Also, how do the inmates of those places go to the toilet?

She was one of my favourite actresses. Playing action and thriller roles well into her 40s and looking amazing while doing it.

To be fair, I haven't seen any of Padilha's movies yet, but am definitely planning to see the Elite Squad films soon. So I'll bow to your appraisal of his skill, and hope that wins out over executive meddling.

I'm appalled at the implication the original Robocop wasn't "dark" or "grounded". It predicted empty cable news infotainment and above-the-law megacorporations whose status quo is in no way challenged by the hero at the end—if anything, Murphy is just a knight-errant who saves the king from a traitorous duke, but the…

We need some more mid-budget Robert Rodriguez-style directors/producers, who can take some more niche book/comics/game/original properties, and adapt them for $40 million budget films that make $120 million box office. Then once the property has that mainstream visibility, blockbuster remakes become more plausible.

Routh was one of the few things I liked about Superman Returns. I've liked Routh in everything I've seen him in.

OK, so I am aware of a few incidents where an armed individual was able to prevent a mugging, assault, robbery, etc. with a gun. But is there any record of such an individual stopping a methodical spree-killer with a preconceived plan of action? There was an armed deputy at Columbine who exchanged shots with Harris…

Did you do a lot of historical research for the setting of Dhamsawaat? If so, how important was historical accuracy vis-a-vis having an interesting setting?

Unlike a lot of epic fantasy stories that double as coming-of-age stories (Raseed and Zamia notwithstanding), many of your main characters are very mature, even elderly, and have active roles in the plot—not just archetypal mentor roles—yet they feel like they've lived full lives. How do you approach developing an…

In Predator 2 the titular alien has several types of vision enhancement at its disposal.

It's just every single thing I've seen about this film is almost a scene-for-scene lift from the Arnie version. Although it sort of looks like they've made Lori and Richter into one composite character.

I don't know. There have been a lot of great SF properties exploring space opera futures that are flawed, corrupt, in conflict, etc. The distinct thing about Star Trek is its optimistic view of the future, and I'd hate to see a new Trek become just another BSG or Firefly, much as I loved those shows.

Awesome—much obliged.

That's the problem with doing a Trek animated series. There's only like three markets for TV animation in North America: girls under 12, boys under 15, and men 18-30. Other cohorts watch them, sure, but the advertising dollars are aimed squarely at those three brackets.

I'm curious—what are the two services you're talking about?

Both these ideas have been done in SF literature for years, but you almost never see them in film or TV. I'd love to see them, especially the second one. Just a race of artificial life that doesn't want to automatically kill us for the sin of being organic.

Roddenberry was a humanist in the literal sense of the term. That meant he wanted "normal", baseline humans to prevail. (Leonard Nimoy once related Roddenberry rejected any ancient astronaut nonsense solely on the basis of how it disparaged the accomplishments of ancient human beings.) So anything that threatened to…

Back in college I read book by an American anthropologist who'd studied various cultures in Mali. She came across a girl with Down's Syndrome, who faced no real stigma from her community, because—as the girl's mother told her—"that's just the way she is". The author was overcome with tears at the level of acceptance…

Agreed. They'd save all the jump-cuts for the last 20-30 seconds, the cuts getting shorter and shorter and punctuated by Hans Zimmer-esque brassy bass hits.

That trailer needs an epilepsy warning a la Kanye's "All of the Lights" video.