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(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "The Beastmaster" (1982)

Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime

The Pitch: Family entertainment was a bit of a different beast in the '80s, no pun intended. The movies aimed at kids, like "Gremlins" and "The Neverending Story" and "Return to Oz" and even Disney's "The Black Cauldron" were spooky, if not straight-up traumatizing. Then you have the nightmare-inducers like today's title, "The Beastmaster," which is inexplicably rated PG despite being graphically violent, scary as all hell, and super, super horny.

Why It's Essential Viewing

"Essential viewing" might be a bit much, but "The Beastmaster" is a fascinating entry into the sword and sorcery subgenre. It was developed at the same time as a little movie called "Conan the Barbarian," which would go on to spawn a franchise and make a star out of its Austrian bodybuilder lead.

"The Beastmaster" was always going to be the underdog in this fight. Its budget was much more limited than the epic John Milius movie and poor Marc Singer is no match for the charisma machine that is Arnold Schwarzenegger, but in many ways that's the movie's strength. It's scrappier and weirder and has one thing "Conan" doesn't: a pair of adorable ferrets.

Storywise, "The Beastmaster" is damn near identical to "Conan The Barbarian." An evil cult leader kills a young boy's family and he grows up all muscly and pissed off, seeking his revenge against the backdrop of a fantasy world filled with loincloths, swords, monsters and bloody violence.

Marc Singer plays Dar, a man who has the ability to speak to and control animals of all kinds. Along his quest he picks up loyal animal companions in the form of an eagle, a black tiger, and twin ferrets named Kodo and Podo. He also acquires some human compatriots: John Amos's Seth, a former guard of Dar's father, and Joshua Milrad's Tal, Seth's young apprentice who may or may not have a claim to the throne should the evil cult leader be overthrown.

Ladies And Gentlemen ... Rip Torn

The great Rip Torn plays Dar's nemesis, the child-sacrificing evil wizard named Maax (pronounced "May-Ax" not "Maaaaax"). The prosthetic nose can't really hide how of-the-'80s Rip Torn looked, but man is it fun to see him let loose. He's not a complicated villain, really. Maax is a cartoon bad guy who would swirl a mustache if he had one. There is no "from his point of view he's the good guy" thing going on here.

When we first meet him he's plotting to kill the King's unborn baby because a witch tells him this child will grow up to murder him. He doesn't succeed in killing the child, but he does orphan him. The next time we meet Maax he slaughters Dar's town, killing his adoptive family and loyal dog. And then the next time we meet him he literally throws a small boy into a fire pit.

Like I said, not a good dude, and Torn plays him with all the relish of an actor of his caliber delighting in being a top notch, grade A a-hole. Maax is built to be the character you just want to see get his comeuppance, hopefully in a painful and dragged out manner.

Sex And Scares

There's so much skin in this movie, y'all. I remind you once again that "The Beastmaster" is rated PG but has more boobs and butts in the first 30 minutes than most R-rated movies do today. A lot of youngsters of my generation discovered some new feelings when they saw Tonya Roberts's introductory scene, let's put it that way.

One of the things that sets "The Beastmaster" apart is how it brushes right up against horror at times. There are witches that crawl up walls, green-glowy-eyed berserkers with spiked gauntlets, eyeball rings and then there are the leathery bat people who hug people to death.

These guys can rot in hell. They stand upright, are vaguely humanoid, but have no mouths and they act kinda like venus fly traps. They'll embrace their prey in leathery wings and digest them in less than a minute, dumping their victims' bones out in a gooey pile.

Again, I'd like to remind you that this movie is rated PG.

All this is told with a visual language born of a horror visionary. Director Don Coscarelli had a huge hit with his previous film, "Phantasm," and this was his first studio picture. He brings a lot of youthful genre energy to this film in much the same way you can feel the horror roots in stuff like Sam Raimi's "The Quick and the Dead" and Peter Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring." These filmmakers all know the language of cinema and bring the spooky vibes when the time is right.

A Beastmasterpiece?

Coscarelli clearly knows that this movie only works as a fun adventure tale and shoots it with energy and inventive framing, letting his actors take wild swings. That might very well put this film into a level of camp that will keep it from ever being taken seriously, but upon rewatch it's just as fun of a ride now as it was for me as a kid, only slightly less traumatizing.

Although, I will impart a word of warning. Although no animals were hurt in the making of this movie, there are some animal character deaths that will rip your heart out. I know that's triggering for a lot of people, myself included. There's a reaction shot of a sad ferret that still brings a tear to my eye to this day.

Perhaps I simply have a lot of nostalgia for this title, but I think even those discovering it for the first time will find something of value in this weird, often forgotten and, in my humble opinion, unfairly maligned sword and sorcery movie. The movies that take big swings often age very well and while I would never call it a Beastmasterpiece, it's undoubtedly a fun watch.

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021

The post The Daily Stream: The Beastmaster Remains the Scrappy, Weird Alternative to Conan the Barbarian appeared first on /Film.

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago analyzed data from a moving company, concluding that 59.4% of the moves in California were out of the state — the second-highest percentage for any state in America (behind only Illinois). And that percentage is growing, reports the Los Angeles Times, since between 2018 and 2019, California had a lower outbound move rate of just 56%. Citing changes in work-life balance, opportunities for remote work and more people deciding to quit their jobs, the report found that droves of Californians are leaving for states like Texas, Virginia, Washington and Florida. California lost more than 352,000 residents between April 2020 and January 2022, according to California Department of Finance statistics [about 15,476 per month]. San Francisco and Los Angeles rank first and second in the country, respectively, for outbound moves as the cost of living and housing prices continue to balloon and homeowners flee to less expensive cities, according to a report from Redfin released this month. [Los Angeles residents] in particular, are flocking to places like Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Antonio and Dallas. The number of Los Angeles residents leaving the city jumped from around 33,000 in the second quarter of 2021 to nearly 41,000 in the same span of 2022, according to the report. California has grappled with extremely high housing prices compared with other states, according to USC economics professor Matthew Kahn. Combined with the pandemic and the rise in remote work, privileged households relocated when they had the opportunity. "People want to live here, but an unintended consequence of the state's environmentalism is we're not building enough housing in desirable downtown areas," Kahn said. "That prices out middle-class people to the suburbs [and creates] long commutes. We don't have road pricing to help the traffic congestion, and these headaches add up. So when you create the possibility of work from home, many of these people ... they say 'enough' and they move to a cheaper metropolitan area." Kahn also pointed out that urban crime, a growing unhoused population, public school quality and overall quality of life are driving out residents. "In New York City, but also in San Francisco, there are all these fights about which kids get into which elite public schools," he said. "The rich are always able to hide in their bubble, but if the middle class looks at this quality of life declining, that's a push factor to leave." Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather cited a June report that tracked the change in spending power of a homebuyer on a $2,500 monthly budget. While 11.2% of homes in Los Angeles were affordable on that budget, using a 3% interest rate, that amount swelled to about 72% in Houston and about 50% in Phoenix. "It's really an affordability problem," Fairweather said. "California for the longest time has prioritized single-family zoning, which makes it so people stay in their homes longer because their property taxes don't reflect the true value. California is the epicenter of where the housing shortage is so people have no choice but to move elsewhere." The Times also notes figures from the Public Policy Institute of California showing that the state's population did increase between 2010 and 2020 — but by just 5.8%, "below the national growth rate of 6.8%, and resulting in the loss of a congressional seat in 2021 for the first time in the state's history." At least part of this seems tied to a sudden curtailing of immigration into California. UCLA economics professor Lee Ohanian points out that immigration had offset California's population outflow over the past two decades, but "Delays in processing migration requests to the U.S. were compounded during the pandemic, resulting in the lowest levels of immigration in decades, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Estimates showed a net increase of 244,000 new immigrants between 2020 and 2021 — roughly half the 477,000 new immigrant residents recorded between 2019 and 2020 and a drastic reduction from more than 1 million reported from 2015 to 2016." The state is also seeing a dwindling middle class, said Ohanian, who cited a report from the National Association of Realtors, outlining that the national median home sales price has reached $416,000, a record high. Meanwhile, California's median home price has topped $800,000. "(California is) at a risk for becoming a state for very, very wealthy people and very, very low earners who receive state and local and federal aid that allows them to be able to live here," Ohanian said. "We should worry about those in the middle who are earning that $78,000 household median income and is, at the end of the day, really struggling, especially if they have interest in buying a home."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The post Missing – Fantasia Review (4/5) appeared first on Heaven of Horror.

