Following the footsteps of the success of Showtime’s first season ofMastersof Horror (a series that had such a terrible second season, I’ll be surprised to see it return) now we have MastersofScienceFiction on ABC. The Mastersof Hor...
...ght Zone, MastersofScienceFiction is a collection of stories each with an appealing premise or twist. Where the show falters is in its execution.
The budgets are not very big. The special effects are mediocre at best. The wardrobe and hair ...
ABC has given the go ahead for the anthology series MASTERSOFSCIENCEFICTION.The show will present works of well-known authors such as Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov.IDT Entertainment Industry Entertainment will produce the series. The network has order...
In the publishing industry, summer is the time for the collection. It seems all manner of 'Best of' this or 'World's Greatest' that arrives on bookshelves. These are the months of the short story or novelette no reading the entire five books in the SWORD...
Last week we spoke with New York filmmaker Eric Solstein about the midlife crisis that inspired the origin of a documentary series about the art and history ofsciencefiction literature. This week we continue our discussion.Solstein's nascent project of ...
New York-based independent documentary filmmaker Eric Solstein's DMZ Productions is currently releasing a line of DVD docs that have the goal of highlighting the literary contributions of classic SF writers. The first discs in the series are JOHN W CAMPBE...
After battling the Masters and leaving them trapped, Skeletor has moved on to Castle Greyskull, where Tri-Clops has created a dimensional portal that will allow him to breach the Sorceress' mystical defenses. The Masters don't stay trapped long, of course...
The 23rd Annual Ohio ScienceFiction Film Festival kicks off another 24 hours of the best in new and classic sci-fi movies on Saturday, Aprill 22 at 12:00 noon at the Drexel Gateway Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. This year's Marathon will include the Midwest ...
Writing a history ofsciencefiction, horror and fantasy film winners at the Academy Awards is much simpler than it should be. Quite simply, there just aren’t that many winners. Comedic actors like Bob Hope used to complain about being overlooked in favor...
Writing a history ofsciencefiction, horror and fantasy film winners at the Academy Awards is much simpler than it should be. Quite simply, there just aren’t that many winners. Comedic actors like Bob Hope used to complain about being overlooked in favor...
Though largely neglected in the past, the link between sciencefiction and technological development is an important one; one that spurs scientific discovery and connects the world of grounded truth with the realm of infinite possibility. The pulp magazin...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONNeil Norman, the maestro of rock and roll interpretations ofsciencefiction film music, is back in the Control Voice Cockpit with a new recording, Sci-Fi in Hi-Fi (Audio Fidelity AFZ 012). The CD is a dual layered hybrid disc, m...
Mordred maneuvers for power in Douglas Clegg’s darkly reimagined Arthurian saga, Stephen Baxter unleashes his new time-shifting alternate history thriller with Emperor, and Pamela Sargent’s beloved Ship is back to sow the seeds of humanity&...
Well, the millennium ended not with a bang but a whimper—at least in theatres, that is. The year 2000 gave us numerous enjoyable, even sometimes admirable films (including Gladiator and Erin Brokovich), but in the genres ofscience-fiction, horror, and fa...
When I first encountered Neil Norman’s GREATEST SCIENCEFICTION HITS back in 1978, I was one of those grumpy purists taken aback by his electric guitars intruding upon the pristine orchestral tonalities of STAR WARS and other icons ofsciencefiction film...
In Part One of my review of the American Cinemateque’s Japanese ScienceFiction and Monster Film Weekend at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, I focused on the opening night screening of a newly struck, subtitled print of Gojira, the seminal 1954 film (re...
The 1990`s were a curious time for imaginative fiction. In the ‘90s horror came back from the dead; fantasy produced a few diamonds amidst the general muck; and sciencefiction very nearly disappeared under the weight of media tie-in novels. To get a ...
An addendum to our list of Greatest ScienceFiction, Horror and Fantasy Films: Among the finalists were several titles that failed to receive high votes across the board despite being highly regarded by almost all the voters. The reason was not any doubt ...
There are a few major areas of exploration in the realm of sci-fi cinema: space, technology, biology and the environment (climate, geology, et al). Many times these themes intersect. Many times they don't. Certainly, there are derivations of each, and cer...
Smaller die-cast figures are being marketed for a number of different sci-fi series these days: Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica to name the most prominent. Hasbro joined the scene with their latest Transformers figures, but are overlooking ...
