hinking of writing an SF movie? Curious about what might have been done differently with a favorite film—or a flawed one? Check out the blueprints for a wide range of SF movies at Sci-Fi Scripts, a site that boasts a wide collection of screenplays for the greatest (and the not-so-greatest, as the site itself notes drily) genre movies ever made.
The experience of reading the script for a beloved and often-seen film is frequently surreal, revealing notable divergences between script and finished product, shedding light on the screenwriter's intentions and goals. A site that offers many scripts in one place is therefore a treasure. And the library of material on offer at Sci-Fi Scripts is extensive, though it does have a distinct lean toward more recent films. Classics like A Clockwork Orange and Invaders from Mars do appear in its lineup, but the large majority of the movies currently available on Sci-Fi Scripts date from the '80s or later. Big franchises like The Matrix, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies are represented, of course, as are lesser-known films, camp classics and a host of box-office disasters. What's more, there are multiple versions of many film scripts, not all of them the final shooting drafts—there are rough drafts, directors' revisions and even scripts for as-yet-unproduced films. (Spoilerphobes beware!)
This Web page maintains a tight focus on providing scripts and not much else; it fosters a small community of loyal fans by printing letters and links, but does not have discussion forums. Visitors looking for movie reviews, photos or backstage information on an SF movie will have to get them elsewhere. Instead, Sci-Fi Scripts delivers endless reading material for anyone interested in the path that a story idea takes while on its journey from the plain white page to the local multiplex.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—September 15, 2003
racking the latest news not only on big-screen pictures but on television releases, too, Coming Soon is a natural gathering place for film fans wondering about anticipated films, programs or DVDs. Friendly in tone and exhaustive in its information-gathering, this site is a virtual library of data on upcoming media releases.
As its name suggests, Coming Soon whets the appetite of film fans with movie trailers, production stills, discussion forums and a movie database. It has links to news articles on both movies and television programs currently in production. Surfing to Superhero Hype allows visitors to track various famous superbeings as they travel—as they increasingly do—from comic books and graphic novels to live-action film and television projects. Want to know how many hours, minutes and seconds until the Hellboy movie is released? The answers on his fate, and that of every other film superhero, are here.
Other quirky sections of this Web page are the Weekend Warrior area, where Coming Soon predicts how well each week's newly released movies will do at the box office, and its Box Office Report, which has the actual numbers. The movie, TV and DVD reviews are informal in tone but packed with thought-provoking content; they also link up with discussion forums about each show in question. The interviews section has a daily audio clip that gives visitors a chance to hear about movies directly from the stars and directors who make them.
Where Coming Soon stands out from other Web sites covering the entertainment world is in its focus on time. This page not only knows what is going to happen, it knows when ... and the answers are freely available to anyone who cares to stop by.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—September 8, 2003
lternity.net serves as a nexus for fans of the defunct role-playing game Alternity, released in the mid-1990s and killed off a few years later by Wizards of the Coast to make way for
its new Star Wars d20 game.
Designed to provide rules for near- and far-future campaigns, Alternity's Gamemaster's Guide and Player's Handbook books were backed up by three campaign settings: the space opera Star*Drive, the X-Files-inspired Dark Matter and the post-apocalyptic Gamma World. Nowadays, the game is supported entirely by fan efforts, with Alternity.net having earned the title of "official fan site" from WotC.
It lives up to its designation: The site is crawling with information about the game. Neophytes would do well to visit the Downloads section first—there they can grab fast-play versions of the rules, an introduction to the Dark Matter campaign setting, and all-important character sheets. Long-time fans can also find a few treasures, such as the huge Warships supplement that WotC released as a PDF in the game's dying days.
Over in the "Resources" section, fans can discover all manner of tools to improve—or resurrect—their games. They are 40+ rules, nearly two dozen adventures, 50+ starships and numerous equipment, cybertech, weapon and vehicle write-ups. The "Projects" section lists numerous undertakings that fans are currently engaged in, while those desperate for a game can find players using the Online Gaming directory. Rounding out the site is a Gallery that holds numerous stellar maps, a few desktop images, and renderings of scenes, species and technology from the game; and the Books section, which lists all of the rule books and supplements released for the game.
— Ken Newquist
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