ThaOGDreamWeaver

Yes, but I'm sure that SyFy won't be able to get sharrrroh sweet Freya in Asgard. I see your hippos, and raise you... BBC News: Sharks off Brazil coast test positive for cocaine https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cek9mr43x1xo

Cody Pennington - Nothing On Us

Wizards did it. And while I am absolutely the last person to question Peggy and Cap's happy ending, how did she maintain that sparkling career as SHIELD founder with six-two of legendary blond superhero in tow and nobody bats an eyelid or mentions it? And does Steve just retire and become a cookie-baking househusband, coach Little League? I doubt it. With Captain America officially MIA, that helps the cover a bit if he decides to become Roger Stevens or something. But there are going to be enough people around who know...

"...wait, you mean Back To The Future was bull***t?" ...that, pretty much. Per Bruce, each change doesn't fix the existing timeline, because that would be a Grandfather paradox. After all, if you went back in time to fix a problem and fixed it, then the timeline changed around it - how would you know what to fix? Instead, any change made creates a new variant timeline. (And, handily, a fine spinoff series for Loki). Which is quite a neat way of sidestepping the whole oh-no-fixed-point-timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly stuff. I wasn't thinking about F4 going back in time - I was thinking forwards and a little bit sideways, to current MCU continuity from their more idealised 1960s home.

There's a lot it gets right (Bad News Bear Jackie Earl Haley's bravura turn as Rorschach, JD Morgan characteristically charismatically crazy as the Comedian, Doc's transformation sequence, Archie, the prison fight). But - IMHO - it doesn't either catch the full spirit of the books or hang together as a complete movie. And that ending is something nerds will be warring over for decades. I understand why the change was made but it... just... still... clunks. Put together with the sequel series, the ending does work better with...

Time travel flares my IBS, both in real life and the movies. Endgame mostly worked because it lampshaded a lot of the silliness (the test runs, that's America's ass!, and having to heist the Space Stone twice), although it still got twisted up with the way Thanos sabotaged it. If the new F4 is a period/time-and-relative-dimensions travel piece, it could be quite fun as a fish-out-of-water comedy with the team having to adapt to a new world where heroes are not only well-known and commonplace, but where Reed's advanced tech knowledge is either sixty years out of date... or still ahead of its time.

So, after Zack Snyder's adap mishap, and the rather better sequel TV series, Watchmen gets a full adap in the 2-and-a-bit-D style familiar to What If? fans. It's direct to rental, so I'm unlikely to be catching this one. And to be honest, I'm with the grumpy old wizard on this one: the book's structure was made to do things in a way a straight narrative flick can't. Though if some new fans show up, that's cool.

I know, it’s odd… …according to The Numbers and IMDB, there is not one big-ticket studio release currently scheduled on Aug 29 or 30 (you can count a whole five-day "weekend" from Thursday drop to Monday for a holiday opening's box office take. So normally, executives are jostling for this spot). I know the strikes and COVID screwed things up but…? https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/release-schedule

Full trailer is out…

You say that, but Blue Beetle had: a new-to-movies character played by a talented brand new young lead largely positive reviews and 91% audience score a (relatively) small budget at $115m-ish abuelas with laser machine guns And... nope. People didn't turn out for it. It didn't help that there was a small hurricane that hit SoCal, or that WB had already announced the death of the DCU. Which is a shame, as it's a very decent, fun little popcorn-munching cape flick with a sense of its own silliness. Check it out if you fancy some light entertainment. So... while a lower-ranked character allows you to introduce something new and fresh, it is a little harder to market. And much as I loathe the need for it, and/or my personal opinion of marketing crews and some of their ideas, I'll admit dragging folks out to the multiplex is a lot harder than it used to be. On that note... I'd quite like to see The Question get a TV series instead, though, to let the character breathe a bit more. I was trying to think about who could play him... what kind of Question are we going for - the early Angry/Greyhat/Loner/Eccentric/Terrifying/Sinister, the later Zen/Whimsical, or the Renée Montoya handover...?

