Month: June 2019

Back in the days when all good movies–and many bad ones–would be guaranteed a theatrical release, the term “direct-to-video” was very much a negative one. If a film headed straight to VHS, and subsequently DVD, without ever hitting a cinema screen, then it was largely presumed that it was a deserved fate. And while this wasn’t always the case, the fact is that the vast majority of DTV movies skipped the theater for a reason.

In 2019, things are very different. The rise of streaming has meant that the different platforms are now fighting for viewers and subscribers, and one way they can do this is by offering original, exclusive content. By financing its own movies and buying acclaimed titles from festivals, services like Netflix are releasing movies that have–and never will–see in the inside of a theater on public release. The idea of judging a movie because it has gone straight-to-video no longer exists.

Horror has, in particular, benefitted from this. The genre has long thrived on home entertainment formats–in the ’80s, the big franchises like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th found many fans via VHS. It’s also a genre that Netflix has embraced, exclusively releasing a number of high-profile horror movies over the past couple of years.

But when it comes to horror, Netflix is only part of the story. AMC launched the horror-focused platform Shudder in 2015, and it has become a must-subscribe service for many fans. While it started by hosting content from other distributors, it has increasingly moved into picking up movies from festivals and presenting its own exclusive content. These are genuinely great horror movies that you can only watch on Shudder.

There’s new horror exclusives hitting the streaming services all the time, so we’ve picked some of the best from the past few months on Netflix and Shudder. All can be streamed right now, and reveal just what an exciting time it is right now to be a horror fan. Let’s get scared…

San Diego Comic-Con is just weeks away, coming July 18-21 to the city’s convention center. This is a big time of the year for movie and television news, as networks and studios release info and footage for their upcoming projects. HBO recently announced in a press release that it is headed to Hall H–the biggest panel room in the convention–for numerous upcoming events.

Kicking things off on Thursday is the upcoming series His Dark Materials, based on the novel series of the same name by author Philip Pullman–which the 2007 film The Golden Compass was also based on. The series will be set in a fantasy world where humans have what’s called “daemons,” which are animals that are the manifestation of souls. The show follows Lyra (Dafne Keen), an orphan who is living with teachers in an Oxford college. Many of the cast members from the upcoming series will be in attendance for the panel.

On Friday, select members of the cast from Game of Thrones will head to Hall H for a panel. While the TV series has completely wrapped up, the cast and showrunners will be there, and they will more than likely discuss the final season of the hit series. They’ll also probably answer questions from the audience, which should be interesting considering the negative response from some vocal fans of the series. It was recently revealed HBO would be releasing a very cool-looking collector’s edition of the entire Game of Thrones series.

Finally, on Saturday, Hall H will host a Westworld panel consisting of the cast and directors of the series. The first trailer for Season 3 was revealed recently, and it seems the latest installment of the western/sci-fi HBO series is a bit of a departure for the show. Additionally, fans got their first look at Aaron Paul’s role.

What’s missing from HBO’s Hall H invasion is their upcoming series Watchmen, based on the limited comic series of the same name. However,HBO has stated there will be a “surprise in-world opportunity” taking place in the Gaslamp District, but nothing else has been revealed as of this writing. Check out all you need to know about these panels and who is on them below.

Hall H Panel Times/Dates:

• Thursday, July 18, 4:45 PM: His Dark Materials – Cast members James McAvoy, Dafne Keen, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ruth Wilson, and executive producer Jane Tranter on panel.
• Friday, July 19, 5:30 PM: Game of Thrones – Cast members Jacob Anderson, John Bradley, Nikolaj Coster-Walda, Liam Cunningham, Nathalie Emmanuel, Iain Glen, Conleth Hill, Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and executive producer Miguel Sapochnik on panel.
• Saturday, July 20, 1:15 PM: Westworld – Cast members Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, Aaron Paul, Tessa Thompson, Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffrey Wright, and executive producers and directors Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy on panel.

Come back to GameSpot during San Diego Comic-Con for coverage from the show floor as well as some of the biggest panels.

Actress Daisy Ridley hit a home run with her first major movie role, starring in the new Star Wars trilogy as Rey. She plays the character again in December’s Rise of Skywalker, but after that, she is apparently stepping away from the sci-fi series. Speaking to BuzzFeed, Ridley re-confirmed that she is not involved in the next trilogy of films.

“I’m not in the next trilogy,” she said

There were rumors that Ridley might appear in either the new trilogies from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson or Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. But that’s not happening.

“They always said it was going to be a separate story,” Ridley remarked about both sets of new trilogies.

The next big Star Wars movie after Rise of Skywalker is the untitled first movie in the new trilogy from Weiss and Benioff. The film is scheduled to premiere in 2022.

But would Ridley ever return to the Star Wars universe, further down the road? She didn’t say one way or the other, but instead said, “It’s a great universe; I’ve had a great time.”

Also in the interview, Ridley confirmed she has no plans to ever return to social media, referencing Selena Gomez’s quotes about how social media is dangerous. Asked if she has a plan for how to deal with haters online, Ridley said people think their opinions matter more than they actually do.

“It’s great to have freedom of expression, but I do feel like people think opinions have so much weight,” she said. “I don’t think bad vibes should have the sun shone on them. I don’t want to read your thing.”

Amazon currently has a pretty sweet deal going for the hugely anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake. The retailer is offering the title for $42 USD when you apply a coupon that saves you $18. Internet super-sleuth Wario64 spotted the deal, and you can follow the link to see the deal.

You can check the coupon box to apply it, and then you’ll see the savings at checkout.

The deal only applies to the Standard edition of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, not the more expensive Deluxe edition that comes with various other extras. Shipping is free.

It also comes with the Chocobo Chick DLC as a pre-order bonus, if that matters to you.

In other Final Fantasy deals news, the same coupon brings down the price of Final Fantasy XIV: Online Shadowbrings to $27 USD. These deals are valid only on the US Amazon store.

Final Fantasy VII Remake launches on March 3, 2020 for PlayStation 4. For more, you can check out GameSpot’s impressions in the video embedded above.

As for Amazon, the retailer’s annual Prime Day sale kicks off soon. While the official start date is coming up soon, you can already take advantage of some early deals–see them all here.

The new Lion King movie opens in July, and it’s expected to be one of Disney’s most successful reboots. A box office tracking report, via The Hollywood Reporter, states that the film is lining up to make $150 million during its opening weekend in the US and Canada next month.

If The Lion King can reach that box office prediction for its opening weekend, it would become just the fourth of Disney’s new live-action reboots to make more than $100 million for its opening weekend. Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson is currently the best-performing of the reboots, and it made $174.8 million over its opening weekend in 2017.

Alice in Wonderland made $116 million domestically over its opening weekend, while The Jungle Book made $103.3 million.

1994’s The Lion King is one of Disney’s most beloved animated movies, so it has a huge amount of nostalgia built in that could help fuel box office performance of the new movie.

Jon Favreau directed the new Lion King, which features the voices of Donald Glover as Simba, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Beyonce as Nala, and James Earl Jones as Mufasa. The movie boasts eerily-lifelike visuals that were produced by Moving Picture Company, which also did the VFX for The Jungle Book and Detective Pikachu, among a long list of other popular movies.

Disney is calling The Lion King a “live-action” movie because it was apparently made using live-action techniques. As if the Mufasa death scene wasn’t already sad enough, the high production values of the new movie are sure to leave audiences in tears in a new way.

The Lion King opens in theatres on July 19. It is directed by Jon Favreau with a script from Jeff Nathanson, who previously wrote the Steven Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Hellboy reboot starring David Harbour is unlikely to get a sequel, according to actor David Harbour who plays the title character. Speaking to GameSpot sister site ComicBook, Harbour said he’s heard from a lot of people who really enjoyed the film. However, the “culture at large” did not seem to generally enjoy the action movie, he said.

“I don’t think there’ll be much of a light,” Harbour said about a potential sequel.

Not only that, but Harbour remarked that Hellboy didn’t make a lot of money. The movie, which was reportedly developed on a $50 million budget, bombed in the US/Canada, where it opened to only $12 million. Worldwide, the film made $46 million.

“I don’t think it made a lot of money,” Harbour said. “I don’t really keep up with those things too much to be honest, but I don’t think the perception was that it was a hit, and so in that way, I don’t know that the risk is worth it [for a sequel]. I think the idea is to move on. The producers spoke to me just saying, ‘Great job,’ they really liked what I did, but I haven’t heard anything about a sequel, and I’m not hanging my hat on anything like that.”

2019’s Hellboy was a reboot of sorts for the series that began in 2004. The first movie was directed by Guillermo del Toro and starred Ron Perlman as Hellboy. A sequel, The Golden Army, was released in 2008, also starring Perlman and directed by del Toro.

There were reports that Hellboy suffered from a number of behind-the-scenes problems, including fights between producers and director Neil Marshall, and Harbour not being cooperative.

Hellboy also stars Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, Sasha Lane, and Thomas Haden Church.