From Henry Selick, visionary director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and based on Neil Gaiman’s international best-selling book, comes a spectacular stop-motion animated adventure — the first to be originally filmed in 3D!
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.
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.
Jimmy Fallon is launching his new Late Night interview show with a series of weblogs. In today’s video, Felicia (Codex) helps him create a WoW character!
First we brought you the podcast. Then we brought you the photos. Finally, we brought you the transcript. Now, for the first time ever, you can see The Video!
This is a high quality MPG. Please right click and “save target as” to download it to your computer. A low resolution, two-part version will be made available on our YouTube Channel very soon.
Representatives from the friendly, Star Trek obsessed Town of Vulcan, Alberta were invited to add their Trekkie Flair to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s Sci-Fi Spectacular concert at Edmonton’s Winspear Centre on January 23 & 24, 2009.
Narrated by George Takei, Mr. Sulu of Star Trek fame, this concert will feature a laser light show and musical selections from Star Trek, and other well known science fiction movies and TV shows.
“The Town of Vulcan is honoured to be invited to participate at the Sci-Fi Spectacular event. I think that when organizations, such as the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, host this type of event, it shows that Star Trek and science fiction really do have a universal appeal.” said Dayna Dickens, Tourism Coordinator for the Town of Vulcan.
Vulcan’s Tourism & Trek Station crew will be at the Winspear Centre in full uniform on both nights of the concert, taking pictures of guests posing with life sized cutouts of Capt. Kirk, Dr. McCoy and of course Mr. Spock.
The Town of Vulcan will also be supplying fun prizes for the best sci-fi costumes worn to the event.
Already on the international radar for its famous name and for its homage to Star Trek and Science Fiction, the Vulcan Tourism office is hoping to bring the World Premiere of Star Trek XI to the Town of Vulcan, Alberta for its May 2009 release.
The campaign to bring the movie premiere to Vulcan follows in the wake of 2008’s unveiling of a large Star Trek Memorabilia Collection and the 2007 launch of the “Vulcan Space Adventure” virtual reality game. Vulcan has a long Trekkie history, including opening the Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station — a spacey tourist information centre, in 1998; the unveiling of the 5-tonne Vulcan Starship FX6-1995-A in 1995; and the town’s first Star Trek Convention held back in 1993. Tributes to science fiction are everywhere from space murals and alien signage that grace the walls and street corners of this little town on the prairies to a Star Trek grave stone in the local cemetery.
The Town of Vulcan, Alberta is a “logical” year-round destination for science fiction enthusiasts from across the galaxy.
We try to be VERY sparing with appeals to vote for us in various online awards/contests. Most of them are pure link baiting and we don’t like to waste our fans’ time. Last year we entered the YouTube and Yahoo awards (which we won’t be doing this year). So, we’re putting our eggs in one basket for the new awards show on the block that we would really love to participate in: The Streamy Awards.
The biggest major New Media Blogs, NewTeeVee, Tilzy.tv, Tubefilter are co-hosting this new awards show, with the aim to make the first really “classy” award for New Media productions. This is the first year for it and we’d love to have The Guild be nominated, which depends on audience votes to get to the top 5. After that, industry professionals choose the winners.
The deadline for nominations is midnight Jan 23rd (Friday). If you could spare a moment, we’d love for you to go to Streamys.org and consider us in the following categories:
Best Comedy Web Series: The Guild
Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series: Sean Becker
Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series: Felicia Day
Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series: Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis or Vincent Caso (Zaboo, Vork or Bladezz)
Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series: Felicia Day, Robin Thorsen or Amy Okuda (Codex, Clara or Tink)
Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series: The Guild
Best Guest Star in a Web Series: Fernando Chien (Wade Wei, the Stunt Guy)
Best Editing: Sean Becker
Best Cinematography: John Schmidt
Best Art Direction: Leah Mann
Best Visual Effects: Doug Luberts
Best Animation: Matthew Brackney (for the Season 2 credits)
Best Original Music: Don Schiff (Theme) Eanan Patterson (Season 2 Scoring)
We know it’s a lot, but every single person contributed their amazing talent to this season, so if you have the time, please vote for us! We appreciate it so much.
We need INTERNS and a COSTUME DESIGNER for season 2 of The Legend of Neil.
