"To Introduce our Guest Star, that's What I'm Here to Do..." The Hensonverse Fan Contribution Thread

[MNM041]

Great!

And what is Vixx?

It's a network that's exclusive to TTL.

 

[Otakuninja2006]

It's a network that's exclusive to TTL.

What does it air?

 

[MNM041]

What does it air?

Can't remember off the top of my head.

 

[Otakuninja2006]

Can't remember off the top of my head.

Ok.

 

[MNM041]

@Geekhis Khan, sorry if it's not my best work, but Harris told me a grand total of fifteen times to submit it, and seemed to indicate that he wouldn't work on anything else with me until I did.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

I suppose I see your point, what changes would you like me to make?

PM me and we can talk ideas. Right now it just looks like you and Harris are trying to "save your darlings" from the butterflies rather than expand your personal creative space or that of the TL.

And just to be clear, I wanted to do more, I just wanted Mr Harris to not spam my inbox telling me to submit it more.

That's a piss poor reason to post, honestly, and I'm seriously wondering why you all put up with and give in to someone who treats you like that. This has been a recurring issue with numerous reliable guest posters having similar issues. Ask yourself if he's really contributing meaningful or just playing power games with you.

@Geekhis Khan, sorry if it's not my best work, but Harris told me a grand total of fifteen times to submit it, and seemed to indicate that he wouldn't work on anything else with me until I did.

Ok, this came it while I was typing the above. My advice: call his bluff and STOP WORKING WITH HIM. That type of ultimatum is unacceptable passive-aggressive, abusive bullshit and you deserve better.

 

[MNM041]

Ok.

I would like to apologize for the deletion of the post but @Geekhis Khan and I agreed that it was in need adjustments feeling to close to OTL.

 

[Otakuninja2006]

I would like to apologize for the deletion of the post but @Geekhis Khan and I agreed that it was in need adjustments feeling to close to OTL.

Ok.

I understand, I was also made aware of the "Butterfly Zone" as well.

I might pitch a original idea here eventually.

 

[MNM041]

Ok.

I understand, I was also made aware of the "Butterfly Zone" as well.

I might pitch a original idea here eventually.

Thanks for understanding.

 

[Otakuninja2006]

Thanks for understanding.

You're welcome.

 

[Migrant_Coconut]

Ok, this came it while I was typing the above. My advice: call his bluff and STOP WORKING WITH HIM. That type of ultimatum is unacceptable passive-aggressive, abusive bullshit and you deserve better.

^ This. One shouldn't tolerate such toxicity from the comment section, let alone fellow writers.

 

[Deleted member 165942]

I'll repeat my sentiments about "saving our darlings"

We need to accept that stuff we love will not exist in this timeline as we know it, and that's fine. We shouldn't be focused on "saving our darlings" especially if you can see that butterflies can affect it, and instead we should be focused on making stuff for this timeline. For example I'm still working on a post about Kinoko Nasu and his works circa 2000, but with the butterfly that I added in his life, most of his works would not exist and that's fine.

 

[Ogrebear]

While this is all kinda interesting, I will mention the Speculation and Commentary tread here.

 

[LordYam]

One Man, Many Parts: Adaptations of Shakespeare in the 20th Century
Chapter 8 - Blockbusters
By Steven Ratford of the University of Waterloo, Associate Professor of English Language and Literature
Guest post by @Plateosaurus and Mr. Harris Syed with assistance from @Ogrebear and @MNM041

“What is past is prologue.” - The Tempest, Act 2, Scene I

In the 1990's, there was a renewed interest in adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays with an uptick in movie adaptations being produced on both sides of the Atlantic. However, not all adaptations of the folios were so straightforward. Many would go in different directions, whether by recontextualising it in new settings or deconstructing the story and values of Elizebethan England they were written in. The last part deserves special mention: coming in the Information Age, the knowledge of the most problematic parts of Shakespeare’s plays were increasingly being diffused to newcomers who had never seen or read the Bard’s works before, as well as the stereotypes of the plays being dusty and stale, so innovation and reinterpretation was needed to attract more public interest.

The most high-profile of the Shakespeare adapters of course being Northern Irish director and actor Kenneth Branagh. Continuing his streak after Henry V, Branagh continued to adapt Shakespeare's work for a then-contemporary audience, starting with Much Ado About Nothing in 1993 which had a cast of notable British and American actors such as Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, and Michael Keaton. The next would be 1994's Hamlet in which he would direct and star as the titular character in the 19th century[1].

The same year, just a few years after US Judge Clarence Thomas was disqualified for his post because of sexual assault allegations, American director Nancy Meyers wrote and directed a very irreverent and cynical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew simply titled The Shrew. The film was set in ‘70s New York with the Minolas reimagined as an Italian-American family living the high life with Baptiste Roger (Baptista’s counterpart, here very similar to Rudy Giuliani) running for the the office of governor, but the outspoken nature of Katherine is seen as a potential dealbreaker, so the patriarchs hire Peter Richford (Petruchio’s counterpart) to make her behave, while he uses the opportunity to climb his way up the social ladder. Unlike the original play (or at least classic interpretations), the film examined the more uncomfortable aspects of the story, ultimately ending with it being shown that misogyny has left both sides hurt and deeply unhappy, with Katherine broken and traumatised by the abuse and unable to do what she could without her previous attitude, the Minolas getting away with their abusive behaviour, and Peter regretting his methods. Marshall and Meyers assembled the likes of Annabella Sciorra (Katherine Minola), Marisa Tomei (Bianca Minola), Robert De Niro (Baptiste Roger Minola) and Cary Elwes (Peter Richford) in this retelling of one of Shakespeare’s more controversial plays. Although the film would perform well amongst critics, it bombed at the box office to more successful tentpole and indie films, and the rather pessimistic atmosphere and the cast of unlikeable characters turned many people away from watching it[2]. Such a thing is actually the case for some Shakespearean adaptations of the time, due to the different societal standards of the England that he lived in. Nonetheless, The Shrew would become a masterpiece with not just critics but third-wave feminists along with Donna Deitch’s socially conscious Sexual Advances and Penny Marshall’s controversial NC-rated porn drama Kandi.

