Like most big movies these days, the upcoming Resident Evil movie from Weapons director Zach Cregger will have its own dedicated popcorn bucket, and now it's been revealed, at least for one theater chain. People who see Resident Evil at a Regal theater will be able to buy a popcorn bucket themed after an organ-transport bag like the one Austin Abrams' character has in the movie. The popcorn bucket can hold a large order of popcorn and the fine print states that it does not come with a beating heart like the one in the promotional image below. Phew. Pricing for the bucket was not announced. https://twitter.com/RegalMovies/status/2094772370154148016 Tickets for the Resident Evil movie went on sale today, September 1, and today is also the day that Cregger will answer fan questions in a Reddit AMA. If you're a T-Mobile subscriber, you can potentially get a ticket to the movie for just $5. The Resident Evil movie comes to theaters on September 18, and it's expected to have the biggest opening in franchise history. In addition to Abrams, the movie features Zach Cherry, Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, and Johnno Wilson. Cregger wrote the film alongside Shay Hatten (John Wick, Army of the Dead)...
Netflix has confirmed that GTA 6's recent "extended look" trailer was the streamer's most-viewed title overall last week, drawing 31.1 million views. The trailer was labeled an "English-language film" by Netflix, and it was No. 1 by that designation in 87 of 93 regions globally that Netflix's tracks (via Variety). The GTA 6 trailer was well ahead of the No. 2 title last week, which was the movie The Whisper Man, which had 23.2 million viewers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpPpqZwUwl0 Netflix's view counts cover views for each title from Monday to Sunday of the previous week. A "view" is defined by Netflix as the total hours viewed divided by the total runtime. Netflix publishes this data each Tuesday. The extended look trailer was published first on Netflix before being released on Rockstar's own YouTube channel and elsewhere six hours later. Rockstar's own video has 17 million views, but YouTube counts views differently, and that represents just one channel, as numerous other sites and sources hosted it, including here at GameSpot. Netflix called its partnership with Rockstar Games for the trailer a "first-of-its-kind" offering for the popular streaming platform. Netflix's stock price has crashed since its bailed out of its deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, and the company has undertaken numerous efforts to increase engagement and total watching time on the platform. Beyond this partnership for the GTA 6 trailer, Netflix has expanded into video podcasts. The New York Times recently reported that Netflix is in discussions to add Fox One and Peacock to the platform, while it's also been reported that Netflix could add free ad-supported TV content. As for GTA 6, the game launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S...
Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie releases this month, and tickets are now on sale. If you don't want to pay full price, and you meet a certain requirement, you can get a ticket for a whole lot less than normal. T-Mobile members in the US can score a ticket to Resident Evil for just $5 through Atom Tickets. As relayed by Wario64, subscribers can visit the T-Life mobile app on September 15 to get a discounted ticket. That is three days before the Resident Evil movie arrives on September 18, though Thursday night screenings on September 17 are also taking place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNd1gb19A-c The Resident Evil movie stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, an "idiot" medical courier who takes a job that brings him to Raccoon City where all hell breaks loose in a story akin to The Lord of the Rings. The new Resident Evil movie is poised for a record-breaking debut at the box office, but that isn't saying too much since the other movies didn't do so great. Cregger is coming off the biggest movie he's ever made in Weapons, and he has plans to follow it up with a spin-off focusing on Aunt Gladys...