It’s been fifteen years since a new Toho Godzilla film (Godzilla 1985) was released in U.S. theatres, and with the demise of the revival house (thanks to the advent of home video) opportunities to see older G-Films on the big screen are few and far betwee...
This Wednesday sees the debut of a new sciencefiction film from one of Hollywood's wunderkind directors, Steven Soderbergh. Or so it would seem. SOLARIS, a remake of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's little seen but critically acclaimed genre classic,...
On Saturday, July 15, after screenings of Son of Godzilla and Godzilla Vs. Destroyah, the second day of the American Cinemateque’s Japanese Science-Fiction and Monster Film Weekend wound up with the U.S. premier of Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey (2000, ...
Sara Douglass’ The Wayfarer Redemption series chugs ahead with another volume, Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files gets another action-packed installment, and sciencefiction anthologies run amok in this week’s Book Buzz.
Happy Tue...
Dean Devlin's Electric Entertainment has snapped up the rights to a secret sciencefiction script, known only as NOAH. According to VARIETY, the project "centers on a young scientist's battle for survival." As Devlin described it screenwriters Jan Skrentn...
A screw-you-Pat amount of books came out this week with a little something for everyone: several anthologies for the SF reader, new fantasy / horror stand-alone novels and series installments, and even a widely neglected, early novel from George R.R. ...
X-Fans got a treat at the Los Angles comic Book and ScienceFiction Convention on Sunday May 21, when Tyler Mane (who plays Sabertooth in the highly anticipated film) showed up on stage to answer questions from the audience. Fliers for the event had impli...
As the whole world knows, Walt Disney was an obsessive science-fiction fan. A friend of genre giants from Wells to Hubbard, Walt`s love of space-opera and speculative fiction pervaded all he did. From Walt`s classic Astro-Mouse cartoons in the 1920s, via ...
Galaxy Pictures Inc. has announced the acquisition of 50 vintage science-fiction and horror films from Passport International Productions, ranging from classic black-and-white motion pictures like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Things to Come to such ful...
In a side-bar to their interview with Steven Spielberg (more on that later this week), WIRED magazine, the cutting edge computer and technology magazine, picked its 20 greatest sciencefiction flicks of all time.Their criteria, along with the fanboy basic...
...acclaimed mastersofsciencefiction and fantasy.
Jeff Hawke: The Ambassadors, Willie Patterson (Titan Books)
Thought of as one of the most influential and intelligent comic strips ever published, Jeff Hawke is a high point in...
September 17, 2001
Houston, TX
ADV Films has set a street date of November 27th, 2001 for the upcoming home video release of Arc the Lad: "Day of Reckoning". ADV Films plans concurrent day & date release of both VHS and DVD formats for this final spellb...
...sh Olson (MastersofScienceFiction), and writer/director Robert Hall (Laid to Rest) discuss their latest Anchor Bay projects! Moderated by Shock Til You Drop’s Ryan Rotten. Ballroom 20 3:00-4:00 DVD/Blu-ray Producers 2008—Bill Hunt, Todd...
...acclaimed mastersofsciencefiction and fantasy.
Wreck of the Godspeed & Other Stories, James Patrick Kelley (Golden Gryphon Press)
Providing new insights into the human psyche, this remarkable collection gathers 13 ...
So you`ve read all of James M. Cain`s hard-boiled novels. But have you heard of Paul Cain, the `hardest of the hardboiled`? Of course you`ve read William S. Burroughs, but what about Clarence Cooper Jr., `the black William Burroughs`? If you think you`ve ...
One of the topics often discussed at this year's World Con was the fact that so few new, younger readers are becoming interested in sciencefiction. "Look around the convention," said David Brin at one point. "You don't see that many younger faces; and ye...
Columbia Pictures has bought the rights to remake a 2002 Dutch family film called SCIENCEFICTION, about a young boy who tells the kids in his new neighborhood that his parents are really space aliens. X-MEN producer Lauren Shuler Donner will develop the ...
ADV Films has set a street date of December 11, 2001 for the DVD release of the 5th flight of the best-selling Robotech series containing the dramatic conclusion of the Robotech Masters saga. ADV Films plans a concurrent release for Robotech v9: Robotech...
Michael Hanlon has been the science editor for The Daily Mail (London) for more than four years. The fact that Hanlon is a Brit probably gives him a sharper insight into the work of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Hanlon's bo...
