007, converged

It was only a matter of time before James Bond became a gay black woman.

Since Daniel Craig announced he was standing down as James Bond, debate has raged whether the next 007 should be a woman, or black.

Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal that she will be both – thanks to the intervention of feminist TV writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

In what’s been called a ‘popcorn-dropping moment’, British star Lashana Lynch, will be given Bond’s licence to kill in the 25th movie in the franchise, currently being shot in Italy and the UK.

They’re just teasing it now with replacing the number. But they’re obviously hoping they can get away with making the actual substitution once Craig is actually done for good. While they’re at it, why don’t they really shake things up and give him Downs Syndrome and put him in a wheelchair?

This is a Bond for the modern era who will appeal to a younger generation while sticking true to what we all expect in a Bond film,’ the source added. ‘There are spectacular chase sequences and fights, and Bond is still Bond but he’s having to learn to deal with the world of #MeToo.

I’m guessing it probably won’t appeal as much to the younger generations as they think. Perhaps we’ll have to start thinking about writing a script for Roland Dane….


What we have here is a lack of self-reflection

True Blood and Westworld actress Evan Rachel Wood helpfully provides young women with dating advice:

Westworld actor Evan Rachel Wood took to Twitter to attack Stranger Things’ Hawkins Sheriff Jim Hopper.

You should never date a guy like the cop from #strangerthings Extreme jealousy and violent rages are not flattering or sexy like TV would have you believe. That is all.

Wood would add, “Yes I am aware its ‘just a show’ and its set ‘in the 80s’ even though this stuff was unacceptable then too, but thats exactly my point. Its just a show and this is a gentle reminder not to fall for this crap in real life. Red flags galore.”

Now, keep in mind that Miss Wood is best known for portraying a bisexual vampire who kills and eats people as well as a killer robot. So if you take one thing away from this, it is a gentle reminder not to fall for bisexual vampires and killer robots. Bisexual vampires and killer robots are not flattering or sexy like TV would have you believe.

Takeaway: never take relationship advice from any woman dumb enough to date Marilyn Manson.


It’s going to be an interesting ride

If SJWs are this upset about a pro-life movie, I suspect they’re going to be over-the-top apoplectic over Rebel’s Run:

Police have been called in to investigate allegations of death threats made to cinema theater owners in Canada who had scheduled to screen the pro-life movie Unplanned. B.J. McKelvie, president of Cinedicon, the Canadian distributor of the film that tells the story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood manager-turned pro-life activist, confirmed two Canadian independent cinema owners reported threats that caused them to be “fearful for their families,” said LifeSiteNews.

Yet another independent theater owner was reportedly “harassed to the extreme.”

Chuck Konzelman, one of the film’s producer-directors, reportedly said McKelvie requested, for the sake of safety, the film’s producers remove from their website the July 12 listing of 46 Canadian theaters that will be screening the movie.

The death threats are reportedly aimed at the independent theater owners. McKelvie noted “they didn’t get anywhere with Cineplex, or they didn’t get anywhere with Landmark.”

No worries. We’ll be ready for any and every type of opposition. And there will be opposition.


REBEL’S RUN on BIC

Bounding Into Comics covers our recent announcement of REBEL’S RUN:

“I was contacted by an experienced producer.” He added, “Then I got contacted by first one producer then I got contacted by other people. Which puzzled me because we’ve published over a hundred books and nobody from the movie industry or TV industry has ever contacted us.”

Vox adds, “I was very curious about this and finally the smartest of the producers that had contacted me said, ‘Well, you have to understand, nobody in Hollywood reads.’”

He went on to praise the level of talent that is part of the film, “The level of talent that is taking in part in this, whether its with Chuck Dixon being the lead scriptwriter…we’ve got a great script, you can see from the trailer, the director, Scooter, has a really great visual eye. We are going to bring so many very strong elements to the table that I think that people are going to be really surprised at the final result.” He continues, “We are actually aiming for one of the best movie soundtracks. I want a soundtrack that is going to stand up against the Matrix, Mortal Kombat Annihilation…”

The third soundtrack I couldn’t recall during the stream, and which I consider to be a model along with the others, is Cool World. You might also be interested in last night’s Darkstream on the subject, during which I addressed a number of questions that have been raised, such as if Rebel is just another Strong Independent Woman who Knows Kung-fu and Doesn’t Need a Man to Save Her.


