be cool if something tied together?” Tara Bennett

To be a Grimm or not to be a Grimm.

returning show!

grimm

SEASON: 4 US BROADCAST: NBC from 24 October UK BROADCAST: Watch TBC

A

ccording to Grimm

mastermind David Greenwalt, the show’s fourth season will be all about “identity”. “Nick will be faced with a whole identity crisis,” the show’s executive producer tells SFX. “It’s the theme of the first third of the year, if not more. He’s going to be faced with the question ‘Is it better to be a Grimm or not to be a Grimm?’ Of course Juliette is going to have opinions on that – if there’s some way to reverse engineer what Adalind did and somehow restore his powers. It’s a big choice for everybody concerned. Juliette is conflicted – ‘Is he fulfilled if he’s not a Grimm?’ But he’s going to think, “I owe Juliette something and we should have a life together.” So there’s a lot of stuff about identity. The first two episodes will be literally about identity theft, but as only we can do it.” Joseph McCabe

The look of a man with worries on his mind.

Those guns have made a big impression on that wall.

www.sfx.co.uk

Look into the eyes – not around the eyes – into the eyes.

October 2014

65

the mighty tv preview Is this a finger I see before me? Yes, I think it is.

Definitely no romanc here. Nuh uh, no way.e

creator AND STAR interviews!

hollow hearts

Apocalypse now! Ichabod and Abbie are back – and ready for battle… 66

October 2014

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sleepy hollow/atlantis

SEASON: 2 US BROADCAST: Fox from 22 September UK BROADCAST: Universal TBC “

W

ar is coming to

town,” says Roberto Orci, executive producer of Sleepy Hollow, last year’s surprise supernatural hit riffing on the beloved short story by Washington Irving. “War is coming, literally in the case of John Noble’s character. And war can tear not only a town apart but a family apart. This is about Katrina and Crane and how they will deal with potential conflict – ‘Can they redeem their son or not?’” Last year’s finale saw Katrina and Ichabod’s son Jeremy Crane (actor John Noble) fully revealed as War, the Second Horseman of the Apocalypse, desperately seeking revenge against his parents for, as he believes, abandoning him in a coffin for 200 years. But Sleepy Hollow’s audience fell hard for Ichabod and his newfound partner Abbie’s blossoming relationship last season. So will the show continue to evolve the pair’s dynamic? “Yeah, there’s no question,” says Orci’s fellow executive producer Mark Goffman. “Their relationship is at the core of everything we do, and how we approach stories is ‘How are we going to test that relationship? How is whatever happens to one of them going to affect the other?’ But even picking up at the beginning of season two, there are going to be some real trust issues, because we saw in the finale that Crane had betrayed Abbie’s trust in redrawing that map from Purgatory. So it’s not always going to be smooth. It’s a real relationship, and we want to play out all of the love and the true nature of how they evolve.” “Abbie and Crane need each other very desperately,” agrees the show’s third executive producer, Alex Kurtzman. “It was one of the things that got us so excited when we wrote the pilot, this idea that as a man out of time, obviously he needs her for guidance, but she has been so alone her whole life with really nobody who believed the story that she knows in her heart was true, and along comes the strangest of people who is proof positive that, in fact, it is true. So they have a very unique connection from the start, and obviously, as season one revealed, a deeper connection than even they understood. The level of intimacy, I think, is something that has to be played for what it honestly is, which is how much they need each other.” “And running around the woods in the middle of the night, chasing after monsters, is profoundly erotic,” laughs Ichabod himself, actor Tom Mison. “I don’t think we strive for ambiguity,” adds producer Heather Kadin. “From the beginning, it’s been approached as an unconditional friendship. The audience started taking away

www.sfx.co.uk

from it this romance, this undercurrent that we didn’t really plan for. I don’t even think we were creating it with that in mind. So we’ve continued to just follow the same path, which is they happen to be male, female and have this amazing friendship and trust that you’ve seen before.” “The chemistry between these two actors is just phenomenal,” says Goffman. “That definitely helps us in the writing. We can see it playing into that void that they each fill for each other. But, you know, Crane is married. He has a wife. So, yeah, she could be in Purgatory or she could be captured by the Horseman, but he’s still married and hopelessly in love with her, and that’s something not to be forgotten. And also, it’s just hard to have relationships during the Apocalypse.” “It’s a mood killer,” laughs Mison. “One of the things that attracted me about this part,” explains Nicole Beharie, Sleepy Hollow’s Lt Grace Abigail “Abbie” Mills, “is that she has a relationship with the man but it’s not romantic and she’s not necessarily defined by some sexual or amorous desires. She’s actually kind of unearthing all these things about her past and her history, through this person that seems like he shouldn’t be in her life. He’s actually her partner, and I love that they’re so different. Crane has become a family member and the closest person she’s ever had in her life.” Joseph McCabe

“male, female, with this amazing friendship and trust” returning show!

atlantis

SEASON: 2 UK BROADCAST: BBC One TBC US BROADCAST: BBC America TBC

T

here are some titanic

changes afoot for Atlantis. When the show returns to BBC One later this year not only will time have moved on a whole year in the mysteriously unsunken mythical city, but in the real world the show will air later in the evening to reflect its new, more adult approach. “It’s a little bit darker than series one. The stakes are a bit higher,” says Mark Addy, who plays the show’s slovenly Hercules. “It’s reflective of the fact its timeslot is going to be later. If you’ve got a show that passes the watershed then expectations of it are different, so there have been changes made in the tone of the show. It’s a good shift of gear to make. They’ve reflected that in the scripts as well. In season one we had to establish what this place is, what the rules are, but now we’ve moved up a gear and it’s slightly more perilous.” Jordan Farley

“And for my first magic trick…”

“Cardigans are better.” “No, suit jackets.” “No, definitely cardigans.”

Back for a more adult show. Not that kind of adult. Well, we don’t think so.

October 2014

© christopher polk/fox/getty (4)

RETURNING show! sleepy hollow

67

the mighty tv preview

NEW show!

CONSTANTINE

Their new album is due out any day now.

SEASON: 1 US BROADCAST: NBC from 24 October UK BROADCAST: TBC

Brothers’ TV adaptation of DC’s long-running Hellblazer comic, draws inspiration from John Constantine’s earliest appearances in Swamp Thing’s “American Gothic” storyline for its first year. But producer Daniel Cerone tells SFX the show is also influenced by other, more surprising sources. “I really hook into the fact that he’s a conman. I love that. He’s like Yojimbo in a way. He doesn’t have powers but he’s always playing all sides against the middle. Because that’s basically who he is. Sometimes he’s in a situation where he doesn’t always have to use magic to get out. Sometimes it’s his wits. Sometimes it’s sleight of hand. Sometimes it’s just a good old-fashioned con. I also like that he’s got this legend about him, and that he built up that legend. A lot of that legend is earned, but he leans into it. In that way he’s the ultimate trickster. That’s a fun and playful character. But he’s also dark and tortured.” The show stars Matt Ryan as the titular occultist and adds Angélica Celaya as series regular Zed Martin from its second episode. Looking at John Constantine’s many adventures, Cerone admits he’s most interested in those which are “grounded”. “Some of the coolest stuff you might read in the comic book, frankly, when it’s transposed to the screen can be silly. You have Constantine going into different realms and times and fighting demon hordes. So our guiding mantra is we just want to present the most grounded reality that we can.” Joseph McCabe

Well there’s no sign of Keanu Reeves, at least.

NEW show!

iZOMBIE SEASON: 1 US BROADCAST: The CW TBC UK BROADCAST: TBC

F

or anyone still

lamenting the loss of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Pushing Daisies, iZombie might just fill that hole in your heart. Inspired by Vertigo’s Eisner Awardnominated comic book of the same name, executive producers Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero have adapted the source material to fit the small screen. “What we kept from the comic book was the big idea and the premise of a woman in her twenties who is a functional zombie. She needed brains to survive and inherits the memories of the brains she ate,” Thomas tells SFX. In the series, that troubled lady is Liv Moore, played by Rose McIver. “Because we are hopefully doing 22 episodes a year, we wanted there to be a procedural at the core. In the comic book, she is robbing graves. In the show, she works

“What do you mean, your takeaway doesn’t serve food like this?”

68

October 2014

“every brain she is eating is a murder victim” in a police morgue so every brain she is eating is a murder victim, so each week we get to solve a murder case.” With horror gaining more traction on TV, Thomas says iZombie won’t go dark like some other popular shows… “On The CW, we could never out-Walking Dead The Walking Dead. We could never do the shotgun to the brain stuff they do, so we rely on wit. We want the drama to have stakes but for there to be levity. I actually think iZombie is closer to doing what Buffy The Vampire Slayer was doing. We actually reference Buffy and Warm Bodies a lot about where tonally we want to land.” Tara Bennett

Smallz+Raskind/Warner Bros./Getty (1), Christopher Polk/NBCU/Getty (1)

C

onstantine, Warner

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the mighty tv preview

And people say vampires are all doom and gloom.

The Originals takes a turn for the fairytale.

RETURNING showS!

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES AND THE ORIGINALS SEASON: 6/2 US BROADCAST: The CW from 2 October/The CW from 6 October UK BROADCAST: ITV2 TBC/Syfy TBC

creator interview! 70

October 2014

T

he virginian town

of Mystic Falls was forever changed in season five of The Vampire Diaries, which concluded with Damon and Bonnie quite literally staring into the face of oblivion. Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

arrow/vampire diaries/the originals

© Smallz+Raskind/Warner Bros./Getty (2)

“damon is going to be trying like hell to find a way back” “This year they’ve gone through a terrible tragedy and they’ve lost two of their loved ones and their home,” says executive producer Julie Plec of the show’s remaining heroes. “They can’t go home again. So we get to pick up and see how they’ve dealt with that, what their coping mechanisms are. Some are destructive, some are good. We get to find our people as they are dealing with this new lot in their life, and watch them as they try to find a way to come back together and get their home and friends back.” As for The Vampire Diaries’ central triangle, Plec says, “It was resolved last year when Elena committed herself to Damon and Stefan supported that. I don’t think that’s gonna change. Stefan and Elena’s friendship is very deep and very powerful. Elena’s loss of Damon is incredibly profound. And Damon, wherever he is, whatever he’s doing – if he’s alive, dead, we don’t know – is going to be trying like hell to find a way back. So it’s really gonna be about what happens once he returns.” Meanwhile, on The Vampire Diaries’ sister show The Originals, a slightly new direction will be explored. “Tonally this year,” explains Plec, “we’re taking just the tiniest little shift in direction. Last year it was sort of Sopranos and mafiastyle turf wars, that kind of thing. Season two is more fable, more dark Grimm fairytale. It’s still the real world, it’s still all that. But the way that we sort of set our tone is a ‘Once upon a time there was an evil sorceress…’ vibe. I feel more emotionally and thematically connected to it than ever.” Plec also tells us to expect more of New Orleans’ culture to inform the world of The Originals in the new season. “We have files and files and researchers and researchers. When we say it’s Halloween or it’s Christmas and we’re airing but we don’t want to call it Christmas what do we do? In the Bayou, how do they celebrate the holy days or solstice? We’re really trying to find new ways of celebrating New Orleans culture. Especially the history. Because we’re still going back to different eras. To be able to link those together is fun for us.” Joseph McCabe

www.sfx.co.uk

Have you seen these vigilantes?

returning show!

ARROW

SEASON: 3 US BROADCAST: The CW from 1 October UK BROADCAST: Sky1 TBC

S

ince its debut, Arrow

has grown exponentially in fan popularity, critical acclaim and scope. But showrunner Marc Guggenheim tells SFX that while the show will continue to expand, a part of it could soon get very small. For season three introduces another of Oliver Queen’s longtime allies in the DC Universe, Ray Palmer – best known as that mighty mite, the Atom. In an ironic twist, he’ll be played by one of the taller actors in Hollywood: former Superman Brandon Routh. “What we’re doing with Ray is consistent with what we’ve always done on the show,” says Guggenheim, who’s also scripting the Digital First comic series Arrow 2.5. “It’s like Batman Begins – it’s every character’s proto version. Part of the fun is seeing the character before they reach that ultimate comic book trajectory. Our process with Ray will be similar

Seriously, can he have any peripheral vision with that hood up?

to the process you’ve seen on the show before. In keeping with that, we also sometimes like to surprise the audience and do it in a way that you don’t expect. That’s part of the fun.” In addition to a mid-season Arrow-Flash crossover and the introduction of another famed character whom Guggenheim is still casting, season three (which begins approximately five months after season two ended) will feature Tatsu Yamashiro (played by Sin City’s Devon Aoki), who, in the DCU, becomes the Justice Leaguer Katana. “We’re going to really open up the flashbacks. For two years we’ve been on an island and a boat. This year we’re in a major city in this foreign land. The scope of it is so much bigger. There’s more characters, there’s more people for Oliver to interact with. Before it was just anyone who was on the island. But that limitation is completely taken off of us with Hong Kong. The flashbacks will find a completely new gear this year. It’s always fun to see someone in the past and someone in the present and see how they’re different.” “I can’t believe we’re doing this many characters on this show,” adds Guggenheim. “In our wildest fantasies we never imagined we’d do so many characters so quickly. In season three we’ve got more recognisable DC characters than we’ve ever had.” Joseph McCabe

“Bam!” “Zap!” “Kapow!”

October 2014

71

the mighty tv preview “Happy tenth birthday, bro!”

creator interview!

STARTER FOR TEN

Dean was never sure how much to tip.

The Winchester boys celebrate their first decade with a demonic twist…

72

October 2014

Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

supernatural/person of interest

RETURNING show!

SUPERNATURAL SEASON: 10 US BROADCAST: The CW from 7 October UK BROADCAST: TBC

stay alive for ten years, but Supernatural hits that decade-long milestone this autumn when it returns to find the Winchester brothers in dire straits once more. Dean (Jensen Ackles) essentially died in the season finale and was resurrected as a black-eyed demon via Crowley (promoted series regular Mark Sheppard). That leaves Sam on a mission to find and restore his brother with the help of Crowley and a mortal Castiel (Misha Collins). Showrunner Jeremy Carver reveals to SFX that the series will open with a tweak to its structure. “I’m excited we’re not doing a classic Big Bad mythology,” Carver explains. “If anything, our Big Bad right at the get go is the fact Dean is a demon. We’re also laying in some very personal building blocks, not just for Sam and Dean, but for Crowley and Castiel as well. If we achieve lift-off, it will feel even more impactful as the season goes on because people will be forced into certain corners. It’s not necessarily a question of good and evil – more ‘I’ve got to do what I gotta do.’ It will raise some very uncomfortable choices for people.” In particular Carver says the show will dig deep into the conundrum of whether Sam crosses a moral line in his search for Dean. “Part of that is playing off fan expectations in that in our heart of hearts we all desperately want brothers to look for their brothers. It’s almost the challenge of ‘What are you willing to accept Sam doing to find and rescue his brother?’ It’s meant to open up those kinds of questions and we do go into it in great detail in the first run of episodes.” The show will also explore new character pairings that Carver hopes will keep the characters fresh deep into the series run. “The Dean/Crowley relationship sprung up last year when they realised they were bros in a way. It’s an uncomfortable thing and we’ll see that continue this year. They are truly doing what they promised which is howl at the Moon. But I think Dean would be foolish to think Crowley didn’t have a couple of other plans for them as well – which starts to get these two guys questioning just what this relationship is.” Carver continues, “And Sam is working with Castiel, actually apart at first. Castiel is not in good shape and would rather not be a burden in Sam’s search for Dean so he’s taking one for the team in lying low. It will cause him to go on a journey of his own which will be very personal and have a far-reaching impact for the year.” Tara Bennett

www.sfx.co.uk

Mary Elizabeth Winstead joins an English language remake of The Returned.

NOT ONLY BUT ALSO…

Definitely interesting people.

returning show!

PERSON OF INTEREST

SEASON: 4 US BROADCAST: CBS from 23 September UK BROADCAST: Channel 5 TBC

W

hen we last left

our heroes on Person Of Interest at the end of season three they’d broken up and scattered in an effort to survive their enemy AI Samaritan’s plans for their destruction. Season four begins by jumping ahead in time and finding them all entrenched in their new identities. “They’re identities with which we’re kind of fish out of water trying to navigate through them,” reveals Sarah Shahi, who plays bloodthirsty former government assassin Sameen Shaw. “We haven’t gotten a number in a while. The Machine is letting us acclimate to our new identities. It’s very frustrating for our characters, especially mine, who’s had a very intense appetite for violence. In the first episode we finally receive our first number, and it’s kind of tricky helping the number out and not being caught by Samaritan.” When SFX asks what the team’s new identities might be, Shahi laughs. “That’s what I can’t tell you! Okay, fine I’ll tell you mine – I’m a hooker by day, hooker by night. That’s all you’ll get out of me.” “This season,” explains Amy Acker, aka Root, the Machine’s analogue interface, “the Machine has to be a little bit more cryptic with how she’s talking to me. She’s teasing me with hints to help everybody maintain this new identity. But I don’t have the direct line of communication that I had with her last year.” “We just have to be very sly with how we operate,” Shahi tells SFX. “Because there are eyes everywhere…” Joseph McCabe

© Christopher Polk/Getty (1), Larry Busacca/Getty (1)

N

ot many genre shows

American Horror Story turns into a Freak Show in its fourth season, set at a carnival in 1950… Matrix creators Andy and Lana Wachowski team with Babylon 5 creator J Michael Straczynski for Netflix’s Sense8, concerning a team of telepaths… Mark Pellegrino and Mary Elizabeth Winstead star in Carlton Cuse’s remake of the French resurrection drama The Returned… Defiance’s second season finds Earth Republic Viceroy William Atherton in control of post-apocalyptic St Louis… Resurrection’s second season begins a week after season one, boasting a “darker vibe”... Hell, or Storybrooke, freezes over when Frozen’s Elsa and Anna debut on season four of Once Upon A Time… Syfy’s Haven expands from 13 to a whopping 26 episodes in its fifth and possibly final season… The Librarian star Noah Wyle is joined by Rebecca Romijn, Christian Kane, and Matt Frewer in the first season of The Librarians… Medical examiner Ioan Gruffudd investigates criminal cases looking for a cure to his immortality in Forever… A 200-year-old conspiracy lies at the heart of Tim Kring’s Dig, starring Jason Isaacs as an FBI agent… Beauty And The Beast’s Vincent becomes a medical doctor again as the show welcomes regular Nicole Anderson…

Defiance: defiantly back for seconds.

October 2014

73

photography by james looker

Date: July 2014 Location: Jordan’s Flat

Left to right: Nick, Jordan, Ian and Russell.

Beyond Who T

To celebrate the Twelfth Doctor’s debut the Couch crew explores life before and after Doctor Who he arrival of a new Doctor is always a cause for celebration, but it’s important to remember that there’s much more to the men who once held the keys to the TARDIS than a series of adventures in space and time. Tom Baker played evil magician Prince Koura in The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, Sylvester McCoy has found a second poop-encrusted life as Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit films, Peter Capaldi is already immortalised as sweary spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, and that’s only the tip of the timeship. So join us as we explore life on screen before (and after) the Doctor.

The Tomorrow People “A Man For Emily” (1975)

Peter Davison made his television debut in this infamously awful episode of The Tomorrow People, co-starring Davison’s future wife Sandra Dickinson. The episode begins with Davison’s humanoid alien Elmer on his ship sporting nothing but black leather boots, a choker, blue undies and a shocking platinum perm. Ian: It’s Daniel Craig in a Harpo Marx wig! Russell: Bear in mind this is Davison’s first appearance on TV – how mortifying. Jordan: Davison thought he’d never work in television again. He spent 18 months in a tax office in Twickenham after this. Nick: Kids rebelled against this story. There was going to be a sequel

but the feedback was so negative they canned it. Mercifully, the classic psychedelic title sequence kicks in after a few seconds. Nick: This is the greatest title sequence ever. Not so much a title sequence as a CIA mind control experiment. Kill Fidel Castro, kids! Ian: That fist is like a subliminal black power gesture. Jordan: Shows up the reboot’s title sequence for the rubbish it was. Sandra Dickinson’s bossy, squeaky Emily enters. Nick: It’s Tweety Pie in hotpants. Russell: She has the most annoying voice. Nick: On the commentary Davison says “Imagine living with it…” Ian: She’s like a sonic weapon that you’d use in Guantanamo. Jordan: The accent of evil. October 2014

75

couch potato

Like Marty at the start of BTTF3. But worse.

Let the annoying voice contest begin!

Nick: I’ve always thought she was quite cute. Maybe I just can’t hear that frequency… Russell: This can’t get any worse. Right on cue Margaret Burton’s pantomime Momma enters. Russell: Spoke too soon. Jordan: Why have they all got such awful American accents? Ian: It’s like an entire orchestra of people scratching their fingers down glass. Russell: They remind me of the crazy family of cannibals from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Nick: There’s something very dark about this – the females of this species eat the males, like Black Widow spiders. Jordan: It’s got character. Character, but no talent whatsoever.

Russell: There are no clothes in the world that could possibly be worse to wear than what they’re all wearing right now. Ian: The “space” background looks more like wrapping paper. Jordan: Or a novelty tie. Nick: And why is their spaceship an egg box? Jordan: This makes that episode of Come Back Mrs Noah we watched recently look like a masterpiece. Russell: The cowboy movie they’re watching is infinitely better shot and better acted. Ian: Is there going to be a scene where they stop talking? Because I really want to get to that scene.

Eventually Elmer, in his cowboy get-up, is sent to Earth to search for food. Ian: Cigarette vending machines on the street, that’s brilliant. Nick: He’s got a fish in his holster, which is wonderfully surreal. In a moment of unexpected violence Elmer shoots a greengrocer dead. Nick: Jesus, what just happened? It’s like Django Unchained in Clapham. Jordan: Davison Unchained. Fortunately, Stephen turns up to save the day. Nick: I’m going to rescue you with the power of ’70s fashion. Jordan: I like how the old ladies don’t even react to Stephen jaunting in front of them, or bringing a man back from the dead with his laser finger. Russell: This is actually a half-decent concept. It’s bearable when it cuts to Earth and Davison. Ian: It’s a good concept but it’s cheap and childish. Elmer eventually makes his way to a pub. Jordan: Lion Lager sign – there’s a lot of product placement in this. Russell: And a guy inhaling snuff! Nick: That’s the type of bloke you thought died out in the ’40s but was still lingering in the ’70s. Ian: I see he’s started on the whiskey. It’s the only way Davison could get through this. Jordan: Especially the pants scene. A shoot out ensues, prompting John and Stephen to turn up dressed as cowboys. For some reason. Ian: “Is this where the fancy dress party’s happening?” There are two more episodes left, but having had quite enough of awful American accents and perms for one day the team moves on to a different form of torture...

It’s fun to stay at the YMCA…

This is now banned in pubs.

“Jesus, what just happened? It’s like Django Unchained in Clapham”

76

October 2014

That sneer will one day be famous.

Perhaps you went on a bit, Vila.

Blake’s 7 “City At The Edge Of The World”

(1980)

Four years before his stint in the TARDIS, Sixth Doctor Colin Baker guest-starred as ruthless mercenary Bayban the Butcher in Blake’s 7. Jordan: It’s series three, so Blake’s not around any more. Ian: They pretend to look for Blake for two episodes then Tarrant’s suddenly in charge. They’re pretty much the same character. Nick: He’s even got the same hair. Imitation Blake forces Vila to teleport down to a planet, where he’s captured by Kerril and taken to her boss Bayban. Ian: Bayban the Butcher – renowned throughout the galaxy for his sausages. Nick: He’s called Bayban the Butcher, possibly because of his performance. Russell: “You stupid son of a slime crawler.” Yep, that’s the Sixth Doctor, charming as ever. Ian: It’s just his Doctor performance. And most of the performance is in the nostrils with Colin Baker. Jordan: He’s cranked up the arch, if that’s possible. Enter Bayban’s studded-leathersporting henchmen. Jordan: There’s a little bit of the Kryptonians to these guys. Nick: The Craptonians. Ian: Paul Darrow must be in heaven, everyone’s acting like Paul Darrow. Russell: It’s like in “Timelash” where Paul Darrow’s trying to outdo Colin Baker by basically doing Richard III.

Ian: You wee’d in the corner of my show, now I’m going to do the same to yours! Jordan: “Live every hour as if it’s your last.” Imagine if that was true and we were spending it watching this and The Tomorrow People… Nick: This is actually a pretty good episode. Vila gets a love story. Ian: As opposed to Paul Darrow falling in love with his performance, which is every episode. Kerril and Vila escape together. Next thing you know they’ve done the horizontal shuffle. Ian: Kerril goes from threatening Vila to sleeping with him in the space of five minutes. Jordan: Well, it is science fiction. Nick: Wait, they did it while being watched by a skeleton? What kind of perversion is this? Back on the planet, Avon and the gang have arrived, but Bayban is waiting, sitting aside a troublingly big space cannon. Ian: Behold the sight of my massive gun! Jordan: Colin Baker’s compensating for something. Nick: I shall unleash the phallotron! Russell: It’s a shame this is the only bit where Colin Baker and Paul Darrow are together. Ian: The universe couldn’t contain their acting for any longer. Nick: “We’re having an archery contest, Paul. I’m more arch than you are.” Fortunately, everyone escapes Bayban’s clutches. And with that the Couch crew escape into the capable hands of Jon Pertwee.

