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"Black Adam" star and wrestling legend Dwayne Johnson has spent years eyeballing a continuation of John Carpenter's "Big Trouble in Little China," a genre-blending action film that provided Kurt Russell with one of his all-time great performances. The film was originally supposed to be a traditional Western focusing on a sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show who becomes a buffalo hunter to help feed the Chinese workers on the railroad, but was updated into a larger-than-life genre spectacle boasting high-octane action, romance, mystery, gunplay, mystical sorcery, martial arts, scary set pieces, and one of the coolest action heroes in history. The film featured a career great performance by James Hong as David Lo-Pan, the villainous ancient Chinese sorcerer who has to marry and sacrifice a green-eyed girl to regain a healthy form, bringing him one step closer to his dream of taking over the universe.

Johnson has noted that his take on "Big Trouble in Little China" will be a continuation of Carpenter's story, and while it's unlikely anyone on the planet wants to see this project actually come to life, James Hong told ComicBook.com that he'd be willing to give his blessing to the project on one condition -- The Rock needs to ask Hong to return as Lo-Pan. The 93-year-old actor is still actively performing, having appeared in the smash-hit "Everything Everywhere All At Once," and lending his voice to the animated film "Wendell and Wild," showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. "Without Lo-Pan? How dare he," Hong joked in the interview.

How Can You Forget Lo-Pan?

Hong told ComicBook.com that he'd prefer if the classic film was left alone, but wouldn't say no if given the opportunity to return to the character. "I'd like to reappear in the new one and do something spiritually, like 'Star Wars; where the characters come back and do a reprieve of some kind," he said. "Obviously, because let's admit it, Lo-Pan is a huge part of that first one, so how can you forget him?" We named Lo-Pan one of the 10 greatest John Carpenter characters in his filmography, so we certainly haven't forgotten him.

There's still no official word on whether or not the project will actually even happen, but John Carpenter has been vocally against the idea since day one. "They want a movie with Dwayne Johnson, that's what they want, so they just picked that title," Carpenter said in a 2018 interview with CinemaBlend. "They don't give a s*** about me and my movie ...that movie wasn't a success." At the very least, James Hong is one of the most decorated voiceover performers currently working today, so it's not outside of the realm of possibility that he could be incorporated as a figureless entity and serve as an ominous voice. After all, Lo-Pan is a supernatural being, so he can sort of do whatever he wants.

Read this next: Sci-Fi Movie Deaths No One Saw Coming

The post James Hong Wants to Return for Dwayne Johnson's Big Trouble in Little China Remake appeared first on /Film.

Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut "Reservoir Dogs" helped set expectations for what would come in future Tarantino movies: Long-winded conversations, excessive and bloody violence, non-linear storytelling, and of course, inspired music choices. The story of six criminals and their botched robbery made for a wildly compelling film. The small scale of "Reservoir Dogs" could be seen as limiting, but Tarantino took the small budget he had to work with and gave audiences a different kind of heist film. The film never shows the actual heist as it happens, but instead offers audiences a look at everything leading up to and after the theft, which inevitably goes wrong. 

The writer/director knew the chemistry between the cast of "Reservoir Dogs" would make or break such an endeavor in storytelling. Thankfully, the anonymous criminals, who all go by color-coded aliases, were portrayed by talents such as Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, and Steve Buscemi. Even Tarantino himself got in on the action as one of the criminals, playing Mr. Brown. The opening scene best exemplifies the entertaining and hilarious dynamic between the criminals -- even though Quentin Tarantino found it challenging to shoot.

'The Camera's Just Doing Its Own Independent Thing'

In a 1994 interview with Film Comment Magazine, Quentin Tarantino spoke about the process of filming the diner scene of "Reservoir Dogs." Specifically, he spoke about how the camera movement is some of the most notable of the entire movie:

"[The diner scene] has one of the most pronounced camera moves in the whole movie, that slow-moving 360 where people get lost, and then you find them again. But while I've got this big camera thing happening — and believe me, it was a big pain in the ass to shoot that — at the same time, the camera is just catching whoever it happens to catch at the time."

The difficult camera work is an interesting contrast to the mundane happenings at the diner table. The meandering nature of the camera almost mimics the flow of the conversation, easing you into this world and setting the metaphorical table, only so Tarantino can yank the tablecloth off later when the heist goes wrong. He explained that he was aiming to make the opening scene feel naturalistic while also showing the dynamic between this group of strangers before their big heist:

"It's not choreographed so that it's on Mr. Orange, and it hits Mr. Pink as he says his line and then finds itself on Mr. Blonde as he says his line — no, it's not doing that at all, people are talking offscreen, and the camera's just doing its own independent thing."

Camera Shots That 'Just Felt Right'

The camera work in the diner scene, as painful as it was to shoot at times, is also highly varied. Quentin Tarantino is a director who's been very vocal about his love for varying types of films and genres, as well as how they're all shot. When it came to making "Reservoir Dogs," Tarantino saw it as an opportunity to incorporate different styles of camera work:

"I never shoot in one specific cinematic language. I like using as many as are appropriate. Part of the fun of that opening sequence is that there's three different styles of shooting. The whole first part, the Madonna section, is just the camera moving around—even when you go to a close-up, the camera's still moving around. Then when it gets into the Harvey Keitel-Lawrence Tierney thing about the address book, you stop and do two shots, and then when it gets into the tips part, we've got the geography of the table now, so the whole thing is done in these massive close-ups."

"Reservoir Dogs" works like gangbusters both on a technical and narrative level, and while the filmmaker can intellectualize the reasoning behind some of the camera placement choices, there's also a level of instinct that comes into play that simply cannot be taught. You either have it, or you don't, and Tarantino showed right at the top of his breakout movie that he definitely had it. As he recalled:

"Whenever you do a scene that long, you have it break down into sections. Ten minutes for your opening sequence is a real long f***ing time, especially if they're doing nothing but sitting down talking. Why did I shoot the third section in closeups? I don't really have an answer—it just felt right."

Read this next: The 23 Best Heist Movies Of All Time

The post Reservoir Dogs' Opening Diner Scene Was A Pain For Quentin Tarantino To Shoot appeared first on /Film.

Family, friends, and fans of the incomparable Leslie Jordan are still reeling after his untimely passing yesterday at the age of 67, but the body of work Jordan leaves behind is filled with nothing but a delightful array of joy and talent. Leslie Jordan was a multi-hyphenate performer, with the gay icon enjoying countless roles as a character actor, vocalist, writer, and personality across a multitude of genres. Based on the memorial posts made by those who worked with him and knew him best, the assumption that Leslie Jordan was just as kind and friendly off-screen as he appeared to be has been confirmed, with countless celebrities acknowledging that no one else could do it quite like Leslie Jordan.

As a character actor, Jordan spent a lot of his career playing side characters and guest roles, which is no shade to his talents or abilities. Leslie Jordan was the kind of character actor you looked forward to seeing on your favorite show, or became the motivating factor to try out a series you've never seen, just to catch a glimpse of what kind of Southern-fried fabulousness he was going to inject into the role. Never one to be held down by limitations, Jordan's appearances were varied and vivacious. If Leslie Jordan was making an appearance, chances are, the episode was about to be one of the best in the whole run.

He Shined On Shows For Adult Audiences

Jordan was a mainstay on just about every show your mom liked in the 1990s and 2000s, popping up everywhere, including on "Ally McBeal," "Caroline in the City," "Boston Public," "Boston Legal," "Nash Bridges," "Murphy Brown," "Desperate Housewives," and "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." All of these shows were ripe for character actor guest appearances, but Leslie always completely stole the spotlight whenever he arrived on screen. He even played the Ferengi crewman, Kol, in the "Star Trek: Voyager" third season episode "False Profits." There was no character Leslie Jordan couldn't play, but he was always in his strongest element when allowed to transform characters into something that only he could pull off.

Until very recently, Jordan was most well-known for his recurring guest spot on "Will & Grace" as Beverley Leslie, the homophobic homosexual millionaire rival of Megan Mullally's Karen Walker. Leslie would arrive to exchange barbs with Walker, often mocking her alcoholism, and sex life, frequently comparing her to being the devil or a vampire. To clap back, Walker would mock his short stature and feminine presentation, while both delivered their lines with hilarious venom that could only be spoken in their memorable voices. Jordan won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for this role in 2006, a well-deserved accolade for such a fantastic character.

He Knew When To Tone It Down For The Kids

Part of Leslie Jordan's charm was how often he'd say something sexually forward or sarcastic with his sweet-as-pie Southern dialect, which made him perfect comedic relief when handling adult material. At the same time, his charming demeanor and friendly attitude made him a wonderful addition to any family-friendly show. Jordan had guest spots on shows like the original "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," but two appearances truly shined above the rest.

During the original run of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," Jordan appeared in the episode "Mystery," as a new neighbor named Busby who has been stealing Pee-wee's things in an attempt to be more like him, hoping that it would make Pee-wee want to be his friend if he saw they had things in common. The official Pee-wee Herman Instagram account highlighted the episode yesterday, noting that the episode was written specifically for Jordan after seeing his guest spot on "Murphy Brown." It's such a sweet episode on friendship, made even better by his commitment to the role and the innocence of Busby.

Just a few years ago, Jordan appeared on the Zendaya starring Disney Channel series "K.C. Undercover," as the depressed ringleader of a failing circus named Cecil B. Deville in the two-part episodes "Tightrope of Doom." Jordan dazzles in his almost exclusively sequined wardrobe but spends most of his screen time exchanging sass with small children. He takes a similar approach to his Beverley Leslie character on "Will & Grace," but filters it through a Disney Channel-appropriate level of snark. It's an absolute delight to see him sharing the screen with gifted young performers like Zendaya and Trinitee Stokes, and he looks to be having so much fun acting opposite children who can roast as well as he can.

He Had The Perfect Voice For Animation

Leslie Jordan's voice is so distinctively inimitable, it's no surprise that he frequently lent his trademark tone to animated shows. On "American Dad!," Jordan played Mr. Beauregard, the premier hairstylist of Langley Falls. Much like Jordan, he speaks with a Southern drawl and is incredibly short, so the character is often riding on the back of a greyhound dog. Mr. Beauregard's favorite pastime is "finding stupid people and mocking them," a perfect fit for an actor with the well-established skill of reading people to filth with a smile.

Jordan appeared in the season 9 "Supernatural" episode "Dog Dean Afternoon," voicing a Yorkie that is the sole witness to a murder. Dean Winchester performs a spell that allows him to communicate with dogs, but Jordan's Yorkie is far more interested in Sam Winchester and demands that he give him belly rubs in exchange for information. It's dementedly hilarious hearing a dog borderline objectify a grown man, but because it's Leslie Jordan as a dog, you can't help but love every second of it.

When "The Great North" debuted in 2021, one of the best episodes of the freshman season featured a guest role Jordan as town historical figure Thomas Wintersbone, a gay man who entered a Lavender Marriage with a lesbian to avoid persecution, but who had been straight-washed by history as a couple with a love so strong it "could not be contained by two cabins." In reality, the two cabins were so the two could live their gay lives freely without interrupting the other. Jordan's approach to telling the story is equal parts flamboyant hilarity and heartfelt sincerity, and he was truly the only person who could have pulled it off.

He Was Loved For Being Himself

After Jordan skyrocketed to fame during the early months of the pandemic by posting delightfully relatable videos on Instagram and TikTok, Jordan became a bonafide celebrity personality. He served as a guest judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race," returned to direct "Moulin Ru: The Rusical," and even became the subject of the "Snatch Game" challenge when Trinity the Tuck delivered a winning impersonation of him. As a longtime LGBTQIA+ activist, Jordan is completely in his element on RuPaul's stage and provided some of the series' best moments.

