Weird Mind News Room Episode 76: Aug 5th - 11th

 *Music perfectly used for a trap*

Hello and welcomes to the 76th edition of Weird Mind News Room where this week is another mixed week of content available with some new releases, trailers and News that will vary on content available from a big event on this week but it will be all to be seen as to what will appear from the event but for the moment lets delve into all of the content for this week

News Releases with a mix and twist

Movies

Trap

It is time we start with the first of the new releases with the new take of an all new experience of the man of the twist ending in their projects as M. Night Shyamalan brings us a new killer thriller with the new film of Trap. This will see Josh Hartnett's character being his daughter to a Lady Raven concert and soon start to become suspicious of the massive police and security presence at the event where he will learn from the vendor that the concert is set up as a trap for the serial killer known as The Butcher, unbeknowst to others that he is speaking to the man himself and will soon have to use his skills and smarts to avoid being captured by the law. The reception to this new film is a little more mixed with praise to the concept and to Josh Hartnett's performance and Shaleka Shyamalan also getting some praise with some issues relating to some low stakes and a bit of it going a little all over the place by the end but if you want to see what the man of the twist ending will come up with then you can catch this new killer thriller out now in cinemas.  

Borderlands

If you are looking for more of a colourful and louder type project and based on a popular series then this may be the one for you as we have the new release of the long delayed video game film adaptation of Borderlands. This will follow the character of Lilith (Cate Blanchett) a Bounty Hunter who returns home to her home planet of Pandora and will soon see herself team up with a ragtag group of misfits in order to find a hidden vault with untapped amounts of treasure and must find the daughter of the universe's most powerful SOB's who may hold the key to obtaining what lies inside the vault. Reception to this film has been universally panned with issues stemming from its flat chemistry, action feeling a little clunky and looking both big budget and very cheap at the same time (though some performances on their own and action has garnered some forms of decent appeal) and has been ranked as one of the worst reviewed films of 2024 but if you want to check it out for yourself then you can do so now in cinemas.

It Ends with Us

But if Thrillers and Game adaptations is not your appealing nature and you would much rather something with a bit more of a romantic nature then you are in look as the last of the new films is just that with the release of the new film of It ends with Us. The film will be based on the book on Colleen Hoover (and also being controversial for the subject matter) will follow Lily Bloom as she moves to Boston to start her own business where she will meet charming Neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid and they forms a connection but soon start to see sides of the relationship that remind her of her parents own relationship. However, when Lily's first love of Atlas Corrigan reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle gets upended and soon leaves her with an impossible choice. Reception to this film has seen some mixed reception with praise towards the performances and tacking of the heavy subject matter, though it gets dragged down by the messy and clunky dialogue of the script, but if you are looking for a film that has a bit of sadness to the tale then you can catch this new film out now in cinemas.

TV Shows

The Umbrella Academy Final season

It time to mess up the timelines for one last go around as it is time to say goodbye to all of these misfits as we have recieved the last of the new releases for this week with the final season of The Umbrella Academy. The final season will see these estranged siblings of their late adoptive father come together for one last go around to save the world and the universe for total destruction from the use of their strange powers and restoring the affects of the timeline by any means necessary. Reception on this last season has also seen some mixed reception from critics but lambasted by Audiences calling it a very messy and disappointing finale (which may have also been affected by the drama and allegations made towards the showrunner of the series of a toxic work environment) but if you want to see how this series comes to a close then you can catch the final season now on Netflix.

Trailers of a colourful nature

Saturday Night

Live from New York its new Trailer time, as the first of the new trailers is taking us back almost 50 years ago to the realm of the late night comedy show that has stood the test of time for years and even helped bring back laughter in the darkest time and showing how it almost fell apart as we have a trailer for the new true story of Saturday Night. The film will tell the story of the ordeal of Lorne Michaels and his ensemble cast as they prep to shoot and film over the 90 minutes until airing the first ever episode of the cultural award winning Saturday Night Live on October 11th 1975 and how everything could've failed on that night with everything going wrong and find a way to make it all work out. So I had heard of rumblings of this project for a bit of time and it did seem like an interesting approach as I had not heard much about the story of how messy it was to make the original and comedic and smash success when everything could've crashed and burned and it is also being directed and written by the son of the father that may have been one of the original show runners and honestly this looks like it will be worth a watch and have some entertainment value and we will see how it turns out when it releases sometime soon later this year but will release in the US on October 11th.

