The Weekly Planet

In 2003 The Lord of the Rings trilogy came to it's stunning conclusion with The Return of the King. Everything has been building to this moment, Aragorn ascenending to the throne, Frodo and Sam fast approaching Mount Doom, Merry and Pippen picking they're own teams and Legolas...killing an elephant or something. Sweeping the academy awards with 11 wins and pulling in over a billion dollars Middle...

It's ever escalating tragic news for SPUMM (the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Movies) with the release of Kraven the Hunter, another unsurprising critical and commercial failure. But before we review tha we've got the news of the week including Chris Evans returning as Captain America or another guy in Avengers: Doomsday, the next apperance of Deadpool, a Clayface movie gets the greenlight, Hen...

We’re fast approaching the end of the year but the red hot movie news will absolutely not stop! This week we talk Sony’s desperate attempt to drum up any interest in Kraven by releasing the first 8 minutes with The War of the Rohirrim following suit, Viggo Mortensen returning as Aragorn in that Gollum inbetweenquel, The Rookie gets a second spin-off series, more DCU news related to Booster Gold, T...

A mere year after the first entry in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy came The Two Towers, not simply a rehash of what came before but a vastly different continuation of the story. With the fellowship split up, Frodo and Sam making for Mordor with the one ring, Merry and Pippin hanging out with a talking tree and Aragon, Legolas and Gimli helping defend Rohan at Helms Deep things ramp up in a big way...

Woah there! It's podcast time everyone which is good because we're ready to talk about Moana 2. Plus we get into news of the next Fast & Furious chapter, Paddington 3 vs Captain America 4 (plus more potential changes), Tom Cruise doing a scary movie, Denis Villeneuve original Star Wars hater, the cancelled Wolfs sequel, Superman trailer update and The Rock gives us all permission to sing in ci...

The musical is back! No thanks to Joker: Folie à Deux but to Wicked: Part 1. We get right into that plus news of James Gunn introducing Batman into the DCU, the new canon and currently line-up, Daniel Craig as DC's Sgt. Rock, the X-Men joining the MCU after Avengers: Secret Wars, trailers for Alien: Earth, A Minecraft Movie, Elio, The Bad Guys 2, How To Train Your Dragon (but real) and our first l...

2001 kicked of the start of a remarkable trilogy of films, live action adaptations of The Lord of the Rings beginning with The Fellowship of the Ring. From director Peter Jackon and filmed in his home country of New Zealand these movies have served as the pinacle of blockbuster cinema managing to perfectly balance heart, action, spectacle, model work and CGI. With an incredible cast of mostly unkn...

Heeeeeey get this! We're talking Gladiator 2, the follow up to the 2000 Ridley Scott classic plus a probably all too brief chat about The Penguin. Plus we talk news of Red One doing badly, Dwayne Johnson confirms pissing in bottles, Rey and the next Star Wars Trilogy, Sophie Turner to play Tomb Raider, Captain Amierca: Brave Big Bird maybe lost it's director, trailers for What If...? Season 3 and...

In 2014 Darren Aronofsky hit us with the Russell Crowe lead biblical epic Noah. A bold and accurate(?) retelling of the classic Old Testament tale of one man and his family in a quest to help God kill everyone on earth but not all the animals, just most of them. This concludes our Rusty Crowe His-Trilogy for 2024, but don't worry we'll definitely return to more down the line. Probably like Robin H...

Merry Christmas everyone because it's Red One week, the latest movie from both Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Chris Evans. Plus we talk news of a Joker tv series, the impact of Trump on movie studios, Daniel Craig and Dennis Villeneuve don't care about stuff, a new Star Wars Trilogy, a release date for Andor Season 2 and new trailers for Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*. Thanks fo...

We're back to continue on our Rusty Crowe His-Trilogy, a peak into three Russell Crowe historical epics. This week it's 2003's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a critically lauded nautical adventure that didn't quite reach the audience it needs to warrent a sequel. Also featuring the likes of Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd and James D'Arcy it's well worth of look if this one happened to...

Welcome back to this brand new and good podcast. Agatha All Along has wrapped up so we review that along with Robert Zemeckis' Here. Plus we talk the news of the week including the Venom: The Last Dance box office, why Sydney Sweeney did Madame Web, how Ant-Man 3 actually made profit actually, Tarantino talks Dune & Joker: Folie a Deux, a follow up to Godzilla Minus One, a Game of Thrones movi...

In the year 2000 Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe successfully brought swords and sandals cinema back to the big screen with Gladiator! An epic tale drenched in revenge, blood and sand in what has since been considered one of the greatest movies of all time. Featuring a young Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielson, Djimon Hounsou, Richard Harris and the final performance from Oliver Reed we also get into t...

Eddie Brock/Venom is back in the latest SPUMM (Sony Pictures Universe Of Marvel Movies) to grace our screens in the biggest year of SPUMM ever. Plus we talk Christopher Nolan's latest movie starring Tom Holland, sequels to Alien Romulus, Prey and another Alien VS Predator crossover, a trailer for Love Hurts, Blade delayed again probably for a while and some big updates around Spider-Man 4. Thanks...

In 2011 Universal had the absolute audacity to release a prequel to John's Carpenter's The Thing telling the story of the Norwegian camp we briefly saw in the original. With Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton in the lead it seems as if a genuinely solid attempt was made at recapturing the magic of the first before studio interference didn't do justice to the original practical special effec...

It's a HUGE news week for this episode let me tell you that. Starting with the further failings of Joker II, Christopher Nolan's WB deal, more details on Daredevil: Born Again and Spider-Man 4, a Gollum movie update, the reworking of the God of War TV series and the John Wick spin-off Ballerina, trailers for Wolf Man, Dune: Prophecy, The Electric State, Creature Commandos and Invincible, an unpdat...

John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982 we treated incredibly harshly upon it's initial release. Labelled disgusting and mean on arrival audiences gradually turned around on it with it becomming one of the greatest horror movies of all time. With an incredible central performances from the likes of Kurt Russell and Keith David, ground breaking special effects from Rob Bottin, a haunting and terrifyin...

In this weeks episode we're having the absolute time of our lives reviewing Transformers One and Hellboy: That Crooked Bloke. Plus we get into the news of the week which includes but not exclusively early reactions to Captain America: Brave Bird Man, details on Robert Downey Jr's role as Doctor Doom, Henry Cavill joining the Voltron movie, Francis Ford Coppola's next two movies, the cancellation o...

in 2013 Sam Raimi decided to try something a little out of his wheelhouse of horror or comic book movies and directed a Wizard of Oz prequel focusing on the great and powerful wizard. Starring James Franco (RIP), Michelle Williams, Milla Kunis and Rachael Weisz it details his arrival into the mystical land, the origin of the Wicke Witch of the West and how the wizard has always been a dog of a blo...

Those madmen and women over at Warner Brothers Discovery have done the impossible, a sequel to the 2019 billion dollar smash Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux continues the adventures of Arthur Fleck this time joined by Harleen "Lee" Quinzel in a story everyone hates. Plus we also talk the passing of Kris Kristofferson, The Batman moving to the DCU, a new DC animated feature in Dynamic Duo, a Voltron upd...

46 years after the original Wizard of Oz comes Disney's attempt at a sequel, Return to Oz. Whilst a huge cinematic bomb in 1985 the same year it arrived it's legacy endured by the generation of children it traumatised by putting Dorothy through a series of horrifying trials to yet again attempt to make her way back to Kansas. This time she's joined by Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkin Head the The Gump as she...

It's been four decades in the making but Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis is final here. And we have some thoughts. ALSO WE'RE BACK. THE PODCAST IS BACK. We get into the news of the week including the passing of Maggie Smith & John Cassaday, a potential Deathstroke and Bane movie, The Mandalorian wrapping up, a streaming release date for Hellboy: That Crook Bloke, trailers for The Last Of Us...

Beleive it or not The Wizard of Oz wasn't an immediate hit when it originally released in 1939. It was only in subsequent decades that it became the pop culture phenomenon which spawned multiple spin-offs, prequels and sequels like the upcoming adaptation of the stage musical Wicked. So come with is as we journey back to the Land of Oz with Dorothy, Scarecrow, The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, Glind...

James & Maso's Time Crapsule! A bigsandwich.co bonus podcast where we rank a year's pop culture contributions and discover some forgotten gems. The regular podcast will also hopefully return next week. Thank you to everyone who came to any of the live shows and maybe see you in Birmingham tomorrow (tickets below). Thanks for listening. There's also a new Time Crapsule out now on bigsandwich.co...

In 2019 Lionsgate attempted the unimaginable, a reboot of the Hellboy franchise after the much beloved Guillermo del Toro and Ron Pearlman dead cancelled trilogy. With David Harbour stepping into the role and directed (sort of) by Neil Marshall it was a critical and commercial bomb. HOWEVER as a movie some perhaps feel that it's been judged unfairly especially considering the mythology, creature w...