Future Stories

Image: American Zoetrope Reactions for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis have begun to hit the internet and they are as all over the place as the film itself seems to be. Megalopolis is a sci-fi love story between architect Cesar ( Adam Driver ) and socialite Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who become caught up in the plans that Julia’s powerful father Frank (Giancarlo Esposito) has for New York City. Megalopolis premiered at Cannes to wide ranging reviews with critics feeling inspired by Coppola’s ambitious undertaking... or bored by the sheer length of it. Check out the thoughts out of the film festival below: Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power .

The logo for Jason Universe. Image: Horror Inc. A new company just announced it’s come on board and is ready to take Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th franchise into the future. What exactly that means though, is not quite crystal (lake) clear. IGN broke the news that a company called Horror Inc. is launching a new initiative called “Jason Universe” which will create “new Friday the 13th activations [spanning] a wide range of platforms from entertainment, games, immersive experiences, merchandise, and more to be announced throughout 2024.” On its official site, it touts “Welcome to a new era from the original owners of the Friday the 13th franchise.” The announcement comes on the heels of the recent news of Bryan Fuller departing the Peacock streaming series Crystal Lake . That series, if it happens, seems to fall under this umbrella since Robert Barsamian, the president of Horror, Inc., is one of its producers. He also produced the popular 2017 video game. “For decade

Image: Netflix We’re officially going to get some answers to the burning questions we had after watching Netflix’s 3 Body Problem : the streamer is bringing back the sci-fi series—which explores what happens as humanity prepares for a slow-moving but inevitably arriving alien invasion—for more. The news comes from a Netflix post on X, featuring a jubilant message from series co-creators David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo: “We’re thrilled that we get to tell this story through to its epic conclusion. Ever since we read the last page of Cixin Liu’s magnificent trilogy, we hoped we’d be able to bring the audience to the end of the universe with us. Here we go!” It was accompanied by a video with season one footage and the promise that “the story continues.” A post on Netflix’s Tudum adds a few more details, namely that the show will continue to be “created, executive produced, and written by the returning trio of Benioff, Weiss, and Woo,” but also noted that “all other

On May 15, Xu Baoqiang, general manager of Baidu’s autonomous driving vehicle department, said in an interview that Baidu is considering potential collaboration opportunities with Tesla for the latter’s upcoming Robotaxi service. The decision will be based on Tesla’s specific application models and the timing of their entry into the Chinese market. For those that ... Read more

Let's get rolling in Furiosa. Image: Warner Bros. If you think of Mad Max: Fury Road as The Hobbit, Furiosa is its Lord of the Rings . They’re two stories set in the same world, with the same characters, taking place at different periods of time. One is a little more singular and focused while the other is larger and more expansive. They’re two stories that stand alone beautifully, but also complement each other magnificently. The comparison goes further too. Much as J.R.R. Tolkien (and to an extent Peter Jackson) created those stories to be part of something broader, so too has co-writer and director George Miller done with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga . Furiosa is not only a prequel to the events of Mad Max: Fury Road, it’s also the table setter for the entire world. Fury Road told the story of a woman (Charlize Theron’s Furiosa) attempting to break several other women out of Immortan Joe’s Citadel, with the begrudging help of Max. Furiosa takes things several steps further, not

Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) in The Acolyte. Image: Lucasfilm The next live-action Star Wars series , The Acolyte , arrives in less than a month —and a new video released today shares fresh footage from the much-anticipated show, with a focus on key character Master Sol, played by Emmy-winning Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae. “I still can’t believe the fact that I’m in Star Wars,” Lee—a lifelong fan of the franchise—gushes as the video begins. The Acolyte’s creator, writer, and director Leslye Headland chimes in to admit she was writing the character of Master Sol while Squid Game mania was at its peak, and had no doubts about who she wanted for the role. “He just ran the gamut of every single emotion,” she says, and that’s something he’ll do again for his Star Wars debut. Lee Jung-jae | The Acolyte | Disney+ Amid praise for Lee’s performance as the complex Sol, we also get new glimpses of The Acolyte itself, including some tantalizing fight scenes (complete with some peeks at behin

