#*glares at lionsgate*

[wheelsvoid]

SONGBIRDS ; LUCY GRAY

⇢ you and lucy gray survive the hunger games, and she takes on the roll as your older sister

masterlist

genre: platonic, angst with a happy ending

word count: 2,029

warnings: mentions of death, weapons, blood and fighting

request: “Would you be willing to write an angsty Lucy Gray from Hunger Games (if you write for her of course) where R is in the games, but young, and Lucy is protective of R (who is mute as well if ok?) they both survive the games, and she takes them in like a younger sibling figure? Up to you how it ends :)))”

absolutely, i love lucy gray so, so much. this is movie based, as i have yet to read that book (currently on catching fire, obsessed). and of course anything in this from the actual movie does not belong to me. rights go to suzanne collins, lionsgate films and everyone else involved mwah

I stood in the vast group of people, listening to the sounds of dread. The birds had stopped chirping, the breeze had gone, and so had the smiles of District 11.

Every year since I was 12 I’d stood here, praying that my name wasn’t called. If I went into the games, I’d never see my home again. District 11 was all I had, but there was a comfort in knowing I had no family to leave behind. At least I wouldn’t be worrying anyone while I died on a screen.

I didn’t listen to the woman on the stage, who seemed uncomfortably pleased with where she was. The safety of her position brought her confidence, and power.

Then, I watched as she held out a note. I held my breath. I was so nervous I hadn’t even seen her take it from the bowl.

“Y/N L/N.”

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. Everyone turned to me.

I may have been lonely, but I still made an effort to be kind to everyone. They knew who I was, and as I glanced around me, I could see varying emotions. Concern, relief, pity. No one said anything, and slowly, I walked forwards on my shaky legs.

My heart was beating rapidly in my chest. As I stared up at the woman, I hoped that I wouldn’t be forced to speak—because I couldn’t even if I tried.

My voice did not work. Even if I willed it to, it would only cause me pain. The accident that had happened seven years prior made sure of that.

As I looked out to the people of District 11, I could only hope that they would forgive me for their loss.

———

I knew the games to be cruel, but experiencing it myself brought me a different kind of rage. I didn’t like being kept in a zoo, and broadcasted on live television. I didn’t like being pushed and shoved, or poked at like some wild animal. I glared at every person from the Capitol, and let them know that even if I could not speak, they would never see me going down without a fight.

The only good thing to come out of the Hunger Games had been a songbird named Lucy Gray. She showed me kindness, and she spoke for me like it was second nature. The Games were changing this year, and tributes were getting sponsors—and Lucy understood that I could not speak for myself.

Lucy Gray helped me give the people of the Capitol a story worth listening to. Some sort of sob story of how I lost my voice, but it had worked, and the people liked me.

She told me that I was hard not to like.

Although, Coriolanus Snow, Lucy’s mentor, had hated what she’d done. He didn’t like how she was fighting for not only herself, but for me and District 12’s other tribute, Jessup.

I decided that I wasn’t a fan of Snow, either.

So now, as we stood in the ruins of what was to be the arena, with my heart racing in my chest, I could only hope that either me or Lucy would survive.

“5.”

I sucked in a deep breath.

“4. 3. 2.”

Lucy and I made eye contact for a brief moment. I had no intentions of running to the centre of the rubble to grab a weapon. I’d likely end up dead. I knew my strengths and weaknesses, and killing was no strength of mine.

“1.”

An alarm blared, and the Games were on.

I watched in horror as the teenagers screamed out, rushing towards the weapons in the middle. My eyes went back to Lucy Gray, who was now the closest to me. She ran up to me in an instant, but her eyes where wild.

“Where is Jessup?” I barely heard her over the screams and cries ahead of us. “Jessup! Jessup!”

I found myself searching for him, too. I didn’t know him, and I had only met him once, but he was important to Lucy.

Lucy started stumbling backwards as she watched the bodies start to fall. I gripped her arm tightly, my mind a haze. If I could scream and cry, I would.

The Capitol found this exciting? They found this fun?

I wondered if they’d cheer when my blood spilled to the floor, or if they’d cry. Their feelings had never made sense in my mind.

A boy with an axe came charging towards Lucy and I, and with a scream, Lucy pulled me down with her to avoid the hit. We watched as he ran crazily around the arena, finding another victim for his blade instead.

“Jessup!” Lucy called once more, but I had to pull her back as we got caught in the middle of another fight. We were not safe here. We had to leave.

As a girl impaled another boy with a trident, we hastily got to our feet and ran.

Time and time again, Lucy and I avoided the deadly blows sent our way. My mind was on autopilot, and I was reacting on instinct. Lucy made sure to never remove her firm grasp on my hand.

Then, her eyes landed on someone in the distance. “Jessup!” And with bravery I felt I’d never had, I followed her through the arena, dodging weapons and fists.

———

We’d been in the arena for days now, never leaving each other’s side. Lucy was determined to keep me alive, and I wondered what I’d done to make her adore me so much that she’d put me first even if it meant her death. I wondered if she knew I’d been doing the same.

There were very few tributes left, and I realized I’d barely known their names. I worried that if I’d been forced to kill, I’d feel more guilt if I knew who they were. But I was lucky to have Lucy. She did all of the difficult things.

When I’d offered to poison the water, because I was quiet, and quick, and smaller than she was, she refused. She’d kept me hidden as she’d done it herself.

The loss of Jessup had hit her hard, too. She felt the guilt of his death, even if it couldn’t have been her fault that he’d gotten rabies. He had been doomed before he’d even entered the arena.

Maybe that’s why she was working so hard on keeping me alive, now.

Lucy and I could do nothing but stare at the new obstacle to enter the arena. It had been put there only seconds ago, but we waited with slow breaths as if it would jump out at us in seconds.

It was a tall, glass container. From here, I couldn’t see what was in it. I was lost on ideas, too. I glanced at Lucy, but she looked as clueless as I was. She reached for my hand, held it tightly, and did not let go.

“Is it over?” I watched as a small girl walked towards the container, a small smile on her face. So innocent and young. “Can we go home now?”

“Wovey.” A boy in the distance called out. He was warning her. “Wovey.”

She continued to plead, as he continued to call for her to stop. My breath hitched when the glass container started to crack. And as it exploded, a sea of snakes filled the arena.

I gripped Lucy’s hand even tighter, and we ran.

One by one, tributes fell. Lucy and I found higher ground on the rubble, but it was useless. The snakes were climbing the concrete at a rapid rate.

Soon, it was just the two of us, and as the snakes slithered around my legs and up my torso, I could only watch as Lucy Gray sang in the haunted arena with tears streaming down her face.

———

I wasn’t supposed to be alive, and neither was Lucy Gray. I had learned that Dr. Gaul had originally planned on letting every tribute die, but Snow had found a way to save Lucy, and with Lucy there was also me. We were a package deal now.

There was little time we had left before we had to leave for our own Districts, to hopefully be welcomed back with open arms. As Lucy played a guitar in the small room the Capitol had provided for us, I listened.

She had a beautiful voice, and she played the guitar like it was as easy as breathing. She knew music like the back of her hand. I had no doubt that she was born to sing.

I was glad that Lucy had a voice, because when I heard her sing I forgot all about how I’d lost mine.

When the song ended, I looked at Lucy with a grin. I realized that for now, I was not alone, but I’d eventually have to return to my District without the only family I’d ever had.

She smiled sadly like she was thinking the same.

“Well, I think we’d ought to call it a day, don’t you?” She said. I nodded in agreement. The sun had been replaced by the moon hours ago, and neither of us had slept. I suppose we wanted to spend as much time with each other as we could.

As she put the guitar down gently, leaning it against the wall, she turned to me and brought me into a hug. She sighed softly, like she was happy to be alive and I was too.

“I know what you’re thinkin’.” She said softly. “But don’t you worry,” she pulled me away to look at me more closely. “I plan on seeing you again sometime soon.”

I pointed to the guitar across the room, and she grinned. I loved her smile. “Yes, I’ll sing you all your favourite songs when we get there.” I smiled widely.

She held her hands on my cheeks and tried not to bring sadness, or dread into the conversation. “When you go home, you celebrate. We’re very lucky to both still be here, I think. I’ll be celebrating in District 12.” She said, “singin’ my best songs with the covey.”

She talked about them a lot, and it brought me comfort that Lucy Gray had people to go home to. Even if, ironically, it wasn’t the home she was born in. She never came from District 12, she had simply travelled there to show the people her music, as she usually did. Only then, she had been forced to stay.

I wondered that if she was never forced into residing in District 12, if I would still be alive today. I owed her my life.

“You’re safe now, Y/N.” She said gently. “You go home and you go do what makes you happy, and when I see you next, you can tell me all about it.”

———

It had been two years since then, and Lucy Gray and I did indeed meet again. In the best way I could, I told her all about the friends I’d made in District 11, and how they treated me kindly despite my differences.

As Lucy and I travelled the border of Panem, she told me how she’d escaped Snow and went searching for me in District 11 without a second thought.

Now, two years later, we were free from our troubles with the Capitol and the Districts. We’d heard stories of how the 10th Hunger Games had been erased from existence, and how the people of the country were slowly beginning to forget.

My honorary sister and I were sure that within a decade, we’d be nothing but a whisper, and after that, we’d be nothing at all.

But here, outside of that horrid place, with only each other we were free. We weren’t lonely or scared anymore. I had her to see me through my hard days, and sing me songs, and she had me to make her small gifts and braid her hair when she needed the quietness of my presence to block out her wild thoughts.

We were all we needed, and I think that I was okay with that.

[rookie-critic]

Fall (2022, dir. Scott Mann) - review by Rookie-Critic

Fall was not a great movie, but despite its many faults I venture to say it was a good one. The story of Becky and Hunter, two best friend climbers that get stranded on top of a 2,000 foot tall abandoned TV tower after the ladder serving as the only way up or down breaks off and falls to the ground, Fall doesn't quite justify its runtime; the acting and writing in the first act was pretty rough, there's a needless subplot that creates friction between the two leads, but not in any real, meaningful way, and the big twist towards the end of the film is just plain dumb and, again, doesn't really add anything of value other than a very cheap shock in the moment. These errors are glaring and in your face, and they would be a giant knock against this movie if, and here's the biggest pro, the intensity and sense of urgency in the second act and most of the third act of the film wasn't so damn potent. Maybe it's just because the subject matter inherently hits a very real fear of mine right on the nose, but I spent a good part of the middle third of the movie white-knuckle gripping my armrests just because of the nature of how high up they were and the very precarious position they were in. I would even be willing to chalk that up to personal bias if the acting during that section of the movie hadn't also gotten significantly better than the rest of film's acting had been up to that point. It almost seemed like the movie was at one point written and conceived as a short film, with everything taking place at the tower, and once the project was expanded into a feature-length film all the stuff around that was added as an afterthought.

Even with all of its flaws, though, it still manages to be an entertaining experience and it accomplished precisely what it wanted to, and I'm willing to cut it a bit of slack for that. My favorite film critic, former BBC film analyst Mark Kermode, likes to say about certain movies that "it does what it says on the tin" (How very British of him) as a way of slightly forgiving some of the film's faults if it accomplishes what it set out to do, and I have really started to take that to heart. Sure, Fall has a lot of bad issues, but it was also a lot of fun and pulled on my nerves something fierce.

Score: 7/10

Currently available to rent or purchase on digital (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, etc.) and on DVD & Blu-ray through Lionsgate Films.

[themovieblogonline]

"KILL" Trailer: Lakshya Takes Action to New Heights

Hold onto your popcorn, folks! Lionsgate just dropped the new KILL trailer and let me tell you, it's about as intense as getting dragged through a train (which, like, literally happens in the first five seconds). The trailer opens with our hero, Lakshya, looking like he just lost a fight with a locomotive. Dude's getting yanked around by a chain, his face all bloody and bruised, and he's here to redefine action in Bollywood.  Talk about making an entrance! This sets the tone for what's to come: nonstop, heart-pounding action. If you’re a fan of high stakes, this one’s for you. Action So Brutal, It'll Make You Wince (in a Good Way?) This ain't your momma's Bollywood musical. All the action takes place on a train, adding a claustrophobic intensity that's hard to beat. Tight spaces, close-quarters combat, and nowhere to run. It’s like “Die Hard” meets “Speed” but with a Bollywood twist. The trailer shows Amrit taking down bad guys in brutal fashion with knives in eyes, heads getting butted. The fight choreography looks sharp, and every punch lands with bone-crunching force. We're talking knives to the eyeballs, headbutts that would make a brick cry, and enough blood to fill a swimming pool (okay, maybe not that much, but you get the idea). The whole fight scene takes place on a crowded train, which makes everything feel even wilder. Imagine rush hour on the New York subway, but with a whole lot more stabbing and way less small talk. Lakshya's not exactly thrilled about sharing his train ride with a gang of knife-wielding goons led by the mysterious Fani (who, by the way, looks like he could cut you with just a glare). So, naturally, Lakshya decides to take matters into his own hands (and fists, and knees, and whatever else he can use as a weapon). Is This Just Action, or is There More to the Story? The trailer doesn't give away too much about the plot, but there's a quick mention of Lakshya trying to stop an arranged marriage. So, maybe there's a little romance mixed in with all the blood and mayhem? Who knows! One thing's for sure: this movie looks like a wild ride. If you're down for some seriously intense action with a Bollywood twist, then "KILL" is definitely worth checking out. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the whole "getting dragged by a train" thing. That image will be burned into my brain for a while. Read the full article

[thessalian]

Thess vs Other TTRPG Systems

So every time the big cheeses at Hasbro / WotC do something stupid, the immediate response is, "Play another system!" Which I somewhat get - after all, there's no sense in giving them money when they're being up front about trying to con you. And some other systems are really enjoyable. I personally am a fan of White Wolf's WoD.

I think my problem is that the solution of "Play another system!" is a) not really addressing the core issue and b) is actually feeding into the core issue. Because the issue at its core is: all of this is just getting us to spend more money.

Now, if you really want to say, "D&D is for chumps, I won't even touch it", more power to you. Not everyone can do that, though. Some systems are a little difficult to get to grips with, and some people are playing multiple campaigns and might struggle to code-switch between systems every other session. And ... for example, if you already have 5e, why not just ... keep playing 5e? Honestly, that fucks with Hasbro / WotC worse, and gets the point across better - namely, "You were better than this. See us still playing with what you produced when you were better than this? See us still enjoying the IP without paying you a penny more? You can stuff your 'recurrent user spending' and 'AI is the future' up your ass; I have physical sourcebooks and not even you have the money to hire enough Pinkertons to bully me out of those".

And yes, buying and playing another system shows support for actual human beings creating this stuff ... but so does buying third party content for 5e. Given what happened when they tried to rewrite the OGL to get in on that sweet, sweet third party content money, they can't afford the ill-will that trying it again would get them - not for another few years at least. If people are still writing content for 5e (and there always will be some), wouldn't it just stick in Hasbro's collective craw if DMG did a boom in business on third party 5e materials while their stupid "OneD&D" or whatever the fuck they're calling it now just went bust?

By all means, boycott D&D's new whatever they're calling it. I certainly am. It doesn't exist, as far as I'm concerned. (Seriously, those of you in my campaign - do not even bother asking if we can just borrow this one thing, because ... borrow that one thing from what? I see nothing to borrow from. 5e is where they stopped, and any attempt to convince me otherwise will be met with my patented Death Glare.) But I can't swap to Pathfinder because I don't have the spoons and neither do at least some of my players. I have built my homebrew world around 5e and I am going to run another campaign in that world when this one finally ends, and trying to rebrew it all for Pathfinder is just not something I have time to do.

When you stop giving money to one corporation, you don't have to start giving money to another. You can just enjoy the legacy the one corporation went behind before they went full Monty Burns and ... keep your money? Maybe? Spend it on another thing? Although given how many entertainment companies are cramming AI into every aspect of themselves (EA and Lionsgate being the loudest so far), the boycotts are going to save us all so much money...

Like I say - I have nothing against other systems. And most people on Tumblr have been good about it, focusing on what they plan to do instead of insisting that everyone else take their preferred course of action ... unlike Reddit, where you get an awful lot of people shitting all over D&D in general because they love Pathfinder but hate how much attention D&D takes away from it. Just ... some people can't just switch systems, and others don't want to, and that's fine. Hell, some people are even probably going to buy into what WotC is selling, even as they grumble about it, same as happens in the AAA space. I guess I just wish people would stop judging others on how - or if - they choose to boycott a thing.

But like I said, WotC stopped publishing D&D material with 5e, as far as I'm concerned. I won't acknowledge any PBH beyond the 2014 one. End of.

[fuckyeahclairebeauchamp]

Who needs a teaser or a trailer? Come see some movie that has nothing to do with the show you all watch.

[leaughrilke]

heavy wings grow lighter pt. 1

your world has no love to give

find it on: ao3

From: Troy Bolton To: Trini ?? 1:41pm hey do u want to study with me?  I grabbed one of the back tables

1:57pm T

2:08pm are u here today?  if u ditched it would have been polite to invite us u know

2:09pm also do u need a ride to the mine

2:14pm Trini??

From: Fearless Leader To: Kimberly Hart 2:16pm hey have u seen Trini

2:16pm she’s usually in the library during free but I haven’t seen her since before lunch.  she’s not answering her phone either and I need to know if she needs a ride to training

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 2:16pm i havent seen her

2:17pm did she seem ok to u when u saw her?  she’s been really quiet lately

From: Fearless Leader To: Kimberly Hart 2:17pm she’s always quiet

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 2:17pm quieter than normal.  like even with me

From: Fearless Leader To: Kimberly Hart 2:18pm shit

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 2:18pm class lets out in a bit, i’ll skip next and look for her

2:18pm text u when i find her

From: Fighter Pilot Barbie To: T 💛 💪💥👊👭 2:19pm where are u, jason’s worried

2:20pm on that matter, im worried

2:20pm did u skip bc if so bring me donuts

2:28pm u better be lying in a ditch somewhere

2:29pm actually i take that back but im still worried please call me to let me know ur alive or something

The bell rings just as Kimberly locks her phone, and it doesn’t so much as startle her—a feat that’s become increasingly hard to accomplish thanks to freaky Ranger skills (Trini’s term, of course)—as it does spur her to shove her books into a stack and head for the door.  

Someone from the other side of the classroom—Harper, maybe, or Rebecca—laughs, says something ugly that Kimberly no doubt deserves and that she is absolutely meant to hear.  Kimberly’s hands curl into fists, one wrapped tight around the strap of her bag, and, in another life, she probably would turn and throw something just as terrible back.  But there’s this awful, uncomfortable feeling in the very center of her chest that took hold when Jason texted her and that alone is enough to double her self-restraint.

Trini’s locker is on the other side of the main building, towards the gym, but up on the second floor as opposed to Kimberly’s newly assigned one near the front entrance.  Kimberly has to use a fair amount of evasive action to get there, especially once the second bell’s rung and the vice principal is prowling the halls trying to catch kids without hall passes—it’s not as if she’s not already stuck in Saturday detention, but she’d rather not add after school ones to her roster.  

Because of training.  Not because she has a standing donut date with Trini on Tuesdays, before they head to the mine.

When she rounds the corner of the stairwell, the girl in question is there.  Back to Kimberly, standing on a stack of books and scrubbing at her locker.  She freezes when Kimberly steps into the hall and Kimberly’s heart clenches at the tension held in the narrow line of her shoulders, at the way she seems to fold in on herself, making herself even smaller than she is.  Some of that goes away when Kimberly calls out, “Hey, I’ve been trying to text you,” but not all of it, not enough of it for the unease to slip away from Kimberly’s sternum.

“Huh,” Trini hums, still not turning around.  That’s red flag number one.  “Haven’t checked my phone in a while.”  Red flag number two, considering that if Trini’s not with the rest of them, she’s all but glued to her phone.  And, Kimberly notes with a little pride and with growing apprehension, even if she’s avoiding other people, she never ignores Kimberly’s texts.

“Are you okay?”  Kimberly steps further into the hallway, pauses when Trini visibly flinches.  “Hey, T, I’m worried about—.”

Trini straightens, rolls out her shoulders like she’s squaring up even with her back still to Kimberly.  “I’m fine,” she drawls, like everything isn’t completely wrong.  “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

Narrowing her eyes, Kimberly fires back, “You’ve missed three.”  Her tone is so much sharper than she’d intended, but sometimes to cut through Trini’s bluffing, Kimberly’s found you need a knife.

“Zack’s missed the entire day.”

“Zack’s…Zack.”  Kimberly steps closer, crosses the remaining space between them in a couple long strides.  “You usually give me a heads up if you’re planning on skipping.”

“Can you drop it?  I just forgot, okay?”

Kimberly doesn’t flinch at Trini’s tone, ignores the way her words sting, lodge in the space between her ribs.  The shorter girl is actually Kimberly’s height with the help of her textbooks underfoot, but she’s still not turning to face her, keeps shifting her weight—it hits her then that Trini’s trying to block her view.

Trini’s faster than her on a normal day, smaller and lighter on her feet than Kimberly can ever dream of being, even with years of gymnastics and cheer under her belt.  But Trini seems off-kilter now, doesn’t react fast enough to catch her before she can step just to the side to peer over her shoulder.

“Who—,” Kimberly starts as Trini finally turns and says, “It’s not that bad—,” reaching out with her free hand like she’s going to push Kimberly back.

Kimberly gets why she’s been avoiding the rest of the rangers now.  Trini’s blotchy, red nosed, and there’s blood smeared along her hairline and her full bottom lip—not that Kimberly’s noticed her lips or anything—is split down the side, purpling and swollen.  When Kimberly steps a little closer, she can see the smudge of a bruise along her cheekbone, the redness around Trini’s eyes, like she’s been rubbing at them too roughly.  She probably has.

The sight of her makes Kimberly’s blood boil, the sight of it, the word behind Trini, makes her face feel hot—four ugly red letters, taking up the entirety of Trini’s locker door, top left to bottom right.  

“Who the fuck did this?”  

Kimberly tries to keep the fury out of her voice, she truly does, but if Trini paling is any indication, she’s failing miserably.  In her defense, it’s taking every bit of Kimberly’s self-restraint to not reach around the other girl and rip the door off its hinges, crush it in one move, maybe two if she ripped it in half first—a move that she is very seriously considering.  It’d be nearly poetic, maybe, she thinks.

She doesn’t though.  Not when she notices how Trini’s chin is trembling, how she’s gripping the paper towels she was using to scrub at the word, white knuckled and fingertips ripping through the damp material.   She pauses, softens.  “Trini,” she breathes.  “Did whoever write that do this,” she gestures to Trini’s face, “to you?”

“It doesn’t matter.”  Trini’s free hand drops, goes back to press flat against the wall of lockers.  

“Trini.  It matters.”  How could it not?  How could Kimberly ever—jesus, how could she ever not care about this?

The metal creaks, groans beneath the smaller girl’s hand, the door of the locker kitty corner to hers crumpling under her fingers.  She doesn’t seem to notice, her eyes unfocused and somewhere far away—Trini doesn’t flinch when Kimberly reaches out again, gently pulls her hand away from the lockers.  She doesn’t flinch, but she stiffens at Kimberly’s touch, her eyes darting around the hallway as she shrinks back just the slightest.

Right.  

Kimberly’s never—she’s been incredibly lucky.  She knows this.  She’s never had the same bone-deep fear that Trini has, never had the same self-doubt.  When Kimberly was fourteen, she googled what it meant to want to kiss your friend, found a word for it and, quite frankly, never thought about it again.  She isn’t out at school necessarily, nor to her parents, but she’s never feared what it would mean if she was, never really had a reason to.  Even now, after her fall, that confidence is still held in some quiet place inside her.  

But when Trini was fourteen, she told a girl she liked her and got laughed at, cut off—there’s more to the story, Kimberly knows, uglier things that Trini’s keeping close to the chest, but the bare bones are enough to put together an altogether heartbreaking picture.

“Come on,” she murmurs, hand at Trini’s wrist, not quite touching her.  “You need to get cleaned up.”

“You don’t have to do this.”  Trini’s frowning even as she steps off her textbook stepstool, eyes settled somewhere just past Kimberly’s shoulder.  She crosses her arms—it’s the first moment that Kimberly notices the blood on her collar, dried brown against the yellow of her shirt.  “You don’t have to help me.”

Kimberly stares at her openly, pressing her lips into a line.  They’ve all—Kimberly knows that Trini is slower to trust than any of them, they all know that.  They’ve adapted, figured out the best ways to make her feel safe, whole, cared for.  But this—after as much care that Trini’s shown for them, for her, she should be able to know.  Be able to trust that they all would do the same for her.  That Kimberly would do the same.

She’s trying not to take this skepticism personally.  This isn’t the time for her feelings—not that she has feelings for Trini, because they’re teammates and Trini’s her best friend and—yeah.  Anyway.

“You’re right, I don’t have to.  I want to,” Kimberly says firmly, stepping back and raising her hand to the small of Trini’s back but letting it hang in the air just a hair away from touching her.  “You’re my fellow ranger and my best friend and I—.” And I’m probably in love with you.  “And I care about you.  Let me help.”

Trini doesn’t protest after that.  She lets Kimberly half-guide her to the nearest, quietest bathroom—Kimberly’s got a fairly useful ranking system for every bathroom in the school.  Which are the nicest, which are the quietest, which don’t echo if you sob, which are the least likely place any of her old crowd would be.  She steers Trini towards the bathroom near the chemistry labs; someone told the incoming freshmen a couple years back that it was haunted and the rumor stuck, even if no one wanted to admit to believing it.

“Hop up.”  Kimberly taps the counter space between sinks lightly, turns away to grab a few paper towels and wet them.  When she turns back, Trini’s glaring down at her hands, twisted up in her lap, her legs dangling over the edge of the counter.  “You’re not going to like me very much in a minute,” she tells her, wringing out the paper towels so they’re just damp enough.

“Doubtful.”

Kimberly shrugs off a little of the anger that’s still curled in her fingers, flicking off excess water as she flashes Trini a smile.  “Is that a compliment?”

The corner of Trini’s mouth quirks up, the closest she can come to a smile without pulling at the split in her lip.  “Take it how you want it,” she murmurs after a quiet moment.  Then she lets her eyes close, tips her head back just the slightest.

Kimberly’s kind of lost for a second—she doesn’t mean to get distracted by Trini’s insane lashes or the smooth edge of her cheekbones or by how soft she looks or by the thought of how her skin would feel beneath Kimberly’s lips and the pads of her fingers.  But then she blinks fast in the harsh fluorescent lights because Trini’s just knocked Kimberly’s shin with the toe of her sneaker and has her head cocked to the side, eyes open again as she studies her.

“Space case much, princesa?” Trini teases when she catches Kimberly’s eye, her brow lifting.  It must pull at something, because her smirk is dropped in a flash, pain flickering in her eyes before she carefully hides it away again.

Kimberly frowns.  “Sorry,” she mutters, starting to wipe at the blood on Trini’s chin.  “Just wondering how someone so small could bleed so much.”  

She’s aiming for a joke, but it falls flat—partly, she’s sure, because Trini’s feeling like shit right now, but also partly because all Kimberly really wants right now is to somehow ensure that Trini never, ever feels like shit again.  And she’s—well.  She has no fucking clue what to do with that thought.

Trini doesn’t respond, just lets her eyes close again.  She winces when Kimberly nears her lip so Kimberly works faster, tries to minimize the irritation.  She tackles the blood at Trini’s hairline next, startling when she discovers a gash hiding among her dark roots.

“Jesus,” she hisses, pausing because she doesn’t trust herself to be gentle in the moment.  “Trini.”

“Hm?”  The smaller girl blinks up at her slowly.

“I—,” Kimberly starts, stops.  Exchanges the dirty towel for a clean one before she starts again.  “Who did this?”

“Kimberly—.”

“Because I just need to have a chat with them, you know?”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, you can, but you don’t.”  Trini glares at her then, but it’s true.  Trini takes hits she can dodge if she wanted to, stays quiet when shit like this happens; Trini is fully capable of taking care of herself, Kimberly knows.  But Kimberly also knows that Trini doesn’t think she’s worth the effort.

Which—maybe that’s what’s making Kimberly so angry?  The idea that the girl in front of her sees some warped version of herself in the mirror, some version that doesn’t deserve basic respect.  Because fuck that, honestly.  This is—

fuck, this is the girl that sits up with Jason when he’s having a panic attack and doesn’t want to let anyone know, the girl that spends nights over at Zack’s when the fear of waking up alone overwhelms him, the girl that is the only one out of them that can keep up with Billy when he starts getting into specifics on his newest project.  The girl that, after a handful of days of knowing her, ripped off Kimberly’s defaced locker door and landed herself in detention for it.

Jesus, Kimberly can hardly breathe from the thought of it, from the idea that Trini doesn’t see what the rest of them see.  That she doesn’t know that they’re all just as worried for her, just as protective of her as she is of them.

The air between them is thicker than it was before, heavier in a way that Kimberly can’t figure out how to fix, not now, not with Trini looking at her like this, like she’s tired, like she wants to fight but can’t bring herself to.  And Kimberly—she doesn’t want to drop it—knows she can’t, not really.

But she can bury it for right now.

“I’m sorry,” she says quietly.  “That wasn’t fair of me.”

Trini turns her glare down to her hands and Kimberly feels the air go out of her lungs when she sees—no, she fucking feels it.  Feels all the hatred that Trini’s turning inward, feels all the guilt and disgust and doubt and anger.  Kimberly’s never been so equally grateful and horrified by the psychic link that holds them all together, that connects them all to the morphing grid.  Because this—this peek into Trini’s head?  It feels like an invasion of privacy, leaves Kimberly twisted up, twisted around because god, all she wants to do is punch every fucking tooth out of the mouth of whoever did this.

But it’s good to know.  Good to be able to recognize the way ebb and flow of Trini’s self-hatred, good to be able to know how and when to step in.  Like now.

Kimberly steps closer, cups Trini’s chin in her hand and gently urges her to look up, hold Kimberly’s eyes.  “Hey,” she says.  “What I said was uncalled for.”

“It’s not.  You’re right.”

Pursing her lips, Kimberly lets out a little sigh through her nose.  Tries to figure out a neat way to agree with her without feeding into Trini’s cycle.

“Maybe,” she responds finally, gaze falling to the paper towel in her hand and the little drop of water that is snaking its way down her wrist.  “But you didn’t need to hear it right now.”

There’s no response from Trini.  When Kimberly looks up, the other girl’s cheeks are wet.

Kimberly can count on one hand the times she’s seen Trini cry—it’s a grand total of four, not including today, and three occurred during times when they all thought they were about to die.  The fourth was when Kimberly had had the dumb fucking idea to watch The Fox and the Hound, but honestly if Trini hadn’t cried, Kimberly would have been convinced she wasn’t human.

But she’s crying now, in front of Kimberly, and if her appearance was anything to go by, she’d been crying earlier, and Kimberly can’t help but wonder how long this has been going on, how long Trini’s been hiding this from the rest of them.  Is this where she disappears to when she ditches out on math with Jason or history with Zack?  Scrubbing her locker when the halls are empty?  She’d always figured Trini bailed to go and spend time at the quarry or at home, without having to deal with the heavy, burning gaze of her mother, watching every move she made.

“I—,” Trini hiccups, leaning into Kimberly’s touch when she drops the damp towel in favor of brushing the other girl’s hair back out of her eyes.  “I didn’t want anyone to see.”  She sucks in a shuddering breath, forces out the rest of her words slowly, painfully.  “I don’t want it getting back to my parents.”

That—god, that hurts.  Hurts to hear, hurts to see; Trini looks incredibly small sitting up on this counter, even more so than normal, and her fear is a real, tangible thing that fills the space around them and between them with ease.

The rush of protectiveness that surges through Kimberly isn’t entirely new, not towards her fellow rangers, but the acuity of it is.  She wants to place herself directly between Trini and anything that makes her this scared.  She wants to wrap herself around the other girl and keep her warm and safe until she stops shaking like this or—hell—maybe even forever and that thought alone terrifies Kimberly.

She shoves the feeling aside for now—there’s time to unpack that and all that it means later.  Right now, Trini’s still crying, her shoulders hunching as she tries to make herself even smaller, tries to take up even less space and Kimberly’s aching at the sight of it, at Trini—sardonic and kind and stubborn Trini—looking so fucking small.

“Can I—,” Kimberly starts, unsure of how to phrase her question but knowing it has to be asked.  “Is it okay if I hug you?”

Trini looks up at her, her dark eyes wet and wide and then she’s leaning forward and wrapping her arms around Kimberly’s waist and sobbing into her neck.  Her fingers twist in the fabric of Kimberly’s shirt, pulling her closer, so Kimberly steps between Trini’s legs and slips her arms over Trini’s shoulders, tucking the smaller girl securely underneath her chin.

She doesn’t say anything deep, anything meant to do more than soothe because—because what could she say?  There’s nothing to make this all better for her, to take away the deep-seated fear that lives in Trini’s bones, born of nearly two decades of her mother’s vitriol and others’ cruelty.  Kimberly can only hold her and—

well.  Now that she thinks about it, there is one other thing she can do.

She fleshes the plan out a bit while Trini cries herself out on Kimberly’s shoulder.  When her sobs give way to sniffles, then a few deep, shaky breaths, Kimberly figures out the right words.  “You deserve so much better than this,” Kimberly tells her, because she feels like it’s something Trini’s not told enough and that’s—it fucking unbelievable, honestly, and it’s a wrong that Kimberly’s setting out to right.  Trini sucks in a breath like she’s about to dispute the statement, so Kimberly doesn’t give her the chance.  “You are a kind, loyal, loving person,” she whispers, “and you shouldn’t ever be made to feel ashamed over who you love.”

Trini manages a gross, mucus-y sort of laugh, her breath hot against the dip just above Kimberly’s collarbone.  “Sorry I cried on you,” she mumbles sheepishly when she pulls away; she doesn’t get far, because Kimberly keeps her arms around her.

“Trini.”

“Your shirt’s kind of gross now.  I got snot all over it."

She really did.  Kimberly can’t be fucked over it.  “Yeah,” she sighs.  “But it’s worth it.”

“Kimberly—.”

“It’s worth it.”  You’re worth it, she wants to say.  More than.

But Trini’s got this look like she might start crying again if Kimberly says something like that and honestly?  Kimberly’s maybe just reassigned making sure Trini never cries to, like, Priority Number One.

She swallows the words that are threatening to choke her now, says instead, “This one’s going to need a stitch, I think.”  She smooths her thumb over the skin just below the cut behind Trini’s hairline, careful not to apply too much pressure.  “I can probably manage it back at the ship,” she adds, even though she knows that by the time they make it to the ship, the gash will be long healed.

“I should change your name in my phone from Fighter Pilot Barbie to Paramedic Barbie at this rate.”

“Jesus,” Kimberly groans.  “Why am I still Fighter Pilot Barbie?”

Trini flashes her a small, lopsided smile.  It doesn’t reach her eyes, but it brightens her face a little and Kimberly watches with something akin to hope flaring in her chest as Trini’s shoulders relax, loosening under Kimberly’s arm.  “Because you didn’t like my other nicknames for you,” she retorts.

The air feels lighter now—Kimberly feels like they’ve slipped out of the darkest timeline, or they almost have, even if Trini’s face is still bruised and Kimberly can’t forget the word written on the girl’s locker down the hall.  Trini’s joking and smiling a little and so Kimberly finishes cleaning her up, moving quickly and distracting her with idle chatter about what she’s missed during the day.

When she’s done, she tucks Trini’s hair behind her ears and steps back to survey her work.  “Well,” she says.  “You still look like Rocky from the final act of Rocky—.”

“I should be so lucky,” Trini deadpans.

“—but you’re as patched up as I can get you at school.”  Kimberly drops her hands, one resting on Trini’s knee and the other trailing down Trini’s arm to lace their fingers together.  In the safety of the bathroom, out of sight, Trini doesn’t shy away from her touch, but rather tightens her hold on Kimberly’s hand and nods.  “Do you want water?” Kimberly offers.  “I think there’s a vending machine around the corner.”

“Water’d be good.”

“I’ll be right back.”  When Trini’s grip steels and her eyes widen, Kimberly tells her, “Lock the door behind me.  No one uses this bathroom, but I’ll knock when I come back, okay?”

When Trini nods and drops Kimberly’s hand, she—quite frankly, Kimberly doesn’t know what comes over her, but then she’s leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Trini’s forehead; it’s light, barely a brush of her lips over Trini’s skin, but it’s new and Kimberly’s close enough to smell Trini’s shampoo and she can’t—god.  She can’t handle this.

