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SFX|September 2022First ContactOUT OF THE PARK Mike Garner, emailJurassic World Dominion is enjoyable. Just a little thing… the dinos are free-roaming yet they still end up at what is, for want of a better way of describing it, another park. They had enough leads to do most of the film all over the world, showing how different countries were dealing with it. Just seems like a real missed opportunity. SFX: Covid restrictions were possibly an issue… YASSS, QUEEN Roland Robinson, email Congrats on the wonderful SFX issue devoted to queer genre content. This was long overdue – a very wonderful and multicoloured issue. SHORT NEW WORLDS Keith Tudor, email I really enjoyed the first few episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The optimism for the future is back, the characters are…2 minSFX|September 2022Hunting HighCOINCIDING WITH small-screen prequel Prey, extraterrestrial hunters the Yautja are returning to comics in a new Marvel series. But while the latest film takes place in the past, writer Ed Brisson and artist Kev Walker are locating their story in the near future. “In the first couple of movies, it was implied that the Predators came to Earth on a schedule, more or less, and I wanted to explore their other hunting grounds and routes,” reasons Brisson. “In order to do that, we needed a setting that allowed for that level of space travel, which meant that we needed to set the book in the future. However, for reasons that will likely become clear as the series progresses, we didn’t want to set it too far in the future.” “It…3 minSFX|September 2022Turning The TablesIT’S TOUGH TO FIND AN ORIGINAL YET organic backdrop for a modern horror story any more, especially for a slasher film. But for queer writer/director John Logan, there’s a particular scenario that he’s long had his eye on for exploration: gay conversion camps. These controversial enclaves are meant to “turn” homosexual teens towards straight lives through a variety of physical and psychological tactics. Logan tells Red Alert that the experiences of friends who endured these camps inspired his directorial debut for Blumhouse, They/Them. “I was struck by the monstrousness of it,” Logan says of the practice. “Sometimes it was done in a religious setting, and sometimes in a secular setting. But it always seemed to me to be a horror movie, because most of these places are camps. They’re set…4 minSFX|September 2022Ancient World’s FinestAHEAD OF THE ROCK’S BIG-SCREEN debut as the Destroyer of this World in October, DC Comics is releasing Black Adam: The Justice Society Files, a new four-part miniseries set in the cinematic continuity. Written by Cavan Scott and drawn by a variety of artists including Scott Eaton, Maria Laura Sanapo, Travis Mercer and Jesus Merino, the main feature in each issue focuses on a different member of the historic super-team: Hawkman, Cyclone, Doctor Fate and Atom-Smasher, brought to life respectively by Maxine Hunkell, Pierce Brosnan and Al Rothstein in the movie. “The overarching theme is that we get to see Hawkman reforming the Justice Society, or at least putting out the feelers to heroes new and old,” says Scott, who’s a long-time fan of the super-squad. “The Society is such…3 minSFX|September 2022Eye SoreBOYD HOLBROOK’S role in the new Sandman series promises plenty of bite. The actor portrays the Corinthian, an entity with an unnerving physical feature: instead of peepers, two rows of jagged teeth line his eye sockets, which he conceals with a pair of shades. Boyd was initially concerned about how that attribute would translate onto the small screen. “Coming on-set the first day, I put the glasses on and I literally couldn’t see,” Holbrook tells Red Alert. “I had about 10% vision. I was stumbling around set. It took all my attention away. They call ‘Action’ and my mind just went blank. For the life of me, I could not remember what the scene was. It took about half an hour to get adjusted. Eventually, it was going underneath a…3 minSFX|September 2022Worlds Wide WebSET TO CELEBRATE HIS 60TH anniversary this month with the landmark Amazing Fantasy #1000, Peter Parker is also returning to the wider Spider-Man multidimensional world in the upcoming The End Of Spider-Verse, written by long-time Spidey scribe Dan Slott. “It feels like I’m home!” announces Slott, who will also be teaming up with Mark Bagley on a brand-new Spider-Man monthly in October. “Writing Spider-Man is my dream gig, as Spider-Man is my favourite ever fictional character.” The final part of a trilogy that also encompasses 2014’s original Spider-Verse and 2018’s Spider-Geddon, The End Of Spider-Verse will serve as an appetiser for next year’s big-screen animated film Across The Spider-Verse. “Now they’ve got a new movie coming out, we’re going to do The End Of Spider-Verse and wrap it all up,”…4 minSFX|September 2022GREG JEIN 1945-2022Once praised by Steven Spielberg as “the greatest miniature guy in the world”, model maker and designer Greg Jein helped create some of screen science fiction’s most immortal images. Born in Los Angeles, the Chinese American was a lifelong genre lover who collected comic books and pulp magazines and, as an early fan of Star Trek, built replica props for his own amusement. A professional break came in 1974 with raunchy SF spoof Flesh Gordon, along with a credit on John Carpenter’s debut Dark Star. TV movie The UFO Incident and an episode of Wonder Woman followed in 1975. Recruited by Doug Trumbull, Jein served as chief model maker on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, sculpting a detailed miniature of Devils Tower from a block of foam. This model…2 minSFX|September 2022OFFICER CLASSWhat was it like walking onto the Andor set? My first day on set, I walk on to this world that they’ve built, there’s aliens walking around, and I was given two Death Troopers. There were loads of extras and I thought, “Okay, this is really fucking cool.” When I walked along with these two Death Troopers, I kept going: [sings Imperial march]. And when I started all the extras joined in. It was very, very cool. What can you tell us about your character? Well, she’s an Imperial officer and her name is Dedra, which is the coolest name. The funniest thing about it is that one of the SAS guys who were helping the Death Troopers look really scary thought my name was Deidra, because I’m Irish. He…2 minSFX|September 2022First Among PrequelsWhen it came to finding a successor to Game Of Thrones, HBO didn’t put all its dragon eggs in one basket. Back in 2017, the network put five potential spin-off shows into development, and one of them – scripted by X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass writer Jane Goldman (below) – even made it to the pilot stage. Set around 8,000 years before Game Of Thrones, it featured an all-star cast (including Naomi Watts, John Simm and Miranda Richardson), and would reportedly have depicted the legendary Long Night, when the First Men and the Children Of The Forest teamed up to take down the White Walkers. As it turned out, HBO decided not to go any further with the project – “Overall it did not quite gel,” said HBO chief content…1 minSFX|September 2022UNDER MY SKINThe award-winning UK effects house BGFX – headed up by Barrie Gower (left) – came to the attention of the Duffer Brothers for their work on Game Of Thrones and Chernobyl. Three years later their effects for Stranger Things season four villain Vecna have been nominated for an Emmy. Barrie Gower opened up his archives and sat down with SFX to talk about creating an iconic monster. CONCEPT TO CREATION The Duffer Brothers already had a blueprint for Vecna; they had the outline of the series written. They had some art already drawn up by an incredible concept artist called Michael Mayer, who is also the VFX supervisor. It was always going to be this humanoid character – they were very keen from the get-go to have somebody who had…7 minSFX|September 2022RF KUANGTHERE ARE THOSE WHO FALL HARD FOR Oxford. And there are those whose feelings are more ambivalent. While she’s an Oxford graduate who earlier this year returned to the city of dreaming spires to give the JRR Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature, Rebecca F Kuang falls into the latter category. “I have a lot of conflicted feelings about Oxford,” she says. “On the one hand, it’s such a beautiful illusion. I think a common theme in many dark academia novels – Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, for example – involves longing and desire to be a part of this beautiful, aesthetic, deeply intellectual world. But the fact of the matter is that that world is only accessible to certain bodies. That’s something I felt acutely when I was at Oxford.”