Driving fast cars is meant to be one of the many things secret agent James Bond is skilled at, but it turns out 007 actor Pierce Brosnan made a rookie error with the beautiful Aston Martin DB5 he got to drive in 1995’s Goldeneye.
As reported by Digital Spy, from a tidbit picked up in the Esquire watch-along of the film with Brosnan, the actor revealed that he forgot to take off the handbrake while driving the Aston Martin in one scene–and not just once.
“I drive up, and I get out, and they say, ‘Cut. Do you want to drive the car back?’ and I say, ‘Yeah, I’ll drive it back’. So, I get out, do my little Bond quip, get back, reverse the car, go back to [my] starting position. We did this about five, six times, and on the sixth go round I could smell burning.”
Yes, far from handling his car with the suave grave we expect from Bond, Brosnan had left the handbrake on for multiple takes in the very expensive car–in front of a large audience that included the car’s owner, no less.
Brosnan isn’t entirely sure what happened next between the car, its mistreatment and its no-doubt upset owner, because he “scarpered off into the night”, in his own words. “I’m sure [the car’s owner] was taken care of by the company,” he said. “I hope he was anyway.”
Once again, Sony has moved the release date of its long-awaited Uncharted movie, but this shift is different. The movie studio has announced that the Uncharted movie has now moved forward to a release date of July 16, 2021.
The action-adventure movie was previously scheduled to premiere on October 8, 2021, so it’s been moved up by around three months. The release date changed as part of a wider Sony shakeup that saw the release date of the Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel move to November 5, 2021, with the Into The Spider-Verse sequel shifting to October 7, 2022.
The Uncharted movie has been in one form of production or another since 2008 or earlier, so it’s been a very long time coming. The film had been delayed numerous times over the years, but this time it’s moving up the schedule. The Uncharted movie had always sounded like a summer blockbuster, so the new July release date seems fitting.
The Uncharted movie has shuffled through seven different directors and numerous scriptwriters over the years. The cast is now set, however, with Spider-Man actor Tom Holland attached to play a young Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas also has a role in the movie alongside Sophia Ali (Grey’s Anatomy) as the female lead. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actress Tati Gabrielle has also come aboard in a major role.
The Uncharted film will be directed by Ruben Fleischer, who previously directed the Zombieland movies and Venom for Sony. It’s written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who wrote the original Iron Man movie.
Avengers: Endgame is the most commercially successful movie of all time, with $2.79 billion at the global box office. The movie was extremely expensive to produce, as well, but the epic comic book film made enough money to become the most profitable film in history.
Deadline’s sources report that Endgame made $890 million in profit, which sets a new record for any film ever released. The P&L sheet states that Endgame cost $356 million to produce, with a further $175 million going toward paying cast and staff before residuals. Marvel reportedly paid $155 million to market the movie around the world.
In total, Endgame cost $899 million to produce, covering the production budget, actor and staff salaries, marketing, and other costs, according to the report. You can see a full breakdown of the expense sheet here at Deadline.
Endgame, which was released in theatres one year ago this month, raked in $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office over its first weekend, which covered the film’s entire production, marketing, and theatrical costs.
One actor who really benefitted from the movie was Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr., who is said to have taken home $55 million due to the nature of his contract being tied to box office grosses. He was paid $20 million up front to appear in the film, the report said. “Many” of the cast members also received bonuses tied to Endgame’s box office performance.
The world is a very different place one year on from Endgame’s release. Currently, most movie theatres around the globe are closed due to the COVID-19 crisis.
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It’s the last episode of New Releases for April, and some war games have been itching to finally deploy. We’ve got Gears Tactics, Sakura Wars, and the Xbox One and PC versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered to check out. It’s also the return of a retro classic with Streets of Rage 4. If you’ve been itching to get behind the wheel of a vehicle recently, you can check out SnowRunner too.
Gears Tactics — April 28
Available on: PC
Gears Tactics turns the Gears of War shooter formula into a tactics game, giving you a squad of customizable COGs who will carry out your orders against the Locust. It’s not just cannon fodder they’ll be facing, though: expect to encounter big Brumaks and Corpsers during the campaign too. Tactics is coming Game Pass for PC on launch day, but the Xbox One version will launch later this year.
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Sakura Wars — April 28
Available on: PS4
This soft reboot of the long-running series is finally coming to the West, putting you in the shoes of protagonist Seijuro Kamiya. It’s the first time the games have offered direction action commands in combat, as Kamiya fights alongside the Imperial Combat Revue’s Flower Division. Outside of battle, he can explore the Ginza district and foster relationships with his fellow fighters.
