Umbrella Corporation Comes to Universal in ‘Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon City’

I'll be honest; when I first heard about this, I thought "God, that stupid movie is getting even MORE exposure. Why won't they give the game that the damned series is based upon the spotlight for once?" Well, it seems I misspoke... er, missthought. Anywho, it turns out that the Resident Evil game series, which will always hold a very special in my heart, is being featured in one of the Halloween Horror Nights attractions at Universal Orlando Resort this October!

Now, the set up that they are creating will be centered on Raccoon City, which, for those of you who aren't familiar with the early games in the series, is where the whole story began, but it hasn't been featured in a main series game in almost 14 years. With the horrible reception that Resident Evil 6 received, it's not surprising that they are going back to such an iconic setting from the series. It is surprising, however, that they are adding Resident Evil at all, considering the already zombie heavy and much-more-popular-at-the-moment Walking Dead will be featured in its own Walking Dead: No Safe Haven haunted house at the event.

The Resident Evil house, titled Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon City, will feature a bunch of your favorite enemies from the original 3 titles, including zombies, Cerberus, those pain in the ass Lickers (see what I did there?), and series favorite, Nemesis. They are also focusing on representing the more minor details from the game, even having one scene appear as if you'd pulled up the pause menu.

Regarding the project and Capcom collaborating with Universal, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Producer of Resident Evil 6, had this to say,

It's such a great delight to work with Universal on a haunted house based on the Resident Evil games. The games have become synonymous with survival horror and we look forward to delivering a new way for consumers to experience the Resident Evil world we have created in the haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights.

This sounds pretty awesome, but I'm not sure if it'd be worth me flying down to Orlando to check out. Anyone out there making a special trip to Raccoon City this fall to, once again, enter the world of survival horror? Goodluck...

[IGN]

‘Star Wars’ News – Kasdan Starts Fresh & Game Developer Wants Disney’s Permission

I don’t think there’s been this much rumor mongering about Star Wars since 1996, but here we go: Another day/another day of Star Wars Rumor Control.

First up, one Lawrence Kasdan. Already in the Jedi Knight Hall of Fame for penning the screenplays to The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Kasdan is now writing the scripts with Simon Kinberg for the proposed spin-off films that will compliment the new sequel trilogy directed by J.J. Abrams. Over the weekend, the L.A. Times (via /Film) caught up with Kasdan at the Final Draft Hall of Fame ceremony and asked him about what might be in the cooker for the new films.

And while, of course, Kasdan offered no specific details, he did signal some broad strokes he and Kinberg maybe considering for their end of Star Wars Universe’s future. Basically, Kasdan says that he’s not “focusing on his previous scripts or on the extended Star Wars universe” in writing the new films.

"I'm trying to start fresh,” he says. “There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they've been missing, and we're hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it's all new."

There’s a couple of ways to take that: are they going to create entire new characters to base their stories around as opposed to telling the adventures of Yoda, young Han Solo, or Boba Fett as previously reported? Are they going for a completely new style of storytelling? Less pulpy and maybe more Merchant-Ivory, for example? Still, Kasdan, like everybody, has his own ideas about where Star Wars went off the tracks since the last time he worked on the films.

"The ones I worked on were a long time ago, and they had a slightly different feeling than the ones that followed,” he explains. “The first three, 'Star Wars,' 'Empire' and 'Return of the Jedi' are all sort of more about people than the ones that followed.”

He has a point. So what will the next Wars look like without George Lucas‘ input? “George sort of brought me into this part of it, and he's stepping back from the company,” Kasdan says. “He's sort of given his blessing to everybody, and he'll be there if you need him. I think everyone's interested to see where this can go. It's been some very different places over 30 years .... I think with J.J., we'll get something entirely new.”

Meanwhile, if your looking towards the future of Star Wars gaming there’s some news on that front too. Obsidian Entertainment, the producers behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, have in the works plans for an entirely new Star Wars game they swear will be epic – if only they can get the green light from Disney.

Welcome to the legal fog bank that a lot of Star Wars licenses now find themselves in. Disney now owns Star Wars, so any deals that Lucasfilm made independently prior to the purchase with either run out their contracts or have to negotiate again from scratch with Disney.

Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart recently talked to Rock Paper Shotgun (via Blastr) about what their plans for this new game involved, including the time period:

"There's a lot of different eras in Star Wars, and that's what we would focus on. We pitched a between-Episode III and Episode IV game [to LucasArts]. Because we think that timeframe is super interesting. It's the fall of the Republic, the extermination of the Jedi, it's Obi-Wan going off and making sure Luke is OK. You have the Sith, but you have the extermination of all Force users except for very, very few.

So it was an interesting time to set a game, and you know, Chris Avellone came up with a really cool story. We also latched onto it because it has elements people remember, but not the stories. It can just completely not involve [the movies]. It can tease them, but nothing else."

LucasArts was hooked at the time, but in the here and now, Urquhart says that he’ll have to go back and pitch Disney on the project, if they can get their foot in the door…

"It's something we're still hoping for, even with the Disney/Lucas stuff going on. It changes things a lot, but you know, we're gonna push on it. I would say it's within the top three pitches we've ever come up with. We really worked on it hard and distilled it down to these eight or ten pages that really sold the story and characters. Then we sold it off to LucasArts and got a call back later that day. They were like, 'This seems really cool. We want to talk to you guys, like, tomorrow about it.'"

"We haven't [talked with Disney yet]. We're kind of waiting for the smoke to clear. But that's one of my next big things to do. To kind of go over there and [get the ball rolling again]."

It sounds like they’re really excited about it, so I hope that at least get the meeting. Time will tell, I guess, just how far those old relationships will extend between Lucasfilm and its former partners with Disney now in charge.

More news as it develops.

Michael Keaton Joins the Cast of the ‘Need For Speed’ Movie Adaptation

People love street racing games. They allow us experience all sorts of thrilling, illegal actions, without all the jail time and incidents involving dropped soap. Just look at the Fast and Furious franchise, its on it’s sixth film with nothing more than fast cars and a case of Tokyo drifting. Easy to see why Dreamworks is cashing in on the racing film phenomenon with their adaptation of a Need for Speed.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the game franchise, Dreamworks and their Need for Speed project have already signed several young up and comers, and now they’ve upped their “game” hiring a Batman…well, our generation’s Bruce Wayne at least.

Veteran actor and two-time Batman Michael Keaton has joined the cast as "the reclusive and eccentric host of an underground supercar race where he invites the best drivers from around the world."

Essentially he’ll be Bruce if he grew up without the theater incident and kept all the money and power, but it sounds more like a supporting role according to the synopsis from Heat Vision:

The story tells of a local street-racer (Paul) who partners with a rich and arrogant business associate (Cooper), only to find himself framed by his colleague and sent to prison. After his stint in the joint, he joins a New York-to-Los Angeles race to get revenge. But when the ex-partner learns of the scheme, he puts a massive bounty on the racer's head, forcing him to run a cross-country gauntlet of illegal racers in all manner of supercharged vehicles.

With the backing of a great cast including Aaron Paul and Dominic Cooper, as well as Imogen Poots, Rami Malek and actor/musician Kid Cudi in supporting roles, the film has a solid number of notable names. Having Michael will help bridge the youth gap.

Need for Speed is being written by George Gatins, in conjunction with his brother and producer John Gatins, Mark Sourian and executive producer John Brooks Klingenbeck. It will race into theaters on February 7th, 2014.

Source: Screen Rant

New Trailer for ‘Aliens: Colonial Marines’

Aliens fans are probably already aware that the franchise is dropping another video game on us in about a month and a half. This one is called Aliens: Colonial Marines and looks to be a FPS for the most part. And with its upcoming release is a new trailer to entice people into buying and playing the game, of course.

The game is a sequel to the movie Aliens, dealing with events immediately following the film. To emphasize this connection, the new trailer features a warning message from none-other-than Corporal Hicks. But do the marines listen and stay away from the alien-infested planet? Well, it wouldn't be much of a game if they did, right?

So, without further ado, here is the latest trailer:

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Look for Aliens: Colonial Marines to be hitting the shelves at your local game stores come February 13^th of next year.

Thanks to geektyrant for the heads-up.

Sources Say: New X-Box in the New Year!

Hot on the heels of the recently released Wii U, Nintendo’s next generation console gaming platform, comes news that the next iteration of X-Box is on its way in the next year, according to Bloomberg News.

Sources inside, or close to, Microsoft are saying that the company is looking to a potential release date of next Thanksgiving (American, not Canadian) in order to take maximum advantage of the holiday sales period. The company is also debating right now the best way to unveil the new system, the choice being a big reveal at an industry event like E3 or a dedicated event organized by Microsoft. An official statement from Microsoft was not made when asked about the rumor.

Wii U was released a few weeks ago and sold more than 400,000 units in its first seven days of release, while the original Wii sold another 300,000 over the busy Thanksgiving week sales period. But X-Box 360 remains the industry leader, selling 750,000 units over the same period allowing Microsoft to remain the best-seller for 22 straight months.

Still no world yet on a release date for the next generation of Playstation. {tumbleweed}

More news will appear here as it develops.

