All posts by Osiris
Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon Season 2
Pulse’s “Barbarians”
“Sharpen your axes and your two-handed swords! After celebrating the post-apocalyptic genre with After the World Ends, Pulse Video is proud to present you the brand new 256 page beautiful hardcover book by Claude Gaillard. It contains everything you need to explore Conansploitation from top to bottom. This cinematic genre, also known as Sword & Sorcery, born out of after the success of John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian, takes Heroic Fantasy as its backdrop, but above all throws vengeful and muscular heroes into the mix. They’re often mute colossuses with a taste for personal justice, that they – more often than not delivered with a sword! Conan, Dar, Yor, Ator, Kane and the other barbarians of the ’80s and ’90s are the core of our new book, Barbarians, from Conan to He-Man, now available for pre-order on Kickstarter, to the delight of movie lovers! “
This company released a a similar book on post-apocalyptic films a few years ago, which was excellent. This one should be too. Go check out their Kickstarter.
New Lord of the Rings film, The Hunt for Gollum, in development
Warner Bros Motion Picture Group’s Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said overnight that Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the Oscar-winning team behind the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, will produce and Serkis will direct.
“Yesssss, Precious,” Serkis said in a statement. “The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa … It’s just too delicious.”
The working title is Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and Walsh and Boyens are co-writing the screenplay. The collaboration between Warner Bros and New Line Cinema is expected to be released in 2026.
More here
The Count of Monte Cristo
Not fantasy per se, but Alexandre Dumas‘s “The Count of Monte Cristo” certainly had an influence on the genre and is a great piece of historical/adventure fiction in it it’s own right. Filmed multiple times, best known in the English world are the 1975 version with Richard Chamberlain and the 2002 version with Jim Caviezel. The latest version is due to open in France on June 28th.
RIP Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill, the English actor who played Theoden, the King of Rohan, in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, has died. He was also in the genre related Scorpion King. More here.
Shout! Studios gains exclusive rights to Jim Henson movies.
Shout! Studios has exclusive worldwide rights to Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and behind the scenes specials for both films. This comes a year and a half after Shout acquired the rights to fourteen other Jim Henson Company shows including The Storyteller & Farscape. More Here.
Jason & The Argonauts
I don’t think it’s as good as the 1963 film with Harryhausen special effects, but NBC’s 2000 Jason & The Argonauts is still entertaining and it’s currently available to view on youtube.
The 1963 film, with the famous skeleton fight, is also available on youtube currently.
Calling All Philatelists..
To celebrate the 50th anniversary in 2024, The United States Postal Service will release a series of Dungeons & Dragons Stamps from different points in it’s history. The stamps will be available via the official USPS online store.
Beating D&D to the fantasy-themed stamps, the New Zealand Post has issued Lord of the Rings: Return of the King stamps this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film. Can read & buy them here.
Otherworld 