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Monday, June 23, 2008

The Time Machine - Week of June 23, 2008

I'm back to the whole time-travel-market-is-soft thing. I present further proof it is not:

Exhibit A:
Spike Lee has signed on to direct Time Traveler, a movie based on Ronald Mallett's memoir Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality. The memoir tells the tale of a young African-American male raised in poverty, his journey to becoming a distinguished theoretical physicist, and his obsession to travel back in time to save the father he lost when he was ten years old.

Lee says, "It's a fantastic story on many levels and (also) a father and son saga of love and loss."

Exhibit B:
Universal Pictures has a time travel thriller in the works called The Archive. David Auburn, who scripted The Lake House for Warner Brothers, will join forces with Walk the Line director James Mangold.

Lastly, I found this fascinating short documentary by Jay Cheel called Obsessed and Scientific. In it, the world-renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku offers a very accessible interpretation of time travel. We also meet Larry Habner, an entertainment lawyer who represents the family of John Titor, an alleged time traveler from the year 2036, and Rob Niosi, a man obsessed with recreating a full-scale replica of H.G. Well's time machine. It's a fantastic look at the bizarre crossroads between real scientific theory and science fiction. (run time: 25 min.)

2 comments:

K.M. Saint James said...

Hey girlie, time-travel will never die -- one look at what Hollywood is chasing clobbers that notion.

We all want to believe that the perfect person could have changed history, (Oh, wait, there was One who did) so I'll leave it at another person -- maybe not so perfect -- could have thwarted Hitler, prevented the plague, stopped the Kennedy assassination, etc. That's just human nature to want to wrong the rights. Along with that desire comes one equally as strong to shape the future. Don't know how either of these can happen without time-travel.

Great ideas don't die, they just get reshelved.

Marilyn Brant said...

I agree. I think time-travel stories are here for the duration, and I'm glad. They're fascinating and present a world/universe of infinite possibilities. Who wouldn't love that idea--even if it's a little frightening?

Saw just a few minutes of the documentary so far, but it seems interesting.