Shortly after it was announced that Spike Jonze’s new film Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde and Rooney Mara, had been given a theatrical release date of November 20th, 2013, it has been revealed that Scarlett Johansson and Chris Pratt are also listed as cast members.

This news comes from Warner Brothers Pictures’ Twitter account, which tweeted:

“Spike Jonze’s new film, ‘Her’, w/ Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara, Chris Pratt & Olivia Wilde to open Nov. 20th.”

The film was shot in the first quarter of 2012 and through the whole production process there was no mention of Johansson or Pratt, so this announcement is completely out of the blue. As random as it may be though, I’m definitely happy about this reveal.

Johansson and Pratt are both fantastic actors and I think their comedy backgrounds will suit this film perfectly. I also cannot wait to see them sharing the screen with the likes of Phoenix, Adams, Wilde and Mara.

For those of you unfamiliar with the film, Her “is a quirky romance following Theodore (Phoenix), a lonely writer purchases a newly developed operating system (not unlike iPhone’s Siri) designed to meet the user’s every needs. To Theodore’s surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system.”

Are you excited to see Her? Do you think Johansson and Pratt will fit well into the film? Let us know in the comments below.

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Considering that it’s been 20 years since the release of Jurassic Park, it wouldn’t come as a complete surprise if someone wanted to remake it. But you can’t just remake one of the most successful films of all time directed by one of the most successful filmmakers of all time, right? Surely no one would be up for such a colossal task. A reboot though, well, that could work.

“Reboot” is the word for Jurassic Park 4 that Sam Neill used in a recent interview. While talking to the Dominion Post, a New Zealand newspaper, the man who starred as paleontologist Alan Grant in the first and third Jurassic Park movies said that he doubts he’ll make a return in the new film because the producers want a fresh start.

Here’s what he had to say:

As well as confirming that he is unlikely to be a part of next year’s Jurassic Park 4 (“I’m told it’s a big reboot, a total re-jig”), Neill confesses he hasn’t seen the new version of the original.

So no Alan Grant awesomeness in the sequel? I guess that might also rule out a reprise by Jeff Goldblum as chaos theorist Ian Malcolm, too.

On the flip side though, Jurassic Park 4 was recent pulled from its summer 2014 release date and put on hold for re-tooling, so there may be a chance that nothing’s off the table, including appearances by cast members from previous movies. Safety Not Guaranteed director Colin Trevorrow is still expected to helm the film.

More news as it develops but for now, tell us, what do you think of a reboot as opposed to a remake?

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Amidst the flurry of news surrounding Microsoft’s newest console, the Xbox One, one of the odder announcements was the fact that the latest Xbox needs to have the new Kinetic plugged in at all times. Xbox’s UK marketing director Harvey Eagle has stated that if the motion capture device is not attached to the machine, the new Xbox is not able to function in any capacity.

Some are worried that this means that attempting to play the Xbox One in a confined or cluttered space will be impossible but Microsoft representatives assured reporters that the new Xbox will be able to work regardless of where they play.

When asked about potentially playing the Xbox One in a bedroom, Eagle had this to say:

“We use the living room almost as a moniker – that’s where we assume the best screen is in the house. But if you like to play in any other room in the house, the Xbox One will deliver the same quality of experience whatever the environment.”

While Microsoft is trying to downplay this always on feature, people can’t help but be slightly skeptical considering the current model requires a fair amount of open space and distance to function properly.

It is interesting to see the development team making the original add-on accessory mandatory in their next console, along with what advances the company has made in motion tracking and voice recognition. While this means that we are in store for some interesting new ways to play games, it is important to remember that some of the more fascinating things that were developed for the Kinetic came out after it was modded by the public.

Hopefully by the time the holidays come, we will have played a bit of the Xbox One to see if this addition is warranted.

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The first official in-game trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts has been revealed today alongside Microsoft’s Xbox One blowout, and it’s teasing a very different game world than previous instalments have delivered.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is aiming to put players in a world where the United States has been devastated by an unknown weapon of mass destruction delivered by a technologically superior super-force. Infinity Ward was plagued by the question of what would happen if America was the underdog, rather than a super power? How would this impact our lives and the way in which we engage in warfare? What would that gameplay experience be like?

Luckily, fans will be able to answer this question exactly when they assume the role of an American soldier who has grown up in the aftermath of America’s downfall ten to fifteen years after the devastating event.

Infinity Ward is hoping to invest you on a deeper level by enlisting the talent of Academy Award winning screenwriter, Stephen Gaghan, of Traffic and Syriana fame. Yet, why should anyone care that the gaming industry has managed to snag another Hollywood screenwriter to pen a script for their next big budget title when we’ve seen the same thing countless times in the past?

Well, Gaghan’s presence is an important factor for the narrative of Ghosts when we take a look at his personal investment into the project. Gaghan didn’t simply see himself as a contractor crafting another war story to give Call of Duty fans more reasons to test their trigger fingers. His part of the project took on a much more significant role as he attempted to truly understand how stories are told through the video game medium.

Mark Rubin shed some light on why the team ultimately decided to choose Gaghan:

“[H]e’s a great writer, no doubt about it and that’s fine, there are probably lots of great writers out there…We’ve had writers before, and they know how to write, but they don’t understand the game aspect of it. And I feel like with Gaghan, he really understood what we were trying to do. He asked more questions than try to sell himself…He was asking how things work and how we do things, and was really interested in how we craft the story, not from a writing standpoint but from the visuals and gameplay. He really was asking a lot of questions about the dev side, he really wanted to know more. I think that interest in what we were doing is really what drove us to him.”

Gaghan invested himself in expanding his understanding of game development and this is exactly why his involvement is significant for Ghosts. His curiosity not only allows him to understand gaming better but also permits him to truly master and overcome the limitations of storytelling in gaming. The more he understands how to collaborate with a development team to know what is and is not possible, the better the production will be. Infinity Ward in collaboration with Gaghan will be able to craft a story that seamlessly combines a powerful Hollywood style narrative with first person shooter action.

The narrative will focus on a specific set of soldiers, which will likely add to the impact of the story overall in comparison to the seemingly jumbled mess of multi-perspective storylines previous installments created. Interestingly, players will be accompanied by a Navy SEAL dog that is able to sniff out danger and aid the team as a type of companion AI for players. Just please don’t develop our emotional attachment to our SEAL dog and then take him away. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle that.

What do you make of Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ new direction? Will it be interesting to see America as the underdog? Be sure to leave us your thoughts in the comments and check out the new trailer below.

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The Last of Us is barely a month away and luckily Naughty Dog has decided to give us another glimpse behind the scenes at the creation of the team’s latest survival adventure title.

Naughty Dog’s recent documentary video allows fans to get an inside look at how the team has struggled to make players feel the weight of Joel and Ellie’s plight. They want you to be overwhelmed by a sense of desperation and force a crucial choice about how to use the items you scavenge. Do you craft a medkit with that rag and alcohol or do you play the game aggressively and craft a Molotov? Sure, this seems like a simple question but when there is no guarantee that you will find the resources again the game’s choices become increasingly heavier. One of the game’s lead designers, Jacob Minkoff commented on the game’s crafting and resources:

“Molotov and medkits are not the only ones that have these interesting overlaps. You can craft a shiv out of a binding and a blade so you can sneak up behind someone to take them out more quickly, more quietly. Or it can be used to jimmy open locked doors. You’re expending a binding and a blade in hopes that there’s going to be something awesome on the other side of that door.”

The Last of Us is a game that wants players to struggle with choice constantly. The team has chosen to emphasize exploration within game levels to give players a reason to learn more about the world and provide you with an opportunity to scavenge the best supplies as you fight to stay alive with the resources at your disposal.

The impending fear of death is driven home even further when the game challenges players to react organically to situations, which are a motivation for the team to create a live inventory screen. Oh, you’re in trouble? That’s really a shame because the world isn’t going to pause for you when that horde of infected are rushing your way.

“We needed to make it streamlined and fast enough that you feel that you could take just that moment to craft that thing that’s going to mean your survival in the next 30 seconds or your failure to survive,” said Minkoff.

There’s very little doubt that The Last of Us will be a spectacularly emotional fight for survival when it launches on June 14th and we can’t wait to get our hands on it.

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‘Our journey together has just begun.. As the green-tinted lights dimmed at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, that was perhaps one of the main messages to take away from the reveal of the Xbox One. The industry giant showcased the sleek, chrome black console today and re-iterated their desire to provide consumers with an all-in-one system that will harmonise the traditional gaming experience with interactive entertainment. With the E3 press conference casting a long shadow over the video game industry – in fact, the Expo is less than three weeks away – Microsoft’s revealing of the Xbox One was a preliminary, yet essential keynote.

In truth, we didn’t see a lot of games – crucially, we saw even less gameplay. But Microsoft was quick to showcase their new console before meandering into their ambition to takeover our living room. This will not only result in switching between applications instantaneously, it will mark the company’s venture into live action television in the form of a Halo TV series – produced by none other than Steven Spielberg. However, with Microsoft trailblazing a wholly new path into the next generation with their Xbox One, when you consider Sony’s Playstation 4 conference back in February, the respective driving force set out by each company couldn’t be more different. For every multimedia function that Microsoft presented, Sony flexed their first party support. The two industry titans are careering along opposite trajectories and it presents a fascinating dichotomy on the brink of E3 2013.

Undoubtedly, the Xbox One is Microsoft’s ambitious attempt to reach the broadest audience possible. The company’s third home console represents the most multi-purpose machine yet – a technological Swiss army knife, if you will – and when it launches this holiday season, it won’t just be orientated to the average gamer. Significantly, it will be built with a mainstream appeal in mind, which is a type of architecture that comes with consequences. As a global business, Microsoft is experiencing trouble with the PC market and the Windows Phone clutches to a meagre portion of the market share in comparison to its competitors, hence; the Xbox One is poised to become the company’s flag bearer in not just the gaming sector, but also the entertainment market as whole. Added features including the picture-in-picture attribute a la Microsoft’s Surface tablet and Skype functionality are ultimately bells and whistles with the goal of extending the audience threshold.

To put things into perspective, barring a brief mention about a next-gen Forza – which later turned out to be Forza 5 – it was a full thirty minutes before Andrew Wilson of EA stepped onto the stage to talk about actual games. Up to that point, the primary focus of the Xbox One was entertainment. In comparison, Sony opened their Playstation 4 conference with a visceral sizzle reel teasing future games. The disparity between the two gaming companies is almost palpable. And, from Sony’s perspective, that isn’t a bad thing.

My initial reaction to today’s event has been disappointment. As a press conference, the constant shift in focus from entertainment content and Kinect functionality with rare sprinkling of games for good measure made the entire event feel rather uneven. As though Microsoft extended their reach so far they forgot who queues up for their new consoles on the day of release: the core gamer. Of course, the Xbox One has been unveiled on the company’s self-constructed platform in Redmond allowing them to dictate exactly what to unveil, but for E3, it’s an entirely different story.

With Microsoft and Sony both holding their conferences on June 10th – though the former will take the stage first – the industry titans will go toe-to-toe for the lion’s share of the next-gen audience. This is unquestionably the most important E3 for both Sony and Microsoft in quite some time, and with the latter controversially adjusting today’s conference for the mainstream American market, Sony is in a prime position to steal back the next generational thunder.

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Ken Jeong has experienced a quite the rise to fame over the last couple of years. After catching his first big break in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, the doctor turned actor went on to make films like Role Models, Pineapple Express, Step Brothers and more. Then, in 2009, director Todd Phillips cast Jeong as Mr. Chow in The Hangover and the rest is, as they say, history.

This week The Hangover Part III heads into theatres and Jeong once again reprises his role as the series’ villain. Though his part was more of a supporting one in the first two outings, this time he has a much larger role as the entire story basically revolves around him. He has a ton of screen time and is funnier than ever.

Recently, Ken Jeong was in Toronto to promote the film and we had the chance to catch up with him for a bit. While talking with us, he discussed some of the stunts he did, a possible Chow spin-off film, his time as a doctor, the evolution of his character and more.

Check it out below.

We Got This Covered:  Mr. Chow started off as this minor character in the series and now he’s blossomed into a major role. Can you talk a bit about how you’ve developed this character over the three films?

Ken Jeong: For me, the seeds were planted in the first film. It was my idea to jump naked out of the trunk. That was my main contribution [laughs]. In the script it said that Chow had clothes on but when I read it, I remember thinking that the scene screamed for Mr. Chow to be naked. And I’m not an exhibitionist at heart. I’m the kind of guy who is so shy about his body that I don’t even like to take my shirt off at the beach. But I did feel that because I’m an actor that it was imperative that that had to happen. And that kind of bonded me and Todd Phillips early on. He was kind of amazed that a guy like me, who was only working on the movie for a few days, was willing to just put himself on the line. Whereas in my head I was making a character choice, not a personal choice. So I think that helped Todd widen that spectrum for Chow and really expand his role.

We Got This Covered: What do you think it is that these movies resonate so well with people?

Ken Jeong: I think Todd’s vision is amazing. His relationship with the main three leads is also great. And speaking of them, I cannot say enough good things about Ed, Zach and Bradley. They are the three most egoless, diva-free leads that you can ask to work with. They set the tone for the whole movie. People are always shocked to see how kind of low key we really are in real life. We just save it all for the camera. We have a free exchange of ideas too. I feel like I can say anything to those guys. Just to have that complete trust more than anything is what I’m going to miss about the Hangover franchise and I think that really informed why people see these movies.

We Got This Covered: Your character actually gets to do some crazier stuff in this one like parachuting over Las Vegas. Did you get to do any of these things yourself?

Ken Jeong: The parachuting thing was actually MANY different stuntmen. I can’t take credit for that. There are some close ups where I was elevated maybe 40 feet while I was outside to simulate some of that intensity, but that’s about it.

There’s another part of the movie where Chow does a 30 foot free fall and there are hundreds of gallons of water coming out behind him, that was definitely all me. And it was crazy in a way because I was always deathly afraid of heights. But I worked with our stunt coordinator Jack Gill for about six months to sort of desensitize me. Once a week when I was done filming on Community I would go and work with Jack on being in a harness about ten feet in the air to the point where I wouldn’t freak out, and then we would go to fifteen feet, twenty feet, thirty feet. Then subsequently we would graduate to being in the harness and doing things at a fast rate. Then we actually went ahead and did the drop. That was the culmination of about eight weeks of me getting over my own mental block and then actually executing that. That was physically speaking probably the greatest day of my acting career, because just to be able to even for a day conquer some of your own demons for a bit was great and exciting

We Got This Covered: Since you didn’t start off as a comedian and you started as a doctor, who were your biggest inspirations to made you want to pursue comedy?

Ken Jeong: I grew up loving Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and David Letterman. Those guys are geniuses and I’m not, but there was something about how all three of them had this sense of fearlessness that I admired. I also really admired Dana Carvey and Will Ferrell on SNL. I really like Steve Carell and Sacha Baron Cohen too. Those guys really knew how to find what was funny and they could stick really well to themes. I have so many influences that it’s kind of ridiculous.

Honestly, Zach and I have been friends for almost 15 years now, and in a way he’s been a really big influence too. Even when we did stand up together he was always the funniest guy there. I have to say that the funniest actor working right now is Zach Galifianakis, and that’s not just because we’re friends or because I’ve worked with him. I’ve worked with just about everyone in comedy at one point or another and no one makes me laugh like Zach, and he knows that. I told him recently that I would gladly just give up my acting career to be his Ed McMahon. I would just get paid to laugh at Zach. That would be a great job, being able to laugh at Zach for the rest of my life.

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Game of Thrones is still going on strong three seasons in. Admittedly, fans have been a bit disappointed this year, crying out over a noticeable dip in quality. And while I would agree that season three hasn’t been as good as its two predecessors, HBO’s fantasy/drama is still a fantastic show and one that is well worth tuning into every Sunday night.

Those who do tune in with excitement every week should be happy to know that producer Frank Doelger has stated that he thinks the show will run for four more seasons, bringing the total number of seasons to seven.

“[The number of series] is being discussed as we speak. The third season was the first half of book three, season four will be the second part of book three,” said Doelger. “George RR Martin has written books four and five; six and seven are pending. I would hope that, if we all survive, and if the audience stays with us we’ll probably get through to seven seasons.”

I may not be totally pleased with season three but sure, I’ll take seven seasons of Game of Thrones. Even at its worst, the show is better than almost anything else out there and besides, all great shows have a weak season at some point. Furthermore, things are starting to pick up in season three now so perhaps the worst is behind us.

Either way, I do hope that Game of Thrones lasts seven seasons so that author George Martin’s full story can be told and so we aren’t cheated out of anything.

What do you think? Should the show go on for seven seasons? Do you think it will last that long?

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Looking back at the one hour-long Xbox One reveal that Microsoft offered us this afternoon, it’s hard to think of anything more cryptic than Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break reveal. If you saw it, then you surely know what I’m talking about, because the brand new IP left a lot of unanswered questions on the table following the conclusion of its teaser trailer. Surely that was the plan, however, as the talented developer behind the fantastic likes of Alan Wake, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare and Max Payne seemed to want to leave us thinking about what it was that we saw.

Presented as a mixture of live action and in-game content, the aforementioned teaser opened up with its focus on a young girl who seemingly possesses some sort of magical power. Her interaction with an unknown woman took place outside of a residential home, and was interrupted by footage of a digital ship crashing into a bridge in spectacular CG fashion. Later on, the same technique was used for a second time, as a human moment cut out in favour of a short action scene, complete with a heroic fall and slow motion effects.

At this point in time, that is all that can really be said about Quantic Break, as we simply don’t know much about the new intellectual property. The good news is that it looks very intriguing and we can’t wait to find out more, and that’s obviously a great sign. Hopefully E3 will bring us a lot more information regarding this exciting exclusive.

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While we still don’t know a whole lot about the Xbox One, which was revealed earlier today by Microsoft, what we do know is that there are now 12 games confirmed for it. While most of these titles were already rumoured to be appearing on the next-gen console, now we have official confirmation. Here’s the full list:

1. Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag
2. Battlefield 4
3. Call of Duty: Ghosts
4. Destiny
5. FIFA Soccer 14
6. Forza Motorsport 5
7. Madden 25
8. NBA Live 14
9. Quantum Break
10. Thief
11. UFC
12. Watch Dogs

Like I said above, there’s not too many surprises here as most of these titles were assumed to be releasing for the next-gen console, but still, it’s an impressive line-up and one that will likely expand in the coming weeks.

Microsoft said earlier today that they will release 15 exclusives for the Xbox One in its first year so expect to hear more big announcements during E3 as to which titles will be making their way onto the system.

Tell us, what do you think of the line-up so far, not bad eh? And you can bet that that’s only the tip of the iceberg in terms of games that are confirmed for the Xbox One.

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