Adam Driver in Megalopolis. Screenshot: American Zoetrope One of the best filmmakers of all time, Francis Ford Coppola, hasn’t had a major theatrical release in almost 30 years. Instead, the man behind The Godfather, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now has been making weird art films and his very own wine. And you know what? That sounds amazing. Good for you, Mr. Coppola. Coppola also spent that time dreaming of something bigger. Something new and wonderous. A movie so out there he knew Hollywood wouldn’t pay for it. So, using that wine money, he decided to pay for it himself. The movie is called Megalopolis and after a long, long wait to bring the dream project to the big screen, the first trailer is finally here. If you know nothing about it, that’s the perfect headspace to be in. We’ll talk more after. Megalopolis - Teaser Trailer That’s not what you were expecting right? It looks like a total trip: ancient Rome set in a futuristic New York City. So what’s the story?

Gif: Amazon This morning Amazon’s Prime Video gave us our first look at Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s second season, and it’s leaning all in on Sauron . Times are dark in Middle-earth, and it needs a returned Dark Lord just to make everything a little more ominous. And maybe some statement jewelry? Here’s all that, and what else we spotted in today’s teaser. Where Shadows Lie Screenshot: Amazon The trailer opens with a familiar sight from the climax of season one —the mysterious Southron Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), now revealed as the returned physical form of Sauron, lording it over what used to be the Southlands—now turned black and ashen by the tumultuous eruption of what will become known as Mount Doom. This happened way back in “Udûn,” the excellent sixth episode of season one. Durin’s Bane Screenshot: Amazon “An evil, ancient and powerful, has returned,” Durin IV (Owain Arthur) intones. We actually didn’t get to follow up with the dwarves at the climax of

Waymo is under investigation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said its preliminary evaluation into an estimated 444 Waymo vehicles follows 22 reports of 22 incidents including 17 collisions. The agency said in some of those cases the automated driving systems appeared to disobey traffic safety control devices and some crashes occurred shortly after ... Read more

Image: AMC Season two of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire picks right back up with Louis (Jacob Anderson) , now joined by fellow vampire Armand (Assad Zaman), as he recounts to Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) what happened when he and Claudia (Delainey Hayles)fled to Europe after leaving Lestat (Sam Reid) for dead . In “What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned,” directed by Craig Zisk and written by Hannah Moscovitch, Louis and Claudia trudge through a war-stricken Europe seeking out Old World Vampires while haunted by their crimes back home. The Immortal Universe of messy, violent, high-drama vampire lovers returns, and that’s truly the best part of the premiere episode now that Armand is revealed to be a key player in Louis’ life—and not just an assistant named Rashid. Molloy’s constant teasing about the presence of a new assistant he refers to as “Real Rashid” as Armand joins in the interview as off-the-record support is deadpan delight. It’s interesting to note that

Astronomers decided to look for partially constructed Dyson spheres and other megastructures around stars. They determined that half-built Dyson spheres or megastructures would be easy to see with our telescopes. They made a fairly comprehensive search and found seven candidate stars. The candidate stars are all white dwarfs. They also eliminated stars where other astrophysical ... Read more

Looking back at 1984, a hell of a summer at the movies. Image: Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Sony The summer movie season is here—and, before we dive into what’s in store for 2024, let’s turn the clock back 40 years to one of the best summers of all time: 1984. *Jumps in Time Machine* What’s up radical dudes and dudettes? It’s time for your summer movie preview and what a year it’s already been. Did you see this company called Apple releasing a home computer? We’re glad Michael Jackson is okay after the Pepsi commercial fire. And The Right Stuff was totally robbed of the Oscar for Best Picture. Now though, it’s summer time. So in between trips to the beach, games of Pong, and watching the Olympics (in Los Angeles this year!) maybe you’ll want to see a movie. And we have some sick ones! Here are just a few that we’re most looking forward to. The 1984 Summer Movie Preview The Natural - Robert Redford is back as a baseball player with a magic bat. Or something like that.

