Across the Universe but Close to Heart
How is it possible that a story about aliens coming to Earth can showcase our own humanity? Well, Human Nature is unchanging, after all, and it is tightly wound around the concept of a linear ticking clock: one step proceeds the other, every cause has an effect, our lives progress always forward. But what if our consciousness had the capacity to view time not as linear, but circular? What would happen to our free will if we could know both the future and the past? Would we be unable, or even, unwilling to change the future, if we knew beforehand? Those are the ambitious, mind-altering questions posed by Arrival. You’d think then, that the story must have certainly been based on a thick tome written by a scholar of philosophy! But actually, it was all based… on a short story.
Across the (Cherry-Tree) Lane
Like an A-list actor, some stories just have the “it” factor—something about them makes them easily adaptable into just about any medium, and Mary Poppins has crossed them all off her “practically perfect” list: books, stage plays, radio programs and both television & feature films! That’s not even mentioning the ever-growing list of games and themed merchandising! That little witch (and come on, in this post-Harry-Potter world, was there ever any doubt?) has certainly done it all!
Across the Lines
The greatest stories showcase our humanity and how sometimes, the lines between good and evil can blur. Because in the end, we are all ruled by the same passions and emotions, we are all willing to fight for what we believe is right, even if those beliefs may clash with what others around us believe to be true. And in this, Trumbo not only blurs the lines between villains and heroes but also between reality and fantasy. For it all ends where it began: back on the silver screen.
The Evolution of The Martian by Andy Weir, Screenplay by Drew Goddard
by Gloria R. de los Reyes
The Story, Evolved.
Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, right? Well, not if they evolve across and beyond the page into something else: another medium or literary dimension, if you will. And those stories are the ones we like to feature here. How they were written, then, is not as important to us as the way they broke through the walls that surrounded them to cross-over into new worlds, which in today's story is something quite literal, reaching beyond the stars to land squarely ... on Mars.