During the 1966-69 run of STAR TREK, writer-producer Gene Roddenberry had explored important issues under the guise ofsciencefiction; Roddenberry was forced to couch his statements in allegorical tales taking place in deep space and involving alien bein...
Dark matter is defined as `a non-luminous form of matter which has not been directly observed but whose existence has been deduced by its gravitational effects.` Dark matter is thought to make up a huge amount of the matter in the universe, but because we...
On Thursday, June 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, National Geographic Channel's (NGC) "The Scienceof Superman" puts the superpowers to the test, revealing what's plausible based on the earth-bound laws of physics, biology and astronomy, and what's pure science ficti...
What They SayFifteen years of peace are shattered when a new invasion force, the Robotech Masters, wage war against the Earth\'s struggling survivors. The victor\'s prize is control of the mysterious Protoculture Matrix - the secret powerhouse of Robotech...
Back in the olden days an author’s book was the sole connection to his readership. Regardless of the story particulars a writer’s characters, places and themes are their own private dialogue to a very public world. But outside of actually read...
Actor Cliff Robertson stood in front of the cameras, clad in an astronaut’s bulky white spacesuit. Black velvet drapes surrounded him. With diffused spotlights illuminating him, director James Head watching from behind the camera, and a production crew st...
Ever since its conception in 1978, Battlestar Galactica has been offering viewers a layered SF universe, one that manages to stay grounded with the world around us and in sync with contemporary American society. Like any good sci-fi series BSG explores th...
Hiroyuki Morioka Panel & Interview In March of 2002, I watched Crest of the Stars for the
first time and immediately regretted not picking it up when it first came out.
When Otakon announced they were having Hiroyuki Morioka as a guest, I was quite
...
INNOVATIVE LIBRARY OFFICTION NOVELS BASED ON POPULAR ANIME AND MANGA PROPERTIES
San Francisco, CA, JUNE 3, 2005 – VIZ Media, LLC. (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive manga and animation licensing and ...
After several slow weeks in genre literature the release schedule is finally picking back up, offering loads of fresh sci-fi, fantasy, and horror amidst the news of recent award noms and finalists.
An unfortunate truth of life is that there are a lot of ...
In celebration of Halloween week the Book Buzz is leading off with the week’s new releases and horror and inviting you to share with Mania’s readers the scariest book you ever read! Just use the comments below to tell us the book ...
What They SayRobotech 9: Robotech Masters: Counter Attack
The Robotech Defense Forces plan an all-out counter attack against the Robotech Masters. The hope is to catch the invaders off guard and achieve victory before the Earth is destroyed. The RDF find...
Apart from new soundtrack releases, archival restorations have played an important part in perpetuating a lot of film music (especially in the fantasy, sciencefiction, and horror genres) that would otherwise have been lost to the ages. These are my picks...
The theme is a familiar one. The mighty, stalwart chords of brass, the trilling woodwinds, the driving rhythm of the violins, the strident siren of electric guitar… Wait a minute? Electric guitar? What’s that doing in the middle of the STAR WARS theme?...
After a lengthy hiccup in their publishing schedule, Tor Books finally got back on track this Tuesday with a slew of new novels from such powerhouse genre authors as Harry Turtledove, David Coe, and L.E. Modesitt, Jr. to round out a Weekly Book Buzz th...
Highlighting this week’s new releases is Two to the Fifth the latest Xanth novel from Piers Anthony, the thirty-second book in the long-running fantasy series. You can read an excerpt by visiting here: Two to the Fifth Excerpt.
...
By the time early November 1977 came along, production of `In Thy Image` was scheduled to begin in just a matter of weeks. It seemed that nothing was going to interfere with STAR TREK`s return. On November 10th, Gene Roddenberry shot a memo off to Bob Col...
Awww yeea it’s Tuesday everyone and Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Unfortunately we don’t have an extensive list of new releases hitting the shelves this week but there are still a couple of choice morsels coming out on hardcover ...
What They SayThe Robotech Defense Forces plan an all-out counter attack against the Robotech Masters. The hope is to catch the invaders off guard and achieve victory before the Earth is destroyed. The RDF finds an ally in Zor, a captured enemy pilot who t...
Industry Leader in Manga Publishing To Have Notable Presence In Booth 3833
New York, NY June 1, 2007 " VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, brin...
