movies

129 – The Whisperer in Darkness (2011)

spacetime coordinates: 1928 Vermont // Arkham

The Whisperer in Darkness is a 2011 independent film based on the H. P. Lovecraft short story of the same name, directed and produced by Sean Branney, Andrew Leman, and David Robertson.

whisperer in darkness poster

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society presents its all new motion picture The Whisperer in Darkness. Folklore professor Albert Wilmarth investigates legends of strange creatures in the most remote hills of Vermont. His inquiry reveals a terrifying glimpse of the truth that lurks behind the legends. H.P. Lovecraft’s classic tale of suspense and alien horrors is brought to life in the style of the classic horror films of the 1930s like Dracula, Frankenstein and King Kong. Using the Mythoscope™ process — a mix of modern and vintage techniques — the HPLHS filmed on location in New England to create the most authentic and faithful screen adaptation of a Lovecraft story yet attempted.

movies

123 – Moon (2009)

spacetime coordinates: 2035, Sarang Station, automated lunar facility 

Moon is a 2009 British science fiction drama film co-written and directed by Duncan Jones. The film follows Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Moon. It was the feature debut of director Duncan Jones. Kevin Spacey voices Sam’s robot companion, GERTY.

Jones described the intent: “[We] wanted to create something which felt comfortable within that canon of those science fiction films from the sort of late seventies to early eighties.” The director spoke of his interest in the lunar setting: “for me, the Moon has this weird mythic nature to it…. There is still a mystery to it. As a location, it bridges the gap between science-fiction and science fact. We (humankind) have been there. It is something so close and so plausible and yet at the same time, we really don’t know that much about it.”

The director described the lack of romance in the Moon as a location, citing images from the Japanese lunar orbiter SELENE: “It’s the desolation and emptiness of it…it looks like some strange ball of clay in blackness…. Look at photos and you’ll think that they’re monochrome. In fact, they’re not. There simply are no primary colours.” Jones made reference to the photography book Full Moon by Michael Light in designing the look of the film.

Jones is planning a follow-up film, titled Mute, which will serve as an epilogue to Moon. “Sam has agreed to do a little cameo in the next film”, said Jones, who ultimately hopes to complete a trilogy of films set in the same fictional universe.

reception from the scientific community

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/

series

119 – Legion (TV series 2017– )

Legion is an American cable television series created for FX by Noah Hawley, based on the Marvel Comics character David Haller / Legion. It is connected to the X-Men film series, the first television series to be so, and is produced by FX Productions in association with Marvel Television. Hawley serves as showrunner on the series.

Dan Stevens stars as Haller, a mutant diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, Katie Aselton, and Jean Smart also star.

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as a director Hawley wanted the series to be highly stylized, describing his vision for it as “a 1964 Terence Stamp movie”. It was not feasible to literally translate Bill Sienkiewicz‘s iconic artwork of the character to the screen, and Hawley wanted the series to have “its own visual aesthetic to it, and part of that is being a story kind of out of time and out of place”. He stated that “the design of a show has to have its own internal logic”, and compared this sensibility to the series Hannibal, which he said was “a great example of something that had this almost fetishistic beauty to everything that you saw, whether it was food or violence.” Hawley elaborated that the design choice of 60s British films came about because “this whole show is not the world, it’s David’s experience of the world. He’s piecing his world together from nostalgia and memory and the world becomes that.”

At New York Comic-Con 2016, Donner said that the series is “far from the X-Men movies, but still lives in that universe. The only way for X-Men to keep moving forward is to be original and to surprise. And this is a surprise. It is very, very different.” Hawley explained that because the series is depicting the title character’s “subjective reality”, it would not have to address any connections to the films straight away, at first “had to stand on its own feet” before exploring those connections more;  He did state that “you can’t tell this story without” acknowledging that Legion is the son of Charles Xavier, who appears in the films. (read more – shared universe connections)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5114356/

movies

0117 – Snowpiercer (2013)

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Snowpiercer (hangul: 설국열차; hanja: 雪國列車; RR: Seolgungnyeolcha) is a 2013 English-language South Korean-Czech science fiction thriller film based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette. The film is directed by Bong Joon-ho, and written by Bong and Kelly Masterson.

The film stars Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Go Ah-sung, John Hurt, and Ed Harris.

In 2014, an attempt to counteract global warming through climate engineering backfires catastrophically, unintentionally causing an ice age that extinguishes all life except the inhabitants of the Snowpiercer, a massive train powered by a perpetual motion engine that travels a circumnavigational track, created by the transportation magnate Wilford.

snowpiercer railway

By 2031, elites inhabit the extravagant front cars and the “scum” inhabit the tail in squalid and brutal conditions.

Evans stars as Curtis Everett, a member of the lower-class tail section passengers as they lead a revolution against the elite of the front of the train. Filming was done on train car sets mounted on gimbals at Barrandov Studios in Prague to simulate the motion of the train. – (read more)

snowpiercer poster

https://fyeahsnowpiercer.tumblr.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/

movies

110 – Super 8 (2011)

spacetime coordinates: small town in southwest Ohio, summer of 1979

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Super 8 is a 2011 American science-fiction thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by J. J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, and Kyle Chandler and tells the story of a group of young teenagers who are filming their own Super 8 movie when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their town.

. The film was well received, with critics praising the film for its nostalgic elements, visual effects, musical score, and for the performances of its young actors, particularly those of Fanning and newcomer Courtney, while also being heavily compared to films like like E.T., Stand by Me, and The Goonies.

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Viral marketing campaign