Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 32 “Headaches, Heroes and Helping Others”

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Speaker 1: 00:01 Insightful podcast by informative hopes, insights into a podcast network.

Speaker 2: 00:27

Speaker 3: 00:27 Come to insights into entertainment, a podcast series, taking a deeper look into entertainment and media, your hosts, Joseph and Michelle, Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture fanatics, or exploring all things from music and movies to television and fans.

Speaker 2: 00:50

Speaker 4: 00:50 Welcome to insights into entertainment. This is episode 32, headaches, heroes, and helping others. I’m your host, Joseph Walen and my talented and insightful cohost, Michelle Whalen. Hi everyone. How are we doing today, dear? Doing well dear in you. I’m doing fantastic. So we’ve got some interesting Disney news, some Disney plus news to talk about today. We have someone who bumped her head at Disney land and took offense to that and then we’ll talk about that. We’ll talk about Robert Downey jr reprising his role as iron man. Once again. Then in our entertainment news, we have a Sony’s chief basically slamming the door on a Spiderman movie with marvel moving forward. Some thoughts from Robert Pattinson on becoming Batman. And we have a special message from Jimmy Kimmel and his efforts to raise money for als research. Then we’ll finish up with our insightful picks of the week. So it looks like we’ve gone ourselves another great podcast this week. Are we ready to get into it? Let’s do it. Alrighty.

Speaker 4: 02:20 Go for Disney detective.

Speaker 6: 02:22 So in our first story, Disney plus obviously is, you know, getting ready to, to launch the middle of November and they seem to still be having a sale for the most part if you sign up for a three year subscription. They had made this known I guess it was right around the time that the d 23 expo was going on. The discount was only supposed to be available until September 2nd. But it looks like if you are a d 23 member already and there are various levels of membership. There’s a general, there’s a golden a platinum. And if you actually log on to, if you are a d 23 member and you log on to your account and you go under offers, it looks like it was still there. And actually as of yesterday on Friday, I actually logged in because we’re general, or I should say I’m a general member now.

Speaker 6: 03:26 I used to have gold member status and I just didn’t renew it, but I still have my general status and it was still there. So you’re general in the Army, right? I’m just a general now, just a lackey. So yeah, so if you, you know, you’re still thinking about it, it’s going to be 33% off for the three years. So it means that you’d be paying $140 and 97 cents plus tax for the three years. And I guess you have to pay it all in one some, I guess it’s not, you’re buying the three year now as opposed to, you know, paying it. So it was like I said, it was supposed to be available just for up until September 2nd. But I guess, you know, they’re still letting it show. Has Disney actually acknowledged the extension or said anything about it?

Speaker 6: 04:17 No they haven’t. It’s just kinda like one of those, oops, it’s still there now. I didn’t click through to see, you know, even though I still saw it, I didn’t try clicking on it to, to actually purchase it. But again, it still showed up under, you know, my town. So if they failed to get the adoption rate that they had hoped for. Right. So they kind of just extended it and oh yeah, like a shocker. Early reports suggested a lot of people, cause they crashed the d 23 site right when people were trying to do it yet. So for them, I mean Disney usually doesn’t make marketing mistakes like this if they did it. If it’s still there, it’s there for a reason. Right, right. So, you know, if you, the regular price would be $209 and 94 cents. So it’s a significant, you know, discount.

Speaker 6: 05:08 But again, who knows what it’s gonna, you know, is it still gonna be around in three years? And that was something that we kinda talked about, but you know, they’re looking at doing, you know, like 400 plus movies, you’re talking 7,000 episodes of various different shows. So you’re definitely gonna have a lot of content on it. What they’re talking about is a very costly venture for something that they don’t know if it’s going to have an uptick at this point. Right. plus you look at what you’re, you’re talking about here, they could be a victim of their own success. If adoption rate of this 33% discount, you know, gets picked up by too much, you know, at this, at that point in time, you’re dumping this money up front for all this content, right? That you don’t know. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 05:58 You’re essentially losing a year’s worth of revenue on your subscription stream with this deal. So, all right, so they’re going to get all the money up front to do the production cost for the first two years, third year rolls around what happened,

Speaker 6: 06:12 Right. Or it’s, you know, all the people that didn’t sign up right away and it’s like, oh, well now I’m interested in signing up. So maybe that’s what they’re kind of hoping is that, okay, we got this money up front. Right. And that, you know, after people start hearing about the buzz of different shows your front, because they’ve got no money. Right, right. They have nothing. They have nothing in the bank money at this point. They used to actually back in the day. Anyway. So what’s our next story? So the next story comes a story from Disneyland at seams. So a woman from Alaska is actually suing the Walt Disney company claiming that she chef suffered, sorry, a serious head injury while exiting space mountain in Disneyland in California. The woman apparently struck her head while she was exiting the ride, which had pulled into a maintenance tunnel because of a malfunction.

Speaker 6: 07:13 She’s actually seeking $3 million in California federal court. She claims that the incident occurred December of 2017 after the rollercoaster had malfunctioned and the car was actually pulled into a dimly lit maintenance tunnel. She claims that an attendant told writers to watch their step, but failed to warn them about the low clearing ceilings. So she reportedly violently struck her head against the concrete ceiling, leaving her feeling dazed and disoriented. And she remained in pain for, you know severe pain even after she left to the park. So of course you went to nearby emergency room to get checked out. And that’s when you know, the diagnosis of a concussion. And you know, in her lawsuit she, you know, later was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and permanent impairment requiring intensive continuing treatment. She and her husband are again report asking for 3 million to cover the medical expenses and the loss earning capacity.

Speaker 6: 08:26 And the the reports she’s being represented by a law firm in Alaska. And Fox News, which is where the story came from, had reached out to Disney and the law firm. And nobody had, you know, responded yet to, to any an exactly how do you slam your head into like getting off of our rock. Like, was it really that the, you know, like did she spend the rest of the day in the park after she did that? She did. Cause she didn’t go to the emergency room until later. Like if you hit your head, they have first aid right there. Why didn’t you go and get checked out then? Why wouldn’t you even, yes.

