Director James Cameron is coming back for his crown. The filmmaker's 2009 blockbuster Avatar will receive a wide re-release in China on Friday, per The Hollywood Reporter. It will be available to exhibitors in both IMAX 3D and ordinary 3D. The official screening greenlight by China's Film Bureau comes only three days before the planned rollout. With such a short window between the two dates, it seems that some theaters may not receive their digital cinema packages (DCPs) by Friday. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/08/what-to-expect-for-the-avatar-sequels"] China's Film Bureau requested a re-release of Avatar in March 2020, as the country's cinemas were attempting to reopen with the government beginning to handle the spread of COVID-19. Spikes in local cases prevented exhibitors from fully reopening at the time. The surprise re-release carries the possibility of Avatar reclaiming its record as the highest-grossing movie in global box office history. The film held onto the superlative for nearly 10 years with a $2.790 billion gross before being overtaken by Marvel's Avengers: Endgame's $2.797 billion in 2019. Avatar would only need to gross some $7.4 million and change in this re-release to launch ahead of Marvel's blockbuster. Disney will likely be happy either way as the studio owns both films. Avatar was originally released by 20th Century Fox, which has since been acquired by Disney. No matter the numbers of Avatar's re-release, the company will still have the record. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-actor-and-character-confirmed-for-the-avatar-sequels&captions=true"] Avatar was one of the first Hollywood blockbusters to become a crossover hit in China. Its first-day gross set a new record for the biggest weekday opening in China. The film ended its run in the country with a $202.6 million gross. James Cameron wrapped filming of Avatar 2 in September, nearly 11 years after the original film's release. The film is currently slated to release on December 16, 2022. [poilib element="accentDivider"] J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

Sonos was basically the first to market with wireless speakers, but when it comes to portable audio, the company is still catching up. A little less than two years ago Sonos introduced its first Bluetooth speaker that was big on quality sound and built like a tank, now the company is introducing a more portable option with the Sonos Roam. The new Sonos Roam is a much more portable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker that's smaller than a water bottle. Unlike most portable speakers, Sonos said it focused on making a device that looks like it belongs in your living room while also being rugged enough to go to the beach or anywhere else you take it outside. On the flip side of its minimalist design, the Sonos Roam is built to an IP67 standard, so you can take it to dusty trails or dip it in water up to three feet deep. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=sonos-roam&captions=true"] Even the triangular shape of the Sonos Roam is designed around both function and form. The design is meant to stand out from other more rectangular or cylindrical Bluetooth speakers. When the speaker is sitting horizontally, the sides of the speakers angle slightly upwards to help direct sound up towards the user. Despite it's small size, the Sonos Roam is packed with all the smart technology of its bigger brother – plus one extra new feature. Automatic Trueplay allows the speaker to automatically tune itself based on its surrounding by analyzing how it sounds using spatial awareness. This small speaker also packs a new feature called Sound Swap that allows users move the audio they're playing to the closest Sonos speaker simply by pressing and holding the play button on the Roam. The Sonos Roam is designed to last for 10 hours of play and you can recharge it on any wireless charger. The speaker also comes with a magnetic Qi charging pad to make drop in charging as easy as MagSafe with the latest iPhone 12 family of phones. The Sonos Roam will be priced at $169 and it's set to release on April 20. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

