Update: I apologize, I haven't been online much due to the holidays. I realized that there was an erroneous data point for Andrew Stanton in 2009 that was never supposed to be there. I missed it when I initially looked over the graph, but it's been removed now.

As we've been reflecting on the last ten years, we've been asking ourselves whether any true "masters" of science fiction and urban fantasy have emerged, especially in film and television. It's certainly been a decade of highs and lows, of old masters who've begun to fade and bright new stars just cresting the horizon.

To that end, I've attempted to chart the relative "master levels" of various directors and television producers over the several years. This is an utterly unscientific chart; I looked at the projects these folks have had since 2000 and assigned each one a "master level." The number reflects my understanding of the projects acclaim, its ability to attract an audience (i.e. box office/Nielsen numbers), its awards, whether it succeeded in something unusual (such as a relatively popular foreign language film in the case of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or Dr. Horrible's status as a breakthrough web film), and the nebulous sense that it add or subtracted from the individual's "geek cred." The numbers themselves are largely subjective and, of course, you should feel free to nitpick.

The greater purpose was to offer a watercolory sense of whether any "masters" have emerged from this crowd. Certainly, the last year has brought low some of the genres' promising potentials. Joss Whedon entered into the decade riding high on a Buffy/Angel cocktail. Though his name wasn't enough to overcome Fox's confusing treatment of Firefly, but the show's eventual cult popularity led to the Serenity feature film, and the Whedon brand helped make Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog an important moment for web-based content. Perhaps this all made Dollhouse — which has been, by turns, frustrating and brilliant — all the more disappointing, its impeding demise fairly readily accepted, even by Whedon's fanbase. Similarly, Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica, despite being regarded by some readers as the most overrated scifi of the decade, was regarded by many as a turning point for smart, politically savvy space opera. But a rocky final season punctuated by finale filled with dei ex machinae left a lot of folks sour on the entire series. And the Wachowskis, while doing a solid (though Alan Moore-enraging) bit of cinema with V for Vendetta, never quite lived up to the promises of The Matrix.

But there have been plenty of masterful bright spots as well. Bryan Fuller gave us some beautiful urban fantasy with shows with Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, and Pushing Daisies, even if many of his efforts (including the truly amazing The Amazing Screw-On Head) were prematurely axed, or shafted before ever getting off the ground. Guillermo del Toro brought us to great heights with Pan's Labyrinth, even if his other eye candy films didn't hit the same heights.

So have we seen any masters? Peter Jackson has certainly come close. Granted, The Lord of the Rings movies are high fantasy, but they showcased Jackson's ability to handle a difficult epic in a way that not only pleased JRR Tolkien's fans, but also won him mainstream accolades. And his remake of King Kong, which should have been automatically anathema, proved both profitable and well-reviewed. The Lovely Bones has been his blip, earning him his worst reviews in 20 years. But it's more likely that 2009 will be remembered as the year Jackson introduced the world to filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, demonstrating that he has a good eye for new talent and the Hollywood cache to bring that talent to light. It's not for nothing that he made this year's power list.

Another power list member, JJ Abrams, has also given us a good spate of fun and thoughtful science fiction. While he didn't give us the decade's best monster movie, he did manage to reboot the Star Trek franchise in a way that was respectful to what came before and drew in folks who never turned into the TV shows. Of course, we still have yet to see as Lost will end and whether Fringe will survive.

Chris Nolan is on the list of promising possibilities for eventual masterhood. Although Memento wasn't science fiction, it took a "what if" concept (here, what if a man searching for his wife's killer had no short term memory) and portrayed it in a thoughtful, suspenseful, and ultimately heartbreaking way. And he not only shot fresh blood into the corpse of the Batman franchise, he made it Oscar-worthy. And now he's continuing the science fiction thread with Inception.

And, of course, there's the question of whether James Cameron will prove the kind of science fiction as much as he claimed to be the king of the world. His foray into science fiction television, Dark Angel, never fared particularly well in the ratings; it was eventually canceled in favor of Firefly, and it never achieved the posthumous popularity of the later show. But perhaps Avatar is the reinforcement of his previous scifi successes, proof that he can still be relevant where other long-time directors have started to fade away. Hopefully, we won't have to wait another 12 years to see his next installment.