D+ budgets are under review at the moment, and Acolyte is rumoured to have cost $180m. For that many Imperial credits, you need a Mando or Andor-sized critical and numbers hit, and… whatever you think of the series, that it ain’t. Fun thing though - there are various tidbits being released to tease (or plead for) an S2. And the Nasty Lookin’ Thing in the cave might be none other than that tragic figure, Darth Plagueis…

Two from my Pinup Heroes Tarot series I've been quietly working on... The Sun: Eight of Wands:

Small industry biz note: WB/D is now exploring breakup options. (FT sub required) This includes wizard wheezes such as hiving off their cash cow but declining legacy TV businesses (and saddling them with most of WB/D's crippling debts), leaving studios (inc DC) and streaming (Max) free to run and grow. Needless to say, this hasn't gone down well with investors and bondholders. But neither has their performance: their CFO wiped another 10% off their share price by admitting he couldn't predict free cash flow this year. (For non-financial wonks: that's not great.) The likely impact on DC and WB is a budget crunch, slate cuts, and maybe even lawsuits as debt holders try to secure any prime assets. Oh, and they need James Gunn's reboot and the Superman movie to be a win. Badly.

...though if ever our fine devs got round to rebooting the SBB...

Ep7 and Season Finale...

Never forget the reason for the season.

It's nice that they acknowledge the precedent Presidents. (Yes I know but it was funny)

S5 is now halfway through filming. There's not many clues as to what's going on, but there'll be new characters, more about what the Upside Down is, and a very, very final ending. Oh, and someone gets paid to smear fake blood on ropes. Dont'cha just love making movies? Given how good S1 and S2 were - S3 stumbled a bit, but S4 pulled it back towards the end - hoping they stick the landing. Or at least mess up enough to be entertaining...

Cheating a bit because this isn't a website (though you can listen to it on several.) I'm not a major podcast fan, even though (maybe because) I work with a bunch of them. But the only one I'll siddown and listen to Soundtracking. I'm obsessed with movie music - half of my CDs and a whole stack of iTunes are soundtracks. And I like Edith, both personally and professionally. But I'm still amazed by how good her booker is, because... just have a flip through that guest list. https://audioboom.com/channels/4794784-soundtracking-with-edith-bowman And to keep this relevant to our interests... https://audioboom.com/posts/8258636-episode-358-jon-favreau-on-the-music-of-the-mandalorian https://audioboom.com/posts/8324435-episode-375-charlie-brooker-on-the-music-of-black-mirror https://audioboom.com/posts/8316223-episode-372-daniel-pemberton-on-music-of-spider-man-across-the-spider-verse https://audioboom.com/posts/8190251-episode-332-tony-gilroy-on-the-music-of-andor

I wasn’t aware of that, though I think it would have been a very different movie… But I do now know another fact. Alex Karras was on the WB lot auditioning for another flick (apparently a fairly terrible one). He heard from a mate that Mel Brooks was around somewhere on site and got hold of a copy of the script. Read it. Walked unannounced into Mel’s production office. Threw a chair at him. Said “Me Mongo.” And walked out. He got got the gig. I’m not sure if it was because it hit the brief or Mel was too terrified to argue.

So there's some news from SDCC: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is having a joint panel with Doctor Who. Now while, yes, both shows are having a bit of a moment, some people think it's a little more than just a meeting of minds. What do you think The Doctor would make of the Enterprise? And out of the crossovers you've seen, which has been the most/least successful?

So, despite what some Internet sleuths have said, the trailer has dropped on time... Thoughts: All in all, quite familiar White House Down / Angel Has Fallen territory but with added capery. Can't say I can see where 400 large has gone, if I'm honest, unless they rebuilt the whole White House just to blow it up...

I love it too, 100% unironically, even though it's... a little bit of a mess. But a glorious, spectacular, wildly imaginative mess that takes massive swings. They didn't always connect, but damnit it always looked good doing it... and when they do, it's proper old-school serial stuff in the vein of Indy or The Rocketeer. EDIT... oh, and it's got Ed Shearmur going full John Williams. And loving it. (So do I. An edit of the end creds was my ringtone for a very long time.)

Ledernacken - Let Yourself Go