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Doctor Who wins Peabody Award

  • News
  • March 28, 2013

doctor_who_season_7b_coming_soonHonoring its fifty-year history, Doctor Who has been awarded a Peabody award “for evolving with technology and the times like nothing else in the known television universe.”

First presented in 1941, the George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished achievement and meritorious service by broadcasters, cable and Webcasters, producing organizations, and individuals. The awards program is administered by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Selection is made each spring by the Peabody Board, a 16-member panel of distinguished academics, television critics, industry practitioners and experts in culture and the arts.

The 72nd annual awards also honored such varied recipients as comedian Louis CK, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, and SCOTUSBlog.com, reporting on the US Supreme Court. A complete list of winners is available on the Peabody Awards website.

Doctor Who is also up for two BAFTA Television Craft Awards this Spring, one for composer Murray Gold and one for special effects house The Mill.  The awards will be presented on April 28th in London.

Doctor Who’s new season premieres this Saturday on BBC America at 8PM Eastern America time.

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Film Buffs get New Releases from Fox Cinema Archives

Warlock one sheetLOS ANGELES, CA (February 19, 2013) – Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment today introduced 23 new films to its manufacture-on-demand (MOD) series, Fox Cinema Archives. Designed for true collectors and film aficionados, Fox Cinema Archives goes deep into the studio’s vault each month to bring classic films featuring some of the biggest stars of the twentieth century to DVD for the first time.

Launched in 2012, Fox Cinema Archives has seen the release of more than 140 films from the Studio’s library. Movie lovers can purchase previously released and new films from the Fox Cinema Archives series at major online retailers and at www.foxconnect.com.

New titles available today include:

Warlock (1959), 122 min.

The town of Warlock is plagued by a gang of thugs, leading the inhabitants to hire Clay Blaisdell, a famous gunman, to act as marshal.

Clive of India (1935), 94 min.

In the mid-1700’s the East India Company has power over commerce with the blessings of the British government, and clerk, Robert Clive, is frustrated by his lack of advancement.

Wife, Husband and Friend (1939), 75 min.

Woman hopes to be a great singer and is encouraged by her scheming teacher. After she flops her husband, encouraged by an amorous professional singer tries opera and also flops. (more…)

Kermit, Ricky Gervais Begin Shooting The Muppets…Again!

The-Muppets-Again_450BURBANK, Calif. (January 30, 2013) – The filmmaking team behind 2011’s celebrated film The Muppets reunites as Disney’s The Muppets … Again! kicked off production last week in London. The all-new global Muppets adventure welcomes Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey to the mayhem, along with Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Walter and rest of the Muppets. The film is directed by James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords, Da Ali G Show), who was just nominated for a BAFTA for The Muppets (Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer), and produced by the Academy Award®-nominated team of David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman (The Fighter, The Proposal). With a screenplay by Bobin and Nicholas Stoller (The Five-Year Engagement), who is also executive producer with John Scotti, The Muppets … Again! will feature music from Academy Award®-winning songwriter Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords), who won an Oscar® for best original song for “The Muppets” (“Man or Muppet”). The new film will hit the big screen March 21, 2014.

“It’s great to be back working with the Muppets,” said Bobin, “some of them even remember my name occasionally now. As for the movie, it’s a tip of the hat to the old-school crime capers of the ’60s, but featuring a frog, a pig, a bear and a dog—no panthers, even pink ones—along with the usual Muppet-y mix of mayhem, music and laughs.”

Disney’s The Muppets … Again! takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theaters in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine—the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit—and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, portrayed by Ricky Gervais, creator of “Derek” and the Golden Globe®- and Emmy®-winning series The Office and Extras. The film stars Golden Globe-, Emmy- and SAG Award®-winning actress and writer Tina Fey (30 Rock, Mean Girls, Date Night) as Nadya, a feisty prison guard, and Emmy Award winner Ty Burrell (Modern Family) as Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon.

