NASA’s New Horizons Targets Pluto-like Object in the Kuiper Belt
Following its successful flyby of Pluto, the next potential target for NASA’s New Horizons mission is a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69.
At an estimated size of 30 miles (45 km), PT1 is roughly 10 times larger than comets like Rosetta’s comet and 0.5 to 1 percent of the size of Pluto. The KBO was one of two potential targets, and the one recommended to NASA by the New Horizons team due its reachability with the fuel supply available.
Path of NASA's New Horizons toward Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69.
The Force Awakens LEGO Ad Teases Movie Action
(Warning: there may be spoilers ahead.)
A new advertisement for Star Wars: The Force Awakens LEGO sets has gone live.
The ad revolves predominantly around the sets for hero Poe Dameron's black and orange X-wing, as well as villain Kylo Ren's ship.
Dameron and Ren duke it out on a sandy planet, which may be Tatooine, Jakku, or another yet-to-be-revealed sand-swept location.
Assuming it's not a recycled droid sound bite, we also hear BB-8's beeping 'voice' for the first time.
With a few months until its release, The Force Awakens marketing is bound to step into overdrive.
For instance, Instagram recently showed Finn wielding a familiar lightsaber, Empire revealed new character shots of the lead heroes and villains, and new details about Kylo Ren have been revealed.
Shatner Reportedly Preparing a Leonard Nimoy Biography
William Shatner is reportedly working on an official biography for his friend and co-star Leonard Nimoy.
Shatner, who played James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series and movies, will prepare the tentatively titled Leonard: A 50 Year Friendship, according to Showbiz411.
Nimoy passed away on the 27th of February. He was 83.
Since his death, Nimoy has been memorialised in Elite: Dangerous, Star Trek Online, and even in space.
Destiny’s The Taken King Will Not Have a Raid on Day One
Destiny’s upcoming The Taken King expansion will not feature the King’s Fall raid on day one of its September 15 launch.
“Its not going to be available on day one,” The Taken King director Luke Smith told IGN during its live show at PAX Prime 2015. “We definitely have a plan for when it’s going to be available. I’m not going to announce the plan for it on the youtube gaming stage.
"But I promise for people who are excited about the raid will know when it's time to take time off work. We’ll give em’ a heads up,” he added.
Bungie previously told IGN that the expansion’s upcoming King's Fall raid is bigger than other Destiny's raids Vault of Glass and Crota’s End. The new expansion introduces Oryx, the father of Crota's End raid boss, Crota. Oryx heads a new class of enemies called the Taken as he seeks to strike revenge for the death of his son.
‘Limited Quantity’ of HTC Vives Coming This Year
Valve and HTC's Vive virtual reality headset is launching this year, but only a "limited quantity" will be available in 2015.
According to Ars Technica, Valve said that "later this year, HTC will offer the first commercial Vive units via a limited quantity of community and developer systems, with larger quantities shipping in calendar Q1 2016."
So, it seems that the majority of consumer HTC Vive headsets will be launching around the same time as the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus, both of which are also planned for early 2016.
CD Projekt Red Teases Witcher 3 Gwent News
During a panel at PAX, CD Projekt Red teased upcoming news about Gwent, the card-game found within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Answering a fan request for a stand-alone version of Gwent during the panel Q&A, senior writer Jakub Szamalek said there will be "good news for Gwent players coming up."
As far as a stand-alone version, Szamalek laughed and said he would pass along the idea to the business team in Warsaw, where CD Projekt Red is based.
A physical version of the card game was part of the Xbox One Collector's Edition, but a digital version of Gwent was part of the game as content within the world of The Witcher 3 on all platforms.
The description of Gwent by CD Projekt Red calls it a game "of initial simplicity and ultimate depth," played by nobles and commoners alike in the Witcher universe.
Witcher 3 and the Challenge of Adapting Books to Games
During a Witcher 3: Wild Hunt panel at PAX, CD Projekt Red talked about the difficulties present in adapting a book series to a game.
According to senior writer Jakub Szamalek, turning books into games "is not a recipe for success." During the panel, Szamalek and CD Projekt Red translator and English writer Travis Currit pointed to many of the challenges present in adapting a book series into a video game.
"You'd be hard pressed to find book adaptations" in gaming, Szamalek said, contrasting that with the movie world, where book adaptations are commonplace and often times very successful.
One of the challenges Currit mentioned was the fact that often times, "fans are completionists." He said fans will "devour" everything to do with a franchise, making a game adaptation ripe for fan scrutiny.
Complications Cancelled by USA
USA has cancelled medical drama Complications after just one season.
The news comes via The Hollywood Reporter, who reported that USA did not pick the show up for a second season due to "a strong drama pipeline that includes upcoming new series Colony and Queen of the South."
Jason O'Mara in Complications.
New to Hulu for September 2015
Coming to Hulu this September is Fargo's first season (just in time for you to catch up before Season 2 begins Oct. 12th), the first three seasons of Elementary (for you to try and catch up by Nov. 5th?), and a brand new Season 4 of The Mindy Project, which Hulu rescued from cancellation and picked up for 26(!) new episodes.
Plus, as the month closes out, you'll see a ton of Fall TV become available - from Gotham to How and Get Away with Murder to new shows like Heroes Reborn and Scream Queens.
Here's the full list of what's headed to Hulu in September:
Zac Efron’s New Movie Flops Big Time at Box Office
While Straight Outta Compton continues to perform incredibly well, the same can't be said for Zac Efron's We Are Your Friends, which debuted this weekend to a paltry $1.8 million.
This marks the worst opening of all time for a new major Hollywood film debuting in over 2,000 locations (not accounting for inflation).
"This was a passion project for Zac Efron, and we believe in him," Warner Bros. executive VP for domestic distribution Jeff Goldstein told THR. "Yes, the result was disappointing, but this was a small film."
Meanwhile, Universal's Straight Outta Compton held strong at number one for its third consecutive week, earning $13.2 million. The faith-based drama War Room had a stellar debut, earning $11 million and coming in second place.