A new sci-fi horror will premiere at the Toronto Independent Film Festival in September 2013. Titled Almost Human, the film is not to be confused with the upcoming Fox TV show of the same name.
Here’s the blurb:
“Mark Fisher disappeared from his home in a brilliant flash of blue light almost two years ago. His friend Seth Hampton was the last to see him alive. Now a string of grisly, violent murders leads Seth to believe that Mark is back, and something evil is inside of him.”
The film’s trailer (below) might remind UFO buffs of the Travis Walton abduction case... if Walton had come back possessed by a crazed, serial-killing alien:
Hollywood has put all manner of things on Mars over the decades in futile attempts to convince itself – and us – of the Red Planet’s box-office worthiness: Santa Claus, Robinson Crusoe, ghosts, Val Kilmer, John Carter, even moms...
Now, with The Last Days on Mars, we can add zombies to the list.
Magnet Releasing announcedearlier this month that they have acquired U.S. rights to the upcoming sci-fi thriller, which has been produced by Focus Features International.
The feature film debut of helmer Ruairi Robinson (an Academy Award-nominated director of sci-fi shorts and animations), The Last Days on Mars stars Liev Schreiber (pictured), Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Olivia Williams and Tom Cullen. Its official blurb reads as follows:
“On the last day of the first manned mission to Mars, a crew member of Tantalus Base believes he has made an astounding discovery – fossilized evidence of bacterial life. Unwilling to let the relief crew claim all the glory, he disobeys orders to pack up and goes out on an unauthorized expedition to collect further samples. But a routine excavation turns to disaster when the porous ground collapses, and he falls into a deep crevice and near certain death. His devastated colleagues attempt to recover his body. However, when another vanishes they start to suspect that the life-form they have discovered is not yet dead. As the group begins to fall apart it seems their only hope is the imminent arrival of the relief ship Aurora.”
No mention of space zombies in there, you’ll note. For details of the floating dead you’ll need to peruse reviews by critics who were lucky(?) enough to catch the movie at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. They've been keen to acknowledge the cinematic flare of Ruairi Robinson, but ultimately have been left underwhelmed by his finished product.
Here are some snippets...
“This murkily derivative sci-fi-horror entry sets its sights disappointingly low in terms of story and ideas, leaving the viewer’s sense of awe unstirred as a solid cast, toplined by Liev Schreiber, trudges its way through what basically amounts to ‘Red Planet of the Dead.’”
“The tropes come on faster and more furiously than the zombies, with the airlock button practically upstaging the actors... What’s missing is a sense of peril... With zombies in the low figures, The Last Days On Mars could lack enough meat for genre fans to feed on, and it needs more brains to bring out the Alien fanbase.”
“Glimpses of the baddies got a well-deserved chuckle from some folks in the audience. None of the action is shot in a particularly interesting manner.”
Judging by the above comments, it seems unlikely that The Last Days on Mars will be able to lift the Martian Curse that has long wrought havoc on Hollywood in its numerous voyages to the Red Planet. The movie is scheduled for theatrical release in September, ahead of its Ultra VOD release later this year. But, if it plays as lukewarmly with audiences as it has with critics, don’t be surprised if The Last Days on Mars is Mars’ last chance on the silver screen...
A new alien abduction-themed ‘found footage’ horror flick was released July 5 in selected US theaters, including the Quad Cinema in New York City and the Gateway Film Center in Columbus, OH. The official synopsis for Jimmy Loweree’s Absence, reads as follows:
“Doctors are baffled when a young expectant mother Liz (Erin Way, "Alphas"), wakes to find her nearly-to-term pregnancy disappear overnight. The police are investigating the situation as a missing child case and only her husband, Rick (Eric Matheny, J. Edgar) and brother, Evan (Ryan Smale, Damage) trust her version of events.
Told in the "found footage" style, Evan looks for answers by filming his sister’s experience. The trio embarks upon a trip to the mountains to escape the attention of the police and prying neighbors. When the trip spins out of control they realize that whatever happened with Liz and her baby isn’t over. None of them are safe.”
Absence has received generally poor reviews from critics, who have groaned not only at the film’s under-developed plot and lack of suspense, but also at its reliance upon the ‘found footage’ stylistic, which has long been at risk of wearing thin with audiences, despite its popularity since the late-1990s among directors working in the fantastical genres.
