By George Robbins
The story of Pinocchio is a classic one that many people the world over have heard of and know the story of. Originally, he is the main and titular character of ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio‘ which was a children’s novel written by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. They follow Pinocchio as he goes on his journey of discovery and tries his best to become a real boy instead of remaining as a puppet. One of his most distinguishing features as a character is his constant lying and the fact that when he does lie, his nose grows in size. This characteristic is one that is carried through all forms of media that depict the character, but there is still much that is not adapted as well.
Pinocchio’s story begins when a woodcarver Geppetto makes him in his workshop and he is then miraculously granted life. This ends up making Geppetto the ‘father’ of Pinocchio and he cares for him like he was his own son. In the original novel, he carved him from a block of talking wood given to him by a carpenter. Even before he was finished being sculpted, Pinocchio had a penchant for causing trouble, even kicking Geppetto as his feet were being made. He was then indirectly responsible for causing Geppetto much trouble and getting him locked away in jail for a short period of time. Nonetheless, Geppetto continued to care for him and did everything he could to care for the young puppet.
It is through Geppetto’s interactions with Pinocchio that the young puppet finally found his way in the world and started becoming a better person. In the end of the novel, Pinocchio cares for Geppetto while he is ailing after they both escape near death and his eventual reward for becoming a good person is that he becomes a real boy. In the Disney adaptation, called ‘Pinocchio,’ that everyone knows and loves, Geppetto makes Pinocchio in his shop and wishes upon a falling star that his puppet will be given life. Geppetto then sends him to school and when Pinocchio goes missing, he goes searching for him and is then swallowed by the giant whale, Monstro. After the encounter with Monstro, Pinocchio falls limp with no life remaining. In return for his bravery for saving his ‘father’s’ life, he is revived by the Blue Fairy who also makes him a real boy.
As of late, Disney has been making live-action adaptations of all of their old animated films and this seems to be a trend that will not end until all of them are remade. As of now, it seems that the next film that will end up being made, or in this case remade, will be ‘Pinocchio’ which will be worked on in the near future. We are not quite sure what the casting choices will be like for this upcoming adaptation of the beloved Disney classic, but we may know at least one casting choice. It seems that Tom Hanks is in very early talks to possibly play the role of Geppetto in the upcoming live-action film. Hopefully this ends up being the case, because he definitely seems to be an actor that could fit well into the role given to him.
By George Robbins
The DC Extended Universe is one that has managed to cement itself since it first came about when ‘Man of Steel‘ released in 2013. It has since become host to a number of different films that all share the same universe. This was Warner Bros. response to the existence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, since they wanted to do something similar with the hero properties that they had the rights to. The creation of the DCEU is one that is met with relatively mixed reception as, according to fans, it seems like there is a lot of studio interference with the films. The films that have had the least interference are often recognized immediately by some because they are the ones that have done the best. There are not really a lot of films in the DCEU currently, but it is still a universe that has managed to keep itself relevant.
One of the most unfortunate cases of studio interference was involved in the creation of the ‘Suicide Squad’ movie. As of late, director David Ayer has taken to social media in an attempt to get fans to convince Warner Bros. to let him put together a director’s cut of his ‘Suicide Squad’ movie. This was done after it seemed like fans petitioning the studio allowed Zack Snyder to put out his own version of the ‘Justice League’ movie. Snyder was only forced to leave that project originally when tragedy struck his family and Joss Whedon was chosen by the studio to replace him as director. It was at this point that they decided to do reshoots for film and this is why Snyder is now going to be getting his version of the film put out there.
Now that this announcement was made public a couple of months back, Ayer is trying his best to get his cut of ‘Suicide Squad’ out in the world. He even went so far as to say that he has everything he needs and only some VFX is left and it will be completed and ready for distribution. As we have since found out, Warner Bros. was trying to copy the success of the recently released ‘Deadpool‘ at the time. For this reason, they had Ayer do reshoots to try and make the movie a bit more light-hearted, but all this did was muddle the tone of the movie and ruin any kind of set-up that the director had prepared for the film. In Ayer’s version, the movie is much darker in tone and is more serious with a lot more character development and backstory.
