Scifi Mag

Writer/director Frank Darabont has been talking about adapting Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for at least a decade. He got sidetracked by writing gigs on Indiana Jones IV (not, according to him, what became Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and Mission: Impossible III, as well as directing his own script of The Mist.

But at the Saturn Awards Wednesday night in Burbank, Calif., where he won an award for best DVD special edition release for The Mist, Darabont said it's make or break time for the film.

The success of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek has fed speculation about a sequel: Will it include a return to classic Trek missions, albeit from the perspective of the new timeline? Speaking with SCI FI Wire on Wednesday night at the Saturn Awards, Abrams said that he is excited about that possibility, but won't rule out new ideas either.

"The great thing is we're all open to anything," Abrams said. "I think the fun of where we are with Trek is that it can and should just be fully explored. So I think to limit ourselves to only new adventures would be a mistake. But I also think we want to take advantage of th

The Dark Knight was the big winner with five awards at the 35th annual Saturn Awards on Wednesday, taking home statuettes for best action/adventure/thriller film, best writing (Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan), best supporting actor (Heath Ledger), best music (Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard) and best special effects. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films sponsored the awards at The Castaway in Burbank, Calif.

Other multiple winners included The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Iron Man, with three each. Button won best fantasy film, best supporting actress (Tilda Swinton) and best makeup. Iron Man won best science fiction film, best actor (Robert Downey Jr.) and best director (Jon Favreau).

Dan Fogler is knee-deep in dots for his upcoming film, Mars Needs Moms!

"As we speak I'm wearing a ridiculous outfit with sensors all over it, with dots all over my face," the Fanboys star said recently during a break from shooting Mars Needs Moms! "It's like black-box theater, just very technical theater, which I love. Once you get past the crazy outfits and crazy helmet and the fact you have to use your imagination 90 percent of the time, it's really a joy. It's very physical. It's action-packed, and I'm doing a lot of harness work, a lot of stuff I wouldn't normally do in your regular comedy."

Director Zack Snyder has shown his chops for action in 300 and Watchmen and even his Dawn of the Dead remake, but those were just movies with action in them, the director says: His new movie, Sucker Punch, will be something altogether new.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire, Snyder said that he plans to take movie action to a level we haven't seen before, well beyond 300 and The Matrix. "Damon [Caro], my stunt choreographer and fight choreographer, and I like fight choreography," Snyder said in Wednesday in Burbank, Calif., where he was promoting Watchmen: The Director's Cut on Blu-ray. "I'm not a gimmick-based [filmmaker]. I'm not looking to do a big rubber CGI double jumping from building to building and [an] unkillable crazy hero. So I do like sort of hard effects. Give me a machine gun and some kind of cool fighting hand to hand, and let's get it on. To me it's about trying to use technology to kind of just seam up the impossible parts of it, but still stay as raw as you can."

Watchmen director Zack Snyder will be plenty busy with his upcoming movies Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Sucker Punch, but after that he has more landmark genre prospects ahead, including a movie based on Ray Bradbury's 1951 SF classic book The Illustrated Man, which Watchmen co-wrter Alex Tse is adapting.

"It's amazing," Snyder said in an exclusive interview on Wednesday in Burbank, Calif., where he was promoting Watchmen: Director's Cut on Blu-ray. "We tried to do it basically retro technology, retro sci-fi, which I feel like is kind of cool. It's sort of in spirit of the novel."

Warner Bros. is giving Zack Snyder's director's cut of Watchmen—which will have an additional 25 minutes of footage, including the death of a supporting character—a limited theatrical run one week before Comic-Con International in San Diego. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cut will screen in Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis and Dallas before the movie is released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 21.

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines "Virtual Reality" as "the generation by computer software of an image or environment that appears real to the senses."

Science fiction geeks define it as "that thing I want NOW!"

With the advent of Ron Moore's VR-themed Virtuality looming, we thought we'd immerse ourselves into a look back at the almost-80-year history of VR, both as a sci-fi concept and as a real technology.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that for the first time in more than 65 years, the field of Best Picture nominees will be expanded from five to 10 contenders for the 82nd annual Academy Awards, Variety reported.

Can't make it to San Diego this year to be one of the 6,500 on-site fans who'll witness the annual Lucasfilm panel presentation, always one of the most hotly anticipated Comic-Con events?

No problem!