Zero Punctuation: Kirby's Epic Yarn

Zero Punctuation: Killzone 3

HOBBIT NEWS! Cast, Pics and FB page!

Warner Bros/New Line Cinema and MGM have announced the start of production on The Hobbit in New Zealand, which includes a full update on the signed cast...

Martin Freeman takes the title role as Bilbo Baggins and Ian McKellen returns in the role of Gandalf the Grey. The Dwarves are played by Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield), Ken Stott (Balin), Graham McTavish (Dwalin), William Kircher (Bifur) James Nesbitt (Bofur), Stephen Hunter (Bombur), Rob Kazinsky (Fili), Aidan Turner (Kili), Peter Hambleton (Gloin), John Callen (Oin), Jed Brophy (Nori), Mark Hadlow (Dori) and Adam Brown (Ori). Reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy are Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum and Elijah Wood as Frodo. Jeffrey Thomas and Mike Mizrahi also join the cast as Dwarf Kings Thror and Thrain, respectively. Further casting announcements are expected.


Full article and press release...

BAFTAs GaMING aWARDS aNNouNCED..

Here are the winners from the video game BAFTAs earlier today: Brilliantly Mass Effect 2 won the Best Game award, a great choice that we at Tape Monkey fully agree with.

Action: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

Artistic Achievement: God Of War III

Best Game: Mass Effect 2

Family: Kinect Sports

Gameplay: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Handheld: Cut The Rope

Multiplayer: Need For Speed: Hot Pursit

Original Music: Heavy Rain

Social Network Game: My Empire

Sports: F1 2010

Story: Heavy Rain

Strategy: Civilisation V

Technical Innovation: Heavy Rain

Use of Audio: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to be Digital: Twang

GAME Award of 2010: Call Of Duty: Black Ops

Full list from the BAFTAs website

Zero Puncuation - Bullet Storm

Ian McKellen Talks About Seeing ‘The Hobbit’ in 3D

With the Hobbit in 3D about to start shooting in NZ and we're finally starting to get some news on the, reluctantly included, 3D content. Not just news but word straight from Sir Ian McKellen on his blog.

"I've seen Bilbo — in three dimensions.

I was visiting old friends in the Stone Street offices and heard Martin Freeman was just round the corner by the permanent greenscreen, done up as Bilbo, testing his costume in front of the 3D cameras. Indeed, there he was in the open air, mostly oblivious to the camera, though turning this way and that as required. Martin improvised a hobbity gait, padding back and forth, testing his big hairy Hobbit feet, pointy ears and little tum.

Beneath the shade of a tent, in a sun hat, Andrew Lesnie was remotely controlling the two lenses within the mighty camera which digitally records in 3D. His screen showed the familiar 2D image but next to it, above the director's chair, was a large colour screen in full magical three dimensions, much as it will appear in the cinema — courtesy of the spy-glasses that transform the blurred outlines onscreen to the high definition exactitude of the 3D effect.

Three Bilbos simultaneously, two performances on screen and the actor beyond: which was the real one? Martin Freeman was transmuting into a character whose reality will soon be as authentic as his own.

— Ian McKellen, Wellington, March 2011"

A Bidding War Breaks Out to Finally Make a Big-Budget Voltron

Attention, robot nostalgists: Your dreams of a big-screen adaptation of the 1984 animated series Voltron: Defender of the Universe are one step closer to becoming CGI reality! Vulture hears that a bidding war has broken out to finance a Transformers-size blockbuster retelling of the legend of the iconic robotic lions and their human pilots; Ryan Kavanaugh's deep-pocketed Relativity Media is one of the very interested parties trying to sell itself to World Events Productions, the St. Louis–based company behind the original show.

Atlas Entertainment producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight Rises) and Richard Suckle had been developing a script with screenwriters Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (who wrote the upcoming Conan the Barbarian reboot), and concept art had leaked last fall. But considering how long this project has been rumored, rudimentary-anime fetishists dared not raise their hopes. Now, news of the eager big-money suitors means this could finally actually happen. Considering the show became an international pop-culture hit at the beginning of the second Reagan administration, one has to ask, "What took so long?"

The answer lies in the show’s mongrel beginnings. Its creator, Peter Keefe (who sadly didn’t live long enough to see his creation reach Tinseltown), concocted the syndicated TV series as an ersatz mixtape, splicing together footage from two esoteric and totally unrelated Japanese anime series. By editing out the Japanese dialogue, music, and seemingly ubiquitous beheadings and disembowelments, Keefe was able to get the show to comply with U.S. broadcast standards, and it became a totally unqualified — and unexpected — global hit.

Full article...

Future Gaming Engines being demoed

Some hints at the future of gaming with some next gen engines being demoed over the internets. This is the latest trailer for Crytek’s CryEngine 3, the upcoming, new and improved version of the engine that powers the Crysis series. While previous trailers we’ve seen look good, this one looks better than good. Can't you just see this rocking out your PS4 or XBOX 720.

Meet The Blue-Eyed Heroine Of NickToons’ AIRBENDER II!!

The Wall Street Journal just posted this image of the fighty heroine of “The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra,” a 12-episode sequel miniseries coming to Nicktoons this November.

It’s set 70 years after the end of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which ended in 2008. The new series is set in Republic City, a crime-riddled metropolis that sports an anti-bender movement.

The Journal describes:

The new series takes place 70 years later in the same world and follows the new Avatar, a teen girl named Korra who has learned to bend earth, water and fire and seeks to master air under the tutelage of Aang’s son, Tenzin.

Linky...