'His finest hour': Henson biographer Brian Jay Jones and I chat about 'Muppet Family Christmas'
You can’t watch this Christmas classic on Disney+. We talk about why. PLUS: The DC Studios shakeup continues, ‘Wakanda Forever’ tops the box office again, and NFT-pushing celebs get sued.
I adore A Muppet Family Christmas. It was my first entry into the world of Jim Henson. My mom taped it off TV, and our family would watch it on VHS year after year after year. Now, you can watch several bootlegged versions on YouTube.
Why YouTube and not streaming or Blu-ray, you ask? Surely, someone could be making money on this thing.
A Muppet Family Christmas, in its original form with all its songs and characters, does not exist on any official streaming service or physical media.
Happy Monday, and thanks for reading Popculturology. I love writing about pop culture, and I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter. If you do, please subscribe. It’s the easiest way to make sure you get every edition of Popculturology. Now let’s get to the news.
Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot on the set of Wonder Woman 1984. / Warner Bros.
The DCU shakeup continues
It’s been a week for DC Studios and the former DCEU. Among the carnage: Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman sequel (and possibly Gal Gadot as the title character), a Black Adam sequel, Henry Cavill’s return as Superman and Jason Momoa in the role of Aquaman.
So. As for the story yesterday in the Hollywood Reporter, some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven’t decided yet whether it’s true or not.
Although this first month at DC has been fruitful, building the next ten years of story takes time & we’re still just beginning.
[Peter Safran] & I chose to helm DC Studios knowing we were coming into a fractious environment, both in the stories being told & in the audience itself & there would be an unavoidable transitional period as we moved into telling a cohesive story across film, TV, animation, and gaming.
But, in the end, the drawbacks of that transitional period were dwarfed by the creative possibilities & the opportunity to build upon what has worked in DC so far & to help rectify what has not.
We know we are not going to make every single person happy every step of the way, but we can promise everything we do is done in the service of the STORY & in the service of the DC CHARACTERS we know you cherish and we have cherished our whole lives.
As for more answers about the future of the DCU, I will sadly have to ask you to wait. We are giving these characters & the stories the time & attention they deserve & we ourselves still have a lot more questions to ask & answer.
That said, what’s he really going to say here? “Yup, we’re cleaning house. It’s all gone. We wanted a fresh slate.” No. Of course not.
My main takeaway from Gunn’s statement is that he didn’t deny any specific of the THR piece and he all-caps focused on “STORY” and “DC CHARACTERS.” Not specific actors. Not specific movies. Gunn and Safran are going to do whatever they have to do to tell the stories they want with the characters they want.
It sounds like Warner Bros. Film Group heads Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy asked Jenkins to take another run at a treatment for the sequel after feeling that her take wasn’t working. Jenkins refused and reportedly told De Luca and Abdy “that they were wrong, that they didn’t understand her, didn’t understand the character, didn’t understand character arcs and didn’t understand what Jenkins was trying to do.”
TheWrap also confusingly reported that Jenkins’ Wonder Woman sequel was one of a few “ongoing enterprises” that “nobody was going to mess with.” (The others in that group are allegedly Matt Reeves’ Batman sequel, Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Superman project.)
Steven S. DeKnight, the showrunner on Daredevil’s first season and director of the Pacific Rim sequel, had written a treatment for a Man of Steel sequel. Warner Bros. execs weren’t a fan of the treatment, but before another set of writers could take a run at the project, Gunn and Safran arrived.
In addition to that, Flash and Batgirl screenwriter Christina Hodson was repeatedly working on a Batman Beyond adaption that would’ve continued Michael Keaton’s return as Batman, possibly showing him romantically involved with Catwoman in the future.
Heat Vision also had some Superman news, reporting that there was a “long-range plan” to return Henry Cavill as Superman that would’ve happened through a massive Crisis on Infinite Earths adaption. Unfortunately, Dwayne Johnson’s independent push to bring Cavill back for Black Adam derailed that plan.
Taylor Swift is directing a movie
Taylor Swift knows you can’t EGOT without an Oscar. The singer/songwriter is jumping into the moviemaking game and will direct an original script she’s written for Searchlight Pictures.
“Taylor is a once in a generation artist and storyteller. It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey,” Searchlight presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield said (via Variety).
No word on a title, plot or cast for Swift’s film, but she has Guillermo del Toro on her side.
Idris Elba and Tom Taylor in The Dark Tower. / Sony Pictures
The Dark Tower rises again
The Dark Tower movie we got in 2017 is barely a movie. Yes, it has actors reading lines, was recording in some form and then shown it theaters, but it failed on just about every other level. (I know that it didn’t fit the character’s description in the books, but Idris Elba as Roland Deschain was pretty cool.)