Out of nowhere, Sony has announced that free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) is now on PlayStation 5, allowing people to watch movies and TV shows for free, in exchange for watching ads. FAST programming is growing in popularity, and some of the current market leaders include Roku, Tubi, and Pluto, among others. FAST content was already on PS5 through dedicated apps for some of those services, but now Sony is launching its own FAST channel. For its part, Microsoft offers some FAST channels apps like Tubi and Pluto on Xbox as well. Available on PS5 in the US, the new "Live TV on PS5" comes from Sony's own Sony Pictures Television. There are more than 100 live channels, as well as on-demand programming spanning news, sports, movies, TV shows, and anime. Here's how to access it on your PS5: Go to the Media tab: Select the Live TV on PS5 icon. Select “Sign In With My PlayStation Account” to connect your PlayStation account and start watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txpaWqfcFFU Some of the content available includes movies from MovieSphere, 50 Cent Action, FilmRise Free Movies, Sony One Horror Hits, and Cinevault. Some of the TV shows people can watch include The Walking Dead, Community, Unsolved Mysteries, and Hell's Kitchen. Anime programming available on the service includes Naruto, Sailor Moon, and Death Note, as well as some Crunchyroll channels. For sports fans, programming from Fox Sports, Nascar, NBC Sports Now, and UFC are available. There are also news and weather channels, along with "creator" content like Hot Ones and The Ringer programming. Live TV on PS5 will be updated over time with more channels and content, while Sony said it’s looking to expand it to Canada and other regions later. FAST is a growing segment of the entertainment landscape. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney and Netflix are also mulling plans for FAST content as well. Before this, Sony operated the paid live TV service PlayStation Vue, but the company shut it down in 2020 due in part to how expensive it was to operate...
In 2024, The Pokemon Company announced that it would be working with Aardman Animations, the legendary stop-motion team behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, for a future project. The following year, Pokemon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d and Pichu was revealed. During Pokemon XP in San Francisco, show director Tom Parkinson, creative director Natalie McKay, and creative lead James Young shared some behind-the-scenes details regarding the upcoming stop-motion project alongside a new teaser. The show follows Sirfetch’d and Pichu as the two explore the Galar region from Pokemon Sword and Shield. Sirfetch’d, armed with a leak and leafy shield, plays the role of a gallant knight with Pichu as his loyal squire. The duo will encounter many Pokemon in their travels, but the team at Aardman Animations intends to primarily feature Pokemon that reside in the Galar region. One particular Pokemon they mentioned in the panel was Obstagoon, the final evolution of Galarian Zigzagoon. Young said it’s the biggest puppet in the show and is roughly twice the size of Sirfetch’d. https://youtu.be/Ofl9vf0nXmw Each and every puppet is handmade and can be articulated any which way in order to fulfill what the scene and action calls for. Additionally, the crew created multiple sizes of each of the key puppets to make certain shots feel grander. The audience at the panel got a firsthand look at some of these puppets and their various sizes. The Aardman Animations team went on to say that The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d and Pichu will have no dialogue and no human characters, largely relying on slapstick humor between Pokemon. Given the team’s previous work with Shaun the Sheep, the team is well-equipped to tackle a comedy without dialogue. According to McKay, one episode takes roughly 110 weeks to complete. Of course, the team isn’t working on one episode at a time. Multiple are in production at once as the team creates puppets, builds out sets, and adds visual effects. At the end of the panel, Parkinson announced that Pokemon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d and Pichu will come to Disney+ in 2027...
Reviews are already rolling in for Grand Theft Auto VI, but not the way you think. Letterboxd, a social media site focused on journaling films, is allowing users to log the GTA 6 extended-look trailer that premiered on Netflix last week. That means people can rate the 25-plus minute advertisement like a movie and even offer up their two cents--with humorous effect. One of the most popular reviews is from user eddyburback, who wrote: "Structure was a mess, narrative was vague and confusing (felt like a trailer instead of a movie), animation looked like a video game. I would be embarrassed to release this film." As if you didn't need to know they were joking, they added that the "gameplay looked incredible" for GTA 6. Meanwhile, another top critique notes that it's unbelievable "the trailer starts with Cyberleek's execution." That's a reference to the unknown person(s) behind the ongoing GTA 6 leaks over the past couple of weeks. Memes are addressed on Letterboxd, too, as user Albert typed, "GTA in Letterboxd before GTA VI." Speaking of which, user Atrius questioned the GTA 6 trailer on the site: "So we are logging ads now?" User Stephanie Gillespie took the opportunity seriously and provided a strong critique of the presentation: "Legitimately embarrassing. Where Rockstar used to do these fascinating trailers that talked you through tech and mechanics to really show why their games are interesting, this is just ... A bunch of limply edited-together footage of Grand Theft Auto." There's plenty more from Gillespie, too, who gave the whole thing one star (out of five on Letterboxd). Last but not least, a user jokingly noted that the extended GTA 6 trailer is "Netflix's Oscar contender for best short film." This hasn't been the only way the game has been referenced to the movie industry lately, either. Last week, people compared Jason Duval's voice to Tom Hardy's Bane character in The Dark Knight Rises, since they both incomprehensibly mumble. We have compiled 29 big takeaways from the latest GTA 6 trailer, as well as learned that a playthrough can take roughly 80 hours. There also will be no microtransactions in GTA 6 when it launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. GTA 6: 268 Screenshots To Ease The Wait 
