Quark's

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37765690

This Salon feature from two weeks back provides a good overview of the 70+ year Godzilla franchise and its relevance to current audiences. There’s an analysis of where Monarch: Legacy of Monsters fits in the franchise’s themes.

Our relationship with Godzilla changes from movie to movie and age to age. Some films cast the King of the Monsters as a protector unconsciously joining humanity – and occasionally, King Kong – to fend off some mammoth existential evil. More often, he is a reckoning, reminding us of how puny we are in nature’s schemes...

…each springs from the same mutated DNA, mapping the source of Earth’s monster problems to mindless warfare, along with the intellectual vanity compelling man to seek an upper hand over nature instead of figuring out how to coexist.

Godzilla and the other Titans stampeding in his wake are post-World War II creations; Ishirō Honda, who directed the OG “Godzilla,” was a veteran of that war marked by his travel through the ruins of Hiroshima after the United States bombed its civilians and Nagasaki to force Japan’s surrender. The Geneva Conventions’ protocols made such acts illegal, but as we’re discovering with alarming frequency and force these days, laws are only as effective as our willingness to abide by them…

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37747581

An interesting and thorough reflection on how the original Godzilla (1954) was adapted to make Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956), with a framing story starring Raymond Burr, for the franchise’s introduction to American / English language audiences.

I hear Babylon 5 and The Expanse is nice, but I hear so little about those two shows I don't know what to expect of these stories.

live action as animated recommendation is allowed.

For those wondering about the $150 million lawsuit involving Jeff Shell — currently President of the merged Paramount but previously removed from his role as CEO at NBCUniversal in 2023 — THR has an in depth piece about R.J. Cipriani, the flamboyant FBI informant.

At his favorite corner table at the Venice restaurant Gjelina, Cipriani refers to himself as “a kamikaze,” “a lone wolf,” “a wild card” and “a fucking cowboy.” He drops names, cracks jokes, issues threats. On several occasions, he breaks into song. An observant Catholic, he says he’s recently been visiting his local church in Santa Monica multiple times a day to pray as he contends with “forces of evil,” adding, “I’m a soldier of God.”

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37577379

The first change.org petition to Renew “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” for a third season hit 30,000 signatures today, and is over 31,000 at the time of this post.

The one at the post link is the one launched from the UK with the regrettable, unofficial (likely AI) image. But it was up first and has been getting momentum.

There’s another one Renew Star Trek Starfleet Academy for a full season three, with the official key art poster that is about to break 5,000 signatures.

Between these two, Starfleet Academy now has more signatures than did Prodigy when Netflix picked up its second season.

Clearly this is causing consternation among some of those who have opposed the show from the outset. There are now opposing petitions Urge Paramount to shelve Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season two; Keep the Academy series permanently cancelled; and similar. None of these has significant traction.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37518395

I already find this very exhausting, but in the interest of fairness, here we go.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37528189

An interesting analysis of GvK’s place in the industry’s recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic emergency wound down sufficiently that theatres reopened.

Godzilla vs. Kong eventually earned $470 million worldwide, making it a true, unqualified success. It was the first sign that en masse moviegoing could still exist in whatever our new normal would look like.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/37449530

The sigh from me is wondering why Andy Weir felt it necessary to use a platform like ‘criticaldrinker’ to go out of his way to trash recent Star Trek.

“They didn’t accept my pitch so fuck em,” doesn’t really sell me on putting my dollars and eyeballs towards the success of his movie — no matter a great performance by Ryan Gosling or great production values.

Rather tells me why all Weir’s heros are lone-guy-saves-all-on-his-own tropes.

Quoting Weir in the interview:

Later, Marsden brought up the divisive Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which Paramount+ recently confirmed will end after its already-shot second season.

“I think we can probably safely never talk about it again,” Marsden quipped. 

“It’s gone baby!” Weir cheerfully agreed. “It’s all gone.” 

Marsden said his advice to Paramount is to de-canonize everything Star Trek from Enterprise onward.

“Okay, you’re a little more severe than I am,” Weir said. “I’ll give you my opinion and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go. And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman]. I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fuck ’em.”

ReFrame, the gender equity coalition founded in 2017 by Sundance Institute and WIF (formerly Women in Film), has issued a new study spotlighting a reversal of gender-balanced hiring in film in 2025…

…Progress for directors peaked in 2023, with 20 women and nonbinary directors represented in the Top 100 films. With regard to lead roles, inclusion peaked in 2024, when there were 51 women, including one transgender performer, cited. In 2025, only 11 women directors and just seven women of color in lead roles were represented on IMDbPro’s Top 100 list. There was zero inclusion of transgender or nonbinary individuals as directors or in lead roles.

