SFX

This picture was supposed to be on the actual set of the USS Callister, back in action once again for the new season of Black Mirror. Because, of course, I don’t have nearly enough photos of me inside spaceships or sitting in captain’s chairs. It happened, I was there, the obligatory mugshot was taken. But stupid old me didn’t heed the warnings of my groaning mobile that my iCloud was full and – I kid you not – literally the night before I planned to sit and transfer everything from my phone to an external drive, I got mugged and had my phone stolen. USS Callister photo gone forever! Lost media, like Pamela Nash had thrown it in a skip. So instead you have a not-quite-asauthentic version of the bridge…

DARREN SCOTT EDITOR RAVES Loving Daredevil: Born Again, one of the best things Marvel has done in years. The Monkey and Heart Eyes – haven’t had so much fun in the cinema for ages. The Disney+ trailer for Doctor Who looks very exciting. RANTS The Substance was robbed at The Oscars. IAN BERRIMAN DEPUTY EDITOR RAVES So much cool stuff in the Who trailer. I love the retro stylings of those robots. And Mr Ring-A-Ding’s piggy snout is giving me the ick. Though it was a bit overlong, I enjoyed Mickey 17. Tim Key stole the movie from Robert Pattinson, though. But the biggest reaction from my Bristol audience was when Points West presenter Sabet Choudhury turned up! Had a great chat with screenwriter Matthew Jacobs about the seriously underappreciated…

AS SMALL-SCREEN CONCEPTS GO, there are few juicier than “Kevin Bacon hunts demons”. That was the back-of-a-fag-packet idea put to writer/producer Erik Oleson in 2023, a job offer he simply couldn’t say no to. “It was very exciting to develop the tone of Appalachian noir mixed with horror,” he enthuses to Red Alert, “and to bring my stamp to it.” The idea had been brought to Prime Video by Bacon himself, alongside Blumhouse supremo Jason Blum who’d been sent the treatment by newcomer Grainger David. Realising they had the DNA of something special, Amazon turned to Oleson, a veteran of shows such as Daredevil, Carnival Row and The Man In The High Castle, to shape David’s concept into a potential series. The result, The Bondsman, stars Bacon as Hub Halloran,…

DUNE: AWAKENING STARTS WITH a question: what if Paul Atreides was never born? There would be no Lisan al Gaib to lead the Fremen people; no one to stop House Harkonnen. Would the planet Arrakis fall? Would the messianic Kwisatz Haderach still come? This is the alternative timeline in which Dune: Awakening, the upcoming massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, takes place. You play as an agent tasked by the Bene Gesserit to find the desert-dwelling Fremen, who have mysteriously disappeared. You must survive on Arrakis while House Atreides and House Harkonnen battle for control. It’s a bold choice to tell a new, divergent story in the Dune universe when Frank Herbert’s tale is so beloved. “We are huge fans of the original works, but as games are a very different…

No Prime To Die… EON Productions ceding creative control of James Bond to Amazon MGM Studios. Bong Joon Ho’s next is a horror thriller set in the Seoul subway. Will Smith developing sequel to 2008’s Hancock, with Zendaya up for a role. Joseph Kosinski to direct a UFO movie, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Steven Spielberg’s own UFO movie now going by the title Disclosure. Eden Lake’s James Watkins to direct DC’s Clayface. Jack O’Connell joining Godzilla x Kong 3. Remake of 1997’s Starship Troopers rumoured to be in development. Daniel Craig no longer in the frame for Luca Guadagnino’s Sgt Rock. Tatiana Maslany stars in Keeper, the next horror from Osgood Perkins. Magic: The Gathering set for the big-screen treatment from Legendary. Joe Wright directing AI thriller Alignment. New Hunger…

AFTER BRINGING BACK SOLOMON Kane in the pages of Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures’ The Savage Sword Of Conan anthology, writer/artist Patrick “Patch” Zircher is now spinning off Robert E Howard’s Puritan warrior into four-issue miniseries The Serpent Ring. It also leads into this year’s Conan crossover, called Scourge Of The Serpent. “I love the character and there are so many stories to tell,” says Zircher, who is attracted to his singular nature. “Several things intrigue me about Kane,” he continues. “Foremost that he’s a lone wanderer in the way a knight, a ronin, a western hero and many great mythical characters are. There’s an allure to that kind of freedom and independence. “I’m also interested in his faith and how the supernatural tests it, and I’m fascinated by his…