Hulu and 20th Century Studios are taking a victory lap for Prey after announcing that the Predator prequel is the most popular Hulu premiere of all time.

In a press release, Disney announced that Prey has broken Hulu’s records for the most-watched premiere for a single release, beating every other Hulu film and TV series.

In addition, Prey was the most watched film premiere on Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in territories where Hulu is not available.

Disney does not provide hard data for its shows, but that’s a problem many streaming services share. Netflix releases hours viewed for both its movies and shows but only up until a certain time period and counts the data in very specific ways.

Prey was released straight to streaming on Hulu, bypassing a theatrical release despite being an official entry in the Predator franchise. However, that hasn’t stopped the film from garnering critical acclaim, including at IGN where our Prey review praised star Amber Midthunder’s “ferocious, star-making turn.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Prey was always planned as a direct-to-streaming movie and may have been helped by the release given the last Predator movie released in 2018 was a commercial disappointment.

Prey stars Midthunder as a member of the Comanche Nation in the 1700s. Alongside the Predator, Midthunder must prove to herself and her tribe that she is a capable hunter in her own right.

The film was directed by Dan Trachtenberg who previously directed 10 Cloverfield Lane and a massively viral Portal fan-film titled No Escape.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Lionsgate has used deepfake software on Fall to remove swearing.

The upcoming action thriller starring Grace Caroline Currey, and Virginia Gardner was apparently full of f-bombs… and with Lionsgate desperate for a PG-13 rating, the filmmakers used deepfake to get rid of all that swearing.

“For a movie like this, we can’t reshoot it,” director Scott Mann said in a behind-the-scenes video feature and reported by Variety. “We’re not a big tentpole… we don’t have the resources, we don’t have the time, more than anything else. What really saved this movie and brought it into a wider audience was technology.”

The solution, Mann said, was turning to the London-based AI company, Flawless, where he also serves as co-CEO… and presumably already had a good idea of what the technology could do.

“When we were filming the movie, we didn’t know if we were R or if we were PG-13, so I said the F-word so many times I think Scott wanted to kill me in post when we were trying to get a PG-13 rating,” said co-star Virginia Gardner.

It’s easy to see how those f-bombs could end up in there – Fall tells the story of two women who climb an abandoned radio tower to scatter the ashes of one of their husbands, but when sections of the ladder fall loose, the pair become stranded.

According to Mann, the team edited out more than 30 f-bombs throughout the movie – changing the film’s rating from R-rated to a PG-13. Many of the film’s most egregious curses were changed to teen-appropriate ones such as “freaking”.

“As far as I know, every movement my mouth made in that movie, my mouth made,” said Grace Caroline Currey.

The TrueSync software used by Mann was originally designed to improve dubbing when translating films into other languages. It uses technology similar to other deepfake-style software, altering the mouth movements to sync to new alternative dialogue.

Fall was made on a budget of just $3 million, meaning that reshooting pivotal scenes to reduce the film’s rating was simply not an option. Additionally, the reshoots would have taken months to get done.

The TrueSync edits were made in just two weeks, during the final stage of post-production.

Whether or not we see deepfakes used in other creative ways remains to be seen, but South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker almost made their very own deep fake movie starring not-the=former-president Donald Trump.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Lionsgate has used deepfake software on Fall to remove swearing.

The upcoming action thriller starring Grace Caroline Currey, and Virginia Gardner was apparently full of f-bombs… and with Lionsgate desperate for a PG-13 rating, the filmmakers used deepfake to get rid of all that swearing.

“For a movie like this, we can’t reshoot it,” director Scott Mann said in a behind-the-scenes video feature and reported by Variety. “We’re not a big tentpole… we don’t have the resources, we don’t have the time, more than anything else. What really saved this movie and brought it into a wider audience was technology.”

The solution, Mann said, was turning to the London-based AI company, Flawless, where he also serves as co-CEO… and presumably already had a good idea of what the technology could do.

