In an interview posted this past Tuesday by Take Two, Executive Producer Shawn Levy discusses his experience producing the Netflix Original Series Stranger Things and why the show has become a pop-culture phenomenon.
In an interview posted this past Tuesday by Take Two, Executive Producer Shawn Levy discusses his experience producing the Netflix Original Series Stranger Things and why the show has become a pop-culture phenomenon.
The world felt safer. The world, and it breaks my heart to say this, but the world was safer. And I know that a lot of us yearn for the relative innocence of that– And I do think that the show transports us back to a cultural and global climate that was fundamentally more comforting. It was fundamentally less scary.
Levy also describes season two as “next level” but will still service the shows core characters. The show will grow along with its young cast.
It’s clear Levy was inspired by The Duffer Brothers and the pilot script for Stranger Things immediately. Inspiration seems to be the word coming from everyones mouth involved with the show. From the editors to the production designer, The Duffers brought out the best in everyone resulting in the magical experience that is Stranger Things.
To listen to the full interview head on over to Take Two.
This year The CW’s mega-crossover event will feature The Dominators as the main villains set to take on the heroes of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. The four-episode event will be the networks biggest crossover event in history.
This year The CW’s mega-crossover event will feature The Dominators as the main villains set to take on the heroes of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. The four-episode event will be the network’s biggest crossover event in history.
In an interview with THR, Marc Guggenengheim said:
“We’re taking inspiration from a DC crossover from the late 1980s known as Invasion!, which featured an alien race called The Dominators, who’d previously vexed the Legion of Superheroes. We’re using cutting-edge prosthetics and computer effects to achieve a feature film-quality look which is faithful to Invasion! artist Todd McFarlane’s interpretation of the characters.”
It sounds promising but time will tell whether or not the producers were able to achieve film-quality effects on a television budget.
For those unfamiliar with The Dominators, they are an alien race who are interested in the genetic potential of the human race. Specifically, the metagene, which is the fictional gene that changes one from a human to a metahuman.
The Flash season three premieres on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m., Arrow season five premieres Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m., Supergirl season two premieres Monday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. and Legends of Tomorrow season two premieres Thursday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. on The CW.
Released today by Artist Patrick Schoenmaker, comes a video short titled “The Adventures of Indiana Jones”. Based upon “Escaping The Tomb”, a piece commissioned by Lucasfilm for the abysmal “Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Five years in the making, this animated short features Indy accompanied by his beloved sidekick, Short Round as he swings his way through several adventures.
Released today by Artist Patrick Schoenmaker, comes a video short titled “The Adventures of Indiana Jones”. Based upon “Escaping The Tomb,” a piece commissioned by Lucasfilm for the abysmal “Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Five years in the making, this animated short features Indy accompanied by his beloved sidekick, Short Round as he swings his way through several adventures. While it doesn’t include the voices of Harrison Ford or Ke Huy Quan, it has a wonderful John Williams -esque score by composers Alexander Reumers and Jorrit Kleijnen.
Image via Patrick Schoenmaker
In an interview with Inverse.com, Schoenmaker details the process of creating the first ever cartoon version of the iconic hero.
They didn’t ask me to do a print in an animated style, but it was just the natural approach for me. My background is in animation, and the seed for how you’d translate the Indiana Jones character into an animated style was already somewhere in my mind. The print was the best chance to explore that.
The preliminary sketches I had were really cartoony, and I felt that it broke with the Indiana Jones world. If it’s too much of a cartoon, it loses the danger and thrill. It becomes too slapstick. Each draft, I started over with what worked in the previous attempts to keep making it better.
After seeing this short, I’m left wondering why there hasn’t been an Indiana Jones cartoon before? Indy seems ripe for a Saturday morning cartoon series. Can you imagine if someone like Dave Filoni or DisneyXD got behind this?
To read the rest of the interview with Schoenmaker, head on over to Inverse.com.
Killing is back on the table in the new trailer for the fifth season of The CW’s Arrow. Posted today by the shows official twitter account, the new trailer shows us the Green Arrow reverting back to his old ways as he ruthlessly murders several baddies.
Killing is back on the table in the new trailer for the fifth season of The CW’s Arrow. Posted today by the show’s official twitter account, the new trailer shows us the Green Arrow reverting back to his old ways as he ruthlessly murders several baddies.
