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‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ director joins ‘Uncharted’ movie
The long-awaited Uncharted movie has a new director. Dan Trachtenberg, known for 10 Cloverfield Lane, has joined the Uncharted project, Variety reports, taking over the helm after director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Stranger Things) stepped down due to scheduling conflicts. Levy was initially announced as the film's director back in 2016, and the following year, Sony revealed that actor Tom Holland would play Nathan Drake, Uncharted's treasure hunter protagonist.
The ‘Minecraft’ movie will now be directed by Peter Sollett
The Warner Bros. Minecraft movie has a new director... again. Variety reports that Peter Sollett is now on board to write and direct the long-awaited movie, which was at one point supposed to be released in May of this year. However, production has hit delays, due in part to director switchups. Previously, Rob McElhenney (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) was set to direct the film, but he left the project last August. And he had taken over from Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) who dropped out in 2014.
Video game movie 'Free Guy' signs Jodie Comer, Lil Rel and Joe Keery
Things are moving forward for video game focused action-comedy Free Guy. The movie, which stars Deadpool favorite Ryan Reynolds, has just signed Killing Eve's Jodie Comer, Get Out's Lil Rel and Stranger Things' Joe Keery in supporting roles. Free Guy -- set to begin shooting in April -- tells the story of a background character (Reynolds) who realizes he's living in a video game, and with the help of an avatar (Comer), must stop the game's developers from shutting down his world.
How Troy Baker's Naughty Dog work influenced 'Shadow of War'
Troy Baker has lent his voice and performances to some of the biggest games of the past decade. From six roles across Darksiders 2 to playing Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite or stepping into The Joker's shoes in Batman: Arkham Origins, you might not realize it's actually him delivering the lines until you see the credits. That's because he approaches each performance incredibly differently. With Middle-earth: Shadow of War his job was particularly complex: In addition to reprising his role as Talion, a Ranger of Gondor who's more or less possessed by an undead prince, Baker served as the director for all of the game's performance-capture story sequences. For that task, Baker relied on his experience with director Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog and his roles in the studio's The Last of Us (TLoU) and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Naughty Dog is widely regarded as having some of the best performances and shot composition in video game story sequences -- there are definitely worse places to look to for inspiration.
MIT's camera drones are smart enough to get the perfect shot
Over the last few years we've seen more camera drones than we can count, but getting the best footage out of them will take something extra. While many big budget productions are already using drone cameras, a system developed by MIT and ETH Zurich researchers goes beyond mere Steadicam or even subject-tracking, by allowing the director to define exactly how a shot is framed.
Watch a live Director's Commentary of 'Until Dawn' right now
Until Dawn is a spooky spectacle of classic horror themes and beautifully branching narrative paths -- and today, developers at Supermassive Games will spill a bunch of behind-the-scenes secrets, live on Twitch. Supermassive is participating in an Until Dawn Director's Commentary livestream at 3:30PM ET, on its own channel (embedded below) and hosted on the official PlayStation Twitch outlet. If you have questions about the characters, setting, mechanics or story of Until Dawn, this is where you might find your answers. Were we supposed to loathe Emily? Who was Josh modeled after? Will Sam be our BFF in real life (please)? For the answers, tune in. Who knows -- the devs may even talk about Rush of Blood, the Until Dawn spin-off for PlayStation VR.
RIFT announces Christopher Junior as game director
The release of RIFT's latest expansion has led to a minor changing of the guard over at Trion Worlds. It's still the same guard, though, just in different positions. A shuffling of the guard, if you will. The game's new executive producer Bill Fisher announced in a letter to the community that Christopher "Archonix" Junior is getting brought up to the director position following the release of Nightmare Tide. Junior, by his own words, has been working with RIFT focusing chiefly on the systems end of design. The game's holiday event is scheduled to live next week, followed by the first major patch since the launch of the expansion. The patch, tentatively titled Storm at Sea, will include a new open-world area, extensions to the existing raiding area, and updates to the Minion systems that were introduced with the expansion. Check out the full letter to the community for another few details and a bit more introduction to the game's new director.
Shadow of the Colossus film finds a director
The Shadow of the Colossus movie will be directed by Andres Muschietti, director of the 2013 horror film Mama, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today. Shadow of the Colossus still has Scott Lochhead on board to pen the script, now with Muschietti supervising. Lochhead co-wrote the screenplay for the 2011 action thriller Hanna, starring Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. A Shadow of the Colossus movie has been on Sony's to-do list since 2009, when it was to be helmed by Chronicle director Josh Trank, with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li writer Justin Marks doing the screenplay. [Original image: Sony]
Ang Lee set to helm 3D boxing film, re-create classic fights from the '60s and '70s
Nobody can accuse Oscar-winning director Ang Lee of being stuck in a box, having gone from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Hulk to Life of Pi. According to Deadline Hollywood, he'll next tackle a boxing film that looks at the 1960s and '70s golden age or prizefighting, with such rivalries as Ali-Frazier and Hearns-Duran. Intriguingly, he intends to give us an intimate peek into that world by filming it in 3D, presumably using Life of Pi's Cameron Pace Fusion 3D technology. Other story and technical details have yet to come out, but given the filmmaker's love of complex themes and the epic clashes of the era, he's got our attention.
