the hollywood reporter

February 16, 2017

Tachyon tidbits featuring Ellen Datlow, Jeff VanderMeer, Mary Shelley, and Lavie Tidhar

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized central station, elle fanning, Ellen Datlow, horror writers of america, interview, jeff vandermeet, lavie tidhar, mary shelley, slate, sweden, the english bookshop, the hollywood reporter, trump land, trump story project, uppsala

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Ellen Datlow (photo: Scott Edelman), Jeff VanderMeer (Agave), Mary Shelley (Richard Rothwell), and Lavie Tidhar (Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013)

As part of their Women in Horror celebration, the HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION interviews Ellen Datlow.

Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction?

ED: I’ve won twice for original anthologies: Haunted Legends (with Nick Mamatas) and Fearful Symmetries and twice for The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (one of those with Terri Windling and one with Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link).

As an editor I’ve been inspired by three people:

Maxwell Perkins, the mainstream editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and other American greats. He inspired me by his relationships with his authors-his nurturing and pushing them to create their best work.

Judith Merril, the great sf/f editor (and writer) inspired me by being generous in her definition of science fiction and her perspicacity in embracing mainstream writers works of the fantastic in her Year’s Best Science Fiction reprint series.

Harlan Ellison (also, a brilliant writer) for his two seminal anthologies Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions. They broke boundaries, they smashed taboos and many of the stories in those books have become classics.

Credit: Lisa Larson-Walker/SLATE

As part of SLATE’s Trump Story Project, Jeff VanderMeer contributes the original tale “TRUMP LAND.”

Maybe it sounds like a joke. A slow, old joke, coming to you out of the past. Trump Land. But it wasn’t a joke. Not really. Even though you entered Trump Land through the ass—Trump’s asshole, to be clear. This was not metaphorical any more than Trump Land was metaphorical. But the place had a complicated history and there were good reasons why the people who came there visited through the back. Structural reasons. Ideological reasons. Reasons of state security. Reasons that changed over time.

I remember Trump Land because my dad worked as head of a construction crew, or as he sometimes put it, “deconstruction” on the site, and as the idea of the building waxed and waned due to people fighting about it far, far away, my young teen self would receive reports and updates and cursing. Lots of cursing.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER shares an exclusive image from Dakota Fanning’s forthcoming Mary Shelley biopic.

Elle Fanning is searching for Gothic literary inspiration in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s exclusive first-look image from MARY SHELLEY.

The actress stars as the famed titular FRANKENSTEIN author in the drama, which was previously titled A STORM IN THE STARS. It is being directed by Saudi filmmaker Haifaa al-Mansour, who rose to fame with her debut feature WADJDA.

Mary Shelley tells the story of the author’s early relationship with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and also stars Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Maisie Williams, Joanne Froggatt and Tom Sturridge.

Elle Fanning in MARY SHELLEY

Sci-Fi Reading Group of The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Sweden selects Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION for their February title.

Tuesday 21st February at 19:15
Price: 165 kr for the book + 60 kr for the tea, cake and company

For more info about CENTRAL STATION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

April 18, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Daryl Gregory, Patricia A. McKillip, Michael Swanwick, and Cory Doctorow

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, collection, content, content: selected essays on technology creativity copyright and the future of technology and the future of the future, cory doctorow, daryl gregory, dreams of distant shores, elizabeth story, essays, fantasy, horror, litteriium, michael swanwick, morbier & metal, not so much said the cat, patricia a mckillip, pooled ink, review, science fiction, spoonbenders, the hollywood reporter, Thomas Canty, we are all completely fine

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles from around the web.

Daryl Gregory, Patricia A. McKillip (by Patti Perret from FACES OF FANTASY), Michael Swanwick (by Beth Gwynn), and Cory Doctorow (by Ed Schipul, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia)

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER announced SPOONBENDERS, the new novel by Daryl Gregory, the extraordinary author of the World Fantasy Award winner WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE.

