Following are news items on the fantastic from the week prior to December 18, 2010. These items are shared as they become available daily on my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Paul Trailer
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of Shaun of the Dead are ready to return to the big screen and bring a touch of humor to the science fiction genre with a film that draws upon road films, UFO mythology surrounding Area 51, and government conspiracies concerning aliens.

Is science fiction dying?
Salon.com wonders whether the genre that set the groundwork for our current century is on the decline,

17 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey Found
17 minutes of never before scenes that didn’t make the final cut of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey have turned up, in of all places, an underground salt mine vault in Kansas. Warner Brothers’ discovery of the old 17 minutes of a science fiction classic was revealed by Douglas Trumbull and David Larson while the two were publicly discussing their canceled documentary 2001: Beyond the Infinite: The Making of a Masterpiece, according to FilmStage.

Surprised by C.S. Lewis: Why his popularity endures
In connection with the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as the latest of the Chronicles of Narnia film franchise, CNN’s Belief Blog reflects on C. S. Lewis’s continued popularity.

Syfy Launches Film Label with Universal to Create Fantasy, Horror, and Science-Fiction Movies
In collaboration with Universal Pictures, the Syfy television network has launched Syfy Films to make low-cost fantasy, horror, and science-fiction movies, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In a Class By Itself
PopTheology looks back at the masterpiece Metropolis and how it stands up today as a respectable and relevant piece of science fiction.

Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde say Tron Legacy is all about religion
The draw of Tron Legacy may be its flashy computer world, but the filmmakers also imbued it with religious and philosophical themes. Stars Olivia Wilde and Jeff Bridges filled us in on the metaphysics girding the Grid.

InterDisciplinary.Net and focus on The Undead
The Facebook page for InterDiscplinary.Net included a report on the undead as one of their foci for 2011. Throughout 2011 we are planning a series of meetings on The Undead. These will not be traditional conferences, but rather ‘submission points’ for articles and writings to contribute to an Encyclopedia of Monsters, and smaller ‘Pocket Guide to..’ style publications. July will be on Zombies; September on Vampires. Further meetings are being planned.

AFI Honors The Walking Dead as Outstanding TV Show for 2010
The American Film Institute lauded The Walking Dead as one of its Television Programs of the Year for 2010. The awards were created as a way to preserve and honor America’s cultural legacy in the moving image arts (i.e., film and television).