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We’re all very sad to say goodbye to Total Film, our sister title of the last 27 years, and the team behind it. It’s always a terrible loss when a long-running magazine turns its final page and we’d be lying if we said things haven’t been even more d

THE BANE OF A WRITER’S existence is having the kernel of an idea that you can’t quite articulate on the page. For writing/directing duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the conundrum of religion, specifically other people’s certitude about religion, buzze

“I WAS OBSESSED WITH Superman,” admits director Peter Ettedgui. “I remember growing up and getting my dad to do me a badge of the Superman crest.” But it was when Christopher Reeve starred in 1978’s Superman that he really got hooked. The story of Re

CENTRING ON crimes in the comic book industry, Alex Segura’s novels Secret Identity and the upcoming Alter Ego also feature excerpts from so-called lost comic series The Legendary Lynx. Purporting to be the work of fictional creators Carmen Valdez, D

WHILE HE HAS APPARENTLY donned Venom’s symbiote suit for the final time, Tom Hardy is now making his comic book debut, teaming up with co-writers Frank Tieri and Scott Snyder on Arcbound, the first salvo from Dark Horse’s new imprint of the same name

A LITTLE OVER A decade ago, when executive producer Ronald D Moore (Battlestar Galactica) was given permission by author Diana Gabaldon to adapt her beloved historical/sci-fi Outlander books into a streaming series, there was no cause to worry about

WHEN HE FIRST SAW “WHAT IF…? Kahhori Reshaped The World” from the Disney+ show’s second season, Arihhonni “Honni” David was overjoyed that there was now a Marvel character who belonged to the Haudenosaunee People – and in particular the Kanien’kehá:k

WHILE LOWER DECKS HAS RECENTLY RETURNED TO our screens for the fifth and (maybe) final series, the crew of the USS Cerritos are also making their comic book comeback, this time in IDW’s continuing monthly series (after 2022’s three-parter and last ye

AS COMIC BOOK CREATOR Paul Grist says, “getting an annual was an end of year treat and a proper companion to the weekly comic.” Now Rebellion are set to release the first 2000 AD Annual in 24 years – along with the second Treasury Of British Comics A

IF YOU’VE BEEN suffering Percy Jackson withdrawal symptoms since the TV adaptation of The Lightning Thief aired in December 2023, rest assured you’ll be able to get your fix of all things Olympian when a musical version of Rick Riordan’s book hits th

Further cast for spin-off series The War Between The Land And The Sea have been announced. Patrick Baladi, Francesca Corney, Vincent Franklin, Adrian Lukis and Mei Mac join the ensemble. New action figures of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday were

£17.87 EVERY 6 MONTHS £14.30 EVERY 6 MONTHS NEW! Digital access to 150+ issues when you subscribe to print!** SUBSCRIBE NOW! ONLINE magazinesdirect.com/SFX/D37Y PHONE 0330 333 1113 and quote code D37Y Offer closes 29 January 2025. Price is guaranteed

“I’M NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO OPEN IT…” SAYS JON M CHU as he brandishes one of the most sought after, iconic and highly valuable books of all time in his hands. The book in question? One of only 10,000 original first printings of L Frank Baum’s fabled The

Edie Morikawa is the heist’s runner – thieves that traverse the catacombs of the space station. The story opens with them finishing a prison stint after their ex-partner in crime betrayed them eight years ago. Now they’re starting over, but their ex-

Do you recall your first interaction with and impression of Wicked as a show? I had friends who worked on the original Broadway show, working in the costume shops. So I had this backstage view of what that process was like early on. Then to see it re

What was your introduction to the world of Wicked? I’m not a massive theatre fan. I’m cinema through and through, I like big cinematic films. So I went to see it a couple of times once they started talking to me. I realised it was an alternative view

SOMETIMES THE UNIVERSE CORRECTS ITSELF FOR the better. Way back in 2016 when Legendary Entertainment bought the rights to sci-fi author Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, self-professed devotee Denis Villeneuve was quickly attached to direct a film adaptat

The most prominent use of make-up in the film is Elphaba’s green skin. Did you use Margaret Hamilton or the stage make-up as a base, or create something completely new? Because I was working with a totally different base skin tone, I couldn’t start w

What was your entry point into the Dune universe? I was a huge fan of the [latest] movies. That was how I was introduced to Dune. I love Charlotte Rampling and that scene in the movie with Timothée Chalamet I thought would be the coolest thing in the

Gavin Bocquet: When you start, there’s always that element of, “How do we achieve this?” It’s not like you can go and shoot this on the streets of London. It doesn’t exist. With this, I hadn’t read the novels, but I knew roughly that we were going to

How would you describe the marriage of Emperor Javicco Corrino and Empress Natalya? It is a really interesting relationship, charting the journey between those two characters. He’s kind of emasculated by the Sisterhood and the Bene Gesserit, so withi

WHEN JUSTIFIED’S Graham Yost started adapting the first instalment in Hugh Howey’s Silo trilogy, Wool, for television, something quickly became clear: the debut season would end at the book’s midpoint. “We just knew that Juliette going over the hill

“We tried not to go too steampunk,” says producer Xavier Marchand of bringing Nemo’s magnificent vessel to the screen. “We were very lucky with our fantastic production designer, David Lee. “We wanted something that was maybe more hydrodynamic than t

IF ALL YOU KNOW OF CAPTAIN NEMO is James Mason’s suave submariner in 1954 Disney classic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, think again. In fact, prepare to take the deepest of dives into a man so thoroughly mysterious that even his name means “nobody”. “

SFX IS DEEP IN GEEK conversation with Jay Lycurgo, the young British actor who’s making a name for himself on several high-profile genre shows. Before all that, he’d already dabbled with pop culture icons with his early role as a non-speaking “Train

In The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, Lycurgo played the eponymous bastard son, Nathan. “It taught me a lot,” he says of the Netflix fantasy series, cancelled after a single season. “I actually went to a restaurant yesterday and there was a woman w

LET’S BE REAL: STAR TREK FANS raised on The Original Series, or Star Trek: The Next Generation, have had no qualms, over the last decade, about talking trash about the latest Trek streaming shows. But there’s been one show mostly spared, and that’s S

SERIES TWO OF BEING HUMAN climaxed with the notorious Box Tunnel massacre. Over the series three finale and series four premiere, viewers witnessed a massacre of a different kind, however. Three of the show’s lead characters – Mitchell (Aidan Turner)

Back in early 2011, as series three of Being Human was airing, the show also unleashed a spin-off in the form of the eight-episode webseries Becoming Human. Set in a school, it starred returning character Adam (Craig Roberts) as an uncouth 46-year-ol

THE BLU-RAY release of Blake’s 7 series one offers optional new effects for every episode. “In the end the whole thing came to about 459 shots,” says Chris Thompson, part of the team that created the new visuals. “The original effects are still quite

‘I HAVE A FEELING BLAKE’S 7 was a whole lot better and more important than those of us who were working on it realised, certainly when it started,” reflects veteran director Michael E Briant. “I mean, we all knew it was rather good. It wasn’t just an

• Two episodes, restored in HD with optional CG special effects • Commentary on “Space Fall” • June Hudson’s costume designs • Character introductions: Blake, Avon, Vila, Jenna, Gan, Zen • Gareth Thomas on Blake (Easter egg) • Michael Keating on Vila

…and get all these benefits • Never miss an issue! • No more traipsing to the shops in the rain – have the mag delivered to your door! • Pay significantly less than the shop price • Print subscribers also get a digital issue • Free access to a huge l

▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 18 | 127 minutes ▸ Director Parker Finn ▸ Cast Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Kyle Gallner The killer ghoul who always leaves them smiling is back for more in this sequel to 2022’s sleeper horror hit. And while its let

▸ RELEASED 1 NOVEMBER 12A | 104 minutes ▸ Directors Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui There is no greater story of heroism than Christopher Reeve’s. Severely paralysed in 1995 after a horse-riding accident, the actor who played the first ever movie Superma

▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 95 minutes ▸ Directors Sam Eggers, Max Eggers ▸ Cast Brandy Norwood, Andrew Burnap, Kathryn Hunter, Neal Huff An attempt to blend psychological horror with dark comedy, The Front Room works fitfully but also sometimes feels m

▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 18 | 125 minutes ▸ Director Damien Leone ▸ Cast David Howard Thornton, Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, Samantha Scaffidi Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the shower… Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane got off pretty lightly

UK: Sky Atlantic/NOW, Mondays US: HBO, Mondays ▸ Showrunner Lauren LeFranc ▸ Cast Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Clancy Brown EPISODES 1.01-1.08 There seems to be mileage in taking a crime classic and mapping a Batman villain onto it…

UK/US Prime Video, streaming now ▸ Creator Tom Moran ▸ Cast Jessica Raine, Peter Capaldi, Nikesh Patel, Benjamin Chivers EPISODES 2.01-2.05 Season one of The Devil’s Hour may have been open-ended, but it also felt perfectly self-contained. The story

EXTRAS ▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1988 | PG | Blu-ray ▸ Directors Andrew Morgan, Chris Clough, Alan Wareing ▸ Cast Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Sheila Hancock, Terry Molloy BLU-RAY DEBUT For all its nostalgic trimmings, this silver anniversary season fin

EXTRAS ▸ RELEASED 18 NOVEMBER 1962 | 15 | Blu-ray ▸ Director Ray Milland ▸ Cast Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel BLU-RAY DEBUT An AIP production, this low-budget nuclear thriller sees a suburban family fortuitously surviving an a

EXTRAS ▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1922 | 15 | Blu-ray ▸ Director Benjamin Christensen ▸ Cast Benjamin Christensen, Clara Pontoppidan, Oscar Stribolt, Astrid Holm BLU-RAY DEBUT Pioneering Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen believed silent film best captur

▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2024 | 15 | SVOD ▸ Director Euros Lyn ▸ Cast Damian Lewis, Kelly Macdonald, Bo Bragason, Harry Baxendale SKY CINEMA “But I like garlic,” puzzles Rowan Radley, baffled by his dad’s revelation that he and his whole family are vampir

EXTRAS ▸ RELEASED 18 NOVEMBER 2024 | 15 | Blu-ray/download The work of an editor for indie darlings Benson & Moorhead, this time-loop tale is the sort of thing they’d make. After a robbery, a brother and sister lay low in a farm existing outside time

▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2024 | N/A | Download Discovering your parents have basically adopted your high school sweetheart is scary, but there’s worse to come in this creepy domestic horror, in which a mysterious cult and a couple of even more mysterious

EXTRAS ▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2018 | 15 | Blu-ray One for the Venn diagram intersection of Scream/Buffy fans, this slice of heavy meta turns the slasher on its head, as the killer is the protagonist. Sam (Fran Kranz) can’t help it, mind. Controlled by a

▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2024 | N/A | SVOD SHUDDER This somewhat unfortunately named British indie draws horror from the difficulty a child can have accepting a parent’s death, as the isolated, Grand Designs-esque home of young Isaac is invaded by somethi

EXTRAS ▸ RELEASED 11 NOVEMBER 2007 | 15 | 4K/Blu-ray ▸ Director Oliver Hirschbiegel ▸ Cast Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright Of the four films based on Jack Finney’s 1954 novel The Body Snatchers, The Invasion is, by consens

EXTRAS ▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1969 | 15 | Blu-ray ▸ Director Gordon Hessler ▸ Cast Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Uta Levka BLU-RAY DEBUT Though billed on the poster as “Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale of the living dead”, the only thing

A thought-provoking meditation on the human condition, and a compelling exploration of memory and its profound impact on our identities and relationships. Shea woke when the skyraft made a leap toward hell. Under the daylight’s varnish, the cabin too

▸ RELEASED 21 NOVEMBER  384 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobooks ▸ Author Gail Simone ▸ Publisher Orbit Books Flame-haired, polyamorous (at least in her latest iteration), and ever capable of despatching multiple enemies and downing multiple drinks, Red

▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 528 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▸ Author Jeff VanderMeer ▸ Publisher Fourth Estate It’s been 10 years since we first ventured into Area X. Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance) was rel

