Monthly Archives: March 2021
National Treasure TV Series Reportedly Ordered for Disney Plus
A National Treasure TV series is reportedly greenlit for Disney+ after reports last year suggested the show might be in the works.
Deadline reports the streaming service has ordered 10 episodes of the show. Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the National Treasure franchise, and original writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley are reportedly attached to the project. Other writers from the National Treasure films are expected to join the production.
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Reports say the show, "explores the timely issues of identity, community, historical authorship and patriotism, told from the point of view of Jess Morales," who is a new Latina lead character for the franchise, though no casting for the role has been revealed.
Nicolas Cage's Ben Gates won't be the main character in the show. Instead, the series will focus on a new cast of characters led by Morales.
Last year, Bruckheimer announced that a National Treasure television series was in development with an all-new cast, saying, "The one for Disney+ is a much younger cast. It’s the same concept but a young cast."
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The long-awaited third entry in the National Treasure film series is still in development. Last year, Bad Boys for Life screenwriter Chris Bremner was brought on to write the script. Way back in 2008, it was rumored that National Treasure 3 would focus on the Gates family's search for Atlantis.
For more on Disney+, read about how the service topped 100 million subscribers in under two years, and how Black Widow will premiere on Disney Plus this summer.
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Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.
Wellington Paranormal: What We Do in the Shadows Spinoff Coming to the US
What We Do in the Shadows fans have something new to look forward to in 2021. The spinoff series Wellington Paranormal is finally making its way to the US.
Wellington Paranormal won't air on FX as its sister series does, but will instead debut via a partnership between The CW and HBO Max in Summer 2021. New episodes will make their US broadcast debut on The CW and will then be added the following day to the CW and HBO Max apps.
For those unfamiliar with this series, Wellington Paranormal is a direct spinoff of the 2014 What We Do in the Shadows film and actually predates the FX series by a year. The series stars Karen O'Leary and Mike Minogue, who reprise their roles from the movie as two bumbling police officers who serve on the titular investigative unit. Wellington Paranormal also stars Maaka Pohatu as Sergeant Ruawai Maaka and Thomas Sainsbury as Constable Parker. Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement are credited as both creators and executive producers on the series, with Clement also having directed multiple episodes.
Though Wellington Paranormal is currently in the midst of its third series on New Zealand's TVNZ 2, the series has never been widely available outside of New Zealand and Australia. This news comes shortly after Sky UK announced plans to add the series to its Now and Sky Q services in the UK.
This is both good news for What We Do in the Shadows fans and a first for The CW and HBO Max. The two have never directly partnered on a series before, though The CW has previously acquired former DC Universe-exclusives like Swamp Thing and Stargirl. With HBO Max developing its own, growing lineup of DC shows separate from The CW's Arrowverse, this partnership could be taken as a positive sign for any potential superhero crossovers in the future.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/09/the-cast-of-what-we-do-in-the-shadows-just-has-way-too-much-fun"]
FX, meanwhile, has greenlit a third season of What We Do in the Shadows, though the series only recently resumed production in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cast stopped by IGN's WFH Theater in 2020 to tease the "mouth-watering potential" of Season 3. We also got a slightly better idea of what's to come in Season 3 during Comic-Con@Home.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Wellington Paranormal: What We Do in the Shadows Spinoff Coming to the US
What We Do in the Shadows fans have something new to look forward to in 2021. The spinoff series Wellington Paranormal is finally making its way to the US.
Wellington Paranormal won't air on FX as its sister series does, but will instead debut via a partnership between The CW and HBO Max in Summer 2021. New episodes will make their US broadcast debut on The CW and will then be added the following day to the CW and HBO Max apps.
For those unfamiliar with this series, Wellington Paranormal is a direct spinoff of the 2014 What We Do in the Shadows film and actually predates the FX series by a year. The series stars Karen O'Leary and Mike Minogue, who reprise their roles from the movie as two bumbling police officers who serve on the titular investigative unit. Wellington Paranormal also stars Maaka Pohatu as Sergeant Ruawai Maaka and Thomas Sainsbury as Constable Parker. Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement are credited as both creators and executive producers on the series, with Clement also having directed multiple episodes.
Though Wellington Paranormal is currently in the midst of its third series on New Zealand's TVNZ 2, the series has never been widely available outside of New Zealand and Australia. This news comes shortly after Sky UK announced plans to add the series to its Now and Sky Q services in the UK.
This is both good news for What We Do in the Shadows fans and a first for The CW and HBO Max. The two have never directly partnered on a series before, though The CW has previously acquired former DC Universe-exclusives like Swamp Thing and Stargirl. With HBO Max developing its own, growing lineup of DC shows separate from The CW's Arrowverse, this partnership could be taken as a positive sign for any potential superhero crossovers in the future.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/09/the-cast-of-what-we-do-in-the-shadows-just-has-way-too-much-fun"]
FX, meanwhile, has greenlit a third season of What We Do in the Shadows, though the series only recently resumed production in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cast stopped by IGN's WFH Theater in 2020 to tease the "mouth-watering potential" of Season 3. We also got a slightly better idea of what's to come in Season 3 during Comic-Con@Home.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Steam Remote Play Together Games No Longer Need the Second Player to Have a Steam Account
The latest Steam Client Update has upgraded the Remote Play Together feature, allowing users to invite other players to their game with just a URL. This means that invites can even be sent to players who don't have a Steam account.
The feature, noted in the March 22 patch notes, can be accessed from your Steam Friends list. Simply open a game that supports Remote Play Together (there are thousands of them) and then open your friends list. Near the top of the Friends list panel will be displayed a button labelled 'Invite Anyone To Play'. Clicking this will generate a URL, similar to a Discord invite, that can be sent to a friend you'd like to join your game. That URL can then be used through the Steam desktop client or Steam Link mobile app, but an account does not need to be logged in for it to work.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/29/moving-out-14-minutes-of-couch-co-op-gameplay"]
If you're unfamiliar with Steam Remote Play Together, the system allows friends to play games together using just one copy of the game. The person who owns the supported game opens it on their PC, and then uses the Remote Play Together system to invite people who don't own the game to their session. The system then streams the game from the host player to their friends. Since the stream sent to friends is of the host's screen, the system is designed for shared/split-screen games. Essentially, it turns couch co-op games into online games.
For more on a co-op game you can play owning just one copy, check out It Takes Two.
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Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Steam Remote Play Together Games No Longer Need the Second Player to Have a Steam Account
The latest Steam Client Update has upgraded the Remote Play Together feature, allowing users to invite other players to their game with just a URL. This means that invites can even be sent to players who don't have a Steam account.
The feature, noted in the March 22 patch notes, can be accessed from your Steam Friends list. Simply open a game that supports Remote Play Together (there are thousands of them) and then open your friends list. Near the top of the Friends list panel will be displayed a button labelled 'Invite Anyone To Play'. Clicking this will generate a URL, similar to a Discord invite, that can be sent to a friend you'd like to join your game. That URL can then be used through the Steam desktop client or Steam Link mobile app, but an account does not need to be logged in for it to work.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/29/moving-out-14-minutes-of-couch-co-op-gameplay"]
If you're unfamiliar with Steam Remote Play Together, the system allows friends to play games together using just one copy of the game. The person who owns the supported game opens it on their PC, and then uses the Remote Play Together system to invite people who don't own the game to their session. The system then streams the game from the host player to their friends. Since the stream sent to friends is of the host's screen, the system is designed for shared/split-screen games. Essentially, it turns couch co-op games into online games.
For more on a co-op game you can play owning just one copy, check out It Takes Two.
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Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Rocket League Sideswipe Is a New Mobile Game From Psyonix
Psyonix has announced a new standalone Rocket League game for mobile called Rocket League Sideswipe.
Rocket League Sideswipe takes the competitive car soccer gameplay of the PC and console version of Rocket League and changes up the perspective while keeping the PvP aspect intact. Players can compete in 2 minutes 1v1 or 2v2 matches using touchscreen controls that will be familiar to veteran players; while being intuitive for newcomers.
Check out the first screenshots for Rocket League Sideswipe below.
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Rocket League became a phenomenon when it was released for free as part of PlayStation Plus in 2015 and the competitive car soccer game still enjoys massive popularity. Rocket League developer Psyonix was acquired by Epic Games in 2019, and Rocket League became a free-to-play game shortly afterward.
In Rocket League, players control cars on a pitch with the goal of, well, scoring goals using a giant ball. Boosters and acrobatic abilities help players make stunning trick shots. Cars can also be customized with cosmetics for a more personal touch.
The screenshots for Rocket League Sideswipe show a similar gameplay style, but the perspective is now horizontal rather than a full 3D map. However, there still appear to be customization options for cars, though it's unclear if these cosmetics carry over to the console and PC versions of Rocket League.
Check out IGN's Rocket League review here for more on Psyonix's popular online sports/car hybrid. Rocket League Sideswipe will begin a Regional Limited Alpha test on the Google Play Store today in Australia and New Zealand. It will be available free-to-play later this year on iOS and Android.
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Matt T.M Kim is IGN's News Editor.
Rocket League Sideswipe Is a New Mobile Game From Psyonix
Psyonix has announced a new standalone Rocket League game for mobile called Rocket League Sideswipe.
Rocket League Sideswipe takes the competitive car soccer gameplay of the PC and console version of Rocket League and changes up the perspective while keeping the PvP aspect intact. Players can compete in 2 minutes 1v1 or 2v2 matches using touchscreen controls that will be familiar to veteran players; while being intuitive for newcomers.
Check out the first screenshots for Rocket League Sideswipe below.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=rocket-league-sideswipe-screenshots&captions=true"]
Rocket League became a phenomenon when it was released for free as part of PlayStation Plus in 2015 and the competitive car soccer game still enjoys massive popularity. Rocket League developer Psyonix was acquired by Epic Games in 2019, and Rocket League became a free-to-play game shortly afterward.
In Rocket League, players control cars on a pitch with the goal of, well, scoring goals using a giant ball. Boosters and acrobatic abilities help players make stunning trick shots. Cars can also be customized with cosmetics for a more personal touch.
The screenshots for Rocket League Sideswipe show a similar gameplay style, but the perspective is now horizontal rather than a full 3D map. However, there still appear to be customization options for cars, though it's unclear if these cosmetics carry over to the console and PC versions of Rocket League.
Check out IGN's Rocket League review here for more on Psyonix's popular online sports/car hybrid. Rocket League Sideswipe will begin a Regional Limited Alpha test on the Google Play Store today in Australia and New Zealand. It will be available free-to-play later this year on iOS and Android.
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Matt T.M Kim is IGN's News Editor.
Steam Next Fest Coming In June, Will Feature Hundreds Of Game Demos
Valve has revealed Steam Next Fest, a celebration of upcoming games coming in June which will feature "hundreds of game demos" and "oodles of livestreams."
Steam Next Fest will kick off on June 16 and run through to June 22. This is Valve's new name for the Steam Game Festival, which previously allowed users to check out demos of upcoming games, speak to their creators and get an insight into their development.
Valve wrote: “We’ve renamed the Steam Game Festival to more directly communicate its focus: Announcing Steam Next Fest, a multi-day celebration of upcoming games. Explore and play hundreds of game demos, watch developer livestreams, and chat with the teams about their games in progress, coming soon to Steam.”
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/19/rising-star-2-steam-game-festival-qa-video"]
The last Steam Game Festival took place in February of 2021, providing Steam users with a glimpse at indie games like Genesis Noir, Narita Boy and many more.
Those dates line up with E3 2021's reported dates of June 15-17. E3 will also be a digital event this year, with an in-person component seemingly cancelled.
In other Steam news, the platform keeps breaking its own concurrent player's record, with over 26 million people logged in at once. The digital distribution service launched in China recently, but there have been concerns about potentially lost games. The Steam survival game phenomenon Valheim recently climbed Steam's most-played charts after selling six million units and cracking 500,000 concurrent players.
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
WandaVision’s Evan Peters to Play Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer
Evan Peters has signed on to play Jeffrey Dahmer in Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series about the infamous serial killer.
According to Variety, Peters will portray the titular character in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's latest project for Netflix, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, alongside Scream Queens star Niecy Nash, who has joined the series as Glenda Cleveland, a neighbor that alerted authorities to Dahmer's suspicious behavior, only to have her concerns repeatedly overlooked.
In addition, Penelope Ann Miller has been tapped to play Dahmer's mother, Joyce, alongside Richard Jenkins, who was previously announced in the role of Dahmer's father, Lionel, a "chemist, who showed [Dahmer] how to safely bleach and preserve animal bones when he was a child." They have been cast along with Shaun Brown, who will play Tracy, Dahmer's last intended victim, and Colin Ford as Chazz.
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The 10-episode series will span the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, ending with Dahmer's arrest in the early '90s. It will tell the story of Dahmer through the eyes of his victims, and will examine his "white privilege and the law enforcement involved with a critical lens," as the series will depict "at least 10 times that Dahmer was apprehended by police but not prosecuted."
Mindhunter's Carl Franklin is on board to direct the pilot episode of Monster while Janet Mock, who worked on Murphy's FX drama Pose, will be in charge of writing and directing several episodes as well. Franklin and Mock are also both serving as executive producers along with Murphy and Brennan who previously worked together on The Politician, Hollywood, and Ratched for Netflix.
David McMillan will appear in both the writers' room and on the set of the production where he will fulfill the role of a supervising producer, together with Color of Change's Rashad Robinson. Alexis Martin Woodall and Eric Kovtun will be executive producing for Ryan Murphy Productions while Scott Robertson will co-produce the series.
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Evan Peters is taking the lead role on the series after coming off his MCU debut in the Disney+/Marvel series WandaVision. He's previously worked with Murphy on Pose and American Horror Story, in which he appeared as a series regular, featuring in every installment of the show apart from 1984. He is also returning for season 10, American Horror Story: Double Feature, starring Macaulay Culkin.
Every season of the anthology American Horror Story takes place in another corner of America, with a new series of horrors, and most of them varying degrees of great. In our review of the first episode of Season 9, American Horror Story: 1984, we commended the show for kicking things off with "a story designed to dive back into '80s horror and remind us how fun and freaky the slasher genre can be."
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Rampage Director Attached to Sniper Elite Movie
The director of Rampage, Brad Peyton, has been attached to helm Sniper Elite; an upcoming action thriller based on the series of gory World War 2 video games from developer Rebellion.
As reported by Variety, the movie is to be set in London, capital of Rebellion's home turf, England. It will see the game's protagonist, Karl Fairburne, brought to life in live-action. His mission for the movie will be to save Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister of the era, from a Nazi assassination attempt.
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According to the Variety report, the Sniper Elite film is looking to distance itself from traditional serious WW2 period movies such as Enemy at the Gates, and land as a kind of Sherlock Holmes-meets-Bourne Identity. Peyton and writer Gary Graham are adding "lightness" to the script, and intend on both Fairburne and his enemy to be seen as "loveable".
The movie will also explore a personal relationship between the two snipers, as well as force Fairburne to make a choice between "the fate of the war and confronting his deepest secret."
Peyton, who also directed disaster flick San Andreas as well as video game adaptation Rampage, will be joined by producer Jean-Julien Baronnet of Marla Studios, who previously produced the Assassin's Creed movie and Taken. Additionally, Jason Kingsley, the CEO of Rebellion, will also be a producer.
“We wanted to twist and tweak the viewers’ expectations as to what they’d get from a movie like this,” Kingsley told Variety.
Currently, no studio is attached, but Baronnet said that the aim is to establish a global deal with a Hollywood studio or a streaming platform.
For more from the world of video game movie adaptations, check out our reviews of Sonic and Monster Hunter.
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Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.