Links and Updates

IT’S TRAILER TIME (in rough order of how much I’m looking forward to each one).

First of all, Cartoon Saloon has released the first trailer for its next animated feature, My Father’s Dragon. I will miss the Irish milieu of the studio’s three most famous offerings, but this still looks beautiful and shares its predecessors’ distinctive style of animation.

I’m not familiar with the books upon which this is based, but there’s a lot of stuff going on here. I mean, a boy meets a dragon: we’ve all seen that before. But this also seemingly includes a talking gorilla, a magical island, some odd-looking tigers, and a narrative framing device as told by the protagonist’s daughter. Released on Netflix, 11^th November.

After an interminable wait, we also have a release date and trailer for the Enola Holmes sequel. As with the first film, this is clearly deviating wildly from the source material, to the point where I’m not even sure if Cecily Alaistair will be the focus of the plot (and she’s obviously not going to be a highborn lady, as her sister is given a Cockney accent).

But I found the first film to be one of those charmingly low-key little stories that you can just put on in the background while you’re pottering around the house, and this looks like more of that specific vibe. Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham Carter are clearly back for more, though there’s no sign of Mycroft (not necessarily a bad thing). Let’s just hope that Cecily has more of a role to play than this trailer suggests. Released on Netflix, 4^th November.

Our first glimpse of Shadow and Bone’s second season! This just a teaser really, but everyone looks great and the glimpses of Tolya, Tamar and Wylan are pretty exciting (still not completely sold on Nikolai, but I’m giving the actor the benefit of the doubt). Honestly though, the real drawcard is the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of five-sixths of the Crows sharing the frame together. Matthias will hopefully be joining them soon, though I had to laugh that the single shot we see of him requires him to be shirtless. I guess they know their audience. Released on Netflix, sometime in 2023.

A new Willow trailer! This one has been out for a while, but definitely expands on what was divulged in the teaser. This is the first time that one of the leads has been positively identified as the daughter of Madmartigan and Sorsha (but doesn’t seem to be Elora...) and apparently she has a brother that was abducted. And there’s Kevin Pollack as Rool! A glimpse of Raziel! (Probably stock footage). Though the fact that Willow uses his wand as a flame-thrower at one point tells me they have a handle on the tone. Let’s not take this too seriously.  

But WHERE (or WHO) is Elora Danan? I mean, there’s absolutely no way they won’t have her in this, right? She was the Living MacGuffin of the film so she’s got to turn up in some capacity, surely! From what little I’ve seen of the interviews, everyone is being strangely mum on the subject, which suggests that some sort of twist or reveal is likely to happen. And of course, it’s the easiest thing in the world to cast someone who was last seen as a baby. She would have to be in her mid-to-late thirties by now, and honestly – when/if she’s reunited with Willow as an adult, I don’t think I’ll be able to prevent a few tears from falling.

First teaser for the third and final season of His Dark Materials! As much as I want to see it, the trailer is still filled with the problems that has plagued the show: trite dialogue, rather listless performances, and a bizarre lack of colour. After the botched movie, this will probably be the last adaptation of this material we’ll get for a good long while, and I’m trying really hard to like it – but it’s just missing that X-factor.

Still, it looks like we’ll get more of Lord Asriel mustering his forces, which could provide some interesting context (still in mourning for that Asriel-centric episode that we lost to Covid) and the witches look pretty cool. But they’re holding back on any visuals of the mulefa, which is interesting. More than anything, I’m desperate to see what these things actually look like, as I was never really able to visualize them in the book. Released on HBO, 5^th December.

After being nothing but a brief synopsis for what seems like years, Rosaline finally has a trailer. And though it makes me miss Still Star-Crossed all over again, it’s certainly more comedic than I had anticipated, and very much in the mode of Dickinson (deliberate anachronisms, droll asides, subversive humour). Still looks like it could be fun though.