Speaker 4: 09:12 You know why this, this is just frivolous lawsuit written all over. Absolutely. Absolutely. Got Some schmuck lawyer in Alaska who picked up on this and has decided he’s going to make a name for himself with this. Cause what’s going to happen is Disney is going to settle outside of court.

Speaker 6: 09:27 Right. And they’ll settle for, you know,

Speaker 4: 09:30 They’ll get $1 million, a million and half of them

Speaker 6: 09:32 If that, you know, like what will your medical bills, okay. You know, or hey, now you have to go see our doctors and you know, let’s see what really, right, right. Or we’ll find somebody out, you know, in Juno to

Speaker 4: 09:47 Everyone’s, everyone’s trying to make a buck, like, and granted, like I’m not a Disney fan, so it wouldn’t, it would not hurt me at all to see Disney pay $3 million, nor would it hurt Disney’s bottom line at all to have to pay $3 million. But this is just an example of why our legal system is so screwed up the way it is. The fact that you can sue for this and settle out of court and forced a company who is not liable, you know, I’m sure they did everything they could to make sure that they people were safe on that ride. And like when you get on a ride like space mountain, there’s a certain level of risks that you have to have.

Speaker 6: 10:25 Absolutely. There’s the warning, you know, no pregnancy, you know, you know, women that are pregnant or if you have back injuries or if you have, you know, a heart conditions or you know, anything like that. So, you know, and maybe she has

Speaker 4: 10:41 Would be how many other people hit their head. Right. Okay. And was she unusually taller than the rest of the people that were getting off the right

Speaker 6: 10:50 Or did she have a preexisting condition that she’s failing to tell anybody and kind of used it as, oh, let’s see, you know, how I can, you know, hurt myself so that we can, you know, was it intentional? I’m sure what, you know, but you never know.

Speaker 4: 11:06 You never see him and my philosophy as assume the worst of people in that rarely disappoint. You know? That’s true. That’s true. So anyway, on to bigger and better news here.

Speaker 6: 11:17 So this was, you know, this was a Yay for, for fans of a iron man and obviously Robert Downey jr so it looks like he is going to be reprising Kinda sorta iron man for a marvel spinoff. And it looks like it’s going to be in in this article, it didn’t actually mention what the name of the, the show was. They said it was, you know, going to be a, a Disney plus spinoff, but we’re pretty sure that it’s the, what if because we had reported it, I

Speaker 4: 11:50 Don’t think iron heart is getting the, their own, it’s its own series,

Speaker 6: 11:54 Right? It doesn’t sound like that’s gonna happen. But we had reported a couple of weeks ago that, you know, various characters from the MCU were going to be, you know, voicing their characters in the animated series. So more than likely we’re kind of speculating, but that’s what it’s, you know, what it looks like it’s going to be, and he’s going to be reporters in obviously Tony Stark, but it’s gonna be more of the voiceover capacity of an AI character of himself, kind of like Jarvis. And it’s going to be, as you mentioned in the Iron Heart character storyline of, of that. Now I didn’t know who or what iron heart was obviously, cause I’m not sure

Speaker 4: 12:46 As I am hertz, fairly new to the comics.

Speaker 6: 12:49 Right. It looks like from this article, it actually says that actually only 200, 200, 2015 yeah, I haven’t had any coffee today. And that it was actually created then and actually had some sort of backlash because they felt, you know, people felt that it was an inaccurate portrait of a young black female and that they didn’t have enough black female writers writing the storyline. So this’ll be, you know, kind of interesting to see where, you know, where this goes. It seems that earlier this year the writers, you know, met with Robert Downey Jr and you know, asked if he would, you know, be interested in doing this. And He, you know, he gave them, you know, his approval for it.

Speaker 4: 13:39 So I guess he really is just, he still has some money that didn’t give them all their money. Right,

Speaker 6: 13:43 Right. And it’s like, oh, let’s see where I can come back from the dead

Speaker 4: 13:47 Or how I can come back and milk that cow some more.

Speaker 6: 13:51 So, you know you know, it would be interesting to, to see, you know, that that series definitely sounds, you know, interesting. And, and here’s another little, you know, got your dollar

Speaker 4: 14:04 Well to, to come on in and see it so well. And you know what, he embodies that character. So absolutely. You couldn’t bring someone else back, the voice of the character because it just wouldn’t work. Right. Cause people would know and you’d be like, yeah, that’s a cheap knock off right now. So. Right. Cool. We’re good to have him back. And that’s it for Disney detective onto our regular entertainment news regularly scheduled team.

Speaker 4: 14:35 So tell us about Sony pictures and Spiderman.

Speaker 6: 14:39 So this is kind of a crossover cause it’s, you know, Spiderman being the, you know, is he part of the MCU? Is he not part of the MCU? So it seems like Sony pictures chief basically has, you know, said, you know what, for the moment the door is closed. So fans were hoping that Spiderman would be returning to the marvel cinematic universe. But basically he said no for now, no. That you, you know, so there was a entertainment and technology summit that variety was hosting and the CEO was there and he said you know, kind of cryptically, you know, said that it’s a long life, implying that perhaps in the distant future, maybe the web slinging hero might swing back into the Disney owned company. But for now it doesn’t look like they’re gonna, you know, let Spiderman go. And he basically said, you know, we have no ill will against, you know, marvel and Sony. But they basically failed to reach any sort of agreement on the terms of any upcoming movies. And so basically that means Tom Holland, Spiderman won’t be returning in any of the follow up MC you movies and, you know, so Sony kind of figured, well, you know what, look how well, you know, Spiderman is doing now. We really don’t need, you know, the help from Disney or marvel, you know, we’re kind of, we’re doing okay,

Speaker 4: 16:13 So we’ll start an extent that’s extremely selfish or that, because you’re doing a disservice to the fan.

