The Kristian Harloff Show - Star Wars hires Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. Will it actually happen?

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

JOIN THE SITE: http://www.thekristianharloff.com Star Wars has been in the news a lot the last few days. Damon Lindelof left the project and now it is being reported that Peaky Binders creator Steven Knight is now writing the project directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Will it actually happen? How many movies will be announced at Star Wars Celebration. speaking of shake-ups, Marvel Studios let Victoria Alonso go, a long time producer at the company. What happened? Speaking of What Happened? What went wrong with Shazam Fury Of The Gods and what is going on with Levi and The Rock?! This and more on today's episode with Kristian Harloff. #starwars #marvel #MCU #shazam #therock  SUPPORT THE SHOW AND YOURSELF!  SUNDAY: http://www.getsunday.com/bigthing ATHLETIC GREENS: http://www.athleticgreens.com/bigthing SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ybLJ2kCBCCZCacTOv1tgk APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-big-thing/id1451239165  OUR MERCH STORE IS LIVE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-big-thing-kh-channel?ref_id=27393 FOLLOW KRISTIAN + FIND HIM ON CAMEO https://cameo.com/kristianharloff https://twitter.com/kristianharloff https://facebook.com/harloff https://instagram.com/kristianharloff AMAZON WISHLIST: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1KPH42T0TP0PG?ref=cm_sw_em_r_un_un_djbxgIW5ZQMMg SCHMOEDOWN ARCHIVE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMovieTriviaSchmoedownArchives Ask Kristian questions for next time! https://facebook.com/harloff Become a Patreon of the Schmoedown: http://patreon.com/schmoedown OTHER GREAT CONTENT: REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT368qY7sfE0nKE4c04CqGvu TV REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT1LU-t2Z9AD5UJDiWW4pS_E STAR WARS SHOW https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT0XmfpbblkF9PY7uO2qhbN6 THE BIG THING PODCAST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT3KAwbzDsv6mdR-gwUiydQg

What's going on, everybody? Happy Thursday. Lots going on today in the world of movie news. Victoria Alonzo was part of Marvel for a very long time. Gone suddenly more details coming out about her sudden departure. We'll talk about that. John Wick, that movie looks to be crushing at the box office. Talk about the targeted potential box office for the weekend and why we think that movies outside of the comic book,

movie realm are really starting to pick up. Star Wars. That's right. Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars. We lost Damon Lindeloff, but it looks like we picked up the writer of Peaky Blinders. Good move, bad move, irrelevant until it happens. I'll talk about that and more. There's so much to talk about in general here today. And I'm by my lonesome. I'm by my lonesome and I'll explain why in just a little bit. we are doing a full virtual event now with myself and the entire big thing crew that if you join the website and that's the christian harlough.com the christianharlough.com and you join up tomorrow we're doing a full kind of explanation of everything that's going to be happening with the website in general some big

special announcements in general about things that we're going to be doing road dates things potential A lot of different things. So we hope that you join us over there. By the way, if you haven't done it already and you're brand new to the channel, do me a favor and show a little. Subscribe. Get us to 100,000. We're almost there. So we hope that you join us.

It's the big thing, everybody. It's me. It's you. It's everybody. All right. Let's get to it. I'm ready. You're ready.

Cool. What up, everybody? Thanks for joining me here today. It's me, Christian Harlov, on the big thing. If you have not already done this, please, obviously, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Spotify, we're on video. Oh, boy, do I get it when I don't put the video on Spotify? I get it all the time.

Why does that happen all the time, people want to know? That's because I usually upload straight to YouTube and I always give myself a note. Hey, man, upload the Spotify, and then I get caught up with other stuff. I'm working on it, guys. I'm trying to build it, so we get more people to help. but I've got to be smart about it. And that's what I've been doing. And that's why this announcement tomorrow is going to help a lot.

So we hope that you join us over there once again at the Christianharloff.com. Roxy and Brett usually on the show. Obviously, Steph and Mike weren't on. So I mentioned this on Sith Council. Big thing, Sith Council yesterday, if you didn't check it out. But someone in my house got sick. And it was, you know, getting better. but problem is closed area people are like hey man i don't know if i necessarily want to come in get

sick i was like i get it i totally understand and that's another reason why we're going to do the the big kind of big party event on friday with everybody in studio and instead have to do it virtual but we have just too much to announce and we want to kind of tell you guys the future of everything we're doing so instead of pushing it back um it's kind of very important that we get these announcements out and tell you everything going on so we are going to do everything everyone's going to be together. It'll be managed chaos. But another reason why today, cruise off, they'll be back next week. And, and yeah, so I just wanted to be up front, as I tell everybody, this week is just a bunch of solo shows, although capes and cows will be virtual tomorrow with

