Jake Rossen, Mental Floss:

“Nickelodeon kind of made a mistake,” Russell says. “I don’t want to call it a mistake, or if it was not a wise piece of instruction that they told me, because they told me the items don’t have to necessarily get into the cart. They just have to touch the cart and it’s yours. It didn’t have to stay in the cart, either.”

“So then my dad was like, ‘You heard what they said, right? That means all you got to do is take your hands and put it to the very back of the peg that they would store games or anything on. Pull them all off with the cart near you and just have them be knocking the cart so they don’t have to even get in there.’ ”

It was good advice. On the day of the spree, Russell was given the go-ahead. He darted through aisles, adhering to the strategy. Entire pegs of games were swatted to the ground, collapsing in a cacophony of plastic and cardboard. Russell acted like a human tornado, following the rules and having stuff bounce off his cart.

“I basically cleared out the entire game section of the store in about two minutes,” he says. “The whole thing was gone. And then, I took out the action figure aisles, and this was when the first wave of X-Men figures were out. I was literally just reaching to the back of the peg line and just taking the entire row of action figures.”

Just in time for a season where kids would be excited to see their hauls from Santa, an incredible, in-depth look at the ins and outs of what it was to win Nickelodeon’s Super Toy Run. Including the strife that met the kids at the schoolyard later.

Two stories broke today, which, for whatever reason were the straws that broke me.

Variety: Jeremy Allen White Joins ‘Star Wars’ Film ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ as Jabba the Hutt’s Son

Jeremy Allen White has joined the “Star Wars” film “The Mandalorian & Grogu” as the voice of Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta the Hutt, Variety has confirmed. The project marks the first major franchise for the actor following his Emmy-winning breakout role on the FX series “The Bear.”

The Wrap: Chris Evans Sets Marvel Return in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ | Exclusive

Chris Evans is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of the cast for “Avengers: Doomsday,” the highly anticipated sequel that will also star Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, The Wrap has learned exclusively. Evans will be involved in some capacity, but the extent and exact nature of his role is unknown.

I grew up as a latchkey kid. Single mom, only child, you get a lot of time to yourself. And I threw myself into the worlds of comics and movies. They showed me the powers of creativity, the magic of filmmaking, the intricacies of line art, taught me lessons about color and light.

I’d devour any of it. Watching movies on cable lead to renting movies from Blockbuster. Renting movies led to buying movies. Buying movies lead to buying more movies (I had roughly 1000 Blu-Rays + DVDs at a point). Reading comics lead to reading Wizard Magazine. Reading Wizard lead to learning about all the amazing and creative things being done at all the comic companies. Just like with directors, I learned to follow writers and artists to their next thing.

I don’t say this to be dramatic or a bummer, but they were my world. A child of divorce, who struggled to socialize, I lost myself in the 4-color worlds of Marvel, DC and Image, and the big screen adventures that hit every weekend.

Then I found my people, fellow nerds who knew more movie quotes than extended family members names, who loved to rank and talk and share and recommend and debate all of this.

Somewhere in here, the comics started hitting theaters again. Tim Burton’s Batman was a near religious experience for me as an 5 year old, but that seemed the exception to the rule. Until X-Men hit. Until Blade hit. Until Spider-Man hit.

My loves were colliding. And what’s that, more Star Wars too? Sure, the prequels were flawed, but they were more of something I loved. Giving me something new from a world that had more or less helped to define my love of movies.

Iron Man hits. Robert freakin’ Downey Jr. as Iron Man? No way. Wait, what’s this about an Avengers project? It ties into that new Hulk movie? No way they got Chris Evans to be a superhero again, I loved that dude in Scott Pilgrim. Paul Rudd(!!!) as Ant-Man with Edgar Wright behind the lens? Holy shit.

And now Disney owns them. And they’re gonna own Lucasfilm too? Wait…more new Star Wars? And they’re gonna try to make up where the Prequels failed. Interesting. Can they? Wow, Force Awakens was a lot of fun. Rogue One, what a flick.

And the saturation came. I didn’t need to special order comic book shirts from Diamond Distributors by way of my local comic store, I didn’t need to go to comic cons, I could just go and buy representations of these things which were the fabric of me at my local goddamned Target? How cool. Phases? TV Shows? Streaming? More? More? MORE? MORE??

