*aye up gromit shall we get out the music-o-matic*
Twas the blog after Christmas and I am not doing this again , its time for episode 96 of Weird Mind News Room and all of the rhyming shall now end. So it is going to be a bit of a shorter week this week in terms of content as there was a few pieces of New releases, Trailers and news stories for this week to be the final Weird Mind to 2024. So lets not waste time for this and lets get to see what will be out for the last week of this year in all things media.
Cracking new releases
Movies
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Wahey, we start off the last new releases for the year with a cracking new film that sees the return of one of the most beloved duos of the big and small screen with their last outing being over 16 years ago and their first feature film turning 20 in the new year as everyone's Cheese loving inventor and his silent but faithful dog are back again with the all new film of Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most fowl. The film will see Gromit become concerned about Wallace's dependency of his inventions when it comes to light from his latest creation of a Smart Gnome system. However it soon becomes a concern when an old enemy returns and takes control of the new invention to do his bidding in an act of revenge for a past situation and it is up to Gromit to save his owner or else Wallace may never invent again. Reception to this new entry has been nothing but high praise to the point of it sitting still with a perfect 100% with praise for its animation, story, humor and tone of the film and something to provide a real feel good vibe in this day and age. Now I have watched it and even saw it when it came out in cinemas and I have to say I was very excited for this new film and it did not disappoint at all (and a review will be out for this in the new year) and is well worth the wait and if you want to check out this cracking new adventure yourself it is available to watch now in the UK and Ireland from the BBC and Iplayer and then dropping onto Netflix internationally from the 3rd of January.
Better Man
As for the 2nd of the films for this week is taking an all new look and perspective to the realm of the biographical film talking on one of the most successful and beloved musicians but told in a more strange and unique form of way as the director of the Greatest Showman is bringing a take on the life of an British music icon with the new film of Better Man. 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, all while shown with the perspective of Robbie being portrayed as a monkey. Reception to the bio film has also been very well recieved with praise to the performances and telling of the life of the beloved singer and giving a bit of a shake up to the usual biopic genre (similar to the recent and often overlooked Pharrell Williams biopic all in LEGO) and if you want someone to entertain you then you can catch this new biopic out now in cinemas.
Tv Shows
Squid Game Season 2
And the last of the new releases is a return of a series that had its troubles of getting made or produced for a long time but finally got to be revealed to the world in all of its messed up bloody glory as it is time to put on the green jump suits and prepare to fight to survive as the games begin again as we have recieved the release of the 2nd season of Squid Game. The plot this time around for this season will follow on from the first season and will see Gi-hun on a desperate mission to expose the deadly truth of the competition after the affects of the hardened demeanor and the scars of the past games. Yet his warning will go unheeded, but soon tensions will soon rise as fellow players soon question his intentions. Reception to the new season is well recieved like the previous first season with praise to the continuing story, with more tension, bigger stakes and much more deeper mystery being unraveledas the show heads to the conclusion (though it has seen a bit of a complain of feeling very dull in the middle part of the season as well as the audience being a lot more mixed compared to critics and to the first season) but if you are up for the new games and listen it in its subbed form then you can check it out now on Netflix with the final season for it dropping next year (and also is a better one to watch then Beast games that has been trying to push that series like it is just as good but that I heard is a mess of a show)
Trailers to bring back the past
A complete Unknown
So on the first of the only full length trailer that we have for this week is with another take on a classic icon's life told through the power of cinema as we have the focus to a musical legend that has been the staple of music media for well over half a century as we have recieved the final trailer for the upcoming 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 as I mentioned before in the past 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 of the big name critics from the states that say while its a by the numbers biopic, the main lead performance helps bring that appeal to the film, and we do not have to wait too long for see for ourselves as the film is currently out now in the US and will be released in a little under a months time on January 17th.
Happy Gilmore 2 teaser
So while it is a case I give a rule for some of these trailers, I gave this one an exception as I needed something to give a bit of substance for the section but we got a little teaser on Christmas day of the long awaited follow up to the original Adam Sandler comedy of Happy Gilmore which will see Adam Sandler hit the green once again for the battle of the drives against Shooter McGavin once again in some professional golf tournament. I enjoy the original and is one of the favourites of his comedy catalog of films and I will look into this with interest and we now have a confirmation that we will be getting this film in 2025 and I will look out for more new updates to the film overtime.
