Buckle up, as you'll be able to watch Top Gun: Maverick from your own home beginning as soon as next week. The movie is coming to digital starting on August 23, with the physical 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray releases coming on November 1. (The AU dates are August 24 and November 2, respectively.)

As reported by Collider, the home release of the film will include nearly two hours of bonus content. These special features will include a look at the cast's intense flight training programs, Tom Cruise piloting his own vintage World War II P-51 Mustang, Cruise's Q&A at the Cannes Film Festival, and more.

You'll recall that Cruise refused to allow Top Gun: Maverick to debut on streaming, saying this film was made specifically for audiences to watch on the big screen. And, the decision to release exclusively in theaters paid off, as Top Gun: Maverick has been an absolute smash at the box office since its release back on Memorial Day Weekend, earning well over $1 billion at the global box office.

In North America, the film has grossed more than the likes of Avengers and Titanic, en route to becoming Cruise's most successful movie ever. Even this past weekend, Top Gun still managed to secure 2nd place at the box office during a quieter release period.

We called the long-awaited sequel a "flight to remember" in our Top Gun: Maverick review, saying it's an, "out-of-bounds blast of afterburner fumes and thrillseeker highs that's sure to please audiences looking for a classic summer blockbuster."

For more, you can check out Miles Teller saying he's in talks with Cruise about a potential Top Gun 3. Or, read about how Maverick's practical effects were achieved.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Buckle up, as you'll be able to watch Top Gun: Maverick from your own home beginning as soon as next week. The movie is coming to digital starting on August 23, with the physical 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray releases coming on November 1.

As reported by Collider, the home release of the film will include nearly two hours of bonus content. These special features will include a look at the cast's intense flight training programs, Tom Cruise piloting his own vintage World War II P-51 Mustang, Cruise's Q&A at the Cannes Film Festival, and more.

You'll recall that Cruise refused to allow Top Gun: Maverick to debut on streaming, saying this film was made specifically for audiences to watch on the big screen. And, the decision to release exclusively in theaters paid off, as Top Gun: Maverick has been an absolute smash at the box office since its release back on Memorial Day Weekend, earning well over $1 billion at the global box office.

In North America, the film has grossed more than the likes of Avengers and Titanic, en route to becoming Cruise's most successful movie ever. Even this past weekend, Top Gun still managed to secure 2nd place at the box office during a quieter release period.

We called the long-awaited sequel a "flight to remember" in our Top Gun: Maverick review, saying it's an, "out-of-bounds blast of afterburner fumes and thrillseeker highs that's sure to please audiences looking for a classic summer blockbuster."

For more, you can check out Miles Teller saying he's in talks with Cruise about a potential Top Gun 3. Or, read about how Maverick's practical effects were achieved.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Youth creator Curt Pires has partnered with Comixology to release his latest comic book project, a futuristic political thriller dubbed New America.

Co-created with James Bond artist Luca Casalanguida, New America is set in a near-future landscape where a group of secessionists have broken away from the US and created the titular nation. They hope to build a true utopia, but a new outbreak of violence casts doubt on whether the ways of New America are any better than the old.

IGN can exclusively debut a preview of this digital comic book series, which is exclusive to the Comixology Originals program. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

The creative team on New America also includes

Here's Comixology's official summary of the series:

The old ways failed us. Our leaders failed us. The system failed us. So, a decision was made to start anew. To invest in the future, the foundation of something more, a New America.

With New America Pires continues to push boundaries with his evocative and of the moment storytelling. Ten years after the formation of the secessionist state within the United States of America, known as New America, former military man Wyatt is reunited with his brother, now President of New America, Corey Walker.

New America follows the trials and tribulations both personal and political of the people leading and living in the newly emergent territory as they strive for a utopia, while questioning if the new way is the better way as protests and violence continue.

“Inspired by classic Vertigo titles like Scalped and DMZ as well as films like Sicario this is a book that's raw and rough around the edges but also anchored in character drama and emotional conflict," Pires tells IGN. "The goal here was to tell this story—and explore these issues—without talking down to our audience or coming at them in a way that suggests a moral superiority or that we have all the answers. I believe we succeeded, and hope people will take the time to give our book a shot."