…and…I think they’ve gone too far. And I can’t help but feel like I’m a bit at fault.

Not me specifically, but who I am. As has been said before, “The Nerds Won”. Nerdy things don’t make you outcasts, they make you accepted, as I longed to be and eventually was. And there’s always more.

But…it’s not the new. It’s not the different. It’s not the daring.

That Star Wars prequel? Outshined by The Matrix that year, a radically different, unique, original idea that inspired the next generation after me, in ways both in terms of filmmaking, and making people think differently about themselves and the discomfort they feel.

…is it any wonder they did two more? And a fourth, over a decade later?

We’re at a phase where these things I love are just being reheated and re-served to me. Look at the archives of this blog, I was excited about these things along the way. I’m still excited for some things (I really want to see a trailer of James Gunn’s Superman quite badly). But I can’t help but feel like the magic is going away.

The headlines above, while real, they feel like they were slapped together by AI. [ACTOR OF NOTE OR FORMER STAR OF FRANCHISE] Joins [INSERT FRANCHISE WHO NEEDS HELP] as [CHARACTER]. These aren’t the first, they won’t be the last. We’ve got Robert Downey Jr. returning as…Doctor Doom for some reason. Apparently we’re getting a whole slew of actors we know and love…to just do Harry Potter again, but longer. We’re getting more Lord of the Rings and they might just be making them up this time.

I’m 40 years old. Maybe I’m aging out. Or maybe Hollywood needs to realize…they can’t keep marketing to me.

I mentioned above how much comics have meant to me. They went to a fandom to a side hustle to a second career. And if you step in a comic store, you know what they’re doing now? Selling more variant covers of every issue to the same, older growing audience. And raising the price, to see what the ceiling can be. They’re marketing to me and people like me, again and again and again.

There are flashes of hope. Every so often there’s a Saga or a Walking Dead or a Dawnrunner or *Do a Powerboat!*that shake things up for comics and give us something new. Every so often there’s a movie out there which gives us a wholly unique experience and reminds us what we love about movies.

But they’re not coming everywhere. We’re afraid to take swings, we’re afraid to try and fail, we’re afraid of New. We’re afraid of Different. We’re afraid of the old tricks not working. And maybe, the real issue is: we’re afraid of becoming old.

Let the next generation take over and make new things. It’s how we got here in the first place. Whether it was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby using the social changes of the 60’s to create flawed comic book heroes, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird self publishing a Daredevil parody with turtles in the 1980s, George Lucas using the cache of the success of his 50’s greaser movie to cash in and make a new version of the sci-fi serials he loved, but for the modern day…these were risks. These were creatives. These were people who wanted to make something new, first for themselves, and then found how it reverberated with likeminded folks.

I don’t need to be blanketed in the safety of what was. I’m longing for the challenge.

This is rambling and turning into almost a “Comics and Genre Movies are Dead” version of the speech Jeff Daniels gives at the beginning of The Newsroom, so I’m going to tie this together. It doesn’t help that I’ve written all stream of consciousness, but, eh, we’ll deal.

Could these movies be good? Sure. Will I see them? Likely.

But will they inspire? Will they make people want to make their own films at home? Will they make someone say “I have a story and I need to tell it”?

I don’t know. Because right now, it all looks like just another gig for a paycheck. Another instance of confirming shareholder value and maximizing the use of legacy IP or whatever rambling shit the heads of these studios are going to tell people on investment calls. But it’s not adventurous. And we could all use an adventure right now.

Larry Fitzmaurice, Hearing Things:

The start of the 2010s saw a steady rise in visibility for indie musicians that encompassed high-profile TV performances and the occasional collision with real-deal pop superstars. (The “rock” part of “indie rock” was partly left behind along the way, for marketing purposes.) Regardless of whether the artists involved were turning a meaningful profit, the smell of success was in the air. Indie’s boom period was, as Kevin Krauter of current Indianapolis indie rockers Wishy describes it, “an era where a popular indie band looked like they had it fucking made.”

It didn’t last. Indie’s commercial decline began to sink in around the mid-2010s—a point when music publications’ collective influence was waning, and streaming services took over as passive tastemakers looking to cut corners on artist royalties, resulting in the decimation of the music industry’s middle class. Then came the pandemic and its ripple effects, including increased touring costs and the persistent threat of canceled shows due to COVID cases. It’s all led to an indie business landscape that’s particularly inhospitable to emerging artists looking to establish careers off their work.

A really in-depth and eye-opening article at the struggles the “middle class” of music are facing these days. Honestly, it’s hell for any sort of creator now. So many platforms, so many responsibilities, none of them related to Doing The Work.

I really can’t say I know the fix here. I sure hope we can find one.

Mike Fleming Jr., Deadline:

Lucasfilm has closed a deal with Simon Kinberg to develop a trilogy of Star Wars films. Kinberg will write the trio, and produce them with Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy.

I heard this will comprise episodes 10-12 of The Skywalker Saga that began with George Lucas’s 1977 first film that along with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws reshaped the global blockbuster game. Insiders disputed my intel that Kinberg will continue that storyline, saying this will instead begin a new saga, and sit alongside Star Wars percolating projects with James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi and Donald Glover. As usual, Lucasfilm and Disney are not commenting.

It really says something that in the year 2024, not only am I not excited in any way, shape or form about a new Star Wars project, but also: I highly doubt that it will be made.

Meet your new friends in the pile, New Kinberg Trilogy: Boba Fett Movie, Game of Thrones Duo Trilogy, Rian Johnson Trilogy, Kevin Feige Movie, Guillermo Del Toro Jabba The Hutt Movie, and surely, more to come…

make me eat these words, disney.

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.

Here goes, it’s Take Time™, with your host, me, Marty Day.

Last night into this morning, the internet was ablaze over the latest iPhone review from MKBHD. Not for the review itself, but rather that he used his platform to have the video sponsored by his new app, Panels.

First and foremost, I think it’s fine that he featured the app in the video. He frequently has segments in his videos for a sponsor. It just so happens that this sponsor was, well, himself.

The backlash began, however, as the app is a Wallpaper app which features the following elements:

• A free version with ads, which allows you to download lower resolution wallpapers after watching x number of ads.
• The ability to buy certain packs of wallpapers (averaging at $8 a pop)
• “Panels+”, a monthly subscription ($11.99) or yearly subscription ($49.99), to get higher resolution wallpapers, and the ability to download, well, all of the wallpapers you want.

The arguments I’ve seen against this have been…

• The inclusion of ads (and the data requirements related to them) are scummy.
• $50/yr or $12/mo is insane.
• Marques has enough money as it is
• I should just download wallpapers for free
• Isn’t some of this just AI generated?

In short, dude has been thrown against the wall, and now everyone’s popping up to say how scummy he is, how he’s never been good, etc.

I think – like many arguments online – the answer is, unfortunately for the screaming hordes, actually somewhere in the middle.

I think Marques Brownlee is very very good at what he does, and success has befallen him accordingly. His tech videos are slick, extremely well produced, and while many are to say he’s a shill for x company or y software, I feel like he’s been even handed. I’m not an avid watcher of his content, but I’ve always enjoyed what I’ve watched.

I also know that over the years, his comments have been filled with asks for the different wallpapers he’s used. People LOVE his taste in wallpapers. So he probably saw an opportunity to make something for those people. (In fact, he may have previously had a connection to the app Backdrops, given that they’ve featured the wallpapers he’s used in his videos/he featured wallpapers from the app in his videos). It’s the decisions made from there which are a mixed bag. And MIXED is the appropriate word.

For each argument, I think there’s a valid response. This isn’t – I think – a scenario of the guy going totally awful on his fandom, a cash grab, etc.

Ads (and their tracking) are scummy. No disagreement. And I say that having had worked in the affiliate world for nearly a decade. However, apps cost money to be developed, and the concept is that the artists receive a cut of the monies generated. People are also really against paying for apps. They want to try before they buy, sometimes never ever buy, so the best route you can go is…ads. Just like the rest of the web. It absolutely sucks, but its been the only consistently viable way for online properties to make money. And it’s been getting worse and worse for creators just the same.

$50/yr or $12/mo is insane. Is it really? By comparison, artists regularly sell wallpaper packs on services like Gumroad for $5 (at least)/each. I know this, I buy them. Add the 30% cut which Apple and Google take, and it’s not all that different, especially if you consider app development costs.

