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I do remember that mentioned as an early outline; don’t think it made it to script form.  I also seem to remember it was part of a chat with either Torme or Weiss, so chat transcripts would need to be checked too.  Earth62 still has many of those:

http://www.earth62.net/transcripts/chattranscripts.htm

I’ll always remember the Zicree rule of thumb on this one; when an actor leaves a show, you can usually tell under what circumstances the exit occurred by how they’re written off.

In the case of Halston Sage, she was not only given a well done special episode; but her character was left happy, healthy and with the explicit offer by Mercer / McFarlane that her seat was always there if she wanted to come back.  This is kind of a reverse-Arturo. Where the Professor had one of the most horrible exits I’ve seen, Alara was probably given one of the best.  It’s hard for me to believe there’s any bad blood.

I will offer one last observation, though.  McFarlane comes across as pretty crass and egotistical, but I believe all of it is an act.  Looking at the edges of his behavior (especially concerning the Harvey Weinstein reports), McFarlane seems like someone who has a great respect for women.

The most obvious explanation for Sage leaving is the break-up with McFarlane.  Was Alara’s exit written so perfectly opposite of the norm because McFarlane was trying to make it that way?  Was McFarlane trying to be classy about it?  That’s where I’m leaning toward on the explanation.

I foresee - the search for Oliver Queen!

https://comicbook.com/dc/2019/01/30/zac … vin-smith/

It’s a shame, but not surprising.  Another similar example is Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing”.  I don’t watch the show, but it was successful on ABC from what I understand.  Then suddenly it’s cancelled - the only real explanation being that Tim Allen was conservative.  The show moves to Fox and is a continued success.

Hollywood cuts its nose off to spite its face.  It’s become less a business and more of an overt political propaganda movement as time has marched on.

On a personal note, I’ve met Dean Cain in person.  He is one of the nicest and most humble people I’ve met; and if he was covering his true self by acting, then he deserves an Oscar.  How anyone could hate the guy enough to push him off is beyond me.

lol

The Russia thing continually amuses me.  Mitt Romney was openly mocked in 2012 for saying Russia was a threat to the US.  Four short years later, Russia is suddenly the gravest threat to face America!  The only thing that changed between the two times is that Democrats lost power.

I’m not surprised; I faced that since the day I started.  Admittedly some of that is my own fault, and some due to protecting my methods; but it’s also partly due to my presentation rarely being visually glamorous.  That’s the sad truth of humanity - shiny objects and beautiful people often carry more weight and credibility.

I don’t recall ever going in depth on how I did it, but it’s not really a secret.  I stumbled into something seasoned investigators already knew - the wealth of information that provides a foundation comes from the “little people” and not so much the marquee name.  The secretary, the make-up artist, the prop maker, the visual effects technician - all of these people are ground zero of production discussions and actor interactions, but they largely fade in the background and are overlooked by those talking because they’re just “the help”.  Of course, that leads to disgruntlement and a search for appreciation which makes them interested in talking to a fan who cares about what they do.

All of that is only step one, though.  After all, information from those sources can be filled with bias and personal agendas; and that’s why their information is only the foundation you build your house on and not the house itself.   After you’ve done that leg work with the below the line people, you then search out the bigger names. When talking to them, you don’t necessarily get into the things you’ve heard about the person you’re talking to; you instead get into what you’ve heard about the people they worked with.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard “how do you know this?  It’s like you worked there.”  This leads them to open up and start seeing you as someone who shared the experience, so they let their guard down and then start talking about their perspective of what they personally did.  Compare notes to other people’s accounts and see what holds up.  Conversely, if you’re hearing the same identical anecdotes from multiple crew - yeah, it’s very doubtful they all got together and made sure their fabricated story was straight.

As for how you accomplish this in finding these people - it’s probably not as easy today as it was in 1997 - 2000 when the Internet was still young; people are more guarded and private now even with things like Facebook.  But, the first place you start is EBay - after all, that’s rarely if ever someone like Jerry O’Connell selling a script or fake money props thrown into the air during a one second scene in “Prince of Wails” - it’s the low level guy trying to make some side money.  Contact the seller - ask them if they have more to sell that they haven’t listed yet.  That leads into them opening up about who they are and who else they can connect you to.

