Weird Mind News Room Episode 52: Feb 19th - 25th

 *One year of Weird Mind Music*

Hello again to you one and all to the 52nd episode of Weird Mind News room and if my calculations are correct is that it has been a whole year since the series started and I like to thank you all for the news and nonsense of talking all things media and this week we are delving as usual into all of the new releases, Trailers and the News of the, so lets not waste too much time and lets get to the media discussion.

The Last New Release-bender

Tv Shows

Avatar the Last Airbender Live action (Netflix)

Now we start the week with combining the four elements as well as the power of Money to bring us a new entry in the animated / anime into live action form and this is coming to us in the form of the 2nd attempt at the live action version of Avatar the Last air-bender. Now the series will be following the plot of the original where 2 water tribe children of Katara and Sokka come across a young kid named Aang frozen in ice for 100 years and discover that he is the last of the Air-benders and soon with the help of the 2 and his flying Bison Appa, they will head off on a journey across the land to help Aang master the four elements and become the true Avatar and save the world from the reign and attack of the fire nation. Now the reception on this series has been a little mixed with some praising the performances of the main leads, visual aspects and the fight scenes, however it has been criticized for some of the plot elements from the original series being absent, some of the writing as well as a divide over it being a lot more darker in tone. Now logically this will spawn a few season to play out the original saga and most case may be shortened compared to the original but if you want to check out the first season you can do so right now on Netflix.

Star Wars the Bad Batch Final season

And the only other new release of this week is coming to us from a galaxy far far away as we delve into the animated side of the great space saga as we have the beginning of the final season to The bad batch. This 3rd season will see the group try to reunite with the character of Omega, who has been captured and taken inside an imperial science lab, while also trying to free themselves from the empire wit all of the knowledge they have learned about the armada. Now the reception of the series has been well recieved like the first 2 season for its characters, story, action and as a fitting conclusion to the series with a story open ended to possible future adventures and if you want to join in on the action, you can catch the first 3 episodes of the season now on Disney+ with around 1-2 new episodes every week until the finale on May 1st.

The Trailer Batch

Borderlands Movie

We start off the trailer for the week with over the top action, explosions, guns, bullets, weird alien creatures and a rag tag odd group of weirdos that includes a sassy talking robot as we have gotten the official first trailer at the upcoming adaptation of Borderlands. Now this film will follow Lilith (played by Cate Blanchett), a mercenary who reluctantly returns home to their planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe's most powerful S.O.B of Atlas, and soon teaming up with a odd rag tag group, including former mercenary Roland (Kevin Hart), feral pre-teen demolitionist Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), her muscle protector of Krieg, a nut-job scientist of Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a sassy robot named Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) and must find and protect the missing girls from aliens and other mercenaries as she may be the key to unimaginable power. Now I think at first glance it does look decently entertaining, the characters look close to their game counterparts and it seems to be going to the over the top antics of the series but there is a little aspect of uncertainty about it but I am sure it may improve overtime when the film launches into cinemas on August 9th.

Challengers

Now it is time to hit the courts for a few sets of fast wrist movement and for a bit of possible heat and tension as we have gotten an all new trailer for the new sport romantic comedy-drama of Challengers. Now this will see Zendaya play Tashi Duncan, a former world tennis champion who after a career ending knee injury, becomes the coach for her partner and after a losing streak signs him up for a challengers match against an opponent who were their old friend and love interest and soon some sense of romantic feelings and decisions will come to the forefront on and off the court. Now I think it does look very stylized, the cast choice is very interesting and in most case most people are only really tuning into the film due to some scenes of a romantic nature that caused quite a conversation online. Now initially planned for a release late last year we will see this game begin when it releases on April 26th.

Elden Ring Shadow of the erdtree

Now we return to the world created from the mind of Hidetaka Miyazaki and from the mind of the man who still is finishing the written narrative of a popular series of George R.R Martin as we return to the land of Elden Ring and take a journey to the new world as we have recieved a trailer for the new expansion of Shadow of the Erdtree. Now this plot will see the narrative follow the story of Malenia's twin brother of Miquella as you will travel across the land of shadow to find a way to break the curse that has been placed on you and your brother (though different curses) that keep's MIquella from growing older and staying younger and also take down powerful enemies and possibly defeat the man in red of Mesmar. Now I haven't delved much into the original game but I have planned to but from what I have seen from this trailer is that we are in for a treat and the wait will be just for a little while longer as this expansive DLC piece will be releasing onto consoles and PC on June 21st this year.

Spider-wick Chronicles Tv series

Now a little backstory on this next trailer, initially this series was planned for a release and creation for the Disney+ streaming service which was being developed on another series of novels similar to Lemony Snickett and Percy Jackson. However it was then apparently shelved by Disney even though the series was fully filmed a year before hand but it seems it has found a new distributor home in the US and the series in particular is a new adaptation of the book series of The SpiderWick Chronicles. Now the series will follow the Grace children of Simon and Jarrod and their older sister Mallory as they move into the SpiderWick estate and coming across an ancient book and discovery of mythical creatures both good and dangerous hidden in plain sight in our own world, Now this of course is the 2nd adaptation of this series following the well received 2008 film and I hope that this will also be worth a watch as well. Now it is confirmed for the Roku channel in the Us but since that isn't an option here, most case it will have a Disney+ release here on its planned release of April 19th. 

