What can I say about Beyond the Black Rainbow that hasn’t already been said about licking toads while watching a 70s slasher flick behind your neighborhood scientific research compound? Writer/director Panos Cosmatos‘s deranged trip down the rabbit hole feels like Cronenberg and Argento furiously impregnated a robot named TARKOVSKY. It’s homage at its highest form – work born directly from the visual and storytelling tropes of iconic artists that manages to feel brand new with the presence of a fresh personality. In the 80s-set film, and stop me if you’ve heard this one, Elena (Eva Allan) is held captive in a research facility by Barry Nyle (Michael Rogers), the demented product of a cult-like program born two decades earlier that sought to merge science and religion. As he slowly deteriorates mentally, blood starts spilling, but even if Elena gets a chance to escape, she’ll have him murderously on her trail.

Editor’s note: To celebrate our 100th episode, we’ve asked Gallery 1988 co-owner and pop culture art curator Jensen Karp to write up the entry. You might want to wear protection. With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #100): “I Sing The Body Electric” (airdate 5/18/62) The Plot: Three arguably neglected, but definitely motherless, children are taken by their father to a store that builds them a robotic grandmother in an attempt to rid them of their sadness. As a result we witness mild family drama, a confusing moral and an episode that is widely proclaimed as “the worst Twilight Zone ever.” The Goods: Remember when you first heard that George Lucas was making 3 new Star Wars movies and you were like, “This is going to be awesome! CAN NOT MISS!” Or when you jumped up and down hearing that Steven Speilberg was going to take the reigns of A.I. from the recently deceased Stanley Kubrick to create a Sci-Fi Nat King Cole/Natalie Cole-ish collaboration that couldn’t miss? Or even when the casting of Bio-Dome was announced and everyone exclaimed that a Pauly Shore/Stephen Baldwin buddy comedy would be a sure-fire laugh fest? The last one may have been just me, but the point is: sometimes your “dream line-up” that looks incredible on paper, should just stay [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Have fun noting all the parsed, non-committal words in that headline, but at least it’s vague instead of full of lies. In a talk with the Wall Street Journal, Ridley Scott gave everyone an update on his forthcoming new Blade Runner film that was announced back in August. Apparently the movie is “liable to be a sequel” (my emphasis), but the real news is that Scott believes he’s “close to finding a writer that might be able to help me deliver. We’re quite a long way in, actually.” Hallelujah. After just finishing his Alien-DNA-swapper Prometheus, he may be ready to roll soon on another project. Some may scoff at the man returning to his previous work to find inspiration, but all it really signals is that a master filmmaker isn’t done with the universes that he created. That’s reason to get excited. At this rate, we could see a new Alien film one year and a new Blade Runner the next – not from some young music video director (no offense guys), but from the man himself. How can that possibly be bad news?

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #99): “Young Man’s Fancy” (airdate 5/11/62) The Plot: A newly-minted husband brings his wife to his childhood home to make plans to sell it, but a powerful force is drawing him back to his late mother and the house she kept exactly as it was when he was in short pants. The Goods: This very well may be the second cruelest episode. Aside from the wicked heartlessness of Time Enough At Last, it rings out with a kind of empty meanness that doesn’t teach a lesson while it tortures an innocent bystander at her weakest point. Sometimes life can be that way, and Virginia Walker (Phyllis Thaxter) learns that the raw way. Virginia has only added Walker to her name in the last hour, marrying Alex Walker (Alex Nicol) at the courthouse and hurrying for a pit stop at his family home before heading out to a honeymoon in unnamed parts. As she tries to be brisk about getting him to pack, he continually loses his train of thought, starts fooling with an old radio and clock in a wistful attempt to reclaim what’s been lost, and finally starts playing with his old toys.

We featured the short film Blinky a while back, but if you go to the page now, the video is private. Why? Because director Ruairi Robinson is blowing up in a major way, and they’ll probably want to sell the cow instead of giving away the sweet sci-fi milk for free on the internet from now on. If you saw the short before it was walled up, then you know his success is a great, great thing. He’s got immense talent (and an Academy Award nomination from his 2001 short Fifty Percent Grey), so it was a no-brainer when he got picked up for Lionsgate’s aliens-crashing-in-Russia flick The Fallen, but that probably won’t be his feature debut. According to Deadline Tharsis Bulge, Qwerty Films is ready to start production in early 2012 for The Last Days on Mars, a story about a routine hunt for life on Mars that runs off the rails when an astronaut biffs it into a cave, dies, and gets taken over bodily by a resident of the red planet. The fresh talent behind the camera will be joined by the seasoned talent of WETA doing effects in front of it. It sounds a little like The Thing on Mars, which is not bad at all. Plus, Robinson has already proven that he’s more than capable – it will simply be a matter of seeing if his debut is as stunning as his short work. If it is, and considering the projects he has lined up, [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

