ThaOGDreamWeaver

Christian Borle & Amir Talai - Stayed Gone (Hazbin Live On Broadway)

Jeff Bridges & The Abiders - Never Let Go (Live)

Small updates x2 via the FT: WB/D will formally advise shareholders to reject the Paramount offer… …and in the last hour, Kushner & his Affinity Partners crew have dropped out of the deal. So while they still have Ellison’s personal connection, there may not be quite the loyalty they were expecting…

Not much beyond an announcement teaser, I'd guess: here is a thing we'll be doing if Lucasfilm doesn't cancel us, and the engine doesn't experience some light glitches and then, y'know, explode. I get why a small studio might want to make a big noise about that kind of thing, especially if they need to staff up on devs and artists. Big, long-term commitment, not to a mention a move to Edmonton. Eesh. Not your high-vibe city, eh.

Following up on what m'learned coll' said in concealed orange boxes above: A first teaser for Doomsday should be dropping this week alongside Avatar: Fire And Ash. Running prior to that will be a new anti-piracy ad from Marvel warning people not to film the clip. It's suspected there may be some newfangled DRM tech/watermarking kit baked into the trailer (and the anti-piracy ad, if anyone's feeling snarky). Disney, Marvel and the theatre corps will aggressively pursue anyone leaking the contents, from copyright strikes upwards. Because of course...

Small update: for reasons best known to themselves, Amazon now drops S2 tomorrow (Dec 16th), a full week early. EDIT: They've also dropped an oddly warm and fuzzy little bonus: The Ghoul Log. (And no, the music isn't fake or AI: they've raided the dustiest vaults of production/trailer music for some seasonal bits and pieces that you'll likely never have heard anywhere else.) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B0G55YPJXT

Much as when Ozzy went, there are so many good stories out there about Rob & Michele. But I think the one that's killed me is this one. When Harry Met Sally was supposed to have a downbeat ending. After getting divorced from Penny Marshall (Laverne from Laverne & Shirley, amongst many other things), he didn't have a stable relationship again for a while, and basically stopped believing in love. Then he was introduced to Michele early on during filming. And then, well... "We started seeing each other during [the making of] this film, and one thing led to another and, you know, I changed the ending of the movie. I didn't figure I was ever going to be with anybody, I couldn't figure out how to be with anybody, and I had it where Harry and Sally don't get together. They run into each other in New York, they talk a little bit and then they walk in opposite directions. "But then I meet Michele. And I said, 'well, I see how this works', and I changed it. I reshot the ending where you see Billy running and seeing Meg at the New Year's Eve party." ...and the sequence with the old married couples at the end.

Spinäl Täp - Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight

There is only one word for how I’m feeling right now. It is… inconceivable… that one of the officially nicest, kindest, most talented couples in all of Whollyodd are no longer with us. You’re supposed to say may their memory be a blessing. They already are: you’ll remember them every time you remember the three ages of Hollywood, deal with rodents, can’t handle the truth, have what she’s having, or turn it up to 11. Rock in peace, you two.

A surprise, to be sure... but a welcome one. (If it actually turns up and doesn't get cancelled, that is.) It's described as a "spiritual successor" to the original KOTOR RPG rather than the MMO. It's developed by Lucasfilm and a new Canuck outfit called Arcanaut - led out by Casey Hudson (Neverwinter, KOTOR, Mass Effect and Anthem). Given SW games have a habit of getting mind-tricked out of existence, I'll believe it when they shove a lightsaber into my trembling, aged hands. But it'd be nice to revisit some old friends and stomping grounds.

Subliminal Doubt - Christmas Wrapping

I'm not sure I understand their maths either, on multiple levels. But I'm not going to get into Deep Financial Nerd territory here. Suffice to say that while WB/D has many quite useful assets in it, it's going to need a strip-down and overhaul. And even if you got the studios, cable networks, CNN (and its B2B data arm) operating perfectly, and farmed out a bunch of back catalogues Hipgnosis/RMG-style, there is no way it's worth the premium Ellison's putting on it - and a whole chunk of any income is going to go straight to servicing debt.

Small update: Paramount are appealing directly to shareholders, and prepared to lift their hostile offer as high as $32 a share - giving WBD a ridiculous market value of $115bn. (For ref, it was under $20bn for most of last summer, and hasn't been over $30bn for most of 2023 through 2025. This gives Zaslav & co a thoroughly undeserved payoff.) Ellison Sr may have to stump up more cash if they're not going to get more from their Gulf State partners. Again, that may not be a good move if Oracle shares tank. It might be a speculative leak, but there is an off-ramp for everybody. Netflix fold gracefully - but take home a $2.8bn break fee, plus shared streaming rights to key WB properties for a limited period. That also avoids any... Imperial entanglements. Decision day is December 22nd, when WBD's board has to respond to the Paramount offer.