Through the series, Jordan developed a friendship with drag performer Trixie Mattel, having a cameo appearance in the music video for her country song "Mama Don't Make Me Put on the Dress Again," and guest judging a lifeguard competition on her show "Trixie Motel." Jordan was able to be himself every step of the way, and stole the show just by delivering off-the-cuff comments like "​​You may know me from 'Will & Grace,' you might know me from Instagram, who knows? You might know me from the alley in West Hollywood."

Jordan was also featured as a guest panelist on seasons six, seven, and eight of "The Masked Singer." Jordan debuted as the character Soft Serve in season 6, performing a rendition of "This Little Light of Mine" and as of publication, remains the oldest guest mask of "The Masked Singer." His commentary on the show was unmatched because no one on the planet can crack a one-liner quite like Leslie Jordan. The world of entertainment has an unfillable void in his absence, and we are all so lucky to have been able to experience his gifts.

Read this next: Actors Who Died In 2021

The post Leslie Jordan was a TV Guest Star You Were Always Happy to See appeared first on /Film.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. No, it's not quite Christmas time yet, but it is time for new Marvel Cinematic Universe releases. Thanks to Disney+, these occurrences are happening more often each year, which is sure to please all the good little True Believers across the multiverse. However, the latest Marvel Studios Special Presentation is still sure to put everyone in the holiday spirit because, with a month to go until its release, Disney+ has unveiled the first trailer for "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special."

Following the events of "Avengers: Endgame" and "Thor: Love and Thunder," Star-Lord finally has time to let Gamora's fate sink in. Though there is another version of Zoe Saldana's character from a different timeline out there in the galaxy right now, the fact that the "original" one from the Sacred Timeline was sacrificed to complete Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet is causing Chris Pratt's Peter Quill to have a blue Christmas. Since the crew of the Benatar is determined to make sure that doesn't happen, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) lead the charge to get their captain the perfect Christmas present ever. And as the headline says, yep, that would be Kevin Bacon.

Of course, the legendary actor from iconic films such as "National Lampoon's Animal House," "Footloose," "Tremors," and "Diner" isn't the only noteworthy guest on the list for the Guardians' holiday celebration. So let's dig a little bit deeper into the holly, jolly preview with a patented /Film trailer breakdown.

Almost Paradise

Before they take off on a full-fledged cinematic adventure in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," the team of Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Nebula are taking a break to celebrate the holidays on Disney+. As a self-proclaimed fan of the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special," fan favorite filmmaker James Gunn has said that this project is the "greatest thing" he's ever done. He even teased that his new favorite MCU character would be a part of the proceedings. Well, it turns out, as confirmed by Gunn himself on Twitter, that character is actually Kevin Bacon.

While this may seem like a random inclusion, the actor actually does have a history with the Guardians of the Galaxy. In their first film from 2014, Star-Lord tells Gamora of an Earth legend called "Footloose" where "a great hero named Kevin Bacon teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that dancing is the greatest thing there is." This great hero gets name-dropped once again in "Avengers: Infinity War" when the Guardians cross paths with Thor. The Asgardian Avenger tells them of Thanos' latest whereabouts and Earth's Mightiest Heroes' attempts at stopping him. But when Mantis asks if Bacon is one of the heroes Odinson mentioned, he says, "He may be on the team. I don't know, I haven't been there in a while."

To get this cameo to happen, Gunn likely called in a favor from Bacon after they worked together on "Super," the 2010 dark comedy starring Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page. But Bacon has gone on record saying that he was pleasantly surprised to hear his name uttered by the heroes of the MCU, so he was probably more than happy to join them on an adventure.

Such A Good Puppy

In addition to Kevin Bacon, the Guardians will be joined by their friends Kraglin (who took over as the leader of the Ravagers after Yondu's death) and Cosmo the Spacedog. We first learned about their involvement back in April when a set of ornaments that were given as wrap gifts from the upcoming special surfaced online. They were adorned with festive depictions of each member of the team (including a more jacked Young Adult Groot), as well as Sean Gunn's character and the canine cosmonaut that we haven't seen since they were a part of The Collector's collection in the first "Guardians of the Galaxy." 

Well, technically, the pup can be seen in the credits of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and in the queue for "Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout" at Avengers Campus in Disney's California Adventure, but the Disney Parks hold a different universe designation than the MCU films and TV shows.

Regardless, I don't think that anyone will be complaining about an appearance by Cosmo, who is now voiced by "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" breakout star Maria Bakalova. 

Happy Christmas To All And To All A Good Night

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Cosmo becomes the security chief of Knowhere after getting lost in space and gaining psionic abilities due to being mutated by cosmic rays. Since the comic counterparts of the Guardians operated out of Knowhere for a time, Cosmo would constantly join the team on their adventures. Considering Baklava's name recognition, this appearance could be the beginning of an expanded role in the MCU for the character.

Now, the stockings have been hung on the chimney with care, and we've adequately speculated about what we've seen in the first trailer for the next Marvel Studios Special Presentation. Go and enjoy the visions of sugar plums dancing in your heads until you can unwrap "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" on Disney+ on November 25, 2022.

Read this next: The Most Powerful X-Men Characters Ranked

The post Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Trailer Breakdown: Yep, That's Kevin Bacon appeared first on /Film.

Editor’s Note: In this review, Dolores builds on her capsule review, where she can dive more in-depth into what audiences can expect.

DARK GLASSES, aka Occhiali Neri in Italian, is Giallo and Horror Maestro Dario Argento’s return after ten years. Argento hasn’t made a film since 2012’s Dario Argento’s Dracula, which was quite an experience. DARK GLASSES is more of a return to the Giallo style for the Italian writer and director but it has a somewhat different tone than some of his previous works.

The film stars Ilenia Pastorelli (They Call Me Jeeg Robot) as Diana, a sex worker. It introduces Andrea Zhang as Chin, a young boy orphaned by a car accident that also blinds Diana shortly after she witnesses a total solar eclipse in the film’s eerie opening sequence. The film also stars Andrea Gherpelli (L’alligatore) as Matteo, Mario Pirrello (Marilyn’s Eyes) as Chief Inspector Aleardi, Maria Rosaria Russo (We Can Do That) as Ispettrice Bajani, Gennaro Iaccarino (“Sense8”) as Ispettore Baldacci and Asia Argento as Rita.

The film is written by Dario Argento and Franco Ferrini who have co-written a number of screenplays together for Argento’s films and related projects back to Argento’s Phenomena in 1985. While certain aspects of Argento’s style are still in place, the film seems to take a somewhat different tack in certain aspects. Giallo fans will be happy with the bloody kills that are in the film, but there aren’t as many and they aren’t as intricate as some of the ones in past Argento films. There also seems to be more of a focus on characters and character development than I have seen in previous Argento efforts.

Cinematographer Matteo Cocco (Hidden Away) does a fine job of lensing the film. It has a very glossy sheen even during the night shots. Arnaud Rebotini (The Blair Witch, “Entourage”) has composed a propulsive electronic score that is catchy.

DARK GLASSES is Dario Argento feeling out some different areas of his chosen genre. The problem with the film is the same areas where Argento’s films have always had weaknesses. Plot and acting. This time, where other Argento films have been strange and wild, the plot of DARK GLASSES is pedestrian. It’s basically Jack The Ripper, except that Jack is driven by cocaine and horror movies to kill. It seems odd that after making a film like Tenebrae, where Argento used a real-life incident where a fan made threats and blamed Argento’s work for violence that he would use this as part of the story. Aside from that, it’s just not that interesting.

The lead actors in the film are mostly not up to their respective roles. Ilenia Pastorelli is okay and is best when she has to portray anger or sexuality. It is when she is called upon to show vulnerability that her performance falters. The film’s lead requires a strong sympathetic presence and she doesn’t give that to the role or the film.

Then I must address the issue of Asia Argento. She is not a talented or dedicated actor. Her career as an actor is due entirely to nepotism. Were she not the daughter of Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi, she would not be working as an actress. She also has a credible accusation of statutory rape against her. It is shocking that she would be allowed to work on set with a small child since a young actor was the victim that she chose.

As the character of Rita, she doesn’t bother to exert any effort to act unless she is in a one-shot or two-shot and even then her work is not convincing. When she tries to seem warm and comforting, all you can see is cold hard cynicism in her eyes. If giving her this role is an effort to rehabilitate her reputation, the effort is reprehensible. The actor who plays the doctor who tells Pastorelli the reason why she is blind would have been a better choice in this role. The quality of Argento’s films has fallen the longer he has employed her. Maybe it’s time to do some actual casting and get someone who is up to the job.

The body count in this film is relatively low. Of the victims, the cops who get iced turn out best in the death sweepstakes, but neither one of the showcase deaths is impressive or well-acted. While you see gouts of blood in the first one, there’s no emotional frisson and the scene itself has no real tension or menace. The second one looks like it was phoned in from the cast member’s dressing room.

Reportedly, it was Asia Argento who found this script languishing in a drawer. That’s probably where it should have stayed. DARK GLASSES is a discouraging and cynical genre exercise from Dario Argento. It has been announced that Argento will be making a new film with Isabelle Huppert. Here’s hoping that he doesn’t repeat the mistakes of DARK GLASSES. It tries and fails to be more in line with modern horror cinema by not committing to empathy and realism. When the scariest part of a Dario Argento film is the mostly unrelated opening scene where the lead character stares directly into a solar eclipse, something is not right.

You can now watch DARK GLASSES on Shudder.

The post [Movie Review] DARK GLASSES appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

Vinland Saga Season 2 receives a release date via its brand new trailer, and here’s everything you need to know about it.

Vinland Saga Season 1 aired in 2019, and fans have been waiting for its second season since then. The Anime takes place in a Viking culture, making it interesting, especially for fans who love watching historical anime. The well-developed characters and the intense fight scenes make it even more worth watching. Moreover, the anime’s worth was seen in the 6th Anime Trending Awards, where it won the Anime of the Year award.

The second season of the anime is directed by Shuhei Yabuta and written by Hiroshi Seko. Apart from them, the new season of the anime will see the return of several other staff members who were involved in the first season. However, this season, Mappa will be the animator instead of WIT studio (History is repeating itself).

TV anime series “VINLAND SAGA SEASON 2”

Coming soon on Netflix, Crunchyroll and more…
The trailer using the opening song "River" by Anonymouz is now available on MAPPA official YouTube channel!

Trailer? https://t.co/rtwfHu0AHs#VINLAND_SAGA #MAPPA pic.twitter.com/aQCJo1SlJk

— MAPPA (@MAPPA_Info) October 24, 2022

• MORE: Chainsaw Man Episode 3 Ending Explained: Is Power Dead?

When does Vinland Saga Season 2 Release?

As revealed in the latest trailer, Vinland Saga Season 2 will release on January 9, 2023. Moreover, it’s also revealed that the series will get released on Crunchyroll and Netflix for fans based outside Japan. The first season was always underrated because it was released on Prime Video, which, obviously, isn’t a place where anime fans look for new anime shows. So, it’s understandable why MAPPA is opting for the change in streaming platforms.

The official website has also revealed the Japanese release timings for the upcoming season:

• Tokyo MX: 12:30 AM ~ 1:00 AM
• BS11: 12:30 AM ~ 1:00 AM
• AT-X: 8:00 PM ~ 8:30 PM
• ????: 12:30 AM ~ 1:00 AM

Vinland Saga Season 2 trailer also comes with the opening theme song ‘River.’ You can have a look at the trailer below:

It’s been one year after the events of Season 1, and the trailer for the second season shows the main protagonist Thorfinn still working as a slave in Denmark. Thorfinn failed in avenging his father’s death from Askeladd, so he lost all hope. There comes a new entry, Einar, who helps Thorfinn find a purpose in life. Moreover, the trailer also shows King Canute the Great, a familiar face from the previous season.