Mufasa the Lion King

Starting off all of the content from the weekend of D23, we have recieved the first trailer on the next film in the series of unnecessary Live action Remakes and that will see the origins of the King of Pride Rock with the trailer of Mufasa the Lion King. This new prequel sequel will tell the story about the legend of Mufasa, an orphaned Lion cub who becomes acquainted with a new brother named Taka who would in the future become the villainous lion of Scar and how they went from simple cubs to become the legendary King of the Pride Lands. So there is aspects I can appreciate that it is trying a new story that we have not seen with this Lion King series in Live Action and Animated form and the visuals are still looking phenomenal, though I am keeping the expectations low from the outcome of the last entry but I will probably give a look into the film when it releases just before Christmas on December 20th. 

Moana 2

Next on the realm of going to animation side for the moment is with heading on all new naval adventure with the return of a popular Polynesian princess with the newest trailer for the upcoming sequel of Moana 2. This will be set a few years after the events of the original and see Moana be called back into action to save her tribe and all others out beyond the oceans when a message of the ancestors calls her to stop a curse placed on a mysterious island far off in the distance and with the aid of demi god Maui and a new rag tag crew, they will sail to the new island and restore harmony to the vast oceans beyond. I think from the sounds of stuff that it is interesting and visually it does look very wonderous and colourful and I hope that it has a bit of a chance of working out and not just feel like a tv series stretched out into a film (which was how this was initially planned to be) and we will find out how it all plays out when it sets sails into cinemas on November 29th. 

Win Or Lose (Pixar)

Now on the one bit of footage that I can share from Pixar as other bits were exclusive to the event, we have recieved a small little look at the upcoming first original series for the streaming service in the form of the sports comedy series of Win or Lose. The series will be focus on a little league baseball team known as the Pickles and will follow a different member of the team leading up to the big game and will be told through unique different art styles. So I have been wondering when we would hear word about this series and from the small snippet shown, I am very excited to check this series out and thankfully we have a date for when it will be as we can expect it to release onto Disney+ on December 6th.

Star Wars Skeleton Crew

From one streaming series to another, as we head to a galaxy far far away for the next entry of trailers as we have recieved a first look at the new series based on Star Wars with Skeleton Crew. This series will be follow a group of younglings as they are about to head into the biggest change of their lives but before they can deal with that they will soon discover a massive secret about their home planet, get themselves lost in space and must find a way to get back home with the assistance of a mysterious Jedi. So straight away from the trailer and tone it is giving me a mix of ET, Stranger Things, Spielberg's AI film and a bit of some classic Star Wars in there as well and from the small glimpse it does look promising and will feel different to the other forms of Star Wars series but I am excited to check it out and we can see how it all turns out when it releases onto Disney+ from December 3rd.

Agatha All Along

The 2nd last trailer that we can get from the event will bring a wicked nature to the side of the streaming service as a Witches Call Harkens you forward as we have recieved a new trailer for the new mini series from Marvel with Agatha All Along. The series will be set after the events of Wandavision and follow Agatha who has been stripped of her powers and soon with the assistance of a ragtag group to form a odd little coven will see them travel down the dark part of the Witches Road in order for them to obtain the powers back or become full wiccans and survive the horrifying ordeal. SO I mentioned a while back that I really enjoyed Wandavision (even if some of the latter half was a little messy or rushed) but in all sense and purpose I think that this series looks like it is going to be an interesting watch and hopefully it will go down the tone of Werewolf by night or something much darker for a spooky outcome for Halloween and I am sure we will see how it all plays out when it hits the streamer of Disney+ with a 2 episode premiere on September 18th.

