Search options (Page 10 of 14)

Glad to see Trek lore moving forward again, but I really wonder what this Picard series could even be about.  Maybe in retirement he focuses on archeology and finds something?  Kind of like his mentor did in that episode?  Of course, if they go with the tie-in comic to the Abrams reboot, then Picard is now the earth ambassador to Vulcan (probably a lingerng aspect of the Sarek meld leading him there).

If I was looking down the channel guide and saw “Shooting the Shit with Jerry O’Connell” - well hell, I’ve got to see what *that* show is like.

As mentioned in the article, we would probably not have The Terminator without Harlan Ellison; and the reason we know that is because of our own Tracy Torme.

The story goes that Torme was visiting the set of the first Terminator when it was filming, and he asked James Cameron where he got the idea.   Cameron allegedly responded with a flippant brag along the lines of “Oh, I just ripped off a couple of Harlan Ellison stories”.  The stories in question were Harlan’s Outer Limits episodes “Soldier” and “Demon with a Glass Hand”.

After hearing of the exchange, Harlan pursued it and was given an acknowledgement in the credits of subsequent Terminator releases as part of a settlement.

Harlan Ellison had a big impact on science fiction, but I do wish he got more recognition for the pop icon that probably wouldn’t exist without him.  In any case, Harlan was a fighter to the end; a big voice was lost with his passing.

Enh.  I feel they are retreading a bit of ground there.  With Earth X, we just had oppressive government Supergirl; I don’t see where this will be different enough (even though there are differences).

There are just so many more Supergirl / Superman stories to visit.  For instance, a Supergirl version of the sand Superman story:

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Sand_Superman_(Earth-One)

It is interesting in that the villain naturally becomes Superman the more it absorbs until you can’t tell the difference between the two both physically and mentally.  In a 1990’s re-telling, they even created a Wrong Arturo situation where a cataclysmic fight at the Fortress left you not sure which Superman survived (something that seemed designed as an escape hatch for the Superman marriage - maybe Lois married the sand creature and not the real Superman).

There would definitely be a season worth to mine out of that, and it would be an interesting look at self sacrifice.

I do have to say, though - watch this video and tell me if you think she’s acting or not:

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/rachel-madd … -detained/

I say that because it’s not even good acting.  It’s like in Superman 2 when Superman is pleading for people’s lives, but it looks like Christopher Reeve is about to break out laughing.

https://youtu.be/vpL_xVNLxAc

There’s probably a few minor revisions I’ll make first.  I’ll send you that when I can.

When thinking in terms of a proposal, I put focus on something we often overlook - how do you sell it?  And the more I thought on that, I came to realize the best way to sell it is by appreciating why I bought into it in the first place.  So I stopped looking at how to fix Sliders; I just looked at why I liked it.

While the comics proposals were a collection of ideas with some sample art, I took it further in 2008 when SL4ever proposed on this forum the idea of a fan film.  It would be bare bones budget with likely no access to the actors (at best the possibility of one); and I was inspired to write a full script for it.  It was new characters; new situations; and served as a continuation but in more of a Next Generation context.  It was again a creation of something I would like to watch; something I would buy.  And in the end, I really love it.

With no fan film materializing, I had considered making a bare bones online comic adaptation of the script (like the pencils only “The Ten Doctors”), but it just never came together.  The last few years have been especially difficult since my father’s stroke that left him unable to take care of himself; my time just seems to evaporate.

I think I’ll go ahead and just put the script out there for any interested.  It will take some time to get it into a presentable format on PDF, but maybe it will bring back something of what you loved about the series.  It’s called “Sliders: Declassified”.

Honestly, one of my favorite episodes of Discovery season one was the Harry Mudd episode where he’s trying to steal the ship.  Unless I remember incorrectly, that was a total bottle episode.

The point at which a film makes a profit is mysterious, and most studios manipulate the numbers enough to claim publically that no film ever made profit.  The modern rule of thumb seems to be that a film must make three times the production budget to just break even.

