‘Bedrock’, a sequel series to the legendary cartoon ‘The Flintstones’ is currently in the works at Fox from Warner Bros. The new series is set 20 years after the the original, and will be an adult animated comedy.

In addition to executive producing, Elizabeth Banks will star as the voice the now adult Pebbles Flintstone. In the show, Fred Flintstone is retiring from his job at Slate Rock and Gravel Company and Pebbles is beggining her own career. As the Stone Age evolves into the Bronze Age, the residents of Bedrock must get with the times as well.

Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment gives his thoughts on taking on this new look Flintstones…

“Long before the Simpsons and Springfield, the Griffins and Quahog or even when the Belchers started serving burgers on Ocean Avenue, there were the Flintstones and Bedrock,” said Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment. “Their imprint on the animation universe is undeniable and the idea of adapting it for today’s audience is a challenge we here at Fox are very much looking forward to taking on with Warner Bros., Elizabeth and Lindsay”

Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment.

The original series, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, ran for six seasons on ABC and was the first animated series to air in primetime. Fox’s free on-demand TV service Tubi has acquired the rights to all 6 seasons of the show and will launch it on May 1, riding on the back of its recent 60^th anniversary.

Spider-Man – amongst other well-known titles – will be swinging onto Disney+ following a massive film deal between Sony and Disney.

Beginning with Sony’s 2022 releases and running all the way through to 2026, the deal will bring Sony’s films to not only Disney+, but also the many other streaming platforms the Mouse House owns, from FX and Freeform to ABC and Hulu.

The massive movie deal, finalized by Chuck Saftler, head of business operations for ABC, Freeform, FX Networks and Acquisitions for Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, and Keith LeGoy, president of worldwide distribution and networks for Sony Pictures Entertainment, is just one example of how the pandemic has changed the media viewing experience. In other words, television isn’t dying, contrary to popular belief – rather, the way people watch it is changing.

“This groundbreaking agreement reconfirms the unique and enduring value of our movies to film lovers and the platforms and networks that serve them,” Le Goy announced. “We are thrilled to team up with Disney on delivering our titles to their viewers and subscribers. This agreement cements a key piece of our film distribution strategy, which is to maximize the value of each of our films, by making them available to consumers across all windows with a wide range of key partners.”

While Disney+ spans 59 countries, the new deal will only cover the United States market, making an estimated $3 billion during its approximately five-year span. Once finalized, Sony’s “Spider-Man” films will be available on Disney’s platforms, as well as their other franchises including “Hotel Transylvania“, “Jumanji“, and “Stuart Little“.

The film raked in $7.85 million this weekend in North America according to Box Office Mojo. . suggesting people are becoming comfortable with attending theaters more than a year into a global pandemic. With Godzilla raking in $80,655,427 in gross sales in North America and $390,955,427 worldwide, it is the highest grossing Hollywood film this year far surpassing the 2nd place film Raya and the Last Dragon which grossed $109,595,349 worldwide.

Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of April 16-18

1. Godzilla vs. Kong – $7,845,000 ($80,655,427 Gross)
2. Nobody – $2,500,170 ($19,031,215 Gross)
3. The Unholy – $2,051,073 ($9,553,806 Gross)
4. Raya and the Last Dragon – $1,921,979 ($37,696,589 Gross)
5. Tom and Jerry – $1,100,00 ($42,587,341 Gross)

The best performing title that premiered this week was the horror film “In the Earth” from Neon and directed by Ben Wheatley. This weekend “In the Earth” made $505,723 and obtain mixed reviews from theater goers.

With Godzilla vs. Kong surpassing the $300 million mark in worldwide sales, this is a great sign that the box office for future titles will continue to increase as it suggests people are becoming more and more comfortable with attending theaters. We’re beginning to see the light at the end of this dark pandemic tunnel.

One of Invincible’s newest partnerships, the MMA-focused streaming service, XFCTV – owned by Xtreme Fighting Championships (XFC) – has recently broadcasted its first live event.

The fight, which streamed at 8pm EST on March 27 to over 100 million viewers worldwide, was the first installment of the channel’s YoungGuns Series, which features amateur and professional fighters as young as 19. While this is an opportunity for them to who are gaining worldwide recognition as the stream is accessible throughout North and South America, in addition to parts of Europe.

Taking place at Shawnee, Oklahoma’s FireLake Arena, the tournament kicked off with MMA veteran Braden Smith defeating Franklin Patterson. This was followed by the co-main event as 19-year-old Austin Bashi won in a match against Mason Iacobellis. In the subsequent matches, Enzo Perez won against Tony Clanton through a TKO, and Kris Vereen versus Rico Cato at welterweight. Making their grand entrance to the professional fighting scene, Cody Linne defeated Maika Samson at flyweight, and Quran Walker won against Davi Young at featherweight. In the women’s flyweight division, Kristina Williams defeated Helen Lucero via unanimous decision.

