Batman & GoT in the news

Three stories appeared in today’s Montreal Gazette which are of interest to fandom:

  • The Evolution of Batman
  • Overreaction to casting of Pattinson may be premature, given Keaton history
  • Thrones actor no longer strongest man

THE EVOLUTION OF BATMAN

Tim Burton’s film about crime fighter changed the superhero landscape

WARNER BROS. Tim Burton’s Batman, which starred Michael Keaton, turns 30 this year and Warner Bros. has announced a new franchise beginning in the summer of 2021.

Michael E. Uslan was a wideeyed, 28-year-old comics fan when he improbably scooped up the film rights to a character Hollywood had kicked to the curb. Brimming with belief, he bought Batman. Problem was, no one else in town was buying.

It was the late ’70s, the era of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, when Uslan, a comics scholar turned aspiring producer, pitched the major studios on his idea for a Bat-project. He was met with rejection after rejection. One industry executive told him Batman was “as dead as the dodo.”

“It can’t be comprehended today,” Uslan says. “There was no respect for superheroes or their creators.”

The film industry, like much of society at large, still viewed comic books as simply kid stuff. But Uslan saw a path forward: “If we do it as a dark and serious movie, it will almost be like a brand new form of entertainment.”

Continue reading Batman & GoT in the news

2019 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award Finalists

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Baen Books announces the top ten finalists for the 2019 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award for best original fantasy short story. They are:

  • “Breach of Contract” by Anne Leonard
  • “Demons on the Canadian Frontier” by Shannon Walker
  • “FedEx” by Sam Robb
  • “In the City of Dreadful Joy” by Misha Burnett
  • “In the House of Rain and Gale” by Joelle Douthit
  • “The Dormer Trees” by Sarah Totten
  • “The Dragon is Blind” by Sam Muller
  • “The Laughing Folk” by Steve DuBois
  • “The Storm Stone” by Kevin Harkness
  • “Treason Properly” by J. J. Cragun

Started in 2014, this is the sixth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award. This award honors stories that best exemplify the spirit of adventure, imagination, and great storytelling in a work of short fiction containing an element of the fantastic, whether epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, or contemporary fantasy. The stories are judged anonymously.

The Grand Prize and Second and Third Place Winners will come from among these ten finalists, and will be announced on July 6, 2019, at SpikeCon during the Baen Traveling Roadshow. SpikeCon will take place from July 4-7 in Layton, UT, and is home to Westercon 72, NASFiC 2019, the 1632 Minicon, and Manticon 2019.

Author of the Grand Prize story receives an award trophy, a prize box filled with Baen merchandise, and paid professional rates for first publication rights. The winning story will be featured on Baen.com main webpage from August 15th through September 15th, 2019, and will be available in the Baen Free Library thereafter.