Tron: Ares has wrapped production as director Joachim Rønning shares new behind-the-scenes photos on social media.
I’ll admit I doubted a third Tron movie would ever happen, but I’m thankful to be proven wrong. After kicking off production at the start of the year, Tron: Ares has wrapped production and director Joachim Rønning has shared a handful of photos on Instagram.
“That’s a wrap on TRON: ARES,” Rønning wrote. “Thanks to an incredible and tireless crew, I really believe we pushed the filmmaking limits on this movie. Even through six weeks of night shoots you never slowed down. Also, a big thank you to our wonderful cast for leaving everything on screen. I can’t wait to show the world what we’ve done.” You’ll note that some of the photos contain blurred-out elements, with one seemingly covering up a Light Cycle.
Tron: Ares “follows a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.” The film stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, and Gillian Anderson.
To the delight of Tron fans, it was confirmed last month that Jeff Bridges will also return. “I’m heading off this Saturday to play a part in the third installment of the Tron story,” Bridges said. “I’m excited about that. It’s wild. Jared Leto is the star of this third one, and I’m really anxious to work with him, and I’ve admired his work.” He also spoke about the visual effects of the last Tron movie, which found him digitally de-aged in a way that didn’t always work. “[I’m really excited] to see what the technology is going to be all about [this time],” he said. “When I did Tron: Legacy, we had to put all these dots on our face and all these kinds of things. And that’s [probably] all passé. I had to see myself as a young guy or as another character, but the same guy, but it was gonna be digitally created. I think it was [de-aging], but I didn’t like the way I looked in it; I felt like I looked more like Bill Maher than myself; it was kind of bizarre [laughs]. I’m anxious to see what the technology and what it will be. I hear there’s even less A.I. stuff in this. It’s going to be more a practical set, and they’re beautiful; there are beautiful sets that I’ve seen.“
Tron: Ares is set to hit theaters on October 10, 2025.
Darth Jar Jar is real and he can definitely hurt you in the first teaser trailer for LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy.
Jar Jar Binks is one of the more reviled characters in the entire Star Wars franchise, and while he’s largely harmless, some fans wonder if he’s not hiding something darker and more sinister. Some have even theorized that Jar Jar is secretly a Sith Lord, and the new teaser trailer for LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy definitely plays into that by giving us… Darth Jar Jar. Check out the teaser below!
LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy will find the entire Star Wars Galaxy getting completely mixed up when “an ordinary nerf-herder, Sig Greebling (Gaten Matarazzo), unearths a powerful artifact from a hidden Jedi temple. He finds himself thrust into adventure in a new, wondrously wild and twisted version of the galaxy where good guys are bad, bad guys are good, and the fate of all depends on Sig becoming the hero who can put all the pieces back together.” Among the many changes are Rebel TIE-wings, Ewok bounty hunters, and Darth Jar Jar, who proudly declares, “Mesa gunna hurt yousa!”
In addition to Gaten Matarazzo as Sig Greebling, LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy also features the voices of Tony Revolori as Dev Greebling, Bobby Moynihan as Jedi Bob, Marsai Martin as Yesi Scala, Michael Cusack as Servo, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, and of course, the one and only Ahmed Best as Darth Jar Jar.
In a statement, executive producer James Waugh said: “It’s hard to believe that it’s been twenty-five years since the ground-breaking collaboration between Lucasfilm and The LEGO Group began. In that time, LEGO Star Wars has given our fans the unique power to unlock their imaginations and play with the galaxy’s elements in any way they can conceive… and build. It’s with that playful spirit in mind that we set out to ‘Rebuild the Galaxy’ like never before. Tapping into the comedic genius of Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, two of the most talented comedy writers I’ve had the fortune of working with, we’ve mixed and matched LEGO sets to snap together Imperial X-fighters, Rebel TIE-wings, and yes, even Darth Jar Jar. This four-piece special is a celebration of all things Star Wars, LEGO, and the incredible explorations that can only happen when these two amazing brands come together.“
Showrunners and executive producers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit added: “The opportunity to work with LEGO and Lucasfilm to rebuild the galaxy has been a dream come true. We’ve been collecting LEGO Star Wars sets for twenty-five years, and we have approached this project with a fan’s enthusiasm, crafting this story quite literally brick by brick. For new fans, this will be an exciting place to enter the world of LEGO Star Wars, and for lifelong fans, you’re going to see some things that you never thought possible.“
LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy will consist of four parts and will premiere on Disney+ on September 13th.
