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The Middleman Explains How You're Being Brainwashed [Found Footage]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:17:00 PST

Miss The Middleman, ABC Family's show about an upstanding superhero and his apprentice Wendy? Me too. That's why I dug up this clip of Middleman actor Matt Keeslar explaining just what's wrong with The Lady And The Tramp, and by extension all stories about bad boys who "change." True, this scene from The Last Days Of Disco isn't exactly scifi, and neither is Tramp. But the bad-boy-who-changes thing is a scifi cliche, and it's just too awesome to hear Keeslar deconstruct it. [IMDB]

U.S. Life On Mars Is Just As Skeezy With Dad As With Mom [Life On Mars Recap]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:56:20 PST

Time-traveling cop Sam Tyler tries to bond with his dad, and it gets mistaken (understandably) for homoeroticism, in this clip from last night's Life On Mars. You have to hand it to the American remake of Mars: first, when it remade the Sam-meets-his-mom episode, it came out and brought up the Oedipal thing. And now, in a somewhat faithful remake of the Sam-meets-his-dad episode, we get the gay thing. In general, last night's episode was less subtle than the original, in some good ways and one bad way.

In general, most of the changes from the British version clean up the story a bit and remove ambiguity.

As you can see from the clip, the Pignatos are built up to be a much bigger deal — and then we're told in no uncertain terms that there are no Pignatos, there's just Sam's dad, freelancing. There are a lot less scenes of Sam bonding with his dad and being goofy, and Sam acts a bit more like a professional police officer throughout. Instead of just sort of intuiting that his dad is a scumbag, he actually starts to remember stuff from his childhood which confirms it. (In the British version, he acts shockingly unprofessional at many points after meeting his dad.) The kidnapped baby feels a bit more urgent than just "someone is making crappy porn."

The one big change from the British version that wasn't for the best was the much-reduced role for Gene Hunt. Gene and Sam butt heads — understandably — over Sam's dad's involvement in the dirty business in the British version, and it adds a bit more drama and realism to the whole affair. In the U.S. version, Gene is mostly AWOL.

Which makes me wonder: first Harvey Keitel seems bored by his role as Gene Hunt, and now he's barely even showing up. Is Harvey bowing out already? Or just needing a less intensive schedule?

Sexy Adventure Pulps That Leap Off the Page [Art]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:58:04 PST

Nothing like an adventure tale of sea monsters and lust to make you feel like the action is leaping off the page and straight into your credulous brain. Photographer Thomas Allen knows that too. He creates these images by carefully cutting book covers apart, posing them, then shooting the results to create a strange, dreamy 3D quality. We've got more of his bookish creations below.

I love when he combines two books, as he does in several of these photographs. You can see the genres literally reaching out to interact with each other.

You can see more of Thomas Allen's amazing work on his site. Thanks, Grey_Area!

I Voted for the Lizard People Too! [Political Science (fiction)]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:37:00 PST

Minnesota Public Radio has a great feature on contested ballots from the recent U.S. election. Here is everybody's favorite, which opponents of liberal candidate Al Franken challenged as an "overvote" since the person voted for Franken AND wrote in a vote for Lizard People. [via MPR]

The Shiniest Stories On io9 Last Week [Best Of The Week]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:04:57 PST

Too busy building drooling over the aliens from Hunter Prey all week? Don't worry, we've compiled a list of the best stories of the week, just for you. Highlights this week include talking to a vampire-hating drunk from True Blood, a closer look at a 2,900-year-old gravestone and details on how NASA wants us to drink our own urine.

First Look at Fan Auteur Sandy Collora's "Hunter Prey"
Sandy Collora is known as the auteur of fan filmmaking because his dark short film Batman: Dead End took 2003 Comic-Con by storm, and its comparatively lavish production values changed the whole fan filmmaking game. Though Collora had some setbacks, including having his films shoved off the bill by lawsuit-shy Comic-Con, he's back with his first original feature film, Hunter Prey. We've got an exclusive first peek at this war film set on a alien world.

10 Movies That Should Never Become Video Games
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Times are tough, but word on the street is that video games could be recession proof. That’s why we predict purveyors of the medium will sign off on even more dubious game adaptations of movies. After scratching our heads over the troubling Watchmen: The End Is Nigh game, a bald effort to cash in on the March movie, we decided to do the Hollywood gaming industry a solid by providing this handy guide to key flicks best left unmolested. Read up, little pimps!

Twilight Should Shed Its Vampire Drag And Embrace Its Sappy Self
We made Graeme brave the sea of squee to review True Blood. And he thinks: Twilight isn't as bad as you think it is. I know, I know; you all want me to tell you that it's the worst thing ever made, two hours of extreme embarrassment that I will never be able to get back, and by the way, Robert Pattinson sucks, and not in the vampire sense. Thing is, that's not exactly true (well, apart from the Robert Pattinson thing). I went in expecting the worst, and came out convinced that I'd seen The Dark Knight for tween girls.

This Week On Ask A Bio Geek: iGEM, or How to Build a Biological Organism in a Single Summer
The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition brings undergraduates from around the world to MIT's campus to share the results of a summer's worth of synthetic biology research. Each team tries to create the best synthetic organism. Here you can see the iGEM participants (photo courtesy of David Appleyard and iGEM). I'm one of the folks in black up in front. (No, the other one.) Find out what these students cooked up over the summer, and who won.

2,900-Year-Old Gravestone Reveals Ancient Belief System
A 2,900-year-old gravestone from the ancient kingdom of Sam'al, located in what is today southeastern Turkey, has shed light on an ancient religious belief heretofore unknown. The gravestone, called a stele, is in nearly pristine condition and archaeologists were able to translate all the writing on it. Now they've gained new insight into what people of the Iron Age believed about souls and death.

True Blood's Rutina Wesley Tells Io9 She's Not The Huxtables
We talked to True Blood's Tara and she gave it to us straight, there aren't any crazy circus sweaters and pudding pops on True Blood.

Gender-Bending Body Swap Experiment Leaves Subjects Wanting More
In science fiction, characters often swap bodies to achieve immortality, pose as someone else, or walk a mile in a loved one’s shoes. Now neuroscientists at the Karolinska Institute have found a way to convince subjects that they’ve swapped bodies with another person. Men become women, humans become mannequins, and the participants are eager to try it again.

