TV, Movies & Home Theatre - Page 13

Netflix officials have sent out a note to employees that has leaked to The New York Times. The note states the streaming platform is looking to fast-track its plans on account sharing and an ad-supported tier.

According to a report from The New York Times, two anonymous sources told the publication that a note was issued to employees that stated Netflix is planning on rolling out an ad-supported tier to the streaming platform during the fourth quarter of 2022. The note also stated that it will be addressing the large problem of account sharing across households, which follows an abysmal earning report released last month that revealed Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers.

Co-chief executive Reed Hastings said around the time of the earnings report release that the company would address the issue "over the next year or two". However, the notes sent to employees seem to show Netflix has changed its tune, with the sources saying the note indicated Netflix's plan is "faster and ambitious, and it will require some trade-offs".

Following the defamation suit between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, a petition has acquired millions of signatures to remove Heard from Aquaman 2.

The sequel to James Wan's Aquaman only recently wrapped up shooting in January of this year and is expected to be released in March 2023. However, individuals that have seen the stories that have come out of the defamation trial that describe Depp and Amber's relationship have caused a united online effort to cancel Heard from Aquaman 2, with a Change.org petition already receiving two million signatures.

The petition has a goal of three million signatures, which is where signees hope Heard will be removed from the coming film. The creator of the petition has written in its description that Heard shouldn't be allowed to play her role as Princess Mera, as she has been "exposed as a domestic abuser". Notably, the petition was originally created in 2020, and when Heard found out during that time it had 1.5 million signatures, she dismissed it as "Paid rumors and paid campaigns on social media".

Nintendo and Illumination have delayed the new Super Mario Bros. film from Holiday 2022 to Spring 2023.

Nintendo's new Super Mario Bros. movie, currently in production at Illumination Entertainment (Minions, Despicable Me), was originally supposed to launch late this year. Now both Nintendo and Illumination have announced the star-studded adaptation is being pushed back by a full quarter. Sonic The Hedgehog's $145.8 million success may have had something to do with the delay.

"After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023-April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America. My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait," Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto said in an announcement.

Subscription price hikes have pushed consumers towards budget-friendly ad-based offerings.

According to findings from analyst firm Antenna, audiences in the United States are opting for cheaper subscription plans with ads. The firm estimates that 35% of new streaming sign-ups are for the lower-cost ad tiers offered by SVOD services like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount+, and Hulu. Cord-cutting mentality has nearly gone full-circle as costs pressures consumers back towards the ad-based models of traditional TV.

The annual growth rate of ad-based sign ups has jumped from 19% in 2020 to 35% in 2022, an increase of 17 percentage points.

Zack Snyder has just shared the very first images of his "space opera" exclusive for Netflix, with the images dropping from the first day of shooting Rebel Moon.

Snyder tweeted the images to his official Twitter account, simply teasing "Day 1 #RebelMoon. It's begun". The shots give us a beautiful look at Djimon Hounsou (who plays General Titus), and perfectly displays why Snyder and his team have the best costume designers in the business.

Rebel Moon will be an expansive franchise after a bigger deal with Netflix was inked, as it originally started as Snyder's pitch for a possible Star Wars movie, but with a darker style. Production on Rebel Moon is expected to run through to the end of the year, and will be split into two movies.

Bungie is currently ramping up its workforce to adapt Destiny and other franchises into movies and TV shows.

Bungie hasn't hid its transmedia aspirations and is currently hiring a new Linear Media producer to lead these initiatives. Sony, who will acquire the studio for $3.6 billion, wants to help expand Destiny beyond gaming through its PlayStation Productions and Sony Pictures labels.

There isn't any one format for Destiny's transmedia expansion. Bungie lists different types of media from books to TV shows and films in the listing. "As the Senior Producer for Destiny Linear Media, you'll produce projects that extend the franchise into new categories including TV, films, books, comics and audio formats," the job listing reads.

I still remember walking out of the cinema after watching The Matrix back in 1999, influencing me forever as a 16-year-old geek and gamer. It has been 23 years since then -- if you can believe it -- so let's celebrate by watching the trailer to the movie:

The Matrix pioneered so much at the time with its iconic "Bullet-Time" slow-mo designed by John Gaeta, was copied, used in parodies, and everything in between. Bullet-Time was also joined by the amazing cinematography, soundtrack, acting (especially Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith), the storyline, the action, and so much more.

