ThaOGDreamWeaver

Dark - In The Dark You Die

No idea - though it's not a movie, it's an 8-ep limited run series. And yes, I think Nic can pull it off if the writers are up to the gig. Looks wise, I'm kinda hoping they go hyperstylised like one of my favourite criminally underrated flicks, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. That played with all kinds of tones to get a retro-early-Technicolor-meets-Art-Deco-poster look, and used colour to illustrate characters and scenes really well. (It was however hideously expensive, and apparently an absolute pain in the backside to color grade. Since tech has moved on two decades from Adobe After Effects being state of the art, maybe some new kit can do it more justice without breaking the bank.)

Nic Cage’s self-narrating depressive PI Spider-Noir in Spiderverse was a superb running gag… but does it make a series? Well, we might just find out… Cage is joined by Lamorne Morris (New Girl, Fargo) as fearless journalist Robbie Robertson, and Brendan Gleeson as an as-yet-undisclosed villain. In early production as of May, likely to hit MGM and Amazon Prime next year as an 8-part limited. It definitely sounds a different take on Spidey… yeah, think I could get into this?

It's halfway a history and halfway a portrait of someone descending into hell in pursuit of power, then getting stuck there, like the old morality plays Richard namechecks. (And a substantial chunk of PR for the House Of Tudor, just in case any stray Yorkist pretenders were still kicking around.) I'm not sure how close the script is going to be to reality. Not all that much is known about Geta due to a fairly short career as co-Emperor, coupled with his damnatio memoriae - a formal and public Roman version of being "airbrushed from Party history." But it's clear that Geta didn't perform well as a consul, argued constantly with his brother, and each tried to have the other assassinated repeatedly. After a few misses both ways, Caracallus finally succeeded around December 24th 211 AD, just after Saturnalia. (And you thought your relatives were painful at Christmas.) Oh, and Caracallus did quite a few good things - like enfranchising all free men in the Empire as Roman Citizens - but was also a bit of a git in many, many other ways. So I can see where that could get fun writing it up in a sort of Roman Spy vs Spy way. But with two main interwoven plots to get through - Lucius the slave and Marcus the general - things are bit overstuffed for that already in the movie.

Oh dear sweet Freya in Asgard, they really did inflict the bowl cut on Fillion... 🤣

"Hey Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?" Well, I do love me an SBB run... This takes place during the confusing reign of co-Emperors Caracallus (Fred Hechinger, White Lotus) and his d**s*** brother Geta (Joe Quinn aka fan favourite Metal Eddie from Stranger Things, though here he seems to be channeling MCR's Gerard Way. Bloody emos.) And in case you're wondering, no, the idea of two Emperors trying to rule at once didn't work out all sweet'n'light. Yes, sweaty muscle fans, it's got Pedro, and new Irish indie darling Paul Mescal in his first serious lead. On gravitas duties is Denzel His Very Self as a gladiator-turned-impresario and dodgy dealer looking to make political moves. And we also get a welcome turn for Derek Jacobi as an upstanding Senator, who's a veteran at putting puff and polish on silly flicks like this one. It's certainly going to be spectacular, and even shows the Colosseum staging a naval battle - it's known that this happened IRL, and engineers are still fairly baffled as to how they pulled it off to this day. Exactly how necessary this all is as a sequel, I dunno... but a fine popcorn flick.

Without being a prophet of OMGDOOMZOR too much - we already have a few round here… …there has been at least one extensive round of reshoots, plus two script surgeons and a whole new major character added (but as that character is played by one Giancarlo Esposito, I’m good with that). From the description, they were going for a spy/political/cape thriller along the lines of Winter Soldier, but needed more action sequences and to straighten out some feedback from test audiences. It doesn’t sound like the most troubled Marvel production they’ve had by a mile, but those are quite large fixes to need after you’ve supposedly wrapped.

So Marvel had a series of hoaxes as to what the title of this show was gonna be. Turns out… they were probably lying about it being a sitcom as well. They don’t usually have demons in. (Though The One Where Janice Summons Azrael was pretty good.) Kathryn is joined by Aubrey Plaza, Matt Locke, and holy hellfire that’s Patti LuPone. What do we think?

Getting back to the show... This week's ep:

Brass Inc. - Sign Of The Swinging Cymbal

Paul Hardcastle - The Wizard

Phil Lynott - Yellow Pearl

The KLF (feat. Tammy Wynette) - Justified And Ancient

D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better🗳️

Beast In Black - Crazy/Mad/Insane

With the soaring synth trumpets, messenger drumbeat, and urgent strings in the background, COH's main theme - whether it's fully original or not - could easily pass as an Inspirational/Cinematic/Action theme for a newscast pretty much anywhere in the world. (Though it would be really, really cool if WPRI 12 picked it up and ran with it.) And vice versa: if you ran through anything tagged News or Heroic on Extreme Music, you'd find a lot of stuff that would fit in around Paragon. https://www.extrememusic.com/albums/2960 https://www.extrememusic.com/albums/3365 Different example of how to build a recognisable news theme from those three elements: So maybe it's stock, or maybe we have a COH fan lurking in the Ghost Adventures production team who threw it in for a laugh. So if you are among us... show yourself... shoowwww youuurrssellfff... (etc)

Machine Learning doesn’t give you the right answer: it gives you the one it’s been rewarded for. So yes, it’s very like humans.