Speaker 6: 16:19 Oh, absolutely. Because now you ha, you know, you had all these crossovers, you know, and you know obviously the last movie you had all these, you know, different little things thrown in. Now what are you going to do? You’re going to Kinda wipe off. You know,

Speaker 4: 16:39 I blame Disney first and foremost because Disney shouldn’t have engaged in a limited partnership without having something longterm secured and not having something longterm secured. They should not have introduced Spiderman into the phase four stuff as tight

Speaker 6: 16:57 Unless they, unless they knew, hey we have a right, right. No.

Speaker 4: 17:02 And then what happened, you know, based on articles that I had read was that instead of pursuing a cooperative deal with Sony Disney, basically, you know, we’re standing their grounds and wanted to buy back the rights of Spiderman. It was like that was idiotic that they would even go that route. You know, you had a good thing going. They were terrified of sharing the profits on the margins cause it was like a 70 30 profit share to Sony on it. And they were creating, they didn’t want to give up the profits on it. So it’s like shame on you Disney for doing it. The service to the fans for that. You shouldn’t have set the fans expectations up like that without having something long term. You shouldn’t have gotten greedy by wanting the whole pot to yourself. And it’s the fans ultimately who lose here because Marvel’s still going to continue to in money for, for Disney. Right. And Spiderman is going to continue to rake in money for Sony. And ultimately it’s a fans that get screwed in the process.

Speaker 6: 17:56 Yeah. And, and Sony, you know, is doing, you know, very well for themselves in the superhero market. They’re working on a second venom film. And they’re, the first one did so well,

Speaker 4: 18:11 Obviously it was terrible. It’s like, well, I think it’s the second one that like the reboot of the other regrouting the rebooting. Yeah. Well they had the first one, I think that was bad. And then a standalone, they’ve only had one standalone venom. I thought there were two no venom appeared. Oh, that’s right. He appeared in the one for the ram series.

Speaker 6: 18:30 Obviously they’re doing a second one. So they must think,

Speaker 4: 18:35 You know, and that’s what Sony does. I mean, they’ve rebooted Spiderman three times now.

Speaker 6: 18:39 That is true. You know, and that, you know, obviously with the success of Spiderman into the spider verse Sony and you know and Amazon are actually working together because they actually worked on the Amazon series, the boys, which we have yet to start watching. It’s in our queue of things to watch. So it looks like, you know, Sony and Superheroes, they’re, they’re kind of doing okay. They’re not hurting and you know, they’re gonna keep going with, you know, Spiderman, because obviously he’s, he’s a fan favorite, so, you know, they, they basically said Spiderman was fine before the event movies and did better, you know, with the event movies and now they have their own universe to, you know, of characters to, you know, that they haven’t even touched on, you know,

Speaker 4: 19:32 It’s to do with Spiderman. So, you know, they’re not hurting for, yeah. Know their content, plenty of material to work with here, which is why they, Sony had nothing to lose. Right. You know, it was, it was Disney that had everything to lose and they lost everything. Yeah. Yeah. Cause they got greedy over it. So, so tell us about the Batman.

Speaker 6: 19:52 So we’ve been talking about this for, for a couple of months now. You know, it was speculation that you know, the new Batman was going to be a younger version from, you know, the current or more recent ones. And so an article came out in variety where they interviewed Robert Pattinson talking about, you know, becoming Batman and, you know, he, he was saying that, you know, it was mid-May and that was pretty much when all the rumors were coming out. He was on a flight and he’s sitting there googling himself because he hadn’t really even heard anything. And here are all these stories are coming out about him doing it. So he thought it was, you know, kind of funny that, you know, all of this was coming out. He was actually, I’m heading to, to France to the, the Cannes film festival to promote another movie when everybody was asking him, Hey, what about Batman?

Speaker 6: 20:52 And he’s like, what are you even talking about? He hadn’t even interviewed for it. Right. so, you know, the stories were obviously very premature. Like I said, he hadn’t even interviewed. And then of course, you know, there were all the the posts on Twitter saying, you know, you can’t do this. He’s not right for it. And he’s like, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. But obviously now he can, you know, come out and say that now obviously you know, he has been picked to be the next Batman. It’s obviously a much different role for him. You know, he, he obviously started and you know, had a, a small role, well, not a small role in the Harry Potter films. So a lot of people knew him from that. And then obviously twilight, you know, was really where he kind of came to light as a heartthrob and everything.

Speaker 6: 21:52 And then he kind of, you know, did a lot of smaller films, more artsy films, would you say, you know, not blockbuster movies, you know, little things and, and stuff like that. And he, you know, kind of enjoyed doing these, these smaller films. So now with this, it’s going to kind of bring him back into the, you know, the big blockbuster movies that he hasn’t really done in a while. He says, you know, that he’s still Kinda, you know, pinching himself, thinking that, you know, he’s the next in line after Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer and George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Aflac. And you know, he said that growing up in England, he always watched the Tim Burton movies and you know, would wear his Batman costume. Never Thinking Day, you know, let’s be honest, a couple of those names really were not very good. Well, George Clooney theaters were not.

Speaker 6: 22:49 That was, that was the, the up and then, you know, the down. So again, you know, when he was first named as the front runner, like I had mentioned social media, you know, was Kinda like know that there was even a petition to have Warner brothers reconsider saying, you’re going to ruin all my childhood dreams if you have him, you know the to, you know, being picked and stuff. So it was, you know, kind of funny, you know, how, you know, fans of a certain character, you know, just feel so strongly without even seeing, you know, anything, if nothing else, you know, you’re going to be bringing emotion out of the fan. But this character solutely absolutely. So again, we really don’t know much you know about where the film is going to be taking place. They’re actually going to be start starting filming this winter and it’s supposed to be debuting in 20 June of 2021.