Alan Moore's Worst Nightmare: Watchmen Video Game
If Alan Moore had been even thinking about opening up to Zack Snyder's movie adaptation of his classic graphic novel Watchmen, this new video game ought to be the final nail in Moore's anti-social coffin. The game, entitled Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, has released a batch of stills that show Rorschach and Nite Owl cleaning up the streets with their fists. The end really is nigh, if they're expecting me to understand Moore's deeply troubled characters' psyches by mashing my fists about a game controller. It's like making a video game out of Moby Dick. Is nothing sacred?

The Official NASA Guide To Drinking Your Own Urine
If you're going on a long space trip, you'll soon realize that you can't carry all the fresh water you'll need with you. The cost of getting all that water into space would destroy your budget before you ever built a single photon torpedo launcher. The answer, of course, is recycling. Those childhood dreams of traveling to space probably didn't include drinking your own sweat and pee.

Battlestar Spoiler Roundup: What Happens Now?
Battlestar Galactica comes back in January, and it has a hell of a cliffhanger to resolve. Just where did our heroes land up in "Revelations," and more importantly, where do they go now? Since the show disappeared for a nine-month hiatus, there's been a slow drip of information about the new season, so we thought we'd collect them all in one place. One thing's for sure: You'd better strap yourself in, because it's going to be a crazy ride. Spoilers ahead.

Paralyzed Man Speaks Again Using Brain Implant [Mad Science]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:53:02 PST

A man suffering from "locked in" syndrome, where a fully-conscious person is completely paralyzed except for some eyelid movements, is speaking again using a computer. Doctors report in Nature today that he's using a brain implant to control speech synthesizing software with his mind.

Though it is often difficult to tell when somebody with locked in syndrome is fully conscious, a team of doctors led by Frank Guenther of Boston University strongly suspected that the man was aware and longed to speak. They put their patient in an fMRI brain scanner and asked him to attempt to make vowel sounds. His brain showed the exact same patterns as an uninjured person making those sounds aloud.

So they knew his brain's speech centers were still functioning. They just needed a way to connect those speech centers to a speech synthesizer - an artificial mouth if you will. Researchers implanted a special kind of electrode in his brain, one that's "impregnated with neurotrophic factors" that encourage brain neurons to grow into and around the electrode. Essentially this electrode forms a very strong connection with brain neurons, which results in a strong signal that reliably comes from the same part of the patient's brain over time.

Over a period of weeks, Guenther and his team worked to decode the signals coming from the man's brain. Eventually, he was able "to produce three vowel sounds with good accuracy," said Guenther. The man produces these sounds as quickly as he would normal speech, and Guenther added, "The long-term goal within five years is to have him use the speech brain–computer interface to produce words directly."

According to Nature:

Their efforts are appreciated by the patient too. "When we first arrived to install this system he was obviously very excited — you can tell from his involuntary movements, and he was trying to look at us the whole time," Guenther says. As the man's father told the team, "he really has a new lease on life".

The team's next step is to train their computer decoder to recognize consonants so that patients can form whole words, and even sentences. They also hope that with developments in technology, they can implant more electrodes in their next patient to transmit a more detailed signal.

Other researchers are working on less-invasive techniques to achieve the same goal for other paralyzed patients. Their brain-computer interfaces sit on the outside of the skull, so there's no need to put an electrode into the brain itself.

Brain Implant Allows Mute Man to Speak [via Nature]

Image via Getty.

Saturn's Atmosphere Is A Modern Art Sensation [Space Porn]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:40:00 PST

This isn't a newly-discovered Rothko painting or some kind of abstract masterpiece — it's the atmosphere of Saturn, photographed four different times on the same day. The Cassini space probe used different filters to show the storms in the planet's atmosphere in different lights. (The color is arbitrary, but gorgeous.) Click to enlarge.

It reminds me of the pop art masterpiece NASA created with UV solar images a while back. [Riding With Robots]

Full Frontal Avatar Alien Porn (Maybe NSFW) [Avatar]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:30:44 PST

More images from James Cameron's Avatar have turned up online. One image is similar to the Jonay Bacallado concept art we showed you earlier today, but you can see the creature's feet. (Extraterrestrial foot fetishists, rejoice!) And in another, racier, pic, our alien warrior goddess from the Na'vi tribe goes topless while riding along on one big bad creature. (Which may be NSFW.) Click through for the full images.

3-D movie blog MarketSaw has posted two more versions of the lovely blue lady from Pandora. (Yes, we think the planet name is less than insightful as well.) We haven't even seen a trailer for this amazing motion capture flick and already we're getting an eyefull of alien lovelies.

But let's get down to the toes — in the sketch you can see that this lady is rocking not only the 3-digited hands but feet as well. While in the blue sketch she appears to be very humanoid. Please oh please make her 3-toed and have the ability to balance on one hand while shooting a bow and arrow with her feet, because that would be awesome. Also I hope the Cameron went with this artist's ideas, and made all of hie Na'vi people topless.

Take a look at more of these clearer Na'vi pics, plus the new never before seen sketch, at MarketSaw.

Life On Mars Travels In Time And Continues For Four More Episodes [Life On Mars]

Graeme McMillan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:03:03 PST

Somewhat lost in the midst of the bad Pushing Daisies news was the news that ABC's time-traveling 1970s lovefest Life on Mars has been confirmed to move behind Lost when the latter show returns on January 21st, and has also picked up an order for an additional four episodes. These two moves make it increasingly likely that the new series will, at least, make it to the end of its first season in one piece. [Hollywood Reporter]

Which TV Shows Are You Actually Watching? [Poll]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:40:00 PST

Pushing Daisies is falling off our screens, and many other promising science fiction shows are teetering on the edge of cancellation as well. Blame the Nielsen box, the most fail-ridden technology in history. The networks don't actually know what you, the real people, are watching, but that doesn't mean you don't count. We're curious — which current TV shows are you actually watching?

Twilight's Hidden Morality Plays [Rant]

Kaila Hale-Stern — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:20:00 PST

When will mainstream media stop claiming there's a "positive" message in the Twilight books that inspired the eponymous teen-bait movie? The Twilight book series is many things, but empowering it is not. The more you examine author Stephenie Meyer's themes, the more obvious it becomes that her books are a thinly-veiled religious screed against teen sex. Spoilers for the Twilight series after the jump.

