Portal:Speculative fiction/News/Archives/2011

Archives from "In the News" section of Portal:Speculative fiction.

2011

 * December 27: Genre fan and fanzine publisher Rusty Hevelin dies at 89.
 * December 22: Harrison Ford named to play Colonel Hyrum Graff in the upcoming film Ender's Game.
 * December 22: British actress Helen Mirren expresses interest in portraying the Doctor.
 * December 20: Young adult author James Dashner to lead multi-author collaboration for Scholastic.
 * December 16: Scottish actor Nicol Williamson, who played Merlin in the 1981 Excalibur, dies at 75.
 * December 15: The nominees for the 2012 Golden Globe Awards are announced.
 * December 14: ASIFA-Hollywood announces the nominees for the 2011 Annie Awards.
 * December 14: The nominees for the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are announced.
 * December 14: American comic book artist, editor, writer, and publisher Joe Simon dies at 98.
 * December 13: Parts of two long-thought-lost serials from Doctor Who, Galaxy 4 (1965) and The Underwater Menace (1967), are found in a private collection.
 * December 13: NASA approves the first private mission to the International Space Station.
 * December 13: American author and doctor T. J. Bass dies at 79.
 * December 13: American expatriate writer of science fiction and fantasy Russell Hoban dies at 86.
 * December 7: American comic book artist Jerry Robinson, known as the creator of The Joker, dies at 89.
 * December 7: American actor Harry Morgan, best known in for his role as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in the series M*A*S*H, dies at 96.
 * December 6: A special enhanced 75th anniversary ebook edition of The Hobbit is released by Harper Collins.
 * December 5: Artist Darrell K. Sweet, who illustrated the covers of many science fiction and fantasy book covers, dies at 77.
 * December 2: British author D. West is announced as the winner of the 2011 Rotsler Award.
 * December 1: Harlan Ellison drops his suit over alleged copyright infringement of the film In Time.
 * December 1: The copy of Action Comics 1 owned by actor Nicolas Cage is sold at auction for $2.1 million.
 * November 27: Ken Russell, English director of Altered States, dies at 84.
 * November 25: The a scene from the new film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn causes seizures in multiple people.
 * November 22: Publisher Penguin Books temporarily suspends lending of its ebooks.
 * November 22: British actor Matt Smith confirms he'll be returning for another series on Doctor Who.
 * November 21: Prolific science fiction author Anne McCaffrey, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series, dies at 85.
 * November 20: The winners of the 2011 Prix Aurora Award are announced.
 * November 19: British actor and director John Neville, known for the title role in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, dies at 86.
 * November 15: The BBC denies rumors of a Doctor Who feature film.
 * November 15: Karl Slover, best known for his role as a Munchkin in the 1939 The Wizard of Oz film, dies at 93.
 * November 14: American comic book writer and novelist Chris Claremont donates his papers and archives to Columbia University.
 * November 14: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America release their web page listing contact information for deceased authors' estates.
 * November 14: American author Cherie Priest is named winner of the 2011 Endeavour Award.
 * November 14: The short story The Pod, by Mary Mascari, is named winner of the 2011 ISFiC Writers Contest.
 * November 14: David Yates, known for directing the final four Harry Potter films, states he is working on a Doctor Who feature film for the BBC.
 * November 9: The nominees for the 2012 People's Choice Awards are announced.
 * November 8: Harlan Ellison settles his lawsuit against the creators of the film In Time.
 * November 8: Director Ridley Scott to release an eight-part miniseries on the Science Channel titled Prophets of Science Fiction.
 * November 4: A British man is convicted of killing his wife after she smashed some of his Star Wars toy collection.
 * November 3: The magazine Realms of Fantasy ceases publication for a third time.
 * November 2: American actor Leonard Stone, whose first notable role was as the father of Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, dies at 87.
 * November 2: Writers of the Future launches a new online magazine.
 * November 1: Drake Tucker of Phase2Films is named the winner of the Blow the Top of Scott Edelman's Head Off Really Cool Zombie Filmmaking Competition.
 * November 1: The British Fantasy Society is considering the possible reworking of the British Fantasy Awards.
 * October 31: Netflix and Disney/ABC reach a new deal for online streaming of television series.