• MORE: Aliens Area manga faces Early Cancellation by Shonen Jump

The post Vinland Saga Season 2: Release date and Where to Watch appeared first on ForeverGeek.

Namely, Endure, and Inescapable Frenzy

You know how the saying goes: you fix one thing, you break two more. From Software games are pretty huge, and as a result, tweaks in one patch may have rippling effects on some small part of their games. Elden Ring is one of the biggest projects they've undertaken, so another minor Elden Ring patch is a given.

Released this morning, the 1.07.1 patch chiefly deals with Endure (an Ash of War), and nerfs it, following a "greater impact on game balance than expected." Reading between the lines, the team overbuffed Endure, and allowed it to become one of the most formidable abilities in the game, tanking damage without a sweat (you can see how this played out in the video below). It also addresses Inescapable Frenzy (and an FP consumption bug).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuURHjyMy4E

As a bit of housekeeping, a few things that were brought up in the prior patch notes (1.07 - the incantation Flame of the Fell God and Gurranq's Beast Claw) aren't actually meant to be charged), so the notes themselves were edited to correctly portray the item's limitations. The incantation Black Blade will also be getting a follow-up attack when used with a left-handed loadout "in the future."

The patch is live today on all platforms.

The post Today’s Elden Ring patch fixes a few lingering problems appeared first on Destructoid.

Just when we thought we had finally escaped the continued animation bloodbath across streaming platforms, Netflix quietly grabbed the baton from HBO Max and decided to run a victory lap. Living animated comedy legend Mike Judge is in the midst of a career resurgence, with the return of "Beavis and Butt-Head" and the upcoming Peacock series "Best Buds." Judge has also been in the middle of negotiating a return for his hit series "King of the Hill," and is in the middle of production on a Netflix series "Bad Crimes."

The latter stars comedic delights Lauren Lapkus and Nicole Byer as two FBI agents who travel across the country solving grisly crimes while simultaneously juggling their friendship, career ambitions, and as many men as they can get their hands on. Unfortunately, as was reported by The Wrap Monday, Netflix unceremoniously gave "Bad Crimes" the axe despite the series already being in production. Judge and frequent collaborator Greg Daniels ("The Office," "Parks and Recreation") were acting as executive producers along with Dustin Davis under their Bandera Entertainment banner. Erica Hayes of "Big Mouth" was also executive producing alongside Byer and Lapkus. The series was being helmed by Nicole Silverberg of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" fame, another show brought to an end too soon.

Another Victim Of Changing Leadership

According to a source secured by The Wrap, the cancellation of "Bad Crimes" was a result of the streamer's change in leadership and slate of original programming. Former Netflix Head of Adult Animation, Mike Moon, called "Bad Crimes" a "dream project," but Moon exited the company last July to start an adult-focused extension of Illumination Entertainment at Universal called "Moonlight." Netflix's adult animation fare has been up-in-the-air ever since his departure. Moon's history at companies like Disney Television Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, and Cartoon Network, allowed Netflix to land massive deals with folks like Alex Hirsch ("Gravity Falls"), Pen Ward ("Adventure Time"), and Shion Takeuchi ("Inside Job"), and it's clear Netflix hasn't figured out how to fill the void just yet. It's a shame because "Bad Crimes" sounded like a no-brainer for the streamer, especially with Nicole Byer as a leading voice, as she hosts their wildly popular "Nailed It!" and just starred in her own comedy special for the platform.

The Wrap reports that Silverberg and the rest of the creative team still have the option to shop the series elsewhere, but due to the show's graphic violence and sexual situations, it's not exactly an easy sell. HBO Max has been purging their animation roster like a heartbroken teenager throwing out mementos after a breakup, and Hulu already has a pretty stacked collection of adult animation. Netflix is reportedly still very committed to creating more original programming in the adult animation space, but "Bad Crimes," like the multitude of other scrapped animated originals, won't be one of them.

Read this next: The Best Adult Animation Of 2021

The post Netflix Axes Mike Judge Adult Animated Comedy Series Bad Crimes Mid-Production appeared first on /Film.

AMD is not going to utilize the Gen5 16-pin "12VHPWR" connectors for its Radeon RX 7000 "RDNA 3" GPUs, as reports Kyle Bennett.

AMD Goes The Safer Route, Drops Gen5 16-Pin Connector Plans For Their Radeon RX 7000 "RDNA 3" GPUs

Update: AMD has officially confirmed that they won't be using 16-pin connectors on their upcoming RDNA 3 "Radeon RX 7000" GPUs.

The Radeon RX 6000 series and upcoming RDNA 3 GPUs will not use this power connector.

— Scott Herkelman (@sherkelman) October 25, 2022

HardOCP's chief and ex-Intel employee, Kyle Bennett, reports that he has confirmed through multiple sources that AMD won't be using the Gen5 16-pin "12VHPWR" connector on its Radeon RX 7000 "RDNA 3" GPU lineup which is expected to make debut next week. The following was tweeted by Kyle:

After the @NVIDIAGeForce melting drama, I have verified through multiple sources that @Radeon Navi 31 ref cards will NOT use the 12VHPWR power adapter, and I could not verify any AIBs using 12VHPWR on N31 either. Picture in case you don't know what a smoked 12VHPWR looks like.

After the @NVIDIAGeForce melting drama, I have verified through multiple sources that @Radeon Navi 31 ref cards will NOT use the 12VHPWR power adapter, and I could not verify any AIBs using 12VHPWR on N31 either. Picture in case you don't know what a smoked 12VHPWR looks like. pic.twitter.com/hLWhjqSm4v

— Kyle Bennett (@KyleBennett) October 25, 2022

Just a few hours ago, two cases of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards burning up have been reported and the root cause of it so far has been blamed to be the 16-pin connector. The issue may be related to several factors with most saying it's the bends that cause the cables to overheat these connector plugs. It was already reported that AMD would go the more conventional route & utilize standard 8-pin plugs and this is further confirmation of that. Furthermore, we also verified with a few AIBs that AMD is indeed not going to feature 16-pin connectors on their cards.

A recent PCB leak also showed that AIBs were using up to three 8-pin connectors for Radeon RX 7000 custom designs. That further cements the use of standard 8-pin connectors over 16-pin plugs on the RDNA 3 lineup.

AMD has already said that their power figures will be much lower than the competition with the RDNA 3 "Radeon RX 7000" GPU lineup. However, at the same time, the power consumption will remain a bit higher than the existing RDNA 2 GPUs as mentioned below.

reference's TBP is amazing.

— Greymon55 (@greymon55) October 19, 2022

“It's really the fundamentals of physics that are driving this,” Naffziger explained. "The demand for gaming and compute performance is, if anything, just accelerating, and at the same time, the underlying process technology is slowing down pretty dramatically — and the improvement rate. So the power levels are just going to keep going up. Now, we've got a multi-year roadmap of very significant efficiency improvements to offset that curve, but the trend is there.”

"Performance is king," stated Naffziger, "but even if our designs are more power-efficient, that doesn't mean you don't push power levels up if the competition is doing the same thing. It's just that they'll have to push them a lot higher than we will."

Sam Naggziger (AMD's SVP & Product Technology Architect) via Tomshardware

AMD confirmed that its RDNA 3 GPUs will be coming later this year with a huge performance uplift. The company's Senior Vice President of Engineering, Radeon Technologies Group, David Wang, said that the next-gen GPUs for Radeon RX 7000 series will offer over 50% performance per watt uplift vs the existing RDNA 2 GPUs. Some of the key features of the RDNA 3 GPUs highlighted by AMD will include:

• 5nm Process Node
• Advanced Chiplet Packaging
• Rearchitected Compute Unit
• Optimized Graphics Pipeline
• Next-Gen AMD Infinity Cache
• Enhanced Ray Tracing Capabilities
• Refined Adaptive Power Management
• >50% Perf/Watt vs RDNA 2

AMD will be unveiling its RDNA 3 GPU architecture and the Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards on the 3rd of November. They have a full Livestream planned which you can read more details about here.

The post AMD Won’t Use Gen5 16-Pin “12VHPWR” Power Connectors On Radeon RX 7000 “RDNA 3” GPUs by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Introduction In many ways, the software supply chain is similar to that of manufactured goods, which we all know has been largely impacted by a global pandemic and shortages of raw materials.  However, in the IT world, it is not shortages or pandemics that have been the main obstacles to overcome in recent years, but rather attacks aimed at using them to harm hundreds or even thousands of

Believe it or not, Bayonetta 3 is almost here. First announced all the way back in 2017, Platinum Games and Nintendo things coy for years, perhaps too coy, as many began to fear Bayonetta 3 wasn’t coming together or may end up as vaporware. Thankfully, as I reported in my recent hands-on impressions, Bayonetta 3 is real and far from a disaster.

Still, those impressions were based on a relatively narrow slice of the game. Does Bayonetta 3 still serve up the scintillatingly silky action the series has always been known for? Or has a hex been cast on Platinum’s previously-impeccable series? Now that I’ve had an opportunity to play through the full game, it's time to tell you whether Platinum has brewed up a winning potion.

As the game’s trailers hinted, Bayonetta 3 is the series’ full-on dive into multiverse madness. All realities are being threatened by an unstoppably powerful force known as Singularity that's preying on every Bayonetta as part of its goal to destroy everything other than its own “Alphaverse.” The Bayonetta you spend most of your time playing as learns all this from Viola, a witch-in-training with mysterious links to the Bayonetta of her universe.

Obviously, the destruction of time and space isn’t something Bayo’s not going to put up with, so she sets off to collect the MacGuffins that will stop Singularity. This involves traveling to a series of locations (New York, Tokyo, China, Egypt, and beyond) and realities, and naturally, you ally with the Bayonetta from each of these locations for some tag-team witch action. While Bayonetta is busy with that, Viola tries to solve the mystery of a lupine-like beast hunting our heroes, and Jeanne engages in a series of stealth missions to save Dr. Sigurd, a scientist key to the overall mission (don’t worry, this all comes together in the end).

Metaverse stories can easily devolve into a bunch of self-congratulatory nonsense, but Platinum actually manages to tell a pretty coherent story here. This is also a more serious story than we’ve got in the past, with some heavy stakes and surprisingly sincere scenes. That said, there’s also plenty of kickass fist-pumping moments for longtime fans, with the game’s climax being about as epic as you could hope for.

It’s a shame such a mostly joyous celebration of the Bayonetta franchise couldn’t go ahead with original Bayo voice actor Hellena Taylor. Sadly, a vicious game of tit-for-tat has been playing out between Taylor and Platinum over the past week or so, but as more information has come out, a boycott of Bayonetta 3 seems uncalled for. Of course, you’re welcome to your own feelings about the situation, but it’s largely immaterial to the quality of the game itself, so I won’t dwell on it too much. It should also be said new voice actor Jennifer Hale is a more-than-capable replacement whose experience lends itself well to Bayonetta 3’s more dramatic storyline.

Like its predecessors, Bayonetta 3 is a stylish action game that carries forward most of the core mechanics fans know and love. Players can unleash combos by inputting the proper button sequences and enter slow-motion “Witch Time” by dodging attacks at just the right moment. Stun an enemy, and you can inflict extra damage with a grisly Torture Attack.

Wicked Weave attacks, “Beast Within” animal transformations, and the weapon system of past games have now been combined into the new streamlined “Demon Masquerade” system. Weapons still come with their own unique movesets, but now each is tied to a specific demon and allow Bayo to transform into a new form. You can unload with the “Color My World” pistols, which allow you to take flight ala Madama Butterfly, the “G-Pillar” cannon/club combo that lets you transform into a Gomorrah-inspired scaly beast, or the “Ribbit Libido” weaponized mic stand that turns you into a scaly sea monster, just to name a few. Combos still culminate in powerful attacks, but unlike the Wicked Weaves of the past, you now unleash destruction by morphing into whatever Demon Masquerade form is tied to your weapon. You’ll also frequently transform outside of battle to traverse and explore the world.

