By George Robbins
The Star Wars universe is easily one of the most expansive universes currently in the modern media medium with almost no equal, save for the comic book universes out there right now. Those comic book universes easily allow for stories to go from the pages of those books to the big screen in a way that has not really been seen before these past few years. So with that in mind, just how is it that any other type of universe can be made where these types of things are just as easy to make. George Lucas created a movie that was hopeful for the time period it was made in and it changed the way the science fiction genre did things from that point on. The first ‘Star Wars‘ movie changed things when it came to the idea of space epics being told in the movie medium.
It definitely wasn’t the first instance of a popular space epic, but it popularized it a bit more and made it possible for it to become more popular in the medium. Therefore, we ended ups with something no one had ever had the pleasure of seeing before and a new expansive universe was formed as a direct result. The Star Wars universe began the same way that any franchise essentially begins and that led to the following films which would be known as the original trilogy. From that moment forward, there were fans of the universe putting forth their own literature based upon that universe. Much of that literature, for a time, was considered to be a part of the ever-expanding universe that we now knew as the Star Wars universe.
What followed would eventually be a let-down to a lot of the original fans, but it became a start for a new generation of fans when the prequel trilogy released. With George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, the original trilogy was given a proper timeline and the whole universe’s mainline story was defined by episodic numbers. Many fans instantly became curious to see more content related to the universe as more and more canon fan-content released to the public. At least, people weren’t sure if it was canon or not and so they latched onto everything they possible could. What followed with Disney acquiring Lucasfilm is that every piece of content released by fans over the years that people loved was immediately made non-canon. Only certain released content actually maintained its place as canon content for the universe and people were not sure of what to make of everything that was going on.
Even though a lot of beloved fan content was made non-canon, there were still many a fan who liked the fact that Disney took over since they felt Lucas was not doing right by the brand he created. As a result, people were not too sad to see someone else handling the license, so long as it leaned back towards what people loved about the original films. That seemed to be the direction taken with the first film in the sequel trilogy put out by Disney, ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ Among the sequel trilogy, it was the highest rated film they put out, but the direction the following two movies took made people feel overall disappointed by what was happening. As a result, people began wondering what things would have been like if George Lucas would have been the one to direct the new trilogy.
Lucas, not being one to just give up something without putting in his own thoughts and views, decided to let it be known how he would have done things in the new trilogy. His answer is that he decided that he wanted Darth Maul to be the overall villain of the sequel trilogy. Darth Maul was a villain that many people who have only seen the films don’t know too much about after his defeat in the prequel trilogy. After all, it turns out that in various pieces of canon content that he became something of an underworld criminal that really only looked out for himself. Bringing that very idea to the table, Lucas wanted to have Maul be an underground criminal war lord and be the one responsible for whatever may have happened in his version of the sequel trilogy. While this would have been a huge departure from the overall outline of the new trilogy, it probably would have been a welcome on if done correctly. We will never really get to see this idea come to fruition, but it is definitely a good what-if scenario to think about.
By George Robbins
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, better known to most as the MCU, has become an integral part of society these days as the films define what superheroes are in the current medium. It is because of the MCU that we even have other superhero movies today that are as good as they are because this is something that is much more new. Superhero movies themselves are nothing new to the film industry, but the way that heroes end up being represented on screen has changed as time has gone on. The presence of not just the hero, but also excellently well told stories are what make the movies what they are. On top of that we also have the very well done narrative weaving where numerous movies with self-contained plots can be brought together to make a larger scaled narrative. The MCU gave that too us and it will continue to give that to us, hopefully for a long time to come.
Starting with the ‘Iron Man‘ movie, we were given something that we immediately knew had potential and were told that there would be more films like it to follow. From there, it was clear that we would continue to get more and more movies which could attract the general public’s attention and not just comic book fans because the films were just that entertaining. Every movie that followed made it clear that this was not a trend which would end as time went on and we got more films to add to the roster of films we collectively started calling the MCU. Every single film had pieces that crossed over into other films in some way and this made it painfully obvious that everything took place in the same shared cinematic universe. Then, the first ‘Avengers’ movie rolled around and truly gave us the start of a saga which would span the total of over a decade.
