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Making any video game is a minor miracle, and the developer of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (out now), Gsc Game World, has defied the odds by finishing the game amid Russia’s invasion of its home country, Ukraine. Gsc’s experiences of living through and fighting against an invasion have influenced the brutality of this game, and a player’s will to survive in the harsh and oppressive world of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will be tested.

Set in an alternate history based on the real-life 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown,...

In the future Saul hitches a ride with Anna and Vadim, a young couple on their way off planet for a vacation. Saul requests that they simply drop him off at the nearest uninhabited planet. He says he's done with human nature, and people. When they touch down they discover a handful of bodies outside their ship, frozen to death. This planet is inhabited and a large number of the humanoids here are being held against their will.    Daniel Shapiro and Alex Topaller's sci-fi short film, Escape Attempt, is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Yep, the Russian authors who wrote the screenplay for Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker, based on their novel Roadside Picnic.    Their...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of the Zone, the Wendigoon/Evan Royalty cowritten fan film that raised $320,000 on Kickstarter, is going on tour for its debut, and will be screened at theaters in New York, Florida, Texas, and California.

The film is based on developer Gsc Game World‘s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games (which are in turn based on the novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky). Wendigoon, whose eclectic mix of horror, history, cryptid, conspiracy, and true crime content has brought him nearly 4 million subscribers on YouTube, cowrote with fellow YouTuber and self-dubbed “wannabe filmmaker” Royalty (688K subscribers).

Royalty also directed the film alongside co-director/director of photography Stephen Hancock (best known for making fan films based on the megaviral Scp Foundation universe). Actor Joshua Gray caps off the core team as co-star and lead producer.

In 2022, with Wendigoon and Royalty’s script in hand,...

As the PS5 enters its fourth year, the console is really starting to hit its stride with its game library. Most game studios are finally moving away from cross-generation releases on the PS4, which means we have some truly exciting games coming in 2024 that harness the full capabilities of the PS5 hardware.

2023 set a high standard for PS5 owners with blockbuster games like Diablo 4, Spider-Man 2, Street Fighter 6, and more being launched. Can 2024 match that output, or maybe even surpass it? Here are five games coming to PS5 in 2024 that may just do exactly that.

SUGGESTEDStarfield Reportedly on Its Way to PS5 Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth (PS5) Release Date: 29 February Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

The sequel to 2020’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake, FF7 Rebirth will take players beyond the confines of Midgar to a much larger map that includes areas like Nibelheim, Junon, the Gold Saucer, and others. The protagonists from FF7 Remake – Cloud,...

“The [sci-fi] film has never really been more than an offshoot of its literary precursor, which to date has provided all the ideas, themes and inventiveness. [Sci-fi] cinema has been notoriously prone to cycles of exploitation and neglect, unsatisfactory mergings with horror films, thrillers, environmental and disaster movies.” So wrote J.G. Ballard about George Lucas’s Star Wars in a 1977 piece for Time Out. If Ballard’s view of science-fiction cinema was highly uncharitable and, as demonstrated by some of the imaginative and mind-expanding films below, essentially off-base, he nevertheless touched on a significant point: that literary and cinematic sci-fi are two fundamentally different art forms.

Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s visionary depiction of a near-future dystopia, is almost impossible to imagine as a work of prose fiction. Strip away the Art Deco glory of its towering cityscapes and factories and the synchronized movements of those who move through those environments and what’s left?...

“Three men can’t foul it up in one day.”

“Why can’t we? Sure we can.”

“Stalker”, together with “Mirror” and “Solaris”, has perhaps become something of a holy grail for film enthusiasts and cinephiles worldwide, manifesting Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s reputation as one of the most discussed and universally liked artists (and don’t you even dare criticize him) of the medium. Considering the almost universal outbreak of joy when Criterion announced a newly restored version of the film in 2017 along with a limited theatrical re-release, the admiration for the craft of this man will not cease but rather increase, given the universal nature of his art as well.

Of course, one of the aspects of Tarkovsky’s career, one which might have played its important role in building his reputation, was his own set of rules, poetics for film similar to Aristotle’s...

Exclusive: Felisha Terrell (Shooter) and Dustin Ingram (Watchmen) are set to recur opposite John Cusack, Sasha Lane and Rainn Wilson in Utopia, Amazon’s straight-to-series adaptation of the British drama, written by Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn.

Utopia follows a group of young adults who meet online that are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a near-mythical cult underground graphic novel. Within the comic’s pages, they discover the conspiracy theories that may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world.

Terrell will portray Hailey Alvez. A sharp, rising star in journalism, Hailey has a friendly air and affable manner. She interviews pharmaceutical giant Kevin Christie about his groundbreaking new product and asks some serious, pointed questions.

Ingram will play Tallman. Extremely wealthy and eerily eccentric, Tallman collects priceless comic books,...

