Author: Trafficblast

Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom has shared his thoughts on Amazon’s upcoming big-budget TV show based on the JRR Tolkien universe. Speaking to Collider, Bloom said he had the opportunity to get an inside scoop on the show from a producer he’s working with for his own Amazon projects, but he chose to stay in the dark so he could enjoy the show as a fan.

“I had a few questions for him to begin with … and then I was like, ‘You know, I don’t need to know any more.’ It’s not, obviously, it’s not a remake. It’s actually not based on The Fellowship or any of that. So I think it could be really, really interesting from that perspective,” Bloom said.

Bloom said he is going to “fan it up for sure” when he watches the show, which is new territory for him given he starred in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit films. Bloom also shared that he understands Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is a “big fan of fantasy” and that’s part of the reason why Amazon shelled out a reported $250 million for the rights alone.

“They certainly paid a pretty penny to get it done. No doubt there is a lot riding there on that,” Bloom said.

Also in the interview, Bloom spoke about a conversation he had with Peter Jackson some 20 years ago when the director raised the idea of a remake of The Lord of the Rings.

“I remember being on set with Peter Jackson and him saying, ‘Can you imagine the day when they do a remake of this movie?’ And I was like [flabbergasted face]. And then of course here we are, 20 years later, but it’s not a remake,” Bloom said of the Amazon show. “The Lord of the Rings is a title for a world. But I think it’s going to be interesting from that perspective.”

A remake of The Lord of the Rings wouldn’t be something Bloom would be too interested in seeing.

“If it was a remake I would be like, ‘You’re going to take us back into Hobbiton and try to tell us that what we saw…’ It was such an informative time and it had such an impact. It’s different, what’s coming [from Amazon] and I think that’s a good thing.”

Bloom currently stars on Amazon’s Carnival Row. In December 2019, he signed a first-look deal with Amazon that will see the star develop multiple TV shows and movies for the company.

As for the Lord of the Rings TV series, it’s expected that filming will resume in New Zealand soon. A recent unconfirmed rumor said that Pirates of the Caribbean star Kaya Scoledario has joined the cast in an unspecified role.

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GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Get ready for a very scary 2021. The Exorcist, the film that has traumatized countless moviegoers since the 1970s is reportedly being rebooted by Morgan Creek Entertainment, according to Deadline. The information was casually dropped in a report about Dead Ringers, a TV show reboot of the production company’s original 1988 film.

This won’t be the first crack at a modern Exorcist revival. The franchise was spun into a TV show on Fox that lasted for two seasons back in 2016. Before that, the original film had two sequels, The Exorcist II: The Heretic in 1977 and The Exorcist III in 1990, and one prequel in Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist in 2005.

The franchise owes its existence to the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, published in 1971. The novel was adapted into a stage play in 2012 and toured through the UK as recently as 2019.

There are no concrete details about Morgan Creek’s planned reboot, meaning it’s far too soon to tell whether or not it will simply be a second pass at the first film or if it will be something completely new. Casting, production timelines, and a release date beyond the planned 2021 year, remain entirely unknown.

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If you thought the long and winding story of New Mutants couldn’t get any stranger, think again. Though the majorly delayed film is looking at an actual, real, definitely-going-to-stick-this-time release on August 28, new information about the (probably cursed) production keeps trickling in–this time, with what might be the most bonkers superhero casting of all time.

Nerdist reports that director Josh Boone seriously considered bringing comedian Sacha Baron Cohen on board to play Warlock, a character who played a major role in the New Mutants comics but sadly did not end up making the cut in the live action adaptation–though, apparently, Warlock made it through several versions of the script before a final draft was cooked up.

For the uninitiated, Warlock–not to be confused with Adam Warlock, no relation–was a giant robotic alien creature who came from a race called the Technarchy that traveled around the galaxy infecting populations with the techno-organic virus. If you’re a fan of characters like Cable, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the term “techno-organic virus” before–it refers to a virus that infects and then drains the life energy out of organic organisms. The Technarchy made their way in the universe by infecting and then sustaining themselves with the virus’s energy but Warlock was different–he actually possessed empathy and compassion and was thus regarded as a “mutant” for his race. Long story short, he ended up on Earth and joined up as a core member of the New Mutants.

Had Warlock actually made it to the big screen, Baron Cohen would not have been put on stilts and strapped into a crazy Borg-like costume, however. Boone explained that his ideal take would have made Baron Cohen the “Andy Serkis of Warlock,” meaning he would have performed the character to be CGI’d in later, like Serkis’s iconic performance of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies.

We can’t tell if this is the biggest missed opportunity in a superhero movie or a dodged bullet. Maybe it’s both.

New Mutants will be coming to theaters on August 28.

In today’s Save State, Chastity talks about how Baldur’s Gate 3 was initially planned for August, but will now release in early access on PC and Stadia in late September. The release date was confirmed during the Panel from Hell stream during Summer Games Fest, in which we got a new CGI trailer and details on five origin characters at launch.

Adjusting to working from home during COVID-19 has been a challenge for numerous game developers, including Arkane Studios. Their game Deathloop has officially been delayed to 2021.

In Batman news, yesterday we talked about the Batman teaser site, for a game rumored to be called Gotham Knights. The countdown on the official site ended, and it resulted in…another teaser.The game will most likely be revealed during the WB Montreal panel at DC Fandome this Saturday, August 22. We will also be covering all the biggest DC movies from DC Fandome over on https://www.youtube.com/gamespotuniverse.

While you’re here, check out GameSpot’s merch store! Until the end of August, all the proceeds will go to charity, split between Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 direct relief. Check it out here: https://store.gamespot.com/

The X-Men animated series, which ran for five seasons from 1992 until 1997, had an iconic theme song. It’s an earworm, capable of being stuck in your head all day if you so much as think about it. But this extremely classy, wonderfully arranged cello version is so good, you’ll want to risk the headspace it’s going to take up.

Cellist Samara Ginsberg has recreated this theme on cello, but performing eight distinctive parts and then putting together an overlapping video. It’s extremely impressive, and more importantly, it sounds fantastic, emphasizing just how good the original piece was while also adding to it.

You can watch and listen in the video below.

The X-Men theme–which, by the way, I’ve always suspected inspired the Deus Ex menu music–was originally composed by Ron Wasserman, who also wrote Go Go Power Rangers, the main theme for Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

Ginsberg has a Ko-fi account, if you loved the performance and want to thank her for it. The X-Men animated series is available on Disney Plus.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the original film in the fantasy series, has passed $1 billion at the global box office 19 years after it was originally released in 2001.

Following a re-release of the film in 4K 3D in China over the weekend, the movie has now reached $1,001,260,000 at the global box office. The entire franchise, meanwhile, has passed $7.74 billion worldwide, according to numbers crunched by Deadline.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone made $13.6 million over the weekend in China across 16,000 screens.

“We are thrilled to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone delight a new generation of audiences,” Warner Bros. executive Andrew Cripps said in a statement. “The popularity of the film with moviegoers in China, who are discovering it for the first time, proves that the appeal of these stories is truly timeless and universal.”

The Sorcerer’s Stone is just the second mainline Harry Potter movie to reach $1 billion worldwide, joining Deathly Hallows Part II ($1.4 billion). The least commercially successful Harry Potter film was The Prisoner of Azkaban, which made $796.8 million worldwide, and this gives you an idea about just how enormously popular the series was.

The main Harry Potter movie series ended in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. Another Harry Potter universe series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, debuted in 2016 and it was followed up with a 2018 sequel subtitled The Crimes of Grindelwald.

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