The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log » Television

“Das war Han Solo…” – German girl can ID Star Wars figures using just her mouth!

Joe — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:01:48 +0000

Here’s a delightfully odd video clip for the end of the working week -- this young German girl is blindfolded (with a customised Star Wars blindfold, no less) on a German television show and then identifies Star Wars mini figures using just her mouth! Or perhaps she was secretly channeling the force? I mean Luke eventually managed to fight the training orb even with the blast shield down on his helment in the original SW movie. Can you feel the force? Mind you, why is she sitting on what looks like Kirk’s chair from Star Trek to do a Star Wars test? Ah, who cares, its fun anyway! (via BoingBoing)

Fallout – Peter Bagge’s Apocalypse Nerd heading for the telly

Joe — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:07:00 +0000

The Fantagraphics Flog has a trailer up for Fallout, a trailer for a pilot science fiction show based on Peter Bagge’s Apocalypse Nerd being pitched by producer/director Tupaq Felber to the BBC, following Gordon and Douglas, two friends coming back from a weekend camping out in the woods to find that civilisation seems to have collapsed in their absence. It’s a pilot at the moment and we all know pilots don’t always make it to an actual series, but then again look what that first pilot episode of Being Human lead to on the Beeb, so fingers crossed…

Fallout: Teaser Trailer from tupaq felber on Vimeo.

Doctor Who on tour

Joe — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:05:34 +0000

The BBC is reporting that new Doctor Matt Smith and his companion Karen Gillan will be embarking on a short UK tour this month, part of the BBC’s Outreach programmes which “will target hard-to-reach communities relatively underserved by the BBC.” Although when it names some of the destinations I have to say I’m puzzled at the BBC’s use of the term ‘hard to reach’ – I imagined perhaps remote rural locations or the islands of Scotland perhaps from that, but they mean Northampton, Salford, Belfast, Inverness and Sunderland. I’m really not sure how exactly these are ‘hard to reach’? Peculiar. Still, it is great that Matt and Karen and the Who team are going out ahead of the eagerly anticipated new series to meet the fans who are, after all, the folks who really made the show the world’s longest running science fiction series.

(Karen Gillan and Matt Smith from the promotional trailer for the new Doctor Who season due in April in the UK, (c) BBC)

Belfast is the first port of call on March 29th with the tour finishing in Salford on the 31st. According to the article after the tour the Beeb “will also hold events on big screens for Doctor Who fans in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Swansea”, so more of us will have something to look forward to. And while we’re talking Who, has anyone else seen the new trailer in 3D in the cinema yet? Great fun!

“Twin Peaks meets Brigadoon” – Grant Morrison and Stephen Fry’s TV project

Joe — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:10:04 +0000

SFX mag draws our attention to an interview on LiveForFilm with director Paul McGuigan where he talks a little about the upcoming TV project he is working on with Grant Morrison and Stephen Fry:

“Yeah Grant Morrison and myself are working on – I wouldn’t call it a secret project – but a project with Stephen Fry. It’s a thriller set in Scotland. Me and Grant have been friends for a while and we wanted to do something together and Grant went off and wrote a treatment, so it’s at the treatment stage at the moment. It’s seven episodes. It takes place over seven days around an event that happens in Scotland. It’s a modern take on an old fable or fairy story. If you know Grant’s work you might have an idea of what it will be like. It’s like Twin Peaks meets Brigadoon! It’s off the wall and smart but in a watchable commercial way. It’s still in the early stages but I’m very excited about it.”

(Grant Morrison on the far left, with Brendan McCarthy, Rian Hughes, Peter Hogan and Charles Shaar Murray outside the Dublin Forbidden Planet during the 1990 Revolver tour)

To be quite honest the thought of Grant being let loose on a TV show, let alone one being set in his native land, is brilliant, but add in national treasure Stephen Fry and that’s quite a surreal combination that just has me wanting to know more…

The Walking Dead fan video

Joe — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:02:25 +0000

As we’ve mentioned here before Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s brilliant Walking Dead series is coming to television, which has us all quite excited (and although movies are great something like this works better on TV as a series than as a film). While we impatiently await the flesh-munching, stumbling hordes of the undead laying siege to our dwindling and increasingly desperate survivors though, MTV’s Splash Page has news of a fan-made video based on events in issue #51 (via Jason Thibault’s Twitter):

New Who

Joe — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:03:41 +0000

Soon, oh yes, my friends, soon….