One year after The Shrew, The Tempest would be adapted to the silver screen in 1994 by the legendary Terry Gilliam (written by Neil Gaiman), and took influence from the goth subculture of the time, already one that would know Shakespeare better then others. While the prose was retained, the film emphasised the visual side.

Othello was the next to be given the major cinematic treatment in 1995 by legendary actor and director Sidney Poitier (written by Oliver Parker)[3]. Poitier changed the setting from Renaissance era Venice to 19th century colonial Jamaica and included a lot of racial subtext with the now-black Othello (Delroy Lindo) falling in love with the white Desdemona (Helena Bonham-Carter) and attracting the jealousy of Iago (Tim Curry), who views her as his bride and plots to kill Othello because he assumes he has stolen what he sees as rightfully his in a clear echo of discrimination such as the dehumanization of Africans and the self-entitlement of white supremacy.

Later that year, director Richard Lonclaire would make a modern adaptation of King Lear simply titled Lear with Ian McKellen as the titular character, who previously played King Lear in a 1990 stage production[4]. This version took place in Victorian Britain and reimagined the plot of the original play as a corporate power struggle between Goneril/Gail (Judi Dench), Regan/Reagan (Helen Mirren) and Cordelia (Natascha McElhone) for control of Rayburn Steel rounded out with a stacked ensemble cast comprised of Tim Roth (Edmund Gloucester), Rowan Atkinson (George Gloucester), Sean Bean (Edgar Gloucester), Michael Gambon (Richard Kent), Jean Reno (François), John Cleese (Duke Albans), Pierce Brosnan (Michael Cornish) and Gerard Depardieu (Bartholome) with a then-unknown Daniel Craig playing the Fool. Aside from the new setting, the film preserved much of the plot and themes of King Lear right down to the tragic, downbeat ending with Duke inheriting Rayburn from his competitors paralleling the folio version of the ending.

On the complete opposite scale of the seriousness/silliness scale that year was Fail Caesar! (dir. Rik Mayall; written by Mayall and Adrian Edmondson), which used Julius Caesar to lampoon Jacobean tragedy in general but in an affectionate manner like his previous works. As you would expect from a then-contemporary reinterpretation of a Shakespearian play, the plot sees Julius Caesar (played by Mayall himself) as the Consul of the Roman Republic who is later assassinated by sixty senators in a deliberately anachronistic and darkly comedic take on one of the most important events in European and world history.

1996 would see two modernised, contemporary takes on classic Shakespeare plays in different genres. One was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet titled Crossed (dir. Spike Lee; written by Lee and Tupac Shakur), described by some as West Side Story meets Boyz n the Hood. Like West Side Story, Crossed would retell the Shakespeare classic with ethnic street gangs rather than Italian merchant clans, but featuring a mostly black cast and set in LA in the present, with the gangs being the Monarchs and the Caps, fictional stand-ins for the Bloods and the Crips respectively[6], thus being a crossover between the Shakespearean play and the Hood genre of films popular at the time. Chris Kelly of Kris-Kross fame, would play the Romeo-esque Rolls while Aaliyah was tapped for the Juliet role, Jewel[6]. Tupac himself would play the Mercutio-type mentor role of Mercury, backed by Biggie as the violent, sociopathic Tybalt-type character of Baller[7]. With an all-star cast of of rap and R&B singers[8] and an acclaimed soundtrack from Lee collaborator Terrence Blanchard, the film was a box office hit and was nominated or won multiple awards, notably at the MTV Movie and TV Awards (which even they acknowledge was not usually something they do) drawing in a rather diverse audience of different races and genders. It also helped build up the acting credentials of Kelly, Aaliyah and Tupac.

The other modernised Shakespeare adaptation of the year was a satirical and political black comedy version of Macbeth with an almost all-Scottish cast comprised of Ian Glen as the titular character (renamed Macbeth Menzies), Brian Cox as Duncan McDonagal, David Tennant as Malcolm McDonagal, Tommy Flanagan as Donalbain McDonagal, Tilda Swinton as Rose Menzies, Dougray Scott as Banquo, James McAvoy as Fleance, Craig Ferguson as Michael Macduff, Emma Thompson as Elizabeth Macduff, Iain Robertson as John Macduff, Annette Crosbie as Hectate, Phyllis Logan, Lindsay Duncan and Laura Fraser as the Wayward Sisters, Peter Mullan as Sifton, Jared Harris as George Steward and Natalie Cassidy as Shelley Steward (a genderbent version of Siward’s son). The 1996 retelling of the Scottish Play was the brainchild of satirist Armando Iannucci, a writer for the BBC’s The Day Today. Iannucci had seen a 1991 London production of Macbeth with Cox and Glen and had written a script as early as 1993 with the intent of producing it for television[9]. However, BBC executives wanted Iannucci to direct and produce a big screen adaptation of the play, Iannucci complied with BBC’s request and got to work on updating Macbeth to a new audience. This Macbeth took place in modern Scotland with Macbeth Menzies running for the position of MP in the county of Fife by resorting to all kinds of treachery as in the original play up to killing Duncan and hiring a group of gangsters to kill his opponents all filtered through the lens of Iannucci’s dryly bleak satire. The BBC produced film would be distributed overseas by Disney’s Hyperion Pictures and made a modest profit at the box office, nevertheless helping establish Iannucci’s credentials as a director and writer.

The latter half of the 1990s saw lavish, big-budget epic adaptations of Shakespeare's most famous plays which included Ridley Scott's The Merchant of Venice (1997; written by Howard Franklin)[10], Branagh's Richard III (1998; written by David Mamet)[11], and Lonclraine's A Midsummer's Night Dream (1999; also written by Loncraine). Unlike the other Shakespeare adaptations, these films were mostly straight translations of the original plays which kept the settings as they were but with some changes to make them palatable to contemporary audiences. Much like their updated counterparts, these films brought together some of the finest actors from both sides of the Atlantic in major or minor roles such as Leonard Nimoy’s Shylock, Christopher Plummer’s Richard III, and Cate Blanchett’s Hippolyta. The films performed moderately or very well with critics and audiences and won or were nominated at awards ceremonies like the Oscars and BAFTAs.