Even though we are unsure if we will ever get a director’s cut for ‘Suicide Squad,’ we do know that we will be getting a new movie titled ‘The Suicide Squad.’ As a joke, director James Gunn proposed that the studio go with this title rather than any kind of numbered title since it is supposed to be a soft reboot for the characters. In a somewhat surprising twist, they actually went with the title so now we will be getting ‘The Suicide Squad’ some time next year. According to Gunn, a first-look teaser will be dropping some time later this month. This will give us a pretty good idea as to what kind of movie it will end up being, so fingers crossed it is something better than the last one.
By George Robbins
The ‘Harry Potter‘ franchise is one that very quickly caught on and became a worldwide phenomenon that persists to this day. The series has always been one that has drawn people in because it has a mix of everything people like in the fantasy genre. This has resulted in people the world over taking countless forms of inspiration from the films and novels. What came to be as a result was the birth of an entire generation that took strong influences from the stories and did something with them. Most recently, in fact, the protests happening in Thailand have had some interesting themes and results.
As of now, there are a large number of people in Thailand who are protesting the government because they are unhappy with the monarchy. The kingdom of Thailand is ruled by a coalition of parties that are endorsed by the military who launched a coup in 2014 that overthrew the democratically-elected government. This essentially turned the country of Thailand into a military state where civilians are constantly under the watchful eye of the new government. People in the country are no longer allowed to speak their minds as this has essentially become an illegal act against the government. King Maha Vajiralongkorn has even made it illegal for anyone to speak ill of him or the royal family, including criticism.
As with much of the rest of the world, the citizens of Thailand have recently taken to protesting against this regime and the king himself. No one would willingly go along with the rules that are in place, so then why should they sit around while not doing anything. This is the thinking behind what they are doing, for the most part, but also they are tired of the tyranny they now see in their daily lives. Within the recent months, protests have sprung up all over the country to try and make a difference the same way other protests have been trying to do the same thing. Thus, a group of university students took a little bit of inspiration from the ‘Harry Potter’ series.
Very recently a group of students from two universities in the Thai capital of Bangkok has taken to the streets to protest the government dressed in Harry Potter costumes. Not only are they wearing costumes, but they are carrying around signs with Voldemort’s face on it in order to suggest that the king is the same as the villain in the series. Even more than that, they started referring to him as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” in reference to the laws that he made that keep people from talking ill of him. They are doing this in a bid for the monarchy to dissolve the new government and establish a proper democracy once again, taking from the themes of the franchise. It is clear that they are taking the strongest lessons offered by the ‘Harry Potter’ stories and trying to make them a reality.
By George Robbins
Ever since the world was forced to go into lockdown back in March, people have been doing their best to try and find things to do that will keep them busy. For the most part people have managed to do just that and they have found ways of keeping themselves busy until they were able to leave the house. That being said, even though people can now leave the house to some degree, there is still not much for them to do since everything is limited capacity. With this fact in mind, people still mostly prefer to stay home rather than go out of the house. I’m certain that this will probably continue to be an issue for the foreseeable future.
Even though there are limitations in place, people are still finding ways to keep themselves busy at home with little in the way of entertainment. Companies are all too happy to help them as well because it means that they can still peddle their wares to people and more than likely, those people will buy them. This has made it possible for some entertainment companies to keep themselves afloat while they are, in essence, shut down to the general public. One example is Universal who have managed to make some money where they might have lost it by releasing some of their films straight to digital, forgoing any theatrical release. This decision of their’s was made after they saw this was a perfect chance to check out if this system would work.
Universal then managed to get themselves into trouble with AMC by saying they planned to do this with all of their films from this point forward. Until recently, AMC has said that they would no longer show Universal films in their theaters. However, an agreement was made recently where, after a period of only 17 days after a theatrical release, Universal would be allowed to put their movies out digitally. In an unprecedented move, they then offered this deal to many other studios including Disney. This works out very well for companies like Disney that have their own streaming services. With Disney+, they would stand to gain a lot by releasing their films so soon after release because they would get the surge of money from the first couple of weekends from theaters and then they could sell the movies on their service.
This deal could be seen as a major win for Disney because they can sell the newly released movies on their service like they are going to do with ‘Mulan.’ In doing this, they can then say that it is so that people can see the movie long before it becomes free on the service. This could end up making them a fortune because they have so many people now using their streaming service. They just recently reached an incredible 60.5 million paid subscriber mark for their service, which is way over what they thought they would have by this point. They launched in November of last year and have since exploded into a service that has many people paying for it every month which gives them a bit more leeway for whatever they choose to do moving forward.