In a recent article for Indiewire, Loweree took the opportunity to defend his movie’s found footage approach, writing:
“Some of the best scary movies, for me, have been found footage. They set up a relatable situation that quickly connects me to the characters. The films make me wonder what I would do in those same circumstances. Also, this isn't a new style. Found footage has been around for a while in various forms and with different names. Now it's evolving, and I think it will keep doing so. I think we'll continue to see new found footage films that will be really good (with some really bad) as we've already discovered in the past few years.
With "Absence" I honestly felt, right or wrong, that found footage was the right choice. The style allowed me to approach these characters in a way that I wouldn't get to otherwise. It's also cheap. I wanted to make a movie, not just keep thinking about making a movie. So this was the right fit.”
The horror anthology V/H/S/2– which is released in cinemas today (July 12) – also applies found footage to the alien abduction scenario in a segment titled “Slumber Party Alien Abduction”, directed by Jason Eisener.
V/H/S/2 (2013)
Perhaps the most high-profile UFO/alien movies to have adopted the found footage approach in recent years are The Fourth Kind (2009) and Apollo 18 (2011), the former being the more commercially successful, but both being critically flayed.
The Fourth Kind was notable for the wrong reasons even before its release. The film was purported by Universal studios to be a true story “based on actual case studies” from the files of Dr. Abigail Tyler – a psychologist who had collected disturbing testimonies from the town of Nome, Alaska, where numerous residents allegedly had vanished since the 1960s. Archive news clippings from various Alaskan newspapers were presented by Universal online, painting a picture of a town historically plagued by UFO sightings and apparent alien abductions.
The film itself was presented as a docudrama featuring “real” footage documenting the events in Nome alongside dramatic reconstructions with Hollywood actors. In the opening scene, actress Milla Jovovich, looking directly into the camera, tells the audience: I’m actress Milla Jovovich and I will be portraying Dr. Abigail Tyler... every scene in this movie is supported by archive footage.”
The Fourth Kind (2009)
At various points throughout the film the ‘dramatic reconstructions’ and footage of the ‘real events’ are presented simultaneously in split-screen in order that the viewer can clearly distinguish between the two; the irony being that none of it is real. Not only was the “real” footage fabricated in its entirety, but so too were all of the Alaskan news clippings used by Universal in its marketing campaign. Dr. Abigail Tyler never existed; neither did anyone else portrayed in the film. When this elaborate Hollywood sham was revealed, Universal was served with a lawsuit from the Alaska Press Club, to whom the studio agreed to pay $20,000 for undermining the credibility of the various Alaskan papers whose names had been exploited by the studio.
Clearly, found footage isn’t always the hassle-free money-saver studios want it to be. But, with both Absenceand V/H/S/2in cinemas this week, this lo-tech aesthetic seems to be lending itself increasingly to sci-fi themes. Don’t be surprised if grainy images of horrifying alien entities continue to flicker across our screens for years to come.
Europa Report – a blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller – has received generally positive reviews from critics following its June 27 release on VOD and iTunes, scoring 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system. When unmanned probes suggest that a hidden ocean could exist underneath Europa's icy surface and may contain single-celled life, Europa Ventures, a privately funded space exploration company, sends six of the best astronauts from around the world to confirm the data and explore the revolutionary discoveries that may lie in the Europan ocean.
Veteran film critic Kirk Honeycutt is impressed with Europa Report, writing: “In this film, when an astronaut gazes out a portal at the infinity of space, you sense the amazement that fills his heart.”
Scott Weinberg of FEAR.net is also a fan, suggesting that Europa Report is “Maybe the best indie sci-fi film since Moon,” calling it “smart, suspenseful, and fascinating.”
io9’sMeredith Woerner was similarly enthusiastic, declaring that “Europa Report is hands down the most painstakingly accurate space movie we've seen in ages. You want some semblance of realism in the story of a three-year journey to Jupiter's Moon Europa? AND a gripping narrative, you got it.”
Witney Seibold of CraveOnlinewas slightly less enamored, noting that Europa Report’s “scientific accuracy leaves the film feeling a bit dry and procedural... but the heft and thrills are just enough to recommend it.”
Europa Report is released theatrically on August 2 this year. io9 recently conducted a fascinating interview with the film’s screenwriter, Philip Gelatt, in which the real science of the story is discussed in detail. Read it here.
