Sci-Fi Squad Sci-Fi Movies, News, Trailers, DVDs and More

The latest legal wrangling around film rights and intellectual property has to do with the Mortal Kombat franchise.

Threshold Entertainment has filed a new breach of contract lawsuit against Warner Bros., according to THR, Esq., the Hollywood Reporter law blog, Threshold is contending that Warners "has avoided communicating with Threshold and has in bad faith prevented Threshold from utilizing the interest they have" in the franchise.

THR, Esq. states that Warners bought the property as part of its acquisition of Midway Games, which is now bankrupt. Threshold contends that because they had developed the characters and mythology, it received a "significant" portion of the rights, including a third picture. One suit had already been resolved over the rights, before news got out about Oren Uziel being attached as a screenwriter without involving Threshold.

The folks at Threshold are irked enough to seek punitive damages, specifically "an amount which, considering Warner's enormous worldwide wealth and income, is sufficient to punish Warner, to set an example and to deter further such wrongful behavior."

While Warners isn't commenting, it seems like Threshold is ready for some legal Mortal Kombat.

SXF, the Brit Sci Fi Fantasy mag, has announced their awards. And why should you care? Because it's a very interesting list. The magazine announced the awards at their annual convention earlier this month. Curious as to what they think about science fiction on the other side of the pond? Not surprisingly, it's brit heavy, but it's still interesting. Here are the sci-fi highlights:

Best Film Director: JJ Abrams (Star Trek)
Best TV Episode: Torchwood "Children Of Earth" Episode Five
Best Actress: Eve Myles (Torchwood)
Best Actor: David Tennant (Doctor Who)
Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Best Comic: Batman: Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader? Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert
Best Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady)
Best Collectible: The Journal of Impossible Things (Doctor Who)

Hope for the Future: Steven Moffat (succeeding Russell T. Davies on Dr. Who)
Lifetime Award: Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, UFO, Space 1999, Terrahawks and much more)
Cult Hero: Ianto Jones (Actor Gareth David Lloyd on Torchwood)
Sci-Fi Phenomenon: True Blood (they've only seen season 1)

Unfortunately, some of the most interesting categories are not available online, such as the Best Death Scene, Biggest Disappointment, and Best Dialogue. But my favorite award up there is easily Gerry Anderson. Not only did his work influence the SFX team as children, it made me very nostalgic.

PopSci went to the 107th American International Toy Fair in New York, and they found some creepy toys.

A Barbie with a video in her chest masked as a... necklace? It's downright creepy. Other toys in their picture gallery include a Blazor raptor robot, a gyro wheel, a rapid fire marshmallow blaster, a UFO that dangles from a nearly invisible kevlar string, a puppy tweet device that interprets fido's activities, and much, much more.

But the best ever is a Lego edition of Han Solo frozen in Carbonite from the The Empire Strikes Back, just in time for the 30th anniversary of the second film in the Star Wars saga. OK, it's episode 5, but it was the second film we could see.

Check out more images from the 2010 Toy Fair over at Pop-Sci's Toy Fair gallery. So who's picking one of these up for their desk?

Steven Soderbergh already secured Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard for his sci-fi outing, but he's adding more star power by signing up Gwyneth Paltrow too, according to several online sources.

Contagion is a thriller about a worst case scenario viral outbreak and the attempts to contain it. The film is not yet in full production, but is expected to be later this year, with an anticipated release sometime in 2011. Deadline Hollywood reports that Warner Bros. just beat out several other studios for the rights to distribute.

Soderbergh (The Girlfriend Experience, Oceans 11) is directing and co-producing along with Gregory Jacobs, who has worked with Soderbergh on several films. Also co-producing are Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, who have worked on several projects together, including Erin Brockovich, Extraordinary Measures). The screenplay was written by Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, The Bourne Ultimatum). Participant Media is involved with funding the anticipated $60 million budget.

Between the acting creds and the X factor, it's probably one of the prettiest casts in an apocalyptic film in a long time. And Participant has a reputation for backing provocatively smart scripts, so this is looking like a sci-fi film to follow.

A big selling point for Avatar is the 3D images, but in Seoul, it's showing in 4D.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, multiplex chain CJ-CGV has shown ten films in 4D in the last year in one theater. Despite the higher ticket cost ($15.80 versus the average ticket price of $6.90), the 4D shows regularly sells out.

The 4D effect includes moving seats similar to D-Box, as well as odors such as explosives, water sprinkles, laser light, and wind. Ten films have been shown in 4D so far in the last year, starting with Journey to the Center of the Earth. Avatar's "ride" includes 30 effects. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is also scheduled to be shown in 4D.

4D seating is currently available in the US from D-Box seats in regular theaters that shake rattle and roll, to Technifex 4D theater seats which can incorporate air movement, but they seem to be limited to theaters in museums and amusement parks. More complex 4D technology that incorporates not only chair and air movement, but fragrance and water has been used in India since 2006, with the first in Mumbai, and the most recent opening in Chennai in December.

Would you be interested in watching movies in 4D, or are you still not convinced on 3D?

Avatar may be the top grossing film, but it's been linked with several controversies, the latest having to do with funding.

Previously, the plot was considered very similar to Poul Anderson's Call Me Joe and the concept art eerily resembles that of music album artist Roger Dean's work. But now, the finances are in question as allegations that Ingenious Media is being investigated for involvement in an alleged tax avoidance scheme.

