Monthly Archives: July 2022

Xbox’s Grounded Is Getting Its Own Animated Series

Grounded is joining the growing list of video games that are getting television and movie adaptations. Deadline reports that a Grounded animated series in the works from developer Obsidian Entertainment, Xbox, Waterproof Studios/SC Productions, Kinetic Media and Bardel Entertainment.

Developed by Obsidian, Grounded is an online cooperative multiplayer game that focuses on kids who have been shrunken down to the size of insects. The kids have to work together to survive all of the horrors found in the backyard, including spiders, ants, and other creatures. The game has been in early access for years, and is finally getting a 1.0 release this September.

The report says the series will exist in the same universe as the game, following four friends that discover shrinking technology that makes them two inches tall. While fighting to survive the backyard, they also uncover a corportate conspiracy threatening their home town.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars writer Brent Friedman is attached to the adaptation. Brien Goodrich, who has previously worked on the Halo video game series, is set to direct.

Grounded marks another adaptation of an Xbox property, joining the likes of this year's Halo television show, which is already renewed for a second season. As for other properties owned by Microsoft, we know there are adaptations in the works for Minecraft, Fallout, and more.

Beyond Xbox properties, HBO is developing a Last of Us television series, and a Horizon series is in the works for Netflix. For more, you can check out our list of all upcoming video game movies and TV shows.

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

Xbox’s Grounded Is Getting Its Own Animated Series

Grounded is joining the growing list of video games that are getting television and movie adaptations. Deadline reports that a Grounded animated series in the works from developer Obsidian Entertainment, Xbox, Waterproof Studios/SC Productions, Kinetic Media and Bardel Entertainment.

Developed by Obsidian, Grounded is an online cooperative multiplayer game that focuses on kids who have been shrunken down to the size of insects. The kids have to work together to survive all of the horrors found in the backyard, including spiders, ants, and other creatures. The game has been in early access for years, and is finally getting a 1.0 release this September.

The report says the series will exist in the same universe as the game, following four friends that discover shrinking technology that makes them two inches tall. While fighting to survive the backyard, they also uncover a corportate conspiracy threatening their home town.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars writer Brent Friedman is attached to the adaptation. Brien Goodrich, who has previously worked on the Halo video game series, is set to direct.

Grounded marks another adaptation of an Xbox property, joining the likes of this year's Halo television show, which is already renewed for a second season. As for other properties owned by Microsoft, we know there are adaptations in the works for Minecraft, Fallout, and more.

Beyond Xbox properties, HBO is developing a Last of Us television series, and a Horizon series is in the works for Netflix. For more, you can check out our list of all upcoming video game movies and TV shows.

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

Peter Dinklage Joins New Hunger Games Movie As Dean Of the Academy

Four-time Emmy Award winner Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame has been officially cast in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as Casca Highbottom, the dean of the Academy.

The casting was announced by Nathan Kahane, president of Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group, confirming that Dinklage would be joining Tom Blyth's young Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler's tribute Lucy Gray Baird.

"Dean Highbottom is one of the most powerful people in Snow’s life," director Francis Lawrence said. "As the austere and vindictive face of the games, he sets the rules that will determine every aspect of Coriolanus’s fate. I’m thrilled that Peter will be bringing him to life.”

Casca was first seen in Suzanne Collins' The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which serves as a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy, and he helped start the Hunger Games and would become the public face of the event.

Dinklage won four Emmy Awards for his portrayal as Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones and was nominated for another four. He was most recently seen in Paul Dektor's American Dreamer and Joe Wright's Cyrano.

He is set to appear in The Toxic Avenger with Kevin Bacon and Jacob Tremblay, Brothers with Josh Brolin and Brendan Fraser, and She Came to Me with Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei.

Dinklage also recently explained why he thinks the upcoming remake of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is such a bad idea. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be released in theaters on November 17, 2023. For more, check out how the Hunger Games prequel will differ from the original movies.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Peter Dinklage Joins New Hunger Games Movie As Dean Of the Academy

Four-time Emmy Award winner Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame has been officially cast in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as Casca Highbottom, the dean of the Academy.

The casting was announced by Nathan Kahane, president of Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group, confirming that Dinklage would be joining Tom Blyth's young Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler's tribute Lucy Gray Baird.

"Dean Highbottom is one of the most powerful people in Snow’s life," director Francis Lawrence said. "As the austere and vindictive face of the games, he sets the rules that will determine every aspect of Coriolanus’s fate. I’m thrilled that Peter will be bringing him to life.”

Casca was first seen in Suzanne Collins' The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which serves as a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy, and he helped start the Hunger Games and would become the public face of the event.

Dinklage won four Emmy Awards for his portrayal as Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones and was nominated for another four. He was most recently seen in Paul Dektor's American Dreamer and Joe Wright's Cyrano.

He is set to appear in The Toxic Avenger with Kevin Bacon and Jacob Tremblay, Brothers with Josh Brolin and Brendan Fraser, and She Came to Me with Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei.

Dinklage also recently explained why he thinks the upcoming remake of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is such a bad idea. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be released in theaters on November 17, 2023. For more, check out how the Hunger Games prequel will differ from the original movies.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Netflix Reportedly ‘Very Deep’ Into Development On More Fear Street Movies

Netflix is planning to return to Fear Street with a bunch of new movies. During an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, author R.L Stine lifted the lid on ‘rumors’ that Netflix will be heading back to Shadyside.

“I hear rumors about more Fear Street movies for Netflix, because the first ones did so well last summer,” he revealed. “Those films kind of shocked me, because they were all R-rated, and I've never done anything R-rated! All those teenagers were getting slashed. I was like, ‘Suddenly, I have a slasher movie!’”

The hit Netflix films were based on R.L. Stine’s Fear Street novels and tell the story of a group of teenagers who set out to break a curse that’s been looming over their town for hundreds of years.

Fear Street Part One: 1994 debuted in July 2021, with Fear Street Part Two: 1978 released the following week and Fear Street Part Three: 1666 released the week after. Now, it sounds as though there might be a part four… and the folks at Bloody Disgusting” seemingly confirm the rumors that it's "deep in development."

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard rumors about Fear Street heading back to our screens, and even director Leigh Janiak thinks the series has got legs.

“One of the things that I talked about before I was hired was that we have a potential here to create a horror Marvel [Cinematic Universe], where you can have slasher killers from lots of different eras,” she explained. “You have the canon of our main mythology that's built around the fact that the devil lives in Shadyside, so there's also room for everything else.”

Fear Street: Part One 1994 revealed the horror of the town's 300-year-old curse, while Part Two: 1978 explored the town’s witchy history. Part Three took audiences back to where the story truly began… but it seems there’s plenty of story left to tell. After all, the third film did end on a cliffhanger.

IGN’s own review called Fear Street Part One: 1994 “a film rich with character, world-building, Easter eggs, and scares. Horror fans will be grinning over a visual allusion, then be pulled to the edge of their seat by this slaughter-packed adventure, then catch themselves screaming at a harrowingly portrayed murder. Those who aren’t in the club may not understand its dark allure. But for the rest of us, Janiak delivers top-notch horror that relishes teen angst, terror, and the unadulterated thrills of Fear Street. And this is just the start…”

The first film even made our own list of the best horror films of 2021.

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

Netflix Reportedly ‘Very Deep’ Into Development On More Fear Street Movies

Netflix is planning to return to Fear Street with a bunch of new movies. During an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, author R.L Stine lifted the lid on ‘rumors’ that Netflix will be heading back to Shadyside.

“I hear rumors about more Fear Street movies for Netflix, because the first ones did so well last summer,” he revealed. “Those films kind of shocked me, because they were all R-rated, and I've never done anything R-rated! All those teenagers were getting slashed. I was like, ‘Suddenly, I have a slasher movie!’”

The hit Netflix films were based on R.L. Stine’s Fear Street novels and tell the story of a group of teenagers who set out to break a curse that’s been looming over their town for hundreds of years.

Fear Street Part One: 1994 debuted in July 2021, with Fear Street Part Two: 1978 released the following week and Fear Street Part Three: 1666 released the week after. Now, it sounds as though there might be a part four… and the folks at Bloody Disgusting” seemingly confirm the rumors that it's "deep in development."

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard rumors about Fear Street heading back to our screens, and even director Leigh Janiak thinks the series has got legs.

“One of the things that I talked about before I was hired was that we have a potential here to create a horror Marvel [Cinematic Universe], where you can have slasher killers from lots of different eras,” she explained. “You have the canon of our main mythology that's built around the fact that the devil lives in Shadyside, so there's also room for everything else.”

Fear Street: Part One 1994 revealed the horror of the town's 300-year-old curse, while Part Two: 1978 explored the town’s witchy history. Part Three took audiences back to where the story truly began… but it seems there’s plenty of story left to tell. After all, the third film did end on a cliffhanger.

IGN’s own review called Fear Street Part One: 1994 “a film rich with character, world-building, Easter eggs, and scares. Horror fans will be grinning over a visual allusion, then be pulled to the edge of their seat by this slaughter-packed adventure, then catch themselves screaming at a harrowingly portrayed murder. Those who aren’t in the club may not understand its dark allure. But for the rest of us, Janiak delivers top-notch horror that relishes teen angst, terror, and the unadulterated thrills of Fear Street. And this is just the start…”

The first film even made our own list of the best horror films of 2021.

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

Tesla Plans to Test Steam On Dashboards Next Month

According to Elon Musk, Tesla is "making progress with Steam integration" for its cars' dashboards and the team is potentially ready to start testing and/or demoing it next month.

Musk took to Twitter, the same company that is suing him after he terminated his $44 billion deal to purchase it, and responded to the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account who shared a video highlighting some of the video games Tesla owners can play right now in their cars.

"We’re making progress with Steam integration," Musk said. "Demo probably next month."

Steam would obviously be a big addition for Tesla owners, and it would greatly expand the library of current and upcoming games available for certain cars that include classic Atari games, The Witcher 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, Cuphead, and Cyberpunk 2077.

Now, it may be some time before Steam actually rolls out to consumer Teslas, and this test/demo very well may be linked to Tesla's upcoming 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders on August 4. The demo Musk was talking about could potentially be shown during the presentation.

If you own a Tesla and are curious which games you should one day pay in your car, be sure to check out our list of the 25 best PC games.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Tesla Plans to Test Steam On Dashboards Next Month

According to Elon Musk, Tesla is "making progress with Steam integration" for its cars' dashboards and the team is potentially ready to start testing and/or demoing it next month.

Musk took to Twitter, the same company that is suing him after he terminated his $44 billion deal to purchase it, and responded to the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account who shared a video highlighting some of the video games Tesla owners can play right now in their cars.

"We’re making progress with Steam integration," Musk said. "Demo probably next month."

Steam would obviously be a big addition for Tesla owners, and it would greatly expand the library of current and upcoming games available for certain cars that include classic Atari games, The Witcher 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, Cuphead, and Cyberpunk 2077.

Now, it may be some time before Steam actually rolls out to consumer Teslas, and this test/demo very well may be linked to Tesla's upcoming 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders on August 4. The demo Musk was talking about could potentially be shown during the presentation.

If you own a Tesla and are curious which games you should one day pay in your car, be sure to check out our list of the 25 best PC games.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Powerpuff Girls Is Being Rebooted

The Powerpuff Girls are coming back again, as Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. have announced a reboot of the beloved cartoon.

The show is in development at Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, the studio behind The Amazing World of Gumball and Craig McCracken, the creator of the original Powerpuff Girls series, is attached to develop the project. In addition, McCracken is also working on a reboot of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which is aimed at preschoolers. That show originally aired on Cartoon Network from 2004 to 2009.

The Powerpuff Girls originally debuted on Cartoon Network in 1998 and ran for 78 episodes until it ended in 2005. The show follows supergirls Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup as they face off against supervillains while also dealing with the issues young children face while growing up.

The Powerpuff Girls franchise has already seen its share of spinoffs and reboots. In 2016, the show was rebooted by Cartoon Network, airing 119 episodes over three seasons.

And, there's the live-action Powerpuff Girls CW series that has yet to see the light of day. The live-action version has faced a number of development issues, including re-shooting the pilot after negative feedback from executives and losing the actor who was set to play Blossom.

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

Powerpuff Girls Is Being Rebooted

The Powerpuff Girls are coming back again, as Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. have announced a reboot of the beloved cartoon.

The show is in development at Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, the studio behind The Amazing World of Gumball and Craig McCracken, the creator of the original Powerpuff Girls series, is attached to develop the project. In addition, McCracken is also working on a reboot of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which is aimed at preschoolers. That show originally aired on Cartoon Network from 2004 to 2009.

The Powerpuff Girls originally debuted on Cartoon Network in 1998 and ran for 78 episodes until it ended in 2005. The show follows supergirls Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup as they face off against supervillains while also dealing with the issues young children face while growing up.

The Powerpuff Girls franchise has already seen its share of spinoffs and reboots. In 2016, the show was rebooted by Cartoon Network, airing 119 episodes over three seasons.

And, there's the live-action Powerpuff Girls CW series that has yet to see the light of day. The live-action version has faced a number of development issues, including re-shooting the pilot after negative feedback from executives and losing the actor who was set to play Blossom.

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