To give an example.  I purchased a copy of a later draft script for “Luck of the Draw” on EBay likely 20 years ago at this point, but I had long been interested in finding the first draft because other people I talked to claimed it had a different ending.  It turned out the guy selling the script on EBay was Jon Povill’s assistant, and he put me in direct contact with Jon. Jon knew what I was talking about but hadn’t given it much thought; in fact, the only remaining copy was a saved file on a laptop Jon had set aside to throw away.  The only reason that script still exists today is because my efforts led me to Jon, and I made him realize it held some value to people.

Another way of finding people back in the day - SAG and WGA.  SAG in fact had a number you could call (meant for journalists) where you could call and get agent contact information which could then lead you to the star, writer and even producer.  It didn’t work reliably (agents protect their clients after all), but you could get a surprise such as the time they didn’t realize they gave me the number to Sabrina Lloyd’s sister.  We had a nice conversation after I explained my intended goal was to find a fan mail address for Sabrina.

But the process used to get me to the final product is why I didn’t always talk about sources (a sticking point for some fans who used that to believe I simply must be making it all up and lying).  Tagging the names or job titles of low level people on news (especially when the show was still in production) would have had a chilling effect - the bosses and actors would have been more careful about what they said, and the information would have stopped.  In the worst case scenario, people could have lost their jobs.  But to some fans that doesn’t matter - reveal all or be branded a liar.  It’s frankly ignorance - which leads us back to their attraction to only shiny objects and beautiful people.

Something’s got to give.  I don’t see all of the CW DC shows surviving the addition of Batwoman.

Looks like the Netflix deal states that their Marvel characters can’t appear in any non-Netflix production (movies or tv) for two years after cancellation:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/netflixs-marvel … 1831056170

Punisher might be exempt but doubtful.

Today they announced that Shang-Chi -Master of King-Fu is going to be one of the phase four movies.

Comic characters tend to run in families - characters like Nick Fury, Falcon and Black Widow are all known in their own right, but ultimately they are part of the Captain America family.  What’s interesting with Shang-Chi is that he is part of the Heroes for Hire family - he runs with Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Daredevil (both sharing a villain in The Hand).  Marvel is obviously visiting Shang-Chi to replicate the success of Black Panther, but it’s also a nice back door to a cinematic version of the Netflix shows.

I just realized that I haven’t posted my off-the-wall Flash theory of the season.  Meta-tech?  First appearance was the cell phone hacking people’s brains.  Flashed a purple glow in their eyes.

Is the true villain of the season the Kilg%re?  He may have been able to upload himself into that satellite before it blew up; and even in the comics, the nature of Kilg%re’s powers did not require a body - he was more of a computer code / consciousness.  Kilg%re could have survived Thinker once the Thinker’s grip was released thus freeing him.

In the comics, Kilg%re ended up outgrowing humanity and their petty concerns; and his “defeat” was that he essentially left for greater things in the universe that more deserved his attention.  But Kilg%re did save the life of Flash before he left - Flash had a pretty big bullet hole in his chest thanks to Vandal Savage.

Also a pretty funny thing Amazon has done:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/11/21 … n-release/

No idea if it’s intentional or not, but you can’t currently find “Kerblam!” on Amazon Prime - if you choose that episode, it instead plays this coming Sunday’s episode “The Witchfinders” leaked well ahead of schedule.  Perhaps a little revenge on the BBC for taking shots at Amazon?

Well here’s an interesting report:

https://wegotthiscovered.com/tv/jodie-w … ctor-2019/

I was just talking about this with someone, and Legends really isn’t a DC show anymore.  To use this season so far, there is so much DC lore they could be pulling from to populate this magic story:

The Demons Three - Justice League level villains which include their own quest element with the bell, wheel and jar artifacts used to summon and banish them.

Nebiros - the Demon connected to the origin of Blue Devil - a stunt man who becomes magically fused with his animatronic movie costume.

