Weird Mind News Room Episode 84: Sept 30th - Oct 6th

 *music to put on a happy face to*

Hello to all of you wonderful people from all around the world to this rest stop of a blog with the newest edition of Weird Mind News Room where this week we will be talking on a smaller amount of new releases, some trailers and a small selection of News Stories to discuss this week, so lets not waste too much time and lets talk about all things media from this week.

New Releases to have a song and dance to

Movies

Joker Fólie a deúx

We start off the New Releases with one important factor to implement and that is to send in the clowns and they will be doing it in style with a bit of a song and dance and the case that they are also not doing it alone as coming in 5 years after the award winning original, we return to the mad world of Gotham to the mind of the famous clown with the sequel to Joker with Folie a Deux. The film takes place 22 years after the events of the end of the original film with Arthur's trial for the murder of Frank Murray on his late night talk show and how he has become a hollow shell of a man while imprisoned in Arkham but soon starts to find himself again when he meets and forms a romantic connection with fellow inmate of Harleen "Lee" Quinzel and soon it leads to them putting on a show that only a pair of messed up people can possibly do so. Reception to this sequel however is a far cry of its original as it has been hit with a lot more underwhelming appeal that while the visual style, concept and performances are a highlight, the messy 2 stories, characterization and elements of the musical approach to the film have been hit with a fair bit of backlash. But if its the madhouse or the courthouse that you may be looking for then you can check it out for yourself as it is out now in cinemas.

A different Man

on the 2nd of the new films for this week is taking us to the realm of A24 and taking on the concept of body transformation (which in due told I did forget about the film of the Substance from 2 weeks ago which has garnered great praise and most case if I went to it I would probably faint in the middle of the movie) but we have a new tale of learning that while change can bring something new and exciting, it may feel you never know how good you had it once it is gone and that comes in the form of the new film of A different Man. The film tells the story of an inspiring actor who undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. However, his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare as he becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost. Reception to this new film has garnered some very strong reception with praise to the performances and the focus and respect with talking on the medical condition that the main co-star has in real life and on the focus of the film, and if you want to check it out for yourself then you can check it out now in cinemas.

Tv Shows

Heartstopper Season 3

As for the only new tv show for this week is seeing the sparks fly and taking love and trust to the next level as everyone's favourite LGBTQ couple of Charlie and Nick are back again as we have the 3rd season of the acclaimed book adaptation of Heartstopper. This new season will see the pair looking to take their relationship to the next level and as the summer holidays end and the new school term begins it will come with its joys and its challenges including opening up more to one another and other things like mental health and social plans. Reception to this 3rd season like the previous 2 has also been praised with the performances, love story, respect to the concept and source material and something nice and wholesome to watch as we head into the colder months but if you want the series for yourself then you can check the new season out now on Netflix.

Games

Until Dawn Remaster

Onto the games for this week and the first is a return to a previous generation title that puts you in the role of a god as you decide how the events of one scary night away can have the consequences for a group of friends trapped on a mountain as we have recieved the all new remaster of remake of the PS4 classic of Until Dawn. For those unaware of the narrative the game will have you take control of 8 different friends who all return to a mountain lodge for a weekend gathering one year after the disappearance of 2 of their friends and one of the friends siblings, but when everything seems normal at first, the night quickly takes a more sinister turn and its up to you to decide the fate of those and who will survive the horrors until morning. So as of writing there is a bit of an issue as there is no reviews out for said project right now I can give a concrete consensus on besides the likes of some mixed user reviews from steam that appeal to the new changes and additions (including elements that may hint at a sequel) but have seen critiques for some game breaking or soft locking bugs as well as changes to audio and music that feel a little lacking for the sake of change to other elements, though it has been praised for a new way to play the original classic with new updated visuals and if you want something scary to play this spooky season (which may vary on appeal due to the asking price being a bit too high) then you can play it now on PS5 or PC (or the PS4 version is still great). 

The Patrick Star Game

On the last of the new releases is taking us to the bottom of the sea to the world of everyone's favourite absorbent sponge but this time, his goofy dumb friend is taking the spotlight for the all new open world sandbox game of the Patrick Star Game. This new game will have you travelling across a vast open world sandbox as the sea star as you complete challenges, earn rewards and prizes and interact with your favourite characters as you build up the skills and expertise to compete in the fry cook games. Reception to said game has seen a bit of a mixed opinion that while praise is given for its short and fun aspects as well as a fully realized open world form of Bikini Bottom, the game is lacking in appealing content that can get repetitive and lack appeal overtime and for its price point compared to the games length, though it seems to be a surefire fun time for the kids and if you are up for a new colourful little adventure then you can play this now on PS4/5, Xbox One/ Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Trial by trailer

