News Archive: February 2006

Dave loves Jim, official
26/02/2006. Cheeky David Brin, science fiction author of the Uplift series, The Postman, and others, has thrown his reputation behind a new SciFi magazine, Jim Baen's Universe.

Wacky Races to the Moon
26/02/2006. The X-Prize Foundation is moving forward with plans to offer a $2 million Lunar Lander Challenge by releasing draft rules of the competition, making them available for public comment.

Eragon pictures
26/02/2006. Web site Shurtugal has pictures from the Eragon fantasy film up (taken while filming).

The old man of Brit scifi
25/02/2006. With its 203rd issue, Interzone becomes Britain's longest running science fiction magazine. Way to go, zonies.

Torchwood gets Eve Myles
25/02/2006. Welsh actress Eve Myles has been confirmed to play Gwen Cooper - the lead female role in the new Russell T Davies Doctor Who spin-off drama for BBC 3, Torchwood.

Masters of Science Fiction
25/02/2006. The ABC Television Network has picked up IDT Entertainment's drama series Masters of Science Fiction, which will feature works from some of the most well known authors of science fiction.

Saturn Awards 2006 nominees
24/02/2006. Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith leads the nomination list for The 32nd Annual Saturn Awards from The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.

FantasyCon 2006
24/02/2006. The FantasyCon 2006 event has been confirmed in the UK.

Clarion's new web site
23/02/2006. The Clarion Foundation launches a new website, with a chat with author Kim Stanley Robinson.

Estronomicon no. 2
23/02/2006. Here comes the second issue of Estronomicon, the monthly eZine from Screaming Dreams.

Debbie does JJLA
22/02/2006. The latest author to join the John Jarrold Literary Agency is British fantasy writer Debbie Gallagher.

Eric Brown novella goes to PS Publishing
22/02/2006. John Jarrold has concluded a deal with Peter Crowther of PS Publishing for a novella by British SF author Eric Brown, twice winner of the British Science Fiction Award for short fiction.

Zoran's movie
21/02/2006. Film rights for Serbian award-winning author Zoran Zivkovic's novel Hidden Camera have been optioned to UK production company Chocolate Films by John Jarrold, Zivkovic's English-Language agent.

Hungarian writer, Ilona Hegedus nominated for The James B. Baker Award
21/02/2006. A sci-fi poem, Clarissa by Hungarian science fiction, fantasy and horror writer, Ilona Hegedus has been nominated for The James B. Baker Award in the Best Poem for 2005 category.

The Arab spaceport
21/02/2006. Space Adventures announces a USD 265 million global spaceport development project in the UAE.

Greenland ice loss doubles
20/02/2006. The loss of ice from Greenland doubled between 1996 and 2005, as its glaciers flowed faster into the ocean in response to a generally warmer climate, according to a NASA/University of Kansas study.

Hyperdrive goes into, well, hyperdrive
20/02/2006. A second series of science fiction comedy Hyperdrive has been given the go-ahead by Lucy Lumsden, Controller of Comedy Commissioning, and will start filming later this year for transmission on BBC Two. Why.

A Scanner Darkly
20/02/2006. New online trailer for the science fiction movie A Scanner Darkly.

Space elevator edges up
19/02/2006. LiftPort Group, the space elevator companies, has announced that it has successfully completed its second round of preliminary tests of its high altitude platform and robotic lifters.

G'Kar dies
19/02/2006. Everyone's favourite Babylon 5 Narn alien dies as actor Andreas Katsulas passes away from cancer.

You sank my DeathStar
19/02/2006. Battleship game gets a Star Wars makeover.

Top Ten SF movies ...
19/02/2006. ... that never happened. Now that's sad.

The future of money
18/02/2006. Science fiction author Bruce Sterling ponders the future of the folding green stuff.

Osama Bin Laden versus Batman
18/02/2006. The comicbook you never thought would happen... just did.

Philip K. Dick is stolen
18/02/2006. Android version of science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick goes missing. An accident or foul play. He must be laughing in his grave.

New Ultraviolet web site
17/02/2006. The vampire flick has an official web site now.

Dead Witch Walking
17/02/2006. In a new acquisition, Harper Collins' Voyager Imprint is to publish Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking series.

Fullmetal Alchemist arrives in Canada
17/02/2006. Anime series Fullmetal Alchemist has been picked up by YTV for broadcast in Canada.

Eva Green new Bond girl
16/02/2006. Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios have announced that actress Eva Green has been cast to play the enticing Vesper Lynd opposite Daniel Craig in his debut appearance as James Bond in the highly 007 adventure thriller, Casino Royale.

