Matt LeBlanc Signs On to Host the Next Series of Top Gear
Matt LeBlanc has signed a new contract to host Top Gear for at least two more years following the departure of co-host Chris Evan after just six episodes.
Announced by the BBC, the former friends star will be joined by the rest of the remaining seven hosts from last series - Chris Harris and Rory Reid will return as hosts of both the main show and BBC Three's Extra Gear, while Eddie Jordan, Sabine Schmitz and The Stig will make "regular appearances".
Keeping Hearthstone Vital More Than Two Years On
There’s been a lot going on in the world of Hearthstone lately. On Blizzard’s side we’ve seen the release of a new set – One Night in Karazhan, as well as an important step towards addressing Arena balance issues. In terms of the community, there’s been a lot of chatter about RNG in the game, specifically in relation to Yogg-Saron, which has proven to be far stronger than anyone really expected, as well as a general sentiment that Call of the Wild needs to be changed.
I caught up with senior game designer Mike Donais and associate designer Dean Ayala to chat about all of the above and more.
Keeping Hearthstone Vital More Than Two Years On
There’s been a lot going on in the world of Hearthstone lately. On Blizzard’s side we’ve seen the release of a new set – One Night in Karazhan, as well as an important step towards addressing Arena balance issues. In terms of the community, there’s been a lot of chatter about RNG in the game, specifically in relation to Yogg-Saron, which has proven to be far stronger than anyone really expected, as well as a general sentiment that Call of the Wild needs to be changed.
I caught up with senior game designer Mike Donais and associate designer Dean Ayala to chat about all of the above and more.
Feige on Why They Didn’t Kill THAT Character in Civil War
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Captain America: Civil War is based on the comic book story arc Civil War. The epilogue to that comic is called “The Death of Captain America.” During a Q&A to promote the DVD/Blu-ray release of the film, an audience member asked why Cap (Chris Evans) wasn’t actually killed off in the film and if there was ever talk of doing so. Producer Kevin Feige and directors Anthony and Joe Russo talked about whether or not that was ever a possibility.
Feige said, “Um, we never talked about killing Cap in this, right? No.” Anthony Russo answered, “We did for a beat, but we talk about everything…we do talk about every possible scenario, over and over and over again for months and months. So yeah, we had talked about it. It would never have made it’s way into a realistic version.” They explained that this film’s goal was fracturing the team completely before Infinity War.
Feige on Why They Didn’t Kill THAT Character in Civil War
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Captain America: Civil War is based on the comic book story arc Civil War. The epilogue to that comic is called “The Death of Captain America.” During a Q&A to promote the DVD/Blu-ray release of the film, an audience member asked why Cap (Chris Evans) wasn’t actually killed off in the film and if there was ever talk of doing so. Producer Kevin Feige and directors Anthony and Joe Russo talked about whether or not that was ever a possibility.
Feige said, “Um, we never talked about killing Cap in this, right? No.” Anthony Russo answered, “We did for a beat, but we talk about everything…we do talk about every possible scenario, over and over and over again for months and months. So yeah, we had talked about it. It would never have made it’s way into a realistic version.” They explained that this film’s goal was fracturing the team completely before Infinity War.
Once Upon a Time’s Characters Are In a Rut
Time is a flat circle, and it seems the characters in Storybrooke are stuck in it. As Once Upon a Time enters its sixth season, the premiere sees the same problems play out between the same people in slightly different deviations of versions we've seen before. People only fall back on their bad behavior so much; if they aren't going to learn something from the mistakes they seemingly grew from in the past, it might be time to have them face something new entirely.
Spoilers for Once Upon a Time's Season 6 premiere, "The Savior," continue below.
Over the past few seasons, Once Upon a Time has kept things fresh by bringing in new fairy tale/Disney faces to enliven the series. From Anna and Elsa to Peter Pan to Hades, the constant revolving door of splashy guest characters has oftentimes shifted the focus from steady development of the core Storybrooke crew to the arc of the moment.
Once Upon a Time’s Characters Are In a Rut
Time is a flat circle, and it seems the characters in Storybrooke are stuck in it. As Once Upon a Time enters its sixth season, the premiere sees the same problems play out between the same people in slightly different deviations of versions we've seen before. People only fall back on their bad behavior so much; if they aren't going to learn something from the mistakes they seemingly grew from in the past, it might be time to have them face something new entirely.
Spoilers for Once Upon a Time's Season 6 premiere, "The Savior," continue below.
Over the past few seasons, Once Upon a Time has kept things fresh by bringing in new fairy tale/Disney faces to enliven the series. From Anna and Elsa to Peter Pan to Hades, the constant revolving door of splashy guest characters has oftentimes shifted the focus from steady development of the core Storybrooke crew to the arc of the moment.
How They Made Tony Stark Younger in Civil War
Early on in Captain America: Civil War, audiences see a young Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) interacting with his parents in a hologram of sorts. He’s reenacting the last time he saw them before they were killed, but the way he wished it had gone. It’s uncanny, and for those of us that grew up watching him on film, it’s almost eerie how young he looks. We saw it before with Michael Douglas in Ant-Man, but this scene was far more extensive.
During a Q&A to promote the DVD/Blu-ray release of the film, film editor Jeffrey Ford, visual effects supervisor Dan Deleeuw and sound editor Shannon Mills talked about what went into creating this scene. Deleeuw explained that they had a lot of early Robert Downey Jr. visuals to work with. “Basically what we did,” he said, “we went through and we put a kind of catalogue together of his earlier films. Part of the process was deciding what Robert should look like, as this younger version of himself. And we settled on kind of a mix between a couple films. It became more of a young Stark, than a young Robert, in a way.”
Magnificent Seven Shoots Past Storks to Top the Box Office
Sony's new Western had a solid opening weekend, as The Magnificent Seven claimed first place at the domestic box office with $35 million.
As noted by Variety, Denzel Washington continues to draw in moviegoers on a consistent basis. The Magnificent Seven serves as the Oscar-winning actor's first starring role in a Western, and continues his streak of high-performing films that open to over $20 million, ever since the release of The Great Debaters in 2007.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros.' new animated comedy Storks debuted in second place. While the film was expected to make at least $30 million during its opening weekend, Storks performed below expectations, earning just $21.8 million. The movie features an all-star voice cast that includes Andy Samberg, Jennifer Aniston and Kelsey Grammar, and boasted a production budget of $70 million.
Ranking Halloween Horror Nights’ Awesome Mazes
Halloween Horror Nights 26 kicked off last weekend at Universal Orlando, once again offering up a bevy of scares via its collection of houses/mazes – both those based on famous horror films and several original concepts.
Coming off of the milestone Halloween Horror Nights 25, the bar had been set incredibly high. But Horror Nights 26 is another great year for the event, taking on some incredibly iconic titles and bringing them to life in a memorable manner.
Below are my rankings for this year’s mazes, with only the bottom couple feeling a bit lackluster and the rest delivering a ton of clever and creatively executed moments.
I really wished I’d liked the movie this maze was based on more, so perhaps it makes sense that the same went for this maze. Visually, it was a very unique one with its suburban, Christmas setting gone bad, and there were certainly some standout scenes - the kitchen of crazed Gingerbread Men was a fun highlight – but there were very few scares, and not enough big laughs to make up for that.