Fanboys Anonymous

The 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will take place September 20, 2020, broadcast by ABC.

Here is a list of the nominees in all of the categories and some thoughts on this year's predictions and such.

Outstanding Comedy Series

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Dead to Me (Netflix)
The Good Place (NBC)
Insecure (HBO)
The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

Thoughts: I haven't seen a single one of these.

Outstanding Drama Series

Better Call Saul (AMC)
The Crown (Netflix)
The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)
Killing Eve (BBC America)
The Mandalorian (Disney+)
Ozark (Netflix)
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Succession (HBO)

Thoughts: Ozark and Stranger Things are so good. If either of those win, I'm a big fan. The Mandalorian was surprisingly good, too, but I'd prefer the other two.

Outstanding Variety Talk Series

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)

Thoughts: I don't watch any of these.

Outstanding Variety Sketch Series

A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)
Drunk History (Comedy Central)
Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Thoughts: I haven't seen any of these, unless you count previous years of SNL. Not this year.

Outstanding Limited Series

Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)
Mrs. America (FX)
Unbelievable (Netflix)
Unorthodox (Netflix)
Watchmen (HBO)

Thoughts: I stopped watching Watchmen after the first episode. I couldn't get into it. The rest, I hadn't even heard of at all.

Outstanding Television Movie

American Son (Netflix)
Bad Education (HBO)
Dolly Parton's Heartstrings: These Old Bones (Netflix)
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (Netflix)

Thoughts: Never seen them or heard of most of them.

Outstanding Competition Program

The Masked Singer (Fox)
Nailed It! (Netflix)
RuPaul's Drag Race (VH1)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Voice (NBC)

Thoughts: These aren't for me.


Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson as Andre "Dre" Johnson Sr. on Black-ish (ABC)
Don Cheadle as Mo Monroe on Black Monday (Showtime)
Ted Danson as Michael on The Good Place (NBC)
Michael Douglas as Sandy Kominsky on The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
Eugene Levy as Johnny Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Ramy Youssef as Ramy Hassan on Ramy (Hulu)

Thoughts: I've got no horse in this race (you're going to see that pop up quite a bit here).

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Christina Applegate as Jen Harding on Dead to Me (Netflix)
Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam "Midge" Maisel on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Linda Cardellini as Judy Hale on Dead to Me (Netflix)
Catherine O'Hara as Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Issa Rae as Issa Dee on Insecure (HBO)
Tracee Ellis Ross as Dr. Rainbow "Bow" Johnson on Black-ish (ABC)

Thoughts: No horse in this race.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Jason Bateman as Martin "Marty" Byrde on Ozark (Netflix)
Sterling K. Brown as Randall Pearson on This Is Us (NBC)
Steve Carell as Mitch Kessler on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession (HBO)
Billy Porter as Pray Tell on Pose (FX)
Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy on Succession (HBO)

Thoughts: Jason Bateman!!!!

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II on The Crown (Netflix)
Jodie Comer as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle on Killing Eve (BBC America)
Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde on Ozark (Netflix)
Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri on Killing Eve (BBC America)
Zendaya as Rue Bennett on Euphoria (HBO)

Thoughts: Ozark is great. Give it to Laura Linney. She's awesome.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Jeremy Irons as Adrien Veidt on Watchmen (HBO)
Hugh Jackman as Dr. Frank Tassone on Bad Education (HBO)
Paul Mescal as Connell Waldron on Normal People (Hulu)
Jeremy Pope as Archie Coleman on Hollywood (Netflix)
Mark Ruffalo as Dominick and Thomas Birdsey on I Know This Much Is True (HBO)

Thoughts: I haven't seen any of these except the first episode of Watchmen, as I said. But I totally bought Irons as Veidt. Maybe it would be cool for him to win.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly on Mrs. America (FX)
Shira Haas as Esther "Esty" Shapiro on Unorthodox (Netflix)
Regina King as Angela Abar / Sister Night on Watchmen (HBO)
Octavia Spencer as Madam C. J. Walker on Self Made (Netflix)
Kerry Washington as Mia Warren on Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)

Thoughts: No horse in this race.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Mahershala Ali as Sheikh Ali Malik on Ramy (Hulu)
Alan Arkin as Norman Newlander on The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC)
Sterling K. Brown as Reggie on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye on The Good Place (NBC)
Dan Levy as David Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weissman on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Kenan Thompson as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Thoughts: I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Maybe Braugher isn't the right person to win, but I don't know, since I can't compare to the others. But I do know I love his work as Holt.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
D'Arcy Carden as Janet on The Good Place (NBC)
Betty Gilpin as Debbie Eagan on GLOW (Netflix)
Marin Hinkle as Rose Weissman on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Kate McKinnon as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Annie Murphy as Alexis Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Yvonne Orji as Molly Carter on Insecure (HBO)
Cecily Strong as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Thoughts: GLOW is great. I doubt Gilpin will win, but it's nice to see her recognized. I'm also shocked she's considered a supporting actress. Isn't she one of the three leads along with Alison Brie and Marc Maron?

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Nicholas Braun as Greg Hirsch on Succession (HBO)
Billy Crudup as Cory Ellison on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy on Succession (HBO)
Mark Duplass as Charlie "Chip" Black on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring on Better Call Saul (AMC)
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on Succession (HBO)
Bradley Whitford as Commander Joseph Lawrence on The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)
Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe on Westworld (HBO)

Thoughts: Westworld is the only one I've seen. I love Wright as Bernard, but I'll have to admit that the first season was significantly better for this show than 2 and 3.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret on The Crown (Netflix)
Laura Dern as Renata Klein on Big Little Lies (HBO)
Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore on Ozark (Netflix)
Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay on Westworld (HBO)
Fiona Shaw as Carolyn Martens on Killing Eve (BBC America)
Sarah Snook as Siobhan "Shiv" Roy on Succession (HBO)
Meryl Streep as Mary Louise Wright on Big Little Lies (HBO)
Samira Wiley as Moira Strand on The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)

Thoughts: Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore is one of the true highlights of Ozark. I'd love to see her win.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Calvin "Cal" Abar / Doctor Manhattan on Watchmen (HBO)
Jovan Adepo as young Will Reeves on Watchmen (HBO)
Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (Netflix)
Louis Gossett Jr. as Will Reeves on Watchmen (HBO)
Dylan McDermott as Ernest "Ernie" West on Hollywood (Netflix)
Jim Parsons as Henry Willson on Hollywood (Netflix)

Thoughts: No horse in this race.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm on Mrs. America (FX)
Toni Collette as Det. Grace Rasmussen on Unbelievable (Netflix)
Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug on Mrs. America (FX)
Jean Smart as Laurie Blake on Watchmen (HBO)
Holland Taylor as Ellen Kincaid on Hollywood (Netflix)
Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan on Mrs. America (FX)

Thoughts: No idea.


Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series

The Great (Episode: "The Great (Pilot)"), Directed by Matt Shakman (Hulu)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Episode: "It's Comedy or Cabbage"), Directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Prime Video)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Episode: "Marvelous Radio"), Directed by Daniel Palladino (Prime Video)
Modern Family (Episode: "Finale Part 2"), Directed by Gail Mancuso (ABC)
Ramy (Episode: "Miakhalifa.mov"), Directed by Ramy Youssef (Hulu)
Schitt's Creek (Episode: "Happy Ending"), Directed by Andrew Cividino and Dan Levy (Pop TV)
Will & Grace (Episode: "We Love Lucy"), Directed by James Burrows (NBC)

Thoughts: I enjoyed the Modern Family finale. Let's go with that.

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

The Crown (Episode: "Aberfan"), Directed by Benjamin Caron (Netflix)
The Crown (Episode: "Cri de Coeur"), Directed by Jessica Hobbs (Netflix)
Homeland (Episode: "Prisoners of War"), Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter (Showtime)
The Morning Show (Episode: "The Interview"), Directed by Mimi Leder (Apple TV+)
Ozark (Episode: "Fire Pink"), Directed by Alik Sakharov (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "Su Casa Es Mi Casa"), Directed by Ben Semanoff (Netflix)
Succession (Episode: "Hunting"), Directed by Andrij Parekh (HBO)
Succession (Episode: "This Is Not for Tears"), Directed by Mark Mylod (HBO)

Thoughts: Hey, if you want to give Ozark another win, I'm down for it.

Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special

62nd Grammy Awards, directed by Louis J. Horvitz
72rd Annual Tony Awards, directed by Glenn Weiss
Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones, directed by Stan Lathan
Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: "All In The Family" And "Good Times", directed by Andy Fisher and Pamela Fryman
Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show Starring Jennifer Lopez And Shakira, directed by Hamish Hamilton

Thoughts: Let's go with Dave Chappelle.

Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series

A Black Lady Sketch Show (Episode: "Born at Night, But Not Last Night"), Directed by Dime Davis (HBO)
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Episode: Dr. Fauci Answers Trevor's Questions About Coronavirus), Directed by David Paul Meyer (Comedy Central)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Episode: "Episode 629"), Directed by Paul Pennolino and Christopher Werner (HBO)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Episode: "Live Show; Chris Christie; Nathaniel Rateliff), Directed by Jim Hoskinson (CBS)
Saturday Night Live (Episode: "Host: Eddie Murphy"), Directed by Don Roy King (NBC)
Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready (Episode: "Flame Monroe"), Directed by Linda Mendoza (Netflix)

Thoughts: n/a

Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special

Little Fires Everywhere (Episode: "Find a Way"), Directed by Lynn Shelton (Hulu)
Normal People (Episode: "Episode 5"), Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Hulu)
Unorthodox, Directed by Maria Schrader (Netflix)
Watchmen (Episode: "It's Summer and We're Running out of Ice"), Directed by Nicole Kassell (HBO)
Watchmen (Episode: "Little Fear of Lightning"), Directed by Steph Green (HBO)
Watchmen (Episode: "This Extraordinary Being"), Directed by Stephen Williams (HBO)

Thoughts: n/a


Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

The Good Place (Episode: "Whenever You're Ready"), Written by Michael Schur (NBC)
The Great (Episode: "The Great"), Written by Tony McNamara (Hulu)
Schitt's Creek (Episode: "Happy Ending"), Written by Daniel Levy (Pop TV)
Schitt's Creek (Episode: "The Presidential Suite"), Written by David West Read (Pop TV)
What We Do in the Shadows (Episode: "Collaboration"), Written by Sam Johnson & Chris Marcil (FX)
What We Do in the Shadows (Episode: "Ghosts"), Written by Paul Simms (FX)
What We Do in the Shadows (Episode: "On the Run"), Written by Stefani Robinson (FX)

Thoughts: n/a

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

Better Call Saul (Episode: "Bad Choice Road"), Written by Thomas Schnauz (AMC)
Better Call Saul (Episode: "Bagman"), Written by Gordon Smith (AMC)
The Crown (Episode: "Aberfan"), Written by Peter Morgan (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "All In"), Written by Chris Mundy (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "Boss Fight"), Written by John Shiban (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "Fire Pink"), Written by Miki Johnson (Netflix)
Succession (Episode: "This Is Not for Tears"), Written by Jesse Armstrong (HBO)

Thoughts: General rule of thumb is to give things to Ozark, cause I love that show and I haven't seen the others.

Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special

Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones (Netflix)
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (Netflix)
John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch (Netflix)
Patton Oswalt: I Love Everything (Netflix)
Seth Meyers: Lobby Baby (Netflix)

Thoughts: I've only seen Chappelle.

Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)

Thoughts: n/a

Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special

Mrs. America (Episode: "Shirley"), Written by Tanya Barfield (FX)
Normal People (Episode: "Episode 3"), Written by Sally Rooney and Alice Birch (Hulu)
Unbelievable (Episode: "Episode 1"), Written by Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, and Ayelet Waldman (Netflix)
Unorthodox (Episode: "Part 1"), Written by Anna Winger (Netflix)
Watchmen (Episode: "This Extraordinary Being"), Written by Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson (HBO)

Thoughts: n/a

Is that the most entertaining round of thoughts? Of course not. But hey, who has time to watch all these shows? At the very least, I'm surprised more wasn't given to Modern Family for its last season, but I'm happy Ozark is being recognized.

As far as what I've been watching this year? This season of The Twilight Zone sucked. Westworld was meh. The Purge was interesting, but there's no way it would be nominated for anything. I'm excited to see Lucifer's next season. Harley Quinn is a great cartoon. I'm finally binging The Office, if that's worth some points in your book!

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Helstrom

Nope. No interest. At least they're not trying to act like this is connected to the MCU.

G4 is Returning

The geek culture channel G4 is set to return in 2021. How? In what capacity? They didn't say.

This is either awesome, or it's completely useless. It all depends how they do it. If the folks that made it good like Olivia Munn, Kevin Pereira and whatnot are involved, then it could be good to see some of the modern nerd stuff back in their realm. But if it's just some YouTube channel with some totally random new people, then that will greatly depend on if those people are great.

What shows will be on it? Is it a network or just some Twitch thing or whatever? All that information is key. But hey...neat, so far.

Zack Snyder's Justice League Title

Apparently, due to legal reasons of an unknown variety, the Snyder Cut may not be named Zack Snyder's Justice League.

I'd assume it's because they don't want to have his name officially attached to it and they might want to go with something like Justice League: The Original Cut or whatever.

Comic-Con@Home

Is it just me, or has this been a complete dead zone? You'd think there would be MORE stuff to talk about with this going on and it being online. Instead, I'm not hearing pretty much any peeps at all. What am I missing???

When Generation II of Pokemon came out with Gold and Silver, I remember being astounded at the creation of the Dark and Steel types. Of course this would happen, and with good cause. But I always had thought that a few other types didn't make much sense (why have both Ground and Rock, for instance?) and that some other things could have been created over time.

Then, with the addition of the Fairy type, I was even happier with the type diversity. I still think, to this day, that certain types should be switched as far as effectiveness goes (click here for a restructured Pokemon type effectiveness chart), but the idea of creating new types to fit new concepts of Pokemon is something I find very interesting.

However, I think people are a little too quick at coming up with random types and flooding the market. If you think about it, the series has been around 20+ years and they've only added 3 types. That's not a lot compared to some fan sites out there that have another dozen or so random things they'd like to see—most of which make zero sense.

Magic type is just Psychic. Wood, Magma, Wind and Steam? C'mon now. Those are just Grass, Fire, Flying and Water. Fear type is just Dark. Why is there a Beast type when all Pokemon are beasts and there isn't enough of a distinction between Bug, Dragon, Fairy, etc for something as generic as Beast?

Still, I do think there's room for a few more types to be made and I feel like this could be worth talking about.

What would the type conceptualize as? What Pokemon would be retconned to being that type, similar to how Clefairy became a Fairy and Magnemite was part Steel? Which moves could be granted that typing and what would it be effective and weak to?

For this first edition of what I'm assuming will be a 4 or 5 part series, I wanted to focus on the one type I think would make the most sense to add: the Sound type.

SOUND TYPE CONCEPT

Ghosts are ghosts. Dragons are dragons. When you start getting into the more energy-based things like Fire, it's a little harder to pinpoint, but I think it's still rather self-explanatory.

It's not that these creatures are made of pure sound (although some could be). It's more that sound is their gimmick. They have immunities to sound-based attacks, are able to control sound and vibrations very well, or have concepts that are based on music/sound/etc.

Pokemon already uses Sound as a subcategory of sorts for certain types of attacks. This is just the next natural progression.

SOUND-TYPE BATTLE CHART

I'll admit that I don't think I have all the balancing figured out for this. However, there are plenty of gaps from the current layout of the battle chart with what's effective against other things. Again, look above at the link at the start of this for a better breakdown of how I think things should work with Poison being super effective to Water and so on.

Here's what I could see making sense, though, for the Sound type, but I'm totally down for tweaking if you have any suggestions in the comments!

2x Strong Against

• Ice (avalanches can be caused by sound)
• Rock (glass shatters)
• Steel (good conductor of sound)
• Water (sound travels faster in water and amplifies its noise level)

• possibly Fighting (solve problems with your words, rather than your fists)
• possibly Ghost (prayer)
• possibly Psychic (sound can break mental concentration)

1x Strong Against

• Normal
• Poison
• Bug
• Fire
• Electric
• Dragon
• Fairy
• Sound

0.5x Strong Against

• Dark (its quiet at night)
• Flying (sound doesn't travel in space)
• Grass (natural sound barrier)

Zero Damage Against

• Ground (drowns out the sound)

2x Weak to

• Electric (disrupts the vibrations)
• Ground (drowns out the sound)

1x Weak to

• Bug
• Dark
• Dragon
• Fairy
• Fire
• Flying
• Ghost
• Grass
• Ice
• Normal
• Psychic
• Rock
• Sound
• Steel
• Water

0.5x Resistant to

• Fighting (you can't really punch energy)
• Poison (why not, right? How do you really poison vibrations?)

Immune to

• Nothing

POKEMON WITH THE SOUND TYPE

Igglybuff → Jigglypuff → Wigglytuff = Sound/Fairy
- Its gimmick is singing.

Drowzee → Hypno = Psychic/Sound
- I'm not entirely sold on this, but I think it could work.

Hoothoot → Noctowl = Sound/Flying?
- I'm not entirely sold on this, either, but it could make sense with the hooting and all.

Politoed = Water/Sound
- Its Pokedex entries talk about the noises it makes.

Misdreavus → Mismagius = Ghost/Sound
- Dex entries mention sounds. It's also called the Screech Pokemon.

Whismur → Loudred → Exploud = Sound
- Duh.

Wailmer → Wailord = Water/Sound
- Wail. Duh.

Chingling → Chimecho = Psychic/Sound
- Duh.

Kricketot → Kricketune = Bug/Sound
- Duh.

Bronzor → Bronzong = Psychic/Sound or Steel/Sound (probably Steel)
- Duh. It's a bell.

Chatot = Sound/Flying
- Chat. C'mon now.

Woobat → Swoobat = Sound/Flying I guess 
- You might be thinking "Why not Zubat's line?" Well, let's be honest. Zubat could be Poison, Flying, Dark and Sound all at the same time. Let's go with Poison/Flying for Zubat and Sound/Flying for Woobat to differentiate them a bit and not make 2 of the same bat type things both Sound.

Audino = Sound or Sound/Fairy or Sound/Normal
- Duh.

