Monthly Archives: December 2016
Zelda: Breath of the Wild Amiibo Offer Very Strange Rewards
Nintendo has shown off how its new line of 30th Anniversary Legend of Zelda amiibo will interact with the upcoming Breath of the Wild. It gets pretty weird.
I'm just going to jump straight into it here - using the Ocarina of Time Link will drop a randomly selected amount of meat from the sky. There's no explanation as to how this decision was made, or if there is a deep-lying thematic connection between the era-defining adventure game and hunks of animal flesh. But there you have it - skymeat for all.
Here's a (sadly low-quality) gif of the results of plonking down your anniversary figurine:
Crackdown 3 Aiming for Holiday 2017 “or Earlier” Release Date
At E3 this year, Microsoft announced that Crackdown 3 had been delayed to 2017, and it now seems as though we're looking at a Holiday release.
Spotted by NeoGAF, art director Dave Johnson and executive producer Peter Connelly - appearing on an Extra Life livestream - responded to questions by saying that the game would be released by the festive period next year, "or earlier".
The Last of Us Director Not Returning for Part 2
Bruce Straley, game director on The Last of Us, will not be returning to direct The Last of Us Part 2.
After sources told Kotaku that Straley was on a year-long sabbatical following the completion of Uncharted 4, Sony confirmed the news:
“Bruce recently decided to take some much deserved time off after shipping two critically acclaimed games in the last few years", said a spokesperson. "He’s looking forward to returning to the studio soon and jumping back in on his next project.”
It's not clear whether Straley will serve another role on The Last of Us Part 2, or if that "next project" is something else entirely.
Westworld: Season 2 Will Be ‘Defined by Chaos’
Full spoilers for Westworld's Season 1 finale continue below. Read on at your own risk.
Westworld ended Season 1 on a major turning point, and the creators of the show explained in a segment following the episode on HBO Go how Season 2 will explore the fallout of that.
"If the first season was defined by control, the second season is defined by chaos," said co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan during the episode's "The Big Moment" segment. "That's part of what we come to understand Ford has been planning all along."
The big question remaining after the finale is what Ford's true motives are, and Nolan promises that will be a key focus in Season 2.
How TWD’s Negan and Carl Story Compares to the Comics
Major spoilers for The Walking Dead, both TV show and comics, continue below. Read on at your own risk.
Best laid plans, right? Carl's mission to infiltrate the Sanctuary and kill Negan was cut short almost immediately on The Walking Dead (despite his mowing down a couple Saviors along the way), but it did lead to some unexpected consequences. Instead of killing Carl upon his capture, Negan actually took the young Grimes under his wing for this week's extended episode, "Sing Me a Song," in a way that showed more depth of character in the Saviors' leader than we've seen so far.
Vampire Chronicles Producer on Anne Rice’s TV Hopes
Author Anne Rice recently revealed she has regained the screen rights to her Vampire Chronicles book series, a film adaptation of which had been in development at Universal Pictures with Alex Kurtzman producing. (Rice's Lestat tales Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned were previously brought to the big screen.)
In making the announcement on her Facebook page, Rice said she wishes to see The Vampire Chronicles adapted as a TV series instead to allow for a "Game of Thrones style faithful rendering." I recently had the chance to interview Kurtzman and asked him about Rice's revelation and whether he was still involved.
The Mummy Director on Resurrecting Universal’s Monsters
IGN was among a small group of press invited to get a first look at footage from The Mummy, Universal's relaunch of one of its classic monsters franchises and the first in what is hoped to be a new shared universe. Or, more accurately, a new version of what was one of Hollywood's first shared universes. Universal's classic monster movies -- The Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Phantom of the Opera -- began as individual films before becoming separate franchises and finally crossover films. Beginning with 2017's The Mummy -- starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella as the title character, and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll -- Universal is aiming to resurrect these iconic creatures and, in some cases dormant, franchises as a Marvel-style shared universe for contemporary audiences. Or, as the studio's slogan for The Mummy declares it, "a new world of gods and monsters."
Star Trek: Discovery Co-Creator Talks Casting Choices
CBS announced in late November that Michelle Yeoh, Doug Jones, and Anthony Rapp had been cast in Star Trek: Discovery, the forthcoming streaming series from CBS All Access.
I recently had the chance to ask Star Trek: Discovery co-creator and executive producer Alex Kurtzman about the casting, which he says they're "very excited" about. (This interview occurred before Bryan Fuller revealed he was no longer involved with the show.)
Star Wars: Will Other Toon Characters Go Live-Action?
With Clone Wars character Saw Gerrera making his live-action debut in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as played by Forest Whitaker, might other animated characters from Star Wars television series make the transition to live-action in future Star Wars movies?
Not necessarily, according to Lucasfilm president and Star Wars movie producer Kathleen Kennedy. She said during a Rogue One press conference today at Lucasfilm that the movies are designed as stories first rather than launching pads for existing animated small screen characters to be brought to the big screen in live-action.
"You know, that really isn't the approach that we have," said Kennedy. "We don't sit down and start isolating a list of characters and then build stories around those."
Luke Cage Renewed for Season 2
Netflix has renewed Marvel's Luke Cage for a second season.
The popular streaming service made the announcement at Comic-Con Brazil, and news of the renewal has since been relayed via the show's various social media accounts. Check out the announcement teaser for Marvel's Luke Cage: Season 2 below.
Always forward. #LukeCage pic.twitter.com/4pnu52KFKr
— Luke Cage (@LukeCage) December 4, 2016