Monthly Archives: January 2016
Star Wars Loses Box Office Top Spot to Ride Along 2
After four weeks at the top of the North American box office, Star Wars: The Force Awakens dropped to number 3 this weekend. The buddy cop comedy Ride Along 2 premiered at the top, followed by The Revenant at number 2.
Audiences were excited to once again see the comedic chemistry of Kevin Hart and Ice Cube as they reprised their Ride Along roles, with the film picking up an estimated $34 million over the weekend.
Leonardo DiCaprio's The Revenant also performed strongly at the box office, picking up $29.5 million in revenue over the weekend, helped along no doubt by the films 12 Oscar nominations. The politically charged 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi pulled in $16 million over its opening weekend, putting it at number 4.
SNL Shows Kylo Ren as an Undercover Boss
With Adam Driver serving as host, Kylo Ren was featured in a Saturday Night Live "Undercover Boss" spoof, in which the iconic Star Wars villain pretends to be a radar technician named Matt in order to gain a new perspective on the everyday life at Starkiller Base.
The skit pokes a bit of fun at Ren's bad temper, his love for Darth Vader and much more. Give it a look below and prepare to laugh a whole lot.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has proven to be a major success for Disney, and Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver, has become incredibly popular as a result. Not only will the character be featured in Disney theme park attractions, the second season of Star Wars Rebels includes a nod to his iconic cross-guard lightsaber as well.
Marvel’s Luke Cage Won’t Feel Like a Sequel to Jessica Jones
The character of Luke Cage might have been set up in the Netflix TV series Marvel's Jessica Jones, but his own standalone series, Marvel's Luke Cage, isn't going to feel like a sequel to the events of that show.
Speaking at the 2016 winter Television Critics Association press tour to promote Jessica Jones, Mike Colter opened up about how Luke Cage will fit into Marvel's Netflix series. He's almost completed wrapping Luke Cage: Season 1, and said it won't feel like a straight sequel to Jessica Jones.
"We pride ourselves in all being unique shows, and Luke Cage is definitely not a sequel to Jessica Jones or a spinoff, because it was already originally was supposed to be a show, and it so happens that you can't tell her story without telling Luke Cage's story," he told IGN and a small group of reporters.
Netflix’s Black Mirror Casts Doctor Who, The Martian Actors as Leads
Netflix's continuation of Charlie Brooker's acclaimed anthology series Black Mirror has cast two leads.
The company announced that Doctor Who alum Gugu Mbatha-Raw and The Martian's Mackenzie Davis will star in one of the upcoming episodes of the Netflix Original Series. Kill Your Friends' Owen Harris will direct the episode.
Netflix ordered 12 episodes of the drama in September 2015. Brooker and Annabel Jones are executive producing, with Brooker writing the new episodes.
"It's all very exciting -- a whole new bunch of Black Mirror episodes on the most fitting platform imaginable. Netflix connects us with a global audience so that we can create bigger, stranger, more international and diverse stories than before, whilst maintaining that 'Black Mirror' feel. I just hope none of these new story ideas come true,” Brooker said in the announcement of the Netflix collaboration.
House of Cards: Season 4 Teaser Is a Callback to One Key Death
Netflix has debuted the first promo for House of Cards: Season 4.
Hearkening back to the pivotal death in Season 2's premiere, the new video shows a bouquet of flowers on subway tracks with a Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) campaign poster above it that reads "Putting America back on track." As if that doesn't underline the point enough, a train rushes by to insinuate crashing into Frank.
This comes a month after House of Cards released a Frank Underwood campaign video to act as a teaser for Season 4. New additions to Season 4's cast include Neve Campbell and Colm Feore. To catch up on House of Cards, check out IGN's review of Season 3.
Netflix Sets Kimmy Schmidt, OITNB, The Get Down Premiere Dates
Netflix has announced a new wave of 2016 global premiere dates for its upcoming original series. Here's a rundown in the order in which they'll be airing. All times PT.
Flaked, a new serio-comic story starring and executive produced by Will Arnett, will premiere on Friday, March 11, 2016 at 12:01 a.m. Arnett stars as Chip, "a celebrated long-time resident of the insular world of Venice, Calif. who falls for the object of his best friend's fascination. Soon the tangled web of half-truths and semi-bullshit that underpins his all-important image and sobriety begins to unravel." Mark Chappell co-created and co-wrote the 8-episode series. Ben Silverman, Peter Principato and Mitch Hurwitz also serve as executive producers on the show.
Apple’s iTunes Radio Won’t Be Free Much Longer
Beginning January 29, Apple will no longer offer its ad-supported radio stations and instead will put them behind a $10 paywall.
Customers who've been enjoying iTunes Radio's ad-supported broadcasts since the service launched will now need to pony up a monthly subscription fee to retain access.
Buzzfeed News confirmed Apple is getting rid of "ad-supported stations at the end of January."
"We are making Beats 1 the premier free broadcast from Apple," the company said, adding memberships to Apple Music will include radio, and a 3-month trial version will be available for those looking to squeeze just a little more time from iTunes Radio without needing to pay for it.
People v. OJ Simpson Challenges the Viewer to Understand the Verdict
FX's The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story isn't going to offer a conclusive stance on whether OJ Simpson did or did not kill his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, even though the book on which it's based, Jeffrey Toobin's The Run of His Life: The People v. OJ Simpson, feels that Simpson deserved a "guilty" verdict.
Cuba Gooding Jr. and Joseph Butler in The People v. OJ Simpson
The World’s Largest Capacity Solid State Drive Is Here
Tech company Fixstars has introduced the biggest solid state drive currently available, with a whopping 13 TB of space.
All that space doesn't come cheap, unfortunately. While SSDs are incredible for boosting PC performance, they're more expensive than traditional hard-drives, and the Fixstars 13 TB SSD is no exception. The storage solution will set you back $1 a gigabyte, for a total cost of $13,000 USD.
According to PC World, the SSD will begin shipping at the end of February directly from Fixstars and won't be available through retailers. The SSD has read-write speeds of "up to 580/520 MB/s," according to the manufacturer.
Screenshots From TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan Leaked
Screenshots from Platinum Game's unannounced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan have leaked online.
Reportedly published by Activision, the game first appeared on the Australian Classification Board's rating database in late November. Early in January, the game's achievements were posted on the Xbox Achievement website. And now, screenshots. The images were leaked by Pure Xbox—the same website that leaked screenshots from Platinum's Transformers: Devastation.