Weird Mind News Room Episode 85: Oct 7th-13th

 *rolling out and transforming with some music*

Hello everyone to the weekly series of all things media for the 8th edition of Weird Mind News Room where this week we are delving into some mixed array of stories and topics from a few new releases, a couple of trailers here and there and a small selection of News stories for the week, so lets not delve too much of an issue and lets talk on all things media for this week.

New Releases that meets the eye

Movies

Transformers One

The first of the big releases for this week is a film that is taking us back to the dawn of the creation of a war from 2 close connections and show how they ended up on conflicting sides as the robots in disguise is going back to the beginning as we have the new animated origin based film of Transformers One. This new film will tell the story of Orion Pax and D-16, 2 robots on the planet of cybertron who were like brothers to one another that soon on the journey above the industrial exterior of the planet along with 2 other bots of Bumblebee and Elita will discover a deep conspiracy about their home planet and will lead them down some different paths and how they will become known as Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. Reception to this new film has garnered some overwhelming high praise for its animation, story, visuals and humour while also having some serious moments and is ranked as the 2nd best reviewed Transformers of recent memory (close tie with this and 2018s Bumblebee). Now its a case this film has been out for almost a month at this point in the US and it has been having some difficulty making a profit and I think you should give it a chance as the marketing is making it look unappealing when it seems to be a lot better then it is (and maybe cause it is also going up against another Robot film that I am hyped more for but still very excited for this one) and if you want to check it out for yourself then you can catch this film out now in cinemas (and give it some love).

Terrifier 3

Now as we delve deeper into the month of Halloween, we are taking a trip to a character's appearance that appeared in a very underwhelming and meh original and then turned it around with a cult classic like sequel as everyone's favourite fucked up clown of Art is back once again with a anticipated new entry of Terrifier 3. The plot will follow on from the previous entry and take place at Christmas and follows Sienna Shaw, where after supposedly stopping him at the end of the last film, tries to move on and attempt to rebuild her life again after all that trauma, but things are never that easy as Art the Clown has come back and in pursuit of Sienna alongside his new accomplice of Victoria Heyes and it looks like it will not be much of a White Christmas. Reception to the 3rd entry has garnered some good reception and is the overall 2nd best scoring of the series with praise to the scares, gore, horror and story and characters and settings and with a 4th movie just confirmed as of the films release, it looks like this clowns killings are far from done for the moment and if you want to check it out (and have the stomach for it) then you can do so now in cinemas. 

Salem's Lot

The last of the films for this week is bringing us to the realm of another adaptation based on the massive literary Library of a renowned author of horror as after constant delays, we finally have the release of the new adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot. The film follows author Ben Mears who returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem's Lot in search of inspiration for his new book after some writers block but will soon discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire. Reception to the new retelling has been hit with a mixed reception with while it was praised for its retelling of the classic novels story and some elements of the performances and set pieces, the film falls into that category of the same generic horror tropes and mix appeal on the horror but if you want to check it out for yourself you can catch it on HBO max in the US and over here now in cinemas. 

Tv Shows

Tomb Raider: the Legend of Lara Croft

As for the the single tv show for this week, we have the return to the realm of the video game adaptation and this is a new perspective on a character that has had a few adaptations of their series as everyone's favourite survivor is back in a new form with the new series of Tomb Raider The legend of Lara Croft. This series will pick up sometime after the events of the recent trilogy of games and will follow Lara Croft on more new adventures of searching ancient tombs and treasures and will bridge the gap between the reboot Prequel trilogy and the original game's storyline. Reception to the series has garnered a bit of a mixed reception but more to a positive side of things with praise on the visuals and voice work (particularly of Haley Atwell as Lara) though some will see it as a little underwhelming of a game adaptation but it is a fine time all the same and if you want to check it out for yourself, you can catch the new season now on Netflix.

Video Games

Silent Hill 2 remake

The last of the new releases of this week is with the big game release that will bringing many to a strange and mysteriously empty town with a lot of mysteries and scares and unsettling nature to find the answer to a lingering question as after 23 years since the original port we have recieved the all new remake to the classic horror game of Silent Hill 2. This remake will tell the story of the protagonist of James Sunderland, a widower, who returns to the eponymous town of Silent Hill upon recieving a letter from his deceased wife of Mary who claims to be waiting there for him. Reception to the new remake has been critically acclaimed with praise to the updated visuals, gameplay mechanics, puzzles and respect to the original classic that has stood the test of time, though there is some slight critiques on the likes of overextending the narrative with added padding (not sure how much of an issue that can be). But if you are up for a return to the mysterious town then you can play it now on PS5 and PC.