SPOONBENDERS, a hot manuscript about an eccentric family of magicians (think Royal Tenenbaums with psychics) by Daryl Gregory, has been acquired by Knopf for publishing and Paramount TV for television, in what sources say was a competitive auction on both fronts that involved multiple bidders. Terms of the deal were not announced, but the publishing-side advance is said to be at least in the high-six-figure range.

SPOONBENDERS is the story of the Amazing Telemachus Family, who became famous for their magic and mind-reading act before the magic disappeared one night on live TV. Years later, Matty, the grandson of patriarch Teddy Telemachus, rediscovers a little of the magic and then must stay one step ahead of the CIA, the Mafia and the magic debunker out to show they are frauds. The manuscript is said to evoke the work of Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem.

Morbier & Metal lavishes effusive praise upon Patricia A. McKillip’s forthcoming collection DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES.

I have never in all my reading days, as far as I know read anything by McKillip. How I have overlooked such a powerful storyteller I have no idea. This collection of stories is simply stunning; so good that I wound up rereading several of the stories so I could keep the entrancing spell each of them casts alive. Each is tuned to its own beauty and pulls you directly in, the reader invokes the spell but have no doubt McKillip is the one who breathes life into them.

There are seven enriched tales included. From the very first one, Weird, you know this is a master storyteller. How else to explain the gravitational pull created by two lovers locked within a bathroom while only your imagination knows what hunts them from outside. Or the sublime tale of Edith and Henry on an idyllic search for a cool breeze who find an afternoon of wonder. But by far the shining jewel in this collection is Something Rich and Strange. This story reaches back into the love we have had with legends and folktales, reaches back into our primal connection to the sea and pulls us down as surely as any mermaid ever compelled sailor to gladly dive to his doom. You could lose yourself in this story again and again and find something new and entrancing each time. This is not just a pearl, this is the story of the pearl full of the torment needed to create the ultimate beauty.

Angel JC at POOLED INK delivers the first review of Michael Swanwick’s forthcoming collection, NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT.

A whirlwind of stories that take you across the world, through different pockets of time, and into a sample of the lives being lived, NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT is an excellent compilation. Swanwick’s latest book is a delight to read, both entertaining and insightful.

This book is in fact a collection of science fiction stories. Each tale is related and connected on some thin plane and yet they remain completely independent of one another. They feature a vast array of characters and the settings jump all over the world. Many are written with a unique blend capturing the charming thrum of an old folk tale and melding it with perhaps a little magic plus a future filled with bots, smart objects, and other science fiction tropes and themes.

Each story explores its own ideas and is filled with endless thoughts beneath the surface. In particular I picked up ‘free will’ as a subtle reoccurring theme.

Swanwick’s latest literary contribution, NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, is a thought-provoking, simply complex, and adventurous smattering of science fiction short stories. Allow each story to take you someplace utterly unexpected and yet a place that inexplicably feels a tad familiar.

The LITERARIUM reviews Cory Doctrow’s CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE.

I first want to say that I do not normally publish reviews on any sort of politically-based non-fiction–I’ve only done it once as far as I remember, and that was for Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala–but I felt Cory Doctorow’s essay collection, Content, merited a write-up for a few reasons. Reason one is the relevancy of the subjects covered in this collection. In the midst of a public scandal and fallout between Apple and the FBI regarding the San Bernadino terrorist’s “locked” iPhone and Apple’s refusal to create a damaging and Orwellian “backdoor” to get into it, Doctorow’s arguments for privacy, copyright, and freedom need to be need to be screamed louder by the world’s citizens.

In articles such as “Microsoft Research DRM Talk,” “The DRM Sausage Factory,” or “World of Democracycraft,” Doctorow reflects on the concept of what he calls the “information economy” or the buying, selling, and ownership of knowledge, media, and information access. There are a couple of important arguments he makes, one is that DRM is one form of control used by big business to control access to information, hindering our freedom, creativity, and rights of ownership and access in the process. The other argument is that power structures are built on the possession of information. Those that have access to information, those with the ability to control it–in whatever way–are those with the true power.

