Anthony Mackie Talks About Falcon And The Winter Soldier TV Show, Says It’s Like A 6-Hour Movie

MCU actor Anthony Mackie has shared a little more insight on the upcoming Marvel TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Speaking to Variety, Mackie said the show–which reportedly carries a $150 million budget–is being filmed like a movie.

“We’re shooting it exactly like a movie,” he said. “Everybody who had worked on TV before was like, ‘I’ve never worked on a TV show like this.’ The way in which we were shooting, it feels exactly like we were shooting the movie cut up into the show. So instead of a two-hour movie, a six or eight-hour movie.”

Mackie also teased that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which also stars Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier, will feature stunt sequences that are “on another level.”

“Every show, every movie, they just push it–they push the envelope so much,” Mackie said.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was filming in Europe until March, when production shut down to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Mackie said he hopes to return to work soon, but there is no word when yet when cameras may begin rolling.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is being made for Disney Plus. It’s not the only MCU TV show coming to the streaming service, as Marvel is also producing a show about Vision and Scarlet Witch called WandaVision. Both shows are slated to premiere in 2020, but that seems unlikely now that production has stopped with no firm plan to begin again.

TV shows based on Loki, Hawkeye, Ms Marvel, and She-Hulk are also in the works for Disney Plus.

Marvel’s next movie, Black Widow, is finished and was scheduled to have already been released. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis, Marvel pushed the release out to November 2020.

Now Playing: Best Shows And Movies To Stream For June 2020 – Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, Shudder

Family Guy’s Cleveland Actor Steps Down From The Role

The actor who plays the Black character Cleveland Brown on Family Guy, Mike Henry, has announced he’s stepping down from voicing the role on Fox’s long-running animated show. Writing on Twitter, Henry–who is white–said, “I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color.”

Henry also voices the Latina maid Consuela on Family Guy. On the spin-off program The Cleveland Show, Henry voices Cleveland and his Black stepson Rallo Tubbs. Since this announcement was just made, there is no word on how things might move forward and if Fox will recast the role on Family Guy. The Cleveland Show was canceled in 2013.

Henry is just the latest big-name white actor to step down from voicing a character of color on an animated TV show. The Simpsons veteran Hank Azaria will no longer voice Apu, Carl, and Akira, among other non-white characters. The Simpsons producers have committed to wider changes to their casting. In the future, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voicing non-white characters.

Additionally, actress Jenny Slate has announced she will no longer voice the young Black girl Missy on Netflix’s Big Mouth. The part will be recast with a Black actor.

GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.

Now Playing: Best Shows And Movies To Stream For June 2020 – Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, Shudder

Xbox Director Responds To Fable 4, Perfect Dark Rumors

Xbox marketing director Aaron Greenberg has responded to a recent internet discussion around the possibility of Fable 4 and a new Perfect Dark game. Greenberg said on Twitter that he understands people are “hungry for news” in the lead-up to the Xbox Series X first-party games showcase in July, but he acknowledged that you shouldn’t get too excited for those unannounced games.

Newly discovered placeholder Twitter accounts for “Fable” and “Perfect Dark Game” are not what they seem to be, Greenberg said. He pointed out that these accounts have been inactive “for years.” The executive also mentioned that it’s standard operating procedure for Microsoft to register social accounts for its franchises, even if the company has no plans for announcements around them.

The Perfect Dark account was created by a fan. Xbox veteran Ken Lobb, whose name is the inspiration for the Klobb weapon in GoldenEye, followed the account, which led people to believe it might be the genuine article. However, it’s only a fan account. The owner said they would give it up to Microsoft if they asked, but that doesn’t appear to have happened yet.

The Fable account, however, was seemingly created by Microsoft as a measure of brand-protection.

It is widely rumored that Forza Horizon’s second team at Playground is working on Fable 4. In 2018, Eurogamer reported that the game is a story- and character-focused open-world action RPG that has a development team of more than 200 people.

The Fable series was created by Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios. Molyneux has since left Microsoft, while Lionhead was closed down after the cancellation of Fable Legends.

The Xbox Series X July showcase is expected to bring news about Halo Infinite–a launch title for the Series X–as well as Microsoft’s other exclusive games.

