Originally, Netflix intended for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep to debut some time late last year, but the steamer revealed today that the movie is now set to premiere on February 11th. Based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story “A Little Sacrifice” from Sword of Destiny, Sirens of the Deep tells the tale of how Geralt of Rivia (Doug Cockle) and Jaskier (Joey Batey) get caught up in an age-old conflict between humans and merpeople.
In a new trailer for the movie, things seem simple enough to Geralt as he’s first hired to put his special skills to good use. It makes sense that humans would want a witcher’s help to deal with a deadly series of sea monster attacks. The gig’s also easy money for Geralt and a solid way to keep his mind off Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra). There’s something nefarious at the root of the interspecies war, though, and by the time Geralt realizes he might have gotten things wrong, he can only do but so much to stop the bloodshed.
Compared to the live-action series, Sirens of the Deep looks like it’s going for a more spectacular (in the sense that the action’s big) depiction of Geralt’s adventures. And while it might not connect directly to the events of Netflix’s last animated Witcher movie or the live-action Witcher’s fourth season, it should make the wait a little more bearable.
Diamond Comics Distributors, one of the biggest companies involved in getting graphic novels into physical retailers for purchase, is filing for bankruptcy and scaling its business back as the industry braces itself for a new wave of economic challenges.
In a letter sent to comics retailers and publishers today, Diamond president Chuck Parker announced that the company has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and plans to sell off its Alliance Game Distributors arm to Universal in order to “protect the most vital aspects of our business.”
“This decision was not made lightly, and I understand that this news may be as difficult to hear as it is for me to share,” Parker explained. “The Diamond leadership team and I have worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome but the financial challenges we face have left us with no other viable option.”
Founded in 1982 by Stephen A. Geppi (who still serves as CEO), Diamond became a heavyweight in the comics business by securing a number of exclusive distribution agreements with various publishing houses like DC, Marvel, and Image. For decades, Diamond — which also publishes its Previews magazine showcasing upcoming titles — was instrumental in bringing comics to market and played a huge role in determining a book’s success because of how Previews influenced retailer orders.
News about Diamond’s bankruptcy comes weeks after the company suddenly shuttered its flagship fulfillment center in Plattsburgh, NY, which the company’s VP of retailer services Chris Powell described as a necessary step to address longstanding operational issues that made its distribution process unsustainable.
“Ideally, changes would have been planned and tested while we continued to operate as we had been at Plattsburgh,” Powell said. “With that no longer an option, we must make changes and test them with live data and shipments while trying to minimize the impact on retailers.”
In recent years, many of Diamond’s bigger name publishing partners have dropped them as the company failed to meet expected delivery deadlines to retailers, which left stores struggling to meet customer demand. Given the tough time Diamond has been having as of late, the announcement that it’s filing for bankruptcy isn’t entirely surprising. It sounds like the company’s leadership very much wants to stay in the comics game as long as possible, but as it stands now, it seems like all Diamond can really do is to staunch the bleeding as much as it can.
On Monday, Fubo announced that, as part of its plan to merge with Hulu + Live TV, it would also drop its lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and WBD alleging that their collaboration on Venu Sports violated US antitrust laws. The settlement outlines how Hulu + Live TV and Fubo can create a new multichannel video programming distributor that Disney would own 70 percent of. But the lawsuit’s dismissal also lifted the injunction to halt Venu’s launch which US District Judge Margaret M. Garnett passed down last August.
Because Venu Sports now has a much more realistic chance of coming to market, DirectTV and EchoStar are voicing concerns about how Fubo’s proposed Hulu deal may exacerbate, rather than properly address, the core issue of sports streaming anticompetitiveness. In a letter to Garnett, DirectTV argued that while Venu’s venture partners have paid Fubo “to ensure cooperation from an aggrieved competitor,” they have also restored “an anticompetitive runway for the JV Defendants to control the future of the live pay TV market.”
DirectTV is just one of several non-parties that expressed “grave concerns” about the impact Venu would have on competition for sports programming, given that Venu would “offer content in a manner that [the Defendants] do not allow DirectTV or other distributors to offer to consumers,” DirectTV’s lawyers said.
In its own letter to Garnett, EchoStar’s legal team insisted that the original injunction blocked Disney, Fox, and WBD’s “scheme to monopolize the pay-TV market and, once accomplished, charge inflated prices to millions of Americans.”