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-a-film-h … e-a-profit

You would burn most of a day doing it and it probably costs more than most would like to spend (especially with the small amount of time you spend on the backlot); but the main source of locations is available through the VIP walking tour of the Universal Studios back lot.

https://m.universalstudioshollywood.com … -overview/

I went a few years ago, and I really enjoyed it even though over half your time will be spent also getting front line access to the theme park rides and attractions.  Walking those streets where the Chandler facade used to be gave a lot of perspective, though.  That facade (rebuilt after the back lot fire) does not look like the Chandler any longer, but it’s located on a street beside the Back to the Future clock tower building.

During the tour, you walk in front of the clock tower building into a small alley (where several of the season four promo photos were taken), and the old Chandler was located directly in front of you on the right corner as you walk out of the alley.  Strangely enough, they built a new facade that looks like an updated version of the Chandler, but it’s on the corner to your left as you walk out that alley.  It’s almost like someone got the blueprints backwards.

The other thing I found interesting was the tour guide information on other projects that have filmed on that street since Sliders wrapped for the last time.  In Captain America: The First Avenger, Chris Evans is running down the Chandler street when chasing the Hydra agent that disrupted the procedure that transformed Steve Rogers into a super soldier.  The Chandler street was used in the Amazing Spider-man when Andrew Garfield found Uncle Ben shot.  Also at the end of the street starts a cobble stone section that was used in the first Pirates of the Carribean film where Sparrow has his sword fight with Will Turner (some of the same areas used in Sliders episodes like season five’s “Heavy Metal”).

Another aspect of the Universal tour was that they took you onto a soundstage and let you walk through a standing set.  At that time, it was the house from the NBC series “Parenthood”.  Not sure what it would be now, but the Chandler Hotel interior was a standing set during Sliders filming and would have likely been used in the tour had the walking tour been available back then.  It was still a nice perspective on what a standing set would be like on their sound stages.

I also took the walking tour of the Warner Brothers backlot while I was in Hollywood. It wasn’t quite as good as the Universal tour (even though I did get to see the set of The Big Bang Theory), but I still got to see the area where they filmed Sliders season three’s “State of the Art”.  And of course the old Daily Planet facade used in the Dean Cain Superman series.  Overall, the Warner tour was more focused on their complete history in film (from the James Cagney gangster movies to the areas used on the Waltons all the way to areas used in Dukes of Hazard and Gilmore Girls).

I wanted to take the Paramount back lot tour as well (which was the home of Star Trek), but time didn’t allow.

Well, I think the difference is that the Obama backlash wasn’t given as much of a voice.  The majority of the media talks about the horror of Trump 24/7; I think Twitter is moderating comments differently than they do with other topics (they probably consider it balance for allowing Trump to say whatever on his Twitter account); etc.

There was just as much vilification of Obama and Hillary; that’s part of the reason Trump got elected.  We just weren’t hearing those people’s voices until they spoke out at the ballot box.

Thinking in terms of Supergirl, Batman could make an appearance without stealing the show. I think the easiest way to do this would be to use Batman’s anti-social aspect - it’s not that the CW is trying to keep Batman in the background but instead that Batman *wants* to be in the background.

I think the bigger thing here is the potential access to more prominent Batman villains. With Supergirl fighting Metallo, could Arrow face off with Clayface?  Using the Supergirl model, Joker would likely be off the table like Lex seemingly is; but what about Penguin?  Bane?  Scarecrow?  There’s a lot of options.

Looks like the Berlanti Titans series is getting something to crossover with - Doom Patrol:

http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/14/doom-patrol-dc/

The classic Doom Patrol Line-up with the addition of Crazy Jane (who is basically the X-men character Legion - each of her multiple personalities has a different power).  Of course, I guess it balances out in the end given that X-men was kind of a rip off of Doom Patrol (with the Patrol debuting in June 1963 and X-men in September 1963).

