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Kevin Costner has had a long, fruitful career in Hollywood that spans more than four decades dating back to his early roles in films like "The Big Chill" and "Silverado." That career has included some wildly high highs, including his Best Picture winning Western epic "Dances With Wolves," which is still regarded as one of his best films. "Dances With Wolves" also started Costner's career as a director, kicking off his time behind the camera on a high note. Unfortunately, his follow-up -- which came in the form of 1997's "The Postman" -- didn't go nearly as well.

With a big budget, heralded source material and the world on his side, Costner's "The Postman" seemed destined for success. Instead, it became a box office bomb that derailed his career for years and was arguably an even bigger Costner-led flop than...

Despite ancient humans having already overcome several potential doomsday scenarios in real life, post-apocalyptic fiction used to be relatively rare until the invention of the atomic bomb convinced us that the end of the world could be just around the proverbial corner.

Since then, we’ve seen many different stories about the collapse of civilization and the strange societies that might emerge from the rubble, but I’d argue that one of the most interesting of these apocalyptic visions is the post-nuclear America of the iconic Fallout games. A witty satire of American jingoism and cold war shenanigans, it’s honestly baffling that it so long for us to finally see a live-action adaptation of this memorable setting.

Thankfully, Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet’s Fallout TV show isn’t just a great adaptation – it’s also an incredibly fun standalone story that makes the most of its post-apocalyptic worldbuilding.

Vernor Vinge, whose expansive science fiction brought the concepts of The Singularity and cyberspace to a wider audience, died from Parkinson’s disease at age 79 on March 20 in La Jolla, California. The confirmation came in a Facebook tribute from fellow author David Brin.

“A titan in the literary genre that explores a limitless range of potential destinies, Vernor enthralled millions with tales of plausible tomorrows, made all the more vivid by his polymath masteries of language, drama, characters, and the implications of science,” wrote Brin.

Vinge won Hugo Awards for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1993), A Deepness in the Sky (2000), and Rainbows End (2007). He also won Hugos for novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002) and The Cookie Monster (2004).

Vinge’s novella True Names (1981) is frequency cited as the first presentation of an in-depth look at the concept of “cyberspace.”

The author first presented the term “singularity” in 1983, borrowed...

Producer-manager has worked on TNT’s Will, At&T’s Ice, and ABC’s FlashForward.

Amazon Studios has signed a first-look deal with genre producer-manager Vince Gerardis, giving the streamer access to a library of material for original series from well known science fiction and fantasy authors.

Gerardis is best known for packaging Game Of Thrones, on which he serves as co-executive producer, and as manager of Thrones novelist George R R Martin.

The pact will allow Amazon to tap into Gerardis’ library of intellectual property from other authors, among them Robert Silverberg, David Brin, Greg Bear and Jack Vance. Martin...

Amazon Studios has signed a first-look deal with Game of Throne co-executive producer Vince Gerardis.

Under the pact, the studio will have access to Gerardis’ extensive intellectual property library from top science fiction and fantasy authors such as Robert Silverberg, David Brin, Greg Bear and Jack Vance, Larry Niven, Kim Stanley Robinson and Robert Heinlein, which will be used as source material for original series. The agreement is part of Amazon’s push into genre drama series.

“Vince has his fingertips on a ‘library of worlds,’ and I’m excited about the prospects of building multiple series with him,” said Sharon Yguado, Head of Scripted Genre Programming, Amazon Studios.

Gerardis, who had bene focused on packaging and selling TV and film projects based on literary properties, packaged Game of Thrones. He serves as co-executive producer on the series alongside author George R.R. Martin, sharing in the fantasy drama’s two best series Emmy awards.

“Game of Thrones” producer Vince Gerardis has signed a first look deal with Amazon Studios.

Gerardis’ deal will give the studio access to his extensive library of science-fiction and fantasy properties from authors including Larry Niven, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, David Brin, Greg Bear, and Jack Vance.

“Vince has his fingertips on a ‘library of worlds,’ and I’m excited about the prospects of building multiple series with him,” said Sharon Yguado, head of scripted genre programming, Amazon Studios.

Gerardis is a co-executive producer on HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and will also serve as a producer on the series’ upcoming spinoff for the pay cabler. He has more than a dozen series in development at various outlets, and helped launch “Will” for TNT, “Ice” for At&T, and “FlashForward” for ABC.

“Amazon is the perfect home for my author clients given the strong relationship between its television and book business,...

Amazon Studios continues its expansion into genre programming with a first-look deal with “Game of Thrones” co-executive producer Vince Gerardis, the company announced Wednesday.

