dark matter ( film )
director roland emmerich is circling a film adaptation of blake crouch’s alternate reality sci - fi novel dark matter .
dark matter by blake crouch 342 pp. crown. $ 26. 99 .
“dark matter” has been cancelled after three seasons at syfy, variety has learned .
urltoken dark matter trailer! a trailer for a new film called dark matter has appeared online. according to it' s official synopsis, dark matter follows a chinese science student in the united states in the early 1990s. driven by ambition, yet unable to navigate academic politics, then, drama un - folds .
since nearly everything on the show is equally derivative, nothing stands out as egregiously bad or egregiously good. dark matter doesn' t matter .
we’d love your help. let us know what’s wrong with this preview of dark matter by blake crouch .
meryl streep and ye liu in
dark matter
ran on: 04 - 27 - 2008 janet yang, whose parents were born in china, is the producer of & quo; dark matter. & quo ;
sony bought the movie rights to “dark matter” in 2014. andrea giannetti is overseeing the project for the studio .
dark matter is published by macmillan (£12. 99). click here to buy it for £10. 65
we need more three - dimensional leading ladies interacting on our screens, and dark matter has them in spades .
this article explores the relationship between film and international law by reference to the feature film zero dark thirty (2012). the authors examine this film in the context of international law, while also considering related questions of genre, torture, gender and targeted killing .
yesterday evening i went to see the new film dark matter, which opened here in new york this weekend. in many ways, it’s very good, much better than i was expecting .
if only
dark matter
weren' t based on a true story. it might have been a good movie .
“dark matter” is rated r (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for language, some sex and a scene of violence .
like its crew, dark matter has the opportunity to potentially erase some of the sins of sci - fi (and syfy) series past, and become something better. whether or not it will is another matter entirely .
roland emmerich is in early negotiations with sony pictures to direct the science - fiction thriller “ dark matter, ” based on the blake crouch bestseller .
dark matter succeeds despite its derivative elements... because as the season progresses interesting back stories build on questions about nature, nurture and choice .
undeterred after the relatively disappointing commercial response to last summer’s independence day: resurgence, director roland emmerich is heading back to science fiction for his next film, dark matter (it' s not related to the tv show of the same name) .
blake crouch' s novel dark matter released to the masses in july, leaving us to wonder what' s going on with the movie adaptation that' s in development. we' re keeping a close eye out for updates on the project, and will add whatever news breaks on the dark matter movie here .
syfy space opera dark matter caught many off - guard with just how interesting its first season became. here' s why you should watch it ...
* this post originally stated that a terrorist attack in khobar depicted in the zero dark thirty occurred in 1996, six years prior to the action in the film. in fact, the film depicts an attack in khobar that happened in 2004. we regret the error .
unlike shows burdened with such labels as “much - anticipated”, dark matter arrived on syfy under the radar, its cloak engaged and its silent running protocol fully implemented .
xing' s mentor is the great professor jacob reiser (aidan quinn). he puts xing into the cosmology group, where xing quickly develops an interest in dark matter. this stuff, a hypothetical type of matter whose presence can only be inferred, not measured, is supposed to form the organizing metaphor for the film. it' s an obvious trick, and makes for tedious scenes, as xing stares up into the cosmos and tries to explain dark matter magic to a rather dim - witted girl at the coffee shop .
there are two ugly interrogation scenes in the opening minutes of zero dark thirty that haunt the rest of the experience, and that have come to haunt critical reception of the film itself .
it is easy to see the film as two movies crammed together, neither of them being very good .
review: guardians of the galaxy vol. 2 is marvel’s funniest film, and much braver than the original
wonder woman is currently warner bros. ’ best - reviewed superhero movie since 2008’s the dark knight. and if its early critical reception holds as more reviews are published and the movie hits theaters this week, the film has the chance of surpassing the dark knight altogether .
there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from actual events, but it' s a tricky business, and dark matter does no one right by sticking to the shocking conclusion .
roland emmerich is in early negotiations with sony pictures to direct the science - fiction thriller “dark matter, ” based on the blake crouch bestseller. matt tolmach is producing the movie version of “dark matter, ” which was published in july by crown publishing group. the story centers on a college physics professor in chicago with a warm family [ … ]
dark matter is madly fast - moving, made even more so by crouch’s not un - irritating habit of breaking his narrative up into single - line paragraphs. like so :
but first things first. dark matter portraits an ordinary, middle aged professor, jason dessen, having a peaceful evening with his wife and his teenage son. after his decision to m
don' t take anything for granted in the world of dark matter... .... solve the problem, and enjoy a great read full of mystery and true love .