With the holidays fast approaching the pressure’s on to get those gifts. If you’re like me chances are you’ve procrastinated your way yet again into another last-ditch holiday shopping debacle. But before you brave the hectic traffic and...
The venerable Mystery Science Theater: 3000 celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, and to commemorate the event, Rhino Productions has released a boxed set of four select episodes, heretofore unavailable on DVD. As part of the promotion...
The way that John Travolta is selling it, one gets the impression that BATTLEFIELD EARTH is the greatest sciencefiction adventure to come down the cinematic pike since the original STAR WARS. At the same time, there is a nagging suspicion—fueled in no sm...
It’s the last Weekly Book Buzz of the year, and even though this release schedule is for the first batch of SF, Fantasy, and Horror books coming out in 2008 I wanted to take a quick, clichéd look at the requisite lists of 2007 superlatives.
...
In 2001 the Dabel Brothers founded a publishing company in search of a niche. Under the name “Roaring Studios” Ernst, Les, Pascal and David Dabel took their love of comics and fantasy to a new height, capitalizing on the vacancy of book-to-com...
For the first time in my year and a half of running this column we’ve got a release schedule absolutely barren of any new hardcover debuts. But what this week’s offering lacks in hardback entertainment it more than makes up for in…well,...
The James Tiptree, Jr., Memorial Award (named for the nom de plume of the late sciencefiction author Dr. Alice Sheldon) is given each year for an outstanding work of role-expanding speculative fiction. On the last weekend of July 2000, during the awards ...
Michael Crichton died on Tuesday. It's a tragic loss, as any human loss is. But for some reason--and despite all of the obituaries to the contrary--it seems strange to refer to Crichton as a great ... as in "a great one," "an icon.&...
A Weekly Book Buzz on a Monday? No you’re not going crazy, I am. From now on the Buzz will bring you up-to-date news on all your highly anticipated literary fare a day before the new genre releases hit the shelves.
Happy belated Father&rsqu...
Brian Herbert, son of legendary DUNE author Frank Herbert, had been contacted many times over the years by sciencefiction authors asking permission to write the concluding volume in the DUNE series."My father had a final book of DUNE planned in his head,...
Well one might say that this is a very light week for new releases. I’d say pathetic might be a better choice of words. Honestly it really is a very slow week. With few new releases in Sci-Fi, horror and fantasy, I’ve included m...
What They SayFull of exciting adventure and great passion, this animated Japanese favorite tells the legendary tale of the mythological hero Hermes. The creator of the world orders Hermes to defeat the evil King Minos, tyrant of Crete. With his beautiful ...
With Thanksgiving already a few days cold, the holiday season (along with all of its consumer-driven trappings) has officially arrived and though economists predict lean shopping numbers for the end of this year, you wouldn’t know it by the sheer vo...
No matter what holiday you celebrate there’s always one constant during the winter season: terrible gifts. Because of a schedule / travel conflict with the fam I happened to celebrate Christmas early this year. Did I get Subterranean Press’ li...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Tyler Bates’ music for 300, Zach Snyder’s spectacular adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the epic Battle of Thermopylae that pitted 300 Greeks against the massive Persian Army in...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS Decca Records has releases Hans Zimmer's first true horror score, that for Gore Verbinski's remake of the 1998 Japanese ghost story, RINGU. Paired on this recording with Zimmer's score for the American sequel, THE RING TWO, (bo...
The New Year is officially here, and with it a new crop ofsciencefiction, fantasy, and horror literature is beginning to spring up from the fertile minds of genre authors everywhere. But though 2008 is the year of the new, some authors from the past, ...
The Academy ofScienceFiction, Fantasy & Horror films has announced the winners for the 32 Annual Saturn Awards.Batman Begins, King Kong, and Battlestar Galactica all received three Saturn Awards with Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, Sin City...
What They SayIncludes M.D. Geist I & II Collector’s Series, Cybernetics Guardian, Genocyber: The Collection, M.D. Geist and Genocyber I Soundtracks and bonus disc in an ultra cool collector\'s box.
From cyberpunk visionary Koichi Ohata! In the fut...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ADV FILMS ANNOUNCES RELEASE DATE FOR MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO: THE MOTION PICTURE-PRINCE OF DARKNESS
FEATURE-LENGTH FILM SEQUEL TO WILDLY POPULAR TV SERIES MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO
HOUSTON, September 9, 2003-ADV Films has s...