Prometheus must be pretty bad considering Ra’s Al Ghul and Damien Darhk weren’t enough to make Oliver kill again. It will be interesting to see Oliver’s past come full circle as he has a history with Prometheus. Co-showrunner Wendy Mericle said in an interview with IGN last month, “He has a very personal grudge and axe to grind with Oliver and he’s going to come at him in a really interesting, sociopathic kind of way.” The show won’t waste any time introducing him as he is set to make his debut in the season premiere.
I’m excited to see Curtis begin his journey towards becoming Mr. Fantastic but I’m not sold on Evelyn or Wild Dog just yet. Arrow has some work to do as far as winning me and much of the audience back. Hopefully the show won’t bore us with Olicity anymore. It’s time the producers realize relationship drama doesn’t make for interesting television. With Marc Guggenheim returning as co-showrunner, I’m hopeful the show will move back towards the tone of the earlier seasons.
Arrow Season 5 premieres Wednesday, October 5th at 8p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
The Russo Brothers once again prove themselves as the best Directors in the MCU (Sorry, Joss). They do an incredible job balancing out both Team Cap and Team Iron Man throughout the film. The motivations are clear and the characters are provided equal screen time to support their sides of the argument. It doesn’t matter whether your Team Cap or Team Iron Man, you can absolutely understand the opposing side. What makes it so compelling is that both sides are right.
Civil War gets started with a pulse pounding action sequence that showcases the Avengers’ teamwork and chemistry as they work together to secure a biological weapon from the hands of terrorists. The wonderfully directed action sequence is a bit overshadowed by the absolutely astounding action that comes later in the film, however. It serves its purpose effectively to energetically jumpstart the film with the three most important qualities for any superhero story: Heart, humor, and heroics.
The Russo Brothers once again prove themselves as the best Directors in the MCU (Sorry, Joss). They do an incredible job balancing out both Team Cap and Team Iron Man throughout the film. The motivations are clear and the characters are provided equal screen time to support their sides of the argument. It doesn’t matter whether your Team Cap or Team Iron Man, you can absolutely understand the opposing side. What makes it so compelling is that both sides are right.
Chris Evans as Captain America and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in Captain American: Civil War (Marvel).
Robert Downey Jr. turns in his best performance as Iron Man yet, however. The clear standouts of the film are Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Ant-Man. Paul Rudd as is as charming as ever. He and Tom Holland work together to bring brief but necessary levity to the drama that without, may have left us exhausted by the time we reach the films final action scene. Chadwick Boseman packs power and conviction into every line he has. He is so well used by the Russos that every time he is on screen you know it’s important. But I think we can all agree going into this film we were most excited for Spider-Man’s introduction into the MCU and it couldn’t have been done better. Marvel absolutely nails it. The moment Tom Holland stepped on screen I felt as if I was witnessing the true Peter Parker for the first time ever. Tom kills it as Peter only to outdo himself as Spider-Man in the short amount of time we get with him.
Tom Holland as Spider-Man. (Marvel)
The airport scene is one of, if not the greatest action scenes ever put to screen. The scene is fantastically shot, edited, and balanced between both sides of heroes. The action is constantly engaging. It perfectly showcases all of the heroes’ strengths as well as their weaknesses. The Russos managed to strike a rhythm in this scene that prevents it from feeling too long, even at 15 minutes. The best part of this fight, and probably the film itself is when Spider-Man takes down Giant-Man like an AT-AT on Hoth. Myself and the rest of the theater were cheering as if the Luke just blew up the Death Star! The Russos have set the bar high and there is no doubt they will outdo themselves with Infinity War.
As great as this film is, it isn’t perfect. Marvel once again fumbles when it comes to the villain. Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo isn’t necessary to the story until the final confrontation between Captain America and Iron Man. Ultimately he does succeed in tearing apart The Avengers and that’s awesome. But they were already doing a good enough job at them themselves. Zemo is just there to give the final push.
Team Cap charges toward Team Iron Man. (Marvel)
It boggles my mind that Marvel isn’t concerned with focusing on the villain in their films especially after we have seen how well the Netflix series have done with Wilson Fisk, Killgrave, and I’ll even say Punisher. While Punisher wasn’t a villain, he was still an incredible antagonist to Daredevil in those few episodes of season two. A great villain can help elevate a good superhero movie to a great superhero movie and as good as Marvel’s films have gotten over the last few years, they could still be better.
