Monthly Archives: March 2015
Bruce Lee’s Family Developing a Feature Film Biopic
The first definitive Bruce Lee biopic is in the works. Lee's daughter, Shannon, announced on Friday that she and her family will be developing the feature film.
This marks the first biopic on the famed martial artist's life with the family's full involvement in production. EW reports that Bruce Lee Entertainment will team with Lawrence Grey and Janet Yang to produce the project.
Lee died at age 32 in 1973, shortly before the release of his career-defining film Enter the Dragon.
"There have been projects out there involving my father," Shannon said in a statement, "but they've lacked a complete understanding of his philosophies and artistry. They haven't captured the essence of his beliefs in martial arts or storytelling.
Unreal Engine 4 is Free for Everyone
Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 is now free to download and use, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney announced today.
As detailed in a blogpost, all future updates to the engine, which was previously available to the public for $19 USD a month, will also be free. In return, Epic will take 5% of a game's gross revenue after the first $3,000 USD it generates each quarter.
Previously only free for students and educators, Unreal Engine 4's free download will give you access to the engine's entire toolset, the Unreal Engine Marketplace, and "100% of the C++ source code."
Watch Avatar Land Coming Along
Construction on Avatar Land -- an interactive Disney World park, based on the planet Pandora from James Cameron's Avatar -- is well underway, and we've now got some concept artwork and a video of the progress being made at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.
Posted on the Disney Parks Blog, here's a photo of what the completed Avatar Land will look like in all its bioluminescent gloriousness:
Avatar Land model.
Google Shares Details About Its Planned Mobile Service
During Mobile World Congress today, Google shared more details about its plan to become a sort of wireless provider.
Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of products, said the company is working with "existing partners" to create its own mobile service, according to The Verge. However, Pichai didn't confirm who those existing partners are –– earlier rumors suggest the companies in question may be T-Mobile and Sprint.
Pichai also said that Google has been in talks with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the two leading wireless providers in the U.S., in an effort to avoid any future conflict. "We don't intend to be a carrier at scale," Pichai said. ""Carriers in the U.S. are what powers most of our Android phones, and that model works really well for us."
Check Out This Friday the 13th Coffee Table
An Australian film props company has produced a Friday the 13th coffee table, showcasing an imprisoned Jason Voorhees donning his iconic hockey mask.
While the custom table is currently out of stock, the Friday the 13th coffee table by Slaughter FX comes at $500 AUD ($388 USD) without glass, and $600 AUD ($466 USD) with a glass cover.
Check out some pics of the gruesome-but-awesome coffee table below via FridayThe13thTheFranchise.com:
Blizzard Reiterates Commitment to WoW Subscription Fee
Following today’s news that World of Warcraft players will soon be able to buy game time without spending their real world cash, the MMO’s various detractors are likely to be crowing about the imminent demise of Blizzard’s behemoth. Their glee may be somewhat misplaced however, at least according to lead game designer Ion Hazzikostas.
“I don’t know if I would characterise this as in any way being a move away from WoW being a pure subscription MMO,” he said ahead of the news. “I think it’s just offering more access and flexibility in terms of how those subscriptions are paid. At the end of the day, every player in the game has an active subscription or a month of game time that’s been purchased by them or someone else in order to play the game. It’s just about the dual objective of broadening access and letting people have more flexibility about how they pay while striking a blow against the third-party goldselling market that’s been a blight on the game for such a long period of time."
World of Warcraft to Allow Buying Game Time With Gold
Blizzard has revealed the new WoW token, a feature set to enable World of Warcraft players to buy more game time without needing to spend real money.
Similar to systems seen in WildStar and Eve Online, the new system aims to enable those with lots of gold the option to play the game without spending their real-world money, while also offering others a safe way to buy in-game gold that doesn't depend on dodgy goldsellers.
Players can purchase a WoW Token through the in-game shop using real money. If they wish, they can use it to add 30 days of game time to their account, or sell it on the Auction House at the current market price. When a WoW Token is put up for sale, players will be quoted a price and this is guaranteed regardless of how the market moves based on supply and demand. Any Token bought on the Auction House becomes soulbound, and you can't trade or sell them any other way.
Leo to Play Man With 24 Different Personalities
After remaining stagnant for a decade, The Crowded Room is moving forward with Leonardo DiCaprio and New Regency.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar nominee will play Billy Milligan, the first individual to successfully use multiple personality disorder as a defense in a court of law. Milligan was charged with robbery and raping three women on the Ohio State University campus in the 1970s.
After being diagnosed with the disorder, Milligan pleaded insanity, saying that two of his 24 alternate personalities—Adalana, a lesbian who admitted to the rapes, and Ragen, a Yugoslavian communist who took responsibility for the robbery—committed the crimes without his knowledge. Milligan died December 2014. It is a role that DiCaprio has been interested in playing for almost 20 years.
Firewatch: 17 Minutes of New Gameplay
IGN First this month is all about a small number of special games, and for the first week of March we're getting a brand-new look at Campo Santo’s Firewatch, a gorgeous and intelligent first-person adventure game.
Throughout the week, IGN will have new impressions of Firewatch, a developer commentary video, and an extensive interview with the creative team. But we're opening with something that speaks for itself: 17 straight minutes of new Firewatch gameplay.
For context if you're out of the loop: Firewatch centers on Henry, a newly recruited Wyoming fire lookout and his supervisor, Delilah. Here, Delilah has just sent Henry off to yell at a couple drunken idiots setting off fireworks in the woods. If you watched the PAX demo for Firewatch last year, this may sound familiar -- but this is a deeper look at Henry's interactions with Delilah, how he navigates the world, and the mysterious occurrences that will set its story in motion.
Star Wars Rebels: The Season Finale is Here
The last episode of Star Wars Rebels saw the crew of the Ghost go to extreme lengths to find out where the Empire is holding Kanan. They discovered his location just in time to find out he was being moved to Mustafar. Yes, that Mustafar. The season finale, "Fire Across the Galaxy," will see the rebels launch a daring rescue mission. That mission, however, attracts plenty of Imperial attention. They have to ask for help, and it looks like that assistance might come from Fulcrum.
Images from the episode tease Fulcrum, Darth Vader, the Inquisitor, and what looks like an epic space battle. The trailer for this episode says someone will fall. Flip through the below gallery and then head to the comments to tell us your guess about who will fall.