
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Isn't Done With the Gorn Yet
In the episode itself, the Enterprise crew stop Captain Batel from Gorn infection, prevent their invasion of the Federation, and rescue their crew members captured by the Gorn at the end of last season. You'd think, after they were all sent back into hibernation, they'd served their purpose, but that's not the case. Co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman plainly told TrekMovie, 'You will see more of the Gorn' before Strange New Worlds ends its five-season run.
'They're not gone, but they're not the primary adversary for season three,' Goldsman continued. When asked about linking the show up with the original Star Trek canon, he explained the writers weren't attempting to connect the 'Hegemony' duology with 'Arena,' the Original Series episode where the Gorn first debuted. Or rather, that wasn't the plan 'yet,' as he noted, adding the team tries to connect the two shows 'whenever possible.'
If and when Strange New Worlds gets around to bringing back the Gorn, Goldsman said they want to do it in a way that 'could make 'Arena' feel brand new by the time we get there.' The seeds, of course, are already being planted: attentive viewers probably noted the planet Cestus showed up on the map in Pike's office as part of an outline about the Gorn hegemony. To that, co-showrunner Henry Alonso Meyers simply said the production crew 'don't do accidents.'
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
David Ellison is coming to Paramount with Silicon Valley cash. Can he save a classic studio?
As a deep-pocketed producer, David Ellison helped breathe new life into Paramount franchises including 'Mission: Impossible,' 'Star Trek' and 'Top Gun.' But can the high-flying son of a billionaire make a full-fledged media company airworthy again? Can he use Silicon Valley money and movie business know-how to restore the legacy of one of the entertainment industry's original studios, following a deal clinched through an act of political appeasement? Those are the questions Hollywood talent, studio rivals and insiders will be asking as Ellison takes the controls of the new Paramount, after regulators finally approved the long-awaited $8-billion merger with his Santa Monica production company Skydance Media. The deal — two years in the making, and approved by the FCC only after a $16-million settlement with Trump and promises to mindwipe any trace of DEI from the company — is expected to close Aug. 7. After that, Ellison, backed in large part by his father, Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison, will bring in his own team to face the daunting challenges. Chris McCarthy, the architect of Paramount's recent streaming strategy, is out. Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon head Brian Robbins is also expected to exit while CBS chief George Cheeks is staying. The incoming management team includes former NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell, who is currently a heavyweight at Ellison's bidding partner RedBird Capital. Skydance Chief Creative Officer Dana Goldberg will run the film studio, and former Netflix executive Cindy Holland will play a major role at the new company. Also joining is Sony Pictures movie executive Josh Greenstein. This may be a different team from the one that labored under outgoing controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, but it'll be contending with most of the same problems. Paramount is dogged by issues buffeting all legacy media companies, including the decline of traditional TV ratings, the post-COVID-19 realignment of the theatrical box office and the escalating costs of sports rights, as my colleague Stephen Battaglio and I reported last week. Those difficulties were exacerbated at Paramount by chronic underinvestment and years of shambolic leadership, as corporate governance experts have long pointed out. Ellison has direct experience with movies, having produced many of them, including some of Paramount's biggest hits (as well as some notable flops). He's less steeped in running TV channels and streaming services, which have urgent needs. The scion is also coming in to make good on a promise to investors: to find $2 billion in cost cutting, which will mean layoffs and disruption. Paramount+ has been growing, thanks in part to the NFL, CBS shows and a run of original hits including 'Landman,' '1923' and 'Tulsa King.' But the service has lost money for years, and the app is clunky. (It's expected to reach full-year U.S. profitability in 2025.) McCarthy spent big bucks on talent, including Taylor Sheridan and the creators of 'South Park,' enough to make Matt Stone and Trey Parker billionaires, according to Forbes. Analysts say the service will need substantial investment in content and technology to make it competitive while also partnering with other companies to increase its reach through discounted bundles and other initiatives. The new owners will have to decide what to do with the cable channel business, which includes such eroding brands as MTV, BET and Comedy Central. Many observers tend to assume Ellison will eventually spin those off, following the lead of NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. In a sadly comical reminder of what can happen with a merger gone wrong, David Zaslav's Warner Bros. 