As soon as she’s out in the hall and has heard the deadbolt slide home, Kimberly pulls out her phone.

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 2:57pm found her

From: Fearless Leader To: Kimberly Hart 2:57pm is she okay??

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 2:57pm not really

2:57pm like she’s safe and alive

2:57pm but someone wrote on her locker and roughed her up and im going to fucking murder them

From: Fearless Leader To: Kimberly Hart 2:58pm shit can I do anything

2:58pm like does she need anything

2:58pm do you need anything

2:58pm don’t kill anyone Kimberly

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 2:59pm no fucking promises

2:59pm but i do need u to take her to the mine for me.  i wanna get her locker cleaned before class lets out and shes not up to staying thru the day

2:59pm and can u text zack bc she’ll probably want to head to the train car

From: Fearless Leader To: Kimberly Hart 3:01pm done and done.  just left class, I’ll be in the parking lot whenever she’s ready

3:02pm and seriously Kimberly, don’t kill anyone

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 3:02pm [image attached]

From: Fearless Leader To: Kimberly Hart 3:02pm who the fuck

3:02pm let me know if you need help burying them

3:02pm but seriously who the fuck did that

From: Kimberly Hart To: Fearless Leader 3:02pm shes not saying and im not abt to push her rn

Her phone buzzes again, but she doesn’t check it until she’s bought Trini’s drink and started walking back to the bathroom—it’s only Jason again, agreeing with her decision not to push for answers today.  Kimberly knocks three times, a familiar pattern, and slips in when Trini opens the door for her.

“Jason’s going to take you to the mine,” she tells her after cracking open the bottle.  Kimberly hands it over and adds at Trini’s questioning look, “I’ve got a couple things I need to handle before I can leave, but I’ll be there soon.”

“What things do you need to handle?”  Trini narrows her eyes at Kimberly, peering up at her with one hand planted on her hip.  She sips her water with a slightly raised eyebrow when Kimberly hesitates for a beat too long before answering.

“I’m supposed to meet with my history teacher after school today,” Kimberly lies easily.  “I just need to check in with her and let her know I can’t make it.”

If Trini doesn’t believe her, she doesn’t call her on it.  She drops eye contact and starts shrinking the moment they step through the door back into the open hallway.  Kimberly steers Trini away from the stairs by her locker, pulls her towards the elevator by the vending machines instead so she can be sure Trini doesn’t have to see it again.

Jason’s idling in the parking lot as promised, his truck newly declared road safe even though it still bore the physical evidence of his bull escapade.  He leans over to open the passenger door when he spots them, nodding in greeting.

“Zack’s going to meet us there,” he tells the girls.  “And I’m picking up Billy from the field.”  Jason shifts his attention to Kimberly, asking significantly, “When do you think you’ll be done here?”

“Before school lets out.”  She squeezes Trini’s hand as she climbs into her seat.  “Probably in twenty?”

Trini’s withdrawn again, staring blankly ahead even as Jason nods, calls out a goodbye as he pulls away from the curb.  Her eyes flick to Kimberly once as she lets go of Trini’s hand before they’re trained back ahead.

Kimberly stands at the curb until Jason’s truck disappears out onto the main road and makes the turn that takes them away from town and out towards the quarry.

It’s still quiet when she heads back into the school; the halls are still empty when she raids a janitor’s closet and collects cleaning supplies.

/

She stinks of bleach and her fingertips are raw by the end of it, but there’s no trace of the slur anymore and that alone is a triumph.  Kimberly entertains the idea of moving Trini’s stuff into her locker briefly, but Trini’s so careful with her boundaries, draws them out so clearly and Kimberly feels like moving her shit without her express permission probably kicks through every line Trini’s drawn and she refuses to do that.

What she does instead only kicks through a few lines, she thinks.

Really, it’s dumb fucking luck that she quite literally bumps into Amanda and Rebecca—she should have been expecting it, because bad things come in threes and so far, she’s only at two for today.

“Watch where you’re going, bitch,” Amanda hisses when she and Rebecca stumble back.

Kimberly fakes it, taking one large step back and pretending to be unsteady on her feet.  She’s just about to duck her head and slip away quietly, to attempt the path of least resistance, but then Rebecca’s taunting, “How’s your girlfriend, Kimmy?” and everything sort of goes out the window because it’s so obvious and Kimberly can’t believe she didn’t realize it before now.

Kimberly surges forward, hauls them both up by the collars of their shirts and shoves them back against the lockers that line the hallway.  “Fuck with me all you want,” Kimberly snarls.  “I deserve it and I know that.  But leave her out of this.”

“We were only stating the obvious, Kimmy,” Amanda spits back.  “Letting the rest of the student body know that she’s a d—.”

The anger that courses through Kimberly isn’t entirely new, but normally she’s alone when she feels it this intensely.  Normally, it’s self-directed.  Kimberly shifts, presses up with her forearm at the base of Amanda’s neck and growls, “Don’t you fucking dare.”  She presses harder, hears the fabric of Rebecca’s shirt tear in the clenched fist of her other hand as she repeats, “Leave her the fuck out of this.  Got it?”

Amanda’s still glaring at Kimberly, but there’s fear in her eyes too, just enough that Kimberly feels she’s done her job.  There’s no doubt in her mind that she deserves whatever Amanda throws at her—there never was and there never will be, honestly, and Kimberly will take anything and everything that the other girl decides to put her through—but her team is off limits.

Trini is off limits.

She drops the other girls, stands resolute as they glare and stalk away, throwing insults as they go and threatening to go to the principal—they won’t, Kimberly knows, but it’s a good effort on their part.

/

When Kimberly gets to the mine, they’ve already migrated away from Zack’s train car.  She heads to the gorge, throws herself off the cliff face and tries really hard to regret throwing Amanda and Rebecca into the lockers.  Because that’s—that’s fucked up, right?  Not her place?

The cool water does little to help clear her mind, but what she’s greeted with when she finally wanders onto the ship centers her.

She checks every one of their favorite spots to hide out in first—Trini’s, the few Kimberly’s shown her, the ones that everyone on the team knows about, all places somewhat shielded from Alpha-5 and their alien wall dad.  The term was something Zack picked early on and that had stuck, much to Zordon’s chagrin and the rest of the rangers’ unending amusement.

Kimberly finally finds them in the makeshift den, the atrium down in the living quarters that one day Billy had asked if they could build a fort in and they just never took it down afterwards, even going so far as trawling second hand shops to find a battered but incredibly comfortable couch to make the center of their Ranger Roost (again—Zack’s term).

She nearly doesn’t see Trini, she’s so smothered by their boys.  Kimberly only spots her by the little bright spot of yellow that stands out next to the deep red of Jason’s sweater where he’s got her wrapped up in his arms.  Her legs, she realizes, are thrown over Zack’s lap and he’s got one of her hands covered in his own.  Her sneaker clad feet are tucked up on the couch beside her, Billy’s hand resting on her leg, his thumb circling the jutting bone of Trini’s ankle.  He’s the first to notice Kimberly, looking up and greeting her.  “Hi Kimberly,” he says, his free hand raised and his voice splitting perfectly between worry and relief.

“Hey Billy,” she responds, stepping closer.  “How’s our girl?”

“She hasn’t said anything.”  Billy’s thumb doesn’t still on Trini’s ankle, even as he looks between Kimberly and where Kimberly thinks Trini’s face is worriedly.

Kimberly nods, squeezes the couch by Billy’s shoulder and murmurs, “Thanks, B.”

She comes around to the front of the couch, greets Zack by nudging the back of his head.  From this side, she can see more of Trini—just a little, but enough to realize that the other girl is out cold.

“She dozed on the drive,” Jason explains quietly.  “Barely made it in here and then was only up long enough to yell dogpile at us before she knocked out.”

Kimberly bites back a laugh partly because Jason’s got this calm resignation in his voice, like he knows and accepts the fact that he probably won’t be getting up from his seat until Trini’s napped herself out, but also partly due to the fact that Trini voluntarily called a dogpile when normally she rolls her eyes and has to be dragged into it.

Regardless—Zack nods in agreement with Jason.  “Who do we need to bury?” he asks after a beat.

For half a second, Kimberly thinks he’s joking, trying to lighten the mood, but then he turns his face just a fraction more towards her and he’s not smiling, not even a little.  Kimberly should probably be worried, but honestly?  She’s just so damned pleased that she’s got at least one accomplice for when she tries to convince Billy to help her blow up Amanda’s car.

“Who do you think?” Kimberly answers quietly.  They fall silent then; the only sound in the room is their breathing and Trini’s occasional soft snores and each one twists Kimberly’s heart, makes her soften.  “Scoot,” she demands finally, pushing at Zack’s shoulder with gentle insistence.  “I want in on the dog-pile.”

He moves without protest, which surprises her less than it did at the very beginning, when they were all still learning how to handle one another.  Zack’s incredibly caring, Kimberly’s found, particularly when it comes to the tiniest, angstiest ranger and he generally cools it with the jokes when Trini’s well-being is on the table.  He shoves Jason and they shuffle down in tandem, shifting Trini to rest against Kimberly seamlessly when she slips onto the couch to join her friends.

In her sleep, Trini curls into Kimberly, seeking out her warmth—Kimberly’s not surprised by it anymore; they’ve had enough sleepovers at this point that she’s become well-acquainted with the smaller girl’s tendency to wrap herself around whatever proves softest, warmest, and most accepting of her weight.  It left Kimberly flustered and blushing on far too many mornings, but eventually she noticed how much easier Trini seemed to sleep with human contact and learned to compartmentalize for her sake.

Right now, though, Trini’s wounds are healing already and she lets out a little sigh as she settles against Kimberly, her face relaxed and her near constant scowl nonexistent for the moment.  Kimberly wraps her arms around Trini, earning another pleased sigh and causing Kimberly to flush in response.  There’s no immediate shit from Zack over it, but when Kimberly looks up, he’s smirking at her like he knows something; lucky for him, Kimberly’s got a lapful of a napping Trini and can’t quite bring herself to give a shit about whatever Zack may or may not know.

Jason falls asleep next, his head falling back at such an awkward angle Kimberly’s sure he’ll wake with a crick in his neck.  Billy follows him shortly, but not before snagging one of the pillows off the floor and propping Jason’s head up on it.

For a while, it’s just Zack and Kimberly still awake; Kimberly’s playing with Trini’s hair when Zack asks seriously, “So what do you want to do about them?”

It’s no mystery who he’s talking about.  Kimberly takes a moment, a breath, before she answers.  “Dunno,” she says honestly.  “I mean, I know I want to take a baseball bat to Amanda’s BMW, but I’ll just follow her lead on it.”  She dips her chin towards Trini, who’s started snoring lightly, her exhales coming in warms puffs of air against Kimberly’s collarbone.  “However she wants to handle it, you know?”

Zack levels her with a look that tells Kimberly exactly how much he’s buying her answer, but nods just the same.  After a minute, he says, “Didn’t peg you for property damage, princess.”

Kimberly chucks the nearest object she can lay a hand on—in this case, Jason’s phone—and grins as Zack easily dodges it.  “Hey,” she warns lightly.  “Only one ranger gets to call me that.”

“You’re so whipped,” Zack laughs.  He laughs even harder when Kimberly blushes; she knows she deserves that quip, knows she brought it on herself, but it still makes her defensive, just a little.

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am—.”

Trini shifts in Kimberly’s lap, twisting her fingers into the hem of the other girl’s shirt as she grumbles, “You’re both stupid.  Let me sleep.”

Zack shoots Kimberly a shit eating grin when she immediately snaps her mouth shut, her hands busying themselves with Trini’s hair again.  Shut up, she mouths at him.

Go to sleep, he throws back.

Whatever.  Kimberly’s not whipped just because she does actually settle down, leaning back against the arm of the couch and bringing Trini with her, head on her chest.

She closes her eyes to avoid Zack’s raised eyebrows.

/ /

“Hey,” Kimberly greets the next day, swinging up and through Trini’s window in the early morning light.  “I have a proposition for you.”

Trini snorts and throws Kimberly a surprised smile, one that makes her throat tighten, her heart turn with how bright it is.  “Kimberly Hart,” she gasps, “are you literally propositioning me?"

Rolling her eyes, Kimberly rights herself and straightens.  “I am, I guess,” she says.  “I think you should move into my locker.”

“Little early for that, hm?”

Kimberly pretends to not notice the way Trini’s voice cracks; she also pretends not to notice the little flare of warmth, of hope that takes hold in her chest when she considers what the break in the other girl’s voice might mean.  Instead, she nods.  “Maybe,” she agrees, “but how many times have you had days like yesterday?”

For a second, she thinks she’s finally said the wrong thing, finally gotten Trini to shut down, shut her out completely, because Trini’s expression flattens, goes dead in the blink of an eye.  She doesn’t still, though, just ducks Kimberly’s gaze as she keeps shoving things into her bag for detention.

“Trini,” Kimberly presses, desperate for some sign that she hasn’t just fucked whatever their relationship is to high hell.

“Doesn’t matter,” she says in a tight voice.  “It’s not your problem.”  She reaches for the beanie on the corner of her bed and Kimberly, knowing it’s the only chance to get a real answer, steps between to block her.

Trini looks up finally.  Her eyes are still a little puffy, still a little red; with ranger healing, her bruises and cuts have faded and her eyes should be back to normal by now, which only confirms what Kimberly worried about through the night—that after they all went home last night (or, more aptly: after Alpha-5 and Zordon forced them all to go home), Trini spent the night crying.

“Just drop it, okay?”

Trini’s voice breaks a little on the request and she’s watching Kimberly with narrowed eyes, like she doesn’t half-trust her to be in her space right now and that sort of breaks Kimberly into a million pieces.  That Trini still expects that her lot in life is to suffer alone, to deny any care before it can be denied to her has Kimberly wanting to hurt any and every person that has ever hurt the girl in front of her; she wants to track them down and demand why they would hurt a person so kind, so intensely caring.

Kimberly won’t drop it—can’t drop it, because Trini has always deserved more than this and to think that she doesn’t know that is almost too much for Kimberly to handle.  She softens a little more, reaches back to grab the beanie and hand it over to Trini before she perches on the edge of the other girl’s bed.  “Hey,” she says softly as Trini shoves the beanie over her hair.  “I’m sorry I upset you, I didn’t—I should have phrased that better.”

“You don’t have to treat me like I’m made of glass,” Trini snaps.  “I’m not going to break.”  And at least—at least this is familiar?  Kimberly’s used to this, used to Trini trying to provoke a response that she feels better suited to handle—annoyance or anger or teasing, anything other than heartfelt care.

“I know,” Kimberly says simply.  She lets the statement rest between them for a moment.  Then, she begins again.  “But I also know that you shouldn’t have to deal with this at all, Trini,” she sighs, “and you really shouldn’t have to deal with this alone.  I just want to be here for you.”

Trini’s scowl had been softening a little with each passing moment, and, with Kimberly’s last declaration, it disappears entirely, replaced with a carefully constructed neutral expression instead.  “You’re really willing to risk shit like this happening at your locker again?” Trini asks flatly, as if expecting Kimberly to rethink her offer suddenly.

It’s as good as an agreement though, and Kimberly nods quickly.  “Of course,” she hums.  “I thought I made it pretty clear that you’re more than worth it.”

The statement slips out without her meaning it to, but then it’s there, settling between them and for a split second, Kimberly’s sure Trini’s about to cry again—her eyes start shining and her jaw tightens and guilt sits heavy in Kimberly’s chest.  But then her expression clears, her mouth twisting into a smirk that seems to brighten the whole damn room even as her eyes still shine.

“Sap,” Trini accuses lightly.  “But yeah, whatever, if you’re so desperate to deal with me twenty-four seven, I’ll move into your locker.”  She moves to shoulder past Kimberly, head for the window and Kimberly can’t explain this either, can’t reason why her hand whips out to grab Trini around her wrist and pull her back, into a hug.

“Sorry,” Kimberly mutters into Trini’s hair.

She can practically feel Trini roll her eyes, but she doesn’t pull away; in fact, she leans into Kimberly a little more, brings her arms around her waist.  “If you ever tell anyone about this,” Trini grumbles into Kimberly’s neck, “I’m going to throw you into a wall or something.”

“No, you won’t.”

“No, I won’t.”  The shorter girl lets out a little sigh then, her breath warm against Kimberly’s collarbone.  “But seriously.  Zack’s gonna give me shit if he knows I went down without a fight.”

“You know he won’t,” Kimberly hums.  “Not about this anyway.”

Trini huffs out something that sounds an awful lot like an agreement and pulls away slowly, like it pains her.  “You’re sparring with him today if he does, though,” she tells her.

“I thought we could spar together,” Kimberly says quietly, biting back a smile at the way Trini’s cheeks redden.

“You—uh,” she stammers.  “You’re just saying that because you don’t want me to get hurt and you know you’ll pull your punches.”

“Not at all.  I’m gonna kick your ass, like always.”

Trini narrows her eyes, her mouth twisting up into a smirk even as her blush deepens.  “You’re so full of shit,” she says, the tips of her ears turning red.  “And we’re going to be late if you keep making me all sappy and whatever.”

“When have you ever been on time to detention?”

“Well, princesa,” Trini drawls.  “I’m there temporarily, so my tardiness doesn’t really matter, but I’m guessing you’re also here to insist on driving me?  And your tardiness does matter.  Therefore, we’re going to be on time today.”

“You’re so bossy,” Kimberly whines, pulling a face and biting back laughter as Trini shoves her towards the window.  There’s some grumbling behind her as Kimberly launches herself out the window, catching herself on the sill and twisting to grin at the other girl.  Trini’s still red-faced and Kimberly can’t help but add with a wink, “I think I like it.”

She drops her hold on Trini’s windowsill and falls to the ground with grace, landing lightly on the still dew covered grass, but not before she hears a strangled squeak of a response above her.