The Witcher franchise on Netflix looks to be coming to an end, as the main show is wrapping up and spin-offs are being scrapped
Netflix was building up their series The Witcher, which is inspired by a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, to be a major franchise. In addition to the flagship show, they made the anime film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf and a prequel mini-series called The Witcher: Blood Origin, with another anime movie called The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and a couple other spin-offs in the works… but now it looks like it’s all winding down. As The Witcher season 4 heads into production with Liam Hemsworth taking over the role of Geralt of Rivia from former star Henry Cavill, Netflix has announced that season 5 will be the end of the show. And while The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is still expected to be released through the streaming service by the end of 2024, Redanian Intelligence and What’s on Netflix have learned that two other spin-offs, one called The Rats and another a show that would have been aimed at younger viewers, have been scrapped.
Created by The Witcher writer Haily Hall, The Rats would have consisted of six to eight episodes centering on a group of teenage misfits who crossed paths with Ciri in The Witcher season 3. The show had the following synopsis: Six teenage thieves must rely on their criminal skills as they plan the biggest heist of their careers against the most dangerous crime ring in the kingdom.
The Rats started filming in May of 2023 with The Sandman and Shadow & Bone director Mairzee Almas at the helm. Production was supposed to last for six months, but got shut down after two. According to Redanian Intelligence, The Rats filmed one or two episodes before the production shutdown, and when Netflix got a look at the footage they decided not to go through with filming the remaining episodes. The teenage characters will be appearing in The Witcher season 4, and there’s a chance footage from the abandoned The Rats project could be integrated into the show.
The cast of The Rats included Ben Radcliffe (Giselher), Christelle Elwin (Mistle), Fabian McCallum (Kayleigh), Aggy K. Adams (Iskra), Juliette Alexandra (Reef), Connor Crawford (Asse), Dolph Lundgren (Brehen), Deoudone van der Merwe (Juniper), Morgan Santo (Dulcie), and Stevel Marc (Lord Ridot).
The other spin-off, the untitled kids series was announced in 2021, and we don’t know much about it other than it appears to have been permanently shelved. So as of right now, it looks like The Witcher franchise on Netflix is going to end with seasons 4 and 5 of the show, with The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep being the final spin-off.
What do you think of The Witcher franchise coming to an end? Are you hoping to see more spin-offs in the future? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
ORLANDO, Fla., May 6, 2024 (Newswire.com)
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MicroGenDX, a global leader in next-generation sequencing (NGS) diagnostics of infection, and members from the academic lab of Caleb Phillips at Texas Tech University (TTU) will present four groundbreaking oral presentations at the Wound Healing Society meeting in May 2024. Based on the microbial profiles provided to physicians through MicroGenDX clinical reports, the presentation of these studies was made possible with joint support from the National Institutes of Health and the Southwest Regional Wound Care Center (SWRWCC; Joe Wolcott, M.D.).
“We couldn’t be more proud of our research collaborators and their accomplishments in presenting the findings of these game-changing MicroGenDX-supported studies,” said Rick Martin, MicroGenDX CEO. “These collaborations are just another example of MicroGenDX’s dedication to promoting better infectious disease treatment through our technology, scientific research, and the development of researchers and physicians.”