If you didn't know, The Matrix was shot here in Australia (in Sydney) with the Wachowski Bros. making the New South Wales government change their laws so that they could fly a helicopter above the city of Sydney. Incredible stuff, but totally worth it. It would be all-CG these days, including the crappy Matrix Resurrections.

Halo has set new records at Paramount+ as the most-watched premiere on the service, beating out originals like Star Trek's Picard.

The new Halo TV show, which premiered on March 24, is setting new records on Paramount+. The sci-fi FPS adaptation has become the most-watched premiere on the service, Deadline reports. The previous record-holder was 1883 that attracted 4.9 million viewers; CBS didn't reveal exact numbers but Halo's premiere surpassed 1883's viewership.

As of February 2022, CBS-Viacom announced that Paramount+ had 32.8 million subscribers. That number is likely higher now thanks to two big promotions. The service recently had a substantial cost-savings discount that offered 3 months for $6 and Microsoft is also offering a free 30-day trial as part of its premium Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

Netflix has announced Tekken Bloodline, a new anime series that will delve deep into Jin Kazama's past.

The latest video games adaptation will jump into the Tekken series. Netflix is producing an animated series based on Bandai Namco's popular fighting franchise Tekken, complete with an early exploration of the Mishima family saga that has carried across decades' worth of games. No release date has been announced for Tekken Bloodline.

This isn't Tekken's first anime adaptation; the series was adapted into a motion picture in 1998 during the height of Tekken 3's massive success (and just a year before Tekken Tag's launch).

The first season of the Halo TV series had a multi-million budget similar to a major AAA game.

The new Halo TV show from Paramount+ was quite an expensive series and according to Variety, the Halo TV show cost roughly $10 million per episode to produce. That's roughly $90 million, which is around the production budget of a AAA video game (excluding marketing costs, which can typically cost multiple times more than a video game's development costs).

The news comes at a time when Halo Infinite, the latest mainline game in the franchise, is apparently suffering from lower playercounts due to a myriad of reasons including lack of content, netcode issues, and steep competition from newer games (like Elden Ring). According to SteamDB, Halo Infinite had 10,615 concurrent players in the last 24 hours.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has commented on the recently viral video of a woman interrupting a live Russian news broadcast to protest the war.

The video has been acquired by numerous Western media outlets and has gone viral on social media's such as Twitter and Facebook. A reporter is seen running out during a live Channel One news broadcast to hold up a sign towards the camera. The sign called for "No war", and warned viewers not to trust the news they are watching as they are being lied to about the war. The sign also featured a sentence in English that read, "Russians against war".

According to reports from CNN, the video has sent shockwaves throughout Russian society as the woman was immediately arrested and can face a jail sentence of up to 15 years, under the new laws passed by Russia's President Vladimir Putin that allows Russian authorities to imprison any individual that speaks out against the Russian government.

A reporter has staged a public protest live during a news segment that has since sent shockwaves through Russian society.

Marina Ovsyannikova, the reporter for the state-owned Russian news network, was an editor of Channel One, and during a recent news segment, she held up a sign that read Russians were being lied to about the war and not to trust the news channel she was working for. The sign also called for "No war", and featured an English sentence that read, "Russians against war".

According to a report from CNN, Russian President Vladimir Putin passed a law that allows Russian authorities to imprison any individual that speaks out against the Russian government for 15 years. After the live protest, Ovsyannikova was detained and transferred to the Ostankino police department. CNN spoke to Yakov Kronrod, an American that traveled back to Russia to care for his sick grandmother, who said that the live protest has blown up throughout Russian society.

Sony is currently in talks with Amazon to produce a live action TV series based on Sony Santa Monica's 2018 God of War game.

Sources tell Deadline that Amazon is currently in discussions to make a God of War TV show adaptation. The series would premiere on Amazon's Prime Video streaming service and is reportedly being helmed by Expanse showrunners Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, alongside The Wheel of Time producer and Uncharted film writer Rafe Judkins. Sony's own PlayStation Productions and Pictures Television branches are also involved.

