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Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 movie Arrival has been named the best sci-fi film of the 21st century by a huge group of Hollywood directors and actors. This poll, which included over 500 industry professionals, was put together and shared by The New York Times.

They ranked Arrival as the top science fiction movie, placing it 29th on their list of the “100 Best Movies of the 21st Century.”

Arrival tells a story about the first time humans meet aliens. Amy Adams plays a linguist who is called in to communicate with strange creatures called heptapods after their huge spaceship lands on Earth. The movie is less about a typical alien invasion and more about the power of communication.

It builds up to a powerful and emotional ending that explores time and memory. The story is based on a short story by Ted Chiang, and Villeneuve’s direction makes it feel thoughtful and emotional.

Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 film Arrival has been voted the best sci-fi movie of the 21st century by a large poll of over 500 Hollywood directors and actors. The poll, compiled and published by The New York Times, ranks Arrival as the top science fiction film of the century, placing it 29th on their overall list of the “100 Best Movies of the 21st Century.”

Arrival tells the story of humanity’s first contact with mysterious aliens. The movie follows a linguist, played by Amy Adams, who is tasked with communicating with the strange, tentacled creatures called heptapods after their massive spacecraft lands on Earth.

The film focuses less on alien invasion and more on the power of communication, building to a powerful and emotional conclusion involving time and memory. It is based on a short story by Ted Chiang, and Villeneuve’s direction brings a thoughtful and moving approach to the sci-fi genre.

Metal Hurlant, the French comic book anthology from the 1970s and 80s credited with reshaping the contemporary sci-fi aesthetic and inspiring films such as “Alien,” “Tron,” “Blade Runner,” “Akira” and “The Fifth Element,” is returning on its 50th anniversary.

A new English-language quarterly edition of Metal Hurlant — first announced last year — is hitting shelves this week from publishers Humanoids, which launched the original in France in 1975. Variety can exclusively reveal several excerpts of new stories from the anthology alongside support from one of the biggest filmmakers working today.

Excerpt from ‘Respect’ by Matthew Allison

Metal Hurlant was first created by comic artists Jean Giraud (better known as Mœbius) and Philippe Druillet, together with journalist-writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and finance director Bernand Farkas. Collectively, the four were known as “Les Humanoïdes Associés (United Humanoids), which became the name of their publishing house, first launched in Paris but now based in Los Angeles.

In the early ‘00s, some Japanese publishers sensed that the emerging moe trend was no fad, but rather a new aesthetic that could appeal to the latest generation of otaku. One of those publishers was Houbunsha, whose magazine Kirara Forward featured manga cute in appearance but seinen in content, with a lasting influence on the industry from “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” to “K-On!”. Twelve years after its inception on Kirara Forward’s pages, Kenji Tsurubuchi‘s pioneering fantasy “meth-e-meth” finally gets its English translation, drawing readers into a global conspiracy backed by a remarkably rich world-building and biblical references.

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Oath magic, the technique to create and control golems, has developed into a full-fledged science up to this day. In this alternate reality, special agent Fragilo from the Welfare Committee is after some mysterious scrolls, whose knowledge could allow one to cure...

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Hulu is one of the most underrated streaming services, even though it has some of the most brilliant movies in its library. The Disney-owned streaming service is one of the most profitable streaming services as it has great indie films because it is partnered up with great independent studios as well as some of the biggest blockbusters around. So, we compiled a list of the best movies that are available on Hulu right now.

Pulp Fiction Credit – Miramax Films

Pulp Fiction is an independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The 1994 film is set in the underworld of Los Angeles, and it revolves around two mobsters, a gangster’s wife, a boxer, and two criminals as their paths intertwine in a gloriously violent fashion. Pulp Fiction stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel,...

On Thursday 17 April 2025, Sky Arts broadcasts Wonderland: Science Fiction in the Atomic Age!

Margaret Atwood To Ted Chiang Season 1 Episode 3 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Wonderland: Science Fiction in the Atomic Age,” titled “Margaret Atwood To Ted Chiang,” promises to be an intriguing exploration of space travel and its implications. This episode will air on Sky Arts and is sure to capture the attention of science fiction fans.

In this episode, the focus will be on how space travel connects to the long history of exploration and conquest. It will highlight the ways in which these themes have evolved over time, especially in the context of human life and the future. The works of renowned authors Margaret Atwood and Ted Chiang will be discussed, showcasing their unique perspectives on these important topics.

Viewers can expect a thoughtful examination of what space travel means for humanity. The episode will explore...

