robocop

Kayla Kromer is back, ladies and gentlemen, moving her custom geek interior design projects out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. I saw this amazing potty as a work-in-progress, where I cracked the joke that she was creating ED-Poo-09. You're probably laughing just as hard as she did at the time, which is not at all. ED-Number 2-09? Nothing? Okay, then.

I didn't know she was finished with it until I saw it pop up in Harry Knowles' (from AICN) twitter feed, and it is truly incredible. This is my favorite Kromer project by far, because it took such a keen eye and burst of imagination to re-imagine the standard household commode as the deadly Robocop villain.

What's next for Ms. Kromer? I don't know, but I may have to get to work on my own Brundlefly teleportation pod shower stall, before she beats me to it.

With Benicio Del Toro ready to debut as Lawrence Talbot in Joe Johnston's The Wolfman tomorrow, it's time to pay tribute to transformations. When Lon Chaney Jr. played The Wolf Man in 1941, the physical transformation was effected through make-up and dissolves. But the idea wasn't just that Lawrence Talbot was changed physically, but that his interior life changed as well. All the make-up and special effects in the world can't hide a character who doesn't grow (or devolve) from the experience.

Science fiction opens up the possibilities considerably, expanding the idea of cross-species commingling. Here are my top ten sci-fi transformations, listed (almost) in alphabetical order.

1. Sam Worthington in Avatar
Jake Sully is a broken man in more ways than one, rendered paraplegic during his military service and broken of spirit as a result. He doesn't take much convincing to accept a mission that may earn him an operation to regain the use of his limbs. Little does he know that it's his increasingly intimate dealings with the Na'vi that will transform him body and soul. He may appear to be nine feet tall and blue, he may wag a new tail, but deep inside, it is his very essence that is changing.

2. William Hurt in Altered States
Eddie Jessup is a brilliant scientist, far more interested in expanding his mind and consciousness than worrying about his physical being. Yet the hours he spends floating in a sensory-deprivation tank -- not to mention the drugs -- begin to have an effect upon his body as well, drilling down far deeper than even the brilliant Jessup could ever have anticipated. The result is one of the more bizarre apparitions to appear on screen.

While the Darren Aronofsky RoboCop reboot appears to be frozen in production limbo, Dynamite Entertainment are dusting off the character for a new RoboCop comic book series, the first issue of which will hit stands in January 2010.

The series, from writer Rob Williams and artist Fabiano Neves picks up immediately after the first film, in an attempt to capture the hard-hitting action and dark satire that made the original so memorable. In a press release from Dynamite, Williams says "We're coming in off the back of the first Verhoeven movie and pretty much ignoring everything else that's ever happened Robocop-wise. So, Dick Jones is gone. OCP are still there, albeit in a restructured form. Some unnamed time has passed since the end of the first movie, but that's our status quo pretty much. Old Detroit's overrun by crime, the country's following it down the tubes due to a 'super recession' and Murphy, Lewis and the rest of the ODPD are fighting a losing battle on the streets."

Dynamite President Nick Barrucci is particularly excited about Williams' new version of RoboCop's classic foil, "And the all-new all-dangerous ED-209 will undoubtedly be considered the true continuation of director Paul Verhoeven's vision of Robocop from the first movie."

We've seen the ads, we've seen a trailer, but we really have no idea what to expect from this week's release of Gamer. Except that it's directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the madmen of action cinema, and it's set in the near future, and it concerns an online game that involves mind control. Cool! If we're lucky, maybe we can figure out what's happening before a migraine sets in from all the on-screen insanity sure to be unleashed from the people behind Crank and Crank High Voltage.

Focusing on the mind control angle for a moment led me to think about all the great sci-fi movies that have played around with the idea of remote control mental gymnastics. The adolescent brain immediately seizes on the possibilities inherent in stripping unsuspecting young ladies down to the buff (thanks a lot, Zapped!), yet the more mature thinker wonders about deeper issues, like what to do with a woman who will only go out with you because you gave her no choice.

1. X-Men
Bryan Singer wove the mind control battle between Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) into the fabric of the story. You could enjoy Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) discovering a fuller range of his powers, sympathize with the desperate plight of Rogue (Anna Paquin), admire Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), or simply try and stare through the body paint covering Mystique (Rebecca Romijn). Lurking in the background, though, was a duel between good and evil, with Professor Xavier favoring gentle nudges in the right direction and Magneto ready to wage an all-out war.

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.

Welcome to Captain's Log -- your (semi) daily round-up of sci-fi randomness from around the web. Here's what's happening today:

- In honor of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (which posted a whopping $58 million on its opening day), Brides.com has put together a little guide on how to plan the perfect Harry Potter wedding (see image above). An example: "Flying Favors: Wish you could use a Firebolt as your getaway vehicle? You can still give your wedding a high-flying flair by handing out Broomstick Fuel chocolate as favors."

- Nominations for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards have been doled out, and representing SciFi we have Heroes and True Blood (Outstanding Art Direction), True Blood (Outsanding Casting for Drama Series), and Lost (Oustanding Drama Series),

- MTV has two more images from Shake Acker's freaky little movie 9, which was produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov. [MTV]

- Moon director Duncan Jones talked more about his next film, Mute, with Empire. On the comparisons to Blade Runner, he says, "There's a connection with Blade Runner, but I've got some ideas that'll give it its own signature character. It's set in a future Berlin which may look like a German version of Blade Runner's Los Angeles, but with a European sensibility." Bonus: Check out Slashfilm's marathon video interview with Jones over here.