Has Apple reached the limits of the 5 nm process? | The Apple M2 is here and after our reviews of the MacBook Pro 13 and the MacBook Air M2, we want to have a closer look at the new M2 chip. What changed, which improvements can you expect, and how does the increased power consumption affect the efficiency, especially compared to the previous M1 chip?

"A 1980s pop culture mainstay is plotting a comeback," reports Deadline. "AMC Networks is developing a Max Headroom drama series reboot, with Matt Frewer set to reprise his role as the world's first artificial intelligence TV personality." Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell is writing the adaptation and is attached as showrunner for the project, which is produced by Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah's SpectreVision and All3Media. Known for biting commentary, quick wit and manic glitching, the supposedly computer-generated TV host played by Frewer was first introduced in the 1985 British cyberpunk TV movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. He became an instant pop culture phenom and went on to host a music-video show, star in ads for New Coke, appear on the cover of Newsweek and headline his own primetime series. Max Headroom aired on ABC for two seasons from 1987-88. IGN notes that "Although Frewer is best known for Max Headroom, he recently had roles in Fear the Walking Dead and Orphan Black, and notably played the character Moloch in Zack Snyder's Watchmen."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Genndy Tartakovsky has kept busy in recent years. The "Samurai Jack" creator has found acclaim in his latest creation, "Primal," which is in the middle of its second season on Adult Swim. "Primal" earned four Emmy awards and was praised for its high concept and visceral style with minimal dialogue. Tartakovsky's ability to tell the story of Spear and Fang solely through visuals and devoid of dialogue is an impressive feat, allowing the viewer to focus on all the unique and terrifying locations, civilizations, and of course, primal creatures in the world of "Primal."

However, Tartakovsky hadn't always planned for the show's second season to follow the trajectory it's currently on. In fact, Tartakovsky had several plans for the first two seasons of "Primal" that were scrapped altogether. Like any creative, the characters and world he shaped started going in their own direction, with Tartakovsky and the rest of the team behind "Primal" adapting to these new changes in exciting and creative ways.

Discovering A New Path

Speaking to Paste Magazine, Genndy Tartalovsky discussed his passion for "Primal" and how working on the show helped him to discover new paths for Spear and Fang's story to take, differing from the original concepts:

"I really want to push storytelling. The first ten episodes, there were so many successful ideas, and the complexity of our stories was still being understood even when there's no dialogue ... And I'm like, 'let's do even more complex stories, but still follow the rules of the show.' We restructured these ten episodes to be kind of one story. It goes up and down in three arcs or so. It's been incredible. We totally broke what we wanted to do and rediscovered this new path."

Tartakovsky let his ambitions with "Primal" take the story in a different direction than initially planned, showing flexibility on the creator's part. "Primal" found a winning formula with its dialogue-free storytelling, putting the 2D animation in the spotlight and letting viewers put the pieces together themselves. But Tartakovsky's world-building in "Primal" to that point had set standards for the kind of stories he could tell, with the prehistoric setting and nature of its world creating limitations that would come to pose challenges to the "Primal" creative team.

Rethinking The World Of Primal

In the same interview, Tartakovsky revealed that his initial plans for season 2 were derailed by the limitations of the world he created. He spoke of his wish to respect the integrity of the story he made rather than subject it to cliches:

"I had a whole arc planned for the second season that initially was going to be part of the first season. But I realized there was so much more we could do in the first season, so we didn't need to bring in this new element. We pushed it to the second season, and then once we started to break it down, I realized we're kind of breaking what we've established, to a degree, and we're heading into the world of cliches. As soon as you introduce some kind of primitive early civilizations, you're instantly in 10,000 B.C. or Stargate, and all that stuff. It didn't feel right for Primal, so I had to rethink it."

"Primal" took on a life of its own, with Tartakovsky rethinking how to approach Spear and Fang's journey up to that point. The show's season 1 finale teased the introduction of more evolved types of people, specifically Spear and Fang's encounter with Mira, a woman from a different kind of civilization never seen in the show up to that point. As fantastical as "Primal" is, Tartakovsky wanted to ground some of the story in history, which is when "Primal" began to differ from the initial plans for the show.

An Exciting New Civilization

Tartakovsky's crossroads came after the introduction of Mira, a woman whose rational thinking, communication, and ingenuity implied the existence of an intelligent and more evolved civilization. That was always the plan for "Primal," but once Mira appeared, changes needed to be made immediately:

"After that [Mira], that's where we got into a pause for a bit to figure out where we're going to go. Originally, of course, you have to do Egypt, right? Because that's one of the first civilizations with the overlord Pharaoh and slaves, but that's where it really broke for me. It just did not feel right at all. We restarted, and as I was digging through history, I came upon something that I never encountered before in early civilization. I got so excited for it, and it was the perfect vehicle for us for the second half of the season."

Tartakovsky's original idea of incorporating Egyptian civilization in "Primal" sounds enticing. Still, his discovery of something more intriguing to him in an entirely different society is just the kind of ingenuity that made "Primal" successful in the first place. Tartakovsky's excitement should get us excited, as I personally can't wait to see what exquisitely animated and hyper-violent adventure Spear and Fang go on to next, knowing that the upcoming episodes will feature that new historical discovery.

Read this next: The 10 Apple TV Shows That Justify A Subscription

The post Genndy Tartakovsky Had To Scrap His Original Plan For Primal Season 2 appeared first on /Film.

"For more than a decade, Google has been baking and eating its own homemade Linux desktop distribution," writes Computerworld. Long-time Slashdot reader waspleg shared their report: The first version was Goobuntu. (As you'd guess from the name, it was based on Ubuntu.) In 2018, Google moved its in-house Linux desktop from the Goobuntu to a new Linux distro, the Debian-based gLinux. Why? Because, as Google explained, Ubuntu's Long Term Support (LTS) two-year release "meant that we had to upgrade every machine in our fleet of over 100,000 devices before the end-of-life date of the OS." That was a pain. Add in the time-consuming need to fully customize engineers' PCs, and Google decided that it cost too much. Besides, the "effort to upgrade our Goobuntu fleet usually took the better part of a year. With a two-year support window, there was only one year left until we had to go through the same process all over again for the next LTS. This entire process was a huge stress factor for our team, as we got hundreds of bugs with requests for help for corner cases." So, when Google had enough of that, it moved to Debian Linux (though not just vanilla Debian). The company created a rolling Debian distribution: GLinux Rolling Debian Testing (Rodete). The idea is that users and developers are best served by giving them the latest updates and patches as they're created and deemed ready for production. Google's using what appears to be an automated build system (along with virtualized test suites, and eventually "incremental canarying"), the article points out. The end result? "The entire gLinux development team consists of a single on-duty release engineer position that rotates among team members."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"A League of Their Own" is celebrating its 30th anniversary this summer, and in the intervening decades since its release, Penny Marshall's baseball dramedy has found its way into the National Film Registry, while the immortal line, "There's no crying in baseball," has made it onto the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. To date, the film has raked in over $130 million on a $40 million budget, which qualifies as at least a triple if not a home run, and its other player stats include a solid 81% Rotten Tomatoes review rating. Prime Video is reviving the property with a "League of Their Own" streaming series in August, and more than just nostalgia bait, this series and the very fact that we're still talking about Marshall's film shows that it still holds a special place in people's hearts. 

