Weird Mind News Room Episode 66: May 27th - June 2nd

 *music that leaves a sting in your system*

Hello all of you wonderful people to the newest episode of Weird Mind News Room where we will be delving into some of the new releases of the week, a fair selection of trailers and even some mix array of news stories so without further ado lets get to the new content for the week.

Young New Release and the Sea

Movies

Sting

For those with a fear of arachnids, may want to turn away now as we start off the week with the first of the new releases with the new creature feature of Sting. The film follows rebellious 12 year old Charlotte who finds a small spider in her rundown apartment. She keeps it in a jar as a pet but it soon starts suddenly growing at a monstrous rate and develops an insatiable appetite for blood. As their neighbors start disappearing, Charlotte and her family will have to fight to survive and stop this arachnid menace. Reception for this film has surprisingly been well recieved for its concept and execution though will leave people in a mix response of seeing similar films before, but if you want to catch a new creature feature then you can check out the new film in cinemas.

Young Woman and the Sea

As for the 2nd film of the week is taking a dip into some more biographical side of things to a story from a century ago as we have the new true story film of The Young Woman and the Sea. This film tells the story of Trudy Ederle, a competitive swimmer, who in 1926, was the first woman to ever swim across the English channel and showed those that had no faith in her that anything is possible. Reception for this film has been very well recieved with praise of a powerful story and buoyed by a strong performance from Daisy Ridley and if you want to check out a new feel good true story then you can check out this film in cinemas.

Jim Henson Idea Man

Now for a media format that I have not given a look deep into for a long time as we have a new documentary taking a look at one of the finest creators of the industry from the past as we have recieved the new documentary of Jim Henson Idea Man. This new documentary will explore the creative ideas and genius of the late Jim Henson and how his ideas and passion would create some of the most iconic characters of recent memory with Sesame Street, Dark Crystal and The Muppets and their leading frog of Kermit as well as the clear love and work together with his wide of Jane. Reception for this documentary has been very well recieved with praise for the love to the creator and for its feel good heartfelt creation, and if you want something to watch to feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside you can check out the new Documentary now on Disney+ 

TV Shows

Smiling Friends Season 2 Episode 4

um, I do not want to scare anyone but this is perhaps the scariest episode of Smiling Friends cause this weeks episode, Mr Boss (*Gulps*) ends up finding love and soon the new romance causes some trouble for the gang that will have to find a way to stop it all. This episode did scare the pants off of me with unexpected scares, jokes, some surprise references and cameos I did not expect so I would expect that all bowels are cleared and pants and socks are removed to avoid any items flying off in frights, so be warned.

Video Games

Multiversus

So the final release of the week, technically released already in the past, however this one has seen a bit of a fix, change and update and is now been brought back to life and ready for more battle to commence as we have recieved the return the fighting game of Multiversus. This game will have you in a smash bros like all out brawl that will see you play as many of your favourite characters owned by Warner bros including from DC and Batman, Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, Adventure Time and many more with more new on the way. Now the reception of the game has been well recieved for the gameplay and character stats and fun for multiplayer games, though it has seen a fair bit of backlash since then as it is full of hidden microtransactions and some running system problems that has seen some mistrust from the massive studio even with a free to play game, but if you are up for some brawling hijinks, you can play this new game now on PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S and PC.

Trailers worth a swim for

Moana 2

What can I say except a new trailer for a return to the vast oceans that have called out to our main heroine as we have now recieved a first full trailer look at the sequel to Moana. This new film will see Moana and Maui head off on a new journey to the far seas of Oceania after receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors. Now the trailer does not tell us much on the basis of the plot but it gives us a first look at the dazzling visuals and from what I have seen it does look pretty interested and I will be checking this film out when the film releases into cinemas on November 29th.

Kinds of Kindness

The next film for this week is an all new film from the director of a multi award winning film of a reanimated woman discovering the world for the first time with new life but with a more new modern day setting with Yorgos Lantimos new film with a trailer for Kinds of Kindness. This film will follow 3 different stories that revolve around a man who tries to take control of his own life, a policeman who's wife seems like a different person and a woman who searches for a woman with some special ability. Now it is hard to say of a clear narrative idea of how it all comes together but I am sure with Yorgos there will be some deeper meaning to the whole film and so far it has been seeing some mass appeal from the recent Cannes festival and I am sure it will be worth a look when the film releases in just under a months time on June 28th.

