Friday, 30 August 2024

Jurassic World: Rebirth first look



Universal Pictures has released the first images and an official synopsis for Jurassic World: Rebirth.

The upcoming instalment in the Jurassic Park franchise is directed by Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), and stars Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) and Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton).

Read the official synopsis:

“Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind. Johansson plays skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett, contracted to lead a skilled team on a top-secret mission to secure genetic material from the world’s three most massive dinosaurs. When Zora’s operation intersects with a civilian family whose boating expedition was capsized by marauding aquatic dinos, they all find themselves stranded on an island where they come face-to-face with a sinister, shocking discovery that’s been hidden from the world for decades.”

Jurassic World: Rebirth will be in cinemas in July 2025.

Are you looking forward to Jurassic World: Rebirth? Let me know in the comments below.

Thursday, 22 August 2024

The Phantom Menace at 25



A long time ago… 25 years to be exact, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace took fans (myself included) back to a time before Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia challenged a tyrannical Empire and saved a galaxy far, far away.

Like many, I’d waited 16 years for another Star Wars movie following the original trilogy's conclusion in 1983. The anticipation for the film may never be matched in my lifetime. I subscribed to the official Star Wars fan club and watched the exclusive QuickTime trailers on dial-up internet on an Apple Macintosh Performa 5200 (soon to be replaced by an iMac DV SE with iMovie).

In May 1999, I vividly remember taking the day off work on 'Menace Monday' to buy merchandise (mostly Darth Maul-related) at Toys "R" Us. Coincidentally, I was interviewed by Hasbro for a multimedia role and shown CommTech, which revolutionised toy technology, under NDA in early 1999.

Ahead of its UK release, I imported John Williams’ Star Wars: The Phantom Menace soundtrack from CDNow and was immediately spoiled by the track listing: Qui-Gon’s Noble End and Qui-Gon’s Funeral left little to the imagination. However, this was new Star Wars music from Williams and Duel of the Fates was an instant classic (I’m streaming it on Apple Music).

I ventured into the Exeter Picturehouse to book tickets for a weekend screening, and the staff informed me there were tickets available for the first day. Do I wait and see it with friends or go it alone? This time the dark side prevailed and I walked into a darkened theatre.

The original Star Wars was the first film I saw at the cinema (circa 1978) in the wake of a life-changing childhood trauma. So, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was going to be a repeat of that cosmic ride of hope!

A disturbance in the Force!

Alas, an inebriated couple (the cinema has an upstairs bar) decided to read aloud the opening crawl to benefit anyone not au fait with the taxation of trade routes. This unwelcome commentary continued for an hour until staff intervened.

There were technical issues with the projection due to independent cinemas not having access to first-generation prints (digital was still a few years away), which exhibited picture artefacts inherent in a video source!

Also, Lucasfilm stipulated no refunds as a condition for showing the movie (I was offered a complimentary ticket for any movie other than Star Wars: The Phantom Menace).

These twists set the tone for the rest of the Scooby-Doo-titled movie. And I was left unsure of how I felt about George Lucas’ prequel! Was it better than Star Wars: Return of the Jedi as I’d hastily written in an email to friends?

Darth Maul was cool, but why did Lucas kill him off? The special effects were flashy, but was there a story? There was too much talking and not enough action. Lucas had become too proud of the technological advances developed at Lucasfilm and overlooked basic storytelling tenets - adding character motivations in post. It wasn’t all about selling merchandise was it? Bueller...? Bueller...? Bueller...?

I watched Star Wars: The Phantom Menace six times that summer.

25 years on and post-pandemic, none of it matters. It was unforgettable. Thank the maker.

May the Force be with you!

Sunday, 11 August 2024

Agatha All Along creates chaos this Halloween



Marvel Television dropped an official trailer for Agatha All Along at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.



Read the official synopsis:

"In Marvel Studios’ “Agatha All Along,” the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth Teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious Teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…"

The upcoming WandaVision live-action spin-off series, starring Kathryn Hahn as the titular witch, promises spooky fun in time for Halloween.

"We’ve seen [Agatha] with all her bravado and crazy confidence," Hahn recently explained. "So much of Agatha is performance. It was exciting to get to the kernel under the sass and sarcasm and taking pleasure in other people’s pain. There’s something broken under that, big-time."

Marvel Television’s Agatha All Along premieres in the UK on 19th September, with the first two episodes, exclusively on Disney+.