after enduring weeks of criticism for the zack snyder - directed superhero film
batman v superman: dawn of justice ,
warner bros. is shuffling the executive ranks in charge of its key dc comic book - based film business .
when dark matter returns next year, we’ll most certainly review it here on den of geek, so we can chew over the answers to some of its many outstanding questions together. until then .
reviewed at sundance film festival, jan. 24, 2017. mpaa rating: r. running time: 104 min .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
the film does a fine job of displaying the contrasts between these tense, formalized chinese students and the faux populist american academics .
in case you wandered into this article thinking this had something to do with the syfy tv series of the same name, it does not. dark matter is a recent novel from wayward pines scribe blake crouch .
buttressed by outstanding, unpredictable performances and a beguiling mood of raw nerve collegiate ambition, matter develops erratically but intelligently .
the title of “dark matter, ” a melodrama set in academia, is both a scientific concept and a blunt metaphor. technically, it refers to a form of matter that makes up most of the universe but can’t be directly observed. applied to human affairs, it evokes the unconscious mind and the hidden, destructive forces within relationships .
this article contains mild to moderate book spoilers about blake crouch' s dark matter. we' ve put appropriate warnings throughout. (if you haven' t read it yet, you can purchase the book here. )
exclusive: roland emmerich is in early talks with sony pictures to direct an adaptation of the blake crouch bestseller dark matter. matt tolmach is producing the large - canvas project. crouch, also the author of the wayward pines trilogy, has another hot property in dark matter, which was published to critical acclaim by crown in july. the sci - fi thriller is about choices, paths not taken and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of .
according to deadline, sony pictures are in early talks with roland emmerich to have him direct a film adaptation of blake crouch’s novel dark matter – not to be confused with the current syfy series or any of the other films that have brandished that title. while crouch’s novel was only just released in july 2016, sony and producer matt tolmach have been circling an adaptation since 2014, reportedly dropping $ 1. 25 million for the preemptive rights. that is what you call industry pull! dark matter is an intriguing science - fiction exploration of fate and the radically divergent paths of a person’s life created from the simplest of choices .
poignantly and sympathetically gets inside the confused head of an asian immigrant rarely seen in film, a grad student flummoxed by american culture and academic politics .
so, how true is it? it was a mistake for those involved in the film to suggest that zero dark thirty is
journalistic ,
and to have touted their access to seal team members and cia field officers. no matter how remarkable their research and access, the film spills no state secrets. no movie can tell a story like this without aggressively condensing characters and events, fictionalizing dialogue, etc. boal' s script is just 102 pages: fewer than 10, 000 words, the length of a longish magazine article .
sony pictures got the jump on the movie rights for dark matter back in 2014, well before the book hit shelves. they picked it up based on a 150 - page manuscript, and deadline says that matt tolmach was lined up to produce it. whether or not that' s still the case is unknown. tolmach has a number of credits lined up as of summer 2016, including spider - man: homecoming and the jumanji
not - a - reboot
followup starring the rock. there' s no mention of dark matter on his imdb page right now, so it' s unclear if he' s still attached to the project. and the place - holder imdb page for dark matter is presently looking pretty bare .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
back in the real world, david harris is reporting from the big april aps meeting on the new symmetry magazine blog symmetry breaking. in a blog entry entitled dark matter discovered? he reports a rumor that the dama collaboration will report on wednesday that they have detected dark matter in the latest run of their experiment. this story just appears on slashdot, “slashdotting” whatever unfortunate web - server is running the symmetry breaking blog, so it is inaccessible for the moment [ i take that back, it just reappeared ] .
in the technical sense of the term, blake crouch’s “dark matter” is definitely a book. even the advance galley i just read (in one sitting) was printed on actual paper, with an artfully designed cover and everything. but rather like the mysterious cubelike chamber invented by the physicist jason dessen in crouch’s novel — well, let’s say by at least one version of jason and perhaps by several; indeed, perhaps by an infinite or incalculable number of jasons — “dark matter” is a portal into other dimensions of reality .
as dark matter ’s characters don’t know their names, they give each other number designations based on the order that they awoke, and with the help of an equally amnesiac android, set off in search of the true about themselves and their ship, the raza .
else the film is a few years off yet. emmerich is said to be in early talks with sony pictures about the project, that matt tolmach is producing .