Personally, though, after seeing the delightful Monsters Inc. followed by the superb The Incredibles and WALL-E, I have my fingers crossed for Andrew Stanton and Pixar Studios. Here's hoping that John Carter of Mars is something phenomenal.

Still, singling out directors and producers as possible masters might be missing the point entirely, even when we're talking about movies and TV. Alan Moore might well be your science fiction master, not just because he has written so many fantastic books, but also because those books have captured the imagination of so many directors in the last several years — albeit with varying results. And in the coming years we'll see how comic book writer Brian K. Vaughan — who has been working on Lost as well as the Buffy Season Eight comics — translates to the big screen when Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, and Runaways hit theaters.

So who, if anyone, do you see as your science fiction master? Someone from the list above? Perhaps Russell T. Davis for reviving and expanding Doctor Who? Or maybe writers like Jane Espenson, who have worked on so many of the shows we love? And, with filmmakers like Neill Blomkamp and Duncan Jones arriving on the scene, who might prove themselves master of the genre in the next ten years?

Graph by Steph Fox.

Here's a bonus chart, with more data:

My team and I have been working hard on our own and (get ready for the cool factor to go way up) in collaboration with folks from Disney Feature Animation and Pixar. If I say anymore, I’ll get in trouble, so let’s just leave it at that.

Yes, Warren, the cool factor just went up by about as far as a Disney games-related coolfactorometer can go.

I’m ba-ack…[Warren Spector's Blog]

How much of a gap exists today between current-gen consoles and the tech you use?

A vast, vast difference. If the player is involved in the narrative they can render it only so fast, really, though it will get faster. But when you’re in control of a narrative, as we are as filmmakers, the level of detail has to be much greater and we have the opportunity to create that because we have full control – our worlds are finite as opposed to video games, which are not entirely infinite but a lot more infinite than what we do... I think it will get better and better. But for me, the big thing lacking in video games, and I haven’t seen one that has done this for me, is how you involve a strong narrative story. Not just a set-up that you jump in to, but a narrative story in which the player is an active participant. I’ve had this conversation with friends now for almost a decade on how you could actually do that with a videogame. Unfortunately, although I think there would be a market for that, I don’t think the market would be large enough.

M'kay. If it's good, Ralph, people will buy it. Don't underestimate your fellow human!

Pixar Interview [Next-Gen]

Unlike most of the games I saw today, Wall-E's coming out this month, so we'll know for ourselves soon enough, but I still thought I'd share my impressions of the title, along with some screens of the Wii version.

The rep who demonstrated Wall-E for me on the Wii said that, not being a "gamer" per se, she'd struggled often with Wii controls, and that playing Wall-E was the first time she'd found them accessible.

Makes sense, as like much of THQ's audience, this game is geared at a wider audience and intended primarily to be appealing to kids. It's simple mission-based gameplay and doesn't look too challenging or complex, but it definitely appears to be solid. For what it's worth, the self-proclaimed "non-gamer" rep seemed to play it with ease, so unless she was totally lying to me, its level of complexity is appropriate for young people and families.

Each stage has a different theme, like item collecting, driving, or puzzle-solving, and in some of the stages, Wall-E's robot love interest Eve helps him jump. I couldn't see all of the levels, because the later ones are spoilers for the upcoming film, whose story the game parallels. I know that I won't be able to resist going to check out Wall-E when it hits the theaters, hopefully with a young family member like my little cousin, who would really get a kick out of it. While it's probably not the kind of game I'd play on my own, it looks like it'd be genuine fun to play with her.

The kids' market was extremely competitive during fiscal '08. In fact, it was the most crowded market for video games for kids in recent memory. With a tough Pixar comparison to Cars [Ratatouille] and new competition from Nintendo's first-party titles — as well as new music games — our traditionally strong kids' business did not meet expectations.

