The awesomeness that is Toronto’s Comicon continued today in a huge way! Sue and I got time to chat with some new and old friends, make people laugh. and just generally enjoy ourselves! We arrived early, as we’d been invited to join the photocall for the convention’s guests. But first we both stopped off…
Tag: star wars
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) – Jimmy T. Murakami
With the advent of Star Wars in the late 70s, every studio, almost every writer, wanted to get in on the sci-fi band wagon, including Roger Corman. Known for his exploitation films with incredibly low budgets, Battle Beyond the Stars, was his biggest budgeted film, and was my introduction to the story of the…
Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013) – Frank Pavich
The most influential science fiction never made. There’s no other way to put it. The names involved with this film resonate across all of pop culture, and specifically the sci-fi films that followed this film, that never shot a single frame… I wanted to see this one as soon as I heard about it,…
Fan Expo Canada – A Look Back
As summer threatens to wind to a close (actually, did it ever really start?), and kids start shopping for back to school crap, my mind turns to what I fondly refer to as Nerd Christmas. Fan Expo Canada is on our doorstep again at last! This year marks my 10th year in attendance…
Trailer Tracks: Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – Irvin Kershner
Quite possibly the best sequel ever made! With Harrison Ford doing his best 1940s narrator voice, I so lost my cool when I first realized there would be another movie set in the universe that had so impacted my life in 1977. For me, growing up, Star Wars and Star Trek (joined a year…
Annie Hall (1977) – Woody Allen
The final recommendation following Manhattan in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is the Academy Award winning Annie Hall. And while even now, I don’t understand how this film beat out Star Wars for best picture, I can admit it was pretty good. Except for the fact that I don’t think Woody…
Trailer Tracks: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – Steven Spielberg
One of the biggest influences on my childhood, if not my entire life, alongside Star Wars, is this homage to the adventures of yesteryear, Raiders of the Lost Ark… that music (John Williams), that cast (Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies), those stunts (Vic Armstrong)!!! Often imitated, and sequel-ized, but never matched…
Leviathan Wakes (2011) – James S.A. Corey
I love a good science fiction movie or television series, but oft-times I have a hard time digging into science fiction books, the exception being Arthur C. Clarke, Star Wars and Star Trek novels with occasional deviance into other titles if they catch my attention. I’ll read all manner of books, they just have to hold my…
Trailer Tracks: Star Wars 1977
In this new addition to The Mind Reels, I thought it would be cool to put up a trailer a day, new, old, upcoming, blast from the past, and just revel in the awesomeness (or lack thereof) in the trailer. For me, what better place to start than this classic trailer before that fateful…
2014 Toronto Screenwriting Conference
Wow. Sue and I were fortunate enough to be able to cover the Toronto Screenwriting Conference last year (and learned tons to apply to our own creative writing) and were delighted to be invited back again this year to sit in on it again. With the amazing guest line-up and the fact that everything we…
The Mind Reels 