Hide your cows, folks – Universal is reportedly looking to reboot Twister, the iconic 1996 disaster film starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.
According to Variety, which broke the news, Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski is in talks to direct, with the search for a writer currently underway.
The original Twister – written by Jurassic Park mastermind Michael Crichton and his wife Anne-Marie Martin, and directed by Speed helmer Jan de Bont – centered around Paxton and Hunt’s married storm-chasers, whose relationship was every bit as tumultuous as the tornadoes they tracked (it’s a metaphor, see?).
No word on whether the plot of the Twister reboot would tread similar ground or explore a whole new story, but chances are it’ll be extreme.
The original Twister sucked up $494 million worldwide on a budget of $92 million, and the film inspired a special effects attraction at the Universal Studios Florida theme park from 1998 through 2015 that featured appearances from Paxton and Hunt. (It was later replaced with a vastly inferior Jimmy Fallon ride, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch has announced his next movie, and it sounds like an all-out action affair that should be familiar territory for the director.
Leitch is set to direct a new movie called Bullet Train that will focus on assassins on a train. Fear Street director Zak Olkewicz is writing the script, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie is likened to the Keanu Reeves movie Speed, but this time with a train … and assassins. A group of hitmen and assassins are on a speeding train in Tokyo and they’re out to kill each other. The name of the movie appears to be in reference to Japan’s Shinkansen rail train, known in English as the bullet train.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bullet Train is a “contained” movie which means it will shoot on a contained set that could make it easier to film amid new health protocols related to COVID-19. Filming is expected to begin in the Fall.
In addition to Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, Leitch directed Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde. His first movie in the director’s chair was the 2014 original John Wick, which he co-directed with Chad Stahelski.
In addition to this new Bullet Train movie, Leitch is attached to direct the movie based on Ubisoft’s The Division. The last we heard, Oscar-nominated actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain are set to star in the movie, which will debut on Netflix.
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Xbox executive Phil Spencer has commented on Sony’s recent PlayStation 5 showcase, stating that the competitor did a “good job,” while also acknowledging that the Xbox Series X has “hardware advantages” over Sony’s next-generation console.
“As a competitor, it’s great to have them out there now so we kind of know what the program is, we see the device, we see the games,” Spencer said during the recent GameLab event, as reported by VideoGamesChronicle.
Spencer says he “felt good” after watching the PS5 event because he thinks Microsoft’s own Xbox Series X stacks up well against Sony’s machine.
“Just being honest, I felt good after seeing their show,” Spencer said. “I think the hardware advantages that we have built are going to show up as we’re talking more about our games and frame rates and other things.”
“So I thought they did a good job,” Spencer said of Sony’s PS5 showing. “I thought they do what they do very well and they did that, but when I think about the position that we’re in, with the games that we’re going to be able to show and how they’re going to show up, and the hardware advantage that we have, I think we’re in a very good position.”
Dr. Mario World, the mobile spin-off of Nintendo’s puzzle series, has debuted a new character, and it’s a curious one. From June 26 at 3 AM PT, Dr Baby Wario will arrive in the game, and will be available to use as a character.
The little guy, pictured in the tweet below, might or might not be cute depending on whether or not you can deal with his two enormous walls of teeth.
Red: “Introducing a new doctor arriving June 26, 3 AM PT. It’s Dr. Baby Wario! So even THAT doctor was cute at one point, huh? There’s just one doctor this time. Please take it easy on me.” #DrMarioWorldpic.twitter.com/doc5x0AVoX
Baby Wario previously appeared in Yoshi’s Island DS, and in the 14 years since he has seemingly earned a medical degree. While his incarnation in that game wore just a diaper, this time he’s fully dressed with a doctor’s coat and tie. They grow up so fast.
Dr. Mario World has been the least profitable of Nintendo’s mobile games, and it’s unlikely that Dr. Baby Wario can turn the results around. With Nintendo potentially looking to move away from mobile development, hopefully the good (baby) doctor will be able to find other work eventually.
If you’re after another free-to-play puzzle game with Nintendo characters, Pokemon Cafe Mix is out now.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
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Skate 4 is finally in the works, and while we’re yet to see any gameplay footage, we’ve got some minor insights into what it might look like. While current EA job ads don’t show much, EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently talked about the game in an EA fireside chat, and it’s given us a few things to work with.
Wilson talked about how enthusiastic people were for a new Skate, and dropped some hints at features the game might contain. He said that while skateboarding “in and of itself has tremendous appeal to a huge, global audience,” Skate will also tap into a “trend that’s happening inside our industry around user-generated content, open-world, and interaction.”
Reflecting on skateboard culture, and how much art and fashion tie into it, Wilson said that while skating itself was a “starting point” there’s more to it than that. “You start to build in user-generated content, exploration, and community on top of that and that expands the opportunity exponentially,” he said.
Skate 3 allowed you to build your own skate park, but it sounds like Skate 4 might encourage customization beyond just how and where you skate. It remains to be seen what form this could take in the final game, though.
For more from the EA fireside chat, check out the stories linked below:
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Doom Eternal released on March 19 to critical acclaim (including an 8/10 from GameSpot), but it was originally scheduled to release in November 2019. The game was delayed to ensure a certain level of quality, and now, thanks to a new podcast interview with Pete Hines, Bethesda’s senior vice president of global marketing and communications, we know why.
Talking to USGamer for the site’s Branching Narratives podcast, Hines has reflected on the reception Fallout 76 received at launch, and how that influenced the development and release of Doom Eternal, as well as the Fallout 76 Wastelanders expansion.
“We said, ‘These are not ready, and we’re not going to make another mistake, and we’re going to take the extra time even though that time hurts, and is painful, and you miss a holiday,'” Hines reflects.
Ultimately, he believes that the delay was worth it, even if Doom Eternal missed a Christmas release. “Doom Eternal was so much better for it, and the response to Wastelanders was so much better for the extra time,” he says.
Elsewhere in the interview, Hines talks about Arkane’s upcoming Deathloop, citing it as an example of a studio trying something new. “Even if it’s just a one-off and they go back to doing other things, they’re still better for the experience, and they take away new learnings,” he says. He also reflects on the many ways people have tried to get information about Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI out of him, as well as friends and family of the team–“yeah, I’m not telling you anything,” he says.
Doom Eternal is also coming to Nintendo Switch, although a release date has not been set. The port is being handled by Panic Button, the team behind the Switch ports of Doom and Wolfenstein II.
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Jenny Slate has played Missy, a young Black girl (and the love interest of protagonist Andrew) on Big Mouth since Season 1 of the hit Netflix animated show, but that’s set to change. The actor has announced that after the upcoming Season 4, she will no longer voice the character, and that the part will be recast by a Black actor.
In a statement on Instagram, Slate admits that while she was initially able to justify the casting to herself, she has since come to understand that she is taking a role that should have been given to a Black actor. “At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissable for me to play Missy because her mom is Jewish and White–as am I,” the actor wrote. “But Missy is also Black, and Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people.”
Slate goes on to acknowledge that by taking role, she was “engaging in an act of erasure of Black people,” and that stepping away from the role “is one step in a life-long process of uncovering the racism in my actions.”
“To anyone that I’ve hurt: I am so very sorry,” the post concludes. “Black voices must be heard. Black Lives Matter.”
Co-creator and actor Nick Kroll also posted a statement to Twitter about the decision, cosigned by fellow creators Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett.
They state that they “wholeheartedly agree” with Slate’s decision, stating “We sincerely apologize for and regret our original decision to cast a white actor to voice a biracial character.”
“We made a mistake, took our privilege for granted, and we’re working hard to do better moving forward.”
Slate’s decision comes as part of a wider discussion about casting in adult animation. On June 24, Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg posted a long Twitter thread about the decision to cast Alison Brie, a white actor, as Diane, a Vietnamese-American character, on his show. “We should have hired a Vietnamese writer, and a Vietnamese actress to play Diane – or if not that, changed the character to match who we did hire,” he wrote.
Recently, long time Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria revealed that he will no longer play Apu on the show. “Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore,” he said.
Variety is reporting that Season 4 of Big Mouth has already finished production, so Missy will be recast as of Season 5. A release date for the upcoming season has not yet been announced.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
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The iconic animated TV show South Park is now available to stream on HBO Max, but there are five episodes in particular that are not on the streaming platform due to their controversial nature.
The episodes “Super Best Friends,” “Cartoon Wars” Parts 1 and 2, and “200” and “201” were not released on HBO Max because of their depiction of the Prophet Muhammed, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
These are the same five episodes that were removed from Hulu when the show was streaming there. The episodes also got cut from rotation on broadcast TV re-runs.
Doug Herzog, the former boss of South Park network Comedy Central, told The Hollywood Reporter back in 2016 that these episodes were removed due to concerns about the safety of the production team.
HBO Max bought all 23 seasons of South Park for a reported $500 million. The show remains popular and on the air, with new seasons coming through the end of 2022.
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Project Cars 3 was only just announced earlier this month, and as it turns out we won’t have to wait long at all to play it on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The third game in the series will release on August 28, 2020.
The game, which will have more cars than previous entries in the series, is offering car upgrades, customization, and personalization options that were not in Project Cars 1 or 2. New tracks have also been added, including the Brazilian Grand Prix track Interlagos, as well as a new track in Tuscany.
This game will also boast a more robust campaign mode, which will, according to the press release, “entice players on a driver’s journey from weekend warrior to racing legend.”
Bandai Namco also revealed several new screenshots, showing off some of the game’s car models.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
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It must be tough iterating on an established formula, especially in racing games. Across the spectrum of styles within the genre, from Need For Speed Underground to Gran Turismo and Forza Horizon somewhere in between, I’ve loved but also felt burnout to some degree. Rally racing is one area I hadn’t experienced much until Dirt 4, but having known about where the series has come from, Dirt 5 noticeably takes a turn in a different direction.
I got hands-on with a preview build of Dirt 5 on PC, which features four tracks for brief circuit races with a handful of cars to select. One track mixes street and off-road racing, two are purely muddy off-road endeavors, and one is a hectic drifting loop with sprint cars. It’s quite a small piece of the game, but it’s immediately clear that–based on the demo–the emphasis is no longer on keenly following a co-driver’s course instructions in a time attack. The game is trying to tap into the excitement of head-to-head competitive racing with a bit of attitude.
The experience is reminiscent of Forza Horizon 4 in that it controls in a manner that bridges the gap between arcade and sim (by default, all driving assists like traction control were set to low). But similarities are also found in the courses’ environmental stylings. For example, the Ultracross event-type on the Norway track is laid with equal parts pavement and dirt, and features dynamic weather patterns–all of which remind me of the Horizon 4’s races and changing seasons. Over the course of the race, the sun began to and ultimately finished setting, leading the race to continue in an enjoyably chaotic nighttime snowstorm. The rapid snowfall emphasized a sense of speed and reinforced that my sloppy driving and tendency to trade paint with other racers wouldn’t be met with dire consequences.
In the Brazil and China courses–Stampede and Land Rush event-types, respectively–it’s all muddy terrain sloshing about as your tires glide through each lap. Here is where Dirt 5 goes in on the wild off-roading aspects. Brazil features gap jumps and China has widened lanes and harsh terrain, throwing any notion of a buttoned-up rally sim out the window. In the demo, you choose between burly off-road trucks or nimble superlite cars that handle much differently, but induce the same feeling of looseness in gameplay.
I did find the Sprint event on the Arizona course lacking, though. It’s a small left-turn loop with high-powered single-gear sprint cars where you have to maintain your drift better than the others to get through the course efficiently. Although a fresh idea for the series, it might not be the best showcase for the new direction or event-type.
From a presentation perspective, Dirt 5 also shows a shift in style by leaning into a low-key irreverence for the professional-ish disposition of past games and a Rage 2-like use of a neon color palette. The change in attitude seems to carry into the single-player story. Although it’s not part of the demo, developer Codemasters gave plenty of detail on its new approach to the career mode (see the video above). It stars two rivals: your mentor AJ (played by Troy Baker) and ascending racing superstar Bruno Durand (played by Nolan North). There’s also an in-game podcast network that’s used to narrate and drive the story, which also reminds me of the radio hosts who push you along in Forza Horizon’s campaigns. Throughout the career mode, you’ll choose which events to complete (said to offer branching paths) and which sponsors to represent as you gain a better reputation.
So as we transition into the next generation with another wave of racing games and Dirt 5 in the spotlight, we see it both departing from traditions while also moving closer to the established arcade-sim hybrid–changes which may attract an audience that probably hasn’t given rally racing much thought. Dirt 4 did feature a Land Rush mode for buggies and trucks, and Rallycross as a circuit-race alternative, but Dirt 5 is putting those styles of racing front-and-center while clearly dialing up the bombast.
Based on time with the demo, I’m not sure if Dirt 5 will necessarily overcome my fatigue with the racing genre as it seems to draw from others in many ways, but it’s certainly a fresh approach for the core Dirt series regardless. With Dirt 5, the series isn’t all about rally racing anymore; instead, it’s embracing the chaos of off-roading, and at least that’s still staying true to its name.
Again, what I played was a brief preview build and there’ll be much more to unpack when the game comes out on October 9 this year for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and on PS5 and Xbox Series X when those next-gen consoles launch.
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