Month: December 2020

The Biggest Movies To Watch In 2021

Twelve months ago, no one could’ve expected to see movies such as Black Widow, No Time To Die, F9: The Fast Saga, and Dune on a list of 2021’s most anticipated films. But that was before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down theaters across the world, leading studios to delay the release of their scheduled films. While a few titles were immediately pushed into 2021, most simply moved into the later part of the year. But as the months wore on, it became clear that normal theatrical releases in 2020 weren’t going to happen, and gradually the vast majority of the year’s movies were given new release dates in 2021.

Of course, things remain very uncertain right now, and there’s no guarantee that every movie on this list will arrive on its current scheduled date. But there’s no question that there’s an absolute wealth of high-profile cinema waiting in the wings when life does regain some normality, and 2021 has the possibility of being an incredible year for movie fans.

After an entire year without a single release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are three set to arrive in 2021–Black Widow, The Eternals, and a new Spider-Man movie. The Bond film No Time To Die will finally be with us, as will the ninth Fast and Furious and seventh Mission Impossible, plus new movies in such popular series as Ghostbusters, The Kingsmen, and the Matrix.

Outside of these big franchises, there are adaptations of video games Mortal Kombat and Uncharted, more films in Sony’s universe of Spider-man spin-offs, and belated sequels to much-loved ’80s movies Top Gun and Coming To America. Horror is well represented with new Halloween, Purge, Conjuring, Candyman, and Saw movies, plus intriguing new scary films from Edgar Wright and Guillermo Del Toro. And of course, there’s loads of animated family releases on the way too, with another original movie from Pixar as well as Minions, Hotel Transylvania, and Addams Family sequels.

With any luck, very few of the movies on the following list will also appear on GameSpot’s rundown of biggest movies to watch in 2022 a year from now. So let’s stay optimistic, and look forward to an amazing year of cinema in 2021!

Platform Puzzler Wildfire Launches On Consoles This Week

Wildfire, a slow-going platformer where fire is your best friend, launches on consoles this week. Its bite sized levels require you to find the best way to get from one point to another while completing various missions.

The Sneaky Bastards-developed stealth sidescroller originally launched on Steam in May and is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on December 3. It’ll cost $14.99 on all platforms.

There's a good variety of mission types.
There’s a good variety of mission types.

Wildfire puts you in the shoes of a villager who’s town is burnt to a crisp by a “villainous force” of strange Amazonian women. You must find and saved your friends who have been captured by completing short, Celeste-like levels that are connected by an overarching narrative.

What makes Wildfire special are its burning mechanics. Your character is given special environmental powers, including the ability to control both water and fire. Every level is full of burnable terrain like bushes, vines, wooden bridges, barricades and more. You can try and get through levels quietly by hiding in bushes and dodging enemies or you can burn through levels, leaving no survivors. The game gives you plenty of choices in terms of how you want to play.

Wildfire has gorgeous pixel visuals.
Wildfire has gorgeous pixel visuals.

You’ll earn points you can use to learn new abilities, like the ability to bounce fire off walls and use flames to double jump, as you progress. Levels will become more complex to match your abilities. Outside technical issues, including a lot of slow down at certain points on Nintendo Switch, there aren’t many difference between the console and PC versions of the game.

Wildfire launched to high praise from critics in May for how dynamic the burning mechanics felt. It’s a game full of fun little moments (you get to play as a bobcat!) that’s unlike other platformers.

Disclaimer: Dan Hindes, the creator of Wildfire, is a former editor of GameSpot.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

The Hobbit Actor Calls Out Warner Bros. For Interfering With What Peter Jackson Wanted

Warner Bros. interfered with Peter Jackson’s filmmaking on The Hobbit, and it led to a lesser product in the end compared to The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. This is according to actor Jed Brophy, who has known Jackson for 30 years and has appeared in many of his movies over the decades, dating back to Braindead and running through The Hobbit.

In an interview with Kiwi Talkz (via ScreenRant), Brophy said one of the issues with The Hobbit was that non-creative studio bosses from Warner Bros. got in the way.

“They get in the way. They want to be ‘creative,”” Brophy said using air quotes in regards to these people. “Let the creatives do the job, man. Your job is to find the money and then sell it. Don’t get in the way of an auteur. I may be speaking out of turn here, and probably, if those people find me I’ll get slammed, but I think Warner Bros. kind of got in the way of Peter on The Hobbit. I think they got in the way of him being able to do what he does well.”

Brophy went on to say there was a “feeling of unease” on the set of The Hobbit due to this pressure. As Brophy tells it, Warner Bros. prevented Jackson from reaching the kind of “flow” state that he had on The Lord of the Rings because the studio heads wanted to make more money.

“I’ve known Peter for nearly 30 years now, and I can see that he wasn’t the affable, funny, relaxed person that he usually is,” Brophy said of The Hobbit. “You can feel that pressure–if you jump in bed with the devil and they give you $600 million dollars, you’re answerable. You’re answerable to their whims.”

“Warner Bros., love or hate them, they’re into franchises,” he added.

They’re into building a series of films that follow on from each other to generate income and to generate merchandising. They’ve got various people whose job that is to do, but none of them are auteurs, none of them are filmmakers. None of them are people who can actually look at a script and in their head imagine how you can get the best drama out of it. If you get in the way of that process, you’re actually stopping someone from actually getting a flow on, and that’s what I think happened [on The Hobbit]. That’s what I could see happening. There was not that same flow.”

Overall, Brophy said he experienced a feeling of “freedom” on The Lord of the Rings, which was contrasted by the feeling of “tightness” on The Hobbit.

The actor made it clear that he is only speaking from his own personal experience, and he can’t say for sure what others might think about The Hobbit and its production process.

For what it’s worth, Jackson was not even originally lined up to direct The Hobbit series. Guillermo del Toro was attached at first, but he left the project after two years of pre-production work. Jackson stepped in to direct what would become three movies, and, while the films made billions at the global box office, they were not as critically adored as the Lord of the Rings series.

On The Lord of the Rings, Jackson had time for extensive pre-production work, but due to the change in directors and other factors, he was not afforded the same luxury on The Hobbit. Jackson admitted that he was basically winging it on The Hobbit.

The Lord of the Rings remains very popular today. Harper Collins is releasing a new Middle-earth book that will, among other things, explain who can grow beards.

Amazon is currently filming a very expensive TV show based on the fantasy series in New Zealand, while there are multiple Lord of the Rings video games in the works, including an MMO and a title featuring Gollum.

Additionally, the house in which Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is up for sale, and a charity has been established to try to buy it and convert it into a museum. And in even more news, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are now available in 4K UHD.

The Walking Dead Getting Holiday Special On AMC

With Season 11 of The Walking Dead still looming over the horizon–and also a series spin-off–it’s a bit of a surprise that AMC has announced the first-ever The Walking Dead Holiday Special, slated to debut December 13 on the network’s streaming platform AMC+.

According to Deadline, the hour-long event will feature cast members gathering virtually to reminisce over the series’ history to date, and also offer a peek into the future with a table read from an upcoming Season 10 episode. It may be more expedient to say who will not be participating, but among those expected to make an appearance are: Lauren Cohan, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Khary Payton, Eleanor Matsuura, Cooper Andrews, Cassady McClincy, Lauren Ridloff, Cailey Fleming, Emily Kinney, and IronE Singleton.

Walking Dead Universe COO Scott M. Gimple and showrunner/executive producer Angela Kang will also be present. The Walking Dead Holiday Special will be hosted by Chris Hardwick, perennial after-show host for the network.

Noticeably absent from the line-up is Norman Reedus, though he also is emerging during the holiday season with an unexpected gift: Portraits from the Woods, a newly announced hardcover book “captur[ing] moments behind the scenes of TWD as only Norman could deliver.” The book includes Reedus’ memories, musings, and insights into production of the series–and also portraits and tributes from TWD fans Hideo Kojima, Lena Dunham, Diane Kruger, and Dave Chappelle. As Reedus cryptically promises, the book “is like stepping in my own shoes, seen through my own eyes with my sense of humor.” Profits from the $75 book will be donated to the COVID-19 Response Fund.

You can read more about Season 10 and 11’s current status in a recent news post here.

After Two Years Destiny TTRPG Dungeons & Destiny Has Reached V 1.0

This week, a group of Destiny fans released the 1.0 version of their pen and paper RPG system modeled on Dungeons and Dragons 5E and modified to work with the classes and world of the Destiny series. Dungeons and Destiny has been in the works for two years, and is “almost a complete overhaul of the entire [5th Edition] system,” according to Reddit user GoodGameKitty, one of the creators.

To fully capture the feel of Destiny, the D&Destiny creators altered and added quite a bit. The 1.0 release includes nine character classes from both the original Destiny and Destiny 2: Gunslinger, Nightstalker, Sunbreaker, Voidwalker, Defender, Bladedancer, Striker, Sunsinger, and Stormcaller. Each of these classes also has three unique archetypes. The Stasis classes introduced in the new Beyond Light expansion for Destiny too are also scheduled to be added once the Bestiary of the Wilds and Architect’s Guide supplements have also reached 1.0.

The races that populate Destiny will also be present in this ttrpg, with racial attributes for the three branches of humanity (human, Exo, Awoken) and the five alien species (Cabal, eliksni, Vex, psion, krill). Every race has two or three variations you can choose from. And of course, Destiny wouldn’t be complete without an arsenal of space aged weapons, vehicles, and items. D&Destiny boasts 14 firearms and combat bows, and has a weapon upgrade system that allows players to select their own weapon perks, including melee weapons. There’s a brand new section covering equipment your Guardian might need or encounter like jumpships and patrol beacons.

While the Bestiary of the Wilds, which covers the enemies players may encounter, and the Architect’s Guide, which is an overview of Destiny’s lore, aren’t quite finished yet, they’re still available to download for free, along with the Player’s Handbook to help supplement early sessions as players start out.

Now Playing: Destiny 2: Beyond Light Video Review

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Lord Of The Rings: Tolkien’s Home Is Up For Sale And You Can Help Buy It For Charity

The home where J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings–20 Northmoor Road in Oxford–is currently up for sale, and a dedicated group has launched a campaign to buy it and turn it into a center where fans of Middle-earth can visit to celebrate the author’s life and works.

A charity has been established that is seeking to purchase the house for $6 million USD. In a new video, some of the cast members from across the fantasy series, including Ian McKellen (Gandalf), John Rhys-Davies (Gimli/Treebeard), and Martin Freeman (Bilbo) speak about their appreciation for Tolkien and Middle-earth, calling on fans to donate to help purchase the home.

J.R.R. and Edith Tolkien moved into the home in 1930, and it was in that home that Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The charity, Project Northmoor, said on its website that it’s trying to buy the home simply because there is no centre anywhere in the world that’s devoted to Tolkien. “A remarkable fact considering the writer’s importance and continuing popularity. This is the perfect house to set this right,” they said.

Should the campaign be successful, the home will be renovated for guests to visit and experience what it might have been like in the 1940. “Upstairs the bedrooms would reflect the cultures he invented and the garden would be restored to a beauty of which the inventor of Sam Gamgee would be proud,” they said. “You would then be able to be a guest at the Centre by booking into its programme of retreats, writing seminars and other cultural events, or join in virtually with the online programme.”

You can donate here at Project Northmoor. In other news, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are now available in 4K UHD.

Jurassic World: Dominion’s Plot Was “Tweaked” Due To COVID-19

Jeff Goldblum has revealed that Jurassic World: Dominion has perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly been “tweaked” to better fit the pandemic–and hopefully sometime soon the post-COVID–era. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor divulged that the sequel to the 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has been massaged a bit to reflect the reality that events in the film are taking place with a pandemic in the recent rear-view mirror.

At the very least, Goldblum indicates, it’s his character, scientist Dr. Ian Malcolm whose dialogue has been changed a bit to evoke the “fragility of our species and the global cooperation that’s needed and the foundation in science that is needed and the ethical use of science that’s needed to unite us… as a family and reach our potential and to do right by ourselves and this glorious planet.” He also says changes were made to make themes in the movie both “right for now” and “nourishing for now.”

And Goldblum being Goldblum, he also mentioned in passing that working on the original Jurassic Park back in 1993 was a “delicious experience.”

Given how beset the production has been COVID cases itself, it’s hardly a shock that decisions were made that film–for however science-fiction it might be–had to reflect and react to reality.

Dominion is expected to close out the trilogy kicked off by 2015’s Jurassic World. In addition to Goldblum, the cast is a mix of earlier franchise stars Laura Dern and Sam Neill and series newcomers Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt.

Hugh Keays-Byrne, Mad Max’s Immortan Joe Dies

Actor Hugh Keays-Byrne, known for his starring roles in both Mad Max and Mad Max: Fury Road, has died at the age of 73. The cause of death for the Australian actor has not yet been disclosed. Filmmaker Ted Geoghegan shared the news via social media, calling Byrne “an unsung hero of Aussie cinema… [and] an absolutely wonderful human who fought very hard for environmental and humanitarian issues.” Filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith, a friend of Keays-Byrne’s, reported on Facebook that the actor died in the hospital.

In addition to actor Mel Gibson and writer-director George Miller, Keays-Byrne shares the distinction of being synonymous with the long-running and still-enduring Mad Max franchise. In the original 1979 version, Keays-Byrne plays the merciless terrorist Toecutter who ruled the outback with his motorcycle gang; in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, he again played a villain–Immortan Joe.

In the many years between, Keays-Byrne made a name for himself as a versatile actor outside that cinematic universe, starring in films such as 2000’s Farscape, 1989’s The Blood of Heroes, and 1974’s Stone. Mad Max: Fury Road stands as the actor’s final role.

Meanwhile, the Mad Max series continues to have a long life of its own. Recently, casting has reportedly started on the long-gestating Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, which is slated to star Anya Taylor-Joy (The New Mutants, Glass), who steered Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit to break some impressive streaming records. Hopefully, the upcoming prequel will also include a tribute to the actor who helped make the franchise possible in the first place.