Woosh! Test your elytra skills in tomorrow’s free update
We’ve got a pretty swish update soaring onto consoles tomorrow, bringing with it a free, all new Mini Game. It’s called Glide and it’s designed to test your aeronautical skills to the very limit. Strap on a pair of elytra and hone your swooping skills on an exhilarating aerial track – the first in a series of free tracks to be released.
Beat the clock in the Time Attack mode, using thermal drafts and speed boosters to your advantage, or go for points in Score Attack by hitting all the hoops. Careful study may reveal sneaky shortcuts to refine your runs, so keep your eyes peeled! You can choose to beat your personal best in solo play, pit your wing-skills against other players online, or – on Xbox One and PS4 – take a swing at the all new Glide leaderboards. This update also boosts the number of PS4 and Xbox One players possible in both Glide and Battle up to 16, and all platforms get a more spacious lobby, too!
You can watch us livestream the game mode TODAY at 4pm BST (8am PDT). Check out our channels on Beam or Twitch.
I had a chat with 4J’s art director David Keningale and level lead Michael Hansen about the mode and launch track. How did it all come about?
“Putting the Elytra in for the Console Edition Christmas update was the big driving force,” says David. “The cogs were already turning while we were building the elytra tutorial level. That said, we assumed it would be a ring-based flight course, like PilotWings. It was only as we were building the tracks that we realised just how much fun Time Trial was – and that inspired us to add more shortcuts in order to make it even more fun.”
While the team explored a few different ideas for the launch track (some of which survive as forthcoming challenges) it was the track inspired by their Battle map, Cavern, which got the best reception in testing.
“We put Battle’s Cavern map into the track – it took less than three seconds to fly through! We quickly realised that Glide’s maps would have to be huge.”
“We wanted to create a track which was almost like a journey to finding the Cavern Battle map,” explains Michael. “The whole theme of the map is based on the architecture of that Battle map, so they linked together really nicely.”
“We actually thought, hey, this will save us some work!” says David. “But then we put Battle’s Cavern map into the track as a test. It took less than three seconds to fly through! We quickly realised that Glide’s maps would have to be huge.”
And so they are! The launch track is a giant descending spiral, that moves from open areas, to tight bore-holes, before opening up again, the path regularly split by columns and other highly face-plant-able hazards.
“You start off in the Overworld, in a great canyon,” says David. “From there we wanted to introduce familiar terrain with little elements from Cavern, just to sort of hint as to the region you’re in, and as you descend the architecture gets more elaborate and less ruined. It’s almost like an archaeologist’s journey. We started off the build by digging tunnels, and trying to get interesting flight paths, and then we looked at where we could open up the map more. There’s a large atrium with some really tall architecture that works really well from that aspect, creating a crossroads between lots of a little shortcuts and different routes.”
“The thermals give you that roller-coaster feeling. You’re flying down, and it’s getting frantic and tight and then all of a sudden you get this lift up.”
The use of thermals to give the player lift allows for an interesting variety in the terrain, rather than a continual angular plunge.
“The thermals basically give you that roller-coaster feeling, you know?” says David. “You’re flying down, and it’s getting frantic and tight and then all of a sudden you get this lift up and then you sort of pause and then you dive down again. It gives you both adrenaline boosts and little breaks in the downward trajectory, giving you a chance to look around a little and see what’s going on.”
You’ll need to keep an eye out for those shortcuts – some aren’t obvious at all, and may take a fair bit of practice to master.
“We put the map into test with the Microsoft Test Team,” recalls David, “and though the test team loved it straight away, we had some of the senior members at Microsoft complain that some of the shortcuts were actually impossible. So we sent over a video of how to do those shortcuts – that’s when the competition really ensued. We ended up leapfrogging each other with our best times!”
In the Score Attack mode, you get to choose between different routes marked by rings – the level of difficulty and point value indicated by their colour and decreasing size: green for easy, yellow for middling, blue for hard.
“These routes all overlap, so you can get scores by switching between routes,” says David. “But, if you want the challenge, you can also just go for the yellow or blue rings. They’re much harder to get. You’ve got to be much more skilled in order to get them all.”
Glide has pretty much taken over the Mojang office – if you’re anything like us, you’ll be quickly fixated on taking down your friends scores, eking out every precious second from the course. Look out for more tracks in the near future – some free, some as part of a Season Pass. You can get a glimpse of these at the end of the trailer.
“The first DLC pack going out will be themed around beasts,” says David. “We have a kraken-themed level which takes inspiration from Battle’s Cove map. You burst out into a huge open area with two battling ships and a giant, giant kraken that you fly right up and over. It’s a really great experience. Then we have an exciting glacial track that uses the Ice Spikes biome as inspiration. We have lots of yetis running through the map and giant fossils for you to avoid and to fly through. And the final one uses the Chinese Mythology pack – you’ll be flying alongside dragons and around the fantastic, epic terrain of China!”
Keep your eyes on the skies for free maps, too – like the forthcoming Temple-inspired track, which sweeps through jungle canyons, mines and archaeological dig-sites!