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SnowRunner — April 28
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
If you’ve ever wanted to drive big vehicles in the most extreme environments on Earth, SnowRunner is your game. The open-world driving game puts you in the driver’s seat of real-world brands like Cat, Chevy, and more as you haul cargo through mud, over snowy mountains, and across frozen lakes. You can drive solo or convoy with friends online.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered — April 30
Available on: Xbox One, PC
The campaign is already out on PS4, but now it’s time for Xbox One and PC players to revisit the story. This remaster includes up to 4K resolution and HDR support, plus uncapped framerates and ultrawide monitor support for the PC version. You’ll get Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle when you pick up the remaster on any platform–that includes some goodies for the first Modern Warfare and Warzone.
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Streets of Rage 4 — April 30
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
It’s been 26 years since Streets of Rage 3, but Axel, Blaze, and Adam are ready for round four. Adam’s daughter Cherry joins the roster for this outing, along with Floyd, who definitely isn’t Jax from Mortal Kombat. Streets of Rage 4 offers four-play co-op, of course, but it also includes a Battle mode, which lets you throw down against each other.
Fortnite‘s recent Travis Scott event was a gigantic, unprecedented success for the free-to-play battle royale game. Developer Epic Games announced that more than 12.3 million people were logged into the game at the same time for the concert, which sets a new concurrent record.
To put this number into perspective, the free-to-play PC juggernaut Counter Strike: Global Offensive recently set a concurrent player record of 924,000 users. No one doubted Fortnite’s unthinkable popularity, but these new numbers for the Travis Scott concert reinforce what a behemoth the game really is in terms of scale.
Over 12.3 million concurrent players participated live in Travis Scott’s Astronomical, an all-time record!
The Travis Scott Astronomical event premiered on April 24, with repeat shows taking place every day thereafter until April 26. Everyone who attended any of the Astronomical events received an Astroworld Cyclone glider and two free loading screens, while a skin based on Travis Scott, including emotes and more, was available to buy in the game.
Since its highly successful Steam launch just under a month ago, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord has been busy patching. In the 27 days since release, the game has had 19 patches and hotfixes, as well as introducing alpha and beta branches to streamline the patching process. The e1.2.0 patch is the result of the beta being rolled into the main Steam version, while further updates are happening on the beta branch.
The biggest fixes made in the new patch have to do with crashes, something the game has struggled with since launch, but has been proactive in fixing. A number of small checks and balances for multiplayer have been added too:
A heap of other fixes and quality-of-life tweaks from the beta have also moved over to the main release, and you can check the full list here.
New changes are being trialed in the beta now, including major performance upgrades that aim to reduce loading time and game performance in battles. The game will also now be stopping you from stealing equipment from party members.
The beta 1.3.0 additions are extensive, including tweaks to the AI, art, and overall quality-of-life in the in-depth medieval simulator. These changes will be tested in the beta for at least a week before they’re rolled out in game, but if you want to get your hands on them first you can opt into the beta branch by accessing the game properties in your Steam library.
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Infinity Ward has share more details on the April 28 update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone, including the preliminary patch notes and the file size.
In a blog post, Infinity Ward clarified that the update is about 15 GB in size, and it will be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The update delivers the Data Pack 1, and it must be downloaded to keep playing the game. This appears to be a console-only update.
In addition to the Data Pack, the April 28 update will include a series of bug fixes and changes (across console and PC). One of the big ones is that the speed and size of the Warzone gas circle has been “adjusted,” but Infinity Ward did not provide any further details.
In terms of bug fixes, the April 28 update takes care of an issue that could cause players to lose the ability to select a favorite faction from the Operator menu. It also fixes a bug that could cause watches to appear in the wrong direction when using a gesture. There are also a variety of fixes for problems related to challenges and weapon unlocks, among other things.
The full patch notes will be released later, but for now, you can check out a preview below.
April 28 Modern Warfare Patch Notes Preview:
Fix for a bug where PC players using a Vega64 GPU could see corrupted outlines around their character models and weapons.
Fix for a bug where selecting the USEF 1 skin for the Mil-Sim Operator appears as the default skin in Co-op
Adjusted the speed and sizing of the circle in Warzone
Fix for a bug where completing the completionist challenges for the SKS are unlocking the associated camos for the Renetti
Fix for a bug where unlocking camos for the SKS was inconsistent with other camo challenges for marksman rifles
Fixed a bug where the “Hard Wired” skin for Alex would appear in thermals while Cold Blooded is equipped
Fixed a bug where some watches were appearing the wrong direction when gesturing
Fixed a bug where players could lose the option to pick their favorite Faction in the Operator menu
Fixed a bug where white lighting could be seen while moving or firing a weapon near specific locations
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Days Gone, one of 2019’s biggest PS4 exclusives, has been out for a year now, and developer Bend Studios is celebrating the game’s success. In a new tweet, the studio revealed that players have racked up 200 million hours in the game, and showed off some other play stats.
