'The Spark': HBO to explore extraterrestrial contact in epic new series

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

HBO is moving into the sci-fi arena with an epic series exploring extraterrestrial contact. According to Deadline, The Spark, which is currently in development, “is set in a world undergoing a technological/industrial revolution in the near future when contacted by a signal from beyond the solar system. It centers on the human reaction to a mystery still spiritually and technologically out of reach and follows a female protagonist as she works on the cusp of the Earth’s effort to discover the origin of the signal.”

The man behind The Spark is Karl Gajdusek – creator/executive producer of ABC’s Last Resort series and co-writer of the Tom Cruise sci-fi, Oblivion. Gajdusek, who will write and executive produce The Spark, says his series will explore on a human level what he calls the five pillars of science fiction: “Alien Contact, Artificial Intelligence, Technological breakthroughs, Space Exploration/Adventure, and Origin Stories.”

Sounds great, but is this reminding everyone else of a certain 1985 Carl Sagan novel that became a certain 1997 Jodie Foster/Robert Zemeckis movie?

 

Contact – now sixteen years old – was arguably the last big-budget Hollywood production to demonstrate that the concept of entirely benevolent extraterrestrial contact can indeed rake-in the cash from satisfied cinemagoers. Here’s hoping that, like Contact, The Spark has the guts to shake ET’s hand, rather than blow it off with a bazooka and a one-liner.

 

Thanks to Rick MG at Daily Grail for the heads-up on this story.

'Independence Day' director to tackle aliens again in 'Emergence'

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

 

Roland Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment has bought the rights to what Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr describes as “an alien invasion story containing hot-button science elements.” Titled Emergence, Centropolis will bring the story to the big screen as “a large scale contemporary science fiction film,” and Emmerich himself will direct. 

The pitch for Emergence was written by Nic Kelman, best known for his 2003 bestselling novel, Girls. Deadline points out that Kelman holds a Bachelor of Science from MIT and speculates that the writer’s scientific background will notably inform the plot for Emmerich’s film. “This [Emergence] falls into the latest trend encompassing films like the Christopher Nolan-directed Interstellar, which melds narrative storytelling with grounded science theory.”

Quite what scientific angle Emergence will explore in relation to alien invasion is unclear at this point, though it may be notable that, while at MIT, Kelman majored in Brain and Cognitive Science. Does this mean we might see an alien movie finally getting to grips with the strong psychic aspects of alien encounters commonly reported by UFO witnesses? Time will tell, but not for a while yet as no release date has been announced. Expect 2015 at the earliest. In the meantime, Emmerich has two Independence Day sequels to deliver.

‘After Earth’: the alien/UFO connection

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Alien design for After Earth (2013)

 

M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming sci-fi survival movie After Earth features an elaborate back-story unhinted at in its trailers involving multiple extraterrestrial species.

io9.com reports that After Earth’s recently-released companion book United Rangers Corps Survival Manual reveals an intricate fictional historical narrative leading up to the events of the film.

“Turns out, there are aliens in this movie,” writes io9’s Meredith Woerner, “lots of them. Different species, in fact, which sound infinitely more interesting than a boy with a spear in the woods.”

Woerner then lays out the approximately 1000 years of events that constitute the movie’s back-story:

“1908 - An alien ship crash lands in Russia. All collective world governments then keep this discovery a secret basically forever. (But they let smarties like Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein play with the remains).

2012 - NASA announces that they've invented WARP ENGINES. By secretly tapping into the alien spaceship's knowledge of the universe's "dark energy." Tah Dah!

2071 - 2072 - Earth is all GTFO, humans. No one can live here anymore, because it's poison for us, so 750,000 survivors leave on ARKS (one is named the Asimov). The Arks were created thanks to additional information pulled (over the years) from the downed spacecraft.”

 

After Earth (2013)

Here, then, we have yet another blockbuster movie borrowing liberally from modern UFO-conspiracy lore, central to which are ideas relating to UFO crash retrievals and top secret efforts to reverse-engineer alien technologies. Although the Roswell Incident of 1947 is most commonly associated with such ideas, Shyamalan has here chosen to reach further back into UFO history – specifically, to the Tunguska event of 1908, which involved a massively powerful and mysterious explosion in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia. Officialdom attributes the explosion to a large meteoroid or comet fragment, but UFO researchers have long theorized that an alien craft may have been involved. Clearly this theory holds great appeal for Shyamalan, whose big-budget movie will now push the Tunguska event further into popular culture, albeit in a fantastical context. 

After Earth hits cinemas May 31, 2013. For the rest of the movie’s long and complicated back-story, head on over to io9.com.