M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming sci-fi survival movie After Earth features an elaborate back-story unhinted at in its trailers involving multiple extraterrestrial species.
io9.com reports that After Earth’s recently-released companion book United Rangers Corps Survival Manual reveals an intricate fictional historical narrative leading up to the events of the film.
“Turns out, there are aliens in this movie,” writes io9’s Meredith Woerner, “lots of them. Different species, in fact, which sound infinitely more interesting than a boy with a spear in the woods.”
Woerner then lays out the approximately 1000 years of events that constitute the movie’s back-story:
“1908 - An alien ship crash lands in Russia. All collective world governments then keep this discovery a secret basically forever. (But they let smarties like Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein play with the remains).
2012 - NASA announces that they've invented WARP ENGINES. By secretly tapping into the alien spaceship's knowledge of the universe's "dark energy." Tah Dah!
2071 - 2072 - Earth is all GTFO, humans. No one can live here anymore, because it's poison for us, so 750,000 survivors leave on ARKS (one is named the Asimov). The Arks were created thanks to additional information pulled (over the years) from the downed spacecraft.”
After Earth (2013)
Here, then, we have yet another blockbuster movie borrowing liberally from modern UFO-conspiracy lore, central to which are ideas relating to UFO crash retrievals and top secret efforts to reverse-engineer alien technologies. Although the Roswell Incident of 1947 is most commonly associated with such ideas, Shyamalan has here chosen to reach further back into UFO history – specifically, to the Tunguska event of 1908, which involved a massively powerful and mysterious explosion in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia. Officialdom attributes the explosion to a large meteoroid or comet fragment, but UFO researchers have long theorized that an alien craft may have been involved. Clearly this theory holds great appeal for Shyamalan, whose big-budget movie will now push the Tunguska event further into popular culture, albeit in a fantastical context.
After Earth hits cinemas May 31, 2013. For the rest of the movie’s long and complicated back-story, head on over to io9.com.
Rumbled: Kirk and McCoy flee alien tribespeople in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Cinemagoers who have seen the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, can no doubt recall its colourful opening sequence in vivid detail. No sooner are our bums on seats than do we find ourselves thrust into the brilliant crimson forests of an alien world, watching breathlessly as Captain James T. Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy flee a primitive humanoid tribe.
The Starfleet officers are in disguise so as to prevent the tribespeople from seeing their human (i.e. alien) faces and shattering their embryonic philosophical and religious paradigm. Kirk and McCoy are, as any Trekkie will appreciate, seeking to uphold their prime directive: to avoid at all costs any overt interference with the internal development of an alien civilization – especially one that is “barely out of the stone age” and which views its own culture as the center of the universe.
Alien culture shock: Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
This idea of non-interference between alien cultures is one that is frequently discussed in the UFO and scientific communities. Many scientists consider it entirely plausible that any advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy would likely seek to avoid drawing the attention of inhabitants of more primitive worlds for fear of sparking religious, economic and political chaos, or even civilizational collapse. And this, say many in the UFO community, is why ET has not yet landed on the White House lawn.
Over the years, numerous alleged contactees have claimed that benevolent space folk have actually saved humanity from destruction on several occasions throughout history by quietly preventing potentially catastrophic natural disasters. Certainly there have been a great many instances when UFOs have been sighted over areas of geophysical significance – particularly active volcanoes.
It is fitting, then, that Star Trek Into Darkness explores these UFOlogical ideas in its opening scenes. The reason Kirk and McCoy (and also Commander Spock) are on the alien planet in the first place is to attempt to covertly prevent the eruption of a super volcano that would wipe-out the fledgling civilization. The starship Enterprise is hidden from the aliens’ view beneath hundreds of feet of water off the coastline as Kirk and McCoy attempt to blend in with the natives.
Things don’t go according to plan, however, as not only are the two astronauts rumbled, but their starship is witnessed by the awe-struck tribespeople in all its splendour rising majestically from the ocean. We know in that moment that their civilizational path has been dramatically altered as, soon after, they begin drawing and worshipping a crude pictogram of the Enterprise. Ancient Astronaut theory, anyone?
As if these UFOlogical allusions weren’t sufficient, the fictional alien planet of our discussion is actually called ‘Nibiru.’ As anyone familiar with the work of Zecharia Sitchin will know, Nibiru is a theoretical planet that passes by Earth every 3,600 years, allowing its inhabitants – the Annunaki – to interact with humanity. According to Sitchin, these beings were the first gods worshipped by Man.
