Oct 082023
 

What he says is interesting… mostly because it’s not what I generally expect to hear from non-sci-fi/non-science types. Most of “those people” look at “2001” with some mix of bafflement and disdain, generally bored out of their minds.

 Posted by at 8:37 am
Oct 042023
 

Grumman won the contract to build the forward-swept-wing X-29. But Grumman was not the only company to go for the contract; Rockwell devoted a fair amount of effort – both engineering and PR – to win the prize. Their concept was similar, though intended to be a wholly new aircraft, and with a notably different planform.  Below is a magazine ad from 1980 showing a model of the Rockwell “Sabrebat” concept.

 

The full-rez scan has been uploaded to the 2023-10 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for $4 and up Patreons/Subscribers. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.




 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 10:50 pm
Sep 302023
 

These rumors sound good. Too good, in fact…

 

Rumor: Christopher Nolan Directing Next James Bond?

Not just that Nolan will direct the next two or three Bond movies, but that they will be based on the original Ian Flemming novels, set in the original time periods, and will be faithful to the source material. This would be directly opposed to the modern studio system of making crap For The Modern Audience, with character race and gender swapped, with the good guys turned into bad guys, beauty made ugly.

Again, just rumors. Thus very likely not gonna happen. But if it does, it’ll be remarkable.

 

 Posted by at 1:40 am
Sep 232023
 

Do you want your very own genuine space suit from “2001: A Space Odyssey?” Sure, we all do. Got at least eighty grand to start bidding on it? Sure, we all don’t. But at least you can look at the pictures and dream.

Astronaut Space Suit (6) Piece Ensemble from 2001: A Space Odyssey (MGM, 1968)

 

 

 

 Posted by at 10:09 pm
Sep 232023
 

Well before the BBC fell into ruin and self-parody, it had a moment of undeniable awesomeness. Nicolas Winton was a British banker who rescued nearly 700 mostly Jewish children from the Nazis just before the outbreak of WWII, getting them to new lives in Britain. Afterwards, he did little to nothing to glorify himself or his deeds; it only really came out in 1988 when his wife found an old notebook with the names and passed them on to a Holocaust researcher. There followed a couple TV programs culminating in an episode of “That’s Life” where, unbeknownst to Winton, the *entire* audience was filled with the children and descendants of children he’d saved.

That’s how you fricken’ do it.

And now there’s to be a movie about Winton starring Anthony Hopkins.

 

 Posted by at 12:36 pm
Sep 182023
 

It turns out that Peter Jackson filmed about 1,300 *hours* of footage for the Lord of the Rings. Seven million feet of negative is sitting in a Warner Brothers vault, not doin’ nuthin’. Granted the majority of this is alternate takes and bloopers, but almost certainty there is enough quality additional scenes there that the already massive Extended Version could be greatly further extended. Guy in the video below suggests that Warner Bros cutting Jackson loose to create six-hour miniseries from each movie for release on HBO/Max would be the way to go for the 25th anniversary of each flick, in much the same way they gave “The Justice League” back to Zack Snyder. I can’t say as that I disagree: a proper Ridiculously Extended Cut, overseen by Jackson, would be a dandy way to get over the nightmare of “the Rings of Power.”

The legalities of such things elude me. I *assume* that Warner retains all the rights to do with their stuff what they see fit, but who knows.

 Posted by at 11:24 pm