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  • Seoul Street Options ‘Want’ & ‘Ruse’ From Author Cindy Pon

    Seoul Street Options ‘Want’ & ‘Ruse’ From Author Cindy Pon

    Will Yun Le and Mark and Christine Holder’s Seoul Street have purchased the rights to the best-selling novels, Want and Ruse, from author Cindy Pon. The books are being developed as an international television series.

    The news comes courtesy of Deadline, with the outlet reporting the project is in the early stages. A search is underway for a writer on the project, with those involved hoping to find an Asian American writer to work on the series. In a statement to Deadline, Christine Holder praised Pon’s books. “It’s an exciting and touching portrayal of love, war, and friendship encapsulated in this incredibly rich and textured world that Cindy has brilliantly created,” she said. “Cindy’s characters leaped off the page from the moment I opened the book. Her ability to craft such beautifully human characters while narrating the Asian experience lines up so well with what we are striving for at Seoul Street.”

    Pon’s book Want takes place in a near-future Taipei plagued by pollution in which a group of teenagers are willing to risk everything in order to save their city. Ruse, the follow-up novel to Want, the story takes place in a near-future Shanghai, a group of teens have their world turned upside down when one of their own is kidnapped.

    Like Holder, Pon expressed her excitement over the option of her books in a statement to Deadline. “Want is a book of my heart and was such a challenge and delight to write. It is a love letter to Taipei and cyberpunk with Asian leads, and I’m so excited by the prospect of bringing my story to the screen with the team at Seoul Street.”

    Source: Deadline.

  • ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Passes ‘Scream’ to Take Top Spot at the Domestic Box Office Again

    ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Passes ‘Scream’ to Take Top Spot at the Domestic Box Office Again

    Last weekend, it seemed like Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s hold on the international box office had come to an end, as the newly released Scream took over the top spot from the film in the domestic market. It didn’t take long for the box office juggernaut to once again return to the top, as it’s on its way to end the weekend with $13.5M while the horror film dropped by 61% to make $11.7M over its second weekend. The drop isn’t bad, as it’s on par with previous entries and is still one of the better second weekends for the franchise.

    As of now, No Way Home stands as the 4th highest domestic release with $720.4M by the end of the weekend. It’ll require another $40.1M to pass Avatar at the box office, which is a bit uncertain as of now, but the film has proven to have quite a bit of staying power, especially with it taking back the top spot again. Yet, it was still a frontloaded release, which isn’t too uncommon for Marvel films.

    The thing working against it is also that the box office is currently a bit dead until the next major releases in February with two very different entries, Roland Emmerich‘s next world-ending film Moonfall and the return of a childhood classic prankster group in Jackass Forever. So, we’ll see if it gives the box office a jolt, but it seems more likely that we won#t see another strong performance until The Batman releases in March, whose 3-hour runtime raises some interesting predictions given the character’s box office draw and how longer films still managed to become box office darlings.

    Source: Deadline

  • New ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Banner Offers New Look at America Chavez, Wanda, And More

    New ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Banner Offers New Look at America Chavez, Wanda, And More

    We sadly still have to wait a bit until Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness releases in theaters, but that isn’t stopping Marvel Studios from preparing their marketing material. They offer a look at what’s to come in the new film. Most of the material we’ve seen so far from the Doctor Strange sequel have been teases of the main cast and what may be their main threat, Shuma-Gorath with the new name Gargantos. It looks like a new banner has found its way online that offers a new look at the film’s cast, such as a new look at Wanda Maximoff, Wong, Doctor Strange, and America Chavez, as shared by @feiticeiraescbr.

    It’s curious we’re seeing so much of America Chavez in the promotion material, but she was barely used in the film’s initial trailer. There’s a good chance she might get a stronger focus once the next one arrives, but their marketing team is certainly focusing a lot on her. While the second image is familiar – especially for comic fans – the first banner offers a clue on her abilities, which was even teased in the initial trailer with Defender Strange floating as a star-shaped energy field was behind him. It’ll be interesting to see if she and even Gargantos might get a stronger focus in the sequel.

    Source: Twitter

  • REVIEW: ‘Heaven Dust 2’ is the ‘Resident Evil’ Throwback Gamers Need To Try

    REVIEW: ‘Heaven Dust 2’ is the ‘Resident Evil’ Throwback Gamers Need To Try

    As janky as the original Resident Evil games are, there’s an undeniable charm to them. Part of the essential old-school experience is the terror brought by the controls, the rigidness of the fixed camera angle, and the nightmarish door-opening loading screens. Within modern gaming standards, these are elements that players would crucify a game on, but back in the day, they served as key tenets of the genre. So when a new indie survival game commits to the DNA of the original Resident Evil games, you can’t help but applaud the homage.

    https://gfycat.com/leftwhoppinggrebe

    Heaven Dust 2 is a Resident Evil love letter from Chinese developers One Gruel Studio and publisher Indie Nova. It unabashedly wears its influence on its sleeve, in particular the first Resident Evil game, from the premise, which takes place in a mansion replete with secret passageways and laboratories, to the aforementioned mechanics that made those games so enduring.

    As expected, its story echoes many tropes from any imaginable zombie story. It has the quintessential virus outbreak, the mad scientist responsible, the mysterious patient zero, and the adversarial military group trying to keep the whole thing a secret. The storytelling isn’t particularly good and at times feels like the campaign of a mobile game. 

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    The way Heaven Dust 2 is indebted to its forebears may make or break the game depending on your mileage. Some of its attempts to replicate the DNA may be for the worse. The recovery frames in this game are unrefined to the point where getting stun-locked is a possibility. Not only that, the puzzle designs can oftentimes be frustrating to figure out while the bosses are mostly just bullet sponges. To top it all off, the gunplay lacks serious finesse.  

    The game’s puzzles are constantly at odds with its poor localization. Puzzle solutions are commonly found in in-game documents chronicling the events of the story. Unfortunately, a lot of the documents aren’t translated well into English, making certain puzzles tougher to figure out if you don’t read hard enough. The localization isn’t entirely incomprehensible but the solutions tend to get lost in translation.

    By design, there are also some gaps with the mechanics. The game isn’t exactly forgiving when it comes to inventory management and the lack of required items may hardlock players from progressing. It isn’t clear if there’s a built-in fix for potential hardlock issues so it’s important to be very careful while progressing through the game.

    The old curse of badly designed UI plagues Heaven Dust 2‘s menu system. It’s painful to look at and fails at distinguishing the many elements it throws on screen. The map is so shoddily made as well as the game’s gun modification menu.

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    One improvement Heaven Dust has over the old Resident Evil games is its isometric view, which gives players a more precise sense of space that in turn makes exploration more engaging. The game loses a bit of its atmosphere with the isometric view and kiddie chibi art style but it’s a game that’s easy on the eyes. You won’t play this game for the scares but for the familiarity it evokes.

    Heaven Dust 2 is a great reminder of how effective the original Resident Evil games were at using Metroidvania-style exploration. In spite of all its flaws, the game’s gated progression, rewards system, and cohesive level design convene in a very satisfying manner. A big plus is that backtracking never feels as tedious as it should be; it’ll take less than 10 minutes to cover the entire map of the game and there are zero loading screens to worry about.

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    All in all, Heaven Dust 2 is a wildly flawed game that manages to stay true to its goal of delivering an experience that brings players back to the early days of the survival-horror genre. It’s a charming game that doesn’t overstay its welcome yet will playfully keep players feeling nostalgic. Enthusiasts of the genre need to put this on their list.

  • Disney Lost ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ Due to Creative Differences With Author

    Disney Lost ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ Due to Creative Differences With Author

    Not long ago, it was announced that the hit young adult novel series Children of Blood and Bone would receive the movie treatment from Paramount Pictures. The news was wildly exciting for fans of the books, written by author Tomi Adeyemi. Yet, it was also a little confusing for anyone who remembered the 2020 Disney Investors Day panel that announced Lucasfilm would be adapting the franchise as their first non-Star Wars project in years. Luckily for the flabbergasted majority, an exclusive report from Borys Kit at The Hollywood Reporter is finally shedding some light on the matter.

    There was a point in time when Kathleen Kennedy and the folks as Lucasfilm were keen to adapt Blood and Bone with Rick Famuyiwa attached to direct. However, this was before the wild success of the company’s Star Wars-based projects on Disney+. According to THR, the studio’s focus on shows like The Mandalorian forced Blood and Bone to the back burner, and series creator Adeyemi took issue with the slow pace of the project’s development. The writer also wanted more creative control, pushing to write the film’s script herself, and Lucasfilm was unwilling to comply.

    As a result of the conflict, Lucasfilm decided to let its ownership of the story’s film rights run out and part ways with Adeyemi. Paramount won the rights after a long bidding war, and Lucasfilm has now committed to focusing on films and shows that relate to its established IP as opposed to developing new concepts. Time will tell how this move plays out for both parties, but it seems to be working out in their favor at the moment. Also, fans now have one less mystery to solve on their own.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Moon Knight’s Beats Out ‘WandaVision’ and ‘Hawkeye’ 24-Hour Viewership

    ‘Moon Knight’s Beats Out ‘WandaVision’ and ‘Hawkeye’ 24-Hour Viewership

    Just recently, we shared the news that Moon Knight has become Marvel Studios’ most liked video on their official Marvel channel. Turns out the latest Disney+ project has been quite the hit, as The Hollywood Reporters’ latest Heat Vision blog offered some insight into just how well it performed. So, the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one of their more obscure heroes garnered quite the buzz after his premiere during the NFL wild-card game. It seems that within 24 hours, the film topped 75M views.

    To put that into comparison, the highest viewed series is Falcon and the Winter Soldier with an impressive 125M. WandaVision had a strong start as the first Disney+ trailer premiere with 52M. Loki managed around 60M while Hawkeye only stood at 41.5M. From a social engagement aspect, the series beat out everyone else with 263K mentions. It was even higher than The Mandalorian, which was at around 221K mentions. They shared a quote from an anonymous executive producer from a rival studio, who stated that:

    I couldn’t tell if this was a movie or a TV show, that’s how good it looks.

    The look was certainly impressive and we may be seeing the first learnings that the studio took to heart after producing their first set of series. It’s a very new direction for the studio even after merging with Marvel TV. Here’s hoping they truly jump into the mind-bending aspects of the character

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins ‘Ahsoka’

    Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins ‘Ahsoka’

    Production on Ahsoka is set to start moving along sometime soon as the cast for the project continues to expand. The series will see Rosario Dawson return as Ahsoka, who she brought into live-action in Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Hayden Christensen is returning as Ahsoka’s former Jedi master-turned-Sith, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ivanna Sakhno are joining the cast as Sabine Wren and a “formidable, fierce and striking mercenary”, respectively . Now word of another actress jumping into the galaxy far, far away has come our way: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is reportedly set to join the cast of the upcoming Disney+ series.

    Winstead is best known for her roles as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Huntress in Birds of Prey, as well as her work in 10 Cloverfield Lane. Along with plot details on the series, info on Winstead’s role is still currently under wraps. Ahsoka is currently casting for a few other female leads, including one for a female, 36-40, that is described as “tough but maternal.” It’s possible that Winstead, who is 37, could be Lucasfilm’s choice for that role.

    Production on Ahsoka is expected to be ongoing in Los Angeles for most of 2022, with an October wrap tentatively scheduled. The series will see the return of corrupted Jedi Knight Barriss Offee and the live-action debut of Grand Admiral Thrawn when it streams, likely sometime in 2023.

    SOURCE: THR

  • ‘A Quiet Place’ Spinoff Release Date Pushed Back

    ‘A Quiet Place’ Spinoff Release Date Pushed Back

    It was just recently that we learned that Pig director Michael Sarnoski was taking over directing duties of A Quiet Place spinoff. Originally, Jeff Nicholas was going to tackle the project that was going to be Paramount’s gateway into creating a horror-based cinematic universe. Yet, it wasn’t until this month that they managed to find a replacement. As production hasn’t started yet, they have now also pushed the release date back by quite some months.

    It’s interesting that they decided to push back Mission: Impossible films – which have already been filmed mind you – back by an entire year, but A Quiet Place has now moved from March 31 to September 22, 2023. Of course, there’s the possibility that this is a film they’ve already worked on for some time and secretly filmed, or that production for Sarnoski‘s project will begin rather shortly.

    The film is still quite a mystery, as the more, we hear about it, it seems that it may explore the days when the alien invasion first started. John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are set to return. Given the fate of the former, it seems likely to state that this might spin off the events before the first film and might introduce a few new protagonists moving forward.

    Source: Twitter

  • Paramount’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ to Release a Week Early, Animated ‘Transformers’ Eyeing 2024 Release

    Paramount’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ to Release a Week Early, Animated ‘Transformers’ Eyeing 2024 Release

    Paramount has shifted many of its upcoming releases, including a few of its highly anticipated animated films from well-loved IPs. Luckily, unlike the recent Mission: Impossible delays, we’ll be getting the projects earlier than initially expected, something we haven’t seen much lately in the countless delays from production studios during the pandemic. Not all news from Paramount is just about changes in release schedules, as we also have also gotten a release date for their animated adaptation of Transformers.

    After some movement in the Paramount release schedules, we have news that the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film will now release on August 4, 2023, instead of the original date of August 11. It’s nice to get an earlier release for once, likely in an effort to move things around to better fit the newly delayed Mission: Impossible movies into the seemingly crowded 2023 lineup. In other news, we also now know the release date of a new Transformers animated movie, which is expected to release on July 19, 2024. We do not currently know the title of the film or any official information about the plot for now.

    While the live-action Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films left a lot to be desired for fans of the franchise, maybe a return to animation will be a welcome change and get both franchises back on track. There still is a live-action Transformers film in development as well. So, we’ll see how they’ll try to make the animated one stand out from that as well. These franchises are near and dear to many people’s hearts. Hopefully, this leads to a future more exciting than what we have had over the last few years.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Becomes Marvel Studios’ Most Liked Disney+ Series on YouTube

    ‘Moon Knight’ Becomes Marvel Studios’ Most Liked Disney+ Series on YouTube

    There are a lot of metrics we can work with nowadays to get a glimpse at how a project is performing before it even has officially aired. It’s never truly set in stone, but there they do help people to get t a feeling for just how popular an upcoming project may en dup being. Spider-Man: No Way Home’s impressive YouTube viewership was a testament to just how big of a release it ended up being. Now, it seems like Marvel Studios might have another big winner on its hands with Moon Knight going by its performance on YouTube.

    As the Direct points out, the latest premiere trailer for an upcoming Disney+ series has garnered over a million likes. That’s not a small accomplishment, as the trailer was only released barely a week ago and has managed to get more attention than WandaVision (760K), Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s (433K), or even Loki‘s 695K likes. Until now, Hawkeye held the most likes with 915K, but none of the Disney+ series managed to pass that milestone until now. However, you have to keep in mind these are purely the numbers from Marvel Entertainment’s official account. There are plenty more sites that may show different numbers based on their audiences.

    There’s definitely a case to be made that Oscar Isaac and a darker tone may have sold people on it. It felt closer to what we saw with Daredevil when it comes to tone, and that might just be the fresh take that viewers have been waiting for, especially on a family-friendly platform like Diseny+. Still, a relatively unknown character like Moon Knight beating out well-established characters is a testament to the synergy Marvel Studios is enjoying with their projects and the excitement for new takes on their ever-expanding franchise.

    Source: YouTube, The Direct