When publishing worlds collide
02/08/2008. The science fiction and fantasy small press community are intensely worried about the implications of Amazon buying second-hand book retailer ABEBooks.

Scifi law suit end - Lucasfilm crushes stormtrooper helmet man
01/08/2008. The English High Court has found that poor old British firm Shepperton Design Studios and its unlucky principal, Andrew Ainsworth, violated the US copyright of Lucasfilm by making Star Wars stormtrooper helmets and other science fiction costume replicas from the Lucas's movies.

All change on the board of the ASFA
01/08/2008. Some interesting news - from a UK point of view - is that British space artist David Hardy is now the new Vice President of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists - the first time this role has been taken by a European or a Brit. The old board is still up on the ASFA site, but their new President is Elisabeth Humphrey, and the Secretary is Jannie Shea.

There's water on them thar' planets
01/08/2008. NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by heating samples. Water, water, everywhere, but nary a drop a drink.

Saturn's lovely lakes
31/07/2008. NASA's white coats have decided that at least one of the massive lakes observed on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have also identified the presence of ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface ... the lakes of Saturn!

Run SMOFCon, run
31/07/2008. San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions are to offer a scholarship of $500 to help convention runners in training to attend the SMOFCon convention-runners convention in Columbus OH this year (held the weekend of December 5th-7th 2008).

A hobbit's sword and Hellboy's gun
31/07/2008. A lethal selection of fantasy and science fiction weaponry and armour is to go on display at the UK's Leeds Armoury Museum. It's part of a new show called Arms And Armour From The Movies – The Wonderful World Of Weta exhibition.

Acacia the movie
31/07/2008. David Anthony Durham's excellent fantasy novel from Doubleday, Acacia: The War With the Mein, is heading for fantasy movie land after striking a deal with film company Relativity Media.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer
30/07/2008. Online trailer for some strange new fantasy movie about a boy wizard or something. I really don't think this one is going to catch on.

The Princess and the Frog trailer
30/07/2008. Disney don't make animations like this any more. And, some would say, with good reason. Where's the blood and the Matrix-style combat visuals? Blahhh.

Social networking for the scifi crowd
29/07/2008. There's a new social network just been set-up solely to cater for science fiction and fantasy fans - it looks something like the mutant alien cross-breeding of FaceBook, MySpace and Bebo - and its name is HiveMind. How can you not resist becoming a member?

Call me Suvudu
29/07/2008. Random House has put together a new blog for all its science fiction publishing units - including Del Rey Spectra Pulse, Bantam Spectra etc.

Tron 2
28/07/2008. Here's the footage that was shown at Comic Con of the second Tron film. Cyberspace, now there was an 80s thang. Maybe we should all start wearing neon glowing uniforms at the Nest when we surf the web.

Belushi to roar in Dorothy of OZ
26/07/2008. Jim Belushi has accepted the part of the Lion in Alpine Pictures' upcoming Dorothy of OZ animated flick.

Legend of the Seeker
25/07/2008. Disney's epic fantasy TV series, previously known as Wizard's First Rule, will now rebrand as Legend of the Seeker, according to the 2008 Comic Con panel led by producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. This is the one based on Terry Goodkind's novels (the Sword of Truth books), and we do hope the change of name doesn't indicate that Terry is unhappy how the televisual fruit of his loins is shaping up. It's not uncommon for authors to ask for their novel's title to be dropped when they think the film adaption is no good, or not true enough to their novels (although we have heard nothing from Terry to indicate this might be the case).

I'd buy that for a dollar: Robocop set to reboot as a new scifi movie
25/07/2008. MGM has just signed up director Darren Aronofsky to direct a new science fiction movie in its Robocop series. David Self wil be writing. Aronofsky was the director of The Fountain, while Self was the writer of Road to Perdition. The film is due for release in 2010.

Legend of the Seeker trailer
25/07/2008. No sooner do we hear of Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi's new epic fantasy television series, than they release a trailer for it. It looks a little like Hercules with Matrix-style fight scenes. Hmmm... perhaps not.

