Last week, the Wing Commander movie voted on a movie from a list of Oscar winners. It turned out to be Rosemary's Baby, which was a great way to start a spooky October. Sadly, this time around I thought it would be fun to vote from a selection of Razzie winners… and after two rounds, the winner was Ishtar (1987). Ishtar is famous for being an enormous box office bomb and was once considered the worst big budget movie ever made. Modern critics are much kinder, though, so it'll be interesting to see what it's like! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
What does Ishtar have to do with Wing Commander? This is another one of the 'joke' movie names used to label original Privateer concept art. Specifically, it was used for the very first sketches of the game's incredibly familiar mining base options screen. You can hear the music just seeing the screenshot!
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
Ishtar is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on Blu-ray in 2013 and remains in print around the world. A copy is available on the Internet Archive. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.
How do we watch the movie together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
How can I help pick future movie club movies?
The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.
Earlier in the year, we held a pair of Saturday morning marathons that celebrated Wing Commander-connected media that didn't quite fit with the Friday movie club. And now we're bringing them back! This Saturday, October 18, we'll be bringing you another themed morning of '90s media and great Wing Commander conversation. This time, we're taking a look at a series that was pretty influential during the making of Wing Commander III: Mystery Science Theater 3000. We'll be watching two episodes that are referenced in WC3 and talking all about what life was like on the internet way back in 1994!
"Manos": The Hands of Fate (1993, s4e24): MST3k brought Manos to the world, introducing future generations to what may be the single worst movie ever made. But it made for a pretty funny episode! And one that was clearly appreciated by Wing Commander III's development team, which named the crucial Torgo system after a character from the film. He takes care of the place while the Master is away…
Mitchell (1993, s5e12): Get ready to meet Mitchell, an unpleasant cop who… well, we won't spoil it. But the episode was so funny (and then contemporary) that the Wing Commander III team opted to make the game's entire cheat code (wc3 -mitchell) a joke about it. As you likely know, it even plays a sound clip from the episode when you take off with the cheat active!
So JOIN US on Saturday, October 18th at noon Eastern when we'll enjoy them all together! Previous marathons, we've had big fun wearing pajamas and eating cereal… so we recommend you plan to do the same again! Like last time, we're going to start things off with a classic Looney Tunes short… the third Duck Dodgers short, Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension, which was the last one made while Wing Commander was in active development.
This time, all three videos are available on YouTube!
We've also uploaded a zip of all three shows together locally for anyone who can't access YouTube. You can get that here.
How do we watch the shows together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Saturday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the shows in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should download their own copies from the CIC and we will count down to play them one at a time together starting with the short at noon EST on Saturday. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
Will there be custom certificates made for the attendees this time?
Yes.
Why are you STILL calling it a 'cartoon party' when almost all of the shows are live action?
Shut up.
I love these events but want to do better long term planning. Do you have any others coming up?
We do! Here's the upcoming schedule:
- Marathon 4 - Wing Commander Academy & The End of the Future - November 15
- Marathon 5 - Wing Commander Combat Information Center Family Day! - December 20
- Marathon 6 - I'd Rather Be Playing Wing Commander - January 17
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