ThaOGDreamWeaver

One of the many fine things about Matt Reeves’ The Batman was Colin Farrell’s transformation into one Oswald Cobblepot - and it’s rare these days when you want to see more of a villain. So, you got it. The series picks up a week after the movie ends… SPOILERS FOR BOTH THE MOVIE AND SERIES BELOW… There’s not much to go on beyond the teaser (plus the in-production original teaser from 2023 below) and cast notes at this point. Matt Reeves is only EP on this, but the directors and writers have some decent creds to their names. What do we think?

I can see that. Just rewatched a clip of the original, and it looks like she's wearing hard contacts in that too. Maybe we just never noticed without the hi-def closeup? Also, her eyes seem to change colour a lot depending on the role. Maybe it's one of her transformational schticks? https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/features/1156880-the-10-best-catherine-ohara-faces Happily, not this time - and since Tim loves him some stop-motion (which worked well for the weird/creepy in the original), why change? Per Keaton's People interview, it's all practical FX as far as they can get away with it: The one thing that he and I decided on early, early, early on from the beginning, if we ever did it again, I was totally not interested in doing something where there was too much technology. It had to feel handmade. What made it fun was watching somebody in the corner actually holding something up for you, to watch everybody in the shrunken head room and say, "Those are people under there, operating these things, trying to get it right." It's the most exciting thing. When you get to do that again after years of standing in front of a giant screen, pretending somebody's across the way from you, this is just enormous fun. Dafoe's also mentioned that - and says he only signed on for No Way Home because they let him do proper stunts. There seems to be some green-screen fatigue with actors these days, or frustration with not having enough to do (David Harbour just did the AOTD game remake - he's had full mo-cap done for What If S3, but wound up just doing face cap for AOTD, and prefers being able to do the whole thing.) There is also the point that a guy with a rubber glove pretending to be a rogue plate of prawns is gonna cost significantly less than one CGI tech and fifty hours of renderfarm these days. And if your actors don't mind masks, gag blood, wirework, body squibs and props - Keaton clearly loves 'em - go for it.

Thanks, Moogs. …aaaanywaaaay… yes, the thing looks pretty, and I would like it to have substantial gameplay and characters, and preferably not explode my gfx card on minimum setting.

*googles* …huh. And yet he’s still working, including on the Deadwood series and movie. BTW, is it me or is there something VERY odd about Delia’s eyes in that trailer?

Me/DW and Loki the Wonder Kitten, reading the comments. Prompt: A 1950s redhead pinup goth with long messy hair and a black tuxedo kitten, peering over their glasses at a laptop screen, with an expression of puzzlement and frustration Exc: ugly, deformed, noisy, blurry, distorted, out of focus, bad anatomy, extra limbs, poorly drawn face, poorly drawn hands, missing fingers,mismatched eyes RealVisXL on Playground.com, 512x512, Guidance 7, Quality 30, randomised seed, Stable Diffusion XL, Karras

Day-oherewegoagain... Not much to go on in the trailer, but Ortega and Ryder together is major goth cred right there. The cast list has some clues, though: Monica Belluci as Beetlejuice's (ex?)wife, and the great Willem Dafoe. Dafoe has previously spoilered something... Catherine O'Hara returns as Delia Deetz (I think the trailer shows Charles's funeral - though that's no reason Jeff Jones and his fabulous moustache won't show up). Add Burn Gorman (Torchwood, GoT) as a probably-creepy local reverend, and Felipe Cates as Ortega's Goth Ken (well, by the looks of things, anyway. Very... polished). One thing: neither Geena Davis nor Alec Baldwin are listed as returning, and their attic is empty and dusty apart from the town model. So I guess the Maitlands successfully moved out/on/up. Again, no reason they won't cameo at some point. I'd probably be up for this one anyway, but if there's a proper plot - a reason this film needs to exist, as someone put it in the news lately - that'd make me happy.

...is that... good? They've worked on a few things including Spiderman 2, GoW:Ragnarok, and Alan Wake II... so a lot of sequels. Beyond that, no idea. (I will say they've got the most appallingly designed website I've seen since the days I was mucking around on GeoCities. My eyes... the goggles... they do nothing...) No idea at this point, but probably, unless we've got timey-wimey-dimension-hoppy-activity going around and that's not great. Or an early version of Red Guardian. Or Peg. She's listed as "Nanali". Per the usual Wiki lores, she was Queen of Wakanda back in the Golden Age, while Azzurri was Black Panther. Here's she's introduced as an intel agent, so it may be she becomes Queen after this. And as we've seen from the movies, it's both regular and expected that the royals not only serve, but get their claws dirty. Also according to the Wiki, Wakanda largely stayed out of WW2, apart from dealing with a couple of Nazi infiltrators like one Colonel Klaue. Probably, plus a red beret, a packet of Gaulois and a resigned air of ennui. I get annoyed when toons are obviously destined for le frigo and/or traitorous, so let's hope she's got more to contribute than feeding us plot explanations. And that Howard will do more than just being a SANTA type for upgrades plus the odd wisecrack.

