dune

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.

Wrestling with issues of life and death in genre films: ordinary and customary. Doing so from a religious and/or spiritual perspective: not so much. Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, which expands wide tomorrow, tackles Alice Sebold's novel and flings its spiritual concerns firmly into the realm of wide-eyed, teenage fantasy. The director successfully added drama to the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien, but critical reaction to the heavy dose of other-worldly whimsy that he adds to the criminal / domestic drama of a young girl's murder has been mixed. (See, for example, the thoughtful review by Cinematical's Elisabeth Rappe.)

By its very nature, science fiction invites debate on the past, present, and future of mankind, thus treading boldly into arenas formerly reserved for sacred discussions. Religion in sci-fi movies becomes a hazier issue to define by today's terms. Is 2001: A Space Odyssey a religious picture? How about Planet of the Apes? Rather than split any more hairs, and without passing judgment on the merits of the religions involved, here's a list of the Top Ten Religious Sci-Fi Characters.

1. Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
As if his desert home and hooded robe weren't enough, old Ben spills off religious platitudes like water over a broken dam. He doesn't force his faith down anyone else's throat, but neither does he hesitate to speak about it in warm, personal terms. In repudiation of lapsed believer Darth Vader's contempt for his "devotion to that ancient religion," Obi-Wan displays genteel grace and self-sacrificing faith in a key climactic scene, providing admirable inspiration for everyone.

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.

"The spice must flow...and by spice, I mean production on the new remake/reboot/re-adaptation of Dune because we've been talking about this thing for what feels like ages and it's starting to get embarrassing." -Frank Herbert. Or a Paramount executive. Or something. I don't know.

It's pretty old news at this point that Peter Berg abandoned the ever-troubled Dune franchise to direct the surely glorious Battleship (AKA, Big Friggin' Boats VS Aliens), but with Avatar proving that dense, strange science fiction can really shake the box office up, it was only a matter of time before this thing got rolling again with a fellow at the helm.

And that fellow is Pierre Morel, a filmmaker who brought us gravity-defying Frenchman dropkicking each other across Paris in District B-13, Liam Neeson going on a righteous murdering spree across Paris in Taken and will soon bring us John Travolta blowing lots and lots of stuff up across Paris in the appropriately titled From Paris With Love. This is the point where I really want to make a "Dune will now take place in France" joke, but my wits escape me entirely.

Reports on Thursday night state that Dan O'Bannon passed way at the age of 63. Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool News broke the story after a phone call from David Fein, producer of the "Alien Legacy" DVD set.

O'Bannon's death has not been confirmed by official sources at this time, but according to the AICN report, O'Bannon had been hospitalized for some time.

Dan O'Bannon co-wrote Alien (1979) with Ronald Shusett, leaving an indelible mark on science fiction cinema. O'Bannon's mark is all over science fiction films since the early 1970s, beginning with his first film in 1974, Dark Star. He also wrote Blue Thunder (1983), Lifeforce (1985), Screamers (1995), and the "Soft Landing" segment of Heavy Metal (1981), and adapted the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" into Total Recall (1990).

O'Bannon was more than just a writer. On Dark Star he was both writer, editor, and actor. He worked as a computer animator on Star Wars. He was even hired to supervise special effects on Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed production of Frank Herbert's Dune. In 1985, he directed Return of the Living Dead.

O'Bannon's next project was slated to be Silvaticus 3015, but according to a Quiet Earth from 2008, the script had not been written and there were no plans for production. The story was reported to center around the near extinction of the human race in 2585 by "mass murder." Another project showing as in development is called "They Bite."

In writing this, seeing how many classic science fiction films he wrote, it's hard to imagine him not writing more for us. He will be missed.

It's long been known that George Lucas approached the Grand Master of the Odd and Bizarre, David Lynch, to direct Return of the Jedi. This, though, is the first time I've heard the man himself speak about it and in typical Lynch style, it's vague and wonderful (watch it after the jump). The thought of a young, rising director being offered the chance to direct an entry in the most popular film series of all time and turning it down is liable to make most brains explode but it makes perfect sense in this instance. After all, Lynch is the guy who directed Eraserhead and Blue Velvet and uses Twitter to broadcast the weather in L.A. Part of me wonders if Lynch even knows what a Star Wars is.

Every movie geek out there can have fun picturing a Lynchian Return of the Jedi and wondering how wild and crazy the movie would have been. Sadly, I don't think it would have been much different. Lucas needed someone to yell action, but he was the one making all of the creative decisions. David Lynch directing Return of the Jedi would have meant David Lynch losing several years of his life that could have been spent perfecting his own unique blend of weird (and we wouldn't have gotten his Dune, which, while certainly not a good movie, is a fascinating blunder).

Stop listening to me ramble and hear the words from Lynch himself after the jump.

I was never fully on-board with the idea of Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) directing the latest adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, but it's all a moot point now, since Berg and his production company have passed on the $175 million project for Paramount Pictures.

This means the search for a new director is on, and, according to Pajiba, Paramount has their eye on two genre filmmakers: Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday, upcoming Centurion) and Neill Blomkamp (District 9). It's reported that producer Kevin Misher is a big advocate of Marshall, but the studio isn't 100% sure they can turn over a potentially huge franchise to someone who has yet to prove his blockbuster chops. Blomkamp was able to turn his own modestly budgeted original work of science-fiction into a critical and commercial success, but he has only one feature film under his belt so far.

Is Blomkamp the right director for Dune or is Marshall the man for the job?

When I closed my eyes and pictured the greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, I was surprised how often hair -- and headpieces -- come into play. That makes sense for those of us who are not costume purists because we're thinking of the character as a whole, and in movies we're very often looking at close-ups of villains. We want to get up close and personal, to study the sneer, to examine the evil eyes, to absorb the dismissive scowl, to observe the raised eyebrows.

Isn't it the whole package that sells a character as a villain? The actor makes all the difference in the world, no matter if he's buried under a ton of makeup or becomes nearly unrecognizable, but the costume plays an important role. In honor of all those who will sally forth this weekend in costumes that are good, bad, and ugly, we salute the designers of the top ten (plus a couple of bonus selections) greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, and the actors who wear them.

The Emperor Ming (Flash Gordon)

It takes a truly evil villain to pull off this particular outfit. Arrayed in varying shades of deep red and gold, Ming (the always game Max von Sydow) threatens to steal the show when those eyebrows are raised. Somehow Ming looks both sartorially forward-thinking -- what is that raised cowl doing back there except to frame his bald head -- and ridiculously, gloriously silly.