Another day, another Triffid

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Poster for the 1962 British production of The Day of the Triffids

Ghost House Pictures announced today that John Wyndam’s classic sci-fi horror novel The Day of the Triffids is headed for the big screen – again.

Wyndam’s 1951 angry vegetable novel was previously adapted for cinema in 1962 when a British production of the title placed the blame for Earth’s Triffid invasion not with the Red Menace (as in the paranoid source material), but with alien spores that arrived in a meteor shower. It seems highly likely that the new Triffids movie will also opt for an otherworldly explanation for people’s gardens gaining sentience.

The movie will be produced by Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures, The Mark Gordon Company, and Preger Entertainment, LLC. The script is being penned by Neil Cross – creator and writer of the acclaimed BBC TV show, Luther. Cross was also recently named one of Variety's ‘10 Screenwriters to Watch for 2012.’

There is no word yet on a likely release date for the movie, but it seems doubtful the Triffids will arrive any time before the end of 2013.

Lady Gaga to cameo in 'Men in Black 3'

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Lady Gaga is to make an appearance in the upcoming UFO movie 'threequel' Men in Black 3, according to the the star of the franchise, Will Smith...

Gaga's acting skills will not be stretched too far, however, as undoubtedly the songstress will be playing an alien. Incidentally, anyone wanting to learn more about Lady Gaga's apparent links to the conspiratorial, esoteric, and occult should head on over to The Vigilant Citizen, where you'll find a number of in-depth analyses of her highly symbolic music videos, public performances and fashion statements.

Men in Black 3 is due for release May 25. View the trailer here...

'Prometheus' goes viral with Weyland Corp video

Silver Screen Saucers

Ridley Scott’s hotly-anticipated Alien prequel Prometheus has just gone viral with a video promotion featuring Guy Pearce in the role of slightly crazed entrepreneur Peter Weyland.

The video (below) shows Weyland speaking at the 2023 TED Conference (an annual convention dedicated to human innovation currently being staged in Long Beach, California). A separate viral website for Weyland Industries has also launched.

Peter Weyland's official bio reads as follows:

Sir Peter Weyland was born in Mumbai, India at the turn of the Millennium. The progeny of two brilliant parents; His mother, an Oxford Educated Professor of Comparative Mythology, his father, a self-taught software Engineer, it was clear from an early age that Sir Peter's capabilities would only be eclipsed by his ambition to realize them. By the age of fourteen, he had already registered a dozen patents in a wide range of fields from biotech to robotics, but it would be his dynamic break-throughs in generating synthetic atmosphere above the polar ice cap that gained him worldwide recognition and spawned an empire.

In less than a decade, Weyland Corporation became a worldwide leader in emerging technologies and launched the first privatized industrial mission to leave the planet Earth. “There are other worlds than this one,” Sir Peter boldly declared, “And if there is no air to breathe, we will simply have to make it.”

Peter Weyland has been a magnet for controversy since he announced his intent to build the first convincingly humanoid robotic system by the end of the decade.

Whether challenging the ethical boundaries of medicine with nanotechnology or going toe to toe with the Vatican itself on the issue of gene-therapy sterilization, Sir Peter prides himself on his motto, “If we can, we must.” After a three year media blackout, Weyland has finally emerged to reveal where he’s heading next. Wherever that may be, we will most certainly want to follow.

Prometheus hits cinemas June 8.

'Alien' prequel features "new world, new ideas, new monsters"

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Director Ridley Scott has revealed more about Guy Pearce's role in Prometheus, the upcoming Ancient-Astronaut-inspired prequel to Scott’s own sci-fi classic, Alien.

Scott told Hungarian news outlet, Mozinezo:

"When the first Alien movie and Blade Runner were made, I thought that in the near future the world will be owned by large companies. This is why we have the Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner, and Weyland-Yutani in Alien. They sent the Nostromo spaceship.

The Prometheus is owned by an entrepreneur called Peter Weyland, and is played by Guy Pearce. That’s the connection between the two films, and nothing more. Prometheus is a new film, a new world, and is full of new ideas. And of course new monsters as well."*

But Scott is a big fat liar – his pants assuredly on fire – because the character of Peter Weyland is most certainly not the only connection between Alien and Prometheus, as was revealed recently by a tantalising image from the upcoming movie published in The Los Angeles Times.