Vila can hold hands with panache.

“Wait till you see how I treat Peri.” Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

beyond who

He wants a walk-in health centre, he does. Come on, that’s better than battling the Autons!

The House That Dripped Blood

Fright Night

(2011)

Jon Pertwee makes a memorable appearance in this Amicus horror anthology. He plays the latest resident to go missing from the titular house, Paul Henderson, a temperamental actor cast as a vampire in a cheap horror movie. He also appears to be wearing his Doctor Who clobber – crossed with Shaft. Nick: I’d have loved to see Pertwee playing a pimped-out Doctor. Ian: He’s like the Mack on the way to the player’s ball. Jordan: Those were the days when you could wear a silk neckerchief and not get chased out of town. Nick: I tried that once and got chased out of town by the SFX team. Pertwee’s sat in a car opposite ’70s horror queen Ingrid Pitt. Russell: Ingrid Pitt looking like Liz Shaw there. Nick: And of course she was in “The Time Monster” playing the Queen of Atlantis. Russell: They’re even riding in a car which looks like Bessie. Ian: It’s all connected! Henderson shows up on set. Unimpressed, he puts his hand through one of the polystyrene walls. Ian: Don’t try that at the BBC, you’ve got five years of this coming up! Nick: It’s nicely satirical given that Amicus was so cheap. Jordan: And you could imagine Pertwee wasn’t averse to acting like a prima donna.

Unhappy with the wardrobe department’s choices, Henderson visits a costume shop to buy a cloak. Nick: “I’d like a cloak with a red lining, something that an angry Scotsman might wear…” Russell: And now he’s wearing the frilly shirt! Jordan: Did he just walk off a BBC sound stage and start filming this? Back on set Henderson puts the cloak on only to unwittingly take a bite out of Carla. Nick: Ah, the same cross-eyed acting as when he was attacked by the Nestene. Ian: Do you think that’s Jon Pertwee’s orgasm face? Jordan: Well, that’s the Third Doctor ruined for me. Troubled by his vampiric turn on set Henderson puts the cloak on in the privacy of his home only to grow fangs and start to fly! Nick: Where’s that spooky wind from? Why is there a gale inside? Jordan: Those teeth are too close together, looks daft. Russell: Good flying effect though, I can’t see the cables. Henderson invites Carla round to show her the cloak’s effect, only to discover she’s switched it for a fake and has the real cloak herself. Ian: He can’t get it up. It’s never happened before, honest! Russell: You can see the cables this time, boo! With the illusion shattered the gang moves on to the final part of the evening’s entertainment.

After five years as the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant made a break for Hollywood and snapped up a plum role in the Fright Night remake, where he steps into the shoes of Roddy McDowall as Vegas showman Peter Vincent. It starts with a suburban vampire attack. Russell: This reminds me of the Dawn Of The Dead remake. Ian: I think it’s the same housing estate. Don’t move there. Jordan: This was written by Marti Noxon, who wrote a lot of Buffy. Ian: And maybe the worst episode of Angel. After being terrorised by vampire Jerry Dandridge, Anton Yelchin’s Charley Brewster heads to Las Vegas to ask Peter Vincent for help. Ian: David Tennant rocking the same look as Dave Gahan in Depeche Mode. Nick: I just keep thinking I’m looking at Russell Brand. Russell: Still a better costume than Colin Baker’s. With his shirt off, Vincent lounges around grabbing his crotch. Nick: Could you imagine Jon Pertwee trying to bring the sexy? Jordan: When he takes the wig off it’s a very Doctor-y performance, with all the “umms” and “sorries”. Ian: A swearier, crotch-obsessed Doctor. Russell: This is the fan fiction version of the Tenth Doctor. Nick: It’s like the Doctor’s been exposed to black Kryptonite. Russell: I don’t like the Doctor swearing, it feels wrong. Ian: William Hartnell would never drop the f-bomb.

But where’s Snoop Dogg?

Chris Lee has nowt to worry about.

Ooh, you’ll get chilly feet on that floor.

(1971)

www.sfx.co.uk

Is he after Andrew Sachs’s granddaughter?

Nick: Someone should cut this into a sweary YouTube video, Capaldi style. Jordan: He should have his Doctor’s licence rescinded. Nick: This is all a bit characterless. I wonder what Tennant saw in it? Ian: A large cheque? Jordan: This Peter Vincent’s too much of a coward. At least there was something to him in the ’80s version. Ian: Seems like it’s for an older demographic: gorier, swearier, main guy’s got to be more fanciable. Nick: Tragic backstory time! I’m the last of the Time Lords… er, I mean that vampire killed my parents! Russell: Is this the only other role where he’s done the Doctor voice? Ian: I think we’ve ticked off every vocal mannerism. Eventually Charley and Vincent take the fight to Dandridge. Jordan: Tennant tooled up, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Nick: But this is like a white guy trying to be Blade. It doesn’t work. Russell: They had the Gone With The Wind staircase in the original, but not this one. Ian: Frankly Russell, I don’t give a damn. Charley and Peter succeed, and head back to Peter’s shag pad to celebrate. Jordan: Are Charley and his girlfriend about to have sex in Peter Vincent’s living room? Nick: At least they’re not being watched by a skeleton. Ian: “Something came up…” says Peter Vincent. It’s my penis in case you didn’t understand the subtext. Russell: Fright Night? Shite Night, more like.

Rose would love this. October 2014

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ant-man

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October 2014

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HONEY, I SHRUNK THE HERO Ahead of Ant-Man’s big screen debut, Jeffrey Renaud provides the essential primer for Marvel’s microscopic crusader…

efore the dawn of the

Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man and X-Men were the two biggest properties to spring from Stan Lee’s prodigious imagination. And then along came Iron Man in 2008, starring the incomparable Robert Downey Jr, and all of sudden The Avengers became the most bankable blockbuster franchise spawned from Marvel Comics. But guess what? Ant-Man pre-dates them all. And this incredible shrinking man’s the next hero in line to receive the Marvel movie treatment courtesy of director Peyton Reed, last minute sub for fan fave Edgar Wright, who nurtured the project for the best part of a decade before walking away earlier this year. But just who is Ant-Man? Created by Lee, his younger brother Larry Lieber and legendary artist Jack Kirby, this size-defying hero first appeared in Tales To Astonish #27 in January 1962 – albeit purely in his secret identity of Henry Pym. Tales To Astonish was a popular SF/fantasy anthology title dealing in high-concept, twist-ending yarns and Pym’s comic book debut was a seven-page solo story, scripted by Lieber, called “The Man in the Ant Hill”. In his debut appearance, a brilliant biochemist named Hank Pym invents a shrinking technology, tests it on www.sfx.co.uk

himself and ends up battling ants and bees in an adventure that predates Honey, I Shrunk The Kids by nearly 30 years. The concept was so well received that Lee repurposed Pym into a bona fide superhero and Ant-Man was born. Pym (played by Michael Douglas in the movie) made his first appearance as Ant-Man in Tales To Astonish #35 in September 1962 and he’s played a vital role in the Marvel Universe ever since, most notably as a founding member of The Avengers alongside Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and his equally miniscule love interest, the Wasp (Captain America didn’t even join until the fourth issue). “Hank Pym predates a lot of things that people know to be Marvel Comics,” says Brian Michael Bendis, a writer for Marvel and a member of its Creative Committee (essentially a comic creator brain trust charged with keeping Marvel’s movie and TV work geek-friendly). “He’s the prototype for Tony Stark and Peter Parker. That alone makes him a very interesting character. He’s also a founding member of the original, original Avengers. This guy is legacy all over the place. “He’s also done everything from having a fantastic journey through the human body to using an army of ants against some pretty powerful foes,” adds Bendis. “It seems silly but he has his own drone army. That’s pretty powerful stuff.” October 2014

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ant-man

they might be giants THE OTHER FACES OF HANK PYM

Giant-Man Tales To Astonish #49 (November 1963) Using the same science (Pym particles) that allows him to shrink, Pym is able to grow to the 12-foot-tall (and later 100-foot tall) Giant-Man.

Bendis is right. For all the love Spidey gets for his tingling arachnid senses, Pym actually talks to ants and other social insects like a modern day Doctor Dolittle – though heaven knows Rex Harrison never weaponised the pushmi-pullyu. Pym’s able to command the insect kingdom utilising a cybernetic helmet of his own revolutionary design. But while “Ant Whisperer” may look pretty cool on a business card, his real scientific breakthrough is Pym particles, the scientific technology he uses to shrink himself (and later grow into his towering alter-egos of Giant-Man and Goliath). “Pym particles are an enhanced genetic particle that when injected or inhaled can shrink you down without ripping your body to shreds,” explains Bendis. “They can also be programmed to make you grow. It’s a pretty cool effect. And it happens fast. It’s almost like you disappear.”

ultimate enemy Goliath The Avengers #28 (May 1966) After retiring to lead a normal life, Pym returned as Goliath, boasting the same power set as Giant-Man but limited to 25-feet and only in 15-minute bursts.

Yellowjacket The Avengers #59 (December 1968) Out of control after a failed experiment, Pym becomes Yellowjacket, sporting artificial wings and bioblasters called “stingers” in his gloves.

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Pym’s deadliest foe – and arguably his biggest mistake – is Ultron, the sentient robot that he created, who first appeared in The Avengers #54 in 1968. The computerised villain lends his name to the upcoming Avengers sequel Age Of Ultron, of course, but Bendis says the subtitle should not be confused with his event comic book series of the same name, which was launched in 2013. “Ultron finally knows exactly how to kill all of the heroes that stand in the way of his eliminating all humanity from the Earth. And Age Of Ultron was this massive time travel story involving some of the heroes going back in time and telling Hank Pym not to create Ultron. And he wouldn’t stop it so they actually have to kill him to stop him and we get to see what a world without Hank Pym looks like – and how different the Marvel Universe would be.” The darkest events of Pym’s comic book life came in the 1980s. Plagued by guilt over creating Ultron and his self-perceived lack of scientific productivity, the troubled boffin has a mental breakdown. In his alternate superheroic identity as Yellowjacket, an out-of-control Pym

attacks an enemy from behind during a negotiation and Captain America is forced to shut him down. Awaiting a court martial from the Avengers, Pym creates another killer robot, not unlike Ultron, which he programs to attack his team so he can save the day. When his crime-fighting partner, who is now also his wife, Janet van Dyne (aka the Wasp) figures out his plan, Pym strikes her down during the confrontation. Fittingly, the Wasp divorces him and Ant-Man/Yellowjacket is expelled from the Avengers. While he eventually returned to superhero status, his relationship with the Wasp was never the same. Years later, when van Dyne is believed dead in the 2008 event miniseries “Secret Invasion”, Pym temporarily takes up her mantle as the Wasp. With Pym changing personas every few years, the role of Ant-Man was up for grabs. To date, two successors have stepped up, with both Scott Lang and Eric O’Grady using Pym particles to their advantage. Lang made his debut in The Avengers #181 in March 1979, an issue written by David Michelinie and featuring art by John Byrne. He’ll take the lead in Ant-Man, incarnated for the screen in the form of Anchorman’s Paul Rudd. O’Grady, who was created

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ant man

“Scott’s like the tenured professor that got off on the wrong track” by Robert Kirkman of Walking Dead fame for the 2006 event miniseries Civil War, isn’t believed to feature in the cinematic version. In comic book continuity Scott Lang turned to a life of crime after failing to make enough money to support his family as an electronics expert. After parole, Tony Stark hires him as a security technician but when Lang’s daughter becomes seriously ill, he returns to burglary and steals the original Ant-Man costume and shrinking gas from Pym. Rescuing the kidnapped doctor that could save his daughter’s life, Lang’s rewarded by Pym with his own Ant‑Man costume and a new superhero is born. In 2012 critically acclaimed comic writer Matt Fraction wrote Fantastic Four alongside spin-off title FF. The latter was illustrated by Mike Allred and featured a replacement lineup for Marvel’s first family while they were off-world do-gooding in their own series. Standing in for Reed Richards back at the Baxter Building was Scott Lang. Fraction says Lang may not equal the sheer brilliance of Pym, but his ability to read a room while keeping his own emotions in check allows him to be an excellent leader and a go-to-guy on any mission, whether it’s with the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Heroes for Hire or the Defenders. “Scott has more emotional intelligence than Henry. He’s like the tenured professor that got off on the wrong track. There is a little bit of ‘bad boy’ in him,” says Fraction. On a different world, in a different time (and under different financial circumstances), Fraction says Lang could have easily been running NASA. Or, just as easily, could have kept on stealing from the rich to feed the poor. “There is something a little Robin Hood about him when you consider the crime that sent him up the river,” says Fraction. “He’s not a dangerous man or a mean man. He’s not the Punisher. I find it impossible not to view him through the lens of economics and class. And I always liked his story best amongst the Ant-Men. I liked the Robin Hood side of things. I think it connects him to Spider-Man in a way. There is something that feels very Marvel about that. He’s kind of the anti-Bruce Wayne. And he’s not Tony Stark. He’s not Reed Richards. He’s a guy that’s going to need to build all of this superhero stuff in his garage – literally.”

SHRINK TO

ANT - MAN’S AMAZING TECH

FIT

1 2 3

6

4 5

Ant-Man is released by Disney on Friday 17 July 2015.

Spin-off FF used a new line-up that included Scott Lang’s Ant Man.

www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

illustration by paul cemmick

1 Cybernetic helmet – Allows for comm unication between man and insect 2 Antenna – Electrical devices whic h channel traditional radio waves and non-traditional ant engrams (or thoughts) 3 Decoder – A miniature computer housed in the helmet that translates incoming and outgoing signals into intelligible language 4 Receiver – Converts ant engrams into usable information or language; housed in mandiblelike appendages from the helmet 5 Transmitter – Produces impulses like radio waves on ants’ frequency 6 Telescope – 40 power telescope, infrared image amplifier and projector

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the maze runner

On your marks and get set for The Maze Runner, the new would-be Hunger Games sensation. Stephen Kelly reports 82

October 2014

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the maze runner

J

ust as after an

earthquake come the aftershocks, after a groundbreaking Hollywood hit come the imitators. In 2008, for instance, the adaptation of the first book in Stephenie Meyer’s teen necrophiliac saga, Twilight, was a $3.3 billion-plus worldwide grossing phenomenon. And then, inevitably, came the feeble, fast-tracked wannabes: Vampire Academy, The Host, Beautiful Creatures, Beastly, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones – all attempts to cash-in on a young adult fantasy boom. www.sfx.co.uk

And so, with that in mind, what are sceptical cinemagoers to think of dystopian thriller The Maze Runner? A film adapted from a novel whose cover carries the quote: “…A must for fans of The Hunger Games” – the book trilogy that has now outsold the Harry Potter series and whose two films, together, have grossed more than $1.5 billion worldwide. Is it a mere ripple of the most recent quake: young adult science fiction? Are we – to mangle an old phrase – to judge a film by the cover of the book it’s adapting? The answer, according to director Wes Ball, is most certainly no.

“I was aware of that stigma, and I think we’ve transcended it,” he says, rather matter of factly. “I never saw this film as [The Hunger Games]. I wanted something more like The Goonies or Jurassic Park – that’s what I was thinking about. I mean, the first movie I saw at 12 was Terminator 2 and it blew me away. I want that. I want 12-year-olds to know that we’re not talking down to them. But, you know, if people want to compare it to The Hunger Games and we end up grossing half of what The Hunger Games did, I’d be pretty okay with that!” October 2014

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the maze runner entering the labyrinth

For those not acquainted with James Dashner’s original novel, it centres around a boy, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien in the film), who wakes in the Glade – an encampment in the middle of a huge, monstrous Maze – with no memory beyond his name. Like Thomas, his fellow Gladers, all teenage boys, have no idea how or why they came to be there, although a select few boys run through the Maze every day in an attempt to map a way out. Some make it back before the doors of the Maze shut, some are never seen again. It’s a premise that consumed first-time feature director Ball, who was actually given the book by Fox while discussing a full-length adaptation of his post-apocalyptic sci-fi short film Ruin (which is currently in the scripting stage). “As soon as I finished it, I became pregnant with the idea,” he says. “Like, you know the first few pages where Thomas, confused, is ascending in a lift up to the Glade? I immediately saw how I was going to do that. I could’ve pitched it shot for shot: that awesome Fox fanfare, and then it just crashes to black and the audience are sitting there in darkness hearing the sounds of the lift, experiencing it the way he does... It was just all really cool.” Ultimately, though, it was the parallels with William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies that clicked with Ball; especially its themes of the great outdoors, learning to live anew and – before the mysterious Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) turns up – the fragile brotherhood Thomas finds among boys such as Gally (Will Poulter), Chuck (Blake Cooper) and Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster). So much so, in fact, that it inspired him to strip the Glade to its bare minimum. “In the book, James describes a house that was their homestead, so I did away with that. I thought it was more interesting if, without adult supervision, they created their own little society; that the boys just came up one by one, were given supplies, and had to survive. “I had an interesting childhood growing up,” he explains. “I spent a lot of time in the woods building treehouses as a kid while everyone else was getting into girls and driving licences. But I loved that stuff: getting out there and having a real adventure. I became a big hiker. I used to go on these 50-mile river trips down to Utah with nobody around. There’s something so special about that, about having no safety blanket with everything you need to survive on your back. I think that’s how The Maze Runner became important to me. I love that idea of these boys surviving on their own, being entirely self-reliant in the midst of this very strange, almost Twilight Zone sort of scenario. I started seeing all these opportunities for something really gritty, dark and raw.” From the footage that SFX has seen so far, it’s safe to say that Ball hasn’t shied away from such ambitions. The tone is mature, reverent and – at times – brutal. In one particular Lord Of The Flies-esque scene, for example, the boys cast out one of their own into the Maze when he succumbs to a maddening disease, while

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There shall be no bright clothes in the Maze, nor stripes or patterns.

The book’s psychic connection between Thomas and Teresa didn’t make it into the film.

That’s a large weapon between his legs. another concerns Gladers being slaughtered by Grievers: terrifying slug-like creatures that haunt the Maze. It’s hardly The Thing, but the attack is fast, merciless and deceptively violent. It begs the question: just how dark could Ball go? “We wanted a PG-13, but we wanted to go as dark as we could. The Hunger Games is about kids killing each other, but they did it pretty delicately. There’s not a lot of gore, but there’s a lot of suggested violence. It feels like

there’s a lot of blood, but there’s not a drop of it. It’s the Steven Spielberg thing: to let your imagination fill in the blanks. I don’t know if ‘dark’ and ‘violent’ are the words, exactly, but it’s certainly a mature approach to the reality that these boys are dealing with. We didn’t want to pander to kids just because we were making a movie with kids in it. After all, I think that this generation – the internet generation – are far smarter and worldly than we ever were at their age.”

WORD MAZE

Not only have the Gladers built their own society, but they’ve also developed their own slang and terminology. Here’s a quick guide to the kind of klunk you may be hearing in the film. Runner Someone who risks their life mapping the maze to search for a pattern in its walls The box The lift in which new Gladers arrive Griever A dangerous creature who patrols the Maze The changing The painful aftermath of a Griever sting – victims are able to recall repressed memories but also go mad

Keepers Sub-leaders of different jobs in the Glade – such the Runners, the cooks and the builders The gathering A meeting of all the Keepers in times of dire circumstance

Klunk Shit Shank Friend Buggin’ Stupid Shuck An expletive used to express frustration Slim it Calm down/shut up Slinthead A derogatory term used mostly by others when one makes a mistake that creates repercussions

Greenbean/Greenie A new arrival to the Glade Jacked Not right in the head

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the maze runner

“I don’t remember my past, but I feel I liked model railways…”

“I love that idea of boys surviving on their own, self-reliant in the midst of this strange scenario” As Ball says himself, though, there’s a character far more prominent in The Maze Runner than Thomas or any of the Gladers: the Maze itself, a 100-feet tall stone labyrinth that seemingly lives and breathes. As you may imagine, such scale is a visual gift to film. “Going back to that idea of trying to make this movie grounded and real,” Ball says, “I thought: ‘how do you make the Maze real?’ I did some designs with the mindset of ‘how would you really build this thing?’ So, the first part of the Maze is called ‘stacks’: they’re made of blocks, and the Maze is assembled that way, with an inner ring that connects all the different sections. James describes it as eight sections, so I made it into a clock, so you can see the Maze almost as a countdown.”

the hostile maze

In the book, Thomas is told by the Gladers that the Maze changes its layout every day, hence why the runners are mapping it: “to search for a pattern – or maybe even a solution.” The reader, though, never actually sees such a thing, which is another aspect that Ball has changed in the adaptation, with one thrilling www.sfx.co.uk

sequence showing Thomas caught up amidst its chaos – narrowly avoiding being stuck, struck or crushed at every turn. However, it’s not the only thing that Ball and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim (recently announced to write Part 1 of Divergent finale Allegiant) have taken licence with in their adaptation: namely, the psychic connection between Thomas and the new arrival Teresa. “The telepathic stuff… I had to cut that. Our version is too grounded and realistic, so I got rid of anything ‘Harry Potter magical’. Plus, the only time I’ve seen telepathy done well in film is in The Lord Of The Rings.” So, with a book rooted in such a fervent fanbase, were there any nerves in taking such liberties with the source material? “It was difficult in the best ways,” Ball laughs. “I’m a fan of the book. I didn’t want to do anything arbitrarily. Who knows: maybe I stuck too close to the book, maybe I didn’t stray far enough? But I tried very hard to keep to what James did. I brought him in pretty early on when writing the script and I’d run things by him: what I was going to keep, what I was going to take out, what I’d shifted around. It was fantastic to have him in our

corner, so every time someone would yell, ‘Wait, what?’ at a change, he’d come in and go, ‘It’s okay guys, it’s cool.’ “Showing James himself the film, though, was nerve-racking,” he continues. “You put your heart and soul into this stuff – and believe me, I know the flaws. But when you make these things, you’re up against it. I have new respect for anyone who gets anything up on the screen. The amount of things that keep you from making something... Ideas? There’s no shortage of good ideas. The hard part is execution and getting past the obstacles that come your way. All I can trust now is that people come in and see the movie and they have a good time – that’s important.” If they do – and that good time translates into cash – can Ball see this as the beginning of a new franchise? Will it be, as poster quotes are bound to say, the new Hunger Games? “We took some chances on the ending,” he says, “it stays close to the book, but it’s an open-ended thing. There are some questions unanswered, but hopefully it gives Fox a chance to keep exploring these characters. I’m not fully committed yet, but Fox are very happy, so we’re working on the script to see what’s next. The sequel’s going to be totally different. There’s certainly a lot to explore with these stories and where this crazy adventure goes.” The Maze Runner is released on 10 October. October 2014

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the sfx writer interview

James Lovegrove Get spooked… The Brit author tells us about mixing up spy fiction and space opera Words by jonathan wright

T

portrait by jesse wild

here’s a reason James Lovegrove has never written space opera before. He was, in his own words, “slightly scared” of the genre. And its fans. “It’s a field that those who love it absolutely love it, but also it’s developed its own language over the years, its own laws,” Lovegrove tells SFX, “and you have to be careful about not ripping off anyone else and adding to the genre rather than rehashing what anyone else has done.” So what changed? Partly, Lovegrove says, he thought it was about time he gave space opera a shot. Then there was the fact his publishers, Solaris, asked him if he could create a series of books set on different planets. “I thought about it for a while, and I came up with this idea of a cold war in outer space between human settlements as they’re spreading out and an artificial intelligence race,” he says. “Our territory has just butted up against theirs and so there’s this conflict going on.” It’s central to the premise of the books that this is a O  ccupation: Novelist cold war, with all the opportunities this affords for tales B  orn: 24 December of espionage in the shadows. The character who links 1965 the books is a secret agent, Dev Harmer of Interstellar F  rom: Eastbourne Greatest Hits: Security Solutions. He and his colleagues are “sent out Lovegrove’s Pantheon as beams of pure data and then they’re inserted into new books became bodies that are tailored to suit the new planet”. unexpected bestsellers. In the case of the first novel, World Of Fire, this involves Random fact: waking up on a fiery world that’s much like Mercury. To Lovegrove used to write cryptic avoid being incinerated, its inhabitants live underground. crosswords for the But don’t be expecting a suave secret agent figure in the Independent newspaper. vein of James Bond – or at least the screen version of 007 He reviews fiction for rather than the more flawed Bond of the novels. the Financial Times. “I wanted someone who was easier to relate to, he’s more of a blue-collar agent than a white-collar agent,” says Lovegrove, “and he doesn’t shag everything in sight, although that doesn’t stop him trying. He’s not infallible, he’s competent. He’s the kind of person you want on your side who, even though he doesn’t immediately have a solution to a problem, can usually jury rig something to make it work.” As for Harmer’s foes, they’re called the Polis+, “religious extremists” who are “driven by belief” and devoted to “a religious entity that they call the singularity”. Seeing as they can “transfer their consciousnesses between organic and inorganic forms”, and disguise themselves as people, they’re dangerous foes. “I suppose they’re more like the Mysterons than anything,” laughs Lovegrove. If this all sounds self-consciously pulpy, that’s no coincidence. Lovegrove has lately been re-reading stories

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“I came up with this idea of a cold war in outer space”

from the 1930s and 1940s featuring the likes of the Shadow and Doc Savage, “getting a grip on what makes these books work, and what makes these characters work”. He’s particularly interested in the “continuous pace” that characterises the best of such fiction. Considering Lovegrove is also writing Sherlock Holmes stories for Titan – the next will feature the detective taking on “a steampunk computer” called the Thinking Engine as a tribute to Charles Babbage’s Victorian-era difference engine – and has a Holmes/HP Lovecraft crossover in the offing, this interest in popular fiction in all its glory is genuine. Which in itself is quite intriguing because Lovegrove’s early books, well reviewed and largely written for Gollancz, were very different in tone, satirical and full of wordplay. By and large, the books were well reviewed. “I rather hoped to carve out this niche of SF that was entirely my own, and to be fair I did that for about 10 or 12 years,” he says. This approach brought plenty of critical acclaim, but didn’t pay the bills, a pressing issue for a man with a young family. Financial salvation arrived when, long after his relationship with Gollancz “came to a natural end”, Solaris approached Lovegrove to write a series of alternate history novels. Thus was born the military SF Pantheon series, featuring deities from different civilisations. Initially, the first, Egyptian-themed book in the sequence, The Age Of Ra (2009), rather sneaked out because Solaris was in the midst of a takeover, by Rebellion. However, on a word-of-mouth basis, Ra began to sell. The third book in the sequence, The Age Of Odin, was so successful it made it onto the New York Times bestseller list. “That literally did turn things around [for me],” he says. “About six or seven years ago, I actually started selling books as well as having critical acclaim. The critical acclaim has always been very nice, but that doesn’t butter any parsnips, as the saying goes.” Or possibly your granny says… Anyway, Lovegrove in part attributes this success to focusing on what he was reading himself. He realised that, as a harried, time-poor father, he favoured “solid action storytelling” over literary fiction. “[Writing The Age Of Ra, I thought] ‘Why not try to write that yourself instead of going for these rather high-flown, highconcept ideas, just get down there and figure out what makes a plot work, and what makes people turn the pages,” he says. “This sounds incredibly cynical, it’s not. I was interested to see if I could do it and how well I could do it. Throw in gods as well and it just seemed to click. I haven’t thought about going back and doing the high-flown literary stuff again, I’m much happier doing the fun stuff as it were.” World Of Fire is published on Thursday 11 September.