 * October 31: The winners of the 2011 World Fantasy Awards are announced.
 * October 26: A release date, 15 March 2013, is set for the Ender's Game film.
 * October 25: American actor Wyatt Knight, known in the genre for roles including a guest appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation, dies at 56.
 * October 24: Tim Burton will be designing float for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
 * October 23: American children's author Florence Parry Heide dies at 92.
 * October 12: Douglas Trumbull, known for his special effects work, is named as recipient of the Georges Méliès Award.
 * October 7: Sam Stone, winner of the 2011 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, returns the award due to controversy on balloting.
 * October 5: Roland Emmerich has hired a new writer for his project adapting Asimov's Foundation series.
 * October 4: Way back in his 1999 novel Flashforward, author Robert J. Sawyer predicted two winners of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.
 * October 4: The winners of the 2011 British Fantasy Awards are announced, including the novel Demon Dance by Sam Stone.
 * September 26: Fantasy author Sara Douglass dies at 54 of ovarian cancer.
 * September 26: David Zelag Goodman, author of the screenplay for the 1976 genre film Logan's Run, dies at 81.
 * September 20: American author Connie Willis is announced as the winner of the 2011 Robert A. Heinlein Award.
 * September 19: Horror writer and editor Mark W. Worthen dies at 49.
 * September 19: The winners of the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards are announced, including seven wins for genre shows.
 * September 15: Canadian actress Frances Bay dies at 92
 * September 15: Winners of the 2011 Sunburst Awards are announced.
 * September 11: Welsh actor and model Andy Whitfield dies at 39.
 * September 10: American actor Cliff Robertson, best known recently for playing Peter Parker's gentle Uncle Ben in the Raimi Spider-Man film trilogy, dies at 88.
 * September 8: IDW Publishing begins releasing graphic novels and comics via iBooks.
 * September 7: The winners of the 2011 Seiun Awards are announced.
 * September 7: As of September 12, Nature will no longer accept article submissions from Homo sapiens.
 * September 5: American film and television director Charles S. Dubin dies at 92.
 * September 4: Editor, writer, and game designer Bill Kunkel dies at 61.
 * August 27: American actress Eve Brent, best known for her role as Jane in the 1958 film Tarzan's Fight for Life, dies at 82.
 * August 24: NASA to work with Tor authors to inspire future scientists and astronauts.
 * August 22: Disney announces two untitled Pixar films for release in 2013 and 2014.
 * August 20: Winners of the 2011 Hugo Awards are announced.
 * August 19: Welsh screenwriter and director Jimmy Sangster, known for his work for horror film producers Hammer Film Productions, dies at 83.
 * August 19: Winners of the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History are announced.
 * August 17: The Horror Writers Association will be presenting a special Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century at the 2012 World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 * August 15: Colin Harvey, a British science fiction writer and editor, dies at 50.
 * August 6: Philip J. Rahman, publisher at weird fiction specialty publishing houseFedogan & Bremer, dies at 59.
 * August 6: John Wood, a British actor known for roles in WarGames and Ladyhawke, dies at 81.
 * August 3: Bubba Smith, an American actor whose genre works include appearances in Blue Thunder and Wonder Woman, dies at 66.
 * August 3: William Sleator, an American science fiction author known for works such as The Boy Who Reversed Himself, dies at 66.
 * August 2: Richard A. Hoen, author of a 1948 letter which critiqued a future 1949 issue of Astounding, dies at 81. [referencelink]
 * August 2: A new Star Trek theme park will be built in the Kingdom of Jordan, funded substantially by King Abdullah II, who is a fan of the series.
 * August 2: American dark fantasy and paranormal romance author L.A. Banks dies at 51.
 * August 1: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 has grossed more than $1.01 billion worldwide, making it the #8 top-grossing film of all time after only 19 days in release.
 * July 30: The nominees for the 2011 World Fantasy Awards are announced.
 * July 26: Sakyo Komatsu, a Japanese science fiction writer best known for works such as Japan Sinks and Sayonara Jupiter, dies at 80.
 * July 20: The winners of the 2011 Mythopoeic Awards are announced.