...so, very smooth and atmospheric story trailer. Some of the in-game animation looks early and may need some more work, but backgrounds look suitably gorgeous. Not sure about Cap's new voice, and he's coming over a little more of Chris Evans' native Bawstaahhn to my ears than Cap's Brooklyn or the cultured Midlantic from the movies. All four will be playable at different points of the game (having to get into Gabe's jazz stylings would be nice...), plus NPC help from Howard Stark and a Resistance member called Julie (probably not love interest, if Peg has anything to do with it.) If you're a fairly serious gaming nerd, this is one of the first titles to use Unreal 5.4: ...which I think might be a little taxing for the average PC to run full spec. What do we think, True Believers?

Some partners don’t understand the assignment. Some do.

Slash (ft Brian Johnson & Steve Tyler) - Killing Floor

Okay. So found an interview on Hollywood Reporter about this with Headland... ...yup, she's a Kurosawa fan, as well as wuxia movies, which is yer classy name for kung fu chopsocky flicks these days. That should mightily please The Great Beards, and plays into what we're seeing in this trailer. Not just that dress sense and some of the set aesthetics, but the confrontation with an unseen, super-powerful entity in a dense forest. Using the Rashomon multi-viewpoint thing is... well, it's what every movie and theatre kid wants to do as soon as they get their grubby little paws on a proper camera and budget. Kurosawa's an undoubted master, but that movie has been stolen, homaged and parodied by everyone from Ridley Scott to The Simpsons, via CSI, ST: TNG and even The Odd Couple. Done badly, it's slow, self-indulgent and overexplains. (Even by my standards). Done well, it lets you explore every angle of a story - and sometimes also lets the characters do it too, as they interact and discover more of the whole picture. That kind of plays into the point that m'learned coll' @biostem makes above. The Jedi we've seen and read about aren't all white hats, but some are True Believers, some are rulebound jobsworths, some try to do the best they can, and some... well, are probably just paying lip service to the whole thing. And from their point of view, the Sith, Dathomiri and even Imp scum often consider themselves the good guys too, particularly the ones that: feel the Jedi are too up themselves / restricting access to power / becoming corrupt (Dooku) don't want to follow the strict Jedi moral / emotional regimes (Anakin) feel that the universe would do better if it was more ordered (also Anakin), no matter the cost, for greater-good an'all that... (and that, incidentally, they should be the ones running it. And have neat outfits with kinky boots and black hats. Maybe with some skulls on. Skulls are fun. BTW, I know it's a meme, but just for once sit down and watch the whole thing.) Playing around with this in a SW context is one of the things that made Andor and its characters interesting. Particularly self-aware magnificent b***ard Luthen Rael - at least when put in the hands of a Proper Actor like Stellan Skarsgard. It's an obvious author's explainer speech, sure, but damn if it ain't good. Thing that may please folks from that article: as it was filmed largely at Shinfield just outside London - a brand spanking new UK studio complex, no less, built for exactly this kind of streaming series, as well as locations in Portugal and Wales (gotta love a disused quarry), there's no Volume, very little green screen and mostly practical FX and wirework. So it should look good.

Filoni is now Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm. So credited or not, it's his mystic hat on the line. About Headland: given I liked Russian Doll (I have high Natasha Lyonne tolerance), I'm hoping for some proper curveballs in the plot, but which should hold together.

So here it is. Feast your eyes, but do not let them deceive you... And now, enter the Dark Vergence of Wild Speculation and Spoilers...

Noisuf-X - Satisfaction

Mark Chestnutt - It Sure Is Monday☕🥱

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile

There was a very odd rumour on the socials that the guy also had an OnlyFans. It’s been wiped along with the Insta, and X reduced to a single post. There is also a web address that now goes to a parking domain. Now I don’t know why a comic writer would have one of those, because [googles] they don’t… [image search] usually… look… oh. Okay. That was unexpected. Suffice to say that even operating a private social, regardless of content, can be career-limiting, especially working for the Mouse.

Small additional details:

It's certainly odd. I know Marvel/Disney are cutting back on D+ projects, so they might be only doing two seasons and then out, and just not telling the creatives still working on it to make sure they complete to time and deadline. Or DeMayo may have been actively fired-for-cause, but someone might come forward with the tea on that.

That'll be £35, please...

Slightly off topic, but a couple from my tarot deck project...

😻

Leaf - Wonderwoman

Lynyrd Skynyrd x Dre & Dogg - The Next Episode

BTW: I'm not sure this is the right venue for this, but a message from one of their staffers: It's not a great time to be on the market in audio right now - especially after Ek redlined a whole swathe of people at Spotify late last year. But if you happen to need some talent, drop me a DM and I'll pass along the message. x