“Adult website” xHamster is offering to produce a third season of Sense8.
Sense8, which was recently cancelled on Netflix, never managed to create a climate of hype or mass media attention the way other Netflix series have, despite having similar production costs. It similarly failed to garner the same amount of critical acclaim or awards nominations other shows like Stranger Things or The Crown or House of Cards. This led to the streaming service deciding to cut its losses and cancel the show entirely, until a successful fan campaign resulted in Netflix granting the series a two hour series finale.
Now, however, xHamster has offered to step in and resurrect Sense8. This would be quite a change from the site’s normal content, which is exclusively pornographic in nature. In an open letter to Lana and Lilly Wachowski, xHamster wrote: “We recently read that you’re working on a third season of Sense8 despite the fact that Netflix has no plan to renew the series. We know it’s unconventional, but we want to bring it back – on xHamster. We’re not talking about a parody, or something less than, but an actual revival of the series. Ever since we read about the cancellation, we’ve been wondering if there was something we could do. While we’re happy that Netflix is picking up the series for a conclusion, before you wrap up the story, we wanted you to consider another option – letting xHamster produce the series.”
As the site has plainly stated above, this does not appear to be a joke. They acknowledge that they have the means to create the series with an even larger budget than before, and acknowledges that there may even have been ulterior motives to Sense8’s cancellation: “We know that a series about polyamorous perversity is a hard sell for a mainstream network like Netflix. We have no such limitations, and also understand implicitly the interconnectedness of sexualities across boundaries… xHamster has a long history of fighting for the rights of sexual speech, and non-normative sexuality.”
The plea they make is both well-reasoned and impassioned, which admittedly is a little surprising considering the site’s history. However, years ago it was strange when Netflix itself began producing original content like House of Cards and eventually Sense8, so perhaps now it’s xHamster’s turn to shine.
What do you think of this strange news? Is it so crazy it just might work, or is it destined to ultimately be ignored by the Wachowski’s?
Preacher Feature is a weekly analysis of the AMC show Preacher based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. In this column, we will give a breakdown of the events from the previous night’s show, including how they relate to the comics, and speculate as to what’s going on and what might be coming up. This is to say that there will be spoilers, both actual and potential. If you have not yet watched the episode in question or are watching the show without reading the comics and don’t want to have any foreknowledge of what might happen to Jesse and company, then you would do well to stop reading this now.
As “Puzzle Piece” starts, tensions are running high. Jesse’s search for God is not yielding answers and Tulip is clearly still haunted by her near-demise. After an argument, Jesse uses Genesis to command Tulip to sleep.
A team of Grail operatives, equipped with night-vision and with earphones to keep them from hearing Jesse’s commands, attacks the apartment. Cassidy falls on them in the kitchen and occupies most of the team. One breaks off and shoots Denis in his bed, then is beaten up by Jesse who, after removing the agent’s headphones, orders him to kill his friends. The agent reluctantly does so. Before Jesse can question him, he is attacked by Denis, whom we now see has been turned into a vampire by his father, Cassidy.
Private Dining
At a date in a fancy restaurant opened exclusively for his use, Herr Starr confesses that although he is a part of the Grail, perhaps the most powerful organization in the world, he has been feeling disenchanted. Something is missing. His date relates a story of seemingly having it all, but of a missing puzzle piece in her life. Starr confronts Featherstone and Hoover on their failure to eliminate
Starr confronts Featherstone and Hoover on their failure to eliminate Custer and is about to execute them when his gun jams. Showing complete loyalty to the Grail, even unto death, Featherstone fixes the gun and hands it back to Starr, but by this time he has changed his mind about killing them. He orders them to have “Brad” kill Custer and also to procure some prostitutes for a rape fantasy he has in mind.
When Tulip wakes up from her Genesis-induced sleep, she finds a pile of dead Grail agents. Tulip and Jesse have a tense conversation about him using Genesis on her and whether she’s ready to handle the next inevitable attack from the Grail. Tulip says she needs a gun and Jesse evidently disagrees, so she ends up borrowing one from the Grail’s Featherstone, who is still pretending to be their neighbor. Tulip shoots a suspicious, but not Grail-affiliated cleaner. Remember Brad from earlier? It turns out it’s actually B.R.A.D., short for Battle-Ready Remote-Operated Aerial Drone. Basically, the Grail is using a smart bomb to take out Jesse and company.