It's on Amazon UK, at £2($2.50) an episode or £10($12.60) for the season. Much as I love my cape-related antics, I have plenty of other stuff I don't have time to watch that's free - including Batman: TAS, and Caped Crusader when it comes out.

I'm liking the lore section. Especially the idea that the benevolent (maaaybbbeeeee....) Servitors have allowed/assisted the various races to escape their homeworlds. The Cornucopia = The Flood (with daddy issues). And we've got demon-humans, catgirl-humans, and Beholders. I liked WildStar, or at least as far as I got into it in Beta - as far as I remember, it ran pretty smoothly, looked good, but the learning curve turned into a bit of a sheer wall quite early on. StarReach gives me slight Starfox: The MMO vibes, which would not be a bad thing in the slightest.

UK distro. I've seen clips, but we're currently deprived of the whole show.

I'm also aware that Clark is supposed to look like a bit of an adorable nerd compared to Kal-El. These things can be taken too far, because... um. More set photos via JustJared...: ...and I don't know how built or not David is, but... man, that outfit is not doing the guy any favours at all.

It gives me a slight feel of The Shadow movie in terms of setting: yes, you've got the Art Deco design and classic 20s/30s/Metropolis architecture from Bruce Timm's era, but also televisions, tasers, and other modern technology... and then magic and ghosts. I have a feeling Matt Reeves was tripping out to get to work with Bruce Timm - there's someone who spent their Saturday mornings in front of Batman:TAS if ever there was one - but brings that slightly more downbeat attitude to the Bat himself from his movie. That also applies itself to the voicework: no-one, but no-one, is replacing Kevin (and Hamill won't do the Joker without him). But the softer, less strident tones that Hamish has come up with mesh pretty well with Pattinson's Bat. Certified Goth Icon™ Christina Ricci gets another fine cred to her name and should do a fine job as the Cat - but I'm curious as to what Minnie Driver is up to. She's done a lot of v/o work lately, and always like it. And if there's a big, possibly-rabid-"fan"-alienating swing here, it's the reinvention of Harley - moving away from the Sorkin/Strong/Cuoco/Robbie incarnation to something new, apparently more polished, and mysterious. Given that Timm is one of her co-creators, it's entirely up to him to kill (or mutate) one of his most lucrative darlings. Given we've not seen the Joker in play in this trailer, I'm wondering if they've merged the two characters, making Harley a proper Big Bad in her own right? It's a little more complicated than that, and goes back to... sigh... David Bloody Zaslav. The series was announced and production started in early 2022. When WBD started redlining a whole bunch of productions and services in Q3 2022 because of their massive debt pile, Caped Crusader was lucky enough to get shopped around for another producer/distributor rather than just straight Batgirl'd out of existence. Amazon took over the production after that. Oddly enough, it's not long after that Crisis Of Infinite Idiot Managers that Safran and Gunn are appointed as the new heads of DC Films. And one the first things out of the blocks is a new suite of DC animation, like Creature Commandos, and... Kite-Man?

Unfortunately I can't find anything financial or otherwise on Rex either at the moment. However, some of my favourite people - who I used to support charitably - have turned pro. Open Bionics makes prostheses for people - frequently kids - who've lost limbs. Originally I liked these guys because they built limbs that not only looked great, but worked purely with wire and elastic - thus tough and kidproof. However, with more funding... the Hero Arm and Gloves now come with myoelectric sensors. They read your other muscle groups, say further up the arm - and you can train the hand to respond and work to your liking via an app (called, naturally, Sidekick). They also have a longstanding Marvel partnership, so you can get Iron Man, Black Panther and of course Spidey covers if you're a kid. They're not a charity (any more), but they still make and deliver them for a fraction of what they'd cost from "normal" commercial makers. Oh, and they look the business. https://openbionics.com/en/bionic-heroes/ There's also an OpenBionics.org that formerly researched similar things, and has a GitHub for designs and 3d printer instructions.

Heh. The MotoCompacto's a really neat piece of design, and I've seen people lugging far bigger and sillier things around. Speaking of walking without exhausting the elderly...* (hey, I know how to segue) Hopefully by the time I get to my mum's age, I'll have a little power armour to help out. Yeah. Add some body plating to protect it (and me), add a Personal Defence Mode, and chuck a little fire-engine red in there... ...I am Iron Gran. Or failing that... can I get flames on this? https://greatbritishmobility.co.uk/products/drive-sport-rider *yeah, there's a 5 at the start of my age now, and not liking it