Weird Mind News Room Episode 70: June 24th - 30th

 *no music will be allowed when staying quiet to survive*

Hello there everyone to what has been announced now as the 70th edition of the weekly series of Weird Mind News Room where this week we will be delving into all of the new releases of the week, a small few selected trailers and a hodge podge of new stories of the week with similar topics of discussion, so lets not waste time and lets get to all that was discussed from this week.

New releases worth shouting about

Movies

A Quiet Place Day One

Starting the big release of this week is the important note to know that in this situation, silence is key as we are taking a new look back into a world where it all went quiet with the all new prequel spin off of A Quiet Place Day One. This new film will see a young woman named Sam and her therapy cat Frodo become entangled in a fight for survival in the bustling city of Manhattan when creatures from space with inpenetrable skin and powerful sense of hearing attack and invade and with the guidance of fellow survivor of Eric, they will find their way to stay quiet and stay alive and escape from this invasion. Reception for this film like the previous entries has been well praised for the expanding on the world of this series and for the lead performances of Lupita Nyungo, Joseph Quinn and the Cat too and if you want something that will give you a good scare then you can quietly check this film out now in cinemas

Kinds of Kindness

Next up in the film releases is the newest entry from a recent multi-award winning director of his film about a woman learning about the world again (as a reanimated corpse) to some new stories with a select few familiar faces as we have the newest film from Yorgos Lantimos with Kinds of Kindness. This film is described as a Triptych Fable as it tells 3 stories that somewhat connect to one another with stories about a man who is trying to take control of his own life, A policeman whose wife seems like a different person and woman or cult who are searching for someone that has some special abilities. Reception on this film is decently recieved, even if it is a lower appealing film then his last 2 entries with praise for the concept, humour and performances (particularly towards Jesse Plemons) though some critique of trying to make sense of it all the runtime both getting a bit of a critique, but if you want to see what this awards winning director has cooked up next, you can catch these new tales now in cinemas.

Horizon An American Saga

The last of the films for the week is taking us back and out to the strange laws of the desert back in the days of unlawfulness and finding the dream as Kevin Costner has returned to provide a new take of the western frontier with Horizon: An American Saga Part 1.This films plot will follow the tale of families, friends and foes discovering the lure of the wild west in the midst of the Civil War that divides the country and travel across the land in search of a new way of life and the freedom they strive to find. Reception for the film has not been the most well recieved that will the scope and concept is liked and praised and some of the performances are as well, the film struggles with balancing so many stories at once that it makes it difficult to be attached to many characters in the narrative at this time (even when the film clocks in at 3 hours).  While this seems like a concern, it may improve as the parts to the story build out as the start of a multipart story and you can catch the 1st part in cinemas now, Part 2 in August (which we will come back to at a later date) and a 3rd and 4th part currently in development.

Tv Shows

The Bear Season 3

Things are about to get tense and the heat will rise for this weeks new show release as after a bit of time and anticipation, it is time for a hefty serving with the release of the 3rd season of The Bear. This season will see all eyes on Carmy, Sydney, Richie and Co as they are determined to make their fine dining establishment a success, become top of the fine dining establishment and keep the place from fears of shutting down. Reception for this season like the previous 2 has been very well recieved for its performances, cinematography, writing and being another top tier season in a well beloved series and if you are looking for a delicious series to tuck into then you can catch the full new season and the previous 2 seasons now on Disney+.

Video Games

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

Th-Th-The next entry of the week is getting very spooky, especially for the tall, green, scared brother of the famous plumber as we have recieved an all new updated HD port of the classic sequel of Ghost catching with Luigi's Mansion 2 HD. This new remaster will see Luigi assisting Professor E.Gadd as he helps him to explore multiple manors of the Evershade Valley and capture the ghosts in order to find and restore the pieces of the broken Dark Moon as that is the key to keeping the Ghosts more tolerated and helpful instead of causing a messy haunt. Reception for this HD port like the original 3DS port has been very well recieved with praise to the updated visuals of lighting and aesthetics and for the charm of the original with some issues aimed towards a bit of repetitiveness like the original and outside of the game with the price for said game (which is similar to the issue of the DK Country HD port costing the same with little new added to it) but if you want to replay the game on some new hardware and with a fresh new coat then you play it now on Nintendo Switch. 

