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Today we have two streaming tips for you. Both are family films - but definitely not films for the whole family.

The apocalyptic thriller »Leave the World Behind« is available on Netflix. The New York couple Amanda (played by Julia Roberts) and Clay Sandford (played by Ethan Hawke) spontaneously decide to take a short vacation with their two children at the coast and rent a holiday home on Long Island. As soon as they get there, some strange things start to happen. The television no longer works and the internet, telephone and navigation system fail as well. In the middle of the night, G. H. Scott and his daughter Ruth (played by Mahershala Ali and Myha'la) appear at the door. G. H. claims to be the owner of the house and demands entry, because there has been a cyber attack in New York. There is a lot of mistrust between the two families and conflicts are inevitable.

The film is well acted across the board and the characters are pleasingly multidimensional. The camera work is superb and the story is told in an exciting way. The characters’ isolation and uncertainty are almost physically tangible and as viewers we ask ourselves how we would cope with such a situation. The film certainly drags on a bit at times and the ending isn't 100 percent satisfactory - nevertheless, »Leave the World Behind« is finally a Netflix film that's worth watching.

To get you in the mood, here is the trailer:
https://youtu.be/xM4ILvKeTxs

Our second tip takes us to Paramount+, where the Danish film »Speak No Evil« can be streamed. The Danish couple Louise and Bjørn and their little daughter Agnes meet Patrick and Karin and their son Abel from the Netherlands while on vacation in Italy. Weeks after their return they receive a postcard with an invitation to Holland. At first they’re unsure whether to accept it - after all, they hardly know each other. But what could go wrong? It could turn out to be a really nice weekend. However, during the visit, personal boundaries are violated again and again. Louise and Bjørn accept it at first, civilized and in need of harmony as they are. After all, you’d want to remain polite...

The film is a slow burner that increasingly turns into a horror film. Precisely because the Danish couple's behavior is so understandable, »Speak No Evil« stays in your mind long after it’s over. It’s anything but a feel-good film, but very worth seeing - a mean little film that kicks you in the stomach.

You can check out the trailer here:
https://youtu.be/duqv4DTyoYc

Yesterday Warner Bros. released a new trailer for »Dune: Part 2«. After the first two, which were shown in May and June, this film preview also impressed us with its visual power and atmosphere and once again makes us want to see the sequel to Denis Villeneuve's desert epic from 2021. See for yourselves:
https://youtu.be/U2Qp5pL3ovA

And after the planned cinematic release at the end of 2023 was postponed, a new release date has now been confirmed for March 2024. We're really looking forward to it - what about you?

Today we are opening door no. 13 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the 13th door is: a Hordak & Imp Art Scale Statue by Iron Studios

The winner is: Bente

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

The acclaimed HBO series »True Detective« is entering its fourth round! »True Detective: Night Country« with Jodie Foster will be released in January on Sky.

After the onset of the long polar night in Ennis, Alaska, an Arctic research station’s crew disappears without a trace. Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) take on the case and try to uncover the secrets buried beneath the eternal ice. During their investigation, however, they are also confronted with their own darkness.

The trailer looks damn good and literally creates an ice-cold thriller atmosphere:
https://youtu.be/WkL7cpG2UhE 

What do you think? In any case, we are hooked and are especially looking forward to Oscar winner Jodie Foster.

Today we are opening door no. 12 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the 12th door is: a Troll statue from the Magical Creatures series by Noble Collection

The winner is: Manfred

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

A few days ago, a first teaser for the second season of »House of the Dragon« was released. We think the short teaser full of impressive images exudes a lot of »Game of Thrones« vibes. We are really looking forward to the 8 new episodes that Sky/WOW will show in the summer. Here is the video:
https://youtu.be/HQ8H5gqGA34

In this spirit: Valar Morghulis!

Today we are opening door no. 11 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the 11th door is: a Chainsaw Joe Merch Bundle consisting of a poster, a T-shirt and a chainsaw Christmas ornament

The winner is: Thomas

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

Today we are opening door no. 10 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the 10th door is: a 50 € gift coupon for the S.P.A.C.E shop

The winner is: Andreas

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

Alexandre from Iron Studios gave us an exclusive booth tour at Comic Con Experience 2023 (CCXP), which took place at the end of last week. Of course we recorded the Zoom call for you.