Ever since its explosion onto the global screen in 1995, the Ghost in the Shell series has provided viewers with a profoundly philosophical, yet innovatively stylized look into a near future world where the lines between man and machine finally blur. Thro...
Harry Turtledove smacks the shelves again with another alternate history thriller, S.M. Stirling propels his Dies the Fire sequence, and Douglas Clegg returns from last week's paperback debut of Priest of Blood with a continuation of the Vampyricon series...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONSFrom Belgium comes the first ever release of any of the music from John Barry’s melancholy and exciting action/adventure score for J. Lee Thompson’s mad buffalo western saga, THE WHITE BUFFALO (Prometheus PCR 518). Immediately f...
The Review!A very ambitious anime with a great look, a cool soundtrack, and very appealing packaging, but does it live up to its own ambitions?
Audio:
While not having a tremendous amount of activity in the rear speakers, the Avenger Complete Collection...
With the 4th of July looming on the summer horizon, Transformers fans won’t have to wait the next seven weeks to find out what happens in Michael Bay’s film adaptation of the franchise giant. Random House Publishing Group and novelization guru...
In the 1950s, film music was a far different game than it is now. The studio system was still in effect and film composers were, for the most part, contracted to one studio or another. Universal Studios was one of Hollywood's most productive movie facto...
What They SayAs the Robotech Defense Forces struggle to keep the Robotech Masters from establishing a foothold on Earth, the true nature of Protoculture and the consequences for those who control its secrets are slowly revealed.
Combat gives way to stra...
The bad thing about months with five release weeks is that you always get a week or two where the pickings are very slim. Such is the case this week! Everything from fiction to non-fiction is rather light but it’s really just the calm befo...
Comic Con 2007 in San Diego has listed their full lineup. I'll be posting the movie and television sections of the COMIC CON event.. This will include lots of information for you to judge on what to see if you happen to go to it.
Another thing, if ...
In 1997 it suddenly dawned on Dartmouth graduate Bill Sheehan that there had never been a full-length examination of Peter Straub`s fiction, despite the fact that many tomes had already been written on writers such as Stephen King and Dean Koontz. A forme...
Penguin Group USA unveils a powerful new anthology on hardcover featuring fantasy’s most prestigious character archetypes: the almighty, all-ass-kicking wizard. Neil Gaiman, Kage Baker, Orson Scott Card, and many other established fantasy authors ro...
BLADE RUNNER (1982), the sciencefiction masterpiece directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, based on Philip K. Dick`s novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, was derided during its initial release for being lo...
What They SayFifteen years of peace are shattered when a new invasion force - the Robotech Masters - wage war against the Earth\'s struggling survivors. The victor\'s prize is control of the mysterious Protoculture Matrix - the secret powerhouse of Robote...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONSA perhaps forgotten short-lived TV series from 1977 has been mined as this month’s Silver Age Classic from FSM. A thoroughly satisfying compilation of all the original music written for the 14-episode TV series, LOGAN’S RUN (FSM...
Creative TalentWriter/Artist:Osamu TezukaTranslated by:Kumar SivasubramanianAdapted by:What They SayFrom the creator of Astro Boy comes Lost World, the first of Osamu Tezuka's cycle of groundbreaking science-fiction graphic novels - including Metropolis a...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATION The taut sciencefiction score for the 1996-97 TV series, DARK SKIES, has been released as a limited edition 10th anniversary soundtrack CD by Perseverance Records. The CD contains almost an hour's worth of Michael Hoenig's sco...
With Timur Bekmambetov’s latest Night Watch film adaptation smashing box office records in Russia (yet again) and the film still fresh in the states from its US debut this past June, author Sergei Lukyanenko has officially put Russia on the map for ...
Although American publishers have no problem churning out movie novelizations on time and en masse, some great genre literature is falling through the cracks, getting too little publicity or attention to garner the widespread praise it rightfully dese...
The Prize Closet is throbbing so let's get right to it! Geneon Entertainment has provided us with 5-packs of their recent releases to give away to five lucky readers. Send an email to psycho@psychotronic.info with your mailing address and "GENEON 5" in th...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS Those of us who first saw Mario Bava's classic 1960 shocker, BLACK SUNDAY in the US, probably heard it with a terrific score by Les Baxter. But this was not the film's original musical soundtrack that was a new score commissio...