Speaking of company, the prostitutes hired for Herr Starr show up to his office, but are considerably less female than he had expected. In a scene both uncomfortable and humorous, the three men sodomize Starr while he’s forced face-down on a copy of the file on Jesse Custer. Starr has an epiphany regarding missing puzzle pieces (sodomy is what’s missing from his sexual life and Custer is what’s missing from his plans for world domination) and decides to let Jesse live. Too late to stop the drone completely, it’s is redirected to Harry Connick Jr’s house, making him at least the second celebrity the show has “killed off”, after Tom Cruise in the pilot.
Another Uncomfortable Confrontation
The episode ends with Herr Starr approaching Jesse in a bar and suggesting that he may be able to help Jesse find God.
Easter Eggs/Connections to the Comics
In the comics, the man who shoots Jesse’s father is Jody, a killer devoted to Jesse’s grandmother, Marie. Presumably, it’s Jody in the flashback, though we see only his forearm and not his trademark ponytail.
The whiskey Jesse and Starr drink is called Ratwater and has a silhouette of The Saint of Killers as its logo.
Tulip steps on a loose tile in the bathroom, where Jesse hid weapons belonging to the Saint of Killers.
Questions/Theories
With four episodes left in the season, will Jesse confront Marie, Jody, and T.C.? It seems likely, with all the hints being dropped so far.
What impact will Jesse using Genesis on Tulip have on their relationship? She’s made clear just how much she dislikes him using it at all, and no doubt sees him using it on her as a violation. Will his “I didn’t know what else to do” reasoning satisfy her?
Herr Starr obviously has plans with Jesse. In the comics, he wants to replace the Grail’s descendant of Christ with Jesse Custer in order to take over the world. Also, I can’t help but notice the similarities between Starr’s offer to Jesse and Hitler’s offer to Eugene. My guess is the writers will tie these together near the end of the season.
Walla Walla, WA, will be celebrating the life of Adam West this fall. The actor’s hometown will honor his legacy on September 19th, West’s birthday. Adam West unfortunately passed away on June 9th this year. Born William West Anderson, West lived in Walla Walla before moving to pursue television in Hawaii.
Many people know Adam West for his role as Batman in the 1960s television show. He also played Mayor Adam West on Family Guy, and had cameos on geeky comedies like Big Bang Theory and Powerless. West recently added his voice to the upcoming animated film Batman vs. Two-Face, along with former Robin actor Burt Ward.
The day of celebrations will feature several tributes to the late actor. Walla Walla will host a showing of the documentary Starring Adam West, and host a Q&A with artist/animator Ruben Procopio. The town will also light the Bat Signal in the evening. Additionally, many local businesses will display a bat sticker, which indicates their involvement in celebrating West’s work.
“Adam West is beloved in Walla Walla like few others, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that he was Walla Walla’s favorite son,” said Ron Williams, executive director of Visit Walla Walla. “So it is only natural for the entire community to honor his life together. And in a way that befits the moniker, ‘The town so nice they named it twice,’ Walla Walla is inviting his fans from near and far to come join us in the celebration.”
All net proceeds from Adam West Day will be donated to Camp Rainbow. Camp Rainbow is for children who are either cancer survivors or are undergoing treatment for blood-related cancer diseases. West was a supporter of the camp.
To the surprise of probably nobody, the next film in the extended Star Wars Universe will be an Obi-Wan Kenobi spinoff.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news today, adding that noted sci-fi/action/adventure filmmaker Stephen Daldry of Billy Elliott, The Hours, and The Reader fame will take over directing duties.
As for Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, there is no news whether or not Ewan McGregor will reprise his role from the prequels. Mostly because there is no indication as to when this story will take place. It could be Obi-Wan’s early days becoming a Jedi, which could open the door for more Qui-Gon Jinn. Somebody call Liam Neeson.
