Julius

That’s good to hear, they’ve been knocking it out of the park on the game side of things this generation, so they deserve every success that they get with the PS4. At this rate, it could reach 100 million units sold by the end of next year. Sony has the games to put it over the line, and while I still doubt that the PS5 will release next year, I have to wonder how much they’ll take numbers like these into consideration.

I haven’t seen those rumours, and I’m not sure how I would feel about Grant portraying Thrawn. At face value, he’s an excellent actor and would likely do a great job as Thrawn, but, if Thrawn is to make an appearance, it would only make sense in my mind if Lars Mikkelsen (yes, Mads’ brother) portrayed him. Not only did he voice him in Rebels (and he did an excellent job capturing how everyone would think he would speak), I feel like you’d have to do less work to get him looking like the canon version of Thrawn than you would have to do with Grant. I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that Thrawn could make an appearance in IX since the ST was announced, which was somewhat strengthened by his return to canon with Rebels and some novels, as well as he way that the Aftermath trilogy wraps up (it also leads me to very, very strongly believe that Jakku could play into the ending in a big way). But at the moment, I don’t feel like he’d be the best villain to bring in at this time, seeing as this is a conclusion to it all (supposedly). However, I’d love to see a flashback of Thrawn and some Imperials of old unearthing/finding Snoke. I really want to see Ewan and Hayden back as Force ghosts of Obi-Wan and Anakin, because now is the time to do so. Thrawn or not, I do feel like another villain - equal or greater than Ben in some way - is needed to keep us guessing about whether or not Ben will be redeemed, because it’s going to be a rather anticlimactic final film in the event that Ben is redeemed, because at the moment we could only really see that as a possibility if he becomes confused by his current path, or Hux and/or the Knights of Ren stage a coup d’etat. I don’t think that he can be redeemed if he loses to Rey, unless, of course, there’s a greater force than him around that Rey needs his help to destroy. As the final film in the Saga, I think we need something large and climactic, and I just don’t think that Thrawn could offer that. My biggest fear for IX is the way that the story’s played out so far. Rey has something of a flat arc to allow Ben’s arc to flourish (which I’m happy with), but it’s just going to be strange going into the final film with only a vague idea of what’s going to happen, at least when compared to VI (Luke must confront Vader and the Emperor) and III (Anakin is going to become Vader). My concern is only compounded by the timeline: everything has happened in such a short time up until now, that jumping ahead even a year (it’s much more likely to be a number of years) means that things in the galaxy will be extremely different to how they were at the end of VIII, and I can’t help but worry that they’re going to return to the prequel way of handling this: with an unhealthy amount exposition. And yeah, people really did want that. They wanted Meryl Streep. From my experience and what I saw, it was actually pretty evenly split for wanting Carrie to return through CGI, be recast, or be left out (in the event that there was no footage to use of her). And likewise. In fact, I took a huge step back from the Star Wars and film communities as a whole because of it, and to be hones, I did feel oversaturated with it all. I think that’s why I didn’t get around to watching Solo in theatres (got the blu-ray pre-ordered, at least) and why I only just got around to picking up the TLJ blu-ray the other day. Everyone will probablt go quiet about TLJ (a least for a little while) when the first trailer for IX drops. I don’t think that it will affect IX’s box office performance at all, because it’ll just be everyone going “Well, if this is the last one, I guess I should go see it”.

Yeah, I don’t know why I didn’t just mention that it was 3 metres. Oh well, now I have I guess

Hori putting out some GC-inspired controllers with branding of Nintendo’s three tentpole franchises before Ultimate lands. These actually look pretty rad. They will plug into your Switch via USB. PDP also have some on the way, which, like the Hori controllers, are also inspired by Nintendo’s three tentpole franchises. What’s nice about the PDP controllers is that they let you play with the C-stick, or swap it out for a full-size stick. These come with a 10 foot (3 metre) long USB cable.

The cast are publicly asking for him to be reinstated as the director of Volume 3. He was fired by The Walt Disney Company, not Disney Pictures or Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige is probably pissed, and rightly so. I’m happy to see him being supported by his cast, especially Bautista, who supported him from the very start of this whole controversy. Anyways, see you all in August when James Gunn returns to direct GOTG Vol. 3.

Can’t wait to see us under Sarri this season. I’m wary, because it took Guardiola a season to adapt his style of play to the Premier League, and I feel like it could take a few more weeks or months for players to fully adopt their new style of play, which is understandable. I do still feel that there are a couple of positions which we could strengthen, but otherwise, this looks like a promising start under Sarri. Though, I’m not sure about your assessment when it comes to Conte’s Chelsea. We were like that in the second season under him, sure, but that’s mostly because we chose to not support his style of play in our transfer business; we were ferocious in our first season under him, but we had too few players to keep up that intensity, in my opinion.

