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Caution! This week’s Sci-fi news is suffering from MFOS. That’s right, Multiple Fandom Overload Syndrome!

Movies

Ron Perlman has been a busy boy. The man behind Hellboy’s pretty red face has had his impeccable pecs in several super roles as of late. Along with filming Hellboy II: The Golden Army, he also recently finished up The Mutant Chronicles, a comic-ish look at a post-apocalyptic society. Perlman stars in an ensemble cast featuring, among others Thomas Jane (Punisher, Punisher: War Zone) and John Malkovich. He and Jane plan to preview the flick at San Diego Comic-Con and take suggestions from fans in the audience on how to improve it. Now that’s dedication to your audience!

According to the Hobbit Movie fan site, there’s a good chance that another Hellboy II actor will be making a fandom crossover. Doug Jones played a brilliant Abe Sapian for the first Hellboy installment, and is taking over the voice of Big Red’s friend this time around. (David Hyde Pierce voiced the character in the first movie) Reportedly, Guillermo del Toro is eager to find a place for the talented character actor in the upcoming Hobbit movie - possibly a royal place. Doug Jones said he’d be delighted to play whatever del Toro gives him, but he has his eye on the role of Legolas’ father, Elf King Thranduil. Watch out, Doug! I sense a major case of Multiple Fandom Overload coming your way!

Television

On a more somber note: Gateworld, a Stargate fansite, reported that Don S. Davis passed away on June 29 of a heart attack. The actor, who played Maj. Gen. George Hammond on both Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, recently gave his final franchise appearance in the upcoming DVD movie, Stargate: Continuum. Despite leaving the regular cast list in 2003, Davis still remains the most beloved head of Stargate Command to many fans, including me. His wife requested fans make donations to the American Heart Association in memory of the wonderful actor and husband.

(Cyn adds: Supernatural fans will know him as Trotter in the episode “Sin CIty.”)

More Movies

Christian Bale brought himself a small amount of fans (wink, wink) when he played Gotham’s favorite man in black in the revamping of the Batman mythology, Batman Begins. That’s precisely why he almost refused to do the same with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. The actor is set to play a grown up, post-apocalyptic John Conner in the upcoming continuation of the Terminator saga. He told the press in a recent interview that he felt obligated to ensure the quality of the reinventions of these fan favorites, and he didn’t want the role unless he felt he could do both Batman and John Conner justice. Thank you, Mr. Bale, for doing right by two of our favorite fandoms.

Conventions

It only seems right to showcase Comic-Con International. The four-day con is being held July 23-27 at the San Diego Convention Center. Not only are a very lucky group of fans getting to preview The Mutant Chronicles with Ron Perlman and Thomas Jane, but NBC and SCI-FI Channel are trotting out their fall line up. NBC is reportedly bringing cast and crew from Heroes and Knight Rider, while SCI-FI will be featuring guests from Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, and Stargate Atlantis. Also, BSG’s Ron Moore will be bringing his shiny new pilot, Virtuality. And yes, there will be super spiffy giveaways. So get yourself to San Diego - there are still a few tickets left!

Today’s sci-fi news is all about making something out of something else. Not so special, you say? We shall see!

Movies

It’s raining comics! This summer seems to be one big comics-to-movies filmfest, and that means theater-going heaven, at least for me. From my first peek at Dick Tracy with the wonderful Warren Beatty, I knew this crossover genre was for me. This summer alone will bring us more comic flicks than you can shake a stick at. Iron Man is still soaring with over $300 mil earned. The new and definitely improved Hulk is smashing at a cinema near you. Not to mention the one I never saw coming - Speed Racer, for which we had a fab FanLib contest. But even more impressive than the ones we’ve already seen are the movies from the comics genre that are still coming. Here’s a run-down:

Wanted - June 27, 2008
Hancock - July 2, 2008
Hellboy II: The Golden Army - July 11, 2008
The Dark Knight - July 18, 2008
Punisher: War Zone - Sept. 12, 2008
The Watchmen - March 6, 2009
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - May 1, 2009
Sin City 2 - 2009
Spider-Man 4 - 2009

Feel free to drool - I know I am!

Games

I recently watched the video-game-to-movie flick In the Name of the King and was surprised to realize how many creators have been inspired by games. Ever since director Steve Lizberger was inspired by Playstation’s predecessors and found himself creating cult classic Tron, Hollywood has been cranking out video game movies as fast as the special effects companies could keep up. Muses help me, I did like Wing Commander, Mortal Kombat and Doom, and I am writing my own fic for Avernum 4. Somewhere in there, fan fiction writers learned to grab the juicy little inspiration bunnies before production companies picked them up, and write little adaptations of their own. Hence, FanLib’s own Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil and Super Mario Bro’s communities. Game on, FanLibbers!

