The Daily Zeitgeist - RobTrend Wright 1/31: DC, Robert Zemeckis, Oscars, The Verge

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

In this edition of RobTrend Wright, Jack and super producer Becca discuss the future of James Gunn’s DC Universe, Robert Zemeckis’ new movie, the best actress nominee scandal at the Oscars, and The Verge’s terrible Valentine’s Day gift guide!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties

you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jess Costavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.

Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of Rob Trend Right, formerly Robin Wright Trend. I am Jack, that is super producer Becca Romo. Oh, hello. How are you?

I'm good. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I mean, you know how I am. Just buzzing over the plans for this new DC universe. Woo! And a new de-aging movie. That's what we're going to kick it off with. Two just box office BO banger ideas coming out of Hollywood. So the first one, James gunn's name is trending uh james

gunn is the director of one of the suicide squads um i believe the superior of the suicide squads i thought his was fun but they've basically turned the keys for the dc universe over to him and Peter Safran, who I'm not really familiar with. And they basically started running the DC studios three months ago. And today they had their first major announcement of like what, what things look like going forward. And it's basically, they're're going to try and be Marvel, but they're still going to make room

for one-off movies like Joker and The Batman. The Batman. And Teen Titans Go, I guess. I'm not familiar with that one. From my understanding, Teen Titans Go, I guess. I'm not familiar with that one, but it seems like... From my understanding, Teen Titans Go, if I'm correct, is pulling from the animated show, Teen Titans Go. I used to be a fan of it. It used to be on Cartoon Networks when I was a kid. It seems like it's still on based from my quick little Google, but I didn't know they were making a full fledged film out of it.

So. Yeah. Or maybe not. Maybe they're just saying that show is like its own standalone thing. Those will be explicitly labeled as DC else worlds. So they're like, our big plan is to kind of continue doing the same thing, but put a title on our most popular movies that is diminishing to them in some way.

The ones that actually work. The ones people like, we're going to say. The ones that people seem to really like, yeah. Those are separate from everything we've worked on that people hate. Yeah. I mean, I have a lot of thoughts. I am a, I don't't know a superhero movie goer i do enjoy

the mcu over the dc universe i just think they've done way better world building obviously i think there's a crux between either of them in the sense that like a Marvel movie is now a very specific type of movie and they've done a really great job at integrating all of them and like getting people excited because there's just like so many stories that like interlock and like tie together. But, you know, at the detriment of bringing in new talent into the universe, I do think they have a machine and they're like, you must fit into our template. And if you don't, your movie will fail. And I think that was very much the case with The Eternals.

That was a big fail, I think, in the MCU because you're trying to take a director who does not film in that style and is very successful in what they do and you're inserting them into the Marvel Universe. Whereas DC, I think, has had the opposite problem where nothing is cohesive. They have all these different storylines

and in theory, that's the difference between DC and Marvel Comics is that they are less intertwined than Marvel's universe, but they have no cohesion and it just feels like random superhero movies and i don't think they've been able to get into a groove where people are coming to see dc movies like dc has just time and time again unless it is a batman or a joker has failed to me right mark yeah i mean so the ones that they are going with so they were like this not that so the

not that being the joker franchise now because there there is going to be a joker 2 with harley quinn and there's going to be more yeah lady gaga uh there's going to be more the batmans um and they are like so not those those are elseworld we disown them but like not officially but like you know uh the ones that we're going with are the flash which has been i think in the can for a while and was delayed by all the ezra miller being a monster they announced changing who the flash is going to be? No, I think they're just going with the flash. I thought,

I don't know. Also Shazam too. Uh, which that guy's getting a lot of flack right now. Did you know? We did talk about that on yesterday's trending. He's a libertarian. Uh,

which is cool. And Aquaman too. I think they also mentioned, which does seem like those were not the ones that are like those are not the universes that i i thought people were most excited about in the dc world so you know it's just to me it feels like them being like the problem is there's too many overlapping worlds. There's too much, you know, like we have the same character being played by multiple actors and that makes people mad and is not as, you know,

profitable as, as Marvel. But I don't know, like the, it seems like the things that have been working is that they can, as opposed to Marvel, like do these one-off like joker movie in the style of the 70s like a 70s scorsese movie or you know be like well that

suicide squad movie wasn't good i'm going to make a different one but because he was the maker of one of the suicide squad movies and it was the superior one but it was also like not seen by that many people because it came out during the pandemic. And maybe he told himself a story about like, well, it was because there there's too much overlap and stuff. They've really doubled down on this idea that we've got to fix it by doing what Marvel did 16 years ago. Exactly.

And I just don't know that that is going to be the the solution that they think it is but we'll see i guess superman legacy is henry cavill coming back i believe he's out as superman if if my keeping one half closed eye on the the internet hubbub i do believe that he is out and will no longer be playing superman yeah and uh ryan reynolds was the green lantern but did they get a new green lantern yeah so some of the stuff they announced like hbo series called lanterns that is like true detective with green lantern space cops um the brave and the bold is like the batman movie that they're endorsing as opposed to the matt reeves one that i think people were at least were like all right i mean this was different enough to justify it being a batman movie and yeah superman legacy is coming in july

11th 2025 i don't know what really what that's going to be, but I don't know. It got people talking, but like in terms of an overall vision, I am a little bit confused by it. As I am with this other announcement, which is Robert Zemeckis, who hasn't made a good movie since he became became obsessed with computer effects so he made back to the future back to the future to forrest gump which eminently watchable though very problematic and so problematic not a great movie but and then like he fell into the like making beowulf and then the you know A Christmas Carol starring and Polar Express and all these

computer and that is a movie I've seen way too many times because my son was obsessed with trains for a little bit but he made that strange Marwen movie forgot about Marwen. So bad.

So he is deciding. Oh, he did Gemini Man too? No, so he didn't do Gemini Man, but I saw a chunk of Gemini Man. Gemini Man is the biggest movie, like the biggest gamble on de-aging technology. Gemini Man was a movie where they were like, okay, Willith and will

smith like so it's like current age will smith versus younger d-age computer d-aged will smith and it's directed by ang lee there's some cool action sequences in it, and it doesn't work because the de-aged Will Smith looks like a video game cutscene. Yeah, it doesn't look like Will Smith, because we all know what young Will Smith... He's been on TV since he was 17. he has announced that he is partnering with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright to make a movie in which, like, I guess it's based on a graphic novel that all takes place in a single room. It's called here.

And it's like, takes place in a single room as like people age throughout time. So you see the scenes that people had in this room over the course of their lives. It's a cool concept. It feels like this is not the way to go about bringing it to life because the big announcement is that he is partnering with the AI firm that made the deep fake Tom Cruise videos. So they're like, there it is. Danger zone.

Yeah. I mean, those were more convincing than Gemini Man. That is true. Absolutely. I think it's more just the idea of deep fake technology. You know, like it's such a scary ground to be walking in. Water to be walking in, I guess. Yes.

But I'll be intrigued yeah it could it could be interesting i don't know robert zemeckis you know he's he's just gonna keep doing it until he gets it right with the computer animation um so we'll see all right let's take a quick break we'll come right back hey i'm gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.

When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Santer. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies.

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I'm Jess Costavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths

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Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Forgive me for I have followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil. I ain't really near them.

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surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. And we're back. And we're on a real Hollywood kick today because there's a scandal about the best actress category of the Oscars. When that category, the nominees were announced, everyone was like, to who now is leslie who who who is leslie um this is andrea riceborough performance in a film to leslie uh which is it it made like

twenty thousand dollars the box office so everyone everyone was like, well, nobody... $28,000 at the box office. It was an independent film in a limited release. So it already did not have a ton of traction to go see it because it had a limited run. And it was a first-time directorial debut from the director, Michael Morris. So, you know, it was just a very obscure movie. Yeah.

And there's usually some sort of bar for like number of people that have seen a thing for it to get nominated. I think that probably that bar is also, has something to do with big studios investing the money in the campaign to so so the thing the academy is saying they're coming back they're saying look we're not going to take away the nomination but we are going to take a hard look at the tactics that the director of this film

used to target some of the academy voters via social media and that just it feels a little like okay but so are you going to look at the tactics that all studios and all the people who spend money on four-year consideration campaigns out here use absolutely yeah like that's i don't know and also it's just like i don't understand how this one movie is the glaring issue versus the historical issues of racism with the academy voting and promotion and and not even just racism in the terms of purposely not choosing any black or brown actors but also in the marketing dollars those movies get. You know, the lack of promotion they get and the lack of proper targeting that they get because they simply do not have the budgets that these other films do because of their cast list or whatever may have you. So I hope they take a good look at how they're doing voting in general across the board.

I think the Golden Globes always gets called out for being bought out. So I know this is the Oscars and not the Golden Globes, but I think it's, you know, the film industry at large's issue when it comes to representation and voting and all those things. I hope Michelle Yeoh gets it for Everything Everywhere All at Once. I will say in the best actress category, you could almost say the same thing as Ana de Armas' nomination for Blonde, because I don't feel like a lot of people saw it. It was very much a highly boycotted and scandalous movie. People were very upset that it was made. A lot of the feedback was like, this was just so disparaging

to Marilyn's image. And like, can we let her rest? Like, were these violent scenes really necessary? There was, it's like based on a book that like was a fantasy, like almost a rape fantasy of Marilyn's life.

Like, it just really is a bad screenplay to be working off of. So, you know, I know Ana de Armas did her best. It's not her fault, in a sense, a little bit in the sense she shouldn't have maybe taken the role. But yeah, I am curious how people are feeling about that nomination over this one too.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I feel like the thing, the reason that this is getting attention is because it is people who don't have the official like gatekeeper stamp of approval and the official like backing of, you know, the people with money in Hollywood doing what the, what the studios already do. And so it's like, well, that's dangerous. But I mean, I'm all for people finding out, like the Academy,

what if the Academy Awards were a way for people to find out about movies also that they had missed? And I don't mind that they're nominating smaller movies. Same. I do wish they did it with movies that were made by non-white people absolutely um all right and then finally we've been brought to the uh bad guide section of i don't know if

it's bad guide but we have the worst valentine's gift guide uh from i've named it the worst valentine yeah well the verge is bringing us their 2023 gift ideas him her couples this is the url i'm just trying to yes i would like to say jack do you feel like gift guides are helpful do you use gift guides in your gift giving activities over the year for your wife and your children? I just do all my shopping for my wife at Lids. So like I get all my Christmas presents, uh, anniversary presents at Lids. Um, and then she usually doesn't like the hat. So I get a cool hat out of the deal. Um, no, I, I don't. I think that when you're at the level of gift guide, it's probably a lot, a loss at that point.

That's how I feel. I feel like gift guides are antiquated. I've seen some come through TikTok, like people making gift guides being like, these are the perfect gifts for your boyfriend this season. And I'm like, I would never buy my boyfriend any of these gifts. And that is how I feel looking at the Verge's gift guide. Do you want to make some notable points? I'm looking at it for the first time now um all right so here's an interesting one it's the dash mini waffle maker yes in heart shape does it okay so it does make

heart-shaped waffles which is why it's on the valentine's list that's that's always the thing that confuses me when somebody gets you a gift that is based on only that holiday you know what i mean like getting christmas socks for someone on christmas that like they won't be able to wear again until the next year or something like that. I see those gifts out there when I'm like Christmas shopping at, at lids. Sometimes there'll be a Christmas themed baseball cap. And, uh,

I'm like, well, that that's confusing to me. I feel that way with anything, especially the Valentine's themes. Cause I feel some type of way about Valentine's day in the sense that like, it feels like a very, not that all holidays aren't consumerist, but like but like especially like what do you do with all that heart

stuff like what are you gonna do with all of the you know expensive dinners like everything's just priced for no reason I think it's great to use any opportunity to like celebrate your person and your partner in like an authentic way to you as a couple but like to have to be like i have to buy them a heart shaped locket is to me so wasteful because when are they ever gonna want that uh but it's also just a such a strange collection of like things yeah there's a essential magnet charger for your phone that's just just a, just a phone charger. And then further down, they have another charger. Mophie Power Station.

They're going to want a charger. Super producer Brian said the networking switch for Valentine's Day. Yeah, they have an Ether like netgear networking switch that's like is this done with tongue-in-cheek and then apple airpods so yeah i've heard of those well thank you thank you for this so that's cool cool the only gift i see on this list that i was like yeah that makes sense but you'd have to be not as neurotic as me and already own it is the We're Not Really Strangers Couples Edition. I think that is a perfect gift in the sense that if you are in a newer relationship, a relationship that like maybe

you're just now hitting a more serious spot, like a six month mark, a year mark, and you haven't played this game, it's an incredible game for like you know going deeper with your partner and seeing you know these like learning about them on a whole new level in an authentic way and it's like very romantic you can like have a dinner or whatever but otherwise like i'm neurotic and i own every we're not really strangers game there's an ethnically ambiguous episode where we played it because I own all of them. I find them very fun, very great for, you know, emotional intimacy with your friends, with your loved ones, with your family.

They have a family edition. But otherwise, this list, garbage. Yeah, this is rough. Like I always, saying I do all my shopping for my wife at Lids is like my go-to joke for like being a bad gift giver. But this gives me some new options. New loads. Yeah. As Brian put it, what's more romantic than ethernet ports?

Like what? Like the ugliest Garmin watch I've ever seen in my life. This Garmin VivoMove Sport. like the ugliest garmin watch i've ever seen in my life this garmin vivo move sport if my man bought me this chunky ass garmin watch i'd be so upset my high school girlfriend bought me like a very chunky watch before like chunky watches were a thing or like at a time when nobody really wore watches and i just just rode with it and was like yeah i do like it i like i had convinced myself i liked it for like a year and a half and then finally it was like i don't know and some of them it's like a roomba what are you trying to say i need to

clean more like so you don't have to clean anymore the job's getting done for you don't buy me a roomba don't buy a woman a cleaning product. Yeah. Unless she exclusively begs. I am going to have to make note of that because that's it's either baseball caps or cleaning supplies.

Or Roombas. We have eight Roombas in the house. Yeah. All right. Well, Super Producer Becca Ramos thank you so much for joining us on this trending episode. Where can people find you

follow you all that good stuff? You can find me and follow me at Bex, B-E-C-C-S, Rompos on all platforms. There you go. And that's going to do it for us this afternoon. We are back tomorrow with the last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other.

Be kind to yourselves. Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because

of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.