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Perhaps the buyer is Ted Turner? Someone from Time Atlantic? The ghost of Walt himself?
I’m thinking it’s someone really right-wing like Falwell. Maybe they’re hoping to serve as a “moral guide” to the company.
That would get Falwell in trouble since he'd need a lot of money and that could open him up to alot of scrutiny regarding him and the other legion of megachurch phonies.
If it is Falwell, I suspect he could spin this as “putting money towards bringing the Lost back to God” or something similar.
If it is, I suspect Disney is going to launch a massive legal battle to not only stop him but maybe make him look like even more like a bigoted fool.
 
Yes! Boardroom drama how much I've missed ye. I'm immediately suspicious of Roy, because he did do something like this OTL, but I'm also leaning towards an independent party. Whichever way this tale twists I'm glad to get this feeling of classic Hippie in the House of Mouse feel back!
 
Hmm. The only person I'm really prepared to rule out is Jim, because while a biography might play up a mystery its subject is investigating, I can't see one pulling an Agatha Christie trick like "It was our viewpoint character all along!" So, I assume everything it says here about Jim is accurate, but as far as everyone else is concerned, O'Brien is just recording what Jim's being told at this point.

I think my money is on a third party, though.
 
Hmm. The only person I'm really prepared to rule out is Jim, because while a biography might play up a mystery its subject is investigating, I can't see one pulling an Agatha Christie trick like "It was our viewpoint character all along!" So, I assume everything it says here about Jim is accurate, but as far as everyone else is concerned, O'Brien is just recording what Jim's being told at this point.
The Christie book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd did that rather well, IMO. (Spoilers): You don't know that the murderer is the narrator until the end--and he never outright lies in his narration, but he does leave out things...
 
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Yes! Boardroom drama how much I've missed ye. I'm immediately suspicious of Roy, because he did do something like this OTL, but I'm also leaning towards an independent party. Whichever way this tale twists I'm glad to get this feeling of classic Hippie in the House of Mouse feel back!
Yep, the boardroom drama is back and I've been building up for this for a while if you've all been paying attention.

I'm going to be very amused if it's a totally unrelated party, like an investment mutual fund that's decided the Disney corporation is a solid investment and is buying up stock.

I can see it now: the bombshell announcement that Amtrack holds a large enough stake in Disney to put them on the Board.
"Disney has shown a clear commitment to developing infrastructure, a commitment we share."
I’m thinking it’s someone really right-wing like Falwell. Maybe they’re hoping to serve as a “moral guide” to the company.
That would get Falwell in trouble since he'd need a lot of money and that could open him up to alot of scrutiny regarding him and the other legion of megachurch phonies.
Perhaps the buyer is Ted Turner? Someone from Time Atlantic? The ghost of Walt himself?
Imagine if the buyer was Yuri, lmao. I'd laugh IRL if that were the case.

Some very interesting guesses on who's behind it. Stay tuned! Things get wild.
 
Look on the one hand the whole 'Civil War' thing is very sad and aggravating to read about as once again Henson has to deal with this bloody argument. But on the other hand, I was in fact eating popcorn and watching on eagerly so I guess I'm a massive hypocrite. I've no understanding of stocks myself, but watching it all play out was very interesting and I've no bloody idea of what's going on and I can't wait to learn!
 
Missed a couple it seems...

"a rising Black Urban Nouveau Riche class" - hope that does not cause problems later on.

"the Eisners were becoming Big Fish in this growing pond" - plenty of socials shindigs to get too heh?

"Eisner was in talks with Paramount about the possibility of building a Star Trek based attraction, but was outbid by Universal," - why not two?

Also Star Trek attraction? Cool. Hope we do get more than one, and pref one in Europe too.

"discovered that Time Atlantic was putting the Kings Entertainment Company (KECO), [], up for sale." - humm I can see a bidding war coming up.

"In the short term this meant slapping the Columbia name on everything and giving every park a set of Hanna-Barbera walkarounds," - Hope the staff did not get screwed around by the change of management.

