0298 – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  28th century.  former International Space Station now “Alpha”, a space-traveling city where millions of creatures from different planets live peacefully and exchange their knowledge and cultures.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (French: Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes) is a 2017 English-language French 3D science fiction adventure film written and directed by Luc Besson, and co-produced by Besson and his wife, Virginie Besson-Silla. The film is based on the French science fiction comics series Valérian and Laureline, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières. It stars Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline, with Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu and Rutger Hauer in supporting roles. Besson independently crowd-sourced and personally funded Valerian and, with a production budget of around $180 million, it is both the most expensive European and independent film ever made.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2239822/

295 – Vals Im Bashir (2008)

spacetime coordinates: 1982 Lebanon War

Waltz with Bashir (Hebrew: ואלס עם באשיר‎‎, translit. Vals Im Bashir) is a 2008 Israeli animated war documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman in search of his lost memories of his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War.

Artist David Polonsky is right handed, but did most of the illustration for this film with his left hand, as he felt that his original drawing were ‘too pretty. The comics medium, in particular Joe Sacco, the novels Catch-22, The Adventures of Wesley Jackson, and Slaughterhouse-Five, and painter Otto Dix were mentioned by Folman and art director David Polonsky as influences on the film. The film itself was adapted into a graphic novel in 2009.

The original soundtrack was composed by minimalist electronic musician Max Richter

The film is officially banned in Lebanon.

In 1982, Ari Folman was a 19-year-old IDF infantry soldier. In 2006, he meets with a friend from that period, who tells him of the nightmares he’s having connected to his experiences from the Lebanon War. Folman is surprised to find that he recalls nothing from that period. Later that night he has a vision from the night of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the reality of which he is unable to clearly recall. In his memory, he and his soldier comrades are bathing at night by the seaside in Beirut under the light of flares descending over the city…

imdb       wikipedia

294 – Maximum Overdrive (1986)

spacetime coordinates: June 1987. at the Dixie Boy Truck Stop just outside Wilmington, North Carolina. as the Earth crosses the tail of a comet, previously inanimate machines suddenly spring to life.

Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American comedy horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King’s short story “Trucks“, which was included in the author’s first collection of short stories, Night Shift.

Maximum Overdrive is King’s only directorial effort, though dozens of films have been based on his novels or short stories. The film contained black humor elements and a generally campy tone, which contrasts with King’s sombre subject matter in books. The film has a mid-1980s hard rock soundtrack composed entirely by the group AC/DC, King’s favorite band. AC/DC’s album Who Made Who was released as the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack. (wiki)

imdb

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1922 (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  1922  Hemingford Home, Nebraska

1922 is a 2017 American horror-drama film written and directed by Zak Hilditch and based on Stephen King‘s novella of the same name.

imdb

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Cell (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2010s New England 

Cell is a 2016 American science fiction horror film based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The film is directed by Tod Williams, produced by John Cusack, with a screenplay by King and Adam Alleca. The film stars Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Isabelle Fuhrman.

imdb

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*ALL SK’s BOOKS TIE TOGETHER AND JOIN ANOTHER UNIVERSE, RUN BY AN ARCH ENEMY, NAMED Randall Flagg. Or other names

290 – Persepolis (2007)

spacetime coordinates: 1970s > 1980s > 1990s  Tehran / Vienna

Persepolis is a 2007 French-Iranian animated biographical film based on Marjane Satrapi‘s autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Satrapi with Vincent Paronnaud.  The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The title is a reference to the historic city of Persepolis.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(film)

0285 – Atomic Blonde (2017)

spacetime coordinates: (neo-)1989, Berlin

Atomic Blonde is a 2017 American action spy thriller film directed by David Leitch, in his first solo directorial credit, and written by Kurt Johnstad. It is based on Antony Johnston and Sam Hart’s 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City, published by Oni Press, which revolves around a spy who has to find a list of double agents who are being smuggled into the West, on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The film stars Charlize Theron and James McAvoy, with John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, and Toby Jones in supporting roles.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2406566/

229 – Tekkon kinkurîto // Tekkonkinkreet (2006)

spacetime coordinates:  the streets of the pan-Asian metropolis of Takaramachi (Treasure Town) 90’s // 2000’s

Tekkonkinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート Tekkonkinkurīto, a child’s mispronunciation of “Tekkin Konkurito” [steel reinforced concrete]) is a 2006 Japanese anime directed by Michael Arias and animated by Studio 4°C  based on the three-volume seinen manga series of the same name by Taiyō Matsumoto, which was originally serialized from 1993 to 1994 in Shogakukan‘s Big Comic Spirits and first published in English as Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White.

The story takes place in the fictional city of Takaramachi (Treasure Town) and centers on a pair of orphaned street kids – the tough, canny Kuro (Black) and the childish, innocent Shiro (White), together known as the Cats – as they deal with yakuza attempting to take over Treasure Town.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831888/

0196 – Turbo Kid (2015)

spacetime coordinates: 1997 Wastelands

Turbo Kid is a 2015 post-apocalyptic action-adventure comedy superhero film written and directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell. The film stars Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Edwin Wright, Aaron Jeffery, and Romano Orzari. The film follows the adventures of The Kid, a teenage boy turned superhero in the “Wastelands”, an alternate 1997 Earth where water is scarce. He teams up with a mysterious girl named Apple and an arm-wrestling cowboy named Frederic to stop the tyrannical warlord Zeus.

On September 28, 2016, a sequel to the film was officially announced. One day before the announcement, Le Matos released the official music video for their track “No Tomorrow”, which serves as a prequel to the original film:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3672742/