Said Kermit the Frog, “This movie takes us places we’ve never been before. And trust me—this frog has never seen so much international flavor. I think audiences will eat it up—the entertainment, that is.”

Featuring a slew of surprising celebrity cameos, Disney’s The Muppets … Again! will shoot on location in London and in Hollywood, as well as in the famed Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, just outside of London.

HOLMES COMES TO BLACK COAT

  • Uncategorized
  • January 20, 2013

New Pulp Publisher Black Coat Press has released two new books featuring the world’s greatest consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of Eternity by Brian Stableford and Sherlock Holmes and the Circle of Blood by Steve Leadley are now available in paperback and ebook editions.

Cover Art: Daniele Serra

Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of Eternity by Brian Stableford-
From 1895, when the means of visiting the future through drug-induced “timeshadowing” is discovered by Professor Copplestone, to 12 million years AD, when the Universal Engine seeks to determine the cosmos’ ultimate fate, the vast tapestry of time is the theater of a time war between the Overmen, descendents of the vampires, Humanity, and the shadowy intelligence that waits at the End of Time. Sherlock Holmes, the great detective, Count Dracula, the reluctant vampire, the mercurial Oscar Wilde, William Hope Hodgson, freshly returned from the Night Land of the Great War, the visionary H. G. Wells, Alfred Jarry, Camille Flammarion, and many other figures from the literary firmament, become pawns and players in a conflict that spans the entire course of universal history.

Cover by Daniele Serra.

Now available as paperback and ebook.
Learn more here.

Cover Art: Daylon

Sherlock Holmes and the Circle of Blood by Steve Leadley-
Three all-new Sherlock Holmes adventures : The Circle of Blood: One of Cape May’s most prominent citizens has been the victim of a brutal and mysterious murder. A bizarre and cryptic message lies adjacent to the body: a bust of Socrates circled in blood. The police are baffled since nothing appears to be missing from the house, and the man is reported to have had no enemies. Holmes and Watson agree to go to the nation’s oldest resort to investigate. The Highland Intrigue: Watson receives a letter from an old comrade asking for assistance. His uncle, the Duke of Montrose, has died in an “indelicate” manner. Holmes and Watson journey to Fintry Castle in Scotland to investigate. The problem turns out to be much deeper than first expected and not only involves murder, but a historical mystery seeped in Scottish folklore. The Medium Problem: Watson learns that a medium and a confederate are conducting séances in London. She is gaining a following, capitalizing on the Spiritualist movement that has taken root. Watson sees the séances as fraud and implore Holmes to expose the pair, but the detective remains disinterested until the medium recovers a stolen diamond through her alleged supernatural powers…

Cover by Daylon.

Now available as paperback and ebook.
Learn more here.

Watch “Red 2” new trailer

RED 2

A sequel to the original sleeper hit movie Red, based on the DC Comics comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer, Red 2 has come out with a new trailer today.

In Red 2, retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device. To succeed, they’ll need to survive an army of relentless assassins, ruthless terrorists and power-crazed government officials, all eager to get their hands on the next-generation weapon. The mission takes Frank and his motley crew to Paris, London and Moscow. Outgunned and outmanned, they have only their cunning wits, their old-school skills, and each other to rely on as they try to save the world—and stay alive in the process.

The movie stars Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, John Malkovich as Marvin Boggs, Mary-Louise Parker as Sarah Ross, Brian Cox as Ivan Simonov, and Helen Mirren as Victoria. They’re joined this time around by Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung Hun Lee, and Neal McDonough. It’s being directed by Dean Parisot, and written by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, based on the comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer.

Watch the new trailer now:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCM3HhGUJsM[/youtube]

ONE FAMILY. ONE LEGACY. ONE PROBLEM.

  • Uncategorized
  • January 9, 2013

Anachron Press has announced that The Harker Legacy, a novel by New Pulp Author Teel James Glenn is now available as an ebook at Amazon and Lulu. Paperback also available at Amazon.

