Issue #131 A Cursed Franchise: Reliving Colonial Nightmares Through Endless Sci-fi Remakes

A Cursed Franchise: Reliving Colonial Nightmares Through Endless Sci-fi Remakes

Leon Dische Becker and Cosmo Bjorkenheim

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The Island of Dr. Moreau, directed by John Frankenheimer, 1996 (film still). 

Issue #131
November 2022










Notes
1

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms. CRISPR-Cas9 is a specific protein in bacteria that can be used as a gene-editing technology to cut out specific parts of a cell’s DNA and replace them with new sequences. See and .

2

James White, “Ready For an Island of Doctor Moreau TV Series?,” Empire, December 11, 2020 .

3

Quoted in Roger Luckhurst, “An Introduction to The Island of Dr. Moreau: Science, Sensation and Degeneration,” The British Library, May 15, 2014 .

4

Wells certainly thought so. There are notable similarities to the texts. And there is evidence that Conrad had read Moreau while working on Heart of Darkness, which came out a year later.

5

H. G. Wells, Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (Chapman & Hall, 1902).

6

See .

7

See .

8

Angela Meyer et al, “Frankenstein 2.0.: Identifying and Characterising Synthetic Biology Engineers in Science Fiction Films,” Life Sciences Society and Policy 9, no. 9 (October 2013).

9

For example, see Alice Miranda Ollstein, “POLITICO-Harvard poll: Most Americans Believe Covid Leaked from Lab,” Politico, July 9, 2021 .

10

Quoted in White, “Ready For an Island of Doctor Moreau TV Series?”

11

Though a three-year turnaround isn’t unusual for a Gunpowder & Sky project.