An interview with a vampire, high score chasing on the SFX quiz app and Bond… James Bond, all in this week’s peek behind the blast doors
It’s been a busy ol' week in SFX towers. So much so that we don’t know where to start. SFX 216 went to press in a timely fashion, the SFX Sci-fi Quiz app went on sale on the App Store, Jordan’s doing more Christian Slater impressions (by interviewing vampires, not attempting an embarrassing New York drawl), Ian’s had his house invaded by the BBC and Nick was only in the second row for the press launch of Bond 23 – now officially named Skyfall . Phew! Anyone want to bring us some toasty slippers and a cup of tea?
First things first, SFX 216 went to press without a hitch – as good an excuse as any for the team to hit the pub for an evening of drink and merriment that went on far too long for a school night. Special 53 went to press too, early in fact, which we’re excited to reveal is dedicated to ghosts, ghouls and the paranormal! There must be something in the water. Special 53 will be on sale 23 November in time for a spooky Christmas and it comes with, amongst other things, a free 2012 calendar. Keep your eyes on SFX.co.uk for further details over the coming weeks.
Being trivia nuts, and the kind of people who spend far too much time on long, boring train journeys, we play our fair share of quiz games. Unfortunately there aren’t enough apps out there with questions about interesting things that we like here at SFX (sci-fi and fantasy, in case you didn’t know), which is why we’ve gone and created the SFX Sci-Fi Quiz app . Released earlier this week for iDevices, it costs a mere 69p (or 99c if you're in the US ) and has over 1000 questions, with three levels of difficulty. Those of us on the team who actually created it still struggle to get our names in the high score table, it's that bastard hard. Respect to anyone who can even finish a round on “Invasive Probing”. Let us know your top scores and put us to shame. At 69p, you’d be mad not to.
Dave G is taking a couple of much-deserved days off. We forgot to ask him where he was going beforehand so we can only presume he’s spending time at an otter sanctuary, or visiting a Converse factory. He was in earlier this week though - namely on Halloween when he smeared his face with the red icing from this "lovely" heart-shaped cake 2K sent us to promote their upcoming game The Darkness II . We can only presume he was under the influence of a sugar high from all that icing and food dye.
Rich isn’t in the office either – he’s writing a feature in his kitchen. As good a place as any. Russell's very excited because he's off to see the great Professor Richard Dawkins in Bath tonight! He has one question about flossing teeth/the ability of organisms to adapt to change and one about the praying position/bowel relaxation. He's not 100% confident that he will actually have the courage to ask them out loud though. Maybe at the signing session for The Magic Of Reality afterwards...
Most of the SFX team have been on set for TV and films so often that we're starting to get a bit blasé about it, but it's a different kettle of fish when the film crew come to you. Ian's working from home today, but still managed to get caught up in a TV production this morning, after the Upstairs Downstairs production team set up outside his front door to shoot a short sequence. Now he knows why the neighbours spent two weeks having their house repainted; their gaff is doubling for the garage at the back of Eaton Place. Ian was proud to do his bit to help Auntie Beeb by letting the effects team plug in their smoke machine (don't worry, this doesn't mean Keeley Hawes catches on fire - it was just for "exhaust fumes").
Nick was in London today for the press launch for Bond 23. Despite being so excited that he regressed to the spiritual age of 10 for a few hours, he was a little disappointed Daniel Craig didn’t walk on stage in silhouette enclosed in a big white dot. You can read about exactly what he got up to in his Skyfall press launch report.
Journeys to London are a regular occurrence for the SFX team, but two in three days is a little more unusual. Jordan’s the unfortunate soul who’s had a date with First Great Western at a time in the morning no man was ever meant to see. It was all for a good cause though, as today he went to interview ILM’s Scott Farrar (an industry veteran who’s worked on some of the biggest films of the last 30 years, from Star Trek The Motion Picture to Transformers 3 via Return Of the Jedi and Jurassic Park ) and on Tuesday he interviewed True Blood ’s knockout vamp Jessica, aka Deborah Ann Woll. He hasn’t stopped smiling since and has vowed never to wash the shirt he was wearing when she hugged him ever again. In potentially related matters, we’ve started noticing an unpleasant pong around SFX Towers recently. Probably just a mouse trapped under the floorboards or something.
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Random Quote Of The Week: “I might put my tongue in his beard hair and see what he had for breakfast.”
Whose Handwriting? (Last week’s answer: they were Rob’s scribbles!)