Another breed of Shakespeare adaptations would emerge en vogue in a place different yet familiar: high school. Many teen drama and comedy films of the 90’s into the 2000’s would re-imagine the plot of classic English literature as a whole as happening in the faculties where teenagers often learn and perform them in English and Drama classes, and the Folio was no exception. The most notable of these high school Shakespeare adaptations being 1998’s Ruthless, another retelling of The Taming of the Shrew set at a Chicago high school and directed by Tommy O’Haver with Natalie Portman as Catherine “Kathy” Staley, Heath Ledger as Perry Truman[12], Kirsten Dunst as Bianca Staley and Josh Hartnett as Cameron Jackson. Unlike Nancy Meyers’ take, Ruthless ended on a much more hopeful note, with Kathy reconciling with Bianca and begins dating Perry. Another was 1999’s "O" (dir. Tim Blake Nelson; written by Brad Kaaya)[13], which retold the story of Othello with a racial subtext as common as Sidney Poitier's 1995 version set at a Charleston high school with Mekhi Phifer as Odin Jones, Christina Ricci as Desi Brable and Freddie Prinze Jr. as Hugo Goulding. In the same year, there was As You Would Really Like It (directed by Weitz brothers, written by Adam Herz) which turned the play into a raunchy sex comedy[14]. Finally, another classic Shakespeare play adapted for a tween audience was 2001’s Summer Night, Summer Fright (a retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream; directed by Gil Junger; written by R. Lee Fleming Jr), which brought a violent horror-comedy take on the play in the vein of George Romero and Joss Whedon’s Final Girl, with a wedding being in the path of succubiand the protagonists Alison Woodward (Julia Stiles) and Bertram “Bertie” Sanders (Joseph-Gordon Levitt) fighting said succubi. As in the original play, Puck has a large role, here played as a puppet and voiced by Patrick Stewart.

All in all, Shakespeare adaptations experienced a great renaissance within cinematic circles, sparking creative interpretations that helped reach audiences that otherwise weren’t interested in the classics. However, at the same time these Shakesperian films were in theatres, television was also making its own forays into the Bard’s plays outside of televised recording, and even the golden age of interactive fiction would dip its toes too.


[1] No Frankenstein for Kenneth Branagh to direct and star in means his schedule is freed up in 1994.
[2] On TV Tropes, this would be called Too Bleak, Stopped Caring (formerly known as Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy).
[3] Concerning what happened to Sidney Poitier’s directing career, he did not direct Ghost Dad with Bill Cosby in 1990 as that movie would be a John Badham-directed Steve Martin star vehicle as originally intended due to butterflies affecting it’s production and the careers of the people involved.
[4] Ian McKellen said that he had no interest in playing Richard III because he saw the play as not suited for a modern audience and only changed his mind after playing Iago in a 1989 production of Othello. Ten years worth of butterflies means that McKellen does King Lear on stage which leads to Loncraine writing an adaptation of the play, six years later.
[5] Definitely not to be confused with the unnecessarily excessive torture porn, rape-filled zombie comic by Garth Ennis and Avatar Press from OTL which will have a different name if it still exists. Additionally, Lee’s Crossed replaces William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet as the modern 90s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet since Baz Luhrmann doesn’t make the film. And the idea of Lee doing a Romeo and Juliet is from none other than @Geekhis Khan himself.
[6] As confirmed by the Great Khan, Aaliyah’s tragic plane crash in the Bahamas has been completely butterflied. Because of this, she will get to have a long-lasting acting career.
[7] As films like Justice: The Bass Reeves Story and Star Wars Episode I: A Darkness Rising can attest, Tupac Shakur has a thriving film career and with his death being completely averted expect him to appear in more films or even TV shows whether as a leading man or in a supporting role.
[8] Other hip-hop artists and R&B singers starring in the film are Ice T as Rolls’ father Theodore (Lord Montague), Whitney Houston as Rolls’ mother Regina (Lady Montague), Snoop Dogg as Rolls’ oldest cousin Benji (Benovilo), Big Pun as Rolls’ second cousin Barker (Balthasar), Tevin Campbell as Rolls’ third cousin Georgie (Gregory), Usher as Rolls’ youngest cousin Sammy (Sampson), Luther Vandross as Jewel’s father Philip (Lord Capulet), Anita Baker as Jewel’s mother Diamond (Lady Capulet), Mary J. Blige as a gender-flipped version of Abra, Biz Markie as Pete (Peter), Queen Latifah as Rosie (Rosa), Big Daddy Kane as Vick (Valentine), Toni Braxton as Jenny (Nurse), James Brown as Mayor Prince (Prince Escalus), Ice Cube as David (Count Paris), Chris Smith (the other half of Kriss-Kross) as Antonio (Anthony and the other Capulet servants) and Barry White as The Dealer (Apothecary). Tupac and Biggie’s friends Freddie Mercury and Kurt Cobain would have small roles as gay businessmen, the film’s analogues to the friars.
[9] Iannucci would be in London working for the BBC and would have seen Cox and Glen’s Macbeth London performance at the Royal National Theatre. Cox of course has done Shakespearean plays before in OTL and TTL and Iannucci seeing him on stage with Glen is catalyst for the Scottish Play getting adapted to the silver screen in ‘96.
[10] Since Alien 3 is directed by Scott, 1492: Conquest of Paradise is never made and his career isn’t derailed for a while.
[11] As Loncraine is busy with Lear and A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Branagh gets to direct an adaptation of the play set during the Wars of the Roses as opposed to an alternate 1930s Britain in OTL’s 1995 film.
[12] Ledger already has some recognition from X-Men and Blackadder in the Fifth Form but this film will launch his career as a leading man.
[13] O was pushed back to 2001 IOTL due to the Columbine shooting. Since that event will have gone a different way, it will be released in 1999. Also, Ricci and Prinze Jr. who were (apparently) considered for O will actually be in the film.
[14] The film replaces American Pie, since the tween sex comedy boom has been butterflied in the post-Anita Hill era. That said, some cast members from that movie will appear in this film.

