Dune You Forget About Me

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away from the meeting and catch up any time. Get started for free at auto dot ai or download in the app stores. That's otter dot Ai. The Large Nerdron Collider Podcast is a production of I Heart Radio. Hey everybody, welcome to the Large Nerdron Collider Podcast, the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in the world around us and how very excited we are about them. I am Ariel casting, and with me, as always is my super brilliant creative co host Jonathan Strickland. Guys, I really

wish you could be on this video call. When we do this. Ariel really talks with her hands a lot, and it's just very entertaining to me and it never translates over to the podcast. Ariel, as always, I have a question for you. Okay, your question is and this will actually loop back into the episode, believe it or not. You're familiar with the Dungeons and the Dragons. Correct, I

might be a little familiar with the dungeons and the dragons. Yes, if you had to put yourself into a class in the Dungeons and the Dragons, like any class you want. It doesn't have to be one that you think fits you right now. You could be any class in the real world. Which class do you choose? I would be a barred barion, a bart so barred barbarian. Yes, yes, Wait are you do? You only play heavy metal? Do you like? Do you like pose for Molly Hatchet album covers? Listen?

We all know uh well, actually our new listeners may not know. I do dabble in the LARPing when it's not pandemic, and I usually play heavy hitters barbarian type people. I just like it. It's just it's fun to not have to worry about learning too much stuff, fun to whack people with a giant foam stick. Yes, but then I also I also play music in in you know, my real life, and then some of my bandmates also play with me, so then I end up playing music.

And so bard Baryon is not an actual d and d uh class for for anybody who's not familiar, But I'm really working to make it one so you get multi class. Yeah, what about you, I'm trying to remember the rules for D and D and whether Bard is allowable as a multi class character. Um, well, I guess

it to ends on the iterations, right. Yeah. You also, dear listeners, have to remember that when I started playing Dudgeons and Dragons, it was after the basic dn D set that had been released, but it was when Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was a thing before even the second edition. So I've had a lot of different experiences with dn

D over the many generations. I would say that out of all the different classes that have existed throughout the various iterations of dn D, I would go with Swashbuckler, which I recall from Advanced Douges and Dragons second edition. It was in the Fighters Manual where you got like a supplemental manual to the game, and it had a whole bunch of different subclasses of fighters and swashbucklers essentially

pirate or musketeer type character. But the other option I would have gone with, if I go with just the basic ones, is also barred, not because I'm particularly musical, but because I'm irritating and rarely helpful. I don't think that about you at all. You're very helpful, and I enjoy being around. That's why you and I are in a party together and you want to hang out with me.

So I'm glad we have that question settled. And today we're going to be talking a lot about movies and what has been going on throughout the pandemic and how it's affected movies. Just as we talked about television previously, now we're talking about film. And this is also a moment for us to acknowledge that are our wonderful producer, Tori.

She has a background in film, she went to film school, so I'm sure this is one of those things that she feels particularly passionate about as we are looking at how the world of film is changing as a result of the the health crisis. But we're gonna start off by talking about specific movies and what's been going on with them. Some of them have have seen their released, its shuffle around a bit, and and specifically giggy movies

that were excited about. So you know, we're not always going to talk about TV and movies, but that's what we're doing today, all right, So I think we should start with the Batman, the Batman, not just the Batman, the Batman. The Batman with Robert Pattinson, um because they went back to filming during during the pandemic, and then

they immediately shut down because Robert Pattinson had COVID. Yeah, this was one of those examples we were talking about in that last episode about how depending upon who gets affected and and and how often they're around other people. Uh, a COVID case can shut down a production for a couple of weeks. Now, in this case, you're talking about the lead actor, So obviously that's going to affect things.

But if it if it was like a day player, like a one line person, they might just get replaced, right if if and if they were able to determine, oh well, that person wasn't around enough people for that to be a potential problem. So it was originally going to come out on October. In October, and now currently they've pushed that back to March of twenty two, and uh Dune, which was going to come out a little earlier, is now moving into the Batman's original time launch window.

And June was supposed to come out this year is supposed to be a Christmas present. The spice must flow, but it must flow a little later than when we intended Yeah, that's that's a that's a bummer. I mean, it's part of this is obviously because of delays in production.

