blade runner

So you want to write a science fiction novel? Here's what you got to do. It's got to take place in a future that isn't too unrecognizable from our own. You've got to have the whole world run by a single government, hopefully corrupt and maybe a little evil. It's got to be some sort of dystopia. You've seen Blade Runner, right? Oh, your protagonist must be troubled assassin being forced to do a job by the system. And if you can work in some spiritual commentary, that's icing on the cake.

To be fair, I haven't read Jeff Somers' Electric Church series. For all I know, they could be masterpieces of science fiction literature, undiscovered by the mainstream and awaiting future recognition. After all, Sony has picked up the rights to the series and is surely hoping for a potential franchise (there are three published books and a fourth on the way).

Then I read the synopsis: "Avery Cates is a bodyguard-assassin who, in "Church," is forced by the governing police force to kill the founder of a church that converts people by transplanting their brains into pliant robotic bodies." I would love for someone who has read this series to jump into the comments below and tell me this is a unique, exciting book worthy of being made into a unique, exciting movie. I hate to be cynical this early in the game, but that plot description is one Space Marine away from science fiction vanilla.

Trevor Sands is scripting, Jimmy Miller is producing.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Even casual science fiction fans will know that Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner (often argued as being the best science fiction film ever made) was an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. What most might not know is that Dick, who was a staunch opponent of any such adaptation, suffered a stroke and was taken off life support 4 months before the movie was released in 1982. Though the author never got a chance to see Scott's final vision for the material, he was able to view a couple special effects sequences from the film 5 months prior to his death. He came away an immediate convert.

Thanks to the great blog Letters of Note, we can all share in his enthusiasm as they have reprinted a letter Dick wrote to the producers of Blade Runner. An excerpt:

"Jeff, after looking --and especially after listening to Harrison Ford discuss the film-- I came to the conclusion that this indeed is not science fiction; it is not fantasy; it is exactly what Harrison said: futurism. The impact of BLADE RUNNER is simply going to be overwhelming, both on the public and on creative people -- and, I believe, on science fiction as a field. Since I have been writing and selling science fiction works for thirty years, this is a matter of some importance to me. In all candor I must say that our field has gradually and steadily been deteriorating for the last few years. Nothing that we have done, individually or collectively, matches BLADE RUNNER. This is not escapism; it is super realism, so gritty and detailed and authentic and goddam convincing that, well, after the segment I found my normal present-day "reality" pallid by comparison. "

High praise, indeed. Read the rest of the letter right here.

This week finally sees the release of Youth in Revolt, the film version of C.D. Payne's 1993 novel. Considering the book's length (about 500 pages), director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Gustin Nash faced the unenviable task of deciding what should remain and what should be excised. How do you make a 90-minute film that pleases the novel's legion of fans while remaining accessible to a larger audience that has never read it?

It's a challenge familiar to sci-fi fans. We've probably all experienced that moment of utter disbelief that a favorite story or novel has been twisted and mangled beyond recognition. But when the filmmakers get it right, honoring the spirit and creating a work that lives apart from its inspiration, it's magical. Regrettably, I don't read as many novels nowadays as in my earlier years, so I've never read the source material for some of my favorite science fiction films (e.g. Children of Men, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Planet of the Apes). Still, it was difficult to narrow my choices down to just ten. Here's what I ended up with: a list of my ten favorite sci-fi adaptations. What are yours?

1. Slaughterhouse-Five
Screenwriter Stephen Geller took on a near-impossible job, adapting Kurt Vonnegut's wondrous novel, which was inspired by Vonnegut's real-life experiences during World War II. Oddly enough, George Roy Hill's direction is as sprightly as you'd expect from the man whose previous film was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Yet Hill's jaunty approach was exactly the right way to capture the spirit, the basic trajectory, and much of the flavor of the novel, producing a picture that feels both tied to the year in which it was released (1972) and transcendent of time and place.

Sci fi is sexy, and savvy gadget marketers know that using a name referencing science fiction classics will give it mileage that it might not otherwise get. Only Google may have mis-stepped by using a Blade Runner reference without securing permissions, and the phone went on sale yesterday.

"Nexus One" is an apparent reference to the cyborgs in the late Philip K. Dick novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which was adapted for the big screen as Blade Runner. The New York Times reports the device is called "Nexus One" in at least two government filings. The NYT report indicates the name "Nexus One" was used in documents Google filed with the FTC, and in an US Patent and Trademark Office application.