For Geena Davis, however — who starred in the original "League of Their Own" alongside Tom Hanks, Madonna, Lori Petty, and Rosie O'Donnell — the film's broader legacy vis-a-vis gender representation was not quite what she hoped for. Back in 1992, Davis was coming off an Academy Award nomination for "Thelma & Louise," another notable feminist film, but in a July 2022 interview with Vogue, she lamented that there was not an immediate wave of women-centric films after "A League of Their Own." Its success, while laudable on its own, did not seem to sway the opinion of producers or studio executives about what was marketable, as she describes it:

"It was very interesting to learn that ... having a successful movie with women in it didn't change any opinion about women's movies in Hollywood. They were still all of the mind that women will watch movies about men, but men won't watch movies about women."

The Geena Davis Institute On Gender In Media

In 2004, Davis funneled her frustration with Hollywood's gender bias into the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, an organization that made headlines a few years back for its development of a software tool that uses machine learning technology to detect unconscious bias in the text of screenplays. Rather than being something that seeks to rewrite scripts by algorithm or AI, the Spellcheck for Bias, as the tech is called, simply functions as another writing aid such as Grammarly or the like. The difference is it helps writers — and companies like Disney, which pledged to use it for all their movie and TV projects — see their blind spots in terms of providing roles for women and other underrepresented groups of people.

While "A League of Their Own" may not have moved the needle as much as Davis hoped back in 1992, seeing that gave her the motivation she needed to make great strides with her Institute on Gender in Media. She concluded by saying:

"Now, the lead characters in TV shows made for kids are gender-balanced for the lead characters, and also in kid-rated movies we've reached parity in the lead characters, which is unheard of. It's just astounding for that to happen. When we started, in movies it was only 11% with a female lead character, and now it's 50%. So we're excited."

Read this next: The Best Movies Streaming Right Now: Malignant, A Hero, And More

The post A League Of Their Own Didn't Leave The Legacy Geena Davis Had Hoped For appeared first on /Film.

Horror is not an exact science, though Ari Aster's directorial debut, "Hereditary," has been scientifically shown to elevate heart rates better than any other horror movie. With "Midsommar," Aster avoided the sophomore slump, just as he avoided the dark suburban interiors of his first film in favor of bright pastoral exteriors. Crowning Florence Pugh's protagonist, Dani, the May Queen in colorful flowers against a green backdrop, "Midsommar" was at the forefront of the 2010s folk horror revival, but it isn't as frightening as "Hereditary," nor is that its aim, to hear Aster tell it.

There are times when "Midsommar" almost seems to be going for a farcical tone, never more so than when we see Dani's boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), staring out in dumb amazement from the mouth of a hollowed-out bear. When Aster spoke to The Atlantic about his intent for the film, he seemed to recognize that horror audiences have seen it all by now and need fresh emotional engagement. The writer-director said:

"I'm not here to subvert the genre, but at the same time, we all know what's going to happen. So it's not that interesting. If anything, I respect you as a viewer — you know they're all going to be killed — so that's not where the surprises are going to be, and that's not where the joy is going to be. Don't come to me for the movie with the most inventive kills. That's not where my interests lie. At the same time, there's a certain sort of joy to be had in making something where everyone knows where you're going. How do we get there in a way that's emotionally surprising, as opposed to a left turn in the plot? How do we stay on course, move toward something inevitable, and hopefully have an experience?"

'I Hope It's Wrenching And Funny'

This section contains spoilers for the ending of "Midsommar."

One obvious touchstone for "Midsommar" is "The Wicker Man," which practically wrote the genre manual on secret cults and human sacrifice. However, when asked if he referenced any other daytime horror movies, Aster instead pointed to influences outside the realm of strict horror. One of those was "Black Narcissus," a film we revisited on its 75th anniversary in 2022.

It's no secret that "Midsommar" is a breakup movie, with the question "Do you feel held by him?" forcing Dani to reconsider the nature of her relationship with Christian amid his neglect and unfaithfulness. This gives the time-honored, ritualistic "Christian" sacrifice (and metaphorical breakup) at the end a different underpinning than what we've seen in other folk horror films. Speaking of collaborators like his cinematographer, Pawel Pogorzelski, Aster said:

"We were talking more about breakup movies than horror movies, like Albert Brooks' 'Modern Romance.' If 'Midsommar' works beyond my wildest dreams, it would be something you go to after a breakup. Like, every time after a breakup, I watch 'Modern Romance.' On 'Hereditary,' the movies we watched [during filming] weren't horror movies, and on 'Midsommar' too. I love horror — 'Hereditary' was absolutely a horror film, I wouldn't argue against that. This film is adjacent to horror; I wouldn't call it a horror film. I think of it as a fairy tale with horror elements."

"Horror-adjacent" is certainly one way to describe "Midsommar," but Aster also seemed to indicate that he wanted it to land as a horror comedy or horror dramedy of sorts. "I hope it's wrenching and funny," he said. "And I hope you're laughing at the end! Best-case scenario, you're laughing at the end, and the laughs catch in your throat a little."

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The post Ari Aster Wanted Midsommar To Leave The Audience Laughing appeared first on /Film.

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Ari Aster's "Midsommar" contains one of the bleakest openings in cinema history. The audience sees, in explicit detail, the tragic deaths of a young woman and her parents by murder/suicide. Dani (Florence Pugh), the young woman's sister, begins the film in a place of deep emotional aching, an ache that is exacerbated by the brash distance kept by her teetering-on-the-brink-of-being-an-ex boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Because he has no better ideas, Christian haphazardly drags Dani on a college research trip to a remote Midsommar festival -- a days long celebration of the summer solstice -- in a distant area of Sweden. Hallucinogens are consumed. Cultural misunderstandings commence. Death is witnessed. Let the bad times roll. 

"Midsommar" is very much about despair. Dani is suffering through an intense dark period in her life, and her boyfriend can only serve as an impediment to healing. It's only by entering a cultish, alien atmosphere -- one that welcomes and embraces death -- can Dani find dark catharsis. 

It's pretty clear from even a cursory view that Aster was in an equally dark place in his life when he wrote "Midsommar," a suspicion that he confirmed in a 2019 interview with The Atlantic. In the interview, he revealed that "Midsommar" -- at the end of the day, a breakup story -- was based very directly on his emotional struggles following a breakup of his own. He was drained. He felt like a complete fool. And he was finally moved to write about it. 

And, boy howdy, was it a long exploration. The final theatrical cut of "Midsommar" was already a hefty 148 minutes, but Aster's first cut was even heavier in both tone and running time.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Aster appears to be an artist who believes in the inspirational power of suffering. The filmmaker hadn't merely gone through a rough time following a breakup, he was still deep in it when setting pen to page. In his own terms, crisis writing was perhaps the best -- or at least most logical -- form of therapy. The details of Aster's actual breakup (and who is was with) are kept tactfully secret in the Atlantic interview, but he is quite frank about delving into its darker moments. From the sound of it, Aster spent a lot of time playing back arguments in his head, a familiar habit for anyone who has experienced a bad breakup themselves. He told The Atlantic:

"I usually find that writing comes easiest to me when I'm in a crisis. It becomes a tool for digging myself out of the crisis. Or at least navigating it. Otherwise, I'm just torturing myself. You always want to write a breakup movie when you're in a breakup, and every time I'd been in one, I'd thought, 'I want to write about this, but I'm not inspired. I just wanna die.' And so, this time I just happened to find the way in. You find yourself parsing through the ruins, blaming yourself, blaming the other person, working through these things."

There is a dark logic to this kind of masochistic prodding. If one is going to pick at unhealing scabs, one may as well make art out of it. As it turns out, this breakup generated lot of art. "Midsommar" was initially cut as a whole evening's entertainment.

220 Minutes Of Misery

Like all first drafts, Aster revealed that the earliest draft of "Midsommar" was repetitive. Following his instincts, however, Aster continued to write until he felt like he had said everything he needed to say. He would worry about the editing and polishing later. That turned out to be a lot of editing and polishing, as the original draft would have made for a 220-minute film. That, for context, is 38 minutes longer than the epic, 22-film cycle culminating "Avengers: Endgame," released the same year. Aster told The Atlantic that:

"The first version of this script was twice as long and had way more, the kind of thing you hand off to any responsible reader who says, 'You've said this already.' Then you shape it. The first cut of this movie was three hours and 40 minutes; there are plenty more little moments that weren't necessary, but I would have been very happy to include. I would say this was, for me, a way of making a breakup movie and having fun with clichés and tropes that are inherent to two different genres, doing something that's simultaneously absurdist and nakedly vulnerable."