Snow White

And the last trailer for the moment will prove who may be the fairest (or the most drama filled) of them all as we have a new trailer for the 2nd of the Live action remakes with the first look at Snow White. The plot for this film seems to stem on the original of following the fair princess as she must flee from the torment of the evil Queen who is jealous of her being the fairest in the land and soon she finds herself at a small cottage with a group of 7 little men who will be there to protect her. So I mentioned briefly that this one is full of drama and that is to do mainly on the basis of this going through development changes with the 7 characters, Main lead Rachel Zegler making some comments about the original and how it will be different and then the basis of Gal Gadot who plays the evil queen and her opinions on the conflict going on right now but I am not focusing on that and so far from the first look it does not look too bad at all and I think it seems decent and will be worth to see how it turns out when the film releases on March 21st next year in cinemas.

News of the world of imagination

Disney Conference and all from the house of Mouse

So we may as well get it out of the way and let us delve into the news with the focus story being on the main event for this week and that is with the massive event of D23 taking place this weekend in Anaheim. I have already dedicated most of this weeks trailer section to the films that we did get some look and focus on but for this section I will be bringing up any news from the other sections that we learned about at the event or some that got footage shown but was exclusive to the event goers (unless you look hard enough on YouTube or on Twitter to find them) but I will give some more context to each section and break them down when I can.

So starting with Disney Animation, while we got a new look at the newest entry with the Moana sequel (which you saw briefly in the trailer section) we do have 2 other projects of animation we know are on the way with the first being the sequel to the other 2016 Disney film of Zootopia where most they've shown to the public online was some new concept art showing some characters old and new (including the main duo of Nick and Judy) as well at the event discussing a main new addition is more reptiles, particularly with snakes being a focus of the new case with one that asks for help in the case is a new snake named Gary that will be voiced by Ke Huy Quan. Besides that they showed some first look footage of a new location of Marsh Market of a location for Semi-Acquatic animals and it all sounds like it will be an enjoyable new area and I think this film has a lot of untapped potential to experience (and I wonder if it will add in a concept part of the city initially planned in the original but I guess we will find out about it when the film drops next November

The only other piece of animation news we know about was the concept of the confirmed 3rd Frozen film that has seen not much shown off besides some concept work and a confirmation it will be releasing now in November 2027, keeping 2026 open for a new original probably. The likes is probably to do with what happened with the last entry as it was a bit of a mess that they were about half a year out and still hadn't had the story mapped out and made it a bit messy after all. They mentioned there is a lot of questions still left unanswered and they also hint at a Frozen 4 (but was already confirmed months ago) and we'll have to see how this comes together by the time this film releases in 3 years.

In between the next section of animation discussion, there was one other project that got a focus and it was the one film from Fox with a big focus and that was a little update to the 3rd film in the Avatar series which while not showing any footage did unveil a new title and concept art of the settings for the next entry which is now being titled of Fire and Ash and will be introduced to the Fire Na'vi this time around with a look at them in the concept art. Not much else was given on any update but we will most likely learn more over the next few months up to the release in late 2025.

So moving onto Pixar they unveiled in most case starting off with a big thanks to the audience and everyone for checking out Inside Out 2 and making it such a huge success and with that also announced a new spin off series for early next year based on the movie studio in the head of Riley of Dream Productions that looks like it will get zany and wacky with the concepts and also have a bit of a mockumentary style to it so I look forward to see what they will make of this series.

So after the unveiling of the new Pixar series of Win or Lose, they then of course talked on the next project coming out from the studio in the form of the new original of Elio which garnered a small tease of the galaxy of exploration, a look at some of the characters in the film and added addition of Zoe Saldana to the movie. Nothing major was shown (which is odd given a trailer was already released for said film a year ago) but I am sure we will learn more about it by its release in summer 2025.