“APOCALYPSE 2388. Earth is on the brink of extinction. Legendary explorer KURTZ has been sent on a desperate last bid mission to scout an unknown planet on the far side of the universe. A planet that may sustain human life. Butcommunication with Kurtz mysteriously ceases and rookie flight officer MARLOW is assigned the perilous task of completing the objective. Tracking Kurtz into the unknown he reaches it. A new earth. And a race of beings at the dawn of time. But Kurtz has his own plans for the new world and man’s last hope for survival. And to achieve it he will take man to the only place that will protect paradise. Into darkness.” That’s the synopsis for Into Darkness (via CHUD), a new film from Haunting in Connecticut director Peter Cornwell which is an adaptation of “Heart of Darkness” set in the dark beyond of space. Because the world was aching for it. The concept sounds moronic, but it’s a sci-fi version of what’s happening with Jane Austen and zombies. Whereas Francis Ford Coppola took the novel and set it in a modern context of Vietnam to reinvigorate its meaning, Cornwell and company plan on shooting the thing into a contextless void where we can’t directly relate the struggle to something real. That plan seems even more silly considering that most great science fiction is set in space as its own metaphor for what’s going on in real life – not built by placing a metaphor inside of another [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #90): “The Fugitive” (airdate 3/9/62) The Plot:  An old man can do the kind of magic that no one else seems to understand, except the children he hangs around with all day. That bliss is about to be crushed by two men in suits looking for whatever that old man really is. The Goods: Rob just wrote a strong review of one of the most iconic episodes – To Serve Man – but I would argue that this story deserves the same recognition in the pantheon of the champions of the series. It’s got everything that represents The Twilight Zone: heart, sci-fi, a lesson, and the wondrous magic of belief. Old Ben (J. Pat O’Malley) enjoys playing with the neighborhood kids, especially Jenny (Susan Gordon), a little girl with a brace on her leg that still manages to boss the boys around. He enjoys the games, yes, but there’s something special about Old Ben – when they play Spaceman, he can actually transform himself into a Martian and then change back. In fact, he can turn himself into anything he wants.

Matt Reeves has been tapped by Warners to direct their stab at The Twilight Zone which should start shooting next summer. The script comes from Jason Rothenberg – who has one television movie under his belt and a handful of flicks in development. According to Deadline Willoughby, this was a highly sought-after project, courted by many directors they don’t name by name. However, it also sounds like another in-name-only project where Rod Serling‘s series acts as name recognition while the movie is its own sci-fi beast with a similar tone. Of course, there’s already been Twilight Zone: The Movie, but isn’t really a remake. Furthermore, Reeves’s hiring brings up the question of when he’ll work on his other projects, and which will actually get done. Within the past 8 months, his name has been attached to a sequel to Cloverfield, a remake of They Live and a Frankenstein project. No one will admit it, but it seems only reasonable that renewed interest in the program stems directly from our exploration of all the episodes of The Twilight Zone. That’s the only explanation that makes sense.

There was a moment when Julie and Julia came out that made everyone pause and consider the possibilities of replicating the success story. After all, it was a blog that became a book that became a movie. That’s still a rarity, but the hull had been breached, and for a day or two it seemed entirely possible that anyone’s dumb musings could become a feature film. Apparently that was only the first step in the internet revolution invading film. In the span of less than two months, a poster named The_Quiet_Earth posted a hypothetical question to Reddit, James Erwin answered it with a sci-fi short story, and now that story has been picked up by Warner Bros. for a feature film. Our friends over at Screen Rant had the foresight to interview Erwin back when he was developing the script with Madhouse Entertainment, and now Variety is reporting that Madhouse’s Adam Kolbrenner brought the project to Warners and set up the deal. The short story imagines that a group of Marines headed to Afghanistan is sent inexplicably into Pre-Common Era Rome and must do battle with the Roman Legion and figure out how to get back to their own time. It’s high-concept, and the story gained a serious following on Reddit (which caught Kolbrenner’s attention), resulting in fan-made posters and trailers. You can read the story for yourself, and watch the mash-up style trailer below:

There’s no clue as to who exactly is describing Hyperdrive as The Fifth Element meets 48 Hrs, but the combination sounds fantastic, and that’s the two films The Hollywood Reporter is tossing out for context. According to them, Paramount just bought the script for the film, written by David Daniels and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil co-writer Morgan Jurgenson. The story focuses on a science fiction author who is asked by a cop to help track down a murder witness, but during the hunt, they “find themselves in the middle of a space opera playing out on Earth.” It sounds like it has the potential to be a big adventure, and it could have a lot of fictional science of a little, but the Hollywood sales pitch of tough crime meeting head on with insane sci-fi is definitely enough to perk some ears up. Plus, at a baser level, it’s always nice to see original sci-fi given a chance.

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting piece on Tom Cruise, attempting to prove that he’s once again viable as a ground-moving A-list star. It’s an interesting opinion editorial that leaves out the larger points that 1) even when Cruise bombs, the movie usually makes over $200m and 2) it’s the entire idea of commercially block busting actors that’s diminishing. However, one thing that’s for sure is that Cruise himself isn’t. He’s got a few projects in the hopper, and at least one is a return to the world of science fiction. According to THR, there may be a second – the Doug Liman project We Mortals Are (which used to be called All You Need Is Kill and is still missing a predicate). The story focuses on a space soldier who, through science-y fiction, keeps living to fight on the day before he dies. After 158 wonderful deaths, he sees something different – a female entity known as The Bitch of War. It’s based off of the Hiroshi Sakurazaka manga, and, as it turns out, there’s something appropriate about placing Cruise in a movie about death and rebirth.

This past summer I was surprisingly blown away by the Steven Spielberg produced alien-invasion drama Falling Skies. Part of the surprise came from the fact that my anticipation for the series was extremely low. All I had known prior to watching the first episode was whatever information was in the trailer that dropped from TNT a month before it began airing. That case is the exact opposite when it comes to the much, much more high profile sci-fi show from camp Spielberg, Terra Nova. Especially now that Falling Skies cemented Spielberg’s return television (and the first time since ER that he has put out a series that’s been widely praised across the board), all eyes are on Terra Nova to see if lightning can strike twice. But unlike Falling Skies whose behind the camera talent is mostly full of non-names (outside of the offices of studio heads and agent assistants), Terra Nova boasts some heavy hitter talent such as Craig Silverstein (who created the new iteration of Nikita on The CW), 24 heavy-hitter Jon Cassar and Brannon Braga whose credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the highly under-rated FlashForward. The point being that there are a lot of hands in the pot of a show that is either the next LOST or this season’s The Event. So it’s time to figure out which one it is.

A beam of light threatens the poor, hungover eyeballs of Julio (Julián Villagrán) who wakes up in a bed he’s never been in before. That bed belongs to Julia (Michelle Jenner) who slinks around her apartment cleaning up from a night of drinking and random sex with a stranger. Up in the sky, a UFO has appeared floating above the city. In fact, they’re all over the place. Overnight, while two people were blacked out drunk, at least thirty have appeared over Spain. Who knows how many more all over the world. However, writer/director Nacho Vigalondo is less concerned about the ship and more concerned about the play-like humor and drama to be mined from a tangled relationship because, as it turns out, Julia is in high demand (especially by her boyfriend).

By now, most fans credit Steve Wang and Matt Rose for the creation of the Predator. However, in my conversations with Steve, in particular, he feels that an unfair amount of credit has been given to him; it was a team effort bringing the Predator to life, and he couldn’t be more correct. During Monster Squad, Matt and Steve, who had been responsible for the Gillman, had worked through the weekend, grabbing precious few hours of sleep, while they established and painted the final suit. On Monday morning, it stood in the middle of Stan Winston’s satellite shop in all of its amphibian beauty. Stan saw it and his jaw bounced onto his chest. He had NEVER seen anything like it. It impressed him so much, that he, literally, stopped the work in the studio, gathered all of his employees around it and heaped praise upon these two kids (Matt was roughly 21 and Steve 20…maybe?). He said it was the best thing he had seen in his career thus far. Probably not the best strategy in the world. Months earlier, he was in England with his crew working on the Queen Alien, and now he was recognizing these two studio newcomers as the best. Where most of us in the shop agreed with Stan, there was some dissension.