…4 minSFX|September 2022THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING▶ RELEASED 2 SEPTEMBER TBC | 108 minutes ▶ Director George Miller ▶ Cast Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba, Aamito Lagum, Nicolas Mouawad “My story is true, but you’re more likely to believe it if I tell it as a fairy tale,” announces Dr Alithea Binnie at the beginning of George Miller’s latest. An artful ode to love and the love of storytelling, Three Thousand Years Of Longing is, well, 3,000 miles away from the 100mph, petrol-fumed brilliance of the Australian director’s last film, 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Adapted from the novella The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye by AS Byatt, the film begins as narratology academic Binnie (Tilda Swinton) arrives in Istanbul to deliver a lecture. On a visit to a souk, she buys a small glass trinket, which…2 minSFX|September 2022DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! PG | 105 minutes ▶ Director Jared Stern ▶ Cast Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, John Krasinski, Keanu Reeves The Legion of Super-Pets from which this animation emanates was a ’60s team of bestial crime-fighters whose members included Comet the Superhorse, Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Supermonkey. Given the possibilities that line-up offers, it’s disappointing that Jared Stern’s film largely restricts itself to a pair of pooches: Superman’s loyal mutt Krypto, bullishly voiced by Dwayne Johnson, and Bat-Hound-in-waiting Ace, irksomely played by his Jumanji co-star Kevin Hart. A pig, a turtle and a jittery squirrel also find themselves endowed with superpowers by a chunk of orange Kryptonite that evil hairless guinea pig Lulu (Kate McKinnon) intends to use against the two-legged members of the Justice League.…1 minSFX|September 2022MS MARVELUK/US Disney+, streaming now ▶ Director Bisha K Ali ▶ Cast Iman Vellani, Matt Lentz, Zenobia Shroff, Yasmeen Fletcher EPISODES 1.01-1.06When comic characters make their screen debuts, expectations are often sky-high – especially when the character is as beloved as Marvel’s Kamala Khan, the Pakistani-American Muslim teenager who becomes the super-powered protector of New Jersey’s Jersey City. The good news is that there’s a lot this Disney+ series gets right, most notably in the casting of Iman Vellani. Perfectly capturing Kamala’s geeky enthusiasm and massive heart, Vellani is a delight in every scene, and is backed up by a strong supporting cast. Executed with heaps of visual energy, it also does a faithful job of building Kamala’s world. Her school friends, her vibrant family life and her connections to her…2 minSFX|September 2022THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH Season OneUK Paramount+, Wednesdays US Showtime, streaming now ▶ Showrunners Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet ▶ Cast Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris, Bill Nighy, Jimmi Simpson EPISODES 1.01-1.10There’s a very obvious – and obviously unavoidable – David Bowie-shaped hole at the heart of this sequel to Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 arthouse SF masterpiece. The starman’s performance as alien-among-us Thomas Jerome Newton remains so iconic and so apt that the thought of another actor donning his sunglasses feels instantly futile. It makes sense, then, that this series focuses instead on a different extraterrestrial visitor. Faraday (a superb Chiwetel Ejiofor) has arrived on Earth to resume Newton’s mission to supply water to the dying planet of Anthea and to find out what really became of his predecessor – here played by Bill Nighy. The showrunners can’t…1 minSFX|September 2022GREEN LANTERN: BEWARE MY POWEREXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2022 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/download ▶ Director Jeff Wamester ▶ Cast Aldis Hodge, Jimmi Simpson, Nolan North, Brian Bloom Of all the DC characters, Green Lantern is an obvious choice for animation, and the latest DC Universe movie has a decent stab at creating a new jumping-on point. In this case, instead of the protagonist being traditional Justice League member Hal Jordan, it’s ex-soldier John Stewart, whose life is up-ended when a dying alien bequeaths him a green power ring that makes him the only surviving member of the Green Lantern Corps. Teaming up with Green Arrow to discover what happened to the Corps, Stewart sets out on a dangerous journey into space, and the adventure that follows is visually a step above the usual…1 minSFX|September 2022UNIVERSAL TERROREXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1937-1952 | PG | Blu-ray ▶ Directors Lloyd Corrigan, George Waggner, Nathan H Juran ▶ Cast Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, Susanna Foster, Richard Greene BLU-RAY DEBUT As Frankenstein’s creation, Boris Karloff became the corpse-stitched frontman of Universal’s horror empire. But beyond that enduring icon the former William Henry Pratt was a dependable, chameleonic part of the studio’s output, guaranteed to add a dignified shiver to production line thrillers. Top-billed in Night Key (1937), he’s a sympathetic figure, the genial inventor of a cutting-edge security system who finds himself ripped off by a business associate. The ensuing battle of wits is low on suspense – the identity of “the mysterious Night Key” is never in question – but it’s a briskly entertaining cops ’n’ mobsters tale…2 minSFX|September 2022WHEN I CONSUME YOU▶ RELEASED 16 AUGUST 2022 | TBC | VOD A soul-eating demon pushes a sad former addict to suicide, then switches his attentions to her even sadder anxiety-ridden brother in this low-fi psychological horror. No prizes for teasing out that metaphor, then. But there’s an endearing roughness to the cinematography and a sweet vulnerability performance-wise that makes it less crass than the stacks of other trauma-as-monster movies. It even finds a tiny sliver of light, ending on an optimistic note.…1 minSFX|September 2022MUNSTER, GO HOMEEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1966 | U | Blu-ray BLU-RAY DEBUT The Munsters reveal green skin in this Technicolor outing. Mostly it’s business as usual: Fred Gwynne mugging; bad-is-good reversals; Joe Public reacting with horror. When Herman inherits an English manor, Terry-Thomas’s rotter cousin is champing at the bit to eliminate him. The UK setting freshens things up, and a climactic road race has Wacky Races appeal. Like most sitcom movies, it feels over-extended, but it has a corny charm. Extras Trailer.…1 minSFX|September 2022WHAT JOSIAH SAW▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2022 | TBC | SVOD ▶ Director Vincent Grashaw ▶ Cast Robert Patrick, Nick Stahl, Scott Haze, Kelli Garner SHUDDER Given the presence of Robert Patrick and Nick Stahl, one presumes the makers of this slice of Southern Gothic are Terminator fans, but we’d also bet on them owning a stack of Nick Cave LPs. The down-at-heel world it paints, with its squalid underclass lifestyles, all-pervading corruption, and talk of Biblical judgement, just has that vibe. A mining company wants to buy the Graham family’s Oklahoma farm. Accounts of the mother’s suicide tease a potential haunting, but what eventually emerges is a tale of buried secrets and delusion. Patrick makes the most of limited screen-time as monstrous patriarch Josiah, cruelly mocking son Tommy (Scott Haze, frustratingly…1 minSFX|September 2022KILLER’S MOONEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED 29 AUGUST 1978 | 18 | Blu-ray ▶ Director Alan Birkinshaw ▶ Cast Anthony Forrest, Tom Marshal, Nigel Gregory, Jane Hayden A product of the raw, nasty tendency of British horror of the ’70s, Killer’s Moon is almost comical in its shameless titillation. It sees four escaped psychopaths, dosed with LSD as part of dream therapy (one is David Jackson, Blake’s 7’s Gan), menacing a busload of clearly-far-older schoolgirls. Cue much ripping open of Victorian nightdresses and strangulation. Though the killers repeatedly talk about how “It’s only a dream”, the high-concept is hard to swallow; a few psychedelic POV shots might have helped. And owl-hoot sound effects can’t disguise the day-for-night blue skies, or the studio-bound nature of some camping exteriors. Remarkably, novelist Fay Weldon did a…1 minSFX|September 2022RED SONJAEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1985 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/DVD ▶ Director Richard Fleischer ▶ Cast Brigitte Nielsen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sandahl Bergman, Paul L Smith This is a weak entry in the ’80s swords-and-sorcery canon, despite the input of talents such as director Richard Fleischer (Soylent Green), composer Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad And The Ugly) and designer Danilo Donati (Flash Gordon). It’s set in the Conan universe. Brigitte Nielsen’s rape survivor Sonja reluctantly partners with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kalidor in a quest to overthrow evil Queen Gedren. This is the film’s first 4K restoration, scanned from the original 35mm print, with dust and scratches manually removed, and it looks glorious. The rolling Italian countryside pings brightly off the screen, and those Donati costumes are an ostentatious treat. “The…1 minSFX|September 2022RICKY’S HAND▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 304 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author David Quantick ▶ Publisher Titan Books Imagine waking up one day with a new hand. It’d definitely make you question your sanity, if not all of reality, right? In David Quantick’s latest (named after the 1980 Fad Gadget single – New Wave Ed) that’s the existential quandary facing paparazzo Ricky Smart. One day, he finds that