myself, Winston, and Coy. We're going to do one one virtual show together. So I'll have the guys on that show tomorrow. And then we should be hopefully in working order by next week in studio and all that. So thanks for sticking with this, bearing with us and all that. And as always, keep the comments coming. Really great comments coming in. You guys are very, very impressed with this community. I have to tell you, because you look at the kind of the past, and I made a kind of an observation over it, to be honest. I've been streaming a lot, live streaming on the old Schmo's old Schmodeon channel that's just called the Christian Harleff and French channel, which is just a live streaming channel. If people want to go over there and, you know, interact, ask questions, support the

channel. That's what that channel is necessarily for, right? But what I noticed is it carried in a lot of the old kind of, I don't know, the chat was, was not great. That's why I don't really pay attention to a lot of the live chat happening. I do, you know, when people come in and they're asking particular questions and they're donating questions and it's kind of, of the show itself. But a lot of the live chat, there's a lot of great people in live chat too, by the way. But it just seems like this channel,

for some reason, this one that we're on right now, it's just a really nice, positive conversation. And even when people are coming in to give critiques and criticisms, it's, I mean, not 100%, but I'd say 90. I like the conversation in here. I've seen so many different times, like even recently, hey, I don't really agree with what you guys said,

there, but I'll tell you what I do agree with, and then it goes into this. Then there was, I've been, I'm not going to, with the way that this week has been going, I'm not going to lie, I've definitely been a little bit more on edge than I promised myself I would be. And I did that today. We're all human, right, but I did this today. So we posted this short about, we posted a short, basically about Fred, the YouTube guy. And at one point, he was one of the biggest YouTubers out there. And so this guy goes, he writes on the comment and he goes,

Mr. Beast has always been the biggest YouTube guys, you fucking morons. And I had, I just, I don't know if it was the New York in me or I was pissed off in general. But I normally, what I have promised myself the way I should have answered that that particular comment is one or two things. Delete it. Nobody sees it. Hide the person forever. Or say, hey, you know, sorry you feel that way. but I just remember Fred being the guy for a long time, and, you know, that's kind of what it is. That's normally how I've been this new,

since starting the channel, how I promised myself I would deal with everybody. And if some people just want to be Dixie, you just throw them out afterwards too, but you have that initial conversation. I didn't do that this time. And my response was, Fred came out in 2005, or Fred started his YouTube channel in 2005,

and Mr. Beast started his channel in 2012, Oh, dickhead. Should I have done that? Did Coy Gondro possess me for a little bit? Yeah, was it, was it the mature thing to do? No. Should I have done it? Probably not. But, you know, had the moment of weakness and did it. And I think it's this week. It is this week. So I want to make sure that I am, I'm going to stick to my approach of the way that I was doing it. because it's not it life's too short guys life's too short and you're not going to change people and the philosophy has been helping me out tremendously over the last couple of the last year and a half on this channel and i think it's the reason why to be completely honestly as i just said the reason why this community is so um on this channel is so you know good and and i think polite and and intelligent is because we because of that that philosophy of encouraging

even when someone says something, you talk to somebody and go, hey, let's, let's have the conversation. So, again, it was on the short, and I was like, eh, just felt like calling somebody a dickhead. Shouldn't have done it. But, hey, what do you do?

Anyway, let's talk about some of this news. All right, let's talk about this Victoria Alonzo story. It's pretty nuts. She's the head of, or, or, let's talk about this Victoria Alonzo story. Last week, she was just let go. All right, let's talk about this Victoria Alonzo story. She was let go a couple days ago.

She was the president of Marvel's physical production, post-production, VFX, and animation. And Variety's talking about a little bit more details on what had happened. So Variety was reporting that the decision was made by a consortium, including Disney Entertainment, co-chairman, Alan Bergman, to whom all of Marvel Studios report.

Alonzo's longtime boss and Marvel's CCO, Kevin Feige, was reportedly not involved in the process and did not intervene. Alonzo joined Marvel Studios in 2006 and has been a fixture alongside Feige and co-president Louis de Esposito up until this week. Numerous sources for the trade indicate that Marvel has been under tremendous pressure over the past few years. The company has pushed out seven movies, eight streaming series, and two TV specials in a span of just under two years. Alonzo worked to get all of that through Marvel's post-production process, and last summer the strain in the studio began to show as the visual effects artists took to the internet to loudly complain about the studio's demanding work schedules.