This would mark the sixth major video game adaptation production from Sony, with other projects including 2022's Uncharted film, a new Jak and Daxter film, an upcoming Ghost of Tsushima movie, and TV shows based on The Last of Us (HBO) and Twisted Metal (NBC's Peacock).

Sony has consolidated its anime offerings into Crunchyroll to provide "all your anime in one platform."

Funimation content has arrived on streaming service Crunchyroll to provide a monstrous 40,000 episodes+ of anime. Crunchyroll will also be the exclusive service for new anime broadcasts. Funimation subscribers are encouraged to cancel and move over to Crunchyroll instead, however watch history and queue features haven't been translated over to the new service.

"Crunchyroll subscribers can now enjoy the world's largest anime library of more than 40,000 episodes and over 16,000 hours of content in addition to the upcoming Spring anime season, which will be the biggest on record!" reads a press release.

Sony's Twisted Metal TV show adaptation will premiere on NBC's Peacock streaming service, Deadline reports.

The new Twisted Metal TV show will be a rip-roaring comedy with Marvel star Anthony Mackie (Falcon) leading the cast and Cobra Kai writer Michael Jonathan Smith penning the series. NBC has ordered a season to bolster its Peacock streamer, and Sony's own PlayStation Productions and Pictures divisions are teaming up with Universal Television to produce.

The show is set in the familiar Mad Max-ian post-apocalyptic world established by the original games, and will feature iconic characters like Sweet Tooth. It's possible the series will release at the same time as the new Twisted Metal game that's currently in development.

The Last of Us TV show will not premiere in 2022, HBO has confirmed.

Joel and Ellie's harrowing story won't premiere in 2022, HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys has told Deadline. "It's not going to air in 2022 - they are still shooting in Canada. I imagine you will see it in '23."

Bloys talks up Craig Mazin's vision for the series (Mazin, who created the award-winning Chernobyl series, is writing the new Last of Us adaptation): "I have seen some early episodes and I'm very excited. Craig did Chernobyl for us, he is a fantastic writer and director. What I've seen looks amazing, so I'm excited for it, but it will not be in '22."

ViacomCBS orders a second season of the upcoming live action Halo TV series adaptation as part of its new content blitz.

After years of development hell, the Halo TV show finally premieres on March 24 with Pablo Schreiber starring as Master Chief. Strong reception from fans has bolstered Paramount's confidence in the series and a second season of the Halo show has officially been greenlit.

While it's set in the same universe, the Halo Paramount+ series makes significant divergences from the established game lore. The show actually has its own separate parallel timeline called the Silver Timeline which allows writers and creators to conveniently borrow, adapt, and alter key events, characters, and locations to make the decades'-long series more show friendly.

SEGA and Paramount are going on a Sonic blitz.

The Blue Blur is coming back to the silver screen with a third Sonic film, Paramount and SEGA have announced. The second film, which is due out April 8, is expected to deliver another box office record with its all-star cast including Jim Carrey, Idris Elba, and James Marsden. The first Sonic movie is one of the best-earning video game theatrical adaptations of all time with nearly $320 million earned at the box office.

Paramount is also producing a live-action Sonic TV show exclusively for its Paramount+ streaming service, which recently broke 38 million paid subscribers. This rush of Sonic transmedia is part of Paramount's massive content push to accelerate its streaming and entertainment business, which so happens to be a great move for both companies; Sonic has a combined 1 billion games sold and downloaded across the last 30 years.

It's official: Netflix is making a BioShock movie...but exact details haven't been announced.

BioShock is the latest video game franchise to get a film adaptation. On the heels of multiple games-related successes, Netflix has announced that BioShock will be the next interactive IP to become a feature-length movie.

Netflix today confirmed the news but didn't announce exact details: "Netflix, 2K and Take-Two Interactive are partnering to produce a film adaptation of the renowned video game franchise BioShock."

The Rock is currently in discussions to star in a new Call of Duty movie.

Sources have told Giant Freakin Robot that The Rock has opened talks to bring Call of Duty to the big screen. Activision's original Call of Duty film was cancelled in 2020, but it might get dusted off for one of the most popular actors in the world.

Johnson told Men's Journal that he will star in a new video game film adaptation and an announcement will be made this year: