Fannish Items of Interest

[calliopes_pen]

Apparently, something managed to blow the covering of a vent off the roof—or partially off, as it was hanging on just barely. Dad just finished fixing it. There was still a screen over it, so no birds got into the attic. Whatever it actually was that caused it, nobody heard it, and Dad didn’t see it until he was coming back from getting the newspaper.

Doctor Who returns to BBC America with all five of the specials. The Next Doctor airs June 27th. Planet of the Dead will air at some point in July. BBC America is getting first run rights, rather than the Sci-Fi Channel, apparently.

Latest remake that proves Hollywood could be out of ideas? (Although, they proved that with the Flight of the Navigator remake, and a few others) They’re going to remake Alien. I never watched it, so it doesn’t bother me—but it might bother some out there that liked the movies.

For those that want to join an active reading group type thing on LJ, and don’t already know—there’s mythical_truth and bibliophyles. The former is voting for this month’s selection over here, and the latter over here.

At whedonesque: A discussion of who would work as Buffy if the movie was made by someone other than Kazui. You can also read the reaction (including the horror of early 90’s fashions, and the surprise of seeing Ben Affleck and Hilary Swank in bit parts before they were stars) of someone who saw the 1992 movie for the first time recently through a link in this post.

Comments

[nute.livejournal.com]

Latest remake that proves Hollywood could be out of ideas?

This is, and has always been, a complete and utter fallacy. Don't believe me? Look at when they started remaking Dracula and Tarzan, and people are accusing them of being unoriginal now?

[slipstreamborne.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhh, why would you remake Alien? D:< A few of the set-designs are a bit cheesy sci-fi by today's standards, but otherwise it's horror movie perfection. You honestly can't improve on the horror qualities, so I can only guess that they want to "update" the skin factor and have a newer, more traditionally "sexy" actress spending most of the movie in her underwear instead of just the final scene.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

a newer, more traditionally "sexy" actress spending most of the movie in her underwear instead of just the final scene.

With Victoria's Secret product placement included, no doubt. The original Ripley would have launched herself out of an airlock before she traded in her functional but undeniably sexy BVDs for lacy underwire and cheek lifting panels. (Never mind me. I'm just a cotton lover.)

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Do you know if BBC America hacks-up Doctor Who less than Sci-Fi does? I make arrangements to tape (for my own personal home enjoyment, of course) if it does.

I like Robert Rodriguez and trust him to handle a horror genre film, but remaking Alien? I'm just not sure --- a great deal of the attractiveness of Alien (if it can be called that) was that the strong, gun-toting, not-afraid-to-blow-stuff-up protagonist was a female (which, if I remember correctly, was a last minute decision because they wanted a man --- like the Governor (i.e. Ahh-nold S. --- to play Ripley; now, it's been done, and we'd probably get stuck with a man anyway).

[calliopes_pen]

Do you know if BBC America hacks-up Doctor Who less than Sci-Fi does? I make arrangements to tape (for my own personal home enjoyment, of course) if it does.

When they air the Christmas specials, the first airing is uncut. Anytime after that, they chop it up to fit into a one hour slot. For example, with Voyage of the Damned, they showed the full thing. Next time it aired, it ended with the Doctor stopping the Titanic from hitting London. No last minute with Astrid. No finding the TARDIS again.

I think they do cut the regular episodes up a bit, too.

On the other hand, they try not to cut Torchwood at all, just taking out a little bit of the establishing shot. Just doing censor marks over things like Rhys' naked bottom.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Wow! That could really effect the writer's/director's/other creative team member's meaning. And make it hard to follow. I don't think I'll go nuts arranging to get a copy right off. Thanks for the info.

And not touching Torchwood much versus hacking the crap out of Dr. Who is just bizarre. Sure, Torchwood is intentionally more "adult" (not as much as I'd expected, though, given all the hype) and Dr. Who is still (from what I gather) the equivalent of a Saturday morning cartoon. But does BBC America really think that American kids are more innocent than British kids and/or that American kids watch only kiddie shows? Have the heads of BBC America hung out at the school bus stops in the U.S. lately and heard the child-emitted trash talk? No sense at all, I say.

And re: Rhys' butt --- Cover it up, don't cover it up. Whatever. Not a huge loss either way.

Thanks for the info.

[calliopes_pen]

The Sci-Fi Channel is equally strange when it comes to cutting up Doctor Who. When they aired The Christmas Invasion (the only time they did, apparently) they apparently cut the scene where the Doctor's in the wardrobe room. I have no idea how long the scene where everyone's sitting down to dinner is supposed to be, since I've never seen the uncut version, but that was apparently cut down to a second as well.

Strangely, with Torchwood Rhys' butt is almost the only thing BBC America ever tried to censor. On Day One (the episode with the gas alien that had sex with everyone) they just barely snipped anything from it. Most of that bathroom scene was still there, from what I remember.