it also, and unashamedly so, appears to be very much aimed at film adaptation. some scenes go so far as to read like stage setting and direction: “the lighting is soft and unthreatening, like a movie theatre moments before the film begins. there are two straight - backed wooden chairs, and on the small table a laptop, a pitcher of water, two drinking glasses, a steel carafe, and a steaming mug that fills the room with the aroma of good coffee. the walls and ceiling are made of smoked glass. ” et cetera. and indeed crouch, known for the million - plus selling wayward pines trilogy, which was adapted by fox, has already seen film rights optioned by sony pictures for dark matter, for $ 1. 25m .
update: there are now reports from the talk by tommaso dorigo and alexey petrov, and the slides are here. sounds like this experiment is definitely seeing a signal with yearly variation, but it’s controversial whether this is due to dark matter or something else much less interesting .
for roland emmerich, the story of dark matter might render this adaptation as one of his more grounded films. however, the veteran blockbuster director of classics such as 1996’s original independence day and 1994’s stargate, as well as more recent efforts such as 2013’s white house down and 2009’s 2012, will be back to his world - wrecking ways soon enough. emmerich will be getting to work on a project for universal sporting a very literal title called moonfall and is also booked for historical action film maya lord. plus, despite his sequel’s anemic earnings, a third independence day film is still not off the table .
“ batman ” isn’t a comic book anymore. christopher nolan ’s “the dark knight” is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. it creates characters we come to care about. that’s because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production. this film, and to a lesser degree “ iron man, ” redefine the possibilities of the “comic - book movie. ”
dark matter: drama. starring liu ye, meryl streep and aidan quinn. directed by chen shi - zheng. (r. 90 minutes. at bay area theaters. for complete movie listings and show times, and to buy tickets for select theaters, go to urltoken. )
the question of whether
enhanced interrogations
work is separate from whether they' re moral—a distinction kathryn bigelow' s film, but not all of its critics, understands .
screenwriter seth grahame - smith, who was set to make his directorial debut with
the flash ,
slated for 2018, left the film in april over creative differences with the studio. warner bros.' s next dc film ,
suicide squad ,
centering on a group of villains, recently underwent additional shooting ahead of its summer release date .
we' ll add updates about the development of the film if and when we hear word. in the meantime, check out the book if you haven' t already! as a fan of stories involving alternate timelines, i found dark matter to be a great read. and i wouldn' t hate it if blake crouch decided to write some kind of followup. if not a direct sequel, then maybe a spinoff. there are certainly enough directions it could go .
sony and tolmach have been high on dark matter since 2014, when it made a pre - emptive $ 1. 25 million deal for the book based on crouch’s 150 - page partial manuscript. at the time, publishing rights for north america sold to crown for more than $ 1 million .
it is stimulating to hear these ideas in a movie with an academic setting that shows genuine respect for learning. “dark matter, ” with its view of cutthroat politics and competing egos inside a university, is also laudable in its refusal to soft - pedal the viciously petty side of the academic fishbowl .
loved it! !! this book is insanity in a box! 5 stars! believe the hype! do not read many reviews! if you like sci fi or want something different and can suspend disbelief read or listen to this book! this is the audio version review! the audio narrated by actor, jon lindstrom, is as good as it gets! he was the perfect narrator for
dark matter
. this man was born to narrate books! he' s that good !
dark matter
starts out pretty simple and then very quickly it turns insane and just keeps getting cra
it' s terrifying when you consider that every thought we have, every choice we could possibly make, creates a new world. dark matter, to be blunt, is miles and miles away from the line that marks my ‘‘comfort zone. ’’ i never, or very, very seldom, read books such as this one. but the truth is, i never read a book like dark matter before. it’s a love story, it’s a thriller, it’s a science fiction book. it’s thought - provoking, gripping, action - filled. it makes you think about life and family and what
bi didn’t really hold out much hope for dark matter on first viewing. it used a simple idea, and worked around it familiar tropes mostly from western movies, but also some well - worn sci - fi notions. an early story was a version of the magnificent seven, and then there was a zombies - in - the derelict - starship plot, and in another they needed to rely on the android to take a spacewalk to fix the ship. seen all this before? these weren’t bad stories, though they didn’t really break away from the initial derivative feel that anyone coming to dark matter cold might rapidly assume .
cinema’s onscreen auteur of apocalyptic annihilation roland emmerich is keeping a steady backlog of film projects. while this past summer’s decades - in - the - making sequel independence day: resurgence proved to be a financially disappointing entry in the nostalgia driven film market, a prospective directorial gig might see him adapt the latest novel by blake crouch, author of the recently television - adapted wayward pines trilogy .