[likeatlas]

Ana de Armas plays Marilyn Monroe in the controversial Netflix movie, Blonde. The upcoming film is a fictionalized version of the iconic Hollywood star, but Monroe fans have already found plenty to complain about after a new trailer was released last week. One of the most glaring issues (according to fans), is that the Hispanic-Cuban de Armas seems to have trouble making her accent sound similar to Monroe's distinctive voice. But de Armas isn't the only actress who has struggled with her character's accent, even with the help of a dialect coach. Here are 12 memorable examples of movie accents gone wrong. Anne of Arms in Blonde (2022) Andrew Dominik's film about Marilyn Monroe has yet to be released and its leading lady, Ana de Armas, is already facing criticism for her accent. De Armas said she underwent "nine months" of training with a dialect coach to play the sex symbol born in Los Angeles, but Monroe fans are convinced she could have trained a few more, if the trailer is to be trusted. Ana De Armas as Marilyn Monroe in 'Blonde' (Netflix) Lady Gaga in House of Gucci (2021) Lady Gaga said she inhabited the character of Patrizia Reggiani (the wife of Maurizio Gucci, whom she murdered in 1995) for a year and a half, using the accent for nine months on and off screen. Unfortunately, the result of all this method work was an accent that the film's own dialect coach described as "more Russian" than Italian. a pity literally everyone in Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) Wild Mountain Thyme is a romantic drama that, thanks to the surreal accents of its protagonists, broke the Internet when its trailer was published. The film, starring Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan, is a real horror feast for its bad accents. Set on a mystical Irish farmhouse in an unrecognizable year (is it 2019 or 1953? Who knows!), the film features an incredibly talented all-star cast who mercilessly pummel an Irish accent beyond recognition. Christopher Walken strives to be from Mullingar, but sounds more like “the pirate Christopher Walken”; Blunt's is disconcerting; then there's Jamie Dornan, who is really Irish, but sounds like someone who's never set foot in the country. Jamie Dornan and Emily Blunt in 'Wild Mountain Thyme' (Lionsgate) Anne Hathaway in one day (2011) Anne Hathaway is an actress of undoubted talent, but whichever way you look at it, Hathaway's starring role as a Yorkshire girl doesn't sound like a recipe for success. And she wasn't. The film boasts an impressive 36 percent review score on Rotten Tomatoes, thanks in part to Hathaway's cartoonish English accent. She despite claiming that she had seen Emmerdale To prepare for the role, Hathaway tries "one of the most pathetic Yorkshire accents you've ever heard," according to the critic of The Telegraph Robby Collin. Russell Crowe in Robin Hood (2010) Russell Crowe, normally a safe choice for a historical British accent, was widely derided for his portrayal of Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's 2010 action flick. Crowe vacillated between Irish, Yorkshire and his native New Zealand accents. , leaving viewers baffled. Crowe even stormed out of a BBC interview with Mark Lawson after the journalist suggested his character sounded Irish. Years later, Crowe would reveal that his main inspiration for the accent was...Michael Parkinson. Which explains a lot, actually. Russell Crowe swore after a BBC presenter suggested details of his Robin Hood accent didn't sound English (AP) Don Cheadle in the trilogy of oceans (2001, 2004, 2007) Another brilliant American actor victim of the British accent. Cheadle's accent for the scam trilogy sounded like East London, but comically exaggerated. In 2008, Cheadle pleaded: “Forgive me! I will not do". What a relief. Nicholas Cage in Corelli's Mandolin (2001) If you've seen this movie, you'll find it hard to believe that Cage is of Italian descent (his father was literature professor August Coppola, brother of director Francis Ford Coppola).

Despite learning to play the real mandolin for the film, it's clear Cage didn't go to all that trouble for his Italian accent, that he sounds a bit more like Jack Black's controversial Mexican voice in free nacho. Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Keanu Reeves gives a remarkably laughable performance in Bram Stoker's Dracula, thanks in no small part to his hilarious "British" accent. In statements to Entertainment Weekly in 2015, director Francis Ford Coppola explained, “He tried really hard. That was the problem, really: he wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly he was far-fetched”. We still love you Keanu and the movie is still great. 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (Zoetrope/Columbia Tri-Star/Kobal/Shutterstock) Tom Cruise in far and away (1992) Tom Cruise is actively terrible at far and away, a bizarre adventure film from Ron Howard that was the second of three wildly divergent collaborations with Cruise's then-wife, Nicole Kidman. His Irish accent is an agitated noise, coming on one minute and gone the next. Pierce Brosnan in taffin (1988) If you haven't seen Brosnan's pre-Bond action movie, taffin (and most likely not), you may have watched a specific 14 seconds of it anyway. In them, the actor orders his love partner to leave his house in a manner that could only be described as Tommy Wiseau-esque. But Irish viewers have even more reason to be confused, as Brosnan is from the Republic of Ireland, but he speaks with an incomprehensible Northern Irish accent throughout. His phrase "So maybe you shouldn't be living here" has become a classic of the cinematographic tradition. "Maybe you shouldn't be living here!": (The genuinely Irish) Pierce Brosnan in 'Taffin' mickey rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Mickey Rooney's portrayal of Japanese landowner Mr. Yunioshi in this classic is now widely accepted as a toxic caricature built on racist stereotypes. With taped-up eyelids and protruding teeth, Rooney completed his ludicrous performance with an offensive parody of a Japanese accent. Rooney later said that he "wouldn't have done it" if he had known he was going to offend people. Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964) Dick Van Dyke's English accent in Mary Poppins is considered the "worst attempt by an American to be British", according to a 2017 survey by Babel. Even Van Dyke agrees, as after receiving a BAFTA in 2017 he said: "I welcome this opportunity to apologize to the BAFTA members for inflicting on you the most appalling London accent in film history." Read more: 8 Sex Scenes That Made Actors Blush

[turtlethon]

TURTLETHON ADDENDUM: “Return of the Shredder” edits for Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles

In an earlier Turtlethon entry I covered “Return of the Shredder”, the first episode of the second season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This outing is notable as it also ended up being the premiere episode of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles when that heavily altered version of the show debuted on the BBC in 1990, the first season being skipped completely. It might also hold the distinction of being the most heavily censored episode in the entire run; in all about 40 seconds of content was considered objectionable and removed entirely.

The clips in the above video compare the Lionsgate DVD footage of the uncut Ninja Turtles version to the Hero Turtles VHS version that appeared on Tempo Video’s “The Very Best of the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles” in 1993. Partial footage from this episode – omitting the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang subplot entirely – had previously appeared on the first Tempo Turtles release, “How It All Began”, a haphazardly assembled collection of clips that attempt to piece together the origin of the team in a “safe” fashion that will get its own Turtlethon entry at some point.

Here’s a list of the changes made, as seen in the above video (timecodes given are for the original version first, the edited version second):    

00:04 / 00:25: Michelangelo and Leonardo leap into action in the supermarket. All this nunchuck whirling was considered too much for TMHT and had to be removed.

00:40 / 00:55: Moments later, Mikey uses his nunchucks to intercept an attack from a crook brandishing a club and knocks him into a display of orange juice cans. In the edited version, the crook runs at him then somehow teleports to stand in front of the cans. The dialogue gets mashed together so that the crook’s line (“So ya wanna play dirty, huh?”) gets answered by Michelangelo with another question (“Ya think so?”)

01:02 / 01:19: When the Turtles are talking over pizza, Michelangelo references “Shredder’s Foot ninjas”. TMHT cuts him off after “those dudes were easy”, and as a result Donatello seems to change subject and begin talking about their history with Shredder from out of nowhere.

01:36 / 01:51: Smash announces that his class of “former wimps now belong to the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang”. In the TMHT version “Ninja” is removed. One of the less glaring edits as we only see the back of his head when he’s talking and there’s no background music here to tip anyone off that a cut was made.

02:04 / 02:16: Smash walks into a bank with his pupils and declares they’re the Crooked Ninja Turtle gang. Another cut, and this one is a bit more jarring.

02:29 / 02:38: Yet another Smash proclamation that they’re the Crooked Ninja Turtle gang, and although we can’t see the mouth movement here the dialogue is getting really choppy in the Hero Turtles edit, to the point where it’s now the “crookedturtlegang”.

02:47 / 02:52: The last and funniest cut in this montage. Not only does Smash yet again call it the crookedturtlegang but this time he hands a man a calling business card that reads “CROOKED NINJA TURTLE GANG”. This clearly wouldn’t do for the Hero Turtles version so the word “NINJA” is very sloppily blanked out. The card now reads “CROOKED [BLANK SPACE] TURTLE GANG”. A small portion of the bottom of the “N” in “NINJA” can still be seen. A little bit of the bottom of the Turtle shell logo has also been chopped off.

02:58 / 03:09: Two edits here. Vernon tells April that “those awful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” were the robbers, which becomes “those awful Teenage Mutant Turtles”. When April responds that it couldn’t have been the Turtles, Vernon responds “they were teenagers, they were ninjas, and they were green”. This gets cut down to “they were teenagers and they were green”.

What’s unusual about this edit is that the second cut was present on the home video version of this episode and when it aired on the BBC, but wasn’t in the version broadcast on BSB, Sky and later on other satellite TV channels through the nineties.

03:19 / 03:28: Included here specifically because it’s a rare instance of the forbidden word falling through the cracks and not getting cut, in both TMNT and TMHT Shredder gloating about his “mock turtle ninjas” to Krang is present.

03:39 / 03:50: In the asylum, Baxter recalls how he was defeated by “a talking rat and some ninja turtles”. In TMHT he was defeated “a talking rat and some turtles”.

03:57 / 04:06: April explains to Burne “those weren’t the Ninja Turtles”. In the edited version it’s “those weren’t the Turtles”.

04:15 / 04:21: As the animation of the Turtles begins to break down, April tells them about the “group called the Crooked Ninja Turtle gang”. Once more her dialogue is cut down to just “the Crooked Turtle Gang”.

04:28 / 04:39: Burne refers to the Turtles as “the ninja crooks”. For TMHT this is very haphazardly cut down to “the crooks”.

04:50 / 04:58: When the members of the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang emerge, footage of one guy emerging from a pile of tires with a pair of nunchucks is removed, mangling the background music in the process.

05:06 / 05:09: Smash orders his “ninja punks” into battle, but in TMHT they’re just “punks”.

05:13 / 05:24: While battling the Crooked Turtles, Michelangelo whirls his nunchucks a bit and says “don’t forget to write, dudes!” This gets cut down significantly in the Hero version, the spoken line removal being especially perplexing. It seems like the policy was that any time Mikey was thought to be brandishing the ‘chucks in any way that was a no-go, though there’s at least one more edit in this episode that would seem to contradict this.

05:36 / 05:50: It probably won’t surprise you to learn that a sequence where Michelangelo wails on a guy trapped in an oil drum with his nunchucks got cut!

05:56 / 06:08: Shredder is confronted by the four Turtles, brandishing their weapons and with all-white eyes like their toy counterparts. A cool moment that sadly was considered too much for TMHT’s audience and got replaced with – unbelievably – unrelated footage of Michelangelo holding one of his nunchucks. This is even more of a head scratcher given that it results in Mikey speaking with Leo’s voice!

06:21 / 06:37: The Turtles leap onto Baxter’s vehicle and begin pummelling it with their weapons. Again, nunchucks are at play here so changes were made. This one is unusual though in that the approach used here wasn’t to cut the footage but instead to crop the frame so that Michelangelo is only partially visible.

06:46 / 06:54: April reports on the “crookedturtlegang” one last time to wrap things up.

The rest of season two will see further cuts, which I’ll be documenting in future videos (at least for the episodes I’ve been able to find footage of that got released on VHS under the Hero Turtles banner). Stay tuned!

[furederiko]

A bit later than planned, but today's Random-News-Digest is MAINLY (yes, not all) occupied by Disney-related news. Owing that to the Disney D23 Expo 2017 that took place over the weekend, of course. So... as the San Diego Comic-Con International 2017 officially kicks off today (July 20th, PST), let's take a quick detour to see what hit the world by storm last week...

Disney Live Action

During the D23 Expo 2017, Disney announced and confirmed several of its upcoming live action remakes. Niki Caro's "Mulan" has entered production, as well as Tim Burton's "Dumbo". Dwayne Johnson is also set to headline "Jungle Cruise", while "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" has been given an official release date.

Cast for "Dumbo" has been confirmed to consist of Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, as well as Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins. Roshan Seth, DeObia Oparei, Sharon Rooney and Douglas Reith round up the set in supporting roles. Farrell is set to play Holt Farrier, a former circus star who has a rough life following the war, while Parker and Hobbins are set to play his children. DeVito's Max Medici is an owner to a struggling circus, who then hires Farrier to be the caretaker of Dumbo, the elephant with oversized ears. Keaton plays V.A. Vandevere, and Green plays Colette Marchant, both who are interested in turning Dumbo's aerial ability into fame.

A life-size statue of Dumbo was showcased during the panel, though I'm not sure if it's from the movie or just a replica from the 1941 animated movie. Burton is bringing MANY of his previous collaborators on "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and "Alice in Wonderland" to work on this movie. That alone is enough to give us a sense of 'what to expect' from it. The movie will be filmed entirely in England, and it is set to be released on March 29th, 2019.

"The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" will star Keira Knightley as The Sugar Plum Fairy, Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger, Morgan Freeman as Drosselmeyer, and ballerina Misty Copeland. As the title suggests, the movie will feature four different realms, and two of them are called the 'Land of the Flowers' and the 'Land of the Snowflakes'. Charles Riley is in charge for CG creation and motion capture, and it will be released on November 2nd, 2018.

Three lead actors for Guy Ritchie's "Aladdin" have been announced. Will Smith has been confirmed to play the iconic Genie. Joining him are Canadian-raised Egyptian actor Mena Massoud... who will obviously playing the titular character, and actress Naomi Scott in the role of Princess Jasmine. While Massoud is poised to be getting a bigger buzz due to his upcoming involvement in John Krasinski's "Jack Ryan" series, Scott is the more well known one for the time being, having had her high-profile big screen debut through Lionsgate's recent "Power Rangers" remake.

Apparently, this casting was harder than it looks. A few days before the announcement (on July 11th), The Hollywood Reporter ran a coverage describing 'the struggle' that the House of Mouse faced in their global search to find the right actors for the characters. Around 2000 actors and actresses from London, Egypt, Abu Dhabi, and India have read for the lead roles, but without any easy result. The process even dragged the project so much, that apparently Ritchie had to go back to the drawing board multiple times. "The test process was a mess", said one agent... whose client obviously didn't go through. The team even consulted with musical veterans Marc Platt and Chris Montan to solve this issue.

Coming from a credible site that rarely made a mistake, this report obviously became a hot topic of debate, putting Disney's supposed-effort into a giant question mark. Because seriously though, was it really THAT hard to find natural brown-skinned Middle Eastern actors who CAN sing and dance? Especially considering Disney ended up casting an Egyptian actor and half-Indian actress for the role instead of going full-on Arabian? I mean, don't these countries have talent shows (like "India's Got Talent") that almost always features young aspiring talents who CAN dance and sing? Not just that, the glaring fact that Bollywood is FAMOUS for its MUSICAL movies had me scratching my head. No offense to Massoud, but we have so many aspiring young South Asian or Middle Eastern actors who ARE popular as both singer and dancer while also looking more appropriate for the part. Just throw in names like Shahid Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Hritik Hroshan (who is yes, prolly too old, but he nails Aladdin's look perfectly), or even Turkish hot-throbs like Emre Kivilcim and Serkan Cayoglu with vast TV experiences. And I'm positive you'll find yourself slapping your own face in confusion for why Disney needed to even... 'struggle' to find one. They can even cast one of those young and undeniably handsome-looking Arabian princes from the royal palace! And I'm NOT kidding.

It's more than clear than Disney, Ritchie, and casting director Randi Hiller (also white) only searched those who have a North American and/or Hollywood presence, because the names being talked about was none other than the likes of Riz Ahmed, Dev Patel (which would've been fantastic), and Tara Sutaria. They've also seemingly focused more on non-natives who grew up in Western countries, like Dutch Achraf Koutet, American George Kosturos, and also Massoud and Scott themselves. This clearly made many questioned... why call it a 'Global Search' then? For the time being, the studio is also in search for a well known name for the antagonistic role of Ja'far. Should we even make a wild guess who they are going to cast? I won't be surprised if Disney returns to Sir Ben Kingsley for the part *sigh*. I mean... who else, right? Aaah... Riz Ahmed!

Anyways, let's just hope this casting is good and that it won't generate negative whitewashing feedback. I've repeatedly said that I do NOT think Smith is a good choice for the Genie, because even an Oscar-calliber like him would have a genuine hard time following the footsteps of the late Robin Williams' iconic performance. However... as much as I dislike that particular decision, I'm willing to let it slide if Massoud and Scott can nail their parts gracefully. According to Massoud, Williams was his inspiration to pursue acting, and I'm pretty sure that will be winning the hearts of "Aladdin" fans. If not one of the reason why Disney turned their heads towards him, of course. LOL. I'm now hoping we'll be seeing a different casting scenario with "Mulan", because I fully expect an ACTUAL global cast for that movie. Come on Hollywood, there ARE gazzilions of Asians around the world who CAN sing and dance! So if you're ever spout nonsense like 'difficult to find' and all, I'll belt out a tune and make a man out of you guys. For real! Crossing my fingers that Caro will get it... 'better' than Ritchie, though I'm not that particularly certain about it. It's a white world after all, right? "Aladdin" is set to begin production in August for a 2018 release. Probably for August 3rd.

Actress Emily Blunt and director Rob Marshall were present to debut the first look for "Mary Poppins Returns". The footage grabbed the crowd's attention, and despite being absent on stage, Lin-Manuel Miranda's performance brought out their wildest cheer. As has been widely reported, this movie serves as a sequel to Julie Andrews' original classic. The movie takes place in a familiar, but different setting: Chery Tree Lane. Ben Wishaw and Emily Mortimer are playing Michael and Jane Banks, the kids from that first movie who have grown up to be adults now. Michael is also a windower with three children. Colin Firth is set to play a heartless bank manager, who brings trouble to the dark and gloomy London, as well as the Banks family. Miranda plays Jack, a lamplighter who helps Michael's eldest son Georgie to get his kite. Meryl Streep is playing Mary's eccentric cousin Topsy, the great Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady, and Dick Van Dyke returns as the bank Chairman.

According to various report, the footage gave off an 'Old Hollywood' style with high production value, dance sequences, and grand musical numbers. There's also a 2D animation/live-action hybrid scene, sounding very similar to the first movie. Blunt said that she only saw 15 minutes of that movie, so that she can try to deliver her own version of Poppins. "No one is ever going to out-Julie Julie Andrews. She’s just unbelievable. There will never be anyone else like her. So I just had to do my version of her and I think we were very loyal to the books.", she said praising Andrews' performance. Will Andrews be making a special cameo appearance in the movie? This is Disney, so highly likely, but we'll see. "Mary Poppins Returns" will arrive in Christmas 2018.

