It's getting so exciting

The Bonnie Tyler cover of Getting So Exciting never fails to make me giggle. Maybe it's because I spent most of my childhood dancing on my parents' bed to the original.



Fandom, and in fact just the world, is making me excited about various upcoming happenings. Amongst them:

1) The Coraline movie. I'd heard that it was being made but I thought that that was probably meant in the vague way that films of books I like are often being made, but no- this is actually happening! It looks pretty good- how can an animated stop-motion version directed by Henry Selick go too wrong? I do like The Nightmare Before Christmas (which he directed), although not as much as some people. Probably I'm hampered by not watching it at the correct stage in my life, I never saw it as a child so I first watched it in my first year of university. Admittedly I can kind of understand why people rolled their eyes at my main gripe (that it's lodged in a very specific American and Christian worldview, as evidenced by the other holiday tree/portals that exist), but it doesn't mean that it's completely devoid of validity. Apparently Coraline makes use of the new 3D technology too, which I've heard mostly encouraging things about, perhaps it's going to bring back the importance of the cinema if people actually have a reason to not just download/wait for the DVD?

There are five promos (of sorts) up if your curiosity is piqued. Gosh darn it, it's making me want to re-read Coraline now since I read it so long ago, I think it may have been the first of Neil Gaiman's work that I ever encountered (unless that honour in fact goes to Good Omens). It's wonderfully whimsical but also manages to be deliciously creepy too, and in a much better way than something like The Spiderwick Chronicles for example (although to be fair I only saw the film, and that wasn't bad, especially since it had Mary-Louise Parker in it). I quite like the look of the casting and think that Teri Hatcher is a good choice, and Dakota Fanning doesn't seem as excessively annoying as I thought she would be. It does seem a bit weird to hear Coraline speaking with an American accent, but not excessively horrible. I just love the way that Neil Gaiman speaks during interviews, he sounds like a deliberating maniac who might just offer you some tea.

2) Dollhouse. Obviously I was hella excited the moment I heard about a new Joss Whedon/Eliza Dushku project for various reasons, but the more I discover the better it sounds. It has a very interesting premise, people who can be imprinted with any persona (and associated skills, memories, languages etc) which are then wiped clean when their task is completed. The main character, Echo (played by Dushku), basically starts to become self-aware. I think it's an idea which allows the writers to explore a lot of really interesting material, as this interview discussing the nature/nurture debate makes clear, as well as create some great stand-alone scenarios for a series that by it's very nature doesn't need to be overly self-referential. I think it'll be great to see Eliza (or rather Eliza-as-Echo) playing all these different characters, and in some fabulous outfits I imagine! Also Tahmoh Penikett seems insanely adorable, and apparently Amy Acker has a recurring role too.

3) The Internet finally surpassing Hollywood/the movie industry. Apparently it's going to happen any moment now, for real this time. Alright, probably not at exactly this moment, but the media promises me that it's coming! It's obvious that people's viewing habits have been irrevocably changed by Web 2.0, and eventually film and television executives are going to have to take these trends into account far more than they have been doing. In their absence, it's the writers and producers who are starting to take note instead. Why wouldn't they, in a world that no longer has an expanding television industry and instead a weird trigger-happy response to most shows? It's not just Firefly and Wonderfalls, myriad good shows are constantly being cancelled prematurely, in fact getting a second season practically makes a show sound like a break-out success these days. Even shows with decent ratings like Supernatural are threatened, especially by idiotic executives like Dawn Ostroff who's precariously playing around with the fate of the entire CW network. There are a lot of interesting articles on the topic of digital media at the moment which are talking about the success of Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, I especially liked this one and was intrigued to see it discussed from a more business-oriented perspective on one of the Harvard Business blogs.

4) New seasons of pretty much everything in the next few months: Bones, Supernatural, House, Pushing Daisies, Gossip Girl, Californication... If I manage to get stuck into (and assuming I enjoy) How I Met Your Mother and Dexter by then I'll need to add them to the mix too! My life really needs more hours. I need to finish watching Carnivale before I get started on either of those two, plus I really do want to finally watch Life on Mars (which is sitting on my computer pouting for attention) soon too. Of all the shows the one that I'm most excited about is definitely Supernatural, and so I rather enjoyed this essay on A Very Supernatural Christmas (despite not feeling appropriately festive currently). I'm also fervently hoping for the (re-)return of the Ghostfacers to Supernatural, because they're adorable and awesome. Actually AJ Buckley and Travis Wester are wonderful in and of themselves, but especially when they, in-character, messed with Jared and Jensen's panel at Comic-Con. Here's a link to a video of said brilliance.