the management shuffle is the the latest sign that warner bros. is tweaking its approach to the franchise as it tries to ramp up competition with walt disney co.' s marvel studios. for example, ben affleck, who played batman in the new film and directed the oscar - winning film
argo ,
was recently revealed as an executive producer for
justice league .
already ,
dark matter
has been criticized by iowa newspapers for making xing so likable, when the actual grad student he' s based on was anything but. there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from actual events, but it' s a tricky business, and
dark matter
does no one right by sticking to the shocking conclusion. it' s a shame because the alienation of xing' s character is real enough without the violent ending, and a college campus is a great setting to examine cultural confusion. xing' s character could have gone in any number of interesting directions. total psycho isn' t one of them .
some [ information leading to bin laden ] came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well ,
he wrote .
and, importantly, whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved .
the criticism is unfair, and its reading of both the film and the actual story seems willfully mistaken. torture may be morally wrong, and it may not be the best way to obtain information from detainees, but it played a role in america' s messy, decade - long pursuit of osama bin laden, and zero dark thirty is right to portray that fact .
the burbank - based film company is giving two of its executives increased oversight of the key superhero movie franchise, which is seen as an important pillar of the time warner inc. - owned studio' s movie strategy .
“dark matter” has been cancelled after three seasons at syfy, variety has learned. the third season finale, which aired last week, will now serve as the series finale. the series centered on an intergalactic crew who awaken on a derelict spaceship with no memories of who they are or how they got there. it starred marc bendavid, melissa o’neil, [ … ]
dark matter demonstrates just what syfy can achieve with the right creative team. it’s not like stargate or battlestar galactica, and is very much evolving to become its own independent thing. if you’ve not checked out this show i recommend you do catch it, and i’d also suggest you don’t take the variable nature of the early stories as any indication of how this show plays out .
syfy is also developing a follow - up series to the c ult classic movie “tremors” with original film star kevin bacon, and have ordered a pilot for “nightflyers, ” based on the novella by george r. r. martin .
something fundamental seems to be happening in the upper realms of the comic - book movie. “spider - man ii” (2004) may have defined the high point of the traditional film based on comic - book heroes. a movie like the new “hellboy ii” allows its director free rein for his fantastical visions. but now “iron man” and even more so “the dark knight” move the genre into deeper waters. they realize, as some comic - book readers instinctively do, that these stories touch on deep fears, traumas, fantasies and hopes. and the batman legend, with its origins in film noir, is the most fruitful one for exploration .
more spoilery description: including the mentioned kidnapping introduction above, dark matter' s plot involves the multiverse, sending its lead character into alternate realities where events played out very differently. after he figures out what' s happened to him following his kidnapping, jason' s main objective is to find his way back to his original life. to say that the story gets complicated from there would be an understatement. dark matter delves just enough into the science and technology side of the story to allow the reader to understand the logic behind the multiverse. the rest is about jason getting back to his wife, and the challenges he encounters on his way. it poses a lot of interesting what - if scenarios, that add a nice layer of drama to the plot .
so dark matter is not sensible, but sensible is overrated. it is proud and joyful in its absurdity, and having a lot of fun with it too. it also might be the most helter - skelter, race - to - the - finish - line thriller you’ll read all year, with such a clever, mind - boggling final twist that sony’s adaptation could just be worth it .
blake crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. he is the author of the forthcoming novel, dark matter, for which he is writing the screenplay for sony pictures. his international - bestselling wayward pines trilogy was adapted into a television series for fox, executive produced by m. night shyamalan, that was summer 2015’s # 1 show. with chad hodge, crouch also created good behavior, the t
on rotten tomatoes, wonder woman has a 93 percent rating as of friday morning — a hugely positive number that easily surpasses batman v superman: dawn of justice ’s 28 percent, suicide squad ’s 25 percent, and man of steel ’s 55 percent. it also ranks just below christopher nolan’s the dark knight, which sits at 94 percent, and beats every film in the entire marvel cinematic universe except for the first iron man movie .
former fox executive hutch parker, who produced fox' s upcoming superhero film
x - men: apocalypse ,
sees value in both that kind of filmmaker - driven approach and what is widely seen as marvel' s producer - driven one .
the unraveling begins when liu innocently challenges reiser’s theories about dark matter and the big bang theory, foolishly imagining that reiser will be impressed by his originality of thought. reiser, offended by what he views as liu’s disloyalty and feeling his own career threatened by liu’s radical theories, angrily lectures him about waiting for his turn and being a team player. then he sets about sabotaging his protégé’s future. the consequences are dire .