Vying for attention, was Jon Favreau's "The Lion King". He didn't announce the cast (which I've been waiting for, particularly with that speculation of Hugh Jackman being approached to play the antagonist Scar!!!), but did bring out a footage to please and WOW the audience. Said footage was the exact mirror recreation of the 1994 animated movie's opening scene, where the baboon Rafiki introduced a lion cub Simba to Mufasa's animal kingdom, on top of the Pride Rock. Complete with Elton John's "Circle of Life" playing in the background too! The only difference was that it looked photorealistic, as if it's a scene taken from Favreau's massive-hit Oscar-winning "The Jungle Book" from last year. There were plenty of animals of all kinds depicted in their own nature, but an ultra-adorable baby Simba was undeniably the scene-stealer.

Favreau received similar, if not greater thunderous applause to when he debuted the footage for "The Jungle Book" two years ago. He made the audience went wild this time, eventhough it was Anaheim California, and not the African savannah. "We know how important this is", he said, assuring fans that his team will be delivering the best live action retelling they can muster. I'm a huge fan of "The Jungle Book", so I have huge faith in him. I personally can't wait to see this footage online, but I'm not sure it will be released in the near future. Not to mention, the movie itself is still two years away from release! Ouch!!! I guess we just have to practice patience and... wait. "The Lion King" arrives on July 19th, 2019.

The last but equally attention-grabbing piece of the panel, was Ava DuVernays' "A Wrinkle in Time". Buzz for this project have been really huge and loud even before production began, so expectation have been high. During the panel, DuVernay along with several core cast members delivered the first official teaser trailer while an official poster was released via social media. And it looked... weird but mesmerizing. We saw Storm Reid's Meg Murry, adventuring with brother Deric McCabe's Charles Wallace and classmate Levi Miller's Calvin O'Keefe to find her missing dad. Mr. Murry, played by Chris Pine, was seemingly trapped after discovering a new planet and travelled there using the 'tesseract'. Meg then encountered three Astral Travelers on her journey, Reese Whiterspoon's Mrs. Whatsit, Mindy Kaling's Mrs. Who, and Oprah Winfrey's Mrs. Which, who would somehow guide the trio in their journey. One that's likely involving the many other characters played by Zach Galifianakis, Michael Peña, and more. As well as CG actions with monsters and all... because the trailer suggests that.

Now... not unlike many folks, I'm not familiar with the novel, nor what it's all about. So I can't really describe how I feel about this. Somehow, those three Astral beings reminded me of the fairies on "Sleeping Beauty", if not the three Ghosts of "A Christmas Carol". That is, in both puzzling and creepy ways. The teaser also reminded me of "Doctor Strange" and/or "Legion" which was a good comparison, but at the same time, it also gave off a strange "Tomorrowland" vibe, which was NOT a good comparison. Then again, my mom immediately said "This looks amazing" (paraphrasing from our native language...) after seeing it... and that's totally saying much. As in, I'm definitely checking this one out when it hits theatres! For now, you can check out a few official stills from the movie, debuted by Entertainment Weekly as part of their 'First Look' season. "A Wrinkle in Time" will premiere on March 8th, 2018.

Disney Animation

It's Disney Animation Studios and Disney Pixar time! I somewhat expected Pixar's "Coco" to be getting all the big attention this year, but surprisingly that's not the case. Two other titles stole the attention on this Animation panel instead!

Fans have been asking for sequel to 2004's "The Incredibles" for many years, more than a decade even! Thus when it was finally announced, anticipation for "The Incredibles 2" has been growing like crazy. That must've been the reason why it's one of the two most talked-about title of the panel. Writer/director Brad Bird attended the panel alongside Disney Animation Chief John Lasseter, as they delivered official concept art, first raw footage, and give hints of what we can expect from Pixar's very own Fantastic Four-esque team.

For start, while many fans have been voicing their hopes to see a 10 years passed after the first movie (with all the kids grown up), Lasseter revealed that this sequel will instead works as a direct continuation. "It starts right as the first one finishes, so it just carries on", he said, confirming that only a minute have passed after the arrival of John Ratzenberger's Underminer. Family, is still the major theme of this movie. "One of the unique things about the Incredibles is it’s really a story of a family set in the world of superheroes. This one carries on that theme. It’s awesome, the idea we came up with — simple as that. … We love to really look at our own lives and look at what’s going on, and find themes that we know will resonate with the audience", he stated. Bird also reiterated that "It's fundamentally a story about family".

The main star for this one will also be Holly Hunter's Elastigirl alongside their children Violet and Dashiell (voiced by Sarah Vowell and Huck Milner, taking over from Spencer Fox), as Craig T. Nelson's Mr. Incredible will spend more time taking care of baby Jack Jack who's developing his unique powers. If it wasn't obvious enough from his social media shoutouts, Samuel L. Jackson has been confirmed to reprise his role as Frozone, while Bird himself will reprise his role as the famed superhero costume designer Edna Mode. "The Incredibles 2" opens in less than a year, on June 15th, 2018. Here's hoping Pixar will release a trailer soon! Perhaps on SDCC?

The other title that gained a huge amount of cheers and praise came from Disney Animation Studios, in form of "Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2". Similar to how "The Incredibles 2" put more focus on the female lead, it seems this one also shifts the primary attention to Sarah Silverman's Vanellope von Schweets. Namely, due to her being acknowledged as a Disney Princess... alongside, the previous Princesses! Yes, Silverman and directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston presented a clip from the movie, where Vanellope stumbled upon a website called OhMyDisney.com. That's where she runs into all the Disney Princesses, who was having slumber party filled with rapid-fire meta jokes about their histories and tropes.

But that's not even the best thing, because most of the Princesses are voiced by their iconic voice actresses! To prove that, Disney brought out these dream team on stage: Jodi Benson (Ariel of "The Little Mermaid"), Paige O'Hara (Belle of animated "Beauty and the Beast"), Linda Larkin (Jasmine of animated "Aladdin"), Irene Bedard (of "Pocahontas"), Anika Noni Rose (Tiana of "The Princess and the Frog"), Mandy Moore (Rapunzel of "Tangled"), Kelly Macdonald (Merida of "Brave"), Kristen Bell (Anna of "Frozen"), and Auli'i Cravalho (of "Moana"). Creating a historic meeting, that obviously caused a prolonged ovation and wild cheers from audience of around 7000 people. I simply can't imagine how the audience would react, had other confirmed but absent voice actresses like Ming-Na Wen (of "Mulan") and Idina Menzel (Elsa of "Frozen") were able to attend as well! With the first movie focusing on the love of retro-video games that in a way also felt more directed for 'boys', this one is definitely a conscious and brilliant decision to captivate the 'girls' as well!

As for how and why John C. Reilly's Ralph and Vanellope get to meet them? That's because the plot forced them to. How is that possible? Apparently, the Sugar Rush game had an unexpected break down, so both Ralph and Vanellope alongside the other characters have to explore to the world 'wild' web to find replacement parts required to fix and keep it alive. There, they will run into Yesss, a trend-aholic algorithm who is voiced by Taraji P. Henson. Yess is the savvy, smart and sexy owner of a trending site called Buzzaholic (obvious nod/pun to Buzzfeed, eh? *grins*). According to Henson via an external statement, Yesss "knows about everything cool and on trend. And she does spell her name with a triple ‘s'". This is the character who would guide Ralph and Vanellope toward the various sites, including OhMyDisney (that also includes reference to other Disney's properties from Marvel and Lucasfilm). What a really interesting premise! The subtitle might have hinted that the sequel to 2012's favorite is set to break the internet, but to be honest, it already is... LOL. "Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2" officially breaks the theatres next year, on November 21st, 2018.

By the way, Bell and co-star Josh Gad refused to let it go, as they brought news for the sequel to everyone's favorite animated movie. The as-of-yet un-subtitled sequel of "Frozen" became the talk of the town, eventhough the duo's intention was totally to promote the upcoming "Olaf’s Frozen Adventure", a holiday-themed short set to debut alongside "Coco". A special clip from this short was screened, and Gad sang one of the four new songs set to debut in it. Directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee along with the core cast are all confirmed to return, and "Frozen 2" is set to hit theatres on November 27, 2019.

There were other minor bits from both Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. Dan Scanlon who did "Monsters University", is currently developing a personal project on Pixar based on his own experience of not knowing his father (who passed away when he was just one). This project is currently untitled, and doesn't have a release date for now. Scanlon was inspired to make this, after discovering a recording of his late father. It will be a mix of fantasy and mundance, set in a world where unicorns are said to be a norm of everyday's life. Josh Cooley has been announced as the sole director for "Toy Story 4". He was supposed to co-direct with Lasseter before. Lasseter himself remains as producer for the June 21st, 2019 movie. And Disney Animation Studios is working on a spin-off of "Cars", spotlighting a plane (but NOT part of the "Planes" franchise) that will go all the way into space. This untitled movie will be released on April 12th, 2019.

Last but not least, "Coco" did get the utmost privilege to wrap off the entire presentation via an elaborate musical number. Director Lee Unkrich, producer Darla Anderson, and writer Adrian Molina arrived on stage to preview a new clip from the movie. They revealed that music for this movie will combine the talents of songwriter Germaine Franco, the "Frozen" couple Robert and Kristen-Anderson Lopez, with Michael Giacchino composing the score. Newcomer Anthony Gonzales is playing the lead character Miguel, with Benjamin Bratt, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Edward James Olmos lending their voices to the others. "Coco" is set to arrive in a few months, on November 22nd, 2017!

Star Wars

Lucasfilm didn't deliver a new trailer for Rian Johnson's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" during D23 Expo 2017 as fans expected. But the cast did bring a special behind-the-scenes video that... well, in a way showcased many things as well, and delighted avid "Star Wars" fans nonetheless. You can visit Collider to get screengrab images of this video. Official posters for the movie have also been released via social media. The one featuring late Carrie Fisher's General Leia seemed to breaking many fans heart. Overall though, there's a sense of danger looming through this posters, as everyone is shaded with the color of blood-red. Is it a sign of death? Oh no...! "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" will arrive on December 15th, 2017.

DC Films

Let's have a quick intermezzo from Disney, as we visit the other side of the... fandom. Yes, Warner Bros gets their category here! Though admittedly, I only included them to avoid postponing too much for the next R-N-D. LOL. Anyway, it'll be a quick one.

First, director Jaume Collet-Serra is said to be the frontrunner to helm "Suicide Squad 2". Yes, it's been an unanimous verdict that the first movie was... bad, and I personally don't see any reason for this sequel to exist. But money talks louder, especially to WB, so the studio is making one anyway. Think of it like the "Transformers" franchise. I'm not that familiar with Collet-Serra, and I haven't even seen "The Shallows". But even if I HAVE seen "Non-Stop", I can't really say if this is a right choice or not. Those movies and "Suicide Squad" are completely different in genre. Both Will Smith and Margot Robbie are poised to return though, so there's that.

Matt Reeves has publicly stated that he won't be using Ben Affleck & Geoff Johns' script for the tentatively titled "The Batman"! He said this himself on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast while promoting the critically-acclaimed "War for the Planet of the Apes", practically confirming previous report by Slash Film that many had considered to be false. Perhaps, script issue was the problem that broke down Reeves' negotiation with WB before? With the script being rewritten from scratch, many have wondered what will happen to the news we have heard so far, particularly about the casting of Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke. There's always a possibility that Manganiello will no longer appear in the solo movie, right? I'm sure we'll hear more about this in WB's upcoming panel on SDCC 2017 tomorrow.

One last thing, WB have also somewhat bullishly announced two more release dates for the year 2020. Yes, they are now planning to release FOUR effing movies that year, as if making two bad ones a year wasn't enough. Looks like someone hasn't really learned from their past mistake, huh? I can't really remember the previous two dates (if I'm not mistaken, they were reserved for "Cyborg", and "Green Lantern Corps"), but the new ones are set for February 2nd, 2020 and June 5th, 2020. It is speculated that the June one will be a sequel to this year's "Wonder Woman", due to its achievement of inching closer to become the most successful Summer movie of the year. The February one, might be a bit tricky considering WB has so many DC Films projects on the works, that even I had lost count of it for a long time now. Could it be that "Gotham City Siren", because it's a Valentine's Day release? Or Joss Whedon's "Batgirl". How about "The Flash". Hmmm. Maybe SDCC 2017 will help enlighten us if this bad.... news. Not that I could care any less though...

Marvel Studios

Back to Disney! Let's first talk about the biggest news of them all. Because while items and props from "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Black Panther" were put on display at the Marvel booth, they weren't on par with what transpired on the Live Action Panel.

Yep, Kevin Feige attended the D23 Expo 2017, and as expected he wasn't alone. Nope, far from it, because he brought a HUGE number of guests. In order of appearance; Josh Brolin, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Don Cheadle, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., and co-director Joe Russo; all joined him on stage, because they were celebrating Marvel Studios' 10 Years. With a new Anniversary Logo... and also first teaser for next year's "Avengers: Infinity War" that easily brought the crowd of 7000 people on their feet, driving them wild and overpouring with emotions.

Said footage began with around two minutes of clips from roughly 13 previous movies that have been produced by the studio, before continuing with a completely new scene. It started of with Hemsworth's Thor crashing into the Guardians of the Galaxy's spaceship, followed by a reel of action-packed sequences, and was wrapped with Thanos having a fully assembled Infinity Gauntlet in his hand, about to pummel his enemies using debris in space. Various sites (ComicBook, THR, Daily Super Hero, Collider, Buzzfeed, and many more) have published their rundown of the sequence, revealing plenty of tidbits from the mindblowing Avengers sequel. Each one complemented the rest, by filling up missing details that was missed by one another, so do take your time to visit them and read them on spot. Seriously though, reading them alone has already made me giddy and anxious. So much that I'm actually really glad Marvel Studios hasn't put it up online. Otherwise I'd probably suffered an instant heart attack and died before the movie even arrives.

After the rousing panel presentation, the Marvel booth officially unveiled additional characters for the movie. Joining the huge life-size statue of Brolin's Thanos that has been decorating the hall since day one, were four of his right hands... the Black Order. Brolin himself was on hand for the official unveiling of the team, that will instead be called 'The Children of Thanos' in the movie. Confirming theories gathered by fans after seeing the set pieces in Scotland and Atlanta, this antagonistic team consists of Corvus Glaive, his wife Proxima Midnight, the super intellect with manipulative ability Ebony Maw, and the Hulk-like Cull Obsidian.

Some of the core cast like Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner (who suffered an unfortunate injury on set), Paul Rudd, and many others were notably absent, including co-director Anthony Russo who remained in Atlanta to work on tentatively-titled "Avengers 4". Yes, "Infinity War" had just wrapped on the first day of D23 Expo 2017 (the Russos announced this themselves), but the production team are now moving on with the next giant project! WOW, talk about marvelous dedication to work. But surely, we can expect them to appear this weekend on SDCC, right? "Avengers: Infinity War" opens less than a year from now, on May 4th, 2018.

Presumably because production has only begun for "Ant-Man & the Wasp", none of its cast were present at the D23 Expo. The event officially revealed the first look for Hope van Dyne's the Wasp on one of the hanging-banner though, and actress Evangeline Lilly herself happily shared this news. Also actor Walton Goggins has officially joined the cast. I'm not familiar with this actor, but I've read many folks were excited about him, because apparently he's a terrific actor. His role is currently undisclosed, and speculations are saying that he might be playing the villain of the movie. Clearly he's not playing that character rumored by That Hashtag Show, right?

Which reminds me... that site reported an 'exclusive' saying that the studio is actively looking for an African-American actor between the age of 55 to 65 for a highly intelligent role. Everyone's easy guess is Dr. Bill Foster, a.k.a. Goliath who's in a way connected to Giant Man. Since Rudd's Scott Lang did demonstrate that ability in "Captain America: Civil War", linking it to Foster would be fantastic. Then again, That Hashtag Show isn't particularly a credible source, having falsely reported many stuffs in the past (Shang-Chi? Pffftttt). So I wouldn't really bet on their horses. Anyhoo, here's hoping the cast will stop by on SDCC this weekend, if only to have an actual confirmation or two. "Ant-Man & the Wasp" will arrive on July 6th, 2018.

"Black Panther" didn't have a huge presence (Boseman and director Ryan Coogler had a signing session), but that's because it already made a separate headline earlier that week (on July 11th). By showing up as the cover story of EW! The magazine ran a detailed coverage of the movie, dishing out the many aspects from the many lores of Wakanda, the various characters, and what to expect from the story.

Wakanda produces and is riched with a nearly-mystical metal called Vibranium. The people has mined it, experimented, and used it to develop medicines, technology, and others. Its fields also grows the Heart-Shaped Herb, a plant that grants superhuman strength to its leaders. That's the reason why it has closed itself from the whole world. John Kani's T'Chaka's death in "Civil War" will shake the illusive African-country's ground, as threats coming towards Boseman's T'Challa from inside and outside. The outside refers to Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger, an aspiring prince who is colluding with Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaue (with a new hand, in form of sonic mining equipment) to bring down T'Challa from his throne. The inside refers to the turmoil that fears T'Challa might be engaging too much with the outside world, just like T'Chaka. This might be where Winston Duke's M'Baku (who will NOT be addressed as Man-Ape) enters the equation. Coogler compared his movie to politics, saying that there's an ambiguity of who's good and bad. "The film very much plays with those concepts, looking at conflicts and different motivations, and who’s with who", he stated.

Producer Nate Moore, likened the movie to a fusion of "The Godfather" and the "James Bond", serving as tribute to both franchises. It's "a big, operatic family drama centered on a world of international espionage. So hopefully we’re getting the best of both worlds", he hoped. Boseman also stressed out, that Wakanda is "a very matriarchal society", hinting that the female characters in this solo movie shouldn't be taken for granted. This refers to Angela Basset's Queen Ramonda, Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia who is an undercover spy with a knack on 'Ring Blades', Letitia Wright's genius and intellectual Shuri, to the Dora Milaje guards like Danai Gurira's Okoye and Florence Kasumba's Ayo. Meanwhile, Forest Whitaker is playing Zuri, a shaman who is also the keeper of the Heart-Shaped herb. His character roots the movie in a unique element of spirituality, the way it's always been depicted in the comics. "Black Panther" will premiere on February 16th, 2018.