Alt-Fiction
16/02/2006. Fans are invited to the UK town of Derby's Assembly Rooms on Saturday 6th May 2006 to take part in a science fiction, fantasy and horror event for readers and writers ... Alt-Fiction.

Anarchy, destruction and annihilation
15/02/2006. Science fiction screenwriter sets scene for PC futuristic action strategy title Maelstrom.

Clayton moves up to editor
15/02/2006. Keith Clayton has been promoted to Associate Editor at US sci-fi publishing house Del Rey.

Air Gear
15/02/2006. With 12 volumes and over 5.5 million copies in print in Japan, the anticipation has been building for the US debut of the manga title Air Gear.

Del Rey upcoming SFF novels
14/02/2006. Novels coming out from US science fiction publisher Del Rey up to May 2006.

Lunar olympics
14/02/2006. Olympic aerialist Eric Bergoust discusses the possibilities of ski jumping on the moon.

The difference engine, lego-style
14/02/2006. Building a steampunk calculating machine using just LEGO. Babbage must be turning in his grave.

SFF news for the ladies
13/02/2006. A new weekly video cast of science fiction news from Lynne Gryphon down in Oz.

The Lords Of Terror
13/02/2006. New novel written by Allan Cole and Russian fantasy author Nick Perumov.

Kim Stanley Robinson gets chilly
13/02/2006. Writer Kim Stanley Robinson is interviewed on this month's episode of Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction. Robinson discusses his latest novel, Fifty Degrees Below.

Trailer trash
12/02/2006. New online trailers for X-Men 3 and the 2nd trailer for the V for Vendetta movie.

Stagknight
12/02/2006. Word has reached the Nest of Stagknight, a new British comedy/horror film. Currently in post-production, the film will be released later in the year.

SCIFI Weekly gets a new look
11/02/2006. The online SFF magazine of the SCIFI Channel gets an overhaul.

Power of the Dark Crystal
11/02/2006. Animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created the series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory, will direct Power of the Dark Crystal, the sequel to The Jim Henson Company's 1982 classic fantasy film.

Hard science fiction
10/02/2006. A web site just for hard science fiction. Well hard.

Flatspace II released
10/02/2006. After a few months of testing and feedback from an early adopter version, Flatspace II: The Rise of the Scarrid has been released by Cornutopia Software.

Sunnyvale takes home Golden Groundhog Award
10/02/2006. Groundhog's Day 2006 was a memorable one in many ways. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, Canada's albino groundhog (Wiarton Willie) boldly predicted a short winter for Ontario, and Sunnyvale won the first annual Golden Groundhog Award as the Best Underground Film of 2005.

SFF webmaster wanted
09/02/2006. Michael Hinman, editor over at www.syfyportal.com, is looking for some tech-talented volunteers to help with his science fiction web site.

Atrocity Archives sequel
09/02/2006. Charles Stross has just delivered Bob Howard novel THE JENNIFER MORGUE,
sequel to THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES, to Marty Halpern at Golden Gryphon
Press for November 2006 publication.

Blade of the King
06/02/2006. The Blade of the King, a concept fantasy film, is coming to online movie site ifilm.com

Silent Universe
06/02/2006. Silent Universe launches as interactive science fiction podcast drama.

Cylons got game
05/02/2006. Battlestar Galactica producer Ronald D. Moore to keynote 2006 Game Developers Conference. Ron's to discuss the reimagining, reinventing, and resurrecting of the Galactica space opera.

Kappa Mikey
04/02/2006. First anime series created and produced entirely in the U.S premieres on Nicktoons Network Saturday, February 25th 2006. Dude, that's a toon, not anime.

Frank Miller joins WonderCon guest list
03/02/2006. Comics writer/creator Frank Miller will join the line-up of guests at the 2006 WonderCon comic book and pop culture convention to be held in San Francisco on February 10 through 12, 2006.

Killing Demons
02/02/2006. Producers Mark Canton, chairman and chief executive officer of Atmosphere Entertainment MM, and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, chairman of Platinum Studios, have announced that they will develop Platinum's graphic novel Killing Demons as a feature film. A screenwriter will be announced shortly.

StarGate SG-1 the game
01/02/2006. New massively multiplayer role-playing game based on the StarGate TV series is agreed for the internet.

Killer octopus attacks sub
01/02/2006. Shades of all those bad Jules Verne steampunk movies.

Fear of Girls
01/02/2006. Some SFF-loving male RPG fans' fear of the fairer gender is mocked in an odd Google-hosted video.

Solaris - new SF imprint
01/02/2006. BL Publishing, Games Workshop's in-house publisher of science fiction and fantasy, have announced the launch of Solaris - a new book imprint being set up to produce original science fiction and fantasy novels.