These filmic nods to UFOlogy should come as little surprise when we consider that the screenwriters for Star Trek Into Darkness are Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof. Between them, these men have written and/or produced the likes of Transformers, Cowboys and Aliens, and Prometheus– all of which owe a heavy debt to UFO literature. Indeed, Orci, for one, has made no secret of his personal interest in the UFO subject. In July, 2011, the screenwriter was asked by The Wrap if he believed in aliens. He replied in the affirmative and added: “I think the evidence clearly indicates that the government's lying about what the hell’s going on.”
It’s unclear at this stage whether or not these same writers will be onboard for the next instalment of the Star Trek franchise, but, if they are, it’s a fair bet that their fascination with UFO lore will continue to serve as inspiration in their exploration of the Star Trek universe.
Check out the first full trailer for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Europa Report, which is described by Comingsoon.netas “a unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller [which] follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system.”
Developed in close collaboration with NASA, JPL, SpaceX and other leaders in the scientific community, Europa Report “imagines the next step in manned space exploration and is based on recent scientific discoveries and theories.”
The film is due for theatrical release on August 2, and will be available On Demand from June 27.
Directed by Sebastian Cordero, Europa Report stars Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo and Karolina Wydra. The film features music by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead).
Summit Entertainment has released the first trailer for Ender's Game, the hotly anticipated big screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s bestselling sci-fi novel...
The film – which stars Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, and Viola Davis – hits theaters and IMAX on November 1. It’s plot reads as follows:
“In the near future, a hostile alien race called the Formics have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer.
Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite. Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult challenges and simulations, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.”
Check out these three new pieces of concept art for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Europa Report, which is described by Comingsoon.net as “a unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller [which] follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system.”
Developed in close collaboration with NASA, JPL, SpaceX and other leaders in the scientific community, Europa Report “imagines the next step in manned space exploration and is based on recent scientific discoveries and theories.”
The film is due for theatrical release on August 2, and will be available On Demand from June 27.
Directed by Sebastian Cordero, Europa Report stars Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo and Karolina Wydra. The film features music by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead).
‘Men in Black 4’ planned
A fourth Men in Black movie is being planned, according to The Wrap. No plot details are forthcoming, and there’s no word yet on who will star, but the script is being penned by Oren Uziel, the writer behind the upcoming The Kitchen Sink, which Deadline.comdescribes as a “genre collision about the unlikely alliance between a high school-aged vampire, zombie and human as they try to save their town from invading aliens.”
‘Man of Steel’ backed by Department of Defense
Writing for AntiWar.com, Sean McElwee noted last week thatthe hotly anticipated Superman reboot, Man of Steel (which I discussed here recently in the context of UFOlogy/Exoploitics), has been backed by the US Department of Defense.
McElwee points out that, in exchange for the Pentagon’s right to edit the movie’s script and monitor its production, the superhero movie has been granted access to military facilities and hardware in order to cut its production costs. Most notably, Man of Steel will showcase the USAF’s $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (pictured), which is currently grounded due to flight difficulties. Reuters reported last year that the final cost of the F-35 program might be as much as $1.5 trillion dollars(!).
According to Wired, the Pentagon’s Hollywood Liaison, Phil Strub is remaining tight lipped as to whether or not the F-35 actually interacts with Superman in the new movie, but, notes Wired, “it gets the troubled aircraft program in the same sentence as the four-color symbol of truth, justice and the American way.”
Robot children to feature in Disney’s ‘Tomorrowland’, no sign yet of aliens
The Hollywood Reporterhas it that Raffey Cassidy (Snow White and the Huntsman, Dark Shadows) has joined the cast of Brad Bird's oh-so-mysterious Tomorrowland (working title 1952). The cast already includes George Clooney (as an inventor) and Hugh Laurie
According to THR: “Cassidy will play a robot child that has been around for many decades, has a history with Clooney's inventor character, and reportedly knows several different fighting styles.”
Tomorrowland has been written by Damon Lindelof (Prometheus) and Brad Bird. It is set for release on December 19, 2014. The jury’s still out on whether or not aliens might make an appearance.
“You were only supposed to blow the bloody spaceship doors off!”
Deadline.com reports that Michael Caine has signed on to join the cast of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sci-fi epic, Interstellar, which is based on the work of renowned theoretical physicist Kip Thorne (who will executive produce). Caine will star opposite Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain.
