Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Write Your Name in Elvish in Ten Minutes is the claim, and from the look of things its no exaggeration. You can indeed take your name and write it in elvish script following the author’s instructions.

Now as to whether this is really elvish… I’m not getting into that debate. But hey it is cool and easy to do.

Plus it makes for an awesome signature.

Sci Fi Wire reports that efforts are underway to produce a feature film version of Stephen Donaldson’s fantasy book series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Revelstone Entertainment has optioned the rights to the first six books in the series and John Orloff (Band of Brothers) will adapt them.

The books revolve around a shunned author (Covenant) who is magically transported to the Land, a mystical world where he discovers he is the…

SciFi Channel scored itself another hit with its Legend of Earthsea mini-series. The two episodes averaged a 3.2 rating (3.7 million viewers) on their premieres. Perhaps even better as far as SciFi is concerned, while episode 1 drew a 3.0 rating (3.44 million viewers), episode 2 drew a 3.4 rating (3.92 million viewers).

Lately mini-series have tended to tail off rather than gain viewers. The only way to read this is…

Comics Continuum reports that acclaimed science fiction writer Orson Scott Card will be writing the new Ultimate Iron Man comicbook from Marvel.

Card is probably best known for this series of science fiction books including Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead. He has also written a popular fantasy series, Tales of Alvin the Maker, starting with Seventh Son.

Ultimate Iron Man is an extension of Marvel Comics “Ultimate” universe, which re-works…

A film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel Coraline is in the works and Henry Selick has been picked to write and direct according to Sci Fi Wire.

Selick is best known for the animated films, The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. He was apparently approached by Neil Gaiman himself to get involved.

Selick describes Coraline as an Alice in Wonderland-esque story. “A little girl discovers a passageway…

Aint It Cool News has an awesome behind the scenes look at The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

If you have any interest in either the books or the film you really ought to check this one out. This looks like its going to be a stunningly realised film. Both the effects and the makeup and all the little details like weapons and armor look wonderful.…

You can watch a trailer for BATMAN BEGINS at the official movie site.

Its… very different from the previous Batman films. And very promising too. Its darker, moodier, less stylised. All of this could be very good.

I was a little concerned at the trailer’s early focus on Batman’s training though. It was looking a little too much like a standard straight to video fight movie. Things started picking up part way…

According to Sci Fi Wire there’s going to be a spinoff film based on the Magneto character in the X-Men films, played by Ian McKellen.

The script for Magneto will be written by Sheldon Turner and is the second spinoff from the franchise, following a deal with screenwriter David Benioff to write Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman.

I find myself very suspicious of both these spin-offs. For a start, I’ve seen how badly…

SFSignal has posted a review of Marvel 1602. This is a title I haven’t read, but have kept several eyes on for a couple of reasons. For one, its an “alternate reality” tale and those can be fun if done well. For another it was written by Neil Gaiman.

Prior to this all Gaiman’s big work had been over at DC comics or completely outside the mainstream. I can’t have…

There’s a high quality trailer for Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds available now. It looks pretty slick, not to mention explosive.

No indication of plot from the trailer, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say its probably going to feature aliens invading the earth. Pure speculation of course, but I just have this feeling.

I’m not sure what my feelings are about this one. Spielberg…