Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline:

The Lego Group under its deal with Universal Pictures is making three untitled live-action movies with directors Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins and Attack the Block filmmaker Joe Cornish.

Huh.

Universal’s been working on these movies with a five year deal signed in 2020, so I guess this is the “show your work” phase of things. A few elements stand out.

1. Patty Jenkins, once again tied to a franchise movie, after seemingly being put in director’s jail since Wonder Woman 1984 and her Star Wars movie, Rogue Squadron being in development hell.
2. Jake Kasdan being announced, though he’s got to now rush out a new Dwayne Johnson-lead Jumanji movie for the end of 2026
3. Joe Cornish being attached, who — since debuting so strongly with Attack the Block — has been attached to a lot of projects, only really producing the under-seen The Kid Who Would Be King and the mostly forgettable Lockwood & Co. show for Netflix. Sure, he scripted the great Tintin movie, and was half responsible for the Edgar Wright-era Ant Man script, but, besides that, it’s just been rumored project after rumored project.
4. Live-Action? Really?

I don’t know if I’m a pessimist, but something about this reeks of “Oh crap, we need to show LEGO we’re working on something so they renew our deal next year.”

But maybe I’m wrong and these movies will be good.

Samantha Cole, 404 Media:

But many stayed at Automattic even though they didn’t agree with Mullenweg’s actions, telling 404 Media they remained due to financial strain or the challenging job market. Several employees who remained at the company describe a culture of paranoia and fear for those still there.

“Overall, the environment is now full of people who unequivocally support Matt’s actions, and people who couldn’t leave because of financial reasons (and those are mostly silent),” one Automattic employee told me.

The current and former Automattic employees I spoke to for this article did so under the condition of anonymity, out of concerns about retaliation from Mullenweg.

What an absolute mess. Feeling all the happier I moved everything to Micro.blog earlier this year.

I find it somewhat ironic that Matt Mullenweg so regularly attacks David Heinemeier Hansson from 37signals, when they both now have absolutely shown their ass online, offered buyouts, and are stunned to see just how bad they screwed up with their employees.

Fix your shit, Matt.

Huw, Brickset:

Today, the LEGO Group reveals the launch of the LEGO Marvel X-Men: The X-Mansion Buildable Set. Get ready to answer Professor X’s call as this set will telepathically transmit you straight into the LEGO brick heart of the X-Men universe.

With 3,093 pieces, this immersive, creative construction project gives adults a chance to unwind and lose themselves as they build a lasting model of an essential and recurring part of Marvel’s much loved X-Men stories: The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

After many, many leaks the last few weeks, LEGO confirms the most poorly held secret in some time and has officially revealed their latest massive scale set – the X-Mansion from X-Men.

Some of the rooms look a little small, and the $330 price is quite eye-watering, but if you’re a fan of X-Men, it’s hard to not want to get one of these.

I’m sure someone out there will have this, the Daily Bugle set, the Avengers Tower and the SHIELD Helicarrier to have a massive Marvel LEGO Universe in their home.

Netflix on YouTube:

Set in the aftermath of a robot uprising in an alternate version of the ’90s, The Electric State follows an orphaned teenager who ventures across the American West with a cartoon-inspired robot, a smuggler, and his sidekick in search of her younger brother. The film stars Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Woody Norman, with Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci. Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Hank Azaria, Colman Domingo and Alan Tudyk join the cast in voice roles. THE ELECTRIC STATE premieres globally on Netflix MARCH 14.

If nothing else, they’ve nailed the aesthetic of the original book by Simon Stalenhag. We’ll see how the script works out.

I do have to admit, I laughed pretty hard at The Gray Man being listed alongside all those Marvel movies as if it was an equivalent success by the Russo Brothers. Keep trying, Netflix, keep trying.

Michael McWhertor, Polygon:

Sunderfolk is inspired by tabletop games like Gloomhaven and Dungeons & Dragons, said head of Secret Door (and hardcore tabletop game enthusiast) Chris Sigaty at a recent hands-on event in New York. The developers behind Sunderfolk were inspired by the depth and inclusiveness of those games, while also recognizing their shortcomings.