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james lovegrove

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October 2014

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The story behind the SF and fantasy of yesteryear

as Vegas,

1983. A British television writer called Richard Carpenter is in a hotel room with a group of American television producers, hoping to secure funding for his proposed new take on the legend of Robin Hood. Unfortunately, the cigar-smoking executives have no idea who Robin Hood is, so Carpenter is forced to come up with an “elevator pitch” to excite them: “The Dukes Of Hazzard with bows and arrows.” None of those particular executives would end up involved with what became Robin Of Sherwood; nevertheless, Carpenter’s eight-word summation was an apt encapsulation of an action-packed series full of young, rebellious characters, sprinkled with both humour and… well, hazard! There would be significant differences, of course; shot in lush — often heavily rained upon — locations in north-east and south-west England, Carpenter’s new take on “Robin o’ the Hood” proved to be an audience-friendly mix of authentic history and pre-Christian English mythology, bringing a new sense of gritty realism to the familiar characters of Robin, Marion and the “Merry Men”.

Norfolk-born Richard “Kip” Carpenter began his career as an actor, appearing in numerous television shows and films during the 1950s and early 1960s. As he later put it, however, acting “gave him up”; by the late 1960s he was chiefly earning a living as a scriptwriter. One of his earliest successes was

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October 2014

Former ballet dancer Judi Trott brought class to the role of “Maid” Marion.

Catweazle, a children’s drama for London Weekend Television about an 11th century wizard transported into the present day. Following Catweazle Carpenter was invited by LWT producers Paul Knight and Sidney Cole to contribute a few scripts to The Adventures Of Black Beauty, a series inspired by Anna Sewell’s famous novel. Carpenter would eventually write around two dozen scripts for the show and — with Knight and Cole — found the production company Gatetarn. Knight had been fascinated since childhood by medieval history and Robin Hood. When, in Michael Praed and his the early 1980s, he heard that Lord Band of Merry Men. Lew Grade — whose ITC had funded hit series from The Prisoner to Gerry Anderson’s Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons — was considering making a new Robin Hood series, he pitched that Gatetarn should make it for him, not least because of its experience in making historical adventure show Dick Turpin, starring Richard O’Sullivan as the titular highwayman. When, for numerous business reasons, Grade was unable to progress with the idea, Knight took the project to Goldcrest, with whom he’d worked previously. The company, famous for films such as Chariots Of Fire (1981) and Gandhi (1982), liked the idea sufficiently to pay Carpenter to write the scripts and also secured half of the necessary funding for six episodes from US cable channel Showtime. Knight, meantime, found the other half of the budget from the Bristol and Cardiff-based ITV broadcaster HTV. With memories of the 1950s’ The Adventures Of Robin Hood strong in their minds, both Carpenter and Knight were determined to create a new Robin Hood relevant to the times, and needed “a fit, attractive leading man who wasn’t well known”.

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robin of sherwood

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October 2014

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Nickolas Grace (right) played the ever-dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham.

Carpenter’s most obvious spin on the Robin Hood myth was to incorporate elements of mysticism, magic, and sword and sorcery throughout the series, personified by the shamanic Herne the Hunter (John Abineri). In an 1998 interview with Robin Hood enthusiast Allen W Wright, Carpenter explained his reasoning: “The Middle Ages were extremely superstitious and much remained of the old pre-Christian fertility and tree worship religions. You must remember that the country was

“Ah, but which devil? There are so many, aren’t there?” asks the Sheriff of Nottingham of his brother, the Abbot of St Mary’s, while discussing the dressed-in-black Baron Simon De Belleme (Anthony Valentine). Certainly, the Hooded Man encounters many human servants of supernatural evil: most notably, the sensually dressed devil-worshipping nuns led by Morgwyn of Ravenscar (Rula Lenska), bringing together the seven “magical” Swords of Wayland — including Robin’s own sword, Albion — to “break Lucifer’s chains”; or the pagan sorcerer Gulnar (Richard O’Brien), who at one point creates a “Golum” doppelganger of Robin – but with giveaway bad teeth!

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largely based on agriculture, and the crops and the turning year were extremely important to everyone.” Yet an equally influential addition by Carpenter has proved to be the Saracen swordsman Nasir, played by Mark Ryan. Originally intended only to appear in the first two episodes, the production team were so impressed by Ryan’s performance that they didn’t want to lose him. Subsequent scripts were tweaked to add the largely silent fighter to the Merry Men; and, while invariably changing the name, successive film and television Robin Hoods have been joined by a Saracen from the Holy Land. Arguably, Robin Of Sherwood also influenced subsequent portrayals of the Sheriff of Nottingham. While Nickolas Grace originally thought the Sheriff should be “very sophisticated… urbane and ultra-cool”, he was convinced by first series director Ian Sharp to go “up the wall and shout and scream and hit the nearest person”. Mad, out-of-control Sheriffs have tended to be the norm ever since.

Richard O’Brien’s sorcerer took us well into fantasy territory.

Quite early on, Knight and Carpenter decided to give all six episodes of the first series to a single director. Sharp, who had previously worked on Minder and The Professionals, was effectively given carte blanche; as a result, he had a major role in defining the look and feel of the entire series. As Knight later explained: “He got the best, I think, out of cameramen Bob Edwards and Brian Morgan, allowing them to do things they wouldn’t normally be doing. Ian used a lot of different lenses, he used a lot of filters; he made the woods magical and he gave us brilliant performances from the actors.” While the second set of seven episodes built on the success of the first run, the production team suddenly faced the challenge

Images © ITV, graham wood/Daily mail, associated news/john walters/rex (8)

It was casting director — and, later, series three producer — Esta Charkham who first suggested Michael Praed as Robin. The then 23-year-old was, at the time, playing the Pirate Captain in The Pirates Of Penzance in London’s West End, and immediately impressed Carpenter, not least because he had the “woodland quality” Carpenter was seeking. Mark Ryan as Nasir: Selecting the rest of the main cast silent but deadly. proved a hectic process; Knight auditioned hundreds of actresses before finally selecting the classically trained dancer Judi Trott as Lady Marion of Leaford. Nevertheless, a little magic was created in the process. Clive Mantle, who played the gentle giant Little John, looks back on the making of the series as halcyon days. “We bonded very quickly, the ‘Merry Men’; it took about five minutes, I think, for us to realise that we were going to be life-long friends.” Even the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, in the person of actor Nickolas Grace, looks back on the show as “three of the happiest summers of my life”, while Ray Winstone, who played Will Scarlet, felt Robin Of Sherwood “spoilt” him for other productions: “I’ve never worked on a job that has come that close as a group of people.” In an interview that formed part of the making-of documentary on the DVD release of the series, Carpenter appeared particularly pleased by the camaraderie which has survived long past the making of the series. “If I was in any way responsible for people having a friendship that has lasted, then I’m very proud of that,” he said.

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robin of sherwood Herne the Hunter: a man of immense power and interesting headgear.

“This’ll look ace when we do it in full costume!”

The lovely but doomed original couple.

Jason Connery made as many episodes of Robin as Michael Praed, despite doing one series, not two. of losing their leading man. Praed quit to star as D’Artagnan in a musical production of The Three Musketeers in New York — a show that, while it closed after just nine performances, proved to be a sufficiently effective audition for a role in glamorous US soap Dynasty. While this gave Carpenter the relatively rare dramatic opportunity of “killing” his hero, the challenge remained of continuing the series with a new lead. “I revived the sixteenth century idea that Robin Hood was the son of the Earl of Huntingdon,” he explained to Wright in 1998. “And created the idea that Robin Hood was a kind of title — which it probably was anyway.” Actors screentested for the new “Robin” included Neil Morrissey (of Men Behaving Badly fame) and future Eighth Doctor Paul McGann — both of whom were ultimately considered too physically similar to Praed. The role was eventually given to the blond, more muscular Jason Connery. According to Knight, not only was Connery’s approach and personality different from Praed, he also came with guaranteed publicity attached — being, after all, the son of the original James Bond. Strong ratings in Britain not withstanding, the third series of Robin Of Sherwood proved to be the last, despite

Richard Carpenter wrote all six episodes of the first series, and was responsible for all seven of the second, as well as seven of the 13 episodes making up the final series. In addition to his own scripts, of course, Carpenter also acted as Robin Of Sherwood’s “showrunner” for the remaining episodes: one penned by the writing team of Andrew McCulloch and John Flanagan (arguably best remembered now for their 1980 Doctor Who serial “Meglos”), while the remaining five came from Alex Rider novelist and later Foyle’s War creator Antony Horowitz.

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Carpenter and his team clearly intending to make a fourth. Years later, Carpenter dismissed the reasons for this as “television politics”, but fundamentally Robin Of Sherwood was the victim of events beyond its control. A change of management at US cable company Showtime meant that the company was no longer prepared to finance the show to the extent they had done in the past. HTV, being one of the smallest ITV companies, could not afford to do it alone. Goldcrest, hard-hit by the cinematic losses from feature films such as Revolution and Absolute Beginners, was in no position to cover such a financial shortfall. “There were elements in the third series that presupposed a fourth,” Carpenter admitted in 1998. “Gisburne would have discovered that he was Robert’s half brother; there’d have been more dissension in the band. It is possible the Sheriff would have been replaced and Much murdered. Who knows?” Clearly disappointed, the cast and production team necessarily moved on to other things; Carpenter, for instance, would later adapt The Borrowers (1992) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999-2000) for the BBC. While sometimes expressing a determination to move on from Robin Of Sherwood, it appears he did work on some kind of “reunion” script that was submitted to ITV around 2010. This would have reunited the original cast — including Connery and Praed — but to the surprise and disappointment of many in the cast, not least Clive Mantle, ITV turned it down. To the end of his life Carpenter remained “amazed” by the continued interest in the series. “Because so many ends were left untied when the series was cancelled, it provided the fans with a ‘what happened next’ element which is always intriguing,” he said in 1998. “I welcome the fans and have made many of them my friends. The Robin Of Sherwood fandom is generally intelligent and imaginative.” October 2014

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Penny Dreadful

Dr ea df ul Old Mov ies The Washing Machine is coming! Not a sequel to Tobe Hooper’s The Mangler but an erotic giallo from Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato. Shameless is releasing a special edition washing machine-shaped metal box set on 25 August. The movie is about a detective investigating claims by three sexy sisters that they found a corpse inside their home appliance. Look out for future releases including Breville, about kinky cousins who find an ear inside their sandwich toaster...

What’s happening in the world of horror movies this month…

This month I’m feeling deliberately contrary. I didn’t love the new Adam Wingard, I enjoyed Deliver Us From Evil, I can’t wait for the new Kevin Smith movie and I’m developing a newfound respect for Troma. Also checked out giallo The Washing Machine! In a box that looks like a washing machine! It was a no-brainer really...

Illustrations by stephen collins

Toxic Avengers Assemble

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Guardians Of The Galaxy is great. A sequel has already been greenlit with the marvellous James Gunn at the helm once again. But lest we forget, like (almost) everyone who ever does anything good, Gunn started out in horror. And I don’t mean Slither. Way before that Gunn worked with Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma Entertainment as screenwriter and associate director on Tromeo And Juliet (he also co-wrote Kaufman’s autobiography and gets Special Thanks on Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead). Gunn’s an anarchist. A splatter fan. He may have a multi-million dollar budget now, but cut him in half and he’ll ooze green goo. The lesson: just because someone makes a horror October 2014

movie packed with gungy, grungy, boob-ridden silliness doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taken seriously. So to Return To Nuke ’Em High Vol 1, out now on DVD, the fourth part in the Class Of Nuke ’Em High series. I must confess Troma isn’t really my cup of grue as a rule but there’s something undeniably outrageous, brave and satirical about Nuke ’Em High. It’s weirdly enjoyable and when it’s crass it knows it is (there are time codes on the early nork shots for example). It’s borderline offensive and it’s properly disgusting from start to finish – the “Tromorganic” food company is built on the site of the old nuclear plant next to the school; the kids eat the food and turn goo-spewing mutant – but it’s funny and clever and there’s nothing quite like it. So check

That’s quite a party they’re having for The Guest. this out – you never know, give it a few years and co-writer Travis Campbell might be directing Avengers 4.

Delivery man

Scott Derrickson’s “everything but the kitchen sink” possession/exorcism/ poltergeist/police procedural Deliver Us From Evil hits cinemas on 22 August. It’s supposedly based on the true(ish) story of a policeman investigating a case of a woman who randomly hurts her child at a zoo and traverses crucified cats, creepy kids’ toys, fetid corpses and more. It’s a bit of an ordeal to watch but I’d recommend it. However, judging by the critical reaction (30% on Rotten Tomatoes, grumpy faces outside the screening room), no one else would. The biggest complaint seems to be lack of originality – I can’t disagree, but when is anything new? That monstrous cash cow The Conjuring was packed full of black cat scares and horror movie standards (wow, a creepy doll, I’ve never seen that before!) but no one moaned. They’ve even made a spin-off movie about the creepy doll

(Annabelle, out 10 October) which everyone will go to see because creepy dolls and haunted houses are in vogue while cranky lions and dank basements are apparently not. Give this a chance – it does what it does well, even if what it does doesn’t really need doing.

Enjoy your stay

Conversely The Guest (100% on Rotten Tomatoes) was a bit of a disappointment. Directed by Adam Wingard, who made the excellent You’re Next, it’s an ’80s action horror-thriller homage with a cool premise starring a bloke who used to be in Downton. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing, indeed. The problem is while this should have been fantastic, instead it’s just fine. Dan Stevens plays a soldier who turns up at the home of a grieving family and says he’s the best friend of their late son who died in action. He charms the mum, becomes a (slightly dodgy) mentor for the kids but soon it becomes apparent all is not what it seems. There’s a lot of running around, a government conspiracy and a mildly tense bit in an unnecessary scare maze but it’s never that chilling and never that Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

penny dreadful

dreadful a-z of Horror

Penny’s monthly dictionary of doom

G is for... Germania Nosferatu

F W Murnau, 1922 Highly influential and still absolutely effective redo of the Dracula myth predating Bela Lugosi’s “Gentleman Vamp” with a count who was a hideous creature – not a tux in sight. It’s a masterclass of German Expressionist cinema – see also Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari from 1920.

Antibodies

Christian Alvart, 2005 Brilliant, harrowing German crime-horror about a good policeman in a small town under pressure to lay the blame for the murder of a young child at the feet of a notorious serial killer. Silence Of The Lambs-esque sparring meets grimy Girl With A Dragon Tattoo-esque intrigue.

Those Nuke ’Em High kids should really have a day off sick. thrilling. It’s entertaining but it’s also unsurprising. Wingard is one to watch but this can wait till DVD.

something fishy

The best trailer I’ve seen this month is directed by Kevin Smith and features a man in a walrus suit. Tusk, inspired by a chat on Smith’s “Smodcast”, concerns a former sailor (Michael Parks) who forces a podcaster (Justin Long) to become a human sea mammal and it looks mindblowing. Funny, creepy, disturbing, a tiny bit like a marine version of The Human Centipede with a comeback role for Haley Joel Osment (I’m a fan of HJO) it’s packed with atmosphere and feels (bizarrely) more grown up than Smith’s previous efforts. I was no great fan of Red State and I might end up eating my words like a www.sfx.co.uk

Tattoo

prize walrus gobbling up fish, but I can’t wait for this.

Paws for applause

More tantalising trailer goodness from Grizzly. It’s a horror actioner by Saw V director David Hackl, loosely based on the “Grizzly Man” case that was the subject of Werner Herzog’s excellent doc. It follows two guys who unite with a bear hunter to take down infamous ursine “Red Machine” – which was, incidentally, the original title of this film. It was also called Endangered for a bit before they settled on Grizzly. Given this is essentially Jaws With A Bear if they swap again, may I suggest Claws? Or possibly even Paws...

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@SFXPennyD

Robert Schwentke, 2002 The RIPD director made his feature debut with this grizzly thriller about a reckless cop chasing a serial killer who cuts and skins victims for their tattoos. Owes a few quid to David Fincher’s Seven and should appeal to fans of the grim Scando procedurals that are currently all the rage.

Blubberella

Uwe Boll, 2011 This film is unrelentingly terrible, but you can’t talk about German horror without mentioning prolific, controversial, critic-boxing nutter Uwe Boll. Blubberella – a scene-for scene spoof of his own film Bloodrayne: The Third Reich, about an overweight dhampir in Nazi Germany (featuring a comedy Hitler) does at least seem to know it’s offensively terrible.

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Contents 96 Cinema 

edited by Ian Berriman

Superb

Good

Average

Poor

Terrible

Guardians Of The Galaxy

100 DVD & Blu-ray 110 Books  120 Comics 122 Collectables

Highlights 100

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All Gunn’s blazing

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Cap sequel probably gets as close as a superhero story can to a gritty political thriller.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Marc Webb’s sequel comes to Blu-ray with a deleted scene that would have made the ending shockingly different.

this issue

71 reviews

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The Bone Clocks

David “Cloud Atlas” Mitchell’s most fantastical novel yet features a war with a cult of immortals. www.sfx.co.uk

October 2014

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Guardians Of The Galaxy A view to a Quill

Release Date: OUT NOW!

12A | 121 minutes Distributor: Disney Director: James Gunn Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan

The Marvel movie

universe has always been a misnomer. For all its shiny, fantastical trappings, its gods and monsters, it’s strictly an Earthbound playground. Sure, we glimpse other worlds, other realms, but alien battalions come to Manhattan, ancient Norse deities rock up in Greenwich. It’s Stan Lee’s golden formula applied to the big screen; the Molotov collision between the mundane and the incredible that made a phenomenon of the original comic books. Guardians Of The Galaxy is the moment Marvel achieves warp drive. It’s the studio heading full tilt to the stars. And, like all deep space exploration, it’s built on risk. The filmmakers have put a canny spin on this in the pre-publicity: Iron Man was a risk, they remind us, for all that it launched Marvel as a major new cinematic force. But come now. An outrageously charming playboy in a weaponised tech-suit? That’s a surefire bet compared to the high stakes wack-a-doodle of a talking raccoon and a sentient tree.

Funny as hell, it’s a relentless crossfire of zingers and crazy visuals 96

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We begin, briefly, in the grip of Earth’s gravity. It’s 1988 and a young boy must confront his dying mother in hospital. Running away into misty, Spielbergian fields he’s plucked from the planet by a hovering starship. And we’re away. Twenty-six years later the boy’s a man, exploring a rocky alien world, the eyes of his strange mask glowing blood-bright in the gloom. He whips out a pair of fuzzy headphones, clicks play on his Walkman and breaks into a funk strut. And then we’re really away. Ultimately Guardians is all about the funk strut, the smirking disco boogie. The plot is pretty thin, after all: another Infinity Gem provides the McGuffin, a silver ball of reality-quaking power that pings between the main players in a game of narrative bagatelle. The movie’s more interested in assembling its heroes – “the biggest idiots in the galaxy” – and jamming this bunch of bickering deadbeats together before watching the collateral damage. Smartly it avoids being a pile-up of origin stories: the team is established with a minimum of exposition but every character has motivation and history. Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill is a goofball swashbuckler, all smile and swagger and Jim Kirk libido. An experienced comedy actor, Pratt glides forever an inch above the screenplay, winningly ironic, half-glimpsing his own daftness. Zoe Saldana, meanwhile, makes for a brittle, lethal Gamora, adopted daughter of arch-villain Thanos. She’s like one of Star Trek’s green slave girls with a raised consciousness and access to knives. Wrestling star Dave Bautista brings the muscle but he’s so much more

“You know what… I can’t see a bloody thing.” than rippling pectorals and a voice like a sub-woofer hurled down a well: soulful, sincere, he’s also a brilliant straight man whose thudding literalness earns the biggest laughs (“Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast!”). And then there are the film’s riskiest propositions, the talking raccoon and the sentient tree. Bradley Cooper voices Rocket with spit and sass but it’s the remarkably expressive FX work that truly sells this tough guy furball. The distinctly more monosyllabic Groot makes for a sweet, weirdly poetic figure with the innocent face of an arboreal Stan

Laurel. These characters may be summoned from the depths of a mainframe but they feel every bit as real as their flesh and blood counterparts, possibly more so. Director James Gunn dials back the dark, mean snicker he brought to Slither and Super while keeping things mercilessly witty. He’s good with the action, too, even if his use of slo-mo is an unfortunate tic among the hyper-physics of the fight scenes. He’s having just as much fun with the film’s score, curating the song list with the glee of a novice DJ allowed access to the biggest set of decks in the world. Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

cinema

Alexandra Byrne

Costume designer, Guardians Of The Galaxy

There are so many planets and cultures in this film. Is there a single aesthetic that binds them all together? James’s overall vision. He’s got a very clear vision for it all, and that’s quite liberating because you know that there’s a stronger throughline than your own taste or style. It almost means that you can be braver because of your belief in the glue that’s holding us all together. James is very clear on all the planets we’re doing – his brief is that it can’t be earthbound, it can’t be ’60s, it can’t be Star Trek… it doesn’t give you a lot of ground to stand on!

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covers. There are bright utopias and grim, industrial worldscapes, Gene Roddenberry in uneasy truce with Ridley Scott. Gunn rips from the source material, too: Zoe Saldana strikes mid-combat poses that feel like frozen frames of comic book cool; Thanos is faithfully brought to the screen with all the sinister, regal glory of a Jim Starlin page of Warlock. This is a dazzling, fantastically busy experience, an assault of imagery. Your eyeballs may fritz. Freewheeling, endlessly engaging, funny as hell, Guardians Of The Galaxy is a relentless crossfire of

zingers and crazy visuals. Sometimes, you suspect, it could do with a chance to breathe. But look! There’s a raccoon going kill-crazy with a machine gun and glam period David Bowie playing over a planetary descent and a pricelessly sly gag about Kevin Bacon. All you can do is surrender to the Skittles rush. This is, in so many ways, Awesome Mix Volume One. One small step for a raccoon. One giant leap for Marvel. Nick Setchfield  uardians isn’t just inspired by Chris Foss G – the veteran SF artist actually designed some of the film’s spaceships.