Marvel Studios might have left quite a massive impression last week, with "Spider-Man: Homecoming" running in theatres, the EW cover story for "Black Panther", and a D23 Expo presence that many people might still be talking about until now. Not to mention the pairings of characters, on set interactions, talk of future movies, actor's fancasting, etc. But that doesn't mean its hype is ending soon. This Saturday (precisely tomorrow evening, US time), the studio will return to SDCC 2017's Hall H for a special presentation with extended duration. Perhaps, that "Infinity War" footage will be delivered online for every fans to see? Or should we hope for another version, because Rufallo had openly teased something mind-blowing in the event. I'm merely spitballing here, but I'm positive we'll at least be seeing the cast of "Ragnarok", "Black Panther", "Ant-Man & the Wasp", and most definitely "Infinity War" on the panel. All I can say, we need to brace ourselves for another tide (or tsunami) of Marvel Studios news in the next few days. Because whether you like it or not, it's a great time to be a Marvel fan! Excelsior!!!

Marvel TV

It was a bit odd that Marvel's "The Inhumans" wasn't heavily showcased in D23 Expo 2017. I mean, excluding that Lockjaw's goodies available on Marvel booth, or the only three character posters that can be found on their official Twitter account. After all, ABC is still part of Disney, thus it felt odd that it wasn't even getting proper 'spotlight'. Of course, the series will have its own panel at SDCC 2017, so that might be the case. Nevertheless, the cast of the series continued to share details about the mini series outside of the panel.

Eme Ikwuakor confirmed that his character Gorgon as well as Ken Leung's Karnak, will be similar to the comics. "I act 5 times before I start thinking. I think that plays into a lot of the dynamics as well, especially with Karnak who is the exact opposite who think 5 times before he acts" he said. Sonya Balmores likened her Auran's job as the Royal Family's secret service. She works very closely with the King and Queen, and acts as their eyes and ears eventhough she's not related by blood. Serinda Swan praised her character, because "The great thing about Medusa is that she’s taking on two roles, not molded into one. That’s what makes her such an interesting character". She also affirmed that audience can expect to see Medusa's hair-play in amazing action sequence, likely to ease fans' concerns that has been growing rapidly ever since EW debuted her first look. She even added that "You will definitely see her hair have moods. There will be some moody hair because that’s her". Let's just hope that she's not giving us false hope.

Anson Mount revealed that the intricacies of Black Bolt was the reason he was drawn to portray this character. That's why he immediately agreed when Marvel TV Head Jeph Loeb personally offered this role (outside of auditions), and has even dedicated time developing it with sign consultant and all. He stated that the major theme of the movie is about family, namely about his somewhat Shakespearean love-hate relationship with brother Maximus, played by Iwan Rheon. Rheon by the way, is the most famous actor on the show, hence we can expect him to be more than just an antagonist.

Problem is, Mount also talked about why his character and also the entire series needed to be 'grounded', in order for them to be... "more accessible to a viewing audience than a reading audience". This one, is easily the part that rubs me off the wrong way. Grounded this, grounded that? I'll be honest, all these 'grounded talks' is making me feel iffy. Why shy away from going all out bizarre and outlandish? It's okay to do that with the Inhumans on Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." considering they are Earth-bound (then again, even they weren't afraid with the visuals)... but the Royal Family? They should be larger than life! Embrace all the weirdness and fun, not unlike the Guardians of the Galaxy. And don't ever forget! Scott Buck's idea of 'grounded' tends to be... 'different' or a 'bit warped' than what you and I had in mind. It means the mystical dragon Shou Lau is two bulbs of red-light for Marvel's "Iron Fist"! A proof that someone clearly didn't learn from the mistake done to that series.

Isabelle Cornish who plays Crystal, also brought a different but equally interesting notion. She revealed that audience can expect the IMAX 'movie'-size feature to be... "just really introducing us as a family and discovering the characters in the first 2 episodes. Seeing how we all mix together, how we intertwine, the different powers we all have. I mean, its such a large family. We’re essentially cousins. To have cousins that are brothers, its kinda cool and different.". Wait, WHAT? You're kidding, right? WHY would I waste my money on IMAX theatres just to see a prolonged intro? Isn't that like... NOT the point of filming a movie in IMAX format? I'm sure Christopher Nolan and his "Dunkirk", and even the Russo Brothers would be completely angry to hear this kind of treatment.

I've honestly lost all kind of goodwill and faith for this show. You can even say that I've joined a weird group among Marvel fans, essentially becoming a naysayer, because that's more or less accurate. The trailer, and every cast interviews so far, eerily reminded me of the whole "Iron Fist" scenario. Things haven't been looking good on my gut feeling, and I simply refuse to be fooled twice. But of course, my opinion doesn't necessarily apply to every Marvel fans out there. After all, there are those who actually enjoyed "Iron Fist" sooo much more than I did. With that said, perhaps it's indeed a wise decision for me to have such a really low expectation to this show. Who knows? It might flip me upside down and win me over instead...

Netflix

Similar to "Black Panther" that was featured by EW's First Look exclusive, Marvel's "The Defenders" got their share of publicity via a new poster released by the outlet, and also through UK's Empire Magazine. I'm sure we can expect the coverage from these magazines pretty soon. The EW poster, along with an exclusive one designed by Joe Quesada for Jon Bernthal's Marvel's "Punisher", are set to be available at Marvel's booth during SDCC 2017. Don't forget, "The Defenders" is also expected to have a huge presence at the Con, so prepare to hear more details as well as hopefully a new trailer for the mini-series. All 8 episodes of "The Defenders" will arrive on August 18th, 2017.

On a side note, actress Lucy Liu has been confirmed to direct the Season 2 Premiere episode of Marvel's "Luke Cage". Could she have a role in the series too? I certainly hope so. I personally want to see Liu joining a Marvel Studio movies for a significant role. But even if that's not the case, her appearing in one of the Netflix series sounds right too.

"Stranger Things" unveiled a sinister new teaser early last week, with a tagline "1984 only gets stranger". The teaser also confirmed that the 2nd Season will be available on October 27th, 2017. There weren't any details about this new season following that, but we can expect ones in the upcoming SDCC 2017.

Last but not least, I can't believe I missed this last month, but turns out the 3rd Season of "Voltron Legendary Defenders" has had an official release date! Via the trailer that... I oddly couldn't find on Netflix' official Youtube channel, it was revealed that the new season will arrive on August 4th, 2017. That's... really fast! Possibly due to the delay on Season 2 (it was meant to be released last year, but got delayed to January this year), I honestly didn't expect it to arrive so early. But who am I to complain! We need the 3rd season right away, especially after how the 2nd season abruptly ended. LOL. Also... if this teaser is any indication, things aren't looking good for the team. Because while the Paladins can't form Voltron, Emperor Zarkon's son Prince Lotor has taken command of the Galra Empire and starts brewing trouble in the galaxy. Here's hoping we'll get a longer and better trailer when the showrunners and cast members hit their SDCC 2017 panel this weekend!

Disney XD Series

New sneak peak clip for "DuckTales" was released during D23. Taken from the episode entitled "Daytrip of Doom!", the clip showed Huey, Dewey, and Louie having a dart gun fight against a very serious Webby, that caused plenty of... chaos in Scrooge McDuck's Manor. Many fans seemed to be annoyed with how the nephews sound when they saw the First Look before, a sentiment that was very understandable. For me personally, at least their new voices are growing in me, to the point that I no longer feel that much bothered by it. Many seems to have been voicing criticism to the Carl Barks-inspired design too, but I personally never had any issue about it. Most of the comics I've seen was drawn in that style anyway. LOL. "DuckTales" is set to premiere with a one-hour TV movie on August 12th, 2017, before starting its series on September 23rd.

Disney XD also unveiled the first look for "Big Hero 6 the Series". Based on the one and only Oscar-winning superhero movie so far, this much-anticipated series will tell the story of Hiro Hamada along with Baymax and friends, as they become the heroes of San-Fransokyo. Similar to "Tangled the Series", the design might not work with everyone, especially those who were expecting lush CG animation like the movies. The "Big Hero 6" one was very close, and clearly inspired by the actual 2D character designs from the movie's production though. So in a way, it's accurate. You can catch the series Main Title on Youtube!

Kamen Rider

The first official image for the 19th Heisei Rider "Kamen Rider Build" has been revealed! The image clearly showed that Build shared similar dual-colored design of "Kamen Rider W", but one that utilized a combination of technology and biology.

As rumored before, his initial form with the color Blue and Red is a fusion of Tank and Rabbit respectively. These powers will be accessed through the season's collectibles, Full Bottles, as the hero inserts a pair into his Build Driver. His transformation catchphrase for this initial mode will be "Using 2 Bottles, Find the Best Match! ​Are You Ready?! Moonsault of Steel! Rabbit Tank! Yeah!". Different Full Bottles can then be mixed and matched to produce a variety of forms. The biological side revealed so far includes Rabbit, Gorilla, Hedgehog, and Hawk, while the technological side includes Tank, (Vacuum) Cleaner, and Gattling. It's safe to say we can expect a lot more in the future. The picture also teased the antagonist Knight/Night Rogue, and the second Rider called Kamen Rider Claws/Close.

The story is said to take place in a post-apocalyptic world where souls are bound to bottles. "Second Build" is the cause, as it destroyed the world 10 years before. Kamen Rider Build will then have to deal with evil souls called "Builders" who seek to commit crime. Surprisingly, while it was previously assumed that "Build" will start airing as the "Kamen Rider" franchise changes timeslot in October, it has been revealed to debut much sooner. The currently airing "Kamen Rider Ex-Aid" has been confirmed to end with 44 episodes (with episode 45 serving as a bridge to the next), thus "Build" is set to begin in September. Is it because "Ex-Aid" isn't doing well in the toy department? Hmmm...

If you ask me, the overall concept, design, and story premise of this new series is solid, and they are more than enough to make me want to see it. I was actually sold thanks to the FireHedgehog form! LOL. Of course, execution doesn't always rhyme well with expectation, so it's still unclear if I will end up following to the end or not. Heck, the actor casting might also play as a make-or-break situation for me! So it's definitely not set in stones. But for now, I honestly want to see this show in action.

Square Enix

Since the "Kingdom Hearts" franchise is a mixture of their original characters as well as Disney world, of course Square Enix was present at the D23 Expo 2017. And as promised, the company introduced a new look and trailer for "Kingdom Hearts III". The new trailer particularly unveiled a new "Toy Story" world, while teasing an action adventure in the world of Disney's "Hercules"! Other confirmed new worlds include Disney's "Tangled", "Big Hero 6" and the "Olympus Coliseum" world.

The "Toy Story" part will have Sora, and his travelling companions Donald Duck and Goofy exploring Andy's room alongside Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the other toy characters. They need to investigate the disappearances of their fellow toys, and also Andy himself. Both director Tetsuya Nomura and Pixar Animation Studios story supervisor Jason Katz have confirmed that it will be a brand new storyline, but is still on par with Pixar's standard of storytelling and animation quality. In terms of timeline, it will take place after the events of the "Toy Story 2" movie. Nomura expressed his excitement for this world, because he had always wanted to include one on "Kingdom Hearts II".

The company also confirmed that the game will be released in 2018, which is probably not a concidence. It will be available for PlayStation 4 and XboxOne, with Nintendo Switch being considered. A second playable character will also be available, but apparently the director thought that's information for another time. LOL.

Pocket Monsters

Niantic is set to hold their first "Pokemon GO" real-world event this very weekend, with the "Pokemon GO Fest Chicago" taking place on July 22nd, 2017. They have posted details surrounding the big event happening on location, revealing that players from all around the world will also be able to 'contribute' during the same timetable. During three Challenge Windows at the event from 11:00AM to 08:00PM Chicago Time, players worldwide will help attendees to unlock rewards, and vice versa. Later, if players at the Chicago event catch enough Pokemon during the Catch Challenge, a special Mystery Challenge will be unlocked for the last hour of the event. If said Challenge is completed, then an 'extra special bonus' will be given for players around the world in form of Global Reward on July 23rd-24th.

This sounds a bit complicated to understand, and the gap between time zones alone is already feeling unfair to some parts of the world who have to stay up during midnight to dawn to participate. Response to this has been mixed as well, due to various reasons. But despite constantly getting server issues over the past week, Niantic is working hard to appeal its players. One of it, is by directly flying high-level Pokemon GO Youtubers from all around the world into Grant Park Chicago to participate in the live event. Many have been speculating that the Global Reward will be the first official reveal of Legendary Pokemon. We'll have to wait and see if that's really the case.

Those in Europe can then participate in a "Pokemon GO Safari Zone" events, in partnership with Unibail-Rodamco shopping centers. Copenhagen and Praque will be holding one on August 5th, Stockholm and Amstelveen on August 12th, and Oberhausen, Paris and Barcelona on September 16th. These events will give European players the opportunity to catch variety of Pokemon, among them are those only available as region-locked like Kangaskhan and Tauros. Unique and powerful Raid Bosses will also be available. For the United Kingdom area, Niantic will be holding a "Big Heritage Festival" event in Chester on July 22nd-23rd. This is a joint collaboration with UK heritage organization, Big Heritage.

Last but not least, Yokohama area is set to have a "Pikachu Outbreak" event on August 9th- 15th. It has been an annual event for The Pokemon Company, but this time, it will also include a Pokemon GO experience.

Tekken

I did NOT see this coming!

Geese Howard, who was recently revived by SNK Corp for "The King of Fighters XIV", has been announced as the new DLC character for "Tekken 7: Fated Retribution"!!! Bandai Namco unveiled this via one thrilling and intense trailer, during the Evolution Championship Series 2017. It just felt... right seeing Geese pummeling the Tekken characters one by one (particularly Heihachi, who is a natural jerk just like him), and sending them to misery. LOL. Geese will be available in Winter 2017, along with his own unique 'Geese Tower' stage.

The company did already state that they will be adding exclusive guest characters from other video game franchise, following the game's release on June 2nd, 2017. But I honestly didn't expect them to actually go with fans' wishes that openly called out Geese with the reasoning that his fighting style and 'badass' mannerism will be a great fit to "Tekken 7" (it's accurate, though). With "Street Fighter" very own Akuma already in the title, "Tekken 7" is growing to be a rendesvouz spot for powerful characters from various franchises. Now... who will the next DLC be for Spring 2018? Someone from "Dead or Alive"? "Mortal Kombat"? "Guilty Gear"? This is exciting...

Street Fighter

The 4th "Street Fighter V" DLC character for Season 2 has been revealed! And continuing the trend since Gouki/Akuma, it's a supposedly-new character that is also NOT really a new one... *sigh*. NEW, because the "Street Fighter" franchise hasn't had them as playable characters until now, but NOT new, because they have already existed as either supporting characters in previous games, or from entirely different game. Proof? No explanation necessary for Akuma, Kolin was Gill's right hand in "Street Fighter III", and Ed showed up in "SFV" various Story Modes since the very beginning. The fourth character joining them, hails from CAPCOM's very own "Final Fight" series. In form of big brute Abigail.

Yoshinori Ono announced Abigail during the Evolution Championship Series 2017, and an official reveal trailer for the character immediately hit the internet. This towering Mad Gear Leader that's even taller and bigger than Hugo albeit with a goofy personality, has attacks based on armors. The face paint is said to be an homage to King Diamond, who is a heavy metal musician. He is set to be released next week on July 25th, 2017, alongside his unique new stage called the 'Metro City Bay Area'. You can visit Gematsu to read a detailed description of this new DLC character.

Intriguingly, this reveal didn't surprise fans, because his name has been repeatedly rumored and reported before. The Event Hubs user who goes by the name of Flowtron has gotten his 'leaks' proven with the reveal of Akuma and Ed, and now his street cred had just gotten much higher with the confirmation of Abigail. Assuming his leak are all true, then the remaining two DLC characters will be Menat and Zeku. Menat is supposed to be that Egyptian-looking 'Fortune Teller' who already and rather pointlessly debuted in Ed's Story Modes. I also had the exact same suspicion, the moment I saw her design on that ending sequence. Not to mention, it fits with CAPCOM's goal to increase diversity in the game (with Rashid's inclusion). Zeku on the other hand, is Guy's teacher. Meaning he's also a "Final Fight" alumn. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a confirmation to his inclusion in Abigail's Story Mode.

Flowtron also stated an insider information regarding the 3rd Season DLC characters. According to him, Sagat and Sakura Kasugano are pretty much confirmed, but they won't play out like their "Street Fighter IV" counterparts. The previously rumored characters like Oro, C. Viper, Q, and Necro aren't accurate. For now, these should be treated as rumor until proven otherwise. But let's just say, I will not be surprised if it turns out to be true.

As for the real deal, CAPCOM will be releasing new special stages and costumes on July 25th as well, as part of the game's 30th Anniversary. This includes: Classic Ryu's "Suzaku Castle" stage from "Street Fighter II", Capcom Pro Tour 2017 Exclusive "Ring of Pride" stage (the Kanzuki Family Stadium), Nostalgic Costumes (for Alex, Ibuki, and Juri), and The Champion's Choice costume designed by CAPCOM Cup 2016 winner Du "Liquid|NuckleDu" Dang (for Ryu, Ken and Guile). Do visit Event Hubs to see their pricings.

Marvel vs Capcom

Meanwhile, "Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite" officially added Jedah from "Darkstalkers" series as playable character. This was revealed during the Evolution Championship Series 2017 tournament. Following this sequel's odd tradition, Jedah debuted during one of the fight and was not officially announced via individual trailers. You can visit Gamespot's Youtube channel to see him in action. "Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite" is set to be released on September 19th.

ARIKA

Many fans have been itching to see characters from "Street Fighter EX" to spring back into action. But considering ARIKA no longer collaborates with CAPCOM, that seems like a wishful thinking. Well, until now.

A new currently untitled 'EX' Fighting Game was showcased during The Evolution Championship Series 2017. The teaser video (provided through ARIKA's official Youtube Channel) showcased favorite 'EX' characters like Kairi, Shirase/Hokuto, Garuda, Skullomania, and Darun Mister. ARIKA officially announced that it will be the newest entry in the 'EX' series.

It was announced that there will be a limited time beta/server test at the end of 2017, and it has been confirmed to be a worldwide PlayStation 4 release for 2018. It is expected to be playable on April Fools, and pre-order has been made available for Japan players. Considering the company DID first tease this several months ago on April Fools 2017, I think we can safely assume that April 1st, 2018 will indeed be the release window for the title. Hopefully we'll hear more about this in the near future...