REBEL’S RUN

Many of you are aware that we have been working on a larger-scale project than usual over the last few months. So, I suspect that few of you will be surprised to learn that what we have been assiduously working on is putting together a production team for the first Arkhaven film as well as a new film production company, Viral Films Media. This is the Rebel’s Run Teaser Trailer from Galatia Films and VFM. We’re pleased to be able to announce that Scooter Downey, who directed this trailer, will also be directing the film.

UPDATE: Owen and I discuss REBEL’S RUN and another project on his stream.


Prediction: spectacularly bad

The Wheel of Time wasn’t any good in book form. One shudders to think how bad it will be by the time Amazon gets through with it:

Amazon’s highly anticipated TV series adaptation of the beloved book series The Wheel of Time has found its star. It was announced today that Oscar-nominated actress Rosamund Pike will play the lead role of Moiraine in the TV adaptation of Robert Jordan’s fantasy novels.

The Wheel of Time is set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists, but only women can use it. Meaning that in this series — women hold the keys to power. The story follows Moiraine, a member of the shadowy and influential all-female organization called the ‘Aes Sedai’ as she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women. Moiraine’s interested in these five because she believes one of them might be the reincarnation of an incredibly powerful individual, whom prophecies say will either save humanity or destroy it. The series draws on numerous elements of European and Asian culture and philosophy, most notably the cyclical nature of time found in Buddhism and Hinduism.

The Wheel of Time had a very good introduction. Then it promptly started going downhill in the first chapter and didn’t stop until it reached its nadir at Book Seven. But it was essentially unreadable beginning with Book Four. It’s never a good sign when a series is said to improve by its fans after the author’s death. I very much doubt the TV series will survive to the finish either.

I am, however, genuinely curious to learn who will play the most annoying character in fantasy literature, Rand al’Thor. Whoever he is, one hopes that he will possess a sufficiently punchable face in order to properly play the part. I suggest David Hogg.


Unauthorized documentaries

On tonight’s Darkstream, I had the privilege of announcing that Unauthorized.TV is now presenting documentaries, beginning with Reclaiming the Blade, an intriguing documentary from Galatia Films about the history of the sword. It’s available for all subscribers and we plan to add one new documentary a month. We’re also producing the first Unauthorized documentary, which we plan to release on Unauthorized this fall.

If you’re a subscriber you can watch Reclaiming the Blade by clicking on the image below or by selecting Catalog/Books, Films & Comics/Documentaries.


X-Men meltdown

The SJW implosion continues apace:

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is on track to have the worst opening in the history of the franchise.

The movie collected just $14 million on Friday, making it the lowest debut ever for an X-Men movie, reports Variety on Saturday.

The Simon Kinberg-directed Phoenix, which cost $200 million to make, was initially projected to gross $50–60 million with the studio expecting a $40–50 million debut.

The vacuum just keeps expanding. And the high regard for the comic arc from which it was derived only underlines how badly the filmmakers screwed it up.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is not only one of the greatest X-Men tales, but it is also a frequent nominee for the best comic book storyline of all-time.

Yeah, so, about that….


Chernobyl, corrected

A Soviet general who was featured in the recent miniseries Chernobyl, Nikolai Tarakanov, corrects the liberties taken by the creators of the docudrama in a fascinating interview with Russia Today.

Tarakanov: It was a terrifying sight, really. What on Earth could demolish an entire structure of reinforced concrete? A nuclear bomb? Some massive accident? I couldn’t imagine what had happened there. As a result of the explosion, all the rubble and dust was sent into the air. 300,000 cubic meters of soil around the plant were extracted, put in trucks and taken to burial sites. The soil was replaced with 300,000 cubic meters of crushed stone, sealed with concrete and covered with heavy concrete plates. This led to radiation levels falling by hundreds of times around the site, which allowed us to deal with the plant itself and decontaminate the equipment. It’s a long story. But then again, it was the soldiers who did all that. That is why when they ask me about it I always say: yes, there were scientists. Of course there were scientists; I have a doctoral degree myself. But it was the soldiers who were the main heroes of this story. When you think about war history, you always remember the military leaders, great generals, like Zhukov and Voroshilov. But who did all the fighting? It was the soldiers.