By George Robbins
Theatrical movie releases have been nothing other than plagued ever since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Every time a company plans a release date for a film, they have almost no choice but to end up pushing it back, or in some cases they are forced to go straight to digital. This pandemic is very fluid and any day, the number of new cases can rise exponentially which ends up creating even more restrictions. With these restrictions in place less and less people are allowed to leave their homes to go out and do things. If people cannot go outside, then businesses like movie theaters that rely on capacity to make any earnings will get nothing.
If theaters don’t have much of an incentive to open their doors, then they simply won’t and this is how we have gone so long with theaters staying shut down. However, it seems that AMC is intent on opening in mid-August regardless of whether any new movies release or not. The only thing that they will be able to do is play older movies like other theaters have been doing. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee as to whether this will work out or not due to how few theaters have been reopened since the beginning of the pandemic. This gives us very little to look at in terms of whether this will work out or not, but they are going to be trying their best anyway.
With theaters mostly shut down and a large majority still going to remain shut down for the foreseeable future, companies are not very forthcoming with information on release dates. They are constantly trying to decide when they should actually release their films or if they should just make them available digitally. Companies have been forced to look at whether their films are cost effective enough for them to keep delaying them or not. In the case of ‘Tenet,’ Warner Bros. has decided to delay the film indefinitely domestically, but they will be releasing it in 70 other countries. This comes after the decision that the climate around the pandemic in the U.S. is just too volatile for them to try and have any kind of full theatrical release. Other companies are continuing to simply push back their release dates as time goes on.
Even though many companies are pushing back release dates, as previously stated, if they are not cost effective then a new plan must be drawn up. If a movie is just simply not worth the time and money to have it release at some later undetermined date, then it will just end up being released digitally. Disney seems to have decided that it is not worth waiting to release their new live-action version of the movie ‘Mulan’ anymore as it has been delayed since March already. They will be making it available to watch on Disney+ for $29.99 starting on Friday, September 4th and plans to release it theatrically on the same day in select markets where Disney+ isn’t available and/or movie theaters are open for business. This is just simply the better business option for them at this point in terms of cost effectiveness.
By George Robbins
There has been much talk ever since the announcement last year that Disney had acquired 21st Century Fox after winning a bidding war with Comcast. Much of the talk involves the properties that Disney now controls which is a large number of IP’s that they have been trying to get for years. Among those intellectual properties is the ‘X-Men‘ franchise which has brought in fans for years but it has also been stagnating. After their release of the first film, they were definitely standing on top because they did it pretty well. What followed after that is nothing but a series of hits and misses that fans were worried they would end up making and it essentially killed the franchise. Though now that Disney owns the property, all sorts of different things can be done moving forward.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, often referred to as the MCU, is a cultural phenomenon that had not been done with so much success before. The MCU was started by Marvel Studios before they had been officially acquired by Disney and they have been able to continue without issue ever since. Without any real interference from their parent company they have managed to make films that will last throughout the ages and people will always love to go back and watch them as time goes on. This is something that not every franchise is capable of saying they have managed to do. With this in mind they are continuing to put out new movies, when they are able to, and they will probably be just as high quality as the other films.
Many MCU fans and comic book fans in general were happy to hear that Disney acquired 21st Century Fox due to the knowledge that it comes with. That would be the knowledge that the MCU now has a very strong chance of having the X-Men appear in the MCU in some fashion sometime in the future. If we are going to see them in the MCU, it will not be the same portrayals by the same actors we have seen in the past as this new adaptation of the characters will be a reboot. There is currently a theory in place that if the upcoming ‘New Mutants’ movie does well, then that may just be the jumping in point for where they could introduce the characters. There is no telling whether this theory is actually true but it would kind of make sense since the film is standalone, meaning that if it does well they can start from there and if it does bad they can simply call it a one-off.
Many fans are excited to see this iteration of the X-Men come to fruition but many feel that it might be too soon off of the heels of the previous films for anything to be done yet. This is why it is probably still a ways off especially since they don’t even have any writers currently working on the film. When they do, they are going to be putting their best writers forward so that their introduction goes smoothly. David Hayter, the screenwriter for 2000’s X-Men, has said that they will probably not hire him for this job working on the reboots, though he is very much open to the idea of it. Hopefully it will not be in the distant future where we will get to see the characters join the beloved universe of characters.
Get Some Strange!
