Monthly Archives: April 2018
Deadpool 2 Estimated to Have Huge $150M Summer Debut
Deadpool 2 is set to make a huge splash at the box office when it debuts next month.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Deadpool 2 is currently tracking at an estimated opening weekend of $150 million in North America when it hits theaters on May 18.
This means Marvel's anti-hero action comedy sequel may have an even bigger opening than the original Deadpool, which opened to the tune of $132.4 million before going on to earn $783 million worldwide, making it the top-grossing rated R movie of all time, not adjusted for inflation.
Epic Moves Ahead With Its Lawsuit Against 14-Year-Old Fortnite Cheater
Epic Games is pressing forward with their lawsuit against a minor who was caught cheating in Fortnite — thereby violating the terms of service — despite attempts from the boys' mother to have the case dismissed.
The case was brought to the media's attention last year, when Epic sued two Fortnite players for cheating. One of the players turned out to be a 14-year-old boy, whose mother tried to have the case dismissed in a letter to the court. The latest filing, obtained by TorrentFreak, reveals that Epic is moving forward with the case regardless.
Why Battle Royale Is the Right Game Mode to Copy
Battle royale is the latest trend that’s been sweeping across the games industry. In most examples of the growing genre, 100 players are dropped into a zone where they must find loot and kill each other off solo or as a squad as the size of the map gradually shrinks. Though PUBG is the game that really kicked things off when it was released in Steam Early Access last year, it’s since been aped by Epic’s Fortnite Battle Royale, a game that has gradually become a juggernaut in its own right. While everyone was quick to write Fortnite off as a shameless copycat, it’s very quickly proven to be its own thing, striking a particular chord with gamers after it went free to play. It’s even managed to get celebrities like Drake to catch the fever.
Star Trek: Paramount Developing Two Movies
Paramount is officially developing two Star Trek movies.
Per THR, Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos confirmed the news during a CinemaCon presentation. While no new specific details about the projects were shared, Paramount is once again working with Skydance on the movies. The two partnered on 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond.
It's unclear if the films will be direct sequels to Star Trek Beyond. However, according to TrekMovie, one of the two projects is Quentin Tarantino's R-rated take on the franchise, which is currently being penned by The Revenant writer Mark L. Smith.
Splatoon 2, Ninja Turtles Collaboration Splatfest Announced
Nintendo is teaming up with Nickelodeon for a special Splatfest next month to determine which of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the best.
The collaboration will see Splatoon 2 players vote and compete in three rounds over the course of three weekends in May to pick a favourite out of the four characters.
“We love working with unexpected partners to expand our brand and bring smiles to people’s faces in surprising ways,” said Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Doug Bowser. “Teaming up with Nickelodeon and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made perfect sense, as we share many of the same fans who enjoy family-friendly entertainment and classic characters.”
Netflix’s The Rain Is a Fresh Take on the Post-Apocalyptic Genre
Check out the video above for our SPOILER-FREE thoughts on the first 3 episodes. You can stream the entire first season of The Rain on Netflix from May 4.
The continued success of AMC's The Walking Dead (which just ended its eighth season) and The 100 (just beginning its fifth) proves that the post-apocalyptic genre is here to stay, making it every bit as enduring in the TV landscape as shows about cops, lawyers and doctors. Now Netflix is getting into the dystopian game with The Rain. So, how does it stand out among its peers?
Instead of zombies, The Rain has something much more deadly: unpredictable weather patterns. The story centers on a virus that is spread by rainfall and kills as soon as it comes in contact with human skin. No one is sure how it all happened, but a pair of Danish siblings, Simone (Alba August) and Rasmus (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen), are determined to find out why, which is a key difference when compared to The Walking Dead, which is more about survival than finding out why people are coming back from the dead.
Disney’s New Star Wars Show is an Anime-Inspired Force Awakens Prequel
Disney has found its next animated Star Wars TV show - an anime-inspired adventure series called Star Wars Resistance. Created by Star Wars Rebels showrunner Dave Filoni, the new project will focus on Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot recruited by the Resistance and tasked with a top-secret mission to spy on the growing threat of the First Order.
While no specific premiere date has been set yet, Disney has announced that Star Wars Resistance will premiere this fall on Disney Channel in the US before debuting thereafter on Disney XD and around the world.
Much as Rebels weaved in familiar characters from across the Star Wars galaxy, Disney promises that Resistance will feature "the beloved droid BB-8 alongside ace pilots, colorful new characters and appearances by fan favorites, including Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma, voiced by actors Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, respectively."
Netflix’s Lost in Space vs. CBS’ Star Trek: Discovery
Netflix recently debuted their reboot of Irwin Allen's classic 1965 sci-fi series Lost in Space, making it the second high-profile reboot of a notoriously campy 1960s sci-fi TV series in as many years. Last year, of course, also saw the release of Star Trek: Discovery, the seventh show to bear the Trek title. And while Star Trek and Lost in Space were incredibly different shows in terms of tone and premise – Gene Roddenberry himself famously discouraged comparing the two – they do frequently occupy the same cognitive space in the minds of sci-fi fans. Not only are they contemporaneous shows of a common genre, but they also share common attitudes rooted in the glories and hardships of American frontier life in the early days of Manifest Destiny. Star Trek was Wagon Train, and Lost in Space was The Swiss Family Robinson (which was a Swiss novel, yes, but was famously transposed to America in a 1940 feature film).
What Did You Think of This Week’s Comics?
It was another big week for the comic book industry, as The Mighty Thor reached its series finale and Marvel kicked off its Hunt for Wolverine crossover. Check out our new reviews and thinkpieces and be sure to let us know your favorite new books of the week in the comments below.
Written by Charles Soule | Drawn by David Marquez & Paolo Siqueira
"Marvel Comics has an annoying tendency to take a good story and overextend it with too many tie-ins and offshoots. That was the case with the Death of Wolverine event in late 2014. The initial Death of Wolverine miniseries was well-crafted, but the story turned into a bloated mess thanks to the numerous spinoffs that followed and the dreadful Wolverines weekly series. Unfortunately, Marvel doesn't seem to have learned any lessons from that particular event. Rather than simply give readers a clear, straightforward look at the hows and whys of Wolverine's return, Hunt for Wolverine #1 is merely a prelude to a four-month-long crossover no one asked for." -Jesse
How Marvel Perfected the Heroic Doctor Doom
It's safe to say that no Marvel character was more changed by the events of 2015's Secret Wars than Victor Von Doom. He was profoundly altered both inside and out, evolving from a bitter tyrant whose armor hid a terribly scarred face to a handsome man determined to finally use his power to make the Marvel Universe a better, safer place. He even abandoned the mantle of Doctor Doom and instead became "The Infamous Iron Man." But for all the focus on the reformed Doom in recent years, it's only with new series Marvel Two-In-One that the character seems to have found his voice.
Prior to Marvel Two-In-One, this reformed Doom was mostly seen in the pages of Invincible Iron Man and Infamous Iron Man, both written by Brian Michael Bendis. Needless to say, this is a very different Doom from the one readers are used to following. For one thing, he's unafraid to show his true face. Now that his scars are gone and he bears more than a passing resemblance to French actor Vincent Cassel, why should he be? This newer, handsomer Doom shows genuine remorse for the many misdeeds of his past. He's determined to make amends and prove himself a hero, even if absolutely no one is prepared to take him at his word. And if that requires him to usurp the mantle of Iron Man, so be it.