The deal gives Amazon access to Gerardis’ extensive intellectual property library that includes work from science fiction and fantasy authors like Robert Silverberg, David Brin, Greg Bear and Jack Vance. The plan is to use that IP to create new original series.

“Vince has his fingertips on a ‘library of worlds,’ and I’m excited about the prospects of building multiple series with him,” said Amazon Studios Head of Scripted Genre Programming Sharon Yguado in a statement.

Also Read: Kit Harington Plans to Cut His 'Jon Snow' Hair Short After 'Game of Thrones' Ends - Like, Real Short

Gerardis added that Amazon was a good fit for him because of its book business.

“Amazon is the perfect home for my author clients...

Amazon Studios is expanding its roster of genre producers.

The retailer/streamer has inked a first-look deal with genre producer Vince Gerardis, who is best known for serving as Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin's manager.

Under the pact, Amazon will have access to Gerardis' extensive intellectual property library from other top sci-fi and fantasy authors, including Robert Silverberg, David Brin, Greg Bear and Jack Vance, from which to create original series.

"Vince has his fingertips on a 'library of worlds,' and I’m excited about the prospects of building multiple series with him,...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 7 Nov 2013 - 07:02

Our journey through the half-remembered, underappreciated films of the 1990s continues. Here, we look to 1997...

Dominated by the box office behemoth that was James Cameron's Titanic, 1997 was a year of high drama and outlandish special effects. The Lost World: Jurassic Park brought with it a new batch of genetically revived dinosaurs, George Lucas dug his original Star Wars trilogy out of the cupboard and added new (controversial) computer-generated sequences, while Nicolas Cage and John Travolta did impressions of one another and fired guns in John Woo's delirious action movie, Face/Off.

It was a varied year for movies, for sure, particularly by 21st century standards; it's difficult to imagine a British feel-good comedy about amateur male strippers (The Full Monty) getting into the year's 10 highest grossing films these days. But among all those winners, there had to be some...

Johnny Depp's blockbuster The Lone Ranger is expected to lose between $160m (£104m) and $190m (£123m), according to an announcement made by Disney today (August 7).

The adventure movie cost more than $215m (£139m) to make, but has so far made just $176m (£114m) worldwide.

We look back at some of the biggest Hollywood stars and their even bigger blockbuster flops - from George Clooney's Dark Knight disaster Batman & Robin to Will Smith and son Jaden's After Earth bomb below.

Will Smith - After Earth

Will Smith's science fiction drama After Earth - released earlier this year - was directed by M Night Shyamalan. It achieved sales of $26.5 million (£17.1 million) upon its release, falling well below the $40m (£25.8 million) predicted by studio Sony. The blockbuster flop, which also starred Smith's son Jaden, was made for an estimated $130 million (£83.9 million).

George Clooney - Batman & Robin

George Clooney's Batman...

Kevin Costner's epic adventure The Postman was released in 1997 to a mixed reception. Here, Michael Reed argues that still it has a lot going for it…

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." Edmund Burke

The Postman is a post-apocalyptic adventure based on the David Brin novel of the same name. Director and star Kevin Costner delivered a film of epic proportions, both in terms of storytelling and its hefty 178-minute running time.

Although an ambitious and heartfelt effort, the film received negative reviews, and did woeful business at the box office. You can summarise reviewers' negative assessment in one word: overindulgence. In deference to those critics, it does feature periodic descents into over-sentimentality, an obese approach to the cutting of scenes and dialogue that often clunks.

However, I contend that if viewed as...

With Cowboys & Aliens due out soon, Terence looks at the history of the sci-fi western, and picks out a few of the best and worst…

Please note: there a few spoilers in this article, but not major ones.

The upcoming Cowboys & Aliens from Iron Man director, Jon Favreau, and starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, may seem like another one of those Hollywood blockbuster ‘high concept' movies (even if it is based on a successful graphic novel). However, the hybrid genre of the sci-fi western is nothing new. In the history of cinema, the six gun and the ray gun have shared the silver screen surprisingly often.

The sci-fi western, like any other film genre, has seen its share of the good, the bad and the ugly. While it's too early to tell whether Cowboys & Aliens will be keeping company with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef or Eli Wallach, it's...

Books: They’re just like movies, only without CGI.

So it’s no wonder that over the past century, Hollywood has consistently turned to books to provide the basis for some of its best works. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” for instance, was based on a book, while “Gigli” wasn’t. See how that works?

With that in mind, then, we decided to put together a sneak peak of all the coolest books currently being turned into major motion pictures (like “The Help,” left). Because these days, the best library you can go to is your local Cineplex.

‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’

Attached: Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes, Liam Neeson

Status: The third book from the classic C. S. Lewis series to make it to the big screen, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” has flown a bit under the radar thanks to the media...