In an interview on Tuesday, Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett, says "We were never consulted, no requests were made, and we didn't grant any sort of permissions." Hackett also stated that while she was discussing the situation with legal counsel, pointed out that her father was a fan of technology, and that It's certainly something we would have been happy to discuss and interested in exploring. They only needed to reach out."

Google declined to discuss the name, nor has it confirmed it will be selling mobile phones. However, the same report indicates that Goggle is testing one.

Other companies have made the effort to obtain permissions. Verizon Wireless licensed the "Droid" name from Star Wars creator George Lucas for use with their Motorola phone.

Traditionally, December is a time for family gatherings and personal reflection. It is not often thought of in a very romantic light -- too much rushing around on the one hand, too much inward contemplation on the other. Several movies this month, however, seek to redress that imbalance: Did You Hear About the Morgans? (opening December 18) looks at a bickering couple stuck together far from home after witnessing a crime; It's Complicated (out on December 25) deals with a husband and wife reuniting physically, if not necessarily otherwise; The Princess and the Frog (expanding wide tomorrow) wonders if a love affair between two species is really a good idea.

In the realm of science fiction, romances usually take a back seat. James Cameron's approach in The Abyss is common: romantic attachments are fine as long as we don't talk about them until we're at the point of death. But other sci-fi movies have featured wonderfully memorable romantic couples. Here's our top ten.

1. Han and Leia (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back)

The spark is instantaneous, beginning with bickering, progressing to bantering, and ending with ... well, if not yet babies, then at least the likelihood that children will enter the picture sooner rather than later. Their relationship started in Episode IV with fulsome denials -- remember that Leia defiantly kisses her brother Luke to rebuke Han's smirking self-assurance -- but broadens and deepens to love in Episode V as they face adversity together and eventually acknowledge their feelings, each in their own fashion ("I love you." "I know.") Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher find the right tone; after all, the Empire must be defeated, and that's more important than the romance between a cocky fly boy and a haughty princess.

It's been nearly unavoidable. Even if the movie doesn't live up to the hype, Jennifer's Body has burned a new image into our subconscious: the murderous Megan Fox in a bloody white blouse, eager for more boys to kill. In the sci-fi realm, it's much more common to encounter men who murder than their homicidal female counterparts. When women kill on screen, it tends to be downplayed.

Thus, we have Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix, who identifies more strongly as a great action fighter and/or great and cool intellectual, rather than a murderous vixen. Likewise with Famke Janssen in X-Men: The Last Stand, who only wants to kill when she is transformed into the Dark Phoenix, and even then her homicidal inclinations seem less important than the outfit she's wearing. In honor of the intentionally wanton murderers, here's a list of my top ten killer sci-fi chicks.

1. Mathilda May as Space Girl in Lifeforce
If you call her nothing more than a space vampire, you've only hinted at her power. First is her power to distract, which is a given when you're talking about a beautiful woman who has a great body and is always naked. Next, though, is her power to desiccate, sucking more than blood from everyone she meets, or, at least, everyone she manages to grab hold of to give them the shock of their lives. And she refuses to stop! Unlike normal vampires, who just want a pint or two of blood before heading back to their coffins, Space Girl wants nothing less than everything -- which is why she's the #1 killer sci-fi chick in my book.

I grew up reading science fiction, thinking my beloved genre was all about the possibilities of the infinite: advanced civilizations inhabiting distant star systems; men with brains so large and hearts so beneficent they could barely be contained within their bodies; women with beauty so magnificent and intellect so stunning they would leave bystanders breathless.

And they I started watching movies and eventually realized it's all about death, destruction ... and more death.

This week's release of The Final Destination, which is obsessed with staging elaborate 'kill scenes,' got me thinking about memorable scenes of demise in science fiction films. Sci-fi is notably short of serial killers, but offers a wider range of death scenes, beyond simple murder and mayhem. Here's my list of the top 10 sci-fi deaths. (Of necessity, this list is nothing but spoilers, so you have been warned.)

1. The Emperor (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)

Everyone knows where they were when they saw the Emperor get what was coming to him. Me, I was in the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, opening night, second showing, near 5:00 a.m., shouting (and ultimately cheering and applauding) along with the rest of the sold-out auditorium as Luke looked between his father and the Emperor, in pain, agonizing, understanding that the man he had hated was being tortured by the man who should be hated. And then he made the right call. Goosebumps still raise up in the glory of the memory.