his hand has been replaced: he can move and feel the new one, there’s no pain and no visible scarring, but it’s not his hand. He’s not alone. A small and nervous support group forms in Miami Beach as people find their body parts – feet, arms, ears, even eyes – are being swapped around. Something deeply sinister is going on, and the only…1 minSFX|September 2022THE BOOK EATERS▶ RELEASED 18 AUGUST 295 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Sunyi Dean ▶ Publisher Harper Voyager If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you love a good book – maybe you even feel like books are as essential as food and air. Well how about a world in which, to some people, that really is the case? Devon Fairweather is a “Book Eater”, part of a group of families who literally feed on books. But sometimes – rarely – an Eater child is born who feeds on minds, not words, needing to consume other people to survive. Devon’s son Cai is a Mind Eater, and rather than give him up to slavery or death, she goes on the run, trying to find sources of the drug Redemption, which will enable…1 minSFX|September 2022ION CURTAIN▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 336 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author Anya Ow ▶ Publisher Solaris While reading Ion Curtain, you can’t shake the sneaking suspicion that the punning title came before the plot. A serviceable but formulaic space opera, it doesn’t bring much new to the genre beyond its basic set-up: a future where space is divided into two great, opposing empires that originated on Earth – the VMF, which grew out of the Russian Federation, and the Asian-rooted UN (China having been the first country to gain a colonial foothold in space). These empires stretch across the galaxy using jump gates. But the balance of power could potentially shift when the VMF develops Artificial Super Intelligences (ASIs) that give their warships the ability to make autonomous jumps without the…1 minSFX|September 2022REISSUESSilvia Moreno-Garcia’s CERTAIN DARK THINGS , 1 September, Jo Fletcher Books) is set in an alternate timeline where the world discovered the existence of vampires in 1967. Here, every culture’s version of vampire mythology is real – they’re just different species. When a feud between two warring clans breaks out in Mexico City, criminals and cops join forces. We said: “Overly-familiar lore seems fresh again, and vampires become frightening again… The star-crossed romance is both sweet and horrifying.” An investigator and judge who can talk to the dead is the protagonist of Richard Swan’s THE JUSTICE OF KINGS 25 August, Orbit). It centres on the murder of a provincial noblewoman – a case which reveals a conspiracy stretching to the very top of imperial society. We said: “Swan’s fictional universe…1 minSFX|September 2022BATMAN: FORTRESS▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher DC Comics ▶ Writer Gary Whitta ▶ Artist Darick Robertson ISSUES 1-3 So many Bat-related comics are being released at the moment that any new contenders need something attention-grabbing to stand out from the crowd. In the case of six-issue miniseries Batman: Fortress, it’s the presence of writer Gary Whitta (best known as the original screenwriter on Rogue One), but even that can’t make up for all the flaws in this messy adventure. The story begins with a worldwide blackout caused by the arrival of a mysterious alien spacecraft. With Superman missing for reasons unknown, an assault by the Justice League goes badly wrong, leaving Batman as the only hope against a potential alien invasion. However, it’s soon revealed that this attack has a connection…2 minSFX|September 2022ROCKETEER: THE GREAT RACE▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher IDW Publishing ▶ Writer/artist Stephen Mooney ISSUES 1-4 The Rocketeer already harked back to the past when it first appeared four decades ago, and this 40th anniversary series is not so much a radical reboot of the late Dave Stevens’s 1930s flyboy, but more a subtle update. Set during the build-up to the Second World War, the four-parter finds the incorrigible Cliff Secord taking on one last challenge: flying an experimental aircraft in a thrilling race from Los Angeles to California. But the competition ends up taking a back seat as he becomes embroiled in a fiendish Nazi plot, and the jetpack itself is only used sparingly – at least until the rollicking final issue – as Cliff concentrates on his flying skills. Bringing…1 minSFX|September 2022SPACE: 1969▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ 335 minutes | Download ▶ Publisher Audible AUDIO DRAMA For All Mankind meets Futurama in this 10-part, full-cast sci-fi series. Written and directed by former Simpsons showrunner Bill Oakley, it’s set in an alternate history where Kennedy survived his assassination attempt in 1963 and stepped up the USA’s space programme. By 1969 the Americans have a permanent space station in orbit and are one step away from establishing a lunar base. But things are going far from smoothly, with the President showing increasingly bizarre, megalomaniacal behaviour. When Nancy Kranich (Russian Doll’s Natasha Lyonne), a grouchy nurse with a Hulk-like temper, finds the body of Jerry Lewis while on a fag break, she’s drawn into a massive conspiracy that includes patsies, multiple universes, time being rewritten…1 minSFX|September 2022UFO: DESTRUCT POSITIVE!▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 173 minutes | CD/download ▶ Publisher Big Finish AUDIO DRAMA After previously tackling Space: 1999, Big Finish’s latest Gerry Anderson reboot rewinds to the early days of SHADO, the top-secret organisation defending Earth from organ-harvesting aliens. If you cringed at Han being awarded the sobriquet “Solo”, you may prefer the TV show’s approach. If you’re dying to hear Ed Straker coming up with that acronym, or having the brainwave of a film studio front, you’ll be in heaven. Introducing Straker as a test pilot buzzed by a UFO, who is fast-tracked to Commander within days, doesn’t really fly. Some tweaks are sensible modernisation, though: second-incommand Alec Freeman no longer hits on every woman in a half-mile radius, for example. After the opener does the introductions, episodes…2 minSFX|September 2022HOCUS POCUSThey’re back, witches! Sign up to our monthly newsletter to receive a sneak preview! bit.ly/SFXnewsletter DOCTOR WHO The moment has been prepared for… FATE: THE WINX SAGA SFX goes on set and back to school TITANS What next for the teen supergroup? SPIDER-MAN Still web-slinging at 60 DON’T WORRY DARLING What price utopia? PLUS! Monsters, vampires and shape-shifters – all in a day’s work…1 min
SFX|September 2022Holding The Baby“All of the characters, in one way or another, are being pulled into the alien nature of the show” THE MID-SEASON CLIFFHANGER FOR Resident Alien’s second season had alien Harry Vanderspeigle (Alan Tudyk) in the woods with Asta (Sara Tomko), who had just saved him from the bullet of some mystery bad guy. D’Arcy (Alice Wetterlund) arrived to see the aftermath of Asta’s expert marksmanship, with Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) soon to arrive. The return of the series on Syfy in the US for eight new episodes will have the secrets of Patience, Colorado getting more complex and layered, including Harry tracking a baby alien that’s on the loose. Executive producer/showrunner Chris Sheridan tells Red Alert that the action picks right up where they left off. “It did create a…4 minSFX|September 2022Halcyon DaysWHAT BETTER WAY TO END THE summer than with a galactic road trip for the heroes and villains of Star Wars? Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation, the third original special set after the events of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, offers just that. For this adventure, Finn collects Rey, Poe, Rose, Chewie, BB-8, R2-D2 and C-3PO for a much-needed hoiday aboard Galactic Starcruiser the Halcyon. When the gang leaves him to do their own things, Finn gets counselled by a trio of familiar Force Ghosts who have some wisdom, and hilarious stories, to share. Back to craft this adventure is executive producer/screenwriter David Shayne, who tells Red Alert that this special came about right after they completed 2021’s Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales. “We just started talking about what…3 minSFX|September 2022NEWS WARPStrange New Worlds and Lower Decks set for crossovers. William Shatner joining voice cast of Masters Of The Universe: Revolution. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprising Daredevil and the Kingpin in Daredevil: Born Again. Gemma Chan starring in time-travel series The Moon Represents My Heart. Sarah Michelle Gellar joining Teen Wolf spin-off Wolf Pack. Stranger Things’ the Duffer Brothers to adapt Stephen King/Peter Straub’s The Talisman. Gen V is the title of The Boys’ spin-off show. Jeff Goldblum replacing Hugh Grant as Zeus in Netflix’s mythological comedy Kaos. Solo’s Alden Ehrenreich joining Marvel’s Ironheart series. Stranger Things stage play in development, directed by Billie Elliot’s Stephen Daldry. Nicolas Cage voicing Lord Highfire the dragon in Eoin Colfer adap Highfire. Prime Video axing Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons’s Night Sky after…1 minSFX|September 2022Foxx HuntingNOSFERATU, THE QUINTESSENTIAL vampire movie, was released a century ago. Ever since, audiences can’t seem to quench their thirst for the supernatural beings. But with the big-screen tales of these bloodsuckers getting long in the tooth creatively, first-time director JJ Perry is taking a unique stab at the genre with Day Shift. “The movies I loved when I was growing up were Big Trouble In Little China, The Lost Boys, the first Fright Night and all the Evil Deads,” says Perry, who’s making his directorial debut following stints as a second unit director and stunt coordinator. “Sam Raimi is a master. That spoke to me immediately. That type of movie is a horror-actioncomedy. My movie is an action-comedy-horror. Now the order might have been changed a little bit, but those…4 minSFX|September 2022To The Devil A DaughterWHAT IF A POWERFUL WICCAN hooked up with Satan and their union produced the Antichrist, in the form of a 13-year-old girl? That’s basically the twisted premise behind FX’s new animated comedy Little Demon, which has Aubrey Plaza and Danny DeVito voicing the diametrically opposed parents, and Lucy DeVito voicing their puberty-achieving hellspawn, Chrissy. Created by comedy writers Darcy Fowler, Seth Kirschner and Kieran Valla, the story came out of them riffing around the idea of a young woman with a cursed womb giving birth to the Antichrist. “Then we thought it would be really exciting if we just fast-forwarded this story,” Valla tells Red Alert. “As we kept developing it together, we kept ageing her up and we found that 13 was a perfect age because it was so…2 minSFX|September 2022The Aim Of The RoseWE ALL KNOW THAT SMARTPHONES ARE THE BANE OF a teenager’s life and that certain apps are, well, not exactly good for us, but what if there was an application which really was dangerous, and exposed its users to an evil supernatural entity? That’s the mouthwatering concept behind Red Rose, a new eight-part series due to air on BBC Three and iPlayer in the UK and on Netflix worldwide. Created by twins Michael and Paul Clarkson (The Haunting Of Bly Manor, See, The Wheel Of Time), it was actually during a meeting for soap opera Hollyoaks in which they were asked if they had any ideas for a TV show. “We said yeah, we’ve got this horror – it’s like Scream and The Ring set in Bolton, which is our…3 minSFX|September 2022SUBSCRIBE TO SFX AND GET YOUR STM MYTH LAPTOP BAG WORTH £90! included with every print or bundle subscriptionMAGAZINESDIRECT.COM/SFX/A68F OR CALL 0330 333 1113 AND QUOTE A68F PROTECT YOUR TECH WHILE YOU’RE ON THE MOVE WITH THE STM MYTH LAPTOP BAG, WORTH £90! Why should you get yours today? ★ Durable and water-repellent ★ A super handy cable routing system lets you charge on the go with cords out of sight ★ Smart pockets – with a portable power pocket and a zipped section for your laptop and tablet, for quick and easy access ★ They’ve even made it comfy, with ideal weight distribution, removable adjustable shoulder straps, and non-slip pads PLUS! Subscriber-only cover every issue SFX delivered directly to your door Save up to 44% off the cover price CHOOSE YOUR PACKAGE: ANNUAL PRINT EDITION £22 for 6 months 13 issues of SFX in print over 12…2 minSFX|September 2022NICE ONE, SYRILWhat can you tell us about Syril Karn? Syril’s kind of a lone wolf, and he has an intense desire for order, for standards to be upheld, and to transcend his own station – he thinks he’s destined for great things. He’s incredibly intuitive, very smart, very driven, very hungry, but his drive comes from a place of shame, and that shame and frustration and lonerism have turned into anger, and an obsession to dominate. That obsession then finds Cassian and I think Syril knows that Cassian is different – special. The fixation that Cyril has with Cassian is almost possessive. There’s a quality about this character who doesn’t live by the rules, who is mysterious and who is incredibly adept at surviving, and Syril wants a bit of that.…2 minSFX|September 2022LOOK WHOS TOLKIEN NOWCHANCES ARE YOU’VE got a version of this story on your bookshelf, though you may not have read it. When The Return Of The King, the final instalment of JRR Tolkien’s now-legendary The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, was published in 1955, it came with extensive appendices. These colossal footnotes provided a crash-course in Middle-earth history to complement the story, and now they provide the inspiration for Amazon’s mega-budget fantasy TV series The Rings Of Power. “The appendix that comes after The Lord Of The Rings is basically like a historical chronicle,” producer Belén Atienza tells SFX. “It’s like reading a history book where a king here did this, or this is where the battle of that happened. We weren’t really worried about people knowing the broad strokes of the…10 minSFX|September 2022ELLA BALINSKARight now, I’m in my gaming cave!” Ella Balinksa proudly states to SFX. In a gleaming white space somewhere in Los Angeles, it’s clear that the Westminster-born actor is living her best life now. A self-declared gaming geek, she’s now the lead in the TV adaptation of one of the greatest games of all time – and indeed one of her own favourites: Resident Evil. “I’ve actually just restarted Resident Evil 2, ’cos that was my favourite!” she says. In Netflix’s latest reimagining of the iconic zombie franchise, Balinska is the adult Jade Wesker, sharing the role with 17-year-old Tamara Smart, who plays the teenage Jade in the modern day (the show takes place in both 2022 and 2036). It meant that she was away from home for most of…4 minSFX|September 2022NOPE▶ RELEASED 12 AUGUST 15 | 135 minutes ▶ Director Jordan Peele ▶ Cast Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David In just five short years, the status of a Jordan Peele film has gone from intriguing outlier (Get Out) to major talking point (Us) to full-blown cultural phenomenon. For a comparable filmic trajectory, you have to go back to the glorious early run M Night Shyamalan enjoyed at the start of his career: the one that came out of the blocks sprinting with The Sixth Sense, hit its stride with Unbreakable and breasted the tape with Signs. (You could also cite Quentin Tarantino’s meteoric rise from Reservoir Dogs to Pulp Fiction, had not the second movie in his triptych, True Romance, been directed by…4 minSFX|September 2022BODIES BODIES BODIES▶ RELEASED 9 SEPTEMBER 15 | 95 minutes ▶ Director Halina Reijn Cast Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Pete Davidson, Lee Pace While so many horror-comedies manage to be neither funny or scary, Halina Reijn’s first English-language feature manages plenty of laughs, punctuated by solid jump-scares. Putting a spin on the classic trope of teens stuck in a cabin in the woods, Bodies Bodies Bodies traps the shy working-class Bee (Maria Bakalova) in a gaudy mansion with her girlfriend Sophie’s (Amandla Stenberg) group of obnoxious privileged friends, during a hurricane that cuts the electricity and the Wi-Fi. The gang decide to play a cruel childhood game called “Bodies Bodies Bodies” which, combined with plenty of booze, illicit substances and paranoia, kickstarts an evening of ruined relationships, cruel revelations and bloody madness.…1 minSFX|September 2022STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDSUK/US Paramount+, streaming now ▶ Showrunners Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers ▶ Cast Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Chong, Babs Olusanmokun, Jess Bush EPISODES 1.01-1.10Strange NewWorlds is the best first season of live-action Star Trek since the original run in 1965. A bold claim, but all of the previous spin-offs have taken a while – usually three years – to find their feet. Strange New Worlds arrives with a remarkable sense of its own identity. Like the show’s lead, Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), it has a swagger and a reassuring charm that immediately lets you know that you’re in safe hands. Pike is having a hard time following the end of Discovery’s second season (you can tell he’s depressed because he’s grown a big beard). Thanks to a…2 minSFX|September 2022THE SANDMANUK/US Netflix, streaming now ▶ Showrunner Allan Heinberg ▶ Cast Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Jenna Coleman, Kirby Howell-Baptiste EPISODES 1.01-1.10Adapting TheSandman for the big screen was never really a viable option. Neil Gaiman’s comics masterpiece is a panoply of tales within tales anchored by a protagonist who doesn’t always bother to turn up in any given issue. You simply can’t do it justice in a two-hour movie. And so to Netflix’s much-anticipated, often deeply peculiar TV adaptation. With Gaiman’s direct involvement and the time and freedom afforded by streaming, it’s clear that this show has been made with a real love for the original material and a desire to fit everything in – for better and for worse. It’s 1916 and occultist Roderick Burgess is attempting a ritual intended to…2 minSFX|September 2022RESIDENT EVIL Season OneUK/US Netflix, streaming now ▶ Showrunner Andrew Dabb ▶ Cast Ella Balinska, Tamara Smart, Siena Agudong, Lance Reddick EPISODES 1.01-1.08Andrew Dabb, former showrunner of Supernatural, takes the wheel of Netflix’s live-action