Some stunning views of Middle-earth

The fan community for Outerra - a graphics engine capable of rendering high-quality terrain images from relatively sparse data - has recreated Tolkien's Middle-earth using the software. This has resulted in some stunning and impressive views, especially considering this is only an alpha version.

You can see more pictures here and here, and a discussion on the Outerra forum here. The dedicated Middle-earth project website can be found here. Plus there's also a tech demo video:

This could be the next big thing for fantasy cartography. Westeros or Faerun next?

28th Teddy Awards Winners

As of this moment the awards are being announced and I'm updating post with winners as soon as organizers tweet the winner.

A Special Teddy Award for lifetime achievement goes to Elfie Mikesch, photographer and director of photography of films by Werner Schoeter, Rosa v. Praunheim and others.

No one is suprised when a gay interest film wins the top award this year as almost all films in competition were NOT lesbian interest, sigh.  Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho by Daniel Ribeiro is the big winner of this edition.

Winners are in *BLUE.  Winners will be at official site probably by tomorrow.

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1/28/14
To my surprise today organizers announced the films that will compete to the most famous LGBT award and as every year there are more gay than lesbian interest films; but this year is truly pathetic as all except two films are with gay interest. Sigh.

Still there is one film that absolutely called my attention, Ye by Zhou Hao, as film description includes the following: "In his visually impressive, sensual debut film in which he also plays the leading role this 21-year-old director demonstrates all the poetic intensity of a Jean Genet in describing these three misfits’ mute search for intimacy." Awesome description that hope is accurate when finally I'm able to see film. Of course I'm looking forward to see Jalil Lepsert's Yves Saint Laurent that already was released in France with moderate box office success.

As we know, the Teddy Award is a "societal engaged political award, which is given to films and people, that communicate queer themes and content on a large scale and contribute with this to more tolerance, acceptance, solidarity and equality in society". The slogan of this year’s is Celebrate Queer Icons! an acclamation of the lives and works of gay men, lesbians, bisexual men and women, transgender, closet queens and raging queers. One Teddy goes to a feature film, another to a documentary and another one to a short film.

Award ceremony will be on February 14 at Komische Oper Berlin and on Saturday, February 15 at 11:25 pm Arte Television will broadcast the award ceremony in German; the French version will be on Sunday, February 16, at 00:05.

To check information about each film in English you have to search for each movie name in here or read the magazine below.

Feature Films
Competition
Praia do Futuro, Karim Aïnouz, Brazil and Germany (G)

Panorama
Fieber (Fever), Elfi Mikesch, Luxembourg and Austria (L)
*Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho, Daniel Ribeiro, Brazil (G) Best Film Winner
Love is Strange, Ira Sachs, USA (G)
Papilio Buddha, Jayan Cherian, India
Quick Change, Eduardo Roy Jr., Philippines (T)
Test, Chris Mason Johnson, USA (G)
Unfriend, Joselito Altarejos, Phillipines, (G)
Viharsarok (Land of Storms), Ádám Császi, Hungary and Germany (G)
Ya Gan Bi Haeng (Night Flight), LeeSong Hee-il, South Korea (G)
Ye (The Night), Zhou Hao (G) - Must Be Seen!!
Yves Saint Laurent, Jalil Lepsert, France (G)

Generation
52 Tuesdays, Sophie Hyde, Australia (T)
Feriado (Holiday), Diego Araujo, Ecuador and Argentina (G)

Forum
Castanha, David Pretto, Brazil (T)
*Pierrot Lunaire, Bruce LaBruce, Germany and Canada (G) Special Jury Prize Winner

Perspektive Deutches Kino
Der Samurai, Till Kleinert, Germany (G)

Berlinale Classics
Caravagio, Derek Jarman, UK, 1986 (G)
Sebastiane, Derek Jarman, UK, 1976 (G)

Documentaries
Panorama
The Dog, Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren, USA (T)
Felice chi è diverso (Happy to Be Different), Gianni Amelio, Italy (G)
Finding Vivian Maier, John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, USA (?) (Of Course is Must Be Seen)
Fucking Different XXY, several directors, Germany, (T)
*Der Kreis (The Circle), Stefan Haupt, Switzerland (G) Best Documentary Winner
Though a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and The Emergence Of A People, Thomas Allen Harris, USA (?)
Vulva 3.0, Claudia Richarz and Ulrike Zimmermann, Germany (?)

Short Films

Short Film Competition
As Rosas Brancas (The White Roses), Diogo Costa Amarante, 20' (?)

Generation
Ibhokhwe (The Goat), John Trengove, South Africa, 12' (G)
Tits, Alex Winckler, UK, 16' (G)
Vetrarmorgun (Winter Morning), Sakaris Stórá, Faroe Islands, 19' (L)

Panorama
Mario Wirz, Rosa von Praunheim, Germany, 15' (G)

Forum
Bim, Bam, Boom, Las Luchas Morenas, Marie Losier, USA, Denmark and Mexico, 12' (L?)
*Mondial 2010, Roy Dib, Lebanon, 19' (G) Best Short Film Winner

Perspektive Deutsches Kino
El Carro Azul (The Blue Car), Valerie Heine, Germany, 20' (G?)

Check some trailers @MOC.

Teddy Award Jury
Martaen Rabarts, New Zealand
Ana David, Portugal
Andrew Murphy, Canada
Dave Kim, South Korea
Ellen Becht, Germany
Julian David Correa, Colombia
Lucia Kajankova, Czech Republic
Masha Godovannaya, Russia
Oscar Erikkson, Sweden

To read the complete press release go here but the below magazine is much better, available in German and English.

GoG releases DUNGEON KEEPER for free

GoG have started a Valentine's weekend giveaway. Until Sunday, you can get the original Dungeon Keeper and its expansion pack, The Deeper Dungeons, absolutely free. All you need is a GoG account, which takes just a few seconds to set up if you haven't already got on. You can also get Dungeon Keeper 2 at 75% off its normal (very low) price, which currently works out $1.49 (so, not free but almost).

Dungeon Keeper was originally released in 1997 by the legendary Bullfrog Studios, the same company behind classics such as Populous, Powermonger, Margic Carpet, Theme Hospital and Syndicate. It's a dungeon management game where you play the dungeon keeper, digging out new rooms, giving homes to monsters and setting up puzzles and traps to defeat the invading heroes. It's still one of the (relatively) few games where you play the bad guy. Dungeon Keeper 2, released in 1999, retained much of the same classic gameplay but moved the series into full 3D graphics.

Both games were originally released for Windows 95, but GoG have tweaked them both to work - relatively - stress-free on modern systems. They are both absolutely brilliant, so frankly going to get them for nothing (or almost) is a no-brainer.

Electronic Arts recently caused huge controversy by releasing a mobile/F2P version of Dungeon Keeper for tablets and phones that was absolutely terrible, forcing the player to spend significant amounts of real-world cash to progress anywhere. GoG's move means that people can instead sample the original, superb games for nothing (or almost).

Two new novels from Paul Kearney

Paul Kearney has two new novels in the pipeline. First up is Umbra Sumus, a Warhammer 40,000 novel about Space Marines, which is a stand-alone right now but has sequel potential. The novel features a new chapter of Space Marines and is tentatively planned for publication by the Black Library at the end of 2014 or start of 2015.

Paul has also been contracted for a new novel by Solaris. The Wolf in the Attic is a stand-alone fantasy novel and will be set in Oxford in the 1930s. From the sound of it, it marks Kearney's return to the stand-alone, less epic kind of storytelling of his first three novels. The blurb is as follows:

The novel is set in very early 1930′s Oxford, features Tolkien and Lewis as characters, and is told from the point of view of a lonely 11 year old girl. She’s Greek, a refugee from the sack of Smyrna, and one day discovers a Romany boy in her attic. The boy is a shape-shifter, and becomes her friend. The two begin to explore the world around Oxford, discovering things they never imagined existed. The girl, Anna, is obsessed by the Odyssey, and likens the Romany boy, Luca, to Odysseus.