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There are certain non-negotiable constants in the world of Street Fighter, from Ryu throwing Hadoukens to Dhalsim being referred to as "Stretchy-Arm Guy" by new players, and when it comes to Chun Li, the Interpol agent always has a set of thighs strong enough to crack a titanium-plated watermelon in half. October's Street Fighter movie looks like a faithful adaptation of the classic fighting games, and Chun-Li actress Callina Liang worked hard to get her body--especially her legs--into fighting shape for the role. To prepare for the part, Liang practiced several martial arts built around kicking techniques, but most importantly, she also switched to a high-protein diet to help bulk up her muscles. This was a tough program for Liang to follow--eating a dozen eggs every day had her on the verge of throwing up--but by the end of her training, she'd added an impressive layer of muscle to her thighs alone. "Chun-Li is all kicks. So we did a bunch of Taekwondo training, Muay Thai, and Wushu (Kung Fu)," Liang said to Empire Magazine (via IGN). "I did two hours of that a day and strengthened my legs a lot and changed my diet drastically. When I was bulking, I ate 12 eggs a day. Every two hours, I had to have a meal, and I was on the verge of throwing up. But it worked. By the end of the shoot, my thighs had grown six-and-a-half centimeters each." https://youtu.be/Xt4X4FvXk2A Liang added that she prepared herself mentally by downloading multiple Street Fighter games onto her PlayStation 5, recording her moves in slow motion, and then playing them back so she could study them. Thighs are a particularly tough muscle group to train because they're designed to be high-endurance parts of the body. What this means is that they require extreme systemic fatigue and precise, agonizingly hard sets to properly grow over time--a process that is anything but easy. A fan-favorite character in Street Fighter circles, Chun-Li has been consistently portrayed as having the best thighs in the game, with her martial arts using her leg muscles to beat down opponents much larger than herself. The Street Fighter 2 anime movie is a prime example--that fight scene with Vega is still a masterpiece in animated violence--and in one of the Street Fighter movie trailers, Mel Jarnson's Cammy makes an offhand remark about how she thinks Chun-Li's thighs are overrated--that'll probably come back to haunt her later in the film. Street Fighter will be thigh-zing up the box office competition in October, and other actors in the movie have also leaned fully into their characters. WWE performer Cody Rhodes went full Guile during his SummerSlam match, and Noah Centineo, who plays Ken Masters in the movie, says that the film is filled with "hundreds" of Easter eggs for fans to enjoy...
Weapons director Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie hits theaters on September 17, and analysts predict it will set a record for the franchise. While the majority of the live-action movies turned a decent profit off of a relatively small budget, Cregger's take on the IP is currently projected to have the best opening weekend by a comfortable margin. That's according to the official publication of the National Association of Theater Owners, Box Office Pro. The survival-horror movie is predicted to bring in between $40 and $50 million in its North American opening weekend, which would be almost double Resident Evil: Afterlife's $26.6 million weekend from way back in 2010. The new Resident Evil movie also has a brisk running time of around 95 minutes, so that should allow theater owners to screen the film several times a day to maximize ticket sales. If Resident Evil does hit that $40 million or more mark, it'll be on par with the opening weekend of his last release, Weapons. The 2025 film made $43.5 million at its debut and went on to earn an impressive $270 million at the global box office. If the predictions are on the money, Cregger's Resident Evil will perform a lot better than 2021's Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which was a box office bomb that made only $42 million during its theatrical run. But can Resident Evil maintain its momentum past the opening weekend? It's not unusual for movies to lose gas quickly after the first week, but Cregger's films generally tend to have long legs. 2016's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is currently the best-performing Resident Evil movie with a global box office haul of $312.2 million. Resident Evil Movies Global Box Office Results Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017) – $312.2 million Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) – $300.2 million Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) – $240 million Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) – $148 million Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) – $129 million Resident Evil (2002) – $103 million Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) – $42 million Resident Evil could also have the potential for repeat viewings, as Cregger has crafted an original story that draws on the franchise he's a massive fan of, and early trailers have shown off several Easter eggs. The film stars Austin Abrams as an "idiot” courier who wanders into Raccoon City at the worst possible time, and the cast also includes Zach Cherry, Johnno Wilson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kali Reis...
