(Apologies. The Blade Runner review is coming.)

Food poisoning while working on Pirahna II: The Spawning gave James Cameron a nightmare that led to one of movie-dom’s iconic images. The nightmare consisted of a robot assassin sent from the future to kill him. When he recovered, Cameron wrote a screenplay based on the images, The Terminator.

The Terminator was a low budget science-fiction/horror film released in 1984. While Cameron had written scripts before, he also wanted make his feasture film directorial debut with The Terminator. Studios were hesitant to let an inexperienced director make a movie. Pacific Western, started by Gale Anne Hurd who had worked with Cameron when they both worked for Roger Corman, purchased the script with the proviso that Cameron directed. The making of The Terminator is a great example of networking in action; not only did Cameron get a good deal through Hurd, through their work with Roger Corman, Cameron and Hurd knew people at Orion Pictures, who eventually distributed the film. Helmdale Pictures only picked up the script after Lance Henriksen, a friend of Cameron’s, showed up as a Terminator. Arnold Schwarzenegger got involved because one of Orion’s co-founders had sent him the script; Arnold was being considered as Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor’s protector, but discussion between Arnold and Cameron led to Schwarzenegger being the Terminator. For special effects, Cameron wanted Dick Smith, who had done the effects for Taxi Driver. Smith turned down the offer, but suggested Stan Winston, benefitting all involved.

The plot of The Terminator has a killer robot sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, the mother John Connor, who will be* the leader of the resistance against Skynet, an AI that will launch a nuclear in the future to destroy humanity. John, though, sends back Kyle Reese to protect Sarah. The Terminator starts looking for Sarah and takes the direct route, killing every Sarah Connor in LA. By the time the Terminator finds the right Sarah, Reese has, too, and he has a photo of her, one given to him by John. During the chase, Reese reveals that he’s been in love with the woman in the photograph and, during a rest stop, the two have sex. The Terminator catches up during the rest; the chase continues into a factory. Reese is killed, but Sarah gets the killing blow in with a hydraulic press. As the movie ends, we see Sarah, pregnant with John.**

Terminator 2: Judgment Day introduces an teenaged John Connor living with foster parents while Sarah is locked away in a psychiatric hospital. No one believes her when she rambles about preparing for the rise of Skynet. However, Sarah turns out to be like the mythical Cassandra when a new (to audiences, at least) model of Terminator arrives to kill John and Sarah. This time, John sends back a reprogrammed Terminator to help his younger self and his mother. However, Sarah realizes that she has a chance to delay if not outright prevent the creation of Skynet.

In 2009, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles began airing on Fox. The series was a spin-off from the movies, showing more on how Sarah and John prepared for Judgment Day. Skynet didn’t back down, either; the AI network sent a new model of Terminator, a T-888 known as Cromartie. The John Connor in the future also kept an eye on things and his memory, and sent back a reprogrammed Terminator to act as his younger self’s bodyguard. In the TV series, Linda Hamilton’s Sarah was taken over by Lena Headey (currently playing Cersei Lannister), Thomas Dekker replaced Edward Furlong as John Connor, Garret Dillahunt as the Terminator Cromartie, and Summer Glau as Cameron, the reprogrammed Terminator. The series allowed writers to explore the setting in greater detail, including how Skynet formed, what the Resistance is doing, and what Skynet is doing outside of finding John Connor. The series lasted two seasons, including the short first season. It had one problem; it was a science fiction series on Fox***.

As a spin-off, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles took elements from the movies and expanded them, giving viewers a new look at the events both in the movies and leading up to Judgment Day. The characters either continued to develop as last seen in the movies (John, Sarah, Skynet) or took on elements seen previously and built on them (Cameron, Cromartie). Actions in the series didn’t disrupt or nullify what happened in the movies**** unless the writers deliberately set out to do so. Even then, a character would comment on what happened, acknowledging the change. Having writers who understood the feel of the original (science fiction/horror) and second (science fiction/action) movies and able to combine both into an ongoing series. With Headey maintaining the survivalist mom character created by Hamilton, Sarah Connor was as believable as she was in the previous movies, going from carefree waitress to Cassandra to Resistance creator.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles worked well, adapting the elements from previous works and integrating them into a longer narrative. As a spin-off, the series expanded the Terminator universe, giving it more breadth and depth.

