cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18997841

Beloved children’s TV series Pingu is set to be revived in a new adaptation from Barbie company Mattel and Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman.

The original Pingu launched on BBC One in 1990. A Swiss-German production, the TV series was designed by Otmar Gutmann, and followed the adventures of an impish penguin in the South Pole. The character was known for his catchphrase, “Noot noot”.

Pingu originally ran until 2000, and was briefly revived on British TV between 2003 and 2006.

The new series will be stop-motion animation, in the same vein as the original.

Mattel Television Studios, the TV arm of toy conglomerate Mattel, acquired the rights to Pingu in 2011 when it purchased HIT Entertainment.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18997841

Beloved children’s TV series Pingu is set to be revived in a new adaptation from Barbie company Mattel and Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman.

The original Pingu launched on BBC One in 1990. A Swiss-German production, the TV series was designed by Otmar Gutmann, and followed the adventures of an impish penguin in the South Pole. The character was known for his catchphrase, “Noot noot”.

Pingu originally ran until 2000, and was briefly revived on British TV between 2003 and 2006.

The new series will be stop-motion animation, in the same vein as the original.

Mattel Television Studios, the TV arm of toy conglomerate Mattel, acquired the rights to Pingu in 2011 when it purchased HIT Entertainment.

Beloved children’s TV series Pingu is set to be revived in a new adaptation from Barbie company Mattel and Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman.

The original Pingu launched on BBC One in 1990. A Swiss-German production, the TV series was designed by Otmar Gutmann, and followed the adventures of an impish penguin in the South Pole. The character was known for his catchphrase, “Noot noot”.

Pingu originally ran until 2000, and was briefly revived on British TV between 2003 and 2006.

The new series will be stop-motion animation, in the same vein as the original.

Mattel Television Studios, the TV arm of toy conglomerate Mattel, acquired the rights to Pingu in 2011 when it purchased HIT Entertainment.

An Aboriginal man, Wayne 'Coco' Wharton, was arrested near the Sydney Opera House after protesting about the King and Queen's visit to Australia, The Guardian said.

Mr Wharton, who was trying to serve a notice for the King's arrest to the sovereign, shouted to the crowd, calling Charles a "king of thieves and a king of liars".

...

It came after Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted "you are not our king" following his address to the Australian parliament on Monday.

Ms Thorpe accused the King of "genocide" against Australia's First Nations, shouting: "This is not your land. You are not my King."

Ms Thorpe, who wore a possum skin coat and carried a traditional message stick, added: "Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us. Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land."

Greeting Charles in Sydney, Elder Allan Murray from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, appeared to reference Senator Thorpe's remarks.

"Welcome to the country. We've got stories to tell, and I think you witnessed that story yesterday in Canberra, but the story is unwavering and we've got a long way to achieve what we want to achieve and that's our own sovereignty," he said. "But welcome to Gadigal land."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18995694

It’s possible that no one wants to see a Happy Death Day 3 more than director Christopher Landon, with the filmmaker recently confirming he has written a treatment for the project, though hasn’t committed to writing a full script as the project hasn’t yet been confirmed. Fans have been asking Landon about the third entry, which was teased with a post-credits scene in Happy Death Day 2U, ever since 2019, and another promising tease is that Landon doesn’t get sick of all the love fans show him and even encourages audiences to keep showing their support. Despite fan enthusiasm for the series, the last entry wasn’t a major financial earner, which has prevented momentum from developing on a trilogy closer.

“I could say that I wrote a treatment. I didn’t write the script, because I wouldn’t write a script unless it was a sure thing,” Landon confirmed to ComicBook at New York Comic Con when asked about the status of the third entry. “Here’s the cool thing: It is a bigger movie, and it is not set on the same day as the previous two films. That’s the biggest spoiler I’ve put out there.”

As far as whether fans should stop pestering Landon about it, the filmmaker teased, “I don’t hate it at all. I love it, I’m all for it. I want people to keep asking because I feel like if people keep asking, we all might actually get it.”

...

Not only is Landon hoping that the sequel will move forward, but star Rothe is just as excited, as she shared earlier this year how passionate she is about reviving Tree.

“Well, I can say [writer/director] Chris Landon has the whole thing figured out,” Rothe confirmed to Screen Geek. “We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row. But my fingers are so crossed. I think Tree [Gelbman] deserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning.”

Last year, we reported on the peculiar story of cheating allegations against Hans Neimann. The American chess grandmaster beat Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsen in a chess match in September last year.

