I've mentioned countless times on these pages that I'm no Marvel fan.  It isn't that I dislike their properties; rather, I was raised on DC Comics, so I just never developed the same kind of love, respect, and admiration for the other side of the comic book tracks.  I did try getting into several of the books when I was a bit older (late teens and early twenties), but I only dug a few standalone series and events while never quite identifying with any of the singular heroes.

​However, the news that the incredible Anson Mount is Marvel-bound has me somewhat interested.

​For those who missed it, Mount headlined AMC's pretty terrific history drama Hell On Wheels through its five seasons as railroad man Cullen Bohannon, and -- despite some pretty interesting and equally talented guest stars -- he was the reason to stick with it.  Essentially, he played an emotionally tortured Confederate who moved north (for personal reasons) always in pursuit of justice the old-fashioned way.  Folks (like me) who hung with the program will tell you that with the exception of Season 2 it was a fabulous experience, often times flirting with the real history of nation-building while giving Mount one more reason to do what he did best, even if that meant the cost occasionally of his own peace of mind.

​This morning, I read on Deadline (link) that he's been cast to bring Black Bolt to life as the lead for Marvel's Inhumans for ABC TV, and the program is even getting some kind of IMAX-style treatment.  So I guess I'll have to brush up on my mutant mythology as he's probably the only reason I have at this point to give it a try ... but that's a solid enough excuse.  Seriously, I don't often plug other genres, but Hell On Wheels is worth the time.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Well, I can't say that I found it all surprising that Syfy decided to pull the plug on Incorporated in its freshman season (I just read the announcement via Deadline.com right here).  I only sat through the first two hours of the SciFi/Drama that sprang somehow from the collective might of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and it really felt entirely uninspired.  Largely, the show veered toward anti-capitalism messaging in the near-future, and that's ground not exactly fertile any longer in the realm of Science Fiction: in fact, it's been pretty much 'done to death' so much so that it's become cliché.

​Don't get me wrong: I'm all for finding new angles to tackle some of even the oldest politically-charged storytelling, but Incorporated really felt like late 80's and early 90's SciFi (think Robocop's cynicism but without all of the hardware) instead of something fresh and different.  Syfy's viewers apparently weren't all that interested, and they tuned out.  As they say, it is what it is.

​In any event, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

For those of you who may've missed the announcement last week, I'm pleased to share that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story -- the first stand-alone film for the franchise set a long time ago in a galaxy far away -- is set to release on home video on April 4th.  Naturally, that's great news for purists who are seeking to pick up a copy or even the most casual of Star Wars fans.  I read the announcement over on Bluray.com, and you can do the same right here: there's some terrific information about the special features included with the various releases (look for some retailers to have their own extras), so you might want to know which specific set you want to own.

​Also, I'd be a fool if I didn't give a Shout-Out to my own review of the theatrical release: you can find that read on the SciFiHistory.Net blog right here.  In short, I thought it was pretty awesome, though not without a few quibbles here and there.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and may the Force be with you!

Full disclosure: I don't watch awards programming.  To be perfectly honest, I gave up on them years ago when both the presenters, the nominees, the winners, and the networks decided it was more important to celebrate their political perspectives than to truly honor their craftsmanship.

(And for you haters: no, I'm not saying that they shouldn't have political positions.  No, I'm not saying that they can't spout off about their political positions.  I'm only saying that an awards show really should be reserved for the purposes of honoring the contributions to art.  After all, you don't go to a gymnastics event hoping for a basketball game to break out.  If actors, directors, and the like want to push an agenda then they should be required to go out and purchase a political ad so that I can turn the channel when that stuff starts.)

​Still, it's great to see that genre work like Science Fiction and Fantasy garners some attention from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, so major kudos go out today to the craftsmen and women of Warner Bros' Suicide Squad for bringing home the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hair Styling.  The film was trashed to Holy High Heaven upon its theatrical release, but it's nice to see that Academy members found some merit in what I thought was an old-fashioned comic book movie without all the heavy-handedness seriousness of the usual Marvel affairs as well as Christopher Nolan's Bat-flicks.

​Otherwise, the event didn't catch my eye ... except for that whole Best Picture kerfuffle.

​Now, call me a conspiracist if you must, but am I the only one who thought it more than a bit questionable that a host like Jimmy Kimmel -- a man REVERED amongst his peers for his legendary and epic pranksmanship -- headlined an event that ended with arguably one of the biggest screw-ups in film history?  No one seriously thought -- right away -- that this was owed to his hand?  Yes, I've read all of the theories and explanations coming out of the Price Waterhouse suits today, but come on!  In something like 80+ years a 'punking' of this sort never came close to happening, and this one was picture perfect ... just like one would expect from an "entertainer" whose pranksmanship skills are legendary.

​What?  Too soon?

​Also, wasn't it more than a bit curious that it would happen to a film like LaLa Land, a flick about "celebrating the chasing of dreams," only to have the dreams of those affiliated with it dashed by a last second SNAFU ... by an accounting firm?

​I'm not saying Kimmel did it.  I am saying that karmic payback has always been a b#tch.

​Well -- for an awful lot of reasons -- mama raised a cynic, whether she intended to or not.  Call me a conspiracist (as I said) if you must.  I will always doubt Kimmel's explanation.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

I've often said and written something to the effect that "life isn't always so much about getting the big moments right but rather celebrating the achievements of the smaller ones."

Despite how hard we might try, this game of life is rarely 'picture perfect,' and instead we all find balance in knowing we put our best foot forward in pursuit of things more likely within our grasp.  This isn't to say we don't dream big because we do: rather it's a mature acknowledgement that existence is and always has been imperfect, so take the goodness in small doses and you're more likely to find happiness in the day-to-day pursuit of your memories.

​Bill Paxton was the ultimate cinematic underdog.

In his most memorable work, rarely was he front and center: he was either part of an ensemble or he was cast as one of those background characters who brought his A-game to a B-role.  With Bill, you could always be certain that no matter how many minutes of screen time he had or how many lines he was given from the script he was going to attack every moment with the kind of quality workmanship needed to make the project succeed.  He turned in the kind of effort that drew attention to the sum total of the affair rather than inherit a role for notoriety or personal acclaim; and that's probably why his skills surpassed the limitations of his contemporaries.

​In fact, his resume reads like a syllabus for any aspiring actor to study.  The Terminator.  Weird Science.  Near Dark.  Predator 2.  Tombstone.  Apollo 13.  Twister.  HBO's Big Love.  Edge of Tomorrow.  TV's Hatfields & McCoys.  (I could go on and on as his genre contributions are all particularly fantastic, but methinks you get the point.)  Rarely was he cast in the typical leading man role -- where the "bigger than life" quality often sends marquee names -- but instead he fleshed out those secondary men who excelled despite their flaws and gave a motion picture some much needed flavor.  He turned small moments -- like I mentioned above -- into the stuff of film legend.

​His passing was sudden, and I suspect the news rocked your world as much as it did mine.  In one of the comment boards I frequent, I wrote that he was truly one of Hollywood's least expected geniuses and arguably one of its most unappreciated ones as well.  In short, he delivered exactly what a picture needed in a way uniquely ... well ... 'Paxtonian,' and he will be sorely missed.

Well, well, well ... what a difference a season makes for The CW?

The network's longtime collaborator Greg Berlanti -- he's the TV wunderkind behind The Arrow and The Flash -- tried to branch out with his programming to CBS last season with the debut of Supergirl.  While the program performed admirably for (A) a superhero show in (B) it's freshman season, the CBS suits passed on it -- largely a decision due to marketing constraints, I've read -- and this allowed The CW to soar in and pick it up.  It's doing well in its Monday night time slot (though I did opine just a bit about its obvious narrative shift in my column right here) ... so the network brass did the same recently in picking up Berlanti's Black Lightning which Fox TV declined.

​For a few of the particulars, you can check out the announcement via reportage on The Hollywood Reporter right here.  The piece also cites that actor Cress Williams has been signed to play the hero who was, incidentally, one of the first major African-American superstars to appear in the greater DC Comics universe.

​While I'm thinking this is pretty fabulous news for the network, things are certainly looking very superhero-heavy in the programming schedule.  Presently, The CW boasts Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, and the cast-heavy Legends of Tomorrow; so this gives the channel a powerhouse line-up indeed.  Also, as sexuality always figures prominently into Berlanti's TV works (one of my chief complaints against his storytelling), it'll be interesting to see what options are left for his staff to explore.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Yesterday, I read the announcement from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment over on Bluray.com (link right here), and I thought I'd share the news that one of the most impressive Box Office failures of 2016 is heading to home release on March 14th.

​Passengers was a film that, honestly, I'm not entirely certain had the backing of anyone other than the stars and the studios involved: I thought the coming attractions were a bit predictable, perhaps revealing too much information for the casual viewer but just right for Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt fans.  Arguably it was heavily hyped for the holiday release, but it failed to catch fire with the general public as well as critics.

Whatever the case, now you know you can catch out what you missed at a vastly more affordable investment than theatrically these day.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

If I'm perfectly honest with SciFiHistory.Net's readers, then I have to admit that I've never been all that much a fan of All Things Ben Affleck.  In my mind, he's one of those Hollywood actors who takes himself and his work much too seriously; perhaps if he actually let his hair down with a good role he might be a bit more palatable.

​However, I'm also on record as saying that I enjoyed Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, a film many long-time Bat-fans took issue with for a variety of reasons, some involving Affleck and many not.  Though I'll agree that there were elements of the feature that played out a bit too nebulous as well as a bit too 'dark' (for how the material was presented), Ben did a pretty solid job ponying up one of the better comic-bookish features for the DC Universe in some time.  (Sorry, Christopher Nolan, but I wasn't a fan of your brooding Christian Bale trilogy, though it did have moments.)

​In any event, Warner Bros. has made it official today that the fan-favorite director Matt Reeves (of Cloverfield and Rise of the Planet of the Apes' fame) is taking over the center seat on the long-gestating The Batman.  This comes hot on the heels of a rumor (just yesterday, I think) that talks had broken down, and we'll probably never know what that means or if it was legitimate.  I've read an article involving this over on Cinelinx right here, and I'd encourage those interested to check it out for themselves.

Reeves is a gifted director, and I think this bodes well for the franchise.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

As I've often remarked to my wife, "some days I have the coolest job ever."

​I know that I've found it amazing what's out there on the Information Superhighway when I go looking, and here's proof positive that even the actors and actresses themselves may be gobsmacked by what's been archived.  The lovely Dayna Devon is only the latest to interact with SciFiHistory.Net via my Twitter traffic, but I thought I'd share with you faithful readers so that even you can be assured none of us exist in a vacuum.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Following up on a post made earlier today, I wanted to let all of SciFiHistory.Net's faithful readers know that I've just completed the daily citations for The Andromeda Breakthrough, which was the title of the second season of A For Andromeda during its run on the BBC.  This second season concluded the Andromeda storyline -- well, so far as I know -- and you'll have to watch it yourself to find out whether or not it was completely fulfilling.  I've scanned a few of the user reviews that I've been able to find, and apparently some folks felt very strongly about this character-driven entry into the rich realm of TV Science Fiction.  If you can find it out there on the web somewhere, then it might be worth a try.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!