Robot Fighting with MK Stangeland

Thomas Townley: 0:01

Tonight, marvel teams with McDonald's Swamp Thing on 4K, billy Dee's Memories and remember actor Johnny Hardwick and director William Friedkin, plus an interview with author Michael Stangland. I'll learn more on this edition of Multiverse tonight. Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 195 of Multiverse. Tonight you show about all your geeky multiverses. Of course I'm your host, thomas Townley, and well, I'm going to have quite a week this week. On Wednesday I have to go in to do a stress test on my heart. Yep, they're going to radiate me and then they're going to torture me and I'm going to see how well my heart's doing. So, yeah, it's good. You know, we're all hoping for the best there. I earned that last week in an interview with author Michael Stangland, which will be on this edition of the podcast, and I've already got ready. Well, I've already gone on the books another edition of the Spinner Rack with Rick Stacey, so they'll be coming out here in, oh, a couple weeks. But anyway, let's talk about the box office report for this past weekend. Now start number 10 with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which dropped from number 9 to number 10. Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning, part 1, went from 7 to 9. Sound of Freedom went from 6 to 8. Talk to Me went from 8 to 7. Haunted Mansion went from 5 to 6. The Last Voyage of the Demeter starts out at number 5. Sorry, universal. Yeah, I guess it's back to the box office. The Last Voyage of the Demeter, of course, is a Dracula movie, because the Demeter is shipped that Dracula was taken from Transylvania to England and basically in the book what you get is some diary entries of people going missing on the ship and stuff like that, but you don't really get what was happening. So this is supposed to be what was happening on the meter during that voyage. So you know that the story ends just with this ship drifting in the port. But anyway, at number 4 is the Meg 2, the trench which fell from number 2 to number 4. The Demeter turtles went from 4 to 3, so it actually got better. Oppenheimer went from number 3 back to number 2, and Barbie stays at number 1. And after only 17 days in theaters, barbie reached the $1 billion mark at the box office, making it the first film directed solely by women to hit the milestone. Now, this week, director Greta Gerwig broke in our record with Barbie becoming the highest grossing movie helmed by women at the domestic box office. Now Barbie has officially become the highest grossing live action movie directed or co-directed by women, beating Captain Marvel, which was helmed by Anna Bodin and Ryan Fleck. Now the only films Barbie needs to be to officially become the highest grossing film directed or co-directed by women are Frozen and Frozen 2, which were helmed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. Frozen's worldwide total was $280 million and Frozen 2 earned $1 billion $450 million. Now this week Barbie did surprise Frozen 2 at the domestic box office, but still has a ways to go to get to that Frozen 2 mark. So time will tell. Now Hollywood might just have to start digging things out of the vault as the strike continues. Personally, I think networks should start digging movies out of their film libraries and bring back the Sunday night, monday night, friday night movie of the week thing. That was something big in the 80s was the Sunday night movie of the week India Jones and the Temple of Doom, things like that. They have this vast film library. Why not sell some time to advertisers? Show a movie? I mean, it's not like there's any production costs in that. Maybe that's an idea for the executives. Anyway, let's get on with today's news, starting with Marvel, and we start Marvel News with McDonald's, which is rolling out a new program celebrating its legacy on film and television with ties into low-key and if you're wondering why this isn't Marvel News with an air experience, as well as a trip back to 1982 at a bridge in New York where era-appropriate merchandise will be available to fans. The announcement calls this the as-featured-in meal, which is a collection of fan-favorite menu items that have made iconic appearances throughout film, television and music. Starting today, the August 14th, the meal will be available in more than 100 countries across the globe and will co-star exclusive experiences for our fans, customers and never-beforeseen content. According to the press release, the meal will include a choice of a 10-piece checked McNugget quarter-pounder with cheese or a Big Mac sandwich, along with medium-world famous fries, a medium soft drink and the newly-branded sweet and sour sauce inspired by McDonald's. Next, as featured in Moment, with McMarvel Studios' Loki Season 2, which starts on October 6th, when fans scan the newly-branded sweet and sour sauce lid on Snapchat, they will unlock exclusive content developed by Marvel Studios, with new content available weekly throughout the promotion. Mcdonald's announced the experience also includes a transporting of Brooklyn McDonald's, specifically 6620 Bay Parkway, brooklyn, new York, back to 1982, with McDonald's memorabilia from the era, bringing fans back in time to a setting seen on the show. The Brooklyn experience will start on August 30th and will last for three days only. So time to get the chicken McNuggets and an award news. Ms Marvel has won a Tilgian Critics Association Award. Now it was announced that the Disney Plus series has won a TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming. Now this was a new category for 2023, and saw the series go up against fellow Disney Plus programs American-born Chinese high school musical, the musical, the series and the mysterious Benedict Society, as well as Disney Child's, marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, apple TV's Jane who lose love, victor, netflix's Never have I Ever and Proud Plus' Star Trek Prodigy. Congratulations to Ms Marvel. Now let's hop on over to some DC Comics news, and we begin DC Comics News with Wes Craven's Swamp Thing, the 1982 live-action adaptation of the DC superhero horror comic. 