The first amateur fight of the night took place between bantamweights Jared Ray and Datrelle Kozeluh, with Ray defeating Kozeluh via unanimous decision. This was followed by Parker Avendano’s win against Sean Arvelo through anaconda choke before Randy Ray defeated James Robinson. In the featherweight division, Jared Brown beat Jesse Robertson, and Billy Wilson defeated Chad Decker. Lastly, in the light heavyweight division, Kyler Fairchild took down Montaine McFarland.

XFC is the largest independent MMA organization in the world. XFCTV is powered by Invincible’s own Galxy TV, which will bring the combat sports to more television screens around the world through free, ad-supported streaming. A replay of the March 27 tournament is available on the official XFC TV website.

Weekend of April 2-4

1. Godzilla Vs. Kong: $11,600,000 ($48,000,000 Gross)
2. The Unholy: $3,153,456 (Opening)
3. Nobody: $2,999,810 ($11,804,105 Gross)
4. Raya and the Last Dragon $2,039,116 ($32,172,036 Gross)
5. Tom & Jerry: $1,400,000 ($39,500,000 Gross)

Warner Bros. has already pushed back “Mortal Kombat” a week to give “Godzilla Vs. Kong” an additional week at number before that takes over. More theaters and chains are opening this month, which will also reduce the weekly drops. The last film in the MonsterVerse series, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”, had a 3-day opening of $47.7 million and finished with just $110 million domestic and $386 million internationally. It makes you wonder the numbers “Godzilla Vs. Kong”  could have done when not limited to capacity and closed theater chains. The numbers this week Godzilla Vs. Kong did, provides real hope that we are on the road to recovery.

The release date for “Mortal Kombat,” the cinematic adaptation of the video game of the same name, has been pushed back one week.

After originally being scheduled to premiere on HBO Max and in theaters on April 16, Warner Bros. has now shifted the premiere date for this martial arts fantasy film to April 23.

The reason for the delay? Fans speculate it’s to eliminate competing ticket sales with “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which just released today on theaters and HBO Max. The crossover creature feature is already a smash hit around the world, so it’s understandable that the studio would want to space out the two films more, in case they both end up excelling at the box office.

“Mortal Kombat” is directed by Simon McQuoid as he makes his directorial debut. Based on the fighting video game series created by Midway Games, it will follow a washed-up MMA fighter (played by Lewis Tan) who seeks out a team of fighters led by Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) when he starts being hunted by assassin Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim).

SYNOPSIS:

Determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts, transcending that which has held them back, and allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. The team united, may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.

REVIEW:

Mired in real-life tragedy and arguably poor bets placed by one of Hollywood’s longest-lived studios, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” offers it’s director and producer a huge win for artistic integrity, and for its intended audience a satisfying franchise mea culpa haunted by the ghosts of an abandoned cinematic universe; ingraining the idea of its impossible sequels to the realm of mythic cinema not at all unlike that of “Jodorowsky’s Dune…”

As a consequence, we’ve been given a visually stunning and intriguingly dark take on the DC comics monomyth. A colossal and ambitious cinematic experience billed as the director’s original vision. A four-hour narrative behemoth, produced exclusively for a streaming audience, divided into acts ostensibly for one’s viewing ease, however, there’s no fat to cut and for much of its epic runtime, pacing is not an issue when style becomes substance within the “Snyder aesthetic.” 

While Snyder’s methodical, detail oriented visual language is for some audiences a lot to chew, gourmet cinema like this is in no way filled with empty calories. The action is more visceral and the characters more developed. It’s silly to compare the 2 versions of this film as everything from performance blocking to costumes and CGI have been elevated. Even fan service is of a higher quality in both humor and scope with the addition of fringe characters that only its core audience can appreciate.

The film’s strengths lay in its visual edge and narrative risks. What’s easiest to write off as another comic-book movie is filled with lofty blows of philosophical commentary often trivialized by Snyder’s harshest critics, undervalued as pseudo intellectualism or pretension – all of which have peaked within this latest effort: a bracingly coherent heroic opera with which there is nothing to compare, yet entirely referential to Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.” A Virgilian poem about the movements of gods among men. 

This more adult tone is palpable, boasting a constant sense of legitimate danger in a world still mourning the death of Superman, forcing archetypal heroes to face the demons of their own pasts and transcend that which has held them back on their journey to become the comic book versions of themselves we all know and love. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is guaranteed to satisfy the audience for whom it was produced, living up to its own hype and surpassing that of the internet hype machine that willed it into existence.

Unlike the original series, the reboot will follow a black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the late 1960s civil rights era. Along with Elisha Williams, ABC has casted Dulé Hill, Laura Kariuki, and Saycon Sengbloh.

The new series will closely connected with the original series, as Fred Savage, who played Kevin Arnold in the original show, will direct the pilot and executive produce. Neal Marlens, the creator of the original show, will serve as consultant while in production. The reboot hails from writer and executive producer Saladin Patterson.