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This April, Paramount+ is bringing you a ton of entertainment with the much-anticipated streaming release of the historical drama film The Return and also a special featuring live performances from Elton John and Brandi Carlile. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Paramount+ this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 7 best films coming to Paramount+ in April 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Arrival (April 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – Paramount Pictures

Arrival is a sci-fi drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay by Eric Heisserer. Based on the 1998 short story titled Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, the 2016 film follows linguist Louise Banks as she is enlisted by the Army to decipher the language of and communicate...

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This April, Hulu is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the highly anticipated conclusion of The Handmaid’s Tale to the much-anticipated streaming release of Jude Law‘s The Order. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Hulu this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the seven best films that are coming to Hulu in April 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Arrival (April 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – Paramount Pictures

Arrival is a sci-fi drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay by Eric Heisserer. Based on the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, the 2016 film follows Louise Banks, a linguist, as she is enlisted by the Army to communicate with the aliens who have recently arrived on Earth.

The Nickel Boys breakout star is finding light in the darkest stories.

Acting wasn’t the first career choice for Ethan Herisse, the 24-year-old star of powerful historical drama Nickel Boys. In fact, when he was growing up in Massachusetts, he imagined a future on a court shooting hoops. “I was going to be a basketball player,” he recalls, but there was one problem. “I was not good.” When his younger sister, then participating in pageants, was approached to take part in acting workshops, Herisse tagged along and quickly discovered his real passion.

At age 11, his parents asked him if he wanted to pursue acting seriously. The answer was a no-brainer. “For them to hear that from an 11-year-old, and have enough faith in me that young to completely uproot their lives because I said that that was my dream...” he trails off in disbelief. His family moved to Los Angeles,...

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This January, Paramount+ is bringing you a ton of entertainment with the highly anticipated new film in the Star Trek universe alongside a great new series based on Sherlock by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Paramount+ this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 8 best films coming to Paramount+ in January 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Arrival (January 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – Paramount Pictures

Arrival is a sci-fi drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay by Eric Heisserer. Based on the 1998 short story titled Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, the 2016 film follows Louise Banks, a linguistic expert tasked with interpreting the language of aliens who have come to Earth in a giant spaceship.

Dune and Dune: Part Two cemented Denis Villeneuve's status as one of Hollywood's contemporary visionaries. An accomplished director of drama and suspense thrillers, he shifted gears with Arrival, an alien-invasion film about the human dilemma.

Arrival joins the Paramount+ streaming library this January. This 2016 science-fiction epic offered a glimpse of Denis Villeneuve's filmmaking vision, which was further realized by Blade Runner 2049 in 2017. As one of the creative precursors to his two-part epic Dune, Arrival also featured breathtaking establishing shots, fleshed-out characters, and a deeply intriguing plot. Arrival is based on Ted Chiang's novella "Story of Your Life", which details its protagonist's revelation of future events after deciphering coded language from an alien civilization. Critically acclaimed, Arrival earned eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also a box office hit, grossing $203 million against its $47 million budget.

Related Arrival Movie Ending, Explained

Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve,...

Amy Adams is one of the more celebrated actors of her generation. She was first nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her 2005 film Junebug. Since then, she has gone on to receive nominations for several other projects, including American Hustle and The Fighter. She vies for a potential Oscar nomination once again for her work in this year's Nightbitch, a surrealist horror comedy with a canine twist. It is a competitive year for Best Actress, but Adams has scored a Golden Globe nod already.

During her career, Adams has gotten to work with director Denis Villeneuve only once. Villeneuve is also an Oscar nominee, having received Academy Award recognition for his work directing, writing, and producing. Like Adams, Villeneuve will be eligible for awards this year for his work on a 2024 film. For him, this will be the sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two, which did well...

Half a century after the groundbreaking release of the first issue of Metal Hurlant in France, the endlessly influential comic book anthology will return to print in English in early 2025 as a quarterly publication from Humanoids, and with a Kickstarter campaign now underway as part of Humanoids' 50th anniversary celebrations, we've been provided with an exclusive excerpt that invites readers to check into Elene Usdin's “Nightmare Motel,” one of the many unique stories that will be featured in the first year of the new Metal Hurlant.

Below, you can check out our exclusive preview pages from Elene Usdin's “Nightmare Motel,” as well as cover art and the official press release with additional details. To learn more about the return of Metal Hurlant, visit:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/humanoidsinc/metal-hurlant?ref=ch8qc6

Press Release: Los Angeles, November 13, 2024 – In 1974, filmmaker, writer, mime, and poet Alejandro Jodorowsky was working in...