Padraig Cotter Oct 11, 2017

The sci-fi novel Roadside Picnic has inspired works in film, TV, books and even videogames...

Stalker was the final film Andrei Tarkovsky made in the Soviet Union, and is a hypnotic, beguiling experience that refuses to surrender to any one interpretation. That hasn’t stopped critics and fans attempting to apply their own readings of course; is it a religious allegory, a commentary on life in the Soviet Union, an essay on filmmaking or is it about three miserable Russian blokes having a bit of an aimless wander? It could be all of the above, or none - it’s up to each viewer to decide for themselves.

The film is a loose adaptation of Russian sci-fi novel Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, and while on the surface they share similar characters and themes, they play out very differently. Even more interesting is how Roadside Picnic...

Andrei Tarkovsky’s bizarre philosophical science fiction epic may be his most successful picture overall — every image and word makes its precise desired effect. Three daring men defy the law to penetrate ‘the Zone’ and learn the truth behind the notion that a place called The Room exists where all wishes are granted. Plenty of art films promise profound ideas, but this one delivers.

Stalker

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 888

1979 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 161 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 18, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Alisa Freindlikh, Natasha Abramova.

Cinematography: Alexander Knyazhinsky

Film Editor: Lyudmila Feyginova

Original Music: Eduard Artemyev

Written by Andrei Tarkovsky and Arkady Struagtsky, Boris Strugatsky from their novel Roadside Picnic.

Produced by Aleksandra Demidova

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

If the definition of film artist is ‘one who goes his own way,’ Andrei Tarkovsky qualifies mightily. Reportedly cursed with a halting career...

Stars: Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Alisa Freindlich | Written by Boris Strugatsky, Arkadi Strugatsky | Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Based on Boris and Arkadi Strugatsky’s novel Roadside Picnic (not to mention the inspiration behind a famous video game series), this 1979 epic is a typically challenging work from Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, but it is worth the effort.

Stalker is ponderous and bleak; demanding without being impenetrable; and guilty of navel-gazing, certainly, but far too intriguing and unsettling to be turned off. Plus, it’s split neatly into two bite-sized parts, so no excuses. The barebones plot involves three men – a Writer and a Professor, led by the titular Stalker – departing the dilapidated city for the forbidden “Zone”, a rural wasteland littered with industrial junk and devoid of people. The Zone is also, perhaps, a sentient entity. The men are searching for the meaning of life. Kinda.

Stalker is true...

The Outsiders are on the hunt for a new home; Wgn America has cancelled the drama after two seasons, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

RelatedCable/Streaming Renewal Scorecard: What’s Coming Back? What’s Cancelled? What’s On the Bubble?

Set in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains, Outsiders starred David Morse (St. Elsewhere), Joe Anderson (Hannibal) and Gillian Alexy (Damages) as members of the Farrell clan, a group of mountain dwellers who frequently clashed with citizens in the town of Blackburg.

The show’s April 25 episode, previously billed as a season finale, will now serve as the series finale, should Sony Pictures Television...

Wgn America has released character-centric posters pegged to the return of Underground, as the slavery/escape thriller is honored Thursday at Atlanta’s aTVfest with the prestigious Spotlight Cast Award.

VideosUnderground Season 2 Trailer Features ‘Notorious’ Harriet Tubman

Premiering Wednesday, March 8, Season 2 is set in the aftermath of the Macon 7’s daring attempt to stage the greatest escape in history, with a divided America on the brink of civil war. Joining returning series regulars Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aldis Hodge, Jessica de Gouw, Alano Miller, Christopher Meloni and Amirah Vann are Aisha Hinds (Under the Dome) as Harriet Tubman, Jasika Nicole (Fringe...

Ants have descended upon Roadside Picnic.

Wgn America has chosen not to move forward with the TV adaptation of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s science-fiction novel, TVLine has confirmed.

RelatedPilot Season ’17: Scoop on This Fall’s (Possible) New Shows, Who’s In Them

Matthew Goode (The Good Wife, Downton Abbey) was to star in the potential series, which followed a man named Red as he studied and entered “the Zone,” an area where aliens recently lived, to explore and sell valuable artifacts.

Per our sister site Deadline, Sony Pictures TV is shopping the project to other networks.

Related storiesSalem...

After three seasons of sexy supernatural chicanery, Salem on Wednesday wrapped up its run, leaving in its wake not only a conclusion that was as surprising as it was satisfying but also the corpses of more than half a dozen major characters. Who got a happy ending, and who was merely… ended? Read on and find out! Or, if you’ve already seen the episode, grade it in the poll below!

Related2017 Renewal Scorecard: What’s Coming Back? What’s Getting Cancelled? What’s on the Bubble?

‘Even Hell Will Not Hide You Now’ | As “Black Sunday” began, the devil...