Wolfs

Its time to see 2 big stars from one of the most well known and beloved heist film franchise as Brad Pitt and George Clooney are teaming up for a new thriller based comedy known as Wolfs. The 2 leads will be playing a pair of professional fixers who find themselves both hired for the same job and to deal with any upcoming dangerous and chaotic events, they are forced to work together. It has been a case that It has been a while since I have seen these 2 in anything and from this trailer it does look like a bit of an entertaining film for the pair of them and I am sure will give this a look into when the film releases into cinemas on September 20th.

Umbrella Academy Final Season

It is time for one last trip through time for one last fixing of the timelines before an apocalypse can occour as we have recieved a trailer for the final season of The Umbrella Academy. This will follow the remaining group of late rich billionaire Reginald Hargreeves as they travel to all form of the past and present in order to save the world from doom and gloom  as super powered individuals and messing a bit with the timeline cause that is how it works. Now I have not watched much of the series but it is on the list of stuff and I have heard a lot of great things and you do not have too much longer to wait for this as the final season will be premiering on Netflix from August 8th.  

Call of Duty Black Ops 6

And one final trailer for this week is taking us to get prepped for anything and that the one thing to know is that the Truth is a lie as we have recieved the trailer for the newest entry in the Call of Duty Franchise with Black Ops 6. Now not much is shown in the trailer in particular but it is hinting as a follow up to the 2020 release of Cold War and it sees some familiar face of politics in the form of President Bill Clinton which could see this set in the era of the Gulf war in the 90s and early 2000s. Now it has been seeing a bit of a unique campaign and a lot of the advertising has been taking place in New York and some dates that have appeared in some images of the trailers has been the year of 2001 and I wonder will they go this far in terms of being edgy and controversial remains to be seen. Now no date has been confirmed as of yet but it does look like it could be a winter release of Late October/ early November so we'll see how that turns out in the long term of when.

News with the all star discussion

Waking up more then a dead man

So we start off the news for the week with an update to a story that was unveiled a little bit last week and that comes with the announcement of the 3rd film in the Knives out series of Wake up Dead Man. Now we had known that with all of these films in the trilogy that every film has a massive cast list with both Knives Out and Glass Onion coming in with a stacked and wonderful cast with the leading performance of Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc and this week we have started to see the beginning array of the all star casting taking form for this 3rd entry and I am sure more of them will appear as of writing but I will delve into the cast that has appeared so far confirmed. So it started the casting list on Tuesday with Challengers star Josh O'Connor and Civil War and Alien Romulus star Cailee Spaney as the first 2 editions. Later that day, we saw the casting of Irish actor Andrew Scott, who appeared in this years All of Us Strangers and known for Moriarty in the Sherlock series. On Wednesday we got the casting of Scandal star of Kerry Washington and later that evening we got acting royalty of Glenn Close also casted in the film. The last of the casting so far of this week with uncertainty of anyone more on the way started on Thursday with the MCU star of Jeremy Renner, 70s Show and Family Guy star Mila Kunis and rounding out the cast for the moment on late Thursday, Early Friday was with another Irish actor of Daryl McCormack, known for his role in Peaky Blinders and Good Luck to you Leo Grande. So far the casting on this film is have to say top notch as has been all the other films in this series and I am for sure looking forward to seeing who else may be joining the cast of this new murder mystery and where it will all go from there as they begin to start production sometime this month for its release next year.

But I would love to know your thoughts on the cast for this movie and who else in your own opinion do you see getting added to the growing list of characters, Let me know all your thoughts below and lets discuss the opinions there.