[wheelsvoid]

INSIGNIFICANT ; THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES

masterlist insignificant m.list

word count: 1,005

warnings: none

decided to keep jessup, if you’re a boy reading this then… congrats, two boys this year <3 (no logic in this fic whatsoever)

this plot does not belong to me, all rights go to suzanne collins, lionsgate films and everyone else involved with the movie.

chapter two: taking her place

Not only was my time up, but Lucy’s was too. I watched as she adjusted her mother’s beautiful, rainbow dress, and sent me the smallest of smiles.

My face remained blank. I couldn’t even look at her. I turned and made my way to the slowly busying street, pacing back and forth.

I couldn’t just let her join the Games, and if she found out I knew she’d never forgive me. Still, it felt as if I had no options. There wasn’t anyone here to help me, or tell me what to do. I was completely on my own and I was completely and utterly lost.

“Hey,” I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I jumped up, startled. “We’ll be just fine, you and me.” Lucy told me. She looked far more at ease than I ever could, and I wondered how she was able to do it.

“But—”

“But nothin’.” She said, “Y/N, you’re my sibling now. You’re family,” it surprised me how much her words meant to me. My lips pulled downwards. “I won’t let anyone touch a hair on your pretty little head, I promise.”

I inhaled, exhaled. Slowly, I began to nod. I looked her in the eyes and knew what I was supposed to do. “Okay.” I said.

I won’t let anyone touch a hair on your pretty little head, I thought.

———

The atmosphere was dreadful. I doubted my name was even in that small cage on the stage. Lucy had no idea how ridiculously safe I was, and how much trouble she was in.

I stared at the man on stage, not even knowing his name. Was I supposed to know it? I couldn’t remember. My mind had gone blank.

The man unfolded the paper, taking only a moment to read it. He looked annoyingly smug, and I glared at him from where I stood.

“Lucy Gray Baird.”

Everyone gasped in surprise. Lucy was well liked in District 12. Everyone loved her music, and her kindness. It was hard to hate her.

I turned my head to look at the girl next to me. To look at my sister. I took in the surprised look on her face, and how quickly she masked it. I noticed how she clenched her fists before releasing them, something I hadn’t seen while watching the movie.

I couldn’t let her go through what she was meant to. I wouldn’t.

Before I could stop myself, I called out as loudly as I could. “I volunteer as tribute!”

The people gasped even louder than they did the first time. In all honesty, I’m not sure how many people have volunteered in the 10 years of the Hunger Games. It could’ve been twenty, or three, or no one.

Lucy looked at me in complete surprise. “Y/N.”

“Lucy, please.” I said. I couldn’t even look her in the eye. “Let me do this.”

“I can’t—“

“You don’t have a choice.” I sighed. “I’ll be okay, I promise. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” I met her eyes, and watched her struggle to speak. The tears the welled up in her eyes almost made me regret my decision, but I could live with her crying over me. I couldn’t live with her crying over Jessup—who I struggled to pretend wasn’t up on that stage—or accidentally killing Dill, or anything to do with being in those Games.

I would save her from all of that, and I was willing to pay the price.

Even if it cost me my life? I hesitated, before taking my first step forwards. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.

Each person looked to me in surprise, or confusion. I was unrecognizable. No one knew my name, or my family, or anything about me. I was a bystander at Lucy Gray’s shows. I hardly left the comfort of being inside.

I was completely unknown.

I glanced a Mayfair, my eyes cold. She met mine and could only frown in confusion before wrinkling her nose in disgust.

I raised a brow and kept walking forward. The dread and the fear continued to build up as I thought about the trials ahead. Being forced into a zoo to be looked at like sad, wild animals who longed to be free. Potentially killing another human being.

And sponsors. I hadn’t even thought about that. How was I to gain sponsors if I lacked the talent that Lucy had?

I made it to the top of the stage, my eyes meeting Jessup’s for a moment before I looked away. The mayor looked at me, unsure. “What’s your name?” He spoke into the mic.

He gestured for me to get closer, and I did. “Y/N L/N.” I said. I sounded braver than I felt. Still, there was some comfort in being the country’s mystery—the world’s mystery. It was the greatest power I had, but it was also my biggest weakness.

The silence rang out, and for a moment, that’s all there was. Then, I heard the beautiful singing of Maude Ivory.

“Can’t take my past. Can’t take my history.” I watched as Barb cried next to her, and for a moment, I was surprised to know that she cared for me that much. In the near two months I had known her, we hadn’t talked as much as I did with Lucy and Maude.

“You can take my pa,” Tam Amber joined in the singing, his voice soft and smooth like honey. I watched, fascinated that they still chose to sing for me. I was no Lucy Gray.

“But his name’s a mystery.”

“Nothing you can take from me.” Lucy’s voice was the only one that I could hear now. She looked at me like she was saying goodbye. “Was ever worth keepin’. Nothin’ you can take… was ever worth keepin’.”

As the voice of my sister rang out, loud enough to be heard clearly on the stage, the guards dragged me back and I was taken away from the only family I had in this new world.

chapter three

[aion-rsa]

Peacock: NBC Streaming Service Release Date, Shows, Price, and News

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The streaming service field is becoming more fractured, as more and more media companies break from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu in favor of creating their own streaming services. NBCUniversal—the Comcast Corp. division that owns NBC, MSNBC, USA, and the Universal Pictures movie studio—is next up with new streaming service Peacock.

Peacock will feature content from NBC, Bravo, USA Network, SYFY, Oxygen, E!, CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN, Golf Channel, Universal Kids, A&E, ABC, CBS, The CW, FOX, HISTORY, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks, Focus Features, Illumination, ViacomCBS, Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., and Blumhouse.

Here’s what we know:

Peacock Release Date

Peacock was made available to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform subscribers on April 15, 2020. The service will officially roll out to the rest of the country on July 15, 2020. NBCUniversal has plans for an international release of the service but no timeframe has been announced yet.

Peacock Price

What is Peacock going to cost? Well…that’s complicated. NBC is deviating from WarnerMedia, Disney, and Apple by incorporating pricing tiers into its service at launch. Peacock has three potential pricing options: free, $4.99, and $9.99. Here is what you’ll get at each price point:

Peacock Free includes 13,000 hours of NBCUniversal content, including still-airing series a week after they premiere. It will also feature advertisements.

Peacock Premium (with ads) is the $4.99 option and will include everything that the streaming service has to offer (over 20,000 hours of content) including Peacock originals and next-day availability of current TV shows…but also dumb old commercials. 

Peacock Premium (without ads) is $4.99 for Comcast subscribers and $9.99 for everyone else. It will include the full spectrum of Peacock content with no ads. 

Peacock Platforms

Peacock is available to be streamed on the following platforms:

Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD.

Google platforms and devices including Android, Android TV devices, Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices.

Microsoft’s Xbox One family of devices, including Xbox One S and Xbox One X; and VIZIO SmartCast™ TVs and LG Smart TVs. 

Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex users, as well as eligible Cox Contour customers, can use Peacock Premium included with their service at no additional cost.

Starting the week of July 20, Peacock will be available Sony PlayStation 4 andPlayStation 4 Pro. 

Notable absences on this list include two of the most popular streaming device providers in Roku and Amazon Fire. Just as WarnerMedia was unable to cut deals with either company for HBO Max, so too was NBCUniversal unable to do so with Peacock.

Peacock Originals

NBCUniversal has revealed the first batch of original programming coming to the service:

Available July 15

Psych 2: Lassie Come Home

“Santa Barbara Police Chief Carlton Lassiter is ambushed on the job and left for dead. In a vintage Psych-style Hitchcockian nod, he begins to see impossible happenings around his recovery clinic. Shawn and Gus return to Lassie’s side in Santa Barbara and are forced to navigate the personal, the professional, and possibly the supernatural. Separated from their new lives in San Francisco, our heroes find themselves unwelcome in their old stomping grounds as they secretly untangle a twisted case without the benefit of the police, their loved ones, or the quality sourdough bakeries of the Bay Area. What they uncover will change the course of their relationships forever.” – Read more about Psych 2: Lassie Come Home here.

Brave New World

“Based on Aldous Huxley’s groundbreaking 1932 novel, Brave New World imagines a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history itself.” Read more about Brave New World here.

Available August 6

Hitmen

Best friends Jamie (Mel Giedroyc) and Fran (Sue Perkins) are trying to make their way in the world with only each other to rely on. They also just happen to kill people for a living. Fueled by their antics and frivolous bickering, each job inevitably gets derailed, leading them into bizarre misadventures, full of oddball characters and unexpected dilemmas.

Available August 13

Five Bedrooms

Five singles meet at, of all places, the singles’ table at a wedding. After several bottles of champagne, they decide to pitch in and buy a house together. Five singles buy a house together – what could go right?  It’s a grand social experiment with one glaring problem: they’ll have to actually live with each other.  All while journeying together through disasters, life-turning crises, and  moments of love, joy and heartbreak. The series stars Kat Stewart (Offspring), Stephen Peacocke (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot), Doris Younane (Frayed), Katie Robertson (Rosehaven), Roy Joseph (Halim), Kate Jenkinson (Wentworth) and Hugh Sheridan (Packed to the Rafters).

Available September 3

A.P. Bio (Season 3)

“When disgraced Harvard philosophy professor Jack Griffin loses out on his dream job, he is forced to return to Toledo, Ohio, and work as a high school Advanced Placement biology teacher. As he comes crashing in to Whitlock High School, Jack makes it absolutely clear he will not be teaching any biology. Realizing he has a room full of honor roll students at his disposal, Jack decides instead to use the kids for his own benefit. Eager to prove that he is still king of the castle, Principal Durbin struggles to control the force of nature that is Jack Griffin.” Read more about A.P. Bio season 3 here.

Available September 17

Departure

Passenger plane Flight 716 shockingly vanishes, and brilliant investigator Kendra Malley (Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife), alongside her mentor Howard Lawson (Christopher Plummer, Knives Out) are brought on to lead the investigation. When battling forces threaten to undermine their work, Kendra must find the truth and stop it from happening again. The series also stars Kris Holden-Reid (Umbrella Academy), Rebecca Liddiard (Run This Town), Tamara Duarte (Longmire), Mark Rendall (Versailles), Peter Mensah (Midnight, Texas) and Sasha Roiz (Suits).

Available TBD

The Adventure Zone 

“Based on the McElroy Family’s wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons podcast and No. 1 New York Times best-selling graphic novel series, The Adventure Zone is a side-splitting and heart-filled fantasy animated comedy series that follows an unlikely, poorly equipped trio and their beleaguered Dungeon Master as they reluctantly embark on a quest to save their world.” – Per THR.

Angelyne (limited series)

“Limited series based on The Hollywood Reporter feature that explored the identity of L.A.’s mysterious billboard bombshell.”

Battlestar Galactica

“Battlestar Galactica returns to television with Sam Esmail producing.” Read more about this reboot here.

Clean Slate

“Old-school car wash owner, Henry (George Wallace), is thrilled that his estranged child is returning to Alabama after 17 years. However, Henry has a lot of soul searching to do when the child he thought was a son returns as the determined, proud, trans woman, Desiree (Laverne Cox).” – Per THR.

Division One

“Division One is a coming-of-age comedy about an underdog women’s collegiate soccer team that gets a new female coach — a former professional soccer player who’s fallen from grace — and must decide whether or not they’re going to take the risk of trying to be great.” The show will be produced by Amy Poehler and soccer star Abby Wambach. – Per THR.

Dr. Death

“Based on Wonderly’s hit podcast, Dr. Death tells the terrifying true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch (Jamie Dornan), a rising star in the Dallas medical community. Young, charismatic and ostensibly brilliant, Dr. Duntsch was building a flourishing neurosurgery practice when everything suddenly changed. Patients entered his operating room for complex but routine spinal surgeries and left permanently maimed or dead. As victims piled up, two fellow physicians, neurosurgeon Robert Henderson (Alec Baldwin) and vascular surgeon Randall Kirby (Christian Slater), set out to stop him. Dr. Death explores the twisted mind of a sociopath and the gross negligence of the system designed to protect the most defenseless among us.”

Expecting

“Ellie, a fiercely independent but perpetually single music manager, has always wanted a family but never found a man worthy of the role of ‘father.’ That is, until her 39th birthday, when she decides to ask her gay best friend and co-worker, Jonathan, if he’ll be her sperm donor. When Jonathan surprises himself by saying ‘yes,’ it sets off a chain of events that turn Ellie and Jonathan’s personal and professional lives upside down as they try to turn their ‘chosen family’ into a biological family. Mindy Kaling will executive produce.” – Per THR.

Hatching Twitter

“Through exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting, New York Times best-selling author Nick Bilton draws on hundreds of sources, documents and internal e-mails to tell intimate true stories of companies behaving badly and technology gone awry. The first installment of this anthology series will be based on Bilton’s acclaimed book Hatching Twitter, a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles that accompanied the meteoric rise of the infamous tech company. 140 characters and a few lines of code changed the world, disrupting the very fabric of the way people communicate. This series will explore the real masterminds behind it all, how it was done, and the colossal ramifications the technology will have on our future.” – Per THR.

MacGruber

After rotting in prison for over a decade, America’s ultimate hero and uber patriot MacGruber is finally released. His mission: to take down a mysterious villain from his past — Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth. With the entire world in the crosshairs, MacGruber (Will Forte), Vicki and Piper must race against time to defeat the forces of evil. Only to find that evil … may be lurking within. – Read more about MacGruber here.

One of Us Is Lying (pilot)

“Based on Karen M. McManus’s best-selling novel, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.”

Punky Brewster (pilot)

“In this multicamera/hybrid continuation of the iconic ’80s sitcom about a bright young girl raised by a foster dad, Punky is now a single mother of three trying to get her life back on track when she meets a young girl who reminds her a lot of her younger self.”

Rutherford Falls

“Ed Helms portrays Nathan Rutherford, the eponymous denizen of a small New England town, who is having difficulty facing the inevitable changes to his way of life.”

Saved by the Bell (reboot)

“When California governor Zack Morris gets into hot water for closing too many low-income high schools, he proposes they send the affected students to the highest performing schools in the state – including Bayside High. The influx of new students gives the over privileged Bayside kids a much needed and hilarious dose of reality.” – Read more about the Saved by the Bell reboot here.

Straight Talk

“Straight Talk examines what happens when two opposing ideologies are forced into an odd coupling. The main characters will be challenged by one another, making the moral lines at which they once stood harder to define.”

Peacock Library

TV

Peacock has been designed to mimic the experience of flipping through channels on a terrestrial television. To that end, both the free and premium tiers are launching with curated channels of NBC-themed content. These include channels that contain the best moments from shows such as The Office (“Office Shorts”), Saturday Night Live (“SNL Vault”), The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (“Fallon Tonight”), Late Night With Seth Meyers (“Seth Meyers Now”).

There are also exclusive genre channels like CNBC Make It, TODAY All Day, CNBC Ka-Ching, American Greed, 80s Mixtape, True Crime, Kiss Me Deadly, Peacock Reality, Out of This World, Caso Cerrado and I Love Jenni.

The free tier will include current NBC TV shows one week after they air. It will also include select episodes of Peacock originals. Most importantly it will include the following library content at launch:

30 Rock

Parks and Recreation

Saturday Night Live

Saved by the Bell

Punky Brewster

The Johnny Carson Show

The Carol Burnett Show

Real Husbands of Hollywood

Everybody Hates Chris

Friday Night Lights

Downton Abbey

Parenthood

Monk

Heroes

Psych

The Game

Suits

Sacred Lies

Royal Pains

Battlestar Galactica

Columbo

Hunter

The Rockford Files

Dateline

21 Jump Street

Highlander

Leave It To Beaver

Munsters

Murder She Wrote

Below Deck

Southern Charm

Chrisley Knows Best

Botched

Flipping Out

Million Dollar Listing New York

Pawn Stars

Storage Wars

Real Housewives of Dallas

Jay Leno’s Garage

Shahs of Sunset

Undercover Boss

Top Chef Masters

Hell’s Kitchen

Hollywood Game Night

American Ninja Warrior Jr.

Kong, The Animated Series

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

Fievel’s American Tails andWoody Woodpecker

Betty en NY

I Love Jenni

Reina De Corazones

The Riveras

Preso No. 1, Caso Cerrado

El Baron

El Chema

Larrymania

Perro Amo

Mi Familia Perfecta

Quien es Quien

Victoria

Donde Esta Elisa.

Added library shows for the premium tier include:

Two and a Half Men

Everybody Loves Raymond

George Lopez

Jeff Foxworthy Show

King of Queens

Superstore

Frasier

Cheers

House

The Affair

Yellowston

Law & Order

Law & Order: SVU

Ray Donovan

Swedish Dicks

American Ninja Warrior

DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk

Care Bears

Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot.

Future Peacock TV library titles feature:

The Office

Chicago P.D.

Chicago Fire

Chicago Med

Roseanne

3rd Rock from the Sun

Bates Motel

 Brooklyn Nine-Nine

 Real Housewives of Atlanta

Real Housewives of New York,

Real Housewives of New Jersey

Real Housewives of Orange County

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Vanderpump Rules

Millionaire Matchmaker

Top Chef

Married with Children

Curse of Oak Island

 First 48

 American Picker

 Ancient Aliens

Cold Case Files

Charmed

Movies

The free tier of Peacock movies available at launch includes:

The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Ultimatum

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park III

Tully

Phantom Thread

The Interprete

American Psycho

The Matrix

The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Revolutions

The Blair Witch Project

The Mummy

Joe

Fletch

Fletch Lives

The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury

Fear

Psycho

Do the Right Thing

Howard the Duck

Billy Elliot

The Birds

Willie

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas

The Last House On The Left

I Am Ali

In The Name of the Father

Lone Ranger

The Hitcher

Law Abiding Citizen

The Sting

What Dreams May Come

Fried Green Tomatoes

One True Thing

Gosford Park

Dracula

Dragnet.

The premium tier adds:

Shrek

Lone Survivor

Ted

Identity Thief

Children of Men

Charlie Wilson’s War

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Frankenstein

Kicking and Screaming

Larry Crowne

You, Me & Dupree.

The following films are expected to arrive on Peacock sometime after launch:

Trolls World Tour

You Should Have Left

Croods 2

Boss Baby 2

Spirit

Mama

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

The Purge

Riddick

Ride Along

E.T.