Now it is time to return to the toy box as they gave a bit of some small update to the most case unnecessary sequel of Toy Story 5 which has a planned release for Summer 2026 and we got a bit of info on the director and how the plot will play out. The film is now confirmed to be directed by Andrew Stanton as mentioned a little while back and we know the plot will be seeing the toys going up against the modern competition for kids entertainment of Technology with some new concept showing that as well as having to deal with some 50 play mode Buzz Lightyears that are a bit busted. So the basis of some of the plot sounds a little like the initial planned Toy Story 3 of a Buzz malfunctioning and sent back to the factory he was with. But this concept art also brings up some other issues as it seems to retcon but also canonize the last film as Woody is in the image even though he stayed behind with Bo at the end of 4 and also forky is there as well making it a bit messy of whether Bo, Ducky, Bunny and Duke will also appear in this or if it will be one of the alternate endings they had planned for the film but I guess they will explain as more pieces of the film start to be unveiled before the summer 2026 release.

Its not the only Pixar film in 2026 as it seems there will be another original fil following Elio coming out in the Spring of 2026 in the form of a film called Hoppers that seem to involve a young girl putting her mind into the control of a robotic beaver and soon learn of a massive city of Beavers led by a king and then there is an evil mayor that is being voiced by Jon Hamm and that is all I know of this project but I always find some interest in pixar's originals overall. I think that was all there was for Pixar.

Well except for this.....

yes after being hinted at earlier this year before the release of Inside Out 2, they have come out and unveiled that we will be getting a 3rd film in the Incredibles is happening. No release date or year has been made but it is confirmed that Brad Bird will be back to direct the feature and hopefully it will improve on a stronger story and villain and given all the time needed to make it epic but yeah I look forward to it whenever that is and I think Pixar had a strong line up).

So onto Marvel and while the only piece of footage shown online was for the new Agatha series out in a months time, we did get some info for mainly the next 2 films and some of the shows in the pipeline and it started off with a new look at Brave New World which unveiled a trailer for those in attendance and most that was shown online was a clean cut shot of the end of the trailer showing off Harrison Ford as the Red Hulk and he looks pretty good and I am sure that he will have some that were disappointed by the use of Hulks in recent MCU content but we will see when the film drops in February.

As for the other film that got a bit of a showcase at the event, we were given a look at the cast for Fantastic Four First steps which sees the cast in some stylish garb and in the case of Joseph Quinns Johnny Storm, we got a first look at one of the forms of the costumes which is a nice blend of white and blue, a balance of style and comfort and it looks like a classic approach to the suits which I am sure we will see down the line once more content starts to release for the project ( as well as seeing how The Thing will look once he has been given the CG treatment) but overall they all look really well.

Next up was a bit of an unveiling of the cast and director Ryan Coggler of some infor about the long delayed Ironheart series which also unveiled some footage at the event that gives a look at the new suit and some of the aspects of the plot (which I believed like most of the event only stuff has leaked online) but it doesn't sound too bad and will be worth to see what comes of it when it comes out later next year.

The last of the content from the marvel section comes from the focus of the highly anticipated release of Daredevil born again that saw some of the original group appear onstage as well as seeing some footage shown to the audience (which also leaked online and looks rad and on tone to the original 3 seasons from Netflix) and also confirmed that a 2nd season is in the works so it looks like they turned the whole project around and made it work all the same and look forward to seeing it when it drops in March next year.

on the basis of Star Wars we did get the Skeleton Wars trailer but it was not the only bit of footage shown as there was also some new look at the upcoming next film in the saga with the Mandalorian and Grogu film coming out in 2026 that saw some sizzle reel from the first 3 seasons and then some new footage including a charcater from Rebels appearing from his cameo in season 3 and looks like it will be all action and taking this duo on a dangerous mission whatever that will be (footage was leaked online for this which I thought they hadn't filmed anything yet) but it sounds like it could work out well and hopefully will be on the level of quality as the first 2 seasons of the show but we shall see come May 2026.

the only other galaxy based news we got was a bit of an update to the upcoming 2nd season of Andor that will see the season span across 4 years in the show and also see Forest Whittaker and Ben Mendelhson also make an appearance in this season. I hope it will be on par with the excellent first season and we will find out if it does when it releases next year.

The last section was in the form of the live action films and I have already gave a bit of a discussion to 2 in the trailers on Lion King and Snow White and some other lieelt bit to bring up was the unveiling of a planned Broadway show based on the Greatest Showman is happening, the Broadway Frozen show will be hitting Disney+ in 2025, Hercules will be hitting the West End sometime soon and the likes of the Descendants series (which had a recent film and probably should've ended after one of the main starts tragic passing when the 3rd film came out) will be crossing over with the other popular series of Zombies (which some of you may have seen from the very cringe song about you should be an alpha). But besides that we got a bit of an update to the long awaited sequel to the 2003 Disney Channel film of Freaky Friday with Lohan and Jamie Lee coming out to announce some plot aspects for the film and the new title of Freakier Friday and will be releasing into cinemas in 2025. Will be intriguing to see how it turns out when it does drop and may be worth checking out when it does.

speaking of a revivial, we also got the first behind the scenes look at the upcoming sequel series of Wizards of Waverly Place with Beyond Waverly Place that will be dropping sometime next year probably and from the aspects it seems interesting but we will have to see how it turns out as there is proof of some sequel shows not working out as much as they can (looking at you ICarly Reboot) but here is hoping it works in their favour.

The second last piece to talk on is with the unveiling of some new content in relation to the upcoming release of the 3rd film in the Tron series with Ares. Like most other event only aspects, the footage of a trailer was leaked online and it shows the main lead of Jared Leto's Ai Ares has entered the real world and it seems to show some sense of not knowing how to deal with this new environment but I am sure we will learn more about overtime. The only piece of new info we know about is who will be following on from Daft Punk's work on the soundtrack for the film and this new one will be helmed by Nine Inch Nails and I have seen the lead of that band has worked on past music mixing before so I am sure they can work it just fine and will see how it turns out come the films release next October.

And finally there seemed to be a bit of a system takeover and it lead to something getting into the lot and causing chaos before they busted out of the screen to reveal themselves to be none other then Experiment 626 or Stitch as we got the first look at his Live action counterpart and I will say he actually looks really well designed. Along with him saying something that sounds questionable (especially how the first word sounds) we have the confirmed announcement that we will be getting this live action iteration of Lilo and Stitch in the Summer of 2025 and knowing the director of this film made the heartwarming film of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, I think this will be something worth checking out. And with all of that is everything unveiled at the D23 panel that I can provide besides the Marvel Animation panel that is giving me vague content so I may add to that probably next week, but overall some strong announcement this year.

But I like to know your own opinions on all that was announced and what ones are you looking forward to the most overall and what are you interested n checking out? Let me know you choices and thoughts are down below and we can discuss them there.

HBO Got some content with a big focus to Dragons and Clickers

so the next of the news stories is with a bit of some sizzling reels as on the night of the season finale to House of the Dragon season 2, HBO and Max were unveiling a look ahead into the future with some of their new content for the rest of the year and even some big project for the following year in 2025 and in this sense I will give my quick thoughts and all that was unveiled in the teaser reel (with a big focus on one at the end)

So on the basis of the ones we know of a projected release date or release window it started off with a brief new look at the upcoming series of the Penguin, followed by the new series based on the series of Dune that is coming out in November. They then showed off a new series of the Industry with Kit Harrington, Chimp Crazy, Hard Knocks, a new comedy series of the Franchise and a teaser for a documentary on the creation of one of the most best shows ever made of the Sopranos. Following on from this was a confirmation of a new season of Sex Lives of College Girls, a new look at the upcoming Creature Commandos and a brief tease at the 5th season to Harley Quinn as some of the series coming out for the end of 2024.