Neron - DC’s version of Satan who focused on offering villains power ups to encourage them to be evil again - a perfect story for Mick Rory to take part in.

Mordru - the timeless Lord of Chaos with a strong connection to the Justice society, the Legion of Super-Heroes and Gemworld (featuring the hero Amethyst).

That’s just off the top of my head.  There is so much they could be doing, but instead we’re getting unicorns and fairy god mothers. At this point, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has as much claim of being a DC show as Legends does.

I definitely agree about the huge missed opportunity with Logan; and she would have given something back to the group dynamic.  They toyed with the idea of Arturo having some darkness to his character, and Logan would have been perfect for that.  Is she bad?  Is she good?  Is she self serving?  Is she just misunderstood?

I could see it as something like Capaldi’s first season on Doctor Who where we weren’t quite sure what to think of him.  The scene that comes to mind for me is when Clara is trapped in the room with the robots and she asks the Doctor for the sonic; but the Doctor refuses.  Did he really need it?  Did he just not care if she survived?  Did he look at Clara as something he didn’t need anymore?  We weren’t sure.

It’s a shame Sliders didn’t go there.  I think it would have been a role Zoe would have relished with many layers to the character to explore; but as it is, it seems Sliders is something she’s long ago tired of people mentioning.

Am I the only one who thinks it odd that not a single mail bomb has blown up?  We’re up to ten now?  Either this is the worst bomb maker in history or it’s a stunt.

Is there something wrong with Jesse L Martin (Joe West)?  His scenes are being staged so that he spends practically the entire time sitting down; and in this week’s episode, Captain Singh filled in for the part Joe would have usually had with Barry at the crime scene.

Brett is Dubya’s kind of frat boy; and it was Dubya who put him on the bench.  This is old school Republican stuff.

Something that’s went largely unreported here is that Brett has been through this before.  Bush nominated him to the DC Circuit in 2003, but the Senate fought on it and didn’t confirm him until 2006.  By comparison, this went well.

Comics have really become too expensive; I’m surprised there are still as many collectors as there are.  When I was growing up in the early to mid 80’s, comics were 60 cents each at the drug store / gas station / grocery, and the comics were largely self contained stories that you could read just the one issue and have a satisfying experience.  To put that in perspective, a comic cost you about as much as a regular size candy bar.

Today, the cover price on a comic is $3.99 on most.  You could buy three to four regular candy bars for that.  Plus, today’s comics are often giving you only a part of the story.  Sometimes it’s half a story; sometimes only 1/6th of a story.  Of course, you can do mail order comics to get a discount (usually changing that $3.99 to $2.39), but even that is over twice what they should cost.

Comics are by design 32 pages of disposable enjoyment that last about as long as that candy bar.  You would get much more for your money buying a DVD out of the 5 dollar bin at Wal-Mart.

I just don’t see how it’s attractive to people any longer.  It’s certainly not pulling in kids.

Hiddleston’s Loki is popular with fans; but without him, I think people wouldn’t care much for the character.  I’m curious if they’ll pull other stars into it too.  They recently did a storyline where Loki stole Doctor Strange’s mantle as Sorcerer Supreme; and with Benedict Cumberbatch receptive to television, I could see him joining the project to explore that story.

With Olsen, I’m not sure where they could go with that; her solo stories have usually included more than her (either co-starting her brother Quicksilver, Vision or the entire Marvel U such as in House of M).  But, her series would be an opportunity to give a soft introduction to the MCU’s version of mutants and the X-men universe.

Of course, one could argue the DC Universe service is taking steps toward this too.  The new Doom Patrol series has cast Timothy Dalton as The Chief; and he’s a recognizable name.  But even with that, it’s still Berlanti and the feel of an extension to his CW universe.  That’s not a bad thing; it’s just not the theatrical to tv model we’re discussing.

Never saw any details leaked; just reporting about the struggle.

