Tamlyn Tomita in ROBOT STORIES

[Chris Springob]

Just wondering if anyone else has seen the recent SF indie Robot Stories which stars Tamlyn Tomita. I happened to catch a screening of it earlier tonight. It consists of four short stories dealing with robots, each set in either the present or near future. It was made on what appears to be a sub-TV movie budget, but the storytellying is top-notch. It's SF that's actually about ideas and not FX.

I guess it's currently "on tour", playing at various locations around the country. There's a list of upcoming showtimes on the official website.

 

[Sinclair]

I think the last time I saw her in anything was when she had a few guest appearances on 24 last season. I must confess I haven't heard anything about Robot Stories until now. It's nice that she has a starring role in something. I also noticed that the guy that played Shredder in the Ninja Turtle movies is in it.

 

[hypatia]

As much as I adore Markas, I'm not going to fly out to another state just to see this movie. Although it sounds tempting. Might consider it if it were showing in the summer.

Any chance this will ever come out on cable or dvd? It sounds like sci-fi the way it ought to be.

 

[Chris Springob]

In answer to hypatia's question, yes, it will eventually be on DVD. I didn't mention this in my initial post last night because I was tired and didn't want to add another paragraph, but the director was actually there at the screening. I'm at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and it seems the director's wife also happens to be pursuing a PhD here at Cornell while he works out of New York City. So he made it out here to attend the showings this weekend, and there was a brief Q & A after the movie. He said that he's hopeful they can get a big money distributor to fund the DVDs, but that it's now become so cheap to issue DVDs and sell them through vendors like Amazon, that they can do this on their own if necessary. Didn't give any kind of timeline for when this would happen though.

I should also note that he made passing mention of TT's past work, including her role in B5. So B5 got a free plug out of the deal.

 

[hypatia]

What roll did she play in B5?

 

[Sinclair]

She played Lieutenant Commander Laurel Takashima in The Gathering, Sinclair's second in command. She was never seen from again after that, nor was she ever mentioned again, so we don't know whatever happened to her.

 

[Chris Springob]

She played Laurel Takashima, B5's first officer, in "The Gathering". That's why this thread is in the "B5 Personnel" forum.

 

[hypatia]

Eh, it's the military, she just got transferred.

I liked her character a lot in the pilot. Now I'm doubly interested in the DVD.

(Still not quite enough for me to fly hundereds of miles during the busiest time of the year, however. But I do look forward to checking this out.)

Thanks for the info, guys!

 

[Chris Springob]

It'll finally be getting its DVD release on February 8th.