The End of a Con and a Strike?

Tonight Trek Spiders, the Guillermo del Toro Star Wars movie that never happened, Kneel Before Zods new comic book, and remember visual effects and stop-ocean artist Pete Kozachik. All that and more on this edition of Multiverse tonight Comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and more. If you're looking for a roundup of geeky news, you're in the right place. This is Multiverse Tonight. Here's our host, thomas Townley. Hello everyone and welcome to Multiverse Tonight. And we have to start the program today with a little breaking news, and this break news of Hollywood Deal. Wga and AMPTP reached historic contract agreement to end 146-day Writer Strike. Now, according to the article, negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture Intelligent Producers reached the finish line Sunday after five consecutive days of negotiations. Day four on Saturday mostly involved lawyers for the Guild and AMPTP hashing out the fine print of the new agreement. The nitty gritty details have not been released yet, but we do know that the use of generative AI in content production was one of the last items that he's worked on before closing the pact. According to the WGA's Negotiation Committee and an email sent to members at 7.10pm Pacific, we can say with great pride that this deal is exceptional, with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership. Now, the strike itself will still be enforced through the Guild's contract approval and ratification process, but picketing has been suspended as of Sunday night. Guild leaders are expected to vote on Tuesday on whether to formally lift the strike order. Now, to be clear, no one is returning to work yet, so don't expect anything to be put to paper just yet. Of course, if this does happen, the actors are still on strike. So while things will be written, there will be no actors to act it out Now. Of course, the first thing we'll probably see is the late night and daytime talk shows go back into production, of course sans actors being able to talk about their work because they're still on strike. So hopefully we can see that soon. But I got some sad news to report. The Smallville Con, the convention I go to every summer in Hutchinson to spread my knowledge of podcasting and just enjoy in general, has called it quits. He just wasn't making enough money, I guess, according to John Robinson, the producer of the con, so they just decided to pull the plug and I'm sad. That was pretty much my hometown con. That's the con I went to just enjoy. So it's sad, but I'll try to put some effort into the ICT cons in which talks With every door closing, there's always a window opening somewhere. Anyway, let's get on to the Star Trek news. Resilient scientists have identified three new species of spider and named them after Star Trek's original trio of characters, captain James T Kirk, mr Spock and Dr McCoy. The researchers, headquartered in the Emilio Gioldi Parnis Museum in Perra, dubbed the Latin American spiders R Kirk, r Spock and R McCoy. The scientists discovered R Kirk in Costa Rica, found R Spock in Campeche, mexico, and met R McCoy in the Baja California desert of Mexico. The team recently published their findings in the European Journal of Taxonomy. The research team named the spiders for Star Trek characters because of their shape, which reminded the researchers of Starfleet Starships. Axandro B Bolnado, who co-authored the paper of the team's finding, told the New York Times quote they somewhat resemble Star Trek spaceships. Archeologists have a long tradition of giving interesting scientific names to new genre and species, as most of us believe is a great opportunity to acknowledge people or draw parallels with pop culture and local customs. Now these three spiders are nowhere near me, so that's a good thing. Wizkids has announced Star Trek Into the Unknown, a new tactical fleet game featuring major versions of various starships. The new game will launch in 2024 and will feature ships designed to scale so that larger ships, like the US Airprise, will tower over smaller ships. Stars will be able to equip those ships with different commanders, which gives their ships unique abilities. The core set for the game will feature Federation and Dominion fleets, including a Ghastly Class Starship, a Constellation Class Starship, a Defiant Class Starship, a Gemhadar Battle Cruiser, two Gemhadar fighters. Now, for reference, the Ghastly Class Enterprise is 6 inches long and sits on two bases. While Star Trek Into the Unknown is a skirmish game, there will be multiple ways to play, including narrative arcs that include a campaign mode and individual instant missions. These keep in line with Star Trek's general theme, which balances spaceship battles with more nuanced missions and objectives that don't often involved the destruction of a Starship. Now WizKids has released our Star Trek ship-focused games, including Star Trek Attack Wing and Star Trek Frontiers. Both of these games solely feature flagship-sized