it seems really logical ,
said jason e. squire, a film business professor at the university of southern california .
they are adjusting their internal reporting structure for it to be more efficient and — in the case of dc films — branded .
yet surely, the grace of a good tv show isn’t to dot every ‘i’ and cross each and every ‘t’, but to tell a good story and get the audience to emotionally invest in the characters. dark matter does that rather well, and it got better at it as the season progressed. some of the characters haven’t reached their full potential yet, and their nemesis, alex rook (wil wheaton), needs to be developed too .
“dark matter, ” directed by chen shi - zheng from a screenplay by billy shebar, is a movie of ideas that does an exemplary job of translating scientific speculation into layman’s language. the filmmaking style of mr. chen, an internationally renowned opera director (still best known for his 20 - hour “peony pavilion” at lincoln center in 1999), is considerably more formal than american audiences are accustomed to. and that formality keeps you at a distance .
johns is a respected comic book writer - turned executive, who was a key player in the success of dc television properties such as showrunner greg berlanti' s
the flash
and
arrow .
johns is also co - writing the next standalone
batman
movie with ben affleck. berg, also a film producer, is known for his role in guiding movies such as
the dark knight rises ,
argo
and
american sniper
to the big screen .
the critical reception for
batman v superman
was decidedly negative, with reviewers and fans highlighting its dark and gloomy tone and questioning snyder' s handling of the two most widely known superheros. batman v superman
grossed $ 870 million at the worldwide box - office since its march debut. yet marvel studio' s competing film
captain america: civil war
is expected to hit the $ 1 - billion box office mark this week, less than a month after its debut in theaters .
or at least into other dimensions of media. crouch’s wayward pines trilogy became the basis for a fox television series whose pilot episode was directed by m. night shyamalan, possibly because crouch’s episodic tale about a rural idaho town that is not what it appears to be was more like a shyamalan film than anything the director has made in years. “dark matter” is surely destined for a similar fate, and as you read it on paper it inhabits a state of quantum transubstantiation, or “superposition, ” to use jason dessen’s lingo. it’s a novel right now, one that barely qualifies as beach reading because you’ll gulp it down in one afternoon, or more likely one night. but the next time you look, it will have metamorphosed into some other form .
review: winner of the alfred p. sloan prize at the 2007 sundance film festival - - an award given to films featuring scientific themes - - this hypnotic, culturally pertinent drama is based on the troubling real - life story of gang lu, a promising chinese student in t… (more )
rose’s advice: relax. their ill - timed visit coincides with a big annual gathering, which brings a bunch of rich people over for a picnic — all of them white, except for a token asian and one other “brother” (lakeith stanfield), whom audiences have seen abducted in the film’s tone - setting opening scene. the armitages’ friends also seem far more accepting of chris than he would have anticipated, though their questions leave him feeling uncomfortable, and when he presses stanfield’s character for his take on the situation, the guy snaps, uttering the unheeded warning of the film’s title .
click here to watch a video review of on my booktube channel, from beginning to bookend. to describe this book would be to distract from the elements of surprise, mystery and thrilling confusion found within its pages. dark matter is best picked up with as little knowledge of the story as possible and its events explored with the same sense of vulnerable astonishment as the protagonist, jason dessen. the pacing and structure of this novel are brilliant. events unfold in evermore enticing ways, a
the film' s protagonist is a bright and adorable chinese physics grad student named liu xing, played gamely by liu ye. xing is a strong believer in the american dream, a pure soul who knows nothing of campus politics. he is ill equipped to deal with the actual terrain of academia .
as a long term star trek fan, i can recognise the value of discord. because, and i’m sure lots of people will disagree with me on this, that’s what made deep space nine really interesting. on all the other trek shows, the characters generally got on very well, pulling towards a common objective. that wasn’t always the case in ds9, and it made for a much more exciting character dynamic. after a short while, dark matter started to exhibit exactly that sort of friction .
alternative universes, alternatives realities, a better or worse or a completely deferent version of yourself, and the choices that make you “you”, are the main topics that blake crouch is attempting to elaborate in his book “dark matter”. i ought to confess that blake managed to play a severe game with my mind as i’ve got to the point considering about my sanity, after losing myself into the story, the infinite of the universe and the “what if” scenarios. all in all, it was a mind blender .
