Category: Movies

Sony says Uncharted is ‘a new hit movie franchise’ after the film rakes in $139 million globally

Tom Holland continues to be a box office draw.

Nobody was expecting big-time box office numbers from Uncharted, but Sony Pictures claim the movie is an enormous success.

A report from Deadline states that the rip-roaring adventure film is doing much better during its theatrical run than many were predicting. Early estimates put Uncharted at around $30 million domestically over a four-day period, but the movie wound up raking in $51 million, sending its worldwide revenue up to $139 million. Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman reportedly sent a company-wide memo celebrating Uncharted’s success.

“With over [$100 million] in box office worldwide in just one weekend, and a 90% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Uncharted is a new hit movie franchise for the company,” Rothman said. “This marks a great victory for every single division of the company, as the film was our first major production entirely shut down by the advent of Covid, yet we persevered to complete a picture the audience loves and marketed and distributed it with strategic verve worldwide, despite the pandemic.”

It probably helps that Tom Holland’s star power is at an all-time high after Spider-Man: No Way Home, though he said filming Uncharted was brutal by comparison.Sony releasing the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection around the same time as the movie likely did wonders as well. Or maybe it was the collaboration with Fortnite that put Uncharted over, who knows!

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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These new Sonic The Hedgehog 2 movie posters are wonderfully cheesy

The prickly speedster returns.

Well ahead of Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s theatrical release in April, Paramount teased fans with three new character posters.

Sonic the Hedgehog is often seen as the best video game film adaptation ever, so hype over the second movie is already at a fever pitch. It’s not coming out until April 8, 2022, but Paramount probably wants everyone ready to bolt toward theaters on premiere day. Though a specific subset of the fandom clearly has been ready since the announcement that Idris Elba will voice Knuckles the Echidna.

On Tuesday, the official Sonic the Hedgehog movie Twitter account shared character posters, each with an accompanying corny tagline. The titular hero Sonic got “License 2 Quill,” while everyone’s favorite sidekick Trails had “Ready 2 Kick Tail,” and (best of all) Knuckles sported “Time 2 Punch In.” Check them out for yourself below.

That wonderful sense of humor from the first film seems to be back in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A legacy that the Knuckles the Echidna TV show hopefully continues next year.

Time will tell if Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie ends up as another fan favorite like the first, but thus far, it’s looking promising. Paramount is all-in on more video game adaptations, with the Halo TV series already getting a second season renewal.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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The 50 best movies streaming free for Amazon Prime members (February 2022)

Here’s what to watch on Amazon Prime this month.

It’s February! And that means it’s time to check out some of the best offerings from Amazon Prime’s movie offerings, from classics to some new flicks that the service is premiering.

Not a Prime member? You can sign up here.

You can also check out some of our other lists if you’re looking for a fun way to entertain yourself or kill some time:

Away we go with the best of what you can watch on Amazon Prime this month:

The trailer for the Adam Sandler basketball movie ‘Hustle’ feels like ‘NBA 2K’ for a reason

If you were someone who played MyCareer in ‘NBA 2K20’ and enjoyed it, you may find yourself enthralled by ‘Hustle’ as well.

World-famous comedian Adam Sandler is a huge basketball fan and his next movie will focus on his love for the game.

The film, which is produced by Sandler’s Happy Madison Production in tandem with LeBron James’ The SpringHill Company, is called Hustle. It is about a basketball scout who discovers a once-in-a-lifetime player with “a rocky past” to help make it to the NBA.

You can watch a trailer for the film, courtesy of Sandler’s Twitter, below:

If you watched the trailer and it reminded you of the MyCareer mode in NBA 2K, there is a very good reason!

The film, which is directed by Philadelphia’s Jeremiah Zagar, is written by Taylor Materne and Will Fetters. Materne will make his film debut after he previously wrote for, you guessed it, the NBA 2K video game. 

Marterne wrote the screenplay for NBA 2K20, which is about a player whose teammate gets hurt and loses his scholarship. The MyCareer player then speaks out against his school and his coach before turning pro and declaring for the draft. James and Maverick Carter helped produced the story.

If you were someone who played a lot of NBA 2K20 and enjoyed it, you may find yourself enthralled by Hustle as well.

Hustle stars Sandler (as Stanley Beren) alongside Juancho Hernangómez (as Bo Cruz) as well as Queen Latifah, Ben Foster, Kenny Smith, Raul Castillo, Jordan Elizabeth Hull, Maria Botto, Heidi Gardner, and Robert Duvall.

You can watch Hustle when it releases on Netflix beginning June 10, 2022.

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Paramount’s Halo TV series gets renewed for a second season

David Wiener is also joining as a showrunner.

Paramount announced on Tuesday that the live-action Halo TV series will come back for a second season.

Halo isn’t premiering on Paramount+ until March 24, 2022, but the hype train is already chugging along, even getting a somewhat awkward shoutout during the Bengals-Chiefs AFC Championship Game last month. Fans are, frankly, a little wary of what Paramount has shown so far — especially Cortana’s questionable design. However, that tepid reaction wasn’t enough to slow Paramount’s hopes for the series down.

“Suit up, Spartans. The wait is almost over. [Halo] premieres March 24 exclusively on [Paramount Plus] with a second season already ordered,” Paramount said on Twitter.

