Tag: movies

We should probably take it easy on Disney for creating SJW Wars. Sure, they irretrievably and unnecessarily ruined the epic space opera franchise, but what most people don’t know is that George Lucas was going to ruin it anyhow.

The two-time best director Oscar nominee confided his vision to none other than James Cameron, who interviewed Lucas for “Space,” the second episode of his recent six-part AMC series “James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction.” A transcript from their talk appears in the companion book of the same name, published by Insight Editions on May 18. In it, Lucas reveals that he would have turned his gaze from the cosmos to what can be viewed only under a microscope.

“[The next three ‘Star Wars’ films] were going to get into a microbiotic world,” he told Cameron. “There’s this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Lucas admitted, “Everybody hated it in ‘Phantom Menace’ [when] we started talking about midi-chlorians.” In terms of his storytelling, Lucas regarded individuals as “vehicles for the Whills to travel around in…And the conduit is the midi-chlorians. The midi-chlorians are the ones that communicate with the Whills. The Whills, in a general sense, they are the Force.”

Say what you will about Soylo and Space Leia and Ninja Pixie Force Princess and the Magic Negro Stormtrooper, but even the sum total of those unmitigated disasters still isn’t as bad as The Fantastic Star Wars Voyage: Free Whillies would have been.

This following video, however, is pretty cool. It’s a collection of 3D animation clips based on Ralph Mcquarrie’s original concept art for The Star Wars. When I was a kid, I had a collection of these concept sketches that were sold printed in color on oversized glossy paper.

Star Wars is broken, Kathleen Kennedy broke it, and Disney doesn’t know how to fix it or who is going to fix it for them.

Disney staged a big “secret” conference call with ranking people in the Star Wars division. Security guards were posted outside the doors at offices to prevent eavesdropping. Pixar and Marvel representatives were able to listen in on the call, but not speak on it. Apparently this was allowed to get feedback, I guess at a later point, about the Star Wars situation.

Disney’s head Bob Iger wants to fire Kathleen Kennedy, but there’s a problem: No one they’re willing to offer the job to is willing to take it. JJ Abrams (Randolph reports) was offered the job, but turned it down flat. “Several” were approached.

One person that’s brought up as a possible replacement for Kennedy, Dave Filloni, isn’t being considered for the job by Iger, I guess because he hasn’t run anything big like a studio.

Randolph says (speculating, I think) that no one wants the job because the Lucasfilm team is divided between old-guard Star Wars people and Kennedy’s handpicked loyalists.

I would speculate myself that, assuming this claim that no one wants the job is true, it’s because the brand is broken, and people know that, and it’s a no-win situation: Everyone seems to think that Star Wars is supposed to make money automatically. That’s no longer true post-Solo, but people still think that, so any head of Lucasfilm is in a situation where the best they can do is meet expectations (make money), and the worst they can do is fail spectacularly.

There’s no upside. Well, except a huge pile of money, but I imagine the people being approached are already getting huge piles of money from other ventures with more of an upside as far as their reputations.

So no big-name person would want to walk into that situation. Smaller names would take that chance, but apparently Disney hasn’t gotten desperate enough to offer it to a smaller name. Yet.

Randolph says that Disney feels that Star Wars is too targeted to “older SJWs,” instead of its traditional fan base of men, and this is also hurting Star Wars in its merchandise sales, as “older SJWs” don’t really buy movie tickets and certainly don’t spend a lot of money on Milennium Falcon playsets.

She also reports that all the Star Wars “anthology” movies are indeed on hold as Disney tries to figure this out, except maybe for one: The Obi-Wan movie, which Disney thinks it should have made instead of Star Wars. However, while this movie is not officially on hold, it’s also not on the front-burner, either.

SJWs are corporate cancer. I’m glad I didn’t finish the book in January like I’d originally planned. To quote the former Disney employee formerly known as The Sports Guy, “The lesson, as always, is this: women ruin everything.”

