Author: Trafficblast

The new Twilight Zone TV anthology series has big shoes to fill. Rod Serling’s original is regarded as one of the best shows of all time, and part of what made the program great was its excellent writing and performances.

The new version is assembling some excellent talent, too, with news today from THR that John Cho (Star Trek, Searching), Allison Tolman (Fargo, Castle Rock), and child actor Jacob Tremblay (Room, Wonder) have joined the cast that already includes Adam Scott, Kumail Nanjiani, and Sanaa Lathan in starring roles.

Cho, Tolman, and Tremblay will star in an episode called “The Wunderkind.” No further details about the episode or the story were divulged. The new Twilight Zone officially entered production in October,

One of the best episodes of the original Twilight Zone featured a child actor as well. The episode “It’s a Good Life” features a six-year-old boy who terrorises his community with his ability to read minds and manifest anything he wants.

The original Twilight Zone featured numerous actors who went on to become very famous, including William Shatner, Ed Wynn, Cloris Leachman, Don Rickles, and Robert Duvall, among many others.

The new Twilight Zone comes from the mind of Jordan Peele, who entered a new stratosphere and success after his acclaimed 2017 film Get Out, for which he won an Oscar. It’s incredibly exciting to think about what Peele, who is narrating, may bring to the table with the new Twilight Zone. The show airs in 2019 on CBS All-Access.

Disclosure: CBS owns GameSpot

The Halo TV series, which has been in the works for years now, may take even longer to finally get going. It was announced today that director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) has left the project due to a change in the production schedule.

“It’s with great disappointment that changes to the production schedule of Halo prevent me from continuing in my role as a director on the series,” Wyatt said in a statement (via THR). “My time on Halo has been a creatively rich and rewarding experience with a phenomenal team of people. I now join the legion of fans out there, excited to see the finished series and wishing everyone involved the very best.”

The Halo TV show will air on Showtime, whose parent company, CBS, also owns GameSpot. Network president of programming Gary Levine said in his own statement that the Halo show is “evolving beautifully with rich characters, compelling stories, and powerful scripts.”

The production demands for the Halo TV show are “enormous,” Levine said. As such, Showtime needed to add more time to the production schedule, and this meant that Wyatt had to drop out. Showtime said previously that Halo is the network’s “most ambitious series ever,” and that’s notable given Showtime is behind some massive productions such as Homeland, Shameless, Billions, and more recently the Jim Carrey show Kidding.

The Halo TV show will feature Master Chief in some capacity, but it remains to be seen if he is the lead, or what other characters might join him. Kyle Killen (Awake) will serve as writer, showrunner, and executive producer.

Showtime has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of Halo for its first season. The Halo show was originally announced back in 2013 with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television set to produce, which it still is.

The new Halo TV show, which doesn’t have a name yet, follows 2012’s series Halo: Forward Unto Dawn that starred Chronicles of Narnia actress Anna Popplewell.

A Halo movie was at one point in the works with Neil Blomkamp set to direct and Peter Jackson producing, but it never happened. It wasn’t a totally sad story, however, as Blomkamp and Jackson created the acclaimed sci-fi film District 9 out of Halo’s ashes.

As for the Halo video game franchise, the next instalment is Halo Infinite for Xbox One and PC. There is no word on when the game is coming out, and all we’ve seen so far is a trailer for the game’s engine, not the game itself.

Apple has unveiled its editorial selections for the best apps of the year across its various devices, including game selections on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. They include some pretty well known names, particularly in the mobile space.

Apple’s iPhone Game of the Year is Donut County, the wondrously weird game that riffs on the legacy of Katamari Damacy. Rather than grow an ever-larger ball of junk, though, you control a growing hole that swallows up everything around it. The iPad Game of the Year is Gorogoa, the image manipulation puzzler. On Mac, the award goes to The Gardens Between. Finally, the Apple TV Game of the Year is Alto’s Odyssey.