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A year ago, Ellison noted a partnership between Skydance Animation and Oracle to build a so-called studio in the cloud. What technology can't do is pick the movies people want to see, and that's where the new leadership group will have to prove themselves. But the biggest hurdle will be overcoming the stain covering the deal itself after the concessions required to get it over the finish line. Paramount paid a substantial sum to make peace with President Trump, who had sued the company over CBS News' '60 Minutes' interview with his 2024 election rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The case was frivolous, 1st Amendment experts said. But the Redstone family and the Ellisons were desperate to get the deal done. As a result, the new company is starting off on a crooked foundation, as one Hollywood insider put it to me. Stephen Colbert, speaking on 'The Late Show,' called Paramount's settlement a 'big fat bribe.' Days later, he learned that his show would be ending in May. Even assuming the company told the truth in saying that the cancellation was a purely financial decision (i.e., the show was too expensive and it was losing money), the optics were bad. Comedians responded the way comedians do. The 'South Park' team, having secured a $1.5 billion deal to bring the long-running animated series to Paramount+, opened their 27th season with, effectively, a pair of middle fingers raised to Trump and their parent company. The show depicted a flapping-headed cartoon Trump in bed with Satan, similar to its past portrayal of Saddam Hussein, and ended with an AI-generated PSA showing the president wandering the desert and stripping naked, revealing tiny, talking genitalia. The Trump settlement cast a pall over whatever plans Ellison has. CBS News lost key figures in part due to Paramount's push to reach a peace accord with the president (Tanya Simon being named to run '60 Minutes' is seen as a relief). But whatever you say about the corporate behind-the-scenes machinations that took place to make the deal happen, you can't say the artists have lost their spine. In a return to form for Walt Disney Co.'s Marvel Studios, 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' opened with a robust $118 million in the U.S. and Canada and $218 million globally, according to studio estimates, slightly outperforming prerelease projections. This comes after middling results and poor reviews for 'Captain America: Brave New World' and tepid sales (but better reviews) for 'Thunderbolts*.' Last summer's 'Deadpool & Wolverine' was a $1.34-billion hit. Like Deadpool and Wolverine, the Fantastic Four — known as Marvel's first family — came to Disney through the company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox entertainment assets. Fox made three 'Fantastic Four' movies, all bad. 'First Steps' earned mostly positive reviews from critics and fans (88% on Rotten Tomatoes; 'A-' from CinemaScore). The $218-million global opening weekend was similar to that of James Gunn's DC reboot 'Superman,' released earlier this month. That film just crossed the $500 million box office milestone, with a strong $289 million domestically and a less-impressive $213 million overseas. Theaters have been on a winning streak this summer. So far this year, ticket sales are up 12% from 2024, according to Comscore. But the rest of the season looks thin. Next weekend features Paramount's 'The Naked Gun,' Universal's animated 'Bad Guys 2' and Neon's Sundance horror breakout 'Together,' starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie. One marker of a great artist is the number and diversity of musicians who take inspiration from their work. And Ozzy Osbourne, the Black Sabbath frontman who died last week, had plenty of admirers who covered his songs. The Times' Mikael Wood already rounded up the Prince of Darkness' 10 essential tracks. 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Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Guillermo del Toro's ‘Frankenstein' Looks Absolutely Stunning
When Guillermo del Toro finally got the chance to make his dream project, an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you just knew it was going to be beautiful. Del Toro's films are known for a lot of things, and sumptuous production design and costumes are right near the top of the list. So, it almost goes without saying that a group of new images from the film are stunning, but these almost go beyond that. First revealed in an article by Vanity Fair and then released by Netflix, 10 new images from Frankenstein show characters, scenes, and interpretations that were previously kept secret. Here they are, all at once, and we can discuss a few of them in more detail below. Clearly, we could write tomes on the beauty of each of these images. The costumes, the sets, the locations. Each one is also framed in an interesting way that helps tell a story. But, we won't do that. What we will do, though, is fill in a few questions about who's who in these photos. Del Toro himself is just in that first image, along with Oscar Isaac as Dr. Victor Frankenstein. We see Victor in his lab in a later photo, too. The photo on the steps is of Victor as a child with his mother, and a little later, you see Victor again (played at a younger age by Christian Convery) with his father, played by Charles Dance. The photo of someone holding a photo is, indeed, Elordi's monster, who we see covered in a cloak further down. Mia Goth plays Elizabeth, Victor's soon-to-be sister-in-law, who both he and the monster become infatuated with. The second photo of Goth is with her fiancé, Victor's brother William Frankenstein, played by Felix Kammerer. That leaves the man in the top hat, an arms dealer played by Christoph Waltz, and that mysterious photo among the flowers. That's Sofia Galasso and David Bradley as a little girl and a blind man who are in the original book. What does it all mean? We'll find out in November when Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein comes to Netflix. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sydney Sweeney Is Facing A Backlash Over Her New American Eagle Campaign. Here's What People Are Saying
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