Where is Fan Cinema Today?

Hi! Wondering where the blog went? Why your RSS reader hasn’t updated in a week? How come the URL that you followed to the site doesn’t work? The answer to all those questions is that the blog has moved–to the same URL it has always had: www.fancinematoday.com. The site has just been redesigned and has moved to a new host; that’s causing  a few hiccups. So go visit the new site and you’ll find what you were looking for: all the latest news in fan films. While you’re there, don’t forget to re-sign up your RSS feed!

Something is Afoot for FCT‘s Second Anniversary

Monday, January 26 marks the second anniversary of Fan Cinema Today, and there’s some cool surprises planned that should hit the site that day. Tune in next week to check it out!

Podcast Picks Top Trek, Star Wars Fan Films

Fan Film Feeder is a new video podcast and accompanying blog by Donald D. Dienst (I’m sure there’s a joke to be made there about 3D, but I’m too tired to find it). The gist is simple enough: Dienst chooses a fan film he likes, makes it available as a downloadable podcast, and announces on his blog what the latest flick is, complete with a small plot synopsis.

Flicks in the Feeder so far have mostly been Star Trek fan efforts from Starship Exeter, Farragut, and James Cawley’s New Voyages/Phase II. There’s also Star Wars offerings such as Reign of the Fallen and an abridged version of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special (not a fan film, as he admits, but a fan edit all the same); Fluffy The English Vampire Slayer; The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special; Doctor Who; and others.

Star Trek Fan Film News: Hidden Frontier, More

Star Trek is a massive universe (even if it’s supposed to be our own) and the legions of fans that support it are just as huge. As a result, there’s always enough going on within Trek fandom that any given week, there’s bound to be a few fan film news stories to tell. To whit:

Steve Martin Broke Into Movies at Disneyland Thanks to Oldest Living Fan Film Filmmaker

Now how’s that for a tabloid headline? Even stranger, it happens to be true. Well, sort of.

Robbins Barstow, who at 89 is still making amateur movies, shot a fan film in 1936 when he was 16. The story of Barstow and that flick—Tarzan and the Rocky Gorge—are covered in-depth in my book, Homemade Hollywood, but that’s not the Steve Martin film in question.

Instead, let’s fast-forward 20 years to 1956, when Barstow, now married with kids, won an all-expenses-paid family vacation from Scotch tape. The resulting epic home movie, Disneyland Dream, covered the entire journey from beginning to end, complete with droll commentary and some amazing visuals of what the park looked like back when it had only been around for one year. The flick is so fascinating that it was admitted into the National Film Registry this past December—and that’s where Steve Martin comes in.

Little Indiana Jones: A Mini-Epic Fan Film

When it comes to Raiders of the Lost Ark sequels, you can find out what happened before it took place; what happened when Indy was considerably older; or what happened when he was really old. So what happened when he was only a little older—like maybe a week older? He got younger.

At least that’s the story of Little Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Magic Scrolls, the latest kid fest from Wachtell Studios. Taking liberties with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s creation, this flick finds Indy and Marion (played by adults) kidnapped by the brother of Belloq (the bad guy who melted at the end of Raiders) and forced to find magic scrolls that will resurrect the drippy bad guy. In order to get the sacred treasure, however, Indy must explore a cursed cave—anyone who enters becomes a little kid again forever—and you can see where this is going. Can Indy get the scrolls? Does he save Marion? Will he have to buy pint-sized fedoras via mail-order for eternity? Find out more, and see the movie, after the jump.

New Hunt For Gollum LOTR Fan Film Trailer, More

The release of the highly anticipated Lord of the Rings fan film The Hunt For Gollum draws ever closer. Here’s your proof: the awesome new trailer is now available online and holy smokes, this thing looks good.

Director Chris Bouchard wrote in to tell us about the trailer and said, “This is quite a big release for us as it shows a lot more of the characters and the cinematics/atmosphere of the film.” No kidding—see the trailer after the jump!

Fan Film Vamp Valerie Perez Back As Paula Peril!

Valerie Perez made waves in the fan film world a few years ago with the fan film, Tomb Raider: Tears of the Dragon, a firepower-heavy take on the legendary video game heroine, Lara Croft. That, in turn, led to her starring role in the 2007 DVD/web short, Paula Peril: Trapped in the Flames, based on the indie comic book character.

Following an aborted attempt at a Peril feature film, Peril—and Perez—have returned to the screen with the series’ latest short film, Paula Peril and the Mystery of the Crystal Falcon, the first in a planned trio of new flicks from Atlanta, GA-based Atlantis Studios, which publishes the Peril comic book series. The short also stars Marla Malcolm and Ben Lamm, and was directed by Savvy Lorestani.

Star Trek: Phase II Starts Buck Rogers Web Series

Star Trek: Phase II‘s James Cawley announced this week that he and his crew are tackling another Sci-Fi classic—Buck Rogers in the 25th Century—and it’s NOT a fan film! They’ve gotten a license from the copyright holder to create 20 40-minute web episodes, and will debut the series in the fall of 2010.

TrekMovie.com has the exclusive story (kudos to Tony on the scoop) and it’s quite a doozy. The new series will take a retro-styled stab at the character, following the original 1920s comic strip plotline where Rogers is a World War I flying ace who is flung far into the future. To achieve the show’s retro veneer, they’ll be using modern-day technologies like CGI to achieve the steampunk-styled look of the early comic.

Fan Film Podcast, Spout.Com Turn Tables on Clive

I’ve interviewed plenty of people here on Fan Cinema Today about their fan films, even more of them for my fan film book, Homemade Hollywood, and heck, I also interview folks for my day job. So it was a weird—and fun—experience to be on the other side o’ the mic for once (or twice!) when I did recently a pair of interviews about the book.

The first chat was with Kevin Kelly, one of the wags over at the illustrious movie news site, Spout.com, and the other was with the Didactic Duo, Chris Mosier and Fanboy Will, proprietors of the ever-popular FanFilmPodcast.com. Both chats were a blast to do, and man, the FFP guys really know their fan productions—heck, they even zinged me with a fan flick I’d forgotten about from my own sordid past. Meanwhile, the Q&A with Spout covers everything from Hugh Hefner’s old basement movies to why there’s no Sense & Sensibility fan films, plus it includes a few recommendations of my favorite fan movies of the moment. Give it a read—you weren’t getting anything done at work today anyway.