News Around the Net!
Let’s begin with this awesome new trailer for season 4 of Black Mirror:
I cannot wait!! The original British episodes of this series are works of near-genius, and I thought the recent Netflix-produced season was pretty great. I am so glad that this show lives on via Netflix! I can’t wait for these next six episodes.
So, wow, Colin Trevorrow is out as the director of Star Wars: Episode IX. I loved Mr. Trevorrow’s first film, Safety Not Guaranteed, but his next film, and his first foray into the world of big-budget filmmaking, was the terrible Jurassic World. So I am sort of breathing a sigh of relief at this news, though I feel bad for Mr. Trevorrow. What is up with Lucasfilm firing all of their directors?? Josh Trank was fired from one of the stand-alone films. Gareth Edwards apparently had the final cut of Rogue One taken away from him, and was replaced for the film’s reshoots by Tony Gilroy. And just recently, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired from the solo Han Solo film in the middle of production, and replaced by Ron Howard. I give Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm some credit, because whatever behind-the-scenes machinations went on in the making of Rogue One, the final film was a masterpiece. We’ll see how these other films turn out. But for now, I am hoping this news will turn out to be good news for Episode IX. We’ll see…
This new trailer for Star Wars: Rebels season 4 looks great:
X-wings! Thrawn! The first animated appearance of Thrawn’s manservant/assassin Rukh (from Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire)! Mon Mothma! Forest Whittaker returns as Saw Gerrera (from Rogue One)! Yavin IV! Tarkin! Project Stardust! I’ve grown to quite like this show, and I am excited for the fourth and final season.
I am super-excited that The Wire’s David Simon and George Pelecanos have a new show on HBO, The Deuce! I can’t wait to see it. Any new work from this team deserves immediate attention. In the meanwhile, here is a fascinating interview that TV critic Alan Sepinwall conducted recently with Mr. Simon. It’s a great read.
This is a great interview with Lake Bell, discussing her new film I do… Until I Don’t. I loved her debut film, In a World…, which she wrote, directed, and starred in, and so I am very excited to see her second film.
In honor of the release of the film adaptation of It, which I am dying to see, here is a list of all forty Stephen King movie adaptations, ranked from worst to best. I haven’t seen most of these movies, and I think the writers are more critical of The Shawshank Redemption than is warranted, but still, it’s a fun list and a good read.
Two talented Star Trek fans have created cool CGI teasers that express their hope that, someday, CBS will upgrade Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to HD the way they did with Star Trek: The Next Generation when that series was released on blu-ray several years back. Impressive work. I do hope that, someday, we’ll get to see DS9 in HD.
Speaking of DS9, this is fun, happy news: Terry Farrell (who played Jadzia Dax on DS9) and Adam Nimoy (the son of Leonard Nimoy and director of For the Love of Spock and the upcoming Deep Space Nine documentary) are engaged!
I can’t believe that Batman: The Animated Series is 25 years old!! Here is a great look back at the series, with recollections from Kevin Conroy (Batman), Mark Hamill (the Joker), Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn), Loren Lester (Robin), John Glover (the Riddler) and Diane Pershing (Poison Ivy). Here is another terrific article, about how Batman: The Animated Series changed the way we look at superhero TV shows.
A little while back, on Nerdist’s Talkin’ Toons podcast, Kevin Conroy (who voiced Batman on Batman: The Animated Series) and fellow voice actor Rob Paulsen did a table read of the ending moments of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, and someone actually synced that up with the footage from the film. Take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=q6-pULytisU
That’s a great place to wrap up, for today. Have a great weekend, everybody!