Are you looking forward to Agatha All Along? Let me know in the comments below.

Saturday, 10 August 2024

Star Wars goes Goonies in Skeleton Crew



Lucasfilm dropped an official trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.



The Star Wars live-action spin-off series starring Jude Law, created by Spider-Man Homecoming director Jon Watts and writer Christopher Ford, who also serve as the showrunners, follows along as the kids get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy and have to find their way home, meeting unlikely allies and enemies along the way.

This is Star Wars goes Goonies with a Spielbergian suburban twist and I'm here for a coming-of-age series in a galaxy far, far away this holiday season.

Individual episodic directors are Jon Watts, David Lowery, the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung. The season was written by Christopher Ford and Jon Watts, with two episodes by Myung Joh Wesner. The series is executive produced by Christopher Ford, Jon Watts, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson, along with co-executive producers Chris Buongiorno, Karen Gilchrist, Carrie Beck and producers Susan McNamara and John Bartnicki.

Law was onstage at D23 and said the series harkens back to the Amblin fantasy films of the 1980s, which many fans (myself included) grew up watching.

“I fell in love with Star Wars when I was a 10-year-old boy,” he said. “[This] series is told from the perspective of the kids.”

Skeleton Crew starts streaming with a two-episode series premiere in the UK on 4th December on Disney+.

Are you looking forward to Star Wars: Skeleton Crew on Disney+? Did you spot the alien from Captain EO? Let me know in the comments below.

Wednesday, 7 August 2024

Alien: Romulus introducing Rain



Alien: Romulus bursts onto the big screen this month and the marketing machine has gone into top gear. On Tuesday, Twentieth Century Studios dropped a featurette introducing Rain (Cailee Spaeny).



Read the official synopsis:

"While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe."

The upcoming Alien franchise movie, directed by Fede Álvarez (Don't Breathe), is set between Alien and Aliens and is a hybrid of both.

The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), Aileen Wu. Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 2) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.

Alien: Romulus is produced by Ridley Scott (Napoleon), who directed the original Alien and produced and directed the series’ entries Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Michael Pruss (Boston Strangler), and Walter Hill (Alien), with Fede Alvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon (Charlie’s Angels), Brent O’Connor (Bullet Train), and Tom Moran (Unstoppable) serving as executive producers.

Spaeny told SFX magazine that she looked to classic horror movies because she felt the need to bring different looks of terror to Alien: Romulus.

“The whole time I was making the movie, the second I got home I either had a sci-fi or a horror film playing in the background the whole time. Usually horror,” Spaeny told SFX. "So, whether that was having The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on or The Blair Witch Project or Near Dark, because you do sort of run out of ideas.

“You're like, 'I don’t know how to be horrified again today in an interesting way,’” Spaeny added. “I've got, like, three facial expressions and you've seen all of them about 100 times now!”

Originally intended to go straight-to-streaming on Hulu and Star on Disney+, Alien: Romulus is only in cinemas on 16th August.

Are you looking forward to Alien: Romulus? Let me know in the comments below.

Sunday, 4 August 2024

Is Doctor Who a success on Disney+?



During the Doctor Who Hall H panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), Disney+ and the BBC announced that The War Between The Land And The Sea — a new five-part spin-off series written by showrunner Russell T Davies and Pete McTighe — is on the way.

Rather than the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), the new series will revolve around a group of humans working together to face the Sea Devils, a race of ancient, ocean-dwelling creatures who first appeared in Doctor Who in 1972.

The fan-favourite marine monsters last appeared in Legend of the Sea Devils. The new Whoniverse spin-off begins filming soon with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Russell Tovey, Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient leading the cast!

Now that the dust has settled following the conclusion of Doctor Who season one, Nick Smith, our US-based veteran Whovian, looks back at the start of the Disney+ era.

Guest post by Nick Smith

The Star Wars prequels. Google+. New Coke. Sometimes the hype is so high, that nothing can live up to it.

Expectations were massive for writer/producer Russell T Davies’ first full season of Doctor Who since the noughties. Many fans reenlisted during his original run on the show; some were captivated children when it began. There was no way that Davies could meet their expectations. But that wasn’t his goal.

A sense of freedom shines through the 2024 episodes of Doctor Who that isn’t present in Davies’ 2005 relaunch. Visually, he can now do anything; there are dinosaurs, talking infants, diabolical animated musical notes, and a CGI boss battle. Budget-wise, he has more to play with than ever before. And when it comes to story, he has slipped the shackles of pseudo-science, moving the Doctor into the fantasy realm.

