News Around the Net!

Here’s a trailer for Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of 3 Body Problem, the novel written by Liu Cixin:

I’d probably be interested in that even if it wasn’t being overseen by Game of Thrones show-runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.  (I loved Game of Thrones for many, many years before I didn’t.  I’m curious to see if Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss have another great TV show in them.)

The final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm approaches:

I’m excited for the upcoming release of the third and final season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch:

Here’s our first substantial look at the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is coming in just a month:

Wow! Well, that looks terrific.  Is it possible this is going to be good??  I’m starting to hope…

This is exciting! Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ magnificent crime comic book series Criminal is being adapted for a series on Amazon Prime video!  If done right, this could be amazing.

In other cool comic book adaptation news, an animated series based on Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest series is also in the works!  That’d be cool if it actually happens.

Big Star Wars news: Ahsoka season two is in the works (thank goodness)… and Jon Favreau will be making a movie called The Mandalorian and Grogu!  Making a Mando movie makes a lot of sense, as that’s the Star Wars property that people seem most excited about these days.  And Grogu/”Baby Yoda” has crossed into the public consciousness.  It’s strange to me that Mr. Favreau had actually written all the scripts for a fourth season of The Mandalorian, but that’s all now being shelved.  I also wonder what this does for the planned Mandalorian crossover movie overseen by Dave Filoni.  Right now they say that’s still coming in the years ahead… I guess we’ll see… in recent years Lucasfilm is about oh-for-ten in terms of actually making the Star Wars films they keep announcing… let’s see if Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni can actually pull these planned movies off…

Meanwhile, in Star Trek news, Paramount has said yet again that they’re working on a fourth “Kelvinverse” film featuring Chris Pine and the rebooted cast… and also that they’re working on some sort of Star Trek “origin story” film.  Blerg, another prequel??  That doesn’t sound exciting and I don’t have much faith in anyone involved in Trek these days.  (Except Terry Matalas, the man responsible for Picard season three.  Give this man another Star Trek show or movie to oversee!!!  Please!!!)  If they wanted to make a Star Trek origin film, they should look at Erik Jendresen’s Star Trek: The Beginning script.  Developed before J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot, that story would have depicted the Earth-Romulan war.  It sounds like it might have been very cool.  (Give a listen to this episode of the Inglorious Treksperts podcast that explores Mr. Jendresen’s plans!)  The only aspect of this new Star Trek news that excites me is the involvement of director Toby Haynes, who was involved with the magnificent Andor series!

Speaking of Picard Season three, I was happy to see both Terry Matalas and Jeri Ryan get some recent awards show love!

Martin Scorsese has announced that his next film will be about Jesus, based on the book The Life of Jesus by Shūsaku Endō.  He’s also said he intends the film to run only about eight minutes (in other words, about half the run-time of his recent films like The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon)…!

Sad news that writer Tracy Tormé has passed away.  Mr. Tormé was a key writer during the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (among many other credits).

I’m very interested to discover what Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) has in store for his Alien TV series.  It makes sense that he plans to ignore the continuity of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.  (Though I remain disappointed that, after Mr. Scott course-corrected for Prometheus with the far stronger Alien: Covenant, his very bizarre prequel story focusing on the android David looks like it will be left unfinished, with the planned third film never made.)

I’m not so excited by news that Greg Daniels is considering rebooting or sequalizing The Office.  That show had its run!  (Arguably, it overstayed its welcome by a few seasons…)  Let sleeping dogs lie.

Speaking of not letting sleeping dogs lie, we come to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the sequel to Afterlife that I’m not sure anyone wanted.  Look, I’m not going to not go see a new Ghostbusters film.  And I want it to be good!!!  Do these images of the classic gang, along with the new gang, all suited up get you excited…?  I wish it did for me…

Along the same lines, they’re still talking about making another Highlander movie… will this ever happen?  Will it be any good?  I’m dubious about both, but here too, I’d love to be wrong.  It’d be awesome to get a kick-ass new Highlander movie!!  I can dream, can’t I?

Apparently Daredevil: Born Again is getting back into production after a long hiatus, with rumors of stronger-than-expected connections to the original Netflix show.  Apparently, Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Wohl will be returning as Foggy Nelson and Karen Page… and apparently even Wilson Bethel, who played Bullseye in season three, will be back as well!  (I’m happy to see these actors brought into the MCU.)

I’ve enjoyed the first two seasons of Reacher (it’s dumb, but fun!) and I’m glad they’re working on season three… I wish they’d stop the teasing, though, and announce which Reacher novel they’ll be adapting next!

I’m glad part two of Invincible is coming out in just two months… I can’t wait!!  (Click here for my review of the first half of season two!)

They’re working on a new Jurassic World movie?  Well, first off, just calling it a Jurassic World movie instead of a Jurassic Park movie is not a good sign…

Speaking of bad ideas… look, I’d love to actually see a great Tron sequel, one that takes advantage of modern CGI effects and also tells a compelling story with interesting characters.  But casting Jared Leto in the lead is a bad idea.  Calling the movie Tr3n is even worse.  UGH!!

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