I still hold out hope that the Japanese Romeo x Juliet adaptation gets made at some point albeit with changes; hell it might get made earlier.

 

[MNM041]

To make up for that incident with the draft for TTL's That '70s Show, here's something more interesting.

 

[MNM041]

Ted Raimi's Doom (1998), A Retrospective

Guest post by @MNM041 with executive assistance from @Plateosaurus, @Ogrebear and one Mr. Harris Syed
From Swords and Spaceships Magazine, October 2018

When the first Doom game hit shelves in 1993, it became one of the biggest games released that decade. Considered one of the most innovative first-person shooter games of all time, it introduced to IBM-compatible computers features such as 3D graphics, third-dimension spatiality, networked multiplayer gameplay, and support for player-created add-ons with the Doom WAD modding format. Doom’s player would battle the forces of Hell, consisting of demons and the undead who were infesting huge sprawling bases on Mars or its moons, while some levels take place in Hell itself. Think Tales from the Crypt: Medieval Dead meets Aliens[1].

The game's creators (in particular ID Software's two Johns: Romero and Carmack) were all very excited by the prospect of making a movie adaptation, and would end up getting a rather tempting offer from Sam and Ted Raimi, who they would begin working with on the script alongside Joel and Ethan Coen in 1995, a year after the release of the second Doom game. That script would be brought by 20th Century Studios later that year. However, Sam had to leave the project to work on other films, leaving his brother Ted to direct[2]. While Ted didn’t have the large, successful repertoire as Sam, he did direct the well-received Striptease and score some some notable creations on TV, such as for Nocturns and for the TV series MANTIS.

By Ted Raimi's own admission, the film was nearly scrapped during production. Originally, Raimi wanted his longtime friend and collaborator Bruce Campbell to play the iconic Doom Marine (who was given the name J.B. Blazkowicz Jr. for the movie in a reference to the Wolfenstein games), but Campbell was unavailable for the project due to other commitments he had at the time[3]. Fox brought in Steven Seagal who had starred in several hits by that point. Raimi described him as a nightmare to work with on set, nearly tanking the project with his horrible behavior, showing up late, demanding rewrites to the script to suit his ego and even actually hitting stuntmen. Once Raimi finally convinced Fox to drop Seagal as allegations of sexual misconduct began to surface, they looked for an actor to replace Seagal[4]. Initially Samuel L. Jackson was considered at first after looking at a line about JB quiping “Had your fun hot Stuff, now time for mine Motherfucker!”. However, it was ultimately actor and martial artist Thomas Ian Griffith who got the part[5].

Image source; Cines.com

Raimi chose to add more characters in order to expand on the story, with the Doom Marine being posted to a dead-end assignment on Mars after assaulting a superior officer who ordered his unit to fire on civilians. The other cast members included Samuel L. Jackson as Sgt. Asher "Sarge" Mahonin, the man in charge of the Mars unit, Nicole Brown[6] as Dr. Samantha McDowell, the unit's medic, Jonathan Brandis as Mark "Kid" Dantalian, the youngest member of the unit, Ethan Suplee as Eric "Goat" Fantom, a weapon specialist, Tom Kenny as Dean "Funnyman" Portman[7], a logistics expert, David Fralick as Gregory "Duke" Schofield and Scott Reeves as John "Reaper" Grimm, who also was formerly part of the unit that J.B. was transferred from.

The movie begins with J.B. 's first day at the Mars base as he is introduced to everyone. They ask why he was transferred, but before he can answer the team is sent on a search and destroy mission to a facility run by the Union Aerospace Corporation, an intergalactic conglomerate which operates radioactive waste facilities on the red planet.

------------------
(SARGE and JB are walking through the base)

SARGE: Welcome to the least eventful place you could ever be stationed during your time in the Marines. Now since you're clearly not new blood, you mind if I ask who the hell you pissed off to get stationed here?

(SAM rushes into the room)

SAM: Sarge, we were just giving an assignment, we have to report to the Union Aerospace facility ASAP for a search and destroy mission.

SARGE: Ah, guess we'll have to put that discussion on hold.

JB: How bad are we thinking this is?

GOAT: Oh, please this will be a cakewalk. Nothing exciting ever happens here.
----------------

Upon arrival at the facility, the place appears to be abandoned. While searching for any signs of life in the facility, the Marines find a traumatized and injured scientist and escort him to the medical lab for treatment, but he later disappears. The Marines shoot at an unknown creature in the genetics lab that leads them down into the facility's sewer, where it attacks and kills Duke. They kill the creature and take it to the medical lab, where Sam performs an autopsy and discovers that its organs are Human. She and Goat witness Duke resurrecting and killing himself by smashing his head against a reinforced window. The two are attacked by a creature, trap it, and soon deduce that it is actually the scientist they discovered earlier.

Upon going through the facilities and finding another corrupted scientist, the team makes a shocking discovery: the Union Aerospace Corporation has allowed the military to conduct secret teleportation experiments which have gone terribly wrong. Somehow, the military opened up a portal to Hell with the experiments. To make things worse, rather than shut the project down, the military tried to weaponize the portal and unleashed the demonic forces of Hell on themselves. The Mars team was sent because they were the only unit the distress signal could get to that hadn't already been killed and assimilated.

