So, are you wondering why I’m so quiet? I’ve been busy, honestly, and here’s a round up of some of the stuff I’ve been doing.

Mundus Novit: Dark Horizons is serial fiction based in the Mundus Novit setting. We’re up to episode six, with episode seven coming this Thursday (September 3). It’s projected to run 20 episodes, so that’s a short novel in length. Check it out and let me know what you think (comments are open on all episodes)

The Accidental Survivors are still recording, but its Collateral that’s keeping me busy. That is a weekly, 20 minute podcast which, right now, is in the middle of a series on military campaigns in RPGs.

I’ve got the first product basically finished for a projected new line for Sword’s Edge Publishing called the Osiris Files: Operation Nearscape. It’s going to be free, but there’s also a sneak peek available for those interested in seeing it before it goes live.

Sword’s Edge doesn’t do huge volumes, but I’m constantly looking for news to include there.

I have two short stories that I am actively working on. Right now, that means trying to beat them into submission. The stories are done, but the endings aren’t satisfactory, so I’m trying fix them.

Family and life in general takes up the vast majority of my time, especially with a toddler and an infant. I am on parental leave—since my wife doesn’t work, I get the full 37 weeks available to a father in Canada, but I wouldn’t be able to afford doing it if my work didn’t top up the Employment Insurance payments—but I go back to work in October. Oddly enough, I will probably get more writing time when I am back at work because I can work through breaks and lunch, and there’s always down time between big projects.

So, I’m around. Keep watching, keep listening, and let me know how I’m doing.

Collider is telling me that there’s going to be an Eagle of the Ninth movie.

I’m kind of torn. It’s Roman, so that’s cool. It’s in Scotland, so that’s cool. I wasn’t a huge fan of the novel, though. Not that it was terrible, just that I actually wasn’t really gripped by it.

This is one case where a screenwriter might be able to provide me with a better experience than the book. Kind of like Michael Mann’s the Last of the Mohicans. Yes, I am not a James Fenimore Cooper fan.

I’ll be interested to see more as this develops. Then again, can it possible rival Neil Marshall’s Centurion? They lose the eagle, and Channing Tatum finds it. But is he wearing an accelerator suit?

Slashfilm is telling the world that Ian McKellan knows who will be the Hobbit in the Hobbit.

It’s awesome that McKellan will return to reprise the role he played so well in the Lord of the Rings movies. Filming is going to start in March of next year, but when—oh when—will we see the first movie?

There have been some names tossed around, but none that excite me personally. It’s an honest shame that Ian Holm couldn’t play the role. The man is awesome. I’ve seen him in a lot of stuff since then, and he never fails to deliver.

Whomever ends up at Bag End has a huge lack of boots to fill.

Collider is running a story that Christopher Nolan is off the Prisoner movie. That’s a shame. If there is one director out there that could do justice to the Prisoner, it’s Nolan. Still, I have my doubts about resurrecting the franchise. I picked up the comic mini-series and, while it was pretty good, was disappointed.

I honestly think the Prisoner should be left alone. It was a vanity project—and I use the term with utmost respect—of Patrick McGoohan. It rocked hard, but it still existed because McGoohan used his considerable cachet at the time to get it made. And I honestly don’t know if we can find someone as invested to run it again.

There will still be a TV series with Ian McKellan (yay!) and James Caviezel (meh). I have serious, serious doubts, but will check it out. Heck, if I can survive an episode of the new Flash Gordon, I can pretty much survive anything.

Yeah. Wow, that’s a stupid title. It’s early and I’ve only just embarked on my first coffee.

Count me as one of the people excited about the upcoming Solomon Kane movie. I’m a fan of the stories, and I’ve liked James Purefoy since seeing him in A Knight’s Tale. His Mark Anthony was superb. I’ve tried to keep my expectations low so as not to be disappointed.

Now Bloody Disgusting has revealed a few photos from the movie. I have to say: cool. Of course, cool photos and trailers can often be used to disguise a piece of crap. I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see.

Michael J Basset, don’t let us down.

Do I need to come to your house and personally add Collateral to your podcatcher, then threaten your cup of coffee until you agree to listen?

