News Around the Net!
Let’s kick things off with this important message from Levar Burton and The Daily Show.
Here’s an exciting new trailer for Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness:
Holy guacamole, is that Patrick Stewart, reprising his role as Professor X from the Fox X-Men films??? THAT IS AWESOME.
I was excited to watch this first substantial trailer for the upcoming Amazon Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power:
Lordy I hope this show will be good! (It’s hard to tell from this trailer. Everything looks beautiful and suitably epic, but will these new characters be interesting? I can’t tell that yet.) Click here for an in-depth Vanity Fair article exploring this upcoming series!
And by the way, don’t forget that there’s ANOTHER Lord of the Rings project in the works — the animated The War of the Rohirrim film, which is scheduled for a theatrical release in 2024. Philippa Boyens (a key creative force in Peter Jackson’s films) is involved, so that bodes well.
This is a nice sizzle reel for Warner Brother’s 2022 DC films:
I’m excited for The Batman but I’m not sure about any of the others. We’ll see…
Here’s a new trailer for Jurassic World: Dominion:
That’s a solid trailer, but seeing as I quite disliked the two previous Jurassic World films, I can’t say I have much hope for this new one. Still, it’s undeniably a thrill to see Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum all back reprising their roles from the original Jurassic Park film. Wouldn’t it be great if this film was awesome?? (So far the franchise is zero for four with it’s sequel films… maybe someday that streak will be broken…)
I’m excited for this Larry David documentary, coming soon to HBO:
That’s Larry Charles — a terrific comedy writer responsible for so many great Seinfeld and Curb episodes, and he also directed Borat and Religulous — seen chatting with Larry David in the trailer. That looks like a lot of fun!
Here’s a trailer for another interesting-looking doc: Lucy and Desi, directed by Amy Poehler:
Coming on the heels of the terrific Being the Ricardos, I can’t wait to watch this documentary.
I’m a huge fan of John Byrne, the writer/artist behind some of my all-time favorite comic book runs. When I was a kid, Byrne was absolutely THE BEST comic book writer/artist there was. I still love his work. I wish he was doing more new stuff. Click here to watch a fascinating interview with him from a few years back, talking about some of his iconic Marvel comics runs, from Fantastic Four to She-Hulk. And click here to watch an even BETTER interview with him, digging deeply into his reinvention of Superman on the eighties for DC comics. Mr. Byrne’s portrayal of Superman remains, for me, the most iconic version of the character. That video contains so many fascinating tidbits in which Mr. Byrne reflects on the decisions that went into his portrayal of Supes, his world and his supporting cast. Mr. Byrne gets Superman the way few do. He’s so thoughtful about the character! (And for a man often accused of having a huge ego, he’s remarkably gracious in the interview, in giving credit to others for many aspects of his run.)
This is cool: Berkeley Breathed is working on a Bloom County animated series! Wow! I adore Bloom County; I really hope this actually happens.
Calling all Star Trek fans: Click here to read an extraordinarily detailed and gloriously nerdy analysis of the many, many, many different versions of the famous Starfleet arrowhead insignia seen on the various different TV and film incarnations of Trek from across the decades. Wow — this was amazing.
In other news, it’s looking like a new Star Trek movie is in the works, which will involve J.J. Abrams and reunite the cast of his “Kelvin Universe” films. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I quite like that cast and I’d love to see them in a really great film. (All three of their films have been deeply flawed, in my opinion.) But I sort of feel like that cast’s time has passed and it’s time to move on. And I have very little faith that J.J. Abrams or anyone involved with modern Trek knows how to make a good Star Trek story, on TV or in the movies. I’d love to be proven wrong…
In more Trek news, I very much enjoyed reading this in-depth interview with Aaron Waltke, the co-executive producer of the animated Star Trek: Prodigy show. I’m enjoying Prodigy, even though this isn’t the type of Star Trek show I really want to see. But in a world when I feel that so many of the people involved with modern Star Trek don’t know anything about the franchise (and don’t care about it), Mr. Waltke’s comments in this interview demonstrate deep knowledge of Trek, which makes me happy. I don’t agree with all of his comments and I don’t love all of the decisions made in the making of Prodigy, but I don’t sense in prodigy the disdain and misunderstanding of Trek that permeated Discovery and Picard.
BIG NEWS: Better Call Saul is finally returning for the first half of its final season in April! I can’t wait!!!!
And, yay, Bill Hader’s Barry is returning in April as well! (I loved the first two seasons!)
Terribly sad news to read of the recent passing of Ivan Reitman. Mr. Reitman directed an incredible array of groundbreaking films, including Meatballs, Stripes, Twins, Dave, and, of course: Ghostbusters. The genius of Ghostbusters is beyond my words to capture. It’s one of my all-time favorite films that I love more every time I watch it. Mr. Reitman will be missed.
I was also so sad to read of the passing of brilliant visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull. Mr. Trumbull was involved in creating so many incredible, iconic visual effects sequences, for films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and so many more. But for me, he is most beloved for his incredible work on the visual effects of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Enterprise has never looked more beautiful than in The Motion Picture, and that’s all due to Mr. Trumbull’s genius. You can read more about Mr. Trumbull here, in an article that reveals that a starship on Star Trek: Picard will be named in his honor, which is very cool!
So, after decades in development hell, a new Fletch movie is finally happening?!! I can’t wait to see what Jon Hamm does with this role!
Huzzah! Peacemaker is returning for a second season!! That’s terrific news. I loved the first season so much.
Let’s end with this — I am overjoyed that, unbelievably, Futurama is returning from the dead yet again for new episodes on Hulu!!! I have always had a deep and abiding love for Futurama. Again and again the series has been cancelled and ignored, and somehow again and again — often after years away — it seems to find its way back to life! After the last cancellation back in 2013 (almost a decade ago!!), I’d thought for sure the show was gone for good. I am so happy to have been wrong!!! (The only fly in the ointment is that John DiMaggio, the talented voice actor who voices Bender, has apparently not yet signed on and they’re talking about recasting the role. I hope that cooler heads will prevail and they’ll come to terms with Mr. DiMaggio. I can’t imagine anyone else voicing Bender.)
All right, friends, that’s all from me for today! Thanks for reading and supporting this site!!