The screenwriters behind four Saw films and Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim will rewrite the movie adaptation of the Sony video game franchise God of War.
The Hollywood Reporter says Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan have come aboard the game-to-film project to revise an earlier draft by David Self, who will also executive produce the film. The Dark Knight Rises' Charles Roven is producing along with Alex Gartner through Atlas Entertainment. Universal Pictures will distribute the movie.
Universal Pictures and Focus Features have hired the Oscar-winning team behind The Social Network to produce their screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, that best-selling erotic romance novel you can't avoid that started as Twilight fan-fic.
The studios announced Monday that Michael De Luca (whose credits also include Ghost Rider 1 and 2, Fright Night, and Moneyball) and Dana Brunetti (Fanboys, 21, Safe) have come aboard to produce the adaptation of the E. L. James lit trilogy, which follows the relationship of 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey and college student Anastasia Steele.
“At its core, Fifty Shades of Grey is a complex love story, requiring a delicate and sophisticated hand to bring it to the big screen,” said Universal Pictures Co-Chairman, Donna Langley, in a statement. “Mike and Dana’s credits more than exemplify what we need in creative partners and we’re glad to have them as part of our team."
Universal Studios Home Entertainment will bring Battleship, the loose adaptation of the popular Hasbro game, to Blu-ray, DVD and digital download August 28, 2012.
The big budget action film (theatrical review here), directed by Peter Berg (Hancock) and starring Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker and Rihanna, was not a major hit in the US, but did soak up some serious cash overseas for a worldwide box office total of over $300 million.
Battleship will come to Blu-ray presented in 1080p (2.40:1 aspect ratio) mixed in 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio. The disc will also include English DVS 2.0 and 5.1 DTS French and Spanish audio. The DVD will be presented in anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 English Dolby Digital audio, and optional 2.0 English and 5.1 French and Spanish tracks. English SDH, Spanish and French subs are available on both discs.
Bonus Features on Blu-ray and DVD:
Preparing for Battle – Hear how Hollywood teamed up with the US Navy to transform a beloved board game into a big-screen blockbuster.
All Hands on Deck: The Cast – Witness the actors getting into the military mindset and Navy veterans having their time in the spotlight in this salute to the people at the heart of the story.
Shooting at Sea – Experience the crew taking on the daunting challenge of shooting on the open ocean on their “soundstage at sea.”
All Aboard the Fleet – Cast and crew members share their experiences shooting on the ships, particularly the historic USS Missouri.
Bonus features exclusive to the Blu-ray will include the following:
Alternate Ending Pre-visualization with commentary by Peter Berg
The Visual Effects of Battleship – From ground-breaking water-simulation programs to cutting-edge motion capture, see how the team at Industrial Light & Magic pushes the boundaries of visual effects to bring the aliens to life.
All Access with Director Peter Berg – Join director Peter Berg as he gives fans an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie.
USS Missouri VIP Tour – Come aboard the historic “Mighty Mo” for an exclusive tour with director Peter Berg and actual Navy veterans as they reveal some of the coolest facts and amazing action that has graced the decks of this legendary ship.
Commander Pete – Watch as director Peter Berg energizes the cast and crew with his endless enthusiasm and relentless good humor.
DVD, UltraViolet and Digital Copy
Universal Standard BD Features – pocketBLU, Advanced Remote, BD-Live and more
Universal's Second Screen – Viewers can enjoy an innovative an interactive viewing experience, that allows them to control, interact and explore Battleship with groundbreaking features right on a networked tablet or computer, in synchronization with the movie on the television screen! While the movie plays, experience features such as:
- Alien Tech 3D Model Turntable Explosions: During the movie, 3D models of the aliens and the shredder become available to the user to view at various angles. For instance, as the user turns the Regent Alien, the armor flies off in parts and then re-assembles. (Exclusive to Second Screen.)
- All Access with Director Peter Berg: Viewers get an all access look at the making of the film featuring interviews with cast and crew.
