Interviews

If there's a single thing in Avatar that everyone can agree on, it's the fantastic motion-capture performance from actress Zoe Saldana (as Neytiri). Virtually unrecognizable in her Na'vi alien body, Saldana inhabits the role in a way that we really haven;t seen since Andy Serkis broke new ground by playing Gollum in Lord of the Rings. It's one of the best female performances of the year, providing heart and soul to a massive, FX-heavy film, but likely to be overlooked come awards season.

Sci-fi is rarely considered an actor's medium, and Saldana is almost invisible under millions of dollars of CG-rendering, but she's not letting it get her down. She told the Boston Herald, "I wish there were more genres in which women can have more opportunities to be presented as what we are - complex creatures. We also have journeys. We can be the heroes and we can save everything. We can also be vulnerable and we can be saved as well - all in one person."

Saldana is having a great year in science-fiction, joining the cast of Star Trek as Uhura before gaining attention with her role in Avatar. Does she worry about being typecast? "I wouldn't mind actually. Look what it did to Sigourney's career."

Forget Avatar. John Cusack's Hot Tub Time Machine is shaping up to be the must-see sci-fi flick of 2010.

OK, so maybe it's not a "true" sci-fi flick -- it's a sci-fi comedy ala Ghostbusters or Back to the Future. So what? This thing's got a great cast, including Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover, it name-drops Stargate and Terminator in its first trailer, and it's about a frakkin' Hot Tub Time Machine!

Star/producer Cusack recently chatted with io9 about the upcoming comedy, which also stars Clark Duke, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry as booze-addled buddies who travel back in time to the '80s. Cusack didn't match the enthusiasm of screenwriter Josh Heald, who called HTTM "the greatest gift anyone's ever given the world," but he promised it would be loaded with sex, drugs and '80s jokes.

"... We are cutting the film right now. But it's about four guys who go back to the 1980s," Cusack said. "... you know it's the 80s, it's got drugs and sex and all the things that you know..."

When J.J. Abrams' first Star Trek film came about, it was hand-in-hand with a lot of flack from the William Shatner camp. The original Captain Kirk was not thrilled about being excluded while Leonard Nemoy's Spock held a pretty important role in the film. But while his insistence was considered inconceivable for the first installment, now there's word that Kirk, and possibly Spock, will reunite in #2. And we're not talking about Chris Pine's Kirk. During a press day for the DVD and Blu-ray release of Star Trek, Cinematical talked with Abrams about the whole Kirk kerfuffle and what could happen in the sequel.

On Kirk's Absence
"As someone who was a William Shatner fan... it was a foregone conclusion that we wanted Shatner in the movie. The problem was that his character died, on screen, in one of the Trek films, and because we decided, very early on, that we wanted to adhere to Trek canon as best we could. [That] was a huge challenge, because even the original series, in many ways, didn't always adhere to Trek canon, [so] the required machinations to get Shatner into the movie would have been very difficult to do, given the story we wanted to tell, and also to give him the kind of part that he would be happy with. It was this thing where it would have felt like a gimmick in order to get Shatner in the movie, which would have honestly, to me, been distracting. [But] how do you put him in the movie when you want him in it so badly, and yet the story actually seems in counter purposes with the story you want to tell?"

But something cleared up because ...

J.J Abrams, director of this summer's blockbuster relaunch of the Star Trek film series, told reporters that the forthcoming follow-up will, like its predecessor, both appeal to nonfans and reward those familiar with the long-running franchise. "Whatever the story is and whatever the final movie ends up being, I know it will be something that will work on its own terms and be something that you don't need to know and study Star Trek to get," Abrams said in a press conference Thursday afternoon. "But if you are a fan, there will hopefully be gift after gift of connections, references, characters that you hold near and dear. At least, that's the intent."

Cinematical spoke to Abrams at a press day for the DVD and Blu-ray release of Star Trek, which is due November 17, 2009. The following is an edited version of Abrams' comments to the press about the sequel, which is currently being developed by the director and his original screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

Since you were able to wipe the slate clean with your prequel, do you plan to come up with something completely original, or is there a possibility you will reference some of the existing creatures or races in the next installment?

By Kevin Kelly

Cory McAbee is not your average indie filmmaker. He's more of a self-taught Renaissance man who paints, writes, composes music, and also directs mind-bending films. At Sundance earlier this year, I had a slot to fill in my schedule and I thought Stingray Sam sounded interesting. Science fiction meets the Western? Sign me up.

What I didn't know was that I would be treated to a bizarre musical that was sliced up into a serialized format, complete with dance numbers, elaborate 60-second long handshakes between partners, and social commentary on everything from the U.S. prison system to tobacco companies. It's great stuff, and the songs will stick with you long after the movie ends.

Cory is no stranger to film festivals, having been at Sundance with three different films. I spoke with Cory at Fantastic Fest, where he was screening Stingray Sam. Check out the full interview after the break.

