Somewhere between 2008 and the heat death of the universe, Hungarian director Balazs Hatvani has been building Thelomeris: a city of cogwheels and clocks where the citizens exist solely to feed the insatiable Clock Factory, and no one knows who built it or why. That is, objectively, the most on-brand premise I have encountered since I invented the Omega7Red Formulae. ClockPunk. DieselPunk. Noir. A city that is itself a machine that makes more machine. The Doctor approves so hard he pulled something.

And they got Mark Hamill to play the mysterious Stranger and serve as a script consultant. Luke Skywalker. The Joker. That Mark Hamill, in a brooding Eastern European clockwork dystopia. The Formula was applied by a Hungarian filmmaker with impeccable taste, and the result is either going to be extraordinary or the most beautiful catastrophe ever committed to green screen. Either way I win, because both outcomes are things I want to see. The film has been in development since 2008, which means it has been cooking longer than some of my laboratory assistants have been alive. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but apparently this movie is going to try.

A trailer exists. Hamill is credited. The city is dark, cold, and run entirely on clock-powered despair. Someone please get this thing released before the gears stop turning. Via: Screen Anarchy

The Chicago Steampunk Exposition is back, and this year they pulled off something that earns them a genuine high-5 from the Doctor: they got Gail Carriger on the guest roster. If that name doesn’t ring your brass bells, fix that immediately. Carriger is the archaeologist-turned-novelist behind the Parasol Protectorate series, the Finishing School books, and roughly a dozen other reasons to cancel your weekend plans. Victorian werewolves, dirigibles, parasols as weapons, tea as a survival mechanism. The Omega7Red Formulae practically wrote those books itself.

The Expo is doing its usual trick of cracking open interdimensional time portals back to the 1893 World’s Fair, because apparently just having a steampunk convention isn’t dramatic enough and they deserve full credit for committing to the bit. If you are anywhere near the Chicago metro and not already planning attendance, I cannot help you. Some people are beyond the reach of the Formulae. The rest of you: find your best waistcoat, oil your goggles, and go meet the woman who made Victorian etiquette into a contact sport.

Via: Chicago Steampunk Exposition