Nosferatu

The first of the trailers for this week is delving into the realm of the horror just in time for the spooky season but coming out a little after that is taking us to a tale of a classic story fortelling a creature of the night and the ruler of darkness descending on a small town with drastic circumstances as a famous horror icon is returning with an all new take with Robert Eggers bringing an all new take with a trailer for Nosferatu. This new film is described by the director of a Gothic tale of obsession with a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire creature entity that becomes infatuated with her and causing untold horrors in it's wake. So the likes of this creature horror tale is known as a classic from the past that has stood the test of time in terms of horror and appeal and from the looks of this new trailer it looks like it is in safe hands and may be the long overdo retelling it deserves with the level of fear and terror it deserves and I am looking forward to it and its not that far out as it will be releasing into cinemas on Christmas day in the US and in the UK and Eire on January 3rd 2025. 

A Better Man

So the next trailer to come out of this week is delving into another tale of the life of a famous face in the form of another biographical film, and while the voice may be familiar, the face may not be as much as we have recieved a trailer for the upcoming bio film on famous musician of Robbie Williams with Better Man. So the film will tell the story of the life of Robbie Williams on his life and career through his initial part of Take That, Dealings with hardships of life and addiction and turning it around to become one of the most beloved musicians in the industry. Now you are probably wondering what may be so different about it as it sounds like any other bio film? Well similar to the likes of the upcoming Pharrell bio film, this one has a noticable gimmick as while everyone else is human, Robbie will be represented by a CGI monkey that looks like it was straight out of the Planet of the Apes films and I think it helps to make it stand out that little bit more and from early reception at recent festivals, it seems to have worked and I feel it may be worth checking out when the film releases into cinemas on December 26th.

Paddington In Peru

The final trailer from this week is with a trip to a far off location full of rich rainforests, beautiful scenery and in this instance a lot of travel snack and especially some marmalade sandwiches as everyone's favourite little British loving bear is back again real soon and we have recieved a new trailer for the upcoming film of Paddington in Peru. This next new adventure will see Paddington and the Brown family take a trip across the globe to the forests of darkest Peru to visit Aunt Lucy at the home for retired bears, but when they arrive they learn she has gone off on a quest to find the secret of a lost treasure deep in the jungle's and will lead this silly little bear and his adoptive family to head out to sole the mystery and find Aunt Lucy in the Process. So I will say watching this trailer gave me that sense of a warm fuzzy feeling by the near end of said piece of footage and in all sense I have a good feeling that this one will be on the level of the first 2 9anf I hope that it is cause those are classics) and with a 4th film confirmed as of last week, I for one cannot wait for new adventures with this precious bear an thankfully it is not long left for where I am from as the film will be dropping here in cinemas on November 8th with a US release on January 17th next year.

News of a verdict

The Lion, The Witch and the Irish Woman and a royal return

So we have a selection of some small stories that will be divided up into different sections as they each have some form of connection and the first instance is talking about the leading women of cinema and entertainment as we have 2 different new story announcements with one of them just being announced as of writing this weeks roundup and I will be giving an insight into the projects right now.

the first story is a mix of possible confirmation bit also the case of a rumour at the moment (some are saying the conflicting reports) and we are talking about a new project from the female director who had a massive box office success of last year (and one of the most recent pieces talked about on this blog) and that is with Greta Gerwig. SO I mentioned this project probably a good year ago but it has been discussed that Greta's next project is looking to adapt a new adaptation of the popular series of books of the Chronicles of Narnia and since that announcement not much has been discussed of that matter on who will be in the project or if it will tell the complete works of C.S Lewis in timeline order or similar to Disney and focus on the book release form, but earlier this week we have heard of the possible first name in the project. According to different sources, the first rumoured casting is with Irish actress of Saoirse Ronan who is a long time collaborator with Gerwig having worked on the films of Little Women and Lady Bird with the director and made sense for her to return as she was unavailable for an appearance in Barbie. Now it is uncertain if it has been confirmed to be accurate of a casting confirmation but if it is they have not mentioned who she is playing and may just be a small supporting role, but my initial theory was she end up playing the Ice Queen who will trick and entice people with Turkish Delights to take over Narnia (I think that's how it went) but I guess we will have to see if this is confirmed by the director itself and see the case of how far along the project is and who else may be involved in said project down the line.

