* Whoa, local boy makes good! Jason Adams talks A Nightmare on Elm Street–original, sequels, remake–for NBC. He’s even got a separate piece on the seven best Nightmare kills! Today My New Plaid Pants, tomorrow the Peacock Network, apparently. Jason, this is great–congratulations! You know I’ve always believed in you. <3 * A couple of big interviews with A Song of Ice and Fire/A Game of Thrones‘ George R.R. Martin popped up over the past couple of days. First, here he is in the Cover to Cover podcast at the Dragon Page. There are a few interesting tidbits in this one.
* First, he confirms that HBO’s plan is to dedicate one season to each book in the series. I wonder if each one will have a new title, or if that’ll be too confusing? It’d look cool on your DVD shelf, at least.
* Second, he talks about the extensive delays for the publication of volume four, A Feast for Crows, and the still-unfinished volume five, A Dance with Dragons. Martin says that one of the main obstacles for these two books was a five-year jump in the storyline he’d initially planned to take place between books three and four. He spent a full year writing the fourth book with that device in place before coming to the conclusion that it just wasn’t working, scrapping it and starting over. That’s what led to the publication of A Feast for Crows as we know it, and of course in that book’s afterword he explained that the story expanded in the writing to such a degree that one book essentially became two, with A Dance with Dragons following the characters we don’t really see in Crows. However, in the podcast he notes that while the five-year gap didn’t work for most of the story, it did work for some of the story. But to get rid of all that bathwater, he had to lose the baby too, and it’s reworking the parts that worked fine with his original plan that’s giving him so much trouble.
* Third, he comes out and says that he knows A Song of Ice and Fire is his magnum opus, the work for which he’ll be remembered, so he’s become a perfectionist about it. When the interviewers point out that this is self-applying an ungodly amount of pressure, he kind of sighingly acknowledges it. Poor dude. (Link via Martin’s LJ.)
* The other big interview is with the Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan, the Battlestar Galactica superfan whose nerd-centric TV writing for a mainstream publication has established her as a sort of less annoying man’s Doc Jensen. Ryan confirms through HBO that the actress playing Daenerys Targaryne is indeed being recast, along with the previously switched-up Catelyn Stark. The interview itself focuses on Martin’s long history with Hollywood, his role in the creation of the HBO series, and of course the lateness of A Dance with Dragons, plus the upcoming comics adaptation of Martin’s vampire novel Fevre Dream from Avatar. Nothing earthshattering, but I am such a fucking whore for these books I’ll take whatever I can get. And you, dear readers, get to take it with me! (Via Winter Is Coming.)
* Recently on Robot 6: Ross Campbell is too sexy for his comics;
* and Brian Chippendale explains it all. Audio and video previews of If n’ Oof abound. (Via Frank Santoro.)
* Rich Juzwiak watches Tom Six’s The Human Centipede so you don’t have to. Sounds like the torture-porn equivalent of Snakes on a Plane.
* The Onion AV Club’s Scott Tobias tackles Neil Marshall’s The Descent as part of his New Cult Canon series. It’s a solid piece, but I really don’t understand the very popular notion that the original cut of the film is somehow bleaker and more uncompromising than the revision. There are more horrifying things than monsters, you know?
* Post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction set in a world where Cthulhu has successfully risen? Sure, I’ll eat it.
* Real Life Horror: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Cue Locke-in-the-Hatch video, roll credits. (Via everyone.)
* Allow me to be the 3,892nd person to direct you to Jay Pavlina’s Super Mario Bros. Crossover, an online simulator of the original Super Mario Nintendo game wherein you can play as Link, Samus Aran, Simon Belmont, Mega Man, or one of the dudes from Contra–complete with their customary moves and weapons. Good golly, as soon as I finish New Super Mario Bros. Wii I know how I’ll be spending my weekends.
* Jeepers Creepers, dig this “Middle-earth metro map” t-shirt. I wear a Men’s size M if anyone’s interested in buying me a belated birthday present, is all I’m saying. (Via Topless Robot.)
Tags: A Song of Ice and Fire, fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin
The ending of the original cut of The Descent is scarier in the moment. The revised/American cut is bleaker and, IMO, more profound, but it isn’t as effective as a “gotcha”. I do think the revised ending is one of the ways the movie earns its place alongside Deliverance and The Hills Have Eyes and, without it, is a little less morally and psychologically unsettling.
Dude, you’re tiny.
Thanks, Sean!
Jon: Right???
Tim: In all candor, M is on the optimistic side of things, but it keeps me on my toes.
Jason: You’re welcome!