Part of it is due to just making the strategy of when your tent pole films are going to launch, and and it's also a lot of hedging your bets and wondering like when are you going to be able to make the biggest impact, When will will theaters be open by then? We'll talk a lot more about theaters later in this episode. Yeah, and you know that's not the only one. Matrix is also being pushed back. Matrix

is being moved up. This one's actually they finished that one earlier and so it's been moved up to December one, but originally it was supposed to come out in the spring of two. I'm excited about Matrix four, although I never saw the third Matrix movie. I so just my very personal opinion, I there are only a few movies that once they get to the third I'm like, yeah, this is still super awesome, and Matrix is one of those that just didn't hit that benchmark for me. Well,

Matrix two is why I didn't see Matrix three. Okay, Like I loved the first film, I thought it was really interesting, really innovative. It was the second DVD I ever bought, which I think is I think a lot of people Matrix is the first. Yeah. Uh, the first first DVD I ever bought was South Park, Bigger, Longer, and uncut. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't. That's That's a fantastic musical. But Matrix, for I am still kind of excited about it because I want to see what the

new vision is for that world. I didn't like the way Matrix to unfolded. I felt like a lot of the things I thought I understood about the first film I was totally off base about, and instead of being excited by that, I was discouraged, which is why I never bothered to see the third one, because I was just like, this feels like it took a left turn and I really wanted to see what was straight ahead. So I got I was like, I'm out, um, but

I do. I do wanna see how that goes. And of course, I mean, anytime you can build out the mythology of a science fiction world, I think that can be exciting. Yeah, if if you just want to explore more of the Matrix world, have you watched The Animatrix.

I have not, and that was one of those that I really wanted to check out because I kept hearing that at least half of the entries in The Animatrix were really good and the other half were you know, different people had different reactions to Yeah, I mean, I would agree, but it also helps you kind of explore that world more. You expect it to be a left turn sort of or at least a bunny trail. But back to Batman is not the The Batman, sorry, is not the only superhero movie being pushed back. Uh, the

Flash is also being pushed back. Shazam two is being pushed back, and then Black Adam sadly not being pushed back. It was taken off, which I just want to say, like, I enjoy Shazam, but I was really watching it. Let's be honest here to myself, true to myself. For Black Adam to come in, because that's Dwayne Johnson, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, what the Rock who I was very excited to see his Black Adam. So that's disappointing. I hope

they bring it back in a future time. I mean, obviously, as as we were just alluding to the pandemic has made it much more complicated for these these companies that have had extensive, like launch plans that are laid out

to be like a decade out. Disney has done this with the Marvel Films, not to mention some other ones we'll talk about in just a second, but uh, you know, clearly something like this throws a wrench into all of that, because again, productions are more complicated and you're not really sure if you're even gonna have theaters to release two by the end of it. Yeah. The weird one for me though, because Black Adam is not the only movie from that studio slate that has been dropped all together.

They've also dropped the Minecraft movie. To me, I'm I'm thinking that's when it's perfect to making Quarantine, because it's all I would imagine. It would all be C g I and voice actors. I haven't heard much about the Minecraft movie. You have not, but I was really hoping it was going to be a live action film starring Patton Oswald with a pick ax. I would, yeah, I would watch that. I would watch that very very hard.

And I just didn't even know there was a Minecraft movie in production until I read that so we read an article in Variety that had all this information in it about the different films that have been affected by the pandemic, and then we got the thing that leads into where I asked the question at the beginning of the episode something I'm also excited to see what people

do with. So, yeah, this is one. I didn't realize that there was a Dungeons and Dragons movie currently in development until I was doing research on films that had been impacted by the lockdown and I saw that one of them that was pushed back was Dungeons and Dragons, and I thought, really, they're going to try and make another one of those. Well, I mean, they've been talking

about it forever. So for me, it's not that I didn't know that there was a Dungeons and Dragons movie and development, it's that I didn't know one had actually taken purchase. I mean we even heard Joe Meganello. I think I said that right, Uh wanted to make a D and D movie. He's a big D and D fan. We know that Vin Diesel is a big D and D fans, so it was only a matter of time. It's just the past ones have not been exception of the cartoon have not been the best so most fun

to watch. One thing I think is interesting is that a lot of the people who you would associate with actually doing a D and D movie, as in these are people who are either associated with with loving the game or loving like video games, things like like Henry cavill and stuff, people like that. They're all these huge beefy dudes, which is which is funny too, Like, like I think of the gut people I played DND with, we none of us were huge beefy dudes. Um so no,

but you might have pretended that you were. But these guys are gonna have to pretend. Like I would want a D n D movie where half the film is taking place in the real world and you see the real people who are playing the characters. So I mean, but if you've got a big beefy dude playing a character, you want to see the people playing the game playing the characters. I see what you're saying. Didn't they do that in the last DND movie that didn't go. Honestly

don't know. I stopped. I it didn't have Richard O'Brien in it, so I was out, all right. I couldn't do that fair enough. So we don't know much about this D and D movie other than the fact that it was supposed to release in one and is now pushed to May two. Try saying that five times past, because it's not that hard. But there are lots of speculations of people that they've been pursuing to be in it.

Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Fan diesel, Vin Diesel Yeah, Matthew McConnaughey, Jamie Foxx, Joel Ledgerton, Dave Battista, Jeremy Renner, Johnny Depp. A lot of them have worked in fantasy and sci fi genres, so it's not that they're unusual too, they're unfamiliar to those genres. But Luper did make an assumption or post a question, and I wonder what you think about it, Jonathan. They said, are they looking at all these people to pare them down to one leading man?

Or are they looking at all of these people to be leading men? Because each is going to play a different character type and a party is usually made up of leading men, which I think would be fantastic. I'd love to see each of them take their own style of acting and preferred genre and put it into their D and D party character. I mean, I imagine it's going to be it's going to be an ensemble piece.

If it's not an ensemble piece, then it's not really Dungeons and Dragons, right, So I mean, like it might as well be any fantasy film if you have it where there's one principal lead and then a bunch of supporting characters, you could you don't have to have the

D and D. You know. Uh, I p attached to it at all because really, when I think of Duchess and Dragons, I think of that that party experience, And honestly, I would like to see an all women cast, uh, and just bring all the actresses from Bridesmaids in and do a D and D movie. Okay, an aerial too, an Ariel. I mean, I have no doubt it'll be

an ensemble cast. It's just whether it's an ensemble of like a big name and a bunch of lesser known actors, or an ensemble of all Yeah, I think it'll probably be. I think they're probably gonna aim. I mean a lot of the producers that are attached to this, or people who have worked on movies like Guardians of the Galaxy. So you look at that and you're like, Okay, well you've worked with some ensembles that have some some notable people in them. I mean, I think could probably expect

something along the same lines. And obviously, anytime you're trying something like that, the hope is that you can set things up for another franchise, right, So another like how long are you going to go to the well of Marvel, d C and Star Wars. You're probably gonna want a couple of other things to dip into occasionally as well, and I think Dudgeons and Dragons is one of those things. Yeah.

Another one of those things is Ghosts Ghostbusters Afterlife. So this was supposed to come out, uh in you know, early at least, but it's had its own delays. It recently wrapped shooting as in not like I think it was in November of this year that they finally wrapped. Obviously, their whole production was delayed significantly through the pandemic. I mean, I remember seeing the teaser trailers for Ghostbusters Afterlife like almost a year ago, and they hadn't even they still

had a year to go before they wrapped shooting. Yeah, and This is a hard one because they do have kid actors and and kid actors grow up real fast. And this one, this one is supposed to come out June, and this one's from Paramount. We're going to talk a little bit more about some strategies that movie studios have when it comes to releasing films in the pandemic. What Paramount has been essentially doing is, rather than holding onto

its movies, selling off those films to various streaming services. Yeah. Something else I am sure I will enjoy when it eventually comes out is The Wicked movie. I've never actually seen the stage play, now, you know. And I lived with a roommate who adored it, so I've heard all of the music. I just haven't never defied gravity on multiple occasions, defied gravity and and defied societal expectations for myself.

I mean, that's that's the your go to. Yeah, So this was this was originally supposed to come out um next December, so the December, but that obviously hasn't happened. I mean, as far as I know, they haven't even begun production on this. The director who was attached to the project had to exit, Stephen Daldry, because he had scheduling conflicts because the delays had pushed this so far back.

So as far as I know, it's still planned. Uh, there's I haven't heard of a new director being attached to it, largely because again, it's hard to plan things when you're in the middle of a pandemic. But this is a This is a bummer for people who who like movie musicals. Yeah, yeah, you know, And I do appreciate Daldry for stepping down. You know, it wasn't out of malice. It was simply he couldn't turn it around

in the time they wanted. And I appreciate him saying, you might find find somebody who can give you a better product for the time frame you he he said that it was an amicable parting. It was just you know, it's just business. Also just business. I'm kind of excited because Jurassic to Park Dominion, it feels like it's taking all of the previous Jurassic parks and mashing it all up together, which it is, uh, and I'm very excited

about it. Uh to see all of those actors altogether, the Jurassic World and the Jurassic Park, I'm I'm curious to see if once again we will have a plot that's so stupid about making dinosaurs as weapons, as if that would somehow be more effective than I don't know weapons. Uh, it's it's Jurassic Park dominion. They're all going to be wearing pith helmets, pith helmets and top hats and monocles the dinosaurs, uh, and and playing parliament. I'm fine with that.

