• Total Recall 2 which had Star Trek: TNG's Jonathan Frakes interested in directing. But Ah-nuld didn't like any of the scripts, so there. And check it: One version would have used the basic plot from ... Minority Report.

• The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. One of my favorite all-time scifi novels, Richard Gere at one time had the rights to this flick and wanted to be in it (presumably as protagonist Gully Foyle). Later, another rights-holder wanted comics great Neal Adams to do concept art for the flick. This is one film I'd crave to see as it's a terrific solar system-spanning tale involving one of the coolest human developments in all scifi: The Jaunte.

• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Another of my all-time faves, Ridley Scott (Alien, Prometheus) was interested at one point, and it was also considered to be a made-for-TV flick for ... PBS? This'd be a good one for Hollywood because Haldeman is a Vietnam vet and big lefty whose military in the novel is basically a future version of the "keep the war going" military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about.

  

• Roger Corman's Spider-Man. If you've been "lucky" enough to view a bootleg of the never-released Corman Fantastic Four (I have), you know this Spidey flick would be unintentional comedy gold. I mean, in it "Spidey is a college student in a love triangle with Mary Jane and a sexy KGB agent, and he fights Doctor Octopus while preventing nuclear war." Gad, this would have made the Spidey TV series (at left) look good. But even better ...

• Albert Pyun's Spider-Man. The director of the brutally lame 1990 Captain America flick was slated to do a Spidey film as well. If you think Corman's version would have been atrocious, in this one Web Head "would have been a crazy mutant, who actually looked like a giant spider, and he would have fought a villain named Dr. Zork." Ye gad.

• The Day the Earth Stood Still II. Legend Ray Bradbury was slated to write this sequel which takes place thirty years after the original. (Note I said original, not the pathetic Keanu Reeves version.) Klaatu's daughter Klaata (who knew their race used Romance language-like gender endings) comes to 'ol Earth to tell us "we're not as bad as we thought we were."

• James Cameron's Planet of the Apes. In 1998 Jimmy was working on a story which would have had Ahnuld Schwarzenegger in Chuck Heston's role of Taylor, and it would have taken place "where the original films left off." In it, Taylor would return to an ape society much more [technologically] advanced due to Caesar going back in time (Escape From the Planet of the Apes). Except, I guess, Cameron forgot that Taylor (and the whole freakin' Earth) was blown to Kingdom Come in the sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Oops.

• Oliver Stone's Return of the Apes. Being a time travel fan, I'm diggin' this: "[The film] involved a plague that starts wiping out everyone in the present day — and then a scientist discovers it's a genetic 'time bomb' planted by super-intelligent apes 102,000 years ago. So two humans have to go back in time and stop them." But get this: some executive insisted on a goofy sequence where apes were playing baseball, and wouldn't relent. Film dead.

• Star Trek: The Beginning. This flick "would have bridged the gap between the Enterprise TV series and the original series." A change of regime at Paramount led to this being nixed, and instead we got JJ Abrams' 2009 reboot. Other Trek ideas included: A Walter Koenig (Chekov)-penned sixth film which would have seen the Romulans join the Federation and everyone but Spock and McCoy dying; another sixth film would have focused on Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy; still another was actually titled Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which Gene Roddenberry apparently hated.

• Bryan Singer's X-Men 3. Singer would have had his film focus exclusively on the Phoenix, against whom the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood have to team up to take on. The Danger Room is created, and Phoenix jets Earth to "become a godlike force in space."

• Superman Vs. Batman. Supes has to step in to stop a vengeful Batman after Bats' new bride is murdered. Supposedly this film was close to becoming reality, with Wolfgang Petersen directing.

• Superman Reborn. In the early 90s when Supes was killed by Doomsday, you got it -- a film was in the works. Check out what Warner Bros. had in mind: After Doomsday offs the Man of Steel, his "spirit" settles in ... Lois Lane. She eventually "gives birth to a clone of Superman, who grows to adulthood in a matter of weeks and becomes the new Superman." Got it.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (3)

Comments on this Entry:

(Hoagie on Jun 19, 2013 10:00 PM) Hube, could you explain what The Jaunte is?

(Hube on Jun 19, 2013 10:11 PM) Jaunte: Instant teleportation just by thinking about it.