Marques has enough money as it is. Yes. Dude is successful, has a studio, fancy cars, the latest tech, etc. But this is a Capitalistic society. People do things to make money. No one is really out here doing things altruistically. Would it be cool if this was a scenario where the app was free, and he just paid artists to have wallpapers up on there? I guess. But that’s a wacky business plan, for sure.

I should just download wallpapers for free. Cool. Please feel free to continue to do so.

You’re not entitled to something because it’s on the internet. No different than the point I’ve been driving with streaming services, none of this is a public right or domain. People make things. It costs money to make things. To continue to make things, they need to be paid. Do you go to your job for free? Once again, I say I’m Sorry, But Things Cost Money.

Sure, everything has waste, I think the entire world of million dollar execs while their employees make pennies is a fucking mess, but to make things, money needs to be exchanged. You don’t get food based on exposure.

Isn’t some of this just AI generated? And this is the other, 100% valid, concern. If this is the handpicked, premium wallpaper app filled with artwork by proper artists…the art should be from proper artists. At the very least, AI generated art needs to be flagged.All and all, I think the concerns are part of the standard give-and-take we have with things online lately. People hate ads, but it’s the only consistent way to make money. People hate costs, or costs going up, but many times: if money’s not made, things won’t be created anymore.I did want to take the time to spotlight an alternative here. Full disclosure, I’m a regular Patreon supporter of the org, but the team at The Iconfactory have a fantastic app called Wallaroo. It’s $20/year, all the art is made BY ARTISTS, and it funds their continued development of really great software. If you want to spend your money, this might be a better place…but at the end of the day? I don’t think Marques really did anything wrong.

Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube

A new vision of fear from director Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan. #SinnersMovie - Only in theaters March 7. #shotwithimaxfilmcameras

From Ryan Coogler—director of “Black Panther” and “Creed”—and starring Michael B. Jordan comes a new vision of fear: “Sinners.”

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.

“You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.”

Written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Coogler, “Sinners” stars Jordan (the “Black Panther” and “Creed” franchises) in a dual role, joined by Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld (“Bumblebee,” “True Grit”), Jack O’Connell (“Ferrari”), Wunmi Mosaku (“Passenger”), Jayme Lawson (“The Woman King”), Omar Benson Miller (“True Lies”) and Delroy Lindo (“Da 5 Bloods”).

Oh boy. Not only does this look great, but the track record of Coogler and Jordan, especially together, is pretty well untarnished.

WB must be feeling pretty confident too, given that they’re hyping it 6 months out.

Day One!

Ask the Developer Vol. 13, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom — Part 1

Terada: We were exploring a few different ways to play the game in parallel. In one approach, Link could copy and paste various objects, such as doors and candlesticks, to create original dungeons. During this exploration phase, this idea was called an “edit dungeon” because players could create their own Legend of Zelda gameplay.

Aonuma: They showed it to me and told me to give it a try. As I played, I started thinking that while it’s fun to create your own dungeon and let other people play it, it’s also not so bad to place items that can be copied and pasted in the game field, and create gameplay where they can be used to fight enemies. That was the beginning of gameplay using “echoes.” The gameplay was shifted from creating dungeons up until then to using copied-and-pasted items as tools to further your own adventure.

Pulled from the latest installment of the Ask the Developer series which Nintendo does around the release of their big first-party games. I may be reading this wrong, but it certainly sounds to me like the original intent for the game, at least in its early form, was to be able to create (and maybe share?) their own Zelda dungeons. So, basically Mario Maker but for The Legend of Zelda.

I just want to put it out there, Nintendo – if you still have an inkling to do this, I’m all for it. Especially if the cool, almost claymation-like visual style from the Link’s Awakening Remake and Echoes of Wisdom were in use.

Marvel Entertainment on YouTube:

Careful who you assemble. Marvel Studios’ #Thunderbolts* is only in theaters May 2025.

Did not expect this to drop today! But it does a great job setting up Thunderbolts* as a unique, harder-tinged installment of the ever ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One of my favorite elements of Black Widow was the chemistry and humor between Florence Pugh’s Yelena and David Harbour’s Alexei, so it’s great to see the same returned here. Wyatt Russel’s beard is a good look, and overall, I like the “people looking for something bigger and greater than themselves” concept. Plus, a Pixies needledrop is an easy win for me.