 * July 20: Gollancz announces the pending release as ebooks of thousands of out-of-print science fiction works. (archived)
 * July 18: A builder in Utah has recreated the house from the Pixar film Up, and has put it up for sale.
 * July 18: Katherine MacLean is named the 2011 winner of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.
 * July 18: The winners of the 4th annual Shirley Jackson Awards are announced.
 * July 18: The winners of the 2001 Rhysling Awards for science fiction poetry are announced.
 * July 17: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 breaks all-time opening weekend box office records both domestically and internationally with a total $475.6 million in ticket sales.
 * July 14: The nominees for the 63rd Emmy Awards are announced, including genre works such as Game of Thrones (13 nominations) and The Big Bang Theory (5 nominations).
 * July 14: Charlaine Harris announces the final Sookie Stackhouse book will be volume 13 in the series.
 * July 12: Sherwood Schwartz, writer and producer of such genre TV series as It's About Time and My Favorite Martian, dies at 94.
 * July 9: The University of Kansas announces it is receiving a donation of the majority of private letters, manuscripts and other papers by author Theodore Sturgeon.
 * July 8: The winners of the Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award are announced.
 * July 7: The release date for Thor 2 is set as July 26, 2013.
 * July 7: The third edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction will be online-only and will be free.
 * July 6: The finalists for the 2011 Endeavour Award are announced.
 * July 5: The winners of the 2011 Prometheus Awards, including Sarah Hoyt for her novel Darkship Thieves, are announced.
 * June 28: Fred Steiner, an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, film historian and arranger for television, radio, and film, dies at 88.
 * June 27: The winners of the 37th annual Saturn Awards are announced.
 * June 27: The nominees for the 2011 British Fantasy Awards are announced.
 * June 23: Peter Falk, best known as the lead in Columbo, dies at 83.
 * June 23: A star will be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Walter Koenig, best known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5.
 * June 21: Pixar announces they will release an as-yet-unnamed non-sequel film on November 27, 2013.
 * June 21: The first Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards are announced.
 * June 20: The nominees are announced for the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.
 * June 20: The winners of the 2010 Bram Stoker Awards are announced, including A Dark Matter by Peter Straub.
 * June 13: Winners of the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award are announced.
 * June 12: Film producer Laura Ziskin, known in the genre for producing the 2000s Spider-Man film series, dies at 61.
 * June 11: The finalists are announced for the Campbell Memorial Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award.
 * June 8: Roy Skelton, the voice of the Daleks, Cybermen, and the Krotons, dies at 79.
 * June 6: The readers of Realms of Fantasy choose the winners of the 2010 Readers Choice Awards.
 * June 5: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse wins in five categories at the MTV Movie Awards.
 * June 3: Fantasy and horror writer and editor Alan Peter Ryan dies at 68.
 * June 3: Actor James Arness, who appeared in several genre works in addition to his most famous role as Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, dies at 88.
 * June 2: Canadian American science fiction and fantasy author Joel Rosenberg dies at 57.
 * May 31: The final nominees for the 2011 Chesley Awards are announced.
 * May 27: Jeff Conaway, best known in the genre for his role as Zack Allan on Babylon 5, dies at 60.
 * May 23: The winners of the 2010 Analog Analytical Laboratory Awards and Asmiov's Readers' Awards are announced.
 * May 21: Winners of the 2010 Nebula Awards, including Eric James Stone for Best Novelette, are announced.
 * May 21: The finalists for the 2011 Mythopoeic Awards are announced.
 * May 19: Jeffrey Catherine Jones, an American painter known for genre book cover and magazine works, dies at 67.
 * May 19: The winners of the 2010 Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest are announced.
 * May 18: Walter Jon Williams discusses how he has "pirated" his works from those illegally posting his works online.
 * May 17: The finalists for the English language Prix Aurora Awards are announced.
 * May 17: The winners of the French language Prix Aurora Boréal Awards are announced.
 * May 16: English actor Edward Hardwicke, best known for his role as Doctor Watson in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, dies at 78.
 * May 5: Dana Wynter, best known for playing the female lead in the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dies at 79.
 * May 3: Jackie Cooper, best known recently for playing Daily Planet editor Perry White in the Superman film series starring Christopher Reeve, dies at 88.
