Aerith’s death (spoilers) in the original Final Fantasy VII was one hell of an emotional ordeal. And while fans scoured the game years after its release for a chance at finding a way to revive her, there was a way to catch a quick glimpse of her in the late game after she dies. Is it a ghost or a glitch? It’s a little…
Aerith’s death (spoilers) in the original Final Fantasy VII was one hell of an emotional ordeal. And while fans scoured the game years after its release for a chance at finding a way to revive her, there was a way to catch a quick glimpse of her in the late game after she dies. Is it a ghost or a glitch? It’s a little…
What Do We Know About the upcoming second season of The Last of Us? More than you may think. The hit HBO series became a new benchmark for video game adaptations with a faithful take on the source material and new material from the game creators. Now, season two is set to raise the bar yet again. So, let’s dive in and take a look at what is coming next from the hit video game adaptation’s sophomore run.
The success of the first season of The Last of Us meant the return of showrunner Craig Mazin, best known for HBO’s acclaimed Chernobyl as well as writing the less-than-acclaimed The Hangover Part II and Part III as well as Scary Movie 3 and 4. Mazin worked on the second season alongside game creator Neil Druckmann and new writers Hailey Gross and Bo Shim. Druckmann, Mazin, and Peter Hoar will return as directors in the second season with new helmers Kate Herron, Nina Lopez-Corrado, Mark Mylod, and Stephen Williams.
The first season of The Last of Us covered the entire first video game, stopping at the same point where Joel and Ellie depart the Colorado hospital. With Joel holding a massive lie about what happened at the facility, the pair leave with their destination unknown to viewers of the series but very well known to gamers. Many expected the second season to include new material to bridge the gap between the video games. Still, Druckmann and Mazin have since stated they did not want to add any filler material not in the games already, which means season two will begin five years after season one with Joel and Ellie living in Jackson, Wyoming.
Since it was not a foregone conclusion that The Last of Us would even get a second season, Druckmann and Mazin wanted to ensure the series’ initial run was a full narrative arc for the characters. With season two, the showrunners plan to develop the story slowly, with the second video game providing material for multiple television seasons. New writer Hailey Gross cowrote Part II with Neil Druckmann, and her input will ensure that the series sticks close to the established storylines. Mazin has teased that The Last of Us could run for about four seasons, which means that Part II will be stretched to fit somewhere between two and three total seasons.
Season two is currently in production but was delayed due to the 2023 Writers Guild Strike and subsequent SAG-AFTRA strike, which occurred right when auditions occurred. The most important casting decision was Abby, a main character, with Kaitlyn Dever being selected for the role. Isabelle Merced, most recently seen in Madame Web, was chosen to play Dina. Other new characters include Jesse, played by Young Mazino (Netflix’s Beef), Mel played by Ariela Barer, Nora, played by Tati Gabrielle, and Owen played by Spencer Lord. Danny Ramirez will play Manny with Gabriel Luna returning as Joel’s brother, Tommy. The only cast member whose role has not been disclosed is Schitt’s Creek icon Catherine O’Hara, who may play a key guest role like Nick Offerman in the first season.
The Last of Us Part II has often been boiled down to being more of a showcase for Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey. The relationship between Ellie and Dina has been hailed as a masterful storyline in video games and is sure to be impressive in live-action as well. But Ramsey herself has said that the second season will explore the complexity of Ellie’s relationship with Joel, which could mean either expanded material added to existing scenes and subplots or may just be indicative of Ramsey’s desire to work with Pedro Pascal more. What we do know is that the video game takes the story in a much darker direction, if that is even possible. There is a theme of revenge and grief that pervades Part II.
The celebrity of Pedro Pascal has skyrocketed in recent years, with the actor being front and center in The Last of Us while still providing his voice to the Disney+ Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. Pascal is also now the star of Marvel Studios’ long-anticipated movie The Fantastic Four, in which he will play the lead role of Reed Richards. Being stretched, pun intended, in so many directions and with the fate of Joel a foregone conclusion in The Last of Us Part II, the question is whether the writers will accelerate his departure from the main story or if he will meet his maker in Season Three or later.
HBO’s only announcement has been that the series will premiere in 2025, which was announced at the end of 2023. Production was delayed due to the strikes, but filming is slated to wrap in August 2024. Post-production will take some time, which means we should not expect to see the second season until at least Summer next year.
Stay tuned to JoBlo.com as we learn more about the second season of The Last of Us and all of your other favorite shows. What do you expect to see in the upcoming The Last of Us season? Let us know in the comments and click the like and subscribe to follow all of our latest original videos.
The post The Last of Us Season 2: Everything We Know appeared first on JoBlo.
