It’s time to get prepared for the awesomeness that is this weekend’s new releases. Think you can handle it?

The Dark Knight

Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Released: 7/18/08

Plot: The long awaited sequel to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins is here, and it is already tearing through critics and audiences with the highest of praise. The Dark Knight is Bruce Wayne (Bale), AKA Batman, the costumed vigilante of Gotham City, and he is up against his toughest threat yet: The Joker (Ledger). District Attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart) and Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Oldman) help Batman in taking down the organized crime bosses of Gotham, and they fight back with the help of the psychopathic clown Joker. Batman must face the darkness and the anarchy his foe represents and decide whether or not he can step over that carefully drawn line that separates him from the enemy. Can he take a life to save the city?

This movie is considered the last full performance of Heath Ledger before his tragic passing and has been whispered to be an Oscar-nomination-worthy performance.

Fan Inspiration: Fans of the earlier film will remember the pairing of childhood friends Bruce and Rachel, played in this movie by Maggie Gyllenhaal. In this film, she is torn between Bruce and kind-hearted Harvey Dent, a triangle which will become all the more tragic as the movie unravels. Batman often encourages mystery, detective, crime and angst tales, and the visual beauty of this movie combined with the beauty of its stars will make videos delightful to put together. Batman’s painful journey has been inspiring writers for decades now…and wedging him into the hearts of the fans. Go wild, everyone!

Mamma Mia!

Starring: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skasgard
Released: 7/18/08

Plot: Taken from the Broadway musical and using the peppy music of ABBA, this movie is about a young girl named Sophie (Seyfriend) who is about to be married. Her independent mother Donna (Streep) raised her alone, but Sophie wants her father to walk her down the aisle. The only problem is she doesn’t know who he is! She invites the three men who knew her mother during her conception: Sam (Brosnan), Harry (Firth) and Bill (Skasgard). Donna is confronted with these men from her past and her troubled long-term love for Sam, but with her daughter and the help of her friends, maybe this story can turn out the best for everyone.

Fan inspiration: There are two distinct pairings in this story - Sophie and her intended, Sky (played by Dominick Cooper) and Donna and Sam. Sophie and Sky are young and want to just sail off into the sunset together for adventure. Donna and Sam have had their share of adventures, but can they get over their bitterness of the past to find love together? The shiny and exciting costumes and set design of this movie will be eye catching, and the music is inspirational all on its own, guaranteed to make you smile. Mamma Mia, here I go again!

Find the clues in the widget - the more it’s downloaded and played, the more clues appear!

Dee Doyle brings you the 411 on this weekend’s can’t-miss movie releases.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss
Release Date: 7/11/08

Plot Summary: Big Red and his crew are back for this fiery sequel directed by the King of stunning costumes and visual weirdness, Guillermo Del Toro. The world of Hellboy (Perlman) is one that suits del Toro with its supernatural strangeness and world weary hero. The truce between mankind and the magical world is broken and Prince Nuada (Goss) is out for blood: he wants to reclaim the world for his fantastical kin. With an army of unstoppable beasts, only Hellboy, Liz (Blair) and Abe (Jones) can protect the world, even if it fears and hates them. Will Hellboy protect his adopted home, or is he inevitably drawn to the paranormal creatures that accept him?

Fan Inspiration: Well, the first Hellboy movie already started out the super sweet pairing of Liz and Hellboy. She is now out of the mental institute and in control of her powers, and their relationship has grown as well. This movie also introduces a new pairing of Abe and Princess Nuala. Other than that, keep an eye out for inspiration on very creative adventure/action stories. Hellboy is a fantastic character for angst and reflection pieces due to his struggle between his inner nature and who he wants to be. Del Toro made a world that you will not be able to take your eyes off of and it is just the sort of material writers like to drawn from.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem
Release Date: 7/11/08

Plot Summary: Based very loosely on a book of the same title, this movie will wow audiences with its incredible special effects. Trevor Anderson (Fraser) is an unconventional scientist who goes to Iceland with his nephew Sean (Hutcherson) on an exploratory expedition. They are joined by a local guide named Hannah (Briem) and discover a passage into the very center of the Earth. What awaits them below is anyone’s guess, but it is certain to be incredibly dangerous…and exciting!

If you get a chance to see it in 3-D, I personally highly suggest it because I was lucky enough to see an advance showing with Fraser himself. We were allowed to see a few scenes and, while it may not be a genius plot or screenplay, the visual beauty is well worth it.

Fan Inspiration: The pairing of Trevor/Hannah is canon and looks to be a snarky love/hate sort of relationship which is always funny under the right writer. Plus they are both very attractive people for your video fans! This movie has a beautiful background and idea that will be great for adventure tales and fun mental explorations of your own.