That said, here comes the “It looks like Suicide Squad” takes.

Optimistic about this one! We’ll see next Summer.

Thunderbolts hits theaters on May 2, 2025.*

Luke Winkie, Slate:

In just four games in January 2023, Yogesh Raut became an overnight Jeopardy! sensation. In a sign of the times for the show, his ascendance had as much to do with his bluster as it did with his knowing the clues. It was clear he was exceptionally good at quizzing from the moment he took the podium, and between his three initial victories, he totaled nearly $100,000 in winnings. But Jeopardy! fans were especially captivated by Raut’s offbeat demeanor on stage: the violence with which he smacked his buzzer, the confidence with which he taunted flashy luminaries like James Holzhauer. Most memorably, when Raut’s winning streak came to an end, he took to Facebook and wrote a lengthy, difficult-to-parse essay asserting that Jeopardy! and its fandom were a necrotic presence in the world of trivia—specifically that the show is “bad for women and POC who want to be treated with the same level of dignity as their White male counterparts.”

Jeopardy! is a “glorified reality show,” and the aura around it is “fundamentally incompatible with incentivizing the next generation of quizzers to excel,” Raut wrote. “It is fundamentally incompatible with true social justice.”

It does not take much to rankle the librarian-like dictums of Jeopardy! nation, and a former champion taking aim at the show on social media was more than enough for the community to settle on a brand-new villain. “What is ‘Sour Grapes,’ Ken?” went one response to Raut’s post. “He only holds it in such low esteem because he didn’t do as well as he was expected to do,” another fan wrote. So when Raut was invited to the annual Tournament of Champions that was held last spring, fans took note of his impending return. In February, in a story about the deluge of special tournaments that had taken over the show’s programming, I briefly mentioned in a parenthetical that Raut was set to come back to the show he had roasted: “Remember three-time champion Yogesh Raut, who trashed the show after his appearances? He’s back next week!”

That’s when things got weird.

Fascinating read this morning. Whether you agree or disagree with Raut’s perspective on trivia and the games which he plays, this is one of those articles where the iceberg seems to get deeper and deeper the more below the surface you go.

As a Jeopardy! fan, and a Jeopardy! hopeful, this was a must read, but I think everyone’s gonna end up fascinated here. It’s a story of trivia teams, anger, distrust, vengeance, revenge and more. And I never thought those terms would go together.

Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube:

What’s it feel like to die? From director Bong Joon Ho, comes Mickey 17 - only in theaters January 31, 2025. #Mickey17

From the Academy Award-winning writer/director of “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho, comes his next groundbreaking cinematic experience, “Mickey 17.” The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.

I’ve been VERY MUCH looking forward to this once it was announced – I adored the original book its based on, Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, and when you have one of my favorite directors (Bong Joon-Ho) matched with someone who is becoming one of my favorite actors (Robert Pattinson), it’s a recipe for greatness.

Just two bits though…

• Why is it Mickey 17 and not Mickey7?
• Why is this movie coming out in January, which has traditionally been the dumping ground of bad movies?

Mickey 17 hits theaters on January 31th, 2025.

Twenty-five years ago today, the Sega Dreamcast hit North American shelves.

I remember this launch like it was yesterday. I saved all Summer for the system, a VMU, and copies of Sonic Adventure and Soulcalibur. I remember grabbing the tickets from Toys R Us’s video game department, paying my pre-order deposits, and holding onto those tickets and their stapled receipts like they were the nuclear football.

What I didn’t expect, however, was how this system would become my favorite video game system of all time. As a console, it had a short lifespan, being discontinued in March 2001 – but the legacy it left reverberates even today.

So many hours spent with the Sonic Adventure games, taking the SEGA mascot into 3D for the first time. So many hours playing the amazing Soulcalibur, the first time I can remember a home console version looking better than the arcade. So many hours playing the Marvel vs. Capcom games, the perfect party game fighter, showing the comic heroes in a light we’d never seen before. So many hours playing SEGA classics-in-the-making, like the arcade perfect Crazy Taxi, or the stylish Jet Set Radio.