"Turner saw The Lord of the Rings as their “big thing”, but Eisner remained skeptical." - I suspect Eisner has not read the books...

"Michael Eisner spun the idea into a sequel, 1998’s minor hit What a Way to Make a Living." - sounds kinda fun actually.

"their former boss Franklin Hart Jr. (Dabney Coleman), now a slimeball politician" - wonder if they named the party he stood for?

"In general, the mix of “cops, jocks, soldiers, rappers, angels, and cowboys” seemed to be a winning formula for CBS" - if it works. Hope it goes not lose the sparkle.

"Other films beckoned. Lucifer’s Hammer went into production with Roland Emmerich as director." - hum wonder if there will be a competing film?

"after failing to agree on a direction for a film about Pearl Harbor itself" -bullet dodged?

"Eastwood refused to allow a tie-in ride at the Columbia/Kings theme parks, calling the idea “revoltingly disrespectful”. - damm right too.

"Eisner suggested Mel Gibson to direct and potentially star as Aragorn based upon his work on Braveheart," - NOOOooooooooo!

"The Gibson film treatment reportedly included Aragorn getting tortured by Ring Wraiths at one point and was loaded with Christ imagery that “even C.S. Lewis would have found excessive”. - heck of a quote there!

"Zaentz outright refused the highly unorthodox idea, knowing that it would outrage the Tolkien fans and family alike." - phew!

"This eventually became The Once and Future King," - heck of a cast. Rickman as Mordred is perfect!

Guillermo del Toro and Jackson together on Lord of the Rings? This should be Epic, certainly be interesting to see how it compares to OTL.

"The story was simple and straight forward and could be fashioned into a simple three-act narrative with several great set pieces," - particularly if kept in one movie heh Jackson?

"they decided to keep the songs and go for a family friendly PG film." - upping the potential profits and merch sales!

"They also partnered with London-based Thunderbird Digital, the Gerry Anderson company," - cool!

"hand-making all the suits of armor proved costly all by itself and they flat out refused to recycle Braveheart and Once and Future King armor" - good for them. Keep that trash away!

"but Turner, visiting them with Eisner in April of 1998, was enthralled." - I spy a fan!

"Turner had the crew flown to Atlanta to build a near-exact replica in the hills at the edge of Peach Grove Studios as a theme park attraction." - man has the knack of promotion indeed.

"though he was soon admonished by HR to stop calling them “midgets”, which was considered a slur." - GOOD.

"pushing back on David Bowie, who expressed an interest on playing Elrond." - now that would have been amazing casting.

"he was instead asked to voice Smaug and retained to play Saruman in the future" - that works!

"Richard Harris was hired to play Gandalf." - interesting change.

"Billy Boyd was brought in to play the lead Bilbo Baggins...." - damm that is a good cast list there. This should be a fun read when we get the whole review.

"thus running right up against Star Wars Episode II," - Hobbit vs Star Wars? Hum... unfortunate timing there.

Fun chapter there @Geekhis Khan, seems Eisner is doing ok for himself.
 
"Harry Lucas Fletcher, everyone’s favorite Ginger Wizard," - Harry Fletcher does not roll off the tongue quite as easily as Harry Potter, and changes the implied 'working class clay' type thing Rowling tended to do with name meaning. Though Fletchers = arrows, so who knows.

"nets something based in actual ancient mysticism: The Four Temperaments." - actually I could see Rowling using this as a 'base' for her magic. Almost wish she had...

Gryffynhart (Lion), Slythryus (Serpent), Corvidious (Owl), Burleighnohn (Bear) - hum.... I can still see ITTL me getting 'sorted' into Corvidious like I get 'sorted' into Ravenclaw.

"the personalities of the four central characters, each from one of the four houses," - interesting....

"In keeping with Rowling’s clear love of wordplay and symbolism,....." - and there it is explained.

"The brief and fleeting introduction of the fourth passenger of the cabin, the independent minded Scorpia Spinx" - seems destined not to play the same role as Draco then.

"But let’s look first at Hippolyta," - is this character black ITTL as Rowling made Hermione later on stage?

