ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

When it comes to modern filmmaking and storytelling, one of my favorite directors is Christopher Nolan, whose work I was technically introduced to back when I was in high school with “The Dark Knight,” which remains one of my favorite movies to this day. 

Since then, I’ve followed his films off and on, and when I heard a couple years ago he would be taking on adapting Homer’s “The Odyssey,” I became VERY excited, especially when the teaser trailer was finally released with “Jurassic World Rebirth.” For those who might not know, the story takes place shortly after the end of the Trojan War and follows Greek general Odysseus (Matt Damon), the king of Ithaca, as he undergoes a long and perilous journey home and encounters mythical beings as he attempts to reunite with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland).

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Those looking for a good show about one of the beginning eras of Earth will soon have just that opportunity later this month thanks to PBS.

“Eons: Life and Death on Pangea,” an upcoming six-episode series from PBS Digital Studios and Complexly, will explore the “Great Dying,” the most catastrophic mass extinction in our planet’s history. Set during the Permian Period, the show will transport viewers to a world shaped by the supercontinent Pangea. The episodes will include “How The Formation of Pangea Changed the World” (July 29); “How Eating Plants Shaped Life on Land” (July 29); “The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Reef” (Aug. 5); “A Tale of Tusks and Saber Teeth” (Aug. 12); “That Time Almost Everything Died” (Aug. 19); and “Who Survived the Great Dying (and Why)” (Aug. 26).

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Back in the early 1990s, superhero cartoons were plentiful, including “X-Men: The Animated Series,” which I wasn’t able to fully appreciate until I binged it on Disney+ a few years ago. Because the show was so beloved, a reboot, “X-Men 97” was developed with the first season released back in 2024.

After a massive cliffhanger (and a couple years of waiting), the beginning of the second season was finally released at the beginning of this month and and must find their way back to the 1990s to stop big villain Apocalypse after being scattered through time at the end of the first season. I ended up absolutely loving the first season (while experiencing multiple emotions each episodes), and when the teaser trailer for the second season FINALLY dropped, I could not have been more excited and last week, I jumped right in.

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

A Tony Award-winning musical within a comedy parodying the glamorous screwball musicals of the 1920s, “The Drowsy Chaperone” is making its way to stage of the Rapid Fit Health Club Showcase Theater at Seward County Community College.

The musical is this year’s summer production for the Rainbow Players community theater group, and this year’s director, Alaura Howery, said the story revolves around a middle-aged man, played by longtime local actor Matt Teel, guiding the audience through his obsession with musicals, particularly his favorite, appropriately titled “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

“‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ is a musical about a wedding where everything goes wrong, and everybody’s confused,” Howery said. “There are tons of vaudeville jokes. It was within the context of the play.”