Joker 2 : Sequel & Shared Universe?

After approximately six weeks and an incredibly rocky debut in cinemas & theatres in domestic and selected international territories, it's fair to say that Todd Phillips 'Joker' has had an incredible journey so far, dominating the box office every week since release, already becoming the highest earning R-Rated movie...ever! Currently standing at a grand total of $1,018,729,655 worldwide. As well as earning the title of highest earning R-Rated movie, Joker has also taken the title of being the first R-Rated movie to break $1 Billion at the box office and the most profitable comic book movie of all time, raking in a humongous $950 million in profits against its minuscule $65 million budget.

So a sequel was always going to be inevitable. Not really. 

Both director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix have both been extremely vocal about how Joker was always a "one off" and wouldn't become any kind of franchise but money talks and a small budget movie with an iconic character like the crown prince breaking a billion has surely given Warner Bros and Todd Phillips the confidence to return to the story of Arthur Fleck, giving fans in turn another opportunity to see Joaquin Phoenix put on a happy face once more. Its no secret that there's been a few bumps in the road for Warner Bros and DC Comics in recent years with the ultimate failure of movies such as Batman v Superman and 2017's Justice League (more on that in another blog post - coming shortly) but it seems like exploring existing DC rogues in an R-Rated character study format and Todd Phillips is said to now be working on another origin movie as well as returning to directorial duties on Joker's sequel. So could this potentially be setting up an R-Rated universe under the DC label?

After watching and digesting Joker last month, i began to hypothesise about the potential for Joker setting up a new movie universe for Warner Bros under the DC Black Label banner that focuses on gritty, dark subject matter origin stories for some famous and lesser known rogues from across the DC Universe that share subtle synchronicity by existing in the same universe but set during different periods and referencing anything significant from other movies. Now that we know that at least one other character is set to be adapted by Todd Phillips, it may not be a far stretch to suggest that DC and Warner Bros could well be gearing up for the development of a new franchise for the big screen under the vision of Todd Phillips and fellow Joker screenwriter, Scott Silver. There's plenty of characters that i think fans would love to see given the Joker style treatment on the big screen and if the Joker sequel and the other Todd Phillips DC project can bring in the kind of budget to profit ratio's that Joker itself has, you can bet we'll be seeing more of these characters having their origin stories given a dark adaptation. 

I'll take a Reverse Flash movie with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Eobard Thawne at your earliest convenience, Mr Phillips. 

Star Wars : The Mandalorian Review - Chapter 2

Advanced Note : Ordinarily, i would've gotten straight down to writing up a review within the same day of having watched a new episode but sadly by the time i'd managed to watch episode two, i had to dash out as i'd booked movie tickets for the afternoon and evening showings of a couple of opening day releases. 

The Review

i'll be totally honest, i was expecting a little more after the season premiere. It was still very enjoyable and maybe my expectations were just a bit too high but i felt a bit disappointed when those gorgeous credits came up again. One of my major pickings about the premiere was that being only forty(ish) minutes didn't seem long enough for a show that has a $12.8 million dollar budget per singular episode so when the run-time for episode two ended up being only half an hour, that disappointment only heightened. If The Mandalorian had your typical american season episode count of 20+, i could understand but we're talking about an eight episode season with double the budget of most sci-fi shows on TV with twice as many episodes to boot. Again, maybe its just my own perspective but i feel like a show of this standard should be at least matched with cable TV runtimes. 

Onto the good stuff - Chapter 2 had some seriously great moments, throwbacks to the original and prequel trilogies and the swift return of Nick Nolte as Kuill, i have spoken. While the overall arc of this season remains a pretty big mystery, hints have started to be dropped and it definitely seems to revolve around the so called 'Baby Yoda' and our lovable rogue taking on the role of his/her protector. A rather unexpected moment was the return of those annoying little Jawa's and the iconic Sandcrawler first seen in the original trilogy all the way back in 1977. Of course, they were up to their usual antics, stripping down the Razor Crest for parts, presumably to sell somewhere in the outer rim. Part of this included what i can only describe as a "holy shit!" moment for 'Baby Yoda' when the little one seemed to be revealed as being intelligent and force sensitive. This is a pretty big moment for not only this series but for Star Wars canon in all and maybe, just maybe hints at the baby being the progeny of Yoda himself and former Jedi council member Yaddle (also of the...yoda species?)

