Having now aired three episodes in the US, The CW’s has moved to extend Batwoman’s first season to 22 episodes.
Previously, the debut season of the Ruby Rose-headlined Arrowverse show was pegged for an initial 13-episode run. Now though, the positive early response to Batwoman has seen The CW give the series a full order of 22 offerings.
While US audiences are getting wowed by Rose’s Kate Kane each and every Sunday night, however, UK viewers are yet to have the chance to check out Batwoman. Despite Sky having the rights to the other shared Arrowverse shows – Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow – they don’t have the rights for Batwoman.
In a statement just last week from Sky, it was confirmed that the rights for Batwoman have been picked up by another, to-be-confirmed party. Not only do we not know who that party is, we don’t know when Batwoman will premiere in the UK, and this will also throw a massive spanner in the works for UK audiences when it comes to this year’s monumental Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event.
With HBO’s Chernobyl having won a huge amount of praise and plaudits earlier this year, the main mind behind the show has now landed himself a crack at one of Disney’s flagship franchises.
Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin has been brought in to write the House of Mouse’s upcoming reboot of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Mazin will be joined on writing duties by Ted Elliott – who just so happens to have co-wrote four previous outing for the Pirates series.
Before nabbing two Emmy Awards for the utterly stunning Chernobyl, Mazin was actually best known for penning two Scary Movie pictures and The Huntsman: Winter’s War, in addition to writing and directing the turd-tastic Superhero Movie spoof.
Right now, details on this Pirates of the Caribbean reboot remain scarce, with no plot details known, no director attached, and still no confirmation whether or not Johnny Depp will be involved.
As ever, expect more on this new Pirates of the Caribbean as it continues to develop.
Join the next evolution of the massively multiplayer space battle involving thousands of players. CCP Games, creators of the biggest single-shard MMO game of all time, EVE Online, will be showcasing the next iteration of EVE Aether Wars, their technology partnership with London-based start-up, Hadean, on November 23rd.
The tech demo will be showcased live at EVE London, the grand finale of the epic Invasion Tour, taking place at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Further details will be shared later today on-stage at EVE Vegas, the world’s largest EVE Online player convention, which will be livestreamed via CCP’s official Twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/ccp
CCP and Hadean have released this video giving a glimpse of what’s to come:
EVE Aether Wars is an ongoing research and development initiative to push the boundaries of large-scale, multiplayer experiences and explore the possibilities of Cloud Gaming. Earlier this year, CCP Games and Hadean unveiled the first EVE Aether Wars technology demo that ran live at GDC19 with 14,274 connected clients in a single-instanced, multi-region game world. At Gamescom 2019, they showcased a gameplay demo that a seven-person team at CCP Games built in just eight weeks, in which 4,369 players from 88 different countries participated.
“We are thrilled to have the continued support of CCP Games with EVE Aether Wars,” said Craig Beddis, Hadean’s CEO. “We wanted to show the world that our Aether Engine technology can perform flawlessly under unprecedented strain while enabling unique and exciting gameplay experiences that can only be delivered by our technology. We’ve done that, but we’re not finished. We have a world-class team of engineers at Hadean working with CCP on the creation of EVE Aether Wars and we can’t wait to demonstrate the next phase!”
“We are continuing to build on the success of our joint efforts with Hadean on EVE Aether Wars and push this technology even further,” said Hilmar V. Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “By using it to test the limits of the virtual worlds we want to create, we are opening up new possibilities for developers, the industry and ultimately the players themselves. We’re eager to showcase the next step in this exciting partnership and continue to push the boundaries of what can be achieved in large-scale multiplayer gaming.”
The EVE Online community currently holds the Guinness World Record for “most concurrent players simultaneously involved in a single multiplayer PvP videogame battle” with 6,142 players on 23 January 2018. CCP Games and Hadean are now looking to shatter this world record at EVE London and push the boundaries of virtual worlds in an epic large-scale fleet battle.
This time around, CCP Games and Hadean are partnering with Steam and PlayFab to provide the best player experience possible. Pre-registered players will be invited to participate in select alpha tests in the lead up to the final demo on 23rd November.
As Blumhouse’s upcoming remake of The Craft continues to amass its cast, now comes word that Michelle Monaghan has joined the movie.