As for the 2nd story of this section for the wider appeal of many we are delving into a return to another series that have been in some rumoured discussions for the last few weeks and that is a return to royalty with a coming of age based tale. Now there have been many forms of coming of age stories in the past like Inside Out, Edge of Seventeen, Boyhood, Eight Grade and many more to name but a few but one that has seen a successful long form established cult status in the world of coming of age stories is with the 2001 Disney classic of The Princess Diaries that gave the world the acting debut of one Anne Hathaway learning that she is next in line to the throne for the country of Genovia after her estranged grandmother has reigned for years. The film was a commercial success and spawned a sequel 3 years later and many had wondered if there would every be a return to that kingdom to see how things have turned out.... and it looks like it will be just that real soon as it was announced on Friday that a 3rd film in the Princess Diaries series has been confirmed with Hathaway returning and a director in the form of Adele Lim who was a writer for Crazy Rich Asians and Raya and the last Dragon and the director of last years Joy Ride film so I feel it may be in safe hands in terms of production. Now it is unclear at this point in time if we will see Julie Andrews return for the project as well as an older Chris Pine from the sequel but I guess as more development happens on said project, the more updates I will provide soon.

But wat do you think of all this, do you see Saoirse Ronan appear in the new Narnia film and as who and are you excited for another Princess Diaries film? Let me know your thoughts down below.

Team ups of Birds and Brutes

So Joker isn't the only piece of DC related news this week as we have the discussion of 2 new projects in the works with both all set in the DC universe and focus on the caped crusader and the rogues gallery form so lets delve into those projects in the story.

the first focus is on the side of the rogues gallery as while initially there was 2 rumoured films or concepts in the works for different villains, one of them was debunked very quickly by DC head James Gunn which was a rumoured film focused on Mr Freeze that was being developed by Matt Reeves and while it was shot down, Gunn made mention that they could do something like this in the future (or else it has leaked the villain for the Batman Part 2 giving the timeframe and setting for said follow up). As for the other one this one seems to have some truth and this in the form of a team up film that will focus the characters of Bane and Deathstroke. Now we have seen these characters before in past DC projects with the likes of Bane appearing in the 1997 Batman and Robin film as a bodyguard for Poison Ivy and the 2012 Dark Knight Rises played by Tom Hardy (and the concept of the voice became the staple for the character in projects since) and as for Deathstroke the only form we have seen him in live action is the teaser bait for the next film from the Justice League or Batman film in the DCEU so the likes of the announcement seems like a very interesting outcome. Now its unclear as to who will be playing the roles but one of the fancasts I have seen for Bane is with Dave Bautista cause he has stated he would be a part of Gunn's DC universe and I can see the fit work well but I guess we will learn more about it overtime.

As for the 2nd project from the DC studios, we are looking more into the Bat family for this project of the next discussion as we got the announcement of a film entitled Dynamic Duo where instead of focusing on Batman and the Boy wonder (which will be the case with Brave and the Bold) we are instead looking at a film focusing on Dick Grayson and Jason Todd who would go on to become Nightwing and Red Hood and this will also be in the form of an animated film. Now at the moment there is no projected release date and what kind of art style it will be in as well (one of the likely ones could be the style similar to Spider-verse that someone worked on for a possible Batman Beyond movie but who knows what will come of it) but I think that the focus of some Robins getting some screentime presence is worth it and well overdue and I am all for seeing this in the future.

But what do you think of these announcement and who would you cast in these character roles for said project? Let me knwo your choices down below and lets discuss them there.

We going to the movies babies

The 2nd last story would've fit with the likes of the final story on the basis of the studio that is being mentioned but I felt that since this one is more of an announcement then the other concept in mind then I felt it was a basis of giving this a focus cause I want to give it a focus in particular. Now we live in the era of a lot of live action adaptations of projects, including Disney making a few every year, games to live action adaptations and even to the likes of other animated projects from kids shows and even an upcoming project based on How to train your dragon next year, but this next form of a live action one feels somewhat unnecessary and a bit questionable. On Wednesday, it was announced that Paramount pictures will be making a live action film adaptation of the classic Nickelodeon series of Rugrats and will be directed by the original director of the first Pitch Perfect film. Now I think ok, sure, everything is getting a live action but the aspect as well that is brought up in the announcement is that the young toddlers are going to be CGI'd. Now I was already on the fence about the idea of a live action format of a film like this considering the series has not been that heavy of a focus for over a decade until the recent 3d animated series from about 2-3 years ago but then the concept of the babies being CGI in a live action setting just seems really weird and kind of unsettling. I understand the likes that it is probably more to make them distinct and all but they could've just done the simple aspect of just having a moving mouth on a baby actor and call it a day but I can only see these creations looking a little unsettling. Its unclear for the moment of what the plot will be, what characters in particular will be in it and who will play them and the aspect of when this is planning to come out but I guess we will see how this will come together and what these CG babies will look like, but for now I will stick with the classic trilogy of films for the time being.

But what are your opinions about this, do you think this concept of a film is a good idea or should it be left as is in the form of a cartoon series? Let me know your opinions below.