So yeah, this movie was an enormous effort. It took a year and a half from pre production to rapping, and that's with it being the first movie to come back to production after every go that that was the very first film, major film to go back into production after the initial lockdown. According to the producers, they administered approximately forty thousand COVID tests throughout the length of the

production process. Once they came back online. Apparently, the the COVID testing added somewhere around eight million dollars to the film's budget um, just just to make sure that they were doing things in a way that wasn't going to put anyone at risk. They also had hand washing stations and temperature stations and doctors on set. They worked with a private health company to make sure that their set was as safe as they could possibly make it, which

is fantastic. And then they all lived in the bubble, which mean they didn't really get to see their family. You know, sometimes when you're shooting a film, if you've if you've got a period of time where you're not working, you can go visit your family for a little bit if they're not nearby. These people couldn't do that. They

all had to be quarantined together. But in reading the article from Deadline, it sounds like that made them a lot closer and so I'm really interested to see how that affects the actor's performances in this movie, because you've got that extra level of vulnerability when you're living with

somebody day in day out. For that, it made me think of the stories about the filming process for What Hot American Summer, because everyone actually stayed at that summer camp, and so through the process of staying there, they all got like ridiculous and silly, and it kind of carried over into the movie, which obviously is ridiculous and silly.

So I except for the week that they rented it out to the bar Mitzia, So I think I think it's like one of those sort of things where it is kind of like you almost think of it as a sleepaway camp kind of experience, not the movie sleepaway Camp that's as a slasher film. But you know different, don't know what I'm saying. Well, when we come back, we're gonna have a little bit more discussion about what is the future for LM. Not just as we go through the rest of the pandemic and out the other side,

but but moving forward from there. And we've got a lot to talk about with that. But let's take a quick break. Teething can be a real nightmare for your little ones. So are you looking for the best relief to soothe teething pain? Highlands Naturals Baby oral pain relief can help use the pain. It's gentle, natural active ingredients like cameramil and arnica. They'll soothe your baby's mouth and gums. No chemicals, no funny business. Highlands is a kinder way

to care for teething. Get yours at Highlands dot com, slash kind. That's h y l A n d s dot com. Slash kind claims based on traditional homeopath a prapic is not accept The medical evidence not ft evaluated. What spring like in Winter's favorite town, Park City, Utah. Imagine waking up on a blue bird day to ski

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the greatest snow on Earth. Having three resorts, Park City, Mountain, Deer Valley in Woodwork, Park City in your backyard, exploring miles of wide open spaces by snowshoe or cross country skis, Wandering our historic main street with its opera, ski scene and award winning restaurants. To discover spring in winter's favorite town. Learn to visit safely at visit park City dot com. All right, so we're back and a couple of our news articles. We actually moved into this conversation topic because

it's important to the future of movie theaters. So Universal Pictures has shortened the amount of time that a blockbuster movie, a first round movie stays in the theater before people can rent it online by it such like that to to try to make up for these profits that are being missed, and uh, it hit theater is pretty hard. It did the original. Generally, the accepted approach is that a film is in theaters for like three months before you can start to offer it up on things like

Blu ray or streaming. But Universal shortens that to seventeen days, so half a month essentially. M Yeah. And then like very recent news, as in the week that we're recording this, Warner Brothers announced that they're going to be just releasing a whole year worth of their movies to age Max directly, yeah, without along with the movie theater, without any without any extra charge for HBO Max. This is to drive more

people to subscribe to HBO Max. And uh, the idea there is that films that will go up in theaters will also be available that day on HBO Max and they will be available for I think thirty one days. Uh yeah. So that that way, if you are, if you are an HBO Max subscriber, then the seventeen movies that Warner has on a slate for will all be available. And both of these stories are making movie theater is

very nervous. Understandably, they are not. They are fans of the idea of getting rid of that exclusivity, that exclusivity of of only being able to see a movie in a movie theater is the lifeblood for for theaters, and they've been having a real hard time in a lot of movie theaters have been looking at shutting down. Uh. In fact, sin a World which owns regal cinemas shut down all five six of its theaters for at least until March of next year, because yeah, there's enough movies

coming out to keep them going. The I think the nail in the coffin was when the new James Bond film got pushed back. They said, there's, yeah, there's just not enough movies to bring audiences in for us to break even. They like, even even if they have all full Like a lot of theaters are working at capacity right now, so even if they have, they sell out

that entire capacity. If there's only one movie, they aren't gonna be able to pay their employees, aren't canna be able to buy the popcorn, you have the concessions and everything. We've known for a long time that the margins of running the theater business are really thin. Like theaters do not make very much money off of ticket sales. They make their money elsewhere, like largely through concessions and also renting out their space occasionally. And uh, and we're starting

obviously both of those take a huge head right. So if you're if you're selling fewer tickets, fewer people are going to be buying food. Um, and if you are in the middle of a pandemic, you're not gonna get a lot of people saying, oh, you know what I want to do rent out a movie theater and fill it with two other people. So it's it's a really tough time. And there are a lot of articles out there asking about do movie theaters even have a future?