After the first ‘Avengers’ movie released, we started getting more characters added to the shared universe which led to more characters being introduced to the general public. Among those characters is a certain group known as the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ who managed to make it onto a movie theater screen thanks to the help of director James Gunn. While definitely not as well known as the characters that had been seen on screen already, the Guardians quickly became fan favorites due to the fact they are just a ragtag bunch of space mercenaries that do whatever they want. While they don’t generally care about others outside of their group, they have a habit of doing the right thing in the end and it makes them heroes in the end. People were very much happy upon finding out that the movie would actually get a sequel aptly called ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.’
Now that the Infinity Saga is over, we are looking to the future for the next ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ film that we all knew was coming because it was announced so long ago. People were worried for a long time as to what would end up happening with the third film after director James Gunn was temporarily fired and the actors all refused to work without him. Fortunately, he was quickly hired back to direct the upcoming third film in the Guardians series, but the damage was already done and the delays were already made. Not that delays really matter now though due to the pandemic, but for the time, it was seriously just an unfortunate turn of events for everybody. Gunn revealed that he now has the complete script for the movie though, so we can look forward to news somewhat soon about when they will start working in earnest and when the movie will be released.
By George Robbins
There are now plenty of superhero movie that exist in the world thanks to the combined efforts of both the MCU and the DC Extended Universe, or DCEU. Without either of those two shared universes, the way that superhero movies play out would be far different than what we know of them today. There is a sort of formula that is followed by superhero movies as a whole and there isn’t much that can be done to change that fact as this formula has pretty much been cemented at this point. Every single superhero movie has a somewhat similar plot to the previous ones at this point so most of what we go to see when we see hero films revolves around the acting seen on screen in the film. This isn’t exactly the case when we talk about the Vin Diesel led superhero movie ‘Bloodshot.’
The character of ‘Bloodshot’ is sort of unique compared to other hero films which have been released over the past few years. Unlike the other films to release within recent memory, Bloodshot as a character does not belong in the category of being either a DCEU or MCU film and stands on its own. As a character, Bloodshot still comes from a comic book universe, it is just that we can’t really lump all comic book superheroes together on screen. Each character belongs to their respective comic book company and there isn’t really much else that defines that company other than Bloodshot. With that in mind, the comic book company responsible for ‘Bloodshot,’ Valiant, is responsible for producing countless comic book characters over the years that comic fans have loved. Even to this day, Valiant continues going strong knowing that they have created characters that the mainstream audience might not immediately enjoy, but there are plenty of people out there who do enjoy them.
The character of ‘Bloodshot’ is one of their more recognizable characters in their repertoire and they wanted to make a movie that would end up bringing that character to the general public. This wasn’t the first time a non-mainstream comic book character was given the limelight in a film as ‘Spawn’ is another strong example. There is certainly love for these characters but there may not be enough to warrant movies being made about them because they won’t end up making all that much money in the end. No one knew what to expect when they saw that ‘Bloodshot’ was being made into a movie and thus people sat back and watched even after the movie released to see if there would be crowds going to see it. As it turns out, not many people outside of the comic book sphere of influence really know the character all that much and therefore the movie bombed once it hit theaters.
There was not a single bit of help in the fact that the pandemic began not long after the movie released in theaters which meant theaters had to shut down. After theaters shut down, no new movies could release to theaters and the ones that were already out could not stay in theaters since their doors were shut to the public. Therefore, any movies that were already in theaters immediately, within a couple of weeks, ended up going to digital release, including the newly released ‘Bloodshot.’ The movie was already not doing so well while it was in theaters and things most certainly did not get any better after it was released digitally. The movie only brought in about $37 million at the box office which ended up being below budget and the movie received mixed reviews all-around. All-in-all the movie ended up being a flop in pretty much every sense, but they still plan on making a sequel apparently.
So if the movie proved to be a flop, why then would they go and try to make a sequel that could, and most likely will, end up being a flop in the end? The answer lies in the movie’s move over to the on-demand digital platform after theaters shut down as it apparently did fairly well after the transition. After it was released onto Amazon Prime, it quickly became the most-watched video on Prime over its first three days of release which is not something to take lightly. Given that so many other films were forced to release after the pandemic began, ‘Bloodshot’ taking the top spot most certainly shows that there was something about the movie people liked and the studio took notice. DMG founder and CEO Dan Mintz has recently admitted that there were plans in place to bring back Vin Diesel and make him into the Valiant comics super-soldier once again. So we will apparently be getting another film about the character, so let’s see if it does better than the first film.
By George Robbins
Plenty of movie productions had been pushed back or halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic and it took a while for them to get back on track. When the pandemic first began, there was really nothing that could be done by the production crews but wait for new health and safety guidelines before they could get back to working on their projects. Unfortunately, members of those crews had to be temporarily let go until they could get those productions back up and running again. Of course, even when productions did start back up again, crews had to be reduced in overall size to be able to follow the new guidelines. Therefore, this situation is just terrible all the way around and it is no surprise that it quickly became difficult for productions to do everything they needed to in one shot to get things done.
Fortunately, there are plenty of movie productions that have managed to make things work, even if it has become more difficult than anyone initially anticipated. The thing about the new production guidelines is that people on a set working on a film aren’t really allowed to stray far from the set while there is a production going on. This is done all in the name of safety as this ensures that people will avoid contact with those who may have actually contracted the virus. Due to the long incubation period of the virus, it doesn’t take long for things to go sideways once someone contracts the virus. Crew members could spread the virus before they even realize that they have the virus and therefore the entire crew could become infected. By shutting down access to everything off set, the chances of getting infected goes down tremendously.
That being said, there is no perfect way of quarantining people to the set and keeping them from interacting with others. When that inevitably ends up happening, people can get infected just like what happened last month on the set of ‘Jurassic World 3.’ Unfortunately for those on set, someone from the crew ended up testing positive for the virus which ended up shutting down their production yet again. Luckily, but surely annoyingly for the crew, the movie was only a few weeks from being finished filming when everything was shut down. This meant that there was a two-week delay for the production crew right at the end of their filming for the movie, but it ended up being fine in the end anyways. They just finished filming for the movie and director Colin Trevorrow has said that he is actually glad for the safety protocols that have been put in place.
Trevorrow has said that those protocols have managed to keep the vast majority of them safe for a while and it kept them all close-knit on set which brought them together emotionally. This means that it was bound to make the work better in the end and he personally feels that the finished product was affected in a good way because of it. With everyone on set effectively on the same wavelength, this meant that everyone was able to understand what people were going through. So with this, we should expect the film to be relatively well put together given how much work was being done on this film. Even while the movie was in its initial shut down phase from when the pandemic first began, we know that work was being done on the production which very few productions were capable of doing given the situation.
Luckily for ‘Jurassic World: Dominion,’ the movie has a fair bit of CGI involved with it which meant that there was plenty of work to be done at home when the pandemic first began. In a another stroke of good luck for that production, they had already filmed a fair number of scenes involving the dinosaurs seen in the film which meant that they wouldn’t be slowed down by having to work from home. They were able to do all of the necessary CGI work involved with the scenes they shot and then when they were given the greenlight to get back to work, that is just what they did. They continued shooting the way that they normally would and have even just managed to finish up their filming. Now they begin the lengthy process of post-production editing and waiting for the film’s eventual release along with the rest of the films that are awaiting release.
One of the films that now stands among the crowd of films awaiting a theatrical release is the third and final entry to the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them‘ trilogy. This entry was one that was awaited for ever since they first revealed the fact that it was going to be made in the first place. Although a lot of people are now upset with author J.K. Rowling now due to things she has said recently, there are plenty of fans who still love her work. Despite how many may feel about the individual responsible for these works, the works themselves have plenty of fans that we have yet to give up on any upcoming content. Therefore, it is still a pretty big deal now that the third film is going to be coming out in the near future as there was almost no new information in regards to the film within recent memory. The overall plot is pretty much just a carry-over from the last film but there has really been no new information about the film.
‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ was among the productions that was shut down before they even really had a chance to begin when this pandemic first began. For the longest time, they weren’t really able to get back to work because, like with so many other productions, they had to wait and see how things turned out with the new filming guidelines. The result of which was that they were eventually given the chance to resume filming around June when the U.K. decided to allow the continuation of movie productions. While many films immediately got back to work, a lot of the blockbusters that were being worked on instead chose to hold off on getting back to work so soon. The chief reasons for waiting so long to get started again were due to the fact that it is difficult for such huge productions to get all of their required crew and equipment back in place in a proper amount of time.