ships, while Star Trek Into the Unknown mixes both large craft and smaller shuttles and Starships. Star Trek Into the Unknown will be released in April of 2024, with the Federation vs Dominion Core set costing $149.99. Star Trek Strange New World Season 2 is head to Blu-ray, 4k, ultra HD Blu-ray and DVD. Paramount Home Entertainment has announced a Star Trek Strange New World Season 2, which includes those old scientists, the crossover episode between Lord Dex and Strange New World and Subspace Rhapsody. The first musical episode will arrive on home video on December 5th, including a limited edition Blu-ray steelbook set. The Star Trek Strange New World Season 2 home media release has more than two hours of special features, including behind-the-scenes featurettes and exclusively extended and alternate scenes. Star Trek Strange New World Season 2's 4K DVD 4 collections include all 10 episodes of the season plus special features, and the 4K UHD and Blu-ray limited edition steelbooks will have a Subspace Rhapsody poster. The 4K UHD, which includes four exclusive character magnets, also allows fans to customize its packaging art and the special features, including featurettes that go behind the scenes to reveal the making of season 2, among those is all it can take to the Klingon song from Subspace Rhapsody. There will also be producing props, the costumes closet the gore and singing in space, exploring new worlds and other deleted, extended and alternate scenes. So look out for those coming soon, and this will be a treat. Sir Patrick Stewart will recount his life story, including plenty of Star Trek and X-Men and Oats in his new memoir Making it so, which comes out on October 3rd. Stewart, who, of course, also narrate the audiobook edition of the memoir itself, said in an Instagram post quote revisiting my life from my earliest memories and into the present has been an illuminating journey for me. It's a life lived far beyond my expectations and I hope you enjoy reading the book this fall. Unquote. Now Stewart told Armitainment Weekly that he chose to write the book himself and turned down offers from ghost writers. So Stewart took advantage of COVID lockdowns and started writing. Quote from the moment that I raised my hands to start typing the first sentence, I was lost, and I didn't expect to be. It took me a while to realize how immersed I was. This will sound rather pretentious, but it would take some time for me to shift my head for my childhood, my teenage years, my first experiences as an actor, back to today and now and what I really want for supper. Unquote Now. Patrick Stewart was born in Yorkshire, england, and got his start acting for the Bristol Old Vic Company and later the Royal Shakespearean Company. He began taking film and TV roles in the early 80s, including small roles in Excalibur and Dune, before signing on to play Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek the Next Generation, which premiered in 1997 and ran through 1994. He subsequently reprised the role in several Star Trek franchise movies and Star Trek Picard, which aired its final episode recently. He also played Professor Charles Xaver in several X-Men movies and guested on shows like Frasier and Extras, among other roles. In 2015, stewart told Rolling Stone that his next-generation castmates helped him loosen up after years of taking acting too seriously. Quote If I'm funny in any way at all, they made me funny. Oh my God, if I'm going to keep up with these guys, I've got to find a way to be funny as well, and so I did. On Star Trek, we made this pledge to one another Each one of us would be responsible for one big belly laugh a day, so you could say that's seven to nine big laughs. That's not bad for a day of work, is it? Unquote. You know I look forward to this. I look forward to the audiobook, because you know you just can't beat Patrick Stewart's dulcet tones. Anyway, let's go on to the Star Wars news. Roger, roger, star Wars news begins with Marvel's Star Trek Revelations comic book number one arriving December 20th, and there's a sneak peek of what lies ahead in the Star Wars comics galaxy. Similar to last year's one shot the same name, 2023's edition of Revelations will feature various short stories that set the stage for Marvel's Star Trek line in the coming year. The creator lineup this time around includes Mark Guggenheim, charles Sol, greg Peck, mark Bernardin, alyssa Wong, ethan Sacks and Kevin Scott, with Selvador La Roca, will Sliny, marika Kresta, abraham Robertson and more and handling the art duties. The upcoming stories previewed the span, the High Republic to the original trilogy, with Jabba the Hutt, darth Vader, mace Windu, keeve, trennus, thrawn and more appearing, along with the debut of several new characters. Guillermo del Toro was set around four years ago to direct a Star Wars movie that never came to be. Screenwriter David S Goyer revealed to the Happy, sad, confused podcast. Quote he wrote an unproduced Star Trek movie that Guillermo del Toro was going to direct. When asked