Maybe this could take place between Episode III and IV, after he maims Anakin and goes into hiding, but that is the same space occupied by Rogue One. Not that they’re the same movie, but… ya know… let’s spread this whole shared universe thing out a bit, shall we?
Before Obi-Wan Kenobi gets his moment in the sun, don’t forget we have Ron Howard’s Han Solo movie coming next summer. Get mentally prepared for that one, which could go one way or another for sure.
Winter has come on television, but the book version in A Song of Ice and Fire is another story.
Author George R.R. Martin now says The Winds of Winter is coming soon, according to reports.
The 68 year old writer reveals the sixth book could come out in 2018. According to The Guardian, he calls the various rumours “equally false and moronic.”
With regard to the sixth book, Martin did offer an update on how it is progressing. He’s working away at it- albeit slowly. “Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters,” he says. “But there’s also a lot still left to write. I am months away still.”
“I don’t know which story is more absurd,” Martin writes. “The one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages”.
Keep in mind, Martin has been saying the release is coming for years now. The last book, A Dance with Dragons, came out in 2011. This would be the same year Game of Thrones’ first season would make its debut on television.
At this rate, the chances are excellent that The Winds of Winter will see publication after Game of Thrones is long over. Ditto A Dream of Spring.
Martin reveals he is not done with A Song of Ice and Fire, because he has Fire and Blood in the works. This will be a two-part volume about Westeros’ early history, the Targaryens, and the rise of Robert Baratheon. Think of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Silmarillion– only much larger in size.
“it’s likely that we will get the first volume of Fire and Blood out in late 2018 or early 2019,” he says. “The second volume, which will carry the history from Aegon III up to Robert’s Rebellion, is largely unwritten.”
ABC has ordered a live-action adaptation of the classic cartoon The Jetsons, according to EW.
The network has ordered a pilot order. The new series is from writer Gary Janetti, Robert Zemeckis is getting an executive producer credit.
No release date or casting was announced. This is a breaking news story, check back for updates.
DC Comics announced THE JETSONS comic book yesterday, a new six-issue mini-series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Pier Brito. The first issue debuts November 1. The cover is featured above.
Are you excited to see ‘The Jetsons’ on the small screen again? Comment below.
You would figure that your family should at the very least have your back, but those rules go out the window in Hollywood.
The ‘Will Ben Affleck Play Batman?’ story is old, and not based on fact – but when Casey Affleck is at Fenway Park, the whole world stops to listen to his inside information on his older brother.
“I thought he was an okay Batman. No, he was great. He was great. He was a hero, so he had something to channel and work with there. But he’s not going to do that movie[The Batman], I don’t think. Sorry to say. … Is that breaking news? Because I was just kind of making that up, I don’t know,” said Casey Affleck on the Dale & Holley With Keefe radio show Tuesday.
The sound bite is at the 6:02 mark of the video. You decide if Casey is coming from a place of fact or fiction.
Now the Affleck / Batman shitstorm has gotten steam again, and representatives from Casey and Ben have stepped in.
“He was having fun with the folks at the Red Sox game — where he threw out the first pitch in support of the Jimmy Fund — and not speaking from a place of firsthand knowledge,” said a representative for Casey Affleck told BuzzFeed.
“He’ll continue to be Batman as long as the studio will have him,” said a representative for Ben Affleck told BuzzFeed.
Warner Bros. had no comment.
You wonder what the conversation was like between Ben and Casey. Our only suggestion is to get all the drama out now before ‘Justice League’ hits and pray that it is a decent film. Ben will walk away from the project if ‘Justice League’ fails because he is a fan of comics and the shitstorm drama is just not worth pay. This has been one of the weirdest storylines in Hollywood where the fans like Affleck as Batman, but the media won’t get off his back and critics overly bash his films. Affleck has done nothing wrong and just shows up to do his job.
What do you think about Affleck’s comments? Comment below.
