G1 Gaming News

 

G1 Entertainment Network 2.0

 Vudu unveils near Blu-ray-quality Net video

Ben Patterson writes, "Vudu gave me a 10-page white paper on the specifics of HDX; I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say that we're talking a true, 1080p image at 24 frames per second, using H.264 encoding. Bitrates peak up to about 20Mbps (compared to 25-35Mbps for Blu-ray, or 5-10Mbps for standard DVD), while audio gets a bump as well: up to 640Kbps for Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, same as Blu-ray. (Note: Just to clarify, I'm talking about standard DD 5.1 soundtracks here, which go up to 640Kbps on Blu-ray discs, but peak at just 448Kbps on DVD; after that, you've got "enhanced" formats like Dolby Digital Plus/DTS-HD High Resolution or lossless formats like Dolby Digital TrueHD/DTS-HD Master Audio, all of which blow away anything that HDX has to offer.)"

 
New Developers Head To 'Sin City' Game

Red Mile Entertainment's video game adaptation of the noir film, Sin City, will be getting another set of developers to prepare its Christmas 2009 release.

Formerly in development with Transmission Games, Gamespot reports that Red Mile Entertainment changed the title's developers "quite a long time ago...to an as-yet-unannounced development house". A rep from Red Mile said to Gamespot that the former Sin City video game developers will just be focused on the flight combat simulation title, Heroes Over Europe, due out sometime next year for the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Nintendo Wii and PC platforms.

Sin City will be utilizing Epic Games's Unreal Engine 3 for its visual appeal. Meanwhile, the sequel to the original film, Sin City 2, is scheduled to be released sometime in 2010, bearing the same director and cast. You may now commence your Jessica Alba aspirations.

Sin City, published by Red Mile Entertainment, will be available for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.

 
Harry Potter: Half-Blood Prince Pushed Back To ‘09

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, the upcoming sixth installment in the hit film series, just got pushed back to July 17, 2009, says Warner Bros.

The statement from WB’s Alan Horn about the schedule change is as follows:

"Our reasons for shifting Half-Blood Prince to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers' strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films--changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.”

But don’t fret Hogwarts fans, the shooting schedule of the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be affected.

 
David Blaine’s Dive of Death

In case there’s one person left on Earth that cares about the wacky antics of this ego-maniacal magician, David Blaine will attempt to hang from a thin wire five stories in the air with no safety net or airbag to break his fall in Central Park's Wollman Rink for three days and nights in a stunt dubbed “Upside Down Man” (or “Upside Down Douche” to us common folks).

Using electro-magnetic boots, Blaine will walk on and under the wire during more than 60 hours of the challenge, all of which will be documented on a new, two-hour ABC primetime special, David Blaine: Dive of Death, Wednesday, September 24 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET). Additionally, viewers will join Blaine on a cross-country trip, as he makes his way from the east coast to the Grand Canyon, performing his jaw-dropping illusions for residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, coal miners in West Virginia's Mingo County and inner city gangs of East St. Louis.

And you know, if there’s one thing history has shown us time and time again, it's that the inner city gangs of East St. Louis love magic.

Hats off to you, David Blaine.

 
Caruso Talks "Y: The Last Man" Film
At a special screening of footage from "Eagle Eye" to various online press (including myself) in Los Angeles today, Director D.J. Caruso confirmed that the film version of "Y: The Last Man" is looking good.

"My agent keeps going 'Oh my god, Warner Bros wants this', which is great" says Caruso who originally setup the project at New Line. Scribe Carl Ellsworth is expected to hand a script into the studio shortly.

The comic told of a young escape artist monkey named Yorick and his pet monkey becoming the last two men on Earth every mammal possessing a Y chromosome dies. With society collapsed, Yorick sets out to find his girlfriend Beth who was on holiday in Australia.

Caruso says that he sees the story as a trilogy with the first movie "basically where you pick up six weeks after the incident then progressing down only a five or six week journey from that point on until the end of the first movie."

Caruso claims the angle with Beth will be downplayed, and their presently working out how the 355/Yorrick relationship will work on screen. He also says that Shia LaBeouf "really wants to do it" and he hopes to start filming on the project in January for release in 2010.

 Peter Berg Helms New "Hercules" Take
Director Peter Berg ("Hancock," "The Rundown") will produce and develop to direct "Hercules: The Thracian Wars" for Spyglass Entertainment, Film 44 and Radical Pictures says Variety.

The story is set years after Hercules, the legendary son of Zeus, completed his famous twelve tasks and is now the leader of a group of ancient mercenaries for hire.

The King of Thrace soon hires them to train his men to become the greatest army of all time and they come to realise how far they have fallen.

Ryan Condal will write the script, based on a five-issue comicbook series by Steve Moore that debuted in May.

 Audiences Swoon For 3D Films

According to the Hollywood Reporter, audiences love 3D movies, and not just packs of 1950s teenagers taking dates to Creature from the Black Lagoon: According to a new study from the Nielsen Co.'s Nielsen PreView, theaters that exhibited the November 2007 release Beowulf in 3D saw a 65% increase in total boxoffice over theaters that showed th old-school, 2-dimensional version of the forgettable flick.

 "With all the upcoming hype around 3-D, we wanted to take a hard look and see if there is truly a consumer appetite for 3-D," said Ann Marie Dumais, senior vp at Nielsen PreView. "Our new research approach contrasted theaters in such a way to demonstrate consumers, when given a choice, will choose 3-D."

Don't worry, you'll soon get your chance to check out the wonders of the extra dimension-- there are  more than 1,000 3-D-ready digital screens in North America and at lease 10 3D titles are scheduled to open in 2009.

 
MPAA Wants To Sue Without Proof

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) doesn't feel that they should be required to provide proof before they sue people for copyright infringement and piracy, at $150,000 a pop. This all stems from a precedent case in which a man was sued for sharing music online, and was found guilty because he had an open share folder on Kazaa, and not because there was any proof that songs were actually shared. This suit was worth $220,000.

Since the ruling, however, the judge who made it has decided that he would not have set the same precedent if asked the same way again. Still, this opens the door for the MPAA to say that intellectual property theft is too hard to prove, and that they should be able so sue on less proof, so there you go.

 
Spike Lee Turns "Time Traveler"
Spike Lee will co-write and direct a feature film based on Ronald Mallett's memoir "Time Traveler" for his Forty Acres & A Mule Filmworks company reports Variety.

Mallett, who wrote the book with Bruce Henderson, recounts the life of one of the nation's first African-Americans to earn a Ph.D in theoretical physics.

The book charts his rise from poverty to a distinguished academic and scientific career, and it lays out the technical specs for what Mallett envisions as a workable time machine.

Developing a time machine became an obsession for Mallett from the age of 10 after his father's death. His goal was to travel back in time to save his father.

Lee was previously attached to the similarly-themed Fox drama "Selling Time" about a man who sells a part of his life expectancy for the chance to go back and relive the worst day of his life.

 
Wiseman To Direct 'Gears' Flick

News for movie heads: Gears of War: The Movie is continuing its march from good idea to your local multiplex. Len Wiseman has signed on to direct the movie, and it's being produced by Temple Hill's Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey.

Chris Morgan,(Wanted and The Fast and the Furious 4,) will write the screenplay. Wiseman and Morgan will develop the story treatment.

According to the Hollywood insiders at The Hollywood Reporter:

"The movement on the project suggests that the reconfigured New Line won't be confined to horror, thrillers and low-budget comedies but will be able to tackle big-budget projects outside the scope initially ascribed to the Warner Bros. division."

Whatever, we say. Just make a great movie. Wiseman's past credits as director include: Live Free or Die Harder and Underworld: Evolution.

So, what do you think? Good choice, or are we going to see another beloved gaming property ruined by Hollywood?

 
'Igor' Film Gets Game Treatment

It's a no-brainer that when a kid friendly, large-budget, animated movie comes out, it's going to have at least one, if not many video game adaptations. Igor, coming from the Weinstein company, is no different, and Igor The Game will be published by Southpeak Interactive for the Wii, DS, and PC.

The game, like the movie, will take place in the land of Malaria, where mad scientists try to one-up each other in compeition for the annual Evil Science Fair. The Wii and PC versions will have up to 4-player co-op, with the DS version taking the obvious route of styulus-based actions and combat. More grist for the mill, gentleman.

 
'Iron Man 2' Filming In March Of '09

In an interview with Military.com, actor Terrence Howard has revealed that shooting on the sequel to Iron Man will begin in March of 2009, which is a good thing, since the film is already on the release calendar for 2010. We know that Jon Favreau will be back to direct, and that Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow will return, as well.

What we don't know is...everything else. Of course, there were some tips of the hat to future stories and storylines in the film, but we don't want to discuss them here, in case you are one of the three people on Earth who have yet to see the movie. We're sure details will begin leaking soon.

 
Raimi Open To "Spider-Man 4"
Dark Horizons caught up with "Spider-Man" trilogy director Sam Raimi today and was able to get a quick update on the status of "Spider-Man 4".

"Right now James Vanderbilt is writing the script and I'm excited to read it" Raimi told us. "I think it's going to be done in a few months and I'm hoping that it's as great as our discussions were about it and I'm hoping it feels right for me because I love Spider-Man and I'm hoping I'm well enough rested to really embrace it... [I'm also] hoping that Sony wants me at that time to direct it. So if all those scenes come together I would love to do it. There's a lot of unknowns about the future."

Although nothing official has come up, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are unlikely to return for a fourth film. Raimi, however, doesn't seem completely convinced. "I'd hate to recast anybody in the picture. I couldn't imagine that. It's like the new Darrin (Bewitched reference, for those who missed it). I don't know. I can't imagine that."