Arrival tells a story about alien life forces known as Heptapods taking residence in different parts of the world in dome-like objects. Floating in the sky, they make no moves to attack. In order to make contact with the aliens, the military hires Dr. Louise Banks, a notable linguistics professor, to translate their language and ask what their purpose is for being on Earth. With the help of theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly, the duo sets out to solve the complicated puzzle. Meanwhile, the entire world becomes anxious about these visitors, causing havoc and mayhem amid the confusion.

Arrival is celebrated as one of the best science fiction films in recent years. Instead of leaning into otherworldly elements, screenwriter Eric Heisserer and director Denis Villeneuve stick to the source material, "Stories of Your Life" by Ted Chiang with few deviations. Instead, Villeneuve leans into the human aspect of the story and...

Swiss director Simon Jaquemet – fresh off the world premiere of “Electric Child” at Locarno – is considering an adaptation of “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by U.S. science fiction writer Ted Chiang. His “Story of Your Life” already inspired Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival.”

“It’s very clever and complex,” Jaquemet said about the novella, published in 2010, which could serve as an inspiration for his future work. He is also thinking about a move into series, one that would take place after events shown in “Electric Child,” albeit still within the same universe.

“The story could take place after some catastrophic AI event. With series, you have more time – you can make it more complex. Some shows are even more daring than films [these days],” he stated.

In the meantime, Jaquemet is bound to provoke heated discussions with his new film, “Electric Child.” Echoing many AI-related conversations taking place at the festival, he...

Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer is to adapt the Inception-like sci-fi novel Dissolution as a movie for Sony. More within:

Eric Heisserer, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sci-fi drama Arrival, is to adapt another intelligent-sounding genre piece. Dissolution is an upcoming novel by Nicholas Binge, due to be published in 2025, and has a premise that vaguely recalls Christopher Nolan’s Inception with its mind-diving tech thriller elements.

Heisserer is to rework the novel as a feature film, having signed a deal with Sony Pictures via his own company, Chronology, according to Deadline's report.

Dissolution is due for publication by Penguin Random House next year, and has a premise that sounds like Philip K Dick without all the resentment and divorce.

Here’s a somewhat lengthy synopsis for your reading pleasure:

Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as...

Short sci-fi stories perfectly suit adaptations, providing filmmakers a foundation to build upon while injecting their own ideas. Influential writers like Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and Ted Chiang can communicate fascinating concepts in a few pages, inspiring unique sci-fi movies. The best sci-fi movies based on short stories combine bold, original premises with relatable human emotions, building on the written word.

There have been plenty of sci-fi movies based on short stories, including some of the genre's most influential classics. For whatever reason, science-fiction seems particularly suited to short story adaptations. This could be because short-form stories have always been essential to sci-fi literature, with plenty of important magazines showcasing the best work from sci-fi writers.

Filmmakers often take inspiration from sci-fi short stories. The best writers, such as Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick and Ted Chiang, can communicate fascinating original concepts in just a few pages. This gives...

Exclusive: TV writers-producers Denise Thé, Melissa Scrivner Love, and Amanda Segel have formally launched Third Rail Productions with a first-look deal at Sony Pictures Television. Under the two-year pact, the trio will develop and produce scripted series for cable and streaming, focusing on dramas with female leads.

Third Rail’s inaugural development slate includes two projects with high-profile auspices.

Understand is based on sci-fi author Ted Chiang’s short story from his award-winning collection Stories of Your Life and Others, with Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) attached to direct. The story follows a woman who gains extraordinary intelligence after doctors use an experimental drug to save her life. Her intellect grows, her moral center decays, and she becomes embroiled in a high stakes battle with another super-intelligent individual. Another short story from the same collection, Story of Your Life, was adapted into the feature Arrival.

Additionally, Thé, Scrivner Love,...

Adapted from Lui Cixin’s award-winning Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, and drawing primarily from the first novel in the series, 3 Body Problem is a mystery story that takes place on a cosmic scale. David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo’s series begins with a slew of suspicious deaths in the scientific community. When the world’s particle accelerators simultaneously begin churning out nonsensical data, an unnamed agency becomes convinced that these two events are somehow connected and sends a charmingly disheveled intelligence officer, Da Shi (Benedict Wong), to investigate.

As he sleuths into the ongoing deaths, Da uncovers a conspiracy that can be traced all the way back to the bloodiest days of China’s Cultural Revolution and to an astrophysicist named Ye Wenjie (played by Zine Tseng in her youth and then Rosalind Chao as an adult). Through flashbacks we learn that, distraught by the violence that she’d witnessed,...

Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sci-fi film "Blade Runner 2049" is a worthy follow-up to Ridley Scott's 1982 flick "Blade Runner." Both presented unique and beautifully photographed sci-fi landscapes that were unique to the genre, and gorgeous to behold. They were the kinds of sci-fi landscapes that college-aged cineastes love to use as their laptop wallpapers. Additionally, both "Blade Runners" contained a few notably punchy action setpieces nestled in between steamroller-paced scenes of sorrowful contemplation. Also, both were infused with the same flavor of navel-gazing angst that feels incredibly profound when you're 16. Villeneuve's film outstripped Scott's in that it was a full 46 minutes longer.

"Blade Runner 2049" was Villenueve's ninth feature film as a director, having established his aesthetic in Canada with films like "Polytechnique" and "Incendies," and who became an international superstar with the success of films like "Prisoners" and "Sicario." Villeneuve's films tend to feature a very particular type of hazy,...

Spoiler Alert: This interview contains spoilers from “Chapter 7: Retreat,” the finale of “A Murder at the End of the World,” now streaming on Hulu.

Like an Agatha Christie novel rebooted for the age of ChatGPT, at the end of “A Murder at the End of the World,” the AI butler did it.

The revelation that Ray (Edoardo Ballerini), the Siri-style digital assistant to billionaire Andy (Clive Owen) has been masterminding the deaths at their snowbound retreat was only one of the startling conclusions of FX’s series, which concluded Dec. 19. (All episodes are now available to stream on Hulu.) Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) came to understand the origin of the killings, carried out by Andy’s young son Zoomer (Kellan Tetlow) as part what he naively believed was a game with his digital companion. The realization was spurred in part by seeing that her late ex Bill (Harris Dickinson...

The FX series A Murder at the End of the World reached its conclusion on Dec. 19, finally revealing who’s been responsible for the series of killings at tech billionaire Andy Ronson’s (Clive Owen) remote Icelandic retreat.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Hacker-sleuth Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) discovers that it wasn’t Andy or his captive wife Lee (Brit Marling) but rather his AI assistant-creation Ray (Edoardo Ballerini) who’s sowed chaos among his guests, ordering Lee and Bill’s biological son, Zoomer (Kellan Tetlow), to kill Bill and Rohan (Javed Khan...

After directing three “Night at the Museum” movies, Shawn Levy didn’t want to be confined to directing family comedies for the rest of his career. If you’re doing something successfully, he told IndieWire, it’s easy to be “pigeonholed” by Hollywood into that one thing.

But he’s been far from limited under the banner of his own production company, 21 Laps. Levy and his company have been prolific hit-makers since it launched in 2006, and he has produced and directed everything from indie darlings (“The Spectacular Now”), ambitious Best Picture nominees (“Arrival”), studio blockbuster satires (“Free Guy“), prestige limited series (“All the Light We Cannot See”), Stephen King horror movies (“The Boogeyman”), and the biggest Netflix show ever (“Stranger Things”), all of which depart from the family-friendly event movies on which he cut his teeth.

“You need to refuse to be limited by everyone else’s assumptions,” Levy told IndieWire during a recent interview.

Prolific producer and director Shawn Levy fell in love with “All the Light We Cannot See” long before he was attached to adapt the 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anthony Doerr into a new Netflix limited series, out Thursday, November 2. “I did not read it as a filmmaker. I read it as a reader,” he said to IndieWire over Zoom. “By the time I got back from whatever holiday I was on where I read that book, the rights were already unavailable, having been snatched up by Scott Rudin and Fox Searchlight.”

The story of a blind French teenager Marie-Laure and German soldier Werner connecting via radio, providing each other salvation under the devastation of WWII, caught Levy right as he’d made the deliberate decision to take a step back from directing films, and focus on producing. “I had, at that point, directed maybe like nine movies in 11 or 12 years.

Streaming has forever changed the way we consume and experience movies and TV. One of the small joys (and anxieties) that has all but disappeared in the streaming era is channel surfing — the joy of discovering something new by chance, and also the pressure of not knowing when you might watch a certain title again.

Except, the essence of channel surfing is still there, in the way streaming platforms remove and add titles every month. The pressure of only having a certain amount of time before a title disappears forever is still there, only you have a month's notice. With October almost over, it is time for another round of movies and shows Netflix is taking off the platform and replacing with new ones. Like with everything streaming-related, there are a lot of soon-to-be-gone shows and movies. So I'm here to help break down the titles you do not want...

