Brenden Jefferson b. 1986 (Holes, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century)
Imogen Poots b. 1989 (Fright Night, 28 Weeks Later, V for Vendetta)
Jame Purefoy b. 1964 (John Carter, Solomon Kane, Frankenstein [2007, TV], Resident Evil, The Cloning of Joanna May)
Suzie Plakson b. 1958 (Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beauty and the Beast, My Stepmother is an Alien)
Scott Valentine b. 1958 (Harpies, Black Scorpion, Fallout, Mars, Carnosaur 3: Primal Species, Lois & Clark, The Unborn II, To Sleep with a Vampire, Deadly Nightmares, My Demon Lover, Knight Rider)
Clive Mantle b. 1957 (Game of Thrones, Alien³)
Erland van Lidth b. 1953 died 23 September 1987 (The Running Man)
Melissa Mathison b, 1950 (writer, The Indian in the Cupboard, Twilight Zone: The Movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial)
John Rothman b. 1949 (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Enchanted, Dark Matter, Daredevil, From the Earth to the Moon, The Devil’s Advocate, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Ghostbusters)
John Dykstra b. 1947 (special effects, Godzilla, X-Men: First Class, Hancock, Spider-Man I and II, Batman & Robin, Batman Forever, My Stepmother is an Alien, Invaders from Mars, Alice in Wonderland [1985 – TV], Lifeforce, Firefox, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars: Episode IV, Silent Running)
Penelope Wilton b. 1946 (Doctor Who, Shaun of the Dead, Alice Through the Looking Glass [1998, TV], The Borrowers)
Bill Paterson b 1945 (Doctor Who, Sea of Souls, Ghostbusters of East Finchley, The Witches, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
Frank McRae b. 1942 (Asteroid [TV], Last Action Hero, Twilight Zone, Wonder Woman)
Edward Winter b. 1937 died 8 March 2001 (Weird Science, Superboy, Misfits of Science, The Greatest American Hero, Project U.F.O.)
Marion Zimmer Bradley b. 1930 died 25 September 1999 (author, The Mists of Avalon, Darkover)
Tony Curtis b. 1925 died 29 September 2010 (Stargames, Lois & Clark, The Mummy Lives, Lobster Man From Mars, BrainWaves, The Manitou)
Maurice Evans b. 1901 died 12 March 1989 (The Canterville Ghost, The Six Million Dollar Man, Bewitched, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, The Body Stealers, Rosemary’s Baby, Planet of the Apes, Batman)
Quite the list today. Last year the Picture Slot went to Suzie Plakson as K'Ehleyr, not a bad choice at any time. I also thought about a cover from a Marion Zimmer Bradley book or Penelope Wilton from Doctor Who or Shaun of the Dead.
The first name on the imdb.com birthday list was Tony Curtis and my first thought was he hadn't done any genre work, but of course I was wrong. I could have gone with Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius or Clive Mantle from Game of Thrones. But I bypassed all those great choices for the late Erland van Lidth, here in his costume as Dynamo in The Running Man. Van Lidth was a classically trained singer (he does a beautiful version of Down in the Valley (Birmingham Jail) in the movie Stir Crazy) and studied computer science at MIT, but got into the movies because he was a wrestler.
Many happy returns to the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Movies released
X-Men: First Class released, 2011
Prediction: At nine o’clock it is time for school. Inside a large closet in your bedroom there is a vision phone and vision desk. As soon as you dial your school number, the screen lights up, and there is your teacher.
The vision phone is a telephone that allows you to see the person you are talking to. He or she can see you, too.
School work would be impossible without the vision desk. When the teacher writes a sum on the blackboard, the figures are shown on the desk. To answer the question you take your electronic pen and start writing on the desk. If the teacher sees that you are going wrong, he or she can correct you. All the school work that is done on the vision desk is recorded on a giant school computer.
Reality: I do love the illustration of the giant school computer. We do have some distance learning, of course, but for the most part it's at the college level and the teacher isn't electronically peeking over every student's shoulder. Vision phones, vision desks and electronic pens are real technology, but the whole package didn't quite get put together in this configuration.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
June will be the last month of predictions for our Edwardian pal T. Baron Russell.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Kudos on the picture choice. Bold choice, sir.
ReplyDeleteFunny how different the movie version of teh Running Man is from the novella. I am almost making the case that Stephen King's prose hardly ever translates to the visual medium. I like his writing; to me, it's straightforward and muscular and visceral. And it's hard to make someone as jaded as a zombie be scared to turn out the lights at night, but he does it. And even his recent stuff, especially the time travel book, is REALLY good.
I read the first book of The Dark Tower series recently and wondered if it might not be good source material for an HBO/Showtime series. Not completely sold on it yet.
DeleteIt gets better. The early portions of that were written when he was still young and a bit stiff at writing. Later books flow much better, as he got better. There's also some interesting crossover with other books.
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