Resident Evil series and crashes it into a ditch. Perhaps Dabb wanted to avoid comparisons with The Walking Dead, but pushing the zombies (here called “zeroes”) completely into the background in a zombie franchise seems perverse. The story flips between 2022 and 2036. In the former, the Wesker family, Albert (Lance Riddick) and his daughters Jade (Tamara Smart) and Billie (Siena Agudong), arrive in New Raccoon City, where the girls suspect dark deeds afoot at the Umbrella Corporation research facility that employs their father. In 2036, the adult Jade (Ella Balinska) is a scientist on the run from Umbrella’s…2 minSFX|September 2022CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOTEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1971 | 18 | Blu-ray ▶ Director Don Chaffey ▶ Cast Julie Ege, Brian O’Shaughnessy, Tony Bonner, Rosalie Crutchley BLU-RAY DEBUTCreatures The FilmForgot is the easy gag: following such monster-loaded Hammer epics as One Million Years BC and When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth, the lack of prehistoric beasts in a movie whose title explicitly trades on their marquee value feels cheeky to say the least. But that’s unfair on this Stone Age quest tale, a true outlier in the studio’s output and one that feels, five decades on, courageously experimental. Entirely wordless – do paleolithic grunts count as dialogue? – it strives for realism in place of pulpy, history-twisting thrills, substituting porcupines, pythons and cave bears for Dynamation behemoths. If it misses the magic of…1 minSFX|September 2022WICKED WORLDEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED 15 AUGUST 1991 | 18 | Blu-ray ▶ Director Barry J Gillis ▶ Cast Eddie Platt, Barry J Gillis, Maria Delgado, Kelly Felhaber BLU-RAY DEBUTHow to even begin to describe the experience of watching this latest entry in the American Genre Film Archive range? It’s a work so truly bizarre that it transcends all conventional notions of good or bad filmmaking and leaves you feeling instead like you’ve just witnessed a particularly unhinged piece of outsider performance art. There’s no real plot – a man (Eddie Platt) walks about killing people–yet it somehow manages to be wildly convoluted. The dialogue (seemingly entirely overdubbed) rarely matches up with the on-screen action, and the editing is liable to bring on a seizure. Don’t believe us? Watch the trailer and…1 minSFX|September 2022HELL HIGHEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1989 | 18 | Blu-ray In this witless Porky’s LastHouse On The Left mash-up, high school kids terrorise a teacher by slinging swamp mud at her house. This triggers memories of trauma, with murderous results… The fact that the prank slips into sexual assault seems doubly crass given the film’s fondness for crowd-pleasing flashes of tit. Lacking tension, logic, or decent gore, its one draw is a young Christopher Cousins, later of Breaking Bad. Extras Three commentaries, five interviews; location tour; deleted scene; more.…1 minSFX|September 2022DOG SOLDIERSEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED 22 AUGUST 2002 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard) ▶ Director Neil Marshall ▶ Cast Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby, Liam Cunningham Designed as post-pub viewing, this British-as-fish-and-chips film is the apex of lad-horror. It’s a lairy affair, drenched in testosterone. Male relationships, with their bantz, football chat and earthy idioms, are centre stage, as troops on an exercise in the Highlands end up in a farmhouse, besieged by towering werewolves. Neil Marshall’s gripping, darkly witty debut moves through stages like an expert driver smoothly shifting gears. Jittery handheld creates a sense of urgency, revealing just the right amount of his dancers-on-stilts lycanthropes. It’s perfectly paced, with well-defined characters and neat twists; Marshall has yet to top it. Extras A 62-minute Making Of from a 2015 US…2 minSFX|September 2022DRIVEEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED 29 AUGUST 1997 | 18 | Blu-ray ▶ Director Steve Wang ▶ Cast Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, John Pyper-Ferguson, Brittany Murphy BLU-RAY DEBUT This direct-tovideo actioner feels like a Hong Kong martial arts flick scripted by Shane Black. Former Chinese agent Toby Wong (Mark Dacascos) has a “bio-engine” boosting his abilities. Now he wants out – and to sell the tech for millions. Goons are out to stop him. After saving the life of barfly Malik (Kadeem Hardison), Wong makes him act as his driver. Presented here in the longer director’s cut; it’s essentially one long chase, with a mismatched duo bantering and bonding. Their interplay is clearly largely improvised, with plenty of Eddie Murphy-esque quips. “Essentially one long chase, with a mismatched duo bonding” Fights tend…1 minSFX|September 2022FLATLINERSEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1990 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard) ▶ Director Joel Schumacher ▶ Cast Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin Director Joel Schumacher had a simple credo when it came to cinema: “No one pays for under the top.” So this tale of med school students illicitly testing the boundaries of life receives the full MTV gothic treatment: more sinister religious statuary and billowing white sheets than Ultravox or Bonnie Tyler could ever dream of in their ’80s pomp. Stunningly photographed by Jan de Bont, the visuals threaten to dilute the chills. It’s an improbably sumptuous film in places, summoning otherworldly visions that resemble everything from an Imax documentary on icy mountainscapes to upmarket monochrome porn. Ultimately there’s more premise than plot, but the story’s…1 minSFX|September 2022ROUND UPSega’s spikey speedster returns in SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 (out now, 4K/Blu-ray/DVD/download). This time Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik has teamed-up with Knuckles (Idris Elba), a red echidna with fists the size of hams, to find the Master Emerald, a relic that allows people to bend reality to their will. We said: “Twenty minutes longer and about 50% louder than its predecessor… Struggles to reprise the winning formula.” Extras include director’s commentary, deleted scenes and a six-minute short. Stephen King’s 1980 novel about a lass with pyrokinetic powers gets adapted again in FIRESTARTER (15 August, Blu-ray/DVD), the work of Keith Thomas, director of excellent Jewish-themed horror The Vigil. We said: “Finds nothing new to do, besides throw in a load of dodgy CG flames… Ryan Kiera Armstrong brings a subtle edge…1 minSFX|September 2022THE CHANGE▶ RELEASED 18 AUGUST 480 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Kirsten Miller ▶ Publisher HQ There’s no doubt about it, this is one angry book. It’s the story of three middle-aged women – Nessa, a black widow who can see the spirits of the unquiet dead; Jo, a married Jewish gym owner whose hot flushes can literally melt metal; and Harriett, a white woman who around menopause lost her husband and her advertising job and went the whole way into free-loving, poison-growing wild woman territory. They’re investigating various cases of missing girls whom no one else seems interested in finding or identifying. Kirsten Miller has no hesitation in pointing out the misogyny that held the characters back in their lives, from being passed over for promotion or mistaken for a…1 minSFX|September 2022THE MAN WHO LEAPT THROUGH FILM▶ RELEASED 18 AUGUST272 pages | Hardback/ebook ▶ Author Charles Solomon ▶ Publisher Abrams There are few names in the world of modern Japanese animation quite as exciting as Mamoru Hosoda. With films like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children and Belle, he directs anime that is as heartfelt as it is formally ambitious. The Man Who Leapt Through Film (subtitled The Art of Mamoru Hosoda) charts his journey from directing Digimon movies to setting up his own studio, Studio Chizu. Featuring quotes from Hosoda and key collaborators, the book is structured via the production histories of Hosoda’s six biggest films, which are accompanied by a selection of beautiful artwork. Author Charles Solomon paints each film as a milestone in Hosoda’s life (Wolf Children was inspired by the…1 minSFX|September 2022DEAD WATER▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 512 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author CA Fletcher ▶ Publisher Orbit Books CA Fletcher clearly has a thing about islands. His previous novel, A Boy And His Dog At The End Of The World, began on one, in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event. Dead Water is set in the Hebrides and the present day, but shares a similar focus on isolation and societal collapse. A body has washed up on the shore of a remote Scottish isle, bringing with it an infection that makes people violently angry. But this is no mere virus: the destruction of a Viking cairn reveals an ancient text and the implication that a supernatural evil is at work. Cut off from the mainland, the community begins to fall apart. When…1 minSFX|September 2022THE FIRST BINDING▶ RELEASED 18 AUGUST 832 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author RR Virdi ▶ Publisher