Death, Delays + Digital Disasters

I Woke up to find a note I left myself that just says "DON'T FORGET THE THING!!!!" What thing? Which thing? Everything is things. I'm surrounded by things. I started making a list of possible things. The list is now three pages long. Pretty sure I've forgotten the original thing and invented new things to forget. This is productivity, but backwards.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Drew Struzan, the artist behind Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Back to the Future posters, died October 13 at age 78 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Spielberg said Struzan "made event art" and turned movies into "destinations." He painted every movie poster that mattered between 1980 and 2008.

I have a Back to the Future poster in my bathroom. Above the toilet. Drew Struzan's art has been watching me poop for six years and I never once thought "wonder who painted this." Just assumed posters materialized from the poster dimension. Like how I assumed milk just existed in stores until I was embarrassingly old. My roommate had to explain cows to me. Not how cows work—I knew about cows—but the whole process. The milking. The trucks. The pasteurization. I thought pasteurization was a place. Like milk went to Pastor Nation.

Stranger Things Season 5 premieres with four episodes at Thanksgiving, three at Christmas, and the finale on New Year's Eve. The Duffer Brothers are leaving Netflix for Paramount after their deal ends in April 2026, seeking theatrical distribution.

I went to a theater last week. Someone brought a full rotisserie chicken. Not pieces. The whole bird. In aluminum foil. Ate it with their hands during Tron. Made eye contact with me while pulling off a leg. Didn't break eye contact. That's theatrical distribution.

The Japanese government formally requested OpenAI stop using copyrighted anime/manga in Sora 2, calling them "irreplaceable treasures." The Digital Minister suggested invoking the AI Promotion Act if OpenAI doesn't comply. Sora 2 can generate 20-second lifelike videos.

"Please, OpenAI-san, our anime is irreplaceable treasure." This is like asking your roommate to stop eating your leftovers. They're going to keep eating them. You know it. They know it. The leftovers know it. But you ask anyway because what else are you going to do? Violence? No. You're going to leave passive-aggressive notes that get increasingly unhinged until you're writing manifestos about pad thai ownership.

Marvel's Brad Winderbaum confirmed at NYCC they're discussing X-Men '97 Seasons 4 and 5. Season 2 airs Summer 2026, Season 3 is already in development with animatics nearly complete.

I feel like I've been waiting for Season 2 so long I forgot what happened in Season 1. Something about Magneto? Apocalypse? My memory is just a highlight reel of Wolverine being angry and Cyclops being wrong about everything.