New America will span three issues in total, with the first chapter debuting on Tuesday, August 23. The series will be free to read for subscribers of Comixology Unlimited and Kindle Unlimited, and will also be available for individual purchase.

In addition, Comixology announced that Pires and Antonio Fuso's collaboration Lost Falls will be released as a trade paperback from Dark Horse Comics in 2023. There's no word yet on when New America might see print release.

For more on Pires' acclaimed body of work, check out our exclusive interview between Pires and The Black Ghost writer Alex Segura as the two creators reflect on the inspirations behind their respective stories. And be sure to brush up on all the big announcements at San Diego Comic-Con.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Interview with the Vampire's showrunner has revealed that AMC plans to adapt every novel in Anne Rice's popular Vampire Chronicles series – and the network even wants to create MCU-like crossover series.

“AMC has bought all of the books and AMC wants to make all of the books,” said Jones during AMC’s presentation at the Television Critics Awards.

According to Jones, the first season of Interview with the Vampire will cover just half of the novel’s story, and later seasons will then adapt other books in the series.

“What we do in this version of Interview With the Vampire is look at an entire series of books," said Sam Reid, who plays the infamous Lestat de Lioncourt. “When that film came out, Rice was still writing them, so they didn't have perspective of the entire work. And now we do have that perspective. And so, when we're looking at character arcs, we're looking at a much broader scale. So, it is a different feeling than a 90-minute film.”

Reid is referring, of course, to the original 2000 film starring Tom Cruise as the vampire Lestat. Although there have been various attempts to bring the other novels to the big screen, including Queen of the Damned, it looks as though AMC is going all in, and there might even be additional projects down the road.

“We have other projects that are in development,” AMC president of entertainment Dan McDermott told Variety. “They're sort of unofficial right. now, but we really plan to have five or six series in that universe over the next five or six years. And there will be an opportunity to pull characters from different shows and do what we refer to as our 'all-star' original series, taking supporting characters and maybe a lead character from one or two shows and doing original series that will be based in the Anne Rice universe.”

It's certainly an ambitious idea, and AMC views it much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe… albeit with a bit more bite.

“The best model would be an Avengers-style series, where you take characters from different shows and bring them together and you tell an original story using all of them and their backstory and the mythology,” he added. “The objective is to honor everything about the source material and the characters' backstories and mythologies as well. But I think that's a really exciting proposition.”

Whether or not that pans out remains to be seen. But if Interview with the Vampire proves to be a hit, we could see much more of the Vampire Chronicles heading to our screens eventually.

Want to read more about Interview with the Vampire? Check out the first trailer for the upcoming series, and find out who’s been cast in the leading role.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Sony may be developing its own PC games launcher akin to Steam and the Epic Games Store for use with its range of PlayStation PC re-releases.

As reported by VGC, the files for the PC version of Spider-Man Remastered include references to a "PlayStation PC launcher". While game files often mention content that has been scrapped, like a potential multiplayer mode in Spider-Man, it at least shows that having an independent PC launcher is an idea being floated at Sony.

Further files also reference "PSNAccountLinked" and "PSNLinkingEntitlements" despite Sony not offering any connectivity between users' PlayStation Network accounts and their PlayStation Studios PC games so far.

Nothing is confirmed, of course, but Sony has invested significantly into PC publishing recently by establishing a new PlayStation PC label and purchasing PC porting specialist Nixxes. Sony also recently said that, alongside investing in first party software, its other main strategy for growing its business is releasing its software on multiple platforms - and it expects to make $300 million from PC games this financial year alone.

Only a handful of PlayStation Studios games are available on PC so far, headlined by 2018's God of War but also with Spider-Man Remastered, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Days Gone. Spider-Man Miles Morales is expected to be released on the platform later this year as well, however, alongside arguably PlayStation's biggest franchise in the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake's famous Honeybee Inn dance sequence took longer to prepare than any other scene in the game, according to co-director Motomu Toriyama.

In a Square Enix blog post, Toriyama explained that the sensitive nature of the original Final Fantasy 7 scene from 1997 - which saw protagonist Cloud crossdress in order to infiltrate a seedy playboy's mansion - alongside the intricacy of the dance sequence itself, led to an incredibly lengthy preparation time.