Director's letter for Age of Conan talks loot, merges, and dungeons
If you've not been happy with loot rewards in Age of Conan, you can take some succor in the fact that the designers aren't happy with them either. The latest director's letter discusses the problem of rewards in the first Dragon's Spine dungeon and explains that the team is trying to create interesting loot without creating a huge power imbalance between new and veteran characters at the cap. While the next few dungeons will fill out the loot sets that have been established, the team is actively working on long-term solutions. Beyond that, the game remains on-track for server merges in the summer, with older unplayed characters moving into "archival" status to make database merges less onerous. The tradeskill revamp and further dungeons are also in the works; Coils of Ubah Khan is nearing launch as the next dungeon. For more details on the updates and discussion of achievements, take a look at the full letter.
ZTE Director arrives at US Cellular, takes charge of entry-level Android
US Cellular has had precious few truly low-cost smartphones running an Android build that wasn't baked in 2010. For those who'd like something a little fresher, the ZTE Director is here. While it's only slightly ahead of the trailing edge with stock Ice Cream Sandwich, that's an improvement on a category where Gingerbread still rules. Likewise, no one will be floored by the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.5-inch 480 x 320 screen, 4GB of storage (plus microSD slot) and 3-megapixel rear camera, although the 1,500mAh battery is ample for the size. We imagine that customers will mostly be enamored by the price -- when the Director costs a penny on contract and $200 contract-free, it may bring in those who'd have held on to that basic flip phone for a little while longer.
Massively Exclusive: A dinner with Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida
Having a conversation with Naoki Yoshida can be a very intimidating exercise. It's not because of his demeanor; he's friendly, genial, and has an obvious sense of humor. No, it's because there's an unmistakable level of energy to him, a huge amount of passion and ambition that drives everything he talks about. He's exactly the sort of person who would try something completely insane like remaking a game from the ground up after burning the first version to the ground, for example. I had the opportunity to sit down for a one-on-one dinner with Yoshida at the Final Fantasy XIV preview event, during which we talked a great deal both about the upcoming relaunch of the game as well as his own experiences in remaking everything. For those of us who play Final Fantasy XIV, it's obviously an exciting time, but for Yoshida, what's happening now is the culmination of work that started only a month after he took over control of a game that he had to revitalize after a horrible flop on launch.
Adobe charging 10 percent royalty on iOS games made with Director 12
Adobe recently released version 12 of Director, its interactive app creation system, and in doing so introduced the ability for those who use the app to create iOS games to publish their titles directly to the App Store. As it turns out, that potentially time-saving capability comes at a premium. 9to5Mac reports that Adobe is asking for a 10% cut of all profits for games created in Director 12 -- if they make more than US$20,000 in the App Store. Director users on Adobe's forums are upset by the move, which is outlined in the application's new terms and conditions. Evidently, it's up to app authors to inform Adobe of any sales beyond the initial $20,000 mark and pay the company directly. This differs from other development products such as Unity, which charge app makers up-front or on a per-title basis in order to utilize their software to make commercial products. In this case, there's a $999 initial cost for Director plus a royalty, which seems to be a little more than these devs are willing to pay.
Kate Edwards named IGDA's new executive director
Gordon Bellamy stepped down as the director of the Interational Game Developers' Association last July, and the organization has finally named his successor. Kate Edwards will serve as the group's new executive director, after being an IGDA member for 16 years, and founding and chairing the IGDA's Localization Special Interest Group.Global cultural strategy is Edwards' specialty: She worked for Microsoft as a geopolitical strategist in the '90s, and more recently worked at her own company, Englobe, since 2005. In addition to her other experience with the IGDA, Edwards also helped co-organize the Game Developers' Conference Localization Summit. The IGDA's chairman, Dustin Clingman, says he hopes Edwards will use her talents to help the group "lay a foundation for ongoing international growth."
God of War: Ascension, Power Stone, and paying allegiance to the gods
When asked about how he and the team at Sony Santa Monica are bringing multiplayer into the God of War series with God of War: Ascension, game director Todd Papy digs deep for inspiration. The single-player side of the game is obviously an influence, he says, as multiplayer side of the game attempts to enhance the always cinematic world of Kratos with a new character called the Avatar.But then things get a little nuts. "You can look at Allegiance levels," says Papy, referring to the mode's customization choices defined by the four gods Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, and Ares, "and you can look at Diablo and Call of Duty and other games that have skill trees that you basically level up."And then you can look at Power Stone," says Papy, "as far as that old school melee feel to it." Yes. That's the one. Playing God of War: Ascension's renamed "Favor of the Gods" mode, and running around with up to eight other players flipping switches, executing combos, and earning favor points does feel a whole lot like the Dreamcast classic. In a strange way, to be honest. But a good one nevertheless.%Gallery-172713%
Deus Ex: Human Revolution movie picks up 'Sinister' director Derrickson
Scott Derrickson, the director of Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, will direct and write the screenplay for the Deus Ex: Human Revolution movie, coming from CBS Films. Derrickson is partnering with Sinister co-writer C. Robert Cargill on the Deus Ex screenplay."Deus Ex is a phenomenal cyberpunk game with soul and intelligence," Derrickson says. "By combining amazing action and tension with big, philosophical ideas, Deus Ex is smart, ballsy, and will make one hell of a movie. Cargill and I can't wait to bring it to the big screen."Eventually, we can all look forward to Derrickson's deep, tense, ballsy action flick based on Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Our augmentations are tingling in anticipation.
Former Windows Phone Director Robert Williams joins Amazon, stirs rumor pot
We're no CSI, but if we were Amazon, planning to make a phone, we'd definitely want to make sure developers were happy, that we had some weight in the patent world, and had an idea of the end design. With that all sorted, we'd likely hire a senior Director of Business Development from a major competitor -- which is exactly what has happened. Robert Williams, formerly of said position at Microsoft Windows Phone is joining his fellow WP alumni, Brandon Watson, over at camp Bezos as Director of the App Store. Of course, this could just be a strategic move on behalf of the company's Android market, and the Amazon phone is still very much just a rumor, but with more pieces of the puzzle starting to fit, and the book seller's ability to turn things on their head, we're far from ruling it out just yet.
EVE Spotlight: An interview with Clear Skies creator Ian Chisholm
EVE Spotlight is a biweekly feature in which we interview prominent members of EVE Online's player community or development team. Every two weeks, we'll be shining the spotlight on a player or developer who has a significant impact on EVE to highlight the efforts of EVE's most influential people. EVE Online is well-known for its community's awesome cinematic productions, and no film is more renowned than the incredible machinima Clear Skies. Directed by Ian Chisholm, Clear Skies seamlessly merges in-game EVE footage with scenes composed using Valve's Source development kit. The films follow the adventures of captain John Rourke and his crew aboard the Minmatar Tempest class battleship Clear Skies. With more luck than sense, the Clear Skies crew continually finds itself in sticky situations but manages to come out on top. The first Clear Skies film won the award for best long-format film at the 2008 annual Machinima Filmfest, and a second film solidified the series' huge cult following. Clear Skies has even inspired other players like Kyoko Sakoda to produce their own cinematic masterpieces set in the EVE Online universe. The third and probably final film in the Clear Skies series was released earlier this week, absolutely shattering all expectations. In this massive edition of EVE Spotlight, I interview Clear Skies creator Ian Chisholm to find out all about the production of Clear Skies III.
James Cameron picks up 50 RED EPIC-Ms, high-fives Peter Jackson
Looks like another director's been on a shopping spree lately, as RED's Jim Jannard's just announced that he sold another 50 EPIC-Ms to one generous customer. Who's this, you ask? Why, it's James Cameron of Avatar and Titanic fame, and he's probably just blown $2.9 million on his latest stash of cinematographic toys -- it's $58,000 a pop for these hand-machined professional cameras. Details are scarce at the moment, but any educated guess would point at the upcoming Avatar 2 due end of 2014, meaning our favorite blue aliens will be returning in a healthy 5K resolution. Keep an eye out for Jannard's official announcement later this week for the full lowdown. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Intel hires Will-i-am as 'director of creative innovation,' whole world is nonplussed
You know a job title is tenuous when even the guys who announce it have to put it in quotation marks -- Intel's just signed up the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am as a "director of creative innovation." The hip hop star responsible for flooding CES 2010 and every BlackBerry event since with an irritatingly cheery tune (which we're sure we don't have to name) is about to commence a long-term, "hands-on" collaboration with Intel on its development of "new technologies, music and tech advocacy." Basically, it sounds like he'll act as an ambassador for the chip company, who'll in turn pretend to listen to his zany ideas about mega-giga-bass. Then again, Lady Gaga's similar partnership with Polaroid produced these glasses, so what the hell do we know?