Treasure trove of Trailers

A complete Unknown

On the first of the trailers for this week is taking a look into the realm of the Biographical films and taking a look at the story of the legendary musician that changed the way a certain genre of music would be played as we have recieved another new look at the upcoming bio film of A Complete Unknown. The film will focus on the early days and rising career of the musician of Bob Dylan and focus as well on the controversial decision around his method of switching to electrically amplified instrumentation in the folk music scene. So I do not know much on the likes of the musicians life though some of his music is pretty entertaining and I feel for what I can tell that Timothée Chalamet seems like a good fit for the role and I have heard some decent reception from some test screenings for the film but things may change by the time the film releases in January where I am from and in the US on Christmas Day.

Heretic

For the next trailer for this week is delving into the realm of the likes of a possible horror or thriller aesthetic that will prove that anyone may look simple on the surface but has a lot of secret layers hidden just out of view as they have released a new trailer for the upcoming new film of Heretic. The film will focus on 2 Mormon Missionaries who attempt to convert a man to their religion, but it soon turns out that he is far more dangerous then they could have anticipated and will soon be a fight of survival to make it out alive. So the likes of the filmmaking group in this production have their share of projects from the likes of the Quiet Place films and last years Dino Sci-Fi of 65 and so far from the looks of this film it does have a sense of uneasiness and possible fear and some deep messages and so far from what I have seen it has garnered some well recieved reception so far and may be worth a check out as the film will be releasing into cinemas in about 3 weeks time on November 1st. 

Moana 2

The next trailer for this week is hitting the high seas for another oceanic based adventure as everyone's favourite Polynesian Princess is back once more with presumably the final trailer for the sequel of Moana 2. Set 3 years after the events of the original, we follow Moana once again as she receives a mysterious call from her wayfinding ancestors and will soon form her own crew of misfits, including the return of the Demigod Maui as they journey to the far seas to break Nalo, the god of Storms curse on the hidden island of Motufetu, which once connected the people of the ocean and also deal with creatures and underworld gods in the process. So I know the case that this whole sequel started out as a Disney+ series and from what I have seen from the trailers so far it looks more like it has worked itself back into a well formed sequel and hopefully will still be like that and not feel this worked as the original concept and so far it looks a lot more bigger scale in scope and concept and I will be for sure checking this out as I did enjoy the original a whole lot (and am still wondering if that whole giant crab not being back for this is a lie and will make an appearance at some point) but I guess we will find out when the film releases into cinemas on November 29th.

Piece By Piece

The last of the trailers for this week might seem a bit crazy for what I am about to say as we have another new form and take on the likes of a biographical pic but now done in the unique form of being built from the ground up to tell this story as we have recieved the final trailer for the upcoming Pharrell film of Piece by Piece. The film will be telling the life and career of Pharrell Williams of his early life, his connection to music and how he became one of the greatest music creators and producers of all time... all done in the form of a LEGO movie. So it has been said that I have been wanting a new Lego film for a good while since the last one was 5 years ago and the license is with Universal and have not done anything with it since then until this and from what I have seen from footage is that this looks so visually appealing and from what I have heard is a critically acclaimed film as well so this will be worth a check out as it is out this week in the US but will be dropping over here on November 8th in cinemas.

News of the robotic war

Returning to Space and the wild west

So on the first of the news stories for the week is delving into the realm of the video game news stories and in the case this is not going to be a massive focus of extensive listening of games but rather 2 announcements that have been seen as a massive appeal to a lot of people that were both a long time coming for many fans and I will be delving into them here.

