Author: Trafficblast

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is off to a fast start, and soon you’ll be able to meet up with other wizards and witches in real life as part of an official event. Niantic and WB Games have announced a real-world event or Wizards Unite to take place in Indianapolis starting on August 31.

During the event, participating SOS operatives can explore the White River State Park to find magical activity spilling over into the Muggle world. You’ll be able to encounter fantastic beasts, find artifacts, and cast spells out in the wide open space of the park. As the first major event, Niantic hints that it will start to unravel the mystery of the Calamity that has smashed magic into Muggle spaces.

Tickets will be available for purchase, but Niantic appears to be expecting a crowd and will be setting up a lottery system for tickets. You can check the official event site for more details and watch for your chance to enter the lottery. The event will take place August 31 through September 1.

Niantic has hosted similar events for Pokemon Go on a fairly regular basis. Those events have typically also had some element or prize that goes out to those who couldn’t attend as well.

“Real-world events are part of Niantic’s DNA, bringing players from all walks of life together in the name of adventure, exploration and creating lasting friendships,” said Niantic live events VP Bill Kilday, in the announcement. “The incredible White River State Park is surrounded by the rich culture and history of Indianapolis and will be the perfect location for our inaugural Harry Potter: Wizards Unite event.”

The event is still a couple of months away, but in the meantime you can get your wizarding skills up to scratch by playing the free-to-play game now. Check out our challenges guide and how to get more spell energy, plus where to get ingredients for your potions.

The epic storytelling of the Final Fantasy series of games will soon transition into television. Sony Pictures Television and Hivemind Productions have revealed they are partnering with Square Enix to develop a live-action adaptation of Final Fantasy XIV.

The TV series will be set in Eorzea, the same setting as the 14th main installment of the video game series. The show will feature many elements that players are long familiar with, including Chocobos and the live-action debut of Cid.

Final Fantasy XIV is an MMORPG, following all the standard aspects from the franchise, such as godlike beings, impending doom, magic, airships, and protagonists trying to save the world from being blown up. Following a rough launch in 2010, FFXIV was re-released in 2013 and has since established itself among the subscription-based MMOs on the market. The news of a TV show comes just ahead of the launch of the game’s next expansion, Shadowbringers.

“Final Fantasy XIV and Eorzea are the perfect gateway into Final Fantasy for longtime fans and newcomers alike,” said Sony Pictures Television Co-President Chris Parnell. “This show is about embracing and embodying all of the elements that have made the mythos such an endlessly captivating phenomenon, and it’s an immense honor to be bringing all of Eorzea’s iconic characters, settings, and concepts – including fan-favorites like Cid and, of course, the chocobos–to life for a television audience.”

Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton will write for the series and serve as executive producers alongside Jason F. Brown, Sean Daniel, and Dinesh Shamdasani of Hivemind. This isn’t the only piece of TV content being produced by Hivemind at the moment. Aside from Amazon’s The Expanse, the production company is also working on an adaptation of The Witcher for Netflix, which will reportedly release on the streaming service this fall. The series will star Freya Allan (Into the Badlands) as Ciri, Anya Chalotra (Wanderlust) as Yennefer, and Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. The first season is currently in production in Hungary.

Final Fantasy was previously adapted for the animated movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Released in 2001, it was widely panned and performed poorly at the box office. In 2017, there was also the live-action TV mini-series Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light, following a father and son connecting through the MMORPG.

The first trailer for Charlie’s Angels is here. The latest movie version of the iconic female crime-fighters stars Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska, and hits theaters in November.

The trailer introduces the new Angels–Stewart plays highly-trained agent Sabina Wilson, Balinska is former MI6 operative Jane Kano, while Scott is scientist and computer whiz Elena Houghlin. The trio are brought into Charlie Townsend’s crime-fighting agency, which is now a global spy network, by Bosley, played by director Elizabeth Banks. Patrick Stewart and Dimjou Hounsou also appear–as other spy bosses using the Bosley alias–and it looks like a great mix of action, intrigue, and wise-cracking comedy. Check it out above.

Charlie’s Angels is Banks’ second directing credit after 2015’s Pitch Perfect 2. The movie isn’t actually a remake of either the original ’70s TV show or the two movies from the 2000s, but a continuation of the same story. It releases on November 15.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Banks spoke about how she approached this latest version of Charlie’s Angels. “It was important to me to make a movie about women working together and supporting each other, and not make a movie about their romantic entanglements or their mother they don’t call enough,” she said. “When I’m at work, I don’t talk about those things. I get on with my job. It felt important to do that for the Angels, to treat them with the respect their skill set demands.”

For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to the biggest upcoming movies of 2019.

WWE television is making a few changes, and that includes creating two new roles working directly under CEO Vince McMahon. Paul Heyman will become executive director of Raw and Eric Bischoff will serve in that same position on Smackdown Live.

In these newly-created positions, the two men will be a part of creative development, overseeing it across WWE’s platforms. A press release stated that this position will allow WWE to progress as a “global brand” while giving each of the company’s flagship shows a “distinct creative process.”

Heyman and Bischoff should be familiar names for anyone who follows wrestling and WWE’s brand of sports entertainment. Paul Heyman currently appears on a regular basis on WWE programming as the manager/advocate for superstar Brock Lesnar. However, Heyman’s legacy in the industry comes from the time he was president of ECW from 1993-2001. ECW’s brand of wrestling filled a void many wrestling fans felt they couldn’t get from WWE or WCW at the time, and in a sense, this show was the spark for what would become the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW.

As for Bischoff, he’s worked on and off with WWE in the past, but he’s most known for being the president of WCW, helping create iconic storylines–like the NWO–and was a major part of securing WCW’s TV deals: Monday Nitro on TNT and WCW Thunder on TBS. Bischoff was the face of WCW for years, as he inserted himself into storylines, becoming a major part of the NWO, alongside Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash.

Looking forward, it’s apparent Vince McMahon will be taking a step back–but not completely away–from weekly programming as we move closer to the relaunch of the XFL, in 2020. Hopefully, having two different directors for both Raw and Smackdown will help give each show a distinct look and feel, since the newly created Wild Card Rule–where superstars from each show can crossover to the opposite–has made the brand split feel pointless.