Category Archives: Sci-Fi

David Prowse, The Original Darth Vader, Dies At 85

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By Armando

David Prowse, best known for playing the original Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies, has passed away on Sunday, his management company announced. He was 85.

Prowse suffered from Alzheimer’s. According to his daughter, he had been in the hospital for two weeks. He passed away due to coronavirus complications.

“It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client DAVE PROWSE M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85,” Bowington Management said on Twitter Sunday.

David played the role of Frankenstein’s monster in Casino Royale (1967) which marked his debut, and the Hammer horrors The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974).

Prowse also appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s classic dystopian crime film A Clockwork Orange (1971) which many consider as his breakthrough role. In the film, he played as gang member and Frank Alexander’s manservant and bodyguard Julian. It is in this role that he was noticed by George Lucas, who wrote and directed the Star Wars films. He was originally offered two parts, the first one was that of Chewbacca before eventually landing the role of the iconic villain Darth Vader.

As Darth Vader in Star Wars, Prowse wore the iconic black suit and helmet while actor James Earl Jones provided the voice. Standing at a staggering height of 6’7”, Prowse’s physicality made him appear instantly threatening and provides a striking contrast to the rest of the cast and characters in the trilogy.

“I said I wasn’t too interested because I didn’t want to wear a mask. I wanted to play a part where people could see my face.” David said about the role of Chewbacca. “But I never realized the villain would also be wearing a mask!”

“David brought a physicality to Darth Vader that was essential for the character,” Star Wars creator George Lucas said in a statement posted on StarWars.com. “He made Vader leap off the page and on to the big screen, with an imposing stature and movement performance to match the intensity and undercurrent of Vader’s presence. David was up for anything and contributed to the success of what would become a memorable, tragic figure. May he rest in peace.”

A bodybuilder and weightlifting champion, Prowse also had a hand in helping Christopher Reeves achieve his physique for the 1978 superhero film by Richard Donner “Superman”, having trained Reeves for six weeks. “He was fantastic. He was a very lovely person,” Prowse said of Reeve. “We were like brothers, we got along so well together. And during the course of the period I had him, I took him from 170 pounds when we started and he was 212 [pounds] when he went into the suit.”

https://youtu.be/vvLC8MsXdfo

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Denis Villeneuve Debuts First Look at Key Timothée Chalamet ‘Dune’ Action Scene

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A couple weeks after the first character photos from Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” dropped online, now comes a first taste of what the director’s big-budget action scenes will look like on screen. Empire magazine has premiered a new still from “Dune” (see below) that shows Timothée Chalamet and Josh Brolin in the midst of one of the film’s big action moments. Chalamet’s protagonist Paul Atreides is seen balancing on an airborne ornithopter alongside Brolin’s Gurney Halleck, Paul’s weapons teacher. The characters are flying over the desert planet Arrakis.

In a statement to Empire magazine, Villeneuve called the scene being depicted below one of the pivotal moments for Chalamet’s lead character. “It’s Paul’s first contact with the deep desert, where he’s mesmerized by it,” the filmmaker told Empire.

“He has a strange feeling of being home. There’s a lot of action at this specific moment, and [it’s] one of the scenes in the movie that I’m starting to get pretty proud of.”

Chalamet had a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” but “Dune” marks the actor’s first time leading a major Hollywood tentpole. The Oscar nominee told Vanity Fair last month that he was attracted to “Dune” because of Paul’s character arc. “The immediately appealing thing about Paul was the fact that in a story of such detail and scale and world-building, the protagonist is on an anti-hero’s-journey of sorts,” he said. “He thinks he’s going to be sort of a young general studying his father and his leadership of a fighting force before he comes of age, hopefully a decade later, or something like that.”

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A First Look at Timothée Chalamet in Dune

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The first step of a hero’s journey sometimes begins with a push.

At the start of Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic Dune, the young royal Paul Atreides prepares to leave the comfortable life he knows for a desolate, dangerous mining planet known as Arrakis, where his wealthy family will oversee extraction of a spice vital to the galaxy.

If he only knew the chaos and death that awaited him, he might be even more sorry to leave.

This is the first look at Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides on his native planet of Caladan from this December’s film version of the novel, directed by Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. The 1965 book was so seismic in its influence that its echoes still turn up in sci-fi and fantasy storytelling half a century later. Still, it has stubbornly defied appropriate adaptation itself.