More actors cast for The Prisoner
25/07/2008. ITV has told SFcrowsnest about their new cast members set to star in its reinterpretation of the 1960s spy-fi TV series The Prisoner. They're going all arty with Ruth Wilson of Jane Eyre fame, and Hayley Atwell of Mansfield Park fame. Oh, Mr Number Six, I do declare, my heart's all a-quiver. And nuke me sideways, Jericho's mystery man, Lennie James, also gets a part. The Prisoner combines a wide range of genres, including espionage, thriller and SciFi.

Terminator Salvation
24/07/2008. Yet another trailer for Terminator Salvation. This one seems to be shot in the shaky shot on your phone-style school of film making. Which sucks, by the way.

The Dead
24/07/2008. Alan Grant, Simon Bisley, Gibbons, and Glenn Fabry will be signing an exclusive cover variant of The Dead - a tale of zombies in the UK - at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 16th August 2008 1-2pm.

Where Nightmares Come
24/07/2008. Where Nightmares Come Alive is the theme for Universal Studios Hollywood's first Halloween short film competition, a virtual film festival. Prospective filmmakers are invited to submit 90 seconds to three minute film shorts on DVD that support the theme Where Nightmares Come Alive.

Merlin
23/07/2008. Merlin is a new 13-part Saturday night fantasy drama for family audiences due to hit BBC One September 2008. John Hurt has just been cast as the Voice of the Great Dragon.

Gemini Division
23/07/2008. Online trailer for NBC's Gemini Division, about a police detective investigating the murder of her boyfriend. During the investigation she discovers a global conspiracy creating simulated life forms that have infilitrated the US.

Caprica
22/07/2008. There's now an online trailer for the Battlestar Galactica prequel. It has a very 1960s feel to it - and it looks like the human-style Cylon biotech came from a project to clone dead loved ones, specifically, kids who died in accidents. Creepy.

Stargate Continuum leads SG charge in UK
22/07/2008. If you've got Sky One cable in the UK, you're okay, as Stargate Continuum is opening the new SG season in Britain, with some fifth season Stargate Atlantis science fiction antics starting from mid-August 2008.

Christian Bale talks Batman
22/07/2008. SciFi go-to guy Christian Bale sits on the GMTV sofa and talks about acting in The Dark Knight, getting a more comfortable bat suit, and how Heath, in his portrayal of the Joker, has really made this movie.

Stickleback
22/07/2008. Ian Edginton and D’Israeliwill be signing Stickleback at the Forbidden Planet, 38 Priory Queensway, Birmingham, B4 7LA, on Saturday 23rd August 2008 at 1-2pm. Stickleback: It’s London, the turn of the nineteenth century and the inhabitants live in fear of a villainous character known only as Stickleback.

The curse of the Joker
22/07/2008. Christian Bale, aka Batman, aka The Dark Knight, has been arrested today for allegedly assaulting his sister and mom in his hotel room, although he was allowed by cops to walk down the red carpet for the London premiere of The Dark Knight. You can't buy that kind of publicity. It looks like the curse of the Joker has struck again.

Mirabilis
21/07/2008. SCIFI Channel has confirmed that it will be making Mirabilis (this is a working title at the moment), a four-hour long traditional fantasy adventure miniseries where heroes battle various forces of darkness set against a backdrop of knights, sorcerers and dragons. Set to star in the movie are David James Elliott (JAG) as its hero John Serrogoth and Natassia Malthe (Elektra) as Perfidia.

Bryan Singer and the next ice age
21/07/2008. US cable TV player, the SCIFI Channel, has reported details of their upcoming new science fiction projects - which includes a SFF action adventure series from Bryan Singer of X-Men fame, plus the tale of a new ice age dawning on Earth, What If, and humanity's battle to survive. Now that's cold! The latter willl be in the shaky videocam style of Cloverfield.

Phantom Stream
20/07/2008. For the next few weeks you'll find a promotional version of the first issue of the new science fiction magazine Phantom Stream: The Magazine of Other Dimensions is available for free download as a PDF at their web site.

Trailer for the Watchmen movie
18/07/2008. From the online trailer, it looks like the Watchmen movie is staying very faithful to the seminal graphic novel of the same name. See our big yellow smiley faces here at SFcrowsnest. Who's watching the Watchmen? Frak it, WE ARE!

