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Gambling Laws Block GTA Online Update In Over 50 Countries
Stringent local laws appear to be blocking Grand Theft Auto Online players in over 50 countries from gambling in the new Diamond Casino update.
The update went live yesterday, but some players soon received in-game notifications that they didn't "have permission" to buy gambling chips to use in the virtual casinos.
The new Diamond Casino runs on in-game cash, which can be purchased with real money. It would seem that developer Rockstar Games feels that the transaction mirrors online gambling too closely to ignore. IGN has reached out to Rockstar for comment.
Reddit users are reporting that they are able to go inside the casinos, but they are blocked from purchasing betting chips. One user wrote, "I launched and headed straight for the new building, and wanted to buy myself some chips for the games.
Halloween Sequels to Start Filming in September
Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions' forthcoming Halloween sequels are set to enter production in September.
Following the recent announcement of the deadly double-bill, it has now been confirmed that Halloween Kills, the follow-up to the 2018 revival, and Halloween Ends will be filmed back-to-back later this year.
The sequels will be directed once again by David Gordon Green, from a script he co-wrote with Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley. Green and McBride recently opened up about their upcoming films, which will continue the blood-pumping saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
Control: Ask the Developers Anything – IGN First
We're fast approaching the end of our month of coverage of Control. But with a game this new and this strange, I'm sure you have some questions left to ask that we haven't been able to answer yet. If that sounds like you, now's your chance - we'll be putting your questions to the developers at Remedy.
Just leave a comment below and we'll comb through for the best (or weirdest) to send over to Finland for answers. Check back with us on Wednesday, 31 July for all the answers and, in the meantime, check out all our Control coverage so far this month.
Jean Smart Confirmed as Silk Spectre in HBO’s Watchmen
As fans speculated, Jean Smart will be playing former Silk Spectre Laurie Juspeczyk (aka Laurie Blake) in Damon Lindelof's Watchmen series, Lindelof confirmed to IGN at HBO's Television Critics Association presentation on Wednesday.
A new trailer shown to critics at the panel featured a shot of Smart's character, previously rumored to be FBI Agent Blake, juxtaposed against a pop art-style painting of the Minutemen that included a costumed Silk Spectre. In the footage, Agent Blake even admits that she used to dress up in costume and punch bad guys too.
The Comic-Con trailer for Watchmen released this past weekend doesn't include those scenes with Smart but does feature more overt ties to the storyline of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' seminal comic, including several shots of Doctor Manhattan, a shot of Nite Owl's Owlship, more emphasis on Jeremy Irons' Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias), and acts of violence being perpetrated by the terrorist group known as the 7th Cavalry, who have co-opted Rorschach's mask for their own political ends.
Thor: Can Love and Thunder Redeem Jane Foster the Way Ragnarok Did Thor?
The news that Natalie Portman will not only reprise her role as Jane Foster in the upcoming film Thor: Love and Thunder but she will do so as the mighty Thor shook the Marvel Studios panel crowd at San Diego Comic Con 2019 like, well, a clap of thunder. It was all the more surprising given Portman’s reported behind the scenes issues while making Thor: The Dark World, leaving us under the impression she would never return to the part, but also because the character of Jane was undercooked in the first Thor, damsel’d in the second one, and completely absent in the third.
Why would she want to return to such an underwhelming character? Well, after seeing how writer-director Taika Waititi was able to breathe new life into Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder in Ragnarok, creative lightning could conceivably strike twice when Portman picks up the hammer.
Star Trek: Seven of Nine’s Jeri Ryan Shares How Her Character Has Resonated With Autistic People
During EW’s Women Who Kick Ass panel at San Diego Comic Con 2019, actress Jeri Ryan spoke about how her character Seven of Nine -- who originally appeared on Star Trek: Voyager and will be a part of the upcoming Star Trek: Picard show -- unexpectedly became a relatable character for autistic people.
Ryan first talked about how freeing it is to be on a sci-fi show where anything can happen, but how the characters are rooted in aspects of the real world that are relatable. Then she shared with the crowd how her part-Borg character has been interpreted through that lens.
“I play a character that started out as a person who became a machine and is now a little of both. And that became a whole different opportunity to show different sections of society representation of themselves,” Ryan said. “Personally, with Seven of Nine, I’ve heard from so many people who are on the autism spectrum, that they appreciate seeing a character who has the same struggles that they did. Because she didn’t have social skills. She didn’t know personal space boundaries. She didn’t understand social norms. So she had to learn all of that. And that’s very much the same kind of experience that a lot of those people have. And I know this because my son is on the spectrum. That was so meaningful to me, when these fans reach and say, ‘Thank you for showing me on screen, for letting me see that it’s not just me and that I’m not alone and I’m not the oddball, that I can see that represented and it gives me hope and it makes me feel not so alone.’ And I love that.”
Gemini Man: Footage First Impressions of Will Smith and Ang Lee Sci-Fi Epic
The sci-fi epic Gemini Man has been trapped in development hell for over two decades since it was originally conceived in 1997, but the film is finally coming to fruition now that technology, seemingly, has caught up to its high-concept premise. Directed by Academy Award-winner Ang Lee, the new Paramount Pictures movie stars Will Smith as an aging hitman (Brogen) facing off with a younger clone of himself (Junior), and pushes the bounds of known filmmaking technology to execute on that advanced sci-fi idea.
But will the finished film actually work in execution as much as in conception? That's what I set out to find out during a special footage presentation on the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles, where a select group of journalists, including myself, got a preview of a now-released behind the scenes featurette, three new clips, and a new trailer (which will be dropping on Thursday). Check out the new behind-the-scenes featurette of Gemini Man below:
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy TV Series Reportedly Coming to Hulu
Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is reportedly being turned into a television show for the streaming service Hulu.
Deadline is reporting that a television adaptation of the sci-fi comedy series is coming to the streaming service. Carlton Cuse (Lost, Locke & Key) is attached as showrunner and Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman) is a writer on the series.
We reached out to Hulu for verification, but the company declined to comment.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy began as a radio series on BBC Radio 4, which premiered in 1978. Adams adapted the series into a novel in 1979, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was adapted into many different forms since, including a video game and a 2005 feature film.
HBO Boss: GoT Fan Backlash Hasn’t Affected the Prequel ‘At All’
To say that Game of Thrones' final season was divisive amongst fans is the biggest understatement of 2019, but HBO President Casey Bloys still isn't sweating the audience backlash. In fact, he says that the response to the events of the final season hasn't changed the way the network is approaching the upcoming prequel series "at all" -- which does make sense, if you consider that the new series has an entirely different creative team.
The new series, which may or may not be called The Longest Night, comes from a concept that X-Men: First Class’ Jane Goldman developed with George R.R. Martin. Set 5,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the new series doesn't creatively involve the flagship series' showrunners David Benioff or D.B. Weiss, or executive producer Bryan Cogman, who is off working on Amazon's Lord of the Rings series. (Though Cogman was originally conceptualizing a spinoff series, HBO did not move forward with it.)