According to the reports, a fund used to benefit the film industry gave "undue tax benefits." Patrick McKenna of Ingenious Media raised approximately $7.8 billion for films over the past decade, including James Cameron's Avatar. Inland Revenue, the U.K. tax agency, suggests that the fund intentionally avoids taxes and therefore is illegal. McKenna contests the allegations, and reportedly has told investors that the UK tax revenue agency Inland Revenue's interpretation of the issue is wrong in law.

The western space musical Stingray Sam has been available for purchase online for some time, but now the soundtrack is available, so you can sing about "Fredward" to your heart's delight.

The episodic adventures of Stingray Sam and his old pal the Quasar Kid take them across the galaxy as they search for a kidnapped girl. In glorious black and white, Stingray Sam has the sensibilities of early serials with deceptively simple musical numbers.

Slyly smart and with a big heart, the Stingray Sam soundtrack is infectious to the point some audiences end up singing along during screenings. At Fantastic Fest it was not uncommon to hear people randomly singing "Stingray Sam is not a hero, but he does do the things that folks don't do that need to be done," and not just star Cory McAbee.

McAbee, who directed and co-produced with Bobby Lurrie, is still on the festival circuit with the film. The soundtrack is available on the Stingray Sam website as well as the film itself.

Over 2,000 people braved snowy weather to attend the Berlin Film Festival's special screening of a new cut of the classic silent film, Metropolis. And with that enthusiastic response to the sold out event, Metropolis is getting another theatrical release.

Two years ago, three reels of missing scenes were found in a Buenos Aires cinema museum. The footage was verified by German film historians as authentic shortly afterward, and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation spent the last two years restoring the film to it's original 150 minutes. The last time the uncut version was seen was May 1927.

Fritz Lang's 1927 avant garde dystopian class struggle was groundbreaking film technically as well as visually. Unfortunately, it was not received well by audiences when it first released, resulting in cuts after dismal box office receipts.

While it was assumed that the 25 minutes of footage were left on the cutting room floor, at least one uncut version made it's way to South America because an Argentinian distributor preferred the original cut. Instead of meeting a contractual obligation to destroy the print after it's theatrical run, he handed it off to a critic. The tale of the missing reels seems worthy enough of a film itself.

Despite being an initial box office failure, it is an undeniable classic, with new fans discovering Metropolis every generation. (In 1984 a colorized version with a rock soundtrack featuring the likes of Freddy Mercury and Pat Benatar was the last time it saw theatrical re-release.) Dieter Kosslick, festival director of the Berlin Film Festival, said that Metropolis has screened seven times at the festival since 1951. Only now the too-familiar disclaimer of missing scenes can be removed.

According to Ain't it Cool News, it's getting a theatrical release as well as a DVD/Blu-Ray release for the holidays.

The shorts and panels for SXSW Film Festival and Conference have been announced, and there's still more items of interest for sci-fi geeks with an interest in future trends.

While there are 80 panels to choose from, there are five panels of particular interest, including A Conversation with Kick-Ass cast and crew, as well as creator Mark Millar. Adria Richards of But You're a Girl blog discusses "How Sci-Fi Shaped the Internet." Two 3D related panels include the succinctly titled "3DIY" as well as "3D Stereoscopic Production Tools, Production and Post." And lastly, Lee Clancy of IMVU, Inc. discusses "Artists, Labels Embrace Virtual Worlds."

Now, it's harder to tell you precisely just how many sci fi shorts are among the 130 shorts that will play in shorts programs or with feature films, but two things stand out. "Mnemosyne Rising" by director Miguel Alvarez is clearly a sci-fi film as it's protagonist is a deep-space transmitter pilot plagued with unusual flashbacks when he learns he's being sent back to Earth.

And the "FutureStates" program is specifically about America of the future, and includes elements of speculative and science fiction. The shorts include things like global warming, housing and the housing market, a lost plastic bag, subsidized surrogacy, and border patrol.

SXSW Film Festival and Conference runs March 12-20 in Austin, TX. Sci Fi Squad will be there and will bring you all the sci fi news from the festival.

I couldn't bring myself to call most of these classics, and, in fact, one is a docudrama, not science fiction, but it's about the space program, so it's an honorable mention. Now, all of these titles are out on DVD, but if you are converting as much of your collection to Blu, or want to keep abreast of titles you might not have in your film library, many are already available for pre-order.

February 23, 2010
The Crazies (1973) -- Just three days before the theatrical release of Breck Eisner's adaptation of George Romero's creeper about an attempt to quarantine a town.

March 09, 2010
Tremors (1990) -- Kevin Bacon versus mutant worms It's a cult classic.

April 06, 2010
Cocoon (1985) -- Wild and crazy senior citizens break into a pool, and end up feeling like they discovered the fountain of youth. Don Ameche, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and more star in the Ron Howard hit.

Dreamscape (1984) -- Government project, psychics, and conspiracies; sounds like a Stephen King plot, but it isn't. Starring Dennis Quaid, Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer.

April 13, 2010
Apollo 13 (1995) -- You think the release date is a coincidence?

April 20, 2010
Minority Report (2002) Steven Spielberg at the helm of an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story, with Tom Cruise headlining.

April 27, 2010
Armageddon (1998) -- It's fun enough that I enthusiastically suspended my disbelief while a bunch of crusty drillers go into space to save the world. And J.J. Abrams worked on the screenplay

Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) -- Troma's nuclear waste infested high school is quite ridiculous, I know, but it is a sci-fi premise.

Dune (1984) -- David Lynch and 80's style sensibilities take on the first book in Frank Herbert's Dune Series.