Gollancz There’s no denying this is a beast of a book: the lead character, Ari, is not just a storyteller but the Storyteller, and its 800-odd pages contain the stories he tells and those he hears, as well as the story about his life in the present. And this is just the first volume in a series called Tales Of Tremaine. The start feels grindingly slow, with Ari coming to a Mediterranean-feeling town and settling in, telling people at an inn one of their own legends in literally magical style. Stick with it, though: the stories are more than window dressing. Ari is looking for the truth about an ancient evil, a truth that is most…1 minSFX|September 2022ALSO OUTThere’s plenty more books we couldn’t squeeze in. Stephen King is namechecked in the PR for Ronald Malfi’s BLACK MOUTH (out now, Titan). It features a group of friends returning to their home town to confront a figure they first encountered as teenagers (in this case, a creepy magician). Now, where have we heard that before? Expect explosive battles, romance and glam in Alex White’s space opera AUGUST KITKO AND THE MECHAS FROM SPACE (out now, Orbit). Can gay jazz pianist Gus Kitko and nonbinary rock star Ardent Violet help save humanity from the AI-powered giant robots hell-bent on destroying humanity? Fingers crossed. The latest Doctor Who novel for younglings (ages 9-12) features Tom Baker’s Doctor. Paul Magrs’s THE RETURN OF ROBIN HOOD (out now, BBC Children’s) sees the Time…1 minSFX|September 2022EIGHT BILLION GENIES▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics ▶ Writer Charles Soule ▶ Artist Ryan Browne ISSUES 1-3 Having a wish magically granted has always been portrayed as a potentially dangerous proposition, and new Image Comics title Eight Billion Genies expands this concept to ask: what if everyone on Earth got a wish at exactly the same time? This manic eight-issue miniseries follows what happens when the entire population of Earth simultaneously (and for mysterious reasons) all acquire a genie that will grant them each one wish. Chaos immediately breaks loose, and a low-rent bar in Detroit ends up an unexpected safe zone in the madness, its inhabitants riding out the escalating insanity as the worldwide consequences of wishing get bigger and bigger. Writer Charles Soule and artist Ryan Browne previously…1 minSFX|September 2022THE BEST OF CAT GIRL▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher Rebellion ▶ Writers Unknown/RAMZEE ▶ Artists Giorgio Giorgetti, Elkys Nova COLLECTION The tortured heroine was a staple of girls’ comics in the ’60s and ’70s. These were girls who struggled with cruel parents, school bullies and exploitative adults. Among these woeful tales, the masked sleuth emerged, giving readers a taste of freedom usually only permitted for boys. One such character was Cathy Carter, who helped her father fight crime by donning a suit and calling herself Cat Girl. Cat Girl mostly fell into obscurity with the decline of girls’ comics, but for the first time, five stories have been collated into a new edition. Originally serialised between 1969 and 1971 in Sally, they feel a little twee and old-fashioned – Cathy mostly fights cartoonish…1 minSFX|September 2022DOCTOR WHO: INTO THE STARS▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 155 minutes | CD/download ▶ Publisher Big Finish AUDIO DRAMA More than most of the Doctors, Christopher Eccleston’s Time Lord is defined by his relationship to Earth. His single TV season rarely strayed too far into the cosmos, favouring instead our planet and associated space stations. The latest Ninth Doctor Adventures box set, by contrast, roams far and wide, with a trio of intergalactic adventures. “Roams far and wide with a trio of intergalactic adventures” Opener “Salvation Nine” throws the Doctor into an encounter with his old enemies the Sontarans. Something’s different this time, though. This tribe, known as Niners, are peaceful, inquisitive, and under threat from humans unwilling to accept that these are not the warmongering potato-heads of old. Broadly comic, but with a touch…1 minSFX|September 2022UFOsQuizmaster Nick Setchfield, Editor At Large QUESTION 1 Which BBC comedy show spoofed Close Encounters Of The Third Kind with a trombone-playing mothership? QUESTION 2 In the Gerry Anderson series UFO, what does the acronym SHADO stand for? QUESTION 3 Which ’70s TV show was inspired by real life US Air Force investigation Project Blue Book? QUESTION 4 Picture Question Supply the (US) title that’s been cropped from this movie poster. QUESTION 5 Which 1981 comedy series about UFO spotters was written by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale? QUESTION 6 Which popular TV personalities starred in 2006’s Alien Autopsy? QUESTION 7 In M Night Shyamalan’s Signs, what natural substance is deadly to the aliens? QUESTION 8 Picture Question What’s the name of this iconic first contact point? QUESTION 9 Which US…2 minSFX|September 2022Like A Velvet Glove Cast In IronIt was a housemate in my university years who introduced me to Eightball (hello Jonathan, if you’re out there). I wasn’t big on comics, but Daniel Clowes’s indie anthology title (which is getting a collected edition release from Fantagraphics on 27 September) was different: a mordant, morbid affair, strongly imprinted with its creator’s personality (often in unflattering ways). Ghost World later became its break-out strip, but it’s Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron, serialised in issues 1-10, which captured my imagination. Summarising this bleak, disquieting tale is a challenge. It kicks off with the mostly passive protagonist Clay watching a troublingly odd BDSM second feature in a porno cinema. He tries to find out more about it, but the investigation never really yields any satisfactory answers. Along the way,…3 min
SFX|September 2022Captain’s LogAs I write this I’m 35,000ft above the United States of America, flying back from San Diego Comic-Con with only a few short hours before this issue of SFX goes to the printers. Talk about cutting it fine! But, you know, we’re an efficient bunch of Doozers so “the moment has been prepared for”. What a week! SDCC really is a life-changing experience. This was my second time attending – thank you very much Covid – and it’s such a joy seeing the streets of the city absolutely filled with fans, all celebrating a love of pop culture entertainment. And those panels and announcements! You can check out the extensive coverage over at gamesradar.com and, of course, our very own Twitter and Instagram @sfxmagazine, as well as read more on…1 minSFX|September 2022NEWS WARPMCU update: Thunderbolts targets 28 July 2024 release, Fantastic Four 8 November 2024. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty set for 2 May 2025, Avengers: Secret Wars 7 November 2025. The Cloverfield Paradox’s Julius Onah signed to direct Captain America: New World Order, starring Anthony Mackie. Chris Hemsworth is the villain in Fury Road prequel Furiosa. Adam Wingard’s Godzila Vs Kong sequel set for 15 March 2024. Russell Crowe set to cast out the spirits in The Pope’s Exorcist. Jurassic Park’s David Koepp writing The Green Hornet And Kato. The Invisible Man’s Leigh Whannell in talks to direct. Lea Seydoux playing Lady Margot Fenring in Dune: Part Two. Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk codirecting horror-comedy Hell Of A Summer. Paramount adapting Valiant Comics superpowers tale Harbinger. Dennis Quaid and David Thewlis starring…1 minSFX|September 2022Power PackBACK IN 2020, PROJECT POWER’S gritty take on the superhero genre captured the attention of Jerry Bruckheimer. The uber-producer consequently offered co-directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman Secret Headquarters, a fun, fantastical and kid-friendly superhero romp. In other words, it’s the complete antithesis of the duo’s previous dark endeavour. “We always had it on our bucket list to make the kind of movie that we really loved as kids, like a Goonies, an ET, an Adventures In Babysitting or a Labyrinth… One of those movies that really tapped into our imaginations as kids,” Joost tells Red Alert. “With the original script by Chris Yost, who is a great comic book writer, we were just like ‘This idea is so great’. We pitched some changes to the script and Jerry was…4 minSFX|September 2022Branching OutWE’VE SEEN SEVERAL growth stages of Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Guardians Of The Galaxy through to Thor: Love And Thunder. But let’s be real: the Baby Groot iteration is the one that delights audiences most. Since we didn’t get much quality time with the whippersnapper, Marvel Studios is giving us five unseen adventures in the Disney+ original shorts series I Am Groot. The series is executive-produced by James Gunn, and written and directed by Kirsten Lepore, known for her indie animated shorts. Lepore tells Red Alert that Marvel Studios asked her to come in for a general meeting, where she was asked to pitch her take on a Baby Groot shorts series. Her ideas impressed the executives and together they crafted I Am…3 minSFX|September 2022Turkish DelightFABLES HAVE ALWAYS been part of director George Miller’s life. When he was a child in the 1950s, growing up in Queensland, he and his twin brother listened to a recorded