November 2015
By Ken Parker
Star Wars is getting a bunch of press lately. I wonder why?
So we have a new trailer and movie posters.
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/s/terminally-ill-star-wars-fan-220300934.html
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| Aren't you a little short for Kylo Ren? |
There have been a couple of ridiculous rumors around Star
Wars of late. The first was that Luke Skywalker is actually the
character Kylo Ren. Nice, except we saw what Kylo Ren looks like
under the mask so...no.Okay, what about Luke actually turned to the Dark Side in the original trilogy? Sure, that would fit into the 5 minutes of what we have seen with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and if you squint really hard you might be able to see how that theory does fit in slightly to The Return of the Jedi. Neat idea? Ah, probably not. This sort of ruins the whole thing for the original trilogy and I think Disney will get too much criticism. The final rumor is more tongue in cheek but many people are taking it more serious than I think the original author intended. The idea that Jar Jar Binks is in reality a Jedi from the Dark side who is just pretending to be a clumsy joke of a character is another attempt to try to make the prequel trilogy better than it is. The idea is amusing and has a couple of good points but ultimately, Nah!
We live in a world of remakes – Several remake projects have
been announced and they could be interesting. The Six Billion
Dollar Man is finally back on the production track with Mark Wahlberg
playing the title character. I have been nervously looking
forward to this remake for what seems like years. Wasn’t Jim
Carrey attached to the project at one point? Hopefully the
movie is not a send up and more serious. The movie is planned
for a December 22, 2017. While there is no Star Wars movie
coming out at that time, there is an Avatar sequel, a new Disney
animated film and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One on the cards
for that month.
A new TV series called The Greatest American Hero is being worked
on for Fox. You may believe it or not, but this is yet another
remake of a TV shows from the 80’s being worked on. The
premise is about a man who is tasked to wear a special costume that
gives him super powers. He must become a hero even though he
doesn’t know how to. The comedy idea was superb due to
chemistry between actors William Katt and Robert Culp. With the
rise of Superhero popularity, will this remake fly well or just
crash?
Speaking of sequels, continuations, remakes and reboots, Ash vs. Evil Dead was all that I hoped. It is definitely along par with the Evil Dead movie franchise and it is the most fun series on TV right now. It is on Starz but it is so worth it. It has already been renewed for a second season.
Star Trek TV series – CBS is working on a new Star Trek TV
series to debut January 2017. Alex Kurtzman (Writer of the
latest Star Trek movie franchise) will executive produce. The
series will not be related to the movie franchise but it is uncertain
if it will or will not take place in the same Universe or if they are
going to attach the story to the original Universe. No other
details are available except for this – The first episode will air
on CBS nationally and then move to CBS All Access, their online
streaming service. This means that it won’t be on TV, at
least not in the States. It will be available online
streaming. I think this will anger many people but we are in
2015 and so I think most will survive.
This reminds me of a prediction/theory that I had years ago about
a particular friend who had yet to embrace the technology of
computers. He had made a stance that he would not use computers
unless he had to for work and even then I think he put his foot
down. I then suggested the idea that if Star Trek were to go to
an online only format that he would break down and enter the world of
computers because it is Star Trek.
Anyhow, I think there are limitations for any online streaming and not everyone has embraced this technology. If the series is good (AKA Daredevil for Netflix) I think people will do what they can to watch it and beyond that, they will wait for the hard copy media release.
I think things are going in the direction of streaming and
certainly CBS is trying to compete directly with Netflix with this
move. Seeing more of this with new series as well as shows that are
canceled (Person of Interest?) from network television is the wave of
the future but could also weaken the power of network television even
more.I am not overly excited by the news for a Star Trek series but will keep a close eye on it. The latest movie, Into Darkness wasn’t that good and I need to see a good product before I trust the franchise again.
The Expanse is coming – not soon
enough for me. The SyFy 10 episode series starts on December 14 and
15th but the first episode will be available on demand on
November 23. The pilot is receiving good reviews from many people
who saw it at special showings over the last couple of months. This
is high on my list!
Japanese Illustrator Noriyoshi Ohrai
passed away at the age of 72. I have to admit I had not heard of him
until his obituary but am familiar with his poster artwork. His work
is amazing. Working on Godzilla films, you can see his incredible
style but Ohrai is responsible for my favorite Star Wars poster.
Ridley Scott is making great sci-fi
movies again. Well, at least with The Martian. His Prometheus is a
movie I so badly wanted to be superb but it wasn't. Well, a sequel
is in the works and this time, Scott is not going to pretend it is
not related to the Alien franchise. As a matter of fact, the title
of it is Alien: Paradise Lost. Not much info on the film except its
creation has now put a hold on Neil Blomkamp's Alien 5 movie. I am
okay with this for now. I want to give Ridley another chance (okay,
he can have 10 more chances) to come up with a worthy Alien related
movie and while I am interested in Blomkamp's plan to ignore anything
after Aliens, I will wait.
A few other television notes. I am
closing in on catching up with The Strain series and find that to be
entirely enjoyable. The Walking Dead this season has been incredible
on all levels and he is not dead. A recent episode of Supernatural
(Baby) was probably the best one in a few years. The story harkens
back to the days of the Winchesters were just out hunting and not
dealing with Angels and all these big bads.
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