Scarlett Johansson gets the Mouse to cough up some dough.

(Via Hot Air) I dunno for how much. Enough that it’s all smiles, now. No, really. It’s probably a clause in the settlement.

Alan Bergman, the chairman of Disney Studios Content, said he, too, was pleased to have resolved the dispute.

“I’m very pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement with Scarlett Johansson regarding ‘Black Widow,’” he said in a statement. “We appreciate her contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look forward to working together on a number of upcoming projects, including Disney’s ‘Tower of Terror.’”

And ain’t it just like the Mouse to use a press release like this to drop the first hints of an upcoming Disney project. It’s like a goram machine, huh? And strangely admirable — or at least something to imitate. Always Be Closing, my droogies. Always Be Closing.

Scarlet Johansson is gonna sue the shorts off of of Disney…

…and I’m not finding it hard to pick a side at all. I mean, the Mouse is never gonna offer me a book contract: but it still behooves me to be against companies casually breaching them*. And, amusingly, Johansson has a net worth of over 100 million — she’s apparently been involved in at least one blockbuster movie series — so Disney’s usual tactic of overlawyering her just ain’t gonna fly. This should be real interesting, and I wonder whether they’re going to try to settle fast.

I wouldn’t… because I wouldn’t have gotten into this mess in the first place. Jesus, just pay people. It’s not a hard strategy to comprehend.

Moe Lane

*As somebody put it: I don’t care if Johansson wins, but I do need for Disney to lose.

MCU’s BLADE gets a director.

As is traditional, we will all now go “Who?”

Marvel Studios’ upcoming vampire movie Blade has taken a big step forward with the hiring of a director. The filmmaker that has been hired for the job is Bassam Tariq, who best known for directing the Riz Ahmed film Mogul Mowgli.

I’ve looked up the film, and it’s a 2020 drama that critics loved and nobody saw. Marvel Studios loves finding directors like that, frankly. All you have to do is give ’em creative control and a ton of money, and they’ll make you some blockbusters… okay, now that I’ve written that out it actually sounds like a pretty good deal for everybody involved. I mean, there are worse things out there for one’s future career prospects than having people go Oh, you did SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING? That was a good flick.

So let’s see how the new BLADE goes.

Watched the first episode of LOKI today.

It’s good, although some people online were a little surprised by the aesthetic. The aesthetic is VERY 1970s pre-digital bureaucratic, with analog everywhere. Personally, I liked it a lot — but I also associate said aesthetic with things like CONTROL or the SCP Foundation, which means I’m expecting LOKI to dive into cosmic horror pretty quick. Guess we’ll see if I’m right!

Lemme suggest ANOTHER reason why Emilia Clarke’s might want to be in SECRET INVASION.

Oh, she’s saying something deep…

…but I’m gonna say that the actual answer is MONEY. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that! MONEY’s what makes the world go round, after all. The Mouse has deep pockets, Ms. Clarke. Hold out for all that the traffic will bear.

Moe Lane

PS: I liked SOLO, by the way.