Look alive, reader! The Prize Closet is open once again! We've got 5 shiny copies of FUTURAMA MONSTER ROBOT MANIAC FUN COLLECTION to give away, courtesy of the fine folks at Fox. We love the fine folks at Fox it's the rest of them we can't stand. Anyway,...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATION A new soundtrack record label named Nicabella had made its debut with John Frizzell's excellent score for STAY ALIVE, William Brent Ball's eerie thriller about a group of teens who stumble upon a new video game called Sta...
What They SayJapan 2034 AD. Crime and violence have reached record highs all around New Tokyo City. Every citizen in Tokyo is involved in some kind of crime every minute.
Because of the increase of slums and lower taxes, the police force has been severe...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONSNewly released from England’s Silva Screen (issued in England on October 18th, in the USA on November 9th) is an expanded two-CD set of music from 1972’s BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, the Americanized version of the Japanese animated s...
What They SayMysticism and technology unite in this great 2-part anime series featuring character designs by Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell).
The land of Zer\'lue is in turmoil, ravaged by the technological might of Chairman Sana\'ku and his evil m...
This is Mania’s last Soundtrax column, our soundtrack coverage and daily Music News ending with this week’s posts. I’d like to thank all of the interested readers for your comments and your readership – and for the opportunity...
Amazing, Too by Randall D. Larson (Thu 08-31-2006)
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATION The anthology series has come and gone in television, from GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATRE and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS in the 1950s, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THRILLER, and ONE STEP BEYOND in the 1960s, THE NIGHT GALLERY in the 1970s, to re...
DVD has truly changed the landscape of home video, and this week’s mixed bag is a fine example. Major studio releases hit the shelves alongside direct-to-video nonsense, and even the dregs of Asian martial arts trash cinema are preserved in digital format...
PRIZE CLOSET: We have 5 copies of X-FILES MYTHOLOGY Volume 4: Super Soldiers courtesy of Fox for lucky readers that send an email containing their name and address to psycho@psychotronic.info with "X-FILES SUPER" in the subject line. We also have a couple...
Torchwood Touches Down
The BBC have this niche little show called Doctor Who – you probably haven’t heard of it, don’t worry. Despite the fact that very few people watched that show, the BBC, being the kind-hearted souls they are, ...
What They SayThe End?
Despite the success of the global brainwashing, Mr. Carpenter\'s plan to restore Great Britain to its position as the dominant world power remains incomplete. To execute the final stages, he takes his prisoners back to the British L...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONSEdward Shearmur’s score for Kerry Conran’s delightfully retro SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, released this week on Sony Classical SK 92932, conveys the sound and feel of Hollywood’s golden-age composers, although most co...
A couple of years ago, Harlan Ellison was preparing to finally tell his side of the `City on the Edge of Forever` story, to set the record straight about his involvement with STAR TREK and his working `relationship` with series creator Gene Roddenberry. W...
This Week’s RecommendationSWhile Christopher Lee’s recent comment that Paul Giovanni’s music for THE WICKER MAN “is probably the best music I’ve ever heard in a film” may be a little exaggerated, taking into account the wealth of superb orchestral film mu...
It's somehow entirely fitting that the two mack daddies of 1980s pop culture, G.I. JOE and THE TRANSFORMERS, have been brought back to the comics page within months of each other, given that the two series were tied together long before their successful M...
With the spate of independent and direct-to-video horror and sciencefiction films that are proliferating on the shelves of your local Blockbuster, Hollywood, or Big Fred's Boffo Video stores, the boom in creatively low-budget genre filmmaking has never b...
New Editions Are Must-Haves for 2006 Holiday Season and Will Delight Manga and Anime Fans
San Francisco, CA, September 12, 2006 " VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation an...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS Danny Elfman's first orchestral composition written for the concert hall, Serenada Schizophrenia, has been released this week by Sony Classical. The piece received its world premiere on February 23, 2005 at New York's famed C...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATION Marco Beltrami has composed a guttural undulation of darkness for the opening moments of UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION, the sequel to the 2003 hit depicting an ongoing war between the vampires and the werewolves. The first film containe...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS After a pair of thunderously powerful retrospective recordings of classic horror film music released in 1996, and an in-depth collection of jungle horror film music like THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and THE ALLIGATOR PEOP...