matt tolmach is producing the movie version of “ dark matter, ” which was published in july by crown publishing group. the story centers on a college physics professor in chicago with a warm family life. the teacher is knocked out by a masked abductor and wakes up in a world he doesn’t know in which his wife is not his wife, his son was never born, and he’s a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable and impossible — his theory has become a fully - realized technology for inter - dimensional transfer .
the subsequent saudi attacks occur. daniel accepts responsibility for the failure, along with his new associate, the film' s heroine maya. this is all in the first minutes of the movie. torture has been tried, and it has failed. it is maya then who then proposes something different. why not trick him ?
while we wait for updates about the movie, it seems only natural to consider the tv series alternative. it' s not just because blake crouch' s wayward pines took the tv route, earning positive reviews. dark matter seems prime to be a tv show, or at the very least, a limited series. in the book, jason visits various alternate realities, and there are others referenced that we don' t actually get to experience with him. it' s impossible to avoid sliders flashbacks when thinking about a tv show that centers on a guy taking a spin around the multiverse, just trying to get back to his own reality. but a dark matter tv show would not only have time to explore even more realities than what we saw in the book, but it could also explore other jasons' perspectives, perhaps picking a few alternate jasons (including jason - 2) to serve as supporting characters. or maybe breaking the story up to focus on a few jasons, and forcing the viewer to try to figure out which one to root for .
warner bros. has named executive vice president of development and production jon berg and dc comics chief creative officer geoff johns to lead dc films, a recently designated brand for company' s movie business, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly .
spoiler - free description: dark matter poses the question
are you happy with your life ?
as it relates to the story' s protagonist, jason desson, an ordinary physics professor who is kidnapped by a masked man, and later wakes up to find himself in a life that' s somewhat different than the one he had. in this reality, he' s no longer married, and no longer has a son, and his career as a physicist is much more successful. the mystery of his circumstances unfolds from there .
and while
batman v superman
was not a commercial failure by any means, analysts have described it as a mildly disappointing start for the franchise. the $ 250 - million film was intended to set up a series of pictures including
wonder woman ,
aquaman
and the two - part
justice league .
the fact that crouch barely pretends to answer this — the jason with a wife and kid who narrates the story is the “real” one, of course! — won’t slow you down much as you plow through “dark matter. ” but higher - order speculation about the nature of identity amid the quantum science of uncertainty is by no means new to science fiction, and i couldn’t help reflecting on the various ways genre masters less concerned with forward momentum — ursula k. le guin, neil gaiman, peter f. hamilton — have tangled with such things .
dark matter by blake crouch was a very addicting read! it was mostly a science fiction novel with a little bit of romance and some suspense to make it a most enjoyable read. all three of those components is what i really liked about this novel. i was hooked from the very first chapter! while the story started out really strong for me there were some portions of this novel that i just didn' t get and it was a little hard to follow the mechanics of it all. i think that if there was less of the scien
dark matter is a book that thrills, horrifies and asks deep philosophical questions. it begins with jason, a physics professor surrounded by his beloved wife, daniela, and his teenage son, charlie, cooking supper. he steps out to meet with a long time friend, ryan, who has been awarded a prestigious prize. on his way home, jason is abducted, after which life as he knew it shatters. i found myself seeing the book through the lens of the band, the talking heads... their album titles, song titles and
while some have interpreted the dc executive shifts as an effort to more closely emulate the marvel decision - making model, warner bros. has always maintained its commitment to a director - driven approach that resulted in christopher nolan' s blockbuster
dark knight
trilogy .
the film is divided into five chapters, each titled after a different element. the ethereal voices of the beijing angelic choir, singing a cappella chinese - language renditions of songs like “beautiful dreamer, ” become a kind of greek chorus underscoring the cross - cultural divide. excerpts from “tosca” and “madama butterfly” are incongruously used as explicit plot pointers .
sci - fi' s track record on tv is probably more miss than hit in recent years, but the potential for this novel to work as a tv show really shouldn' t be ruled out, especially if the right writer or team of writers took an interest in tackling what could be an incredibly complicated, but equally compelling tv series. just a thought. but it may all be moot, because as of now, dark matter is lined up for the movie treatment. if that changes anytime soon, we' ll be sure to let you know .