DC Extended Universe Release Schedule:
‘Justice League’ – 11/17/17
Untitled DC Film – 7/27/18
‘Aquaman’ – 12/21/18
‘Shazam’ – 4/5/19
Untitled DC Film – 6/14/19
Untitled DC Film – 11/1/19
‘Wonder Woman 2’ – 12/13/19
Untitled DC Film – 2/14/20
‘Cyborg’ – 4/3/20
Untitled DC Film – 6/5/20
‘Green Lantern Corps’ – 7/24/20
About ‘Justice League’: Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
‘Justice League’ is directed by Zack Snyder and stars; Ben Affleck (Batman), Henry Cavill (Superman), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Ezra Miller (The Flash), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Ray Fisher (Cyborg), Ciarán Hinds (Steppenwolf), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Martha Kent), Jeremy Irons (Alfred Pennyworth), J.K. Simmons (Commissioner Gordon), Amber Heard (Mera), Kiersey Clemons (Iris West) and Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor).
Darren Aronofsky’s mother! is somehow only four weeks away, and the filmmaker is out there giving us hella trailers and sneak peeks and discussing the project to help build anticipation.
Recently, Aronofsky spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the screenplay for mother! and how it’s most closely related to, unsurprisingly, Black Swan. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
“I was always jealous of singer-songwriters who can pop out a song in a couple of days or a few hours,” Aronofsky says. “I had this idea, and I felt it rise up in my head. I took a long weekend and got into this fever dream and just pumped it out. [Laughs] We’ll see what the results are. It’s been an interesting way to approach it — trying to capture a single emotion and trying to tell that two hour story out of that emotion.”
A screenplay for a major motion picture being completed over a weekend is crazy to consider. But Darren Aronofsky, like the subjects of his films, apparently knows a thing or two about obsessiveness.
Speaking of obsession, Aronofsky compares mother! to an obvious work in his catalogue. “It is closer to Black Swan in spirit than anything I have done in a while,” he tells EW. Makes perfect sense, although it makes me wonder what the Jennifer Lawrence character might be addicted to. It’s a staple in Aronofsky’s work, and while the “what’s real and what’s not” element is obvious in these wild ass trailers, a specific obsession is not as clear.
We can all find out when mother! opens September 15.
Although David Tennant’s Jessica Jones season one character died, it looks like he’ll be brought back somehow. A Twitter user that goes by dxvid616spotted the actor on set:
Given that Marvel’s Netflix shows are typically grounded, I doubt they’d actually bring the character back to life; that said, however, I think Kilgrave will continue to control their minds somehow.
Jessica Jones season two is supposed to hit the streaming service in 2018. Until then, see the character in The Defenders.
“Marvel’s The Defenders” follows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. A quartet of singular heroes with one common goal – to save New York City. This is the story of four solitary figures, burdened with their own personal challenges, who realize they just might be stronger when teamed together.
AfterShock announced on Tuesday; creator Tim Seeley would be launching a new series BRILLIANT TRASH with artist Priscilla Petraites.
About Brilliant Trash: In the days to come, a super powered teenage girl wipes the heavily disputed Old City of Jerusalem from the face of the globe. Now, in American dystopia after the “Lady Last Word Incident,” a click-bait headline writing “journalist” holds the key to a med-tech conspiracy that could turn people into gods for the price of days of their lives. But in a world where news is tailored to every viewpoint, will anyone believe her?
We caught up with Seeley, and he stated the first arc is six issues and sets up an unlimited series, with multiple arcs plotted out exploring the consequences of the first arc.
One aspect of the book that stood out was the timeliness of the series with descriptive terms like ‘click-bait headline writing journalist.’ Seeley mentioned he has been working on this series for several years, and the character Kennedy is essential to the series.
“Kennedy represents the two paths of modern journalism…the content driven kind which adheres to a strict code, and the kind that exists to generate fast and easy revenue. Journalism has lost a lot of the trust it once had, largely due to partisan politics and 24-hour cable news…but also because of the ‘necessity’ of running total crap puff celebrity-news,” said Seeley.
One of the amazing aspects of the comic book medium is how the world around us influences creators’ work, directly and indirectly. With the current political climate, it will be interesting to look back 20 years from now and analyze this era for similar narratives and tones. You should bookmark Brilliant Trash now.
Talk to your local comic book store to put Brilliant Trash on your pull-list as the first issue hits on November 15.
Does this additional information get you more excited for Brilliant Trash? Comment below.
