Alex Garland’s ‘Ex Machina’ Sounds Fascinating, Looks Sexy

I’ve long had a love/hate relationship with robots. On one hand I love them, I want them around to serve and accomplish the menial tasks around me that I don’t want to physically perform. They’re helpful in that way, and at their best they’re probably the most beneficial thing to humanity there could be. On the other hand, they tend to always run into that whole creator vs created, synthetic/organic problem as is so often encountered and philosophized about in Science Fiction.

It gets weirder when you start thinking about them as actual things with wants and needs of their own, and thus comes the REAL dilemma with robots. Basically, it’s never a good idea to make them sexy. The second you make a sexy, human-like F***-Bot capable of doing things a human never could or would, you’re enabling the darkest aspects of man, and more or less encouraging the death of all humanity. What man wouldn’t rather spend all of his life with his immortal, eternally beautiful sex-bot in a holodeck of his dreams, having basically every possible desire fulfilled at his whim?

I know I would.

Ahem, so that’s why I think robots shouldn’t be sexy, but moreso it’s why the recent announcement of Ex Machina has me intrigued.

[box_light]“A billionaire programmer who handpicks a young employee to spend a week at his remote estate and participate in a test involving his latest invention: an artificially intelligent female robot.”[/box_light]

via [Bloody-Disgusting]

A sexy robot?

So maybe now you see where I was getting at, and not being just a weirdly delusional pervert. I mean, I am a weirdly delusional pervert, but f*** you for judging me. Sorry. Anyhow, the movie itself is an interesting concept made even more interesting by the fact that it’s written and going to be directed by Alex Garland, who you may know from his previous work on 28 Days Later and recently Dredd. The guy’s also behind one of my favorite SF films of all time, Sunshine; a movie so underrated and under appreciated I recommend you go out and watch it right now without knowing anything else about it.

This being Garland’s first time directing I’m pretty stoked to see how he’ll handle his own material for the first time. If his scripts for everything else he’s been a part of are any indication, it’ll be pretty damned amazing. The film itself is gonna be shot either this summer or fall, and is budgeted for about $15 million dollars, and has no relation to the Brian K. Vaughn comic or the anime series of the same name. Now you know everything everyone else does about the movie so far. Except for sex bots. Sex bots are such an interesting thing.

Then again I could be projecting this entire sex bot thing and it’s all actually just about a thriller about the meaning of what it is to be human and have consciousness. But just look at that picture and tell me you wouldn’t at least TRY to f*** that thing! I guarantee you leave any man in a room with a warm hole long enough and he’ll try to f*** it. Whether or not the movie is a spine tingling thriller or 90 minutes of a pathetic man trying to not violate an animatronic sex bot  is still technically up in the air, but when there’s an update rest assured we’ll let you know.

Preview of IT CAME!

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love old, campy B-Movies. If there’s another thing you should know about me, it’s that I particularly enjoy making fun of them. It’s the reason shows like Mystery Science Theater 3000 appealed so much to me, and the reason I can and do enjoy 90% of Hollywood’s releases these days. Zing!

Anyhow, the other thing I love is a good indie comic with a fun concept, it’s something I’ll always read any day over the infinite milieu of any X-Man or League of Justice member, or lately even any Avenger. Sure superheroes are fine and dandy, but there’s nothing quite like a well done, perfectly simple and entertaining comic miniseries. Enter Titan comics, who have managed to combine two of my favorite things into one with their upcoming book, IT CAME! Which is a title for a book so wonderful and subtlety suggestive a retailer could stock it on shelves entirely unaware of the hidden double entendre of its meaning. Or perhaps I just have a filthy mind. Regardless, the press release for it sounds great, as follows:

 

[quote] “Titan Comics is pleased to announce the launch of the brand-new creator-owned series, IT CAME! – a four-issue, 1950s B-movie style mini-series by Dan Boultwood.

Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will love this hilarious romp, a knowing throwback to the heyday of low-budget Sci-Fi cinema! Trundling through the 1950s British countryside, unthinkingly misogynistic space scientist, Dr. Boy Brett and the suitably chaperoned Doris Night pop into a quaint village pub for a cheese ploughman’s… But waiting for them outside is a most unwelcome visitor: Grurk, an indestructible, rampaging robot from outer space, on a mission to harvest the British Blitz spirit for energy!

Pursuing Grurk in their Morris Minor, will Boy and Doris be able to save the British from a life without stiff upper lippedness, or will Her Majesty’s Kingdom be forever resigned to an eternity down in the mouth?

Creator Dan Boultwood says, “IT CAME! can be summed up by calling it a 1950s comedy B-Movie pastiche from a studio that never was. Which, coincidentally, is also how I sum up my everyday life, but with less giant space robots. Only a little less, mind you.”

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome Dan into the Titan Comics fold,” says, editor, Mark McKenzie-Ray. “IT CAME! is a wonderfully witty and fabulously fanciful tribute to the greatest 1950s B-movies, with all the charm and relish of a freshly brewed cuppa. Dan’s artwork is absolutely gorgeous and so different from anything out there right now. IT CAME! represents everything our new imprint is all about.”

Dan Boultwood was a long-time collaborator with award-winning writer, Tony Lee, having worked together on the Eagle award-nominated, Hope Falls, The Baker Street Irregulars and Prince of Baghdad for weekly British children’s anthology comic, The DFC. Now, Dan Boultwood makes the leap from critically acclaimed illustrator to all-round creator in this splendidly spiffing comic series.

Quaff that hair, knot that tie and keep your notions of gender equality dialled back sixty years – for the sake of the planet!

IT CAME! #1 will hit comic stores on Aug 7, 2013. ” [/quote]

For those who have seen it, the book looks like a sister companion piece to 2001’s The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra, which was a modern movie made with the similar B-Movie pastiche as this book. If you haven’t seen The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra, I highly implore you to seek it out and watch it, as it’s probably one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. With that, this book appears like it’ll be in exactly the same vein, and easily looks exactly like the kind of movie they’d riff on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I’m looking forward to reading the first issue come April.

Naziploitation Film Reviews: The 25th Reich

So we all know the Nazi’s are bad seeds. But did you know that they are still knocking around today? Some are on the moon, some have become zombies and others have decided to become robots from the future. Either way I think its bad news for us!

Doctor Who: Series 7 – New Trailer Hit, It’s Awesome!

The BBC Website released what all of us Doctor Who fans had been waiting for. The new trailer for Series 7!

The Griz Bin – Mutant Puberty, Crazy Crossovers and Tom Selleck’s Moustache

Welcome to The Griz Bin, a weekly look at the wide world of comic related nonsense that we all know and love.

The X-Men Guide To Puberty: If you have to ask ‘how many penises is normal?’ this pamphlet is for you – [CollegeHumor]

The 6 Creepiest Comic Book Characters of All Time: Not creepy as in that weird guy is looking at you, more like this horse just fondled you and now wants cab fare – [Cracked]

Gorgeous Gwen & MJ Pin-Ups: I shouldn’t need to say anything else – [ComicsAlliance]