Some story choices to wrap up the year
Disney again censoring stories that would appeal
So the first of the stories was one that was actually going to be part of the stories of last week but I felt it would be a little inappropriate to talk about a topic with some important appeal to some if I did it in rhyme and this comes in the basis of another little mess up from Disney for messing with another project that is coming out that has potential of doing well for one of their brands that they own and it is once again hurting one of my favourite animation studios of Pixar. So Pixar has had a strong year in terms of it making the highest grossing film of 2024, a proper good 2nd season to its Monsters inc tv series and an entertaining miniseries based on the world of Inside out that replaced the initial series that was supposed to come out already and this is where the story has been the discussion and led to some discourse online. You see Pixar has a new tv series before the release of their new film of Elio coming out in February known as Win or Lose that will focus on the team members of a little league Baseball team called the pickles and see about the stories for each team member before the big day and from some of the footage I have seen so far it looks like it will be a decent watch, however it has seen the case of being affected in some part of its story and continue their approach of possibly butchering or censoring stories that may be worth being told. What am I on about, according to some sources, it apparently had to do with one of the characters that was going to talk on the concept and dive into the narrative about gender Identity and that the character was also going to be voiced by a transgender actor or actress before it had been told to be taken out by the studio and the character being replaced by a cisgender actor. To me personally I do find it saddening that they have to do this cause I feel if anyone that would bring appeal and focus and tell the story well that it would open to having proper conversations about the subject matter it would be this studio and I believe this may have been that casting call from a few years ago when they were looking for someone to play a transgender character and I feel it would've worked and I would appeal to this story and now having to scrap it and change it makes me worried that it will come out as a mess and many staffers in the studio that are still present or who left are saddened and disappointed that this keeps happening to their projects. Now of course this is not new to the approach that Disney has done as they have done it to some other projects from this studio in the past which includes them being told to reduce Riley being "less Gay" in the recent Inside Out sequel, the initially cut kiss from Lightyear that was put back in that lasts less then 2 seconds and a whole romance subplot in turning red with Mei Lei and Miriam that was brought up shortly after that films release 2 years ago. It really does suck that Disney does this and then will be fine by doing constant "queer baiting" in their live action and animated films and don't see an issue and then when its their studio that is often getting nothing but high praise and even award wins, it feels so belittling that this is a studio that pushed innovation for animation since their inception and are getting forced to scrap things from the massive long running studio that has been struggling in some regards as of late. I do hope that we will get to see this original episode at some point in the future (even as a form of lost media or one that has some completed animation mixed with storyboards and animation still be made at the time) cause I feel that it needs to be told and give some insightful conversations to have from it and provide a deeper insight into a part of a world that gets belittled and censored when they are more then that.
But with that rant over, I would like to know your own thoughts on this, do you think it was a good or bad move on Disney for censoring and scrapping the concept and would you watch the original episode concept if it was available and do you think Disney will do more of this and their own Queer Baiting or will they improve and tell these more diverse stories eventually? Let me know what you think down below.
Nolan's film is making an epic high seas tale
Our next story is with an update to a film that for the course of a few weeks back to back, we were getting some new updates when it came to casting for this project that was unknown at the time, but now its time again for more news about it all as we are talking again about Christopher Nolan, but it is not to do with another casting piece but rather, we have an idea now of the new film that he is working on. SO to catch people up to speed, before hand in between talking on the new castings for this film that consist of names like Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong'o and Robert Pattinson and for the time as well it was discussed of 2 concepts that were the rumoured focus of the film with one being a thriller that focused on Helicopter Pilots and the other was a period piece that supposedly consisted on vampires, but it has now been cleared up that it will be going in the more period piece type story, but not about the undead and more of something from a longer time in the past as on Monday this week, it was announced by Universal that Christopher Nolan's new film is an adaptation and first blockbuster take on the famous Greek tale of The Odyssey. So for those uninitiated, The Odyssey was a series written by Homer (no not the simpsons character) that is divided up into 24 stories and preceded the book of the Iliad that tells the 10 year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca as he travels home after the trojan war and encounters multiple perils and the deaths of his crewmates along the way with known names like Athena, Posedian and Zeus being major characters that are part of the tale and is one of the most well known and acclaimed stories in history. When I heard about this concept I was intrigued and feel if anyone can bring this epic saga to life in film it would be Nolan and is innovating with this film using new Imax filming tech and has potential to be a big budget epic. Now as of the moment we do not know who is playing what character but in most case the main lead will be taken up by Damon as Odysseus, Hathaway will play his wife Penelope and Holland will probably play his son that sets out to find him but at the moment its anyone's guess and most likely more will join, all I know is I am excited for what Nolan will be making with this epic and we will see how this comes about when it sails into cinemas from July 17th 2026.