(Carl on Jun 19, 2013 11:24 PM) I remember seeing a poster for Superman Lives back in the 1990s at a theater by where I lived at the time. I remember thinking to myself, "I can't wait to see this!" But knowing what I do now about the plot details, I'm glad it was never released.

To which Fort Liberty [rightly] tweets that this "reminds me of Biden's racist comment about Indians working at 7-11 and Dunkin Donuts."

At least, yes.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

Honorable Mentions:

• Right Truth – Eighth-Grader Who Refused to Remove NRA Shirt Could Face Year in Prison
• Tina Trent.Com – Don’t Let Anyone Silence You On The Illegal Immigrant Amnesty Bill . . . Especially Other Republicans
• Ask Marion – Sarah Palin Back as Fox News Analyst…
• The Pirate’s Cove – Ted Cruz Files Amendment Requiring ID, Citizenship To Register To Vote

And the non-Council nominations are here!

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

Just imagine what they'd read if, y'know, a certain guy named Bush was still in the White House ...

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Comments on this Entry:

(Carl on Jun 18, 2013 1:02 PM) The hypocrisy I've seen from the left on this and other issues is beyond pathetic. It's okay under Obama, but it was bad under Bush. I don't get it.

(h/t to Twitchy.)

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (2)

Comments on this Entry:

(Hoagie on Jun 18, 2013 11:58 AM) I long ago stopped listening to anything Mark Lamont Hill says about anything. He is so deep into being the "plantation negro" he's beyond help.

(Carl on Jun 18, 2013 12:59 PM) I've always thought Mark Lamont Hill was an idiot. I also despise anyone who supports murderers like Mumia abu-Jamal.

So I think that there's a kind of moral panic, a fear of the end of whiteness that we've been seeing a long time in that I think, you know, Obama's ascension as President kind of symbolizes to a certain degree. And so I think this is one response to that sense that there's a decreasing white majority in the country and that women's bodies and white women's bodies in particular are obviously a crucial way of reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege. And so I think it's just a kind of clamping down on women's bodies, in particular white women's bodies, even though women of color are really caught in the fray.

Of course, what this dolt (University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor Salamisha Tillet) fails to realize is that pro-lifers don't just care about white babies. And, since black women are approximately five times more likely to have an abortion than white women, how is lobbying to eliminate that statistic ... an example of wanting to preserve the white race??? Unbelievable.

Elsewhere, I was alerted to a recent (and past) post by one of my favorite scifi authors, John Scalzi, on the subject of white privilege. Scalzi has written the superb Old Man's War series, the most recent book of which is The Human Division. Unfortunately, Scalzi, like many other a successful liberal, feels the need to assuage his guilt over his having "made it" by giving a rhetorical hat tip to his fellow "progressive" academic types (like the above Professor Salamisha Tillet). But Michael Z. Williamson takes Scalzi to task:

Predictably, when invited to discuss the issue further with the above people, in a polite email, Scalzi completely ignored the issue. I can't presume his motives, but someone did suggest that the purpose of his posts is more to promote his books in the guilt-ridden, white, racist, liberal sellout market than to actually accomplish debate.

I have no doubt from his scribblings that Scalzi played life on the easy setting. Now that he's gotten rich, he needs to properly excoriate his success to avoid being a bad liberal.

An actual racist (I've met a few) would say, "Well, yes, I've done well, because I'm genetically and intellectually better than those lesser races." They would have no reason to get upset with his post, because it would tell them exactly what they wanted to hear: That they're at the top of the heap, awesome.

I had lengthy discussions with black writers and editors about Scalzi's post, and their concurrence seemed to be that it was shallow. I'll go a step further: It was an elitist white male passively-aggressively talking down to others about how awesome he is, but he feels guilty about it, so don't judge him too harshly.

How about going even further? If Scalzi is so guilty about having made it, partly (mainly?) because of the "leg up" he initially started with, why doesn't he abrogate the rights to his published properties to a minority writer and let him/her continue the stories? The same premise applies to the imbecilic Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ed Schultz, et. al.: Really put you money where your mouth is. Resign your position and hand it over to a member of a minority group. Otherwise, you're a bloviating hypocrite like way too many a vocal "progressive."

"So then I said, 'What?? Hand over my intellectual
property to a transgendered Polynesian?'"

UPDATE: Nate notes in the comments a blogger who has dissected Scalzi's "progressivism" quite thoroughly.

