Hollywood, CA - Lion’s Gate Films, which had secretly acquired a few years ago the rights to produce a Zork movie, has announced that it will be released in summer 2009.
The movie is set in a first-person perspective, and will be filmed in full text video, and narrated by Morgan Freeman. A screen capture from a camcorder (seen at left) from a private showing at Comic-Con 2008 has been circulating on the Internet. The quality is typical of a camcorder, but it has fans excited.
“I’m glad they are keeping true to the spirit of the game. Had they given it to Uwe Boll, it would have been a nonstop frenzy of exploding grues,” commented Dan Pewters, who has been playing Zork for over 17 years.
Gerald Hemmingway, team leader of the visual effects team hired for the movie, explained, “Using the wider movie screens, we’ll have much less text-wrapping, and be able to fit in more action onto the screen simultaneously. This is something the fans of Zork should be looking forward to.”
Hemmingway said the biggest challenge was to determine what text color to use.”We’ve experimented with amber on black, green on black and white on black. So far the test audiences have reacted most favorably to green on black.”
The studio promises that this will be the most faithful video game to reproduction ever made. “It’ll be like Morgan Freeman is sitting behind you reading the game as you play the perfect game. We think it’ll be a dream come true for most Zorkers or Zorkies or whatever they call themselves,” said Lion’s Gate CEO Beverly Crocker. - bbspot
Okay, obviously it’s a joke but I’d love to see Zork, the movie. Play my democratic Zork here.
In 1978, Bell Labs launched a trial of first commercial cellular network in Chicago using AMPS[1]. … The first handheld mobile phone to become commercially available to the US market was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, which received approval in 1983. Mobile phones began to proliferate through the 1980s with the introduction of “cellular” phones based on cellular networks with multiple base stations located relatively close to each other, and protocols for the automated “handover” between two cells when a phone moved from one cell to the other. At this time analog transmission was in use in all systems. Mobile phones were somewhat larger than current ones, and at first, all were designed for permanent installation in vehicles (hence the term car phone). Soon, some of these bulky units were converted for use as “transportable” phones the size of a briefcase. Motorola introduced the first truly portable, handheld phone. These systems (NMT, AMPS, TACS, RTMI, C-Netz, and Radiocom 2000) later became known as first generation (1G) mobile phones.
British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. The Somerset-born author achieved his greatest fame in 1968 when his short story The Sentinel was turned into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
His visions of space travel and computing sparked the imagination of readers and scientists alike.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse paid tribute, hailing the writer as a “great visionary”.
Since 1995, the author had been largely confined to a wheelchair by post-polio syndrome. …
“Sir Arthur has left written instructions that his funeral be strictly secular,” his secretary, Nalaka Gunawardene, was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
She said the author had requested “absolutely no religious rites of any kind”.
A farmer’s son, Sir Arthur was educated at Huish’s Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.
He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and foresaw the concept of communication satellites.
Sir Arthur’s detailed descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems inspired millions of readers.
When asked why he never patented his idea for communication satellites, he said: “I did not get a patent because I never thought it will happen in my lifetime.”
In the 1940s, he maintained man would reach the moon by the year 2000, an idea dismissed at the time.
He was the author of more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and his writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction a human and practical face. He collaborated on the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey with the film’s director Stanley Kubrick. - bbc
Spirits of the Force is a short “no-budget” Star Wars fan film made by members of the Phoenix Fan Force. After having such a great time making the movie, the original cast and crew immediately reunited to film 2 additional fanfilms concurrently, Fool’s Errand and Reflections of Evil which are currently scheduled to be released in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Cool. I love the idea of lots of new Star Wars episodes appearing from independent film makers. Too bad they couldn’t afford nose hair clippers though.
Fool’s Errand is a fanfilm and sequel to Spirits of the Force. It was released on June 10, 2006. Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors join young Jedi apprentice Kit Parson and Master Vette Bendeen to investigate an unusual transmission that could spell disaster for On’dos and Cod’os, two planets that have worked for decades to achieve peace.
Wow, much better than the first one. Can’t wait to see the third one. It is due out by the end of 2008, but here is the trailer:
Today February 28, 2008, the truth was revealed to me by GOD in a vision. God told me his true nature, and I will tell it to you: God is a sentient colony of microbes in the center of our brains which control everything we do. We are giant robots for them. Our brains exist to amplify their thoughts, our bodies to do their will. They live for millions of years causing our belief that we have immortal souls. They are space travelers causing our belief that we come from the stars. They are almost everywhere, so we believe that God is everywhere and that God is very large. But as microbes, they are invisible to us, as God is invisible. They move to new hosts causing our belief in reincarnation. They control the voices in our heads, causing our certainty that a God listens and responds. They are our souls, our gods, our true selves. They are the Humunculiria.
Hollywood, CA - Lion’s Gate Films, which had secretly acquired a few years ago the rights to produce a Zork movie, has announced that it will be released in summer 2009.