Wise is he: SFWA makes Harry Harrison a Grand Master
18/07/2008. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America will name Harry Harrison, the science fiction author of works such as The Stainless Steel Rat series and Make Room Make Room, as this year's Damon Knight Grand Master during the 2009 Nebula awards. A much deserved award, Harry.

Astonishing Adventures
18/07/2008. The Astonishing Adventures web site has now gone live to support the pulp scifi magazine of the same name.

Drone Puppet
18/07/2008. Issue ten of SciFi & Fantasy modeller magazine carries an article on the making of the Drone Puppet head used in Dreamscape.

Tin Man scoops the SciFi Channel a heap of Emmy nominations
18/07/2008. Battlestar Galactica was also recognised by the The US Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for its writing, cinematography and SFX.

Jeff VanderMeer interviews Stephen Hunt
18/07/2008. British fantasy author Stephen Hunt is interviewed by Jeff VanderMeer over at the Amazon book-shop blog, Omnivoracious.

Chris Carter meeting the X-Files fans in London
18/07/2008. To celebrate the cinema release of X-Files: I Want To Believe, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz will be at the London Forbidden Planet megastore on Thursday 31st July 2008, from 1pm to 2pm.

Titan Books' Comic Con website has just launched
18/07/2008. There are interviews with Dave Gibbons and Alan Martin and previews of various new Titan titles.

Summit to show-off scifi movies at Comic-Con 2008
18/07/2008. Film Studio Summit Entertainment will push out cast members, filmmakers and new footage from its upcoming science fiction and horror films during Comic-Con 2008. Summit Entertainment will given fans a sneak peak of footage from its upcoming releases including Push, Knowing and modern day vampire love story, Twilight.

Empire in Black and Gold
18/07/2008. British sci-fi imprint Tor UK have created a new web site to coincide with the publication of Empire in Black and Gold, a debut from fantasy novelist Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Lakelands of Mars
18/07/2008. A couple of studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life.

Terminator: Salvation
18/07/2008. There's now an online teaser trailer out for Christian Bale's new Terminator film. What with Batman, Christian Bale seems to be becoming the go-to guy for filling sci-fi movie roles at the moment.

More sci-fi than spy-fi: Spooks Code 9
18/07/2008. The year is 2013. Thames House is gone and regional MI5 Field Offices have sprung up in its place. Are six young new recruits tough, moral and clever enough to protect Britain's future...? Spooks: Code 9 is a new six-part drama for BBC Three, due to be broadcast in August 2008.

Darwin's Paradox
18/07/2008. Here's a novel by author Nina Munteanu. It's about a world on the brink of violent change… when an intelligent virus and an intelligent machine community conspire to threaten the world with destruction and chaos; the only person who can save humanity is the woman who caused the cataclysm in the first place.

Marvel's The Black Panther roars into animated life
18/07/2008. Marvel Animation will be producing an animated series based on superhero, The Black Panther. Casting is underway for the series that is slated to premiere in the first quarter of 2009. A special sneak preview will premiere at Comic-Con during BET's panel on Saturday, July 26th 2008.

Beware of small ray-guns
18/07/2008. Here comes the latest miniaturised Raygun from the Dr. Grordbort's line, the Goliathon 83 - Miniature Version. Small, but like our flatulence in SFcrowsnest Towers, deadly.

Doctor Who scoops the 2nd annual Constellation Awards
18/07/2008. The winners of the 2008 Constellation Awards for Canadian science fiction television series and movies have been announced.

The Spirit
15/07/2008. The classic comic-book hero The Spirit is brought to, frankly, rather odd life in this movie version. This online trailer rather looks like the addled diary of a nutter wandering the streets after a bad night on the booze. Poor old Will Eisner.

Urban fantasy, is good in Germany, jah?
15/07/2008. Krystyna Kujawinska, Foreign Rights Director at Orion, has sold German rights in two urban fantasies by debut novelist Suzanne McLeod to Nicole Geismann of Goldmann for a significant advance after a hard-fought auction.