We hope you enjoy the new mode! Just don’t beat my score.
Yesterday, fans of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy were treated to some news — not only is a fifth book being written for the series, but the Hollywood adaptation of the book series is finally getting a continuation. The new book is untitled, and will be written by David Lagercrantz, the same man who penned the fourth book, The Girl In The Spider’s Web, after Larsson’s passing. The new movie, meanwhile, will be a sequel and reboot, based on the most recent novel, and passing over the events of the second and third books in the series. The film will be directed by Fede Álvarez, and is going to begin production this fall for an October 2018 release date.
As a reboot, rather than a direct sequel, there will be changes to the franchise, including a new cast — which the director has now confirmed, along with an explanation for his decision to re-cast. Álvarez tweeted about his reasons in response to a question from a fan, who tweeted “Awesome news! But I’m a little disappointed that Mara & Craig won’t be returning, what’s your reason?”. Álvarez’s response was simple:
The first adaptation of the series (in English), was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, in 2009. It starred Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist — the two key players in the series. An earlier Swedish adaptation of the trilogy saw Lisbeth played by Noomi Rapace and Blomkvist played by Michael Nyqvist. While Mara and Craig would still be potentially available to reprise their starring roles in a new movie, the confirmation of a re-cast puts the emphasis on rebooting the franchise, rather than creating a more direct sequel.
Fans have already started to speculate about who might pick up the titular role for the upcoming thriller, with both Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman rumored to be in the running. There is no news yet about who might be picking up the mantle of Blomkvist, although there is bound to be plenty of speculation on that front as well, at least until Sony makes some official casting announcements.
It’s exciting to see the Millenium series return to the big screen, especially as many wondered if it would ever happen. If the upcoming film makes its planned release date, there will have been almost 10 years between the first movie and its sequel — a huge gap, but one that the popularity of the series will no doubt overcome. It makes a lot of sense to make the sequel a reboot, as well, rather than attempting to pick up where the first left off, as this will give Álvarez a chance to put his own stamp on the series.
However, some will remain disappointed that the cast who made the original film so great will not be returning, especially as both Mara and Craig have expressed their willingness to return for a sequel in the past. Readers are also less than thrilled to hear that the film will skip two entire books to focus on the fourth installment, and it’s worth questioning how difficult it will be to include the salient plot details from those novels in addition to the plot of the fourth. For now, however, we’ll just be keeping an eye out for news of the new cast for The Girl In The Spider’s Web.
At this stage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is somewhat difficult to look at any of their films as single movies. In almost every instance, these films do tell their own individual stories, but also spend a great deal of time setting up what is to come. This has worked well in the past, with Captain America: Civil War for example having a great standalone story while also setting the stage for Phase 3. However, it has also seen movies like Iron Man 2 or Avengers: Age of Ultron spend a great deal of timing just setting up what else is coming.
Guardians of the Galaxy is the best example so far of a movie that exists largely on its own, but even then, an appearance by Thanos and the presence of Infinity Stones bridges the cosmic adventure to the core MCU storyline. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will have neither Thanos nor the Infinity Stones, it was still thought that it would set up what else is to come, like the team’s next appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, in some regard. But, director James Gunn says that will be far from the case.
Gunn spoke to The Daily Beast about a variety of topics, but was specifically asked about how connected the sequel would be to the MCU at large. In a somewhat surprising response, he states that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does not service the larger universe in any way, but also that he’s never been asked to do so:
There is not a single thing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which was ever dictated by the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are things that I did in the movie that they’re going to have to deal with, now, in Infinity War. But it was pretty much understood that the Guardians are my guys, so they’d have to deal with whatever came from that. So there was nothing. It’s a 100 percent self-enclosed story about the Guardians of the Galaxy, very much like Dr. Strange was.
Never has [Feige] told me that anything has to be in my film. I mean, I know what their plans are. But there’s just nothing I do to service that within Vol. 2’s story; all that’s important is Vol. 2. Everything about Vol. 2 is what’s important. He’s never told me anything hasn’t fit in on the second movie. On the first movie, there were some more technical weird things that we had to deal with, and I was a bit more bashful about getting my way. But now, it’s not part of the conversation.
It would not have come as a surprise to many if he simply said this is a standalone movie, but Gunn makes it clear that people expecting heavy handed setups to these characters’ futures in Infinity War and beyond will be disappointed. However, this lack of connectivity is not coming at the expense of the MCU. As he says, he knows what Marvel Studios is planning, especially since he will serve as an executive producer on Infinity War and the Untitled Avengers followup, so any worry that he will surprise the creative team in charge is unwarranted.
Surely there will be some that wish some small nods to the larger universe could be included, but that may not have been best for this story. Guardians of the Galaxy was a massive hit because it was self-contained, so Gunn doubling down on this concept for the sequel should not be surprising. Plus, audiences have recently responded extremely positively to superhero adventures like Logan and Deadpool, not just because they are R-rated, but because they are single stories that don’t require a universe to support them.
