Author: ÜberSciFiGeek

Philip Morris and Dekker Dreyer Present New Series, “Emissary”

from Emissary:

Philip Morris is co-creator and star of the new scifi television series Emissary
Philip Morris is co-creator and star of the new scifi television series Emissary

All those attending New York Comic Con are invited to a special panel presentation of Emissary the new series starring Philip Morris. The panel takes place Friday, February 6th at 6pm and will include the first look at Emissary’s teaser footage and a Q&A with the stars.

Emissary is the story of anthropologist Campbell Essex discovering his destiny as the latest in a line of “Emissaries” or peak humans. Constantly pursued by ancient enemies who seek his power, Campbell struggles to overcome his own limitations before it’s too late. The series, created by Philip Morris and Dekker Dreyer, spans several hundred years and touches on serious issues of what it means to be human while bringing a new level of brutal realism to the sci-fi/fantasy genre.

“As an actor, I have had wonderful experiences in the sci-fi/action-adventure world. With Emissary, I get a chance to bring my own sense of expression to this vital genre, as an actor, producer, and writer. I also get the chance to use skills that the audience may not know that I truly possess, like the martial arts. In meeting Dekker Dreyer and collaborating with him, it has all come together, and I’m very grateful. I am excited to bring this to the fans, and hope that they appreciate what we’re doing. Being a comic book geek myself, it’s important to me to honor the fans with this material. We’re a picky bunch, and if they like it, I will be happy.”
— Philip Morris, co-creator

With New York City being the primary backdrop for the first leg of the series, the creative team hopes to craft a rich bed to the action.

“I live in NYC and there are plenty of strange things that happen there every day. We wanted danger to be around every corner. Old buildings, old mysteries… strange people, those things excite me. At its core Emissary is a fantastic story and it’s easy for a show to stretch too far from a believable, grounded universe. Phil and I are both big fans of hiding the extraordinary inside the everyday. Here we have elements of a dark real-world story, but ultimately it’s a hopeful fantasy.”

— Dekker Dreyer, co-creator

The Emissary cast includes Philip Morris (Smallville), Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica), Brian Thompson (The X-Files, Star Trek: Enterprise) and Emmy nominee Thaao Penghlis with additional cast members Yuri Lowenthal and J LaRose in attendance at the NYCC panel. The series, produced by Mnemosyne LLC and the Emissary Partners, is scheduled to begin production in late 2009 currently slated for IPTV distribution.

Mnemosyne develops and manages products for fans of genre entertainment. Founded in 2004, Mnemosyne runs the massively-multiplayer game Rubies of Eventide, and builds geek-chic brands and intellectual properties.

Guildies on Twitter

from The Guild:

Twitter is a social networking site that is becoming all the rage lately with its easy way to keep up to date on people you are interested in. Happily, a lot of Guild crew/cast have Twitter accounts, and if you choose, you can follow them! We thought we’d provide a handy list for easy following. Happy Twittering! 🙂

SHOW/RSS FEED:
The Guild: @theguild

ACTORS:
Michele Boyd (Riley): @micheleboyd
[ETA] Vincent Caso (Bladezz): @vincecaso
Fernie Chien (Wade/Stunt Guy): @killa4
Felicia Day (Codex): @feliciaday
Amy Okuda (Tink): @amyokuda
Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo): @sandeepparikh
Jeff Lewis (AS Vork): @vork

CREW:
Sean Becker (Director/Editor): @seanbecker
Matthew Brackney (credit animator/artist): @mastermatt111
Kim Evey (Producer): @kimevey
Edgar Garcia (Webmaster): @egspoony
Jared Hoy (Gaffer): @jaredhoy
Kenny Mittleider (BTS/Official Fan Podcast): @geekyfanboy
Jenni Powell (PA/Official Fan Podcast): @jennipowell
John Schmidt (DP): @johnschmidty
Andrew Gleason (VIP Extra/Location Provider): @andrewgleason

Knights of the Guild

from The Guild:

We are pleased and privileged to announce that The Guild has an Official Fan Podcast! The “Knights of the Guild” will be a monthly look at the show, and any news surrounding its cast and crew! Kenny and Jenni (our behind the scenes master and key PA and production right-hand-lady) are the hosts and have just posted a preview, so check it out!

