News Around the Net

I’m so grateful to everyone who reads my blog!  Before we get to the latest news and updates, please consider supporting my work:

You can click here to pre-order my latest comic book, Batya’s Unicorn!  When young Batya discovers a unicorn beyond her city walls, no one believes her.  But as the High Holidays draw near, the creature’s secret may hold the key to lessons of faith, forgiveness, and change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can click here to support Chutzpah!  It’s a new Jewish comics anthology, and the inaugural issue will feature a short story that I wrote and drew!  Also!  They’ve just announced that if they can hit a stretch goal, that first issue will ALSO feature an additional short story drawn by me and written by Arnon Shorr!  It’ll be a special addition to our growing “Festival of Forgotten Tales” series of all-ages stories set around Jewish holidays and featuring an array of fantasy creatures and monsters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you missed it, in the spring author Steven Bergson released an e-book edition of The Tzuris of Shloyme Royten-Hemd, a silly science-fiction adaptation of the classic comedic Jewish folk tale “It Could Always Be Worse” that I illustrated!  It’s packed full of fun, nerdy sci-fi references and jokes.  You can get the e-book on Amazon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still available: The Tomb of the Broken Amulet, a Passover mummy adventure story!  Click here to order!

A huge thank you to everyone who supports my work!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, on with the news!

Here’s our first look at The Mandalorian and Grogu:

It looks just like the show, which is both good and bad.  Will this feel like a movie and not just like several episodes of the show strung together (which is basically what it is, from what I’ve read — a reworked version of scripts originally intended for The Mandalorian season four)?  I don’t know, but for now, this trailer (and all of the practical creatures) makes me happy.  (I wonder how Mando got his Razorcrest ship back??)  Meanwhile, we’ve gotten our first few images from Starfighter, the new Star Wars film in production.  I’m intrigued by the premise, and the cast looks solid.  I hope it’s good.  (Will any of the other announced Star Wars movie projects actually get made?  I think another one recently bit the dust with the announcement that James Mangold has signed an exclusive contract with Paramount.  I guess his “origin of the Jedi” movie that was announced a few years ago is not actually happening.)

Mike Figgis (who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director and Screenplay for Leaving Las Vegas) has made a documentary, Megadoc, on the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis:

Wow, I can’t wait to see that!  Megalopolis was a fascinatingly bizarre film (click here for my review), and I bet there are a ton of juicy behind the scenes stories to be told about it.

Here’s a trailer for The Rip.  I am always happy to see Ben Affleck & Matt Damon reunited on screen!

This is a solid trailer for Welcome to Derry, the TV spin-off of It:

I’m having a hard time telling whether this show will be any good or not, but the trailers are interesting enough so I’m sure I’ll at least give this a try.

Readers of this site well-know that I think the modern era of Star Trek TV on CBS All Access/Paramount+ mostly stinks.  And yet this Paramount+ video, saluting the history of the franchise on the occasion of the anniversary of the first Star Trek episode on Sept 8., 1966, gave me all the feels:

(Too bad they also included a shot of the awful tram/sled fight, the worst scene in possibly the worst Star Trek project ever made, last year’s disastrous Section 31 movie…)

OK, onwards…!

Almost two decades after the first one, a second Simpsons Movie is happening!!  I am excited!!  I love the first movie.

I’ve been reading for years about Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, Quentin Tarantino’s one-movie version of Kill Bill, but it’s always seemed to be difficult to impossible to actually see.  I’m excited this version is finally getting a theatrical release later this year (in December)!  I can’t wait to see it.

Speaking of Quentin Tarantino, I loved reading this excerpt from the new book by Jay Glennie: The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  (Click here to order the book!)  I think I’m going to need to get this book!

Click here to read a fascinating interview with writer/director Shane Black, promoting his new movie for Amazon Prime Video called Play Dirty.  (I haven’t seen that yet, though I hope to soon.)  I’m a big fan of Mr. Black’s.  It’s interesting to get his thoughts on the state of the Predator franchise, and I love hearing him talk about his wonderful (and criminally underseen) 2016 film The Nice Guys.

Tom Holland revealed his Spider-Man suit for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it looks great!  I’m happy to see a very classic-looking Spider-Man suit.

Aaron Sorkin’s much-rumored sequel to The Social Network looks like it’s really happening!  It’s got a title (The Social Reckoning), a great cast and a 2026 release date.  I hope this is good!

It looks like Very Young Frankenstein is moving forward; I’m intrigued!  I love the title and the cast looks interesting.  Could this be any good??  Here’s hoping.

Continuing the theme of interesting projects that I’m surprised are actually (probably) happening, the Highlander reboot looks like it’s still moving forward, and Karen Gillan has joined the cast!  That’s exciting news.

Also exciting: that Michael Mann’s long rumored Heat 2 might be moving forward, and Leonardo DiCaprio might be interested in joining the cast!  Very cool.  I’d love for this to happen.

I am very eager to see Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein movie.  Click here for a great interview with Mr. del Toro about the film (and his intriguing original plan to have made two movies, told from different perspectives!).

I loved Severance season two, and this interview with creator and showrunner Dan Erickson is intriguing.

Click here for an interview with writer/director Rian Johnson, discussing the ending of Poker Face season two.  Speaking of Rian Johnson, I’m excited that the third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man, will have a brief theatrical release before it launches on Netflix!

Click here for a great interview with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg about The Studio and their plans for season two!  I loved this show!!!

At the end of the summer, the great Terrence Stamp passed away.  I of course fell in love with Mr. Stamp’s work because of his iconic portrayal of General Zod in Superman II, a movie that was a huge part of my childhood.  But Mr. Stamp was so great in so many films beyond that.  For example, check out The Limey if you’ve never seen it before…

I was sad to read of the passing of Joe Caroff, the man who designed the iconic James Bond 007 logo!!!  I loved reading about his work and his career.  (And, wow, he was 103 years old!!  Amazing.)

Meanwhile, Amazon (who now owns the Bond franchise), digitally removed the guns from a whole bunch of Bond movie images on Prime Video.  Oy vey.

James Gunn is moving fast, and it looks like we’ll be getting a Superman sequel film, Man of Tomorrow, in just two years!  Rumors are this film will focus on Lex Luthor, which sounds good to me.  I loved Superman, and I can’t wait for more in this world.

I’m excited that James Marsden will be reprising his role as Cyclops from the X-Men movies of the early aughts in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday!  Click here for a nice interview with Mr. Marsden on his return to this character.

Click here for an interesting interview with Andrew Renzi, who directed aka Charlie Sheen, the two-part documentary recently released on Netflix.  Hmmm, I don’t care about Charlie Sheen at all, but I am now interested in watching this!

I’m excited for the in-the-works Scrubs sequel show, and I’m thrilled that John C. McGinley will be back as Dr. Cox!

I’m intrigued to read about this pitch that writer Mike Sussman and Scott Bakula have put together for a Star Trek show called Star Trek: United, taking place a few decades after the end of Star Trek: Enterprise and chronicling Mr. Bakula’s character of Jonathan Archer as president of The United Federation of Planets.  I think that’s a cool idea.  Star Trek crossed with The West Wing has a lot of potential.  (This concept was already brought to life in the fantastic Star Trek novel called Articles of the Federation by Keith RA DeCandido; I think it’d make an amazing TV show.)  I’d love to see a show explore the early years of the Federation, and I think it’d be a ton of fun to see Mr. Bakula reprise his role as Archer.  Will this ever happen?  I doubt it, but it’d be cool.  (The Star Trek project I really want to see is Terry Matalas’ proposed spin-off of Picard season three called Star Trek: Legacy.  But Paramount has for some reason chosen not to pursue that project, which is a big disappointment.)

Thanks for reading!

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