Syfy’s upcoming Day of the Dead series is described as “the ultimate love letter to the godfather of zombies, George A. Romero,” but it’s not really clear where the love is in this trailer. A mix of jokes that don’t quite land and generic zombie gore, the two-minute peek at the 10-episode series is less than inspiring.
Molly Templeton
The Wheel of Time Will Premiere on Amazon in November
Amazon Studios
We’re one step closer to an actual release date: At today’s [email protected] panel, Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins revealed the series will debut in November. So mark your whole November calendar, I guess? Just write WHEEL OF TIME over the whole thing.
Amazon also released a first poster for the series, showing Moraine (Rosamund Pike) standing in a Waygate.
Getting Pooped Out By An Alien Is Just Part of the Job in Star Trek: Lower Decks’ New Trailer
The Star Trek treats keep coming from San Diego [email protected] This year’s Star Trek Universe presentations focused on the animated shows, so it’s no surprise that a new trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks followed on the heels of our first look at Star Trek: Prodigy. And this one’s more than a minute long!
Here’s Your First Glimpse at Star Trek: Prodigy
A year ago at San Diego [email protected], we learned the name of the first Star Trek series aimed at a young audience: Star Trek: Prodigy. And now SDCC provides again with a one-minute teaser for the show—along with a release season, if not a date. It’s coming this fall!
Shimmering, Street-Level Magic: Michelle Ruiz Keil’s Summer in the City of Roses
Every so often, a friend and I wish for more books in a category I sometimes call “’90s coffeeshop fantasy.” There are too few books in this category. “Something like Charles de Lint, but not” my friend will say. “Like Girl, but with magic,” I’ll suggest. “More books kind of like Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin,” we agree. But it’s a space that’s hard to pin down and define—elusive, magical, but like real life, too.
And then I read Michelle Ruiz Keil’s Summer in the City of Roses, which is all of this and so much more. Lush, empathetic, strident, puckish, infused with a street-level punk-rock magic, it’s the kind of fairy tale my teen self didn’t even know a person could dream of. Much of its magic hums along like a current beneath the book’s skin, bursting out in full bloom for a transformative finale. But it’s there all along, if you’re looking—and this is the kind of book you want to give your full attention to.
Diane Ademu-John Is Dune: The Sisterhood’s New Showrunner
Screenshot: Warner Bros.
The behind-the-scenes saga of HBO Max’s Dune: The Sisterhood continues. Variety reports that Diane Ademu-John has come on board as the series’ showrunner, stepping into the position left empty when Jon Spaihts left the production in order to focus on writing the screenplay for the not-yet-greenlit second Dune movie.
There’s No Wrong Way to Read a Book
"Reading Boy" by Eastman Johnson, 1863
It’s like clockwork, if you have a very repetitive and broken clock: Every so often, on one social platform or another, an argument kicks up about what counts as reading a book. A long time ago, people would occasionally argue about whether ebooks were real books—a line of fruitless discourse that seems almost funny now. (Somewhere, someone is probably still arguing about this. Let’s ignore them.)
The one that keeps coming around, a broken clock with a discordant chime, is audiobooks. There’s a semantics argument buried in here about reading vs. listening, but that’s picking a disinteresting nit. Audiobooks count as reading. Listening to an audiobook is no better or worse than reading a book on paper or a screen. You’ve still experienced the same story, just in a different format.
Michaela Coel Joins Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The cast of the Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, just got exponentially cooler. Variety reports that Michaela Coel—the creator and star of Chewing Gum and the Emmy-nominated I May Destroy You—has joined the movie’s already-excellent ensemble cast. There’s not the tiniest whisper of a hint about who she will play.
Announcing the Winners of the 2020 Kitschies!
The 2020 Kitschies, the British, tentacle-themed awards recognizing “the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining fiction containing elements of the speculative and fantastic,” were announced today in a virtual ceremony. The award directors also announced a new category will be added next year: The Golden Key for Unpublished Manuscripts.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys Is Headed to Amazon Prime
Last month, Neil Gaiman announced that a Good Omens sequel series is in the works with Amazon. He’s been hinting that he’s working on two TV shows, and this morning revealed the second: Anansi Boys is also coming to Prime as a six-episode limited series co-written by Gaiman and Lenny Henry. Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon (Good Omens) will be co-showrunners, and Hanelle M. Culpepper (Picard) will direct the pilot.
If your reaction to this news is somewhat trepidatious, you probably remember what happened with the last version of Mr. Nancy.
Everything We Know So Far About Season Two of The Wheel of Time
This week, filming began on the second season of Amazon’s The Wheel of Time—before we even have a release date or trailer for the first season. (At least there hopefully won’t be a long wait between seasons?) Various hints and suggestions about season two have been dropping since November 2019, when showrunner Rafe Judkins posted a photo of the second-season writers’ room. So what all do we know so far?
Marvel Taps Bassam Tariq to Direct Blade
It takes time to bring vampires into a superhero universe. For two years, we’ve known that Mahershala Ali will—eventually—play Blade, Marvel’s hybrid vampire hunter, but details about the film have been sparse. Following on February’s announcement that Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen) is writing the script, a director is now in talks to helm the film: Bassam Tariq, who directed the Riz Ahmed movie Mogul Mowgli.
This is very in keeping with Marvel’s directorial trend: Find a promising up-and-comer and launch them into the stratosphere. Remember when Taika Waititi made quirky indie films set in New Zealand? Feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?
Storm Shadow Claims His Name in the Final Trailer for Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins comes out this week, but Paramount has squeezed in one last trailer for the ninja origin story. It doesn’t offer a ton of new footage, but does lean a little more on the traumatic backstory of Snake Eyes (Henry Golding), and reminds us who Andrew Koji is actually playing: “Call me Storm Shadow,” he intones, very seriously.
Netflix’s Brand New Cherry Flavor Promises Kitten Snuggling, Revenge, Weirdness
Vampires? Kittens? Catherine Keener! You have my attention. The teaser for Netflix’s Brand New Cherry Flavor is just over a minute of trippy art, ravenous felines, and promises of revenge. Does it make a lot of sense? Not really. Does it need to? Probably also not really.
Antonio Banderas Joins Indiana Jones 5
Screenshot: Lionsgate
The cast of the mysterious next and final Indiana Jones film keeps growing, and the latest actor to sign on is Antonio Banderas. Naturally, no one knows anything about the character he’s playing or how big of a role he’ll have.