Wgn America has opted not to proceed with Roadside Picnic, its drama pilot based on the famous novel by top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. I hear the pilot’s producing studio, Sony Pictures TV, already is shopping it to other outlets. Starring The Good Wife and Downton Abbey alum Matthew Goode, alien saga Roadside Picnic explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone, leaving humankind to explore the wondrous and…...

Exclusive: UTA has signed Alan Taylor, returning the director to the agency after a run with CAA. His first stint at UTA included helming tenpoles Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys. Before that he helmed multiple episodes of Game Of Thrones as well as Mad Men, The Sopranos and Sex And The City. Taylor is still in the mix on GoT and recently finished directing Roadside Picnic, a pilot for Wgn America starring Matthew Goode. He is exec producing the Sony…...

Exclusive: UTA has signed Alan Taylor, returning the director to the agency after a run with CAA. His first stint at UTA included helming tenpoles Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys. Before that he helmed multiple episodes of Game Of Thrones as well as Mad Men, The Sopranos and Sex And The City. Taylor is still in the mix on GoT and recently finished directing Roadside Picnic, a pilot for Wgn America starring Matthew Goode. He is exec producing the Sony…...

The Outsiders will resume their tussle with the townsfolk on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, Wgn America announced, while also releasing the above trailer prior to the show’s appearance at this week’s New York Comic-Con.

RelatedUnderground Season 2 Adds Fringe Fave Jasika Nicole, Casts Aisha Hinds as Harriet Tubman, Promotes ‘Ernestine’

In Season 2, the struggle for power and control continues in the rugged hills of Appalachia as the conflict between the clan and the town escalates with the Farrells becoming more isolated than ever before. The uneasy truce that had generally existed between the two factions came to an end as Big...

Exclusive: CBS has landed S.W.A.T., a drama series loosely inspired by the 2003 Sony movie that was based on the 1975 TV series produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. The project, executive produced by The Shield creator Shawn Ryan, Neal H. Moritz (Preacher), Justin Lin (Scorpion) and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, has received a pilot production commitment from the network with series penalty behind it.

S.W.A.T. hails from Sony Pictures TV, which will co-produce with CBS TV Studios. This marks the fourth pilot production commitment for Sony TV so far this season, along with dramas Salvation at NBC, from Warren Leight and Paul Haggis, and Doomsday at ABC from Carol Mendelsohn, as well as a comedy at CBS from Carter Bays & Craig Thomas and comedian Chris Distefano. The studio also has put pilot commitments for a drama loosely inspired by I Spy at Fox with David Shore...

Wgn is bringing another adaptation of the 1972 short sci-fi novel "Roadside Picnic", written by Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatskys, to television and we've got the first images from the set for you to look at.

The images show the distressed sets coming alive to show the aftermath of an extraterrestrial event.

Starring in the series is Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game, Match Point) who plays Redrick “Red” Shuhart in the story about what becomes of earth following a visit from extraterrestrial beings.

Synopsis:

In the [Continued ...]...

Martin Donovan is set to co-star opposite Matthew Goode in Wgn America's alien saga pilot Roadside Picnic, based on the famous novel by top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Written by Transcendence scribe Jack Paglen, with Alan Taylor attached to direct and Neal Moritz producing, Roadside Picnic explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone, leaving humankind to explore the wondrous and dangerous mysteries left behind. The…...

Felisha Terrell (Survivors Remorse) is set as the female lead in Wgn America's drama pilot Roadside Picnic, an alien saga based on the famous novel by top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Written by Transcendence scribe Jack Paglen, with Terminator: Genisys and Game of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor attached to direct and Neal Moritz producing, Roadside Picnic explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone, leaving humankind to…...

River Song has teleported into Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

Doctor Who vet Alex Kingston will appear in Netflix’s revival of the late WB/CW series — but she won’t necessarily be in Stars Hollow.

RelatedGilmore Girls Revival: Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Team Palladino Set for First Netflix Press Event

During a recent fan convention in Miami, Kingston revealed that she plays “a very eccentric character” in multiple installments. The actress — who recurs on Arrow as Dinah Lance — also divulged that she filmed her scenes “on location” and they may have been opposite Alexis Bledel’s Rory.

Deadwood alum W. Earl Brown and Michael Lindall have been cast opposite Matthew Goode in Wgn America's alien-saga pilot Roadside Picnic, based on the famous novel by top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Written by Transcendence scribe Jack Paglen, with Terminator: Genisys and Game of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor attached to direct and Neal Moritz producing, Roadside Picnic explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone…...

[caption id="attachment_51575" align="aligncenter" width="461"] Matthew Goode cast in the Roadside Picnic TV show pilot at Wgn America (JStone/Shutterstock.com)./caption]

Pack a basket and a crisp Chardonnay. Matthew Goode, a veteran of The Goodwife and Downton Abbey TV series which both ended earlier this year, has been cast as Red in the Roadside Picnic TV series pilot for Wgn America.