Ultimately, though, Doctorow’s essays in this collection, are still important for the ongoing discussion of freedom, personal rights, and access to information and the openness of the internet. Even though he lacks the specific factual and statistical research in most of his essays needed to drive his message fully home, I recommend everyone read these essays and to keep an open mind, because they are the start to addressing how we travel a very long road ahead toward a digital world, and I appreciated his work very much

For more information on WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

For more information on NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Ann Monn

March 2, 2016

The mesmerizing HAP AND LEONARD premieres tonight

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized amc, austin chronicle, deadline, dominic patten, hap and leonard, interview, james purefoy, joe lansdale, Joe R. Lansdale, marc savlov, michael k. williams, review, sundanceTV', the hollywood reporter, the new york times, the san antonio express-news

Several reviews before tonight’s premiere (Wed, March 3 9/10c) of SUNDANCETV’s adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale’s HAP AND LEONARD series.

But before we get into that, some exciting news for those who don’t have access to SundanceTV. After the initial broadcast, AMC will stream episodes for FREE on their website and various platforms through the AMC app! Visit AMC.com for full details.

Both in video and in print, Dominic Patten of DEADLINE:

But ultimately HAP
AND LEONARD, on the small screen as in Lansdale’s
books, is about a friendship. In portraying that
relationship, ROME and THE
FOLLOWING alum Purefoy and BOARDWALK
EMPIRE star Williams simply shine. Maybe it’s
because this is not the first time the two have worked together —
they shared the screen a lot in NBC’s short-lived THE
PHILANTHROPIST in 2009. Maybe it’s simply the
sheer talent of the two actors, but they are certainly a winning
combo here.

James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams as the titular characters in SundanceTV’s HAP AND LEONARD

THE SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS:

Aside from its spot-on portrayals and charming chemistry among the leads, “Hap and Leonard” mesmerizes with its narrative, drawing you in with its amusing good ol’ boy dialogue and rural atmosphere only to smack you with surprise after surprise, some character-related, some sinister, some poignant, some downright scary.

Christina Hendricks as Trudy

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:

Casting is everything with a buddy show this pure and HAP AND LEONARD made one spectacular and obvious choice and one against-the-grain choice with potential. This may be as close as Williams ever comes to a conventional lead, but Leonard is a part so full of wit, warmth and looming menace that none of the Wire and Boardwalk Empire veteran’s considerable jagged charisma is wasted. The casting was uncanny when it was announced and he’s close to perfect onscreen as well. Purefoy, though, would be nobody’s intuitive choice as a working-class Texan and his accent is all over the map and periodically across the pond. What Purefoy delivers, though, is the studied ease of a man who once cared about things, stopped caring and now just coasts on charm. Purefoy and Williams sell the rapport between their characters, and Purefoy also crackles with Hendricks, who brings the perfect ‘50s femme fatale vibe to a story that had to tame some of its sexuality for basic cable.

THE NEW YORK TIMES:

In “Cold in July” Mr. Mickle benefited greatly from performances by Sam Shepard and Don Johnson, whose ease and charisma made up for the sketchiness of their characters. In “Hap and Leonard,” Mr. Williams — once again playing a man of violence who happens to be gay, like Omar Little in “The Wire” — is up to the task, as is Ms. Hendricks, in a role very different from the one she played in “Mad Men.”

Joe R. Lansdale (photo: Karen Lansdale)

Over at the AUSTIN CHRONICLE, Marc Savlov interviews Joe R. Lansdale about the characters and the show.

Speaking to the popularity of his Hap and Leonard stories, and why they’re finally getting their onscreen debut at this fractious point in history, Lansdale said, “There’s such a polarization right now [in America] that here’s two guys who are very different, they have very different political views, although I would say that Leonard is the old-style Republican and not the current kind of, you know, throw-everything-in-the-sewer Republican. But they have a core of solidarity that has nothing to do with politics or social issues. It has to do with brotherly bonds, and they love each other like family. I think that’s very appealing to people to see that there can be this kind of bond and [Hap and Leonard] can be different and yet they have this strong and powerful connection that has to do more with just having the same core values of honesty and sincerity and just trying to do the right thing. It’s just that simple.”

January 12, 2016

HAP AND LEONARD news finally with air date

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized christina hendricks, crime, elizabeth story, hap and leonard, hap and leonard ride again, indiewire, james purefoy, michael k. williams, novella, short stories, sundanceTV', swamp noir, tca, television critics association, texas noir, the hollywood reporter, variety

James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams as the titular characters in SundanceTV’s HAP AND LEONARD

Following the Television Critics’ Association (TCA) Press Tour, news about HAP AND LEONARD flooded the web, mostly importantly the air date and time for the Sundance TV series.

HAP AND
LEONARD, featuring James Purefoy (ROME,
THE FOLLOWING), Michael Kenneth Williams (THE
WIRE, BOARDWALK EMPIRE) and Christina Hendricks (MAD
MEN), will premiere Wed., Mar. 2 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Set in the late 1980s, HAP AND LEONARD is a darkly comic swamp noir
story of two best friends, one femme fatale, a crew of washed-up
revolutionaries, a pair of murderous psycho-killers, some lost loot
and the fuzz. Based on the novels by Joe Lansdale, the six-hour
series event follows Hap Collins (Purefoy), an East Texas white boy
with a weakness for Southern women, and Leonard Pine (Williams), a
gay, black Vietnam vet with a hot temper. When Hap’s seductive
ex-wife Trudy (Hendricks) resurfaces with a deal they can’t refuse,
a simple get-rich-quick scheme snowballs into bloody mayhem. Chock
full of eccentric characters, HAP AND LEONARD provides a country
twist on the classic mystery thriller.

Photo:
David
Buchan/Variety/Rex Shutterstock

VARIETY discussed the hazards of the screening with the cast.

The chemistry between the stars was evident during their panel at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena, Calif. on Friday, as they recounted their (mis)adventures during the filming in Texas.

Trouble began from the first day, when they endured a massive tornado, which turned the sky green — and then dark at 4pm. While other shows in the area shot down, their production continued filming. “I’m from England! I like a soft drizzle,” said Purefoy, who plays Hap, Hendricks’ ex-husband who can’t resist her charms. “We had men with guns on the set just in case the gators ate us.”

Purefoy said he identified with the character he was playing, given his upbringing in the west country in England. “I come from a rural background, I knew this guy,” he said. “These are the guys from my pub trying to come up with madcap, get-rich-quick schemes, who haven’t really made it in life. With Hap and Leonard, it happens when she shows up in their life again.”

Hendricks said she wasn’t specifically looking for a comedic role after her years on “Mad Men,” but insisted she’s always had a talent for comedy. “I’m hilarious, you guys,” she joked.

Christina Hendricks as Trudy

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER interviewed Christina Hendricks about her role.

When asked about her newfound affection for comedic roles while peddling her new Sundance TV series HAP AND LEONARD at the Television Critics Association winter press tour (she was seen on the small screen most recently in Comedy Central’s ANOTHER PERIOD), Hendricks explained that the pattern isn’t deliberate.

“I haven’t had a plan. I really have just been going from project to project,” she said onstage at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “[I’ll sign on] if there’s something that I read that seems really special and I feel like I can contribute in a way that helps tell the story.”

<snip>

When one reporter asked Hendricks how she would avoid becoming “window dressing” in the show — implying that her Mad Men character, Joan, was such — Hendricks responded, “I hope I’ve never been window dressing.” Mickle added that her HAP AND LEONARD character defies stereotypes. “One of the fun things about the show is that it plays with pulpy noir tropes,” he said. “You think [Trudy’s] going to be the classic femme fatale … but then Christina makes her a really multilayered human being.

