Word: sci-fi
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...idea that sci-fi is not so much a window to the stars as a mirror of our dark selves is supported by David Hartwell, an editor at Tor Books. "The alien represents metaphorically what's in the real world. The aliens in '50s films often represented communists--faceless invaders who were going to take over our country. The mysterious beings of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 represent our transcendent future. Independence Day sounds like the old form of sci-fi: the foreign invaders intend to wipe out our cultural heritage--ethnic cleansing. They don't want to come...
...about belief. It is certainly about box office. Peter Chernin, the 20th Century Fox chairman, didn't see a holy white light when he gave the green light to ID4; he was thinking grosses. Michael Sullivan of UPN didn't have religion in mind when he put four sci-fi shows on his network; he was thinking demographics. "Sci-fi has traditionally been a cult item, and 20 years ago, networks had to draw a mass audience. Now with the networks' share of audience diminishing, that core audience becomes more significant," he says. And NBC's Warren Littlefield...
...easily admits, "Our goal, first and foremost, is to scare people." It's the modern movie director's job to package an old idea with zippy effects so that the audience will think it's seeing something new--and be blown away. During the cold war, even the cheesiest sci-fi filmmaker, like the legendarily dyscompetent Ed Wood, had some moral admonition in mind ("He tampered in God's domain"). Now it's size that counts; sense and scruples don't. As Spielberg says, "If the '70s and '80s were the era of the What if? movie, then...
...built a reputation for efficient melodramas on modest budgets. (For all its locations and effects and the mandatory cast of thousands, ID4 reportedly cost a thrifty $71 million.) Emmerich first fell under the spell of science fiction as a boy watching U.S. films as well as local sci-fi TV shows in his native Germany. "For me," he says, "going on a science-fiction movie set is like visiting toyland. You see, my brother trashed all my toys when I was a kid. It's very Freudian. For my movies you can blame my brother Andy...
...special TIME online report about sci-fi, see http://www.time.com/scifi