Prime Video is giving the world of man the gift of The Rings of Power. Fear not, I don’t think we will all become Ring-Wraiths but who know!? Premiering September 2, Rings takes us to a Middle Earth we have never seen before. The story tracks the great elves Galadriel and Elrond and the rise of the great evil that will eventually become Sauron. Although not directed by Peter Jackson, Prime has cultivated the talents of multiple directors to bring the world of Middle Earth in stunning vivid detail. Faithful to the Jackson franchise, Rings is filmed in the breathtaking landscapes in New Zealand and, as of this post, will become the most expensive episodic show ever filmed. For fans of the Hobbits, fear not, the final scene in the trailer appears to show the Hobbits making their way to The Shire for the first time. Since I’ve rambled for an Elf age, I’ll just leave you with the trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video, September 2nd.
Marvel Studios dropped the first trailer for the upcoming Moon Knight series starring Oscar Issac (Star Wars, Dune). We see Isaac’s character, Stephen, struggling with deciphering what’s dream and reality, insomnia, and, due to being chained to the bed, lycanthropy?? While I’m certain he won’t become a werewolf, he definitely will become the vigilante, Moon Knight. Traditionally, Moon Knight is the crime-fighting alter ego…well ONE of “Stephen’s” alter egos. Besides becoming Moon Knight, Stephen also struggles with dissociative identity disorder which is probably why the voice on the other end of the cell phone calls him Marc. Marc Spector is also one of his identities. The departure here is that we don’t know if Moon Knight is a supernatural character or his “transformation” is a byproduct of his mental health issues. Ethan Hawke’s character, Arthur Harrow, says to him “You have chaos in you!” This could refer to Moon Knight’s mental status OR perhaps could harken (or should I say Harkness) to Wandavision and the chaos magic Scarlett Witch possesses. Either way, I’m sure we will be in for a helluva ride when Moon Knight hits Disney+ on March 30th of this year. Don’t believe me? Check out the trailer below…
On December 19, I ventured down to Ontario, California for the 2021 Comic Con Revolution, held annually at the Ontario Convention Center. I was curious to see how they were going to approach Covid protocols and I was greatly impressed with their forward thinking and planning. For those who were vaccinated, a simple check of your vaccination card was required. For those unvaccinated, they required a negative test within 72 hours of attending. Here was the best part…they had a testing facility on site where you could have a rapid test administered for $40. For those of you who would balk at that price, our local hospital charges $100 for rapid tests so I was quite impressed.
Outside of the venue, you were greeted by some of the most iconic vehicles from film and television including KITT from Knight Rider and the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Inside the venue, the badge pick up was run with impeccable efficiency. I was able to pick up my press pass and my daughter’s daily pass in a matter of moments. A QR code was displayed that gave you the entire layout of the convention center as well as autograph alley and the seminar rooms.
Staff was on hand at frequent intervals to direct you and answer any questions you might have. The only comparison I can give this is to that of the Disneyland staff. No convention worker left me without an answer to a question and they seemed as genuinely excited to be back as we were to have them back.
Autograph alley offered several opportunities to meet voice actors from shows like Avatar The Last Airbender and Naruto as well as the original Flash Gordon, Sam J. Jones. Legendary writer Chris Claremont of Uncanny X-Men fame was there and had a massive crowd. The highlight for me was Timothy Zahn. Zahn is the author of The Heir to the Empire saga of Star Wars novels which introduced us the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn has been featured in the animated Rebels show and will be making a live action appearance in the upcoming Ashoka Tano series on Disney+.
We here at NOWHERE CALIFORNIA will be looking forward to attending next year as well and will leave you with these pictures from this year‘s Ontario Comic Con Revolution.
Disney has dropped the first trailer for the highly anticipated The Book of Boba Fett. After the legendary bounty hunter’s return in The Mandalorian, Boba Fett was announced as the first spinoff series from a Disney+ exclusive series. From the looks of the trailer, Book of Boba Fett gives of major Godfather in a galaxy far far away vibes and tracks Fett’s rise to mob boss status. BoBF will be a late Christmas gift, arriving on Disney+ December 29th, 2021. In the meantime, enjoy the first look at The Book of Boba Fett.
