Weird Mind News Room Episode 45: Jan 1st- 7th 2024

 *New year, new music*

Hello again all of you wonderful viewers and readers to the first edition of Weird Mind News Room of the New Year. Now this week we have a mix of content from some of the New Releases of the year, some trailers of what we can expect this year and even some news with a focus of casting, Rumoured and some other IP news, so lets not waste too much time of Introductions and lets get going.

New Year, New Releases

Movies

Priscilla

Now we start off the new releases of the year with a film that was initially released in November last year (but was released in the US back then), we have the newest life story film from acclaimed Sofia Coppola which while we got a film based on the king of Rock and Roll a little over 2 years ago, we are focusing on the wife of the famous musician as we see the release of Priscilla. Now this will focus on the wife of Elvis Presley how they met when Elvis was drafted in the military (while she was also underage at 14, while he was in his mid 20s) and their relationship that was not always so loving and will delve into the dark private life of the world famous musicians young wife. Now the reception on this film has been very well recieved with great praise going to the lead performance of Cailee Spaney and for being a more focused biographical pic compared to the over glamourized Elvis film from 2 years ago and if you want to check it out yourself you can do so now in cinemas.

Night Swim

But if you want to look for something that is more in the horror genre, then you are also somewhat in look as we have the first new horror movie of the year with Night Swim. This new film will follow a family that moves into a new home and discover that they have a new Pool in their backyard, but it is soon discovered that something truly dangerous and sinister lies beneath the surface. Now the reception on this film has not been the best as while the concept (initially based on a short film from the director and writer) is interesting, it is lacking in any real scares or even some comedic tones for the film. It also reminds me of a really old series if you have heard of it called are you afraid of the Dark and the episode of The Tale of the Dead Man's Float which has the exact same concept (and is actually creepy especially given that was a children's show). But if you want to make a splash with this horror you can do so now as it is out in cinemas. 

Trailers of a supernatural Kind

Lisa Frankenstein

Now we have some new trailers from this week which focus a fair bit of the supernatural and the first of the 2 trailers for this week is one that we have seen in the past but with a new modern day twist and some romance and that is with the new romantic horror comedy of Lisa Frankenstein. This new Film will be following Kathryn Newton's Character who is a misunderstood teenager who becomes smitten with a reanimated corpse who embark on a murderous Journey to find love, happiness and a few missing body parts. Now I think this has the look of an interesting concept of a 80s teen romcom with a bit of a horror twist in there and I am sure it will be worth a watch when this film drops soon in Mid February for Valentines or March 1st (some dates change about lately so its either one).

The First Omen

Now for a series that has seen quite a series of films over the course of the last near half century that would be as popular as some other horror classic of the time as we go back to where it all started and how it lead to it all with a trailer for the First Omen. Now this will follow a young woman who starts to question her own faith when she uncovers a terrifying conspiracy to bring about the birth of an evil incarnate in Rome. Now I have not seen much of the series besides the classic original and this one I do hope does well but it is hard to say when a lot of these horrors always have a setting of some religion or demonic creatures but lets hope it all works out but we will find out when this film releases on April 5th.

News of a varying kind

The Casting of a block shaped character, the loss of a Hero and the casting of a Viking

Now initially on the start of the years news stories I am delving into some new casting info for 3 different upcoming projects all based on different properties and initially given that their was a very slow week of news until the end of the week, these were all going to be a separate news story but now I decided to lump them all together into one so lets delve into them.

The first story is coming to us with some news for an upcoming film adaptation of another popular and this one is going to be the massive sandbox creative survival game of Minecraft. Now it may become a surprise to you but we are actually getting a film based on the worldwide phenomenon and its not too far from release as it is confirmed for a release in Early April next year. The only odd choice concept I see is that the whole film is going to be in Live Action form which I am questioning how that will work, but besides the point I am delving more into the casting and the new announcement is a good one as it was confirmed on Tuesday this week that Jack Black himself has been casted into the film. Now it is not known who he will be confirmed to be playing as alongside the other cast member of Jason Mamoa, but it has been rumoured that he will be playing as the iconic character of Steve. Now its just a little speculation on this end at the moment but until it has been properly confirmed who he is playing we will have to wait and see until then.

Now the next casting confirmation is only just confirmed very recently for a film by a studio that seems to be following in the footsteps of Disney with making a film of theirs into live action and this is with a Live Action Adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon. Now we have already gotten the casting a while back for this films 2 leads with Mason Thames playing Hiccup and Nico Parker playing Astrid and now we have another addition to the cast as Gerard Butler will be reprising his role from the animated films as Hiccups father of Stoick. Now I am sure we will see more of the cast being announced over the next few weeks as they start filming for this retelling and we will see the first look before it takes flight in June 2025.

Now the last of the casting roles is actually not casting but rather from the announcement of a departure from another franchise as we are delving into the first story talking on some superhero fare of the MCU as it was announced that Steven Yuen, who had been rumoured to have been casted as Sentry has dropped out of the project of Marvels Thunderbolts. Now the reasoning for this dropping out of the film has to do with some scheduling conflicts that has popped up more from the recent Actors strikes from last year and not to do with any form of drama or falling out or anything which I totally get given a lot of the films were affected from last years Writers and Actors strikes. I am sure that he will come back again for the role in the future or someone else will come along and take on the role but for the time being we will have to see what the outcome for the whole ordeal will be.

