We have an update on the Red Sonja movie, which has been radio silent for months. M. J. Bassett has completed her script, hired actors, and begun filming. Who are the relevant parties? Let's look:
- Matilda Lutz (They Were Ten) is the new Red Sonja; she's not a redhead (sadly), and a bit off type (she's Italian versus the source's pseudo-Celt), but she's an improvement over Hannah John Kamen
- Wallis Day (Batwoman) is playing her wicked half-sister Annisia (a creation of Gail Simone, so visually represents things Gail hates: pretty, blonde, white)
- Robert Sheehan (Umbrella Academy) is Draygan; possibly a misspelling of Dragan, the Zamoran Emperor and Red Sonja's enemy in the recent (2019) Mark Russell arc, but the actor seems too young for that so either he's an original character or has been changed
- Manal El-Feitury (Hellboy) as Ayala; another Simone invention (2013), who in the source material is an attendant for Red Sonja (El-Feitury seems a bit old for that function, so I'd expect changes--perhaps just being her friend)
- The other announced characters all seem like inventions for the film
- Joey Soloman and Tasha Huo are still listed as writers, but we know both were fired and that Bassett herself (along with her daughter) wrote the film--I suspect there are technical reasons why their names are still attached, but that's my speculation
Deadline (link above) has no idea what the story is and the article seems like a mix of marketing and an effort to avoid industry backlash for the changes (I've seen none of the latter, so in that respect the effort worked).
What could the story be? It's not clear and I won't pretend to be steeped in the lore (I'm familiar with the Robert E. Howard source material and the 1985 film, but that's it). On the surface the casting suggests Barrett is pulling from the recent Dynamite comic runs, but she may have no choice in that matter, as Millennium is likely echoing the MCU approach of avoiding paying rights holders like Red Sonja creator Roy Thomas. Simone is a consultant on the show, but we don't know how much influence she has (authors often have less than imagined--George R. R. Martin was heavily involved with the first four seasons of Game of Thrones, but not the last four, yet his credits didn't really change throughout). The fear about Simone's involvement is her inflammatory public persona and divisive politics--something that would specifically turn off the core audience for the IP. Regardless, if we get an origin story, Simone's is likely since Thomas' involves rape.
Will we get a good show? Given how miserable modern entertainment is that's hard to imagine, but Bassett produced a faithful Soloman Kane film, so the possibility exists. As story details leak and the marketing begins, it will be much easier to judge.
In doing research for this it was interesting to discover that Dynamite Comics experimented with Third Wave writers like Simone and Marguerite Bennett for awhile before returning to financial success with less divisive folk at the helm (earning them multiple spinoffs and so forth).
It's not often a big budget tentpole IP faces real criticism from reviewers, but the atmosphere around Amazon's Rings of Power has been so bad even a few shills have broken ranks to criticize it. The fandom, as expected, loathes the production which echoes the Abrams/Bad Robot approach. The initial episodes mimic Fellowship of the Ring so strongly even critics noticeed, just like A Force Awakens mimicked the original Star Wars; we're also getting a dose of Alex Kurtzman madness from Picard with yet another group of strange warrior nuns (why we need them when the show is already stuffed with female leads I have no idea). The result is an expensive looking CW show that no one wants. I have no idea what Amazon will do with the disastrous reception (something they were warned about by Tom Shippey years ago)--do they go the CBS root with Star Trek and simply continue with no one watching, or is there enough financial pressure that people will be fired (the showrunners are easy targets, and perhaps Lindsey Weber could be seen out too, but the person ultimately responsible, Jennifer Salke, seems safe and thus nothing meaningful can change)? My guess is Amazon will do minor tweaks to the show ala Witcher season two (Elves will go back to looking like Elves, for instance), which wasn't nearly enough. What they should do is disavow the season and start over, but there's no chance that will happen.
In the midst of writing this those involved now claim the show is not for Tolkien fans--that's been clear for quite some time, but then what was the point of buying the rights if you weren't trying to profit of that audience? It's a desperate form of spin.
The shoe finally dropped and we now know the strategy WB is taking with The Flash: the path of least resistance, attempting to salvage the film by salvaging Ezra Miller. As long speculated, Miller has gone the route of apologizing and getting treatment. I suspect facing the prospect of no career as well as legal issues was enough to nudge the troubled actor into these actions and I think the odds of this effort working (in media terms) are quite good barring more incidents. Will fans accept Ezra? That remains to be seen.