Captain America: Civil War is what I call Marvel’s Dark Knight. It does what Dark Knight did for WB and transcends the superhero genre. This isn’t just some spectacle we can all sit back and admire. This is a vehicle with enough seats for everyone. No matter which side you take, you’ll feel justified in your position all the way until the credits roll. Bravo, Russo Brothers, Bravo.
Star Wars Rebels kicks off the season with a fun and exciting mission developed and lead by Ezra to save Hondo, who is in possession of valuable information that could help the rebels to recover a fleet of Y-wings.
Enter Thrawn! Well, sort of…
Star Wars Rebels kicks off the season with a fun and exciting mission developed and lead by Ezra to save Hondo, who is in possession of valuable information that could help the rebels to recover a fleet of Y-wings. We’re welcomed back into the Star Wars universe quickly as we’re reminded that Stormtroopers still can’t hit anything and it feels great! Right off the bat we are shown just how strong Ezra has grown since we last saw him as he ruthlessly cuts down several Stormtroopers and sends an AT-DP plummeting to its demise. It’s clear he’s chosen the quick and easy path and there’s most certainly going to be consequences for him and the team.
A blind Kanin Jarrus meets The Bendu in the Season 3 premiere of “Star Wars Rebels”. (Disney XD)
Kanin is off meditating, being summoned by an unknown voice later to be revealed as the Bendu. It is a real treat when Kanin meets the Bendu face to face. The scene was fantastically written and extremely well performed. Most definitely one of the best scenes in the series to date. The only thing negative I’ll say about this encounter is that it seems a bit convenient that the Bendu happens to be on the same planet as the current rebel base but the force works in mysterious ways, right?
As someone who doesn’t have a strong attachment to Grand Admiral Thrawn, I have to admit I was underwhelmed by his introduction. The scenes he was in were absolutely chilling. This calm and calculated genius could very well be the demise of our beloved rebels. My issue was that I wanted more of him. Maybe it was the marketing that made me think he was going to be featured front and center this episode rather than looming from the shadows, mostly…
Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his debut in the Season 3 premiere of “Star Wars Rebels”. (Disney XD)
The opening and closing action sequences were some of the best action sequences I have ever seen in animation, however. The best thing about this episode was that it featured some great character development for Ezra and Kanin. I found it surprising, T.V. shows don’t normally pack this much character development into a season premiere. Obviously, Ezra has grown a lot in the last few months but he still has a long way to go and he definitely got an idea for just how much on the mission to recover the Y-wings. Kanin reached an incredible turning point with his lesson from the Bendu. Healing from his loss and moving forward. I am so excited to continue on his journey with him! Freddie Prinze Jr. does a truly incredible job conveying the doubt a great warrior would feel after the loss of their sight.
Hold on to your butts. In just three months we’ll be fully engrossed in another Star Wars Christmas season being yet again introduced to a slew of new characters, ships and planets never before seen in the ever expanding Star Wars galaxy.
Hold on to your butts. In just three months we’ll be fully engrossed in another Star Wars Christmas season being yet again introduced to a slew of new characters, ships and planets never before seen in the ever expanding Star Wars galaxy. Only time will tell whether or not Garreth Edwards was the right choice to helm the first of many Star Wars spinoffs but as it stands Edwards looks to have crafted what could be the most immersive experience yet in the film franchise. Even the biggest skeptics, including myself, who were left bored by Edwards’ other films are scratching their heads wondering how the hell this film could be boring after that action-packed sizzle reel.
Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso and Diego Luna as Cap. Cassian Andor in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. (Lucasfilm)
The reel opens showcasing a battle scene that is no doubt the Star Wars version of Omaha beach. The film looks to have pulled many visual influences from war films such as Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, and Platoon. Yet the film still feels unquestionably Star Wars. This has many of us wondering what other kinds of genres could be blended into the Star Wars universe going forward. The possibilities really are endless.