version of Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince”. “It was produced by Orson Welles. He narrated it. And it’s wonderful. My brother and I, we didn’t have DVDs or anything else – we played it a thousand times, over a year, two years.” So perhaps it’s no surprise that the Australian filmmaker behind the Mad Max films should be so entranced by AS Byatt’s novella The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye. It’s the story of an academic specialising in narratology who visits Turkey for a conference, buys a trinket and – after cleaning it – releases a wish-granting djinn that’s…4 minSFX|September 2022Dead Or AliveOVER THE COURSE OF 12 YEARS, THE WALKING DEAD universe has given fans three separate series charting how small enclaves of humans around the United States have survived the post-apocalyptic aftermath of the Walker infestation. Now the franchise is trying something altogether new with its first anthology series, Tales Of The Walking Dead. Created by Scott M Gimple and long-time franchise writer Channing Powell, the six-episode series isn’t bound by existing, ongoing storylines or the fixed locations of each show. Tales Of The Walking Dead will consist of standalone stories that can take place anywhere within the fall of society. “I don’t honestly know why we didn’t do it earlier, because I’ve loved this idea from the beginning,” Powell enthuses to Red Alert about the anthology format. “Because I’ve been…4 minSFX|September 2022STACEY McEWANTell us about your protagonist. Dawsyn Sabar is a young woman living as a prisoner on the Ledge – an icy mountain shelf. She’s long since lost the members of her family, and goes to extraordinary lengths to stay alive in a place where the hostilities do not end with blizzards and frostbite. How long did the book take to write? I wrote the first draft in five months, but editing is always a long process. It had a few evolving facets, but none so much as the central relationship, which I’d originally imagined to be a “perfect match”, and became something complex and challenging. Did you have to do much research? There was a fair amount into boring things like timber species, cold climate flora and so on. Australia…1 minSFX|September 2022REBELS WITH A CAUSEASSIAN ANDOR IS dead. Even by the standards of Rogue One – aka the Star Wars movie where everybody dies – the Rebel Alliance operative’s demise by Death Star was pretty definitive. If he was a parrot, he’d be bereft of life, pushing up daisies and joining the choir invisible – an ex-Rebel. But as Obi-Wan Kenobi proved earlier this year, being canonically dead is no barrier to having your own TV show. “We’re not bringing him back from the dead, not at all,” laughs Diego Luna, who reprises his Rogue One role in new Disney+ prequel series Andor. “He sacrificed everything for the cause and that hasn’t changed, but I think what is beautiful is to say, ‘Okay, now that you care about him, now that you know what…12 minSFX|September 2022ELF PORTRAITSBoth Galadriel and Elrond are familiar to us from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. How do the younger versions you play compare to their older selves? Robert Aramayo (Elrond): Well, The Rings Of Power takes place thousands of years before the original book trilogy, and I think you would say my guy is at the beginning of his career, if you’d like to put it that way. The half-Elven element of him [Elrond has both Elf and Human ancestors] is so important, and was really intriguing to explore. I think it eventually becomes his greatest gift – this ability to bring people together, and an understanding of mortality which is really unique to him – though I don’t think he’s fully figured out how to use it yet. Morfydd…3 minSFX|September 2022FLUX INCAPACITATORIN THE EARLY 1990S, MTV HAD unparalleled cultural currency. As well as showcasing the frontline of music, it explored other media, including experimental, edgy animation via its series Liquid Television. One of the jewels in its crown was Aeon Flux. Created by Peter Chung, it challenged audiences not only with its heavily stylised action, featuring bloody massacres, but also by confronting ethical and existential quandaries. Aeon faced off against Trevor Goodchild: she an agent from the anarchic Monica, he the benign dictator of the ordered but oppressive Bregna – though to simplify the motives at play would underserve its rich complexity. Chung devised Aeon Flux in part to explore the ambiguity behind what could easily have been labelled as a simple utopia vs dystopia narrative. But his background was in…9 minSFX|September 2022KEKE PALMERWhat excited you about this movie? You had me with Daniel [Kaluuya]. My first experience with him was the Black Mirror episode that he did. I nerd out about filmmaking and TV and performances that I enjoy, and I remember calling people and saying “Did you see that black boy on Black Mirror? He is incredible!” I was blown away by his performance, so when I heard that I was not only going to be doing a Jordan Peele movie but I was going to be in it with Daniel Kaluuya? That was next-level excitement. How collaborative is Jordan as a filmmaker? He allowed us to be part of every aspect of the conversation, even the title. Obviously he’s the boss, and at the end of the day what he…1 minSFX|September 2022THE FEAST▶ RELEASED 19 AUGUST 2022 | 18 | 93 minutes ▶ Director Lee Haven Jones ▶ Cast Annes Elwy, Nia Roberts, Julian Lewis Jones, Steffan Cennydd This Welsh-language art horror – the debut feature from television director Lee Haven Jones – mixes the slow burn scares of Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation with folklore and social satire, to fairly impressive effect. Young Cadi (Annes Elwy) has been hired to help serve at a dinner party in rural Wales. It’s a swanky do hosted by wealthy – and sleazy – politician Gwyn (Julian Lewis Jones) and his wife Glenda (Nia Roberts). The couple are hoping to charm a neighbour into a lucrative business proposition, but they’re so preoccupied with themselves that they fail to notice just how quiet and distant Cadi is…1 minSFX|September 2022PAPER GIRLS Season OneUK/US Streaming now, Prime Video ▶ Showrunner Christopher C Rogers ▶ Cast Riley Lai Nelet, Sofia Rosinsky, Fina Strazza, Camryn Jones EPISODES 1.01-1.08Given StrangerThings’ phenomenal success, the only surprise is that it’s taken a while for Brian K Vaughn’s 2015 comic – potentially the perfect vehicle for BMX nostalgia, ALF references and New Order needle-drops – to come to TV. Now it finally has, the results are just a little underwhelming. The essentials are the same, with 12-year-old Cleveland papergirls Erin, Mack, KJ and Tiffany transported from 1988 into the future, after getting caught up in a conflict between time-travelling factions. Thereafter, the TV series largely takes its own path. Much of the comic’s weirdness has been boiled away. There are no kaiju-sized tardigrades, for example, or giant Pteranodons used…2 minSFX|September 2022STRANGER THINGS Season Four, Volume TwoUK/US Netflix, streaming now ▶ Showrunners The Duffer Brothers ▶ Cast Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, Gaten Matarazzo, Sadie Sink EPISODES 4.08-4.09One of the enduring clichés of genre TV coverage is showrunners boasting, “Every episode is like a mini-movie!” Usually that’s a bit a stretch. Until now the epic battle episodes of Game Of Thrones have come closest. But the last two episodes of Stranger Things season four truly feel cinematic. It’s not just the intense action, the effects and the emotional stakes involved. Look at those running times: 85 minutes and 150 minutes. In total, that’s longer than Titanic. The danger, of course, is self-indulgence, especially as there’s not actually much in the way of plot. These episodes are 75% final confrontation, and 25% set-up for season five. There…1 minSFX|September 2022PREY▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2022 | 9+ | SVOD ▶ Director Dan Trachtenberg ▶ Cast Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Stormee Kipp, Dane DiLiegro DISNEY+ “This is as far as you go. No more. This is it!” That, according to young Comanche warrior Taabe (Dakota Beavers), is what should be declared proudly whenever one is confronted by a seemingly unbeatable foe. It is a sentiment hunter Naru (Amber Midthunder) takes to heart when she realises that the Northern Great Plains she and her tribe call home have been invaded by more than one sinister interloper. Yet it is also one that speaks for Predator fans who, after one sequel, two reboots and a pair of Alien crossovers, may have given up hope of any successor living up to John McTiernan’s 1987…2 minSFX|September 2022BEWARE MY BRETHRENEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1972 | 15 | Blu-ray ▶ Director Robert Hartford-Davis ▶ Cast Ann Todd, Tony Beckley, Patrick Magee, Suzanna Leigh BLU-RAY DEBUTReleased as TheFiend in the UK, the Stateside title of this British horror better captures its spirit of happy-clappy, tambourine-shaking terror. Tony Beckley is the disturbed young man balancing a misogynistic killing spree with dutiful attendance at an evangelical church. There are shades of Psycho in the quasi-incestuous relationship with his overbearing mother – a chilly, off-kilter Ann Todd – and