Caution! This week’s Sci-fi news is suffering from MFOS. That’s right, Multiple Fandom Overload Syndrome!

Movies

Ron Perlman has been a busy boy. The man behind Hellboy’s pretty red face has had his impeccable pecs in several super roles as of late. Along with filming Hellboy II: The Golden Army, he also recently finished up The Mutant Chronicles, a comic-ish look at a post-apocalyptic society. Perlman stars in an ensemble cast featuring Thomas Jane (Punisher, Punisher: War Zone) and John Malkovich, among others. He and Jane plan to preview the flick at San Diego Comic-Con and take suggestions from fans in the audience on how to improve it. Now that’s dedication to your audience!

According to the Hobbit Movie fan site, there’s a good chance that another Hellboy II actor will be making a fandom crossover. Doug Jones played a brilliant Abe Sapian for the first Hellboy installment and is taking over the voice of Big Red’s friend this time around (David Hyde Pierce voiced the character in the first movie). Reportedly, Guillermo del Toro is eager to find a place for the talented character actor in the upcoming Hobbit movie - possibly a royal place. Doug Jones said he’d be delighted to play whatever del Toro gives him, but he has his eye on the role of Legolas’ father, Elf King Thranduil. Watch out, Doug! I sense a major case of Multiple Fandom Overload coming your way!

Television

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Looking for a movie to see over the holiday weekend? Dee Doyle has got you covered.

Hancock

Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman

Release Date: 7/2/08

Plot Summary: Hancock (Smith) is an amnesiac superhero with a bad temper and an even worse attitude. With great powers come great responsibility? Not for this loud mouthed crass man who flies drunkenly into battles and causes more damage than he spares. His intentions to help are not enough to sway the fury of the people, and they start crying out for his downfall. This all changes when Hancock saves a PR exec, the kind hearted Ray Embrey (Bateman), who decides to make the sarcastic hero into the real deal. His wife Mary (Theron) insists that it is impossible, but Ray wants to turn Hancock’s life around…but Hancock has to be willing to change in order to do it. He agrees to go to jail and serve his time as the public wants, so when he comes back they can see him as a changed man. This is just in time for Hancock to have the battle for his life, so let’s hope that he changed for the better.

The movie actually came out a few days ago to pre-empt the big 4th of July holiday, but it will probably hit the numbers it is looking for this weekend. Will Smith is known for gaining attention and box office hits during holiday weekends so the release date for Hancock was perfectly chosen. There have been some rumors going around about whether or not Hancock is based on a comic book, and it is not. It came from an original script called “Tonight He Comes” from 1996. The strong reception of comic book movies these days has inspired studios to give a chance on this movie, whereas ten years ago the interest may have been unlikely.

Fan Inspiration: This movie has “dramedy” written all over it, despite the action heavy special effects inside. I do not want to reveal any of the spoilers of the film, but there is a sincere vulnerability and heart to the hero. He is comedic in Will Smith’s classic way, but there is a lot of pain underneath and fans do love to draw on that angst and character. Hancock’s journey from hero to hated nuisance to hero again — by choice this time — is an interesting one. Keep an eye out for some good pairings with Hancock/Mary, Mary/Ray and Hancock/Ray too.

If you missed Earth Day, try Sci-Fi Saturday. This week science fiction does a little recycling.

Television

Uber producer Ronald D. Moore has been accused of rampant recycling in his new sci-fi series for FOX, Virtuality. The writer/producer for Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek incorporates a little of both in his back door pilot about Earth’s first starship. The story follows the journey of the twelve-man crew of the Phaeton on the way to a new planet. In order to pass the time, the crew is given virtual reality modules where they can live out any fantasy. (Holodeck, Anyone?)

Virtuality is also recycling a few good men from the sci-fi faniverse, the most intriguing of which is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. That’s a fancy-looking name that stands for “the hottie who played the title role in the sadly cancelled FOX series, New Amsterdam”. He’s on board to play the mission commander Frank Pike (Captain Pike?) The show features a character named Roger Fallon (James D’arcy), a creepy psychologist who’s been described as a cross between Gaius Baltar and Cylon Brother Cavil. Also on board is director Peter Berg of the upcoming super hero flick, Hancock.

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Today, former guest blogger Dee Doyle becomes a regular and introduces our newest weekly series - the Weekend Movie Preview.