Courtesy of Deadline, Monaghan has signed on for a mystery role in the do-over of the 1996 offering. Monaghan is likely best known to genre fans for the likes of True Detective, Gone Baby Gone and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Monaghan joins a cast that features Pacific Rim: Uprising’s Cailee Spaeny, The Society’s Gideon Adlon, Selah & the Spades’ Lovie Simone and 15: A Quinceanera Story’s Zoey Luna as the film’s four core characters, and roles for The X-Files’ David Duchovny and Chambers’ Nicholas Galitzine.
If you remember, a new Craft movie has been being talked about for several years now, with Honeymoon’s Leigh Janiak working on a sequel three years ago. Janiak has long since left the project, and Sony has tasked Lola Versus’ Zoe Lister-Jones with writing and directing this remake.
For those not familiar with the original ’96 movie, the Andrew Fleming-helmed effort centred on Robin Tunney as she makes friends with a trio of young witches played by Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell and Rachel True.
As ever, expect more on this Craft remake as we get it.
Following some disappointing ratings for its second season, Freeform has moved to cancel Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger after two seasons.
Deadline broke the news, with Freeform opting against renewing the series for a third season after viewership numbers suffered a major drop throughout Season 2. To be more precise, the viewership figures for Season 2 were down 40% from the show’s debut season.
On this news, Freeform said, “We are so proud of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger and the trailblazing stories this series told. We are also grateful to our incredible talent Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph for bringing these beloved characters to life, and showrunner Joe Pokaski for his vision. We’d like to thank our partners at Marvel Television for a wonderful two seasons and we are hopeful that we can find another project together.”
With the cancellation of Cloak & Dagger, that essentially ends the presence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Freeform – with this series loosely taking place in the backdrop of the greater MCU.
Fans of EVE Online will soon be able to play on the go as the open beta for Eve Echoes will launch in time for Christmas.
From the press release:
NetEase Games andCCP Games today announced that the open beta for EVE Echoes, the authentic EVE Online experience for mobile devices, will go live this December. Developed by NetEase Games in conjunction with CCP Games, EVE Echoes was unveiled last year and will be available to demo for the first time at EVE Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, this weekend.
In celebration of the open beta announcement, new assets, an official website, and social media channels are now live for EVE Echoes.
Venture into the depths of space with official gameplay footage here:
“We’re very excited for the first public outing of EVE Echoes, the next revolutionary step in mobile MMO gaming,” said Hilmar V. Petursson, CEO of CCP Games. “I can’t wait to see the reaction from our core PC players, who will no doubt recognize the unparalleled scale and sophisticated gameplay of EVE Online’s virtual world running through the veins of EVE Echoes.”
“CCP Games is a pioneer in space MMOs, and will make its mark on the industry even further by expanding the EVE experience to mobile with EVE Echoes,” said Ethan Wang, Vice President of NetEase, Inc. “Combining CCP’s leadership in game design with our NeoX game engine and leadership in game publishing will no doubt create a spacefaring sandbox MMO for mobile devices unlike anything seen before.”
EVE Echoes brings the vast, interstellar EVE universe from PC to the palm of your hand. Built using NetEase Games’ proprietary NeoX graphics engine, EVE Echoes stays true to CCP’s hallmark EVE Online design principles and immerses pilots in beautiful starry skies and across boundless star fields. Pilots must collect resources, manufacture items, and explore thousands of uncharted planets to write their own history in pursuit of galactic glory. A realistic social system enables players to join and lead corporations, form coalitions, capture rival territories, engage in intergalactic combat, and much more across thousands of planetary systems.
Taking place October 25th to 27th in Las Vegas, EVE Vegas is the largest gathering of fans from around the world in celebration of all things EVE. During EVE Vegas, attendees will learn more about EVE Echoes as well as the expanding EVE franchise, play the game hands-on ahead of its open beta this December, hear from the developers, and interact with fellow EVE pilots. To learn more about the event, visit https://vegas.eveonline.com.
Disney+ continues in its devilish plans to dominate the streaming wars by mining another beloved property to sit alongside Star Wars, Marvel, The Simpsons et al. – with reports flying in that Hocus Pocus 2 is in development.
Now this might be a head-scratcher to some, but despite the family-friendly Witch-based feature failing to ignite the box-office back in 1993, it went on to be a major player on home video, fast becoming a Halloween favourite and a gateway horror flick for curious kids who weren’t old enough to rent *Googles what else was released in 1993* Jason Goes to Hell. (Turns out ’93 was a terrible year for horror.)
Chiefly known for her work on the popular sitcom Workaholics, actress/writer Jen D’Angelo has been tasked with creating a screenplay good enough to entice its original stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy back to their brooms. Will she succeed, or will they be forced to go the reboot route instead? Sadly we possess zero supernatural abilities, so we can’t answer that one. Although having not had an acting gig in 17 years, its then-teen star Omri Katz (remember him in the brilliant Eerie, Indiana?) could probably be persuaded back on the promise of unlimited craft services.
More on Hocus Pocus 2 as it bubbles away at Disney+…
The Lord of the Rings TV series, Amazon’s ambitious* journey back to Middle-earth, has secured its lead villain in the form of Game of Thrones’ Joseph Mawle (pictured).
GoT super fans will of course immediately recognize Mawle as the long-missing Benjen Stark, while Tolkien obsessives can speculate as to who the character of Oren is exactly. With the action being set during the Second Age of Middle-earth (ie a long time ago, far, far away from the action seen in even The Hobbit), producers John D. Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek Beyond), Bryan Cogman (another GoT alum), and Bruce Richmond (From the Earth to the Moon) have wisely granted themselves a narrative blank canvas on which to reintroduce audiences to the myriad oddities that populate Tolkien’s unique world.
Joining Mawle is Will Poulter, most recently seen in genre faves Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Midsommer, who will play one of the two heroes, Beldor, and Picnic at Hanging Rock’s Markella Kavenagh as Tyra. Expect a wealth of casting news to hit soon, as production begins to ramp up for a 2020 shoot.
Expect Amazon to debut Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings sometime in 2021.
* At a cost of 4 billion for the rights and a further billion in production costs, you better believe this is ambitious!
The November line up on Horror Channel is set to be another cracker as the channel premieres of several excellent classics has been announced.
Kicking things off on November 1st is Terrifier (2016), in which Art the clown makes one Halloween night a nightmare for some young women. November 2nd sees Joe Dante’s brilliant satire The Burbs (1999) hit the channel. On November 8th, Chucky returns in Child’s Play 2 (1990) – with Child’s Play 3 (1991) screening the following week on November 15th.
John Carpenter’s sci-fi classic Starman (1984) comes to the channel on November 9th, while November 10th sees the Hammer prehistoric thriller Creatures the World Forget (1971) debut on the channel. Another overlooked Carpenter film hits on November 16th – his remake of Village of the Damned (1995) gives us more creepy kids.
November 22nd has the sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), while a pre-Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson serves up laughs and scares with The Frighteners (1996), starring Michael J. Fox.
The month rounds off on November 29th and 30th with Tower Block (2012), written by Cockneys vs Zombies’ James Moran and the terrifying hit Sinister (2012).
Playwright turned TV producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is currently best known to genre fans as one of the fundamental creative forces behind Riverdale and, in particular, its spooky sister show, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Now, it looks as if he’s developed a taste for the terrifying having spent so long hanging around with the Spellmans, as news comes in that he’s got two more shows in development alongside his frequent collaborator the ubiquitous Greg Berlanti (if it’s on The CW, chances are his name’s on it), and they’re both of the Gothic horror variety.
First up, The Shelley Society imagines Frankenstein author Mary Shelley as the leader of a group dedicated to pursuing paranormal activity and saving Victorian England from evil. How she’ll also have time to pen one of the world’s most acclaimed novels while doing so is something we’ll look forward to seeing, but we’d wager she’ll be getting much inspiration from her weekly exploits. Among those joining Shelley in the good fight will be her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley and the infamous poet Lord Byron. Basically, think Buffy, but with frilly shirts and even more charming attempts at the British accent!
From one literary classic to another, next up comes The Brides, which will finally put the vampiric Brides of Dracula centre stage. Even less is known about this project than the former, but the pilot script has been in existence since 2016, so it appears that Aguirre-Sacasa and Berlanti have something special cooked up for the sinister seductresses if they’re this determined to see it through. We do know that this will be more extreme in the horror stakes, however, with the producers aiming for an audience more accustomed to American Horror Story-stylescares rather than their stock and trade teen shenanigans.
While early days for both, lovers of Gothic horror look to be in for a treat, as Berlanti Productions are currently enjoying success with a frightening amount of shows, so clearly know what they’re doing. Expect more news on both as they continue to develop…
