Troy Baker Says MARVEL’S AVENGERS Game is the Comic He Always Wanted to Play

avengers game

This year’s E3 saw the first official footage from the hotly anticipated Marvel’s Avengers video game set to arrive on consoles next spring.

The action-adventure title is said to offer an original take on superheroes Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Thor, with an all-star cast including video game voice acting legends Troy Baker and Nolan North.

The pair shared their excitement with fans on being cast as Bruce Banner and Tony Stark during a panel and Q&A at the recent MCM Comic Con in Manchester, UK, where they were also in town to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their hugely popular YouTube show, Retro Replay.

Speaking about being ‘blown away’ by the game, Baker commented: “It looks incredible, it’s the comic that I’ve always wanted to play. It’s like what I read in panels, in the game.”

The two also talked about their roles voicing some of the industry’s most iconic characters including loveable rogue, Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series and Joel from The Last of Us, both developed at Naughty Dog where Marvel’s Avengers Creative Director Shaun Escayg had previously served as Creative Director.

“He kind of assembled that team,” North said, commenting on the Avengers role, adding: “You need a wise-ass? Call Nolan. You need a badass? Call Troy.”

Baker explained: “Shaun came to Nolan, he was like “I want you to be Iron Man”, and he said, “I want you to be Bruce Banner.” I was like “Man, are you sure?” And then he told me about who he wanted Bruce Banner to be in this story, and that’s never been done before, that’s super cool.”

He continued: “I really got to focus on being just Bruce, and Bruce, a lot of the time, gets side-lined in Avengers stories and this is really put to the forefront.”

Marvel’s Avengers will be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia on May 15th, 2020.

Kevin Smith to Tackle MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Masters of the Universe: Revelation

While Sony Pictures is currently at work on their long-gestating live-action Masters of the Universe movie, now comes news that Kevin Smith is to tackle an animated He-Man series.

Courtesy of Variety, Smith will be serving as showrunner and executive producer on an animated show titled Masters of the Universe: Revelation for Netflix. Supergirl’s Eric Carrasco, Reign of the Supermen’s Tim Sheridan, Magic the Gathering’s Diya Mishra and Alphas’ Marc Bernardin are writing the offering.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation will reportedly look to focus on some of the unresolved storylines of the classic ‘80s show that so many of us grew up with.

On this news, Smith enthused, “I’m Eternia-ly grateful to Mattel TV and Netflix for entrusting me with not only the secrets of Grayskull, but also their entire universe. In Revelation, we pick up right where the classic era left off to tell an epic tale of what may be the final battle between He-Man and Skeletor! Brought to life with the most metal character designs Powerhouse Animation can contain in the frame, this is the Masters of the Universe story you always wanted to see as a kid!”

Expect more on Masters of the Universe: Revelation as it continues to develop.

HUGO AWARDS 2019 Winners Announced

The winners of the 2019 Hugo Awards have been announced. The lovely rocket shaped awards were presented on this Sunday evening – August 18th, 2019 – at a ceremony at the 77th World Science Fiction Convention at the CCD Dublin, Ireland.

It was a rather good ceremony, with the awards being presented with both style and grace by the hosts, Afua Richardson and Michael Scott. Highlights included a splendid musical interlude with Afua accompanied by the Irish Video Game Orchestra. Ada Palmer gave a fantastic opening speech, though they were some slight technical issues with the closed captioning.

Other highlights included a rousing acceptance speech from Campbell winner Jeanette Ng, who refered to the long deceased John W Campbell as a ‘fucking facist’ in her remarks. Fanfic enablers The Orgnisation for Transformative Works took home the Hugo for Best Related Work, for their website An Archive Of Our Own (AO3). As part of their response, AO3’s representatives raised the house lights and asked members of the audience who contribute to the site to stand up. Their Hugo will go on tour, so all fans can see it.

A full list of winners is below.

Best Novel The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

Best Novella Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Novelette “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again,” by Zen Cho (B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, 29 November 2018)

Best Short Story “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” by Alix E. Harrow (Apex Magazine, February 2018)

Best Series Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)

Best Related Work Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Best Graphic Story Monstress, Volume 3: Haven, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (Sony)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form The Good Place: “Janet(s),” written by Josh Siegal & Dylan Morgan, directed by Morgan Sackett (NBC)

Best Professional Editor, Long Form Navah Wolfe

Best Professional Editor, Short Form Gardner Dozois

Best Professional Artist Charles Vess

Best Art Book The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, illustrated by Charles Vess, written by Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga Press /Gollancz)

Best Semiprozine Uncanny Magazine, publishers/editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, managing editor Michi Trota, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue editors-in-chief Elsa Sjunneson-Henry and Dominik Parisien.