To top it off, Matthew Brackney, who redid our credits for season 2, designed them a kick butt logo! Very cool! We look forward to their first podcast launching February 15th on their website. Thanks Kenny and Jenni!

J!NX: Clothing for Gamers and Geeks

J!NX: Felicia Day
J!NX: Felicia Day

Fans of web series The Guild will be familiar with J!NX by way of the official Guild Jinx Store. Series creator Felicia Day (pictured above) set up shop at J!NX in November, posting on the show’s blog that “the quality of the shirt will be much better than the print-on-demand we’ve been providing before.” J!NX fulfilled Day’s promise by delivering a higher-quality version of  the classic Cast Logo t-shirt initially offered through CafePress, followed by a Knights of Good design that coincided with the second season premiere of The Guild.

Knights of Good
Knights of Good

“Become a member of the guild inside The Guild with this shirt,” Day enthuses, winkingly adding that “Vork would approve”. What better recommendation is there than one from The Guild‘s all-business guildmaster? The colourful crest, a humorous, medieval stained glass image illustrated by Guild fan Jeff Carlisle, is beautifully reproduced on Light Steel (grey) for men and Asphalt (darker grey) for women.

J!NX also has an extensive line of clothing and accessories — hats, keychains, patches, buttons, pins, stickers, wrapping paper… even a Talking Murloc plush — based on World of Warcraft, the game that inspired The Guild.

World of Warcraft /Dance
World of Warcraft /Dance

A stand-out in the WoW collection is the sexy World of Warcraft /Dance tee, essential garb for ladies playing a Night Elf character, but J!NX makes sure that the entire family can show its gamer pride with an epic selection of Blizzard-themed items for adults, youth, and babies. For non-WoWers, there are many other licensed properties to choose from at J!NX, including StarCraft, Dungeons & Dragons, AdventureQuest, Apache,  Collusion, commandN, CrankyGeeks, DEF CON, DL.TV, Dr. Horrible, Duels, GameBanshee, GameSpot.com, Hak5, isoHunt, MajorGeeks, MiniNova, MMORPG.com, MusicScene Network, Packet Storm, Phrack, Project Lore, Safer Networking, The Totally Rad Show, and TorrentFreak.

Maze
Maze

Be sure to check out J!NX’s original creations, like the Pac-Man inspired Maze, as well. The current “Design of the Week”, a timely Buffy Staked Edward t-shirt that will appeal to Whedonites exasperated by all the Twilight hype, perfectly demonstrates why J!NX has such a dedicated community. This is a company that knows pop culture and how to cater to its fanatics. w00t!

Order directly through the J!NX website. Bonus: each package comes with a sticker sheet plus any available catalogues or other promotional materials.

C-3PO Plays a Pivotal Role in “Trespass” on Star Wars: The Clone Wars

from StarWars.com:

A never-before-seen ice planet is the setting for “Trespass,” an all-new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars premiering at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Jan. 30, on Cartoon Network
A never-before-seen ice planet is the setting for “Trespass,” an all-new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars premiering at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Jan. 30, on Cartoon Network

Anthony Daniels and his alter ego C-3PO play a pivotal role in “Trespass,” an all-new episode of the hit animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, premiering at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Jan. 30, on Cartoon Network.

While investigating the disappearance of a clone security force on a fiercely inhospitable ice world, Anakin and Obi-Wan are caught in the middle of a conflict between the planet’s natives and the greedy representatives of a nearby moon. In an effort to broker a tentative peace, Anakin turns to C-3PO for help — and finds his fluency in more than 6 million forms of communication to be most useful.

Daniels has played C-3PO on screen in all six Star Wars movies, and has continued in the role since the inception of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. With the animated series, Daniels becomes the only actor to play the same role in every on-screen incarnation of the Saga. He has also become a spokesman and host for the popular Art and Science of Star Wars exhibition around the world, and has written extensively about his experiences as a part of the Star Wars phenomenon.

“I’ve never left the character or, rather, he’s never left me,” says Daniels. “I put him in the cupboard for a while, but people call and I take him out again. There was a time many years ago when I thought I should move on to other things, but then I thought that was stupid. I’m very fond of Threepio.”