Speaker 6: 23:50 Okay. Very cool. And on to Jimmy Kimmel. So Jimmy Kimmel is one of those guys who, you know, he definitely puts his heart out there for, for those. And this was something, a story that came out. So it seems that he announced a this earlier this week, that his late night show on ABC would be raising money for als research to find a cure and to help patients that are diagnosed with this disease. So he posted a video talking about what he was going to be doing and we’re gonna be able to play that for you now. Sure. Now would be good. Now would be good. Soon as I find my cursor here. Where’d the Moscow, there it is. Okay.

Speaker 7: 24:50 I have Jimmy Kimmel and you know me from our show. Jimmy Kimmel live for one of our longtime and most beloved coworkers has been diagnosed with als. So to support him and to support others affected by this terrible disease. Our gang here at Jimmy Kimmel live is raising money for als research and to help patients who have als too. So we ask everyone who comes to the show for donations and they came through in a huge way. Go to Kimmel dot charity network.com to see everything. There’s some really great stuff. We have so many celebrity experiences and so much memorabilia. And I am offering what I believe will be a great experience too. So you and a guest will be my VIP guests at a taping of Jimmy Kimmel live. You will get round trip airfare to la. We’ll pick you up at the airport, we’ll drop you off at the airport. You get a three nights stay in the Hollywood.

Speaker 6: 25:46 Yeah, yeah. So you know, basically there he’s doing it kind of as a go ahead and make a donation or you can, you know, they have different auctions, you know, for, for different memorabilia and stuff. So, you know, he was talking that, you know, one of the prizes is to be a guest on his show. He’ll fly you out to la, you get three nights in a hotel and after the show he’ll even draw a portrait of you. So there was a funny thing at the end of it where he has his, his sidekick from the show laying on the couch in the nude, you know, B, you know, Kinda like, you know, titanic, you know, draw me like your French girls type thing. And then there’s, you know, various things on the website that you can, you know, put in for the auction.

Speaker 6: 26:36 So there’s a chance to, to meet Norman Redis to receive a 20, 20 Harley. So I thought maybe for you, since you wanted motorcycle, we’ll do that. You can bid to see a Steve Martin and Martin shore and their show that’s going around. Then there’s a chance to, you know, have lunch with modern family star ever. Eric Stone Street a one day visit for up to 10 guests for Disneyland concert tickets, you know, various different things. So it’s kind of Nice that all of these, you know, celebrities have donated either their time or, or items, you know, to help raise money for.

Speaker 4: 27:20 You know, it’s nice when you see someone user celebrity sign for something like this. Absolutely. It’s unfortunate that it takes a personal, you know, something that’s that personal to you to spawn, something like that. I mean, Lord knows als has been around for a century now and known and people have been treating it for that time.

Speaker 6: 27:44 And there are so many different people that come out. You know, you had a couple of years ago that the ice bucket challenge, you know, was going around that it was kind of started for, for that. You know, and obviously with this, you know, he has a person on his staff, you know, who was diagnosed. So that kind of sparked

Speaker 4: 28:03 And that’s, you know, that’s kind of what I’m saying is like, it’s unfortunate that it takes someone close to you to be diagnosed with something like this, to really open your eyes to it sometimes. But you know, to take that unfortunate circumstance capitalizing or celebrity and then try to raise awareness, I think that’s a great thing. I think, I think that’s, that’s responsible celebrities.

Speaker 6: 28:27 Absolutely. Absolutely. And you’re doing it for the right reasons. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 28:32 And it’s, and it’s to help everyone affected by it. You’re not just raising money to pay this person’s medical bills. It’s for research for a greater cause. So I think that’s great. So that’s it for entertainment news. That is it for this week. So let us come back and hear of your insightful pick of the week.

Speaker 4: 28:57 You have to turn that back up,

Speaker 6: 29:00 Press all the buttons you want, but if it volumes that up, we can make our own sound.

Speaker 8: 29:07 Woo.

Speaker 4: 29:08 Just say that one for the blooper reel anyway, I yield to you for years.

Speaker 6: 29:13 So this was actually a show that we had in our entertainment news last week that was going to be available and we actually did start watching it and it is carnival row, which is on Amazon prime. There are eight episodes in the first season. We’re on episode, so we’re going into episode six. Yeah. So we’re five in. Basically we’re, you know, we’re not really the binge watching type. We actually like to, you know, take our time. But we’ve been doing, you know, like one per night, just watched the whole thing in one week, we’ll watch, well, no, binge watching is like a whole day of watching, you know, in, in one shot, you know, never getting up to, you know, to leave the couch and, you know, so we take our time because again, we’d go to work and you know, we come home and we do other things.

Speaker 6: 30:06 So it’s like this podcast, the podcast would you watching episodes, right. And we’d be finishing it up this weekend. But anyway, so back to the show. So it’s a very interesting dynamic of the show. So you know, from, from, of course the websites you know, it talks about it’s a growing population of mythical immigrant creatures are struggling to coexist with humans after the creatures. Exotic homelands are invaded by the empires of man. The creatures are forbidden to live love or fly with freedom, but hope lives in the darkness. I’m a human detective. A phylo who is played by Orlando Bloom and a refugee ferry vignette rekindle a dangerous affair. Despite being in an increasingly intolerant society, than yet has a secret that endangers follows world during his most important case, yet a string of gruesome murders that are threatening the uneasy peace of the row.

Speaker 6: 31:17 It’s considered an urban fantasy and new neo new war which it has that dark, you know, steam, punky look to it. It looks like it’s, I guess like turn of the century, quote unquote England, but it’s not England, you know, but it has that dirty, nasty, disgusting look like England. Yeah. You know, and, and it, you know, you, you see the struggle of power, you know, obviously between, you know, these refugees who they really had no choice. If they wanted to live, they had to come here. And you have people who were opera singers and were doctors, you know, in their own lands and, you know, come here and now they’re, you know, peasants and, you know, butchers and, you know, or it’s a classic tale of, of refugee immigration. Yeah. And it, and it definitely speaks a lot to our society today, really. And the way things are, and, and you know, you have the people that are sympathetic you know, and then you have the people that are just very intolerant of, of it.

Speaker 6: 32:36 And, you know, the, there was a scene, you know, that we watched yesterday where this one woman, you know, start speaking and you think, oh, she’s, you know, she’s for the, you know, she’s tolerant. She, you know, she understands because her mother was once considered an immigrant, even though she was human. You know, she came from a different part of the world where she had darker skin and, you know, and, and, you know, she went through problems, but then was finally accepted. And now we have all these, you know, we have the fairies and we have this and that. And you think, oh, okay, she’s going to be tolerant of them. And the turning point is, she’s not, you know, they’re different. They don’t have the same biology as we do, and they don’t have the same blood that we do. And, you know, and, and it puts that twist in that you’re like, Ooh, damn, she’s, she’s me.

Speaker 6: 33:34 I don’t like clearly see a line of the Democrats and the Republicans. Yeah, it’s definitely, yeah, exactly. You can definitely see that, that twist and you know, and there’s all these different subplots and all these different, you know, characters that they’re introducing and you know, they do flashbacks and different things and you know, and we’ve, we’ve enjoyed it. You know, the last couple of episodes of left stuff, you know, at the Django. Oh that was kinda sad. Like, you know, it hasn’t had that happy ending, you know, is very complicated. There’s a lot of plot lines going on. I’m curious to see how they summed them up at the end. Right. Cause we only have three episodes left to this,

Speaker 4: 34:20 Very deep into some of these plot lines either. So it’ll be nice to see where they go with them. The cinematography is, is very well done. You really capture this fantasy world. Even the costuming, the makeup

Speaker 6: 34:36 And the special effects, you know, it like the fairies that are flying. It’s, it’s amazing. And, and the, I guess the minute Atar type characters. And then you have the pucks and you know, very well done, you know, with everything. So very cool. Good pick. Thank you.

Speaker 4: 35:02 So my pick this week is a documentary, but it’s a documentary about a really cheesy film. Awesome. So we’re all familiar with the a fantastic four in the movies that came out with Chris Evans and I was as the tour and all those guys. So before those blockbuster special effects, extravaganzas came out another film came out that was produced by Roger Corman films. Now Roger Corman films are famous for producing ultra low budget movies. So this documentary talks about the entire process and it’s called doomed. The untold story of Roger Corman’s fantastic for doomed explorers. The circumstances surrounding the legendary coke classic Roger Corman film the fantastic four. In 1994, Mr Corman was asked to produce this classic story on a small budget. That budget being $1 million. Wow. The way the film was ultimately shelved prior to distribution, but a VHS copy was mysteriously leaked and the movie became a must have by all we have it by the way, just for the record.

Speaker 4: 36:27 See, now we’re going to have to, you know, watch it sometime and just see how bad it really. Yeah, it’s, it’s pretty bad. Is it as bad as the holiday special? It’s along those lines of the star wars special. We really need to have like some alcohol while we’re watching it. I gotcha. All the fascinating stories around this last film are told through indepth interviews with the casting crew blue ray specials include features of the crew panel and some goofing off stuff and things like that. The film that the documentary itself that I watched goes into the details and sort of explains some of the dark underbellies of the licensing associated with, which is kind of pointing out, given the Sony story we talked about earlier, right. Where this one production company acquired the rights to make a fantastic four movie, but they had to make it or it had to be in production by a certain date or else they’d lose their rights.

Speaker 4: 37:37 Well, this production company happened to get wind that marvel was planning on producing a blockbuster movie, so they basically went out, they invested $1 million, gave it to Roger Corman and said, make this movie. It has to be produced in this timeframe regardless of what the quality was, and they took it seriously. The actors, the cast, the crews, special effects, everything, and they went about it making it a low budget movie. There was never an intent to release the movie. It was basically going to be held as leverage so they could sell the rights back to Sony or marvel, whoever movie where they want it to make their blockbuster. And that’s exactly what happens. They sold it, they made a profit that way, but by the time they got to that point, the film had already been done. The actress had been on the road at conventions, actually promoting this day, promoted it at San Diego Comic Con.

Speaker 4: 38:33 But it was never officially released theaters. They did make a VHS version, but all the film, everything, negatives and everything were confiscated once the, the owner lost the rights to it. Okay. And the one thing that was really freaky, the special effects were, were ultra cheesy. I mean, almost like video game, special effects, but for the thing who is one of the main characters and fantastic for , they had made and articulated a robo articulated face for okay. And it had like 24 points of articulation in the face, so it was very expressional. Okay. But the way they animated that when it spoke was the creepiest thing on screen. It really was. It was like a bad face actor or something. And some of the other stuff that they did in there, like at the end of the movie, Reed Richards and, and oh, I forget what the other characters names, they getting married. Right, right. And they’re driving off in the limo and you see this big wirey arm. It’s supposed to be Mr. Fantastic. Waving behind them and it just looks so cheesy. It’s just, it was terrible. It really was. You know, now we’re going to have to watch it. Yeah, we are. We are. We’re going to happen.

Speaker 6: 39:50 And then I’ll watch the documentary, you know, afterwards to see all the, the little things you know, that went on in it.

Speaker 4: 39:56 But the documentary was cool cause it was an interesting look behind the scenes of movie-making on a low budget. How the wheeling and dealing happening. You had some agents that were in there so it was kind of an entertaining take on the whole thing. But definitely worth watching and streaming on Amazon prime now. I think that was all we had for today. Before we did go, I want to, I want to give you a highlight there. We never turned your ears on by the way. So let’s turn your ears off so everyone can see what your ears, I gotta find my button. There you go. Cause we had those last week. Prop last week and we never ran a job. Right. So

Speaker 6: 40:42 To take advantage of it today. Oh Wow. I can see it in my reflection.