Each presentation will summarize the different initiatives that have been made to understand the mechanistic basis of chronic wound infection and treatment, and all studies have been based on the microbial profiles provided to physicians through MicroGenDX clinical reports.
Study #1: Local weather conditions influence wound infection profiles and the likelihood of antimicrobial resistance gene detection
Presented by Craig Tipton, Ph.D., and Director of Biostatisticsat MicroGenDX
Based on a study by Dr. Craig Tipton, a TTU doctoral alumnus from the Phillips Lab, and a Symposium on Advanced Wound Care Difference Maker, this presentation compares the distribution of wound-infecting microbiota from approximately 8,000 patients distributed across the United States.
Not only does this work show that nationally distributed chronic wound microbiomes can be defined by clusters of community types, but also that uniting this data with climatological variables shows that local weather conditions influence wound infection profiles and the likelihood of antimicrobial resistance gene detection.
The work highlights the polymicrobial nature of chronic infected wounds and that types of infecting bacteria vary across the U.S.
What does this mean for physicians and wound care providers? Generic treatments that work for patients based in Florida may not work for those elsewhere in the country or even at different times of the year because of shifts in microbial profiles, and NGS profiling offers a solution to knowing exactly what is challenging patients.
Study #2: Bacterial relative abundance profiles from the MicroGenDX clinical reports were the single biggest explainer of healing time
Presented by Jake Ancira, M.S., and research analyst at MicroGenDX
Ancira is a recent TTU master's alumnus from the Phillips Lab, whose work has been selected through a competitive abstract process to be a finalist for the Wound Healing Society’s prestigious Young Investigator award.
Through a collaborative effort with Dr. Wolcott and the SWRWCC, Ancira developed the first-ever structural equation model to quantify the relative influence of patient variables on predictors of chronic wound healing time.
The major takeaway from this study is that bacterial relative abundance profiles from the MicroGenDX clinical reports were the single biggest explainer of healing time, followed closely by wound etiology.
This result speaks volumes not only about the role of microbes in the persistence of chronicity, but especially about the value of the MicroGenDX test employed in a biofilm-based wound care approach.
Study #3: Elucidating genetic predisposition to infection using genome-wide associations
Presented by Rebecca Gabrilska, M.D./Ph.D. student at TTU Health Sciences Center, and Phillips Lab
Co-advised by Kendra Rumbaugh of TTU Health Sciences Center and Caleb Phillips, and in close collaboration with the SWRWCC, Gabrilska is using a genome-wide association approach to establish how genetic variants in patients’ DNA explain the different species that infect chronic wounds.
This work is elucidating genetic predisposition to infection, insights which hold potential for predictive models of infection risk.
The ability to significantly associate MicroGenDX reported species relative abundances to patient genetic variants strongly supports the accuracy of species profiles MicroGenDX provides to physicians.
Study #4: How patients’ tissue-specific gene expression predicts differences in species infecting chronic wounds
Presented by Khalid Omeir, current graduate student at TTU in the Phillips Lab and bioinformatics intern at MicroGenDX
Omeir’s work focuses on genetically controlled differences in patients’ tissue-specific gene expression that explain differences in the microbes that infect their chronic wounds as provided on the MicroGenDX clinical reports.
This avenue of research will inform the potential for predictive polygenic risk scores of infection by specific species.
It also enables an understanding of how peoples’ DNA leads to tissue-specific expression differences important to chronic wound infection, insights that can inform mechanisms of microbial exploitation of wounds and how they interact with human tissue.
The Russo Brothers offer intriguing updates about Extraction 3 and The Gray Man 2, two of the duo’s biggest action rollercoasters.
The Russo Brothers are one of Hollywood’s busiest duos in an industry that moves at the speed of light. With an alarming amount of projects heaped onto their respective plates, two stand out among the crowd for action fans: Extraction 3 and The Gray Man2.