Paramount is moving mountains of movies for next year

The last of the news stories is relating back to the studio that was mentioned in the previous news story as we are talking about the company of Paramount Pictures as on Friday, they unveiled a wave of some new change arounds of the release dates with one or 2 new additions and some change arounds for a few other ones, so let us delve into the news topics for this week.

First off on the announcement of dates was an official release date for the upcoming remake of the Running man film that will be helmed by Edgar Wright and starring Glen Powell in the title role. Now there is 2 pieces of news with this announcement with the first being a new addition to the film in the form of actress Katy O'Brien who you may know for the film of Love Lies Bleeding or from the 3rd season of The Mandalorian and is teaming up again with Powell from their co starring in this years Twisters film. The 2nd piece of news is the official announcement of a release date as the project is now releasing into cinemas on November 21st next year and most competition it will be going up against is the 2nd half of the Wicked Adaptation. Now the case so far the cast sounds decent, the director is a personal favourite of mine and I am looking forward to checking out when it does and see if it will be as good or an improvement over the original adaptation from the 90s but I guess we will see how that turns out.

The next project in focus that will be the only confirmed one for this year and is an award contender, though the concept of the plot may be a bit of a divisive focus is the film of September 5 which has been given a release date of December 13th this year after a limited release 2 weeks earlier. Now the basis of the plot is the focus of the true story of the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage situation that saw a gang of Palestinian militant organization holding the Israeli Olympic team member hostage and given the current conflict going on right now it may be a little topical of a focus. Though I have seen the reception being highly praised from some film festivals, it will be worth to see how much of a discussion this film may have. 

The next of the films with a new release date and the only one that has seen a date being moved up is the upcoming film known as Vicious that stars Dakota Fanning and other big name stars that will be telling the story of a woman travelling down a rabbit hole of existence from a strange gift in the night by an unknown visitor. As for the release date of said project, it has moved up by 6 months from August 8th to February 28th next year due to the film being done and ready to go so lets hope and see if that project will see a success or if it will be affected by any messy marketing or outcome.

There was a planned film initially by Paramount for earlier that month but has now shifted back to the summer and this comes in the form of the new animated Smurfs movie that now sees a delay from Valentine's Day to July 18th. So far the visuals do not look too bad but given the track record of Smurfs films as of recent it will have to be seen if this will bring a sense of appeal or be lost in the mix of big films coming out that summer (especially with the Hodge Podge cast for the film).

And the last of the release date changes is with the  upcoming reboot take on the classic comedy series of the Naked Gun as it has been delayed as well but not by a large amount but simply by 2 weeks from its initial July 18th release to a August 1st after being replaced with the Smurfs film and now will be releasing up against another animated film on that same day with the sequel to Dreamwork's Bad Guys film. Now the case of said reboot will be questioned if people are up for something like this level of a comedy like the original trilogy is known for but I guess with the likes of Akiva Schaffer in the directors chair, it may work out but I guess we will see how that comes along in the future.

But what are your opinions on these release date changes and which one of these would you be the most excited for (to me currently its running man though I have some optimism on Naked Gun), let me know your opinions down below.

Special Segment: Pure Craic

So before wrapping up the shorter week this week, I thought it was best to add in a new special segment and in the form of helping another fellow Irish content creator out with my small but slowly growing audience. So we have seen a lot of projects and concepts that some would appeal in the past to podcasts on money, music from upcoming bands (which just had a performance recently, shout out to the band of Woodsmen) and even a few special shout outs for graduations and birthdays and in the case for this one it is a basis about a new concept that is a little bit of a mystery but it seems like an interesting concept. So there is a content creator can you can find on YouTube and Twitch that goes by the name of IrishPandaQueen who does a lot of gaming videos and streams, some cosplay streams and the odd music choice contests and you may know and have seen a bit here and there for the concept of the RTÉ news anchor voice and I have enjoyed some of their content and maybe can collab at some point in the future on some party games, but now it looks like they are about to create something new that is a little bit cryptic as to what it is. on Thursday or Friday, they posted on their story about a new product that they are making that is known as Pure Craic (its the Irish slang for what is happening and not for the illicit drug for those that may not know much on the Irish culture) and from what I have seen from the sharing of stories of said product, it looks like it may be a possible energy drink from what I have gathered but I am not 100% sure on that one, if they see this post then they may clarify more in the future) but I felt it was best to support another fellow creator with their new venture (I mean I commented on the post) and I think if you have the time and are interested then you can check out the page here and keep an eye out on the product in due time and once anything new may pop up about said product then I will update in another segment like this in the future but I hope the best for the future endeavor.

And now with all of that, this brings us to the end of the 84th Episode of Weird Mind News Room and I hope you enjoyed this more shorter episode compared to the last 2 weeks or so. Let me know your opinions on everything that was discussed down below and 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 :)