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Cool fandom news: Lackey, Tarantino, and Hawaii 5-0
Found a couple of cool news links via the
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daily_snitch and fanthropology:Fantasy author Mercedes Lackey, who used to be opposed to fanfiction, now actively encourages writers to try it for National Novel Writing Month! She says that even professional authors sometimes write fanfic for fun (although most won't publicly admit to it), and that she and some friends started writing fic for their characters in the City of Heroes superhero MMORPG, which evolved into "The Secret World Chronicle, which is in podcast form at the website above [www.cityofheroes.com], and will be a series of books coming from Baen starting in March." And I no longer have the link, but I believe that it was author Jim Butcher who convinced her that a Creative Commons license would allow fans to write fanfic of her works for fun without endangering her copyright. She's one of my favorite authors, so I thought it was pretty cool that she was willing to change her mind--and it also makes Jim Butcher pretty awesome in my book, too! (I'm still working my way through his Dresden Files series, and I'm quite enjoying it. I love the short-lived TV series, too.)
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And since Quentin Tarantino is the model for "Q-san," the American director who started off Kikuchi's US career in my Haru fics, I was really tickled to hear that he thinks Inglourious Basterds fanfiction is "the most flattering thing ever". Apparently actor Eli Roth passed on some fanfic that fans sent to him. He said on Twitter: "Tarantino is LOVING the Basterds fan fiction! (I sent him the real stories, he's not demented like me reading the sex pairings)."
I think it's funny that Roth apparently enjoys reading the demented sex pairings, but I dunno--Tarantino seems like the type who might get a kick out them, too. ~_^
Anyway, Roth said that Tarantino said, "This is the greatest most flattering thing ever. I love love love love love this! I'm enjoying them writing my characters... the dialogue... It's like Basterds is a TV show like Combat!, and these are all different episodes."
It doesn't surprise me at all that Tarantino thinks fanfic of his movies is cool, but the article was still a lot of fun to read.
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And finally, I've really been enjoying the Hawaii 5-0 remake. Lead actors Alex O'Loughlin (formerly of the vampire show Moonlight--I still kinda miss that one) and Scott Caan (Steve McGarrett and Danno, respectively) have great chemistry and their sharp, snappy banter always has me cracking up. I haven't looked up any fanfic on the web, but I'm sure slash fans are shipping them together--like I said, the chemistry between them is good, and they fight like a married couple. ^_^ I'm also pleased to see the team rounded out by two Asian actors--Lost's Daniel Dae Kim (whom I really love) and Battlestar Galactica's Grace Park. At first I was afraid that Kim would get shunted to the background with the main focus on Steve and Danno, but there's a significant ongoing subplot involving a conspiracy in which Kim's character Chin Ho Kelly was falsely made to look like a dirty cop and had to leave the force until Steve brought him into 5-0. And a recent episode focused on Kono (Grace Park), so although O'Loughlin and Caan are clearly the leads, everyone gets their moment in the spotlight.
It's funny, action-packed, and of course the scenery is gorgeous--it's great entertainment as long as you don't expect it to be too realistic. For example, I highly doubt that real cops would be allowed to get a confession by dangling a suspect off a high-rise rooftop or by racing around with a terrified suspect clinging for dear life to the hood of a car, but it's played tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top and the show doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, so I just accept it as pure entertainment whereas I probably wouldn't in, say, Law and Order.
It does kinda bug me a little that the writers/producers/whomever seem to find an excuse to put Kono in a bikini or skimpy outfit in almost every episode. In the pilot, she went undercover and had to strip down to her underwear to prove that she wasn't wearing a wire--the same thing happened to Liz in NUMB3RS, too. I was watching the show with my mom, and I said, "Why don't the men ever have to take off their clothes when they go undercover?" And Mom replied, "Maybe because the bad guys are usually men?" (Mom is clearly not a yaoi fangirl since she didn't specify "straight men"! Now I kinda want to write a fic where the villain is a gay guy and makes Steve strip to check for a wire. ~_^) Although the screenwriters do find excuses to have Steve take off his shirt and show off his abs from time to time, so at least Kono isn't the only one showing some skin!
In the show, it's canon that Steve and Chin Ho both went to the fictional Kukui High School, and an enterprising Hawaiian fan created a Kukui High website and is selling a line of Kukui High clothing. When I heard about it, I wondered if CBS or the producers would claim copyright infringement, but executive producer Peter Lenkov said, "Every producer wants smart, creative fans like this behind their show. If I were the president of Kukui High, I'd graduate these guys with honors." (Sorry, I don't have an online link--I copied the quote from a print magazine article.) So I guess they see it as good publicity--a far cry from the days when Warner Brothers got hit with a backlash of bad publicity when they tried to shut down Harry Potter fansites run by kids. And for what it's worth, it does seem that part of the sales go to an educational charity, though I don't know if that factored into the producers' approval or not.
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http://www.jim-butcher.com/news/000354.php
http://www.mercedeslackey.com/news.html
If you scroll down to the bottom of the Lackey news page, it says:
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Glad to know the new Hawaii 5-0 is interesting. I'm also a fan of Daniel Dae Kim's from his days on Angel, and liked Alex O'Loughlin in Moonlight. I was highly dubious about it at first, since the premise sounded so much like Angel, but I was sad when it was canceled.
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The demented sex pairings thing made me smile. ^_^