But what are your thoughts on these casting announcements and what are your thoughts on each of these projects in particular and which are you most interested in? Let me know what you think of it all down below in the comments section.

We going to be "switching" it up in some Pricing

So next on the news side of things is some returning rumours with the company of Nintendo. Now a little while ago I delved into some discussion about some rumours of Nintendo's next Gen console after the Switch as the console will be turning 7 years this year on March 3rd. I mentioned some discussions in the past that we will be expecting a new hardware piece sometime in the later half of 2024, I may have mentioned that some of the specs are to the level of PS4 and Xbox One (whether its the standard or more of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X). Well now we have another little bit of speculation of the upcoming console and that is in some projected price. It seems according to some reliable sources that we will be seeing this new console (dubbed the Nintendo Switch 2) will have a launch price of €400. Now this seems like a logical price of the game console given the last version of the OLED costed €365 at its launch around 2-3 years ago but I think that will be the max price with the likes of a launch game like a new Mario game as a launch title or something like higher storage like the Wii U did in 2012. Now I am certain the rumoured official first looks of the next console will start to pop up in the next few week cause if they are planning to release it this year they better get started soon and once I get any word I will update you in a later piece.

But what are your thoughts on the price and how much do you think it will launch at and do you think this will be another hybrid console? Let me know what you think of it all down in the comments and lets discuss it there.

Ohana Means streaming with Family

Now for some news based on the concept of a rumoured release and this is with the giant conglomerate entertainment company of Disney. Now as you are aware Disney has been making a lot of live action films based on some remakes of their original animated films (and something that I have been working on that I promise to have done by the end of this month, hopefully) and it seems since about 2016 they have been pumping them out with more then once a year and it is a case that that was initially what was planned for this year with the first one that was supposed to be a live action retelling of Snow White that was delayed by a year and the only one we have left is with the prequel Sequel of of The Lion King at Christmas, however there seems to be a bit of a rumoured secret surprise release 3rd film that may be on the way out and coming quite soon as well. Now according to some reports and rumours floating around, we are getting a Live action Disney Film releasing straight to Streaming on Disney+ and that one in particular is the Live Action version of 2002s Lilo and Stitch and that the film itself will be dropping sometime in June of this year. Now the basis of the film releasing around this time may make sense given that the film had started production a little under a year ago at the beginning of May last year after it was delayed briefly for a recasting as well as a possible arson attack that saw the burning of a trailer with costumes for the first 3 weeks of filming worth around $200,000. Now it did get put on hold during the strikes but had at least managed a good 2.5 months of filming beforehand and I would say that they will get it released by then that in between that dry season of strikes they probably put together what they could and then get the rest when things were back to normal for filming. Do I see it happening, possibly so but I feel they'll wait till a Disney+ Day to release it as well as some other projects and they'll want to have at least 2 live action films to go but I guess we'll have to wait and see how it turns out by then.

But what are your thoughts of this film being released this year and do you have any interest in a live action Lilo and Stitch film or these live action remakes in general or is there ones you want to see in particular? Let me know what you think down below in the comments section. 

Its the Mickey Mouse Murderhouse

And the Last of the stories for this week is delving into the basis of an IP and the concept of the public domain. Now if you have been following the news for the last couple of months you would know that a certain Honey Loving little bear has become available for public use and what spawned was the concept of making Winnie the Pooh a horror icon with a film that I already did a in depth review analysis for Halloween and some games as well and the likes of a follow up sequel coming out presumably sometime this year. Well now we add another character that was a simple character for all ages and that is coming to the form of the famous mouse himself of Mickey, though not the actual version of him and more the version of Mickey from the famous cartoon of Steamboat Willie. Now what do you do when you have a version of a character enter public domain, why you make him a horror icon because why not. Yes it wasn't even a full 24 hours into the new year but we got the announcement of not 1, not 2 but 3 projects of horror based on the famous Mouse, with 2 being low budget films (one with a Trailer already) with the first known as Mickey's Mouse Trap and the other, a horror comedy of Steamboat Willie being made by the guy who made the horror film based on the Grinch from 2022 known as the Mean one, and then a new game that I believe at first was called Infestation 88. Now I feel that this will last for a fair bit of time and then Disney will pull a fast one, but the character back in their control and then those projects will be claimed by the company or something to that degree but I feel if it was more of the actual character of Mickey Mouse then I would guess it would be more serious but given its a specific version of the character it may be more easier to work around. All I know is that I am most likely finding myself doing a 2nd edition of Horror most bore this year with these unless they turn out to be really good horrors but that seems like a slim chance. I guess we'll find out how the first one turns out when Mouse Trap releases apparently in March.

But what are your thoughts on this whole turn an iconic character into a horror series concept and do you think any of these will be good and what other characters do you see getting this transformation once they enter the public domain? Let me know all your thoughts and opinions down below in the comments.

And with that that brings us to the end of the 45th episode and first of the Weird Mind News Room of 2024 and I hope you enjoyed my ramblings once again and hopefully will join me for a very positive and successful 2024 with this and video forms. Let me know your thoughts on all the releases, trailers and news down below and as always, stay being wonderful people as you all are wonderful people and have a great day everyday doing many great things and I will see you all in the next post.

Signing Off

Sam H