Hasta La Motion!

We all know him and he has raced through our our hearts not just in his comic series but also in live action and animated series. The  ‘Scarlet Speedster’ who was recently seen in the season finale episode of The Flash, is set to (as we all know) charm the audience with his solo movie. In October 2014, Warner Bros. had made the announcement about the movie The Flash.

As opposed to what we saw in The CW’s TV series where Grant Gustin is seen as ‘the fastest man alive’, Ezra Miller (Trainwreck) will be seen taking over that role in the movie universe. And now news has come that Warner Bros. has chosen Rick Famuyiwa to direct The Flash movie.

“Warner Bros is looking for the right chemical mix on its superhero picture line based on the DC Comics heroes, and the feeling internally was that Famuyiwa provided a vision that would resonate with young viewers and that vision was very compatible with the script that the studio is moving toward the start gate with,” reports Deadline. “That vision was executed to strong reviews in Dope, the 2015 film about a young geek trying to survive in a tough Los Angeles neighborhood.”

A story treatment for the film was written by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and on those basis, Seth Grahame-Smith (The Lego Movie) was roped in to write and direct the script. However, in April it was learnt that he dropped out due to creative differences with the studio, and it’s believed that the script by Smith will be used by Famuyiwa.

As far as Famuyiwa is concerned, his earlier works like Talk To Me, The Wood, Brown Sugar have been well received by the audience and the critics equally. Though it will be the first time he will be directing a comic based film, his past records are quite satisfactory. We will find it out on 16 March, 2018.

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With an aim to engage digital enthusiasts, Reliance Games today announced the official game for the movie TE3N, launched in the presence of the cast and crew of the movie including Bollywood stalwarts Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan. The game features Amitabh Bachchan as the lead protagonist, playing the gamified ‘infinite runner’ from the movie TE3N. Gamers will get an opportunity to embody their favorite star, Amitabh Bachchan, bringing alive the excitement of the upcoming thriller and enthrall audiences in a challenging chase to unravel clues related to the movie.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan himself spearheaded the first-of-its-kind digital campaign by inviting fans to share their suggestions to create posters, vote for their favourite songs and list their game preference. The contest saw participation from a whopping 45,000 participants visiting the official website ‘te3nitaround.in’ to give their preferences. The contest invited visitors to vote for their favourite genre – hidden object game, infinite runner game and side scrolling platform game. Of all the votes that came in ‘Infinite runner’ game garnered 61 per cent votes.

Commenting on Reliance Games’ association with TE3N, Reliance Entertainment – Digital, CEO, Amit Khanduja said, “We are thrilled to associate with an ambitious movie like TE3N and create a unique game which promises to take gaming to the next level; given its sheer intensity, edginess and introduction of new elements replicating the excitement and thrill of the movie. The collaboration with TE3N deepens our association with the Bollywood to develop movie based thematic games which gives Bollywood lovers an opportunity to combine their love for movies and games. We are confident gamers will enjoy experience and the adrenaline rush it offers.”

Speaking to AnimationXpress’ Krishanu Ghosal, Amit Khanduja asserted that it took a team of around 15 people from their Pune based studio to churn out the game in an average time of three months and it will be different from any other infinite runner games as it resonates with the characters and backdrop of the film which makes it more realistic. The game is set in surroundings just like the movie, including a ‘Howrah Bridge’ stage.

“The revenues will be shared by the Studio and Production company. The game will have constant support for the time being, with no plans of placing in app purchases for now”, informed Amit Khanduja. Although no figures of the revenue have been revealed.

During the launch event, the actor Amitabh Bachchan also mentioned that as they did not have a hefty budget for the film’s promotion, they let the consumers decide what they would like to see, from the game to posters of the movie and more. With a large amount of entries from across the globe, a few winners were chosen who got a chance to meet and greet the cast at the event.

In the past, Reliance Games has associated with other high profile Bollywood movies like Singham Returns, Bodyguard, 3 Idiots, Wazir, to develop customised mobile games around their movie concepts although this seems to be an innovative strategy to incorporate the consumer opinion into the promotion of a film.