Needless to say, things were not as simple for them as just picking up the cameras and starting to film once again as they had a lot of set-up required to get back to work properly. As such, it took a little longer for them to finally get back to work and a couple of months after getting the greenlight, they officially resumed filming. With this going for them, it seemed like they would actually manage to make their 2021 release date, if everything else with theaters is going well by then. Unfortunately, good things just don’t seem like they are to last because now, those plans have almost been completely derailed. As many may well know by this point, Johnny Depp, known for playing villain Grindelwald in the movies, has been let go from the production and Warner Bros. is now searching for a replacement actor. This has only further created trouble for the movie and it seems like the release date is once again not set in stone.
With Johnny Depp’s departure from the movie, the studio needs someone new to fill the role that has been left empty since they very well can’t just abandon the character. Grindelwald has been set up to be the main villain character for this trilogy which means that he will be an integral part of the movie. This means that nothing can really be done in the movie without the character, so WB is putting their best foot forward to try and find an actor who will be able to take over for the character. Obviously, it will not be the same as it would be if Johnny Depp maintained the role, but there isn’t really anything that can be done at this point. With WB having to find a replacement actor to fit the role, the movie has yet again had to be pushed back to accommodate for the new production delay. Therefore, the movie is now set for an early July 2022 release date which hopefully won’t need to be changed yet again.
By George Robbins
The film industry has faced many an issue as of late and things don’t seem like they will necessarily be getting better any time in the near future. The same thing can be said about pretty much every other industry out there right now and there is not much that can be done about any of it because it pertains especially to the pandemic as a whole. This pandemic is easily responsible for many businesses being shut down to some degree that is entirely uncontrollable due to the new health and safety guidelines in place for the general public. These guidelines can best be explained as ways for the government to keep people from spreading disease as there really isn’t any other reason for them to exist. With that being said, there is a lot going on in numerous industries and especially the film industry which is shut down in some ways but not in others.
Within the film industry are the countless issues that come along with the pandemic and chiefly among those has been the fact that theaters have been shut down. Movie theaters are the main source of income for movie studios who are putting their movies out for the public to watch and without them, they are kind of limited on how they can release films. In particular, they have had to release their movies to digital to make up for the fact that theaters have pretty much been shut down as of late. Even if theaters were open, they wouldn’t be able to do anything because they weren’t able to bring customers in due to fear from the pandemic. On top of this, not every studio is going with the digital release method as they would rather wait out the pandemic and see how things are going later on.
If later on, movie theaters are actually able to open again and the pandemic isn’t as bad as it is now, then movie studios could try to release their films again. In the meantime, however, there isn’t much that can be done so most films are simply on hiatus until further notice. So if they can’t release any movies, then they are just building up a roster of releasable movies at this point that they can play once things calm down. Movie productions managed to start back up again a few months after the initial wave of the pandemic hit and as a result, a few of them have already managed to finish filming. This inevitably just keeps adding them to the list of films that need to release at some point and that list just keeps getting longer. Of course this can end up working out for the studios as this means they have more time to work on marketing and ensuring there are no issues upon release.
All-in-all, the situation is still pretty annoying for everyone involved and even those who aren’t as the everyday consumer can attest. Therefore, it is pretty easy to see at this point that people are willing to find ways of doing things outside of what would be considered the norm at this point. Despite the ever-changing world that we currently reside in, there are plenty of things which we can sort of rejoice in being the same. Chief among those things is the fact that sequels to old movies are more and more common nowadays than ever before. While those sequels cannot necessarily release to the public any time soon due to the whole theater situation, we will get to see them eventually. This, of course, leads to more people being excited about those films in the long run. Included in those films that we won’t see for a while yet is the sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ that so many people have been looking forward to.