That might be what she said but he’s got a different story altogether. Steve Carell says he has no intention of turning up on the upcoming follow-up to The Office and has stored away his World’s Best Boss mug for good.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Steve Carell said that even though this Office series is set within the same universe, his time as Michael Scott is over. “I will be watching but I will not be showing up. It’s just a new thing and there’s really no reason for my character [Michael Scott] to show up in something like that.” That said, he still has faith in the project, adding, “But I’m excited about it, it sounds like a great conceit. I love the idea — I guess it’s set in a failing newspaper company.”
Steve Carell has played coy about a previous return as Michael Scott before, insisting that he would not be reprising the Dundie Award-winning character for the series finale. But as we all figured — and had confirmed — he did make a “surprise” appearance for Dwight’s wedding. Overall, though, even though this Office addition will have a similar style and will most likely feature some of the other characters reprising their roles, if Greg Daniels and company want it to stand on its own, it might best never even consider bringing back Steve Carell, lest it remind viewers of just how funny the original show was (well, until he left…).
Here is the official plot of the upcoming Office series: “The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch is in search of a new subject when they discover a dying historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters.”
There have been a handful of mini Office reunions since the show went off the air in 2013, including Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer’s rewatch podcast. Steve Carell got his own when he was directed by John Krasinski for this month’s IF. On this project – in which Carell voices an old imaginary friend – Carell praised Krasinski’s directing, which he got experience with the season six episode of The Office “Sabre.”
Production on The Office follow-up is expected to begin this summer.
Do you think Steve Carell will be making a cameo as Michael Scott for the new Office series?
The post Steve Carell says you won’t see Michael Scott in The Office follow-up appeared first on JoBlo.
The Xbox 360 is a legendary console, and its storefront, the Xbox Marketplace, was similarly legendary, becoming one of the most prominent online stores in console history and helping pave the way for digital distribution. The Xbox store has hosted the likes of Xbox Live Arcade, which shone a light on rising indie…
The Xbox 360 is a legendary console, and its storefront, the Xbox Marketplace, was similarly legendary, becoming one of the most prominent online stores in console history and helping pave the way for digital distribution. The Xbox store has hosted the likes of Xbox Live Arcade, which shone a light on rising indie…
When The Strangers trilogy was initially announced I think most of us were intrigued. The concept of filming an entire trilogy back-to-back implies a level of faith in the material. Then hearing that they were going back to the aesthetic of the original piqued my personal interest. After all, the first one is a modern-day horror classic. As someone who didn’t love Prey At Night but has always considered the first to be a great thriller, I was ready to go back into the world of violent home invasion. And The Strangers: Chapter 1 looked to take things back to the basics.
I was fortunate enough to talk to director Renny Harlin, producer Courtney Solomon, and stars Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez about their new film. Knowing what a big horror fan Petsch is, I had to ask what it meant to be a final girl in a major horror franchise. We talked all about the tension-building mayhem of the new trilogy opener. But also plenty of teases for what is to come as there are clearly plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Check out the interview above (which features a special appearance by certain Strangers) and check back Thursday for my review.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 plot synopsis:
After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive in The Strangers ― Chapter 1, the chilling first entry of this upcoming horror feature-film series.
THE STRANGERS – Chapter 1 will be available in theaters nationwide on May 17, 2024
The post Interview: Madelaine Petsch, Renny Harlin, and more discuss Strangers: Chapter 1 appeared first on JoBlo.
Pixar is ready to make fans emotional over its latest feature by inviting them to reconnect with Riley in the highly-anticipated sequel, Inside Out 2. The follow-up to Pete Docter’s 2015 hit follows Riley into her teens when a torrent of new emotions takes control in more ways than one. With an all-star cast of new and returning voice talent, Inside Out 2 brings heart, humor, and heightened emotions to perhaps the most curious and terrifying stage of a young person’s life: puberty.
I visited Pixar Animation Studios in late March for a Press Day Event focusing on Inside Out 2. While there, I was blown away by the artistry, dedication, patience, and creativity poured into the studio’s latest feature film. In addition to touring the Pixar campus, I and an assembly of journalists met with critical contributors for a hands-on, behind-the-scenes look at the studio’s meticulous filmmaking process. While I’ve already shared many fun facts about Inside Out 2 here, I could not contain the information I learned in one article. Some experiences deserve room to breathe, so I’m back to share more details and get you excited for what I believe will be one of Pixar’s greatest sequels.
Story
At the start of the tour, Kelsey Mann (Director), John Hoffman (Head of Story), and Rebecca McVeigh (Story Artist) invited us to Pixar’s Story Fishbowl, where the writing team brainstorms ideas for the film. The room includes a massive desk with individual drawing tablets at every station, whiteboards lining the walls, and a screen for sharing work. After a brief introduction, Rebecca outlined the creative process of her essential work.