Game Features:

• Ride as John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan), driving on his trusted scooter
• Ride in the streets of Calcutta searching and collecting clues to uncover the mystery
• Collect Clues to solve this gripping thriller
• Score high on the leader-board to be the best investigator
• Designed to engage and reward fans of the movie, the game is pick up and play in nature

The post Reliance Games releases the official game of the ‘TE3N’ movie with a star studded event appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Sequels don’t always work and franchise often bears the brunt of the performance of its various ventures. Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies’ recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (2016) which released on 3 June, 2016 earned $35.3 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office (North America). However this was roughly half of the $65.6 million that its predecessor, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014 grossed in its opening weekend thus, illustrating that not all sequels necessarily perform well.

Also, this opening was around 45 per cent down from the 2014 film. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 has grossed $35.3 million in North America and $34 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $69.3 million.

Paramount spent $135 million on this film and released the movie across 4,071 locations. With an average opening for the film in its opening weekend, recovering the budget seems to be a task for the franchise.

Speaking about the franchise, the 2014 film earned $191.2 million in North America and $302.1 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $493.3 million. The film got such a leaping response as audiences both young and old had not seen a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in 21 years. The budget of this film was $125 million and with the extensive returns, the franchise set its foot to build its name.

The 2016 film has opened in 40 international markets, including Russia, Mexico and the United Kingdom till date but still there are several major territories left to open, the biggest being China on 2 July, 2016. Therefore, this film still has some hope and opportunities to strike in order to come in par and stand true to its franchise.

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The year 2016 is to be the year when most of the major players in the gaming industry have or will release their Virtual Reality headsets and platforms for consumers. The year will be sort of a second innings for VR to come back into gaming scene after the disastrous debut in the late 80s with Nintendo and Sega systems causing dizzy and non-enjoyable experience.

The platform revived after Palmer Lucky started a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 for mass production of his version of VR headset ‘Oculus Rift’ which was supposed to cause a stir in the gaming market in the years to come. Today, there are at least half a dozen big companies fighting the VR headset war to capture the market and have a sizeable lead in the VR race.

However, to capture the market and draw the user’s attention, the consumer/gamer needs to have big pockets or a very powerful PC to run such graphic intensive VR games. With the minimum requirements of 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 970/AMD 290 or equivalent, Intel i5-4590 processor equivalent plus Windows 7 SP1, this will cost you anywhere between $600 to $1000. In addition, VR headsets like Oculus cost you another $599 plus shipping costs if you are not in America. So if you want to play the new age VR games you need to have deep pockets and some place in your home to setup a dedicated VR unit.

Playstation VR unit

Not only these, there are some AAA publishers and developers who have resorted to wait and watch game when it comes to jumping on the VR bandwagon, and see the response the platform will get once it is out of its early stage. One such person is Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick who recently voiced his concern about VR at the Cowen and Company 44th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. He said VR’s current asking price $2,000 (when you factor in high-powered PC costs) and need for a dedicated play space, limit the potential for mass appeal.

“We have $300 to spend on an entertainment device and we do not have a dedicated room,” he said. “We have a room for a screen, a couch, and controllers. We don’t have something where you stand in a big open space and hold two controllers with something on your head and, you know, not crash into the coffee table. We don’t have that.”

“We’re not incentivised to be at the frontline of (VR) development,” Zelnick said. “We are actually incentivised to wait and see a bit if there’s an installed base, let the format settle down, and let other people test the market. We’re quite happy to be a free rider—if there’s a market, we’ll get to the market in six to twelve months and we’ll be just fine.”

Zelnick is not the only one who seems to be unenthusiastic about the current scenario of VR and not be a part of the format. Others big game developers and publishers too have been sceptical like Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said in an interview last year, “We don’t say, OK, there’s this new technology, this new platform, let’s go design new games for it, anymore than we did with the Move or Kinect. There are some ideas where it’s a lot more natural to imagine and some that aren’t.”

There are more names in the list who have been sceptical when it comes to VR. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that VR is not fun at the moment. He said that for VR to be a fun experience for the players, it needs to be more social and engaging. The scoffing does not stop at the gaming industry big-wigs. One of the biggest directors, Steven Spielberg too has been questioning the over reliance and over enthusiasm of the VR platform and suggested that VR as a means of creation could be dangerous for the future of storytelling.