Interstellar is being described as “a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding.” It’s due for a November 7, 2014 release. UFO obsessive Steven Spielberg was originally linked to the project, so it’s hoped (by me, at least) that aliens might feature in the plot.
Michael Bay’s Turtles not as “alien” as feared
Speaking with Moviefone recently, Michael Bay made some clarifying statements on the nature of the ‘heroes-in-a-half-shell’ in his upcoming big screen production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
"There was that quote saying that we’re making [the Ninja Turtles as] aliens. We're not. It’s the ooze! It’s from the original source material. These are from the original writers, and I never went out to correct myself in the press. I do listen to the fans and I do want this to be authentic. I think they’re going to be really happy with this movie. When I see the digital stuff, the turtles look great."
Bay had riled TMNT fans back in March of last year by stating that his Turtles would be“from an alien race.”
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles features a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum, Andrew Nemec, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and John Fusco, and is based on the characters created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.
The film stars Megan Fox in the role of April O'Neil, Alan Ritchson as Raphael, Jeremy Howard as Donatello, Pete Ploszek as Leonardo, Noel Fisher as Michelangelo, Will Arnett in an unspecified role, and Danny Woodburn as Master Splinter. It is scheduled for release June 6, 2014.
Superman is, of course, an alien – his origin story has been presented at length in literary form, and the superhero’s small screen outings (Lois and Clark and Smallville) took time to explore his extraterrestrial heritage. However, no movie has attempted to distil the Superman narrative to its conceptual essence: first contact with extraterrestrials. No movie, that is, until Man of Steel – the upcoming Superman reboot from 300 director, Zack Snyder.
“He’s an alien,” the film’s writer David S. Goyer, told Empire magazine recently. “If the world found out he existed it would be the biggest thing to happen in human history.” When tackling the iconic character of Superman, then, it seemed only natural to Goyer that “if Superman really existed in this world, first of all this story would be a story about alien contact.”
General Zod prepares to invade in Man of Steel (2013)
The idea of extraterrestrial Disclosure being central to the new Superman story is also hinted at in the latest trailer for Man of Steel, which includes dialogue like “You’re the answer to ‘are we alone in the universe?’”, as well as references to humanity being unprepared for the revelation of Superman’s existence. Add to this flashes of the alien Kal-El himself in the custody of the US military and apocalyptic shots of what appear to be extraterrestrial spacecraft attacking American cities, and it’s clear that Superman’s latest incarnation owes at least a few strands of its DNA to UFOlogy and Exopolitics.
Indeed, as was pointed out recently by Red Pill Junkie (RPJ) over at the Daily Grail, a new viral video for Man of Steel calls to mind (perhaps intentionally) a bizarre UFOlogical happening from the 1970s.
The video shows Superman’s alien nemesis, General Zod —played by Michael Shannon— delivering a message to mankind... “You are not alone”:
RPJ writes:
“To any seasoned UFO buff, this should immediately [remind] you of the infamous Vrillon transmission, broadcast on the Hannington transmitter of Southern Television in the United Kingdom for six minutes at 5:10 PM on Saturday November 26, 1977. Vrillon claimed to be a representative of the Ashtar Command, and his message is consistent with the typical 'space-brotherly' tone of peace & a call to disarmament.”
Although many people have dismissed the Vrillon transmission as a hoax, the identinty of the alleged hoaxer has yet to be discovered. It is generally agreed that successfully hijacking the signal of a major TV station (ITV’s Southern Television) would have required considerable technical know-how.
It is notable that, while Superman traditionally has come to us wearing the bright cloak of fantasy, Snyder and Goyer’s vision of the Kal-El story is grounded much more firmly in our own reality. Speaking to Bleeding Cool recently, Man of Steel’s visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri said the film is a “re-envisioning of the story of Superman leaving his homeworld and coming to this new one,” and that Snyder had “abandoned a lot of the pretence that was in the comics.”
“They’re sticking to realism as much as possible,” says Letteri. “Fantastic elements are still there but a lot of it that been trimmed back to make it feel as though this actually happened.”
Just how far the ‘realistic’ Man of Steel takes its Disclosure theme remains to be seen. Keep an eye on its continuing viral marketing campaign and catch the Man of Steel himself when he lands in theaters on June 14.