The holidays are whipping up a frenzy of new sci fi, fantasy, and horror book releases: Eric Flint propels the 1632 series with Grantville Gazette III, Jack Whyte unveils the ninth and final volume in the Arthurian Camulod Chronicles with The Eagle, and A...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Grindhouse, the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez pastiche of 1970s era exploitation flix, features a soundtrack that similarly draws on the many influences that have driven the film’s conceptualiz...
Alex Proyas first came to the attention of mainstream audiences by directing the 1994 adaptation of The Crow. Though initially overshadowed by the tragic death of Brandon Lee, its intense Gothic imagery and imaginative visual style helped raise it above t...
What They SayThe legendary Admiral Hunter is missing as a deadly new adversary threatens the vulnerable survivors of the Robotech wars. Vince Grant and Scott Bernard must race against time to unravel a treacherous mystery that could spell the end of the h...
What They SayCenturies in the future, in the year After Colony 195, orbiting space colonies surrounds Earth. The colonists are cruelly oppressed by the Earth Alliance, which deploys huge humanoid fighting machines called Mobile Suits to control the popula...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS Mamoru Oshii’s GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE may be the most brilliant visualization that anime has thus far provoked. The first anime movie ever to complete at the Cannes Film Festival (and only the 6th animated film ev...
More and more horror "B-movies" are receiving deluxe treatment on DVD, but for every cult classic being reborn on disc there are dozens of less worthy titles sitting in the vaults. Some are worth seeing, but just not as sought after, or else pristine elem...
VIDEO NEWS· SHREK has already claimed this year's top box office title. It's November 2nd DVD release may claim other records as well as DreamWorks launches the title, at sell-through prices, with their bigg...
Since its announcement and showcase at the San Diego Comic Con Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe has gotten fans from both camps pumped. There really hasn’t been a good straight up fight game in a long time. Having played the game I found myself...
.hack//SIGN - Koichi Mashimo
Koichi Mashimo (President of Bee Train, director of .hack and Noir), Ken Iyadomi (Bandai Ent. VP & panel host), and another Japanese guest (who didn\'t say much) were present at the panel.
This is one of the more interestin...
With creator and Comicraft CEO Richard Starkings at the helm, this book was not about to suffer from any production shortcomings, and indeed the origin of this new character ? the first original comic book from the folks at Active Images - has a very slic...
This Week’s RecommendationSReleased on DVD a couple weeks ago, Roman Coppola’s CQ is as much a homage to such lovably quirky European ’60s sc-fi/spy films as BARBARELLA and DANGER DIABOLIK as it is an intriguing film in its own right. Taking place in 1969...
Mamaru Oshii's 1995 feature film based on Masamune Shirow's acclaimed manga series GHOST IN THE SHELL caused a worldwide sensation in sciencefiction and anime circles. Deftly mixing music video style, hyperkinetic action sequences, cyberpunk concepts and...
Just one day remains until the first annual ManiaFest Genre Film Festival gets underway. With over 30 films to be screened (and some of them will have their creators and cast members on hand to discuss what it was like making them), two panels, a salute t...
What They SaySet three years after the first film, Patlabor 2 draws police commanders Ki\'ichi Gotoh and Shinobu Nagumo into the hunt for Tsuge, a rogue officer of the Japan Self-Defense Force connected with an escalating wave of terrorist attacks. But th...
With the start of 2008 comes news of the next round of book-to-screen translations, and if you’re like me this news is usually met with equal doses of boyish hope and fearful skepticism. Because as all of us readers know the translation of a book in...
This Week's RecommendationSVarese Sarabande's vibrant new recording of Bernard Herrmann's classic sciencefiction score for 1951's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (302 066 314 2) expands the previous original soundtrack recording (20th Century Fox 11010-2, ...
Well, it`s after Xmas; no one has any cash, except for two quarters and a coupon for a fifty-cent double cappuccino at Borders. So whaddya do, besides see if your local library has been able to afford to buy any new fiction in, like, the last decade?You c...
Who would have believed it? POKEMON: THE FIRST MOVIE (or MEWTWO STRIKES BACK, as it`s subtitled on the actual print) is not a bad piece of entertainment. Although based on a kiddie franchise that leaves most adults shaking their heads in befuddlement, the...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS One of the best sciencefiction scores of the 1950s comes to CD for believe it or not the very first time with FSM's premiere release of the full Dimitri Tiomkin score for 1951's THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (Vol 8. No 1). Pr...