Concept Art for the Hell portal.
(url for linking in the thread later: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_5s...sset/file/6437569/Emerson_Tung_-_Vortex.0.jpg

After this revelation, the team finds an armory and stock up on everything. Unfortunately the scientist that had just helped explain what the literal Hell was going on, Dr. Carmac, begins to transform himself before being killed by Kid. The team learns their only chance of stopping the demonic invasion is to close the portal and sever the connection to Hell. As the Marines fight demons and possessed Humans, several moments from the Doom games are re-created, for example, the fight where the Marine defeats two powerful Barons of Hell guarding a teleporter to the Deimos base with only their pistols.

As they progress further, the ensuing battles begin to take a toll on the Marines, who all begin to show signs of degrading sanity, in particular Ripper, who appears to enjoy getting to shoot anything that moves a bit too much. At one point, he ends up shooting a seemingly normal scientist, and only points out that he's infected when JB calls him out on it. Whether he could actually tell that the scientist was infected is left up in the air.

As they fight on through Deimos' research facilities that are corrupted with Satanic architecture and kill a gigantic cyberdemon, the situation worsens. During the battle with the cyberdemon, Funnyman is the next to die. Sarge becomes enraged and tensions begin building in the group, but they continue onwards. From an overlook the team discovers that the moon is floating above Hell and rappels down to the surface.

The marines begin to take on Hell itself. Several famous action set pieces take place, though the group's numbers dwindle until only Sarge, Ripper, Sam and JB remain. An infected Ripper betrays the team and is eventually killed by the remaining three.

--------------
(JB looks down at RIPPER'S barely alive body.)

JB: Funny: you were always the kinda guy who signed up just to legally kill people yet you're still scared for your Quisling ass to die.

(JB stomps in RIPPER'S head.)

JB: At least I can say I know where you're going.
--------------

Unfortunately, Sarge ends up getting infected by the demon virus and decides to heroically sacrifice himself to fend off the hoards that are descending upon our heroes, but not before giving Sam and JB the best weapon from the game: the BFG.

Link for thread: http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/6/61/Doom_BFG.jpg/601px-Doom_BFG.jpg

--------------
JB: What's BFG stand for?

SARGE: I'm sure there's a more official and technical sounding name for it, but Goat and I just always said it stood for big fuckin' gun.

(JB picks up the BFG and it certainly lives up to that name.)

SARGE: You're definitely going to need that where you're going.

JB: Where we're going? What are you…

(SARGE steps into the elevator and reveals he's been infected)

SAM: No…

SARGE: Game over for me, but I'm not going down without a fight.

(SARGE turns on the elevator while SAM and JB try to stop him, insisting there must be another way. SARGE prepares to fight off the demonic horde in a heroic last stand.)
-----------------

After Sarge's sacrifice, we are treated to the best action scene in the movie: a first person sequence of JB and Sam mowing down demons, that replicates the feeling of the game beautifully. With a major battle to destroy the cybernetic spider-demon that masterminded the invasion of the moons.

Just before the final fight, we finally learn what got JB stationed on the Mars base. After his commanding officer ordered his unit to fire on protesting civilians, JB disobeyed his orders and not only assaulted him, but brutally beat him to death. After this revelation, we see JB let out the barely suppressed rage that he had been holding in ever since his tense standoff with Ripper. In this moment JB begins to act like the version of the Doom Marine that we saw in the infamous comic, mowing down the hordes of demons while screaming "Rip and tear!"

After a climactic fight with the leader of the invasion, JB and Sam end up closing the portal before getting on a ship to get themselves off the planet, both of them going into a cryo-healing pod after they've set a course for Earth.

Doom would become one of the highest grossing action movies of the year (or the highest grossing of the year depending on who you ask) at $283 million on a budget of $95 million. Its success of course led to sequels, as well as several cast members actually appearing in later Doom games, with Thomas Ian Griffith even lending his voice to the Doom Marine in several of the later games. Doom 64, released the same year, would receive a significant sales boost from the movie’s success. It also led to more comics being made, including a comic crossover with the Alien franchise in which JB teams up with Ellen Ripley to fight a horde of demon Xenomorphs.

Doom vs Aliens
Link for thread: https://preview.redd.it/ojymiadxfep...bp&s=ee04e2a92b5c73f1577d197094e10ca2705d484c

Doom’s success also led to action movies and even a few TV shows being made based on other shooter games, such as Quake, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, Carnivores, and Blood. Doom would also spark a new trend of movie adaptations of horror video games in the late 1990s and 2000s such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark[8].


—--
[1] An allusion to John Carmack describing Doom as Aliens meets Evil Dead 2 in OTL.
[2] Raimi's other projects include The Mighty Thor for Disney and Marvel which will be the subject of a separate post.
[3] Bruce does star in some promotional materials and advertising in a future Doom game for the Nintendo Ultra as Doomguy, however.
[4] As noted under The Impossibles Guest post, Steven Seagal is already running into even more trouble after his argument with one of the producers of that film. Since the Anita Hill case made sexual harassment a much bigger issue in TTL’s 90s, Seagal will see his acting career flushed down the toilet much sooner and pretty much out of the job.
[5] Doom will basically serve as a career rebound for Thomas Ian Griffith after The Karate Kid Part III. Griffith was originally signed on to work as one of the stuntmen for the film and as noted in the guest post for Who Is Alan Smithee? Griffith actually got into a fight with Seagal prior to Seagal being booted.
[6] Since the O.J. Simpson murders don't happen here, Nicole Brown ends up having a pretty solid acting career starting with this movie.
[7] Tom Kenny did have some small parts in live-action films and TV shows such as Shakes the Clown and Mr. Show in OTL and TTL. ITTL, Kenny's live-action and voice-acting career will be far more balanced than OTL.
[8] Since DOOM is a smash success, don't expect Uwe Boll's House of the Dead or Alone in the Dark to exist ITTL. In fact, without the infamy of his bad video game adaptations, Boll won’t become nearly as hated as OTL and remain a niche figure doing low-budget movies very few people ever heard of.

 

[Plateosaurus]

Ted Raimi's Doom (1998), A Retrospective

Guest post by @MNM041 with executive assistance from @Plateosaurus, @Ogrebear and one Mr. Harris Syed
From Swords and Spaceships Magazine, October 2018

When the first Doom game hit shelves in 1993, it became one of the biggest games released that decade. Considered one of the most innovative first-person shooter games of all time, it introduced to IBM-compatible computers features such as 3D graphics, third-dimension spatiality, networked multiplayer gameplay, and support for player-created add-ons with the Doom WAD modding format. Doom’s player would battle the forces of Hell, consisting of demons and the undead who were infesting huge sprawling bases on Mars or its moons, while some levels take place in Hell itself. Think Tales from the Crypt: Medieval Dead meets Aliens[1].

The game's creators (in particular ID Software's two Johns: Romero and Carmack) were all very excited by the prospect of making a movie adaptation, and would end up getting a rather tempting offer from Sam and Ted Raimi, who they would begin working with on the script alongside Joel and Ethan Coen in 1995, a year after the release of the second Doom game. That script would be brought by 20th Century Studios later that year. However, Sam had to leave the project to work on other films, leaving his brother Ted to direct[2]. While Ted didn’t have the large, successful repertoire as Sam, he did direct the well-received Striptease and score some some notable creations on TV, such as for Nocturns and for the TV series MANTIS.

By Ted Raimi's own admission, the film was nearly scrapped during production. Originally, Raimi wanted his longtime friend and collaborator Bruce Campbell to play the iconic Doom Marine (who was given the name J.B. Blazkowicz Jr. for the movie in a reference to the Wolfenstein games), but Campbell was unavailable for the project due to other commitments he had at the time[3]. Fox brought in Steven Seagal who had starred in several hits by that point. Raimi described him as a nightmare to work with on set, nearly tanking the project with his horrible behavior, showing up late, demanding rewrites to the script to suit his ego and even actually hitting stuntmen. Once Raimi finally convinced Fox to drop Seagal as allegations of sexual misconduct began to surface, they looked for an actor to replace Seagal[4]. Initially Samuel L. Jackson was considered at first after looking at a line about JB quiping “Had your fun hot Stuff, now time for mine Motherfucker!”. However, it was ultimately actor and martial artist Thomas Ian Griffith who got the part[5].

Image source; Cines.com

Raimi chose to add more characters in order to expand on the story, with the Doom Marine being posted to a dead-end assignment on Mars after assaulting a superior officer who ordered his unit to fire on civilians. The other cast members included Samuel L. Jackson as Sgt. Asher "Sarge" Mahonin, the man in charge of the Mars unit, Nicole Brown[6] as Dr. Samantha McDowell, the unit's medic, Jonathan Brandis as Mark "Kid" Dantalian, the youngest member of the unit, Ethan Suplee as Eric "Goat" Fantom, a weapon specialist, Tom Kenny as Dean "Funnyman" Portman[7], a logistics expert, David Fralick as Gregory "Duke" Schofield and Scott Reeves as John "Reaper" Grimm, who also was formerly part of the unit that J.B. was transferred from.

The movie begins with J.B. 's first day at the Mars base as he is introduced to everyone. They ask why he was transferred, but before he can answer the team is sent on a search and destroy mission to a facility run by the Union Aerospace Corporation, an intergalactic conglomerate which operates radioactive waste facilities on the red planet.

------------------
(SARGE and JB are walking through the base)

SARGE: Welcome to the least eventful place you could ever be stationed during your time in the Marines. Now since you're clearly not new blood, you mind if I ask who the hell you pissed off to get stationed here?

(SAM rushes into the room)

SAM: Sarge, we were just giving an assignment, we have to report to the Union Aerospace facility ASAP for a search and destroy mission.

SARGE: Ah, guess we'll have to put that discussion on hold.

JB: How bad are we thinking this is?

GOAT: Oh, please this will be a cakewalk. Nothing exciting ever happens here.
----------------

Upon arrival at the facility, the place appears to be abandoned. While searching for any signs of life in the facility, the Marines find a traumatized and injured scientist and escort him to the medical lab for treatment, but he later disappears. The Marines shoot at an unknown creature in the genetics lab that leads them down into the facility's sewer, where it attacks and kills Duke. They kill the creature and take it to the medical lab, where Sam performs an autopsy and discovers that its organs are Human. She and Goat witness Duke resurrecting and killing himself by smashing his head against a reinforced window. The two are attacked by a creature, trap it, and soon deduce that it is actually the scientist they discovered earlier.

Upon going through the facilities and finding another corrupted scientist, the team makes a shocking discovery: the Union Aerospace Corporation has allowed the military to conduct secret teleportation experiments which have gone terribly wrong. Somehow, the military opened up a portal to Hell with the experiments. To make things worse, rather than shut the project down, the military tried to weaponize the portal and unleashed the demonic forces of Hell on themselves. The Mars team was sent because they were the only unit the distress signal could get to that hadn't already been killed and assimilated.

Concept Art for the Hell portal.
(url for linking in the thread later: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_5s...sset/file/6437569/Emerson_Tung_-_Vortex.0.jpg

After this revelation, the team finds an armory and stock up on everything. Unfortunately the scientist that had just helped explain what the literal Hell was going on, Dr. Carmac, begins to transform himself before being killed by Kid. The team learns their only chance of stopping the demonic invasion is to close the portal and sever the connection to Hell. As the Marines fight demons and possessed Humans, several moments from the Doom games are re-created, for example, the fight where the Marine defeats two powerful Barons of Hell guarding a teleporter to the Deimos base with only their pistols.

As they progress further, the ensuing battles begin to take a toll on the Marines, who all begin to show signs of degrading sanity, in particular Ripper, who appears to enjoy getting to shoot anything that moves a bit too much. At one point, he ends up shooting a seemingly normal scientist, and only points out that he's infected when JB calls him out on it. Whether he could actually tell that the scientist was infected is left up in the air.