41 years later, the monster of the marshlands is transformed once again, this time in stunning 4K. Mvd Visual will release the remastered swamp thing as a 4K Ultra HD collector's edition on August 8th, marking the first time Craven's cult classic is available in the enhanced format. First pressings feature a limited edition slip cover, with each set packed with a collectible 4K laser vision mini poster of the cover art. The two-disc set includes a 16-bit scan of the original camera negative restoring both the US theatrical PG cut and the unrated international version in 4K and the new HD restoration of both versions presented in the original 1.851 aspect ratio on Blu-ray. Now let's go to the Star Trek news. In a recent interview with the Happy, sad, confused podcast Olyphant Timothy Olyphant that is revealed that he briefly was in the mix to play James D Kirk in what would become the Kelvin Star Trek films. The role would ultimately go to Chris Pine, but Olyphant still has a positive outlook on the ordeal. Timothy revealed quote here's what I can tell you about Star Trek. I went in and auditioned, not for Captain Kirk, but I remember reading with JT Abrams and he's just a lovely, lovely guy and just a lovely, lovely edition process. Somewhere in there I was auditioning for Doc. He's like I already got Guy for Doc, so I don't need you for that, but I don't have a Kirk. I believe it was one of those things where it's like they might have been prepared to hire me but they want somebody younger and Abrams was having a hard time finding somebody younger and somewhere along the line JJ Caldon said I found the guy younger, who's really good. I have since met Chris Pine and I'm a huge fan of him, both on and off screen. I love the guy. He's a good dude. This sounds very show business, but I had the honor we're going to say honor to go to the Golden Globes one year and spent most of the evening at the bar with Chris Pine. Just really adored him. What a good guy. I really like his work. He's one of those guys who makes it look simple and easy. Auditioning sucks and the fact that I remember the audition process fondly says a lot about JJ Abrams. And what a wonderful man that guy is Well on to other Star Trek franchises. The soundtrack to Subspace Rhapsody, the musical episode of Star Trek Strange New World, is now streaming online. Subspace Rhapsody had original songs written by Tom Poulos and Kay Hanley has performed by the Strange New World cast, including Addison Mount, rebecca Romain, ethan Peck and more. Now Lakeshore Records is releasing the soundtrack, having previously released several soundtracks from Paramount Plus' other Star Trek shows, including the first season of Strange New World. The Subspace Rhapsody soundtrack is available to stream now on services like Spotify, apple Music and Amazon Music and Paramount so listen to it, the closing number I especially have like playing over and over in my head have an earworm. Anyway, on to some business news. Paramount said on Monday it had reached a deal to sell Simon and Schuster, one of the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses in the United States, to the Pop-Pot Private Equity firm KKR. And a major changing of the guard in the books business. Now the deal is for $1.62 billion and will put control of the cultural touchstone behind authors like Stephen King and Bob Woodward in the hands of a financial buyer with an expanding presence in the publishing industry. Of course, simon Schuster has been the long time home for Star Trek books, so it'll be interesting to see how this new company handles the life. Hopefully nothing will change, but you know you might want to keep an eye on that. Anyway, let's go to Star Wars News, where we also have some book news, roger Roger. Star Wars news begins with Billy D Williams, who has revealed a new memoir and now fans know what he's been teasing for the past month on social media. Titled what have we? Here is a his from Penguin House Publishing. Gives the beloved actor the chance to share his story on his own terms. Williams actually revealed the cover for the memoir in People Magazine. Now, while some fans probably believed that this big reveal had something to do with the reported Star Wars Landos series that made waves in the news recently, that has not been the case and made sense that the Star Wars actor would be teasing something big for himself instead of a series that's probably years away at this point. Now here's what Victoria Wilson, the editor, told People Magazine. Quote Billy D Williams has had a fascinating life and career. The book he writes is fun and, like Billy, hard to resist and draws you in unquote. Now here's the description of the memoir, quote a film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades. A heralded author who's played the roles he wanted, from Brian Song to Lando, in the Star Wars universe, unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all white industry in which he triumphed unquote. So memoirs are always are always a fickle thing. Some are good, some are not, so let's see. Anyway, if you want to get your hands on some, on some memorabilia from Star Wars and other franchises, you'll have your chance. Julian's Auctions and Turner Classic Movies are presenting an exclusive collection of over 1400 Hollywood memorabilia, including props, costumes and other artifacts from iconic films such as Star Wars, star Trek, harry Potter and the Terminator. The auction will take place live in Beverly Hills and online on from September 6 to the 8 2023. Some highlights of the auction include Princess Leia's production made slave costume from Return of the Jedi, chewbacca's bowcaster, han Solo's deal deal 44 heavy blaster and Chewbacca's bowcaster from the Force Awakens, the blaster pistol from the Mandalorian and a Dawn post original trilogy, c3po and RTD2 display statues, a Monster Maroon Starfleet Command Officer's Jacket worn by William Shatner in Star Trek II, the original Borecube studio model constructed by Industrial Light and Magic for Star Trek First Contact, and more more stuff from Star Trek V, d-space IX, enterprise, alien, the Elder One from Harry Blood and the Half Blood Prince and original Mark XL II helmet from Iron man 3, the list goes on and on. Captain America's Shield by Chris Evans. Jack Nicholson signed. Joker Glove from Batman appeared in English as Tyrion Lannister hero battle prop. John Favolto's Beretta 93R machine pistol prop from Broken Arrow. The list goes on and on. For more information on this auction, please visit the Julien's Auctions website. So this is a sight to behold for sure. Now let's go on to the geek news with a little interview with Michael Stangland. Hello everyone, and it's interview time. I know we haven't had many air views this year, it's just, it's the way things are right now. But I do have a very special interview right now. Please welcome my guest today, the author of Junk World, the ballad of Leroy Brown. Michael Stangland, how are you doing? I'm doing pretty well. Just watched some construction workers put the fiber optic cable along the power line here on the outside. Yep, we're actually, we're actually going to get fiber optic line soon.