5) Not just Dollhouse, but pretty much anything Joss Whedon's involved in. Basically I've realised that I really need to check out more of the comics, I'm sure that I'm going to get drawn into the new Angel ones eventually, as well as Fray and the old Buffy (and probably Angel) ones too. In addition to that there's the Serenity ones, which I'm even more interested in now with the news that they're going to finally explain Shepherd Book's back story. Outside of the Jossverses that already have my love there's also the lure of his run on Astonishing X-Men (which will probably swiftly lead to what comes after), and I've heard good things about Runaways (not just his stint) and Sugarshock!. Sadly the blog which I was using to read comics scans is down (but will hopefully be resurrected in a new form soon) so I'm unlikely to get on with any of that at the moment, although Sugarshock! is available on myspace so I really have no excuse. With all the books/films/comics/television shows I'm trying to imbibe at the moment I'm quite glad that Monsieur Whedon doesn't have a load of films coming out right now, but this list of five movies that he should direct was fun, and actually pretty convincing. The article evilly made me want to read King Dork, and a load of books about the Civil War. I really want to be able to clone myself so I can comfortably keep up with all my obsessions.

6) The future of DC Comics superhero movies. I'm excited about the potential of a new Batman film (even though they probably won't let me ghost write), the next Superman film (cos wow did Superman Returns suck) and Wonder Woman (even though Joss is no longer involved). There's a brilliant article here which I really wish the appropriate people would take note of. I suppose that I do grudgingly support the idea of giving Bryan Singer another chance with Superman since I did really like the first two X-Men films, but I'm still pissed off at just how meh Superman Returns was. Also Supermax sounds brilliant, and there really do need to be some more superhero films launching (or re-launching) the story in a way that isn't just (or isn't at all) an origin tale. I'm going to end up reading the script for The Plastic Man now, aren't I? I really do seem to have a DC bias, I must be the only person in the world who is yet to see any of the Spiderman films, as well as Iron Man. I'll get round to it. Eventually.

7) More and more analysis of the Buffy season 8 comics. There's a really thoughtful and thought-provoking article about discussing the possible end of (lesbian) identity politics on AfterEllen.com which provides some great commentary. Beware it does contain spoilers for (and images from) the comics.

8) My possible descent into the heady world of RPF, although I'm not sure that that will actually happen. I've discovered real person fanfiction on my livejournal flist occasionally, using actors from the Weeds, Angel and West Wing fandoms, but I've never actually been able to get stuck into it and give up quickly. Somehow it just doesn't really appeal to me. However, I will read basically anything regardless of how ridiculous or potentially squicky it sounds, I know that basically anything can be turned into a good, and crucially, believable story in the hands of a great writer. I think the reason that the J2 fandom is so sizable is that Supernatural presents two (and only two, especially in the earlier seasons) ridiculously good looking characters with obvious chemistry. However, they're brothers. Obviously not everyone considers fraternal incest to be wackily hilarious, and so a lot of people would prefer to write (and/or read) about the attraction between their real life counterparts instead. Also when people write about (W)incest it tends to be dark and heart wrenching rather than light and fluffy for some reason, so the fictional tangled love lives of two actors become light relief by contrast. What I'm bowled over by is the fact that J2 + Sandy AU fic actually exists. It's not particularly well-written (in fact I can summarise it succinctly: "cock. arse. tits.") but I'm just enjoying the fact that it was created at all.

Also I've never really understood why fics like that are described as 'genderfuck' (or 'genderswap') since the characters genders don't change at all, it's merely their physical sex which has been altered. I suppose describing something as 'sexfuck' could be a little confusing however.

Here, have a video of Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk being amusing just because.

Pardon my overly revealing linking behaviour, and Young Americans misquoting.