Half a page of scribbled lines: fan films

Showing posts with label fan films. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 February 2008

Star Trek: Phase II

Regular readers will know that I'm a bit of a Star Trek fan, and that includes the thriving "fan film" scene, headed by Starship Exeter, Star Trek - Of Gods And Men, and of course Star Trek - New Voyages.

I've got to admit that New Voyages is a personal favorite of mine, and in my opinion has been improving from episode to episode. I've long been of the opinion that New Voyages has moved beyond merely being a fan film, especially in the light of them shooting genuine Star Trek scripts, including those that would have been destined for Star Trek: Phase II had it ever been produced.

It looks like they are also of a similar mind, as they have just announced that they are changing their name to Star Trek: Phase II.

From the press release:

On Saturday, February 16th, Executive Producer James Cawley announced to fans during an appearance at the 2008 Farpoint Science Fiction Media Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, that Star Trek: New Voyages would shed the “New Voyages” moniker and become Star Trek: Phase II. Cawley assured fans that the change would be more than just the name, promising that the production will have access to new people, new materials, and a new direction, but will remain focused on his original vision for the show.

“Make no mistake about it, this is a new beginning for our production. This will be the next step in our effort to provide the quality show fans have come to expect, with commitment and dedication to keeping the original series look and feel that fans have come to enjoy,” said Cawley, “As before, we will strive to involve familiar faces from Star Trek’s 40-year legacy in our episodes, as well as actors from other classic SciFi shows when we can. You will see the changes taking place over the next few weeks, but you will really appreciate the changes when we release our future episodes.”

I'm certainly looking forward to the new eposides, and to seeing what changes are made. I do wonder if they are going to write out Spock to make way for his replacement Xon (see the Wikipedia entry for details).

The only issue I've had with New Voyages, or Phase II as it is now, is the ever-changing cast. Every episode seems to bring a change in the main cast. So far we have had two Scotties, two Uhuras and two Chekovs (three if you count Walter Koenig reprising his role) and the news is in that we are about to move to a second Spock, a second Sulu (not including George Takai's reprised role) and a third (!) Chekov.

I can understand why the cast changes happen - but it would be nice to have a more stable cast for a couple of episodes.

Head over to http://www.startreknewvoyages.com for the latest news and, of course, for the episode downloads.

Tuesday, 2 October 2007

The Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll Years

Those of us in the UK and "of an age" may remember the Sinclair Spectrum (Sinclair Timex for any Americans reading) with a certain amount of fondness.

One of the real benefits of owning a Spectrum was "Your Sinclair" magazine. Your Sinclair was probably the first "modern" computer magazine, with a less serious, more entertaining style. Whilst other magazines concentrated on type-in listings and hardware reviews, YS contained in-jokes and pop-culture references.

Your Sinclair ran from 1986 to 1993 and closed with the Big Final Issue. This isn't the end of the story though.

In 1997 Nick Humphries, inspired by the BBC documentary series "The Rock 'n' Roll Years", created a site dedicated to your Sinclair. Featuring news and reviews from each edition of the magazine it has grown into a comprehensive tribute to the magazine and even contains new material provided by Nick himself.

Not content to rest on his laurels Nick has taken on the task of producing a TV style documentary, chronicling the life of the Sinclair Spectrum.

The Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll Years - The Documentary copies the format of the original BBC documentary, mixing game footage, adverts and pop music for each of the years of the Spectrum's life. Currently 1982 to 1988 have been released, with 1989 in production.

The documentaries can be downloaded directly from Nick's site or viewed on YouTube.

Sunday, 16 September 2007

Payne and Redemption

Anyone remember Max Payne? In case you don't, it was a film noir shoot-em-up. Violent, bloody, darkly humorous and very cinematic. So cinematic in fact that it was no surprise when a movie of the game was announced. Unfortunately the movie has been stuck in development hell for the last couple of years.

To fill the gap, UK based amateur film maker Fergle Gibson has taken on the ambitious task of creating a Max Payne movie. Payne and Redemption is planned to be released in six parts, with the third part being released first.

The first trailer (above) has been around for a while now, but a new one has just been released on the Payne and Redemption website (currently only available via the sites forum).

The release date is "when it's ready", but looks likely to be sometime next year.