A lot of the complaints basically came down to Marvel not providing clear enough guidelines and decisively figuring out what they wanted beforehand. Then came the release of Ant Man in the Wasquantamania with a rampant complaint about visual effects. The film ended up with 463 million global box office hall and will likely struggle to break even. Understandably has led to a slowdown to the Marvel rollout,

as the trade indicates five works for Disney Plus were originally planned for this year. That list has now been narrowed down to three or four with the others moving to 2024, taking at least some off, taking at least some of the pressure off of Marvel's post-production pipeline. Alonzo's replacement has not been replaced. Alonzo's replacement has not yet been announced.

No announcement yet for Alonzo's replacement. All right, there's a lot here. A lot. The first is, when the announcement came, nobody really knew. Did she leave on her own? Did she leave something that they were working on? It was kind of mutual. It seems like she was blindsided by it from what they said inside of the report.

Didn't see it coming. And if you look at the report of what variety says, I mean, a lot of it makes sense to where you've got to, Now, is there potentially a scapegoat situation here? Maybe. In the idea that when you're trying to cut salaries, you're trying to cut costs, you're trying to cut these things to,

because all these layoffs are coming for Disney in April. Anyway, because they've got a clean house for all the debt they're in from the streaming stuff. And again, movies like Aunt Man that didn't deliver in the way that they thought they would. I don't think that it's unfair to say that Marvel, and they are, needs a bit of a rehaul. They need to change up what they're doing.

And they need to, I don't know if it's too easy to just say, well, they've got to do it the way they used to do it. In a certain aspect, maybe you say, well, it is yet easy to say. Focus more on the stories, focus more on the things, and maybe focus less on some of these big spectacle CGIs and maybe don't release as much as you have been, which seems like ultimately what is what they are doing.

Now the question is how much more details will come out about Victoria Alonto, right? How much more will come out about the idea? Because there is that, I guess not elephant in the room anymore that they're talking about with the visual effects teams that were really unhappy, whether I remember during like She-Hulk and they even made a thing about it at She-Hulk. There was a joke about it. And there's two different reports that I also read in this whole thing that said that there is one report that says that the visual effects is she was a nightmare to work for

and that she was really, you know, kind of looked down on people. And then there's another report that completely refutes that and says, no, she was a pleasure to work with. And she was nothing but a consummate professional. So who knows what really comes out. You know, you're going to, that's just a, there's two sides to every story, right? So who knows? But the question is, because Fikey doesn't intervene inside of the,

this one and he doesn't get involved. The question is at that point though, Fikey does seem like the kind of person. He's probably his hands are tied at this particular moment. But if he really thought that she was going to help move Marvel to the next direction, wouldn't he have found a way to fight for her if that was the case? And maybe he just thought it was time for her to go. So that's why he said, I can't really intervene.

Who knows? Who knows what the real story is, but you can speculate and continue to speculate because it's massive. Because like they said, she just won this award or won, either nominated or one. I can't remember what the fucking thing said. Yeah, I just read it. But either way, Argentina, 1985. And then eight days later, they just let her go. Now, to her, probably sudden, not to the powers of it.

that's probably been something that's been talked about for a little bit. And maybe, I mean, I definitely think that Marvel has an over-CGI problem at the moment. I think I said that even so, like I mentioned with Ant Man on the Wasp, when seeing it. My initial reaction has not changed from when I saw the movie and I stand by the whole thing. I enjoyed it. Why? Because it was a different kind of science fiction movie that I thought was really messy. I thought that it was chaotic towards the end.

And I definitely could see when I, this is the first, you go back, watch the reaction. I said, I could see a lot of people not liking this movie. And this is going to be a very divisive film. But I stand by the fact that I think it could have been a lot better film. If they didn't make it this big chaotic CGI ending, that's what people want. People want to go to the movies and they want the big science fiction

or not seem to science fiction, the big popcorn over-the-top, CGI, boom. It's like, no, we don't. And I think that you, like, look at something, people are going to know, what the hell you're talking about? Look at something like Avatar and Top Gun Maverd, obviously. You don't find more CGI and effects than Avatar, which I think just won the Oscar for.

But what I'm saying is, if you're going to do it, blend it with the emotion, blend it with the story that happens. overall. Make me care about that fight more than just it being a spectacle. And to me, that's what Avatar the way of Water did. It's a massive spectacle. It's a massive CGI fest. It's a massive effects parade. But they earn it with the emotion that they set up throughout the story, at least in my opinion. I loved the second Avatar. And Top Gun, same thing. A lot of CGI in that movie. But you can't really even tell, you know, because the people are, because it's not, it's not about the CGI. It's again, about the mission that is, that is teed up from the beginning

and the emotion tied behind the mission of how Maverick's got to do this, got to lead these people to be part of this mission, and it's the lead up to it. So the fights are, the dog fights and all that are part of the emotion. Antman didn't have that. A lot of these Marvel movies right now don't have that. And they did at one point. They did. Like the, like Civil War is an example, right? When not only the, the massive fight that happens with all of the heroes in the airport, like that's a, that's a big CGI fest in general. But again, it's earned through emotion because it leads up to this thing. Is it in, in essence, a bit of a gimmick? You go, watch the two sides fight. That's why you're there. Of course, that's why you're there.

but they earn it. They earn it from the beginning of what's happening with the accords and how it builds up and how they finally get there and the introduction to Spider-Man and these different things and the emotion that Tachala is feeling for the loss of his father and just so on. There's just, you just go through it. That's just a little bit.

