Science Fiction Today

Game of Thrones and American Horror Story Golden Globe Nominations

Game Of Thrones and American Horror Story are up for Best Drama at next year’s Golden Globe Awards. They will compete against Homeland, Boardwalk Empire and Boss. Last year’s genre nominees The Walking Dead and True Blood did not get repeat nominations this year.

Peter Dinklage, who won a Supporting Actor Emmy for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister in Game Of Thrones, is again nominated for the same category.

(Source: scifinow.co.uk)

Breaking Dawn May Give You a Seizure

The final birth scene in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 is reportedly triggering seizures in some audience members.

A California man, Brandon Gephart, was reportedly rushed to the hospital after getting sick while watching Breaking Dawn‘s birth scene. The screening ended when paramedics arrived to help Gephart.

“He was convulsing, snorting, trying to breathe,” Gephart’s girlfriend Kelly Bauman told CBS Sacramento. “He scared me big time.”

A Salt Lake City man also suffered a similar seizure while watching Breaking Dawn, ABC4 reports.

“I didn’t really remember what happened after that,” he said. “I think I blacked out. According to [my wife] I was shaking and mumbling different noises.”

His wife explained further: “I was kneeling in front of him and slapping his face.” The man’s name was not given because he was afraid he would lose his job.

The birth scene features red, white and black images, which medical experts say may trigger episodes of photosensitive epilepsy.

“It’s like a light going off because it hits your brain all at once,” Dr. Michael G. Chez tells CBS Sacramento. “The trouble with theaters is that they’re so dark, the light flashing in there is more like a strobe light.”

Anne McCaffrey Passes at 85

Anne McCaffrey, author of the landmark Dragonriders of Pern series, has passed away at her home in Ireland. Author Alan Baxter first leaked the news via a tweet saying that McCaffrey suffered a stroke. Baxter later expressed regret, stating he thought the news of her death was already known. Del Rey Books/Random House have since confirmed her death via their Suvudu blog.

McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award, the first to win a Nebula Award, and the first author to make the New York Times Bestseller List with an Science Fiction title (The White Dragon).

Anne McCaffrey was 85.

(Source: tor.com)

Breaking Dawn Opens with $283.5 Million

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part One bled $283.5 million from the worldwide box office since opening on Wednesday. In North America it earned $139.5 million in North America, with another $144 million 54 overseas markets.

That makes the film the fifth best opening ever in North America, right behind The Twilight Saga: New Moon’s $142.8 (the others are Spider-Man 3 with $151.1 million, The Dark Knight with $158.4 million and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part Two with $169.2 million). The $283.5 million worldwide opening (the 10th biggest ever) beat New Moon’s worldwide total of $274.9 million to become the best opening of the franchise so far.

The rabidly loyal audiences for Twilight films tend to show up in droves for its openings, but have generally faded away quickly. Assuming this is true for Breaking Dawn it is likely it will be hugely successful (estimates place it around the $700 million mark) but it not finish in the top 10 all time list of films.

Immortals, last weeks box office champ, dropped to third with $12.3 million in North America for a two week total of $53 million. That’s a steep decline of 62%, which is fairly common for genre films. Combined with foreign markets Immortals has earned $118.8 million against is $75 million production budget.

Breaking Dawn Early Overseas Numbers Are Big

Domestically The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn is anticipated to have a massive opening considering the number pre-soldout theaters for midnight screenings still rolling out across the time zones. Internationally its already doing very well in its first markets with early screenings topping $8.9 million in select territories. (Note: All figures are in US dollars)

The film opened at number 1 in France with $3.83 million. Its the third highest opening for the year, behind “Harry Potter” and “Tintin”, and well ahead of “Transformers 3”, “Pirates of the Caribbean” or “Planet of the Apes”.

In Australia midnight screenings alone drew an amazing $1.27 million.

Breaking Dawn also landed at number one in Italy with a box office of $2.3 million.   Not all Italian regional locations had reported figures, with at least 30 screens unaccounted for as of this report.

In Belgium Breaking Dawn accounted for a staggering 63.78% of all Wednesday film business earning $786,595. The movie pushed the highly popular “Tintin 3D” out of the top spot.

Sweden posted a similar strong opening day, with a box office of $757K.

The studio (Summit) is predicating a $110-120 million opening in the US, which would place it well behind the $142.8 million raked in by 2009’s “New Moon” installment. The social media “buzz tracking” site Fizziolo.gy has estimated the film could bring in closer to $140 million based on the volume of chatter related to it on the eve of its release.

Spartacus Gets OK for Third Season

Starz popular Spartacus series got the green light for a third season before the second even airs. Spartacus: Vengeance, starring Liam McIntyre who takes over the title role from Andy Whitfield who passed away ealier this year, begins on January 27, 2012. The third season is expected to begin production in New Zealand in early 2012.

During Whitfield’s illness last year Starz ran an interim series, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, that drew an estimated 6.2 million total viewers per episode. Starz Media Managing Director Carmi Zlotnik noted that the series has attracted a global network of fans who are “thirsting for the continuation of the epic tale … We are thrilled to come to an early agreement that allows the writers and talent to get right back to work in preparing for season three.” Executive producer Rob Tapert promises that this season will offer “many surprises” for fans.

(Source: MSN)