Terra Nova cancelled
- FOX announced that there would be no second season for Terra Nova, at least not on their network. The show was a modest ratings success, but not the blockbuster hit it needed to be to justify its expense. It never came together well creatively either. FOX was trying to figure out how to tweak a potential second season, but gave up.
I'm not a fan of the mediocre relationship drama of the show - especially the way it sidelines the dinosaurs - but my son likes it pretty well and I've heard from other fans who are disappointed by this news. There may be a glimmer of hope for those folks. Though nothing's been signed yet, Netflix is thinking about picking it up.
My new favorite Tarzan movie
- Over at Flick Attack, I reviewed Tarzan and the Valley of Gold.
MIT Certificates of Piracy
- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has had a secret pirate program this whole time.
Ron Ely Tarzan series on DVD
- Finally! When I was growing up, this was my Tarzan. [Atomic Pulp]
Kickstart an ERB documentary
- Filmmaker Mark Linthicum is hoping to crowdsource a film exploring the life, imagination, and legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
James Cameron's 3D underwater documentary
- The Titanic filmmaker already has co-funding for his trip to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench and Deepsea Challenge, the film documenting it.
Tarzan arrested for keeping tigers
- Steve Sipek (aka Steve Hawkes) starred in a couple of Spanish/Italian Tarzan films in 1969 and 1972. It was during the filming of the second of these, Tarzan and the Brown Prince that something amazing happened. According to The Wild Eye:
During the shooting of a scene in which Tarzan had been tied down to be tortured, some spilled fuel ignited. The crew scattered, leaving Sipek tethered to two iron stakes at the centre of the flames. Tied to his arm on the end of a long rope was Sampson, a lion trained to rush to his rescue and rip off the restraints when given the cue.
“As the fire came towards me, I pulled hard on the rope and Sampson came charging in,” recalls Sipek. “He pulled off the rope and dragged me out and my life changed for ever. I said that if I lived, I would care for any animal that needed me.”Sipek kept that promise and opened an animal sanctuary called Jungleworld in Florida. He and his animals were in the news several years ago when one of his tigers escaped and was killed by a wildlife officer. The Daily Mail reports that Florida wildlife officials began looking into Sipek's sanctuary again this past October and after a lengthy investigation determined that Sipek didn't have the proper licenses or training to keep his animals and that the compound was a threat to public safety. He was arrested on misdemeanor charges.
RIP Disney songwriter Robert B Sherman
- He wrote the songs for The Jungle Book along with many other Disney movies from that era. He passed away on Monday at the age of 86.
Lots of cool projects coming
- David Gallaher and Steve Ellis (High Moon) are trying to Kickstart The Only Living Boy, a four-volume series of 50-page comics "inspired by pulp adventure novels[...]like John Carter, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Killraven, and the Jungle Book." [Robot 6]
- Jeff Lemire (Animal Man, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE) will have a new graphic novel in August about an expectant father who encounters something strange deep in the sea. Top Shelf describes The Underwater Welder as "equal parts blue-collar character study and mind-bending science fiction epic."
- How did I not know about a 380-page graphic novel about a cowgirl who wears a yellow string-bikini? Bikini Cowboy has been out since last fall and I'm just now getting it.
will feature a a girl protagonist and pirates. [