MK Stangeland: 18:17

Okay, well, yes, and anyways, thank you for having me on.

Thomas Townley: 18:21

It's a pleasure to have you Now tell the folks at home a little bit about yourself.

MK Stangeland: 18:27

Well, I guess where do you want to start?

Thomas Townley: 18:29

Because kind of a yeah, kind of like if I was reading the book jacket on the book give me an idea of what that would say.

MK Stangeland: 18:38

Well, yeah, I guess I'm a long time fan of, you know, fiction, science fiction, fantasy. I grew and I up, spent most of my life in the Midwest United States. What I've got, the book, the book specifically it comes from well early, early, I mean. The earliest parts of it came from, you know, a lot of kids growing up there. Parents have them play piano and all that, and well, I was part of that. I did some piano but, funny enough, well, I had two brothers also and you know each of us could only go at one at a time and you know we'd often have TV to watch and one of the things that was on there that we'd often have is robot wars, which is like the UK show where they got robots put in an arena smashing each other who has the best robot, who can survive? And then later now that did that stuck with me, even though it kind of. You know there was a wide gap in there with. You know where those shows kind of died down. And then a few years ago you had Battlebots, which made a revival. Are you familiar with that? Yes, yes, I am Okay. So you've been. Have you been watching any of the recent seasons?

Thomas Townley: 20:05

Not any of the recent seasons. I remember when it was on, I believe, sci-fi.