Interns:
We’re looking for interns to help out in the office 1 or 2 days a week with production on The Legend of Neil from FEBRUARY 1 through MARCH. Duties would cover a variety of things from office work to helping make props. We need responsible, hard working people who want to be part of something ridiculously fun and funny. You MUST BE LOCATED IN LOS ANGELES and you MUST HAVE YOUR OWN TRANSPORTATION.
Please email resume and contact information to leah@effinfunny.com. Also feel free to write us a quick paragraph introducing yourself and why you want to help out.
Costume Designer:
The Legend of Neil Season 2 is packed full of new characters and we have a lot of costumes to build. We’re looking for young, creative costumers who want to work on this great show for Comedy Central. You’ll get to make fabulous fantasy costumes that will be seen on TV! There is some pay (but not as much as we or you would probably like.) Please email resume and a link to your portfolio to: leah@effinfunny.com.
The beautiful and multitalented Kim Evey took some time out of her busy schedule to speak with ÜberSciFiGeek recently. She’s a writer, producer and actress, going easily back and forth from drama to comedy, and stage to screen (film, TV and PC). She’s appeared in such television dramas as JAG, ER, Crossing Jordan and Judging Amy, and starred as the romantic lead in the film Nowheresville, but she’s better known to millions of adoring fans as part of the driving force behind such viral video hits as Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, The Guild and Mating Season (also known as Sexy Panda). We tried to find out a little bit about the woman behind the pigtails and the results were side-splittingly funny, as well as enlightening.
ÜberSciFiGeek (ÜSFG) Did you have an active imagination when you were a kid?
Kim Evey (KE) Always. I used to construct intricate cardboard furniture pieces for my neon pink and green clear plastic chess pieces. Mostly the pawns because they were the cutest. You’d think my parents would have gotten me Barbies. Or taught me to play chess.
(ÜSFG) How old were you when you decided you wanted to be an actor?
(KE) I don’t remember how old I was but I remember seeing Quinn Cummings on Celebrity Family Feud and I reasoned that the only way I was ever going to get on Family Feud would be as an actor because I asked my Mom if our family could be on it and she said “no.”
(ÜSFG) Lots of artistic people struggle with other things considered normal, like sports, academics and social interaction but then thrive when they discover the arts. Did you have a similar experience?
(KE) I was completely shy and socially retarded when I started high school so I did drama because it was the only way I could talk and get people to look at me at the same time. The fact that they couldn’t talk back unless their words were already scripted out was perfect for me. For some reason, in my high school class in particular, drama was where all the social misfits found solace. It wasn’t really like that in any of the other grades, just ours. Not to say that everyone in my class who did drama was a social misfit but those of us who were were particularly happy to have a place to go.
(ÜSFG) There is a brief biography on you on IMDb.com. In it, several shows were mentioned including the film Nowheresville and the one person show Within the Silence. You’ve done a lot of drama. What made you decide to turn to comedy and what inspired you to create a parody of a Japanese talk show?
(KE) In college I joined a comedy improv troupe and moved with them from Albuquerque to Seattle. I’ve always been the most comfortable with that Christopher Guest-ian type of comedy — parody so achingly real that it hurts to watch. Trying to make a living as an actor, I’ve really done whatever I could to pay the bills. Within the Silence was an educational touring show — most of the acting I did in Seattle was either educational or corporate video. Nowheresville was a romantic comedy indie feature that I’m convinced would have been a giant hit if it had starred actual celebrities instead of me and Henri Lubatti (who is actually much more of a celebrity than I am now). So I’ve always had my roots in comedy but now I really only get the opportunity to audition for television dramas. Gorgeous Tiny was actually the first sketch I ever wrote in Los Angeles. I wrote it for a class and we were supposed to write a real character in a non-real situation. Hence, Rick Pope and Kiko were born.
(ÜSFG) We’ve seen some great guest stars this season. Any other special guests lined up for the rest of Season 2 or for next season of Gorgeous Tiny?
(KE) Pretty much all the guests I’ve gotten are friends or friends of friends, with the exception of Ron Jeremy who we contacted through his agent. I think everybody assumed that we got access to celebrities because of our Sony affiliation but actually the opposite was true. Every celebrity we approached through Sony assumed we had a TV-sized budget and wanted to be compensated accordingly. So, for the next season, I need to hurry up and make more celebrity friends or I’m really screwed.