Are they going to be able to survive this when they were already struggling before the pandemic and now not only has the pandemic shut them down in the meantime, but setting an expectation among consumers about what seeing a film means these days, I mean it is. It's really interesting to me because so much of the recouping the cost of making the movie comes from that initial box office weekend, you know. Uh, and if you're getting it for free once streaming, I don't know how they're going

to recoup that. I don't have insight into that. But also as a consumer, when when you look at for instance, King Kong versus Godzilla or Dune or something big like that, which are a couple of the movies coming to HBO Max,

I want to see those on the big screen. There's so much work and so much detail put into the special effects, into the imagery, into the landscaping, and so much soundscaping, so much artistry put into the entire package that I you know, I have a pretty good media set up at my house, but it still does not compare in any way to seeing it on the big screen, especially if you go opening night and you've got all the people around you, and I realized, we can't do

that in a pandemic right now. But you know, you've got all the people around you, and you all gasp at the same moments, and you all laugh often share at the same moments. There is nothing to replace that feeling. Um. So Netflix watch parties do not even come close. I I fully agree with you, Ariel. I think like I'm a curmudgeon, I'm a grouchy dude, and I'm I'm the grouchy dude who when I go to the theater, I hate it when someone is talking. I hate seeing that

glow of someone's getting on their phone. You know, I'm the get off my lawn kind of guy. But I love it when a room full of people are immersed in the story and when something exciting happens, there is a reaction in the audience that is it's a it's akin to the feeling you get at live theater right where people are having. It's it's a relationship between what's

going on in front of you and the audience. Now in a film, it's weird because of course the film can't react to what the way the audience is reacting, but it is one of those things that's really special. That communal feeling is something like some of my favorite memories that involved movies aren't about the film, but rather the experience of seeing the film in a full theater. Um. I think of Star Trek for the Voyage Home, which

was the Goofy Whales movie. You know, they go back into the eighties and they rescue some whales in that movie and Star Trek. I saw that when it first came out in a room full of Star Trek geeks, and the reactions because that that movie was so lighthearted and funny compared to the other Star Trek movies. It was such a huge surprise and people were so into it that it was it elevated the movie for me.

So it is a really scary thing to think that that's an experience we may not be able to have for quite some time, because even with things like rollouts for vaccines, even with continued pressure to make sure that people are are behaving response able, you know, there's just no way to I can't see a way for movie theaters to exist the way they used to moving forward. I think they're going to have to change, which, in turn, as you were pointing out, means the whole film industry

has to change. Because if you can't do these ridiculously enormous budget films and expect to recoup those costs, that's gonna have to change the way movies are made. You're gonna see a lot fewer of those big tent pole blockbusters because there's just no way to make your money back. I mean. But on the other hand, if you think about it. For instance, quite a few of our more independent movie theaters, in a way to in Atlanta, in a way to make ends meet, have been converting to

drive ins. So they'll have a few drive in movies each weekend, and then they have some some new movies and a lot of older movies that people really like and like to rewatch playing in their theaters. They can run out their theaters. You can have a private party still at a minimized capacity for an entire theater. So if you're entired, if you're the NBA team living in a bubble, you can have a theater together and watch a movie. But you might already have a movie theater

in your bubble. I don't know it's the NBA. I don't fall it, uh, but you know a lot of them have turned to drive in movie theaters. So it's the way that you can pay. You can be in your car. You're kind of still isolated, but you can watch a movie. And drive ins were a thing of the past, and they're still around. Only yeah, not nearly as many as there used to be. We do have a a fairly big one here in Atlanta called Starlight Um.

That is, you know, they've often rented that space out for all sorts of stuff like like like like farmers markets and things and flea markets. But uh, you know, a lot of those drive in theaters that used to exist are have long since been bulldozed, but part of

the pandemic, some of them are coming back. But I guess my point is, my hope is that that that community, once once people are once we do have a vaccine, and once once we're used to the new normal and hopefully things are better, that people will still want that camaraderie and movie theaters will make a comeback. I feel like if we get to a point whereas the society we can be around each other safely again, and you know,

I know that will take some time. I know a few people who are worried about first run vaccines and things like that, so even once we have one, it will take a while for it to get out to everybody and do its job, hopefully quicker than we're expecting.