Speaker 4: 40:49 Very cool. There were the 50th anniversary haunted mansion ears. Yes they are. And where’d you get those? I got them from you. Wow. Awesome.

Speaker 6: 40:59 You are an awesome husband. So obviously for those that haven’t caught on, I’m obviously a very not only a Disney fan, but the haunted mansion is probably my all time favorite. And as we’ve talked about many times there’s, you know, it’s celebrating its 50th anniversary and various retail stores are actually carrying limited edition items. So you have a store called box lunch. But they’re also on online. If you don’t have any near you the store hot topic is selling haunted mansion stuff and target actually came out, some of them, some of them. Well I think, I think honestly I think they all got them. I just don’t think we went, we went running around to different targets yesterday. So that that’s why we, we say that I ended up hitting the one your work and got a couple of things.

Speaker 6: 41:53 We ended up hitting one of the ones near our house and they had absolutely nothing. And when we asked people about it, they were like, we don’t know what you’re talking about for a marketing campaign. Yeah. So you know, and, and I’m part of different haunted mansion groups on Facebook and the one person was like, wow, I guess there’s no haunted mansion fans, you know, in this neck of the woods. Cause I basically wiped out like three doors with everything. All that stuff. So funny. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that’s the unfortunate part is for the fans that really, you know, like I don’t want everything that came out. I don’t think you would turn down anything. But I did end up, you know, like originally there were things that I wasn’t going to buy and when I saw him I was like, oh I have to veil yourself for the opportunity. So I did. So there’s really only like one other thing that’s out that I know of that I want, but if I find the others, I guess I’ll, you know, so, yeah, there’s my obsessions. Absolutely. All right. I think that’s it for us for today. Yeah. We’ll be back next week with another great podcast. Alright. Have a good week everyone. Bye.

Show Notes

• Introduction
  • Insights Into Entertainment Episode 32: “Headaches, Heroes and Helping Others” 
  • My talented and insightful co-host Michelle Whalen
• Disney Detective
  • Disney+ is Still on Sale if You Prepay (Must Already Be a D23 Member)
  • https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/disney-is-still-on-sale-if-you-prepay-must-already-be-a-d23-member/
  • http://bit.ly/2lCGePE 
    • Last week Disney announced that Disney+ was 33% off if you prepay for 3 years. This means 3 years of Disney+ will cost you just $140.97 plus tax. The catch was you to be a Disney D23 fan club member to get the offer and it was to end on September 2nd, 2019. Now though it looks like some D23 members may still be able to get this deal.
    • It seems that Disney did stop sending out the offer to new D23 members on September 3rd. Though if you already had the offer sitting in your D23 account but had yet to subscribe Disney+ seems to still be honoring the 33% of Disney+ for 3 years. So if you are a D23 member and had yet to pay for 3 years of Disney+ go check your account to see if the offer is still there.
    • To get this deal all you have to do is go into your D23 account. After you do that under your account you should a section for an “Exclusive Offer” that will let you redeem the 33% off of 3 years of Disney+. If you still see that offer you can still get 33% of Disney+ if you prepay for 3 years. Sadly if you don’t have a free D23 membership you are likely out of luck.
    • Valid only from August 26, 2019 through September 2, 2019 at 11:59 PM PT. Promotional offer available to all D23 General, Gold or Gold Family Members who have an active membership as of 11:59PM PT on September 1, 2019.
    • Valid for US residents with US payment method only. Acceptance of this promotional offer, or use of the promotional offer code, constitutes acceptance of the following terms and conditions. This promotional offer of $46.99 per year, if accepted, entitles the bearer to a one-time discount of $69.00 off the regular price of a three-year subscription to Disney+ ($209.97).
      
      
  • Disneyland guest sues for $3 million after ‘violently’ striking her head exiting ride
  • https://www.foxnews.com/travel/disneyland-guest-sues-3-million-space-mountain-concussion
  • https://fxn.ws/2m5fNCs 
    • A woman from Alaska is suing Walt Disney Co., claiming she suffered a serious head injury while exiting Space Mountain at Disneyland in California.
    • The woman apparently struck her head while exiting the ride, which had pulled into a maintenance tunnel because of a malfunction. She’s reportedly seeking $3 million in California federal court.
    • Sarah Andrews claims that the incident occurred in Dec. 2017 after the roller coaster malfunctioned and the car was pulled into a dimly lit maintenance tunnel, the Orange County Register reports.. She claims that an attendant told riders to watch their step but failed to warn her about the low ceilings.
    • Andrews reportedly “violently struck” her head against the concrete ceiling, leaving her feeling dazed and disoriented. She allegedly remained in severe pain even after she left the park.
    • She eventually went to a nearby emergency room where she was allegedly diagnosed with a concussion. According to her lawsuit, she was later diagnosed with “traumatic brain injury” and “permanent impairment requiring extensive continuing treatment.”
    • Andrews and her husband are reportedly seeking $3 million to cover medical expenses and for lost earning capacity. The Orange County Register reports the pair are being represented by the Choate Law Firm of Juneau, Alaska.
    • Fox News reached out to Disneyland and the Choate Law Firm, but neither immediately responded.
  • Robert Downey Jr. reprising Iron Man role for Marvel spinoff: report
  • https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/robert-downey-jr-iron-man-ironheart-series-disney
  • https://fxn.ws/2k2R15a 
    • Robert Downey Jr. will reportedly reprise his Iron Man role for a new Disney+ spinoff.
    • It’s claimed the Hollywood star will return as Tony Stark after giving his final performance in the “Avengers” franchise earlier this year.
    • According to We Got This Covered, bosses are prepping for a series based on Ironheart, the teenage genius who continues Stark’s legacy in the comic books.
    • It’s believed Downey Jr. will return in a voiceover capacity as his character will be an AI — similar to Paul Bettany’s J.A.R.V.I.S. — who will train RiRi Williams to become a superhero.
    • Ironheart was created by Marvel Comics back in 2015 but faced a backlash for its inaccurate portrayal of a young black female and for a lack of black female writers.
    • Earlier this year, the writer introduced Downey Jr. at a gala where he gave his approval for Ironheart to take over from Ironman in the Marvel universe.