MK Stangeland: 20:10

Well, yeah, I think that may have been further back. More recently it had like a two season revival on ABC and then it had like a gap before jumping over to a Discovery channel where it's been going ever since then. But anyways, aside from that, I mean robots are kind of one of these things I've kind of had fascination. I'm not exactly a technical minded person but at the same time you have robots, you have these mechanical beings that you know, something that fascinates me about that. So, with you know the revival, you know Battlebots, and then there's also, I mean, I give specific, I give mention to the real steel. Do you remember that movie? Yeah, human Jackman, yeah, okay, in addition to that we're basically robot combat, and so that's at least related to the book. That's kind of like the through line of what I mean, what I mean where that comes and so so. But otherwise, you know I live, you know I still live in the Midwest United States right now. I live with my grandma, kind of as an in-home caretaker kind of situation, and you know I've got my day job and I got other things going on. But you know, but yeah, I mean this is this book is, you know, a big focus for me right now. I'm trying to get word out and let people know because it's I mean, it's it's a project I'm really excited about and I, you know, from the people who have read it thus far I've gotten good reception. So I feel really good that if I can just get word out there, people learn about the book and you know they give it a read and they'll find some and you know they'll find something really exciting about it.

Thomas Townley: 21:53

Okay, so tell us more about the story in the book. Okay.

MK Stangeland: 21:58

So If I went through with Battlebots and all that, I mean that in a way kind of lays the underpinning of it, because the main character named Leroy Brown he is at the start of the book. He's a combat robot, he's a former military robot, but you have those things. Eventually they reach the end of their useful life and so he's a combat robot, more military, that has been repurposed into an arena fighter and he's basically he's undefeated. And at the start of this book he establishes dominance undefeated arena fighter, except then normal maintenance purposes. He gets shut down. But when he wakes up he finds out nothing is the same. He's on a strange world. There's nothing familiar about it and obviously, being an undefeated champion, he knows there's gotta be a mistake here. So he makes it his best to go back home. Now, as he goes up, now, as he tries to make his way back home, there's a robot on this planet Junkroy, that he's on called the Top Dog. And the Top Dog he's on a war path to just conquer the planet and when he learns about Leroy for some, somehow he knows who Leroy is and he wants Leroy brought to him for some reason. Nobody knows why. They just know well, top Dog wants Leroy for some reason. So, basically, leroy and the Top Dogs I mean these two things they cross paths, and Leroy's path to go home that kind of crosses paths, with the Top Dogs attempt to conquer the planet, and it's they become intertwined and the results of one. Basically, he gets intertwined and he thinks, well, I gotta defeat the Top Dog, I go home. And there's some twists in there, though, where things, where it turns out things aren't as he may seem, or there's a lot more going on, and there's things that tie together, are a lot more than they appear to at first.

Thomas Townley: 24:16

Now I have to ask did you get the name Leroy Brown from the song?

MK Stangeland: 24:22

Yes, yes it is. It's both out, both in life and within. Now, it's never explicitly referenced, but one of the things that you'll find is, sometimes these combat robots, they'll be named, they'll pull from your life references. So, yes, and it is the book. The character is, in fact, named after the character from the song, both within the context of the book and in real life it's. I mean, there's some loose references that you could pick up on it, but it's nothing ever explicitly laid out.

Thomas Townley: 25:02

That's one of my favorite Jim Croci songs.

MK Stangeland: 25:05

Yeah, that is a pretty good one.

Thomas Townley: 25:07

Yep. So what was the most challenging part of writing this book?

MK Stangeland: 25:13

Well for writing it. I'd say there's a certain element of now, one of the things that I don't know. If you've heard of the freighters, you know the thing, not exactly the book, but like in script, like a good script is written, I mean, but then there's the rewriting. Like usually, you're not gonna have just no one when writing anything, really gets it the first time. It requires rewrites. And you know this book. No, I didn't write it all. This isn't first draft. It went through multiple drafts and initial planning. However, there's also the flip side of that, where there is such a thing as over rewriting. So so there. So with the actual writing process, there's this question of okay, how much? How much do I have is actually good, how much actually needs to be changed? And making sure I don't change things for the sake of changing is, I mean, what pieces do I have in place that actually work, as I've already written them?

Thomas Townley: 26:20

Now, what do you have? Do you have any future projects in mind right now? Sorry, I didn't catch that. Oh, do you have any future books or projects in the line right now? Yes, I?