Launching on March 27, XFCTV will be available on Galxy.tv and downloadable through the Roku channel store 

DESTIN, FLORIDA and Philadelphia, PA – March 23, 2021 – Xtreme Fighting Championships (OTC: DKMR) and Invincible Entertainment are pleased to announce the launch of their newest broadcast venture, www.XFCTV.com, a mixed martial arts (MMA) linear streaming network that will go live shortly before the XFC’s next MMA event, YoungGuns 1, on March 27 at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, OK. The service will be offered in Portuguese, Spanish and English, with potential to reach an audience of over 100 million MMA fans worldwide. The partnership comes at a time when opportunities for premium content remain strong within the OTT ad-supported space, as traditional cable and satellite services continue to lose subscribers.

XFCTV brings combat sports fans around the globe closer to the action in the XFC’s Hexagon than ever before. Managed and distributed by Invincible Entertainment, XFCTV subscribers will have access to the XFC’s vast catalogue of archived fights, fighter profiles, live events, behind-the-scenes content they can’t find anywhere else, and much more. 

“The XFC prides itself on bringing our fans what they want to see, intense and violent matches between the most hardcore athletes and of course the xgirls, said XFC President Myron Molotky. We’re extremely excited to launch XFC TV before our next event because we know it’s something that our fans around the world are really going to enjoy.”

As the CEO of XFC, Steve Smith defined the vision for creating a platform that would not only take XFC to new heights within the combat sports world, but also to include many other partners in creating a combat sports network universe. Mr Smith stated “When we first became involved with XFC, we had the advantage to understand historically how fight fans engaged in watching not only the XFC on various broadcast channels, but also combat sports as a whole. The shifting preference by sports fans has enabled the XFC to partner with Invincible to offer more engagement and selection, which had been the desire, and now the demand of sports fans worldwide”.

The services are powered by Invincible’s proprietary Galxy TV, a highly-scalable app development platform for OTT services. Invincible continues to focus on bringing well-established brands and film and television content from leading content owners into the growing free ad-supported television marketplace. 

Tom Ashley, founder and CEO of Invincible Entertainment, added: “Streaming TV networks have been exploding but what’s been lacking is high-quality live sports. XFCTV solves that problem. The XFC is a premier MMA league with a fantastic track record of producing first-class events. We are proud to partner with an organization of this caliber and bring their iconic fights into the living rooms of XFC fans—those who are new as well as longtime, diehard fans.”

Plans are already underway to further expand the channel’s reach and additional details will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, visit www.XFCTV.com. 

About XFC

Xtreme Fighting Championships, Inc. (formerly Duke Mountain Resources, Inc.) is the first publicly-traded premier international mixed martial arts (“MMA”) organization with offices throughout the United States and South America, trading under the ticker symbol DKMR. Xtreme Fighting Championships (“XFC”) is now partnered with NBC Sports in the United States, and has previously been carried on some of the largest open television broadcasters in Latin America – Rede TV! as well as HBO, ESPN, Esportes Interativo, Terra TV (the largest internet portal in the world), and UOL – the largest internet portal in Latin America, and premium cable & satellite television network. The XFC has had over 185 exclusively signed fighters, representing over 35+ countries worldwide with even more growth expected. Boasting the signing of The Next Generation of Male & Female Superstars, the XFC is known for entertaining fans with the most action packed MMA events both on television and in stadium venues. The Next Generation of MMA. 

About Invincible

For more than twenty years, Invincible has been a leader in the digital transformation of the entertainment industry, having built some of the earliest streaming services over a decade ago. Today, Invincible entertains hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe by providing premium content, streaming channels and technology services to the world’s largest media, technology and retail companies. For more information, visit https://www.invincibleent.com/

Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of March 19-21, 2021:
1. Raya and the Last Dragon: $5,129,473 ($23,412,079 Gross Sales)
2. Tom and Jerry: $3,800,000 ($33,700,000 Gross Sales)
3. Chaos Walking: $1,932,097 ($9,691,730 Gross Sales)
4. The Courier: $1,822,089 (Premiere)
5. The Croods: A New Age: $625,995 ($55,250,573 Gross Sales)

In first place for the third weekend in a row was Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, at $5,129,473 from 2,261 locations for a gross domestic total of $23,412079 to date. In second place, Warner Bros.’ Tom & Jerry stayed strong 4 weeks in raking in an estimated $3.84 million this weekend bringing the live-action cartoon to $33,700,000 in gross sales. Notably, performing well in the Los Angeles area for the film over the weekend.

The only major new release of the weekend was Roadside Attractions’s spy thriller The Courier, which raked in $1,822,089 this weekend, landing it in fourth place in the rankings with a fairly soft result overall. The Benedict Cumberbatch & Rachel Brosnahan title received an 84% “Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes and played very well with the audience who gave the film a 97% audience score.