Welcome to another week of the Entertainment Roundup where I share my favorite entertainment news of the week and give my own spin on it. Let’s start off with some Marvel Mania!
Marvel Mania is Runnin’ Wild!
Truly Marvel Mania was kicked into full gear this week when the studio delivered a one-two punch to DC by announcing it’s own film slate for the next 5 years, including it’s own black hero film and a female led one to boot. While DC will still get to claim the rights of being the first to make a female superhero film since we all rightly ignored Elektra, Marvel will get to make the first one featuring a black lead. If you’re willing to forget about Wesley Snipes and all those Blade films, which judging by the Internet’s reaction, you are.
The first film announced was Captain America: Civil War, originally given the subtitle Serpent Society as a sneaky, snake-like trick by Marvel. Civil War will find Cap and his good buddy Iron Man no longer being good buddies as they go to war, presumably over whether or not Shawarma is overrated. Black Panther will also be making his debut here to make all the other super-heroes feel awkward about the title of the film. This film is slated for May 6, 2016.
Next up on the docket was Doctor Strange, which finds Marvel introducing magic to it’s already complicated film universe. During the announcement of the film it was also mentioned that Benedict Cumberbatch has not officially been signed on as the good, albeit peculiar, doctor. It has also been reported that upon hearing this news all of Tumbler weeped while Reddit rejoiced. You can expect Doctor Strange to hit November 4, 2016
Next was the, already announced, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which has been bumped up to May 5, 2017. Expect it to get a subtitle of some sort before then.
After that was Thor: Ragnarok, which promises to bring the apocalyptic, Norse end-of-times to the big screen. Don’t expect Thor to die though, unless his contract is up and he’s asking for too much money, then maybe. July 28, 2017 is the date for this one.
Then we have Black Panther, which introduces the titular black super-hero, who lets you know his skin color by just putting it in his name. Black Panther comes out on November 3, 2017.
Next is Captain Marvel, Marvel’s own female superhero who will attempt to make us all forget that Black Widow is awesome and could probably hold up her own film. Expect to see this one out July 6, 2018
Also coming in 2018 is Inhumans, of which not a lot is currently known, hopefully they bring their teleporting dog with a fork on his head when they come to the big screen on November 2, 2018.
Finally, Marvel announced it is splitting the third Avengers film into two parts, following the trend set by every final book adaptation of every YA series since Harry Potter. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 hits May 2018 with Part 2 coming out in May of the following year.
Whether or not this will all end up being better than DC’s planned films remains to be seen, but can probably be expected.
Bay takes Bengha
Looking for an explosive new film to add more explosions to, Michael Bay has set his sights on a movie about the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
Bay has not officially signed on for the film, working under the title 13 Hours, yet but is expected to. Expect to see the aforementioned explosions, blunt political commentary, and probably, Mark Wahlberg or The Rock when 13 Hours comes to a theater near you.
Return of the Pee-Wee
Paul Reubens, known the world over as the Penguin’s father in Batman Returns, made an appearance on The Tonight Show this past week and announced that something new was coming for one of his lesser-known characters, some guy by the name of Pee-Wee Herman.
While still clearly denying the fans that Penguin’s father spin-off they’ve been craving, Reubens did say that a new Pee-Wee film was coming and would begin filming in February. While also stating that more details would be coming in the next week.
While not much is currently known, a new Pee-Wee film has been teased on and off for the past four years. Let’s hope it turns out more like Big Adventure than Big Top Pee-Wee.
Reddit gets in the crowdfunding game
Always looking for ways to take good ideas and make them horrible, Reddit has finally come up with a way to ruin Kickstarter by creating it’s own version.
Redditmade seems to already be a very Reddit-ity thing by featuring tons of projects based on subreddits and inside jokes among the community but unlike Kickstarter they also intend to help you reach your goal anyway they can.
The About Us page states that, “we’ll walk you through every step of the process, connect you to our network of quality sourcing partners, work with you on the design if necessary, promote your campaign, and oversee the production and distribution.”
So if you’re fine with Reddit getting their fingerprints all on whatever project you’re looking to start up then Redditmade is for you!
But wait there’s more!
Redditmade does not feature the up-voting/down-voting system that makes Reddit itself such an equally loved and reviled place. Instead, voting comes from pledges which means that the projects with the most pledges stay on the top of the page while those with zero float to the bottom. Finally, creating a way to make Reddit seem even more like a popularity contest.
Redditmade is currently in beta so look for these issues to be ignored/forgotten about by the time it actually launches.
Channing Tatum makes a Gambit
Not wanting to get lost in the raging rapids of Marvel Mania, Fox announced this week that a film based on popular X-Man, Gambit, was in the works and that America’s new heartthrob, Channing Tatum, would be playing him.
Not much else has been revealed yet, not even a release date. Tatum was willing to tease that it would not be “your typical super-hero movie” making the rare proclamation that they intend for this one to be entertaining.
Cartoon Network experiments a little, decides it still isn’t sure
Cartoon Network, always the slightly older brother to Nickelodeon, took a big step forward then a slight step back, when it replaced a scene of two men kissing on it’s show Clarence with a quick peck on the cheek.
In a, now deleted, tweet a writer for Clarence, Spencer Rothbell stated that originally “they kissed on the mouth.” Rothbell went on to say, “It’s such a minor throwaway moment but I guess it’s better than nothing…Maybe one day the main character can be gay and it won’t be a big deal.”
Yes, maybe one day, for now though let’s take the minor victories when they occur.
That’s it for the Round-Up this week, see you folks next Saturday for another edition!