In the tweet, embedded below, Bend Studios thanks its player base for playing the game and using photo mode to send screenshots to them, and gives us some insight into how the game has been played.
A year ago, players took their first ride on the Broken Road.
Thanks for sharing all the great memories you’ve had in #DaysGone and amazing photo mode screenshots! We love all of you! 💕🏍️ pic.twitter.com/tFohFefdcy
45 million hoardes and 32 million infestations have been cleared, along with 30 million ambush camps and 30 million nero checkpoints. Photomode has been used by 1 million players, and 600,000 have opted for the advanced features.
Along with this, players have earned 100 million trophies in the game, which is a huge number.
The record-setting Avengers: Endgame released in theatres one year ago this month. It’s a very different world today, with theatres closed around the world due to COVID-19. In a new interview with Deadline, co-director Joe Russo reflected on how he believes the movie theatre business will once again thrive, but there will complications in the coming years.
“Theatrical is going to be complicated over the next year or two, but we don’t think it’s going anywhere. We will always want that communal experience,” he said.
Joe Russo said the movie theatre business is facing greater competition from the likes of Netflix and other digital platforms, and this could shake up the traditional movie-going business. The quality of films released on digital platforms instead of in theatres is getting “higher and higher,” Russo reflected. The newer, younger audience audience has grown accustomed to watching movies and TV shows at home on smaller screens. “This next generation isn’t afraid to watch content on their phones and computers,” he said.
For Endgame, Russo said he and his co-director brother Anthony were trying to replicate the feeling they had as teenagers at the cinema.
“Most special about Endgame was trying to replicate the feeling we had as kids and teens in movie theaters, the emotions we felt after slipping into a dark theater with a bunch of people we didn’t know and being inspired, moved, and made to laugh and cry and leaving with a feeling that stayed with us for days,” he said.
Joe and Anthony’s latest movie is the action film Extraction, starring Thor actor Chris Hemsworth. The Russo brothers produced the film, and they pointed out that Netflix allowed the film to have a bigger budget than it might have under the traditional studio theatrical model.
“I would argue we got double the budget from Netflix that we would have gotten theatrically,” Joe Russo said, noting that director Sam Hargrave had never directed before and this would have given studios pause about increasing the budget.
Joe Russo said one issue with the current movie market is that film studios are using “outdated models,” including box office results, to determine if a movie is successful or not.
“The greatest thing that Netflix has done is take away box office from defining the success or quality of a film,” he said. “Movies are having trouble being funded in the old way and models don’t support it anymore. Netflix is supporting those films, in a way and at a financial level we’ve not seen before.”
Joe Russo added that he doesn’t like to get drawn into the debate between theatrical and digital because it’s not helpful and the audience largely does not care. “It’s a bad habit we adopted from years of film folks thumbing their noses at TV and vice versa. Some of the best quality storytelling we’ve ever had is on television right now through digital distribution,” he said.
One of the newly established Xbox development studios, The Initiative, continues to hire big-name talent for its first project. The southern California studio has hired Sylvia Chambers–who worked on Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy at Naughty Dog and Battlefield V with DICE–to become an animator at the company.
Chambers’ LinkedIn page states that she is working at The Initiative on a contract basis, having started in April 2020. In addition to working in games, Chambers worked as a shot creator for Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok at the pre-visualization studio The Third Floor.
The Initiative was announced at E3 2018 as part of Microsoft’s wider announcement of new studios and acquisitions. The company, which is based in Santa Monica, says its ambition is “about craft, creating story, innovating, and looking ahead to the next big thing.” While the company is owned by Microsoft, it claims to operate independently.
In addition to Chambers, The Initiative has assembled a big team of talent for their first game. Red Dead Redemption writer Christian Cantamessa is contributing to the script, while God of War lead producer Brian Westergaard is also working at the studio, alongside Dan Neuburger (a 12-year veteran of Crystal Dynamics), Blake Fischer (a 16-year Microsoft veteran in publishing), and Lindsey McQueeney (former recruiter at Google, Crystal Dynamics, and 38 Studios). Drew Murray, who was game director on Sunset Overdrive, is the design director at The Initiative.
