Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Will Be Interviewed Inside Animal Crossing By Star Wars Writer
Here’s a sentence we never could have predicted writing, but which makes perfect sense in 2020: Xbox boss Phil Spencer will be interviewed inside Animal Crossing by the writer of a Star Wars movie.
Spencer will appear on the August 12 episode of Animal Talking, the interview show run by Star Wars: Rogue One writer Gary Whitta that is held inside the world of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Given that Microsoft is in the midst of a very important year with the launch of the Xbox Series X, xCloud, and Halo Infinite, this seems like it could be a great interview.
Spencer will appear on the show alongside actor Dylan Sprouse and musical guest Lisa Loeb.
Red Dead Online Players Think Naturalist Update Broke Their Horses
A recent Red Dead Redemption 2 Online update added the Naturalist specialty–an animal-focused role that gives players more ways to interact with the game’s wildlife. However, some players are claiming that since the new update was added, their own horses have been behaving a little… strangely.
As reported by Kotaku, the changes have been noticed by a number of Reddit users. “Is it just me or are horses even dumber than usual since the update?” one Reddit thread asked, while another chronicled their horse simply disappearing from underneath them.
Some of the complaints involve obvious bugs like the latter, with horses disappearing, ignoring calls, and straight-up flying through the air. Others are less perceptible, however, with players taking to Reddit to check if their horse was really acting dumber than usual, or if they were just unlucky.
Watch This Awesome Halo Infinite Guitar Cover
Microsoft only just started publishing tracks from Halo Infinite‘s OST, but the Halo community is already getting creative with it.
Developer 343’s latest Spotlight blog post highlights a guitar cover of Gareth Coker’s song, “Set A Fire In Your Heart” by chicken alexander bonez on YouTube. This guitar cover really turns things up to 11 and provides a much more metal spin on the normally orchestral track. Check it out below.
The Halo community over the years has proven to be very committed and creative. Halo 5‘s Forge mode spawned all manner of great and unique content like Star Wars podracing and beer pong.
Martin Scorsese’s Crime Drama With Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Nero Will Shoot Next Year
Martin Scorsese’s next movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, was originally meant to film this past March. Now, the film has set new production dates after delaying due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Osage News is reporting that the film, which will film in Osage County, Oklahoma, is now set to begin filming in February 2021.
According to Geoffrey Standing Bear, the principal chief of Osage, the film will be shot over 16 weeks. The film is expected to create a lot of work for local residents. Chad Renfro and Addie Roanhorse are serving as Osage Nation ambassadors for the film, which is an adaptation of David Grann’s non-fiction book of the same name.
“With safety for all being of greatest concern, once the industry protocol has been established and it is safe to embark on this important project, they will reach back out to us,” Renfro said in a statement.
The film is set to star Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in starring roles. DiCaprio has previously worked with Scorsese on The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street, whereas this will be De Niro and Scorsese’s 10th film together.
We May Have To Wait Longer For The Lord Of The Rings And The Hobbit In 4K
Despite The Fellowship Of The Ring being almost 20 years old, Lord Of The Rings is the film trilogy that keeps on giving–at least as far as physical releases are concerned. In 2016, the Middle Earth Collection included The Hobbit trilogy and LOTR together for the first time–and now, that collection will be re-released in 4K.
While it’s been reported that the 4K remasters would release in October this year, a new report from The Digital Bits suggest that date may be a little ambitious. While Warner Bros’ internal databases have pointed toward the October/Q4 date, internal sources cited by The Bits suggest the remaster is only half done at this point, making an October release unlikely.
The remaster is being handled by Weta Digital in New Zealand, the studio that handled the original digital effects for the Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. The Bits has concluded that the 4K collection will most likely launch next year, though it’s not impossible for it to release by the end of the year.
Lord Of The Rings Actor John Rhys-Davies Recalls The Challenge Of Voicing Treebeard
Actor John Rhys-Davies pulled double duty for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings series. He portrayed the dwarf warrior Gimli while also voicing the ancient Ent named Treebeard.
In a new interview with Comicbookmovie, Rhys-Davies said Treebeard was especially difficult to perform because he had to find a way to give a voice to a character who has no lungs.
“Treebeard is one of the very few parts that I’ve had that I wake up in a sweat at night thinking, ‘I don’t know how to play this,'” he explained. “The hardest part I’ve ever done. I don’t know how to play it, and it’s not right. It’s not the way it is in the book … I could find no way … how the hell do you voice something that has no lungs?”
Meat Loaf Almost Played Quasimodo In Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Disney’s 1996 animated adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is now regarded as a classic, but new stories about the film’s casting prove it could have turned out completely differently. For one–Meat Loaf, aka Michael Lee Aday, was almost cast as the titular hunchback Quasimodo, according to a recent Collider interview.
Collider talked to the directors of Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, who revealed that they were closer to a Meat Loaf casting than you would expect. “The first person that was actually cast as Quasimodo was Meat Loaf,” Wise said, though Trousdale corrected him with, “he wasn’t cast, he read for it. He was almost cast. It was an almost kind of thing. I don’t think we actually put pen to paper.”
“There was never a signed contract,” Wise agreed. “But we got so far as to meet with Meat Loaf at a recording studio off Santa Monica Blvd. We talked with Meat Loaf. He ran through ‘Out There,’ Quasimodo’s song a few times.”
John Howe Talks About Illustrating Middle-Earth For New LOTR TV Show
Illustrator John Howe is known for his beautiful depictions of Tolkien’s works, having served as an artist on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, as well as illustrating maps for various editions of the books. Howe was one of the earliest names known to be attached to both Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films and Amazon’s new TV show. In an interview with Swissinfo.ch, translated from French, Howe has talked about how he became a go-to artist for Tolkien’s work.
Howe says he has been fascinated by J. R. R. Tolkien since he was 14 years old. “He is one of those authors whose visual evocation is extremely strong: what he describes triggers visions,” Howe told Swissinfo. “Things that are unknown are the most interesting. They are full of decisions to be made, challenges that have to be mastered. Heroic fantasy, when written well, answers questions every generation is asking.”
The illustrator lives and works in Switzerland, a country whose beautiful mountainous landscape inspired many of Tolkien’s magical locations. However the version of Middle-earth Howe is currently working on, for the Amazon Lord of the Rings TV show, is returning to New Zealand where Peter Jackson’s two trilogies were filmed. Unfortunately the interview doesn’t offer much in the way of details on the still-mysterious TV project.