A sci-fi project rather than an actual outdoor lunch, Roadside Picnic is based upon the 1971 Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Russian novel. Set in the near-future, after aliens have come to and gone from Earth, Roadside Picnic is written by Jack Paglen. Alan Taylor is directing the pilot. Neal Moritz is executive producing withVivian Cannon.

Read More…...

Following on from their success with "Salem," "Manhattan," "Outsiders" and "Underground," Wgn America is continuing its original scripted programming push with plans for an ambitious new series entitled "Roadside Picnic".

Alan Taylor ("Thor: The Dark World," "Game of Thrones") will direct and Jack Paglen ("Alien: Covenant") will pen the script for the series which is based on the novel of the same name by Russian writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. That book was previously adapted to the screen by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1979 into his legendary film "Stalker".

Deadline reports that "Watchmen" and "The Good Wife" alum Matthew Goode has signed on to star in the series with the pilot episode to be shot shortly. Goode play Red, a former 'Stalker' who enters the 'Zone,' an area that was once briefly inhabited by alien visitors - his mission is to scavenge technology.

Should it go to series, it...

Aliens, meet Matthew Goode.

The Good Wife alum is set to star in a pilot based on Wgn America’s adaptation of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s science fiction novel Roadside Picnic, Deadline reports.

RelatedFall TV Schedule 2016: What’s on When? And Versus What?

Goode will play Red, a man who studies and enters “the Zone,” an area where aliens recently lived, to explore and sell valuable artifacts. Roadside Picnic was one of two pilots orders given by Wgn in March, along with an adaptation of DC Comics’ Scalped.

Ready for more of today’s newsy nuggets? Well…

* SundanceTV...

The Good Wife and Downton Abbey alum Matthew Goode is set as the lead in Wgn America’s alien saga pilot Roadside Picnic, based on the famous novel by top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Written by Transcendence scribe Jack Paglen, with Terminator Genisys and Game Of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor attached to direct and Neal Moritz producing, Roadside Picnic explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone, leaving humankind to…...

Wgn America has formally ordered pilot adaptations of the graphic novels Scalped and Roadside Picnic.

RelatedUnderground Review: Thriller Aspect, Modern Riffs Drive Wgn’s Slave Drama

Based on the DC Comics series by Jason Aaron and illustrator R.M. Guera, Scalped presents a modern-day crime story set in the world of a Native American Indian reservation, exploring power, loyalty and spirituality in a community led by the ambitious Chief Lincoln Red Crow as he reckons with Dashiell Bad Horse, who has returned home after years away from the reservation.

Doug Jung (Banshee, Dark Blue) will pen the pilot, which has...

Not taking its "Manhattan" cancellation lying down, Wgn America has picked up two new drama pilots - most notably an adaptation of DC Comics' "Scalped".

"Scalped" is described as a modern-day crime story set in the world of a Native American Indian reservation. Lincoln Red Crow is the ambitious chief of a community who must deal with Dashiell Bad Horse who has returned home after years away from the reservation. First published in 2007, it ran for sixty issues.

Doug Jung will pen the script and executive produce alongside DC Entertainment creative director Geoff Johns.

The other series is an adaptation of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1971 novel "Roadside Picnic". That story explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone, leaving humankind to explore the mysteries left behind as well as the societal ramifications of their visit.

The ation follows Red, a 'stalker' who ventures into the abandoned remains of the alien culture.

Veteran producer Neal H. Moritz is formalizing his relationship with Sony on the television side, closing a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures TV. Original, which most recently was under an overall deal at CBS Television Studios, is partnered with Sony TV on comic book adaptation Preacher, which just got picked up to series by AMC with a 10-episode order. Original and Sony TV also are collaborating on Roadside Picnic, a series adaptation of the Strugatsky brothers…...

A slo-mo kaleidoscope of medieval squalor, fear and pandemonium, Alexei German’s three-hour epic isn’t easy to watch, but it is awe-inspiring in its own monumentally mad way

The past is another planet – they do things differently there. This monochrome dream-epic of medieval cruelty and squalor is a non-sci-fi sci-fi; a monumental, and monumentally mad film that the Russian film-maker Alexei German began working on around 15 years ago. It was completed by his son, Alexei German Jr, after the director’s death in 2013. If ever a movie deserved the title folie de grandeur it is this, placed before audiences on a take-it-or-leave-it basis: maniacally vehement and strange, a slo-mo kaleidoscope of chaos and also a relentless prose poem of fear, featuring three hours’ worth of non-sequitur dialogue, where each line is an imagist stab with nothing to do what has just been said.

What on earth does it mean?...