INDIEWIRE’s 6 Reasons Indie Filmmakers Should Care About the 2016 TCAs included mention of HAP AND LEONARD.

1. Indie Directors are Working in TV

You’ve heard plenty about how opportunities within the world of television have made it appealing to directors from the independent world, but what this year’s TCA lineup highlights is the diverse range of possibilities available. Horror director Jim Mickle will be revealing SundanceTV’s unconventional mystery thriller series “Hap and Leonard” to critics, while Susanne Bier will be on hand to discuss her John LeCarre adaptation “The Night Manager,” which will premiere on AMC later this year. Also scheduled to attend are “Nothing Left Unsaid” director Liz Garbus, Marina Zenovich for her “30 for 30” ESPN documentary “Fantastic Lies,” “The Dresser” director Richard Eyre, and Rick Famuyiwa, whose follow-up to “Dope” will be the HBO Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill drama “Confirmation.” Those are just some of the known indie names who will be coming to the press tour this year.

Also coming this March are two new collections featuring the dynamic duo:

For more info on HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

For more info about HAP AND LEONARD RIDE AGAIN, visit the Tachyon page.

Covers by Elizabeth Story

November 13, 2014

Hap and Leonard news

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized adaptation, comics, crime, east texas, elizabeth story, graphic novel, hap & leonard, hap and leonard, hap collins, joe lansdale, Joe R. Lansdale, jussi piironen, leonard pine, mystery, short stories, sst publications, sundance tv, texas, texas noir, the hollywood reporter, tv show

The rumors are true! Joe Lansdale’s lovable rogues Hap Collins and Leonard Pines will be the subject of their very own TV series.

[Sundance TV] has greenlighted drama series Hap and Leonard,based on the book series by Joe Lansdale, the company announced Monday.

The six-episode series centers on a pair of best friends and martial arts experts who struggle through misadventure in a bid to stay on the right side of the law in 1980 East Texas.

Production on the drama will begin in 2015 for a 2016 broadcast.

Read more about the series at The Hollywood Reporter.

Also coming in 2016 from Tachyon is Hap and Leonard, a collection of the finest Joe R. Lansdale short stories featuring the not-so-dynamic East Texas duo.

SST Publications are bringing the boys to comics in a series of graphic novels based on the original Lansdale books, adapted and illustrated by Finnish comic artist Jussi Piironen.

Things are certain looking up for the boys! And, oh yeah, for Lansdale, his ownself.

Hap and Leonard cover by Elizabeth Story.

January 20, 2014

COLD IN JULY is the most purely-entertaining film of this year’s Sundance

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized ain't it cool news, cold in july, crime, film threat, jim mickle, joblo.com, joe lansdale, Joe R. Lansdale, movie, movie tie-in, mystery, review, ryan samul, salt lake tribune, sundance, the hollywood reporter

Cold In July, director Jim Mickle’s film adaptation of the Joe R. Lansdale novel, premiered Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival and quickly received an abundance of excellent reviews.

“Certainly, COLD IN JULY is the most purely-entertaining film this year’s edition of the fest has yet to offer, and action fans will have a field day with this.” (JoBlo)
“Mickle’s bracing sense of style and cinematographer Ryan Samul’s moody visuals keep it gripping until the final bullet is fired.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
“Mickle and his team do some remarkably confident work here.” (Film Threat)
“Director Jim Mickle and his writing partner Nick Damici once again prove that ‘genre filmmaking’ is nothing to apologize for.” (The Salt Lake Tribune)
“The flick looks great, the score is nice and big and it’s unlike anything I’ve seen, so it wins points all around.” (Ain’t It Cool News)

(Michael C. Hall in a scene from Cold in July)

This July in commemoration of the movie’s general release, Tachyon delivers the official movie tie-in edition of the original novel, complete with an introduction by director Jim Mickle and an afterword by Joe R. Lansdale, his ownself.

For more info on the book Cold In July, visit the Tachyon page.

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