Upset by the defeat to the 19-year-old Neimann, Carlsen made a rather butt-clenching accusation. He said that Neimann had cheated by using wireless vibrating anal beads.

After a 53 game winning streak, Carlsen was beaten by Neimann at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis. Neimann was the lowest ranked player at the competition and the first to beat Carlsen in two years.

Carlsen later withdrew from the tournament and made a statement with his accusations against Niemann. Further complicating things, Niemann admitted to having previously cheated on online matches on Chess.com, leading to his private removal from the site. He claims he’s never cheated in real life matches though.

...

Niemann filed a lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.com and player Hikaru Nakamura for defamation.

Although the $100 million (€92 million) lawsuit was thrown out by the courts in October, the parties have now negotiated a private settlement.

“At this time, Hans has been fully reinstated to Chess.com, and we look forward to his participation in our events. We would also like to reaffirm that we stand by the findings in our October 2022 public report regarding Hans, including that we found no determinative evidence that he has cheated in any in-person games. We all love chess and appreciate all of the passionate fans and community members who allow us to do what we do,” a statement from Chess.com read.

Carlsen has acknowledged the report from Chess.com and has said he is “willing to play Niemann in future events, should we be paired together.”

And previously...

• Chess grandmaster Hans Niemann denies using vibrating sex toy to cheat
• YouTubers test St. Louis anal beads cheating theory with butt plug

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18994156

Egotistical actors, meddling executives, extras suffering panic attacks from beneath their prosthetic make-up – the new Sam Mendes-Armando Iannucci-produced comedy The Franchise is a fictional series inspired by real-life drama behind the scenes of superhero movies.

...

Overall, the vibe is one of barely-contained chaos – a reflection, says showrunner Jon Brown, of the off-camera reality of the superhero industry.

“People think these movies are laid out in neat phases for the next 10 years. Then you hear about a set where, in the morning, a limo literally pulls up, the window comes down, and they hand out new script pages,” Brown explained. “Or producers on set have eight versions of the same script open, and they go through each script, cherry picking lines, and then they Frankenstein a scene out of nothing.”

The Franchise is watchable, though tremendously sneery of nerd culture – you can tell everyone involved is delighted superhero movies are on their uppers and that the day of geek in popular culture is at an end. But setting to one side such unfortunate snobbery, its portrayal of Hollywood anarchy is right on the money – as the following countdown of real-life superhero movie disasters confirms.

1. Marlon Brando v Superman, 1978
2. Batman & Robin – Mr Freeze’s Gun Vanishes, 1997
3. Wesley Snipes v Ryan Reynolds, Blade: Trinity, 2004
4. Superman Can’t Fly, 1996
5. Superman Returns takes to the skies without a script, 2006
6. Edward Norton, aka The Incredible Sulk, 2008
7. Elon Musk in Iron Man 2, 2010
8. Josh Trank v Fantastic Four, 2015
9. Jared Leto jokes around on Suicide Squad, 2016
10. Justice League v Henry Cavill’s Moustache, 2017

Archive

Egotistical actors, meddling executives, extras suffering panic attacks from beneath their prosthetic make-up – the new Sam Mendes-Armando Iannucci-produced comedy The Franchise is a fictional series inspired by real-life drama behind the scenes of superhero movies.

...

Overall, the vibe is one of barely-contained chaos – a reflection, says showrunner Jon Brown, of the off-camera reality of the superhero industry.

“People think these movies are laid out in neat phases for the next 10 years. Then you hear about a set where, in the morning, a limo literally pulls up, the window comes down, and they hand out new script pages,” Brown explained. “Or producers on set have eight versions of the same script open, and they go through each script, cherry picking lines, and then they Frankenstein a scene out of nothing.”

The Franchise is watchable, though tremendously sneery of nerd culture – you can tell everyone involved is delighted superhero movies are on their uppers and that the day of geek in popular culture is at an end. But setting to one side such unfortunate snobbery, its portrayal of Hollywood anarchy is right on the money – as the following countdown of real-life superhero movie disasters confirms.

1. Marlon Brando v Superman, 1978
2. Batman & Robin – Mr Freeze’s Gun Vanishes, 1997
3. Wesley Snipes v Ryan Reynolds, Blade: Trinity, 2004
4. Superman Can’t Fly, 1996
5. Superman Returns takes to the skies without a script, 2006
6. Edward Norton, aka The Incredible Sulk, 2008
7. Elon Musk in Iron Man 2, 2010
8. Josh Trank v Fantastic Four, 2015
9. Jared Leto jokes around on Suicide Squad, 2016
10. Justice League v Henry Cavill’s Moustache, 2017

Archive

He has been one of the UK’s favourite and most prominent refugees for two-thirds of a century. Now Paddington Bear – official name Paddington Brown – has been granted a British passport.

The co-producer of the latest Paddington film said the Home Office had issued the document to the fictional Peruvian-born character – listing for completeness the official observation that he is, in fact, a bear.

“We wrote to the Home Office asking if we could get a replica, and they actually issued Paddington with an official passport – there’s only one of these,” Rob Silva told Radio Times.

...

He produced the document, complete with Paddington’s photo inside, adding: “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humour, but under official observations, they’ve just listed him as Bear.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18973376

Back in 2021, Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and director Scott Derrickson brought us an adaptation of the Joe Hill short story The Black Phone (check out our review HERE) that appeared to tell a complete story that would stand on its own… but the film was made on a budget of around $16 million and earned over $160 million at the global box office. So, on October 17, 2025, we’ll be getting The Black Phone 2. In a video that was shown to New York Comic Con attendees during the Blumhouse panel there, Derrickson said that he sees the sequel as a high school coming-of-age film.

...

Derrickson wrote the screenplay for the first film with C. Robert Cargill, and Derrickson and Cargill have written the screenplay for The Black Phone 2 as well. They’re also producing the sequel with Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Ryan Turek. The sequel will see the return of Mason Thames (How to Train Your Dragon) as Finney Shaw, Madeleine McGraw (Secrets of Sulphur Springs) as Finney’s sister Gwen, Jeremy Davies (Justified) as their dad Terrence, and Miguel Mora, whose only previous credit is The Black Phone, as Robin, a friend of Finney’s who was killed in the first movie. Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight) will be reprising the role of the child-killer known as The Grabber. One new addition to the cast is Demián Bichir of The Hateful Eight.

Blum told NYCC attendees, “When did movie did well, [I asked the filmmakers], ‘Can we figure out a sequel? Some directors say yes, some directors say no. Scott said, ‘Let me and Cargill think about it.’” Derrickson and Cargill eventually told him they could make a sequel if Hawke and the rest of the original cast could return. Blum said, “And that was music to my ears.“

Derrickson couldn’t make it to the Comic Con because he’s in pre-production on The Black Phone 2 in Toronto, but in a pre-recorded video that was shown, he said, “I didn’t really feel any obligation to do a sequel to The Black Phone, but I got excited by an idea that [author] Joe Hill sent me shortly after the release of the first film. And what I can also tell you is that in the same way that The Black Phone was a middle school coming-of-age film, this is a high school coming-of-age film.” He added that, “I’m hoping to make a film as good as, if not better than, the first one.“

Paul Di’Anno, an English singer who was an early frontman for the popular heavy metal band Iron Maiden in the 1970s and ’80s, has died at his home in Salisbury, England. He was 66.

Conquest Music, a label that represented Mr. Di’Anno, announced his death in a statement on social media on Monday. No additional details were given.

Mr. Di’Anno, whose legal name was Paul Andrews, gained popularity on the heavy metal scene in the late 1970s after he joined Iron Maiden as the band’s lead singer. He performed with the band from 1978 through 1981.

After leaving Iron Maiden, Mr. Di’Anno performed with other bands such as Battlezone and Killers and also played solo. He released his first career retrospective album, “The Book of the Beast,” in September.

...

Mr. Di’Anno said in a recent interview with Metal Hammer magazine that he didn’t blame the band for replacing him with Bruce Dickinson, who would go on to lead Iron Maiden during its most successful years.

“In the end I couldn’t give 100 percent to Maiden anymore and it wasn’t fair to the band, the fans or to myself,” he said.

In his autobiography, “The Beast,” which was published in 2010, Mr. Di’Anno wrote that he also thought his band members had grown worried about his partying habits, a topic he wrote openly about.

“That was just the way I was,” he wrote. “I’d let off a bit of steam, have a few drinks and generally act as if I was taking part in a 24-hour party, which I honestly felt I was.”

Mr. Di’Anno suffered from health issues in the past few years, but he continued to perform shows in a wheelchair. He played more than 100 shows since 2023, according to his label.

Paul Andrews was born in Chingford, East London, on May 17, 1958. In “The Beast,” he wrote that he had an interest in music since he was young. He remembered skipping school once to see the band AC/DC, which he described as “just on the verge of becoming really big then.”