New giveaway at the Vault, Hudson Horror Show update, and the Great Horror Movie Empire Fiasco of 2012.

Hey all, your friendly neighborhood movie riffer/scribe here to announce a new contest. How would YOU like to win a Fright-Rags' LIMITED EDITION "MY BLOODY VALENTINE" T-SHIRT (size: XL) and a copy of both MY BLOODY VALENTINE (the 1981 classic) and MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D (your choice of DVD or Blu-ray)?! Having second thoughts? Really? Then check out this shirt design:

You know you want it....

Now that I have your full attention, here's how to win this awesome prize pack. To enter, create a valentine and/or poem to your favorite Horror film slasher, be it Harry Warden, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Cropsy, etc. Entries can be done in a variety of ways. You can write a poem (which you can e-mail to me at vault_master@bmoviefilmvault.com), use your artistic skills and draw something up (e-mail it to me or post it on the Vault's Facebook page), create something with photoshop (again, e-mail it to me or Facebook it), or even shoot a video valentine and post it to Youtube. The sky is the limit here!

Get creative, start working your magic, and get your entries in by March 24th! The winner gets the prize pack mentioned above, but two runner ups will also walk away with a copy of My Bloody Valentine or My Bloody Valentine 3D (on DVD or Blu-ray).

Next up, here's a bit o' news about the upcoming (MAY 19TH!) HUDSON HORROR SHOW! The full roster has been announced (except for that pesky 5TH MYSTERY MOVIE!) and it is SOLID! If you attend (and you should) you will see 35MM screenings of FRIDAY THE 13TH (UNCUT!), DAY OF THE DEAD, PHANTASM, and the crazy awesome Hammer/Shaw Bros. co-production of LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES! Get your advance tickets now over at www.hudsonhorror.com (the last show sold out!) and save money for the vendors that will be there peddling their goods! It's a great show, with tons of giveaways, awesome trailer reels, and one of the best film festival line-ups I've ever seen, so don't miss out!

Finally, I'd just like to say a quick word to those of you who have recently (within the last two months) shopped at Horror Movie Empire. First off, I jumped right in and spent just under $200 on that site's (now literally too-good-to-be-true) Blue Underground and Code Red sales back in late December/early January, and have yet to A.) get any of the discs I ordered and B.) have a reply to any of the e-mails I've sent. As I understand it, the site is a one-man operation, and apparently this guy got WAY more orders than he had anticipated. Also, he probably did not expect the insane backlash that occurred weeks later when hundreds (thousands?) of angry customers started to blow up his Twitter feed and Facebook page. (The latter of which was taken down because things got reeeeal ugly on there.)

So as it stands, it has been two months since I have placed my orders and I'm still empty-handed, and I know there's quite a few of you out there who are too. Personally, I don't want a refund; I want the stuff I paid for because I most likely will never be able to find any of those discs that cheap anywhere else. And heck, even if I did want a refund, it'd probably be another few weeks before I saw the money. This is just a really shitty scenario all around.

With all that said, if you got burned by Horror Movie Empire in the last two months, don't feel left out. You are far from alone. But there is still hope for some of us....

Supposedly the Horror Movie Empire "staff" will be at the next Monster Mania convention in Cherry Hill (less than three weeks away! YAY!) so I am planning on paying them a personal visit. I am bringing my invoices with me in hopes of getting at some (but preferably all) of the stuff I've already paid for, or at the very least, get my cash back. And I figure if I have a few other people come with me to their table/booth, they'll be even more eager to help us out. (No, we're not going to perform a lynching, just you know... strength in numbers and all that.) So e-mail me (vault_master@bmoviefilmvault.com) if you're going to the convention, and we'll unite our powers for TRUTH, JUSTICE, and BLU-RAYS! (And DVDs too!)

However, if you cannot make it to the convention, feel free to e-mail me your Horror Movie Empire invoices (complete with added complaints, to vault_master@bmoviefilmvault.com) and I'll be sure to pass them along and maybe walk away with some of your stuff. (Which I will gladly ship to you, at no charge, because "The Vault Master" is awesome like that.) It's a shot in the dark, but this is the best plan I've got and totally hinges on whether or not they even show up at the con.

That's all I've got for you right now folks, but before I go, here's a quick recap: ENTER MY NEW CONTEST (be sure to like the Vault on Facebook too by the way, and share my FB page with your friends!), GO TO THE HUDSON HORROR SHOW ON MAY 19TH, and DO NOT SHOP AT HORROR MOVIE EMPIRE.COM UNTIL THE CURRENT SITUATION IS FULLY RESOLVED!

G'night all and stay tuned for new stuff!

UFO movie news round-up (19 Feb. 2012)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Altered Carbon

Mythology Entertainment has acquired feature rights to Richard Morgan's sci-fi novel Altered Carbon, according to Variety.

Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar) will adapt the novel in collaboration with David Goodman (The Event). The book is described as follows:

“Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.

But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldnt be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society.”

Darkover 

The planet Darkover and its moons

ComingSoon.net reports that producers Ilene Kahn Power and Elizabeth Stanley have secured the rights to Marion Zimmer Bradley's acclaimed Darkover novels and are currently developing a “multi-platform television series” around the saga.

According to Stanley, "Bradley's Darkover novels and short stories chronicle the development of a remarkable civilization – technology poor but rich in its ability to harness the psi powers of the human brain (such as telepathy and telekinesis)."

In the novels, Darkover is the only habitable of seven planets orbiting a fictional red giant star called Cottman. When humans arrive on the ancient planet they find it is already home to a variety of sentient life forms. Among these are the Chieri – a race of tall, six-fingered, long-haired, telepathic beings with life-spans of tens of thousands of years.

Transformers 4 

Transformers producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura has told MTV that Paramount has secured Michael Bay to direct at least one more film for the franchise.

Di Bonaventura also revealed that the new film is to be a reboot, following a completely new set of human characters – an assertion seemingly supported by Transformers star Josh Duhamel, who told E! Online, "I don't think anybody's doing it. I know Shia [LaBoeuf]'s not doing it. I don't think Tyrese or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it,” adding, “I haven't heard anything about it. They haven't called me." 

Transformers 4 is set for release on June 27, 2014.

Oblivion

The graphic novel Oblivion is being adapted for the big screen

Deadline reports that Morgan Freeman has joined cast of Oblivion (which until now has gone by the title of Horizons). He'll be joining Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko in the Universal pictures release.

Based on the graphic novel of the same name, Oblivion is about “a man [Cruise] who lives in the clouds above Earth and heads to its surface to repair drones that essentially keep the planet safe from an alien race that has all but wiped out humanity.”

Michael Arndt is currently rewriting a script by William Monahan and Karl Gajdusek. The movie is scheduled for a July 19, 2013 release. 

John Carter sequel

Though it has not even been released yet, Disney's $300 million Mars-based adventure John Carter may already be spawning a sequel. Speaking with ComingSoon.net, John Carter producer Jim Morris, revealed that the movie’s director Andrew Stanton and his co-writer Michael Chabon are already in discussions to plan and write a sequel, which would tentatively be called John Carter: The Gods of Mars, based on the second of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series of novels.

Whether or not Disney will green-light the sequel, though, is entirely dependent on the success of the first movie, which hits cinemas March 9.

On the subject of John Carter, here’s a new video promo for the movie, followed by new clip...

The Europa Report

The marketing campaign for upcoming sci-fi movie The Europa Report – in which astronauts seek out life on Jupiter’s frigid moon of Europa – has gone viral.  

Check out the website for faux aerospace corporation Europa Ventures, where you’ll find a ‘live’ video feed showing astronauts onboard the spacecraft Europa 1. The site’s intro text reads:

“For decades, scientists have theorized the existence of liquid water oceans on Jupiter's moon, Europa. We've recently discovered new, captivating evidence that these sub-surface oceans do exist and could support life.

We've sent six astronauts from space programs throughout the world on a three year journey to Europa to explore its oceans and confirm these findings.

We're proud to be at the forefront of the effort to prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life within our solar system, within our lifetimes.”

‘Battleship’ movie: “Real Heroes,” reel propaganda

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

A new behind-the-scenes featurette for the upcoming alien invasion movie Battleship has just surfaced online. Titled “Real Heroes,” the three minute video is not so much a promo for the movie as it is a shameless recruitment ad for the US Navy, which, in lending its full support to the production, has been granted contractual power to significantly influence the content of this two-hundred-million dollar bucket of popcorn and how it is sold to the masses.

 “I have a good relationship with the Department of Defense and they know that I love soldiers and I respect the warrior spirit of any soldier, anywhere in the world,” says director Peter Berg. “As a result, they’ve opened up their doors to us in fairly unprecedented ways.”

The last time the DoD opened its doors to Hollywood in “unprecedented ways” was for the production of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The end result was both UFOlogically fascinating and – unsurprisingly for a Hollywood-DoD collaboration – nauseatingly propagandist.

 “It’s been a long time since the world has seen what we do over here in America with our military and just how strong we are,” Berg enthuses in the propaganda short featurette.

Thank goodness, then, that Berg has stepped up to the plate with Battleship. For what better way to project American power than to kick some extraterrestrial heinie while flying the stars and stripes (and believe me, they’ll be flying) on the international stage?

Battleship docks at cinemas this May.

Related:

'Battleship': Silver Screen Saucers review

Transformers 3: Silver Screen Saucers review

'Battle Los Angeles' bombs with critics

Hollywood propaganda post-9/11

A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television

Life on Europa in new sci-fi movie

Silver Screen Saucers

The first image from the upcoming sci-fi movie The Europa Report has been posted online by ComingSoon.net, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. It shows South African actor Sharlto Copley (The A-Team, District 9) as an astronaut orbiting Jupiter...