"Ron, meanwhile, is from a large and ancient but humble wizarding family." - Ron seems a nicer bloke than the OTL one.

"nonetheless regularly proves his meddle" - is that supposed to be mettle?

"Draco Malfeus[9], the callous and cruel blond boy whom Rowling based off of a bully that she knew." - hummm so the enemy is still there.

"it is revealed that a longstanding Hogwarts tradition has the students assigned into groups of four, one from each house, to perform their lessons." - interesting, I do not think I have seen that idea before in all the HP fanfic I have read.

"the fraternity of the Gryffynhart Housemates would ultimately begin to feel hollow for Harry as the series progressed," - needs all the humours balanced heh?

"Often a nemesis for Hippolyta in particular, with her casually insensitive and inconsiderate nature" - nice Hippolyta got a match ITTL. I expect lots of shipping of those two...

"The first book, A Touch of Magic, is deliberately written in simple terms with simple, seemingly black and white morality." - and therefore easy to read.

"as does the fact that the hated Snape is secretly protecting Harry from the hidden malefactors." - nice that Snape remains 'complex' here.

"Principal among these shades of grey is the response to the Fascist-like Death Eaters." - hooray for more nuance!

"Our (likely) True Four, Harry, Hippolyta, Ron, and Scorpia, become the nucleus of Dumbledore’s Army," - nice!

"Scorpia’s ultimate death at the hands of Janus in The Half-Blood Prince," - Damm! Wham moment.

"where he will ultimately be the one to take up her mantle as the Sythryus leader of Dumbledore’s Army" - donned the leather pants heh?

"it saves the very soul of Hogwarts and restores the balance that the Four Founders set up in the beginning." - does that mean the Goblins can attend?

"Dragonlance was not really catching on with the mainstream." - that is a shame.

"Fantasia Books would in turn partner for the US distribution." - still that Disney connection heh?

"shortly before the child abuse scandals that brought down Bradley and her husband" - and another one caught!

"It's also worth noting that the Four Temperaments were a central theme of Henson’s production of The Fantastic Four film," - its a classic for a reason!

Very, very interesting take on the Boy Wizard here @Geekhis Khan - be interesting to read about if these make it across to the invertible movie versions.
 
"Title Card: “Star Wars: Episode I. A Darkness Rising.”

Credits Screen

Title Card: “The Saga Begins Winter 1997.”

ITTL me might get a little excited. OTL me was hardly bothered.

"Drummer Anton Fig gives a rimshot. Audience laughs awkwardly." - yup, that was terrible.
 
To Shemp for a God
Chapter 10: Shemping for Gods
Excerpt from All You Need is a Chin: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell


So for most of 1998 I basically lived in New Zealand. When I wasn’t filming Lysia or Telemachus, I was Shemping as Thor or Loki or whatever Norse God du jour as the New Zealand Alps stood in for the mountains of Norway or Asgard. Sam was filming parts of The Mighty Thor there (when he wasn’t in Norway or Minnesota) and I practically got frostbite tromping through the snow wearing a fur cloak that was more for show than actual protection from the elements. And I was loving every minute[1].

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The Warriors Three (Image source Comic Vine)

I even got to play the supporting part of Fandral the Dashing alongside my old friend “Professor” Toru Tanaka as Hogun the Grim and Mark Addy as Volstagg the Valiant. The three of us mostly played supporting bit parts as the, um, “Warriors Three”, fighting alongside Thor in the flashback scenes and the big final battle, sort of a Three Stooges as Warriors, only with serious violent action rather than slapstick. We didn’t play much of a part in the story, other than one part where I tried to talk Thor out of attacking the Rock Trolls, and a lot of our best footage in my mind got cut for time. We ad-libbed many of our lines and came up with some crazy fight choreography just to stand out in the background, though, so despite our limited screen time, we gained a fan following. This got us more screen time in Thor 2 in 2001 and eventually got us our own TV series in the 2000s, The Warriors Three, all in the semi-campy, semi-serious tone of Lysia.