Watch out sci fi and fantasy fans we've got some work to do with a slew of new titles being released today. The 1632, Diablo, Ghosts of Albion, and A Song of Ice and Fire series all get new installments this week. Koji Suzuki, the literary source for the ...
viz-in vol. 12, no. 7 Your One-Stop Monthly Manga & Anime Connection! ITEMS SHIPPING OCTOBER `00 featuring...
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION BOOK FIVE, #1 REGULAR and SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION 7-issue monthly series story & art by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto original ...
Touting its high definition origins during the DVD release, FUNimation carries through and offers up a Blu-ray release of Robotech. What They SayScott Bernard and Vince Grant fight to end a decades-long struggle against an enigmatic alien race known as th...
What They SayThe faithful adaptation of a classic epic of Japanese ScienceFiction.
Jinto Lin was content living on the planet Martine, as the son of the Prime Minister - Rock Lin - until the day the Abh invaded. Without firing a shot, the Abh seized th...
Welcome to Book Buzz! I’m your new host, Tim Janson. I’d like to first thank Pat Ferrara, your previous MC, for all his help in making this a smooth transition and for all of his sage advice. Many of you may know me already as I...
The Review!Along with "Star Blazers", "Monkey!" and the 1980's remake of "Astroboy", Battle of the Planets planted the seeds in my young impressionable mind for my later obsession with Japanese animation, film, and pop culture. Battle of the Planets has o...
Animation in the U.S., especially feature-film animation, has too often been relegated to family fare, so it`s nice to see Fox Animation trying something a little different with TITAN A.E., which aims to be a sort of young adult alternative to the familia...
Animation in the U.S., especially feature-film animation, has too often been relegated to family fare, so it`s nice to see Fox Animation trying something a little different with TITAN A.E., which aims to be a sort of young adult alternative to the familia...
Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary sciencefiction writer who co-wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" and won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday, an aide said. He was 90. Clarke, who had battled debi...
Osamu Tezuka was so taken with Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS that he had to create his own version. In 1949, Tezuka was one of Japan's favorite cartoonists. His NEW TREASURE ISLAND series had been a big hit, and subsequent stories using many of the same cartoon...
In terms of erotic art, nothing quite goes together like medieval weaponry, taut flesh and larger-than-life curves. From the outset of fantasy literature, genre-based erotic art has provided a focal point for the imagination and an oftentimes necessary co...
While readers across the country quickly devoured Scott Lynch’s fantasy debut The Lies of Locke Lamora last year, they’ve got a lot more to chew on from the 29-year-old Wisconsin writer in the months ahead.
Hello all you Maniac reader...
The biggest star this week isn’t an alien, or wizard, or vampire but a space ship! Specifically it’s the Millennium Falcon and Star Wars’ most famous ship is the subject of the latest novel in the SW universe from Del Rey Bo...
What They SayThe legendary Admiral Hunter is missing as a deadly new adversary threatens the vulnerable survivors of the Robotech wars. Vince Grant and Scott Bernard must race against time to unravel a treacherous mystery that could spell the end of the h...
Of all the genre collections that hit bookshelves daily, this week’s release schedule’s got one with the coolest unifying element I’ve ever encountered: one that pays homage to the stand-up citizens who provide death for hire.
...
by The Xenos
It has to be an extremely funny
coincidence that the week or so that my computer dies and leave me in tech
support hell is the same week that my roommate gets us invited to a special
early screening of "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innoce...
...
MastersofScienceFiction: The Complete Series
Robin Hood - Season One [Blu-ray]
Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Second Season (Remastered)
UNDENIABLE CLASSICS
Birth of a Nation (Special Editi...
After rejecting initial treatments developed by Gene Roddenberry, Paramount studio`s search for the proper vehicle to launch the first STAR TREK film began The writers approached included sciencefiction veteran Robert Silverberg; famed author Harlan Elli...
Since his conception in the Icewind Dale Trilogy back in 1988, R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt has grown from an initial side character to the most well-renowned persona of the Forgotten Realms universe.
Hello Maniac readers and welcome to this, th...
More celebrity guests have been announced for ManiaFest 2003, this fall's genre film festival. Presented in association with Cinescape magazine, ManiaFest is a four-day celebration of fantasy, sciencefiction and horror filmmakers and creators taking plac...