The Europa Report, which co-stars Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo and Karolina Wydra is due for release later this year. According to ComingSoon.net, the movie is about “a group of astronauts [who] make the arduous journey to Jupiter's frigid, glacial moon Europa in search of extraterrestrial life. The only thing more intimidating and unpredictable than the trip itself is what the team will encounter upon arrival...”

Aliens in 'The Avengers' revealed?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

In the March 2012 British print edition of Empire magazine The Avengers producer Kevin Feige swats down longstanding rumours that the movie’s yet-to-be-revealed bad guys are the Skrulls – a green, knobbly-chinned race of alien shapeshifters.

“It’s not Skrulls,” Feige tells Empire, “I’ve been clear about that. Beyond that, we want to hide it. The identity of the alien race is not impactful. It exists in the comic books, but we’re not setting-up the Kree-Skrull war or anything like that.”

The Kree are a blue-skinned, humanoid race of aliens who for eons have been at war with the Skrulls and who have tangled with The Avengers in Marvel’s past – “so it could be them,” Empire speculates.

Empire’s guess work doesn’t end there, however: “It could also be the Shi'ar, a race commonly associated with The X-Men, but rights issues might make that difficult. And then there’s the bigger question: is Loki [Thor’s brother] the only major villain in the movie?” The mag then considers whether the “galactic powerhouse” Thanos might also make an appearance.

Despite Kevin Feige’s denial, it now appears that the Skrulls may indeed feature in The Avengers. While at Toy Fair 2012 this week, MTV Geek photographed the soon-to-be-released Avengers board game, which is based on the movie, revealing play figures it notes are “the spitting image of the shape-shifting Skrulls!”

Whether they be Skrulls, Kree or Shi’ar, aliens will most definitely be menacing the Earth in The Avengers – this much is clear from the latest trailer for the movie. We’ll know for sure this April when The Avengers finally hits the big screen.

UFO movie news round-up (9 Feb. 2012)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Aliens and apocalypse at the Super Bowl

Last weekend’s Super Bowl played out against a backdrop of aliens and apocalypse with TV spots and trailers for Hollywood movies and even car commercials tapping into the ET/2012 vibe. With 111.3 million US viewers, it was the most-watched broadcast in the history of United States television.

Here’s what viewers were bashed over the head with during their commercial breaks... 

New Battleship trailer...

The Avengers - new trailer...

Transformers: The Ride - 3-D...

Chevy Volt alien commercial...

Chevy Volt 2012 commercial...

New John Carter trailer...

More John Carter

On the subject of John Carter, even more new footage from the movie was featured recently in a Disney Channel featurette, and yet more new John Carter stills have also been released...

Prometheus

A new image from Ridley Scott's upcoming Alien prequel Prometheus...

Vampires and zombies vs. aliens

Finally, Sony Pictures has hired Robbie Pickering to direct Oren Uziel’s The Kitchen Sink, which Deadline.com describes as a “genre collision about the unlikely alliance between a high school-aged vampire, zombie and human as they try to save their town from invading aliens.” More information about this movie will be posted here at Silver Screen Saucers as it becomes available.

'Iron Sky': new trailer and poster

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Behold! The new poster and trailer for Iron Sky...

A Finnish-German-Australian co-production, filmed mainly in English, with a budget of about 7.5 million euros, Iron Sky is described by its producers as "a dark science fiction comedy."

Here's the official synopsis:

“In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During 70 years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers.

When American astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) puts down his Lunar Lander a bit too close to the secret Nazi base, the Moon Führer (Udo Kier) decides the glorious moment of retaking the Earth has arrived sooner than expected. Washington claims the mission is just a publicity stunt for the President of the United States (Stephanie Paul), but what else could the man be but a scout for the imminent attack by Earth forces? The Fourth Reich must act!

Two Nazi officers, ruthless Klaus Adler (Götz Otto) and idealistic Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), travel to Earth to prepare the invasion. In the end when the Moon Nazi UFO armada darkens the skies, ready to strike at the unprepared Earth, every man, woman and nation alike, must re-evaluate their priorities.”

Directed by Timo Vuorensola, Iron Sky is produced by Blind Spot Pictures and Energia Productions in Finland, and co-produced by 27 Films in Germany and New Holland Pictures in Australia.

Iron Sky premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and opens in Finnish and German theatres in April 2012. Release in other countries will follow soon after.

The theatrical release of Iron Sky will represent a major step forward for the fledgling 'participatory cinema' movement, which seeks to develop, produce and distribute movies in collaboration with an international online community of film enthusiasts. Other UFO/ET and esoteric participatory movies currently in the works include Apollo Minus Project and Light Masters, the trailers for which you can view right here...