Netflix Developing Animated WITCHER Movie

The Witcher

Hot on the heels of the first season of The Witcher having now landed on Netflix – and with a second season already confirmed – the on-demand streaming service has moved to announce an animated movie for the property.

Titled The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, the Studio Mir animation house will be working on the film for Netflix. Studio Mir has previous with the streaming service courtesy of the ever-impressive Voltron: Legendary Defender series. The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich will be direct this animated offering.

In a statement from Hissrich and producer Beau DeMayo, we’ve already been given an idea of what to expect from Nightmare of the Wolf. As the pair enthused, “The world of The Witcher expands in this anime film that explores a powerful new threat facing the Continent.”

At this early stage, it’s yet to be revealed whether Henry Cavill or any of the show’s core cast will be back to lend their vocals to this project.

Expect more on The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf as we get it.

WANDAVISION’s Megan McDonnell to Pen CAPTAIN MARVEL 2

Brie Larson Captain Marvel

With Marvel Studios having previously revealed plans for a second Captain Marvel movie, said sequel has now found its writer.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, Megan McDonnell has landed the writing gig for Captain Marvel 2. McDonnell has most recently penned the WandaVision miniseries that’s due to land on Disney+ later this year.

In terms of what we know about Captain Marvel 2 so far, the follow-up will be set in the present-day landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given that the aforementioned WandaVision will feature Teyonah Parris as the older version of Captain Marvel’s Monica Rambeau, it could well be that Monica – played by young Akira Akbar in that first movie – will be lining up alongside Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel 2. Comic book-wise, Rambeau grows up to become a hero in her own right, wielding the ability to control light as she takes on the monikers of Photon, Pulsar, Spectrum, and even Captain Marvel.

One other piece of Captain Marvel 2 information that we have, is that Captain Marvel directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will not be back to helm this sequel. The pair are believed to be being lined up to oversee a Marvel-driven Disney+ series, and so that frees up the Captain Marvel 2 director’s chair.

According to reports, Marvel Studios and Disney are said to be looking for a female director to tackle Captain Marvel 2. As a suggestion, how about Jen and Sylvia Soska?

Not only are the Soskas ridiculously talented filmmakers, not only are they long-time comic book fans, but last year saw the Twisted Twins deliver an absolutely stunning five-issue Black Widow story for Marvel Comics. This in addition to Jen and Sylv having previously worked with Marvel on Deadpool, Night Nurse, and Guardians of the Galaxy tales.

As ever, expect more on Captain Marvel 2 as it continues to develop.

Live-Action FEAR AGENT Series in Development for Amazon

Rick Remender Free Agent

Well, this sounds all kinds of promising.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Rick Remender’s Fear Agent comic book series is being adapted as a live-action TV show by Amazon. More specifically, Shazam!’s David F. Sandberg and Preacher’s Seth Rogen are heading up the team who are developing the series. Joining them will be The Batman’s Mattson Tomlin on writing duties.

For those not familiar with Remender’s Fear Agent, the official word on the comic title which ran for 32 issue between 2005 and 2011 – reads:

Interstellar invaders. Time travel. Clones of clones of clones, and lots of whiskey. Whether he’s battling the scourge of space, going back in time to stop the alien invasion that changed Earth forever, or winning his ex-wife back, there’s nothing that Heath Huston won’t do to try to right the wrongs and get his family back. He is, after all, the last Fear Agent.

Expect more on Amazon’s Fear Agent as it continues to develop.

Steam: A Decade in Review

Since 2010, Steam, the near-monopoly on PC game sales has grown from 25 million monthly active users to over 90 active million users at the beginning of 2019. The last ten years have revolutionised how people purchase and pay for games.

Steam was instrumental to the video game industry in that it not only provided a massive digital storefront but through its Steam Wallet, finally added a secure and safe way to pay for online games. And these security measures have been adopted by iGaming industry too. Many providers have implemented a wide range of reliable and secure online casino payment methods. Just as you can be safe with the pioneer of casinos Ladbrokes and their e-wallet, when you buy video games and DLCs on Steam, you can rest assured with their Steam Wallet.

The Centralisation Of Gaming

Valve, Steam’s parent company, didn’t just create a safe online marketplace for gamers, but with the introduction of features like Steam Community and Steam Workshop, unlocked so much more. Steam Community gave players a centralised place for them to get together and communicate, and Steam Workshop gave community content creators a place to share their mods, maps, and items.

