Negromancer News Bits and Bites from October 1st to 10th, 2026 - UPDATE #10

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

You can support Leroy via Paypal or on Patreon:

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links to join Prime Video, or to shop at my MOVIES PAGE, and BUY something(s).

TREATS: From AnotherCookie?:  There is a new online cookie retailer, "AnotherCookie?" The cookies are delicious.

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NEWS:

STAR TREK - From Deadline:  "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" Season 2 will debut in March 2027.  Bill Nighy and Rosemarie DeWitt will be guest stars in the second season.

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Blumhouse has released the first trailer for the new film in "The Exorcist" franchise, "The Exorcist: Martyrs."  The film is from writer-director Mike Flanagan, the film stars Scarlett Johansson and is due March 12, 2027.

TELEVISION - From TheGrio:  Black actress Victoria Rowell has been revisiting the mistreat she says she experienced while performing on the long-running CBS daytime soap opera, "The Young and the Restless."

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Andre Holland (2016's "Moonlight") is joining stars Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in "Miami Vice '85." His role is currently secret.

BUSINESS - From Deadline:  It's official. Paramount has merged with Warner Bros. Discovery, both under the umbrella of the beast known as Skydance.

BOX OFFICE - From Deadline:  The winner of the 10/2 to 10/4/2026 weekend box office is Amazon MGM Studios' "Verity" with an estimated take of 32.6 million dollars.

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Oscar-winner, Aaron Sorkin, says that it never occurred to him that Jessie Eisenberg, the star of his film, "The Social Network" (2010), would not want to return for the sequel, "The Social Reckoning."  Oscar-nominee and Emmy-winner Jeremy Strong is replacing Eisenberg as "Facebook" CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the new film, which due in theaters Oct. 9th, 2026.

MOVIES - From THR:  Hot off her turn in "One Battle After Another," actress Chase Infiniti will star in the horror film, "Portrait of God."  Dylan Clark will direct from a script he co-wrote with Joe Russo.  Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele are producing.

MOVIES - From THR:  Edi Gathegi (2025's "Superman") is joining stars Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in "Miami Vice '85." He will reportedly play a "small-time crook with big-time ambitions."

AMAZON - From Deadline:  After Amazon gave its "Prime Video" series, "Reacher" an early Season 6 renewal just after the release of Season 4, it has as given the "Reacher" spinoff, "Neagley," an early Season 2 renewal.

NETFLIX - From WorldofReel:  Director Zack Snyder says "Rebel Moon Part 1" and "Rebel Moon Part 2" need to get more popular before their is a "Rebel Moon 3."

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Negromancer News Bits and Bites from May 1st to 9th, 2026 - UPDATE #10

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

You can support Leroy via Paypal or on Patreon:

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like this, MOVIES PAGE, and BUY something(s).

TREATS: From AnotherCookie?:  There is a new online cookie retailer, "AnotherCookie?" The cookies are delicious.

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NEWS:

TELEVISION - From Deadline:  NBC‘s "pilot season" is over. Four of the network’s eight pilots are going to series.  They are the dramas, "The Rockford Files," starring David Boreanaz, and "Line of Fire," starring Peter Krause.  Also going to series are the comedies "Sunset P.I." (single-camera), starring Jake Johnson, and "Newlyweds" (multi-camera), starring Téa Leoni and Tim Daly.  All four come from NBC sibling studio, Universal Television. The four that did not make it are "Key Witness," "What the Dead Know," "Puzzled," and "Jill & Ginger."

BUSINESS - From Variety:  Oscar-nominated actor Mark Ruffalo says that many actors are against the Paramount-Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merger, but don't want to make their objections public because of the fear of being blacklisted.

AMAZON - From Deadline:  The hot rumor is that Amazon Prime will reboot NBC's former reality TV series, "The Apprentice" (2004-17), which was hosted by Donald Trump for the first 14 of its 15 seasons.  The reboot would have (wait for it) Donald Trump, Jr. as the host.

BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro:  The winner of the 5/1 to 5/3/2026 weekend box office is 20th Century Studios' "The Devil Wears Prada 2" with an estimated take of 77 million dollars.

SAG - From Deadline:  The actors' unions, SAG-AFTRA, have reached a tentative four-year deal with the Hollywood studios to avoid an actors strike.

MOVIES - From WorldofReel:  After the difficulties of the two-part "Mission: Impossible" film franchise finale, Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are taking a break from each other. So McQuarrie won't be involved with "Top Gun 3"... reportedly.

DOCUMENTARY - From Variety:  Five hours of never-before-heard Princess Diana recordings will be the basis of a new documentary series, entitled "Diana: The Unheard Truth."  It is set to launch August 31, 2027, the 30th anniversary of her murder.

