SCI FI Wire

Holy crap! New Moon earns $140.7M for best opening of year

SCI FI Wire Staff — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:29:42 -0500

The Twilight Saga: New Moon took in a whopping $140.7 million at the box office in its Nov. 20 weekend debut, the biggest-grossing movie opening of the year so far and the third-best opening weekend ever, just behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3, BoxOfficeMojo.com reported.

That's a lot of Twi-hards.

Medium's homage to They Live ... and who dies?

Kathie Huddleston — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:59:05 -0500

No one does high concept better than CBS' Medium, and the show comes up with another fun one tonight. Over Halloween, the psychic series took on the zombie flick Night of the Living Dead. Tonight, it's John Carpenter's sci-fi classic They Live. And while we won't see any aliens invading or star Roddy Rowdy Piper, the inspiration is there thanks to a special pair of sunglasses.

Imagine looking at someone and knowing exactly how long they have to live ... to the day. Even for someone with psychic abilities, like Medium's Allison Dubois, that kind of information is difficult to deal with. Especially when the number of someone you care about is about to be up. (Big spoilers ahead!)

Another Doctor Who special airdate and a sneak peek (video)

SCI FI Wire Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:56:56 -0500

BBC America announced another airdate for the last of David Tennant's Doctor Who specials today: "The End of Time, Part One" airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Dec. 26, followed by part two at a date to be announced soon.

Following is a sneak-peek clip from the special, after which you can read the full official announcement.

The hottest stories and best comments of the week

SCI FI Wire Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0500

Here's a list of our hottest stories and best comments this week (and your comments about the man who taught his son Klingon before he taught him English got quite heated) in case you missed anything. Think of it as a DVR for SCI FI Wire.

Enjoy!

Critics whine, but New Moon outdraws Dark Knight

Patrick Lee — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:25:41 -0500

Take that, critics, part two: The Twilight Saga: New Moon set a new midnight opening record with $26.27 million from 3,514 theaters last night, surpassing the opening nights of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($22.2 million) and The Dark Knight ($18.4 million), Summit Entertainment reported.

The Dark Knight!

Cool Avatar promotion brings your Coke can to life

DVICE Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0500

Now that the super-animated almost-real movie Avatar is about to roll out (in theaters 12/18/09), here come the advertisers with spectacular new types of techno-toys to accompany the flick. For instance, if you hold a tricky Coke Zero can up to your webcam, it sprouts a controllable helicopter. Click the frame above to see a video of that. Hey, this looks like fun. This augmented reality (AR) juju will, be plastered on 140 million bottle-shaped cans, some 30 million fridge packs, as well as bags, bottles, popcorn bags and fountain drink cups.

You'll also be able to pick up a card at McDonald's that you hold in front of your webcam, and when you go to an Avatar-branded website, out pops an animation that looks like a real mechanical toy. There will be playable games associated with these controllable 3D animations, offered as bonuses with Big Macs and Happy Meals at the Micky-D fast feeder.

Sick of Twilight? Daybreakers brings back the blood

SCI FI Wire Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:58:10 -0500

We've got the new trailer and a few stills (in the gallery below) for Daybreakers, the upcoming sci-fi-ish vampire movie from Undead creators Peter and Michael Spierig.

News briefs: Brad Pitt's Dark Void; Underworld 4

SCI FI Wire Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:30:00 -0500

Brad Pitt is developing a feature film based on the Dark Void computer game as a potential franchise and starring vehicle for the actor, Variety reported; Dark Void follows a pilot who crash-lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission and finds himself in an alternate world resembling a primitive Earth where aliens with superior technology are planning to take over civilization.
...

In sexy new video, Heroes' 'Claire' bathes in champagne

SCI FI Wire Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:21:31 -0500

She can lead a cheer, she's indestructible, she saves whales and apparently Hayden Panettiere—Claire on NBC's Heroes—really, really likes champagne and assault weapons, at least according to this arty video and image from professional photographer Tyler Shields, below.

Rob Zombie on monsters, Beavis & Butthead and his new film (video)

Staci Layne Wilson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500

And now for something completely different: Musician-filmmaker-shock-auteur Rob Zombie talks about The Magical World of El Superbeasto, his new animated horror musical movie, and about movies and, frankly, we're not quite sure what the heck he's talking about.

The big TV miniseries coming from the Stevens: Spielberg and King

SCI FI Wire Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:27:13 -0500

Here's a TV miniseries we'd see: Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Stephen King's new sci-fi/horror novel Under the Dome.

Variety reports that Spielberg and King will develop a limited series based on King's just-released book; DreamWorks TV has optioned the book and is looking to set it up as an event series, likely for cable:

With this new role, Sam Worthington becomes sci-fi's go-to guy

SCI FI Wire Staff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:12:54 -0500

Sam Worthington is rapidly becoming the guy for sci-fi/fantasy epics. First Terminator Salvation, next Avatar, then Clash of the Titans, and now comes news that he's going to star in The Last Days of American Crime, based on a comic book.

Like angst and Muppety werewolves? Then you'll love New Moon!

Fred Topel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

New Moon is a good production for fans of the material. If you're not into the Twilight books, it's still the same source material, so there's not much they can do to help you there. It's better to look at than the Twilight film, though.

Picking up with Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson)'s tragic relationship, the film restates Bella's low self-esteem. She doesn't think she's worthy of Edward, so he constantly reassures her that he's the one who's lucky to be with her. But he just wants her to live a natural human life, so he thinks it's best if he leaves her. Jacob (Taylor Lautner) steps in to console her in her depression, but he's a werewolf. At least there's something strong to protect Bella when Victoria (Rachel Lefevre) comes after her.

Why you won't want to bother landing on Planet 51

Todd Gilchrist — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0500

Going into movies with no expectations can occasionally be a good thing. You get to enjoy that sense of discovery, the feeling that without any encouragement or provocation you "found" something and can now tell other people about it.

Unfortunately, that sometimes also speaks to the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of a film's promotion, and I have to admit that writing this introduction was my first impulse when thinking about Planet 51, even before I saw it, not least because prior to sitting in the theater I saw no previews or trailers for it and had no idea what it was about or whether there was any chance I might like it.

The flip side of having no expectations is that sometimes you discover you were right not to build something up too much—which is definitely the case with this particular movie. A poorly animated, poorly conceived, utterly predictable science fiction adventure without a single shred of originality, Planet 51 is not only one of the year's worst films, but a depressing pastiche that reminds those both with and without expectations that there are countless greater movies one could and should be watching, especially when ones like this try to steal their best and most memorable parts and try to make them their own.

Got the Star Trek Blu-ray? Did you find this R2-D2 cameo?

SCI FI Wire Staff — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:10:00 -0500

Don't know about you, but one of the first things we did when we got our hands on the Star Trek Blu-ray this week was to go straight to the scene of the first attack by the Narada on Starfleet vessels to see if we could spot the rumored cameo by Star Wars' R2-D2.