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble

And the final release of the week is going to make you go Bananas as Aiai and all of his Rolling friends are back for an all out rumble with the newest entry of Super Monkey Ball with Banana Rumble. This new entry will have you play as one of many character choices as you spin roll and dash your way through multiple challenging levels and puzzles, playing against friends and many other online as you battle to be the leader of the bunch. Reception of the game has garnered some well recieved reviews with praise to the new concepts and moves and having the charm of the series that has been beloved for many years and if you want to take it for a spin then you can play this new game now on Nintendo Switch.

Trailers for the holiday season

Nosferatu

So on the trailer front for this week is starting off with the look of a famous creature of the night from the past that some may remember of the classic film or the gag from a classic episode of Spongebob for we have the first look trailer at the new adaptation of Nosferatu. this new tale from upcoming Horror and thriller director Robert Eggers as it will be a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake. I think that Eggers can really be a master of the craft with his 3 films he has created with the folklore classic of The Witch, the surreal psychological thriller of the Lighthouse and the great action period piece of the Northman are all really good and I think that from this very first look at the film looks like it is about to be worth his passion project getting made and I hope it will be unsettling and tension filled and will be checking this out when it releases in cinemas, surprisingly, on Christmas Day in the US but January 3rd 2025 over here.

Red One

Now I know the date for that last film seems like something you do not want to hear in this day and time of year but we are talking briefly on the festive period as we have a new holiday based film on the way from the director of the recent Jumanji films for the new festive comedy of Red One. This film will see an unknown villain kidnap Santa Claus (J.K Simmons) from the North Pole, an E.L.F (Extremely Large and Formidable)(Dwayne Johnson) operative joins forces with the world's most accomplished tracker (Chris Evans) tracker to find him and save Christmas. So this film has been delayed for a while even though it has been completed since last year or 2 years ago and in some sense it does not look bad, it does look it could be worth a watch and could be like the Jumanji films that looked a bit hit or miss in the trailers but then surprisingly turned out really good in the end, but I guess we will see what the outcome is when it releases into cinemas on November 15th.

Batman Caped Crusader

The next film is bringing vengeance back in the animated format as after nearly being shelved by Warner Bros, the follow up to the animated series is on its way with the trailer for the upcoming series of Batman Caped Crusader. the series will see Bruce Wayne go beyond his humane capabilities and transforms into an enigmatic figure of Batman and soon his crusade for justice brings in unexpected allies, but his actions also lead to some perilous consequences. I remember thinking back when it was first announced and was excited for it cause it was being developed by the creator of the fantastic animated series and the other was that both J.J Abhrams and Matt Reeves were also executive producing the project and it looks so cool and stylish and am glad that this got saved from Warner Bros crusade and I am excited to check out the series when it releases on August 1st.

Heretic?

The final trailer for the week is taking us to another horror based film with the unlikeliest person to see take on a role of this form as we have recieved a trailer for the new from from the Co-writers of a Quiet Place with Heretic. This film will follow Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes, 2 Mormon missionaries as they attempt to convert a man to Christianity, but not is all as it seems as he turns out to be far more dangerous then they could have anticipated and soo have them in a fight for survival on the basis of their faith. It always seems like the unlikliest of films can tur out to have a unique and interest approach to their films and A24 does seem to do well with the genre and it will be interesting to see Hugh Grant continue his Villain era with some new unsettling horror villain and it does not look too bad and I am sure that I will check this out when it releases into cinemas on November 22nd.

News of things to look forward to

Games of pastimes and hobbies to painting and photography

So on the first of the hodge Podge of news stories as we have some little story similar to the news stories of last week for the concept of video game discussion, but it is not going to be as long as the last few times as this will be the brief discussion announcement of a date for one game and the sudden announcement of another with a bit of an opinion to the reveal.

So first off was a follow up to one of my issues of the lack of reveal from the recent direct and this comes in the form of the upcoming remake to Epic Mickey. It was a case of wondering if we would see a release date reveal at that conference but it would not be too long after that conference where my answer would be given as they announced earlier this week that we are getting rebrushed releasing now on September 24th so I can at least be satisfied. However there is one issue I have with it as they announced a collectors edition of the game complete with a nice statue, steelbook and other goodies but the only issue is why does it have to cost an extra 150 euro for a collectors edition for a 14 year old game. I know it is supposed to be a special collectors item (only around 5000 are made for it) but I feel reduce it to 75 to 100 euro makes more sense cause it feels unneessary for the amount of content in the package compared to other collectors editions that were cheaper and had much more in them or fit the pricing. But asides that I am looking forward to returning to the wasteland real soon.

