- Warner Bros. might be figuring out what we already know.
- The British are joining Star Trek! The British are joining Star Trek! (Look for 1 lantern alight at the church steeple if by Doctor Who, 2 if by Sherlock. Why are there three lanterns? )
- A kick ass battle is brewing in the Marvel Universe.
- Vince proposes a brand new calendar based on an idea that we can all get behind.
Thank you for listening. This is show 204. I’m Vince.
And I’m Casey. We’re on the feed January 8th, 2012.
Teasers
British Invade Star Trek 2 and Vince Fixes Time
You can hear SciFiSurplus Audio Show while on the go with Stitcher SmartRadio. Stitcher is a free news and talk mobile app available for your smart phone.
And when you download Stitcher to hear SciFiSurplus Audio Show you have a chance to win some money!
Downloading is quick and easy… just find Stitcher in the app store
Download it- it’s free & just takes a few seconds-
Then during registration – hit the promo code box and enter SCIFISURPLUS to get automatically entered to win $100.
The latest episode of the show will be waiting for you in your Favorites. You’ll get access to lots of other amazing show too- always available to you on demand-no syncing. It’s Stitcher SmartRadio
Don’t forget to enter promo code SCIFISURPLUS when you register.
Akira Production Delayed … Again
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the production offices for Warner Bros. live-action version of Akira have been shut down and most of the employees sent home. The budget for the picture is currently at $90 Million and the executives have ordered the Director and Producers to go over the script and do what they can to reduce the budget even further.
$90 Million is roughly half what was budgeted for the movie initially. This isn’t a production that can be done effectively on a budget. The news about Akira keeps getting dimmer and dimmer and reflects what a lot of fans have been saying all along. Please don’t make this movie.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/akira-production-shut-down-budget-warner-bros-278729
Two Brits Join Star Trek
Noel Clarke, probably best known for playing Mickey on Doctor Who, has joined the cast of the Star Trek sequel. Not much is known about his role except that he will be playing a family man with a wife and a young daughter.
Benedict Cumberbatch has signed on to play a villian. Cumberbatch has most recently been in War Horse and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Another recent role of his, Sherlock Holmes on the BBC series Sherlock, had some controversy this week because a character was shown nude a little too early in the evening.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048101
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048137
George R R Martin Teases Fans
George R R Martin teased fans this week by releasing a sample of the 6th novel in the series A Song of Ice and Fire, the series that HBO’s Game of Thrones is based on. The sample is available at his website, George R R Martin dot com. Just click the banner at the top of the page that reads Ice and Fire Sample. Caution though, the sample does contain spoilers.
http://www.georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.html
Zack Loses time in Arkham City
Casey: There is a well-known bug in the game Batman: Arkham City, produced by Rocksteady Studios, that is causing the save data to vanish. This basically means that players have to start the game over from the beginning regardless of how far they were into the game.
Casey: This title seems to be affected on all platforms, XBox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, and even using the service Steam. Let’s bring in our friend Zack to tell us about his experience.
http://community.batmanarkhamcity.com/forums/showthread.php/10147-Official-Thread-Missing-Save-Files-Update-12-9-11?s=eb48df32ed8f5d152adca0cd442c33bf
Avengers vs. X-Men
Back in December it was announced that, this April, Marvel would be releasing a twelve-issue miniseries about what would happen if the Avengers were to fight the X-Men.
The Phoenix Force is on it’s way to Earth looking for a new host. Both the Avengers and X-Men think it will be Hope Summers. The X-Men want to protect her and prepare her for it. The Avengers want them to hand her over to them so that they can keep the world safe from her.
The first issue features Iron Man fighting Magneto and Nemor fighting the Thing.
This is clearly a followup to the current series, Avengers: X-Sanction. The second issue of the four issue series was released this week. Cable has already taken down Captain America and Falcon and this week he spars with Iron Man. Cable’s agenda in this series is to protect Hope from the Avengers because of something he learned in the future.
Avengers vs. X-Men is being marketed in a big way. Comic Book stores can request a special Avengers vs. X-Men Party Kit from Marvel. Each store has to pick a side though and they will receive special bonuses for their allegiance.
http://io9.com/5873838/marvel-tells-us-about-avx-vs-a-comic-solely-about-x+men-clobbering-avengers-and-vice-versa
World War Z Trilogy?
Brad Pitt dropped a bombshell in a profile about him in the LA Times this week.