Daniels says the voiceover performance of Threepio is a welcome respite from the rigors of bringing Threepio to the screen in live-action productions. He finds the animation process offers “quite a lot of freedom.”

“When you’re reading lines by yourself, it’s not always as easy to ad-lib,” Daniels says. “But what Dave (Filoni) and I do is to go over my lines before we start because, sadly, I am the world’s greatest expert. And I say that with a kind of wry fun, because Threepio is kind of like my best friend, and you know your best friend better than anyone.”

Filoni says, “It was important to have Anthony as Threepio because I wanted to learn as much from him as I could. Anthony has incredible insight into every word and phrase that he says. There’s rarely a line that he won’t adapt to Threepio’s cadence, so we’ve developed a good vocabulary. We’re both excited to do new things with Threepio, and hopefully in the future, viewers will see us expand our view of the character. After all, Threepio is as much an icon of Star Wars as Darth Vader.”

In “Trespass,” Threepio presents his most proper, most effective side — that of translator. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t provide a moment or two of levity, as is usually the case with the protocol droid.

“The thing I always liked about Threepio is that he wasn’t a hero — he was somebody who had no sense of humor and no sense of irony,” Daniels says. “He doesn’t know that he’s funny. We think he’s funny because he’s ridiculous, he’s uptight and a bit critical and it makes us laugh at him. But his saving grace and the reason that we like him is that he’s very thoughtful and very loyal. If he’s on your side, you would have a friend to the end of your existence. Or probably to the end of his existence, because he’s loyal to a fault, to his last nut and his last bolt.”

Daniels has a clear memory of the original reference to the Clone Wars, and the curious impression it had on the cast — though, he admits, nobody had any idea it would grow to the proportions it has achieved within the Star Wars universe.

“I was amused the other day to remember Mark Hamill going through his lines with me one day, and we both kind of looked at each other regarding this casual one-liner about ‘the Clone Wars,’” Daniels recalls. “And then of course, it got picked up in the prequels and now it’s its own TV series. Animation has grown up. It’s become very, very honorable, and I think Clone Wars has taken the next step.”

Coraline Movie Tie-In Books

Coraline: The Movie Collector's Edition

The Coraline movie premieres on February 6, and what better way to count down the days than to read, or reread, the award-winning children’s book by Neil Gaiman?

When Coraline explores her new home, she steps through a door and into another house just like her own… except that it’s different. It’s a marvelous adventure until Coraline discovers that there’s also another mother and another father in the house. They want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to keep her forever.

Coraline must use all of her wits and every ounce of courage in order to save herself and return home.

Coraline: The Movie Collector’s Edition is a new hardcover edition of the 2002 novel. It retains the original book’s interior illustrations by Dave McKean, but now has a movie art cover and an eight-page insert of full-colour images from the film. A section at the back of the book, entitled “Extra Delights for the Coraline Reader”, features a note from Neil Gaiman about director/screenwriter Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach), a note from Henry Selick about author Neil Gaiman, and an excerpt from Henry Selick’s screenplay for Coraline. Even if you have the first edition of Coraline, the Movie Collector’s Edition is well worth getting for these bonus materials.

Coraline: A Visual Companion

Serving as a bridge between the novel and film is Coraline: A Visual Companion by Stephen Jones. This weighty coffee table book, with a foreword by Neil Gaiman, is a comprehensive guide to the making of the Coraline movie, divided in four parts:

  • The Book
  • The Movie
  • The Characters, and
  • The Other Coralines, a catch-all category covering Coraline‘s related projects:
    • the 2004 short student film of Coraline that combined live-action and cut-out animation.
    • the 2006 Neil Gaiman tribute CD, Where’s Neil When You Need Him?, with three songs inspired by Coraline.
    • the 2006 touring stage production of Coraline by Irish theatrical puppet troupe Púca Puppets.
    • the 2007 touring stage production of Coraline by Swedish children’s and youth theater group Mittiprickteatern.
    • the 2008 Coraline graphic novel adaptation by P. Craig Russell.
    • the 2009 Coraline: The Game, D3Publisher of America’s game adaptation of the film for PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and Wii.
    • the 2009 Coraline musical, a theatrical adaptation with music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt and book by David Greenspan, produced by MCC Theater and True Love Productions off-Broadway at The Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York, set to have its world premiere on May 6.
    • movie tie-in marketing campaigns, such as in-store promotions with American fast-food restaurant chains Macy’s and Carl’s Jr., cards and gift-wrap at Hallmark, and toys created by NECA.

