u/LawrenceBrolivier

From the article (by Rodrigo Perez)

>After a dubious report began circulating online claiming that the follow-up had been indefinitely shelved, Asbell responded directly on Twitter with a single word: “Nope.”

>Obviously, that’s not a detailed production update. The sequel still does not have a publicly announced director, production start or release date. But when the studio executive overseeing the film flatly rejects a claim that it has been abandoned, that should settle the immediate question.

>The rumor originated with World of Reel, which attributed the claim to one anonymous source before filling out the item with “maybe” and “who knows” speculation about supposed creative disagreements involving producer Ridley Scott. The hedging-bet nature of the report already framed itself as questionable, and Asbell’s public denial makes the report look even shakier.

>Adding another wrinkle, screenwriter and filmmaker Brian Duffield retweeted Asbell’s denial. Duffield has recently been rumored to be writing a new “Alien” movie for 20th Century, with both online reporters Daniel Richtman and Jeff Sneider said to have heard about his involvement. However, none of the reporting established whether Duffield is working on the “Romulus” sequel, rewriting it or developing an entirely separate entry in the franchise.

And this is why you don't share that site's shit here. Not just because it's amateur-hour in all aspects and always has been, but the "rumors" and "leaks" that come from there end up getting refuted by - in this case - the guy running the studio. And if you're going so far as to crop your screencaps and avoid/omit direct links to where you got it from, chances are pretty good you already know better anyway, lol.

ANYWAY: Movie's not canceled. Movie's still movie-ing. It's possible Brian Duffield is the one making it? Twitter sucks and so does World of Reel. Try using less of both, until you're using none, and then something good will have happened!

The password for the wifi is >!gofastboatsmojito!<

The 1080p blu-ray steelbook (with both cuts of the film) is currently out-of-print ahead of a 4K re-release coming soon. You can buy the standard blu-ray (of the extended director's cut) for less than $10 basically anywhere. The theatrical version is available as part of a 2-pack that includes The Kingdom (why, I don't know). FWIW: Mann has since gone back on that "director's cut" and no longer considers it his preferred version.

Or you can use.... other methods to procure yourself a copy of The Miami Nice Cut, which combines the theatrical and director's cut together with a necessary needledrop replacement.

Speaking of which: also check out the podcast "Miami Nice" (from whence the cut originates) from the makers of One Heat Minute, starring Blake Howard and Katie Walsh. One of their frequent guests?

BILGE EBIRI: who wrote this piece for Vulture about 5 years ago, entitled "Miami Vice's Journey from Misfire to Masterpiece" Link goes to archived version so you're not paywall blocked.

If you haven't revisited it in awhile, tonight is the night. Don't worry about Neptune. His time will come.

From the article, ACTUAL DETAIL about how they remastered the film!

>Now, Rialto Pictures is bringing “Manhunter” back to U.S. theaters in a new Mann-approved version designed to enhance the film’s depth, visual clarity, and sound. “Manhunter: The Final Cut” will open on American screens on July 24 and in the UK (from StudioCanal) on September 25.

>Mann’s goal in creating a new version of the movie was to not only restore it to its former glory but to utilize new technology to create an experience as visceral for audiences in 2026 as the original was in 1986. “If the picture was left the way it was, it would be interesting, but you’d feel some distance,” Mann said. “You’d be observing it somewhat. I’m more interested in its original intent impacting you the same way it may have in 1986 … that is, to bring you into it again in the original way.”

To be real, got to that point of the article and started getting nervous because Mann is maybe the only other director besides Lucas (and now Fincher) to have made being a home video revisionist a KEY thing in his career. The theatrical version of Heat hasn't been available for decades now - and that's a title I don't think a lot of people know has been altered like 2 or 3 times since it first hit DVD. But anyway:

>To that end, a new 4K scan of the original 35mm negative (with a few shots from an interpositive) was conformed and digitally restored at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna. Both the theatrical version and the UHD HDR & SDR video color gradings were performed by Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3 in Los Angeles under Mann’s supervision. Sound restoration was done at Audio Mechanics from an original 35mm magnetic 6-track printmaster to release a new 5.1 mix by Luke Schwartzweller at Fox. Technical coordination and deliveries were managed by L’Immagine Ritrovata. The project was supervised by Becca Mann and StudioCanal’s Jean-Pierre Boiget and Delphine Roussel.

>“We have carefully remastered the film to try to evoke that mood and intensity, heightened with audio sourced from the original 5.1 35mm analog masters,” Mann added. “This latest iteration is that version of the film with which I’m most satisfied.”

Well goddamn, will you look at that: Doesn't say anything about using AI upscaling or generative "fixing" or whatever. Pretty curious to see what he thinks a Final Cut of this should look and move like, though. I still think the theatrical version is maybe a lesser-appreciated masterpiece of Mann's (he has like 4 of em) but it's absolutely a masterpiece in that form. Anyway - JULY 24th - in theaters! September 2026... smell yourself in the comfort of your own home!

From the article:

>Sonic The Hedgehog writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller will write the project, and build on an earlier draft of the screenplay by Derek Kolstad. The action game franchise began as a popular video game series in the 1990s and has sustained strong sales.

I think this... might be the first video game adaptation based on a game that was, itself, a blatant ripoff of a better, more successful game (in this case, Final Fight). Although Streets of Rage 2 is one of the greatest side-scrolling beat 'em ups of all time. A ton of that is down to its soundtrack, which is also absolutely laden with uncleared samples and stolen riffs, LOL.

Not sure what Casey/Miller/Kolstad are trying to do with this story (I also think this might be the first movie adaptation of a side-scrolling beat 'em up since... Double Dragon?) but this whole thing should probably be a dance-music mixtape circa 1992, turned up so loud that everyone is subtitled at all times because they can't hear each other, and then every 15 minutes like 40 people get beat to death so the story can progress

which is, of course, indicated by a blinking arrow pointing right.

This one goes out to all the AI-apologists out there, finally something you can half-ignore while you're doing laundry that doesn't have any of that pesky human interaction going on:

>Alexa Plus, Amazon’s upgraded AI assistant, can now generate podcasts on “virtually any topic,” according to an announcement on Monday. With the update, Amazon says you can give Alexa Plus a topic, and the AI assistant will offer an overview of what its AI hosts plan to talk about, allowing you to steer the conversation and adjust its length before it starts generating the episode.

>Some “Alexa Podcast” examples shared by Amazon have two AI-generated hosts talking about the history of the Roman Empire, new music, and expectations for the World Cup. Amazon says you can also ask Alexa Plus to generate audio lessons about the Apollo missions, or create a podcast episode about a new hobby, like photography. The feature is similar to the AI-generated podcasts you can create using NotebookLM, a capability Microsoft Edge also snapped up in a recent update. Amazon says the AI-generated podcast episodes will draw information from the 200 news publications the company has partnered with

I'm betting its only a matter of time before the other AI-assistants incorporate this, and then all of them obfuscate that it's been incorporated, and simply start offering AI-generated podcasts up as if they're real, and people start following them without realizing there aren't any actual human beings behind them. And then defending that they listen to them anyway once they do learn because that's usually how that works. "You can't stop it, you might as well accept it" etc etc