Now Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy will attempt to turn Stephen King’s sprawling set of novels into a television series. Deadline broke the news on Thursday that Flanagan, the filmmaker behind Doctor Sleep and Netflix’s The Haunting series, has written a pilot and season outlines for a Dark Tower adaption.
Rights to this project exist outside of Flanagan and Macy’s former Netflix deal and current Amazon deal. Flanagan did cite Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as an example of “current shows on Prime Video that fit your palette of tone, genre treatment and budgets that you’d like to have for your shows,” so that bodes well for Dark Tower if it winds up at Amazon.
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I own a PS4. I don’t play it often. I bought it when everyone else in the world bought a PS4 to play Sony’s Spider-Man game. (Absolutely worth it.) Since then, I’ve played Star Wars Jedi: Outcast and a bit of MLB: The Show. (There are too many games in an MLB season.)
Thanks to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and the upcoming Spider-Man 2 video game, I’m going to have to buy a PS5. Don’t tell Caitlin. It’ll be a surprise.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be available on March 17, 2023.
Tyler James Williams and Quinta Brunson in the Abbott Elementary episode “Holiday Hookah.” / ABC
Abbott Elementary
“They have to now. It’s time,” my wife said as Gregory and Janine almost kissed at the end of Abbott Elementary’s Christmas episode.
Assuming we’re following the Office template, which Abbott Elementary has expertly navigated through its first and second seasons, this show should have its “Casino Night” moment by the end of this season.
Rick and Morty
Remember last week when I was bragging about being caught up on Bob’s Burgers? I thought I was about to check Rick and Morty off my list of shows only to realize that the universe somehow snuck not one but two episodes into my YouTube TV library.
I tackled the crassly named “Analyze Piss” on Saturday, instantly recognizing Will Forte’s voice as the episode’s villain Piss Master. (Or was Jerry the true villain?) Which member of Congress will be courageous enough to propose a law requiring Forte’s Last Man on Earth to get a final season before anyone greenlights a Big Bang Theory revival?
Cameron Diaz and Jude Law in The Holiday. / Columbia Pictures
The Holiday
This is one that I had never seen but Caitlin suggested watching over the weekend. It passed the “is it worth $3.99 to rent through Apple?” test, and we set out to watch The Holiday, Nancy Meyers’ Christmas romcom.
Two questions right away with this one: What ever happened to Jack Black: Leading Man? And remember when Jude Law was in every movie? (Chris Rock does.)
Points to whoever convinced Meyers to write and direct Make Cameron Diaz and Jude Law Kiss: The Movie.
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Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short during this week’s Saturday Night Live monologue. / NBC
Um, where’s the Saturday Night Live section that usually runs on Mondays?
Don’t worry, it’s bigger and better. I’ve spun the section off as its own newsletter! Deep SNL Thoughts publishes on Sundays, and the first edition is already live.
Winston Duke as M’Baku in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. / Marvel Studios
Weekend of Dec. 9-11, 2022
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (1) Weekend gross: $11.1M / Total domestic gross: $409.8M / Percent drop: -37
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wraps up its fifth week on top of the domestic box office chart. Unless Disney forgets to transmit Avatar: The Way of Water to theaters, James Cameron’s sequel will dethrone Wakanda Forever next weekend. Ryan Coogler’s film climbed to the No. 9 spot among entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, passing Iron Man 3’s $409 million and putting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ $411.3 million into its sights.
Violent Night (2) Weekend gross: $8.7M / Total domestic gross: $26.7M / Percent drop: -35
Strange World (3) Weekend gross: $3.6M / Total domestic gross: $30.5M / Percent drop: -29
The Menu (4) Weekend gross: $2.7M / Total domestic gross: $29M / Percent drop: -22
A scene from Avatar: The Way of Water. / 20th Century Studios
No notes
Cameron isn’t letting the ten-year gap between his first two Avatar movies deter him from talking a ton of about the third and fourth and fifth Avatar movies during the promotional tour for The Way of Water. While chatting with Collider, the director revealed that Avatar 4 is so crazy, instead of getting studio notes, all he got back was a note that said, “Holy fuck.”
“You think you know what [Avatar 4 is] about, and then, oh no, you don’t,” Cameron told Collider.
“The truth is that the Company’s entire business model relies on using insidious marketing and promotional activities from A-list celebrities that are highly compensated (without disclosing such), to increase demand of the Yuga securities by convincing potential retail investors that the price of these digital assets would appreciate,” reads the complaint filed on Thursday in California federal court.
All of this is so stupid and so predictable. Look how cringeworthy this segment between Fallon and Paris Hilton is.
Super Mario Bros. Movie visits the Mushroom Kingdom
Once you picture Chris Pratt’s Mario voice as Linda Belcher from Bob’s Burgers, you can never un-hear it.
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The Omnicosm founder. Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
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