The biggest change Bayonetta 3 brings to the table is the Demon Slave system, which allows you to summon various giant demons to fight by your side. Go big or go home as you launch attacks with the towering Madama Butterfly, Gomorrah, Phantasmaraneae, Baal, and Malphas, amongst others. What elevates the Demon Slave system above a mere gimmick is the seamlessness with which you can summon your badass backup – push the ZR button to unleash your demons and release the button to instantly call them back. While you can stand back and let your Demon Slave do the heavy lifting until your magic bar runs out, you can also call them in for just a second to land a single blow to cap off or extend a combo. It’s when you start fluidly switching between your regular and Demon Slave attacks that the system really clicks and those Platinums start rolling in.

The combination of the Demon Masquerade and Demon Slave systems give you new leeway to choose your own playstyle by mixing-and-matching weapons and sidekicks. Personally, I’m a big fan of the combination of the Ignis Araneae Yo-Yo, which has great range and combo potential, and Madama Butterfly, who isn’t as strong as some other demons but is capable of popping in for quick hits. That said, I’ll also bust out the Dead End Express – a literal pair of trains you wield to grind your enemies into paste – when I want to deal big damage against a boss.

Bayonetta 3 also introduces a second major playable character, Viola, whose playstyle differs from Bayo’s in a few key ways. Viola enters Witch Time by blocking and parrying rather than dodging, and she can still move and attack independently while her Demon Slave (a big freaky cat named Cheshire) has been summoned. Initially, playing as Viola feels a bit off, as her parries just aren’t as elegant as Bayonetta’s dodges. That said, once you understand that Platinum is trying to force you to play aggressively with Viola rather than sticking to Bayonetta’s usual game of keepaway, everything starts to fall into place. I wouldn’t say Viola is ever quite as fun as Bayonetta, but her chapters don’t derail the game either.

Of course, Bayonetta 3 isn’t entirely about combat. Platinum’s penchant for spectacle is intact, as they serve up plenty of big set pieces and truly-colossal kaiju-style battles in which players usually take control of one of Bayo’s demons. I don’t want to spoil too many surprises, but this is easily the most varied Bayonetta to date, with Platinum cooking up some truly wild, genre-bending stuff. That said, throwing everything at the wall does occasionally have its downsides. While no part of Bayonetta 3 is bad, some of the game’s exploratory bits and the Jeanne stealth side missions sometimes derail the game’s usual freight-train-like momentum a bit.

Some of Bayonetta 3’s big action set-pieces and exploratory sections are also where the comes the closes to pushing the Switch to its breaking point. For the most part, this is a great-looking Switch game, but between regular combat sections and boss fights, there are moments when performance suffers. The good news is those regular combat sections maintain a mostly-smooth 60fps. Overall, Platinum should be applauded for the grandiose vision they’ve realized using the Switch hardware.

And grandiose it is. Bayonetta 3 offers up a solid 12-hour campaign with multiple difficulty settings and those elusive Platinums providing tons of replayability. Add collectibles, cosmetics, unlockable “Phenomenal Remnants” bonus missions, and post-game stuff I won’t detail, and you have a game that will keep you locked in action ecstasy for a good long time.

This review was based on a copy of Bayonetta 3 provided by publisher Nintendo.

The post Bayonetta 3 Review – Umbra-lievable Climax by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.

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Garry’s Mod rival, Half-Life 2 mod, and building tool JBMod might not be familiar to a lot of people, but at one time, around about 2004, it was slated to become the definitive indie game for tinkering with Valve’s Source Engine. In an alternate timeline, where reality split in a different direction, all those G-Man memes and Black Mesa Machinimas we’ve enjoyed in the past two decades were built using JBMod. In our world, though, Garry’s Mod won out, and JBMod is only just making its way to Steam now, 18 years later.

Eli 21.2 convinced me to sign up for a clothing service that sends you clothes so he could review my purchases. This was in an attempt to "up" my dating wardrobe, which consists entirely of "nice" jeans and a few shirts with buttons. 

Spoilers for "The Patient" follow

On October 25, 2022, "The Patient" concluded its 10-episode run. The mini-series tells the story of Dr. Alan Strauss (Steve Carrel), a therapist held captive by one of his patients, Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson). It turns out Sam didn't disclose a pretty big detail during their sessions — he's a serial killer. As my /Film colleagues have said, serial killer stories have been done to death. To stand apart, "The Patient" adds a new wrinkle: Sam wants to stop killing. He's abducted Strauss not to murder him, but to be his in-house therapist. Early on, Alan tells Sam that anyone who's willing to go to therapy can be helped. The story is designed to test his thesis.

Due to the confined setting, the series relies on flashbacks to flesh out Alan. We learn how his relationship with his son Ezra (Andrew Leeds) fell apart after Ezra converted to Orthodox Judaism. The gulf only widened when Beth (Laura Niemi), Alan's wife/Ezra's mother, passed away. Now, Alan left things cold with a son he may never see again.

"The Patient" is a story worth telling — but I a mini-series was not the best format to tell it. 

The Good Stuff

The greatest strength of "The Patient" is its lead performances. Since 2014's "Foxcatcher," Steve Carell has been trying to become a dramatic actor. He admitted in a 2018 Esquire profile that he only became a comic actor out of "necessity." His turn to drama has had mixed results, but his performance as Alan is a success. Carell's comic instincts involve a lot of screaming, so he goes subdued to disappear into the character. He has the "therapist voice" down: gentle, slow, and inquisitive.

Domnhall Gleeson, ironically, acts well as someone who doesn't know how to act human. His trademark red hair is dyed dark brown and left uncombed, further separating actor from character. He wears a permanent, piercing scowl and says so few words you're never quite sure when Sam is going to snap.

Given the confined setting, the supporting cast is pretty meager. The most recurring face is Sam's horrified but complicit mother Candace (Linda Edmond). She ultimately gets too little focus for my taste but Edmond's performance, when she gets the spotlight, is strong.

In Alan's corner is Charlie (David Alan Grier), his own (deceased) therapist. To cope with the stress, Alan begins having conversations with an imaginary Charlie in his mind palace. Charlie provides both counsel for Alan and comic relief for the audience.

The problem with "The Patient" isn't the content. It's the presentation of it.

The Pacing Disturbs The Suspense

The demise of the mid-budget film has had disastrous consequences for the entertainment industry. Stories that would've once been made into such films are instead stretched thin into mini-series. In the era of streaming, that's the only way they can get made and find an audience.

Pacing problems afflict both prestige series like "Under The Banner of Heaven" and franchise entries like "Obi-Wan Kenobi." These series are bloated, with padded hour-long episodes and stories that run in circles. As we've written about before, these mini-series feel less like TV and more like chopped-up, 6-10 hour long movies. This makes for less rewarding viewing than truly episodic TV or a tightly-paced film.

What initially excited me about "The Patient" was that the episodes (almost) all run under 40 minutes. The shortest is the premiere, "Intake," at 21 minutes, and the longest is the finale, "The Cantor's Husband," at 46. "The Patient" choosing to trim all the fat and cut to the heart seemed like a wise approach. As weeks went by, I found this was creating a different problem. The short breadth of "The Patient" meant it lacked the suspense its premise required. You should be as on edge as Alan is, but the frequent breaks in the story mean that you simply aren't.

The series isn't even totally free of the slow pacing that plagues longer mini-series. Episode 4, "Company," focuses on Alan's attempts to stop Sam from killing his kidnapped victim Elias (Sam Rich). This carries over into episode 5, "Pastitsio," until Sam kills Elias at that episode's end. One episode's worth of material stretched into two.

The Ending

Now comes the ending — Sam resists the urge to kill his abusive father and Alan says it's time for Sam to turn himself in so he can really get better. When Sam refuses, Alan holds a makeshift knife to Candace's throat and tries to force Sam to call 9/11. After a fake-out dream sequence of Alan reunited with his family, we cut to reality, where he's been strangled by Sam. Alan's killer is kind enough to at least anonymously pass along the doctor's last letter to his children.

This would be an effective sucker punch if we'd only invested 2 hours into these characters. After 5 (spread over 2 months) though, it instead comes off as a nihilistic middle finger that denies the audience catharsis. What was the point of watching Alan realize he'd mistreated Ezra if father and son never get a proper resolution?

As for Sam, he remembers Alan telling him it's only a matter of time before he kills again. So, he locks his own leg into the chain which kept Alan bound, handing the key to his mother. The intent is clear; Sam has forged his own chains, Jacob Marley style, and that he accepts them is a sign of growth. In practice, though, it's too slight a punishment to be karmic, especially since Candace, his enabler, is not fit to be his jailkeeper.

I'd be willing to bet "The Patient" plays stronger as a binge than a week-to-week watch. That just furthers my argument, however, that the series would be stronger as a single, tight package, not a series of chapters.

Where The Patient Struggles, The Americans Succeeded

The failure of "The Patient" to take advantage of the television medium is frustrating. Doubly so, because there's proof this creative team can do just that.

As we've covered before, "The Patient" co-creator Joe Weisberg's last series "The Americans," about two USSR sleeper agents living in 1980s' America as a married couple, excelled at mining prestige writing from a pulpy premise. "The Americans" masqueraded as a spy thriller, but it was foremost a family drama. The three directors of "The Patient" (Chris Long, Kevin Bray, and Gwyneth Horder-Payton) are all "Americans" alums as well. Long in particular directed the dazzling finale, "START."

Why does "The Americans" succeed where "The Patient" struggles? It had a sturdier foundation for a long-running story. There was always new missions that the Jennings would have to undertake for their KGB handlers. Even better, the domesticity was even more compelling than the espionage. You may have came to "The Americans" for the Fleetwood Mac-scored car chases, but you stayed to watch the ups and downs of the marriage between Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys), or their daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) realizing her parents aren't what they appear. Lastly, there was always the specter that the Jennings would be discovered by their neighbor/FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich).

"The Patient," on the other hand, had a premise with a shelf-life. While Alan's death wasn't a foregone conclusion, he couldn't stay in Sam's basement forever.

Not everything has to be dragged out as long as possible. Short stories can be the sweetest.

Read this next: The 18 Best Crime Dramas In TV History

The post The Patient Is A Good Miniseries That Would've Been A Great Movie appeared first on /Film.

Horror movies thrive on word-of-mouth, and boy is this working overtime for the "Terrifier" series. Folks who have never even heard of Art the Clown are quickly becoming acquainted with the demented horror slasher. Reports of people fainting and vomiting in theaters during the sequel "Terrifier 2" have spread far and wide, prompting horror fans and traditional theater-goers alike to see what all of the buzz is about.

Even /Film's Chris Evangelista considers the film "a bigger, weirder, bloodier sequel."

"Terrifier 2" was only designed as a one-week theatrical release from Cinedigm and Bloody Disgusting, but going on week 3, the box office is alive and thriving in the world of independent horror. With a budget of only $250,000, the ultra gory ode to the grindhouse era has raked in over $5.2 million, and reportedly shows no signs of stopping.

Horror movies are often the most lucrative genre of them all, especially if it features something that gets audiences talking, for better or worse. In "Terrifier 2," not only do you have some of the most gruesome and unsettling practical gore effects of any horror film in recent memory, but a slasher villain whose very design is instantly memorable.

Art may be celebrating his newfound notoriety within the context of a broader audience, but this character has a surprisingly long history dating back to 2008.

Art Was Conceived In The World Of Damien Leone's First Short Film

Prior to becoming a box office draw, Art made his debut appearance in director Damien Leone's short films, with the first being "The 9th Circle." Leone told Entertainment Weekly that his idea for Art stemmed from a nightmarish idea he had over a decade ago:

"I had this idea of a clown terrorizing a woman on a city bus ... She's all alone, coming home from work or whatever, in the middle of the night, and then this clown gets on, and sits across from her, and starts staring at her and toying with her. It's awkward and uncomfortable, and maybe even funny, but then it gets progressively more intimidating and aggressive."