 

 

 

J.J. Abrams quizzes astronaut on alien life (video)

UPDATED: 23 May, 2013

Thanks to Alejandro Rojas at OpenMinds.TV for going that extra mile in seeking out the actual video chat between NASA and the cast and crew of Star Trek Into Darkness discussed but not shown in the original reporting of this story.

 

 

 

The previously “unnamed” astronaut referred to by Alice Eve on Jimmy Kimmel Live turns out to be Michael Fincke. Joining him in the Google Hangout was Kjell Lindgren at the Johnson Space Center and Chris Cassidy aboard the International Space Station.

Director J.J. Abrams (who also wrote and directed the UFO movie Super 8 in 2011) was unable to participate in the live event. His “alien” question to the astronauts was posed in a pre-recorded video. Abrams said:

“I wish I could be there, but I couldn’t attend, so I am doing this very important question on video, which is the following. I talked to an astronaut once who told me on one of his missions he actually did see something really strange that he couldn’t explain that made him believe in extraterrestrial life, and my question to you is. Have either of you ever seen anything that made you believe that, or something you couldn’t explain or couldn’t understand, that you didn’t really necessarily share with the public, but that you want to share with us now? Thanks”.

Fincke replied:

“That was a great question from J.J., we get that question a lot. We all want to know, ‘are we the only ones out there?’And Star Trek helps us imagine what it could be like if there were other creatures, other people, other species. I spent a whole year in space, 381 days, but it is only 240 miles up, so that’s not very far in cosmic terms. So we think as we go farther out, and into the universe, we might find something out there that we don’t know about. I have never seen anything, maybe Kjell will on his mission, but I think as we go farther out, with the inspiration we get from you guys making these great feats of imagination and excitement, the movies that you make,  inspire us to be our best as human beings on planet earth.”

Star Trek Into Darkness writer and producer Damon Lindelof then commented, “What a great answer. Mike, can you confirm you have not been taken over by aliens? It felt a little too polished.”

Fincke replied, “No, I have done this before and I am an American human being who loves being part of our space program, and we all look up to you guys to inspire us.”

“Now we know something is seriously wrong,” said Lindelof.

 

 

___________________________________________________

 

ORIGINAL REPORT

 

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

British actress Alice Eve is convinced that NASA is hiding information about alien life. During a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Eve – who co-starred in Star Trek Into Darkness and Men In Black 3 – described taking a trip to NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas last Thursday, where she and her Trek co-stars Chris Pine and John Cho, as well as the film’s writer Damon Lindelof and its director J.J. Abrams, made a Skype call to an unnamed astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

"That was definitely the coolest thing we've done,” Eve told Kimmel, adding that her director had once spoken to an astronaut who believed he had seen alien life. Eve continued:

“J.J. asked this question [to the ISS astronaut], 'So have you seen alien life?'... and the response that these guys at the NASA base gave us... was so rehearsed and so clear that they had seen (aliens).”

“Interesting,” Kimmel replied. “So you believe that there’s a party line that they’re given and they kinda have to regurgitate it?”

“Well, I don’t know. I’m not saying I believe that...” Said Eve. The actress then leaned in toward her host and whispered in his ear: “but I believe that.”

 

Eve's comments begin at counter reading 1:12 in the video below...

 

 

 

New 'Star Trek' film taps into UFO lore

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

SPOILERS AHEAD

Rumbled: Kirk and McCoy flee alien tribespeople in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

 

Cinemagoers who have seen the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, can no doubt recall its colourful opening sequence in vivid detail. No sooner are our bums on seats than do we find ourselves thrust into the brilliant crimson forests of an alien world, watching breathlessly as Captain James T. Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy flee a primitive humanoid tribe.

The Starfleet officers are in disguise so as to prevent the tribespeople from seeing their human (i.e. alien) faces and shattering their embryonic philosophical and religious paradigm. Kirk and McCoy are, as any Trekkie will appreciate, seeking to uphold their prime directive: to avoid at all costs any overt interference with the internal development of an alien civilization – especially one that is “barely out of the stone age” and which views its own culture as the center of the universe.

 

Alien culture shock: Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

This idea of non-interference between alien cultures is one that is frequently discussed in the UFO and scientific communities. Many scientists consider it entirely plausible that any advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy would likely seek to avoid drawing the attention of inhabitants of more primitive worlds for fear of sparking religious, economic and political chaos, or even civilizational collapse. And this, say many in the UFO community, is why ET has not yet landed on the White House lawn.   

