Van Der Beek Did Power/Rangers For The Love
Actor James Van Der Beek has opened up on why he got involved with Power/Rangers, the fan film that took the internet by storm last week.
Speaking to THR, Van Der Beek said he jumped at the chance to work with producer Adi Shankar, who approached him for the project, and director Joseph Kahn, who Van Der Beek describes as "a crazy visionary".
"I really wanted to follow him on this journey of creating something that was completely his own and we just did it to give it away for free to fans," said Van Der Beek.
The actor reaffirmed the short film was a passion project above all else.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Takes GDC Awards Game of the Year
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the role-playing game inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, won Game of the Year at tonight’s Game Developers Choice Awards.
The action adventure title from Monolith Productions beat out Platinum Games’ hack-and-slash Bayonetta 2, Bungie’s first-person shooter Destiny, Blizzard’s strategy card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Creative Assembly’s survival horror Alien: Isolation for the award.
Indie studio Ustwo’s mobile puzzle game, Monument Valley, walked away with the most awards by sweeping up all three of the categories it was nominated for. The illusory adventure title won the Innovation Award, Best Handheld/Mobile Game and Best Visual Art.
Movie Theaters Showing ‘Ultimate Marvel Marathon’ Next Month
Moviegoers will have the opportunity to see every Marvel Studios film, in order of release, in theaters across the USA next month.
AMC Theaters and Regal Entertainment Group are among various theater chains participating in a 27-plus hour "Ultimate Marvel Marathon." The event will begin with a showing of Iron Man on April 29 and will continue through The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy movies, concluding with Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron on April 30.
AMC has posted a full schedule, which can be found below (time is in PST).
Auto Museum to Give Away Its DeLorean Time Machine if Chicago Cubs Win World Series
Chicago’s Volo Auto Museum has committed to giving away its Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine if the Chicago Cubs can win the 2015 Major League Baseball World Series, reports ABC7 Chicago.
1989’s Back to the Future Part II predicted that the Cubs would win the World Series against Miami in 2015, inspiring the Volo Auto Museum to put its exhibit on the line this year. The contest will begin on March 21 and any visitor to the museum will be automatically eligible to enter. The museum will accept entries throughout the 2015 baseball season as long as the Cubs remain in the hunt.
Warner CEO: “DC’s Superhero Films are ‘Edgier’ Than Marvel’s”
The influx of superhero films in the last several years might have been a gag at this year's Academy Awards, but Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara dismisses any notion of audience fatigue.
“The key thing is that the movies and the television shows and the games, everything looks very different …you have to be able to take advantage of the diversity of these characters,” said Tsujihara, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Wednesday (via Variety).
Outer Wilds Leads the 17th Annual IGF Awards
TeamOuter Wilds' space exploration game Outer Wilds led the 17th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) awards tonight, taking out two of the categories it was nominated for: the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Narrative.
More than 30 titles were nominated out of 650 entrants for tonight's 17th annual Independent Games Festival awards held during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Inkle's mobile adventure game 80 Days, who led the pack with multiple nominations, won the Excellence in Narrative award.
The Nuovo Award was presented to Tetrageddon Games, a free "playable Pop Art parody of our online life." Vectorpark's interactive alphabet Metamorphabet took out Excellence in Visual Arts, while SuperChop Games' rock fairy tale adventure Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure grabbed Excellence in Audio.
Jason Issacs and Anne Heche Preview Dig’s Action and Mystery
From Heroes creator Tim Kring and Gideon Raff (creator of the Israeli series Prisoners of War and its US remake, Showtime’s Homeland), the new 10-episode USA series Dig — debuting Thursday night — stars Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, Awake) and Anne Heche (Volcano, Six Days Seven Nights).
The ambitious mystery-thriller begins in Jerusalem, and involves a murder that soon leads to the discovery on an ancient, international conspiracy.
Jason Isaacs in Dig.
Report: Phil Harrison Resigns From Microsoft
Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business VP Phil Harrison is leaving the corporation, GamesIndustry.biz reports multiple sources as saying at GDC.
Microsoft is currently refusing to confirm Harrison's departure to various publications, with a representative telling IGN that "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation." Xbox head Phil Spencer told Eurogamer at GDC, "I don't, no. I'm sorry, I don't think I can say anything about that" when approached about the matter. Chris Charla, director of ID@Xbox, also couldn't comment on the reports.
Star Wars Rebels Creator on the Big Death and Big Surprise
Note: Full (and major!) spoilers for the Star Wars Rebels: Season 1 finale follow.
So that happened! And then that happened! And then THAT happened!
Yes, suffice to say, the Star Wars Rebels season finale was jam-packed with one major event after another, including a big character death and a huge character return – one that was notable enough to trump the impressive arrival of Darth Vader, even.
Yes, Ahsoka Tano is back in play in Star Wars, as Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan returned and was revealed as the true identity of the mysterious “Fulcrum.”
With the season over, I spoke to Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni for an in-depth conversation about bringing Ahsoka back, killing off the Inquisitor, growing the Rebel Alliance and putting Tarkin and Darth Vader into the mix going into Season 2.
Super Dungeon Bros Multiplayer Works Across PC and Xbox One
During GDC 2015, indie games publisher Wired Productions announced its upcoming co-op brawler, Super Dungeon Bros, will be among the first cross-device multiplayer games compatible with Xbox One and Windows 10. The game will be released on both platforms via Microsoft's ID@Xbox self-publishing program.
"We’re very excited to feature cross-device multiplayer in Super Dungeon Bros," said Wired Productions' Leo Zullo. "Cross-device gameplay has long been a wish of the gaming community. We’ve worked extremely closely with our development partners to make Super Dungeon Bros one of the first titles to support this innovative feature."
Super Dungeon Bros sets four co-op players in the realm of Rökheim, taking on a series of perilous dungeons. Other indie titles, including Wasteland 2 and Shovel Knight, were also announced as taking part in the ID@Xbox program today during GDC 2015.