But what are your thoughts of this being Nolan's next film and who do you see play each role from this project and who else will join the cast? Let us know in the comments below and we can discuss them there.
A level up and some release date blunders
So the last of the stories for this week is mainly consisting of one concept that often pops up in this section and that mainly comes down to news of new casting or in this case the announcement of some updates to projects in renewals, cancellations and release date changes and announcements and we have a mix of an update to one project and a mix around of some release dates with one being the biggest complaint on the internet the last few hours since writing, but lets get into what ones have been causing some issues and we can discuss on them as they go along.
So first I will mention on the one piece that has seen some sense of good news and that is the confirmation of the recent Amazon Prime series of Secret Level has been confirmed to be renewed for a 2nd season which I think is a good outcome as I did like the series they brought out (even if some episodes I felt could've had more substance or structure like the Mega Man episode was over before it even begun) but I feel with covering so many different game series and characters that it has some potential that I hope we see some more familiar stories like Halo, Monster Hunter, Jak and Daxter and even give a few Nintendo titles some presence. As of now there is no release date but I will say either a late 2025 or 2026 at the earliest for this next season and hopefully will provide more substance and entertainment with the episodes and some continuing stories that a few felt they were building to.
As for the release date changes portion of the story, all of them will be coming from one studio and that is with the company of Warner Bros with the first of the date changes is not with a delay to 2 different dates but rather it is a release date switch around for 2 upcoming titles from the first half of 2025 as it was announced that Ryan Coggler's film of Sinner and Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17 will be swapping release dates with Mickey 17 releasing on March 7th and Sinners now debuting on April 18th. So for the likes of these 2 projects, these have been some hotly anticipated releases and it was a case it has been a bit of a journey for Mickey 17 as the film was already supposed to release back in March of this year before it got a massive delay due to some supposed studio interference that hopefully the director has stood his ground and releases his full vision (and was even seen as a possible award season film), hopefully these changes will benefit both films and get some strong reception and box office and I will be giving these a watch when they make their way to cinemas.
The 3rd release date change or announcement is with a film that has no title or plot concept as of yet but we have a date for the new film from Birdman and Revenant director Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Tom Cruise that will now be released on October 2nd 2026 which could bring some interesting appeal and outcome of whatever this project is set out to be. And if you are thinking there was already a Warner Bros film releasing on that date and a big one, you were right and where the biggest complaints and discourse has come from,
cause the biggest news to come from these changes is that unfortunately, The Batman Part II with Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader has been delayed again by another year and is now expected for release on October 1st 2027, making it 5 years after the first films release for this to come out. It also was mentioned that the planned Batman film for the DCU of The Brave and the Bold was also delayed but given no specific time frame. This has caused a lot of complaints and many turned to Gunn who did give a clear answer that it was due to the films script not being ready or given a first draft of yet as well as him presumably working on a few more projects for this universe (like a previously mentioned season 2 to the acclaimed Penguin series) or taking about 2 years of production to be made. Now do I see this staying in its release date as it is now, maybe but I also see it get an earlier release date within that year, maybe for a spring release or in a time frame that's more quiet as Oct of that year is a busy one for Warner, but we will have to see. While I am annoyed by its delayed (as well as a few others and important people have expressed as well) there is still a case I trust Matt Reeves to tell another captivating story and release another top tier film like the original and other films before it and hopefully will be out sooner rather then later.
But with all of that, I like to know your thoughts on this renewal and changes around of release dates and do you see any of them get an earlier release date or be delayed further? Let me know what you think down below.
And with all of that, that wraps up episode 96 of Weird Mind News Room and the last of the episodes for 2024 and I do hope you enjoyed the discussions of this episodes and the blog throughout the year who have went along on the journey with me. Let me know your thoughts on this weeks episode down below and discuss it all there and as always I hope you all stay being wonderful people, have a great day everyday, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy new year and I like to thank you all for joining me on this year of discussions that even if the community is small right now, I could not wish for a better group and I shall see you all with the next episode in 2025 :).
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