For 24 years, The New Yorker has leaned on the talents of actors, writers, and others from the world of Hollywood to be a part of its annual New Yorker Festival, which will be held this year Oct. 6-8.

The ongoing Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes have thrown a wrench in many plans that have traditionally relied on Hollywood talent, but the festival will go on, New Yorker editor David Remnick tells The Hollywood Reporter. And there will still be plenty of star power.

The New Yorker, of course, is not owned by a struck company, but SAG has advised its members not to promote projects from studios that have not signed interim agreements, and the Condé Nast-owned publication has had to adapt accordingly: “We faced a challenge or two,” Remnick says.

“I think a lot of the navigation is on the side of the talent, and what they...

These days Denis Villeneuve is known for his blockbuster sci-fi extravaganzas. But before the almost too-good "Blade Runner 2049" and the spiritual spectacle that was "Dune," there was "Arrival." In 2016, Villeneuve had already made a name for himself outside his native Canada with the excellent "Prisoners" in 2013 and "Sicario" in 2015. But after helming that sobering exploration of the border war, Villeneuve switched things up, taking on a big sci-fi project and proving that he could do the fantastical just as well as he could the dramatic.

Based on "Story of Your Life," Ted Chiang's award-winning short story, "Arrival" is measured, tasteful sci-fi fare, made all the better by Villenueve's arthouse approach and cinematographer Bradford Young's naturalistic frames. Amy Adams stars as linguist Louise Banks, who is tasked with communicating with newly arrived extraterrestrials, whose 12 spaceships are hovering in various locations around the world. Her efforts ultimately help the...

Paramount+ has a great lineup of movies ready for September. This month, their movie library will grow taller than Artesonraju, the Peruvian mountain Paramount has made famous in their logo. Paramount owns the rights to so many movies and shows, so it’s no surprise that they are able to add so many amazing titles to their library every month. They have so many blockbuster movies that this streaming channel is a no-brainer for anyone who likes movies of just about any genre.

In the Paramount+ September 2023 lineup of movies, we have some incredible classics. This library will have some of the best films of any decade, including Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Road to Perdition, The Last Samurai, and The Blair Witch Project. Aside from the great access to tons of sports, as well as The Longest Yard, Paramount+ will also premiere the incredible Sean Penn documentary Superpower, in which...

Denis Villeneuve's Arrival is an innovative sci-fi movie that challenges audiences to think about philosophical ideas of free will and determinism. The movie meticulously depicts the aliens' language and design, presenting a thought-provoking narrative and symbolism. The Heptapods' circular language alters humans' perception of time, suggesting a predetermined and interconnected existence between past, present, and future.

Denis Villeneuve's Arrival is a puzzle box of a movie that introduces an alien species and uses their language as a narrative device to present intriguing questions surrounding existence and the limitations of language and perception. Based on Ted Chiang's novella, Story of Your Life, Arrival begins as a typical alien invasion movie, where mysterious aircraft suddenly emerge in 12 different parts of the world. However, with what follows, the film adopts an innovative non-linear narrative to challenge audiences into thinking about philosophical ideas surrounding free will, determinism, and the coherence between the past,...

September is always a bit of an ungainly transitionary period. With the youths back in school, it feels like summer is over and done, even though it technically doesn't end until three-quarters of the way into the month. It's the same situation with films and TV shows. Save for the occasional sleeper hit, most of the titles that arrive in September are stragglers with nowhere else to go. Meanwhile, the studios start gearing up for the annual awards season by bringing their best and brightest to the ritzy international film festivals in Toronto and Venice. Of course, with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers having failed to negotiate an acceptable contract with both the striking writers' and actors' guilds at the time of writing, it's anyone's guess how this fall is even going to go right now. So, in the meantime, let's look at the new films and...

Bridgerton actress Phoebe Dynevor will star in the Kansas-set thriller Witchita Libra as a woman trying to solve a dark historic crime that tore apart her family and rural hometown.

The thriller is the second feature of writer and director Henry Dunham, and follows The Standoff at Sparrow Creek which premiered in Toronto in 2018.

The film is produced by Jay Van Hoy.

Currently in pre-production, Witchita Libra begins shooting this year. Mister Smith Entertainment will launch international sales at the EFM and UTA is handling North American rights.

The drama is set in the aftermath of a triple murder in the protagonist’s hometown in rural Kansas, which caused her to flee to Chicago and start a new life.

A decade on, she is drawn back home after her brother’s death to decode a cryptic letter he left behind, suggesting the wrong...

This post contains spoilers for both "Arrival" and the novella "Story of Your Life."

