Author: Trafficblast

Netflix has attracted yet another Hollywood star to make a movie for the streaming service. The company has announced that George Clooney, who has won two Oscars, will direct and star in a new Netflix movie. The untitled film is based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight that was written by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) wrote the screenplay for the film, which is in pre-production.

Clooney plays the character Augustine, “a lonely scientist in the Arctic,” in the post-apocalyptic film that follows two parallel threads. Here is the full plot description:

“This post-apocalyptic tale follows the parallel stories of Augustine (Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to make contact with the crew of the Aether spacecraft as they try to return home to Earth.”

Production on the film is scheduled to begin in October. No release date has been set, and there is no word on who will star in the movie alongside Clooney.

“Having known and worked with George for over two decades, I can’t think of anyone better to bring this amazing story to life,” Netflix movie boss Scott Stuber said in a statement. “The book is powerful and moving, and Mark’s adaptation is beautifully written. At its core, this is a story about human nature, and one that I know our global audiences will fall in love with, just like I did when I read it.”

The untitled Good Morning, Midnight movie is being produced by Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures, which produced the Oscar winning movie Argo, as well as films like Good Night and Good Luck, Leatherheads, and The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Clooney also worked on and appeared in the Hulu series Catch-22, but the new Good Morning, Midnight movie is his first feature film for a streaming service.

Space Jam 2 is coming, and it appears filming is starting soon (if it hasn’t already). Star LeBron James, who plays the lead, wrote on Twitter today to talk about how he’s really very excited that the movie has finally come together.

“Man this really just hit me! I’m really shooting Space Jam 2!! This is so surreal and doesn’t even make sense to me! Where I come from man and what I saw growing up this doesn’t add up to me! I’m truly grateful and beyond blessed. This is CRAZINESS,” he wrote.

Just recently, it was reported that Space Jam 2 will also feature Damian Lillard, Anthony Davis, and Klay Thompson alongside WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Nneka Ogwumike, and Chiney Ogwumike. “Several more” NBA and WNBA players will reportedly have roles in the film, but Steph Curry won’t be among them.

Curry told The New York Times that he couldn’t appear in the film due to scheduling conflicts. Some had speculated that Curry wasn’t contractually able to appear in the film due to his sponsorship deal with Under Armour, while James is with Nike. But it appears it was instead a scheduling issue.

The 1996 original Space Jam featured the world’s biggest basketball star at the time, Michael Jordan, in the lead role. The original film featured numerous famous basketball players of the time, with Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and others joining Jordan. They teamed up with Looney Tunes characters in a very high-stakes basketball game. Bill Murray was also in the movie.

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is set to produce Space Jam 2, with Terence Nance (Random Acts of Flyness) on board to direct. The movie opens in July 2021.

The director of the original Space Jam, Joe Pytka, doesn’t think a sequel is a good idea; he thinks it’s “doomed.”

Microsoft’s E3 briefing this year was missing a few things some people might have expected. Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 did not show its new game, while Microsoft’s new studio, The Initiative, also didn’t show up during the event. Some also expected to see the rumored new Fable game from Forza Horizon developer Playground’s second team.

Now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has explained why Microsoft focused more on the games coming out in the closer future than those that could release further out.

Spencer told Kotaku that he was proud that 12 of the 14 first-party titles that Microsoft showed off at E3 were shipping in the next year. “We were really able to focus on what’s coming now, which I think is awesome,” he said. “And then I think about the studios: where was Initiative? Where was [Forza Motorsport studio] Turn 10? Where was Playground’s second team?”

Spencer said it felt “nice” to not have to show all of its first-party games at the show. He said teams like 343 Industries (Halo) and Turn 10 (Forza Motorsport) have been given “time” to come up with new games that really excite people.

“We gave them time–we did, what, four Halos in four years?–giving them an opportunity to really think and have a creative impact when they launch. Turn 10 is similar. I want to give them time to think through their plans,” he said.

“I love what they do with Motorsport, but you’ve got to be able to listen to your studios when they need time and they want to focus on more things. And as you have more content, you’re able to do that,” Spencer added.

The executive went on to say that quality for first-party games is “very important.” He acknowledged that in the past it “became more difficult” to align the first-party Xbox portfolio of games with release dates chosen years before release. Now that Microsoft owns more studios–it now has 15 owned studios–it’s allowed the company to “create room for [Microsoft] to focus on quality.”

“I feel good about what Rod [Fergusson]’s done [at Gears studio The Coalition], what Bonnie [Ross] has done [at Halo studio 343 Industries], what Alan [Hartman] has done with Turn 10, and what Helen [Chiang]’s been doing with Minecraft.”

For Halo and Forza Motorsport, the wait is already longer than usual for a new release–and as Spencer says, that’s by design. Halo Infinite‘s release in Holiday 2020 will be around 5 years after the release of Halo 5 in 2015, which is longer than the average interval between the previous mainline releases. Meanwhile, the Forza Motorsport series (not counting Horizon) has been released every two years since the first game in 2005. The latest instalment, Motorsport 7, was released in 2017.

Microsoft acquired or set up a number of new studios in the past year, the most recent of which is Brutal Legend studio Double Fine that Microsoft announced in June.

List Of Xbox Game Studios Developers

• 343 Industries
• The Coalition
• Compulsion Games
• Double Fine
• Microsoft Studios Global Publishing
• The Initiative
• inXile
• Mojang
• Ninja Theory
• Obsidian
• Playground Games
• Rare
• Turn 10 Studios
• Undead Labs
• Age of Empires

Last month, Pokemon Go developer Niantic announced it would be bringing three Legendary Pokemon back to the game for a limited time. The second of the three, Kyogre, is now available, but if you’ve yet to catch it, your time to do so is quickly running out; the Legendary is set to leave the game again this Thursday, June 27.

As before, Kyogre can be found in five-star Raids, meaning you’ll first need to team up with other players in-person and battle the Pokemon before you can earn a chance to capture it. Even if you already have Kyogre in your collection, you’ll want to check out Raids while the Legendary is available, as you’ll also have a chance of encountering a Shiny Kyogre.

Immediately following Kyogre’s departure later this week, its counterpart from Pokemon Ruby, Groudon, will make an encore appearance in Raids until July 10. As is the case with Kyogre, you’ll have a chance of coming across a Shiny Groudon when the Legendary returns to the game. You can read more details on the official Pokemon Go website.

Even if you miss your chance to catch Kyogre this week, you’ll soon have another opportunity to add the Legendary to your collection. Both Kyogre and Groudon will be two of the possible Legendary Pokemon you can encounter as part of July’s Field Research tasks. You’ll also be able to catch a Spinda featuring a new spot pattern through the new Field Research quests, and if you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to find a Shiny version.

Groudon isn’t the only Legendary set to return this week, either. As a reward for completing enough Global Challenges during the recent Pokemon Go Fest event in Chicago, Niantic is holding a special Raikou Raid Day this Saturday, June 29. The Legendary dog will reappear in Raid Battles from 4-7 PM local time, and you’ll have a chance to encounter a Shiny Raikou during those hours.

In other news, Niantic’s new Harry Potter game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, is now live in the US and UK. While the premise of both games is very similar, Wizards Unite also differs from Pokemon Go in a few notable ways. Be sure to check out our full Harry Potter: Wizards Unite coverage for more about the game, as well as tips and guides for Wizarding Challenges, Professions, and other elements.

A fix to an exotic weapon in Destiny 2 is likely slated for July, but the timing is uncertain right now because the studio is weighing its culture and work-life balance.

Game director Luke Smith answered a question about a fix to the Lord of Wolves weapon in a livestream for the charity convention GuardianCon. He suggested that while the studio could use a patch that’s already near-finalized to add the weapon fix as well, that might be too difficult on the studio.

“We’re looking at this summer, something like July,” Smith said. “We have a patch that we’re readying right now, the patch is going to come out in a couple weeks. We could take the patch off the patch factory, more or less, and ask people to work super long and add this thing in. And we’re having the conversation that, ‘Is it worth doing that or is it better to preserve the work-life balance and ship it later in July.'”

He went on to say that the cost-benefit analysis of working long hours is complex, and the studio doesn’t like to take patches out of release candidates very often. In fact, he said, the studio just did it for a different feature, and he’s not sure if it’s healthy for the studio to do it back-to-back.

The Lord of Wolves weapon had an adjustment that made it much more powerful than intended, which makes it imbalanced in the PvP Crucible mode.

Working long hours at a game studio to meet a release target is known as crunch. Development crunch has been a hotly discussed topic in the industry recently, with one such subject being an ongoing crunch mode at live games like Fortnite. Studios have been opening up more about their culture and attempts to stave off crunch, and with this Bungie has indicated that it uses the strategy but tries to limit it.

The GuardianCon fundraiser, meanwhile, brought in well over $3 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with a boost from Bungie’s block of time providing almost half a million.

There was no doubt a sequel would be in the works when Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature back in early 2019. But even despite the $375.5 million it has earned, there’s now definitive confirmation a sequel is “definitely” coming.

Producer Amy Pascal told io9 her team is back in the lab. “We are definitely hard at work on the sequel.” No release date or window was provided, nor did she divulge details about what’s to come in the Spider-Verse sequel. We’re only left with the news that we can “expect another movie.”

“Going forward, if there are more movies, I’m sure there will be more surprises,” co-director Rodney Rothman told GameSpot at the film’s digital and Blu-ray release in March 2019, stating that an Australian Spider-Man was cut from Spider-Verse. In addition to more Spideys, we may see previous Peter Parker’s Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man series) and Tobey Maguire (the original Spider-Man trilogy) in the Spider-Verse sequel. Producer Chris Miller said their appearance was something the team “definitely talked about, more than once, and decided that ultimately, there are many more opportunities in the future.”

Pascal served as a producer on the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home–scheduled to debut in theatres on July 2–as well as other recent spider-related projects like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, and The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Pascal also has production credits on Greta Gerwig’s upcoming coming-of-age period drama Little Women, slated to premiere on December 25.

In our Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse review, we said, “It manages to blow right past the dangers of sinking into after school special territory by believing wholeheartedly in its own message and delivering it with appropriately genuine stakes. The end result is an instant animated classic, and, with any luck, the first of many of its kind.”

It’s time to plan a trip to Target: This week, the retailer is offering 30% off select PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch games if you select “Order Pick-up” at checkout, meaning you’ll have to go into your local Target store to pick it up rather than having it shipped to your home. In the era of free, fast online shipping, that’s kind of a drag if you don’t have a store nearby, but if you don’t live too far from a Target, here’s an easy way to save yourself a significant amount on new games.

The Target 30% off sale encompasses over 400 games, from first-party Nintendo games to PS4 exclusives and Xbox One hits. Some of the most notable deals include Devil May Cry 5 for $35, Kingdom Hearts 3 for $24.50, Mortal Kombat 11 for $35, and Resident Evil 2 for $28. You can also grab Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for only $33.60, Rage 2 for $35, and Days Gone for $42.

See the full list of eligible games at Target and some of our picks below (discount price reflected). The following deals will expire after June 29.

• Anthem — $21
• Civilization VI — $35
• Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled — $28
• Days Gone — $42
• Devil May Cry 5 — $35 (PS4) / $42 (Xbox One)
• The Division 2 — $42
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze — $35
• Forza Horizon 4 — $29.74
• God of War — $28
• Just Dance 2019 — $21
• Kingdom Hearts 3 — $24.50
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — $35
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle — $21
• Mario Tennis Aces — $35
• Marvel’s Spider-Man — $28
• Metro Exodus — $42 (PS4) / $35 (Xbox One)
• MLB The Show 19 — $42
• Monster Hunter World — $16
• Mortal Kombat 11 — $35
• NBA 2K19 — $20 (Switch) / $42 (PS4, Xbox One)
• Rage 2 — $35
• Red Dead Redemption 2 — $42 (PS4) / $37.80 (Xbox One)
• Resident Evil 2 — $28
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice — $33.60
• Sonic Mania Plus — $21
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy — $28 (PS4) / $21 (Xbox One)
• Super Mario Party — $35
• Team Sonic Racing — $28
• XCOM 2 Collection — $28