It was even easy to play import games, where the 1-2 punch of my first real disposable income met the ease of access via the Internet of ordering Japanese titles. I spent far too much time creating, tweaking, and then playing characters in Fire Pro D.

And this doesn’t even include the quirky titles like Seaman or underrated games like the Power Stone series.

Developers were making their art. Trying new things. Each game felt so different from what Sony was producing. It was truly a special time.

In many ways, you can see a shared DNA with what the Nintendo Switch has become, but there truly is, was, and likely never will be anything like the Dreamcast.

25 years on, I salute you. Even if your “It’s Thinking” tagline would be considered a threat in 2024.

Mike Fleming Jr., Deadline:

This is a bit early, but The Dish hears momentum is building on the Smokehouse-produced next installment of the Warner Bros caper film franchise that started with Ocean’s Eleven. Sources said that George Clooney and Brad Pitt are coming back, and they are courting Edward Berger to take over directing duties.

This is of no slight to Mr. Berger, who I am sure is a perfectly fine director, nor Mr.’s Clooney or Pitt.

This is a terrible idea.

Even if apparently, there’s been a script in the works, and Clooney even likes it. (How did I miss that?)

Ocean’s Eleven is one of my favorite movies of all time. The times I’ve watched it count easily into the dozens, if not hundreds. Danny Ocean, Rusty and the gang, I love their adventures.

And then Ocean’s Twelve happened. Though I’ve come to appreciate it as its own, scrappy movie, a fun European vacation for a bunch of actors who like to hangout together, it’s a total mess when compared to the first film, which is/was perfection.

They got very lucky with Ocean’s Thirteen. This is the first movie I can recall having the pitch of, “We know we screwed up last time, but this time, we nailed it.” And honestly? They did. While definitely the second best Ocean’s movie, it’s back to the rhythmic fun of the first, effortlessly cool.

A fourth film, going on two decades (god I’m old) after the third installment? You are TEMPTING FATE. You got your mea culpa. Ocean’s 8 was fine. I’m intrigued by the Ocean’s prequel coming with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gossling. But there is no need for Danny and Rusty to come back. Rob Reiner has passed. Bernie Mac has passed. The need for this has passed.

Just keep doing more Ocean’s-like movies like Wolfs. I’ll watch ‘em every time you make ‘em. And you’re already getting a sequel for that one. Don’t tempt fate. You won at the roulette table. Take your winnings.

Just some thoughts about some media I’ve ingested the last few days…

• Batman: Caped Crusader (Amazon Prime Video) is pretty fantastic. I finished the 10 episode season this week, and as someone who is an avowed fan of the classic Batman: The Animated Series, this doesn’t replace or improve it, but certainly can sit on the shelf next to it. If you were ever a reader of the very early Batman comics, like, around his debut, they did an excellent job of capturing the look and feel – even with some digressions into the supernatural, which was, once, a regular feature of the characters stories.

• I’ve started watching Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount+). I really dug last summer’s Mutant Mayhem, and while this trades 3D animation for 2D, most of the voice cast is back (with one exception, handled in a clever way) and the same good vibes persist. Really love how the whole thing still has that “sketchbook” feel, and each turtle feels distinct and like an actual teenager. If you dug the movie, give it a spin. If you haven’t seen the movie…check it out!

• I ran through the first nineteen issues or so of Ryan North’s run of Fantastic Four on Marvel Unlimited. I’ve never been a big Fantastic Four guy, but I was absolutely locked in here. Each issue has a real “science mystery of the month” vibe, kind of like a wholesome Twilight Zone? And, there are more issues where they aren’t in costume than are, which was a pleasant difference. When Doom appears, North does a killer job of writing him. I think this run will be as beloved as his Squirrel Girl run when all is said and done. And if not, at least we had that run in the Marvel Dinosaur Universe.

Shout out my iPad for delivering all of this in a cool, easy to enjoy way. We live in the future, every day.

Warner Bros. on YouTube:

Peter Jackson presents a groundbreaking journey back to Middle-earth through the eyes of legendary director Kenji Kamiyama. #LOTR The War of the Rohirrim - only in theaters Christmas.

OK, let’s go ahead and ignore that the trailer has footage from the original Peter Jackson LOTR trilogy awkwardly shoehorned into it.

How buck wild is it that Warner Bros. has produced, and will be theatrically distributing, a full on (2D?) anime-assed anime, to theaters this Christmas? And it’s by a guy who has a serious pedigree (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Jin-Roh, etc.) and not some anonymous name.

What a time to be alive.

Melena Ryzik, The New York Times:

Its influence is visible in the themed bulletin boards dotting school hallways, the character-based lesson plans and educators’ many D.I.Y. craft projects. There’s also the popular touring exhibition “Emotions at Play,” developed by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, in conjunction with Pixar; since 2021 it has been inviting visitors to create glowing “memory spheres” or keep the “train of thought” on track. (“Core memory” is a phrase that the first movie helped introduce to the TikTok generation.)

For Carter, a national school counselor of the year for her work at a junior high in Cape Girardeau, Mo., “Inside Out” provided a shared language and a visual iconography that makes abstract concepts concrete. “I have the figurines of each feeling, so students can show me who’s at the control panel,” she said. Like “Mister Rogers,” “Sesame Street” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” it offers a common reference point for families.

And the new movie’s focus on anxiety, which has reached crisis proportions among adolescents, normalizes experiences that for young people could seem isolating or overwhelming, and makes them relatable.

It really is amazing how these two Inside Out films have made mental health concerns easier to discuss, and crucially, easier to relate and understand.

This is how art can recalibrate our world. Even when it’s a multi-billion dollar generating Pixar franchise.

Related: The depiction of an Anxiety Attack in Inside Out 2 was a little too dead on. Uncle Marty may’ve had a hard time keeping the teary-eyes hidden from his niece.

Sony Pictures on YouTube:

At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan & Reitman, Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…

Definitively, I can tell: Yes, this will absolutely be My Shit™.

And hey, a Jason Reitman movie to get excited about! When was the last one, The Front Runner?

Anthony Breznican, Vanity Fair

The first thing director Jason Reitman wants people to know about Saturday Night is that it may be about funny people—writers and performers who unquestionably redefined comedy—but it’s not intended to be a laugh riot. The movie plays out in real time over the course of about 90 minutes, and there are certainly comic moments, but there are more tense and fraught ones. The story starts at 30 Rockefeller Center at 10 p.m. on October 11, 1975, and culminates with the first-ever broadcast of Saturday Night Live. What unfolds is less a comedy than a ticking-clock suspense movie. “It’s a thriller-comedy, if you can call that a genre,” Reitman says of the film, which arrives in theaters on October 11. “I always describe this movie as a shuttle launch, and the question was, ‘Would they break orbit?’”

What a perfect comparison of live television to a shuttle launch.

Saturday Night has sounded promising from the jump. Arguably the most exciting thing Jason Reitman’s worked on in years, a cast filled with relative unknowns who are soon to be knowns, and built around the behind the scenes of a creative project. It’s basically every box you could check for me as a movie goer.

As someone who loved Thank You For Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air, I hope this is a return to form to Reitman, and this movie rights the ship after those Ghostbusters debacles.

Matthew Jacobs, The Ringer:

If a single quotation can distill an entire subset of pop culture in the 2000s, these 12 words work pretty well: “You gotta hear this one song. It’ll change your life, I swear.”

Most millennials can immediately identify Garden State, Zach Braff’s indie phenomenon from 2004, as the source. For some, the quote is a nostalgia portal, bringing their bygone youth into focus. For others, it’s naive, cringe-inducing corn. But two decades ago, it was kind of the hipster way to trumpet a semi-obscure track like the Shins’ “New Slang” as a metamorphic experience. It was the heyday of Pitchfork, MisShapes, mix CDs, and Seth Cohen. You gotta hear this one song epitomized a generation transitioning from the sovereignty of MTV to the curatorial power of Myspace. Braff loaded Garden State with the sort of in-the-know music recommendations that had become currency.

It’s really hard to communicate how much of a moment this album and movie was for millennials like myself. I can self-aggrandize by saying “I knew most of these bands before this soundtrack”, but to hear these songs and see them used so well justified years of MP3 blog diving.

The movie itself I saw in theaters multiple times with countless friends, and watched the DVD regularly, but I haven’t revisited the film in well over a decade. I wonder how it holds up. I can at least say that the trailer holds up as something special.