• Entertainment News
  • Sony Pictures Chief on Spider-Man Split: ‘For the Moment the Door is Closed’
  • https://variety.com/2019/film/news/spiderman-mcu-sony-pictures-chief-1203324907/
  • http://bit.ly/2lJknG4 
    • Fans holding out hope that Spider-Man might be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be disappointed to hear that “for the moment the door is closed,” according to Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra.
    • Speaking at Variety‘s Entertainment & Technology summit, Vinciquerra cryptically added that “it’s a long life,” implying that perhaps in the distant future the web-slinging hero might swing his way back to the Disney-owned company.
    • Vinciquerra insisted that there is “no ill will” between Sony and Marvel, after the two failed to reach an agreement on financing terms for upcoming Spider-Man movies, effectively removing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man from the Marvel fold in terms of both future standalone and team-up features. However, he also did acknowledge the fan backlash to the news, saying that it has been “an interesting couple of weeks” for the studio.
    • Vinciquerra pointed to Marvel boss Kevin Feige being “stretched incredibly thin” with new additions coming to the MCU as one of the reasons behind the breakdown in talks.
    • “We had a great run with (Feige) on Spider-Man movies,” the Sony chief said. “We tried to see if there’s a way to work it out….the Marvel people are terrific people, we have great respect for them, but on the other hand we have some pretty terrific people of our own. Kevin didn’t do all the work.”
    • Now that one of its biggest properties is back solely in its hands, Vinciquerra said that Sony plans to launch its own universe using the vast array of Spider-Man characters.
    • The studio is in production on a second “Venom” film, a picture based on the character Morbius and “five or six” TV series set in the Spider-Man world. The Sony boss bullishly expressed his belief that the character will do “just fine” outside of the MCU, pointing to the success of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and the Sony-Amazon series “The Boys” as evidence that Sony is fully capable of hitting the mark on the superhero front.
    • “Spider-Man was fine before the event movies, did better with the event movies, and now that we have our own universe, he will play off the other characters as well,” Vinciquerra said. “I think we’re pretty capable of doing what we have to do here.”
    • Many have expressed the hope that Spider-Man might still remain in the MCU, with Marvel stalwart Jon Favreau commenting during his keynote conversation at the Ent & Tech summit that the split is “not for lack of trying.”
    • “I’ve been talking to everybody about it…I’m cautiously optimistic,” Favreau said of the Spidey situation. “I think it’s a long way away and I think the collaboration has been really strong up to this point so I’m hopeful that there’s away for us all to play together going forward.”
    • Putting the web-slinger aside, Vinciquerra firmly stated that Sony Studios is “not for sale,” despite regular press coverage to the contrary. The Sony boss also discussed the studio’s decision to stay out of the streaming wars thus far in terms of the general market, a decision which he said allows Sony to be “more transparent” with its creators by not becoming “beholden to any platform.”
    • “With the evolution of the business into the streaming world, both on the theatrical and television side, the opportunities are terrific, but the organizations that were in place at the time were not suited or designed to take advantage of those opportunities,” he said. “We were able to transition in a relatively short period of time to be representative of what the business looks like, and that’s what I enjoy doing, that’s what’s fun about the job.”
    • As for where in the streaming landscape “Seinfeld,” one of Sony’s most beloved properties, will end up, Vinciquerra was suitably tight-lipped. But when pressed on the time frame in which a deal will be reached, he cryptically stated that it will be struck “before it snows in New York.”
  • Robert Pattinson on Becoming Batman and Why ‘The Lighthouse’ Is Just Weird Enough
  • https://variety.com/2019/film/features/robert-pattinson-batman-the-lighthouse-1203319866/
  • http://bit.ly/2knDDcg 
    • Robert Pattinson couldn’t stop Googling himself. In mid-May, the 33-year-old actor found himself obsessively refreshing his phone on a flight from Los Angeles to the south of France. Pattinson was headed to the Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of his new movie, “The Lighthouse,” just days before he was set to start shooting the next Christopher Nolan film, “Tenet.” But someone had tipped off the press about another top-secret project, one the entire world was now reporting on: Pattinson had been cast as the next Batman.
    • The stories were premature — Pattinson hadn’t even auditioned yet — and he was horrified that all the chatter would spook Warner Bros. executives into not hiring him. “When that thing leaked, I was f—ing furious,” Pattinson recalls on a recent rainy afternoon in London. “Everyone was so upset. Everyone was panicking from my team. I sort of thought that had blown up the whole thing.”
    • As he scoured the internet for any clues that he’d been cut from the studio’s wish list, the man next to him leaned over to say hello. “I was sitting next to Christopher McQuarrie,” Pattinson says. “I’d never met him before. Oh, God! He’d seen me Googling myself for the past hour!” Pattinson tried to explain to the director behind the latest “Mission: Impossible” films what had happened. “No worries,” McQuarrie said, nodding. “I’d probably be doing the same thing.”
    • Robert Pattinson never stopped being an internet phenomenon after playing Edward Cullen in the five-part “Twilight” series, which grossed an extraordinary $3.3 billion worldwide and turned him into the most lusted-after mortal since Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic.” But after the franchise ended in 2012, Pattinson took the opposite path from mass blockbusters, working instead with indie auteurs such as David Cronenberg (“Maps to the Stars” and “Cosmopolis”), James Gray (“The Lost City of Z”), the Safdie brothers (“Good Time”), Claire Denis (“High Life”) and David Michôd (“The Rover” and “The King”). Pattinson relished playing character parts, not needing to worry about hype and audience expectations.
