Category: Steampunk Video

Cast the Boneshaker Movie

December 2, 2011

If you haven’t heard yet, Cherie Priest’s novel Boneshaker is headed for the big screen thanks to Hammer Films. This is great news, as the book is wonderful (and was picked as our 2010 Book of the Year).

So, let’s have some fun. Who would you cast in the different roles?

Here are a dozen main(ish) characters to get you started, but feel free to suggest choices for minor characters.

• Leviticus Blue
• Briar Wilkes
• Zeke Wilkes
• Maynard Wilkes
• Alaister Mayhem Osterude (Rudy)
• Princess Angeline
• Jeremiah Swakhammer
• Lucy O’Gunning
• Yaozu
• Minnericht
• Andan Cly
• Croggon Beauregard Hainey

I’ll kick things off with a few suggestions:

(more…)

PBS Takes on Steampunk

September 1, 2011

So, PBS has decided to give us their take on Steampunk in the latest installment of Off Book. PBS Arts’s Off Book is a “web series focused on experimental and non-traditional art form,” so it is certainly an appropriate forum for steampunk to be discussed. Their brief documentary gives a nice look at steampunk aesthetics, especially as applied to craft, music, and performance. It is unfortunate that the literature that gave birth to the movement is not discussed, but that may lie outside of the Off Book‘s core focus (although why literature would not be part of “arts” is beyond me). Regardless, it is nice to see steampunk getting some wider attention.

Here’s the documentary; let me know what you think.

Steampunk Musketeers: A Bad Thing?

June 30, 2011

The good news is that there is another movie this summer with steampunk elements! The bad news is, well, take a look, starting about 48 seconds in:

Yes, that is an airship battle, and it even looks somewhat cool. Heck, the adventure of Alexander Dumas with the coolness of steampunk sounds like its made of win, right?

Not necessarily. My problem is not with the steampunkification of Dumas, so much as it looks like there was inadequate thought put into it.

(more…)

New Cowboys & Aliens Trailer

June 12, 2011

We have a new trailer for this weird west adventure coming later this summer. As a reminder, Cowboys & Aliens has Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde in the old west facing an alien invasion. Here’s the official description from Universal:

The Old West.. where a lone cowboy leads an uprising against a terror from beyond our world. 1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents-townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors-all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

(more…)