“The parties’ settlement appears designed to eliminate court jurisdiction over this multifarious harm by effectuating the preliminary injunction’s expiration, rather than addressing the underlying competition issues,” EchoStar said. “Now, with the injunction undone by voluntary dismissal, DISH, Sling, and other distributors will suffer antitrust injury.”
Though Yuto Suzuki’s manga Sakamoto Days hasn’t been publishing for all that long, an animated adaptation of the series is already making its way to Netflix in just a few days.
Set in a world where it’s not uncommon for people to have superhuman abilities, Sakamoto Days tells the story of Taro Sakamoto (Tomokazu Sugita / Matthew Mercer), a legendary hitman who becomes a humble convenience store owner after falling in love with his wife. While Sakamoto’s wife Aoi (Nao Tōyama / Rosie Okumura) doesn’t hold his past against him, their marriage hinges on her rule that he must never kill again.
For the most part, it’s easy enough for Sakamoto to stick to Aoi’s rule. But things start to get tricky when a bounty is placed on his head that makes him the target of other assassins like telepath Shin Asakura (Dallas Liu) and sharp-shooter Heisuke Mashimo (Ryōta Suzuki / Xolo Maridueña). Netflix’s new trailer for the series teases a bit of how some of Sakamoto’s enemies quickly become allies in his fight to keep his small family safe, and while it doesn’t show all that much of the show’s action, we’ll be able to check it out for ourselves when the show debuts on January 11th.
Mythic Quest’s third season ended on a hopeful note as the Playpen team hunkered down to start developing an all-new expansion, but all that hard work looks like it’s just going to lead to more headaches judging from the show’s latest season 4 trailer.
While Mythic Quest’s new season will find Dana (Imani Hakim), Jo (Jessie Ennis), and Brad (Dani Pudi) basking in the success of their Cozy Galaxy project, things are going to be a bit tougher for Ian (Rob McElhenney) and Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) as they try to figure out how keep players coming back to Playpen. In the trailer, David (David Hornsby) says that he wants the pair to take their time to come up with some genuinely good ideas. But it’s clear that he really wants those solutions quickly, which feels like part of why one of Ian’s first moves is to incorporate an AI duplicate of himself into his workflow.
Poppy’s idea to let Playpen players create their own in-game content seems a bit more on the level and like something that might actually get people logging on regularly. But of course, the first thing players want to do with the features is find ways to make their characters pantomime sex, which is exactly the sort of thing that gets Congress wondering who the game is actually for. No one actually says “Roblox” in the trailer, but it’s obvious that Mythic Quest’s writers room has been reading the news and getting the sense that something smells a bit off about games with these kinds of business models. Which is probably why the show won’t pull any punches when it returns on January 29th (and its spin-off debuts on March 26th).
Between Nosferatu and Wolf Man, it feels like Hollywood has come back around on good, old fashioned monster movies. And it seems like Peacock wants in on the action with a feature-length reboot of the long-dead Grimm series.
Variety reports that Peacock is moving forward with a new film based on Grimm, Stephen Carpenter, Jim Kouf, and David Greenwalt’s 2011 series about a Portland cop who discovers that he’s one of the chosen few meant to defend humanity from monsters. Josh Berman (Drop Dead Diva) is attached to write the movie as well as co-executive produce with Kouf and Greenwalt.
In its original run, Grimm ran for six seasons that saw Detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) become a formidable Grimm (the show’s lingo for monster hunters) alongside his human partner Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby) and werewolf ally Munroe (Silas Weir Mitchell). Peacock has yet to announce details about the movie’s plot or whether any members of Grimm’s original cast members might return. But given that this isn’t the first time NBC has flirted with the idea of resurrecting the IP, it feels pretty safe to say this time around, Grimm’s definitely coming back to the small screen.
Hulu and sports-forward streamer Fubo are settling aside some legal differences and teaming up in order to launch yet another new platform for you to subscribe to.