"Arrival" is a notable sci-fi film for many reasons, not just because it's what convinced Hollywood to let director Denis Villeneuve take charge of a sequel to "Blade Runner" (which was awesome) and then "Dune," which was even better. Villeneuve seems to have a knack for taking an already-impressive existing story and putting his own spin on it, and it was with "Arrival" that this talent of his became clear to everyone.

The movie is based on Ted Chiang's novella "Story of Your Life," first published in 1998. The story's around 50 pages long, and it doesn't seem particularly interested in creating any sort of dramatic, ticking-clock scenario. Aliens still visit Earth and the main character is still a linguist trying to communicate with them, but there's not much sense that these aliens might be a threat...

In Three Thousand Years of Longing, an introverted historian (as if there’s another kind) meets a genie. The historian is played by a bespectacled Tilda Swinton, affecting a North English accent, and the genie by Idris Elba—blue, shimmering, with pointy ears, and liable to disappear in a puff of smoke if the appropriate words are spoken. The director is George Miller, directing for the first time since Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015. As acts to follow go, they don’t get much harder.

What Fury Road‘s success does allow, it seems, is a free swing. And as a testament to Miller, he puts his back into it. Three Thousand Years of Longing is the most “passion project”-looking passion project to have graced us in quite some time. Freewheeling through eras and Arabic mythology with breezy, bonkers ease, it offers its scattershot secrets like a fable. The...

[Editor’s note: Do not read this story if you do not want major plot points from Netflix’s “Russian Doll” Season 2 to be spoiled.]

Natasha Lyonne’s Nadia Vulvokov has broken her seemingly endless time loop, and Netflix’s “Russian Doll” Season 2 will no longer rely on the “Groundhog Day”-esque device. That’s not to say there is no continuous storytelling device throughout the sophomore season.

This time around, Vulvokov and Alan Zaveri (Charlie Barnett) are time-traveling via the New York City Subway system, which you can pretty much get from the trailer. If that wasn’t bananas enough (and it’s probably not since we all got down with the time loop centered from Season 1), Nadia and Alan are body-swapping with their ancestors. For starters, Lyonne’s character inhabits her mom’s body in the ’80s; when said mom’s body is inhabited by the growing fetus that is Nadia. We’re not even going to get into where that plot point ends up.

From solemn explorations of humanity to nerdy humor, this month’s science fiction runs the gamut. See our picks for top new science fiction books in April 2022.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Type: Novel

Publisher: Knopf

Release date: April 5

Den of Geek says: Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven introduced a beautiful new voice. Her novels intertwine with each other, but also work as poetic science fiction stand-alones.

Publisher’s summary: Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth,...

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has published its list of the 101 greatest screenplays of the 21st century, topped by Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.” Peele won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with the script for his horror movie, which also marked his solo feature directorial debut. Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” screenplay cracked the WGA’s top five along with Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network,” and the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men.” All of these aforementioned films won screenwriting Oscars.

The remainder of the WGA’s top 10 consists of Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous,” and Christopher Nolan’s “Memento.” Anderson has three scripts in the top 101, as does Tarantino. Writers with multiple ranked scripts include Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Kaufman,...

Created by author/historian Xavier Dollo and illustrator Djibril Morissette-Phan, the graphic novel The History of Science Fiction will be released on November 23rd by Humanoids, and we've been provided with exclusive preview pages that explore the origins of Mary Shelley's groundbreaking novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

You can check out our exclusive excerpt below, and to learn more about The History of Science Fiction, visit:

https://www.humanoids.com/y_catalog/book/id/1176

This November Humanoids, the publisher of some of the world’s most iconic and groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy graphic novels, will release The History Of Science Fiction from author/historian Xavier Dollo and illustrator Djibril Morissette-Phan. For the first time in illustrated form, this comprehensive history of science fiction traces its origins and, in fascinating detail, charts its history from its beginnings as a “schlock” genre to its respected status today.

Who is...

Denis Villeneuve specializes in delivering on the seemingly impossible. Over the last 10 years, he's made his English-language debut with one of the best thrillers of the last decade (Prisoners), given us one of the most satisfying-yet-confounding final shots in recent memory (Enemy), redefined how stressful traffic jams are (Sicario), expertly baked our noodles by cutting his sci-fi teeth on adapting Ted Chiang's cerebral short story "Story of Your Life" (Arrival), and given us a delayed sequel to one of the most beloved sci-fi epics and, against all odds, made it the original's equal if not superior (Blade Runner 2049). And yet, adapting Frank Herbert's famously sprawling (some might say tortuously impenetrable) epic sci-fi novel "Dune" may be his most ambitious undertaking to date – especially when considering the space saga previously defeated Jodorowsky and made David Lynch a very unhappy camper back in 1984, denouncing it as "a total failure.