But but we don't know. But I have, like my hope is that this time in isolation, this time apart, in this time watching movies on demand will make people desire to be together in these situations more um in the future, and so I'm hoping it has to come back. I like going to the movie theater. I also am a curmudgtion about when people talk around on on their cell phone. Uh, I guess I hit that when I turned thirty. But I wouldn't mind if we had more theater that had. There's a lot I don't like about

the Alamo Drafthouse. I will not get into all of that, this is not the time and place, but I will say I love their policy. They have a zero tolerance policy for people who are talking or texting or anything like that in a movie, and they will tell you to leave if you're doing it, and you know they want they want to preserve that movie going experience. And that's the sort of thing I like to see because it really does change your perception of the film and

change your experience of watching it. And yes, it's nice to be able to see these stories at home at your own convenience and be able to pause the film whenever you want so you can go and you know, make a snack or go to the bathroom or whatever, and you're not missing anything. You don't have to come back and say, what's happened? Why is she talking to him? Now?

You don't have to do any of those things. Um, but it's you lose so much, I mean just in the scale, the scope, especially for those those special effects heavy films, and you lose that that feeling of sitting in a room with people, most of whom you don't know, and you're all experiencing the same thing and all having

you know, these very human reactions. We we talked about on Business on the Brink, how the millennial generation is much more focused on experience and things, yeah, than things, And I feel like this is one that is an experience. You know. So I know that movie theaters have been declining for a while, but I really hope we find a way to pivot back and make it work because and there are a lot of other things we didn't

really touch on here. We're kind of out of time, but there's a there's a very complicated relationship between movie studios and cable companies because a lot of those have kind of merged together. You know, we mentioned Universal, they're part of NBC, which means if they wanted to, they could use Peacock, the streaming service for NBC in a

way very similar to the way Warner is using HBO Max. Right, we could start seeing more fragmentation like that, where we're going to see more and more subscription based services taking the place of things like the theatrical experience. That could be a future. It's not one I particularly want to see. But uh, this this is complicated stuff because those companies have all kind of merged into these mega communications and

entertainment companies. And and it's funny to me because this is the same sort of thing that the US government previously attempted to prevent, Like there were rules in place where movie studios would not be allowed to own chains of theaters because it was anti competitive. But now we're seeing that exact same thing play out. Is just not movie theaters, it's in streaming services because it's cable companies and and there was no one to step in the

way of any of that. Yeah. Yeah, But unfortunately we're out of time, so we can't dive further into that today. Maybe in the future we've gotta we gotta mash up ahead of us. That's gonna be a lot of fun to chat about. The first, I think we're gonna take a quick break and drown our sorrows, perhaps in some fruit punch. Here at Freddy's we could tell you how our original double is a steak burger made lean ground beef, cooked to order with deliciously crispy edges, and finished off

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thirty at checkout for thirty percent off. That's j U and I Learning dot com and promo code I Heart thirty for thirty percent off all the great courses Junie has to offer, and we're back. Listen. We just had a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and we're about to have a June movie. Look, I know they're both really old properties. We talked about Sonic on business in the brink and June. I can't remember when I first learned about it because it was around, it's been around forever, not forever, but

for a while. Um, but they're they're new again. So I wanted okay, I wanted to pick things that were relevant currently. Okay, so uh, we would typically go do a rundown on what these are. So Dune being a famous science fiction uh epic series at this point Frank Herbert creating it, and it's a a a series that begins with a character who inherits his father's legacy and his father himself has been essentially punished by being sent to lord over a desert planet called Aracus. But it's

it's complicated politics and mythology. It's got this mixture of mysticism and science fiction mobile sarlax essentially yeah. Yeah. Sand words being the big famous image that you see, and it's influenced tons of stuff. It's been adapted into films and mini series before. The film often gets a lot of criticism. The original movie gets a lot of criticism, partly because a lot of the stuff that happens in the book has characters who are are thinking things through.

So how do you portray that when it's a movie, because you can't, like you could try and create dialogue, but that gets very artificial very quickly, so so there was a lot of voiceovers. There's a lot of voiceovers also. You know, as as an actor, I'm often told it's it's what you think between the lines that sells it.