Karen Gillan has a very striking look as Nebula… We started her fittings before she’d had her head shaved, and the difference was astounding. We actually changed the way we were going with the costume. She became a more menacing character once her head was shaved and not in the way you would think – it wasn’t butcher, it was more of a scary femininity. She became so much stronger but not in a masculine, testosteronebased way. Nick Setchfield

October 2014

Richard Young/REX (1)

Peter Quill’s mix tape may play into the story but this is Gunn making a mix tape for us. Sometimes it’s winking cheese: Rupert Holmes’s queasy yacht rock anthem “The Pina Colada Song” is finally redeemed. Elsewhere The Runaways’ attitudinal “Cherry Bomb” convinces you there’s no finer soundtrack for kicking extraterrestrial ass than teenage rock chicks with snarling guitars. Gunn also proves to have a surprisingly fine eye for old-school SF iconography. Planets hang in epic, nebulae-filled skies. Chris Foss spaceships fill the screen with the nostalgic allure of ’70s paperback

Are you a comic book reader? I have become one. I like that because it means I see the comics in a fresh way. I don’t have any baggage or history with them. When I did Thor I became obsessed with how the cloak was used as a graphic device. I thought that was incredible in terms of the composition of the page and as a device for movement and intensity of story.

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Deliver Us From Evil

Judy revelled in her new carpet-testing job.

CSI: Exorcism Release Date: 22 August

15 | 118 minutes Distributor: Sony Pictures Director: Scott Derrickson Cast: Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn, Sean Harris, Joel McHale

If you have a low level

headache, don’t watch Deliver Us From Evil. If you have a migraine, don’t even read this review. The latest chiller from Sinister director Scott Derrickson is undeniably effective but something of an ordeal to watch. Deliberately. A genre mashup of exorcism movie and police procedural, it follows Eric Bana’s humourless and disaffected NYPD cop Ralph Sarchie, who teams up with Edgar Ramirez’s funky priest to solve the mystery of a woman who throws her baby into the moat surrounding the lion enclosure at a Bronx zoo. From the noisy, flashy, grainy opening sequence of soldiers discovering something weird in Iraqi catacombs it’s an assault on the senses. Search parties are perpetually investigating dark basements with torches, and horrible things are forever jumping out accompanied by loud music. Derrickson is nothing if not thorough when it comes to ticking genre boxes, throwing in snakes, spiders, bats, creepy Latin writing, an

exorcism, a fetid corpse, an angry dog, a violent fish, a crucified cat, some troubled war vets, a crazed mother, an abusive father, an ex-junkie priest, a frazzled cop whose wife happens to be pregnant… and then there’s Marvin (but you’ll have to wait until the third act to find out about him). Its constituent parts are shameful clichés, but somehow as a whole they amount to an entertaining and nerve-shredding film. Eric Bana is stoic and manly as Sarchie and Ramirez is charismatic and appealing, though some of the dialogue looks like it was lifted from the Horror Film Dialogue Generator App (“I hate cats” says Bana when he enters the lions enclosure). Derrickson has a deft hand at creating atmosphere, though the almost two-hour run time is unnecessary and excessive, and with so much crammed in, by the time the rather long and noisy final act arrives Deliver Us From Evil moves from being tense and chilling to bludgeoning and stressful to watch. It’s a genre rollercoaster ride – templated, repetitive and unoriginal, full of ups and downs but nonetheless effective at the one job it’s trying to Deliver Us From Evil do; make you is based on Beware The Night, a 2001 jump and squeal. book by the real-life Rosie Fletcher Ralph Sarchie.

Lucy

This is your brain on drugs

Release Date: 22 August

TBC | TBC minutes Distributor: Universal Director: Luc Besson Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked, Julian Rhind-Tutt

Luc Besson has earned a

reputation for crafting half-decent (if occasionally half-dressed) female characters that more often than not are the focus of their films. With Lucy, he’s hit upon the hoary old sci-fi cliché of finding a way to use the full extent of the brain. In this less-thanstellar case, we have a party-happy American student (Scarlett Johansson) forced into being a drug mule in Taiwan by a nasty businessman, only to have the experimental street drugs burst in her stomach and unlock the unused portions of her grey matter. Cue telepathy, telekinesis and more as she

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slowly starts to reach the full level of human potential. What’s really surprising is why Scarlett Johansson decided to take on a role like this. Sure, Lucy is front and centre throughout the film, but the script calls for her to be such a blank slate automaton genius figure for the majority of the duration that all the

actress has to do is put on her serious face and spout dialogue about time being unimportant while Besson plays with effects and montages stuffed with stock footage to over-explain what he’s on about. The actress throws herself into the role with gusto, but when you’ve seen her play someone smart, capable and relatable while also kicking ass in The Avengers, Lucy feels like a dull second fiddle. What plot there is boils down to Lucy going through the developmental motions while tycoon Mr Jang (Min-sik Choi) hunts her

The estate agent had lied to them all about the size of the flat.

It just all feels so thin and illconsidered down, Morgan Freeman delivers long expositional speeches in the manner only he can and Parisian cop Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked) wonders what he’s got himself mixed up in. There are brief flashes of fun – Julian Rhind-Tutt steals one scene with smarmy camp, and Besson is still able to marshal at least one entertaining car chase. It just all feels so thin and ill-considered, as if the writer/director came up with the central idea and figured that was enough to hang a few action beats from. The movie’s title character may find her brainpower increasing as the running time counts down; chances are you’ll feel like your own IQ levels are dropping just as rapidly as you watch it. James White  ngelina Jolie was originally in talks for A the lead role, but dropped out. Perhaps she read the full script?

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29 AUGUST

They were all out of bobble hats.

Hercules Tosh and pecs

Release Date: OUT NOW!

12A | 98 minutes Distributor: Paramount Director: Brett Ratner Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Reece Ritchie, John Hurt

Gods and monsters are

in short supply in this revisionist actioner that suggests the fabled demi-god’s labours were 90% bull-crap. Drafted in to crush a Thracian uprising, Herc wields his club, up-ends some horses and restores order on behalf of John Hurt’s dodgy king Cotys. When doubt is cast on his employer’s morals, however, the musclebound lionheart has to man up and be the hero he’s supposed to be… It’s a bold take on a swords and sandals staple last seen in the dire Legend Of Hercules. Yet it’s one that pays dividends, largely thanks to Brett Ratner surrounding Dwayne Johnson with a Thor-style support staff. Between Ian McShane’s dotty soothsayer, Rufus Sewell’s guy-linered strategist and Ingrid Bolso Berdal’s arrowslinging Amazon, there’s more than enough to offset The Rock’s rather colourless turn. There’s also fun to be had seeing how the writers debunk such classic(al) elements as the Lernaean Hydra and the Erymanthian Boar – fantasy creatures revealed to be tall tales spun by Herc’s weedy nephew (Reece Ritchie). Yet, there comes a point when you tire of Ratner’s myth-busting antics and crave some non-mock heroics. Luckily, it’s around this juncture the film delivers actual derring-do – superhuman feats that conveniently involve despatching the various Brits who play The Rock’s sneering nemeses. It’s here that Johnson finally earns his salary, ripping chains out of boulders and felling a temple in vintage Samson stylee. Neil Smith  he film’s based on a comic by the late T Steve Moore. His friend Alan Moore has urged people to boycott it.

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AS ABOVE, SO BELOW Explorers of the catacombs of Paris are plagued by visions of their past in this found-footage horror. SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller team up again for this sequel which spins off from the second run of the noir comic series.

DISCOVER

ON SALE NOW!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

12 SEPTEMBER

THE BOXTROLLS Isaac Hempstead-Wright voices a boy raised by cave-dwelling rubbish collectors in this stopmotion film.

26 SEPTEMBER

I ORIGINS Reincarnated souls can be identified by eye scans in Another Earth director Mike Cahill’s second feature.

3 OCTOBER

DRACULA UNTOLD Luke Evans plays Drac in this origin story. LIFE AFTER BETH A guy gets a second chance with his girlfriend when she comes back from the dead in this zombie comedy.

10 OCTOBER

THE MAZE RUNNER Teenage boys are deposited in the middle of a giant monster-infested maze in this YA adaptation.

17 OCTOBER

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic about a veteran spy who trains his nephew as an agent.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello are back – and this time, they have humanoid noses. Boo!

24 OCTOBER

THE BABADOOK A little boy has nightmares about a monster from a peculiar pop-up book in this Australian horror.

28 OCTOBER

GHOSTBUSTERS The 1984 flick gets a one-night-only reissue.

29 OCTOBER

HORNS Daniel Radcliffe wakes up to find he’s grown a pair of horns in this adaptation of Joe Hill’s novel.

31 OCTOBER

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS Emotionless duplicates replace the residents of a small town in this reissue of the paranoid 1956 classic.

YOUR GUIDE TO THE BEST IN COMICS! DOWNLOAD TO YOUR DEVICE OR FIND IT AT

Captain America: The Winter Soldier The Captain’s Cold War

Release Date: OUT NOW!

2014 | 12 | 136 minutes | £24.99 (Blu-ray 3D)/£20.99 (Blu-ray)/£17.99 (DVD) Distributor: Walt Disney Home Entertainment Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo Cast: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie, Samuel L Jackson, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp

At the start of

The Winter Soldier, the First Avenger has been left behind by the world. (“I’m here to pick up a fossil,” quips Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow.) By the end, that same world has been overturned by the Captain’s actions. It’s one of many neat ironies, more obvious when you watch the film a second time. Although we saw the Captain in the present in Avengers Assemble, he was too busy fighting gods and monsters to let his feet really touch the ground. The Winter Soldier focuses on what it’s like for him to have missed 70 years of history. When the Cap’s not embarking on Black Ops-style sea missions he doesn’t understand, he lurks in

As an entertainment package, it’s one of the most enjoyable Marvel entries 100

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museum tributes to his own lost life, or bonds with the only people he still feels close to – traumatised soldiers. In The First Avenger, he had a surrogate dad in Stanley Tucci. Now two rival patriarchs – Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury and Robert Redford’s SHIELD honcho Alexander Pierce – both try moulding him, and the verbal confrontations are gripping and intelligent. Let’s lose the idea that Cap is boring. Even if that was true (which it’s not – watch the lift battle and tell us he’s a dull hero), the drama comes from the ways that different characters respond to him, trying and failing to rein him in. The film’s best idea is to pair the Cap (platonically) with Black Widow, like a warped Clark and Lois. She’s fascinated by him, not because he looks beautiful (so does she), or because he’s a super-fighter (so is she), but because she can’t believe someone with the Cap’s outlook exists, more alien to her than Loki was. Robert Redford as Pierce is fabulous casting, all the better because Redford is kept away from outlandish costumes or obvious CGI. The veteran actor brings weathered composure to moments which lovingly evoke his movies of yesteryear, whether he’s just framed against a window (the film’s colour scheme makes even blue skies feel bleak) or confronting an uninvited guest in his house. The latter is a chilling scene, almost taking us out of the Marvel universe entirely. “I wish you would have knocked…”

Never tell Cap you don’t care for his aftershave. But the scene draws attention to the constraints of a franchise. Even expertly packaged, cold-blooded murder and street assassinations sit oddly with staple comic book elements. Perhaps you can buy the evil supercomputer that turns up in the middle of the film, but it’s hard to swallow when it reveals everything to the heroes. (Yes, it means to kill them, but surely it might consider what happens if it slips up?) Ditto the introduction of a flying man, who’s established in as grounded and Nolan-esque a way as possible, but who still helps take the climax into cartoon territory.

But don’t fret too much about the tonal shifts. Enjoy the duelling of wills among the marvellous cast, and thrill to the terrific fights with the Predator-esque Winter Soldier, shredding soldiers and vehicles with steely purpose. The requirements of a superhero franchise stop Winter Soldier being the adult thriller it could have been, but as an entertainment package, it’s one of the most enjoyable Marvel entries so far. Extras: The Blu-ray (rated) includes a short but decent film (“On the Front Line”) emphasising the level of real action in Winter Soldier and its debts to the likes of Michael Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

DVD & BLU-RAY

Patriot Games Four more comic book superpatriots THE SHIELD

The first flagrocking superhero, this “G-Man Extraordinary” debuted in Pep Comics #1 in January 1940, over a year before Captain America. His alter ego was chemist Joe Higgins, out to avenge his father’s murder by a Nazi saboteur. X-rays and chemistry powered this FBI super-agent, who reported directly to cross-dressing commie-basher J Edgar Hoover.

FIGHTING AMERICAN

“The new champ of split-second action” was the creation of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the team behind Captain America. In a gruesomely oddball origin tale, Nelson Flagg has his mind ported into the revitalised cadaver of his slain brother, a star athlete. Sidekick Speedboy the Wonder Kid helped replicate the Cap formula, but Fighting’s adventures were satirical laff-fests.

UNCLE SAM

Another uberpatriot preempting Captain America, this stripey-trewed Fritz-walloper first appeared in National Comics #1 in July 1940. He’s a mystical force, originally the spirit of a soldier slain in the War of Revolution, summoned to duty when America needs him. Sam led the Freedom Fighters on Earth X, a parallel world where WW2 was still being fought in the ’70s (beware the disco Reich!).

Mann’s Heat. There’s some particularly interesting footage of shooting the ship battle, and the Cap’s fight with martial arts champ Georges St Pierre, who plays Batroc. The other Blu-ray featurettes are very brief. The indulgent “Cut The Check” concerns a catchphrase of Falcon actor Anthony Mackie. The more interesting “Steve Rogers’ Notebook” shows how the Captain’s list of things to catch up on was different in cinemas around the world. The four deleted scenes are also brief; the best is a character moment between Black Widow and Fury. The accompanying commentary reveals that www.sfx.co.uk

Johansson herself suggested dropping it, trimming back her own character! A gag montage includes the usual mildly amusing flubs. There’s also a feature-length commentary with sibling directors Anthony and Joe Russo, plus writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley. It’s frank and very interesting, touching on some issues raised above. We learn, for example, that the supercomputer scene was controversial, a “tricky turn in what was a grounded thriller”. The political issues are acknowledged; the film was written “before [Edward] Snowden but after [Julian]

Assange”. However, the writers predictably deny any contentious agendas. “At the end of the day, it is a comic book film.” The writers also reveal the true significance of the Winter Soldier name, derived from the 18th century rhetoric of Thomas Paine; they argue the name doesn’t just refer to Cap’s adversary, but also to the hero himself. DVD buyers note: you just get one featurette (“Steve Rogers’ Notebook”) and one deleted scene. Andrew Osmond  he phrase “the path of the righteous T man”, used in Pulp Fiction, appears on, er, an object associated with Nick Fury.

SPIRIT OF ’76

This Revolutionary War-flavoured masked man was first seen in the pages of Marvel’s The Invaders in 1977. A formidable athlete with a bulletproof cloak, he joined wartime superteam the Crusaders before inheriting Captain America’s role when Steve Rogers went missing in action. He was killed in 1946, crushed by a robot while saving a young JFK. A nation salutes his bravery.

Nick Setchfield

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“Must. Save. Chocolate. Hobnob.”

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Going going Gwen Release Date: 1 September

2014 |12 | 142 minutes | £24.99 (Blu-ray)/£29.99 (3D Blu-ray)/£19.99 (DVD) Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Director: Marc Webb Cast: A ndrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field, Campbell Scott, Paul Giamatti

Marc Webb’s

second Spidey outing divided viewers. Critics were peeved by the tangle of plotlines and characters, as well as the hero’s agonised dithering over the girl he loves and dreads losing. (For better or worse, Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy seems way stronger than Andrew Garfield’s webslinger.) For most of the way, the menace is Electro (Jamie Foxx), zapping Times Square with electric-blue thunderbolts. Then a second Big Bad emerges and the film heads inexorably towards one of the most famous denouements in comic book history.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the kind of film that might play better on home cinema. Not only can you split it into two halves, but the crosscutting story strands feel suited to TV. And the film has undoubted virtues, including two wonderfully charming star-crossed lovers in Garfield and Stone; a sense of humour that’s exuberant even by Spidey’s standards; an abundance of fine moments, both epic and intimate; and perhaps the best final scene of any superhero film to date. Extras: Buy the DVD and you just get four deleted scenes and a commentary track. The latter doesn’t involve director Marc Webb, but does feature writers Alex Kurtzman and Jeff Pinkner and producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach. It’s a cheerful, rambling discussion, but with some great insights into how the filmmakers shaped the story as the creators explain the underlying thought-process, especially when it came to handling downer source material in an upbeat spring

blockbuster. The commentary also brings out several of the film’s emotional subtleties which even attentive viewers could miss. The Blu-ray (rated) adds nine further deleted scenes. Chief amongst these is “Peter Meets His Father” (five minutes), a shockingly different ending in which Richard Parker turns up alive to offer wisdom to his flabbergasted son. It’s fantastic to see, and a great demonstration of how the filmmakers struggled with the material. At the same time, the scene simply doesn’t work for a multitude of reasons, as discussed frankly in the commentary. The other scenes are often interesting, though sadly they don’t include the cut moments we all

The cross-cutting story strands feel suited to TV

wondered about, featuring Shailene Woodley (Divergent) as Mary Jane. What we do get are embellishments we could live without. In one alternative scene Max, rather than living alone, has a ghastly mother to contend with; Peter learns that he was under surveillance from childhood by Norman Osborn; there’s a wave goodbye from the bully-boy Flash (Chris Zylka) from the first film; and more Goblin action at Oscorp, including the final comeuppance of the slimy executive played by Colm Feore. Understandably, several of these scenes feature unfinished effects. The Blu-ray also has “The Wages Of Heroism”, a comprehensive six-part Making Of (112 minutes). Highlights include the sections on the stuntwork (inspired by Buster Keaton) and on Peter Parker’s spinning bedroom; oodles of lovely concept art; Paul Giamatti being alarmingly enthused about playing the Rhino; and Emma Stone on wanting to play one of the most unique comic book heroines. Andrew Osmond  When Gwen accidentally calls Spidey “Peter” in public, then claps a hand over her mouth, it was a real gaffe by Emma Stone!

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DVD & BLU-RAY Blu-ray Debut

Twin Peaks The Entire Mystery A damn fine collection Release Date: OUT NOW!

1990-1992 | 15 | 1,637 minutes | £69.99 (Blu-ray) Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment Creators: Mark Frost, David Lynch Cast: Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise

David Lynch

and Mark Frost’s murder mystery masterpiece is a uniquely subversive slice of television. Playing on the conventions of a melodramatic American soap to weave a surreal, sexy, hilarious, heartbreaking and hauntingly sinister tale of the homecoming queen’s killing in a peculiar Washington logging town, it’s a show that burned twice as bright for half as long as it should have. Part of Twin Peaks’ allure is that it remains unresolved, despite the fact that Lynch and Frost were forced to reveal Laura Palmer’s killer halfway through their 30-episode run. It’s a moment that marks the start of a worrying four-episode wobble, but one that’s quickly coursecorrected as the Black Lodge arc and Kenneth Welsh’s cackling madman Windom Earle become the focus. They send Twin Peaks out on an unforgettable high. Banished from the airwaves but with unfinished business, Lynch wrote and directed Fire Walk With

Clean your face, you’re on the telly!

Me – a prequel/sequel film about the last days of Laura Palmer. Kyle MacLachlan’s eleventh hour demand to have FBI agent Dale Cooper’s role reduced to an extended cameo was one of many problems which saw this unremittingly menacing tale panned at the time. Brutal, bleak and brilliant, it requires reappraisal as one of the best horror films of the early ’90s. The product of a singular, sublime period in time where Lynch’s oddball sensibilities and mainstream tastes were perfectly in sync, almost a quarter century on Twin Peaks remains a pioneering piece of television – one that established the small screen as a serious rival to the cinema. Extras: The feature-packed 2010 Gold Box pales in comparison to this truly gold standard collection. Spread across ten discs, all 30 episodes and Fire Walk With Me have been painstakingly remastered in HD – a process overseen by Lynch himself. Fire Walk With Me’s transfer is a small step up from the 2012 Blu-ray, but it’s the series’ new sheen that really impresses. Aside from occasional dirt and the odd shot that appears to be an SD holdover (a blurry exterior of the mill in ashes, for example) it’s a flawless presentation with vivid colours, gorgeous filmic grain and astonishing clarity for a 24-year-old

next trip was to the hat shop. A show that burned Barry’s twice as bright for Transcendence half as long as it should have Release Date: 25 August A Depp too far

series. It’s bolstered by a new 7.1 DTS HD surround track, with subtle channel separation heightening the impact of Angelo Badalamenti’s hypnotic score and the atmospheric sound mix. Many of the previously released features have been remastered in HD too. The complete Log Lady intros, fun promos, interview curio “A Slice Of Lynch” (extended by 25 minutes), superb feature-length documentary Secrets From Another Place and more benefit from a 1080p transfer. The Saturday Night Live sketches and Julee Cruise’s “Falling” music video are MIA, but every other feature from the Gold Box is present and correct. Along with an extensive selection of new interviews and eight minutes of new deleted scenes from the series, there are two unmissable highlights on this collection. The first is “Between Two Worlds” – a featurette where Lynch interviews the Palmer family, both in and out of character. The in-character segment is strange and unsettling but absolutely fascinating. When the quartet start joking around for the meat of the interview it’s almost a relief. The second – and the real draw of this Blu-ray box set – is the near legendary 91 minutes of deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me. There’s some goosebump-inducing stuff here, including a little more information about David Bowie’s Phillip Jeffries, a wonderful Palmer family dinner scene and an epilogue that gives an insight into what a BOB-possessed Coop might have been like in a third season. Manage your expectations, however. Despite that Entire Mystery moniker the deleted scenes offer very few answers, and in most cases just raise more questions. Regardless, this is an essential purchase. Jordan Farley  e sure to look to look under the panel at B the bottom of the Blu-ray box for a special message from Killer BOB.

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2014 | 12 | 119 minutes | £24.99 (Blu-ray)/£19.99 (DVD) Distributor: Entertainment In Video Director: Wally Pfister Cast: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy Morgan Freeman

In what’s

emerged as a vintage summer for sci-fi blockbusters, Transcendence will go down as one of the year’s few critical and commercial failures. It’s a cruel fate for a film which admirably eschews explosions for big ideas. Johnny Depp plays Will Caster, a rock star scientist who’s shot by techno-terrorists before he can finish work on an all-powerful AI. On Caster’s death bed his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best bud Max (Paul Bettany) combine Will’s consciousness with the digital construct. But does WillBot really have humanity’s best interests at heart? Depp’s fizzog may be front and centre on the poster, but Will takes a back seat fairly early. Emotionally the film hinges on Hall and Bettany, who both give nuanced and compelling performances. The problem is a languid script that strives to stimulate your brain, but rarely presents its ideas in an engaging fashion. Though it’s beautifully shot, lingering looks at nature only accentuate the film’s pacing issues. Transcendence isn’t as bad as many may have led you to believe, but it never quite delivers on the promise of its lofty ambitions. Extras: The DVD has two flimsy featurettes on the singularity and director Wally Pfister. The Blu-ray (rated) adds two more on the danger and potential of AI, three viral videos and two trailers. It takes 20 minutes to watch the lot. Jordan Farley  fister not only shot on 35mm but P finished the film photochemically, without a digital intermediate.

October 2014

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“Bugger. Forgotten the barbie.”

“When you said you wanted to go and see Planet Of The Apes…”

Blu-ray Debut

The Double

Frau Im Mond

The Twin Dilemma Release Date: OUT NOW!

2014 | 15 | 89 minutes | £22.99 (Blu-ray)/£17.99 (DVD) Distributor: StudioCanal Director: Richard Ayoade Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Yasmin Paige

If Richard

Ayoade’s debut coming of age comedy Submarine had him pegged as the British Wes Anderson, The Double – with its Gilliam-esque bureaucratic dystopia, omnipotent Orwellian oppression and Kafkaesque themes of alienation – proves he’s a filmmaker with a much broader range of influences. Crucially, he combines the familiar in a way that feels fresh in this nightmarish black comedy, loosely adapted from Dostoyevsky’s 1846 novella. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Simon James, a lowly desk monkey who’s all but invisible to his

colleagues. One day, inexplicably, his enigmatic doppelganger James Simon (also Eisenberg) shows up, causing Simon’s life to unravel. Set in a world where all hope has disappeared, alongside natural light, The Double’s bleak subject matter should overwhelm but is undercut by expertly judged dry humour. Its meticulously constructed universe comes with a pay-off, however – a chilly emotional detachment that keeps you at arm’s length from the heart of the story. Despite this, Ayoade’s captivating style and keen comedic sensibilities confirm him as a filmmaker to keep a close eye on. Extras: Extended scenes from hilarious spoof sci-fi show The Replicator, seen in snippets throughout the film; ten minutes of deleted scenes; a 13-minute Making Of; trailers. Jordan Farley  oman Polanski almost adapted the same R novel with John Travolta in 1996, but the film fell apart days before shooting.

Release Date: 25 August

1929 | U | 200 minutes | £19.99 (dual format Blu-ray/DVD) Distributor: Eureka Director: Fritz Lang Cast: W  illy Fritsch, Gerda Maurus, Klaus Pohl, Fritz Rasp, Gustl Gstettenbaur, Gustav Von Wangenheim

Billed as the

first scientifically plausible SF movie, Frau Im Mond is Fritz “Metropolis” Lang’s other SF epic. It follows an early moonshot instigated by young entrepreneur Helius (Willy Fritsch) using the plans of destitute scientist Mannfeldt (Klaus Pohl). Pursued by disreputable corporate interests obsessed with Professor Mannfeldt’s insistence on the presence of gold on the Moon, a rocket is finally launched. Friede (Gerda Maurus), Mannfeldt’s assistant and one point of a love triangle, is part of the crew and the titular woman in the Moon.

The film is rightly remembered for its accurate depiction of a multi-stage rocket, and the invention of the countdown. Lang used the film’s publicity funds to pay for research. Real progress was made, although a planned launch of a rocket to coincide with the film’s release went unrealised. Lang attempts to portray the effect of g-force and weightlessness. Otherwise the story, written by Thea Von Harbou, who deserves some credit for defining SF, is a standard melodrama of exploration, corporate espionage and romance. Extras: An extensive booklet and a 20-minute German documentary on the film and its restoration; this is the 2000 restored version, a crisp rendition that shows off Lang’s beautiful camerawork marvellously. Guy Haley  ne of the people present during the O rocket research for the film was a young Wernher von Braun, developer of the V-2.

FAUST

THE HUNTERS

PATRICK: EVIL AWAKENS SEA BEAST

WAY OF THE WICKED

1926 | PG | 116 minutes | £19.99 (dual format Blu-ray/DVD)

2013 | PG | 85 minutes | £12.99 (DVD)

2014 | 18 | 92 minutes | £15.99 (DVD)

2014 | 15 | 88 minutes | £14.99 (DVD)

Release Date: OUT NOW!

An elderly alchemist trades his soul for youth and love in Nosferatu director FW Murnau’s classic of German expressionist cinema, loosely based on Goethe’s 19th century plays, and now available on Blu-ray in a newly restored transfer. Mixing grand spectacle and tragedy with light relief, it’s a technical tour de force. We said: “The scale of the production – with its lavish sets and crowds of extras – is impressive, and the effects are breathtaking.”

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The First Woman In The Moon

October 2014

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Based on a comic, this Hallmark Channel TV movie is a familyfriendly adventure with shades of National Treasure. The Tomorrow People’s Robbie Amell plays one of two brothers who discover that their archaeologist parents hunt down fairytale artefacts – in this case, the enchanted mirror from Snow White – to prevent them falling into the wrong hands. It’s pretty bland fare, with plenty of (bloodless) action, a learningto-work-together message, and product placement for Walmart.

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Release Date: 8 September

In cult Aussie horror Patrick (1978), a strange young man in a coma kills those who cross him using his telekinetic powers. This remake comes from the director of Not Quite Hollywood, an excellent 2008 documentary on Ozploitation – which probably explains why it’s surprisingly decent. Sharni Vinson (You’re Next) is engaging as a terrorised nurse, Charles Dance adds a touch of class as a sadistic scientist, and there’s a strong score by Pino Donaggio of Carrie fame.

Stargate SG-1’s Corin Nemec stars in this by-the-numbers Syfy monster movie, as the fisherman hero in a small community where catches are mysteriously poor. Can you guess what might be responsible? The titular creature is at least reasonably original, having the face of an angler fish, the ability to spit paralysing slime, and a Predator-style stealth mode. Gorehounds will be pleased to hear that there’s a surprising amount of blood and guts, including a bitten-off head.

2008 | 15 | 90 minutes | £12.99 (DVD)

Release Date: 1 September

In a nutshell: The Omen transplanted to high school. People who mess with teenager Robbie tend to end up, say, being run over by a tractor. Could he be the antichrist? This highly derivative effort is so lacking in suspense that you probably won’t care either way, especially once you’ve guessed the “shock twist”. Note that Christian Slater may be splashed over the cover art, but his defrocked priest doesn’t have that much screen time. Vinnie Jones takes the classiness down further.

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A New York Winter’s Tale

Attack On Titan Part One

Joel Schumacher, all is forgiven

Release Date: OUT NOW!

2014 | 12 | 118 minutes | £24.99 (Blu-ray)/£19.99 (DVD) Distributor: Warner Home Video Director: Akiva Goldsman Cast: Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connolly

Screenwriter

Akiva Goldsman has spent 17 years atoning for Batman & Robin, but now with this first directing gig, he’s managed to make a film that’s even more cataclysmically bad. Boiled down from Mark Helprin’s lauded literary doorstopper, it’s a hysterically straight-faced romantic fantasy that’s epic in its scope, but also preposterous, incoherent, cloyingly sentimental and sledgehammer subtle. Colin Farrell is a crook from turn of the century NYC who meets the love of his life, Jessica Brown Findlay’s TB-stricken hottie, while avoiding the devil’s henchman, Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). After she

Godzilla-sized zombies!

Never trust a man with this hair. dies he’s transported to modern day New York – some reasons to do with destiny and love and stuff – where he meets his beloved’s little sister and has to work out why he’s there. Trust us, all this makes even less sense on screen. Throw into this already fruity mix a cameo-ing Will Smith as a Jimi Hendrix-t-shirt-clad Lucifer, a flying white horse and a child at death’s door and you’ve got a film that’s a queasy mash-up of Richard Curtis, Audrey Niffenegger and Dennis Wheatley. Batman & Robin? It’s like The Dark Knight next to this. Extras: The DVD has a six-minute Making Of. The Blu-ray (rated) adds a second featurette (nine minutes) and deleted/extended scenes (12 minutes). Steve O’Brien In the late ’80s, Martin Scorsese was briefly attached to an adaptation of Helprin’s book. Bet it’d have been better than this.

Doctor Blood’s Coffin

1961 | 15 | 92 minutes | £14.99 (DVD) Distributor: Final Cut Entertainment Director: Sidney J Furie Cast: Kieron Moore, Hazel Court, Ian Hunter, Kenneth J Warren, Frederick Johnson

A rather

unfortunately named doctor gets the jump on Christiaan Barnard by six years in this wildly implausible heart transplant horror from the director of The Ipcress File. He injects victims with curare to simulate death, then steals their organs to bring corpses back to life – all for the good of mankind, of course. The coffin? One does feature, but it’s of so little significance that Doctor Blood’s Sports Car would be equally appropriate. Like Hammer’s far superior The Plague Of The Zombies, it involves nefarious goings-on in an abandoned tin mine. Quite why ends-justifies-the-means surgeon

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Release Date: 15 September

2013 | 15 | 325 minutes | £34.99 (Blu-ray)/£24.99 (DVD)/£39.99 (Blu-ray Collectors Edition) Distributor: Manga Entertainment Director: Tetsurō Araki Cast: Yūki Kaji, Yui Ishikawa, Marina Inoue

Attack On

Titan is already hugely popular as both a manga and an anime. The anime suggests this may be more down to the concept than the execution. In a far-future world, humans live in walled cities (the backdrops look like medieval Germany), and are preyed on by Titans, grotesque grinning humanoids with zombielike cravings for human flesh. The story follows a team of young fighters, with the focus on a boy and his badass adoptive sister, who have terrible shared pasts. Swinging like Spider-Man on ropes and pullies, they take the fight to the Titans. It sounds like a Pacific Rim-style monster romp, but Attack On Titan

has a crude, cruel power. The story takes itself deadly seriously, with shock twists and reversals. The emphasis on teen trauma and fury is startlingly intense. In other ways, Titan is flawed. The humans’ lengthy battles with the Titans are often stodgy and turgid where they should be electric and terrifying. The limited TV animation can be just too static to convey the epic action, while the storytelling is sometimes B-movie hackneyed. Yet the sheer power of Titan’s scenario, which pits enraged teens against revolting monsters, still makes this a landmark anime. Extras: Two commentaries by the dub team. The Collector’s Edition adds a Making Of and short parody cartoons. Andrew Osmond  live-action film version of Attack On A Titan is also in production in Japan. It’s scheduled for release next year.

From The New World Part One

His heart’s in the wrong place

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Fred loved his new toothbrush.

Cute and creepy

“Yes, but I wanted to go to Ibiza and get off my tits.” Peter Blood (Kieron Moore) thinks that’s the ideal place to conduct his gruesome operations is one of many bewildering elements. Others include the remarkable speed at which he works – swapping human hearts seems to present little more challenge than replacing a pair of AA batteries – and with which he romances a local nurse (scream queen Hazel Court). There’s some attractive Cornish scenery, and the surgical sequences were surely shocking for the time, with their close-ups of still-beating hearts being lifted out of chest cavities. Sadly, in between these eye-openingly explicit episodes, this British horror tends towards either the plodding or the risible. Extras: None. Ian Berriman  ilming took place in the village of Zennor, F six miles north of Penzance. Fancy a visit? Here’s a location guide: http://bit.ly/drblood.

Release Date: OUT NOW!

2012 | 15 | 325 minutes | £29.99 (Blu-ray)/£24.99 (DVD) Distributor: MVM Entertainment Director: Masashi Ishihama Cast: Haruka Kudô, Risa Taneda, Kanako Tôjo

John

Wyndham’s The Chrysalids and M Night Shyamalan’s The Village; not an obvious pairing, yet this intriguing anime recalls both (though it definitely won’t end like The Village). It’s set a millennium from now, in a peaceful-seeming low-tech community where people have paranormal skills. But there are strange new species sharing the Earth; stories of monsters prowling towns at night; and kids who silently vanish. When a band of youngsters take an unsupervised camping trip, they start learning what their world’s really about… Based on a Japanese novel, From The New World aspires to the density

Sadly, the Blair Witch was in the next tree. and ambiguity of quality print SF. It mixes the idylls of childhood with hints of some terrible menace. Horror is handled subtly and elliptically; the characters’ burgeoning sexuality is shown with maturity and delicacy. The show gets hard-going in this volume’s second quarter, with random-seeming adventuring and badly drawn alien critters – the series can look pleasant one moment, strange and eerie the next, and then just plain clumsy. However, it gets back on course, with a series of rapid-fire, interesting developments. Much of the mystery is explained by the end of the set, yet the story seems as unpredictable as ever; it’s a good sign for Part Two. Extras: Clean credits and Japanese promos. Andrew Osmond  he show is named after Dvorak’s New T World Symphony, often played on speakers in Japan to test disaster warning systems.

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dvd & blu-ray

Scintilla

Blu-ray Debut

The Toxic Avenger

Release Date: OUT NOW!

2014 | 18 | 94 minutes | £12.99 (DVD)

Trash cinema treasure trove

Release Date: OUT NOW!

1984 | 18 | 83 minutes | £22.99 (Blu-ray)/£14.99 (DVD) Distributor: 88 Films Directors: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman Cast: Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennifer Babtist

Troma’s

titanic triumph traces the trials and tribulations of a teenager turned toxic by a team of thugs who trade hit-and-run crimes for kicks, giggles and Polaroids of crushed corpses. Dumped into a garbage can of glowing green goo, weedy Melvin is transformed into Toxie, a mutant vigilante with the body of Hulk and the voice of George Clooney. A trash paradise populated by clown-faced criminals, blind babes and morbidly obese mayors, it’s a fever-dream made flesh-and-gore for B-flick fans. Extras: This Uncut Nuclear Edition (reinstating four minutes

Psycho-Pass Season One

Colin’s nut allergy was only getting worse. cut for DVD) comes crammed with collector-charming special features, including a five-minute commentary from Melvin actor Mark Torgl, the theme tune from toon Toxic Crusaders, two intros and short clips from Troma TV. Only a “15 Years Later” mockumentary disappoints – essentially four minutes of some dude in a Toxie mask. The biggest prize is the commentary from creator/Stan Lee of Troma Studios Lloyd Kaufman. Packed with personality – discussing his competition, Kaufman claims, “The studios weren’t playing fair, they were using good scripts and good actors” – it’s easily as entertaining as the film. The Blu-ray (rated) adds a slightly longer Japanese cut. Sam Ashurst  loyd Kaufman cameos in James Gunn’s L Guardians Of The Galaxy; the two both worked on Gunn’s debut, Tromeo & Juliet.

“Hello. I’m Joanna Lumley.”

Hannibal Lecter goes cyberpunk

Like its

monster, Scintilla is something of a hybrid. Part war film, part mad scientist flick and part Alien, this British horror is a patchwork of influences. A team of mercenaries is dispatched to infiltrate a base in a war-torn state. They get more than they bargained for when they discover that somebody has been conducting human experiments. The squad may be your generic gun-toting hardasses, but they have a degree of wit and character – you actually care when they start to drop. The location work is also impressive, conjuring a convincing Eastern European war zone entirely in, er, Huddersfield. Insert your own gag here... The second half is rather generic, and several ideas are left unexplored, but this enjoyable mish-mash makes for a satisfying whole. Extras: None. Will Salmon

The Search For Simon Release Date: 1 September 2012 | PG | 98 minutes | £19.99 (DVD)

Release Date: 1 September

2012 | 15 | 550 minutes | £59.99 (Blu-ray)/£39.99 (DVD) Distributor: Manga Entertainment Cast: Kana Hanazawa, Tomokazu Seki, Kenji Nojima

Cyberpunk and

grisly pulp fiction converge in this anime from the studio behind Ghost In The Shell studio. In a rigidly controlled future Tokyo, every person’s mental state is monitored for signs of criminality. Despite (or because of ) this, ghastly crimes still occur and some of the police investigating them are “latent” criminals themselves. That’s not true of the heroine though, rookie Akane, who’s going to have some very nasty shocks in the line of duty… Psycho-Pass often plays like an SF version of a Thomas Harris horror-thriller, with dismembered and puréed (!) corpses, and some extremely cultured maniacs à la Hannibal Lecter. At its best, it’s smart, engrossing and ethically www.sfx.co.uk

the best new dvds – got ’em yet?

1

HER

2

CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES

3

STRANGE HILL HIGH VOLUME ONE

4

VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE PART 2

5

UNDER THE SKIN

6

IN THE FLESH SERIES ONE AND TWO

7

THE LEGO MOVIE

8

GOAL OF THE DEAD

9

ADJUST YOUR TRACKING

10

THE COMPLETE DR PHIBES

Joaquin Phoenix falls for an AI operating system in Spike Jonze’s SF romance.

A Friday The 13th documentary over six hours long!

Surreal kids’ show from a former writer for The Simpsons.

A new documentary, plus trailers for 82 “Section 3” nearly-nasties.

Scarlett Johansson is an alien seductress in Jonathan Glazer’s strange sci-fi opus.

BBC Three’s Bafta-winning zombie drama.

Batman, Dumbledore and the Ninja Turtles all feature in this witty toy spin-off.

This French zombie comedy skewers the sillier side of soccer.

VHS collectors discuss their love of the format.

Blu-ray set of The Abominable Dr Phibes and its sequel.

THE RULES: New releases push down old releases. DVDs drop out of the chart after three months.

There are a

challenging. It blends old-school SF issues with Grand Guignol interlocking plotlines, conveying a world with very different morals from ours. At its worst it descends to repellent, pretentious titillation. The glossy visuals and ambitious themes resemble those in Stand Alone Complex, the TV version of Ghost In The Shell, but Psycho-Pass also shares GITS’ stodgy exposition and intellectual name-dropping. Yet by the end, its ideas and character arcs pay off powerfully, and even Akane – who at first seemed pitifully cute – has developed in logical and fascinating ways. Extras: Commentaries on three episodes, plus a subbed interview with three of the show’s staff at a US convention. Andrew Osmond  he show’s writer is Gen Urobuchi, a big T name in current anime. He also wrote Fate/ Zero and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

lot of problems with this quirky, lowbudget British mockumentary about a UFO-chasing geek who believes his brother was abducted by aliens. But it’s so inventively funny and boasts so many geeky in-jokes and cameos (Sophie Aldred, Chase Masterson, Simon Jones) it may win you over. It’s directed, co-written by and stars Martin Gooch. He’s a promising comedy writer. He’s a less accomplished (though serviceable) director. But he’s a woeful actor. His worst decision was casting himself as the lead. It’s a laboured, one-note performance that less forgiving viewers will find it difficult to make allowances for. Presumably, he was cheap. Extras: Lots of short but amusing Vlogs; 45 minutes of deleted scenes; a music video. Dave Golder

wot, no dvd?

someone release this!

THE SIXTH SENSE TV SERIES | 1972 Joan Crawford and William Shatner both guest-starred in this 22-episode series, in which a professor of parapsychology investigated supernatural mysteries. Star Trek writers Gene L Coon, David P Harmon, Don Ingalls and Robert Hamner all contributed scripts.

October 2014

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The Changes Do The Luddite Thing Release Date: 25 August

1975 | PG | 246 minutes | £24.99 (DVD) Distributor: BFI Director: John Prowse Cast: Vicky Williams, Keith Ashton, Rafiq Anwar, Marc Zuber, Rugby Brar, David Garfield

Ever come within a

hair of hurling your toaster out of the window for scorching your muffins? Then you’ll find this ten-part children’s drama cathartic. Based on a trilogy by Peter Dickinson, it opens with the UK population gripped by a Luddite mania, inexplicably driven to smash all machinery. These remarkable scenes represent a dramatic high the series then slides away from, as it turns into a “cosy catastrophe” that mostly makes post-apocalyptic Britain look like a jolly lark. Unflappable schoolgirl Nicky Gore barely bats an eyelid when she’s separated from her parents and, in a pleasingly progressive development, has to shack up with a band of likeable Sikhs. Danger does rear its head on the odyssey that ensues, but its edge is always blunted.

Robotics;Notes

Two Sikhs die battling bandits, but it happens off-stage, and no one seems to grieve their loss. Later, Nicky’s pursued by witch-hunters in the world’s slowest chase – they actually stop for a pint! It also takes nine episodes before someone expresses mild concern about the loss of hospitals. Still, this is a children’s series, and The Changes deserves praise for tackling issues such as racism and the pros and cons of technological progress, even if the treatment is pretty shallow. It also pulls off the impressive feat of making electricity pylons look like sinister behemoths. Want a show with the bleak, gritty edge of Survivors? Look elsewhere. But if you’re after a tale of societal reversion that’s such comfortable viewing it’s like snuggling in a slanket, hold fire on defenestrating your DVD player long enough to enjoy this one. Extras: A 1983 Central Office of Information short (34 minutes) provides instruction on the lifestyles of UK Asians; a gallery; a The title sequence has well-researched a train emerging from Box Tunnel, site of a 16-page booklet. vampire massacre in Being Human. Ian Berriman

“Don’t prod me with that thing.”

Volume One

Anime hits the right note

Doris deliberately dressed to blend in with the sea and the sky.

Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils

Unicorn City Release Date: 1 September 2012 | PG | 98 minutes | £19.99 (DVD)

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Release Date: 25 August

2012 | 12 | 246 minutes | £34.99 (Blu-ray)/£24.99 (DVD) Distributor: Manga Entertainment Director: Kazuya Nomura Cast: Yoshino Nanjo, Ryohei Kimura, Rie Kugimiya

Mixing geek

comedy-drama with crazy conspiracy thriller, Robotics;Notes is a kind of sister series to another anime, Steins;Gate, with plot parallels between them. Robotics;Notes features a band of high school geeks, led by a girl who’s wildly obsessed with making a giant robot. Meanwhile, her gamehead schoolboy friend is drawn into a deranged mystery, involving the lost ending of an anime series, a cute virtual “ghost” girl, and secret files raving about the end of civilisation. The beginning is bumpy, played broad and way too silly. But eventually the show settles down, deftly balancing character comedy

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1973 | 18 | 73 minutes | £12.99 (DVD)

with the loopy mystery. It’s enlivened by another geek girl, who has a hilarious line in net-speak – fans of web series The Guild will love her. There’s also real pathos. The characters’ dreams will not necessarily come true, and their strongest moments are ones of frustration and defeat – though hope always remains. Despite the mad conspiracy ticking away in the background, the cast spends as much time contending with believable situations, such as a typhoon or a tech demonstration that goes badly wrong. For an SF anime, Robotics;Notes feels unusually real. Extras: Two episode commentaries by the dubbers; a featurette on making the dub; clean credits. Andrew Osmond  here is a “life-size” giant robot statue T in Tokyo, based on the Gundam anime. It doesn’t walk, however.

The title’s a

carnival huckster’s lie, of course. There’s less blood than Holby City, the She-Devils are a Stepford dance troupe and, as orgies go, you may wish to discreetly retrieve your keys from the fruit bowl. The work of exploitation king Ted V Mikels, this trashy witch’s brew hews to the ’70s strain of suburban occultism initiated by Rosemary’s Baby. It’s the poverty row relation – this Californian coven conjures more boom shadows than demons, and low-budget gloom prevails. There are moments of scruffy, midnight movie charm, but for all the retro grooving of Satan’s go-go girls this is weak sorcery indeed. Extras: Commentary by Ted V Mikels; original trailer; viewing notes and gallery. Nick Setchfield

The geek

comedy is now a firmly established independent genre, complete with its own set of clichés: geeky but cute lead; buffoonish sidekick; a weird one; constant cultural references; the geek getting the girl just by being himself. The bizarre thing is how often it works. Take Unicorn City, which boasts all of the above. A low-budget labour of love about disaffected gamers setting up a Live Action Role Players’ paradise in the woods, it barely has an original frame in its running time. But in places it’s also laugh-outloud funny, especially when the LARPing gets… extreme. It’s a little flabby in places, and some of the gags are halfhearted, but if you watch with Minus Two Cynicism, there’s a lot of fun to be had. Extras: A trailer. Dave Golder Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

dvd & blu-ray

The Captive

Blu-ray Debut

The Monster Club An Amicus ending

Release Date: 25 August

2013 | 18 | 82 minutes | £15.99 (DVD)

Release Date: OUT NOW!

1981 | 15 | 94 minutes | £14.99 (Blu-ray) Distributor: Network Director: Roy Ward Baker Cast: Vincent Price, John Carradine, Donald Pleasence, Stuart Whitman, James Laurenson

If you’ve ever

yearned to see horror icon John Carradine bopping to rockers The Pretty Things, The Monster Club will scratch an itch. If not, its melding of the old-fashioned and early-’80s up-to-date may seem offputting. It’s a last hurrah for British studio Amicus’s anthology horrors – even though the company died in 1977. Co-founder Milton Subotsky was in charge, again adapting stories by R Chetwynd-Hayes, and the director, composer and editor were old hands. All three tales are predictable, but have their moments. A ball with dancers in translucent plastic masks is a highlight of the opening instalment, the pathos-heavy tale of a lonely vampire/werewolf hybrid. The middle section aims for the

On his way to the dentists, Carl had a nasty fall. funny bone with its whimsical presentation of bowler-hatted vampire hunters, delivering delicious lines like, “We’ll have the old doings to your ticker in a jiffy!”. Best of the bunch is the closer, in which a director hunting locations is trapped in a village populated by ghouls; a discordant electronic soundtrack helps conjure a nightmarish atmosphere. What lets it down are the linking sections set in the titular club, which waste time presenting performances by obscure bands (The Viewers, anyone? Night?), in order to sprinkle a fusty format with post-punk cred; the effect is like pairing a studded dog collar with a tweed suit. Extras: A trailer and a stills gallery. Ian Berriman  tevie Lange, vocalist of the band Night, S also sang the jingles for the Bodyform sanitary towel and Trio biscuit TV ads.

