The Future Was Yesterday

Almost by default, post-apocalyptic futures are just that, grim futures after the fall of man. We can all imagine a time in the far future where our once mighty though foolish civilization, at the peek of it's power, is now in ruin.

But what if that future was yesteryear? What if the apocalypse happened in the past?

In films and stories where, at the time, the end of the world was within arms reach. That always sent more of a chill up ones spine. What if that future was not centuries away but maybe decades or just years?

Remember John Carpenter's Escape From New York (1981)? The Future - 1997 where New York was turned into a giant prison didn't seem that far off or that implausible.

The Last Man On Earth (1964) film was based on the book I am Legend and took place between 1966 and 1968.

What if, at the end of Dr. Strangelove (1964) we continued the story? 2011? Almost 50 years after the great war?

What if the post-apocalypse was now? What if the Mutant Future was now? Where was technology in 1964? Sure, we had The Bomb but computers still filled a room with memory on tape. The Beatles just invading the American shores. Fifty or one hundred years in that future sure would be different.

I've been thinking a lot about running a Mutant Future / Gamma World 1st ed. game. I think it actually might take place now, in 2011 with the destruction of the world happening in our recent past, 1964, and using Stanley Kubrik's Dr. Strangelove as the back-story. What is the ratio of males to females? Would a mine-shaft gap come into play? The Purity of Essence cults?

I think that would be very interesting and maybe even a bit more messed up as one may face 1st generation mutations in the very year we live in now.

Much to ponder, much to ponder.....

Sean Connery 007 Number One!

Yes, it's official. Sean Connery gave the world the number one portrayal of Ian Flemming's iconic British secret agent James Bond 007 as voted by you visiting Warlocks!



Now, there is no doubt that Connery brought to the screen character a certain suave fortitude and a sense of class that has never quite been matched. But there were many other elements that brought that character to life on the screen and solidified the early Bond films and influenced the entire genre of the 1960's spy.

When talking about those early films starting with Dr. No (1962) and going all the way up to Diamonds Are Forever (1970) it would be impossible to not mention the other three pillars of this series; music composer John Barry and production designer Ken Adams and James Bond creator himself, Ian Flemming

Scenery, Scenery, Scenery

The production design of Ken Adams helped define the mod space in which our British Agent faced his foes and bedded his women. Adams use of a sleek spacious modern architecture being sure to include the ceiling (rare for the time period) and forced perspective added a sense of spectacular realism and power to both the good and the evil. Many of the sets in the early films left just as much of an impression with the viewer as did the beautiful women and the action. Scenes depicting Goldfinger's Kentucky ranch or SPECTRE's headquarters or even the unforgettable rocket launchpad beneath a volcano (with an actual rocket!) bound Bond in the 60's.

Adams would be brought back in the later Bond films form time to time and you'd always be able to catch his style. But his edgy sets from the 60's defined not only a genre but an era.

Double 'O' Music

The other consistent element in these early Bond films were the scores written by John Barry. His sweeping violins contrasted nicely with his modern swinging jazz sounds of drums, trumpet and electric guitar. Barry's sounds added that level of class, sex-appeal and action that rounded out the film version of the characters and situation. Though he didn't score the theme for the first film Dr. No, he did compose the famous guitar / horn blasting James Bond theme (often attributed to Monte Norman). His themes for Goldfinger, Thunderball and Diamonds Are Forever (as well as the others) carried the viewer to the far exotic locals where Bond would face off with the deadly agents of SPECTRE.

John Barry would be brought back for many of the modern Bond films in the 70's and beyond. John Barry passed away earlier this year.

Words, Bond's Words

It would be impossible to write about James Bond without mentioning his creator Ina Flemming. Flemming's novels were violent, sexy and quite thrilling as the movies were to become but always ground in a certain realism (which the later films parted with). The development of the character which continued from book to book with the classy pulp style of Flemming wasn't afraid to take chances with his character making him quite human and vulnerable to love and death. One major aspect of these early James Bond films were they're close adherence to the original Flemming novels. Of the first seven films, five of them remained quite true to the novels (Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball and On Her Majesties Secret Service) which helped solidify the film character. The other two films, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever, parted from the novels taking only the title and the villain and going off into more fantasy adventures (which defined all the films from the early 70's onward). The books were thrilling cold-war spy dramas and the early films, although updated somewhat to the 1960's, enhanced that with the actor, music and set design and set the tone for action films to come.

Perhaps one of these other actors could have carried the early films as well as Connery. With the aid of Barry, Adams and Flemming himself it's possible that could have been the case. It was done with On Her Majesties Secret Service staring George Lazenby (a Bond film fan favorite that perhaps could have been better played by Connery?), but Connery's charisma and natural class cemented him and the series into the exploding pop culture of the 60's.

And to help you get through your Tuesday, the Bond girls

Poll: Who's Your Bond, James Bond

It's poll time again (keep it clean ya dirty grognards!)

While Ian Fleming's Bond novels (written between the early 1950's through the early 1960's) fit perfectly well within the gritty pulp genre the films take off in unexpected and sometimes absurd directions. Always with a dose of action, beautiful women (some much smarter than others) and intrigue, the Bond films are always anchored around the leading man played by more than eight actors spanning almost 50 years.