Over the years, numerous alleged contactees have claimed that benevolent space folk have actually saved humanity from destruction on several occasions throughout history by quietly preventing potentially catastrophic natural disasters. Certainly there have been a great many instances when UFOs have been sighted over areas of geophysical significance – particularly active volcanoes. 

 

 

It is fitting, then, that Star Trek Into Darkness explores these UFOlogical ideas in its opening scenes. The reason Kirk and McCoy (and also Commander Spock) are on the alien planet in the first place is to attempt to covertly prevent the eruption of a super volcano that would wipe-out the fledgling civilization. The starship Enterprise is hidden from the aliens’ view beneath hundreds of feet of water off the coastline as Kirk and McCoy attempt to blend in with the natives.

Things don’t go according to plan, however, as not only are the two astronauts rumbled, but their starship is witnessed by the awe-struck tribespeople in all its splendour rising majestically from the ocean. We know in that moment that their civilizational path has been dramatically altered as, soon after, they begin drawing and worshipping a crude pictogram of the Enterprise. Ancient Astronaut theory, anyone?

As if these UFOlogical allusions weren’t sufficient, the fictional alien planet of our discussion is actually called ‘Nibiru.’ As anyone familiar with the work of Zecharia Sitchin will know, Nibiru is a theoretical planet that passes by Earth every 3,600 years, allowing its inhabitants – the Annunaki – to interact with humanity. According to Sitchin, these beings were the first gods worshipped by Man.

These filmic nods to UFOlogy should come as little surprise when we consider that the screenwriters for Star Trek Into Darkness are Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof. Between them, these men have written and/or produced the likes of Transformers, Cowboys and Aliens, and Prometheus – all of which owe a heavy debt to UFO literature. Indeed, Orci, for one, has made no secret of his personal interest in the UFO subject. In July, 2011, the screenwriter was asked by The Wrap if he believed in aliens. He replied in the affirmative and added: “I think the evidence clearly indicates that the government's lying about what the hell’s going on.”

It’s unclear at this stage whether or not these same writers will be onboard for the next instalment of the Star Trek franchise, but, if they are, it’s a fair bet that their fascination with UFO lore will continue to serve as inspiration in their exploration of the Star Trek universe.

First full trailer for 'Europa Report'

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Check out the first full trailer for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Europa Report, which is described by Comingsoon.net as “a unique blend of documentary, alternative history and science fiction thriller [which] follows a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system.”

Developed in close collaboration with NASA, JPL, SpaceX and other leaders in the scientific community, Europa Report “imagines the next step in manned space exploration and is based on recent scientific discoveries and theories.”

The film is due for theatrical release on August 2, and will be available On Demand from June 27.

Directed by Sebastian Cordero, Europa Report stars Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo and Karolina Wydra. The film features music by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead).

Man of Propaganda

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

'Man of Steel' teams up with US National Guard

SOLDIDEROFSTEEL.COM

When the government and the entertainment industry maintain an intimate working relationship and co-produce media products specifically tailored to promote the tools of war and boost military recruitment, we call it what it is: propaganda. At least, that's what we call it when practised by countries such as North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, etc.

In America, 'propaganda' is something practised by other countries. In America, the symbiotic relationship between the entertainment industry and every branch of the military is just 'good business'. And besides, it can't be propaganda if they're advertising their own relationship, right?

Of course, it's not just the National Guard who are trying to recruit Superman fans -- the US Air Force also 'wants you!'. In exchange for the Pentagon’s right to edit the movie’s script and monitor its production, the superhero movie has been granted access to USAF facilities and hardware in order to cut its production costs. Most notably, Man of Steel will showcase the USAF's $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter which is currently grounded due to flight difficulties. Reuters reported last year that the final cost of the F-35 program might be as much as $1.5 trillion dollars(!).

According to Wired, the Pentagon’s Hollywood Liaison, Phil Strub is remaining tight lipped as to whether or not the F-35 actually interacts with Superman in the new movie, but, notes Wired, “it gets the troubled aircraft program in the same sentence as the four-color symbol of truth, justice and the American way.”

Here are just some of the movies which have been produced in collaboration with the US Department of Defense in the last decade...

2013 Man of Steel
2012 Battleship
2012 Act of Valor
2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2011 Battle Los Angeles
2010 Iron Man 2
2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2008 The Day the Earth Stood Still
2008 Eagle Eye
2008 Iron Man
2007 I Am Legend
2007 Transformers
2006 Flags of Our Fathers
2006 United 93
2005 The Great Raid
2005 Stealth
2005 War of the Worlds
2003 American Valor
2003 Rain
2003 The Core