Tympole → Palpitoad → Seismitoad = Water/Sound
- This is all about vibrations. Let's get rid of the Ground and replace it with Water, even though that means we have 3 lines of Water+Sound types already with Politoed and Wailmer. But hey, how many Normal/Flying birds do we have? Just give it lots of Ground moves like Earthquake to go along with it.

Maractus = Grass/Sound 
- It's a cactus with maracas. It has to be sound.

Meloetta = Sound/Psychic and Sound/Fighting
- It's all about singing.

Litleo → Pyroar = Fire/Sound
- Since it focuses on the "roar" part of the name, and it's Fire/Normal for some reason, let's replace that Normal type.

Noibat → Noivern = Sound/Dragon
- It's another bat, but it's even more so dedicated to sound. This one is a given.

Oricorio = */Sound instead of */Flying
- It's a dancer. Let's give some more variation to the Sound type and just get rid of Flying for this.

Jangmo-o → Hakamo-o → Kommo-o = Dragon/Sound
- I'm actually not all that into this being another Dragon and Sound type, but it's something worth talking about.

Grookey → Thwackey → Rillaboom = Grass/Sound
- It's a drummer!

Gossifleur → Eldegoss = Grass/Sound
- No need for it to be Sound, but it's worth talking about.

Toxel → Toxtricity = Electric/Sound or Poison/Sound
- I can see why people would want to keep it Electric/Poison, so I'm not opposed to that. But I could also see a case for there to be Electric/Sound and Poison/Sound variations or something. Maybe different forms?

Obstagoon = Dark/Sound
- It's based off KISS.

+ Arceus, Type: Null and Silvally with the corresponding plates that would allow for them to be the Sound type.

Some people suggest Voltorb. I don't see it being sound-based just because it knows some sound moves. If anything, it should be Steel/Electric since it's a metal ball.

Lapras has certainly been given some musical elements to it, hasn't it? But to me, Lapras should be Ice/Dragon or stay Water/Ice rather than turn into a Water/Sound or Ice/Sound.

As far as new types go, you have countless instruments you could draw inspiration from. There could be a variant of Jynx that is more like a Nordic opera singer. Sound/Flying parrot Pokemon is a guarantee.

SOUND TYPE MOVES

I'm certainly not going to go through hundreds upon hundreds of moves and double check everything. This is more about the theory and concept, rather than some historian breakdown. Nevertheless, I think some moves stand out as obvious picks while some others are certainly within the discussion.

Note: A move like Bug Buzz should stay Bug, shouldn't it? The same goes for Grass Whistle, Metal Sound, etc.

Belch
Boomburst
Chatter
Clanging Scales
Confide
Disarming Voice
Drum Beating
Echoed Voice
Encore
Growl
Heal Bell
Howl
Hyper Voice
Lucky Chant
Noble Roar
Overdrive
Perish Song
Relic Song
Roar
Round
Screech
Sing
Sleep Talk
Snarl
Snore
Sonic Boom
Sparkling Aria
Supersonic
Uproar
Yawn

Based on that criteria, I think Sound could be a solid new type to add to the Pokemon series. What do you think? Got any ideas for the Sound type or any other future types? Drop them in the comments below to keep the discussion going!

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Spies in Disguise

I finally got around to watching Spies in Disguise, which was a fun little kids film. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I'd watch a sequel and I hope they get one, but I feel like the pigeon concept was sort of shoehorned in and there's more to this film than just redoing the pigeon thing in #2, as they didn't seem quite convinced that they wanted to do the pigeon thing in the first film, even.

Palm Springs

I also watched Palm Springs from Hulu. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in checking it out. It's pretty much Groundhog Day, but if someone said "Yeah, but what if...." and started to try to answer those questions.

"What if someone else were in the same cycle?" and so on.

The Office

I'm late to the game, I know, but I just started to binge The Office. At the time of publication, I'm only a few episodes into Season 2, and I have a few thoughts I figured I'd share about this whole viewing experiment:

• Jim is charming. I get it. He's easily the most likable character.
• Pam's cute. I get it, and I don't like Roy, so that all works out very well. I like how she's not bitchy, but she's also not some manic pixie dream girl fantasy. She's just a normal woman.
• Michael Scott is so much better so far in season 2 than season 1. The first few episodes were a bit of a struggle to like him.
• Dwight is a great foil, but I can already see why Rainn Wilson blew up and went nowhere much beyond this character. It's defining and he can't likely escape it.
• Angela is a great side character. I hope they don't run her into the ground.
• Kelly Kapoor is pointless. She's background furniture so far.
• Kevin Malone is my favorite character. Hands down. 100%.
• I like Ryan the temp guy and I'd like for it to be a gig where he gets a job there for real and regrets it, or that he's perpetually a temp and never hired or something. It wouldn't shock me if his character left the show, though.
• Phyllis has some great moments, as does Stanley. I feel like I'll like both of them even more as the show goes on.
• Meredith, Oscar and Toby, I haven't warmed up to, yet. Creed I didn't even know was a character until he was almost fired.
• Todd Packer. Does David Koechner always play the same character (and do it so well) or what?
• Katy (Amy Adams), it's funny they brought her in to be an ersatz Pam. Great casting.

Anakin Skywalker in Obi-Wan Kenobi Series

More and more rumors that Hayden Christensen will be in the Kenobi series and there will be flashbacks to the Clone Wars.

If so, I love that idea. I don't feel like the TV show even really counts toward the series and the Clone Wars felt so rushed in the films. Of course, if I would have had it my way, I'd have had that 10 year gap between Episode 1 and 2 to be a different story (Anakin is a teenager in TPM and that's why he's "too old" to start training and so headstrong; Clone Wars starts at the end of that film, carries into #2 which is a few years later and he's battle-hardened and had to train during a war instead of any peacetime, #3 skips another few years to the end of the war and beginning of the Empire).

Anyway, I dig this idea and I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Marvel Acquires Alien and Predator Franchises

This is pretty cool! I've never been the absolute biggest fans of these franchises or anything, but they're properties who have value and name recognition, along with cool creature designs. While this doesn't mean it will necessarily happen, at least it's now an option for them to possibly bring them into the Marvel Universe in at least the comics with some crossovers.

Imagine the symbiotes like Venom fighting the aliens. Punisher vs. Predator? Pretty sweet!

Janelle Monáe Wants to be Storm in Black Panther 2

You know what? I wouldn't hate it.

I do hope they go a little younger with Storm than Monáe, just so we get enough time with her as a character (as I feel she's super underutilized and shouldn't even be an X-Men character—a case I argued here—but she's a good actress and could pull off the part.

What about Nakia, though?

Tron 3 with Jared Leto

Rumor has it they're finally starting work on Tron 3, but Jared Leto will star. Why not Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde to carry on that storyline from Legacy, which was the infinitely better film compared to the original? Why not also keep Cillian Murphy and keep that thread going?

Maybe Leto is just a recasting of that character and will be the main villain, or will be a different villain like how Clu was the primary antagonist in the last film, and since he's the biggest name, he'd "star" in the film.

New Batwoman Cast

Javicia Leslie will be the new Batwoman character Ryan Wilder. We've talked about this before. I think Batwoman as a concept is uninteresting, I think the CW shows lost most of their quality and I've stopped watching them long before Batwoman premiered, and I think making a brand new character to take up the mantle is going to be lame. I know nothing about Leslie. She looks like she's exactly who CW would try to cast in the part, for what it's worth. Good for her. I hope she does well. I don't expect this show to get another season, though, and I know I won't bother watching it, as I don't even watch The Flash anymore and that was the best one of the bunch for a while.

Spin-off of The Batman Planned for HBO Max

There's going to be a show centered around the Gotham Central series, focused on the Gotham City Police Department, tying into Matt Reeves' Batman film?

SIGN. ME. UP. Assuming, of course, that Reeves has a good universe he's building and all, naturally. If it's awful, I don't want any more of it.

One of my gripes with Gotham was that it was supposed to be this type of show, but they decided to turn it into something completely different. I think there's a lot of potential for a serious GCPD cop drama where Batman is just a background character or myth or something.

Give me Commissioner Gordon (eventually; gotta have some other people above him that he can take down and all), Renee Montoya (and Maggie Sawyer?), Harvey Bullock, Crispus Allen, Jim Corrigan, Sarah Essen, Gillian Loeb, Ellen Yin (better than Yindel IMO and allows more diversity), Ethan Bennett, Angel Rojas, etc. Even a quick Wikipedia search brings up dozens of characters I've never heard of that they could pull from to create the cast.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Zatanna and Batman Beyond Films

Another week, another "DC has XYZ films planned" story that will likely not pan out, like most of them haven't.

This time, it's a Zatanna solo film, rather than Justice League Dark, and a Batman Beyond movie.

I'll believe them when I see them. Between the two, I think there's more of a chance Batman Beyond were to happen, but I still don't think that's going to come to fruition.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition on HBO Max

The Ultimate Edition cut of BvS has replaced the theatrical cut on HBO Max. That's awesome, as that's the far superior version of the movie.

2 Secret Movies for DC FanDome

The DC FanDome website has "Secret Film 1" and "Secret Film 2" listed.