Aster was eventually able to be more nakedly vulnerable in a later, theatrically released director's cut of "Midsommar" that ran 171 minutes (a version, he revealed in a /Film interview, that he prefers). In June of 2020, Aster revealed that his next film -- another breakup movie -- was likely going to fun four hours in length and will be, in his words, a "nightmare comedy." 

Say what you will about Aster as a filmmaker, he certainly has a milieu in which he prefers to work. For those who were on the wavelength of "Midsommar's" misery, his next film promises to really bum you out. 

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The post Ari Aster's First Cut Of Midsommar Dwarfed The Theatrical Runtime appeared first on /Film.

It speaks to the prestige of "Game of Thrones" that the HBO-exclusive series became one of the biggest shows on television of all time. From 2011 to 2019, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing about the Red Wedding or the Battle of the Bastards, whether you had the context of what was going on or not. Each episode garnered discussions about what this spectacular cast of characters was doing each week. If you weren't up to date, then you were left out of the conversation, dodging spoilers at every turn. Naturally, when it came to the final season, expectations were high for the ultimate, climactic ending.

If you weren't there, let's just say the reaction to season 8 as a whole was mixed at best. In a way, I almost feel bad for the people behind "Game of Thrones." Anything that is popular — whether it be movies, television or music — is subjected to a lot of opinions. Surely, the internet can be rational with those, right?

It wasn't until those last two episodes that a large gathering of folks, myself included, turned on the show. Of course, the people associated with the series quickly became aware of the reactions pouring in. Emmy award-winning actor Peter Dinklage has continued to defend "Game of Thrones," jokingly saying just last year in a profile with "The New York Times" that he believed the show's fans had "wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together," and that the show's subversion of those expectations is what made it great.

You Just Can't Please Everybody

While speaking with The Sunday Times earlier this year, the "Cyrano" star reflected on the fan criticisms, presenting his own thoughts on why the negative reactions were so strong:

"You're reminded of it on a daily basis by the fans. They had deep knowledge, but if somebody loves something they have their version of it in their head, so we got criticism early. Then, when we were leaving, they criticized again because they didn't want us to go. Some got angry. But if you appeal to everyone you're doing something wrong. And we offended a lot of people."

I see what Dinklage is going for, even if it's slightly misplaced here. For example, I love "The Last Jedi," but every time I see it trending on social media, I die a little inside knowing that it's fueled by said toxic fandom that can't get over themselves. 

With that said, there is absolutely room for criticism, should it come from the right place, and there was plenty of solid foundation for those who felt that the last season felt rushed and emotionally unfulfilling. You can't cater to everyone, but this mad dash race to get to the finish line had done irreparable damage to one of the most beloved shows on television. "Game of Thrones" was littered with issues, but let's be clear, Dinklage's masterful performance was never one of them.

"Game of Thrones" is available for streaming on HBO Max.

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The post Peter Dinklage Still Has Some Frustrations With The Game of Thrones Fandom appeared first on /Film.

Neil Patrick Harris stars in the latest Netflix comedy, "Uncoupled."By: Christopher James

When Emily in Paris first premiered, The New Yorker coined the term “ambient TV” to describe the show’s mass appeal, despite a critical drubbing and the memefication of its protagonist by the public. It’s a show made specifically for people to not concentrate on. It’s just looney and lighthearted enough to make audiences feel good. However, once you peel back just one layer of the surface, you can’t help but laugh AT it, rather than with it.

Darren Starr, who gave us both Sex and the City and Emily in Paris, returns to Netflix for his new gay-centric comedy Uncoupled. It’s co-created by fellow lover of froth, Jeffrey Richman (Modern Family, Desperate Housewives). It seems like equality means the LGBTQ+ community also needs its own piece of “ambient TV.” Uncoupled is slick, watchable and fun. It’s also maddening, featuring characters that seemed to have been born yesterday on some fun house version of Manhattan. Much like Emily in Paris, the inanity is part of the charm.

If you turn your brain off, you can float down the lazy river of Uncoupled’s charms. For those that watch with a more discerning eye, they will either make fun of the proceedings or be turned off by some of the off-brand sharp notes that don’t hit quite right.

The fourth season of "Snowpiercer" has temporarily suspended production this week according to TNT (via ComicBook.com), as an ongoing heat wave continues to impact the show's British Columbia shooting location. Reports indicate that as many as 14 cast and crew members on the series visited the hospital this week with symptoms of heat exhaustion.

A spokesperson from TNT says that the production will up the number of medical personnel on set, and has advised cast and crew members to speak to them if concerned about heat-related illness. Cooling tents are also apparently being built for those on set. TNT's spokesperson also said the following:

"Out of an abundance of caution, production of 'Snowpiercer' wrapped early yesterday and was suspended for today due to extreme heat on location. The health and well-being of show cast and crew remains top priority."

"Snowpiercer," now headed towards its final season, stars Jennifer Connolly and Daveed Diggs as two very different passengers on board an ever-moving train that circles the globe and has carriages divided up by class. Diggs' Andre Layton is a homicide detective who helps lead a rebellion against First Class passengers, while Connelly's Melanie Cavill begins the series as the train's Head of Hospitality.

Is It Hot In Here?

Ironically, the show, like the movie, is set in a post-apocalyptic world that passengers are told has been frozen after scientists' attempt to course-correct the rising temperatures of climate change went wrong. After last year's dangerous, record-breaking summer heat, British Columbia is once again seeing the impacts of the very issue the "Snowpiercer" story aims to address. Vancouver, Canada in particular is a popular filming spot for American television shows, so hopefully everyone on "Snowpiercer" and other Canadian sets will stay safe as the heat wave continues.

The show centered the topic of extreme global temperatures more than ever in its third season, which saw Layton and others discover a temperate climate outside the train called New Eden. The third season ended with Cavill -- who returned after her fake-out death in the second season finale -- staying on the train with some passengers aboard the Snowpiercer while Layton led others towards the uncertain future of New Eden.

The production halt, while obviously critically important, also marks another setback for a series that has been riddled with delays and production issues from the beginning. "Snowpiercer" is based on Bong Joon-Ho's critically acclaimed film of the same name (which in turn was based on the graphic novel series "Le Transperceneige") and has so far released 30 episodes to date. But in the process, the show has also suffered from creative shake-ups, COVID-19 related delays, a confusing network switch-up (a move to TBS was planned, then reversed), and more. At this point, the series is set to be the last scripted show standing at TNT, a network whose lineup was effectively gutted after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger earlier this year.

"Snowpiercer" airs on TNT. Its final season premiere date has not yet been announced.

Read this next: The 15 Best Anthology TV Series Ranked

The post Snowpiercer's Final Season Has Been Delayed For a Very Ironic Reason appeared first on /Film.

Earlier this month, on the topic of cloud seeding to "grow" rain in the dangerously parched United Arab Emirates, Esquire questioned whether the technology actually works:

The UAE has a rapidly growing economy and very little water to support it. According to the NCMS, with an average of 550 litres of water consumed every day by each man, woman and child, the country has the fourth highest demand for fresh water in the world.

— Read the rest

Here’s a preview of something I’ve been slowly working on, bit by bit:

That screenshot surely looks a little funny. That’s because it is Windows 1.04 running with a heavily modified 256-color Windows 3.x display driver, using resources from a Windows 2.0 VGA driver.

This is mostly the same driver, running real-mode Windows 3.0:

This is the same driver breaking Microsoft’s DDTest utility in Windows 3.1. DDTest is meant to assess performance of Windows 3.x display drivers, but it can’t handle the speed:

DDTest is a little bit buggy and if the display is too fast, it thinks the performance is “poor”.

For good measure, this is again mostly the same driver, running Windows 2.11 and using 8514/A style big fonts (and icons, bitmaps, and cursors).