She-Hulk is getting eviscerated by fans (it's the most pushback I've seen against an MCU show to date); quality aside, idiotic comments from those involved have hurt (Maslany complaining about how women are sexualized vs men in the MCU was so profoundly dumb she privated her Instagram in the aftermath). The show's horrific writing has lead to terrible numbers on D+ (the second worst opening for the MCU behind Ms. Marvel and declining from there). Fringe critic Chris Gore seems to be the only person actively defending the show.
A fan did some sleuthing and believes the rights to the Hulk and its associated characters will revert to Marvel in 2023 (allowing films to be made by Disney without Universal's involvement). This is based on a 15-year window for Universal to do something with the IP (the last Hulk film was in 2008). I would have been thrilled about this a few years ago, but given the current state of the MCU I'm not.
There was a lot of trumpeting The House of the Dragon's opening for HBO (much like Amazon did for The Wheel of Time's opener), but as has been pointed out, it opened 80% lower than any season eight episode of GOT and got killed in the key demographic (18-49). The marketing (which WB spent 100-million dollars on) from HBO suggests much higher numbers, but they have a long history of exaggerating their views (Watchmen claimed 7 million instead of the actual 1.5). It will be interesting to see how well it can hold its audience--what I've seen in the fandom is mixed response with the general sentiment being: "compared to the usual crap we get, it's not bad". For me the writing isn't good enough and the show fails to maintain verisimilitude. The success it has is largely riding on a mix of nostalgia and Matt Smith (and let me restate that Martin is not at his peak writing powers--he's been in decline since A Storm of Swords).
That aside, the show being renewed for a second season is not surprising. I have said many times that fantasy shows are so expensive to produce there has to be multiple seasons to help amortize the costs (ergo The Wheel of Time continuing when it completely bombed). To that end we can note that many high profile shows do get cancelled after one season despite being 'renewed' during their run as a marketing ploy (ala Watchmen and Lovecraft Country). One interesting change HBO has made during the season is booting executive producer and director Miguel Sapochnik--he and showrunner Ryan Condal have both said dumb things in interviews promoting the show, but Sapochnik has been worse, so replacing him with Alan Taylor is a positive move.
I have to wonder if the penny has dropped for George about the insanity he's been tacitly embracing the last few years. After Salman Rushdie was stabbed he had this to say:
And these days freedom of speech needs defenders, for when I look around, I find it under attack everywhere. Blacklisting, cancel culture, libraries being closed or defunded, classic works of literature being banned or bowdlerized or removed from classrooms, an ever growing list of “toxic” words the mere utterance of which is now forbidden no matter the context or intent, the erosion of civility in discourse. Both the Rabid Right and the Woke Left seem more intent on silencing those whose views they disagree with, rather than besting them in debate. And the consequences for those who dare to say things deemed offensive have been growing ever more dire; jobs lost, careers ended, books cancelled, “deplatforming.”
This is the first attack on the left I've seen George make, but clearly he's right in that extremism on both ends is hurting everyone. How much this will impact his writing is hard to say--probably not at all, but I give him credit to make the comment nonetheless.
I'm curious if Olivia Wilde's current self-inflicted problems (issues with Florence Pugh aside, lying about firing Shia LaBeouf is the case in point) will impact the Sony Marvel film she was hired to direct back in August, 2020 (speculated to be Spider-Woman). There's no sign of that film going into production (a common theme for Sony Marvel), but Wilde lighting herself on fire for no discernible reason does not speak well for her. Will it have an impact? I'm guessing not--in a world where Ezra Miller can skate free on what's happened, Wilde's actions pale in comparison.
In terms of numbers, as best we can tell via Google Trends (we simply don't have good streaming numbers, particularly outside the US), nothing compares with Stranger Things, but in a more apples-to-apples scenario, The Sandman peaked slightly higher than The Boys or Umbrella Academy, but fell off much more quickly than both. She-Hulk barely registers, while House of the Dragon has beat Rings of Power, but lags far behind its monster progenitor (eg, eg, eg, and eg).
This article was written by Peter Levi
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