Phil Spencer closed his part of the “Next Xbox Reveal” with the news that Microsoft plans to release 15 exclusive Xbox One games during the system’s first year. He also confirmed that eight of them are brand new franchises.
But enough of this games stuff, Nancy Tellem, President of Xbox Entertainment Studios, and Bonnie Ross, Head of 343 Industries, have just announced that they’re teaming up to create a live-action television series based on Halo… and it’ll be produced by Steven Spielberg. Take that, Peter Jackson!
Halo: The Television Series will be available on Xbox Live as a “premium television series” (read: it’ll cost extra above and beyond your Xbox Live subscription price).
Have you seen the Street Fighter: Legacy fanfilm before? If not, I highly recommend checking it out on YouTube. After that, you might want to swing over to Kickstarter and check out Joey Ansah and Christian Howard’s next project: a prequel webseries known as Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist.
Ansah (the director) and Howard (who plays Ken) are seeking £625,000 (about $950,000) to produce the series with 25 days currently remaining on the Kickstarter clock. More than a mere fanfilm, this time the duo has secured the rights to create a live-action Street Fighter film from Capcom. So Assassin’s Fist will have the blessing (and marketing support) of Capcom if its successful on Kickstarter:
It is a true warrior’s tale; a coming of age story for Ryu and Ken as boys become men; told in parallel with the dark tale of the generation that came before them, filled with tragedy, loss and heartbreak.
This story really contains all the elements of universal, classic, conflict based story telling; father vs. son; brother vs. brother; a love triangle; betrayal; revenge; and the ultimate question: Can a man change his destiny? Or will the inevitable catch up with him?.
According to Ansah, the production, which has been in various stages of development for the last three years, needs to secure the rest of its budget now, or the team runs the risk of losing the financing they’ve already secured. No pressure or anything.
In March 2011, we reported that GK Films had acquired the film rights to the Tomb Raider franchise, and that a reboot of the film series was on its way. Now that the reboot of the game has launched, the good people at Crystal Dynamics, who have been developing the Tomb Raider games since 2006, are working closely with uber-producer Graham King’s outfit GK Films on a third cinematic outing for Lara Croft. The film will follow the game’s lead and reboot the series, possibly even using the plot of the new game. This is unlike the two previous films, which used plots that were entirely independent from any game in the franchise. It is perhaps for this reason that they are best described as “watchable.”
The Tomb Raider film reboot joins a slew of celluloid adaptations currently in development, including Assassin’s Creed, Deus Ex, Need For Speed, Hitman (again), Shadow of the Colossus, as well as Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon. But the big question on everyone’s lips is, “Who will play the new Lara Croft?” With the arrival of the game last week, we thought it might be a good time to have a look at ten potential actresses who could take the Tomb Raider baton from Angelina Jolie.
As well as being one of the best animated films of all time, Wreck-It Ralph had a very well planned marketing strategy that built an entire history behind the titular retro arcade game, including this old-school advert. Now, to promote the release of the film on Blu-ray and DVD, Disney has gone one better, creating a fictional version of smash documentary King of Kong for Wreck-It Ralph‘s world.
Entitled Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives, the 28-minute mockumentary features the film’s director, Rich Moore, as he leaps back to 1982 to enlighten us about Garlan Hulse’s recordbreaking Fix-It Felix Jr. score. He held the fame-winning title for only six weeks, before it was lost to former best friend, Kent Zborski. Cut to present day, and Moore journeys through California in search of the former gaming wunderkind. It is as equally as funny as the film it is promoting, and deserves half an hour of your day.
ShockTillYouDrop.com is reporting that Sony/Screen Gems and director Paul W.S. Anderson are preparing to unleash a sixth (and presumably final) Resident Evil film on the moviegoing public on September 12, 2014. Considering the cliffhanger that Resident Evil: Retribution ended on, I can’t say this is too surprising.
It’s unknown if Anderson will direct the currently untitled Resident Evil 6 or if he’ll hand it off to someone else (which he did for Extinction and Afterlife). As this is still in the rumor stage, Milla Jovovich also has yet to officially sign up, but I can’t imagine a Resident Evil movie without Alice.
Machinima has released the first trailer for the long-awaited second season of Kevin Tancharoen’s Mortal Kombat: Legacy. The two-minute preview introduces us to many of this season’s characters including Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, Liu Kang, Ermac, Stryker, Kitana, Mileena, Kenshi, and many others. And it’s good to see Cary Tagawa again. The Mortal Kombat movie alum will reprise his role as the villainous Shang Tsung in Legacy and, even though it’s been almost 20 years, it looks like he hasn’t lost a step.
Season two of Mortal Kombat: Legacy is “Koming Soon,” but not definitely not soon enough.
When the last Hitman film debuted six years ago, it left such a sour taste in moviegoer’s mouths that the franchise’s fate seemed as sealed as a stone tomb housing a rotting corpse. However, the powers that be at Fox International Productions have decided to give it another try with a rebooted film, Agent 47. Working from a script by Skip Woods, the writer of the original mess, they have opted to cast the blue-eyed Paul Walker as Agent 47, most famous for the Fast and the Furious series.
There is nothing wrong, per se, with Walker’s casting. He is a bankable name, but he is not bald. Timothy Olyphant, the original celluloid star, looked plain wrong with a shaved dome, and it was a massive misstep in his otherwise distinguished career. Why not cast Vin Diesel, Walker’s regular shaven-headed Fast and Furious co-star, someone who is possibly born to play Agent 47? In any case, once Walker is finished with his PR commitments to Fast and Furious 6, he will be shaving his scalp and donning the red tie. Only time will tell if the new film is able to wash away the memories of the original.
Star Wars Episode VII director J.J. Abrams and Valve CEO Gabe Newell spent the morning addressing the crowd at the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit. Their talk, “Storytelling Across Platforms,” kicked off the conference and was heavily promoted before the four-day gathering of developers began.
Apparently, there was a good reason for that.
Abrams and Newell’s panel concluded a few minutes ago and they dropped a massive bombshell before they left. Are you ready? Abrams announced that he wants to partner with Valve on a video game and Newell announced that he wants work with Abrams (and his Bad Robot production company) on movies based on Half-Life and Portal:
Abrams: There’s an idea we [at Bad Robot] have for a game that we’d like to work with Valve on.
Newell: We’re going to find out if there’s a way we can work with you on a Portal and Half-Life movie.
When the last Hitman film debuted six years ago, it left such a sour taste in moviegoer’s mouths that the franchise’s fate seemed as sealed as a stone tomb housing a rotting corpse. However, the powers that be at Fox International Productions have decided to give it another try with a rebooted film, Agent 47. Working from a script by Skip Woods, the writer of the original mess, they have opted to cast the blue-eyed Paul Walker as Agent 47, most famous for the Fast and the Furious series.