Jonathan Mostow is one of the "that guys" of the directing world: you almost always recognize his handiwork, but you're not quite sure who he is, because his films maintain a more assertive sense of themselves than they do of him (and we mean that as a compliment). Although he did some smaller films before then, 1997's Breakdown was his calling card as a filmmaker, and contained all of the elements that would signify something made by him – namely, an interesting idea that was executed with mastery of form and a comfortable grasp on genre conventions. Subsequently he directed the submarine thriller U-571 and Terminator 3, and his latest, Surrogates, is another example of high-concept storytelling streamlined to maximize its entertainment potential.

Cinematical recently sat down with Mostow in Los Angeles for an exclusive interview about the ins and outs of the film, which follows Bruce Willis as a cop investigating a murder in a futuristic society where humankind interacts through android proxies of themselves, called surrogates. In addition to explaining the film's world and surrogates' place within it, Mostow talked about his technique as a director marrying interesting ideas to effective storytelling, and reflected on his expansive career both as a director and producer.

Cinematical: What is the point of the surrogates for the people in this film? How does it revolutionize their lives?

Like Peter Cullen, the actor who provides the voice for his on screen adversary, Optimus Prime, Frank Welker is a bona fide icon of the voice recording world. Not just because he has more than four decades of work and 600 individual credits to his name. Not just because yes, he provided the voice for Megatron, one of the most famous villains in cartoon history. Rather, it's because people know and identify him just from his voice, which may run contrary to the idea of actors disappearing into their roles, but it demonstrates that what he does is so distinctive and special it transcends the limitations of the medium.

SciFi Squad recently caught up with Welker via email to discuss his illustrious history in voice recording, in conjunction with Shout! Factory's Sept. 15 DVD release of Transformers Season Two, Volume One. In addition to talking about bringing Megatron to life, he talks about the technical and creative challenges of voice work, and reflects on a few of the roles that linger in the memories of movie and TV fans long after the characters left the screen.

SciFi Squad: I'll start with the obvious first: How did you get into voice acting, and by the time you performed on Transformers, was your work as Megatron initially just another job or was the process of getting the role distinctive in your career?

It will have been 28 years after the original Tron when Tron: Legacy arrives, but the nearly three-decade gap hasn't dulled Steven Lisberger's enthusiasm for the project. He wrote and directed the first movie, spending much of his own money in the development process, until he and his team finally found a studio to say yes. Even after that, it wasn't easy getting the movie made. People were skeptical about using computers to do special effects, and, in the end, Tron failed to win a special effects Oscar ... because the Academy said they "cheated" by using computers. Oh, the irony.

These days, Lisberger more closely resembles The Dude, Jeff Bridges' character in The Big Lebowski. He has long hair, a bushy goatee, and a very laid-back attitude about life. He doesn't give short, bite-sized, media-ready answers that the internet loves, but instead he takes the time to pause and give thoughtful answers to questions both simple and complicated. Read on after the break for the full interview, where he compares Tron: Legacy to the Wright brothers' flight attempts.

At Comic-Con, legends come a dime a dozen, and those are just the ones on the printed pages of the comics on the exhibition hall floor. But in Hall H, the epicenter of the convention's surprises, revelations and exclusives, true groundbreakers and history-makers are in comparatively short supply. This year, however, there were several, including James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Hayao Miyazaki, and Terry Gilliam; but even in such rarified company, Tim Burton stands head and shoulder above in terms of providing memorable, specific, and ongoing inspiration to the folks who like to look up at these filmmakers' latest projects.

Suffice it to say that a checklist of his most iconic films would be redundant, since virtually all of them qualify, either because of their source material, or his interpretation of it. But the filmmaker has two high-profile projects coming out in the next year or so, each of which applies his inventive style in different ways: first, there's 9, Shane Acker's computer-generated post-apocalyptic odyssey, which Burton is producing; and in 2010, there's Alice in Wonderland, his adaptation of the classic novel by Lewis Carroll.

In between Hall H panels, Cinematical caught up with Burton to discuss his work on 9 and Alice in Wonderland. In addition to talking about the technological opportunities and challenges presented on both films, he offered a few secrets about the forthcoming spectacle of Alice, and reflected on the filmmaking style – and substance – that has made his idiosyncratic body of work a happy home for outsiders and mainstream audiences alike.

Torchwood: Children of Earth is a huge hit in the U.K. The miniseries event has garnered the saucy Doctor Who spin-off its biggest audience and best reviews to date. The fun comes to the U.S. next week when BBC America airs the first episode of the five-part miniseries on July 20. The network will follow the UK's broadcasting model, airing Children of Earth for five consecutive sci-fi filled nights.

Chris Jancelewicz of AOL Canada talked to Torchwood creator Russell T. Davies about the miniseries and how this version of the show works on a more international level. Here are some highlights from the interview:

Davies on the epic scope of Children of Earth:

"I wanted it to be a big event. In Britain, it was moving to BBC1, the biggest channel in the country. They wanted to show it across the week, from Monday to Friday. The stakes were high, and I knew I had to make a big impact. I also wanted it to work on an international level, but again, relating it to the domestic story as well - the government, the police, the Army. Then there's America, the United Nations...that's the world, but you're still talking to people in their living rooms, their kitchens. Ordinary lives being changed by huge decisions.

Big events like all the children being affected, and the invasion of Species 456...truly exciting and terrifying. Writ large, yes. But I think I had something to say about the world, and I think that's the point."