But you get tired of watching that much thinking yeah, yeah, You'd have characters essentially stop what they're doing for like forty five seconds so that this monologue could be performed via voiceover while they were staring out at nothing. Do you do you like Dune? I do I do like Dune? Um? You know it's I'm not a I'm not a die hard Dune fan, but that's because when I was growing up,

I I lean more towards fantasy than science fiction. The two were always grouped together in bookstores, but I was more of a fantasy guy. So again, token, I mean, I've got the token tattoo, etcetera, etcetera. But I have an appreciation for done, and there is a lot of fantasy in Dune as well. Like I think of it as science fiction, but if you actually read through it, there are a lot of fantastical elements, things, things that things that almost range towards magical. Um with that the

way those those that world plays out. Or are you are you a big fan of Dune? I am so. I watched I watched the original movie. That was my intro to it. I will just say way back when. Um, but I like it. I do like this story. I'm very excited about the new movie. It looks like it holds pretty true to the book, which is something we've talked about in past podcasts by saying that five times fast or just once for me? Yeah, yeah, for me

obviously too. Or I'm sure we'll talk about it again in the future as well, because it's it's something that constantly comes up in the geek sphere, right right, How do you how do you adapt things that were in one medium for another, and how do you satisfy not just the fans of the original, but how do you bring new fans in who are unfamiliar with the stuff. This is really we will do episodes where we dive into that because that is a big, heavy, like complicated topic. Yeah,

so so I am. And I don't mind. I don't mind when movies veer from the books. Because sometimes they need to. But as you said, like with the thinking, um, I am a fan of Dune, I am more of a fan of Sonic The Hedgehog movie, Holy Cow, the game. The game, I haven't full disclosure, I haven't seen the movie. It actually got better reviews than I expected it to them. Bam boys had some interesting, funny things to say about it. I think they said it on The Besties, though I

don't think it was I would ad. I don't recall. I'm not one caught up on on their series, but I don't recall them talking about it. I think it was the Best Ties, um, just Justin and Griffin. But yeah, yeah, I agree, I saw I also have not seen it

full disclosure, but I've seen reviews about that. But we were really basing it more on Sonic the Hedgehog, the character in general, and yeah, it's a game series, it's been around for many years out of Sega, and of course he Sonic was a direct response to to Mario

kind of and give him a literal run for his money. Yeah, they needed they needed, they needed to have a a video game iconic character to help the Sega brand, and Sonic ended up being it a blue hedgehog who runs really fast and has a perpetual arch nemesis in the form of Dr Egmund, who who turns poor little, cute

little animals into robots. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually when you it's actually when you really look at at the what's going on in Sonic that you realize, like, wow, this is like some Cronenberg level horror stuff going on here. Don't say that I don't like horror. But the thing I like about Sonic is because you spin and then you just spin as a as as the character. And it is certainly a difficult game, especially when you get

to the higher levels. But I I am horrible at jumping from platform into platform like you do with Mario, and I like Mario, but you can skip a whole bunch of that. If you're good at Sonic. You just spin right over it and then you're at the end of the level. So yeah, I am also not particularly

strong at platformers. So while I think some people might view this, at least the early Sonic games as being a platform er with training wheels, I don't mind having training wheels if it means I get to learn how to play. Uh So, um, I have a pitch for Sonic Hedgehog meats Doune You're ready, I actually wrote this one down. Here we go. So Sonic Atreyades is a young hedgehog noble who gets plopped down on the planet Aracus while he's enjoying a spicy chili dog boosted by

a bit of milange in the chili spice. An armed force under the command of the evil baron doctor Vladimir Robotnick Sonics family is whited out, but Sonic escapes into the desert wasteland when he discovers that the milange has given him the ability, nay the compulsion, to run fast. Gotta go fast, he says a lot, and he runs out from the dangers of a military takeover into the dangers of a desert filled with sandworms, and there he discovers a brave indigenous force and a whole bunch of

sandworms and a love of gold rings. For some reason, I still need to work that part out the gold rings I'm having I'm having trouble working the gold rings in Okay, Okay, So that, um that brings me to my pitch, which flat out not as good as yours.

Way to mesh all those characters together. But okay, so polish Radius, who's the main character of Dude is with the Benny Jester and he has to stick his hand and essentially what I remember as being the same as the boo box from Hook the pain box or you don't know what's in it, And he pulls out his hand and on each finger is a gold ring, and all of a sudden, there is a rumble under the ground as these five gold rings called this horrible creature to him, and you just see the sand he's he's

staring out into the desert as the sand is flying everywhere, and mountains crumble on either side of this huge mound that is spinning towards him, and out pops this giant rays or toothed blue giant hedgehog whose nose could swallow you. Not his mouth, no, his nose because he is that big. I'm sorry, I'm sad, I'm yelling into the microphone. Sorry, everybody. And then he asked for a chili dog. So so in your version of Dune Meats Sonic, the hedgehog Sonic

is a sandworm. He is, and it's very anti climatic, that's but it's really exciting, like I I legit had not thought of that as a possibility, you know. That's that's honestly what made me want to do. I was like, Sonic was recent Une, so I could be a sandworm. I like that. You made the chili dog the spice. I may have I might have stole that a little bit from you, but we didn't. We didn't even mention that.

