ThaOGDreamWeaver

The Heavy - Short Change Hero

Pretty much: Richards gets twelve hours before the Hunters are unleashed, rather than arena games, and travels to Maine to vanish (because of course Maine). Being pre-Internet when it was written, he originally had to mail tapes twice a day to the studio, and viewers could phone in his location for prizes. The new version adds drone cams, interactive viewer apps and a few modern trappings you'd expect - so you can still have bloodless street vigilantism. But also the odd nutter taking matters into their own hands, which, well... that does kinda track too. On that note, we do have a gameshow called Hunted in the UK that pretty much follows that track to the letter. Other than all the murdery bits. I think it died after one season in the USA. Though in almost every case, Brits help out contestants rather than ratting on them, because we're still punk. And back in the day, there was an attempt to get even closer to the Arnie formula with Interceptor. It also sadly only ran for one season. I was mildly miffed about that at the time, because Dad and I got addicted to how hilariously bad it was. Except for the theme tune...

Oddly, it reminds me of Champions Online in the early days: animation needs (a lot) of work to make it as fluid as COH's, for a start. (And surprisingly, Champions is still going too over at ARC: I haven't touched it since about week two, I think.) But I've seen worse in alleged high-end FPS games. I applaud them for getting the thing hauled spaceborne before Star Citizen comes out. Which may be roughly the same time as we achieve warp and the whole thing becomes old hat.

BTW, for those who didn't make it to the end, a new friend has arrived:

Small update - very small in one case: Over on the gaming thread about 007: First Light, I fed in the studio's comment about it being a completely independent plot and story. But. There's a widely reported claim that Amazon has casting feelers out for a British male - or someone who can convincingly fake it - under 30. So, full reboot. https://variety.com/2025/film/news/amazon-james-bond-wants-tom-holland-jacob-elordi-1236442329/ If you don't want to click, they're looking at: Jacob Alordi (maybe?) Harris Dickinson (...who?) and... Tom Holland??? (ooh, lookit da wittle secret agent, he's so adorab... seriously, love the guy, but no. ) There was also an earlier rumour about Aaron Taylor-Johnson, so maybe. Hilarious as the Holland rumour is, I don't think they'd dare. Besides, he still has the Marvel franchise: and while he's growing as an actor, the Bourne Identity babyface to killer switch has been done and Matt Damon did it brilliantly. Trying to pull the same stunt in a Bond movie seems excessive.

So, the second "serious" redo of one of Arnie's 80s classics, trying to go closer to their sourcebooks. Colin Farrell's Total Recall was way too staid. In Edgar "Trois Saveurs Cornetto" Wright's hands, this one at least seems fun, and explores more of the dystopia Stephen King built (well, his "Richard Bachman" pulpy alterego). The OG plot, instead of Richards' heroics saving a crowd, sees him as a down-on-his-luck schlub scrabbling to pay medical bills. Shut out of work due to political blacklisting, he decides to try his luck on the Games Network (here very knowingly using Netflix iconography.) And no setpiece arenas, though the odd Squid Game gag wouldn't go amiss: instead, he has to make it 30 days. Anywhere in the world is fair game. And while there are still Hunters, everyone can take a crack. Fun! I'm not gonna give away how the rest runs, but there is holy sweet Freya in Asgard NO WAY Paramount could have greenlit the original ending. (If you know, you know.) If they did, this is gonna be all over the news: and I doubt Edgar would be working again for a long time. Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man) gets the workout: Josh Brolin takes a more relaxed, reptilian approach to Killian: and Colman Domingo (Euphoria) brings the energy as the show's host Bobby Thompson. Add in Lee Pace, William H. Macy, and a near-unrecognisable Michael Cera channeling Richard Dreyfuss... ...certainly looks like good popcorn material, though depending on how close they hew to the book, it could get a lot grimdark. What do you lot think?

John Williams & Boston Pops Orchestra - March From 1941

Yellow Cherry Jam - No AI Lo-Fi (feat. Jam The Goldie)

Also Susan Ivanova. It's not quite a St Swithin's Day speech, but Claudia clearly loved every word of it...

(Yes, I still miss those three. And the B5 banter generally.)

Birdy - New Moon 🌒🌕🌘

Roxy Music - Dance Away

I have a feeling it's some kind of of (quite weird) joke/parody and the bottom line is the giveaway. It's not an Obvious Plant joint, but seems to be in their line of thought. Then again, if it's real... it wouldn't be the oddest thing I've run across on the internet. ...today. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/23/nx-s1-5260230/stick-nation-sticktok

Troma Films - James Gunn's stomping ground - got a new lease of life and a (slightly) bigger budget a couple of years back. (No, they were not bought out by Disney.) But their new Toxic Avenger - boasting suitably unhinged performances from Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood amongst others - has been in distributor hell for the last couple of years. ...wonder why? It's being released Stateside unrated, and should be oozing into cinemas in the coming weeks.

No, just your common or garden random weirdo. TBH, I'm slightly more hung up on that "special organs" line at the bottom...

New supervillain orangin story just dropped.

Just read the Wikipedia on River Raid, and much praise for Carol Shaw. I didn't even know they did platinum sales cartridges to hang on the wall, let alone that game designers could earn enough to retire on back on the day. Also - given it was the OG vertical scrolling shoot-em-up, I'm surprised that doesn't namecheck its obvious legacy: Spy Hunter. There was a version of that in the works about 20 years ago, with - surprise - The Rock in the title role. John Woo, Paul WS Anderson and various others have been attached to direct over the years, but the rights remain with Universal, deep in Development Hell. (Dwayne did get to play in the FMV for the 2006 game Spy Hunter: Nowhere To Run, and is apparently still annoyed that only got 3/10).

…reupping this for new particular reason…

The Doors - Blue Sunday

After Minecraft inexplicably stormed both the movie and pop charts - Steve's Lava Chicken Song is still somehow charting in the UK - you bet there are going to be even more video game adaps coming your way. One that I got excited about for almost five minutes... Ryan Reynolds in Dragon's Lair for Netflix. And yes, it was going to be an interactive version â la Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, but the resulting 400-page (!) script was deemed too unwieldy to film as a project. Not to mention, apparently the interactive stuff is a massive pain in the a**e to load balance for on the backend. After some disasters with US live sports, they're not keen on having their kit fall over again with a blockbuster. So now Dan and Kevin Hageman have rather a lot of material to pare down to make one single story. But I am disappoint. Other than our own dear Paragon City - and I'm not sure the multiplexes are ready for a video game cape movie, even if they could get Cassandra Peterson to play me... ...are there any decent games left that haven't been turned into movies? Which ones would you like to see?

Robbie Williams (ft. ...Tony Iommi??) - Rocket

Just wanted to share something I ran across. If, while studying as an undergrad at MIT, you complete courses in Sailing, Pistol Shooting (Air or Rifle), Archery and Fencing... ...you will unlock an official, genuine, MIT Pirate Certificate. This is real, not an April 1st special, and designed to promote the range of Phys Ed options at MIT. Boston also has a fine history of the trade from John Quelch through to Pedro Gilbert (100 years after the end of the Golden Age of Piracy). As their site notes: More of this, please: I don't think gamification works for everything, but people do respond well to fun small rewards. What's the best examples you've run into?

FYI: while First Light is the first official, post-Broccoli 007 product from MGM / Amazon, IO Interactive have said it's a standalone story - or series if it does well. It doesn't reflect their plans for a new film or TV series. That said. If it does really well... do you think a reboot with a younger Bond would do? (Or someone taking up Bond's "legend", as I've often suggested...)