Tomorrow, Vanity Fair will provide an even more expansive exploration of Villeneuve’s quest to bring Dune to the screen, but today we begin with the central hero: Paul Atreides, a child of privilege raised by a powerful family, but not one strong enough to protect him from the dangers that await.
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Paul Raschid’s “The Complex” Available Today On Digital Gaming Platforms

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THE COMPLEX is a completely live action, interactive sci-fi thriller filmed in the UK will be released worldwide through PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on 31st March 2020, brought by Wales Interactive, Red and Black Films, Good Gate Media and Little Jade Productions.

Following Black Mirror’s ‘Bandersnatch’ and BAFTA-winning game Late Shift – THE COMPLEX is written by Lynn Renee Maxcy, part of the Emmy award-winning writing team from The Handmaid’s Tale and is the very first live interactive Science Fiction film and one of only a small number of interactive films in existence.

THE COMPLEX is directed by visionary new talent Paul Raschid (White Chamber) and stars Michelle Mylett (Letterkenny, Bad Blood), Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones, The Witch), Al Weaver (Grantchester) and Twitch streamer and former Xbox UK presenter, Leah Viathan. The film’s award-winning team includes Oscar-nominated Production Designer Guy Thompson (Black Sheep) and internationally acclaimed DOP Matthias Pilz (Top Boy).

Here is the film’s official synopsis:

After a major bio-weapon attack on London, two scientists find themselves in a locked-down laboratory with time, and air, running out. With choose-your-own-adventure style gameplay, your
actions and your relationship with other characters will lead you to one of eight suspenseful endings.

Having treated the victims of a chemical attack in the totalitarian state of Kindar, Dr Amy Tenant (Michelle Mylett) is a leader in the advancement of Nanocell Technology. Now, in London, news breaks of a blood-vomiting civilian whose identity is far from coincidental. Reunited with an old friend, Amy is trapped in an impenetrable HQ of laboratories-a womb of scientific advancement with a perilous secret.

The interactive film is highly unique in that it offers multi-optional storytelling with 8 different outcomes; a real-time Relationship Status Tracking that influences the story as you play and a real-time Personality Trait Tracking that evolves based on your choices.

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Noah Hawley To Write & Direct Next “Star Trek”

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By Creative Media Times

The next Star Trek film seems to be back on track once again, with Legion and Fargo creator Noah Hawley said to be in “final talks” to pen and direct the next installment.

There has not been a lot of activity on a new Star Trek after 2016′ Star Trek Beyond, but that appears to be changing soon.

Though not a lot of details has been released, it is said that Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Karl Urban are set to return.

In 2009, director J.J. Abrams has relaunched the franchise which featured a Chris Pine as Captain Kirk. The film was success, grossing $385 million at the boxoffice, and was critically well-received. Abrams returned to direct a follow up in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness. This makes the upcoming film the fourth in the series.

Noah Hawley has recently made his directorial feature film debut in this year’s “Lucy in the Sky.”

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Epic Pictures Takes A Ride With Sci-Fi Romance Thriller THE FARE November 19th

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Following an acclaimed run on the independent film festival circuit, 501 Pictures and Public Displays of Affection, in a partnership with Epic Pictures and Dread, has announced the US release of D.C. Hamilton’s Hitchcockian romance The Fare.

The sophomore feature from Hamilton stars Gino Anthony Pesi (“Shades of Blue”) as a weary cab driver and Brinna Kelly as his enigmatic passenger, who charms him as her ride begins over and over and over again. Screenwriter and star Kelly reteams with Hamilton following their work on his directorial debut The Midnight Man. Pesi, Hamilton and Kelly produced alongside Kristin Starns.

An homage to “The Twilight Zone”, The Fare has screened internationally and taken home numerous awards including the Special Mention Jury Award at Fantasporto, Best Dark Fantasy/Supernatural Film at the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival, and the Director’s Prize for Overall Concept and Execution at FilmQuest.

The Fare will be available nationwide November 19th on Blu-ray and Digital HD, including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, Vudu and more.

Ahead of the Blu-ray and VOD release, Epic Pictures will premiere The Fare for LA audiences on the big screen at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on November 12th.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
When a charming woman named Penny climbs into his taxi, Harris finds himself entranced. That is, right up until she disappears from the back seat without a trace. As he desperately tries to make sense of what happened, he resets his meter and is instantly brought back to the moment she first climbed into his cab. He and Penny find themselves trapped in an endlessly looping ride that changes their lives forever.

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