James Cameron Reveals Avatar 2 Release Date Plan
Avatar 2 is reportedly hitting theaters at Christmas 2017, with the sequels opening in 2018 and 2019.
Speaking with the Montreal Gazette, Avatar director James Cameron confirmed the potential release dates of the trio of sequels and spoke about the how each film relates to each other.
“Christmas of ’17 is the target,” Cameron said. “At least, that’s what we’ve announced. But I don’t consider that to be as important as the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart. I call it a met-narrative that runs across the three movies. Each film stands alone, but it also tells one much larger story.”
The Force Awakens Has Record-Breaking Monday
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has broken yet another record, setting a new all-time domestic high for Monday.
According to Variety, the film earned $40.1 million yesterday, eclipsing Spider-Man 2's $27.2 million record. As it currently stands, J.J. Abrams' space epic has now made $288.1 million in North America alone. Additionally, The Force Awakens raked in $41.7 million internationally yesterday, bringing the film's total global earnings to a staggering $610 million.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens made movie history this weekend, not only breaking box office records by earning $247 million domestically, but also outpacing Jurassic World's global debut with a worldwide opening of $529 million.
Tarantino Almost Made a Luke Cage Movie Before Pulp Fiction
Writer and director Quentin Tarantino very nearly made a Luke Cage movie before Pulp Fiction, according to an interview with Chris Hardwick.
The news comes from the latter's Nerdist Podcast (via Polygon), wherein Tarantino explained that he was interested in making a film about Luke Cage. The director — who had yet to become a household name with Pulp Fiction — was apparently eyeing Laurence Fishburne for the starring role. The studio wanted Wesley Snipes, and Tarantino began to worry about typecasting either actor.
Daily Deals: Just Cause 3, The Force Awakens on Blu-ray
Just Cause 3 for $44.99 from Amazon
Move fast! This one-day-only sale price has knocked 15 bucks off the normal $60 MSRP for Just Cause 3 on both PS4 and Xbox One. (And the Collector's Edition is discounted as well.)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray for $24.99 from Amazon
This Is What Computers Think Humans Look Like
Scientists have trained an artificial neural network to create images of human faces on demand.
According to New Scientist, Alec Radford from Indico and Facebook's AI research lab in New York have performed experiments with a generative adversarial network. One part of the system creates fake data which tries to fool the other part into using it as actual training data.
Volume PS Vita Release Date Announced
Developer Mike Bithell has announced a release date for Volume on PlayStation Vita.
According to the game’s official site, Volume will launch on January 5, 2016 in North America and January 6 in Europe. The stealth-action game was released for PlayStation 4 and PC back in August, but had been delayed due to development “roadblocks”.
“I know many of you have been waiting eagerly for this version of the game,” Bithell said. “It’s been a source of frustration for me that we didn’t get to release it alongside the other platforms. We missed our launch day for personal reasons, but having missed that date, we decided to take the opportunity to pour a great deal of attention into the Vita version.”
Russian Man to Sue Fallout 4 Dev for Video Game Addiction
A Russian man is suing the creators of Fallout 4 because he didn't know the game would "become so addictive." The 28-year old man from Krashnoyarsk claims he lost his job, friends, and wife because of the game.
Russian news outlet RT reported that the plaintiff is asking Bethesda for 500,000 roubles—around $7,000 USD—to pay for the emotional distress that the game brought on.
The man claims had he know the game would have hooked him so completely, he "would have become a lot more wary of it."
"I would not have bought it, or I would have left it until I was on holiday or until the New Year holidays," the man said in a statement.
Deadpool Exploits the Allure of Chimichangas in New IMAX Trailer
Deadpool's latest teaser trailer is here to remind us all to see his film in IMAX in 2016.
Just under 30 seconds long, the trailer primarily features star Ryan Reynold's in-character gags as Deadpool (though there is just enough sword-on-ax action between the merc with a mouth and the even more villainous Ajax to whet one's appetite).
The teaser is the latest entry in the movie's "12 Days of Deadpool" promotional campaign, which is leading up to a newer, fuller trailer on Christmas Day.
In the meantime, enjoy your enormous chimichanga.
Steven Strom is a freelance games writer whose name and face are plastered across the internet. One such place you can find him is Twitter.
Steam Winter Sale Discounts MGS5, Witcher Series, More
Valve has kicked off its annual Steam Winter Sale, discounting a wide array of PC games, including Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the entire Witcher franchise.
Konami's critically acclaimed stealth-action game is has been discounted to just over $40. Meanwhile, role-playing fans can pick up Skyrim for a whopping 75 percent off both the Legendary and standard editions, which are now $10 and $5, respectively.
Additionally, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is on sale for $30, while the Enhanced Editions of both The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings have been discounted 85 percent, slashing the price of the former to $1.50 and $3 for the sequel.
The Simpsons’ 25th Anniversary Toys Arrive
The Simpsons are celebrating their 25th birthday, which essentially means that if the show were a person, they could rent a car and subsequently have no one care about any of their birthdays thereafter. Thankfully, it’s a TV show, so people will still love it until the end of time… you know, unlike people.
A complete collection with all variants.
Kidrobot’s most successful vinyl toy crossover to mainstream media has, of course, been the Simpsons. With several different lines of Simpsons Mini Figures available, including the Treehouse of Horror, Kidrobot has unleashed this 25th Anniversary Edition line-up featuring variations of popular characters that will no doubt be highly collectible. The blind box toys (meaning you don’t know which one you’ll get until you open them) are currently available on Kidrobot’s website at $11.99 each.