The Wolf in the Attic will be published in Autumn 2015.

Paul talks about the process that led to the writing of the new novel here, and discusses his recent backlist reissues and Umbra Sumus here.

12th Annual VES Awards Winners

Last night the group had their awards ceremony and there were no surprises as not only Alfonso Cuarón received from Sandra Bullock the Visionary Award but won the award that many -including me- believe will mean an Oscar for Gravity.

As a matter of fact Gravity won six awards including Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture.

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in other categories go here.

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1/14/14
Today the Visual Effects Society announced the nominations for the current edition that will recognize outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation in different industry categories.

The awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday, February 12 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel where Alfonso Cuarón will receive the Visionary Award in recognition of his extraordinary career

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture
*Gravity
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Star Trek: Into Darkness
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
Rush
The Great Gatsby
*The Lone Ranger
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Wolf of Wall Street
White House Down

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
Despicable Me 2
*Frozen
Monsters University
The Croods

To learn the nominees from each movie as well as nominations in other categories go here.

RIP Campbell Lane

Canadian actor Campbell Lane passed away on 30 January at the age of 79. SFF fans may not recognise the name, but they'll be familiar with some of his work.

Homeworld's classic opening cinematic, narrated by Campbell Lane.

Lane is best-known as the narrator of the Homeworld series of games. He also played the voice of the Bentusi species and appeared in all three games released to date (Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm and Homeworld 2). Fans were hoping he would return for the upcoming prequel, Homeworld: Shipbreakers but clearly this will not now happen.

Lane's other genre credits include playing the First Hybrid in the Battlestar Galactica TV movie Razor and playing the voice of Rampage on the Transformers: Beast Wars animated series. He played three different roles on The X-Files (including the recurring role of the Committee Chairman) and also appeared on First Wave.

Campbell Lane as the First Hybrid on BSG. He was the go-to actor for distinctive and foreboding voice-overs.

His other voice work included playing the English-language narrator for Gundam Wing, Mastermind on X-Men: Evolution and Skeletor on The New Adventures of He-Man.

Lane had a highly distinctive, gravelly voice which was immediately recognisable. An accomplished voice actor, his tones will be missed from Homeworld: Shipbreaker and other potential projects.

The Lego Movie

In a world made of Lego bricks, Emmet Brickowski is an ordinary engineer. He is content with his strictly regimented life, brushing his teeth, going to work, listening to music and eating all on a set schedule. He builds things according to the instructions and has never had an original thought in his head...apart from a secret desire to build a double-decker sofa.

Brickowski is thus shocked to discover the Piece of Resistance, an enigmatic device that is the only thing that can stop 'The Kragle', a superweapon controlled by Lord Business. This discovery was prophesied, marking Brickowski out to be 'The Special', a hero figure. But when it becomes clear that Emmet has no imagination or ability to build things without instructions, his allies must rally round and help him achieve his destiny.


The Lego Movie is, wait for it, a movie based on Lego, the Danish construction toy which is probably the single most popular toy line ever created. Lego can be used for many things, but one of the things it lacks is a narrative, with modern Lego sets often being based on pre-existing popular franchises. Cleverly, the film takes this idea and runs with it as its central theme.

The Lego Movie is a story about the struggle between order, pre-planning and logic (exemplified by the instructions and themed Lego sets) and chaos, creative freedom and throwing things together to see what happens (exemplified by putting things together randomly to see what you get). This is a bit of a bold choice as it seems to be saying that if you're offered the choice between a £300 Star Wars-themed set which requires you to vigorously follow the instructions and a cheap, random assortment of bricks you can make anything out of, you should go for the latter every time, something Lego accountants might not be too happy with. This theme is then developed into the idea that creative freedom is better than following orthodoxy and that everyone who manages to create something interesting and make their own choices is 'special'. It's fairly straightforward and simple as themes go, but it is used and explored in unusual depth.