- Flick View: Interact with the movie, move content from the Tablet to the TV screen, and compare storyboards, animatics, and other executing content by “Flicking” them from on their tablet to their TV screen, simply by gesturing their fingers upwards on their tablets.
Below is a sneak peak at what to expect from the Second Screen app:
Suggested retail for the Blu-ray is $34.98. Amazon's Blu-ray pre-order price is set at $24.99. SRP for the DVD is $29.98. Amazon's DVD pre-order price is $19.99.
Stay tuned for more news, and be sure to check back for a look at the Blu-ray in August.
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Director Peter Jackson announced on Facebook that his forthcoming two-part adaptation of The Hobbit has completed principal photography:
"We made it! Shoot day 266 and the end of principal photography on The Hobbit. Thanks to our fantastic cast and crew for getting us this far, and to all of you for your support! Next stop, the cutting room. Oh, and Comic Con!
Paramount's adaptation of Max Brooks' zombie tome World War Z is heading for some serious reshoots -- seven weeks of them, to be exact.
The Daily Mail (via The Playlist) reports that the Brad Pitt production, which was recently pushed from its original December 21, 2012 release to June 21, 2013, is going back to Budapest for a new round of filming. The movie had originally started shooting last summer, but obviously something is wrong with the Marc Forster-directed project to require almost two months of additional filming.
First G.I. Joe: Retaliation and now World War Z. Paramount is having a bad couple of weeks, eh? Speaking of which, HitFix's sources are saying that the recent delay of the Joe sequel has led to a rift between director Jon Chu and the studio. "Things are starting to get genuinely contentious between director Jon Chu and the studio, and right now, there is a chance he won't be directly involved at all with the reshoots," says the site. "There's also a chance Chu might try to legally force his way back onto the film, which could create even more strain in the relationship he has with Paramount. Word is that producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is firmly on Chu's side, which could help, but I shouldn't be shocked if we get word soon that Stuart Baird or someone similar is being brought on to 'consult.'"
Somehow, the big-budget Hollywood adaptation of Battleship – an aesthetically sterile board game with little plastic pegs – ended up looking a whole lot like the Transformers films, albeit without generating the same kind of audience interest (as evidenced by the comparatively wimpy box office returns). Activision's multiplatform title of the same name actually pulls from both bits of source material, oscillating between first-person shooter segments and a tactical grid that lets you align ships to battle alien carriers and provide occasional ground support from afar.
Much as it's pleasing to see a movie game that isn't another generic hack-and-slash affair, Battleship opts to enter an even more competitive space with a generic shooter, which packs only a startlingly short single-player campaign with not a lick of multiplayer action in sight. And as is often the case with such film tie-ins, the game feels very much like a surface read on the genres it pulls from, offering little in the way of depth or variation from a rigid routine.
Ship or Shore
Battleship stars Cole Mathis, a U.S. Navy demolitions expert who must wander the islands of Hawaii detonating enemy turrets and communications hubs, all while taking down scads of aliens using a paltry selection of firearms. He's not the lead in the film, as the game's storyline purportedly takes place alongside that of the film, though you wouldn't know it from piecing together the dull dialogue snippets and cut-scenes. If the inanity of the plot wasn't assumed from its board game-to-film origins, the game actually prompts you to skip every cinematic on first viewing. So don't worry about missing anything – you're encouraged to dodge the narrative!
To some extent, Battleship is a tale of two very different games: the core first-person shooter campaign that dominates the experience and ultimately starts and ends each mission, and the map-based ship maneuvering that plays a strong role in many objectives, and cannot be safely ignored or marginalized. While the disparate elements are nicely intertwined, Battleship is limited by its narrow scope. Neither side of the equation feels particularly fleshed-out or expansive, and pairing them together in the seven single-player campaign levels doesn't make them feel any less shallow. And even within those elements, there's so little depth or variety to the action.
On foot, Battleship generally proves competent, though uninspired. Each stage charts a very straightforward path to its goals, so much so that the game enacts false barriers at times – like an unmovable ally blocking a pathway – to keep you on the intended path. And though they shake up the order and terrain, all seven missions follow the same routine, mixing stop-and-pop encounters with detonation tasks, which means simply holding a button near an object and then watching it blow. Occasionally, you'll protect an ally or installation for a brief period of time, but these moments do little more than trigger light enemy waves to attack.
Beyond the simplistic goals, a lack of diversity within the combat keeps the campaign from picking up steam. Just a few distinct enemy types – common bipedal foes, railgun-toting snipers, explosive rolling balls, and big brutes that take a few shotgun blasts to fell – pepper the stages, and the five firearms (plus standard grenades) encompass traditional fare, from the common pistol and machine gun to a chain gun and the aforementioned railgun. Battleship's on-foot combat has about as much kick and personality as a mobile touchscreen shooter, and doesn't look much better, either, thanks to simplistic models and effects plus some rough texture work.
Fire at Will
But wandering the islands and leaving alien guts in your wake isn't the entirety of the Battleship experience, as you'll often swap to the grid map to reposition ships and subs to engage in nautical combat or assist with the on-foot action (like calling in a volley of missiles on a target). Left to their own devices, the ships will attack nearby enemy cruisers, though you can focus their attacks as needed and move them around to any available opening. As they lumber about in the water – assuming you're near the shore while on-foot – you can actually see them move in the distance, which is a nice touch.
You'll take a more active role at times thanks to the wild card power-ups, which often scatter along the battlefield when you take down foes – another example of the strong link between the two aspects. While many of these simply enhance your ships' offensive or defensive capabilities, one wild card lets you take control of the cannons for a 20-second shootout, in which your ship earns a 200% boost to its firepower. Expectedly, these moments pass in a heartbeat as you completely overpower the opposition, and there's nothing more to each than aiming at a large target and hammering the triggers and a shoulder button.
That's a symptom of a larger issue with Battleship: every bit of the experience is so rudimentary and superficial that it doesn't add up to much. On the shore, the combat and objectives alike lack both variety and originality, while at sea, the ship positioning requires little tactical planning and the skirmishes are damn near automated. And the game lacks serious design consideration at times, such as absurdly long gaps between checkpoints, plus I experienced a scenario in which a checkpoint triggered right as an essential ship sank, leaving me stranded to restart the entire mission. Battleship lacks not only ambition, but also at times care towards what little is included.
Hardly Sunken Treasure
And it truly isn't much. Battleship is easily conquered within just four hours, with no semblance of bonus missions or even a whiff of multiplayer. All for $60 – the same price this publisher attaches to its annual military blockbuster, which sports a bigger and bolder campaign, much better production values, and a multiplayer experience that keeps on giving. Battleship is little more than a checkmark on a to-do list; a completed contractual obligation. Just a handful of red pegs on a board, signifying a failed effort.
Want more information on how we score reviews? Read the "How G4 Reviews Work" article here. Editor's Note: Battleship was reviewed using an Xbox 360 copy of the game; however, we also played the PS3 version, and found no differences. If further investigation reveals any differences between the 360 edition and the PS3 edition of the game, this review will be updated to reflect those differences.
His latest big screen adaptation of a cult classic horror TV series isn't exactly doing great business at the box office, but that apparently isn't deterring Dark Shadows star Johnny Depp from moving ahead with his plans to produce and star in a feature film version of The Night Stalker.
The Hollywood Reporter says D.V. DeVincentis (High Fidelity, Gross Pointe Blank) has been hired to script The Night Stalker based, like Dark Shadows, on the 1970s Dan Curtis TV series.
Scott Pilgrim helmer Edgar Wright will direct The Night Stalker for Disney.
Director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp reunite for their eighth collaboration in this feature film adaptation of Dark Shadows, the 1966-71 cult classic supernatural soap opera they loved as kids.
In this version, scripted by John August and Seth Grahame-Smith, Depp portrays Barnabas Collins, the heir to a prosperous fishing family who leave England to settle in the New World. In 1752, Barnabas is cursed by the witch Angelique (Eva Green) after breaking her heart and falling for his one true love, Josette (Bella Heathcote). Angelique's spell leads to Josette's death and turns Barnabas into a vampire. She chains Barnabas inside a coffin and buries him "alive" for the next two centuries.
After being unintentionally released from his grave, Barnabas finds himself in the strange, perplexing world of 1972. He returns to his family estate, Collinwood, where he passes himself off to his descendants -- matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), her troubled children Susan and David (Chloe Grace Moretz and Gulliver McGrath), Elizabeth's shady brother Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller), as well as the family's live-in psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) and caretaker Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) -- as a distant relative from England back to help the struggling dynasty return to prosperity and prominence. His true nature will remain a secret to most of them ... for now.
But the Collins aren't the only ones he finds in the namesake town of Collinsport. Barnabas meets Victoria Winters (Heathcote), David Collins' new governess and the spitting image of his beloved Josette. He also discovers that Angelique is still very much alive and well, having thrived in the ensuing centuries to become a successful businesswoman and the Collins' biggest rival. Her lusty obsession for Barnabas remains, and she's grown powerful enough to destroy him and the newfound family he's vowed to help.
- Warner Bros.
The characters are played by one of Burton's best ensemble casts yet, but only Depp's Barnabas has anything remotely resembling an arc or development. Pfeiffer is commanding as the Collins' matriarch, but we never get to see her do much more than sit at the head of the dining table or at her desk. Moretz's Susan is the character most radically altered from her small screen counterpart as she's about a decade younger and more akin to Winona Ryder's moody teen in Beetlejuice than the young woman from previous incarnations of the show.
There's an element to Susan that's introduced late in the story, that comes out of left field and is completely arbitrary. Why even introduce it if it's not going to truly be explored? McGrath is a very likable child actor whose arc here as David is, like Susan's, underexplored and underwhelming in the end. For a kid whose problems have brought not one, but two different people (Dr. Hoffman and Victoria) to Collinwood to care for him, there's practically no time spent showing them doing anything with or for him. It's all just exposition to nowhere
Haley has a dopey appeal as the family's oft-drunk handyman and Barnabas' mind-controlled servant, while Miller's self-centered Roger is all upper crust smugness. But, outside of Barnabas, the women are the true protagonists of Dark Shadows and besides Pfeiffer the real standouts among them are Carter as the bitter, besotted shrink and Green as the obsessed enchantress whose spurned love for Barnabas and disdain for the Collins knows no bounds. Green and Carter clearly enjoy sinking their teeth into their roles and have fun with them even when the script seems to forget about them. The most inexplicably neglected character is Heathcote's Victoria, who begins the movie as the protagonist and eyes of the audience only to almost literally disappear from the narrative once Barnabas takes center stage. Their romantic subplot is completely shoe-horned in and woefully undeveloped.
But this movie is, as expected, The Johnny Depp Show where everyone else is just a guest star. Both Depp and Burton show a degree of restraint here (well, for them at least), finding the pathos in Barnabas' plight even as they have fun with the fish out of water and anachronistic elements. Yes, there are times when Depp seems like Captain Jack Vampire, but there's more vigor and palpable interest from him in this character than there's been in any of his performances in the Pirates sequels. Depp keeps you interested in Barnabas even after it's become clear the movie is in a rush to nowhere during its homestretch.
Like the cult classic TV series it's based on, Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is oddly charming despite being a mess that never reaches its full potential. There are strange characters galore, almost none of whom ever develop into anything more than an image of an interesting character. Commercially, one can't help but suspect that Dark Shadows may prove a disappointment despite the usually powerhouse coupling of Depp and Burton. The film's not horrific enough to be scary, funny enough to truly be recommended as a comedy, and about as dark and Gothic as a Hot Topic t-shirt. And yet, like the original TV show, there's just something about Dark Shadows that keeps you watching to see how things play out. It's just all so damn … peculiar.
The Walking Dead Review: There’s something to be said about a game developer that takes on the videogame adaptation of one of the biggest franchises out there right now, knowing full well that they have to make it amazing to satisfy fan’s desires and make up for the mistake that was their last title. Yet despite this monstrous feat, Telltale Games still decided to take on The Walking Dead and I’ll be damned if they didn’t do a brilliant job setting up the series with an amazing first episode.
If you’re familiar with Telltale’s take on adventure games, the same formula applies here. The Walking Dead is a beautifully drawn episodic point-and-click adventure game, with A New Day being the first of five episodes. The title is very foreshadowing of the events about to unfold, but then again, I guess that’s the idea. A New Day clocked in right around three hours for me, so it’s safe to say that the full experience will end up running close to fifteen hours. These three hours are exceptionally story and character dependent, as is the nature of the game, so I’ll keep things basic and avoid most spoilers.
Look, in the road!
The game opens on Lee Everett, a convicted felon on his way to the big house, who is stuck with a ride from the world’s most talkative police officer. As they’re driving down the Atlanta highway, the officer can’t help but question Lee, claiming that he believes he’s innocent and all sorts of mumbo-jumbo. Out of nowhere, the car hits a person walking out the middle of the highway and flips into the embankment. Lee come to and escapes, only to find the officer dead on the ground – or so he thinks. The officer springs to life and starts clawing at him. Lee has to make the choice to shoot him, not knowing what is happening. The shot echoes throughout the embankment and, unfortunately for Lee, calls a horde of ‘walkers’ right toward him.
Without giving any more of the story away, he must find help and get away from Atlanta, all while coming to terms with what is happening. He meets plenty of characters from the comics and TV show along the way, but it’s clear that this is meant to be a separate group of people. More importantly, he meets Clementine –a small child hiding in a tree fort– whom he befriends and promises to take care of until they can find her parents.
There aren’t many child characters in games who manage to be anything but an annoying crutch, Clementine is the exception. Her relationship with Lee is so extremely personable and heartfelt that I felt the immediate need to protect her and make my decisions based on what is best for her. Sure, he isn’t her father, but as the story progresses, they start to treat each other as such and I found it to be one of the most ‘human’ parts of the game (no pun intended).
Decisions, Decisions
The core gameplay of the adventure game remains in tact, you walk around clicking on items in the world to solve obstacles that are put in front of you, with quicktime events that require you to stomp a zombie’s face in or choose which member of the crew you want to save. But there’s another layer of gameplay that makes actions much more meaningful and actually alter the way that you choose to play the game. Dialogue between characters is a significant portion of the gameplay and the way that the story plays out will change depending on the choices that you make. It isn’t as simple as “choose X to have it play one way, choose Y for the other” either.
These dialogue options fit right into the conversation at hand, but often have you choosing very definitive sides. In one instance, I sided with a particular character that directly contradicted what another was for. It didn’t seem like anything came out of that, but later in the episode, the character that I sided against betrayed me and left me for dead, barely leaving enough time for my friend to come back and save me. This was a situation that could have played out differently and will, depending on which side you choose to take. Throughout conversation, answers that seem meaningless trigger other characters to make mental notes (designated by a little notification) and these can change the outcome of your character’s path. WALKERS!
Telltale wants to so strongly get across that life is full of difficult choices that can come back to haunt you. It’s filled with situations that might not seem like much, but they can mean the world to others. The Walking Dead is all about these moments in this unfortunate situation that these characters are in and how they react to them. There’s a deeper level of humanity tied to the characters that makes it extremely easy to become emotional toward them in the way that we would in real life. A New Day is an exceptional start to a five-part series that has me completely hooked and engrossed in a world that I can’t even begin to imagine, let alone speculate about where it will go next. Want more information on how we score reviews? Read the "How G4 Reviews Work" article here. Editor's Note: The Walking Dead was reviewed using a PC copy of the game; however, we also played the PS3 and 360 versions, and found no differences. If further investigation reveals any differences between the PC and 360/PS3 of the game, this review will be updated to reflect those differences.