This also meant getting to work alongside some of the big screen’s biggest actors, like Michael Cane, Ian McShane, Samuel Jackson, and of course Brad Pitt, some of whom I got to Shemp for. I also got to work with Daniel Craig, who had his big break as Donald Blake, and of course David Tenet of Dr. Who fame, who played the villainous Loki, and proved as fun behind the scenes as he did on screen. It was also a blast seeing the various other actors that played Loki in disguise doing their best to imitate David’s mannerisms and mischievous grin, especially you-know-who with the big reveal moment.

But that’s enough name-dropping, what about the juicy behind-the-scenes stuff? That’s what you nerds are here for, right?

First off, our release date got bumped up. We were supposed to be the late summer film following Ron Howard’s Captain America, but then some genius in marketing realized that July 4th fell on a Sunday in 1999, and that July 4th Weekend was perfect for dropping Captain America. So we got pushed up to May and I had to do several days of Shemp Shots with Ted to make up for the time lost. How’s that for a behind-the-scenes?

Also, Doug Jones did what we’d now call Digital Acting, though it was pretty early in the game back then. He wore the “suit of ping pong balls” and stood in for Ulik, King of the the Rock Trolls and principal antagonist, and wore the latex suit for close-ups and the like. Jones was also playing Elric on the Stormbringer pilot, which was also filming at the time, thankfully also largely shot on location in New Zealand, and he had been doing some guest spots on Lysia and Telemachus, so he and I had a few laughs behind the scenes. He told me, being a rather devout Christian, that playing a Rock Troll in a Pagan Gods story and a servant of a Satanic god in Stormbringer was a bit of a challenge of faith, but that following some long talks with the writers and his minister he was starting to see the value and, well, Values in the stories. My advice was simpler: “It’s fiction, Doug. I doubt that anyone’s going to start worshiping the Aesir because of Sam Raimi or Arioch because of Tim Burton.”

Not my best advice, but I am an ordained minister, after all[2]. That fact alone seemed to help him.

Hey, I did my Good Works for the day, what’s your problem?

f5faa9fec81c85c5af3741832000dd2d.jpg

Fandril vs. Ulik (Image source Pintrest)

Ulik was a largely digital creation, kind of like Moog and Ba Ba, but generally better loved. Animation voice guy Frank Welker ultimately did the voice since Sam didn’t want to do the “special guest actors” schtick. In fact, the only reason he took on Brad Pitt was because he’d already worked with him producing Wonder Woman and found out that Brad was a comics fan. Brad was as pissed off as any of us over how Warner treated Sam.

Sadly, we all ended up reuniting with a lot of the cast and crew of the DC films for Robert Downey Jr.’s funeral. It was like we’d actually lost Superman in real life! I was there, having worked with him on Superman, of course. Such a damned loss. Robert had finally cleaned up and was on the straight and narrow, and those yellow press jackals that tried to insinuate a Hollywood coverup[3] can eat one. Brad threatened to stick Mjolnir where the sun don’t shine if he ever saw David Pecker in person.

In happier news, Sam was able to recycle some of his ideas for Darkseid into the Marvel Movie Universe. Justice League completely wasted DS, and Sam was livid. He had this whole crazy idea that Darkseid and his people were actually fleeing the Anti-Monitor, who destroyed Apokolips – you know, basically the classic “invading refugees” thing. Their aim was to use the Mother Boxes to terraform Earth into a more suitable home for them, with the intsy-wintsy little side-problem that this would wipe out most life on Earth, to include humanity. But hey, not DS’s problem, right? Naturally some of that got recycled into the Galactus plot, but I get ahead of myself.

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Image apropos of nothing (image source BraveAndBoldLost Blogspot)

So, anyway, the workout to play Fandral, not to mention stand in for Brad, was serious. We’d all get up at 4 am to hit the gym. I was spending hours every day in the gym or on the track with Brad and Toru, eating a ludicrously strict diet, and learning to really appreciate what the muscleheads have to do to look the way that they do. By week seven I would have thrown Sam off the mountain for a handful of French fries! Few people appreciate how much work goes in to looking buff for you nerds. I’d never worked harder before or since, but soon enough I had actual serious pecs and abs and my wife Ida was loving it, so, hey, hard work has its benefits.