Source: Business Insider

Tom Hardy to Headline ‘Splinter Cell’ Film

After toiling in Hollywood for years, it seems that actor Tom Hardy is getting the ultimate honor that an actor can get in the movie business: a starring role in his own franchise. And bonus points for it being based on a highly popular video game.

Following hot on the heels of the news that Eric Singer (The International) had been hired to write the screenplay for a Splinter Cell movie, comes word from Variety that Hardy has been cast as the lead character in the film. Here’s what Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet says about the developments on the Splinter Cell front:

"Tom Hardy is currently one of the biggest talents in the film industry, and he has a phenomenal ability to take on complex and varied roles with his broad range of acting skills. His involvement in the 'Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell' movie is exciting news for movie and video game fans alike. Meanwhile, Eric Singer is one of the most talented writers of the moment, and ... we're confident he'll bring a fresh approach and create a thrilling story ... while still respecting all the codes and traditions of the franchise that are so important to fans."

Ubisoft has been enjoying positive progress on turning their films into movies lately, the other recent big news being that Michael Fassbender was cast as the lead in the Assassin’s Creed movie. Hardy, meanwhile, is staying super busy with appearances in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, the Dennis Lehane adaptation Animal Rescue, and Doug Liman's Everest.

What do you Bastards think? Is Hardy a good choice to lead Splinter Cell?

Source: Collider

Live Action Trailer – COD: Black Ops II – Everything’s Better With More Robert Downey Jr.

Activision has a new trailer out for it’s upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops II game and they’ve upped the celebrity bar with none other than Robert Downey Jr.You might remember that Activision used Jimmy Kimmel, and Kobe Bryant in their last Black Ops commercial in 2010.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II hits store shelves worldwide on November 13, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The game story line and soundtrack was created by David S. Goyer (co-writer of The Dark Knight Rises) and Trent Reznor (Academy Award-winning composer of The Social Network).

The single-player campaign will feature two connected storylines, one set in the 1970s through 1980s and the other in 2025. The protagonist of Black Ops, Alex Mason returns as the protagonist in the Cold War section, where he will be fighting in proxy wars for the United States in the Cold War. Known locations for this section of the game include multiple sites in Central America and in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. This section of the game will also see the rise to infamy of the game’s primary antagonist, Raul Menendez. Mason’s friend and colleague Frank Woods will also return, and narrate the story into the 2025 section of the game. The 2025 section of the game features Alex Mason’s son David as a protagonist. In it, a new cold war has broken out between China and the United States after China bans the export of rare earth elements following a cyberattack that cripples the Chinese Stock Exchange. In this era, war is defined by robotics, cyber warfare, unmanned vehicles and other modern technology. Taking advantage of this stand-off, Menendez attempts to bring the two powers to a full-blown war by inciting conflicts between the two. Known locations for this section of the game include Los Angeles, Singapore and Socotra, Yemen.

In the 2025 section of the game, the player will have access to special ‘Strike Force missions’, that feature permanent death and the outcome of which can affect the course of the campaign’s storyline.It has been hinted at that the side-plot of Viktor Reznov and his relationship with Alex Mason, which began in Black Ops, will be continued in Black Ops II.

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G4 Announces Cancellation of ‘X-Play’ & ‘Attack Of The Show’

It’s the end of a nerdy era over at G4 TV. Today the network announced the cancellation of two of it’s longest running shows, Attack of the Show and X-Play.There’s not been any official word on what will replace the shows and it’s anyone’s guess at this point.

G4 posted the announcement on it’s web page:

G4′s two longest-running and defining series, Attack of the Show! and X-Play, will be ending their run at the end of 2012. Both shows will include original episodes through the end of the year, and will look back at their most memorable moments as we lead up to their final episodes. A rotating lineup of guest co-hosts including John Barrowman, Michael Ian Black, Josh Myers, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel and Horatio Sanz will join AOTS hosts Candace Bailey and Sara Underwood, and X-Play hosts Morgan Webb and Blair Herter as part of the farewell shows.

With well over a thousand episodes each, Attack of the Show! and X-Play have defined gamer culture for a generation, serving as the launch pad for prominent personalities including Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Chris Hardwick and Adam Sessler. Attack of the Show! debuted March 28, 2005 and from the start was the ultimate guide to everything cool and new in the world of technology, web culture, gaming and pop culture. X-Play made its debut almost two years earlier, on April 28, 2003 (on G4's previous incarnation: TechTV), and immediately became the go-to destination for young men seeking the latest video game news, honest reviews, hands-on demos and exclusive video game trailers and footage. The year-end celebration will take you back through highlights of these landmark shows’ history, including its exclusive live-from-the-floor coverage of San Diego Comic-Con and E3.

Both long-running shows helped define, as well as expand, the pop culture and gaming TV experience for a generation. We hope you’ve had as much fun watching them as we have had making them, and sincerely hope you join us in bidding a fond farewell to Attack of the Show and X-Play’s as we look back over the next two months and head towards each series’ finale.

Now the question remains as to what will replace these shows. I only ever really watched the channel, on purpose that is, for Attack of the Show‘s coverage of Comic Con. Looking over what is left at G4 one can only wonder if there are replacement shows in the works or retools of the two canceled shows coming with a complete wipe of the existing programs.

What do I think will happen? Sadly, I think that G4 is going to go “Reality” shows, old movies, and repeats of old television shows.

What’s your take on this announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.

Via: G4

‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Producer Clark Spencer Spills The Beans On Skrillex Cameo

Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph is quickly becoming the animated movie to see this November. With stars like John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Sarah Silverman voicing the characters, this movie is sure to please kids, their parents, and gaming fanatics like myself. The attention to detail shown so far in the trailer and clips has been incredible.Producer Clark Spencer sat down with Sam Ashurst of Total Film to talk about the project how the project was able to get the rights to use all of our favorite video game characters that belonged to a myriad of competing video gaming companies.

“It was interesting part of the process, we talked early on about making the film authentic and the only way to do that was to have real game characters in the film as well as the characters we’d created, otherwise it would fell like an artificial environment.

But when you do that, you don’t know the reality of what characters you’re going to be able to license for the film.

Rich [Moore, director] and I went to E3, and pitched the movie to all the different game companies, talking about the concept.

What was great about that was we developed a one-on-one relationship [with the people at the game companies], and people warmed to the idea.

So they felt like it could be something interesting, but they were still a little skeptical, as they were giving their own creative characters over to Wreck-It Ralph.

And so we said we’d keep them involved in the process, and give them the script pages. We showed them the models, we showed them the early animation tests, and even the final animations.

We brought them along the entire way, and it made companies willing to participate, because they felt like we were going to be true to their characters.

As a result we got pretty much almost anything we wanted, because the companies started feeling the momentum and everybody pretty much said yes to us.”

Getting all those video game companies to agree is an amazing feat in itself, it must have looked like an almost impossible task in the beginning. I’m sure once one company agreed that the others most likely went with it so that their video game characters weren’t excluded from what could be a huge Disney movie blockbuster.

Spencer then went into detail about how specific those video game companies were about the use and appearance of their characters and how the production and animation team worked to include everyone in just about every step of the production.

“The games companies were very specific – there’s a scene in which Bowser drinks a cup of coffee, and they were very specific about how Bowser would drink coffee.

The other thing that was fascinating to me was that all of the companies know how tall their characters are.

There was lots of conversation about which character would be the biggest character in that Bad Anon scene. Even to the specifics of centimeters, but that was helpful, because we wanted it to be authentic.

We had a scene where we wanted the rings to come out of Sonic, and SEGA said the only way that happens is if he falls over, and we didn’t have him fall over in the scene, so we actually went back and re-animated it.”

There will be one HUGE video game character that won’t be making an appearance in Wreck-It Ralph, Mario will be curiously absent. Spencer addressed that issue by saying:

“The hard thing was, we were trying to work out the right way to use a character like Mario. It had to be organic to the film, we didn’t want to just paste him in there.

For Bowser, it made perfect sense for him to be a member of the Bad Anon group. For Mario himself we couldn’t think of the right way to incorporate him into the film, and so we didn’t do it.

Now we get to the human cameo in the film, Skrillex. It was announced at Comic Con that Skrillex would be contributing to the soundtrack for Wreck-T Ralph, but know we also know that Skrillex will be making his animated movie debut as well. When asked about this particular detail Spender said:

“We asked him if we could do it,” Spencer said. “We went to him first and said, ‘Hey, we have this party scene in the world of Fix It Felix Jr, and we have a DJ and we think it would make a nice cameo if we put you into it.’ And he was ecstatic.

We built his model, we put on his look, and we sent it to him to have him give us comments. And he said he would never wear non-black tennis shoes. He said “My tennis shoes will always be black.” So we changed the tennis shoes to black.

You don’t see them in the film, as he’s behind the DJ booth, but they were in the model. He has seen the animation, and he’s very, very excited about it.”

Who wouldn’t want to be in a Disney animated movie? This movie just keeps sounding better and better.The latest trailer is below, check it out.

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Wreck-It Ralph hits theater screens on November 2nd, 2012.

Via:

"> Total Film