By the time Johns was given the Green Lantern comic, he was popular enough and established enough at DC Comics to have the freedom to do what he wanted; so I would say look to his comics run for how he would do it.  In those comics, Krona is not Parallax; Abin Sur dies of his own fear and paranoia that grew from a prophecy an enemy shared; Sinestro trained Jordan personally (which led to Sinestro being thrown out of the Corps when Jordan exposed that Sinestro was using his ring to control his home world like a fascist dictator).  That’s just a few things off the top of my head; but I feel confident Johns comics likely show what he wanted.

Refreshing myself on the history, I believe Jordan would be good as Val-Zod.  It would be pretty easy to rework the Earth 2 story by just saying Kal-el disappeared and save the Darkseid / Apokolips invasion for later.  It could actually work as the soft continuation of the DCEU Warner seems to want; and Val had closer ties to Supergirl as they were both older when launched from Krypton.

As for the finale to the Kal-el arc, they could have the villain in full body armor (ala Darth Vader), and when he’s defeated we see through the crack in his chest plate that the S shield of Cavill’s costume is showing through.  It would still be open to bring Cavill back down the road as even the Earth 2 story had that initial evil Superman as just one of an army of clones Darkseid created.

And this is the problem - even now there is no admission that Hillary Clinton was a horrid candidate.  The reason all of this happened is because the Democratic establishment propped up Hillary like some kind of royalty that was owed the throne.  The media propped up Trump to decimate the Republican field because they thought they would be throwing Hillary a softball opponent to help her win - and boy did that backfire.  *All* of this happened because some cant see the forest for the Hillary.

And they’ll do it again.  Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if they put Hillary up again.

And what is this that Cohen’s attorney was promoting on the news all day?

https://www.gofundme.com/hqjupj-michael … truth-fund

So I guess the implication is that Cohen can’t tell the truth unless the funding goal is met?  lol  The guy is not poor, but nearly 2000 people have already fallen for this and donated money.

And to add, if they truly want to go all in on cosmic, I think Marvel could follow up on some ideas from the Jim Krueger / Alex Ross series Earth X.  We’ve seen the head of a dead Celestial with Knowhere in Guardians; but what are Celestials and their motives?

A nearly extinct race from a long fought war, the Celestials seed young planets like eggs in order to reproduce; and they modify the evolving indigenous population so that a percentage can have have special abilities and intelligence to act as anti-bodies to protect the planet egg until it can hatch into a Celestial.  Galactus serves as a kind of galactic mongoose poaching the eggs so that “snakes” don’t overrun the universe.

It raises the interesting question, would the heroes save the world to doom the universe?  Defeating Galactus could mean that.

It was reported awhile back that Marvel is planning a movie based on The Eternals.  That’s notable because the Eternals is where the Celestials and their lore was introduced.

Free speech has nothing to do with getting or keeping your job; it doesn’t even get you to the head of the line at the soup kitchen.  But if Gunn truly wasn’t worried about it, then more power to him.  Personally, I don’t buy it.  I believe he thought he was protected and there could be no consequences; and I just have zero sympathy for those attitudes when it blows up in someone’s face.

There’s a thing called tact; and there are far too many people these days who have no understanding of what that means (including and especially Trump).

I don’t follow Gunn, but a site I often visit (Bleeding Cool) would showcase his anti-Trump tweets with a cheer.  For me, Gunn’s comments weren’t so much critical as they were an expression of hate.  I really didn’t know much about Gunn beyond that I liked Guardians 1 and didn’t like Vol 2 as much; but reading his anti-Trump ranting really turned me off.  I found it shaping my view of his product too.

That said, Gunn certainly has a right to say it, but he also has a right to the consequences of saying it.  If there’s anything I would like to ask Gunn now, it would be “was it worth it?”  If he wanted to lay himself down selflessly for a cause - well, he’s done it.  He gets to live with it now.  None of this would have happened except that he relentlessly targeted Trump.

I think there comes a point where these people have to ask themselves what business they’re in.  Are they in the political commentary business?  If so, that’s great - there’s money to be made there.  Are they in the blockbuster movie business?  If so, that’s great - lots of money there.  Can you mix the two together?  Not always.  Know what your business is; and if you can’t figure that out, then you really don’t deserve to stay employed.