Of course Meyer should be allowed to write her own values into Twilight and its sequels, but we are doing young readers a disservice by rubber-stamping these books without a forewarning of what lies within.

Twilight, a book ostensibly about supernatural vampires, werewolves, and adolescent angst, is featured at Mormon bookstores and supported by the Church's followers. The Salt Lake City Deseret Times named Meyer its favorite author behind Orson Scott Card. While it is refreshing to see an influential religious group embracing alternative genres instead of shunning them, one has to
wonder what makes Twilight so special. Meyer has said that there are elements of her devout Mormonism in the story (it opens with a quote from Genesis), and those who have read her know she is an
unselfconscious writer. It is not hard to view many of the motifs as inspired by the author's religion: even her vampires enjoy an exquisitely gifted eternal life together as a family after choosing the path of virtue rejected by others of their kind.

All this adulation is not earned because the books are fine works of literature. I'm consistently amazed by how many critics, bloggers and reviewers have given Stephenie Meyer a free pass. Twilight
features some of the least-polished published writing I've ever read and is the sort of unrepentant Mary Sue wish-fulfillment most of us construct when we first sit down to write.

Bella Swan (because 'Lovely McGirl' was taken) moves to the foggy town of Forks for some reason. Her main personality traits are terminal clumsiness and total self-effacement, and most of her activities involve cooking and cleaning for her estranged father while Weird Things Happen at her school. Speaking of school, it turns out everyone there wants to be her friend and the male population falls all over her (Bella doesn't know how gorgeous she is, of course). The only person who's even more gorgeous than Bella is Edward Cullen, sparkly vampire extraordinaire, and the reason we've all been subject to Pattinson's face on 20-foot billboards.

We're meant to love the perfectly muscled, handsome, rich, perfect, flawless Edward, of the auburn hair and topaz eyes, as much as Bella and Meyer immediately do. And it seems that a great majority of the
book-buying public — especially female adolescents, and their mothers — have fallen for the vampire hook, line, and sinker. But they would be so much better off spending their time with seasons of
Buffy. Edward makes Buffy's boyfriend Angel seem a cheerful fellow and her lover Spike's antics romantic by comparison.

Edward and Bella fall into swoony "love," defined by little else than their declarations of it and adjectives lavished on Edward's beauty. He also wants to eat her. Along the way, Edward increasingly takes away Bella's agency: he stalks her, watches her sleep at night, drives her everywhere, isolates her from family, limits her movements, and carries her off at the drop of a hat. While critics have mostly ignored the underlying misogyny, many web comments and reader reviews have mentioned that Edward's behavior evokes that of an abusive partner. Were he not a vampire, he would be in prison.

Meyer has received infinite praise for not allowing her characters to engage in premarital sex. Twilight's "chastity buzz" is no doubt a large reason it has been given to many children as "safe"
reading material and featured prominently on display and in many book clubs. But open Meyer's books and you will not find soft ruminations on spiritual love. Instead, Bella's teenage passions are consistently
thwarted by her decades-old suitor. If she doesn't faint while kissing him, Edward will pry her off and get angry, unable to control himself. What a wonderful lesson for little girls.

Since Edward won't sleep with Bella until they're married, and will hurt her because he's a vampire, the denouement is saved for the fourth book. It's in the highly-anticipated Breaking Dawn that
Meyer goes too far pushing her personal values on unsuspecting readers. There is nothing wrong with chastity, and nothing wrong with sex, either. Science fiction and fantasy fans are used to a long
tease: we watch shows and read series for years without our favorite characters hooking up, and the relationships are often the better for it. We'll wait.

But after making readers pine for more than a thousand pages, Meyer finally gives the couple a fade-to-black: "'Forever,' he agreed, and then pulled us gently into deeper water." Then Bella wakes up bruised
and bloodied and angsty Edward never wants to do such horrible things to her ever again. Another wonderful lesson for little girls. The book then manages to completely jump the shark and become a virtual pro-life P.S.A. when Meyer falls for the easiest of amateur fanfiction traps and makes her protagonist pregnant.

The too-predictable plotline would be bad enough without statements like this from Bella: "This child, Edward's child, was a whole different story. I wanted him like I wanted air to breathe. Not a choice — a necessity." Never mind that Bella, 18, had never wanted children and had been arguing with her husband about going to college, which he summarily dismissed.

But then bad Edward wants to give Bella an abortion because he knows their half-vampire/human baby will kill her! "He leaned away and looked me in the eye. 'We're going to get that thing out before it can hurt any part of you. Don't be scared. I won't let it hurt you.' 'That thing?' I gasped...Edward had just called my little nudger a thing. He said Carlisle would get it out. "No," I whispered." You see, Bella often refers to her unborn child as "her little nudger," since it grows inside her at an unnatural rate. Yes, she does.

Once Meyer is over her anti-abortion hysterics, she has Bella endure a truly horrific pregnancy and birthing sequence, stretching untold pages. I found much of it so gruesome and awful as to be almost impossible to read — and I was in a horror film class where we watched Rosemary's Baby and The Brood for homework. I shudder to think of the preteen readers who waited on line for Breaking Dawn and found their heroine getting her ribs and spine cracked from the inside out by a hybrid vampire baby.

Is the Twilight series pushing its own kind of morality along with its love story? I think so — and it is an element that parents and teachers need to be aware is in the books. The narrative suggests that it is better to submit and sublimate yourself to a superior being than to be your own person. Having a will of one's own is not conducive to Meyer's brand of love and living. Only heterosexual relationships are explored, and (married!) sex is always a power play with painful consequences. Plus it is preferable to be a teenage mother above all else, even if it kills you.

Some fans were in an uproar over Bella's easy dismissal of Native American werewolf Jacob Black, who had long been a rival for her affection — but don't worry too much about Jacob. In what may be the most disturbing development of Breaking Dawn outside of its snapping ribs, Jacob "imprints" on Bella's infant daughter (the unfortunately-named Renesmee), meaning he'll loom around creepily all her life waiting until she's of marriageable age to claim. These are the family values that have buoyed up Stephenie Meyer's sales figures.

