Monthly Archives: March 2020
Tiger King: Dax Shepard and Edward Norton Are Fan Casting Themselves as Joe Exotic
It's hard to scroll through social media without coming across somebody talking about Netflix's popular Tiger King series (or, in the case of Jared Leto, just dressing as Joe Exotic and hosting a viewing party) and now other celebrities are joining in on the action by fan casting themselves in a hypothetical biopic - without realizing there's already a Joe Exotic scripted series in the works, with Kate McKinnon set to play Carole Baskin.
Even before Netflix's Tiger King took the internet by storm - leading many to wonder what happened to Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, and Doc Antle after the docuseries stopped filming - a scripted Joe Exotic TV show has been in development since November 2019, with McKinnon also executive producing.
But a number of celebrity fans of the Netflix series are already dream-casting themselves; Dax Shepard started the discussion that eventually spun out to include other stars like Edward Norton, Justin Long, and Jim Gaffigan. Shepard and Norton jokingly went toe-to-toe for the role of Joe "Exotic" Schreibvogel. Check it out below.
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This mention of "Machinest" is a reference to The Machinist starring Christian Bale, where the actor lost a significant amount of weight for the role.
The conversation didn't end there, though, as Justin Long jumped in to add that Jim Gaffigan should play Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle.
Shepard responded to tell Long that Gaffigan is a great choice for the role (while others on Twitter have suggested Tim Robbins) and added that Channing Tatum should play Shepard's Joe Exotic's "toothless first husband," John Finlay.
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These celebrities were speaking hypothetically, but they might actually get the chance to bring their tweets to fruition, given McKinnon's limited series, which is in the works at Universal Cable Productions. This series will be based on the second season of Wondery's Over My Dead Body podcast about Joe Exotic. TVLine reveals that a UCP representative told them that the Joe Exotic series remains in active development as of March 24.
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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN who should probably see what this Joe Exotic Netflix show is all about, huh? You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
China Recloses All Its Cinemas
All Chinese cinemas have reportedly been ordered to close their doors again, just a short while after some venues were permitted to resume trading after being suspended for months.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, China's national film bureau issued a decree to exhibitors on Friday, ordering all cinemas to shutdown while offering no reason for the policy change or a timeframe for reopening. However, the outlet reports that "industry insiders instantly began speculating that the government was worried about a potential second wave of coronavirus infections."
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Approximately 600 small venues out of the country's 70,000 movie theatres reopened over the course of the past week after initially shutting all of their cinemas in January, as a lockdown measure to help prevent the further spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Earlier in the week, China Film Group unveiled a plan to attract customers and fill seats with a programme of blockbuster films, including the Avengers franchise, James Cameron's Avatar, and Christopher Nolan's Inception and Interstellar, making the reversal on the country's decision to gradually reopen their complexes even more surprising to stakeholders.
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"This second closure will not be a one- or two-week issue," an executive at a major exhibition company told the publication. "They are going to be even more cautious when they attempt to reopen again — and this will set us back a long time."
Elsewhere, production and distribution executives reportedly expressed their concerns over the limited options available to studios, as regulators have apparently discouraged the sale of unreleased feature films to local streaming services in order to boost the country's theatrical exhibition infrastructure with new titles once everything is back up and running.
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While more and more movie theatres have been forced to temporarily shutdown as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, streaming services have moved even further into the spotlight, as consumers have been looking for alternative ways to connect with their friends without having to leave the comfort of their sofas.
Some have turned to Netflix Party, a Google Chrome extension that allows multiple users to stream a Netflix show or movie together at the same time, however, a recent surge in online traffic has presented new concerns over bandwidth strain. As a result, Netflix and YouTube have committed to defaulting streaming quality to standard definition across Europe.
For a list of recommendations on how best to help, and stay safe, during the Coronavirus pandemic, please read our resource guide.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Resident Evil Resistance Beta Postponed on PS4 and Steam
Capcom has announced the Resident Evil Resistance beta has been postponed on PlayStation 4 and Steam due to technical issues. However, the Xbox One version is unaffected and currently available for download.
Announced on Twitter, Capcom did not offer any kind of timetable for when the Resistance beta would be available. With the Resident Evil 3 Remake set to release on April 3, hopefully it won't be too long.