Actor Peter Cullen, best known as the booming voice of Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise, has died at the age of 85. TMZ reported the news, which was corroborated by trade publications including The Hollywood Reporter. Cullen passed away peacefully in his Los Angeles home on Wednesday, according to his agent. Beginning his career as a live-action performer and an announcer, Cullen's run voicing Optimus Prime started with the original 1980s Transformers animated show. Optimus Prime was famously killed off in the 1986 Transformers film, and backlash led to the Autobots leader being resurrected in the show in 1987. It wasn't until 2007 with Transformers: The Game, a tie-in to the Michael Bay live-action film, that Cullen got to voice Optimus Prime in a video game project. Cullen would reprise the role in several other Transformers games, including the acclaimed Transformers: War for Cybertron and Platinum Games' Transformers: Devastation. Cullen even voiced the character when he debuted in Fortnite. Other than Optimus Prime, Cullen also voiced the chronically pessimistic Eeyore in several Winnie the Pooh films, shows, and video games. One of his more obscure video game credits is acting as the narrator in the 2019 puzzle game Crystal Crisis. Cullen's other iconic voice roles outside of Optimus Prime and Eeyore include the eponymous Predator in the original Predator film, Monterey Jack in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and KARR in Knight Rider. He won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Children's and Family Emmy Awards. It has been a tough week in the entertainment world, with many mourning the passings of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, the latter whom had a small but memorable presence in video gaming...
Following the report that said Battlefield 1's Jack Lowden is circling the role of James Bond for the next 007 movie, it’s now rumored that another actor who appeared in a video game, Jack Barton, could be in the mix as well. PageSix reported that Bond 26 director Denis Villeneuve and casting director Nina Gold are looking at a "stream of unknowns" to play James Bond next. One such person is Barton, who played Messmer the Impaler in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. That is Barton's only video game credit. On TV, he appeared in Steven Knight's SAS: Rogue Heroes and the TV show War of the Worlds. In film, Barton appeared in Yorgos Lanthimos' Oscar-winning 2023 movie Poor Things. The report went on to say Barton will do a screen test to play James Bond, as will other contenders, including Lowden. These tests will begin in early September and will also reportedly include people like Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Paul Mescal, and Harris Dickson. In May this year, Bond movie production company Amazon MGM Studios said the search for the next James Bond actor was underway and that the film studio would not comment on the casting process. It has been a long wait for the next James Bond movie, as the latest entry, No Time to Die, was released in 2021. However, it was expected to be release much sooner, but had three delays due in part to COVID. Daniel Craig played James Bond in five 007 films, and wrapped up his run with No Time To Die. Amazon MGM Studios bought the franchise and reportedly paid a lot of money to regain creative control from the longtime series stewards Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. The new James Bond movie will be directed by Villeneuve, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker known for the Dune franchise. He’s also directed the movies Prisoners, Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival...
The next chapter in the DC Universe, Lanterns, has just hit TV, and it's a tonal shift from previous incarnations of the galactic space-cop. While the cosmic side of Green Lantern has always been at the forefront across his appearances in DC Animated Universe and the 2010 movie starring Ryan Reynolds, Lanterns grounds the character with a slow-burning mystery on Earth. It's a gritty detective story with cosmic dread so far, and in the background, there's a soundtrack that draws inspiration from '90s rock and grunge to give the show its audio character. Composed by Stephanie Economou--the first-ever Grammy winner for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media--Lanterns also features experimental sonic landscapes, which Economou says helped to develop a dark and emotional tone for the HBO series. "I started by writing some of the character themes. John's in particular, the first thing I wrote for his theme was this lonely, strummed baritone rubber-bridge guitar, which is very kind of reminiscent of Nirvana, and I wanted to write a bass riff for him that was very steady and measured." "And then when I wanted to write something for Hal, I knew that I also wanted something rock there because it just worked for him. He's more garage rock, like early Black Keys, sort of like swaggery, rough around the edges, unruly cowboy kind of thing.” "We hear Hal's theme in a very different context and a different timeline. It's more ambient; it's icier. John's theme, you know, becomes reharmonized. There's like a trip-hop treatment of his theme later on in the series that offers like a different edge and danger." https://youtu.be/ZcXRH174Hus For the main Lanterns theme, Economou says she mixed drama, synth, and a subtle layer of instability to create a unique track that also paid tribute to the IP's legacy. "I wanted to write something really big, dramatic, powerful, and proud, and really lean into the sci-fi element of it. I think, more than any of the other themes in the show," Economou explained. "There's bending synths going from chord to chord. There's like a sense of instability and fear, but also anticipation, and I tried to create a really unique sound world whenever that theme is played, to highlight the legacy of the Lantern Corps. While Economou says she had a ton of fun crafting the music for Hal Jordan and John Stewart, coming up with the music for the merciless Manhunters also allowed her to put her spin on a "classic baddie" theme. "[It] needed to be like a real classic baddie theme, and it's a really simple tune," Economou said. "But I needed to give it this edge, and I wanted to process it in a way that felt really, every time you hear it, 'Oh shit, those are the Manhunters.’" As someone who has worked on video game soundtracks, Economou says she was able to bring lessons learned from those projects to film and television, particularly the storytelling element that video game soundtracks are known for. "I really love working in games because you get to live in the music for a really long time, and I recognize the responsibility that a composer has in that gaming experience," Economou explained. "So I always want to pay as close attention as possible to how the music is telling the story and creating variations with themes, small evolutions, and reharmonizations. In game music, the verticality is so important, and that layered aspect of the storytelling is really crucial for how the player experiences the music." https://youtu.be/3iT7_3xmNGk "And so, I think that sense of layering, breaking down, building up, and experimenting with the different levels of arrangement that you do when you implement music into a game is a nice thing to have that perspective when you're writing outside of the game. We don't have to worry about the level of interactivity in a TV show or a film, but why not try to make it as immersive an experience as possible for the listener? Even if it's not for a game." As the first composer to win a Grammy for a video game soundtrack, Economou added that the prestige associated with it has helped show game publishers and studios just how valuable the music is, not just in a game, but outside of it as well. "I think game audiences in particular have celebrated this music for so long that by the time the Grammy category came around, they were like,'Finally, what took so long?' There are so many retroactive Grammys due to composers who have defined the sound of video game music. For everybody else, I do think it proved what many of us already knew: that game music is an important part of the zeitgeist and has shaped what media music means. Having all these live concerts around the world with game music, and seeing how many people love to go listen to it, is a real testament to how rich this art form is.” “Game companies are understanding the value of music even more than they already did, and perhaps maybe putting more backing into pushing for awards because the visibility is so important for composers to have. You have it at the Oscars, you have it at the Emmys, and for game composers who primarily do game work, not having that same kind of visibility is really such a shame. “They see how important a part of the storytelling music really is." Lanterns premiered on HBO on August 16, and the eight-episode series will run through October 4...
If the recent re-release of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North got you excited about the fantasy franchise and looking for more, Amazon currently has a great deal going for the Peter Jackson movies. The retailer is selling a digital copy of the three-movie extended-edition bundle for just $15. It normally goes for $45, so this is quite a deal, at least if you're OK owning the movies digitally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zckJCxYxn1g 2026 is the 25th anniversary of the films, as The Fellowship of the Ring debuted in 2001. The sequels The Two Towers and The Return of the King followed in 2002 and 2003, respectively. They were all big hits critically and commercially. Return of the King, for its part, swept at the Oscars in 2004, winning all 11 of the awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director for Jackson. There are more The Lord of the Rings movies now in the works, including The Hunt for Gollum in 2027. As for the game series, recent entries like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and Tales of the Shire left a lot to be desired. There are new games now in the works, including a "deeply immersive" game from Kingdom Come studio Warhorse. Additionally, Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics is said to be working on its own The Lord of the Rings game. There will also be more re-releases of "classic" The Lord of the Rings games coming up...