April 6, 2021

Sim Shatner

Sim Shatner

On the Sci-Fi edition,  Voyagers Documentary finishes fundraising with big numbers, Obi-Wan has their cast. Shatner goes virtual and a new Bewitched movie?,  all that and more on the scifi edition of Multiverse Tonight!

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Transcript

Tonight! Voyagers Documentery finishes fundraising, Obi-Wan has their cast and a new Bewitched movie, all that and more on the scifi edition of Multiverse Tonight!



Welcome to episode 120 ….


Star Trek

The kickstarter Star Trek Voyager Documentary has finished fundraising with nearly 1.3 million dollars, it also has gained a title, the film will be called To The Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek Voyager. The documentary from 455 films, which was the team behind several other Star Trek docs like What We Left Behind, For the Love of Spock and Chaos on the Bridge has only just started work on the production. They hope to have it ready to premiere late next year.


Leonard Nimoy’s family and Boston’s Museum of Science have announced a new tribute to the late actor, a Vulcan Salute Monument.  The Museum will have a 20 foot illuminated stainless steel hand giving the Vulcan Salute at the entrance to the museum. Julie Nimoy said in a statement quote The “Live Long and Prosper” symbol represents a message that my dad believed so strongly in,” “My dad always loved Boston and he would be honored knowing that the Museum of Science would be the permanent home to this memorial. The sculpture not only depicts one of the world’s most recognized and loved gestures for peace, tolerance, and diversity, but it will also be a beautiful tribute to my dad’s life and legacy.” unquote In a separate statement Tim Ritchie, president of the Museum of Science said quote “Leonard Nimoy was one of our own. Growing up a few blocks from the Museum of Science, he never forgot his immigrant roots. He was, and forever will be, a beloved part of our Museum family,” “He lifted our aspirations and hopes through his commitment to science, intellectual curiosity, generosity, and, yes, logic. He reminded us about the best part of humanity and gave us a vision for building a society based on reason and tolerance. The opportunity to pay tribute to him is a great honor and what better day to make this announcement than on what would have been his 90th birthday.” unquote. I think that's really neat and a nice tribute, thing is, the artwork they made to demonstrate what the monument looks like just makes me think of Michael Jackson. You should check it out folks, it’s a giant silver hand in the Vulcan greeting. It’s….something.


Hanelle Culpepper has won the NAACP Image Award for Directing in a Drama Series for the  Star Trek Picard series premiere.  Star Trek Lower Decks was also nominated for two awards for Outstanding Animated Series and Outstanding Character Voice Over Performance Television, but they lost out to Doc McStuffins. Congratulations to all the winners.


William Shatner is going virtual. The 90 year old has signed up with Story file, a company focused on artificial intelligence as it’s brand ambassador. Satner will become the first person to use a new program called StoryFile Life to create quote "an AI-powered interactive conversational video so family and friends can interact with him for years to come." Shatner's profile will be made available for the public to interact with in May. Storyfile Co Founder and CEO Heather Maio Smith said quote “William Shatner is going where no one has gone before,” “Generations in the future will be able to have a conversation with him. Not an avatar, not a deep fake, but with the real William Shatner answering their questions about his life and work. This changes the trajectory of the future — of how we experience life today, and how we share those lessons and stories for generations to come.”StoryFile co-founder, Stephen Smith, added, "Who better to show the world how StoryFile Life works than, William Shatner, a man the world knows for stretching our imaginations about the future and life in this universe and beyond. A man who has always generously shared the highs and lows with us, and who has mastered the art of storytelling." unquote So I guess when this goes live I should interview his A.I? Could I then argue that I really did interview him? This opens up a whole weird can of worms.


PAramount Plus is trying to make April fifth their answer to Disney’s Star Wars Day May the Fourth. April fifth is recognizable to Star Trek fans as the day the Vulcans made first contact with humanity. Paramount Plus will have a virtual event on the service where you can quote join hosts Wil Wheaton and Mica Burton for FREE virtual panels and programming celebrating First Contact Day with the iconic cast members and creative minds from the “Star Trek” universe, here at StarTrek.com/FirstContact, presented by Paramount+.

The panels begin at 12:00 PM PT with Welcome and Intro remarks unquote The panels will be quote The First Contact Day themed panels and panelists are as follows:

Star Trek: First Contact 25th Anniversary Panel: featuring cast members Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner and Alice Krige as they discuss behind-the-scenes memories and the film’s importance 25 years after its premiere.