i suppose we’re both just trying to come to terms with how horrifying infinity really is. this book made me feel tiny. it was overwhelming and scary, but oh so very gripping too. dark matter is the kind of compelling
i must know wtf is going on
book that makes you forget about everything else you had to do that day. you step into this world - this absolute mind fuck of a world that will tug at both your heart strings and your brain cells - and you don' t want to come out until you know how it
i don’t mean that as disparagement, or mostly i don’t. “dark matter” is far too cheerful and indeed too earnest to feel cynical, even as crouch pilfers material from dozens of sources and mixmasters together multiple genres of popular fiction. this book is alternate - universe science fiction bolstered by a smidgen of theoretical physics. it’s a countdown thriller in which the hero must accomplish an impossible task in constrained circum­stances to save his family. under deeper cover, it might also be a fantasy novel shaped by c. s. lewis’s “chronicles of narnia” or lev grossman’s postmodern “magicians” series .
berg and johns had already been considered part of an unofficial
brain trust
for the dc comics franchise that was also said to include snyder; his producer - wife, deborah; and charles roven, producer of director christopher nolan' s
dark knight
trilogy .
these are facts. critics of these practices, and of the film, now find themselves in the curious position of arguing that torture played no role in the intelligence - gathering that led to abbottabad. this is presumably because if the opposite were true, then the hunt' s successful outcome might lead weak minds to conclude that torture has been proved effective .
dark matter follows jason dessen, an ordinary physics professor at a small chicago college who, after being mysteriously abducted, awakens in an alternate version of the present in which he never married his wife or had his son. in this version of reality, dessen focused on his groundbreaking scientific endeavors, yielding an exceptional life with great accomplishments. despite the personal accolades in this timeline, dessen’s love for his family drives him to find a way to return to the timeline he knows. however, in signature crouch manner, the layers of intrigue slowly peel, revealing a sinister conspiracy and unfathomable truths .
what on earth can i say about this book? i don’t even know how to describe it. i’m just going to say it was totally awesome! !! it' s an incredibly unique page - turner and i couldn' t put it down. this was my first read by blake crouch and dark matter was literally an action packed roller coaster ride! i was thoroughly engaged and engrossed by the story. i went into this book totally blind and had no idea of the plot. also, there were surprises along the way - - the book is unpredictable - - and i remaine
but first things first. dark matter portraits an ordinary, middle aged professor, jason dessen, having a peaceful evening with his wife and his teenage son. after his decision to meet one of his accomplished friends, who had won a prize on a scientific achievement, his life changes dramatically. during his mind - altering adventure he faces madness, danger, and choices that have to be made. but purely, he receives and realizes that “the knowledge” of our existence in the universe is both a burden and a blessing that can either improve or destroy our heathen, in so many ways, civilization .
winner of the alfred p. sloan prize at the 2007 sundance film festival - - an award given to films featuring scientific themes - - this hypnotic, culturally pertinent drama is based on the troubling real - life story of gang lu, a promising chinese student in the u. s. who, in 1991, went down in flames, taking several innocent people with him .
in the crew of lovable chinese grad students, who like to sit in the sun and drink beer and talk about girls, like most self - respecting college dudes, one man stands as a foil to xing. zhang ming, played by tsao lei, exerts great effort to assimilate. he speaks clear english even among his chinese colleagues, goes to church, dresses up in the lab and tailors his doctoral work to support the
reiser model .
the intellectual dishonesty of ming' s modest thesis proposal horrifies xing. as xing digs into his research on dark matter, ming supplants xing as reiser' s pet .
stargate sg - 1' s joseph mallozzi and paul mullie are behind syfy' s new series, debuting june 12th, based on their dark horse comic. the show follows the crew of a derelict spaceship who are awakened from stasis with no memories of who they are or how they got on board .
that is not the choice our nation made back in 2001, when this story begins. the fear that contaminated our military prisons in subsequent years became a scandal. it would be very neat to conclude that it was not only wrong, but useless. zero dark thirty doesn' t do that, nor should you .
winner of the alfred p. sloan prize at the 2007 sundance film festival - - an award given to films featuring scientific themes - - this hypnotic, culturally pertinent drama is based on the troubling real - life story of gang lu, a promising chinese student in the u. s. who, in 1991, went down in flames, taking several innocent people with him. having completed... read more
blake crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. he is the author of the forthcoming novel, dark matter, for which he is writing the screenplay for sony pictures. his international - bestselling wayward pines trilogy was adapted into a television series for fox, executive produced by m. night shyamalan, that was summer 2015’s # 1 show. with chad hodge, crouch also created good behavior, the tnt television show starring michelle dockery based on his letty dobesh novellas. he has written more than a dozen novels that have been translated into over thirty languages and his short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including ellery queen and alfred hitchcock mystery magazine. crouch lives in colorado with his family .
but quinn has fun with reiser. he' s the archetype of the good - looking, morally questionable professor, whose bright blue eyes and jocular manner - he' s constantly trying to make xing call him jake, much to the polite student' s horror - barely conceal a bitterly competitive spirit. after he takes the eager xing to a conference, and another scientist counsels xing to focus on the possibilities of dark matter, reiser' s paternal gestures become unpleasant. quinn is such an able actor that it takes only a few movements, a hand placed a little too tightly on xing' s neck, a couple of callous words at a dinner party, to establish reiser' s fear of actual talent .