Talk has been that it was an either/or situation with Lethal Weapon and Gotham, and Lethal Weapon just got renewed:

http://deadline.com/2018/05/seann-willi … 202388143/

So likely the end of Gotham.  No official word yet.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
.
.
.
.

With Skrulls, the story “Secret Invasion” comes to mind (where several dead heroes show up claiming they’re the real deal who has been held captive for years - it was the impostor who died); but I don’t really see that fitting or being a spoiler.

I suppose they could use “Annihilation” (the mini that introduced the modern Guardians of the Galaxy); and while it could be a spoiler about the end of Infinity War, it would really have zero to do with any potential story in the next Avengers movie.

Incidentally, I went back and looked at the various The End books, and I forgot about “Marvel: The End”.  It was a Thanos story too in which he discovered a flaw had been created in the universe and ultimately the only way to fix it was for Thanos to sacrifice his own life.  Some possible ideas there about where the next movie might go.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel:_The_End

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
.
.
.
.

I don’t think Strange told any of them what the real plan was; I think it goes back to the old idea of keeping changes to a bare minimum when you’re tampering with time.  Also, Strange couldn’t risk Thanos figuring things out; so the less people who could spill the strategy the better.

With Tony, we’re dealing with a genius engineer; and I’m reminded of that old Phillip K Dick story they used as the basis for that Ben Affleck movie “Paycheck”.  Can Tony reverse engineer the solution based on what Strange gave him?  Strange made Thanos promise not to kill Tony in exchange for the stone; and Thanos complied.  Thanos in fact complied completely - Tony was part of the half who lived after the finger snap.  Nebula is part of the half who lived (someone Thanos had a “family” connection to).  All of the original Avengers lived - possibly because Thanos had his respect for them on his mind when he saved Tony.   The clue is there that the subconscious of Thanos worked through the Gauntlet.   What can Tony reverse engineer from that to find a weakness Thanos left to exploit?

So how does the Mueller investigation affect your personal world?

Well, for years I’ve played an MMO called DC Universe Online (allowing you to create your own original DC Comics hero to go on adventures with Superman, etc).  Originally owned by Sony (licensing DC properties), the Sony Online Entertainmrnt division was sold in 2015 to a New York investment group called Columbus Nova who subsequently created Daybreak Games to house all of the SOE business.

Well, this was reported on April 4:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 … -to-trump/

It was found as part of Mueller’s investigation that Andrew Intrater, CEO of Columbus Nova, gave $250,000 to the Trump inaugural fund; he had never donated this amount of money to any other politician.  Why this mattered to Mueller is that Intrater is a cousin of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg who runs Renova Group (the parent company of Columbus Nova).  On April 6, Vekselberg and Renova were added to the list of Russia sanctions freezing their assets and ordering their businesses to shut down by June 5.

Currently, Daybreak Games is trying to erase history by editing their Wiki page and deleting articles they can control, but it was very clear in 2015 that they are a Columbus Nova company.  Now suddenly...they want you to believe they never were.

The bottom line is that the U.S. government doesn’t even have to shut down Daybreak to kill DC Online.  DC is owned by Warner Brothers who also owns CNN (a network at war with Trump).  Trump has also had a hand in hindering the Warner / AT&T merger.  All it will take is Warner getting wind of the Daybreak / Russia connections in the Mueller investigation, and they’ll likely pull the plug on DC Online.  Disney did the same thing by pulling the licensing plug on Marvel Heroes last year, and the death of that game was over sexual harassment allegations within the company that developed Marvel Heroes.

So if it comes to pass and Daybreak / DC Online is shuttered - for me, Robert Mueller will have killed the DC Universe.