We are starting with the news that actually helped me to feel that little bit better while fighting a heavy head cold was news that I had been waiting for for 10 years now and on the day of its 10th anniversary, the studio of Creative Assembly announced that we will be getting a sequel to Alien Isolation and finally all my asking has finally paid off. Now this has been a requested game for well over a decade and has been dubbed by many as one of the best horror games of all time (well besides the company of IGN who made a very poor judgement of remarks on the game and they literally came out with a defense video from someone that was not part of the company at the time and probably affected the sales of the game) and finally getting a sequel after all of this time is what I have been waiting for. Now as of writing it it just in some early development phases and its unclear if it will be Isolation 2 or called something else but all I know is that I am very excited to play another version follow up to what would essentially be a great Alien sequel and hopefully it will be on par with the original.

And as for the 2nd game announcement for this week is one that for many this is a long time coming and after so much demand and missing out from the last porting, on Tuesday of this week Rockstar has finally listened to the demand and will now be releasing the Original Red Dead Redemption on PC and in the case it is not too long and will be releasing at the end of this month on October 29th, coming in 5 years after the release of Red Dead 2 on PC and a little over a year after this was ported to PS4 and Switch. Now this will be including the original game and the massive acclaimed DLC expansion of Undead Nightmare and will cost around 50 bucks for the 2 packages which was around the same price for the ports were last year. Now this is exciting as it has been 14 years since it initially came out and I know some will be very excited to check it out (and I may even gift this version to someone in particular so they can experience it for themselves if they are listening). But its great to see it coming out after all this time.

But what are you thoughts on these announcements, are you excited for a sequel to Alien Isolation and will you be playing the original Red Dead on PC? Let me know in the comments below.

More giant robot mech and cosmic heroes

On the second collection of stories for the week is delving into some topics in the realm of the casting news as we have 2 new news stories with one being a follow up to a story I have covered for the last few weeks and the other being a new confirmation of a known name joining another franchise in particular, but we shall delve into what those announcement were now.

So let us start with the story that I have been talking on for I'm gonna say the last month at this rate and that is with the ongoing news about the new DCU series based on the Lanterns. So we have had a bit of a lengthy back and forth about rumoured casting for one of the main roles in the form of Hal Jordan which was initially a casting possibility of Josh Brolin in the role but that was turned down and then a few other names like Ewan McGregor, Matthew McConaughey and Chris Pine were mentioned as runner ups but things soon came together with the final confirmed casting of Kyle Chandler who will be playing Jordan in this new series as a mentor figure to another member of the corps and that is with John Stewart. Now this was also getting some rumoured names floating around and seemed like this was going to be another long wait in responses but this was not the case an turns out was a much quicker confirmation as it was announced earlier this week that they have found their Stewart in the form of actor Arron Pierre. Pierre has had a fair range of roles with films such as Old, Rebel Ridge, Brother, Foe and will be voicing the young Mufasa in the upcoming Lion King Live action sequel so it seems like he has quite the range for the specific character and I think its a strong collective choice of the 2 leads for this project that is the cosmic version of True detective which sound very interesting. Its unclear if we will see any other members of the Lantern corps but I am sure as the project moves forward that we will find out more about it in due time.

As on the 2nd story for this week in casting news, we are going to the realm of new live action adaptations and in the realm of anime adaptations as we have the confirmation of a film that would form a bit of a basis to the eventual popular series of Power Rangers with the popular series of Voltron. So the likes of the film based on the popular anime has been in the works with Amazon since they obtained the rights back in 2022 and since then they have been assembling some of those that will be involved with its development including a director in Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball, Central Intelligence) and has found one of the first casted stars in the role of Daniel Quinn-Toye (Feature film debut, understudy for Tom Holland in West end), but it looks like we have another new cast member joining the team and it is a face that is quite the figure in many realms of pop culture as it was announced that none other then Henry Cavill is joining the project in an unknown role as of this moment. Of course Cavill is no stranger to being in so many franchises as he has been Superman, Geralt from the Witcher, he's making a series based on Warhammer and is an all around Gamer (I mean did you even see that video of him building the PC a few years ago, this shit was.... awakening) so it was going to be a case that Cavill would be all up for some thing like this. As of the moment it is unclear of when this project will be seeing a release or beginnings of development or filming for said project but I am sure we will see more of this film series begin to take shape over the next little while and will update as the project continues with some progress.

But what are your thoughts on the casting choices of these 2 and who else do you think will be joining both of these said projects? Let me know your choices for these down below and lets discuss them there.