Wanted

Starring: Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp
Release date: 6/27/08

Plot Summary: Wesley (McAvoy) is an average man in his own sad little world. His girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend, and his boss at work constantly rails on him as he meekly takes the emotional and mental abuse. His life changes when the beautiful, mysterious Fox (Jolie) saves him from an assassin and introduces him to the underground world of the Fraternity. The Fraternity is a group of highly trained killers who kill “one to save thousands.” Wesley’s father was one of them, but he was killed and now Wesley is being hunted by his murderer. With the help of the other assassins and their leader Sloan (Freeman), Wesley must shed his miserable life to make room for a dangerous and exciting one. This story is based off a famous comic series by Mark Millar. I warn you, however, if you want to get the comics after enjoying this film, be aware that they are more of an inspiration than a staunch guideline. The comic is fantastic and very dark, and this movie appears to have a little more Hollywood action than Millar’s bitter story.

Fan Inspiration: Shippers should have quite a bit of fun with this motley group of killers. Story wise, they can find inspiration for action, angst, drama or even comedy stories. The biggest ship will no doubt be interested in the Wesley/Fox romance and, with two hot stars like McAvoy and Jolie, it will not be hard to find good source material for videos as well!
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Today’s sci-fi news is all about making something out of something else. Not so special, you say? We shall see!

Movies

It’s raining comics! This summer seems to be one big comics-to-movies filmfest, and that means theater-going heaven, at least for me. From my first peek at Dick Tracy with the wonderful Warren Beatty, I knew this crossover genre was for me. This summer alone will bring us more comic flicks than you can shake a stick at. Iron Man is still soaring with over $300 mil earned. The new and definitely improved Hulk is smashing at a cinema near you. Not to mention the one I never saw coming - Speed Racer, for which we had a fab FanLib contest. But even more impressive than the ones we’ve already seen are the movies from the comics genre that are still coming. Here’s a run-down:

Wanted - June 27, 2008
Hancock - July 2, 2008
Hellboy II: The Golden Army - July 11, 2008
The Dark Knight - July 18, 2008
Punisher: War Zone - Sept. 12, 2008
The Watchmen - March 6, 2009
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - May 1, 2009
Sin City 2 - 2009
Spider-Man 4 - 2009

Feel free to drool - I know I am!

Games

I recently watched the video-game-to-movie flick In the Name of the King and was surprised to realize how many creators have been inspired by games. Ever since director Steve Lizberger was inspired by Playstation’s predecessors and found himself creating cult classic Tron, Hollywood has been cranking out video game movies as fast as the special effects companies could keep up. Muses help me, I did like Wing Commander, Mortal Kombat and Doom, and I am writing my own fic for Avernum 4. Somewhere in there, fan fiction writers learned to grab the juicy little inspiration bunnies before production companies picked them up, and write little adaptations of their own. Hence, FanLib’s own Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil and Super Mario Bro’s communities. Game on, FanLibbers!

Random Fandom News

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Finally, it’s final the part after all and we look at what Mike Dow is a fan of - and believe you me, he’s a fan extraordinaire.

Me: Now, the fannish questions. What are you a fan of? And what have you been a fan of in the past?

Dow: I have very crazy…not crazy - eclectic - tastes. I’m a huge movie and TV fan, so if you look at my DVDs I have new wave Italian cinema films next to the Three’s Company third season boxed set, and I have the old Battlestar Galactica complete TV series and the new Galactica. I would say Three’s Company, when it comes to sitcoms, is my favorite. I mean, Seinfeld is everybody’s favorite, but… I’m dorkily into Three’s Company. Huge Star Wars fan in my younger days - not so much now, but definitely many, many presents were given to me that were Star Wars related. I can pretty much kill anyone in Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. When I play it usually lasts one roll if I get to go first. I can get all six wedges and get in the center and win before the other person gets to go, which is usually the goal. And that’s true.

Let’s see, what am I a fan of recently? Definitely Battlestar Galactica, I love that show. Sopranos - huge fan of. I’m a big, big 30 Rock fan and I like to boast my credentials as someone who watched it from the pilot and has watched every aired episode. I wasn’t a late adopter, didn’t give up on it. That’s one of those shows I tend to be a little bit of a - I don’t think there’s a word for it - a fan snob? We need to come up with a word [for] when you really love something that not a lot of people are aware of and then everyone becomes a big fan of it and then you’re kind of bummed that everyone likes it now and it’s not your own little niche of people. I kind of feel that.

Me: (laughing) I think that’s called being elitist.