Speaking with GamesRadar+ at the Sands: International Film Festival in St. Andrews, Scotland, the Russos said The Gray Man 2 is actively developing. The 2022 original starred Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans as a skilled CIA operative (Gosling) and a psychotic former colleague (Evans) who triggered a global manhunt led by international assassins. Despite getting the shaft from critics, casual audiences loved watching two of Hollywood’s biggest stars square off against one another while explosions light their destructive path.
“We’re developing concepts we think are the right direction to take the character in and so, we are working on that at the moment,” Joe Russo told GamesRadar+. “I mean, you’re juggling like 14 things at the same time so you have to apportion your time correctly to each one of them.”
Joe then expressed gratitude for the brotherly duo’s production studio AGBO, adding, “But that’s part of the benefit of having our own company now, which is filled with really important collaborators that we’ve been working with for many years, and that’s the only way we’re able to sustain this level of work. We always joke there’s not two Russo Brothers, there’s like 14.”
Regarding Extraction 3, the action-packed sequel starring Chris Hemsworth as a black market mercenary, Joe Russo says he’s scripting the threequel and is figuring out the project’s production schedule. “Yeah, we’re developing it at the moment, figuring out Chris’s schedule. Sam Hargrave is back directing. It’s an interesting franchise because he’s a very emotionally wounded character, so there’s good storytelling there I think in respect to his backstory, and, you know, his relationship to violence is one that’s built around self-loathing and guilt. And so, it adds a lot of texture I think, which allows us to tell more stories about him.”
Which sequel are you looking forward to more? Did you like The Gray Man enough to want a sequel? Let us know in the comments section below.
About the Author
Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He’s also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You’ll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.
Lola Kirke of Mozart in the Jungle is the latest to join the cast of Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s mysterious genre project
Earlier this year, it was revealed that frequent collaborators Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan – who have worked on Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever together as director and cast member, and have other collaborations that Coogler didn’t direct – have been developing a new project in secret. Coogler has written the script for this project, which is being described as both a genre picture and a period piece that Coogler will be directing and Jordan is attached to star in. The project is set up at Warner Bros., is expected to have a budget of around $90 million, and is scheduled for a theatrical release on March 7, 2025. Coogler has been assembling Jordan’s supporting cast over the last couple of months, and Deadline reports that the latest actor to sign on is Lola Kirke, whose credits include The Leftovers, Gone Girl, American Made, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Three Women, and the project she’s probably best known for, Mozart in the Jungle.
Details on the role Kirke will be playing in the film are, of course, being kept under wraps.
Kirke joins a cast that already includes Jack O’Connell (Unbroken), Delroy Lindo (Get Shorty), Wunmi Mosaku (Loki), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Omar Benson Miller (CSI: Miami), Jayme Lawson (The Batman), and Li Jun Li (The Exorcist TV series). Not only does Michael B. Jordan have the lead role, but he’s also apparently playing two different characters.
This project is being kept so tightly under wraps that when it was looking for a studio to call home, “executives and buyers were forced to make the pilgrimage to the Beverly Hills offices of WME, the agency that represents Coogler and Jordan, in order to take a gander on the script and get details.”
We’ve previously heard that the project might be a vampire movie – and the folks at World of Reel went even further, sharing that it’s RUMORed to be about vampires battling the Ku Klux Klan! World of Reel has heard that “Coogler’s film would be set in the ’30s South, centering on vampires, with dual twin roles for Jordan and that it would be heavy in ‘anime influences.’ The ’30s Jim Crow South setting is not an accident. There’s been word that the plot would center on Vampires going to war against the Ku Klux Klan. That actually makes total sense given the setting of the film which is smack dab in the middle, and during, the height of the Klan.“
Coogler (who is also developing a reboot of the TV series The X-Files) will be producing the film with Proximity Media partners Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian. Rebecca Cho serves as executive producer alongside Will Greenfield and two-time Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Goransson (who won his first Oscar for his work on Coogler’s Black Panther and his second for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer). Production is set to begin in New Orleans this month.
