This week’s show details another banner week in the world of entertainment (is there any other kind?), with a slew of new trailers, HBO news, box office bombs, and a comic book betrayal of the highest order from one of today’s best filmmakers.
We’ll begin today’s show with that tantalizing last bit. While the DC cinematic universe has repeatedly shown signs of turmoil and disarray (not to mention critical malevolence), fans of the Marvel side of the comic book coin may take heart in the latest plan for the series. According to reports, Avengers director Joss Whedon is currently in talks with Warner Bros. to direct, write, and produce a Batgirl movie. The lack of strong female heroines in the current comic book movie renaissance has not gone overlooked by either Disney’s Marvel or the DC execs at Warner Bros., with the former working on a female-led Captain Marvel film starring Brie Larson, and the latter already at work on a Suicide Squad spinoff (for better or for worse) starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, alongside Wonder Woman’s solo film.
The new film will reportedly be based on the “New 52” version of Batgirl, according to Business Insider, which sees Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara Gordon taking on the cowl and cape after she’s brutally attacked by the Joker. Whether or not this would include any appearances by Ben Affleck’s Batman or other characters from within Zack Snyder’s critically maligned films is not yet known, though one would assume Jared Leto’s glam-rock Joker would be the assailant that turned Gordon to the cape. In any event, it should be interesting to watch this unfold, and Whedon’s name alone brings hope of some stability and creative character building finally landing in DC’s cinematic sandbox.
Elsewhere, the weekend box office looks like a bit of a snoozer, with critics praising the eye-candy but dissing the hollow storyline of Ghost in the Shell, the manga-based film starring Scarlet Johansson. The only other big budget film stars Alec Baldwin as a talking baby (you can’t make this stuff up folks). Like last week, we’re recommending another stay-at-home weekend when it comes to movie watching — either that or we’d point those looking for a night out to catch up with Kong: Skull Island or the incredible Jordan Peele horror-comedy Get Out. Just stay the hell away from CHIPs. Seriously.
There’s plenty of other cool news to discuss this week, including the impending return of some of HBO’s best originals. There were new promos for the latest seasons of Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley, as well as news that Curb Your Enthusiasm’s much-anticipated ninth season has wrapped shooting. In addition, True Detective fans were given some hope of another installment of the crime anthology, with talk that David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) could be teaming up with series creator Nic Pizzolatto for a third season of the show.
Perhaps the coolest thing we saw this week, however, was the new trailer for the feature version of one of Stephen King’s scariest novels, It. Bill Skarsgard looks positively petrifying as the clown Pennywise, while impressive-looking showings from child actors Finn Wolfhard (Mike from Stranger Things), Jaeden Lieberher (Midnight Special), and others make this film look even more intriguing than we’d anticipated.
In addition, we’ll talk about new trailers for War for the Planet of the Apes and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, the Venom movie’s possible horror twist, and new plans to make sure the Oscars don’t get ruined next year. So join us live today at 2 p.m. PT, or take our podcast along by subscribing via one of the links above!
