Moffat promises new Who monsters

Steven Moffat has told Doctor Who fans to expect "new monsters" when he becomes the show's executive producer and lead writer. Moffat, who is replacing executive producer Russell T Davies, was speaking at arts and comic book convention Comic-Con in California. He told fans not to expect too many appearances from old characters.

"We're not in the business of being nostalgic, we're making nostalgia for the future, new monsters, new friends."

He was responding to their questions about the possibility of guest appearances from old characters - such as ex-Doctor Who companion Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen in the 1970s - as well as old enemies.

He told the San Diego convention: "Doctor Who is at its best when it's brand new and you've always got to remember that there's a new bunch of eight-year-olds watching every year and it has to be original - it has to belong to them."

But he said continuity when old characters did return was not difficult to achieve.

"Having taken the precaution of having memorised every single event in Doctor Who's history, it's fairly easy for me to keep continuity because I remember it all.

"In the end, a television series which embraces both the ideas of parallel universe and the concept of changing time can't have a continuity error - it can't.

"It's impossible for Doctor Who to get it wrong because we can just say 'he changed time, it's a time warp, it happens'."

'Just exciting'

Moffat has already written some of the most memorable Doctor Who episodes of recent times including Blink , of series three - which featured terrifying weeping angels - for which he picked up the best writer Bafta earlier this year.

Asked about his reputation for writing scary episodes he said: "If people are worried that because I'm taking over Doctor Who it's going to be just really, really frightening, if that's your concern then… tough."

He also spoke to fans for the first time about getting the job he has "always wanted".

The writer said the prospect of taking over from Davies for the fifth series - due to be shown on BBC One in spring 2010 - was "just exciting". It was announced he was taking the job in May.

"I suppose it should be daunting or nerve-wracking but it's not a real job like working in a hospital - it's just fun."

He added: "I mean it's hard work too but most things that are fun are hard work."

Last week, Moffat denied a newspaper report that he "quit" a deal to work on Steven Spielberg's forthcoming Tintin trilogy because of the doctor Who job.

A newspaper report that he had "turned down" a two-film deal with Spielberg was "a bit misleading", he told the BBC News website.

He had planned to finish Tintin before starting Doctor Who but was delayed by the US writers' strike, he added.

Davies will remain in charge of four specials to be shown in 2009.

Black Gate #12 available as free pdf for a limited time

To promote the fact that Black Gate is now available as a pdf file, in addition to the usual print edition, issue #12 (Summer 2008) is being offered as a free download "for a limited time." To access the free magazine, subtitled "Adventures in Fantasy Literature," see blackgate.com, where you can download the magazine as one complete, 18.9 Mb file, or as two smaller pieces (10.8 and 8.2 Mb).

The contents of this issue include:

Fiction:
"Oblivion is the Sweetest Wine" by John R. Fultz
"Payment in Full" by James Enge
"Houses of the Dead" by Martha Wells
"The Wily Thing" by Constance Cooper
"The Soldiers of Serenity" by Todd McAulty
"Knives Under the Spring Moon" by Ed Carmien
"Whispers from the Stone" by Howard Andrew Jones
"Tumithak and the Ancient Word" by Charles R. Tanner (classic reprint)

Feature:
"Legends of the Ancient World: Orcs of the High Mountains" by Jerry Meyer, Jr. (a solo adventure game story)

Columns:
Gaming: Fantasy Game Reviews by Howard Andrew Jones
Book Reviews

Departments:
Editorial: "Solitaire Fantasy Gaming" by John O'Neill
Letters
Knights of the Dinner Table: "The Java Joint" by Jolly Blackburn, Steve Johansson, and John O'Neill (comic strip)

Cover art is by Bruce Pennington; interior art by Storn Cook, Mark Evans, John Kaufmann, Chuck Lukacs, Michael Vilardi, and John Woolley.

Black Gate is published quarterly by New Epoch Press; published and edited by John O'Neill; Howard Andrew Jones is the managing editor, and Rich Horton and Todd McAulty are the contributing editors.

Tech Company That Junked Unopened Rebate Claims Pays $10k In Fines

It's no secret that most people hate rebate programs. They're a pain to deal with, so many people don't even send in the rebate forms -- and then, the various companies that receive them often go out of their way to find reasons to reject them. However, a tech company in San Jose named Vastech went a bit further than that. Rather than coming up with ways to void the rebates, it was caught having thrown over a thousand unopened rebate claims into the garbage. The company has now paid up on all the rebates that it had junked and has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine on top of that. To be honest, that seems rather low for deceiving the public.