PRESS RELEASE:

One Family. One Legacy. One Problem.

Texan writer, Robert Howard, travels to London for inspiration for his stories when he finds himself in a street brawl. Aided by a struggling actor named William Henry Pratt, Howard sees off the thugs and sets about returning the favor for his newly injured and incapacitated friend. Howard agrees to take over his role as a ‘whipper-in’ on an upcoming foxhunt hosted by the Harker family.

Howard meets the Harker’s and learns about their travels in Hungary and Romania, before settling in England once more to closely guard a terrible secret.

Putting his considerable horse-riding skills on show, Howard catches the eye of Gwendolyn Harker, the daughter of Jonathan and Mina. Her parents regard Howard’s intentions with suspicion, and their dark and deadly legacy is revealed before him, leaving him with a fight for his life.

Can Howard unravel the secret and save himself before it’s too late?

Robert E. Howard, Boris Karloff and Mina Harker…what more do you need to know?
Buy it today on Amazon or the Anachron website!

A Doctor A Day – “Love and Monsters”

Using the new Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, your noble author will make his way through as much of the modern series as he can before the Christmas episode,The Snowmen.

If Lars von Trier had thought of it, it would have been one of the Five Obstructions.  Make a Doctor Who episode, but don’t use The Doctor. It rather limits the drama, doesn’t it?  far from it, it gives you a chance to do a story about friends and mystery, and…

LOVE AND MONSTERS
by Russell T Davies
Directed by Dan Zeff

Elton Pope (Not that Elton, and not that Pope) is relating his adventures on his video blog.  He’s just met The Doctor, who was fighting an alien in a disused industrial building…as he does.  Elton begins to relate his history a bit – he remembers seeing The Doctor in his kitchen back with he was a toddler, as well.  He grew up rather normal and has a pleasant life, until a couple years ago when London started getting regularly attacked by aliens.  The Autons, the Slitheen, the Sycorax, all seen through his eyes.  He begins to search about the Internet, and finds a blog by a young woman named Ursula Blake, with recent photos of The Doctor, who looks no different than when he appears in Elton’s kitchen decades ago.

Ursula introduces Elton to a group of her friends, fellow Doctor-sighters and searchers, who meet regularly in the local library.  They all share the tidbits they’ve discovered about him throughout history.  After meeting for some time, Ursula suggests the club needs a name. Elton suggests “LInDA” – The London Investigation ‘n’ Detective Agency.  LInDA slowly become more of a social club than a tin-hat society, and the all become proper friends.  That is…until Mr. Victor Kennedy appeared. A strange man suffering from a skin complaint (Exceezma…like Eczema, but far worse).  He claims to have information about The Doctor, and shows them that they’ve lost their way in their investigations.  Kennedy has access to a staggering amount of information about the Doctor, including data from Torchwood. He hands out pictures of Rose Tyler, and sets LInDA off on the task to find her. And  in amongst the investigations…the members of LInDA are slowly going missing.

Friends are made, loves are lost, and a monsters stands revealed. Oh, and The Doctor shows up, eventually.

There’s been bits of humor in every episode, but this is the first episode that’s elbow-deep hilarious.  The episode was created by necessity – the BBC asked for a Christmas episode with this season, but didn’t add any time or much money to the budget.  So the producers were forced to find a way to force a fourteenth episode into the schedule, one that would have very little of The Doctor and Rose, as the actors simply wouldn’t have time to shoot another full episode.  So with a short sequence at the beginning, an appearance at the end, and photos and mentions all in between, you get a great bit of sleight of hand that feels like a full Doctor appearance.  The acting in the episode is wonderful as well, featuring British comedy star Peter Kay as the baddie, and Camille Coduri making a return as Jackie Tyler.

LInDA is a name Russell T Davies had made up for a earlier children’s show he’d written years back called “Why Don’t You?”,  The Absorbaloff was created by a child as part of a Blue Peter competition. Russell begged for one more alien for the alien, with the opening sequence, and they gave him one.  He even gave it a name – the Hoix.