Tarakanov: There’s this episode, it’s is an ugly one. They show this boy, a conscript arriving at the military compound. What comes next is just ridiculous. They give him a uniform and moments later they are teaching him how to shoot animals. I mean, that’s just silly. Nothing even close to that ever happened. This is one serious mistake.

RTD: Are you saying they never executed animals, like they show in the episode?

Tarakanov: No, they did, but never in the residential area. In the residential parts, there were no cows, no dogs – not a single one. The shooting did take place, but it was in the forests, where wild animals still roamed, including deer, as well as cattle that wandered off after the evacuation. But to show this young boy, recently drafted, being given all this equipment straight away [is just absurd].

The way it actually happened was pretty simple. The government issued a decree announcing general mobilization. They were supposed to call in 20,000 reservists, as they were called, from, say, Moscow and elsewhere… Those were all men of conscription age, between 30 and 40, mostly. And, of course, they knew nothing about their pending deployment. Later, when they arrived at the base, they were assigned to different units, a platoon, company or battalion. Only then would they set off for Chernobyl. So, all the procedures followed the law. Yet, the time they had to serve there was way too long.

RTD: This series portrays then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as a confused man, who is doubting the reality and hesitating to take control. Is that true? Is that how it was and did he really fail to assume responsibility for the incident?

Tarakanov: What I can tell you is that if we speak about the man’s character, since I knew him quite well… he did lack that firm grip on things that, for example, Boris Yeltsin had, the kind that majors and generals have, who can take the lead; issue orders and know what to do, that kind of stuff.

So, when he got the news he didn’t even go there himself, he sent [Nikolai] Ryzhkov [chairman of the Council of Ministers] and Shcherbina to take care of things. And not knowing what’s happening on the ground; not having the slightest idea of what it’s like, he was trying to low-ball the whole thing about the danger to the population and the impact. He was hoping that the commission would report any day that it was all over and fine.

It’s disappointing to hear that the pet shootings were invented, not because one wishes they were real, but because it casts a malevolent shadow on the makers of the docudrama. What is the point of inventing and then subjecting the viewer to such psychological horror, especially when it was not real? Given the way in which Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin claims “The lesson is that lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism are dangerous”, what could possibly be the objective of lying about the mass slaughter of puppies and kittens by Russians…. oh.

It’s not “a serious mistake”, it’s malicious revisionist historical (((wizardry))). Every. Single. Time.


Delighted to hear it

Damn the rocks and the coastline, it’s full speed ahead for Marvel Studios:

Marvel Studios Producer Victoria Alonso: “We Are Actively Working On Making Our Universe As Diverse and Inclusive As We Can”

Marvel Studios producer Victoria Alonso recently did an Ask Me Anything on the Marvel Studios subreddit where she indicated Marvel Studios is “actively working on making our universe as diverse and inclusive as we can.”

Alonso noted that she has been with Marvel Studios since late 2005 at the very beginning of Iron Man. She began as a co-producer on Iron Man and visual effects producer.

During the AMA she noted that her best part of working for Marvel Studios is “to be able to show new generations the characters that represent them in each and every way.” She would go on to note that she “would feel honored to have a member of the LGBTQ+ group represented in our films and I hope the future shows that.”

Alonso’s comments should not come as a surprise. She recently described the X-Men as “outdated” arguing there are a number of female characters in the team. She also discussed how Marvel Studios is committed to diversity at the world premiere of Captain Marvel.

“Why wouldn’t we be? Why wouldn’t we be? I’m so passionate about this. Our entire success is based on people that are incredibly different. Why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we only want to be recognized by one type of person? Our audience is global, is diverse, it’s inclusive. If we don’t do it that way for them, we will fail. If we don’t put pedal to the metal and the diversity and inclusivity, we will not have continued success. Our determination is to have that for all of the people out there watching our movies.”

They’re betting on diversity and inclusivity. We’re betting against it. Snicker-snack….