iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 15h

Note to people on trains: don't push past disabled people to step off the train, particularly when the disabled person is already stepping off the train.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 19h

So Imprint Film's new luxury Species I&II set sells on their website for AUD$229. Species and its sequel have critic scores of 42 and 9, or a total of 51. So you're paying $4.49 per point. Backrooms, however, is out on bluray next week for $30 from A24. 86% approval, or less than 35c per point.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 19h

A new measure for how over/underpriced your physical media is. Calculate the total Rotten Tomatoes score (critic if available, audience if not) and divide the RRP of your bluray release by it. The result is your value in terms of how many dollars buy you 1% of RT-approved cinema.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 19h

Also Doctor Who fans in particular are highly opinionated about how television should be made, without any understanding of how television *is* made.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 21h

I'd remind Doctor Who fans bitching about the new preschoolers Who spin-off that they're not the target market, but given some of the petulant dummy-spits I've seen maybe they *are* in the market for a Doctor Who aimed at toddlers.

A brightly coloured Doctor Who smiles and runs alongside an orange-haired girl in a promotional image for a new pre-schoolers show.

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Reposted by Grant Watson

Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Apparently Christa Pike is awake and talking.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

RIP Eva Marie Saint, 102. Star of North by Northwest, Oscar winner for On the Waterfront. One of the last great actors of the Hollywood Golden Age.

Eva Marie Saint, a white woman with short blonde hair.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Dear Excel person, My condolences. Yours, PowerPoint person

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I enjoyed Collateral, but it's no Heat.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The pricing is becoming unintentionally hilarious. I mean, I'm not sure how many people I know are dropping AUD$180 for three Deathstalker movies in a slipcase but if it's anyone reading this please get in touch so we can book your intervention.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I think you're under-praising the original Heat a bit. Not a huge amount, but it's pretty great.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Mishima was another coup-attempting author.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In fact I lived in WA during three out of four trials, which may be why I feel we kept pointlessly having it.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yes I left Perth while it was in its "trial".

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In the full movie you're genuinely starved of clips for most of the doc. At the end Miyazaki's waiting to go out and announce his retirement and spontaneously gives this little spiel to the director, and suddenly you get *all* clips of his whole career. In the cinema I fucking *cried*.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's particularly stupid in Perth when they have it.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Towards the end of The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, a documentary about Studio Ghibli, there's this remarkable little monologue by Miyazaki accompanied by the most beautiful montage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrAx...

youtube.com

Miyazaki on looking out a window

YouTube video by EnragedFetus

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I had never previously seen a photograph of Miyazaki Hayao without facial hair. Here he is, left, with fellow director Takahata Isao.

Miyazaki Hayao, left, a Japanese man with prominent eyebrows, glasses, and a tweed jacket. Takahata Isao, right, another Japanese man with an open-necked shirt and reasonably full black hair.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I swear to God Dark Blue is just jaw-droppingly underrated. Possibly Russell's finest performance.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Maybe a weird choice, but the intricate technology of Transformers were so much more accomplished than the CGI polar bears of The Golden Compass and deserving of an effects Oscar.

static.klipy.com

Bumblebee Transforms: Car to Robot

ALT: Bumblebee Transforms: Car to Robot

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My little book plan has reached the test copies stage.

Three small books with attractive matching spines.

Three little books. On top a cream and red book is titled I Am the Saint of Blasphemy.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's mildly concerning that Miyazaki walking into an appointed director's office to declare "this is terrible, you are terrible, your entire plan for this film is a failure - no, don't talk, *I* will take over and save this film" is the origin story of at least two of his films. Maybe more.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

But does that cut out half of the typical stories you'd want to see in Star Trek?

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If I was king of Star Trek, I'd be looking to contemporary workplace dramas - think hospital shows - for how to develop and evolve my characters in the next Trek series. Space as a workplace. Constant character development.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"Maaaate. You didn't call the Daleks did you, maaaate?"

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Movie pitch: an anime enthusiast goes on a global mission of revenge to track down the one Rotten Tomatoes critic that gave Kiki's Delivery Service a negative review.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

8. The characters can travel through time, but it is not a show about time travel. 9. Words beat fists. 10. Look like the upper classes, fight for the working classes.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

4. Keep the scale relatable. The Doctor saving the universe is a visual effect. Saving a small group of people is drama. 5. Pastiche is the gravy. 6. Daleks. 7. The best monsters are metaphors.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My 10 suggestions for anybody pitching the new Doctor Who series to the BBC. 1. Doctor Who should frighten eight-year-olds, thrill 12-year-olds, and amuse the grown-ups. 2. The show is serious, but the Doctor is funny. 3. There is always a scientific explanation for things.

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Reposted by Grant Watson

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026

Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. Amazing stuff www.reuters.com/business/fin...

Summary
Companies
• Anthropic IPO could value the company at more than $2
trillion
• Anthropic lost $42 billion in 2025
• Al lab spent $7.33 billion on compute and infrastructure last year
• Operating loss widened to $8.06 billion in 2025 from $2.98 billion in 2024
• Execs, industry analysts have expressed concerns over harms of Al tech
Sept 28 (Reuters) - Anthropic is making a massive bet that Al will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
But the cost to get there will be staggering. Anthropic reported a net loss of $42 billion in 2025, and plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in coming year, according to the
prospectus.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

What the hell? It is almost impossible for a silent film to have survived 107 years in Japan.

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A lot of people don't realise the film Kiki's Delivery Service was based on a children's novel. The book's sequel is *finally* coming out in an English translation in December. www.readings.com.au/product/9780...

readings.com.au

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

NEW REVIEW! Just a few months before the release of 1991 Hong Kong hit A Chinese Ghost Story III, its stars featured in another, less well known, supernatural comedy. Let's talk about Fantasy Romance, starring Joey Wong and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. fictionmachine.com/2026/09/27/r...

fictionmachine.com

REVIEW: Fantasy Romance (1991)

Shing (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), a talented but generally unsuccessful comic book artist, accidentally drives his car into the underworld, releasing two spirits into the living world. One, an anonymous…

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Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

NEW REVIEW! The biggest takeaway I had from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was how hilariously miscast Lucas Black (below, right) was as a 17-year-old protagonist. He was actually 24, but in the film he looks 30. fictionmachine.com/2026/09/27/r...

fictionmachine.com

REVIEW: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

It is amusing that the third Fast & Furious feature would set itself in East Asia, because it take a very Asian approach to being a sequel. Chinese-language action cinema in particular has a te…

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