 * May 3: The nominees for the 2011 Rhysling Awards are announced.
 * April 29: Feminist author Joanna Russ, best known for her award-winning novel The Female Man, dies at 74.
 * April 29: Superman states he will renounce his American citizenship in the 900th issue of Action Comics.
 * April 28: William Campbell, best known for portraying Koloth in Star Trek: The Original Series, dies at 84.
 * April 28: Winners of the 2011 Ditmar Award, including Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts, are announced.
 * April 28: South African author Lauren Beukes wins the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Zoo City.
 * April 27: Yvette Vickers, best known for the title role in the 1958 Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, is found dead in her home. She is believed to have been dead for about a year.
 * April 25: Nominees for the Hugo Award are announced.
 * April 24: The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, by Mark Hodder, wins the 2011 Philip K. Dick Award.
 * April 24: Winners of the 2010 BSFA Award, including The Dervish House by Ian McDonald, are announced.
 * April 23: Sol Saks, a television screenwriter known best for creating Bewitched, dies at 100.
 * April 19: Elizabeth Sladen, best known for portraying Sarah Jane Smith on Doctor Who, dies at 63.
 * April 14: The Science Fiction Writers of America Estates Database requests help finding estates of deceased authors.
 * April 14: Robotics merit badge created by collaboration between NASA and the Boy Scouts of America.
 * April 14: Nominees announced for the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award.
 * April 14: Namco Bandai and Microsoft team up to create the world's largest Pac-Man game.
 * April 14: Bruce Campbell states there will be a remake of Evil Dead.
 * April 13: David Hayter chosen to pen the screenplay for the upcoming Dragonflight film adaptation.
 * April 13: Paramount Pictures purchases the film option for Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles.
 * April 8: The nominees for the 2011 Eisner Awards are announced.
 * April 7: Rise of the Apes is renamed to Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
 * April 5: The nominees for the 5th annual Scribe Award, presented by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, are announced.
 * April 4: The finalists for the 2010 Prometheus Awards are announced.
 * March 31: The Horror Writers Association announces the winners of the Specialty Press and Silver Hammer awards, and the Richard Laymon President's Award for Service.
 * March 30: The 2012 sequel (which is actually a prequel) to Pixar's Monsters, Inc. is to be titled Monsters University.
 * March 29: Shaun Tan, an Oscar-winning Australian author and illustrator, wins the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
 * March 26: Diana Wynne Jones, author of Howl's Moving Castle, the Chrestomanci series, and Dark Lord of Derkholm, dies at 76.
 * March 23: Nominees for the 2010 Aurealis Award are announced, including Grimsdon by Deborah Abela and The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett.
 * March 22: Ellen Datlow and Al Feldstein win the 2011 LIfetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association.
 * March 21: April R. Derleth, president and CEO of weird fiction publisher Arkham House, dies at 56.
 * March 21: Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, by Dubravka Ugrešić, is named winner of the 2010 Tiptree Award.
 * March 21: Peter Jackson announces that principal photography has begun on The Hobbit films.
 * March 19: Details of the costume are announced for the title character in the new 2011 Wonder Woman TV series.
 * March 17: Nancy Fulda wins the 5th Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest.
 * March 17: Nominees for the 2010 Lambda Literary Awards are announced, including Wilde Stories 2010: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction edited by Steve Berman.
 * March 17: Michael Gough, most recently best-known for his role as Alfred Pennyworth in the Tim Burton Batman films, dies at 94.
 * March 9: The Royal Mail releases eight stamps honoring eight wizarding characters from literature, including Aslan, Rincewind, and Merlin.
 * March 9: Doctor Who (series 6) set to begin airing on Saturday, April 23 in the United States.
 * March 6: The finalists for the 2001 Arthur C. Clarke Award are announced.
 * March 4: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace announced to be scheduled for a February 10, 2012 release in 3-D.
 * March 1: The final ballot for the annual Bram Stoker Awards are announced.
 * February 28: The genre winners of the 83rd Academy Awards include Toy Story 3, Inception, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wolfman.
 * February 28: The Mysterious Galaxy independent bookstore announces plans for expansion.
 * February 26: The winners of the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards are announced, with The Last Airbender taking the most awards.