Assuming they follow the book (Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow)…

Free movie for you: This is a low-budget HBO production (but with still quite the cast), about a gumshoe in classic noir LA. With demons in it. And Old Ones. And quite a bit more enjoyably weird stuff…

I'm not sure that's Gunn or WB's fault. The big tentpole movies of the summer were Superman and F1, pulling down $630m each, Minecraft with $950m, and Lilo and Stitch, just edging over $1bn. Zootopia 2 is also rapidly approaching the $1bn mark. Now to you and me and most of the world, those are pretty decent chunks of change. But compared with the behemoths of the 2000s like Avatar, Dark Knight, Potter or POTC, or the consistent string of billion-busters of the 2010s, that's peanuts. And given how much more expensive/luxurious seats are these days, that's a lot fewer butts on them. The simple truth is with a full-on consumer recession imminent, $14-$16 a ticket - plus popcorn, parking, and anything else the fam wants on your treat day - is unaffordable for a increasingly large swathe of people. Cinema is in trouble, and whichever way it lands, this merger ain't gonna help.

Heya. Been reading up on this on the FT, and The Admin are going to be heavily involved in this. With a certain senior figure already declaring a Netflix takeover would be “a problem”. I’ve also had a decent laugh at the pathetic, increasingly desperate, high-school-dating level messages and texts from Ellison to WB management. (And as of today, full page newspaper ads and shareholder campaign websites. I’m half-expecting Ellison Jr. to turn up outside 4000 WB Boulevard with a boombox and a Peter Gabriel tape.) The general vibe in Whollyodd, per the FT*, is that neither suitor is a good option - but nor is the status quo. On the one hand, Netflix are openly streaming-first and keep wanting to tighten release windows. Cinema owners aren’t having a great time of it as is, so this would not be good for the ecosystem. But Sarandos & co do like making quality movies. and have become increasingly experimental lately. On the other, Ellison Sr. is very tight with The Admin and now Kushner, which the liberal bits of LA dislike. Ellison Sr. is also a heavy AI investor - which might push heavier use of AI in movies, but also might collapse the deal if that bubble bursts and Oracle’s share value crashes, leading to collateral calls on some of the loans. But then again, Ellison Jr. is quite an accomplished dealmaker and does genuinely like the movie business. And then there’s the equally unappealing option of leaving it in the ham-fisted hands of Zaslav, who appears to have no clue how to do anything right other than fireselling some bits and permakilling others for tax breaks. So… whoever wins, we lose. The only “white knight” with sufficient financial firepower I can think of is Apple, and they’ve been cutting back lately - despite scoring the breakout hit of the summer with F1. Let’s see what shakes out. *gift link temp power, 3 charges only

First trailer is up, and I’m getting distinctly GOTG vibes. Not that’s such a bad thing… …but they’d better not fridge the dog or I go full supervillain. Not much Momoa in this one - just a shadowy walking figure - lots of grungy starships, some glimpses of Krypton as was (and maybe Kandor’s creation), and Blondie. And yes, in both the book and movie, Kara is bitter. Kal didn’t go through anything like what she did, so “perky” is not going to be in her wheelhouse…

Isaac Hayes - Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymystic

He was at LFCC and gave a talk - and free chats afterwards - on his life as everyone’s go-to villain. He’s got no idea why people first cast or saw him as that, and might like to try the odd romantic lead , but it pays the bills, he’s good at it and it’s fun. (And he’s now fast friends with screen son Tom Felton.)

Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (Live In London / Celebration Day 2007)

Waking this thread from its slumber, as various Marvel social accounts are teasing a DOOM-related anno. Particularly Marvel Brasil, and Comic-Con BR is next weekend… SPOILERS FOR F4 and THUNDERBOLTS AHOY! So what do you think/hope the reveal is going to be?

[laughs throatily] Jee Killee Do Kankee pre inter-net Bolla... ...gods that hurt. Yes, I think Reva was badly scripted, but the Grand Inquisitor moreso... And look, if you're going to have an evil sneering potatohead villain previously incarnated by Jason Isaacs, you get Jason Isaacs, dammit. Accept no substitutes. (He is also, btw, one of the flat-out nicest and funniest actors I've ever run into in person.) Concur that Viv took what could have been a deeply irritating role and made it into something special, whole, and with chutzpah that Space Mom would have heartily approved of. Also concur that 61% is close to being a fair shake at the number. And it could have been a lot worse.

So True, but that depends on which crew you hire in and how much creative freedom you give them. Per the press release: Gero is joined by executive producers Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell of Safehouse Pictures (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), Dean Devlin (Stargate, Independence Day), and Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Moonfall). Brad Wright and Joe Mallozzi, longtime creative leaders within the Stargate universe, will serve as consulting producers. ...given that Monarch took the Godzilla legacy and ran with it fairly well, and Obi-Wan did the same (though it's no Andor...) I think it'll be pretty decent. If over-wordy. (And that's me saying that. Sheesh.)

🎵you gotta roll with it…🎶