“When we were filming the movie, we didn’t know if we were R or if we were PG-13, so I said the F-word so many times I think Scott wanted to kill me in post when we were trying to get a PG-13 rating,” said co-star Virginia Gardner.

It’s easy to see how those f-bombs could end up in there – Fall tells the story of two women who climb an abandoned radio tower to scatter the ashes of one of their husbands, but when sections of the ladder fall loose, the pair become stranded.

According to Mann, the team edited out more than 30 f-bombs throughout the movie – changing the film’s rating from R-rated to a PG-13. Many of the film’s most egregious curses were changed to teen-appropriate ones such as “freaking”.

“As far as I know, every movement my mouth made in that movie, my mouth made,” said Grace Caroline Currey.

The TrueSync software used by Mann was originally designed to improve dubbing when translating films into other languages. It uses technology similar to other deepfake-style software, altering the mouth movements to sync to new alternative dialogue.

Fall was made on a budget of just $3 million, meaning that reshooting pivotal scenes to reduce the film’s rating was simply not an option. Additionally, the reshoots would have taken months to get done.

The TrueSync edits were made in just two weeks, during the final stage of post-production.

Whether or not we see deepfakes used in other creative ways remains to be seen, but South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker almost made their very own deep fake movie starring not-the=former-president Donald Trump.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker almost made a Donald Trump deepfake movie.

During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the duo revealed that their first film after 2004’s Team America was almost a full-length deepfake mocking the former president.

“It’s sort of on hold,” said Parker. “It was very timely and the timeliness of it has passed. We’d have to majorly rethink it to do it now.”

The full-length Donald Trump deepfake would have starred Peter Serafinowicz voicing Trump, exactly as he did in Stone and Parker’s viral deepfake video, “Sassy Justice”.

The video was an unexpected hit, featuring then-president Trump reporting news out of Cheyenne, Wyoming under the name, Sassy Justice.

“It was going to be Deep Fake: The Movie,” explained Parker. “It was about this guy who looked exactly like Trump because we deep fake Trump’s face onto him. And it was this whole funny thing because, of course, it ends up with Trump just naked and getting run through the wringer and everything, and that’s why it was so funny and so timely.”

“Even though the script was sort of timely, we ended up keeping the deep fake part of the studio going,” added Stone.

After the film fell through, Stone and Parker kept the project going on a smaller scale, creating the short video “Sassy Justice” that went viral during the pandemic. It was essentially the first content to come out of Deep Voodoo – Stone and Parker’s deepfake studio.

“We were going to start shooting on the day that the pandemic shut everything down. It was months and months of getting ready for that movie, to just being like, ‘Nope, it’s over.’ I went to the office to start packing up my things because I was just kind of in shock.”

Unfortunately, it sounds as though the movie has been all but scrapped… sort of.

“I don’t know,” said Stone when asked if it could eventually see the light of day. “[Trump] could be running again.”

If Trump does run for office in 2024, expect the South Park duo to rethink the return of Sassy Justice.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker almost made a Donald Trump deepfake movie.

During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the duo revealed that their first film after 2004’s Team America was almost a full-length deepfake mocking the former president.

“It’s sort of on hold,” said Parker. “It was very timely and the timeliness of it has passed. We’d have to majorly rethink it to do it now.”

The full-length Donald Trump deepfake would have starred Peter Serafinowicz voicing Trump, exactly as he did in Stone and Parker’s viral deepfake video, “Sassy Justice”.

The video was an unexpected hit, featuring then-president Trump reporting news out of Cheyenne, Wyoming under the name, Sassy Justice.

“It was going to be Deep Fake: The Movie,” explained Parker. “It was about this guy who looked exactly like Trump because we deep fake Trump’s face onto him. And it was this whole funny thing because, of course, it ends up with Trump just naked and getting run through the wringer and everything, and that’s why it was so funny and so timely.”

“Even though the script was sort of timely, we ended up keeping the deep fake part of the studio going,” added Stone.

After the film fell through, Stone and Parker kept the project going on a smaller scale, creating the short video “Sassy Justice” that went viral during the pandemic. It was essentially the first content to come out of Deep Voodoo – Stone and Parker’s deepfake studio.

“We were going to start shooting on the day that the pandemic shut everything down. It was months and months of getting ready for that movie, to just being like, ‘Nope, it’s over.’ I went to the office to start packing up my things because I was just kind of in shock.”

Unfortunately, it sounds as though the movie has been all but scrapped… sort of.

“I don’t know,” said Stone when asked if it could eventually see the light of day. “[Trump] could be running again.”

If Trump does run for office in 2024, expect the South Park duo to rethink the return of Sassy Justice.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Blizzard has announced when loot boxes will be phased out of Overwatch in anticipation of the new Battle Pass system.

The announcement was quietly mentioned in a blog post about the Overwatch Anniversary Remix Volume 3 event. The company confirmed that the loot boxes would "no longer be available for sale" come August 30th.

However, the post notes that you'll still be able to earn standard loot boxes after the Remix event.

This Anniversary Remix event is Blizzard's way of "cleaning house" of sorts, allowing players to earn (or buy) cosmetics before Overwatch 2 launches on October 4, 2022. This includes skins and cosmetics from previous Overwatch Challenge events.

Players will also be able to participate in "brawls" and relive certain game types such as past story missions such as Uprising and Storm Rising and past Summer Games modes like Lucioball.

Blizzard formally announced that loot boxes were going away in June, replacing them with a battle pass and in-game store. The company said they wanted to give players "a lot more control over how they interact with the game and acquire new content."

Loot boxes have long been a controversial subject in the gaming industry. Games such as Overwatch, Call of Duty, and EA Sports franchises have been criticized for their monetization methods. Additionally, there have been links found between loot boxes and gambling.

Fortunately, it seems Blizzard wants to get away from those tactics and stick with a more fair method of dolling out skins and cosmetics (maybe). In fact, Blizzard confirmed that all unopened loot boxes in Overwatch will automatically open before the launch of Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 releases this year on October 4th and will completely replace the original Overwatch. Check out the major differences between the original game and the sequel.

David Matthews is a freelance writer specializing in consumer tech and gaming. He also strongly believes that sugar does not go in grits. Follow him on Twitter @packetstealer

There's reportedly another casualty in Warner Bros. Discovery's restructuring of the DC Universe, as filmmaker Kevin Smith said the Strange Adventures animated series is not moving forward.

According to Smith on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast (via THR), Strange Adventures is the next project to hit the cutting room floor as a result of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

“Strange Adventures being a casualty kind of made sense to me, I'm like, nobody necessarily knows these characters, and it sounded like an expensive show,” Smith said on the podcast.

WarnerMedia first announced Strange Adventures back in 2019. The show was intended to be an anthology series produced by Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and John Stephens. Stephens was also set to serve as writer and showrunner. At the time, the show was described as, "An anthology series of cautionary tales set in a world where superpowers exist".

Smith said the show would focus on characters other than Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and other DC characters everybody knows. For example, in an episode Smith wrote, he said he picked Jimmy Olsen and Bizarro to focus on.

According to Smith, the actor they were pursuing to play Bizarro in this story was Nicolas Cage, but the talks never progressed prior to production coming to a halt. The show was announced alongside a Green Lantern series, which according to THR, is still on track for HBO Max.

In the same podcast, Smith also spoke out about Warner Bros. Discovery's sudden cancellation of the Batgirl movie, calling the move "an incredibly bad look."

Beyond Batgirl and now Strange Adventures, a handful of other DC projects have been impacted by the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Other affected movies and series include Season 9 of The Flash, The Wonder Twins, The Supergirl movie, and more.

To read up on the whole situation, check out our report on The Batgirl cancellation, the social media fallout, and more.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

A group of talented Better Call Saul fans have created an impressive video imagining what the television series may look like if it were adapted into a Nintendo Game Boy game.

Created by artist Lumpy Touch, along with 2bitcrook and branflakes, the video showcases the title screen, character select, and some gameplay from this hypothetical game. You can check out the intro of the project below, or take a full look at the video on YouTube.

Better Call Saul Gameboy'd
full video link below pic.twitter.com/Drf4d2ozpa

— Lumpy (@LumpyTouch) August 6, 2022

The imaginary game has three playable characters: Jimmy, Kim, and Mike. The creators even assigned different statistics to each character, including Guts, Hustle, Authority, and Lawyer. Following the character select is a cutscene, complete with warbled 8-bit voices.

The level shown involves running through the desert, stomping on scorpions and collecting money. The video also recreates Mike's sniping abilities and Jimmy and Howard's boxing match from the show.

The music used in the video is sampled from a number of Game Boy and NES games, including Turok, Castlevania the Adventure, Trip World, and more. There's also a Game Boy-ified version of the Better Call Saul theme used in the video.

Better Call Saul is in the middle of its sixth and final season right now. In last week's episode, the show finally gave us the long-awaited cameos from Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. Speaking of Cranston and Paul, the two actors were just in Albuquerque to celebrate the unveiling of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman statues.

For more on Better Call Saul, check out our article about what Better Call Saul gets right about prequels that most franchises get wrong.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Cobra Kai will return on September 9, 2022, with the debut of Season 5. The upcoming season of the hit Netflix martial arts drama Cobra Kai will also see the return of Karate Kid 3 villain, Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan).

That’s right – the sadistic karate-based villain who Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) hired to terrorize Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is back… and judging from these 10 newly-released images, he’s going to be putting up a fight once more.

Of course, this makes a lot of sense. At the end of Cobra Kai Season 4, we saw Silver wrestle control of Cobra Kai from his former friend, John Kreese (Martin Kove) who he also framed for murder… and it looks as though he’s brought in some backup to keep Daniel and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in line.

Season 5 comes several months earlier than expected – the show usually debuts around New Year.

And honestly, it can’t come soon enough. Season 4 was a thrilling continuation of the Cobra Kai story with Daniel and Johnny finally putting their differences aside, and it looks as though they’ll need to rely on each other even more in Season 5.

Unfortunately, we still don’t know how Barnes is going to make his entrance into Cobra Kai… but it looks as though he hasn’t stopped training. But these new images do give us a glimpse of the Cobra Kai dojo, which seems to have been given more than a lick of paint by Sensei Silver.

Not to mention, the return of some of our favorites including Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña), Hawk (Jacob Bertrand), and even Robby (Tanner Buchanan).

IGN’s review of Cobra Kai Season 4 said that “the heart and soul of what makes the series what it is, is still present. A different kind of hokeyness is evident in Season 4, but it’s met by more complex emotional journeys and unexpected team-ups that will leave fans counting down the days until Season 5.”

Want to read more about Cobra Kai? Check out how the Cobra Kai creators want the show to continue past Season 5 as well as which Cobra Kai characters you can suit up as in Fortnite.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Jurassic World: Dominion is already a hefty 2 hours and 26 minutes, but a new extended release will bring the total runtime up to a whopping 2 hours and 40 minutes. Universal has announced that the Blu-ray and 4K UHD physical release, as well as a new digital version, will come with 14 extra minutes of previously unreleased footage.

The new release, titled Jurassic World Dominion Extended Edition, is launching next week on August 16. The 14 extra minutes of content is made up of an alternate opening and even more dinosaurs.

In addition to the extra content, the physical release also includes behind-the-scenes footage and an original short film called Battle at Big Rock. The short film is directed by Colin Trevorrow, and it takes place one year after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at Big Rock National Park.

Jurassic World: Dominion is the conclusion to the Jurassic saga, which spans six films dating back to the original Jurassic Park. We called the film 'good' in our review, saying, "it manages to introduce an impressive marriage between ever-present nostalgia and the constantly evolving challenges of having prehistoric creatures roaming free in our world."

For more, check out our opinion piece on why the Jurassic Park sequels should embrace their stupidity. Or, check out our breakdown of Jurassic World Dominion's Easter eggs and ending explained.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.