Month: January 2019

The Halo TV show, which has been in development for a very long time, hit a bit of speedbump at the end of 2018 when director Rupert Wyatt (Planet of the Apes) dropped out. Microsoft has now confirmed it is is “knee-deep” in conversations with potential replacements.

Kiki Wolfkill, the head of Transmedia efforts at 343, said in a blog post that 2018 was a “year of momentum and energy” for the Halo TV show, and this included “a few roadbumps.” In better news, the project continues to move ahead, and work is being done on the scripts and even prototyping of physical props. As for who may replace Wyatt in the director’s chair, Wolfkill said more details will be shared in the time ahead.

It sounds like the Halo TV show is still in the very early stages, however, as Wolfkill said she and colleague Frank O’Connor (Halo franchise director) are still building the “foundation” of the series. Whatever the case, Halo fans eager to know the project hasn’t been abandoned or forgotten have some good news in this update.

“It’s been a year of momentum and energy and a few roadbumps along the way but we are ending the year on the Halo TV series happily exhausted,” Wolfkill said. “Not unlike game development, it has been a very rapid pace over the last few months of script refinement, concepting, and practical prototyping (but unlike game development, much of this is physical prototyping which is a whole other thrill)! There have been short flights, long flights (ask [Frank O’Connor] about his unobtainium flight status), skype calls, and working sessions all of which have left us excited to come back in January and continue to build our foundation for this show.

“In the meantime, we’re knee-deep in director conversations and will share deets when we’re back!”

Wyatt, who directed Rise of the Planet of the Apes, left the Halo TV show due to scheduling conflicts. He said he enjoyed the time he spent working on the show, saying it was a “creatively rich and rewarding experience with a phenomenal team.”

The Halo TV show will air on Showtime, whose parent company, CBS, also owns GameSpot. Network president of programming Gary Levine said in his own statement that the Halo show is “evolving beautifully with rich characters, compelling stories, and powerful scripts.”

The production demands for the Halo TV show continue to be “enormous,” Levine said. As such, Showtime needed to add more time to the production schedule, and this meant that Wyatt had to drop out. Showtime said previously that Halo is the network’s “most ambitious series ever,” and that’s notable given Showtime is behind some massive productions such as Homeland, Shameless, Billions, and more recently the Jim Carrey show Kidding.

The Halo TV show will feature Master Chief in some capacity, but it remains to be seen if he is the lead, or what other characters might join him. Kyle Killen (Awake) will serve as writer, showrunner, and executive producer.

Showtime has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of Halo for its first season. The Halo show was originally announced back in 2013 with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television set to produce, which it still is.

In other Halo news, Microsoft recently shared more details about the much-anticipated Halo Infinite. Specifically, we learned the game will feature four-player split-screen support, which is notable considering Halo 5 had no split-screen at all.

New year, new Happy Death Day 2U trailer! The upcoming sequel to 2017’s Happy Death Day is heading to theaters on Valentine’s Day, with the original cast returning for a new take on its horror-tinged Groundhog Day-like premise.

In the new film, Tree (Jessica Rothe) isn’t the only one dying every time the day resets. Now she’s leading a ragtag group of college buddies in an attempt to stop whatever force it is that wants them all very dead. As seen in the new trailer, she’s also figured out a clever way around being constantly murdered–killing herself. Whether it’s falling off a building, jumping out of a plane without a parachute, or blowing herself up, Happy Death Day 2U is mixing things up when it comes to killing off its star just as much as the first one did.

Happy Death Day 2U is set two years after the original movie and throws Tree back into the time loop that started it all.. By this point, though, she’s a pro as reliving the same awful day over and over, so she quickly jumps into action to mobilize her group of friends and figure out who it is that wants her so dead.

The latest film in the franchise sees the rest of the originals cast returning alongside Rothe, as well as writer/director Christopher Landon. Happy Death Day 2U hits theaters on February 14.

After over a year, it’s finally time to start getting ready for the next trip to the Upside Down. To celebrate the new year, Netflix released the first teaser trailer for Stranger Things 3 at midnight on December 31. While the quick clip didn’t contain any new footage–it did include some vintage Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve imagery–it revealed when the hit series would return.

The third season of Stranger Things will premiere on Netflix on July 4, because what better way is there to celebrate America’s independence than with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) using her mental powers to throw cars around and fight demodogs? Along with the teaser, Netflix also released the first poster which gives a hint at the theme for the new season.

In the poster, the show’s stars are watching 4th of July fireworks explode in 1985, leading us to believe that the series won’t just be released over Independence Day, but also be set around it. The tagline reads, “One summer can change everything,” which sounds like a totally cliche ’80s movie line–something that is very appropriate for the series. It would be hard enough for the show’s youngest characters to enter their teenage years just as normal kids. It’s an entirely different situation for them, though, given the awful hellscape of a dimension they just can’t seem to get away from.

In the image, only Eleven and Will (Noah Schnapp) are looking back as the Upside Down makes its way into their world. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), on the other hand, is looking at Eleven with concern, while their friends are too mesmerized by the fireworks to realize anything is wrong.

The new teaser and poster still manage to keep most of what Season 3 will be about under wraps. Thus far, Netflix has been revealing tiny pieces of information about Stranger Things 3–like the list of episode titles–while managing to leave us knowing very little. However, there are some things we’ve learned, like the arrival of some new faces that include Cary Elwes and Jake Busey, or that the new shopping mall in town will play a major role.

If you’re dying to find out all of the details about Stranger Things 3, make sure to take a look at everything we’ve learned so far. Otherwise, you’ve got seven months to get ready for the show’s return on Netflix on July 4.

The Netflix series The Punisher has dropped a new teaser trailer for its second season along with, seemingly inadvertently, a release date. It appears that the return of the vigilante Frank Castle is right around the corner.

The brief teaser shows a hand taking a drink of liquor and then burning a full pardon for one Frank Castle, aka The Punisher–followed by the tagine “back to work.” The video only vaguely teases that the second season is coming soon, but we may know the release date regardless.

ComicBook reports that the Netflix Twitter account for the Middle East and North Africa tweeted a list of release dates for new content, which listed The Punisher on January 18. That tweet has since been deleted, so it’s likely that the account let the cat out of the bag before Netflix intended to announce it.

The Punisher spun off from Netflix’s Daredevil, after that series’ second season featured Castle as a prominent character being defended by the law firm of Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil). Being a part of Netflix’s Marvel universe probably places it on the chopping block, since Netflix has been progressively canceling its Marvel shows. The company canceled Iron Fist, then Luke Cage, and most recently, Daredevil.

That only leaves The Punisher and Jessica Jones remaining. Generally Netflix has given these cancellation announcements shortly after releasing the last production season, so we could hear about The Punisher being cancelled by the end of the month. Jessica Jones has a third season currently in production.

There is some hope for more of all of these shows, though, as a Disney executive recently left the door open to bringing them to its new streaming service, Disney+. The impending launch of that service has been interpreted as a reason behind Netflix scuttling its Marvel shows.