Coming Attractions: RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011) Teaser Trailer

I'm posting this decidedly non-70s trailer out of a sense of duty; the original Planet of the Apes films and TV spin-offs, not to mention all the merchandise, were such a big part of the Seventies sci-fi landscape, that even a modern re-imagining seems like it should be covered here. That said - I can't say I'm very impressed with the trailer....

News: DAMNATION ALLEY (1977) To Get Blu-Ray Release in July

Gotta thank Brandon Gantt again for passing along this news over on the Space: 1970 Facebook Page: Cliff MacMillian of Shout! Factory has confirmed that the post-Apocalyptic "road" movie, Damnation Alley, starring Jan-Michael Vincent and George Peppard (also known as the film that 20th Century Fox thought would be their big sci-fi blockbuster for the Summer of 1977!), will not only be getting a standard DVD release this Summer, but a high-definition Blu-Ray edition, as well.

Apparently, both editions will be released on July 12, the same day as Shout!'s Battle Beyond The Stars discs. Of course, this information is tentative, and subject to change.

Regardless of these films' relative merits, both titles have been long-anticipated by yours truly, and I'm particularly pleased to hear that Shout! Factory hasn't given up on the Blu-Ray format for their exploitation film releases. I've heard that sales haven't always met their expectations, and it looked, for a while there, that we wouldn't be seeing anymore HD editions of cult titles from the company. This makes the news of Damnation Alley's Blu-Ray edition doubly surprising, and all the more welcome.

The EMPIRE Strikes CRACKED

Here are a couple of Cracked magazine covers from 1980 featuring the great John Severin's interpretation of The Empire Strikes Back phenomenon. As I have said before, I always preferred Cracked to Mad when I was growing up, and Severin's art was the main reason.

THE BLACK HOLE (1979) Lobby Cards

Here are a set  of really cool color lobby cards from 1979's epic cinematic space opera, The Black Hole. (Currently my #1 most desired HD Blu-Ray upgrade - get on the ball, Disney!)

Click on the images for a slightly larger view.

SPACE: 1999 (1976) TV Promos

Just for fun, here are a couple of vintage Space: 1999 Year Two promos from August of 1976, originally broadcast on  WUAB-TV43, out of Cleveland, Ohio. Enjoy!

SPACE RAIDERS (1983)

I wonder if Shout! Factory has any plans to bring the 1983 Space Raiders out on DVD as part of the "Roger Corman Cult Classics" line? This sci-fi variation on Treasure Island recycles all of its special effects footage (and most of James Horner's music) from Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars and Android, but I remember it being kinda fun. Not good, of course, but kinda fun - in that low-budget, Sunday afternoon and I'm single and bored VHS rental sorta way.

As I recall - and mind you, I haven't seen the film since the mid-80s - the plot, such as it might be, revolves around an annoying little kid who falls in with a bunch of space pirates, led by the imaginatively named Captain Hawk, played by Vince Edwards (best known as Dr. Ben Casey on the 60s' TV series of the same name). Interestingly (at least to a trivia-minded Star Kid like me) one of his crew is an alien played by Thom Christopher, who played an alien named Hawk on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century a couple years earlier.

The crew of Hawk's ship (Nell, from Battle Beyond the Stars, with a new and vastly less-imaginatively designed interior) are the usual motley assortment of basically good-hearted rogues, whose criminal activities are forced upon them by the inherent inequities of the galactic economy, which is dominated by an evil corporation known only as The Company. (Looking at these stills, they sorta remind me of the cast of Firefly, actually... hmmmm...)  I remember that for what was ostensibly a "kid's film," a lot of characters died... and it was almost always because of some stupid thing the kid did.

Anyway, I'm sure it's a pretty bad movie, but it would make a good candidate for the Shout! line. Hell, I'd buy it. It was released through Corman's short-lived "Millennium" company, though, and I don't know if any of those titles are included in the film package that Shout! has the rights to.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011)

As with most modern remakes of childhood favorites, I can't say that I hold out much hope for 20th Century Fox's latest attempt to resurrect the Planet of the Apes film franchise (especially after their last dismal effort) - but the new logo that hit the web this week is interesting to me. Previously, I had only seen the forthcoming flick referred to in the press as Rise of the Apes - which seemed like an attempt to distance it somewhat from the Planet of the Apes brand (and, possibly, bad memories of the Tim Burton remake). This new logo is the first time I've seen it referred to as Rise of the Planet of the Apes - and in the classic typeface, no less!

The movie, which is due out in the U.S. in August, appears to be a re-telling of 1972's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. It's directed by Rupert Wyatt and stars James Franco and Brian Cox, with Andy Serkis providing the mo-cap performance for a CGI Caesar created by Peter Jackson's WETA.

For the record, I truly hate the Tim Burton 2001 Planet - Mark Wahlberg was appallingly bad in the lead and the script was complete and utter shit. However - I did like the production design, thought Rick Baker's apes were (with only a couple of exceptions) fantastic and loved Danny Elfman's score.