She was less amused by my attempts to grow the pencil thin mustache and goatee to play Fandral. “You look like a pimp, Bruce.”

I ended up shaving and just having them put it on in makeup. The glue did not hold up in the cold mountain air. There’s a whole gag reel of my beards and mustaches falling off.

Mount-Cook-1280x720.jpg

Mount Cook in New Zealand (Image source Oh Fact!)

And all said, the experience was a good one. Ida fell in love with New Zealand, and we even bought a home there. If World War 3 starts I know where I’m going. The work hours were long, but the set was a blast. Even the mountain shots, fighting frostbite and perpetually out of breath, were incredible. Helicopter rides through gorgeous Alpine wonderlands every day. I never realized that glaciers were so amazing in real life. I mean, they’re just ice, right? Speaking of ice, we had to shelter from a sudden ice storm one day, which wasn’t fun, but we made it through with no casualties other than Sam’s Coke can, which exploded in the cold, resulting in a fantastical Cokecicle. Every day an adventure.

Seriously, Brad can keep all of the stresses and strains of trying to maintain a career as an A-lister. I’ll take a week of Shemping in the Southern Alps, and a double-helping of French fries when the shoot wraps.



[1] Aesir helmet tip to by @Plateosaurus, @Nathanoraptor and Mr. Harris Syed for the casting and behind the scenes of The Mighty Thor. Dedicated guest post coming in 1999.

[2] True!! He has officiated weddings, including a “zombie wedding”. No idea what denomination or even religion.

[3] Downey’s family will launch a libel lawsuit against the National Enquirer and other tabloid rags for spreading rumors that RDJ was using again and had been intoxicated when the fatal crash happened. They ended up settling out of court for an undisclosed amount and running a retraction and apology.
 
eventually got us our own TV series in the 2000s, The Warriors Three, all in the semi-campy, semi-serious tone of Lysia.
You just can't keep Bruce away from wonderfully camp fantasy television, no matter the timeline!
Nice to see an ensemble series rather than hanging the show on a single character. If nothing else it lets you do a bottle episode or two where one of the Warriors Three goes it solo or has to duck out of filming for a bit.

Nice update!
 
Hey I've been busy last week so I missed a lot, but it feels good to be back.
I even got to play the supporting part of Fandral the Dashing alongside my old friend “Professor” Toru Tanaka as Hogun the Grim and Mark Addy as Volstagg the Valiant. The three of us mostly played supporting bit parts as the, um, “Warriors Three”, fighting alongside Thor in the flashback scenes and the big final battle, sort of a Three Stooges as Warriors, only with serious violent action rather than slapstick. We didn’t play much of a part in the story, other than one part where I tried to talk Thor out of attacking the Rock Trolls, and a lot of our best footage in my mind got cut for time. We ad-libbed many of our lines and came up with some crazy fight choreography just to stand out in the background, though, so despite our limited screen time, we gained a fan following. This got us more screen time in Thor 2 in 2001 and eventually got us our own TV series in the 2000s, The Warriors Three, all in the semi-campy, semi-serious tone of Lysia.
Great to see Bruce getting some nice supporting work again, playing Fandral sounds right up his Alley.

The tv show also sounds like a lot of fun and I wonder if there's going to be more of those semi tie in shows like an early version of the Netflix/ Disney Plus MCU shows.

Daredevil would be great for one of those.
This also meant getting to work alongside some of the big screen’s biggest actors, like Michael Cane, Ian McShane, Samuel Jackson, and of course Brad Pitt, some of whom I got to Shemp for. I also got to work with Daniel Craig, who had his big break as Donald Blake, and of course David Tenet of Dr. Who fame, who played the villainous Loki, and proved as fun behind the scenes as he did on screen. It was also a blast seeing the various other actors that played Loki in disguise doing their best to imitate David’s mannerisms and mischievous grin, especially you-know-who with the big reveal moment.
I wonder who Samuel L Jackson is playing given that Ultimate Nick Fury, who his MCU character is based on, doesn't exists in this Timeline yet and maybe never will.