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Resident Evil Resistance is a multiplayer horror survival mode, where four players face off against a Mastermind. The four players' goal is simple – survive – while the Mastermind is responsible for setting a variety of obstacles and traps to try and prevent survival.
Thus far, there are four confirmed Masterminds for Resistance – Daniel Fabron, Annette Birkin, Alex Wesker, and Ozwell E. Spencer. Each Mastermind will have their own unique set of abilities, giving some variety to the role. Additionally, Capcom has confirmed there will be both a prison and casino themed map available at launch.
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Resistance is part of the Resident Evil 3 Remake which was announced in December. The game will feature protagonist Jill Valentine and the infamous antagonist Nemesis. Not only will he be scarier than ever, but he is trying to eliminate members of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service team, more commonly referred to as STARS.
A demo of the Resident Evil 3 Remake released on March 17 and is currently available for download in your platform's store. In the meantime, be sure to check out everything we know about the Resident Evil 3 Remake guide for a full rundown ahead of its April release. However, Capcom has issued a warning to European players that the physical edition may receive a slight delay.
Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.
Valve Talks About Microtransactions And Their Place in the Industry
The inclusion of early microtransactions in video games seemed, at first, to teach players to regret spending money, according to Valve's Robin Walker. But it doesn't need to be that way.
In this month's episode of IGN Unfiltered, Ryan McCaffrey sat down with Chris Remo and Robin Walker from Valve to talk about microtransactions, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life: Alyx, the mystique of Valve, and much more.
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Since it first released, Team Fortress 2 has undergone massive changes, especially from a monetization standpoint. When asked about Team Fortress 2, the current state of microtransactions in the video game industry, and where things are headed, Walker said, "Team Fortress [was], in a lot of ways, our learning tool... It seemed like microtransactions should be a customer-positive thing... if we're saying, 'How about, instead of you giving us the money up-front, before you know [if] the game's any good, how about you play it and, if you like it, you can give us some money?'
"We were also hitting a point in Team Fortress where, bizarrely, we would get emails from fans saying, 'I've been playing this game for four years... Do you have a donation tip-jar or something?' At the point where fans are mailing our corporation asking if we have a donation tip-jar because they want to give us extra money... it's a strange thing."
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These sorts of letters seemingly run counter to the perception of customers, Walker says. "I think people have this really, weirdly adversarial relationship with customers, where they think customers fundamentally don't want to give, don't want to spend money, they just want everything for free, whereas we always think of it as; people want to spend their money on the things they like...
"I, personally, really enjoy spending money on the bands, and the artists, and the movie-makers and so-on, who build things that I love. I wish I could give them more if it meant that they'd make more.
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"So, to us, Team Fortress was the place where we tried to figure out how to do that. We know we've got a bunch of people who are enjoying this, and they're mailing us and telling us that they're enjoying it... it seems like they would prefer spending their money on this than another game and so we were trying to figure out, 'What is it that they like? What would they want?'"
As for the industry at large, Walker was surprised opinions solidified on microtransactions so quickly. "I think it took us years, and we're still learning an enormous amount... I think that was the other thing that was... shocking to us at the time: the industry seemed to have already decided it understood how microtransactions worked.
"This was... 2011 or something. There was microtransaction stuff going on in web games and stuff like that. There was all this stuff written about how you've got to add friction to your game, and then people can pay to take it away... there was all this sort of stuff and it seemed really unlikely to us, given how young microtransactions were at that time, or even just service games in general... that the industry had already figured out the 'optimal' way.
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"We felt like everything that was being done then was, basically, teaching players to regret every bit of a dollar they spent. You would play a game and just regret it. So... we thought, 'There's got to be a way to do this. We've got to be able to figure out a way to do this where this is an addition that people enjoy and want. That came with a set of things around... making sure that... there was an enormous amount of the game that you still got for free or... with Dota... it's entirely cosmetic, none of it affects the core game, itself."
Walker wrapped up the topic by saying that the progress Valve has made in making microtransactions something people want to engage in, instead of something they feel they are forced to engage in, has allowed the company to make games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2 completely free.
Catch up on every single episode of IGN Unfiltered here so you can hear from the best and brightest minds in the video game industry, such as Hugo Martin and Marty Stratton (id), Stig Asmussen (Respawn), Sam Lake (Remedy), Bonnie Ross (343 Industries), Ted Price (Insomniac), and a whole lot more.
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Brian Barnett writes news, features, wiki guides, deals posts, and much more for IGN. You can get your fix of Brian's antics on Twitter and Instagram (@Ribnax).Fortnite: Here’s Where to Find the Ghost and Shadow Posters
The Fortnite Week 6 Deadpool challenges will require players to deface three Shadow or Ghost recruitment posters. We've assembled a quick guide that will take you to all the poster locations.
Borderlands 3: Get 10 Golden Keys With This New Shift Code
Jumping back into Borderlands 3 to play the Guns, Love, and Tentacles DLC? Grab this Shift Code and claim 10 Golden Keys to give yourself an edge.
Star Wars: New Han Solo/Greedo Argument Trumps All Others
Who shot first, Han or Greedo? This simple question is the basis of a Star Wars fan debate that has raged for decades, but now a new perspective squashes the whole argument.
For those who (somehow) haven’t heard of it already, the quandary is thus: In the original version of A New Hope when bounty hunter Greedo approaches Han Solo at gunpoint and sits him down for a little talk, Solo cuts the conversation short by shooting Greedo dead. However, George Lucas changed the encounter for the Special Edition re-release to make it look like Greedo shot first, and the most recent version that debuted on Disney+ even added a threat in Greedo’s alien tongue (“Malunkey!” roughly translates to “This’ll be the end of you!”). Lucas’ reasoning behind the change was to make Solo appear to be more of a John Wayne-esque cowboy where he'd give the other guy the first shot, as opposed to shooting first and coming off as a cold-blooded killer.
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Lucas’ change has divided the Star Wars fandom. There are those who prefer that Han shot first because it establishes him as a morally grey character, which makes for a richer payoff when he decides to be a good person and do the right thing by helping Luke and the Rebel Alliance in the final act. And on the other side are those who like the change because it makes Solo seem more noble from the start.
But the way reddit user The_Last_Boy_Scout sees it, there shouldn’t even be an argument in the first place. “If you remove all the context and Western tropes from the Han and Greedo scene in Episode IV, you're left with a scene where a guy shoots someone who's pointing a gun and announcing their intent to murder him,” they explained. “Textbook self-defense. There was never any moral ambiguity to alter.”
And that is certainly a valid point. Obviously the scene was meant to evoke Western tropes where the smooth-talking gunslinger is cornered by a mercenary looking to collect the price on his head, but if you look at it through a more practical, real-world lens, then Solo’s got the law on his side.
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When you consider that Greedo approached Solo with obvious intent to do him harm with that blaster of his, Solo was well within his rights to defend his life. Don’t let Solo’s casual demeanor fool you. It may not have looked like he was taking Greedo seriously, but he understood that the bounty hunter was putting him in a life-or-death situation, and by killing Greedo he was only doing what he needed to do to survive.
If Greedo wasn’t armed when he approached Solo, then that would be a whole different story worthy of debate. But when looking at the situation from this particular point of view, it’s hard to say that Solo was in the wrong to take the first shot at Greedo, from a perspective of morality and arguably legality (even though it doesn’t seem like Mos Eisley has much in the way of laws).
And lest we forget, mere moments before this altercation, Obi-Wan Kenobi had killed Dr. Cornelius Evazan and sliced off Ponda Baba’s arm for good measure. And what did they do? They pulled a gun! Yet no one ever gives Kenobi a bad rap.
What do you think of this take on the age-old Star Wars debate? Let us know in the comments.
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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
Warframe Confirmed for PS5 and Xbox Series X
Developer Digital Extremes' Warframe is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X, according to an annual results announcement from parent company Leyou.
Hong Kong-based digital holdings company Leyou has a number of video game developer subsidiaries, with one of them being Digital Extremes. Leyou recently released its annual results for last year and in it, detailed all kinds of information including revenue, gross profit, and more. It also subtly revealed that Warframe will be coming to next-generation consoles.
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"On the other hand, the Group was preparing to expand Warframe to more platforms, such as the next-generation consoles and other devices, to hedge the risk of contracting new users on consoles," the results announcement read. "The Group is confident that Warframe will enter into a new stage of development, after overcoming these temporary setbacks."