Prometheus hits cinemas June 8, 2012. View the trailer here...

*English translation of Hungarian article courtesy of AlienPrequelNews.com.

New Volunteers and book.

We didn't have any major excitement this week.  Just the usual things like albatross chicks getting bigger and visitors taking photos of them.  We also swapped out volunteers last week.  Thanks Dan, Karen, Ann, and Nik!  RJ, Peter, Jennifer, and Laura Marie will be helping us out for the next few months. 

There's a new book out about Wisdom, our 60+ year old Laysan albatross.  It's a children's book written by Darci Pattison and illustrated by Kitty Harvill.  Kitty used some of my photos to make her illustrations.  http://albatross.darcypattison.com/  It's worth a look, especially if you know some youngsters who like wildlife.  You can download it for your kindle too.

                                                    

I'll also put in this link again http://www.midwayjourney.com/ for more updates from Chris Jordan's group. They got a lot of footage while they were here so they are still posting interesting videos. 

I don't have a lot of pictures this week since my camera quit working, so I've only got my little point and shoot.  I hope they can repair it relatively quickly.

 A small green sea turtle is looking for algae to eat on this broken old bucket.

This albatross chick doesn't seem to mind the red-tailed tropicbird sitting next to it.

One of these chicks wandered over from another nest.  I'm not sure if all 4 parents are feeding these chicks, but if only 2 parents are feeding both chicks, then neither will probably make it.

This is the view from the pier on Eastern Island looking to the East.

Silver Screen Saucers: 1 today and more to come

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Today, February 22, 2012, marks the first anniversary of Silver Screen Saucers.

I set up this blog twelve months ago as an easily accessible research archive. The idea was that it would assist me in my ongoing doctoral studies and encourage any visitors to the site to more thoughtfully consider the cultural and political interplay between Hollywood and the UFO phenomenon.

200 blog posts later (including 10 exclusive guest articles by some of the world’s leading UFO researchers) and Silver Screen Saucers has chalked up nearly 200,000 page views. Not a jaw-dropping figure, by any means, but not too bad for a little blog dealing with a niche topic.

On February 24, Hollywood producer, author and Silver Screen Saucers Consulting Editor, Bryce Zabel, will be speaking at the International UFO Congress in Arizona. During his talk, Bryce will be formally announcing our partnership for an exciting new project – or rather projects. I’ll be following up on Bryce’s announcement two days later in a February 26 radio interview for The Conspiracy Show with Richard Syrett.

Throughout the development of these new projects, the Silver Screen Saucers blog is set to continue, and hopefully my regular blog maintenance duties will not be impeded by my newly increased workload. In any event, Silver Screen Saucers will continue to provide visitors with important news updates, incisive commentary, and detailed articles on Hollywood’s UFO movies through 2012 and beyond.

A big thank you to all those who continue to visit the site.

Back to Midway

I'm back on Midway after 2 weeks off island.  I was at the Pacific Seabird Group meeting on Oahu where I gave a talk on the Short-tailed albatrosses on Midway.  I met a lot of people that I had been emailing for years.  I also took a couple of days to go over to the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge on Kauai to give them a hand.  They sometimes have problems with botulism in Hawaiian ducks, coots, moorhens, and stilts, so I was showing them how we deal with botulism on our refuge.

Chris & Victoria Jordan, Jan, Joe, and Jim left on the flight that I came in on.  It would have been nice to be here with them since I learn a lot from just watching them film their movie.  Don't forget to look at their updates on their page:  http://www.midwayjourney.com/ 

The Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge on Kauai has active taro farms, which makes for good habitat for waterbirds.

There are 3 endangered species in this photo.  There is a Hawaiian stilt, Hawaiian Coot (white face), and some Hawaiian Moorhens.  The Common mynas and Black-crowned night heron aren't endangered.

Here is a better picture of a Hawaiian stilt foraging in the taro.

Here is a better shot of some Hawaiian moorhens in a ditch.

The Hawaiian geese (Nene) are also endangered.  I didn't get any good photos of the endangered Hawaiian ducks.

Although Kauai has a pretty good breeding population of Laysan albatross at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, I didn't have time to get over to see them.  These 3 chicks were in my backyard.  The parents have started leaving them alone, but there still are a few still hatching.

UFO movie news round-up (19 Feb. 2012)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Altered Carbon

Mythology Entertainment has acquired feature rights to Richard Morgan's sci-fi novel Altered Carbon, according to Variety.

Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar) will adapt the novel in collaboration with David Goodman (The Event). The book is described as follows:

“Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.

But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldnt be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society.”

Darkover 

The planet Darkover and its moons

ComingSoon.net reports that producers Ilene Kahn Power and Elizabeth Stanley have secured the rights to Marion Zimmer Bradley's acclaimed Darkover novels and are currently developing a “multi-platform television series” around the saga.

According to Stanley, "Bradley's Darkover novels and short stories chronicle the development of a remarkable civilization – technology poor but rich in its ability to harness the psi powers of the human brain (such as telepathy and telekinesis)."

In the novels, Darkover is the only habitable of seven planets orbiting a fictional red giant star called Cottman. When humans arrive on the ancient planet they find it is already home to a variety of sentient life forms. Among these are the Chieri – a race of tall, six-fingered, long-haired, telepathic beings with life-spans of tens of thousands of years.

Transformers 4 

Transformers producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura has told MTV that Paramount has secured Michael Bay to direct at least one more film for the franchise.

Di Bonaventura also revealed that the new film is to be a reboot, following a completely new set of human characters – an assertion seemingly supported by Transformers star Josh Duhamel, who told E! Online, "I don't think anybody's doing it. I know Shia [LaBoeuf]'s not doing it. I don't think Tyrese or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it,” adding, “I haven't heard anything about it. They haven't called me." 

Transformers 4 is set for release on June 27, 2014.

Oblivion

The graphic novel Oblivion is being adapted for the big screen

Deadline reports that Morgan Freeman has joined cast of Oblivion (which until now has gone by the title of Horizons). He'll be joining Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko in the Universal pictures release.

Based on the graphic novel of the same name, Oblivion is about “a man [Cruise] who lives in the clouds above Earth and heads to its surface to repair drones that essentially keep the planet safe from an alien race that has all but wiped out humanity.”

Michael Arndt is currently rewriting a script by William Monahan and Karl Gajdusek. The movie is scheduled for a July 19, 2013 release. 

John Carter sequel

Though it has not even been released yet, Disney's $300 million Mars-based adventure John Carter may already be spawning a sequel. Speaking with ComingSoon.net, John Carter producer Jim Morris, revealed that the movie’s director Andrew Stanton and his co-writer Michael Chabon are already in discussions to plan and write a sequel, which would tentatively be called John Carter: The Gods of Mars, based on the second of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series of novels.

Whether or not Disney will green-light the sequel, though, is entirely dependent on the success of the first movie, which hits cinemas March 9.

On the subject of John Carter, here’s a new video promo for the movie, followed by new clip...

The Europa Report

The marketing campaign for upcoming sci-fi movie The Europa Report – in which astronauts seek out life on Jupiter’s frigid moon of Europa – has gone viral.  

Check out the website for faux aerospace corporation Europa Ventures, where you’ll find a ‘live’ video feed showing astronauts onboard the spacecraft Europa 1. The site’s intro text reads:

“For decades, scientists have theorized the existence of liquid water oceans on Jupiter's moon, Europa. We've recently discovered new, captivating evidence that these sub-surface oceans do exist and could support life.

We've sent six astronauts from space programs throughout the world on a three year journey to Europa to explore its oceans and confirm these findings.

We're proud to be at the forefront of the effort to prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life within our solar system, within our lifetimes.”

‘Battleship’ movie: “Real Heroes,” reel propaganda

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

A new behind-the-scenes featurette for the upcoming alien invasion movie Battleship has just surfaced online. Titled “Real Heroes,” the three minute video is not so much a promo for the movie as it is a shameless recruitment ad for the US Navy, which, in lending its full support to the production, has been granted contractual power to significantly influence the content of this two-hundred-million dollar bucket of popcorn and how it is sold to the masses.

 “I have a good relationship with the Department of Defense and they know that I love soldiers and I respect the warrior spirit of any soldier, anywhere in the world,” says director Peter Berg. “As a result, they’ve opened up their doors to us in fairly unprecedented ways.”

The last time the DoD opened its doors to Hollywood in “unprecedented ways” was for the production of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The end result was both UFOlogically fascinating and – unsurprisingly for a Hollywood-DoD collaboration – nauseatingly propagandist.

 “It’s been a long time since the world has seen what we do over here in America with our military and just how strong we are,” Berg enthuses in the propaganda short featurette.

Thank goodness, then, that Berg has stepped up to the plate with Battleship. For what better way to project American power than to kick some extraterrestrial heinie while flying the stars and stripes (and believe me, they’ll be flying) on the international stage?

Battleship docks at cinemas this May.

Related:

'Battleship': Silver Screen Saucers review

Transformers 3: Silver Screen Saucers review

'Battle Los Angeles' bombs with critics

Hollywood propaganda post-9/11

A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television

Life on Europa in new sci-fi movie

Silver Screen Saucers

The first image from the upcoming sci-fi movie The Europa Report has been posted online by ComingSoon.net, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. It shows South African actor Sharlto Copley (The A-Team, District 9) as an astronaut orbiting Jupiter...

The Europa Report, which co-stars Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo and Karolina Wydra is due for release later this year. According to ComingSoon.net, the movie is about “a group of astronauts [who] make the arduous journey to Jupiter's frigid, glacial moon Europa in search of extraterrestrial life. The only thing more intimidating and unpredictable than the trip itself is what the team will encounter upon arrival...”

Aliens in 'The Avengers' revealed?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

In the March 2012 British print edition of Empire magazine The Avengers producer Kevin Feige swats down longstanding rumours that the movie’s yet-to-be-revealed bad guys are the Skrulls – a green, knobbly-chinned race of alien shapeshifters.

“It’s not Skrulls,” Feige tells Empire, “I’ve been clear about that. Beyond that, we want to hide it. The identity of the alien race is not impactful. It exists in the comic books, but we’re not setting-up the Kree-Skrull war or anything like that.”

The Kree are a blue-skinned, humanoid race of aliens who for eons have been at war with the Skrulls and who have tangled with The Avengers in Marvel’s past – “so it could be them,” Empire speculates.

Empire’s guess work doesn’t end there, however: “It could also be the Shi'ar, a race commonly associated with The X-Men, but rights issues might make that difficult. And then there’s the bigger question: is Loki [Thor’s brother] the only major villain in the movie?” The mag then considers whether the “galactic powerhouse” Thanos might also make an appearance.

Despite Kevin Feige’s denial, it now appears that the Skrulls may indeed feature in The Avengers. While at Toy Fair 2012 this week, MTV Geek photographed the soon-to-be-released Avengers board game, which is based on the movie, revealing play figures it notes are “the spitting image of the shape-shifting Skrulls!”

Whether they be Skrulls, Kree or Shi’ar, aliens will most definitely be menacing the Earth in The Avengers – this much is clear from the latest trailer for the movie. We’ll know for sure this April when The Avengers finally hits the big screen.

UFO movie news round-up (9 Feb. 2012)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Aliens and apocalypse at the Super Bowl

Last weekend’s Super Bowl played out against a backdrop of aliens and apocalypse with TV spots and trailers for Hollywood movies and even car commercials tapping into the ET/2012 vibe. With 111.3 million US viewers, it was the most-watched broadcast in the history of United States television.

Here’s what viewers were bashed over the head with during their commercial breaks... 

New Battleship trailer...

The Avengers - new trailer...

Transformers: The Ride - 3-D...

Chevy Volt alien commercial...

Chevy Volt 2012 commercial...

New John Carter trailer...

More John Carter

On the subject of John Carter, even more new footage from the movie was featured recently in a Disney Channel featurette, and yet more new John Carter stills have also been released...