How did I get there? I started with the 256-color Video 7 driver from the Windows 3.1 DDK. I threw out all the Video 7 specific hardware rendering code and replaced the mode setting logic with code that runs on VirtualBox. The driver is thus a sort of ancestor of the Windows 9x video minidriver.

I had to fix a couple of extremely nasty problems that probably didn’t show up with Video 7 hardware, or at least not usually, but popped up when the generic software rendering was used.

One of the bugs had to do with drawing patterned lines and manifested itself by leaving behind very visible trails when dragging window outlines around. That bug probably would have been seen with the original driver when rendering into memory bitmaps, but without the frequent XOR redraws it would have been extremely difficult to spot.

Another bug was related to software cursor drawing, and again was probably unlikely to trigger with Video 7 hardware because the hardware cursor would have been used more or less all the time.

I also extended the resolution support to go beyond 1024×768 (limit of the original Video 7 driver) up to somewhere around 2048×1536. Note that the driver supports strictly 8 bpp only. Different color depths would require different rendering code.

Once Windows 3.1 worked to my satisfaction, I made a few minor tweaks for the driver to run with Windows 3.0. The changes were very small and the biggest issue were the driver resources. For some reason I still don’t understand, Windows 3.0 failed to load the OEMBIN FONT resource, which caused very interesting failures with fonts.

I also switched around the bitmap, cursor, and icon resources so that Windows 3.0 would use the smaller “96 DPI” variants. Windows 3.1 supports multi-DPI drivers and the driver can tell Windows which resources to use through the GetDriverResourceID callback. The same binary can run on both Windows 3.0 and 3.1, but on Windows 3.0 the resources are fixed and can’t be adjusted at run-time.

Then I thought, hmm, what would it take to get the driver to run on Windows 2.x? That was a bit more work. It required dropping all APIs that were added in Windows 3.0 to support protected mode: AllocSelector and FreeSelector, AllocCSToDSAlias, PrestoChangeoSelector, and more.

However, the GDI rendering functionality remained more or less completely unchanged. That is, GDI in Windows 3.x is strictly a superset of Windows 2.x GDI, with more capabilities (such as palette manager support, transparent blits, etc.) but no changes to existing functionality.

There was again work needed on resources: Microsoft significantly changed the resource format between Windows 2.x and 3.0. Annoyingly, resource compilers and other tools designed for Windows 3.x can’t work with Windows 2.x resources at all. The resource compiler for Windows 2.x has to be used. But that is not an insurmountable problem, and the driver works with Windows 2.x reasonably well.

And then I thought, what the heck, can I make it work on Windows 1.x as well? The answer is yes, but… it was a lot of work. Windows 1.x GDI is again mostly a reduced subset of Windows 2.x GDI, with one big exception: Fonts.

As it turns out, Microsoft significantly reworked the font format between Windows 1.0 and 2.0. In Windows 1.0, all characters are effectively stored in a single wide bitmap, tightly packed together. In Windows 2.0, each character is stored separately, and in column-first (rather than row-first) order. To make matters more fun, the Windows 2.0 SDK documentation is completely wrong and describes the font format incorrectly; it notes that the font format was changed from Windows 1.0, but claims that character bitmaps are stored row by row, when in reality it’s column by column. The Windows 2.1 SDK documentation was corrected and no longer lies (or at least not as much).

The Windows 2.0 font format is easier for the driver to work with, although it is less memory efficient. As an aside, Windows 3.0 introduced yet another font format, though only in protected mode. The 3.0 font format is very similar to the 2.0 format but uses 32-bit pointers, and is thus not limited to 64KB. I assume that with the advent of ATM and later TrueType, combined with higher display resolutions, the 64KB font limitation became too much of a problem.

At any rate, reworking the driver to support Windows 1.0 fonts was quite difficult and is not fully finished yet. The font code in the driver is extremely complicated, with lots of special cases and many parts of code accessing the font data, sometimes in not very obvious ways.

Here’s a screenshot of Write, showing occasional clipping problems at the ends of lines:

It’s not perfect but it is mostly working. So far I made no attempt to use Windows 1.x style resources for the driver, which is why it looks a bit like Windows 2.0.

In the process, I learned to use WDEB386 and SYMDEB (they’re very similar but sometimes weirdly different), and I learned to both appreciate and dislike complex MASM macros that the driver uses a lot.

All in all, an interesting adventure in retro development.

Update: Below is more or less the same screenshot of Write in Windows 1.04 as above, but now using the aggressively cheerful Windows 1.0 colors and the default window decorations:

Later Update: Below is the PALETTE.EXE demo running on Windows 1.04. It uses dithering to display most colors, but with the relatively high resolution it works okay. I believe the driver does not try very hard to use a large palette of physical colors, given that it’s meant to be used with Windows 3.1 which has the palette manager. That could probably be changed.

We’re excited about what we’ve been working on and would love to share with the community where we’re at with this year’s release.

With new features to support Windows 11, new graphics capabilities, and other useful features like auto-start VMs, we’re gearing up for a new major release of Workstation.

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Join the discussion in our Tech Preview VMTN Community!

What’s New?

Windows 11 Support

VMware Workstation for Windows and Linux now support Windows 11 operating systems for x86_64 CPU types.

Virtual Trusted Platform Module

In order to support Windows 11 requirements, a Trusted Platform Module is required. With this release, we have enhanced our Virtual TPM module by incorporating ‘Fast Encryption’, key auto-gen and key storage via Keychain with a TPM 2.0 virtual device profile that is compatible with Windows 11 system requirements. Of course, vTPM device can be added to any VM, but that VM must have either Full or Fast VM encryption enabled.

Fast Encryption 

With the new ‘fast encryption’ mode, only the most critical parts of the virtual machine’s local storage space are encrypted, dramatically improving overall VM performance but providing a secure enclave for sensitive data such as a TPM device. Fast Encryption can be enabled for all VM types from the VM Settings. > Encryption window, or during the New VM walkthrough.

Encryption Key Auto-Generate and Store

To enhance the new fast encryption model, Workstation can auto-generate a password for the user, and the local keychain is used by default to store the encryption key, relieving the user from having to type it in whenever their VM boots.

Graphics Enhancements

OpenGL 4.3

Workstation for Windows and Linux, when used with a Linux VM that has a kernel of 5.18 or newer and Mesa 22.1.1, should notice that OpenGL now reports its version at 4.3 and OpenGL ES at 3.10.

Autostart VMs

Workstation introduces a feature specifically for launching user-defined virtual machines when the PC boots.

Head on over to the VMTN Community!

And that’s it!
Download the bits!
Let us know what you think in the Workstation Tech Preview community!

The post Workstation 22H2 Tech Preview appeared first on VMware Workstation Zealot.

(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)

In this edition of Superhero Bits:

• "Mrs. Marvel" star Iman Vellani argues with Marvel fans on Reddit.

• We might not have seen the last of the Pizza Poppa in the MCU.

• The Skrulls have been planning "Secret Invasion" for a long time.

• A recent "Batman" villain is getting a spin-off comic.

• All that and more!

Punchline: The Gotham Game Announced By DC Comics

In doing our last little bit of catching up when it comes to things that happened at SDCC this year, DC Comics announced a new series titled "Punchline: The Gotham Game," which is set to debut its first issue on October 25. This is notable because Punchline is a very new addition to Batman's rogues' gallery, having first appeared in 2020. Tini Howard and Blake Howard are set to pen the series, with artwork by Gleb Melnikov. You can get a glimpse of the artwork for the first issue above.

DC League Of Super-Pets Gets Promotional Video Filled With Nothing But Dogs

This weekend sees the release of the animated "DC League of Super-Pets." That has led to some very adorable marketing opportunities for the film. Namely, the above video features a ton of dogs playing around with various toys and such. It's remarkably simple but damned if the internet doesn't love a good pooch. Even if you don't plan on seeing the movie, this is very likely to put a smile on your face. Well played, Warner Bros.

The Mighty Thor Figure From Hot Toys Unveiled

The fine folks at Hot Toys have revealed a new figure from "Thor: Love and Thunder" that may well be worthy of some shelf space late next year. Natalie Portman's The Mighty Thor is getting a figure from the high-end toy company, and it appears as though they have captured the character's likeness quite well. The only downside is that the future isn't expected to arrive until the fourth quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024. As such, no price has been revealed yet and pre-orders are not yet available. But you can take a look at what's to come in the Instagram post above.

Dead Strange Takes The Spotlight In Multiverse Of Madness Blu-Ray Art

Even though it has been streaming for a little bit now on Disney+, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'' only arrived on Blu-ray this week. But for those who are interested in owning a physical copy of the film, that option is now available. And, in some cases, it will come with some pretty rad artwork from artist Cafu, as seen above. It features Dead Strange, aka zombie Strange, emerging from the ground towards the climax of the film. Unfortunately, Marvel didn't reveal exactly where to find the Blu-rays with this specific artwork, but be on the lookout. But you can download and print the artwork over at Marvel.com.

Chris Evans Has Some Advice For New Actors Entering The MCU

Chris Evans played Captain America in the MCU for the better part of a decade, with his run coming to an end in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame." So, what advice does Evans have for the many new actors entering this universe? Speaking with Cheddar News recently, the actor had a simple answer for that: enjoy it.

"Enjoy it, have fun. It's nice when you're making movies and there's this kind of baked-in-the-cake fan base, this group of people that are really excited to see the work, because they have a deep connection to the role. It's something that's really special to them. I mean, it adds a lot of pressure, but it's also a real joy when it works out, and you get to meet those people. I don't know, you just kind of feel this giant community that you get welcomed into. So, enjoy it."

The MCU remains the biggest thing in Hollywood so any actor playing one of the heroes or villains in Phase 4 and beyond is taking on the highest of high-profile gigs imaginable. Enjoying that ride seems like sage advice.

Ms. Marvel Star Iman Vellani Has Private Reddit Accounts To Argue With Fans

Iman Vellani recently entered the MCU as Kamala Khan in "Ms. Marvel" season 1 on Disney+. She also happens to be a huge, very legitimate Marvel fan and talked about that a little bit in her recent chat with Seth Meyers on "Late Night." Vellani is such a fan, in fact, that she goes so far as to make fake Reddit accounts so that she can argue and chat with other fans anonymously. "I do have a lot of private accounts, especially on Reddit. Just, like, arguing with people about theories, I'm like 'You don't even know what's coming, man! You're so wrong!' It's so liberating," she said. You can check out the full interview clip for yourself above.

We May Not Have Seen The Last Of Bruce Campbell's Pizza Poppa

Bruce Campbell reunited with his friend and director Sam Raimi on "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," with the actor playing the role of Pizza Poppa. We meet him when Strange and America Chavez are traversing the multiverse and, though just a cameo, the character proved to be quite popular. Well, it seems we may not have seen the last of him! Campbell, speaking with Variety recently, said that he is slated to return to the MCU in the future.

"By the way, there's so many things that you don't know. Mostly you don't know that I've signed a three-picture deal with Marvel. This is not a one-off thing. And I'm really gonna be in trouble for even saying that. So, don't get hung up on Pizza Poppa. He's not just a pizza vendor. Not even close!"

Now, is it possible that Campbell is just pulling our chains? Certainly. But it also doesn't seem impossible that as The Multiverse Saga continues to unfold, the Pizza Poppa could pop up once again.

Marvel And Funko Team Up For Animated Short, Black Light

Lastly, the folks at Marvel and Funko have unveiled a new short titled "Black Light," which features several Marvel heroes duking it out with Thanos, all of them in Pop! figure form. Specifically, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther are squaring off against the Mad Titan (complete with his Thanos-Copter). And, as the title implies, they end up fighting in a blacklight-filled spectacle, which is visually pretty neat. Check it out for yourself above.

Read this next: The 19 Greatest Movie Couples Of All Time Ranked

The post Superhero Bits: More Pizza Poppa In The MCU, Chris Evans Advice For New Marvel Actors & More appeared first on /Film.

Cybersleuths at Microsoft have found a link between the recent 'Raspberry Robin' USB-based worm attacks and EvilCorp, a notorious Russian ransomware operation sanctioned by the U.S. government.

read more

Checking out the Victor V-Saturn, a Japanese Sega Saturn game console sold by the company better known (to me) as JVC. The Vサターン RG-JX1 is a variant I've had my eye on for years. And the fact that it's modded with a Fenrir ODE is extra appealing since I've never used one. Until now! So here's a quick overview of the V-Saturn and a demonstration of the Fenrir ODE. And then the rest is just games, heh.

● LGR links:
https://www.patreon.com/LazyGameReviews
https://www.twitter.com/LazyGameReviews
https://www.facebook.com/LazyGameReviews

● All background music licensed from:
http://www.epidemicsound.com

#LGR #retro #videogames

Long before Robin Williams portrayed everyone's favorite nanny in "Mrs. Doubtfire" or the Genie with a thousand voices, he was Mork from Ork. First introduced on "Happy Days," Mork was an eccentric alien from the planet Ork, who was sent to Earth to learn about primitive civilizations. This was the perfect platform for Robin Williams to show off his unbelievable talent on riffing on just about anything -- pop culture, politics, and pretty much every other subject you can imagine.

The premise of an alien invading the idyllic times of "Happy Days" sounds nuts, but the audience loved it. After his appearance on the show, Mork was such a success that he got his own spin-off, titled "Mork and Mindy.

In an interview with Pioneers of Television, Williams (who passed away in 2014) reminisced about the show, and how he managed to get his outrageous ad-libs past censors.

'I Got The Gig'

According to Williams, "Happy Days" creator Gary Marshall created Mork at the suggestion of his son, who'd just had his mind blown wide open by a little known sci-fi fantasy flick called "Star Wars." Marshall ran with the idea, and began auditioning comedians for the role. When he spoke to Pioneers of Television, Williams recalled his experience auditioning for the part:

"I went in and basically just started talking in a weird helium voice, and sat on my head, and started off just playing because I went 'what have you got to lose?' And they went, 'Yes.' And I went 'Serious?' So, I got the gig."

After appearing in two "Happy Days" episodes, Mork was given his own show, "Mork and Mindy," where audiences got their first taste of Robin Williams as a leading man. The family-friendly "Happy Days" gave Robin Williams his big break, but as a stand-up comedian he preferred naughtier material. And back in '78, the censors were always watching and listening. However, Williams found a cunning way to sneak material past them.

'She Knows What That Means'

Williams was given a lot of room to ad-lib on the show, which was a great way to take advantage of his natural comedic talent. But the actor often ventured into risque territory that wasn't allowed on television. Williams didn't seem to care too much for the censorship, and admits to using foreign languages to sneak in the dirty stuff:

"Eventually they had to have a censor who spoke three or four different languages because I was sneaking things in in different languages. They went 'she knows what that means.' Really? Oh, sad. Because I was using – sometimes Mork would speak Yiddish, 'Was machst du, Mindy?' There must have been some Hassidim watching, 'Thank God, it's Thursday, we can watch!' But the idea that, you know, we would try different things, and it was just kind of to see what could get under the radar."

Most of what he tried to sneak in was surely caught by the censors, but I like to imagine he got one or two past them. There are many things to respect about Robin Williams, and we can add this to the list: he was undeniably hilarious, uniquely creative, and capable of making dirty jokes in enough languages to require the employment of a multi-lingual censor.

Read this next: 14 Awesome Comedies That Never Got Sequels

The post Robin Williams Found A Clever Way To Sneak Material Past Mork & Mindy's Censors appeared first on /Film.

