Sci-Fi Storm

This was a jaw-dropping moment today…Disney did an about-face and reinstated James Gunn as director for Guardians of the Galaxy 3, after having fired him back in July when old inappropriate tweets regarding rape and pedophilia of his surfaced. Gunn was immediately apologetic over his “poor judgement” at bad humor.

Today, Gunn was grateful for Disney’s letting him back in:

The reaction in social media seems relatively positive, but bears close monitoring.

I’ll just leave this here for you…

One of the CW’s Arrowverse shows will come to an end…and it’s the first and flagship show, Arrow. The show will have an 8th and final season of 10 episodes. Star Stephen Amell broke the news today on Twitter

Playing Oliver Queen has been the greatest professional experience of my life… but you can’t be a vigilante forever.

Arrow will return for a final run of 10 episodes this Fall.

There’s so much to say… for now I just want to say thank you.

— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) March 6, 2019

Arrow executive producers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz released a joint statement: “This was a difficult decision to come to, but like every hard decision we’ve made for the past seven years, it was with the best interests of Arrow in mind. We’re heartened by the fact that Arrow has birthed an entire universe of shows that will continue on for many years to come. We’re excited about crafting a conclusion that honors the show, its characters and its legacy and are grateful to all the writers, producers, actors, and — more importantly — the incredible crew that has sustained us and the show for over seven years.”

Arrow spawned a franchise for DC Comics on the CW, with three more successful shows – The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl, and a fifth series, Batwoman, is set to join next season.

The mission will continue for the CBS All Access flagship show as CBS has renewed Star Trek: Discovery for a third season. In addition, The Originals producer Michelle Paradise will join Alex Kurzman as co-showrunner after having joined the show as co-executive producer this season.

With Discovery and the upcoming Jean-Luc Picard series starring Patrick Stewart, CBS All Access appears all-in for Star Trek, so it will be interesting to see what they do next. It appears that they are poised to bring back Star Trek in multiple channels, much the way Disney has been working on Star Wars, with live action and animated shows all in development.

No, no, no. Just no. I feel like it’s April Fools Day, or my childhood is being punked. According to Deadline, Blue Ribbon Content (the digital studio of Warner Bros Television Group) is producing a “revival” movie of the late 60’s Sid and Marty Krofft/Hanna-Barbera live-action/animated kids variety show The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, or at least more specifically focusing on the anthropomorphic animal hosts and musicians of the show, Bingo, Fleegle, Drooper and Snorky, collectively known as “The Banana Splits”. The movie will get a direct-to-video release via Warner Bros Home Entertainment, followed by showings on Syfy.

But what disturbs me is that this isn’t a kids program – it’s a horror story.

Here is the synopsis: “In the upcoming horror thriller, a boy named Harley and his family (brother Austin, mother Beth, and father Mitch) attend a taping of The Banana Splits TV show, which is supposed to be a fun-filled birthday for young Harley and business as usual for Rebecca, the producer of the series. But things take an unexpected turn — and the body count quickly rises. Can Harley, his mom and their new pals safely escape?”

I can’t understand why this would be called a revival. This isn’t a new series at all, but rather someone’s nightmare flashback turned into a script. Now as much of a fan I am of the old Krofft shows and would love to see them somehow represented again, I also admit I don’t think there is any way any of these shows would fly in today’s TV landscape. Translating these shows into other genres has been tried and failed miserably – remember Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost? But I absolutely CANNOT get on board with this. I can’t image the damage this will do to me. How can we stop it?

Talk about extremes…hot off the heels of his blockbuster turn in Aquaman, it seems that Jason Momoa is looking for something a little less, well, wet. And the driest place in the universe would of course be Arrakis, the desert planet also known as Dune.

We hear Momoa is in talks to take on the role of Duncan Idaho, the swordsmaster for the Atreides clan, in Denis Villeneuve’s remake of the Frank Herbert classic novel. Idaho was previously played by Richard Jordan in the 1984 David Lynch film, and James Watson in the 2000 Syfy miniseries.

Now, we know a blockbuster cast does not make a blockbuster movie (ala the Lynch film), but I’m becoming more and more intrigued with each passing announcement…and Jason, if you are out there, I’d like to be there for the next haka…

Actor Carmen Argenziano, probably best known for his role in The Godfather, Part II but better known in these circles as General Jacob Carter, Sam’s father in Stargate SG-1, who became a host for the Tok’ra Selmak to save Jacob’s life.

Argenziano had many acting credits in film and TV dating back to 1969, and was easy to spot in many guest roles, many on procedural dramas but with an occasional comedy, such as an appearance on Cheers as an angry husband who comes to the bar with a gun looking for the man who slept with his wife.

He is survived by his wife and three children.

Just wanted to point out, as a HUGE fan of the original Lost In Space, that a brand new DVD set featuring a widescreen remastering of all three seasons, plus extras including a remastered version of “Lost In Space Forever”, is being released this Tuesday, February 5th!

[sfs=1684]Pre-order now on Amazon[/sfs] and get it on the day of release! I’ve already ordered mine!

Two reboots, four castings…

Both Zendaya (The Greatest Showman) and Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) are currently in talks to join Denis Villeneuve’ Dune reboot at Legendary Entertainment. Zendaya would play Chani, the Freman love interest of Paul Atreides, played by Timothee Chalamet. Isaac would play Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides. Neither have been confirmed at this point.

The casting for War Of The Worlds, however, is confirmed –
Gabriel Byrne (Hereditary) and Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) will lead up an ensemble cast in the Urban Myth Films reboot to be directed by
Howard Overman (Misfits). From the sounds of it, this will be loosely based on the H.G. Wells novel, set in present-day Europe and focusing on the aftermath of an alien attack.

Speaking of The Greatest Showman, star Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson will team again, but this time for a sci-fi thriller
Reminiscence written by Westworld executive producer Lisa Joy, who will also make her directorial debut. Set in a near-future Miami affected by global warming, Jackman will play a private investigator who specializes in recapturing vivid cherished memories for clients, with Ferguson as one of his clients.

So the nominations for the 91st Oscars are out, and as usual we take a look at where the science fiction/fantasy genre landed – and it’s mostly Disney vs. Disney between Black Panther and Mary Poppins Returns – but neither received any acting nominations, which is disappointing.

Black Panther scored a Best Picture nomination, along with Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “All The Stars”, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing,

Mary Poppins Returns is nominated for Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “The Place Where Lost Things Go”,

Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, Ready Player One, Solo: A Star Wars Story all received one nomination for Visual Effects.

A Quiet Place received one nomination for Sound Editing.

Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks The Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse all share the Animated Film nomination with Isle of Dogs and Mirai.