You can break down each and every character and know why they're there and why they're fighting and the things that they're going through. And it's a big buildup and it's earned and it's really earned at the end of that movie when Tony knows that he shouldn't be going after Bucky, but he can't help himself. And the music that swellows at the time,

the fight that happens at the end, and it's not necessarily a big, massive, huge battle. They used a lot of it for the fight that I was just talking about. But it's the emotion behind Cap and Tony kind of going at it and having this big fight. But that's just kind of my point of where Marvel needs to get back to. like earn it. Don't just throw it against the big CGI fast. And maybe that's what they realized.

Maybe that's what they're trying to maneuver. And maybe, and I don't know, maybe Victoria Alonzo was kind of leading to charge on more CGI and more big battles and more of those types of things. I don't know. But nonetheless, very curious to see. I don't think this story is over. So we will learn more. But moving on to the next one. All right, this is a big story.

You guys know I've covered it on. this channel people have been covering it. Damon Lindelof has gone from the Star Wars film, but right away, when all this news broke, they made a big announcement that Stephen Knight, who created Peaky Blinders, is going to take over the screenplay writing duties on the untitled Star Wars movie that Charmine obeyed Chenoy is attached to direct. Knight is going to take over from Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt Gibson. They left the project, which is widely expected to be the first new Star Wars film to hit screens following the release of Star Wars to Rise of Skywalker, which came out in 2019. Night is a veteran screenwriter who has penned all sorts

of films over the years, including Eastern Promises, Locke, Allied, Spencer, Serenity, The Girl in the Spider's Web, Seven Sun, and More. On TV, he's a creator and writer of Taboo, C, and Piki Blinders. Lindelof and Brett Gibson, excuse me, were hired a while back to write a script and turned in a draft this year before exiting and in February. News of their exit hit more recently and in the wake of reports that several other Star Wars projects in the works, Patty Jenkins, J.D. Dillard and Kevin Feiky have all been sheled. Now, aside from this one, there are potential Star Wars films from Tycho Atiti, Sean Levy, and those seems to be the only ones that are still active. There's going to be more information

about all this Star Wars news at Star Wars Celebration, which is coming up in April. All right, lots to talk about here. Lots to talk about. So the problem is, as we said, I've been talking about this. A lot of people have been talking about this. This keeps happening with Lucasfilm, right? They bring a creator in, creator leaves, creative differences. They bring someone else in. It doesn't happen.

It should happen. Who knows? This is what I think should happen at Star Wars Celebration. If they're going to actually announce this movie, they're going to obviously have Charmine Obeyed Chinoi come out. They're obviously going to have Stephen Knight potentially come out, potentially. But if you can bring them out,

tell us exactly what the movie's going to be about. Give us some cast and tell us when this thing starts shooting. Let's start shooting tomorrow. Great. Still, I don't believe until I see it or see a trailer, but still, if it's like that real, it needs to be like, no, like, oh, look, here's this presentation. What they do with Patty Jenkins. She said, she's got a helmet out, and then she's flying on an X-wing, and then here we go.

We're going to get this movie, and then you don't get it. Don't give me some presentation that you shot for this thing, because that doesn't mean that's going to happen. talking about this guy in particular, is this a good fit? How do you say no, it's not a good fit? The guy's a fantastic screenwriter. And just from Locke was one of my favorite movies of that year. And it was, that's the kind of detail that I think is missing from Star Wars movies.

I think those kind of conversations and that kind of, what we were just talking about with Marvel, layer in some more of the character development like you did in Andor. Layer in some more of, if you're going to build, if you're building out a new universe, not a new universe, but new time period that happens after Rise of Skywalker, and you're going to be the ones that said it, get a guy like this that puts in detail. I think it's a great move if they can actually, if he doesn't leave in a month from now and say, no, no, he had ideas and they didn't like what he was doing, so he's gone now. And the question has been, like, why is Kathleen Kennedy still there?

People keep asking that question. Why is she still there? why she's got a very good relationship in general with iger disney and as many people have pointed out and i pointed out um she's got a lot of wins for star wars as far as films go she only has one loss with with solo i don't care if you like the movie or not financially it was a loss um but she has more wins than losses financially so they're going to give her an opportunity to make more money for them but i think that this is what i think could happen with Kathleen Kennedy.