Next week, Blade Runner. I hope.
* Time travel weirds verb tenses. Very few languages have the past-future tense where something will have happened tomorrow.
** Time travel also weirds family trees. Skynet is also the instrument that creates the resistence. Computers are just as bad at working out time travel as humans.
*** Fox has a reputation for not supporting its science fiction series.
**** Given that the series is trying to disrupt a segment of time that did exist but is in flux because, as a wise Muppet said, “always in motion the future is”, continuity could become wibbly-wobbly. Time travel weirds continuity, too.

(Apologies. The Blade Runner review is coming.)

One item I haven’t touched in Lost in Translation is the nature of spin-off series and movies. The only media tie-in I’ve reviewed was a Nikki Heat novel by Richard Castle, and that was only because the idea of a physical novel by a television character in a series where the character is researching a novel* was a Moebius strip of meta-layers. At the beginning of the review, I mentioned that I treated tie-in novels as merchandising instead of adaptations. That still left spin-offs, projects that take a character from one work and build a new work around that character. Spin-offs are seen mainly with television; a popular character on one series is given a chance to carry his or her own. Successful spin-offs include Frasier (based on the character in Cheers), Rhoda (based on a character from The Mary Tyler Moore Show), and Torchwood (from Doctor Who). Not all spin-offs work, though; sometimes, the Powers That Be overestimate how popular a character is without understanding why he or she is popular. Examples include Enos (from The Dukes of Hazzard), The Tortellis (from Cheers), and Galactica 1980 (from the original Battlestar Galactica).

What makes a spin-off different from a remake, a reboot, or an adaptation? Scope; spin-offs expand the original work, showing more of the setting or allowing a character to develop in a different way. Remakes keep the same scope as the original work; reboots reset the original; adaptations transfer the original to a new medium. Spin-offs keep the original work intact, using it as a base to build from. The definitions get complicated, though. Stargate SG-1 had spin-offs – Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe. At the same time, SG-1 was based on the movie Stargate. Does that make SG-1 a spin-off, a reboot, a continuation, an adaptation, or a combination of all four?

The spin-off is another derived form in entertainment. Many popular series began as a spin-off of another, often without people realizing. The BBC series Comedy Playhouse has had a number of spin-offs, some of which were adapted as other series that then spun off other series. Just a sample of the series below:
– Are You Being Served?
– Steptoe and Son, which was later adapted as
– Sanford and Son in the US
– Till Death Us Do Part, which was later adapted as
– All in the Family, which spun off
– The Jeffersons, and
– Maude, which in turn spun off
– Good Times.
This is ignoring spin-offs that didn’t last or make as large an impact as the above did. If I were to review, say, Maude, what would I compare it to, All in the Family, Till Death Us Do Part, or Comedy Playhouse?

Ultimately, that is the question. What do I consider the original work for a spin-off, especially in cases like Comedy Playhouse? With shows that have an easy to follow lineage, like The Super Dave Osbourne Show (spun off from the Super Dave sketches on Bizarre), it’s easy; there’s just one source to consider. Now consider Caprica, spun off from the rebooted Battlestar Galactica as a prequel showing just when the Colonies were doomed.** Should I compare Caprica with the original Galactica or the reboot? And, given the Comedy Playhouse geneology above, if I review Good Times, where do I start?

Obviously, I can’t ignore spin-offs. The Stargate franchise deserves a look at some point, and I do have plans to review Ma & Pa Kettle, a spin-off of an adaptation. Spin-offs are as much a factor as adaptations. I just need to figure out how to properly review them.