MK Stangeland: 26:33

it's definitely. I definitely have. I definitely have things. I'm working on different plans. I've the book I've. I mean this book I actually originally wrote a few years ago and then I initially went through the typical you know publishing process. You know, you write it, you try and find an agent and see if an agent might. But the closest I have I have like one agent that genuinely expressed interest, one that said, well, I mean I might have interest, come back to me later. I did, but then no, then another person kind of spoke to a little, but then that kind of fell apart. So the initial process was I wrote this. Nobody seemed to want, nobody seemed to be interested. So I set it aside, thinking okay, maybe if I write something else I can come back to this later. Well then, later I wound up going through it's kind of a hybrid publishing process, rather than your typical it's kind of combination of both. But thing is, this isn't the only book I've done that with, and I got like two or three others that I mean those are ones on standby in addition to right now. Right now I am in this deep in the middle of the second draft of it's actually a fantasy story that I'm putting together. That's. It's a bit of a different approach where a lot of these, where most of the books I write, I kind of plan it out, do a lot of planning before I start writing. And this one, this one I'm writing right now, which is a fantasy one, is I kind of jumped in and kind of the planning kind of took place after the fact. But it relies heavily on like partway through I started reading into a lot of certain classic fan. You know kind of. I kind of joke to myself. That's kind of a working title of like Dante presents Alice's journey into the center of the crystal of Oz, or something like that. I don't know, I keep changing because I don't have it written, but it's. There's a lot of different older titles that I'm kind of pulling from and throwing together and there's a weird sense of is there pieces that you might be recognized some of these titles? But is it really its own thing? But then I got like a long list of ideas that one way or another I'd like to go to. But so yeah, I've got definitely a bunch of ideas and I've got different projects. I'm hoping it won't be too long before I get my next one where it's ready to go out there.

Thomas Townley: 29:18

Well, that's awesome. Now, before I let you go, I want to give you a little. You know, I always think of these as my best asset. These are interview cards from Popdex and I guess some of my best answers from my guests on these, so let's give them a go.

MK Stangeland: 29:41

Sounds like fun.

Thomas Townley: 29:43

Yes, think of it. You remember the old Daily Show with Craig Kilborn. You said do five questions.

MK Stangeland: 29:51

I don't think I mean. I think the name is familiar, but I don't think I've ever watched that, but I think it's kind of like pop quiz questions that even you don't know what the questions are going to be.

Thomas Townley: 30:02

Yep, these test you personally. If you could be a personal assistant to anyone, who would it be? Oh?

MK Stangeland: 30:11

is it? Is it like anyone alive or just anyone? Just anyone. I'm going to, I think easiest answer come with George Lucas.

Thomas Townley: 30:25

Good answer. I think a lot of people would like that. Next one what is your kryptonite?

MK Stangeland: 30:33

I'll tie my head Probably time limitations, I think.

Thomas Townley: 30:40

I think time time gets us all in the end.

MK Stangeland: 30:44

Yeah, I mean, and it's. It's weird because it's one of those things where they're a good thing, but when you really feel in the clock it really takes something to not let that time pressure get to you. So it's, so it's, it's a really good thing, but also it can really it's oof.

Thomas Townley: 31:02

All right. If you had to lose one of your five senses, which one would you give up?

MK Stangeland: 31:10

I'm going to say probably smell. I mean there is. I've heard that there's a close association between smell and taste, but I at least base I'm guessing that probably be the one.

Thomas Townley: 31:29

if I lost it I'd feel the least hindrance, that's what book do you think should be mandatory for everyone on the planet to read?

MK Stangeland: 31:41

I got at least a couple answers that I could Okay this, this, this might be a this might be a bit of an unexpected one, but I'd say, right now, the world as it is, I think a book that if everyone read it it solved a lot of problems would be basic economics by Thomas Soal. Yeah, I mean, I read, I read that, not go in. I'd say I look at you, look at the world, you look at you know, you look at the way a lot of people react and behave in it. I think that, if I mean that would go a long way towards, you know, getting people to, you know reevaluate the world and reevaluate their approach, and it's just, it's definitely, I mean, I think that would, I mean, have a big impact.

Thomas Townley: 32:38

All right. Well, I think that's a very, very good answer.

MK Stangeland: 32:41

You know, we all need a little help economically and well and you know the thing is it's not just monetary economics, but it covers just economics, Like, as it says you know, everything in some form is economics, so yeah, All right, well, again, the book is Junk World, the belt of Leroy Brown.

Thomas Townley: 33:01

Thank you very much for joining us, michael.

MK Stangeland: 33:04

And thank you, thank you again. Thank you for having me on.