Hinterland
13/07/2008. Here comes the novel Hinterland, described as reality noir fiction, flowing from the pen of David Barnett and recently re-published by Immanion Press.

B Movie film festival
13/07/2008. Franklin Indiana in the USA will be hosting the Second Annual B Movie Celebration September 26th-28th 2008. The scifi and horror film festival will feature screenings of fifty classic B movies, twenty seminars and the world's largest science fiction beach party, featuring the music of The Moon-Rays.

Peter Straub: living legend... true
13/07/2008. Horror writer Peter Straub has been named as this year's International Horror Guild Living Legend. Straub is the author of various short stories and novellas as well as seventeen novels (including two co-authored with Stephen King) and is best noted for his work in the area of dark literature.

Outlander
13/07/2008. Trailer for a new scifi film. A humanoid alien cop crashes his jump ship on Earth in the viking age, hunting a dragon-like alien, and has to convince the local viking warlord to help him kill the creature before it destroys the world. Think Men in Black meets Beowulf, but without the comedy. Looks odd but interesting.

Helfort’s War
12/07/2008. Liz Scheier, an editor at U.S. science fiction and fantasy publisher Del Rey, has, she says, acquired two extra books in the Helfort’s War series by SFF author Graham Sharp Paul.

Of Quofum and a Misspent Youth
12/07/2008. Here's the line-up of forthcoming books from American SF publishing imprint Del Rey, from August to November 2008. Our tips for the top ... Quofum by author Alan Dean Foster and Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton.

The Man With the Iron Heart
12/07/2008. US SF imprint Del Rey is taking science fiction authors Harry Turtledove and Greg Bear on a signing tour in the USA. There's probably an alternative reality where Harry isn't going on tour, though.

Max Payne
11/07/2008. Online trailer for a new horror/dark fantasy movie based on the video game of the same name. Angels, devils, hitmen - think the Bourne Identity with a supernatural twist.

Luna
11/07/2008. The Ghost in the Machine podcast, narrated by fantasy author Gail Z. Martin, will be hosting authors Gina Farago, author of Ivy Cole and the Moon and Luna, and Michael Arnzen - best know as author of Play Dead and Proverbs for Monsters, this July 2008.

The Good Humor Man
11/07/2008. Science fiction author Andrew Fox has sold novel The Good Humor Man, or, Calorie 3501 to Jacob Weisman at Tachyon Publications via Denise Dumars of the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency.

Heroes III to hit UK
10/07/2008. The extra long third season of Heroes will start on BBC Two in Britain shortly after its premiere in the US. As season two reached its climax, some of the Heroes' lives are left hanging in the balance. With The Company's secrets about to be exposed, Sylar escapes with a sample of Claire's blood – but could this result in his powers going back to their full evil glory and his complete invincibility.

Magic versus science: who wins?
09/07/2008. There's an interesting article just gone online on io9 where various science fiction and fantasy authors such as Elizabeth Bear, Stephen Hunt and China Miéville talk about the differences between science and magic in the genre.

SF Signal reviews The Court of the Air
09/07/2008. The web-based science fiction magazine SF Signal has just reviewed fantasy/SF novel The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt.

Fight terror with super-powers
09/07/2008. Mark Millar will be signing his graphic novel War Heroes at London's Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 9th August 2008 1- 2pm. He's that bloke behind the Wanted movie, isn't he.

Exit, Pursued by a Bee
09/07/2008. Here's a science fiction novel that is based on Glastonbury with scenes in Weston-S-Mare, and explores alien communication techniques while questioning the nature of time on Earth.

Mutant Chronicles
03/07/2008. Trailer for the Mutant Chronicles, a new sci-fi film set in a far future Earth where almost all our natural resources have gone and humanity has fallen back to a 1912-ish standard of technology without electricity, plastics and the like. An endless trench war is being fought between the great corporate houses that control what is left of technology and science, when an underground lab is found by a patrol of soldiers and genetically engineered horrors from the past emerge.

Ali-G-mentary, my dear Watson
03/07/2008. Sacha Baron Cohen is set to star as Sherlock Holmes with Will Ferrell appearing as his Watson in a new steampunk-fantasy-history type movie based on Sherlock Holmes to be made by Columbia Pictures. Is nice, yessss.

