Read Online The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gardner Dozois
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place; of course, at the time I’m writing these words, it’s only been in general release for a month or so, so it may do better later on), and Jim Carrey’s latest ill-advised attempt to make a slob comedy out of a beloved literary classic, A Christmas Carol. Right at the end of the year, the new Terry Gilliam movie came out, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus , but I haven’t yet had a chance to see it.
Animated films had three finishers in the top ten, the charming (and also well-reviewed) Up , at fifth place, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in at ninth place, and Monsters vs. Aliens in tenth place; further down the list were Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, The Princess and the Frog, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Astro Boy , and the edgy not-really-for-children post-apocalyptic 9 . Coraline , taken from a Neil Gaiman novel, probably got the most critical respect of any of the animated films, other than Up.
It was a weak year for superhero movies, which up until now had dominated for several years. As mentioned, X-Men Origins: Wolverine under-performed, making it only to thirteenth place on the top-sellers list. The disappointment of the year, though, may have been Watchmen; some critics praised it, and some fans of the Watchmen graphic novels were enthusiastic about it, but for the most part, audiences stayed away, and it only made it to thirtieth place on the top-sellers list, earning $185,253,487 but costing $130 million to make. It was also bleak and depressing, and opinion was sharply divided on whether or not it was boring, and also on whether or not it was adequately faithful to the original source material.
In some ways, the highest profit margin of the year, proportionately speaking, may have been earned by horror movie Paranormal Activity , which pulled in a relatively modest $142,390,115 worldwide, but cost only an astonishing $15,000 to make; most big-budget Hollywood movies probably spend more than that buying doughnuts for the crew. I’m sure the film industry is saying, ‘Send us a few more like that !’
In spite of worries about the recession keeping people home in 2009, this wasn’t the case. People need cheap entertainment during bleak economic times, and just as happened during the Great Depression, there were more people going to the movies, not less.
Next year looks like it’s going to be Sequel Land, with a follow-up to Star Trek , probably a sequel to Avatar (although that might take a couple of years to make), possibly sequels to 2012 and Transformers , a lavish new version of The Wolfman – obviously part of an effort to make werewolves the New Vampires, a ‘reimagining’ of Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton, and, of course, the new Harry Potter movie. On the horizon are possible versions of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War , John Wyndham’s Chocky , and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. How many of these will ever actually make it to the screen, remains to be seen.
After the turbulence of 2007–2008, when the Writers Guild of America strike played hob with television programming, causing even many of the highest-rated shows to go on hiatus, 2009 was a relatively quiet year, although in some ways a glum one, during which TV shows fell like wheat before a scythe. Shows that died in 2009 or early 2010 included the once-hot Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; cult favorite Pushing Daisies; Stargate Atlantis; Defying Gravity; the American version of Life on Mars; Kings; Reaper; Eli Stone; the new version of the old show Knight Rider; Kyle XY; Eastwick , the series version of The Witches of Eastwick; the BBC’s Robin Hood; Saving Grace , the cop-talks-to-an-angel show; Merlin; and Eleventh Hour. The most keenly felt loss for some fans was probably Doll house , the new series by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Josh Whedon, upon which a lot of hopes had been pinned. As planned, Battlestar Galactica , another keenly missed show, ended its run,
Animated films had three finishers in the top ten, the charming (and also well-reviewed) Up , at fifth place, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in at ninth place, and Monsters vs. Aliens in tenth place; further down the list were Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, The Princess and the Frog, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Astro Boy , and the edgy not-really-for-children post-apocalyptic 9 . Coraline , taken from a Neil Gaiman novel, probably got the most critical respect of any of the animated films, other than Up.
It was a weak year for superhero movies, which up until now had dominated for several years. As mentioned, X-Men Origins: Wolverine under-performed, making it only to thirteenth place on the top-sellers list. The disappointment of the year, though, may have been Watchmen; some critics praised it, and some fans of the Watchmen graphic novels were enthusiastic about it, but for the most part, audiences stayed away, and it only made it to thirtieth place on the top-sellers list, earning $185,253,487 but costing $130 million to make. It was also bleak and depressing, and opinion was sharply divided on whether or not it was boring, and also on whether or not it was adequately faithful to the original source material.
In some ways, the highest profit margin of the year, proportionately speaking, may have been earned by horror movie Paranormal Activity , which pulled in a relatively modest $142,390,115 worldwide, but cost only an astonishing $15,000 to make; most big-budget Hollywood movies probably spend more than that buying doughnuts for the crew. I’m sure the film industry is saying, ‘Send us a few more like that !’
In spite of worries about the recession keeping people home in 2009, this wasn’t the case. People need cheap entertainment during bleak economic times, and just as happened during the Great Depression, there were more people going to the movies, not less.
Next year looks like it’s going to be Sequel Land, with a follow-up to Star Trek , probably a sequel to Avatar (although that might take a couple of years to make), possibly sequels to 2012 and Transformers , a lavish new version of The Wolfman – obviously part of an effort to make werewolves the New Vampires, a ‘reimagining’ of Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton, and, of course, the new Harry Potter movie. On the horizon are possible versions of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War , John Wyndham’s Chocky , and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. How many of these will ever actually make it to the screen, remains to be seen.
After the turbulence of 2007–2008, when the Writers Guild of America strike played hob with television programming, causing even many of the highest-rated shows to go on hiatus, 2009 was a relatively quiet year, although in some ways a glum one, during which TV shows fell like wheat before a scythe. Shows that died in 2009 or early 2010 included the once-hot Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; cult favorite Pushing Daisies; Stargate Atlantis; Defying Gravity; the American version of Life on Mars; Kings; Reaper; Eli Stone; the new version of the old show Knight Rider; Kyle XY; Eastwick , the series version of The Witches of Eastwick; the BBC’s Robin Hood; Saving Grace , the cop-talks-to-an-angel show; Merlin; and Eleventh Hour. The most keenly felt loss for some fans was probably Doll house , the new series by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Josh Whedon, upon which a lot of hopes had been pinned. As planned, Battlestar Galactica , another keenly missed show, ended its run,
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