There's no denying that Meyer can evoke a visceral reaction, and that her writing, no matter how flat, has taken hold of the public imagination. Her ear for dialogue and capacity for action is stronger than her description, and the books will likely be that rare creature — better in film than on paper. The studio will no doubt be green-lighting sequels after the Twilight movie takes off, but I'd love to see how they'd handle Breaking Dawn's reproductive issues. The insane popularity of Bella and Edward's overwrought romance would warm my heart (kids are reading!) were it based on substance and self-respect, but both are strangely lacking in the world Stephenie Meyer made. They never needed sex; these two were damned from the start.

Easter Eggs In Zack Snyder's Insanely OCD Watchmen Trailer [Watchmen]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:10:00 PST

The second Watchmen trailer arrived last week, and we're blown away by the crazy OCD detail that goes into every scene. There have been plenty of comics-to-screen comparisons, but the footage is also littered with Easter eggs and little clues as to the direction of the movie. Spoilers ahead.

While traveling down the hallway to The Comedian's apartment (Edward Blake, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the first thing you see is the address, 3001. Nice nod to 300, Snyder. At the New York press screening, Zack did mention that not everything is going to be that obvious.

After the attacker busts into Edward Blake's abode, there's a scuffle that pans across the place, revealing the glorious Chrysler Building in the reflection of the glass walls before Blake goes careening right through it. This high rise is treasure trove of Watchmen and 80s memorabilia, it's littered with little details. When costumed adventurer Rorschach pops inside for a look around, you get to see right inside Blake's closet. Amongst everything else is a framed picture of the Minutemen, and the Comedian's old gun with the inscription "To Edward Blake With Gratitude" on the side which was presented to him from President Nixon. Old Nixon didn't resign in this reality, in fact 1985 will be his 5th term as President because he repealed the 22nd Amendment in 1975, so he can be Prez forever.

Too the right of the closet (actually throughout the whole apartment) there is a piece of what I'm assuming is Patrick Nagel art, which is unbelievable. Thank god that Zack Snyder knows that even in alternate realities, we still need artists to design the covers of Duran Duran albums.

Here is a closer look at the Minutemen pictures inside the closet, and a pin up of Sally Jupiter which adorns one of his walls.

Now we see The Comedian earn his special guns from the government. In a flashback, Blake and Dr. Manhattan fight in Vietnam. See Blake's delight as he burns his enemy alive? He's a sad, sad man. The legs behind him, that's Dr. Manhattan super sized, who then points to his victims and causes them to burst into gooey little bits. In this alternate reality the Viet Cong surrender in two months.

Moving on, the cast is now at The Comedian's funeral. Dan Dreiberg, or the second Nite Owl, now a little pudgy from the lack of crime fighting, flicks The Comedian's insignia into the grave, but note when the American Flag is draped across his coffin if you pay crazy people attention to detail you notice that there are 51 stars on the flag, because in Watchmen's 1985, Vietnam is a state, thanks to Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian's involvement.

New York's Times Square. Note the Veidt ad in the middle of the city. Seconds later, some sort of electric bomb goes off. Is this the replacement for the squid? Is this what kills a large portion of New York city's civilians?

Next Adrian Veidt fights a man who is no longer wielding a walkie talkie (thanks, censors) in his pimped-out Egyptian-themed pad.

Call it a case of censorship gone horribly wrong. In the trailer Dr. Manhattan's exposed wang is completely blurred out. This is the moment when Jon Osterman appears for the first time in his new blue form, and he should be naked. Was this an attempt to get bloggers to stop posting pictures of his manliness all over the internet? If so, too late. But more importantly, why? Billy Crudup's going to fully exposed for most of the movie anyways, why hide it now?

Laurie Juspeczyk (daughter to Sally Jupiter) beams to Dr. Manhattan's Mars pad to plead with him, and try and convince him to save humanity.

Rorsach gets cornered by the cops and takes the opportunity to plug a little Veidt hair spray, by lighting the SWAT team on fire.

The streets of New York city begin to riot, and Nite Owl jumps to the ground looking an awful lot like the Dark Knight doing a little van jumping.

Nuclear explosions burst about Dan and Laurie, but fear not, this is just from Dan's pervy dream about little Laurie (who was cast surprisingly young in this film). But, unlike in the book, this scene is pretty foreshadowing should they do away with the squid attack in the end and instead use a sonic bomb. But the dream itself is very indicative of the Cold War fear that's still going on in this alternate 1985. After the country's greatest weapon (Dr. Manhattan) flees to Mars, it's only a matter of time before all out nuclear war took place as the relations between the US and Russia in this future were incredibly strained.

Why so serious, Nite Owl? Well, probably because what he's screaming about isn't snow, it is in fact the scattered specks of a beloved friend. Which one? Now that is hard to tell. Many have speculated that Snyder may have changed this ending as well.

Sci Fi Channel Wants to Guilt You Into Watching Crappy Climate Change Movie [Lost City Raiders]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:02:00 PST

As the water levels rise and threaten to cover the Earth, the Catholic Church contracts a father-and-son salvage team to retrieve an ancient, world-saving artifact before it falls into the hands of an evil tycoon. It sounds like the setup for an awesomely bad adventure pulp, but sadly it’s just Lost City Raiders, the latest Sci Fi Original Movie to be inflicted on the television watching public. Sci Fi hopes you’ll tune in tomorrow night because it looks like a rousing adventure with an important message. Unfortunately, it’s neither. Mild spoilers ahead.

The Sci Fi Channel has comically billed Lost City Raiders as a combination of two critically panned movies: Waterworld and The Da Vinci Code. In the opening sequence, “Pa” Rubiah (Josh Brolin) tells us that global warming has caused the polar ice caps to melt, and the sea levels have risen to cover most of the Earth. Now the world’s only hope is…the Catholic Church. A group of friendly neighborhood cardinals operating in the city of New Rome have contracted Rubiah and his sons Jack (Ian Somerhalder) and Thomas (Jamie Thomas King) to find a scepter, which, legend says, will lead them to ancient technology that will save the world. And, they have to find it before a generically evil businessman (Ben Cross) can use it to for his own selfish gains.

The movie can be forgiven for being packed with stock characters; we’ve got the wise old salt dad, the rebellious action man son, the technologically proficient other son, the hot girl mechanic, the hot lady scientist, and, of course, the villainous capitalist. But the film suffers the mortal B-movie sin of being dull. The plot is contrived to drag its four most attractive leads to the ultimate world-saving discovery, the acting is wooden where over-the-top would suffice, and the archeological exploration scenes lack the tension of its obvious influences: films like National Treasure and the Indiana Jones franchise. Perhaps most unforgivably, the movie fails to deliver on its promise of mutant sharks. Early on, deep sea diving Jack is warned that a mutant shark is on his tail. Presumably, these sharks were created by the same kind of human negligence that caused the polar ice caps to melt. But what do mutant sharks look like? Are they hideously deformed? Can they shoot lasers from their eyes?