Next week, hopefully, Blade Runner.
* With the fictional character writing himself into the novel under a different name.
** Pro tip: Never base an artificial intelligence for a war machine on your deceased teenaged daughter when your family makes the Lannisters stop and say, “Dude, that’s messed up.”

Obsidian Entertainment is hiring.
Obsidian Entertainment is looking for artists, programmers, designers, producers, testers, and interns to seniors.
(Via @ChrisAvellone on Twitter)

How a computer program discovered the author of A Cuckoo’s Calling,
Robert Galbraith was recently outed as the nom de plume of JK Rowling. Patrick Juola describes how his program determined Rowling was, indeed, the author through stylometry.

Ben Affleck: Batman.
Twitter got burning at the news. Reaction is, well, negative is a good, descriptive word. Affleck will play the Dark Knight in a sequel to Man of Steel, expected release date is 2015.

Steve Ballmer retirement date set.
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer will retire in the next year. This adds a new complexity as Microsoft adjusts from a lukewarm welcome for Windows 8 and the shrinking of the PC market.

Artists, musicians have delayed cognitive reduction.
Along with being creative, artists and musicians can continue to create even with vascular degeneration. Neurologists in Toronto determined that artists and musicians are better protected against diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Bilingual patients showed similar results.

Board game cafés opening up across nation.
No wi-fi here. Snakes and Lattes in Toronto was the first, but more board game cafés are opening across Canada, including Monopolatte in Ottawa and Krowns in Calgary.

DC Comics launching Justice League Canada.
Canadian writer Jeff Lemire slated to helm the series. The title is due out in 2014, with the team roster still unrevealed.

Bureaucracy becomes a nail-biting video game.
Processing as an immigration border officer adds in complex situations and requires the player to make difficult decisions. Not the usual approach to a video game, but compelling.

Toronto Fan Expo becoming cosplay highlight.
Half of Fan Expo’s attendance will be in costume. Last year’s attendance reached 91 000. That’s a lot of costumes and hours to create them.

Project for Gamercamp turns video game heroines into fashion statements.
The Double Flawless project brings together video games and fashion as five iconic heroines – Princess Zelda, Commander Shepard, Lara Croft, Chun-Li, and Mileena – get makeovers. See the initial designs here.

Adjuncts falling behind in salary and opportunities, an infographic.
Budget squeezes on colleges and universities are being made up on adjunct lecturers to the point where they need food stamps to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, tuition fees keep going up.
Colleges and universities are making up cutbacks by increasing tuition, which has grown 5.5 times as much since 1985. So the adjunct above has paid far more for tuition than the tenured profs and still needs to pay back student loans while earning a lower salary.

So how is morale?
The Alberta Conservative government surprised colleges and universities by reneging on a campaign promise to increase education funding by 2% and going the other direction with a 7% cut to post-secondary education. The University of Alberta’ Faculty of Science responded by cutting available spots for new students by 300 while the Faculty of Arts is closing 20 arts programs. Earlier today, the UofA’s president announced another 7% cut to academic programs. How’s morale? Poor. (See also, adjuncts falling behind in salary and benefits, above.)

Cracked looks at movies being remade.
The article is a month old, but the list has Point Break, Day of the Dead, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and two separate Jungle Book adaptations. Point Break will remove the surfing element, replacing it with extreme sport, thus making the title an artifact. League is being developed as a TV series, which may fit the original comic better. Yes, that will make League a remake of an adaptation.

Another adaptation coming: The Exorcist.
The Exorcist, originally a book but adapted as a movie where it is better known, may be returning as a TV series. The idea is still being shopped around, but networks and cable stations are at least intrigued.

Five hundred new fairytales discovered.
Disney now has even more stories to animate. The tales were found in a German archive. Franz von Schönwerth collected the tales in Bavaria around the same time the Brothers Grimm were. One of the formerly lost tales, “The Turnip Princess” is now online at the Guardian’s site.

Steven Spielberg negotiating rights for The Grapes of Wrath.
The Steinbeck novel turns 75 next year and many producers and directors are trying to get the rights to film it. The book was adapted once before, by John Ford in 1939.