UPDATE: Scalzi digs in deeper, claiming he doesn't feel guilty about being a straight white male, and delves further into the usual I-know-better-than-you condescension. In spades.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (11)

Comments on this Entry:

(Arthur on Jun 18, 2013 10:58 AM) I like 'ascension to president'. Divinly appointed was he.

(Carl on Jun 18, 2013 1:06 PM) "Hand over my intellectual property to a transgendered Polynesian." LMAO!! I've never read Scalzi's books, but it's sad that he succumbs to white guilt like way too many progressives these days. This whole white privilege and white liberal guilt nonsense gets old.

(Hube on Jun 18, 2013 4:44 PM) It's sad, with Scalzi. I knew he was a lib, but to wallow in this moronic topic... *sigh* Ironically, it was Insty's Glenn Reynolds who linked to a post which included the Michael Williamson commentary from above -- and Glenn is a huge fan of Scalzi. He plugs his stuff all the time, and Scalzi has hat tipped Glenn in the books I've read.

(Nate on Jun 18, 2013 4:46 PM) Oh John Scalzi... Ed Trimnell here has done SEVERAL posts on him and the ordeal he sparked. Oh Hube, you've just started down the rabbit hole... lol

(Carl on Jun 18, 2013 5:50 PM) Judging from the links that Nate posted, it looks like Scalzi isn't very good at dealing with criticism.

(Hube on Jun 18, 2013 6:11 PM) Sounds VERY familiar, eh Carl?

(Hube on Jun 18, 2013 6:15 PM) Sheesh, I've been reading through a bunch of his stuff on Twitter and he comes off as an obnoxious douche. Just like those in comics we've had to deal with. I don't think I'll be spending any more money on his novels if this is how he treats readers/fans who may disagree w/him.

(Carl on Jun 18, 2013 7:12 PM) Yeah, it does, like our buddy Dan "Set the Record Straight Slott," to name just one example! I've perused his blog in the past, and he comes across as being obnoxious and close-minded. I won't be buying any of his books if that's how he treats fans.

(Carl on Jun 18, 2013 7:30 PM) Isn't Scalzi also friends with Ted Rall?

(Elise Ronan on Jun 19, 2013 6:48 AM) AWWE..I like Scalzi's books. I didn't know he was such a jerk. Pooh. Now his books don't look like fun reading material anymore ):

(Geoffrey Britain on Jun 19, 2013 8:29 AM) When racism was overt, "White privilege" was a valid observation of how opportunity was denied to non-whites. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an implicit admission by a majority of whites that overt racism would no longer be tolerated. From a historic perspective, it died an amazingly quick death. White racism has progressively lessened, demonstrated by the fact that the days of whites blocking opportunities for non-whites are long past. Today, charges of "White privilege" is an invented rationalization, used by the left to avoid looking at the reason whites have continued to do better than blacks and Hispanics. In short, it's the cultural values embraced by a group that determine their economic success. Asian immigrants fiercely embrace education, have the highest college graduation rates, while also possessing a fierce loyalty to family. There are few absent Asian fathers. American's of Asian ancestry are doing exceeding well in today's America. That puts the lie to the left's attempts to cast America as a racist society. The simple truth is that just three things are needed for a group to do well in America. Embracing education, familial loyalty and a strong work ethic are the main factors responsible for success. Asians embrace all three. Hispanics embrace two of the three; familial loyalty and a strong work ethic. The majority of Blacks reject all three. Obviously there are individual exceptions but in the main these characterizations hold true and the relative economic success of these groups exactly mirrors the degree of value that Americans of Asian, Hispanic and Black ancestry place upon these three factors. It's not the color of skin that matters, it's the cultural values embraced.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

Jesse Daniels, 53, is accused of endangering the welfare of children for the actions he took after catching four boys in the act of vandalizing his father-in-law’s home over the weekend. With extensive damage done to the inside of the house, Daniels and his wife called 911 — and he went inside of the residence to confront the boys.

But that’s not all: Daniels put the kids inside of a closet while he waited for authorities to arrive. It was this latter action that created an even bigger legal conundrum.

Two days after this debacle, the police went back to Daniels’ home and arrested him. The parents of the children, claiming that the man threatened the kids with the hammer and was rough with them, insisted that charges be filed. So, Daniels faces four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

The local man could face up to one year in county jail for each offense, meaning that a total of four years of detention, pending Daniels receives the max penalty, could be his ultimate ramification.

The parents insist their angels are "traumatized" by the incident -- by Daniels' supposed threats, that is, not by what they did to the house, natch. Daniels estimates that some $40,000 in damage was done to the residence. One of the parents is demanding increased charges against Daniels ... even though admitting the kids' actions were "unacceptable."

One commenter expresses my own reaction perfectly: "The boys are traumatized? My old man would have traumatized my ass."

Got that right, brother.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Comments on this Entry:

(Carl on Jun 17, 2013 1:20 PM) I like that comment. "My old man would have traumatized my ass." Same here. Parenting as a whole has really gone down hill in recent years; they have no control whatsoever over their kids. In the old days, this guy would've been praised and the kids punished for vandalism. These days, he gets in trouble for defending his father-in-law's house and the kids get a slap on the wrist. It's really sad.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Comments on this Entry:

(Duffy on Jun 17, 2013 12:46 PM) This is just dumb all around. The point of these contests is who is the best looking. This other crap about solving the world's problems is a veneer intended to soothe the perpetually angry feminists who hate these things to begin with. I'd rather they have the talent part where they play an instrument or whatever. At least that's in their wheelhouse. FWIW, it was an overly broad question.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Comments on this Entry:

(Carl on Jun 17, 2013 2:23 PM) No, I don't think we should. I was against the Libya War, too. What did it accomplish? Sure, we got rid of Gaddaffi but that opened up a power vacuum and allowed Al Qaeda to take over North Africa. Personally, I think we should avoid getting involved in nation-building in the Middle East, largely because it hardly ever works.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

Parents who read their kids stories about happy, human-like animals like "Franklin the Turtle" or "Arthur" at bedtime are exposing their kids to racism, materialism, homophobia and patriarchal norms, according to a paper presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Most animals portrayed in children’s books, songs and on clothing send a bad message, according to academics Nora Timmerman and Julia Ostertag: That animals only exist for human use, that humans are better than animals, that animals don’t have their own stories to tell, that it’s fine to “demean” them by cooing over their cuteness. Perhaps worst of all, they say, animals are anthropomorphized to reinforce “socially dominant norms” like nuclear families and gender stereotypes.

Saying "academics" like these clowns "have too much time on their hands" is like saying house flies like excrement. And I'm sure their "theories" have good company.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (1)

Comments on this Entry:

(Carl on Jun 16, 2013 2:13 PM) Yeesh. No wonder why people don't take academics seriously. These idiots are beyond parody, aren't they?

The non-Council winner was Mark Steyn with The All Seeing State.

Full results are here.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

1) Goofy Powers. Everyone I knew guffawed when Supes tossed that "S" from his chest at the bruiser, Non, in his Fortress of Solitude. What was that -- Kryptonian cellophane? And that white beam from the Kryptonians' fingers which did, well, pretty much whatever they wanted? Whaaa ...? And don't get me started on Clark's kiss on Lois which caused her to forget! COME ON!!

Some fans early on thought this was Supes' way of saying "'Sup?"

2) Zod kicks an astronaut; guy barely moves. When Zod, Ursa and Non are freed from the Phantom Zone and land on our moon, they terrorize a few astronauts who are there. Check out when Zod picks up the one -- he kicks him ... but the astronaut merely floats away. With Zod's new yellow sun-induced superpowers and the moon's low gravity, that astronaut should have at least reached escape velocity! After all, a few seconds before, Ursa did pretty much that. Check out the effect of Zod's lame boot:

3) How did the Phantom Zone Trio reshape Mt. Rushmore in, like, two seconds? You tell me, 'cause it's stupid:

4) What super hearing? In the climactic battle in the Fortress of Solitude -- when Zod and co. hold the upper hand (and Lois hostage) -- Superman begins whispering to Luthor (who Zod had ordered killed, again -- more on that in a moment) about "getting them all into this molecule chamber." Uh, wait a second: How is it remotely possible that Zod and crew can't hear every word Supes is saying? (Not to mention how Supes would forget that Zod, et. al., could hear him?)

So, Lex, that Ursa is pretty hot in a goth sorta way, eh?

Speaking of which ...

5) Why do Zod and co. just stand around while Superman and Luthor chat (whisper) to one another? What are they doing? Notice that even the mute Non sorta motions to Luthor while he heads over to Supes in a "Hey, wait a minute" sorta way:

6) Why does Luthor continue to court Zod's "goodwill" after the villain orders his death several times? Seriously. I know Luthor is a maniacal genius psychopath, but there are at least three times Zod orders him killed (the White House, the Daily Planet, Fortress of Solitude) yet Lex is still there trying to wheel and deal with the general. Lex had remarked at the attack on the Daily Planet building that "Ya'd think with all this accumulated knowledge these guys would learn to use a doorknob;" one would think Lex would get the hint that Zod couldn't care less about him, any deals notwithstanding.

7) Dad didn't teach Kal-El very well in those twelve years. Ah, yes -- the 'ol diner scene where a bully trucker kicks the sh** out of a recently depowered Clark Kent. OK, I'll easily buy that the trucker is now stronger; however, what did Jor-El teach his son in those dozen years leading to adulthood? You mean to tell me there wasn't at least one course in fighting techniques and/or self-defense? And if you're thinking that Jor-El probably skipped those lessons because his son is invulnerable on Earth, keep in mind that Clark tells Lois (in the diner, too) that "They knew." Meaning, his parents knew about the potential threat from Zod and co. (and perhaps others).

8) Young kid climbs over rail at Niagara Falls, no one cares. OK, yeah, the mom of this moron won't win any parenting awards, but what about the public in general? Was this Apathy Day in Canada or something? Not to mention -- what kid is this fearless that he'd do something like this?? Lastly, is there a strange gravity gradient or something at the US-Canada border that causes people to fall a lot slower than normal? The kid would'a hit the drink long before Supes got there if there was real gravity.

9) Best winter garb: Thin Members Only jacket and penny loafers. Right after the above-mentioned diner scene, Clark tells Lois he has to go back (to the North Pole) to see if there's some way to regain his powers. So what does he do? He walks there ... with the clothes he's wearing at the moment.

Great for monsoons and tidal waves, too.

10) Zod's heat vision has problems with tankers. After zapping a few cars with his heat vision -- cars which instantly blow up (despite Zod not even having a line-of-sight to their gas tanks), it suddenly takes the General what, a good thirty seconds to attempt to blow up the fuel tank on that tanker??

11) How does a snake bite hurt Ursa? After she, Zod and Non land on the Planet "Hooston," she picks up a rattlesnake to check it out. Like any such snake would, it promptly bites her ... and she reacts in pain! Like ... why? She just got through traveling through the vacuum of space, yet a mere snakebite causes her to wince. Uh huh.

12) "We used to play this game as a kid." In the final battle at the North Pole, Supes inexplicably creates duplicates of himself to confuse Zod and crew. One of these doppelgangers tells Lois "We used to play this game in school; he was never really good at it." I used to think Supes was talking about himself here, y'know, as in here on Earth with his [human] friends. But no -- he's preposterously referring to him and Zod ... as in back on Krypton. Did the producers ever bother to watch the first film? Supes (Kal-El) was an infant on Krypton, and was promptly launched into space by his pop when the planet was about to blow up. Zod was an adult who was caught and sentenced to eternity in the Phantom Zone alongside Ursa and Non. YEESH.

Just don't ask me what I had my duplicates do to Zod.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (3)

Comments on this Entry:

(Carl on Jun 13, 2013 1:37 PM) LOL! Great list, Hube! I'd forgotten just how many plot holes and downright goofy moments there were in Superman II... then again, they did fire Richard Donner and replace him with Richard Lester. Superman III and Superman IV: the Quest for Peace have a lot of WTF moments, too.

(Nate Winchester on Jun 13, 2013 5:24 PM) Man, in the TV edit copy I had of S2, I didn't hear that line at the end (funny how it improves it). Though I always thought the "duplicates" scene was supposed to represent Superman's super-speed. You seen the Donner-cut, Hube? Much better though there are... still a problem or two. Oh, and on the fighting styles thing. I figured he just wasn't used to his new mortal speed. Inside Superman's head: 'Ok, this guy's going to punch me, I should have plenty of time to figure out how to - OH ZOD IT HURTS! When did everybody get so fast?'

(Carl on Jun 13, 2013 5:27 PM) I've seen the Donner cut... it's better than the original, but I hate the ending where he does that "time travel around the globe" thing, which was also used in the first movie. It basically erases everything that happened, even though he still goes back to beat up that trucker in the diner.

Tweet

TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry: