Welcome to a new Geektown Behind The Scenes podcast. This week I’m chatting with Laurent Spillemaecker, VFX Supervisor for VFX company FOLKS about their work on the fourth and final season of the Netflix hit show ‘The Umbrella Academy’.

The final season sees our dysfunctional family of heroes, consisting of Luther (Tom Hopper), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Diego (David Castañeda), Viktor (Elliot Page) and Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), trying to avert yet another apocalypse. Warning, there are SPOILERS below, and in the interview itself, so if you haven’t seen the final season yet, go and watch!..

Still here?

Okay, so if you remember the end of Season 3, the gang were left in a new reality, but also powerless. Whilst they do find a way to get their powers back, they also discover, they are the problem… After various, very "Umbrella Academy" type things happen, Ben, and his new girlfriend Jen, end up merging into a giant blob monster which threatens to destroy the Earth… And that’s where Laurent and his team at FOLKS come in...

FOLKS have been involved with 'The Umbrella Academy' since season one, but for the final season, the team received its most significant mandate yet. They were responsible for conceptual pre-production work to establish the creatures' identities, post-viz, final elaboration of complex shots, and creation of character and environment assets, animation, simulation, and compositing.

Along with creating the monstrous version of Ben and Jen, they also enhanced the environment for a Christmas-themed sequence, adding crowd characters, vendors, snow, and more. Plus they picked up some other shots, such as Five’s “blinking”, some of the laser eyes FX, and other superpowers and background work.

Outside of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Laurent has previously worked on a huge range of projects including Sin City, 300, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Blade Runner 2049, Thor: Ragnarok, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and lots more.

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It's time for episode 436 of the Geektown Radio podcast and Darryl from Hollywood North News joins Dave as co-host to chat TV, film and games news & reviews!

Darryl brings with him his usual eclectic collection of reviews (and also a preview!) as he begins with Prime Video film 'Killer Heat', along with CBS drama 'Elsbeth' (currently airing on Sky Witness in the UK), Sci-fi series 'The Ark', which returns this week for season two in the UK, and the movie 'Alien Shark'... Because what would the show be without one of Darryl's B-Movie picks! He also previews CBS drama 'Matlock', which is due to premiere in November in the UK on Sky Witness. Meanwhile, Dave has reviews of new BBC dramedy 'Ludwig', Prime Video's 'The Devil’s Hour' which returns soon for season two, and 'SEAL Team', which is back for a 7th and final season on Sky.

Over on the news updates, we bring you all of last week's cancellations and renewals, including the death of a murderous puppet, and the return of a big BBC drama. We also have a pile of premiere dates for shows coming up on Disney+ UK, including some big returning and brand-new procedurals, plus two new series from Pixar. We also discuss the Warner Bros Discovery/Sky lawsuit, MGM+ ordering a 'Robin Hood' series, and all things 'Zorro'! Listen below!

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We return with episode 435 of the Geektown Radio podcast our "film reviewer" Gray joins Dave as co-host to chat TV, film and gaming news & reviews!

Gray, once again, lives up to his reputation as "worst film reviewer" by not reviewing any films (although, I'll let him off this one as it's the start of term for his other job as a teacher!) However, he does bring a string of TV show reviews including the second season of BBC's 'Sherwood' and the fourth season of ITV's 'Grace'. He also chats about 'Celebrity Race Across the World', 'Taskmaster', and the Apple TV shows 'Bad Monkey', 'Time Bandits' and 'Slow Horses'. Meanwhile, Dave has been delving into the geekier programming with this week's launch of 'The Penguin' on Sky and 'Agatha All Along' on Disney+. He also reviews 'After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun' on Disney+ and 'Tulsa King' on Paramount+.

Moving to the news updates, we bring you all of last week's cancellations and renewals, including the cancellation of a number of genre shows, and one ITV quiz series. We also have a stack of premiere dates for shows coming up on UK TV in the next few months. Plus we discuss casting for the new ‘Black Mirror’, ITV bringing out a new thriller, Sally Wainwright's new BBC show, more casting, this time for a Syfy comic book adaptation, and lots more! Listen below!

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