343 Industries, the studio behind Halo Infinite, chimed in with several more details about Season 2 of the series.

“Paramount+ has confirmed that the show has been renewed for a second season,” 343 Industries said via Halo Waypoint. “David Wiener will join Season 2 as showrunner and executive producer, known for his excellent work on Brave New World.”

Wiener’s credits also include Fear the Walking Dead, Homecoming, and The Killing, so he brings loads of experience to Halo. Whether he’ll address the elephant in the room that is deviating from series canon is another matter entirely.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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The Last of Us HBO series isn’t premiering in 2022

Don’t expect Pedro Pascal’s Joel anytime soon.

Everyone is wondering when HBO’s The Last of Us will premiere, but it won’t be soon.

In an interview with Deadline, HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys stated that fans likely have a year’s wait ahead of them.

“It’s not going to air in 2022 — they are still shooting in Canada. I imagine you will see it in 2023,” Bloys said. “I have seen some early episodes and I’m very excited, [Craig Mazin] did Chernobyl for us, he is a fantastic writer and director. What I’ve seen looks amazing, so I’m excited for it, but it will not be in 2022.”

In recent months, there have been several high-profile castings for HBO’s The Last Of Us. Nick Offerman, best known for Parks and Recreation, and Euphoria regular Storm Reid will play Bill and Riley, respectively. 

Besides that single promotional set photo featuring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey that came out last fall, there’s not much news about The Last of Us adaptation. We know Naughty Dog is heavily involved, which every longtime fan surely wants to hear. Hopefully, the studio will make sure HBO’s The Last of Us ends up as one of the better video game adaptations.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Knuckles is getting a TV show, and Idris Elba will reprise the role

A third Sonic film is also in the works.

Idris Elba will take center stage as Knuckles in a new TV series.

On Tuesday, Paramount announced several film and TV projects coming to the company’s streaming platform soon. One of which is a Sonic The Hedgehog spinoff series starring Idris Elba as Knuckles the Echidna. Yes, we live in a timeline where Sonic movies are so good that his buddy Knuckles gets a dedicated TV show. Absolutely bananas, that.

We don’t know much about the Knuckles series outside of the fact that Elba is returning to voice the character and that it’ll debut exclusively on Paramount+ sometime in 2023.

[developing story]

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Netflix is working on a BioShock film

Rapture on the silver screen.

In a shocking move, Netflix announced Tuesday that a BioShock film is coming in the future.

Information on the adaptation is sparse, with Netflix offering only slight details in the initial announcement.

“Netflix, 2K, and Take-Two Interactive are partnering to produce a film adaptation of the renowned video game franchise BioShock,” Netflix said on Twitter.

Everything suggests the ink is barely dry on this deal, so it’ll likely be quite some time before we hear more about the BioShock movie. Netflix has a reputation for making solid video game adaptations, if nothing else. With Castlevania and Arcane: League of Legends being good examples.

Take-Two CEO and chairman Strauss Zelnick did release a statement about the film.

“Netflix is among the best and most forward-thinking storytellers in all of entertainment today,” Strauss Zelnick said in a press release. “We are thrilled that they share our vision and commitment to the BioShock franchise, which is beloved by millions of fans around the world. 2 K’s Cloud Chamber studio is deep in active development on the next iteration of the series, and coupled with our partnership with Netflix, we remain highly confident that BioShock will continue to captivate and engage audiences like never before.”

The BioShock movie is the first new project tied to series in quite a long time. There’s a fourth video game in production at Cloud Chamber Studios for sure, but series creator Ken Levine isn’t involved. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Nolan North voicing Nathan Drake in Uncharted audiobook

In a twist, the voice actor’s playing the role he originated once again.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Nolan North, best-known for voicing Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series, is once again reprising his role for the audiobook novelization of the upcoming film adaptation, Variety reported Wednesday.

In the film, however, Drake is played by a markedly younger (no offense, Mr. North) Tom Holland, so North is playing his own character via Tom Holland’s interpretation. Instead of doing an impersonation of Tom Holland’s version of his character, North seems to have more or less settled for doing the voice he’s provided since 2007.

“I got to do Antonio Banderas, a little bit of a Mark Wahlberg and put on my own Boston accent a little bit, and then Nathan Drake. I didn’t do Tom Holland, though,” North said via Variety. “I kind of just did me. I tried to young him up a little bit.”

North isn’t stopping at reclaiming his role though, and is voicing the entirety of the audiobook, which will be released on Feb. 22, a few days after the Feb. 18 release of the long-in-gestation video game adaptation. The film, an origin story that deviates from the games and pulls from various of them for references, also features Mark Wahlberg as Drake’s mentor Victor Sullivan, an unlikely father figure for Drake that brings levity and heart to the series. Antonio Banderas also stars as an entirely new villain named Moncada, and Sophia Ali plays Chloe Frazer, one of Drake’s love interests in the Uncharted video games.

The Uncharted movie has been an arduous task, beginning development in 2008 before being handed to director after director and finally landing on Rubin Fleischer, director of 2018’s Venom, to shoot throughout 2020. The journey has also been a rough one for Holland too, who’s evidently been pelted by blue cubes in the filming process and claims the movie “broke” him. Let’s hope the guy gets some rest while he pitches his Jak and Daxter movie. In the meantime, I think North is probably raring to do those stunts himself.

Written by Moises Taveras on behalf of GLHF.

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