As they fight on through Deimos' research facilities that are corrupted with Satanic architecture and kill a gigantic cyberdemon, the situation worsens. During the battle with the cyberdemon, Funnyman is the next to die. Sarge becomes enraged and tensions begin building in the group, but they continue onwards. From an overlook the team discovers that the moon is floating above Hell and rappels down to the surface.

The marines begin to take on Hell itself. Several famous action set pieces take place, though the group's numbers dwindle until only Sarge, Ripper, Sam and JB remain. An infected Ripper betrays the team and is eventually killed by the remaining three.

--------------
(JB looks down at RIPPER'S barely alive body.)

JB: Funny: you were always the kinda guy who signed up just to legally kill people yet you're still scared for your Quisling ass to die.

(JB stomps in RIPPER'S head.)

JB: At least I can say I know where you're going.
--------------

Unfortunately, Sarge ends up getting infected by the demon virus and decides to heroically sacrifice himself to fend off the hoards that are descending upon our heroes, but not before giving Sam and JB the best weapon from the game: the BFG.

Link for thread: http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/6/61/Doom_BFG.jpg/601px-Doom_BFG.jpg

--------------
JB: What's BFG stand for?

SARGE: I'm sure there's a more official and technical sounding name for it, but Goat and I just always said it stood for big fuckin' gun.

(JB picks up the BFG and it certainly lives up to that name.)

SARGE: You're definitely going to need that where you're going.

JB: Where we're going? What are you…

(SARGE steps into the elevator and reveals he's been infected)

SAM: No…

SARGE: Game over for me, but I'm not going down without a fight.

(SARGE turns on the elevator while SAM and JB try to stop him, insisting there must be another way. SARGE prepares to fight off the demonic horde in a heroic last stand.)
-----------------

After Sarge's sacrifice, we are treated to the best action scene in the movie: a first person sequence of JB and Sam mowing down demons, that replicates the feeling of the game beautifully. With a major battle to destroy the cybernetic spider-demon that masterminded the invasion of the moons.

Just before the final fight, we finally learn what got JB stationed on the Mars base. After his commanding officer ordered his unit to fire on protesting civilians, JB disobeyed his orders and not only assaulted him, but brutally beat him to death. After this revelation, we see JB let out the barely suppressed rage that he had been holding in ever since his tense standoff with Ripper. In this moment JB begins to act like the version of the Doom Marine that we saw in the infamous comic, mowing down the hordes of demons while screaming "Rip and tear!"

After a climactic fight with the leader of the invasion, JB and Sam end up closing the portal before getting on a ship to get themselves off the planet, both of them going into a cryo-healing pod after they've set a course for Earth.

Doom would become one of the highest grossing action movies of the year (or the highest grossing of the year depending on who you ask) at $283 million on a budget of $95 million. Its success of course led to sequels, as well as several cast members actually appearing in later Doom games, with Thomas Ian Griffith even lending his voice to the Doom Marine in several of the later games. Doom 64, released the same year, would receive a significant sales boost from the movie’s success. It also led to more comics being made, including a comic crossover with the Alien franchise in which JB teams up with Ellen Ripley to fight a horde of demon Xenomorphs.

Doom vs Aliens
Link for thread: https://preview.redd.it/ojymiadxfep...bp&s=ee04e2a92b5c73f1577d197094e10ca2705d484c

Doom’s success also led to action movies and even a few TV shows being made based on other shooter games, such as Quake, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, Carnivores, and Blood. Doom would also spark a new trend of movie adaptations of horror video games in the late 1990s and 2000s such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark[8].


—--
[1] An allusion to John Carmack describing Doom as Aliens meets Evil Dead 2 in OTL.
[2] Raimi's other projects include The Mighty Thor for Disney and Marvel which will be the subject of a separate post.
[3] Bruce does star in some promotional materials and advertising for Doom 64 as Doomguy, however.
[4] As noted under The Impossibles Guest post, Steven Seagal is already running into even more trouble after his argument with one of the producers of that film. Since the Anita Hill case made sexual harassment a much bigger issue in TTL’s 90s, Seagal will see his acting career flushed down the toilet much sooner and pretty much out of the job.
[5] Doom will basically serve as a career rebound for Thomas Ian Griffith after The Karate Kid Part III. Griffin was originally signed on to work as one of the stuntmen for the film and as noted in the guest post for Who Is Alan Smithee? Griffin actually got into a fight with Seagal prior to Seagal being booted.
[6] Since the O.J. Simpson murders don't happen here, Nicole Brown ends up having a pretty solid acting career starting with this movie.
[7] Tom Kenny did have some small parts in live-action films and TV shows such as Shakes the Clown and Mr. Show in OTL and TTL. ITTL, Kenny's live-action and voice-acting career will be far more balanced than OTL.
[8] Since DOOM is a smash success, don't expect Uwe Boll's House of the Dead or Alone in the Dark to exist ITTL. In fact, without the infamy of his bad video game adaptations, Boll won’t become nearly as hated as OTL and remain a niche figure doing low-budget movies very few people ever heard of.

Noice

 

[MNM041]

@Geekhis Khan, Hope you didn't mind me posting this.

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

Seagal will see his acting career flushed down the toilet much sooner and pretty much out of the job.

🍾 🥂

 

[MNM041]

Guest articles by Mr. Harris Syed and @MNM041

Houston Oilers Trade Up for the Draft
April 12, 1998, Sports Illustrated

In a shocking turn of events, the San Diego Chargers[1] have traded their #2 pick in the 1998 NFL Draft to the Houston Oilers, both teams announced Sunday morning.

The Oilers, previously selecting at #18[2], have leaped sixteen draft spots over every other team in the first round. The trade was not exactly dirt cheap as the Oilers receive the Chargers’ #2nd pick in exchange for giving its first-round, second-round and third-round picks to the latter team[3]. The Chargers now have extra draft picks to select players.