Thomas Townley: 33:08

All right, and we'll see. You see around the galaxy. Now back to me in this very same studio, in a different shirt, and I'd like to thank Michael Stanglund for the interview and hope him success with his book. Now on to well, I guess a little bit bad news, depending on how you look at Disney is trying to swing its streaming business into the black, and they've done this by setting up a substantial price hike for Disney plus and Hulu in the United States, while also rolling out a heavily discount Hulu plus Disney plus Hulu ad free combo bundle. As of October 12th, the Disney plus premium with no ads will jump 27%, going from $10.99 to 1399. Us Hulu without ads will increase 20% from 1499 to 1799 a month and the price for the Disney plus Hulu standalone ad support tier will remain at 799 each and the bundle for the two will still be $9.99 a month. In addition, the monthly price of the two Hulu plus live TV packages will go up by $7 as of October 12. The plan of the ads will go to $76.99. And the tier with no ads on VOD rises to $89.99. And ESPN plus prices will increase by $1 from $9.99 to $10.99. Good luck with that. The writers and actors strike is getting a boost from the comics world with a new superhero named General Strike In. The publisher, black Mask Studios, run by Matteo Pizzolo, is putting together a comic synthology that's being written by WGA members, with the company matching the writers fees with donations to the safety net organization Entertainment Community Fund. Now this comes as the writers day has passed its 100th. Writer strike has passed its 100th day, with no new contract talks scheduled to begin anytime soon, although rumors are that they are getting back to the table. Tied, general Strike Collected and Other Tales of Fighting the Good Fight. The collection of new stories has a theme of confranging economic inequality and, like any good superhero story, features new characters fighting the good fight against injustice. A bubblegum chewing labor organizing character named General Strike will act as the host for the comic, threading the stories together. The book is currently in pre-launch mode on Kickstarter now, with an official launch set for August 15th. According to a new study in the Ecology and Herpetology Journal, scientists have discovered a new species of sucker mouth catfish along West Africa's Niger River, which shares some similarities with the franchise's fictional hobbits. In particular, the fish are seen as diminutive travelers who were separated at great distance from their fellow catfish, much like the hobbits, are in JRR tokens. As a result, the brown and white fish has officially been named Cholegolneas Frodobagneses. A second sister species of sucker mouth catfish, the Chiloglannus micropogon, has also been discovered in Liberia. According to their findings, the Cholegolneas Frodobagneses is a small to medium-sized catfish that ranges in size from about 0.75 inches long to 1.75 inches long. It's usually medium brown, with light brown spots on the back and the yellow-cream colored front side and face Bagginses. Kevin Smith's next movie, the 4.30 movie, is set to go on production in a month or two. The filmmaker revealed this during the script reading for Superman Lives and its status as an independent film with a complete script allowed Smith to apply for a waiver from the Screen Actors Guild, american Federation of Television and Radio Artist Sagastra, who informed him over the weekend that his waiver had been granted. The movie will star Austin Zajur from Clerks 3 in the lead role and center-side group of teens in the 80s who pay to get into one movie and spend the entire day theater-hopping. The Writers Guild of America also own Strike and while Smith's own scripts tend to be for his independent film studio, the USQ Productions, rather than the Alliance for Motion Picture, intelligent Producers against whom Writers are striking. He told fans that he hasn't picked up a pen except to write his name since May. Happily for him, the 4.30 movie script had already been completed. Smith told the assembled crowd, quote Even though the Writers are striking, my script was written so we were getting ready to go into production Last week. We were supposed to be in production but then Sag struck the Screen Actors Guild and you can make a movie without Writers if you've got a script already, which we did. You can't make a movie without Actors. So that kind of killer plans for the summer to shoot the movie unless we could qualify for a waiver. Since the movie was never going to be an AMPTP movie that's who the strike is against they gave us a chance to apply for Sag to get a waiver and since we were already a low-budget movie it's only $3 million our movie is now a threat to Sag or WGA. It doesn't set back the cause. So Sag gave out 39 waivers already to productions that were 3 days away from wrapping or something like that low-budget productions that were not AMPTP related productions. So we applied for a waiver and we were really hoping to get one so that we could maybe shoot the movie this summer instead of waiting until the strike ends. Here's something I found out last night we got our waiver, so that means by the end of August we're going to start shooting a movie right over here. It's set in 1986, and it's set in this movie theater right here and it's kind of about me and clerk star Ernie O'Donnell and our friend Michael Bellicos and what we used to do with our free times when we were kids. We would go to the movies at the movieplex like this, pay for one movie and then hop from movie to movie all day long and see free movies. We wish Kevin well. And beginning in January, image Comics will partner with Simon and Schuster for an exclusive international distribution deal in the bookstore market. The deal will go into place in January of 2024 for titles on sale that month which will be solicited in October. Previously exclusive to Diamond Book distributors, indie Comics will join Viz Media, boom Studios and our graphic novel publishers on the Summon and Schuster distribution client list. Image Comics will continue its relationship with Diamond Book distributors to serve the UK and the international book market. Finally, tonight we say goodbye to those who have gone before us. Johnny Hardwick, who played the conspiracy theory living Dale Gribble on the long running and made sitcom King of the Hill, has passed away. He was 64 years old. Hardwick appeared in over 250 episodes of the original King of the Hill, which hails from Beavison Butt Head and office space creator Mike Judge. The actor was expected to return for the upcoming revival of the series, although at present it's not clear that he actually recorded any new lines for the show. King of the Hill has been off the air for 12 years but has always felt like a piece of American pop culture given its frequent reruns. A native of Austin, texas Hardwick, graduate with a degree in journalism from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, he would go on to be a bartender and then a stand-up comic in the area, before breaking into Hollywood with a stand-up appearance on the John Stuart show. He was the first comedian ever to perform on the show, which ran from 93 to 95 on MTV and in syndication Again. Johnny Hardwick was 64 years old. And finally tonight, director William Friedkin, best known for his Oscar-winning the French Connection and blockbuster the Exorcist, passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 87. His death was confirmed by Chapman University Dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin's wife, sherry Lansing. His final film, the Cain Mutiny Court Martial, starring Keith Erseland, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Along with Pierre Bogdanic, francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby, friedkin rose to the ateless staz in the 70s. Part of a new generation of vibrant, risk-taking filmmakers. Combining his experience with television, particularly in documentary film, with a cutting-edge style of editing, friedkin brought a great deal of energy to the horror and police-roller genres in which he specialized. Friedkin did do some TV work on series like Tales from the Crypt, the Twilight Zone, space Quest and Cat Squad, and in 2000, directed the moderately successful military drama Rules of Engagement. He was married to Studio Head Sherry Lansing in 1991. He once again began directing film on a regular basis at that time. In between, he directed a remake of a 12-angry man for cable that was well-received, and as well as the documentary Howard Hawks, american Artist, also a re-release of the Exorcist with Supplementary Footage. And during the 2000s, friedkin took to the big screen with the 2003 thriller the Hunted, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro, and 2007's horror movie Bug, which starred Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr, with Tracy Letts adapting his own stage play with Friedkin had seen in 2004. In 2011, he finished Killer Joe, which Letts adapted from his own play with Matthew McConaughey and Emily Hirsch in the lead, and the controversial crime pic had a limited release in the US in 2012. Friedkin also directed two episodes of CSI. Born in Chicago, friedkin attended San Hai School, where he was not much of a student but sought to develop his best while prowess to pro-level. Since he never grew taller than six feet, however, he changed his career path to journalism. The director had spent years working in the documentary form, himself appearing in many documentaries over the years about films and filmmakers, including 2003's, a Decade Under the Influence and Pure Cinema Through the.