It has been said that you can’t go home again and for Peter Parker, the journey home has been rougher then the average person. In “Far From Home”, we left the web slinger watching his world and secret identity being exposed to the world. Now, two years and some corporate entities coming to terms, we have our first look at the next entry in the saga of everyone’s favorite neighborhood Spiderman.
The world has been patiently waiting for our first look at the post “Far From Home” world and it was worth the wait. We get a quick taste of how Peter’s life is upside down and what lengths he is willing to go to fix things, but the problem is the aftermath of this resolution and the effects he is not ready to put into action. In this confusion and deeper dive into the multiverse, we get a peek into the variant worlds of the web slinger and some ghost’s of franchises past are unleashed in this current Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This trailer is the tip of the titanic sized iceberg, we know the casting “rumors” and the road leading to this film’s release, so the “No Way Home” reveals should be unleashed faster and we will be ready.
Spider-Man: No Way Home Hits Theaters December 17,2021
(Joshua Gilmore-Staff Writer) Satu Runa is not a stranger to the land of Nowhere California. In our early life, we crossed paths in the convention world and learned about the project known as “Queen Gorya.” Now, after a few years and a creative evolution on both sides, Satu has returned to the world of Kickstarter with a different crown on top of her head.
As of this writing, Satu is crowd funding a one woman musical entitled “King Nigel’s Nervous Breakdown” This production was created and stars Satu as the title character who is a rising musician that has to come to terms with a trouble past and over come a nervous breakdown.
I could attempt to explain this project and production more, but I would recommend hearing it from the creator herself.
This is a simple piece, because the information is above for you to consume. As I stated above, the Nowhere California team has been lucky enough to watch Satu escalate and develop her talents. The time we were able to watch “Queen Gorya” go from kickstarter to screen was a lesson of dedication and passion for the craft, from the looks of King Nigel it doesn’t look like anything has change and has only evolved.
There is only a few short days remaining for this project and I would recommend giving this project a shot, even if the goal is reached, continue to support until the time hits zero. Throughout our almost 10 year existence, Nowhere California has taken pride in spotlighting the world of independent creativity and this is a project that deserves to stand center stage.
About a half an hour ago, we got our first teaser trailer for the upcoming Marvel film, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) takes center stage and the Kung-Fu action is high. Although details are vague, we get a glimpse of Awkwafina as Katy and what appears to be the REAL Mandarin. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens 9-3-2021 in theaters nationwide. Check out the trailer below.
The cold months have finished and the hiatus is finally over, the time has returned for the guys from Nowhere to show off their junk. As I let that opener sink in, I will give you the traditional reminder of what this column is all about and avoid hate mail or unsolicited nudity.
Show Us Your Junk is the reoccurring article from Nowhere California that can be summed up as an ongoing pop culture show and tell. The team behind Nowhere are hardcore nerds and collectors, so they have some stories to share and they hope you will be ready to jump in the mix, but more on that later.
In this installment, I stick my toes into the world of unboxing and show off my latest delivery from Loved Again Media..
Loved Again Media is a movie addict’s dream and I’m not being paid to say that. This is a company to take a bigger look at and this will not be the last time you hear about this service on Nowhere California.
Holy shit it’s MORTAAAAL KOOOOOOMBAT!!! The first trailer for the long awaited relaunch of the wildly famous, gore filled video game based film has hit harder than Kano with an uppercut!! After FINISHING IT!! several times, I can confidently say it’s a FLAWLESS VICTORY!! Okay I’ll shut the fuck up with the cliches and just give you the official Warner Bros. synopsis and the trailer below. Mortal Kombat hits theaters and HBOMax on April 16th, 2021.
MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage-or why Outworld’s Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family’s safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) at the direction of Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang) and rogue mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), as he prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana-the immense power from within his soul-in time to save not only his family but to stop Outworld once and for all?