Basically, my only hope for Rise is that it doesn't suck as bad as Burton's film.

News: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) Blu-Ray & DVD Available For Pre-Order

Thanks to a head's up from Space: 1970 reader Brandon Gantt, I can report that Amazon has just made the Shout! Factory "Roger Corman's Cult Classics" Blu-Ray and DVD for Battle Beyond The Stars available for pre-order through their site.

The listing says it will be out on April 12th (this week!), but I believe they are mistaken. The last I heard, the disc is due out this Summer, probably in July.

Here are the links for the Blu-Ray and DVD editions:

Battle Beyond The Stars [Roger Corman's Cult Classics] (Blu-Ray)

Battle Beyond The Stars [Roger Corman's Cult Classics]

If it turns out that Shout! is indeed stealthily releasing the title this month, and any of you Space: 1970 Star Kids actually get your hands on it, please drop me a line. Battle Beyond The Stars is currently my most-anticipated forthcoming Blu-Ray release, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

UPDATED  4/11: Just updated this post with a large scan of the Blu-Ray packaging.

BUCK ROGERS Gold Key/Whitman Comics Cover Gallery

 

Dan Spiegle (?)

Mike Roy

 Because Gold Key Comics had published a Buck Rogers one-shot in 1964, they apparently had first dibs on the Buck Rogers In The 25th Century TV comic book. Their run began with issue #2 (picking up numbering from the 1964 first issue) and ran through at least 16 issues, the first three of which adapted the pilot film. (Subsequently re-issued as a "Treasury"-sized book, distributed by Marvel Comics!) 

This gallery is missing a  few issues - couldn't track down scans in any of the online databases for issue 8 or10. The scans I did find are courtesy of the Grand Comics Database and Comic Book DB.

Captain's bLog: 0406.11

•  Well, despite a Blogger hiccup that made about a hundred votes disappear overnight a few days ago, the second Space: 1970 Poll seems to have been a popular success. The question was: "Which 70s Saturday Morning Live-Action Sci-Fi Kid's Show Was Your Favorite?" Although it wasn't spelled out, the poll was meant only to cover series that originally aired on Saturday mornings on American television networks (ABC, NBC & CBS) during the 1970s.

There were 143 votes in total, and the Sid & Marty Krofft production Land of the Lost received 61 of them. I voted for Lost myself - of all the series on the ballot, Land of the Lost had the most well-realized sci-fi setting and strongest writing (especially during the first season). Plus, you know, dinosaurs. If not for Land of the Lost, I might have voted for Jason of Star Command. It was ridiculous, but it was action packed, and full of fantastic special effects.

Filmation Studios' Ark II came in second, with 19 votes, and the same studio's Shazam! and Jason of Star Command tied for third place. The only show on the ballot to receive no votes whatsoever was the caveman adventure Korg: 70000 B.C. (produced by notorious Star Trek & Space :1999 producer Fred Frieberger). I included comedies like Sid & Marty Krofft's The Lost Saucer and Far Out Space Nuts, because, silly as they were, both shows had some pretty neat alien costumes and sometimes, cool miniature space ships/planetscapes.

One more note about the Polls - if you read this blog through its RSS feed, you should know that the Poll is only available here on the actual site. 

•  Look for full-length posts on Planet Earth and Strange New World later this month, as I've now watched both discs from Warner Archive. Strange New World was the only one of the Warner Bros "PAX Trilogy" I hadn't seen since its original airing, and I was surprised how much of it I remembered. I'll also be reviewing the Tron Blu-Ray disc sometime in the next few days at my DVD Late Show site, so stay tuned. Look too for the long-promised Omega Man post, another "Favorite Episodes" article. No, really. They're on the way. I mean it....

•   Still looking for a good publicity photos of Jean Marie Hon from Ark II and/or Man From Atlantis, The Fantastic Journey's Katie Saylor, and Space Academy's Maggie Cooper for future Space Babes post. I'm also looking for a videotape or DVD of The Questor Tapes. Finally, if you enjoy this blog and you'd like to help support this site financially, please consider buying your vintage genre DVDs through the Amazon links on this page, or maybe making a donation via the Paypal link in the sidebar. I'm trying to save up for a new scanner so I can pillage my vast magazine and memorabilia collections for the blog.

Thanks to everyone who stops by, and especially to those who link to Space: 1970 and spread the word on Twitter and Facebook. Your support is greatly appreciated!

CYBORG Art by Vallejo

Here's Boris Vallejo's cover painting to an early 80's Del Rey printing (the one I have!) of Martin Caidin's novel Cyborg, which was the basis for the popular 1970s television series, The Six Million Dollar Man, and, thus, The Bionic Woman, as well. Caidin wrote four novels about Steve Austin: Cyborg, Operation Nuke, High Crystal and Cyborg IV.

Thanks to Jason Shepherd for the scan.

Coming Attractions: THX 1138 (1971)

George Lucas' first science fiction feature, THX 1138 from 1971. I saw this on VHS years ago, but don't remember it at all, frankly. One of these days, I'll have to watch it again....