Tonight we’re having a Member’s Only Brainstorm to discuss the latest developments in Alt-Movies. Invites have been sent out. I THINK I’ve finally got the time zone thing straight, but regardless, the event will be at 7 PM Eastern time.

For those of you who are interested in the subject, we’ll be holding an event that is open to everyone interested in supporting the project next week. Tonight’s meeting is to lay the groundwork for that one, so just be patient.

Now that Brian Bendis has achieved his goal of converging their comics, Marvel is determined to converge the movies as well. Marvel Comics Universe film guru Kevin Feige addresses diversity and Marvel’s future plans:

Kevin Feige on diversity: ‘It’s something that is necessary to continue to tell stories. You don’t want to look around the room and see everybody looks like you. It is detrimental to the project’

He adds: There are more women on the track to leadership at Marvel #ProducedBy2018

Audience question: Marvel has had men directors for its past 20 some movies. Can the next 20 feature women to balance?

Kevin Feige: I can’t promise you that all 20 future Marvel movies will have women directors, but a lot of them will

On Miss Marvel after Capitan Marvel: We wanted to get Captain Marvel out there first so that there is something for a young Muslim girl to get inspired by

 What next after Avengers IW2?  Kevin Feige says he is working on:
– Continuing stories of characters you’re familiar with
– Different incarnations of characters you know
– Introducing completely new characters you never heard of before (unless ur a comics fan)

Smells like… opportunity! And yes, we are rapidly moving towards Alt-Movies. Treatments and scripts are already being prepared, budgets are being debated, possible directors are being consulted, and we’ll have a Brainstorm to discuss these developments later this week.

Tom Arnold estimates the losses from ABC’s reaction to a single tweet:

“ABC lost maybe $1 billion from this; this show was grinding out money hand over fist and they lost it all because somebody didn’t say, ‘Get that phone out of her hand,’” Arnold tells THR.

No, it’s all because someone didn’t say, “Who cares what Roseanne says on Twitter? We don’t.” And the losses could be more than that.

Not only will “Roseanne” fans never see season two of the show’s hit revival, the original series will now be harder to catch in syndication. Viacom is pulling the show’s reruns from its Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT channels, TODAY has confirmed. The syndication scheduling change, which follows ABC’s abrupt cancellation of the popular series’ recent revival, will go into effect on Wednesday.

Now, I could not possibly care less about a show that I have never seen at any point in my life, but it is a very important lesson in the willingness, nay, the eagerness, of the SJWs to cut their own throats in order to virtue-signal.

And if they’ll cut their own throats, they certainly won’t hesitate to try to cut yours. Never assume you are fully anti-fragile, never assume you are too big to take down, and never assume they will put their monetary interests before their virtue-signaling imperative.

Disney continues to strangle the goose with the golden eggs:

Disney and Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story is struggling in its debut at the Memorial Day box office, where it is coming in well behind expectations with a projected $110 million-$115 million four-day holiday. The three-day weekend tally looks to be in the $90 million-plus range.

The Han Solo origin story is pacing well behind fellow standalone movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), which took in $29 million in Thursday-evening previews on its way to a $71 million Friday and a three-day debut of $155 million.

The news is grim overseas, where Solo is launching in most points around the globe timed to its U.S. launch, including China. The movie took in a dismal $11.4 million from its first 43 markets on Wednesday and Thursday. Disney hasn’t yet provided numbers from China, but box-office sources there show the movie opening to roughly $3 million on Friday for a possible weekend debut in the $10 million range.

And to think we thought Lucas was ruining the franchise….

It’s just a fun, innocent movie about dog shows for kids, right? So fun, so entertaining! FFS, do you not yet realize that you never accept candy from strangers?