(apologies if this doesn’t play for you, some BBC videos only work for UK IP addresses; via PJ Holden’s Twitter- UPDATE – If the link is playing up and the video won’t play directly, try the direct link to the BBC Dr Who Trailer)

Doctor Who and Torchwood auction

Joe — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:01:36 +0000

(just the thing if you’re planning some interior redesign – a section of TARDIS interior wall)

The famous auction house Bonham’s has a number of props and costumes and other assorted collectables from Doctor Who and Torchwood going under the hammer on the 24th of February, from Martha’s costumes to a section of TARDIS wall to Torchwood’s Range Rover (perhaps if there is a new series they will drive something more eco friendly, maybe nip around Cardiff battling baddies in a Smart car), Kylie Minogue’s maid’s costume (steady now!) and some original era Who goodies too, including cheetah people costumes from Survival, Mordred’s costume from Battlefield and even a full Cyberman costume from Silver Nemesis and an Imperial Dalek from Remembrance of the Daleks. Full list with details and pics and expected prices on the Bonham’s site (via Laura McDonald-Saxon’s Twitter, in turn via Tony Lee’s Twitter)

(Imperial Dalek – not to be confused with Mint Imperials – from Remembrance of the Daleks, also up for auction)

Absolute Justice

Joe — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:34:08 +0000

I watch Smallville periodically (although not religiously) but the Absolute Justice ep? Yeah, that’s seriously perking my interest! Looks fab. (via the Geek Syndicate Twitter)

Bryant Talbot on TV and at the Lit and Phil in February

Joe — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:02:09 +0000

Bryan Talbot tells us that he’s going to be appearing on the television in February, taking part in A Brush With Britain, which is about artist Charles Evans travelling the country and meeting artists in each area; Bryan will feature in the episode on Sunderland, which goes out on Discovery Real Time on Saturday February 6th. For readers in the north east of England there’s also a chance to see Bryan in person as he is giving his Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition presentation at the famed Literary and Philosophical Society (the Lit & Phil), 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, on Wednesday 3rd February at 6pm; check the Lit & Phil site for details on how to get tickets. On a related note you can read Pádraig’s huge interview with Bryan on the blog, with part one here and part two here.

(the sinister secret service death squad take aim in Grandville, published Jonathan Cape, by and (c) Bryan Talbot)

Walking Dead gets TV pilot

Joe — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:01:24 +0000

Slashfilm is reporting that the proposed television adaptation of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s brilliant Walking Dead comic series that we blogged about several weeks back has moved a step closer – Frank ‘Shawshank Redemption’ Darabont pitched the idea to AMC who have now commissioned a pilot.

“This is not about zombies popping out of closets. This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way,” AMC VP of programming, Joel Stillerman, talking to Variety.

I think this could make a compelling horror-drama series; regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of the Walking Dead (published by Image). There are a lot of zombie stories out there and even to a horror fan like me it takes something extra to stand out from the decaying crowd; Kirkman and Adlard do so by making the drama and character’s as important, or indeed more important, than the horror-fantasy elements. Rather than simple shock value (although there are shocks and disturbing scenes a-plenty) they follow in the footsteps of the master, George Romero, to do something horror often does very well, comment on human nature and society by pushing both to the edge, while also drawing you in to a fascinating, often terrifying tale of survival.

Its a long way from a pilot to a series, of course, but the current climate is very favourable to telefantasy for adult audiences right now, so fingers crossed the pilot impresses and we get a series from it, especially one coming from Darabont’s guiding hand, because we know he has a good track record in adapting books well to films and I’d imagine he’d handle this with respect for the source material.