If anything, Davies has tried to do too much in a handful of episodes. There’s a lot of exposition, as the Doctor (played by Ncuti Gatwa) explains to his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) who he is and what he does. Donna Noble’s daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney) returns, but has little to do. The Doctor falls in love - a bigger upheaval to the show than the Timeless Child saga - but there are no consequences. There’s no time to get to know Ruby, and returning characters like Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf) act out of character.

The usually stoic Kate is warm and friendly; Sutekh is far less eloquent and sinister. It’s as if their familiar names are chucked in to please the fans. Both should have been new or different personae.

The pace of this series seems rushed, with unlikely heroes popping up to save the day: a baby with a flamethrower, and John Lennon with a piano. Almost every week, the Doctor defeats an indomitable god, over-emoting as he goes.

When the show slows down, it’s delightful. 73 Yards focuses on atmosphere, a sense of dread, and is our one chance to gain a deep understanding of Ruby’s personality. In other adventures, small moments centred around her family are touching and believable. Boom focuses on one location, building up tension as the Doctor tries not to get himself blown up. Otherwise, the rhythm is discordant and breathless throughout the season, as if the show has been edited for the TikTok generation.

Davies aimed his 2005 season at young kids, hoping to lure them into watching his program with fart gags, piggy aliens, and high adventure. His latest stories see a return to this tone; Space Babies includes the biggest, silliest joke about flatulence Doctor Who has ever cracked. There’s an effective focus on visual imagery, from iconic close-ups of the Doctor’s face to the memorable sight of Sutekh being dragged through the time vortex.

But style over substance was never Doctor Who’s bag, and the best stories, like Boom, work on multiple layers: a dilemma and an insensible child for the kids to latch onto, and relationship drama and the theme of legacy-building for the adults.

With a Christmas special lined up and a 2025 season already in the can, the hype continues, albeit tempered by the unevenness of this year’s offerings. There’s room in Doctor Who for broad comedy and body horror, tales of love and bright redemption, but the producers would do well to remember that the TARDIS has all of time and space to explore, and there’s no need to rush.

Ultimately, season one of Doctor Who is subject to the cultural shift of a streaming era, where fewer fans are sitting around a telly at primetime on a Saturday (circa 2005). Willow was removed without warning on Disney+. I hope the Doctor doesn't suffer a similar fate after two seasons.

Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Season one is available for pre-order (affiliate link).

Have you watched Doctor Who season one? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Nick Smith's new audiobook, Undead on Arrival, is available from Amazon (affiliate link).

Thursday, 1 August 2024

The Toys That Made Us is back!



The Toys That Made Us is returning to television screens after 5 years!

The cult-favourite documentary series debuted Christmas 2017 and I binged season one on Christmas Eve. For three seasons The Toys That Made Us was a love letter to fans (myself included) of He-Man, G.I. Joe, LEGO, Star Trek, Star Wars, Transformers and more on Netflix. There was also a spin-off series, The Movies That Made Us, focussing on classic films including Aliens and Jurassic Park.

During the pandemic, Nacelle produced A Toy Store Near You on Prime Video (affiliate link), which was comfort viewing during lockdown. It was a poignant reminder of how great independent stores are and the communities they forge.

“By far the most consistent comments we’ve received over the last 5 years have been some sort of inquiry about the future of The Toys That Made Us,” says Brian Volk-Weiss, Nacelle Founder and CEO. “We’re honored to be able to bring this series back to the fans that have waited so long to see it return, and we appreciate the support over the last 5 years that helped make this a reality.”

Episode topics announced at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) include:

Ghostbusters
Hot Wheels
Superhero Toys
Polly Pocket
Fast Food Toys
Pokémon
American Greetings
Nerf

No deal has been announced regarding the upcoming fourth and fifth seasons. However, Netflix has the first three seasons available.

Nacelle is also reviving several 1980s toy lines through toys and animated series, including Biker Mice from Mars (which is co-produced by Ryan Reynolds) and RoboForce (co-produced with Dwayne Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions). They also produced action figures for the sci-fi series The Expanse and acquired the 80s toy brands Sectaurs and Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa.

Are you looking forward to seasons four and five of The Toys That Made Us? Let me know in the comments below.