downthetubes News

British comic and creator news, book news, media news. If it’s news, it’s here.

Alan Grant Speaks

Judge Dredd writer Alan Grant will be presenting a lecture called Writing Tomorrow Yesterday: How Fiction Became Reality in Edinburgh on 29th January as part of the Edinburgh Lectures. Alan Grant first entered the comics industry in 1967 when he… Read More ›

Berg to remake Dune

MTV reports that The Kingdom director Peter Berg is set to direct a new big-screen version of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel Dune. Berg said that the film would have been his next project, but the US writers’ strike is preventing… Read More ›

Who ratings triumph

With the BBC dominating the ratings on Christmas Day, Doctor Who managed its best ratings since 1979 with the festive episode Voyage of the Damned, no doubt helped by the guest appearance of actress-singer Kylie Minogue, playing waitress Astrid on-board… Read More ›

My Wife Left Me…

Before the sublime Doctor Who: Blink, before the gory Jekyll, before his two consecutive Hugo awards for new Doctor Who episodes, before even the four seasons of Coupling, Steven Moffat wrote two seasons of a little gem of a sitcom… Read More ›

Infinite Accquisitions

In a marriage of SF makers, independent British television producer Impossible Pictures, makers of Prehistoric Park and Primeval for ITV has acquired the Manchester-based animation company Firestep. The acquisition expands Impossible Pictures’ operations outside of London and the company says… Read More ›

Survivors Returns

The Forbidden Planet International web site reports the BBC has confirmed that it has concluded a deal with the estate of the late Terry Nation to create a new version of the cult 70s science fiction show Survivors. Nation, well-known… Read More ›

Thor heading for the UK

Marvel’s recently-revived Thor character (now being written with aplomb by J. Michael Straczynski) may be heading to the UK – but not in the comic. The Daily Mail reports that after enjoying a successful British production on Neil Gaiman’s Stardust,… Read More ›