How long

could you last in isolation? In The Captive (also known as Armistice or, amusingly, Warhouse), Royal Marine Budd wakes to find himself trapped inside an ordinary looking home. He has food and drink, a nice bath, books – oh, and a savage Orc-like monster that comes to attack him every day. Day after endless day, the same routine. Understandably he starts to go a bit crackers... There’s an echo of the “Child’s Play” episode of Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense, but whereas that had an entertainingly mad resolution, this has a predictable cop-out. Joseph Morgan gives good controlled mania as Budd and there’s some interestingly weird imagery, but the glacial pacing, dodgy monster and flat finale mean that this well-intentioned curio fails to grip. Extras: A trailer. Will Salmon

Mindscape

The Ghostmaker

Alien Abduction

Release Date: 25 August

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Release Date: 25 August

2013 | 15 | 95 minutes | £15.99 (DVD)

Also known by

the moniker Anna, Mindscape is a half-decent minor thriller that owes a small debt to both Minority Report and Inception. Mark Strong is John, a “Memory Detective”, able to go inside people’s minds to ascertain the details of crimes. After a breakdown, he’s assigned the apparently gentler case of a rich 14-year-old girl who’s stopped eating. But things aren’t so simple: Anna may be manipulative and conniving, and a series of bloody accidents around her home may be something to do with her... Those three dots encapsulate a world of complication and twistiness: Mindscape, which is a little earnest and dour, is a film that repeatedly throws you off balance. That’s fine up to a point, but by the end you’re left feeling somewhat dazed and a bit bruised. Extras: None. Russell Lewin www.sfx.co.uk

2011 | 15 | 87 minutes | £14.99 (DVD)

People do

stupid things in horror movies. They open the puzzle box, read the Latin, or explore the basement. But playing Flatliners with an antique torture device shaped like a coffin seems especially daft, even for some half-witted horror movie dirtbags. And that makes it hard to sympathise when it turns out the Grim Reaper’s none too happy about their antics. The problem with The Ghostmaker is that it’s too convoluted. There are some flashes of flair along the way, like the use of “demonic sound frequencies”, but they get lost in the jumble of drug addiction clichés, dodgy CGI and halfexplored theology. The film’s pack-everything-in philosophy leads to a final sting so obnoxious you’ll want to shove it into a coffin and forget all about it. Extras: None. Sarah Dobbs

2014 | 15 | 83 minutes | £17.99 (Blu-ray)/£14.99 (DVD)

As blandly

generic as its oh-so-original title implies, this found-footage film forces us to follow the story of a family camping holiday in North Carolina, which gets rudely interrupted by some extra-terrestrials. The father gets kidnapped, the autistic 11-year-old son records the ensuing chaos, and the clichés keep coming thick and fast. Over the course of 83 stagnant minutes, the film stuffs in as many as it can fit. Quaint considerations like pacing and plot are replaced with jump scares, and the clumsy exposition exists to mechanically move the action along a formulaic path. With dialogue as banal and beige as Aldi own-brand cornflakes, Alien Abduction isn’t even awful enough to be the amusing kind of bad. It’s even worse: boring. Extras: None. VS Wells

25 AUGUST

THE BOY FROM SPACE This children’s drama about a silvery skinned alien lad first aired in 1971, as part of schools programme Look And Read.

1 SEPTEMBER

GHOSTBUSTERS/GHOSTBUSTERS 2 New extras on these Anniversary Edition Blu-rays include roundtable discussions with Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd.

8 SEPTEMBER

COUNTESS DRACULA A Blu-ray release for the 1971 Hammer horror starring Ingrid Pitt. DOCTOR WHO 50TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION This box set includes a readthrough of “The Day Of The Doctor”, red-button special The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot and bio-drama An Adventure In Space And Time. ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW A man suffers disturbing visions during a theme park holiday in this film, shot guerrilla-style on Disney property. HAVEN SEASON FOUR Thirteen more episodes of the supernatural drama loosely based on Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid. TWINS OF EVIL One of a witchhunter’s twin daughters is turned into a vampire in this 1971 Hammer horror, now in HD.

15 SEPTEMBER

THE MEDUSA TOUCH Richard Burton plays a man who causes disasters with his telekinetic powers in this 1978 thriller, now on Blu-ray. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are ancient vampires in Jim Jarmusch’s romantic drama. WAREHOUSE 13 SEASON FIVE The final six episodes of the show about the recovery of supernatural artifacts.

22 SEPTEMBER

ARROW SEASON TWO Another 23 episodes of the DC series about vigilante archer Green Arrow. EYES WITHOUT A FACE Georges Franju’s poetic 1960 face transplant horror gets a dual-format release. FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: THE SERIES This ten-episode series expands on Tarantino and Rodriguez’s crime/vampire horror mash-up movie.

LEGENDS OF OZ: DOROTHY’S RETURN Dan Aykroyd and Kelsey Grammer are among the voice cast of this animated movie. OUTER SPACE Three cosmicthemed tales from the Children’s Film Foundation: Supersonic Saucer (1955), Kadoyng (1971), The Glitterball (1977).

October 2014

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a jarring, jumpcut effect; you can’t help but wonder if you’ve missed some crucial detail. But just like the ominous disappearance of her younger brother Jacko, the significance of what has happened will eventually come to light… As the novel proceeds, Holly becomes more of an enigmatic, background presence as Mitchell instead focuses on several other protagonists, including aspiring Cambridge con artist Hugo Lamb, who’s forced to contemplate the moral cost of his conniving tricks. Others, such as war journalist Ed Brubeck and cynical novelist Crispin Hershey, play a more peripheral role in the overarching scheme of things. Taking in 1991 and 2004 before fetching up in the very near future of 2015, Mitchell enters the purely speculative territory of 2025 in fourth part “An Horologist’s Labyrinth”, which brings to mind everything from Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles to a superior The Da Vinci Code. Set in a 2045 Ireland where society’s reverted to

The Bone Clocks

Cloud Atlas author sets immortals at war

Release Date: 2 September

608 pages | £20 (hardback)/£7.47 (ebook) Author: David Mitchell Publisher: Sceptre

The relationship

between so-called literary fiction and the fan community has long been uneasy, typified by authors such as Margaret Atwood sniffily proclaiming that the dystopian milieu of a novel like The Handmaid’s Tale is not actually sci-fi. But right from his experimental early efforts like Ghostwritten and Number9dream, David Mitchell has consistently shown a deep affection for the genre. Now, following the release of the cinematic adaptation of his best-known and most ambitious work to date, Cloud Atlas, Mitchell has returned to that book’s fantastical scenarios and multiple storylines with his latest novel. But while its predecessor encompassed

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centuries as it moved from 1850 to a post-apocalyptic far-future, The Bone Clocks spans just 60 years and adopts a chronological structure rather than Cloud Atlas’s symmetrical shape. Opening in 1984, it’s ostensibly the story of rebellious teenager-turnedvisionary author Holly Sykes. Initially downplaying the fantasy elements, Mitchell starts off by lulling the reader into a false kind of cosiness, evocatively capturing the spirit of that much-maligned decade. Absconding from her parents’ Gravesend pub after a falling out over her boyfriend, a thirsty Holly has an eerie encounter with a mysterious old woman, who offers her tea in exchange for asylum. After hitching a lift to a nearby strawberry farm, the jocular tone is abruptly interrupted when two friendly strangers are brutally murdered. With Holly inexplicably having no memory of what has occurred before her very eyes, the violent events have

Should be a serious contender for the Arthur C Clarke award feudalism after Europe’s oil supply dried up, final section “Sheep’s Head” at first seems incongruously grim, but Mitchell eventually ties the various plot strands together with a satisfying if downbeat note. With the title referring to the inevitability of the process of ageing for mere mortals, The Bone Clocks owes a definite debt to a certain Time Lord, as it centres around two competing, hidden races of immortal beings, who are perpetually reborn into different bodies. With nods to not just Cloud Atlas but also Black Swan Green and the apparently straightforward historical fiction of The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet, Mitchell plants intriguing references to his past work, leaving you with the hope that you might eventually see some of these memorable characters again. But until then enjoy what should be a serious contender for both the Booker Prize and the Arthur C Clarke award. Stephen Jewell  itchell has published “The Right Sort”, a M short story related to The Bone Clocks, via his Twitter account: http://bit.ly/rightsort.

Fool’s Assassin Long time no Farseer

Release Date: OUT NOW!

688 pages | £20.00 (hardback)/£6.02 (ebook) Author: Robin Hobb Publisher: Harper Voyager

Nearly 20 years have

passed since Robin Hobb introduced FitzChivalry Farseer to fantasy fans, and in that time the genre’s favourite bastard son has become one of its most famous characters. The Farseer trilogy took Fitz all the way from outcast child to hardened assassin, but as this first book in new series The Fitz And The Fool opens our hero is both older and wiser. Fitz is living a quiet life as Tom Badgerlock of Withywoods manor. But the violence of his past inevitably sends him back on the path of epic adventure. Hobb’s brand of fantasy is notably gentle, especially compared to the fashion for high-action “grimdark” fantasies in recent years, but for much of its length Fool’s Assassin reads like a domestic drama, thanks to its focus on the daily life of Tom Badgerlock and his family. George RR Martin calls Hobb’s work “fantasy as it ought to be written”, but in truth this latest volume is markedly more sophisticated than much epic fantasy; a slow-paced character study that takes us deep into the life of its hero. When the epic story does explode into life, it is all the more shocking and unexpected for it. Robin Hobb is without question among the two or three finest writers of fantasy working today, and in Fool’s Assassin she brings a new complexity to the genre, and to the character of FitzChivalry Farseer. Damien Walter  obb says Fitz is always in the back of H her mind, “giving mostly illegal advice on how to deal with annoying people...”

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books

My Real Children Sliding Wars

Release Date: OUT NOW! 320 pages | £19.99 (hardback) Author: Jo Walton Publisher: Corsair

FROM THE MAKERS OF MAGAZINE

Jo Walton’s follow-up

to the Hugo-winning Among Others is a good-hearted but slightly flat affair. Examining the later 20th century through two versions of one woman’s life, it shares conceptual territory with Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, but too often sacrifices character detail for panorama. Reflecting on her life in a nursing home in 2015, Patricia Cowan struggles to keep her memories in order. Sometimes she recalls having four children; other times, three – and completely different ones at that. We soon learn that Patricia had a Sliding Doors moment shortly after WW2, as a marriage proposal caused her life to branch off in two separate directions. The novel follows both lives in alternating chapters. Walton focuses on things that matter directly to Patricia – marriage, children, career – letting the wider world’s divergent

164 PAGES OF PURE TERROR

– and in one case, cataclysmic – histories unfold quietly behind her highs and lows. But she rushes us to judgements on her characters – a line like “he did not ask her opinion, which she thought was romantic” doesn’t exactly keep us in suspense about what the chap concerned will be like – and her protagonist is unfailingly the most liberal in every argument. More critically, the pressure of covering two lifespans in a single short novel requires much to be skimmed over in synopsis, sacrificing the impact of the smaller moments that are the book’s strength. Nic Clarke Walton had the idea when a friend discussed her hubby’s proposal: “I saw how different her life would’ve been if she’d said no”.

The BulletCatcher’s Daughter

Luddites rule, okay?

Release Date: 26 August

320 pages | £8.99 (paperback)/£5.49 (ebook) Author: Rod Duncan Publisher: Angry Robot

If you’re ever irritated

by the sort of steampunk that’s more like urban fantasy with a few bustles and clockwork computers thrown in, this could be the book for you. The story of Elizabeth Barnabus, a trickster who pretends to be her own brother in order to work as a sort of private detective, isn’t entirely unexpected. What comes as a breath of fresh air is the setting. Most steampunk operates on the premise that the Victorians discovered computing, and is either set in the 19th century, or in a modern day where little’s changed since the Victorians. This book is set in a little-changed 21st century, but one where the Luddite rebellions succeeded, technology’s been strictly controlled and Britain’s split www.sfx.co.uk

into two parts: a hardworking, puritanical north (the AngloScottish Republic) and a more colourful yet feudal-feeling south (the Kingdom of England and Southern Wales). It does what the very best steampunk does: it creates an alternate reality with a firm grounding in history. Elizabeth’s quest – to seek out a missing southern aristocrat and earn enough money to save her home – isn’t the most unusual plot in the world, but set against such a strikingly different, well-created background it’s really engaging. Miriam McDonald  ed Ludd never led the Luddites – after N he broke some knitting frames, wreckers would attribute any vandalism to him.

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The Incorruptibles

Lock In

Release Date: OUT NOW! 272 pages | £20.00 (hardback)/£7.49 (ebook) Author: John Hornor Jacobs Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Virtual plodding

Diabolically good

336 pages | £14.99 (paperback)/£7.49 (ebook) Author: John Scalzi Publisher: Gollancz

The time is 15 years

Imperial senators rule

over the untamed territories of the Wild West, their steamboats powered by hellish rites and their hunting parties harassed by local elf scalpers. It sounds like the most gleeful melange of historical and fantastical ideas, but that description does it pitiful justice. This is no Cowboys & Aliens-style populist mash-up, but an artfully depicted new setting populated by convincing characters battling demons – most figurative, many literal. The dramatis personæ are swiftly and deeply drawn, with distinct beliefs, motivations and tics. Shoe and Fisk are hired outriders, escorting a senator and his spoiled family upriver. Shoe, a dwarf, is distrustful of the demonology which not only fuels his employers’ decadent lifestyle but also provides the weapons his taciturn buddy employs to keep them safe.

Tonally The Incorruptibles delivers a hearty scoop of Abercrombie-style grimdarkness, although layered with more magic and religion. Place names are a mere shadowy typo from reality; Rume, Tchinee and Aegypt sound a little twee but create a sense that this is our planet but forgotten and twisted, and the prose is extraordinarily rich. But that never detracts from what is, ultimately, a ripping yarn. Whether you file it under Western or fantasy, The Incorruptibles is a rare thing: a clever story and an action-packed one. Dave Bradley  he first story Jacobs ever wrote was a T post-apocalyptic tale about a guy who has to fight radioactive mutant wolves.

The City

hence and a virus that leaves its victims locked in, awake and all too horribly aware of what they’re going through yet unable to move, sweeps the world. Millions are affected and the sheer scale of what’s happened ensures a concerted response. New neural technology means that “Hadens”, as those who contract the disease are called, are able to transmit their consciousnesses into robot avatars, “threeps”, and even other human beings, “integrators”. So runs the set-up to John Scalzi’s latest novel, and it’s a neat premise. If only the execution of the book, told from the perspective of a Haden FBI agent working a murder case, Agent Shane, were as good as the central premise. That’s not to say Lock In is a bad book. It moves along briskly, and it certainly doesn’t want for clever ideas, especially on the subject of

virtual spaces. However, the plot is far too neat. You might also quibble with the amount of exposition contained within conversation. Most seriously – and for all that Shane, the book’s remarkably sane still centre, has a seriously flawed sidekick in Vann, a self-destructive integrator – too many of Scalzi’s characters are sketchily drawn. Seeing as this is the first volume in a new sequence, these are faults Scalzi needs to address if subsequent books are to function as what they’re presumably intended to be: police procedurals. Jonathan Wright  ohn Scalzi has also written the story for J a mobile sci-fi shooter, Midnight Star. It’s already been “soft launched” in Ireland.

Jani And The Greater Game

Urban uplift

Raj Against The Machine

Release Date: OUT NOW!

398 pages | £18.99 (hardback)/£11.99 (ebook) Author: Dean Koontz Publisher: HarperCollins

Release Date: OUT NOW!

384 pages | £7.99 (paperback) Author: Eric Brown Publisher: Solaris

Spirituality is a noble

ambition in a story, but it sometimes lacks substance; and The City becomes less and less substantial as it goes along. Narrated by the adult protagonist, recalling his childhood, it’s the story of Jonah Kirby, a young black boy living in an unnamed American city in the late ’60s. He has a lovely, resilient mother (separated from her dead-loss husband); a gift for the piano; and a strange friend, the elegant Miss Pearl, who claims she’s the soul of the city made flesh. Miss Pearl gives the boy some frightening dreams, which trigger his interest in a sinister neighbour who Jonah sees in a vision, throttled. Much of the plot plays as a straight (non-fantastical) mystery, with Jonah making friends and enemies while he finds clues to a murderous conspiracy, born of the turbulent death of the ’60s…

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Steampunk meets The

The book’s first half makes leisurely but very pleasant reading, evoking a child’s innocence and imagination even as he desperately tries to grow up. The title is purposely misleading – this is a book less about buildings and streets than the human bonds of family and friendship which give the city its soul. Unfortunately, the latter half of the book is awkwardly constructed and cornily contrived, and the “how it all came out” coda is laughably ludicrous, even as the ending to a moral fable. Andrew Osmond  t college, Koontz used to make up his A research. “I’d write a paper, and cite all these books, but the books didn’t exist.”

Jewel In The Crown here, as the prolific Eric Brown decides to tackle yet another genre with his new Multiplicity series. It’s 1910 and the British Empire is being fuelled by a mysterious substance dubbed Annapurnite, discovered in Nepal 50 years before. It powers airships and makes invisibility possible but it’s also made the world more dangerous. Returning by airship to Delhi, Indian-born Cambridge student Jani is nearly killed when Russian forces open fire on the craft. In the wreckage she meets an unearthly travelling companion, accidentally freed from his cell, who draws Jani into a fanciful adventure. The Raj setting gives an exotic twist to the usual steampunk shenanigans, and Brown paints an evocative picture of clockwork

elephants trampling through subcontinental slums. The book also benefits from not taking a simple “Raj=evil, Indians=noble” line. However, as a “ripping yarn” it’s more of a yawn, an endless succession of captures, tortures and “Thank goodness you turned up!” escapes with a humdrum, overly familiar SF twist. Brown’s cosy prose often gives his straight SF a charming Wyndhamesque quality. Here it strains to invest this tale with the crazy kinetic energy it desperately needs. It’s like Jane Austen trying to write Dracula. Dave Golder  ith a henchman called Mr Knife and W an inventor called Mr Clockwork, it’s a surprise that Jani isn’t called Ms Hero.

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books

Dreamwalker

Here be (rather little) dragons

Release Date: OUT NOW!

410 pages | £7.99 (paperback)/£4.99 (ebook) Author: JD Oswald Publisher: Penguin

Just when you thought

it was safe to go down to the woods, it turns out there are dragons hiding out down there. But not great fire-breathing beasts. Instead, these are modest creatures, apparently hiding out from mankind. But change is in the air. For one thing, there’s the arrival of young Benfro in the world, the first male dragon born in long years. Then there’s Benfro’s connection with Errol, a prince hidden from view after his mother was poisoned while pregnant with her only son. As to the exact nature of the connection, that’s a story for another volume in what is, inevitably, a trilogy. This first instalment charts the childhoods of Benfro and Errol as they grow up in different villages, then what happens when they begin to go out into the world. Both have considerable potential, but are untutored in magical arts.

JD Oswald’s first foray into fantasy (after four crime novels), isn’t going to win any prizes for re-engineering the genre, but it’s likeable, polished and, in an undemanding Saturday afternoon movie kind of way, entertaining. Nevertheless, you may find yourself wishing the author had been a bit more ambitious. In particular, while the coming-of-age stories are handled with some aplomb, their grand backdrop, the world of the Twin Kingdoms, seems underdeveloped. A job for the next two volumes, perhaps. Jonathan Wright When he’s not writing, James Oswald is busy tending to New Zealand sheep and Highland cattle in his work as a farmer.

The Godless My, she’s a fiery one

Release Date: OUT NOW!

448 pages | £16.99 (hardback)/£13.99 (paperback)/ £9.85 (ebook) Author: Ben Peek Publisher: Tor

Ben Peek cut his teeth

on surreal short stories and SF/ dystopian fiction before sitting down to write The Godless. It’s the Aussie author’s first fantasy novel and the opener to his Children trilogy, a series set in a world where age-old divinities lie dead or dying, their powers cursing the people that remain with extraordinary abilities. One of those people is Ayae, who lives in the city of Mireea, built on the rocky spine of the fallen god Ger. After an encounter with a mysterious assailant, she miraculously escapes a burning building without a scratch. As an invading army marches on the city, Ayae discovers that she’s immune to fire and, given time, will be able to control it. With the help of the immortal Zaifyr, she attempts to come to terms with her new powers, while mercenary and exiled baron www.sfx.co.uk

Bueralan tries to sabotage the enemy advance. Epic in sheer size and scope, a good chunk of The Godless is tangled with backstory. While the chapters are often short, flitting between Ayae, Zaifyr and Bueralan, the constant history lessons from Peek don’t allow the pace to build. Consequently, it requires some patience to trudge through the book’s first 250 pages, as the author carefully slots together the 1,000-piece jigsaw of his world. Ultimately, The Godless is a slow and thoughtful read, rather than a brisk and violent one. Dean Evans Ben Peek finished his first novel when he was 15. Sadly, it was lost when his mum threw out the old computer he wrote it on.

Magisterium: The Iron Trial

You Are The Hero The story of Fighting Fantasy

YA pairing Potter about

Release Date: 7 September

267 pages | £40 (hardback)/£25 (paperback)/£12 (ebook) Author: Jonathan Green Publisher: Snowbooks

Release Date: 11 September

295 pages | £12.99 (hardback)/£8.98 (ebook) Authors: Holly Black, Cassandra Clare Publisher: Doubleday

Beloved of many a

Holly Black and

Cassandra Clare are both successful YA fantasy authors, with several bestselling series between them. Now they’ve teamed up to write a series of five books about a boy wizard and a magical school, a concept that might seem overfamiliar, but still has much to offer. Callum Hunt has been brought up by his father to fear magic and distrust mages. He can’t escape his own magical abilities, though, and when old enough, he’s forced to attend the Magisterium, an underground school for magic, in order to learn to control his powers. Call is determined to stay aloof from his lessons and leave as soon as he can, but can’t help but be drawn into the mages’ world as he explores his abilities and begins to question his

father’s opinions for the first time. It’s difficult to read a story of a magical school without feeling the shadow of Hogwarts, and it’s true that this book has a definite Harry Potter vibe at times, from Call’s male and female best friends to his post-climax recovery in the school infirmary. This is a very different world of magic though, with a history and culture of its own. Call’s past is as uncertain as his future, and with betrayals, twists and chaosridden wolf pups all around, this is an engaging story that will keep you gripped – and impatient for the next in the series. Rhian Drinkwater  movie adaptation has been optioned by A Constantin Films, previously behind Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series.

The Falcon Throne

Release Date: 4 September

688 pages | £16.99 (hardback)/£7.55 (ebook) Author: Karen Miller Publisher: Orbit

540 pages | £8.99 (paperback)/£5.49 (ebook) Author: Kameron Hurley Publisher: Angry Robot

Karen Miller already

Epic fantasy isn’t always

October 2014

 ackson and Livingstone’s likenesses J often pop up in illustrations in the books, including as heads tied to a beast’s belt!

Fantasy with Fringe benefits

Release Date: 9 September

has eight fantasy novels under her belt, including a brace of Kingmaker, Kingbreaker novels, a pair of Fisherman’s Children books and the Godspeaker trilogy. The Falcon Throne is the first in new series The Tarnished Crown, an epic tale of warring houses and political backstabbing that promises the “drama of Joe Abercrombie” (not even close) and the “commercial appeal of Trudi Canavan” (again, no). The story itself is solid. Roric, bastard cousin to Duke Harald of Clemen, usurps the Falcon Throne, killing Harald, his wife Argante and their baby son Liam. Except that Liam isn’t dead, Roric seeks to marry a woman who loves one of his closest friends, while the nearby Duchy of Harcia threatens war. The scene is set, infuriatingly slowly, and the plot unravels with all the

provides anoraky detail of who did what on each adventure, when, and why. Expect sentences such as: “Knights Of Doom was only the second time the word ‘Doom’ was used in a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, and it was also only the second time Tony Hough produced both internals and the cover for an adventure”. So, in the style of Fighting Fantasy instructions: if you are fine with that sort of thing, close this magazine and go and buy the book. If you are not, and would rather, say, read a feature on Robin Of Sherwood, turn to page 88... Russell Lewin

The Mirror Empire

Windy Miller

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young whippersnapper in the ’80s and ’90s, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were a truly brilliant invention, allowing the reader to directly take part in their adventures. Twenty million have been sold, and their influence has been huge. This methodical, respectful, more or less official history logs all the gamebooks, adding pieces on FF novels, unreleased adventures, boardgames and other spin-offs. It’s generously illustrated, with full-page representations of art from the books, and readability’s further enhanced by short sub-sections and numerous fact boxes. But it’s decidedly interview-heavy – some chapters are almost entirely in quotes – including thoughts from fans. It could do with more of the author’s voice, to offer perspective. Squarely aimed at devotees, it

attention-holding pace of play-bymail chess. This laidback storytelling (with scenes that seem to take twice as long as they should do) is one of the reasons why The Falcon Throne runs to almost 700 pages. Chop out 200 pages, halve the number of characters, dump out a subplot, and it would be a tighter, far pacier book. Slice out the hey nonny dialogue like “forgive me if I be a feggit slow worm, m’lord, but be there trouble in Harcia, that ye’d ribble me for no reason?” and it would be slicker and easier to read. Unfortunately, it’s a bit late for that. Dean Evans  hen Karen Miller was eight or nine years W old, a visitor’s child dropped her guinea pig and broke his spine, killing him.

the place to look for innovation, often preferring to remix past glories for entertaining literary comfort food, rather than give us something new. So it’s a relief when a book like Kameron Hurley’s The Mirror Empire comes along, proving that the genre can still strike out in daring and bold directions. Set in a lush world of carnivorous plants and blood magic, The Mirror Empire kicks off the Worldbreaker saga, as portents threaten change for the troubled kingdoms of Dhai and Dorinah. An invading army is causing chaos, while the appointment of a new ruling Kai has set off an explosion of political in-fighting. Then the truth is discovered: the invaders are from a parallel universe, and the people of Dhai and Dorinah are battling different versions of themselves... Playing like a crazed mash-up of

Game Of Thrones and Fringe, The Mirror Empire is a complex, demanding fantasy novel that tackles difficult subjects, but is also inventive enough to avoid feeling like a Grimdark copycat. Hurley intelligently tackles issues of culture and gender, while also throwing in plenty of bloodthirsty action and well-rounded characters. The pace is a little too frantic at times, leading to an occasional lack of storytelling focus, but otherwise this is a fresh, exciting fantasy epic that’s looking to the future and asking important questions. Saxon Bullock  s a young child, Hurley believed in an A imaginary friend so much, she kept locking the bathroom so her “friend” could bathe.