Random Fandom News

The Michael Shanks Online charity auction is now underway! The actor, who played Dr. Daniel Jackson for over ten years, is sponsoring the event for the fourth year in a row. Fans of the Stargate SG-1 alum are making good will out of signed collectibles and memorabilia, with proceeds going to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. So log on to get your chance to buy penned stuff by Jared Padalecki and Jenson Ackles (Supernatural), or put a bid on a signed photo of Jamie Bamber and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica). Around 200 items are going up for auction in the coming days. Go! Fight! Bid! - And feel good about your fannish splurging!

Conventions

Misskitten Recommends: “As a Starfury regular myself, I can vouch for these events,” she said. So I ventured to the Starfury Battlestar site and found out that the special events company is throwing their first Battlestar Galactica only convention at Thistle Hotel in Heathrow the 5th-7th of December. And what a line-up! Meet with James Callis (Gaius Baltar) and Tahmoh Penikett (Karl C. Agathon), have a ball at Galactica 80s Night and exercise your futuristic right to vote at Election Night: Roslin v. Baltar. Get your tickets, pack your viper, and polish your centurion - London is your baseship for this tasty BSG venue. So Say We All!

By Kirsty OUP-UK

“Nae man can tether time or tide,” said Robert Burns in Tam o’Shanter. Over the 200 years since the Scottish Bard’s death in July 1796 his poetry has been celebrated the world over through a network of Burns Clubs. Since tomorrow is Burns Night, I though today would be the ideal time to post this entry from The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, which tells us all about Burns Clubs and how they came into being.

Burns clubs are societies devoted to the life and work of Robert Burns. The earliest meeting of devotees of Burns took place in the summer of 1801, only five years after the poet’s death. Nine gentlemen of Ayr, friends and admirers of Burns, held a dinner in the poet’s birthplace (then a tavern). Haggis formed a part of the fare and Burns’s Address to a Haggis was recited. The Revd Hamilton Paul delivered the toast to the ‘Immortal Memory’ of Burns in verses of his own composition. Thus was established the essential form of the Burns supper. Before breaking up, the company resolved to celebrate the birthday of Burns the following January. Out of these informal gatherings the Alloway Club developed, later dinners being held at the King’s Arms, Ayr, in midsummer. This early club ceased to exist in 1819 and was not revived until 1908.

The Greenock Burns Club owed its genesis to a much older body called the Greenock Ayrshire Society, which appears to have held Burns suppers from 1802 and by 1811 had metamorphosed into the Greenock Burns Club. Greenock have had a continuous existence down to the present day, whereas the rival Paisley Burns Club (1805) was in abeyance from 1836 till 1874.

The Kilmarnock Burns Club first met at the Angel Inn (formerly Begbie’s Tavern) in January 1808, but was dormant from 1814 to 1841. The Dunfermline United Burns Club (1812) likewise had a lengthy period of suspended animation, being revived in 1870. Though a relative latecomer, the Dumfries Burns Club (1820) has flourished ever since its foundation. It arose out of the campaign (1813–19) to erect a mausoleum over the poet’s grave.

By 1810 Burns suppers were being held on an ad hoc basis in many parts of the country. The first in England was held at Oxford in 1806 and Burns Night celebrations were taking place in London by 1810. The idea spread to India in 1812, and thereafter to Canada, the USA and the Australian colonies. The Burns movement received enormous stimulus from the celebrations of the centenary of the poet’s birth in January 1859; out of the many hundreds of dinners and concerts around the world developed some of the oldest clubs in existence today. Nothing was done to bring them together until February 1885, when Burnsians met in London for the unveiling of the monument in the Thames Embankment Gardens. A meeting in Kilmarnock on 17 July formally instituted the Burns Federation, with its international headquarters in the town where the poet’s works first saw the light of day in printed form.

In its inaugural year the Federation had ten members: eight clubs in Scotland and two in England. A further 23 joined in 1886, including ten in Scotland, six in England, one in Ireland, two each in Australia and the USA, and one each in Canada and New Zealand. Progress was slow in the early years, but the launch of the Burns Chronicle in September 1891 gave the Federation fresh impetus and in the run-up to the centenary of the poet’s death in 1896 it grew dramatically.

By 1925 the number of affiliated clubs had grown to 350, at which level it has remained remarkably constant ever since, although many of the older clubs have disappeared and new ones continually take their place. Annual conferences were confined to Kilmarnock until 1894 when Glasgow was the venue. In 1907 it went south of the Border for the first time, to Sunderland. By the 1930s, the custom of holding the conference alternately in Scotland and England was well established. Since 1978, when London, Ontario, was the venue, the conference has taken place in Canada or the USA on several occasions. The current number of members affiliated to active clubs worldwide is estimated at 80,000.

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