Gonna need some more fish and superheroes but no capes

The next story is taking a focus to the world of animation and in particular we are focusing on the announcement of some rumours coming to us from one of my favourite studio of Pixar. Now its been seen that the likes of Pixar has seen a mixed array of appeal over this decade in particular where they have been neglected by the house of Mouse when I believe their films are more better then the likes of Disney's own animated fair (Encanto is probably the only one I know of this decade for them that is well liked, Raya has been forgotten, most people didn't watch Strange World and Wish.... well I'll get to that with my review real soon) as they had the first of the films release just a week or so before the pandemic hit and the following 3 were just pushed to Disney+ at no extra cost (when they fit more into being on the big screen as they are some of the best) and the last 2 released into cinemas had a mixed appeal of surprisingly bombing at the box office and worry for last years one that actually made a surprise comeback and am happy that it did (and you can read my opinions on it here). Now it has been seen that they will make a comeback with hope with this years anticipated release of Inside Out 2 and it seems the likes of a franchise and reboot of series may be the way forward for them to get back in the limelight, as according to some reports, it seems Pixar may be looking to returning to some series as it has been rumoured that we may see a 3rd film for both Finding Nemo and the Incredibles , that may release following the next sequel confirmed for release which is of course somehow Toy Story 5. 

Now to me personally I see this as a positive and a negative as in the positive I would enjoy going back to the world created in this series that I know there is a concept story for a Finding Nemo sequel initially planned years ago, even before the release of Finding Dory that could work and the likes of a new Incredibles could be appealing and hopefully will have more time to develop and make something on par with the original (and while I do not hate the sequel, it does feel a bit like some elements were missing or a few films in one) and help bounce the company back with profit, appeal and help with recent layoffs (which I wonder why they targeted this department in particular). However, on the negative side of things, I do hope it is not solely going to be focused on just sequels and we have a fair balance (or slightly more) of Original concepts like the upcoming Elio or the film that I have heard in the works that may be a musical or one with the casting for a diverse main lead cause I love this studio for their creativity in creating new original concepts and world and pulling at the heartstrings and even to have a laugh now and again, so I do hope that their will be a fair balance and is not going to be solely another similar situation to the 2010s where it was more sequels then originals but I hope for the best for this company cause I would hate to see them shut down.

But what are your own thoughts on this, would you be up for a 3rd Finding Nemo and Incredibles and do you see more franchising is a good approach or would you like more originals as well? Let me know what you think of it all down below. 

vampire hunter fighting Dino's, Norse god fighting robots and a master of horror solve an exorcism

So the next story is a mixed gathering of news in relation to some more casting news, rumours and directors for upcoming projects in the process and I will be giving them all a quick rundown in this next story.

So we start with a story that has been updating over the last few weeks and that is returning to the park once again as we are talking about the process of Jurassic World 4. Now as I have specified in the past few weeks I have been giving the information update on this film from it being directed by Gareth Edwards, a release in July next year and some rumoured and confirmed castings of Scarlet Johansson, Johnathon Bailey and Rupert Friend and now we have another new addition of rumoured casting in the form of Oscar winner Mahershala Ali in the upcoming title. It has not been finalised as of yet but I am sure that we will see the confirmation of the whole ordeal come the start of production come this month of who the full cast is.

Next we jump from one upcoming MCU star with another long standing addition and that comes to us in the form of Chris Hemsworth. Now while he may be gracing film screens right now in Furiosa, there is another project that he will be making a presence with real soon with the animated film of Transformers One, but this may not be the only project of the robots in disguise as it has been reported that he may be appearing in the next live action Transformers / GI Joe crossover. It it unclear whether it will be the likes of a flashback to a young Optimus that he will be voicing or he could be one of the member of the GI Joe, but as things stand the film casting is up in the air at the moment until they start production down the line.

Next is hoping that you will have the power, as it has been known for a very short time (though I forgot to bring it up) that we are getting a new live action film adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in the works, with the only news known for the longest while was that it was being directed by Laika CEO and Bumblebee director of Travis Knight and it looks like we have another addition to the growing cast as they have found their He-Man in the form of British actor of Nicolas Galitzine. I have not seen much of his work but he does sound like a promising up and coming actor and hopefully he will do well and I am sure more of the cast and plot will begin to make its way to the information superhighway by its release in June 2026.

Lastly, we are looking more at a director change and this is looking more towards the film series of the Exorcist (I know there is a film out this month known as the Exorcism but it is not that) as it has been announced that one of the masters of Horror of Mike Flanagan has been announced to be helming the next film in the Exorcist franchise. Now this will not be that planned new film in a trilogy as due to the poor reception and box office of Believer, it looks like the next film of Deceiver may have been scrapped for this new one but I am sure that we will see how it turns out when the film comes along.