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books

Wallowing In Our Archie Greene And The Jewel Own Weltschmerz The Magician’s Secret Release Date: 4 September A Handmaid’s Fail

Seventh Doctor silliness

Release Date: 23 August 256 pages | £17.99 (paperback) Authors: The Auton team Publisher: Miwk Publishing

The team behind

Doctor Who zine Auton have put together this irreverent guide to the Sylvester McCoy years, with a lovely cover that homages the New Adventures. And if you don’t understand that last bit, this book is not for you. Each of McCoy’s TV stories is covered, plus the McGann movie. Rather than take the usual approach (synopsis, best line and so on), the book picks each story apart by listing how often the Doctor sneezes, asking how exactly the Rani planned her evil lair and laughing at Ace’s ongoing crassness. If all that sounds trivial, well, yes. There is no reason for this book to exist. But it’s often funny, and full of gently pisstaking affection for the McCoy era. Will Salmon  he subject matter may be daft, but it’s T for a good cause: authors’ proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Society.

Conquest Release Date: 28 August £7.99 | Authors: John Connolly, Jennifer Ridyard Publisher: Headline

Set in and around Edinburgh after humanoid aliens have conquered Earth, this YA book centres on the teenage daughter of a military leader, who falls for a human resistance fighter. We said: “Densely plotted and decidedly grown-up, this is YA fiction for readers who are bored of fluff and sparkles.”

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Meet the book whisperer

368 pages | £6.99 (paperback) Author: Amy Ewing Publisher: Walker Books

Release Date: 4 September

Sex is understandably

320 pages | £9.99 (hardback)/ebook (£3.43) Author: DD Everest Publisher: Faber & Faber

Bearing more than

a whiff of Harry Potter, this perky children’s book is an entertaining magical romp with a cheeky central character. Young Archie Greene receives a mysterious book for his twelfth birthday, discovers that magic is real, then is sent to stay with his cousins Bramble and Thistle just as a nasty plot comes to light to unleash dark spells upon the world. There are secret magical libraries, pop-up spells that jump out of books, and a bad guy who says things like “Fool! You think you can disobey me?” Nothing’s particularly new, but it’s all delivered with admirably heartfelt gusto. Jolly good fun. Jayne Nelson

a tricky topic in YA fiction, so it’s ballsy that the love interest in The Jewel is a male “companion” (yup, exactly what you think it means) and that his relationship with the heroine eventually gets consummated. Unfortunately, that’s about the only interesting thing about this book, which borrows half its plot from The Handmaid’s Tale and most of the rest of it from The Hunger Games. Violet is a beautiful girl from the poorest part of her dystopian world, so she gets snapped up as a baby mama for royalty. But once she gets to the Capitol – sorry, the Jewel – she unwittingly gets dragged into a secret revolution. It’s appealingly written, but so derivative you could almost be reading Katniss/Finnick fanfic. Sarah Dobbs

 D Everest lives in Ashdown Forest in D East Sussex. Pooh creator AA Milne lived there too.

Blood will out

Release Date: OUT NOW!

340 pages | £6.99 (paperback/ebook) Author: Lucy Inglis Publisher: Chicken House

Urban fantasy writers

are, it seems, drawn to London. Whether it’s modern-day affection or simply the city’s sheer amount of history, the capital is a lure few authors seem able to resist. Lily Hilyard is 16, a talented hacker with an ultra-rare blood type, who’s attacked by a two-headed dog and rescued by a mysterious stranger, Regan, whose blood can heal her. From Regan Lily learns of the Eldritche, supernatural creatures who are coming under threat from government agencies and the forces of Chaos alike. The ending seems a tad rushed and convenient, but this is an engaging story with a few political points to make as well. Though parts may feel familiar to fans of London fantasies, it manages to tell its own tale – and it’s a good one. Rhian Drinkwater

 hile editing The Jewel, Ewing found W her most overused word (“to the point of ridiculousness”) was “suddenly”.

Facial Justice

Indoctrinaire

Release Date: 4 September

Release Date: 11 September

This 1960 dystopia from the author of The Go-Between is set in a postapocalyptic Britain which goes to such lengths to achieve equality that the “facially over-privileged” have plastic surgery to make them less attractive. A playful satire on how egalitarianism may lead to mediocrity, it will probably chime with anyone who’s ever railed against the “nanny state”.

£9.99 | Author: LP Hartley Publisher: Penguin

City Of Halves

Inglis is a historian and an expert on Georgian London; she wrote the book Georgian London: Into The Streets.

MaddAddam

The Martian

£8.99 | Author: Christopher Priest Publisher: Gollancz

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Release Date: 28 August

A biochemist is transported to a post-apocalyptic 22nd century and undergoes psychological torture in Christopher Priest’s intense 1970 debut, which has echoes of JG Ballard and Franz Kafka. With paranoia and mind-altering drugs it’s very much a product of its time. Interesting for Priest fans – though it turns into a rather predictable ecological parable.

The final instalment in the trilogy that began with Oryx And Crake follows a small band of human survivors in a postapocalyptic America. We said: “The novel’s aim is so scattershot it’s hard to make out a target. If it is satire, it’s neither clever nor funny… The characters are names on a page, not people.”

Originally a self-publishing phenomenon, this story of an astronaut who must figure out a way to survive after being stranded on Mars is impressively well researched, but rather skates over the interior life of its hero. We said: “Might be a tale that makes for a better film. One for the head, not the heart.”

£8.99 | Author: Margaret Atwood Publisher: Virago

£7.99 | Author: Andy Weir Publisher: Del Rey

October 2014

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Doctor Who: Engines Of War

the best new books – got ’em yet?

A time for war

1

JOSS WHEDON: GEEK KING OF THE UNIVERSE

Release Date: OUT NOW!

2

HALF A KING

For years, the details

3

BROKEN MONSTERS

4

THE RHESUS CHART

5

ONLY EVER YOURS

6

CALIFORNIA

7

SMILER’S FAIR

8

THE HOUSE OF WAR AND WITNESS

9

THE DAMNATION OF PYTHOS

312 pages | £12.99 (hardback)/£5.03 (ebook) Author: George Mann Publisher: BBC Books

of the Time War were restricted to a few tantalising phrases. A smart policy, it seemed; could any on-screen presentation match the almighty conflict waging in our imaginations? Then “The Day Of The Doctor” pulled back the curtain. Now this novel featuring John Hurt’s un-Doctor presents further skirmishes. It’s an epic, widescreen tale in stretches, with battles between swarms of “battle TARDISes” and Dalek stealth ships. It also plays with some pretty grotesque notions; shame some of these feel familiar from TV. What’s really surprising is how much it draws on 1983’s “The Five Doctors”. There’s something jarring about crashing together the Gallifrey of that anniversary

romp with the one of “The End Of Time”, but there’s method to the madness: the stories are linked by Rassilon. How he went from legendary dead man to living Lord President is explained; we also discover which of his decisions drove the Doctor to declare, “No more!” Neither revelation is liable to prompt gasps of disbelief, though; nor is the fate of one-off companion Cinder. Nevertheless, this remains a satisfyingly gruesome, action-packed and thrillingly fast-moving continuity-fest. Ian Berriman  he Daleks’ names for the War Doctor T include The Great Scourge, The Living Death and The Executioner.

Stormcaller Space Wolves sequel

Release Date: OUT NOW!

320 pages | £20.00 (hardcover)/£9.99 (ebook) Author: Chris Wraight Publisher: The Black Library

Stormcaller begins in

the quiet that follows the storm. Blood Of Anaheim, the first volume of the Space Wolves trilogy, introduced us to hard-as-nails brothers Ingvar and Gunnlaugr, who as members of the Deathwatch are even tougher than the standard Space Wolf. Also back for round two are the Sisters of Battle, the Imperium’s most fearsome female warriors. Recovering from their various wounds after the events of book one, the heroes are joined by the titular Njal Stormcaller, Rune Priest of the Space Wolves, whose priestly powers will be tested to the limit by in-fighting among the Space Wolves and the sudden arrival of the forces of the Ecclesiarchy. Stormcaller, while not short on action, is a measured second volume in the series. Chris

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Wraight has come in for a little criticism from Warhammer fandom for tinkering with the Space Wolf mythos – understandable, as the Space Marine chapter has a long history – but he builds up the Nordic character of the Space Wolves in ways that make perfect sense given that history. And by taking the reader deeper into the lives of the Space Wolf warriors, Wraight gives Stormcaller an added edge of character, making it a must-have book for Warhammer fans looking for a more involving read. Damien Walter  hris Wraight would like to own a C tortoise. What’s stopping you, Chris? Find a reputable dealer and shell out.

Bowler Hats And Kinky Boots Assembling The Avengers

Release Date: OUT NOW!

810 pages | £24.99 (paperback)/£4.99 (ebook) Author: Michael Richardson Publisher: Telos

This vast guide to The

Avengers attempts to draw together pretty much every scrap of knowledge about the show – and not just the 1960s show, but also The New Avengers, the South African radio series, the ’70s stage play and the rubbish 1998 movie that killed the franchise stone dead. It’s a really well laid-out book: it takes each series episode by episode, but consigns all the nuts-and-bolts stuff like credit lists and broadcast dates to a separate section in the back, along with a Who’s Who of key cast and crew. This means the main text flows nicely, with bits in between the episode entries giving a broader overview where appropriate. Sensibly, author Michael Richardson hasn’t bothered with plot summaries – such things belong to a pre-DVD, pre-internet era of episode guides – and focuses instead on history and analysis. Background information for the early seasons is scanty, but from the Emma Peel episodes onwards the book comes into its own, documenting the development of scripts, how the show became increasingly stylised, and the influence of particular figures on it. Perhaps inevitably, the text is dry in places – the erratic scheduling of the show, though worth including, makes unexciting reading – but Bowler Hats And Kinky Boots works as both a dip-in episode guide and a hugely absorbing history. Eddie Robson

10

Impressively candid biography of the Buffy creator.

A weakling prince must reclaim his throne in Joe Abercrombie’s new YA fantasy series.

Lauren Beukes’s new novel is a supernatural-tinged police procedural set in Detroit.

Investment bankers become vampires in Charles Stross’s latest Laundry Files book.

Women are designed in labs and schooled to be subservient in this YA dystopia.

Edan Lepucki’s subtle, melancholy post-apocalyptic tale focuses on the struggles of a married couple.

The moon god is due for a comeback in Rebecca Levene’s tale of a travelling fair.

This twisty, atmospheric ghost story is set in 1740 Prussia.

The latest instalment in the Horus Heresy series.

ZODIAC STATION

Tom Harper’s thriller concerns an Arctic research station destroyed in mysterious circumstances.

THE RULES: New releases push down old releases. Books drop out of the chart after three months.

bullet time

a book in bullet points

THE CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO DVD COMPENDIUM Release Date: OUT NOW!

431 pages | £16.99 (paperback) Author: Paul Smith | Publisher: Wonderful Books Possibly the most anal Who book we’ve ever received. Which is saying something. The main body of it feels pretty inessential; about half of each entry simply describes the extras. Very useful appendices, though – one locates all the Easter Eggs. Others will be a godsend if you need to find, say, a particular clip from Blue Peter or Nationwide. Or desperately want to know who wrote the booklet for “The Krotons”.

In 1969 Diana Rigg made an 8mm short film called MiniKillers: it was unlicensed, but she essentially played Emma Peel.

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The Road Cormac McCarthy, 2006 Adam Christopher on the bleak book that gave us a bleak film

T

he post-apocalypse is a

popular setting for science fiction and fantasy, a classic “what if?” situation that was already established as a subgenre all of its own by the early 20th century, if not earlier. But for literary readers and those outside the science fiction ghetto, it was perhaps fresh, fertile new ground when The Road was published in 2006. And make no mistake, The Road is literature of the highest rank, winning author Cormac McCarthy one of its supreme accolades, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in 2007. McCarthy himself insists the book is not science fiction, preferring instead to call it an epic adventure story. But the fact remains that The Road is a powerful and moving account of an unnamed man and his young son as they journey south towards the sea in a world that has most certainly come to an end. Call it sci-fi, call it literary fiction, it doesn’t matter. The Road is an important book for readers across all genres. That’s not to say it doesn’t divide opinion. The Road is short, and written in a spare, stripped-back style: there are no names and no speech marks – a common feature of McCarthy’s style, which, although it takes some getting used to, adds to the haunting, distant nature of the story once the reader acclimatises (the lack of apostrophes is somewhat more puzzling, it must be said). The story is also deceptively simple, consisting as it does of the two main characters making their way down the road, taking shelter at night, occasionally scavenging items and food from abandoned houses and other structures they come across. The first parts of the book are repetitious to the point of distraction, but that only serves to underline the futility of the situation the man and the boy find themselves in.

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Either a masterwork worthy of study or a miserable, tiresome grind The world has been reduced to ashes by an unspecified catastrophe, leaving no vegetation or other animals, save the odd canine. Staying alive as they walk the road is a struggle in itself, with the weather getting steadily worse and their meagre supplies dwindling. The man is also sick, and he knows his time might be up soon; his fear for the future of his only child – a future in which he will not be present – hits the reader like a punch in the gut. And then there are the other survivors of the mysterious holocaust,

Like thIS? try these! Earth Abides by George R Stewart (1949) A bone fide classic of the genre; the themes and messages of this book feel big and bold even 55 years after publication.

most of whom have turned to cannibalism… To say The Road is an acquired taste is perhaps to do the book a disservice. This is an international bestseller, an Oprah Winfrey Book Club selection, a novel which Entertainment Weekly called the best book – fiction or non-fiction – of the past 25 years. The Road has reached millions of people the world over, thanks not just to the text itself but the excellent 2009 film adaptation. The bleak, unforgiving nature of the destroyed world almost requires this sort of visual representation to be fully comprehended, and in that director John Hillcoat excels. True enough, for readers more familiar with science fiction, The Road might all feel a little old hat, an example of the literary set discovering one of our favourite themes and championing it as something new and exciting and theirs. The minimal prose style is either beautifully lyrical or terribly banal, depending on the individual reader’s point of view. The Road is either a masterwork worthy of study or a miserable, tiresome and depressing grind. There are valid arguments on either side of the divide. But there is also an argument to be made for considering The Road part of the science fiction canon, perhaps because of those very reasons and divisions, and certainly despite the author’s arguments against such classification. Adam Christopher’s latest novel, The Burning Dark, is out now from Titan.

The Stand by Stephen King (1978/1990) Perhaps the definitive, textbook example of the modern postapocalyptic novel – and arguably Stephen King’s strongest work.

One of the most harrowing, moving books I have read. The author draws you into his world with some skill: you almost feel you are on the road alongside the father and his son. I like that McCarthy doesn’t elaborate on what actually caused the apocalypse. Donnie Darko A haunting, tense novel that powerfully shows us the bond between the man and the boy. @jwk14021 Would I recommend the novel? I’m torn between its faults and its virtues, so only to a voracious reader. McCarthy’s willful ignoring of punctuation is extremely annoying. The novel is also very brief, a fact the publishers go to some length to disguise (at least in my copy), by using large margins and fonts to increase the page count. The novel is, however, a good depiction of a bleak post-apocalyptic USA. Nevertheless, there are a lot of plot holes – what sort of apocalypse kills off all life except humans and dogs? ptahotep My take on the book was that it was one of Cormac’s most hopeful (for humanity) books. I’m not being sarcastic! Truly, it is a book of survival, not just day-to-day, physical survival but of the human race and the human spirit. Beautiful writing too – a long poem. Wing Fu Fing A bleak and yet beautiful book about the survival of love, warmth and humanity in desperate times. Never has a story of a father and son, and the sacrifice and tenderness it entails, touched me so much. Nigel Ellis

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In SFX 254, Jonathan Green steels himself for the magnetic charms of Ted Hughes’s The Iron Man.

NEXT ISSUE

The Many-Coloured Land, the 1980s fantasy classic by Julian May, is celebrated by author Sam Stone in SFX 253.

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And you thought the neighbour’s hedge was too tall.

A laugh-a-minute romp through space. graphic novel

Void

The Shining in the stars

Release Date: 2 September

£8.99 | Publisher: Titan Comics Writer: Herik Hanna Artist: Sean Phillips

Considering

Overview

Trees

Close Encounters Of The Arborial Kind Release Date: OUT NOW! $2.99 | Publisher: Image Comics Writer: Warren Ellis Artist: Jason Howard

The comeback

continues – and Warren Ellis’s return to comics is already delivering some fantastic results. His six-issue run on Marvel’s Moon Knight has been daring mainstream comic-book storytelling, but the distinctive worldview of the writer of Transmetropolitan and Planetary really kicks into gear with his latest series, the SF story Trees. A tale of first contact, Trees is set ten years after alien lifeforms have landed on Earth, lifeforms so impossibly alien that they barely seem to notice our existence. Massive, mile-high monoliths now known as the Trees, they arrived all across the planet… and did nothing. A decade later, the world has been changed by their presence in numerous ways. At a remote research centre in the frozen reaches

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of Norway, a science team near a Tree is tracking an unusual occurrence that may lead to a further understanding of this alien force, or something much stranger… Ellis is using an interesting approach with this series, with these first three issues telling the story via a collection of vignettes from different character perspectives. So far, along with the Norway-based research team, we’ve seen a young artist in China, a politician in New York, a journalist in Somalia, and the girlfriend of a young Sicilian fascist, all linked by the presence of the Trees and how they’ve transformed the planet. There’s a definite layer of Transmetropolitan in the world-building, but matched with a slow-burning attitude exploring the consequences of humanity encountering the truly alien. The storytelling here is deceptively well-crafted, with every panel packed full of telling detail that enhances the comic’s world. It’s a story more concerned with atmosphere than answers, and is all the more interesting for it, although

some readers may find this frustrating. Ellis has always had an offbeat attitude to narrative structure – his issue endings can sometimes feel so low-key that they verge on abrupt, and Trees has steered away from anything like an attention-grabbing cliffhanger. This means it’ll possibly read a little better in the eventual collection. This emphasis on atmosphere plus the characterisation give the comic a unique vibe, and it’s helped by the work of artist Jason Howard.

The storytelling is deceptively well-crafted Using vivid colours and mangaesque style, Howard brings Ellis’s strange future to life (especially in the sequences set in China), and portrays the Trees themselves with a sense of scale and majesty. This first run of Trees will be eight issues, but Ellis has more planned if the series is a success, and it’s obvious that he and Howard have barely scratched the surface of this fascinatingly weird world. Saxon Bullock  llis has written a comic about Emilio E Bacardí, son of the creator of the rum. Get it at http://www.bacardi.com/spiritofbacardi.

that he hasn’t previously tackled a space opera, it’s ironic that Sean Phillips’s first attempt is more concerned with the inner space of the mind than the vast interstellar depths in which it takes place. Primarily set on-board the stricken prison ship Goliath 01, Herik Hanna’s taut, fast-paced script owes as much to the psychological horror of Apocalypse Now and The Shining as it does to the pioneering spirit of sci-fi classics like Silent Running and 2001. Indeed, like a terrifying hybrid of Kurtz and Jack Torrance, main character Colonel John Mercer even wields an axe, to such devastating effect in some grisly early scenes that you almost expect him to shout out, “Here’s Johnny!” Initially concentrating on other cast members, Void appears to veer badly off-course after that as it delves into everything from cannibalism to a talking banana. With Mercer haunted by the spectre of his old girlfriend, Hanna does a fine job of drawing you into his deteriorating mindset, before the story concludes with some almost farcical ultra-violence. So it’s a shame that it has to resort to a “two months later” epilogue to explain what’s happened. Good thing, then, that Phillips’s impressive art perfectly captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Goliath’s ramshackle confines, while his dynamic layouts and vibrant linework evocatively depict Mercer’s descent into madness, making this a bad trip worth taking. Stephen Jewell  riginally published in French, Void is the O latest of Titan’s European reprints. Next: Moorcock adap Elric: The Ruby Throne.

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comics In association with www.selfmadehero.com

Graphic Novel

Seconds Food for thought Release Date: OUT NOW!

336 pages | £15.99 (hardback) | Publisher: SelfMadeHero Writer/artist: Bryan Lee O’Malley

It’s four years

since the final volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s superlative slacker epic Scott Pilgrim was published, but this long-awaited follow-up shares more in common with his intimate 2003 debut Lost At Sea. The sprawling, madcap anarchy of Pilgrim is largely absent, for example. Instead, this charming, philosophical tale of coming to terms with regret tackles existential angst, slice of life melodrama and spiritualism in a way fans of O’Malley’s earlier work will immediately recognise. Katie Clay is a talented chef struggling to get her own restaurant off the ground. One day a grisly accident in the kitchen leads to the appearance of stylish House

Spirit Lis, who begrudgingly shows Katie a mystical way to undo past mistakes – a power which comes with dangerous consequences when overused… Seconds is O’Malley’s most mature work, but his distinctive voice hasn’t lost any of its edge. Even at 336 pages it’s a brisk, witty, consistently entertaining read, and one that has plenty of fun with the fourth wall. Katie is a deeply flawed but likeable lead – rampantly self-obsessed but profoundly affected by her journey. Emotionally it’s a tale firmly rooted in the real world, but the transition

from everyday drama to cosmic catastrophe is deftly handled. O’Malley’s characterful, manga-inspired art is his best yet, and is infused with life by Nathan Fairbairn’s vivid colour work. It occasionally falls foul of its own rules (even poking fun at itself on one occasion) and lacks the sheer ballsy ambition of O’Malley’s back catalogue, but Seconds is a confident and touching tale from a creator at the top of his game. Jordan Farley  s part of his restaurant research, O’Malley A binge-watched eps of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. That’s commitment.

$3.99 | Publisher: Icon Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Artist: Michael Avon Oeming

Brian Michael

Bendis likes keeping himself busy. On top of scripting Marvel’s core X-Men titles, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man, he’s also keeping up a selection of creator-owned titles. His latest – a new collaboration with Michael Avon Oeming (artist on Bendis’s superhero saga Powers) – gives us an intriguing alternate history of America. www.sfx.co.uk

Rai

A Valiant effort

Release Date: OUT NOW!

$3.99 | Publisher: Valient Entertainment Writer: Matt Kindt Artist: Clayton Crain

instead opting for a bland Sopranoslite approach to the Mafia that’s only occasionally livened up by violent setpieces, and the two main characters lack charisma. Oeming’s work is as stylised and attention-grabbing as ever, but so far United States Of Murder Inc isn’t living up to Bendis’s high standards. Saxon Bullock

relaunched in 2012, Valiant’s burgeoning comic book line has embraced a refreshingly eclectic range of genres. Now they’ve chosen to venture into far-future dystopian territory. Set in its 4001 AD timeline, Rai takes place in a supposedly idyllic Japan where a murder hasn’t been committed for more than a thousand years – until now, that is. Dubbed “The Ghost of Japan”, the titular character is the enigmatic spirit of the nation, who unquestioningly follows the will of the apparently all-seeing – but three issues in, not yet seen – Father. Deftly playing up the mythic aspects of the character, Matt Kindt emphasises his legendary status, depicting him as literally the stuff of storybooks. A gruff, remote presence, Rai only really comes out of his shell when he forms an unlikely alliance with inquisitive teenager Lula Lee. Forced by unfolding events to question what he actually stands for, he also encounters the apparently fictitious secret agent Spylocke, who, like Rai himself, turns out to be all too real. Channelling everything from Blade Runner to Akira and The Matrix, Kindt’s engaging script follows some well-worn narrative paths, resulting in a few all-tooconvenient reveals. But if the premise is overly familiar, Clayton Crain’s kinetic but lavishly detailed painted art more than makes up for that. Plus, Rai can pull mystic swords from his body: what’s not to like? Stephen Jewell

 fter six monthly issues the series will A continue as a bi-monthly, alternating with a new run of Bendis and Oeming’s Powers.

 ai (pronounced like “rye”) first R appeared in October 1991, in a back-up strip for Valiant’s Magnus, Robot Fighter.

Chairs: not always popular.

The United States Of Murder Inc Release Date: OUT NOW!

Overview

Since it was

Overview

Alternate criminality

Is he skiing?