Guy Ritchie's The Gentleman

And to wrap up this weeks trailers, we have gotten an all new trailer for a somewhat follow up to the late 2019 action comedy film from british director of Guy Ritchie with the tv series of The Gentleman. Now this will follow the character of Eddie Halstead, a man who has just inherited a large estate from his late father but will soon learns and discovers that the land has become part of Mickey Pearson's weed growing empire and soon he will become involved with getting a part of the action as long as he keeps it on the down low. Now this series will be seeing a big ensemble cast including Theo James, Giancarlo Esposito, Kaya Scodelario and Ray Winstone and it seems to have the look and style of his films and the original film. Now it is unclear if any of the cast from the film including Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant will appear in a small cameo or so but I am sure we will find out when the series premieres in 2 weeks time on March 7th. 

News of the elements

The gaming events of Nintendo and the confirmed rumours of Xbox

Now on the start of all of the news stories for this week, we got word and the release of a new Nintendo Direct this week that will be delving into some of the games coming from their game partners for the first half of this year that would not be delving into the first party titles or even a look at the new console, but the latter one may be a little while longer as it has been reported we will not see the new console release until the early months of 2025 (which in all honestly I am fine with it taking as long as it needs to do so), but for the story I am going to go through all that was announced at this about 25 min direct and also tie it to another rumoured story that had been made as confirmed from its announcement.

So we got quite a few announcements in this shorter direct that started off with the confirmed announcement that we were getting the popular co-op game of Grounded coming to Switch in Mid-April, which also confirmed that the rumoured games of Xbox were coming to other consoles and were starting with the release of Penitence this week, grounded in April and the confirmed release of Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves in Late March/ April on the PS5 which could see more of their big games release onto other consoles soon. The next unveiled game was with the metroidvania type game of Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist that is planned for release this year. We then seen the announcement of a unique quirky puzzle game of Arranger: a role puzzling adventure that looks like a lot of fun and will be releasing in the summer, and was followed up by 2 RPG style games with Unicorn Overlord launching on the 8th of March and the release of the 3DS Monster Hunter Stories also coming out in the summer. Now the game that actually made my 10 year old self very happy as one game I have been wanting a remaster or a sequel to was unveiled with a remastered take on Epic Mickey with Epic Mickey Rebrushed, which will be helmed by THQ Nordic, the studio behind the Battle for Bikini Bottom and Destroy all Humans remakes and looks amazing and is planned for release this year.

This was then followed up with a new expansion to Shim Magami Tensei V with Vengeance planned for a release on June 21st. Then this one also went hard and caused a praise online as it was announced the original 2 Star Wars Battlefront games were coming to the Switch and other consoles with multiplayer and new characters on the 14th of March which is a welcome surprise, Then we got a new look at the upcoming release of South Park Snow day which is releasing on the 26th of March, some new content for the game of Sword Art Online with Fractured Daydream coming out later this year and the return to the world of Gundam battles with Gundam breaker 4 also releasing later this year. We then recieved the announcement of an all new official entry in the Super Monkeyball series with Banana Rumble that will see new moves, stages, challenges and 16 player online multiplayer taking a spin when it drops on the console on June 25th, followed by an official release date to the sequel to world of Goo for May 23rd. We then recieved a form of a new farming style adventure game with Fantasy Life i: The Girl who steals time with the latest release of this direct with it coming out on October 10th. We then got the unveiling of a souls-like game where you are a crab on a quest to clean up the polluted oceans and get your shell back with Another Crabs treasure that is coming out on April 25th. One of the select few shadow drop games from the direct was the new game from the team behind Sonic Mania with Penny's Big Breakaway, a paid DLC for Suika Game, and a card based horse racing mix of Pocket Card Jockey: Ride on. We then got a celeste style looking game with Pepper Grindr coming out on March 28th. This then was followed with a short montage of some other games including Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (march 7th), Tales of Kenzera: ZAU (April 23rd), Demon Slayer Sweep the Board (April 26th), Kingdom Come Deliverance - Royal edition (March 15th) and Contra Corps: Operation Galuga (March 12th), before the direct ended with 2 final unveilments, the first a selection of 5 Rareware titles coming to switch online with Killer instict, Blast Corps, R.C Pro Am, Snake RattleNRoll and Battletoads in Battlemania were all announced for the online consoles (one that wasn't for other audiences besides Japan was Mother 3) and the direct ended with a new entry in the endless ocean series with Luminous with that releasing on May 2nd, bringing to an end of I think a pretty Decent Direct for the focus of studio partners.

But what are your thoughts on all that was announced and is there any in this you are most excited for and what 3rd party titles were you hoping to see get announced. Let me know your own choices down below in the comments section below.