why the project never took off, mr Goyer told the podcast host quote there was just a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on at Lucasfilm at the time, but it's a cool script. There's a lot of cool artwork that was produced, unquote. Now del Toro chimed in via Twitter fairly quickly to affirm Goyer's account of events quote true, can't say much, maybe two layers J and BB. Is that three layers? Unquote, now, probably assuming to the character of Jabba the Hutt and BB-8. Now, goyer also shared during his recent podcast appearance that he wrote a script, a scriptment, for an Origins of the Jai movie, set 25,000 years before the events of the franchise that we currently know. But the project has likewise gotten unproduced, how Yvence Colest was in. A bit unfortunate, he suggested because, quote dabbling further in Star Wars would have been fun for him unquote. Even if he was able to dip his toe into the world of the series via the VR project. Vader Immortal. Even if del Toro's Star Wars pick never came to pass, it seems that the kernel of Goyer's idea for his Origins project has lived on in the form of a forthcoming film to be held by James Van Gold, which was announced as Star Wars Celebration in London back in April. When, chatting with Arrow 9 two months later, the filmmaker described the project as quote kind of the Ten Commandments of the Force, a kind of origin story of how the Force came to be known under so-d-wielded-in-harnessed unquote. Also coming up for Lucasfilm on the film side of Star Wars are new titles from Dave Filoni and Shermin Oba Chinoy. Daisy Ridley is also set to reprise her role as Rey in the latter film. Donald Glover is shifting gears with his planned Disney Plus Land of Ceres. The project is now being developed for has a film for Lucasfilm. According to the Hollywood Reporter, glover's brother, stephen Glover, has been working on the project with Donald before the writer strike began this past May and during an appearance on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast posted on past Thursday, he revealed the latest plans were to make the film. The project is currently on hold amid the dual writer and actor strike. Now, donald Glover played Land of Corral Colorisian in 2018's Solo, a Star Wars story, and did a fantastic job. If you ask me, the film was a box office bomb, but Glover earned a strong response for the work on the character and in December 2020, disney announced the series was in the works. Justin Simeon, who wrote Haunted Mansion, was initially tapped to develop the series, but exited prior to Donald and Stephen Glover taking over writing duties. That was when the project morphed into a feature film. Now let's go on to the Marvel News. We begin Marvel News with Marvel having announced a new five issue Power Pack mini-series, which will reunite series co-creators Louise Simonson and June Brigham To help Power Pack into the storm. The book will be set during Simonson and Brigham's original run and will pit the team of young superior siblings against some new challenges. The first issue of Power Pack into the storm will be available wherever comics are sold on January 24th 2024. Simonson shared with Marvelcom quote it's funny how easy it is to slip back into Power Pack. I love hinting at Franklin's nascent abilities, but too powerful for even them to contain completely. Love introducing a couple of snark princesses good and tragic, and delving a bit deeper into snark culture. And I loved writing Alex, julie, jack and Katie one more time. The X-Man Storm who shares this adventure, also adds to the fun. Of course, June Brigham's art is so effective and lovely, unquote. The Marvel's budget is higher than previously reported. Previous stories from Bandy, farron and others picked the Marvel Studios sequel at around $130 million, but new information from Forbes has the Marvel's report budget at over $270 million. Now that's a pretty steep climb from one estimate to the other. The difference in cost for Nia de Costa's movie can be explained with a combination of reshoots, post-production and other expenses. It's not surprising that a movie the size of the Marvel's managed to have a round of reshoots. In fact, it's almost standard for superhero movies and blockbuster films in general. However, with the hefty budget, the movie will have to soar to make the kind of profit the observers expect out of an MCU film. Let's go on to the DC Comics News, and we begin DC Comics News with Superman villain Zod getting his own spotlight, new DC series launching in January, first announced at San Diego Comic-Con. Dc has officially listed Neil before Zod number one in its latest round of solicitations, where Joe Casey, who worked on Adventures of Superman, superman and Batman and Wildcats, will be teaming up with RS Dan McQuade for a Zod-focused story that DC describes as quote the most brutal series he'll read this year. Unquote. Now a Neil before Zod prelude will appear as a backup story from Casey and McDade include in Action Comics number 1060, which