American Gangster

ANTZ

Fast & Furious

Fast 5

Fast & Furious 6

Field of Dreams

The Express

Knocked Up

Bridesmaids

National Lampoon’s Vacation

National Lampoon’s European Vacation

Wanted

Evan Almighty

The Conjuring

Dawn of the Dead

The Dark Knight

Beetlejuice

The Big Lebowski

Scent of a Woman

Meatballs

3:10 to Yuma

Lost In Translation

Brokeback Mountain

Pitch Black

The Graduate

Police Academy

The Great Outdoors

Hostel

The Bone Collector

Robin Hood

The Hurt Locker

The Break Up

Open Water

It Follows

Carlito’s Way

Sinister

Peacock Sports

Peacock is notable in its offering of live sporting events, something that only ViacomCBS’s CBS All Access can compete with among the major OTT streaming services.

Live sports available to free tier users include:

Four exclusive English Premier League soccer matchers on July 15.

Coverage of the U.S. Men and Women’s Open Championships in golf.

An NFL Wild Card Playoff game.

Select events from the now-delayed Tokyo and Beijing Olympics

Premium tier highlights include:

175 exclusive EPL matchups for the 2020-21 season.

Cycling events like the Tour du France.

More than 100 hours of WWE content arriving in August including series like WWE Untold, and Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions. And compilations like John Cena’s Best WrestleMania Matches.

The post Peacock: NBC Streaming Service Release Date, Shows, Price, and News appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[themovieblogonline]

"KILL" Trailer: Lakshya Takes Action to New Heights

Hold onto your popcorn, folks! Lionsgate just dropped the new KILL trailer and let me tell you, it's about as intense as getting dragged through a train (which, like, literally happens in the first five seconds). The trailer opens with our hero, Lakshya, looking like he just lost a fight with a locomotive. Dude's getting yanked around by a chain, his face all bloody and bruised, and he's here to redefine action in Bollywood.  Talk about making an entrance! This sets the tone for what's to come: nonstop, heart-pounding action. If you’re a fan of high stakes, this one’s for you. Action So Brutal, It'll Make You Wince (in a Good Way?) This ain't your momma's Bollywood musical. All the action takes place on a train, adding a claustrophobic intensity that's hard to beat. Tight spaces, close-quarters combat, and nowhere to run. It’s like “Die Hard” meets “Speed” but with a Bollywood twist. The trailer shows Amrit taking down bad guys in brutal fashion with knives in eyes, heads getting butted. The fight choreography looks sharp, and every punch lands with bone-crunching force. We're talking knives to the eyeballs, headbutts that would make a brick cry, and enough blood to fill a swimming pool (okay, maybe not that much, but you get the idea). The whole fight scene takes place on a crowded train, which makes everything feel even wilder. Imagine rush hour on the New York subway, but with a whole lot more stabbing and way less small talk. Lakshya's not exactly thrilled about sharing his train ride with a gang of knife-wielding goons led by the mysterious Fani (who, by the way, looks like he could cut you with just a glare). So, naturally, Lakshya decides to take matters into his own hands (and fists, and knees, and whatever else he can use as a weapon). Is This Just Action, or is There More to the Story? The trailer doesn't give away too much about the plot, but there's a quick mention of Lakshya trying to stop an arranged marriage. So, maybe there's a little romance mixed in with all the blood and mayhem? Who knows! One thing's for sure: this movie looks like a wild ride. If you're down for some seriously intense action with a Bollywood twist, then "KILL" is definitely worth checking out. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the whole "getting dragged by a train" thing. That image will be burned into my brain for a while. Read the full article

[kansascityhappenings]

In 2019, the box office belonged to Disney

NEW YORK — Every movie year offers up a parade of hits and flops. But in 2019, no winner was in the same galaxy as the Walt Disney Co. And the biggest loser might have been anyone less thrilled about the box-office domination of franchise films.

When the year closes out Tuesday, the top 10 films in U.S. and Canada theaters will all be intellectual property-backed movies. That, in itself, isn’t new. It’s the third year in a row that the year’s 10 biggest ticket-sellers have all been sequels, remakes and superhero films.

But in today’s IP-driven movie world, one studio is in a league of its own. In 2019, Disney dominated American moviegoing more than any studio ever has before — roughly 38% of all domestic moviegoing.

The year’s top five films were all Disney movies, and it played a hand in the sixth. Disney’s Marvel Studios produced the Sony Pictures release “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”

Disney banked about $13 billion in worldwide box office in 2019, including a record number of $1 billion releases. Once “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” ($724.8 million through Sunday) inevitably reaches that milestone, it will mark the studio’s seventh such $1 billion movie in 2019. The others were: “Avengers: Endgame” (the highest grossing release ever, not accounting for inflation, with $2.8 billion), “The Lion King,” “Captain Marvel,” “Aladdin,” “Toy Story 4” and “Frozen II.”

Disney’s unprecedented market share includes films from 20th Century Fox, the 84-year-old studio that Disney gobbled up in March in a $71.3 billion acquisition.

Despite Disney’s considerable firepower, overall ticket sales in U.S. and Canada theaters were down 4.4% from the year before through Sunday, according to data firm Comscore. The upper echelons of the box office may be stratospheric, but the lower realms — where critics’ scores are rotten and word of mouth is faster than opening weekend — are dismal. The movies are increasingly a zero-sum game. You’re either “The Lion King” or you’re “Cats.”

“There’s plenty of capacity to bring people to the movie screen,” says Cathleen Taff, distribution chief for Disney. “What I think we’re doing is competing for their time. If it’s not great, they do have other options. But when it is great, people show up. And we’ve seen that this year with seven $1 billion movies.”

Disney’s considerable role in today’s moviegoing hasn’t been without critics. They have lamented its mega-blockbusters as products, not cinema. Before Martin Scorsese’s criticisms of Disney’s Marvel movies sparked headlines, he lamented the monopolizing of the multiplex, disturbed by the sight of “Avengers: Endgame” playing on 11 of a theater’s 12 screens.

If the big-screen experience is narrowing, the small screen is expanding. Streaming services proliferated in 2019 with the launch of Apple TV Plus (although it pushed back its first big movie release ) and Disney Plus. Amazon also reshaped its release strategy, shortening the theatrical window for some of its movies to just two weeks. Netflix rolled out its most ambitious release slate, including a host of awards contenders, led by Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” that played in only limited theaters. The so-called streaming wars will only grow in 2020 when NBCUniversal launches its service, Peacock, and WarnerMedia debuts HBO Max.

While some may see a downturn in ticket sales as indicative of streaming’s impact, John Fithian, the president and chief executive of the National Association of Theater Owners, believes streaming is disruptive to broadcast TV, cable and home markets like DVDs, but not to movie theaters.

“This may sound counter-intuitive, but with the launch of Disney-Plus, HBO Max and Peacock, we’re more confident of the symbiotic relationship of streaming and theatrical than we were before,” says Fithian. “The people who stream also go to the movies a lot.”

Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. also remain devoted to the traditional theatrical window. Netflix will soon be competing with studios that can offer both a robust theatrical release and a streaming life — albeit not one with the same number of viewers at home that Netflix can promise.

Those services have certainly added pressure to the theatrical release, and quite a few in 2019 weren’t up to the challenge. The year’s most glaring bombs included bold bids at technological innovation ( “Gemini Man” ), mishandled franchise finales (“Dark Phoenix”), remakes that failed to connect (“Charlie’s Angels”), prestige dramas doomed by controversy ( “Richard Jewell” ), toy movies that didn’t click (“Playmobil: The Movie”) and, you know, “Cats.”

But some Hollywood executives point to successes suggesting a vibrant medium. Jordan Peele’s “Us,” for Universal, was the highest grossing original movie. Others like Lionsgate’s “Knives Out,” Fox’s “Ford v Ferrari,” STX’s “Hustlers” and Sony’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” were also both critical and global hits. Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” and Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” gave the art house a boost.

“I don’t think that the four-to-five percent drop means the domestic audience wants to stay home on the couch. I think it’s just like everything else in this industry since it began: We have cycles,” says Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal. “Generally, the box-office is still trending up and I think that will continue over time, especially because you can do films like ‘Us’ and films like (the R-rated comedy) ‘Good Boys’ and people will still come out in force.”

Last year’s box office, which followed a two-decade low in 2017, set a record with $11.9 billion in ticket sales. Disney, the market leader for the last five years, again led the way with “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Incredibles 2.”

Revenues have largely been on the rise thanks to increasing ticket prices. 2019’s estimated $11.4 billion in ticket sales rank second all time, not accounting for inflation. But admissions have been gradually declining since 2005.

Overseas business, however, is booming. International box office for the first time crossed $30 billion in 2019. Either next year or in 2021, China will likely surpass North America as the world’s top movie market.

Lately, homegrown movies have been China’s top draws. This year, only two U.S. productions — “Avengers: Endgame” and “Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw” — cracked the country’s top 10 films. A pair of Chinese blockbusters led the way, each with about $700 million in box office: the science fiction adventure “The Wandering Earth” and the animated fantasy “Ne Zha.”

All of these factors — a rare alignment of Disney juggernauts, expanding home-entertainment options, a more inward-looking China — mean a potentially dimmer outlook for 2020. Many in the industry expect the year’s ticket sales to drop of a few percentage points again. No one forecasts a similar year from Disney. The studio will still have a strong slate but one without an “Avengers” or “Star Wars” movie.

“2020 is going to be a more typical year, where the wealth will be spread quite a bit more,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “The sky is not falling but we’re definitely going to have to change our expectations for 2020. It’s not going to be just about one studio dominating but it’s going to be about all the studios bringing some of their biggest brands.”

James Bond, Wonder Woman and The Rock are coming in 2020. But greater volatility may be on the way, too.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/12/31/in-2019-the-box-office-belonged-to-disney/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/in-2019-the-box-office-belonged-to-disney/

[tortuga-aak]

The 11 worst biopic castings of all time

AP; Getty

Shortly after Hugh Hefner's death in September, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Jared Leto would be playing the media mogul in a biopic about his life.

"Jared is an old friend," the biopic's director Brett Ratner told THR. "When he heard I got the rights to Hef's story, he told me, 'I want to play him. I want to understand him.' And I really believe Jared can do it. He's one of the great actors of today."

Immediately after news of Leto's casting was announced it began to receive some criticism online.

Here are a couple reactions to Leto's casting:

Tweet Embed: https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/915269353368518656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Jared Leto Is Playing Hugh Hefner In Brett Ratner’s Biopic & I Need a Shower After Just Typing Those Words https://t.co/zoPnZHhcXJ http://pic.twitter.com/liaQEiYhjsTweet Embed: https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/915224109130412032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw on a list of things the world doesn't need, somewhere near the top it says 'Brett Ratner movie about Hugh Hefner staring Jared Leto'Tweet Embed: https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/915234670152994817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Jared Leto To Star In Brett Ratner's Hugh Hefner Biopic, Because He Wasn't Already Doing The Most To Remind Us All How He's Just The Worst

It's easy to be skeptical of Leto's casting when there have been so many lousy biopic castings in the past. Even renowned actors like Kevin Spacey and Naomi Watts have starred in colossal biopic flops. 

It's too soon to evaluate whether or not Leto's portrayal of Hefner will do the late playboy justice, but hopefully he won't make the same mistakes as his biopic predecessors.

Here are the 11 worst biopic castings of all time, in no particular order:

Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor

YouTube/Lifetime

"Liz and Dick" was meant to tell the story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's romance, but instead it amounted to no more than a cheaply crafted, made-for-TV-movie with subpar casting.

Lohan was unable to carry the role of Taylor, and instead played a less charming version of herself while wearing a series of unflattering acrylic wigs. 

Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin

Lionsgate

Spacey directed and starred in the Bobby Darin biopic "Beyond the Sea," chronicling the short life of the famed crooner. 

But the film had one glaring issue: Spacey's age. 

Darin was 37 when he died, and Spacey was 45 when he portrayed the singer...when he was 20.

It was confusing.

Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs

Sundance

Kutcher's portrayal of Steve Jobs in "Jobs" fell short of truly representing the tech mogul, and it's incredibly hard to take the "Punk'd" creator seriously in the role — despite his spot-on resemblance to Jobs.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider from Feedburner http://ift.tt/2gqP4KB

[terrorscribe]

Lionsgate Drops New Trailer for "Jigsaw".

Lionsgate Drops New Trailer for “Jigsaw”.

To mix my genres, this is one of those times I feel like Captain Jean Luc Picard, battered, tortured and tormented glaring into the face of his Cardassian captor. With only slight variation to the original scene, I shout:

“THERE ARE ONLY THREE SAW FILMS!!!”

Obviously, I know that there are more… but as I like to say, there are four movies too many in that trilogy.

It was a mercy when they brought…

[likeatlas]

Ana de Armas plays Marilyn Monroe in the controversial Netflix movie, Blonde. The upcoming movie is a fictionalized version of the iconic Hollywood star, but Monroe fans have already found plenty to complain about after a new trailer was released last week. One of the most glaring issues (according to fans), is that the Hispanic-Cuban de Armas seems to have trouble making her accent sound similar to Monroe's distinctive voice. But de Armas isn't the only actress who has struggled with her character's accent, even with the help of a dialect coach. Here are 12 memorable examples of movie accents gone wrong. Anne of Arms in Blonde (2022) Andrew Dominik's film about Marilyn Monroe has yet to be released and its leading lady, Ana de Armas, is already facing criticism for her accent. De Armas said she underwent "nine months" of training with a dialect coach to play the sex symbol born in Los Angeles, but Monroe fans are convinced she could have trained a few more, if the trailer is to be trusted. Ana De Armas as Marilyn Monroe in 'Blonde' (Netflix) Lady Gaga in House of Gucci (2021) Lady Gaga said she inhabited the character of Patrizia Reggiani (the wife of Maurizio Gucci, whom she murdered in 1995) for a year and a half, using the accent for nine months on and off screen. Unfortunately, the result of all this method work was an accent that the film's own dialect coach described as "more Russian" than Italian. a pity literally everyone in Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) Wild Mountain Thyme is a romantic drama that, thanks to the surreal accents of its protagonists, broke the Internet when its trailer was published. The film, starring Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan, is a real horror feast for its bad accents. Set on a mystical Irish farmhouse in an unrecognizable year (is it 2019 or 1953? Who knows!), the film features an incredibly talented all-star cast who mercilessly pummel an Irish accent beyond recognition. Christopher Walken strives to be from Mullingar, but sounds more like “the pirate Christopher Walken”; Blunt's is disconcerting; then there's Jamie Dornan, who is really Irish, but sounds like someone who's never set foot in the country. Jamie Dornan and Emily Blunt in 'Wild Mountain Thyme' (Lionsgate) Anne Hathaway in one day (2011) Anne Hathaway is an actress of undoubted talent, but whichever way you look at it, Hathaway's starring role as a Yorkshire girl doesn't sound like a recipe for success. And she wasn't. The film boasts an impressive 36 percent review score on Rotten Tomatoes, thanks in part to Hathaway's cartoonish English accent. She despite claiming that she had seen Emmerdale To prepare for the role, Hathaway tries "one of the most pathetic Yorkshire accents you've ever heard," according to the critic of The Telegraph Robby Collin. Russell Crowe in Robin Hood (2010) Russell Crowe, normally a safe choice for a historical British accent, was widely derided for his portrayal of Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's 2010 action flick. Crowe vacillated between Irish, Yorkshire and his native New Zealand accents. , leaving viewers baffled. Crowe even stormed out of a BBC interview with Mark Lawson after the journalist suggested his character sounded Irish. Years later, Crowe would reveal that his main inspiration for the accent was...Michael Parkinson. Which explains a lot, actually. Russell Crowe swore after a BBC presenter suggested details of his Robin Hood accent didn't sound English (AP) Don Cheadle in the trilogy of oceans (2001, 2004, 2007) Another brilliant American actor victim of the British accent. Cheadle's accent for the scam trilogy sounded like East London, but comically exaggerated. In 2008, Cheadle pleaded: “Forgive me! I will not do". What a relief. Nicholas Cage in Corelli's Mandolin (2001) If you've seen this movie, you'll find it hard to believe that Cage is of Italian descent (his father was literature professor August Coppola, brother of director Francis Ford Coppola).

Despite learning to play the real mandolin for the film, it's clear Cage didn't go to all that trouble for his Italian accent, that he sounds a bit more like Jack Black's controversial Mexican voice in free nacho. Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Keanu Reeves gives a remarkably laughable performance in Bram Stoker's Dracula, thanks in no small part to his hilarious "British" accent. In statements to Entertainment Weekly in 2015, director Francis Ford Coppola explained, “He tried really hard. That was the problem, really: he wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly he was far-fetched”. We still love you Keanu and the movie is still great. 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (Zoetrope/Columbia Tri-Star/Kobal/Shutterstock) Tom Cruise in far and away (1992) Tom Cruise is actively terrible at far and away, a bizarre adventure film from Ron Howard that was the second of three wildly divergent collaborations with Cruise's then-wife, Nicole Kidman. His Irish accent is an agitated noise, coming on one minute and gone the next. Pierce Brosnan in taffin (1988) If you haven't seen Brosnan's pre-Bond action movie, taffin (and most likely not), you may have watched a specific 14 seconds of it anyway. In them, the actor orders his love partner to leave his house in a manner that could only be described as Tommy Wiseau-esque. But Irish viewers have even more reason to be confused, as Brosnan is from the Republic of Ireland, but he speaks with an incomprehensible Northern Irish accent throughout. His phrase "So maybe you shouldn't be living here" has become a classic of the cinematographic tradition. "Maybe you shouldn't be living here!": (The genuinely Irish) Pierce Brosnan in 'Taffin' mickey rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Mickey Rooney's portrayal of Japanese landowner Mr. Yunioshi in this classic is now widely accepted as a toxic caricature built on racist stereotypes. With taped-up eyelids and protruding teeth, Rooney completed his ludicrous portrayal of him with an offensive parody of a Japanese accent. Rooney later said that he "wouldn't have done it" if he had known he was going to offend people. Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964) Dick Van Dyke's English accent in Mary Poppins is considered the "worst attempt by an American to be British", according to a 2017 survey by Babel. Even Van Dyke agrees, as after receiving a BAFTA in 2017 he said: "I welcome this opportunity to apologize to the BAFTA members for inflicting on you the most appalling London accent in film history." Read more: 8 Sex Scenes That Made Actors Blush