“We’ve worked on games like StarCraft, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone,” Sigaty said, “and one of the things we realized upfront was that we didn’t want to start with a competitive game. Even though we love and have a lot of knowledge in that space, we wanted to focus on something that was connective or collaborative. We found that we were having the most connective moments actually around a board game table, playing things like Dungeons & Dragons and board games of all sorts, and that our passion was in this space of tabletop gaming.”

But, Sigaty acknowledged, many tabletop games require reading through thick manuals paired with lengthy setup and breakdown times. In a strategic card-based tabletop game like Gloomhaven or Frosthaven, new players may spend hours unpacking the box, learning the rules, and cleaning up, instead of spending that time actually playing.

With Sunderfolk, Secret Door hopes to address those obstacles to fun.

What a promising sounding game and experience. The pedigree alone sells it, but the idea of a full RPG experience with limited setup time and an ease of gameplay for newbies sounds like a massive win, speaking as someone who got into tabletop during COVID.

An aside though, what timing of this being revealed the same week as the release of Jason Schreier’s Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, which I’ve been reading this week and is fantastic.

Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline:

Here’s a really cool project that just got greenlit at DC Studios and Warner Bros Pictures Animation: Dynamic Duo.

It will mark the first joint project between DC Studios and the Bill Damaschke-led WBPA.

The 6th & Idaho movie scripted by Matthew Aldrich is being made by a new animation studio out of New Orleans named Swaybox and that studio’s husband-and-wife creators Arthur Mintz and Theresa Andersson. Mintz will direct this movie, which follows the early days of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd aka the Robins.

Note the storyline here isn’t connected to Matt Reeves’ Batman and The Penguin canon.

Swaybox uses a technology known as “Momo animation,” which is a cross between CGI animation, practical elements of stop-motion, and live-action real-time performance. The result is long-form storytelling billed as visually breathtaking, dynamically expressive and more human.

This might just be the most interesting idea to come out of the Warner Bros/DC filmography so far. Incredibly intrigued by the idea of how the animation works, and I really want to see it in motion.

Also, having the focus on the Robins (plural) is a very much untapped part of the DC Comics legacy which they’d do well to mine on film.

James Gunn had the following to say about it on socials:

Over the moon excited to announce the newest DC Studios/Warner Bros Pictures Animation greenlit film for theaters, DYNAMIC DUO, the story of Robin… or should I say, Robins, as in Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. The first feature film from the visionary Swaybox, a mix of animation, puppetry, and CGI, a script from the wonderfully talented Matt Aldrich, produced with our partners at Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho. This is something special.

I recognize that Gunn has to do this at this point, being the Feige of sorts over at DC Studios, but with his track record, if he’s praising it, I’m ever more intrigued.

No release date or other information available at this time, but I’m going to be thinking about the possibilities and hoping its as awesome as it seems promising right now.

Pete Wells, The New York Times:

Today, the chicken tender is not just familiar. It is triumphant. It is a fixture of school lunches and kids’ menus, of all-night diners and gas stations. It can be found at airports, food courts and stadiums. It is a major reason for the double-digit sales growth that Chick-fil-A, Popeyes, Raising Cane’s and other chicken-centric chains have reported for five straight years.

Along the way, the chicken tender has become a symbol, although its meaning is hard to pin down. It can be an icon of simple, straightforward, unpretentious American taste. It can also be an expression of dull, unadventurous food engineered for the lowest common denominator. Restaurants, in their drive to stand out, have expended great effort devising crunchier breading, zestier dipping sauces, more tender tenders. And yet all the sauces in the world will never quite dispel the suspicion that the tender itself is, at heart, not very exciting.

What a better lunchtime read than that about the humble Chicken Tender?

Btw, the best Tenders? In my humble opinion: Spanky’s in Savannah, GA. Get their honey horseradish sauce and their spuds on the side? That’s a great time in a great city.