Apparently, the filmmakers blew their budget on underwater green screen scenes and creating the submerged buildings perpetually in the background, because all we get is stock footage sharks. I guess maybe they’re bigger than non-mutant sharks.

The movie is airing tomorrow as part of NBC’s Green Week, and the actors and marketers have harped on the film’s important message regarding climate change. But the global warming of Lost City Raiders looks strangely appealing. Where we would expect to see overcrowding and food shortages, we instead get a world where people get around by boats and everyone lives near the beach. I mean, the leads sit around in lovely restaurants drinking champagne.

And, if the humanity of the movie is saved, it won't be by science or changing its ways. It’ll be saved by the ancient knowledge of a religious institution, while threatened by business interests. The takeaway point seems to be: Church good, business bad, modern science irrelevant. Ultimately, the most frightening thing about Lost City Raiders isn’t the threat of global warming, but the possibility of a sequel.

Sponsor Shout-out [Thanks Sponsors]

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:00:00 PST

Thanks to this week's sponsors: Chevy Fuel Solutions, Gyration Air Mouse, IGN, The Last Remnant, Motorola Krave, Motro: Mines of Moria, MSN, The New York Times Magazine, Pernod, Tales of Symphonia, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Wizards of the Coast, Zune. To become an advertiser, click here.

Meet The Wife That Han Solo Never Had [Star Wars]

Graeme McMillan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:20:00 PST

If ever there was proof that, despite his protestations, George Lucas really didn't plan out the entire Star Wars saga in advance, it probably comes in the shape of the discovery that, in 1978, Lucas told co-writers that Han Solo wasn't destined to end up with Princess Leia... because he was a married man. Married to a wookie, that is. Stunningly, I'm not making this up.

This somewhat surprising development in Han Solo's love life comes from a reputable source: the official Star Wars website itself, which is currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special by interviewing people involved in the ill-fated production. One of those people is screenwriter Lenny Ripps, who drops the bombshell when discussing Lucas' involvement in the project:

To me, it didn't come together. The ideas were all right but I'm not sure that they belonged in the same room. What was interesting to me was that Lucas started talking about Star Wars as if it was a real world. He said things like "Well, you know Han Solo is married to a Wookiee. but we can't say that." Now that was 20 years ago [in 1998], so my memory may be wrong.

According to starwars.com's Ross Plesset, however, his memory is surprisingly good:

As outrageous as Ripps's recollection sounds, there is evidence supporting it. Pat Proft corroborates it and an early draft of the Star Wars script (January 28, 1975) has Han Solo living with a furry female creature who he kisses. Proft also remembers learning that Han was raised by Wookiees, which is verified on pages 46 & 131 of Laurent Bouzereau's Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays.

Admit it; you didn't think the old rogue had it in him, did you? Somewhere out there, someone has already written the fanfic about what happened when Mrs. Solo came home after Return of The Jedi to see Han and Leia hooking up... and wanted to join in.

http://www.starwars.com/movies/saga/20081117.html">Holiday Special: Script and Directors [StarWars.com] (Thanks, Bonnie!)

In India, Every SF Story Has A Happy Twist Ending [Indian Science Fiction]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:00:00 PST

Even as futuristic tech, post-apocalyptic scenarios and alternate histories are gaining more mainstream cred in U.S. publishing, Indian science fiction authors still struggle in obscurity. Science fiction accounts for only about 2 percent of publishing in India, according to a new article, and authors complain of being marginalized. (One big problem? They all write in English to try and gain international acceptance, which limits their local readership.) Still, their novels take SF themes and make them uniquely Indian.

One big difference between Indian SF and that of other countries: There always has to be a happy ending. Says writer Arvind Mishra:

See, science fiction is a literary genre and unlike (Aldous) Huxley, writing about a bleak, dystopian future doesn’t really go down well with audiences. It’s much better to have a bleak situation and then some twist in the end that saves the day and keeps everybody happy.

Also, Indian SF has to appeal to Indian values. Short story author and retired chemistry professor Y.H. Deshpande wrote a story in the 1980s about a widow who has the chance to use her father-in-law's frozen sperm to conceive a baby. She ends up saying no, because using dad-in-law's sperm wouldn't go over with Indian audiences. And the science is seldom explained in Indian SF stories.

The most intriguing Indian authors sound like Nellai Muthu, an actual space scientist who worked on India's Chandrayaan moon probe and writes about interstellar contact. And Dishnuprasad Chaturvedi, who wrote a detective novel about "a thief who swapped his brain." [LiveMint]

Blame Time Travel For Kirk's Scarred Psyche [Star Trek]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:30:00 PST

By now, you might have noticed that James Tiberius Kirk is, well... kind of a dirtbag in the new Star Trek movie. He trashes a gorgeous Corvette at age 11, and just gets more obnoxious from there on out. He's not just cocky like ShatnerKirk, he's actually irresponsible, where Shatner was sort of uptight. Is it just because he's young and immature? Or is there something else going on, which might actually make for a more interesting movie? Spoilers ahead.

How exactly does Kirk mess up in the movie? From what I can gather from interviews and presentations, he's a pretty lousy cadet who washes out of Starfleet Academy, before Captain Pike gives him the big motivational speech you hear in the trailer. He hits on Uhura in a really smarmy, condescending way, and later sneaks into her quarters to watch her undress. Worst of all, it looks like there's gonna be some angst, as Kirk figures out who he really is.

But actually, the obnoxiousness of PineKirk could be part of the movie's storyline, in an interesting way.

Maybe I've spent too much time parsing every interview and release about Trek for morning spoilers lately, but something jumped out at me when I read J.J. Abrams' comments on the trailer the other day.

The movie's Romulan villain, Nero, travels back in time and destroys the U.S.S. Kelvin, the ship where both Kirk's parents are serving. As a result, Kirk and his brother have to go live with their uncle Frank. We already know, from actor Brad William Henke, that Uncle Frank is abusive and alcoholic, and makes the Kirk boys' lives hell. (That's Uncle Frank's Corvette that Kirk drives off a cliff in the trailer.)

