Sheena and Schwarzenegger and absurd connections

According to this link we will have three Arnold Schwarzenegger films coming down the pike with him revisting three of the franchises that helped make him a Hollywood icon.

One of those is Commando 2.  Because of this I thought it would be fun to explore the link, superficially though it is, between Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and pulp comic icon, the most famous Jungle Girl, Sheena.

The short answer is screenwriter Steven E De Souza.

Commando, the film from 1985, is an only in the 80s absurdly fun Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle about a retired specialist trying to rescue his daughter from a general who's planning a coup in his own country.  The name of the country?  Val Verde, a stand in for whatever location screenwriter De Souza needed to make the plot make sense.

Val Verde is also the name of the country in South America where Sheena makes her home in a somewhat lengthy run across three comic book companies.  De Souza was effectively given carte blanche to reboot the character for a modern audience.  The only reason this works as well as it does is her first appearance in this rebooted version is from 2007 with Devils Due Publishing.  Her last mini series in this rebooted form came from Dynamite Comics and left her in a boarding school.  De Souza's rebooted Sheena is fun for what it is even if the continuity doesn't quite gel between the Devil's Due Era and the Dynamite Comics era.  

The Val Verde used in the Sheena comics is not the same Val Verde in the Commando film but I thought the connection was funny.  I don't expect the filmmakers to revisit that fictional country for the plot of the sequel.  According to the article the sequel has already been written which is further along in development than some announced projects.  I will be curious to see if anyone other than Schwarzenegger comes back into this.  Alyssa Milano returning as his daughter would be hilarious.

Sheena's comic book future, at least in the rebooted form, is dormant right now.  She'll probably turn up in another form down the line.  If Commando 2 can be made 40 years after the original then Sheena can make a comeback as well.  As risk averse as most American media companies are, if the idea is executed well enough then an audience will seek it out and may find something fun.

How Hollywood Gets Its Soul Back the Sequel

This link is a good break down of the fears that business Hollywood has over Paramount taking Warner Bros.  It's the same fear when Disney took Fox.

The WGA in another article is condemning the merger because it will result in less jobs.  This is true but both articles don't address the problem underlying current business practices.

You've got to get people to want to come to the theatre.  Ticket prices are a barrier.  The quality of the experience is another.  Finally the content being projected is the last.  If these three things get fixed the people will come back.  

Think of this like hotel chains competing with Air BNB.  Make the experience better than some strangers extra room or house.  

The ticket prices are tied into the overall economy which can't be controlled.  But what can be controlled is the budgets in which Hollywood produces content.  We seem to be vascilating between micro budget movies and blockbusters.  No middle ground.  That ground has to come back.  Once the studio has its investment back the rest is gravy.  This in turn helps the theatres keep their costs down and the ticket prices can be adjusted.

Fixing the theatre experience seems to come down to two things.  The first is refreshment cost.  These food prices are high because only after a certain point do the theatre exhibitors get their share of the profits.  The shorter the theatrical window the smaller the return.  People don't see a good return on investment when paying for sub par food for the duration of the movie.  

I am torn about this because I think the theatrical experience should be special.  Unfortunately too many people turn this into their living room and decorum is out the window.  You can mitigate this with ushers enforcing behavior but that can be a big ask these days.  At the very least ushers need to be able to at least confirm everything is working properly with the tech and the house lights and the sound.  

The last part of this equation is the content itself.  Behavior when watching something in public is different when watching it in private, or at least it should be.  The theatrical experience should reward this.  I think we are going to head there in the future and right now these are the growing pains of evolving the theatre experience into something special.

RIP Dan Simmons

I did not expect to hear this news.  I have a handful of influences on my own works over the years and Dan Simmons is one of them.  Most of it came down to "How come I didn't think of that?" followed by "He executed that so well there is no point trying my own.". Anytime a writer finds someone's work that forces you to think bigger and work harder is a boon to your own output.  Dan Simmons did that for me.

He really is that good.  There's a few of his collections I haven't read and three stand alone novels I haven't touched.  Also I should give the latter half of the Hyperion Cantos a chance again sometime.

There is a succinct tribute to the author from another writer named Jon Del Arroz.  I am sure there will be many more in the future.

Depending on the genre you like chances are you'll find something you like from his forays into science fiction, crime, historical adventures, and horror.  Sometimes his books encompassed at least three of those.  If you haven't discovered his writing yet, I envy you.