Pixar divides every movie it makes into sections or sequences. Each sequence includes a variety of scenes with a central focus. Inside Out 2 contains 25-28 sequences, and they name all of them. The sequence Rebecca showed us was called “The Alarm,” referring to a scene in which Riley wakes from slumber and learns she’s matured seemingly overnight. As her body comes to life, a construction crew destroys the barriers of Riley’s Mind World and alters the console that helps Joy and her friends influence Riley’s emotions. As Riley’s emotions test the new console, they discover it’s changed dramatically, creating confusion among the group.
Rebecca’s presentation was highly entertaining. She created verbal sound effects while narrating the sequence. Her drawing speed is also impressive. She was sketching new ideas on the spot, and they looked great. After a round of applause, John explained that the entire writing team would give detailed notes about the film’s progress. Sometimes, throw-away ideas create such an impact they make it to the final cut. It could be a sight gag, character quirk, or tonal shift in the voice work. If it serves the movie well, John sends word to the art team to start designing new assets for the idea. The story team will often watch a rough cut of the entire film to evaluate the narrative flow and approve ideas before sending them to the art team for digital fabrication.
Next, we visited Maurissa Horowitz (Lead Editor), whose first project at Pixar was Inside Out 2. Maurissa has been working on the film for three years because the story editorial team is on the project from start to finish. She helps move the story forward by making it funnier and more emotional. During the presentation, we rewatched “The Alarm” scene, emphasizing the construction crew making alterations to Riley’s Mind World against Joy’s wishes. With each iteration of the scene, Maurissa showed us examples of different gags, voice lines, plotlines, and use of the soundtrack. Watching the scene set to various songs was fascinating, as each changed the mood dramatically.
Maurissa also stressed how much work goes into the sound editing for Inside Out 2. For example, when the construction crew invades Riley’s Mind World to build a new console, Pixar uses nine different sound effects for the wrecking ball that starts the demolition. All the sounds combined give the object weight, momentum, and impact as it connects with the environment.
From a world perspective, everyone who’s a part of Riley’s Mind World is there to do a job, and they believe in their job, so you don’t want to be against the construction workers. At this moment, Joy confronts chaos, but she must remember to have patience and try to understand the situation, regardless of whether she’s opposed to it. The amount of work that went into creating the construction scene is remarkable. The process began with nearly 4000 storyboards, but the final version only has 408.
Voice Recording Studio
Our next stop on the tour was a trip to the voice recording studio. This portion of the day was a highlight, as I’ve always wanted to voice a character in an animated film. My group took turns reading lines from a scene featuring Anxiety’s introduction and Joy’s reaction to her moving into Riley’s Mind World. I read lines for Joy, doing my best to match the urgency of Joy’s predicament. Pixar was able to record and edit the audio into the film. Thus, I’ve voiced a character in a Pixar film! Well, kind of.
Art Department
While visiting the art department, Jason Deamer (Production Designer) and Keiko Murayama (Character Art Director) gave us an overarching look at Inside Out 2‘s design process. During the presentation, Deamer stressed the importance of honoring the original film’s presentation while elevating it with new techniques and evolved software tools. “If it’s a sequel, you need to honor the first film,” said Deamer. “My favorite sequels are ones that expand the world and don’t try to repeat what the first one did.”
Inside Out was made with 13-year-old software, leaving the Pixar team with no reusable assets. Everything you see in Inside Out 2 is brand-new, as the artists worked for a year and a half to create versions of the original characters that could react to the new lighting system. Shape language and color are paramount to creating character designs that tell a story, and the foundation for building the cast of Inside Out 2 is remarkable. Anger is square, immovable, and red, while Disgust is a sickly green pointy triangle, prickly and sharp. Joy is an exploding star, a gesture of victory and celebration. A teardrop informs Sadness’s design, while Anxiety is tense like a spring.
Layout & Staging
While visiting the Layout and Staging department, Adam Habib (Director of Photography) and Ryan Heuett (Camera & Staging Lead) demonstrated the staging elements and unique cameras used to film Inside Out 2. The team uses different types of camera styles to film the alternate worlds in the movie. The human world uses a handheld effect to introduce a physical, imperfect vibe, while the camera in the mind world is stationary and unmoving. An exception to the rule is Anxiety. When Anxiety is dictating Riley’s decision-making process (driving), Pixar uses the handheld effect to reflect the character’s apprehensiveness. The filmmakers also manipulate the camera’s focus when Anxiety is in control to reflect Riley’s hesitance and confusion about her next steps.