Alex takes us to São Paulo and shows us the most exciting new releases and the coolest exhibition pieces. Among them are various different statues for Marvel, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Disney, Lord of the Rings and MOTU. We were especially happy to learn about the new license for »Rebel Moon«, the new movie by Zack Snyder, which Alexandre already had the pleasure to see at an exclusive premiere at CCXP!  Despite some small connection and sound problems due to the mass of visitors, the booth tour captures the most interesting impressions and the convention’s ambience perfectly – the complete Comic Con Experience, so to speak 😉.

Check it out - now on YouTube!
https://youtu.be/i7pq9ALjefw

Today we are opening door no. 8 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the 8th door is: a 30 € gift coupon for the SUPERGEEK Shop

The winner is: Matthias

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

What movies do come to mind when you think of Westerns? Certainly some classics like »Stagecoach« or other films by John Ford with John Wayne in the lead role. Some may think of Sergio Leone's Italian Westerns, Sam Peckinpah's films or Quentin Tarantino's excursions into the all-American genre. But today we want to go all the way back to the beginning to »The Great Train Robbery«, which premiered 120 years ago today.

The 11-minute short film marks one of the first milestones of the still young medium. The history of cinema begins in 1895 with a film screening by the Lumière brothers in front of a paying audience. Even though there had been previous film experiments, the performance of the Lumières is the date that film historiography has agreed upon.

In the beginning, the medium itself was the sensation and it didn't really matter what was shown in the films. Whether it was workers leaving the factory or a train pulling into the station didn’t matter as long as there were moving images. But there were also some first little stories early on, like in the films by Georges Méliès or Alice Guy-Blaché. Most films were no longer than a minute or two and everything was filmed in long shot and occurred in a single take. It often looked like filmed theater.

Just a few years later, Edwin S. Porter set new standards with »The Great Train Robbery«. The film was already surprisingly long at 11 minutes. In contrast to Méliès’ theatrical films, it was shot on location and seemed surprisingly naturalistic for the time. It combines a series of scenes filmed in long shots into a story, as was common at the time, but uses two panning shots as a narrative device, incorporates an invisible stopping trick, a comic relief scene and is one of the first films to show two events taking place at the same time connected to each other in cross-cutting. And then there is the famous close-up at the end of the film in which a bandit breaks the fourth wall and shoots directly at the camera/the audience. Much of what Porter did had been done before, but it was him who brought all of these elements together and created the most successful film of the year and the nucleus of the Western.

After 120 years, the film has of course long been in the public domain and you can watch it on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/y3jrB5ANUUY

The slightly grotesque death scenes may amuse us today, but »The Great Train Robbery« already introduced stylistic devices that cinema still uses today and we find it incredibly exciting to look back at the beginning of the Western genre and the development of film language.

Today we are opening door no. 7 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the 7th door is: a KX Security Droid figure in the Holiday Edition

The winner is: Mario

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

This week we would like to tell you about two musical cinema releases.

It begins with »Maestro«, a portrait of the famous composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. In the film, director Bradley Cooper, who also plays the lead role, tells the story of the relationship between Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan. The trailers already created a real pull with virtuoso musical performances and the performances of the two main actors. The biographical work has already been shown at several film festivals and has impressed many critics there, who particularly praise the acting of Cooper and Mulligan. The film will be shown in selected cinemas starting today before being released on Netflix on December 20th.
https://youtu.be/gJP2QblqLA0

If you're looking for a lighter, more colorful story - or maybe just some Christmas feeling - you'll have to wait until tomorrow. From then on you can watch »Wonka« on the silver screen, a prequel to the story Roald Dahl told in his classic children’s book »Charlie and the Chocolate Factory«. After his travels, during which he discovered the legendary secret ingredients of his delicacies, Willy Wonka settles in London to establish his chocolate business there. But a few obstacles are put in his way by a chocolate cartel consisting of his three sworn competitors. The chocolatier is played by Timothée Chalamet, who follows in big footsteps after Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp and will also appear in some musical numbers in the film. We are excited to see whether Chalamet, like his two predecessors, will also be immortalized as a collectible.
https://youtu.be/wYmtRhKvmVE

Today we are opening door no. 6 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the sixth door is: a Lurtz statue by Weta Workshop

The winner is: Tobias

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

Today we're taking a little journey back in time to 50 years ago. We’re visiting a film that Christopher Lee called one of his favorite films he appeared in. Lee was so convinced of the project’s potential that he helped finance it and forewent a fee. Horror fans will already have realized which film we’re talking about: »The Wicker Man« from 1973!

