DT’s weekly entertainment show, Between the Streams, is your guide to all of the hottest, most important, and (of course) dumbest new developments in streaming and entertainment, providing a handy recap of the week that was and a preview for what’s ahead. Follow us here at 2 p.m. PT every Friday, or add us via RSS, iTunes, or Stitcher at the links below to take BtS on the road!
If you’re in your late 30s (or early 40s, don’t judge), you likely recall that magical feeling of seeing a new Star Wars film in the theater during the franchise’s glory days. For the 30s to early 40s crowd, that film was Return of the Jedi, and many of us had to work our way backward through the saga over the years to make sense of it all, slowly gaining understanding as we aged that this was truly one of the greatest stories ever told. Even with creator George Lucas’ troubled prequel trilogy muddying the waters, that knowledge has become an accepted and unchallenged truth in the pop culture zeitgeist, thankfully reinforced by Disney’s stewardship in recent years.
It’s somewhat fitting, then, that another film bearing the hallowed name of “Jedi” should give us that feeling once again. With twists and turns, brutal action, envelope-pushing moments, and more Star Wars “feels” than either of the other new Star Wars films could muster before it, Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi is, indeed, the Star Wars film we were looking for. A film that doesn’t just stand on the shoulders of Star Wars giants, but is worthy of a place on the pedestal next to them. A film so good that Johnson was handed the keys to his own, completely new Star Wars trilogy in Disney’s ever-expanding quest to capitalize on its purchase of Lucasfilm. We realize there are some haters out there in Star Wars land, despite the film’s stellar reviews. And to them we say, “lighten up.” If you can’t have fun with this kind of innovative Star Wars filmmaking, you may as well stop going.
If you haven’t yet guessed, it’s Star Wars day on Between the Streams, in celebration of The Last Jedi’s official premiere. Today’s podcast will be dominated with discussion of the new film — completely spoiler free, of course. And for our video audience on Facebook and YouTube, we’ll also be showing off some epic Star Wars jackets courtesy of Columbia Sportswear (one of which we’ll be giving away) and our special guest, Rick Stella, who heads up Digital Trends’ Outdoor section.
While we may want it to be, it’s not all Star Wars today, mainly due to the fact that we have a mortal fear of even dancing close to the spoiler line. So, since seeing the movie on the unofficial premiere night isn’t federally mandated, we’ll reluctantly move on to other topics. Luckily, there are plenty of cool ones to explore this week.
Sony’s Venom movie continues to look surprisingly interesting, despite the fact that it doesn’t even have any direct connections to the Spider-Man himself. A lot of that is predicated around the chameleonic star who takes the title role, Tom Hardy, as well as Sony’s plans to create a darker, horror-inspired vision of the villains in Spidey land.
We also got official confirmation that Disney will indeed buy most of the assets owned by a little brand called 21st Century Fox, which includes everything from the X-Men property rights to Fox regional sports coverage. We’ll be discussing the potential acquisition, what it means to you, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even the streaming marketplace, as Disney has big plans for streaming ahead.
Also this week, we’ll be discussing the rumored Obi-Wan spinoff film, Jessica Jones season 2, Punisher season 2, Seth Rogen as Walter Cronkite (?), a She-Ra reboot, and more.
So tune in and hit us up live at 2 p.m. PT today, or take us along for the ride with our podcast version by following the links at the top of this story.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?