From oddities, Superheroes and action stars of new release dates

Now on the next story from the extensive news of the week, we are delving into some announcements of some tv show release date confirmations and the mix of 2 movies swapping around a date and being replaced with the other one that I was surprised was already made but I will be delving into all of them in a bit more of a quicker output for this one so let get to it

So starting off we have 2 different shows announcing the release dates for their upcoming seasons, both of them being their 4th season and the first one now confirmed as well to be its final season as a few days ago we got the confirmation that the final season for Umbrella Academy will be releasing onto the streaming service from August 8th of this year. Now it is either a case of it dropping all at once or will be a weekly release similar to the likes of Better Call Saul and Money Heist did back when they were coming out but I am sure we will learn closer to its release in late Summer. And as for the other series with a release confirmation we are heading over to Amazon Prime where it was announced on Thursday that the 4th season of the Boys will now be coming out on the 13th of June along with a new poster that is similar to one of the teaser posters for the season with a little changes to it. Now I am sure we will get another look at the series in due time that will also come with the date at the end and give more of an idea of the plot for this season.

Now on the side of the film side of things we will start with the discussion of the planned spin off film to the John Wick series with Ballerina. Now initially we were supposed to get this film coming out at the start of the summer season with its release on June 7th, but on Wednesday we have been given the confirmation that this film has been delayed by a whole year to June 6th 2025, as a reason to it is that the creator of the series Chad Stehelski is been given a new deal with Lionsgate for the universe of the franchise and he wants to beef up the film with a few more elements of action scenes in the film and given that all the films have been hits then I am totally fine with that. Now I bet you are wondering what will be taking that films initial slot? Well its been confirmed that we are getting the planned reboot of the Crow with Bill Skarsgard coming out on that date instead. Now I initially thought that film was still in early development stages and that it was also going to be Jason Mamoa playing the main lead but I guess things turned around and that this film was in development hell for the longest time that I guess it all just came together in the end but I have no idea how it will turn out but I am sure we will see how it looks soon and once we get any update on it I will follow up in a later piece.

But what are your thoughts on these release dates and are you excited for any of these projects in particular at all? Let me know your thoughts and opinions down below in the comments section.

Saturday Night Fever in a yellow submarine

Now the next story is continuing to build on all of the new biographical era age where we are seeing the likes of musicians getting the movie treatment where we know we have 2 this year with one out last week on Bob Marley and one in April on Amy Winehouse, we have a confirmation on one about Michael Jackson next April, supposedly one on Madonna sometime soon apparently and after that we have no idea for the following year, but we do have 2 bands of musicians getting the biographical treatment and they are being helmed by 2 big names in the industry. So starting off it was confirmed earlier this week that a bio film based on the Bee Gees will be directed by Ridley Scott. Now he has a connection to the band that the manager of the music label helped him get his initial first gig in the 70s and while it never went through he wanted to work with the group at some point soon and this may be his chance. Now its unknown when this film comes out but it could be Scotts next film after the release of his Gladiator sequel later this year so we will have to see if it turns around quickly.

As for the other one is a bit of a odd announcement as it was announced that Sam Mendes, director of Skyfall, Spectre and 1917 will be directing a film on the famous band of the Beatles.... but not just one film but rather a biopic film for each of them back to back. Now most case will follow their lives in each of them up to their stardom, success and the breakup of the Band around the 70s. Now this seems like a weird concept of an idea to make a film for each member of George, John, Paul and Ringo that I feel may end up being morphed into one film but I am sure we will learn more of it overtime and he plans to have these films made by 2027 so he has some time I guess and I am sure we will hear more updates on this as the story progresses.

But what do you think of these film news and are you excited for these biopics and who do you see playing each member of the bands and what other musicians do you want to see a biopic on? let me know what you think of it all down below in the comments section.

The Creator will now be creating moving Dinosaurs

Now the last of the stories is an update to a previous story from a few weeks ago where I mentioned we are getting a new Jurassic World movie being written by David Koepp, the writer of the original 2 films and the last 2 Indiana Jones movies and that it was planned for a release in the summer of next year and the look for a director was underway that it was initially planned to be David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Bullet Train, John Wick) but that story sizzled out by the end of the week it was announced. But it was a quick turnaround as we have now gotten the official director in the form of Gareth Edwards. Now you may know his work with giant lizards as the director of the 2014 Godzilla Movie, considered the best Disney Star Wars films with Rogue one, and currently has an Oscar nod for visual effects this year for last years Sci-Fi sleeper film of The Creator and the concept of making a film in the Jurassic Park/ world series is a dream of his so I have some hope that he will make it work. Now it is unclear if this will connect to the last 3 films, the original trilogy or this will be its own standalone film with a new name but I am sure we will learn more on this film closer to its release on July 2nd 2025.

But what are your opinions on this director choice for the new Jurassic film and do you think he can bring appeal and interest back to this franchise? let me known what your thoughts and opinions are down below in the comments,

and with all of that, that bring us to the end of the 52 episode of Weird Mind News room and the first year of weekly news blogs and I like to thank you all for giving me the time to delve into the topics of all things media for the last year and here is to another many more years of following along with me on weekly news blogs, reviews, long form opinion pieces and many many more (or else I am just talking to myself and I am gone completely insane). As always stay being wonderful people and have a great day everyday and I will see you's all in the next piece.

Take care, keep being you, signing off,

Sam H