Dow: Maybe it is being elitist. It’s not elitist, it’s almost like it’s your little thing. It’s almost like when you have a dog and he only listens to you and then you get five roommates and now the dog loves everyone and you’ve kind of lost that exclusive dog love. I kind of feel that way with TV shows. I like that everyone loves 30 Rock now because it means it will stay on the air, but I loved being the only one who knew what I was talking about. I would go to a party, and be like, “Have you seen the 30 Rock where they made the GI Joe Sigma Six joke?” and no one knew what I was saying. I kind of dig that. Those are the things I’m a fan of. There’s got to be a term for that - it’s its own feeling.
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Now that you know how Dow does the voodoo that he do, let’s learn what the affects of making a viral video that gets seen by millions can be.

Me: How many views has “10 Things I Hate About Commandments” had, and what’s it’s history, online-wise?

Dow: I’ve honestly lost track a little bit of how many views it gets or has gotten. It’s really hard to know. There was a time when I would whip out a calculator and try to add them all up because, in the Internet world, views are kind of equivalent to box office grosses with movies. You know, if you make 40 million dollars in your first weekend with a movie then it’s a big hit and everyone’s so excited for it, and if you get millions of views with your video, it gives you a certain sudden legitimacy for one reason or another. So, the views have always been really important. I would say about six months ago I added everything up and it was somewhere around four million for all of them, for the three trailers. The MTV views I don’t know, they track that on their own, but I was told the “Laguna Beach: Summer of Stupid” trailer was over a million views at some point. So it’s well into the millions, which is, for me, the most satisfying part.

Laguna Beach - Summer of Stupid

I just love that people love to watch these things. It’s been almost two years now since we did “Ten Things I Hate About Commandments” and it still gets about two thousand hits a day and the main site itself is about to hit two million, which is… I don’t know, it’s just awesome; I love it. It’s a disappointment when they don’t get a lot or don’t get sent around, but it’s just the best when they do get sent around. When we first did it and I put it up, I don’t remember with “Must Love Jaws”, but “Ten Commandments” skyrocketed in the first week in terms of the hits and it was so thrilling. It must be the same feeling when you have a movie and it starts to make money; it must be very exciting. “Must Love Jaws”…had two hundred hits the first couple days and then I sent it to some blogs, people posted it and one morning I woke up and it was at seven thousand. And then the next day it was at fifteen thousand. And it was just amazing how it went, how it multiplied and multiplied. “Ten Things I Hate About Commandments’ was at two hundred thousand in a week, which was just astonishing to me when you think about all the people it takes to forward it from one to the next to get two hundred thousand people to look at it. It’s just really shocking. It’s really exciting and really fun.

Me: So then what happened?
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Yesterday, we got an introduction to Mike Dow, super creative member of Team FanLib. Today, we learn more about what goes into making a popular viral video. Take it away me and Mike!

Me: What software do you use most? What do you find easiest when making these?

Dow: Final Cut Pro is what I use to edit; pretty much everything I do is on Final Cut Pro. There’s a program called Cinamatize2.0 and that…allows you to take DVD files and turn them into Quicktime movies and Quicktime movies are what you need to edit in Final Cut Pro. So that’s a very necessary part. That’s basically it. I mean some of the other Final Cut Studio programs to do titles and such, but for the most part it’s just getting the files off the DVDs, turning them into Quicktime [movies] to throw them into Final Cut and then just uploading them onto YouTube. It’s really a very a basic operation when it comes to the technical parts.

Me: Are there forums that you use for software info?

Dow: There really are no forums. I did searches in the beginning for how people did things. Getting information off of DVDs can be hard and each DVD presents different problems depending on which studio made it - getting the audio and video in synch, etc. Really I just put in a lot of time – it wasn’t even that much time – researching, putting different search terms into Google when I had a problem. I’d just type in “DVD of Ten Commandments doesn’t work”, or “how to do X, Y, Z,” and I found a couple different people who had put up their information and that was useful. The technical part is really not the hard part.

Me: What is?

Dow: Totally the creative part - having the right idea, knowing which shots to use, creating a story. Even though the things are only maybe a minute and a half long, really by far the hardest part is doing the creative stuff, which is why Ari and I work together. I do all the editing and that’s very creative too and that has a lot of important aspects to it, but in the end there’s no point in even starting to edit one of these things if your idea isn’t really good and your story of how you’re telling it isn’t really solid. For example, when we did the Ten Commandments one, it was really – and this seems funny now when everybody likes it, blah, blah, blah – but in the beginning we really had no idea whether or not anyone would even understand what it was. I literally had no clue, if I showed that to somebody, if they would have any idea what the joke was because we were taking this movie that takes place in the time of Moses and trying to make it a teen movie that came out last year. So the beginning, the first line of [the] voice over is, “At Pharaoh High, Ramses was the biggest player around…” and the decision to put the pyramids in the beginning and call it a high school was a really hard decision to make because we wondered if anyone would understand what Pharaoh High is and do people know that we’re making that joke?
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Marphlets returns for another SCI FI Saturday.