Garreth Edwards behind the camera. (Lucasfilm)
As with any Lucasfilm production, you would expect there to be some incredible filmmaking behind this project and Rogue One looks to be no different. In much of the reel Garreth Edwards can be seen being a boss behind the lens during sequences featuring practical effects. In some shots, rather than using green screen, Edwards has chosen to use projection screens giving the actors something to look at as well as act off of. This will surely help to avoid the wooden performances captured in the blue screen vacuums the prequels were filmed inside of.
Ben Mendelsohn as Director Orson Krennic. (Lucasfilm)
What might be most exciting is how many new things we will see for the first time in the Star Wars universe. In the Skywalker Saga things are usually black and white. However, some of the new canon novels have delved into grey area of the galaxy. As we learned in Lost Stars, there are good people in the empire. Good people who end up on the wrong side. Rogue one will explore the grey area. Fans of the Clone Wars are familiar with the character of Saw Gerrara but in December, Forrest Whittaker will introduce a wider audience to a rebel freedom fighter whose tactics are considered too extreme for the rebellion.
We will also be treated to the first hand to hand combat action scene in the franchise. In past Star Wars films we have experienced the most jaw dropping and breathtaking action sequences in history. From the trench run to the lightsaber duel on Mustafar, the action has always been epic. Maybe that’s what makes the action in Rogue One look so refreshing. Sure, punches have been thrown throughout lightsaber duels in the past but never has anyone just ripped off their gloves and gone fist for first.
Felicity Jones and Diego Luna taking on Stormtroopers. (Lucasfilm)
While Godzilla and Monsters weren’t very good, one impressive quality about both films is how Edwards managed to hone in and focus on the characters against the backdrop of something large and fantastical. Judging from the teaser trailer and the celebration reel, it certainly seems Edwards has managed to do that again. Maybe that’s why he was Kathleen Kennedy’s choice to helm the first spinoff of the franchise.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters December 16, 2016.
The Duffer Brothers have managed to blend 80’s nostalgia into an exciting and heartfelt supernatural thriller. The series doesn’t just echo the classic films of the 80’s, it’s DNA is made up of them.
The Duffer Brothers have managed to blend 80’s nostalgia into an exciting and heartfelt supernatural thriller. The series doesn’t just echo the classic films of the 80’s, it’s DNA is made up of them. What is most impressive might be how it all blends together into something unique and refreshing.
The series opens with the vanishing of Will Byers and the launching of the investigation into his disappearance. Stranger Things earns its title as things quickly get strange and we discover there is a larger conspiracy at play in this small town after a young girl escapes from an experimental government facility. A young girl who recognizes Will when she sees a picture of him.
Stranger Things biggest strength is its characters. Hats off to the casting director for putting together a group of kids whose chemistry rivals that of The Goonies. Winona Ryder and David Harbour lead the series with fantastic performances but the series’ core is the friendship between the group of children, most notably the connection between Mike and Eleven. A relationship that mirrors E.T. and Elliot without becoming a rehash.
Millie Bobby Brown is a superstar. She delivers an extraordinary performance that steals the show and your heart. Millie packs a powerful and emotional punch into every word she speaks. She is able to express more emotion through her eyes than even most adult actors are capable of.
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things. (Netflix)
Stranger Things is so fantastic that its weaknesses feel more like nitpicks than actual weaknesses. There are a few scenes involving visual effects that could have benefited from a larger budget and/or more time, but they are easily forgivable. The series proves if you have great characters and a great story complemented by nearly masterful directing you can easily get away with less than stellar visual effects. The only real negative is the thin layer of cheese that comes with Nancy’s storyline. The teen drama could have been dialed back a bit but like the visual effects the series does not suffer from it. There’s just a few beats between Nancy and her Mother that don’t land right. You could argue there are plot holes in the overall explanation of what exactly is happening with the upside down but science isn’t always clear and Matthew Modine even admits they do not understand the monster they are dealing with.
In a time when we have an abundance of formulaic television series its refreshing to have a show that doesn’t waste any time with filler. The story is thoroughly engaging and constantly pushing forward building momentum to its satisfying finale. Stranger Things could easily have suffered from a lack of originality and seemed like a rip off of almost every classic 80’s film there is. But the production comes together forming something exciting and unique. From the directing to the music to the production design, StrangerThings captivates the mind and the heart taking you back to the simpler times of the 80’s when movies were hopeful and full of adventure.
Alternate World 