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
03/07/2008. Some pictures from the third Starship Troopers scifi movie, which features the return of Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico, and Star Trek's very own Jolene 'Sub-Commander T'Pol: phasers to stun' Blalock. This movie actually has power armour, just like Heinlein's original book.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
03/07/2008. Klaatu Klaatu with our Keanu. Yes, it's the first online trailer for the remake of one of science fiction's finest classic SF movies, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Keanu Reeves brings the main role a certain wasted alien elegance.

James Nesbitt talks about being the next Doctor Who
02/07/2008. Actor James Nesbitt talks to Graham Norton about being the next Doctor Who while sitting next to Catherine - Donna - Tate.

Metropolis in full
02/07/2008. Missing scenes have been found in a Latin American movie archive for Fritz Lang's classic science fiction film Metropolis.

The X Files: I want to believe
02/07/2008. Another online trailer for the forthcoming X-Files flick which brings Scully and Mulder back out of retirement.

Clockwork Girl to be made into an animated movie
02/07/2008. Arcana Comics has told SFcrowsnest that Telefilm Canada, a Canadian cultural film agency, is putting up the folding green stuff for an animated film based on the Clockwork Girl comics.

The swords of Albion
01/07/2008. Fantasy author Mark Chadbourn has signed a three-book deal with UK publisher Transworld for an epic Elizabethan fantasy. The Swords of Albion will be published annually from 2010, in the UK and Commonwealth. The sequence has also been acquired by a US publisher. You've heard of spy-fi. Meet the new kid on the flintlock fantasy block.

Wiffle Lever To Full
01/07/2008. Bob Fischer will be talking about his new book and signing copies of Wiffle Lever To Full at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR on Wednesday 23rd July 2008 6-7pm.

The Prisoner returns to TV
30/06/2008. Jim 'The Passion of the Christ' Caviezel and Ian 'Gandalf' McKellen are to star in ITV's reinvention of the 1960s cult science fiction-spy series The Prisoner. Caviezel takes the role of Number Six while McKellen will appear throughout the series in the role of Number Two. He's a man, not a number.

Quantum Of Solace trailer
30/06/2008. Online trailer for the new James Bond movie. When you can't tell your friends from your enemy, it's time to leave the game. Never was a truer word spoken.

Lost and Enchanted scoop the scifi prizes at the 2008 Saturn Awards
28/06/2008. Yes, the judges' deliberations are in on the annual movie and TV awards for the science fiction and fantasy genre, aka The Saturns. Walt Disney Studios Enchanted picked up three Saturn awards including Best Picture (fantasy), and Best Actress (Amy Adams). Television gongs were dominated by the ABC television series, Lost, which walked away with 4 awards, including Best Network Television Series and Best Actor (Matthew Fox). Sweeney Todd, Ratatouille, and 300 each received two Saturn awards.

Building the Galaxiki - one world at a time
28/06/2008. Here's an interesting science fiction concept. Galaxiki is a wiki-based online galaxy - each star, planet and moon is represented by a single wiki page that can be edited by its site members. It's a hub for science fiction and fantasy fans to name stars, planets and moons, design solar systems, invent alien creatures and write fictional scifi histories about planets and civilisations.

When planets smash - Mars got really zapped
28/06/2008. New analysis of Mars' terrain by NASA reveals what appears to be by far the largest impact crater ever found in the solar system. Boy, did the red planet ever take a hammering. Talk about your ELE.

X6 – a novellantho
28/06/2008. Australian publisher coeur de lion publishing has reported its latest project, a single volume made up of six novellas from Australian science fiction authors.

Escher's Loops
28/06/2008. Science fiction and fantasy agent John Jarrold has sold World English language limited-edition rights in Serbian author Zoran Zivkovic’s new full-length novel, Escher's Loops, to Peter Crowther of PS Publishing, for publication in 2009.

Tesseracts wants you, horror dude
28/06/2008. Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing has reported that Tesseracts Thirteen, a dark fantasy and horror publication, is now open for submissions from writers.