will be on sale in December, in which, quote Zod's son begins to suspect New Candor isn't as peaceful as it seems. Unquote. Here's the synopsis for Neil before Zod number one. Quote General Zod was Krypton's most notorious criminal. Now he has entire plans to rule. But what happens when the most dangerous individual in the universe gets everything he ever wanted? Obviously he wants more and he'll stop at nothing to get it, even the most brutal series you'll read this year. This is not a hero's journey. This is a dark ride brought to you by the sick and twisted minds of Adventures of Superman, writer Joe Casey and RS Dan McQuade, his monumental mainline DC debut for General Zod and his family, the Descent in the Hell, has just begun. There was something of a major uproar in the comic book world this past week when it was announced that Bill Willingham, writer of the acclaimed DC Virgo comic series, fables, was putting the entire property and its characters into the public domain. As May predicted, dc has a major problem with that and now the comic book publisher has issued an official statement on the matter. Quote the Fables comic books and graphic novels published by DC and the storyline's characters and elements that are in are owned by DC and protected under the copyright laws of the United States and throughout the world in accordance with applicable law, and are not in the public domain. Unquote. They go on DC reserves all rights and will take such action as DC deems necessary or appropriate to protect its intellectual property rights. Unquote. Now if you come away with any ambiguity about this statement, let's just clear this up DC is clearly ready to take legal action of Willingham proceeding with any of this coercive action. Now there's been a public feud between Willingham and DC. For years now Willingham has been vocal about how he feels that he signed a publishing contract to work with the executives and others that he trusted at the time. However, as DC has changed over the years, willingham felt he was left in the company of people only looking out for the company and not the creators. So it's kind of a kind of a he said. She said but yeah, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure Willingham is behind the eight ball here. I don't think he has a leg to stand on putting this in the public domain and I would probably advise anyone from from trying to make any fable stories without DC's permission. Anyway, a common Domingo is entering the Batcave. The actor who is in the Oscars race thanks to his work in the civil rights drama, rustin, will voice Batman in the Spotify limited series, the Riddler Secrets in the Dark. Now Camille and Hasan Minhaj will star in Secrets in the Dark, which comes from After Minaj voiced the Batman villain to Spotify's Batman Unburied. The news series which bows October 10th forces Batman to team with Edward Nigma, the Riddler, to stop a mysterious vigilante who is killing Gotham's villains, including the Riddler Winston Duke, previously voiced Batman in Batman Unburied. The cast of Secrets in the Dark will include Gina Rodriguez as Barbara Gordon, callum Worthy as the messenger, hannah Simon Simone as Nydra, peyton Crimm as Killer Croc, jim Perry as Arnold Flass, jason Isaacs as Alfred, ashley Barch as Vicki Vale, hugh Scott as the calendar man, brie Geiger as Summer Gleason, fulumo Johnson as King Tut and Amy Argyle as Bat-Tec. So get your ears ready for that, folks. One of our brother's discovery is doubling down on one of its key production hubs, which will serve as the primary home for DC Studios projects once the expansion is completed. On the lot just outside of Central London in Leavesden, warner Bros Studios Leavesden unveiled plans this past Thursday to add 10 new sound stages and incorporate 400,000 additional square feet of production and support space. The project is expected to break ground in the second quarter of 2024 and finish in 2027. When completed, the lot will have 29 stages and 1.78 million square feet of production space. Dc Studios co-chief executives, james Gunn and Peter Saffron, will consult on the project. Recent films and TV shows to shoot at the location include Barbie, house of the Dragon and upcoming DC feature Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Now let's go on to the geek news. And we begin geek news with acclaimed writer Mark Guggenheim teaming up with writing star Alvaro Lopez in Beware the Plan of the Apes, a new four-issue limited series that takes readers back to the groundbreaking original film saga. Now it'll feature the franchise's most beloved characters, including Cornelius, zira and Nova. The new series will be steeped in appreciation for the classic style of the initial of the original films. Beware the Plan of the Apes will be a prequel to the events of 1968's Plan of the Apes, the most influential movie that kicked off the ape domination of science fiction throughout the 70s and beyond. Here's the synopsis quote into the forbidden zone, in a hostile world run by aggressive gorillas, scientist Cornelius and Zira are the only apes alive who see value in the mute, dumb human race. But even they know human capabilities have severe limits. So when their nephew Lucius goes missing, it is with great trepidation that they turn to a human ally, a young woman who will someday earn the moniker Nova. Now, marvel Comics and Plan of the Apes have a deep history that goes back over 40 years. Marvel first published Plan of the Apes stories in 1974, and in 1975, marvel published adventures on the Plan of the Apes, folklore adaptations of the legendary Plan of the Apes films, now celebrated for its imagination of world building and depth of tackling of social issues. The science fiction franchise has spanned over over five decades, with media including comics, books, films, television series, video games and toys, and Marvel is thrilled to explore the storytelling limits with this iconic saga. Once again, guggenheim shared the news quote I've been entertained and intrigued by a plan of the apes ever since I got mego dr Zeissdahl as a birthday present and my local television station ran the original pen-pentology every afternoon for a week in the summertime. In many ways, apes is one of the OG franchises, filled with mystery, fascinating characters and some truly off-the-wall surprises. That's the spirit I'm hoping I'm working to evoke with Beware the Plan of the Apes. I'm particularly excited that we're going to be reusing some of Dait, doug Menoc, george Tuska and Alfred Ackkala's original Marvel work on adventures of the Plan of the Apes as a part of our storytelling. Interview with the Vampire is headed to the UK. According to Deadline, the BBC is bringing AMC's adaptation of Anne Rice's iconic Gothic horror novel series to the UK in a recent acquisition and plans to launch the seven-episode first season of the series on BBC Two and the BBC iPlayer. So are you ready for more Vampire Interview with the Vampire shows? Well, why not check in with Aliens? A new Aliens novel will give life to Aliens synthetic lifeform Bishop. According to Snapsis quote, massively damaged in Aliens in Alien 3, the synthetic Bishop asked to be shut down forever. His creator, michael Bishop, has other plans. He seeks to xenomorphic knowledge stored in the android's mind and brings Bishop back to life. But for what reason? No longer employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, michael tells his creation that he seeks to advance medical research for the benefit of humanity. Yet where does he get the resources needed to advance his work? With whom do his new alliances lie? Unquote. Now Bishop is pursued by Colonel Marines, captain Marcel Apone, commander of the Il Khande and younger brother of Master Sergeant Alexander Apone, one of the Calyses of the doomed mission to LV-426. Also on his trail are the dog catcher commandos employed by Weyland-Yutani. Who else might benefit from Bishop's intimate knowledge of the deadliest creatures in the galaxy? A direct sequel to Aliens in Alien 3, weyland-yutani, the colonial marines and Bishop's creator all pursue the android for the deadliest xenomorphic knowledge contained within his brain. Written by T R Napper, artist of the acclaimed 36th Streets, whose explosive work explores the artificial intelligence and what it is to be human Aliens Bishop, will be available for digital download and will be available in hardcover starting on December 12. More than 40 years after the original novelization of John Carpenter and Deborah Hill's Halloween will actually hit the shelves, the adaptation from author Richard Curtis, under the pen named Curtis Richards, is getting an official reprint, which will be expanded with all new illustrations. This reprint will be available in two different versions one with a limited edition cover that reimagines the cover of the original novelization and a standard cover that has not yet been finalized. While the official illustrations have not been revealed yet, they come courtesy of artist Orlando Mexifunk, rcnf, and you can pre-order the Halloween novelization now from. Printed in Blood. Now, printed in Blood describes the release as, quote "'Printed in Blood' is very proud to present the original movie tie-in novelization reprinted in full here for the first time in over 40 years. In addition, it has been fully illustrated throughout, with nearly a hundred brand new illustrations created just for this release by the vector genius Orlando Megafunk, rcnf. This 224 page volume is bursting with both classic and gorgeous new artistic visions of the John Carpenter horror classic. This limited edition cover features the classic perfor-back cover art recreated by Orlando, produced under license with Compass International Pictures, with full cooperation of the original author, richard Curtis, who penned the original novel under the name Curtis Richards". While the limited edition reprint will cost you $250, the standard edition will sell for only $50, so, while it might be a relatively high price than the standard novelization, the original prints, while going for hundreds of dollars from resellers regardless of their poor ignition, this new release is a bargain for any Halloween collector. You can pre-order that novelization now from Print Blood, which is expected to be released in early 2024. Too bad, they couldn't get it out in time for Halloween. Disney will celebrate their 100th anniversary with a special on, of course, abc on Sunday, october 15th. Nearly a century to the day, roy and Walt Disney founded the Disney Brothers Studios on October 16th 1923. The network will air an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos, season 34, followed by the broadcast world premieres of Walt Disney Animation Studios' new and made theatrical short film Once Upon a Studio and the and made musical in Kanto. The wonderful world of Disney's 100th anniversary celebration airs Sunday, october 15th, from 8pm to 10.30pm Eastern Time. Afv will be followed by a block of programming then includes exclusive moments from Live with Kelly and Marco, host Rippa and sneak peeks of upcoming Disney projects. Amazon announced Friday that it will launch an ad-free plan as it introduces ads to Prime Video in early 2024. The online retailer currently includes Ad-Free Prime Video as part of its Amazon Prime membership program, which costs $14.99 a month, or as a separate subscription $8.99 a month. Starting next year, prime Video shows and movies will include limited advertisements, according to Amazon. While Amazon notes that it won't raise the current price of Prime Membership, it will offer the new Ad-Free option for an additional $2.99 a month for US Prime Members. That means Prime Members can continue to watch Amazon Prime Video with ads for the typical $14.99 a month or upgrade to the Ad-Free version for $17.98 per month. I don't really just watch stuff off Prime Video that much, so I don't know that will affect me. Anyway, let's close up remembering someone who's gone on. Pete Kozachik, a visual effects and stop motion artist whose work on the acclaimed animated films by Tim Burton, henry Selick and others brought recognition and an Oscar nomination, died September 12th as home in the California, at home of the Bay Area, following a years-long battle with aphasia and primary progressive aphasia. He was 72 years old. While best known for his Oscar-nominated work on 1993's the Nightmare Before Christmas, directed by Selick and produced by Burton, kozachik launched his career in 1984 on the sci-fi film Dreamscape, starring Dennis Quaid. In 1986, he was the visual effects camera operator for the notorious Howard the Duck, going on to build a solid roster of credits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Star Trek IV, the Voyage Home, interspace Willow, ghostbusters II, hudson Hawk and Robocop III, directed by Selick and Burton. To serve as visual effects supervisor and director of photography for the Nightmare Before Christmas, kozachik joined a team that included Eric Leighton, ariel Velasco-Shaw and Gordon Baker, of whom would share the Oscar nomination for best visual effects. The group lost to the FX team from Jurassic Park, but Nightmare would help establish a signature look for Selick and especially for Burton. Kozachik would re-team a Selick and Burton on James and the Giant Peach, with Burton on Corpse Bride and with Selick on Coraline. Other credits include Star Wars Episode II, attack of the Clones, monkey Bone and Starship Troopers. Again, pete Kozachik was 72 years old, and that brings us to the end of the show for today. Now we're on social media, at Twitter, and that brings us to the end of this edition. Be sure to check us out on social media. We're still on Twitter for the moment. Yeah, yeah, elon, if you're listening, if you charge for it, bye-bye. That's it, multiverse Tom. We're also on Facebook and Instagram as well, and we're also over on Twitter on threads, which is probably where I'll send most of my short tweet-like tweets to after Twitter goes belly up. And if you find value in the show, thank you very much, feel free to contribute to the show. Check out the show notes for the Tee Public Store and so much more at multiversetonightcom. If you're a subscriber, be sure to share it with your friends, and if you're brand new to the show, thank you very much. Please be sure to hit that subscribe button. Leave us with some feedback and let me know how we're doing. Special thanks to Shane Ivers for the intro music and Lobo Loco for the outro theme music. Thanks for watching this edition of Multiverse Tonight. We'll be back in two weeks with more sci-fi and comic book news, and watch this feed for another edition of the Spinner Rack coming soon, as soon as I get to sitting down with Rick again. Now, please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good night. Multiverse Tonight is a production of half-baked genre productions. Copyright 2023. All rights reserved. This podcast is part of the Pop Goes to the Culture podcast network. Find out more about our other podcasts at popgoesdiculturecom.