Let the speculation begin. Is it Zatanna and Batman Beyond from above? Is it Aquaman 2 and The Flash? Maybe Batgirl? Green Lantern Corps? Nightwing? Something completely out of the blue like Metal Men or Red Tornado or Blue Devil?

Superman to Lead The Authority?

Rumor has it, the big plan at DC is to set up Superman as the leader of The Authority.

Now, I don't know much about Wildstorm and all their characters and such, but it seems strange to me for Superman of all characters to be the one that heads up that group.

I would think that would be a better opportunity for a smaller character than the top dog. Maybe Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter, Commander/Citizen Steel or whatever.

Perhaps, if this is true, it will lead to Superman vs Apollo and Batman vs Midnighter as the big payoff?

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Michael Keaton Returning as Batman?!

Now, reports are saying that instead of Jeffrey Dean Morgan playing Thomas Wayne in a Flashpoint movie, it's going to be Michael Keaton returning as his version of Batman from the Tim Burton films, but older (obviously) as an anchor point in some fashion.

Insane, but cool. I still think the movie may not ever be made at all, and even if it is, it'll have lots of tweaks and things might not work out all that well, but hey, I'm open to the idea. That sounds neat.

Joel Schumacher Dies

Speaking of the old Tim Burton films, the man who took over for that franchise after Burton, Joel Schumacher, has passed away at age 80. Like most, I equate him to Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. In fact, the only other movies he did that I've seen were The Number 23 (meh) and Phone Booth (which I liked quite a bit). Nevertheless, RIP.

Twister Reboot in the Works

Why? Just watch the original. A remake/reboot can't be that much different other than better special effects and a less engaging cast that doesn't tap into the cultural zeitgeist like the original did.

The Princess and the Frog Replacing Splash Mountain

Due to its connections to Song of the South, Splash Mountain is going to be reworked to fit The Princess and The Frog, instead.

I've never actually seen either movie, probably. If anything, I've seen SOTS when I was like 4 or something like that, which I've forgotten about entirely by now.

But here's my basic thoughts: if the ride itself is fun, keep the ride structure. If you change the scenery around it to something that's a more modern movie and it makes people more comfortable and feel like there's one less racist thing out there in the world, then hey, all that more reason to change it.

Now, if you were going to do something like remove all the water and just make it a roller coaster, that's what would suck.

Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle in The Magic School Bus Film

Never was a fan of The Magic School Bus, but I know a lot of people who loved it. From what I've seen, Banks probably has the right energy for the character and can pull it off, even though she's much better looking than Frizzle was. I've always thought the character looked more like Bette Midler.

Tenet Pushed Back Again

The theme of 2020: everyone just says "ugh..wait...hold on" and the pandemic continues, while others get so frustrated that they stop doing things that they need to do in order to keep the pandemic from getting worse, which makes everyone have to suffer.

Tenet's release date has been delayed once again. And I bet you it's going to happen again, if not many more times.

Watch This

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Dick Grayson in Batman v Superman

Zack Snyder confirmed that the dead Robin in BVS was supposed to be Dick Grayson.

I KNEW IT. I knew he was screwing that up and going with killing the wrong Robin just for simplicity's sake!

All these years later and now, I have vindication that I was right to be worried that they would have messed that up royally. Just like they HORRIBLY whiffed the whole Jenny Jurwich and killing Jimmy Olsen thing.

Snyder made some great decisions about some stuff in his work on this series, but he made a LOT of really, really, really bad decisions, too. This would have been one of them.

More Rumors of Thomas Wayne in Flashpoint

From the time of Batman v Superman, we've heard rumors that Jeffrey Dean Morgan would be playing Thomas Wayne in a Flashpoint film.

Over and over, this rumor comes up. It's come up again.

I'll believe it when I see it. This film - and many others in this series - have been rumored to be guaranteed to do 100 different things and 99 of them never happen.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

Love the title! I thought the first game in this series was great back in the day. I never played the others, but I remember thinking Crash was a worthy companion to Mario and Sonic. It's good to see him returning.

Echo Coming to MCU

They're casting for a deaf female, 18 or older, of "Native American, First Nations, Indigenous or Latinx" actress they're calling Malia.

Maya Lopez / Echo isn't a character I know much about, but the speculation that this could be that character makes a toooon of sense.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

New Release Dates

As is the case with 2020, when nothing happens in the world but people arguing with each other and pop culture going "Hold on a minute", we have updated release dates for films that should have come out already or were set to come out soon.

- Tenet was pushed back 2 weeks.

- Wonder Woman 1984, which at this point feels like it should have come out in 1984 with how many delays its had despite the film's plot apparently leaking online a while back and being SUPER underwhelming from my POV, is now set for October 2nd. Probably should've kept that November 2019 date you originally had, right?

- No Time to Die moved up a few days.

Inception 10th Anniversary Re-Release

The original date for Tenet, July 17th, will be replaced by an Inception re-release that will commemorate its 10th anniversary. Along with that, Warner Bros is having some sneak peak content for Tenet and some other projects including likely The Batman, The Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman, maybe Godzilla vs. Kong, etc.

Neat. I don't know how many people will actually be in theaters, but at least this makes sense to give someone a reason to go see Inception at a location other than their home. I think I would do the exact same move if I were an executive calling the shots.

10 Best Picture Nominees for Oscars

The Academy Awards are adjusting its strategy with Best Picture nominees by making it a guaranteed 10 entries, instead of the algorithm thing they've used recently where it could be any number between 5 and 10 based on a weighted system.

I'm of two opinions about this. I actually like weighted systems, to a certain extent. However, I think having more Best Picture nominees is potentially a good thing for opening some minds for the voters. We've seen decades upon decades of only the same type of movies being nominated by the same type of people, and I think lots of great films have been snubbed from being able to say they're a Best Picture nominee because of that. There's no reason The Dark Knight shouldn't have been nominated, for instance, just because it's about a superhero.

Having 10 films at least gives some of those movies more of a fighting chance. They might not win - and that's okay, too, so long as the films that do win aren't stunt votes based purely on politics and NOT the actual film itself - but at least they'll be able to say they were nominated.

Remember That Batman Game...

Every single year, constantly, there are reports that there's another Arkham game in the works. Every single event that revolves around video games, like E3 or whatever, is spoken of as when they'll reveal the new game. And it NEVER happens.

This is another year where that's happened again. I don't know why people bother to trust in these reports when this has been several years of these kind of promises and nothing happening.

This is a random topic that I've wanted to get around to since Avengers: Infinity War came out, but it still remains open for discussion: since Thor was given a hammer/axe combo that was dubbed Stormbreaker, what hammer should Beta Ray Bill use if he ever appears for the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

The way I see it, they have three options, with some variables within them.

Beta Ray Bill pictured with Stormbreaker, which looks nothing like the one in the MCU, of course.

Option 1 - Stormbreaker

The MCU is no stranger to changing comics continuity. Sometimes, it's for the better (in my opinion) with things like Tony Stark being the one to create Ultron. Other times, it's a mistake, like their first attempt at The Mandarin.

Some people are adamant that Beta Ray Bill still gets Stormbreaker, even though it wouldn't make a lot of sense for Thor to go back to "the little one" in Mjolnir for multiple reasons—not the least of which is that it was supposedly restored back to its original timeline by Captain America at the conclusion of Endgame.

But maybe Bill gets a version of Stormbreaker from another universe/dimension. It seems that's where a lot of these other movies are heading with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Wandavision, so what if that's their excuse?

Maybe he doesn't even have a name for his weapon and they play Bill off as goofy in a sense like they like to make most of their characters. After he hears that Thor calls his weapon that name, he likes the name and adopts it for himself, despite Thor protesting that he can't do that, as that's his axe's name.

Or maybe Thor ends up with another weapon and passes Stormbreaker onto Bill. I don't think that's the best option, but it could theoretically happen.

Option 2 - Jarnbjorn

Just as they took the name Stormbreaker and applied it to a different weapon, why not do the same with another?

Jarnbjorn is an axe Thor wields from time to time. It's purely an axe, though, without the hammer side.

Of course, that's just in the comics. But in the comics, Ghost isn't the daughter of Egghead and an Ant-Man villain, nor was Ego the Living Planet the father of Star-Lord. Things change.

The likelihood that they'll ever spend time having Chris Hemsworth as Thor wielding just a pure axe like Jarnbjorn is so low that they could get away with using that name for Beta Ray Bill's weapon and only the die-hard fans would notice. Casuals certainly wouldn't have an idea who Bill is to begin with, let alone the discrepancies about the weaponry. Hell, most people can't even pronounce Mjolnir and just call it "Thor's hammer" anyway.

Option 3 - Thunderstrike

One thing I'm disappointed in with the MCU is that they never utilized the Donald Blake pseudonym. In the first film, he could have easily used that moniker while he was walking around Earth and trying to be a normal person, but they tossed it aside as a different gag with Jane Foster's ex who is seemingly still out there somewhere.

Eric Masterson isn't going to be a thing, either. It's just not going to happen. So let's have Thor use that name as his pseudonym on Earth when he's trying to be a little inconspicuous.

Then, that frees up Thunderstrike to be used. Since it won't have to be a superhero name and it was both that and Masterson's weapon, how about giving that to Bill? For that matter, he could even use the mace instead of the hammer/axe combo to help differentiate it from Thor's Stormbreaker.

What would you like to see happen with Beta Ray Bill and his weapon, whatever its called, in the future of the MCU? Keep the discussion going in the comments section below!

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Evan Peters in Wandavision

Who is he playing? A new character, or is he playing Quicksilver? That would be pretty sweet as a sort of combination of the X-Men franchise and the Quicksilver we got from Age of Ultron. I liked the look and characterization of the Age of Ultron version more, but that sort of reference is too good to pass up.

Ryan Wilder is the Next Batwoman

With Ruby Rose leaving the Batwoman TV series, they're not going to recast the role. Instead, they're making a new Batwoman with a new character named Ryan Wilder.

*deep breath* LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Proposed Bane Film

After Joker was such a hit, one of the supposed ideas they were workshopping was a similar film revolving around Bane.

To be honest, that could work really well. Bane's a character that has enough sides to him that I could see him working as a protagonist despite still being ultimately on the bad side of the alignment.

A Black Sue Storm?

For Josh Trank's atrocious Fant4stic film, if you remember, Franklin Storm and Johnny Storm were portrayed by black actors, while Sue Storm was played by Kate Mara and was written as adopted to explain why she was white.

When the film came out, I wasn't a fan of the decision. Here I thought "Why don't they just make Sue black, too?"

Apparently, the reason (according to Trank) was because the studio wanted a bigger name to play Sue and didn't have any black actresses in mind they felt could pull that off for marketing purposes. That's a shame, for many reasons.

However...let's be honest. Even if Kate Mara wouldn't have been in the film and Meagan Good or Jurnee Smollett-Bell or whoever would have played the character, that wouldn't have saved the film from its 900 other problems. It still would have been an atrocious movie, just with one less issue.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Sonic the Hedgehog Officially Getting a Sequel

We all knew this HAD to happen, with the amount of money it made and the positive support from critics and fans. I'm 100% in support. I thought the movie was a lot of fun and I was pumped to see Tails at the end. In fact, I actually went ahead and did a post about my expectations and what I would like to see them do here. Give me Metal Sonic and Knuckles down the road!

DCU / HBO Max

Supposedly, Doom Patrol is being put on HBO Max, but not the other shows. Frankly, I think this is their attempt to slowly, but surely phase DCU into HBO Max and hope that people keep paying for both services for as long as possible. Once the well starts drying up, they'll just merge them.

In my opinion, what they should do is offer DCU and HBO Max as separate services, but put all the DC shows on HBO Max and DCU. Then, DCU should be at a lower price. If you just want the DC content, you can get the DCU stuff. If you don't need the comics, you can just get HBO.

Mr. Sinister Would've Been in Gambit

Original plans would have had Mr. Sinister pop up in the Gambit film Channing Tatum was working on.

To be honest...as much as I'm disappointed Tatum won't be Gambit, as I think he could have pulled the role off rather well, I'm glad Sinister wasn't wasted on that. I think he should be the primary villain for the next X-Men film (along with Magneto, naturally).

Mulan May Go to PVOD

As expected, there's a chance Disney puts Mulan on Premium Video on Demand instead of in theaters.

Since this isn't a guarantee and is just more of a discussion point right now, I'm not so sure I believe it. I still think Disney wants to see if they can get back to normal releases for the summer in a month or so and start things off with a bang with Mulan, which might not have been the biggest release in the world, but could get a considerable bump if its one of the few movies playing. That way, people that normally wouldn't be as into the idea of paying to see that movie might be inclined to go see it even more just because they want to get out of the house and experience some normalcy.

Of course, maybe this does end up following the Trolls technique, get released at home and sets an even bigger precedent for that becoming the new norm and AMC and other theaters having less negotiating tactics when it comes to being pissed about losing out on that money and refusing to show films from studios that do that.

Henry Cavill as Superman, aka Nick Fury

Supposedly, in the ever-evolving dirt sheet rumor mill that probably doesn't have a clue what is actually going on, Warner Bros are currently looking at Henry Cavill as returning as Superman, but not in a solo movie like Man of Steel 2. Instead, he'll be more of a Nick Fury in the MCU type by appearing in other characters' movies to help with the continuity.

You know what doesn't make sense about all that? Going further into connective tissues between these films while you abandoned that continuity and have a new Batman and still no name for this universe. My God, I cannot understand how DC is so frenetic about this stuff...but I do love Cavill as Superman, so I endorse him sticking around (ideally with a couple other characters recast, like Amy Adams no longer as Lois Lane, for one).

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Ruby Rose Leaving Batwoman TV Series

So one season into Batwoman, Ruby Rose is departing the show and the main character will be recast. No official reason has been given as to why. Could it be the injuries she suffered? Supposedly not. Some rumors say it was a mutual thing. But why would both sides want to stop and the show to continue? Was she a pain in the ass to work with and didn't want to be around everyone else? Curious.

I'll continue not watching the show, just like the rest of this series that I fell off from.

The Snyder Cut is Real

For years, we've been hearing about this elusive Zack Snyder cut of Justice League. Now, it's going to finally be released on HBO Max in 2021.

Wild. Insane. I'm very curious to see how they pull this off and I'll definitely check it out.

Some rumors say they're filming scenes that could set up sequels for Justice League 2 and Man of Steel 2. Others say that's completely fictitious.

Now, people are harping on #ReleaseTheAyerCut of Suicide Squad. I guess that's the next thing to champion.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

RIP Jerry Stiller

At age 92, the comedian and actor best known for his roles on Seinfeld and King of Queen has passed away. Awesome characters that were so, so funny (particularly Frank Costanza). RIP.

RIP Fred Willard

Stiller wasn't the only comedian to pass this week as Fred Willard, 86, also died. He was so good at playing a mild-mannered, polite type role in so many things. RIP.

The New Mutants Release Date

In what has to be the 20th change to this movie's release date, it's now set for August 28, 2020. I repeat, as I've repeated a million times now, WHY IS THIS BEING PUT IN THEATERS?! It's just going to be confusing for people, it can't possibly be that good, even if it is, it's not going to work to mix it with the MCU, and you're now in a perfect environment with this pandemic to release it on Hulu or something and boost your subscription rates!!

Uma Thurman and Jeremy Renner = Mad Max: Fury Road

Thurman for Furiosa and Renner for Max were possibilities in the casting process. For what it's worth, they might have done a good job, but I think Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron were the better options.

The Purge TV Series Cancelled

I literally just watched season 2 this week, and I was a big fan of how it changed up the formula and touched on the time then The Purge isn't happening. I'm disappointed to see it was cancelled. Then again, it's taken me months to even start season 2, so I get it. Plus, this seems like it would be better off on Netflix or HBO Max or something rather than USA, so they can do more brutal things. Maybe it'll get picked up on one of those networks.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

The Fury Files

A show coming to Disney+ is going to be an animated motion comic portfolio type of thing called Fury Files, diving deeper into characters. I feel like that's some easy content that they are doing in the lull, and it's not the most important thing in the world, but it's still kind of neat and it's good they're putting in that effort.

Elon Musk + Tom Cruise + Space = Movie???

Musk and Cruise are teaming up to film a movie in space. In space. IN SPACE. IN....SPACE.

Does Cruise think "Well, if I can't die from these Mission: Impossible movies, I might as well try space" or something?

This is pretty awesome, in some ways. I hope it happens and that it goes well.

Temuera Morrison Coming to The Mandalorian Season 2

Is he Rex, or is he Boba Fett, or is he both? That seems to possibly be the case. All three scenarios are quite awesome. It would be great to have some confirmation that Fett survived the Sarlacc Pit and that Rex was still kicking after Return of the Jedi

National Treasure
A third movie is still in the works, supposedly, as well as a Disney+ television series with a young cast that hasn't been confirmed to be a reboot, sequel or anything else in particular.

I liked those two films. They're silly, but they were fun. I'm definitely down for seeing a third and a possibly spin-off, if they can be done well. I'll at least check them out, for sure, so they have my endorsement at this level.

The Silence of the Lambs Sequel TV Show

They're making a TV series that's a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (but not just an adaptation of Hannibal, I guess, nor a continuation of that series). I don't know. I have to assume this is going to fail, but I do like those movies, so I need to see something out of it before I fully judge it. After all, the last series with Mads was pretty great, for the most part. Maybe this will have its positives, too.

TOPIC

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As requested through our Patreon "Pick Your Poison" tier by Marco, Fanboys Anonymous is providing you with another edition of the FanTracks podcast, this time for Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut.

For copyright reasons, we cannot provide the movie itself, but after a short introduction, you will be told when to sync your copy of the film so you can following along with us and listen to our thoughts on the movie as we crack some jokes, expose plot holes, and discuss anything else that comes to our minds for commentary.

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Welcome to the latest edition of Making the Grade—a review format segment here on Fanboys Anonymous where we break down the major components of something and give it a score based on the standard report card lineup: A, B, C, D, and F for a total failure.

The next report card is for possibly the end of the DC Animated Movie Universe, entitled Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, based on The Darkseid War storyline. Is it worth the watch, or should it be skipped?

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
Directed by Matt Peters and Christina Sotta
Written by Ernie Altbacker (screenplay) and Mairghread Scott (story)

STARRING: Jason O'Mara (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Matt Ryan (John Constantine), Jerry O'Connell (Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman), Taissa Farmiga (Raven), Stuart Allan (Damian Wayne / Robin), Tony Todd (Darkseid), Rosario Dawson (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Shemar Moore (Victor Stone / Cyborg), Rebecca Romijn (Lois Lane), Rainn Wilson (Lex Luthor) with Nathan Fillion (Hal Jordan / Green Lantern), Sean Astin (Billy Batson / Shazam), Jon Bernthal (Trigon) and many, many more

STORY: C–

So here's the thing. There isn't all that much actual story here. It's just that everything went to hell and they have to reboot the universe.

With that being said, it's still fun and interesting to see a world where it all ends and they can reset those dead characters and such. We rarely get a chance to watch characters meet their maker and progress in different ways.

As a story itself, it's lackluster. As an end to this series, it's okay. As a one-shot story board, in some sense, it's lots of fun.

CHARACTERS: B–

Most characters are on-beat from what they should be. I'm a fan of Damian Wayne turning into the new Ra's al Ghul, for instance. Batman overcoming his corruption was another noteworthy touch that had to happen. Even the idea that Lex Luthor would be working both sides is the way to go.

But it was still odd to see how so many characters, for the purpose of this story, had to stop acting like themselves. That throws things off a bit. Lots of people who should have put up better fights were nerfed. For instance, why did the Green Lantern Corps take 2 years and an attack on Oa to get off their asses?

TONE / ATMOSPHERE: A–

ACTION: Rock solid. Much more brutal than I anticipated.

DRAMA: You can't go wrong with the end of the world as far as stakes go.

COMEDY: No real chuckles, but that's not supposed to be the case with this movie.

ROMANCE: Lois and Clark had the proper relationship going.


ACTING: B+

Tony Todd is an underwhelming Darkseid to say the least. That voice just doesn't suit that character for my tastes. Everyone else was pretty spot on.

VISUALS (FX, MAKEUP, COSTUMES, SETS): A

I'm a fan of this visual style. I've repeated that over and over again. No complaints.

AUDIO (MUSIC / SOUND): B

Nothing memorable. Nothing stood out as great or awful. It was what it was.

• Why is Batman in his blue cape and cowl?
• Doomsday/Parademon hybrids? Yeeeesh. Aquaman cut in half? Damn. Of course J'onn gets caught on fire. He always does. Cyborg always loses limbs, too. Didn't expect that with Diana's arm, though.
• Batman converted into a new Metron of sorts? Cool idea. Also glad they alluded to how Lex Luthor would've been another option.
• "Oh for fuck's sake." - Raven getting an F bomb. Wow.
• I guess Luthor is more of a Desaad?
• Some good cameos in the Stryker's Island fight scene.
• "King Shark is a shark." - Are you just trying to be Groot?

GRADE: B+ (Pass)

As stated above, this is far from the strongest movie by itself, but it was an interesting end to this series. I'm a big fan of how they ended it with a new Flashpoint, as these types of reboots should always end in a Crisis type Flash reset of sorts. That was a good nod. I'm excited to see what this team works on next, if they decide to keep making animated films outside of the same running continuity.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Spy vs. Spy Movie in the Works

I've always said this property makes so much sense for a film. All you need to do is cast the right two leads and it is an easy pitch. Originally, I had thought they'd make one with Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. Now, maybe it's Kevin Hart and The Rock?

No More Universal Films in AMC Theaters

AMC Theaters is so upset about how Universal decided to release Trolls 2 on VOD instead of in theaters that they're claiming it's not an empty threat that they will NO LONGER run ANY Universal films in ANY of their theaters.

C'mon. Of course you will. You're not going to lose out on all the money to be made from Fast and Furious, Jurassic World, and so on.

SPUMC

Sony's ability to use Spider-Man characters is apparently being referred to as a universe called Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters.

SPUMC. That's not catchy at all.

The Flash Recasting Iris West

Kiersey Clemons was Iris West in the original DC films continuity and should have been in the movie that has been pushed back like 20 times. Now, I guess they're looking to replace her.

That's a shame. She struck me as someone who had some serious potential to break out, as well as to be a good Iris. Hopefully, she'll be something else even better along the line.

The Man in the MCU

Becky Lynch from WWE is supposedly in the running to be cast in an upcoming MCU film. As you probably know, my other site Smark Out Moment revolves entirely around pro wrestling, so I spend more time talking about Becky than I do even the MCU (despite the latter being something I'm even more fond of...but hey, if you want to change that, donate to the Patreon and I'll do more Fanboys content as I'll have more time to dedicate to it!). Anyway, no indication of what role in what movie she'd be cast in, if that does come to pass, but I'm a fan of The Man and I'm up for seeing her try her hand in some acting if that's on the table. I can't imagine her being a headliner by any means, like how I couldn't see her being She-Hulk, but maybe there's a role in something like The Eternals where she could pop in for a scene or so.

100 Week in Geek Posts

This is the 100th edition of this segment on the site. It's worked okay, overall, fulfilling my original intention of just getting some quick content up here so that there's more regular posting, but I'll fully admit this is nowhere near anything what I wanted it to be. In my ideal version of the site, not only would there be a full staff of people writing articles round the clock and doing tons of podcasts of all sorts of varieties (news reports, Group Meeting once a week, tons of FanTracks and stuff like fan casting and a whole lineup of segments I haven't even debuted as well as ones I want to bring back) but Week in Geek would be a weekly roundup of news in podcast form like the Hot Tags on Smark Out Moment Smack Talk. Just keep in mind that while this has happened 100 times so far in this format, it's not even 1/10th of what I want it to be. Hopefully, things change to get more in that direction, but I wanted to thank everyone who does check this out on a weekly basis and shows their support even when its very generic. Thank you!

I've been a fan of the James Bond film franchise since I was around 10 years old. I got into it the way many people did from that age bracket—through GoldenEye—which was exposed to me by friends of mine who had played GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64 and wanted to know what that game was all about.

In fact, I distinctly remember a friend of mine talking in class one day about how he had seen Tomorrow Never Dies and that it was the coolest thing ever, and I had no idea what he was talking about, at first. Fast-forward a few months later, I'm in a group of friends (coincidentally, not including that one) who are so Bond-obsessed that we're trying to find the Parker Jotter pens and assigning ourselves 00 numbers as if we're some secret club.

I've had over 20 years to think about the franchise, grow up in the Pierce Brosnan era, remember what it was like to find out that Daniel Craig was cast and absolutely hate that he was blonde (so much so that I sent an email saying I'd spend the $10 on a bottle of hair dye if they were that cheap) and so on. I was excited for Marc Forster to direct Quantum of Solace, which was a title I wanted them to use forever, and I was so bummed when that became one of my least favorite films. So on and so forth.

With all this in mind, I've always wondered what would be my "perfect" James Bond film. If I could take elements from each movie and mix and match, what would I end up with? Would I take George Lazenby and put him against Gustav Graves with Stacy Sutton as the main Bond girl? You'd bet your ass I wouldn't!

In order to get to this endgame, we need the 7 essential parts of what makes up a 007 film: the Bond, the Tone, the Villains, the Allies, the Gadgets, the Action and the Title.

001. The Bond

Everyone has their favorite Bond, for whatever reason. Most tend to go with Sean Connery as the standard-bearer or Daniel Craig because he's the new guy and that's what they're most familiar with. A lot of it depends on your age, as I know people in their 50s who swear Roger Moore was the best.

I think they all bring something to the table, for the most part, and if we're merging things, we need to pick and choose certain traits from each one.

When it comes to physique, it's clearly Craig. He's the most muscular of the bunch and that makes him more believable to endure so much punishment and pull off as many stunts.

I enjoy his brutality, in a lot of ways, but I think that should be mixed a bit with Connery and Timothy Dalton—easily the most underrated Bond of all time, if not my overall favorite.

My perfect James Bond is a killer, for sure, but he's not crashing into walls like a "blunt instrument" like Craig. He can scrap with someone like Red Grant and has no issue doing something like lighting Franz Sanchez on fire, but he's not doing parkour. Maybe mix in a little Brosnan strictly from GoldenEye.

As far as the face goes, you have to go with Brosnan. For that matter, he's got the charm, too. I know some people think Brosnan is "too pretty" for the role, but I think that actually helps, in a way. Bond should be attractive enough that you can understand at a moment's notice why every woman falls for him and why he's so damn cocky. I don't get that impression with Moore, for instance.

My perfect Bond is suave, smooth, and can charm the pants off anyone without being creepy about it or too misogynistic. Yes, that used to be the way to go, but it doesn't age well, and toning it down a bit is better. I don't at all want my Bond to smack a woman around and forcefully kiss her like Connery used to do. I want a Bond who can get Dr. Molly Warmflash to medically clear him for field action through sex. I bet you didn't expect a Warmflash reference to be pulled out here, eh?

Still, Bond should be a dick. He's an asshole. He's a jerk. He says some things that are just rude, he's stubborn and his ego is a big part of his flaws. I like my Bond to take someone's car keys and mess it up like Craig does in Casino Royale, or for him to yell "Switch the bloody machine off!!" like Dalton in License to Kill.

All of them have had those moments. Moore knocks the guy off the roof and tells Andrea Anders that if Francisco Scaramanga used one of his bullets on her, it would be a shame, because the bullets are expensive! Goddamn! Elektra tells Bond that he wouldn't kill her because he'd miss her, he shoots her and Brosnan says "I never miss."

But he should still care. He's still a good person. Connery mostly seems to just shrug things off too much for my liking to be a perfect Bond amalgam. I do love Moore snapping back "That's enough" when Anya Amasova brings up Tracy, or when Dalton is heartbroken at catching Della's garter.

Last, but not least, is the humor. Bond shouldn't be goofy, but he should be witty. The best at this was probably Moore, although he did go too far into the extreme at times. Think more puns and clver wordplay than acting silly.

For example, Connery saying "positively shocking" after electrocuting guy is great, or handing Fiona Volpe just her slippers to wear is brilliant. Brosnan telling Xenia he "shoots in and out" is good. Craig didn't have enough of these, but he had a great moment in Casino Royale when he tried to pass off Vesper's cover identity as "Miss Stephanie Broadchest" for instance.

It's all about balance. Give me an action star who is tall dark and handsome, charming, a jerk with a heart of gold and can quip when he kills someone.

002. The Tone

All Bond films are similar to each other, yet each one of them is different. In some ways, if you showed someone a Roger Moore film and a Daniel Craig film, without context, they'd think it was a different series altogether.

A lot of that has to do with the Bond himself, but even within each actor's run, there are deviations. GoldenEye is gritty, while Die Another Day has Bond fighting people named Mr. Kill and bad CGI surfing on icebergs. From Russia with Love is a rather serious spy film, while Diamonds are Forever is goofy as hell and damn near a parody of the franchise.

The movie has to be funny at points, but not at all campy. I don't want Bond doing things that are too fantastical, yet I don't want it to be nothing but dry and dour for the entire time without a hint of levity.

GoldenEye is my favorite of the films in part because of its balance, so you're going to see a lot of references to that here and elsewhere. I think it's got enough grit and seriousness, but with enough things to smile about and not feel too tense and depressing like Skyfall, even though I love how earnest that one is, in some ways.

Some of the Connery films are boring. I can't sit through Dr. No, for instance. Yet, somehow, that's also laughable. Why does it start with the Three Blind Mice shtick? It's all over the place and not all that interesting to watch.

Die Another Day was too over the top, even though it was off to a great start. Once Bond shaves, it goes wacky.

The Man with the Golden Gun is a film that I think could have been infinitely better if it had a different tone. The plot itself of a top-notch assassin wanting to kill Bond is great. When you throw in Nick Nack, as much as I love the guy, it's too silly, especially when paired with J.W. Pepper and the slide whistle for the car sequence.

Likewise, one of my other absolute favorites, License to Kill, is great for a deviation, but I don't think that hyper-revenge story is the way to go for a "perfect" Bond film blueprint.

The movie should take itself seriously. There should be humor, but never laughing at the movie, just with the movie. It's not supposed to be a Fast and Furious action flick, nor should it be Schindler's List.

003. The Villains and Plot

There are a couple tropes for Bond villains, to varying extremes. Sometimes, they want to destroy the planet. Sometimes, they just want to steal a device.

Like with any balance, I want a mixture of villains and for none of it to be boring, nor silly. Don't give me the Blofeld clones in Diamonds are Forever, which is wacky. Don't try to tie the villain into a figure skater subplot like For Your Eyes Only, which is one of my least favorites. For that matter, I love The Living Daylights (one of my favorites) but I still don't know what the hell Koskov's plan is. Diamonds, drugs, weapons, defections, pigs, borscht, cake...there must be another way!

Here's another great example: the beginning of Die Another Day with the hovercrafts floating over the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea is AMAZING and could have been the big plot of the film. However, having Colonel Moon do gene therapy to become Gustav Graves, create an Iron Man suit, smuggle diamonds and create a laser satellite weapon...stop throwing out tons of ideas that don't work together!

GoldenEye (surprise surprise) has perhaps my favorite balance of everything. It doesn't have everything I'm looking for in a villain plot, but it does check off a lot of the boxes by having Trevelyan, Xenia, Ourumov and Boris.

So here's my proposal of a breakdown of villains for a perfect Bond film:

Villain 1 = The Puppetmaster
- This person is manipulating people behind the scenes and acts as an evil M.
- You know who this is. It's Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He and S.P.E.C.T.R.E. are working with a #2 because they want something in return for offering their brilliance and resources.
- Blofeld needs to survive the film.

Villain 2 = The Warmonger / Warlord
- Ideally, this is a military general who is seeking power. They stand to gain something out of the evil plot, like becoming the ruler of their nation through a coupe or they're already in charge and want to invade another country. This person has his separatist brigade of followers who are goons that Bond can shoot at throughout the film. Ourumov is a great representation of this.
- If not that, they're a businessman like Hai Fat or Elliot Carver. The whole idea of this character is that they're the ones driving the plot forward from a face value level and they can be the "big bad" who dies.
- This is the bankroller in some situations if you don't have a Puppetmaster.

Villain 3 = The Evil Parallel
- A reflection of Bond. They know what he knows, so they can outsmart him or outmatch him in skills.
- This can be a former 00 agent like Silva or Trevelyan, an assassin like Scaramanga, a spy from another organization like Red Grant or some other variant like that.
- You may be able to merge this with the Warlord if you're trying to trim characters. The way to tweak that is that instead of a legit military guy, you make him a separatist random lunatic who has amassed a personal army by overthrowing someone or usurping some crappy little nation or whatever.

Villain 4 = The Femme Fatale
- The seductress who can get to Bond through one of his main weaknesses—the bedroom.
- Fiona Volpe and Xenia are great examples. Elektra King is another great one, but I think she's also a bit of the Warlord (Side note: I actually love her character and the Stockholm Syndrome angle of TWINE so much).
- Bond absolutely must have sex with her, and when she dies, he absolutely must say some kind of pun.

Villain 5 = The Heavy Henchman
- The physical threat. He is big, ideally has some kind of distinguishing feature (deformity, disfigurement or gimmick) and can nearly kill Bond with his fists.
- Jaws and Oddjob are templates for this.

Villain 6 = The Weasel / Tech Guy
- Someone who can be a pushover, but represents an intelligent side of the plan.
- Boris. Henry Gupta.

What is the overall goal and plot of the film, given these characters?

A very baseline idea would be that they've stolen some kind of weaponry and plan on using that to instigate a war they can profit from. In fact, keeping in mind that I'm repeating plot elements from movies we've seen already, I'll go full ham on this and toss this idea out there:

A rogue state that has seen a steady rise in power has stolen nuclear weaponry and assassinated several key figures of various nations. It's unknown what their connection is or what the plan is. Bond is sent to investigate based on the only evidence they have, which is some kind of diamonds smuggling operation used to fund these transactions, maybe. Diamonds are important to Bond films.

The terrorist leader of this separatist group is known by the codename Risico, who is the primary antagonist. He is a former 00 agent who was tasked to overthrow a dictator and create a military uprising in another country on behalf of MI6. However, he did his job too well. Over the years, the job turned him evil. The more death and destruction he saw and was directly responsible for, the more he became addicted to that thrill and became disgusted in bureaucracy and humans in general. He believes he's been righting the wrongs and he should be in control.

Risico started double-dipping, doing jobs for MI6 while also doing side gigs for S.P.E.C.T.R.E., who let him run around like a kid with a molotov cocktail. He does contract kills for them in exchange for amassing more power in this rogue nation that he's secretly been trying to build from the ground up like a slash and burn crop, while S.P.E.C.T.R.E. feels like they can kill him at any moment if he gets out of hand, but he's a great tool, for now.

Under Risico's command is a military general who is a pig of a human. Think General Medrano. He's clearly someone who provides the goons and is there to be the underling who thinks he's the right-hand man, but Risico just needs someone to boss around the mooks and do the dirty work.

Risico's trusty #2 for real is his femme fatale. She's the one he'll talk plans over with. Give her some sort of sexy name, but don't make it some obvious innuendo.

Risico's bodyguard is the heavy, and there's also his tech guy who can explain to him the bombs and such.

In the end, Blofeld is backing Risico because S.P.E.C.T.R.E. wants control over the land of this rogue nation (maybe the water/oil plot from Quantum of Solace) while the military general just wants a pure ego trip of power, Risico wants to watch the world burn, the bodyguard is just there for the hits and the femme fatale's motivations I'm not sure of. Tech guy is just thereto make money and push buttons and get killed in a humiliating fashion.

None of this factors in other elements of the plot, Bond's journey through the film and so on, of course, but that's your driving force as far as the villains go,

004. The Allies

So we've talked about the villains at length. Let's talk about the allies who will accompany Bond throughout this mission. These are actually a bit easier to decipher, as I'm just copying and pasting a lot of already great characters.

Ally 1 = M
- Judi Dench.
- She represents the motherly role in the film and is his stern boss who ultimately trusts him, even if she has to deride his decisions and chew him out here and there. They respect each other.
- Perhaps you even include the Defense Minister or someone breathing down M's back to explain why she's so harsh on Bond.

Ally 2 = Q
- Desmond Llewelyn mixed with Ben Whishaw
- The quartermaster who provides Bond with all his gadgets. He's on the meek side, will not be expected to do any action. He can literally just pop up in one scene to explain the gadgets and be there for levity.
- Bond respects him, but goofs off with him. Q finds 007 infuriating, but he likes him.

Ally 3 = Moneypenny
- I prefer Samantha Bond mixed with Lois Maxwell more so than Eve Moneypenny being some former field agent.
- I honestly don't think it's demeaning for there to be a female character who is a secretary of sorts. M could use a subordinate administrative assistant who has a flirtatious relationship with Bond to offset the motherly and stern woman in charge. They are in direct opposition of each other, which makes it fun.
- She doesn't go on the mission, just like Q doesn't. She helps with exposition and relaying information to Bond while flirting.

Ally 4 = Bill Tanner
- Someone for M to interact with and talk down to.
- Charles Robinson was awesome, but too cool for that spot. For that matter, I think Colin Salmon could've been a great 008. He was just too handsome and seemingly capable in his own right to be a Tanner.

Ally 5 = Felix Leiter
- Bond's buddy from the CIA.
- Merge David Hedison with Jeffrey Wright to give me the best Felix, but maybe throw in a little Jack Lord and Rik Van Nutter for flair.
- No J.W. Pepper, which was just too silly.
- No Jack Wade. I enjoyed him, but he should have been Felix (outside of the whole LTK injuries).

Ally 6 = Sacrificial 00 Agent
- Another 00 who can die at the beginning of the film.
- Cannot be 008. You need to keep that mystery that 008 is the other "good" one along with 007.
- We haven't seen 001 in a movie yet, right? Let's kill him/her off.

Ally 7 = Sacrificial Helper Buddy Ol' Pal
- Someone who can help Bond and then die.
- Think Quarrel or Sharkey.

Ally 8 = Sacrificial Bond Girl
- A tragic loss of a beautiful woman.
- Maybe she's dating the main villain and gets offed by him to show how evil he is, like Paris Carver or Solange.

Ally 9 = The Main Bond Girl
- This is the one Bond ends up with in the end.
- She should have some sort of skills, training or specialties that are valuable for the plot and allow her to serve a purpose other than being eye candy.
- Absolutely not just a damsel in distress like Stacy Sutton!
- Think Dr. Holly Goodhead, Natalya Simonova, or Dr. Christmas Jones but without the bad writing/acting.

005. The Gadgets and Cars

The Daniel Craig Era is frustratingly against this aspect of the franchise, and I don't know why. While I fully understand the idea of making things a bit grittier and realistic than an invisible car and whatnot, I feel they went too far in the opposite direction by just eradicating them entirely. It's as if they decide it's all or nothing—fantastical, or no gadgets at all.

In fact, there's that scene in Skyfall where Q specifically turns its nose up at the exploding pen in GoldenEye, as if that's one of the more laughable ones. In fact, it's one of the more serious and iconic ones! If you're going to poke fun at something, poke fun at the stupid alligator submarine!

My philosophy on the car and the gadgets is that it should be something that looks normal, but has a different function to it. For example, I like how the cell phone in Tomorrow Never Dies has the taser and the lock pick. I dig the Dentonite toothpaste in License to Kill and the grapple belt in GoldenEye.

It should also be something that helps Bond, but doesn't immediately solve all the problems in a contrived way. He shouldn't be given a catch-all plot device that would only be useful in one random situation and he just so happens to have the perfect thing to save the day. I think it's better when Bond uses it for an advantage, but still has to get out of the situation by being innovative.

As time has gone on, the gadgets are harder to do. No longer is a homing beacon anything special, for instance. It used to be impressive if he had a camera that he could carry around. Now, phones do that and more.

So on the pure gadget side of things, I think he needs four that should go with every movie: a phone, a watch, a tracking beacon of sorts and "something extra".

The phone should have some bonus stuff to it other than just a modern phone. Maybe the fingerprint scanner from TND? That or the watch should be a bomb. I like the watch laser, too. The tracking signal is just smart for MI6 to be able to know where he is.

"Something extra", aka the fourth gadget, is the highlight thing of the film. It's the one that's featured similar to the attache case in From Russia with Love or the wrist dart gun in Moonraker.

When it comes to the car, we all know it should be a silver/gray Aston Martin.

Equip it with machine guns, missiles, a license plate that can be changed (LED screen instead of a revolving one to modernize it?), an ejector seat, bulletproof glass, and so on.

006. The Set Pieces

There are three things to break down here: action sequences, random things that need to happen throughout the film and locations to visit.

Action Sequences

1. Car chase.
2. Brawl in a tight space. = the train fight in From Russia With Love, for instance. Bonus points if you have Bond do that thing where he slams someone to the left and right side of an elevator at some point in the movie, too.)
3. Compound shooting spree = Bond is either breaking out after having been captured or he's attacking the villain's lair with the intent of blowing it up after extracting someone.
4. A ticking clock scene = Bond is defusing a bomb, stopping a missile launch, etc.
5. Bond has to sneak into somewhere. Stealth portion of the movie. Ideally at the halfway mark or so while Bond is still gathering information about the villain's plot so as to not halt the pace.
6. Ski chase.
7. Water = a boat, submarine or underwater scuffle, if you have the time. 

Absolutely no Quantum of Solace editing with all the jump cuts and frenetic pacing.

Random Other Sequences

1. A casino scene where Bond converses with a villain (femme fatale, ideally) and wins the card game.
2. The movie starts with the gun barrel, leads into an opening action set piece, goes to the film's title sequence, then moves on to set up the villain's goals. Tomorrow Never Dies is a great example. 
3. Bond pretends to be someone else and uses an alias.
4. Bond sleeps with the femme fatale, seduces at least one other woman and also sleeps with the main love interest. In one of these scenes, Bond should show a preference for a certain year of Bollinger champagne.
5. Obviously, Bond has to order a martini that's shaken, not stirred.
6. Again, obviously, Bond has to introduce himself at some point in the movie as "Bond...James Bond."
7. Bond checks his hotel room for bugs, webcams and such.

Locations

1. MI6 Headquarters = This includes either M's office that Judi Dench used, or the one with the red door from the classic films, Skyfall and Spectre.
2. Casino
3. Villain lair compound (high tech, secluded)
4. Some beach location (sexy, bright, colorful)
5. Some Middle Eastern location (oppressively hot and dry)
6. Snow.
7. European nation (France? Italy? etc)
8. Russia, China, North Korea or somewhere that plays like a stereotypical bad place you wouldn't want to be. Don't want to go to Siberia and risk not coming out, for instance!

That probably covers the blueprint ideas, but something else that needs to be mentioned is that all of this stuff should try to be original from one to the next, while still hitting the tropes.

For instance, both Goldfinger and The Living Daylights have car chases, but are very different from each other. The skiing sequence from A View to a Kill is very different from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

007. The Title and Theme Song

The Title

I've tied these together because I think they counterbalance each other. It's hard to write a main theme for a film like Thunderball, because what the hell does that mean? But I think people approach the music in a film the same way they approach the title in that they can be memorable in their own right.

There are pretty much 2 ways to title a Bond film. Option A is something flowery and poetic (The World is Not Enough, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Quantum of Solace). Option B is to go with a single word that reflects the villain or something directly referenced in the plot (Goldfinger, GoldenEye, Moonraker).

I tend to like the more poetic titles. Diamonds are Forever, A View to a Kill, etc. But it shouldn't just be variations of Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day and No Time to Die. Don't make the blueprint film Death Dies a Kill and think you mean any sense.

I do love Never Send Flowers, For Special Services, High Time to Kill, By Royal Command and so on, admittedly. Zero Minus Ten is cool, too. However, if we're going with Risico as our blueprint villain name, let's go with "risk" somewhere in the title, if possible.

For my money, the way around that isn't to make this movie "Calculated Risk" or "Life and Limb" or "Risky Business". Instead, I think an ideal title they're sleeping on using is Devil May Care.

The Music

David Arnold does the score. He has a better track record than anyone and I absolutely love his recurring love theme. Massive credit to John Barry for setting the tone and for having some great things that go under the radar, like A View to a Kill, The Man with the Golden Gun and more. However, I'll pick David Arnold.

There should be a main theme, but also a secondary theme for the end credits. I love how The Living Daylights, License to Kill, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough all have two themes. For instance, "If There Was a Man" to parallel "The Living Daylights" and "The Experience of Love" for Tina Turner's "GoldenEye".

Ideally, one of them is a love song like Nobody Does it Better or All Time High and the other is more of a Goldfinger-esque theme.

I don't dig the rock stuff like You Know My Name and Another Way to Die. Granted, I do like those songs outside of the series, but I think Skyfall is infinitely better for a Bond film.

As far as who should sing the songs? One for a man, one for a woman. If I were to go with someone brand new, as opposed to bringing back Shirley Bassey or Adele, for instance, I think Sting would be a great choice for the male, with Lana Del Ray for the female.

Conclusion

There you go! That's how I think you should take all the staple ingredients of the Bond franchise, mix them all together, sift out the bad stuff, merge some concepts and come out with the best recipe for a perfect 007 movie.

How would you make this type of film, if given a chance? What aspects would you change from my blueprint? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!