Then in Dune there's this um the substance on Aracus in particular, called spice, which can be refined into a drug called milange, and that has different different effects on people. But that's why I was like, what if the milange chili dog is what gives Sonic the ability to run fast? Yes? Yes, uh yeah, which I think was more of a thing in the cartoon and maybe the movie than the video game. By the cartoon was a lot of fun, you guys. It's it's old. I don't know if it holds up,

but it was a lot of fun at the time. Yeah. So that's kind of an example of the sort of mashups will do. We did one, uh did we? Was that just a test where we did Willy Wonka and the Candy Man and that one turned out great? Well, maybe we'll be able to revisit it. Because while those things were supposed to come out at least I think Candyman was supposed to come out around this time, and I was hoping to get it out for Halloween. Um,

because of pandemic, everything's been pushed back. So the news at the time was that, uh, as we all know, and we'll definitely talk about this more in depth in the future, Jordan Peel is remaking the old horror movie candy Man um to be a little bit more poignant to today's issues, although it was at the time as well just actually really yeah really a kind of a forward thinking horror movie at the time. Yeah, so he's but he's bringing it back around from all of the

sequels to its original form. And then uh, also at the time, it had been announced that Netflix was going to do a role doll series, so hence that mash up, we might bring it back because neither of those things have actually come out yet, so uh, I don't want to want to spoil what we came up with for that. Um, but this next part is new because when we were doing the mashups as movies as site gags, we couldn't ask you guys, what what you would have done in

the mash up. But if you just listen to Sonic and Dune and we're like, huh, I think I could do better, which which we do not dispute. Yeah, right us, and tell us how you would mash is two up. I mean we might even read it on the air, as opposed to just reading it and going dang, why are they so creative? Right? And also the same thing is true for if there are either discussion topics within the Gego sphere that you feel really merit a kind

of you know, conversation and maybe debate. Uh, it could be anything within the Gego sphere, everything from you know, the adaptations. We've got a planned episode coming up about the use of nostalgia as a jumping off point that I have a lot of feelings about and a lot of thoughts about. I think it will be a multipart discussion because there's lots of facets to it as well. That's true. And then there's also if you have suggestions for mashups those that's another great thing to get in

touch with us about. Like if there's two properties that preferably properties that are not that at least on the surface similar to one another. If it's two things that are really close to each other, there might not be a whole lot of material to work with, but we'll we'll give it a shot. But all of those things are the sort of things will be looking out for if you do have an idea that you would like

us to know about. One way to get in touch with us right now, while we still establish our presence online is on Twitter. On Twitter, we are Ellen c Underscore Podcast and so you can send us a tweet or a d M there and uh, we'll make sure our d M s are open for that, and that would be one way to get in touch with us. We also have an Instagram account, so you can message us there as well. Yes, and we are also on Facebook, which I checked pretty regularly, so you can message us

there as well. That one, that one is all up to Ariel because I ditched it all the social media's. One thing or about at the large new Drunk Collider podcast that we didn't talk about that I do want to end with is that, you know, geeks are very very passionate, and you can be opinionated about something and still be kind to people who have different opinions in you, so be nice. We're We're open to even even if you want to send constructive criticism, We're open to that.

But yeah, yeah, yeah. Our Our opinion is that that we can love something, we can critique. That's something, but there's no need to get mean about it. And that Uh. You know, if I get into a conversation with someone who genuinely loves the Star Wars prequels, uh, I can be of the right temperament to accept that they hold an opinion that is very different from mine, but that does not make that opinion less valid even though they're wrong.

We're going to talk about that in an upcoming episode, so don't spoil it yet, Jonathan, Okay, fair, fair enough. I don't think. I don't think I tipped my hand too much about my future. Now you didn't, you didn't. But before we get into territory where we're a two hour episode again, I think we should sign off for this one. So yes, we look forward to conversing with

you about all things geeky in the future. We will have several episodes ready to go right at the beginning, so chances are if you want to dive into more, you've got it just a click away, and every week we'll be bringing you fresh new geekiness. So we look forward to chatting with you again really soon. Yes, until next time. I have been a real casting and I am Let me check my notes. Jonathan Strickland. The Large New John Collider is a production of I Heart Radio

and was created by Ariel cast In. Jonathan Strickland is the executive producer. This show is produced, edited and published by Tory Harrison from a podcast from my Heart Radio. Visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Teething can be a real nightmare for your little ones. Highlands Naturals Baby oral

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