Knew this was coming, but now some solid word that development of Marvel movies at Fox has been halted pending the Disney merger (something currently set to be finalized sometime before next summer).  This means that Deadpool 2 and X-men Dark Phoenix will be the last of the Fox-verse.  The New Mutants movie is still hanging out there (set for release in February), but it didn’t appear to be very connected to the other X-men movies.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/04/19 … men-movie/

Personally, I think Fox got X-men right more often than not; but Fantastic Four needed to go to better hands.  Done correctly, FF will be a seamless blend into the Marvel Studios movies.  X-men is going to be different; and I’m envisioning it as becoming something more like the old animated series in the 1990’s.

And really, the limited leading roles is how the comics story was handled too.  The Infinity Guantlet mini-series focused on only a few characters (Thanos, Adam Warlock, Silver Surfer, Death, Mephisto and ultimately Nebula).  While every hero in Marvel at the time also appeared, they were just supporting players with maybe their own moment here or there.  Honestly, half of the major Marvel characters died in issue one when Thanos snapped his fingers.

Of course, the Infinity War movie will also include what was the lead-up to Infinity Gauntlet, and that happened completely in the Silver Surfer monthly series along with a two issue mini called Thanos Quest with Thanos as the lead collecting the gems.

There is already evidence they’re following the Infinity Gauntlet Comic - the scene with Hulk falling through the skylight window at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum is a direct reproduction of a scene from Infinity Gauntlet #1 (the only difference being in the comic it was Silver Surfer who crashed through the window after a fight on the moon with a doppleganger Surfer that Thanos created).  So I expect we’ll see the comic formula followed. From what 21 is saying, I suspect Thor is sliding into the Adam Warlock role.

Found this interesting in the Deadline Hollywood article:

So if I’m reading that right, the DC shows may all be renewed, but it looks like some will have smaller episode orders.  The obvious candidate for a cut is Supergirl; a smaller order meaning that they can continue the Supergirl / Legends wheel format they just tried out.

Sunstones do store and emit energy, but I’ve always believed it’s name comes more from the Kryptonians history as sun worshippers.  Rao is the name of Krypton’s red sun, but it’s also the name of their god.  Sunstones have unique and wondrous properties which could lead one to think they were the stuff of the gods.

As for Brainiac, I do not believe he is the time traveler trying to alter history.  Brainiac was always destined to come to Krypton and steal Kandor; but in the original history, the Kryptonians were prepared enough to beat back Brainiac and prevent him from destroying the entire planet (Brainiac’s M.O. being to take a sample and then destroy the whole - his collection of rarities is because he made them rare).

But history has been changed.  Seg-el’s grandfather was silenced.  Krypton has not prepared.  And Brainiac is now going to succeed in destroying Krypton.  Jor-el will never be born.

There is a mastermind at work here moving chess pieces, but I don’t think it’s the future incarnation of Brainiac.

The same could be said of cars.  Distracted driving (cell phone use) kills innocent people.  Road rage / aggressive driving kills innocent people.  Speeding kills innocent people.   Falling asleep while driving kills innocent people.  Intoxicated driving kills innocent people.

The above is just looking at people’s bad choices leading one machine to cause death and other people suffering.  It does not include people who intentionally drive on the sidewalk to run over people.

Let’s ban cars.

I remember back...I guess 20 years ago at this point, the big push against smoking began.  Smoking was bad for you.  It ruined kids lives.  It killed people.  Commercials began to appear on tv.  Fictional characters across all medium had smoking habits toned down or eliminated.

Now we’re at today.  Guns are bad for you.  They ruin people’s lives.  They kill people.  But yet we’re still inundated with fictional characters shooting them off like rock stars.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t blame the gun or even the cigarette; people make their own  choices and people must be held accountable for them.  But I do find it interesting that theses stars preach against guns when they spend all day making them look cool.

There’s more to it than that!  The memo is not a two dimensional construct - look!

https://youtu.be/HgPSUer1ujM

The easiest path through a “Green Arrow prison” story would be some story time in prison followed by a draft into the Suicide Squad.  Activities in the squad then lead to redemption and/or methods of getting Oliver back in the hero life (time travel being an obvious one).

Of course, I think DC has barred the use of the squad outside of the feature film version.