Slice of SciFi #152: Interview with Dr. Michio Kaku

In the News:

• Warner Bros. has bought up the film rights to Jeff Smith’s BONE comic. This is a fantasy comic series that follows three members of the BONE Family.
• The extremely successful French comedy action animated series “Monster Buster Club” will be brought to United States television by Walt Disney’s Toon Disney channel this fall.
• Fox 2000 has acquired movie rights to Jeff Kinney’s best-selling illustrated novel titled “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” The story chronicles the travails of wise-cracking middle school student Greg Heffley over the course of an academic year. The toon takes its cue from Heffley’s daily notes on his life.

Movie Talk:

• The dust has barely settled on this year’s Oscars, but speculation on one actor who could be up for the award next year has already begun. Actor Heath Ledger, who received an Oscar nomination for his work on Brokeback Mountain and passed away last month, gave his final performance in the upcoming The Dark Knight as the villainous Joker. Audiences have been treated to a taste of Ledger as Joker in previews, upping the excitement for what is sure to be one of this year’s biggest blockbusters. But, director Christopher Nolan told the Los Angeles Times that that’s just the tip of the iceberg for how good Ledger’s performance is.
• Andrew Cripps, President of Paramount Pictures International, has announced that Iron Man, one of the studio’s summer movies expected to be a real blockbuster and Paramount’s first movie partnership with Marvel Studios, will get its theatrical release earlier than first reported.

Special Segment: Tim takes a look at the new stage show of the WildClaw Theater production “The Great God Pan,” adapted from the Arthur Machen classic horror novel and directed by Charley Sherman for Chicago’s Athenaeum Theatre.

TV Talk:

• There may be another way to get networks to take notice of how they can put back shows they have canceled. Programs like “Journeyman,” “The Dresden Files,” “Blood Ties” and others. A non SF show called “Friday Night Lights” may hold the key to the future of programming.
• Roger Moore is bringing back fan favorite “The Saint” to television, not as the star of the vehicle, but one of its producers. An update to the 1960’s series is set to shoot in various U.S. and international locales, the actor to play Templar has been chosen and scripts are written. The only thing remaining is a network to air it.

Interview: Dr. Michio Kaku is the renowned, internationally lauded theoretical physicist and co-founder of String Field Theory. He is a popular radio host of two science broadcasts and has been featured on PBS, NASA, Discovery, TLC and The History Channel discussing and teaching physics to a worldwide audience. Born and raised in California, Dr. Kaku is a graduate of Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. He has held a lectureship at Princeton University and currently holds a joint appointment at City College of New York, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Dr. Kaku joins Mike, Summer and Brian as they discuss his new book “Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel.”

This is one of the most fascinating interviews we have ever done for Slice of SciFi and was not only informative, but Dr. Kaku was just plain fun to talk with and listen to.

Future Talk:

• Terry Gilliam has resumed filming this week on his movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus now starring Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. They have replaced Heath Ledger, who died of an accidental prescription drug overdose. After Ledger’s death it first looked like Gilliam would be faced with yet another close-out of a started film but the three superstars came to his rescue.
• Now that Neil Marshall’s Doomsday has just been released this Friday, Focus Features wants Marshall to follow-up his futuristic action-adventure film with one that will take him into the realm of the horror genre. Sacrilege, is the title of the film company’s new project and is a horror film that will take place in the Old Wild West of the United States.

Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know. Keep your comments brief, or funny, and maybe you’ll hear your message on the voicemail show!

Link: Boneville
Link: WildClaw Theater
Link: Physics of the Impossible the hardback
Link: Save Journeyman.net
Link: Save The Dresden Files
Link: Save Blood Ties
Link: Save The 4400

Promo: SFF Audio
Promo: Scott Sigler’s “Infected” in Hardback April 1
Promo: The Adventures of Indiana Jim

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Dr. Michio Kaku Book Tour Dates

Dr Kaku will be on a book tour and we have those dates and locations listed for you here:

• Tuesday, March 18: NYC Academy for Arts & Sciences
• Thursday, March 20: Washington DC — Smithsonian
• Friday, March 21: Philadelphia — Franklin Institute
• Wednesday, March 26: Seattle — Pacific Science Center
• Thursday, March 27: Los Angeles — Cal Tech
• Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29: San Francisco — Exploratorium
• Wednesday, April 30: Boston — Cambridge Science Festival / Museum of Science
• Friday, May 2: NYC Open Center
• Monday, June 2: NYC Hayden Planetarium

If you live or happen to be in any of those areas during Dr. Kaku’s book tour you really need to make it a point to stop and visit with him, pick up his book and have him sign it for you.