    • “Rob definitely has a darker side and is comfortable working in that space,” says Robert Eggers, the director of A24’s “The Lighthouse,” which screens this week at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival and opens in theaters on Oct. 18. “And he has good taste in cinema. I think a lot of directors he likes are doing stuff that isn’t run-of-the-mill Hollywood.”
    • But in the past few months, Pattinson’s career has taken another turn as he’s begun gravitating back toward the stormy clouds of movie stardom. He spent most of his summer in Estonia making the Nolan film, which arrives in theaters in July 2020. And of course, despite his concerns, he was cast in “The Batman,” the Warner Bros. tentpole from director Matt Reeves that will start shooting this winter and debuts in June 2021.
    • This is Pattinson’s first interview since being formally anointed as the Dark Knight. And he still seems to be pinching himself about being next in line to put on the latex boots after Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck. Growing up in England, he watched the Tim Burton “Batman” movies. “When I was a kid, it was the only outfit that I had,” Pattinson says. But he won’t reveal where he used to wear his Batman costume. “If I actually said it in an interview, I would definitely have a lot of abuse afterwards,” he says with an outburst of nervous laughter. “If I successfully play the character, I can say it at the end.”
    • When Pattinson was named as the front-runner for the role, the backlash on social media was intense — a petition even surfaced on Change.org asking WB to reconsider. “This will ruin my childhood and my dreams,” one commenter posted. But Pattinson is surprisingly upbeat about the mixed reaction. “To be honest, it was less vitriolic than I was expecting,” he says. And he’s not deterred by the doubters: “It’s much more fun when you’re an underdog. There’s no expectation of you.”
  • ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Raising Money for ALS Research After Staffer Diagnosed
  • https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/jimmy-kimmel-live-raising-money-for-als-research-after-staffer-diagnosed/ar-AAGRx8u
  • http://bit.ly/2m0ueri 
    • Jimmy Kimmel announced that his ABC late night show is raising money for ALS research, to find a cure and help patients diagnosed with the progressive neurodegenerative disease.
    • “One of our longtime and most beloved co-workers has been diagnosed with ALS,” Kimmel said in a video announcing the fundraising drive. “To support him and to support others affected by this terrible disease, our gang here at Jimmy Kimmel Live! is raising money for ALS research and to help patients who have ALS.”
    • He explained that they regularly ask audience members to make donations and shared the website where anyone can contribute.
    • Kimmel added that he is offering one winner and a guest to attend a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which includes free round-trip flights and three nights in a hotel. After the taping, Kimmel will draw a portrait of the winner.
    • “I happen to be working on a portrait right now of one of my favorite subjects,” Kimmel said before it was revealed that he was drawing a nude portrait of his sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez. Kimmel then told the potential winner, “You don’t have to be nude, but that’s the way Guillermo wanted it.”
    • The website offers the opportunity to win celebrity experiences and memorabilia. In addition to meeting Kimmel, those who donate could win an opportunity to meet Norman Reedus and receive a 2020 Harley-Davidson Low Rider S motorcycle. People can also bid to win tickets to see Steve Martin and Martin Short’s Now You See Them, Soon You Won’t Tour, two ESPY VIP show tickets, a lunch with Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet, a one-day visit for up to 10 guests at Disneyland, tickets to a Tegan and Sara concert, tickets to an upcoming Logic show with signed memorabilia and more.
    • Some of the memorabilia to bid on includes a Terry Bradshaw-signed football, a Mike Tyson-signed boxing glove, a Shaquille O’Neal autographed basketball, a Tom Brady-signed football and more.
• Insightful Picks
  • Michelle
    • Carnival Row – Amazon Prime
    • A growing population of mythological immigrant creatures struggles to coexist with humans after the creatures’ exotic homelands are invaded by the empires of man. The creatures are forbidden to live, love or fly with freedom, but hope lives in darkness. Human detective Rycroft “Philo” Philostrate and a refugee faerie, Vignette Stonemoss, rekindle a dangerous affair despite being in an increasingly intolerant society. Vignette has a secret that endangers Philo’s world during his most important case yet — a string of gruesome murders threatening the uneasy peace of the Row.
    • 8 Episodes – Genres: Urban fantasy, Neo-noir, Political fiction
  • Joe
    • Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Cormans Fantastic Four
    • DOOMED! explores the circumstances surrounding the legendary cult classic Roger Corman film, THE FANTASTIC FOUR. In 1994, Mr. Corman was asked to produce this classic story on a small budget. The film was ultimately shelved prior to distribution, but a VHS copy was mysteriously leaked and the movie became a “must have” by all. All of the fascinating stories around this ‘lost’ film are told through in-depth interviews with the cast and crew. Blu-ray Special Features: -Cast Crew Panel (21 min) – Recorded live at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, CA on August 13th, 2015. Join the cast/crew in a panel discussion and Q &A. -Unused Roger Corman footage (7 min) – Unused interview footage that didn’t make it in the finished film. -Goofing Off (2 min) – Joseph Culp and Jay Underwood play around behind the scenes. -Spotlight on the Director (8 min.) – Veteran journalist, G. Michael Dobbs interviews director, Marty Langford about the making of DOOMED! -Joseph Culp on Dr. Doom (4 min) – Joseph Culp re-dons Doom’s mask and gets back into character. Featuring Jackson Culp, Joseph’s son. -Revisiting the Shooting Locations (2 min) – Mark Sikes revisits shooting locations of THE FANTASTIC FOUR. -Complete Sean Howe Interview (21 min) – Unused footage from the interview with Marvel expert, Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. -Trailer (2 min) – Viewed almost 500,000 times on YouTube!