Sonos was basically the first to market with wireless speakers, but when it comes to portable audio, the company is still catching up. A little less than two years ago Sonos introduced its first Bluetooth speaker that was big on quality sound and built like a tank, now the company is introducing a more portable option with the Sonos Roam. The new Sonos Roam is a much more portable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker that's smaller than a water bottle. Unlike most portable speakers, Sonos said it focused on making a device that looks like it belongs in your living room while also being rugged enough to go to the beach or anywhere else you take it outside. On the flip side of its minimalist design, the Sonos Roam is built to an IP67 standard, so you can take it to dusty trails or dip it in water up to three feet deep. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=sonos-roam&captions=true"] Even the triangular shape of the Sonos Roam is designed around both function and form. The design is meant to stand out from other more rectangular or cylindrical Bluetooth speakers. When the speaker is sitting horizontally, the sides of the speakers angle slightly upwards to help direct sound up towards the user. Despite it's small size, the Sonos Roam is packed with all the smart technology of its bigger brother – plus one extra new feature. Automatic Trueplay allows the speaker to automatically tune itself based on its surrounding by analyzing how it sounds using spatial awareness. This small speaker also packs a new feature called Sound Swap that allows users move the audio they're playing to the closest Sonos speaker simply by pressing and holding the play button on the Roam. The Sonos Roam is designed to last for 10 hours of play and you can recharge it on any wireless charger. The speaker also comes with a magnetic Qi charging pad to make drop in charging as easy as MagSafe with the latest iPhone 12 family of phones. The Sonos Roam will be priced at $169 and it's set to release on April 20. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

Florian Munteanu, perhaps best known as Viktor Drago in Creed II, is joining the cast of the upcoming Borderlands film to play Krieg. Krieg is one of the six playable characters from Borderlands 2 and part of the game's Psycho class. Munteanu joins the rest of the star-studded cast of this movie which features Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Tannis, Jack Black as Claptrap, Kevin Hart as an ex-soldier turned mercenary, and Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, whom Krieg is in charge of protecting. [caption id="attachment_248448" align="alignnone" width="720"] Florian Munteanu[/caption] "Florian brings real humanity and multiple layers to a character who on the surface seems totally insane and brutally savage," Roth said in a statement about today's announcement. "Krieg was by far the most difficult role to cast, and Florian brought him to life and grounded him in a way that I didn't know was possible. He's going to be a brilliant Krieg and will fit in perfectly with our incredible cast." With the announcement of Munteanu as Krieg, Hart remains the only announced actor in the movie without a name-designated role, although his character's "ex-soldier turned mercenary" description seems to hint at Roland. In the games, Krieg is from a bandit family and was treated rather unfairly by his mother for being weaker than the rest. This fuels him to grow stronger, but it's not until he's captured by Dr. Benedict that he becomes the Krieg of Borderlands 2. Dr. Benedict experiments on him and many others, which turns them into "Psychos." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/11/jack-black-joins-borderlands-movie-cast-as-claptrap"] Krieg eventually breaks out of Dr. Benedict's facility, kills Dr. Benedict, and becomes a bit of a torn soul akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One half of Krieg's personality is that of a Psycho and the other is his former, more sane self. Eventually, Psycho Krieg takes over and that's who we see in the game. It's unclear what route the Borderlands movie will take Krieg, but there's plenty of lore in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3 — an entire DLC dedicated to the character called Pyscho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck was released in the latter — to go off of. The casting announcement, however, describes Krieg as the "musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector of Tiny Tina." The Borderlands movie was announced in February of last year and has continued to add stars like Munteanu and Blanchett to the film. It's being directed by Hostel's Eli Roth and produced alongside Avi and Ari Arad of Arad Productions and Erik Feig of Picturestart, with Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, and Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, set to executive produce the movie. HBO's Chernobyl creator, Craig Mazin, is writing the screenplay. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-video-game-movie-in-development-almost&captions=true"] Roth has said he wants to reward dedicated Borderlands cosplayers by casting them in the film and killing off their characters. Check out IGN's breakdown of every video game movie currently in development to keep up with this movie and the many others based on video games. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Florian Munteanu, perhaps best known as Viktor Drago in Creed II, is joining the cast of the upcoming Borderlands film to play Krieg. Krieg is one of the six playable characters from Borderlands 2 and part of the game's Psycho class. Munteanu joins the rest of the star-studded cast of this movie which features Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Tannis, Jack Black as Claptrap, Kevin Hart as an ex-soldier turned mercenary, and Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, whom Krieg is in charge of protecting. [caption id="attachment_248448" align="alignnone" width="720"] Florian Munteanu[/caption] "Florian brings real humanity and multiple layers to a character who on the surface seems totally insane and brutally savage," Roth said in a statement about today's announcement. "Krieg was by far the most difficult role to cast, and Florian brought him to life and grounded him in a way that I didn't know was possible. He's going to be a brilliant Krieg and will fit in perfectly with our incredible cast." With the announcement of Munteanu as Krieg, Hart remains the only announced actor in the movie without a name-designated role, although his character's "ex-soldier turned mercenary" description seems to hint at Roland. In the games, Krieg is from a bandit family and was treated rather unfairly by his mother for being weaker than the rest. This fuels him to grow stronger, but it's not until he's captured by Dr. Benedict that he becomes the Krieg of Borderlands 2. Dr. Benedict experiments on him and many others, which turns them into "Psychos." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/11/jack-black-joins-borderlands-movie-cast-as-claptrap"] Krieg eventually breaks out of Dr. Benedict's facility, kills Dr. Benedict, and becomes a bit of a torn soul akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One half of Krieg's personality is that of a Psycho and the other is his former, more sane self. Eventually, Psycho Krieg takes over and that's who we see in the game. It's unclear what route the Borderlands movie will take Krieg, but there's plenty of lore in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3 — an entire DLC dedicated to the character called Pyscho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck was released in the latter — to go off of. The casting announcement, however, describes Krieg as the "musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector of Tiny Tina." The Borderlands movie was announced in February of last year and has continued to add stars like Munteanu and Blanchett to the film. It's being directed by Hostel's Eli Roth and produced alongside Avi and Ari Arad of Arad Productions and Erik Feig of Picturestart, with Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, and Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, set to executive produce the movie. HBO's Chernobyl creator, Craig Mazin, is writing the screenplay. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-video-game-movie-in-development-almost&captions=true"] Roth has said he wants to reward dedicated Borderlands cosplayers by casting them in the film and killing off their characters. Check out IGN's breakdown of every video game movie currently in development to keep up with this movie and the many others based on video games. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Turns out, putting something as simple-seeming as doors into a video game is really hard, even for big studios like Naughty Dog. A conversation on Twitter today about doors began when Death Trash developer Stephan Hövelbrinks tweeted the following about implementing doors in games:

Doors #gamedev pic.twitter.com/7CJgKin1dE

— Stephan Hövelbrinks (@talecrafter) March 9, 2021

To summarize: doors push players into small areas, block their paths, but unlike walls have a lot of other potential problems such as being locked or unlocked, being able to be destroyed (and thus no longer be there anymore), and more. And to be clear, Hövelbrinks is specifically talking about doors that can open and close and players can walk through without loading into a new area, rather than doors that are static or act as portals. Boss Fight design director and former BioWare Austin designer Damion Schubert also weighed in, describing in more detail what these issues can entail: for example, NPCs might not be able to find their way through a space because of how doors interact with their paths, or if they try to use the door at the same time as an NPC or a player. There are visual problems, too, related to doors clipping through other objects or getting stuck, or related to the animation of a player reaching out to open said door.

This immersion breaking is really the core of the issue. What breaks immersion is when a game aspect, mechanically, draws attention to itself in a negative fashion. Doors - EVEN IMPLEMENTED WELL - do this frequently. And players usually don't even NOTICE they aren't there.

8/ — Damion Schubert, Zen Designer (@ZenOfDesign) March 9, 2021

The Last of Us 2 co-director Kurt Margenau also chimed in to note that Naughty Dog had its own struggles with doors. "We knew that doors in a stealth scenario would add some level of player authorship to the space and give more opportunities to escape situations. They block [line of sight] and slow enemies down. This was in line with wanting the player to re-establish stealth more often. "But we are also a game that is incredibly polished animation-wise. If a player is going to open a door, it can’t just magically fly open, the character has to reach to the doorknob and push it open. But what about closing it behind you? How do you do that while sprinting? "We played around with several prototypes to allow the player to manually close the door behind them. They were all not great. We tried holding buttons, all kinds of weird schemes. Then how do you animate it? Don’t want to suck the player into an animation while escaping. "Long story short: in combat tension the doors will slowly automatically close. This is the most player-favoring, as player door opening slows you down very little, we don’t even take control away, but they block AI more effectively." Margenau went on to add that effectively, Naughty Dog had to create an entire new physics object (the door) that players can push, but that can also push the player -- an enormous challenge for any studio. Plenty of other developers had things to say about doors. Remedy gameplay designer Sergey Mohov, for example: "I don't exactly know how many man-months went into the door system in Control, but more than most abilities and weapons, for sure," he said. Other developers also chimed in about the troubles with doors, including Naughty Dog audio lead Neil Uchitel saying that door sound design is also a massive challenge, and Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer, who said doors are "one of the first things we implement in any of our games." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Turns out, putting something as simple-seeming as doors into a video game is really hard, even for big studios like Naughty Dog. A conversation on Twitter today about doors began when Death Trash developer Stephan Hövelbrinks tweeted the following about implementing doors in games:

Doors #gamedev pic.twitter.com/7CJgKin1dE

— Stephan Hövelbrinks (@talecrafter) March 9, 2021

To summarize: doors push players into small areas, block their paths, but unlike walls have a lot of other potential problems such as being locked or unlocked, being able to be destroyed (and thus no longer be there anymore), and more. And to be clear, Hövelbrinks is specifically talking about doors that can open and close and players can walk through without loading into a new area, rather than doors that are static or act as portals. Boss Fight design director and former BioWare Austin designer Damion Schubert also weighed in, describing in more detail what these issues can entail: for example, NPCs might not be able to find their way through a space because of how doors interact with their paths, or if they try to use the door at the same time as an NPC or a player. There are visual problems, too, related to doors clipping through other objects or getting stuck, or related to the animation of a player reaching out to open said door.

This immersion breaking is really the core of the issue. What breaks immersion is when a game aspect, mechanically, draws attention to itself in a negative fashion. Doors - EVEN IMPLEMENTED WELL - do this frequently. And players usually don't even NOTICE they aren't there.

8/ — Damion Schubert, Zen Designer (@ZenOfDesign) March 9, 2021

The Last of Us 2 co-director Kurt Margenau also chimed in to note that Naughty Dog had its own struggles with doors. "We knew that doors in a stealth scenario would add some level of player authorship to the space and give more opportunities to escape situations. They block [line of sight] and slow enemies down. This was in line with wanting the player to re-establish stealth more often. "But we are also a game that is incredibly polished animation-wise. If a player is going to open a door, it can’t just magically fly open, the character has to reach to the doorknob and push it open. But what about closing it behind you? How do you do that while sprinting? "We played around with several prototypes to allow the player to manually close the door behind them. They were all not great. We tried holding buttons, all kinds of weird schemes. Then how do you animate it? Don’t want to suck the player into an animation while escaping. "Long story short: in combat tension the doors will slowly automatically close. This is the most player-favoring, as player door opening slows you down very little, we don’t even take control away, but they block AI more effectively." Margenau went on to add that effectively, Naughty Dog had to create an entire new physics object (the door) that players can push, but that can also push the player -- an enormous challenge for any studio. Plenty of other developers had things to say about doors. Remedy gameplay designer Sergey Mohov, for example: "I don't exactly know how many man-months went into the door system in Control, but more than most abilities and weapons, for sure," he said. Other developers also chimed in about the troubles with doors, including Naughty Dog audio lead Neil Uchitel saying that door sound design is also a massive challenge, and Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer, who said doors are "one of the first things we implement in any of our games." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

The Disney+ streaming service has surpassed 100 million global paid subscribers since its initial launch just 16 months ago on November 12, 2019. Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, made the announcement during the company's annual shareholders meeting: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=disney-spotlight-march-2021&captions=true"] “The enormous success of Disney+ -- which has now surpassed 100 million subscribers—has inspired us to be even more ambitious, and to significantly increase our investment in the development of high-quality content,” Chapek informed the shareholders. “In fact, we set a target of 100+ new titles per year, and this includes Disney Animation, Disney Live-Action, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Our direct-to-consumer business is the Company’s top priority, and our robust pipeline of content will continue to fuel its growth." Disney+ is now available in 59 countries and continues to increase its stake in the global streaming market. While Netflix still holds the top spot with a whopping 200 million subscribers as of January 2019, it's impressive how quickly Disney is acquiring new viewers considering its only been on the market for 16 months. Disney+ has served as an easy way to watch popular Disney classics, and also as a launchpad for original programs and movies. For more on Disney+, be sure to check out what Marvel boss Kevin Feige revealed about the upcoming The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series, everything new coming to Disney+ in March, and find out why the WandaVision finale is not the end for Wanda or Vision. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/07/marvels-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-official-trailer"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

The Disney+ streaming service has surpassed 100 million global paid subscribers since its initial launch just 16 months ago on November 12, 2019. Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, made the announcement during the company's annual shareholders meeting: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=disney-spotlight-march-2021&captions=true"] “The enormous success of Disney+ -- which has now surpassed 100 million subscribers—has inspired us to be even more ambitious, and to significantly increase our investment in the development of high-quality content,” Chapek informed the shareholders. “In fact, we set a target of 100+ new titles per year, and this includes Disney Animation, Disney Live-Action, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Our direct-to-consumer business is the Company’s top priority, and our robust pipeline of content will continue to fuel its growth." Disney+ is now available in 59 countries and continues to increase its stake in the global streaming market. While Netflix still holds the top spot with a whopping 200 million subscribers as of January 2019, it's impressive how quickly Disney is acquiring new viewers considering its only been on the market for 16 months. Disney+ has served as an easy way to watch popular Disney classics, and also as a launchpad for original programs and movies. For more on Disney+, be sure to check out what Marvel boss Kevin Feige revealed about the upcoming The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series, everything new coming to Disney+ in March, and find out why the WandaVisio finale is not the end for Wanda or Vision. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/07/marvels-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-official-trailer"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

A new Xbox Game Pass / Falcon and the Winter Soldier commercial uses Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson and the MCU's "blip" to sell viewers on Game Pass. The commercial features Sam going into a store that only sells Xbox games and telling the Microsoft employee that he missed 5 years of his life, including his nephews growing up. Sam says he has a lot to catch up on and asks the store employee for help. But that's not just any long-haired, geeky Microsoft employee, it's Aaron from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, who points to an Xbox Series X and S on display. A montage ensues of Xbox games with an announcer talking about discovering new games on the service. Actor DC Pierson returns to play Aaron in his second MCU appearance. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/09/xbox-the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-what-did-i-miss-trailer"] A debate ensued on Twitter, if you can believe it, about whether that was actually Aaron from Winter Soldier. Pierson replied to a thread of tweets confirming that it's him. The official Xbox Twitter account chimed in by saying, "Aaron is definitely employee of the month."

Aaron is definitely employee of the month

— Xbox (@Xbox) March 9, 2021

In The Winter Soldier, Aaron was an Apple Store employee. Now that Microsoft has shut down all but four Microsoft stores, maybe Sam can get Aaron a job working for the Avengers. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=marvels-the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-character-posters&captions=true"] The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts March 19 on Disney+. Four character posters were released, and producer Kevin Feige recently spoke about how the series will explore Falcon taking over as Captain America. Feige also provided updates on She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and more. As for Game Pass, it was announced that Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda has gone through, which means there will be new Bethesda games on Game Pass by the end of the week. This comes after Microsoft put games like Dirt 5 and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire on Game Pass at the end of February. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.