These "temporary setbacks" Leyou is referring to are likely the game's 12.2% year-on-year decline in revenue. Leyou contributes this decline to three things. The first is attention diverted away from Warframe after other "reputable game studios and publishing companies" launched "large-scale AAA games with themes and gameplay" similar to that of Warframe, according to the results announcement.
Leyou said the second reason is the decline in current-generation consoles as the next generation of consoles near closer to release.
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"With the next-generation consoles to be released by the end of 2020, sales of current models have been declining, which contributed to a reduced number of new console players."
The final reason for a decline in revenue, according to Leyou, is the size and scale of development work on Warframe's Empyrean milestone content update. Leyou said "update cadence" was temporarily affected as less new game content was released while Digital Extremes focused on the Empyrean update.
Leyou believes Warframe will overcome these setbacks with the release of next-generation consoles like PS5 and Xbox Series X.
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We know some things about these next-generation consoles – you can check out a comparison chart between the PS5 and Xbox Series X specs here – but we don't know other things like price or exact release dates. One thing we do know now is that Warframe will be available at some point on these consoles. When, though, is unknown at this time as Leyou did not mention a timeframe for the game's next-generation release.
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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
PS5: No Delay Because of COVID-19, Says Sony
A Sony spokesperson has said the COVID-19 outbreak should cause no impact on the launch date of PlayStation 5.
Speaking to Bloomberg, the spokesperson said the company 'doesn’t see any notable impact' on the unspecified holiday 2020 release date set for PS5. We had already heard a Sony-retained PR agency make a similar statement, but this is the first time someone at Sony itself has made a comment.
That sentiment has been echoed by GameStop CEO George Sherman, who earlier said that there has been 'no indication' of delays to either PS5 or Xbox Series X at this point.
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IGN's Jonathon Dornbush recently spoke to six video game industry analysts who, despite caveats that we are dealing with unprecedented circumstances, came to a consensus that it's unlikely that next-gen consoles will be delayed. However, production shutdowns could still lead to reduced numbers of consoles being produced in time for launch, meaning shortages in the months after release.
Sony has apparently been hurt in other ways by the outbreak, however. Coronavirus-related shutdowns of production facilities in China, Malaysia, and the UK has meant that Sony has had to revise earlier profit estimates, potentially even forcing it to delay an April earnings report.
We'll likely hear a little more information when that earnings report does arrive, but we've already learned a lot more about PS5 in the last few weeks. We've seen the full PS5 specs, found out it will indeed run almost all 4,000 PS4 games in backwards compatibility mode, and learned that its install times should be much shorter than PS4.
You can see how the two consoles stack up so far in our PS5 vs Xbox Series X comparison chart.
For a list of recommendations on how best to help, and stay safe, during the Coronavirus pandemic, please read our resource guide.
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Half-Life: Alyx’s First Modding Meme Has Arrived
Half-Life: Alyx's first modding meme has arrived, with players swapping out the game's opening scene with absurd videos (and it's pretty easy to do yourself).
Multiple users have been posting the results to Reddit, with the r/HalfLife subreddit increasingly covered in altered versions of a conference call between Alyx Vance and her father Eli.
Users are able to replace the in-game video files to display a different video on the TV screens in Alyx's greenhouse, swapping the file out for a range of videos from the internet's past and present. Here's one featuring a viral video from comedian Casey Frey, and another utilising the endless font of memes that is the Super Mario Brothers Super Show.
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If you want to experiment with this yourself, you need to head to a specific folder in Half-Life: Alyx's files. Consider this a warning: this folder contains all of the cutscenes from Half-Life: Alyx, and at least one video title could be considered a spoiler. Probably best to finish the game first, before you begin messing with it.
If you're still interested, head to SteamApps/Common/Half-Life Alyx/Game/HLVR/Panorama/Videos and find the file 'intro_world_heist.webm'.
Now make a copy of that file so you don't lose it and drag a WebM video file of your choosing into the folder. Then all you have to do is rename the file to intro_world_heist.webm and you're good to go.
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The game has been inspiring lots of creativity under quarantine, with one teacher delivering a maths lesson using in-game markers and window panes.
For more on Half-Life: Alyx, check out our 10/10 review of the game, which we think "sets a new bar for VR."
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.