You win, internet. I can’t cover every single thing in exhaustive detail on this site. So, here are my summaries of some of the news stories of the moment:
- Speculation about the 3 mystery characters for the Arrow/Flash spin-off
- An op-ed arguing for ways Marvel/WB could improve their superhero film diversity, and not just by adding more women and people of color
- Mourning the death of Star Trek’s Harve Bennett
- Laughing at the latest Terminator Genisys rumors
- A Twitter hashtag you should know about during Women’s History Month
Booster Gold already made his live-action debut on Smallville. The three 3 new DC characters in the Arrow/Flash spin-off have supposedly never been on live-action TV before
Arrow/The Flash | TVLine got its hands on a casting call for the three mystery DC characters who will be joining Brandon Routh (A.T.O.M.), Victor Garber (half of Firestorm), Wentworth Miller (Captain Cold), and Caity Lotz (the very dead Sara Lance) in that Arrow/Flash spin-off we don’t totally understand yet. One of the new characters is a Han Solo-type called “The Traveler,” another (“Female Warrior”) is a twenty something Latina who’s rather Felicity Smoak during the day but a total badass at night, and the last (“Mystery Hero”) is a street-smart black guy in his 20s who’ll always have a quip at the ready. TVLine is guessing “Traveler” could be Rip Hunter or Booster Gold, “Female Warrior” could be Fury, Yolanda Montez, Pantha, Tarantual, Hawkgirl, and “Mystery Hero” could be Black Lightning or Black Vulcan (surely there are black characters whose superhero name doesn’t include the word “Black”). I have to be honest – of all the characters they mentioned I’ve only ever heard of Booster Gold, and he shouldn’t be a candidate since these 3 new characters will be making their live action debut and Booster was already in Smallville (Source: TVLine.com).
Marvel’s Runaways, about a group of kids who discover their parents are actually supervillains. Why hasn’t this been made into a film or TV show yet?
Marvel Vs. DC (Diversity) | Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara recently said “You have to take advantage of the diversity of these characters” in reference to how the film industry can avoid superhero movie fatigue. The Hollywood Reporter’s Graeme Mcmillan likes that idea. He’s a little annoyed that we’re still 2 years away from our first one of these films led by a woman (Wonder Woman) or black guy (Black Panther). However, he looks at Marvel finally stepping outside of its comfort zone with Guardians of the Galaxy last year and Doctor Strange next year and wonders Marvel and WB aren’t working even harder to not only extend female/minority representation but also the types of superhero stories they’re telling, focusing too much on the standard “Superhero fights Supervillain” model when there are fantastic properties like The Runaways and Dial H for Hero waiting to be adapted (Source: TheHollywoodReporter.com).
Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy on the set of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek | Well, this is a tall glass of suck coming so soon after Leonard Nimoy’s death, but Star Trek producer Harve Bennett died last week at the age of 84. He was involved with TV shows like The Mod Squad, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Bionic Woman, but he’s best known as the guy that saved Star Trek after the over-budget, behind-the-scenes nightmare that was Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Any real power Gene Roddenberry had over the franchise was taken away, and the studio brought in Bennett to spearhead the sequel, asking him to make a better movie for less money given his reputation as a cost-efficient producer. He watched every single episode of the Original Series for inspiration and picked Khan as the villain they needed to bring back, crafting the story and contributing to the various scripts from that point forward. Along with writer/director Nicholas Meyer, he was instrumental in convincing Leonard Nimoy to take part in what became Wrath of Khan just as he was responsive enough during the filming of the movie to pick up on the fact that they needed to include something at the end promising Spock could return, despite Meyer’s objections. After Wrath of Khan became something of an instant-classic, Bennett stayed with the franchise, producing The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, and The Final Frontier. He was originally supposed to produce Star Trek VI, but he walked after his idea of doing a prequel focusing on Kirk and Spock’s early days at Starfleet was vetoed in favor of another adventure for the Original Cast (Source: io9.com)
Jason Clarke’s John Connor in Terminator: Genisys
Terminator |The latest Terminator: Genisys plot rumors are straight-up bonkers. Based off of a script leak, WhatCulture claimed the film’s villain will turn out to be….spoiler alert!….John Connor after having been infected by some kind of nano-virus, with this surprise reveal coming at the film’s halfway point when he wipes out the three different Terminators hunting the heroes. He’ll then be plotting against them, but they won’t realize it. How the heck this will as far the timelines are concerned isn’t entirely clear. The original WhatCulture article which had all this information has been taken down, but you can read a summary at io9.com. It all sounds so stupid it might totally be kind of awe…nope. It’s just pretty stupid. Hope this is bogus (Source: io9.com).
Women in Film | In celebration of Women’s History Month, people are using the #FilmHerStory hashtag as a means to share incredible true stories of women that could make for great films. Suggestions thusfar include a Russian peasant who fought in WWI, Russian WWII fighter pilots, the first woman arrested for resisting bus segregation during the Civil Rights Movement, etc. I’d suggest Alice Guy Blanche, the first female to direct movies (Source: Pajiba.com).