QUICK BITES
House of Horrors
Here is a question: what do the books and movies, PSYCHO, DERANGED, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS all have in common?

They were all based on Ed Gein of Plainfield, Wisconsin (not Texas, though that state has had its "doozies").

What do all of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR books and movies have in common? They were all based upon the exploits of Ronald DeFeo Jr. (no relation) of Amityville, New York who, as of this writing, still lives in a federal penitentiary.

There's a lot more to this list and the point is, real world Horror often influences subsequent fiction books and movies.

This is far from a modern affectation. It's been an influence farther back than William Shakespeare. In fact, it goes as far back as any historian can trace.

But it always begins somewhere, and the next flood of inspiration might start here.

Read Madrid 'house of horrors': Man arrested over disappeared lodger amid serial killer fears.

AND

"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" Trailer Officially Released
Oh boy, it's Batman in an Ironman suit! The new BM v SM trailer is all dark und sturm und drang and when we hear Batman's voice its clear he's been smoking too much. But outside of the Zack Snyder SUCKER PUNCH stylings, the trailer is pretty much all Michael Bay explosions with INCEPTION BWAAAAAAS for the soundtrack drama.

And holy shit DC & WB, did Superman - who can fly through the heart of a star - really just land on the ground in an IRONMAN pose? Because yeah, Superman had better take a knee to absorb the shock of that 30 foot drop.

See the official trailer at CBR.

PLUS

Ryan Gosling in Negotiations to Star in 'Blade Runner' Sequel
I really don't want to read anyone crying that Ryan doesn't look like Harrison. So what? Harrison didn't look like Philip K. Dick described Rick Deckard in the story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

It's not about who looks like who, it's always about the story and if they pull it off.

Diector Ridley Scott didn't pull it off the first time which is why he kept working on BLADE RUNNER until he got it right - which took nearly 20 years.

Also, having watched DRIVE more than a few times, I believe Ryan can do this. Not that the part is guaranteed to him at this juncture. In fact, because this is a sequel, Harrison Ford will still be Deckard. We'll see why the manufactured skin job "aged" in a mimic of human evolutionary aging.

Read the full story at TheWrap.

JOSS WHEDON SAID WHAT?
Okay, first off, this site is turning into a Joss Whedon fansite as of late and damn it, I won't have it!

On the other hand, Whedon keeps making the news, so what can I do?

Joss was recently interviewed by Jonathan Bernstein at The Guardian when this exchange took place,

I offer the opinion that Marvel's current wave of success comes from the fact that it concentrates on satisfying the segment of the audience previously ignored by superhero movies: the loyal, hardcore comic-book fans. Whedon could not disagree more. "They are the last people you need to worry about. I don't really think about the fans."

Okay, so who does he play to? In the very next sentence he says,

"I think about what I want because I'm the guy who's taking the comic book he read as a kid and turning it into a movie that I want to see as much as I want people to see it."

So the key to Joss Whedon's success is contradictory? Yes, but no, but on the other hand... read The Guardian article to discover how Joss pulls off going in opposite directions at the same time in order to deliver ensemble cast superhero movies that work for comic fans as well as n00bz.

Continued at The Guardian.

Sometimes these lawsuits are legitimate and major studios have knowingly stole from a writer, thereby shaving the expense of $50,000 off their $50 million movie.

Or you know, a week of craft services. Such business acumen among the major studios is legendary, and sometimes the studios lose.

However, most of these suits are frauds.

Right now Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard are being sued for their parody, THE CABIN IN THE WOODS.

Continued at Feo Amante/ I Thought Of It First!

SAD PUPPIES TIME
I've been working on Feo Amante's Horror Thriller since the late 1990s, which is why I get paid the big bucks!

In all of that time, I've never descended into allowing the annual storms, flame wars, and other ejecta menta that swirl around fandom to enter into what was said here. I did this because these storms are all bullshit and whatever original good and just reason may have began them were lost in the garbage tornado that dumped on top of them. And if that took over the entire conversation in fandom, I said nothing, went to the Winchester for a pint, and waited for the storm to pass.

Storms pass and there is nothing more irrelevant than an old flame war.

But last week, one of my favorite authors of all time, George R.R. Martin, weighed in on the latest debacle facing the WorldCon awards, the Hugos.

A group calling themselves The Sad Puppies legitimately and legally swamped the nomination process of voting for Hugos in precisely the manner allowed, described, and encouraged.

HOWEVER - The Sad Puppies have an agenda and as such, are not the Old Guard's cup of tea.

Being the great writer that he is, I felt that GRRM would bring an order and balance to the chaos. So I posted his first two blog posts: PUPPYGATE, BLOGGING FOR ROCKETS.

CAVEAT - I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't biased in favor of George. It was my honor to write George R. R. Martin's biography for the Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror, Second Edition, published in 2002. Back then when I would proudly tell people of this accomplishment, they would say, "George who?" What do you want to bet today that George's face would damn sure be on that cover?

Then I read his further posts (at times with my hands over my face, reading between spread fingers) and realized one of my favorite authors of all time (he's been there since his great short story, SAND KINGS) is hopelessly out of touch (to be kind). Worse, he has reduced his conversational methods to amateurish verbal traps that a high school sophomore would sneer at.

The target of Martin's dulled blade is Best selling author, Larry Correia.

CAVEAT - I'm also not going to pretend that I wasn't biased in favor of Charlie Jane Anders at io9. Back in 2010 when Charlie was just another writer there (now editor!) and my bro, Kelly Parks, and I made his webseries, UNIVERSAL DEAD, Anders was one of the first to glowingly announce our effort to the world.

Reading Larry's response to George, I find myself in agreement with him. This is odd considering that Larry takes both George and one of my favorite online writers, io9's Charlie Jane Anders, to task.

I can separate the art from the artist (to a point) and am still a fan of the work of George and Charlie. But Larry doesn't play foolish games with the language and he doesn't flame people. Something that both George and Charlie unfortunately descended into.

Without further ado, author Larry Correia's very long reply to a week of GRRM at MONSTER HUNTER NATION/George R.R. Martin Responds.