Set in a world where large areas of the USA are ruled by organised crime, it’s the story of Valentine Gallo, a newly “made man” given a delivery mission to Washington DC that pitches him straight into a turf war between the Mafia Families and an unknown adversary. Gallo then discovers that his mother is working for the FBI, and that he was born solely to infiltrate the Families and take them down from within… Bendis can write this kind of tough, noir-ish crime thriller in his sleep, and the first three issues of this ongoing series showcase his usual densely written dialogue, alongside a harsh approach to violence and swearing that’s very reminiscent of Powers. However, Bendis’s script doesn’t always know what to do with its killer set-up,

Nice lighting.

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AVAILABLE AT:

Box Of Delights

1

What we’ve been playing with this month

1 Hypnotoad Coin Bank Toynami | Height: 10cm | RRP £32.99 | FPI price £24.99 | Catalogue number: B4567 Though sadly it doesn’t have oscillating eyes or emit a weird industrial drone, this plastic moneybank of Futurama’s mesmerising amphibian is still pretty compelling. And if you don’t have any spare change in need of a home, the way the coin slot’s discreetly placed on the back of his bonce means you could just display him like a vinyl figure. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk 01621 877 222

2 Boba Fett Bottle Opener Diamond Select | Length: 9cm | RRP £16.99 | FPI price £14.99 | Catalogue number: B6028 This must be Diamond Select’s what, three millionth novelty bottle opener? The standard remains high, though. It replicates the infamous bounty hunter’s armour, complete with carefully placed dents. Cast in solid metal, with magnets on the back so you can slap it on the fridge, it seems sturdy enough to survive pretty much anything short of the digestive process of a Sarlacc.

4

2 3

3 Game Of Thrones Coasters

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Underground Toys | Width: 9cm | RRP £11.99 | FPI price £10.99 | Catalogue number: B9855 We find the problem with tie-in coasters is that they often get discoloured or tatty after a few months. That shouldn’t be an issue with this set featuring the sigils of the Lannister, Stark, Targaryen and Greyjoy houses though, as they have metal tops. They come packaged in a neat little storage tin featuring the Iron Throne and the series logo.

three of a kind

Arrow Mugs YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY

£5.99 | www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk Pyramid International is behind these ceramic Arrow mugs, featuring some rather natty art – and, in this case, the Green Arrow’s slightly cheesy TV catchphrase.

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EMERALD ARCHER

SHOOT FOR JUSTICE

£5.99 | www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk

£5.99 | www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk

“Emerald Archer” is a bit of a naff nickname for a tough guy vigilante, innit? No wonder he’s glowering like a mardy arse on this mug. Mind you, it’s not as bad as “The Battling Bowman”.

These three designs represent just half of Pyramid’s Arrow range. All six of them are dishwasher and microwave safe, and will hold precisely 315ml of your beverage of choice. Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

toys & collectables

4 Sonic Screwdriver Pizza Cutter

5

more goodies coming your way

Zeon | Length: 22cm | RRP £17.99 | FPI price £12.99 | Catalogue no: B8057 No doubt the Doctor’s multi-functional tool has a special setting for splitting pizza into equallysized slices with nanometre-perfect precision. We humans have to make do with kitchen utensils. This one makes the process a little less humdrum though; the moment you press blade into dough, it makes the sonic sound effect.

expect to pay

£30

5 Singing Ghostbusters Plush Underground Toys | Height: 21.5cm | RRP £17.99 | FPI price £14.99 | Catalogue number: B8505 Ectoplasmic entities have never been as soothingly strokeable as this plush of the iconic Ghostbusters logo – though the sizing of the spectre does make it look like he’s walked out of a car wreck with the steering wheel wrapped round him. Press his chest and he emits a blast of Ray Parker Jr’s earworm song.

“THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR” FIGURE ETA: October Inspired by Matt Smith’s festive farewell, this Forbidden Planet-exclusive figure has swappable heads, allowing you to choose between regular and aged versions of the Eleventh Doctor, or the newly-regenerated Twelfth. It comes with accessories too: a sonic screwdriver, a walking cane and battered old Cyber-pal Handles.

expect to pay

£20

SUPERMAN SHOWER CURTAIN ETA: October

7

Funko Product Of the Month

6 Rhaegal Pop! Vinyl Figure Funko | Height: 9.5cm | FPI price £14.99 | Catalogue no: B9324 We’ve featured Game Of Thrones vinyl figures before, but this is our favourite so far – particularly because the way Daenerys’s dragon is posed means he looks a little like a flasher who’s forgotten his dirty mac. Figures of Viserion and Drogon are also available; alternatively, if Direwolves are more your cup of tea, you can pick up Ghost or Grey Wind.

www.sfx.co.uk

Drawing on the same advanced technology that brought us head-througha-hole seaside snaps, this shower curtain allows you to pretend you are Clark Kent mid-costume change while lathering your unmentionables. As you do. Also look out for a TARDIS shower curtain.

7 Dalek Patrol Ship Character Options | Height: 21cm | FPI price £19.99 | Catalogue number: B8882 This “short range attack craft” (as seen in “The Day Of The Doctor”) has three detachable armour panels (which clip easily onto ball-joint mountings) and comes with a pilot Dalek figure (grooves should keep this in position – unless you play-fly it over-boisterously). The “battle dome” rotates 360 degrees, and comes with a spring-loaded energy bolt. Why you’d have an attack ship that isn’t totally enclosed in armour is a head-scratcher… but it looks cool, so who cares?

expect to pay

£40

B-9 ROBOT ETA: January The best thing about ’60s camp-fest Lost In Space was the B-9, brainchild of the same designer who created Forbidden Planet’s Robbie the robot. This 10” tall electronic version from Diamond Select features lights and sounds from the show, including his catchphrase cry of “Danger!”

October 2014

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tv reviews and opinion

edited by Jordan Farley

A few years ago we polled our online readers to find the top 15 “honorary” SFX shows – TV shows that aren’t strictly sci-fi or fantasy, but feel like the kind of thing we would cover if only the makers would chuck in a moon wizard or some time travel shenanigans. Dexter came top at the time, but I’ve been watching a few shows recently which have got me thinking about that poll all over again. First is Hannibal, Bryan Fuller’s series about Will Graham’s relationship with Hannibal Lecter during his organmunching heyday. The series has a surreal, almost supernatural feel. Will is able to recreate grisly crimes in his head with superhuman accuracy due to a unique cocktail of mental disorders, which also causes him to see a sinister black stag in his waking dreams. Second is Banshee – Alan Ball’s True Blood follow-up in which an ex‑con assumes the identity of a small town sheriff while on the run from a gangster. It’s a thrillingly plotted, wincingly violent police procedural with a dark fairytale sensibility. It also features enough sexytimes to make Game Of Thrones look prudish. Finally there’s Utopia, a twisted conspiracy thriller about a group of strangers who try to solve the mystery of a cult graphic novel. It’s populated by cartoonish, larger than life characters, the evil scheme at its heart is an SF trope and there are hints that one character might be the devil! All three are a hair’s breadth away from SFX territory, but sadly we have to draw the line somewhere. Regardless, I couldn’t recommend these almost-SFX shows enough. Jordan Farley

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broadcast UK: Starts Wednesday 17 September on Watch US: Sundays on FX

The Strain

bonus features

The thrills are a long tongue coming

S

ome names are just

asking for trouble. Take The Strain. (See what I mean? Even without trying it becomes a gag.) Internet pundits have been rubbing their hands in glee. “It’s a strain to sit through…” “You’ll strain to see why they bothered making it…” “Ex-strain‑ious character scenes…” (Honestly, we saw that one!). Making matters worse, it’s a show about a vampiric plague, inviting all manner of “lacks bite” and “not very infectious” gags. The “toothless” gags are the laziest, because the vampires in The Strain use their tongues, not canine incisors, to suck blood. The show, after all, was co-created by Guillermo del Toro, who showed in Blade 2 that the most fun way to update vampires is to make their mouths even more disturbing. Having foisted itself with such a large, slow-moving target of a title, the poor show has to struggle twice as hard to prove itself to cynical hacks. Much of the time it succeeds, with some inventive gore scenes and villains who need only stare at the camera to give you the willies. There are some great supporting

Development: When del Toro originally pitched the idea as a TV show back in 2006, Fox asked if he could make it a comedy. Overacting: The scene in the pilot where Ephraim informs a crowd of anxious relatives about what happened to their loved ones features some of best “I can out-gurn you” extras acting seen so far this millennium. Playlist: Juxtaposing a scene of gore with a sweetsounding pop song is nothing new but full marks to The Strain for using “Sweet Caroline” and giving a whole new spin to the lyrics: “Reachin’ out, touchin’ me, touchin’ you…” Best Line: Ephraim: “You don’t like terrorists? Try negotiating with a virus.”

performances too (most, sadly, from characters with obvious built-in expiration dates), and the basic premise is intriguing enough to keep you interested even when the episodes do go off the boil. Which is worryingly often. The show is regularly scuppered by dullest kind of by-the-numbers, characterbuilding fluff that would have been rejected as too hokey for Highway To Heaven. The show began life as failed TV pitch years ago, before being reinvented as a successful series of novels co-written by del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It then became a decent comic book series before coming full circle and being commissioned for a series by FX. The show, like the comic, is so far following the books very closely. A plane lands at JFK airport, but nobody disembarks. A Center For Disease Control (CDC) team led by workaholic Ephraim Goodweather (he’s

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view screen Steadfastedly avoiding making any Strain puns.

Sam Heughan

Outlander’s Jamie Fraser on bringing a literary icon to life An adaptation of Outlander has been a long time coming. What was it that attracted you to the project? Honestly, it just felt so right at the right time. I had spent a lot of time in America and been up for pilot season and then this came through. They sent us a breakdown and I saw Ron [Moore] was helming it. I was a big fan of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. It just felt very right. I understood the character and knew where he was coming from.

www.sfx.co.uk

Did the pressure of a huge, pre-existing fanbase freak you out? We’re very aware there is a huge fanbase and we don’t want to disappoint anyone. We obviously try to stay close to the books but there are moments we expand and add stuff that adds more intrigue and interest to the story. What moments from the book were you anticipating most? The big moments are the wedding, the first time [Claire and Jamie] meet, or the first time they get to Lallybroch. I am looking forward to the end [of the season], to all the stuff with Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies). It will be hard to film but really interesting. It will show more of Jamie’s character, and how he deals with dark situations, or how he doesn’t.

MJ Kim/Getty Images (1)

ignoring his son the goddamned conflicted bastard!) investigate and discover bloodsucking worms have infected the passengers and crew who then transform into crazed bloodsuckers. Meanwhile shady men in suits plot to resurrect the big bad vampire master so that suck-ageddon can commence, while Ephraim battles for joint custody of his wise-beyond-his-years son. The pilot, despite being written and directed by del Toro and opening with a great, spooky set-up, suffers from a drearily slow opening half with too many character scenes. All the divorce and custody material is admittedly lifted straight from the books, but it seems so much less intrusive and more organic in novel form. Here it just feels like huge neon signs flashing “CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!” David Bradley fares better as Professor Abraham Setrakian, an aged holocaust survivor with a pet blob and a way with a cane sword. The vampire elite shenanigans pique your interest too, but the show only really kicks into gear when the gore takes precedence, and very impressively over-the-top gore it is too. But then the second episode succumbs to pointless backstoryitis again (oh dear lord, Ephraim’s an alcoholic too) and compounds the problem with interminable characters-telling-other-charactersthings-they-already-know exposition scenes. There’s a lot of promise here, and if you know the books then you’ll know that there’s a good chance that it will eventually deliver. But it needs to stop paying such half-hearted lip service to the accepted rules of TV drama and cut loose more often. Because that’s when it’s most fun. Dave Golder

What do you admire about Jamie? I like his directness and grounded, rooted personality. It sort of comes from some of the things that happen in the country and a farming background. Duty has to be done.

Menzies gives your character a very realistic looking whipping… Actually, Tobias got carried away that day and there were two takes that he managed to hit me on every one and it was quite amusing. I said, “That’s pretty good, actually. That really hurt.” I didn’t have to do any acting… I owe him back for it! Tara Bennett

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view screen Keeping his eyes closed continued to seem like a really good idea.

broadcast UK & US: Available in full on Netflix

Hemlock Grove

Isn’t It About Time You Gave Hemlock Grove Another Chance?

Sceptic: Oh great, Hemlock Grove’s back. Are you going to tell me how it’s like Twin Peaks and has the best werewolf transformations ever? Fang Girl: It’s no Twin Peaks, but it has got the best transformations ever. And they’re even gorier this year! Sceptic: You clearly haven’t seen An American Werewolf In London. Anyway, weren’t the transformations the only good thing about season one? Fang Girl: That’s definitely not the case with season two. There are ten episodes instead of 13 this year, so there aren’t any pacing issues and new showrunner Charles Eglee has given it a solid structure the first was sorely lacking. Sceptic: So it’s well-organised rubbish? Fang Girl: Far from it. The new season arc

You Have Been Watching…

this crazy world with predictably deranged consequences. And she makes Behind The Scenes: Charles Eglee co-created all your Peter/Roman Dark Angel with James threesome dreams come true. Cameron and worked on Sceptic: Er, they’re your The Shield, Dexter and The Walking Dead. dreams. You’re sugar coating Keeping It In The Family: this, give me the dirt. You may recognise Madeline Fang Girl: It’s not perfect, Brewer (Miranda Cates) from I’ll admit. The cast is too big the first season of another of Netflix’s hit shows, Orange Is so half of them have nothing The New Black. to do, for every memorable Eye Spy: Pay close moment there’s one that attention to the dreams – they’re designed to be exists purely for pure shock freeze-framed and offer value and the final episode plenty of clues about features the worst CG what’s coming up. creature since The Rock in Best Line: Olivia: “Out of my way you twitchy little The Mummy Returns. Plus it maggot or I’ll have you won’t make a lick of sense if cremated immediately.” you haven’t seen season one. Sceptic: Urgh, does that mean I have to watch it? Fang Girl: Well, there’s a five-minute recap at the start of season two which should get you up to speed. Sceptic: Sold! Jordan Farley

bonus features

is great – kids are being killed by a creepy mask-wearing cult, which monster BFFs Peter and Roman must stop using their dream premonitions. Sceptic: Sounds like something you’d find on the bargain shelf of a video shop. Fang Girl: There’s even more interesting stuff going on in the White Tower. Freaky Frankenstein wannabe Dr Pryce has created a new body for the hideously disfigured Shelley, is curing Roman of his Upirism and has forgotten all about his annoying Dictaphone habit. Plus mad matriarch Olivia is giving it a go as a loving mother. Needless to say it doesn’t last. Sceptic: I’m listening… Fang Girl: There’s a brilliant new character too – Miranda Cates. She’s a normie dropped into

the 100

SFX’s Facebook, Twitter and forum users on E4’s post apocalyptic drama One of these days an ugly person will survive an apocalypse. Robert Elliott The sci-fi part seemed full of promise but obnoxious teens in the woods – no thanks. Joanne McKnight I thought this was a pile of cattle’s business at first but stuck with it and it’s grown on me. Warren Kearney www.sfx.co.uk

There are some watchable, strong characters and it turned very dark in episode four. Helen Williams I gave up after episode two. Sub Hunger Games tosh. There are no characters you care about. Mark Howe Written with economy and pleasingly dark! Kevin Mullin

With the adventure on the ground and political situation up on the station there is plenty to keep me interested. John Wilson Watching wallpaper dry is far more interesting. And has better special effects. The acting is so wooden you’d think the cast were made by Geppetto. Mark Gannon

Who are the grounders? What’s the mysterious yellow acid fog? How did so many Neighbours alumni end up in the cast? Helen Stevens Not bad. Decent cast and interesting premise. Robert William Graham It’s like two separate TV series glued together. One is Home And Away in the jungle, the other

a fairly gritty sci-fi drama on a space station. Ian Finesilver It’s better than The Tomorrow People. There’s that, at least. Gareth A Hopkins Lord Of The Flies meets Mad Max meets Amtrak Wars, with a side helping of militant space opera. Danielle Tewson

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tv reviews and opinion

broadcast UK: Thursdays on Amazon Prime US: Wednesdays on CBS

Extant Baby on board

I

n recent years Steven

Spielberg has carved a naff niche as the producer of ambitious but underwhelming sci-fi shows. Falling Skies, Terra Nova, The River, Under The Dome and now Extant all boast the Spielberg seal of approval. Like its predecessors Extant starts well enough, but quickly settles into a middling groove.

There’s a spider crawling in my hair, isn’t there?

It’s easy to see why Spielberg would be attracted to Mickey Fisher’s near-future thriller. Extant’s Big Themes – the arrival of aliens and the origins of artificial intelligence on Earth – find the AI and Close Encounters director back on familiar ground. There’s also a pinch of Rosemary’s Baby in the form of Halle Berry’s astronaut Molly Woods, who returns from a 13-month solo mission in space inexplicably 14 weeks pregnant. It’s an attention-grabbing premise, which explains CBS’s straight to series commitment. No expense has been spared on Extant. It boasts a big name star, glossy production design and ubiquitous CG future tech that screams, “We’ve got a budget!” every five seconds. It all looks a bit too clean though, and

broadcast UK: Returns to Channel 5 late August US: Mondays on CBS

Under The Dome No escape from the small town tedium

W

ere Under The Dome’s

producers convinced it was going to get axed? The first few episodes of season two give the distinct impression of a bunch of writers in a meeting going, “F**K!!! We’ve got to do that all again?!” The season one finale may have been a confused mess, but at least it suggested the arc plot might be taking a major step forward with season two. Sadly not. Aside from a few cast changes, the formula rapidly reasserts itself, and we’re no nearer to learning what the Dome is all about. Further away, possibly, as a mystery associated with one of these new characters (she died years ago!) and a (not very surprising) revelation about Junior’s mum just complicate matters.

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The season premiere at least has some exciting moments, as the Dome becomes magnetic, resulting in some great moments of flying kitchen knives horror and houses collapsing. After that, it’s back to a standard “threat of the week” – burning rain, plague of butterflies, a science teacher with a God

Everyone back away slowly from the scary trash can.

far from the convincingly lived-in worlds of Battlestar Galactica or Game Of Thrones. Nothing and no one feels real. Molly has returned from a year in space but her husband acts like she’s just been down the shops. Despite Fisher’s promise to resolve the ins and outs of Molly’s mystery pregnancy by the end of the first season, Extant already has the whiff of a show destined to fall foul of its convoluted mythology. As the transforming title at bonus features the start of each episode World Of Spielberg: helpfully reminds us, it’s a As well as AI and Close series with two simultaneous Encounters, there’s more than a hint of Minority extinction-level threats – an Report’s touchscreen tech alien invasion and the robot to Extant’s world. uprising. There’s a lot of Broadcast: Extant airs just 24 hours after its US ground to cover, but three debut on Amazon Prime episodes in it still seems in the UK – more of more concerned with soapy this please. family drama. Viral Marketing: Build your own creepy robot kid Berry is fine as Molly, but at www.humanichs.com. doesn’t light up the screen in Warning: the results may the way you might expect haunt your dreams. Science Of The Show: from a former Oscar winner. How come android Ethan Goran Visnjic gets his shirt off can eat? According to but otherwise makes little Fisher his “food [is] broken impression as a supermodel down to help keep his synthetic skin moist and scientist and Looper’s Pierce healthy, waste is expelled Gagnon occupies the exact in pellets.” Gross. same creepy robot kid role Best Line: Molly: “You know the hardest thing as Haley Joel Osment in AI. about being in space? Beyond bashing a few tried Coffee’s awful.” and tested tales together in a way that feels a little different on TV, Extant offers nothing new. The pilot’s decent but by episode three it’s already becoming tiresome. Approach with caution. Jordan Farley

complex. Once again, any bonus features attempts at a Lord Of The Did You Spot? Stephen Flies-style examination of King makes a cameo in the human nature is doomed to diner in the season two fail miserably because none premiere, which he wrote. of these characters act at Sudden Exit: Seems that Angie’s abrupt departure all like any human you’ve from the show wasn’t the ever met. They swap actress’s decision. Britt allegiances like D&D Robertson told TV Guide, “I thought she would be players, make amazing a part in taking the Dome leaps of logic that suggest down. But I think she was telepathy at work, and miss maybe a little too strongthe bleeding obvious with willed and hot-headed. That got her into trouble.” alarming regularity. She went on to say she’d The power of the central be happy to return. mystery, a few half-decent But Is It Art? Really, Junior’s mum’s art is bloody awful… performances and a couple Best Line: Big Jim (to of visually arresting images a ghost): “Shut up and per episode keep the be dead.” show watchable, but it’s increasingly becoming a chore. A chore made even more onerous every time Karla (Misfits) Crome appears as Chester’s Mill’s answer to Josef Mengele – surely the most unbelievable character currently on television? Quite an achievement on a show that also boasts Rachelle Lefevre’s hair. There’s clearly a lot of conditioner under this Dome. Dave Golder Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscribe

view screen

spurious awards Celebrating the silliest moments from the month in TV Redshirt Of The Month

Bacon has, ahem, dead meat written all over him on The Last Ship.

Gag Of The Month

Mime Of The Month

In Teen Wolf a cop tells this fellow with no mouth, “You have the right to remain silent!” Arf arf.

Melanie may be trapped Under The Dome, but that doesn’t mean she can’t make some scratch as a street performer.

High Cuisine Of The Month

The Tarrs sit down to gopher guts fondue and a hedgehog platter for dinner on Defiance.

Here’s Johnny Of The Month

Cosplay Of The Month

Datak does his best Jack Nicholson impression on Defiance.

Tom proves he’s the world’s biggest Invisible Man fan on Falling Skies.

Voldemort Of The Month

How long before Harry shows up in The Strain?

Hoarder Of The Month

How long before Under The Dome’s Julia is on some trashy reality show?

Prank Of The Month

The old “flaming dog poop on the doorstep” trick. Don’t they have more important things to deal with on The Leftovers?

Unwelcome Injection Of The Month

Dress Of The Month

Arlene in True Blood tries to deter vampires by wearing a dress made of three-day old lettuce leaves. Nice.

If Rachel keeps injecting their monkeys in the crotch there’ll be a simian uprising on The Last Ship.

CheetAra Of The Month

Werejaguar or Thundercat? You decide on Teen Wolf.

Dodgy Accent Of The Month

Did anyone understand a word of what Billie Piper was saying in Penny Dreadful?

Entrance Of The Month

Former Captain Jack, John Barrowman, appeared at the Commonwealth Games by emerging from the crotch of giant kilt like a tartan willy. Amazing.

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October 2014

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personal recollections of timeless sf

Monsters Of The Movies

Take a look at that cover, thrillseekers. Frankenstein. Dracula. King Kong. The Invisible Man. The nameless yet unmistakable silhouette of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And there, dead centre, staring out with eyes the colour of blood, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, captured cop shop mugshot style. It’s like a hoarding for the ultimate carnival freakshow. Published in 1977, Carousel’s Monsters Of The Movies was a paperback bestiary, treasured by a generation of neophyte horror nuts. It was a gift for any kid with an itch for film history and a place in their heart for the creatures of the night, the ones that came out to play in the late, spectral hours of BBC Two. Some entries were compellingly obscure: Count Yorga? Manster? The Electric Man? Who were these fiends? Not that the book delivers any backstage lore

look like pages of a punk fanzine. They look like beyond titles and dates. Denis Gifford retells the photocopies of nightmares. plots of these films in the style of a storybook, It ends with The Zombie from Hammer’s The breathless but authoritative: “But to make quite Plague Of The Zombies. It’s the only picture that certain he cut off her head.” Entries begin with genuinely scared me. I’m still haunted by those snatches of scripture, old proverbs, ancient curses; pin-prick pupils, putrescent leer and cemetery verisimilitude bolted onto bullshit. Some of it reads gaze. There’s no comforting goodbye from Gifford, like cracked beat poetry: “They creep in the dark, no reassuring ads for The Carousel Book Of Pony the unholy two, one an ape, the other an ape and not Trekking or Discovering Rockpools. Just the words an ape, a man and not a man.” Hello there, The Ape “Then they turned on their master…” and, overleaf, Man (1942). two blank pages, as empty as the grave. In truth it’s all about the pictures. The cover may Quick. Close the book. Or the monsters win. have a lurid, ghost train allure but the full-page monster portraits inside are stark O  ther reference books by Gifford Monsters Of The Movies cost 45p. monochrome. Well, include The British Comics Catalogue Denis Gifford (1927–2000) was one of theoretically – many 1874–1974, The Great British Picture Britain’s leading experts on popular Show and A Pictorial History Of of these images culture. He began as a cartoonist and Horror Movies. comic book writer/artist, creating some are grainy, faded, T  he Mummy is represented by Tom of the earliest British superheroes. streaked ghost-grey, Tyler from The Mummy’s Hand and not, The earliest film to feature in the book hinting at troubling as you might expect, Boris Karloff. is 1919’s The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari, ink shortages at It’s not all flesh-creeping horror icons the most recent 1971’s The – The Munsters provide light relief. Abominable Dr Phibes. the printers. They

fact attack!

Nick Setchfield, features editor

see you next month! wednesday 17 september details on page 27 130

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