Awesome List: Yet more Indy, your new Red Sonja, Tiki Joe Mysteries, and more

Aliens in Indiana Jones?

I know a lot of people were bugged by the scifi element in Crystal Skull, but they're forgetting that there's a precedence for it. As far back as Raiders there's evidence that our ancient civilizations had contact with life - droid life, anyway - from the stars.



"Indy! No hitting!"

I still have a lot of Indy links to post. Like this one about how the Indiana Jones stunt show at Disneyland will no longer feature Dr. Jones' directly hitting anyone. One of the senior show directors said that even though there haven't been a lot of complaints, there "will be more pushes and shoves than direct hits." Crowds don't seem to like it when he punches Irina Spalko. Stupid crowds.

Re-reading the article, I notice that it says three punches are being removed, but it doesn't say how many punches Indy used to throw. So I suppose he could've thrown about 20, leaving 17 of them intact. I wouldn't bet money on it though.

Incidentally, I got to be in the Indy stunt show at Disney World last time I was there. I'll have to scan some pictures from that.

Waiting for Dr. Jones



And speaking Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure, this guy's taken tons of pictures of the queue. Disney sure knows how to make waiting in line fun.

Indy party!

Want to throw an Indiana Jones-themed shindig? Here's how. [Link is dead and has been removed at the request of the linkee.]

Indiana Jones makes bath time better

Indy towels.

Red Sonja casting



Apparently Rose McGowan is your new Red Sonja. This is older news and there was a minor hitch in it thanks to a tabloid's reporting that Rose and Red Sonja producer Robert Rodriguez had broken up. Rose has denied that rumor though and will be at San Diego Comic-Con with Rodriguez to promote the movie, so it sounds like she's still in. (For Barbarella, too.)

And in other Unlikely Casting news...



Here's Seth Rogen to defend why he's playing the Green Hornet.

For years we'd really been trying to write a movie that was kind of about a hero
and his sidekick. When we heard the Green Hornet movie was up for grabs, we
thought that could be the perfect way to do this story, because he is the only
hero whose sidekick is more known than he is.

More about space opera

Related to Monday's post about the relevance of space opera, Barnes & Noble ran a nice overview of the genre. Paul DiFilippo looks at it's history and talks about not only the successes, but what hasn't worked and why. Interesting stuff.

Tiki Joe Mysteries



I'm all for more murder and mayhem in the Pacific islands. Even if it doesn't include a hot detective or the walking dead.

Links: Joker pic, Flash Gordon news, and the Money Shot

Mystery

• I don't know Christa Faust, but we have some mutual friends, so I was immediately curious about her new novel Money Shot coming out next year from Hard Case Crime. The cover is amazing (as Hard Case covers are), but the sample chapter and the plot description are what got me: "It all began with the phone call asking former porn star Angel Dare to do one more movie. Before she knew it, she’d been shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car. But Angel is a survivor. And that means she’ll get to the bottom of what’s been done to her even if she has to leave a trail of bodies along the way..."
• Not really sure what category to put this under, but since it's a shirt that spoils the twist endings to a lot of movies and books, I'll put it here. Careful about clicking the link though. Even though most of the movies are older, there are a couple that I haven't seen yet, and you might not have either. And if you're watching the Harry Potter movies, but haven't read the books, well... you've been warned. Still, it's a great shirt and worth checking out, even if you'd have to be kind of jerk to wear it around.

Science Fiction

• Disney-MGM has some awesome ads for their Star Wars Weekends event this June. Fer instance:



• The Barbarella remake has a director and he's a good one. Now I just gotta get in touch with him about having Duran Duran do the theme song.
• Entertainment Weekly has some dirt on the Sci Fi Channel's Flash Gordon show. I'm undecided about some of the changes they're going to be making. Earth and Mongo's being connected by a wormhole instead of spaceships will take some getting used to, but it does make a lot more sense than having Mongo flying all over the galaxy under its own power. I'm glad to see that Ming will be fleshed out into a villain with deeper motivations than just Wants to Rule the Universe. I'm disappointed though that Flash and Dale are exes. One of my favorite parts of the old serial was watching them fall in love (especially with Princess Aura around to complicate the process) and I feel cheated that we're not going to get to see that in this version.

Superheroes

• I wasn't sure whether or not to link yesterday to the site with the image of Heath Ledger as the Joker from The Dark Knight. There was some question about the site's authenticity, so I just let it go. Shouldn't have though, because apparently it's for real. I've read some criticism about the makeup and how it's not accurate to the comics, but whatever. This is far scarier than anything the comics have ever been able to convey. Congratulations to Christopher Nolan, the make-up artists, and Heath Ledger. I'm still a little creeped out.
• I haven't done these comics meme things before, but I've wanted to. The Invincible Super-Blog is responsible for this one:

Writing is Hard

• One of the most useful (and entertaining) blogs for writers for the last two years has been Miss Snark's. I've only discovered it in the last few months, but I was still very disappointed when I visited yesterday and learned that she's closing it down. I'm going to miss her daily wisdom and humor, but I totally get her reasons for needing to call it done. At least she's keeping her archives open for those times when I really gotta know something.
• Maybe The Rejecter will be able to fill the Snark-sized hole in my Reader.