The Bad Wilf Network – Page 52 – Unpretentious pop culture chat

Fox remove Fantastic Four from their 2017 schedule

Ever since Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot tanked at the box office this summer, there’s been a lot of speculation regarding Fox’s commitment to the franchise.

A sequel was still scheduled for release in 2017. Today, Fox announced that they were removing Fantastic Four 2 from their 2017 date. Now, just because the film has been removed from the schedule that doesn’t mean the project has been shelved, or that they plan to revert the rights back to Marvel. Fantastic Four 2 could still happen. One day.

Personally, I think Josh Trank’s take on Fantastic Four was incredibly flawed. But; it could have worked as a TV series. In fact I think that is the route Fox should actively pursue.

Check out the honest trailer from Screen Junkies.

Review-Jago & Litefoot & Strax-The Haunting

Earlier this year Big Finish obtained the rights to use Nu-Who characters. Which means we will soon see classic Doctors battle new monsters, the Fifth Doctor will meet the weeping Angels, the Eighth Doctor will have an adventure with River Song etc.

Fans have long speculated that Jago and Litefoot could conceivably run into the Paternoster Gang. And given the similar nature of their work, it is a lovely thought that the former associates of the Doctor would cross paths. I’m still waiting for a Torchwood/Unit cross over.

We join Jago and Litefoot as they investigate a spate of murders, where the victims brains have been removed. Meanwhile Strax is on the trail of an alien power source, which leads him to the Red Tavern.

The plot is fairly basic and echoes a lot of the Jago and Litefoot range. But what it lacks in plot, it makes up for with fun; a lot of comedy stems form Strax’s misunderstanding of human gender and Victorian equate, which puts him at odds with gentleman investigators Jago and Litefoot.

The cast are strong and the direction is flawless. This is an enjoyable listen, that will please fans of the Paternoster gang as well as fans of Jago and Litefoot.

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How the 50th nearly ended up being Doctor-less

As every Doctor Who fan knows, it’s 52 years ago today that two concerned teachers followed a student into 76 Totters Lane. The rest as they say, is history.

As we all know that the show celebrated its 50th anniversary two years ago. But, what we didn’t know is just how close we came to getting a 50th anniversary episode, that didn’t feature ANY Doctor’s!

Speaking to the Radio Times, current show runner Steven Moffat revealed that as Matt Smith’s contract expired with Name of the Doctor, he was forced to write a plot, in which none of the Doctors featured. The only person still under contract was Jenna Coleman.

“We had to work out what else to do. At that point neither David nor Matt were under contract either. I had Jenna [Coleman]. And I did come up with a plotline that was just Jenna. It was a nightmare. We’re weeks from filming. A production team is assembled, people are doing storyboards and I don’t even know if anyone who has ever played the Doctor is going to be in it”.

In the interview Moffat also reveals just how close we came to seeing Christopher Eccleston return as the ninth Doctor.

“The first version was David [Tennant], Matt [Smith] and Chris [Eccleston] together. With whatever involvement we could contrive for the other Doctors, but – being brutal – it had to be Doctors that still looked like their Doctors. I know I’m a bastard but hey, I think Peter [Davison], Colin [Baker] and Sylvester [McCoy] were better deployed in The Five-ish Doctors [a spoof short film] than they could ever be elsewhere. But I knew that Chris was almost certainly going to say no. I met him a couple of times and he was absolutely lovely. He met with me because he didn’t want to say no through his agent or a phone call or email. He wanted to do it personally. And I three-quarters talked him into it”.

Read the full interview here.

Big Finish review-Torchwood: Forgotten Lives

For the first time in this range, as opposed to stepping back in time, Torchwood instead fast-forwards to the modern day, by visiting Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams five years after Miracle Day. Jack is missing, the Committee are at it again and why exactly is someone who isn’t John Barrowman claiming to be Captain Jack Harkness?

Fall to Earth is a lot like The Zygon Inversion. Both are very good stories and are tough acts to follow. But if there’s anyone who can avoid pulling a Sleep No More, it’s Gwen and Rhys. Unfortunately for them, it doesn’t quite work out that way.

One of the main problems with this story is “Jack Harkness”, or rather the elderly man who summons Gwen and Rhys, claiming to be Jack Harkness’s mind in another person’s body. Philip Bond doesn’t play a noteworthy Jack. His accent is all over the place and the characterisation of Jack Harkness is a joke. He’s incompetent and idiotic in most of his scenes, bordering on putting listeners off this story entirely. In truth, it took me three tries before I could finish this story, which helps explain why this review is so late. The story tries to juggle some big ideas, at times it feels like two separate scripts fused together. The Evolved are aliens who can transfer people’s minds into other people which on its own is already enough story material to base a whole miniseries off of. Constraining such an extravagant idea to one story with a lot of lagging in the middle feels like a waste.

Fans hoping for some kind of closure to the awful cliffhanger featured at the end of Miracle Day, I’m sorry to say that you’re in for a big disappointment (probably due to rights issues with Starz). Worthwhile references to Miracle Day are scarce or cheap attempts at continuity; the only one being that at some point Jack discovered that the Three Families were controlled by the Committee, which is just an okay way of retconning Miracle Day into the Torchwood audios. If you were hoping to hear what happened to Rex Matheson and his immortality, you’d have better luck asking Russell T Davies.

It’s worth noting, however, that the saving grace of Forgotten Lives is the excellent performance of Eve Myles and Kai Owen. Despite the weaknesses in the script, the two actors slip effortlessly back into their roles as Gwen and Rhys, and their chemistry remains as strong as ever. They bring much-needed energy and heart to the story, and their interactions are some of the most engaging parts of the episode. Their performances alone make the episode worth a listen for die-hard Torchwood fans.

Pierce Brosnan wasn’t overly impressed by Spectre

There have been a lot of reviews about Spectre and now, the only one anyone is interested in has arrived. In an interview with Yahoo, former 007 Pierce Brosnan said:

“I was looking forward to it enormously. But I thought it was too long. The story was kind of weak — it could have been condensed. It kind of went on too long. It really did. Its neither fish nor fowl. It’s neither Bond nor Bourne. Am I in a Bond movie? Not in a Bond movie? But Daniel Craig, in the fourth go-round, has ownership of it. He had a nice looseness to him. He’s a mighty warrior, and I think he found a great sense of himself in this one with the one-liners and a nice playfulness there. Just get a tighter story, and he’ll have another classic.”

What did you think of Spectre? Let me know @BadWilf

Doctor Who festival-Day Three

Sunday saw the conclusion of the three-day Doctor Who event, at the Excel in London. Below are a selection of pictures.

Universal are working on Fast and Furious spin-off’s

I am an unashamed fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, so I’m excited to hear that Universal are expanding the universe, by developing spin-offs and prequels surrounding the characters from the series.

Vin Diesel said:
“We’ve written out story lines for various characters. We’ve been playing with it for a long time. It’s a very rich property and we’re committed to treating it with a lot of class.”

Donna Langley (Universal chairman) added:

“We’re certainly in conversations about how we can expand the franchise now. It’s an ensemble cast and there’s room to bring characters in and out.”

It’s currently unknown which characters will get their own film, but it’s a safe bet that Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s Agent Luke Hobbs will be one of them.

Doctor Who Festival-Day two

Today was the second day of The Doctor Who festival, at the Excel Centre in London. Below are a selection of images. Click to enlarge.

The adventure concludes tomorrow.

Thanks to BBC Worldwide for the images.

Doctor Who Series 9: Part 1 is available to buy on DVD and digitally at bbcstore.com

Doctor Who Festival-Day One

The Doctor Who Festival launched with a bang today, at the Excel Centre in London. Below are a selevtion of images from day one.

The event continues over the weekend with Jenna Coleman joining her Tardis buddies for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is completely sold out but, there are some tickets remaining for Sunday, which is when I will be attending.

Review-Spectre

In many ways Paramount are extremely lucky that Star Wars forced them to move Mission Impossible 5 from Boxing Day to a July release date, as MI:Rogue Nation and Spectre are pretty much the same movie.

In Mission Impossible 5 Ethan Hunt has gone “rogue” and disappeared deep underground to track down and prove the existence of “the syndicate” as well as the man responsible for the death of his boss. Along the way, he is joined by his tech genius friend, Benji and a small fracture group whom are disobeying orders to help him. He also teams up with and saves a woman who has information regarding The Syndicate. All this happens whilst an outside force are trying to shut down the IMF agency.

In Spectre, James Bond has gone “rogue” and disappeared deep underground to track down and prove the existence of “Spectre” as well as the man responsible for the death of his boss. Along the way, he is joined by his tech genius friend, Q and a small fracture group whom are disobeying orders to help him. He also teams up with and saves a woman who has information regarding Spectre. All this happens whilst an outside force are trying to shut down the double-O programme.

So far, so similar and that’s Spectre’s biggest problem. It isn’t a terrible movie, in fact it’s actually quite enjoyable. It’s just very generic, it could be any summer blockbuster.

The fight scenes and action pieces are stunning. The script is okay and the performances are strong, however it all just feels formulaic. It’s like someone making a lasagne from their nan’s recipe. It’s nice, but it’s just not quite right. Wait for Blu Ray.