Last year, Fubo filed a lawsuit against Disney (which co-owns Hulu), Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery last year on grounds that the studios’ plan for Venu Sports, a new sports streaming service, was anticompetitive. But today, Fubo announced that it has reached an agreement with Disney to merge Hulu + Live TV and the entire Fubo platform to create a new multichannel video programming distributor. Going forward, Disney will own about 70 percent of the new venture, which will be headed up by Fubo’s co-founder and CEO David Gandler. Hulu’s core video subscription service will also continue to operate independently.
In a statement about the partnership, Gandler insisted that the deal will enable Fubo to “deliver on our promise to provide consumers with greater choice and flexibility.”
“Additionally, this agreement allows us to scale effectively, strengthens Fubo’s balance sheet, and positions us for positive cash flow. It’s a win for consumers, our shareholders, and the entire streaming industry,” Gandler said.
Though a hearing for Fubo’s previously-filed lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and WBD was scheduled for today, the case has now been dropped because of the new deal. Additionally, Fubo will receive a $220 million payout from Disney, Fox, and WBD. Fubo also noted that Disney plans to provide it with a $145 million this year, and should the entire deal fall apart, Fubo will be due a $130 termination fee.
It wasn’t clear how Disney planned to proceed last summer after a federal judge sided with Fubo and blocked Venu Sports from its planned fall 2024 launch. But now it’s looking like the way forward is going to be a collaborative one.
If you missed The Wild Robot in the madness of last year’s holiday season, Universal’s about to make it a little easier to catch the animated sci-fi adventure on both the big and small screens.
The Wild Robot has been available to purchase physically on DVD / Blu-ray and on digital platforms like Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video for some time now. But today, Universal announced that, following the film’s upcoming theatrical rerelease on January 17th, it will also be available to stream for Peacock subscribers starting on January 24th. The news comes after The Wild Robot’s successful initial box office run that saw it rake in an impressive $324.3 million worldwide and secure a number of awards from various film critics groups.
The theatrical rerelease feels a lot like Universal’s way of priming the public to be thinking more about The Wild Robot as we march deeper into awards season, but it’s also going to give folks more options to experience one of 2024’s best films.
Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu gets at the heart of what makes vampires an eternally fascinating fixture in our sexual imaginations.
Even if you haven’t seen F.W. Murnau’s original Nosferatu or read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, those stories have undoubtedly shaped your ideas about vampires. They weren’t the first tales about undead ghouls rising from the grave to suck the blood out of the living. But by presenting their monsters in such wildly innovative ways, they became a blueprint from which countless subsequent tales took inspiration. Writer / director Robert Eggers knows that his Nosferatu remake would be hard-pressed to scare audiences who cut their teeth watching a multitude of Draculas and demon hunters menacing one another on the big and small screens.
But rather than trying to work around that obstacle with experimental riffs on vampire lore, the new film accepts it as fact while inviting you to imagine what it might have felt like to experience this kind of disturbing story for the first time when they were new. You can feel Eggers working to conjure an atmosphere of psychosexual dread, and you can see him using modern filmmaking techniques to create haunting visuals evocative of early 20th century cinema. Though it cleaves very close to the original while incorporating elements from other vampire classics, this Nosferatu puts far more focus on the interiority of its central heroine as she grapples with her deep-seated longing to be taken by an avatar of death.
“Vampire” is not a word that many people are familiar with in Nosferatu’s depiction of 19th century Wisborg, Germany, but after years of being tormented by psychic visions of a shadowy presence, Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) is no stranger to living in fear of the supernatural. Despite her constant feeling of being misunderstood, Ellen’s days are filled with joy thanks to her realtor husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) and best friend Anna Harding (Emma Corrin). But Ellen’s nights of sleepwalking through her deathly quiet mansion are harrowing because of the way a mysterious voice from within beckons her to give in to her darkest, most unsettling desires.
Even when Ellen is awake, she can sense that somehow, somewhere, something is watching and waiting for an opportunity to make her its own. No matter how much Ellen insists that danger is afoot, though, all her loved ones can see is a woman on the brink of a mental breakdown. It’s much easier for Thomas and Anna’s husband, Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), to dismiss her fears as symptoms of a wandering uterus rather than consider whether there might be more to her premonitions. It’s even hard for Anna — a mother to two young girls — not to assume that Ellen’s troubles are rooted in the fact that she and Thomas have no children of their own. But Ellen and the sinister voice in her head both know that, while sex is definitely on her mind, having kids is not.
