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Action-packed ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ trailer shows off some combat
It's a bummer that Alita: Battle Angel was delayed from its planned holiday season launch, but there's good news for fans eager to see more of the film: a new trailer has arrived. Unlike the preview that dropped in July which focused more on Alita finding herself, this one shows a lot more action and sword-swinging. We see Alita fight in a more advanced body, sliding around on a concrete luge track and slicing up bad guys.
EU approves Disney's purchase of Fox assets, with conditions
Disney's acquisition of Fox studios and TV channels is one step closer to becoming a practical reality. The European Commission has approved the mega-deal under the condition that Disney has to divest its stake in "factual channels" it controls in the European Economic Area, including History, Crime & Investigation and Lifetime. The buyout would have eliminated competition between two rivals in several countries, the Commission said.
Fox News will debut its subscription service on November 27th
Earlier this year, Fox revealed that it had plans to launch a paid streaming service for fans of its conservative news channel. Fox Nation will launch on Tuesday, November 27th, and will cost $6 per month. For those interest in paying yearly, it will be priced at $65 per year.
Fox Sports’ new virtual studio runs on Unreal Engine
It's no secret that Epic Games has enabled a number of gaming studios to create more-realistic visuals with its Unreal game engine. Since its debut in 1998, powering the first-person shooter Unreal, the technology has evolved to power hundreds of games, from Fortnite to Street Fighter V, and with that process, the virtual has become increasingly more realistic. Now in its fourth iteration, Unreal Engine is no longer exclusively being used for gaming, as other industries have taken notice of the possibilities. Unreal Engine 4 has become a key element for film and television in recent years, and Fox Sports is using it to power its new, completely virtual studio set. "Virtual sets have been around for quite some time, and we've done our fair share of using them," Zac Fields said. "But it's always been a struggle to give that sense of photo realism." Fields oversees Fox Sports' Graphic Technology and Integration department, which includes the addition of new gear during a studio build. He said the team started thinking about the idea of a virtual set about two years ago. Around 15 months ago, the network started getting staff familiar with the software and began tests. Then last winter, the broadcaster did a virtual show. Fields described this as a "full run-through" of a show on the virtual set that was built in Charlotte, North Carolina.
'Ant-Man and The Wasp' will be the last Marvel movie to hit Netflix
Sometime after Ant-Man and the Wasp finishes its theatrical run, it will stream on Netflix. But that's the last Marvel Studios movie that will appear on the service, the New York Times reports. Starting with Captain Marvel, all Disney movies will land on the Mouse House's upcoming streaming platform instead. So, Marvel fans will have to head to theaters find out the resolution to that Avengers: Infinity War cliffhanger, or catch the fourth Avengers movie on home video or Disney's own streaming platform.
Fox AI predicts a movie's audience based on its trailer
Modern movie trailers are already cynical exercises in attention grabbing (such as the social media-friendly burst of imagery at the start of many clips), but they might be even more calculated in the future. Researchers at 20th Century Fox have produced a deep learning system that can predict who will be most likely to watch a movie based on its trailer. Thanks to training that linked hundreds of trailers to movie attendance records, the AI can draw a connection between visual elements in trailers (such as colors, faces, landscapes and lighting) and the performance of a film for certain demographics. A trailer with plenty of talking heads and warm colors may appeal to a different group than one with lots of bold colors and sweeping vistas.
After Math: The price of doing business
Elon Musk just can't seem to stay out of the news. After last week's tirade against the Thai cave rescue diver, his girlfriend took to Twitter to defend his large donations to the GOP as "the price of doing business in america [sic]." But that price differs depending on who you ask. For right-wing troll Alex Jones, that price is a 30-day timeout from Facebook and Yahoo, but for MoviePass that price could well be the company's entire operation.
Disney and Fox's $71.3 billion merger gets shareholder approval
Now that Comcast has withdrawn from the bidding war, Disney is free to proceed with acquiring most of 21st Century Fox's assets. Shareholders for both companies just approved a $71.3 billion buyout, a larger figure than either of the suitor companies' earlier offers. They must still divest 22 regional sports networks per the Justice Department's demands, but should everything go smoothly, the merger is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.
'Cosmos: Possible Worlds' trailer explores alien life and butterflies
After the briefest of teases at the start of the year, Fox is ready to show Cosmos: Possible Worlds in earnest. The network has released an initial trailer that suggests Possible Worlds will follow the basic formula of the reborn series' first season while covering some decidedly different ground. As the name implies, there's a focus on extraterrestrial exploration and seemingly fantastical ideas. What would alien life be like, Neil deGrasse Tyson asks, and what are we doing to venture beyond Earth? There's even talk of exploring "paradoxical realities."
Comcast gives up on buying 21st Century Fox
The dance between Disney, Fox and Comcast has been complicated over the past few months, but it got a little simpler today. Comcast announced that it is withdrawing its offer to buy the assets of 21st Century Fox, according to CNBC. The company is instead focusing on its bid to purchase the percentage of Sky, the UK telecom network and TV channels, that Fox doesn't currently own. Fox is also in talks to purchase the remainder of Sky before the Disney deal goes through.
Defending InfoWars, Facebook declines to stop fake news
This week, we learned in concrete terms that Facebook, like the Trump administration, has no bottom when it comes to hypocrisy and catering to neo-fascist conservatives. The hole has since been dug so deep by the company that its usual tactic of trading access for a positive PR apology tour may not work as well as it used to.
Fox set a streaming record during the World Cup on Monday
Fox Sports has done a lot of work to deliver live streaming coverage of the World Cup in Russia, but it seems to be paying off. The network announced that the Brazil-Mexico match was its top authenticated streaming event ever with 1.4 million unique visitors, and that Monday was its best all-time streaming day with 2 million viewers. That trumps its previous all-time high of 1.8 million unique visitors set just a week ago on June 27th.
Netflix snaps up musical series originally intended for Fox
Netflix is no stranger to rescuing movies on the brink of oblivion, but now it's getting more comfortable with the idea of giving TV pilots a second chance. The company has ordered 10 episodes of Mixtape, a romantic musical series whose pilot didn't make the cut at Fox. Creator Joshua Safran (of Gossip Girl and Quantico fame, above) will continue to be involved along with most of the pilot's cast, with only the main actor's role changing.
DOJ demands Disney sell 22 regional sports channels in Fox acquisition
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it will require Disney to divest from 22 regional sports networks in order to complete its $71.3 billion acquisition of select Twenty-First Century Fox assets.
HDR10+ is one step closer to reaching your TV
Samsung, Panasonic, 20th Century Fox and Amazon are one step closer to giving Dolby Vision a run for its money. Companies now have easy access to the open, royalty-free HDR10+ standard thanks to a just-launched program that lets manufacturers prove TVs, monitors and other devices can handle the upgraded picture format. If the firms pass muster, they can slap an HDR10+ logo on their hardware to guide customers. The alliance didn't immediately line up partners that would go through this process, although it's safe to presume that Samsung and Panasonic will be first in line.
Fox turns ad breaks into dramas in bid to fight ad skipping
There's little doubt that TV's commercial breaks are on the decline. How do you get people to watch ads in an era of ad-skipping DVRs and commercial-free streaming services like Netflix or Hulu? Fox Networks has an idea: turn ad time into mini dramas you might want to watch. Variety has learned that Fox will will start running Unbreakables, or short, sponsored films that highlight people who've overcome adversities like cancer. It's hoping that they'll be less disruptive than conventional ads while giving relevant brands (like insurers, pharmaceutical giants and sportswear makers) a chance at "storytelling."
'Lucifer' will get a fourth season on Netflix
Every time a show gets cancelled or even seems close to being cancelled, fans cry out for Netflix to save it. The streaming service has hosted new seasons of several TV shows that other outlets sent to the grave (The Killing, Arrested Development, Longmire), and today announced another one: Lucifer. The series used to air on Fox before it was cancelled last month, but after a long #SaveLucifer campaign on social media -- and, according to Deadline, negotiations over domestic and international streaming rights of prior seasons -- the show will go on. Like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Expanse, middling ratings and a complicated streaming situation and played a role in Lucifer's status. Hulu has its streaming rights in the US, while Amazon (which was also reportedly interested) has the rights in the UK and Germany. Just one more thing to keep in mind when you're thinking about picking up a new series.
Comcast floats 'superior' $65 billion bid for Fox
As expected, a court win for AT&T's attempt to acquire Time Warner has produced another potential mega-acquisition. Seven years after swallowing up NBCUniversal, Comcast announced it's sent a letter to 21 Century Fox's Board of Directors informing them of a $65 billion cash offer for everything that it had agreed in December to sell to Disney for $52 billion in stock. That would cover the Fox movie and TV studios, plus its share of Hulu, the FX cable networks and about $13 billion in debt, and is separate from Comcast's competing bid (against Fox) to acquire UK pay-TV giant Sky. The growth of streaming and shrinking footprint of cable TV has created an atmosphere of companies loading up on media to do battle with Netflix and the rest of the internet. As such, Comcast has improved an offer it discussed with Fox last year by saying it's offering $2.5 billion in case the deal doesn't go through and would reimburse Fox for another $1.5 billion it will owe Disney for breaking their arrangement. Comcast's letter didn't directly mention yesterday's AT&T/Time Warner decision, but it repeatedly cites the belief that this deal will be approved by regulators. According to Comcast, this is because it is not subject to FCC review, and will pass antitrust scrutiny because much of the revenue involved occurs internationally. So far, only Fox has responded, saying it would "carefully review" the proposal.
How to watch the World Cup 2018
For soccer (er, football) fans everywhere, the next four weeks are going to be all about the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The globe's biggest sporting event, which takes place every four years, is kicking off Thursday, June 14th, when host nation Russia takes on Saudi Arabia at 11AM ET. And yes, we know the USA team won't be there, but football is bigger than just one nation. So even if you won't get to cheer on the Stars and Stripes this year, there's still plenty to look forward to at the World Cup.
'Tunic' is more than just a 'Zelda' clone with a cute fox
Tunic looks like a game that's taken a lot of inspiration from SNES era Zelda titles — and when Xbox's E3 2018 showcase is an awful lot of games with guns, zombies or unexplained apocalyptic surroundings, it was a welcome panacea. Meet the tiny fox embarking on an adorable, mysterious adventure.
