ThaOGDreamWeaver

Bet it doesn't have full on Richard Chamberlain Riker Beard action, though. Rawr. edit: I also don't know why he's dressed like a corporate logo for a particularly dull hotel or insurance chain. This is what you young whippersnappers don't get: we were wearing either dayglo (or black 'n' purple in my case) because everything else in the Eighties was beige. Brown and beige. ALL OF IT. The walls. Car interiors. Even some of the people, and we don't want them coming back...)

Beats me. Maybe they're merging characters, or I misinterpreted one of the stories, but there's no cast member named as Rocco yet. (James Madio is currently unassigned, and could probably carry that off.) Or, quite possibly, Sofia has some "side interests". If Tony Soprano can get away with borrowing other family members' girlfriends and mistresses, it's only fair. But unless 5 eps of this are set in or around a Sunshine State slam, he could be a (very) much larger character.

Not just real, nearly finished: filming completed in February with only a handful of pickups, and it's in post-production at the moment. Release is expected probably Thanksgiving-ish. As to who's going to be in it DC-wise: a lot of the main character names haven't been released yet, probably to avoid spoilers. But I think it's going to be very underworld-focussed, so not much additional cape-related action if any. On that note, I'm not seeing any GCPD or legal system characters show up on the cast list either - Jim, Harvey B, Renée, Angel, Maggie, Harvey D, so all about the crimelords. One name we do have as a major-ish player - or at least listed for 5 eps - is Dom Gigante, played by the wonderfully-named and rather large Myles Humphus. (That name woulda been no fun in high school.) The character winds up marrying Sofia Falcone (Christina Milioti), so maybe they're pencilling him in as a literal heavy made good.

I suspect there's going to be a lot more where that came from - I'm sure you've all noticed the destroyed 20th Century Fox logo by now...

We have a new trailer, and look Hugh it is…

Just watched a little video about the series that brought me up to speed on that. If you haven't watched Episode 8 yet, DO NOT OPEN...

Let’s test this out…

Finished it… and still don’t have access to spoiler box, so some general thoughts… Playing the gung-ho hero isn’t always your best option, Max. Pops was a popsicle. Didn’t see that coming. (Did anyone see Lee’s name on the freezer chest manifest?) They said the line! Twice. And I’d have just gone with Walton’s take on it, but the other one did have more surprise value. Don’t mess with audio nerds. We’re mean. And inventive. Nice slight nod to the game ending when our heroine glimpses some of the people she’s helped. I think they did everything pretty well except stick the landing, but I think they weren’t meant to… …as it’s leading into S2. Amazon are a fickle bunch so it’s not guaranteed even with the extremely positive reviews and figures. But looking forward to it… …so see them all down the road on the next map. Thangyallver’much.

Currently on mobile so can’t use SPOILER frames. But up to ep 6 and it does keep getting better, more involved, with a rich backstory that doesn’t feel like you’re having stuff painfully explained to you coughRebelMooncoughsorrycoughnotsorrycough but can still turn around on a dime and surprise you. Oh, and word of advice: nice people don’t gas people and drop them through trapdoors. Well, I do, but only double glazing salesmen and they generally have it coming.

So, binged through the first 3 episodes... WARNING, CITIZEN! RADIOACTIVE SPOILERAGE AHEAD... All in all, very watchable stuff. Looking forward to another double or triple helping tomorrow, I think...

They've been a bit hit and miss, I'll admit. I quite liked the Willow TV series, and while not perfect, it didn't deserve to get Batgirl'd out of existence. There is far worse lurking in the bowels of the House of Mouse. Discovery's had its high and low points, but so did all the other series. And the magic mushroom drive that taps into dark matter or whatnot is, admittedly, pretty silly. But then quantum physics in general can stretch credulity to breaking point. (Not least, as a cat owner, I postulate the cat is neither alive, nor dead, but in a quantum state known as "hiding behind the sofa plotting your demise"). Tried to watch Wheel of Time... never read the books, couldn't get behind the characters. Ignored the LOTR series. Absolute dregs: Witcher: Blood Origin. I have never seen an actor have more obvious contempt for the script he's been given - with good reason - than Lenny Henry as the moustache-twirling Grand Vizier type. To the extent his accent goes more back to his native Brummie the more annoyed he gets. Me myam won't let me do the Ritual Of Eternal Damnation in the kitchen, I gotta go and do it in the gaaaardiin... 'snot faiiir... And then of course, there's the good: Last Of Us. Nailed it. And more. Far better than a game adap deserves to be. And if what Bella's been foreshadowing on her socials is right about preparing to weather Internet hatred, I suspect they're not going to dodge anything in part 2. Back to Fallout: the series should stand up or blow up on its own merits - and given what we've seen in the trailers, I think they've got the worldbuilding and characteristic dark humour down pat, plus one hell of a cast. That's no guarantee, but since it's dropped worldwide now, I expect to be seeing your thoughts...

So Joker gets a sequel… and Gaga gets a shot at an Oscar? Being the massive movie nerd I am, I’m loving all the tiny nods to classic musicals in the dream sequences, and the way tiny splashes of colour start to drift into Arthur’s grey-green world. And of course, there’s Burt… The relationship gets a (slightly unlikely) new origin story, and we get a new key character - Steve Coogan as a prison official, probably a therapist, who I suspect may be just arrogant enough to think his star patient is fixable. I’m not sure it’s gonna be everyone’s cup of La La Land, including some of the first one’s more vocal Internet fans. I’m sure the YouTube screaming has already begun. But… twisted love story with show tunes? Yeah, that could be more up my dark, red-lit alley full of lonely silhouettes…

Can't wait. Incidentally...

Replying to m'learned coll's threads:

A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one…

On principle: ergh. But that said, if it's a new movie with new characters using the Matrix worldbook... maybe? Not least because the Wachowskis encouraged all kinds of different takes on the lore, with the manga tie-ins, short films, comics, a ballet (do you do bullet-time ballet with ballet-time bullets?), albums, books and games (of variable quality on that last one - The Matrix Online was pretty decent, and if it had lived as long as CoH would have got a lot more of the polish it needed: Enter The Matrix, not so much, even with the starry cast delivering pretty well.) I honestly don't mind that much if people use stock characters and worlds we know, as long as they bring something new to the table. Do it well and you can give the whole thing a new lease of life, not just a new topcoat and New Rocks. Very, very side note: I was a Matrixgoth growing up - well, as much as I've ever bothered growing up. Finally sold my Reactors - very Gene-Simmons-Casual footwear - late last year to a young and awestruck goth. I loved 'em, they gave me a good extra two to three inches, and regularly scared the hell out of airport security. Apart from one smöl-but-FIERCE TSA lady in St Louis who was a dead ringer for Marion Ramsey, who just looked at those things going past on the belt with starry eyes... "You want to, don'tcha?" "Oh hell yeah." "Be my guest." ...so we strap her in, and she starts clumping around ordering people about, including her supervisor, who just squeaked "Yes, Mistress." Neither of them are gonna forget that in a hurry.

It's pretty faithful to the original - though as it's on cable... wait, streaming, they don't have ABC's Saturday Morning censors or angry cereal/washing powder execs to worry about. There is just one way they could have improved it...

Best. Quest contact. EVER.

Speaking of Guy Ritchie: if you like his movies, you probably want to check out The Gentlemen series on Netflix that m'learned coll' mentions above. It's not a reboot or remake so much as a massive expansion of the idea, taking the very basic set-up - a massive underground weed farm under a stately home - and pulling in a whole new cast of characters, setups and buckets of blood. Ritchie has clearly benefited from having a much bigger writers' room for the series. It's still wordy as hell, but less awkward, and regularly gutlaugh funny ("Sorry, what's a... what's a leccy bill?"). It also gains from three solid leads in Theo James, Kaya Scodelario and Daniel Ings, plus a big ensemble cast who still all get enough to do, and guest stars like oily-smooth Giancarlo Esposito who gets to drop epic quotes in every appearance. ("You know what I love about the British aristocracy? They're original gangsters. 75% of everything they got, they stole"). And no Hugh Grant, which - if you've seen the movie - is a good thing for once. Particular props to regular hard man Vinnie Jones - who's getting to show off a softer, more cerebral side a la Dave Bautista, and has clearly grown as an actor in the last few years. He's even a gentle, hesitant romantic, though it's gonna help a lot playing that against Joely Richardson.

MrWeebl - Rotate Your Owl

Lee was originally offered Dr No by Fleming and was stoked about getting the role: but Ian forgot to tell Harry Saltzman, and by the time he remembered they had already cast Joe Wiseman. Who hated every minute of it and preferred theatre, dahlink. Oddly, that works: Connery might not have shone quite as much against a truly charismatic villain, whereas Wiseman’s obvious disdain oozes through the screen and ramps up his superiority complex. By the time Fleming died, Lee was a superstar in his own right. And when Jack Palance turned down Golden Gun, Harry remembered what Ian had asked for… and who better to play the Anti-Bond? EDIT: while I'm at it and dreaming up roles for folks, I'd like to alter history a little bit and have whoever's playing young Chris Lee retrieving Lin Manuel-Miranda, who's playing Juan Pujol Garcia. One of the strangest/funniest stories of WW2... ...and would allow Chris (or his avatar) to sing on film, which he really only got to do the once. But it's magnificent.

Just scrolling through old threads, and if there are any movie producers out there reading this... Christopher probably wasn't Two-Face. But he was near as dammit a real-life James Bond - and as one of Fleming's friends, may have been a bit of an inspiration. So I would quite like to see a movie or TV series about Christopher Lee, Nazi Hunter. He was attached to SOE for a time during WW2 as well as RAF Intelligence, and then spent a couple of years tracking down escaped SS scum. Are there any current actors out there who could do tall, dark and evilly attractive (as well as that baritone?)

...that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

I don't go out and buy actual comics/graphic novels often, let alone preorder months ahead. But the subject is a true superbeing, seemingly invincible to the last, who could outfight Lobo, outdrink the Thing, out-wisecrack Deadpool, and had conquered more demons than fellow Brit John Constantine. It can only be... Ian Fraser Kilminster. https://z2comics.com/products/no-remorse-the-illustrated-true-stories-of-lemmy-kilmister-and-motorhead-hardcover/ As told by a large number of his friends and associates, including Lita Ford, Lars Ulrich, Neil Gaiman, "Philthy" Phil Campbell, Dee Snider, Triple H and Corey Graves of WWE, and some young upstart named Dave Grohl. Each story will also have a different illustration team on it. If you've got serious cash to splash (I don't), this also comes with a limited-edition vinyl copy of 1984's No Remörse best-of album, which you should be playing loud enough to kill your neighbours' lawn.