It’s like they’re sliding the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet into the situational farce of Much Ado About Nothing, with a side-helping of your typical nineties “we must break up this couple but in doing so fall in love with something else” romantic comedy. I sincerely hope they pull it off. And look – it’s Minnie Driver! She lives! Released on Hulu, 14^th October.

Speaking of period dramas, did anyone know there was going to be another Dangerous Liaisons? Things don’t usually get to the trailer stage without me hearing about their existence, but this caught me completely off-guard.

Admittedly, I don’t know much about the original novel; my history with this story is watching the last fifteen minutes of the 1988 film and Cruel Intentions back when I was probably too young to be watching either. So I know the gist, but not the particulars. And this actually looks like it’s going to be a prequel, detailing the history of... er, those two manipulative assholes that may or may not be related? Whatever, you know I’m going to watch it. Released on Starz, 6^th November.

Guillermo Del Toro has a new take on Pinocchio, and though I’ve never been a big fan of that particular story, I’ll watch anything in stop-motion animation.

The Blue Fairy looks incredible, and any retelling of a familiar story is always fascinating in what it decides to keep, and what it choses to add. Del Toro has already revealed that this is a deeply personal story for him, and that he’ll use the backdrop to explore the Italian political landscape of the time. Look, I’m sold. You had me at stop-motion Del Toro fairy tale. Released on Netflix, 9^th December.

Confession: I adore Anne Rice’s The Mayfair Witches. The middle and final book of the trilogy are of dubious quality, but that first instalment? Damn, it’s every self-indulgent trope I look for (but hardly ever get) in a novel. The Southern Gothic ambiance, the twisted family dynamics, the pages and pages worth of journal-keeping, the unresolved mysteries, the inherent creepiness of the whole thing – I read a synopsis online and immediately went out to buy a copy.

And with Interview with the Vampire off to what seems like a strong start, The Mayfair Witches is right behind. My feelings are a little mixed on the trailer... the production values need to be a lot more opulent than what we’re seeing (the book practically drips with atmosphere) and there don’t appear to be any flashbacks... which doesn’t fully surprise me as said flashbacks take up at least half the book, and are conveyed to the reader via a secondary character reading a massive historical record over the course of a single night, so I don’t envy them that screenwriting challenge.

It’s also difficult to imagine them committing to the wet squib that is the third book in this trilogy, or that it’ll ever intersect with the characters from Interview with the Vampire (as eventually happens in the novels) so for now I’ll just have to wait and see. Released on AMC, 5^th January.

I’ve sworn off the MCU for a while now, but I still watched the trailer for Wakanda Forever with interest. Rather than account for Chadwick Boseman’s absence by setting it during the five years of the Blip, it’s obvious that Ryan Coogler has decided that The Character Died with Him. I have mixed feelings about that, since I would have loved for T’Challa to live on, even if it’s perpetually off-screen, but Coogler obviously wants this to be a tribute to Boseman, and it’s difficult to argue with that.

After a string of what (sounded like) disappointments for the MCU – even if they made a ton of money – this looks like it might get the franchise back on track, if not just for its beautiful visuals. I mean, I can respect the fact that they put the antagonist in winged sandals!

And for what it’s worth, I really hope Nakia is the one who ends up in the panther suit. It’s obviously a woman, which means it’s a short list of Shuri, Okoye or Nakia. Released in theatres, 10^th November.

I know next-to-nothing about this film, save that it stars Florence Pugh, looks suitably creepy and eerie, and is based on the book by the author of Room.

So, yes please! Released on Netflix, 16^th November.

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There’s been plenty of discussion recently about how Disney and the MCU have spent years subjecting their SFX artists to stressful working conditions, which is explored pretty succinctly in this article/interview. And yikes – I think my hiatus just became a boycott.

Elsewhere, Disney have announced a glurge of new projects coming down the pipeline, some of which genuinely make me want to tear my hair out. Live-action Little Mermaid?* Live-action Peter Pan? Live-action prequel to The Lion King about Mufasa’s childhood? That last one just fills me with a deep abiding rage, especially after the soulless spectacle of the “live-action” Lion King.

And yet, I can’t be too mad at Disney. As long as people keep buying tickets to this crap, they’re going to keep churning it out. We get the media we deserve.

*(I obviously do not condone the vile and frankly ludicrous whining about the existence of Black mermaids, but – like every other live-action Disney barring The Jungle Book – that teaser does not look promising).

Elsewhere, Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars movie has been put on hold. Seriously, Disney? This is getting embarrassing. First you sounded the trumpets to a new trilogy by Rian Johnson, then cancelled it. Then you brought in David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for a new series, and promptly got rid of them. Rangers of the New Republic was a thing for about twenty minutes before your plugged lead went nuclear on Twitter, so that was the end of that. The original directors of Solo and Rise of Skywalker were yanked at the last minute, and the quality of those movies speak for themselves...

Hey Disney, maybe just hold off announcing stuff before you’re 100% certain it’s going to get made? Because what you’re doing now is just unprofessional, especially after that elaborate teaser with Patty Jenkins on the airfield. Get your house in order!

There are a few things that piqued my interest: the new Pixar film is called Elemental, a love story between a fire and water spirit. We’re getting a sequel to Inside Out, which will no doubt follow Riley into the trials and tribulations of adolescence (as sequels go, that’s a solid premise).

Strange World is coming out this November, which looks a bit too goofy for my tastes, but also has some incredible animation going on. Pixar’s Elio sounds like it could be fun, in which a boy is accidentally transported across the galaxy and mistaken for the intergalactic ambassador of planet Earth. And though there’s not much information about Iwájú, early reports are intriguing...

And for its 100^th Anniversary, Disney plans to release a film simply called Wish, which will apparently centre around the studio’s “most iconic symbol” – the wishing star that various characters across the Disney canon have wished upon. A princess and her pet goat will meet the titular wishing star and go on an adventure together... sure, why not?

While we’re talking about Disney, I have no interest in Hocus Pocus 2 or Disenchanted (the sequel to Enchanted) ... BUT the two films look like they’ll vibe well with The School for Good and Evil and Enola Holmes 2, so I’ll probably end up watching them anyway.

Laika has a new image of Wildwood, their upcoming movie, and it looks just like I imagined it would. This is Prue chasing her brother Mac through the streets after he’s kidnapped by crows, just before she enters the Wildwood and her adventure kicks off. There are sorceresses and talking animals and a very distinctive “folksy with dark undertones” vibes, and Laiki is going to NAIL it. Also, look at that stacked cast! Wow.

And apparently, they’ve got another film in the works, called The Night Gardener. We don’t have much but the below image and a synopsis: “This gritty neo-noir folktale follows a young man in rural Missouri, who’s fighting to keep his family together in the wake of a tragedy.”

That seems pretty dark, but it’s Laika – I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it work.

And Velma just came out as gay. Good for her!

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Whew, I think that’s pretty much everything. The Invitation starring Nathalie Emmanuel and Three Thousand Years of Longing starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton are already out, so I’ve got to get onto those, ASAP. I was finally going to get round to the two It films this month, when my external hard-drive decided to malfunction, taking my entire back-catalogue of films with it. *long, frustrated sigh*. Tell me, what is the point of investing over one hundred dollars in a backup drive if they just conk out on you?

Thankfully, I still have my second hard-drive, which contains Halloween, Friday the Thirteenth and Nightmare on Elm Street. I haven’t watched any of them, and plan to rectify that this October.

And there is such an orgy of genre television at the moment, I’ve decided to hold off for a while and then have a “pilot episode day”, in which I’ll watch the first episodes of The Rings of Power, The House of the Dragon, Andor, Wednesday, The Midnight Club, Interview with the Vampire, Willow and The Sandman, just to luxuriate in the surplus of riches that genre fans are currently enjoying. I’ll even throw in the first episode of She Hulk just to tick every box, before my MCU hiatus continues.