A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Warning: This article contains potential spoilers. Well, I finally picked up the movie of 1933’s “The Invisible Man” at my local library and refreshed myself on it. (I can’t remember when I saw it before then.) And so today’s Book-To-Movie (once again having been postponed by a week ) will review it, the 2020 remake and the book the two are based on. Since the 1990s’ “Mummy”, Universal Studios has been making remakes of its classic monster films. Occasionally, at least. Most of its remakes seem to continue floating around in the pre-production phase and therefore are simply still in the talks. Not even “Frankenstein” or “Dracula”, which are both literary and movie classics, have been remade by Universal yet. (However, lately, Universal has been considering a new “Bride of Frankenstein” movie .) But “The Invisible Man” is the first Universal monster film remake that’s original had been adapted from a book. Both the 1930s original and the 2020 remake ...

Credit: Pixabay I know, it’s the third Saturday of the month when we’re supposed to have a Book-To-Movie review but I am going to have to postpone it until next weekend. The county I live in is still sheltering in place and so the DVD of the movie I’ve been wanting to review along with its book, “The Invisible Man”, is stuck inside my local library which is closed. I requested it through interlibrary loan but when it came, back in mid-March, the shelter-in-place mandate was just beginning. I was going to review another book and its movie adaptations this evening but the only place I know of where I can rent the movie at this time is Amazon’s IMDB TV platform. By the time I was able to figure out last night how Amazon wanted me to log into IMDB TV it was already late. The movie was 2008’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” based on the book by the same name, written by Jules Verne. So, it looks like that will be next weekend’s postponed Book-To-Movie. In this weekend’s post I have so...

Credit: Pixabay The closest I’ve come to reading Stephen King’s early novel, “Salem’s Lot”, was the short story prequel called “Jerusalem’s Lot”. I read it in his collection, “Night Shift”. However, I’ve always wanted to read his novel about a vampire-infested New England town but have not been able to find an edition that I cared to purchase. (Yes, I’m picky when it comes to editions of certain books, mostly due to their cover illustrations .) But now that a big screen movie adaptation of “Salem’s Lot” is in the works, I feel more eager to read any edition I can get my hands on. A TV series of the prequel short story is also in the plan. 'Salem’s Lot': The Movie Gary Dauberman has been chosen to direct the new “Salem’s Lot” movie. Prior to that, he had already written a draft of the screenplay, according to “Science Fiction” . “Science Fiction” also says he will serve as executive producer too. Dauberman has written screenplays for many of the “The Conjuring” movies...

Credit: Pixabay.com Summer is already nearing its end. Typically the summer months are thought to be June through August but the season doesn’t officially end until around the 20th of September. Still, that will be here before we know it! So we should savor these last few weeks of the sunny skies before the dark months of autumn come. Yet, I look forward to it. So I thought I’d savor the summer moment by going over my current projects that I’m working on and look forward to the groovy moments of the fall by previewing what’s to come both in terms of my own writing and of  movies. Particularly horror movies based on horror novels!  Current Writing Projects As many of you may know, I’m mostly a short story writer and so rarely write long works. However, I’ve been working on a novella that I had written the first draft to about two years ago .  And after seven months I just finished a first reading for revisions Thursday night! So I’m ready to go on to the...

Credit: Pixabay.com It’s time for some Lightning News Flashes ! Lightning News Flashes are, here at the Fantastic Site, searing news bits and bites in the science fiction and fantasy scene especially in relation to books in the genres. Tonight’s news flashes: a space opera novel by Catherynne Valente that will be adapted to film; the young adult series of horror novels, Ameri-Scares , that will be adapted for television; and a rising demand in the horror fiction market. Screenwriter Selected for Film Adaptation of Funny Sci Fi Novel   According to Deadline , Universal has selected Joe Epstein to write the screenplay to Catherynne Valente’s funny sci fi novel, Space Opera . The plan is to give the movie a music theme, which makes sense: the novel’s story involves a galactic music competition. The story’s heroes are Decibel Jones and his band, the Absolute Zeroes, who represent Earth in the competition. The prize?  The winner’s species will be held in high honour....

Credit: Pixabay.com I have some lightning news flashes on the releases, including re-releases, of dark fantasy and horror novels. But first, in case you missed it, my second post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) is up. So you can view it here .   The IWSG is a network of author-bloggers who discuss the challenges of writing and how to deal with them. Even if you aren’t a writer, the posts that IWSG puts out can give you some fascinating insight on what goes into our work. This is especially a plus if you are an avid reader who digs behind-the-scenes! So check it out if you haven’t already. And now for literary lightning news flashes on releases of some dark fantasy and horror novels . . . Pan’s Labyrinth Novel Adaptation The 2006 Oscar-winning film, Pan’s Labyrinth , is being adapted into a novel according to / Film . The film’s director, Guillermo del Toro (the Hellboy movies) is collaborating with best-selling author Corne...