So there's a new timeline — one in which Kirk had a horrible abusive childhood. The Kirk who results is not the same Kirk whom we knew in the original series. And whether he steps up and becomes a great starship captain, he'll never be quite the same Kirk.

Let's think about how time travel works in the Trek universe for a sec. It's a bit inconsistent, but here are a few pointers. In "City On The Edge Of Forever," McCoy goes back and changes history, and the Enterprise suddenly isn't in orbit any more. The timeline has changed, and only those protected by the Guardian's aura remember. In the episodes where Kirk and co. go back to the 1960s, they have to be very careful not to leave any traces, because any change to history will have unknown ramifications.

On the other hand, in the TNG crapfest "Time's Arrow," Data's head turns up in the ground even though Data hasn't yet gone back in time to have his head buried. On the whole, though, I think there are multiple timelines and it's possible to change history, so that thing never happened.

So then Old Spock goes back in time to try and prevent the worst of Nero's tampering. Obviously, NimoySpock isn't able to save the Kelvin from being destroyed.

But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Nero doesn't manage to wipe out the planet Vulcan with his black-hole drill thingy. And he probably doesn't kill Kirk, either. NimoySpock's hardest mission may be to help Kirk become the person he was supposed to be, before Nero forced him to go live with mean Uncle Frank.

According to Memory Alpha, Kirk's pre-Nero childhood would have been quite different. There's no mention of Uncle Frank in the original series, but Kirk did have a different childhood trauma.

He was living on the Planet Tarsus IV when there was a food crisis, and Governor Kodos decided to kill the 4,000 people least worthy to survive. (So if Kirk's parents had lived, he wouldn't even be in Iowa to crash that Corvette; he'd already be living on Tarsus IV.) Also, Kirk may not have been an exemplary cadet in Starfleet Academy, but he was promising enough to take part in a peace mission to the planet Axanar in his plebe year. And he distinguished himself enough on that mission to win a Palm Leaf, according to the episodes "Court Martial" and "Whom Gods Destroy."

For my money, a big part of ShatnerKirk's charm is that he is kind of uptight. Sure, he's a playboy, trying to bed as many green women as possible. He disobeys Starfleet's instructions whenever possible, and ignores the Prime Directive on a weekly basis. But he's also a strict taskmaster and is obsessed — literally obsessed — with the safety of his ship and his crew. The only reason why nobody's ever made a YouTube video of all the times Shatner says "my ship" is because it would be twenty minutes long. (Now watch somebody post that video.)

So actually, the Kirk coming-of-age story that's apparently at the heart of Star Trek may really be the story of an alternate timeline where Kirk gets emotionally and mentally damaged by Uncle Frank. And his oldest friend, Spock, has to travel back in time and rescue him. Probably, the movie won't even spell this out, but it adds an interesting extra layer for people who actually care about this stuff.

Bottom line: Don't blame Kirk if he turns out to be a bit of a twerp in the new movie — it's all the fault of his time-travel-induced abusive childhood. Mmmkay?

Make Your Own Hellboy Gun [Hellboy]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:19:44 PST

This is the Samaritan gun, the big-barreled shooter that Hellboy uses only after muttering "Ohhh crap." When you're fighting elementals or underworld devils, you'll want one of these at your side. And now you can make one - out of paper.

ToyCyte calls our attention to the amazing papercraft design for this gun, which isn't just cool-looking but is apparently functional. It even includes papercraft bullets. Just visit the Way Nifty blog and check out their 14 pages of patterns - you can print them out, cut them out, and start folding your way into supernatural badassery. Perfect for a weekend indoors, hiding from the winter cold.

Samaritan Gun Papercraft [Way Nifty via ToyCyte]

Orangutans and Bonobos Make Art for Charity [Ape Art]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:00:00 PST

Panbanisha is a prolific painter whose works have sold for hundreds of dollars. She also happens to be a bonobo, one of many apes learning language skills at the Great Ape Trust. To raise money for ape conservation work, the Trust is auctioning off paintings created by Panbanisha and the other ape artists-in-residence. Click through to see a gallery of primate paintings and watch the bonobo’s creative process.

Researchers study apes living at the Trust to learn more about their intellect, behavior, and capacity for communication. Bonobo siblings Panbanisha and Kanzi have a rather advanced capacity for language, able to understand human speech, comprehend abstract concepts, and communicate with humans through a lexigram keyboard. Apes are given the choice as to whether to participate in activities like painting, but the researchers have found that the apes perceive the experience as fulfilling, allowing them to convey thoughts, senses, and memories without the limitations of verbal language.

“The apes’ daily lives are enriched immeasurably by these creative opportunities,” [project overseer Peter] Clay said. “Choosing canvases and colors, and choosing to make small, careful marks or big dramatic ones, these are all within their control.

In the Apes Helping Apes project, the Trust sells the apes’ painting, some created in collaboration with artist Sue Buck, to support ape conservation in the wild. The above painting by Panbanisha is currently up for auction online.

[Great Ape Trust via New Scientist]

Genetically-Engineered Cows Produce 20% More Milk [Mad Science]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:40:28 PST

In a few years, dairy farmers will be able to order special genetically-modified cows that produce 20% more milk than common cows. Researchers in Argentina have developed a strain of cow that produces extra bovine growth hormone, which apparently leads to the greater milk production. [via SciDevNet]

Captain Marvel To Get Smart At Warners [Captain Marvel]

Graeme McMillan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:08:38 PST

It looks like The World's Mightiest Mortal may be making the move to the big screen sooner than expected. Get Smart director Peter Segal has signed a three-year deal with Warner Bros, and is bringing the long-awaited Captain Marvel movie with him. But how soon will we actually hear the word "Shazam!" come back into common usage?

The Captain Marvel movie - currently titled Billy Batson And The Legend Of Shazam!, both due to legal issues over the ownership of the "Captain Marvel" name and to bring it closer in line with the current DC comic featuring the character - has been in the works for a long time; the current script, written by Tim Burton collaborator John August (who wrote the screenplays for Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride, amongst other movies), has been finished since before last year's writer's strike, and Dwayne Johnson has already announced that he'll be playing the movie's bad guy, Black Adam.

While Segal is already scheduled to direct 2010's sequel to this summer's Get Smart next year, it's possible that The Legend of Shazam! may be the next movie he directs; he's currently also developing a tennis-pro comedy as part of the deal, but Shazam! may be further along the development cycle. Will 2011 see the Big Red Cheese take on the Avengers at the box office? Between this news and Warners' stated focus on superhero fare in years to come, that's beginning to look very likely.

Segal, Ewing set first-look deal at WB [Variety]

First Clip Of Viking-Alien Showdown [Outlander]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:04:07 PST

The Viking-monster death-match movie Outlander is opening in Spain next week, so a bunch of clips have turned up online. Sadly, they're all in Spanish. But at least this clip, featuring our first look at the Outlander monster, the Moorwen, is mostly in the sweet language of flaming arrows, Viking spears, and deadly alien tails. Sadly, still no U.S. release date for this movie.

More clips at the link. [Outlander via Shocktillyoudrop]

That 70s Show's Cheerleader Joins The Book Of Eli [The Book Of Eli]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:30:00 PST

Sexy little thing Mila Kunis has joined the cast of the apocalyptic bibliophile movie The Book Of Eli. Kunis will star alongside Denzel Washington and his nemesis, Gary Oldman. The movie is set in a broken-down world starved for knowledge, where Denzel travels the globe educating people from his book. Shooting begins in January. [The Hollywood Reporter]

10 Movies That Should Never Become Video Games [Video Games]

Nisha Gopalan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:00:00 PST

Times are tough, but word on the street is that video games could be recession proof. That’s why we predict purveyors of the medium will sign off on even more dubious game adaptations of movies. After scratching our heads over the troubling Watchmen: The End Is Nigh game, a bald effort to cash in on the March movie, we decided to do the Hollywood gaming industry a solid by providing this handy guide to key flicks best left unmolested. Read up, little pimps!

The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman)
Amid a stark, doomsday landscape, a Scandinavian knight barters for his life with an attendant Grim Reaper by instigating the slowest chess match ever. Game gurus, if you must adapt this, at least have mercy on our souls by imagining the late, kerrazy Bobby Fisher squaring off against Death from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey in a heated bout of Battleship.

Groundhog Day (dir. Harold Ramis)
Imagine a game that never really advances, no matter how many levels you pass. Even Bill Murray’s delightfully smug mug can’t get you through that existential crisis.

Apocalypse Now (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
The director already adapted his Godfather to the medium, so why milk one of his other great masterpieces? Because hearing lines about napalm and horrors and Disneyland isn’t nearly as fun as deploying pretend napalm, instigating imaginary horrors, and braving a fake Disneyland—in what would essentially be a hide-and-go-seek search for a kooky, melodramatic chubby dude with a God complex.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman (dir. Joel Schumacher)
An ennui-afflicted housewife begins to physically downsize after huffing a strange brew of chemicals. While looking for a cure, she assumes an infinitesimal size. As novel as it’d be to helm a game starring Lily Tomlin circa 1980, we’d rather tango with The Atom.

Zapped! (dir. Robert J. Rosenthal)
Show of hands: Who wants to recreate the pubescent shenanigans of the sexed-starved, telekinetic Chachi and/or Buddy Lembeck?

Cocoon (dir. Ron Howard)
Old folks carouse in a fountain of youth/swimming pool that’s fuelled by alien pods. Cute! That is, until your inept controller skills cause a geriatric to take a laser beam to the brain (hey, peaceful aliens don’t make for a compelling game). And that’s only one step worse than killing a defenseless baby, you bastard.

Zardoz (dir. John Boorman)
Now, don’t mistake us: battling foes whilst wearing a crimson linen bondage/sumo get-up totally sounds like a good time. The fact that most of those foes are complacent? Sort of a bummer. (Props to io9 compadre Graeme McMillan for this suggestion.)

Naked Lunch (dir. David Cronenberg)
I was going to single out Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on this list, but apparently the Powers That Be adapted the David Lynch TV show into a game a while back. (Truth be told, the riddling Log Lady as narrator or interstitial jigs from that midget dude could be nothing short of awesome.) So I instead turn to Naked Lunch, William Burroughs’ junkie musing about folks who get high off insecticide and start seeing giant bugs and stuff. How to play a mind-numbing game that revels in sensory overload but doesn’t make a lick of sense?

Plan 9 From Outer Space (dir. Ed Wood)
Yes, Konami made a Plan 9 game in ’92. But since hi-fi technology clearly has no place in the Ed Wood oeuvre, let’s learn from foolishness past.

Encino Man (dir. Les Mayfield)
Pauly Shore and Sean Astin find and defrost a frozen caveman! Then he gets a makeover. Aaaaaaand that’s pretty much it.

Vampire Novels for Your Post-Twilight Fix [Books]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:40:00 PST

Stephenie Meyer has put Midnight Sun, the fifth book in her Twilight series, on indefinite hold, meaning it could be a long time before Meyer addicts get their next dose of Edward and Bella. But bloodsuckers are rampant in modern fiction, from vampire detectives, hedonistic rockstars, and bloodthirsty children, to the Anne Rice brand of tragic immortal. We have a round up of modern vampire novels that will keep you knee deep in fangs long after Twilight’s glow is gone.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris: The basis for HBO’s True Blood, Harris’ novels, which start with Dead Until Dark, are told from the perspective of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic barmaid in smalltown Louisiana. After an artificial blood substitute allows vampires to subsist without feeding on humans, supernatural creatures start coming out of the woodwork. Sookie strikes up a relationship with the undead Bill Compton. But when murdered humans turn up and vampires go missing, Sookie has to use her telepathic abilities to solve the mysteries.

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton: Like Harris’ books, Hamilton’s 16 volume series exists in an America where vampires, werewolves, and other creatures have recently integrated into mainstream society. Anita Blake is a professional necromancer and licensed vampire hunter, but in Guilty Pleasures is blackmailed by the powerful vampire Nikolaos to solve vampire murders around the city of St. Louis. She starts working closely with another vampire, Jean-Claude, though, unlike Sookie, insists, “I don’t date vampires. I kill them.” That lasts about three books.

The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren Shan: Darren Shaw’s adventures begin with Cirque Du Freak, in which young Darren is taken in by a vampire circus owner and becomes his assistant. Darren must come to terms with his new life, learn about the vampires and their rival vampaneze, and becomes embroiled in a global vampire war.

