ThaOGDreamWeaver

New Khan was a fun twist, but the mighty scenery chewing Ricardo Montalban is a hard act to follow. More to the point, the final act of that movie didn’t stick the landing as well as the original (metaphorically and literally, I guess…) As to m’learned coll’ SW’s point; it is a fine balancing act to introduce a new cast of characters and have you care about then in 120 minutes, while still making it sci-fi. And it’s do-able, if you focus on character. The advantage you’ve got as a writer in this scenario is the worldbuilding is already done, and there’s no reason you can’t namecheck or cameo existing characters. I’m thinking about Tim Zahn’s Brainy Smurf… sorry, Thrawn trilogy, which followed on from ROTJ, picked up on the lore and ran with it. Smurfy Boi, Mara and friends were so compelling that they became part of the fabric of the galaxy. And then other people picked up and ran with them.

Small update: Per Deadline, Season 2 is greenlit - plus a creator deal extension with FX for Noah Hawley. Production is moving to London, so I guess we call this AvC*. https://deadline.com/2025/11/alien-earth-renewed-season-2-noah-hawley-reups-fx-deal-1236614596/ *Alien Versus Cockneys. Cor blimey guv'nor, lookin' a bit peaky there with that 'angin out yer Dickie Dirt now ain'tcha...

Neat little interview with Arden Cho (Rumi): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c17pj0gr75lo

New Atlantic - I Know (Love Decade Mix)

Thing is, there’s no word on EXACTLY which Trek property or era they’re working with, or if it’s a whole new set of characters. TOS is the obvious one. TNG is tricky unless you do Young Picard And Friends. And while I’d personally love a live-action Lower Decks movie, which would fit the Jons’ MO of doing something that loves and respects the material while being able to poke fun at it, I have my doubts… EDIT: per Variety, the movie is not a continuation or reboot of ANY previous Trek property. Risky… but I’d say that’s a good creative risk to take. https://variety.com/2025/film/news/new-star-trek-movie-dungeons-and-dragons-jonathan-goldstein-john-francis-daley-1236582221/

Small piece of news on this: Jon Goldstein & Jon Daley (who made the criminally underrated D&D: Honour Among Thieves amongst other things) have signed to produce a Trek treatment for Paramount. Naturally, many treatments over the years have been filed in the great bin at the end of the galaxy. But it does show that Paramount are moving forward quickly.

There are exceptions (though even Argylle still has good bits in it. And, of course, the boy can definitely dance.)

I'm never sure about trailers. About what you should and shouldn't tell the audience before they go into a cinema. There is at least one thing in here Gore should have never, ever let the trailer cutter pony up about. And while the AI+phone addiction = zombies plot is either a bit glib or a bit too on the nose for comfort, the rest looks a lot like Twelve Monkeys played for laughs. Could be fun?

Our three friends return for a spin round the Strip in time for Christmas. We've got Power Fists. Robots. Deathclaws. Kumail Nanjiani and Macaulay Culkin guesting. More revenge plotting. The Legion. Vault 31 defrosts all of Bud's Buds at once. Exploding mice. Big damn war sequences. All this and Ghoulvis too. Question is... in Vegas, can anyone take the House? Thangyallver'much.

Fun thing: Ralph went Method for Galactus. No, not becoming a planet-devouring overlord. Not sure even Dan Day-Lewis would go that far. But he did do his mocap in the full, practical Galactus armour - which was apparently heavy as all hell. He also described a new technique I've never heard of before. He was shot with an ultra-HD camera on an all-white set, bathed in very bright white lights (which made that armour get very hot.) That footage can then be blown up to giant scale without losing detail and digitally matted into real or virtual scenes. So, in effect, he was a human miniature prop. He rather liked that idea. He also practiced lines while standing on top of the tallest buildings he could find, to get the perspective of belittling pathetic Earthlings. As the man says, it's not easy to talk down to a small X of gaffer tape on a studio floor, so you've got to have your mind in the right place...

Thoughts:

The Blasters - Dark Night (Live in Pittsburgh) (NB: intro spiel is mildly NSFW)

Dolly Parton - Drive Me Crazy (FYC) - Live

Finally managed to catch this on D+, and both I and my non-True-Believer partner loved it. All-in-all, the most flat-out, no-notes-enjoyable Marvel offering since Shang-Chi, and definitely up there with the likes of Homecoming.

Neat little featurette: 40 years ago, F4 rights holder Bernd Eichinger phoned the late, great Roger Corman. He needed an F4 movie to keep them, and he needed it now. It wasn't exactly going to change the world, but the actors, director, artists, makeup crew and FX team squeezed everything they could out of a meagre $1m budget (and a slightly dodgy script). And it never got released. That is not going to change on D+. (Probably. They might do something like drop it for April Fool's Day.) But Matt Shakman loved all of them so much, they were invited back to take bit roles in the new movie. If you love moviemaking - especially the "trenches" of no-budget stuff - this is a nice little watch, and I think I'd like to take all of them for a pint next LFCC.

Good news for any junior demon hunters out there, and any parents/Aunties/Uncles who were thoroughly sick of Frozen. (Or just wanted something more in their range. I think I've lost at least one vocal cord trying Let It Go's E♭5. MENZEL!!! *shakes fist*) KPop Demon Hunters II is now In Development, with Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans back helming. Dev window is pretty long, with early reports 2029 - but it's a high-quality digital animation gig. And remember, kids, do not risk confronting or unleashing the forces of darkness in or near your own home. Choose a sensible location, such as your nearest abandoned quarry, Chuck E. Cheese, or MetLife stadium.

The songs alone are worth the ticket to enter, but then again I love a good showtune. Just in case you missed Season 1, here's Alastor with a little recap song for you...

Since the HC devs are liking playing more with audio now (no spoilers, but... well played, Labyrinth designers, well played)... I'd like to introduce a classic Aliens-style motion tracker. This would light up your map with rings around your current position: and if anything happened to be in those rings, it'll light up, including green arrows for hostages. Ideally, audio feedback would also tell you when you're quite close to something. However, the tracker is both audible and quite loud. So it also works as a 50' radius Taunt.

Thought:

Regenerating this thread for a very small update. The good news: the series is not dead, and will return with a Christmas special in 2026. So that's a decently long break. The somewhat expected news: Disney+ will no longer be supporting the show. It's not done nearly as well as expected, and it wasn't really a good fit alongside the Marvel types. Plus D+ are still working on major budgetary concerns and are looking to fold in ESPN. (You do gotta wonder, though: if the Disney and the BBC had gone all-in and licensed the Doc to Marvel Studios rather than D+... can you imagine the crossovers?) The (possibly) bad news: RTD is still at the helm. So he's got a whole year to come up with something workable.

The Skatalites - Skalloween

The Toasters: FrankenSka

Research Me Obsessively - Brittany Snow