Image: Universal Pictures A new Wicked trailer is coming Wednesday, and with that announcement comes a brief featurette showing director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) sharing his excitement for the Wizard of Oz-inspired musical —but mostly focuses on stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo , including their emotional, adorable reactions to being cast. Wicked - A Passion Project A smash hit stage musical billed as “the untold story of the witches of Oz,” Wicked follows the green-skinned Elphaba (Erivo) and the golden-haired Glinda (Grande). According to the official synopsis, “The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz and forge an unlikely but profound friendship. Following an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda’s unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power, while Elphaba’s determination to remain true to herself, and to th

The All-in podcast billionaires try to find out what Sam Altman and OpenAI are planning. They asked Sam about what OpenAI is and will be doing and why. Question- when will get to vastly cheaper and faster language models (free queries) Sam says that is goal but he does not know when. Translation – Sam ... Read more

An 83 page 2023, report to the US Congress by the Department of Energy has three citations to articles by Nextbigfuture.com Alternate Fuels: Thorium and Uranium-233, Report to Congress March 2023 This report describes the potential use of thorium fuel and uranium-233 (U-233) in future eneration IV reactor designs and in current light water reactors. ... Read more

Image: Marvel Studios The second season of Peacemaker is currently filming, and James Gunn is now starting to slowly peel back the curtain on what to expect from the Max series’ return . In the first real bit of casting news, it’s been revealed that Frank Grillo will appear as Rick Flag, Sr. Grillo had already been tapped to play the elder Flag for the upcoming Creature Commandos animated TV show that’s still yet to premiere. On Instagram , Gunn noted that Rick Sr. will recur throughout the season, and that he’s got “unfinished business” with John Cena’s titular antihero. Peacemaker killed Rick Jr. (played by Joel Kinnaman) in 2021's The Suicide Squad, remember, something he admitted to feeling guilty about in that previous season. Given that Grillo’s played pretty violent badasses in franchises like The Purge, Skyline, and the MCU movies, that probably won’t just be a simple one-on-one conversation and apology. Back when he and Peter Safran were first appointed as the new

Image: AppleTV+ It’s May, and that means we get an idea of what shows will or won’t be coming back in the next year. For Apple, the streamer has decided to call it on Constellation , ending the series after a single-season run. Deadline first broke news of the cancellation, noing that the show wrapped up after its eighth episode premiered at the end of March. Though it sounds like it had decent reviews, it didn’t seem to light the world on fire: the Hollywood Reporter claims it never managed to crack the Top 10 for Nielsen’s streaming ratings, and Apple was cagey about its viewership numbers. It’s also possible the show just wasn’t talked about that much compared to other AppleTV+ series like For All Mankind or Silo. Created by Peter Harness of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Morell fame, Constellation starred Noomi Rapace (Lamb), as Jo Ericsson, an ISS astronaut who survives a disaster in space and returns to Earth to recover. When she makes her way back home, she realizes that pa

Image: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images (Getty Images) Roger Corman , producer and writer of indie and B-movies like Death Race 2000and Sharktopus , passed away on May 9, per Variety . He was 98 years old, and said to have passed surrounded by his family. Born April 5, 1926, he got his Hollywood start as a mailroom clerk for 20th Century Fox in 1950. Eventually, he became a story reader and repeatedly provided notes for The Gunfighter starring Gregory Peck, and after learning he wouldn’t be credited, left Fox to start his own studio. He’d later raise enough money to produce the 1954 sci-fi flick Monster from the Ocean Floor, which did well enough that he decided to keep producing movies. Throughout his career, Corman became known for making movies at a fast clip, the majority of which was genre fare like sci-fi, horror, and action. Those movies helped launch the careers of several actors between the 1950s and 70s: Jack Nicholson, William Shatner, Diane Ladd, and so on. He was equal

Image: David Livingston/WireImage There’s a new human entering the Jurassic World franchise, and he’s gonna be fighting for his life in this new film. Per Deadline , actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo—best known for The Magnificent Seven’s 2016 reboot and Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer—has signed on for a starring role. (Sadly, he probably won’t be a public defender for dinosaurs or a dinosaur cowboy, two things this franchise could use.) Details on his character are currently under wraps, but he joins Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey in the Gareth Edwards -directed film. For Garcia-Rulfo, who’s also headlining Netflix’s PedroPáramo, this marks his biggest film role to date. Unlike the last Jurassic trilogy, this new flick doesn’t plan to bring back any returning actors from the previous runs like Chris Pratt or Laura Dern. At the moment, it’s not even fully clear what this’ll be about beyond the general premise of humans running away from dinosaurs that want to eat them. Written by