MK Stangeland: 43:54

Eyes of the Master.

Thomas Townley: 43:58

He has survived by his fourth wife, lansing, and two sons. Again, william Friedkin passed away at the age of 87. And that brings us to the end of our little show for today. Now be sure to check us out on social media. We're at Twitter at Multiverse Tom. We're also on Facebook and Instagram as well, as well as threads at Multiverse Tom and now, or Multiverse Tonight, I should say, if you found value in the show or just feel like contributing a dollar to check out our show notes visiting the Tee Public Store, so much more, head on over to multiversetonightcom. And if you're a subscriber, be sure to share it with friends. And if you're brand new to the show, please be sure to hit that subscribe button. And while you're at it, please some feedback. Let me know how we're doing. Special thanks to Shane Ivers for the intro music and Lobo Loco for the outro theme music. And again thanks to Michael Stenglen for the interview. Thanks for watching this edition of Multiverse Tonight. We'll be back in two weeks with more sci-fi and comic book news. Now please exit the universe in an orderly fashion.

MK Stangeland: 45:15

Good night.

Thomas Townley: 45:24

Multiverse Tonight is a production of half-baked genre production. Copyright 2023. All rights reserved. This podcast is part of the Pop Goes the Culture podcast network. Find out about our other podcasts at popgoostheculturecom.