I may not read a whole lot of science fiction books, but Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel “The Forever War” is one of the few that I have read. It’s a great book, too, one of those (as you would imagine, the book being published in 1974) allegories to the Vietnam War, which was just then starting to come to an end, but had already gone for a decade or two already. “Forever”, as it were. The book itself was a great read, and I’ve always been intrigued by the idea that Haldeman was one of those guys who takes his time with every single word he puts to paper in his novels. In any case, Hollywood is finally bringing “The Forever War” to the big screen, courtesy of FOX2000 and “Alien” and “Blade Runner” director Ridley Scott.

“Battle: Los Angeles” is definitely one of those movies I’m looking forward to, mostly because the idea behind it sounds so good, and there’s a lot of opportunity for sequels if the original does well. Can you imagine, “Battle: Dallas”, or “Battle: New York”? We would get to see the battle from different perspectives, while keeping the overall plot (alien invasion of Earth) in the background. The first movie, “Battle: Los Angeles” is supposed to be about a platoon of Marines fighting alien invaders on the streets of L.A.; they could make another movie about civilians in one city, cops in another, etc. Or hey, how about a specially train group of feds in another city? The possibilities of endless.

The knee jerk reaction to the very idea of someone doing a sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 seminal piece of sci-fi, “Blade Runner”, is grave concern. After all, you don’t get to be as important a work of fiction as “Blade Runner” because you’re middling; you get to be where you are — aka greatness — precisely because you were so damn great in the first place. As such, when a screenwriter announced that he was writing a script for a “Blade Runner” sequel at a recent screening of “Eagle Eye”, a lot of people got into an uproar. My initial reaction was to feel offended; but then I thought, “Well, he’s talking about a sequel, and NOT a remake, as is the fashionable thing to do in Hollywood nowadays, so that’s the lesser of two evils.” And even if the sequel sucks by comparison to the original — doesn’t most sequels suck by comparison to originals, anyway?

Walmart, of all people, is putting out one 2-minute long behind-the-scenes video from the set of “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen” every week. The first video is from the set on the very first day of shooting in Bethlehem, PA. The second video features Megan Fox and Shia Labeouf doing their thing on set. And yes, it has been officially confirmed: Megan Fox looks incredible in skin-tight black leather. But then again, what DOESN’T Megan Fox look incredible in? Or out of? Ahem. Both videos below for your perusal pleasure. Walmart will be releasing more in the coming weeks, so check back in.

Looks like epic sci-fi action movies are getting a real boost lately, as I’m hearing more and more sci-fi theme movies going into development with major studios. The latest to get the big-screen treatment is a spec script by Shane Salerno called “The Doomsday Protocol”, which according to The Hollywood Reporter, sounds a lot like “Seven Samurai” in outer space. As you’ll recall, Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” concerned seven masterless swordsmen who are hired by poor villagers to protect their home from bandits. It was later adapted into the American Western “The Magnificent Seven”.

Earlier this year, the Akira movie was moving at a pretty fast clip. Warner Bros. had snapped up the movie rights for Leonardo DiCaprio’s company to produce (and the Titanic star to possibly star), and word soon after was that the suddenly in demand Joseph Gordon Levitt had nabbed the co-starring (and some would say, leading) role of Testuo in the live-action version of the popular manga/anime. And then … nothing. It’s been nearly seven months since we last heard anything about the Akira movie … until now.

Holy shit. Are you kidding me? Devastator has been confirmed for an appearance in “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen”? Oh … my … friggin … GAWD. There were only rumors in the past, but now Transformers site TFW2005 has confirmed that the Decepticon (or Constructicon), a giant friggin’ robot made up of seven different construction vehicles, will indeed be making an appearance. The site doesn’t exactly say who has “confirmed” the appearance to them, but being that they are a Transformers site, I’m going to assume they have some good sources, and go with them. Hey, even if it turns out not to be true, at least these next few days will have me walking through the world like a giddy schoolboy.

James Cameron has been pretty stingy with the “Avatar” stuff, except to continually tell us that this thing is going to be better than sliced bread, and you know how great sliced bread is, so it better be really good. But if Cameron feels perfectly alright to go out there and keep telling us it really is great, who am I to say otherwise? This is the man who gave us “Aliens”, the “Terminator” franchise, and “The Abyss”. He forgets more about making sci-fi movies in your average day than I learn in a lifetime, so all props to him. Anyways, what “Avatar” stuff have since shown up on the net? One very clear look at the movie’s set, and one very grainy … something.

Now this is an idea for a movie I can get behind: time travel + Christopher Nolan’s “Memento”? Oh hell yeah! Why didn’t anyone think of this before? Well if you did, you’re screwed, because novelist Richard Doetsch is about to sell his novel “The Thirteenth Hour” for a nice princely sum at auction, and New Line Cinema has already snapped up the movie rights to turn it into a movie. And who can blame them? Check out the novel’s (and one presumes, the movie’s) plot (via Variety):

I’m not what you would call a really big Star Trek fan, or Trekkie. (Or Trekkers, as I know some of them like to be called.) I mean, sure, I watched almost all of the Voyager and Next Generation episodes, but that’s because I just like sci-fi in general, and there wasn’t a whole lot of sci-fi on TV back then. (Or at least, big-budget sci-fi TV, anyways. I don’t even want to think about stuff like, say, Time Trax, etc.) So when news broke that William Shatner would NOT be in J.J. Abrams’ Trek reboot, fans were up in arms. I personally didn’t mind all that much, as I was never one to appreciate, as it were, Shatner’s acting style.