The film is well-characterised with some fine vocal performances. The casting is fairly geek-tastic, mixing big names (Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks) and TV comedy stars (Chris Pratt from Parks and Recreation, Alison Brie from Community, Will Arnett from Arrested Development, Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Relatively big names like Channing Tatum and, randomly, Shaquille O'Neal also make cameo appearances. The characters are a mix of newcomers, like Emmet (Pratt) and Wyldstyle (Banks), and crossover characters from Lego's vast array of licences. Batman (Arnett) is the most prominent such character, though we also get brief appearances from the likes of Superman (Tatum), Gandalf and Dumbledore. The big-name characters mostly appear for comical purposes (Dumbledore and Gandalf getting into an old wise man beard-off argument; Superman trying desperately to avoid hanging out with a fanboying Green Lantern) and a few make 'shocking', audience-pleasing surprise twist appearances, at least one of which brought the house down. The vocal performances are all accomplished and do a good job of selling the characters.

The animation is pretty good, especially as it deliberately dials back shiny CGI in favour of a more 'used' aesthetic that makes all of the Lego pieces used in the film look like they've been taken out of someone's box, mixed up and then constructed. In many places the animation looks like stop motion rather than the CGI it really is. The animation is inventive and the film-makers strike a good balance between making things fast-moving and fun and going for sensory overload.

The story is also surprisingly decent, mainly because the directors are not interested in making a simple movie that follows a cliched coming of age storyline. Instead the film attempts to deconstruct the Hero's Journey by casting doubt on the whole idea of 'the chosen one' and suggesting that violence and explosions aren't the answer to everything (although, cheesily, there's still quite a lot of Lego-ified violence and brick-based explosions in the film in a good example of having your cake and eating it). Most animated kids' films these days include some sort of sop to the adult audience, whether it's risque jokes that fly over the kids' heads or amusingly ironic vocal performances, but The Lego Movie takes things a whole step further by trying to simultaneously play around with and undercut the cliches and tropes of modern CG kids' movies whilst also crafting a film that kids will enjoy.

They more or less pull this off, though there's a few moments towards the ending (including one 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque moment that I suspect will be very divisive; the kids I saw the film with seemed to hate it and couldn't wait for the film to return to its previous mode, which fortunately it does) when the movie's preoccupation with not being a predictable kid's film risks it instead flying up its own posterior. It does manage to - just about - avoid that, helped by some very funny final moments (and the last line and 'cliffhanger ending' are superb) and a resolution that is both original and spectacular.

Unfortunately, the writers' creative angst is detectable on screen and as a result the films suffers from pacing and character issues which prevent it from going toe-to-toe with, say, Pixar's big hitters (films like Up and Wall-E are far more consistent in quality and have vastly more emotional depth to them). Predictably, the film's female characters have a couple of moments in the sun and are then sidelined for the rest of the movie whilst the boys get on with resolving everything (reflecting gender issues with Lego toys in general). The film's worldbuilding is also inconsistent: at various moments the characters seem able to build anything out of anything in seconds to solve problems, but at others are utterly stumped at what to do next, despite being still presumably able to construct a jet fighter out of some rocks and a couple of street lights.

Ultimately, The Lego Movie (****) is brash, fun and tries to be more than just another commercial to sell toys. Indeed, in some respects it is wickedly subversive in doing the exact opposite of what you'd expect a toy tie-in film to do. There's also some real narrative ambition here. There's some great moments of character, some good laughs and a lot of visual invention. But the film also overreaches, and denies itself from achieving true greatness by occasionally tying itself in knots in trying to be both an entertaining kid's movie and a revisionist mickey-take of kids' movies to keep the adults awake. Certainly enjoyable and well worth watching for its ambition, The Lego Movie is on general release now.