Best Fanzine Lady Business, editors Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay & Susan

Best Fancast Our Opinions Are Correct, hosted by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders

Best Fan Writer Foz Meadows

Best Fan Artist Likhain (Mia Sereno)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer Jeannette Ng (2nd year of eligibility)

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt / Macmillan Children’s Books)

A full breakdown of the awards can be found here.

Joss Whedon’s THE NEVERS Adds Six More

Joss Whedon

As Joss Whedon’s The Nevers continues to flesh out its cast, the series has moved to add six more names to its ranks.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, Murdered by My Father’s Kiran Sonia Sawar, In Bruges’ Elizabeth Berrington, The Voices’ Ella Smith, Counterpart’s Viola Prettejohn, All the Money in the World’s Anna Devlin, and Final Score’s Martyn Ford.

These six join a cast that includes Tolkien’s Laura Donnell, Dollhouse’s Olivia Williams, Happy Valley’s James Norton, Vikings’ Ann Skelly, Da Vinci’s Demons’ Tom Riley,Torchwood’s Amy Manson, Terminator: Dark Fate’s Rochelle Neil, The Thin Red Line’s Ben Chaplin, Preacher’s Pip Torrens, Camping’s Zackary Momoh,American Horror Story’s Denis O’Hare, Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson, and Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost.

That’s quite the impressive ensemble, right?

From what we’ve heard about The Nevers, the show will centre on a group of women with special abilities in the landscape of Victorian England.

Expect more on The Nevers as it continues to develop.

MORTAL KOMBAT Casts Four Key Characters

Liu Kang Ludi Lin

With New Line Cinema now charging full-steam ahead on a new Mortal Kombat movie, the film has found four more of its core cast.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Power Rangers’ Ludi Lin (pictured) is to play badass martial artist Liu Kang, Supergirl’s Mehcad Brooks is to play tech-advanced Special Forces officer Jackson ‘Jax’ Briggs, newcomer Sisi Stringer is evil Kitana clone Mileena, and Thor’s Tadanobu Asano is the God of Thunder, Raiden.

The four join The Raid’s Joe Taslim in the movie, with Taslim having already signed on for the role of ice-manipulating Sub-Zero in the picture.

Having been in serious development since 2015, Halo’s Simon McQuoid is on directing duties for Mortal Kombat. The movie has already begun pre-production ahead of shooting in Australia later this year.

The Mortal Kombat video game franchise sprung to bloody and brutal life back in 1992, forever changing the landscape of fighting games. With elements of sci-fi, fantasy and horror, gamers were given an experience that was full of the sort of bloodshed and brutality never before seen.

Of course, not just a hugely successful video game series, Mortal Kombat fans have since been, err, treated to two Mortal Kombat movies and the genuinely impressive Mortal Kombat: Legacy webseries.

At this stage, Mortal Kombat is set for a March 5th, 2021 release.

SYFY Cancels KRYPTON

Krypton

To be fair, many had predicted that Krypton may not last all that long before the show had even premiered on SFY, but in what is now some slightly surprising news, the decision has been made to cancel the series.

As first revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, SYFY has pulled the plug on Krypton after two seasons due to poor ratings. And not just that, but SYFY has also decided to scrap the planned spin-off series for Emmett Scanlon’s Lobo.

Putting some perspective on the viewing figures, the show’s very first episode amassed 1.8 million viewers in the US. Compare that to the Season 2 finale’s 350,000 viewers and a second season average of 408,000 and you can see what SYFY was rightly concerned about dipping viewership.

There is a slight hope that Lobo may still happen somewhere, with Warner Horizon planning to shop that series around in an attempt to find a new home for the offering.

Space Age Love Songs Preview

SpaceAgeLove TL Wiswell

Starburst was invited to observe the rehearsals for Space Age Love Songs, a play with music and dancing that’s opening a mere eight days after this rehearsal. We’re in a small room on the sixth floor of an office block that’s seen better days: hidden away behind London Bridge railway station. Through the somewhat thin walls leach the sounds of performance art being developed – in our room almost a dozen people are gathered, intently watching two actors rehearse a scene. Welcome to the incredibly unglamorous world of making Science-Fiction Theatre.

T L Wiswell, the writer and, on behalf of Vulcanello Productions, the producer, first started developing the show three years ago, when she saw a jukebox musical at the theatre and had a sudden moment of inspiration. By the time the show had finished, she had the outline of the plot, the two worlds, and a firm idea of who some of the characters would be.

The plot follows Camille, who has no obvious friends and an alcoholic mother. In order to escape the awful reality of being the only goth in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1984, she’s created her own imaginary world, which she escapes into via the use of 1980’s music, such as Gary Numan and Human League. This being sci-fi, the ‘Mirrorworld’ has parallels with the real world, as characters in the ‘real world’ have counterparts in the ‘Mirrorworld’ who are exaggerated versions of themselves. “I love a theatrical device” says Director Micha Mirto, “and the two worlds really appealed”.

One of the central themes of Space Age Love Songs is that of ally-ship, and of the need for everyone to support each other and stand together. “I want to put on stage shows that tell different stories”, says Wiswell, “I’m trying to create the dystopia I imagined”, adding that she has taken “the tropes of B Movie Science-fiction and put them into this play”.

This brings us back to the scene we saw being rehearsed – which it transpires is that classic of coming of age movies: the older character, dispensing wisdom to our young hero. As it’s 1984, we’re on a bus, but it’s a scene familiar throughout genre entertainment. We’re privileged to observe a run-through of the whole show, and it’s obvious that a lot of work has been devoted to developing the backgrounds of the ‘real world’ characters, and that the creative team has heavily leaned into the desired Blade Runner aesthetic of the ‘Mirrorworld’, with sharp dance moves on display as the cast mark through their movements.

The run-through done, the cast disperse for a meal break, and the remaining members of the creative team huddle together, discussing changes to costumes, and deciding what props still need to be sourced. As we emerge from the unloved office building into the beating heart of Borough Market, we wonder what other stories lurk in these buildings – what other theatre is being made in neglected nooks and crannies? We’ve enjoyed these few hours in our own Mirrorworld, but now we have to face the real world of London’s transport system. Perhaps Human League can save us too?

Space Age Love Songs will be at the Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St Paul’s Road, Highnury, N1 2NA at 9PM from 21st to 25th August, as part of the Camden Fringe Festival. Tickets are available on the door if still available, or in advance on the Camden Fringe Website.


The production will transfer to Two Brewers, Clapham Common, on selected dates from September 4th to September 28th.

Neil Gaiman Adapting GORMENGHAST for Showtime

gormenghast

With barely a week going by where we don’t hear about a new adaptation of an old favourite, now comes word that Showtime has picked up the rights to Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, the series will be overseen by the brilliant pairing of Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman, with Being Human’s Toby Whithouse to serve as showrunner and head up a writers room.

The fantasy trilogy began in 1946 with Titus Groan, and that was followed up in 1950 by Gormenghast and in 1959 by Titus Alone. Peake sadly passed away while working on a fourth offering, Titus Awakes, which was eventually finished by his widow Maeve Gilmore and published in 2009.

Titus Goran is the main character of the saga and is the young heir to the titular Gormenghast castle. Not content with this, however, Titus has aspirations of leaving Gormenghast behind in order to explore the outside world.

Expect more on Gormenghast as it develops.

Neill Blomkamp No Longer Directing ROBOCOP RETURNS

RoboCop

As well as not being given the chance to tackle the Alien franchise, it looks as if director Neill Blomkamp won’t be having the opportunity to handle the RoboCop franchise, too.

Previously on board to direct MGM’s RoboCop reboot – tentatively titled RoboCop Returns – Blomkamp took to Twitter to reveal that he’s now off the project.

From what the District 9 helmer said, it looks as if MGM haven’t got enough time for him to finish the horror that he’s currently working on, and so the studio is moving on without him for its RoboCop relaunch.

The last we’d heard on RoboCop Returns was that it would be a direct sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 original movie and it that it would be based on an unused RoboCop 2 screenplay by Ed Meumier and Michael Miner.

To date, there have been four RoboCop pictures – Verhoeven’s film being followed in 1990 by the Irvin Kershner-directed RoboCop 2 and in 1993 by Fred Dekker’s RoboCop 3. Then, of course, there was the 2014 RoboCop remake from Jose Padilha.

Expect more on RoboCop Returns as we get it.

Ewan McGregor in Talks for Obi-Wan Kenobi TV Series

Obi-Wan Kenobi Ewan McGregor

Hello there…

After fans have spent years clamouring for it, it looks as if Ewan McGregor may be about to reprise his Obi-Wan Kenobi role.

First reported by Cinelinx, McGregor is said to be in talks to return as Obi-Wan to headline a Kenobi-driven series on the impending Disney+ streaming service.

If you remember, Stephen Daldry was at one point on board to direct an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie that would have seen McGregor back in the role he played in George Lucas’ prequel trilogy. That film was completely scrapped, however, after Solo: A Star Wars Story disappointed at the box office.

Right now, there are zero details on this Kenobi TV show bar the fact that talks are ongoing between McGregor and Disney/Lucasfilm.

Disney+ already has two live-action Star Wars series on the way, with The Mandalorian and the to-be-titled Cassian Andor show to land on the on-demand platform.

As ever, expect more on all of this if and when it develops further.