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A Doctor A Day – “The Idiot’s Lantern”

Using the new Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, your noble author will make his way through as much of the modern series as he can before the Christmas episode,The Snowmen.

The Queen’s coronation increased sales of televisions in Britain faster than Howdy Doody did in the US.  But when one store sells sets for less than could possibly be profitable, The Doctor fears they may have an ulterior motive to expose everyone to…

THE IDIOT’S LANTERN
by Mark Gatiss
Directed by Euros Lyn

“Are you sitting comfortably?  Good! They we’ll begin…”

The proprietor of Magpie Electricals is near bankruptcy until a strange new partner offers a way to turn his business around.  With the queen’s Coronation coming up, he suddenly finds a way to make TVs available for the outrageous price of five pounds a pop.  Needless to say, they’re selling like mad.

magpie_electricals__1920_x_1200__by_jarrrp-d4rdljm-300x187-2196629The Doctor and Rose arrive (accidentally, of course – they were aiming for Elvis’ appearance on Ed Sullivan) as sales are skyrocketing.  But at the same time, people are being taken from their homes, under blankets, by people claiming to be police.  Clearly seeing the proverbial Something is Going On, the pair investigate by visiting a family with one of Magpie’s tellys.  The husband is a right boor, controlling the family with an iron hand, but the wife and son are distraught.  Their grandmother has been transformed to a mindless, faceless shell.  Apparently, it’s been happening all over town, and it’s they who the police have been collecting up.

The Doctor finds where the victims have been collected and convinces the Detective Inspector to help solve the mystery as opposed to just cover it up. And Rose confronts Mr. Magpie, only to learn that he’s under the electronic thumb of an energy being called The Wire, who has been draining people of faces and brains via the new TVs.  Alas, she’s shortly in no position to impart this knowledge, as she’s promptly wiped.  When the police find her and bring her in, The Doctor goes cold and scary, vowing that there’ll be no stopping him.

They break into Magpie’s shop and find a number of odd things – a portable television set some three decades ahead of its time, and trapped in the televisions in the shop, the faces, and presumably the minds, of the victims of The Wire, including Rose.  The Wire plans to transfer itself to the portable set and connect up to the transmission station at Alexandra Palace, where it will be able to feed on everyone watching the Coronation.   Can The Doctor stop the plan in time?

Mark Gatiss’ episodes so far have had a very personal feel – large stakes, but ultimately featuring a small cast.  This one has London in the balance, but ultimately it’s about one family, and how the members of the family respond to the horrific changes around them.

The Doctor has had bad experiences on tall broadcast towers; he fell off one to his death, or at least regeneration, in Logopolis.  He’s faced more than a few energy-based foes as well—the Nestene Consciousness, the formless Gelth in The Unquiet Dead, and there was this foe from the Troughton days…oo, showed up twice…can’t seem to summon up its name now, can’t imagine why…

Magpie Electricals makes many more appearances in the series— since Mr. Magpie himself came to an unfortunate end, it’s presumed someone bought the brand name and used its notoriety to turn it into a powerhouse brand for literally centuries to come.  The Magpie brand shows up in all sorts of Earth-based technology up to and including the launch of Starship UK.  There’s been no suggestion there’s anything untoward going with them (tho one can never be sure), it seems more like it’s become a brand like the various products of KrebStar Industries on The Adventures of Pete and Pete, or the various food and cigarette trademarks in Quentin Tarantino’s films.

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A Doctor a Day – “The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances”

Using the new Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, your noble author will make his way through as much of the modern series as he can before the Christmas episode, The Snowmen.

It’s mauve, and dangerous, and thirty seconds from the center of London.  The London of the Blitz, where one more metal canister falling from the sky barely got noticed.  But this one is a bit special, as it creates..

THE EMPTY CHILD / THE DOCTOR DANCES
by Steven Moffat
Directed by James Hawes

“Gimme some Spock, for once! Would it kill ya?”