Overall

In terms of story & pacing, the show seems to be heading in a generally strong direction but it's never going to feel particularly fulfilling with such a short run-time every episode. An increase of even 10-15 minutes (which would essentially match the majority of current sci-fi shows) would help heighten the narrative flow and give a little more depth where its perhaps lacking but that's really something that will be determined a little later into the season. I'm still very much enticed and i think really my only hope is that it'll be worth the wait each week now and hopefully at some point, we'll get some longer episodes. Considering we don't get any "Next Time" trailers or segments, we've no real idea what's coming at us next so there's going to be some intrigue there for the next bunch of episodes which is definitely refreshing. Lets hope the third episode delivers. I have spoken.

Chapter 3 review coming Friday!

Star Wars : The Mandalorian Review - Chapter 1

November 12th 2019 will be a date long remembered in years to come as a historic day that bought with it something truly unique and special for Lucasfilm and Star Wars fans as The Mandalorian made its debut as the first live action Star Wars television series ever and bought the galaxy far, far away to the small screen. With the launch of Disney+ in the Netherlands, US and Canada came the first of the eight episode series and introduced us to the mysterious Mandalorian as well as some of the side characters including Carl Weathers as Greef Karga and Nick Nolte as Kuill. How much of them we'll see going forward has yet to be determined. 

Unfortunately, Disney+ for now is only available in the above listed regions and will be launching in Australia and New Zealand on November 19th. The rest of us have to wait until the first quarter of 2020 for the service to launch in our respective locations (mine being the UK, obviously). However that hasn't stopped many of us watching the series premiere and won't stop us from continuing to enjoy the show until we get Disney+ and that is thanks to the wonderful folks who go to great effort to make the episodes available though...less than conventional methods, shall we say?

i will include a link and instructions at the end of the review for those who want to torrent the premiere and future episodes. 

The Review

Well it's safe to say that The Mandalorian absolutely gets mine and i'd think many others approval. It sets an immediate standard for both Disney+ and Lucasfilm alike on any future series such as the Obi-Wan Kenobi series that is currently in development. From the get go, it feels like you've been pulled straight back into the world of Star Wars and carries the tone of the Original Trilogy well with elements of both the Prequel and Sequel trilogy thrown into the mix. The Mandalorian is incredibly cinematic in scale, it genuinely feels like it should be viewed on the big screen & it's very obvious that both Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have poured their utter devotion and love for the Star Wars universe into the creation of this show and the final product couldn't better reflect that in my eyes. It doesn't spend any time at all in giving Mando any kind of origin or beginnings and chooses instead to just jump straight into the swing of things which is incredibly refreshing. Star Wars generally spends the first hour or so setting up plot elements and new characters in the movies and that's totally skipped here and the show is probably better for it.

The cast between the likes of Pedro Pascal,, Nick Nolte, Werner Herzog, Carl Weathers and a certain Taika Waititi as IG-11 really shine in this episode, especially Taika who is positively hilarious as the witty bounty hunting droid. One would certainly hope we see more of him in character but he is also on directing duties for the season finale at the very least. 

Overall

I'm already a fan of The Mandalorian. Its dark, its funny, its action packed and its Star Wars on TV. That really is all i can say without spoiling too much (which i'll be trying to avoid at least for a little bit). What i will say is that there's definitely an interesting story set up with the premiere as you'd expect but i don't think anyone who's not yet seen it will see it coming at all, i know i didn't. It's already in safe hands with Jon and Dave who are both lifelong Star Wars fans and its off to a fantastic start. Hell, its already the most downloaded show on PirateBay. 

Downloading instructions

1. Make sure you have a torrent client i.e BitTorrent or uTorrent (you can find installation instructions on the relevant website - use the free download).

2. Click this link to navigate to the same torrent that i mentioned earlier.

3. Click 'Get Torrent'.

4. Click 'OK' on the torrent client when prompted.

5. Let the torrent download to 100%, wait for the bar to appear green and 'seeding'

6. Navigate to your downloads folder on your computer, find the relevant folder, open it and double click the video file and open it with your choice of media player (i use VLC Media Player)

7. Sit back, relax, enjoy.

Chapter 2 review coming this Friday!

Doctor Who : Animating Missing Episodes.

Years ago, it might well have been considered an impossibility to have a "complete" Doctor Who collection for good reason. The early black and white years of television as a whole were overlooked as not being profitable beyond their original transmission both at home in the UK and in overseas territories where Doctor Who was screened, having purchased several serials at once from the BBC. A lot of the tapes sent overseas were either destroyed or wiped after their use had expired, were lost in one way or another or were returned to the BBC where sadly, they also met their end.

It became standard practise in the 1970's to wipe programmes from the archives in which they were stored and it was unfortunately no different for the BBC who wiped a plethora of content, including a huge amount of Doctor Who from the 1960's and original master tapes of serials from the early 70's, leaving only tele-recordings for those wiped from the latter and telesnaps, clips and off air recordings for the former.

Over the years that passed, recoveries were made in a number of unexpected places that bought a whole heap of missing Doctor Who episodes back to life and thus, back into the archive for permanent preservation. Sadly though, some serials are still either partly or entirely missing and may well never be found, as the time between recoveries passes, the world moves on and the chances of finding those rare tapes and film reels decreases.

The last recovery effort bought home the full serial 'The Enemy Of The World' and five out of the six episodes of 'The Web Of Fear'. All six of the latter were found but during negotiations for the return of the film cans, the third episode mysteriously "went missing" and is believed to have been poached by a private collector who was aware of it being found by the restoration team which means sadly, another episode that was once thought lost is almost certainly lost to the general public and Doctor Who fans alike for the foreseeable future. 

Some serials, although returned in majority part have lacked an episode or two in order to stand as a complete set and some of those have received animation treatment over the years. 'The Reign Of Terror', 'The Tenth Planet', 'The Moonbase' and 'The Invasion' are examples of mostly existing serials, having had most episodes recovered but still missing at least one. These serials were completed via animation efforts from Planet 55 (Now Big Finish Creative) and released on DVD. However, in recent years, concentration has turned from completing partly existing serials to those that are completely missing. 

Through a collaboration between the BBC Studios animation team and Sun & Moon Studios, with use of original off air audio recordings, 2016 saw the release of the completely missing serial 'The Power Of The Daleks' which featured the debut of the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. This was the first time ever that a completely missing story was restored entirely through the efforts of extensive animation and set a new standard for just what can now be achieved in regards to finally bringing back television once thought lost forever. Since then, we've received a complete animation of another missing story in 'The Macra Terror' which was released on DVD back in March. 

2020 will see the release of TWO serials that until now have been mostly ('The Faceless Ones') and entirely ('Fury From The Deep') missing from the BBC Archive. Both of these releases will be worked on for the first time by two teams : Sun & Moon Studios with the BBC Studios Animation team and Big Finish Creative (formerly Planet 55). Despite the two existing episodes of 'The Faceless Ones', all episodes of both serials will be fully animated but will also feature reconstructions that will use the existing episodes.

So what can we expect going forward?

Well it's clear that the BBC is building its budget and confidence with these animations by having two being worked on at once, both for release in the same year. So whilst it may be futile to guess and make assumptions, i would imagine that we're potentially looking at potential double releases going forward, whether it be two releases a year or two releases every two year. Again, i imagine they'll plan to try and do two releases a year, starting with 2020. Given that Troughton's missing serials seems to be the current focus, i think its unlikely we'll see anymore Hartnell animations since the animation workload on his era would basically be double as he has six entirely missing serials yet to be done and four that are mostly missing. See here.

So if i had to guess something of a rough schedule for potential releases it would probably look like this :

The Faceless Ones - 2020

Fury From The Deep - 2020

The Evil Of The Daleks - 2021

The Highlanders - 2021

The Abominable Snowmen - 2022

The Wheel In Space - 2022

Should the schedule look anything like that, it would leave only 'The Space Pirates' to be animated in which case, it could get a 2023 release either by itself or very possibly, another Hartnell animation for which my guess would be The Smugglers but we're doing some serious hopeful guessing now. I could be entirely wrong and heck, we could even get some Hartnell goodness in 2021 but i do think Troughton's era will be the focus for now. Either way, the future looks bright for Doctor Who's missing episodes being given a new lease of life through the power of animation which i think we can all agree, is a positive.

Doctor Who - Series 12 : Everything We Know So Far.

It goes without saying that in this era of Doctor Who, secrecy is particularly abundant around pretty much everything when it comes to the show's production. Rumours rife and the occasional fragments of info scoured from sources close to set and articles related to bits of information coming from passersby whenever Doctor Who shoots on location in and around Cardiff, Sheffield or the city that I've called home for the last few years, Bristol.

So naturally, we simply don't know as much about the upcoming series as we would do if we were still in the Steven Moffat era of the show when secrecy was rather sparse compared to now. However, like any show that's in the public eye like Doctor Who has continued to be, not everything, much to Chris Chibnall's chagrin, can be kept totally secret. 

So what do we know about Series 12?

Truthfully, we still don't know very much, certainly not as much as we did about Series 11 when it had wrapped principal photography. By that time, there'd been huge leaks involving its premiere episode having a fifty-two second clip from the post production office shared around the internet which caused something of a meltdown from the BBC. On top of that, there'd been a fair amount of low quality photos taken inside Roath Lock Studios that were incredibly spoilery, including the first and incredibly bad look at the Arwel Jones TARDIS interior that lacked any of the finesse provided by the full lighting in the show as well as various recording & sound equipment which provided slight looks at monsters and various characters.

Series 12 has been without anything quite as bad as that. Our first official look at the upcoming series came with the announcement that the Judoon would be returning to do battle with the Thirteenth Doctor and Team Tardis, a little over five months ago. Since then we've had no more official announcements of any kind from official figures involved with the show. However, unofficially, there's a few things we do know. Thanks to the CV's of selected writers, we know that the Series 12 writers room will be made up of Chris Chibnall, Ed Hime, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Victoria Asare-Archer and Maxine Alderton. Vinay Patel is also rumoured to return for an episode but this hasn't been confirmed yet.

The list of this series' directors also seems to be confirmed with Jamie Stone helming Blocks 1 and 5, Lee Haven-Jones on Block 2, Nida Manzoor on Block 3 and Emma Sullivan on Block 4. Lee Haven-Jones is also credited for a sixth block which is rumoured to be two additional special episodes to be broadcast in the festive 2019 and 2020 slot respectively. 

We know very little about the cast for the upcoming series with the only cast members actually confirmed being Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor with Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole reprising their roles as Graham, Yasmin and Ryan. Guest stars for this series (again, thanks to online CV's) include Stephen Fry, Maxim Baldry, James Buckley, Jo Martin and Neil Stuke. Also said to be appearing in Series 12 are Shobna Gulati and Daniel Adeboyega as Najia Khan and Aaron Sinclair respectively. A recent rumour however has suggested quite the casting for a big character as Line Of Duty & Marvel's Iron Fist actor Sacha Dhawan is reportedly taking on the role of The Master, taking over the role from both John Simm and Michelle Gomez who played the last incarnations of the character and as yet, we've seen no regeneration for either of them. 

SPOILER WARNING

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WISH TO BE SPOILED.

Series 12 will feature two more big monster returns as revealed by leaked photos from location shooting, the latest of which has revealed that one of the specials that was filmed as part of Block 6 will see the return of the Daleks in their instantly recognisable Russell T Davies bronze design along with what appears to be a full scale, black battle armoured version of the Reconnaissance Scout Dalek in a story that i'm told is written as a direct sequel to 'Resolution' and will reveal that the new black Dalek is in fact engineered by MDZ research and will face off against the bronze Skaro Daleks akin to 1988's 'Remembrance Of The Daleks'. This episode is believed to air in the 2020 Christmas/New Year 2021 slot.

Seemingly destined to also return to face the Thirteenth Doctor this series is none other the silver handle head foes, The Cybermen. Originally suspected to just be actors in knights armour, as more set photos came out (it was a closed set but filming on a mountain will attract some attention), we learned that the "knights" were in fact Cybermen with something of a redesign for the first time since 2013. The new design as you can see appears to be a unique mashup of models from 'The Invasion', 'Earthshock' and 'Rise Of The Cybermen' to create a new variant that seems to borrow a steampunk-esque aesthetic. It should be noted however that there WERE actors on location that were dressed as knights with swords, horses and such alike which suggests this episode does take place in the 1400-1600's.

The Sea Devils

This feels like an opportune time to address the elephant in the room as it were. There's been rumours for months that the Sea Devils would be returning for the first time since 1984. I unintentionally started this rumour when i was asked by somebody on Twitter to disclose spoilers about Series 12 and i knew this person wouldn't keep it to themselves as they'd previously mass shared the leaked clip to their friends after i told that person to not send it to anybody else and so gave them a completely false spoiler stating that The Sea Devils would appear in the fifth episode of Series 12. 

The same person then listed a random actor as being a Sea Devil in that episode on the Internet Movie Database. Any rumours of Sea Devils that you see should be treated as absolutely false and i apologise that its gotten so out of whack but it proves that people will believe anything without a shred of actual evidence.

The Sea Devils aren't in Series 12, sorry. 

What Next?

We still know very little given how close we potentially are to the premiere of Series 12. Doctor Who opted to skip SDCC this year as well as NYCC and didn't bother to utilise the opportunity of BAFTA Cymru to launch a trailer or any kind of actual marketing. However there is Children In Need coming up in a few weeks time which given its a BBC event that broadcasts live to millions of people, would be a perfect time for the BBC to launch a trailer for a festive special for either Christmas Day or New Years Day and it in turn could carry the full series 12 trailer at the end of it (see : 'The Return Of Doctor Mysterio') and an official series premiere date with it. We'll see what happens!

If there's any news in the coming weeks, i'll be sure to leave an update!

Update : Doctor Who will have a presence at Children In Need and a Series trailer will premiere on November 23rd 2019.

Beyond A Galaxy Far, Far Away : What Next For Star Wars?

It's an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan right now, and no stretch of the truth to say that the entire Star Wars brand is "hot property" as we approach December which will see the final instalment of the nine film saga (and eleventh Star Wars film overall) with the release of Episode IX : The Rise Of Skywalker which will see veteran Star Wars actor Ian McDiarmid reprise his role of Sheev Palpatine/The Emperor for the first time in a live action capacity since 2005's Episode III : Revenge Of The Sith and beyond, the future of the franchise looks certain to be filled with exciting tales from various worlds within a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars has of course already expanded its horizons in recent years with the introduction of standalone stories with 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' in 2016, showcasing the events immediately proceeding the original 1977 film with the story of the rebel alliance and how they came to possess the plans for the first Death Star and 2018's 'Solo : A Star Wars Story' which gave a glimpse into the life of a young Han Solo and how he came to be the smuggler that we all knew and loved.

Unfortunately both of these films did have troubled productions and despite Rogue One having significant appreciation from fans of all ages (and rightly so with the return of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader - that hallway scene right?!), Solo ultimately failed at the box office due to a combination of an incredibly troubled production with a change of directors midway through production, the main star having to take acting lessons on set and very poor marketing & promotion leading up to the eventual release. As a result of this, Disney seems to have shelved any future standalone stories in favour of....other avenues.

The fourth quarter of 2019 will see the introduction of brand new multi-platform streaming service Disney+, incorporating original content from Disney's catalogue of properties including National Geographic, Pixar, Marvel Studios and of course, Lucasfilm and there's already brand new Star Wars content being developed for the upcoming streaming service. An original series titled 'The Mandalorian' created by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, starring Pedro Pascal will be available on launch day and will revolve around a lone mandalorian gunfighter and will be set shortly after the events of Return Of The Jedi.

Further in the pipeline is the untitled Cassian Andor series which will bring back Diego Luna as the character of the same name from Rogue One and presumably act as a prequel to said movie. Little else is known about what the series will entail but there's every chance that some of the characters from the movie could make a return in the series in some capacity.

Even further down the line and the probably the most exciting project in the early stages of development is the newly confirmed Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series for which Ewan McGregor is expected to return to the role for the first time since Episode III : Revenge Of The Sith (though he did make a brief voice cameo in Episode VII : The Force Awakens). McGregor is already committed to playing Black Mask in DC's new Birds Of Prey movie so the series is unlikely to go into production until Spring 2020 at the earliest meaning we wouldn't see the series itself until 2021 at the earliest. It is worth noting however that we could see Obi-Wan Kenobi sooner as Ewan is rumoured to appear alongside former Anakin Skywalker actor Hayden Christensen. Both roles are rumoured to be in the capacity of force ghosts.

The New Trilogies

Some reassurance can be taken for fans of Star Wars on the big screen though as Episode IX won't be the final movie to grace cinemas as two entire new trilogies of movies in the Star Wars universe are supposedly in early development. One helmed by controversial Episode VIII : The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and one helmed by even more controversial former Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff & D.B. Weiss. Little is known about the former but the latter is speculated to be a live action Knights Of The Old Republic trilogy of movies but this isn't something that is set in stone so should naturally be taken with a grain of salt.

Update - October 29th 2019 : Benioff & Weiss have “stepped away” from their Star Wars Trilogy, citing the workload and clashing with their projects for Netflix. However this comes only two days after they made some rather damning admissions of unprofessionalism at a recent film festival in which they made the incredible statement of saying that they were completely and utterly out of their depth on Game Of Thrones and weren’t cut out for it which only sparked further outrage. Its highly likely that in fact Disney didn’t want to take that risk in damaging the Star Wars brand and softly fired Benioff & Weiss and I think we’re all thankful for it if we’re being honest with ourselves. 

Beyond a promising future in movies & television streaming, Star Wars will also remain a popular geek culture brand in other mediums going forward. Before the final instalment of the Skywalker Saga this christmas comes the latest in Star Wars video games with the November release of Jedi : Fallen Order which brings an original story set preceding Order 66 but prior to the events of Rogue One and stars Cameron Monaghan as the central protagonist, Cal. EA's Battlefront II continues to receive updates with new multiplayer game modes, fixes and cosmetic upgrades though its campaign mode seems to have been all but abandoned as there hasn't been any expansions since December 2017. 

And of course, it wouldn't be fair not to mention the exquisite 'Star Wars Galaxy's Edge' area at Disneyworld in Anaheim, California and is coming later this month to Hollywood Studios at Disneyworld Orlando, Florida. The existing area at the Anaheim park is spread across 14 acres and the upcoming Orlando park is expected to be much the same. Galaxy's Edge features several iconic attractions, shops, restaurants and entertainment offerings. It's a must visit for any Star Wars fan and somewhere i hope to see for myself soon!

So in conclusion, i think it's very safe to say that what's next for Star Wars is simply an expanded universe across multiple different mediums. A Galaxy Far, Far Away perhaps isn't all that far (far) away at all and is only going to get bigger, better and bolder!

Retrospective Analysis : Doctor Who...On FOX?

1996. A year which might've changed the face of the science fiction television series Doctor Who, in more ways than one. Seven years after being 'unofficially' cancelled by BBC One, Doctor Who returned for a feature length television movie co-produced by BBC Worldwide, Universal Studios and FOX written by Matthew Jacobs and directed by Geoffrey Sax and produced by Phillip Segal. The Movie made its debut on CITV in Canada on May 12th, May 14th on FOX in the United States and two weeks later on the 27th on BBC One in the UK. 

The Movie, sometimes referred to as 'The Enemy Within' was originally pitched as a feature length pilot for a full series produced in Vancouver, British Columbia that would've acted as a soft reboot of the original British series that had run for 26 years on BBC One. Returning to the role of the Seventh Doctor (credited as 'The Old Doctor') was Sylvester McCoy for the first time in a live action capacity since 1993 Children In Need special 'Dimensions In Time' which celebrated three decades of Doctor Who and featured several former Doctors, companions and villain actors crossing over with British soap opera 'Eastenders'.

McCoy had played the Seventh and final Doctor of the original BBC One run from 1987-1989 making him technically the longest serving Doctor to date, having an entire nine years from his debut to his regeneration which occurred early on in the events of The Movie with the TARDIS having materialised in the middle of a gang shootout in the backstreets of San Francisco, leading to the Seventh Doctor being 'killed' by multiple gunshot wounds. 

When it came to casting the new, Eighth Doctor, a number of actors were considered and approached for the role including the man who would go on to be the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston and the Twelfth Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi. Among others actors approached were Game Of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham (who would appear in Doctor Who in 2013) and Buffy alum Anthony Head (who also appeared in Doctor Who in 2006). In the end, the role was given to Paul McGann. McGann had appeared in a number of relatively known films, having starred alongside Richard E Grant in a popular classic movie -  'Withnail & I'. Coincidentally Grant would become the next 'Doctor' TWICE in Comic Relief special 'The Curse Of Fatal Death' and non canon animation 'Scream Of The Shalka'.

Every other role in the TV Movie was entirely new casting of american and canadian actors. As companions Grace Holloway and Chang Lee were Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso, respectively. Taking over the role of The Master from Anthony Ainley was Eric Roberts (though Gordon Tipple appeared as the renegade time lord for the opening moments of the movie but since his face is not seen, his canonicity as the character is up for debate). 

What Happened?

Ultimately, despite being a ratings success in the UK with over 9 million viewers on BBC One, it under performed in the US receiving an audience of only 5.6 million viewers, equalling approximately a 9% audience share but it should be noted that this was 1996, Doctor Who was still very new in the US and the same night had competition from ABC with an episode of 'Roseanne' that featured a significant plot point (David and Darlene's wedding for any fans out there). Doctor Who's TV Movie simply failed to engage the necessary audience for FOX to order the pilot to series and so Doctor Who was laid to rest once more, having failed to regenerate for a US revival. The Eighth Doctor's era was over before it was even started.

Where might it have gone?

Its difficult to determine where a full series with Paul McGann's Doctor might have ventured to, given the time that has passed since the TV Movie. Paul McGann revealed in 2013 at a Q&A event at BFI London that at the time he had signed a contract for a significant time span and had been looking at potential long term accommodation in Vancouver so it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that if the TV Movie had seen success in the states, it may have led to multiple seasons of an 'americanised' Doctor Who in the vision of Phillip Segal (and Jo Wright for the BBC). Details remain somewhat scarce on long term potential plans made in advance of 1996 but one of the most consistent rumours was that episodes that had been junked in the 1970's and were now 'missing' were to be adapted/remade with the Eighth Doctor and companions. 

Paul McGann was the only cast member that had signed on for a potential continuation post TV Movie. To the best of my knowledge, its not known if Daphne nor Yee Jee would have returned as Grace and Chang Lee and both seemed to have their stories wrapped up by the end of the TV Movie but there's every possibility that The Doctor could've run into his friends again. Given that a new TARDIS set and exterior prop were designed by Richard Hudolin for the TV Movie, they would almost certainly have continued to be part of a continuation alongside Hudolin himself (who is also the production designer on The CW's 'Arrow' and also shoots in Vancouver). The series would almost definitely have continued its production in Vancouver though whether it would have continued to double only as San Francisco is anyone's guess. 

For all the lack of continuation that the Eighth Doctor was given in a television format (save for the 2013 minisode 'Night Of The Doctor' which finally gave Paul McGann his televised regeneration after 17 years), its not as if the Eigthth Doctor was abandoned altogether. His incarnation was given a new lease of life through BBC Books Novelisations, comic strips, an animated webcast adaptation 'Shada' - the famous lost story from the Tom Baker era and Big Finish audios where McGann's talents continue to shine to this day in boxsets like Dark Eyes, Ravenous and Time War. So whilst the Eighth Doctor wasn't a TV success, he's overall one of the more successful Doctors in expanded media.

You can find Big Finish wide range of Eighth Doctor adventures here.