Jun 282010
The Seattle Geekly Summer Vacation is in full effect, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t still going to hook you up with a little news. First off, i thought this was just too cute to not share. Laura Shigihara posted a YouTube video of herself performing the theme from Plants vs Zombies at home on her piano. The video also includes a special appearance by George Fan, the designer of Plants vs. Zombies, and Metroid the cat. Enjoy!
Your Monday News is under the fold
Books
- Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
- The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
- The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
- The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
- Tor
The 2010 Locus Awards winners were announced at the annual Science Fiction Awards Weekend, held June 25-27, 2010 in Seattle. The winners are;
Best SF Novel:
Best Fantasy Novel:
Best First Novel:
Best Magazine:
Best Book Publisher:
The complete list of winners is online at the Locus website.
Comics
- DC Comics is partnering with comiXology and PlayStation Network for two separate digital comics distribution deals. Both the comiXology and the PlayStation Network Digital Comics launch offerings will include classic titles from DC Comics, Vertigo and WildStorm, such as Batman: Hush, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Fables: Legends in Exiles and Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories. Both programs will share a tiered pricing format, with digital comics priced from $.99 to $2.99 per issue. In addition, several comics will be available for free at launch, including the first installment of the ZUDA series Bayou and select stories from Batman: Black & White, and one issue of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman will be available through comiXology each week.
Movies
- The live-action movie version of Katusuhiro Otomo’s manga Akira is moving ahead with a new screenwriter. Comics Alliance is reporting that Albert Torres will be writing the scrpit for the movie which will supposedly cover the first three volumes of the manga. Torres’ only other writing credit is for the 2008 film Henry Poole Is Here. Albert Hughes, who’s credits include From Hell and The Book of Eli, is set to direct.
Video Games
- There are a whole crop of existing games headed to the iPhone. Square Enix has announced plans to release two of their classic RPG titles, Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics, though neither has an official release date yet and Zynga has released a Farmville app that is available now. The Farmville app would appear to be Zynga’s attempt to keep ahold of players that are fleeing their games on Facebook. Gamasutra is reporting that Farmville on Facebook has lost about 20 million players from it’s peak last year with about half of those losses coming in the last month.
- Everyone’s favorite cephalopod is coming to the XBox Live Indie Games channel in Cthulhu Saves the World, a new game from developer Zeboyd Games. Cthulhu Saves the World is an 8-bit RPG that promises “an epic journey of redemption and insanity”. Game Informer has a couple of screenshots that are well worth checking out. The game is scheduled for release this August.
2 Responses to “Monday News Roundup 06/28”
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I’m not sure that “Akira” is a story which needs to be adapted in live action form – if the anime genre was a deal-breaker, would potential audience members go to see the film just because it features actors and CG rather than voice acting and hand-drawn animation? Isn’t the core story going to be similar and, possibly, still off-putting to the casual viewer?
Also, and I think this is key, won’t Albert Hughes require a budget higher than Avatar’s to do this story any kind of justice? Which I can’t really see him getting, to be honest.
I am also VERY skeptical of a live-action Akira. For one things the Hughes Brothers’ past work does not inspire me with confidence, there are rumors flying around that the studio is insisting that it have a PG-13 rating and your point about budget is well made. This will be a VERY expensive movie to do right. The only glimmer of good news is that instead of trying to cram the whole story into one movie they are actually planning a trilogy.