Month: September 2016

Glimpse of Behind the Scenes Driving in Fury Road

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A short video compilation of raw footage from director George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road has surfaced:

Fury Road – Crash & Smash via ESPORTS TV

Included are shots of practice runs of some of the vehicle stunts. The skill of those production designers, explosion experts, cinematographers, stunt people, and drivers is staggering.

Found via io9 / Gizmodo.

Elsewhere in the Fury Road related Internet, there’s this music video by violinist, dancer, and artist Lindsey Stirling:

The Arena – Lindsey Stirling

It comes from her third full-length album, Brave Enough. I know Stirling from her Star Wars mashup video with Peter Hollens.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.

Shadows of Star Wars

Erik

A puppetry troupe in Malaysia has been working to revive interest in the local traditional shadow puppet theatre, called wayang kulit, by performing a version of Star Wars using classical techniques of puppet-building, storytelling, and presentation. The performance, called Perperangan Bintang, retells the beginning of A New Hope, fusing elements from the movie with elements from the wayang kulit repertoire, which also revolves around tales of a young hero who must free a princess from an evil warlord. Here Sangkala Vedah confronts Puteri Leia.

Sangkala Vedah and Puteri Leia, via The Star
Sangkala Vedah and Puteri Leia, via The Star

And here are two more characters you might know.

Si P-long and Ah Tuh, via Pinterest
Si P-long and Ah Tuh via Pinterest

Here’s a video about the performance. Skip to 3:45 to see a familiar character make an entrance in style.

PBWK (Peperangan Bintang Wayang Kulit) preview- 18th Oct 2013 via ActionTintoy-Tintoy Chuo

It’s great to see how a modern story can be interpreted through traditional arts.

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.

Ginormous List of Oncoming SFF Screen Adaptations

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Natalie Zutter at Tor.com has made a list of SFF adaptations currently in the works either for tv or cinema.

Richard K Morgan altered-carbon_UK_Pb

Such a variety of projects! It really seems like a golden age for genre adaptations, like Zutter says. Head on to Tor.com for the full list.

I’m most interested in Arrival (based on a story by Ted Chiang and out very soon now!), Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan, and Lilith’s Brood by Octavia E. Butler. It would also be great to see Ann Leckie’s Ancillary series, Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, and Daniel José Older’s Bone Street books on screen.

It was also intriguing to see Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky on the list, for I’m not used to seeing Eastern bloc SFF authors in the Anglo-American market. According to the all-knowing Internets, Roadside Picnic was turned into a Russian SFF art film Stalker in 1979. I never saw that, but did read the Finnish translation (Stalker: huviretki tienpientarelle) when I was too young to really understand it, so it would be nice to refresh my memory.

Goodreads Strugatski Stalker

Besides works in progress mentioned in Zutter’s list, I’m looking forward to OtherLife. It’s adapted from Kelley Eskridge’s Solitaire (2002), which I read only this year and loved. Unfortunately, OtherLife seems currently to have paused in post-production. We live in hope, though! (I’ve been following the story of its development on Eskridge’s blog; do visit for a glimpse of indie movie projects from a writer’s perspective.)

Anything on your radar that especially tickles your fancy? Do share!

Images: Altered Carbon via Richard K. Morgan. Stalker via Goodreads

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.

The Neverending Story Has an Anniversary Doodle

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Google tells me with a lovely doodle that it’s the 37th anniversary of the first printing of The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

Google Doodle Falkor from Neverending Story

Originally published in German on September 01, 1979, Die unendliche Geschichte was translated into Finnish in 1982 (and apparently English in 1983, with the film adaptation in 1984). I can’t quite remember if I ever read it. At the same time, I want to recall a gorgeous tome with both green and red print, so I guess I must at least have been handling the Finnish translation at one point.

Finnish translation of The Neverending Story (Tarina vailla loppua) by Katja Jalkanen at Lumiomena

(No, I did not imagine the green and red print!)

While the movie version isn’t terribly well-made nor the first I saw in a theater, it is one of the first screen adaptations that made me realize I was a geek even if I didn’t have a word for it at the time. It’s purely for nostalgia that I own and occasionally rewatch it. I’m now wondering whether I should’ve bought the book instead.

Images: Falkor from Neverending Story by Sophie Diao via Google Doodle. Finnish translation of The Neverending Story (Tarina vailla loppua) by Katja Jalkanen at Lumiomena

This post has been edited for style.

ICBIHRTB—pronounced ICK-bert-bee—is short for ‘I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read This Before’. It’s an occasional feature for book classics that have for some reason escaped our notice thus far.

No Time for Conditioner When You’ve Got Rebels to Fight

Erik3 Comments

The Greek military writer Polyaenus recounts this story about the Parthian princess Rhodogune:160901Shirin

Rhodogune was bathing and beginning to wash her hair. A messenger came to report that a subject nation was in revolt. Without washing out her hair but just tying it up as it was, she mounted her horse, led out the army, and swore an oath that she would not wash her hair until she had put down the rebellion, and indeed, after long fighting, she triumphed. After her victory, she bathed and washed out her hair.

– Polyaenus, Stratgems 8.27

So, the next time you’re having a bad hair day or just can’t be bothered to do anything but tie it back, you can tell the world you’ve got rebels to fight and the hair can wait.

Image: Shirin bathing (not Rhodogune, sorry) via Wikimedia (c 1480; ink on parchment)

Serving exactly what it sounds like, the Quotes feature excerpts other people’s thoughts.