You're in luck, London folks! The unbeatable Ray Harryhausen classic and Pornokitsch super-double-ultra favorite Clash of the Titans will be shown as part of a double-bill with Jason and the Argonauts on Monday, March 29th, at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square.
There is no reason you should not be there. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.
Without Clash of the Titans you and I wouldn't be here today, in the most literal sense: Jared and I originally made friends by bonding over our mutual affection for the movie, way back in 1998. A decade later his wedding present to me was a mint-condition, vintage promo poster for the movie, signed by Harryhausen himself.
The second of our five part series with Abaddon & Solaris editor, Jonathan Oliver. Previously, we discussed the origins of the Twilight of Kerberos series.
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Let’s throw in the traditional question about influences.
People normally cite things like Tolkien and, more recently, David Eddings… but you’ve been talking about pulp authors so far.
H.P. Lovecraft, certainly. “Call of Cthulhu” has to be one of the most influential stories within the horror genre. Lovecraft touched on a horror that no one had really touched on before. His stories seem really grandiose and cosmic, but at their heart they’re about an utter despair. “There is no God, the universe really is this cruel!”
A friend of mine describes Lovecraft as High Church Atheism, which isn’t far off the truth. I say this as a Christian, but Lovecraft’s atheism is part of what makes him great. It doesn’t upset me – it gives him this unique take on horror.
You say "Lovecraft" and people immediately just think tentacles and big sea monsters, and that’s really not at the core of what he does.
Speaking of things that give us warm, slightly confusing feelings - have you noticed our gorgeous new Pornokitsch font, up at the top of the page? It's a wonderful combination of Barbarella and squish, don't you think?
Someone is set to adapt A Wrinkle in Time for the big screen. I know it's a classic, but I never warmed to Wrinkle. The news leaves me unmoved.
Someone else, however, is adapting Robert C. O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM - now that is a novel I did love. Here's hoping the new version is more faithful to the book than Don Bluth's 1982 animated movie. Although I do honestly like The Secret of NIHM, the hocus-pocus crap at the end bugged me, even as a kid. In a perfect world, the new NIHM will keep all the science and all the graphic violence - and feature stop-motion animation. (I'd settle for traditional cel animation, however. Hell, I'd be glad if they gave Bluth another shot; his highly stylized animation has a kind of compelling grittiness to it, without ever quite straying into the outright ugliness of Ralph Bakshi's vision.)
Ian McKellen makes it sound like The Hobbit movie is finally getting off the ground.
Here is a (film) trailer for the new Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (novel) prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Although I'm pretty tired of the Jane Austen Novel & Horror Cliche this isn't a bad way to waste a minute.
Happy weekend! If you're in or around London, don't forget to go see Joe Hill at Forbidden Planet on Saturday and Spaceballs at the Prince Charles Cinema next Tuesday!
Congratulations Suzi! You've had your name drawn from a hat and won our Sexiest Steampunk Hero contest. Drop us a line in the comments to claim your thrilling prize!
One of the highlights of the SFX Weekender was meeting Jonathan Oliver, editor of Abaddon & Solaris and author of the recently-published The Call of Kerberos. Mr Oliver kindly agreed to an interview, and, even more generously, allowed me to test my new audio gadgetry and record the whole thing. We had a forty-minute, free-ranging chat that covered all aspects of the fantastic universe... and took a long time for me to transcribe.
As a result of this epic venture, we've got five, wonderfully free-ranging interview segments, all of which we'll be sharing over the next two weeks.
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Why don't we begin with your new book - what are the origins of the Twilight of Kerberos series? How did you came up with the idea for the Twilight world?
I really love sword and sorcery.
I love George R.R. Martin as well, and I love serious fantasy, but Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories are my favorite things in fantasy ever.
I wanted to do something that captured the zest and the fun of those stories, while also providing a series structure. We'd already had a fantasy series with Dreams of Inan which didn’t quite work as I wanted it to, though there were some very fine books there. This was way back when I first started and what we actually ended up with was something that was really more space fantasy. It was a bit Buck Rogers-y than I'd intended it be. Entirely my fault.
Mr. Pickles occasionally selects books for us to read, in the middle of the night, by pulling them gently from their shelves and allowing them to fall, with a barely audible thump, to our hardwood floors. Some of a more cynical persuasion might suggest that he engages in this behavior to encourage us to feed him at difficult hours, but I choose to believe that he has only our best reading interests at heart.
This morning's haul: two Ed Noon novels and There Is Something about a Dame, (note the emphasis!) the title of which never fails to make me break out into song.
8.29 pm. In keeping with a well established tradition, (I, uh, liveblogged the Resident Evil movie on Twitter, once.) Pornokitsch guest-editor Mr. Pickles and I, your fearless editor-who-isn't-Jared, shall go forth and liveblog! Tonight's movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which we started last night but never finished. (My friends, it is a long movie.). I'm not sure how far along we got last night, so this may be a very short liveblog. Or not.
We are comfortably situated on our squashy beanbag sofa in front of the television. Those of us who wear pyjamas are jim-jammed out; those of us who do not are not. Mr. Pickles is seated next to me, with his paws on my left leg, purring. I have just finished a gigantic meal. Bring it!
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