For Pitt, the big sci-fi thriller also represents his strongest bid to have a big film franchise of his own, which might be viewed as the missing piece of his career jigsaw puzzle. Forster and Paramount Pictures each view "World War Z" as a trilogy that would have the grounded, gun-metal realism of, say, Damon's Jason Bourne series tethered to the unsettling end-times vibe of AMC's "The Walking Dead."
World War Z is due in theatres next Christmas. No word on if or when the sequels will be developed.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-en-brad-pitt-20120103,0,4537017.story
Sonic Screwdriver for Sale
Are you disappointed with the Sonic Screwdrivers for sale at Thinkgeek? The QMx Artisan Master Series is releasing a reproduction of the 11th Doctor’s Screwdriver. It will be handmade by Nick Robatto, the propmaster for the Doctor Who series. Each replica will be handmade by Nick Robatto. None of the parts will have been machined or CNC’d. They are each built using the exact same craftsmanship as the ones on the show. Only 25 will be made and the current price is expected to be $3,999.95. Just in case your budget was $4,000.00.
http://scifimafia.com/2012/01/nerd-swag-the-11th-doctors-sonic-screwdriver-replica-hits-the-internet/
RIP Bob Anderson
Olympic fencing coach Bob Anderson, the man who wielded Darth Vader’s light saber in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, passed away on New Year’s Day. He competed for the British in the 1952 Olympics on the fencing team and coached many of the fencing teams after that. He went on to coach many actors, including Errol Flynn, and went on to earn credits in the Star Wars films, The Mask of Zorro, Highlander, The Phantom, Pirates of the Carribean, several James Bond movies, and many many more.
Peter Jackson posted the following to his Facebook page about Mr. Anderson:
It is a rare, even within the film industry, that you get to work with a legend which was why I was thrilled when Bob Anderson agreed to come on board The Lord of the Rings as our sword-master. In fact, it took a while for it to sink in that I was going to get to work with the same man who had helped create some of cinema's greatest fight sequences - from Star Wars to The Princess Bride. Bob was a brilliant swordsman and a gifted teacher; I will remember him as a wonderfully patient man, possessed of a terrific sense of humour. It was a privilege to have known him.
Bob Anderson was 89.
https://www.facebook.com/PeterJacksonNZ/posts/10150561461221558
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bob-anderson-20120104,0,5378641.story
Spies in Space
The editors of Spaceflight magazine think that they have determined the real purpose for the X-37B.
Listeners of the show should recognize that designation. We’ve talked about it before. It’s the unmanned, reusable, military spy platform, that the US quietly launched a second time 10 months ago to “test it’s sensors and other systems.” The X-37B looks like a miniature space shuttle and almost everybody was certain that it was meant to provide the Pentagon with a flexible platform that could be quickly prepared and launched to cover any part of the globe.
However, it might not have been any part of the globe that they were interested in? Here are the orbital parameters for the X-37B and Tiangong 1, the Chinese copy of Spacelab:
| X-37B |
Tiangong 1 |
| Inclination: |
42.7833° |
| Perigee height: |
328 km |
| Apogee height: |
341 km |
| Right Ascension of ascending node: |
204.7554° |
| Argument of perigee: |
19.1219° |
| Revolutions per day: |
15.78605869 |
|
| Inclination: |
42.7872° |
| Perigee height: |
356 km |
| Apogee height: |
368 km |
| Right Ascension of ascending node: |
307.6965° |
| Argument of perigee: |
187.4355° |
| Revolutions per day: |
15.6884537 |
|
Most spy satellites have a polar orbit so that they cover most of the earth. The orbit for the X-37 B is really similar to the orbit for Tiangong 1. In fact, they can pass by each other twice an orbit.
Some experts don’t believe that’s what the X-37 B is doing though. The US has better resources for tracking an imaging the Chinese space station than trying to take pictures of it when it comes close to an object traveling 7km a second.
http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=37820&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unsp...&alt=0&tz=CET
http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=37375&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unsp...&alt=0&tz=CET
http://io9.com/5873479/americas-x+37b-spaceplane-is-probably-spying-on-china
New Units of Time
Carrying on with our argument last week. I have devised the following system of time:
Fin.
"
["post_title"]=>
string(47) "British Invade Star Trek 2 and Vince Fixes Time"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["ping_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(47) "british-invade-star-trek-2-and-vince-fixes-time"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2012-01-08 23:31:42"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2012-01-08 23:31:42"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(30) "http://scifisurplus.com/?p=304"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
}