MUSIC - From THR:  Writer Leena Tailor of "The Hollywood Reporter" tells us "How the Backstreet Boys Helped Breathe New Life Into “Dying” Vegas with Multimillion-Dollar Sphere Residency"

OBITS:

From CNN:   American businessman, media mogul, television producer, and philanthropist, Ted Turner, has died at the 87, Wednesday, April 6, 2026.  In June 1980, he launched "Cable News Network" (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel.  He also launched WTBS (or "TBS"), the first national "superstation."  Turner would go on to create such cable networks as "TNT," Turner Classic Movies" (TCM), and "Cartoon Network."  During his ownership of the "Atlanta Braves" Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, the team won the 1995 World Series.  These are just a few of his accomplishments.

From THR:  American film and television actor and professional football player, Beau Starr, has died at the age of 81, Friday, April 24, 2026.  Starr may be best known for playing "Sheriff Ben Meeker" in "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988) and "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989).  His other notable film appearances includes roles in films such as "Goodfellas" (1980), "Hoodlum" (1997), and "Cinderella Man" (2005).  He was a main character in the Canadian crime comedy-drama series, "Due South" (1994-1999).  Starr also appeared in numerous TV series and movies, including "Hill Street Blues," "The A-Team," "Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter" (1991), "Murder, She Wrote," and "Cagney & Lacey: True Convictions" (1996), to name a few.  As a pro football player, Starr spent three years on the NFL's New York Jets taxi squad, and he played for two seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL).

From Deadline:  American actress and boxing referee, Gwen Farrell, has died at the age of 93, Thursday, April 30, 2026.  Farrell played recurring nurse roles in 26 episodes of the former CBS sitcom, "M*A*S*H" (1972-83), over the course of the series' 11-year run, including in the series finale in 1983.  In 1979, Farrell became the first female licensed boxing referee.  On June  5, 1988, she became the first woman to officiate a world title fight - the "junior-middleweight" bout between Pedro Ortega and Luis “Yory Boy” Campas in Tijuana, Mexico.  In 1993, she worked on "ESPN Top Rank Boxing."  Farrell was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the California Boxing Hall of Fame.

Skydance Media Forms "Skydance Animation Madrid"

Skydance Media Acquires Animation Unit of Madrid-Based Ilion Studios

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Skydance Media, the diversified global media company founded by David Ellison in 2010, announced it has acquired the animation unit of Madrid-based Ilion Studios, a world leader in state-of-the-art animation production, to form Skydance Animation Madrid. This strategic acquisition combines the creative capital of Skydance with Ilion’s best-in-class talent, ensuring Skydance Animation’s full oversight of all production aspects guaranteeing quality control throughout the life cycle of every project.

    “This is a phenomenal growth opportunity for our team in Spain and we’re proud to be an integral part of Skydance’s exciting future.”

With a combined workforce of almost 500 employees across two continents, Skydance Animation now has the expanded creative capability, scale and leverage to deliver on its goal of becoming an industry-leading producer of high-end animated films and television series for audiences around the world.

Led by animation visionary John Lasseter and industry veteran Holly Edwards, Skydance Animation has rapidly grown to support a robust development and expanded production slate. Since its inception, Skydance Animation’s roster of creatives has grown to include an array of award-winning talent, including Vicky Jenson, director of the first ever Academy Award-winner for Best Animated Feature, Shrek; Peggy Holmes; Nathan Greno; Kiel Murray; Lauren Hynek; Elizabeth Martin and Tony Award-nominee and Writers Guild of America West’s Animation Writers Caucus lifetime achievement honoree Linda Woolverton.

“The world is going through an unprecedented and uncertain time. Today’s acquisition marks the culmination of many months of work to build one studio across two continents, with the goal of creating the highest-quality animation, led by best-in-class talent from around the world,” said David Ellison, chief executive officer of Skydance Media. “The addition of Skydance Animation Madrid to our portfolio of businesses underlines my passion and commitment to bringing iconic animated stories and characters to life from some of the most talented artists and voices in the industry.”

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Skydance Animation and to further collaborate with Skydance founder David Ellison and elite talent like John Lasseter and Holly Edwards,” said Ignacio Pérez Dolset, founder, president and chief creative officer of Ilion. “This is a phenomenal growth opportunity for our team in Spain and we’re proud to be an integral part of Skydance’s exciting future.”

Skydance Animation’s upcoming feature slate includes:

    Luck
        Directed by Peggy Holmes (The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning) and written by Kiel Murray (Cars, Cars 3) and Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger (the Kung Fu Panda series).
        When the unluckiest girl alive stumbles upon the never-before-seen world of good and bad luck, she must join together with magical creatures to uncover a force more powerful than even luck itself.

    Spellbound (working title)
        Directed by Vicky Jenson (Shrek, Shark Tale) and written by Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin (Mulan [2020]) and Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King).
        A musical fantasy set in a world of magic where a young girl sets out to break the spell that has split her kingdom in two.

    Pookoo (working title/currently in development)
        Written and directed by Nathan Greno (Tangled) and produced by Jennifer Magee-Cook (The Princess and the Frog).

In addition, Skydance Animation has a slate of soon-to-be-announced high-end television series in various stages of development.

Ilion Animation Studios creates state-of-the-art computer animated feature films of the highest level, combining cutting-edge technology with top artistic quality. Ilion’s animation unit has become a model studio on a global basis, capable of attracting talented individuals who create best-in-class animation production.

