Monthly Archives: January 2016
VR Drone Racing Makes for a Vomit-Inducing Spectator Sport
Drone racing is serious business. So serious that there’s now an official racing league. The Drone Racing League (DRL) isn’t the first of its kind, but it is serious about turning the art of drone racing into a legitimate sport.
Most people think of drones as an expensive way to shoot aerial video, but not as performance vehicles. With speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, these modified drones are nothing to laugh at and are designed completely differently than its camera-carrying counterparts.
Bungie Talks Destiny Crimson Days Buff, Matchmaking, and More
In this week's Bungie Weekly Update, the Destiny team addressed several of the bigger events happening to the game, including giving some insight into the process that went into creating the upcoming Crimson Days event.
Today between 1 and 3 pm PT, Bungie will be gathering info "on a third round of changes" in Iron Banner's matchmaking.
"This week at Bungie we’re fine-tuning the Crucible," Bungie community manager David "DeeJ" Dague wrote on the game's official blog. According to Dague, Bungie has been gathering data to actively thwart lag issues "setting the table for some good, clean fights." On 2 separate occasions, Bungie rolled out matchmaking tweaks to the matchmaking engine previous to today's third round.
American Horror Story’s Grace Gummer Joins Mr. Robot
Grace Gummer, who played Penny in American Horror Story: Freak Show, and was recently seen in Extant, will be joining USA's Mr. Robot in its upcoming second season.
According to EW, Gummer will be playing Dominique (Dom) DiPierro, an FBI agent tracking down the fsociety after the stunning events of last season.
Grace Gummer (seen here in Extant).
Princess Mononoke’s Anime Urban Legend Is True
Princess Mononoke creator Hayao Miyazaki has confirmed the urban legend claiming his film was actually about leprosy is in fact true.
According to All Nippon News Network (via Kotaku), Miyazaki revealed that leprosy (Hansen's Disease), and the way in which those who have it are treated, served as the inspiration for his film.
The famed filmmaker decided to finally share the news publicly just ahead of World Leprosy Day, which takes place on January 31 and raises awareness for the disease.
Fan Creates Danny DeVito Dubbed Detective Pikachu Trailer
The recent announcement of Detective Pikachu: Birth of a New Team reveals the beloved Pokemon has the capacity to talk, leaving many fans to suggest who should voice Pikachu once the game releases in the West.
One of the most popular suggestions is actor Danny DeVito, who has lent his acting talents to both live-action and animated features during his career. In an attempt to illustrate why DeVito is the right pick, YouTube personality Tealhollow1 created this trailer dubbed with lines from the actor's past work. Check it out below.
The Commuter: Neeson Reunites With Non-Stop Director
Non-Stop filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra is set to direct The Commuter, meaning he'll team up again with star Liam Neeson.
Deadline reports The Commuter is lined up as Collet-Serra's next film, with production starting this summer. Neeson will portray a businessman who finds himself wrapped up in the middle of a criminal conspiracy.
Previously, Collet-Serra and Neeson worked together on Non-Stop and Unknown. Currently, Collet-Serra is helming Into the Shadows for Sony.
Studiocanal and The Picture Company's Andrew Rona and Alex Heinemann are producing The Commuter. Collet-Serra will serve as an executive producer, along with Juan Sola of Ombra Films.
How Insomniac Strove to Adapt the Ratchet & Clank Movie Right
Ask Insomniac Games founder Ted Price what he's learned about the process of adapting one of the developer's franchises into a feature film, and he's quick with a reply: "It takes a long time."
In April 2013, it was announced that Insomniac had teamed with Rainmaker Entertainment and Blockade Entertainment to make a Ratchet & Clank animated feature film. It's due in theaters soon, on April 29, and was created to be as honest to the source material as possible. Insomniac Games Senior Writer T.J. Fixman wrote the story, and several key voice actors are reprising their roles in the project.
New Justice League Animated Series Coming to Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network has announced a brand-new, quarter-hour animated series - Justice League Action - from Warner Bros. Animation, based on the iconic characters from DC Entertainment.
Kevin Conroy -- the famous voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne from the acclaimed 1990s Batman: The Animated Series and Arkham game series, among other Batman adaptations -- will make his return to the character for Justice League Action, marking the first time he's voiced Batman in an ongoing animated series since Justice League Unlimited ended in 2006.
In addition, Conroy's longtime animated antagonist, Mark Hamill, will return as the Joker, as part of a voice lineup that includes James Woods as Lex Luthor and Diedrich Bader (himself a former Batman, from the Brave and the Bold animated series) as Booster Gold. Warner Bros. notes there are more, still to be announced, cast members. Notably, we still don't know who is voicing Superman and Wonder Woman, despite their prominence in the first image from the series.
Star Wars: Episode 9 Director Wants to Film in Space
After announcing plans to shoot Star Wars -- Episode IX on film rather than digital, director Colin Trevorrow has revealed that he also wishes to film the movie partially in outer space.
According to Screen Crush, Trevorrow told an audience at the Sundance Film Festival that he approached Disney and Lucasfilm about the possibility.
"I asked the question, 'Is it possible for us to shoot IMAX film in actual space for Star Wars, and I haven’t gotten an answer yet, but they’ve shot IMAX in space!'" he said.
Is Secret Wars Marvel’s Watchmen?
Normally when a superhero event comic comes to a close, it's with a mixture of disappointment and relief. Disappointment that the story didn't live up to its potential, and relief that another bloated crossover is finished and readers can get back to normal (until the next event, anyway). Secret Wars was a welcome exception to this trend. If there was anything disappointing about Secret Wars #9, it was that it marked the last Marvel work we'll see from writer Jonathan Hickman for the foreseeable future. Secret Wars succeeded in a way few epic superhero crossovers from Marvel or DC ever manage. So much so that it may just earn its status as Marvel's answer to DC's Watchmen.