Lee was tired of playing the same stereotypical roles for Hammer Films and was looking for a new challenge. That came with the role of Lord Summerisle in this thoroughly unusual film. Calling it a horror film is a bit misleading and may raise some false expectations, because the horror only comes at the very end. The film is actually more of a crime story and (almost) a folk musical. Friends of jump-scare horror will definitely not get their money's worth here. But what is it actually about?

The deeply religious police officer Sergeant Howie (played by Edward Woodward) follows an anonymous letter about a girl who disappeared under mysterious circumstances and ends up on a small, remote Scottish island to investigate her whereabouts. The island's residents are uncooperative, behave suspiciously and claim not to know the girl called Rowan Morrison. There is also no church on the island and the residents practice pagan fertility rituals, which the devout Christian Howie feels deeply repulsed by. He suspects a conspiracy on the part of the island's patron, Lord Summerisle, and the island's residents...

Incidentally, the female lead is played by Swedish actress Britt Ekland, who would reunite with Christopher Lee a year later in the James Bond film »The Man with the Golden Gun«. Ingrid Pitt, who became known for the Hammer film »The Vampire Lovers«, can be seen in a supporting role.

The film is an important contribution to the folk horror subgenre. The cinema magazine Cinefantastique once even described »The Wicker Man« as the »Citizen Kane« of horror films. And without it, a movie like Ari Aster's »Midsommar« would probably never have been made.

By the way, in 2006 there was an unfortunately completely failed remake with Nicolas Cage. As always, Cage gives it his all, but comes across as unintentionally funny and the film became a popular source of internet memes („Oh no, not the bees!“).

Do you know »The Wicker Man«? How do you like the movie?

Today we are opening door no. 5 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the 5th door is: a 30 € gift coupon for the SUPERGEEK Shop

The winner is: Marc

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

This last weekend brought us three new trailers that really get us excited about the two Amazon Prime series and the advertised film.

One of our current favorite series will have its 4th season in 2024. We're of course talking about »The Boys«, the slightly different, honest and wonderfully politically incorrect superhero series. We are really looking forward to seeing Butcher, the Boys including Kimiko, the head psycho Homelander and the other Supes. We are particularly excited about the new additions Firecracker and Sister Sage. And let's see what devilry Vought International has in store for us!
https://youtu.be/F9U-yoJbgWs

Adaptations of videogames aren't necessarily just utter rubbish: »The Last of Us« series showed us at the beginning of the year that things can be totally different. The promising trailer to the upcoming series »Fallout« gives us hope that this new development can be continued. The trailer contains everything that we enjoy about »Fallout«: The large wasteland, post-apocalyptic humor and strange creatures. We are looking forward to this one!
https://youtu.be/0kQ8i2FpRDk

»Mad Max: Fury Road« from 2015 was a successful reboot of the »Mad Max« series with Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky and Charlize Theron as Furiosa. As a prequel, the film »Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga« tells us the backstory of Furiosa, who is played by Anya Taylor-Joy this time. The trailer looks bombastic and shows everything we love about George Miller's dystopian »Mad Max« world. We are also very excited to see character actress Taylor-Joy in a more physical performance.
https://youtu.be/XJMuhwVlca4

Unfortunately, the expected theatrical release is not until December 23, 2024. But »The Boys« and »Fallout« will certainly shorten our waiting time.

Today we are opening door no. 4 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the fourth door is: a bundle consisting of a Harley Quinn MiniCo. figure by Iron Studios and a 25 € gift coupon for our shop

The winner is: Christian

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.

Today we are opening door no. 3 of the S.P.A.C.E Advent calendar 🎅🎁!

Behind the third door is: a 50 € coupon code for the S.P.A.C.E shop

The winner is: Miriam

Congratulations 🥳! We will contact you via email.