The View From The Mountain

Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley team up for Chaos Walking , a science fiction film that’s based on the book The Knife of Never Letting Go by author Patrick Ness. Ridley plays Viola, an astronaut who crash-lands on an alien planet that’s already been colonized by a first wave of settlers from Earth. The only problem is, she winds up in a settlement that consists only of men, with the women having vanished years before. And all of the men have a strange affliction where their thoughts can literally be seen and heard in the air around their heads. Holland plays Todd, the youngest member of the colony who comes to Viola’s aid--although it becomes an equal partnership as Viola and Todd fight to survive in a world gone mad! Chaos Walking was directed by Doug Liman, who’s done some pretty good films in the past (Edge of Tomorrow, Go), and it runs with its interesting premise of how all of the males’ thoughts on this planet are an open book (women’s thoughts remain ...

Having watched the new and improved Dune film on HBO-Max three times now (and loving every second of it), I thought it was time to make a Dune diorama for myself. I love the Dune universe, having been introduced to it by my father many moons ago. The scene I depict is a giant sandworm passing by a castle built on solid rock, on the planet of Arrakis--better known as Dune. I saw the David Lynch-directed version of Dune with my father on opening day, back in 1984. While that version had its moments, we didn't really care for it too much. The sandworm and the base of the castle were sculpted from Scupley, which had to be baked. The castle itself was sculpted from Apoxie putty, which air-hardened on its own. The Apoxie putty allowed for more details in such a small scale. My father and I watched the Dune miniseries on the Sci-Fi Channel, and by that time, I had read all six of Frank Herbert's original Dune novels...