Chasing a mysterious drone ship through time and space, the TARDIS lands in London during a German attack in the Blitz.  A band of homeless children are sneaking into homes during raids and eating people’s dinners, Rose meets up with a staggeringly handsome time agent from the 51st century (I know, what are the odds?) and a young boy in a gas mask is looking for his “Mummy”.

The drone ship is a mobile alien ambulance, the young boy is transforming people into empty zombielike creatures like himself, and the head of the homeless children has quite a secret to hide. Captain Jack Harkness has grabbed the remains of what he claims is a Chula warship, and dropped it into the timestream to attract the attention of a passing Time Agent. His plan is to sell it to them, but before they can inspect it, he’s placed in a spot where it’ll be blown up by a German bomb.  It’s basically a con job, to get back at the Time Agency for deleting two years of his memories.  Problem is, the ship wasn’t empty; it was filled with nanogenes, programmed to repair living beings.  the first one they found on earth, a small boy killed in the crash of the ship, was badly damaged, and once they fixed him, thought he was the proper template for the rest of humanity.  Only by showing the nanogenes how humans actually work can they fix things, and there’s only one person who can do it, if she makes a very brave choice.  And for once, nobody dies.

An absolutely chilling pair of episodes.  Using the darkness of a blacked-out London in an air raid, the mood of the story is dark and tense. The transformation of the victims of the child is one of the scariest bits of work the series has had. They actually edited out some additional sound effects of cracking and groaning flesh, because they thought it went too far.

Steven Moffat first offered his services to the BBC as a writer for Doctor Who at the age of eight. His entire career has been aiming toward the chance to finally do so, and this was his official shot, and he brought his A-game.  I say “official”, because as most fans know, he got to write the Comic Relief sketch “The Curse of Fatal Death”, starring Rowan Atkinson (et al) as The Doctor.  Moffat was able to keep to a promise The Doctor made in all of the episodes he wrote before taking over the series – “Everybody lives”.  For a show with a surprisingly high casualty rate for children’s entertainment, Moffat kept his death toll to zero for his entire series of episodes. Not something he was able to do once he took over; indeed, some say he made up for lost time.

This two-parter also features the first appearances of what may be the most popular new character of the new series, the inimitable Captain Jack Harkness. Jack Harkness plays a perfect foil to The Doctor, with plenty of tension and pissing contests for all. Russell took him and ran, bringing him on as a Companion, making him immortal, and then over to Torchwood, where he had quite a run indeed.  John Barrowman fit the role like a glove, and he gained the popularity an actor of his ability deserves.  In addition to being a host and presenter for many British TV shows, he’s made it to these shores on Desperate Housewives, and currently on Arrow as Malcolm Merlyn.  He is also firmly on my “‘I’m not gay, but” list.

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SHERLOCK HOLMES RETURNS TO COMIC SHOPS TODAY!

SHERLOCK HOLMES RETURNS TO COMIC SHOPS TODAY!

  • News
  • December 12, 2012
Cover Art: Francesco Francavilla

The first issue of Dynamite Entertainment’s Sherlock Holmes: Liverpool Demon series arrives in comic shop today, December 12th. Written by Leah Moore, John Reppion with art by Matt Triano, Sherlock Holmes: Liverpool Demon is a 5 issue mini series.

About Sherlock Holmes: Liverpool Demon–
Sherlock Holmes is busy doing what he does best, solving a case of far-reaching international notoriety. It has landed him at the Port of Liverpool, a bustling hub of commerce both legitimate and illicit. As that chapter closes, ours begins. They head to Lime Street Station, to catch a fast steam locomotive home to London and Baker Street, when violent weather keeps The Great Detective and Watson in Britain’s second city a while longer. Long enough to encounter a monster, discover the Liverpool underworld, and to become embroiled in one of his strangest cases yet.

32 pages
Full Color
$3.99

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