Moving into 2025, we start with a confirmation that a 3rd season to The Emmy nominated White Lotus is coming out, the 3rd season of the Sex and the City sequel series is on the way with the return of Samantha in that new season as well, some new series entitled Duster and The Pitt, a new season for the period drama of the Gilded Age, a proper first look at the upcoming prequel series of the recently made adaptation of Stephen King's It with Welcome to Derry and The first footage of the 2nd planned Game of Thrones Prequel Spin off with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. 

This all culminated with the unveiling of the first bit of footage for the highly anticipated 2nd season to the award winning video game adaptation of The Last of Us which give us the first look at some new action, Bella Ramsay's new hairstyle, the first look at Dina and Abby as well as the character that Catherine O'Hara will be playing which seems to be a character that was initially planned for the 2nd game which was a love interest for Joel as well as a brief glimpse at the creepy infected and I am hyped and not prepared to experience the pain all over again but all shown in a brief 2 minute sizzle reel.

Now this would be where I would end it on the story but there is one other bit of news and it relates to the aspect that brought this reel to the audience and that is with House of the Dragon itself as it was confirmed that the series has an ending planned and it looks like the show will be wrapped up with a 4th and final season confirmed in the works. Now in my own opinion I felt season 2 was a fair bit slow but still entertaining and I feel they are building to a big battle from the books and I think it makes sense to end it when its due and not overdo it but overall it seems like HBO is on the roll with some of their content.

But what do you think, what piece of content are you looking forward to the most and do you think that House of the Dragon ending with 4 seasons is a reasonable end or do you think more or less then that? Let me know what you think down below.  

not Keeping quiet on this release date

So this story will just be a quick brief update but we have a quick new release date announcement coming your way that I will provide to you for some more video game entertainment. So if you are aware at different points over the last few weeks we were treated to the announcement, story trailer and gameplay for the upcoming new horror game based on the popular Quiet Place series with The Road Ahead with a confirmation of a 2024 release. Well now the wait is over as after a accidental early release leak by PlayStation, they have unveiled that A Quiet Place The Road Ahead will be releasing just in time for the Spooky season with a confirmed release date of October 17th. I think timing it for the October month makes total sense and will fit the tension and fear and all I know is if I time it right, this will be a game that will see a series on my channel. Now if it becomes a case that it also reacts to microphone then commentary is screwed but hey, it will fit the immersion more.

But what do you think of this release date for the game and will you be trying it out when it releases for Halloween and will you watch me play it myself. Let me know you thoughts on this all down below.

The passing of the Woman who ran the Broadcasting hub and the man of Democracy manifest

And the final story for this week is more of a sad story as we have the announcement of the passing of 2 different people that were iconic in a different nature but it is important to respect them in each different way.

The first of the announced was of a man named Jack Karlson who may not be a massively known name but the man was famous for a particular reason and that was the famous clip from the early 90s that was dubbed as "Democracy Manifest" which was an news segment in Australia of him being arrested at a Chinese Restaurant and him making multiple quotes that have lived on for years since then with the identity of Jack being unknown for nearly 30 years. He passed away earlier this week at the age of 82 after a battle with Prostate Cancer.

As for the 2nd figure that passed away just came in a few hours before writing this piece and this one was a surprise shock to me but it was the announcement of former CEO of YouTube of Susan Wojcicki. As I mentioned she was the head CEO of YouTube when they took over from the original hosts from 2014 until she stepped down from the role in 2023 and she seemed to be one that even if some of the concepts and choices that the platform has made over those years, she still made it an effort to help out creators in many forms and methods and it is a case that I must respect her efforts in running the platform that I now myself make content for (even if I am not that big of a creator, I still appreciate the efforts she made over the decade running the company). She passed away on Friday at the age of 56 after a 2 year battle with a small cell Lung Cancer and may her and Jack both rest in peace.

And on that low note that is where we will end this weeks episode of Weird Mind News Room and I do hope that you enjoyed all the same and I would love to know your own thoughts on all that was discussed if you have seen any items and all your thoughts in the comments down below. 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 episode :)

Take care, Keep being you, Signing off

Sam H :)