While "Game of Thrones" maybe wasn't the most intellectually rigorous show ever developed -- it was mainly about sex, dragons, zombies, and smashing people's faces in as gruesome a manner as possible, after all -- I think enough time has passed since its unceremonious end that we can give it a little credit for the things it did right. Remember, those excellent early seasons were largely focused on the nature of power and the question of what kind of person makes a good ruler, forcing viewers to engage with the themes of the story just as much as it wowed us with awesome displays of spectacle. And more than simply upending audience expectations whenever it could, the misguided choices that led to the tragic fates of characters like Eddard Stark and his son, Robb, always felt consistent with the overall tone and aim of the series. The creators left it up to the fans to decide whether, say, Jaime Lannister was worthy of redemption or if Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) quest to reclaim her throne through fire and blood was actually noble or not.

As it turns out, the final season would return to this last question about the ambitious, would-be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms in dramatic and divisive fashion. For those who happened to be online when the fateful episode titled "The Bells" originally aired, the instant reactions to seeing Dany go full villain on us were absolutely priceless. Rarely before has social media felt so universally united in their backlash to a controversial plot development. 

But don't count Tyrion Lannister himself, Peter Dinklage, among those who feel sympathetic with jilted fans. According to the actor, they simply should've paid closer attention all along -- and he's not wrong!

'We Told You Not To Name Your Dog Khaleesi'

Though I would maintain that Dany's mask-off moment in the final episodes of "Game of Thrones" felt rather rushed, a product of the dwindling amount of time and space left in the series as opposed to a justified narrative decision on the part of showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, personally I've never once quibbled about her actual acts of villainy. Someone so hellbent on ruling a kingdom at all costs, whose claim was based entirely on her (largely inbred) bloodline and her winged weapons of mass destruction, probably wasn't the flawless hero many in the fanbase thought she was all along.

That would put me in the minority of those who disliked the "Game of Thrones" finale, especially considering all those silly parents who decided to name their children after "Khaleesi" (which is a title, not a name!) despite not knowing where the story was actually going. Actor Peter Dinklage had strong words about this particular aspect about the "Game of Thrones" backlash (as he usually does) when he talked to Independent in early 2022. Echoing similar statements he's made in the past, Dinklage had this to say:

"People were just mad because nobody wanted it to be over. I know a lot of people were supposedly surprised by the ending, but if you paid attention, the clues were there. We told you not to name your dog Khaleesi."

Yep, that's hard to argue with! As early as season 3, Dany had left plenty of red flags about her habit of sacking cities and killing hordes of people she deemed deserving of death. Here's a word of advice to those tuning into "House of the Dragon:" Maybe don't turn Rhaenyra into the next popular baby name just yet.

Read this next: The 14 Best Sci-Fi Shows On Amazon Prime

The post Peter Dinklage Thinks If You Were Mad About the Game of Thrones Finale, You Weren't Paying Attention appeared first on /Film.

In the age of years-long development cycles, it seems miraculous that Wolfenstein 3D, a game that spawned the modern-day FPS as we know it, was developed by six people in just six months. The story of Wolfenstein 3D’s development makes for a fascinating time capsule of those early days of game development - a milestone in gaming history that underlines just how much the industry has grown over the decades since.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves a bit. The origins of Wolfenstein 3D, a gloriously violent game that paved the way for the even more gloriously violent Doom, can be found in a somewhat more cutesy series of titles: the Commander Keen series. id Software made four of these side-scrolling platformers for MS-DOS in very quick succession between 1990 and 1991, and studio co-founder John Romero tells us that the team was definitely ready for a change.

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The US federal courts' document filing system was attacked by three hostile foreign actors, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler has told fellow lawmakers. According to Politico, Nadler made the first public disclosure of the cyberattack at a committee hearing on oversight of the Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD). The attack happened as part of a bigger security breach that led to a "system security failure" way back in 2020. Nadler has admitted during the hearing, however, that the committee only learned about the "startling breadth and scope" of the breach this March. 

Matthew Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, has testified at the hearing and said his division is "working very closely with the judicial conference and judges around the country to address this issue." As you can guess, lawmakers are worried about how many cases were impacted by the breach and how exactly the issue had affected them. "[T]his is a dangerous set of circumstances that has now been publicly announced, and we need to know how many…were dismissed," committee member Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told Olsen. When asked if the breach had affected any of the cases the NSD had handled, Olsen said he couldn't think of any in particular. 

There's still a lot of information about the breach that's kept under wraps — Senator Ron Wyden even wrote to the Administrative Office of the US Courts to express concerns about the fact that "the federal judiciary has yet to publicly explain what happened and has refused multiple requests to provide unclassified briefings to Congress." As Politico notes, though, the US Courts admitted in January 2021 that its Case Management/Electronic Case Files system was breached and even changed its filing procedures for sensitive documents. The publication also points out that this breach wasn't a part of the massive SolarWinds hacks, which are being blamed on a Russian state-sponsored group known as Nobelium.

Olsen said the Justice Department's investigators will keep the committee updated about any new developments, so we'll likely hear more information about the data breach in the future. 

Intel's Arc GPU lineup and the subsequent graphics products have faced major controversy ever since the lineup missed its initial launch schedule in 2021. Now some internal documents & a list of leaked roadmaps regarding the Arc graphics card lineup have been shared by Moore's Law is Dead which might give a sense of what's really going on at Intel's Graphics Division.

Intel Arc GPUs & Desktop Graphics Cards Allegedly "Original" Roadmap Detailed, Lineup Faces Major Delay, Talks of Refreshes & Cancellations

Intel Graphics' original marketing team was led by Chris Hook who stated that the first discrete graphics products will be available by 2020. Two years have passed since and the GPU lineup is far from public availability. The Graphics division is still spearheaded by Raja Koduri, a brilliant & highly ambitious, and visionary engineer who's applauded for his work by his former employer, AMD. Joining the ranks of Intel's Graphics marketing team were Tom Petersen (former technical marketing manager at NVIDIA) and Ryan Shrout (Chief Editor at PCPerspective).

Both Intel reps have been doing rounds over at YouTube and social channels to provide us an update on their current and upcoming Arc GPUs but while we have been told that Arc discrete graphics cards are getting ready for a major launch later this summer, things may not be going as planned for Intel's Graphics division.

Intel Arc Roadmap: July Launched Pushed Back To September?

As Moore's Law is Dead points out with several alleged documents & roadmaps that come directly from Intel, it looks like the Arc discrete graphics card lineup may have slipped past its original time-frame massively. In an Arc Graphics Desktop SKU schedule, we can see that a global launch of the lineup was scheduled by the end of July and would've included a total of four products for desktop consumers. This was supposed to be a hard launch with global availability of Arc GPUs from OEMs & SIs while a DIY launch was expected around the end of August.

The same roadmap also states that Intel's Arctic Sound-M, a lineup that was originally going to be on a far grander scheme with multiple high-end workstation SKUs planned under the Xe-HP brand but was later canned, would be launching on 26th July but only yesterday, Intel provided another teaser of its Arctic Sound-M discrete GPUs which will be incorporated within server racks from OEMs such as Supermicro. So this kind of makes the roadmap believable considering there was something on Intel's graphics roadmap agenda that happened close to the expected date.

We have a sneak peek for you Graphics fans out there, coming from @CodeNative. Be one of the first to see what 10 Intel Data Center GPUs, codenamed Arctic Sound-M (ATS-M) will look like in a @Supermicro_SMCI server! https://t.co/W2FwFN8VJW pic.twitter.com/qOUFLfmzcs

— Intel Graphics (@IntelGraphics) July 28, 2022

Our data center GPU code-named Arctic Sound-M has started production and is now shipping to customers supporting a diverse range of workloads, starting with media streaming and cloud gaming, followed by support for AI visual inference and virtual desktops.

Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, Q2 2022 Earnings Call

An interesting event is known as the "Desktop Launch Event: The Arc Experience" was also planned close to SIGGRAPH 2022 in the coming month which would've included press deep dives and a customer showcase panel. That may have been slipped to late September as the only customer showcase that Intel themselves has talked about is the "Intel Truck" with several Arc-powered PCs which will be heading out to LANFest though that event is scheduled for late September.