Are you interested in Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s mysterious genre project? What do you think of Lola Kirke being added to the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Pauly Shore says he was “up all night crying” after Richard Simmons’ latest disapproval of the upcoming biopic.
The upcoming biopic of Richard Simmons starring Pauly Shore took a big step forward earlier this week when it was announced that Jordan Allen-Dutton (Robot Chicken) had signed on to write the script, but the subject of the film isn’t having it.
“I just read that a man that I don’t know is writing my bio pic starring Pauly Shore,” Richard Simmons wrote on social media. “I do not approve this movie. I am in talks with major studios to create my own bio pic with some help. Wait for this movie.” Shore, who is still holding out hope that Simmons will embrace the project, wrote on Instagram that these words brought him to tears.
I was up all night crying regarding Richard Simmons’ tweet. Richard, how do you not approve of this movie? I mean, really, who’s better to play you in a movie than ME? Leonardo DiCaprio’s not gonna play you. Brad Pitt’s not gonna play you. I’m perfect. Everyone already thinks I’m you. We’re the same. Beautiful, inside and out.
“Richard, you haven’t even heard the pitch. Why don’t you simply let me come over to your house, bring you some warm matzo ball soup and a pastrami sandwich with dark mustard from Canters, rub your feet, and we can listen to the writer, Jordan Allen-Dutton, pitch you our idea?” Shore added. “I know you, Richard. We used to hang out back in the day. I’d always see you at The Comedy Store. You’re my old buddy. Richard, you’re going to love our movie. We’re going to make the most beautiful cinematic masterpiece that’s going to honor you in a way that you’ll drop to your knees and cry with joy and happiness.“
Shore added that it’s “amazing” that Simmons is talking with studios himself to develop a biopic. “The more movies about you, the better,” he said. “You deserve it. There should be hundreds made. Mine is going to turn out amaze-balls.“
At this point, I find it very unlikely that Simmons will warm up to the idea of Shore’s biopic project, especially as the typically reclusive fitness guru has expressed his displeasure on several occasions. Shore has already played Simmons in The Court Jester, a short film that quickly gained over one million views on YouTube in just 24 hours. Mark Wolper, who is producing the project, says it will be a “dramatic and heartfelt feature in the tone of Little Miss Sunshine.“
Jessica Rothe remains hopeful for Happy Death Day 3, says it’s just a matter of Blumhouse and Universal signing off.
Last Updated on April 30, 2024
Happy Death Day was a huge success for Blumhouse, grossing $125 million on a budget of just $4.8 million. The sequel didn’t quite hit those same numbers, but it still did well enough that fans were expecting to see Happy Death Day 3. Well, it’s been five years and not much has happened, despite writer/director Christopher Landon working on the script and star Jessica Rothe eager to return.
While speaking with ScreenGeek, Jessica Rothe gave a hopeful update regarding Happy Death Day 3.
“Well, I can say Chris Landon has the whole thing figured out,” Rothe said. “We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row. But my fingers are so crossed. I think Tree [Gelbman] deserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning.“
Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U were both a lot of fun, and the films have gathered quite a following over the years, but time is ticking for the third movie. Christopher Landon has admitted that his idea for Happy Death Day 3 would require a bigger budget, and since the second movie didn’t perform as well as expected, it would be a tall order. “I have that movie in my head, and I know exactly what I want,” Landon said last year. “It’s actually a bigger movie than the previous two films, and that’s part of the issue, ultimately. This third movie needs a bigger budget, but since the second movie didn’t perform as well as the first, it’s a tall order. But I’m still holding out hope that Universal will give me a chance because it would be a really fun conclusion.“
Jessica Rothe can currently be seen in Boy Kills World. The post-apocalyptic action comedy stars Bill Skarsgård as a man named “Boy” who “vows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy, the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favorite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents. Bedlam ensues as Boy commits bloody martial arts mayhem, inciting a wrath of carnage and blood-letting. As he tries to get his bearings in this delirious realm, Boy soon falls in with a desperate resistance group, all the while bickering with the apparent ghost of his rebellious little sister.” You can check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray right here.