I think she's going to have Indiana Jones, which is going to make a lot of money. It's going to be a kind of walk off the court moment for her. And that is why you're going to get these movies, whether it is Sean Levy's movie, Tycho Oetie's movie, and now this movie, Genoie's movie, I think Chenoie's movie is going to,

now we shift the, maybe that was another reason why. Maybe the focus was getting more of the shift towards Lindoloff, and now it's definitely, going to become her movie. And probably rightfully so. She's the one who's directing it and putting it through. She's like, why does Lindelof keep getting all the headlines and press for her? It's my movie.

Yeah, they're going to have a screenwriter, but I'm the one who's going to bring it to life. And I understand that. But I think her movie goes first. And I think Kathleen Kennedy will not be part of Lucas film when the movie comes out. It doesn't mean she doesn't get credit for it. If she's the one who sets it up, she's the one who sets up. and she's the one who sets up the you know

if tyca's movie goes and then Sean Levy's movie goes she's still getting producer credits she's still seeing it happen in her bank account she's still seeing all that stuff so I think she's going to set up these three movies she's going to have the two or three at least and she's going to have them set up she's going to have all these other shows the acolyte and and or sees you have all her name on

on all these shows still that she's going to get and she walks off the court whether you me think she did a good job or not, she's going to have all those things, and then she's going to set up her own company or be part of other projects, and she's going to do what she's always done, and that's make movies.

But I think that's the plan, and I think that's why they're, and I also think they're also obviously being pressured to make more Star Wars movies, and they have to do it. Finally, they know that they're going to make some, they bring in a guy like this, like they bring in a night to see it.

Like, it does, if the movie happens, it gets me excited that if they're like, okay, well, this is the guy we're getting instead of Lindelof, we're getting this guy who created these shows, who's done very extensive, maybe it's a little darker of a movie. We bring in a guy like this, which I'm all for a little bit more serious, maybe because they see, like, critically, they saw what Andor did critically. And looking at, you know, they want to be taken a little bit more serious. So they bring in a guy like this to do less of the popcorn.

thing and make it a little bit more of an idea of let's really dive deep into it. Maybe so. I just, I'm going to be like everyone else and say, I believe it when I see it. How long before this guy goes, yeah, I've turned in three drafts that are fantastic. I know it will work, but I'm getting these ridiculous notes and these other things that just are working. We're not seeing eye to eye. Creative differences, I'm out.

It's that, that is a, that's kind of like a sure bet right now. You hope it's not, but it's happened way more often. They brought in creators of other big shows. They brought in Lindelof, creator of loss, or co-creator of loss, whatever, creator of leftovers, watchman. They brought in Benioff and Weiss. They brought in people that have gone, bye-bye, my notes were pretty, my script was good.

You have a different idea of what you want me to do, and I don't want to do that. Bye-bye. And you have to look at the leadership. Again, this is something I said yesterday. I think of the live stream, too. and I'm not encouraging anybody to do this. I'm just curious. It's very interesting that this doesn't happen

because you look at the discourse on social media in general, right? And I know there's a lot of people who are just screaming into the void and there's other people who are legitimately like what's going on, just asking the questions. But I look at it, if you look at it like a sports team, and if there's a coach of a team

that just keeps making bad moves and continuously just keep making bad moves, when that coach hits the field, they don't get applause. And I'm always looking around people when I go to Star Wars celebration and I see people like, you know, yeah, all right, woo, yeah. And it's like, so I'm not saying some people don't feel that way. But you know those people in there that are bitching about it on Twitter that are going,

and you're cheering still. It's just like, I don't know. I don't know how long it lasts. I don't know how long it lasts. I think, yeah, I think after Indiana Jones, we get the announcement. But this Stephen Knight move, it's a good move. It's a good move. And if they stick with it and with Genoie directing, Stephen Knight writing, that's a great combination.

If all this stuff had never happened with continuously losing people left and right, and this was like the first, like let's say they had never lost any directors or creators ever, ever. And they still hadn't made a movie since 2019. And this was the first announcement. the director who had directed a lot of the, I think most of the episodes for Ms. Marvel, which I really enjoyed, again, because of character development, telling a story that wasn't necessarily the superhero thing

was the least interesting thing of that show. It was the family and the way that the family was shot and the way that the family was directed. So that type of stuff, and coupled with this guy on his writing, that's a great combination. So that announcement comes out and you go, whoa, great team. And they're actually making the movie

and they're going to start shooting and have never had any problems beforehand. We'd be a lot more excited right now. Even if it was the same movie Rise of Skywalker, even if it was the same, you know, Last Jedi, all that stuff. If they announced that this was it and they have this team, people would be a little bit more confident than they aren't.

