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Roku launches a free, ad-supported movie channel of its own
Roku announced today that is has launched its own movie channel. The Roku Channel will be available on all Roku players, sticks and TVs in the US and it will carry a selection of films that will update every month.
Redesigned Jaunt VR app hits Windows Mixed Reality next month
Jaunt has been working on immersive VR for quite some time now. It got an infusion of Disney cash a couple of years back and has been steadily adding technology like Dolby audio to it's library of VR content. You can even check out 150 cinematic titles from the company on Oculus, Vive, Daydream, Gear VR and PlayStation VR, along with iOS and Android. Jaunt has just announced a new partnership with Microsoft, which will put an updated Jaunt app on Windows Mixed Reality by mid-October.
Netflix nabs the next film from ‘Jason Bourne’ director
Netflix is causing waves on this year's film festival circuit with buzzy productions, such as Okja and Mudbound. Despite facing resistance from theatre chain owners upset with its distribution tactics, it seems its presence at awards ceremonies is set to continue. The streaming giant's latest high-profile win comes courtesy of Jason Bourne director Paul Greengrass. The as-yet untitled movie will mark Greengrass' return to the real-life dramas that have defined his career outside of the Bourne series.
The best movies on Amazon UK Prime Video
One of the most comprehensive Netflix rivals around, Amazon Prime Video is packed with a varied selection of films to choose from including cult classics, documentaries and new releases. Here's our pick of the best films to watch for free with your Amazon Prime subscription. See also: The best movies on Now TV and Netflix UK
'Wreck-It Ralph 2' is officially set to wreck the internet in 2018
Everyone's favorite game-related Disney movie (no, not Tron) Wreck-It Ralph is set for a sequel that's hitting the scene on March 9, 2018. This news probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone given the original's massive success back in 2012, but it's definitely a reason to get excited.
Amazon films make it to Cannes' 2016 lineup
Among all the titles that Cannes is screening at this year's film festival, five aren't like the rest. They're Amazon movies, see, and Cannes is known for refusing to showcase films made for screens smaller than a cinema's. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon will release the festival's opener, Woody Allen's Cafe Society, in the US. It also has rights to three films vying for Palme d'Or, namely The Neon Demon by Nicolas Winding Refn, Paterson by Jim Jarmusch and The Handmaiden by Park Chan-wook, who also directed Oldboy. The fifth title is Jarmusch's Gimme Danger, which documents the life and music of Iggy Pop.
Flix Premiere is the online cinema for forgotten films
Major film studios have much of their production schedules mapped out years in advance. By default, cinemas have pretty full calendars themselves. With a finite number of screens, theaters can only take so many movies from other distributors. Competition for these slots is fierce, and when film festival season draws to a close, some flicks simply don't get picked up. Even big names and moving stories can't save them from limbo. Flix Premiere, however, wants to do just that, by being an online cinema for overlooked films.
Steam's selling all four 'Mad Max' films along with the game
Steam has revealed that along with the new Mad Max game you'll be able to buy all four films, from the 1979 Mel Gibson original to this year's Fury Road. Valve does very little promotion for movies on Steam, but said in a press release that it has 100 titles to date, which sent me scurrying to check that fact. And yes! Sort of. There are titles for sale, but all are either documentaries (including its own) or straight-to-video fare like Let's Ruin it with Babies and Kung Fury.
Tribeca Film Festival welcomes a tech-driven change in storytelling
Storytellers are finding new mediums, like mobile apps, virtual reality headsets and web-based products, to convey their narratives. Of course, events like Sundance and Tribeca Film Festival are the perfect place to exhibit any fresh or interesting project, where people can actually experience them firsthand. And they all have one thing in common: The key is to make you part of the story. At Storyscapes, an exhibit at the Tribeca Film Festival that showcases immersive creations, we came across some that caught our eye. For example, a couple use VR to express the director's message, another an app and, in the case of Door Into the Dark, a 6,000-square-foot labyrinth that relies on audio to guide those who try it. Sounds like fun, right? Don't worry: You, too, can check these out if you happen to be in New York City from today, April 16th, through April 19th.
Amazon plans to release 12 movies a year in theaters and on Prime
In recent years, Amazon and Netflix have created original content to get more subscribers, grow revenues and set themselves apart from not only from each other, but major cable channels like HBO. Examples include House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black and Transparent. Amazon has always suggested it may look to expand beyond TV and into movies, but only now has it revealed its plan to do exactly that. In a release today, Amazon Studios said it will 'begin to produce and acquire original movies for theatrical release and early window distribution on Amazon Prime Instant Video."
UK tries to protect kids by rating music videos like movies
While David Cameron's broadband filters are doing an admirable job of shielding Britain's young eyes from adult content, the government reckons it can do more. That's why, as from October, it'll treat music videos like movies and begin placing age ratings on them. The Prime Minister announced the new program during a speech yesterday, noting that the government will work with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to "protect [..] children from some of the graphic content music videos" hosted on YouTube and Vevo.
SDCC reveals new details about the Warcraft movie
Are you excited for a movie about World of Warcraft? Because the Warcraft movie won't be about that, exactly; it's focused on the backstory of World of Warcraft, specifically how the First War got started before the first Warcraft game. At SDCC, some new details were revealed about the title, which is currently set for release in theaters in March of 2016. The story will focus on both sides of the conflict, with Durotan being the central character of the orcish side and Anduin Lothar taking up the protagonist mantle on the human side. A teaser trailer was also shown with a blend of both CGI and live effects, although the trailer has not yet been released to the general public. Director Duncan Jones stressed that he wants the film to be accessible to everyone and not just existing fans of the fanchise; it'll be a couple more years until fans can see how well that goal was accomplished.
Sky launches its movie download store that also pops a DVD in the post
Sky's explored almost every way of serving up TV and film possible, but today it becomes a true movie retailer for the first time. The new "Buy & Keep" store Sky announced at the beginning of the month is now live, so anyone with a Sky+HD box can buy and download movies to own forever. They won't just sit on your set-top box's HDD though, as within a working week, you'll also receive a physical DVD copy through the post. Slightly unorthodox, yes, but it's likely why Sky can offer digital copies of films on the same day as the DVD release. Titles range from £8 to £14, with a couple of hundred from studios 20th Century Fox and NBCUniversal populating the store today. New movies will be added each week and TV box sets, too, albeit later. The next step for Sky is to liberate the films from your living room by adding support for tablets and mobiles, as well as adding other way to access Buy & Keep through Rokus, YouView boxes and its own Now TV puck.
Fox to bring Magic: The Gathering to the silver screen
Magic: The Gathering is hoping to cast a spell on cinema-goers, after 20th Century Fox acquired screen rights to the Hasbro-owned card game. If your eyebrows aren't sufficiently raised, get this: According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film studio wants the 20-year-old series to become a mega-franchise like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Alrighty, then. Magic: The Gathering has been something of a gaming fixture in recent years, particularly through Stainless' Duels of the Planewalkers series. The Wizards of the Coasts card game has seen numerous adaptations into books, comics, and video games over the years, but if Fox makes good on those lofty ambitions, it'll be curious to see how it affects future video games; if there's one thing gaming is really lacking in, it's fantasy-based mega-franchises.
Daily iPhone App: Top Movies is a clever app for finding movies
Top Movies - A Zoomable Timeline of Movies is a free app that will appeal to movie fans. When you open it, you see posters for the top movies of the decade. Pinching zooms you in to see top films of a particular year, and zooming in all the way will show you films by actual release date. Tap a film poster and you'll either get a link to the Internet Movie Database, or you'll get to the iTunes Store where you can check out a preview or buy the movie. The database goes all the way back to 1915, where you'll find Birth of A Nation, and yes, you can get that from iTunes. While I liked the app, I have a couple of issues. What defines a top movie? Box office or popularity? Also, the app is inconsistent. Sometimes it goes to the App Store; sometimes to IMDb; but never both. It appears that if the film is in the App Store, there is no IMDb option, which is a shame. When MetaCritic scores are available, they are included, but there's no link to the reviews. Top Movies is a clever idea. I enjoyed browsing through the decades, and it gave me more than a few ideas for films I'd like to see. When you go to the App Store or IMDb, you stay in the app, which is a plus. Keep those IMDb listings on each film and I'd be ecstatic. Top Movies requires iOS 6.0 or later, and is a universal app, optimized for the iPhone 5 series of devices.
World of Warcraft movie to premiere in 2015
What's the plot of the World of Warcraft movie? We don't know. Who's starring in the film? We don't know that, either. When will we get to see the movie? That we do know. The official Twitter feed for the game announced last night that the World of Warcraft film will premiere on December 18th, 2015. So you've got a couple of years left before sitting in for opening night, or as is more likely the case before sitting at home and waiting until the film comes out on Blu-ray. It may seem a little early for a release date when so much about the film remains unknown, but considering the film has languished in development hell for seven years at this point most people involved are happy to kick things up a bit. Since 2015 is also the year that the new Star Wars movie is scheduled to hit theaters, you can at least enjoy the promise of some films to pique your interest in a couple of years.
Total Recall Online trades publishers, launches in China
We've followed the strange journey of Total Recall Online over the past few years. The IP was first obtained by SEE Virtual Worlds in 2011. The company announced that it was turning the franchise into a browser-based MMO in time for the movie remake. Well, this didn't happen, and at some point Total Recall Online changed hands to a new developer, UCJOY. UCJOY released it as a browser title in China, where it currently remains exclusive to the region. If you're curious, you can check out the old trailer for the game and think about the halcyon days of Johnny Cab and Kuato. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
The Perfect Ten: Movies for the MMO fan
You love movies? Sure, who doesn't? I certainly do; I've been reviewing them with friends since 1997. I'm always fascinated by how many out-of-the-way gems there are that go overlooked by the mainstream audience, and I love how films tie into our daily experiences in unexpected ways. MMOs haven't quite gotten popular enough to spawn their own sub-genre of films, apart from the odd fan project or the long-rumored World of Warcraft flick. That doesn't mean that we're lacking good movie role models for our hobby, however. I think that there are plenty of films that are perfectly suited for the MMO fan, even if they've never been thought of as such. So here are 10 films that speak to us as gamers. To make things interesting, I excluded any movie that shares the same IP as an MMO. Read this list and let me know what you would pick!
TodoMovies: The must-have movie app for movie lovers
Taphive's TodoMovies (US$1.99) app for iPhone has recently been updated to version 2.0. I'd not seen or used TodoMovies before, but as a huge movie enthusiast, I knew I had to check it out. At its heart, TodoMovie is an app that keeps track of movies you want to watch, but it's supercharged in every way. Here's how it works. Say, for example, you heard a friend talking about a film, like Iron Man 3. You want to know more about it, so you open TodoMovies and go to Discover View. You enter the title in the search box and it pops right up with a thumbnail picture, title and the release year. When you tap it, you're presented with the movie's poster and numerous options. Watch a trailer for the movie. Check out a gallery with all the official pictures. Add the film to your watch list or mark it as watched. Furthermore, find out about the storyline, cast and crew, release date as well as TodoMovie's own universal rating. If that's not enough, review ratings are also imported from Rotten Tomatoes and Netflix. In Discovery View, it's easy to find films by genre, what's in theaters at the moment and what's upcoming. With a tap and hold, quickly indicate whether you've seen a movie or you want to add it to your watch list. Movies you've seen will have a little green tick in the top-right corner. Movies you're still to watch will have a blue plus sign. %Gallery-186699% If you find a film you want to watch that's still unreleased, just add it to your watch list. TodoMovie will let you add a release notification reminder with notes, perhaps to remind you to buy tickets for a screening at your favorite cinema! TodoMovie makes it easy to share information on a great film with friends or family. From within the app, share to Twitter, Facebook, a text message or email. The app also searches and links to the iTunes Store, should you want to buy a soundtrack or even rent or buy a film. TodoMovie supports iCloud Sync, so if you're signed into iCloud, your list will be saved and accessible across your iDevices. There's also Dropbox integration, which lets you export images from movie galleries to your Dropbox. It's a really nice idea, especially if you enjoy having movie posters as your desktop picture. Add the Dropbox folder to Desktop pictures in your Mac's System Preferences and set it to change pictures periodically. Export the images from within TodoMovies and you'll have a carousel of movie posters as your desktop picture. My only gripe is the lack of high-resolution images. While offering all of these fantastic features, TodoMovie keeps what's important front and center -- movies. The app is really well-designed, functions flawlessly and looks gorgeous. The only complaint is that it's sometimes hard to decipher the movie title from a poster image. I'd have to tap the image and enter the movie details section just to find out what it was, which was a little frustrating at times. A list view would be nice. In summary, TodoMovies makes it really easy to discover new films, keep track of what you want to watch and what you've watched, and is a fantastic resource for movie info, reviews and media. Whether you're a film addict, conniossuer or you simply want to keep track of movies you want to watch, TodoMovies is a must-have app. TodoMovies is available from the App Store now. Our own Victor Agreda, Jr. spoke to the creator of TodoMovie at last year's WWDC. To learn about the origin of the app, watch the video below.
Sky Movies app finally arrives on Android
Sky's Movies app may be old hat for iOS users, but the companion experience has only just arrived on Android. By wielding the software, folks can look up what's airing across the network's film channels, read up on information about flicks and look up theater listings. Users can also catch streaming movies with the application (if a device is registered with Sky Go, of course), and even remotely set their Sky+ HD box to record. Hit the bordering source link for the the full feature list and download.
