South by Southwest is not the only annual genre fest out there by any means, but its equal focus on film, music, and tech makes it nearly unmissable for many a genre fan. The Austin-set fest has almost too much to offer, however you slice it: Building one's schedule feels like a perpetual exercise in killing your darlings.
I was floating around this idea in my head, I knew I wanted to tell a story about the last 24 hours of the simulated mission as part of the Army Ranger selection program. Then I had this horrific nightmare where I was being stalked in a forest with rain and lightning, and I just saw the foot of this giant metallic beast, and it was stalking me, and it had this laser that was sweeping over.
I'm able to give this character the things that I want to be able to give this character, then you have the right guy. Russell says of his process in finding the vibe of the men he plays, emphasizing his intentional approach to embodying reluctant heroes across both Marvel and the Monsterverse.
The Coronet Theatre's determination to present new, ground-breaking, often challenging international work, some of which would probably never be seen in this country otherwise, is admirable. A look at this historic Notting Hill venue's programme for any given season will reveal a cornucopia of poetry, theatre, puppetry, dance, visual arts and multi-disciplionary shows by national and international artists.
The second film adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's 2004 eponymous novel, this new one is considerably inferior to Edge of Tomorrow from 2014, Tom Cruise's own Groundhog D1ay with mechs. It's not a question of budget or aesthetics simply a gaping hole of engaging characterisation and inner spark that makes this time loop a grinding chore, rather than a thrilling jailbreak from eternal recurrence.
I try to be a sophisticated TV viewer. I watch as many miniseries as I can, keep up to date with the latest in Prestige TV, and make sure I don't miss out on any sleeper hits. However, I'm also self-actualized enough to admit that I love my fair share of slop. I religiously watch RuPaul's Drag Race, 90 Day Fiancé, and whatever weird reality craze has grasped pop culture.
Apple TV+ has become one of the best streaming services for sci-fi, with hits like Pluribus, Severance, Foundation and many more. There are so many shows that it's easy to forget the one that started it all. For All Mankind was the platform's very first attempt at sci-fi and it's finally coming back after two years for season five on March 27. The next season will run for ten episodes on a weekly basis. It concludes on May 29, with new installments dropping each Friday.
When someone mentions 1970s science fiction about a band of rebels fighting an evil, totalitarian space regime, your mind almost certainly goes to the original 1977 Star Wars.Failing that, you might think about the 1978 Battlestar Galactica, or even the TV and film versions of Logan's Run. But the oddest and most under-the-radar 1970s sci-fi rebellion show was Created by Terry Nation (the man who gave us the Daleks), Blake's 7 was ahead of its time when it debuted in 1978.
His star student, Erica played by Priah Ferguson eagerly raises her hand. "They allow matter to travel between galaxies or dimensions without crossing the space between," she says from the front row. The story is set in Indiana in a fictional town called Hawkins that gets caught up with a paranormal world and its various villains. Much of Stranger Things is a love letter to the 80s; this scene is straight out of a John Hughes movie.
Streaming platforms reigned supreme, with Netflix and Apple TV dominating our list with seven and five selections each. Genre-wise, we've got a bit of everything: period dramas ( The Gilded Age, Outrageous), superheroes ( Daredevil: Born Again), mysteries ( Ludwig, Poker Face, Dept. Q), political thrillers ( The Diplomats, Slow Horses), science fiction ( Andor, Severance, Alien: Earth), broody fantasy ( The Sandman), and even an unconventional nature documentary ( Underdogs).
The first trailer for Steven Spielberg's upcoming film Disclosure Day is here, and it will leave you with more questions than answers about what exactly is going on. There is no denying that something strange is happening to a Kansas City newscaster (Emily Blunt) who goes into a strange trance on-air in Disclosure Day 's new trailer.
I wanted to say three extemporaneous things before I launch it in my prepared comments. The first was I wanted to thank Freethink and the Templeton Foundation. What an amazing night. I mean, I'm, I'm just like so impressed and moved and, you know, the last act, I just, I sort of wish I was on mushrooms now, and when they asked me to do this, I thought, yeah, sure.
If the moon were to suddenly turn to cheese, the movie pitches would be insufferable. Astronauts would be irritated, grad students would be demoralized and news articles would overflow with terrible puns. The great jaws of the Internet would get hold of the details, churning out doomsday scenarios, memes and conspiracies. And that's even before the moon cheese would start to compress, creating geysers of material and a dangerously unstable lunar landscape.
When Quentin Farmer was getting his startup Portola off the ground, one of the first hires he made was a sci-fi novelist. The co-founders began building the AI companion company in late 2023 with only a seed of an idea: Their companions would be decidedly non-human. Aliens, in fact, from outer space. But when they asked a large language model to generate a backstory, they got nothing but slop. The model simply couldn't tell a good story.
Even when a video game is inspired by an existing sci-fi movie or book series, as is the case with the Star Wars franchise, a popular game like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic can bring new life to beloved series and illuminate new sides to well-loved sci-fi worlds. Just look at 2025! Whether it's navigating the intricate fraction politics of The Outer Worlds 2 or the isolated desolation of space in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector,
And now we live in an era in which a chatbot can write a passable sonnet, it is perhaps surprising that there hasn't been a huge shift in how film-makers approach this particular corner of sci-fi. Gareth Edwards' The Creator (2023) is essentially the same story about AIs being the newly persecuted underclass as 1962's The Creation of the Humanoids, except that the former has an $80m VFX budget and robot monks while the latter has community-theatre production values.
Death is everywhere in video games, but it's rarely something we're asked to think much about. It's something to escape or inflict onto others, marking the end of your run in a roguelike or a goal to reach for in a competitive shooter. What's explored much less often is what's left behind, in the form of grief, memories, and physical remains, all of which in real life require careful handling and reflection.
In the latest show from "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan, the crime genre gives way to a bewildering mix of science fiction and noir. Soaked in obvious inspirations from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to less obvious expressions of James Ward Byrkit's "Coherence," Gilligan's new Apple TV+ series begins with Best-Selling author Carol Sturka ( Rhea Seehorn) reading the latest novel of her best-selling book series to a crowd of fans.
There is a literal s**t-ton of movies that carry the name " Frankenstein" in their titles. From the most faithful adaptations of Mary Shelley's original novel to in-name-only, bargain-basement cheapies, there has been no shortage of motion pictures ready to glom onto the property, going back to the earliest days of cinema. But occasionally one emerges that is actually offbeat and decent enough to warrant additional attention.
"Her voice is as familiar to me as my own," says Theo Downes-Le Guin, youngest child of hugely influential Portland author Ursula K. Le Guin. "That voice is inside my head while I'm reading." Most aren't so fortunate, even if they feel at home in Le Guin's Earthsea and Hainish universes. Before her death in 2018, Le Guin was unanimously regarded as the leading light of American science fiction.
"Tron: Ares" powered up the box office grid in the top spot this weekend, but Disney's third entry in the sci-fi franchise fell short of expectations. Despite some favorable reviews - including a three-out-of-four-star one from The Associated Press - the new "Tron" film starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges earned $33.5 million, according to Comscore estimates on Sunday. The big-budget project, reported to cost around $150 million, arrived 15 years after "Tron: Legacy" opened to $44 million before grossing more than $400 million globally.