Now Playing: Xbox Series X – Smart Delivery Trailer

The Last Of Us 2 Won’t Get Story DLC, But An Online Mode Is Coming

The Last of Us Part II is a huge sales success, but developer Naughty Dog won’t follow it up with any DLC. Writer-director Neil Druckmann told Kinda Funny that The Last of Us Part II won’t have any story DLC. The 2013 original game had story DLC in the very well received Left Behind, which was part of the game’s Season Pass, but there are “no plans” for anything similar for the sequel.

“No, with Last of Us I think we had some Season Pass or something that said ahead of time we have some story DLC–no there’s no plans for that [with The Last of Us Part II],” Druckmann said.

While The Last of Us Part II seemingly won’t have any story DLC, Naughty Dog will expand the game with a multiplayer mode of some kind in the future. Naughty Dog has said the game will get a separate online experience down the road through some kind of standalone title.

With the launch of the PlayStation 5 coming up in a few months, it seems the next-generation console could be where the new Last of Us II multiplayer game shows up, but nothing is confirmed yet. The Last of Us Part II will be among the thousands of PS4 games that will be playable on PS5.

The Last of Us Part II sold more than 4 million copies over its first three days to set new records at PlayStation, outpacing other exclusives like Spider-Man, God of War, and Uncharted 4.

For more on The Last of Us Part II, check out editor Phil Hornshaw’s recent opinion piece, “The Last Of Us 2’s Obsession With A Gamer Gotcha Undermines Its Characters.”

Now Playing: The Last Of Us Part II Video Review

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Top New Video Games Out On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Month — July 2020

If this episode of New Releases is any indication, you won’t run out of new video games to play anytime soon. We’re taking a look at the month of July, which kicks off with Marvel’s Iron Man VR. You can also take to the skies in Rocket Arena just over a week after that. July is also time to protect your land, whether it’s an occupied island in Ghost of Tsushima or the Mushroom Kingdom in Paper Mario: The Origami King. Finally, the month wraps up with the Destroy All Humans remake.

Marvel’s Iron Man VR — July 3

Available on: PS4

After a few delays, Iron Man VR is finally giving us a chance to step into Tony Stark’s suit. As you’d expect, the HUD inside the PSVR headset resembles Stark’s FRIDAY technology, and you can use the Move Controllers to aim and fire your various weapons. Expect to see other Marvel staples like Nick Fury in the story too.

More Coverage:

Rocket Arena — July 14

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Rocket Arena
Rocket Arena

Rocket Arena is a 3-on-3 shooter with just one weapon at your side: a rocket launcher. Thing is, each character has their own special rockets with unique effects. You can also customize your favorite hero with outfits, launcher parts, and stat boosts.

More Coverage:

Ghost Of Tsushima — July 17

Available on: PS4

Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima

This is the next PS4 exclusive from Sly Cooper and Infamous developer Sucker Punch. You play as Jin, a samurai looking to liberate his island from Mongol invaders. You’ll do this with a combination of stealth and in-your-face katana combat. You’ll need to switch stances and time your attacks to parry and defeat your many enemies.

More Coverage:

Paper Mario: The Origami King — July 17

Available on: Switch

Paper Mario: The Origami King

The Mushroom Kingdom has been usurped again, this time by the eponymous Origami King Olly. Mario will have to use a new ring-based combat system to defeat enemies and bosses if he hopes to take the kingdom back. The origami style applies to the world too: you’ll be pulling and bending the environment to solve puzzles and explore.

More Coverage:

Destroy All Humans — July 28

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Destroy All Humans!

This is a remake of the original Destroy All Humans from 2005. Once again, you’ll be stepping into the space boots of alien invader Crypto as he extracts DNA from the residents of a midwestern town, using all types of alien weapons and gadgets. This remake includes content cut from the original game too.

More Coverage:

July has only just arrived, so we’ve got a lot more games to cover. Next week, New Releases will take a look at the console release of CrossCode and a very anticipated sequel, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise. GameSpot’s Play for All event is continuing through the new month as well.

Now Playing: Top New Video Games Releasing On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Month — July 2020

Tales Of Monkey Island By Telltale Has Returned To Digital Stores With A Discount

Tales of Monkey Island, the episodic Monkey Island series from Telltale Games, has been unavailable since the developer and publisher closed, along with many other Telltale series. But now, the game has returned to digital storefronts, and it’s currently discounted by 50% until July 10.

The game is available again on both Steam and GOG, and is currently discounted from $20 to $10. This is the complete collection, so it contains all five episodes, originally released in 2009. The game was released on the Wii and PS3 as well, along with mobile. For now, it only seems to be available on PC.

The developer is listed as LCG Entertainment, and the publisher as Athlon Games. LCG Entertainment handles the parts of Telltale’s back catalog that have been re-released.

While not held in the same regard as the earlier Monkey Island titles, Tales of Monkey Island was generally well-liked, and received an 8.5/10 in GameSpot’s review. This means that the whole Monkey Island series is now available digitally, as The Curse of Monkey Island received a digital release in 2018.

Several Telltale Games releases remain unavailable, including Tales from the Borderlands, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Game of Thrones.

One old Telltale project, The Wolf Among Us 2, has been resurrected, and has been restarted from scratch.

Now Playing: Tales of Monkey Island Official Trailer

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Ori And The Will Of The Wisps Devs Talk About Whether The Game Will Come To Switch

Ori and the Will of the Wisps released early this year on Xbox One and PC via Xbox Game Pass, and has since been played by 2 million people. The game is a sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, which was released for Switch in 2019 despite being published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Switch port of the first game was well-received, and a member of developer Moon Studios has now opened up about whether the sequel is likely to receive similar treatment.

In a Reddit AMA, developer Moon Studios lead engineer Gennadiy Korol answered a question about the sequel coming to Switch. He says that while the team “loves” Nintendo’s console, they are not currently working on a port. “Right now we don’t have anything to share when it comes to Ori and the Will of the Wisps port,” he says. “If it were to ever happen though I can tell you that it would be (an) extremely difficult port to make run at 60fps.”

Ori and the Will of the Wisps faced frame rate difficulties on a base model Xbox One, which would make a Switch port difficult.

Elsewhere in the AMA, lead designer Chris McEntee discusses the possibility of Ori 3, saying that nothing is currently in the works. “We really felt that we told the story that we wanted to tell–Ori’s story–across the two games,” he writes. “We’ve left the door cracked open a bit for a potential continuation, though we don’t have anything specific to share at this point and time.”

Microsoft has previously said that the plan going forward is for Xbox’s first-party studios to make console exclusives. Moon Studios, however, is not owned by Microsoft.

Moon Studios’ next game will not be a fantasy title, and will reportedly be very different from the Ori games.

Now Playing: Ori And The Will Of The Wisps Video Review

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Bugsnax Song Writer Explains How Band Kero Kero Bonito Crafted The PS5 Game’s Catchy Theme Song

Of all the games shown off during the PlayStation 5 reveal event, the one that has stuck in a lot of people’s heads is Bugsnax–not just because of its cute aesthetic or interesting-looking gameplay, but because of its theme song. Aside from all the critters shown off, the trailer’s most prominent bug was an earworm.

The game, which is also coming to PS4 and PC and is developed by Young Horses (Octodad: Dadliest Catch), enlisted indie band Kero Kero Bonito to compose the song. In a new post on the PlayStation Blog, song-writer Gus Lobban has talked about how the catchy tune was written.

The song, which is called It’s Bugsnax!, was recorded from home, and Lobban says that the starting point was “the D-Am chords the song rests on”. There’s a lot of technical discussion in this post, by Lobban also digs into the themes and mood he was going for. “The I-Vm chord change and the Mixolydian mode it implies conjure a ‘lost world’ atmosphere to me,” he says. “Positive, but with a definite note (pun intended) of mystical intrigue, much like Bugsnax itself.”

“We couldn’t meet up to record the vocals, so It’s Bugsnax! was the first KKB song to use our remote lockdown recording setup,” Lobban continues, noting that the band’s vocalist, Sarah Bonito, “nailed the vocals the first time.” The lyrics were written out by hand, and were heavily inspired by the theme song for Octodad.

