Weird Mind News Room Episode 114: April 28th - May 4th

 *Music fit for a team of Anti-heroes

Hello again to each and every single one of you wonderful peoples found online with the information superhighway to another new addition of the weekly series of Weird Mind News Room where this week we have a selection of some new releases, some trailers in the focus of variety and a news story or 2 in focus to talk on, but lets not waste all the focus on the introductions and let us get to talking on all things media that has shown for this week.

We are the New Releases*

Movies

Thunderbolts*

On the first of the 2 new releases that we do have for this week is with a return to the vast expanding world of superheroes and characters from the wider universes with the focus of this next entry bringing the continuing narrative of the MCU with this focus that in the world of Other heroes past and present that in the basis when the worlds Mightiest heroes may not be available, we may have to get some that may not be super, may not be heroes but will have to do the job as we have the end of the 5th Phase of the expanding MCU with the new team up film of The Thunderbolts*. The film will follow a group of antiheroes getting themselves caught in a deadly trap set by Valentina Allegra De Fontaine and are forced into a very dangerous mission that will have them deal with the dark parts of their past and if successful could bring them redemption and be seen as real heroes if they work together as a team, and if they do not try to kill one another in the process. Reception on this new entry has seen a very strong critical reception, with great praise for the redemption and focus of some fan favourite characters, especially from focus leads of Florence Pugh and David Harbour, action scenes, humour and for telling a more mature and deeper story with some respectful focus to themes of mental health and depression and seen as a strong sense of the MCU getting back on track on the way to Doomsday and if you are up for this new rag tag group, you can catch this new film out now in cinemas.

Another Simple Favour

As for the one other new release for this week is with a film that I am sure if it released a couple months ago or about a year ago there would be a bit more of an appeal or fanfare to this project but I feel with the focus of one lead character of this film and their character dynamic in this is a little too close to the reality that is going on in the real world, but in the base when you think you know someone and leads to a ruse, a bamboozle or a lie, you don't expect them to suddenly appear again for one thing but in the basis of this film that is what we get as we have the sequel to the 2018 Paul Feig film of Another Simple Favour. The film will see Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) agreeing to travel to Italy to be the Maid of Honour for the devious and Cunning Emily Nelson (Blake Lively). However, she soon suspects Emily's good will is part of an elaborate plan for Revenge. The reception for this film is a bit mixed but modest at best from the critics, though the audiences are a lot more split on the opinion due to one of the lead performers of the film and the whole ongoing legal issues and drama from another project and for some feeling the film is an unnecessary sequel or lacking the appeal of the original, but if you are morbidly curious, then you can catch this new film out now on Amazon Prime.  

Trailer Team ups that don't always click

The Smashing Machine

On the first of the trailers for this week is an all new project taking the focus of the life and career of a famous name in the industry that paved the way for future careers, with this case with the focus of a famous star in the sports fighting scene and the actor in focus for this is one that you wouldn't expect in this type of genre but could be worth a career defying moment as Dwayne the Rock Johnson is getting back in the ring to tell the life of another fighter with the trailer for the new film of The Smashing Machine. The film will see the Rock play former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr as we experience and see the focus of the peak of his career in the industry, but in the journey of that success with see him face some personal hardships along the way and how he would make a recovery in his relationships, health and career to make him an iconic name for the industry. So I had seen some images and marketing for this film over the last few weeks and the most noticeable thing from all of this is the sudden change and transformation done for the work to make him look like the iconic sport star and I think the weirdest thing to see for me is seeing the Rock with hair again as it has been like 2 decades since that was a thing. But besides all the transformation content, I think from what they have shown that this looks really great and I feel if it works out well, could be a possible awards contender but the jury is still out on that for the moment, but we can make a judgement on that soon enough when the film releases into cinemas from October 3rd. 

Weapons

Now the next trailer is one that technically had some form of a teaser released last week but they were a bit short in terms of length to really give an in-depth appeal and discussion on and to be creeped out by but we can now talk on it this week and wonder if a strange coincidence occoured for one class group with no explanation or understanding as to what happened, how far does the mystery go and how sinister does this become? Well we will find out with this new project as horror auteur Zach Creggar is bringing a new level of horror to a small town with a trailer for his new film of Weapons. The film will tell of a strange mystery that occours in a small community town where one night at exactly 2:17 am, all but one child from the same class suddenly wake up, walk downstairs, walk out the front door and disappear into the night with no explanation and a community is left questioning who or what is behind the disappearance and why is it only with one teachers classroom. So the likes of this with the small ARG marketing that they have started to do for this film already makes me unsettled as I have had a thought of this that if I woke up in the middle of the night and just see children running down the street and disappear into the night, that would freak me out heavily (as despite the likes of my known fear of Blood and gore, the likes of demon children or the ones of the Black eye children creep me the fuck out) and the way they have marketed this trailer is telling us enough but also keeping it very vague is what I love and gives me a bit of vibes to last years Long Legs marketing. I have also heard it apparently connects in some way to his well known original horror hit of Barbarian but how it is is currently unclear as of now but I am sure we will get more of an idea as to how and I look forward to checking this out when the film releases into cinemas from August 8th.