That all said, while the film itself may not spend time teasing the future for these characters or introducing characters/locations just for them to be used in Infinity War, that does not necessarily mean that the mid- and post-credits scenes could not provide this service. Gunn recently confirmed that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will include a post-credits scene, and with Infinity War being just a year away upon this film’s release, while also being the Guardians’ next appearance, a subtle tease of their larger future could be in play and still prove these statements to be true.
Warner Bros. is currently working on bringing back a solo Batman franchise to the big screen. Ben Affleck has already made his debut as the Dark Knight in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and his performance was one of the standouts from an otherwise divisive film. This brought about much excitement for his solo film, The Batman, but after being bombarded with questions about the state of the film and dealing with a number of personal issues, he decided to walk away from directing duties.
Upon this revelation, it became less and less likely that The Batman could meet a previously “confirmed” 2018 release date. But, some still held out hope it could be possible after Warner Bros officially set Matt Reeves as the director. However, with his work on War for the Planet of the Apes taking precedence right now, The Batman won’t get off the ground until next year at the earliest.
Variety reporter Justin Kroll gave some insight to the production status of the highly anticipated blockbuster on Twitter today. According to what he has heard, Reeves will not be able to turn his attention to the film until after his current blockbuster is finished. Not only will this delay the supposed start of filming, but also withhold any casting announcements until later this year.
Dating back to last year (when Affleck was still attached to direct), plans were in motion for The Batman to begin filming this spring or summer, depending on which cast member was to be believed. This new report does come directly on the heels of Joe Manganiello saying production could still begin this summer. With so much changing recently behind-the-scenes, it is possible that he was not up to date on the latest developments, as Kroll’s report directly contradicts Manganiello’s statements.
This latest report is hardly surprising however. Even if Reeves spent part of his remaining time on War for the Planet of the Apes working on The Batman, he would not be able to give his full attention until after the press tour anyway. If he is in fact contracted to remain solely focused on his current film, then there is no chance any Batman news comes out in the coming months. This is something to keep in mind throughout the summer as there will undoubtedly be rumors about different actors possibly joining the film.
With production potentially starting in 2018, this should give Reeves and crew plenty of time to hit a 2019 release date. WB has also previously announced a June 14, 2019 date for an unannounced DC film. If Batman starts filming at the beginning of 2018, this very well could be the film’s ultimate landing spot – or at the very least a targeted date that could shift by a few weeks down the road. Regardless, it will be some time before a release date or any other concrete news will come out for The Batman, as long as everything runs smoothly from here on out.
It has not escaped notice for many fans of the Arrowverse that a number of the actors cast in the various shows have a history with musicals. Colin Donnell, John Barrowman, Jesse L. Martin, Carlos Valdes, Victor Garber, Arthur Darvill, Ciara Renee, and Jeremy Jordan have all starred in Broadway musicals. Supergirl and The Flash actors Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin both were on the musical show Glee, and Jeremy Jordan and Jesse L. Martin were also on a musical series, Smash – along with Broadway star Andy Mientus who has appeared on The Flash as The Pied Piper. It seemed like only a matter of time before a musical episode happened – and now the wait is almost over.
On the March 20th episode of Supergirl, ‘Star-Crossed’, the crossover will kick off, and then most of the story will be told in The Flash episode ‘Duet’. It also is technically a bit of a crossover with Legends of Tomorrow, with Victor Garber returning to The Flash to participate. As will John Barrowman, who signed one of several contracts which lets him move between all the Arrowverse shows though he has mostly been seen on Legends of Tomorrow.
DC All Access has now released a video from the set of ‘Duet’ where they talked to several of the participating actors and learned a few things about the musical. Possibly the most telling hint came from Darren Criss, who is playing the episode’s guest villain, the Music Meister. It’s quite the reunion for Criss – also a Broadway alum – who was on Glee with Benoist and Gustin and went to college with Valdes, and he revealed a bit of what his character is up to:
“So the Music Meister has plans for them, he’s kind of stringing all of the main character along. Particularly the couples, to maybe teach them a lesson? That’s what he says.”
Speaking of couples, Candice Patton spoke about how she will be involved, as the daughter of a gangster and not Iris. That fits in well with what was already revealed, the Music Meister traps Barry and Kara in a fantasy world where the people they know are there, but not as themselves. Since Martin is playing a gangster, it sounds like Patton is still his onscreen daughter in this fantasy, even if they are not specifically Joe and Iris West.
Gustin and Benoist also spoke a bit about the duet they are singing in ‘Duet’. While they did not use the song’s name, it has previously been announced that they are singing a song called “Superfriends” which is co-written by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s Rachel Bloom. Gustin called it “a fun, comedy song” and mentioned that there was a lot of space within it to improvise.
With the sheer amount of singing and dancing talent in the cast, ‘Duet’ is poised to be an amazing treat for fans of Supergirl and The Flash.
Supergirl continues Monday, March 20 with ‘Star-Crossed’ at 8pm on The CW. The Flash Tuesday, March 14 with ‘Into the Speed Force’ at 8pm on The CW, with ‘Duet’ at the same time on March 21.
