Welcome to another episode of The Tower of Babble Podcast. Julian, Daniel and Jeremy are once again here to help unpack the latest in geek news. Some of the big stories on the docket this week: more Disney live action remakes, a producer says we probably wont see a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, the Uncharted movie gets a new director, Brian Fuller leaves Star Trek: Discovery and Nintendo stops production of the Wii U. The guys also take a deep dive into the state of superhero movies as we learn that The Flash has lost its director, which comes hot off the heels of Deadpool 2 having lost its director less than two weeks prier. They examine what the future might hold for Nintendo if the Switch fails and cap off the show discussing what everyone has been playing or watching. All that and so much more in this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!
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Show Notes
Nerd Association
- Round 1: Star Wars
- Round 2: Star Trek
- Round 3: Mass Effect
Movies
- Disney, continuing their live action remake strategy, has started early work on a live action remake of Snow White according to Variety.
- The Gerard Butler series Olympus Has Fallen and London has Fallen is getting another instalment. This one is called Angel Has Fallen, where he has to protect Air Force One!
- Thor Ragnarok has officially wrapped shooting.
- Tim Miller, the former director of Deadpool 2 has since signed on to executive produce Sony’s live action/CG crossover Sonic the Hedgehog movie.
- Interestingly the CG studio Blur will be making the film. Blur is famous for some pretty impressive CG video game trailers.
- Speaking of Deadpool, rumour has it that John Wick director David Leitch is the studio's top choice to replace Tim Miller. - THR
- TMNT 3 likely won't be happening. In an interview with Collider producer Andrew Form had this to say
- “I don't think there’s Turtles 3, but I wouldn't rule out another Turtles movie”
- TMNT 2 only made 35.3 million its opening weekend this summer. Just over half of TMNT 1’s opening weekend.
- He went on to mention that he was disappointed in the box office and that they learned that you can’t simply add more characters to a sequel to get people back to the theatre. A lesson that studios continue to forget.
- Rambo is getting a reboot, but thankfully it won't star Sly. Nu Image and Millennium Films are working on the reboot called Rambo: New Blood and hope to cast a young actor and treat the series like their own James Bond. Ariel Vromen (Criminal, The Iceman) is set to direct.
- Disney has delayed Toy Story 4 but its using that release date of June 15, 2018 to move up Incredibles 2. Toy Story 4 will now release on June 21, 2019.
- The Uncharted movie that has been in the works for years at Sony has a new director! Shawn Levy, the director of the Night at the Musuem movies and Real Steel has taken on the project.
- The Flash film, that was originally going to be directed by Seth Grahame-Smith before being taken over by Rick Famuyiwa, is now in search of its THIRD director.
- THR reports that there were “creative differences” between the studio and director and that “The Dope director’s vision of making a movie with more edge clashed with the studios take.”
- Talking with THR Famuyiwa had this to say: "I was also excited to work with Ezra Miller, who is a phenomenal young actor. I pitched a version of the film in line with my voice, humor, and heart. While it’s disappointing that we couldn’t come together creatively on the project. I remain grateful for the opportunity. I will continue to look for opportunities to tell stories that speak to a fresh generational, topical, and multicultural point of view. I wish Warner Brothers, DC, Jon Berg, Geoff Johns, and Ezra Miller all the best as they continue their journey into the speed force."
Agree or Disagree
- A video from IGN featuring Jim Vejvoda and Eric Goldman asked whether Superhero movies were no longer director-friendly.
- dual cuts of Suicide Squad
- Wonder Woman used a second director
- Deadpool’s Tim Miller
- Gambit movie has had two directors and still searching for its 3rd
- James Wan was rumoured to be leaving Aquaman
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhfMyQj10Dc
TV
- Brian Fuller, the showrunner of the critically acclaimed series “Hannibal” and was the big name behind the upcoming Star Trek series “Discovery” has stepped down as its showrunner.
- Apparently he will remain actively involved in the show just not on a day-to-day basis.
- He cited too many commitments as the reason for handing the show over to its EP’s to run.
- He’s currently working on Starz’s American Gods and NBC’s reboot of Amazing Stories.
- It appears that Fuller left a pretty big imprint on the how before he left and it's rumoured that they will still use his scripts for the first 2 episodes.
- BBC’s Sherlock will premier its 4th season on January 1sr of next year.
- The episode is titled “The Six Thatchers”
- Rumoured to be the shows last season
- Netflix releases a Stranger Things news report
- Very odd in tone. Feeling more like a SNL sketch than an actual teaser.
- References Barb, Seven stealing waffles and Mirkwood.
- More Netflix news as we have confirmation that more actors have joined the cast of Marvel’s Defenders.
- Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page and Simone Missick’s Misty Knight have both joined the show
- Not long after Marvel announced that Elden Hensen’s Foggy Nelson and Carrie-Ann Moss’ Jeri Hogarth will also be joining the cast.
Games
- EA has released a brand new Mass Effect: Andromeda teaser, featuring the voice over of non other than Lex Luthor himself Clancy Brown, that promises more information on N7 (November 7th) day later this week.
- Lara Croft’s next game rumoured to be called “Shadow of the Tomb”
- The rumour comes from a picture on Reddit taken off a computer open on a Montreal subway with the logo in a powerpoint presentation.
- Head of Xbox Phil Spencer had a very reassuring comment the other day. Speaking with Game Informer he said:
- "I don’t have this desire to every two years have a new console on the shelf, that’s not part of the console business model, and it doesn’t actually help us. The best customer I have is somebody who buys the original Xbox and just buys all the games. That’s the best customer for us in terms of the pure financials of it. I’m not trying to turn consoles into the graphics card market.
- He went on talking about the future of Xbox "To be completely honest, I don’t know what the next console is past Scorpio. We’re thinking about it. We’re looking at consumer trends and what the right performance spec and price would be, and [asking ourselves], 'Can we hit something that has a meaningful performance characteristic that a gamer would care about?'"
- Nintendo is reportedly ending production on the Wii U later this week.
- News comes from Eurogamer that says several sources expect the Wii U to cease production on Friday, November 4th.
- As of Sept 30 the total number of units shipped by Nintendo was just over 13 mill. Which is waaaaaay short of their internal projections of closer to 100 mill.
- Continuing with Nintendo, The recently announced Switch apparently has a 720p multitouch display according to Eurogamer.
- Eurogamer’s sources also correctly revealed that the Switch would be a home/handheld console hybrid
- More on Switch: Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima expects to ship 2 mill units by the end of this fiscal year (March 31, 2016)
Agree or Disagree
- IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey wrote a think piece titled “Why the Nintendo Switch is Nintendo’s Make-or-Break Console”.
- He basically says that the company is putting all its eggs into one basket here. Coupled with the hype surrounding Super Mario Run, which will likely sell more units than any other Nintendo game simply because it will be available everywhere, it's likely that if the Switch fails the shareholders will push for Nintendo to start selling its games on third party platforms.
- Paraphrasing, he basically says it's been too long since Nintendo has been relevant in the larger gaming market and they can no longer ignore market forces.
- http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/10/31/why-the-nintendo-switch-is-nintendoas-make-or-break-console
What We’ve Been Watching/Playing
- Bioshock 2
- Kung Fury
- William Shatner’s Captains
- He interviews all of the Star Trek captains. Sir Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula and Chris Pine
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople
- Director Taika Waititi
- Starring Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill
- Hurricane of Fun