Nosferatu’s depiction of Ellen is one of the clearer examples of Eggers combining aspects of the 1922 film and Stoker’s novel to create a new take on the character that feels both true to the source materials and deeper than the sum of its parts. The moviepresents Ellen as the kind of woman who, even without her visions, would still feel smothered by the misogynistic social norms of her era. Ellen’s powers are an innate part of who she is, as is the way they often send her into fits of moaning that, to onlookers, read as explicitly orgasmic.
Ellen struggles to remember or articulate much of what she experiences during her nocturnal premonitions. But Nosferatu spells it out plainly as it first shows you how Transylvanian Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) is the one calling out to her through their seemingly inexplicable telepathic connection. The mechanics of Ellen and Orlok’s bond is another detail that Eggers has retooled just enough to make it work as a point of intrigue. It’s obvious that this is a film about a vampire who wants to sink his teeth into an unsuspecting woman’s flesh. But Nosferatu cleverly leaves you wondering how, exactly, Orlok first came to know about his latest target.
Establishing that link early on adds a delicious layer of dread to Nosferatu’s story as Thomas’ presence is requested in Transylvania, where he’s meant to assist an “eccentric” nobleman purchase a new home. We can see that Orlok is orchestrating some kind of elaborate plan to insert himself into Ellen’s life, but what’s fun is the way none of the film’s characters have any frame of reference cluing them in to the fact that they’re dancing through the motions of a classic Dracula period piece like Tod Browning’s 1931 adaptation.
Contemporary horror movies about people who don’t know standard horror movie beats are frustrating because they pull you out of the fantasy. Eggers previously worked around that by focusing his films on characters planted firmly in times when their fears of the surrounding world and their own feelings could give rise to creatures they had never seen before. This Nosferatu is doing something similar, but because its story stays so true to the original, it also feels like Eggers is encouraging you to appreciate it as a thoughtful remake rather than a film trying to reinvent vampires.
This becomes clearer as Nosferatu shows you more of Orlok’s ability to project his shadow across Europe to menace Ellen with promises of untold pleasure. On a technical level, it’s clear that Eggers is creating scenes that Murnau could have only dreamed of, but you also get the sense that this is exactly the kind of alarming energy that made Max Schreck’s Orlok so frightening when he first appeared onscreen. To that end, this Nosferatu works hard to make you feel Orlok’s presence more than it actually tries to show you what he looks like as his plans begin taking shape. He’s lurking in Ellen’s mind but also in Thomas’ fears that he might not be able to satisfy his wife’s needs.
Skarsgård’s Orlok is skincrawling once the film gets around to fixing the camera squarely on his face, but much of the count’s essence is channeled through the way Depp and Hoult inhabit Ellen and Thomas. Ellen vacillates between terror, shame, and arousal to make you feel exactly what kinds of designs Orlok has. And Thomas’ guileless confusion when he encounters clearly supernatural things speaks volumes to Orlok’s ability to misdirect his unsuspecting victims.
While Nosferatu isn’t trying to shock you with its plot or gory deaths, it does want to impress you with its arresting visuals. We’ve seen Eggers work in black and white before, but the way Nosferatu frequently shifts into a near-monochromatic palette of blacks and blues is a brilliantly artful trick evocative of blood draining out of a face in fear. Those moments help make Nosferatu feel like a uniquely inspired presentation of vampires as beings of darkness. But beyond their aesthetic beauty, they also highlight the extent to which Eggers has crafted Nosferatu as a tribute to films from Murnau and Browning.
It’s rare to see a remake that so effectively celebrates its predecessors while also realizing its own distinct vision, but that’s what is going to make Nosferatu an instant horror classic when it hits theaters on December 25th.
Nosferatu also stars Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, and Simon McBurney.
Between The Penguin, Dune: Prophecy, and I Saw the TV Glow, Max has you covered when it comes to last-minute streaming options to get you through the holidays.
To get Nosferatu’s nightmarish love triangle right, Robert Eggers looked to Wuthering Heights for inspiration.
Though the Dark Universe might be dead, Robert Eggers has crafted something like its spiritual successor with a series of disturbing horror features. The Witchleft you wondering how real its demons were, The Lighthouse’s tentacled sea creatures were always slithering somewhere just off-screen, and The Northmanwas a mythologically charged study of people’s ability to become monsters and how that transformation can rob someone of their humanity. Those films presented their otherworldly elements as reflections of characters’ superstitions and their need to make sense of the worlds around them. But Eggers wants the undead ghoul at the center of his new Nosferatu remake to leave you feeling something much more basic (though not necessarily simple) and carnal.
Eggers’ Nosferatu is brimming with visual and tonal nods to F.W. Murnau’s groundbreaking 1922 silent film. But through his new takes on the vampiric Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) and bedeviled housewife Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), you can feel Eggers tapping into the darkly sexual energy that made Bram Stoker’s Dracula such a uniquely transgressive horror novel for the Victorian era. The new Nosferatu is arriving at a time when the idea of getting down and dirty with monsters has come much, much more into fashion — so much so that we’ve seen entire cinematic franchises built on the concept.
Viewed through that lens, it’s easy to look at Nosferatu as a story that’s trying to speak to this moment in on-screen monster-fucking. But when I recently sat down with Eggers to discuss the movie, he told me that, as much as vampire tales might feel like manifestations of societal anxieties, channeling the zeitgeist wasn’t at all his goal.
As a lifelong Dracula fan fascinated by the way death and sexual desire define vampire mythos, Eggers knew that he wanted his Nosferatu to be as erotic as it was haunting. But Eggers also wanted his Nosferatu to feel like a decidedly feminist, macabre romance, which is why he took some inspiration from Emily Brontë.
“It was always clear to me that Nosferatu is a demon lover story, and one of the great demon lover stories of all time is Wuthering Heights, which I returned to a lot while writing this script,” Eggers explained. “As a character, Heathcliff is an absolute bastard towards Cathy in the novel, and you’re always questioning whether he really loves her, or if he just wants to possess and destroy her.”
Nosferatu leaves you to ponder those same questions as it introduces Ellen, a perceptive woman whose brilliance is being stifled by the social mores of 19th-century Germany. Though Ellen desperately loves her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), he struggles to understand how years of being plagued by strange visions have left her convinced that the embodiment of death is stalking her. It’s easier for Thomas and Nosferatu’s other male characters like Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to dismiss Ellen’s nightmares as delusions. But whenever Ellen goes to sleep, it is never long before a monstrous presence reaches out to her mind, urging her to let it inside.
In Depp’s tremulous Ellen, you can see traces of Mina Harker, the sole heroine in Stoker’s novel, whose cleverness winds up being instrumental in Dracula’s ultimate demise. But Eggers wanted this version of Ellen to feel like a woman who, despite “understanding things on a very deep level, doesn’t have the language to articulate her experiences.” It was also important to him that this story emphasize how men’s misogynistic preconceptions of women are a kind of monster in and of themselves.
“Ellen’s husband loves her, but he can’t understand these ‘hysteric’ and ‘melancholic’ feelings she’s experiencing, and he’s dismissive of her,” Eggers said. “The only person she really finds a connection with is this monster, and that love triangle is so compelling to me, partially because of how tragic it is.”
In the same way that Ellen knows that something is out there watching her as it stalks through the shadows, Count Orlok — a long-dead Transylvanian nobleman — can feel that there’s something very special about Ellen. Much of the new Nosferatu’s unsettling strangeness is crystallized in the pair’s unusual psychic connection. It’s alarming to see Ellen seize up and convulse in fits as her mind seemingly leaves her body. But there’s also an increasingly orgasmic quality to the sound of Ellen’s fits that immediately clues you into how, as scary as Orlok is, he also elicits something deeply pleasurable in some of his victims.
More so than many other recent vampire stories, Eggers’ Nosferatu leans into the fact that creatures like Orlok feast on the blood of the living because they themselves are very dead. Whatever magic it is that’s brought Orlok back is impressive, but you would never mistake him for a model with a beating pulse. He’s supposed to read as a reanimated corpse; a once-suave and debonaire one, but a corpse all the same.
Because Nosferatu is a very horny love story, though, Eggers felt Orlok needed to be at least somewhat sexy in order to sell his raw magnetism and “help the audience to know on some level that there’s a beautiful man beneath all that makeup.”
“In my mind, Orlok was definitely handsome when he was alive,” Eggers said. “I wanted him to have strong features, and for there to be a kind of beauty in his brows, cheekbones, and nose because those are the parts of himself that he can show a little bit of in the light to a house guest before they realize that he’s actually rotting and falling apart.”
Nosferatu starts piling the horrors on as Orlok and Ellen’s link strengthens. The air is already thick with death and fear as the film introduces Willem Dafoe’s Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz and Simon McBurney’s Herr Knock. It isn’t long before the men start to understand just how endangered all of their lives are because of their proximity to Ellen. But Eggers also wanted Nosferatu’s male characters to bring a bit of whimsy to the film, if only to help audiences deal with all the tension and appreciate how monsters can have senses of humor.
“Some of those scenes with Thomas and Orlok are definitely scary and intense, but they’re also moments where Orlok is playing with his food,” Eggers explained. “When Louise Ford and I were editing those scenes, we would be in stitches at times because of how pithy Orlok is when you really pay attention.”
The DC Comics character Clayface has been getting plenty of play on Max’s Harley Quinn series, where he’s voiced by Alan Tudyk. But it’s looking like the shape-shifting villain’s next act will take him to the big screen.
Variety reports that The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan has signed on to write a new Clayface feature for DC Studios that will be produced by Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris’ company 6th & Idaho. Currently, there are no details about who will direct the project, but Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly intends for it to begin filming some time next year.
WBD fast-tracking a movie about one of Batman’s goopier rogues might sound odd at first blush, but it makes quite a bit of sense coming after DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn’s reveal of his plan to build a new cinematic universe. Gunn explained last year that DC Studios is “going to have characters move into animation [and] out of animation; usually having the same actor play their voice as who plays them in live-action.”
We’ve already seen a bit of that borne out in Creature Commandos where Viola Davis has reprised her role as Amanda Waller and Frank Grillo is voicing Rick Flagg Sr. ahead of portraying the same role in Peacemaker’s upcoming second season. Though Clayface hasn’t appeared in Creature Commandos just yet, the character (who will once again by voiced by Tudyk) is set to become part of the show some time some time this season.
Because Tudyk also voices Creature Commandos’ Doctor Phosphorous and Will Magnus, it’s not clear yet whether WBD intends for him to portray Clayface is the new feature. But that might not wind up being an issue given how Creature Commandos kinda feels like a show designed to kill off and cycle through DC’s weirder characters.
After months of searching for a buyer to take First We Feast — the production company behind Hot Ones — off its hands, BuzzFeed has finally secured an $82.5 million all-cash deal to sell First We Feast to “a consortium led by an affiliate of Soros Fund Management LLC” The consortium’s list of investors includes First We Feast founder Chris Schonberger and Hot Ones host Sean Evans.
In a press release, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said that selling off First We Feast “marks an important step in BuzzFeed, Inc.’s strategic transformation into a media company positioned to fully benefit from the ongoing AI revolution.”
“In the coming years, we will continue to invest in our most scalable and tech enabled services, launching new AI-powered interactive experiences, and delivering for our loyal audience and business partners,” Peretti said.
BuzzFeed acquired First We Feast in 2021 when it bought rival media outfit Complex, the production company’s original owner. Though BuzzFeed wound up selling Complex off to Ntwrk earlier this year for $108.6 million, it elected to retain control of First We Feast.
However, with cash on hand plus $75.6 million from this sale, Buzzfeed says it can pay down the debt, and end up with more cash on its books than debt.
If you’ve been playing Pokémon TCG Pocketsince launch, you’ve probably already collected most of the cards from the game’s first expansion. But a new set is about to debut in just a few days.
Today, The Pokémon Company announced that Mythical Island, a new expansion set featuring the pokémon Mew, is coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket on December 17th. A trailer for the expansion reveals a handful of new Pokémon cards coming to the game for the first time like Purrloin, Serperior, and Marshadow. Previously, the only way to obtain a Mew card was by collecting cards featuring each of the 150 original pokémon from the Kantonian Pokédex, but it should be much easier to snag the new Mew EX card simply by ripping a few packs.
The Pokémon Company also announced that TCG Pocket has exceeded 60 million iOS and Android downloads since the game launched at the end of October. The ability to actually trade cards with other people hasn’t come to the game just yet, but it’s going to be very useful, given that there’s a bunch of fresh cards on the way.