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is the much-looked forward to movie that fans of the original ‘Top Gun‘ have been waiting for and it has become host to a series of unfortunate events just like every other movie right now. Like most other movies right now, the movie is awaiting a time frame where it can be properly released to the public and that is still a ways off. Originally, the movie was meant to release over the summer like many other blockbusters this year, but that was inevitably pushed back to late this year. Now obviously, we are into the late part of this year and the movie is now nowhere to be seen as it has yet again been pushed back into the summer of 2021. This means that it has officially been pushed back by over a year which was something that we anticipated but were hopeful that it wouldn’t end up coming down to this in the end.
The movie ended up being pushed back as the movie theater industry started failing due to the various issues it is now facing as well as the fact they haven’t been able to bring in a steady stream of revenue. Thus, summer 2021 is a fair bit of distance that the studio is giving itself so that things can hopefully calm down a bit between now and then. Even if the pandemic is not wrangled in by then, they are at least hoping that there is enough thought going into handling the pandemic as possible so that people won’t be as worried about going to theaters. The pandemic ending or new ideas put out for people to go to theaters are the only two ways we will see this movies, as well as other, eventually hitting theaters. Of course, people want to see this movie as soon as they can because it sees Tom Cruise reprising his role as one of his most iconic characters. On top of this, people want to see just what it is that Tom Cruise can pull off with this upcoming sequel.
As most people are well aware of now, Tom Cruise is insane when it comes to the movies that he stars in because he is known for doing his own stunts. Cruise is almost always trying to top his previous stunts from his other films and has most notably tried to do so a number of times with the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films. Just recently, his ‘Mission Impossible 7’ co-star, Simon Pegg admitted that the stunts that he pulls off scare those on set due to the danger he puts himself in whenever he does them. Not only has he managed to scare co-stars because of the danger of his stunts, but he also doesn’t always come out of those stunts unscathed, making the worry from co-stars warranted. Now, he seems to be going even harder on his stunts and is more than willing to do anything to try and outdo himself in some way, shape, or form. This even includes goin to actual outer space to make a movie instead of just simulating space on a set which is a completely unheard of feat.
Despite the fact that he is literally going to outer space in the near future to make a film, Tom Cruise can still be excited to work on his projects on Earth. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ just so happens to be one of those projects that he can work on and get excited for even when it is just a sequel for a very old film. It also helps that the movie literally involved him having to be inside of an actual jet flying at extremely high speed which an adrenaline junkie would love. Thus, it isn’t too unreasonable that he would be excited to work on a film like this once again at a time in his life where he is now used to that sort of thing and enjoys it a lot. Hopefully, we can see that joy on the big screen during the summer next year. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that we will get to see the film around then, but we can most certainly hope that this is the case.
By George Robbins
Disney is by far one of the largest entertainment companies to exist in the modern world and there are plenty of projects that they have being worked on. Among those projects are countless productions that have to do with the various shows and movies that they are currently working on and producing for the public. A lot of those productions have to do with the various franchises they have a hold of involving things such as Star Wars or any Marvel productions which most certainly hold the most responsibility when it comes to holding people’s attention. This has allowed them to amass even more of a hold on people over the years as they now have a little bit of something for everyone. One of their other biggest ventures as of late is the remaking of various classic animated films.
The Disney company has made it a habit as of late to try and get as many people as possible to experience nostalgia in an effort to make more money. Starting at about the beginning of the 2010’s, they started remaking a lot of their classic animated movies in a live-action format to bring people to theaters. For the most part, they have managed to be relatively successful when it comes to getting people excited about the upcoming remakes and a majority of their remakes have been a success. It is because of this that they are still rolling out new remakes as time goes on, especially after everything with the recent ‘Mulan‘ remake. While the movie had its issues, and it wasn’t a true remake of the original animation, it has managed to do well for the company as a whole.
With everything in mind with regards to how well their live-action retellings of animated classics are, they have started working in earnest with the movie ‘Cruella.’ For those unaware, this is the villainess of the ‘101 Dalmatians’ movie and this upcoming movie is meant to be the remake for that film. It is highly likely the movie won’t be an exact remake and instead will be based upon it instead with a lot of similarities to the original film. That being said, apparently there is a lot of money going into this upcoming live-action film so it will certainly be interesting to see how things turn out. There will apparently be some very high-fashion scenes going into the film, which is fitting for the story, but there is no telling how it will play out in the film. We will just have to wait and see how things turn out in the end upon the movie’s release.
Get Some Strange!
