Tag: science fiction

Hidden in a basement somewhere in Los Angeles, a woman named Maggie leads a group of devout white-clad followers. A journalist and his girlfriend infiltrate the cult and investigate Maggie’s alleged past – or future, rather: She claims to be from the year 2054. The premise is the setup for the new Fox Searchlight film “Sound of My Voice,” starring Brit Marling and directed by Zal Batmanglij, who together wrote the script for the cryptic thriller. The movie, which opened in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., last week,  is the first in a small wave of projects to explore the notion of time travel on the big screen this year. Due in June is another time-bending indie, “Safety Not Guaranteed,” and the fall will bring “Looper,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hit man in the near future whose ...

The acclaimed SyFy show “Battlestar Galactica” aired its final episode nearly two years ago but the deep-space (and deep-thinking) epic was still echoing at WonderCon, the pop-culture expo that opened Friday in Anaheim. The first day of the convention featured two Q&A sessions devoted to the show, one with Richard Hatch, who acted in both the original 1978 series and the re-imagined SyFy series that launched in 2004. The other panel featured Kevin Grazier, the scientific advisor for the more recent show. Grazier, who worked for a time at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, got a foothold in the entertainment business when he co-wrote a ”Star Trek: Voyager” spec script that got him in the pitch process at Paramount. That led to a meeting with “Battlestar” co-creator Ron Moore and, eventually, a gig as scientific advisor. More recently, he’s been a hired brain for Alfonso Cuarón’s ...

What if Clark Kent, Peter Parker or Erik Lehnsherr had been part of the Facebook generation? That’s the premise behind “Chronicle,” a found-footage film from new director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis (son of monster movie icon John Landis), opening in theaters this weekend. “Chronicle” follows three teenagers who receive telekinetic powers after a supernatural encounter, but what they do with their newfound superpower is hardly heroic. Critics are heralding the arrival of fresh talent in Trank and lead actor Dane DeHaan, and praising the film, which stands at 84% on RottenTomatoes.com. Hero Complex writer Noelene Clark chatted with Trank about “Chronicle,” telekinesis and what it means to be a teenager in the YouTube age. NC: How did “Chronicle” come about? JT: I’ve always wanted to make movies my whole life. And for about 10 years or so, I’ve been shooting ...

Kirsten Dunst delivered the most famous upside-down smooch in film history in 2002’s “Spider-Man” and now, a decade later, she’s going  back to head-over-heels romance  with a topsy-turvy fantasy movie called “Upside Down.” The “Melancholia” actress co-stars with Jim Sturgess in a movie about forbidden love within a fantastical setting – the meeting point between two worlds that exist and face each other like stacked skylines, each with a gravity that keeps their inhabitants rooted on their side. Sturgess plays Adam, a man of humble origins who falls for Dunst’s character, a girl from the affluent upper world. Take a look at the trailer below — or is that above? French distributor Canal released this first trailer for the film. Shot in Montreal and directed by Argentina-born filmmaker Juan Diego Solanas, “Upside Down” doesn’t have a U.S. distributor lined up yet. – Emily Rome RECENT AND RELATED ‘The ...

The new science fiction film “In Time” is predicated on a single high-concept: In the near future, aging ends at 25. Beyond that, people have one year left to live, their remaining time is displayed on a bioluminescent watch on their arms. With time serving as currency in this new world, the wealthy are essentially immortal, while the poor typically live day to day, struggling to earn more time to stay alive. The conceit sprung from the mind of writer-director Andrew Niccol, who explored similar territory with his 1997 feature debut, “Gattaca,” which presented a world in which the genetically gifted constitute the world’s upper class. The filmmaker freely acknowledges the connection between the films — referring to “In Time” as “‘Gattaca’ revisited” — but he said his latest feature, which opens in theaters Friday, afforded him an opportunity to ...

Bryan Singer’s “Battlestar Galactica” movie has its screenwriter — John Orloff, who also wrote the Roland Emmerich Shakespeare thriller opening next week, “Anonymous.” “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna frak it up,” said Orloff in an interview, of his take on the storied sci-fi franchise, which “X-Men” director Singer is set to direct for Universal Pictures. “I have a pretty radical take,” Orloff said, declining to offer more details about his treatment of the long-gestating, secrecy-shrouded project. “Battlestar Galactica,” about a human civilization warring with a cybernetic race on a group of distant planets known as the 12 Colonies, began as a short-lived 1970s TV show and has evolved to include comic books, novels, video games and the cult hit Ronald D. Moore series that ran on Syfy from 2004 to 2009. A long time “Battlestar” fan, Orloff has an eclectic ...

MGM’s 1956 sci-fi classic “Forbidden Planet” was an anomaly for the Hollywood dream factory that was known for its lush Technicolor musicals, adaptations of literary works and star-driven dramas and comedies. It represented the studio’s first foray into the sci-fi genre. “It was rare enough that any of the major studios made sci-fi,” said Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt (“Star Wars,” “Wall-E”), who saw the film as a boy in 1956. Burtt and Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Craig Barron (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) are hosting a sold-out digital screening of “Forbidden Planet” Saturday evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Linwood Dunn Theater. Before the movie, the two will discuss the secrets behind its production. The event also kicks off a free exhibition in the lobby of the Linwood Dunn, “Forbidden Planet: Artifacts from the ...

Fox canceled Joss Whedon‘s 2002 television series “Firefly” after a meager14 episodes were produced, but you can’t take the sky away from this space Western — the series maintains a cult following among “Browncoats,” the fans who have taken the series to U.S. Navy ships and even outer space. Fans were disappointed when the show’s big-screen sequel, “Serenity,” didn’t spark the prayed-for second season. Now, Capt. Malcolm Reynolds and his ragged, vagabond crew are back on television on Discovery‘s Science Channel — and while there aren’t new adventures, Science is the first channel to roll out all 14 episodes in the proper order, “the way Joss had intended it,” as a Discovery spokeswoman puts it. The season finale airs May 29. Our Noelene Clark caught up with “Firefly” and “Serenity” cast member Summer Glau, who played River Tam, the ship’s ...

On the sliding scale of science fiction believability, with could-happen-tomorrow scenarios like “The Andromeda Strain” on one end and total fantasy like “Star Wars” on the other, two sci-fi films currently in theaters, “Limitless” and “Source Code,” land squarely on the plausible end. But how realistic are they? Scientists say both movies are currently fantasy, but advances in science mean they could be reality sooner than we think. Beware: minor spoilers lie ahead. “Limitless” presents a wish-fulfillment fantasy, starring Bradley Cooper as a failed writer who discovers the incredible joys (and sinister side effects) of an untested pharmaceutical drug called NZT-48 that opens up parts of his brain he’s never utilized before. He can process unlimited streams of data and multitask like a high-end supercomputer. He can earn a fortune playing the stock market in a single afternoon and still ...