(Joshua Gilmore-Staff Writer) In July, Nowhere California launched the first edition of “The Greatest Scene Ever.. This Week” and in a reverse of any truth in labeling laws, it’s time for the next installment. Before we continue, let us remind you about the reason behind this article.
“The Greatest Scene Ever.. This Week” gives the Nowhere California faction and our followers a chance to take a long, hard look at a specific scene of interest from the world of pop culture. The scenes in question will be selected for their importance and will be deconstructed in that special Nowhere California way, but there will be some random times where the scene will speak for itself and we’ll add our own commentary into that mix.
The first installment of this article took us to the familiar surroundings of the movie theater, but I will be taking a trip to the couch and the small screen. This scene comes from the iconic television series M*A*S*H, this series was based on the movie from 1970 (which was based on the book written by Richard Hooker) and the series ran for 11 seasons.
I’ll save you from the history lesson on M*A*S*H, since this show predates most of you, but I would highly recommend checking out this series as a whole. If you take that trip, enter with an open mind and realize that some of this shows aspects are clearly out of date, but the creativity and positives outweigh the negatives and this moment from “Abyssinia, Henry” will show why.
The original air date for this episode was March 18,1975 (Season 3 Episode 24) and saw the closing to the story of Lt. Col. Henry Blake (played by McLean Stevenson) Blake was discharged from the ARMY and everyone at the 4077 prepare to say their goodbyes, but the story doesn’t end there and it doesn’t end happily.
At this time, this scene was groundbreaking and shocking to the television viewers. M*A*S*H was exposing people to the side of a war no one could imagine and this series had just killed off a major character. Normally, a character would leave and their story would end there, but the creative minds wanted to take it to a new level.
As stated above, this series predates many of the readers of this site and predates the internet, so there have been varying takes on how this scene unfolded before the cameras rolled and the truth is better then fiction on this one, as a long standing myth had been debunked in recent years.
The urban legend was that none of the actors knew about this closing scene, they were called to set and reacted to the announcement of Radar for the first time. Personally, I ran with this information and recently learned the truth. The first part of this information came from the pages of “The Complete Book Of M*A*S*H” and from the man that portrayed Cpl. Maxwell Q. Klinger, Jamie Farr.
Farr says in the book, “The last episode of the third year … when we read the script page and found out that Henry died, we were all stunned, and Larry Gelbart asked for comments and a lot of people had their say. But I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think they would really care what I had to say. I happened to agree with doing it, but I didn’t say a word. The whole thing about Henry’s death was very hush-hush. I had already finished my scenes and was at home waiting for a call about the end of season wrap party. Loretta Swit was finished also. Then I got a call from the studio asking me to come in for an added scene, and they said Loretta was coming, too. I asked if I needed the pages ahead of time, if I had to study any lines, and they said no, not to worry, it was a quick scene in the OR and just to come on in. I said fine. I came down and they called all the regulars into a corner and Larry had a big manila envelope and he pulled out these pages. We couldn’t believe what we had read. We blocked it without saying a word so the crew wouldn’t know anything until we actually did it.”
This story was confirmed by the series creator, Larry Gelbart. Gelbart confirmed the story in his book “Laughing Matters” He discusses the casts reactions to Blake’s finale and how the production unfolded.
“Having Henry die was not a show-business decision; we were not punishing an actor for leaving the series. We were trying to make his departure one that would be apt, as well as memorable,” Gelbart made this comment when some people thought the character’s death was revenge toward Stevenson’s departure.
The history of television will have multiple iconic moments and the death of Henry Blake still hits the right emotional buttons. M*A*S*H is part of the foundation that modern television is built on, but this show could not happen today and that is a good thing. M*A*S*H was a moment in time and the moments where the world learns the fate of Henry Blake will not be forgotten. In the creative world, this was a game changer and this scene opened the door on taking a risk, when your audience would least expect it.
NOWHERE CALIFORNIA 