Month: January 2019

In big video game movie news today, Sony announced that Dan Trachtenberg had signed on to direct the upcoming Uncharted movie featuring Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake. It wasn’t the only big news about the movie today, as Variety also reported that the script was re-written. The website reported that newcomers Jonathan Rosenberg and Mark Walker wrote the most recent script.

Like the director’s chair, the script has changed hands a few times already. Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team) wrote a draft, before Agents of Shield writer Rafe Judkins put in a draft. Rosenberg and Walker are just the latest to pen a draft of a script for the film. There is no word on the specific plot points for their script, but Variety reports that the film will follow a young Drake who meets Victor Sullivan, or Sully as he’s known in the games, for the first time. As such, it’s not a story already told by any of the games.

Carnahan said his draft of the Uncharted movie script was praised by management at Sony, while Uncharted director Amy Hennig and Nathan Drake actor Nolan North apparently praised it as well. However, Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann said no one at Naughty Dog had seen the script, and he wished Carnahan would stop implying that he had the studio’s support.

As for the news about Trachtenberg joining the Uncharted movie as its director, Druckmann said he’s stoked to see what Trachtenberg does with Uncharted.

Trachtenberg is just the latest director that Sony has hired for the long-in-development Uncharted movie. At different periods of time, David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter), Neil Burger (Limitless), Seth Gordon (The King of Kong), and Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Stranger Things) were all attached to direct.

Production on the Uncharted movie could start in 2019, which would be good news considering it’s been many, many years since the project was first announced. As of yet, there is no word on who else may star in the film, but if shooting does indeed start this year, all of those details and more should become available soon.

Trachtenberg directed 10 Cloverfield Lane, as well as a video game-themed episode of Black Mirror. He also directed a short film based on Valve’s puzzle game Portal. In the embedded tweet above, you can see Trachtenberg praise Uncharted back in 2007, also saying at the time that he’d love to have the opportunity to make the movie. And back in February 2018, Trachtenberg and Druckmann appeared on stage together to talk about crafting narratives for video games, film, and television.

A movie based on Naughty Dog’s other big franchise, The Last of Us, is also in the works.

Mario Tennis Aces launched for Nintendo Switch last year, and it’s steadily added new DLC characters over time. Now, data-miners have discovered references to a pair of new characters that could come to the whimsical tennis game some point in the future.

Link, the hero of the Legend of Zelda franchise, might become a playable character in the future, the data-mine suggests. Also discovered were Dark Link and Champion’s Tunic outfits that would presumably be able to be unlocked. It’s also been reported that Baby Mario might be coming to Mario Tennis Aces, based on data apparently found in the game.

Datamine evidence suggests Link may become a playable character in #MarioTennisAces , with Dark Link and Champion’s Tunic alts being provided through the Online Tournament (requiring 500 and 2000 points respectively to unlock them). pic.twitter.com/qx54WAWrQB

However, as the MarioTennisClub Twitter fan account reminds everyone, data mined from the game’s files might not necessarily be representative of what’s actually coming to the game in the future. Sometimes content found in game files, especially for developer Camelot, is never released publicly.

If Nintendo is set to announce new content for Mario Tennis Aces, January might be a fitting time. After all, one of the biggest tennis tournaments of the year, the Australian Open, is taking place right now in Melbourne, so Nintendo may see that as an opportunity to piggyback on the elevated interest in tennis worldwide.

A number of DLC characters have already been released for Mario Tennis Aces, including Birdo, Shy Guy, Koopa Paratroopa, and Petey Piranha.

Mario Tennis Aces released in June 2018 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. In our review, author Justin Clark stated, “Off-beat stages and creative use of characters from the Marioverse ensure that you’ll never lose sight of simply having fun, but don’t let the adorable exterior trick you; Aces takes its unorthodox tennis very seriously.”

The Sopranos, regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time, is coming back through a prequel movie, and now we’ve learned about two other actors who will star in it.

Variety reports that The Punisher actor Jon Bernthal and Oscar-nominated actress Vera Farmiga will have roles in the movie, though there is no word on what characters they’ll play. Bernthal and Farmiga have appeared in mobster media before, with Bernal starring in the Frank Darabont TV show Mob City and Farmiga in Martin Scorsese’s Boston mafia movie The Departed.

All we know so far about the Sopranos prequel movie, which is called The Many Saints of Newark, is that it’s set in the 1960s during the Newark race riots. Sopranos TV show creator David Chase co-wrote the script with another Sopranos veteran, Lawrence Konner.

The film is being directed by Alan Taylor, who directed episodes of Game of Thrones and the Marvel movie Thor: The Dark World. Perhaps more relevant to this movie, he also directed episodes of The Sopranos.

Alessandro Nivola (Jurassic Park III) will play Dickie Moltisanti in The Many Saints of Newark, but, as mentioned, it’s unclear who Bernthal and Farmiga will play. Dickie Moltisanti is the father of Christopher Moltisanti, who was played by Michael Imperioli in the TV series.

The Sopranos ran for 86 episodes, from 1999 to 2007. The late James Gandolfini starred as mob boss Tony Soprano, a role for which he earned multiple awards. Nivola told The Associated Press (watch the video above) that Tony Soprano will be in the new movie, but it’s unclear who may play him. Whatever the case, the film will go into the history between Dickie Moltisanti and Tony Soprano. Filming begins in April.

Here’s the latest theories about HBO’s True Detective from the internet hive mind

After the big success of 2018’s Mission Impossible: Fallout, director Christopher McQuarrie is signing on to write and direct two sequels, according to a new report. Not only that, but Variety’s report claims the sequels will shoot back-to-back so they can be released sooner to capitalise on the hype surrounding the franchise right now.

According to the report, the first would premiere in summer 2021 with the next one following a year later. McQuarrie seemingly confirmed the news on Twitter.

Shooting back-to-back is not new for movies, as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were shot one after the other so they could be released in 2018 and 2019. All three of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies were shot in the manner, too.

Mission Impossible: Fallout, which starred a 56-year-old Tom Cruise, was a massive success commercially and critically. It made more than $791 million worldwide, which represented the biggest box office performance in the history of the Mission Impossible series. It was also well-received by critics, notching a franchise-best 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes; it was heralded as one of the best action movies of 2018.

According to Variety, the first of the sequels may start shooting in 2019. Cruise is currently filming the Top Gun sequel, while McQuarrie is keeping busy too, as he’s set to direct the new Rainbow Six movie Without Remorse starring Michael B. Jordan.

Presumably Cruise will return for the two Mission Impossible sequels, but there is no word yet on the story or what other actors may join him.

There’s more pre-Kirk Star Trek on the way for fans of Star Trek: Discovery. CBS has officially announced a spin-off from its streaming-only series, which will follow Michelle Yeoh’s character from Season 1 and her exploits as part of the Federation’s secret intelligence agency, Section 31.

CBS announced that the spin-off, which is currently untitled, will air exclusively on CBS All Access, the same as Discovery. It sounds as if the new series will take place after the events of Discovery Season 2, which looks to expand on the exploits of Yeoh’s character, Philippa Georgiou.

“The series will be produced by CBS Television Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment,” the announcement states. “Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth will serve as executive producers. Aaron Baiers will serve as co-executive producer along with Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt will also write the series.”

Spinning off a series about Georgiou is going to give Star Trek latitude to explore some of the more interesting aspects of Discovery. The first season saw the titular Federation starship and its crew finding its way into the Mirror Universe, the dark alternate reality that has shown up in a bunch of the Star Trek series. Yeoh played both the Georgiou in the Federation universe, who was killed in Discovery’s pilot episode, and the Mirror Universe side. At the end of Season 1, the more violent, slightly evil Mirror Universe version was brought back to the Federation side.

The spin-off series will find her as part of Section 31, a clandestine Federation intelligence agency that operates outside the bounds of the rest of the space government. Given Georgiou’s predilection for violence and scheming, she should fit right in–but it sounds like this will be a darker look at the Star Trek universe.

“I’m so excited to continue telling these rich Star Trek stories,” Yeoh said in the announcement. “Being a part of this Universe and this character specifically has been such a joy for me to play. I can’t wait to see where it all goes–certainly, I believe it will go ‘where no WOMAN has ever gone before!'”

This will be CBS’s fourth Star Trek show: Also in the works are a series about Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, with Sir Patrick Stewart returning to the role, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated comedy series from Rick and Morty executive producer Mike McMahan.

Meanwhile, it sounds like we’ll be learning more about Georgiou in Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery, which premieres on CBS All Access on January 17.

Disclosure: CBS Interactive is the parent company of GameSpot.