Chernobyl miniseries creator and The Last of Us show producer, Craig Mazin, said that the television adaptation of Naugty Dog’s popular post-apocalyptic zombie franchise will “expand” on the series.
Mazin talked about The Last of Us show on BBC Radia 5 Live’s Chernobyl Special, in which he discussed the delicate balancing act he faces in adapting such a widely lauded game franchise to television. He assured fans during the conversation the show will “expand” instead of “undo” the source material.
“I think fans of something worry that, when the property gets licensed to someone else, those people don’t really understand it, or are going to change it,” Mazin said. “In this case, I’m doing [the series] with the guy who [created the game], and so the changes that we’re making are designed to fill things out and expand, not to undo, but rather to enhance [the source material].
Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN’s weekly video game talk show. This week we’re discussing Halo Infinite and the mixed responses to its gameplay reveal, the Nintendo gigaleaks, Ghost of Tsushima, and more. Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
Before Patrick Stewart was cast as the mighty Marvel Comics telepath, “King of Pop” Michael Jackson pitched himself to the filmmakers to play Professor Charles Xavier in 2000’s X-Men movie.
That meeting was recounted as part of a larger exposé from The Hollywood Reporter on X-Men director Bryan Singer, which details a long pattern of unprofessional and allegedly abusive behavior on set and off that eventually saw Singer fired from directing Bohemian Rhapsody nearly two decades later.
Michael Jackson met with Bryan Singer and a group of the filmmakers involved in the X-Men movie back in the spring of 1999. Jackson, who THR notes was wearing sunglasses and refused to shake hands, made his case for why he should play Professor Charles Xavier, mentor and leader of the X-Men, in what would become the first big Marvel movie blockbuster.
Michael Jackson in 1986’s 3D sci-fi film Captain EO. (Credit: Disney)
Jackson, it must be remembered, was no stranger to acting, having portrayed the Scarecrow in 1978’s The Wiz. He also acted in several of his extended music videos, such as “Thriller” and “Bad,” and starred in the 1988 musical anthology film Moonwalker as well as the Francis Ford Coppola-directed, George Lucas-scripted fantasy short, Captain EO.
X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner recalled telling Jackson at the X-Men meeting, “I said to him, ‘Do you know Xavier is an older white guy?’ … And Michael said, ‘Oh yeah. You know, I can wear makeup.'”
THR claims Jackson was, “never seriously considered” for the role, citing one unnamed former film exec citing the late singer’s child sex abuse scandal as one reason why: “Michael was already in the thick of all his allegations by X-Men.” (It should be noted that THR also delves into the many sexual misconduct allegations against Bryan Singer in their piece.)
Somehow, the Nintendo Switch is still sold out everywhere, thanks to the rush of people looking to buy consoles during the coronavirus pandemic. If you’re someone who’s looking for a Nintendo system to play games on right now, some of Nintendo’s older handhelds and classic models are currently available directly from the Nintendo store. These are products that have been refurbished directly by Nintendo and come with everything you need to play. “Although it may have minor cosmetic blemishes, it is guaranteed to be fully functional,” each product listing states.
Notably, you can buy the NES Classic and SNES Classic, which were released by Nintendo in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and have since been discontinued. Unless you want to pay an absurd price for these systems somewhere on the internet, the best place to buy them now is on the Nintendo store, which sells “Authentic Nintendo Refurbished Sets.” The refurbished NES Classic sells for $50 at Nintendo and comes with the system, one controller, an HDMI cable, AC adapter, and 30 pre-installed games. Meanwhile, the refurbished SNES Classic is $70 and gets you the mini console with two wired SNES controllers, one HDMI cable, one USB cable with AC adapter, and 21 pre-loaded Super NES games.
Cicadas are succumbing to a parasitic infection that basically turns them into zombies.
You read that right. The fungus scientifically known as Massospora has been infecting male cicadas for years, according to a journal from PLOS Pathogens as reported by LiveScience. It doesn’t end there though. Much like a zombie army, the male cicada zombies begin to work toward growing their numbers by luring in other male cicadas using a flickering wing movement traditionally used by female cicadas to lure in male mates.
When the non-infected male cicadas attempt to mate with the infected cicada after being lured in, the Massospora is transferred and it begins to infect the new cicada by eating away at its abdomen. It replaces the abdomen with itself, which looks like a grouping of yellow spores.
It’s apparently not easy to spot this zombie-like transformation occur as the cicadas usually infected are of the Magicicada genus, which spend up to 17 years of their life underground at a time. Fortunately for the scientists behind the PLOS Pathogens report, they’re able to track different populations of cicada emerging at different times through a cycle of years.
Once the abdomen is transformed into a mass of spores, the now-zombified cicada will fly around and drop spores to infect even more cicada. As to how the Massospora controls this spore-dropping flight and the mating call that occurs after infection, scientists aren’t yet sure which chemicals within the fungus are making that happen.
A non-infected cicada’s life after emerging from the ground years and years after it is born would generally only last a few weeks. They mate, lay eggs, then die. When infected by the Massospora, their life is prolonged but considering they are zombies at that point, it’s not really living.
Before you explore Night City for yourself in Cyberpunk 2077, learn the bloody origins of how the city of the future became the worst place to live in America.