Now you see me, Now you don't

THe last of the trailers for this week will see a lot of the trick of the hand, a lot of illusion, and magic up close and far away and bringing a sense of mystery and using it to bring something powerful in their skills as after a near decade gap, they have brought together the four horsemen once again with the new film that should've been the title of the last entry in the series with a trailer for the upcoming sequel of Now you see me, Now you don't. The film will see the magic group of thieves of the Four Horsemen reunite after separating some time ago and have recruited three new highly-talented illusion magicians and bring them in for a heist for them to steal the largest queen diamond in the world from a family crime syndicate and deal with the consequences through the use of magic. So the likes of this series has been one I have seen as having some array of appeal over the years with an interesting idea of magicians doing heists and I can see the appeal of the original, the sequel having a bit more of a mixed opinion but has its fans and overall there is some appeal in seeing the illusions and methods they use for their magic when doing these crimes and what I can see from this one is that it looks interesting and probably worth a watch and I am sure we may be spellbound or end up tricked but we can see the outcome when the film releases into cinemas from November 14th.

News to make this team work

Superman will fly after all, a Sergeant on a little sabbatical and a Merc teaming some Mutants

Now onto our news for this week, the first of these stories has a selection of stories that focus on some more discussions about the world of the Superhero genre as we have some early discussions or some updates to a few concepts and projects in the works for both sides of Marvel and DC that we can talk about for this week and some has excitement, some have reasons and some bring an appeal to the end of an ordeal but lets get to talking on what exactly they are.

So first is with a story that I actually missed in talking about from last week and it is with an update to a project that had some affect of its release and that of course is with the new film of Superman. So to get people caught up to this ordeal, a couple of weeks ago, the estate that owns the rights to the character had apparently set up a lawsuit towards Warner Bros for the basis of some revenue of royalties not being payed properly to their estate for the use of the character with this mainly seeing an affect to the countries of Ireland, The UK, Australia and Canada which could've affected their release of not getting a chance to be shown in these countries (as well as I believe about false promises of planning to use the character in more projects when he was lacking in appearance which presumably explained a bit of Man of Steel's development). Well we have gotten an update as on Friday last week, it was the announced that the lawsuit has been dismissed and dropped by the courts with it mainly having to do with the lack of International Jurisdiction on the matter. So it seems the case that the likes of this being delayed or not releasing in a few countries have been avoided for the time being (not saying this estate could try this again in the future but it is hard to say) but at least with anything we can now look forward to seeing the new take on the last Son of Krypton later this summer and not have to worry about a new release date wait. 

We do have one bit of DC related news for this week and it is in relation to another project that has been announced recently and in the focus to the news reporting of this week, the outcome on this has been a bit all over the place and that is with the project of a film adaptation of the DC character of Sgt. Rock that was being developed by Challengers and Queer director Luca Guadagnino and presumably now being eyed to be played by Colin Farrell after Daniel Craig dropped out due to some scheduling conflicts (and to clarify as well, this will not affect his role of Oswald Coppelpot in the Matt Reeves Batman universe). Now what has been going on for the last week about this project is a bit all over the place where the initial first news stories about this project was that it was announced the film had been cancelled and shelved at the company and for a brief bit of time, there was no reason or explanation as to why that was. But we did get a proper update and clarification about this now as it is confirmed to not actually be cancelled, but rather it is on hold for the moment for the start of production. The reason on this hold was that they were looking to have this as a summer shoot in the UK to get this filmed and developed and likely case was that the film was probably still not fully developed or written yet or fully casted in the roles that starting this summer is probably a bit too soon. They were offered a chance to film in the Winter but it was not a choice on their end and declined the late 2025 production start with the likely case of this project starting production staring in Spring / Summer 2026 with a release a year or 2 later and they want to release it and start production when it is ready. Now I think personally that makes complete and total sense because if they had just rushed it out, it would end up being a mess or incomplete and in all sense DC can work around this scheduling with them currently wrapping filming on the new Supergirl, as well as starting production in the early Fall for the Clayface film, so a delay on the production makes total sense to do so when the time and place is right for it. It will be interesting to see if this will stick to the planned production or if it will properly be shelved but I guess we will have to wait and see if this sergeant will fight another day.