The announcement also included chart data for the most popular games of the last year. The top free iPhone and iPad game alike was Fortnite. Other top contenders on iPhone included Helix Jump, Rise Up, PUBG Mobile, and Hole.io. Many of those ranked high in the free iPad chart as well, joined by others like Roblox.

The top paid game on iPhone was Heads Up!, the party game, followed by Minecraft and Plague Inc. Minecraft also ruled the roost on iPad, followed by Geometry Dash and The Game of Life. Check below for all the game charts.

Top Free iPhone Games

1. Fortnite
2. Helix Jump
3. Rise Up
4. PUBG MOBILE
5. Hole.io
6. Love Balls
7. Snake VS Block
8. Rules of Survival
9. ROBLOX
10. Dune!
11. Subway Surfers
12. Episode – Choose Your Story
13. Word Link – Word Puzzle Game
14. Toon Blast
15. Color Road!
16. HQ Trivia
17. Twisty Road!
18. 8 Ball Pool™
19. Kick the Buddy
20. Sniper 3D Assassin: Gun Games

Top Paid iPhone Games

1. Heads Up!
2. Minecraft
3. Plague Inc.
4. Bloons TD 6
5. Pocket Build
6. Bloons TD 5
7. Geometry Dash
8. The Game of Life
9. Papa’s Freezeria To Go!
10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
11. Trivia Crack (No Ads)
12. Getting Over It
13. Monument Valley 2
14. Alto’s Odyssey
15. True Skate
16. The Room: Old Sins
17. Terraria
18. Exploding Kittens®
19. Five Nights at Freddy’s
20. The Escapists: Prison Escape

Top Free iPad Games

1. Fortnite
2. ROBLOX
3. Kick the Buddy
4. Love Balls
5. Helix Jump
6. Color by Number Coloring Game!
7. Bowmasters – Multiplayer Game
8. Hole.io
9. Rise Up
10. Rules of Survival
11. Subway Surfers
12. Rolling Sky
13. PUBG MOBILE
14. Toon Blast
15. Snake VS Block
16. Granny
17. Piano Tiles 2™
18. slither.io
19. Run Sausage Run!
20. Pixel Art – Color by Number

Top Paid iPad Games

1. Minecraft
2. Geometry Dash
3. The Game of Life
4. The Room: Old Sins
5. Heads Up!
6. Bloons TD 6
7. Goat Simulator
8. Five Nights at Freddy’s
9. LEGO® Jurassic World™
10. Terraria
11. The Escapists: Prison Escape
12. Bloons TD 5 HD
13. Monument Valley 2
14. Plague Inc.
15. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location
16. Goat Simulator PAYDAY
17. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
18. Teeny Titans – Teen Titans Go!
19. Teen Titans Go! Figure
20. Scribblenauts Unlimited

Netflix has come out to confirm that the iconic TV show Friends will remain available to stream–in the United States at least–through the end of 2019. The confirmation comes after Friends fans noticed that the show’s page on Netflix seemed to suggest it would leave the streaming service on January 1. Thankfully, that’s not true.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Netflix confirmed Friends will remain available to stream in the US through the end of 2019.

As THR reminds us, Friends is expected to leave Netflix and join rights-holder WarnerMedia’s own streaming service sometime down the road. The untitled streaming platform is pegged to launch at the end of 2019.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told THR that Friends leaving Netflix soon was only “a rumour.”

Friends made its digital streaming debut when it came to Netflix on January 1, 2015. The show streams exclusively on Netflix in the US, but in Australia, it streams through Stan and not Netflix. Re-runs still air in the US on TBS and other channels.

Critically acclaimed, Friends ran for 10 seasons from 1994 through 2004. Its May 2004 finale drew 52.5 million viewers in America, according to The New York Times. 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.

Cox told People this year that she’d love to do a Friends reboot, but it may never happen. Similarly, Anniston told InStyle that she fantasises about a Friends reboot in this new era of TV where “so many shows are being successfully rebooted.”