The Oilers, on the other hand, have been looking for players that can catch and perform risky plays to compliment quarterback Steve McNair and running back Eddie George under the offensive-driven strategies of head coach Mike Munchak[4]. The Oilers are looking for fresh young faces to help them win a Lombardi since their Wild Card Game rematch against two-time Super Bowl champion Buffalo Bills in 1996[5] and many believe the team will select a wide receiver though others say…Cont’d on A3





Oilers Select Isaiah Mustafa
April 18, 1998, ESPN

Isaiah Mustafa at Arizona State, circa 1996

The Houston Oilers have selected Arizona State's Isaiah Mustafa in the first round of the NFL Draft[6]. Mustafa, a wide receiver from Portland, Oregon, was a widely talked about prospect in the draft after an amazing season in his senior year, playing for the currently undefeated Arizona State Sun Devils, who won the Rose Bowl Game with Mustafa himself personally scoring seven touchdowns. Between 1995-1997, Isaiah racked up over 2,677 yards, 54 receptions and 30 touchdowns before and after the Rose Bowl Game[7]. Because of this, Mustafa was seen by many draft observers as a top prospect in his final year with the Sun Devils, especially due to him scoring the final touchdown at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California as well as his status as an All-American and being a finalist for the Fred Biletnikoff Award along with Auburn’s Frank Sanders[8].

Mustafa himself is very excited to soon begin training with the Oilers when we sat down with him and his father John for an interview. “It's an honor to have been the Oilers first draft pick and I promise I'm going to do the best I can to prove their confidence in me was warranted,'' said the 24-year old wide receiver. “I’m going to get my team to the Super Bowl just as I did with the Sun Devils in the Rose Bowl."

Mustafa has also been open about his background as a devout Muslim in a country that has seen an increase in anti-Islamic sentiment in the wake of attacks on the American Airlines and Qantas jets by Al-Qaeda last year. “I want to let the world know that I am a proud American Muslim and a proud black man. I’ve seen my fair share of bullying and death threats made to me or other Muslims across America and I will not be intimidated by these cowardly threats”. Mustafa also said that his favorite show to watch on television is CBS’s Mohammed to the Mountains because of the lead character’s faith.

Besides Mustafa, the other top wide receivers in the Draft include Marshall’s Randy Moss[9], Utah’s Kevin Dyson, Georgia’s Hines Ward and Florida’s Jacquez Green. Many believe that the Oilers selecting Mustafa was the right call by the team as he may prove to be a valuable weapon for the offense for the next ten years[10] and has…Cont’d on B4


[1] IOTL, the San Diego Chargers used this spot to select quarterback Ryan Leaf of Arizona State who went on to become one of the most infamous draft busts of all time after a trade with the Arizona Cardinals. ITTL, the Chargers did slightly worse with a 3-13 record thus giving them the #2 spot right from the start instead of the Cardinals hence the trade with the Oilers who are behind the New Orleans Saints when they select Peyton Manning as opposed to the Indianapolis Colts with the latter team having a better performance last season thanks to a 1995 AFC Championship win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Due to the trade, the Chargers will not select Leaf as he will be headed to the Oakland Raiders and face the same problems like OTL which means Charles Woodson goes to the Arizona Cardinals instead. As for the Chargers, they choose another quarterback in Eastern Michigan's Charlie Batch who carves out a better career than Leaf.
[2] The Oilers have a 9-7 finish in 1997 much like last season though they didn't make the playoffs. Their draft spot last year was #16 due to their playoff appearance in 1996. IOTL, it was #16 since the team finished with an 8-8 record under Jeff Fisher.
[3] The Oilers' draft picks in the second and third rounds were #46 and #77 respectively while the Chargers had #59 as their only other draft pick. ITTL, the Oilers had the #44 and # picks prior to trading them to the Chargers.
[4] Given that the team suffered a post-playoff fire sale as a result of Bud Adams’ fire sale, the Oilers draft many of the same players in 1995 and 1996 from OTL including McNair. Munchak, being a Pro Bowl-winning offensive guard, focuses on rebuilding the team by employing offense-based strategies to protect the quarterback and strengthen the offensive line thus leading to an improved record of 8-8 in 1995.
[5] Recall on a previous Main Thread post that the Bills won a Super Bowl in the 1991 season. The team also went on to win another Super Bowl next season against the San Francisco 49ers who beat out the Philadelphia Eagles thus denying them the chance of a rematch after winning a tight game against the Dallas Cowboys thanks to a better performance in the last season. However, the Bills lose another Super Bowl in the 1993 season against the Cowboys and they don’t make the playoffs between 1994-1995 before eeking out a Wild Card win against the Oilers only to lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
[6] IOTL, Mustafa started playing football at Moorpark College as a safety before switching over to wide receiver where he set a college-record of 66 receptions and 1,086 yards which allowed him to receive a football scholarship to play at Arizona State University where he had 233 yards and two touchdowns with an Academic All-Pacific 10 Conference honorable mention before he got benched due to a confrontation with an Arizona State assistant coach causing his performance to decline next season. Given the changes to the world of sports in the Hensonverse and the fact that said event occurred well after the POD, this is butterflied and Mustafa remains a starter for the Sun Devils racking up plenty of yards, touchdowns and receptions prior to his selection by the Houston Oilers.
[7] Mustafa sat out the game and later became an offseason/practice squad member of the Oilers when they were in Tennessee prior to their rebrand as the Tennessee Titans in 1999 before bouncing around other teams such as the Cleveland Browns or the Seattle Seahawks prior to his transition to acting in the mid-2000s. He was encouraged to try out for the Oilers by a sports agent. Since the confrontation never occurred ITTL, Mustafa didn't meet the sports agent and continued playing college football at Arizona State in 1997 before declaring himself for the draft.
[8] IOTL, the other Biletnikoff Award finalist was Jack Jackson of Florida.
[9] Due to the effects of the Oilers-Chargers trade, the Colts end up drafting Randy Moss instead of the Minnesota Vikings to assist Jim Harbaugh.
[10] Long story short, Mustafa will be a key part of the Oilers offense as their top wide receiver. Mustafa getting drafted by the Oilers means that his acting career is delayed since he is too busy with the NFL.