But what are your thoughts and opinions of everything that was announced and discussed in this story and are you excited for any of these projects? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.

What is the state of PlayStation right now

So this week we got the surprise announcement of a new State of play from the company of PlayStation and this next story will be focusing on giving a round up on some of the announcements of all shown at the short and slightly underwhelming event, buts lets go through all that was announced.

So the State of play started off with the announcement of a cinematic trailer followed by some gameplay for the game known as Concord that was announced sometime last year or 2 years ago which is giving to me a bit of a Overwatch / Suicide Squad vibe to it but it does look visually appealing and this game will be available to play in beta this July before a release a month later on August 23rd.

Soon after the one new PC port was revealed in the form of 2022s God of War Ragnarok with some new add ons and features for playing on the PC and that has recieved a release on PC on September 19th.

Next was the announcement of the newest entry in the Dynasty Warriors series with Origins that has been unveiled and announced for release onto the console sometime in 2025

Following Dynasty warriors they unveiled a new anime style open-world dress up game of Infinity Nikki that will also let you play as a cat with a wool hat with a confirmation coming in Q3 of this year in a beta test

Following this was a new fantasy action-RPG of Ballad of Antara that does look visually cool and interesting and may check out down the line when the game launches in 2025.

We then got a look at Skydance games new entry of Behemoth that look like a Skyrim based adventure mixed with Shadow of the colossus and will be heading to the PSVR2 sometime this fall.

The one other entry for the VR is with the first look at gameplay for the new game based on the Alien series with Rogue Incursion that I do hope will feel like a proper Alien Isolation sequel (and if not then I hope a sequel for that comes out eventually but this one will be scaring up the Holidays later this year.

Next unveiled the look at the new Marvel Overwatch type game of Rivals with the confirmation that the Closed Beta will be on the way to PS5 in July 2024

Following this came along with a new wuxia open world game of Where Winds Meet that is full of Martial Arts Mysteries that will be coming soon to the PS5.

We then got a new look at the upcoming remake to 2015 Horror hit of Until Dawn that does look a little mixed in terms of the lighting looked a little weird in some scenes, though it has fixed one or 2 aspects and from the trailer may be adding some scenes or changes in new additions (hopefully giving more to 2 characters that disappear for half of the game at a certain point) and has now gotten a release window of Fall 2024 for PS5 and PC

Next on the list was a new look at the sequel to Path of Exiles that will be coming to early access later this year to the console with the new addition of Couch Co-op and online play in the game as well.

We got a new look before a massive direct focused on the remake of the beloved Silent Hill 2 that looks great but has some issues to some online and it has been announced a release date for just in time for Halloween on the 8th of October.

We then received a new look at some of the story and world and creatures you will be after in the new look at Monster Hunter Wilds that will be dropping sometime next year.

The last unveiled project is the new game of the consoles unofficial mascot of Astro Bot as it has been announced for a new space adventure to find his scattered with the release date for 3 months time on September 6th and that ended everything unveiled on this underwhelming State of Play that had so much potential with so much to show but was overlooked but I will give it an effort of showing the hard work and effort made by the companies involved.

But what are your won thoughts of this state of play and is there any game that you are looking forward to trying out yourself. Let me know your opinions of it all down below.

A masterwork of marketing (that I hope comes out here)

And the final story of the week does not need much to explain what you will witness but we are talking about cinema merchandise and more specifically with Popcorn Buckets. If you can cast your mind back to the beginning of this year, the internet was abuzz of discussion by the release of the Dune Part 2 Popcorn bucket that looked a little questionable and many wondered what will come along and follow in the similar footsteps and then I remembered that we have the Merc with a Mouth getting another film and was not surprised from the marketing genius that has been unveiled with their Popcorn bucket. I do not know what else to explain from this masterpiece so just observe it for yourself and I hope that this will actually release over here this time (was one of my complaints of the Dune film).

But what do you think of this Popcorn bucket and will you be getting one for the...... consumption of salty snacks (that did not sound right) but let me know your thoughts below.

And with all of that this bring us to the end of the 66th episode of Weird Mind News room and I hope you enjoyed all of the content discussed in the comments below of your opinions on everything. As always I hope you all stay being wonderful people and have a great day everyday and I will see you all in the next piece :)

Take care, keep being you, signing off

Sam H :)