Intel Arc Desktop Launch Rumored Schedule (Image Credits: Moore's Law is Dead):

Intel's Initial Arc Global Launch Was Supposed To Include Four Desktop SKUs

So let's talk about those four SKUs that were going to see an alleged global launch this month. These include the following:

• SKU 1: Intel Arc A770
• SKU 2: Intel Arc A750
• SKU 3: Intel Arc A580
• SKU 6: Intel Arc A380

Intel Arc A-Series Desktop Graphics Card Lineup 'Rumored':

Graphics Card Variant	GPU Variant	GPU Die	Execution Units	Shading Units (Cores)	Memory Capacity	Memory Speed	Memory Bus	TGP	Price
Arc A770	Xe-HPG 512EU (TBD)	Arc ACM-G10	512 EUs (TBD)	4096 (TBD)	16 GB GDDR6	16 Gbps	256-bit	225W	$349-$399 US
Arc A770	Xe-HPG 512EU (TBD)	Arc ACM-G10	512 EUs (TBD)	4096 (TBD)	8 GB GDDR6	16 Gbps	256-bit	225W	$349-$399 US
Arc A750	Xe-HP3G 448EU (TBD)	Arc ACM-G10	448 EUs (TBD)	3584 (TBD)	8 GB GDDR6	16 Gbps	256-bit	225W	$299-$349 US
Arc A580	Xe-HPG 256EU (TBD)	Arc ACM-G10	256 EUs (TBD)	2048 (TBD)	8 GB GDDR6	16 Gbps	128-bit	175W	$200-$299 US
Arc A380	Xe-HPG 128EU (TBD)	Arc ACM-G11	128 EUs	1024	6 GB GDDR6	15.5 Gbps	96-bit	75W	$129-$139 US
Arc A310	Xe-HPG 64 (TBD)	Arc ACM-G11	64 EUs (TBD)	512 (TBD)	4 GB GDDR6	16 Gbps	64-bit	75W	$59-$99 US

We have almost mostly confirmed five SKUs within the Arc desktop discrete graphics card family including the most entry-level Arc A310. Intel has confirmed the Arc A380, Arc A750, and the Arc A770 but we have full evidence through leaked benchmarks that the Arc A580 exists too. We have seen the Arc A770 Limited Edition, Arc A750 Limited Edition, and Arc A380 in two custom flavors, 1 of which is already available in retail but limited to the Chinese market. This is far from a global launch. The DT SKU Schedule roadmap states that the four SKUs were meant to be available in SI and OEM PCs by July 2022 following a DIY launch in August but that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.

In fact, Intel has stated that they only just received the Limited Edition models which will be sold by them and certain retail partners at the start. As for what's happening in the DIY scene, well it's a bit complicated. The Arc A380 for example was supposed to have at least five AIB models prepared at its launch however, there's only one ready for retail so far by a China-specific manufacturer.

The more prominent names such as ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, etc have yet to start offering their custom designs. I'll confirm what Moore's Law is Dead says here most manufacturers aren't being communicated correctly by Intel and most of them don't even know what the final launch schedule is. I have talked with four different manufacturers over the past few weeks to see if they have Arc A380 custom models ready and all they were able to say was that they will have product pages go live in a few weeks but they weren't sure about the availability at all. So first up, you are missing the expected "July" launch for the Arc A380 and secondly, your partners in the DIY market aren't even sure when their own products will go on shelves.

For AXG, while we will not hit our GPU unit target, we remain on track to deliver over $1 billion in revenue this year. In Q2, we started to ramp Intel Arc graphics for laptops and OEMs, including Samsung, Lenovo, Acer, HP and Asus. COVID-related supply chain issues and our own software-readiness challenges caused availability delays that we continue to work to overcome.

Intel Arc A5 and A7 desktop cards will start to ship in Q3. Our energy-efficient blockchain accelerator Blockscale achieved a major milestone in Q2 with revenue shipments to our lead customers, going from tape-in to shipping in less than a year. We expect to ship millions of units this year, not originally in our forecast.

Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, Q2 2022 Earnings Call

Meanwhile, Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, reassured us during the grim Q2 2022 earnings call that Arc A5 and A7 desktop graphics cards will start to ship in Q3 2022 so we have up till September to see if that ends up being the case.

Intel Arc Desktop Launch Rumored SKUs Schedule (Image Credits: Moore's Law is Dead):

Intel Arc Desktop Launch Rumored AIB Launch (Image Credits: Moore's Law is Dead):

Intel Arc Refresh & Cancellation Rumors Mounting Up

Given that Intel's Arc GPUs and the graphics lineup have been off to such a bad start, there are already rumors following that Intel themselves would cancel Arc soon after its launch. I would say that it is still very early to say where Arc would go and while Arc is definitely not in the best shape or form, a company like Intel won't want to give up on such a huge project just one generation after release. But I think it's more important for Intel to communicate the right news to its customers rather than building up the hype that could end up hurting the brand in its infancy.

There are also rumors of Intel's future Arc GPUs such as Battlemage and Celestial being pushed back due to similar challenges and an Alchemist Refresh for mobile (and even desktops) being launched in the first half of 2023. This would mean that Alchemist would have to compete against NVIDIA's and AMD's next-gen GPU solutions which will be miles ahead of Arc and the only saving grace for Intel would be to price it at a peanuts rate. Intel's software side of Arc has definitely been a major bottleneck but we still hope that Intel's Arc and Graphics Division can make a big comeback from all this negativity and the right thing to do right now is to be clear about what's going on, not only with its partners but also its future customers!

The post Intel Arc GPU Rumors: Desktop Graphics Card Roadmap, AIB Designs, Alchemist Refresh & An Official Q3 Shipping Date by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Microsoft-owned GitHub this week announced new npm security improvements, amid an increase in incidents involving malicious npm packages.

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"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" may boldly go where no man has gone before, but actor Paul Wesley wasn't quite so bold when it came to approaching a certain captain. Wesley plays Captain Kirk — the same Captain Kirk played by original series star William Shatner. But when the 40-year-old actor found himself seated next to the "Star Trek" veteran aboard a recent flight, he found that he simply couldn't start talking shop.

"I was still playing a little bit coy about it," he told Collider. "I was under this sworn secrecy, NDA madness, so I wasn't able to be like, 'Hey, so, as you know, I'm playing Kirk, give me the tips.' I had to kind of tiptoe, and I had to really play it dumb in a way."

Keeping your upcoming role a secret from friends and family is one thing, but keeping it from Captain Kirk himself? That must have taken a lot of restraint. "I wanted so badly to just talk to him about it so openly," he added.

If there's one thing Shatner could have helped him with, it's the role of Captain Kirk. After all, he played the iconic starship captain for almost 30 years, from the original series debut back in 1966 to "Star Trek Generations" in 1994. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, and Wesley instead held onto his secret casting. But there's another good reason not to bother the "Trek" icon.

Not-So-Boldly Going Where Shatner Had Gone Before

Although Wesley was about to board the USS Enterprise for the first time, William Shatner had just come back from a real-life space mission: a space flight aboard Jeff Bezos' rocket, New Shepard. Wesley continued to Collider:

"I didn't want to bother him. He literally just got back from space, and he was on this plane, and we happened to be sitting next to each other. I also didn't want to sit there and talk his ear off for four hours."

That's right — at the age of 90, Shatner joined the Blue Origin space flight to become the oldest human in space.

"I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened," said Shatner following the 11-minute flight. "It's extraordinary, extraordinary. It's so much larger than me and life. It hasn't got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death. To see the blue color whip by you, and now you're staring into blackness ... everybody in the world needs to do this."

Ultimately, Wesley chose not to quiz Shatner about his time as Kirk, instead having a more casual chat with the man who boldly went there before. Wesley went on:

"We talked a little bit, but it was really less about Kirk. I'm sure he's been talking about Kirk for the last however many years and I think it was really more about just sort of chatting ... "He's a classy guy. When the announcement came out that I was playing Kirk, he tweeted, 'Congratulations.' I just thought that was such a classy move. He didn't have to do that at all."

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 1 is out now on Paramount+.

Read this next: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

The post Paul Wesley Couldn't Ask William Shatner For Any Captain Kirk Advice appeared first on /Film.