It's not against the people that are involved. It's the idea that you're thinking, okay, but it is what will it really happen? So that's a pretty big story. I'm excited to, see what's going to happen at Star Wars Celebration. We will see. I'll tell you what you need to see about.

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They put it in one delicious scoop. You put it in the water, you shake it up, and why would you want to take a bunch of different things? You can just take one scoop of powder and water once a day. Done. Not a big vitamins guy, not all these different supplements. You've got to take multiple in order to, finally I did it.

Why? Why would you take a bunch of different things when you can just mix one scoop of powder in water once a day? That's it. AG1 was designed. with ease in mind so you can live healthier and better without having to do a lot. So for me, it's just the all-in-one formula. So easy and it just, it's delivered to me every month, been very easy to make it a daily habit.

And I have all these side traveling packs too. With the live shows coming up, it's going to be crucial. So if you're looking for an easier way to take supplements, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. You've got to go to athletic greens.com slash big thing. athletic greens.com slash big thing. Check it out. Thanks once again to Athletic Greens and Sunday lawn care right around the corner for,

I mean, spring start. Spring start. Get that stuff. It's awesome. And Athletic Greens, what do I tell you about Athletic Greens? I'm telling you about Athletic Greens. You want to support the show? You want to support yourself?

Check it out, man. I put the link in the description, but I also put it as a pin comment. So go ahead and check it up. All right. Let's talk about John Wick, baby. John Wick, four. It's targeting $70 million for an opening debut. It's the fourth and the biggest installment of the Canter Reeves-led action thriller series, John Wick.

It is aiming to set a new franchise record at the box office. Once again, this is from Dark Horizons. The critically acclaimed new film is on track to take in 65 to 70 million domestically this weekend weekend and a further 35 to 45 overseas worldwide total of anywhere from 100 to 115 million by Sunday. That continues. The franchise has knack for its opening weekend to increase with each entry. jumping from 14 million for the first to 30.4 million for the second and 56. million for the third. It costs more than 100 million to produce.

The new film has the biggest budget of the series thus far and expected to surpass the third film's 328.3 million global grows before it leaves theaters. Shazam floundered. Creed and Scream sequels did record opening weekend benchmarks for their respective series with Wick to do the same and easily take the top spot in the process, even with 169 minutes runtime limiting sessions. So this is kind of what I said in my opening. And I think relevant to what we were just talking about, whether it's with Star Wars and Marvel, right? The comic book movie genre right now,

the idea of fatigue to me is not a relevant conversation when it comes to just saying, well, people are just tired of superhero movies. I think people are tired of subpar superhero movies. People are tired of things that don't move the needle, things that aren't different, things that are generic. I liked Shazam, too. I thought it was good.

I thought it was predictable. I thought it was something we've seen a million times over. But it was fun. It was fun. Should it have made $100 million? No. I think more people would have enjoyed it. Like my friend Justine Marino yesterday, he was like, hey, is it terrible?

It did so bad. Should I see it? It's fun. You'll have a good time watching it. She's like, as a casual fan, will I get it? I'm like, you will? It's fun. it's a fun time at the movies,

but I understand why it didn't do very well, and I don't think just blaming the rock for it is the right way to go. Sure, they could have had a cameo on Black Adam. Black Adam didn't make a billion dollars to get people more so. I mean, they tried to put Superman back in it. Superman, and people didn't see the movie for it and didn't, well, it would have added a little bit more money

because people would have seen it at the end, and it would have been a little bit more of a tie-in. Okay, but how much really? Two or three million dollars? $5 million, $10 million, pushing it to $40 opening weekend? I mean, you can't, I mean, I'm not saying that. Do I think that the Rock was a little petty

and the way that he handled the Shazam thing? Yeah, I do. But is that, but should he be blamed for the reason the movie didn't do? Well, clearly him and Zach Levi have beef. Because even though when they asked Zach Levi the other day, I saw some interview where they're like, hey, have you seen Black Adam? He's like, no. And they're like, well, you're going to watch?

He's like, I don't know, I got a lot of other things to watch. and then he posted out the truth will set you free. So he's clearly pissed off at the Rock. And Rock hasn't, I don't think the Rock has responded, no idea. But blaming the Rock for this, now blaming marketing, sure. You could blame the marketing for it. I don't think it was marketed very well. But I do think that it's this kind of generic thing that has been happening.

I think it's the reason why Ant Man, Ant Man didn't play very well. Like I said, I didn't mind both those movies, didn't mind either one of them. But I don't know why you'd rush out to see that. movie? Do you have, is it one of the ones you rush out to see? Is, um, Dr. Strange something you rush out to see? Thor, Love and Thunder rushing out to see. Hell, I like the Eternals. Is it something you rush out to see? John Wick 4, you rush out to see because it's part of it. Now, now, now I will say this. I think that you, well, you have to, and I put my immediate reaction to John Wick up. I put my review up, non-spoiler review up, John Wick. John Wick, the first one,

was the most based in reality out of all of them. Each one gets a little bit more silly. And by silly, I mean, I shouldn't say silly. Let's take back silly. Over the top, really over the top. Like the idea that, you know, you could fall pretty far and you're going to be all right. I don't have a problem with that. If you had a problem with number three and thought the three was just two over the top,

then you ain't going to like four. But if you just have fun with these movies and just are just going and watch Keanu Reeves kick some ass and have some fun inside of this lure that's been going on. Apparently, this is what the creator said. This whole story takes place in the span of like a year, a year and a half. And you just follow that ride, you're going to have a blast with John Wickford. And it's long, and it's epic. And I had a blast with it. I really did.

And I think people are going to rush that. This is a reason why it's tracking the way it does because it's such a, and it's a different, it's a good movie to watch. A great movie to watch in the theater. and a different alternative than watching superhero movies. So was Avatar, so was Creed, so was Scream, so was Top Gun. So Mission Impossible is going to do very well. Fast 10 is going to do very well. This is especially the comeback after the pandemic,

we're going to start to see the hike. The hike, spike, there it is, the spike for these movies. And then we have. but subpar superhero movies ain't going to cut it anymore. Black Adam, again, another movie I enjoyed watching. But it's a generic late 90s superhero movie that I don't expect anyone to rush out to see because there's so many of these movies now.

It's like what's different than anything else? If I have, and I always use, I use, so we have a patron who usually does the opening for Capes and Cowles and does the opening for Sith Council and it's wicked art. He's an incredible artist. And he said to me, and I've talked about this before, he's like, look, man, I choose my family.

He's got two kids. He's got his wife, and they go and they watch movies. But they got a pick. I mean, they got a pick of what they're going to watch. It's like, well, we're going to spend money to see this, or are we going to spend money to see that? I don't know. This looks pretty generic.

I don't really have an interest for it. What's different than the other things that I've seen before? carry on anything else? I don't know. I don't know to spend my money on that when I could be spending my money on this that I want to be. It's a movie I'm looking forward to. And that's, that's, you got up, and especially in March, when you had Scream, Creed, John Wick, Dungeons and Dragons, and, well, 65, which didn't do very well anyway, but Shazam was in trouble in general. I don't think they ever should have moved their date. I think they should have stuck at their last date when it was.

anyway that's it guys that's it for that story so I'm very curious to hear what you guys think am I anywhere near right here wrong got to get your thoughts on it so go ahead and comment and let me know exactly what you think all right next story all right and for the last story of the day I thought this is interesting because as we're getting closer and closer all these AI programs are coming out man like the AI photos the AI writing apparently now and listen to this WGA takes a stance on AI screenwriting. This is from Garth Franklin. The Writers Guild of America has clarified its stance

on works created with the help of artificial intelligence. Reports earlier today suggested that the WGA might let AI tools such as chat GPT be used in script writing as long as writers still get credit for the result. The proposal was reportedly made on Monday during a negotiation round with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers. Since then, however, both the West and East, branch of the Guild have posted a Twitter thread detailing their proposal to regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies. The main aim is to ensure

that AI can't be used to undermine writers working standards including compensation, residuals, separated rights and credits according to the posting. AI can't be used as source material to create MBA-covered writing or rewrite MBA-covered work and AI-generated texts cannot be considered in determining writing credits. Writers may not be assigned AI-generated materials to adapt, nor may AI software generate covered literary material. Whilst a studio can make a writer aware of AI-generated content, it is research material only and has no role in Guild-covered work, nor in the chain of title in the intellectual property. As the Guild points out, AI software does not create anything per se. It generates a regurgitation of what's fed and cannot distinguish

between copyright protected and public domain content. Therefore, its output is not eligible for copyright protection, therefore its output is not eligible for copyright protection, nor can an AI software program sign a certificate of authorship. To the contrary, plagiarism is a feature of the AI process. It is unclear how the AMPTP will take to this proposal, but the Writers Guild's current contract is set to expire on May 1st. It's so interesting on so many different levels.

Just the AI programming is it's so new. It is so young. It's like the, you know, back in the day when the internet, there's some video I saw recently, the internet in like 1995 and what the internet was like in 95 as opposed to what it is today. And the same goes for the AI programs. You know, look at the AI programs for like the voices, right?

As I had Brian Monarch on here with Joe Goddad a couple weeks ago, and those guys are responsible for the program. You've seen the Arnold basically doing the voice of Jack from Titanic. Look at my booboos, Jack, that whole thing. And they've done tons of them. They're really great. Joe does a spot-on Arnold. And Brian Monarch is like a, it's becoming like a master of this,

like the deep fake technology and all that. But the reason I bring that up is I was watching some of his videos, and there was like a Joe Rogan one. I said, who's due the impression of Joe Rogan? He was, that's an AI-generated voice man. And I was like, wow. And it was this whole big thing with voice actors and the programs, and look what they do,

James Earl Jones on, on Darth Vader and what they, I guess that the Luke, the Luke Skywalker from Book of BobaFet was where I went, well, that sounds pretty robotic. And maybe they start, maybe it starts to change, maybe they'll start to be able to add a little bit more emotion. And it's a scary time for creators, I'll tell you that, because there is stuff. Like if you were able to, and I know that they basically gave the rules of what you can do,

what it can determine what it can. But as it gets better, imagine going, hey, look, I've got an idea to do all this. I always bring the Darth Bain. So I take the Darth Bain novels and I say to the program, they want to, you know, adapt it and have the AI basically turn those three novels into scripts, you know. Just adapted into a certain way. I'd be so curious what the AI program came up with. I don't know how exactly works.

I don't know if it could work that way or not work the way. Maybe eventually it does. And there's a way for, what I'm curious about is could they do something along the lines of using that program and just using that example. Let's say you can have the AI program adapt that book, the first book, into a screenplay. And you're not submitting it to the Writers Guild. You're not doing any of that, but you're using it as an outliner to anybody that comes in and go, hey, look, this is the script that we had the AI generate.

and we kind of like what the program came up with. We want to, you'll get credit for it. Just go and do this. Like, why couldn't you use the program that way? And again, I'm so, I could be speaking completely out of my asshole here. I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, but if that's even possible. But it seems like it is. And I'm so curious to get into, this is why I'm more or less bringing this up to get into conversation with you guys about it.

What do you think about this? Is it something that they should do? Should they nip it in the bud, Skynet coming to get us, all that. And that's really it for today. That's really it. Oh, I can tell you that I finished the Last of Us game. I'll end with that. I finished The Last of Us.

And I'm going to do a quick kind of review on the game itself. I loved the game, man. I loved it. And what I did, I watched the series. I played up until the point that I've already seen in the series, and then I played the game. So I didn't get spoiled. I only got spoiled once, and I did it on purpose.

Kind of. I started playing, and I said, oh, yeah, you know what? I'm going to compare because I get all these people who were playing the game. first and then comparing. I'm going to do that. I did that for one storyline and it was the David storyline. It's all I'll say for people who haven't seen the series and I ruin it for him. But everything that people said about this game is absolutely true.

From the gameplay alone, from the story, even though I knew some of the stuff that was going to happen because I had watched the series, it still had a major impact. There are some things I like better in the game. There are some things I like better in the series. But overall, it's just masterful storytelling and you can understand it was no-brainer to turn this into a series. I'm so glad that it happened now these days that it got made into a streaming series

as opposed to maybe 10 years ago it would have been turned into a subpar film because they would have tried to condense that story into a two-hour film and there's no way you could have done it. You just couldn't have maybe make it three different movies but even then you had to wait three years in between this was the best outcome for this series

and the game just, again, like I said, the gameplay of it, it's like it gets terrifying, it gets emotional, it's great. And I'm going to do, I think, a Twitch watch along, or play along for the second game. We have the channel. We haven't really utilized it. We're going to start utilizing it more.

So be on the lookout for that. But, yeah, this is just a very special game. As you guys all know, people who have played it, people who haven't that have been considering it, do it, what I liked about it also. Because it takes noobs like me and says, hey, you're bad at games. And if you're you're still trying to swim in the same place, here's a hint. Don't go that way.

Go the other way. Dummy. And I love that about the Noddy Dog games. They did that for Uncharted and they did that for this one too. So big fan of the game. I think it was great. Anyway, that's all I got. Thank you today for joining me.

Don't forget that tomorrow not only we're doing capes and cows in the morning. Sign up today. Thechristianharloff.com. Big announcements coming in tomorrow. And we hope that you join us. It's going to be a virtual event. The whole big thing crew is going to be there. And we hope to have you there so you can be with us on the journey.

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We're getting close. Brett and Roxy will be back next week. Don't worry. They'll be at that special event tomorrow. But thank you for joining me here today. I really appreciate you. Apple Podcast, Spotify, anywhere podcasts are found. All right, happy Thursday, everybody.

We'll see you on the flip side. It's the big thing. It's me. It's you. See you later. Bye.