What separates the short from everything else this character would be further associated with, however, is that once Art injects her with a syringe in the empty train station, he disappears entirely. From there, Leone takes a dive into an atmospheric realm of monsters that hardly captures the same level of simple unease.

Art was merely an idea among many, as Leone largely wanted to use "The 9th Circle" as a means of showing off his makeup effects and seeing what worked (via Dread Central):

"I threw in everything, clowns, witches, demons, monsters, everything up against the wall hoping something would stick."

The subsequent "Terrifier" films have always hinted at Art's supernatural abilities, but have never confirmed what kind of monster he is. It's easy to see why the character stuck out, prompting Leone to give the pantomime slasher another round of terror with his next short.

The Terrifier Short Film Is Where Some Of Art's Trademarks Are Established

Where "The 9th Circle" was a warm up round, 2011's "Terrifier" was an Art showcase all the way through. In the span of 20 minutes, we follow an unlucky woman through a terrifying cat-and-mouse chase with the demonic clown. There's an evolution of Art's makeup here too, adding more detail to his face.

The "Terrifier" short developed Arts psychopathic mannerisms. The fiend has a particularly disgusting habit of rubbing his feces all over bathrooms: The person who usually finds the obscene mess ends up dead, and alas, the poor gas station attendant happens to be on the clown's hit list that night. "The 9th Circle" may have featured Art's signature trash bag and penchant for annoying people, but "Terrifier" is where these elements are given purpose. Art is the star.

The short is a frequently tense fever dream that feels like something you hallucinated while watching television at 3 am. Its extremely gory violence was only an indicator of what would follow (with "Terrifier 2" being the most brutal yet), notably with its gratuitous and shocking final image.

Leone had one more step in between, however, before Art would become a horror hit.

All Hallows Eve Was Born Out Of Viral Success

In a 2018 interview with Dread Central, Leone talked about how the "Terrifier" short was rejected by film festivals of all kinds, even horror, so he ultimately posted it to Youtube, where it racked up over 120,000 views. Those kinds of numbers attracted the attention of Jesse Baget, the producer of what would become the 2013 anthology horror flick "All Hallows Eve."

"The producer was looking for Halloween based shorts on YouTube and he was just going to make an anthology based on them ... I wanted to go from the "Terrifier" short film to the "Terrifier" feature, but this was the opportunity that was presented to me at the time. It was very exciting, hearing: 'hey, this is going to be in stores, it's going to be on DVD!' At that time it was the most amazing news I had ever heard."

"All Hallows Eve" repackages "The 9th Circle" and "Terrifier," along with a tedious and silly middle segment about a woman being stalked by an alien presence in her own home. The wraparound story sees a babysitter watching an unmarked VHS with the children she's watching. Art intermittently shows up between the segments, making it clear that he exists beyond the world of the tape, and that something bad is going to happen once it's finished.

Boy, is she in for a particularly nasty surprise.

With all the new bits for Art, "All Hallows Eve" plays out like a pitch for this villain to get his own feature film. At this point, it was increasingly clear that Art was ready for the next step, whatever that would look like.

Leone's Terrifier Was Saved At The Last Minute

If you have an excellent idea for a movie but not the funds to make it happen, a short film is a great way to get eyeballs on it. Look no further than this year's "Smile," which initially started out as a 2020 short entitled "Laura Hasn't Slept," and is now one of the year's biggest hits.

Leone really saw something special in Art, and kept pushing to get him a bigger spotlight, even if it would take a while for the fruits of his labor to come to fruition. When it came time for Leone to make the feature film he initially wanted to make, he ultimately settled on an Indiegogo campaign to get it funded.

While talking with Dread Central, Leone pays considerable tribute to producer Phil Falcone, whose generous donation pushed "Terrifier" over the hump needed to make the film happen:

"I was just going through my emails and sending the Indiegogo link to everybody and asking them to spread the word. He emailed me back and he's like 'what are you trying to raise?' And I told him a very little amount of money and he's like 'hey, I'll just put it up! Make it and make me a producer.' He's responsible for it, he came in and saved the day because we didn't make the Indiegogo campaign happen so if he didn't come in we would have never made the movie."

Terrifier Thrives On Its Show-Stopping Practical Effects

After three years since his last appearance, Art was finally the star of his own feature film with "Terrifier." "Terrifier" builds upon the foundation of the 2011 short, while injecting some other little flourishes to keep things interesting — namely the ferocious nature of the hacksaw scene. You can say many things about it, but the one thing you cannot say is that it holds back. It's a relentless and sleazy gore spectacle that gets off on how much it can make the audience squirm, for better or worse.

Most of its performances leave a lot to be desired, unfortunately. They are not characters, so much as meat sacks that Art can flay to his heart's content. "Terrifier 2" smartly rectifies this with the addition of Lauren LaVera's Sienna, whose enigmatic connection to the killer clown makes her a welcome opponent. In the sequel, the time is taken to establish a more rounded ensemble in the midst of Art doing his thing.

If slasher villains were holding auditions to see whose kill would land them a spot among the most sinister, then Art practically gets the golden buzzer, with an extremely gruesome sequence that features him hacksawing a naked woman upside down from groin to brain. It's a brutally slow death that cements Art as a formidable slasher who revels in his work, in addition to showing how Leone's practical effects can make you physically uncomfortable.

Love it or hate it, you'll never forget the face of the clown that did it.

David Howard Thornton Wasn't The First Person To Play Art

It's difficult to think of anyone but David Howard Thornton under the clown makeup, but prior to the "Terrifier" feature, all of Art's previous incarnations were played by Mike Giannelli. It's through his performance that the character's deviously jaunty disposition was born, before Thornton took it a step further.

Thornton's Art is what you get when you blend the body language of Charlie Chaplin and the mischievous nature of Bugs Bunny, with both excited to see you mangled beyond belief. In a 2018 interview with Rue Morgue, the actor revealed he prepared for the role by studying Giannelli's performance to match the actor's energy, while bringing his own mischievous essence to the sadistic character:

"I then basically blended my previous experience with physical comedy and clowning with my deep knowledge and appreciation of great physical actors ... and horror legends like Robert Englund and added them to what Mike had already accomplished to create this murderous frappe of fiendishness that is Art. In my head, Art is like the love child of Harpo Marx and Freddy Krueger. I love playing him!"

Watching Thornton in the white makeup, it's obvious he's an actor having the time of his life doing some of the most depraved things imaginable to the human body.

Leone Wanted Art To Avoid Comparisons To Pennywise

At first glance, Art may appear to be just another "killer clown" the likes of Pennywise from "It" — but Leone specifically created the character as the antithesis to Maine's favorite sewer dweller. The "All Hallows Eve" filmmaker has a deep admiration for the exploitation sensibilities of '70s grindhouse movies, and wanted Art to reflect that. 

The killer clown in "Terrifier" may have hints of the supernatural, but his characterization is more human-like than the ancient monster in "It": Art resembles an authentic serial killer with a penchant for unflinching brutality. As Leone told Dread Central in 2018, Art was constructed out of a necessity to show audiences a killer clown unlike anything they had seen before:

"I felt like there was a void with clowns that I hadn't quite seen done the way I felt like I could execute one. Art the Clown kind of came out of all that and whatever I felt was missing with clowns. At that time the original Pennywise was really the only clown on the scene and he wasn't even really a Slasher."

Like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kreuger, and Leatherface before him, Art the Clown is well on his way to becoming one of the most memorable screen slashers. The moment Thornton displays his menacing grimace, you know you're in the presence of a gleefully sadistic monster who's already planning three steps ahead on how he's going to mangle you.

Everyone's "Terrifier" mileage will vary on what you can handle, but one thing's for sure: Art's history on the screen isn't going away anytime soon, with a "Terrifier 3" sequel all but guaranteed.

"Terrifier 2" is now playing in select theaters nationwide.

Read this next: Horror Roles That Changed Actors Forever

The post How Terrifier's Art The Clown Was Created appeared first on /Film.

One of the biggest changes in the media landscape to occur in quite some time happened earlier this year when WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, forming Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Importantly, this merger took place just a few years after AT&T spent billions to acquire Warner, but quickly decided they hated being in the media business. But WBD chief executive officer David Zaslav has been on a cost-cutting mission ever since the deal went through, and it looks like the bloodbath is far from over.

The company recently made a filing with the SEC that shed some light on its third quarter 2022 performance and financials. The big standout is that WBD is looking at impairment and development write-offs for more movies and TV shows in the $2 to $2.5 billion range. Sadly, this is nothing new, as Zaslav's regime already axed the almost-finished "Batgirl" movie, setting off a string of similar cuts that saw titles removed from HBO Max and broad programming changes across its various brands. It's been brutal.

In the filing, WBD outlined that these "strategic content programming assessments" are all part of the plan to get the company's financials in order following the very expensive merger, which cost $43 billion. That kind of spend requires drastic measures to make it all worth it for the shareholders:

"As part of its plan to achieve significant cost synergies, in Q3 2022, the company finalized the framework supporting its ongoing restructuring and transformation initiatives which will include, among other things, strategic content programming assessments, organization restructuring, facility consolidation activities and other contract termination costs."

Breaking Down The Numbers

Moments like this are a stark reminder that the entertainment business is, first and foremost, a business, and people like Zaslav treat it as such. Ideally, that business functions best when great creative decisions are made that can generate lots of value. But, in this case, it's all about chipping away at a massive $57 billion (give or take) debt pile. And not for nothing, WBD lost $3.4 billion in its first quarter following the merger. That simply isn't sustainable. So, it's come to this.

The SEC filing revealed that the company is expecting between $3.2 and $4.3 billion in post-merger restructuring charges. The "strategic content programming assessments," i.e. the axing of movies and TV shows, is just part of the equation -- somewhere between $2 and $2.5 billion worth. The rest? Let's break that down.

It boils down to "organizational restructuring costs," which includes things like severance for laid off employees, retention, relocation, and other such costs. That adds up to between $800 million and $1.1 billion. Lastly, we have "facility consolidation activities" and "contract termination" costs, which will equate to between $400 million to $700 million. Again, ouch. There are always redundancies when big corporations merge -- it's just part of the deal. But again, Warner employees just dealt with this a few years ago with the AT&T merger. For those who made it and are now going through it again, it's tough sledding.

Now, the biggest of big questions is what movies and TV shows (or possibly even entire networks) are on the chopping block. That is where those who don't follow the business are going to feel it, and it is most definitely going to be felt when $2 billion worth of stuff is on the line.

An Uncertain, Likely Messy Future

As it stands, there is no word on what movies or shows are going to be impacted by these cost-saving measures. Ultimately, WBD is looking to take write-downs that will help them with net income on the balance sheet and tax liability. In practice, it means projects that people worked hard on and that viewers were looking forward to are going to be let go. In some cases, like with "Batman: Caped Crusader," these projects will be allowed to find a new home. In others? It's far less rosy.

The really disconcerting thing is that this period of turmoil is far from over. As part of the SEC filming, WBD revealed that they expect these restructuring initiatives to be largely completed by the end of 2024. That means another two years of this.

"While the Company's restructuring efforts are ongoing, including the strategic analysis of content programming which could result in additional impairments above the estimate provided above, the restructuring initiatives are expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2024."

WBD is set to report its third quarter earnings on Thursday, November 4, so we should be getting some more context and details very soon.

Read this next: 13 Box Office Bombs That Are Truly Worth A Watch

The post Warner Bros. Discovery To Axe $2 Billion Worth Of Movies And Shows As Part Of Brutal Cost-Saving Efforts appeared first on /Film.

"Doctor Who" is always taking itself in bold, unexpected directions, but the ending to their latest episode might be their most ambitious one yet. "The Power of the Doctor" was Jodie Whittaker's final episode, but she did not regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa's expected Fourteenth Doctor. Instead she regenerated into ... David Tennant again. That's right, the Tenth Doctor is now also going to be the Fourteeth, at least for a little bit in 2023 before Gatwa takes over for good.  

It's an interesting choice for showrunner Chris Chibnall to leave his era off on, and an exciting one for former showrunner Russell T. Davies (who was in charge throughout Tennant's run) as he returns to run the show yet again. It's going to be a year before this cliffhanger is resolved in the three 60th Anniversary special episodes, which is also expected to include the return of Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). Neil Patrick Harris and Ncuti Gatwa are also expected to play prominent roles, although we don't have many details yet.

Basically: there's a lot for "Doctor Who" to be excited for. But for David Tennant, there's also a lot to be worried about. In a recent interview, he explained that, "I think I was worried before I got there that it might be difficult to get in the groove again." It's been nearly 10 years since he last put on that trench coat, after all.

Returning To An Old Role

Some apprehension seems healthy, because the long-running show has never done something like this before. When Tennant returned for the 50th anniversary special in 2013, his character was brought into the storyline through time travel, not by the current Doctor's regeneration. Tennant played a major role in the episode, but the main focus was still on Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. 

"There's a bit of a precedent in this show that all Doctors maybe turn up for a special now and again, but usually in cohort with the current team," Tennant said. Taking over completely is a whole other situation. 

Despite that, Tennant still seems more than happy about the experience so far, and has found returning to his old role to be "weirdly straightforward." The fact that Tennant also seems to have not aged much at all since 2010 helps a lot; watching his brief scene at the end of the latest episode, it feels like his portrayal hasn't changed a bit.

More than anything, Tennant seems grateful for this new opportunity, as bizarre as it may seem. "What a lovely, lovely thing to get to revisit something that was such a wonderful, happy, significant time in my life," he said. "It's been an absolute joy."

Read this next: 20 Movies About Time Travel Ranked Worst To Best

The post Why David Tennant Was 'Worried' About That Doctor Who Regeneration Twist appeared first on /Film.

Modders ‘Praydog’ and ‘PureDark’ are currently working on a mind-blowing mod for Resident Evil 2 Remake that will add support for NVIDIA DLSS 2, AMD FSR 2.0 and Intel XeSS. This is huge news as Resident Evil 2 Remake never supported any of the aforementioned upscaling techniques. And although there is no ETA on when … Continue reading This Resident Evil 2 Remake Mod will add support for NVIDIA DLSS 2, AMD FSR 2.0 & Intel XeSS →

The post This Resident Evil 2 Remake Mod will add support for NVIDIA DLSS 2, AMD FSR 2.0 & Intel XeSS appeared first on DSOGaming.

sdl12-compat is the library implementation allowing old SDL 1.2 games/software to work atop SDL2. This sdl12-compat can allow for Wayland support if there is no other direct X11 usage by the software itself, native support for PipeWire, improved input controls, and the many other enhancements enjoyed with the much more modern SDL2 library. Released yesterday was sdl12-compat 1.2.60 as the newest stable release for this conversion/support library for vintage software...

Memtest86+ just got its first update after 9 years. The program has reportedly been rewritten from scratch and is back in active development. The new version, 6.0, features a plethora of updates to bring the application up to date, and support the latest system hardware from Intel and AMD. Tom's Hardware reports: For the uninitiated, MemTest86 was originally created back in the mid 1990s, and was one of the earliest DDR memory testing applications for personal computers. But development stopped in 2013 once Memtest86 was split into Memtest86 and Memtest86", with the former being bought by PassMark. Officially, we don't know why development stopped. But compared to the now modern Memtest86, Memtest86+ is the open-source variant. Needless to say, version 6.00 features a lot of updates, which were required to bring it up to modern standards compared to the 2013 version. The new version includes completely rewritten code for UEFI-based motherboards, the modern version of a BIOS, for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the application. Furthermore, the application features added support for x64 long mode paging, support for up to 256 cores, added detection for DDR4 and DDR5 memory -- since DDR3 was the latest memory standard in 2013 -- and adds support for XMP version 3.0. CPU support has been significantly enhanced, addingdetection for all pre-Zen and AMD Zen-based processors ranging from the Ryzen 1000 series to 7000 series, and any older parts that were made after 2013. Intel support has also been added for chips up to 13th gen Raptor Lake. Finally, the last patch notes indicate version 6.0 adds support for older Nvidia and AMD chipsets - probably pre-2010 since it mentions Nvidia nForce chipsets, along with numerous bug fixes, optimizations and enhancements.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The Sopranos" is known for being one of the best drama series of all time, and it is. But in addition to its darker moments, it's also a show with a surprising thread of humor throughout its six seasons. David Chase's series is as much about the human condition and the dissatisfaction with modern life as it is about mob violence, and in Chase's eyes, modern life can be funny as hell sometimes.

That dark comedy shows up as early as the very first episode of the series, in a scene in which young initiate Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) and reliable mobster Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore) try to dispose of a body, and remind us for the first of many times that a life of organized crime isn't quite like the movies. In the scene, the pair attempt to throw the plastic-wrapped corpse into a dumpster to send a message to the Czechs, only the bin in question is massive, and there's no way they can heave the corpse over the side. Instead, they decide to dispose of it elsewhere.

It's a funny scene, one that establishes Christopher's ineptitude as well as his tendency to look at the mob through the starry-eyed glasses of Hollywood movies. "Luis Brasi sleeps with the fishes," he quips when Pussy tells him their message won't work, and his elder points out that reality isn't always as simple as a Coppola film -- and, besides, he's quoting "The Godfather" wrong. 

Their attempt to toss the body is also ridiculous: it dings against the bottom of a dumpster that's twice their size, then slumps over awkwardly while they chat, as if to add its two cents to the conversation.

A Prop Problem Leads To Inspiration

According to Imperioli, this was one of the only scenes in the entire run of "The Sopranos" that included improvisation. In the book "Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos," Imperioli and co-author Steve Schirripa, who played Bobby Baccalieri on the show, discuss the on-set rewrites the two costars did to make the scene work. "David Chase, famously, didn't ever want anyone to change a line," Schirripa says, "But in the pilot, you were in a scene with Vinny where he did an ad-lib that stayed in, right? One of the few?"

Imperioli explains that the improvisation was actually done for practical reasons: that body was just too dang heavy. "We were going to throw the body in a dumpster that was owned by that family to send a message," the actor says of his scene with Pastore. "But the dumpster was pretty high. The prop person — I think to mess with us — made the body, or whatever was in the body bag, really heavy." While oftentimes, it's easy for viewers to tell when props like packages, cups, and yes, body bags are actually empty on screen, this production apparently had the opposite problem.

"We're rehearsing, and we're trying to throw this thing into the dumpster, and then we start doing takes, and we can't get it near the top of the dumpster, because it's so freakin' heavy," Imperioli shares in the book. Real-life mafiosos these weren't, and the scene just wasn't going to work without a change. "Finally, Vinny just improvised and said, 'You know what? Put it in the trunk. We'll take it out to Staten Island.'" Imperioli says. "We opened the trunk, tossed the body in, and drove off, and rewrote the scene on the spot."

A Seamless Spontanous Rewrite

Throughout its run, "The Sopranos" would feature several mishaps involving hits gone wrong: the show makes death, just like life, absurd and darkly funny. But this first fumbling body disposal sets a great tone, showing that the mafiosos in the series are already so used to murder that they treat body disposal like an annoying chore. It also shows that, on occasion, they can be hilariously bone-headed. 

In the final version of the scene, it's not so much a one-liner that the pair seem to have come up with based on Imperioli's description, but a whole dialogue exchange. Pussy explains that the dumpster is a bad idea since the Kolar family and the cops will likely end up catching onto them if they find the body. Instead, he suggests they just make it look like the man in the bag disappeared. "We'll take him to Staten Island and cut 'em up," he decides as they bring the body to the trunk. 

It's not exactly a pivotal moment, but it is a fun one, and Imperioli and Pastore's spontaneous rewrites seamlessly fit into the now-classic pilot script.

Read this next: The 18 Best Crime Dramas In TV History

The post Vincent Pastore Is Responsible For One Of The Sopranos' Only Improvised Scenes appeared first on /Film.

The second half of "Star Trek: Prodigy" season 1 will begin airing on Paramount+ on October 27, and the series has already taken several dramatic turns. The show's central ship, the U.S.S. Protostar, will soon make contact with actual Federation officers for the very first time. This follows a period wherein nothing had been known as to the show's location within the "Star Trek" cartography, or even its time frame. In the return episode, "Asylum," Dal (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), the holographic Capt. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), and the rest of the Protostar crew will board a Federation communications relay manned by a single lonely officer. Meanwhile, the real-life Vice Admiral Janeway (also Mulgrew) will take command of an impressive new ship, the U.S.S. Dauntless, and discover the presumed-defeated Diviner (John Noble), Gwyn's father and the Palpatine-like villain of the series. 

In true Trek fashion, the Dauntless will be depicted as having an interesting, diverse, experienced crew. The Andorian first officer is calm and clear-headed. The Tellarite doctor is impatient and smug. And, sitting at the conn is Ens. Acensia, an intelligent, capable, and professionally nervous Trill played by Jameela Jamil. Early in the season, Acensia appears to be something of a toady, holding Janeways' tea for her (she had to give up coffee on medical orders), and giving the Vice Admiral compliments. Later in the series, she will reveal more interesting facets of her character. 

In a recent interview with Daily Star Trek News, conducted at this year's New York Comic Con, Jamil talked about Acensia, praising the character's capability but also noticing that she is playing yet another irksome character -- in her words, a "pain in the ass" -- in a career of them.

Many Pains In The Ass

Prior to "Star Trek," Jamil rose to the American public's attention for her performance as Tahani Al-Jamil in the CBS sitcom "The Good Place." The series was set in Heaven -- or, as they merely call it, the Good Place -- and the four main characters were cads and jerks who clearly didn't belong. The show's comedy arose from the damned characters trying to pass for "good" in front of the angels and other ascended souls. At least, that was the premise prior to the show's many, many metaphysical twists. Tahani was a British fashion model who was narcissistic enough to believe she belonged in Heaven, even thought she quite clearly did not. 

Recently, Jamil appeared on "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" as Titania, a similarly bratty character. Soon, she will be playing Gisela, a tertiary irritant in the upcoming "Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin." 

Jamil admitted that she likes playing annoying characters, and sees a lot of that kind of obnoxiousness in Ens. Acensia. Jamil said that her character was, to put it bluntly: 

"[a] Pain in the ass. Everything I've ever done, I'm playing a pain in the ass. 'Pitch Perfect' comes out in a month, I'm a pain in the ass. Tahani, THE pain in the ass. Titania, pain in the ass. I enjoy those characters a lot because I think that they're complicated and complex and I like understanding why they are the way that they are. But [Acensia is] precocious, she's extremely confident, very empowered, self-empowered, and she's clever. She's very bright. And she uses that to her advantage throughout the show, so you'll see more about that later."

The Nerd EGOT

Jamil was also eager to point out that she is one acting job away from a pop culture superfecta. With "She-Hulk," she was involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With "Prodigy," she is now part of "Star Trek." She also played Wonder Woman in the recent animated film "League of Superpets," connecting her to DC comics. She feels that if she were to land a performance in one more important entertainment franchise, when she'll have completed the collection. She said: 

"I've hit my nerd EGOT, Right? It's like MCU, DC, 'Star Trek.' If I hit 'Star Wars,' that's it. It's amazing. Science fiction, especially 'Star Trek' -- and I think Marvel and DC are doing a really good job too – they were some of the first places where kids like me could see people like them represented, and there were ideas about class and race hidden in all of these stories being told."