The Hollywood Meltdown continues. Spike Lee talks with John Berman on CNN on why originals aren’t being made and the future of movie making.
The big issue is that Hollywood studios now need the international market to turn a profit on big budget blockbusters. In China, audiences don’t go out to original movies but will flock to characters they already know. Thus, major comic book movies (except R.I.P.D.) and sequels do better there than unknown characters. Lee is also turning to Kickstarter to fund his next movie, seeing crowdsourcing as not that much different as raising money for his first joints, except he doesn’t have to lick as many stamps this time.

The question the studios have to consider is, “Is this movie worth the money being spent on it?” If The Hangover III cost US$103 million while The Phantom Menance cost US$115 million, there’s something wrong. (For comparison, the first Hangover only cost US$35 million to make and performed better in theatres compared to the third movie in the trilogy.)

Spielberg, who has noted the oncoming implosion, is predicting that it may cost more to see movies like Iron Man than to see Lincoln after the meltdown, with filmmakers Lee and George Lucas agreeing.
Next week, Blade Runner

After wrapping up the Avengers Adaptation series last week, I started wondering what was in store for adaptations of comic books. If you’ve followed along here at MuseHack, you’ll have noted the posts about the movie meltdown coming. From Spielberg to Cracked.com, the current bubble is predicted to pop, possibly as early as 2015. Meanwhile, Marvel Studios and Warner Brothers have a number of big screen adaptations in planning. Add in companies like Dark Horse Comics, and the comic book movie looks to be a mainstay until the pop.

First, Marvel Studios has a number of sequels related to The Avengers, including Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Outside the Avenger titles, Marvel’s taking a risk with Guardians of the Galaxy, based on an older title of space-faring heroes. Another risk, though linking back to The Avengers, is the Ant-Man movie. Marvel did succeed with the movies leading to The Avengers despite the characters being lesser known. What may help is Marvel Studios using existing storylines from the comics. That still leaves the question on whether audiences are willing to give the non-sequel movies a shot. Summer of 2013 has audiences not turning out for the big-budget blockbusters as they had in the past.

Marvel Studios isn’t the only studio adapting Marvel titles. Fox has the rights to the X-Men and related titles and characters and have released The Wolverine and is working on X-Men: Days of Future Past combining the original X-trilogy with X-Men: First Class. Sony has the rights to Spider-Man and has rebooted the series.

Over at Warner, owner of Marvel’s Distinguished Competition, the success rate of movies depends on whether it centres around Batman. Man of Steel underperformed at the box office. The Green Lantern fizzled. Catwoman bombed. The Dark Knight trilogy did do well, though. The advantage Warner has is that it holds all the rights to the DC characters. If they need a character, they have the access. However, the lesson that Warner learned is that dark, grey, and gritty is the way to go, leading to Man of Steel. Warner’s next adaptation is based on World’s Finest, a Batman-Superman movie. Meanwhile, a Justice League movie may be on its way, thanks to the success of The Avengers, but this would put Warner into the position of catching up with Marvel. With The Green Lantern‘s middling success and the studio having no idea what to do with Wonder Woman, that leaves the rest of the classic team in limbo. Aquaman would need a Dini-verse makeover. The Flash would mean trying to pick which Flash* to use. There is a Flash movie in the works for 2016, though.  The character does not work in a grim and gritty story. Other than Batman, the Green Arrow has had some success through the TV series Arrow

Adding to the movie implosion of 2013 is R.I.P.D., an adaptation of a Dark Horse comic of the same name. The comic doesn’t have the same name space in pop consciousness, so the failure of the movie shouldn’t impact the title. However, by being off the pop culture radar, the movie had to rely solely on marketing, a problem plaguing several releases over the past few years, including John Carter. While Marvel Studios, Fox, Sony, and Warner have the money to get word of a movie out to everyone if they wish**, a lesser movie won’t get the money behind it. R.I.P.D. did have marketing, but audiences stayed away.