Such a stance by the industry leaders will stir trouble for VR platform which has been quite an interesting platform since it has started to gain traction for all quarters not only gaming. If game developers and publishers keep away from the platform it will give out wrong notion to consumers and people who want to be early adopters of this new tech. With a limited audience attraction, these devs/publishers will keep sitting out, creating an unwanted cycle until VR becomes a technology that comes, sees and conquers.

AMD Radeon RX 480

There are a few signs that people who want to adopt the technology early will have the option to spend a little less. Tech giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) recently introduced a $200 AMD Radeon RX 480, which the company claims that it can handle all the requirements for running VR headsets and one does not need $500 – $600 expensive graphics cards. This is just a start for the platform and as it starts maturing, the costs are likely to come down. However, for that to happen, the developers and publishers too need show interest and announce big ticket games to attract more people to the platform. For the platform to gain momentum and become big, this will always be the case.

Not all big name publishers have shown hesitancy on the mention of VR. Names like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Capcom 2K Games, Warner Bros. Interactive have been planning to come up with VR content in a big manner. Ubisoft has promised to port major of its franchises to VR. Valve too is betting big on virtual reality and may ship a number of its titles for its Vive headsets.

Sony’s PlayStation VR also could mean more affordable VR experience as the headset directly connects to PS4. Sony has said it is bringing in more AAA developers to VR space thanks to its close ties with major studios. Sony claims that more than 200 developers are on board developing content for PlayStation VR software. When Sony has plans for VR, one cannot keep Microsoft out for long. Microsoft announced that its opening up its HoloLens so that more people can pick up the headset and start making their own versions of the holographic lens which could draw more attention to VR.

Although in its nascent period, VR has taken big leaps in being one of the most exciting things in the technology space in the recent times. Distance from the industry leaders will only pull the platform back. Support will not only help the platform but will also bring in the new verve from the audience towards these new titles from publishers and developers.

If the companies want numbers, HTC Vive sold more than 15,000 headsets since it’s launch and Oculus is giving out strong numbers but is currently facing issues due to component shortage which has delayed its shipping further. Sony and Microsoft too will soon follow the suite, giving all big players in the gaming industry, a tough competition in the VR space. It is certainly an exciting time to be a part of the VR space and it has a great potential not only for the games but also for the film, medicine, defence, design sectors to name a few. VR cannot survive on a few big names and a lot of indie developers. It has to have major developers/publishers backing it up and throw some weight behind it.

The post Big ticket publishers/developers backfoot on VR could prove costly for the platform appeared first on AnimationXpress.

On April 1 2016, bathstore and Saatchi & Saatchi London announced the launch of their ‘Silent Loo’ app – designed to mimic the sound of water and drown out those embarrassing bathroom noises. Though it was actually an April Fool’s hoax, demand for the free Bathstore Silent Loo App on social media was so high that Bathstore has now launched it for real to celebrate World Environment Day. With billions of litres of water being wasted annually, the app addresses the plight of water wastage in the UK. Research collected into water consumption reveals that on average 75% of water used in bathrooms is wasted. bathstore’s app aims to raise awareness of this issue and eradicate the need to use the shower or the tap to mask embarrassing bathroom noises. Helping to save water, money and reduce energy use and carbon emissions, the revolutionary app reproduces different sounds of water running at varying sound levels. The app forms part of bathstore’s continuing quest to create the perfect bathroom experience for its customers. The settings on the app range from Tap and Shower, right up to Costa Rican River and the Tsunami setting – for use in emergency situations only. ‘Silent Loo’ is available globally for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded now for free from the App Store and Google Play.

Drown out unwanted bathroom noises with our new ‘Silent Loo app’. Choose from Tap, Shower, Costa Rican River or Tsunami and protect both modesty and the planet with one simple to use solution, available for download now!

Credits

The Bathstore Silent Loo App was developed at Saatchi & Saatchi London, by executive creative directors Andy Jex and Rob Potts, creatives Jose Hernandez and Víctor Morón, account team Katrina Bain and Jessie Doel.

The app was developed by Daniel Levitt, Developer at n0tice.

Filming was shot by director Tom Clarkson via Tomboy Films with director of photography Jan Vrhonik, 1st AC Kash Khan, producer Benedict Murray and editor Jake Saunders. Post production was done at Prodigious.