While "Star Wars" tends to run more toward high adventure than sociopolitical commentary -- at least when compared to the more aggressively political "Star Trek" -- there's no reason Jamil couldn't appear in a future "Star Wars" story about class and race. Given her talent and her high profile, Jamil may rest assured that the people at Lucasfilm will eventually come calling. After all, there is hardly a shortage of "Star Wars" in 2022. 

After all, even a galaxy far, far away could use a pain in the ass. 

Read this next: The Main Star Trek Captains Ranked Worst To Best

The post Jameela Jamil's Star Trek: Prodigy Character Continues Her Streak Of Playing A 'Pain In The Ass' appeared first on /Film.

The phenomenal success of "Footloose" launched Kevin Bacon into newfound stardom and recognition when it danced its way into theaters in February of 1984. Bacon had already appeared in "Friday the 13th" and Barry Levinson's coming-of-age classic "Diner," but the role of Ren McCormack essentially made the young heartthrob a household name. The surprisingly dark bike messenger drama "Quicksilver" came next, a movie I personally love that didn't exactly light the box office on fire. Working with John Hughes and Christopher Guest on "She's Having a Baby" and "The Big Picture" produced two quality films that showcased Bacon as an unconventional leading man; however, neither movie broke through to the mainstream. 

The heat generated from "Footloose" was burning out, and Bacon, in a recent EW interview, admitted he wasn't doing well financially when the creature feature "Tremors" came his way. 

"I was broke, I had a kid on the way, and my mom had gotten sick, and I felt like I didn't have a choice. I was like, 'Jesus, this is a movie about underground monsters, how far I've fallen.'"

In retrospect, the cult following "Tremors" has gained thanks to a long shelf life on home video helped kick off a wonderful run of performances in the nineties, starting with "Flatliners" and moving into Bacon's reinvention as a character actor with smaller parts in "JFK" and "A Few Good Men." Filming "Tremors" wound up being a "magical time" for Bacon, who found electric onscreen chemistry with co-star Fred Ward. 

'We're Professional Pretenders'

The staying power of the original "Tremors" is due largely in part to the bromance between Bacon and Ward. The supporting cast, including Michael Gross and Reba McEntire as a gun-toting couple, also helped to flesh out the film with over-the-top characters tasked with battling giant underground serpents called Graboids. But the most enduring quality of "Tremors" has to be the phenomenal creature designs from the legendary FX company Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. (ADI), headed by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. ("Alien," "Prey"). Speaking with EW, Bacon recalled what it was like to work with the talented technicians operating the Graboid puppets:

"The super cool thing about 'Tremors' is that 'Tremors' is all practical effects. It was all guys in puppets or people with things on their hands, and wires being pulled. It was ingenious. Acting with a puppet requires some acting, but we're professional pretenders."

Incredibly, there are now seven "Tremors" movies featuring Michael Gross, who graciously took over the franchise and continues to fight the good fight against the Graboids. Bacon never returned to the role of Valentine McKee, even though it has somehow become one of his most memorable roles over the years. Bacon did confirm back in 2018 that the Syfy channel decided not to move forward with a "Tremors" TV show which would have finally brought Bacon back into the fray. Deadline reported on Bacon's comments at the time where the veteran performer revealed, "This is the only character I've played that I've ever thought about revisiting. I just got to thinking, 'Where would this guy end up after 25 years?'" 

It's genuinely perplexing that a "Tremors" series starring Bacon never saw the light of day, but considering the success of nostalgia-fueled projects like "Top Gun: Maverick," maybe there's still time for Bacon to don that cowboy hat once again.

Read this next: The 95 Best Sci-Fi Movies Ever

The post Kevin Bacon Didn't Have High Hopes For Tremors Until His First Day On Set appeared first on /Film.

While he's well-known as an actor, Paul Dano's talent as a writer can't be understated. I still maintain that "Wildlife" deserved a Best Original Screenplay nomination back in 2019, and I really hope we get to see him make another movie soon. In the meantime, Dano has dipped his toes into the world of comic book media with a major role in Matt Reeves' "The Batman," where he played the classic rogue Riddler. His re-interpretation as a rage-fueled 4Chan incel was definitely a departure from other versions of the character, but at the time, Dano was praised for his scenery-chewing performance.

By all accounts, it makes sense for an actor to create the backstory of a character they play. After all, playing a role as a fully-realized character with a life not seen on the screen can really help them sell a performance. However, in the specific case of Dano and his take on the Riddler as shown in his DC Black Label miniseries "The Riddler: Year One," maybe he shouldn't have dived deeper. While the prose itself is well-written and the art beautifully illustrated by Steven Subic, this series looks to be treading some painfully familiar water, making it debatable whether readers should stick with it.

Just Breathe

It's important to understand that the Riddler, or Edward Nashton in this case, is not the most reliable of narrators. This was a fact established in "The Batman," with his multiple driver's licenses and penchant for talking around important facts. Establishing this train of thought automatically puts his story in "Year One" under scrutiny — is he telling the truth, or is he creating a sob story for himself? That's still unknown, and the eventual end of the miniseries likely won't give us that answer.

In the meantime, let's just take the story of poor Ed being presented to readers at face value. According to him, he's a lonely forensic accountant with no friends and no real prospects in life. He yearns to be recognized by his superiors for his hard work, which is often taken advantage of and mocked by his supervisor, Zach. When he's not busy crunching numbers, he plays various puzzles on a website called Nigma (sound familiar?), where he gathers a small audience of impressed viewers.

Numbers, puzzles, and riddles ground him when he's trapped in a city filled with what he suspects is corruption and empty promises. Perhaps this is because of the safety and predictability they bring. However, when Ed witnesses a crime being stopped by a mysterious bat-like vigilante, his evolution from meek numbers nerd to serial killer begins.

You Repulsive Fool

"Year One" as a whole is a very sad comic, and we haven't even scratched the surface of its plot yet. Dano writes Ed almost entirely in internal monologue, occasionally talking to others, but more often wallowing in his own depressing thoughts. While a bit melodramatic at times, there is a palpable sense of grief in the thoughts Dano gives to Ed – we continue getting hints at a seriously traumatic childhood that was implied in "The Batman," as well as how Thomas Wayne's Renewal Project affected his life. While these are nothing more than sheer mentions of his hurt, they're intriguing enough to make the reader stick around to see it pay off.

However, in order to get to that payoff, readers will have to be subjected to some really uncomfortable and somewhat outdated stereotypes of the lone wolf narrative. It is important for me to acknowledge that this is the first of six issues, and the story arc could likely change. Unfortunately, that doesn't make the hints at Ed being on the autism spectrum any less cringe-inducing to read through. He is shown to have a poor and sometimes obsessive grasp of social interaction on top of his uncanny accounting abilities, even being called Rain Man as a joke by the aforementioned Zach. Even if it is revealed that Ed is not on the spectrum, associating these characteristics with that of a mass murderer is in extremely poor taste and is just overall really lazy storytelling.

An Unnecessary Piece Of World-Building

The biggest crime this series seems to commit thus far is that it just doesn't feel essential. While the hints at the Renewal Project and the deep-seated corruption of Gotham are interesting, the narrative of "Year One" is no different from similar origin stories like "Joker" – an emotionally fragile man is mad and depressed at the state of Society™, and he ends up taking drastic measures to "cure" it. In a weird way, it seems like Ed himself is the least interesting part of the story, something that should not be the case given how the story revolves entirely around him.

The Riddler as seen in "The Batman" worked because he was an enigma. Even when his true identity was revealed, he still carried himself in a way that made you question whether or not he was telling the truth. Of course, this could be maintained as the series progresses, but there is little incentive for the reader to actually keep going to see if this is the case. There is only so much that the minuscule hints of city-wide corruption, Dano's well-written internal monologues, and Subic's gorgeous art can really do to justify why we possibly should follow this bland and borderline tasteless depiction of Ed. "Year One" does the opposite of what it's meant to do, and this is perhaps the most puzzling riddle of all.

"The Riddler: Year One" #1 arrives in stores and digital retailers on October 25.

Read this next: Every DC Movie Made Prior To The DCEU Ranked From Worst To Best

The post The Riddler: Year One #1 Review: Paul Dano's Batman Prequel is Black and Blue and Dead All Over appeared first on /Film.

Tobin Bell will reprise his signature role as John Kramer as Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures prepare to go into production later this month on the next installment of the billion-dollar Saw franchise, with the new film slated for release on October 27, 2023.

Franchise stalwart Kevin Greutert, who directed the highly regarded Saw VI and Saw: The Final Chapter, and edited Saw I through V and Jigsaw, is directing the project.

The return of Bell to the franchise furthers Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures’ goal of a film that captures everything Saw fans love about the franchise, while also keeping them guessing with all-new traps and a new mystery to solve.

Commenting on the announcement, Saw franchise producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules said, “What a thrill to be reuniting with Tobin. His performance as John Kramer is part of the magic that made this franchise a phenomenon and his character is an active part of this film.”

Bell is represented by Bobby Moses at Mavrick Agency, Kate Edwards at Grand View Management, and attorneys Tanya Mallean and Bill Skrzyniarz at Skrzyniarz & Mallean.

About Lionsgate

Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B) encompasses world-class motion picture and television studio operations aligned with the STARZ premium global subscription platform to bring a unique and varied portfolio of entertainment to consumers around the world. The Company’s film, television, subscription and location-based entertainment businesses are backed by a 17,000-title library and a valuable collection of iconic film and television franchises. A digital age company driven by its entrepreneurial culture and commitment to innovation, the Lionsgate brand is synonymous with bold, original, relatable entertainment for audiences worldwide.

About Twisted Pictures

Twisted Pictures, a division of Evolution Entertainment, formed by Mark Burg and Oren Koules is a leading horror and thriller film entertainment studio founded in 2004. Twisted Pictures has produced beloved brands that have garnered over $1 billion in global box office and $2 billion in ancillary market revenues, such as the SAW franchise, for audiences worldwide.

The post [News] Tobin Bell Returns to Saw Film Franchise as John Kramer appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

A developer came to me a week ago with a project they’d been working on for over a year. The proposition of what they offered and the importance of what it would mean to historical software at Internet Archive was so compelling that within 48 hours, we’d announced it to the world.

The site is DISCMASTER.TEXTFILES.COM, and within its stacks lie multitudes of previously hidden software treasure, and a directed search engine that makes it a top-notch research tool.

More than a fascinating site, though, it represents some philosophies regarding the Archive’s stacks that are worth exploring as well.

The first thing that strikes a visitor to the site is either how strange, or how nostalgic it looks. The site is strikingly simple and references the first few years of the world wide web, when backgrounds were grey by default, and the width of the screen was almost always under 640 pixels. Same with the link colors, and use of (to the modern era) small icons next to the words and links. This is a version of the world wide web long gone.

However, underneath this simple exterior beats the heart of a powerful search engine and an astounding amount of processing that has analyzed millions of files to make them easy to interact with. If your area of research or interest is vintage/historical software, we’ve all been handed a top-class tool to discover long-lost files and bring them back instantly.

A Quick Reminder about CD-ROMs

From (very roughly) 1989 through to the early 2000s, CD-ROMs (and later DVD-ROMs) were one of the primary ways to transfer heaps of software or large-sized programs to end users. Instead of spending hours or literal days transferring software you may or may not have wanted after you received it, you could go to stores or on-line and purchase a plastic disc that contained between 600-700 megabytes of information on it.

The potential of this, in fact, was so strong, that there was an entire industry of providing databases, news summaries, and even all-digital magazines using this format. Booklets of CD-ROMs became resplendent, and libraries could allow patrons to check out these discs to do research with them.