THQ's survived a series of hard knocks in the market thanks to the strength of its kid-friendly titles based on licenses from the likes of Nickelodeon and Pixar, even while its stock has taken a serious dive since January of this year. The company's about to announce its fiscal fourth quarter results tomorrow - as a new year begins for THQ, is it on track for smoother sailing?

It's been somewhat of a mixed bag for THQ over the last few months - the company saw a studio acquisition (Big Huge Games) at the beginning of 2008, while on the other hand, its Sandblast and Rainbow studios just recently saw layoffs, according to reports. While it's canned a couple of its former key franchises, Stuntman and Juiced, it saw a boost in sales last quarter thanks largely to its WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 and MX vs. ATV Untamed.

Thanks mainly to its family portfolio, though, THQ's hung in there, and most analysts seem to believe the worst is behind the company, seeing them poised to climb in the year ahead thanks to more attractive license opportunities for 2009 — for example, analysts frequently comment that they expect THQ's upcoming game based on Wall-E to perform better than did the Ratatouille game, because robots are more likable than rats.

Both Cowan Group analyst Doug Creutz and Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter expect THQ to remain a little conservative on its 2009 estimates, since it turned out to disappoint on last year. Still, Creutz says the publisher can outperform the overall market by 20 percent, while Pachter thinks it'll stay in line with overall market growth of 10-15 percent.

So with games based on more Nick properties including The Naked Brothers Band: The Video Game, Tak and the Power of Juju, Avatar: The Last Airbender, SpongeBob Squarepants and Back at the Barnyard, THQ may turn a cautiously optimistic eye to the future — we'll see when results and future guidance are revealed tomorrow.

For more details on THQ's upcoming Nickelodeon portfolio, check out our earlier story. Note the "parkour-inspired" gameplay for the Tak and the Power of Juju game — everyone's catching the parkour trend train, it seems.

Wall-E has a pretty powerful laser himself, as well as the ability to make "trash cubes" that can help solve puzzles or be used as projectiles. Players can also partner the two up to help solve some of the game's many puzzles. Wall-E can be played as a single player experience or with up to three other friends.

The version I saw demoed was on the Xbox 360, but like most movie franchise games these days, it will be released on every console known to man, including the Mac. Now there's a shocker for you! However, each platform will have its own unique brand of gameplay. For instance, the home console versions are more exploration/platformer based, while the PSP will concentrate more on the racing aspects and the Nintendo DS version is more of an action puzzler.

The graphics for the 360 version that was displayed seemed rather nice and exactly what you'd expect form a Pixar fueled production, but overall the gameplay aspect seemed rather typical. I always hate passing too harsh judgment on things that are still in production, but from what I saw, Wall-E isn't really a game I'm going to be running out to buy on launch day.

THQ Announces Plans To Launch Disney•Pixar's WALL●E Across All Major Gaming Systems

Gamers Will Bring Humanity Back to Earth in Summer 2008

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. - January 3, 2008 - THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced plans to release the WALL●E video game in conjunction with the film's eagerly awaited theatrical debut from Disney•Pixar in the summer of 2008. WALL●E is anticipated to launch across all major gaming systems including the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, WiiTM home video game system, Nintendo DSTM, Windows PC and Mac, as well as wireless devices.

The long-running relationship between THQ and Disney•Pixar has achieved shipments of more than 35 million units worldwide. THQ's current agreement with Disney•Pixar, which was announced in 2004, includes rights to create games based on four newly created Disney•Pixar film properties. Last year's Ratatouille video game was the first property released by THQ under this agreement.

WALL●E is expected to release this summer and will mark THQ's next installment in the company's well-established and successful association with Disney•Pixar. Development for WALL●E will be led by THQ's internal Heavy Iron Studios.

About the WALL●E Videogame
Players will take control of WALL●E and EVE through a fast-paced adventure based on the upcoming Disney•Pixar film. The game will allow fans to relive some of the movie's most thrilling moments as they explore 10 worlds filled with non-stop action and adventure, along with head-to-head multiplayer challenges. Players will recognize the storyline, characters and key locations from the WALL●E film as they carry out intense missions, dodge dangerous enemies and navigate their way through a futuristic world. In addition, the game will contain new storylines and environments that movie-goers will not see in theaters.