"We had decided to change the original FFVII's Honeybee Inn episode from a gender free perspective right from the start of development," Toriyama said. "We remade the whole scene as a song and dance show, in order to make it the big stage for Cloud's crossdressing event and to give it a 'maximum showbusiness' vibe as part of the Remake story."

Deciding to recreate the scene in its entirety forced the development team to start researching from scratch, and once they had eventually collected enough reference material they still had to edit it together, add music and lyrics, and then start on choreography. "I think that just that preparatory phase here took up the longest period in the whole development," Toriyama said.

The scene also went through various edits, as Square Enix previously revealed that it once included a pole dancing scene that was removed over rating concerns.

The sequence was well-received, keeping intact the spirit of the original game, but modernising it to remove the more insensitive elements of Final Fantasy 7's verison. Ultimately, that preparatory work led to a scene that felt like a celebration, rather than a joke at Cloud's expense.

Fans eagerly awaiting more Final Fantasy 7 Remake (outside of the brief DLC episode featured in the PlayStation 5's Integrade edition) will finally get its sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, in winter 2023. Square Enix also recently confirmed that the remakes will be a trilogy of games, and part three has already entered development.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s dull filler and convoluted additions can cause it to stumble, but it still breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Pokémon Company International has pledged a minimum of $25 million over five years to charities committed to improving the lives of underprivileged children.

The funds will be delivered to charities on a local, national, and international scale "that support children, help create equitable communities, or a combination of both". The Pokémon Company International, which controls the Pokémon brand outside of Asia, will share the funds throughout North and South America, Europe, and Oceania.

A plethora of Pokémon toys, trading cards, and video games will also be delivered to groups that distribute such items to children, and who wouldn't have access to them otherwise.

"The Pokémon Company International is grateful for the opportunity to give back to the communities in which it operates and where Pokémon has been so warmly received since it was first introduced," said company president Kenji Okubo.

"Pokémon is a brand that immediately sparks joy and has captured the imaginations of kids around the world for 25 years. With its universal themes of adventure, friendship, and perseverance, it has also been welcomed into the lives of an incredibly diverse fanbase in countries around the world," he continued.

"We are dedicated to leveraging that unique ability and the support we’ve received from our broad community of trainers to be a positive force in the lives of children and create a more equitable, inclusive world in which all can flourish."

Pokémon is a brand present on all fronts, with the more known video games - like the upcoming Scarlet and Violet - and trading cards just part of its overall reach. The company is also working on a reality TV show, has released a classy collaboration with Converse sneakers, created its own museum exhibits, and even produced official music with pop stars including Katy Perry.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Flash star Ezra Miller has issued an apology for their recent behavior.

According to Variety, the 29-year-old actor confirmed that they are suffering “complex mental health issues” following a series of issues, including assault and abuse allegations.

“Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment,” Miller said. “I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.”

Earlier this month, Miller was charged with felony burglary – adding to their growing legal issues. They are due to appear in court for this charge on September 27.

Miller, who is set to star as Justice League member The Flash in their own solo movie, has been accused of throwing a chair at a woman, grooming minors, and other serious misconduct. As well as the burglary charges in Vermont, Miller has seen legal issues pop up in Hawaii, Massachusetts, and North Dakota.

The actor drew nationwide attention when they abruptly deleted their Instagram account and seemingly vanished. Warner Bros. Discovery has kept quiet amid the growing concerns about Miller’s behavior, but it was recently reported that the studio is preparing for multiple scenarios when it comes to The Flash. It’s likely that this is, in part, responsible for Miller’s sudden statement.

The first scenario, as detailed by a Warner Bros. insider, is that the studio goes ahead with the planned release of The Flash but with limited press. The only stipulation, under this scenario, is that Miller seeks professional help after returning to their family home.

Eventually, Miller would be expected to do an interview to explain their recent behavior, and it seems likely that this statement may have been issued to satisfy this agreement.

Nevertheless, the public apology could be a sign that Warner Bros. intends to release the film regardless of its star’s behavior. It has also been confirmed that The Flash and Blue Beetle are safe following the studio’s cancellation of Batgirl.

Want to read more about The Flash? Check out which DC films have been affected by the Warner Bros. Discovery merger and details about the studio’s ten-year plan for DC.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

IGN can exclusively reveal Bloody Hell Hotel, a game that sees you playing a vampire setting up a hotel business, then feasting on the guests (not to mention farming, dungeon crawling, and more).

Led by Wlad Marhulets (creator of indie horror Darq) and backed by talent with experience on the likes of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Baldur's Gate 3 and Disney movies, the team is aiming to make "the most ambitious first-person simulation game in existence." Think of it as a first-person Stardew Valley... except you can eat all the villagers.

You can check out a reveal trailer below:

It's certainly a unique pitch. The game casts you as a vampire who has awoken from a centuries-long coma, finding their once-grand estate in ruins. You're then tasked with rebuilding it as a hotel, with full control over room placement, decor, and upgrades (with many choices affecting gameplay). That rebuild is helped along in a number of ways, including farming, dungeon crawling and, of course, earning money from guests.

The extra twist is that you can also automate parts of the hotel management by using vampiric powers, gained by consuming blood – meaning your guests are a resource in more ways than one. As your hotel grows you can also hire other vampires as staff. In return for money and blood, they can work on reception, as cooks, cleaners, and more.

Farming takes place under the hotel, and utilises crops and zombie animals. "As with every system in the game," explains Marhulets, "tasks can be performed manually or be semi-automated with the use of vampiric powers that the player unlocks as they level up."

You can use farmed goods in recipes, which can range from wild mushrooms you find in the hotel, to zombie meat meals farmed from dungeons. And if you do run out of meat for your menu, guests can also be an unwitting source...

Speaking of dungeons, these are procedurally generated areas found in the hotel's crypt. "That's where the player will find the resources required for hotel upgrades," says Marhulets. "Resources are guarded by monsters that the player will have to face." To take down those monsters, you'll be crafting weaponry in the hotel blacksmith:

"The player can forge their own weapons from scratch, choose materials, customize design, shape, etc.," says Marhulets. "It's these choices, combined with the unlockable combat skills and the use of vampiric powers, that will play a major role in melee combat. I'd like to add that combat isn't meant to be an adrenaline-filled experience - it's more casual in nature, so it fits well within the simulation genre. Think of it as exploring caves in Stardew Valley, but in a twisted Tim Burton-like 3D world."

Marhulets makes clear that this isn't a story-driven game, although elements of lore will appear as you progress. "The gameplay is non-linear and gives the player a lot of freedom to do what they want," he says. "That's why the story doesn't have an important role to play and is there mostly to enhance the experience."

That non-linearity means you can try to roleplay the game to an extent – we made sure to ask whether it was possible to play the game as a 'nice' vampire who doesn't murder their guests. Marhulets says that's totally possible – and that it can even have its own benefits:

"Killing guests is also not that simple and there are choices to be made when doing so. Guests only pay for their stay if they leave the hotel alive, so the hotel cannot grow if the player simply kills all guests. In addition, guests have various traits that affect their behavior.

"For example, guests with the "Insomniac" trait don't go to sleep and wander around the hotel at night, which makes it harder to sneak into the guest rooms undetected. The disappearance of Royalty will be noticed and investigated. There are various types of guests and their traits affect not only their behavior in the hotel but also the consequences of killing them."

Even at this early stage, it's clear that Bloody Hell Hotel has huge possibilites for systems to interact and affect one another, and it's designed to be a technically endless experience. However, Marhulest expects players "to do multiple long runs trying out various game styles rather than sticking to one for hundreds of hours. From the game design standpoint, Bloody Hell Hotel is meant to have a high replayability value."

Despite its dark trappings, Marhulets explains that this isn't meant as a straight horror game, and is more inspired by his love of Tim Burton movies as a child. While that's clear enough in the art style (directed by Kelsey Haley, an artist with experience at Dreamworks, Disney, Universal Studios, and South Park), it goes deeper into the intent of the game as a whole:

"My passion for gothic horror and dark comedy started in early childhood, he explains. "Combining the two seemed like a perfect fit and made me feel super excited. Speaking of horror, Bloody Hell Hotel is more of a dark comedy. As the title suggests, expect some blood, but the game doesn't take itself too seriously and isn't meant to be scary."

The game will be coming to PC (via Steam, Epic and GOG), and will also arrive on consoles (although which ones haven't yet been specified). The one question the director seems unable to answer is when we might see the game arrive, simply because he doesn't want to have to delay the game if things change.

"Given the crazy mission behind this project (creating the most ambitious game in this genre), it's hard to predict the release window at this point. While I have a milestone schedule in mind, I'd rather keep it private until the game is finished and polished. I want to be able to experiment, try new things, revise, and change various aspects of the game if needed without having to go back on my word."

Unlike many of its peers in the management genre, plan is release the game as a full experience from the off, without using an Early Access period. But that isn't to say Marhulets doesn't want community input – and even promises credits and copies of the game who make "significant contributions" to development through Discord:

"I encourage people to wishlist the game on the platform of their choice and keep an eye on regular development updates. All feedback & ideas contributed by the community will be appreciated and carefully considered.

"For example: please help us name the cow. I've been trying to come up with a name for months!"

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Fans have long talked about how the relationship between Dragon Ball’s odd pairing of Gohan and Piccolo is often more nurturing and parental than the relationship between Gohan and his own father, Goku. Dragon Ball Super Hero, soon to be released in US theaters, strays from a usual Dragon Ball story by centering the two characters and attempts to address this perspective.

Speaking with IGN, members of the main cast of Dragon Ball have weighed in on this debate themselves. Kyle Hebert, who plays Gohan, began by saying, “It's definitely true that Piccolo is pretty much [Gohan’s] real dad through thick and thin. Not that Goku doesn't love Gohan, he obviously very much does, but he's busy off saving the universe.”

The voice of Piccolo - as well as Vegeta - Christopher Sabat, continued saying: “I hate to get too deep into psychology here but if you think about it, Goku, he didn't have a family, he didn't have a father figure, and in many ways he didn't have an example of who a father was going to be. So it's kind of hard for him to understand what his role as a father is even supposed to be.

"And whereas Piccolo comes from a kind of a tribal mentality where they all are grouped together… It would make sense that Piccolo would take on this kind of nurturing sensibility that Goku isn't able to have. Goku is busy, he's busy saving the universe and he's very focused on that.”

When asked if he thought that Dragon Ball is a story about the struggles of parenting and fatherhood, Sean Schemmel, the voice of Goku, replied “There is definitely a father-son-parenting theme and it definitely elucidates the fact that the sad truth for many people is the people who end up being your family aren't necessarily the people that brought you into the world always. Sometimes you get parental guidance and inspiration from the least likely of areas."

Schemmel continued: “[Series Creator] Akira Toriyama recently just settled the bet on, ‘Is Goku a bad father?’, and basically said in an interview like last year that he's not the best. So Piccolo is really the driving force.”

A key component of the new film is how Gohan’s relationship with his own daughter Pan suffers from a similar imbalance in priorities. On this, Hebert continues by saying. “Gohan has proven that he is a hard worker, a great husband, and he's trying to balance being a father too, but he has that great relationship with Piccolo where he trusts him implicitly to the point where it's like, 'Hey, can you go to school and pick her up because I'm too busy right now.'"

Sabat adds “I think a lot of people in their lives relate to Piccolo, because they all have that Piccolo character in their life. The person who was there for them, whether they were their dad or not, the person that helped them become who they are.”

Given that Gohan and Piccolo have been side characters for some time, and are now getting a starring role, we asked if series punching-bag Yamcha will ever get a similar opportunity to hold his own and be the main star of a Dragon Ball film.

Sabat replies “I think that Akira Toriyama is too in on the joke that Yamcha is a loser to ever give him anything.” However, jokingly, he says “I keep pitching the concept of Resurrection L, it's Launch's return, and Tien is still in love with Launch and Yamcha has to fight Tien because he knows that Launch is inherently evil,” then clarifies, “I'm just making it up right now, but if Akira Toriyama wants to talk to me about it I'll be happy.”

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero finally arrives in western theaters on August 19 in the US and UK, and August 18 in Australia. In our review, we called it "a fun, low-stakes love letter to Gohan fans with exciting momentum as well as room for some moving sentimentality amidst earth-shattering fights."