Latham & Watkins LLP (Los Angeles and Madrid) acted as legal adviser to Skydance Media and Loyra Abogados (Madrid) provided counsel to Ilion in this transaction.

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Image/Shadowline Comics Announces "Faster Than Light" in Development for TV

FASTER THAN LIGHT WILL BRIGHTEN SKYDANCE TV

The hit Image/Shadowline Comics series greenlit for development

Image/Shadowline Comics is pleased to announce that the hit sci-fi series FASTER THAN LIGHT by Brian Haberlin will be developed for television by Skydance Entertainment.

The FASTER THAN LIGHT series sets itself apart by pairing with an augmented reality app created by Haberlin’s Anomaly Productions, allowing readers to experience the story in 3D.

Tomorrow we discover the key to faster than light travel and our world will never be the same. In FASTER THAN LIGHT Captain William Forest and those under his storied command are in a race against time, and he’s one of the few on board who knows it. A lethal first contact and a planet-eating lifeform are just the tip of the celestial iceberg of Discovery’s quest: Save Earth and all her people from the mysterious forces coming to destroy her. Features Anomaly’s free cutting-edge Augmented Reality app, which makes it look like interactive holograms are coming out of the book.

FASTER THAN LIGHT, VOL. 1 (ISBN: 978-1632156846) is available now for $9.99. It can be ordered by retailers from Diamond Book Distributors with Diamond code JAN160643. It can be ordered now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound.

FASTER THAN LIGHT #6 (Diamond Code: MAR160531) hits stores on May 11. The Final Order Cutoff deadline for retailers is Monday, April 18, 2016.

FASTER THAN LIGHT #7 (Diamond Code: APR160757) hits stores on June 8. The Final Order Cutoff deadline for retailers is Monday, May 16, 2016.


ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

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Review: Aerial Combat Scenes Give "Flyboys" Wings

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 56 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Flyboys (2006)
Running time: 139 minutes (2 hours, 19 minutes)
Rating: MPAA – PG-13 for war action violence and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Tony Bill
WRITER: Phil Sears & Blake T. Evans and David S. Ward; from a story by Evans
PRODUCERS: Dean Devlin and Marc Frydman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Henry Braham
EDITORS: Chris Blunden and Ron Rosen

WAR/ACTION/DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring: James Franco, Martin Henderson, Jean Reno, Jennifer Decker, David Ellison, Tyler Labine, Abdul Salis, Philip Winchester, and Augustin Legrand

Flyboys is the epic World War I drama from Oscar-winner Tony Bill (which he won for producing The Sting) that tells the true story of the Lafayette Escadrille. Before the United States’ official entry into the war (1917), the Allied powers of England, France, and Italy were losing to the German military juggernaut. Many young Americans volunteered to fight for the French; some served in the infantry and others in the Ambulance Corps. The Lafayette Escadrille were the young men who wanted to be pilots. Flyboys is based upon this true story, and the film’s characters are based directly upon real men or are composites of the historical figures.

The story focuses on bankrupt farm boy, Blaine Rawlings (James Franco), who joins the Escadrille and finds himself chafing under the discipline of learning to be a pilot. Briggs Lowry (Tyler Labine) is bullied by his father into joining. Black American Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) is an American expatriate boxing in France when he decides to serve France as a thank you for being more racially tolerant than his birth country.

Under the guidance of the weary French Captain Thenault (Jean Reno) and the leadership of American veteran, Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), these young men take to the sky to face the formidable German flying armada. They fly newly invented and mechanically imperfect aircraft, but the men of the Escadrille find themselves having the kind of adventure they never imagined. Rawlings also finds time to romance Lucienne (Jennifer Decker), a young Frenchwoman who lives in a nearby town.

In this movie, the drama is simple TV movie quality melodrama, and not the kind one might get from a well-written and directed television movie. The character moments often seem like filler, and director Tony Bills just rushes the characters through scenes of intimacy and bonding. That’s why half the time the romance between Rawlings and Lucienne seems forced, and the scenes between Rawlings and Capt. Thenault are sadly thin, lacking the power relationships between soldiers in war movies generally have. Even camaraderie between the members of the Escadrille is underdeveloped, which is sad because there are so many scenes that only hint at how good this subplot of the movie could be (although there is a great moment between Lowry and Skinner about what their fathers did for a living).

Over a stirring score by Trevor Rabin, the cool and terrific aerial combat scenes make (and save) this movie. Dogfights, duels, and even a kind of jousting in the sky: they rouse you from the slumber the rest of this movie induces. It’s obvious that computers were used to create these scenes, but Tony Bill uses these scenes to bring out the humanity of his characters. It is in the sky that Bill allows the actors to develop the characters and give us reason to invest in them. Flyboys may not make serious movie lovers forget about classic World War I films, but it is in those dogfights in the sky where the director, his cast, and creative crew find the heart of Flyboys and leave the viewer delighted.

6 of 10
B

Thursday, March 29, 2007

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