Author: Trafficblast

Actor Orlando Bloom’s very first major movie role was none other than Legolas in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He’s now revealed how much he was paid for the 2001 fantasy film, and it might be lower than you would think. He appeared on The Howard Stern Show recently where he said he was paid $175,000 for the first movie.

“Nothing, I got nothing. 175 grand . . . Listen, greatest gift of my life. Are you kidding me? I’d do it again for half the money,” he said, as reported by Metro UK.

Bloom, who originally auditioned for a smaller role, Faramir, added that he re-negotiated for more money for The Two Towers and The Return of the King. “I was in a good spot. They negotiated pretty well for me to buy a couple of houses; it was that kind of money,” he said, according to The Playlist.

Bloom went on to play Legolas again in The Hobbit trilogy, and presumably he was able to negotiate for a good sum. Bloom currently stars in the Amazon show Carnival Row alongside Cara Delevingne.

No new Lord of the Rings movies have been announced, but a biopic about author J.R.R. Tolkien starring Nicolas Hoult in the title role hit theatres in May this year.

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It’s a good week to be a Nintendo Switch owner. This episode of New Releases takes a look at The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake, Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns, and Castle Crashers Remastered–all coming to the handheld console. Those aren’t the only remasters either; Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is also launching this week. Finally, the zany indie Untitled Goose Game is also on the way.

Castle Crashers Remastered — September 17

Available on: Switch

The 2008 Xbox Live Arcade classic is out now on Xbox One, and this week Switch owners can enjoy the beat-’em-up action in four-player co-op or take each other on in the arena. This remaster includes the original game, plus all of its DLC, all running at 60 FPS. There’s also a new mini-game called Back Off Barbarian.

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Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns — September 19

Available on: Switch

For the uninitiated, Puzzle Quest is an RPG where you battle foes by playing a match-three puzzle game. Once you choose a class, you can cast spells and make attacks based on combinations of colored gems as you clear the board. The Legend Returns includes the original game and all previous expansions, plus a brand-new one titled Attack of the Golem Lord.

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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening — September 20

Available on: Switch

This is a full-on remake of Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy. While it offers the same story and dungeons across Koholint Island, there’s also a completely fresh art style, reimagined soundtrack, and even a special dungeon editor. Tap an Amiibo, and you can unlock extra mini-games and chambers for that dungeon-builder. Tap the Link’s Awakening Amiibo specifically, and you’ll summon Shadow Link.

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Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered — September 20

Available on: PS4, PC

Ni no Kuni’s Studio Ghibli-inspired visuals were already impressive when the original released in 2010–the beloved studio actually animated the game’s cinematic cut scenes–but the remaster somehow looks even better, running at 60 FPS. Otherwise it’s the same RPG from nearly a decade ago. Speaking of which, the original Ni no Kuni (not the remaster) is also headed to Nintendo Switch on September 20.

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Untitled Goose Game — September 20

Available on: PC, Switch

As the name says, this game is about a goose, and that goose’s mission is to bother the citizens of a small village. You’ll do that by running around, flapping your wings, honking, grabbing items, and generally causing mischief. Oh, and this is a stealth game at its core. Why, what were you expecting?

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There’s still more games to come this month. Next week, New Releases will shine the spotlight on some soccer with FIFA 20 and turn up the action with Code Vein and The Surge 2.

Friends is one of the most popular and beloved TV shows ever, but don’t expect NBC to bring the show back with a reboot or a reunion of any sort–though some of the cast would be up for it.

Speaking at the Tribeca TV Festival recently, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman shot down any possibility of a revival. “We will not be doing a reunion show, we will not be doing a reboot,” Kauffman said, as reported by Deadline. “The show was about that time in life when friends are your family.”

The other creator of Friends, David Crane, commented in agreement with Kauffman. “We did the show we wanted to do. We got it right, and we put a bow on it,” he said.

Given the immense popularity of Friends, the show’s stars have been asked numerous times over the years about a potential reboot or revival. The latest to weigh in was Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe. She said on Kevin Nealon’s hiking show that she would be interested in coming back for a new version of Friends, but it won’t happen.

“If everyone else was doing it, I would do it; yeah. But it’s not happening,” she said, adding that she’s heard Kauffman and Crane talk about how Friends will never come back.

In March this year, Kauffman talked about why bringing back Friends is a bad idea.

“One, the show is about a time in your life when your friends are your family. It’s not that time anymore. All we’d be doing is putting those six actors back together, but the heart of the show would be gone,” she told Rolling Stone. “Two, I don’t know what good it does us. The show is doing just fine, people love it. [A reunion] could only disappoint.”

The entire catalog of Friends is available on Netflix in the United States, and the streaming network reportedly paid $100 million to keep it there through the end of 2019. Starting in 2020, Friends will move to HBOMax.

As of 2015, the show was bringing in $1 billion every year from syndication, with stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matthew Perry making $20 million a year from that based on their 2 percent share of syndication revenue, according to USA Today.

Quentin Tarantino’s newest movie, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, will go down as one of his most successful at the box office. After another weekend in theatres, the movie has now made $136.9 million in the United States and Canada and $195.5 million from foreign markets. Globally, the period movie has now pulled in $329.4 million to become Tarantino’s second-biggest movie ever.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood passes 2009’s Inglourious Basterds ($321.5 million) to become Taraninto’s second-biggest movie, only behind Django Unchained ($425.4 million).

Tarantino’s ninth movie, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as an actor and his stunt double in 1969 Hollywood. Margot Robbie appears as Sharon Tate, while a long list of famous people have roles including Luke Perry, who passed away in March.

GameSpot’s 9/10 Once Upon A Time In Hollywood review said, “It succeeds immensely at being a fairy tale–a recounting of a time and place, an attempt to capture the essence of Hollywood’s golden age, one that came to an end in 1969–but, maybe for Tarantino, never really ended at all.”

Spider-Man is apparently officially out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now the directors of the latest Avengers movies have spoken about the decision. Speaking to the Toronto Sun, directors Anthony and Joe Russo commented on one of the biggest off-screen superhero movie storylines of 2019.

Anthony Russo commented that the “marriage” between Sony–which holds the movie rights to Spider-Man–and Disney was not built to last.

“We had a wonderful experience with that and I think audiences really appreciated that marriage. But we know how hard that marriage was to make in the first place, so the fact that the marriage fell apart isn’t really that surprising to me and Joe,” he said.

Anthony Russo added that is was an “extremely long and hard process” to get Spider-Man into the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, which was his first appearance. Spider-Man would go on to appear in the MCU movies Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame, as well as his own movies Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Joe Russo, meanwhile, said the relationship between Disney and Sony was “a tenuous, fraught union throughout the whole process.” Marvel boss Kevin Feige was at the heart of the Spider-Man deal, and he was also working with Sony as a producer on their Spider-Man movies. That won’t happen in the future, however, and Joe Russo thinks it is a “tragic mistake” on Sony’s part.

“But, I will say, stepping back and trying to be objective as possible, that I think it’s a tragic mistake on Sony’s part to think that they can replicate Kevin’s penchant for telling incredible stories and the amazing success he has had over the years. I think it’s a big mistake,” he said.

Feige previously talked about the break-up between Marvel and Sony, saying, “We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers. It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we’d be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I’ll always be thankful for that.”

Even with Spider-Man no longer in the MCU, Disney will continue to benefit from Spider-Man as it currently receives 100% of merchandise sales from Spider-Man.

In other news, just this weekend, Feige revealed a never-before-seen Iron Man deleted scene that references Spider-Man and X-Men, suggesting Marvel wanted them in the MCU from the beginning.