As for the 2nd announcement is seeing a game rising back from the dead (given the gimmick of the game and cause the series is essentially dead at this point), it was unveiled that we are getting a full deluxe remaster to the original 2006 Xbox 360 title of Dead Rising where we will be playing as photographer Frank West, who covered wars you know, finding himself looking to survive against a zombie armada in a massive shopping mall and help the other survivors until help arrives. The concept of a full remaster of the game sounds like an interesting idea, although it has seen a bit of a mixed opinion online of wondering if this was needed or just unnecessary. I feel that if this does well it could see the others get a remaster and possibly a return to the series with a 5th entry or some spin offs but I am sure we will have to wait and see and we get that Faantastic shot for the media, but we will have to wait and see.

But what are your opinions on these, will you be playing these games and also do you think the price of the collectors edition is a little excessive or reasonable and do you see a dead rising remaster as a good concept. Let me know what you think down below. 

Leading Ladies with Dinosaurs and a very weird day

Next on the array of stories is with some new discussion from the side of the leading ladies as we have one that is an update to a continuously developing story of a film and the other is a confirmation of a follow up that has entered production that you may not have expected and we'll delve into it now.

so the first I will make this very quick but as you know one of the stories that has been a constant appearance in this news section but we are once again talking about the new Jurassic World film that has been in the works from Universal and Gareth Edwards for a release next summer. We have had a few rumoured and confirmed castings over the last few weeks with the first one that started it off being the supposed female lead for the film being Scarlett Johansson for the longest time. Well now the rumour is now no longer as it is now confirmed that she will be starring in the upcoming film and has also praised the script for said film saying that it is an incredible script for this movie. It will be interesting to see if this will stay true of being something that could turn out good but I guess we will see overtime once the filming begins and releases in the new year.

The other story with the leading ladies is one that is a surprising follow up that I didn't expect to see. If you grew up in the 90s or early 2000s around the Disney Channel, you may remember a certain film in their catalogue of classic was unveiled back in 2003 known as Freaky Friday, a film starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis as a mother and Daughter who find themselves body swapped into each other in order to see their lives and better understand each other more in order for them to come closer. In its 21 years since its release it has garnered a cult classic status, similar to the likes of other Disney Channel films like the High School Musical Trilogy, Camp Rock and Halloweentown and it was even a case that Disney tried to do the body swap story or other attempts at a reboot of said Freaky Friday for years without the original group to a result of "of there was one.... ok", but that seems to be changing as of this week. Earlier this week it was announced that the long dormant sequel to the 2003 original has started production and will also be seeing the return of the original cast from the film which includes Lohan and Jamie Lee and some other new faces as a new image was unveiled showing production had begun on the film. Now I am doubting that this will be releasing by the end of the year but it looks like if anything it will be worth a guess it will release sometime next year so all those fans of the original film rejoice (or worry, either one works).

But what are your thoughts on these stories, do you think ScarJo is a good pick for fighting Dinos and are you excited for a Freaky Friday sequel? Let me know your thoughts and opinions down below.

3 big names making some more big hit films

The 3rd story for this week is giving a bit of a rundown of some announcements of some reveals for follow ups and possible sequels coming on the way from 3 big names with varying levels of focus to the story but I will be delving into them in a quick rundown of each project.

So I will start with the one announcement that I actually forgot about from last week that I missed out on mentioning but this is to do with the actor comedian turned Horror Thriller director of Jordan Peele. Initially it was discussed that Peele's next film will be making its way into cinemas this Christmas, but it looks like that has now been possibly moved (which seems likely as to not get buried under the likes of Mufasa, Sonic 3 and even another horror I already mentioned this episode) as on June 17th Peele posted a cryptic image on his social media which seems to indicate that the next film is a bit of a time away. The tease is not anything major but simply a date of October 23rd 2026 which will hint at that being either his next film project over the initial Christmas 2024 release. Now this could also be a bit of a twist as that could also be the release date for the new game that he is working on with Kojima of OD but it is hard to say, We know Peele likes to tease and promo his content in advance or in odd ways, like for example when he announced Nope, he unveiled a mysterious poster for the film exactly 1 year out from the US release and had people guessing for the longest time. I am sure we will learn more about the film when he is working on other projects and I will be for sure checking out the new project from this twisted mind of his.

Next on the list is the return to a long requested sequel to a film from the last few years and that is with the announcement of a sequel to the 2021 Wick style action film of Nobody with Bob Odenkirk coming back as a simple suburban man taking justice into his own hands. The film turned out to be surprisingly really entertaining for a brief 90 minute runtime and it looks like they are planning to do it all again as they announced earlier this week we are getting the sequel on August 15th 2025 and will be directed by Timo Tjahjanto, known for The Night comes for Us as well as the Horror thrillers of V/H/S/2 and 94, so it sounds like it is in good hands. It will be intriguing to see what members of the cast will return and how much bigger the film is going to be but I am looking forward to checking this one out next year.
 

The last story just appeared in the midst as of starting to write up this blog as Warner Bros announced the release dates for 2 projects. While one of them is not the focus of this story, we do know that we can expect the next film in the Monsterverse series to release on March 26th 2027 which gives it time to concept the film, get the titans required and find the director for said film, but besides that the real story for this week is the announcement of a December 18th 2026 release for the next film from director Denis Villeneuve. This one has seen the most discussion as it seems to possibly be one of the 3 other passion projects that he is working on with the frontrunner for that possibly being the film based on the book of "Nuclear War: A Scenario" from author Annie Jacobson based on interviews and scenarios of the world on the cusp of dropping the bombs. While that does sound like a exciting and scary prospect film, there is one film that has also come up in conversation about this and this is with the recently confirmed 3rd film based on Dune. You see shortly after Part 2 releases and became the biggest film of the year (before it was dethroned last weekend by Inside Out 2) they made the announcement that they will make an adaptation of Dune Messiah but I would wonder if the likes of making a follow up for a new novel in the series will be feasible in 2.5 years or if it will need just a little more time but I am sure they will explain the case of if it will be something new from the director or returning back to the desert planet come Christmas 2026 .

But what are your thoughts and opinions on all of these announcements and which one of them are you most excited about to watch or known about? Let me know your thoughts down below and lets discuss them there. 

The future is looking Green and smells of Onions and Waffles

The final story for this week is delving into a little bit of animation news and comes in the form of a character so ingrained into pop culture that it has been surprising that it has been this quiet around making a return until this week and this of course comes in the form of everyone's favourite Green ogre of Shrek. It has been nearly 15 years since the release of the last film in the mainline Shrek series with Forever After releasing all the way in 2010 dubbed as the final chapter of that series and since then he has appeared in some videos on YouTube and we have seen the likes of a spin off in that universe in the form of Puss in Boots with the 1st film being Decent and the Sequel being a visual and entertaining masterpiece (a statement you can learn about here or video form here) and many had wondered if we will see the ogres and the wise cracking Donkey return going off the tease at the end of the Puss in Boots film and it looks like that might be the case. Earlier this week while promoting the upcoming release of Beverly Hills Cop axel F, Eddie Murphy, the voice of Donkey had made a comment about the series while they were talking about the recent success of DreamWorks films like Kung Fu Panda 4 and Puss in Boots the Last Wish and made a confirmation that Shrek 5 is deep into development and that he has already recorded for the returning character of Donkey and it was not the only announcement for that series as it was also confirmed that after this 5th entry it looks like we will be getting a spin-off based on the lovable ass himself. So the idea of a new Shrek had been lingering around for a while and first hints was a 2025 release from a LinkedIn listing all the way back around Christmas and now it looks to be true. The Doneky Spin-off is interesting and wonder what direction are they going to go with that character if it will be an origin or some side adventure set between one of the films but if it turns out like Last wish in quality for both of them then I am all for it and am looking forward to seeing when they will come out cause more Shrek in this world is not a bad thing.

But what do you think, are you excited of a prospect of a Shrek 5 coming out within the next few years and would you be down for a Donkey Spin off? Let me know what you think down below.

And with all of that this brings me to the end to the 70th edition of Weird Mind News Room and I hope you enjoyed my rambles. Let me know your thoughts and opinions on everything down below and as always I hope you all stay being wonderful people, have a great day every day and I will see you all in the next post

Take Care, keep being you, signing off

Sam H :)