Chloé Zhao on New Sunnydale

Chloé Zhao talked about Buffy on the red carpet at the Oscars, saying she was not surprised:

“I had an incredible, incredible time with Sarah, with all the cast and crew doing this. And we, first and foremost, see ourselves as the guardians of the original show. Our priority for Sarah and for us has always been to be truthful to the show, to be truthful to our fans. So, things happen for a reason, and we keep our hearts open and we welcome the mystery. And what this might lead us to.”

(She was all in black with a mourning veil, but says this was a themed look for her film Hamnet.)

Oscars 2026

Sinners did great, and I was sad but not really surprised it didn’t get everything

Most years, an action comedy state-of-the-nation piece about inept leftist terrorist heroes would be a very cool Best Picture win.

Best Supporting Actress going to Amy Madigan for a straight-up monster performance in Weapons is delightful.

Frankenstein getting the design awards, fair do’s.

K-Pop Demon Hunters getting Animated Feature and Song, cool too.

Yay for Jessie Buckley although it means for budgetary reasons I should stop fancasting her as the Doctor.

The Ides Of March

And Brutus is an honourable man.

Who would miss your alleged or actual villain?

Winter Paralympics 2026 closing ceremony

Closing ceremony starting rather TRON Legacy. No ninjas yet.

Now wanting a wheelchair using Jedi.

Danger danger snowglobe critical

Well, glad Brazil got a medal for the first time, after doing that at the Olympics too.

Firefly: The Animated Series

Firefly being pitched as an animated series, set between S1 and Serenity. Could work depending on style, if it happens.

That concept art looks realistic video game or Arcane ish. Could do okay.

If it can move, I guess?

Though I’m very aware it’s a decidedly grounded series considering the spaceship flying. Animation could tempt them to change it up - hopefully keeping no aliens but they could easily have more space action? Thinking of the Buffy animated presentation ending with fighting a dragon, as well as the canon comics not matching the live action series’s budgetary practicality.

But also Adam Baldwin is there. Can he keep his head down for a job?

Well, one of the showrunning couple worked on Agent Carter.

She is the slayer.

Ryan Kiera Armstrong sharing a costume test photo

I understand that this sort of thing requires ice cream of some kind.

Comfort food, episode, serious thought to running a Buffy game again.

Buffy: New Sunnydale not picked up

Sarah Michelle Gellar shares the news that Hulu has passed on the pilot.

Summary at Empire.

“If the apocalypse actually comes, you can still beep me.”

V5: Stolen 2.04

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.04

Everything That I Love Will Destroy Me In The End

Beck

Robin

Beck joins Robin at a booth overlooking the dancefloor.

He confirms what he’s learned about Beaufoy having worked for Milliner, which Robin says is useful and asks if there’s more, Beck dangles the information about her hangout but Robin says they know that already.

“Guess I’ll be seeing her tomorrow by myself.”

“You’re meeting her? Where?”

“What would that be worth?”

 “I would like a chance to set a trap for her.”

“She’s nobody to me, just a means to an end. But it would be a shame if she found out you’re after her.”

“Are you blackmailing me?”

“Oh no, that’s such an ugly word. This is extortion.”

“What do you want?”

“One of the Tremere might have something I want.”

Robin agrees to check out Astor’s business.

Another year since lockdown.

The local wee rock club where we would sometimes go circa TWH is shutting down. Happy Friday the 13th...

Happy Friday the 13th! Again!

Second in a row due to last month being a non-leap February. And there’s another in November. Three is the maximum for a year.

The Bride!

The Bride! written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal reimagines The Bride Of Frankenstein as Mary Shelley returning from Purgatory to run wild, possessing the Bride before and after her revival.

Jessie Buckley snaps between multiple characters and shows the chaos that causes her and the world, with Christian Bale as “Frank” as her straight man as they run amok in 1930s America. He’s an interesting take too, emotionally volatile, superhumanly strong but prone to pain and a sometimes collapsing lung (and I love the line he uses to get Annette Bening’s Dr. Euphronius to help) but most of the big scenes and ideas centre around her, some barely touched on like her ability to see what wrongs men have done to women - or just remember these things and say them out loud - one of the things that starts a revolution in her image.

Sketching a world where the monster alarms some but less so others and Frankenstein’s work is known only in scientific circles, some choppy editing shows through just how many ideas are involved, but it looks great and sounds fun as well.

Sometimes violent including sexual threat but most surprisingly only a 15 considering some of the language.

Post Streets Of Fire dialogue

Based on how badly McCoy and Fish got along, if he ever had to work with her again:

(false smile) “Oh, hey, great to see you!” (smile drops) “Guard the door.”

Streets Of Fire

Game was postponed so made pasta and watched Streets Of Fire (free with ads on YouTube) for the first time in about thirty-five years. It really is a glorious mess that could have worked with someone else in the male lead.

I still doubt it would have been big enough to get the trilogy to happen because it’s weird and dumb, but could have been fun.

(The making of seems weird and dumb too. The storming final track was written in two days after the original ending had to be scrapped because Bruce Springsteen decided not to let them use a cover of Streets Of Fire and they’d already filmed that version, Which seems like an oversight. Even before knowing they had to rebuild the set.)

“Another time, another place” is mostly the 50s but partially also very much the 80s specifically in Jim Steinman style, and a mythical city that seems to be enormous judging by how long it takes to get back sneakily from the raid. (The Warriors works to make the geography track, this absolutely doesn’t.) And as the cops try to discourage player character duelling in the streets then shrug it off you can add Wild West town to the mix of eras. RPGnet overthinking thread! It seems like a fun place to hang out.

Buffyversary

Happy 29th anniversary to Welcome To The Hellmouth.

And if you need to look up a line, Buffy transcript search by ao01_design

New kettle

Higher spout angle so I have to be careful not to overshoot when trying to pour.

Glasgow Central Station

Another historic building burned. This one might be saved, at least.

Tonight part of the session was set in a shop I passed on the way there.

Purge them.

Inspired by Marathon and one of my current PCs, thinking again about a villainous space opera game like House Of The Dying Sun. Sinister agents of a fallen empire charged with revenge against traitors and breakaway warlords, where at best the PCs can decide to do some good on their way down, and everybody has dark armour and conflicting agendas and scary-looking fighters.