News flash! Wild and provocative genre films are becoming a staple of film festivals worldwide and SFF is no exception. In recent years we've brought you Another Earth, Trollhunter, Don't Go in the Woods, The Oregonian, and others. SFF Sideways Cinema is here to give you the heads up on more edgy and cool titles — including one featuring this guy!

Number one at the box office this week is Chronicle, the teen superpowers movie written by Max Landis, son of SFF alum John Landis (director of The Blues Brothers, Animal House, Coming to America, Burke and Hare). Max has written for his dad in the past (Masters of Horror: The Deer Woman), so fingers-crossed he'll do it again and one day we can have 'em both at SFF. (Hey, I can dream...)

For fans of last year's Another Earth, here's a visually stunning, mind-bending romance set on alternate earths starring Kirsten Dunst (fresh off Lars von Trier's Melancholia) and Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe). It's called Upside Down and it's a Romeo and Juliet-style SF-action-romance that has to be seen to be believed. So take a look!

So, you didn't get enough William S. Burroughs when we had both the documentary about his life and a staged reading of Queer performed here by an all-star cast? Well, John Dies at the End isn't Boroughs, but the influence of Boroughs and Phillip K. Dick sure can be felt in this tale of a drug with the street name soy sauce that promotes out of body experiences.

One of the craziest things about John Dies

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Today we continue getting you up to speed on the big screen, big budget happenings with some of your favorite SFF alums—including this guy, who's about to be seen as Caesar Flickerman in "Hunger Games". Sounds like a fairy tale come true, don't ya think?

Speaking of fairy tales, when you think of Hansel and Gretel, should you think A) 'trail of bread crumbs', B) 'uh, let's pass on desert, evil witch', or C) 'Sarasota Film Festival'? The answer is C, of course! But wait, how do we leap from SFF to a big screen version of a classic fairy tale? Sound like an impossible mission (hint, hint)? The answers await you in this installment of Six Degrees of SFF!

Ever since a little film called "Alice in Wonderland 3D" by Tim Burton made one beeeelion dollars (no lie, that was it's worldwide gross) movie studios have been scrambling to develop big-budgeted lavishly-produced high-concept renderings or re-imaginings of classic fairy tales. And many of them star or feature SFF alums. Starting with...

 "Jack the Giant Killer". Yup, that's right, beanstalk and all, I kid you not. And featured in the film is SFF alum (and Oscar nominee) Stanley Tucci as Lord Roderick. Playing Jack is Nicholas Hoult from BBC's "Skins," Tom Ford's "A Single Man," and "X-Men: First Class" where he got blue and furry as Beast... another fairy tale reference! Ewan McGregor (from SFF's "Beginners"), Bill Nighy and Ian McShane help round out the cast under the direction of Bryan Singer ("The Usual Suspects",

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