Carrie’s brother, Todd Fisher, has given his thoughts on Leia returning in IX. If I recall correctly, there were rumours about unused which was shot for TFA (where we know the footage used here will come from) of Leia asking those on Hosnian Prime for help, or something like that. It’ll be interesting to see how it’s used, and perhaps more importantly, if the footage is used in the film’s present day, or in a potential flashback. It’ll be a bit strange if we only see Leia as a hologram, but I have faith in J.J. when it comes to this. Elsewhere, we have confirmation that the new animated show, Star Wars Resistance, will be an anime-inspired CGI show, with more news on the way very soon.

Some news on the film has just come in from StarWars.com. Information which is new/particularly interesting is in bold. Well, so much for principal photography starting in Early 2018, and then in June, and then in July. Nice to see you can stick to a schedule, LFL “...the final instalment of the Skywalker Saga” has me as confused and as excited as one could be about that statement. Is this just a chance to cash-in on the “end” of the Saga, in the same way that ROTS marketing milked that it completed it, before we see X, XI and XII in a decade, or is there real meaning to these words? Because if so, then I’m excited, because I do think that the Skywalker Saga needs a definitive end, and everything will have come full circle. Not that Skywalkers can’t turn up down the line, but it’ll be nice to have the focus taken off them for the sake of the franchise’s future, just to allow it to grow naturally, and also because the Skywalker family has had a very direct effect on the course that the entire galaxy for over 60 years in-universe. It also raises some interesting questions: does this mean we could see Ben/Kylo die? Or see him lose his powers, so that even if he were to have children, the Skywalker line wouldn’t be filled with some of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy? Grant is a First Order Officer (or maybe even a former Imperial?) if I’ve ever seen one. And I suppose all we’re going to hear for the next 16 months is that Ackie is playing Lando’s daughter...but I think that would actually make some sense. Good that they’ve finally come out and officially stated that Billy Dee will be returning as Lando, because he’s been known to be a bit loose-lipped in recent years, and I’m sure we would have otherwise had it confirmed by him in the coming weeks had they not done this. Glad to see that Mark Hamill is returning as Luke; hopefully J.J. can give the more vocal fans, who weren’t exactly happy with how Luke was handled in TLJ, something to find more enjoyable and familiar this time around. Extremely happy that they have old footage of Carrie to use this time around, and that Billie gave her blessing to use it. I was always against the idea of seeing her return through CG, and I was taken aback by how many people were onboard for a recast. Hopefully this footage is used to the best of J.J.’s and the crew’s abilities to ensure that Carrie’s and Leia’s legacies live on after the end of the Skywalker Saga. And I am over the moon that John Williams is signed on to return as composer next year. I pray for him to have the best of health in the coming years, but especially for the next 18 months; he’s already 86, and will be nearing 88 by the time that he finishes composing the score, which will likely a week or two prior to the film’s release. This was always likely to be his final Star Wars score since this trilogy was announced after Disney’s buyout of Lucasfilm, and some of his very best work was done when the Skywalker Saga was completed with Revenge of the Sith 13 years ago, so I’m expecting one final jubilant Star Wars masterpiece from him this time around. We’re a while out, but I’m getting a little bit excited. It was different for TLJ — everything was up and running a couple of months after TFA’s release, amidst the post-release enjoyment of the film, and there’s been a noticeable gap this time around between the release of VIII and the announcement of principal photography starting next week. Won’t be at all surprised if they have a short teaser ready for late November/early December to attach to Mary Poppins Returns. UPDATE: Word went out from Variety not too long after the cast was officially announced that Keri Russell’s deal had just been signed, which had been doing the rounds in the rumour mill for he last few weeks. Well, everything (their press release and YouTube video) just got officially updated: Keri Russell will be in the film too. I imagine that we’re going to hear a lot of “Keri Russell is Rey’s mother” rumours and speculation in the coming months.

I guess this is the place to talk Project Scarlet/Scarlett (seen both names floating about, but surely they’re referencing the colour, and not the spelling of the name)? Some interesting potential scoops came out on Thurott the other day.

Had no idea we had an Adventure Time thread. Well, MEGA BUMP. The show just put out its Minecraft crossover episode the other day (which was actually pretty neat), but, much more importantly, the date of the finale - a 44 minute long episode called Come Along With Me - was made known a couple of days ago as 3rd September 2018. That’s right...there’s only one more episode (albeit one the length of four episodes) left! I figure this post should give plenty of time to those that want to catch up before the finale, and it also gives us plenty of time to talk about the show itself in the lead up to the finale. Has anyone else been keeping up with the show? I started watching it when it originally aired during my early years of high school, and somehow I’ve managed to stay on top of it through the years, so I here I am, having already left college, waiting for the finale. It’s been there for me as something familiar for me to return to during the good and bad times of the last few years, and I might even try to binge the entire series before the finale airs...maybe I’d be curious to hear which episodes are people’s favourites and to just read about everyone’s experience with the show in general, because I haven’t talked to many people about my own thoughts and experiences of/with the show, nor have I really heard/read anyone else’s. I’d also love to talk speculatively about the finale anyways, I’ll spoiler tag the finale’s official synopsis, as I’m not sure where exactly people are at with the show. Below is the teaser and trailer for the finale, as well as a short clip from the finale itself.

It was the player. He was supposed to get on the plane for Rome, and for all intents and purposes was going to put pen to paper, but when word came through that Barça was interested, he changed his mind. In addition, Bordeaux froze the Roma deal as soon as the Barça offer came in, which was higher than Roma’s offer at €41 million. The Romans tried to match it, but it was too late. Still, Roma have made some excellent signings in Javier Pastore, Justin Kluivert et al so far, and they’ll probably add a few more names in the coming weeks; some names being floated around are Thauvin and Bailey, but they’ll likely cost more. Great signing for Barça; he “only” scored 12 goals and got 8 assists in Ligue 1 last season, but he was Bordeaux’s chief creator and goal scorer. In fact, the assists number would be way higher (something like 87 chances created) if not for the sloppy nature of his team (at least when trying to put the ball into the back of the net). And he scores some absolute screamers. Elsewhere in Europe, it seems that Tuchel has tapped up Boateng for a move from Bayern to PSG, which would be an excellent signing for their floundering back line. Apparently they’ve been in talks over the last month. Also, we’re seeing the first reports of Tuchel’s infamous strict nature over in Paris. PSG players are banned from eating candy and drinking soft drinks, and Tuchel has visited a number of restaurants across Paris to control the nutrition in his players’ diets. He’s also checking nightclubs, and has told them to call him when they see a PSG player. Going to be a fun season

A Bonucci-Higuain swap deal between Milan and Juve looks to be on the cards over in Italy. Can’t imagine Higuain being happy with that...

Dunkeh

@Happenstance @Ashley sure, in the comics, but let’s not forget how off the wall they can get at times. They’re great for adapting bits and pieces from, but there are a lot of things in comics — be it DC, Marvel, or any other brand — that just wouldn’t work as effectively in film. Let’s not forget for a moment that the vast majority of avid movie-goers aren’t also avid comic readers. But what I was actually getting at is the fact that there is obviously the MCU around, and the very fact that DC attempted to build something akin to that with their films is why it could be confusing. If there are two Joker movies which aren’t at all connected, then surely we could see two different versions of Batman, too? And then, surely, you’re going to get kids wondering why one is Ben Affleck and killing pretty much everyone around him, whilst the other Batman is [insert name here], and is more like his old comic embodiment in that he is against killing. Plus, if one is a one-off but received extremely well, but it’s the other one that isn’t received very well which gets a sequel and is integrated into the larger DC movie universe, then yes, I can imagine there being confusion and a bit of a stir. DC can hardly string together a couple of films at the moment which are received well by both critics and the audience, @Happenstance, so I think that they should be focusing on nailing one Joker before attempting anything like that. They still lack a solid foundation. @Ashley but that’s my point: the reason that the MCU is so effective is because we know that it’s all connected, and so it’s easy to kick back and enjoy the ride. We know what we’re in for: it is all connected. Whereas what DC seems to be doing resembles the confusing situation between the MCU and Sony regarding Venom — except that DC owns the rights to their characters, so that shouldn’t be the case! — and don’t need to muddy the waters. If DC made it clear from the start that their plan was to make standalone films, then I’m sure fans would be on board, because we’d know what’s going on (I actually think that it would have been better if there films at least started as being standalone). But they didn’t, and they decided to go with the connected movie universe in an attempt to cash-in like Marvel has with the MCU; at this point, to have standalone films outside of their ongoing connected universe seems pretty pointless from a financial perspective, and it’s a bit like having the standalone Star Wars Story films not be part of the “official” canon of Star Wars.

Normally they’d come out during the presentation/have a separate press release to push ‘Worlds of DC’ in the event that it was their brand name for the universe, so I don’t think it’s official, just a title they want to throw associate with their SDCC presentation. It’s just more of a mess than it was before is all I feel sorry for the kids who are going to have to do some mental gymnastics to attempt to understand why there are two separate Joker films, and even more sorry for the parents who are going to have to attempt to explain the convoluted mess over at WB to their kids. Or maybe this is WB not having enough faith in themselves, so they’re making and releasing two films, with the best received being added to their cinematic universe?

Well, it was the DCEU — DC Extended Universe — in the first place anyway, so we’re a bit behind the ‘Worlds of DC’ doesn’t seem to be official (yet?), but then again, anything’s better than DCEU, so I’ll take it. As for not all of the films being connected...have I already mentioned how much of a trainwreck DC’s connected universe is?

It’s crazy, isn’t it? I was just reading the other day that to support your team by watching every match on your TV/device of choice in the Premier League is going to cost ~£100/month. That’s a crazy amount to be spending for the vast majority of football fans, and that’s just the Premier League. Right now, I’m thinking about jumping ship and watching Serie A on a much more regular basis (MOTD for Prem highlights). It was already getting to be a much stronger league, with the pack chasing Juve getting closer year on year, but now that Ronaldo’s moved to Juve, it’s going to be an interesting one. It’ll likely end up being cheaper than watching Chelsea week in and week out (other than the occasional match on Sky One, I believe?), which just seems a shame. It’s good that they’re taking some steps with making away tickets a more viable option, but still, that seems at face value to be more for their own gain than for that of the fans. I hope that they get on top of things sooner rather than later, but I remain nervous for the time being.

I feel like it’s an understated attempt to get Madrid off our backs. I doubt that we’ll end up selling both Willian and Hazard in the same window, because that would leave us severely undermanned on the wings, so I do think that Barça going after Willian (who would be much cheaper than Hazard), while serving to strengthen their team in that position, could also be an attempt to ensure that we don’t sell Hazard to Madrid. As for the obscene amounts going for everyone in the Prem these days, I think it’s only unsustainable to spend in such a way for those likely to be relegated and not bounce straight back (i.e. don’t spend all of your parachute money, recently relegated teams). For the top 12 or so who are confident of staying up, now is the time to spend, as there’s a lot of money in the TV rights for the Prem going around, and that’s only increasing every single time that the rights go to auction. The problem, of course, is that we’re seeing this effect football fans the most: an increase in value of TV rights bids will see a further increase in the money spent by clubs on players, which means that tickets/TV packages will only go up in price for fans, etc. It’s just becoming a bit of a mess, to be honest.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves trailers are typically put together by third parties, meaning that those working on the team still have plenty of time to mess/have messed this up in post-, and a good film a good (I actually only thought they were half decent, but to each their own) trailer does not make. I still have a better feeling about Shazam! than I do Aquaman, and neither film has a particularly strong footing with their release dates. There’s still the obstacle of a complete lack of planning going on behind the scenes when compared to other cinematic/extended universes, and until we see two or three films have a solid performance both at the box office and with critics, I doubt that those preconceptions will change.

He did, against Tranmere Rovers. And he also messed up in the warm-up ahead of your game against Chester, which was also last week. Just seen that the Court of Arbitration for Sports has just overturned Milan’s ban from European competition for the upcoming season, so they will still be taking part in the Europa League.

Gotcha, sorry for misunderstanding. I’d love him at Chelsea if Courtois does move on, and I do think that a move is required for him to gain the status that his goalkeeping ability would warrant. I really think it’s possible that we see the most expensive goalkeeper transfer record broken again by the end of the transfer window, given all of the activity in that department. I could see Oblak costing more than Alisson, and if Roma are serious about chasing Donnarumma (I could see that going either way, seeing as Milan are banned from continental competitions for this upcoming season) I could see him easily costing more than Alisson too. I just hope that we actually effectively replace Courtois if he does leave. We have a great knack for selling players on and failing to replace them with a player of at least similar quality/traits, which goes right under the knack of keeping players past their sell-by date. On the other hand, I love to watch Hazard play and want him to stay at Chelsea, and whilst I’m worried about him leaving, I’m much more worried about the potential mess we’re going to make in the transfer market in trying to replace him. Just read that Pavard could be on his way to Bayern. What a world of difference some good shifts in the World Cup makes.

The console itself looks superb...but that controller looks daft. I had the same thoughts about that Darth Vader PS4 from a few years back: great console, not-so-great-looking controller. But anyways...JUST HURRY UP AND BE SEPTEMBER ALREADY.