“guess who’s coming to dinner” meets “the stepford wives” in “get out, ” in which a white girl brings her black boyfriend home to meet her parents, whose superficially warm welcome masks an unthinkably dark secret. blending race - savvy satire with horror to especially potent effect, this bombshell social critique from first - time director jordan peele proves positively [ … ]
the first film from famed chinese theater and opera director chen shi - zheng sets the scene of cloistered american collegiate life beautifully. the geometric lines of the buildings, the rolling grass, the dingy grad student housing, the petty dramas of students, professors and donors and the grotesque posturing at academic conferences are instantly recognizable. unfortunately, the well - honed mise - en - scene crumples as the plot follows the events of a 1991 iowa state campus tragedy .
the key performance in the movie is by the late heath ledger, as the joker. will he become the first posthumous oscar winner since peter finch? his joker draws power from the actual inspiration of the character in the silent classic “ the man who laughs ” (1928). his clown' s makeup more sloppy than before, his cackle betraying deep wounds, he seeks revenge, he claims, for the horrible punishment his father exacted on him when he was a child. in one diabolical scheme near the end of the film, he invites two ferry - loads of passengers to blow up the other before they are blown up themselves. throughout the film, he devises ingenious situations that force batman (christian bale), commissioner gordon (gary oldman) and district attorney harvey dent (aaron eckhart) to make impossible ethical decisions. by the end, the whole moral foundation of the batman legend is threatened .
meryl streep' s character, a university donor named joanna silver, provides another parental model for xing. she appears early on in the film to befriend the chinese students, taking them on field trips and offering her large house for a cocktail parties. her character often doesn' t seem necessary, but streep' s acting is superb: silver skirts the line between being a genuine friend to xing and indulging in orientalist stereotypes, making chinese culture one of her hobbies .
clearly, “get out” will play very differently to black and white audiences — and if the film doesn’t rile a significant contingent of the latter, it simply isn’t doing its job. but there’s something telling in the underlying anxiety that peele’s script exploits, from the opening scene (in which an uneasy black man walking alone in a predominately white suburb recalls the fate of trayvon martin) to the last, when the arrival of a police car suggests a near - certain turn for the worse .
in the movie the real life space physics at iowa has been transposed to cosmology at a university in utah. it remains set in the early 1990s, with protagonist liu xing recently arrived in the us from mainland china. his advisor, jacob reiser, is a cosmologist with a model called the “reiser model” which is based on cosmic strings. liu xing comes up with what he considers a breakthrough, a new model based on using superstrings to explain dark matter. this doesn’t meet with reiser’s approval, and he is failed at his dissertation defence for a bogus reason (this is one of the ways the movie sadly departs from a realistic plot or the true story). the scientific advisor for the movie was david h. weinberg, a cosmologist at ohio state, and lee smolin is thanked among many others in the credits.
dark matter is a 2007 american drama film and the first feature film by opera director chen shi-zheng , starring liu ye , aidan quinn and meryl streep . it won the alfred p. sloan prize at the 2007 sundance film festival . liu ye plays a young scientist whose rising star must confront the dark forces of politics , ego , and cultural insensitivity . the film is based on the university of iowa shooting . 
dark matter is a 2007 american drama film and the first feature film by opera director chen shi-zheng, starring liu ye, aidan quinn and meryl streep. it won the alfred p. sloan prize at the 2007 sundance film festival. liu ye plays a young scientist whose rising star must confront the dark forces of politics, ego, and cultural insensitivity. the film is based on the university of iowa shooting.
dark matter is a 2007 american drama film and the first feature film by opera director chen shi-zheng, starring liu ye, aidan quinn and meryl streep. it won the alfred p. sloan prize at the 2007 sundance film festival. liu ye plays a young scientist whose rising star must confront the dark forces of politics, ego, and cultural insensitivity. the film is based on the university of iowa shooting.