▸RELEASED 5 NOVEMBER 336 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▸Author Julie Leong ▸Publisher Hodderscape This is the cosiest of cosy fantasies – the kind of novel that should be devoured while sitting in a sunny window with a mug of hot chocolate in one

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! 304 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▸Author Andrew Michael Hurley ▸Publisher John Murray A remote settlement on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border, Barrowbeck is not like other places. Or perhaps – and this idea says much about why A

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! 448 pages | Hardback/ebook ▸Author ML Wang ▸Publisher Del Rey Suzanne Collins was pretty clear about the allegories at the heart of the Hunger Games books, but many readers missed them anyway. That’s unlikely to happen with Blood O

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! 416 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▸Author Stephen Baxter ▸Publisher Gollancz What would humanity do if we perceived we were under alien attack? How would we react at a psychological level? Such are the questions that animate Ste

▸RELEASED 12 NOVEMBER 256 pages | Hardback/ebook ▸Author Ramsey Campbell ▸Publisher Flame Tree Press Sixty years on from the publication of his first book, Ramsey Campbell is still writing horror that feels fresh, contemporary and surprising. Who els

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! 464 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▸Author Alexis Henderson ▸Publisher Bantam Books Turns out, everyone disappointed that they didn’t get their letter from Hogwarts at age 11 might not have missed their chance to go to a magic sc

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! 304 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook ▸Authors Mikaella Clements, Onjuli Datta ▸Publisher Simon & Schuster Maybe every small town has a bogeyman. A story about someone, sometime, who did something terrible, and now haunts a particu

▸RELEASED 7 NOVEMBER 272 pages | Hardback/ebook ▸Authors Helen Phillips ▸Publisher Atlantic Books Sometimes, it’s the sheer mundanity of a dystopia that makes it work. Never mind elaborately dressed teenagers battling to the death on live TV; instead

▸RELEASED 7 NOVEMBER 400 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▸Author Lorraine Wilson ▸Publisher Solaris People often draw a distinction between their lives online and in the “real world”, as if the two are entirely unrelated. It’s not true, as the polit

▸RELEASED 12 NOVEMBER 400 pages | Paperback/ebook ▸Author CJ Rivera ▸Publisher Angry Robot In a future where cyborg adornments are both the key to longevity and a fashion statement, one company aims to be the ultimate disruptor by developing organic

As ever, there are plenty more books we couldn’t fit in. Set in Nigeria, Nuzo Onoh’s WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER (out now, Titan) follows an 11-year-old girl who, after helping her cousin escape a vengeful ghost once engaged to the man she’s about t

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! ▸Publisher Dark Horse Comics ▸Writers Gerard Way, Shaun Simon ▸Artist Chris Weston ISSUES 1-4 Gerard Way, creator of The Umbrella Academy (plus, y’know, occasional international rock megastar) returns to comics with co-writer Shaun

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! ▸Publisher Image Comics ▸Writer Kieron Gillen ▸Artist Stephanie Hans GRAPHIC NOVEL After the 20 issue-long Die, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans have opted for something more compact for their next collaboration. It starts in famil

▸RELEASED OUT NOW! ▸Publisher Oni Press/EC Comics ▸Editors Sierra Hahn, Matt Dryer ▸Artists Various ISSUES 1-3 In terms of comebacks, few come quite as unexpected as EC Comics rising from the grave. The company that pioneered lurid and gorgeously gro

▸RELEASED 6 NOVEMBER ▸Publisher Image Comics ▸Writer Robbie Morrison ▸Artist Charlie Adlard GRAPHIC NOVEL Like a spooky Shardlake, Robbie Morrison and Charlie Adlard’s first graphic novel together in over two decades treads a fine line between supern

What was the name of the rebel group that Blake was involved with before being brainwashed by the Federation? Who composed the theme tune for Blake’s 7? List all of the original “seven” aboard the Liberator. Supply the word which is missing from this

The fifth season of Happy Days is best known for two things: the episode where the Fonz literally “jumps the shark” on water skis, coining the term for when a show runs out of ideas; and the episode where an alien comes to visit, “My Favourite Orkan”