ThaOGDreamWeaver

Well, having dodgy effects, poor scripting, and sabotaging the lead's normal onscreen persona worked for Black Adam... [retracts claws] More weird Zaslav news: if you liked Westworld or (slightly less likely) The Nevers and have HBO Max, watch it soon as they'll be withdrawn from the service to save money on residuals to the performers and crew. This doesn't seem to make a huge amount of sense if you're trying to build a streaming library, but WB-D are also in trouble with ad revenue.

Julee Cruise & Angelo Badalamenti - Falling /em holdtorchsong

Bzermikitokolok and the Knowheremen (aka The Old 97s) - I Don’t Know What Christmas Is…

The Cure - Push

Kool & The Gang - Celebration (Live At The Apollo)

From the horse’s mouth… If you carry on through the whole thread, this phrase stands out… the opportunity to build upon what has worked in DC so far & to help rectify what has not. Exactly what (and who) fits in those two categories is going to be a matter for debate, probably with an awful lot of screaming from one particular quarter.

The stories I've read - and while I try and stay off Reddit or the commenter sites, Deadline, THR and Variety usually know what they're about... ...strongly imply that this is a full reboot, which will be outlined at a presentation meeting to Zaslav next week. I would expect a proper anno after that. There is of course, the possibility that Zaslav hates the new direction and boots Gunn. But that seems unlikely. Re: Adam: yep, the Man In Black is in the black. Sorta. Looking at the publicly available P&L sheets, the claim is between $50m and $78m in profit, depending on what promotional costs you add in. (I've waffled on here before about rolling breaks - how studios can add and remove costs to make a picture look like it's a hit or a losing money. Frequently on the same flick, depending on whether you're bigging it up to investors or talking it down the IRS). But of that profit... ~$50m is a fee WB-D paid itself for the streaming rights on HBO Max, which they couldn't exactly have sold anywhere else. Without that fee, the margin looks rather slim for that flick. Not great, not terrible... not a hit.

More Gunn/Safran news, and quite a biggie. DC Studios are reviewing the entire upcoming development slate under Gunn. WW3 has been canned. Gunn, Safran and the WB co-CEOs were kind enough to tell Patty Jenkins why, and in person. WW3 does not "fit with the plan" for DC going forward. (Though for SW fans, this and her dropping out of Cleopatra puts Rogue Squadron back on the table). Man Of Steel / Black Adam sequel, Aquaman final installment, and a couple of other mooted sequels/teamups also on hold. So The Flash may be the last time we see anyone from the current roster, including Cavill, Momoa, and Dwayne Johnson... ...if it gets released and isn't debt-canned. There are cameos and plotlines in the flick (inc. Cavill) which, again, do not fit with Gunn's new direction. Not to mention a lead actor who'd have to be rolled into the premieres strapped to a trolley Lecter-style. And WB-D are still looking for "purchase accounting" write-offs from the previous administration. Though they'd have to make a call on that quite soon to fit within the IRS tax year, and it wouldn't have quite the same level of benefit as Batgirl's demise before that October deadline. Zaslav seemed to like the flick, or at least said so publically, and it's claimed that it tested well. But that's no guarantee. Trade rag claimed that Flash is not "locked" - so there could be reshoots / re-edit: could be successfully rewritten as per the original Flashpoint to introduce New DC, with 10 years of history (ie: the Snyderverse) officially retconned out. Which would be hilarious from the troll-baiting point of view... but sucks for Cavill, Momoa, Robbie, Gadot, and Cena. (The Batman exists in its own private gothbubble and a sequel is still moving forward.) One other particularly wild rumour going around that Momoa could swap characters to become Lobo, which sounds more like wishful thinking than anything. Fun times. Thoughts?

Some genuinely useful writing advice.

Per Kathleen Kennedy, ROTR was dead as of at least Nov 2021, without even a finished script to its name. That said, some of the concepts are supposed to be showing up in Mando S3. I suppose a Mandalorian civil war would be a pretty big mess for the New Republic to try and clean up... EDIT: quick note from today’s news. WW3 is officially canned at DC Studios under Gunn. Patty submitted a treatment but it will not move forward. So both of her big projects got rugpulled… I guess Rogue Squadron could come back now?