So today we come to one of the most controversial questions in pop history;
Who gave the best portrayal of Ian Fleming's iconic British secret agent James Bond, 007?

1. Barry Nelson
First appearance of James Bond US Television 1953 - clip


2. Sean Connery
Set the standard by which all other Bonds would be judged. -clip


3. George Lazenby
Ausie British Secret Agent
Clip


4. Roger Moore
Cigar smoking suave -Clip



5. Timothy Dalton
Was actually asked to play Bond in 1969 for OHMSS but HE felt he was too young. - Clip


6. Pierce ("I though Christmas came only once a year") Brosnan
Clip


8. Daniel Craig
Clip


10 David Niven
(blame YouTube/Google for the ad) Clip


11. Peter Sellers
Clip


12. Mike Meyers
(okay, so it's Austin Powers) - Clip



13. Secret Squirrel
Have fun it's Friday - Clip


As usual, you can vote Chicago style.

The First Avenger Preview

When I was growing up, besides Spider-man, Captain America was my favorite superhero Whether he was solo, fighting with the Falcon or assembling the Avengers there was something about his costume, honor and determination that struck a chord with me (hey, it's a comic book and I was like 7 years old). So to say that I'm a bit excited about how the new movie is looking is an understatement. It looks like they're hitting all the right buttons with this one...well take a look for yourself. (if you can't see this well enough 'cause of my site layout, check it out here)




WWII, The Red Skull, The Howling Commandos, Flying Wings, dare I say...the Cosmic Cube!
"This summer, enter the world of the Super Soldier!" (I'm not comparing previews or anything).

Captain America: The First Avenger is the prelude to the upcoming Avengers movie and will tie a lot of the other Marvel films together. Not a bad concept if they pull it off with class.

Mistress of Horror Ingrid Pitt - 1937 - 2010

The voluptuous Hammer mistress of horror Ingrid Pitt has passed on. Before vampires became all glittery they were horrifically sexy and that undead sexuality was never more defined than by Ingrid Pitt. Anyone who loves those old Hammer horrors undoubtedly will recall the beautiful Mrs. Pitt starring in such classic films as The Wicker Man, The House That Dripped Blood, The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula and helped usher in the sexually explicit horror films of the 1970's.


The Pitt of Horror: Official Ingrid Pitt web site

At The Mountains Of Madness & Guillermo del Toro

This movie is still in early production phases but Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hell Boy, The Devil's Backbone) definitely has the visual eye to bring something like this to the screen. One can say that he has a flair for presenting us with an odd fantasy atmosphere (though the possible casting of Tom Cruise has left me....cold).

He was to direct the new adaptation of The Hobbit (though I believe he is still at the typewriter for this project) but has since moved on the Lovecraft. From J.R.R. Tolkien to H.P. Lovecraft. Maybe he should consider R.E. Howard too?

Anyway, a quote from an interview:

"Obviously, the difference between the novella and the movie is that Lovecraft had a gift for making everything specifically ambiguous. He would say 'the leering face loaded with madness,’ or 'the evil perverse entity of unnamable'… everything was unnamable, indescribable. When you're reading you go,'Whoa!' your brain fills those spaces. For every creature, everyone has a secret mental image of what those creatures look like. It's going to be impossible to please everyone."

"I've been thinking of those monsters for twenty years. Fortunately for me no one has done monsters like the ones I'm doing. In all the movies ever made there's never been monsters like the ones we're doing. About two weeks ago we were visited by Dennis Muren. He looked at the designs, and he turned to us and said, 'No one has seen monsters like this ever.' I was like, [boyish grin] 'Yeah!' I was happy and vindicated and all that."

I'd say it sounds interesting. He at least has the intuitive understanding of Lovecraft. But will he be able to translate that effectively onto the screen? Well, only time will tell.

A bit more here...

Not a production still from the upcoming movie.

Dan O'Bannon, Alien and Intruder

This past Saturday, over at Lamentations of a Flame Princess, I learned that screenwriter Dan O'Bannon passed on. I grew up with many of his films including Alien, Heavy Metal and Dark Star, which he made with John Carpenter and Ron Cobb (set designer for Conan the Barbarian). He was one of the first handful of film creators that I began to follow during my formative years.

I begged my parents to take me to see Alien back in '79 and that movie scared the pants off of me! It continues to be, IMHO, the greatest Sci-Fi horror film ever made and sets a bar that has yet to be surpassed.

This brought to mind a little game that I enjoyed playing back then called Intruder put out by Task Force Games. The game was based on the Alien concept of an Intruder on board a space station that goes through metamorphosis and becomes more powerful and harder to kill (possibly even cloning itself) as the game goes on. It is a race against time as the Intruder becomes immune to the weapons that the members of the crew have or can build. And to make matters worse, all the animals from the science lab have escaped making that much harder to track down the real Intruder!

This was a great little game, one of many from Task Force Games that I played back in the day. Simple to play, very fast paced, and filled with enough randomness to make every game a unique experience. If things looked bleak, you can even escape on one of two shuttle crafts, but watch out, the Intruder may have hidden aboard!


It was a thrilling little game inspired by a great film written by a very talented screen writer. Dan O'Bannon will be missed by his films will always inspire.