Author: Trafficblast

Shares of Netflix hit an all-time high on April 15, boosting the company’s value over that of rival Disney, which is deeply struggling amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As reported by Variety, Netflix’s stock “closed up 3.2%, to $426.75 per share. That gives Netflix a current market capitalization of $187.3 billion, putting it just over Disney’s $186.6 billion.”

Netflix will report its first quarter 2020 earnings on April 21.

With people worldwide quarantined at home due to COVID-19, streaming viewership is surging. U.S viewership alone is up 109% in March 2020 over the previous year.

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While both Netflix and Disney+ are the beneficiaries of this increased stay-at-home viewership, Disney, as a company dependent on consumers being out in public, has suffered more revenue loss than Netflix due to the pandemic.

With movie theaters, stores, cruise lines, and theme parks indefinitely closed, Disney is reportedly losing upwards of $30 million a day.

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Disney, meanwhile, aims to rebound once bans on public gatherings are lifted and theme parks and movie theaters can reopen.

In the meantime, Disney recently reshuffled their theatrical release slate, pushing several notable 2020 movies to next year.

Recently, an episode of Jeopardy featured some footage from The Last of Us Part II as a question on the show.

Contestants were given the clue, “The long awaited, upcoming sequel to this PlayStation game revisits Ellie and Joel after a cross country trek filled with zombies.” The clue was narrated over some footage of Ellie and Joel in the sequel, showing only a few seconds of what appeared to be an overgrown city. These clips have been shown already, at a preview event in Los Angeles late last year.

Video games have turned up as questions or topics in Jeopardy before, with Pokemon being a whole category back in December 2019.

The Last of Us Part II was originally set to release on the PS4 on February 21, but has since been delayed due to issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently the game has no set release date.

The long-gestating Fonzo, director Josh Trank’s film about gangster Al Capone starring Tom Hardy, has a new title, release date, and trailer.

Trank tweeted the first trailer for the retitled Capone with the reveal that the movie will be released on May 12. Trank noted the title change from Fonzo in his post: “Different title. My cut.”

Here’s the official statement on Capone’s VOD release:

“With theatres closed, Vertical Entertainment and Redbox Entertainment have teamed up to release CAPONE as a home premiere VOD release on May 12th  with an on-demand 48-hour rental. The distributor is still hoping for a theatrical release later in the summer as things return to normal.”

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Trank also tweeted that while Capone will debut on streaming, he hopes it will also receive a theatrical release later this year. Capone, the director explained, had initially been made for a theatrical release not streaming.

Capone is just one of many films whose theatrical release has been impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Capone follows the titular gangster’s later years after his release from federal incarceration, as he slowly loses his mind to the ravages of neurosyphilis. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

“Once a ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Alfonse Capone was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Alfonse’s mind and his past becomes present. Harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. As he spends his final year surrounded by family with the FBI lying in wait, this ailing patriarch struggles to place the memory of the location of millions of dollars he hid away on his property.”

It was revealed earlier today that Capone will be rated R “for strong/bloody violence, pervasive language and some sexuality” and that its domestic distributor is Vertical Entertainment.

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For more streaming content, check out all the new titles out this month to Netflix and Disney+.

This review contains mild spoilers for the What We Do in the Shadows Season 2 premiere, episodes 1 and 2, “Resurrection” and “Ghosts.” WWDITS airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX and the next day on Hulu.

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What We Do in the Shadows, FX’s fangtastic supernatural comedy, returns as sharp and absurd as ever in its second season, with our hapless vampires taking on real and existential threats, including ghosts, zombies, email spam, and the social minefield of a Super Bowl party.

After their run-in with the star-studded vampire council last season, life has mostly returned to normal for Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) as Season 2 kicks off – mostly because, unbeknownst to them, Nandor’s familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) has been secretly taking out the vampire assassins sent by the council to punish them, protecting his ungrateful employers and trying to deny his heritage as a Van Helsing.

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While Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja remain reliably frozen in time, just as self-obsessed, horny, and oblivious to human progress as ever, Guillermo’s personal growth continues to serve as the throughline to the series. He’s still adorably loyal to Nandor no matter how cruel he is to his human servant, but it’s clear that some friction is building as Guillermo becomes more proficient in the art of vampire slaying. The universe certainly seems to be telling him that it’s his destiny to rid the world of these suckers, not just fetch them virgins and clean the blood off their cloaks. This focus on Guillermo is an excellent showcase for Guillen, who can play long-suffering exasperation better than just about anyone else – but it’s those quiet, subtle moments, when you can see him considering just how easy it might be to simply stake his insufferable master, that lend the season a delicious bit of tension.

While these serialized elements help the show maintain a sense of momentum that was slightly lacking in Season 1 (the first four episodes of Season 2 were sent to critics), I’d honestly be just as satisfied and entertained by What We Do in the Shadows if every episode was just a series of self-contained vignettes as Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja struggle to assimilate to human life or wrestle with modern conveniences. An upcoming episode that sees them forced to use a laptop proves to be one of the most hilarious installments to date, purely on the strength of Novak, Berry, and Demetriou’s increasingly unhinged performances. Not every joke lands, but the ones that do are usually gut-busters.

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Like last season, the show smartly deploys a number of perfectly-utilized guest stars, kicking off with a hilariously douchey turn from Haley Joel Osment as Nadja and Laszlo’s obnoxious familiar Topher in the first episode, adding another layer of ridiculousness to the proceedings.

 

While Topher is mostly used as a device to highlight just how underappreciated Guillermo is, he does serve as a window into the wider supernatural world when he’s resurrected as a zombie after a surreal trip to a necromancer (who is basically running a zombie sweatshop in his basement – apparently there’s no escaping capitalism, even after death). The show seems eager to deepen its paranormal mythology in Season 2, as the second episode tackles the existence of ghosts. It makes total sense for the whimsical Nadja to be the only one who believes in other, kookier aspects of the occult, and it’s nice to see the show expanding on other creatures who might inhabit the world established in the movie, especially considering the existence of Wellington Paranormal – another Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement-created series set in the same universe – which also delves into the many other creepy creatures that humans are oblivious to.

On a related note, Mark Proksch’s scene-stealing energy vampire Colin Robinson remains a delight by being as mind-numbingly boring as possible, with the trailers hinting at a bigger storyline for him as the season progresses. Since energy vampires were an invention specifically for the show, there’s plenty of runway for the writers to experiment with Colin Robinson and his abilities,  and since he’s a consistent scene-stealer, that can only be a good thing.

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Here at IGN, we’re always looking for new ways to bring our community together to embrace what we’re most passionate about. That’s why we’re so excited to debut Watch From Home Theater, a new weekly live show we’ll be hosting on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. E.T. to unite some of your favorite IGN personalities and special celebrity guests to have a digital movie night together with you.

We’ve assembled something pretty special for our fourth episode: a watch-along of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with writers Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz! IGN fans consistently vote Rogue One as their favorite modern Star Wars movie, so we’re really excited to get to welcome two of the men responsible for bringing it to life over to our corner of the Internet for a one-of-a-kind movie night.

You can watch the full watch-along episode below:

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We’re also using this stream to drive awareness to Gary and Chris’s charities of choice, so if you’re looking to support some great causes, be sure to check them out below:

• Stack Up, a military charity supporting active and veteran service members from the US and allied nations by promoting positive mental health and combating veteran suicide through gaming and geek culture.
• International Rescue Committee, which responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future.

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Rogue One is currently available on Disney+ as part of its subscription service. If you’re not already signed up, Disney+ is offering a 14-day free trial. But if you’d prefer to rent the movie, here are some rental options:

• Amazon Prime ($2.99 rental)
• Fandango Now ($2.99 SD rental, $3.99 HD rental)
• Google Play ($2.99 rental)
• iTunes ($2.99 rental)
• YouTube ($2.99 rental)
• Vudu ($3.99 rental)

And if you’re tuning in and want to upgrade your Star Wars T-shirt collection, we’re running a special deal on the IGN Store for all WFH Theater viewers where you can get an additional $5 off all Star Wars designs by applying the promo code “ROGUE” at check out.

This isn’t just a show or an opportunity to watch a movie; it’s a hangout with passionate people who share one thing in common — their love of film. Each week, we’ll invite our viewers to join in the conversation using our WFH Theater Discord channel to chat with our host, Clint Gage, as well as our celebrity guest and IGN staff. With running commentaries that range from insightful to silly, each viewing will take on a life of its own based on each film.

If you missed our first episode, you can watch our live commentary of The Invisible Man with director Leigh Whannell below in its entirety!

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You can also watch our second episode, where we watched Night of the Living Dead with The Walking Dead EP and special makeup effects master Greg Nicotero:

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Have any questions for us in the meantime? Drop them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer before showtime. We’re excited to watch with you!

Recently, Respawn added in map rotation to their battle royale game, Apex Legends. Since then, fans have been requesting the developers to tweak the rotation system. The developers have listened to the feedback and will be implementing a number of changes to the rotation.

As the tweet above says, the Nighttime Kings Canyon map will be removed from the rotation completely. Kings Canyon was only supposed to be in the rotation for a period of time, but now the developers will be shortening this time before the map is phased out completely. Kings Canyon will still be available as a Ranked map option for those who prefer playing the map.

In other Apex Legends news, The Old Ways Lore Event is still running until April 21, offering a Town Takeover in World’s Edge and a new exclusive prize track with exclusive cosmetics.

Apex Legends is available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

The developers of Call of Duty: Warzone have made another change to the battle royale game that you might not have immediately noticed. Amos Hodge, the creative director at co-developer Raven Software, revealed on Twitter that passengers in vehicles can now use kill streaks.

This is a small but potentially useful change, giving squads another level of strategy to deploy on the battlefield against other teams.

This is just the latest tweak for Warzone, as Hodge previously announced that big armored trucks have been removed from the battle royale game to help even out the vehicle meta. Looking ahead, the developer is planning some changes to money drop rates to help offer more consistency.

In other Warzone news, the Trios battle royale mode is returning this week in a playlist update. The mode was removed when the shotgun/sniper variant came online recently.