Mr. MacReady  

A couple of updates on Dark Horizons that caught my attention.

Apparently, Ronald Moore of Battlestar Galactica (remake) fame has selected a director for his 'The Thing' prequel project -- a Dutchman by the name of van Heijningen. I've not heard of him before, but a quick IMDB search shows him to be very experienced (even if he mostly holds producer and not director credits), so we'll have to see how this turns out.

According to the DH piece, van Heijningen is pushing for the prequel to revolve around the exploits of the ill-fated Norwegien expedition, putting MacReady's brother as the protagonist. I have to admit, this sounds painfully contrived to me. One of the great things about MacReady is that you get the feeling that he's in Outpost 31 not by necessity, but by choice, probably out of some misanthropic motivation to get away from people. So, I don't personally like the idea of fucking around with this mythology and suggesting that he might have been out there to "find his brother" or some such bullshit. I suppose it could be pulled off if done well, but...it makes me nervous. File this one under "wait and see".

When scanning for the Thing prequel piece, I discovered another interesting tidbit on Dark Horizons. Apparently, John Turtletaub (National Treasure) is planning to take his cancelled TV series, 'Jericho', to the big screen. Along with the bigger screen comes a larger scale exploration of the apocalyptic scenario outlined in Jericho. If any of you missed it when it was on TV, you should definitely get your hands on the DVDs. It was a surprisingly compelling show, with a great premise, solid cast, and a rather thought-provoking, multi-layered narrative. The show surrounds the events of a nuclear terrorist attak on US soil, perpetrated by...nobody knows, but there are strong signs that the attacks were orchestrated by domestic dissidents. The majority of the show revolves around the citizens in the small town of Jericho, Kansas, in their attempts to understand what the hell is going on, and try to survive in the face of the attacks. As in these types of scenarios, all the worst 'small town'attitudes emerge and neighbour turns against neighbour, and of course there are many triumphs (small and large) along the way. Overall it was a really enjoyable show, and I have high hopes for the movie.

In gaming news...I am utterly addicted to Fallout 3 (where my character is also called MacReady). I've put in about 45 hours into it over the past few weeks, which means I've sacrificed 45 hours of sleep to play it. That's how much I'm enjoying it. I'm lvl. 13 and tripping around the D.C wastes. I've just completed the "Reilly's Rangers" quest and am on my way to Rivet City. I'm looking forward to completing the main quests so that I can go back through the world and revisit all the smaller towns and hideouts I missed in my first pass. In the past, I've always stayed away from the 100+ hour games due to anxiety around the investment required to experience them. But, I think Fallout 3 will be the first 100+ hour game I actually finish.

Are you playing Fallout 3? If so, where are you? If not, why not?