Lobban said that he didn’t know that Bugsnax would be a part of the PS5 reveal when he was working on it, saying that he just knew it would be shown at what was being referred to as “the event”. The song’s reception has pleased the band, he says: “within days of the announcement I’d seen it soundtracking memes, covered by metal and folk artists and reacted to by toddlers. The latter was quite moving, since some of my giddiest childhood memories were fueled by the excitement of new video games, and contributing to someone else’s experience of that is really, really special.”

Bugsnax is due to release later this year. The game will have a mystery at its core, according to one of its developers.

Now Playing: Bugsnax Trailer | Sony PS5 Reveal Event

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A Remake Of The Princess Bride Is Coming, But It’s Not What You Expect

A new version the iconic 1987 fantasy movie The Princess Bride is being made, and it has one of the biggest celebrity casts we’ve ever seen and an unusual setup.

Juno director Jason Reitman is directing the movie, which was filmed at each actor’s home using their own mobile phone due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film will be released on the nascent streaming service Quibi in chapters, the first of which will debut on June 29, according to Variety.

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner–who are married in real life–are playing the lead roles, with Jonas portraying Princess Buttercup and Turner portraying Westley. The gender-swapped roles aren’t the only update for the Quibi movie, as the Rodent of Unusual Size (ROUS) will be played by a dog–a corgi, to be more specific. In other weirdness, stuffed animals and Lego figures will be used for crowd scenes.

The full cast includes, get ready for it … deep breath:

The Princess Bride 2020 Cast

  • Joe Jonas
  • Sophie Turner
  • Tiffany Haddish
  • Common
  • Neil Patrick Harris
  • David Burtka
  • Chris Pine
  • Annabelle Wallis
  • Hugh Jackman
  • Jennifer Garner
  • Elijah Wood
  • Jon Hamm
  • Beanie Feldstein
  • Lucas Hedges
  • Jenna Ortega
  • Jack Black
  • David Oyelowo
  • Keegan-Michael Key
  • Patton Oswalt
  • Josh Gad
  • Andy Serkis
  • Diego Luna
  • Taika Waititi
  • Zazie Beetz

Each of the actors will play different parts throughout the course of the series. Rob Reiner, who directed the original Princess Bride, will play the grandfather character who was originally portrayed the late Peter Falk. Fred Savage, who played the grandson character in the original, will reprise his role in the new one.

Quibi is producing this new Princess Bride movie in part as a charity campaign. The streaming network has made a donation of $1 million to celebrity chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen to help give food to those in need.

The director, Jason Reitman, has a history with The Princess Bride–he directed live readings of the original movie’s script. Reitman is also set to direct the new Ghostbusters movie coming in 2021.

If you’d rather watch the original Princess Bride, it’s streaming now on Disney Plus.

NBA Jam Creator Reveals That, Yes, The Bulls Were Robbed Of Victory Against The Pistons

NBA Jam remains one of the most beloved basketball game of all time, 27 years after its initial arcade release. If you were on one side of the Chicago Bulls/Detroit Pistons rivalry of the 90s, though, the game perhaps has endured slightly less well in your memory, because you know in your heart that you were robbed.

As it turns out, you actually might have been. In a new video from Ars Technica about the success of NBA Jam, lead designer Mark Turmell has reflected on the rivalry between the Chicago and Detroit teams during Michael Jordan’s iconic 90s run with the Bulls–and admitted that his internal bias worked its way into the game.

In the video below, around the 19:40 mark, Turmell admits that he was a big Pistons fan, having grown up in Michigan, and that he snuck some code into the game to “get back” at the Chicago Bulls and their fans.

Turmell said that he put in “special code” that would prevent the Bulls from scoring last-second shots against the Pistons, meaning that if you shot just before the final buzzer to try and even the score or pull ahead the shot would never go in, regardless of the Bulls’ stats.

Since NBA Jam matches tended to be close, the cabinet was in high rotation, and these were popular teams, there were no doubt thousands of lost shots (and games) that can be attributed to this code.

On the other hand, the Chicago Bulls won six championships during the 90s to the Pistons’ one, so Bulls fans shouldn’t be too sore about this.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a new NBA Jam title, but basketball fans can rest assured that NBA 2K21 is coming to next-gen systems later this year.

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