Glossy pages trace Coraline‘s path from novel to stop-motion film in lush detail, accompanied by a wealth of behind-the-scenes production photos, preliminary sketches, illustrations, character designs, conceptual art, and completed images from the movie. Interviews with cast members Dakota Fanning (“Coraline”), Teri Hatcher (“Mother/Other Mother”), Ian McShane (“Mr. Bobinski”), Jennifer Saunders (“Miss Forcible”), and Dawn French (“Miss Spink”) — John Hodgman (“Father/Other Father”) curiously absent — and the film’s crew, including Neil Gaiman, add further insight into the film’s creative process. Coraline: A Visual Companion is a peek behind the animated curtain “that will appeal to Gaiman fans, cinema buffs, visual art enthusiasts, and all those who fall in love with the inquisitive young heroine of Henry Selick’s extraordinary film.”

Once you’ve read Coraline, and spent time in its Other World, you’ll never look at buttons the same way again. (Trivia Note: The fear of buttons is known as “koumpounophobia”.)

Order now at Amazon.com:
Coraline: The Movie Collector’s Edition (Canada)
Coraline: The Movie Collector’s Edition (US)
Coraline: A Visual Companion (Canada)
Coraline: A Visual Companion (US)

Coraline: The Movie Collector’s Edition and Coraline: A Visual Companion are distributed by HarperEntertainment and William Morrow, imprints of HarperCollinsCanada and HarperCollins Publishers. For more information on Coraline, visit the Neil Gaiman website and its related website for young readers, Mouse Circus. Neil Gaiman may also be followed on Twitter.

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman

Cross Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book with Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride, filter the mix through the inimitable mind of Neil Gaiman, and you have The Graveyard Book.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy — an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack — who has already killed Bod’s family….

Despite such a macabre premise and setting for a children’s novel, Gaiman makes growing up in a graveyard seem not only plausible, but homey. The crumbling burial ground, so beautifully described, sounds more like a wild English garden than a gloomy resting place for old bones, its resident ghosts a diverse community spanning centuries. Each of the graveyard’s otherworldly inhabitants are colourful individuals with genuine personalities, and reading about their interactions is like overhearing wonderfully strange anecdotes about somebody’s large, tight-knit family. It’s hard to imagine why Bod would ever want to leave this Gothic paradise, especially since his adopted kin have given him the “Freedom of the Graveyard”, which allows the living boy a measure of the dead’s special abilities, like Fading (who hasn’t occasionally wished they could hide by turning invisible?), Dreamwalking, and Phasing through things. Even with its dangerous ghouls and dark, ancient mysteries, the cemetery always feels like a safe haven from the horrors of school and would-be murderers that lurk outside its protective gates.

As Gaiman points out, though, “The boundaries are always there — between the graveyard and the world beyond, between life and death, and the crossing of them.” Upon reaching adulthood, Bod inevitably faces a choice: stay in the graveyard, where things are safe but stagnant, or go out and truly live. It’s a conflict that will resonate with readers approaching a similar crossroads.

For those who’ve read Gaiman’s previous works, part of The Graveyard Book will already be familiar. Chapter 4, “The Witch’s Headstone”, was first published in the 2007 short fiction collection M is for Magic, where it won the 2008 Locus Award for Best Novelette. Recognizable, as well, is The Graveyard Book‘s artist. Dave McKean, a frequent Gaiman collaborator, supplies the deeply creepy illustrations that pop up at random in the text like spooks in a carnival haunted house.

Recommended Reading Level: Young Adult (9-12) for scary situations and strongly implied violence.

Order now at Amazon.com:
The Graveyard Book (Canada)
The Graveyard Book (US)

Online bonus:
The Graveyard Book Video Tour — Watch Gaiman, a gifted storyteller, read the entire novel online. It’s a lovely way to spend a stormy evening.

The Graveyard Book is distributed by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollinsCanada and HarperCollins Publishers. For more information on the book and its author, visit the official book website at The Graveyard Book, and the Neil Gaiman website and its related website for young readers, Mouse Circus. Neil Gaiman may also be followed on Twitter.