What could have been solely a fun movie for kids that would get my highest recommendation is damaged by a dark and disturbing message hidden, not so subtly between the fluffy dogs and glamorous parties of the show dog lifestyle.  As part of any dog show, contestants are judged on their abilities and physical attributes.  One part, in particular, is the inspection of the dog’s private parts.  Being that Max is new to competing, he needs to learn the process so his partner, Frank, along with a former show champion work to get him ready for the final round of the competition.  Since the inspection of the private parts will happen in the finals, Frank touches Max’s private parts to get him use to it.  Of course, Max doesn’t like it and snaps at Frank for him to stop.  Max is then told by the former champion, who has been through the process before, that he needs to go to his “zen place” while it happens so he can get through it.  More attempts are made by Frank to touch Max’s private parts, but Max is still having trouble letting it happen and keeps snapping at him.

The day of the finals come and if Max doesn’t let his private parts be touched, he may lose the competition and any hope of finding the kidnapped panda.  It all rests on his ability to let someone touch his private parts.  The judge’s hands slowly reach behind Max and he goes to his “zen place”.  He’s flying through the sky, dancing with his partner, there are fireworks and flowers-everything is great-all while someone is touching his private parts.

During the movie, I kept thinking, “This is wrong, it doesn’t need to be in a kids movie. Everything else in the movie is good fun except for this.”  Afterward, my husband mentioned that he picked up on this message too, as did my mother who saw the movie with us.  My daughter, on the other hand, said her favorite part of the movie was when Max got his privates touched and the funny reaction he had.

Sweet Darwin, but these parents are stupid. Even a mother smart enough to pick up on what is going on still won’t tell other parents that they should not take their children to this pedoganda film.

Here is a reliable heuristic for evil: does it justify, rationalize, excuse, defend, encourage, advocate, or require sex with children in any way, openly or covertly, directly or indirectly? Then it is evil, topped by an evil sauce, with a side of evil.

Stop waiting for everyone else to drain the swamp. At the very least, you could refrain from refilling it.

I’m a little surprised that the SJWs aren’t out in force protesting Disney’s shockingly racist characterization of the only black man in space as a sexual freak who will attempt to molest pretty much anything within reach:

Solo: A Star Wars Story is chock full of all kinds of interesting new background information about some of Star Wars’ most iconic characters, and one of the most significant revelations to come out of the film is as subtextual as it is important. In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Solo screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan confirmed what a significant part of the Star Wars fandom has suspected about Lando Calrissian for quite some time now. Lando’s a ladies’ man, yes, but he’s by no means straight. When asked specifically if Lando was pansexual, Kasdan replied, “I would say yes.”

Historically, the Star Wars franchise has been doing very poorly when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, which is weird when you consider the expansive nature of the universe. So when asked about Lando’s sexuality, it was nice to see Kasdan reply thoughtfully. He said that while the smuggler wouldn’t put a specific label on himself, he’d be even less likely to buy into the traditional ideas about sexual preference:

“There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality. I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.”

It’s only a matter of time before we are informed that Lando Calrissian is involved in a committed trans-species post-gender polygamous relationship with Chewbacca and BB-8. Shameless doesn’t even begin to describe these lunatic wreckers. I’m only surprised that Solo did not turn out to be a tribute to the young Han’s career as an artistic auto-eroticist when he was young and needed the money.

From a comment at John C. Wright’s blog. People may not be quick to accept the truth, but they eventually learn they have no other choice:

The Last Jedi is the most franchise destructive movie I’ve ever seen. Worse than Alien 3 (which I would actually pay to have removed from my memory). They took something that had something for everyone, made it explicitly female (the force is not gendered you assholes!!!), made it all shades of grey and removed the fight between good and evil, and devastated one of the greatest heroes of our time.

I think they’ve lost millions upon millions of their most ardent fans in exchange for luke warm SJW fans. I had worries when Disney bought Star Wars, and they were all on display in The Last Jedi.

My daughter and I waited in line for 2 hours to be one of the first in the theater for The Force Awakens, we waited for 2 hours to be one of the first to Rogue One, and then 3 hours to be the first at The Last Jedi. We aren’t going to Solo opening day or weekend.

A longtime Marvel fan is very unhappy with the new Marvel blockbuster. Warning, SEVERE spoilers after the fold. Do NOT read this if you do not want to know what happens in the movie. It will ruin it for you, to the extent that is actually possible.