Prometheus

A new image from Ridley Scott's upcoming Alien prequel Prometheus...

Vampires and zombies vs. aliens

Finally, Sony Pictures has hired Robbie Pickering to direct Oren Uziel’s The Kitchen Sink, which Deadline.com describes 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.” More information about this movie will be posted here at Silver Screen Saucers as it becomes available.

'Iron Sky': new trailer and poster

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Behold! The new poster and trailer for Iron Sky...

A Finnish-German-Australian co-production, filmed mainly in English, with a budget of about 7.5 million euros, Iron Sky is described by its producers as "a dark science fiction comedy."

Here's the official synopsis:

“In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During 70 years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers.

When American astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) puts down his Lunar Lander a bit too close to the secret Nazi base, the Moon Führer (Udo Kier) decides the glorious moment of retaking the Earth has arrived sooner than expected. Washington claims the mission is just a publicity stunt for the President of the United States (Stephanie Paul), but what else could the man be but a scout for the imminent attack by Earth forces? The Fourth Reich must act!

Two Nazi officers, ruthless Klaus Adler (Götz Otto) and idealistic Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), travel to Earth to prepare the invasion. In the end when the Moon Nazi UFO armada darkens the skies, ready to strike at the unprepared Earth, every man, woman and nation alike, must re-evaluate their priorities.”

Directed by Timo Vuorensola, Iron Sky is produced by Blind Spot Pictures and Energia Productions in Finland, and co-produced by 27 Films in Germany and New Holland Pictures in Australia.

Iron Sky premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and opens in Finnish and German theatres in April 2012. Release in other countries will follow soon after.

The theatrical release of Iron Sky will represent a major step forward for the fledgling 'participatory cinema' movement, which seeks to develop, produce and distribute movies in collaboration with an international online community of film enthusiasts. Other UFO/ET and esoteric participatory movies currently in the works include Apollo Minus Project and Light Masters, the trailers for which you can view right here...

Oahu

I'm in Honolulu for 2 weeks, but I have enough for a blog entry this week.  On Midway, the albatross chicks are hatching and it looks like over half of them are out already.  I also didn't tell you about one of the monk seals on Midway.  A couple of National Marine Fisheries Service monk seal workers came out to catch one of the seals that was attacking young seals.  Here's an article about it.

http://www.kitv.com/r/30376242/detail.html

I didn't help out on the capture of this seal since I was out in the boat doing the medevac that I wrote about last week.  But I did help move the cage when the C-130 came to pick it up.  The cage weighed over 200 pounds, plus the seal at about 450 lbs., so it took about 8 people to lift it. 

Chris Jordan came back out with his crew this week.  I'd like to be around for their visit, but I'll be at the Pacific Seabird Group Meeting.  You can check up on Chris' film project at:  http://www.midwayjourney.com/

They've got some really good video and writeups on there, as ususal.

Honolulu is also the same as usual.  Warm, mostly sunny, and a lot of traffic.  And by the way, the last half of the photos aren't Midway.

A few hours before I left on the plane, a Short-tailed albatross showed up in the Midway House yard.  I put some decoys near it, but it didn't seem to care and it left a bit later.  They've been coming to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a lot this year.  There have been 3 on Kure, 5 at Midway (not counting the chick), 1 on Laysan Island, and 1 on Tern Island. 

 This little chick is asking for some food.

The chick is getting its squid oil.

 This Laysan albatross isn't quite sure what to think about this Bonin petrel.  They are not out in the daytime very often, and this one went down its hole pretty quickly.

 I went on a hike with the other people staying in the bunkhouse on the Kuliouou Ridge Trail.  It was a nice one.  (Not a Midway pic)

 I don't know these people, but it was a nice view of the trail.

 Here's a view of Diamondhead from the back.  You can see a plane coming in for a landing at the airport.

 This is a view of Hawaii Kai.  This is a Red-vented bulbul.  It looks nice, but is invasive.

 Leanne is coming down a steep part of the trail.

 This is looking toward Waimanalo Beach.

Here's another non-native bird.  This is a White rump sharma.  They are also fairly common, but not native to Hawaii.