Steam then began to blur the lines between a PC gamer and a console gamer with the introduction of Big Picture Mode, which is a UI designed to be used on TVs and with game controllers. They pushed this even further with the introduction of hardware products like the Steam Controller and gaming boxes running Steam OS.

And all of that happened by 2015! Valve has spent the last decade not only pushing PC gaming to the next level but breaking boundaries and going in directions that no one could have foreseen.

The Redefining Of Gaming

Valve then worked with HTC to push the HTC Vive and Virtual Reality (VR) Gaming in general into the foreground, and today, years later, Steam contains some of the most magical, insane, borderline-impossible VR experiences available on their marketplace.

Steam’s partnership with HTC did more than just strap screens onto gamers faces and called it a day. While VR might not have taken the world by storm in the way we all thought it would, the mere existence of VR made a lot of game developers and gamers rethink the concept of what a video game even is.

This inspired tons of indie game developers, who had already been bolstered by Steam’s Greenlight program, to create virtual reality experiences like Accounting+, Moss, and Virtual Virtual Reality.

While all this was going on, Valve was also redefining who could be considered a game developer. Back in 2010, the term “indie game” wasn’t even in your average gamer’s vernacular. Steam heralded the explosion of indie games with their Steam Greenlight program, giving independent creators a platform where their games could be seen and purchased. The Greenlight program was eventually replaced by Steam Direct, which enforced some stricter rules to drive indie games quality upwards. That is how we ended up with phenomenal, best-selling games like Stardew Valley and Broforce

The Future Of Gaming

While Valve tends to keep pretty tight-lipped about what’s in the pipeline, we have plenty of reasons to be excited about what Steam is going to be doing over the next decade. For starters, Steam is working on Steam TV, which some think is going to be Valve’s streaming platform to take down Amazon-owned streaming behemoth Twitch.

With companies like Google and Sony setting their sights on having users stream their games online instead of needing to run them on local hardware, some are predicting that Steam might enter that particular arena themselves. While there’s no official word just yet, we wouldn’t be surprised to see everyone running their games on the cloud through Steam in 2030.

Voice Cast Revealed for Animated M.O.D.O.K. Series

M.O.D.O.K.

With Patton Oswalt serving as executive producer on Marvel and Hulu’s M.O.D.O.K. animated series, now comes word on the show’s voice cast.

From Marvel and Hulu themselves, Oswalt himself will be voicing the titular Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. He’ll be joined by Lucifer’s Aimee Garcia as M.O.D.O.K.’s wife, Jodie. Night School’s Ben Schwartz will be playing the couple’s 12-year-old son Lou, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Melissa Fumero is their 17-year-old daughter Melissa.

Elsewhere, Goosebumps 2’s Wendi McLendon-Covey will be playing Monica Rappaccini, an on/off rival of M.O.D.O.K.’s. Rounding out the cast, Ghosted’s Beck Bennett is Austin Van Der Sleet, Bob’s Burgers’ Jon Daly is the Super Adaptoid, and Veep’s Sam Richardson is Gary.

Expect more on M.O.D.O.K. as it continues to develop.

J.J. Abrams Developing JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK Projects

Justice League Dark

For almost a decade, a Justice League Dark movie has been in and out of development. And now, there’s an interesting new update on this group of DC Comics character.

Courtesy of Deadline, J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company are at work on bringing Justice League Dark to the big and small screen as part of Abrams’ new multi-year deal with Warner Brothers.

At this stage, Bad Robot’s Hannah Minghella and Ben Stephenson are lining up meetings with talent reps and writers to establish which characters will be utilised in their own movies and TV shows.

Featuring some of DC’s most mystical and magical characters, the likes of John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Zatanna, Deadman, and the Spectre are just some of the names to have been a part of the comic book JL Dark team.

In recent years, Matt Ryan’s Constantine had his own one-season TV series before becoming a part of the Arrowverse and now a regular member of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Likewise, Derek Mears brought Swamp Thing to life in the character’s own DC Universe show that was similarly cancelled after one season. Then there’s the Spectre, who was played by Emmett J. Scanlan in Constantine and then more recently by Stephen Lobo in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Previously, Guillermo del Toro had spent years trying to put together a Justice League Dark film, before GDT ultimately had to focus his attention on other projects.

As ever, expect more on all of this as we get it.

Disney+ Renews THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JEFF GOLDBLUM

The World According to Jeff Goldblum

UK audiences may not be getting Disney+ until March, yet there’s some great news for fans who love themselves a large dollop of the ever-charming Jeff Goldblum.

Straight from the House of Mouse, it’s been confirmed that The World According to Jeff Goldblum has been renewed for a ten-episode second season.

Hosted by Goldblum, the official blurb on this National Geographic production for the Disney+ streaming service reads:

Through the prism of Goldblum’s always inquisitive and highly entertaining mind, nothing is as it seems. Each episode is centred around something people all love – like sneakers or ice cream – as Jeff pulls the thread of these deceptively familiar objects and unravels a wonderful world of astonishing connections, fascinating science and history, amazing people, and a whole lot of surprising big ideas and insights.

Disney+ will hit the UK on March 24th, with the service to cost £59.99 for a yearly subscription or a monthly fee of £5.99.

Oscar Isaac to Headline THE GREAT MACHINE

Oscar Isaac

While Oscar Isaac has already wowed in one Ex Machina – that being the 2014 movie – the hugely talented actor is now getting set to tackle another Ex Machina.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Isaac has signed on to headline The Great Machine – Legendary Pictures’ upcoming adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris’ Ex Machina comic book.

For those a tad confused, the Ex Machina comic has zero connection to the stunning Ex Machina film bar sharing the same name.

In The Great Machine, Oscar Isaac will be playing Mitchell Hundred, the first and only superhero in the world. After saving one of the Twin Towers during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hundred ends up becoming mayor of New York.

At this stage, Legendary is on the hunt for a director for the project.

 

Demon Announce Next DOCTOR WHO Vinyl Releases

doctor who vinyl pertwee

Demon Music Group have unveiled the next two releases in their incredible Doctor Who vinyl series. If you’ve been collecting their previous releases then you’ll know these sell out fast, so just like the show itself, time is of the essence! Read on for details…

From the Press Release:

The Paradise of Death reunites the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and the Brigadier for an adventure that takes them from Hampstead Heath to the far-flung planet of Parrakon, where they face dangers aplenty from the hostile Freeth and Tragan.

The Ghosts of N-Space, which features Jon Pertwee’s final performance as the Doctor, the Time Lord is in Sicily where he discovers trouble in the form of spectral monsters from another dimension.

Presented across 6 x 180g pieces of vinyl, these two fast-paced adventures were specially written for radio by former Doctor Who producer & writer Barry Letts. Co-starring Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney, both also feature the incidental music and Doctor Who theme arrangement of Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Among the supporting cast for the stories are Maurice Denham, Sandra Dickinson, Harold Innocent, Peter Miles, Richard Pearce, Harry Towb and Stephen Thorne.

The records will be released on 28th Feb 2020 and are available now for pre-order.

Pre-Order Here: https://smarturl.it/DocWho_ParadiseGhost

 

Released on Limited Edition Amazon Exclusive ‘Space World’ & ‘Spectral’ Splatter vinyl and standard edition ‘blue & yellow’ vinyl:

doctor who vinyldoctor who vinyl

Freeform Gives Series Order to Thriller LAST SUMMER

Freeform

In some fantastic news, Freeform has opted to take Last Summer to series.

Via Deadline, the Jessica Biel-produced thriller has been given the nod to get a full season. This news was confirmed by Freeform’s Tom Ascheim during the ongoing TCA press tour.

Penned by Easy A’s Bert V. Royal, Last Summer stars Tell Me Your Secret’s Chiara Aurelia, Teen Wolf’s Froy Gutierrez, Project Mc2’s Mika Abdalla, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot’s Harley Quinn Smith, Mr. Mercedes’ Nathaniel Ashton, Taken’s Brooklyn Sudano, Unbelievable’s Allius Barnes, and Fam’s Blake Lee.

The early word on the hugely intriguing Last Summer reads:

Last Summer is an unconventional thriller that takes place over three summers — 1993-95 — in a small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate (Abdalla), is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette (Aurelia), goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town and, by ’95, the most despised person in America. Each episode is told from the POV of one of the two main girls, which will have the viewers’ loyalties constantly shifting as more information is revealed.

Expect more on Last Summer as we get it.