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/manton.bsky.social/post/3mgqaogbisk25

It sounded like a stretch to me at first, but if you consider that the very concept of intelligence as something quantifiable and measurable (like IQ) implies a linear scale where some (guess which ones) people are simply better.

The funding behind AI comes out of a belief that it can be a tool to control and influence the population. It makes sense that it's origins would be in something similar.

While those of us who were already fans of the Monsterverse extended Godzilla universe continuity have been watching Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on AppleTV, it turns out that Amazon Prime has had a licence to stream it until March 31st.

Currently, the second season of this popular action epic is rolling out on Apple TV, but season 1 is one of the most-watched Prime Video shows on the planet at the moment. This brief stint on Prime Video will be short-lived, however, since the series will be removed from Prime Video less than 2 weeks on April 1, 2026. Don't miss your chance to binge this celebrated series before it's gone.

If you’re thinking of giving Monarch a try, and don’t have AppleTV, this may be a good opportunity.

This exceptional case, where the family and estate of the late Val Kilmer are supportive of a generative AI constructed performance, seems likely to become a precedent.

So Sony bought Pixomondo from an equity capital firm in 2022, and now is shutting down its vfx business and integrating what’s left to internal production.

Star Trek vfx supervisor Brian Tatosky has reacted on Mastodon:

Well this is a bummer. Guess they wont be bidding the VFX versions of the VAD stuff we just shot a month or so ago.

@virtualbri@mastodon.online

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/36996137

A comprehensive perspective on the Guinness Book of World Records longest running screen franchise from The Irish Examiner.

Having a the perspective of an Irish fan and media critic is interesting - Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and other Godzilla media do consistently less well in English speaking countries other than the United States.

From the piece:

But why are giant monsters enjoying a resurgence in 2024, when big franchises such as Marvel are going through a slump? How is it that we have gone cold on men and women in spandex costumes, while we embrace kaiju laying waste to our cities?

“Kaiju have become the new superheroes. Much like anime, after years of blossoming in its niche fandom here in the West, kaiju have expanded into mainstream popularity,” says Nathan Marchand, host of  The Monster Island Film Vault podcast.

An interesting read that reflects on the state of decision-making in Hollywood at the moment.

The piece has the air of old ‘Kremlin-watching’ analyses in foreign affairs circles.

It’s truly bizarre that Geller and Zhao were given an official decision late on a Friday, just before launching major promotional events for other projects.

A rather timely report following last evening’s Oscar Awards ceremony.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/36900956

Reading through speculation about what the **Monsterverse’s new kaiju Titan X aka Le Gran Dios de la Mar may be (such as the article linked above), it sounds increasingly as though she may be a new protective mother figure, impacted or possibly even responding to the effects of global heating on the oceans.

If so, this season’s Titan threat may put Monarch: Legacy of Monsters in a unique position among current major science fiction streaming shows in directly taking on a Climate Change/Emergency scenario with no gloss of allegory.

It is nonetheless absolutely in keeping with the long tradition of the broader franchise in critiquing the consequences of human actions on the planet.

The 70+ year Godzilla franchise is unique in embedding the impact of humanity on the Earth’s environment from its outset.

The narrative of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as later nuclear weapons testing and nuclear power plants, calling up kaiju, literally “strange creature”, is a constant within the franchise.

In addition to atomic/nuclear radiation, films such as Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971), with its smog monster, and the more recent Monsterverse film Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), which ends with Godzilla leading an ecological recovery, the franchise continues to underscore its deep theme that humanity shares the Earth and will bear the consequences for its actions.

Tamara Deverell, who took over Discovery production design after the two pilot episodes, and carried through to the end of season two, shares the Production Design Oscar 2026 for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein with Shane Vieau.

Star Trek fans especially appreciated Deverall’s respectful recreation of the 1701 bridge for Discovery season two.

Tig Notaro’s film Come See Me in the Good Light was nominated for Best Documentary but did not win.

For those of us wondering how fragile the Skydance-Paramount + WBDiscovery financial construct actually is, it seems that the markets are posing similar questions.

TLDR: despite Ellison senior’s guaranteeing the additional billions in debt, the ratings firms are reclassifying Paramount downwards into a junk bond category.

From the article:

Fitch Ratings said Monday that it placed Paramount on its “negative” ratings watch, and downgraded its credit to BB+ from BBB-, which puts the company’s credit into “junk” territory. Fitch said it took action due to “uncertainty” surrounding Paramount’s $110-billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, which the boards of both companies approved on Friday.