Loved the Marvel Universe, loved Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers, some of the best Sci Fi made IMHO.  Didn’t really like the last Thor movie, thought they mocked and attempted to de empower him, but hey, allowed Thor to exercise his comedy chops, no harm.

Then came Infinity War.  And I realized the blogs I have been reading are right.  They HATE us.  There is no other explanation for this. 

You take the Marvel Universe, gather all the heroes together, let the Evil win and kill off half of the galaxy.  Half!  Including half of your hero characters.  Think about a guest director on an episode of any of the Star Trek TV shows; just kill off half of the universe and half of the crew.  Then hand it back to the regular team “ there!  Fixed it for you, all those pesky heroes are gone, no need to thank me”

I understand sacrificing key characters in support of the story and the narrative; Spock, Groot, Han.  I mourned but I didn’t whinge, in the story line it made sense.  But this movie made no sense and there is no recovering from this unless they do a loopy this-was-just-a-dream/time-warp-fooled-you deus ex machina crap.

We go to movies for enjoyment, for fun, for escape, and yes, for a little bit of hope.  I have that quote from Second Hand Lions on my wall

“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most: that people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; that love, true love, never dies… No matter if they’re true or not, a man should believe in those things because those are the things worth believing in.”

Where was any of this in Infinity War?  Nothing our heroes did made a damn bit of difference.  And whenever they tried to do a noble sacrifice? Magical Bubbles appeared (and more than once). The Hulk?  For no reason every made clear in the previous cannon the Hulk is de empowered and made a figure of fun.  True love?  Let em watch each other die with no gain or reason other than Reasons!  Thor?  Beaten to a pulp and all his people killed including Loki, but Natasha (a human grrl) can beat them back to a standstill?  Iron Man and Dr. Strange?  Let’s have them at each other’s throats.  I am sorry, but it seemed very clear to me all that was happening was the folks at Disney et al were just trying to shit all over a beloved universe and its fans.  And oh guess what?  The Evil was doing it for Climate Change Reasons???  Kill half the galaxy to save the galaxy because humans are a pestilence?  Seriously?

This wasn’t just a bad movie, this was a deliberate attempt to attack and hurt the fans and their love for this  universe.  I get sacrifice and I get losing characters, I do.  But yah know, I don’t watch Macbeth because of the Everyone Dies routine.  When you take that cheap out way of attempting drama, you end up with no one left to carry the story.  Ah, they can just fill out with more a not a white male remakes and attempt to sell it to an new and different audience.  One that doesn’t love sci fi or superheroes, that will not be paying to watch.  But that appears to be the whole idea, isn’t it?  Take it over and destroy it.  If I stop watching these movies, they win.  If I keep watching these movies, they win.

Any hope for a Dread Ilk Movie project?

Actually, it sounds as if George Martin would have benefited heavily from such an approach. And yes, there very likely will be a movie project down the road. But first things first….

Hollywood finally excommunicates Roman Polanski:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has expelled Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski from its membership, the organization said Thursday. The Academy’s board of governors, following its new procedure for enforcing Standards of Conduct that it adopted in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, voted to expel the comedian and the director at its most recent meeting on Tuesday.

“The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity,” the Academy said in a statement announcing their expulsion.

A five-time Oscar nominee, Polanski will keep the Oscar he was awarded in 2003 for directing The Pianist, an honor he couldn’t accept in person because he fled the U.S. in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. Cosby was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand in 2004 by a Pennsylvania jury last Thursday after 14 hours of deliberation.

Of course, they did nominate him three times for an Oscar during those four decades, and even gave him one 15 years ago. As Spacebunny commented, they’re only kicking out Polanski because they are under pressure to expel Cosby, and they can’t do so without being called racist if they don’t give Polanski the boot as well.

Ah, Hollywood values. The fact that they see fit to posture about their “ethical standards” and lecture the rest of the world would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.