Creating First Contacts Panel: Costume Designer Gersha Phillips (Star Trek: Discovery), Senior Concept Designer Neville Page, VFX Supervisor Jason Zimmerman and Make-up & Prosthetics Department Head James Mackinnon (Star Trek: Picard) come together in conversation about creating the incredible worlds of Star Trek, as seen in Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard.


Women In Motion Panel: featuring Star Trek: Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green, Star Trek: Picard’s Michelle Hurd and Isa Briones, and Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Dawnn Lewis as they look back at how Star Trek: The Original Series actress Nichelle Nichols helped pave the way for women of color on television and overall, her lasting impact on not only Star Trek, but science and culture. 


Second Contact Panel: Mike McMahan, the creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Paul F. Tompkins, the co-host of Star Trek: The Pod Directive and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes discuss how some of the hilarious B-stories from past series like Star Trek: The Next Generation paved the way for new iterations of Star Trek, including Star Trek: Lower Decks, the Star Trek franchise’s first animated comedy. 


Star Trek: Prodigy Panel: series executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman are joined by Star Trek: Voyager’s Captain Kathryn Janeway herself, Kate Mulgrew, who is reprising her role in animated form in Prodigy, as they talk about the highly anticipated upcoming CG-animated kids series.


Fans worldwide will be able to livestream the First Contact Day panels for free at StarTrek.com/FirstContact. The panels will also be available to stream for free in the U.S. on PlutoTV and Paramount+’s Twitch page.


After their initial airing, the panels will be available on-demand on Paramount+’s YouTube Channel and on Paramount+. Unquote Hopefully there will be some news announcements about  future Star Trek shows or movies that day as well.


William Shatner will be honored at this years WWE Wrestlemania event Wrestlemania 37 as a celebrity inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. Shatner has made a few appearances on WWE Programming including when he flipped Jerry The King Lawler back in 1995 and his stint as a guest general manager of Raw in 2010. Shatner told USA Today about the honor quote "It's very much the same, the approbation, the joy," "The enthusiasm the wrestling audience shows toward its favorite people is not dissimilar to the enthusiasm 'Star Trek' fans show. This year's induction ceremony will take place inside the WWE ThunderDome at Raymond James Stadium on April 6 and will induct both the Class of 2020 and 2021 after last year's ceremony was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The list of inductees includes The New World Order (Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman), JBL, The British Bulldog, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, The Bella Twins, Molly Holly, Eric Bischoff, Kane, The Great Khali and Rob Van Dam.







Star Wars

Star Wars the High Republic Writer Cavan Scott teased an origin story for the Hutts in the pages of the book series. He told the ComicBook Nation podcast quote "I think that this gives us a chance to look at the Hutts as an organization, as a group, in the same way the High Republic gives us a chance to look at what the Jedi, when Obi Wan talks about the Jedi and he's talking about that period of when they were at their height which obviously isn't the pre-courses as we see find out when we see the prequels, you know I think we all expected that's what the prequels were," Scott told us. "And then through the story, we realized that it was rose-tinted glasses from before that. With the Hutts as well, we know that with the warlords, there is a history there when they weren't just a bunch of gangsters, they had power then they've got their own area of space. They've got Hutt Space. And so then there must have been conflicts when we were discussing the idea of Republic pushing out into the frontier that yes, they would come up against the Nihil, but they would also come up against people like the Hutts who have had a free reign in that past space." unquote He also noted that the Hutts were a more active crime syndicate at this period of time before the Republic took a hold on the territory.


The Obi-Wan Kenobi series has revealed it’s full cast and announced the start of production will start soon. The series is set 10 years after Obi-Wan’s duel with Anakin in Revenge of the Sith and will see Ewan McGregor return to the role of  Ben and Hayden Christensen putting himself back in Vader’s suit. They will be joined by Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie. No word on what characters anyone is playing.


News has also dropped about the new Star Wars animated series THe Bad Batch, a new trailer was released. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsOmYpP4UDU


The series will take place in the period of time between Episodes III and IV. The show has Ming Na Wen as Fennec Shand as well as the returns of Captain Rex and Saw Gerrera. Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Athena Portillo (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels), Brad Rau (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance) and Jennifer Corbett (Star Wars Resistance, NCIS) with Carrie Beck (The Mandalorian, Star Wars Rebels) as co-executive producer and Josh Rimes as producer (Star Wars Resistance). Rau is also serving as supervising director with Corbett as head writer. Star Wars THe Bad Batch debuts on Disney Plus on Star Wars Day, May the 4th.


If you’ll remember the last scifi edition, I mentioned that they need to add the Droids animated series since Disney Plus was adding the Ewoks series. Well Star Wars dot com in the announcement of all the new content being put on Disney Plus under the Vintage Star Wars Banner mentioned that Star Wars Droids, the companion series to Ewoks later this year. I have fond memories of watching that show.



Geek

Ryan Reynolds video game movie Free Guy has a new release date, August thirteenth. Free Guy sees Reynolds playing a bank teller NPC in an open world video game, oblivious to the unusuality of the world around him, until he gains free will.The film also stars Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Camille Kostek.


Netflix has given a release date is the movie The Mitchells Vs The Machines, the animated comedy from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller was announced a while back and will now come out on April 30th. Previously announced cast members Abbi Jacobson (Disenchantment, Broad City), Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones), Maya Rudolph (Big Mouth), Eric André (Disenchantment) and Olivia Colman will be joined by Fred Armisen (Big Mouth), Beck Bennett (Saturday Night Live), Chrissy Teigen (Mr. Mayor) and husband John Legend (Coming 2 America), Charlyne Yi (Summer Camp Island), late-night host Conan O’Brien, Sasheer Zamata (Woke, SNL), Jay Pharaoh (White Famous, SNL), Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls), Griffin McElroy (Dimension 20) and relative newcomer Elle Mills.


Sony is remaking the Bewitched movie again. The new movie will be written by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett and produced by John Davis and John Fox. Bewitched was first made into a movie in 2005 and starred Nichole Kidman and Will Ferrell in the lead roles of Samantha and Darrin. No casting announcements have been made.


The National Treasure tv series has been greenlit for a 10 episode season at Disney Plus. The show from Jerry Bruckheimer and original writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley will be a reimagining of the National Treasure movies. According to Deadline dot com, the series will explore the timely issues of identity, community, historical authorship and patriotism, told from the point of view of Jess Morales, a twenty-year-old DREAMer who, with her diverse group of friends, sets off on the adventure of a lifetime to uncover her mysterious family history and recover lost treasure. A new National Treasure movie with Nicholas Cage is still in the works.


A new Spinoff of the movie What We Do In The Shadows has been acquired by The CW and HBO Max. Wellington Paranormal will take us back to the homeland of the movie, New Zealand and follows the adventures of two incurious police officers from the What We Do in the Shadows movie. It revolves around Officers O’Leary (Karen O’Leary) and Minogue (Mike Minogue), who both appeared in the film. They are hard-working members of the Wellington constabulary’s paranormal unit who, under the supervision of Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu), investigate supernatural occurrences that arise in the capital of New Zealand on a surprisingly regular basis. The show was launched on New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ2 in 2018 and has two seasons in the can with a third now in production. THe comedy will be shown first on The CW this summer and then will be available for streaming on HBO Max.


A new Transformers movie is in the works from filmmaker Angel Manuel Soto according to an exclusive in the hollywood reporter, Soto will direct a script from Marco Ramirez. What this movie is about is unknown, what is known is that it is being developed separately from the main Transformers movie franchise. 


Ronald D. Moore is developing a series based on A Court of Thorns and Roses books by Sarah J Maas. Moore is writing the pilot along with Maas for a live action series at Hulu. The book series launched in 2105 and tells the story of a human 19-year-old huntress, Feyre Archeron, who is brought into the fantastic lands of Prythian after murdering a faerie wolf in the woods. There are five books in the series.The show’s description is quote "A Court of Thorns and Roses blends epic romance, adventure, and political intrigue in a tale of a huntress who agrees to travel to a magical realm with a faerie lord in return for her family’s safety, only to fall for him and ultimately fight for that love when an ancient curse threatens to destroy the faerie and human realms."


And on that note, Author George R.R. Martin has signed a massive five year overall deal with HBO. Sources speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the story say that the contract will last five years and is worth mid eight figures. Martin is currently busy developing the series Who Fears Death and Roadmarks for HBO and other projects based on his work and someday he will finish his Game of Thrones Book series….someday.


Godzilla Vs Kong has exceeded expectations bringing in 48.5 million in its first five days, the best showing for a movie since the CoVid Pandemic began. Planet wide, the movie made 285.4 million dollars. The movie could have done better but only half the theaters in the US are open and many theaters in Europe remain closed.




And that brings us to the end of the scifi news. *Show Ender*

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Thanks for watching the SciFi edition of Multiverse Tonight, We will be back in two days with a new comic book edition and two weeks with a new SciFi edition. Now please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good Night!  


Multiverse Tonight is a production of Half-Baked Genre Productions. Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved.