NBC’s low-rated Hannibal lasted for three brilliant seasons before it finally got the chop, and in a new interview, creator Bryan Fuller, who recently shared some ideas for a possible fourth season, explained how he fought to cast relative-unknown Mads Mikkelsen in the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter while NBC wanted a bigger name, along the lines of what they did with James Spader and The Blacklist.
Talking to Collider, Fuller said “there was a difference of opinion on what a traditional television network would want as a leading man and what we would want as an actor playing Hannibal Lecter to personify playing that character.”
“I think the network wanted somebody that was much more poppy, much more mainstream, much more American I think in some ways,” Fuller stated. “That was just them thinking about ‘Okay how do we get the biggest audience for our television show? We have to cast John Cusack as Hannibal Lecter and everybody will tune in because won’t that be surprising?’ I was like, ‘Well go ahead, make an offer.’”
Fuller shared that whenever NBC suggested a name, he suggest they make an offer. An offer he knew would be turned down. “I’d say ‘Mads Mikkelsen’ and they’d say ‘No, how about Hugh Grant?’ and I’d say, ‘Great, make an offer, he’s gonna say no,’ then they’d make an offer and he’d say no, and I’d be like ‘What about Mads Mikkelsen?’ and they’d be like ‘Well what about John Cusack?’ and I’d say ‘Great, make an offer, he’s gonna say no’ and they’d make an offer and he’d say no and I’d say, ‘What about Mads Mikkelsen?’”
The casting of Mads Mikkelsen, according to Fuller, then made the marketing folks more or less tune out from the show. But that, in turn, gave the Hannibal team way more creative freedom. “They sort of gave up on it a little bit because we were casting a European guy as the face of [a show] they wanted to be more accessible,” he said. “I felt that they were right for their reasons but wrong for my reasons.”
“And so the gift of that, the gift of casting Mads Mikkelsen, is that their investment in the show became dramatically decreased,” Fuller continued, “and so that allowed us to do a lot of things that we wouldn’t have been able to do if they were saying, ‘No this show needs to get 10 million people watching it every week.’ Because then we would have to really be tied down to certain parameters of storytelling that were going to mesh with a mainstream audience. So Mads was the gift that allowed us to tell the story the way that we wanted to tell it, because the network was like, ‘Well it’s not the person that we wanted and we don’t really see him in this role,’ and we were like, ‘Fine, just let us make the show’.”
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Guilty Gear Strive had a busy weekend during the Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable, dropping three big announcements. Developer Arc System Works has confirmed that the game will be launching on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam alongside the PlayStation 4 version in 2021.
The roster is also receiving two additional fighters. Newcomer Nagoriyuki, who was briefly seen in Guilty Gear Strive’s initial reveal, brings a vampire samurai energy to the mix, while the sword-wielding Leo Whitefang is also returning to action.
You can watch the two brawlers in action below, and also read an overview on each of them directly from Arc System Works:
Nagoriyuki
Nagoriyuki is the newest addition to the Guilty Gear universe. A vampire with a number of unique and powerful abilities, he wields a huge sword with impressive skill in battle and slashes at his enemies with punishing blows.
Leo Whitefang
Leo is one of the three “Allied Kings” of the Allied Kingdom of Illyria, and is responsible for the governing of Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. He is also an accomplished warrior in his own right, with a relentless fighting style.
Guilty Gear Strive was originally scheduled for a 2020 release, but it was delayed until next year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team has pledged to use the extra time to further fine-tune Guilty Gear Strive based on all the feedback that was received from players during the April closed beta test.
Street Fighter 5 has improved tremendously over the last few years, evolving into a premiere competitive fighter with a great roster of characters. If you’ve yet to try the game for yourself, you’ll have a chance to do so for a full two weeks, and the trial version features all 40 characters.
Discussed during the Japanese Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable, there will be a free-to-play version of Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition available starting on August 5. It will run for about two weeks and features all of the game’s characters. Because of this, you’ll be able to start learning who your favorites are instead of being limited to only a few before deciding on a purchase.
Street Fighter 5 took a different approach to updated releases than the series has in the past. Rather than force players to buy entirely new versions of the game like the Arcade or Championship editions, these are now available as free updates to existing owners. This keeps the community together, though the game has still never come to Xbox One.
Eighties and Nineties kids with discretionary income will want to take a look at this. The LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System is now available for purchase from the LEGO Store for $229.99. It’s not cheap, but this is an intricate set that can bring back childhood memories of sitting in the glow of a CRT television, NES controller in hand. Can you really put a price on that? (Turns out you can, and it’s $229.99). The set is currently exclusive to the LEGO Store. Word is that next year it will go out to other retailers.
Ringing in at 2,646 pieces, this set has all kinds of bells and whistles. It includes a buildable NES console, with a working cartridge tray and lid, as well as a controller. You’ll also build a Super Mario Bros. cartridge and even insert it into the block-constructed console. Finally there’s a cathode-ray tube television that has a crank on the side. Turn the crank, and a portion of Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 scrolls by.
And if you pick up the LEGO Super Mario Adventures Starter Course, you can place the Mario figure from that set into a slot on top of the TV. The figure will then play the Mario theme and react to on-screen enemies as you scroll by.
A master of the blade with a lightning-fast offense and a passion for flowers, Setsuka is the third Season Pass 2 character following the release of Samurai Shodown’s Haohmaru back in March and Hilde in November last year.
Originally debuting in 2005’s Soulcalibur III, Setsuka would make one more appearance in Soulcalibur IV and then spent a decade on the sidelines while her student Patrokles appeared in Soulcalibur V.
In addition to Setsuka, Soulcalibur VI will also receive a free update that adds a classic costume for the flower-loving swordmaster, a balance sweep, the Murakumo Shrine Grounds stage and a new Grøh episode.
DLC 12 will release on August 4, bringing with it the Tekken-themed Character Creation Set E.
Soulcalibur VI wasn’t the only fighting game that revealed new information over the weekend, as the Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable also featured updates on games such as Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Strive and Samurai Shodown.
Slowly but surely, the gang is getting back together. A fifth Scream movie is in the works and already we know David Arquette has signed on to return, while Neve Campbel previously admitted she was in negotiations to return as Sidney Prescott. Now another piece of the puzzle is in place.
Courteney Cox, who played news reporter and author Gale Weathers in the previous four films, confirmed she’s coming back for Scream 5. In a post on Instagram, she revealed an image of the movie’s Ghostface mask, writing, “I can’t wait to see this face again.” The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news.
The next Scream movie will be the first not directed by horror icon Wes Craven, who died in 2015. Instead, it will be helmed by Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the duo behind 2019’s Ready or Not. A screenplay is being written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, who are taking over duties from Kevin Williamson (Scream, Scream 2, and Scream 4), who will serve as an executive producer on the project.
No other details are known about the upcoming Scream 5 at this point. However, one former cast member has made it clear he wouldn’t mind being asked back for the film–though it would be practically impossible. In a recent interview, Matthew Lillard–who played Stu in the first film–said he’d love to reprise his role one more time. Of course, those who have seen the original Scream will remember Stu was not only one of the killers in the movie, but he was very dead by the end. But hey, anything is possible. Jamie Kennedy’s Randy died in the second film, but appeared via a videotape in Scream 3.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ second summer update has arrived, and it adds a handful of new features to the game, including a weekly summer fireworks festival, the ability to fall on your face, and save backups. You’ll need to have a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscription to take advantage of the latter, and it works a little bit differently than the typical cloud saves offered through the service. If you’re unsure how the process works, here’s how to back up your Animal Crossing save data.
How To Back Up Your Save Data
After installing New Horizons’ 1.4.0 update, you’ll see Backups – Not Set beneath the Settings option in the lower lefthand corner of the title screen. Press the Minus button to access the Settings menu, then select Island Backup from the list of options that Tom Nook presents you to begin the backup process.
Once Island Backup has been selected, Nook will emphasize that this backup function is only intended to be used if your Nintendo Switch is lost or has been damaged. He’ll then present you with options to Enable island backup or Listen to explanation. Select the former to enable save backups; select the latter to learn more about the process and its requirements.
Island Backup Requirements
In order to use the Island Backup function, you’ll first need to have a paid Nintendo Switch Online membership. Individual subscriptions for the service run for $4 USD for one month, $8 USD for three months, and $20 USD for one year. Nintendo also offers an annual Family Plan that costs $35 USD and covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts, even across multiple systems.
On top of that, you will naturally need to have a physical or digital copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, along with save data for the game. You’ll also need to be connected to the internet for your data to be backed up.
How Is Save Data Backed Up?
After you enable the Island Backup function, your save data will automatically be uploaded periodically, so you won’t need to do anything else. Backups will occur when you’re not playing the game, even if your system is in sleep mode (so long as you’re connected to the internet).
You can see when your data was last backed up on the title screen. The time and date of the latest backup will be displayed in the lower left corner of the screen, beneath the Settings option.
How To Restore Save Data
As Nintendo has been insistent in emphasizing, you can only restore your New Horizons save data if your Switch is lost or has been damaged, so you’ll need to have a repaired or replacement system (along with a copy of New Horizons) before you can recover your save. The user who first enabled island backups will need to be the one to restore the save data.
How To Transfer Save Data To Another Switch
At present, New Horizons does not allow you to transfer your save data from one Switch to another. However, Nintendo has previously confirmed that it is working on a function that will allow you to transfer your New Horizons save to a different console. That does not yet have a release date, but it is slated to arrive in a future update.
Obsidian Entertainment’s new title, Grounded, will seem a lot like other survival games at first blush–even though it’s Honey, I Shrunk The Kids-like setting puts it at a super-small scale compared to titles like Minecraft or The Forest. Like those games, you still need to drink water and eat food to stay alive, construct shelters to keep from getting overwhelmed by indigenous life, and craft equipment to help you keep alive and thrive in your new surroundings.
Though Grounded has a lot in common with other games in the genre, its shrunken approach to the survival genre means it has quite a few of its own quirks. From how you’ll uncover crafting recipes, to the creatures keen on eating you that live in the backyard, there are plenty of nuances to understand. Here’s a quick rundown of 10 key tips that’ll help you adjust to life in the lawn.
1. Pick Up Everything And Analyze It
One of the first things you’ll come across when you start a game of Grounded is a strange little science facility called a Field Station. This is your first inkling that there’s something bigger going on here than a weird dream. Inside every Field Station is an item called an Analyzer–something that’s extremely useful.
Like other survival games, you can pick up just about everything in Grounded, and most of those objects, like sprigs, grass planks, plant fibers, and sap, can be used to make stuff. You’ll get some crafting recipes just from picking up objects around the world, but Field Stations are essential to unlocking even more. Use the Analyzer on your materials to find out more about them and to find new crafting recipes for using them. It has limited uses and has to recharge after you’ve scanned a few items, but as you explore, you’ll find Field Stations all over the place that also have Analyzers. Make sure to mark them with Trail Markers (more on that in a minute) so they’re easy to find.
2. Pick A Good Base Spot
The story quests you’ll start with in Grounded will give you some stuff to keep you busy as you acclimate yourself to the game, but while there’s a lot to accomplish on your first day, survival is still your main concern. After a time, the sun will go down in Grounded, and that’s when life in the backyard becomes even more dangerous than it already is. You’ll want to create a base relatively early, even if it’s pretty rudimentary, so you have somewhere to sleep through the nights.
A good spot is in the early going near the Mysterious Machine, since you’ll be spending a lot of time in that area. You also can’t go wrong building near a landmark like a fallen juice box–or even inside a soda can. These locations drip juice you can drink that’ll refill both your hunger and thirst meters, provide natural cover and protection, and can make base-building easy, so take advantage of them. You’ll need an axe to cut down grass to make walls, so keep that in mind when crafting. But at the very least, build yourself a lean-to fairly early so you have a spot to sleep and respawn. You can also build lean-tos out in the world so you can change your respawn point as you explore to cut down travel time–but be sure to build them in protected areas, and not in places like spider dens where you might find yourself trapped and repeatedly killed by enemies.
3. Make Armor, Check For Perks
Before long, you’ll find yourself fighting the various bugs in Grounded, and you’ll probably find very quickly that protection is key. Combat isn’t too difficult in general, but unaided, you’ll take a lot of damage even from small enemies, and it can be tough to heal up in an emergency. Therefore, armor should be an early priority. You’ll want to build a workbench near your base relatively early so you can start constructing armor out of whatever you find. The crafting menu will show you how much defense armor will afford you, and getting something on your body early can help you survive dangerous situations while you’re learning the ropes.
Armor also carries different perks depending on what it’s made from. Some armor might give you more benefits when you eat food, while other clothes can make you run faster. Pay attention to the perks listed on your armor in the “Inspect” menu so you know how to use it most effectively. (Weapons also have perks you’ll want to pay attention to, because having the right gear can give you big advantages.)
Once you start to make your way toward the oak tree as part of the story, craft a hammer and smash up any acorns you find–their shells make for some of the toughest armor you can get early on, before scrapping with any of the bigger enemies around the backyard.
4. Avoid Spiders
Most of the bugs you find in the first few hours of Grounded will leave you alone. Lawn mites are a bit aggressive, but they’re tiny and easily dispatched, and bugs like ants and ladybugs will regard you curiously but go about their business, so long as you don’t attack them. But some bugs, like beetles, are aggressive on sight–and some, like spiders, are deadly predators.
You’ll find spiders before long as you approach the oak tree, and they can be seriously frightening, as well as extremely deadly. Armor will help you survive any run-ins, but until you get better weapons than the spear you can craft at the start of Grounded, you should keep your distance. You can tell when a spider spots you because it’ll stop and put its legs up; if its eyes go red, it’s after you. The good news is that you can sprint away from pretty much any combat encounter to escape, so spiders are easily fled. You can also usually spot and avoid them at a distance by watching for blades of grass shaking as if something big is pushing through them–something big is pushing through them, so go the other way.
5. Watch For Dew Drops
Grounded is first and foremost a survival game, which means you need to keep yourself fed and hydrated in order to stay alive for any length of time. Food is pretty easy to come by, as the game’s tutorial will tell you–there are lots of mushrooms growing around the backyard that you can snack on, and they’ll keep you going until you start figuring out how to craft the items you need for cooking bug meat. Water, on the other hand, isn’t as easy. You’ll find a lot of puddles in the backyard, but drinking that water isn’t the greatest idea.
Puddle water makes you a little sick in Grounded, so while your thirst meter is replenished, your health meter gets knocked down. That means you should carry spare food if you think you’re going to have to imbibe from a local gross puddle. You can get around that issue by finding clean water, generally in dew drops. These aren’t impossible to find, but they are somewhat rarer than puddles and can be tough to spot. Look for them hanging on grass blades above you–they’re easily knocked down by throwing a rock or some other object at them. Watch for and drink dew just about whenever you can for big boosts to your thirst meter, without the drawbacks. Watch your crafting menus for the ability to build objects that’ll catch water at your base so won’t have to hunt for it.
6. Block, Strafe, And Stun In Combat
You’ll be fighting a lot of insects in Grounded after a time, and sooner or later, you’re going to want to venture into the tougher bugs’ territories or into the underground tunnels that house spiders so you can get better resources. Armor will help you in these situations, but practice with the combat system can get you out of most situations regardless of what your equipment looks like.
Fighting in Grounded is about stamina management. The more times you swing a weapon or block an attack, the more your stamina depletes, so you need to be careful not to overdo it with slashing at an enemy. Meanwhile, bugs will telegraph their attacks pretty obviously before they do them, and they tend to fall into two camps: smaller, quicker jabs and slashes, and larger lunge attacks. Once an enemy makes the animation to telegraph an attack, you can often strafe to the sides, since they won’t turn once they’re committed. You can also block attacks, which is key to staying alive–blocking reduces the damage you take, and if you can manage to hit the block button the instant an attack would land, you can deflect it for almost no damage at all. Getting good at blocking enemy attacks, smart strafing, using weapon perks like Stun will help you deal with most threats pretty easily.
You should also note that if you get into trouble, you can often trick bugs into fighting one another to give you a chance to regroup, heal up, or escape a battle. Pay attention to which bugs are aggressive with each other and you can use their behaviors to your advantage.
7. Mark Key Locations
The backyard of Grounded is huge and it’s very easy to get lost in it. As you explore, you’ll discover important landmarks, like a fallen piece of wood or various tipped-over juice boxes, that can help you find your way around, but opening your map constantly puts you at a disadvantage and leaves you vulnerable to attack. Luckily, you can construct your own custom waypoints that appear on the screen while you’re wandering around to help you find things, and you should do so anytime you find something worth remembering so you can find it easily.
Waypoints are called Trail Markers in the crafting menu, and you’ll need clover leaves to build them. You should keep some on-hand at all times so that any time you happen across a Field Station, a spot with particularly useful resources, or anything else worthy of note, you can drop a flag. Pop one next to your base(s) so you can easily find them when you’re done exploring. Smart, organized use of Trail Markers makes mapping the backyard much easier, so get in the habit.
8. Climb Whatever You Can
Trail Markers are handy because it can be tough to see what’s around and where you’re going in Grounded, what with all the grass and weeds blocking your view wherever you go. Wandering around on the ground can be disorienting, but a lot of objects in the game will support your weight and allow you to get up into the air, where you can see farther, orient yourself better, and most importantly, avoid bugs.
If you can get into the air, you should. Bent grass blades, tree roots, leaves, even clovers make handy platforms. Bugs won’t chase you onto most objects, and you can even sometimes build in these elevated locations for added protection. What’s more, with enough height, you can make traveling quicker and easier, thanks to gliders. Speaking of which….
9. Grab A Dandelion Tuft For An Early Glider
You will take fall damage in Grounded, and while getting off the ground has its benefits, it can be easy to fall off stuff and get injured. A glider is a piece of gear you can make that can help with that, but rather than crafting one, you can get a glider quickly and easily by grabbing one of those white dandelion tufts that drop near the plants every so often. Snag it and add it to the “Glider” spot on your equipment list on the right side of your inventory, and you’ll be able to pull it out with the shift key anytime you’re falling.
While a glider will save you from injury, it’s even better as a means of traversal. Climb high enough and you can use the glider to travel a long distance without running on the ground and risking injury. Snag a dandelion glider early and cut down on your travel times.
10. Gather Raw Science
Once you head to the oak tree as part of the story missions in Grounded, you’ll discover a hidden lab beneath it. Inside is Burg-L, a robot who knows something about the experiment that shrunk you. In addition to. providing you with quests to keep you busy and help you explore, Burg-L will answer some questions about what’s going on and sell you new crafting recipes, but only if you gather a new resource called Raw Science.
There’s not a real explanation of what Raw Science actually is, but you’ll find it around Grounded, floating in weird places–it’s a bubble of pink goo, and you want to grab it whenever you see it. Completing quests and crafting new items will also provide you with Raw Science, so it’s good to keep messing around and trying new things. Raw Science is essentially a currency you can use with Burg.L. to buy stuff from his little shop, so you want to gather it when you can and keep an eye on your supply.
Got more essential tips for staying alive in Grounded? Drop them in the comments below.
The latest Pokemon Masters event, Summer Superstars, is underway. The mobile title’s event is live now through August 16, giving players a chance to earn items through event battles and daily log-ins.
Pokemon Masters players can earn travel tokens by beating event battles. These in turn can be used to move around an event map, which has different rewards in each map location. After completing a map you advance to a checkpoint, which gives more event story and advances you to another event map. During the event, the maps are unlimited so players can stockpile as many items as they want.
The Steven Seasonal Scout is now live! 5★ Steven (Summer 2020) & Sandslash are featured in the seasonal sync pair scout! You can get Steven (Summer 2020) & Sandslash’s sync orbs from the Summer Superstars event map!#PokemonMasterspic.twitter.com/uXrBNoWhek
Players can also earn 100 Gems each day for logging in, for up to a total of 1400 Gems. Additional travel tokens can be earned for using specific sync pairs during combat, including fan favorite Steven.
Applicable Sync Pairs
Steven (Summer 2020) and Sandslash: X1.6 tokens
Lyra (Summer 2020) and Jigglypuff: X1.6 tokens
Steven and Metagross: X1.4 tokens
Lyra and Chikorita: X1.4 tokens
Player character and Pikachu: X1.2 tokens
Player character and Torchic: X1.2 tokens
The sync pair bonuses also work with the evolved versions of the listed Pokemon.
It is important to note that you must have completed Main Story Chapter 1: The More the Merrier to participate in the event. Some of the sync pairs you will battle may have different abilities than those that are obtainable for players and at the end of the event all leftover travel tokens will be converted into coins at a rate of 10 coins per token.