Entertainment One has hired Heyday and Legendary production veteran Jillian Share as Co-President of Production, Film. Share starts on August 2 and will work with eOne’s President of Production, Film, Zev Forman, in overseeing the division’s day-to-day activities. Both executives report to Nick Meyer, eOne’s President of Film.

EOne’s upcoming film projects include, Hasbro/eOne and Paramount’s untitled film adaptation of classic Wizards of the Coast role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, currently filming; Paramount/Hasbro’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts for June 2022, directed by Steven Caple Jr. and starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback; a modern-day feature take on the children’s book Clifford at Paramount opening in September; Ted Melfi’s The Starling at Netflix; Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou, both set for release by Focus Features; Arthur the King starring Mark Wahlberg; the horror prequel Orphan: First Kill...

Since “Shadow and Bone” premiered on Netflix on April 23, the fantasy epic series has been a fixture at or near the top of the streamer’s Top 10 lists in the U.S. and worldwide. Audiences have devoured its story of orphaned mapmaker Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), who discovers she holds the unique — and life-changing — power to summon light as powerful as the sun. Those powers separate Alina from her best friend Mal (Archie Renaux), place her under the wing of the mysterious and equally powerful General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), and provide the fantasy kingdom of Ravka with its first real chance of destroying the Shadow Fold, a massive and malevolent dark storm that has riven Ravka for centuries.

Adapted from author Leigh Bardugo’s best-selling Grisha trilogy, “Shadow and Bone” appears poised to reach the status of past Netflix series like “The Witcher,” “The Crown,” and “Stranger Things” — not just a popular hit,...

Exclusive: Liane Moriarty, the author behind HBO’s Big Little Lies and Hulu’s upcoming Nine Perfect Strangers, is set to have another of her books make it to the small screen.

Heyday Television, a joint venture between Harry Potter and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood producer David Heyman and NBCUniversal International Studios, has secured the rights to upcoming book Apples Never Fall in a highly competitive situation.

Deadline understands that Heyman won out over a number of other interested parties, unsurprising given the television business’ interest in adapting Moriarty’s stories.

The novel, which will be published worldwide on September 14 by Henry Holt in the U.S. and Penguin Michael Joseph in the UK, centers on the Delaneys, who from the outside appear to be an enviably contented family. Former tennis coaches Joy and Stan are parents to four adult children. But unfortunately, Joy disappears, and her children...

Exclusive: Coming on the heels of the success of HBO Max series The Flight Attendant, which drops its season finale this Thursday, series creator and EP Steve Yockey will be developing an hour-long drama for Heyday Television based on a short story by Ted Chiang.

Set against the backdrop of technology that grants users exact recall of their past, the series combines a kidnapping with a messy adult love story in a cautionary tale about privacy in the modern world.

The short story, The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling, published in 2013 by Subterranean Press, was a Hugo Award finalist and later became part of Chiang’s collection Exhalation. His fiction has won four Hugo, four Nebula, and six Locus awards, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Chiang has been featured in The Best American Short Stories, and his Story of Your Life was the...

The star and the writer/director of Sea Fever talk about a diverse array of influential films in a double episode.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sea Fever (2020)

Soldier (1998)

Unforgiven (1992)

Blade Runner (1982)

Gladiator (2000)

The Ice Harvest (2005)

Wonder Woman (2017)

Ordet (1955)

Ditte, Child of Man (1946)

Frances (1982)

The Accused (1988)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

My American Uncle (1980)

8 ½ (1963)

Ikiru (1952)

Heaven’s Gate (1980)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Europa (1991)

Diva (1981)

The Sacrifice (1986)

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

The Party (1968)

Westworld (1973)

The Searchers (1956)

Alien (1979)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Contagion (2011)

Idiocracy (2006)

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Mona Lisa (1986)

King Kong (1933)

Arrival (2016)

In The Cut (2003)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Mandy (2018)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Dune (1984)

Dune (2020… maybe)

Bright Star (2009)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Innerspace (1987)

American Gigolo (1980)

Thelma and Louise (1991)

Wild Things (1998)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Life of Pi (2012)

Hulk (2003)

Die Hard (1988)

The Hurt Locker (2009)

Psycho (1960)

1917 (2019)

Shane (1953)

Other Notable Items

Brendan McCarthy

David Peoples

Kurt Russell

Lars Von Trier

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Bjarne Henning-Jensen...

The world may be upside down, but the Hugo Awards are forever! The Hugos are the longest-running fan-voted awards in the genres of science fiction and fantasy, first bring presented in 1953. The awards are generally given out during the World Science Fiction Convention, which is in a different host city every year. Sadly, the 78th Worldcon, aka CoNZealand, set to take place in (you guessed it) New Zealand, will have to be virtual this year. The Hugo ceremony will therefore also take place online.

Today, CoNZealand announced the finalists for this year’s Hugos, voted on by 1,584 people, who submitted 27,033 nominations. Those who were members of last year’s Worldcon, An Irish Worldcon, and members of this year’s Worldcon, CoNZealand, were eligible to vote, however, only CoNZealand members will be able to vote on the final ballot and choose the winners. You can still purchase a Supporting Membership on...

Barack Obama has offered some top-notch Summer book recommendations over the past 10 years, and we're steadily making our way through them all. His most recent compilation features the work of Toni Morrison, as well as Ted Chiang and Haruki Murakami. But his picks from years past - including Michael Ondaatje's Warlight and Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train - are also worth a read. If you're looking to expand your book collection, we've assembled every captivating title from all of the former president's Summer reading lists!

Related: Popsugar Book Club Readers Share Their Favorite Books of the Summer, So Grab Your Beach Bag!

If you still haven't seen the 2016 Oscar-winning film Arrival, now's a great time to remedy that. Fantastically scripted by Eric Heisserer and featuring breathtaking direction from Denis Villeneuve, the heart of the story comes from Ted Chiang's source material, "Story of Your Life." 21 Laps Entertainment and FilmNation Entertainment recognized that winning combination for Arrival and struck Oscar gold because of it. Now, they're hoping for a repeat with a new feature adaptation of Ken Liu's short story, The Message. THR reports that the production companies have acquired the movie rights to "The …...

A handful of living science fiction writers have attained godlike status—N.K. Jemisin, Cixin Liu, and Ann Leckie, to name a few. But Ted Chiang is the only one who’s done it without writing a novel. In fact, he’s published far less than his neighbors on the genre’s current Mount Rushmore, usually just one short story…...

FilmNation Entertainment, the independent studio behind “Arrival” and “Room,” has promoted Ashley Fox and Brad Zimmerman to senior VPs of production.

The pair will source and develop material that can be transformed into movies and will oversee film productions on behalf of the company. They will continue to report to Ben Browning, FilmNation’s president of production, film and television. Fox previously served as VP of development and Zimmerman was VP of production and acquisitions.

“Brad and Ashley are tenacious, driven and have great taste,” Browning said in a statement. “As we are looking to increase our film output, they have proven their ability to identify distinctive films and manage productions. It is exciting to see them grow their responsibilities at FilmNation.”

Fox is currently in post-production on Dominic Cooke’s “Ironbark,” a spy thriller that stars Oscar-nominee Benedict Cumberbatch and Emmy-winner Rachel Brosnahan. Her upcoming projects include Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman,...

We're close to wrapping up the awards season with almost all the statutes & prizes handed out, only a few more left - next up are the biggest screenplay awards. The Writers Guild of America has announced the winners of the 2018 WGA Awards. Last year, the big WGA winners were Moonlight (Original), written by Barry Jenkins, and Arrival (Adapted), written by Eric Heisserer adapted from Ted Chiang's short story; plus Command and Control winning the award for Best Documentary. What have fellow writers determined to be the best scripts of 2017? The winners are Get Out (Original), written by Jordan Peele, plus Call Me By Your Name (Adapted), written by James Ivory adapted from André Aciman's novel. Brett Morgen also won the Best Documentary award for Jane. These are some of my favorite films, so this is wonderful. There were many excellent scripts last year, it's hard to choose just one.

Alec Bojalad Jan 23, 2019

Hulu's collection of science fiction films is growing each month. Here we compile the best of the best.

Editor's Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back every month to see what other excellent science fiction get added to Hulu.

Updated for February 2019.

You can see a complete list of new Hulu releases here.

Hulu gets science fiction. Science fiction is all about possibility. Will this event happen? Probably not. But could it? Maybe!

That sense of possibility and wonder imbues each and every film on this list of the best science fiction movies on Hulu. The list is relatively small as far as lists on our streaming guides go. But it's growing as the powers that be behind Hulu understand that having a healthy diet of content also means including some sci-fi roughage.

Enjoy a free month of Hulu on us,...