Books

Potter Prequel: Rowling’s 800 word prequel to the HP novels earned nearly $50,000 for dyslexia and English PEN charities on the 10th of this month. The tiny note card included info about a pre-Harry James and Sirius. Lucky for us, Waterstones is now posting that card, along with the others from the auction, on their site for all to enjoy. So check it out, y’all - Potter has a prequel!

There’s a new Indiana Jones novel on the horizon. The adaptation of the fourth movie has been tackled by author James Rollins and is taken from the story and screenplay by George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson and David Koepp. You can now get an autographed edition of Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull online at the Indiana Jones Shop.

TV

In an interview with the folks at SCI-FI Wire this week, Jared Padalecki discussed the upcoming season of Supernatural. [Spoiler Alert!] The cast and crew plan to start filming soon, barring an actors strike, the man behind Sam related.

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Behind the scenes here at FanLib, we’ve got all sorts of interesting, creative people working on the team. One such fella is our Mike Dow, who, along with his creative partner, made the hugely popular viral video, “Ten Things I Hate About Commandments”. We chatted recently about how they made the video, the experience of having a hit, and what he’s a fan of personally.

And now, with no further ado, Part One of my interview with Mike Dow.

Mike Dow: Hi, Ellen.

Me: Hi, Mike Dow.

Dow: How are you?

Me: This is some interview… I’m fine, how have you been?

Dow: I’m good.

Me: Okay, well first, what is 10 Things I Hate About You?

Dow: (laughing) About Commandments or about You?

Me: Either.

Dow: Well, 10 Things I Hate About You is the movie that we copped the title from, but the “10 Things I Hate About Commandments”, I guess it’s a movie trailer mash-up, I guess that’s what people would call it. I don’t really know what it is. I like to just call it a parody of Ten Commandments, that’s basically what I see it as, but it’s a movie trailer mash up I guess.

Me: What does that entail?

Dow: Basically we - me and my creative partner, Ari Eisner - took the movie Ten Commandments and re-edited it into a faux movie trailer with the idea that, instead of making the Ten Commandments about the bible and about Moses, it was more about a teen comedy. So the idea was to kind of “take something that we all know and love and have fun with it by kind of turning it on its head”.

Me: What was the inspiration for that?

Dow: The first mash-up we did was called “Must Love Jaws”, and that was a mash-up of Jaws and turning it into a kind of Free Willy family movie and really the inspiration comes from a bunch of different places. The first thing was that Ari and I have been friends since NYU, we met at film school, in college our freshman year, and we’ve kind of been making fun of people and movies and TV, putting our friends into different types of movie trailers in our heads - taking our friend Steve and putting him into the JFK trailer, because he cheated on a test or something - and we would twist all these movie plots around people. We kept doing that and all through our adult lives we’ve just been doing that, and we kind of got to a point where the technology of digital video editing had caught up to the point where you could actually take movies and edit them and screw around with them at home, add music and do all sorts of stuff. And then we saw The Shining trailer, which is kind of the granddaddy of them all in terms of taking a movie and turning it into a faux movie trailer that has opposite the intent of the original movie, and I called Ari up after I saw that and I said, “Hey, you know what? We could do this. We do this all the time, and I can edit this and I have the stuff so we could actually do one.”
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It’s a day of the prequel! Let’s check out some of the prequel news in “unexpected” places.

Books

A Harry Potter prequel will be auctioned off June 10 by Waterstones book store. The 800 word outline by J.K. Rowling ends with the line “From the prequel I am not working on – but that was fun!” Thirteen other authors are contributing to the auction, with the proceeds going to charity. Man, do I wish I had a couple million to spend! Maybe the buyer will share their prize with the world.

Movies

Unexpected Party Wrap Up: On May 24, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro were online to answer fannish questions about the upcoming Hobbit movie from fans across the globe. Over 7000 questions were asked, and Peter and Guillermo did their best to answer each one. The two were very informative and frequently a bundle of laughs. When del Toro was asked how he and Jackson met he quipped, “We finished a tray of shrimps together and agreed that NEW LINE should keep hiring round, bearded directors with funny accents…” You can find the entire transcript of the chat online at the WETA fansite.

Gaming

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I’ll admit it, I went to see Sex and the City today with a group of female friends. We laughed, we got teary, we didn’t wear Manolos; let’s be honest, they’re so uncomfortable. But people dressed up and I was super excited, because it proves that fannishness transcends sci-fi and fantasy. Here are a couple of snaps.