Aardman Animation, the studio behind the Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep, and Chicken Run franchises, is working with The Pokémon Company International on a mysterious new project.
In a surprising turn of events, TCPi and Aardman announced today that they’re teaming up for “a special project” that’s set to be released some time in 2027. In a press release about the collaboration, TCP marketing and media VP Taito Okiura described it as “a dream partnership for Pokémon.” Aardman’s managing director Sean Clarke added that it was both a huge honor and privilege to be tasked with presenting the Pokémon world in a new way.
“Bringing together Pokémon, the world’s biggest entertainment brand, together with our love of craft, character and comedic storytelling feels incredibly exciting,” Clarke said. “Aardman and TPCi share an emphasis on heritage and attention to detail as well as putting our fans and audiences at the heart of what we do, which we know will steer us right as we together create charming, original and new stories for audiences around the world.”
Aside from the projected release year, there aren’t all that many details about what the collaboration is or how we’ll be able to consume it. Clearly, stop-motion claymation will be involved, but what’s less obvious is whether this will end up being a movie, a series, or perhaps a game — which wouldn’t be a first for Aardman. This sort of team-up makes a lot of sense for TCPi after the success of Detective Pikachuand surprise delights like Pokémon Concierge. And the closer we get to 2027, it’s feels like there’s a very strong chance this will be something that has people buzzing.
In response to the utterly baffling discussion as to whether people should be allowed to sing along with Wickedin theaters (absolutely not), Universal is rolling out a bunch of screenings specifically for the folks who fancy themselves background vocalists.
Universal announced today that special interactive, sing-along Wicked screenings are making their way to theaters in the United States, Canada, and select international markets beginning December 25th. In addition to on-screen lyrics for people who aren’t yet off-book, the screenings will feature a special message from stars Arianna Grande and Cynthia Erivo (who has previously come out in favor of audience participation).
In a statement about the screenings, Universal’s president of domestic theatrical distribution Jim Orr described them as a unique opportunity for fans to “become part of the story they’ve embraced so enthusiastically.” But for those of us who just want to leave the singing to the professionals, this sounds like the studio is making sure that we can watch the movie in peace.
We’ve known for some time that the second season of Castlevania: Nocturne was scheduled to hit Netflix some time in the new year, but we finally have a solid release date and a bloody new trailer to boot.
Though the sun is shining bright in Nocturne’s new trailer, the fact that vampire god queen Erzsebet Báthory (Franka Potente) is still out there plotting has Annette (Thuso Mbedu) convinced that all hope is lost. Annette’s feelings seem reasonable considering how Erzsebet’s right hand woman Drolta Tzuentes (Elarica Johnson) is back in action despite appearing to be killed by Alucard (James Callis) in Nocturne’s first season. But with Alucard now working with Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel), Richter’s grandfather Juste (Iain Glen), and a hardened Maria Renard (Pixie Davies), the vampires won’t exactly have an easy time plunging the world into darkness.
The trailer features a handful of shots — Maria is finally going to summon her dragon — that make Nocturne’s second season look like it’s trying to top the first in terms of utterly batshit action. And while the trailer doesn’t exactly spell out just what Erzsebet’s up to this time around, we won’t have to wait long to find out for ourselves because Castlevania: Nocturne is set to return on January 16th.
It feels like we only just heard that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later was in development, but the long-awaited sequel already has a full-length trailer and a solid release date.
Set almost 30 years after the initial outbreak of the rage virus, 28 Years Later focuses on the lives of a new group of survivors who have managed to find a modicum of safety living on an isolated, tied island. Because the island is only connected to the mainland by a long, thin, heavily-guarded path that seems like it might disappear when the tide comes in, people like Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are able to build semi-stable lives for themselves.
But things are very different and dangerous on the mainland where time has given rise to all sorts of new mutations in the infected. Though the trailer doesn’t really give you a sense of why Jamie wants to journey into infected territory, it makes it clear that he’ll encounter other people who have somehow managed to survive living among the rabid pseudo-undead. Between the Purge-like masks and towers of skulls on display in the trailer, the mainland human survivors almost seem more ghoulish than the infected they live in fear of. But as disturbing as the trailer is, what makes it pretty delightful is the news that 28 Years Later is set to hit theaters on June 20th, 2025.