Do you want to see Happy Death Day 3 close out the franchise?
NCIS: Hawai’i has been cancelled by CBS after three seasons, leaving the flagship series as the only NCIS show on the air… for now.
After three seasons, NCIS: Hawai’i has been cancelled by CBS. While the show was on the bubble, Deadline says it’s still a little surprising as there had been talks of an “abbreviated fourth and final season,” but that would have come with a massive budget cut.
NCIS: Hawai’i starred Vanessa Lachey as Jane Tennant, the first female Special Agent-in-Charge of the NCIS: Hawaiʻi Field Office. The finale of the third season, which will now be a series finale, will air on May 6th. Sources say that while it wasn’t meant to be a series finale, the episode won’t end on a major cliffhanger that will leave fans frustrated. With just three seasons under its belt, this places NCIS: Hawai’i has the shortest series in the franchise, following NCIS: New Orleans with 7 seasons and NCIS: Los Angeles with 14 seasons. The flagship series is still going strong and was recently renewed for a 22nd season.
While this will leave NCIS as the sole installment of the franchise on the air, it won’t be alone for long. There are several other spinoffs in the works, including NCIS: Origins, a prequel series about young Leroy Jethro Gibbs. The series will be narrated by Mark Harmon, who played Gibbs on NCIS for nearly twenty years, and takes place in 1991, years prior to the events of NCIS. The description reads: “In the series, Gibbs starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NCIS Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks.” Austin Stowell (White Lotus) has been cast to play young Gibbs.
Another NCIS spinoff will see Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reprising their roles of Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David for a 10-episode series destined for the Paramount+ streaming service. Per the show’s logline, “When Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, try to figure out who is after them and maybe even learn to trust each other again so that they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after.“
The Simpsons co-executive producer Tim Long apologizes for the shocking death of long-time character Larry the barfly.
Last Updated on April 30, 2024
Larry Dalrymple is no more. The frequent regular of Moe’s Tavern was killed off in a recent episode of The Simpsons and fans are quite upset with the death of the long-time character.
While speaking with Variety, The Simpsons co-executive producer Tim Long apologizes for the death of Larry but offers an explanation for why they did it. “I’m sorry if some fans are upset, but we really wanted to use Larry’s death as a way to show that even the most peripheral people in our lives have dignity and worth, and that we really shouldn’t take anyone for granted,” Long said. “To paraphrase Shakespeare, nothing became Larry’s life like the way he left it: drunk, lonely, and with a butt full of sapphires.“
Long continued, “To me, it’s sort of fitting that some fans are taking Larry’s demise as hard as Homer and his friends do. It’s just a measure of how much the show still means to people. I mean, nobody would have been upset if the Flintstones had killed off the Great Gazoo. If anything, they would have been thrilled. The episode is about a lot of things, but mostly it’s about the fear of death. Simpsons characters have always had unusually rich emotional lives, and this episode is really about their anxiety over ‘what comes next’ (and I don’t mean ‘Krapopolis’). What I think is bittersweet about this episode is that it took Larry’s death to make Homer and his friends appreciate him — and each other.“
The producer pointed out that while they “certainly didn’t kill the character off lightly,” Larry wasn’t exactly one of the show’s breakout stars. “I don’t remember any kids wearing a ‘Larry’ t-shirt of doing a ‘Larry the drunk lonely barfly’ dance,” he said. “It would have been cool if they had.“
Despite speaking very few times on The Simpsons over the last thirty years, Larry’s history on the series goes back to the very first episode. With his death, he joins the exclusive ranks of Simpsons characters who have been killed off, including Maude Flanders, Frank Grimes, Mona Simpson, and Edna Krabappel.