And lastly for these stories, we now head over to Marvel for this last stories as while we have a selection of films on the way with the new film out this week, Ironheart next month (with very little or no marketing so what is going on with that as well as for the Black Panther series in August), Fantastic 4 in July, some more shows in the fall and winter and them just starting filming on Doomsday this week, it can be said that another early concept project cannot be discussed and this is with everyone's favourite foul mouthed merc of Deadpool as on Friday of this week, there was some news announced that Ryan Reynolds was in the early stages of concepting a new team up film between DP and a few members of the X-Men with the projected number right now at 4. It is unclear if the likes of one of them will be his co-star of Wolverine from his previous outing but I am sure we will learn more as the project develops. It also comes into affect of wondering if this will have some mass appeal or if the likes of Reynolds being connected in the ongoing lawsuit with his wife from one of her previous projects will have an affect to the appeal but we can't really judge on this right now and we are not going to get too deep into it. The idea of him teaming up with other Mutant again would be nice and maybe to give some more screen time to the X-Men they had in the first 2 of his films of colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead but right now we have no clear idea as to who is involved and I am sure we will learn more of this project overtime and once I hear anything I will update in a later episode.

But what do you think of these announcements, are you happy the lawsuit for Superman is over, do you see Sgt Rock releasing and will you watch if it does and are you interested in a Deadpool X-Men team up and which mutants would you want to see team up with him? Let me know your own choices are down below.

Some mechs from a studio are going to be discontinued when there was hope

The 2nd story for this week is bringing a sense of some news that for the last year and a bit has been a common and reoccurring outcome in the industry and in the basis of this outcome for this week has seen an affect of a project that many had hoped we would eventually see the release of and return of a franchise with potential but it seems to be a lost cause now and that is with the ongoing layoff for video game developer studios. We have seen some of the big studios since around mid or late 2023 see a lot of dismissals due to either the likes of cuts, budgets or other means and has hit some companies like Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda, Blizzard and many others (1 or 2 may not be accurate but some big name companies have seen that happen) and the most recent one to have seen some layoffs pop up in the news is of course the company mainly known for their sports titles at this rate of EA. Now what you may not have known is that EA actually does make games besides the usual copy paste sports affair (well what it looks like to me personally) as they have also made some other franchises or titles like the Sims or even some of the big award winning games like It Takes 2, A way out and this years Split Fiction and it is a focus of some of these layoffs that has affected another franchise that seemed interesting at first, had potential with the follow up and many hoped for a sequel and that is with the franchise of Titanfall. Now with the announcement of around 300 staff being laid off it has caused the announced that a tactical shooter based in the world of Titanfall was initially in the works but has now been scrapped which brings a lot of frustration and pain to a lot of gamers that were hoping for a new entry in the series. It is not the first time a follow up for Titanfall has been scrapped or reworked as an initial form of a 3rd game was in the works before it was reworked into the game of Apex: Legends so the teasing of a the series has been a thing for nearly a decade now. It is a shame as I can see the potential of this series to do so well with its unique concept and idea and I do hope the likes of this franchise and project can be reworked and get a follow up it has waited so long for and see so much success and I also hope as well that all of those that have been laid off from there or any other company will bounce back and be back making great games for many more years.

But what do you think of this, are you sad for another attempt at Titanfall not getting a chance to release and do you hope there will be a new entry in the series at some point and would you play it? Let me know what you think of it all down below in the comments. 

A 2nd delay has been made, the trip to Vice city will be rescheduled

Well this last story was kind of expected to appear at some point or another but the industry of gaming is about see a lot of mixed reactions from some breathing a sigh of relief of their game having a chance, to the likes of gamers possibly screaming, crying, throwing up or all different emotions as it happened. On Friday of this week, Rockstar announced that the highly anticipated and long awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 has been delayed out of 2025 and now currently has a planned release date for May 26th 2026 which I guess is to make sure it is to avoid the likes of crunch time, overworking and making sure the development and visuals and everything in between is the best it can be in this day and age and I am all personally fine with the delay. This isn't really new when it comes to Rockstar as the likes of these delays have been a common thing for years now as Red Dead experienced a similar outcome with announced in Oct 2016, projected for a Fall 2017 release and then delayed to Spring the following year before releasing in October 2018 and GTA 5 also had that as well of a delay from March 2013 to Mid September that year so it was likely a case this would also get a delay and there had been rumblings of the delay for a few weeks now since the beginning of the year so it is expected. My thoughts on it are that it doesn't overly bother me and I think giving enough time and dedication to it will make it work and make it the best and biggest thing ever so I am fine on the delay. Do I see it sticking to the new release date.... Maybe, I feel it could get a slight delay or push up by like 2 weeks or so but we will see as more time comes along and I am sure now we can finally get some new look at the game soon enough, but we will watch this space when that time does come.

But I want to know your thoughts on this, are you disappointed in the delay of GTA 6 or do you think it is a perfectly reasonable thing for them to do? Let me know what you think down below.

And with all of that, this is the end of another week of another episode of Weird Mind News Room and I do hope that you enjoyed my ramblings as per usual. Let me know your thoughts on everything 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 :)