After learning about the camera, I was fortunate to test-drive the rig inside Riley’s Mind World. As I held the camera before me and walked around the motion capture stage, I could investigate the Mind World in great detail. Pixar built the Mind World to be a 360-degree environment, meaning you can walk inside it like an actual room. I examined the characters, Mind World control console, and Memory Storage up close using the camera. I also discovered a few Easter eggs during my tour.
If you look carefully at Riley’s Mind World, you might glimpse Anger’s Steam Room, where he goes to cool off after getting heated up. Pixar cut a scene of Anger using the room for the first film, but the door leading to the area still exists. The bedroom, where the emotions rest while Riley is asleep, almost made it into Inside Out, but there was no time to feature it. Inside Out 2 includes scenes in this space, and each sleeping area is tailor-made to suit the respective character. Amazingly, the environments extend beyond the limits of what you see with the camera. In other words, the entire arena where Riley plays hockey exists. You can walk around in it, even after you’ve left the filming environment.
Another example is Mind World, which is more than the room that houses the control console. You can explore the doors and rooms you see in the background. The artists and animators create these rooms so they can film in them if needed. Imagine writing a new scene and expecting the art team to design a new environment on the fly. It’s easier if those environments already exist.
Dovi Anderson (Animation Supervisor) walked us through the polish process, in which artists and animators execute the final touches of a shot. The polish team analyzes each shot in the film and determines if the material needs any alterations. After several evaluations, the director typically tasks the polish team with bringing the shot across the finish line. Once the shot is polished, the simulation team takes over, adding finite details, including hair movement, shifts in body weight, particle effects, and more.
The polish department also determines whether the characters remain on model throughout the shot. Consistency is crucial to making animated characters feel real, as animators want audiences to connect with them on many levels. Animation experts like Anderson analyze mouth movements in the film, determining if the correct gestures appear in the appropriate frames.
To wrap the presentation, Dovi Anderson, Dave Torres (Directing Animator), Rob Thompson (Sketch Artist), Cody Lyon (Animator), and Erin M. Kinda (Department Manager) evaluated a scene of Riley playing hockey with her friends. While characters performed the same motion repeatedly, the team discussed possible alterations to the shot, including Riley’s stick placement, puck trajectory, hip placement, and positioning of other players.
By the end of the day, I had an intimate knowledge of the tireless work and focus that goes into making a Pixar film. What blew my mind was that what I saw was just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve gained a new appreciation for Pixar’s artistry, and I hope you learned a thing or two from this recap of the tour. Inside Out 2 looks fantastic, and I look forward to seeing the final cut of the film. I hope audiences show up when the film arrives in theaters on June 14, as it leaves an impression I will remember forever.
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In October of 2022, the first season of House of the Dragon left audiences with a sense of impending war as Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen found herself laced with rage and coming to a decision to battle for the throne. The second season suffered some delay due to last year’s dual union strikes, but wait no more. The new trailer from HBO prepares you for the inevitable war as both houses are preparing for the grand-scale conflict and lines are about to be drawn. House of the Dragon is set to premiere on SUNDAY, JUNE 16 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and available to stream on Max.
The returning cast from the first season of House of the Dragon includes Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans. Additional returning cast includes Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, and Matthew Needham.
New names that join the cast of this new season include Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull, Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers, Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower, Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong, Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull, Jamie Kenna as Ser Alfred Broome, Kieran Bew as Hugh, Tom Bennett as Ulf, Tom Taylor as Lord Cregan Stark, and Vincent Regan as Ser Rickard Thorne.
George R.R. Martin, as always, will be credited on the show as Co-Creator/Executive Producer. He will be joined by Ryan Condal as Co-Creator/Showrunner/Executive Producer. Executive Producers on the season include Sara Hess, Alan Taylor, Melissa Bernstein, Kevin de la Noy, Loni Peristere and Vince Gerardis. House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s popular novels, Fire & Blood.
Earlier this year, GoT creator George R.R. Martin, wrote on his blog about his traveling to the House of the Dragon production, where he began to develop ideas for seasons three and four. “I also spent two days locked in a room with Ryan Condal and his writing staff (Sara Hess, Ti Mikkel, David Hancock, and Philippa Goslett) talking about the third and fourth seasons of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON,” Martin wrote. “They were lively, fun discussions, and we got some good work done… though two days was not nearly enough. There is so much ground to cover that I am not sure twenty days would have been enough.“
The post House of the Dragon trailer prepares you for the inevitable war appeared first on JoBlo.
I think most people will agree the future doesn’t look too promising. Between crappy AI replacing real humans and billionaires controlling more and more of the world, things seem a bit bleak, I’d say. So Mullet Madjack, a new retro-inspired, anime-themed, first-person shooter on PC, comes at a perfect time. It’s a…