Don’t make me harm this innocent coffee! I’ve drank plenty of coffees, and I’m not above doing it again!

The most recent Collateral is called First Citizen and is about running a military RPG campaign in the Roman Empire.

The shocuments are thus:

Collateral is a production of the Accidental Survivors. Look for more at the Accidental Survivors website.

The title music was Oxygenated by Mindscape Music.

Collateral 15 – First Citizen

This episode is the seventh of a series looking at military campaigns and inspiration for role-playing games.

Rome – The Principate
The Roman Army At War by Adrian Keith Goldsworthy
Exploratio: Military And Political Intelligence in the Roman World by
The Roman Army by Pat Southern
A History of Rome by Michael Grant
The Enemy Within: A History of Espionage by Terry Crowdy
The History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan
Rome and the Barbarians audio lectures by Kenneth Harl (thanks David!)

Feedback
If you want to contact us, you can email us ataccidental@swordsedgepublishing.ca

If you’re signed up on Facebook you can join the Accidental Survivors Podcast group and leave comments for us there.

You can hop on over to our message forums at www.accidentalsurvivors.com.

You can find Fraser on Twitter.

Coming Soon made my day. Head on over there for shots from the filming of the Losers. The photos have got Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Clay) and Idris Elba (Roque) and are likely early in the story. I won’t say more—read the comic.

While perusing the articles on Twitch, I discovered an upcoming action release called the Tournament. The elevator pitch? (My new favourite term, by the way) A priest is accidently caught up in a tournament of assassins in which the winner is the last one left alive.

Sweet.

It also stars Robert Carlyle, Kelly Hu and Ving Rhames. Wow. That’s quite a cast. This, of course, doesn’t mean guaranteed quality, but it certainly means a viewing for me once this is released on DVD.

Why wait for DVD? Well, my youngest is too young for a babysitter right now. So, for me, the big screen is a rare, rare event.

In any case, check out the trailer at Youtube, and check out more info at Wikipedia.

Now, I was not terribly impressed with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (yes, I did finally break down and see it). Everything seemed kind of acceptable but nothing really shone. It just didn’t excite. Nothing made me sit up and notice.

I think a lot of it had to do with the script, because I think everyone in the movie brought what they could and delivered. The action scenes were certainly not inspiring, and I don’t think Gavin Hood is necessarily the go-to-guy for action.

But things might be different for the next movie (Wolvie made money, so of course there’s a sequel). The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Christopher McQuarrie (the Usual Suspects and Way of the Gun) has signed to write the script of “Wolverine 2,” and that it will likely be based on the Chris Claremont/Frank Miller Wolverine miniseries. These are all good things. They give me hope. Not much hope, mind you, but some.

I can just see it now, McQuarrie delivers a great script, but focus groups lead executives to decide to get rewrites from a bunch of hacks and suddenly the movie has 18 writing credits and sucks total goat ass.

And that’s me being optomistic.

Or maybe it is?

Not only has Universal confirmed a Battlestar Galactica movie, they’ve confirmed it’ll be directed by Bryan Singer.

Wow. Just wow.

Here’s the thing, Glen Larson is on board and it looks like this is going to be hearkening back to the 1978 movie and TV series. Which, really, is the only thing one could do with a BSG movie, since the new series is now self-contained.

And this is not necessarily a bad thing. Something somewhere between the cornball beauty of the ‘78 series and the harsh grit of the new one could be quite good.

Guilty admission: in my last year of university, while flexing my writing muscles, I started to pen a BSG script (this was well before the new series). It followed the old movie/pilot plot, but attempted to inject more military structure and some gritty realism in the character relationships. Attempted, don’t know if it ever could have succeeded.

That admission might reveal why I would be interested in a new movie. It might be something more akin to what I had envisioned myself. Then again, since the series took off, they might decide to get even further away from the source material.

Here’s a crazy idea: use the cast from the series in this new movie. Why waste such an awesome pool of talent? And if their characters don’t exist in the new movie (like President Roslin), find something for the actor. I know it won’t happen, but I think it would be cool.

I doubt anyone else would agree.

I am an island.