Craig gets his big break as Donald Blake? Sounds interesting that his first big role is that of a mild mannered counterpart to Brad Pitts Thor, a far cry from his hard boiled action hero image of OTL. Wonder what he will be casted in next.

Tenant sounds like a delight as Loki and I can't wait to see what the big plot twist is. Maybe he's Odin like at the End of Dark World or maybe it's setup for the next big thing? Can't wait for the guest post.
First off, our release date got bumped up. We were supposed to be the late summer film following Ron Howard’s Captain America, but then some genius in marketing realized that July 4th fell on a Sunday in 1999, and that July 4th Weekend was perfect for dropping Captain America. So we got pushed up to May and I had to do several days of Shemp Shots with Ted to make up for the time lost. How’s that for a behind-the-scenes?
Kinda funny nobody through about putting Cap on the 4th of July beforehand. Seems kinda obvious.
Also, Doug Jones did what we’d now call Digital Acting, though it was pretty early in the game back then. He wore the “suit of ping pong balls” and stood in for Ulik, King of the the Rock Trolls and principal antagonist, and wore the latex suit for close-ups and the like. Jones was also playing Elric on the Stormbringer pilot
Great, sounds like an awesome scene. Btw what's Stormbringer?
Sadly, we all ended up reuniting with a lot of the cast and crew of the DC films for Robert Downey Jr.’s funeral. It was like we’d actually lost Superman in real life! I was there, having worked with him on Superman, of course. Such a damned loss. Robert had finally cleaned up and was on the straight and narrow, and those yellow press jackals that tried to insinuate a Hollywood coverup[3] can eat one. Brad threatened to stick Mjolnir where the sun don’t shine if he ever saw David Pecker in person
I just realised this is the closest this Timeline has to Death of Superman, I wonder if people will wear morning bands with the Superman crest for Downey.

Also it's horrible that people try to milk this for profit and blame it on him.
In happier news, Sam was able to recycle some of his ideas for Darkseid into the Marvel Movie Universe. Justice League completely wasted DS, and Sam was livid. He had this whole crazy idea that Darkseid and his people were actually fleeing the Anti-Monitor, who destroyed Apokolips – you know, basically the classic “invading refugees” thing. Their aim was to use the Mother Boxes to terraform Earth into a more suitable home for them, with the intsy-wintsy little side-problem that this would wipe out most life on Earth, to include humanity. But hey, not DS’s problem, right? Naturally some of that got recycled into the Galactus plot, but I get ahead of myself
Sam Raimi joins the proud Jack Kirby tradition of carrying your ideas from one of the Big Two to the other to continue them there. But no joke this plot seems crazy enough to work. Love it

It honestly sounds like a mix of the Skrulls plot of OTLs Captain Marvel and the Terra forming plot of OTLs Man of Steel, although I think it works better since Bew Gods don't derive their powers from a yellow sun. Would've been interesting to see Darkseid as a more reasonable ruler, actually a little concerned about his peoples well being instead of the totally ruthless monster he's always portrayed as. Not to speak about the great foreshadowing for a possible Crisis on Infinite Earths Film! Seriously imagine thinking about the horrors that made freaking Darkseid flee in terror!

Alas we can only speculate how this would've turned out, so I'm looking forward to see how this ties into the Galactus plot. Maybe the Kree take the place of the Apokolipsians?
Seriously, Brad can keep all of the stresses and strains of trying to maintain a career as an A-lister. I’ll take a week of Shemping in the Southern Alps, and a double-helping of French fries when the shoot wraps.
I'm glad Bruce has found appreciation in his B-Movie stardom. I hope he will be a mainstay of conventions and fan meet ups for years to come. Still I hope we get to see at least a few more high role acting roles sprinkled in.

Great chapter @Geekhis Khan
 
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