Marvel managed to capture attention using the Avengers Initiative and high quality movies. Warner needs to play catch up without looking like a Marvel imitator, making the success of a Justice League movie difficult.

Next week, Blade Runner

* Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West have all taken up the mantle of the Flash in DC Comics.
** For a counter-example, see John Carter. Please.

Finally! The last of the Avengers Adaptation series!

Previously:
Iron Man
Incredible Hulk
Thor
Captain America

Also, of note, Adaptations and the Superheroic Setting, which discusses the creation of a separate universe for different media. The Avengers and the movies leading up to it are a good example of creating a separate setting that shares common elements with the original work but still allows for creative interpretations. Otherwise, the nitpicking on minor details will get annoying and detracting.

In 1963, Marvel decided to pull together a team to challenge DC Comics’ Justice League of America. DC’s JLA comprised of the company’s heavy hitters – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Aquaman, the Martian Manhunter, and the Atom. Marvel’s first attempt to counter the JLA resulted in The Fantastic Four. While The Fantastic Four succeeded, the team wasn’t what the publisher wanted. Stan Lee pulled together Marvel’s top tier characters – Iron Man, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man/Giant-Man*, and the Wasp – to create a competitor. The characters came from Marvel’s top books; Iron Man’s Tales of Suspense, Thor’s Journey into Mystery, The Incredible Hulk, and Tales to Astonish, featuring Ant-Man and the Wasp.

The first issue of The Avengers brought the team together. Loki, wanting to exact revenge on Thor, lured the Hulk into attacking a railway car. When the call for help went out, Loki diverted it to Thor, inadvertently sending it to Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp as well. All four heroes converged and, setting the tone for not only the full Avengers run but also spin-offs, misunderstood each other to the point of in-fighting. Thor worked out the illusions and that his brother was behind them, allowing the heroes to team up and assemble as the Avengers.

The Hulk left in the second issue, leading to a fight against the Sub-Mariner. The fight, though, broke a chunk ice free from an ice floe, leading to the return of Captain America, who took the Hulk’s place on the team in issue 4. Hawkeye, who had appeared as an Iron Man villain in Tales of Suspense #57 joined the Avengers in issue 16. The Black Widow, another of Iron Man’s rogue gallery**, joined the team in issue 29.

In 2000, Marvel launched a new imprint, Ultimate Marvel. The original goal was to update backgrounds and clear out continuity snarls*** that caused potential new fans to be locked out from the regular universe’s titles. In the Ultimate line, the Avengers became The Ultimates, a team brought together by the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., one General Nick Fury****. The team comprised of Captain America, Giant-Man, the Wasp, Bruce Banner, and Iron Man; Banner would go on to inject himself with the super-soldier serum to become the Hulk, who the rest of the team stopped with the help of Thor. The second Ultimates series introduced Loki, who arranged for Thor to be put away as an escaped mental patient.

This leads to the movie, Marvel’s The Avengers+. Marvel Studios had an ambitious plan to release a number of movies leading up to one about Marvel’s mightiest team, the Avengers. The first movie in the Avengers Initiative was Iron Man, one that had fans wondering until the announcement of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark. Iron Man performed beyond expectations, allowing the rest of the series to continue. Each movie in the Initiative acted as the origin story for the title character, allowing The Avengers to get to the heart of its story without having to explain who all the characters were. SHIELD first appeared in Iron Man, although after the end credits, and reappeared in Iron Man 2. Hawkeye, Agent Clint Barton, appeared in Thor. During this, Disney bought Marvel, sending panic among fans. The first movie released with Disney as distributor was The Avengers.

The movie mixes mainline Marvel and Ultimate Marvel continuity. Changes were made to both line’s story on how the group formed and the composition of the team, but Loki remained the element that brought the team together. The heroes are brought to squabbling amongst each other, distrusting, as Loki tweaks each hero’s sore spot. The bickering becomes an all-out brawl on board the SHIELD Helicarrier, allowing Loki’s team of agents on board while the fighting disrupts and almost destroys the vessel. With the death++ of a SHIELD agent, the heroes pull together as a team to defeat Loki and his minions.