The mystery is dead and buried

Now this next story was a story I have been waiting to hear as has a lot of people have been and this relates to the news of a certain show that has been collectively hated on from the wider internet since it was first released a little over a year ago. So if you are aware and may have seen or read my review for this series, one of the most well divisive shows that brought many together in hating said series was the HBO max series of Velma that was a new form take on the Scooby Doo Mystery gang that was headlined by Mindy Kaling as the main Investigator of the group and the results from it was universally panned for its spite, flanderization of the characters that none were likable, lack of the iconic talking dog, peddling to the modern era that will date it quick and a lot of other issues that said they want to respect the source material but it seems they stemmed far from it and you can hear my pain while writing about said first season (or first half of season 1) in the review on this blog somewhere and now after so much backlash and negative response, the show (much like what happens to the character in the 2nd part) is now dead and buried as it was announced on Tuesday that the series has been cancelled. Now I for one am glad that it has been put to its resting place as its surprising that I can tolerate a lot of things that may be labelled as bad and find some good from it but this one was really difficult with the only good thing I can say was some of the animation looked nice when it was the characters having the likes of "panic attacks" (which are some of the worst shown form of said affect of Anxiety compared to some other films and series) and now no longer have to deal with that anymore and hopefully the likes of the artists and writers may go onto do better things and not be bogged down with this anymore. (which probably means I have to do a review for this 2nd season and Halloween special that came out last week..... maybe at a certain goal I will).

But what did you think of this news, are you happy or sad about this shows cancellation and do you think it could've improved if kept on? let me know what you think down below.

Space aliens, strange days and a big director too got a date

So the last of the stories for this week has just appeared on my radar just a few hours as I started writing this weeks episode and it delves into the realm of some quick announcements of release dates for 3 upcoming projects that will all be releasing in the next 2 years with 2 from a massive company and another from a recent Oscar winning filmmaker and I will give a quick summary of all that was announced in terms of these release dates.

So we shall start with the combining of the 2n big company titles as these are both coming to us from the massive film studio of Disney who has been keeping it a little quiet since their big D23 2 months ago and mainly been focusing on their marketing campaigns on Moana 2 and other properties from Marvel and other projects but it looks like they have appeared just a few hours ago with a new double release date announcement for 2 projects for 2025 that had no release dates yet and that was with the live action adaptation of Lilo and Stitch and the long awaited sequel of Freakier Friday. It was announced on Friday evening that the Lilo and Stich film will be releasing on May 23rd 2025 and Freakier Friday will be dropping 2.5 Months later on August 8th 2025. Now from what I have seen in terms of any competition, FF is currently not up against anything massive besides the 3rd weekend of Fantastic 4 and 2nd weekends of Bad Guys 2 and Naked Gun, but for L&S it is in some tough competition as it is releasing the same day as the 8th entry of the Mission Impossible series (and I think it is also Memorial Day weekend so it could do well in both regards) and will be worth seeing if people are more interested in some espionage or a funni blue furry alien, but I guess we will see how that turns out, as well as mark both of those days on my calendar of film watches.

As for the 2nd newest release date announcement, we are turning from the likes of a film we do known about to a film we know that is being made from a certain director as we got the confirmation of the next big event film from recent Oscar winning director of Christopher Nolan as coming off his massive success with Oppenheimer, we have gotten the confimration that the director's next film will be hitting the big screen from July 18th 2026. It's not the only confirmation to this whole ordeal as it was also brought to attention that the film will also have Matt Damon in a main leading role and is the only confirmed casting as of right now but is expected to be another all star cast. As things stand for the moment there is also nothing that we can go off of in terms of what this film may be about but I am sure as the next few weeks come along I am sure more and more of the project will start taking shape and give an idea of what he has in store for another IMAX event film, but if there is any updates I shall provide them in some later episodes.

But what are your thoughts on these film release dates and are you looking forward to checking them out and what do you think this new Nolan film will be about in particular? Let me know your thoughts of it all down below in the comments and lets discuss them there. 

And with all of that, this concludes the 85th edition of weird Mind News Room and I do hope that you have enjoyed my ramblings for another week that is a little bit shorter. Let me know your thoughts on everything discussed down below and as always I hope you all stay being wonderful people and have a great day everyday doing many great things I will see you's all in the next episode :)

Take care, keep being you, signing off

Sam H :)