The Nightly Nerdlinger News, Weekend Edition

On weekends I've decided to keep a rolling update going, I'll add stuff as I run across it so check back to see if anythings been added occasionally.


Let's start off with the announcment of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalists.


Finalists have been announced for this year's John W. Campbell Memorial Award, given annually to the best science fiction novel of the year. The winner of the award, which is named in honor of the legendary SF editor, will be announced at the Campbell Conference, July 6-8 in Lawrence, Kan. The nominees are Titan by Ben Bova, A Small and Remarkable Life by Nick DiChario, Infoquake by David Louis Edelman, Nova Swing by M. John Harrison, Odyssey by Jack McDevitt, The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow, Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson, Dry by Barbara Sapergia, Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder, Glasshouse by Charles Stross, Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge, Farthing by Jo Walton and Blindsight by Peter Watts.

Source: Sci-fi Wire





Onimusha
From AICN

DVDrama, a French website with close ties to [Christophe] Gans, got the word directly from him about the fans' biggest worry. Who is playing ONIMUSHA?
It's unique, in a way. Ever since the very first ONIMUSHA game, they have modeled the character after a known actor, who also voiced his character. That actor is Takeshi Kaneshiro (Wong Kar Wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS). So, you already have a good actor known as this character, but the fans know that in these adaptations they hardly ever bring the right stuff over to the big screen, so there's been worry about this casting.
Gans said to DVDrama that "Of course" Takeshi Kaneshiro will play ONIMUSHA.
I've met Gans before (even watched THREE EXTREMES with him at the AFM) and what was interesting about him to me was that he loves these stories. He doesn't look at video games for the flash, the action, or the "poster moments." He loves those, but what draws him is the story.
If you watch BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, it's the greatest video game adaptation for a game that never existed.
Other news about ONIMUSHA is you won't see it for a while. It's going to start shooting early '08 and Gans guarantees there will be a full year of post production on the movie (budgeted at $70 million). So we're looking after September 2009 before we see it in theaters. John Collee (MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD) and Lesley Krueger are writing the script.


If you can read French ( no, I can't ) the original story is at DVDrama


Iron Man


MTV has 3 cool clips about the Iron Man movie. Check it out. The clips are flash and will play one after the other, do your best to ignore the commercials, unless you really like Dr. Pepper and Mascara.