The developers of the popular video game franchise Oddworld, Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna, are putting their heads together with the people at Vanguard Animation (Valiant) to create a adult-oriented CG film titled Citizen Siege, according to Variety.

Budgeted at $40 million, Citizen Siege is a dark political thriller set in the near future (where else?) that Lanning will direct and Shrek producer John Williams, head of Vanguard, will produce. Lanning and McKenna are now looking for a videogame publisher to create the film’s tie-in game, that may be released simultaneously.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Movies •

Orbital Media Burst onto the GBA scene a with the fabulous Racing Gears Advance - Now, two years later they have returned with the isometric action adventure title Scurge: Hive.

Jenosa Arma is a bounty hunter sent to the planet Inos to investigate a distress signal only to end trapped there herself. The lab has been over-run with an alien entity known as The Scurge which, similarly to Metroids ‘X’, can infect biological and mechanical life forms.

Another aspect of the game that seems inspired by Nintendos long running series is Jenosas suit. Throughout the game you assimilate technology into the suit by ways of power ups - up to 8 different upgrades are available suit and it’s projectile gauntlet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Reviews, Sci-Tech & Video Games •

Potter fansite MuggleNet has summarized the information in Empire Magazine’s three-page spread on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which features in the magazine’s November issue. Scans can be viewed here.

In it, the film’s director David Yates mentions the running time of the film, a much debated topic with Phoenix being the longest book in the Harry Potter series: “The book’s huge, but it actually distills quite easily. That said, I’ve shot a movie that’s probably over three hours, so I’ll have to lose 45 minutes in the edit.”

There was also praise from producer David Heyman directed at Evanna Lynch, who portrays Luna Lovegood in the film: “She’s an obsessive Potter fan who’d actually had correspondence with Jo Rowling. When she was cast Jo rang me up because she just couldn’t believe it - from her letters she said, ‘She is Luna.’”

Click here to discuss Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the X-Boards.

Posted in Harry Potter, Movies •

Dark Horizons has published a dozen or so amazing new stills from director Darren Aronofsky’s (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) much talked about and already somewhat controversial The Fountain. Regardless of how good the film itself is (its theatrical runs starts November 22nd), there’s no denying the incredible production design further evident in these new pictures.

The Fountain is an odyssey about one man’s eternal struggle to save the woman he loves. His epic journey begins in 16th-century Spain, where conquistador Tomas (Hugh Jackman) commences his search for the Fountain of Youth, the legendary entity believed to grant immortality. As modern-day scientist Tommy Creo, he desperately struggles to find a cure for the cancer that is killing his beloved wife, Isabel (Rachel Weisz). Traveling through deep space as a 26th-century astronaut, Tom begins to grasp the mysteries that have consumed him for a millennium. The three stories converge into one truth, as the Thomas of all periods-warrior, scientist, and explorer-comes to terms with life, love, death and rebirth.

Click here to discuss The Fountain on the X-Boards.

Posted in Movies •

Variety reports that Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment and Capcom Ltd are gearing up to produce a film adaptation of the videogame franchise Street Fighter. Although details of the story are not yet known it will focus on female character Chun Li, the Interpol investigator with the famous Hyakuretsukyaku or Leg/Lightning Kick. The game franchise has generated a billion dollars in revenue for Capcom but this isn’t the first time that that it has been adapted for the big screen; Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in the awful 1994 version for Universal followed by Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

Justin Marks has been tapped to write with a release date scheduled for sometime in 2008.

Click here to discuss this news story on the X-Boards.

Posted in Movies •

Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns was originally set to open to an effects-heavy scene in which the man of steel arrives at the remnants of his home planet Krypton to explore his roots.

Ben Procter, who worked as a 2D/3D conceptual illustrator on this scene that was ultimately cut from the finished movie, has now published on his personal website a number of beautiful designs and even a few video clips, which for the first time offer glimpses into this scene. You can view them here.

Click here to discuss Superman Returns on the X-Boards. 

Posted in Movies, Superman •