Trailer for new BBC adaptation of H.G. Wells’ First Men in the Moon. It airs October 19th on BBC 4. This production stars and was written by Mark Gatiss (“Doctor Who“, “Sherlock“). Looks like a nice bit of autumnal steam punkery. We’re on board!
But how will it stack up to the wonderful sixties adaptation? See the trailer for that great film after the jump …
Check out this new interview and teaser for Dario Argento’s Dracula:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
ABC’s new drama about a family of superheroes, “No Ordinary Family” scored the highest ratings for a new ABC show this year. It landed a 3.1/9 rating/share (18-49) and an estimated median viewership of 10.5 million. This gave the show a strong 3rd place finish for its time slot. The show also increased in all numbers in its second half-hour. Always a good sign.
Get Twitter users take on the new show after the jump.
Variety is confirming that Lucasfilm is in the midst of a 3D conversion of the Star Wars saga with news that The Phantom Menace 3D will see a release in 2012. Many film fans have criticized the entire 2D to 3D conversion process. And Lucasfilm’s John Knoll shares that view, stating:
I have been a vocal critic of some of the previous efforts at doing 3D conversions. (But) I think the problems that have been encountered are mostly because of budget and schedule, trying to ram the work though in too short a period of time.
Here’s a fascinating video of a life size Starship Enterprise made in the consciously retro-looking web game Minecraft. You can download the game and make your own giant objects here.
“Lost” writer/producer Damon Lindelof offer this positive statement about the new NBC series “The Event” on Twitter. Of course, it also contains some of Damon’s trademark humor:
I think THE EVENT is swell, but if 24 and LOST really had a baby it would hate both its parents and regularly engage in torture.
Heh. We actually think such good-natured comments could actually help the series. However, the second episode saw a drop in viewership, with a 2.9/7 ratings/share, and estimated viewership of 8.9 million.
The second episodes also firmly placed “The Event” in science fiction genre with the reveal of extraterrestrial disclosure as a key to the series plot.
Moviehole has reported that MTV is trying to convince Michael J. Fox to have a recurring role in their “Teen Wolf” TV series. This is a nice story. But we think MTV is just seeking attention for their “Buffyesque” small screen take on the eighties franchise. Cynical us.
Bob Harras has been named as the new Editor in Chief at DC Comics. Harras was the Editor at DC’s competitor Marvel from 1995-2000. Since then he has been working at DC subsidiary Wildstorm, before moving into the DC collected editions division earlier this year. This seems to be a safe but uninspired choice. But at least they chose someone from the world of comics.
Interested in Aleister Crowley? Ouija boards? Or just looking for a good read about the mystical and the paranormal? Then “Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board” is right up your street. As the name suggests, this tome examines the history of the Ouija Board and its use by Aleister Crowley and other occultists. And it does it all in a brisk 172 pages. For more information on this book, check out the official site here.
This robot (iCub) taught itself to hit the center of the target in eight tries after being given some basic instructions. This is the latest demonstration of a new type of learning algorithm:
… called ARCHER (Augmented Reward Chained Regression) [this] algorithm, was developed and optimized specifically for problems like the archery training, which have a smooth solution space and prior knowledge about the goal to be achieved. In the case of archery, we know that hitting the center corresponds to the maximum reward we can get. Using this prior information about the task, we can view the position of the arrow’s tip as an augmented reward. ARCHER uses a chained local regression process that iteratively estimates new policy parameters which have a greater probability of leading to the achievement of the goal of the task, based on the experience so far. An advantage of ARCHER over other learning algorithms is that it makes use of richer feedback information about the result of a rollout.
Now can we train one to do dishes or laundry? And we don’t even mind losing a few dishes in the process.
Ghost Radio 