Not heard that one, even from the Sithier parts of the fandom. (Then again, I consider Reddit kind of like the Vergence on Dagobah. I ain't goin' in there again.) Plus her character's a dropship trooper, not a pilot, so doesn't make a huge amount of plot sense. What I heard's a little more prosaic, and ties into the Chapek news. Patty Jenkins was committed to Wonder Woman 3, and then offered a Cleopatra flick with Gadot as well. Two big, epic movies to plan, and Chapek... wasn't particularly committed to new Star Wars flicks. Not with D+ to feed, and it is one hungry little beast. Chapek was also famously not as talent-friendly as Iger. So she dropped out of Rogue Squadron, and nobody from Chapek's coterie was assigned or inclined to talk her back into it. But recently Kari Skogland (Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Handmaid's Tale) has taken over Gal's sword-, sandal- and sex-fest, and with James Gunn reworking the schedule at DC, Patty has some free time again. So Rogue Squadron is... back in Development Hell, but at least alive. Andor will also be getting a proper-telly release via ABC and FX to spread the word a bit, and maybe entice some more folks over to D+. Unless their faith is faltering...

He's already reached out into the WBW with his mind (and some kind of Sith flamethrower). Given Filoni's the kind to explore and repair canon-holes, maybe this is where Sidious and/or Thrawn was hiding out pre-Force Awakens and trying to mess with the timeline?

"What the hell. I don't got that long a lifespan anyway." That's also a possible Chekhov's Gun. Seeking your creator for closure, more time, companionship, an explanation, an apology, revenge... ...all very Blade Runner, but none the worse for that. The new ship (the Bowie) is introduced in Holiday Special, though I haven't seen it yet so I don't know if the Milano gets tanked during the Baconapping.

Last credit I can find for her is V/O for Ethan Hawke's rather fine doco-series The Last Movie Stars, voicing Frances Woodward's memoirs. TBH, after the experience of Crystal Skull, I'd be wary about coming back to the series as well. I think this was on Sky in the UK, so I didn't manage to catch it. I'm kinda surprised that hasn't shown up on D+, Amazon or Netflix yet: along with the companion historical documentaries, but I think History Channel had the rights to them at the time. (They'd probably never show them on the main channel again, because they contain actual history.) This does beg the question, mind: if these are canon, then they can't do a blaze-of-glory ending for Indy. Unless we're mucking around with narrative causality... ...on the way to his home planet, where he died. I will accept no other canon. There was a fair bit wrong with Crystal Skull, and Shia's character was a fair bit of that. Though Shia himself hadn't got, er, difficult by that point, I have a feeling that's where things kicked off. Harrison genuinely liked the kid right up until he started badmouthing the movie.

There was a spate of Canadian supernatural series for a while from around 2005-2015, winding up with borderline-soft-porn-but-fun Lost Girl. Blood Ties (based on Tanya Huff's books) was... not great, but decent performances and deserved a better shake of things. At the end of S2 when it was randomly cancelled, Henry the vampire was looking for a change of scene, so probably moved to N'Awlins and wound up feeding off drunk tourists and constantly explaining he wasn't Lestat. Vicki and Coreen are now teaching parapsychology at McGill, and Celluci is a male model for Marshalls, specialising in evening dress and flannels (same thing, really). Side note: the Dresden Files series only lasted the one run, despite a decent cast, a couple of very good original stories (the Hand of Glory one is great), Nic Cage producing and no budget. I would have liked to see them at least do a half-series arc of Dead Beat (zombie dinosaur!) or at least introduce Mouse. I've kinda gone off the books - feels like they should have closed down the series a couple of volumes ago - but would like to see someone else give this a try. That wasn't the FBI. That was the CIA... ...Cat Imperial Army. Revenge is a dish best served kibbled.