more than a touch of Peeping Tom in his habit of taping the frenzied murders. It’s a seedy watch, set in what feels like the ashtray of the early ’70s, but some impressively edited sequences crank up the intensity, while a gloriously funky score…1 minSFX|September 2022LUCK▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2022 | G | SVOD ▶ Director Peggy Holmes ▶ Cast Eva Noblezada, Simon Pegg, Jane Fonda, Flula Borg APPLE TV+ Teenager Sam (Eva Noblezada) has horrifically bad luck. This finally changes when she finds a lucky penny… but after promptly losing it (of course), she embarks on a desperate mission to find it again so that she can help a friend. This involves teaming up with the penny’s owner – a talking black cat named Bob (Simon Pegg) – and searching his magical world. This will be tricky, as Sam is human and her bad luck isn’t welcome there. There’s a big problem with Skydance Studios’ debut movie, and we’re not just talking about the involvement of disgraced former Disney bigwig John Lasseter (whose presence…1 minSFX|September 2022GOOD MADAM▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2022 | TBC | SVOD SHUDDER Expect numerous ominous shots of tumbling laundry and boiling water in this slow-burn, Xhosa-language horror, shot in Cape Town. It’s textbook “elevated” fare. Tsidi takes her daughter to stay with grandma – long-time faithful servant to a bedridden white woman. Is she under a spell, or is Tsidi just paranoid? Xhosa singing and the way the film engages with the legacy of apartheid hold some interest. But one brief gruesome vision is scant reward for enduring all the non-diegetic wind howl and creeping camera.…1 minSFX|September 2022FANTASTIC BEASTS:THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDOREEXTRAS ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2022 | 12 | Blu-ray (standard/4K)/DVD/download ▶ Director David Yates ▶ Cast Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Callum Turner The Harry Potter spin-off prequel franchise chugs on to a third entry, which many figured would be Fantastic Beasts And Newt’s Diminishing Returns, but thanks to help from veteran Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves proves to be better than the first two. Which isn’t saying too much. Yet, digging into the Grindelwald/Dumbledore connection (while hinting at the romance), it does at least focus the story, and sensibly puts the character workload on Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen, as Grindelwald plots to become the new Supreme Mugwump. Newt (Eddie Redmayne) and the beasts, despite the title, remain the weaker element, even as they’re drawn more into the…2 minSFX|September 20224 K X FOURFourth-billed Dwayne Johnson’s been shunted to the front to flog the HD release of DOOM (out now). He’s one of a team of Marines sent to a research facility on Mars to battle mutant creatures in this 2005 take on the videogame series. No new bonuses here, just six old featurettes. Warner’s Ultimate Collector’s Edition steelbook of EDGE OF TOMORROW (out now) just has a bunch of old DVD extras too. Tom Cruise’s mash-up of alien invasion, Groundhog Day and Saving Private Ryan does come with two posters (the United Defense Force recruitment ad may not get framed everywhere, given the acronym…), six art cards, and a booklet. Still seems a weak offer, given the eye-watering £40 price. You can also expect to fork out 40 smackers for EVENT HORIZON…1 minSFX|September 2022BABEL▶ RELEASED 1 SEPTEMBER 560 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author RF Kuang ▶ Publisher HarperVoyager To generalise wildly for a moment, genre fiction puts a premium on plot. Lit-fic concerns, such as the internal life of characters or taking time to describe the flowers, are frowned upon. It follows that RF Kuang’s decision to riff on the classic Victorian novel with Babel is at the very least brave. That’s because while the fiction of Dickens, Eliot or Thackeray doesn’t want for incident, it moves at a pace that can seem slow to modern readers. Similarly, Babel, certainly in its early chapters, doesn’t see the need to hurry. Set in the middle of the 1830s, it invites readers into a world of sea voyages, dons talking sagely, and afternoon tea. All…3 minSFX|September 2022THE UNDERTAKING OF HART AND MERCY▶ RELEASED 25 AUGUST 336 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author Megan Bannen ▶ Publisher Orbit Books What do you get if you take a grab-bag of the most popular YA fantasy tropes and use them to write a story about a couple of lonely thirtysomethings instead? Well, if you’re lucky, you might just get something like The Undertaking Of Hart And Mercy. Ralston Hart is a marshal, tasked with making sure the shambling undead “drudges” don’t cross the boundaries of the netherworld to wreak havoc in the real world. Mercy Birdsall is an undertaker, whose job includes elaborate rituals that ensure the dead who pass through her morgue won’t rise again. The two of them hate one another on sight, but when they accidentally begin an anonymous correspondence, they’re drawn…2 minSFX|September 2022THE BOOK OF GOTHEL▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 400 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author Mary McMyne ▶ Publisher Orbit Books There’s been a glut of fairy tale reimaginings in recent years, most of which do little more than defang the villains that gleefully terrorised generations of children. Here it’s Gothel, the evil sorceress from Rapunzel, who undergoes a make-over. When we meet her, she’s a girl called Haelewise, the daughter of a midwife with an unnatural gift to sense souls and the thin boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead. After her mother dies, Haelewise leaves her village to seek out the witch in the woods and become her apprentice. There’s nobility in wanting to give one-dimensional villains their own voice – especially villainous women, whose stories are marred by the…1 minSFX|September 2022OKAY THEN THAT’S GREAT▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 320 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Susannah Wise ▶ Publisher Gollancz Grief. It’s a funny old thing, isn’t it? Hilarious, even. If your response to this question is “Er, no, not really…”, then welcome to the club. Marnie is having a crisis. She’s a poet with a 20-year case of writer’s block, her Jewish parents have become bornagain Christians, and the therapist she sees every day can’t even remember her name. Worst of all, her twin daughters are about to turn 18, which is bringing back long-repressed memories of her twin sister Perdita. She died tragically just before their own joint 18th birthday, but Marnie is nonetheless convinced she has seen her, in the present, doing mundane things like parking a car or visiting the supermarket.…1 minSFX|September 2022David QuantickDo you have any personal mementos or knick-knacks on/near your desk? I’ve got a paper flag from the Manic Street Preachers show in Havana that I went to, and a Quantick Family Name history picture that was my dad’s. Do you find it helpful to listen to music while writing? If so, what kind? It depends on the book. All My Colors was set in the late ’70s and had a Richard Bachman vibe, so I played a lot of John Carpenter soundtracks and also a lot of FM rock like Boston and Kansas. It was great. How do you deal with writers’ block or the urge to procrastinate? If I get stuck I just write something – anything – until the horse comes back. As for procrastinating, I just…2 minSFX|September 2022FLASHPOINT BEYOND▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher DC Comics ▶ Writers Geoff Johns, Jeremy Adams, Tim Sheridan ▶ Artists Eduardo Risso, Xermanico, Mikel Janin ISSUES 0-3 Sometimes it feels like DC can’t let a single successful narrative concept go unexploited. Its latest inevitable revival is a sevenissue follow-up to 2011’s universe-changing miniseries Flashpoint. The story that led to the New 52 relaunch, Flashpoint featured a dark alternate timeline accidentally created by The Flash, where Atlantis and Themyscira are at war, and Batman is Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s embittered and vengeful father. Now, the Flashpoint timeline has been mysteriously recreated, and it’s up to Thomas Wayne to discover why, as his whole world marches ever closer to destruction. Co-written by DC veteran Geoff Johns, this is a slickly entertaining but exceedingly unsubtle superhero…1 minSFX|September 2022STRAY▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Reviewed on PlayStation 5 ▶ Also on PlayStation 4, PC ▶ Publisher Annapurna Interactive VIDEOGAME Meowing incessantly for attention, scratching up the furniture, curling up for a midday snooze – these are just a few of the ways in which you play cat about town in Stray. As entertaining as being a furry menace is, though, this is more than a straightforward “cat simulator”, with your friendly feline becoming a central figure in a neat little sci-fi story. The kitty protagonist in question misjudges one jump and finds themselves falling away from their family, into a walled city that’s home to robotic denizens known as Companions. In the absence of humanity, the Companions have fostered their own language and culture from the ruins of the…2 min