 * February 25: The nominees for the 37th Saturn Awards are announced.
 * February 25: Thousands of photographs documenting science fiction fandom back to the 1920s are released.
 * February 24: Old Man's War, a novel by John Scalzi is optioned by Paramount Pictures.
 * February 24: The nominees for the 2011 Audie Awards are announced, including the Audible.com release of The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, as narrated by Graeme Malcolm.
 * February 17: Perry Moore, author, screenwriter, and producer of the first three The Chronicles of Narnia films.
 * February 14: Splatter film producer David F. Friedman, known for works such as Blood Feast and An American Werewolf in Paris, dies at 87.
 * February 13: The 2011 BAFTA Award winners, including Colleen Atwood for costume design in Alice in Wonderland, are announced.
 * February 12: Actor Kenneth Mars, known for appearances in genre works such as Young Frankenstein and The Little Mermaid (voice), dies at age 75.
 * February 5: British author Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall fantasy series, dies at age 71.
 * February 3: The preliminary ballot for the 2010 Bram Stoker Awards has been released by the Horror Writers Association.
 * February 2: A film adaptation of Ender's Game may be closer to being produced.
 * February 1: The winners are announced for the 4th annual Black Quill Awards, including works by Peter Straub, Nate Kenyon, and Gemma Files.
 * January 31: British actor Henry Cavill is selected to portray Superman in the upcoming December 2012 film.
 * January 31: The release date of the film adaptation of The Hunger Games is announced as March 23, 2012.
 * January 30: Composer John Barry, best known for his work on 14 James Bond films, dies at age 77.
 * January 29: Horror author Melissa Mia Hall dies at age 55.
 * January 27: American comedian and actor Charlie Callas, who appeared in genre works such as Amazon Women on the Moon and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, dies at age 83.
 * January 27: The filming of the upcoming The Hobbit is delayed due to Peter Jackson suffering from a perforated ulcer.
 * January 26: The issue of climate change is addressed in the new science fiction anthology, Welcome to the Greenhouse, from editor Gordon Van Gelder.
 * January 25: The genre nominees for the 2010 Academy Awards include Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, and Toy Story 3.
 * January 24: The nominees for the 2010 Golden Raspberry Award are announced, including The Last Airbender, Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and Vampires Suck.
 * January 24: NBC confirms greenlighting of reboot of the classic Wonder Woman TV series.
 * January 24: Director James Cameron announces release schedule for Avatar; the two sequels will be released at Christmas in 2014 and 2015.
 * January 21: A new Red Dwarf series is set to begin filming in late 2011.
 * January 20: The shortlist for the 2010 BSFA Award have been announced, including The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.
 * January 19: The nominees for the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award are announced, including Chill by Elizabeth Bear.
 * January 19: The nominees for the 2011 British Academy Film Awards are announced, including Inception for Best Film.
 * January 19: The winners of the 2010 Golden Globe Awards are announced, including Toy Story 3 winning Best Animated Feature Film.
 * January 15: Susannah York, the British actress who played Lara, the mother of Kal-El, in three of the Superman films, dies at age 72.
 * January 13: The Big Bang Theory TV series is set to continue until at least 2014.
 * January 13: 2|Entertain announces the DVD release schedule for classic Doctor Who series for 2011.
 * January 10: The winners of the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, and Michael L. Printz Award are announced.
 * January 5: Joe Quesada steps down, Axel Alonso steps up, as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics.
 * January 5: A large number of genre shows, including three for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, received People's Choice Awards at the 37th People's Choice Awards ceremony.
 * January 4: Dick King-Smith, author of The Sheep-Pig (the book on which the film Babe was based, dies at age 88.
 * January 3: Jill Haworth, who starred as Rose in the 1972 horror film Tower of Evil, dies at age 65.
 * January 3: Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon, has opened nominations for the Hugo Award.
 * January 3: The top nine highest-grossing films of 2010 were science fiction, fantasy, or horror films.
 * January 2: Pete Postlethwaite, winner of the 1998 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, dies at age 64.
 * January 2: Anne Francis, best known for her role as Altaira in Forbidden Planet, dies at age 80.
 * January 1: The Aeon Award opens for entries.
 * January 1: Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game, suffers a mild stroke.