The Avengers isn’t a pure adaptation. However, especially in light of Lost in Translation #54, the creators bring in a number of elements from both the main Marvel continuity and the Ultimate line, blending the elements to let the movie stand as its own continuity. The movie also blends together the different themes from previous movies, from techno-thriller to Shakespearean drama to pulp heroism, turning The Avengers into a work of its own. With the exception of Edward Norton, casts from the previous movies reprised their roles; Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo as Banner. Humour came naturally from characters and situations instead of being forced. The Avengers felt like both a serious comic book and a step back from the dark grey of the Batman movies without going too far the other direction as seen in Flash Gordon or Street Fighter: The Movie.

Next week, a superhero round up.
* Hank Pym changed his hero code name at the start of The Avengers #2 to Giant-Man. He’d later take several other names. — Scott
** Natasha first appeared in Tales of Suspense #52, five issues before Hawkeye’s first appearance. Fittingly, she first appeared in Marvel’s cinematic universe in Iron Man 2 — Scott again
*** Some snarls include the Summers family tree, which involves time travel, and Spider-Man’s Clone Saga — Yep, it’s Scott
**** General Fury was redesigned early in production to look like Samuel L. Jackson, who gave his permission to use his likeness. Made him the perfect actor to cast as Nick Fury in the movie. — Trivia Scott
+ As opposed to the remake of the TV series that starred Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg. — Still Scott
++ Maybe. We only have Nick Fury’s word on it. — Doubtful Scott

Adventure novels have gone through their own evolution. Novels by Alistair MacLean (The Guns of Navarone among many others) and Ian Fleming (of 007 fame) gave way to the creation of the techno-thriller. While Tom Clancy is seen as the start point for the techno-thriller genre, both Robert Ludlum and Craig Thomas had novels out a decade before. Thomas could be seen as taking Fleming’s setting and bringing it into alignment with the reality of the Cold War*. Starting with Rat Trap in 1976, Thomas showed a grittier, more realistic look at espionage, showing missions at several levels, including the agents on the ground and the MI6 heads revising plans as better intelligence arrived.

In 1977, Thomas released his second novel, Firefox. In the story, the Soviet Union had developed a new fighter jet, the MiG-31**, that incorporated stealth technology, could reach Mach 5, and had a weapons system controlled by the pilot’s thoughts. At the time of publication, the B-2 stealth bomber was in development and the fastest aircraft were the SR-71 Blackbird, reaching Mach 3.2, and the Soviet MiG-25 “Foxbat”, reaching Mach 3. Thought control was in the realm of science fiction at the time, but is now available to the general public. In the novel, an advance like the Firefox would upset the balance between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

To counter the Soviet breakthrough, Kenneth Aubry, one of Thomas’s recurring characters, devises a brash plan. He recruits American pilot and Vietnam war veteran Mitchell Gant to sneak into the Soviet Union and steal one of the MiG-31 prototypes. Aubry’s choice of Gant boiled down to the American fitting the pilot’s uniform and helmet. Gant, however, has Post-Traumatic Stress from his experiences in Vietnam; Aubry is well aware and trusts that the stress won’t affect Gant’s flying abilities.

To get Gant into the Soviet Union, Aubry uses up several contacts and dissidents. The main goal is to get the Firefox. After arriving in Moscow, Gant meets the dissidents, gets another false identity, and is taken to Bilyarsk, where the MiG-31 is being tested. Once there, Gant sneaks in, creates confusion, and steals the Firefox. Once in the air, he’s invisible to radar and satellite. He lets himself be seen by an Aeroflot crew before changing to his real course. Meanwhile, the Soviet Air Marshal begins to realize the sort of chess game he’s in and gets reconnaissance craft, both air and sea, to cover the northern routes while telling the crews to seach for the stolen Firefox’s heat signature. The second Firefox prototype is sent to destroy Gant’s jet.

Adptations in the 80s were mainly made to exploit the name and make a quick buck. Writers didn’t have the pull that JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, and Suzanne Collins do today. However, when the producer, director, and owner of the studio enjoyed the book and wants to bring it to the silver screen, the chance of a good adaptation rises. Clint Eastwood had read the book and thought it would make for a good movie. His studio, Malpaso, shot the film for $21 million, most of which were on the special effects. The movie follows the book as close as it can, though at times feeling a little shallow from the transition – the book delved into the focus characters’ thoughts and brought forth imagery of the locations. Eastwood, who also starred as Mitchell Gant, keeps close to the events in the book, only adding little details. One detail, Gant’s flashback, made it into the novel Firefox Down, which picked up from the end of Firefox.

There are some interesting elements in the story and movie. Wolf Kahler played the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov. During filming, Andropov replaced Leonid Breznev, and the world saw what he looked like for the first time, which was nothing like Wolf Kahler. The fictional MiG-31 took design elements from the SR-71 and the XB-70. The outer skin the B-2 stealth bomber wound up having elements in common with the Firefox. Thought control has since been relegated to toys, but the voice commands used to trigger the thought impulses needed are making their way to commercial uses, such as Apple’s Siri.

The likelihood of Firefox being remade today is low. Both the novel and the movie are artifacts of the Cold War that ended almost twenty-five years ago. The remake would have to be done as a period piece, but that could drive away the younger audience. That said, Firefox shows what can be done when the studio makes an effort to adapt a work properly. With Clint Eastwood as star, director, producer, and head of Malpaso, meddling by the executive suite was removed from the efforts, leading to a good adaptation.

Next week, the ultimate Avengers Adaptation review.

* The Cold War plays a huge element in this review. While an extensive knowledge isn’t needed, if things get confusing, the BBC and the History Learning Site have summaries that can help.
** There was a real MiG-31, codenamed “Foxhound”, in production at the time of publication. Its specifications are nowhere near as groundbreaking as its fictional counterpart’s. The real MiG-31 entered service while Firefox was being filmed.

Apologies already. It has been too hot this past week to think without breaking a sweat.  Today will be an overview of upcoming adaptations.

First, though, over at Anime, Brains, and Culture, Tamara looks at the translation issues when localizing anime, and has examples of Japanese localizations of American animated works. Well worth the listen.

Meanwhile, The Lone Ranger is not doing as well expected. It’s not even reaching the mind space of people on social networks, unlike the cheaply done Sharknado. The marketing department must be wondering what went wrong – the movie has Johnny Depp shirtless, in leather pants, and channelling a Western version of Captain Jack Sparrow. That last bit may be what is turning people off, though. Another possibility, raised by Canadian TV personality Ed the Sock*, is that the the movie may have been mis-marketed. In Mr. the Sock’s own words, “As a serious western, The Lone Ranger fails. But it’s a comedy. Did you get that feeling from promos?”

R.I.P.D. is opening to poor reviews. In a move that screams, “This is a bad movie,” reviewers received their review copies hours before opening. Reviews are not good. The movie is based on a comic published by Dark Horse Comics, and is not as well known as works from Marvel and DC.  The trailer shows a concept that would work better as a TV series, not a 96 minute feature film.

Peter Suderman over at Slate has discovered why movies all feel the same. Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! inadvertently provided the formula Hollywood has been using to make movies, especially big budget adaptations., down to the number of pages needed. While the book wasn’t meant to be the foundation of a Hollywood script, that’s what it became.

In the tabletop world, Shadowrun‘s fifth edition was released in .pdf format, with hard copies coming later in the summer. Catalyst Game Labs is working with Topps (the license holder), Cliffhanger Productions (for the MMO) and Harebrained Schemes (for the console game) to deliver an update of a classic tabletop RPG that mixes cyberpunk with Tolkien-style fantasy.

Next week, the weather should cool off enough for me to give Firefox a review.

* Canada can’t afford real TV personalities.