Stuff: Space Travel–Wussies Need Not Apply

Today is NASA’s Day of Remembrance. I was going to write up something on this, but Doc broke radio silence on his site to have at it. And he says it better than I could. Go and read.

Amazon‘s sale today is for the complete series of Get Smart. It’s $67.99, which is 66% off the list price of $199.95. Nice. This is a fairly swank set, I own it myself and recommend it for any fan of the show. You can snag yours here. That’s today only and while stocks last.

Also they’ve got an indie/international sale with titles as low as $5.99. You can find that here.

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Neil Marshall (Doomsday) will write and direct Centurion, which will star Michael Fassbender (300), Dominic West (also 300) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) is the story of the only Roman survivor of a Pictish raid who comes back with his friends, the Ninth Legion, to kick some Pictish ass. Yes, even the one grooving in a cave with several species of small furry animals. The leader of the Picts is named Gorlacon, which I could have sworn was a Decepticon in the third Transformers cartoon. But maybe I’m misremembering that. Source.

Freeman Agyeman’s Martha Jones will be returning to Doctor Who in one of the specials, so says The Sun. Which means it’s not confirmed. How many sites said that Matt Smith was going to be the next Doctor before it happened? None that I’m aware of, that’s for sure. So, you know, take it with a salt lick. Source.

Ian Fleming has a biopic in the works, scribed by John Orloff (A Mighty Heart), entitled Fleming. DiCaprio’s company is one of the ones producing at Warner Brothers. Source.

Neil Gaiman‘s Graveyard Book, which just won the Newbery, is going to be a live-action film, with Neil Jordan (Interview With the Vampire) on board to scribe and direct. Source.

The Inn at the Edge of the World will be Charles Dance’s (“You’re Sardo Numsie!”) second film to direct, and he’s adapting it based on the novel by Alice Thomas-Ellis. In the cast are Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton (Shaun of the Dead). The film “tells the story of a group of unrelated people who share a common desire to escape the enforced jollity of Christmas and venture to a remote Scottish island.” Jesus, you could sell a package vacation in December along those lines, you know? Production starts in May. Source.

The aforementioned He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is being called just Masters of the Universe and has had John Stevenson, who co-directed Kung Fu Panda, come on board to helm. This means that Jack Black will be playing Orko. Kidding. I’m kidding. Put down the gun. Source.

Disney left Narnia and Fox decided to go through the wardrobe. So to speak. Fox apparently got first dibs on the hole Disney left and they’ve decided to take it. Production should start at the end of the summer and show up on screens towards the end of 2010. They’re getting a $140M budget–compared to the $215M that was spent on Caspian. It all depends on the scribe they pick–Richard LaGravenese (Fisher King) delivered the last draft but his availability for further penning might be in question. Here’s an interesting tidbit: “The intention is to move the production away from Mexico, where, ironically, it was going to be shot at the Fox-owned Baja facility called Rosarito used for Titanic and Master and Commander. Dawn Treader will instead likely shoot in Australia because of concerns for the drug violence and kidnappings that are taking place near Baja.” Well, just damn. Caspian, Edmund and Lucy are expected to return. Will Poulter (Son of Rambow) is going to play Eustace. Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough) is still on tap to helm. This–my favorite of the Narnia books–might actually get me back into cinemas. And this is the book that will most easily accept the silly added action bits that they like to pepper these films with. Source.

Parenthood, which is still a fantastic movie, is being turned into a TV series. Again. It’s gotten a pilot order as an hour-long dramedy. Better that than the sitcom it was in its previous incarnation. And if handled well, it could actually work. But that’s a tremendous IF. We’re talking it has blinking lights on it so it doesn’t get in the way of passing airplanes. Source.

Run DMC, who is getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4th, is getting a biopic as well, based on the book Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC – The Authorized Biography by Bill Adler. Cheo Hodari Coker (Notorious) will adapt it. Source.

1066 is the story of King Harold vs. William, Duke of Normandy and the Battle of Hastings. William Nicholson (Gladiator) is scribing it. They want production to start this year, but nobody else is attached yet. Dindrane is very anxious and perturbed. Source.

Tokyo! is the upcoming movie with three sections, directed in turn by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine), Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho. It goes wide stateside on March 20th. The three sections are a young couple having moved to Tokyo to pursue their careers, a shut-in who gets everything delivered to his apartment having to deal with earthquakes and love, and a creature called Merde who rises from the sewers to attack the populace. Not sure if there’s a subtitled trailer or not, you can check out the original trailer here.