Here is a smashup of William Shatner’s cover of “Common People,” a song by the UK band, Pulp. It has been set music-video fashion to scenes from the 1970′s Star Trek: The Animated Series with very good lip sync matching by YouTube user “KirkSlashSpock.”
Note to fen: This has very, very light K/S fanfic themes and is PG-rated.
According to an article in Variety, The Weinstein Company has bought the rights to make Evilseek, a supernatural thriller starring Thomas Jane (The Punisher, Dreamcatcher, Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
IN the film, Jane plays a police officer who commits suicide after being toyed with by a serial killer. Because of this final sin, the cop belongs to Satan – who decides to possess the cop and track down the killer himself, aided by a lesbian partner.
Meanwhile, Satan-as-cop has to deal with a feisty ex-wife and a slutty teen daughter.
Evilseek was written and and will be directed by Wayne Kramer (Mindhunters) and produced by Michael A Pierce (The Cooler).
{NO SPOILERS}
Premise: A gay man unhappy with his life takes part in drug trials after a pharmaceutical giant develops a pill that may “cure” homosexuality.
So, what would happen if scientists found the cause of homosexuality and said they developed a pill that could “cure” the condition.
This is the premise of Hard Pill, a so-so film being shown this month on the Logo Network.
The film follows the life of a gay man named Tim, plated by Jonathan Slavin (Inconceivable, Summerland), who doesn’t feel like he fit in with the rest of the gay world. After he enrolls in a drug company trial, the film follows his life as he tries to change his sexual orientation from gay to straight.
The film also focuses on how his decision and the outcome of the drug trial affects the men and women Tim’s life.
The Premise as Science Fiction
One of the great strengths of science fiction is that it can use its “what if” factor to show a morality play of a possible future to question the morals of today. In fact science fiction television has a long and proud history of doing just this, from the original Star Trek and Twilight Zone in the 1960s to today’s Battlestar Galactica.
Ironically, for an issue film, this is where Hard Pill is its least effective. The film is muddled and unfocused. As the main character experiences his transformation, the people around him struggle with his changes. But as the final credits roll at the end of the film, it is anyone’s guess about what the thematic purpose of this film is.
The film’s weakness ultimately is that it fails to take a stand of any kind. Not let nature be; not whether homosexuality good or bad; not anything. It leaves the viewer wanting – in the bad sense.
The Screenplay
Written and directed by John Baumgartner, Hard Pill has the infuriating knack for starting compelling stories but never fleshes them out to be anything but distractions. That is annoying.
Especially in the case of the romance between Tim’s commitment-phobic friend Joey, played by Scotch Ellis Loring (Wonderfalls), who stumbles accidentally into a relationship with gay activist Brad, played by Timothy Omundson (Judging Amy, Deadwood, John Doe, Xena: Warrior Princess). The relationship between these two builds, but the story is dropped without any form of resolution.
Acting
The sole bright spot of this film is the acting talent, which is top-notch. Each performers rises above the material and uses what little is there to shine in their own way.
Some adult themes.
| RATINGS Overall: 5 out of 10 V-Chip Rating: TV-14 DS Genre: Science Fiction. Sex: Adult situations, heterosexual and homosexual kissing. Violence: None. Eye Candy: Low. IMDB listing CAST Jonathan Slavin … Tim Scotch Ellis Loring … Joey Susan Slome … Sally Mike Begovich … Don Jennifer Elise Cox … Tanya Timothy Omundson … Brad |
Award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer Octavia E Butler died suddenly Saturday, a victim of an apparent stroke. At age 58, she had achieved much more than once would expect from a dyslexic African American lesbian born to a shoe shiner.
For her work, she had been awarded two Nebula and Hugo awards.
Below is an excerpt from her bibliography at Wikipedia and reprinted under this GFDL license.
Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947-February 25, 2006) was an American science fiction writer, one of very few African-American women in the field, and a leading lesbian writer. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards, and was the first science fiction writer ever to be a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
Butler was born in Pasadena, California. Her father, a shoe shiner, died when she was young; her mother raised her in a struggling, racially mixed neighborhood. As a child, she was considered shy and a “daydreamer;” she was later diagnosed with dyslexia. She began writing at the age of 10 “to escape loneliness and boredom.” She was 12 when she began a lifelong interest in science fiction.
After getting an associate degree from Pasadena City College, she attended California State University and UCLA. She gave credit for her development as a writer to the Open Door Program of the Screen Writers Guild of America and the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop.
Butler moved to Seattle in November 1999. She described herself as “comfortably asocial–a hermit in the middle of Seattle–a pessimist if I’m not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.” She died of a stroke on February 25, 2006 at the age of 58.