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Landqvist: The inspiration for the other vampire movie currently in theaters, Let the Right One In follows Oskar, a lonely boy who endures the regular ministering of the local bullies. He befriends Eli, a child vampire. The tenderness of their relationship and the violence of Eli’s nature stand in sharp contrast with the gray and dismal Stockholm around them.

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite: A young man who calls himself simply “Nothing” never understood why he feels so different from everyone else, and runs away from his adoptive Maryland family to find himself. He falls in with a trio of vampires, realizes he is one himself, and goes on a sexed-up, pill-popping, blood drinking journey to find Nothing’s favorite band, the Lost Souls, an adventure that lands them all in that vampire mecca New Orleans.

Blood Books by Tanya Huff: Another series that has enjoyed the small screen treatment (in the form of Lifetime’s series Blood Ties), the Blood stars Henry Fitzroy, the bastard son of Henry the VIII, as its vampiric lead. Henry has set up a pleasant life for himself, working as a romance novelist and drinking blood from sexual partners of both genders. He forges an unlikely partnership with Vicki Nelson, an ex-cop-turned-private-eye who is slowly going blind. The pair team up to keep the streets of Toronto safe from demons, mummies, and any other supernatural beings that threaten the innocent,

Fledgling by Octavia Butler: For those who like a heap of science fiction and social commentary in their vampire novels, there’s the late Octavia Butler’s final novel. Amnesiac Shori appears to be a young African-American girl, but gradually learns that she is actually a decades old member of an ancient vampiric race. The novel explores issues of genetic engineering, race, and the various natures of familial and voluntary relationships.

Sunshine by Robin McKinnley: In an alternate Earth, a war with vampires has left human cities decimated and vampires in control of much of the world’s capital. One night, Sunshine, a young pastry chef, is kidnapped by a vampire gang and left as bait for Constantine, a rival vampire they have captured. But when Constantine refuses to feed on her, she frees them both, drawing upon a long-forgotten magic. When she returns home, she is unable to explain her trauma and the nature of her dangerous alliance with the vampire.

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld: Most of the vampiric creatures in Peeps and its sequel Last Days are demented monsters infected by a sexually transmitted parasite. But the protagonist, Cal Thompson, has a version of the parasite that lends him more traditional vampiric qualities. Unfortunately, he has to remain abstinate, lest he pass the monstrous infection to his partners.

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice: Stephenie Meyer’s romantic vampires certainly owe a great debt to Anne Rice. Although Rice doesn’t write about vampires anymore, preferring to focus her literary attentions on Christ, she helped pioneer the tragic, romantic vampire. In the past decade, she has published five volumes of The Vampire Chronicles, most featuring her most famous anti-hero, the vampire Lestat.

Kill Mickey Mouse in a Strange Game of Corporate Brand Slavery [Role Playing Games]

Ed Grabianowski — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:20:00 PST

You're a hard-working Rep for AwesomeTech Solutions (ATS), a global corporation that values creativity, the future, and nostalgia. Except it doesn't value any of those things, only profit. And they want you to assassinate Mickey Mouse. The skills to pull it off have been uploaded into your brain, but are you really willing to sell your soul for the good of the Brand? Of course you are! You're playing MSG.

MSG is a decidedly different sort of RPG created by some of the minds behind White Wolf's various supernatural-themed game systems. There is no randomness of any kind, and not a D20 to be found. Players play the roles of company Reps who all work for the soul-crushing Company in service of the Brand. Each player takes a turn playing the part of the company and throwing some kind of bizarre situation at the Reps, possibly incorporating some of the backstories the players came up with about themselves at the beginning of the game. Then the Reps decide what to do, try to earn points by working corporate buzz-words into their plans, then attempt to outbid the Company by taking a Risk with their reputation. Whoever wins the Risk narrates the outcome.

If it all sounds a little vague and confusing, keep in mind that this isn't a "Only 45,000 more XP until I can wield my Holy Avenger +19!" type of RPG. The point is really to make a mockery of soulless corporations and their often ruthless strategies, not to mention the soulless drones who do their bidding. At the same time, it mocks our own willingness to worship these brands and submit to the will of these companies, all while creating ludicrous scenarios that are maddeningly interconnected with the stories created in the previous round. Maybe this excerpt from the rule book explains it best:

Brainstorm for a couple of minutes until you come up with a name for the Brand [that all the players work for]. If some of you hate it — or, better, all of you hate it — that’s brilliant, because it means you’ll understand a little of what it is to work for an organization that makes you cringe every time you look in the mirror and see the Brand logo they tattooed on your forehead.

MSG (I'm not really sure about the title - it just makes me think "Madison Square Garden") is stuffed to the gills with black, black humor. In fact, it is clearly heavily inspired by the classic Paranoia RPG. Instead of living in a domed city with the Computer, you're stuck in a boardroom with the Company. You can beat the other Reps, but you can never beat the Company. If you're looking for a change of pace for your weekly game night, this game is worth a look. You can order it over at lulu.com, and you can even download it for free in pdf format (but only until Nov. 25). Image by: johnheronproject.

New Concept Art Shows James Cameron's Alien Warriors Sexier Than Expected [Avatar]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:00:00 PST

We've been waiting months for our first glimpse of the Na'vi, the aliens from James Cameron's new film Avatar. Too long have we subsisted on outlines and blurry set photos of our new alien pals. Well wait no more — in an interview with plan.siete, concept artist Jonay Bacallado revealed a handful of beautiful concept art that he had created for Avatar. Gallery is below.

If they're the real deal, these creatures are truly a nod towards the women warriors of old-school science fiction. We salute you, Cameron and Bacallado, for ushering back in the butt-kicking babe, be she alien or human.

Jonay Bacallado's artwork from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto was absolutely gorgeous, and his Avatar art is just as great. Now, I'm not even remotely fluent in Spanish, so there's a small chance that Bacallado was telling the interviewer that these were merely his interpretations of James Cameron's Avatar, but his vision jibes with what we've been seeing and reading, right down to the shoulder armor.

Cameron's Avatar tells the story of a planet called Pandora, where humans try to coexist with the local Na'vi race, with some difficulty. The scifi epic filmed in motion capture and stars Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. The release date is December 2009.

[Plan.Siete]