Besides these more institutional compilations, an industry rose up of companies compiling software, artwork, music and more and selling them to end users. Companies with names like Walnut Creek, Wayzata, Valusoft, and Imagemagic would have catalogs of CD-ROMs to buy. Starting out with software from bulletin board systems and gathered from FTP sites, these CD-ROMs quickly ran out of easy-to-find material to fill, and an era of “shovelware” began, allowing these products to claim “thousands of files, gigabytes of materials” while pulling from more and more out-of-date sources.

As websites, torrents and other means of transport brought the era of physical media for software to a close, the world was left with a finite, contained pile of titles that had come out on CDs. And, as luck would have it, people have been uploading those out of date files to the Internet Archive for years.

The Final Piece

Therefore, sitting on the Archive, are tens of thousands of these CD-ROMs of the past. And for a very long time, it’s been possible to download a Disc image, analyze its contents, search for useful or potentially interesting items, and then find a way to make them work again.

That last piece, in fact, is the hardest – not just knowing where the files you’re looking for are located, but to be able to browse them without a massive host of helper applications scattered to the four winds. There are dozens of archive types, dozens and maybe hundreds of multimedia formats, and, even more frustrating, archives within archives – making everything that much harder to find.

DiscMaster has fixed this.

Within the search engine is the ability to find millions of files, categorized by type or size or date or extension, and then be presented them instantly. Three decades of computer software with layers upon layers of obfuscation are brought immediately to the top.

The developer wrote applications to grind through the contents of a CD-ROM and present them with previews that wouldn’t require anything but a browser to see. This can take hours to pull out of a single CD-ROM, but the results are breathtaking.

Audio and music files play in the browser. Flash, IFF, Bitmaps, Fonts and more display in preview. Macintosh, PC, Commodore, Atari and more are presented simply, without a mandate to track down the proper utility to figure out what they are.

In other words, vintage and historical software is back from the obfuscated darkness.

In the short time that Discmaster has been online, success stories are appearing. Authors are finding shareware programs they lost track of decades ago. Original versions of software that were thought impossible to track down just pop up in the search engine. And organizations dedicated to creating catalogs of now-dormant formats are suddenly handed a thousands-of-items to-do list on a silver platter.

The Philosophy of the Support Site

The ramifications and discoveries from Discmaster are going to be coming for a very long time – even if a researcher has a light memory of something they’re looking for, the search results will guide them in the right direction faster than ever before.

But beyond that, this site shows a different approach to the Internet Archive’s materials that’s worth seeing more of.

With over 100 petabytes of data, representing a mass of materials with all sorts of containers, metadata, and approaches by contributors, the Internet Archive has to be as general as possible. This generality extends to the presentation, search engine, and storage of the items.

It is a major effort to ensure the data stays secure, the metadata is searchable, and the ability to upload nearly anything results in a usable item details page.

But that’s kind of where it has to stop.

It’s asking an awful lot to both maintain an entity like this, and also design, say, a specifically-geared site for a relatively smaller set of people and needs. It can be done, but when energy and funding are limited, it’s sometimes best to stick to basics.

Discmaster shows one way it could be done. After working hard on its specific set (software from CD-ROMs), the entire site is constructed with its singular goal in mind. If it’s not obvious, the simple, almost-no-javascript and straightforward design lends itself to an entire family of browsers that run on those original machines. You’ll be able to download Amiga software through your Amiga, your Atari software to your Atari and so on. A thousand little touches and flourishes live easily on this custom experience – because it has the freedom to allow them.

Perhaps seeing Discmaster in action will encourage others to interact with the Internet Archive as a pool, a container of resources that could receive some of the powerful analysis along specific lines. If they can then be fed back to the Archive at the end, even better; but let a hundred supporting sites bloom.

Meanwhile, enjoy the history of software – it just got a lot easier to find.

A Small Addendum Regarding Emulation

After this announcement came out, a not-insignificant amount of people have come forward to ask some form of:

You’re the Emulation In The Browser People – will DISCMASTER allow you to emulate the programs that are found in these floppies and CD-ROMS?

The short answer is no, there are no current plans to do emulated previews.

The longer answer is that the wonderful emulation in the browser that the Internet Archive has covers over the amount of work that needs to be done in selecting, refining, and in some cases modifying original programs to make them work. If a program requires all of Windows 3.1 installed, for example, someone went through the process of determining that, configuring the item to know to load Windows 3.1, and then added custom settings in the item to ensure it would all boot up correctly. Often this work can be automated to a degree, but the time involved is considerable.

Multiply these issues by the dozens of platforms that are emulated, and you can see why it would be more trouble than it would be worth. Additionally, some programs just don’t make sense to be emulated – running a printer utility “in the browser” will probably just show a prompt and nothing else, as it is loaded in the background – many, many programs of the past don’t make sense without additional context.

A much more likely scenario will be DISCMASTER revealing long-lost vintage software that is so interesting and/or fun that it will get uploaded to Internet Archive separately and those configurations done to allow it to be played in the browser.

If you find interesting items along DISCMASTER’s millions, feel free to contact me, Jason Scott, or take a shot at uploading the program yourself and doing the configurations.

The post The Rise of DISCMASTER appeared first on Internet Archive Blogs.

This post contains spoilers for "Black Adam."

To borrow a phrase from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "it's all connected." But this idea isn't exclusively owned by the House of Ideas. Many superhero movie franchises (or franchises in general) aim to create a larger world for their characters consisting of films, TV, comics, and beyond. This definitely applies to the Distinguished Competition's own movies. That's why Viola Davis' Amanda Waller appears in the latest DC Extended Universe film "Black Adam." Just like she does with Task Force X in the "Suicide Squad" movies, she deploys a team from the Justice Society of America consisting of Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone into action when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's ancient champion resurfaces in Kahndaq after thousands of years to protect its people from new threats in the most brutal ways possible. She also calls in a little favor from another super team in the film's post-credits scene. 

But the last time we saw Waller was in the acclaimed HBO MAX series "Peacemaker" from fan-favorite filmmaker James Gunn. John Cena's titular characters learned that The Wall was pulling the strings from the beginning and now she's up to her old tricks as she inserts herself into another former WWE Champion's superhero business. However, Waller isn't the only connection that Teth-Adam has to the foul-mouthed, metal-loving, gun-toting, America-loving anti-hero. Another familiar face from Christopher Smith's corner of the DCEU pops up in the new movie, proving that the 11th Street Kids are a force to be reckoned with.

You Can't Kill My Rock 'N Roll

During the third act of "Black Adam," the powerful champion reveals his greatest secret to Carter Hall after they seemingly defeat Ishmael. Long story short, he's not the person they think he is and he feels like he shouldn't hold the mantle of Kahndaq's champion. That's why "Teth-Adam" surrenders to the JSA and is taken to a Task Force X facility that is located deep underwater. As the heroes enter the prison, they are met by Agent Emilia Harcourt, who takes custody of Black Adam and restrains him so he is unable to use his powers ... until he gets a little help from Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate.

The A.R.G.U.S. agent played by Jennifer Holland was last seen dealing with Project Butterfly alongside Peacemaker, Vigilante, Economos, and Adebayo on HBO's streaming service earlier this year. While the actor has been busy getting married to James Gunn in real life (with adorable Funko Pop wedding cake toppers), it's nice to see that Harcourt is staying busy in the DCEU as well. Her current assignment doesn't seem as action heavy as her last one (in theory), but that's probably for the best as she'll likely be getting her hands more dirty when the second season of "Peacemaker" rolls around. Until then, Harcourt's underwater team certainly has a mess to clean up thanks to Black Adam's brief stay in their facility.

"Black Adam" is currently playing in theaters now.

Read this next: What These DC Villains Really Look Like Under The Makeup

The post Here's How Black Adam Directly Connects to James Gunn's Peacemaker Series appeared first on /Film.

Diablo Immortal is the free-to-play version of the action RPG game that Activision Blizzard was pushing for, says former producer Jay Wilson, who opened up about the Activision merger during a segment at the 2022 Portland Retro Gaming Expo.

RELATED LINKS: Diablo Immortal tier list, Diablo Immortal system requirements, Best Diablo Immortal builds

The first case of an NVIDIA 16-pin connector, powering the GeForce RTX 4090, burning up and melting the plug has been reported over at Reddit.

NVIDIA 16-Pin Connector Burns Up! Melts The Power Connector On GeForce RTX 4090 Graphics Card

Update #3: As more and more cases of burned 16-pin connectors pop up, NVIDIA and its AIBs have actively started working to get to the bottom of this issue and resolve it once and for all. You can read more on that here.

Two more burned-up 16-pin connectors.

1 x ASUS TUF Gaming
1 x MSI SUPRIM X

Credits: @harukaze5719 https://t.co/3fWT7RbtFrhttps://t.co/Ou1PjJVaKm pic.twitter.com/dLPl9BtT3W

— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) October 27, 2022

Update #2: We now have a third case of an RTX 4090, once again the TUF Gaming from ASUS, going up in flames. Fortunately for the user, only the cable has melted and he reports that the GPU might still be working fine. We hope that's the case.

Update #1: Another graphics card, this time the ASUS GeForce RTX 4090 TUF Gaming OC, has been affected by the same issue. As tweeted by @Vectral555, we can see that the 16-Pin connector and the power plug on the PCB, both have burned up. Meanwhile, NVIDIA has reached out to the OP & we'll keep you updated on how things work out.

Uh oh...

Another 4090 (ASUS 4090 TUF OC) with a damaged 12VHPWR power connector just got posted in the same reddit thread as the original Gigabyte card post from today.

This is slightly getting out of hand...@Buildzoid1 @Sebasti66855537 pic.twitter.com/oQnaywqBzq

— Vectral (@Vectral555) October 24, 2022

Redditor, u/reggie_gakil, posted on the NVIDIA subreddit a picture of the NVIDIA 16-pin connector all burned up. The connector was powering his brand-new GeForce RTX 4090 (custom model). The pictures show that both the power adapter which includes a 16-pin to 4 x 8-pin plug and the power connector on the PCB ended up in flames and melted. The graphics card was the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming OC.

Looking closely at the pictures, it seems like the issue occurred around the main 12-pins under the four additional pins on the top. But looking at the adapter, almost the entirety of it has burned up and melted. The cable is supplied and confirms the official NVIDIA specifications and we already stated that bending or putting too much stress on the cable can lead to abnormal temps that can end up causing issues such as these.

2 of 9

The user reports that he was playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on his NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 PC when the card went up in flames and burned the power connector. He also states that it could be a faulty cable and will RMA it though we won't be able to get to the bottom of this issue until we get more information.

PCI-SIG Internal Investigation of The Issue (Image Credits: GamersNexus):

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It was recently spotted that the NVIDIA 16-pin adapter cable for the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards is just too thick and not easy to manage in smaller PC cases as it hits the side panel really often. So users will have to bend the cable a lot to close the panel but once again, this bending is not recommended as it could heat up the cables and cause the adapter to burst up in flames.

More on that here. Custom cable manufacturers and modding companies are trying to overcome this issue by offering 90-degree angled connectors which should go up on sale in a few weeks.

Nvidia apparrently wasn't happy with their high end cards suffering VRM failures so now they expanded their shitty design practices to the power connector. pic.twitter.com/54sAwRIwFf

— Buildzoid (@Buildzoid1) October 24, 2022

But this is just one report and the issue doesn't seem to be too widespread otherwise we would have been hearing multiple reports. But users only had two weeks at max with the cards & most people are still waiting to get their shipments. So if the adapter or the plug on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards is really faulty, we will know for sure in the coming months.

Cablemod 12VHPWR 16-Pin Cable Guide (Image Credits: Sebastian Castellanos):

The post NVIDIA’s 16-Pin Connector on GeForce RTX 4090 Graphics Card Burns Up, Melts The Cable & The Plug by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.