Let's Sue YouTube

While we all wait for the outcome of Viacom's billion dollar lawsuit against YouTube, it appears that some other media companies aren't waiting around. Italian media firm MediaSet, which just so happens to be owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has sued YouTube and Google for $779 million (almost as much as Viacom is suing for!). MediaSet claims that the 4,643 videos on YouTube that infringe on its copyrights have cost it 315,700 viewer days. Apparently, MediaSet prefers not to take into consideration (a) that most videos on YouTube are limited to under 10 minutes, meaning that it's a poor replacement for watching on TV and (b) that people who watch on YouTube aren't necessarily people who would have watched it on TV and (c) that folks who watch something on YouTube may, in turn, be convinced to watch a show on TV that they wouldn't have watched otherwise. Why bother with little pesky details like that when you can just sue a huge company that has a lot of cash. Given that the Italian government is already trying to put Google execs in jail over some YouTube videos, this looks like a larger Italian campaign against YouTube in general.

Feldman Bares All In Lost Boys 2

Corey Feldman, who appears in the upcoming DVD sequel Lost Boys: The Tribe, told SCI FI Wire that he reveals "a little more of the emotional backdrop of what goes on inside Edgar Frog's mind" as he revisits his famous role from 1987's original The Lost Boys.
"You've got a guy that's been over the trenches, that's been in the battles, and now this is his way of life," Feldman said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend.
Part of that new adult way of life includes a sex scene between Feldman as Frog and a male vampire during the course of the film. Originally reluctant to tackle the scene, Feldman credits director P.J. Pesce for "being adventurous in the idea." He added: "I think we pull it off. It just gives a little more inside of what he's thinking, what makes him tick."
Lost Boys: The Tribe is the sequel to the hit '80s teen vampire movie. Tribe focuses primarily on a new set of characters, with Tad Hilgenbrink and Autumn Reeser starring as newcomers to the vampire-infested town of Luna Bay. Angus Sutherland--brother of original Lost Boys star Kiefer Sutherland--takes on the role of the new head vampire, who has a love affair with Reeser's character.
Pesce's goal was to recapture the essence of what made the original film so popular, while providing viewers with a fresh story. "The thing that was so special about the first movie was the tone ... an open-eyed look at what if a family member was actually a vampire," Pesce said in a separate interview. "Well, it's such an absurd idea that it has to be approached with humor. Our number-one mandate that I gave to myself and to them was, 'What would you really do?' ... This has got to be truthful. Humor grows out of that, and that sense of absurdist ... realization that [one of] your family is a member of the undead."
Feldman added: "It's really its own movie. ... It stands alone. But it also certainly pays homage to the other movie."
Fans looking for familiar faces from the original film won't be disappointed. "There's lots of ... character tie-ins that we did," Feldman said. "Obviously, having Angus Sutherland playing the bad vampire is a nice nod to his brother doing the original. We have Corey [Haim] and Jamison [Newlander] there as cameos."

A ‘Monsters, Inc.’ Sequel

They did it with “Toy Story” twice. They’re doing it with “Cars” next. They’ve been rumored to want to do it with “The Incredibles” for years. Pixar is officially in the sequel business these days, with further installments of some of their most popular franchises in the works. So how come we never hear about “Monsters, Inc. 2”? “We’ve thought about it,” “Monsters, Inc.” director Pete Doctor told MTV News about the possibility for a sequel. “We’ve got a couple ideas.” In the moment, those ideas are being filtered into a “Monsters, Inc” roller-coaster at the Walt Disney Resorts, which should open in a couple of years. But a movie? Doctor’s revelation, of course, is a far cry from an actual announcement. Or is it? When I followed up with Doctor about the nature of the ideas all he would say is “I can neither confirm nor deny.” (And he did it in a nervous voice). Is it a denial? A non-denial denial? An admission we’re on to something?

Robocop To Be Rated R

In welcome news today from MTV.com comes word that the Darren Aronofsky-helmed Robocop reboot will probably be rated R. This is very good news. Some people were concerned that MGM would push for a more teen-friendly PG-13 rating for this “re-imagining instead of an R rating that would be more in line with the original film directed by Paul Vorhoeven from way back in 1987. As a matter of fact the original was so violent that it had to be trimmed down to acheive its R rating because the MPAA gave the first cut of the film an X rating. Producer Mike Medavoy had this to say about the film:

“Well I was involved with the original ‘Robocop,’ and it was an R, and the likelihood is that this will be an R. It’s likely to be an R unless the director cuts back on some of it.”

Based on Aronofsky’s previous work it’s not likely he’ll be going for a PG-13 rating.

The new Robocop film is not a sequel, so I guess we can stop calling it Robocop 4. Instead of “remake” or “reboot” Medavoy prefers the currently chic ”reimagining.” It will not be tied to anything that has come before in the series, so it will be the Batman Begins of the Robocop movie franchise.

Rumors of the film being shot as a 3D feature were also shot down.

Robocop is set to open some time in 2010.