Approved two years before the dark times... before the Zaslav... and having to be filmed during an actual plague, it's taken a couple of years to get right but it looks decent. The trailer seems to concentrate more on the human than the horror, which also seems promising. Pedro Pascal doing a similar job to Mando - ferry one special, mildly irritating kid out West. Bella Ramsey - who you might remember as the funny, fierce and fearless giant-slayer Lyanna Mormont in Thrones - bringing some slightly more irritating teen vibes to Ellie. Anna Torv (Fringe) swings in as smuggling partner Jess... Gabriel Luna (Agents of SHIELD, True Detective) as idealistic baby bro Tommy. There are also a few entirely new or expanded characters - and in a nice touch, quite a number of the games' voice actors will be present in quite chunky roles. There is one small glimpse of a trio of Big Bads at the end of the trailer, but hopefully they show this stuff sparingly.

Small moment of #zen, guest starring America’s greatest philosopher, and a passing god.

Derina Harvey - The Last Shanty

Spacehog - In The Meantime

Time to goodbye to the space oddities... General theme seems to be confronting the end / destiny / things that follow, and tone is... darrrrrrk. Even with epic-ized Spacehog over it. We do know that this is the end of the road for James Gunn with Marvel, and Dave Bautista was keen on having Drax killed off to wrap up his arc. Dave's got a much larger range of options these days for a "big guy." Saldana is also swearing off franchises for a little while. We have a Richard Scarry version of suburbia, Rocket's origin story and a very friendly otter, plus Cosmo is in the credits... ...which leads us to our briefly glimpsed Scowling Big Bad. The High Evolutionary, a grumpy Mancunian (aren't they all?) who's into genetic manipulation, and created CounterEarth. Played by Chukwudi Iwuji, who joined the Gunn crew via Peacemaker. Also introducing Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), who was teased in the post-credits of GOTG2. Likely antagonist-turned-ally. Time to call an emergency meeting? (0:48). Nice Gunn touch: Troma films regular Steve Blackehart (hell of a name to start with) written in as Steemie Blueliver.

Indy was 13 during the Last Crusade cold open, which was set in 1912. So, born 1899. Marion/Karen Allen may or may not be in the movie - she's currently not listed on main cast - so Indy may or may not be a widow at this point. If you want classic score: here's Helena's (very 30s/40s femme fatale) Theme. Oh, and Mutt died on the way back to his home planet.

...okay, not the most inspiring title, and certainly not an enlightening one. But dammit, this looks like proper Indy. What do we know? This is absolutely, positively, the last Ford Indy film. (As the man said: "I'm not falling down for you again.") Nazis? In America? Whodathunkit. While it's a little on the nose right now, this lot are the real deal. Setting is 1969 USA, at the height of the Space Race - making Indy 70 years old, and a lot more mileage. This ties neatly into our big bad Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who was imported via Operation Paperclip, and loosely based on Wernher Von Braun. Indy knows him and intensely dislikes the fact that the US is giving a home to his kind. Mikkelsen mentioned his character's motivation is to "correct the mistakes of the past", so... time travel, or something a little weirder? There seems to be a lot of Greek architecture and mathematical imagery around the aforementioned Dial. If that statue's who I think it is, Pythagoras is best known today for irritating geometry students. But also had interests in astronomy, music... and reincarnation, the ability to recall past lives, and quite a lot of other mystical stuff. That opens up more possibilities as to what this Dial does when you turn it up to έντεκα. Phoebe WB being Proper Adventurous as new sidekick Helena, who is apparently quite the con artist. Indy refers to her as his god-daughter... is that part of their con act, or does that mean she's Helena Brody? Some classic Indy gags - car chases, duelling tuktuks, and racing a horse through the subway - plus getting in way over his head (again). There'll also be a bit with a digitally de-aged Harrison and Mads set in 1944. Whether that's a cold open or a rewind, we do not yet know. Additional cast: John Rhys-Davis is back as Sallah, plus Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, and Antonio Banderas in an as-yet-undisclosed role.

Just watched a neat little vid about some confirmed Easter Eggs from Luthen’s shop… Mandalorian armour Padme’s bronze headpiece from AOTC Gungan powershield A modified version of Starkiller’s helm from Unleashed Jedi Temple Guard mask A Sith and a Jedi Holocron The Sankara Stones. (Though IMHO, they belong in a museum).

AC⚡DC - Who Made Who?

"Thrawn's digging in the wrong place..."