(ÜSFG) Will Panda or Unicow ever speak?
(KE) They speak the language of love in every episode. Just lean in real close and you’ll hear it.
(ÜSFG) Lick Poop… er… Rick Pope has really become a break-out character on Gorgeous Tiny, even being featured in his own Vlog. Was that planned or was it in response to on-screen chemistry and fan reaction? Will we see more Rick Pope Vlogs? Will Kiko ever return his feelings?
(KE) If we do get a season three pickup, that story line is definitely something I’d like to continue further. Part of the Vlog idea was just that Ryan Smith is one of the funniest improvisers ever, so letting him go as Rick was just excellent comedy. Ryan is really one of the best comedic actors I’ve ever met. He can actually play a funny straight man.
(ÜSFG) What happened to Episode 21? I can’t find it!
(KE) Yes, it’s strange that it seems to have disappeared from YouTube. You can see it on Crackle. Use the pull down menu to get to Season 2. It’s called “Episode 9” on Crackle, “The Taming of the Unicow.” Starring Phil Proctor of The Firesign Theater.
(ÜSFG) Have you thought about doing more films?
(KE) I like the way you phrased that. It makes it sound as if not doing more films is a personal decision that I have made for myself. It’s true. Every day, I wake up and think, “hmmm, should I spend the next few hours in bed, vacillating between showering or going back to sleep, ORRRRR should I do a film?” Invariably, I make myself feel better by calling my dreams “films” and going back to sleep. Please tell more film directors to put me in their movies. And then please tell me not to suck at my auditions for said movies. Thank you!
(ÜSFG) Your IMDb profile says you’re also an artist. Did you do any of the artwork we’ve seen in GTCMS or The Guild? Where can we see your work?
(KE) Who is responsible for these heinous lies?… I mean, um, yes, yes I AM an artist. You can see my work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Seriously, don’t they have people to check these things?
(ÜSFG) Any more 2 Hot Girls in the Shower planned? What other projects have you been working on?
(KE) Yes, we’re shooting more this week. I just got so busy with The Guild that I didn’t have time to do anything else. Or, rather, the time I had was spent oozing around in a little gelatinous puddle of my own tears. I’m not currently working on anything else. STOP TORMENTING ME WITH YOUR HORRIBLE QUESTIONS!!! I’m not working on anything else, nobody will put me in their films and I have no artistic talent! SATISFIED?!?! Actually I have another series I want my husband to shoot but he’s too busy painting God on our dining room ceiling.
(ÜSFG) Are you a Whedonite?
(KE) I’m half Whedonite, half Korean. The whole Buffy phenom passed me by but I loved Firefly and I love Dr. Horrible so I don’t know what I’m waiting for. Why don’t I just go right now and buy and watch all of Buffy?
Glen Mullaly (a group admin) says: Welcome to Growing Up Star Wars!
With the creation of this group you now have permission to post that Polaroid of yourself as Princess Leia in 1977 (I’m talking to you, Bob) or that crayon portrait you did of the Death Star Droid that hung on your parent’s fridge for months in 1979 until someone spilled Kool-Aid on it. Even that great shot of your little brother meeting an off-model Darth Vader at some local in-store promotion in 1983.
Let your vintage Star Wars fan freak flag fly free!
About Growing Up Star Wars: 1977-1985
A nostalgic look back at the world-wide Star Wars phenomenon through the creativity of the first generation of young people to experience it. Vintage photographs and scans of childhood Star Wars drawings, costumes, toys, homemade crafts, birthday cakes, local showings and events (and local ads for such) and more. The focus is on the personal experience and the variation & customization that was common in the early days of Star Wars.
Only vintage (1977-1985) photographs, or scans/photos of vintage kid’s art & crafts please. Found photos are fine, but need to be from your own collection. No borrowed or swiped internet photos without express permission of the owner! Photos of toys need to be vintage, not just of vintage toys. Also — please be sure that the Star Wars elements of the photo or scan are large enough to see clearly and that you DATE THE IMAGE. Sorry, but images that do not fit within the rules of this group may be removed.
***** A quick note to all those visiting from outside of the Flickr community: We’re really happy you’ve stopped by, but just to let you know that not all images will be visible until you join the group. Most, just not all. Thanks!