News Around the Net!
Lots of exciting news has come out of the recent DC/Warner Brothers FanDome event:
Let’s start with the trailer for Zack Snyder’s expanded four-hour (!) “Snyder Cut” of Justice League:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=z6512XKKNkU&feature=emb_logo
I am super-excited to see what Mr. Snyder has put together. There’s lots of very intriguing new footage there (and I love that he scored the trailer to Hallelujah, which he also used in his Watchmen adaptation). I don’t subscribe to the simplistic Joss Whedon=bad, Zack Snyder=good perspective that I see online. But I’m excited to see this!
Next up: the first trailer for the new Batman solo film, The Batman:
That looks pretty great to me! Reportedly, they only shot 25% of the film before having to shut down due to COVID, so who knows how this will ultimately all come together, but I like what I see here. I like seeing what looks like a grounded story in which Batman gets to be a detective, rather than an action hero. We haven’t really seen much of Batman as a detective in the Batman films. I love seeing Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. I’m intrigued in what seems like a very scary take on the Riddler. I like Zoë Kravitz but the look of her Catowman hasn’t quite sold me here… nor has the look of Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman. I like the Batman costume — it’s in the scenes as Bruce Wayne that Mr. Pattinson looks off to me. But I trust Matt Reeves (I consider his film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to be a genre masterpiece).
Here’s a new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984:
That looks solid. In a world without COVID, we’d have been able to see this film already. I hope we’re able to see it some time in the not-too-distant future!
Lastly, here’s a fun look at the in-production Suicide Squad sequel, directed by James Gunn:
The first Suicide Squad film was a disaster, but I trust James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy). I can’t wait to see what he’s putting together.
This is a fun read: the A.V. Club’s look back at the enduring greatness of Paul Feig and Judd Apatow’s Freaks and Geeks. This is one of my very favorite TV series of all time.
Speaking of Paul Feig — he made a sci-fi comedy TV show in 2015 called Other Space??? How have I never heard of this??? (Because it was only shown on something called Yahoo! Screen, apparently.) Anyways, apparently it’s now available to stream on (another) app I’ve never heard of called Dust. I need to check this out. More info is here.
I was sad to read of the death last week of Ben Cross, who played Spock’s father Sarek in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek film. I really enjoyed Mr. Cross’ work in the film. (I could argue that he was a better Vulcan than Zachary Quinto as Spock, but let’s not go negative here…) Mr. Cross will be missed.
This is a fun article on the mostly lost genre of movie novelizations. I read a lot of these as a kid!! (In related news, I really enjoyed the recent Inglorious Treksperts podcast episode interviewing Alan Dean Foster, who among many other great work in his life wrote expanded novelizations of the Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes, ghost-wrote the novelization of the original Star Wars, and wrote the very first Star Wars tie-in novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. Click here to give it a listen.)
This is a cool look at Mondo’s glorious Batman: The Animated Series posters. I need to acquire some of these!
Finally for today: in the aftermath of the protests over the murder of George Floyd, I have been reading a lot of opinions across the internet regarding what place (or lack thereof) the familiar TV genre of cop shows should have in our viewing diet moving forward. The best take on this I’ve read came recently from my favorite Tv critic, Alan Sepinwall, writing for Rolling Stone. His article Why I Loved Cop Shows, and Why They Must Change, is well worth your time and consideration.
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