A sharp twist to the concept of getting together for a boys’ weekend (and the ultimate bizarre response to the influx of Dude Bro movies), The Corridor opts for rounded, deeply complicated characters who have the kind of shared history that is as likely to cause an outbreak of hugs as it is a burst of heated words and violent threats. The whole messy pile then gets an eyebrow-raising element right out of The Outer Limits dropped on top, and it’s off to the races. The film opens with a frantic confrontation where Tyler (Stephen Chambers) hides in a closet while his mother (Mary-Colin Chisholm) lies dead on the ground ostensibly by her own handful of pills. A brick wall named Bobcat (Matthew Amyotte), pretty boy named Lee (Nigel Bennett), and Brad Cooper look-a-like named Everett (James Gilbert) bust into the house only to be confronted by a maniacal Tyler who takes a swipe at Everett’s face and stabs Lee in the hand. Months later, they find themselves at a funeral/reunion at Tyler’s mom’s house in the woods with another childhood friend (Glen Matthews) in tow, trying to reconcile their relationship and deal with a supernatural force that threatens their existence.

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #78): “Once Upon a Time” (airdate 12/15/61) The Plot:  A cranky man of 1890 uses a time machine to head for 1962 to find out that things got a lot louder, faster, and more dangerous. The Goods: The absolute guts of this show continue to astound. Imagine if a modern seriesdecided to do half of an episode as a silent film. Black and white they already have, but it’s still a bold step. Rod Serling beamed an antique directly into the living rooms of his fans. That’s right. Not only is this a story where a man from the late 19th century hops into the middle of the 20th, it’s a time travel story for its audience by using modern television filming techniques alongside the earliest methods. And who do you get to guest star when half your episode is done as a silent film? Buster Keaton. Not a bad choice.

I’m standing on the edge of the The Detroit River which is also the edge of the set for Real Steel – the forthcoming robot boxing movie with a heart of gold. Twenty or so feet away from the Cobo Arena, the wind is picking up, and the view looks out over the glass of the water toward Ontario. This might not seem like a dramatic moment for anyone who lives there, but there’s something poetically jarring about looking out at a different country (and looking southward to see Canada). Right across the water is another world. It’s a world separate from Detroit that hasn’t been beaten down by a lagging economy and the failure of major auto manufacturing. It’s not that Detroit isn’t as impressive, it’s that Windsor seems newer, fresher, and more alive. A precipice with a view to another world seems like the perfect place for the Shawn Levy-directed, Hugh Jackman-starring film to shoot as it promises to tell a story both embedded in the seedy underground and the glittering, life-filled stadiums of the near future. To hear Levy talk, the movie sets out to feature a man living in one world, testing his limits to live in the other.

Due to an overwhelming need to embrace my inner hermit the last few weeks I have forgone my usual weekend gallivanting in favor of staying home with movies. It might seem as if I’m turning into a cat lady (I prefer dogs) who hopes to find solace in the virtual arms of Tom Hardy or Gerard Butler while I contemplate my Bridget Jones-esque death at the mangled jowls of a wild pack of voracious coyotes, but in all honestly there is just something comforting in spending Friday nights with a lover who is always in bed next to you – the remote control. I like to call my endless supply of romance, sex comedies, erotic thrillers, and documentaries “research” for this column, and that’s why it’s completely acceptable for me to leave my desk Friday at 5PM to watch whatever is inside that little red envelope. But this week I needed something different. Instead of a film about French sexploitation or sex in the Australian outback, I wanted a more mainstream offering. I desired a pretty film with the hint of romance but the full adrenaline rush of a psychological thriller. I also wanted to indulge my blazing Emily Blunt crush. Again, in the name of research.

Why Watch? The future was three years ago, and this short film can prove it. As a promotional tool for the video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution, director Rob Spence (who goes by the name Eyeborg after a shooting accident left his eye replaced by a camera) decided to find out where technology stands today in relation to the science fiction of the game by meeting with some real-life cyborgs and the scientists behind the tech. This slick documentary, clocking in at a brisk 12 minutes, will astonish. What does it cost? Just 12 minutes of your time. Check out Deus Ex: The Eyeborg Documentary for yourself:

A murder mystery, a sci-fi action movie, a family drama = Tom Cruise… in the future! Why We Love It There’s been a lot of shameful Phillip K. Dick adaptations. From John Woo’s comically bad Paycheck to the just plain bad Next, Dick’s prolific work does not always receive the best of treatments. However, Stephen Spielberg delivered one of those best treatments. In the vein of Blade Runner and Total Recall, I have no doubt that Minority Report will be regarded as a classic one day.